Innocense lost

Driving through Midway alwasy gives me a sick feeling in my stomach. The haunting, lonely, helpless feeling of watching good things go away never to return like childhood, an infatuation-based love or a delicious cheese burger, one depressing bite at a time.

Everywhere you look, fields are being subdivided into half-million dollar homes. Where are these people getting their money? Who knows?

B'Andra made a good point. Where we live, the only change is for the better. Tear down old building and put in new, restore houses and yards that have been neglected. We never have to mourne the loss of beautiful things, only be excited when we see ugliness removed and watch our home value increase.

Blog entry: 17485

Back by popular demand, I approach the keyboard once again. You good people are very fortunate. I’m almost jealous of you… Almost.

So, where do I begin? Work, work, blah, blah, sick, church, work, sick, D&D, work, play my guitar. That’s about it.

Gidian has become a three year old in every evil and misbehaving connotation that phrase can communicate. I have always heard of the terrible twos, but two was a blissful walk in the park compared to this stuff. I miss my old, sweet, happy Bubba. In his place is a whiney, mouthy, slap-happy, little shit. But we are working with him and based on his older nephew, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We hope to get their soon. For our sanity and his life’s sake.

My computer started acting up, but luckily I have a friend who runs the customer service department at eMachines, which was recently bought by Gateway. So, I called him and he extended my warranty and after a few disastrous phone calls, and a total of nearly 2 hours, I became a sort of ‘secret shopper’ telling him how his team was working and things that were not quite working, like the hold music (it was so splotchy, it sounded like listening to a radio in the mountains, when you only hear 1 out of every 3 seconds). So, he took mercy on my soul and upgraded my computer. Now I have a super fast computing machine [3 gig processor, 3 gigs of RAM, 200 gig hard-drive, 2 gig video card, DVD burner, etc.]. I’m grateful and gleeful.

So, with my new computer and new speed and memory, I now download TV shows and movies. I do this with a free software called uTorrent. I recommend it. Just go to www.utorrent.com and download the application. Then you use their search function, which is just a web-based torrent search (there are many) that will find your desired file. Then you download it into uTorrent and leave your computer over night.

They way it works is people prepare ‘Torrents’. A Torrent is a file: music, movie, game, whatever, that is divided into small pieces and labeled individually. This allows for files to be downloaded small pieces at a time and from multiple sources. This in turn allows for much larger files to be downloaded. For instance, I can download the entire music catalog of AC/DC which is 2 gigs. Normally, it would tough to get a file that big because the person you downloading it from, turns off their machine or something else interrupts it. But now you can download pieces from all over. In fact, someone might be downloading pieces from you before your download is even complete.

So far, and it has only been a week, I have every song written and recorded by Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Judas Priest (the trifecta of heavy metal), the movie CARS, Scooby Doo cartoons, He-Man cartoons (for B’Andra), the first season of MY NAME IS EARL and the first two seasons of THE OFFICE-BBC. So, as you can see there is no limit to what you can get. I highly recommend it. Oh, the tv shows are commercial free, so that makes it even better. I’m going to download STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE – all four seasons next, since I missed that one. It sure beats wading through commercials, being chained to the tv at a certain time every week, or even setting your tivo. Happy hunting.

In other news, I have been playing guitar a little with some friends. My old friend Jason, and some a couple of fellow Mormon, returned missionary, married metal heads like myself. It is really just a fun way to play some brainless music we all like and to use our expensive guitars for something other than playing alone and dreaming about becoming rock stars someday. I’ll be sure to record some, once we get good enough and pass it along. I know how you all love my taste in music. J

The best thing we did this summer is buy an above the ground pool from WalMart. One of those lame, inflate the rim, fill it with water and let the sun warm it up. It is just the right height for Gidian to stand in and what I thought was a silly, wading pool became the highlight of our backyard and summertime play once it got hot. We look forward to using it next year. Without central AC, it is nice to have an escape from the heat. Sadly, even though it is only early august, it is already cool enough that we're no longer as desperate for the cooling waters. But hopefully we can use it for another month or so.

Finally, Gidian is fully potty trained. A big day for us. Strangely, it happened very quickly. B’Andra spent 20 minutes with him reading books to him while he sat there until it happened. Once it did, he has been consistent ever since. Like magic. With the money I will save in diapers, I’m going to buy more little plastic miniatures.