How Do You Spell That?

LA trip cancelled...I got bumped from the team going out there.

Posted by Brian at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last night was entertaining. Around 6:45, Nathan went into convulsions while sitting on DeAnn's lap. Anyone who has had small children will tell you that is one of the scariest moments of your life. Kids were in a panic, but DeAnn and I grabbed Nathan, ran to the car and sped off to the hospital.

Enter the hospital and the staff starts stripping him down to his diapers. Temp is 103, and he decides to puke all over the bed at this point. Got him cleaned up, just in time for the doctor to walk in and says he has a double whammy ear infection. Since his temp is above 103, he also orders a chest X-Ray and CT scan of his noggin. This is where the fun begins.

First, to stop the vomiting, they give him a suppository. Then, just as he's falling asleep, it's time for a chest X-Ray and CT scan. Ever had to hold a baby down to give him medicine? Now imagine doing it while the kid is spun around three ways to Saturday. You get the picture.

So after the strapping down, spinning, unstrapping; we're led back to our room to await the results. An hour passes and the doctor walks in looking at his head and asks if he's hit his head recently. No, nothing outside normal 2-year-old crap.

Posted by Brian at 7:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The cop/secuity guy tackling the genius who ran onto the field just before the Falcons punted in the 4th quarter.

Posted by Brian at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

And it took a Fark Photoshop Contest for me to be sure of it...

Airbus is planning to install "shops, a casino, and rooms with double beds" on the new A380. Here's a few problems...

#1. Look at all that crap left out in the store. Remember those pesky FAA regulations that say things have to be stowed away at take off and landing? Imagine having to stock/unstock the store on every takeoff & landing. How about the idea that people that will normally buy your crap at 38,000 feet might not even be on your plane since a good chunk of them can now buy share time on a Gulfstream-V?

#2. How big is this "shop"? 30 feet x 30 feet? Hell, you could squeeze another 30 pax in there and have only a marginal increase in fuel costs. What do you think the airlines are going to do? Sell trinkets to first class passengers with a small total profit or cram 30 more seats in that space and make an extra $15,000 per flight.

I know I should just let them goin and fail. But when you see the hype for "oh look at all the space, this is the future of flight..." you know that most airlines (except for Richard Branson) are going "Screw the gift shop, I can cram another 30 pax in that spot and make my yearly bonus" and will be done with it.

Posted by Brian at 10:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I vote fake

Posted by Brian at 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now you know why Airbus is confident about their sales figures for the new Airbus A380 Double Decker Plane.

Weren't these the same guys who thought the Concorde would be gobbled up in droves. Oh well, I'm putting my money on Boeing's vision of what air travel will be in ten years.

Posted by Brian at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So through some quirk of nature and business, I've been blessed/cursed with visiting the City of Angels in early February. But since I'm going to have one evening of downtime; I have no clue what to do while I'm out there. Any suggestions? I'm going to be staying around LAX, but I do have a rental car and a few hours to kill. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Posted by Brian at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

1. So, what did your kid do to get kicked out of his parents house?

2. Oh, it's too bad you can never know the real joy of being a parent... (my personal favorite)

3. Oh...you have a foster/adopted child. Is there anything I should be concerned about?

4. You're taking your foster kids on vacation WITH you?

5. Aren't you worried about you foster child stealing things from you?

6. Do your kids know they are adopted? (usually asked in a loud voice right in front of said children)

7. Man, I don't know if I could handle taking care of someone else's mistake... (again, usually said right in front of the same kids)

8. How can you love your adoptive kids as much as your biological ones? (I don't know, take a swing at one of the adoptive ones and lets see what happens)

If you are an adoptive parent, or know one and have seen these questions asked, feel free to chime in.

Posted by Brian at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Michelle Malkin points to a story that has always been one of my darkest fears ever since we decided to start adopting kids. In this post, Michelle is discussing the plight of Evan Parker Scott, a 3 1/2 year old boy who was removed from the only home he has ever known to be handed off to a biological mother he has never known, to move halfway across the country to a home he's never seen.

Why did this happen? Because the biological dad's parental rights were never termnated.

I don't know which firm screwed the pooch on handling this case; but my guess is they are in for a massive suing from the adoptive family for failing to carry out the simple task of discovering and terminating that dad's rights. The scary thing is, it isn't that hard to do. Just throw up the possibility that he will be required to pay child support from the child's birth through when he's 18. In almost all cases, this throws up a red flag for the dad who will then look for some amicable way of getting away as quickly as quietly as possible.

One trap that adoptive parents fall into as well, is complacency with the system. Too many times, I've seen terminations and adoptions drag on for years; only inviting the scenario described above. Adoptive parents need to not only ask questions, but also try to be a advocate for their child. There's nothing wrong with calling weekly/daily to find out how their case is doing. There is also nothing wrong for calling out "Bullshit" (a'la Penn and Teller) to the system when the state or the attorneys say "You Don't Need to Worry About That".

As a parent, it's your job to worry. We fought pretty hard to get Nathan's adoption done and to make sure everything was completed (father's rights signed off, mom's rights terminated, all the pieces lined up as far as medical coverage is concerned) and were a complete thorn in their sides up to the moment right outside the courtroom doors.

As an adoptive parent, I will live with the uncertainty that some activist judge might skew the law and try to undo a perfectly legal case in order to reunite an abusive parent with one of my kids. But the likelyhood of that happening is pretty small, seeing as how we are the only family they rememeber, and the court system is now required to take in the child's best interests as opposed to the current feelings of regret from the birth parents.

Posted by Brian at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Remember when I posted about this last time??? Well, silly me decided to e-mail John about giving it another shot and seeing if we could make it work. John was open to me jumping back in, and I went ahead and started working on the old material to give it another shot. We started playing again a couple of weeks ago, and from what I thoguth at first things were going well. But during that practice, I had a feeling that things were not all well with the band. There were several comments about how the band didn't sound right with three guitarists and I knew that I didn't help things by being a bit rusty (hey, I hadn't played with a band in several months, so I was a bit nervous/out of practice in playing with a band).

But I guess that along with numerous other issues had pretty much settled things. Last week I was in Chicago all week and couldn't practice. Hey, it was work, that happens. But, while I was gone in Chicago, I decided to take a step and significantly upgrade my sound with a new Line6 Flextone III amp since the guys had trouble hearing me last time. Hey, it's a nice toy and I really have been wanting one for a long time.

So this week I call John and find out we're practicing Saturday night. Grab my gear, pack up, head out the door and get to practice on time. Through some weird communications/misunderstandings, the guys thought I was skipping out of practice "again" (which again is humorous since I've only ever forgot about one practice in the entire time I knew these guys). So after a series of goofy stares from the guys, I grab my gear and load in. Take about five minutes to setup and everything is good to go. Eventually Jamie, the drummer walks in and looks at me like I had a dead raccoon on my head. OK, the message got out that I wasn't going to be there again, but hey, John heard it wrong so lets play. I get out my keys and start playing some backup behind John's acoustic stuff.

But the entertainment starts when I bring up that some of the stuff sounds weird with three guitars playing the same thing.

Here's an aside for those of you wondering why three guitars sound strange in a band. It doesn't sounds any "different" from two guitars, but it's more of a waste of musical space where you could have someone playing acoustic or at least doing something different to expand the music. It also tends to drown out some other people in the band with the "Wall O'Guitar". It's not impossible to deal with, and actually when you pick the right music and write the right parts, it's an awesome combination.

OK, at that point Jamie chimes in that three guitars do sound like overkill and that he thought I came back to only play keyboards. Well, even though I've played piano since I was six, guitar will always be my first love and I thought I was brought in as a guitarist who plays keys instead of a keyboardist.

At this point, the conversation descends into a full-fledged bitch session about my commitment to the band and that I was very rusty on guitar last time we played (which again, I admit to freely since I hadn't played with this band in a few months) but was even more funny since no one had actually played a note together that evening "as a band". Jamie at this point says I'm not practicing enough (to which I retorted that I didn't know I needed to bring in a timesheet to practice) and he finally throws down the gauntlet that "He didn't want to play with me".

At this point I thought about going into full eight-year-old mode in mocking his ass, but I figured honor was the better part of valor and started packing up my stuff. John starts giving me a hand and we get the stuff out the door with little fanfare.

I don't know what to think about the whole mess. I was mostly laughing about it in the van on the way home since all the objections to my performance were, well, completely unproven and ridiculous. The awkwardness of the situation was interesting to watch and honestly I was a bit hurt by being rejected. But that's just how things happen in music. My theory that really good musicians are usually head-cases does still stand. Since I'm pretty sure I've got my head screwed on straight, maybe they are right about my performance. :-)

Well, I've thrown another ad up on the Fort Wayne Bands website tonight and tomorrow I'll start the process again by digging around for "Open Mic" nights in the area. It's frustrating, but it's part of the process. Something that I hope never gets old for me.

BTW John if you read this, take my advice. This music isn't your forte. There are tons of places that would love to book a Allman Brothers/Skynerd/Doobies cover band. Do it before you regret NOT doing it.

Posted by Brian at 7:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Now that my Chicago Bears are reading up on tee times as opposed to playbooks, it's time for my attention to move over to my second favorite team, the Indianapolis Colts.

Wizbang points to an article in the Boston Herald where the Patirots are purposely leaving their field open to the elements to "slow down the Indy offensive machine".

Of course, the New England papers are really missing the truly "Offensive" behavior of the groundskeepers and the Patriots organization. Being someone who has played football in mud, it's a great way to turn your legs into directions they never have been before. Bill Bellichek has coached for years in this league and when confronted with the field issue, he quipped:

"My job is not to pull weeds."

Hey Bill, I thought it was your job to "win games and take care of your team". I'm sure you will be awash in euphoria as somebody on the Colts (or the Pats since they do play offense) gets a gruesome leg injury which knocks them out for the game, the year, or maybe even their career. I'm sure the people of Indianapolis will completely understand that your inaction regarding the playing field was only a "natural advantage" you took when Marvin Harrison or Brandon Stokley is out for the next season due to a horrible knee tear. Or maybe Edgerinn James will revel in his year of free agency where his marketability is downplayed from the year of rehab he has to do to his ankle.

What would be the best outcome from this? Possibly the NFL flying someone to Foxboro and seeing the condition of the turf. Maybe they give them a polite reminder about how inadequately prepared turf can casue you to lose homefield advantage or even destroy someones career.

After seeing this, I hope the Colts completely smoke the Pats. And I'd love to see CBS zoom in on the groundskeeping crew if/when someone gets hurt to wonder aloud if things would have been different if they would have just taken the necessary precautions.

Posted by Brian at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A team who I thought would never make it into double digits in the Win column for the season is now a serious playoff contender?

The "P" word in Chicago....twice including any sports team in two years....

Posted by Brian at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Man, this is going to be a full rant day today...

Last night on the much maligned by yours truly but still heavily watched Law & Order, the DAs office fired one of the Assistant DA's for being too "touchy feely" when it comes to prosecuting cases. Fine, she wasn't doing the job in the manner the DA wanted and that was the end of her employment. Then she follows up with the favorite gem on the blogosphere today...

"Is it because I'm a lesbian?"

What the hell is he going to say?

"Umm, yeah, even through this has never even been hinted to throughout your entire existance on this show, my Gaydar was going off full tilt when you walked in the room and I knew that I had to follow my standing orders from my evil white homophobic overlords and fire your ass immediately."

What a f*cking joke. Serisouly, what was the benefit of throwing out that little statement in the show? I can't think of a beneficial reason to throw that in unless:

#1. There's going to be another spin off called "Law & Order: Suing the Sh*t out of Fred Thompson for Sexual Harassment"

#2. Assistant DA Serena Southerlyn is going to take on the most heartbreaking cases of civil injustice during a very special "Joey".

Anyone else see the show and get the same (or different) reaction?

Posted by Brian at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I fail to see the "outrage"...someone please enlighten me. A kid wears a costume to a party as a Nazi. Whoopie...

Estimates are now at over a quarter million dead from the Tsunami and this stupid story is the lead on Fox? At least CNN and MSNBC have other stories (such as the mudslides and Tsunami) much higher on the priority list...

And yes, I know the Sun is owned by Murdoch...

Posted by Brian at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While I know Mr. Jobs loves the dramatic, it's painfully obvious his webservers don't.

Oh yes, I will be plunking down some coin for a miniMac in the near future.

Posted by Brian at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Enjoy

"We're going to need a whole lotta shrubbery to complement that..."

Posted by Brian at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Since it's been a couple of weeks from my last post, I figured I would put up a single post covering everything that happened over the holidays.

• Good Christmas with the family with the added bonus of having all six kids home for a few days.
• I've found out just how strange of a person I am through my incessent downloading of the Tsunami videos that have been popping up on the Internet.
• Best way to spend New Year's Eve, a quiet evening with the kids on the couch.
• I got unfired from the band.

Oh well, more later since I'm in training.

Posted by Brian at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)