Date weekend

I’ve been a bad fiancé.

It seems that I’ve left behind the ‘dating’ phase of our relationships and move on to the dull day-to-day watching TV, boring phase.

I had no idea that had happened until talking to Hippolyte the other day. We were talking about how she becomes bored with her boyfriends when the ‘dating’ phase ends. When they stop trying to ‘win’ her and she doesn’t feel pursued. And I think I’ve fallen into that next phase.

So I decided to have a ‘date’ weekend, which for me is hard. I’m not a terribly great dater. I gave it the old college try!

The date weekend didn’t start until 2pm on Saturday. We spent Saturday morning doing much needed yard work. I had last fall’s leaves still in the front yard I had to rake, and a large bag of weed & feed to put down to kill all the clover and crab grass that was growing. I am an expert at growing weeds.

Skyprincess spent the time planting pansies. The flowerbed in really shady, so I hope they grow.

The sky was overcast all day and we were afraid of rain all day. Luckily it didn’t. We packed a nice picnic and went to Shelby Farms. I stopped at Aldi (a local grocery store) and picked up a box of crackers for the ducks. We found an empty picnic table close to the water and had a nice lunch. It took a while coaxing the ducks to the shore. They weren’t very hungry, it appears.

After we were finished with lunch and played with the doggie another couple brought with them, we packed up and headed to fly kites. We both brought 2 each and had fun flying the first set. Then we decided to try our other ones, but the wind just died all of a sudden. We tried for another 30 minutes flying our other kites, but it was no luck. By this time it was time to pack up and get ready for the movie downtown at Muvico. When I checked Thursday night, Muvico was suppose to be playing ‘Something New’ on Friday and Saturday also. I never checked Friday.

When we got to Muvico for the 7pm show, ‘Something New’ wasn’t playing. Grrrrr…. So we went to see ‘Medea’s Family Reunion’ instead. It was very funny, but had a surprising dark subject thread throughout.

We finished up our date night with a bite to eat on Beale street listening to some very bar bands.

Overall, it was a very good date day. We were both exhausted when we got back home, so we both just showered and crashed. Skyprincess is a morning sex person anyways, so that was okay. We woke up this morning and had a nice marathon sex session to make up for the past couple weeks.

Today we finished date weekend by going to see a community play called “Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens”. Very campy.

Well… got to run. I’m roasting a duck and it needs some attention.

Mizike

Click click

Not long ago I saw a report of a person suing Apple for hearing loss due to listening to his Ipod. He’s claiming the device is defective since long term exposure to loud music damages the ear drums.

When I was young, my parents would always tell me to turn down the TV. They’d always shout that ‘You’re not hard of hearing, turn that damn thing down.’ And they were right. I could hear it just fine at a lower level than when it was turned up loud.

I just enjoyed it loud. Loud sounds can have a physical affect on the body. It was much more enjoyable for me listening to the TV or to music loud.

When I was a teenager, I also listened to my music loud. But nothing like my friends. They’d blast the music so loud your ears would ring for an hour after leaving the room. I became very aware that loud music could damage your hearing. I started to know more and more adults who had major hearing loss due to loud noise in the workplace. And I took considerable measures to avoid any noises that could cause hearing loss.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take those measures as a young child. But thankfully, a stereo was not available, so I didn’t blast my hearing away before I became aware of the danger. That doesn’t mean I didn’t do stupid things.

I had a very early remote control car toy. This was prior to any radio control cars. I’m not sure how many of you remember TV remotes prior to the infrared variety today. Do you remember the old TV remotes that worked on loud clicks? You’d just click and the TV would change. It would work using ultrasonics. In case anyone is interested, that’s why TV remotes are called clickers.

Anyway, the remote for the car worked on the same fashion. When the remote was clicked, the car would do something different. I was just old enough to read and the remote had a warning. Not to use the remote close to the ears or you could suffer hearing loss. So what did I do? I put it against my ear and went around for days clicking that remote.

I really didn’t think it caused that much damage. For a while during my teenage years, I thought I had dog hearing. I could hear very very well, with the ability to hear frequencies above those many could. Even today I can hear higher frequencies. But I’m finding it hard to hear people. Many times I have to ask them more than once what they said. I miss large parts of conversations. It has gotten so bad, it’s a running joke with Skyprincess. Along with my bad eyesight, I’m a real piece of work.

Some time next year, I’ll probably get a hearing checkup to make sure I’m okay. We are first going to do an ear canal cleansing and see if that works. And no, I’m not going to burn those ear wax candles that is pure B.S. They are just sold to foolish people wanting to have some new age cure. It doesn’t work people!

Well... time to go. SciFi Friday is about to start. Chat later!

Mizike

Academy Awards

I skipped watching the Academy Awards this week. I use to watch it every year, but the past 5 years award shows have become very boring to me. Not sure when that changed. I use to watch them all. MTV awards. Golden Globes. Daytime Emmy awards. The Country Music one, which I forget the name. Now I'm totally turned off by them. Instead I watch Reality TV shows.

One of the reasons I don't watch the award shows is that I don't believe the results reflect an unbias choice. Or even an informed choice. You would hope the voting members would choose the best movie, but how much of their opinion is swayed by the Hollywood propaganda machine? I'm not disputing Crash was a better movie than Brokeback Mtn. I saw both. And I have conversations with Skyprincess's gay friends, and they agree Brokebback Mtn. was not a terribly good movie. However, it was a rare turning point in gay acceptance in the mainstream.

What are the criteria for choosing the best picture? Is it strictly the story? There were far better film scripts than Crash. Is it the acting? I won't deny the acting in Crash, it was a very well acted movie. However, I personally feel cheated when I watch a movie that is a series of vignettes. By the time I begin caring about any character, the movie moves on to another storyline. It's one of the reasons I really didn't like Sin City.

Is it the social relevance? I won't deny that Crash had a powerful statement about society in the states. And I won't compare the two stories and which had the most powerful statement to make. However, Brokeback Mtn brings issues that rarely get addressed in mainstream films.

So what are the criteria for a best picture? If for a social issue, I believe Brokeback Mtn should have won. If for a superior movie because of the acting or storyline, then I believe the correct picture won.

I'm back!

Just a short post to let you know I'm back.

A couple changes since I last posted.

The budget for my project in Boston got pulled and I'm on the bench in Memphis. I'm awaiting news of any potential projects. I'm getting really restless and would love to go back to work. I don't like sitting on the bench. I like feeling useful.

The reason my blog disappeared is simple. I found out that someone on my team looked over my shoulder and had discovered the blog. At first I was concerned it was the client, and had removed my blog the evening of discovery. I later found out it was 2 team members from my consulting company, but the blog had been removed. It has been a while, so I will assume they will not check the blog address again. Just in case they do, I will not be posting any job related topics in the future.

Blogger finally restored my blog this morning!!!

Well.. that's about it for now. I'll post more later.

Mizike