monkey bars or the slide?

Very often after a grueling day of activities including the long hard commute to work, answering and making phone calls, trying hard to look and sound "important" and the commute back, homework with my daughter, the steam rising at my face while in the kitchen, the screaming generated from the inevitable sibling rivalry that is my off-spring and many other things (gasping for breath, because I am overdue for a comma), there is a place where I take my children. . . the playground. There are many social queues that tie to this event. For the kids either option is presented to them. They could 1: Run away bolting to that magical place that they have longed for and finally have it within their sights forgetting completely about you the parent. Or they could 2: stay as close to you as possible seeing that they have feared ever leaving your sight. Once you arrive to the bench you tend to feel like an athlete leaving the field going to the sidelines and now your kids take over. There are times where you are feeling adventurous and join them on the swaying draw bridge, the twirly slide that shocks you 50 times as you go down, or the monkey bars where your feet already reach the ground just from standing. Most likely after an already "adventurous" day, you might tap out. Other parents gather in the fold monitoring their kids while accompanied by their phones. You get to witness the various styles of parenting. There are those who make their kids overdress with helmets, knee pads, or even that marshmallow suit that the police wear to test out their K-9's ferocity. Then you have the ones that argue with their kids about having to use the bathroom even though the kid already went before coming out to play. It's like their watering grounds with how animals come together to socialize (no, are kids are not animals, I'm simply giving an analogy, although my children tend to bark and quack). We really have no idea how to interact when other kids tackle yours down. You don't want to be anyone else's authoritarian (it's more awkward than dancing with your sister). You leave it to good faith that that kid's parent will step up and relieve you of having to bring balance back into the playground. One time, my son and another kid were wearing the exact same outfit and had the same haircut (only the other kid spoke French). I had this thought that my wife and I would mistaken the French kid as ours and the other parents would take home our son. What if they raised him as their own and likewise with us and their kid? And then after 20 years they meet back up somewhere in college? What a crazy idea. So I guess the moral of the story is to mark your kids with a Sharpie before heading to the park.

the "super toy run" theory

Life is too short and so is one minute - sixty seconds. There used to be a kid contest sponsored through Nickelodeon where the lucky winner would be deemed one minute to run through a Toys R Us store with only one shopping cart, he had to shovel in as many toys as he could. This kid had to really book it seeing that there were Legos, action figures (the timeline was around the early 90's, so you know this was all high quality) Matchbox cars, and countless NES/SNES/Sega Genesis video games to be claimed without the nagging of parents and washing your dog for a couple of nickels twice a week to someday be able to afford a fraction of what lied ahead of him. What made it even more "at-the-edge-of-your-seat" was the finish line. It didn't matter the bulk spoils he piled in his cart, if he couldn't cross that finish line within the minute time frame, game over. All would be lost. I can't shake the feeling of how precious time here can be modeled after this contest. For me it might have to be books and music. With music there is sooooo much out there. It's like outer space. You could spend a lifetime in a single genre (or sector of planets) and still have galaxies of other really good sounds sitting there unexplored. Like that kid on the Super Toy Run contest, I bolt through the spacious warehouse with my left arm out scraping in everything from the shelf into my cart while struggling to steady my direction. With books, it's even more difficult, I do enjoy reading A LOT, however I can be a slow reader and it takes extra time for me to soak into a book while work and family are my main concerns. Have you ever felt like that? There is only so much we can be exposed to, also like a gourmet buffet line, there's only so much your stomach can hold.

Interstella 5555

My friend showed me this when we were installing security alarms in Tallahassee. It might've been our day off but we got onto youtube and here it was. Daft Punk made an album and the songs on them are designated to a animated movie titled Interstella 5555. For 14 tracks there are 14 videos. It totals about an hour and some change if you have that much free time to spare this is a real treat. I think I pulled it all off from a sick day. There is no sound except for the tire screeches with the car chase scenes. It is beautifully done with a unique plot and GREAT music. So there is this "guy from the oatmeal box" (you can't miss him, they make him out to look like the most evilest man alive) and there are distant worlds were these smurf people jam out on their home planet and are taken (almost like poached by this ninja force) and brought back to...Earth? Anyways I don't want to spoil it for you but they definitely illustrate the "no-nos" of creating music STRICTLY for marketing purposes instead of just letting it out in true form and spirit. That's probably a good reason why fans today are insecure about the music they love because maybe they feel that if the artist gets too good they will "sell out" and become "corporate". The number 5555 is the number of gold records this evil man wants (he's a big time producer). He is like a game collector almost like how a hunter travels exotic locations specifically to add to his collection (how does he sleep at night). There are so many neat things out there with the dilemma of not having enough time to enjoy those out-of-the-blue marvels that so often cross our paths in life. ENJOY!

Track 1 - One More Time

Track 2 - Aerodynamic

Track 3 - Digital Love

Track 4 - Harder Better Faster

Track 5 - Crescendolls

Track 6 - Night Vision

Track 7 - Superheroes

Track 8 - High Life

Track 9 - Something about Us
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Track 10 - Voyager

Track 11 - Veridis Quo

Track 12 - Short Circuit

Track 13 - Face to Face
Track 14 - Too Long

fortune cookie 500 companies

One of my favorite things at the end of a Chinese meal whether take out, dining in, buffet, etc. . . is the fortune cookies. It really feels like Christmas. Almost like inside the individual cookies lies a forbidden secret that was meant to tell only you something that could change your life. One that really stuck out to me went like this: "In great attempts it is glorious even to fail" and then there were small numbers below it. Those little messages might get overlooked (especially with the bill being given the same time). What if the check alters your mood about the message that awaits. Maybe it would be more positive to give you the cookie first then wait 10 minutes and then out comes the really high check. Another thing I have pondered about the fortune cookie is the author. Sometimes I recieve the same message, to one that could just mean that its commercialized and there are only a certain number printed OR something is trying to tell you something important and you are not listening. What if there was a secret wisdom circle of about 10 Mr. Miyagis who gathered every full moon (once a month) and sat in a dark room with an overhead light, they put on some sounds-of-the-ocean type of music and let their inner spirituality wisdom pour out with a typewriter in front of them and stuffed them in each cookie and mailed them to all the Chinese restaurants IN THE WORLD and they were individual messages for certain people (they are so wise that they can pretty much predict the future)? What it?  

"...you bred raptors..."

Thank you Michael Crichton for writing such an amazing story made believe that modern science could actually concoct such prehistoric giants in our day. Spielberg caught the vision of its potential on the big screen and voila! Out produced the first film to ever incorporate CGI animation, along with an incredible cast, with one of the most moving plots about family and survival, an increased study of paleontology in colleges nationwide, more dinosaur books than ever before checked out from public libraries, and the never-ending use of movie quotes amongst friends and colleagues. What an example to look upon. Spielberg drove the production and the direction the story needed to come out spectacular. Something I have learned from him is to never settle for less. Phil Tippet was the one in charge of the visual effects of the dinosaurs. They were originally going to use stop-animation with life-like puppets replicating the animals. Phil worked hard to make the movements natural and swift without any glitches. He actually did work it to look real, but Spielberg was still not fully convinced that it would work. So he was frank with Phil and for a little bit, they went back to the drawing board. Someone caught wind of a developing software where you could do stop-motion through the software. So Phil went back to work and "BINGO DINO DNA" (not exactly in the right context) but with the push to better special effects you would think they really went back into time and stole them. Imagine the outcome if Spielberg just thought; "Well, we have a deadline with Universal so....let's just go with what we got." Yeah, it would probably be ranked next to its "wanna-be" Carnosaur.

the evil lawn

I was asleep for a month and finally woke up. Outside in the backyard I inspected patch of grass (its not much but it matters to me). I approached it with caution and discovered that it overgrew to a monstrous creation. It started to talk to me. I asked what it wanted. It told me that its sole purpose in life was to take over every living creature and to eventually grow so vast and dense so as to block off sunlight.

 It was at that moment where I let out my battle cry and charged at it with vigor and courage. "OH NO YOU DON'T!" I pull out my mower and commenced my attack. "It's either IT or the world" I thought to myself. As I ran the push mower over it started to laugh at me. In spite of the taunts and intimidation I continued the fight. Blades of grass flew at me, sweat coming down my face. "IT'S NO USE, I'M INVINCIBLE!!" My hands were stained with green-ness. My efforts to slay the lawn started to seem fruitless. I got on my knees with a sense of defeat, and while my head was down, it extended the dreaded invite that no hero ever should hear, with green blood sputtering out it says; ".....join me....". With rage I am brought back into the fight and came out conqueror. Next time, I will just slay it more frequently rather than wait a whole month.