Before I went on vacation, I mentioned how resorts rip you off by charging you for internet access.Caesar’s Palace, where we stayed, is such a resort. Internet access was $11.99 a day. I could have lived with that if I absolutely had to, but they charge you for each laptop you hook up to their system. So if a client comes to your room and whips out his laptop to show you something, you’ve got to pay $11.99 for both their laptop and yours. That’s $24, half of what my high speed access costs at home.For business use, I think I’m going to have to invest in one of those satellite internet cards from my cell phone company. The only problem is I think they only come in PCMCIA and … Read entire article »

It appears my life long obsession with clocks has recently taken on a new direction.As I mentioned in a previous post, my obsession borders on the insane. I’m like Mel Gibson’s character in Conspiracy Theory. In the movie, he has an uncontrollable urge to buy a copy of The Catcher in the Rye whenever he sees it and as a result had amassed an extensive collection of them. In fact, I think I remember him saying that he had never actually read it. I could be wrong though, it’s been eleven years since I saw its release in 1997.My Catcher in the Rye is clocks.Clocks call out to me. I don’t go around buying one of every clock I see, mind you. I can (thankfully) walk through a clock section … Read entire article »

Last night my wife and I decided to visit Mellow Mushroom again. We haven’t been in weeks and had a craving for their Gourmet White pizza.It’s the same every time. We always order the Gourmet White minus the tomatoes and with the onions only on my half. Every once in a blue moon though, I’ll order a small Mighty Meaty and she’ll get plain old cheese. We always get their cheese bread sticks. Last night they were different. They’re usually a big sub roll all sliced up with the cheese and stuff on top. Last night it came out as french bread slices. Way less bread than they normally serve, but delicious anyway. They also offer a ten percent discount if you have an annual state park pass. Ten percent … Read entire article »

I decided to do a numerology reading today at lunch. Let’s see if this thing is at all accurate. “Angry Georgian (real name omitted), your Life Path of 7 … “Great. I like the number seven. (Note my sarcasm.) “You are a reserved, analytical and peace-loving soul who is blessed with intuition and intelligence.”So far, so good. “Your ability to concentrate, learn and absorb information far outshines other numbers and you often excel at all forms of scholastics.”Okay, strike one! The only thing I ever excelled in was drafting and electronics. “Usually your intellectual prowess as well as the clarity and foresight of mind is very evident to others at an early age.However at the same time you are also a very spiritual number. This is because you believe whole heartedly in the … Read entire article »

Some time last year I watched a documentary titled Zombie Girl about a thirteen-year-old girl from Texas who wrote, produced, and directed her own feature length zombie movie. Being that I saw this documentary at the onset of my own writing career, I was enthralled. This girl, Emily Hagins, was doing at thirteen what I was setting out to do in my own life at thirty-one. Using Emily as my inspiration, I made it a goal to start making short films from my stories. I’ve been researching how to write a screenplay, but haven’t had enough time to sit down yet to give it a go. Unfortunately, a lot of my stories will need to be edited to the point they will become unrecognizable because of the budgets I’m going to … Read entire article »

The violent roar of Slipknot blares in my ears as I continue on in my failed attempt to drown out the incessant whining of the younger generation in the room with me. I catch a little bit here and there but never enough to make out any discernible conversation, just the word or two that manage to sneak their way past my earbuds in the quieter pauses of the song. I silently gaze every now and then to catch someone across the room in mid conversation, wondering my own mind what in the world they are talking about. The conversations they are holding in my head are enough to provide me my own amusement. I can’t help but sit and wonder what it must be like to be so young, an … Read entire article »

For the sake of my own sanity – pun intended; you’ll see why later – I’ve decided it’s high time I quit hiding from myself and come out of the closet. I’ve spent my whole life hiding and living in fear and shame of who I really am and now, in my thirty-third year, I have reached a turning point. As I’ve grown older, especially in recent years, I’ve discovered that I really don’t care what people think of me or how they choose to judge me. In light of recent events, it’s become apparent to me that life is too short and precious to live in fear and besides, great things happen when that weight is lifted off your shoulders and you allow yourself to be free. I recently finished … Read entire article »

Wendy, this post is for you. When I was younger, my mother would put me and my sister in Delta’s care and ship us off to Oregon to spend the summer with my grandmother and great grandparents. She (my grandmother) had moved in with them some years ago to take care of them in their old age; and with them she lived until they passed on. Whether or not my mother just wanting to get rid of us for three months was the reason or not, I don’t care. I loved visiting Portland. Come to think of it, I used to have a collection of those little pin-on wings Delta used to give out to unaccompanied children. I wonder what ever happened to them? An e-mail from Delta touting some Fall deals … Read entire article »

So what’s it like living with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?When I leave the house, I have a ritual I have to perform. I go over a list in my head while performing it. I actually say out loud “phone”, and feel for my phone in my left front pocket; then “knife”, and feel for my knife clipped to my right pocket; then “wallet”, and make sure my wallet is in my right rear pocket; “keys”, and grip the keys tightly in my left hand to make sure they’re there; “thumb drive”, and feel for the thumb drive in my right pocket; “iPod”, and make sure my iPod is in my left pocket with my phone; then “paper”, and press my left rear pocket to make sure I hear the slight crumbling sound … Read entire article »

Body of missing hiker found – Crime & courts- msnbc.com:“BLAIRSVILLE, Ga. – A drifter charged with kidnapping a 24-year-old hiker led authorities to her body Monday in the mountains of northern Georgia, investigators said, hours after a judge denied him bond in her New Year’s Day disappearance.” I was playing around in MySpace last night and found Meredith’s page. It’s set to private so you can’t see anything, but I noticed that her last login was on New Year’s Eve and her status was “pissed off”. Obviously she went to Blood Mountain to blow off some steam. My own hiking time up there is to allow me to unwind and get back in touch with myself. Every time I go, I take a lunch with me to eat at the … Read entire article »