Christmas Memories

This is my little angel a couple of years ago. Time flies and I wish I could have spent more time with her when she was a little baby like this. I have always thought of Christmas as a time of family, fun, and love. This year for Christmas break we have seen I Am Legend (Will Smith), Alvin and The Chipmunks, and National Treasure:Book of Secrets. Movies are a great break. Tonight we also saw Click (Adam Sandler) at home. It was a nice movie about appreciating family. Sandler's dad in the movie was Fonzie (Henry Winkler)!When I was a kid, my mother was a lot of fun. She would hide toys, GI Joes, Hot Wheels (or Matchbox) cars, or teddy bears under pillows or in my sock drawer, and I would get some great surprises when I least expected them. She always seemed very happy and full of love, and it was great to be a kid during Christmas back in those days.

This is me back around 1968? That Apollo Saturn V moon rocket was probably what I wanted most in the world. Of course, this was one of those toys that kept getting put into the closet. It is kind of strange, but I have noticed that my wife and mother seem to always be putting away the toys for my daughter too. I never understood that. Toys are to be played with and should be out and about. They are the tools of childhood!! It is over soon enough!!

I loved these toys! GI Joe, Captain Action, and even a Joe Namath New York Jets action figure around there somewhere!! I am not sure what year these photos are from, but I do not think they are from the same year.

I believe that is a Major Matt Mason space module. I was really into the space toys! I guess most kids from that era (Lunar Landings, space exploration), were into that!

There I am dressed as Captain America (for Halloween).

Best Gripes of 2007

Toothache: So (the last week of November) my tooth-ache is killing me. The pain is intense, and it goes from the throbbing tooth up to the right eye-ball and then I get these sharp pains on the side of my head and then my neck hurts. I missed a couple of days at the gym and then I went and for a couple of minutes on the elliptical I felt good then my tooth started throbbing like it was trying to crawl out of my jaw and the pain in my eye made my vision blurry and the sharp pains on the side of my head got more intense and my knees got weak and I wanted to cry and leave the gym but I stayed on the elliptical and after ten minutes it just became a numb pain that says "FUCK YOU" over and over. It is like a horror movie where there is a killer in your home, except that it is my head and the tooth is the source of the terror and pain and I cannot even touch it with my tongue or the pain gets worse.

UPDATE: 12/04/07 : I went to a new dental office, and the dentists were great. The new endo dude was really nice, though he took forever to do the root canal and the rubber thing over my mouth had me gagging. I hate going to dentists. I have been very lucky to find a couple of really nice ones though. I will tell anyone that if you go to see a dentist and he or she sounds like an asshole, then go see another one. That is what I have done until I have found some incredible dentists. Really nice and friendly dentists are out there. Unfortunately, many of the ones that I have met seem to range between grim and moody to egomaniacal. When I meet a dentist I always listen to what they are saying and then I imagine the dentist in a bad mood with a drill in my mouth. If a dentist can pass that test then I sign up for an appointment!

Last Gripes of 2007: I am working on a massive post of all the things I am grateful about, but thinking about gratitude got me to thinking about all the friction and irritations. Ergo this bitchin' list was spawned! We got any of this in common? Agree or Disagree?:

1. The pop-ups on most websites. Like if you are typing a comment at a blog and the pop-ups on another window take over the screen and the stuff you were typing disappears. Even with the pop-up blockers there are still pop-ups that are not blocked.
2. Blogger snafus: The photos on Blogger regularly get corrupted and if you look at the archives you will notice that half the posts have little boxed Xs where the photos used to be. That is kind of disappointing, since I put some effort into finding the photos and videos. I actually earned $5.38 last month thanks to Google advertising revenue, so if you readers can spend about $100,000 per month on Google advertised products then I can get about $500.00 per month in commissions.
3. People with weird names for their kids like Laquinta Kayleen Pocahontas and then they say "We call her Jamoca." Or people that will give their kid's name a bizarre spelling like "KAERYIENE" and then insist that it is pronounced KAREN.
4. Movie Theaters: People constantly shifting their legs and kicking the back of the chairs in a movie theater. If you kick one chair the vibration is felt across the entire row of chairs. Just as bad are those who talk on the phone during a movie. There should be a Federal Theater Marshall who patrols movie theaters and is authorized to taser anyone talking on the phone during a movie. I would pay extra to see that.
5. Celebrities that get caught doing something illegal and then blame a panic attack, frail nerves, intense anxiety, private family issues, or some other lame excuse. Especially sad are perverted ministers who throw their own drug-addicted son or alcoholic daughter under the bus by blaming them. Especially annoying is the fact that politicians, celebrities, and rich people usually get "house arrest and/or probation" when they are convicted of any crime.
6. Tupperware and other rubber containers. The tops are always missing or somewhere else. Tupperware is always 50 different sizes and shapes, so unless you bought it all the same size then most of it won't stack right and the tops never stack right. Every time I go to get one tupperware thingy, half of the rest of the stuff ends up sliding off and bouncing onto the counter and then the floor. Then trying to stack it back is a mission!!!
7. People that walk in on an employee's lunch break even after they are told that person is on their lunch break. A customer will walk over to someone's cubicle and the employee has a sandwich wedged in her piehole and a bunch of french fries in the other hand and the customer just sits right down anyway and starts talking and telling the employee what she wants, ignoring any courtesy!
8. Co-workers who are constantly using obscene language in their conversations and who speak REALLY LOUD at the top of their lungs while yelling obscenities to their friends on their cell phones.
9. Bosses that are living in an imaginary e-mail world and will sit there like zombies answering their e-mails for hours while the employees are standing around waiting for directions regarding some urgent issue.
10. Loss of basic civil rights due to terrorist threats? Amazing that in the USA, protesters are routinely arrested and/or beaten at political events, rallies, public places and forums. What ever happened to Freedom of Speech? It seems wrong if Americans can't protest at a political rally or at a public forum. In America we live in fear of terrorists and have lost many freedoms in order to protect America from terrorists. What is the point of being the land of the free if we have no freedoms? Seems like the terrorists won if we have lost our civil rights.
11. Sick Children: Whenever I see children in crutches or otherwise disabled, it is very upsetting. If God exists then why does He let children suffer and die? I wish that a cure for all illnesses that affect children would be found. I would also like to see more resources dedicated to children, healthcare, eductation, and rehabilitation programs that give the disabled and addicted the therapeutic and vocational assistance they need to become productive citizens.
12. Career Criminals: Every time there is some famous murder trial, it takes up months and costs millions of dollars. The taxpayers pay for most (or all) of that. That is money that is wasted. Billions are spent to imprison murderers and other hard-core career criminals. I think that the death penalty needs to be liberalized and that more of the worthless violent criminals that are costing billions to house and feed in prisons need to be executed. These guys are never going to do anything to help society except by freeing up funds that can help others.
13. Fishing and Golf TV and Radio shows: Is there anything more boring than watching rich fruitcakes playing golf or fat guys fishing? Yes, listening to the same crap on the radio is much worse. I have no clue why golf is popular to anyone, it has to be the silliest sport on earth with the possible exception of badminton. The men don't even dress themselves.
14. War In Iraq: Why are we rebuilding it at our own expense? It is their country, and they have oil. Let them rebuild it and pay for it themselves. America is being bankrupted. As the USA circles the drain we are still pissing away money in Iraq so that the oil companies and their stockholders (Bush/Cheney Family) can get richer.
15. Guys who strut around at the gym thinking that they are hot, and the hot chicks who only look at and talk to the guys that are hot. I imagine the hot guys have herpes. At least a few of them probably do. The rest are gay. Hot chicks need to realize that average (and below-average) looking guys have less diseases and are happier to get laid.
16. Vegetarians: People that tell me to lose weight by eating more fruits, vegetables, and salads. The only fruits that I like are the really fattening ones, like grapes and cherries. I don't like any vegetables except for corn with lots of butter, and potato skins with lots of cheese, bacon, onions, and garlic. Fuck fruits, vegetables, salad bars, and vegetarians. Vegetarians have low sperm count.
17. People with plain green ink tattoos of names on the back of their butt or on their neck. What's that all about? It is usually some gangsta thug name. Check out the crime photos, you will see a ton of convicts with those name tattoos on their necks, ass, hands, arms, etc. I have nothing against tattoos that look beatiful, but those nasty greenish black name tattoos just look thuggish.
18. Squeezable plastic Mustard and relish jars. For some reason when you squeeze the first squirt of mustard or relish there is a shot of nasty, slimy liquid and it grosses me out to see it on my hot dog or the hot dog bun. It gets the bun wet and it tastes like dirty coochie.
19. The little wires for ear-buds (headphones) for my CD player are always getting tangled. Occasionally I have pulled them too hard to untangle them and then the ear-buds pop off. Wal-Mart sells them at 99 cents.
20. Farina, cream of wheat, oatmeal, and any other microwaveable instant food that turns into rubber if you over-cook it by a minute or two.
21. Verbally abusive bosses of third-rate firms who do not give a Christmas bonus or host any Christmas party. What goes around comes around.
22. Employers who ask prospective employees weird personal questions during a first interview. Some employers just look creepy.
23. Calories piss me off. The only thing worse is that the nutritional information on the labels of most processed food products is bullshit. I always add 25% more calories to whatever is stated on the product label. I would like to find out who is testing the food and kick their ass and then take over their job and fill out the nutritional labels based on what I think it is.
24. Fat men that are sensitive and don't like to be criticized. When I crack on some fat guy, I look at it as two brothers in arms fighting together in the trenches of the front line of the obesity battle. I don't see it as me trying to humiliate a fellow fat-fuck, because I am trying my sincere best to be motivating to myself and others.
25. Blog Whores: I was a bit astonished when I first started blogging and found blogs by women who claim to be looking for love, searching for a husband. They usually claim to be true romantics at heart engaged in a noble quest. After following some of these ladies on their blogs over a few sexcapades and drunken one-night stands it ocurred to me that these were just plain whores.
26. There are two kinds of fat people on earth. The kind that are trying to lose weight and the kind that honestly don't give a shit and proudly wiggle their fat-blob ass all over the place while walking around with a donut in hand and are happy to die at age 40 of a heart attack.

I believe that letting off steam is the best way to get rid of stress and eliminate hang-ups. Most of these complaints are really silly. Posting about them accomplished the goal of converting them from irritating to funny. I cannot take most of this stuff seriously since I cannot change 99% of the things that I find annoying. That is probably why I find them annoying. If I could change them then I probably would not bother in most cases. I don't want to de-motivate anyone, so I hope nobody takes my comments personally. I have lost nine pounds in the past month or so (check my other blog). To everyone that has been here to support me, thank you for your kind words, thoughts, prayers, and best intentions! Please understand that I mean my remarks in the best way possible. Even behind my harshest remarks, there is always a place for kind people of any weight. Thanks for being here for me. I hope that you know that I pray for you to succeed, and I want you to beat obesity and to be happy in every phase of your life. Merry Christmas and good luck and good health to all in the coming New Year!