I’ve done a fair amount of going here and there in the last month or so, so I thought I’d share with the world:

Brighton

Detroit/Windsor

Flint

Grand Rapids

Mackinaw City/St. Ignace

Muskegon

Shepherd/Mt. Pleasant

Some of these places I ended up at just because I got in the car and started driving, but sometimes I actually had a reason for being there. I won’t go through the whole list but Mackinaw was just a whim, and Detroit/Windsor was for the Red Bull Air Race World Series, which was ultra cool. I stopped in Brighton on the way back from that for dinner.

The air race was really very cool, and although I ended up going by myself it was worth it, mostly. When I first heard that it would be held over the Detroit River I was totally excited because I’ve never had a chance to see something like this and I’ve always wanted to. Some day I hope to go to the Reno Air Race that is held each year in Reno of all places. Unfortunately Reno isn’t just down I-96 and it’ll take a bit more planning and arranging of things to work that out. So my thought was since this is the closest thing to Reno this side of the Mississippi I couldn’t afford to pass it up. Initially I was going to go with my brother but unfortunately that didn’t end up working out, and since I was fishing around for someone else who wasn’t busy AND had a passport pretty much last minute that just didn’t work out. The passport part was because I was too slow and didn’t get tickets for the Detroit side and had to get tickets for Windsor instead. I’ve got some more pictures up on flickr that you should check out.

The only bad part about the experience was on the way back. I found out after the fact that around 750,000 people showed up along the river for this event, and that really didn’t help with the traffic when I was trying to get back into the country. It took me an hour to go around a single block in Windsor when I was trying to get in line for the tunnel back, and it took two hours overall before I was back on this side of the river. During that second hour I managed to break one of the 4 lanes they had open for paying the $3.75 toll and filing into the tunnel. I ended up in an exact change lane—they only had one attended lane open—and just happened to have exactly $3.75 in change. I finally got up to the toll booth and threw my coins into the catcher and the gate didn’t go up. Instead it kicked out some of them into the “reject bin” and so I tried them again. This time nothing at all happened, so I had literally tens of thousands of people queued up behind me and unable to move since I broke the lane. Luckily I was next to the attended lane, so I threw my hand up through the sunroof and got the attention of the attendant who eventually got someone to come over and let me through. They promptly diverted traffic from that lane. The story gets better from there though, because after about twenty-five minutes in the tunnel itself, which was solid traffic all the way headed back into the U.S., I had to get through customs. As luck would have it, the customs agent I ended up with was as close to the Russian from Rocky IV as anyone you will ever meet. This guy had zero sense of humor, looked like he hated everyone, and I think he was trying to kill me with his stare. I handed him my passport and he proceeded to grill me about my intentions, where I lived, what I did for an occupation, if I was spying for the Canadians (ok not really) and stuff like that. He must have thought I was a drug mule, running guns, or a terrorist, because after the questioning he decided he needed to search my car. After he failed to find anything incriminating he came back, gave me back my passport, looked in another direction and said “goodbye” in a way that you could tell really meant “get the F@&$ out of here and if I ever see you again I’ll kill you, Comrade”

Really, traveling between the U.S. and Canada had just become remarkably unpleasant and if I can help it I’ll never ever do it again. Thanks Uncle Sam for making my life a little worse.

SO I turned a whopping 26 on Saturday, after a full 365 of being 25, and boy howdy is 26 a whole lot better! Err… wait… no 26 is no different at all, accept that (and apparently this applies to all my recently 26 friends as well) I am beginning to realize I’m not a young whippersnapper anymore and that life is slowly slipping away from me. Ok ok, so that may be a BIT dramatic, but there is this whole “wow, I’m closer to 30 now, what do I have to show for it” thing and I’m not really sure how I feel about it.

Anyway, it was a good birthday, nice to have it on the weekend and have a few days to kind of relax and spread it out a bit. On Friday after work I met Geoff at the Claddagh and we sat around at the bar there for about 2 hours and had a beer and some dinner. I had their Smothered Jameson Drunken Steak:

A 12 oz. char-grilled USDA Choice flat-iron steak topped with aged white cheddar and our Jameson’s Irish Whiskey glaze. Finished with crispy onion straws and served with red-skinned mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables.

It was really delicious and I highly recommend it if you have a Claddagh anywhere around you. After that we went back to Geoff’s and he put in a bit of work on a router table—well really more of a mobile router workstation cabinet with dust collection bin and storage—that he’s been building, and then we watched Hot Fuzz and caught the end of an episode of Flight of the Conchords which is a really entertaining show about these two guys from New Zealand who have a band. Youtube it, it’s worth it. Saturday morning I went for a walk with Andrea and then we went to the Frandor Deli for some pizza and then hit up Baskin Robbins for some yummy ice cream. After that I went by the Knife Trader and picked up a little birthday present for myself and headed over to Geoff’s again. He put some finishing touches on the router table to get it functional so I hung out in the garage with him.  Geoff got me an electric car buffer for my birthday which I can’t wait to use as the M3 really needs to be washed and waxed soon.  After that he, Jamie, and I headed to Bravo for some Italian. I had the Chicken Parmesan Milanese:

Crisp, freshly-breaded romano-crusted chicken breast with fresh mozzarella and pomodoro sauce. Served with herb pasta and shaved parmesan.

Again, really good.  When we finished dinner we headed over to Best Buy and I picked up Resident Evil:Extinction and Shooter.   I enjoyed both movies a lot when they were in the theater and since they were both on sale I figured I’d pick them up.   After BB we went back to their place and relaxed for a while and then I called it a night. All that eating and relaxing was starting to add up. Sunday I headed up to Mom’s around noon and we watched the second half of The Outlaw Josey Wales. Then we headed in to Mt. Pleasant to the Mountain Town Station for a late lunch/ early dinner. I had the BBQ Beef Brisket which was really good. The only thing about this place, this was the second time we’d been there, they give you a huge amount of food. I’d never seen so much BBQ’d beef before! After dinner we went home and watched the 4th round of the U.S. Open which was really exciting, Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate ended up tied after 72 holes and played an 18-hole playoff today, after which they were still tied, and Tiger ended up winning on the 1st sudden-death hole. Anyway, after the open finished I came home.

All in all, it turned out to be a really nice relaxing and filling birthday weekend, and I’d like to thank everyone who wished me happy birthday, you all made my 26th better.

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In honor of going to Texas in a few weeks I’m posting the lyrics to Marty Robbins’ wonderful song, “El Paso.”  I’ll be writing more about the trip as the time comes nearer and I’m sure I’ll have pictures to post when I get back, so stay tuned!  Not that you’d ever not read my blog…

Out in the West Texas town of El Paso
I fell in love with a Mexican girl.
Night-time would find me in Rosa’s cantina;
Music would play and Felina would whirl.

Blacker than night were the eyes of Felina,
Wicked and evil while casting a spell.
My love was deep for this Mexican maiden;
I was in love but in vain, I could tell.

One night a wild young cowboy came in,
Wild as the West Texas wind.
Dashing and daring,
A drink he was sharing
With wicked Felina,
The girl that I loved.

So in anger I

Challenged his right for the love of this maiden.
Down went his hand for the gun that he wore.
My challenge was answered in less than a heart-beat;
The handsome young stranger lay dead on the floor.

Just for a moment I stood there in silence,
Shocked by the FOUL EVIL deed I had done.
Many thoughts raced through my mind as I stood there;
I had but one chance and that was to run.

Out through the back door of Rosa’s I ran,
Out where the horses were tied.
I caught a good one.
It looked like it could run.
Up on its back
And away I did ride,

Just as fast as I

Could from the West Texas town of El Paso
Out to the bad-lands of New Mexico.

Back in El Paso my life would be worthless.
Everything’s gone in life; nothing is left.
It’s been so long since I’ve seen the young maiden
My love is stronger than my fear of death.

I saddled up and away I did go,
Riding alone in the dark.
Maybe tomorrow
A bullet may find me.
Tonight nothing’s worse than this
Pain in my heart.

And at last here I

Am on the hill overlooking El Paso;
I can see Rosa’s cantina below.
My love is strong and it pushes me onward.
Down off the hill to Felina I go.

Off to my right I see five mounted cowboys;
Off to my left ride a dozen or more.
Shouting and shooting I can’t let them catch me.
I have to make it to Rosa’s back door.

Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel
A deep burning pain in my side.
Though I am trying
To stay in the saddle,
I’m getting weary,
Unable to ride.

But my love for

Felina is strong and I rise where I’ve fallen,
Though I am weary I can’t stop to rest.
I see the white puff of smoke from the rifle.
I feel the bullet go deep in my chest.

From out of nowhere Felina has found me,
Kissing my cheek as she kneels by my side.
Cradled by two loving arms that I’ll die for,
One little kiss and Felina, good-bye.

So today I’m working, have been here since 7:30 this morning, and I’m feeling a fair amount better. That’s relative of course, as yesterday I stayed home from work and could hardly move my head at all without incurring a tremendous amount of pain. Today, even though I still have a lot of pain, I’ve regained a mostly full range of motion and with about two hours left at work I’ve thankfully managed not to aggravate the injury.

On a separate note, when I was at Target last week I picked up A River Runs Through It and What about Bob for $5 each and Resident Evil along with Resident Evil: Apocalypse together on one disk for $10. Of course when they put multiple movies on one disk something will usually suffer and in this case it was the listening experience. For whatever reason they cut out extra audio tracks, so the only choices were English or French but no designation as to stereo, 5.1, DTS etc. The problem is that I have a Logitech 4.1 THX sound system without a center channel and I think that the sound wasn’t being decoded right for my setup and at different times the dialogue would drop out… Ah well for $10 I guess you get what you pay for.

So every once in a while, my body reminds me that I’m not as young as I once was, much to my chagrin. Today is one of those times—well, really it began last night and will probably last a while, but I may be getting ahead of myself here. From time to time the muscles in my back or neck will tighten up or become strained or something and it will become painful for me to make certain movements. This usually varies in intensity and duration, lasting anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, and right now i get this intense shooting pain in my right trapezius muscle anytime i essentially move from one safe position. I find myself walking around with my head pushed forward and down, cocked to the side in a most unsettling fashion, and that really doesn’t help the annoying factor. The other thing that makes this phenomenon really extra annoying is that it tends to be pretty arbitrary and unpredictable, and is typically brought about by some random and seemingly innocent behavior. Last night, for example, I simply extended both arms above my head in a stretching motion and WHAM! instant pain. Sometimes it’s been as simple as bending down to pick up the remote control, or just running on a treadmill. The first time I really remember something like this happening was in 2002, during the midterm of my advanced arc-welding class. I was leaning against the wall of the welding booth, kind of cocked to the side and bent over, either running a T-joint around the base of some plate or doing a vertical up or something, and I remember standing up part way through the mid-term and I was just hit with this intense pain that I had to tough out to finish the welds. There was another time when I was on the driving range warming up for 9 or 18 holes, hitting the ball really well, and in the middle of a backswing I kind of fell apart. I still played the round, just to see if I actually could, and aside from hobbling to and from the cart like a hunchback, I actually hit the ball pretty well. I’m sure that some day I’ll find out exactly what’s going on, but that’s for responsible adult-types who have medical coverage. Sigh, I can dream though…

Hrmm, mayhaps THIS is what i’m dealing with.

Some of you may be familiar with Penny Arcade, a web comic devoted to video games, the people who make them, and the fans who play and love them. PA has been on the internet for about ten years now, and I’ve been following them almost the whole time. For as long as I can remember I’ve had my homepage set to their site so as to get my thrice-weekly dose of biting gamer commentary spliced with a healthy dose of expletives.

Well, apparently in the last year or two the boys at PA decided that the time had come to branch out from reviewing and assailing their beloved video games and to become fodder for the industry themselves. With that in mind then they just last month released On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode On, their first crack at the other side of the video game industry. I’ve just started playing it and so far I’m highly satisfied. The premise of the game is that you live in this mid-1920’s city of New Arcadia and one day whilst minding your business a giant fruit-violating robot, an uber juicer if you will, stomps on your house and renders you homeless, filling you with rage and aggression. You then join forces with Gabe and Tycho, the two main characters from the Penny Arcade comic in order to hunt the giant robot and save the day.

One of the unique features of the game is the combat system, which really gives it the feel of an old RPG as opposed to an action game. It’s kind of an intelligent turn-based system in which you equip attacks or special items in an effort to defeat pint-sized juicers, mimes, hobos, and possessed trash cans. The unique interface makes combat pretty entertaining as well as a bit challenging at times but once you get a feel for it it becomes a bit easier.

While I’m not terribly far into the game so far, I can definitely say that the $20 I payed to download it has been well worth it, as much for a fun, unique gaming experience as for my long-standing love of the Penny Arcade comic.

I’m going to start by saying that I don’t really have a statement of purpose or a game plan here. I’m not sure exactly what form this will assume, whether I’ll be posting most every day or just when something life altering happens, or on a basis which falls somewhere along the continuum, in between those two extremes.

I’m not really sure what spurred me to do this now, certainly wasn’t a lack of other things to fill my time, that’s for sure. I used to blog on Myspace once in a while before I killed my Myspace and then came out of retirement for a second tour there. I don’t think I’ve put up much of note there since I’ve been back, and I really don’t write anything on Facebook as I don’t like the interface very much. I suppose that’s the real catalyst here, that if I was going to do anything it was going to be on my own terms, as is the case with so much that I do.  I’m not sure how I feel about just writing down everything I do every day, not sure I’d even be able to get through that without falling asleep, so we’ll just have to see what happens I guess.

Today begins a new page in my life, literally. Hopefully it will be full of high adventure and intrigue, splashed with a bit of knowledge and fair amount of entertainment value.