Somewhere beyond the sea, Somewhere waitin’ for Me

Until one of the three pirates call and offer me a job galavanting around the world while the authorities play wack-a-mole with them, the perils of finding an overseas job have left me exhausted. YES, that job does require travel! (by the way, I don't advocate pirating music, but I do love to download a live concert or two every now and then for nostalgias sake, and until the pearl jam system of buying a copy of every live concert they've ever done is available, good luck with the shins releasing the epic performance at the hollywood bowl for retail.)

I'm not looking for a job selling currywurst on the side of the street, I'm looking for a job that can offer a standard of living that allows me to travel once I'm there. Here's some of the challenges I've faced thus far.

1. DOD -- Department of Defense, for a company to run this check to get you 'top secret' clearance, a mere 45,000 USD. You ain't gettin' my a$$ out there for bootcamp, and being trained to see the world, meet people, kill em' type mentality, or even to support such a mentality.
2. Foreign Language -- I have conversational German skill....Ummm, no I can't read a technical contract, no I don't know how to say 'federated identity' in German....ummm, but I'm eager to learn?
3. Visa -- Working for a Germany organization, wish it was as easy to get a work visa as it is to get a Visa / Mastercard, but unfortunately this isn't the case.
4. Skillsets -- I'm a developer, you can write code anywhere, to get user requirements for a system, do project management, or write functional specifications, back to the foreign language thing -- that's the only value added items that require co-location.
5. Resumix -- So many turdbuckets (I'm one of em') apply for these monster and usajobs type postings, that a shitty resume keyword reader scans your keywords and 'matches' you with the job posting. I'm not to the point where I want to have 17 different versions of the resume roaming around.

I suppose if you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything, and I still have my mind on it, however my current job makes me happy (If you believe that, you will also believe that Nickelback is the greatest rock band of ALL TIME.)

There's a Soul Out There That's Yours To Find, Set your Spirit Free

Things are boring these days, good boring, but the restless spirit is ready to jump out. The great thing about being single is that I'm getting all my selfishness out.

Little Sister to Sister 7 to Patrice Pike to getting kicked off 'Rockstar Supernova.' Hmmm, I wonder what....wonder what perry farrell would think of dave navarro, tommy lee and metallicock dude don't really count. I remember listening to Little Sister back in college, before the sellout, and yet another sellout to be on rockstar.

Needless to say, none of those wannabe's can match the beautifully bizarre moves of Jane's Addiction, a beautiful freak who has done a lot for music. Damn I just love it when Flea wears a dress!

Taking a page out of the Nixon's book, or Leap of Faith's book, the answer to 'when is it going to rain' question was answered today. Woke up, and holy shit, it was raining, so obviously I avoided the rain.

What's occupying my airwaves is the brilliant ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA, did everyone know he was the 5th Travelling Wilbury, and he (Jeff Lynn) produced the two latest Beatles songs, obviously the ones without John Lennon. Not to mention they made amazing vidoes for the time. Also noteworthy is duke special, charlotte gainsbourg and --- well, that's about it.

This weekend I'm excited for two reasons....

1 ---- The West Fest, a big Czech festival in the town of west, where my brother will be tearing up the accordian....can you tear up an accordian?

2 ---- The doc's engagement part, and plenty of doctails...here's to fat beer bellies all over the world!

September is going to be a very blogworthy month, lots of interesting and exciting events!

Burning Every Bridge that I Cross, To Find Some Beautiful Place to Get Lost

Today I'm finding it difficult to blog about the stuff in life that's actually important. As the Diz and I remembered 'the good ol days,' it inspired me to sit back and write about what it means to be an idealist and an individualist in this world, and how the world needs more of these people. (yea, I'm a self-centered ass blog post)

In the midst of the highs and lows of life, in the middle of typical growing pains, etc, the question I pose to idealists is 'when do you anchor', and accept 'love' as 'love,' and progress as a human being. There are times when life has been shaken and stirred, and it's not the time to run and hide, but rather the time to offer moral support to those in need.

I've come to figure out my definition of true friendship. True friendship means accept Robert as Robert, Billy Bob as Billy Bob, and Betty Sue as Betty Sue, friendship is a two way street, as long as you give and receive support, there isn't anything to criticize a person for, it's just knowing the person, and accepting them for who they are, and understanding that people have flaws, and they shouldn't be judged for these flaws, but rather to be supportive to friends who have flaws and are trying to work thru them.

As it all unfolds, all you fine people, know that I'm there for support, and I applaud the courage and bravery of people who take the hard road.

Drunk on Dreams I'm Glad I Didn't Say Out Loud

The annual 'Keep Austin Weird' festival today, where tons of people run the 5k, and then listen to bands on Auditorium Shores. I don't know about how I feel about the mass commercialization of keeping my town weird. This years festival was brilliant, for as the sun went down, the weather was beautiful. This year the everything was for the benefit of the Austin Music Foundation.

No marquee bands, but still a great time, and the city backdrop was beautiful. It's amazing was a great feeling you have when you are somewhere you haven't been in a long time. Here's 'Mr I can get in anywhere with all these wristbands.'

Austin is getting this flame twirlers in by the dozens it seems, stunning visuals as dusk that no camera can capture to its fullest.

Ashley and her hula hooping friend did their part to keep Austin weird, dressing up as fairy people, or something like that.

Nice to also see Jenny K and Jamie C at the last minute. Yea, Mike D and I were the stinky ones in the Gingerman, and there's no way the 'fine people' at 219 would have let us in the doors.

Laughing Like Children, Living Like Lovers, Rolling Like Thunder Under the Covers

post pending

Who Got the Love, Who Got the Fresh-E-Freshy, Who Got the Only Sweetest Thing in the World

First time for everything and this is the first blog posting coming from a MAC! Yippie, I feel cool just being able to type on one.

There's a few things I REALLY like about the MAC, for one, they have the volume controls figured out, one source controls everything, Itunes, the speakers, the works. Damn can't Gates figure that out yet? Also the 'side click' is a pretty cool feature, and the built in camera is cool. Can't you see I was very enthusiastic at work today?

For the record, our agency website looks like shit in safari.

It's a Major Minor Detail, On a Misty Morning M Train

Get small, think big --

It's fascinating the wealth of knowledge out here on the Internet, and how it is ever so slowly changing how things are done.

Everyone is entitled to the same information, it's really up to you what you decide to digest. I've been reading Mark Cuban's blog and also Seth Godin, both offering a wealth of knowledge and insight and flow of ideas. Amazing, these people aren't scared of people ripping off their ideas, and the next worthless chain of command you have to deal with at your job, seek safety in these courageous types that aren't afraid to let the information flow. Who better to learn from than someone who's 'made it.'

Amazing that you can now watch videos given by speakers at Google, in which I'm sure Google has spent amazing amounts of money to have these experts give speeches, having billions of dollars comes generosity I suppose. It's quite a bit more captivating and convenient than your local public library.

Speaking of other things, Berkeley does webcasts of courses, and Jimmy R shows you all kinds of goodies you can get for free on the web.

As the world changes, ever so slowly, as it right sizes, I can only hope to prepare myself for future opportunities, and perish the thought position little Roberts or little Roberta's with a level or equal playing field in the next generation.

All the information is out there, just gotta know where to look, grab and embrace.

Wild Geese that Fly with the Moon Their Wings

Tonight, a bike ride of monumental proportions. The isolated back roads from Shiner to Sweet Home, in the pitch black wilderness. I would have snapped some pictures, but alas they would have all been black. All totalled about 23 miles, Bob and I plan on the 'extreme' bike rides, so when BASH actually comes along, we are going to go, wow, this is easy.

Here's some of the challenges we encountered...

1. It's the semi same route the locals take while consuming beer, yea, having a few beers and driving home. Therefore our mere flashlight seemed like nothing for trucks coming around the corner in the pitch black on a one lane highway.
2. Yea, we encountered a few dogs, luckily Bob can bark like a mean dog and it scared the other dogs away
3. You can hear coyotes, but Bob says they Coyotes are more afraid of us than we are of them.
4. At one point there was something in the ditch that was following us, but we could see, so we just dropped down a gear and high tailed it out of there.
5. We stumble on a party out in the middle of nowhere, we think about crashing and grabbing a beer for the way home, but opted out.

red cans

Performance, not really my cup of tea, but in one of these little red cans lurks my friend Ashley. I went on the 'pay as you wish day' Thursday, The 'Odd Center' off East 7th, the performance surely does its part to 'keep Austin weird.'

I met the director dudes at an earlier sitting, nice enough folks. In fact, the tall one was at the door greeting everyone, he was looking a mix between homeless and special, and I didn't recognize him because he was wearing a wig. Little did I know his little dog too in fact would be a star of the play.

The physical aspect of this show is noteworthy, these small people stuff themselves into cans, and hop around the stage in the dark, I suppose that in itself is challenging.

Since no words, everything is interpretative, since I'm more analytical than artsy, a lot of times I didn't get it, but many times, as people were laughing in the audience, more often than not, the show 'made me feel bad inside,' that was my interpretation.

Since it's the last weekend, I'm not going to spoil anything by saying that the cans seem to kill each other, and themselves as well. See that big one, it tears the sh*t out of the little ones, it morphs, it wiggles around, it changes ownership, all while the little cans are fighting, killing, and throwing the 'dead' bodies into a tiny cage (4 people stuffed into this thing at the end.)

The little critters even steal shoes from the audience, that was my favorite part of the play, when the cans got in a circle and had a 'shoe dance' or something like this.

What does it all mean? Has society gone to hell and it makes human live in red cans, and the environment can't sustain human life outside the can? Do humans evolve from red cans? Is it survival of the fittest? Who knows? Kudos Ashley, you did good, I enjoyed it --- 7 out of 10.

It's Easy to See, To See Only White Where Colour Should Be

Life and business, and how it applies to programming, specifically two types of programming, structured and service oriented. I used to do structured programming (a life doomed to hell) with dudes named Joe, Jim and Bill (they called me Bob) who were all over age 50, then object / service oriented (still a life doomed to hell). I'm stressing there is a time and a place for both, it all depends on where you fall in the spectrum.

They are vastly different techniques, and I do generalize, but hey let's shoot for a nice balance between attention span, quasi informative post, and perhaps some lame abstractions and analogies that will probably make everyone confused.

Structured Programming / Life -- Sees light at the end of the code. Life as a COBOL programmer consisted of 4 environments, writing a shitload of code to create a report with groupings, it almost felt like writing a book....ever see code like this "write detail line after advancing one line"....well it exists. it's really boring shit, but it gets the job done. There are structured people everywhere fighting the good fight keeping the systems of the world running, they are what make the world go round, however, not very flexible, scalable, interoperable, or efficient.

Service Oriented Programming / Life -- Seeing a broad pallet of color. It says grab some stuff from here, grab some from here, whoeva does it better, let's do it that way. Understanding the true meaning and benefit of inheritance is the key to this style, and surely applies to life. It means taking those tidbits of life that you know are gems, allow them to flow thru you, and the better you get at this, you become more efficient and effective in life, because you serve as a conduit for great ideas. As the ideas pass thru you, stuff sticks, therefore making you a better person as well as all others who use the service. It's fast, effective and efficient.

The American Dream...how does it work, is it better to be structured or service oriented. It depends on your interpretation of what the American Dream is, but its harder to get rich without hard work. The days of a shitty techie getting paid assloads of money to write code are over, and they should be, and I'm glad for society the industry is finally 'right sized' (even though I would have liked to been around a bit earlier to exploit my piece of the pie). The structured approach doesn't lend itself well to creativity and thinking outside the box, but the potential to painfully move up the ladder is there. The service approach, you find very few making things so damn efficient, competition suffers. What it takes (if you don't have a shitload of capital) is a dedicated group of people, usually a few great management types, a few great visionary types, and a few great techie types who trust each other.

The other way is to not have a conscious, don't feel bad about charging extra money for every bit of information that comes thru the pipe. You have to have to have the balance between the gold ol' boy mentality (the boyscout), and the person who has the fuck net neutrality, let's put a meter on it and charge for every data packet on the web. Unfortunately (hahaha), I have 'nice' friends that don't have the exploitative mentality, even if the service provided benefits all parties involved.

Until the next paradigm, the days of getting rich by scaring people that computers will blow up, or trying to confuse them or bullshit them are over......... (damn).

Remember When We Used to Talk About Bustin Out, We' Break Their Hearts, Together, Forever!

A RARE weekend, Robert is in a genuinely good mood, and no it wasn't snowing, far from it as Manuelabor, Lacinator, and Fatboy without the Slim went out to the Ft Worth Stockyards. The highlight of the weekend was the drive to Sherlocks, Dallas, when we had Bon Jovi's 'Never Say Goodbye' jammin on the Monsoon system at the stoplights, you know, cool kids have to jam the f*ck out of their radios. Manuel, were you a bit embarrassed, what do you mean???? You didn't feel COOL?!?!?!

Learned a lot about Ft Worth this weekend, I've always have had respect for the city, its got great aesthetic value to it everywhere you look, but I didn't know it was 'the stock market of the south' when the cattle trades went on, etc.

Manuelabor wants to snap a picture, instead he drops my camera 1 story down on this metal roof. The camera stood there, we looked at it for 5 minutes, and then came up with a plan to get it down. This here picture shows me giving Manuel the 'dammit Manuel' look.

Look at the cowboy and cowgirl, gotta love it, I guess the one in the white is supposed to be the good cowboy and the one in the black hat is supposed to be the bad one.

Manuel trying to pick out the 'perfect hat'.

I think I look good as a bubba, maybe I should trade in my rock and roll lifestyle and become a bubba somewhere out on a farm.

Later Chris and Sheda Riveda came out and we had some brews, the Stella was hurting my belly, so we had to resort to something that was 'less filling and tastes great.' Yea I look sad in that picture, but I was having a great time. O by the way, I travel light these days, and that blue shirt is turning into my 'weekend shirt.'

An interesting scenario here. More often than not, there is a building or two or ten being imploded in Ft. Worth. They are now doing something more extravagant, they are supposed to flood this valley, and make and 'island' in the middle of the city, for the rich people to have condos. GREAT IDEA!!! ---hmmmmm.....

Here's Manuel posing in front of his surname. I'm thinking some dude is going to come out and say in his best gangsta Spanish voice "Look man I'm going to cut you if you don't get off my property."

A Manuel in jail shot, look how sad the poor dude looks, I told him, what you you had to stay there all the time, I'd come visit you every 3 or 4 months, and I'd brink you a cake with a file in it.

Lacy and Manuel, a great couple (for me to poop on --- hahahha)

Last but not least, the 'cow maze', kinda like the ones made of bushes, but this one was made of wood, something in which the cows were be ushered thru, now the human use it for cruel torture, lets pay 5 bucks and get ourselves lost in the 105 degree heat....thanks but no thanks!

DFW times are great, thanks for the great time John, M and L and the gang. Have a lovely week!

Don't Let Them Sell You Impossible Dreams, Don't be a Slave to the Beauty Regime

Songs come along that just 'touch the heart,' that are so real and so true, so positive and inspiring, so genuine and caring, songs that make you think 'the good guy will win', good beats evil, and one day people will be self actualized, and that people are on your side and willing to help.

Wow, what a run-on sentence, but you get the point, this one does it for me. Lyrics as flawless, but if you'd hear it, the general consensus would be "That shit ain't got a beat" --


The Beauty Regime
---------------------
Beat stress and rebalance your life
Make those dreams come true
Impress all your colleagues and friends
With the brand new you
So many lives condemned for no need
'Cause people don't buy the right magazine
Take a look in the mirror and see
Exactly how worthless you are
In a rut? Can't get out? Don't know why?
It's time to make that change
Cover up all the pain in your life
With our new product range
So please don't feel blue - let us show you how
To talk yourself into a good mood right now
Feeling sad is no longer allowed
No matter how worthless you are
And if your life depresses you
Just live it through your favourite movie star
Beat stress and rebalance your life
All you need to do
Is forget all the useless advice
And live your life for you
Don't let them sell you impossible dreams
Don't be a slave to the beauty regime
Look again in the mirror and see
Exactly how perfect you are

Ten Days of Perfect Tunes, The Colors Red and Blue

10 'whatevas' for the blog, random stuff, what's been occupying my thoughts and mind

10 -- Clipmarks.com, my new favorite website, lets you see numerous articles on how vile Dick Cheney is, lets you cross reference by the person who posts, you can see what's 'popular', etc. a great way to organize clippings.

9 -- Reading more of Friedman's stuff about the flat world, seems like more responsibility is falling to individuals. All this 'crazy stuff' going on in the world, if you can derive one good thing from it all is that it is making people aware, in the future, more and more people will be informed, therefore more responsible, conscious minds, possibly making it able to find more lasting solutions, no nukes no nukes!

8 -- what's jammin' in the cd player, Jose Gonzalez, Mando Diao, Divine Comedy, lots of German stuff and ummmm, billy joel and elton john?

7 -- picking your battles -- asimov believes in psycho-history (don't know if I'm spelling right) -- that the movements of one is irrelevant, the movement of masses means everything -- if you look around, and if you don't see a fly in the ointment, then YOU are that fly, find another place to shit, I mean sit.

6 -- backyards and practical life is stellar, like Ms Crow says, the good people of the world are washing their cars on their lunch breaks, hosing and scrubbing the best the can in their skirts and suits (or something like that)

5 -- Kids -- Can't really articulate, but I already understand how wonderful it must be to have 'some' of your own, adorable creatures they are, but not anytime soon.

4 -- Mantra -- It's nice to have people thinking about you, and 'praying' for you, etc -- i acknowledge there are 'good vibrations' that are sent to and fro, just haven't figured out the 'central processing unit'

3 -- Ethics -- what a crock of shit to try to teach someone this, I hate reading about this, some type A will read this shit put out in books, get questions 'right', meaning repeating what is spoon fed to you in a book. You either got it or don't, ain't no teachin' it.

2 -- Politics -- Vote for Kinky, he's great, incumbents could face stiff scrutiny from the populous who are tired of all this bullshit, hopefully that's the new trend, or 'coolness', as the world becomes more aware, as blogs become more and more trustworthy and uncensored than organized media, more and more common sense will be factored in to these brilliant minds running the world, thus retooling and rethinking, eliminating meaningless bickering amongst parties.

1 -- Down in Dallas, the neon light from the building, lets you know you're home -- This weekend going to hang out with manuelabor, haven't seen the chap in a long time, In addition, the lacinator, Erin, Erin, John, John, maybe Chris Riveda. I know the dives, and we are going dive right in.

Sorry folks, can't blog about 'partying' anymore, I'm miles away from the action, so as I just lay boring opinions out on the table, the blog stats are like the slinky going down the stairs. My niece, sister, and numerous friends say, 'Robert your blog is boring now, I don't read it anymore.'

Maybe you'll see some drunk Robert shots this weekend, and maybe sooner or later you'll be able to see some Robert in Deutschland pictures.

Till then, bis spater

Well I'm the Guy Who Never Learned to Dance, Never Even Got One Second Glance

The human element is often amusing and tragic, wicked, and confusing. I suppose the best 'shield' for these events is being aware. For the strong it's irony, for the weak it's cynicism, but however the case, we all in some way shape or form are a victim of circumstance, some can be controlled, some can't.

Mixing studying and blogging, I'm going to examine the human life cycle in parallel to the 5 project management process groups, and as I'm typing, hopefully I'll gain some insight of what can be controlled, and what is harder to control for reasons of, that's where I'm from, or this is who I am, so on and so on.

------------
Initiating
------------

Life begins, you're given the name chosen by your parents, I would have preferably got a one syllable name that rolls off the tongue, but I'm content. You learn how your limbs work, how to talk, how to eat, how to play with blocks, develop your senses, etc, but for the most part you are subject to what 'business objectives' are prescribed by your parents. You're in the world weather you like it or not, I'd say this lasts till around age 5 or 6 until organized education comes along.

-----------
Planning
-----------

Planning takes on many iterations, obviously, and 'executing' (what comes next) go hand and hand in these iterations, while you’re planning something, 'life' is what's being executed. Kinda like that slogan life happens while you are busy making other plans. Here, you work out your communication plan, decide which things YOU are interested in, you process inputs, outputs, tools and techniques and constantly 're-baseline' your life if you 'accept the change.' Re-baselining means adjusting timelines, costs, life scope, quality, risk averse-ness and other things. You figure out your thresholds, understand your strengths, threats, opportunities and weaknesses, and you carry yourself over the horizon into the brave new world, or ....not.

Planning involves breaking shit into small work chunks, WBS in the project world, thin slicing as Tipping Point guy would say. It involves having goals, deliverables, performance measures, and other that other stuff that involves practical vision (which to me is defining 'the work and only the work') needed to be done to get where you need to be.

--------------
Executing
--------------

As you execute your plans, you keep in mind assumptions and constraints. If you need a mate to be by your side to function, factor that in as a constraint, and understand there are ‘opportunity costs’ (can’t do this while I’m doing that). If you're Mr. struggling for motivation, factor in the possibility of opportunities that would facilitate constant brilliance, instead of 'spurts of brilliance.' Our British brothers fought the war for the free modern world back in the day, fighting the good fight, down on their luck (it's tough, yea it's tough), and when 'reinforcement' comes, the 'project win WWII' is able to be fast tracked and crashed, moral is up, and good risk, or opportunities occur. So, if you plan for problems, they don't own you, if good luck and opportunity find you but you weren't expecting it, your challenges are all of a sudden shaking in their Nike's, or Reebox's, or whatever.

Getr' Done, as the stereotypical Texan would say, this doesn't include sleeping on the job, 'gold plating', making excuses....the precursors are simple, have a plan and follow it.

----------------------------
Monitoring and Controlling
----------------------------

This is where you constantly evaluate what's going on in your life, and make corrective measures if your performance measures are swaying too much from your baselines. It also involves accessing risk and opportunity. If the "I'm being a lazy ass" meter is high and in the red, if the 'man this isn't getting me anywhere meter' is high, etc --- figure out corrective measures or follow contingency plans. For me this means, biding my time, like the running back that gets the ball handed to him, he's got to 'wait for the hole to form', same here, why hop to the next lily pad till you have a rock solid plan. Some have scolded me, saying that I’m rotting away at this hell hole, and my simple response is, and I quote "I'm not hopping to the next lily pad, It's more like Neo jumping to the next building," and that takes careful planning, and flawless execution, not to mention a big set of cajones.

---------------
Closing
---------------

Haven't thought about this one, but the inevitable 'closing' is when your worm food or ashes, whatever you wish, or your loved ones wish. If you take consideration for the rest of the process groups, and you somewhat follow this methodology, it really doesn't matter 'when the end comes,' for you've lived a fulfilled life to the extent of what you could do, or dream, working your talents against your weaknesses and constraints.

-------------
Closing statements -- Many 'music philosophers' have talked about 'the dance' and how it represents life. Life's a dance you learn as you go, sometimes you lead sometimes you follow......I could have missed the pain, but I'd a had to miss the dance.......etc.

Personally I don't really like the analogy, I was / am an awkward kid, I don’t dance, but I'm bouncin' thru life pretty good, and the best is yet to come.

And there ain't no nothing we can't Love each other Through

Sorry family and friends for the lame Family Ties reference and double negative, but I do love you guys, and the fact that we are all so different and still get along is, for the lack of a better word, awesome.

First pic, Brad, Josh and Corey and Mr Army shorts. Amazing how better it feels playing baseball when you didn't have 22 bud lights the night before. Tomorrow my back will hurt, not to mention this big throbbing blister on my hand from swinging the bat with the boys.

Then there's the Tran Clan, Alissa, Ayden, Krysi and Al. These little ones are yes, my great niece and nephew. Thru the day Al told me of the dangers of going to Baghdad and probably said it wasn't in my best interest, no matter what the money was. But it seems anywhere I went that has a TCP/IP internet connection I'd be just fine.

The men of the family had the traditional polka fest outside, while my brothas played trumpets and accordian. The 'crowd favorite' is always, 'In Heaven there is no beer.'

Gavin, who plays around in the dirt all day is always ready to pose for the camera. There's a lot of dirt around, considering our reunion is where the FFA has their livestock show every year.

Strange, this year the 'insiders' (people who hang out on the inside) play Bunko instead of Bingo, and Grant, the little dude at the far end is playing, and 'bless his heart', the dude starts losing and starts weeping, it was a trip, 'homeboy' takes his Bunko seriously I suppose.

Other items of note, brotha Derwin's 72 corvette is fully restored, and now he's got a 69 camaro, damn what a man!

Painting my Room in a Colorful Way, and When My Mind is Wandering, There I will Go

Fixing a Hole is right. The 'main event' for the day for Bob wasn't the 20 miles on the bike, but the adventure after the bike ride.

Since in many ways I'm 'Princess Robert', I ask, 'Bob, can you dig this hole for my mailbox?'. Bob says, sure, it'll only take 30 minutes. So here's Bob slavin' away with a post hole digger while I offer moral support.

All fine and dandy until Bob hits the unmarked shit pipe, and contrary to popular movies, shit didn't fly up everywhere, but we could smell it.

Shit happens, In the course of it all I got a nice tan on my bald head.

Later that evening, I eat with the family, drink a few beers while geeking out at Antiques, Art, Beer, and then retire on the couch watching Tango and Cash. Brother in law asks what I did the next day, I tell him, and his rebuttal is, "Damn, that's pathetic." ---whateva

Every Dog Must Have His Every Day, Every Drunk Must Have His Drink

Pre-family reunion weekend brings the 'partying' faction of the family to Howard's place in Shiner. Here are my second cousins (John, Justin, Jamie) and I. Nevermind all those beer bottles, must have been someone elses....?

Then there's the uncles from 'that part' of the family, Douglas and Donnie, lots of fun hanging out with these folks, I tried to get them wound up, and see where the conversation goes, I usually succeed and the conversation goes to some interesting and wonderful places, I suppose it's what makes the world go round.

Hats off to Justin (Wheelo) with his new $45,000 pick em up truck.....ummm, damn Wheelo, does that thing give head for that much???? --hahahaha

The Stars that we Follow Can Lead Us Astray...I'll Plough my own Furrow, I'll Go my own Way

A sign of age is the 'advice' you give to people. Nowadays the only advice I give to people can be summed up in one sure fire sentence. Be honest with yourself, and do whatever truly makes you happy in life, but make decisions for yourself, for only you have to wake up and be yourself in the morning. Bad George Bush grammar and Mike Brady preaching aside, its gonna be one of those wordy pointless blog entries.

I'm rockin the suburbs, they say wherever you go, there you are, and these burbs aren't bad. Sure I'd love to be a downtown boy right now, and for the long haul, but until I find a sugar mamma, or at least become a DINK, that ain't gonna happen. There's some cool stuff out here, cept my running trail right now is along Gattis School Road, feels like I'm about to get run over every second of my trek. I enjoy watering the grass, and my whole life I've wanted one of these sprinklers, just so I could watch it crawl across the yard. I've been eating some strange shit lately since the family is in Florida. Last night I made a big ass tuna patty, with some crumbled crackers, ketsup, and a few eggs to keep all that shit together. It sounds nasty but is actually pretty good.

Suburban friends are different from urban friends in refreshing ways. No they're not as 'cool', but they are cool in a different sort of way, better priorities, and they seem to have a much clearer mind (and strangely enough, not because they are turned off), most being settled.

That's enough defense on the burbs, don't get me wrong, when I start making some bucks....Inner city shanty with great local....here I come.

I've had plenty time to jam the guitar lately, been learning a lot of Shins tunes, Billy Bragg, Chris Isaak (as if I don't play that shit enough), and others, just browse the directory and see where it stops. Spin the bottle Internet tab searching style. Catching up with the overhead of life too, the VDub is squeaky clean, its refreshing to look at NADA, and even with 60k on it, its valued at about 20k. Word of advice, get a car with some bling, and it doesn't depreciate as fast.

Landing contracts to do work, and then collaboration with a group to get the work done. I think this is what I'm going to be doing in the future, my 'where do I want to be in 5 years' plan. Hard work, people you know (or the other word that rhymes with know) will get you 20% of the contract if it lands in 'the system.' Then all you have to do is do the work. Sounds like not too hard, and a win win model, the key is trust. It's amazing the lack of trust in the modern world, and I'm confident with trust it will all work.

PMP Shizzz -- yea the studying will commence again next week, hardcore. Books that I don't like reading are a pain in the a$$. I suppose this time I should actually READ the PMBOK instead of looking at the pictures.

Stay tuned for another fun and adventure filled weekend in Shinertown. I'm going to post some pictures of Bob and I Saturday, as we break the 15 mile mark again, look for sunburnt bald head and pasty white legs! Damn, with that combo, just can't keep the birds (british slang for chicks) off me! ---hahaha

Hottie Burns Hair Off Robert's Chest

Sittin' in at my hair appointment is always interesting, I always seem to make a new friend. This time is was, man I can't think of her name, but another 'hot' one, as she prods me with the laser for an hour in a half, we talk about all sorts of stuff, and at the end she goes, 'wow you're a fun person.'

Typical questions include ----

....ummm, So, seen any movies lately?
....ummm, Did you watch Oprah yesterday?
....ummm, Are you a beach person or a mountain person?
....ummm, Do you believe in miracles?

Always so bubbly and happy, I can't seem to break it to them that I'm the one of the more cynical f*cks on the planet, so I just go with the easy topics, don't bring up anything that someone doesn't understand, and it will keep conversation flowing freely and win friends, not great friends, just friends.

When the Lights Go Down in the City, and The Sun Shines on the Bay

I'm white trash rich today, but after the bills are paid, the carriage turns back to a pumpkin. A night out on the town with my cousin the football coach was great, as downtown was riddled with 'Welcome Coaches' signs everywhere.

You see, my cuz Donnie loves this girl to no end, and she seems to be interested in him, and its a very....ummm,......for lack of a better word 'cute' thing to see, for I know him as being football coach and teaching meatheads how to tackle people and things like that.

Donnie was telling me about the Def Leppard / Journey concert he went to a few weeks back, how Journey is on their 3rd lead singer, and how the show kicked a$$. I recall the first time I heard "Lights," riding around with my brother as a young kid, going f*ck me -- these dudes are amazing! While I was 8ish, I then had my ears tuned to Wheel in the Sky, Faithfully, Open Arms....the hits go on, and I even bought the Journey Escape video game for the Atari, which was 26 bucks, a lot of money back in the day, but I 'played it till my fingers bled' -- dodging the falling guitars, drums and pianos, etc.

Well the Stella was right on track for Don, we had a great night catching up with family gossip, Mike D probably was hanging out going "Huh" half the time as we talked about the cool people, the weird people, and all the others.

This weekend I have a family reunion, and to keep the blogs flowing, I'll blog in detail about funny family stuff later, It's not too hard to come up with content! ---hahaha