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 h let's see... where were we.
I finished up Alex's training and put him off the truck last Thursday before going home for the weekend. I have a new student named Don. He's 40 and from Flint, Michigan. He's a bit of a talker, so hopefully he doesn't take my generally quiet nature personally. So far he's doing okay; really rough on the shifting, but we'll iron that out in a couple of days. Otherwise, decent lane control and he's reasonably bright so I don't anticipate the Qualcomm or maps/directions/routing being any big deal for him. Hopefully I can get him up to speed in a week or so and begin putting down some miles again. Between Thomas, Alex and myself, the three weeks I was out prior to my home time, Sally saw 16,200 miles. I need some more of that.
Sally has been running great for the past couple of months. Her turbo is leaking oil, I get some compression in the cooling system, and she has some creature-comfort annoyances, but she takes everything I give her. She recently ticked past the 900,000 mile mark. Only 32 more weekly payments and she's all mine. Hopefully, if I can keep Sally stocked with quality students and roll like I have been, I can get her paid for sooner. I'll be so glad when I'm done with the lease. Maybe by this time next year I'll be able to give her a much deserved engine overhaul. Maybe by the first quarter of 2009 I can have an additional truck on the road and someone working for me.
My home time was relaxing and enjoyable. Of course, it's hard for it not to be when I have such good company as ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) welfy. In addition to puttering about the house in a manner that an old codger like me is supposed to, we went to a folk dancing class on Friday night and had my parents over for Sunday dinner. Also, I'm beginning to think I'll never get past "Freya" on Expert.
A dear friend of mine who I regrettably don't make enough effort keeping in touch with since she moved to the far-off land of Pennsylvania, has begun a LiveJournal. So now I have no excuse as long as she keeps writing. She's also good friends with aloneinky who I pimped on these pages a while back. The journal name is slhorsfield, and I'm sure she would appreciate having a few starter friends to get her in the swing of the social aspect of LJ. Take a peek and see if it's for you if you're in the market for a new friend.
While we're on the subject of livejournal.friends: tequilaprophet ... wtf? I hate to see the good ones give it up.
And now... some quick movie reviews:
 Cinderella Man (2005)
Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, Paul Giamatti
A biopic about the astonishing, if brief, championship boxing career of James J. Braddock. Great story, an okay script and fantastic set/costumes (Depression era New York City, the estimated budget for the film is nearly $90 million), but, unfortunately the acting is stiff and contrived, even from Giamatti who has been known to steal the show with his character work (Private Parts, anyone?). How he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for this role is beyond me. The real problem with this movie is the pacing, though. Howard has such a great set and props to work with that he lingers too much to show how pretty it is and many of the boxing scenes are too long, repetitive, and tedious.
 Dark Star (1974)
Director: John Carpenter
Writers: John Carpenter, Dan O'Bannon
A collaboration by two men who would make a considerable mark in the sci-fi/horror hybrid genre just a few years later. It's laughably low-budget (there's even a beach ball masquerading as an alien) and the acting is horrible. It is more of a comedy than a dramatic film and has its moments, but won't be of interest as anything more than a historical curiosity in their early careers. Starting in 1978, Carpenter would direct Halloween, Escape From New York, Christine, Starman and The Thing in a four year period and O'Bannon would write the screenplay for Ridley Scott's Alien in 1979.
 Unknown (2006)
Cast: Jesus Christ Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Joe Pantoliano, Barry Pepper, Peter Stormare, Chris Mulkey
First-time director Simon Brand and first-time screenplay writer Matthew Waynee get everything right and attract a small ensemble cast of quality character actors for a no-frills thriller worthy of being called Hitchcockian. The film has a unique premise: five men wake-up in an abandoned factory and can't remember who they are or how they got there. There are obvious signs of a previous power struggle: two of them have been restrained and one has been shot. The factory is locked-down by security doors and they can't get out. Over the next 98 minutes, the characters gradually regain pieces of their memory, while trying to escape. There is nothing spectacular about the script, but it is tight as is the editing. Little is wasted and it is compelling through the very last frame.
 Three Days Of The Condor (1975)
Director: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max von Sydow, John Houseman
This often over-looked film yields some great performances and on-location filming in New York City. Without giving too much away, Redford is a bookworm for the CIA, code-named The Condor. When he unwittingly stumbles into a conspiracy within the agency, he has 72 hours to unravel it and try to stay alive. A film like this could easily sprawl and become a mess, but it stays tight and gripping (it was nominated for an Academy award in the Best Editing category). Redford is his usual charming, somewhat-fumbling self and Dunaway gives a decent turn as the obligatory eye candy. Houseman is on-screen far too little for my tastes, but von Sydow's supporting role is top notch. Probably not worth going out of your way, but if you're a fan of solid, gritty 70s-era cinema, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Not in the same league as All The President's Men or a weird, gem like Dog Day Afternoon but better than, say, Marathon Man.
( Other stuff I've been watching.... ) | |
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 or my final "greatest hit" of the week, I've been debating what I would use. There are lots of other entries I could use of which I'm proud. Half of my time on LiveJournal now has been influenced by the presence of welfy in my life, so it only seems appropriate that I should include one of those sappy entries I've been known to write from time to time. Besides, I wouldn't want to get "cut off" if you know what I mean.
But I can't decide which I like the best. So think of this as a collection within the collection, the greatest hits of a greatest hit. Here are four excerpts with links to the original entry.
From August 8, 2005:
There were bumps in the road at the onset, which could have easily caused this whole precarious affair to veer off-course before it had a chance to really get going. There are certainly much larger ones on the horizon. There is the constant physical distance between us, both geographically (300+ miles) and the realities of my vocation (on the road nearly 300 days out of the year). There is also the considerable gap in our ages (13 years). But these are only so many numbers. Alone in a world of miles and days and years a heart will resist, but together hearts will conspire. They have their own math.
Two weeks ago in a tangle of arms and legs where every breath of quiet conversations are felt as well as heard, confessions were made. Quite unexpectedly, I have fallen in love.
I don't know where this will go - but I do know where my heart is. Even when my head thinks it's absofuckinglutely insane.
From April 24, 2006:
 In the past year she has become my best friend, my confidant, my lover. For me, this move means a chance to build on what we have, to make it grow; to see where the journey takes us and hopefully enrich both of our lives even more. We'll not only be friends and lovers, but partners in a life together. Even now, as I sit here reflecting on my feelings, I have this little knot that builds in my stomach when I think of how I feel about her.
A love knot.
Growing up in rural Kentucky, we relied heavily on wood-fueled heat. Every autumn, my brothers and I would head into the forests with my dad to cut and split wood for burning. Knots in wood are the bane of any would-be tree cutter; they dull saws and defy axes. They are virtually impenetrable and can only be cut around, but not cut out. In lumber, knots are what give furnishings character and distinction. This is how I feel about my knot. It has become inseparable from me and defines me.
From February 14, 2007:
 Never has there been anyone this late in the game I can still talk to for hours on the phone or in chat, about everything important and nothing at all. Never has anyone understood me on all the levels that matter. Never has anyone been so giving of their time, energy, love and affection for me and for "us". Never has anyone tolerated my goofiness so much, in fact, never has anyone encouraged it and joined me in it. Never has anyone been so devoted to me. These, and so many other things which words can't describe, are the things she gives me that makes me love her so much.
On top of that she's an intellectual equal, but smarter than me becuase she's more in touch with her feelings. She's empathetic, caring, and sentimental sometimes to a fault. She's not only immensely creative in anything she undertakes; she's better at it than most but too humble to ever admit it. She can be hysterically funny, with a dark sense of humor that few people ever get to see. Her taste in anything can run from unironic kitcsh to classic without adding any undue importance to the former or overblown pretentiousness to the latter. She has a sense of adventure in everything she does that's intoxicating and contagious. She's absolutely feminine without being prissy. She's stunningly beautiful in an unconventional way and can be dangerously sexy when she's not too self-conscious to let herself go.
From September 18, 2006:
My head's on straight, my girlfriend is beautiful. She was the best damn woman that I've ever seen. She moves in mysterious ways. She's Grade A class, Number One in her division. She comes to me with a thousand smiles she gives to me free. The girl's got rhythm. She's not a girl who misses much. She can lead you to love. She sees love where anyone else would see weeds. Her arms are wicked and her legs are long. She pulls the eyes out with a face like a magnet. She's a total bam bam. She's the puzzle piece behind the couch that makes the sky complete.
Stronger than reason, stronger than lies, the only truth I know is the look in your eyes.
I love you Welf. | |
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 nother of my favorite entries of all time. I posted the following entry on February 25, 2004
"The San Rafael Swell: Claiming Soopageek Peak"My trip across Utah this weekend took me over a lot of new road. Of particular interest was the stretch of I-70 between Green River and Salina, Utah known as the San Rafael Swell. Geologic processes pushed the mantle of th Earth up into the crust, breaking the brittle sandstone and creating a huge rock dome in the middle of the desert. Over the millenia, wind and water has whittled the rock away one grain of quartz at a time, leaving behind stark monoliths and deep canyons. Approaching from the east, the swell is a dramatic site, with huge slabs of rock turned on its end pointing at the sky. This area, known as the San Rafael Reef has been nicknamed "The Silent City" because of its city-scape-like view against the horizon. Trucks coming out of the pass are dwarfed by the massive layers of vertical rock.  ( Tons more pictures of my hiking adventures ) | |
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 ontinuing with soopageek's greatest hits - this is probably the funniest thing I have ever written here or anywhere. In the spring of 2005, I had a student named Jason. I can't possibly recount here the depth of entertainment Jason was, but if you're truly interested in reliving the experience, I have both a tag and an entire memory subcategory devoted to the various entries I wrote during that period of time. On March 7, 2005 I attempted to do an impression of Jason. Basically I pondered, how would Jason explain the internet to someone? And this is what I came-up with.
"Jason Explains the Internet"I saw this show, on the Discovery Channel once, where they had these typewriters with little TV's that sat on top of 'em. Do they have the Discovery Channel where you're from? I think they costed about three thousand dollars! And people wrote things on them and stuff. Yeah, about three thousand... maybe 900 dollars. And they use the Ty-uh-TV, mm-writers to talk in ciphers. You ever hear of anything like that? They said something about "cipher space" or something. And I think I remember ciphers being like secrets, only not letters, but 8 numbers you can't hear. But we don't have anything like that in Harrisburg. Do you know James Berman? He had a TV repair place in Harrisburg, but he was from Aynisscratch, Illinois. I thought he might've fixed your TV one time because he had a goldfish he bought at the State Fair in Louisville 6, no, maybe 15 years ago. He went to ITT Tech, or maybe MIT to learn engineering on TV's and he says they have this inner net that catches everything you type to send it overseas and the goverment's worried about pirates. I didn't even know they still had pirates, did you? We sure don't have anything like that in Harrisburg. It sounds sorta scary, 'cos the pirates have viruses that infect the males with worms, which sounds kind of gross, ha ha. And I think it must only infect the really strong guys who work-out and stuff because he said the worms were in "he-males". He said the worms can travel the whole world in a couple of hours without dying. I guess that's 'cos of all the oceans being wet. That's why the government is building the Reformation Super Highway to cross the oceans safe and not have to worry about pirates and worms. Someday, like maybe next year, you'll be able to drive from here to China, or Canada or something. I think that'd be kinda wild, ha ha. To be able to drive to Canada?!?!! | |
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 technically staked my claim to this little corner of LiveJournal over 6 years ago, in February of 2001. For the first two years, I didn't really "get" LiveJournal; I made no effort to make friends and posted sporadically. For all intents and purposes, I count the second week of July in 2003 as the real birthday of my journal. I began friending complete strangers and keeping a regular chronicle of my life. In that time I've made a lot of wonderful friends, reconnected/maintained friendships with distant people, and even met my lovely welfy because of this place.
As a happy birthday commemoration to my journal, and for a walk down memory lane, I thought it might be fun to pick my 5 favorite journal entries ever and post one per day through the business week. Some of you may not have been around when they were originally posted and since they're my favorites, I think these are worthy of being recycled.
This first one is long, and at the time I posted it, I didn't have the ability to post images in-line with my text, so I've decided to re-edit it the way I would have liked to have posted it originally. Unfortunately, I had a really cheap digital camera at the time, so the quality of the photos isn't all that great. It's about my first visit to Niagara Falls, originally posted August 8th, 2003. If you feel this a bit too tl;dr for your attention span, may I at least encourage you to check out the final three paragraphs. It's for those three paragraphs that this is one of my favorite things I've ever posted here.
 esterday when I got to Niagara Falls, NY, I found a tour stand off the highway. They let me park there for 8 bucks and called me a cab. My cabbie, J.C., was a middle aged dude who had been driving cabs for over twenty years there in Niagara. He was full of advice on the best things to do, at the most reasonable prices. One interesting tip he gave is, if you're gonna do one of the boat "mist" tours, that rides out into the spray coming off of the falls, do it from the U.S. side, the lines are a lot shorter.
There's a reason for this. Niagara Falls is actually made up of three falls: American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and the Horseshoe Falls.  The Horseshoe Falls is the one which is the most famous and largest of the three. Virtually all of the pictures you see of "Niagara Falls" are of this one. It's crescent line, a cool term I learned that means the place where the water crests over the rock. wraps in a horseshoe shape nearly 3,000 feet around. Water spills over this at a rate of 675,000 gallons per second. The main part of the river creates the Horseshoe Falls, and is therefore shared equally by Canada and the U.S. with both countries having parks at either end of the crescent line. The American and Bridal Veil Falls both lie on the U.S. side of the Niagara Gorge, and are created by two islands which lie in the stream of the Niagara River, Luna Island and Goat Island. Bridal Veil Falls is no more than maybe 50 feet wide, while American Falls is rather large, over 1,000 feet along it's crescent line. However, since these both lie on the U.S. side, the best view of these two falls is from the Canadian side. Also, due to the nature of the mist that the Horseshoe Falls create, it's best view is also on the Canadian side.
 So naturally this is where most people go to view the falls. This, over the years, has created a rather ironic contrast. On one side of the border sits a country known for its culture of consumerism the world over with a view of restaurants set back behind the trees and a few souveneir shops. Standing on the Canadian side, viewing across the gorge, the only thing you really see on the skyline are the tips of a few hotels above the treeline, the marquee of the Hard Rock Cafe, and a hot air balloon ride that is tethered to the ground which rises and falls occasionally. On the Canadian side of the gorge is a massive skyline filled with a Seattle-esque "space needle", skyscraper hotels by Sheraton and Marriot, and casinos. Also the other Hard Rock cafe is visible, and the gawdy, colorful facade of the MGM building. There's also some sort of skyride which goes up and down on its steel frame with blinking lights and one of those "gravity drop" rides operated by the World Wrestling Federation called "The Pile Driver".
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or those of you that didn't suspect, or whom I didn't personally IM or e-mail yesterday.
APRIL FOOLSSally's running just fine. David and I are bound for Oklahoma then Pennsylvania over the next couple of days. I'm just sitting in the passenger seat goofing off while he drives. | |
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 ately I've grown increasingly bored with my own journal. More to the point, I've grown bored with my own writing.
This point was driven home for me upon reading some older entries of mine from the past couple of years as a result of the survey which graced both this page and Welf's. I tried to confront this feeling with daily ritual in the arbitrary writing and photography of the past couple of months. They only served to make things feel even more contrived; a meaningless regimen of hollow words and shiny things for the sole purpose of filling a blank Semagic window. That's not to say that I haven't written things over this course of time that I haven't enjoyed or felt proud about. Personally, I rank the recent Pug Roast among my more inspired offerings. But amidst the detritus and minutiae of the past couple of months they seem so lonely and isolated.
Late last week, I began working on one of the maps like I posted at the end of December, with all the routes I ran and how many miles I covered. It occurred to me that, I wasn't doing it for me in any way whatsoever. Sure, it was neat the first time I did it, but I have those maps in my head... constantly. I was doing it for you. I was plugging in all these cities into a program, tweaking things so it would look nice, taking a screen shot and resizing the resulting image only because a few people thought it was neat and left me a comment.
Now, I mean no disrespect and I'm certainly not trying to discourage commenting when you see something that you like. That's why we're all here. I'd also be delusional if I said that it's not my intent to provide things which illicit a response. The problem for me is that, in that particular case, it's the ONLY reason I was doing it and it made me feel... pathetic? It made me feel like a hurdy gurdy man's chimp, tipping his hat for a coin.
I think part of it also is that, with concern to writing about the various aspects of my work-life, it all feels so DONE. Not counting my current acolyte, in which there is a somewhat unique and personal back-story, most of my tales of training are just a new face on an old format, mostly for the benefit of the occasional newcomer to the land of Soopageek. Sure there are high-spots that are genuinely worthy of mention, such as Genya re-connecting with his long-lost sister or documenting the hilarity of Jason.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that, I might be writing less. I might also be saying that what I write might be totally new and different from what I or you are accustomed to. I might experiment. Maybe a lot of it will suck. I'll certainly stick to things that I enjoy writing about, and not just because I need to keep everyone up to speed. And please don't leave comments of, "I never expected anything blah blah blah". That's not what this is about. I know that. It's all me, not you.
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A CHRISTMAS PRESENT• Homage Roasting On An Open Fire... • THE PUG OF WAR PACED THE ROOM, a fresh Jamba Juice ® smoothie in his hand. His brow was furrowed with concern. The Soop of Geek sat in front of a computer monitor nearby, typing frantically. "It doesn't make any sense," Ef said and sipped from his smoothie. "Why would you and I be together in the same entry?" Without looking away from the screen, El said, "Like you don't regularly have guest appearances in your journal from people you've never met?" Ef considered this. Ef considered his smoothie. "Touché. But this is your journal. Why are you calling yourself 'El'? And what's with this Soop of Geek business? That's just stupid." "It's an experiment," El said. "And a tribute." The sound of sucking air came from Ef's straw as he drained the last of his smoothie. "I just don't think people are going to get it. Let's forget the fact that we only have a handful of mutual friends who would appreciate the parody. It's too surreal on top of that. Watching a LiveJournal entry being written by the people in the LiveJournal entry? And I would never say Touché. That's not how I roll, playa." [I think some of you will get it. - ed.]Ef looked wildly around. "Who are you talking to?" "Nobody," El said and kept typing.
LATER, EF ENJOYED A HOT POCKET® on the couch while Parker Posey scratched his ears. Eva Longoria sat on the other side of him, fanning him with a palm leaf. "Ok, now you're just being ridiculous," Ef said. "And I'd never have Eva Longoria in one of my entries." Eva Longoria rolled her eyes. "Fine!" El said and petulantly tapped the backspace key one letter at a time. He paused and pondered a moment, then typed some more. Kate Beckinsale wiped some Hot Pocket ® sauce from Ef's chin. "Hey, that's pretty sweet," Ef said. "Can I try it?" "Sure," El said getting up from the desk. Ef trotted to the computer and El sat down on the couch. "But Michelle Rodriguez instead of Parker Posey?" " SHYEAH, LIKE THAT WOULD HAPPEN," The Pug of War muttered.
13:47 EST - Soopageek's Fevered ImaginationI'm sitting on the couch while Michelle Rodriguez scratches my ears. pugofwar is here, too, playing around on the computer. Pug sure is awesome. He's a swell guy. When I grow up, I wanna be just.like.him. "Very funny," I said to Pug. "C'mon, surely you're capable of something more than high school humor?" Pug looked at me and said, "Oh, like yours wasn't?" Pug typed some more on the computer and I sucked down a tasty Gold Peak tea, thought about how much I missed welfy, then pleasured myself while rolling around in a bunch of shoetree pictures. I said, "And you thought I was being ridiculous?" Pug sighed, "Ok."
  ichelle Rodriguez was giving me a hickey when a horde of pirates burst into the room. They tore her away from the love bruise forming on my neck and proceeded to plunder.
"Arrr, y'scurvy dawg. Stay where ye arrrrre," the biggest, burliest of them said to me. The sword in my face was blood-stained, but sharp.
Just then, pugofwar crashed through the window; a knife was between his teeth and a 9mm was in his hand, held sideways like a true gangsta. "Lmmf th huhthey," he started. He spat the knife on to the floor and tried again. "Let the honey go before somebody gets smoked, yo." He cocked the slide on the gun for dramatic effect and snarled through his gleaming platinum grill.
"Tarnation!" I exclaimed. "You better do what he says before he opens a ding-danged can o' whoopass on you!"
"I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE THE SOUTHERN CHARM TO THE NATIVE," The Soop of Geek said with a chuckle. "Really. Tarnation? Ding danged?" The Pug of War looked confused. "How did... what.. I wasn't done!" he stammered. "You weren't really doing anything to begin with. This isn't your journal," El said. "I can't believe I fell for that," Ef said. The Devil walked past the open door. He curled his yellowed nails around the edge of the door jamb as he leaned his head into the room. He spoke in a raspy voice, as dark and cold as his charcoal soul. " I FELL ONCE."
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've always hated the "commercial" IM networks. I hate the business model that Yahoo and AOL use; the proprietary nature of their chat networks to further their brand and generate advertisement revenue. Actually, I hate just about anything which is proprietary. They refuse to make their networks "open" so that other clients can access them and users can communicate across multiple chat networks. They force their users to either get all of their friends on their proprietary network or run multiple chat clients, rather than allowing their users to choose their client because it's "the best" or they prefer it. I actually sorta like the MSN chat client and its lack of advertising but I hate Microsoft's tactics of tying it to programs like Outlook Express. I hate that you can't have one without the other. A couple of years ago, I messed around with Jabber clients, but found it to be too much of a bother. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Jabber is an open-source approach to instant messaging. Anyone can run a Jabber server and anyone can create clients which utilize it.
I'm starting to think that LiveJournal's new LJ Talk (based on Jabber), along with the rise of Google Talk (which is also based on open standards) is a sign that it's time for me to give it another go. The only way we'll ever rid ourselves of these proprietary networks is if we make it obvious to the perpetrators of it that, as consumers, we want open standards.
I know that my revelation is nothing new and that there are many of my friends who have valiantly resisted AIM/YIM over the years, and I applaud you. By the end of the week, I'm going to uninstall these two monstrosities, install a Jabber client and begin utilizing LJ Talk. I'm going to play around with Trillian as well as the integrated Gizmo/LJ Talk client and see which I prefer. Considering I'm a LiveJournal citizen, one which's integrated with my blogging community seems to make sense, but we'll see. Not that I've ever been a big chat person, in fact the only time I even open any of the chat clients now is for chatting with Welf, and I can always talk to her on the phone if for some reason she's uninterested in using an open-standard IM client instead-of/in-addition-to AIM. Furthermore, I'm going to check out Thunderbird, Mozilla's e-mail client. If I can migrate my archived Outlook e-mail to it and like it, Outlook/MSIM is gone, too. I'm just tired of the whole lot of them.
See you on LJ Talk!
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 here's been a meme going around where you take your icons, and pick so many using an offset of five or ten and give an explanation of them. Fuck that, let's do them all. I'm bored.
 I'm ready for my closeup Mr. DeMille. (Default)
Highway Eyes
This is a self-portrait I took of myself while driving. I've always liked it because you can see the road and steering wheel in the reflection of the sunglasses, even at this resolution.
( 57 more )
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 ong time, no type LiveJournalers! I haven't had much to report and have been working my butt off the past two weeks. When do I ever go more than a week without posting? And no one NUDGED ME! I.. I'm just beside myself with heartache and contempt.
I had to break the silence though because I'm excited about a new feature the good folks at LJ are implementing, one I've been wanting for a while. It's currently being tested by Permanent Member accounts, but will be a basic feature to everyone in a few weeks. You will be able to track the comments to an entry, or even a particular thread, in your friends journals and communities, by way of e-mail notification. That way you are alerted when anyone jumps into the conversation anywhere in the post/thread, and not just when they reply to you. It's about time.
Another LJ curiosity I'd like to report is a milestone for my journal. I had planned to make a big deal over the first person who commented on this entry, as it would've been my 10,000th comment, but then I got an anonymous comment to an old photo entry from back in the spring and that kinda ruined it. But whoever comments first I guess will be the 10,001st. so... yay!
 he butt working-off has come in the form of lots and lots of miles, to the tune of over 9,000 in the past 10 days. I should get home tonight or tomorrow morning and return to my dear Welf. Her pal and our mutual livejournal.friend erebrandir is going to be coming in from Alabama to spend a few days with us. The three of us have plans to meet-up with yourtourniquet in Newport on Saturday night to see Emo Phillips perform. I got to see him a few years ago in Lexington and look forward to seeing him again. While you certainly can appreciate his humor on a TV screen, there's no substitute for his stage presence. For one, the dude is HUGE. At least, he's a lot bigger than you expect. And then there's the heavy mouth breathing and the spastic body language coupled with the sing-song delivery. For my money, Emo is probably one of the top ten stand-up comedians EVER.period. It should be awesome, and I'll finally have an opportunity to buy yourtourniquet that shot of whiskey I promised her so long ago.
 finally saw Casablanca for the first time. I had seen scenes from it countless times or seen/heard it referenced and parodied even more than that. Despite this, after watching it entirely and investing in the story and the characters, I still teared up just a little bit during the final scene at the airport with Bogart and Bergman. I guess this makes me a pussy or something. Peter Lorre was deliciously weird as usual, but I wish he had had some more screen time. I also have been continuing with my Hitchcock immersion, and by chance, I recently watched Notorious, also with Ingrid Bergman just before Casablanca. I've become rather smitten with her. Anyone know of any other good Ingrid Bergman films I should check out?
es, yes, I know, you skimmed all that useless stuff above and came straight to the gams. These dandies belong to insignificantxx.
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 o prove a point about how busy I have been, and why I haven't felt much like fooling with LiveJournal this past week, I'll explain something about commercial driving hours. An over-the-road trucker can only work 70 hours in an eight day period. This is not only time spent driving, but time spent fueling, dropping trailers, load/unloading, etc. I began driving last Sunday evening.
Today is Sunday, or Day Eight.
When I began driving this morning I only had 5.5 hours available to me. So I'm sitting in Toledo waiting for midnight when I can work again. At midnight Central Time, I will regain 5.75 hours, the amount of time I worked last Sunday night prior to 12 o'clock. I'm en route to the Washington, DC area where I have to be by Tuesday morning. The plan is to drive to New Castle, PA in the morning and spend the day around welfy's house. She's going to get off the truck there and begin packing for the big move and will meet me in Kentucky next weekend. I'm going to then take a week off from work while getting settled into the new place.
he past month has been a whirlwind of travel, sights, and meeting new people. We were afforded the opportunity to meet a lot of LiveJournal friends along the way. In every case, the meeting involved food. This is mostly for me, and includes some photos, so I'll cut it to spare you if you're not interested.
( Meeting LiveJournal friends )
inally, since I've been lax in keeping this up for the past week, here are TWO gams pictures to get you through the long holiday weekend. The first is the green-toed wineroom.
The other is a manly fetish photo of the one and only hockeyfag.
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 've been up all night and am preparing to go to bed very very shortly, but I thought I'd do a quick , random entry about stuff.
In the realm of LiveJournal geekery, the new navigation bar is niiiiiiice, especially with its quick access to custom friends groups and the recent comments tool. The only thing I don't like about it is that it's only visible on style pages (journals, f-lists) and disappears when you're viewing a standard LJ page, including journal entries which don't utilize a style when you click through to the comments. Hopefully they'll expand its functionality over time. It'd be kinda nice if it floated, too, rather than being static. It's a great idea, just not the greatest of implementations. If it were available on any page in LJ, I could get rid of 5 bookmarks on my Firefox bookmark toolbar for reading filters.
For those of you wondering what happened with the beer leakage: four cases were compromised when a pallet was forced into the load strap which was holding it in place. This caused a number of cans to be squooshed and they burst. All-in-all, the loss was minor. Joe and I are delivering this afternoon in Indiana, where we will also load and then head for Buffalo and Tonowanda, NY.
I've decided that with the current lack of interest and response to the icon contest that I may whore it out in the icon comms. I'll likely wait until tomorrow to decide.
Your mother.
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