Brotherly Love

Brotherly Love

For all their battling through out the day, for all their stealing of each other's toys, for all their wildness, even through it all, my boys do show moments of such beautiful tenderness and love for each other. It lasts all of three seconds usually though.

We took a walk at the Bamboo Giant in Freedom this afternoon as a way to change our attitude after the death of the puppy up the street.

The boys had a great time running around and I had a great time enjoying their happiness and excitement. And then there was this momentary meeting on a path where they both gave each other such wonderful hugs I can't even begin to say how happy this photo makes me.

Moments like these go a long way to making up for all the difficult moments throughout the rest of the day.

Reality Check

Today started off reasonably well, I got to sleep in until after 8. The whole family took a trip up to Soquel to the chiropractor, my wife's tweaked neck was still giving her trouble and it was time for my regular appointment. We got to see a good friend who's now working at the chiro office. I got to give her the good news that one of the companies we used to work for has finally folded.

Yes, the market research company that screwed me over badly a few years ago has finally collapsed under the weight of its own arrogant stupidity. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving company.

We got back home, had some lunch and that's about when the day went sideways. Remember the cute chihuahua puppy from the other day? Well, our neighbor with her four dogs, one of which is a maladjusted pit bull, were let out to get a little exercise. The pit bull raced up the driveway and around the corner. It grabbed the chihuahua in its mouth, bit it and then flung it away. It was enough to kill the poor little chihuahua almost instantly.

The worst part of it all was that the chihuahua's family, including three very young girls, were all there to witness it. They saw it happen but it happened so fast that nobody could do anything to stop it. And this poor little puppy died. The maladjusted pit bull was yelled at all the way home but the damage was done.

It really, really put a big reality check on me. I went up to see if there was anything I could do for the family. I saw the poor little bloody dead puppy in the box. I heard the three girls crying. It about broke my heart.

And the pit bull? The pit bull gets a ticket and that's about it. The pit killed another animal, a loved family pet and its owners just get a ticket. I'm sorry but any dog that kills another dog needs to be put down. I've never been comfortable around that dog, I always keep my guard up and I keep myself between it and my kids. I don't trust it and I for damned sure don't want it outside without being on a leash ever again.

It went from being a reasonably good day to being a pretty sad day. Luckily though, neither of my boys were overly aware of what happened. They could tell something went down but not what it was. All they know is that the little puppy they just played with a couple of days ago isn't going to be around to play with anymore.

Life is fleeting. Life is unfair. Life can be stolen away in the blink of an eye. Live life like every moment just may be your last.

NWoTD - Confronsational

Confronsational - people who engage in bullying talk during conversations are being confronsational. It is, obviously, a mashup of confrontational and conversation.

And yes, of course, you can find this and all of my other new words in the Fictionarium.

Some Program Notes

For anyone interested, I've started (yet) another new blog. This one is called The Kyani Dream and is focused on our Kyani business, it is not all about selling though there is some encouragement to try out the products. It is more about sharing information, knowledge, health issues, thoughts about network marketing and our growing success which will lead to posts about our free vacations and, eventually, our free Cadillac Escalade Hybrid when we get there.

If you have any interest in learning about network marketing or the opportunities presented by Kyani then I strongly encourage you to check out the new blog and let me know what you think or what kind of posts you'd be most interested in reading.

Also, if you are in need of some miniature awesomeness then you should check out Plastic Life. Very, very well done miniature photography. I'd love to give some of this stuff a shot.

In other news, I took the Learning Styles Inventory Test after seeing at Where's My Plan and found out that I am...

The Great Communicator

75% Visual, 75% Musical, 88% Linguistic, 75% Kinesthetic, 75% Logical, 63% Interpersonal and 67% Intrapersonal!

Want to give the test a try? Take Your personal Learning Styles Inventory Test at HelloQuizzy

And, finally, check out some pretty awesome photos of nature's fury in full force.

That's all for now, I've got some other things I'm working on but they aren't ready for primetime just yet.

The Good Stuff Wrap Up

The internets are stuffed full of awesomeness, some of which I have had the good fortune to see and appreciate.

I thought I'd tag my Google Reader Shared Items and pass along some of my recent favorites, just in case you missed them.

JK Wedding Dance - via Amy. If this doesn't make you smile then you may just have a stone for a heart.

Is it Cheating or Collaboration? - a discussion of what we are really teaching our kids in schools, rote memorization or the ability to figure stuff out.

Skater vs. Gangbanger - this video has been removed from YouTube as it violated some rules or something. The video depicted some skaters jumping down a set of stairs when a couple of loser gangbangers started hassling one of them. The one 'banger had a tiny little gun that he kept sticking in the face of the skater. At one point the skater grabs the gun, disarms the guy and then proceeds to beat the holy shit out of him. Which is fine by me and shows that most of these tough guy 'bangers are pussy cowards who can't fight.

Is It A Crime To Watch The Naked Erin Andrews Video? No, But It Makes You A Total Jerk - the film was made illegally, some wanker used a pinhole camera hidden in her hotel room, but it isn't illegal to look at. Though, since it was shot under such pretenses, you'd be a better person if you didn't feed the troll who did make it by viewing it. I wanted to look because Erin Andrews is gorgeous but I did not because I'm trying this new thing where I try not to be such a jerk.

Bake Cookies on Your Dashboard - when life hands you heatwaves, make cookies on your superheated dashboard.

Want to keep your wallet? Carry a baby picture - the article says that 88 percent of the wallets with the baby picture in them were mailed back. That is incredibly impressive.

And finally, Buy Pro Camera Gear on a Student Budget - good advice on how to stretch your dollars when buying camera gear. The shortened version is, buy bulk sale used stuff from people to get the one piece you want and then sell the other bits off individually to recoup your initial investment.

Throwing A Real Perfect Game

Congratulations to Mark Beuhrle for throwing a perfect game recently.

However, my fickle brain has decided to get focused on the concept of the perfect game and would like to suggest that he threw a near-perfect game.

You see, in the ridiculous world that my brain tends to exist in, a perfect game would be just that, perfection. "Perfection is, broadly, a state of completeness and flawlessness." That is, something complete and without even the tiniest glimmer of a flaw, a hint of not-perfection. My confuddled brain takes that to mean something much more than merely preventing all the opposing team's players from reaching base. Let me break it down.

There are 27 outs for each team in a 9 inning baseball game. To strike out each pitcher in the minimum number of pitches requires three pitches. Three times 27 is 81. A perfect game then, in my aforementioned ridiculous world, would be 81 pitches, all of them strikes without a single ball and without any of those balls being hit. All 27 outs recorded by strikeout without contact. No foul balls, no balls off the mark. No flaws in the perfection.

THAT would be a perfect game. And yes, I fully realize how utterly insane it is to propose such a strict definition of perfection but, hey, perfection is perfect. Perfection isn't something close to perfect, perfection IS perfect.

Now please don't think that I am, in any way, shape or form, trying to diminish what Buehrle did. I'm not, he threw what Major League Baseball defines as a perfect game, I'm merely suggesting that what MLB is proposing as perfect isn't quite as perfect as it could be. And I realize that, under my re-defined version, the likelihood of a perfect game EVER being thrown is just about zero since the most anyone's ever struck out in a game is 20, much less 27 on 81 perfect pitches. But, if the word "perfect" is to be invoked and revered as the sacred perfection it is then the deed to which it is being attached should embody that perfect perfection accordingly.

Why yes, I do end up arguing semantic points at parties, why do you ask?

NWoTD - Noosepaper

Noosepaper - the rope around the neck of the dead tree newspaper business that is slowly strangling the life out of it is called a noosepaper.

Why yes, I'm a clever weasel, thank you. And yes, this word was inspired by Ryan's obsession with the decline and demise of the Post-Bulletin in his Minisoda.

Go here for more rateable examples of my cleverishness.

A Walk in the Woods

Today has been a really fun and different kind of day. No pressing deadlines, no heavy work to take care of and some autonomy about what we wanted to do. So I suggested we go for a hike in Nisene Marks State Park, the same woods that I go biking in pretty regularly (but not often enough).

It is always good to slow down, look around and really enjoy the pretty spectacular world that we are lucky enough to inhabit.

It took a while to get everyone ready to go, with the exception of Nande who was ready by the time she'd stood up. We packed a bunch of snacks, drinks and camera gear. Got dressed, hunted for shoes and socks for the boys since they've been in sandals most of the summer. Grady wanted to wear his red rubber rain boots but I talked him out of it as he'd have ended up with nasty blisters and super stinky feet.

We parked at the Safeway as I normally do and held hands across the street leading to the trail head. The boys were excited, Nande was thrilled to be out and it just felt good to be out doing fun stuff with my family. And, oh yeah, the weather had gone from cloudy and overcast to bright, sunny and beautiful which never hurts.

Here's Nande at the end of the hike, still playing, still full of energy and having a great time splashing around in the water. I think she's going to be a perpetual puppy even when she's ten. I actually picked up this rock and heaved it for her, Nande ran under it and glanced off the side of her head. Didn't make her miss a step, I commented that her head is probably harder than the rock.

There weren't too many people out in the forest today but enough so that my boys got to interact with some other kids, Nande got to sniff some dog butt and I had ample time to take some photos and enjoy my wife's company along with my kid's.

It really was a great day and I'm looking forward to more of the same.

Ads I'm Completely Sick Of

Herein, for your review, are advertisements on the television that I'm thoroughly and completely sick of. Ad campaigns, spots, whatever, I feel bitching about stuff.

Geico - I hate the cavemen, I hate the concept, I hate the never-endingness of these incredibly stupid ads. But I also hate their goddamned gecko almost as much.

1 800 Dentist - I hate these awful ads so much that I've had daydreams about kicking Fred Joyal in the balls. The ads are terrible, annoying, nagging and ineffective.

Subway's Five Dollar Foot Longs - they have, thankfully receded in prominence, but these ads were thinly veiled homages to huge cocks and drove me, as a man possessing a regular non-pornstar sized cock, to madness and to scramble to change the fucking channels when these stupid ads came on. The ads have, unfortunately, been replaced with Jared again, the ugliest spokesdork ever. Actually, I just hate Subway.

Six Flags' Creepy Old Dancing Man - I thought they'd gotten the clue from the entire universe, the fake old dancing guy is really creepy and makes me want to keep my kids as far away from him and his park as possible. It was a bad idea that they don't seem to be able to get away from.

Microsoft's Laptop Ads - What do I take from Microsoft's latest stupid ad campaign? People are idiots if they want the most enormous laptop they can get. They slag Macs because they are smaller and cost more, there's a reason, Macs hold their value alot longer and run better throughout their lifespans. You buy a Dell laptop for $700 and you can almost be guaranteed to have to replace it in two years. I've got a Mac Pismo powerbook in my office that's at least 8 years old and still works perfectly (yes, it is slow by today's standards but that isn't its fault).

Carl's Jr. Bikini Burger - Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of hot chicks in bikinis. But hearing this vapid moron talking about how hard it is to look as good as she does while stuffing her face with a burger that has enough fat and calories for two full days is beyond idiotic. Plus, she may be hot but she comes across about as shallow as a bird bath.

And now, to balance out the vitriol I feel for shitty, unfunny ads, how about a few ads that I don't hate and don't immediately change the channel when they come on?

Jack in the Box - with the exception of the dancing ones, Jack's ads are consistently funnier than any other fast food place.

Okay, I can't think of any other ads that I like right now. But I reserve the right to add to this post if I come up with any.

What ads drive you to madness?

NWoTD - Gerk

Gerk - a geeky jerk. Think the IT guy at a company who treats everyone like they are partially retarded for not being able to configure Outlook properly.

And yes, of course, this new word will be posted to my Fictionarium for posterity. Head over and rate a few words, if you like.

The Nightmare That Is The EDD

I got laid off from the school district more than a month ago, actually almost six weeks ago now. I have yet to get a single unemployment check from the EDD despite the fact that I registered the day I was laid off. I got a bunch of paperwork to fill out, I got a phone interview scheduled (a month after I filed my claim) that lasted all of two minutes, and now, when I call in to check the status of my claim, having to redial at least six or eight times to get through, I stumble through their stupid maze of a phone tree only to find out that no goddamned check has been cut yet.

The most annoying part of all of this is that it is all but impossible to get a live person on the phone. There's the automated useless-info line that's always busy and gives no useful info. Then there's the main line where you have to navigate another annoying phone tree system that threatens to disconnect you if you try to jump ahead and requires you to listen to the same bullshit time-wasting messages before being allowed to try and connect with a live person.

Only, and here's the truly infuriating part of it, you're told there might be a lengthy wait and then immediately told that there are too many other people already waiting and you have to try again later. Then the fucking computer hangs up on you.

I have yet to get to a live person to find out what the fuck is going on and where is my goddamned unemployment check and why in the fuck it has taken so ridiculously goddamned long to get me some damned money and that I had damned well better be getting checks for all the fucking weeks I've been off work since I filed for unemployment immediately after getting laid off specifically to avoid getting stuck six weeks later still waiting for some assistance.

I'd trade each of those checks for a chance to kick Governor Meathead right in his shriveled up steroid drained nuts. Maybe not all of them but at least a couple of them.

Here are some ways to improve the "service":
1. Hire more people to help man the phones. A thousand would help.
2. Cut down on the forced messaging. I know them by heart and it is incredibly irritating to be forced to listen to them each time.
3. Recognize that people need to be able to get through to a live person to sort out their claims. There is simply no possible way that there can be too many people calling all day everyday to keep the phones blocked up from the start of the day to the close.
4. Send me my damned check. I got laid off fair and square from my job, I paid my UI dues while I had my job, at this point the state is engaging in fraud for taking my money and not paying me my benefits. I'm tempted to sue.

The whole thing is one giant stinking clusterfuck of bureacratic asshattery and I'm thoroughly sick of it. I cannot wait until our Kyani business takes off enough so that we no longer need to rely on the state for anything whatsoever. Because they can't seem to find their own asses these days.

Scorecard

- I've processed somewhere on the order of 700 photos from this last weekend with a mere 1150 or so to go. It is slow work but the results are worth the effort. So far I've posted a little over 100 to my Backprint site for sale. I hope to get the second batch finished this morning and posted today.

- My black eye is now the technicolor yellow, purple and black eye. It doesn't hurt too much anymore except when I absent mindedly rub it.

- I got my first check from Kyani the other day. Not a big one but a step in the right direction for sure. The nice thing is that my wife got a matching check. As these totals go up, it'll get more and more awesome.

- Also on the Kyani front, I'm working out a trial run with a famous Bay Area columnist after a column he wrote. I'm looking forward to him becoming an advocate for the products after he uses them for the month.

- Several packages to get shipped and then we're supposed to be heading to the East Bay to do some war-walking. Not sure if it'll happen today as there's still plenty of other stuff to do around the house and calls to make but we are working on expanding our empire.

And now, back to the photo processing. I'm close to finishing up one entire wedding and then I get to start on the second. If I don't go cross-eyed first.

My UFC Predictions Scorecard

This is a compilation of all my UFC predictions so far. I've no idea how good or bad I've done yet so it'll be interesting to see. I used the Wikipedia UFC list of events to check my cards.

UFC 100: 5 for 8
TUF 9 Finale: 5 for 8
UFC 99: 4 for 6
UFC 98: 5 for 8 (the Wilson/Larson fight didn't happen, Chris Larson was replaced by Mike Pyle at the last minute)
UFC 97: 5 for 8 (hmm, I'm seeing a pattern)
UFC Fight Night Condit vs. Kampmann: 4 for 5
UFC 95: 5 for 6
UFC 94: 5 for 9
UFC 93: Missed it entirely, woops.
UFC 92: 3 for 6
TUF 8 Finale: 4 for 10 (ouch)
UFC 91: 3 for 5
UFC 90: Missed it.
UFC 89: 3 for 5

That's all I've got so far.

The tally comes to a decent 51 for 84 or about 5 right for every 8 picks (see the pattern?). I need to start making my predictions based less on sentiment and more on the actual fight. I took Mir this last weekend because I think Brock Lesnar is a giant douchebag. Still, if I'd been putting money on my picks, I'd be up by a good bit by now.

The best part is that there are some good cards coming up soon, BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian is in early August and then Couture vs. Nogueira in late August.

UFC 100 Reflections

As noted in the previous post, yesterday was a big, long day. A five hour photoshoot at a wedding, rush home, change, get some beer and chips, drive thru burger and then off to watch UFC 100.

But it was worth it. The fights were pretty great with some substantial highlights. The biggest being Dan Henderson knocking Michael Bisping out cold with an overhand right. Hendo didn't need to smash him one more time when he was down and out but he did and it just goes to show you, don't talk shit about Dan Henderson.

The Lesnar/Mir fight was kind of hard to watch because it was apparent early on that Brock Lesnar has grown into a better fighter in the 17 months since they last fought. Lesnar stalked Mir more, took his time, set himself up and then pummelled Mir into a bloody mess. Once in the middle of the ring and then again against the cage where Lesnar pretty much annihilated Mir with those short, nasty punches.

Lesnar's post fight antics will win him no friends though and he continues to show that he's not about the sport of MMA so much as he is about the ego of Brock Lesnar. Classless and ugly barely begins to cover it. He's an ass, a great and extremely dangerous fighter sure, but an ass. I hope Dana White does bring Fedor Emelianenko to the UFC because that would be a fight for the ages. And I'd take Fedor over Lesnar anyday.

The Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves fight was impressive. Thiago Alves looked huge and the commentators opined that he probably had put on more than 30 pounds since the weigh-in the day before. He weighed in at 170 and they thought he was close to 205 at fight time. That's amazing! But, in the end, he couldn't counter GSP's takedowns and was dominated on the ground for five full rounds. Many people were expecting GSP to lose to Alves because of Alves' hyper-aggressive fighting style but GSP is an amazingly well-rounded fighter with great stand up, incredible takedowns and dominating wrestling. He is the complete package and its hard to argue that he's the best pound for pound fighter in the world right now.

I would have liked to see more stand up in the Fitch/Thiago fight as it turned into a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu chess match more than anything but it shows that Jon Fitch can fight on his feet or on the ground. He's a great fighter and he earned a well deserved win.

Overall, it was a great night of fights. I went five for eight in my predictions which isn't too shabby, I also came in 155th out of 24865 players in the UFC fantasy game. I need to stop going with my sentimental choices and go with the hard picks (I took Mir over Lesnar which was, in retrospect, stupid).

Notes from My First Wedding Photography Assignment

Yesterday was a long day and today is already slated to be a longer one although there will not be a UFC event awaiting after the work is done.

Anyway, here are some thoughts as I prepare for today's wedding.

- When things start to happen, they will start to happen very fast and are unstoppable to retake a photo.
- Comfortable shoes are an absolute must.
- Eating or having some kind of snack is essential.
- Cloud cover is your best friend at an outdoor wedding.
- Tall centerpieces can be difficult to work around when taking long distance candids.
- There are some incredibly emotionally charged moments that are classic and timeless and impossible to capture again once they've passed.
- Memory cards are cheap, shoot five or ten times the number of pics you think you'll need.
- Every wedding is unique and wonderful in its own way.
- That memory card with all the day's photos on it is more precious than anything in whole world until its been downloaded and the photos backed up to DVD and an external hard drive.

I've got a couple of hours to get ready for my next wedding today. Time to get some materials printed off, cleaned up and ready to roll out.

Legalize It and Don't Bankruptisize It

California, for those of you not paying attention, has a massive budget deficit, something on the order of $20 billion, maybe more, maybe a little less. Either way this is an enormous shortfall and is rooted in the sub-prime lending, the subsequent bursting of the mortgage bubble and immediate deflation of income from all those puffed up home valuations. There's been a cascade effect through the rest of the economy with huge layoffs across almost all sectors including my own, education.

Despite the incredible and overwhelming burden of this debt, there seems to be no movement on the legalization of marijuana movement. I don't get it.

What would legalization do?

- Ease the burden on our way over-stuffed prisons. Some estimates put the population of marijuana related prison sentences at nearly 15% of our prisons. For smoking weed? How much does it cost to put one person in prison for a year?
- Taxation of the #1 cash crop in California. Taxing marijuana would reap huge, huge revenues. I don't know how much precisely but the numbers would be enormous.
- Refocusing efforts on more dangerous drugs like meth, crack and heroin. How much of the so-called "War on Drugs" is focused on dope smokers when they pose almost no real risk to society, certainly compared to meth-heads and crackheads. Legalizing marijuana would allow law enforcement to concentrate on dangerous societal cancers.

It makes no sense to consider bankruptcy before every other avenue has been fully explored. Legalizing marijuana would go a very long ways towards easing the financial burden on our economy, it would ease the burden on our prisons and it would allow law enforcement to focus on much more dangerous drugs.

Marijuana has numerous positive effects for people suffering from glaucoma, treatment for cancer and other illnesses. But, let's be real, smoking pot is a nice mellow way to unwind from a stressful day. It's safer than drinking, just ask any police officer who he'd rather pull over, a pothead or a drunk driver.

At this point, legalization not only makes sense, it may be California's best route out of the red-tinged darkness of the economic morass we are in.

The Immediacy of Children

This may sound odd to the childless folks out there but children are alot like dogs. They have little to no sense of the future and live almost exclusively in the right now. When they are hungry, they need to eat this instant. When they need to use the bathroom, they need to go RIGHT NOW or risk peeing their pants. When they get hurt, they need immediate consoling by the nearest available parent.

Also, note, availability has nothing to do with the parent doing something or otherwise being occupied. It has everything to do with being near enough for shouts for aid being hearable.

We joined a number of people from Grady's preschool class at a program today called Together in the Park. Its a semi-organized gathering in area parks and includes activities, storytime and socialization for both the kids and the parents. It also does a pretty solid job of wearing out the wee one's batteries so that naps are more likely to occur.

Towards the end of the couple of hours we spent there this morning, Grady scrapped his thumb. Enough to remove a bit of skin off his knuckle and cause him to start screaming in pain. This is a kid with a pretty high tolerance for pain so I was pretty sure it hurt like a bugger. And he pretty much demanded all of my attention in trying to make him feel better. Luckily (or just good planning), we had a tube of Neosporin in the car and I was actually able to put a dab on his thumb. This is actually indicative of how much it hurt because Grady is usually very, very strongly against any sort of medicine to help him feel better, no band aids either.

It took a few minutes for the pain killer in the ointment to take away the stinging pain but it eventually did its job and Grady calmed down enough for the ride home. He did ask several times to make sure the band aid was the first thing we were doing when we got home.

No epiphanies here, just a day in the life with a couple of kids and how they sometimes require everything else to take a backseat so that their ouchies can get the attention they deserve.

UFC 100 Predictions

Time for some predictions for the upcoming mega night of MMA fights at UFC 100. The short version: Mir, GSP, Hendo, Fitch, Bonnar, Jones, Miller, Dollaway. Picking eight fights. We'll see how I do next Sunday.

Brock Lesnar (c) (3-1) vs Frank Mir (12-3) - UFC Heavyweight Championship
Result: Mir by submission in Round 2
Reason: I expect this fight will be explosive as Lesnar's gotten exponentially better with each fight in the UFC. But I don't think he's even close to Mir's jiu jitsu and that'll be the difference. But then, Lesnar could also just overwhelm Mir with his hamhock sized fists and knock him out. It'll be a good fight either way but I'm pulling for Mir.

Georges St-Pierre (c) (18-2) vs Thiago Alves (16-3) - UFC Welterweight Championship
Result: St.-Pierre by TKO in Round 2
Reason: When Georges was still coming up he didn't have a strong mental game which is why he lost to both Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. Now he's very strong mentally and is one of the best fighters on the planet along with being an elite natural athlete.

Dan Henderson (24-7) vs Michael Bisping (17-1)
Result: Henderson by submission in Round 3
Reason: I'll be honest, I think Michael Bisping is a class-A douchenozzle. He's brash, arrogant and a jackass. I want Dan Henderson to pound his annoying ass into a bloody mess. Now, don't get me wrong, I think Bisping is a very talented and motivated fighter.

Jon Fitch (18-3-0-1) vs Paulo Thiago (11-0)
Result: Fitch by
Reason: I like Jon Fitch, I like his heart, I like his attitude and I like his toughness. He lost an incredibly hard fought battle to GSP. I don't know as much about Paulo Thiago but he's got a great record so he could stay perfect and beat Fitch but I'm going with the Fitch nonetheless.

Stephan Bonnar (11-5) vs Mark Coleman (15-9)
Result: Bonnar by TKO in Round 3
Reason: If Bonnar can survive the first couple of rounds, he should have the conditioning edge in the third round and be able to tee up and knock Coleman out of the fight.

Jon Jones (8-0) vs Jake O'Brien (11-2)
Result: Jones by TKO in Round 2
Reason: Hard to go against a guy rolling with an undefeated record. O'Brien no tomato can but I think Jones is going to take it to him.

Mac Danzig (19-6-1) vs Jim Miller (13-2)
Result: Miller by TKO in Round 1
Reason: Sorry Mac, you're about to be overwhelmed by a faster, stronger and just as talented fighter.

CB Dollaway (9-2) vs Tom Lawlor (5-1-1)
Result: Dollaway by submission in Round 2
Reason: I hope CB's been putting his off time to good use and improving the rest of his fight game. He's already a great wrestler but he should be able to develop into a great striker as well and with that wrestling strength he should be able to knock opponents out, eventually. For now, I think he'll rely on his strength and that's wrestling and making people say Uncle.

Big Day, Big Week

Today is the first day of the biggest week we've had since I was laid off from the school district. In just under ten hours we'll be hosting our first ever Private Business Reception (PBR) for Kyani. With some luck we'll be filling our house with prospective distributors and customers and members of our team. It involves many steps including a clean house, finding a place to temporarily park Nande and our border hound (my wife's brother is visiting from Colorado and his big goofy friendly dog isn't so welcome at grandma and grandpa's house due to aged and inflexible cat already in residence), making sure our kids are occupied or at the neighbors for a little while.

And there's also making calls and trying to pull in folks we've already talked to to try and bring them to the PBR. The exciting thing about tonight is that we'll have one Kyani's executives here. He's one of the top earners in the company and, at the end of this week, will be getting the keys to his Kyani Escalade Hybrid at the national convention. If I were him, I'd be giddy with excitement!

On top of the PBR tonight, there is the aforementioned national convention taking place this next weekend. Almost everyone from our Northern California team will be attending and I would be but my weekend is already very, very stacked full of previously scheduled goodness.

I will be working as a professional photographer for not one but two weddings in two days this coming weekend. And, in between the two weddings, there's also the mma magnificence that is UFC 100.

Each wedding poses some significant challenges but all four of the participants are very easy going, good people and I'm really looking forward to commemorating their special days with my cameras.

Also, we'll be doing our first Skype video conference call a little later this morning with WindBlossom, who has joined us on our Kyani adventure after trying the products out and finding that her knees no longer hurt and her thinking is clearer.

It should be a really good week. And, with some luck, we'll be much further along in our Kyani dream by the end of the week. So much so that my wife may be one of the many that gets to walk the stage to receive her promotion in front of the entire company. That would be awesome! I wish I could be there but am looking forward to my weekend of photographic madness!

NWoTD - Indepantsoff Day

Indepantsoff Day - the national holiday where no one is allowed to wear pants.

More new words? Click here

Top Ten Thoughts About Sarah Palin's Abrupt Resignation

1. She's tired of being a national punchline. Yes, she's pretty but she's as vapid and as stupid as your typical runway model.
2. She's gearing up for a run at the White House in 2012. Which would be fine. She may resonate with the people but she's a bad leader, inexperienced and as dumb as an Alaskan winter day is long.
3. Somewhere Tina Fey is breathing a sigh of relief.
4. There is, physically and realistically speaking, no possible way she could see Russia from her office nor would being able to see Russia in any possible way qualify her to have even the tiniest modicum of foreign policy experience.
5. We can, officially, lay to rest the phrase "lipstick on a pig".
6. Women everywhere can start rebuilding every bit of the equal rights mountain her idiocy and reliance on T&A blew apart.
7. Vegas bookies are putting together the odds on her winding up on Fox News within six months. Or The View.
8. If she wasn't so incredibly egotistical and stupid, she'd have realized months ago that silence can be alot more deafening than yet another lame press announcement.
9. Its hard to take someone who preaches about family values and abstinence for teens seriously when she can't even keep her own children from getting knocked up.
10. Now Hilary Clinton can go back to being the hot politician.

I have plenty more to say about Sarah Palin. From the whiners who think she got a raw deal by the big bad media wolf (hint, she gave fewer interviews than any vice presidential candidate in history and the one's she did give were absolute softball hand-picked BS affairs) to the people who voted for her solely because they'd like to fuck her (which is an incredibly poor way to choose who to vote for). Sarah Palin is an aggressive ignorant and arrogant fool with ambition that her brains just aren't quite enough of to fulfill.

She was in no way ready to the vice president and the McCain campaign made a colossal error in not vetting her more thoroughly. She was embroiled in an ethics investigation about her abuse of power to get her sister's ex-husband fired because she's a vindictive and grudge holding bitch. She had little to no grasp of national let alone international politics. She'd barely even stepped foot outside the USA in her life. She tried to charge rape victims for the kits used to generate evidence to convict rapists in courts.

The list goes on and on and on. She is, was and will remain the low water mark for vice presidential candidates. The only more annoying thing introduced by the 2008 campaign has been Joe the Fucking Plumber whose name isn't Joe and he's not a licensed plumber and the whole point of McCain invoking him (that his taxes would be raised under Obama) was later proven to be utter bullshit.

I'm almost sad to see Sarah go. She was a trainwreck from start to finish and the only thing that makes me sad about her is how many people across the country glommed on to her for all they were worth. Regardless of the patent fact that she had zero qualifications for the job she was running for.

And, last thought, if Sarah Palin had a stroke, she'd probably look alot like that photo above, just all the time. Yeah, I wrote that.

Happy Birthday America, so far our gift has been this freakshow's departure.

Five Years Ago Today

It was five years ago today that our lives changed forever. Today is the day that Graydon was born. I have a hard time believing my little dude is five already but he is and he's an amazing and wonderful guy.

Our birthday plans are pretty low key since its also the 4th of July weekend and there are all kinds of other festivities in the works. But we will be having a birthday party for him soon.

In the meantime, we're playing, we're making messes (and learning that cleaning them up is important) and enjoying each other's boisterous company as much as possible.

This afternoon there will be cake baking and a small celebration just for our little family. And I like to tell Grady that all the fireworks being blown up tomorrow are all in celebration for him as well.

NWoTD - Oogling

Oogling - using Google Images to ogle a hot chick or guy.

Yes, yes, of course, Oogling will go and join all the other new words I've created over in the Fictionarium. You should go and take a look and rate some words.

What's The Haps

After a day and a half of four kids (my two boys and their two cousins), two big dogs (my Nande and their Murphy) and my wife's brother staying with us, this morning is calm and mostly peaceful. Even with Murphy still staying with us, he's a great big, sweet and goofy black lab/New Foundland mix.

My cold sore is about 75% healed up now, which is good because it was a really bad one while it was settling in. Probably the worst I've had in five years. But, through a combination of yogurt, lysine, Abreva and Kyani Nitro FX, it has eased up considerably and should be completely gone in another day or two at the most.

And that's a good thing because I need to get back to working out and riding my bikes. I can feel some pent up energy that could really use a release.

We took several steps forward with our Kyani business this week. Say hello to our newest distributor, WindBlossom! We also spoke for the first time the other day as I helped walk her through the sign up process. With her joining our Kyani team, we will start to farm and own Canada because there is little to no presence there as of right now. And virgin territory is huge, huge, huge in this early land grab phase of the game.

If you are looking for an amazingly good Plan B that could easily turn into a Plan A then drop me an email, leave a comment or otherwise get in touch. Kyani is our future and our future looks fantastic! There is no obligation whatsoever to check it out and, if you happen to have sick people in your network of friends, you can make a substantial improvement in their lives.

I had to do a little creative organization in my office to get my computer to be Skype-ready so that WindBlossom and I could video conference but its worked out well, I'm ready and my office is even a little bit sleeker than before!

I've been putting in quite a fair amount of work on websites. I've purchased a new domain for my photography business, used iWeb to create the new site, set up an entirely new account with Backprint and done a pretty ridiculous amount of trouble shooting to make Intellectual Poison work properly again as I'd busted one of the pipes in the process. I'm also starting to lay the groundwork for our as yet unlaunched new bicycling website.

And I've also been tending to several auctions on Ebay to help clear out some valuable but unneeded stuff in the office. Nothing like converting goodies into cash even if I seem to be spending too much time at the Post Office lately.

One big event on the near horizon is Graydon's fifth birthday this Friday! It is hard to believe that he's turning five already but he is. I'm excited for him because I know he's going to absolutely love his main present, a limited edition Automoblox race car. Oh yeah! If you've got young kids, especially car crazy boys (or girls) then you should definitely look into these beautiful toys. We've already got a bunch of the mini cars but the big ones are even more awesome.

The other big events on my horizon are two weddings that I'm going to be photographing the weekend after next. I'm excited, busy with preparations and a little bit anxious about not screwing anything up too badly. Once the weddings are behind us, we'll all be able to breathe a little easier, maybe take a camping trip to Big Sur or somewhere else and start to really enjoy the summer awesomeness out here on the coast. But, until then, there's a ton of things to work on and get ready. My tasklist is just as long, if not longer, than it was when I was working as a computer tech for four schools.

And, lastly, I'm saving my pennies to buy myself a long, long, long wanted goodie, the ContourHD high def helmet cam. Just thinking about my video capabilities with this thing makes me giddy!

So, I may not be quite as crazy busy as WindBlossom but yeah, there's alot going on right now.