The journey begins...or...Aren't these two AWESOME???!!!

At first I was afraid, I was petrified...

I survived!

No death-avenging required, folks, but I know that you were ready should the need have arisen. Go ahead and pat yourself on the back. You deserve it.

Go ahead. Do it. I'll wait...

See? Don't you feel better now? How's the self-morale? Elevated, no?

I thought so...

What a weekend! It all started with a circus attempt to rent a convertible from the good people at Avis rental. There was a slight problem with our coupon, so it was going to end up costing more than the Primrose boys had thought, so we walked. (Not to West Virginia, mind you, but out of the Avis rental office.) Ready and willing to bail us out in our attempt were the Bruchmans. Big thanks to them for letting us use their Sebring. There's nothing quite like the wind in your face as you cruise down the highway at ridiculous hours of the night while rocking out to music from just about every genre imaginable. Good times.

Rolling in at 4:30 a.m. was just the beginning...

Saturday brought a day at the beach (complete with giant iceberg and trampoline!), some cricket, and (of course) delicious s'mores around a campfire. More good times.

Cricket was a new experience. It's a great game that can be played (seemingly) by any number of people. It'll be even better to play it someday on a flat surface that is less rock-riddled. I'm sure that there's got to be a better way for setting up the "wicket" (I believe that's what it's called) each time after the top pieces get knocked to and fro, though. Something akin to the pinsetters in bowling, perhaps...

Still, I feel like I learned something new, and despite what has previously been said about the dangers of learning something new, this was great! A classy game for the ages and one that I will certainly play again!

Sunday was the big day, though, whitewater rafting was on the schedule and nervous tension was on my heart. Not having ever done it before, I wasn't really sure into what I was getting. I believe my exact words, as I headed toward my boat and the on-site cameraman put his camera in my face, asking, "What's your name?" were, "You can call me nervous."

I was. (Although my calm, cool, unflinching demeanor wouldn't show it...and if you believe that I've got some land to sell you.) After signing, what seemed to be, a 1,300 page waiver you can't help but feel a little uneasy.

So we hopped into our raft, drifted out to the calm waters and began to practice following our guides directions. It all seemed easy enough. Then we were off...

Now, my mind is racing with analogies that might shine a light upon that which is whitewater rafting. I was going to compare it to football because it's on my mind. I thought that maybe I'd compare it to a movie because, well, my mind just tends to work that way. Perhaps I'd compare it to gas prices, because that talk is all the rage lately...

I think, though, that I'd like to relate it to a great spanish song of my liking. It's called Malaguena Salerosa. (Just ignore the video, listen to the music. Or watch the video for all of its cheesy glory, I don't care.) I don't have a clue as to the meaning of this tune, but it has a special place in my heart because it is...well...awesome. The song starts off pretty briskly, maintains for a while, has a guitar explosion around the 3:27 mark, and then calms back down. I feel like that song captures how I felt throughout the trip down the river rather well. (The Class V "Double Z" section of the river coinciding with the guitar eruption at 3:27.)

Yeah, I'm a strange person. I know this. You know this. Let's just move on.

Seriously, though, the rafting was a lot of fun, and I encourage any of you "I haven't ever gone whitewater rafting before" types to get out there and try it. If you're lucky, you'll end up in a raft full of awesome people (I was lucky!) who will make the experience even better...be it somehow managing to keep yourself in the boat "Chuck-Norris-Style" or grabbing onto the water cooler for dear life while screaming, it's a joy for your fellow rafters either way. Morale in our boat couldn't have been higher due, largely, to the frequent "paddle high-fives."

If you find that it is not to your liking, I'll...well, I won't do anything for you. Still, though, I'm fairly certain you'll enjoy it. You're reading this on the internet...the internet wouldn't lie to you, would it?

All in all, an awesome weekend. Great trip up...fun time there...awesome trip back...and I even learned a valuable lesson while there:

"Words mean things."

Think about it. Simple. Elegant. To the point.

Woah.

Anyway, that's my story from this weekend. I could go on and on and on and on and on...but I won't.

Not now, anyway.

In the meantime, you should learn the "Pirate Dance." (Draw the sword, drink the rum, walk the plank, kick the shark. Repeat.)

Much luv,
Rob
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Song of the Day: "Hey Jude" by The Beatles (nothing beats belting this one out at the top of your lungs with your boys while cruising down highway 65 with the top down...obeying all posted speed limits, of course.) (Although the techno remix of "Listen to Your Heart" comes pretty close.) (There's a lot of info in this "Song of the Day" part today, no?) (I like parentheses.)

I'm invincible!!!

Ah, it was like old times...

Tonight I tasted the sweet nectar of nostalgia in the form of one of the greatest video games of all time. I've often claimed that "Kaboom" for the Atari was the greatest video game of all time. There's no winning in that game. The bombs just drop faster and faster until you lose, but accumulating an abundance of points is just flat-out good times.

Still, "Kaboom" was not the game of choice this evening. Tonight, I played some Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64. It only took a moment to select "Kissy" as my control style, Boris as my character, and "Facility" as my stage and I was thrust into the action, tossing proximity mines like crazy around a bathroom and watching my foes explode before me.

As I often like to say:

It...was...AWESOME!

What is it about playing an old game that brings such joy to my heart? Why is it so comforting? Is it the familiarity? The longing for some happy memories from the past?

Nah, I think it's the fact that blasting your foes with a rocket launcher in the "complex" level brings some joy that simply can't be found elsewhere.

Especially if that foe is being represented by Oddjob. I hate that guy...with his stupid hat, short stature, and smug look on his face.

Anyway, it was much fun, and I highly recommend digging up something fun from your past for another look. Good times.

Off to go whitewater rafting in West Virginia this weekend. If I don't make it back, please avenge my death.

Much luv,
Rob
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Song of the Day: "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson

Well, it's no cowbell, but...

Boy, it's been a while since I've written anything. Where to begin? I could comment on the new Batman movie (very good, but not the mind-blowing experience it was hyped to be...but the "magic pencil trick" was amazing). I could comment on the political scene. (Actually, I don't think I'm even capable.) I could comment on everyone's favorite topic...outrageous gas prices. (I think it's become the go-to topic when running out of things to say, edging out even the weather.)

None of that's really my style, though. (Well, maybe the Batman...but that's not where I'm going.) I'd rather comment on something smaller. Sometimes, it's the little things in life that somehow make getting through the day-to-day bearable. Not the "big" things that relate on a more grand scale, you know?

Then again, Gavin Rossdale sang that it's the "little things that kill," so maybe I don't know about what I am talking. (or maybe he doesn't)

That's beside the point, though. Today something little happened. Sure, there were some bigger things, such as jamming to Muse on Rock Band with the Laskey boys (they're so good at that game...), playing football with the junior highers, and Max Weinberg returning to The Late Show with Conan O'Brien, but those aren't what still has me grinning like a fool this evening.

This morning, while at work, I was listening to the Eric & Kathy show on 101.9, "The Mix." I often listen to their show for some good info, many laughs, and the amazing "Friday Song."

This morning they gave a report on something that had to do with lasers, and started playing a silly laser sound effect over all sorts of things, thereby making them, as we say in the shipping business, "better." It was cracking me up, especially when they played it during that new Coldplay tune that, I am rather certain, is playing on a radio station right now. (It's EVERYWHERE, but don't get me wrong...I kinda dig it.)

So anyway, time moved on, as it often does, and they, too, moved on from the amazing laser sounds to other less interesting non-laser-involving stories. I kept plugging away at my job, and decided that I needed something to give me a little lift...something to lift my spirits on a tired monday morning.

I knew what I needed...and I knew where I might be able to get it. I quickly hopped on the computer and sent an email to Eric, of the aforementioned Eric & Kathy Show. It was short. It was simple. It said the following:

Subject: MORE LASERS!!!

That's all...I just want more lasers, please.

And if possible, more cowbell.

Much luv,
Rob

What I got blew me away...approximately two minutes later, upon returning from a commercial break, I was stunned to hear Eric reading my email on the air, including my trademark "Much luv, Rob." (I don't know how that started, but that's how I've signed off just about every email I've ever written.)

Anyway...

Eric proceeded to apologize for not having cowbell, but then unleashed a bevy of hilarious sound effects, including more lasers, cows mooing, zippers zipping, etc.

I couldn't help but smile. Maybe you heard it on the radio, too. I hope it made you smile as well.

And if not, perhaps this laser-related video will make you smile. If nothing else, it's got a good song in it...

Much luv,
Rob
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Song of the Day: "Breath Into Me" by Red

We'll see...

So I just wrapped up watching a very interesting movie. It's called "Charlie Wilson's War." It's a story about, go figure, Charles Wilson, a Texas congressman who helped spearhead the "largest CIA covert operation" against the Soviets in the eighties. It was a very good movie...I think I'd give it 22 Spartans on my Spartan Scale.

After a trip to Pakistan and seeing the suffering that is happening there, "Good-time Charlie" decides that he simply MUST get involved. Wilson, though many different means, finds a way to raise funds to get "modern" weaponry into the hands of those who need it. This proves to be the turning point and leads to the crumbling of the communist occupiers.

Inadvertently, this also leads to supplying weapons to, what would later become, Al Queda. We all know what happens with them.

It was a very interesting, thought-provoking movie, and it's all based upon true events. Kinda scary when you think about it.

At one point, Gust Avrokotos (aptly played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman...seriously should've won an Oscar for his performance) tells a story to Charlie. It goes a little something like this:

There's a little boy and on his 14th birthday he gets a horse... and everybody in the village says, "how wonderful. the boy got a horse" And the Zen master says, "we'll see." Two years later The boy falls off the horse, breaks his leg, and everyone in the village says, "how terrible." And the Zen master says, "We'll see." Then, a war breaks out and all the young men have to go off and fight... except the boy can't cause his legs all messed up. and everybody in the village says, "How wonderful."

Of all the things in this movie, this is what sticks out to me. No, I'm not suddenly all into the "Zen" thing, but the "Zen master" in the story makes a good point. We don't always see the big picture. Everyday circumstances play a part in more than just the everyday. Sure, you may get what you want now, but at what cost in the end? We just don't know.

That may sound depressing when thinking about something "good" that you experience, that it may have a "bad something" to follow...and possibly even be caused by it. It's comforting, though, to consider how the bad things can work for good, too.

Ultimately, the movie concludes with victory over the Soviets, but things get held up when funding is cut for building schools. They mention that (and I don't remember the exact numbers)about 50% of the population is under the age of fourteen. By not following through and helping rebuild, we may have seriously dropped the ball.

As Charles Wilson put it:

"These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world...and then we f---ed up the end game."

Sobering thoughts. A lesson in finishing what you've started, but we'll see.

Much luv,
Rob
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Song of the Day: "Let's Dance" by David Bowie