So long 2005 and see ya on the other side

Well a lot has happened during the last few months, weeks, days and even hours of 2005. Time is short an precious to say the least. Sadly over the past few weeks it seems that death has been a recurring theme lately.

Its not that anyone really close to me has passed, but some people I know and or have met have lost those close to them. Recently someone that I met through the motorcycle community lost his life on Christmas day, I met Brett Wade on March 5th at the 2005 Bike Blessing, he was really a great guy and worked at the Cycle Gear in Bedford. He was the one that would help me when I came out to the store. Today they had a memorial ride for him and about 176 bikers showed up to remember him. I only had talked with him a few short times and I've read of other bikers loosing their lives, but Bret was the first person I had met and known some what to have passed away while riding his bike.

Brett was only one of a few like I said and I can only think that it just shows how short life can be and how fast things can change. Last night could have been another example. Around 1:00 am, my wife and I had been awakened by someone ringing the door bell. We had just gone to sleep an hour or so to be awakened by a friend of mine. News at 1:00 am is never good news, well at least for the most part.

As I opened the door he told me that one of my Sister-In-laws girls was in a car accident. He said from what he knows she is ok and has a broke ankle. They had tried calling us, but we did not hear the phones ring and so he came over to wake us up. The youngest girl was still at home and they needed me to go stay with her and let her know all was ok.

The oldest girl had been out at night and was caught up in an act of rode rage. She should not have been out in the first place and was now caought in the attempted act of being assaulted, she was forced into another lane and caused a head on collision with a truck. Luck for all parties, nobody lost their life this night. The man driving along in his truck was suddenly in the middle of a head on collision and it just shows have fast things can change. The people who caused the events of course sped off and seem to have got away with the acts they have caused.

Tonight should be the annual celebration for New Years eve and its an event that normally finds the In-laws and friends over to hang out and have fun. My wife is helping my mother-in-law out for the night and the party never got of the ground. In fact this is the first time in 11 years I will not see my wife at midnight and wish her Happy New Year.

For the most part, things have been great for 2005 and sure some saddness has come recently and I can only look forward to 2006 and the blessings that will come our way. So my last post for 2005 comes to a close and I say so long and see ya on the other side. Please be safe one and all out there and have a Happy New Year to you.

Christmas Eve traditions

Well its the Christmas Eve traditions that I really love the most. At least for me and the past few years, it always comes down to certain events on this very night.

Time to do some last minute shopping for starters, its really the time I like to shop the most I guess. This year I went out the day before Christmas Eve with the family and was it ever crowded. We had to take care of some stuff, but its not exactly the time I would go normally.

Truth is I normally go to shop for just a few people and try and get some stuff done ahead of time. The thing is mainly men are out shopping at this time. Is it because they wait till the last minute, perhaps, but I really think in most cases its just easier for us to get out at that time.

After the shopping is done its time for the Christmas Eve dinner at the In-laws and something I look forward to every year. Great food and lots of fun being with family on this night. Its also the warm up I would say to the final event for the evening. Tonight is the night I watch It's A Wonderful Life, before heading off to bed and waiting on Santa.

Sure it makes it harder on Santa if I don't get right off to bed, but he's normally tied up with other houses and I don't think I keep him waiting to long. My daughter has already laid out the cookies and egg nog for Santa and even put out some carrots for Rudolph and the Gang.

Well its been a busy day for me and I have a movie to start. Merry Christmas to all and have a Happy New Year.

The 20th Annual Big Texas Toy Run

I went on the Big Texas Toy Run for the 2nd year in a row and had a blast. Sure the Cruiser crowd out numbers the Sportbike Riders, but the way I see it, is I'm on two-wheels and helping kids.

This year the crowds moved on two from three locations and all started at 1:00 pm heading towards the Arlington Convention Center. It's really a cool thing to be a part of and great for those pulling over on the sides of the highway to honk and wave as we all move towards Arlington.

Motorcyclists came from Fort Worth & Dallas just like last year and this year they added a route from Grapevine. You can either donate $10 or bring an unwrapped toy to the event. I'm not sure on the total count of bikers, money raised, and toys donated just yet. What I do know is that I plan on continuing to do this run every year. I don't expect to see Sportbikers come close to the number or Cruisers, but I'll continue to ride mine and stand out in the crowd.

I do

It was 11 years ago that I got married and it was the perfect location and time of the year. We both love Christmas time and love old homes. We had looked around at a number of places to have the wedding and stopped after finding Thistle Hill in Fort Worth.

The best part was that during the Christmas time, its all decorated up with flowers and Christmas decorations for that time of the year. We decided that we wanted certain things for our wedding and the location was perfect choice. It was also nice to have the wedding there and the reception at the same location.

The cake was the next big thing and A Taste of Europe was the only choice for us at the time. We had gone to so many wedding shows and the best part was running by to sample some of their cakes. The best cake I had ever tasted at the time and I think a big hit for the reception.

Looking back, I don't think I would have changed a single thing about that special day. Hard to believe its been 11 years, the time just flies by. I still smile when I drive by or have a chance to even take a look inside.

Christmas time...

It will always be known as Christmas time for me and I would say its my favorite time of the year. I don't think I ever thought of it as a celebration of the birth of Christ. Still I've always found it a wonderful time to celebrate, reflect, and give gifts to others.

I grew up watching some of the best shows during this time of year. I would have to say, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and Santa Claus is coming to Town are among my childhood favorites and all time favorites still to this day. Even Freya has taken a liking to the old classic, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

This is also the time of year that we gather with Edith's side of the family for a weekend get away. We each take a turn in providing a meal and then we spend the day shopping somewhere, and on the last night, we end with the ritual watching of the National Lampoons, Christmas Vacation.

Soon it will be Christmas Eve and that's when we have dinner with Edith's side of the family and in most cases we watch It's a Wonderful Life. No mater what, if we don't see It's a Wonderful Life that night after dinner, then I'll watch it at home before heading off to bed. It use to be a regular showing on all the networks, now that is not the case and for example, NBC showed it last night and we watched some while eating and mainly let it play in the background. It just would not be the same if I did not watch it every Christmas Eve night.

We'll get up early the next morning and Freya will see what Santa Claus has brought her this year. We'll have a little bit of Christmas as well and then rush back to Edith's side for Christmas morning. Its the best time of the year for us and we really look forward to it every year. Merry Christmas to all and have a Happy New Year.

McCartney after the show

Can you think back to the first time you heard music? Now I'm sure you heard baby songs, little rhymes, and kid jingles to start with, but I mean the first time you heard real music from a band.

My parents had some old 45s and for those of you that are clueless, that is a very small record, much like an LP or Album as they were called. The 45s had an A side and a B side with a song on each side for the most part. Since most of these 45s are from artists of the 50's and 60's time, you could get by chance two songs on one side at times, but normally it was one song, a Hit song and then something on the B side.

So I grew up listening to groups from the 50's and 60's that my parents really loved. It just so happens the Beatles was one of the groups and something that I started listening to in the very early 70's, sadly I had no idea that the band had in broke up at the time I started liking them. Still it was great music and fun growing up and learning more about them.

So this past Sunday I saw one of the only two Beatles left a live perform live and it was the best I could ask for in a show. To see a member of the Beatles perform songs I grew up to was amazing. He played just about every Beatle song I wanted to hear live and it brought back memories of the old 45's, in fact he even joked on stage about the crackle sounds the old albums made.

I've seen so many concerts, not as many as my buddy who invited me, but for me this was the perfect show and nothing could compare to it. Was it better lights or sounds than another artists show, not at all, but then again the other artist was not the first one to introduce music to me or Rock-n-Roll for the fact. I still would like to see some other artists perform and I'm sure I'll enjoy their shows, but I can really say I've seen my favorite and best show at last.

Paul McCartney 2005 US Tour

Its a saturday night and my cell phone rings... I look at the time and wonder why I'm getting a call from my buddy Bob at 11:00 pm on a saturday night. So he asks what I'm doing the next day and I say, I've got a 6:30 indoor Soccer game, why?

You want to skip it? I say, what for and why? Paul McCartney concert and I've got an extra ticket is the reply. He's tried to get someone to buy it and tried to get someone to just go. No matter what, he's down to the night before and about to be stuck with an extra ticket.

I said I don't know and he tells me that they are leaving about 5:30 to head over to the show. I really don't want him to be stuck with a ticket so to speak and I can't afford it to buy it and he's pretty much ran out of options. I said I would have to think about it some more and get back to him in the morning. I said keep trying to find someone and if you do, I'll be ok not going to the show.

I love playing indoor soccer, but its not everyday that something like this falls in my lap. See I pretty much grew up listening to the Beatles, playing my parents 45's and really liked all the music as a young kid. In some ways they might have been the first band I was ever exposed to so to speak. I was to young to see them in concert and never got the chance to see some of the members after they broke up.

With Lennon and Harrison both dead, my chances of seeing any of the members perform grew smaller and smaller. Now the night before the show a phone call comes in and I'm invited to see one of the original Beatles and the ever popular Sir Paul McCartney perfrom live in a sold out concert. He has a new album out and I know little about it, but his tour has been made up of a lot of old material from the Beatles, Wings and even his band the Quarrymen, before he became one of the Beatles.

As much as I hate to miss a soccer game, I can't see passing this up and look forward to a really great show. I'm sure I'll have other soccer games to play, but I don't think I'll have a chance to see Paul McCartney play live. Its not going to be the Beatles, but from what I've heard its as close as you can get to it.

Shopz n the Hood

Growing up I remember when we only had two malls to shop at in Arlington and that was the Forum 303 Mall and Six Flags Mall. Times change and we've had the Parks at Arlington Mall for quite sometime now and its not surprising that the Forum went downhill and I guess now the same would be said for Six Flags mall.

I really had no idea how Six Flags mall had changed and it was such a long time since I visited the mall. The other day my wife wanted to check out a Baby store at Six Flags Mall and I said sure. The Baby store has access from the outside of what use to be JC Penney anchor store and I have to say its a really nice Baby store.

So I said after looking around, lets go and look at what the rest of the mall has to offer now. We passed on through the internal doors and noticed that they've cut up the old store and have an Antique store and some other outlet store taking up some of the old space. The second floor is some college and closed at the time we are at the mall.

We keep going and should have turned back. The first place I see is the old Suncoast store I worked at and it just goes downhill from there. The Structure store (Express For Men) is now called Stretz or something like that and a little further down is a music store called Eargasmic Soundz or something to that effect. They have a lingerie store that I would not recommend to anyone, (If you think Fredericks of Hollywood is risque, you have not seen anything yet). Each step that we took, kept me thinking, your ok and can turn around and never come back to this place again. The Dillards store is now the outlet store and use to be the outlet store from Forum 300 mall.

If I ever make it back to Six Flags Mall, it will only be to visit the baby store or antique shop and I don't plan of passing what use to be the old JC Penney store. I know most of the traffic has moved on to the Parks at Arlington and I have to think that the Parks will be solid mall for many, many years to come. Its just sad to think that the old malls have really died off and turned out like they are, nothing more than an indoor flee market.

3 Days in North Dallas at the Galleria Mall
I've just spent that last 3 days in a Flash training class in Dallas and the building is attached to the Galleria mall. Its been a long time since I've been to the Galleria and it was really nice to see again. I spent my lunch time walking around the mall an checking things out each day. Dallas has some other malls, but I would say the Galleria is the best of them all. If you've never been, its well worth the trip and you can spend all day looking around the 3 floors of shops. I hope to bring the family out and spend the day soon, they have a little kids play area and I think my daughter would have the time of her life there.

Victoria's Secret is now out...

Sex sells and its in your face at the Malls these days. I've noticed lately in my walks around various malls, that the what once appeared more on the inside of Victoria's Secret stores is now on the front lines and in your face for window displays these days.

It use to be, as I walked around the mall and I came to a certain window display of ladies lingerie, I knew that I was standing in front of Frederick's of Hollywood and a store that was more out there so to speak. No secret about it and the window display would catch your eye.

Now I've been trying to remember what Victoria's Secret had in the windows and I would have to say it was toned down a lot more. Now don't get me wrong and I'm not saying that the current display offends me or that I don't like what I see in the windows. What ever the goal of their marketing is, I have to think its getting the attention of people walking by these days and working.

In most cases a Fredericks store front is a lot smaller and you see only a small selection of sexy lingerie. With the current Victoria Secret stores being larger and bigger window space areas for their displays. The new sexy lingerie displays look like something out of the dressing room for Cabaret and keep your attention longer.

So if in the past you had wondered what the secret was and decided to venture inside to take a look. You might just find out from a glance as you walk on by now. Then again, Victoria might have sexier secrets inside, if that is at all possible.

It's Back On TV...
What: 10th annual Victoria Secret's show
When: Dec. 6
Where: CBS

Fall Movies here at last

This week the release of Harry Potter Goblet of Fire has finally arrived. I have a feeling that this will be the best of all the movies so far to date. I'm a huge fan of the books, thanks to my wife's introduction of the series and me wanting to see what kept her reading solid hour after hour.

I know that nothing will compare to reading the books and I recommend that you read the books to really enjoy the stories. Just the same, I'm looking forward to this movie and future movies as well as the last book of the series.

Each movie has been visually entertaining and for the most part they've done a good job in telling the story. Some things have been cut or moved in the order of things. My guess is to save time in most cases, since the books are so long it would take about 4 to 6 hours to cover everything. That is what makes the books so good I guess.

Next month will be the release of C. S. Lewis' the Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and I've been reading that series now and really enjoy the story line. I vaguely remember seeing an animated version of the story as a kid and I've really loved the book and from what I've seen and heard about this movie so far, I think it is a must see for sure and can not wait.

More and likely this will be the last two movies I see for the 2005 season. I could be wrong and something else might sneak in before the year is out, but these will be must see movies as soon as they come out.

The Polar Express on DVD is a must buy for me this year and should be out in about a week I think. I love the Christmas holidays and have read this story to my daughter about this time every year up till Christmas day. We went and saw this in the theathers and I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to all the extras and seating down with my daughter and watching this one and reading the book.

I'm a Power Watcher...

When it comes to entertainment for TV and movies, I'm a power watcher. So what is a power watcher exactly? Someone that can sit and knock out a barrage of Shows in one sitting. I started doing this about 5 years ago with the HBO series Sex in the City, and at the time my wife was pregnant. We had stopped in at Blockbuster and picked up season 1 on DVD and started watching.

This was the first time we had really sat down an watched about 5 or 6 shows in one night for a particular series. These were 30 minute shows and sitting down and watching them back to back was about 3 hours and the length of a long movie. So over the weekend we easily knocked out the whole 1 season at once.

Now this is something that I've done with most of the HBO shows, by renting them or getting copies from a friend who would record them and pass them on. I've also done the same with Alias on DVD, after a friend bought season 1, 2, and 3 on DVD. We went through them so fast, that I ended up watching season 3 first before him and had to wait for him to catch up inorder to talk about the shows.

Now that I'm all caught up I record the shows on Tivo and watch it along with most of the fans. But I still power watch with other shows like season 1 of Desperate Housewives and should have it knocked out in a week or so and can start on the recordings of season 2 soon.

But with the amount of programs that run during the week, if it was not for Tivo, I would not have a chance to see most of the shows airing these days. The best part is zipping past the commercials. The funny thing is even my daughters shows take advantage of Tivo and I don't think she'll ever really know what life was like before Tivo.

I enjoy watching DVD shows this way, but the real challenge is avoiding the media and other outlets that might let something slip. As long as I stay away from stuff like that, then I can watch a show and keep going and not have to wait for next weeks show and in some case, you want to go on when a cliff hanger is involved.

With Tivo, I might not watch the show right away, in most cases the shows I like are not something for my daughter to see or my wife does not care for them. So I can save them up and watch them a day or two later on my time and still spend time with my family. Most of my power watching takes place late at night or early mornings on the weekends.

With Netflix, I'm finding myself going back and seeing some shows that I missed and giving them a try again. Its nice to seem them as a whole and with out commercials, plus a lot of extra features are available on the DVDs too.

To peek or not to peek?

Well I guess I should actually start off with an explanation about this story. The odd 3D image to the left is a new addition to the Owens/Wilson family and we are sitting at the 20 weeks mark. The due date is set for the very end of March to the first part of April.

We've done what they call a soft launch of sorts and told a few people here or there over the past few weeks. Just wanted to keep it quite a bit during the early stages and it does get a little hard to explain taking off every month for a doctors visit. Yeah I like to go along for the visits and did the same with our first. So for those who did not know the news, here you go I'm going to be Daddy again.

To peek or not to peek is the question. With our first baby and they way Edith and I thought about finding out, was we did not want to know the outcome (boy or girl) and wanted it to be a surprise. I can only say, that it was the best feeling in the world to be there at the birth and wait to see. We knew it was a baby and for the most part healthy, but was it a girl or a boy, would be the surprise ending.

For us, the thought of hearing your going to have this or that and waiting for many months did not seem like fun. We've also heard the stories of how someone heard it would be a girl and they take the boy home wearing Pink or the other way around. In many cases, the outcome could be exactly as they say and a small chance of being wrong exists. For us its not so much that it could be wrong, its more of a feeling we have in waiting.

Our daughter was over due and we had to induce to get things going. I remember seeing the head and thinking, "This is a big baby and I'm guessing its a boy" and to my surprise it was a healthy baby girl. Pretty much got what I wished for and a proud moment in my life. The next step was the reveal and announcement of the name.

This is another area we like to have fun with. Pretty much drives family and friends crazy that we don't want to know the outcome and we say that we don't like to read the end of the book first. On the same note, when it comes to names, we discuss and pretty much pick the name for a girl and boy out, but we do not reveal the name till the birth. The name is something we both love and feel is right and at the right time is when the introduction is made. We did not even reveal what the boys name would have been, keeping it a secret until the next birth, that's not say we will not change our minds.

So check back around the end of March or first of April and we'll have an announcement at that time. If it drives you crazy wanting to know, sorry and its just part of the fun for us.

Cutting the Pipe

Well it's been around 7 years at least and I've cut the broadband pipe being offered to us from the local Cable companies at last. Sorry to see it go in some ways, but I really just can't justify paying the $55.00 a month for Internet Access alone.

I don't think I'll notice to much of a difference in service or speed and my hope is to see a big savings in the amount I've been paying. I'm a big fan of satellite TV and their services and I know that some of the Cable companies are starting to even offer some more services. Even still, picking up the TV programming through the local cable, my internet would still be about $45.00 a month and that is way to high.

It's also sad to hear that in other countries, they offer broadband internet and all the TV programming for around $39.00. So tonight I called in and said stop the services, your charging way to much and all they could say was, "We're sorry to hear that..." and will have you disconnected shortly and stop the billing.

Funny thing is DSL always wanted me to switch to them and their prices always appeared higher, but they seem to have figured out away to drop their prices and in turn gained my business for now. I don't think I'll give up my Dish and I don't see going back to Broadband Cable as long as they keep charging the prices they do.

No matter what, I'll never go back to Dial-Up... Never!!!

Trick or Treat

A long, long time ago on a dark scary night, creatures of all shapes and sizes would arise and walk the streets in search of one thing and one thing only. This same ritual had taken place for many, many years along the same day each year.

These creatures of good and evil would walk the earth hand in hand with one goal in mind and one goal only. To see who could get the most candy of them all. Yeah I'm talking about the act of Trick or Treat on Halloween.

It's somewhat sad to think back upon this time and how things have changed. In my day... (Starting to sound like the typical Dad now) all the kids would rush home from school and eat dinner. We would watch the Charlie Brown Halloween show and keep an eye on the clock and one on a window for the Sun to go down. Then at that perfect moment in time as it begins to get darker, we would throw our costumes on and grab the pillow case & flash light and look at Mom or Dad to walk us around the neighborhood.

Trick or Treating was the one time a year we could dress up as that little ghost, vampire, cowboy, and/or Super Hero to name just a very few. These were the classic one piece jump suits with graphics on the front and the tiny little plastic mask to cover the face in most cases. Times have changed so much since those days.

The strangest site to be seen as long lines, one after the other, would form down the blocks and leading up to doors. You really did not even have to walk away or shut your door because the next person would already be a few steps behind the last. This would go for block after block as well and if you can imagine the pillow case getting heavier and heavier as the night went on.

As we started out at a young age we kept to the block we lived on and as we grew older this would expand to the next block over and soon the blocks on both sides and more. Times were quite different back then and yes we had to be careful and Mom & Dad had to inspect each piece of candy with a fine eye to check for tampering. Later that would turn into services that would scan your candy for you. Sad that the world changed like this and as I grew older and stopped the ritual of Trick or Treating, I also noticed that most of the younger kids would stop coming each year.

Now we buy candy for Trick or Treaters and wonder how much will be left over. This was the second year to take my daughter to the Halloween Camp out, a place for them to decorate the tent and go trick or treating from tent to tent. We have a pretty safe neighborhood and know most of the kids and families and will take her door to door. We'll load her in the car and take her to Oma & Opa, Grandma & Grandpa, and even some Aunts and Uncles for candy. She'll get more than her fair share for sure.

I'll always look back and remember the times I went and when I never imagined so many kids existed in my neighborhood and how we formed a huge parade, almost touching the person in front of us as we went from door to door and the never ending supply of Candy for that night. Times have changed and people be safe and have a happy Halloween.

Raptor wrap up

Well we've just returned from the end of the season team party. Just to update a bit here, this was the first year for eight, four year old girls to come together and play soccer as a team. This was in the YMCA Mighty Tots league and the goal is for them to learn a bit about the game and have fun most of all.

We don't really keep track of the score of the games and they only play 6 games at this age. I thought it was going to be a real challenge and wondered how on Earth I would learn something about each of the players on my daughters team and would they learn from me and have fun. It was a real joy to show them a little bit of the game and make it fun for each of them.

The last game of the season I would say was the best and I feel like the team has only really started. I think most of the girls will come back for next season and I plan on offering my coaching skills again. Tonight was a lot of fun to see the girls one last time before the winter break. The parents all pitched in to get trophies to mark the occasion and I think we picked out a really nice trophy for the girls and hopefully something for them to look back upon.

I don't think I would change anything at all, but if I had a way to be in two places at the same time. I would love to be a parent and just watch them play for a bit. Its a real joy to be on the field and teaching them the game, but I some what feel disconnected at times when I'm in the role of Coach and then Dad after the game is over. For now, I can leave the Coaches hat aside until the next season starts.

No more Splog...

Alright, I think I have the right term here and I'm sorry if it take an extra step on your part, but it never fails that someone or should I say some program likes to posts a comment to my posts and it has nothing to do with the article/rant of mine. What I'm talking about is Splogs and they show up in someone's comments. Pretty much it starts out as a post about how wonderful your site is and you might like to visit my site on Nuclear Basket Weaving techniques.

The fix seems to be turning on Word Verification before posting and makes you type about a 5 character, random generated, character string before posting. This is to stop the computer and I guess the end user that might be doing this from hand (I'm thinking its a PC program myself). So for the few of you that might visit and those that have dropped in by chance, I'm glad you stop by and love the comments. I'm sorry you have to take the extra step now, but it seems to be the trend with lots of sites and services these days.

Happy Blogging and Bye, Bye Splogers...

Skypecasting on a Monday night

So I'm sitting at home on a Monday night watching the football game on the internet via ESPN Gamecast. I've got Skype up and an talking to a buddy as he does a live Podcast show for the night. Meanwhile a co-worker has started to text chat with me via Skype too. Can I do more things at the same time I wonder? Oh, that's right I've started this Blog for the night too.

I have to say the little test for Skypecasting was interesting to say the least on my buddies show. Keep in mind what we are talking about is a DIY internet radio show. Now most people that put on these shows will set a lineup of songs or topics for their show. They get all the tracks set and then they come in an record the audio talk over breaks and last they mix it all together as a Podcast.

Then you have those that set the song line ups and plan what they want to say and do a live recording from start to finish. They do the DJ talk over, as the song begins and just work through the show notes and the end of the show, all live so to speak.

Now you throw in a live Skype call as your recording and you have Skypecasting. The only problem is you can't control what other people say and if you don't watch it, the show can get away from you. Its like a talk radio show and people are doing this on all kinds of topics. Most people do this for fun, they don't plan on large audiences to tune in. Others put together some really great shows and they sound like a real radio show.

The cool part is the freedom to say what you want pretty much. I mean your not really censored in your subject matter or language on shows like this. I mean some stuff is really not for the public airwaves and people have a right to select what they want to listen too or just not listen. Its an audio blog of sorts and that's what people like about it and the fact you can download and listen to these when and where you want.

Well its getting late and the Podcast is now done (Enter this in your Podcast software http://www.bobnewhouse.com/pods and look for show #12). The Falcons are about to beat the Jets now. The co-worker has called it a night and headed to bed. I'm also ready to wrap this blog up and look towards some sleep as well. If you haven't checked out Podcasts, get iTunes and see what's out there or if you want to do your own show, you can do that and drop me a note on where to listen. I'll at least give you a show or two as a trial basis.

On 2 again...

So I'm back on two wheels again for a change. It's been such a long time coming I'd say. Finally the bike is back, all plastics are in place and I've missed all the Hot weather riding it seems.

The DIY tune-up was a good idea in some cases, but perhaps I bit off a little more than I could chew. I know I still have things to learn on the maintenance and up keep and I'm glad I attempted to do it myself. My hopes are to stick to the simple stuff and keep the bike going for sometime.

She starts easy once again and idles well. She has really good power and its fun to be out riding again. I've got to take it easy and get my rhythm all back. It's a great feeling, when you ease out on the clutch and she rolls forward. You lean slightly and lift your foot to the pegs and roll on the throttle some more. It's hard to explain, but I enjoy riding a motorcycle more than driving a car, not that I hate cars, I just love being on two wheels more.

It's good to be back again, really good to be back again...

Done....

I finished the bag... The smallest bag they have and it took me a week to brake them all and get to the end. Hey at least I did not give up on the bag and it did not take a month like I first started thinking would happen. Guess I'm good for another 37 years.

see Learned something new posted below

Learned something new...

Alright I'm 37 and never really ate Sunflower seeds before. Let me be clear, I've tasted these before and I'm talking about the buy'em in bulk, shelled, throw them back, chew and swallow kind of seeds.

So a co-worker brings in this bucket of David Sunflower Seeds and I'm talking a bucket the size of a large restaurant size pickle bucket and inside it has a bunch of tiny little bags (Net wt. 1 3/4 oz.) of Roasted & Salted Sunflower Seeds. I grab a bag to see what its all about.

Yes I've never done this and to the shock and almost humorous horror of the rest of my co-workers. Perhaps its all the work involved with braking into these things and knowing that someone has already shelled these somewhere and I wonder why I want to spend the time trying to pry into something so small and only find a little seed.

So they start to tell me how you cram a handful of these in your mouth and set them on one side to soak and then you move one over to the other side and crack it with your teeth. Next you pry open where they split and extract the seed and spit out the shell. It's all the fun of having a mouthful of what looks like tobacco chew and the spitting I suppose.

So I grab around 5 or 6 seeds for starters. Mind you I don't want to have a handful of seeds in my mouth and end up swallowing a bunch trying to learn. So I'm trying to move some to one side and then move one over. Lets crack it open and see how this goes. Ok, so I've got about a dozen shards of shell on one side and I'm told that I should have let them sit a bit and soak and they'll almost come apart on their own. Spitting the shards out and going to shell number two, its soaked a bit more and I feel the little gap and start to work into it with my teeth. It's at this point that a new feeling of stabbing my gums with the point of half a shell sets in. They say its alright and the gums will tuff up to that.

This was on Monday that I started this and I'm still on the first bag. I'm a little better, I said little better and will have this bag for most of October I'd say. I've decided that if left on an island and all I have is these seeds, that I'll starve or might make it rich opening my own business shelling these damn things for others like me. Then again, I'm probably the only one on the island that's new to such a thing like this and I should worry about something else. Like getting off the Damn island.

Storms coming...

It's interesting to think about how weather was looked at in the early days, compared to instant access today. It made me look around a bit to see how some of the technology was used and came about. I'm amazed that it was not till around May 1957 that Radars were starting to be used to detect weather.

I remember the old days and watching TV news reports for weather. I remember these old black and white images, flashed on the screen to show storms approaching. I never thought at the time how new this technology was. I'm guessing around the time I started looking at this, it had only been around for about 20 years perhaps.

To think they used this same old stuff up to the early 90's, sure it improved a bit over time, but for the most part the same old detectors were still in use till around the early 90's. It was not till about that time that the switch to the Doppler method started growing. And to think, before that time, say around 1956, they must have just looked out side and saw storm clouds. They must have relied on people in surrounding areas to call or something and say, Storms coming your way, better take cover.

So to think that its only been for the past 11 years from the time I was born, that they've been able to see something on a Radar and it was close at hand and at about 12 years after the first usage of the WRS-57, that we also landed on, walked on, and returned from the Moon? Then again, some us don't believe that ever happened.

Goooaaaalllllllllll !

Last game for the season and it was a tough game. We play 7 on 7 in a Co-Ed league and we play no more than three guys out in the field, a fourth guy can be the goalie. That leaves the rest of the team made up of three girls. Pretty much the make up runs like this and we normally have a sub for every person (goalie plays the whole game).

Last night we had the goalie, three guys, and five girls. That meant that the guys would be running around like crazy for the whole night. We ended up subing one of the girls in for guys at times. The game was a lot harder with out the extra subs to give everyone a brake. I've been playing more defense lately, but we've done a pretty good job at covering and letting each other make some moves up the field. Believe it or not, switching and falling back to defense can give someone a little bit of a brake at times in Indoor.

This season I've also been limited in my right leg some, I pulled a Quadricep early on in the season and its been hard to really take shots with the stronger leg. So I've been working on my left more and I had at least one power shot from the left last night. I normally just dribble and try to get in places to feed the ball to others when I move up the field.

Last night towards the last minute of the game I had pushed up and my chance finaly came. I turned with the ball and headed towards the goal and was pretty much one on one with the goalie at this point and with my right I nailed it towards the mid to upper righthand side of the box and out of reach from the goalie. I scored, its all I really wanted, just one goal for the season. Its a part of the game that makes you feel good, when you take a nice shot and place it just out of reach of the goalie.

I'm looking forward to next season, maybe I'll try for two goals now.

Raptors update

Tomorrows the big day, its game time for my daughters YMCA, Mighty Tots, girls soccer team. This evening will be the 3rd time for them all to meet for a last practice before the first game.

The main goal for the 4 years olds is to have fun and learn a bit about soccer as well. Next to the fun part is the basic, this is a ball, that's a goal, kick the ball into the goal and don't use your hands, unless your a goalie.

They've only had a couple practices, the first was pretty good and last nights was more of a team meeting, since it started to rain. My wife helped in making sure that all shirts were passed out, along with the team schedule and she gathered more contact information. Since the light rain kept up a bit, I decided to call the practice and see if they could come back one more time tomorrow. My fingers are crossed that we can play a little and work on some stuff before the first game.

No matter what happens tomorrow, its going to be a blast. I hope the girls will enjoy the season and find playing on a team to be great and continue learning more about the game.

Hibernating Kat

It's been way to long and some of my friends like to joke and say, "Robert use to ride a bike...". Its been some what of a never ending April Fools joke I guess. The bike was flooded, plugs fouled, and it needed a valve adjustment. So it was time for my 1996 GSX600FT Katana to get a tune up of sorts.

Well as you can see all the blue fairings (plastics) on the bike cover most of the bike and the tank sits right on top of the motor. To get to the plugs, you have to pretty much remove everything, just no other way about it. Now the bike was not running right after being flooded a couple times and the plugs being fouled. So the only option was to brake her down and replace some stuff.

We got so far, might as well keep going we said. That's right, we went ahead an broke her down more an adjusted the valves too. Worked in reverse order and put her back together. Still not running right. Took her to a shop and they helped a very little bit, but could not tell me exactly what was wrong an needed. We've messed with her some more and have decided its time to take her to another shop. This time, my hope is the new shop really will know what needs to be done. The sleeping Kat needs to wake up... I'm so tired of the high price of gas and really miss being on two-wheels. Plus my friends don't quite remember that the bike was real at one point.

Raptors join YMCA Mighty Tots league

Its now official, I went to the first coaches meeting, for my daughters first time in playing recreational soccer. The Raptors have been formed and the colors should be Kelly Green. We asked her if she wanted to play in the YMCA league and she seems very excited about soccer. I decided to volunteer as a Coach and was selected to help guide her team.

They will play 6 games this year and each game will be made up of 4 seven minute quarters, with 2 minute brakes in between and 5 minutes for the halftime. No offsides or penalty kicks. Each team carries a total of 10 on the roster and 7 play (6 plus a goalie) on the field.

The goal is to have FUN and start teaching them about the basics, ball, goal, kick into goal, and no hands (unless your the goalie). This should be a lot of fun and give them a chance to run and meet new friends. As they grow older, they will start to learn more, they'll add more players to the field and play longer games. Each season is setup to build on what they have learned in the past.

Games will start on September 17, but the fun begins tonight and the next few weeks. Calling all the parents and seeing when all of them will be available to practice. I hope to get them all together at least a couple times before the first games start. Schedules will and uniforms will be available on the 10th.

Rockstar INXS was awesome last night

Song selection was killer, I'm just amazed with last nights selection of songs and how well they all did. One after the other they seemed to build of each other and put on a great show. The hard part is we are down to six and three will be selected as the bottom three and one will be sent home.

The results show or black Wednesday as Dave Navarro calls it airs tonight and normally someone performs an encore of the song they sang. This is normally considered to be the best performance of the night as well. Towards the end of last nights show, I was thinking, "I'd love to hear them all perform the same songs again". They were all just that good last night and worth a repeat performance.

Tonight three will perform INXS songs and the band will make a decision to send someone home. I think tonight will be one of the hardest votes for them. Not sure what next weeks show will provide and at some point all that are left will need to perform INXS songs and I'd like to see the whole band join them all on stage as well.

Watch tonight if nothing else is on.

Third game and two left

Game over and we lost 10-1, I'm still working on the injured leg and trying to do what I can. Nice thing is we have a bye this week and come back for only two more games. So I plan to take time off and see if I can really rest the leg and see how I'll be in two weeks.

I was able to run and move, I just don't have much power in my right leg. I felt good and still have a few of my old moves on the field. It was fun to hear the other teams bench tell one of their players, "Nutmeged ya!" and then hear the guy I just ran around say, "Shut Up" with a smile to his bench. I enjoy moving and juking a player and trying to set up my players for a shot. Its one of the best parts of the game, setting up a play.

The best part is I'm having fun in the end, sure I want to win, but I want to have fun playing most of all. Oh well, I'm icing the leg now and just wanted to post up. I'm sure I'll post about something between now and then, till then take care all.

Can we Chat?

Alright, I've been around the chat world for sometime I'd say. Back in the early part of 1994, when I first got online, a friend of mine told me about a program called Worlds Chat. This was such a cool program to use and people all over would login and text back and forth. The cool thing was the use of Avatars (a picture image to represent you) and the ability to move around between the lobby and 6 worlds or pods an hang out to chat in countless areas. The program has changed a lot since then and I'm not sure how much it really is used now, but I remember how cool it was.

Next came chats like PoWoW, LoLChat, the Palace; followed by iRC clients like mIRC & Pirch. Then one of the biggest to take the net by storm would be ICQ. I remember talking with the developers of this cool little program and seeing it grow by leaps and bounds. It was one of the earliest IM clients along with Aim from AOL and the up and up incoming MSN Messenger. Text messages and realtime chatting was cool, different from Worlds and had some added features in swapping files back and forth.

Instant Messages kept growing and others like Yahoo would even join into the mix. Then programs like Imici and Trillian came about to allow all IM's to talk with each other. The IM wars began and AIM and MSN would try and block their services from talking with each other.

Voice over IP is one of the latest and greatest things in chat now. So here comes Skype and cool service to allow people to talk with mics over the internet. It gets better, they can call a landline for a small fee or even have a landline call them for a fee. If the person on the other end uses Skype then they can call each other for free. The quality is really great and you can even conference up to 4 people at the same time.

Next comes Google talk, the developers at Google are just awesome and they've rolled out a nice simple text based chat and VoIP. Most of the others are doing the same and its cool that so many options are available to select from. A lot has changed since the Worlds Chat, but one thing is for sure, people love to be connected and love the tools available at their fingertips or the end of their tongue I'd say.

cnet review - Your next phone: new IM tools with VoIP

Happy chatting.

Rob

Time to heal

Ok, it has been awhile since I've been here to post and I thought I should update the masses (You total about 5, I would guess) on my life. Most of you following have heard that I picked up the soccer bug and I'm not as young as I thought I was. Actually, I don't think of myself as being old, but me bones don't listen to what I think.

So last Wednesday I pulled a quadricep muscle like you would not believe at soccer practice. I've never done that before in all my years of play. This past Sunday was game time and I felt pretty good and my first real touch of the ball was to clear it down the wall a bit. The shot of pain that went up my leg was intense. Every action does have a reaction and I was feeling this one. Time to change my play and work things with the left foot now.

I made it through the game and we won with a nice 11-1 victory. I went home and iced the quads and rested it. I've been doing my best to rest and each day it feels a little better than the previous. Practiced last night and still sore and tender and I can't really get much power with the right. I can move alright, but just not like I use to. I iced again after practice and plan on resting as much as I can before Sunday's game.

The next week is a bye week and I'm going to see how things go, I might decide to miss the practice and try and let the leg heal up even more. We only have two games left after the bye and I'm not sure when the next season starts, but I'd like to be better by the end and have my strength and power back in the right leg.

Daughter signed up for soccer.

Well today was the last day for regular registration for Soccer and my little girl wants to play and we got her signed up. I have thrown my hat into the ring to coach her team and will have to see what happens. The season does not start till Mid September, if I'm selected to coach, there will be a September 1st coaches meeting, followed by some training and then uniforms passed out.

In the meantime, we took her down to get those little shoes, shin guards, socks, #3 soccer ball and some soccer shorts. It is really neat to see her with the stuff on and her excitement in wanting to play and at such a very young age. My hope is that she has fun, that is all I really want her to do is have fun playing and I hope she loves it and wants to continue. I'll have to post a picture later and update on her career as a soccer player. Till then, she'll watch me play and we'll work on passing the ball and getting use to the game.

Sinfully entertaining...

Last night I went to my brothers house for a screening of Sin City on DVD. I heard some cool stuff about this movie and wanted to see it on the big screen. It is really cool how they filmed it and how much it looks like a comic book coming to life on the screen. The movie is parts of the first 3 graphic novels and I can say this, they don't call it graphic for nothing. I'm about halfway through the first graphic novel and I've enjoyed what I've read so far and it was really neat to see this and compare the scenes coming to life.

Sin City launched the long-running, critically acclaimed series of comics novels by Frank Miller. Having worked on some of the most important comic books in the 1980s, including Marvel comic's Daredevil and the influential Batman graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, Miller was already a heavy-weight cartoonist, but he hit his stride with Sin City. It gave him the freedom that doesn't come when working on someone else's characters. While the art isn't as polished as in later books, it is in many ways the quintessential Sin City story: tough-guy Marv finds the girl of his dreams, an incredible beauty named Goldie. But when Goldie is murdered on their first night together, Marv scours the bars and back alleys of Sin City to find her killer in hopes of avenging her death.

The story and subject matter can be very adult here. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, you can just imagine what you might see out of this movie. This is not something to leave out for kids or young adults to read and watch. If your someone that loves comics or graphic novels, then you will not be disappointed in the movie version of Frank Miller's Sin City tales.

I'm Older now...

So I went to practice on Wednesday and I'm looking forward to meeting the team again and getting use to playing with them some more. I started with some basic stretches to loosen up some. I then moved to passing the ball back and forth, trying to warm up a little more.

Now this is strange, I've never quite felt like this before and I know its been some years since I've played. My right leg is feeling really tight and the quadricep is beginning to hurt more with each pass and kick. Everyone thinks, I did not stretch and warm up enough. Perhaps I stretched too much?

Great, this is just what I wanted to happen to me. I decided to try and keep working out and deal with the pain. I'm thinking I should have stopped now, but I really wanted to work out and the practice in general was a really good one.

I spent all of yesterday limping like crazy and in pain. Last night was the first night since it happened that I actually felt better. I can now move my knee some what and get around a bit more. I'm still sore and get stiff when I sit for some extended periods of time.

I'll have to see how things go and take each day slowly. The game is at 6:30 pm on Sunday and I'll have to see how I feel come game time. The only thing I can think, is I'm not as young as I use to be and I'll have to watch myself a little closer now.

Lights, Camera, Flash Video...

Streaming Video on the internet has long been dominated by QuickTime, RealPlayer, and Windows Media Player, but Macromedia.Com has started promotion of Flash Video as a viable option to streaming video over the internet. The best part about this, is with a huge share of web users having Flash installed, they are already set to reap the rewards of Flash Video.

Here's a sample, encoded into Flash Video of the slide show we ran for the Final night at the 2005 APHA World Championship Paint Horse Show. This should give you a pretty good idea how FlashVideo will look. Higher Speed connections will provide a better show for the end user.

Hello from the road

Well I thought I'd see how well this works...

Not bad at all, I've made it back home to see the post made from my mobile phone. Nice to know I have the ability to painfully type out on a small keypad a message and have it show up here for all to see.

Just testing out the many features of Blogger.Com I'd say. So the post was started by the phone and I decided to check it out and add more later. I'll have to check out sending pictures from the phone. I think my services wants me to pay more and I'm not sure if I really want to do that.

This test is now over and I'll return you to your thoughts now.

L8R,

Rob

Just for Kicks...

So a buddy at work asks if I'd like to play Indoor Soccer with him. He said they are a little short handed for guys in the sub area on a Co-Ed team. I agree to help out and dust off my shoes to give Indoor Soccer a try again.

Its been over 5 years since I've played Soccer and at that time it had been many years. I came out for one outdoor season and did alright. I even scored a few goals in some games and did alright with assists too. For what ever reason, they did not call me back to play again and I slowly went back into retirement again.

Games over and we lost 6-3 with the last goal or second to the last goal being my fault in letting one slip by. I'm not young as I was and I need to get back into shape again. I'm filling in mainly since someone is hurt and out for the season. I'll have to see if I get asked back, but my goal is to get back into shape and feel better by the last game at least.

I did ok, but I'm beat like crazy right now. Not to bad since its been so long in touching a ball and very long from being on an indoor field. Practice is set for Wednesday and I'll see what I can do to build up stamina between now and then.

Is that really Real?

OK, I have to confess, I like reality shows for the most part. I really got into Survivor when it started and found myself liking shows like Amazing Race, American Idol, Big Brother, and the Mole. So the seasons pass and I keep coming back for more.

This year I found myself watching Rock Star INXS every week and enjoying it. I also like it more than American Idol for the music selections alone. I've always wondered why they called it American Idol and the music they sing tends to be more Popish, R&B, Soulful standards; is that what America really loves over everything else? Don't get me wrong they are talented and can sing and I like watching and seeing them grow, its just not they style of music I love.

So I first thought this is not going to work and what are the members of INXS really thinking here? But I've been hooked and these contestants can really sing and perform. The bonus is they are singing Rock songs and its closer to what I enjoy listening too. So if you tire of listening to the American Idol style of music and long for a Rock Show, give it a look and listen.

Taking time off

Not something I do a lot of, but I decided it would be good to take a few days off to spend with family and friends. So yesterday I took my daughter out to Six Flags for some fun. Ok, I did not get away from work totally, we have a Paint Horse show out at the park called Rangers and Outlaws and I had to swing by and see how it was doing. I'll actually see about running back this weekend I think, since I only saw the behind the scenes tour of the show.

My daughter and I really loved the Amazing Acrobats from China and Kathy Burks World Of Puppets show. We had fun riding the little kid rides, well she had fun and I enjoyed watching. It's amazing at how a little smile can mean so much and I find myself watching her reactions to things more than watching the events myself.

Funny thing about the whole watching the shows, she wanted to just ride the rides and I kept telling her she would love to see the shows. I told her we would have to take some breaks from rides and watching the shows would be good way. Granted we rode most of the rides first and did the shows last, I was right in thinking she would love them.

The Blogs of War

Watching the Daily Show tonight, guest John Hockenberry was on talking about a piece he wrote for Wired Magazine, called "The Blogs of War". It was really interesting to learn about members of the military using technology on the front lines, to keep in touch and present first hand accounts of what is going on in Iraq. Check out the article and see how Milblogs are keeping people informed.

The Blogs of War
By John Hockenberry
On the 21st-century battlefield, the campfire glow comes from a laptop. Military bloggers offer a real-time window into life behind the lines. And they're putting the Pentagon on the defensive.

2005 APHA World ChampionshipPaint Horse Show

15 Days out at Will Rogers, Fort Worth was home for me and one of the largest gatherings of American Paint Horses. During this time I keep the APHAWorldShow.Com web site updated and we streamed live video from start to finish and from all three Arenas. When I had the time I ran around and took photos for publication in various outlets. Here is one of my many favorites from this years show. What happened by chance in being in the right place will be used in the next issue of the APHA Connection and mailed to all of the APHA members. My first magazine cover to be published, I think they plan on using some photos inside the issue too.

Is this thing on...

Podcasting is another one of those areas growing fast on the web. People are setting up online radio stations or audio blogs about anything and everything under the sun. Its pretty amazing the quality of some of these shows available on the web.

Those familiar with the earlier days of MTv may remember Adam Curry, who was one of the original VJs. Adam Curry is currently known as the "Father of Podcasting", a concept Curry developed in the middle of last year in which people produce their own programming and make it available for download to portable players or their computers.

The cool thing about Podcasts is anyone can do it and put together a little show to share. This takes blogging to the next level in my book. People can use their online sites to not only post content for family, friends, and the world to view, but now they can add audio material as well.

For More Information Visit:
http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/index.php
www.podshow.com

OK, I've blogged Now what...

Everybody is doing it...
come on, you know you want too... :)

Looking back to the first time I got online an started learning about the web. I knew that it was an area I wanted to be a part of. It's interesting how things started out and people started making personal web pages and how over the past 10 years for myself the web has changed. Blogging is a lot of ways like the early days of sharring this information with friends, family, and the world. Its really cool how easy that has become for people. Here's a story on blogs from the real creator of the World Wide Web.

Berners-Lee on the read/write web
In August 1991, Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the first website. Fourteen years on, he tells BBC Newsnight's Mark Lawson how blogging is closer to his original idea about a read/write web.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4132752.stm

Happy Bloggin,

Rob