On April 30th of last year, I had to put my cat Bonnie to sleep. She was old and in pain and was originally Dawn's cat, but when we moved in together I adpoted her and she me along with her brother Clyde. We had to put him to sleep 4-5 years ago. Dawn and I were going to wait a while before we considered getting another cat. But fate played a hand and Jinx came into our lives. 3 years old and she looks like our old cat Clyde except fuzzier. It took Jinx some time but she now appears to be very happy in our house and with us. Thank heavens we got her because she is magic also.
The legend that is Magic Cat started this past fall. The Baltimore Orioles were doing the impossible. Standing tough in the American League East against such teams as the Yankees, and Rays, both of which were playing close with them also for first place in the AL East. The Orioles had not been to the playoffs in 14 years and this team of no names and surprises was right there in the mix of things. Dawn and I would watch some of the games and cheer our teams on. Jinx would come and sit on Dawn's lap and the Orioles would all of sudden do something. A miraculous stop, a home run, a key base hit. We didn't think much of it til the Orioles made the playoffs. To get into the first round against the Yankees, the Orioles had to win a 1 game Play-off (Play-in whatever you want to call it) against the Texas Rangers. It was a tough game and we wanted the Orioles to win it badly. It was looking a little bad when Jinx walked in and sat in Dawn's lap and the Orioles got some key hits and won the game. They went to the playoffs. That was when we started calling her Magic cat. (actually Dawn came up with the name).
The Orioles were in a 5 game playoff with the Yankees and sure enough when Jinx would be in Dawn's lap the Orioles did good. But being a cat she got fickle and got down soon and then they started getting beat. Eventually the Yankees were too much for magic cat and the Orioles were knocked out of the playoffs. Then football season. Magic Cat was around for some of the games, mostly the night games when the crazy kids were asleep in bed. She helped when the Ravens pulled out the victory early in the season against the Patriots. But pretty much during the regular season she was not around so much since the Ravens only had 4 night games and during the day she stayed hidden.
Then the playoffs started and the legend grew with the Broncos game. The Broncos Ravens Playoff game was a back and forth all night. Magic Cat had stayed away most of the night. But sure enough when I was watching and the Ravens needed a big play she came strolling in and sat on my lap. When we picked off Peyton Manning, when Jacoby Jones caught the 70 yard pass to tie the game with 30 some seconds left Magic Cat was in my lap. When they went to double overtime and Justin Tucker kicked the game winning field goal. She was in my lap. She gets up sometimes in the middle of the game and I swear it seems like something bad happens when she is gone. Finally this past Sunday the Ravens played the Patriots again. The first half the Ravens offense looked horrible and the defense while giving up lots of yards was actually holding their own. The Patriots went in at halftime with a lead 13-7. Magic cat was nowhere to be seen at this time. The game was late so I missed a little of the third quarter when I had to help put my kids to bed. So after that was done. I sat down and the Ravens had the ball. Lo and behold here comes magic cat. She sits in my lap and the Ravens have a killer drive which leads to a touchdown and the lead 14-13. And she stays on my lap as the Ravens stop Brady and the Patriots. Then score again 21-13. And still hold Brady and the Patriots to nothing. Eventually we got another touchdown and a pick of Brady and the game was over and the Ravens were going to the Playoffs. The whole time Magic cat is in my lap. So there is the legend of Magic Cat. The Super Bowl is coming but we will probably be more than likely at a Super Bowl party elsewhere. However I may find a way to smuggle Magic Cat to where ever we end up going. Go Ravens! Go Magic Cat! The real reason the Ravens are going to the Super Bowl. Not that they have been playing good. No MAGIC CAT is the key!!
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Friday, January 4, 2013
Ray Lewis' Last Ride
As many of you know I am a huge Baltimore Ravens fan. have been since they came to Baltimore in 1996. One guy who has been with them since the beginning is Ray Lewis. Probably the most famous Raven of them all, the team leader both physically and spiritually. He took no excuses made no excuses. pumped you up and made you play better while keeping your mind in the game. Keeping you aware that this was a team sport and you were part of a team. One person fails you all fail, even if that one person was not named Ray Lewis. If they lost a game because of one person, never called them out publically pushed that we failed as a team. He knew one play does not change everything. You should have converted on that third down in the first quarter, you should not have been called off-sides. You had to play perfect, one mistake did not take the game from them, all the missed opportunities and mistakes did that. Ray knew that and he preached that. He was your motivator, your enemy, your best friend, your teacher, your student. He learned and he processed the information to make him one of the most feared and one of the very best Linebackers of all time.
17 years is a long time and for the last 5 years or so he has not been the same Ray Lewis as he was earlier in his career, but that was on the field. His mind was still sharp, he was still your motivator and he was your General. The game is probably never going to see anything like it again. Early in his career he had his run-ins with the law and the situation in I believe Miami where he witnessed the murder of two guys committed by his so called friends put a big black mark on his record that do this day is still brought up in jokes and stories about Ray. But to me and probably most everyone else in Baltimore, that was a wake up call for Ray and from that point on he knew he had to change his ways, and he did. Even going so far to help counsel kids and give them a positive role model. He helped everybody and he was a better man for that.
He has the uncanny ability to motivate anyone. Going so far as to have colleges from all over the country, not just in Maryland ask him to come speak. And he brings his A game every time. If he wanted to he has a huge career ahead of him as a motivational speaker. Some of his speeches are really good and they are to kids who need a positive role model. I know I am repeating a lot but that is just who Ray is.
His will to play has ebbed, his body has failed him a number of times, and this last 9 weeks or so he has gotten a view of where his priorities should be, with his family who is growing up quickly and he is missing it, and he doesnt want that. Sure he's going to do some broadcasting, but it is nowhere near what it is like being a player. It's a hard life being a player, that's why the players are younger, they have the time to do their thing before they realize what is really important and that is family. Ray gets it. He may have left school early to go pro, but he is smart enough to realize someday he will not be able to play and he needs skills. Retiring at 37 is crazy since most people still have to work 30 years before they retire. Ray knows theres more out there. So he went back to school and got a degree. HE gets it. He's one of the smart ones and he is trying to spread his message to others.
Sunday's playoff game may very well be the last game he plays in Baltimore, though there is an outside chance we may host the Championship game if we win all our games and the Bengals win all of theirs. Realistically this is his last home game. Retiring while his team is on top is not a bad way to go. Godspeed Ray, you deserve your retiremement. Cant wait to see what you will do with the second part of your life.
17 years is a long time and for the last 5 years or so he has not been the same Ray Lewis as he was earlier in his career, but that was on the field. His mind was still sharp, he was still your motivator and he was your General. The game is probably never going to see anything like it again. Early in his career he had his run-ins with the law and the situation in I believe Miami where he witnessed the murder of two guys committed by his so called friends put a big black mark on his record that do this day is still brought up in jokes and stories about Ray. But to me and probably most everyone else in Baltimore, that was a wake up call for Ray and from that point on he knew he had to change his ways, and he did. Even going so far to help counsel kids and give them a positive role model. He helped everybody and he was a better man for that.
He has the uncanny ability to motivate anyone. Going so far as to have colleges from all over the country, not just in Maryland ask him to come speak. And he brings his A game every time. If he wanted to he has a huge career ahead of him as a motivational speaker. Some of his speeches are really good and they are to kids who need a positive role model. I know I am repeating a lot but that is just who Ray is.
His will to play has ebbed, his body has failed him a number of times, and this last 9 weeks or so he has gotten a view of where his priorities should be, with his family who is growing up quickly and he is missing it, and he doesnt want that. Sure he's going to do some broadcasting, but it is nowhere near what it is like being a player. It's a hard life being a player, that's why the players are younger, they have the time to do their thing before they realize what is really important and that is family. Ray gets it. He may have left school early to go pro, but he is smart enough to realize someday he will not be able to play and he needs skills. Retiring at 37 is crazy since most people still have to work 30 years before they retire. Ray knows theres more out there. So he went back to school and got a degree. HE gets it. He's one of the smart ones and he is trying to spread his message to others.
Sunday's playoff game may very well be the last game he plays in Baltimore, though there is an outside chance we may host the Championship game if we win all our games and the Bengals win all of theirs. Realistically this is his last home game. Retiring while his team is on top is not a bad way to go. Godspeed Ray, you deserve your retiremement. Cant wait to see what you will do with the second part of your life.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
My History With Comics Part 3: Diamond in the Rough
By now I had seemingly just gotten the job I was born to do. Working for a Comic Book Distribution Center as a Customer Service Rep. Surrounded by comics, talking comics with other fans, helping spread the word about comics. Well here I am in 2013 not even a part of the Diamond Family anymore. How Come? What could go wrong? Heh, read and find out...
MY HISTORY WITH COMICS PART 3: DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
It was 2002. March actually. My time at Rainforest Cafe was coming to close mainly due to the fact that my hours were getting cut since we were not making alot of money in the retail village. I had been in my apartment with my girlfriend (now wife) for about 7 months and it was getting hard to pay the rent due to my cut hours. I needed a more full time and dare I say grown up job. I had remembered that Diamond was in the area locally. I was living in Cockeysville at the time and about 5-10 minutes from my apartment was a giant Glass building facing 83, this was in Timonium and it was the home of Diamond. I had gone to their website and discovered a window for jobs. I clicked on it and read the description of the jobs they had available. Customer Service Rep seemed right up my alley since I had been spending most of my working life in retail environments, how different could it be? In fact it could be better since I was not seeing the customer face to face, we were talking over the phone. I sent a resume, especially high-lighting my work experience at Alternate Worlds and the Diamond Warehouse, because hey I had been a part of the family before. I got hired and gave my two weeks notice. My last day was exactly 3 years to the date that I was hired at Rainforest.
During my interview they let me know that the job I was applying for was on the West Coast team. That meant my hours had to reflect the best time for the customers out west since they were three hours different from us. So my shift was 11am-8pm.(8am-5pm West Coast time). This wasn't too bad since I did not have any kids at the time and Dawn was in the middle of getting her Masters so she would be doing lots of homework during the regular prime time hours we would be together. The pay was much better and I finally had regular hours, Monday-Friday with weekends off. (I still worked at the Radio station, but I gave that up about a year later). My customer base was going to be stores in LA, Sacramento, other smaller cities in California, some in Seattle, and the whole state of Alaska, which to me was just cool. I would be on the phone with people in Alaska!! Some perks were we got free comics that were comped to us from the Independent Publishers, we got a Marvel First Look pack which were Marvel books coming the next week, we had some DC comps, not a lot. We also had free swag giveaways of statues, magazines, action figures, books, cards, gaming pieces. It was heaven for a geek like me. We also could set up an account and order whatever we wanted from our catalog at a reduced employee pricing, so that was great as well. There was also the potential to go work Comic Conventions across the country which was great as well. And we got to chat with fellow comic geeks. It was bliss.
This is what I actually did as a Customer Service Rep. My customer base consisted of Comic book stores in the locations I gave above. My job was to take their calls and assist with missing items, damaged items, ordering items for them, suggesting items to them, helping locate boxes that were mis-shipped, changing orders before the Final Order Cutoff date, make sure they got their monthly orders in, stuff like that. Some of the people I talked to were very cool and very much like me. We would chat and joke about all kinds of things while on the phone. I also had customers who were straight to the point, did not want to chit chat just wanted to get their problems solved or stuff ordered. That was fine to. I had jerk accounts who complained about everything we did and about the job I would do for them. I had accounts that would absolutly freak out on me if I could not help or was not fast enough to help. I would also get new accounts all the time and had to help walk them through their first few months of business until they were set with what they were doing. I also took queue calls which basically were, if my accounts were not calling me and I did not need to call them, I was not allowed to just sit on my butt and do nothing, we had a queue of callers who either could not reach their rep, did not want to talk to their rep, or just wanted to get in and out quickly. So I took calls from other stores across the countries, sometimes even getting my accounts who either did not want to talk to me or could not get in touch with me. That was always fun and awkward. My day did not really get started until about 1pm or so since that was about the time the stores out west were just settling in.
As I started to make a name for myself, I started getting noticed by some of the higher ups. They liked my work ethic, my way with the customers, and my knowledge of the product. So after being there for about 6 months they wanted me to help train new customer service reps. Usually ones who were coming into my team. But occassionally I trained some other reps in other teams. And that made me feel good that I was noticed for that. I also helped Lou, a guy who had been their for a while hand out the comps and also assist in our product meetings we had every Tuesday. Basically we would have a two meetings where our the teams came up and looked at the product we were selling or was shipping that week so we could do a better job of trying to upsell our accounts on them, and also if the accounts did not remember a specific name but had a vague description we could help them find the right product. Eventually Lou left and I took over the product meetings and comps by myself. Which was great because it gave me a chance to get away from my cubicle and wander upstairs.
Customer Service was located in the basement of this big glass building. We had no windows and the floor was all cubicles and offices with flourescent lights. Diamond also controlled the 3rd and part of the 4th floor of this building as well. The 3rd floor was the meat of the operation, Steve Geppi the owner of Diamond had his office there. The Brand managers had there cubes and offices there. Most of the salesmen had their cubes and offices their. We also had the accountants, production crews were in there. The 4th floor was the Diamond Select Toys department, as well as some of the other Brand managers. It was also the floor that housed Steve Geppi's museum and collection. He has since moved that to a museum in DownTown Baltimore called the Gem museum. So to get the comps as well as the items for the product meeting I had to go upstairs and interact with the brand managers. I got to know most of them, some really well. So for awhile that was all I did at my job and it was fun. It was stressful, especially on Wednesday's which is when new comics come out and we have our biggest problems and our longest queues. Some customers would just unload on me for everything even though most of it was not my fault and it made for bad times. The stress seemed to start being more than the fun times. This store in most cases was the owners livelhood so I don't fault them for being overly crazy when bad things happened. But to blame me for all the problems was a problem I had to deal with, sometimes multiple times. So the stress was building.
But it wasn't all stressful. I was doing my thing. Chatting about things I truly loved and working with people who felt the same way. The freebies alone were great and I got a chance to geek out a number of times. Harlan Ellison a famous science-fiction writer had an account with us and I was his brand manager. So I chatted with him at least once a week. Kevin Smith the filmmaker owns 2 comic stores and he occassionally would get into the queue. I had the chance once to take an order direct from him for his store. I got to talk to Geoff Johns one of my favorite writers who frequented one of my better accounts. The owner whose name I forget put him on the phone with me one day that was cool. One day Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker himself came to our offices and we had a meeting with him. At one time the head honcho of Marvel whose name I cannnot remember (not Stan Lee) came and we had a meeting with him. I got to go to the Long Beach California Comic-Con on the company dime and work for 4 days. I got to go to the Boston Comic Con on the company dime as well for 4 days. I started a tradition of giving birthday cards to the people in Customer service. We also has Christmas potluck meals with our team. Cliff one of my teammates who became the team leader and I use to order Chinese all the time for lunch. For me it was more of a snack, but still it was fun. So those were fun times. But the stress started to build and get to me and before I knew it, it was overwhelming me and I needed a way out. That was when the job posting for Brand Manager came down and I decided to go for it.
Fostering my connections to members of the Brand Manager staff I was able to get an interview and was told that I was at the top of there list for the most part. So I was offered the position and I took it in an instant. But 9 months later I was in the same situation I had just escaped from. More to come...
MY HISTORY WITH COMICS PART 3: DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
During my interview they let me know that the job I was applying for was on the West Coast team. That meant my hours had to reflect the best time for the customers out west since they were three hours different from us. So my shift was 11am-8pm.(8am-5pm West Coast time). This wasn't too bad since I did not have any kids at the time and Dawn was in the middle of getting her Masters so she would be doing lots of homework during the regular prime time hours we would be together. The pay was much better and I finally had regular hours, Monday-Friday with weekends off. (I still worked at the Radio station, but I gave that up about a year later). My customer base was going to be stores in LA, Sacramento, other smaller cities in California, some in Seattle, and the whole state of Alaska, which to me was just cool. I would be on the phone with people in Alaska!! Some perks were we got free comics that were comped to us from the Independent Publishers, we got a Marvel First Look pack which were Marvel books coming the next week, we had some DC comps, not a lot. We also had free swag giveaways of statues, magazines, action figures, books, cards, gaming pieces. It was heaven for a geek like me. We also could set up an account and order whatever we wanted from our catalog at a reduced employee pricing, so that was great as well. There was also the potential to go work Comic Conventions across the country which was great as well. And we got to chat with fellow comic geeks. It was bliss.
This is what I actually did as a Customer Service Rep. My customer base consisted of Comic book stores in the locations I gave above. My job was to take their calls and assist with missing items, damaged items, ordering items for them, suggesting items to them, helping locate boxes that were mis-shipped, changing orders before the Final Order Cutoff date, make sure they got their monthly orders in, stuff like that. Some of the people I talked to were very cool and very much like me. We would chat and joke about all kinds of things while on the phone. I also had customers who were straight to the point, did not want to chit chat just wanted to get their problems solved or stuff ordered. That was fine to. I had jerk accounts who complained about everything we did and about the job I would do for them. I had accounts that would absolutly freak out on me if I could not help or was not fast enough to help. I would also get new accounts all the time and had to help walk them through their first few months of business until they were set with what they were doing. I also took queue calls which basically were, if my accounts were not calling me and I did not need to call them, I was not allowed to just sit on my butt and do nothing, we had a queue of callers who either could not reach their rep, did not want to talk to their rep, or just wanted to get in and out quickly. So I took calls from other stores across the countries, sometimes even getting my accounts who either did not want to talk to me or could not get in touch with me. That was always fun and awkward. My day did not really get started until about 1pm or so since that was about the time the stores out west were just settling in.
As I started to make a name for myself, I started getting noticed by some of the higher ups. They liked my work ethic, my way with the customers, and my knowledge of the product. So after being there for about 6 months they wanted me to help train new customer service reps. Usually ones who were coming into my team. But occassionally I trained some other reps in other teams. And that made me feel good that I was noticed for that. I also helped Lou, a guy who had been their for a while hand out the comps and also assist in our product meetings we had every Tuesday. Basically we would have a two meetings where our the teams came up and looked at the product we were selling or was shipping that week so we could do a better job of trying to upsell our accounts on them, and also if the accounts did not remember a specific name but had a vague description we could help them find the right product. Eventually Lou left and I took over the product meetings and comps by myself. Which was great because it gave me a chance to get away from my cubicle and wander upstairs.
Customer Service was located in the basement of this big glass building. We had no windows and the floor was all cubicles and offices with flourescent lights. Diamond also controlled the 3rd and part of the 4th floor of this building as well. The 3rd floor was the meat of the operation, Steve Geppi the owner of Diamond had his office there. The Brand managers had there cubes and offices there. Most of the salesmen had their cubes and offices their. We also had the accountants, production crews were in there. The 4th floor was the Diamond Select Toys department, as well as some of the other Brand managers. It was also the floor that housed Steve Geppi's museum and collection. He has since moved that to a museum in DownTown Baltimore called the Gem museum. So to get the comps as well as the items for the product meeting I had to go upstairs and interact with the brand managers. I got to know most of them, some really well. So for awhile that was all I did at my job and it was fun. It was stressful, especially on Wednesday's which is when new comics come out and we have our biggest problems and our longest queues. Some customers would just unload on me for everything even though most of it was not my fault and it made for bad times. The stress seemed to start being more than the fun times. This store in most cases was the owners livelhood so I don't fault them for being overly crazy when bad things happened. But to blame me for all the problems was a problem I had to deal with, sometimes multiple times. So the stress was building.
But it wasn't all stressful. I was doing my thing. Chatting about things I truly loved and working with people who felt the same way. The freebies alone were great and I got a chance to geek out a number of times. Harlan Ellison a famous science-fiction writer had an account with us and I was his brand manager. So I chatted with him at least once a week. Kevin Smith the filmmaker owns 2 comic stores and he occassionally would get into the queue. I had the chance once to take an order direct from him for his store. I got to talk to Geoff Johns one of my favorite writers who frequented one of my better accounts. The owner whose name I forget put him on the phone with me one day that was cool. One day Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker himself came to our offices and we had a meeting with him. At one time the head honcho of Marvel whose name I cannnot remember (not Stan Lee) came and we had a meeting with him. I got to go to the Long Beach California Comic-Con on the company dime and work for 4 days. I got to go to the Boston Comic Con on the company dime as well for 4 days. I started a tradition of giving birthday cards to the people in Customer service. We also has Christmas potluck meals with our team. Cliff one of my teammates who became the team leader and I use to order Chinese all the time for lunch. For me it was more of a snack, but still it was fun. So those were fun times. But the stress started to build and get to me and before I knew it, it was overwhelming me and I needed a way out. That was when the job posting for Brand Manager came down and I decided to go for it.
Fostering my connections to members of the Brand Manager staff I was able to get an interview and was told that I was at the top of there list for the most part. So I was offered the position and I took it in an instant. But 9 months later I was in the same situation I had just escaped from. More to come...
Monday, December 31, 2012
SMOKE SIGNALS 4: NEW YEARS EDITION
New Year's Eve has always been a little odd for me. No real traditions per se, alot of different things though makes New Year's Eve rather interesting to me, though not nearly one of my favorite holidays. So today I will be using my smoke signals column to share some of my more memorable New Year's Eve's.
-When I was younger my Aunt and Uncle and cousins from New Jersey would come to visit on New Year's Eve, or we would go to their house. We had some fun times. One year we decided to dress up in silly costumes. Not just the kids but the adults. Using clothes we had in the house, and make up as well.
-I spent the 1999-2000 New Year's eve in New Jersey. Everyone was freaking about Y2K, and it was the new century so the networks were running their coverage of New Year's Eve all over the world and remberances of 1900-1999. I had just gotten my first ever car and this was my first real solo drive. My mom and stepdad left before I did. Yet I beat them to Jersey on New Years Eve. Got there at 3pm. The roads were dead. We were then going to go to a friend of theirs house near the beach and hang out. I was the youngest one there. Had fun though. Watched the fireworks on the beach. We went back to my Aunt's house and she wanted to get up like 4 hours later to watch the sunrise on new Millennium. So we got up went to the beach and could not see a thing. Fog socked in all over. had a chanpagne cheer then went back to bed. That night we had dinner at another of their friends house and I got really sick. Food Poisoning possibly needless to say it was a horrible night and we were leaving the next day. I felt better and made it home in one piece.
-Also when I was younger, on my neighborhood lived the Bakers. Their youngest son Craig was a few years younger then me but we were friends. One NYE he came over to my house because his older brother Chris who went to the University of Maryland and was in the Marching band was having a party. But what was cool was not only was that the first year I ever saw Gremlins, but at midnight Chris and his friends in the marching band, now slightly intoxicated would get their instruments out and played Auld Lang Syne outside of their house. Then they played the Maryland fight song, and then decided let's have a parade. So the marching band began to march through out neighborhood playing all kinds of music. People came out of their houses to watch, or join the parade. We went around the block and they stopped and played Auld Lang Syne to some folks who came out and kept marching. They would do this for two other years as well. That was always cool. i do have a audiotape of one of their parades somewhere in my house.
-Senior Year of High School I was hanging out with some kids a year or so younger than me. One of them decided to have a NYE party at her house and we were invited. My first real party! So I went and had a blast. Then when we left we went and hung out at someone elses house. Then others began to leave, soon my friend Matt and me were all that was left and we decided to walk around the neighborhood and chat. When I got home about 3am or so my mother was freaking out since I did not tell her I was going to hang out with others. She thought I would be home after the party. She called a bunch of people after midnight trying to figure out where I was. Needless to say I never did that again.
-NYE 2000-2001 was probably the best one I ever had. I had just started to date my now wife and her and her friend who set us up and her boyfriend got two hotel rooms at The Renaissance Hotel which was write on Baltimore Harbor by Harborplace. There was going to be a parade, and then the fireworks and we had rooms right there. But that's not all. That afternoon was the Ravens first ever playoff game in their history. (This was the game that started them on their Superbowl win). They were playing Denver in Baltimore and my dad had snagged us tickets to it, albeit not sitting together. It was freezing cold, but it was a great game, we won and then I knew i would be with my wife at a nice hotel and have a nice dinner and see cool fireworks. The only downside was I was fighting a cold that day, but still a great night and an even better New Year's Day, but we will not get into that! ;)
-During the early part of the 2000's my wife and I and our friends had a tradition. We would go to Nichi Bai Kai a Japanese steakhouse for dinner on NYE, usually around 930ish since I was working a late shift during that time 11-8 and we never had off NYE. Then go to a local club called Padonia Station. That was the closest we did to tradition.
-The last NYE before kids was memorable also. My wife and I went with our same friends on a Dinner cruise out of Baltimore Harbor and anchored near the Key Bridge and Fort McHenry. We had free buffet, free drinks and music. When it was time for fireworks the boat took us just outside the main harbor, near Fells Point and we watched the fireworks from the water. Then returned to our perch by Key Bridge while the downtown revelers left and they cleared up the firework equipment. So it was close to another 90 minutes before we could get back to our car. We also had a guy sitting at the table in front of us pass out and vomit.
-NYE with kids has really been uneventful. I think we've had get togethers, one year we had our Christmas with my in-laws on NYE. This NYE is not really any different. We are going to my sister in laws house for a get together and may spend the night. We'll see.
Anyway I may have forgotten some other NYE's but those are the most memorable ones. So be safe. Get a designated driver if you had to much, and have a good New Year's Eve!
Friday, December 28, 2012
The Conspiracy of OZ
I like the Wizard of Oz. I saw it in a movie theater when they re-released it 13 years or so ago and watch it plenty of times when it shows up on TV. I own the DVD, but I don't think I have ever watched the DVD though. But I Digress. So 13 years ago I saw this in a movie theater and I discovered something about it that i never thought I would ever think. The whole film is one big conspiracy theory. Yeah it is. What's the theory though Dylan?
The Wizard of Oz is about how Glinda the Good Witch uses an unwitting pawn to cement her place as the one true ruler of OZ. And I am going to prove it to you. I am using just the information i gleaned from the film. i never read the books, I have never seen or read Wicked so of anything sounds familiar it just means I am not the only one who believes this. I also discovered this picture while prepping this blog that proves others know what I know:
1. Glinda tells Dorothy that she always had the power to go home:
Why not tell her this at the beginning of the movie so she could go home. She obviously doesnt belong there. She is scared and yet this good witch tells her the only way to get home is to see the Wizard. By the end of the movie after she succeeds in destroying the Wicked Witch of the West Glinda tells her she could always could go home by clicking her heels three times. Why keep this from her? Glinda needs her to destroy the witches.
2. There is no witch on witch violence:
To me it appears that the witches in Oz cannot kill each other. Glinda who is desperate to take over OZ needs to figure out a way to get rid of the other witches. So she calls a patsy in Dorothy to come to OZ. Her house drops on the Wicked Witch of the East, and then she needs to have Dorothy take out the Wicked Witch of the West since she cant do it herself, so she gets the Wizard to send her on this asinine trip to retrieve the Witches broomstick.
3. The Wizard is a political puppet of Glinda:
Glinda discovered him, built him up as the faux ruler of Emerald City (which she basically runs) and then when the assignment is successful, finds a way to get rid of him. That is why she picked Dorothy, who came from the same area as the Wizard. There is a bond between them so she knew they would probably head back home after installing another puppet regime in the Scarecrow, Tin man, and the Cowardly Lion.
4. You have no power here:
After The Wicked Witch of the West discovers that her sister was killed by the house she threatens the munchkins and Dorothy but Glinda shouts "You have no Power here!" Do the witches only have power in their territorries? If so I assuming since Glinda's power seems to work fine in Munchkinland that is her territory. So why was the Wicked Witch of the East there in the first place? Did she discover Glinda's plan and was trying to get the Munchkins to help her overthrow Glinda?
5. Why are the Munchkin groups named Leagues and Guilds?
Those are usually names used for armed forces groups who do war. Were the Munchkins Glinda's army?
6. Water:
If you know that Water can kill you why have a giant bucket of it in an easy to access place that could accidentally get on you. Glinda had an inside man who set it up. Makes sense to me. Because the evil witch's army at the castle (not the flying monkeys) are very happy when the Witch dies. So how hard could it be to plant an inside man to set up the water and generally lead Dorothy to the water as well as the witch?
7. TOTO KNOWS: Animals are pretty smart. I truly believe Toto knew what Glinda had up her sleeve. Only because the only cat in all of OZ happens to be at the final farewell of Dorothy. Toto knows that Glinda is up to something and perhaps if Dorothy were to stay it may screw up her plans. So the dog decides to chase this one cat and jumps off the balloon just as it takes off stranding Dorothy in OZ. Then Glinda jumps in and tells her she always had the power to leave. Why put up with the whole balloon shenanigan when she could have told her, even after she killed the Evil witch that she could always go home. Why wait until after the Balloon strands you there? Was Glinda lying when she said she always had the power? Or was it a last ditch effort to get her out of OZ? We may never know.
I wrote the original conspiracy theory 13 years ago and have no idea where I put it. So these items were the ones I most remembered. I may have had more in there but I think this small segment gets my point across.
Again I wrote this before I even knew of Wicked so if anything is silmilar to what is in Wicked it just goes to show you that more than one person believes in this conspiracy. Not so crazy after all huh?
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
I Want To Believe
I will be upfront with this right now. I believe in Aliens, UFOS, Ghosts, Bigfoot, Monsters, etc. I believe, but my rational mind keeps popping in and whenever I see a show about these things the rational side of me is all like, they are lying, it's not real, it's a hoax. There have been to many of these hoaxes that you have to start believing that nothing supernatural or paranormal exists.
I love watching Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters and sometimes they get some good evidence of Ghosts, but the majority of stuff they get can usually be explained away, or even hoaxed by them. I am not saying they are hoaxing but again the rational side of my mind is like if they never found anything the shows would be boring and the show cancelled very quickly. I want to believe that everything that is photographed, or talked about is real. But my rational mind just won't let me.
I've always believed in these things wholeheartedly but recently that darn rational part of my mind is starting to say it's not real unless you experience it yourself. You will know for sure that it is real if it happens to you. Rational mind, you may have just met your match. I believe I have had two paranormal experiences in the last week. I'm in a war with my mind because the Rational part is all ready crafting debunkers for the first experience. The second happened this morning and my mind has only just started to try to debunk it. So I wanted to write about it before it overcame my mind and I debunked it has not being true.
My wife and I have lived in our townhouse for 8 years. It was built relatively recently, in early 2000. One other person lived in it before we did. But she was moving to Florida for her work and we got it just before it went on the market. This was during the housing boom and we bought it for a good price. It has dropped since then, but we love the house and do not plan to vacate for a long time. We are undergoing a refinancing right now as a matter of fact. But I digress. So as far as we know no one has died in our house, there has been no horrible events in the area that we are aware of so it makes these experiences even more confusing and gives my rational mind a means to easily try to debunk this.
Last Sunday into Monday (9th-10th of December) I was awoken by something. It wasn't a noise but something woke me up. It was about 2:50am. My wife was sleeping soundly and our cat Jinx was on our bed. I saw her when I woke up. So the first thing I do is look to the door to our bedroom because it mght be one of my kids who is scared, or sick, or needs to go to the bathroom. So my eyes are adjusted to the dark and I swear i see the door to our bedroom crack open and I notice what appears to be a little girl peering through the opening. My first thought was it was my daughter. But I didnt say anything. Instead I got up and opened the door to see if I could see my daughter. Darkness. Both kids doors were closed solid. I turned on the hall light to make sure and once my eyes adjusted the doors were still closed and no one was hiding in the bathroom also upstairs. I turn off the light and go back to sleep. Experience # 1
My rational mind has debunked that as, the door was all ready open because the cat obviously opened it earlier to come into our bedroom and my adjusting eyes just thought it saw it move. And the girl figure could have been something outside that resembled it, maybe the combo of shadow and stairs or something. Plus on Sunday morning my daughter came into our bedroom at 7 am a similar way, opened the door and peered in then came into bed with us. Maybe I was still in a dream state and it was replaying what I saw earlier. Stupid rational mind.
However, this morning something else happened. At 4:50am I was awoken by one note of a what I could only say was a harmonica or a toy trumpet. But neither kids have those, they were still asleep, and it was only one note. If the kids were doing it they would play a symphony. The weird thing was a day or so after my first experience, my wife heard the same noise when she was exercising in our basement at about the same time but only a week before. It was rather odd.
Now rational mind is like, you were hearing things, it was noise from outside, you were just imagining it and using what your wife told you to make it real. Who knows. This one is a bit more of a stumper. So for now i am calling it an experience and I still believe in the paranormal despite what my rational mind may say.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Thanksgiving: the most underrated holiday of the year
Thanksgiving has the unlucky spot of being between Halloween and Christmas. But Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays out there. It gets overlooked all the time because of everyone's insanity when it comes to Christmas.
In the old days no one even mentioned Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. Christmas music did not get played until then. Malls would decorate for Christmas the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and finish up on Black Friday. Santa would show up right after thanksgiving as well. Thanksgiving was it's own holiday and it had respect. Now Christmas stuff replaces Halloween on November 1st. Christmas movies that normally did not arrive until the Wednesday before Thanksgiving now were showing up the first friday after Halloween. Christmas music has started on local radio stations at least a week before Thanksgiving. Advertisements on TV are now all about Christmas. Christmas is the popular big brother, Halloween is the spoiled younger child, and Thanksgiving is the cliched Middle child. And that is wrong.
Yes Thanksgiving is an American holiday. Most countries have a version of Thanksgiving, but it rarely overlaps with America's version. But we are Americans and this is our TV we are watching, our music we are listening to, our movies we are seeing. We should treat it has an American holiday and get it's popularity back instead of jumping right into Christmas as most of the world does.
I love Thanksgiving. It's not flashy like the other holidays, but it is still a very nice time, and until recently it was the point where I really started to get excited for Christmas because I knew that starting on Black Friday the Christmas season officially started. We would start seeing Christmas ads, Christmas tv, Christmas movies, listening to Christmas music. Now when Thanksgiving arrives, the excitememt of Christmas is not as prevalent since we have been knocked over the head with it.
Nowadays I really like it because it is a 4 day weekend, and I get to spend time with family and just rest. I've also had a lot of good memories of Thanksgiving. When I was younger and my parents were still together Thanksgiving always meant going to my Grandparent's house down in Oxon Hill Maryland near Andrews Air Force Base right outside of DC and Virginia. Most of the time my cousins and Aunt and Uncle from New Jersey would come down and we would have a good time. My grandfather who loved making fires in the fireplace would have one roaring for us, we would watch Football, when not watching tv we would play football in my grandparents yard or hide and seek in their upstairs. I remember one year I ate so many Andes Candies that I threw up. Now I never eat Chocolate and mint anymore. I tried radishes for the first time their before also. But as we all were getting older and my folks soon split, we would go to New Jersey for the Thanksgiving weekend. I remember one year getting terribly sick during Thanksgiving at my Aunt and Uncle's house. My stomach was so bad that on Black Friday when we decided we wanted to go to the mall and I wanted to go with them to get out of the house I could only walk hunched over. Now I know that sounds like a horrible Thanksgiving, and it was, but it was memorable. There was also the year of the snowstorm on Thanksgiving day (when we usually drove up) and the car in front of us spun out into a 360 and almost hit our car. But we got lucky.
When I was in College we stopped going up to NJ and stayed home. Sometimes we went to my Grandparents, but at this time they were in the twilight of their lives and not doing so well. In 1993 my sister got married on November 20th. She had a Thanksgiving style wedding dinner. So when Thanksgiving hit the next week, we ate Italian. Once I graduated and was still living at home, we stayed home and did a no fuss Thanksgiving dinner so I got to watch a lot of TV. At that time SYFY (which was the Sci-Fi channel at that time) aired Mystery Science Theater 3000 that was a classic show and set the stage for my involvement with the SnarkAlecs. It was a show about a guy and two puppets who watched really bad movies and made comments about it. Funny as hell comments. On Thanksgiving Sci-Fi always did a marathon Turkey movies for a Turkey day. It was also around that time for the first time ever I saw Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and The Godfather and The Godfather Part 2. Because other channels ran marathons also and I finally watched these and enjoyed them. Football was still around as well.
One constant throughout all the Thanksgiving's is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, an annual ritual that I always watched and still watch. Here in Maryland we also had the Turkey bowl, Loyola vs Calvert Hall high School football (huge rivalry) and before they stopped doing it on Thanksgiving (City vs. Poly) another huge local high school football game.
And surprise Comics also had an impact on Thanksgiving. I remember reading Gotham by Gaslight on Thanksgiving at my aunt's house (the year I got sick it just came out with art by one of my fave artists Mike Mignola). Paul Dini and Alex Ross would produce a fully painted big size graphic novel every Thanksgiving week and they were all gorgeous.
Recently the day after Thanksgiving has been the time that my wife and I take our kids to the Festival of Trees, a great event that helps give money to Kennedy Krieger a group that helps sick children. Local companies commision artists to decorate Christmas Trees and make them as artistic as possible and then sells them with all proceeds going to Kennedy Krieger. They also have vendors selling things, Christmas choirs, Celebrity Christmas story readers, a huge train garden, Santa Claus, a kids area with Pony rides, bouncy houses, Carousel's, and crafts. A great event that gets you into the Christmas spirit, the day after Thanksgiving. it goes all weekend so you can hit it at any time.
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