"A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil; but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small, silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely".  - Pam Brown


...wow, Erik... you got a good one.... ;)

So after making Kim extremely nervous when I led her thru resetting her IPhone she took a snappy photo of us sitting in the stands at the ACC Championship game. As i posted before, i wasnt sure if the time and money spent on the actual game would be worth it, but it was... and even more valuable was time spent just talking and catching up and ... talking. The game was fun in that it was a history type gig. While you like to assume that Clemson will be back and win ACC titles next year, etc. I can honestly say that in 1991 i thought it was just sorta a given that we win the ACC and go to one of those bowls like the Gator Bowl or something... little did I know that when they last one that year, it would be 20 years before it happened again.. and who knows, it might be another 20 years before another title. So it was funny to see the oranges being tossed from the upper deck. A little dangerous.. but funny. And seeing the VaTech fans who were so boisterous at the beginning filling out of the stadium in the middle of the 3rd quarter was humorous, considering how much it must have cost them to come into town, much less purchase tickets....
..anywho, as i alluded to above, it was great to talk to a friend and touch base for a while in person. While circumstances have definitely made her life different than the path she thought she would go, I am happy that she seems to be doing well with the resources she has now. I always love it (and find it interesting) when I can talk to someone I consider a peer without the kids around for a while. Even though the conversation circles around our kids, it is refreshing to still be able to have "adult" conversation without then fluttering about, even if it is only for one evening. I have said before that I sometimes go days without any sorta real conversation as the work environment discourages that sorta stuff and my stupid schedule makes it so everone is asleep when I get home and only have brief moments in morning as everyone is off to school. But it is what it is, i suppose. And as I slowly figure out how to see/talk to old friends/peers i hope we will be able to see our respective families more often...

Well.. it seems I will need to actually have pictures of the kids on our family Christmas card this year. I tried to go a different route last year and but that seemed to not go over well with people who like to put these things on ther fridges for the year. I must admit that we do the same thing so I understand that line of thought... so this is going to be carefullty crafted and a different take on the standard "here's the kids, Happy Holidays and a Frackin New Year from Us" christmas card, that I actually do enjoy sending out. I just need to make sure I have everyone's actual address this time around. I got two or three cards back last year...

seriously... hmmm... seeing as though every time we rent a video game for one night we end up keeping it for for 3 nights i am a little leery of this type of service....

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.  - Winston Churchill

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness". - Martin Luther King, Jr

I am not quite sure why I am going to this game tomorrow, other than taking the opportunity to visit with a dear friend. Well, I think I have answered my question. I will get to visit with Kim and chat. And maybe the Tigers will pony up some gonads and play with passion, energy and a sense of urgency like they seemed to exhibit earlier this year. That and i hope we can take a couple of linebackers from the Panthers and put them in uniform, too.

as a side note, I went to visit Scott Hendrickson's grave over Thanksgiving and took I-Man too... he got to see who he is partially named after.

Seriously? I saw this on Huffington Post and later Jamie Clemons posted it on Facebook. I still wonder sometimes about just who out there who pretend to be our friends but actually feel this way. I occasionally hear snippets and comments that indicate racist thoughts. And I just dont have room for that line of thinking in my life. but i guess if you are reading this then you knew this already.... But to think that bigotry and exclusion of people based solely on the color of their skin, or their sexual preference, for that matter... is dumbass.And I dont care how you were brought up.. or where you were brought up.. or why you were brought up. What is right is right. What this church (and it seems a small number within the church actually voted for this) has done is Stupid. And when they look around eventually and no-one is with them, they will only have themselves to blame....

Well it seems Herman Cain has been hit hard by a lot of allegations that seemed to only show up when he became a front runner. Still wondering where all these "violated" women were when Cain was just an afterthought. But i did find it interesting how his campaign (and obviously others) use the internet, and this article illustrates that point. I will now view searches on Google a little differently from now on.

in lieu of the recent hazing down at Florida A&M, i thought I might share an article that the current Band Director at Clemson shared with me...

I have often alluded to the fact that the twins do well in school (so far) which has made me proud because of the dire predictions of people way back when... it is to the point where if they didnt report well, I would be alarmed as to something deeper going on. They both got Straight A's on their last report cards (again) with Ryles continuing to trend a notch better overall in absolute average.I thought it was interesting that I-Man was dissappointed because he missed A/B Honor Roll by two points in one class (his average was two points higher than a B) I-Man was like "I missed it by 2 points!!!"  He views it as being better as more people made that list than his Principal's list for all A's. I mentioned to him that what he made was better but it actually seemed to go over his head. Funny how we continue to see grown-up behavior one minute, child-like behavior the next. That is a part of what is so fun about these times, I guess....

As this first season of "Academy" level soccer has wound down, we have seen definite improvement in conditioning and aggressiveness from I-Man in this soccer gig.I am now looking forward to seeing a bit more from him and other team members in regards to on the ball skills. They all were improving at the end of the season and you could see a definite momentum shift away from I-Man and the goalie on their heels constantly defending in front of the goal to a more "attacking" attitude from the midfielders and forwards. So February will bring the start to the second half of season... and some cold weather for a while for practices. I am not sure how I-Man will like practicing outside when it is 32 degrees... and I KNOW he doesn't realize that's coming. But time to man up, so to speak. Meanwhile... Baritone (and inherently, Tuba) still looms in the distance...

Smokin' Joe Frazier passed away last night. I bet to most people reading this there is a "Um.. who's that?" sorta vibe... But Joe Frazier was a baaaddd man. And he was unwillingly the evil villain to Muhammed Ali. (Ali was also polarizing because of his stance against the Vietnam War) And it could be said that there would be no Ali without Frazier. Frazier, Ali and Foreman (and to a far lesser extent Norton) were the heyday of Heavyweight Boxing... their boxing matches made ANY of the current matches seem like a MMA fight down at Anderson Civic Center. BILLIONS of people watched their fights in a time where there was NO cable TV or internet. I remember watching the fights (some of my first memories) on TV on Saturdays/Sundays on Wide World of Sports. And just as entertaining were the interviews and press meetings promoting the fights between Ali and Frazier. Ali invented trash talking. and he took it out on Frazier. And Frazier was never really able to respond and it always hurt him. And I dont think Frazier realized that to Ali, it was all promoting the fight and not personal. I also remember watching the fights and not realizing that they were actually taped events we were watching. This was before cable, 24 hour sports talk and the internet. This was when the NBA came on on Sundays and you didnt even know that the game you were watching happened 4 or 5 days ago.

at any rate, I hope Smokin' Joe is able to go drink a beer and smoke a cigar now in peace.... a part of me died with him. While I was an Ali guy back then ( a kid more drawn to Ali's flamboyant style and words) i do feel I would have been a Frazier guy if I would have been an adult at that time. And can you imagine how Ali would be received now? a muslim? anti goverment? brash, outspoken?...

anyway, I digress. More for another time.

To echo George Foreman this morning... "Goodnight Joe... Rest in Peace."

i remember a time when it took me three days to program sprites into my Commodore 64 to try to run the most basic of videogames... now I am watching Monday Night Football as I drive down the road, receiving text and Google talking to my daughter... on my phone.

So the Jetta has returned FINALLY from the local snakeoil dr. and it is running like it did 10 years ago. It has me now thinking I should push for 400K... Fix the AC (likely a dead compressor) and the nose and we are set... I think for the 18,000 I paid for it that I have gotten my moneys worth...

mucho thanks to Nanna and Papa, and Uncle Wes for letting me borrow a car during this time...

tsk.. tsk.. somebody at work dared to break what is normal policy at work and brought up Herman Cain to me and asked me what I thought about the harrassment scandal thingy. Well..

tsk, tsk.. I can certainly see where this is a story. But I also see where people will take the opportunity for their 15 minutes of fame. And then you will see the piling on... women coming out of nowhere suddenly saying this and that. Probably the truth lies in there somewhere. I can kinda see him as a guy who might occasionally make off color remarks or bad attempts at innuendo humour. So I bet he has said some things in the past that i am sure he regrets now. And his inexperience on this stage is hurting him at this junction. He will eventually have to start having a savvy press secretary soon to run interference for him IF...IF he gets past this current bruhaha. I am guessing they might feel he can ride it out. I am not sure the media is going to let this go considering it seems they have deemed Romney as who they want to run against Obama.

at the end of the day, the charges are serious. And Cain did not handle it well from get go (see: inexperienced at handling the bigtime stage) Personally, I am curious to see how this all comes out. I dont see it being a deal breaker for me based on what has been leaked.. so far. I havent heard where there has been anything physical... yet. And while any sort of sexual harrasment toward anyone should be addressed, it remains to be seen just whether or not this stemmed from the "lets sue over anything" days 20 years ago, or belies a more serious systematic problem with his character. he wouldnt be the first President, or probably last, who has had "issues" with women, would he? Its just now it is something to generate ratings and get people to watch/read....

dude.. i have a slight back problem. It seems to be going away, and its not as bad as a couple times before. But i assume most people reading here have had a back issue at one time or another. And it always amazes me how much of what you do is controlled by your back muscles. especially the lower back. I also am re-evaluating my diet as I my blood sugar is cycling a little higher over all. And I am beginning to wonder if that has a part in my lower back tweak as I do remember that the last time this happened, I immediately changed my diet to a strict adherence and almost immediately recovered... So... i guess that answers my question, i suppose.

one of the "benefits" of where I work is that they will pay for a certain amount of education costs. So I am now getting my A+ Certification for free... well, not exactly free in that I have to actually work at my  job and go there everyday. And that it does take time... so every morning I take a little time to watch videos and do labs and take quizzes... This will be huge in that it will instantly open up doors for me to think about other opportunities within the company, or even elsewhere if I thought I could improve on salary. But a short term benefit will be an increase in pay due to that certification being on my resume. Its funny in that so much of this stuff I already know. I will also be going on to get the Networking Certification, as well. Now THAT will be stuff I am not as totally familiar with.

while I am definitely undecided (and still Independent) I have been piqued and amused by Herman Cain. I am not sure he is what we need as President. but what I find pisses me off is that the supposed "Progressives" are all out attcking him now that they see he has a little traction? And the nastiness of the supposed enlightened Liberals is funny. What? oh.. I forgot, all Black people are supposed to be Democrats right? If you dare think outside of that mold.. dare think for yourself and think against what we are told to think, then we are Uncle Tom's and "smoking from a crack pipe". And the attacks on Cain will get worse. And where will they come from? Think about it... I am reminded of the fact that Jackie Robinson was called an Uncle Tom when he was involved in the Nixon campaign and Administration. He, like me, had a lot of opinions that could be "labeled" as Left or Right... which, by the way, I think most people are.. But it pisses me off when I see the obvious cheerleaders for Obama at MSNBC, or NBC or CBS or ABC or NPR... openly diss Hermain Cain and look to tear him down. What? he's not Black enough? (and we all know Cain is waaayyy more "black" than Obama can ever claim to be.. or ever was) or is it that if he does succeed, it blows the "Blacks MUST be Democrats" notion out of the water? It seems you can be diverse as long as you are diverse in the way WE tell you to be....

so... I think I am a tad bit tired of Halloween. First of all, we start talking about this so called "holiday"? in late August and when it falls on a Monday (or even Sunday) it is a 3 or 4 day gorge fest on candy. now... i like candy. I dont eat too much of it for many reasons. But it really is all the kids are thinking about. It really is selfish and we all feed into it.. How much did you get? what did you get? I think the Charlie Brown Special pretty much sums it up... "I got a rock"

and as I have said before, I am not sure I like how the "Holidays" are heading. We will now essentially bypass Thanksgiving and start getting pounded on Christmas "stuff". And I am not talking about the actual meaning /history/symbolism of Christmas. But the Santa/Skatell her/Its he most wonderful time of the year over and over will start to be pushed down our throats. Once again, i tread carefully cause I dont want that part of Christmas going away.. But I also want to make sure the twins understand where these "Holidays" actually came from this year. And the symbolism of Santa and gift giving, etc. will have to be stressed this year... I think I might have to find that "The Little Drummer Boy" on DVD to go a long with the Charlie Brown Specials, Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and... yes... The Polar Express.