Breathe Again

This has been the kind of week where I just need someone to point me to where I’m supposed to be, I do what I do, then move on to the next thing.  Some of it is my fault, some of it not.

 At “real” work, I had a 3-day, all-day class that kept me away from my officle.  And this week, we had a major change to a system we developed move into production.  It’s a big deal, and some things inevitably went wrong and had to be dealt with, class or no.  Added to that, certain things are going on with certain people that caused me to make a sign to hang on my officle wall:

Drama??!!!??  There’s no drama in web development!!!!!

Why do people have to drag everyone else into their own personal drama?  It adds exponentially to the stress level of the week.

On top of this, at the exact same time X-Alt was preparing for our Wednesday night show at Belle Meade UMC.  This made for several 16 hour days for me.  But I don’t want to complain, because Wednesday night was such a blessing to me.  Go to the X-Alt Blog to see Ford’s writeup of this wonderful evening.  It was quite cathartic. 

I’ll write my own thoughts about this soon.

And then last night, I had to go to a meeting at church about our new Wednesday night children’s programming, which Lintilla and I have volunteered for.  One very cool thing came out of this: Lintilla and I will be dealing with 4-6 year olds.  I’ve been dealing with snarky, know-it-all kids for so long, It’ll be a nice change for me.  There is an extra-gentleness you have to display with kids that age, and using that approach is very good for the soul.  I think it’s something I need badly (although it means I’ll be even busier this year).

Somewhere during the week, I fed my family pork chop pie on Monday, and chicken fajitas / cheese quesedillas last night.  Tuesday ws KFC and Wednesday was church food (yum!)

In between all of this, I have posting responsibilites at Ugly Betty News, along with attempting to build a network and community around the blog (which is much harder than writing). My wife is a little wary about the fact that so far, this community seems to be populated with college-aged girls.

Speaking of UBN, I just posted my first real snarky post over there.  Let me know if you think the last line is funny.  I can’t be a fanboy all the time, and snark doesn’t come naturally to me, so I’m hoping it doesn’t fall flat.

Anyway, hopefully things will slow down enough for me to post regularly again.

Too Busy For Words

I’ll come up for air sometime Friday morning.  Thank goodness the holiday is coming up!  Blogging, needless to say, will be light (at least here).

Ricky! My New Favorite Commercial

Unlike many, I am a fan of really good marketing.  I love the psychology, the play of the demographics, the visual and short form of the ancient art of pursasive speaking.  It’s my thang.

I REALLY love television commercials.  The Superbowl is…well…my Superbowl.  I find a well produced 30-second spot to be just as entertaining, if not more, than many movies.  Well, lately, I’ve been diggin’ on one that I think is pure genius.

Animals and humor, the perfect combination:

I can never get enough of the moose.

Education Coolness

I knew this would eventually happen.  My daughter came home yesterday, plopped a CD in her laptop, and copied her math book, the entire book in pdf form, to her desktop.

Considering that last year we had to buy a second set of books to keep at home so she didn’t throw her back out lugging them all back and forth to school, this is a good development, indeed.

It’s my understanding that this is a pilot program at my kids’ school.  It would be cool if the entire school did it (my son is thinking about putting weightlifting down as an extracurricular activity because of all the book lugging), but that probably won’t come till next year.

I realise this would not be as easy to roll out to public schools (some kids, who am I kidding - most elementary-age kids don’t have laptops).  But, from where I sit, it’s something worth pursuing.

That’s the Fact, Jack

My kids and I have mutally decided that if we ever started our own church, we would no longer close the responsive reading with “Amen”.  We like this better:

Pastor: In the name of the Father, of the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  It’s all good.
Congregation: It’s all good.

Bad News And Good News

So, here’s the bad news.  I will no longer be posting recaps and news about the show Ugly Betty here at Shoot The Moose.  You just won’t find that here anymore.

That’s because of the good news.  No, I didn’t just save a ton of money on my car insurance with Geico.  It’s better than that.

I get to finally add a “also writing at” category on my sidebar. I’ve been dying to tell you guys, and now that it’s official, I can.  To help you get your Ugly Betty fix, go to my new site: Ugly Betty News .   I am writing it for b5media - which means that Busy Mom and I are co-workers!

I didn’t want the whole world to know my real name (Slartibartfast), so I’m using a pseudonym (Tom - how vanilla is that for a fake name?). 

Y’all come on over to Ugly Betty News, and please place it in your blogrolls, readers, etc.  My goal is to make it THE blog for Ugly Betty news, spoilers, show recaps, rumours, and celebrity photos.  I have put a LOT of work into this site so far, and I hope it shows.  This is a brave, new world for me.  I get to be a fanboy, and catty, and a critic, and a celebrity reporter.  Quite a change from around here, huh?

I’d just be pleased as punch if y’all come along with me on this journey.

Hat Tip to Brittney .  Wait, a hat tip isn’t enough - I bow low to you, fine lady.

Pics From The Back To School Fashion Show

Here’s Trillian and Zaphod in the White Gloves Fashion Show for the Parent Magazine Back To School Fair.  Both kids were stylin’ and profilin’ (we can’t afford those clothes ourselves).  This was the reason I couldn’t be at BarCamp.  Thanks to Susie and daughter for coming to see them. 

 

Zaphod kind of embarrassed us; he was a little too loose for a manners class graduate.  But, he lightened up the festivities, and this is where I learned he inherits my stage craziness.  Now I know how my Dad feels.

I would post some of the other pics, the other kids were so cute, but there’s the whole minors/parental permission thing.  I know that there is no public expectation of privacy, but I still want to respect parental autonomy when possible.  That being said, my kids were just kids.  Some of those kids modeled like they did it for a living.  I’m not making value judgements, it just took me aback for a bit.

Anyway, a good time was had by all, and I sure wish we could have afforded that dress for Trillian Even with 25% model discount, Dillard’s is a little too uptown for us.  But, if I just entered Trillian in a pageant or two, we’d, I mean she’d have extra money for the fancy duds.  HMMMMMM.

Nah.  She’d rather cook.  Have I told you yet, she’s on a cooking tear lately? I am so happy I could bust.  An apprentice!

Oh, you can get to the full size photos at Flickr.

Progressive, My Butt

From The Tennessean:

Belle Meade?  Forrest Hills? West Meade?  Hillwood? Hillsboro?

Karl Dean, man of the people  Davidson County money.  WHY does everyone call him the progressive candidate?  I’ve seen no Kucinich-like wacky proposals at his web site, so I have no reason to believe he’s that much more liberal than Clement, posturing aside.

See all that yellow (or orange, or whatever that lighter color is)?  Those are my neighbors.  They are generally older, pretty affluent, and not exactly hipsters.  The only reason I think his base of support is in SW Davidson county is because he is the Establishment candidate, whether the mayor wants to come out and say it or not.

It’s all quite perplexing.

I Think It’s Terrorism

Every single female I know in person is testy right now.  REALLY testy.

Except for Susie; I’ve known her for a few years now, and have never seen her grumpy.  Only a little perturbed, but never testy.  That’s amazing, when you think about it.

Anyway, this is unavoidable: I work with women, I’m in a band with four of them, and I live with two.  My personality makes me the “guy women like to treat like one of their girlfriends”.

Many of them are currently engaged in a contest to see which one can bite my head off first.

Something in the water supply, maybe?  I don’t know.  But, if you know me, you know that I am quite understanding and patient about these things.  But, usually, I’m dealing with one cranky person at a time.  This feels more like a siege.

I think it’s time for a guy-blogger only camping trip.  We need to talk about football and cars and hot women, and NOT talk about sex except in vague inuendos.  We need a weekend of parallel play.  We need to settle disagreements with fistfights instead of talking about our feelings, and once the fighting is over - no hard feelings, we’ll have a beer together and laugh about it all.

I need to be recharged in a bath of testosterone.  Then I can go back to being my usual, “guy that women like to treat as one of their girlfriends”.

I mean no offense to my female friends, who are the majority of my readers, but I’m having a hard time coping with this right now;  there’s no chance to come up for air between barrages of snippiness.

And interstingly, I don’t seem to have this problem in the virtual world.

To Woderick, the Wobber

If you are going to steal my posts and re-post them almost word for word, a little attribution will be nice.  Don’t take advantage of this project’s pre-launch embryonic situation, that’s just rude. 

You can pilfer Shoot The Moose all you want, but the New-Place-I-Can’t-Talk-About-Yet has lawyers attached to it, so I’d lay off if I were you.  I’ve worked hours and hours till I literally  can’t see straight, and miss precious time with my family.  Do your own damned legwork, or give me attribution, please. 

Have a nice day.

Sorry, y’all.  I just had to get that off my chest.