30 Days / Snow / Neil Finn

I've got some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that I might start making YouTube again in 30 days.

The bad news is that you won't find me on the Internet at all for at least the next 30 days.

I'm going on a bit of an Internet holiday. I'll actually still be using the Internet to get my sports and news information, but I'm not going to be interacting with any of you fine folks online. I won't be blogging, I won't be Twittering, I won't be facebook-ing, and I won't be YouTube-ing ( Well, I will be watching videos on YouTube, but I'm not going to comment on videos, respond to comments, or manage my YouTube account in any way ( Well, I might favorite a video that I like, but that's about it. )).

I'm not going to go into the reasons why I'm taking this break from my online life, except to say that suspending my YouTube video-making was a good start, but it really wasn't enough. I'll definitely be back, and I'll almost certainly return to making videos when I get back, but for now, I need to take a break.

So yeah, I'll be gone for at least 30 days ( Perhaps longer, but hopefully only 30 days ). After I post this blog entry, I won't even by checking to see if anyone responded to this post. I'll check in 30 days, so if you would like to comment on this post, you'll need to wait for 30 days before I approve the comment.

OK, now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'd still like to make this blog post a fairly normal one rather than a blog post that just says "goodbye". So, before I sign off, I'd like to report a few random things.

First of all, it snowed today ( on the first day of Spring ). Here are some pictures:






Second, I got a rather odd compliment on YouTube yesterday. I certainly don't mind getting compliments ( It's one of the nicer things about my YouTube experience ), but this compliment was a little bit different. Somebody left a comment on my "Silent E" video which said "you're just as cute as Neil Finn! ". Now, I'm certainly flattered that this random person apparently thinks that I'm cute, but I had never heard of Neil Finn before, so I found it odd that this Neil Finn person was being used as some kind of benchmark for cuteness. Naturally, this comment made me a bit curious about Neil Finn. Who is he, and what does he look like? Well, apparently he's a singer, the frontman for Crowded House. I probably should have known who Neil Finn was, because I have heard of the band Crowded House, and I'm certainly familiar with songs like "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Never Be the Same". So, after I figured out who he was, I checked his Google images. I dunno - I'm sure he was a good-looking fellow at one point in his life, but when I look at his recent photos, the only word that comes to mind is "old". The person who paid me the Neil Finn compliment was listed at being 42 years old, so perhaps he/she was thinking of Neil Finn from back in his heyday in the 80's rather than the rather worn and withered Neil Finn of today. Hmm - I don't really mind the compliment, but it's just odd to tell somebody that they are cute by comparing them to somebody who is about 20 years past their prime. It's kinda like telling a girl, "You're just as cute as Belinda Carlisle!". Sure, Belinda was quite hot back in the day, but if you wanted to tell a girl you thought she was cute, you'd probably compare her to somebody of a more recent vintage.

Ok, well on that odd note, I'll bid you folks adieu for now. I'm going to update my other online homes to point folks to this blog entry, but after that, you won't see me for a while.

Take Care Folks,
Rich

Old is I

Yes, that would be me.
That would be me in reading glasses.
Yes, I am indeed getting old.

I've actually had these glasses for a while. I used them as part of the outfit for the lawyer character when I made my "4 Hour Erection" video back in 2007. However, up until now, I never really used them on a regular basis. A few years ago I noticed that I was having a hard time reading the words printed on medicine labels ( There's really tiny print on those really tiny bottles of children's medicine ). I noticed I had to hold things further and further away in order to get things to come into proper focus. The print on the medicine bottles was so small, that when I moved the bottle far enough away to get it into focus, the print was far too small to see. So, I figured "Hey, my health insurance pays for it anyway - I might as well get some reading glasses".

When I saw the eye doctor, I found that my vision really wasn't so bad after all. I could read the 20/20 line on the chart across the room ( not a surprise, because I knew I wasn't nearsighted ), but I could also mange to read to the 20/20 line on a piece of paper held close to my face. However, I really had to struggle to read it. I had to stare at the paper for about 10 seconds before my eyes adjusted enough for me to read it ( I assume I was altering the shape of the lenses in my eyes to see it - so I could be looking at big-time eye strain if I did that all the time ). Even after straining to see the letters at close range, I still couldn't see them completely clearly. I was just able to make out the shape of the letters/numbers enough to figure out what they were. So, I figured that reading glasses could still help me a little ( I actually think you probably need 20/10 vision to read a lot of those medicine bottles ).

So I did get reading glasses, but they turned out to be a really weak prescription. When the doctor would cycle through different lenses and ask me "Which looks better, number 1 or number 2?", I could barely tell the difference. In fact, I could barely tell the difference between having lenses or no lenses at all, except that when I looked through the lenses, the black print looked a little a bit darker on the white paper. In other words, there was much better contrast between the black print and the white paper. So, I got the glasses, but I really only used them when I had to read REALLY fine print.

However, things have changed a little bit over the last few years. I still don't really need my glasses to read books ( and I have no trouble seeing anything on a computer monitor ), especially in bright light, but when I try to read something under conditions which are not so bright ( sometimes the light isn't too great on the trains ), I find that I have to strain my eyes a bit to read. So, I've decided to start using my reading glasses on the commuter trains. Today ( March 16th ) was the first day I tried this. It worked pretty well, but I felt a little weird not being able to see 100% clearly when I looked up from my book. It also felt weird to have something on the bridge of my nose. I dunno. I'm sure it's the best thing for my eyes, but it's going to take some getting used to.

Rich ( aka "Mr. Specs" )

Fairy Tale Romance

The year was 1981. I was 11 years old. I've never been much of a morning person, but on July 29th of that year I set my alarm to go off at about 4 AM. It's not every day you have a chance to see a fairy tale wedding.

Unless you were old enough to remember it ( and I think I have only one reader who was even alive back then ), it would be hard to comprehend just how big an event the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana was. We had all read about royal weddings in fairy tales, but we never actually thought we would have a chance to watch one in real life. If a boy like me ( a boy who spent all his free time watching sports, and didn't really have any "girlie" interests ) was fascinated by the idea of a royal wedding, I can only imagine what the typical 7-year-old girl must have been thinking of at the time ( As big as the royal wedding was then, it would have been even bigger now. Considering how much Disney has bombarded little girls with princess stuff ( My friend Tom's daughter is only three, and she is already a maniac about princesses ), I think that a lot of little girl's heads would be in danger of exploding if a royal wedding happened today ). This wedding was like a fairy tale come true, and everything we saw on TV that day confirmed that. It was a real-life example of a perfect fairy tale romance.

Too bad it was all a lie ...

I don't think I really need to tell anyone the rest of story. We all know how it worked out. However, looking back at it all now, I've come to realize that Prince Charles did have a fairy tale romance in his life. That romance was with Camilla Parker Bowles.

Well, perhaps not your perfect "suitable for children" romance, but fairy tales romances are supposed to be about true love, and the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Charles and Camilla are a great example of true love.

Okay, maybe "great example" is the wrong the choice of words. They did, after all, carry on an affair when they were both married to other people. That's certainly not a great example for anybody. They probably didn't really love their first spouses, but that's no excess for their underhanded behavior. Common decency suggests that they should have divorced their first spouses before starting an affair. Common decency suggests that they shouldn't have even married their first spouses when they ( Charles and Camilla ) were still in love with each other. However, their situation was so far from "common" that I'm going to cut them a little slack about their lack of "decency".

For those who don't know the story, Charles met Camilla way back in 1970. He wanted to marry her, but his Mom didn't think she would be a suitable wife for him ( That's tough enough under any circumstances, but it's got to be even tougher when your Mom happens to be the freakin' Queen! ). Obviously, the most noble thing to do would have been to marry her anyway ( like King Edward VIII did in 1936 when he gave up his throne to marry a divorced American woman ), but it's understandable that he caved into the pressure from his Mom.

So, he told Camilla that he could never marry her and she ( understanbably ) eventually married another man. He, of course, married Diana, but apparantly their respective marriages couldn't get in the way of the love they had for each other.

Once again, cheating on the spouses - BAD BAD BAD ( There are rumors that Charles and Camilla got in on the night before the royal wedding ), but there is still something about their enduring love that warms my heart. Camilla obviously never stopped loving Charles, and it's clear that he REALLY REALLY loves her. I mean, one could potentially question Camilla's motivation ( after all, there are obvious benefits to being the lover ( and eventually the wife ) of the Prince of Wales ), but there's no doubt in my mind that Charles was motivated by true love. After all, as the freakin' Prince of Wales, he could have married pretty much anybody. He actually did wind up marrying a stunningly beautiful woman, but his love for Camilla never faded. I was really happy to see the two of them finally get married in 2005.

Yes, they both made mistakes, and they hurt a lot of people in the process. However, I still can't help but feel happy for them. It took 35 years, but they finally got married. I actually find the story of Charles and Camilla's romance more inspirational than any fairy tale I've ever read.

Rich

P.S. I have *NO* idea why this subject popped into my mind lately. It just did, and I felt like writing about it. If you didn't like this topic, well ....
... there's always the next post. :)

Some Links

A clue to what I did today ...

"Let me tell you how it will be.
There's 1 for you, 19 for me."

Busy day today, and I need to wake up early tomorrow, so I 'm just going to leave you with a couple of links. Recently, I thought of a singer I enjoyed from the late 80's and early 90's and a show I enjoyed from the mid 90's. Some you folks might not remember this singer or this show ( One of the folks who reads this blog was born in 1991 ), so hopefully I'll be introducing some of you folks to something you'll enjoy ( BTW, I'm not really one of those "Back in my day, everything was better"-types. I think there is great stuff produced in every generation, and I think it's great when folks from different generations can share stuff that they enjoy. For example, thanks to one of my readers, I now know who Maria Mena is ( and I'm glad that I do ). ).

Anyway, the first person I'd like to to provide some links for, is a singer called Eddie Brickell. I bought her first two albums when I was in college. I didn't really keep up with her after that, though I do know that she married Paul Simon ( and it seems like she kinda disappeared from the music scene after that - perhaps she's made more albums, but I haven't really been paying attention ). Anyway, the song that she hit it big with was called "What I Am". However, I'm not going to bother to provide a link to that one. Instead, I'll provide links to a pair of hidden gems that popped into my head when I was doing yard work recently. One is called "Circle" and the other is called "Ghost of a Dog" ( Crap, there actually is not a YouTube clip for "Ghost of a Dog", and it's too late for me to spend all night searching for a link via Goggle. Well, there is a YouTube clip, but it just has parts of the song edited in a strange way. Anyway, if you can find the song, take a listen. I just LOVE the way she transitions from the word "ago" to "ghost" in this song ).

The other thing I wanted to share with you is this clip from the program "Mr. Show". This is the "Milking Machine" musical from "Mr. Show". This skit is really the acid test for whether you are going to like this show. Unfortunately, I just noticed that the last two minutes of the skit are not included in the YouTube link above. I'll provide the full skit in an blog post edit if I can find it later. For now though, if you are entertained by the link above, you should click on this link to watch the "Milking Machine Song" that closes the skit. Really, if you've taken the time to watch the first 5 minutes of this skit, it would be a crime not to see the song which closes the skit. If you watch both links above you will have seen all but a but a minute of the skit ( That minute is mostly Jack Black prancing around ).

Goodnight all,
Rich

P.S. My next post is going to be about a famous person. I'll leave you with a hint about who this person is. At one point, this person was one half of the most famous couple in the world. The other famous person in this couple is no longer alive.

Tiny Dancer

I'm going to use this post to respond to some of the comments made on the last post.

- Home schooling really isn't an option we are considering. The logistics don't really work for us in a lot of ways, and I really think Michael would benefit from interacting with other kids at school. We've lucky enough to live in a place with a great school system ( Well, I guess it's not exactly luck, because we did choose to buy a house here ( and pay the massive property taxes that support the school system ), but the school system really has exceeded my wildest expectations so far ). The public pre-school program for kids with special needs ( Austism, speech delay, etc. ) has done wonders for both Michael and Peter. The school is going to try to get additional instruction for Michael ( for both the Autism issues and the academic issues ( the need to challenge him more ) ), and I'm confident that the school will do a great job.

- Michael seems to be rather creative, but it's kinda hard to tell at this point. He recently created a little story book with words and pictures. It was hard to follow the story he was trying to tell, but it had something to do with a clock that was built in 1862. The story was all over the place ( which kinda mirrors his speech - he jumps from topic to topic when you talk to him - he has a hard time focusing on just one thing ), so it's hard to tell if the story is a sign of creativity. There's probably a fine line between having disjointed thoughts and creative thoughts.

- Peter is not only a little artist, but he's a little dancer. It looks like he might wind up being the more creative of the two ( though obviously, it's too early to pigeon-hole either one of the kids ( actually, we probably shouldn't pigeon-hole anybody at any age ) ). His dancing is really a sight to see ( I should probably post a YT video to show his dancing, but he's naked in all the dancing footage I've captured so far ( He's very much into being naked these days. He's also very much into holding himself you-know-where and saying stuff like "I got big wee wee!". Funny stuff, but not fit for public consumption ). We have a few devices around the house ( A Leap Frog "radio", a Wiggles "radio", a Wiggles guitar, etc. ) which play a large variety of childrens songs. As Peter listens to songs, he'll make up a brand new dance as soon as a new song starts playing. The dances each have rather complex steps/moves. He'll move his hands in different directions, shake his hips in different ways, and move his feet in complex patterns. It's definitely not random, because as a given song plays, he'll repeat the same steps/moves over and over again in synch with the music. So yes, we've got a little dancer. As each new songs starts, he unveils a new dance. It's funny. While Peter is definitely a little tough guy ( He doesn't take shit from anybody. If you piss him off, he'll hit you, and hit you hard. We're trying to get him to be less agressive, but we've got to be careful when he's around other kids ( He also smacks Michael a lot ) ), he's also a total Mommy's Boy ( He still needs to sleep with Mommy each night ) and loves to dance ( If he ever takes ballet, I'm gonna feel sorry for the first bully who tries to tease him about it ). Children and wonderfull and fun it that way. They are always surprising you.

Rich

P.S. EZ - I should be home in mid-August and be in your neck of the woods during the last week of August. Ruth sister's Debby and her husband Orion have just moved into an apartment building in Berkely ( I think it is within walking distance of your house ).

The Mark of Pete-o

We're getting some work done in the office in our bedroom. This work involves some nice bright paint. Peter got his hands on one of the paintbrushes and left his mark on a white wall. I wasn't there when it happened, but I took a picture of the Zorro-like "P" on the wall. He already knows how to write his name, so I think he would have written out his entire name if my wife hadn't stopped him.

Speaking of my kids, Micheal is due to start kindergarten in September, but the school system isn't quite sure what to do with him. It's clear to everyone that he'd be completely bored by the kindergarten curriculum, so they are thinking of having him skip kindergarten and start 1st grade in September ( He can probably already read/write at a 2nd grade level and he probably knows more math than some high school kids. He know almost all the elementary school stuff, plus square roots, cube roots, squaring, cubing, various powers of numbers, negative numbers, some algebra, and even some stuff about imaginary numbers ( Sure, any kid could memorize that "i is the square root of -1", but a few days after I taught him about imaginary numbers he announced that "the cube root if -i is i" ). A few days ago he announced out of the blue that "A squared + B squared = C squared". I don't know where he heard that ( probably on YouTube ), but I figured that I might as well explain Pythagorean's Theorem to him ( he already knows what a right angle is ). So I showed him how to do the calculations for a 3-4-5 right triangle, and then showed him a 5-12-13 triangle ( but I labeled the "13" side as "C" ). He immediately wrote out the equation "25 + 144" and about 30 seconds later told me that C was 13. ). However, as far as his social development goes, he's probably more like a 4-year old than a 5-year old. He's actually still considered to be on the Autism spectrum and the diagnosis is probably accurate. So, at this point, the school is not sure what to do. Kindergarten will probably be good for developing his social skills, but he'd be so bored by the academic stuff that he might not want to pay attention to his teachers most of the time. Even if the school does recommend 1st grade, I would imagine the final decision would be up to Ruth and me. We're still not sure what we'd like to do. I'm more concerned about his social development than anything, but it's not clear to me that sitting in a classroom bored all day will be good for his social development. Even if he goes to the 1st grade class, he's still going to be bored a lot.

Willie

I'd like write a long meaningful blog post, but it's so late, and I'm so very very tired. So instead, I'll just direct you to this link ( If you've paying attention to my blog and YT channel lately, then you really don't need me to explain the link ).

BTW, nothing against the Pet Shop Boys, but they shoulda left this song alone. Nobody should have been allowed to record a version of this after Willie Nelson. Elvis' version is OK, but only Willie got this song exactly right. The same thing applies to "Wind Beneath My Wings". Willie recorded it years before Bette Midler did, and I think his version is far superior to hers.

Time to sleep. Goodnight all.

Rich

Hangin' with the honus

I know I've been doing a lot more photo-based blog posts than text-based blog posts lately. However, I hope pictures like the one of above can make up for the lack of text. My wife took this shot when we were in Hawaii this past August. Please feel free to click the photo above if you want to see it in all its vivid detail.

I've spent much of the afternoon posting my Hawaii photos to facebook, so please check out my facebook account and let me know what you think. Posting these photos got my thinking about one of the great experiences I had on that trip.

You know those places where you can get to swim with a dolphin? Well, no offense to anybody who has done it, but I think those places suck. Dolphins are pretty damn intelligent creatures, and I can't imagine that it can be good for a dolphin's psyche to be basically fondled by strangers all day long. Look, I'm not really an animal rights person. I have no problem eating all sorts of meat. But for high intelligence animals like dolphins, whales and chimps, I think we should consider what the animals might be feeling.

However, my dislike for the whole "dolphin encounter" thing is about a lot more than animal rights. I just happen to really enjoy nature, and hanging out with a dolphin in a pool somewhere just isn't the type of natural experience that excites me. If I'm going to interact with animals, I want it to be in as natural a setting as possible. This brings me to the great experience I had. When I was in Hawaii, I was lucky enough to swim alongside a Honu ( Honus? ). "Honu" is the Hawaiian word for the sea turtles that live in the Hawaiian waters. The first day we were at our resort in a Hawaii ( The Big Island, Kona side - the Mauna Lani Bay Resort ), I noticed a Honu sunning itself on a rock ( you can see a shot of this in the facebook photos ). Back in February of 2001, I had gotten to watch some Honu ( Honus? I think the plural of Honu just might be Honu. ) eating vegetation growing on rocks in the shallows near our Kona hotel. I was hoping that if I was patient enough, I would notice some Honu in the waters near our resort. I was lucky enough to run into a few turtles twice during the trip. Close to where I saw the turtle sunning itself, I noticed a bunch of vegetation covered rocks in water about 6 feet deep. I swan around there for a bit, and eventually I found some turtles feeding underwater. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me ( It would have been tough to stay deep enough underwater to get a good shot of the turtles without using both hands anyway. I didn't have any flippers on my feet or anything like that. All I really had were goggles for my eyes. The turtles did surface for air once in a while, but they would dive back down again really quickly. ), but the turtles basically looked like turtle in the photo below:


To give you an idea of the scale, the turtles were about 3 feet long. The first time I saw the turtles, the experience basically consisted of me watching them feed. I would take a deep breath and swim down next to where they were feeding, and stay down there watching them for as long as I could hold my breath. That was fun, but not as exciting as what happened the second time I ran into the turtles.

The second time a saw the turtles, things started out pretty much the way they did the first time. I would locate a turtle ( or two ) feeding, and try to watch it for as long as I could. Eventually the turtle would change feeding locations ( or come up for air ) and swim away. I would try to keep up, but eventually the turtle would leave me in the dust ( I would always lose them when I came up for air ). I was only lucky enough to actually swim with one because the following happened:

I was watching two turtles feed, and I came up for air. When I dove back down, I noticed that the turtles were no longer where I last saw them. Initially, I didn't see either turtle, so I started to swim sideways underwater to get a better look at things ( So I wouldn't be facing straight down. I knew the turtles were no longer below me ). I saw it about a split second after I started swimming sideways. It was right next to me. The turtle was only about 3 feet from me, and it was swimming sideways too! For a few seconds I was swimming belly-to-belly with the turtle. It didn't last long, but I'll never forget it. The term "religious experience" is probably overused, but yeah - that's what it felt like.

Anyway, none of my Hawaii photos ( actually Ruth took most of them ) can do justice to that moment, but if you'd like to see some nice scenery and cute pictures of my kids, the facebook link is to the right.

Rich

Posing!

I should have posted these shots a long time ago. These shots were taken in August 2008, when we were in Hawaii for my sister-in-law's wedding. Sometimes, I'll do silly body-building poses to entertain Peter, and Peter will do poses of his own. Some of you may have already seen these pictures as part of this video. The video is slide-show set to music. It has the pictures below, as well as a bunch of pictures we took of our kids sleeping during the vacation. Someday, I'm going to have to find the time to load a bunch of the Hawaii pictures to facebook.

Random thoughts

Just two random thoughts I had while reading the news today ...

1) About 9 years ago, Ruth and I went on a one-week cruise. On the first day ( before we left the dock ), they had a lifeboat drill. Every passenger had a pre-assigned lifeboat, so we all had to gather near our assigned lifeboat while a crew member went over the evacuation procedure. So, I'm standing there, looking at all the people people I might be stranded in a lifeboat with, and all I could think was ...

"These are the people I might have to eat."

2) Greg Evigan: I was reading a news story today, and for some reason it reminded me of Greg Evigan. Of course, I don't expect most of my readers to have any idea who Greg Evigan is. Most of you are too young and live too far from the USA to have ever heard of Greg Evigan. Frankly though, I'm willing to bet that most Americans my age have no idea who Greg Evigan is. About 30 years ago, millions of people knew who he was. These days, he's probably only known by me, his Mom, and a few other folks. I probably only have one regular blog reader who might remember Greg Evigan ( EZ from Cali - He's my age ), though it's possible that I could have one new reader who knows. Faydeen, I know you found my facebook page via my blog page, so if you're reading this, let me know if you remember Greg Evigan. You were probably just about the right age to have a crush on him during his heyday.

I guess that's it for now, except for a little self-promotion.

I think I might have gained a few new blog readers lately. If I have, I'd like to say "Welcome aboard!" to all my new readers, and I'd like to encourage you all to read some of my blog archives. I think you'll find some of my old stories entertaining, and it always makes me very happy to get blog comments, especially comments on really old blog posts.

Rich

First Game

I took Michael to his first NBA game today. I'll post these pictures and few more to facebook ( with captions! ) when I have a little more time. Michael had fun, though he asked to go home at halftime ( He wanted to go home and play an Nerf-type basketball game we had just introduced to him earlier in the day. ). We would up watching the end of the game at home ( The Nets lost to the Hornets 99-96 ).

Rich