because there seems to be some confusion

Now you know. If there are any questions....well then you're an idiot.

Later,
Sam

My hypocrisy is complete!

As I mentioned earlier I have fallen victim to Bravo's "Top Chef." Last night was the finale and I TIVO'd it and watched it this morning. GO HAROLD! Yes my choice, Harold, won big time. The only issues I have with any of this is do I still get to feel superior to all of the people who talk about "American Idol" all day?

Later,
Sam

Oh and YEs I do have my towel.

Tomorrow is towel day

Tomorrow is Towel Day, a day of remembrance for Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy. Observe it by carrying a towel all day. I can't begin to say how important he was to my reading/writing life. Here's a LINK

Later,

Sam

snow patrol coming to Chicago!

June 10th. I may have to figure out a way to do this. I really like these guys. ANy of you Chicagoans know the theater?

Vic Theater, Chicago, IL Saturday, June 10, 2006 7:30PM

Me need info.

Later,
Sam

Today I am a thief. I have stolen this from a friend.

Old School Democrat 90% New Democrat 70% Green 55% Libertarian 50% Foreign Policy Hawk 50% Pro Business Republican 15% Socially Conservative Republican 10% What's Your Political Philosophy? created with QuizFarm.com

These are my scores. What are yours?

I just found this out.

The man who sang as the Grinch, Thurl Ravenscroft died last year. How did I miss that? He was 91. He was also the voice of Tony the Tiger. I feel like a little bit of my childhood just slipped away. What a bummer.

Later,
Sam

because sharing is nice

A new friend asked about my tattoo and this is the poster that it started as.

Later,
Sam

Why I need a hammock

1. I live on a fucking farm surrounded by trees.
   
2. It is spring.
   
3. Outside is a better place to read than inside.
   
4. Sleeping in a hammock is just fun.
5. your cat can't jump on the paper while you are reading it in a hammock.
6. Ice cream tastes better in a hamock.
7. they are fun.
8. they are more fun with two.

I stole this from BoingBoing

Smoking fast Firefox 2 alpha is out
A new public alpha of Firefox 2 has gone live. The browser, code-named "Bon Echo" (all Firefox versions are named after public parks) is nowhere near ready for prime-time, but it is smokin' hot fast on my Powerbook, easily twice as fast at managing tabs and tab-switches as the current Firefox. Regrettably, almost none of my Firefox "extensions" (plugins) worked with Bon Echo, but I'm willing to live without them temporarily while I play at crash-test dummy. Link


I am a huge fan of Firefox and this is very good new to me boys and girls.

Later,
Sam

Ok I have a confession

I fucking love top chef. Do you know it? It's this reality show on Bravo that puts a bunch of chefs against each other in a 9 week competition. I love it. So silly and marvelous at the same time. The finale is on wed and my tivo is already programmed. Go Harold!

I feel better now that you know,
Sam

This is really fun

Bush Drop

Go and laugh a bit.

Sam

and still the sun comes up

Let me tell you about today. I am in a fantastic mood. Am I having a financially fantastic day? No. Did I get a new job that pays well? No I lost a huge client for my IT work and it will cost me about $15K a year. Why then am I doing so well? My life still really is fantastic. I am almost always happiest when planning out a task/mission and today I have several on the board. Some really gruuvy business ideas with my buddy Jack. There is the whole Italy/book thing. Friends life is just fine. How is your life going? Drop me a note and let me know.

Later,
Sam

The results are in!

That's right four of you have spoken.  Troops to the border wins in a landslide.  

MY first attempt at a poll

Which is more stupid?
	Arguing that the fiction of “The DaVinci Code” is not factual.
	Sending 6000 National Guard troops to “guard” the border
	That Jessica Simpson has a career
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Poseidon is over and I am still mostly unscarred

Yes we went to see it.  Yes the first ¾ were so fantastically horrible that I couldn’t stop laughing.  The dialogue?  Oh dear god the dialogue.  If adolescents were taking a break from writing bad love poetry and decided to try a shot at script writing….well you get the idea.  There was no acting going that I could see.  The special effects were both fantastic and freaking awful at the same time.  Seriously how many times can you do the swim under water that is on fire?  Yawn.  Eventually it all got to be so very boring.  Had I gone to the bathroom at the ¾ mark I would have loved it.  I didn’t.  Well I didn’t kill nearly as many brain cells watching that as I did listening to W the other night.  Did any of you go see it?  Leave comments or emails as necessary.

Later,
Sam

when bad films go right

Poseidon starts today!

Why is that cause for rejoicing?  What are you kidding?  This will be one of the worst movies ever.  Maybe not Battlefield Earth bad but that thing is Tiger Woods like in its greatness/badness.  None of my friends are willing to go see this with me.  The cowards.  I want to hear all of your opinions of it after you have gone.  You MUST go see it.  

it's thursday

Yesterday I started with a trainer. Several comments to make about that; 1) He (Jason) is very good and doesn’t take any of my bs. 2) I have lost a ton of strength in the last few years of surgical mess. 3) The day after is much worse than say the day after riding a century. My back is screaming at me today and I almost couldn’t get into/out of the tub. It is funny as hell but painful. I have to do it again tomorrow and every other day for the next 15 weeks.

The last post was removed. Why? I didn’t want it up here anymore.

Later,

Sam

Sometimes it's the ones you miss

A movie everyone should see


Last night turned out to be a surprise. I decided to not go out but rent a movie instead so on the way home I stopped at blockbreaker video and looked around. I had decided to get some mindless piece of junk and turn my brain off for a while. What happened instead was that I found this amazing movie “In the realms of the unreal: the mystery of Henry Darger.” It’s a documentary about this Old recluse who lived an awful childhood in an asylum and worked as a janitor for all of his life. When he died they discovered over 300 paintings and a 15000 page illustrated novel called “the realms of the unreal.” Man it was fascinating. I actually bought it from them. $20 what a bargain.

Go see this. It’s freaking amazing.

Later,
sam

tick tick tick

HP good.  

The lightning strike did more damage than I had thought.  A few days of my diagnostic skills have determined that not only is the modem fried (a thing that could easily be dealt with) but the COM ports are all fried.  That isn’t something that can be worked around.  No com ports means no modem connection at all.  Not even an external.  So no posting from the house for a bit.  I looked into purchasing a new laptop but that is just out of my budget for a bit.  I called HP and even though she is out of warranty they will repair her for $250.  HOORAY!  I will have to be without my third arm for about 10 days but I’ll survive.  Not sure how right now but I will.  

Charter Cable sucks!

Those of you who know this, I bow to your wisdom for I have just learned it.  They SWORE to me that I could have high speed internet access from the house.  They SWORE that their guy would be here by 12pm.  Well 23! Phone calls later and they informed me that I had not been there when the “technician” came by.  The fact that I have been sitting here all day and haven’t moved didn’t seem to faze them.  One “customer service” woman actually told me that if I couldn’t be bothered to be there then why should they bother to show up?!  Sam has not had a good day.  He wants to find the high ground and get a rifle.  (It’s a metaphor don’t freak out)  Tomorrow I will call my Charter advertising rep, the guy I pay about $10K a year to run my commercials, and see what he can do.  It should be fun.  Well not for him but I need a cushion to stick the pin in and he’s it.  

The other night I was riding my motorcycle home from a friend’s house and generally having a good time.  I stopped at the grocery and much to my dismay the rear seat cowling ($259-400) was GONE!  That’s right kids part of my bike, my new bike, fell off while I was riding it.  I was not happy.  Honestly is this a test.  All of the crap from the last two weeks is really starting to take its toll.  I have been pretty calm and fully able to deal with it but then BAM, BAM, BAM.  Give me a break.  Yesterday I pretty much melted down and today I am really bummed.  I know the stages of grief and all of that and I’m sure that’s some of it but give me a break.  I am counting the days until October.
The fight or flight is in overdrive and right now I really don’t want to fight.

Send kind thoughts or evil plans to Sam@monkeyfez.us or in the comments section.

Later,
Sam

More thoughts on hope

http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/06-3om/Jensen.html

Everyone should go and read this.  It was sent to me and now I’m sending it to you.  A short while ago my friend Frogs and I were discussing hope.  He was explaining to me a Buddhist thingy about why hope was false.  That it meant not living in the now.  I was saying that I felt hope was an emotional opiate, a crutch that allowed one to stay a victim.  So now you should all go and read this article and then go buy his book.  Live life.  Don’t just be alive.  After you have read it come back here and read the stuff below.  If you don’t read it first this stuff will just confuse you.


INTERMISSION


OK so you read it right?  Good.  I discovered a while back that only when I really act as though there is no hope can I achieve anything.  Don’t get me wrong this isn’t about recklessness or a death wish.  This is about understanding responsibility and action.  When the consequences and not the adherence to the rules become the mission the mission will be more likely to succeed.  As my friend says “When you stop using your mind as your primary (tool) you are already an idiot and have lost.”  What does this mean for you?  Beats the hell out of me.  For me it means time to get out of my comfort zones and get back to the shit.  Life is moving people and I am not standing still any longer.  Feel free to leave feedback or email me ( Sam@monkeyfez.us) with your thoughts on the matter.

That is all,

Sam

and then it went pop

Well dear readers when it rains it floods. Last night while I was online doing some correspondence we had a giant thunderstorm. I know full well that I shouldn’t have been on the modem. I was anyway. Let us just jump to the end. My laptop modem is fried. On this model apparently it is integrated into the motherboard so there’s no replacing it. I am not pleased. I really like this little machine but I can not work without that modem. The NIC seems to be functioning properly but that only works for me when I am at work. Being as I live in the woods (under a bridge near grandmother’s house) I only have dial-up at home. This will cause me no end of grief until I get it sorted.

Later,
Sam

another morning

Let me tell you what a typical morning consists of for me.  I get up around 5:30.  Sometimes earlier sometimes later.  I walk across the hall from my bedroom to my office and boot up the laptop.  While it is waking up and getting on line I usually do something breakfasty.  I don’t like breakfast as a rule but have learned over the years that it really does help keep me moving.  I then sit at the keyboard and see what happens.  Sometimes I surf and read while listening to NPR.  Some times I know exactly what I need to work on the instant my eyes open.  Eventually I write something here.  (My mom just called to correct my spelling.  Having writers as parents can really be taxing.  You just gotta’ love ‘em.)  Usually I have to write a few pages before I get into a groove and then it’s just a matter of re-writing all of it.  That is the part I like the most.  It seems that the initial process is mostly upper brain stuff and then I spend hours putting it all together into something that doesn’t completely suck.  

This morning I am waiting for the landscape guys and the tree guys.  They are going to be giving me some quotes on work here at the farm.  Then it’s off to the insurance people to start the whole “hey my car got smashed” thing.  Yippee?  Then later Tony and I are running around and doing guy stuff.  Cameras and other fun stuff.  I am not spending any more time stuck in my head with Kate crap.  Oh hey the tree guy is here I gotta split.

Later,
Sam