And Why Should Your Songs be Unfit for My Hall? Come, Sing Me a Song!

"Dog food" or "fog dude", which one?

I dreamed last night I was driving in the fog, and just missed being in one of those fiery 50-car pile-ups you read about every other year. Usually it's on some stretch of central California highway, where the fog rolls in suddenly and smothers the road, and most of the people freak out and slow down, and the remaining handful just plow on ahead as if they had good sense. There's usually several jack-knifed big-rigs involved, which, by the time the news choppers arrive, have burnt down to a molten, black blob of something that used to be a Peterbilt...

Sometimes sandstorms are the cause. How horrifying, eh? The eye-witnesses always say "it looked like a war zone" or a "battlefield" or simply "it was hell." Maybe a little of everything, eh? Tires screeching, loud crashes, explosions, people yelling, kids crying...

So, how was your Sunday? lol

Sorry, mentioning fog in the opening spoonerism triggered me... my apologies...

OK, here's another odd string of thoughts I had the last 24 hours... I was at Target testerday, in the toy section, looking at Hot Wheels cars for my 3 year old, and they had nearby those little finger skateboards, of which I have many. They've been releasing little replicas of the old school boards I used to ride when I was a gangly teen. Anyway, I was looking through them, seeing if they had one for one of my favorite old boards back in the day, the G&S Neil Blender Coffee Break graphic. They didn't, of course, but I told myself I'd Google it when I got home to see if I could track it down online. Of course, I knew there'd be no way I would remember...

I remembered! I tracked down the graphic, dropped it into Photoshop, cleaned it up, and this is it...

Trust me, it may not appeal to you muchly, but it brings back awesome memories. 'Nuff said. Anyway, I decided to try and track down other graphics from my old school favorites, with mixed results, but here's the real point. I'm finding pics of these old boards, and most of them are pulled from auction sites like eBay, where people are auctioning off these old boards for AMAZINGLY high prices! I mean, some of these old boards are going for $3,000 and more. Most are between $400 and $1,000... still, to think these old boards that I paid maybe $40 for back in the day (the late eighties), and rode them into the ground... they're worth a fortune now! Now I know how those older dudes that grew up in the fifties felt when they realized baseball cards became so valuable...

Even old boards that were ridden and beat up pretty good are still auctioning for hundreds of dollars - condition doesn't seem to make that much difference. Sure wish I'd have hung onto a few of them... Ah, good times. If you've watched that D'JIMMY video I have in the right margin there, all those boards that Jason, Andy and I are riding in that video... $ $ $ $ !!!!!

Ah, well... the memories are worth more than any amount of dough. That's what I say to myself to try and make myself feel better, lol...

Funny Picture Time:

"I'll be back! Gonna go talk the dog out for a... uh... for a swim..."

I've been playing Scramble like a fiend. I can't get enough; I love that game. Between Scramble and Scrabble, I have a reason to hang out on Facebook now! A friend from church (Cathy) signed up for a Facebook account today (I believe) just so we can play some serious Scrabble. She's played since she was young, and she's looking for a challenge. I hope we can have some great games.

Sometimes I feel lame for frittering away time on mindless entertainment. Word games... actually games of any kind. Books, movies, funny video clips, web browsing, writing here in the blog, drawing... just about anything creative. Sometimes I wonder if it's a very productive use of time... I mean, theoretically, I could work harder, and at least make a more concerted effort at getting rid of our debt faster. But sometimes I figure, what's the point? I'm chipping away at it, but as long as I have a family, it will continue to grow... I could knock myself out, and be a bear around the house and watch every penny so we can pay it off sooner - but why make everyone miserable? I could ease up a bit, let everyone enjoy their lives, let my kids kind of enjoy their childhoods a bit more, treat them to stuff, making slower progress toward eliminating the debt, and have a more happy home. What's that worth?

Don't get me wrong; I hate owing money. It hangs over my head like a 2-ton weight, I feel the pressure of it all the time. I wish I could go back in time and make better financial decisions at the outset... but what's the point of doing the "what if" thing now? I feel the best thing I can do is try to teach my kids to make better decisions about money now, before they start out on their own, and then try to make the household environment as healthy and happy as possible. So I take the hit.

At least we don't have a mortgage. We almost bought a house back when the market had about topped out. Man, what a disaster that would have been. So that's a silver lining, of sorts...

Here's a cool video of a dog escaping from his kennel...


Smart dog.

My brother Bryan was born August 10, 1973. He was really good at sports - much better than I was, and he was not shy about reminding me of it! He was a good kid. Had plenty of laughs and good times growing up... some friction too, but such is to be expected with siblings. Graduated 1991, went to Bible school, got a pastor's license a few years later, became the youth pastor at our church in Poway... must have been, what? 1998 or so? He's the one that started me on writing skits, actually. Wrote a series of skits for the youth group (Bitterman!), which led to Christmas plays and other things... anyway, he died in January of 2000. A dark time.

Happy Birthday, Bryan. You are missed.

Bryan and my daughter Katie.

Look how little everyone was! Chris, John, Bryan, Abbie and Katie.

I decided on a new book to read last night. I made an initial dent into The Virtues of War, by Steven Pressfield, and surprisingly, it isn't doing anything for me. I'll certainly give it more time, but I'm surprised at my waning interest, especially since Pressfield is the author of my favorite all-time book, Gates of Fire, about the Spartan stand at Thermopylae. The Virtues of War is a fictionalized first-person account of Alexander the Great's attempt to cross into India, during his quest for world domination. I'll let you know how it proceeds. If I'm going to start being a book reviewer, I'm going to need to be disciplined enough to finish reading books that don't do much for me...

Guess I'll call it a night. Fear not! There shall be more tomorrow! And then next day... and the next day... Until tomorrow, farewell, my brave hobbits.