NASCAR Pictures

I told you that I'd put up some pictures and here they are...

This is where we parked at. As you can see, they provided a toliet for us to use.

However, since we got caught up in traffic, I was not able to check out the facilities. We were running late and had to sprint to the track to get in there before we missed anymore of the race.








Here is a picture of the cars as they raced towards the green flag. I know it's hard to tell from this picture but I had great seats.












Here is my boy Jamie McMurray screaming out of the pits. Jamie went on to get a sixth place finish for the day. He had a very strong car that would really come alive about 20-25 laps into a green flag run. Had his pits went a little better he may have been battling for the lead.









Here is one of the first wrecks of the day. There were only two actual wrecks and a few blown tires. This is typical for Atlanta though, it's a fast clean track that gives drivers a lot of freedom around the track. It makes for some great, fast racing, but doesn't display the crazy wrecks some people want to see. Me? I don't like wrecks because people can get hurt. I'd rather see the guys leave unscathed than have to brace themselves for a 190 mile per hour impact.





Here is Dale Jr. in first place racing across the finish line. I don't have anything against Jr. but I don't really root for him either. Boy, I'll tell you though, people love the guy, love him. There is a sea of red, and if Jr. isn't leading that sea is angry.










Here is what one fan thinks about Jr. leading the race. He had a really stong car and lead the race for the most laps. At one time he had half a lap lead over second place. However, that second place car was Carl Edwards, and he got better and better as each lap went by.









Here is Carl Edwards and his team celebrating after their win. Carl does a backflip off his car when he wins, and I have a picture of it, but you can't really see him. I thought this picture was better anyway.










With the race over it was time to go back to the city whence I came.

It was a good day. However, as I said in my earlier post, I wish I had worn ear plugs.

Ring a ding ding

I went to the NASCAR race yesterday. It was yet another in a series of interesting times are NASCAR races.

 

First, the traffic was so bad that we missed the start of the race. We didn't get to our seats until about lap 20 or so.

 

Second, the woman four seats down to me was arrested for smoking marijuana in the middle of the stands. This was ticking off me and many of the people around us. I mean, it's one thing to do whatever you want when you are at home, but out in public, I mean, come on. There were little kids around and families, there's no excuse for acting like that.

 

Third, my hearing is shot. My ears have been ringing non stop since we left the race yesterday. I usually get headset scanners so I can listen to the radio broadcast and drivers over their radio, but I cheaped out this time. Boy, that was a big mistake. I should have spent the 10 bucks to get ear plugs. Hopefully this will not be a long term problem.

 

I took a lot of pictures of the event and loaded them to my computer. I'll post them up later today.

 

Looks like Bush picked his new nominee to the Supreme Court today. This guy sounds like the right wing hard liner that all the reds were screaming at Harriet Miers for not being. Should be a pain in the ass for them to get through senate confirmation hearings. My question is this, if Harriet Miers was "the most qualified" in his initial search, does this mean  Samuel Alito  is the second most qualified person? We're getting the second string?

 

Personally, I don't like the looks of this guy. He's got arrogant white rich guy written all over him. I could be wrong, but I'm probably not. What kills me about all of this is really how much of a hypocrite the right is on judges. They say they don't want judges to legislate from the bench (i.e. make rulings that force things into accepted law that can't pass through legislatures) but want to do the same f'ing thing with abortion. They can't get abortion banned through the legislatures so they want to get a judge in place that can over rule Roe v. Wade. Sounds like legislating from the bench to me, but that's right, it's okay for them to do it because their republicans.

 

What amazes me is the amount of time and money put into stopping women from having abortions for children that these same people will refuse to help raise once they are born. But that's the mantra of the republican right, love the fetus, hate the child.

 

Personally, give out birth control freely to all who want it and you won't have to worry about all of these abortions since people would be able to have sex without worrying about unwanted pregnancy (see posts from a few weeks back). But that's just me, and I must be a heathen.

 

As I said, I'll have the pictures from the race up later today.

 

-O

New fun with photos

As I said a few days ago, I recently got a new digital camera.

Well, today I’m going to try and figure out how to upload images and whatnot to the blog. This should help spice things up around here.

Anyway, for those who are interested, here is Casper, our dog.

And here is a picture of me in the guest room looking just terrible.

Eww, gotta to something about that extra skin under my chin.

-O

Libby, Your Ass Is Served

Eat that, fanboy.

 

Rove, your ass is next.

 

-O

Morning News Update

Here are the stories that people will be talking about today:

 

 

1. President Bush "reluctantly" accepts Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers's request to withdraw her nomination!

 

2. It took 88 long years, but the Chicago White Sox are the World Series champions after beating the Houston Astros in a 1-0 nail-biter in Game 4.

 

3. Several world capitals have condemned Iran's leader for saying Israel should be "wiped off the map," and Israel's vice premier has called for Tehran to be expelled from the United Nations.

 

Enjoy

 

-O

Another big weekend on tap

While I may not 'love' going to my job, time sure does fly once you get past Monday. It's like, before you know it. it's the weekend, and there is plenty going on this weekend.

 

First and foremost, it's Bebe's birthday on the 30th. She turns 27, just like I just did. I already got her a birthday present, actually, she bought it herself and I just gave her money for it. This is the only true way to be sure she gets exactly what she wants, and that's what I'm most concerned about.

 

Second, we're going to go out for dinner for her birthday, but we'll probably do it on Saturday. I think we're going to go to Colorado Fondue, which should be fun. I always enjoy going to fondue with her, we used to do it a lot back in Orlando.

 

Third, my neighbors behind me are having a Halloween party Saturday night. While neither of us have costumes, we're both going to go for a while. I think it will be fun.

 

Fourth, the NASCAR race is Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway and I have some of the best tickets money can buy. My neighbor John and I are going to go and it should be a really really good time. I'm looking forward to it.

 

Another big weekend on tap...should be fun.

 

-O

A new book

I'm a big fan of Al Franken, and have enjoyed all of his books.

 

He has a new book coming out, titled The Truth: With Jokes.

 

Amazon let him do a video introduction to his book.

 

I plan on getting this book this weekend.

 

Click here and enjoy his video introduction.

 

-O

Oh, I forgot

I forgot to say I've got a digital camera now.

 

So, I can take some pictures and put them up on the site.

 

-O

Taking back Monday

As some of you know, I've been an avid fan of professional wrestling for about ten years now. I'm also a subscribing member of a wrestling web site called PWInsider.com, you'll see a link to it on the left side of this screen. Well, I've had a a lot on my mind in the world of wrestling recently, and so I submitted a guest column to see if it would be published. If it is, I'll go ape shit, since to me personally, it's a big deal. I'll keep you posted, I should hear back sometime today.

 

I'm continuing to work on my new script. As of yet it's untitled and will probably stay that way for a long time. I can already feel myself much more experienced this time around than on my last script. The scenes are much cleaner, the dialogue is better, and the timing is better as well. Hopefully I've got a story that is strong enough to keep people interested for 90-120 minutes. I guess time will tell.

 

Been quite chilly down here in the ATL this week. I've got to get a jacket. Macy's is having a sale this weekend so Bebe and I are going to go check it out.

 

Really excited about the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend. I've got great seats and can't wait to go.

 

Weather today is windy, temps in the low to mid fifties, and most cloudy skies. Tonight, dropping down into the low forties with possibilities of frost in the morning, windy.

 

-O

 

A great birthday weekend

I had a great birthday weekend.

 

Things started off with the whole crew here at work going out to have drinks. Bebe joined us as well which made it all the better.

 

After that, Bebe and I went to the video store. I was going to rent a movie and a video game with a Hollywood Video gift card I had received as a birthday present. However, Hollywood Video gives you a free rental on your birthday, so I got the game for free. In addition, my gift card wasn't working, so instead of making me wait, they gave me the movie free too!

 

Saturday I bought some Plum wine and Bebe and I went to rent another movie. This time I got Batman Returns, highly recommended by my brother Dan, and the gift card still didn't work. So I got ANOTHER FREE RENTAL! Went home, had some wine, watched the movie and enjoyed the evening.

 

Sunday I watched the race and did a few errands. Then, Sunday night it was time for the TNA Bound For Glory PPV. What a great show with a world title switch at the end to boot! Some good wrestling action and I encourage you to get the replay if you didn't see it. Really, a solid show top to bottom.

 

So, all in all it was a great birthday weekend.

 

Woke up today with a bit of a sore throat. The season change is hitting Bebe and I pretty badly, neither of us slept well.  Since I wasn't feeling well I went into work about an hour later, the extra hour of sleep did me well though. I figure it was that, or call in, and I didn't want to call in.

 

Been an okay day at work too...might stay a bit late though to warp some stuff up. Not sure about that yet though.

 

Looking forward to hearing the indictments later this week. Should be a good time. Some people are finally going to get theirs.

 

-O

Today is my birthday...

I'm 27 today, and I can honestly say I fell older. Not in that "man am I sore" kind of way but that "I feel like an adult" kind of way. I slept really well last night too, which I think may have a lot to do with how I feel today. I was driving to work this morning, and maybe it was because of the song on my stereo, but I just felt different, at ease, calm. I felt like, for some reason, the job I was going to, as much as I don't like it, is not really part of me. My life, as it stands right now, isn't it for me and I'm going to experience much much more.

 

I started my next screenplay while I wait for my friend in L.A. to look at the latest draft of my other one. I'm about five pages into it and I think it's going to be really good. As I mentioned in my summary a few weeks back, it's more of a psychological thriller, with a bit of a love story tossed in, and some excitement. The more I think about it the more the pieces start to fall into place. It's weird though, I used to try and imagine where people would get these ideas for these crazy movies that are made. To be honest, it's not that hard. Just think of an odd or disturbing situation, and expand from that. That's what happened with this story. I thought up a man who woke up inside someone else, or so they think, and I just expanded out. I figured out what is needed to make that situation plausible, thought up supporting characters, and just went from there. Once I got that down, everything else sort of filled itself in. Then again, I've always been known for having a very vivid imagination, so maybe it is harder than that.

 

Should be a nice day out, and I'm looking forward to it. After I get done with work, it's off to Bailey's for drinks with the work crew and Bebe. After that, I'm going to Hollywood video, rent a game and a movie, stop at Publix to get some wine or beer, and I'm off to enjoy a nice birthday weekend. Should be a good one.

 

-O

 

Son, you're going to jail!

I promissed it, now here it is... Mr. Delay's mug shot.

 

 

In addition, I've added a link to his arrest warrent.

 

Click here if you want to read it.

It's a big day

Today is the day Tom Delay is going to be booked and have his mug shot taken.

 

I will have his image up on the blog as soon as possible.

 

I've been waiting for this day for years.

 

I can't stand the man. I think he's a hypocrite and he's ruining the Republican party.

 

In unrelated news, tomorrow is my birthday. I turn 27. I feel old, even though I'm not "old." Oh well, at least it's only 27, not 30.

 

For those who are curious, Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn are rumored to be together. That's nice, it's good to see Jennifer rebounding after Brad Pitt. While I don't consider Vince in the same category as Angelina Jolie, I think he's more in line with the type of guy that Jennifer should be with.

 

I finished the third draft of my script last night. I'm eager to let it sit for a bit and have my buddy out in LA look it over in the next few weeks, and tell me what's working and what isn't. I'm going to move onto the psychological thriller I mentioned a few weeks ago and get started writing that.

 

Isn't fall a great time of year?

 

-O

Whoa Nelly!

I sent back my Event Monitor today. I haven't had any palps today either, which is nice.

 

Work has been absolutely crazy the last two days. Thus, no time to put anything clever up on the blog.

 

TNA wrestling announced they will have a two hour special to air on Spike TV soon. This is huge! I really enjoy their product and hope they continue to grow. The more competition the WWE has the better in my eyes.

 

I turn 27 Friday. Can't say I'm too fond of this, too close to thirty. My goal is to be writing screenplays professionally by the time I'm 30 though, so I've got 3 years to make it happen, which is a lot of time.

 

A Cat 5 hurricane in October? This season has just been crazy.

 

Evidently, the Valerie Plame investigation should be coming to a close soon. Expect the announcements on indictments soon, maybe as soon as Friday. I think this is going to be HUGE, even though Bebe disagrees with me. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time she told me I'm wrong.

 

Still have sold my extra set of NASCAR tickets to the race next Sunday. I really hope I don't have to eat them.

 

-O

On to bigger and better things

For the first time in a long time I didn't watch WWE Monday Night Raw live last night. I recorded it on my DVR, so I'll check it out later this week or something. There are a few reasons for this. First, the product has just been sub par for the past several months and I'm getting sick of it. On a two hour live program there is maybe 30 minutes of actual wrestling. I've just decided this is unacceptable. Second, there is a new wrestling promotion on national TV. TNA Wrestling airs Saturday nights at 11:00 on Spike TV. It's a one hour show with at least 40 minutes or wrestling, and good wrestling too, not stupid matches. It's a smart wrestling program with fresh faces, fresh angles, and phenomenal in ring action. 

 

At any rate, I didn't have the show on last night which gave me time to work on my script. I finished editing the most recent red lined version of Draft 3, which is nice. I'd been sitting on that for a while now, so I was glad to wrap that up. I had some cool ideas about a plot device that I introduced in this draft, but I'm not really satisfied with yet, that will help me get closer to what I think is a more polished product. So, I'm going to dive back in and revise an important scene pretty drastically in order to use this device a bit more. When I get that finished, I'll red line it again and then send it off to my friend Ryley out in L.A.

 

After that I'm going to get started on the other screenplay that I mentioned a few weeks ago. This will give Ryley a while to find time to read through draft 3 and then provide some feedback. It took him about a month or so when I sent him Draft 2 to look at. This will give me a good amount of time to really start to put this new project together. I think it's a really great idea and I've been able to figure out some of my story problems, so I should be able to dive right in, knowing exactly what I want.

 

Had a few palps while at the gym yesterday. The interesting thing, they didn't feel the same as the ones I usually have. They felt, lighter, not as hard...if that makes any sense. Either way, I'll be sending my monitor back tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get the results a short time after that.

 

-O 

Heart Update

Not too much to report from this weekend. Did a lot of stuff around the house.

 

The NASCAR race on Saturday night was good and man, was there some great college football this weekend or what!?

 

I haven't had my event monitor on since Friday. The main reason for this is that I think I have an allergic reaction to the gel. When I have it on too long my chest gets all tight, and it hurts to cough. If I take it off, that goes away in like 30-45 minutes.

 

On the plus side, I haven't had any palpations since Thursday, which is a plus. However, I'll be back in the gym today, and I'll have my monitor on. I get palps in the gym a lot, so I just want to have it on to be sure not to miss any.

 

I did get my blood work back. All my levels are normal, which is good. Make me think this stuff is stress related more and more.

 

I'll keep you posted on further developments.

 

-O

This is sad.

Click here to read the link.

 

Sometimes people don't know when to let things go.

 

-O

Hilarity from Bebe

In case you didn't see the press conference yesterday, here is a brief recap:

 

Press - "Scott is Mexico south of America?"

 

Scott - "The president believes that Mexico is a strong ally."

 

Press - "But is it south of America?"

 

Scott - "We value Mexico as a neighbor and an ally in the war on drugs."

 

Press - "Scott is it south or not?"

 

Scott - "Some people don't want to focus on how strong our relationship is with Mexico, don't want to cover the stories of how we work with them, and instead want to focus on other issues, that's not what the president is concerned about."

 

Press - "What the fuck?"

 

Scott - "Thank you for coming, have a good afternoon."

Welcome Grams!

I would like to welcome my Grandmother to my blog. I had to explain to her on the phone that "Letters From The Left" was me. Now that she knows, she can share in the hilarity of my posts! Remember Grandma, you shouldn't post anything on the internet with a persons real name. Anyway, Grams, you might not like this post today, so, be cautioned.

 

I had a few palpitations after eating lunch today. The first was while I was pumping gas, the the second was while I was in the car. I was a bit surprised since the one that happened while I was pumping gas was pretty strong and lasted a while. Fortunately, I had my event monitor and recorded the whole thing. It's really neat that all I have to do is play it back over the phone and the computer knows what to do with it. Weird.

 

I don't know if you've seen this story yet, but some woman out in Arkansas just gave birth to her 16th child. As much as I respect the right for someone to procreate as much as they want, this is wrong for so many reasons. First, I don't want to hear for one moment that these two parents have been able to spend enough time with all of their kids. Two, in a time where there are more and more people who are having trouble having kids, this just rubs their nose in it. Three, why do you need to have sixteen children? Is the father that concerned with keeping his lineage alive that he must have sixteen kids? The days of having to procreate to keep the human species are long gone sister, you need to either have him fixed or wrap it up. Four, it's just not cool. There are instances of overpopulation all over the world, and this just shows they are thumbing their nose at it too.

 

I know that their argument is that God says birth control is illegal, and if two people want to have sex they need to realize that the woman may become pregnant. I think this is a crock of shit for more reasons thatn one. First, I've never seen a passage that says birth control is wrong in Gods eyes. As a matter of fact, I think God would promote birth control. Then again, I don't think God is part of the "sex is dirty" school of thought either. You know why I think he'd promote it? Because it prevents babies from being born to people who are not ready for them, or don't want them. A baby should not be punishment for a morally casual lifestyle. It's not fair to the parents or to the child. Not to mention two loving adults, married or not, who want to have sex should be able to without having to worry about having kids.

 

This leads me into my problems with people who don't support providing birth control to the poor or the public at large. The poor can't afford to spend the ten to fifteen bucks on a package or rubbers, let a lone birth control pills. They're busy thinking about how they will eat, or figuring out how to pay the next rounds of bills. The poor are still going to have sex, just like the rich. They have as much a right as the rich do. However, the rich can afford birth control. If anyone thinks out there for a minute that all these girls walking around in suburban high schools don't carry birth control think again. I think many people would be astounded by the amount of suburban girls who are on the pill. I bet that the girls in the inner city schools would love the chance to use the pill. The key difference, they don't have the money.

 

You see, the fight against poverty should start with trying to preventing unwanted pregnancies. This goes back to even Bush's culture of life crap. First, every unwanted baby you prevent from being born (and I'm talking about preventive in the sperm doesn't get to the egg sense, not in the abortion sense) does two things. It allows that mother to continue on with her life normally, which includes work, school, and with the income she is accustomed two. It also allows the mother and father to not be forced to have a child they may not be ready for, may not want, or may not have the means to care for. Second, unwanted children in most inner cities and rural areas do not get the nutrition or health care that people outside of the city are accustomed too. I'm speaking in generalities here, so for all I know factually I may be wrong, but I bet I'm not. When I use the term unwanted children here, I am referring to children that the parents were not ready for because they cannot afford them or outright don't want them. This means that for health and nutritional needs, the parents will have to use local, state, and federal programs to aid them. This takes money away from roads, schools, homeland security, whatever, you get my point. Third, unwanted children are probably not going to get the interaction with the parents they need in order to learn the proper social skills to prosper in school and society in general. This will cause them to be a distraction to those around them, and in many cases lead to lifestyles that will lead to run ins with the law and with incarceration. Again, this takes tax money away from many other important functions. Fourth, they will probably have kids that they don't want 15-20 years later. It's one big cycle, and unless it's broken it's bound to repeat itself.

 

So sit back and ask yourself, what makes more sense, spending an insignificant amount of tax revenue to provide public birth control, or large amounts of money caring for these children and their children the rest of their lives.  I think it's an easy choice. You can continue to preach and teach your children and family the values of abstinence only lifestyles, but help the people out who don't believe like you or won't listen so that they don't make big mistakes. It's not fair to them, and it's not fair to their kids. Don't ask yourself if God is on your side, ask yourself if you are on God's side.

 

Now, if you'll excuse the rants of a crazy guy, I've got to get back to work.

 

-O

Decent day today, although I don't feel very rested, which is odd since I thought I slept very soundly.

 

Anyway, my pectoral muscles hurt a lot today. I guess I worked them out better than I thought at the gym on Monday. I've always liked my muscles feeling sore, which I guess is somewhat odd. To me, it lets me know that I did my job at the gym. In addition, when you feel a muscle sore you can almost feel every single muscle fiber in the muscle. So, when you flex them, you know if you're getting a full contraction. Also, having the pain present helps your brain in figuring out if your contracting all the muscle fibers possible. I guess I'm not making any sense. Bottom line, sore muscles helps you learn how to flex.

 

I think the video game I rented on Friday is late today. I think it is. I'll have to be sure to get it back to the store today.

 

I picked up a few palpitations on my event monitor yesterday. It's pretty neat. It has this beeping sound when you press the record button and you can hear your hear beeping. The freaky part is when you get a palpitation and you hear the sound bleep and whatnot instead of what it normally sounds like. The pitch of the sound is pretty high and it freaks the dog out, we think. I mean, there's no way to know for sure if he's freaked out, but he doesn't act normal when it's on.

 

I watched Boston Legal last night. Great show, just great. I really wish sometimes I could see how these first few episodes where like before they had to edit them to remove out as much about Monica Potter and Rhona Mitra's characters as possible since they left the show. I'll always wonder why Monica left, I thought she was great. I guess with Candice Bergman there, she knew she wasn't going to be the main female lead anymore. Candice is just so great. Who would have thought Betty White would commit murder? I do like that they added in Julie Bowen though. I've liked her ever since I saw her in Happy Gilmore with Adam Sandler.

 

Work has been tough.

 

-O

Don't funk with my heart

Been busy the last couple of days, too busy to take the time to throw up a post.

 

However, I did get my heart monitor today. I'll be wearing it for two weeks. Its much better than the one I had to wear last time.

 

This one is called an event monitor. Basically, it has a specific set of memory and when you start having palpitations, it records the last 30 seconds prior to pushing the button, and the next 30 seconds after you press it. Then it gets stored in the monitor, it can store up to 4 events. When I record an event, I then go to a phone and do this thing that submits the data. I won't bore you with the details.

 

At any rate, this thing is about the size of a beeper, and thus MUCH more convenient to use. It just sits on my belt buckle and there are only two nodes instead of six or seven. I'll be able to go to the gym, go out, and do whatever I want. It's nice.

 

Hopefully I can get some good data so they actually have something to go over the next time I come into the doctor.

 

Other than that I had a decent weekend. Nothing too much to report.

 

-O

Hello, God? Hi, this is G. W.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- A Palestinian leader quoted George W. Bush as saying God told him to invade Iraq, but said he did not take the U.S. president's comment literally and saw it only as a reflection of his faith and commitment.

 

Now, I know the White House is going to dismiss this comment, and they should, it sounds crazy. Scott McClellan has already states that "He's [the president] never made such comments." The problem is, of Commander in Chief has already stated, in front of a live TV audience mind you, that he has been told by a higher power to do certain things. These "certain things" include running for Governor of Texas, and for the President of the United States, and he consulted with his "heavenly father" prior to the deadline passing that started Gulf War 2.

 

Why is it that if anyone on the street says God told them to do something they are locked up, but when the President says it everything thinks "Oh, well, then that must be what we have to do?"

 

I have a real issue with the types of messages I've been hearing around where I live, and I have a firm belief that this stems directly from the Pro War God sentiment that emanates from the current messages within the Executive Branch, and many times the Legislative Branch, of the Federal Government. I was getting my hair cut the other day, and the woman cutting my hair got into some political discussions. Well, I don't think she realized that she was doing so to be honest, but what she said let me know what her political affiliations were.

 

She said that she really only listens to talk radio when at home. She said she loved Shawn Hannity, and that he was a great American. I don't know if you've ever listened to Shawn's show, but evidently in order to talk to him you have to state that he's a great American on the air before you speak, it makes me want to gag. I think I'm a great American, but I don't make people say it before they talk to me. The woman went on to say she liked Bill O'Reilly, as well as Neil Boortz, although he can be a hit too harsh for her sometimes. I sat there politely and nodded, saying that all three had very successful shows. She went on to say she likes watching Fox News because they show both sides, and that she feels like CNN lies to her. She then asked if I heard about something that had happened in Iraq that day. I can't remember what specifically it was, I think there was a bombing at a school.

 

At any rate, I said I hadn't. She went on to brief me on it, and said that she just wishes all of those people over there were dead. I asked her why, and she said that "She had been told that's what God wants." I had no idea how to respond to a comment like that, other than to know this woman would not be cutting my hair anymore. I asked, "Why would God want to kill a country of people." Her response was something similar to them "being evil" and "worshiping the devil."

 

Now, I don't know who told her this stuff, but last time I checked Jesus was not "Pro War." As a matter of fact, you can argue that he was the first Army of One. Except, the corp. he belonged to was the Peace Corp.

 

I don't like the war in Iraq, but we're there and now we can't leave until the job is done. My problem with this woman was that her excuse for this was was because it had religious pruposes. There was a religious reason to this war and God gave it the go ahead in her mind. I can't say what it's like in the Baptist Church, but I know I never heard that war was okay when I was going to Catholic Church. So where the hell does someone get an idea like this?

 

The question isn't if God is on our side, but if we're on God's side. I have a hard time believing that God wants war, or that he would sanction any war, regardless of the reason for it. Jesus preached two main arguments in his life, love one another and work to prevent poverty. Everything he says goes specifically back to one of those two things. How does war work into this ideal? I'm sure some people around me here in the South  would just call me a wussy, and say "Real Americans their love war and their guns." They would then pull over their giant SUV and hoard themselves with McDonalds. I guess what little solitude I'll have in this whole thing is that when these same people are on their death beds, their rib cages and organs failing with each passing minutes due to the fat that encompasses their hearts and the weight of their giant belly pushing down on their diaphragm, is that I can walk by, healthy, skinny, and without a gun, and go "sucks to be you."

 

-O

Son, you only have three months to live

So, I went to the doctor today to get my heart checked out.

 

For the second time they took a EKG and looked at some things. The doctor said he saw something that "could" be something, but most likely isn't.

 

He explained a bunch of reasons why some people get a lot of palpitations, and some people rarely if ever get any.

 

At any rate, they took some blood, are going to screen for some things, and are going to put me on a Holter Monitor.

 

A Holter Monitor, I hope I spelled this right, basically monitors your heart for 24 hours. You get this little diary where you record any times something odd happens, and the analyst goes back and looks at that section of time for the activity.

 

The last time I had one of these I happened to not have any events that day. However, with how frequent they are now, I doubt I'll miss one this time.

 

Other than that, my blood pressure was good, 120/80, and my other vitals were fine. He did ask if I was feeling okay since my temp was 99.5. I said I was feeling fine, but my girlfriend always complains I'm too hot. He said it was probably nothing.

 

I'll know more when the blood work come back. He said their checking sodium levels, potassium, and some other things. He said for a man my age, and in good shape, I shouldn't be having these on regular basis but that the blood work will help to see if maybe its something in my diet that is causing them. 

 

I admitted I love spicy food, salty foods, and drinking wine on the weekend. He mentioned that some people have a sort of "withdrawal" symptom after drinking a few glasses of wine or beer. The next day or over the next few days after consumption, some people get a symptom similar to alcohol withdrawal that makes them antsy and can cause palpitations. I'd sure hate to have to stop drinking wine, I really enjoy a few glasses on the weekend. At any rate, he they won't know ore until the blood work comes back. 

 

After that, they're probably going to send me to a cardiologist to look at some stuff.

 

Until then, I'm still here and still breathing.

 

-O 

New Movie Idea

So I've had this new idea for a movie floating around in my head and I'm scared that if I don't write it down soon I'm going to forget it.

 

It starts off a few years into the near future, say 2011.

 

So there's this guy, lets call him Brian. Brian leads a pretty good life. He's single, has a good job, a good amount of friends. He's in his late twenties to early thirties. He's not married but has been involved with a woman named Amanda for over a year and plans to propose soon.

 

Life couldn't be better, especially for a guy from an orphanage who can't remember anything before the age of ten.

 

However, Brian hasn't been sleeping well lately, and he's starting to get really bad headaches. His whole life he's had this reoccurring dreams of this large oak tree and people playing badminton near it. The dream is almost the same every time, sometimes it has the same people, sometimes it doesn't. The odd thing is that he's never in it, it's always other people. It's as if he's watching them. His headaches also trouble him. There is no reason a guy his age in good shape should be getting headaches like his. To make things worse, he's starting to get nose bleeds when these headaches occur.

 

One day at work Brian gets a head ache that won't go away, and it's getting worse. He makes an appointment to get checked out at the doctor, this is just getting to be too much. He's walking down a hallway to go to a meeting, the pain is tremendous, something is wrong, he's got to get help. He grabs hold of a rail to stop from falling down. He tries to call for help, it's too late, he's fallen and is unconscious, blood running from his nose. Someone calls 911.

 

Brian wakes up. He's lying in a bed, a white gown covering him. He must be in a hospital. He sits up, the room looks odd for a hospital. He notices steel mesh on the windows. The doors locked. What's going on? He walks over to the bathroom. He passes a mirror and freaks out. Who was that? He looks back, that's no him, that's not his face. But it is, everything he does is reflected in the mirror. He goes into the bathroom, splashing some water on his face.

 

He bangs on the door, screaming for help. Nurses and orderlies come into the room. They're astounded and don't know what to say. Why do they keep calling him Henry? What is going on? What's with the outfits they have on? They're so retro. Brian breaks loose, of the grasp of the orderlies and runs into the hallway. The furniture, the people, the clothing, the paint, everything looks so retro, like out of the fifties. The orderlies come out of the room after him, he runs towards a large room and over towards a window. Brian tries to open it, it's stuck, he can't escape. The orderlies retrain him and start to pull him back from the window and then he sees it, the tree, from his dream, and there are people playing badminton down below.

 

What is going on?

 

Brian is sedated, waking up several hours later. He is back in the same room he escaped from. A doctor is sitting on a chair, two orderlies are over by the door. No point trying to run.

 

The doctor asks  if he knows his name. Brian responds. The doctor explains his name is Henry, not Brian. Brian doesn't understand. He says, who he is, what he does, where he lives, his birthday July 6th, 1985. The doctor doesn't know what to say, he explains his name is Henry, and for the last twenty years he has been here, in this special hospital, since he was a child, about ten years old. The doctor explains how important this is, since, Henry is autistic, and never acknowledged the outside world before today.

 

Brian doesn't believe him, he repeats who he is, what his name is, what his birthday is, July 6th, 1985 . The doctor walks over to him, explaining his birthday can't be correct, the year is only 1952, Henry was born in July 6th, 1921.

 

Obviously there is much more to the story, but this would be the basic opening of the movie, the first thirty minutes or so.

 

-O

Today isn't a good day

I try to avoid talking about work on my blog. However, today I have too, but I'm not going to get into specifics, just generalities.

 

I'm not happy here. I don't think I have been for some time. The worst part is that I actually like working with the people I work with, I just don't like my work. I know most people will say "I don't like my job either, you just have to deal with it." I've never bought that line of shit. I'm of the opinion that if you don't like something, and don't do anything about it, then there is no one to blame but yourself.

 

I don't know if I'm going to leave or stick it out. Nothing makes me want to stand up, give my boss the finger, and walk out. It's nothing like that. I'm just not happy with what I'm doing right now and I don't see it chaining in the near future, regardless of what anyone says around here.

 

I'm been in a crappy mood all day, and it started the moment I walked in. Inter office communication is a problem here, and I'm tired of it. This is too small of a company for me to have to deal with how bad it is.

 

At any rate, my weekend was pretty cool. I rented Steam Boy on DVD. It's from the director of Akira, one of my all time favorites. A lot of tough mental and ethical questions throughout the movie. I would have liked more action, but it wasn't too bad. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

 

On the video game front I rented Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike for the XBOX. I wasn't aware that this is an add on of sorts to Ghost Recon 2. It's a Tom Clancy game, which means it tries to be as realistic as possible. I'm not into FPS (first person shooters) all that much usually. Of my game collections I have three, Halo 1 and 2, and Metroid Prime. I don't really consider Metroid Prime a first person shooter either, since it plays so much like an adventure game. Although this is actually a third person shooter, most of the shooting takes place when you're zoomed in, ala first person perspective. The single player missions are hard, it took me five or six tries to beat the first mission. However, once I slowed down and bit and realized that in real life I couldn't take down five artillery cannons, and clear a village of hostile forces in under twenty minutes I was able to beat it. As I said, it's a Tom Clancy game, which means if you shoot someone, they're probably going to die, yourself included. Unless you really graze someone, they're going down. The graphics are pretty good, and the sound can be top notch at times, but sometimes the game play is unbalanced. For example, you have two to three other special forces troops with you on your missions. They are computer controlled and tend to be pretty dumb when it comes to shooting at bad guys. The online play is cool, as long as you're not stuck with a bunch of cheap guys who spawn camp and stuff. I'd give this a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

 

I'm trying to get my hands on a copy of Burnout Revenge for the XBOX, but haven't been able to. I'll give a review when I get a chance.

 

I watched the race at Talladega yesterday. It was a good, albeit wreck filled, race. I fell asleep in the middle of it, but not because the race was boring. I had taken a Benedryl and had two or three beers as well. That put me right to bed. I thought Jamie was going to pull it out, but when the caution came out with three to go, I knew he didn't stand a chance. His car wasn't very good on restarts. It was nice to see DJ get the win again. It's been too long for a guy that talented to get a win. I respect his clean racing mentality and DJ truly is one of the "good guys" in NASCAR, one of the few they'll have left after Mark retires this year.

 

I also saw the first episode of TNA Impact on Spike TV. It was pretty good for their first show. It's nice to have something other than WWE to watch for a change. While it wasn't a great show, it was darn good, and much better than what WWE has been putting on. Lets hope everything goes well and none of their big stars get injured.

 

WWE has their 3 hour Homecoming Free PPV tonight on USA. It should be a cool show if not for it just being something different. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the action that's going to go down, including the Edge vs. Matt bout, Foley coming back, and the Stone Cold/Hogan altercation that is bound to happen to start their build toward a Wrestlemania match. However, after this week I don't see WWE putting on a good show again.

 

Got a doctors appointment Thursday for my heart. I want to get my palpitations officially checked out. I thought they were going down but I keep getting them, and it's really starting to get annoying. If I go to the doc and they say "no big deal, you'll just have to deal with it" I'll be cool with that. I've just got to be sure, you know?

 

Enjoy,

-O