:: Captain's Personal Blog ::

Stardate: Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Courtesy of the New York Post's WEIRD BUT TRUE - March 25, 2003

"An Army National Guardsman, who was called to serve in the Persian Gulf, has legally changed his name to Optimus Prime, the robotic good-guy warrior from the popular 1980s cartoon series "The Transformers."
"I got a letter from a general at the Pentagon when the name-change went through, and he says it was great to have the employ of the commander of the Autobots in the National Guard," said Prime, an Ohio native who switched his name on his 30th birthday.

Even though Prime has faced some teasing from friends, his new name is on his driver's license, military ID and uniform."
NYPOST.COM World News: WEIRD BUT TRUE
:: J 10:21 AM [+] ::
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Sniff

Well, I've had a few people ask me lately, why my blog was left with the simple one word entry Tears.

First, and foremost, let me say RIGHT OUT, that they had nothing to do with the war. To be honest, I am too disgusted with the whole mess to shed a tear for that. My heart goes out to the many soldiers currently stationed in the Middle East. I hope for their safe return. All because I am a humanist, more than anything else.

With that out of my system, I will try to shed some light on why I had my tears:

Sometimes, in life, you just need to shed your tears. Be they tears of joy, tears of sorrow, or tears of fatigue, you just need to let them go. Or, I suppose, to paraphrase Brendon Frasier in Bedazzled you can wear them as salty badges of your humanity. I would never be too macho to admit that from time to time I shed a tear. I have emotions like any HUMAN BEING. Be they man or woman, we all have feelings and must express them at some point.

Maybe they were because I was under too much stress at work, maybe I had received some bad news. Maybe I had received some good news, maybe I was just tired. To be honest, at the time, it was the only reaction I had to offer. 'To what,' you may ask?

Life in general. I am a happy person by nature, but from time to time, like any pressure cooker, I need to hit the release valve. Some things just need to come out in their own way. This blog, the "Captain's Personal Blog" has gone a long way to helping me to vent some of my emotions over the last year. Sometimes, however, you just feel something that you can't put into words.

I would like to take this opportunity, once again, to thank my friends for always being there for me. It's good to know that they are out there, and that I am lucky enough to have met so many wonderful people.

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On that note, *HUGE SIGH* Having re-read what I just wrote, I realize that it seemed a bit morose. I had not intention of making so, but tears are delicate things, and precious to behold. This is, by no means, the end of this blog in any way shape or form. I'm going to leave my inner wet-blanket at home for awhile and emote on less heavy topics. Next up-- My review of the Season (read SERIES) finale of FARSCAPE.
:: J 8:31 AM [+] ::
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Tears
:: J 10:13 AM [+] ::
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The Incredible Shrinking Blog

Well, that was weird. For some reason, my last post disappeared for a little while, making it seem like it's been longer since I last posted than it really was!!! Now I wonder if there will be a malfunction to make that last sentence seem longer than IT was.......

Anyhoo, hows about an update, hm?

Last week was an absolute killer week for me at work. I had two extra projects in addition to what I usually work on, and was completely swamped. I didn't have much room to breathe, although those are sometimes the best days at work. Luckily, the week ended, and the weekend began.

This was the coolest part of lately. For the second weekend in a row I went out and had fun. I realize that I haven't posted the fun stuff I did the weekend before, so let me derail for a moment and talk about that.

LAST weekend I came into NYC to see Brian (co-author of JOSSOLALIA and MANGAMANIACS.COM) and his fiancee Marilyn. We went to see Daredevil. Unfortunately for 20th Century Fox, this wasn't the highlight of my day. The highlight was being able to hang out with these two wonderful people. We spent the rest of our time doing fun stuff (which, incidentally mostly involved food) and just talking. It's nice to talk to people (outside the office building) that I am not related to :)

As for Daredevil itself, I think I'll save that review for another entry as that I am straying too far from the point of this one as it is.

This past weekend I spent with my great friend Cheryl. We went to this stupendous burger place in midtown Manhattan. I will have to ask her for the name and address again, because this place was awesome. I had a burger with jack cheese, bacon and guacamole. For once, I actually finished the whole thing. I felt like a stuffed pig, but BOY was I satisfied. After that, we went to the Museum of Radio & TV. That was just the coolest place I have been to in a long time. $10 covered admission and once we were in we scheduled (at no extra cost) two hours of screening time for whatever we wanted to see. In the meantime (while we waited for our time to show up) we watched the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, as well as an episode of the Burns and Allen Show. The commercials in the Ed Sullivan show were really cool because they were terribly outdated. It was very funny. So much so, that when our screening time came around, Cheryl and I decided to watch a montage of Coca-Cola commercials from 1950's to 1980's. They too were very funny, but primarily quite effective. Cheryl and I concluded that we NEEDED to have cokes right after we were finished :)

We also used our screen time to watch a 1977 Tonight Show episode where Kermit the Frog guest hosted for Johnny Carson. Special guests were Vincent Price, Bernadette Peters, a musical guest (whose name escapes me) and Dr. Michael Fox (a veterinarian.) Guest appearances were made by Fozzie, Ms. Piggy, Gonzo, Scooter and a few others. It was, at least to me, VERY funny throughout. I laughed more at this than I have at any recent late night talk show in a LONG time.

After we had finished there, not feeling quite satisfied because we could have spent a whole day, nay, a whole WEEK there, we continued on to the Olive Garden where we had an excellent feast (aren't they always) and met up with a very nice friend of Cheryl's. They were going to the Tori Amos concert at Radio City @ 8pm, so at around then we parted company.

Again, I ended the day with a TREMENDOUS feeling of elation, having had a great day, beginning to end. I really should do this more often. It was great fun.
:: J 8:57 AM [+] ::
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