I've been a big fan of talk radio for a VERY long time (gee--I wonder why!??). I grew up in a household where talk radio was on a lot. My dad used to listen to the old Ken and Bob Show and old Paul Harvey ("Gooooooood day!!"). My brother was a HUGE fan of that sportsshow and I can't think of the name...it'll come to me but it was on in the 70's. I actually have a tape of my brother calling in to this guy--I'll have to dig this out.
Anyway, I've been a long-time listener to KFI 640, more STIMULATING talk radio. Have been around long enough to have listened to the old Mother Love show, Joe Crummy, "Combover Boy" Tom Leykis (yes--he used to be on KFI a long time ago), Laura Schlessinger (before she was famous and was on at NIGHT), Dr. Ruth (YES!!! HER!!!), Scott and Neil (would have been good had they just stayed together!!!), Karel and Andrew!!!, oh my gosh--I'm a talk show geeeeeeeeeek--Stephanie Miller (KFI's lone liberal, but MAN she was funny!!), Mr. KFI, Phil Hendrie, Marcia Clark, blah blah blah. Anyway...have been such a fan of talk radio that I've been known to call in several times over the years. But I've never ever been a GUEST.
Well...I'm just a tad jealous of my friend Jon Dumitru who I have talked about on this blog before. His blog is great, and he's actually the one that motivated me to start my own blog and has had the duty over the last 2 years to make sure I update this on a regular basis. LIKE ANYONE CARES!!! Anyway, he's a city council member for the city of Orange as well as the Mayor Pro Tem, and he's been at the center of an issue that otherwise SHOULDN'T be news but because our society is hell bent on making sure we're politically correct about everything, it HAS turned into an issue. In any event...Jon was a GUEST on the John and Ken Show yesterday afternoon...and in case you want to listen to this friend of mine of 14 years, who yes, spent $20 of his own hard earned money and had a "money dance" with me at my wedding in 1995...go to:
http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/LOSANGELES-CA/KFI-AM/JK1128075P.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=LOSANGELES-CA&NG_FORMAT=talk&SITE_ID=616&STATION_ID=KFI-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=KFI_AM_640&PCAST_CAT=Arts_and_Entertainment&PCAST_TITLE=JOHN_AND_KEN
Anyway--good job Jon!! And while I'm at it...I might as well make sure I'm abundantly clear about where I stand on "illegal aliens". Package it in any form you want to, call them whatever you like (migrant workers, undocumented immigrants, whatever), make them to be the martyrs all you want....I say ROUND THEM ALL UP, AND DUMP THEM ON THE CAPITAL STEPS OF WASHINGTON DC AND SAY "YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU DEAL WITH THEM!!!!!!!!!!!" No no no...wait a second...we can't depend on our Federal Government for much of anything anymore, so let me restate my goal. Round up all the illegal aliens, and DEPORT THEM BACK TO THEIR COUNTRY OF ORIGIN and show them the LEGAL way to enter our country. And while we're at it, actually FOLLOW FEDERAL LAW and CRIMINALLY CHARGE COMPANIES that hire illegal aliens. Just as Jon said on his guest appearance yesterday--you CUT OFF THE SOURCE OF THE MONEY, and they'll go away. Trust me. They'll go away.
It's sort of like gas prices that everyone and their mother bitches about. You want to spend less on gas?? STOP DRIVING SO MUCH!!!! Real easy.
I'm out
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
I FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!!
I remembered this stupid video clip from several months ago and just found it...DANG I'm good. For all of you Star Wars fans...this is for you. FREAKIN' HILARIOUS!!!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Uhhhhhhhh...I'm speechless
So, in the modern area of band and drum corps, we in the "biz" are assailed by flashy ads and slick marketing. Watch this next "promotional" film for Conn--it's part of Mystery Science Theater 3000, so you'll have to a have a "special sense of humor" to truly appreciate this. But I think you will agree...
WE'VE COME A HECKUVA A LONG WAY!!!!
(Special note to Pat Seidling...don't EVER put out an ad like this!)
WE'VE COME A HECKUVA A LONG WAY!!!!
(Special note to Pat Seidling...don't EVER put out an ad like this!)
No good will come of this...none a'tall
Look...this is just not right...
If you ever see or hear two cats doing this, I would highly suggest leaving the room, possibly the house, or even consider going to a different city. No good can come of this behavior.
If you ever see or hear two cats doing this, I would highly suggest leaving the room, possibly the house, or even consider going to a different city. No good can come of this behavior.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Ya think police pursuits would come to a grinding halt??
If this was barrelling down a highway at you, I think you'd be wise to PULL THE HELL OVER!!
Friday, November 16, 2007
Oh I went and did it now...
So last night after I posted my little previous tizzy fit, I popped in Transformers--The Michael Bay Experience thinking that maybe watching big giant robots fart around on the screen would relieve me a little of the awful stress and frustration that's currently chomping a hole in my stomach. Nothing a little Diet Coke can't fix--don't worry. But in any event, I was sadly mistaken. I ended up irritated...here's why.
--The chick that plays the "love interest" in the movie...yeah...good ol' what's her name. Very memorable. Other than the fact that she was clearly about 30 years old, and NOT a high schooler, she spent every seen looking like she was just waking up. Her emotional stretch in the movie was to cry--but only a little bit--when Bumblebee was getting pwned by the Section 7 numbnuts. Which, a scene in and of itself, was supposed to create an emotional stretch for me as I was supposed to feel sorry for the poor underdog Bumblebee. The only thing I needed to stretch was my back--it was sore. There was NO bonding between me the viewer and Bumblebee.
--Bumblebee. WTF. You have Megatron, BoneCrusher, Star Scream, Ironhide, Optimus Prime...and Bumblebee. Do I need to point out the obvious?
--Michael Bay sucks. If you get past the explosions and quick cuts, there's this little thing in movie making called continuity. I could never, for the freakin' life of me, figure out the "timing" of things. His movies are so disjointed timewise that you're wondering "How the hell did the sun go down so fast?!?!?" Case in point. The Mitwicki/Nitwicki whatever lead charter played by LeBouf whatshisputz goes to a "party" in a park in his car with a nerd friend, who thank GOD IN HEAVEN is only in THAT scene. Sun is CLEARLY up. CLEARLY it's day time. Hot chick who becomes love interest storms away, he goes and picks her up, there on a road, and seemingly he's going to take her home. Next thing we see, the sun is just beginning to wane, BUT AMAZINGLY THEY SHOW UP ON A DIRT ROAD ON A HILL WITH A TREEEEEEEEE!!! For God's sakes. WHY?? HOW??? Anyway, the car spurts and stalls and you have the famous "hood scene" as LeBouf is practically salivating and oogling the 30 year old high school senior who is checking out his engine. Scene lasts about 4 minutes (too long) and the next thing you see is them driving away from this hilltop spot as the car miraculously begins to work and he continues is gallant ways and takes her home. Assuming of course they were in the same city, the NEXT shot is him pulling up to her house, as if HOURS had passed--it's TOTALLY night time, and I'm making a big damn deal about this because it ties in to what the broad says as she gets out of the car. "Well, I had fun today..." FUN!??!?!?!!? Fun doing WHAT????? You looked at his engine and got a ride from a dorky nerd. That sort of non-sequiter crap is sooooooooo Michael Bay. He must be sitting back and say "JUST GET TO THE EXPLOSIONS PART!!! HURRY UP!!! I DON'T GIVE A RAT'S ASS WHAT THEY SAY!!!!"
--The "cube" is of extreme importance to the Autobots and Decepticons. Fine. Bumblebee is, as the underdog should, able to be saved from the Section 7 dips and led to where this giant building sized cube is. He/IT puts his/its hands on the cube, and magically, it Rubik's cubes itself down to a loaf of bread size box. Fine! I CAN BUY THAT. But uhhhh...I'm not a scientist, but I'm thinking if this cube fell out of space, which it did, and landed deep in earth, which it did, than I'm thinking it ways more than a few pounds, right? Right. Let's pretend it way a ton. 2000 lbs. This thing "transforms" and folds and rotates down to the size of a box. Shouldn't that box weigh a ton???? I didn't lose mass, right? Just volume. Krikey.
--Why give the stupid cube to a stupid dorky human to run about 20 miles to some stupid building to hand off to the military while two Autobots run defense for him. I would have just said, "Uhhhh, Ironhide, you're the one with the freakin' bazooka hands, YOU TAKE IT." It was DUMBEST plot device I had ever seen in a movie. If it was soooooooooo stinking important, what the hell is human running around with it. Not to mention the shot they showed of the building to take it to was approximately 1 block away, but the nerdy kid seemed to run from here in Brea to Abileen freaking Texas. JUST GET TO THE BUILDING ALREADY.
They filmed part of the movie in Pasadena. The school exterior shots were of Marshall Fundamental on Allen Ave near my dad's house, and it's where my grandfather was a coach and teacher back in the 30's and 40's. The car lot where Bernie Mac sold the Camaro (Bumblebee) is on Lake Ave, just south of Eliot Junior HS. Oh yeah--and part of the pursuit in the first part of the movie was filmed in downtown Pasadena, specifically on Oakland St. just south of Colorado by the First United Methodist Church, which you can clearly see in the background. I know the homes in the neighborhood are of Pasadena Gamble house Mission style Craftsmen blend. I am geeking out here, hanh?
Anyway...there you go. My take.
Oh wait--one more observation.
--John Turturro...sometimes critics will politely say about an actor "...he really chewed up the scenes" or "...was really over the top". For Turturro in Transformers, his acting was so bad that the previous two descriptions fall FAR SHORT of what TRULY described his embarrassing take on being a "man in black". Yikes.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...now I feel better.
--The chick that plays the "love interest" in the movie...yeah...good ol' what's her name. Very memorable. Other than the fact that she was clearly about 30 years old, and NOT a high schooler, she spent every seen looking like she was just waking up. Her emotional stretch in the movie was to cry--but only a little bit--when Bumblebee was getting pwned by the Section 7 numbnuts. Which, a scene in and of itself, was supposed to create an emotional stretch for me as I was supposed to feel sorry for the poor underdog Bumblebee. The only thing I needed to stretch was my back--it was sore. There was NO bonding between me the viewer and Bumblebee.
--Bumblebee. WTF. You have Megatron, BoneCrusher, Star Scream, Ironhide, Optimus Prime...and Bumblebee. Do I need to point out the obvious?
--Michael Bay sucks. If you get past the explosions and quick cuts, there's this little thing in movie making called continuity. I could never, for the freakin' life of me, figure out the "timing" of things. His movies are so disjointed timewise that you're wondering "How the hell did the sun go down so fast?!?!?" Case in point. The Mitwicki/Nitwicki whatever lead charter played by LeBouf whatshisputz goes to a "party" in a park in his car with a nerd friend, who thank GOD IN HEAVEN is only in THAT scene. Sun is CLEARLY up. CLEARLY it's day time. Hot chick who becomes love interest storms away, he goes and picks her up, there on a road, and seemingly he's going to take her home. Next thing we see, the sun is just beginning to wane, BUT AMAZINGLY THEY SHOW UP ON A DIRT ROAD ON A HILL WITH A TREEEEEEEEE!!! For God's sakes. WHY?? HOW??? Anyway, the car spurts and stalls and you have the famous "hood scene" as LeBouf is practically salivating and oogling the 30 year old high school senior who is checking out his engine. Scene lasts about 4 minutes (too long) and the next thing you see is them driving away from this hilltop spot as the car miraculously begins to work and he continues is gallant ways and takes her home. Assuming of course they were in the same city, the NEXT shot is him pulling up to her house, as if HOURS had passed--it's TOTALLY night time, and I'm making a big damn deal about this because it ties in to what the broad says as she gets out of the car. "Well, I had fun today..." FUN!??!?!?!!? Fun doing WHAT????? You looked at his engine and got a ride from a dorky nerd. That sort of non-sequiter crap is sooooooooo Michael Bay. He must be sitting back and say "JUST GET TO THE EXPLOSIONS PART!!! HURRY UP!!! I DON'T GIVE A RAT'S ASS WHAT THEY SAY!!!!"
--The "cube" is of extreme importance to the Autobots and Decepticons. Fine. Bumblebee is, as the underdog should, able to be saved from the Section 7 dips and led to where this giant building sized cube is. He/IT puts his/its hands on the cube, and magically, it Rubik's cubes itself down to a loaf of bread size box. Fine! I CAN BUY THAT. But uhhhh...I'm not a scientist, but I'm thinking if this cube fell out of space, which it did, and landed deep in earth, which it did, than I'm thinking it ways more than a few pounds, right? Right. Let's pretend it way a ton. 2000 lbs. This thing "transforms" and folds and rotates down to the size of a box. Shouldn't that box weigh a ton???? I didn't lose mass, right? Just volume. Krikey.
--Why give the stupid cube to a stupid dorky human to run about 20 miles to some stupid building to hand off to the military while two Autobots run defense for him. I would have just said, "Uhhhh, Ironhide, you're the one with the freakin' bazooka hands, YOU TAKE IT." It was DUMBEST plot device I had ever seen in a movie. If it was soooooooooo stinking important, what the hell is human running around with it. Not to mention the shot they showed of the building to take it to was approximately 1 block away, but the nerdy kid seemed to run from here in Brea to Abileen freaking Texas. JUST GET TO THE BUILDING ALREADY.
They filmed part of the movie in Pasadena. The school exterior shots were of Marshall Fundamental on Allen Ave near my dad's house, and it's where my grandfather was a coach and teacher back in the 30's and 40's. The car lot where Bernie Mac sold the Camaro (Bumblebee) is on Lake Ave, just south of Eliot Junior HS. Oh yeah--and part of the pursuit in the first part of the movie was filmed in downtown Pasadena, specifically on Oakland St. just south of Colorado by the First United Methodist Church, which you can clearly see in the background. I know the homes in the neighborhood are of Pasadena Gamble house Mission style Craftsmen blend. I am geeking out here, hanh?
Anyway...there you go. My take.
Oh wait--one more observation.
--John Turturro...sometimes critics will politely say about an actor "...he really chewed up the scenes" or "...was really over the top". For Turturro in Transformers, his acting was so bad that the previous two descriptions fall FAR SHORT of what TRULY described his embarrassing take on being a "man in black". Yikes.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...now I feel better.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Rules of conduct...
SIGH.
Some guy named Tim O'Reilly coined the popular term "Web 2.0". If you want to know more about him, Wiki him. I don't provide links. Do it yourself. In any case, he is a blogger. I guess he, for whatever reason (ohhh I don't know--maybe to stop the phone calls????????????) came up with a Bloggers Rules of Conduct...and they are as follows...
--Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.
--Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
--Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
--Ignore the trolls.
--Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so.
--If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.
--Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person.
That's pretty basic stuff. I especially take to heart the first and last rules. But apparently I didn't take it to heart while, in the heat of posting my last post and with a lot of angst and incredible amounts of stress and self-loathing, I typed some comments that, well, NOT TO ME but to others were construed as beneath me and angry or whatever. This isn't the first time this has occurred. For WHATEVER reason, and I don't know still exactly what its about, but this STUPID FREAKIN' BLOG gets to people.
So...I'm going to go back now and dumb down what I said before. If anyone was tweaked about what I wrote before, my most sincere and humble apologies for having a freakin' opinion. I'm sure the fate of whatever course is set for any "thing" or "group" I referenced will not be in the least affected nor downgraded nor smitten by this one fat guy's OPINION. (breath Turner) I'll "temper" my words in such a way so that I'll only reference things in the most bland and oblique ways so as to not cast ANY negative light whatsoever, even if said negative light was in fact FRUSTRATION BASED BECAUSE I COULDN'T FIT INTO WHAT I WAS DESCRIBING BEFORE DUE TO MY LACK OF WHATEVER--CALL IT ABILITY--LACK OF PATIENCE--LACK OF VISION--YOU NAME IT, IT WAS MYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY FAULT.
(see?? oblique wasn't it????)
Can I just make a suggestion?. Please don't read this blog anymore. It's just going to get really boring from here on out. Really. Because sensitivity is just at an all time high in the world. I mean, if Santa Claus can't even say "Ho Ho Ho" because he might offend WOMEN (uhhh...yeah, true story...Google it, I don't do the link stuff very well), or newscaster can't call a rape suspect HISPANIC because, GOD FORBID, it's a racial profile, than WHO THE HELL AM I to think that I can speak candidly about MY frustrations and reference those things in my life that are...uh....FRUSTRATING. I'll just talk about happy things, and post links to funny videos, and put cute pictures of my two kids, and Skip To My Lou and Tu Ra Lu Ra Lu Ra.
Meanwhile, I'm going to go to Ebay after I finish doing my Mr. Nice Guy Dumb Down Edit and see if they have any thick skin for sale.
I believe some need it.
Bah ####ing humbug.
Some guy named Tim O'Reilly coined the popular term "Web 2.0". If you want to know more about him, Wiki him. I don't provide links. Do it yourself. In any case, he is a blogger. I guess he, for whatever reason (ohhh I don't know--maybe to stop the phone calls????????????) came up with a Bloggers Rules of Conduct...and they are as follows...
--Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.
--Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
--Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
--Ignore the trolls.
--Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so.
--If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.
--Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person.
That's pretty basic stuff. I especially take to heart the first and last rules. But apparently I didn't take it to heart while, in the heat of posting my last post and with a lot of angst and incredible amounts of stress and self-loathing, I typed some comments that, well, NOT TO ME but to others were construed as beneath me and angry or whatever. This isn't the first time this has occurred. For WHATEVER reason, and I don't know still exactly what its about, but this STUPID FREAKIN' BLOG gets to people.
So...I'm going to go back now and dumb down what I said before. If anyone was tweaked about what I wrote before, my most sincere and humble apologies for having a freakin' opinion. I'm sure the fate of whatever course is set for any "thing" or "group" I referenced will not be in the least affected nor downgraded nor smitten by this one fat guy's OPINION. (breath Turner) I'll "temper" my words in such a way so that I'll only reference things in the most bland and oblique ways so as to not cast ANY negative light whatsoever, even if said negative light was in fact FRUSTRATION BASED BECAUSE I COULDN'T FIT INTO WHAT I WAS DESCRIBING BEFORE DUE TO MY LACK OF WHATEVER--CALL IT ABILITY--LACK OF PATIENCE--LACK OF VISION--YOU NAME IT, IT WAS MYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY FAULT.
(see?? oblique wasn't it????)
Can I just make a suggestion?. Please don't read this blog anymore. It's just going to get really boring from here on out. Really. Because sensitivity is just at an all time high in the world. I mean, if Santa Claus can't even say "Ho Ho Ho" because he might offend WOMEN (uhhh...yeah, true story...Google it, I don't do the link stuff very well), or newscaster can't call a rape suspect HISPANIC because, GOD FORBID, it's a racial profile, than WHO THE HELL AM I to think that I can speak candidly about MY frustrations and reference those things in my life that are...uh....FRUSTRATING. I'll just talk about happy things, and post links to funny videos, and put cute pictures of my two kids, and Skip To My Lou and Tu Ra Lu Ra Lu Ra.
Meanwhile, I'm going to go to Ebay after I finish doing my Mr. Nice Guy Dumb Down Edit and see if they have any thick skin for sale.
I believe some need it.
Bah ####ing humbug.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Random thoughts...
--Day off today, and VERY unmotivated to do much. Went to IKEA this morning with the fam damily and bought a few items of importance. Had fun walking through IKEA with just my wife as we were able to leave the kids in the playland they have there. I would randomly yell out, "SILENCE....or I'll KILLLLL you" in the voice of Achmed the Dead Terrorist. Don't know what I'm talking about? YouTube it. Freakin' hilarious.
--For those that don't know my family very well, I have two older brothers. One is 10 years older than me and lives with my dad in Pasadena and is basically his caretaker. My other brother is 6 years older than me, has Down Syndrome, and lives in a residential care home. His health is starting to become a concern. More news to follow as soon as I hear anything.
--I love my children very much. But I am SO scared for them. This world around us is just getting worse and worse.
--Judged on Saturday at Riverside King HS for a Marching Band Open Series show. Just amazing to me and probably to noone else on the planet, but I was on top of the pressbox judging with the legendary Frank Dorrite and his wife, Shirley. They both judged ME back in the mid 80's when I was with VK. Frank is a GRAMMY AWARD WINNING MUSICIAN for God's sakes, and here I was sharing a table with him. He's just sooooooo cool. And his wife is hilarious. And on the panel was Mike Rubino--LEGENDARY. And my old trombone section leader from Cal State Long Beach Trent Newton who ended up being the band director at Valley View HS in Moreno Valley and who I ended up writing drill for back in the mid 90's (only to lose the position to this other drill designer guy...MYRON ROSANDER!!!....who incidentally, is my idol!! But them's the breaks in the biz, my boy...). Anyway...I see things like this and it makes me chuckle. The same people I used to look up to, and I'm standing NEXT to. Sort of surreal for me. Almost like "TURNER, how the HELL did you get HERE?!?!? Shouldn't you be somewhere else????" Freud's probably flipping in his grave right now blaming it on my mom!!
--Watched my wife perform last night in an Interfaith Choral Festival down in Irvine. Choirs from all different religions performed. Pretty cool actually. Then the mass choir at the end got together and sang a song directed by the head dude of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He flew down from Utah especially for this performance. Interesting. He was whisked away as he barely finished conducting the piece because he had to fly to New York for an early morning meeting. Cool guy. Crazy. But cool.
--Nyleen still sick but managing things FAR better than with the previous kids. Good job. Apparently during the concert last night my yet-to-be-born son was using my wife's bladder as a kickboxing practice pad. But boy could my wife hit those high notes!!!! :-)
--This has been a very odd year in the world of pageantry activities. Odd. Very odd. Couple of the schools I wrote for are EXTREMELY successful, another one I wrote for SHOULD be successful but is not catching a break, my availabilities sucked for SCSBOA to judge, managed though to work with Marching Band Open Series (the new judging circuit kid on the block) by announcing AND judging for them (but not at the same time--I'm good, but not THAT good), learned Pyware and was able to design all of my shows on Pyware this year, made a decent amount of extra income this year with the design business....but strangely....something was missing. I can't put a finger on exactly what it was. I can theorize though. I had a VERY rough spring writing writing for 3 corps. I bit off WAY more than I could chew. And no fault to the organizations I was with because I can't imagine they did anything remotely wrong at all, I think I really really shot myself in the foot trying to be too much to too many people. Coupled with a promotion (and the fact I had to wait for a LONG time--no offense meant to ANYONE associated with the OCFA, past, present OR future), I think my stress level was/is at a point where I'm probably not as "happy" as I have been. I've always viewed my involvement with marching band, winter guard, and drum corps in the summer as an "outlet" to get "away" from the Fire Department. Call it balance. This year--not so much. And I was particularly testy with some people that normally I'm not testy with, but on the other hand, I think there were some really @*&@ing stupid things done as well. So all of that being said...I'm definitely taking the spring off. I'm taking a break from any FORMAL involvement with any drum and bugle corps for the spring because corps have enough on their plate than having to deal with a loser like me, I informed one of my best friends in the whole world that (nothing personal--even though I can't help but think now that it was taken personally, but that's what I get for expressing an opinion) I needed a break this spring, and I need to concentrate and get ready for H3, debuting in March. Wait...did I just offend my wife by referencing my soon-to-be born son as H3? I better check.
--It's called balance. And I need to balance things out. For the first time in about 10 years, financially, while far from being perfect and debt free, we have made some MAJOR MAJOR strides in getting ourselves out of debt and trying to be somewhat frugal at the same time, but COMFORTABLE. Hahahaha. We could do so much more, but somehow--we're doing it anyway.
--H3. If I'm so scared for my two kids I already have, what am I doing bringing a third one into the picture? Who knows. I hope he gets born with a few extra layers of skin. He may be hearing my opinion at times. God forbid.
--Heroes. Watch it. Good stuff. Well...mostly good. Hiro Nakamura sort of grates on my nerves. But good TV. And I don't usually say good TV. And I saw the pilot for the next "24" season. Can't say I jumped out of my chair in ecstasy, but, the writers somehow know how to get me wrapped up. We'll see how it goes. Side note--I'm a HUGE FAN of putting TV series on DVD's. I've watched all 6 seasons of 24 and the first season of Heroes. I can't begin to tell you how much I love NOT having to sit through inane and juvenile commercials that insult my intelligence--what little I have. I HIGHLY recommend it.
That's it from the random thought department. Nothing too funny, nothing too profound, sort of blah actually, but that's sort of how I feel. Perhaps I need to start drinking Monsters again to get my spark back. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...
Thanks for reading. Now...be off with you.
--For those that don't know my family very well, I have two older brothers. One is 10 years older than me and lives with my dad in Pasadena and is basically his caretaker. My other brother is 6 years older than me, has Down Syndrome, and lives in a residential care home. His health is starting to become a concern. More news to follow as soon as I hear anything.
--I love my children very much. But I am SO scared for them. This world around us is just getting worse and worse.
--Judged on Saturday at Riverside King HS for a Marching Band Open Series show. Just amazing to me and probably to noone else on the planet, but I was on top of the pressbox judging with the legendary Frank Dorrite and his wife, Shirley. They both judged ME back in the mid 80's when I was with VK. Frank is a GRAMMY AWARD WINNING MUSICIAN for God's sakes, and here I was sharing a table with him. He's just sooooooo cool. And his wife is hilarious. And on the panel was Mike Rubino--LEGENDARY. And my old trombone section leader from Cal State Long Beach Trent Newton who ended up being the band director at Valley View HS in Moreno Valley and who I ended up writing drill for back in the mid 90's (only to lose the position to this other drill designer guy...MYRON ROSANDER!!!....who incidentally, is my idol!! But them's the breaks in the biz, my boy...). Anyway...I see things like this and it makes me chuckle. The same people I used to look up to, and I'm standing NEXT to. Sort of surreal for me. Almost like "TURNER, how the HELL did you get HERE?!?!? Shouldn't you be somewhere else????" Freud's probably flipping in his grave right now blaming it on my mom!!
--Watched my wife perform last night in an Interfaith Choral Festival down in Irvine. Choirs from all different religions performed. Pretty cool actually. Then the mass choir at the end got together and sang a song directed by the head dude of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He flew down from Utah especially for this performance. Interesting. He was whisked away as he barely finished conducting the piece because he had to fly to New York for an early morning meeting. Cool guy. Crazy. But cool.
--Nyleen still sick but managing things FAR better than with the previous kids. Good job. Apparently during the concert last night my yet-to-be-born son was using my wife's bladder as a kickboxing practice pad. But boy could my wife hit those high notes!!!! :-)
--This has been a very odd year in the world of pageantry activities. Odd. Very odd. Couple of the schools I wrote for are EXTREMELY successful, another one I wrote for SHOULD be successful but is not catching a break, my availabilities sucked for SCSBOA to judge, managed though to work with Marching Band Open Series (the new judging circuit kid on the block) by announcing AND judging for them (but not at the same time--I'm good, but not THAT good), learned Pyware and was able to design all of my shows on Pyware this year, made a decent amount of extra income this year with the design business....but strangely....something was missing. I can't put a finger on exactly what it was. I can theorize though. I had a VERY rough spring writing writing for 3 corps. I bit off WAY more than I could chew. And no fault to the organizations I was with because I can't imagine they did anything remotely wrong at all, I think I really really shot myself in the foot trying to be too much to too many people. Coupled with a promotion (and the fact I had to wait for a LONG time--no offense meant to ANYONE associated with the OCFA, past, present OR future), I think my stress level was/is at a point where I'm probably not as "happy" as I have been. I've always viewed my involvement with marching band, winter guard, and drum corps in the summer as an "outlet" to get "away" from the Fire Department. Call it balance. This year--not so much. And I was particularly testy with some people that normally I'm not testy with, but on the other hand, I think there were some really @*&@ing stupid things done as well. So all of that being said...I'm definitely taking the spring off. I'm taking a break from any FORMAL involvement with any drum and bugle corps for the spring because corps have enough on their plate than having to deal with a loser like me, I informed one of my best friends in the whole world that (nothing personal--even though I can't help but think now that it was taken personally, but that's what I get for expressing an opinion) I needed a break this spring, and I need to concentrate and get ready for H3, debuting in March. Wait...did I just offend my wife by referencing my soon-to-be born son as H3? I better check.
--It's called balance. And I need to balance things out. For the first time in about 10 years, financially, while far from being perfect and debt free, we have made some MAJOR MAJOR strides in getting ourselves out of debt and trying to be somewhat frugal at the same time, but COMFORTABLE. Hahahaha. We could do so much more, but somehow--we're doing it anyway.
--H3. If I'm so scared for my two kids I already have, what am I doing bringing a third one into the picture? Who knows. I hope he gets born with a few extra layers of skin. He may be hearing my opinion at times. God forbid.
--Heroes. Watch it. Good stuff. Well...mostly good. Hiro Nakamura sort of grates on my nerves. But good TV. And I don't usually say good TV. And I saw the pilot for the next "24" season. Can't say I jumped out of my chair in ecstasy, but, the writers somehow know how to get me wrapped up. We'll see how it goes. Side note--I'm a HUGE FAN of putting TV series on DVD's. I've watched all 6 seasons of 24 and the first season of Heroes. I can't begin to tell you how much I love NOT having to sit through inane and juvenile commercials that insult my intelligence--what little I have. I HIGHLY recommend it.
That's it from the random thought department. Nothing too funny, nothing too profound, sort of blah actually, but that's sort of how I feel. Perhaps I need to start drinking Monsters again to get my spark back. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...
Thanks for reading. Now...be off with you.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Pretty horrendous last 2 weeks...
Hi there--while my buddy over at http://jdaroundorange.blogspot.com/ does a great job of giving a day to day accounting of the fires that hit southern California and Orange County in particular, even his words or any that I could come up with do it justice. Back in 2003, I was a newly promoted supervisor, and was on duty the day the 2003 Firestorm started. All of southern California, much like this year, seemingly was on fire. But the two fires that really garnered the attention of the world back then were the Old Fire up along the hills and mountains that parallel the 210 Freeway in San Bernardino and parts of LA County, and of course, the apocalyptic Cedar Fire. We were so lucky in Orange County that year. We didn't have any fires that required more than an hour to put out. No major "campaign" fires. BUT...we worked our tails off to provide strike teams and additional personnel to all of our fire brothers and sisters in neighboring counties. I remember my Activity Report one night showing that between us and our partners in Orange County through MetroNet Fire, we were able to afford to send out 10 strike teams to various locales to assist as best as we could.
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. The amount of mutual aid that we received for our major campaign fire was substantial to say the least--ONLY AFTER OUR GREAT CHIEF GOT ON LOCAL MEDIA AND SAID, "Hello!!!!!!!!! We're going to lose homes if we don't get help!!" Just as my friend Jon said on his blog, we were essentially fighting our fire alone with just our units and some much needed (and appreciated) help from MetroNet Fire (for those that have no clue what I'm talking about, MetroNet is a dispatch agency that dispatches for Anaheim, Orange, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach and is the coordinator for the independent fire departments like Laguna, Santa Ana, and Brea). In any event, all political posturing aside for a moment, once the calvary arrived, BOY did it arrive. We lost homes (24???), which is NOTHING like what happened in other areas of southern California. But we could have had some major problems if not for two things...
First, the AMAZING job of our dispatch/command center. Sometimes as a group of people we can get just about as "dysfunctional" as any family can, but I'm telling you, there were people in our center that were making some major sacrifices for the team. I can't begin to tell you the plethora of things that happened, but "team work" was the word, and we rose to the occasion. I'm VERY proud to be part of the OCFA ECC.
And secondly, and even more amazingly, the performance of our guys out in the field. There were people out there I heard yelling in their radios that I consider friends of mine, and you don't know "stress" until you hear panic in the voices of those you consider not only your friends, but HEROES in the fire service. I had to make a recording of the famous "burnover" that occurred where thankfully, none of our guys was hurt. But the Battalion Chief that was the main person in command of this and who I respect a great deal--I could it hear it in his voice, and it's tough for me NOT to put on the shoes of someone else and I could feel his frustration and fear during his radio transmissions. Everything worked out and I'm grateful--but a huge salute to the BC in charge of this emergency when it happened.
I don't know if 2007 will be worse that 2003, or 1993 for that matter, but I will tell you this. I can truthfully say in my 14 years of working, this was really my first MAJOR campaign fire. I've worked big ones before (Antonio Fire, Blackstar 1999, the December USFS screw up, the jet crash, etc), but this was bigger than I ever thought we could get.
In other news--
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. The amount of mutual aid that we received for our major campaign fire was substantial to say the least--ONLY AFTER OUR GREAT CHIEF GOT ON LOCAL MEDIA AND SAID, "Hello!!!!!!!!! We're going to lose homes if we don't get help!!" Just as my friend Jon said on his blog, we were essentially fighting our fire alone with just our units and some much needed (and appreciated) help from MetroNet Fire (for those that have no clue what I'm talking about, MetroNet is a dispatch agency that dispatches for Anaheim, Orange, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach and is the coordinator for the independent fire departments like Laguna, Santa Ana, and Brea). In any event, all political posturing aside for a moment, once the calvary arrived, BOY did it arrive. We lost homes (24???), which is NOTHING like what happened in other areas of southern California. But we could have had some major problems if not for two things...
First, the AMAZING job of our dispatch/command center. Sometimes as a group of people we can get just about as "dysfunctional" as any family can, but I'm telling you, there were people in our center that were making some major sacrifices for the team. I can't begin to tell you the plethora of things that happened, but "team work" was the word, and we rose to the occasion. I'm VERY proud to be part of the OCFA ECC.
And secondly, and even more amazingly, the performance of our guys out in the field. There were people out there I heard yelling in their radios that I consider friends of mine, and you don't know "stress" until you hear panic in the voices of those you consider not only your friends, but HEROES in the fire service. I had to make a recording of the famous "burnover" that occurred where thankfully, none of our guys was hurt. But the Battalion Chief that was the main person in command of this and who I respect a great deal--I could it hear it in his voice, and it's tough for me NOT to put on the shoes of someone else and I could feel his frustration and fear during his radio transmissions. Everything worked out and I'm grateful--but a huge salute to the BC in charge of this emergency when it happened.
I don't know if 2007 will be worse that 2003, or 1993 for that matter, but I will tell you this. I can truthfully say in my 14 years of working, this was really my first MAJOR campaign fire. I've worked big ones before (Antonio Fire, Blackstar 1999, the December USFS screw up, the jet crash, etc), but this was bigger than I ever thought we could get.
In other news--
- I had lunch with a big name drum corps guy this past week that I'm not going to advertise WHO it was. But I will say that it's someone who knows how to produce a Top 3 drum corps, and fancy that, knows a WHOLE LOT ABOUT A LOT OF OTHER THINGS. Get this--he wanted to "pick my brain" about the southern California band and corps scene. Step right up brother--you picked the right guy.
- Wife is still sick and not doing well. Pregnancy--in a word--SUCKS.
- Announced a show last week and had a VERY nice and sort of long chat with another big name in drum corps, Frank Dorritte. Man this guy is 61 and is just AMAZING. We talked a lot about the direction of drum corps, about this whole amplification and narration business, etc, etc. And guess what? He may address something I actually told him about in his next column.
That's about it--just wanted to check in. Special thanks to Jon for doing a great job with the photos and narrative on his blog.
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