Happy Anniversary and Etc

Happy Anniversary to my wife first of all, to whom I've been married to for six years now, but have probably loved my whole life. Just didn't know her before that. She's my best friend, the better half of me who fills up all the deficiencies I have and patches all my insecurities with her love and trust. She truly loves me in all my core whether we be living in a mansion with exotic pets and nude sculpted man servants or in a tiny little bungalow with a magazine and half a couch. I'm happy that she's my one and only and like I told her in the car, it's really like I was supposed to marry her because it just would not make any logical sense for me not to.

We don't have much planned for today because we were out yesterday at Bellingham and I worked a super full week, 50 hours of joyous awesomeness, but we are going to a fancy movie. That is, a regular movie in a fancy theater, where there are only a group of twin seats, with dinner and probably nude sculpted man servants as waiters, serving up exotic pets. Who knows. But we'll be spending some time together and having some couple time, since my mom's kind enough to watch them kids. It should be fun.

Yesterday was a good day as well, because we got to go up to Bellingham and my wife got to see her girls pretty much the whole day, the kids got to play with each other, and I got to play Rock Band. We didn't get home till 1am, which was a bit of a treacherous journey, since on the way back it actually snowed hard between Bellingham and Burlington, somewhere in there. The freeway was whited out almost, and it was like driving in warp speed with all the hard snow flying at us. We were actually chugging at 40mph and slipping a little. Insane.

Between the awesome Chinese food, the mind numbing RB, the really good Papa Murphy's pizza, perhaps a rather dubious history making tidbit is to be entered into my autobiography. Jake had purchased a moped and he was silly enough to trust me on it, so I took my first moped ride yesterday. Went up and down and street and completely fogged up the helmet with my nervous pants, but it was fun. Wouldn't get one for myself anytime soon though, I got really cold just from going at a leisurely speed.

Well, better get to the anniversary plans.

This will be my positive post, since I bitch about everything all the time and struggle on a daily basis not to be bummed about something or another.

So I am hyped about Dansen visiting from Japan and dropping by to see me, possibly even to help with my 24 hour film project. And we definitely will have to do one podcast together, at least one, at the same location, which is just wild. We were talking about it after the podcast and its crazy because dude's never even seen my kids in person, only through photos and the miracle of skype. I've known dansen for 9-10 years now and I think through the podcast, I've come to appreciate him a lot more than I had when we were both in college. He used to be the crazy wacky friend with hordes of friends but now I realize he's just a passionate, canny, curious, intelligent and stubbornly fair (if not slightly warped) person who really has a pretty big ticker. If anything, the podcast really laid us out to each other. Its funny though, I think Pizza Bento is less entertainment than confessional, since we really just talk about ourselves for an hour and just not worry about content or such frivolity. But yeah, totally psyched about him visiting for sure.

I sure love me some Loco Rocco 2. Got it yesterday and its one of those things that just makes you smile. And I relate to the yellow blubbiness of the whole affair too.

We were at Arbys this morning and Alex asked about a bag that was sitting next to me, and I thought he was asking if that was me on the bag. But what he actually inquired was whether the Asian man wearing glasses on the bag was me. I think he was just being silly, but I do wonder if he would mistake someone else for me.

Something I was thinking about recently, is my look. I've tried a lot of different looks throughout my life, and I think its just different degrees of nerdiness I've come up with. I never got past that, and really shouldn't attempt to. A lot of people seem to "discover" that I am a funny guy, or a cool guy after they spend some time with me. They never say, wow, you sure lived up to my expectations based on how cool you look, but rather, you're not as big a nerdbag as we thought you were. But I think I'm okay with my appearance now, being how I'm a dad and husband now. More important things to worry about.

Worked 50 hours this last week, likely the same for this week, but that's ok. A little OT gives me a little bit of Loco Rocco.

IMG00146.JPG, originally uploaded by diegomcnamara.

Something the act of consuming is just an empty rush that I can't help but partake in it.
Man, the kids are being a little tough right now. Alex didn't get to play more video games so he broke into tears. Then Zoe couldn't wait till tomorrow to open an old present so she burst into tears. Then Alex just up and leaves the dinner table without asking if he can be done. Sigh. At least its my Thursday. I think the kids are going to bed on time tonight.

This weekend is probably the last peaceful one before work gets ballistic, so I'm going to enjoy the crap out of it. If fun isn't oozing out of its orifices then I'm going to make it.

Sigh, I'm bored.

With work possibly ramping back up next week, I'm both grateful and fearful of what that means. Happy that i'll be racking up some overtime again, so Disneyland is returning back to sights as our financial padding gets a little cosier, but I know that the more I work, the more my personality and charm, what little of it, dissipates along with the fatigue and momentum of the work week. But it should only be temporary, which is a good thing. After that it might stay busy but the emphasis to push as many units out should slow down.

I've been doing a little more of Killzone, and rather enjoying myself here and there. Whatever it is, this game manages to balance a little more out, so that the emphasis is as much teamwork as well as personal improvement. Its a little like golf, except guns and grenades are in place of clubs and balls. I just achieved my medic badge, which I'm a little fond of. I'm the sort that prefers to aid than to destroy, but mostly because I'm better at the former.

I'm getting pretty pysched about the filmracing deal. Though no actors have been finalized, I do have a handful, maybe about 10 people who want to do it. So that's encouraging. Now I just have to figure out what to do with them all.

Rambly McRamshackle

There's a lot to talk about, but the concept of structured prose is escaping me currently, so I'm just going to spill rhymes like a sick poet, yo.

Right.

So, B and M came down to spend the day but since the icy conditions impeded their way home yesterday, they stayed the night and got their Rock Band on. Is always nice to see them, and Kieran is one happy little baby, smiling at everyone who glances his way. The kids no doubt had fun too, staying up late and partaking in recreational drugs.

B and I went to watch Watchmen yesterday, and I got exactly what I wanted to see, a live action version of the comic. Actually, I never did read the comic, just the animated version that probably skips a lot of details. The film skips even more, but its a vivid recreation as far as I can tell. I'm also fairly impressed with the action, though the skinny dude who plays Adrian has the kind of face you'd rather see on the side of a milk carton than on a movie screen. But Patrick Wilson, the guy who plays Rorshack, and the guy who plays the Comedian are good. I don't know how to perceive it as a film though, kinda wish I went into it completely fresh and see how the film would've worked without prior knowledge of plot or characters. But still, glad I got to see it.

Well, did put up some notices on craigslist on acquiring talent for the 12 hour film fest, and the response has been better than expected. About 10 acting interests so far. I don't really know what I'm planning to do quite yet, whether to be selective of my cast or simply cast everyone and have a giant esemble piece. Who knows. I think the awesome side effect is that I meet these people and I can use them for later projects. I guess I'm a little versatile that way, I can write things that fit people, rather than have it the other way round. I suppose I'm playing up to people strengths in a weird way, instead of challenging them to step outside themselves. But I got another week to go to review these "auditions", then I'll have to come up with something.

Had no idea today was daylight savings. Kinda lost an hour. Sigh.

Picked up "Killzone 2" for the PS3 at Best Buy today, and they were selling generic 42 inch Plasma TVs for 600 bucks. We were this close to getting it but my conscience, who I sometimes call my wife, decided we should probably wait till the next holiday season, which I didn't mind since I'm really on the fence either way.

Having a relatively relaxing weekend. In between watching Blu Ray, fragging on Killzone, and having too much sleep, not much going on. The night before I did dream about sleeping too much, sorta like a movie within a movie type experience. Which might explain why yesterday I had a tremendous headache, because my brain was fooled into thinking that I slept for much longer, like the ballpark of 15 hours.

This morning I popped in Ratchet and Clank and didn't realize that I was only two levels away from finishing the game. So after almost a year, I finally finished the game. Its a good series though. Now I just got the other games to finish. I really gotta stop acquiring new titles.

Wife and I were talking yesterday about Alex and how hard its been lately. There were a couple of incidents in the past week whereby he openly defied my wife and I by pulling away from us even though we told him he couldn't do something. I guess in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't amount to much but we just feel like we've never been those parents that encouraged that type of behavior. We thought we usually curbed it fast enough to not be an issue. Perhaps its just a matter of contrast as well, in that Zoe is always wanting our company, always wanting to socialize and please whereas Alex is just concerned about what he wants, when he can have it, and we are just obstacles in his quest. We were even talking about how we have to be careful about what we say so that we don't get him worked up. For instance, if we see a plane in the air, we have to think: If we point it, will he be able to see it before it gets out of view? If he doesn't see it, he will obsess about it incessantly, whining about how he really wanted to see it. Just yesterday, we left the hair salon and my wife opened the door and Alex said, "I want to open it!" Even when my wife said, I already opened it, he pulled away from her and pushed the door further. It just confounds me a little that he is so aggressive about his impulses.

Anyhow. Feeling a little bloated from Dim Sum. Time to tackle bills now.

Meet David.

See that man in the photograph? The Fat American?

No, not that Fat American, the other Fat American, the one pacifying his hunger with a corndog.

You don't know him, but his name is David.

Actually, it's Charlie. His name was David, before he changed it after his divorce in an attempt to reinvent himself. He also shaved his head but if he had known that half of it would never grow back, he might have resorted to something less drastic. Like buying a new hat.

This is the 9,669th photo ever taken of him, and because the primary subject of your photo is of you and your lovely family, posing in front of the inflatable cow at the fair, I'm not sure if that counts. He's a collateral artifact of your otherwise well composed photograph, but I suppose you get what you get when you ask strangers to take snapshots for you.

He'll have 1,339 more photos taken of him, before he ironically falls to his demise due to a corndog, much like the one's he's finishing in the picture. But set your natural assumption aside, because it's not the all-beef, lightly breaded foodstuff that kills him. A sizable chunk does lodge in his airway, but it's the sharp blow from a bystander that sends him tumbling headfirst into the sidewalk that ends him. His brain will bleed internally from the impact, and he never gets a glimpse of the Former Special Forces retiree who does him in.

"It's just instincts," the man explains to the cops. "I figured a sharp chop to the neck would send the food sailing out of his maw." He skirts prosecution because of the Good Samaritian law, but would sometimes break down into tears when he gets a visual trigger. His grandson's fifth birthday will be commerated by Grandpa frantically snatching corndogs out of little hands, pitching the barely eaten joy-on-a-sticks into the pond, and then some heavy heaving in between sobs. Children and Koi will not be amused.

Five minutes and 33 seconds before David was immortalized in your photo, his moral core was tested. While entering the bathroom stall, he spotted a wallet sitting on the dispenser. He swung the door open, looked to see if there was anyone was searching for something, then closed the door behind him. He opened the wallet, sifted through receipts and found 4 $20 bills and a handful of singles. He found a driver's license and studied the face on the photograph. Seems to be doing okay financially. Glancing at the toilet, the decision came easily. He had no problems taking from a man with that face and doesn't flush. He exits the stall, deposits the wallet into a trash receptacle, and heads toward the bathroom at the opposite side of the fair.

But first, he thought while fanning through the bills in his hand, a corndog.

Funk.

I'm in it. Hope I will have a better, more productive week next week. Feel like I'm not maintain or making any connections. Sigh.