11/30/15 Chicken Wings Have Us Fooled?

    Whoever decided chicken wings and miniature drumsticks were a worthy meal is a genius, from a business standpoint.  To prove the point just look at how many different wings places exist today.  There is the original Hooter's, which forced their sale with a touch of orange colored ass, I still love that classic look.  But today we can include Plucker's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Wingstop, Wings To Go, Wings and More, and an assortment of smaller knockoffs.
    Today, both boys woke up demanding to eat wings.  I really didn't want to get up, as I stayed up until about 6:00am screwing around on the internet.  But they got the best of me and finally at the crack of 3:30pm I got up.  Boy was already headed out with his friend, which I thought good, one less mouth to feed, but no, he kept checking in with "mama" to make sure we were in motion.  He was even already waiting at a Plucker's when I  decided if I have to eat crappy wings, I might as well enjoy them with a side of butt.  I told wife to call him and relocate to the Hooter's downtown, which they did.  I like wings, as an appetizer, I made them all summer, but only used a very light touch of flavor.  The wings from Plucker's last time we were on the road in San Marcos were drenched in thick sauce.  There had to be more weight in sauce than chicken meat.  This was why I couldn't eat there again.
    It had been at least two years since we had eaten wings from Hooter's, but last time Wife got a gift card or something for a party ended up ordering like two containers full of wings, I remember them being delicious.  This time around, they were in the same gelatinous sauce, it's hard to even taste the meat.  The girls, I was surprised, still wear the skimpy shorts, I was expecting they would be in yoga pants because of the cold, but no, the shorts still exist, but there were only four girls wearing them.  As a man, I would like to see all young chicks walking in there have to change into the skimpy shorts, at least that what happens in my head.
    Another curious thing was that as soon as we got there, his friend had to leave.  I am not sure if it is because I changed the venue to Hooter's, Boy's friend is very religious, maybe he got nervous when he saw half naked girlies.  He just said hi and "my mom just called, I have to go home."  I figured if we're gonna eat wings, we're gonna eat wings.  I suggested the party platter with like 50 wings for $44.99.  There were then four sodas and a family size order of fries, somehow the order came to $80. Wife paid, but now that I'm thinking about that, there had to be a mistake.  Either way, it'll be a long time before we do this again.  I then sat on the sofa waiting to feel nauseaus from all the grease, but somehow, it all stayed calm.

11/29/15 Every Chapter Is Wow?

    I am still reading The Lucifer Principle and each chapter still feels like it teaches me something basic but grand.  The latest chapter started with explaining the truth about Hinduism and how noble it is.  It teaches one to reject materialism, to lay aside earthly desires, to go with the flow, accept the world as it is, and to strive for nirvana in a selfless world.  The only problem with this is that this religion was used as a "device with which one conquering group managed to validate its theft of power, prestige and goods from a rival superorganism."
    Turns out the people of India were invaded around 1500 BC by a cluster of Aryans that had two things their lives focused around, their cows and their fighting.  These Aryans were simple nomadic folk who had seen nothing more complex than a temporary hut.  The Indians had lived in elaborate cities for over a thousand years, with systems of reading and writing in place.  Because the Indians lacked a fighting mentality, they were defeated quite easily, soon the Iranian invaders reduced the Indians to the shameful role of of a conquered people.
    At Hinduism's heart is the simple notion that there are several classes of human beings, very distinct from each other.  The term "twice born" came to refer to the men favored by the gods, and their oppposites, the shudras, loathsome and low, unworthy of gods to even accept their prayers.  Who were the "twice born"?  The descendents of the Iranians.  This directly led to the development of the caste system in India.  The top three castes were exclusively for the "twice born" Iranians.  The warriors and aristocrats were at the very top, the Iraninan priests second, and the third casteholders were the landholders and merchants.  All of the Indians were placed at the bottom and put to work in the fields to enrich their overlords.
    Why does the Hindu religion tell its adherents to go with the flow, to set aside earthly desires, to hope for an improvement in the afterlife?  Because it was written by the Iranian clergy to keep the Indians in line and not make trouble.  These clergy actually convinced the lower caste members which were all darker skinned Indians "that if they were patient and tolerant you would be rewarded later by rebirth in the next caste up the ladder.  In essence, if you were patient long enough, you could become an Iranian!"

11/28/15 Black Friday Wasn't That Bad?

    I would rather not, but I did venture out during Black Friday.  Although we did not head into the eye of the storm, that being the mall, the big box stores were just pleasantly vibrant, not too crazy.  I was consigned to go to Home Depot to fix my garbage disposal which died in the great turkey war of 2015.  Wife fed it like a hungry 50cal rifle cleaning the landscape of enemy combatants.  There is very little Wife won't shove down there when she gets going in clean up mode.  But alas, it too is just metal casing and rubber gaskets, eventually it failed at the seams and its innards oozed out quietly into the cabinet below.
    Home Depot actually had more employees than normal, many wearing Santa hats, and there were donuts and coffee on a table coming into the store.  I felt like I wasn't Christmas shopping, so I didn't enjoy a donut although I really wanted one, and now that I think about it, I might go to Krispy Kreme.  It was nice, I went by myself, so I didn't feel Wife or the boys getting bored.  I looked at the trimmers for a long time, as I have decided to get one for my dad.  He tells me that he likes to putz around and trim the grass, but it hurts his shoulder to crank his gas powered trimmer.  I have had a battery powered one for a couple summers and I love it.  If there is a problem it is that the batteries don't last long enough.  My Mom says that he doesn't aim to finish trimming the whole house in one afternoon.  He does just enough that my brother-in-law's joke is that by the time he finishes the back, it is time to do it all over again.  My mom agreed that a battery option will save him from having to crank with his old man shoulders.
    We then went and bought Girlie lunch.  She is fortunate enough to work at a store, and they had early hours today.  She was whining on Snapchat about getting up early to wait for Black Friday shoppers that never came.  From there, we headed to Half Price Books, got my niece a book, I have been bothered since my mom mentioned that she is not a fan of reading.  Donkeys aren't fans of reading, she is one of us, she should be a full on nerd and over accomplishing by now.
    After spending time there, we ate at our very first In and Out Burger place.  Wow, it was a disappointment.  Adam Carolla has been saying it is one of the better fast food burger choices in California, and they seem full now that we have a few here.  We stopped today, and those burgers got nothing on Whataburger.  At least it didn't make me sick, it stayed in the belly while we went to Lowe's.  It was at Lowe's that I got my dad the trimmer, Wife called her mom and by chance said that my father-in-law could use a new trimmer too, so they get twin gifts.  On top of that, the trimmer comes with a blower to push all the cut debris away from sidewalks, stuff like that.  All this happened before 3:00pm and we did not see big crowds other than the overpass headed to the mall.  That looked scary, just glad we didn't need anything from mall.

11/27/15 Black Friday, Cause We Need To?

    We normally stay away from the madness that is shopping on Black Friday.  I only needed to experience it once and I did.  Back in 1998 or 1999 I tried to get one of those computers that they would advertise for $300.  I worked the night before and I thought, easy peasy, just head on over to Best Buy when I get out at 6:00 am and get my computer and be on my way.
    I arrived to way too many people and by the time I got into the store, there were no cheap computers to be had.  I looked around for other discounts, but I wasn't going to stand in a long line to pay, so I tucked my tail between my legs and left, a little wiser if a little heartbroken.  I shan't believe in amazing giant discounts anymore.
    Today, my garbage disposal in the kitchen started leaking.  I didn't realize this, but my in-laws have better smelling noses and they were all smelling a stinky egg smell around the sink.  Somebody opened doors and under all the cleaning supplies and junk that collects in there was enough water to make it a real problem.  Luckily, I was on the phone with my Mom, explaining about Boy and why we took him to emergency room last night that by the time I came inside my brother in law had already soaked up most of the water with towels.  The part I didn't like was he took off the disposal so I could take it with me to the store, but it is Thanksgiving, nothing was open.  I will have to wait until tomorrow to go shopping for a new one.  I replaced the one at our first house, so it shouldn't be a big deal other than having to go out into the crazy crowds to get the new garbage disposal.
    Speaking of Boy going to E/R, he sucks.  All of a sudden he lets Wife know that he has been having body aches for like two months.  I roll my eyes at him and say we all walk around with pain all the time.  But he was busy hanging out with a friend.  They went to lunch at 5:00 and then they were watching a movie until about 11:00pm.  Two minutes after his friend leaves, he comes down crying that he can't stand the pain anymore, if she will take him to E/R.  I got pissed because if he was in pain, he should've taken care of that earlier.  Wife of course just wants her Baby to not hurt, so off they go.  After awhile, Wife calls that doctor saw him and determined that it is his non active lifestyle slowly killing him.  He needs to rest this weekend and not do any heavy lifting.  I was thinking we'll go and buy him a new mattress, maybe he will sleep better.

11/26/15 Thanksgiving Day?

    Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers, may you all be surrounded by loved ones and feastly smells.  This is an American holiday, don't even try to kid yourself.  We make enough food for fifty to serve 10-12, we buy enough pies that each person in the house could eat one by themselves, and there will be apple pie because "it is as American as apple pie, dammit!!!"  And don't forget we're celebrating 'Merica!
    Just kidding, Thanksgiving is a good starting point to the Christmas season, and of course how much do you love me?  Buy me that much then.  Our boys do very well traditionally during Christmas, but we may be coming to the end of the line.  Chubs had a hard time even picking out a couple nice birthday gifts this past weekend.  Boy is already asking for money, which pisses me off because I prefer giving gifts, but oh well.  Wife already set up our tree to show we are not messing around this holiday.  We kind of dropped the ball during Halloween, so we want to make sure we really celebrate Christmas right.  I am a little depressed by our tree, it looks a little derpy with the oversized outdoor lights which I can count at about fifty.  This christmas tree started out with its own regal clear lights, but the tree is now about five or six years old.  Last year Wife wrapped extra clear lights as most of the trees original lights started going out.  This year Wife just grabbed the first string of lights and it was not a good decision.  I might make a call and kill this tree and get a new one.
    But back to Thanksgiving, we have two turkeys and two hams coming via my inlaws.  Wife's older sister has been making the stuffing for a couple years and that really takes awhile, as they cut everything into tiny sizes without a blender.  For our part, we bring the desserts since I am so picky and will complain if something isn't right.  We'll probably make a run to Central Market on Wednesday afternoon.
    The only thing that could make it better was if the Longhorns were better.  Week in and week out I see other Big 12 schools doing just fine with their 3rd string sophomore quarterback replacing a freshman second stringer(Baylor) and on and on.  But that is why we watch, hopefully they can show they are getting better.

11/25/15 365, A Full Year, I think I Will Continue?

    I started writing my blog a year ago, the day after Thanksgiving.  Wife suggested I do this as an outlet, I hesitated at first.  I thought if you mention a celebrity, they might snap at you to Fark off, like you see in the movies.  The reality is my blog is probably one of millions.  The most attention any one blog got was about 86 reads for one of the first ones "Monotony Is Good?".  Most of them got in the 8-18 readers, and that is OK.  I have had fun writing story ideas, to just writing diary style what happens on any given day.  My poems may all sound similar, but I am trying different things, such as small quick rhymes, multi rhymes, to changing the AABB format to ABAB.
    Most of the input I got was from Wife and her coworkers.  Thank you all for the constructive criticism, mostly you all kept me at about a PG-13, as I really tried not to overuse cuss words or get too blue in describing a dirty thought.  Speaking of, I did have the idea to do a second blog where I would put nothing but dirty stories, some made up, some real, let the reader figure it out.  I even had the name figured out Little Mando's Nightly Thought, eh? ehh?
    Originally, this was a collection of stories and ideas I was "writing" for my boys, but I kind of moved away from that.  First of all, who wants to read something if it is full of lessons, and second I like breing creative and writing whatever I felt like.  I think if I keep it up, over time, my boys could still appreciate the writing as a description of who I am.  Maybe I am as shallow as a puddle of water after a drizzle, fine, I have never hidden what I am. 
    I will be trying to comment on comments put in.  I can't from the website where I write the blogs, but I can go into the other version that y'all see and add a comment.  Just give me a day or two to notice it.
    I hope you all have enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed giving you my thoughts.  I'll try to add pics, so if we go somewhere, you can see what I see.  Let's see what year two brings.

11/24/15 DMV Does Not Disappoint?

    Today was the day, according to Wife.  To make all the wrongs, right.  To dig deep into my belly and fix what has been broken for a millenia.  Wife insisted "daddy" is not comfortable driving around in my old truck without a title.  She made me go with her to the DMV to get the proper paperwork so we can finally get a new title so we can sign it and get it over to him, post haste.
    I am so accustomed to my routine, that even this seemed like a pain in the ass.  I have been to the DMV down south and it is tiny in there, but at least it is quick.  According to Wife, she was told she had to go to the DMV up in Round Rock, we went, took our number and sat and waited.  These phones do make that waiting much better.  Some of the people you encounter though, if they say they can't do something for you, then say thank you and move along, Wife.  Another clown left all his paperwork in his car, waits until he is called, then decides to get off the phone, tells guy working "I'll be back in 30 seconds" and runs out.  He sat there in front of us for twenty minutes doing nothing.  Wife was on verge of being rude.  She started this paper trail like six months ago, though.  She went to our DMV down south.  They told her to call our original lien holder, great except they don't exist anymore.  This she found out by spending time on the phone.  Eventually, they told her to come to that office, which we planned for today, mostly because she was off and could take me by force.  Title is under my name, so I had to be involved.  After we get called, the lady looks at her papers she has gathered and says "no, this is for a lost title, greater than 10 years, it needs to be done at the other office."  I just kinda smirked, I've not invested the time Wife has, she was ready to jump over the cubicle wall and start punching numbers into her computer.  I said "are you sure?"  I don't want to come back here.  She pulled out a bunch of forms saying we don't handle these, but this is the one you need to fill out.  I said OK, it was now very close to Chubs getting out of school, and we were way up north.  I drove like a bat out of hell, still, we were about five minutes late to get our beloved Chubadubba.
    I half jokingly told Wife "you wanna try our DMV again?  She said yes, but I am not talking to those incompetents... I said ughh, cause that means I have to.  She got in line, I filled some of the forms as best I could.  When I got up there, the chick took one look at my brown eyes and she was under my spell.  She even "Si, Papi" on one of my questions.  Wife interjected, because she can't control herself, and almost broke my Jedi mind lock I had on her.  I very calmly waved my hand at Wife, said ughhh, and got the girl on the forms again.  She consulted with her supervisor, winked, and said "just for you big guy..."  $33 later and wait two weeks for your copy of title in the mail.  I, of course have to give Wife a hard time about it.
    What happens is she saw a man of authority so she focused and did her best to make me, a man, happy.  You, a woman, the DMV will keep spinning like a top, but they know men in beards have places to go, things to take care of, so they put on their best face. Chubs usually gets confused and doesn't understand why I talk this way, so he defends mama.

11/23/15 It's Starting To Feel A Lot Like The Holidays?

    Thanksgiving can't come soon enough for this house of fatties.  I have been having visions of Turkey and ham for awhile.  I like the other stuff, but you can't beat the meat.  This weekend we started feeling like a party with my folks here.  Chubs had a blast, it was his first sleepover with friends from his school.
    Wife has the whole week off, hopefully, she can get the christmas tree up.  My brother and sister both called and said they might think of coming up this next weekend, on Black Friday, mostly to start shopping for them.  I encouraged my folks to come back, being that my mom really enjoys having the whole family together, she worries about sleeping arrangements, which I think is a minor thing.
    We will have my in-laws here on Thanksgiving, which is good, Wife loves slaving away in the kitchen all day with her sisters and mom where they can laugh and joke, but they never forget they are cooking for Big Mando.  My father-in-law likes getting up at 4-5 in the morning, which is only good for starting slow cooked meals in the middle of the day.  I will be working Monday through Wednesday night, meaning my Thanksgiving festivities will start Thursday, but that is fine, four days off will still be very nice, specially with all the leftovers to munch on all weekend.
    We already got the potentially hardest gifts, our moms.  My dad gave me an idea, which I think I will buy for him, as he is such a manly man, this tool seems beneath him, but might be just what the Dr. ordered, for his weak/damaged shoulders.  After that, it's something nice for Wife, the boys, and all the rest of the kids.  We are not supposed to be exchanging gifts with the adult siblings, but I am liking the idea of passing around some books after some discussions I've been having.
    There will be one more hurdle Wife can't help herself.  She has one more conference in Dallas, have I mentioned I hate these things.  I think this one is an instructional conference on where to place Elf on the Shelf for best effect around the house.  If it is not on that, then it must be the conference covering outdoor decorations and what to do when your HOA only allows 18 decorations, but you budgeted and bought 21.

11/22/15 Birthday For Chubs?

    Today is Chub's birthday.  We started celebrating Friday evening by going to our favorite toy store, Best Buy.  He chose about four different games for his XBox and a couple movies.  I was unsure what he was going to find and want.  He has a good phone, laptop, TV, games... Mijo is lucky I believe that all these gadgets are good to have.

    We also made a pit stop at Central Market, I talked him into a grown up cake without the lame cartoon character, since he is a big boy and he didn't want to go during the week with Wife to HEB or Walmart to order one.  We shall see if this cake was a wise choice or not tomorrow, it has bananas, I just get tired of chocolate all the time.  Since it is his birthday weekend, he talked us into eating dinner at Genghis Grill, which he loves, we are usually ok with.  I believe it is under new management or something, but everyone in their was a step off, and it made eating there very uncomfortable.  I was first to put my food on their grill thing, but Wife's food came out ten minutes before mine.  She was halfway done eating before me and Chubs got our food.  Before we sat down, waittress seemed confused as to what we were going to do.  I said "uhh, we need bowls to get the food..." "oh yeah, small, medium or large" was best she could muster.  It is first time in a long time we did not leave a tip.  I fully know it is rude, but it was bad in there, they kept mixing the orders.  I was half done with mine and a different waitress came and asked me if I was so and so, I said yes.  I think my ticket got mixed with an idiot who asked for extra crispy, that's why my food took so long.
    Saturday was a different day.  Chubs had three friends over from school, two boys and a girl.  Once they showed up, we headed to Jumpoline, we were there two hours.  Afterwards, we had some fine cuisine at Gattitown.  That pizza always gets me in the mood, to poop.  Since we were in separate cars, My Dad, brother, Boy and myself came home.  I took care of business in the potty, then went and made coffee for everybody.  Everybody else stayed at Gattitown for another hour or so.  
    Eventually, everyone made it home, and we sang Happy Birthday.  The kids decided they needed a sleepover, and even the little girl stayed.  They then ran up to his room and have been there, having a good old time, at one point Chubs came to mama to say "Best Birthday Ever!!"

11/21/15 Spanish Radio, Muy Bueno?

    I have recently rediscovered spanish music and even more entertaining, spanish radio personalities.  I am in awe of their boundaries, hearing funny stuff I had not heard in quite a while.  There are two shows I am primarily listening to, one in the morning when I get out of work, and one in the afternoon when I am headed to work.
    In the past, I tried finding spanish stations on my vehicle, but usually the only good reception one was 107.5, out of San Antonio.  When I got my new truck, it came with one of these new radios which also gets the HD radio stations for free.  A random station may have two or three other stations, playing even different formats.  96.7, one of the bigger here in Austin may play the popular pop music, but it's clone station may be playing one of those top 40 hits with Kasey Casum.  It is a much different radio/music experience.  I am not sure if it is because of the HD or it is just a new station, but it is 104.3, out of Taylor, I believe.
    Honestly, I have Sirius/XM free for six months and I still find myself staying on the FM stations.  They feel local, first of all, when they break for commercials or the weather, they are talking about this area.  I also went and bought a handful of new CDs when I got the truck, but it only takes one CD at a time, and honestly, it is a pain to be changing them out every fifty minutes, or however long a CD will go for.
    Back in the 80's, when I started driving back in our small town, all we had was a local radio station, when we went cruising.  Sure, we were all Ozzy Ozbourne fanatics, but those Cassettes and later CDs eventually got old, and you'd switch to the radio.  It was all tejano music, which is slightly different than what is playing here, but maybe the new music is what I need, this banda music with tubas and horns, and just the right amount of risque lyrics really pops.
    What gets me is the DJs, they are the ones pushing the envelope with the funny stuff.  Last time my dad was here, he was familar with those DJs, they have been at it since he was driving the big rigs on the highway five-ten years ago.  He says he enjoyed listening to them, of course.  Birds of a feather, flock together.

11/20/15 Singing The Diarrhea Blues?

    Chubs is a tough little kid, rarely misses a day of school.  He will even go without a jacket some mornings, but if the tummy is grumbling and there is a forecast for muddy waters, that boy will beg to stay home.  I usually feel bad for my little guy, I'll let him stay home.
    Just earlier this year, he was telling us of a kid in his class who accidentally pooped himself, kids tend to remember that.  There was a girl in one of his classes who had the unfortunate accident happen to her a couple years ago.  There has been a bug running around the school, I guess it was his turn to catch it.
    Last week, on multiple days, he mentioned a kid who threw up his food.  I told him that kid is probably sick, stay away from him.  Of course, he is smarter than me.  His response was no, so and so didn't like the cafeteria food, he made himself throw up.  I told him boys don't do that, the kid is sick.  I believe this was the carrier monkey that got my Chubs sick.  I asked him about the kid yesterday how come he kept seeing him throw up, he said "he's a friend of mine, I covered up the vomit with my napkin."  I told him gross, "you're not the lunch lady, don't concern yourself with stuff like that, that's why you got sick, for being nosy."
    I believe this is the second day he has missed this year, the first day he missed was also because he had gotten up in the middle of the night and spray painted the toilet bowl a beautiful brown color.  This weekend is his birthday, so I hope he recuperates quickly.  He has invited a few select kids for a birthday party on Saturday.  We told him he could invite his class, but he chose not to, he was devastated when we invited his whole kinder class for a Halloween party and not one kid showed up.  I think it had more to do with the class, he was placed in a class full of spanish speaking mexican kids and you know how scared mexicans can be of traditions which don't include pinatas and rice and beans.  I kid, I kid....

11/19/15 Familiarity Breeds Complacency?

    The title just came to me as I walked into our lab and noticed the mess some people leave behind.  I will go in and clean my area once I am done.  Some coworkers have taken ownership of areas in the lab and just leave everything as is when quitting time rolls around.  I understand the feeling that "it is my space".  Most of us have been here at least 20 years.
    It is the same as at the house, there I am comfortable enough to leave my mess anywhere.  My nose gets runny when I sleep, therefore there is going to be a pile of tissue/toilet paper with snot on my side of the bed.  Wife gets on me that it is gross, but I don't think about cleaning it up every day.  If I was entertaining in the bedroom, maybe I would care.
    These little piles build up everywhere.  Wife gets school supplies for her homeless kids, after a while she has piles all over the house.  Just today, she was cleaning around the pool table, getting rid of bins that have been there over a year.  Just moving those things, the room looked a lot different and bigger.
    It is not that we are slobs, we just collect so much crap all the time.  We have to constantly keep moving furniture around, same in the closets.  I went to get my jacket, it is finally cool enough, and the closet under the stairs is full, above my head with so many stupid stupid bags which we will forget to take when we go to grocery store.
    When you first move into a place, one swears "this time it will be different, this time, I will keep my area clean."  Fast forward a couple months, the tune becomes "this is my house, I do what I want!"  I went outside and cut the palm leaves that are dead on our two palm trees, it has been over a month, not only have I not gone back to cut the grass, those palm leaves I cut, are still in the yard, killing whatever grass they landed on.
    Eventually we get off our asses and fix things up, but it takes a lot to get the king of his own castle to really put in the effort required to make his own place shine.  I think that is why people hire maids, just knowing they are coming is an incentive to keep the house clean.  Our little summer maid, went off and got pregnant, and ran away.  She claimed cleaners and stuff made her nauseous.  Oh well, it was nice while she lasted, but we need another reason to really clean. 

11/18/15 Half Price Books Rare Books Section?

    Friday night, before we went and ate dinner, Wife insisted on showing me the jumbo sized Half Price Books Boy found a couple months ago.  We had gone to dinner after Wife came home from work.  Girlie had come by to visit, so she joined us, meanwhile Boy was out with one of his friends.  We went to a restaurant I really like, Mandola's, but I was kinda wondering why everyone in line seemed older.  After looking at my watch, I realized it wasn't even six, it was just dark outside.
    I really prefer to eat after eight, nineteen years of night shift will do this to you.  The bookstore was really cool, I love reading a book, I still have not committed to a computer to read, even though I do own an IPAD.  In the back of the store was a separate room and even an employee keeping sentry over the books.  I walked around the room, and found it odd that on the table in the middle of the room was a box with risque cartoons and several "dirty" old books.  Being who I am, I had to look through these, and being they were relatively cheap, I bought one, just cause.  It was from the eyes of someone who visited an insane asylum and they drew what they saw on the walls, mostly drawings by someone obsessed with peni or penises.  Tree branches were penis tipped, that kind of stuff.
    I like stuff for its shock value, also a book collection with just old classics is not going to be very interesting to everybody.  I need a few nights of OT because I could see me spending some dollars there.  There was an Albert Einstein book, as well as others I would like to see me owning.
    Some of these books seemed important, sitting there with price tags of $500.  Are these books best served living out in the real world?  I guess I wouldn't see them, if we didn't go to bookstores, maybe this is the best a book can hope for, to land in a home where it will be appreciated.  We keep building our library bigger and bigger, even Chubs is starting to have enough new books in his room that he needs a dedicated shelf.  Boy has been buying books that look good on the shelf for a long while, he has several shelves of books laying around his room, he is still a very messy boy.  At some point, I would love to take all our books and just fill a room, to have a true "library". 

11/17/15 Am I A Perv? (poem)

They say I am a pervert

I wish I could deny

best I can do is divert

your attention while I create a lie

I would like to say I never

let loose the moose in the back of a caboose

well maybe once or twice I did endeavor

but if I did there was plenty of booze.

There was also that one time

she came over cause her back was hurting

I promised her mood would climb

I lost control because of flirting

Apparently, on her back I did a bit slime

couldn't control myself from spurting.

Alas, that's how you learn your limits

And we can't forget about the time with the Floozy

a friend of ours, but a friend of clothes? Guess

Her one goal was to get in our jacuzzi

twas all done to melt away stress.

Like I said a lie I have created, maybe even three

I did not start out a choir boy that was my brother

I have always liked the female form, whether my wife or some other

But isn't it fun to think that I think that all these stories are indeed me?

11/16/15 Will Tomorrow's Kids Need TLC?

    Wife asked me a good question after seeing some funny videos making fun of the new generation and how we are now experiencing life through our phones.  Whole families can sit together, but everyone has their phone screens on and involved with conversations with people that may not even be in the same city.  Are we finally becoming as the cold robots we see in our science fiction movies less and less human?
    I say no.  The pendulum swings back and forth.  There was a time doctors were instructing new mothers that the best way to raise a child was to not cuddle with them, that this was not necessary, then of course studies were done with children from orphanages and it was very easy to see differences in behaviors between children receiving touch and emotional engagement and children who were tended to the bare minimum.  Years later, even to their teens, these orphans still had not caught up with children from "loved" environments, having grown up with higher stress hormones like cortisol, and many other differences that could also be measured.
    My point being that even though kids do flock to these new gadgets and honestly, as parents, it is nice to give in and buy our kids these phones for a myriad of reasons, nowadays, these gadgets are everywhere.  Chubs has had a phone for about a year.  We had an extra line on our Sprint account for a couple years when we took in one of Boy's friends and we got him a phone.  After he left, we kept the line open to avoid paying the penalty of closing it.  Eventually, we had the choice to close it or give it to Chubs, and the way the phone companies "give you" upgraded phones, it is hard to say no.  Of course Chubs wanted it, and we convinced ourselves because if he has his phone, he is tethered to us, we can reach him anytime.  He just saw it as a chance to carry a game system at all times.  When we don't say anything, he can be on his phone for hours.  He will go to Youtube, find some music and use it to listen while he may be playing a video game on the laptop or his xbox.  Sometimes he is listening to instructionals on how to play a video game while he plays the video game which is something we would never have done, as that seems like cheating.
    We don't really put controls on him as how much he should be online, but eventually he does get off and by himself seems to take breaks.  This is when he goes on rants, and maybe he is learning how to argue by listening to great debates, but he will go on and on, to which I may even ask "hey, don't you have your phone with you?"  Sometimes the answer is no.  He wants to talk to his roommate humans face to face, some things, such as being a pain in the butt are best done in person.
    Boy also goes offline frequently, although not really for us, his friends and he really enjoy playing board games and stuff like that.  He may be at an age when he is not looking for us to be his best friends, but he will do this at our house and we can keep an eye on them and see their human interaction, I know it is their way of still having the human aspect there.  They cook and drink and eat and go out together, which is good.
    I personally believe that although the gadgets, whether phones or Ipods or whatever new brain implants are coming around the bend, we will still stop and look around occasionally.  Life might seem great through a computer screen, sight and sound are only two senses.  These gadgets still have a long way to go before they start incorporating smell, taste, and touch.  A thanksgiving feast might look beautiful on a screen, I'll take a slightly burnt, dry turkey in the real world any day.  Or you can make love to whatever model you want to pull up whether you're a male or female.  I'll bang one out with my wife here and feel the reality of life, even if sometimes she does say "not tonight, dear."

11/15/15 You're Too Calm, Let's Fight?

    There are some things you can't win at as a man.  I know that my position already puts me at a disadvantage, having testicles, but oh well.  We went to the mall, after sitting at home, like a good little puppy, Wife took a load of future leaders to Tx. State and got back around 5:30pm.  I have nothing against her doing that, she supposedly gets paid, so it's all good, I think the exposure is great for those kids.
    Some of those kids don't even realize that all their teachers have four year degrees in whatever field they teach.  She was telling me that upon mentioning to one of her students she had gone to school at Tx. State, the kid retorted "you are the first person I ever meet that has a degree."  Wife told her no, all your teachers have degrees.  She was very surprised by this.
    Hearing interactions like those make me glad Wife does what she does.  Getting back and attacking me, though, makes me think she might have a tumor in the head.
    When she got home, Chubs and I had been at home all day.  I suggested going to the mall, she said that would be OK, after a bathroom break.  We all went potty, and then away we went.
    We went in through Dillard's and she was looking at cloth bags, supposedly a fine bag brand, but I already buy her plenty of leather bags from Coach and lately Brahmin.  She's looking at $50 bags, when normally I spend $150-$300 on bags I choose.  Fine, I think.  Your mom got you one, I guess you could get another one to change it up a bit.
    Brahmin had a few choices in their closeout section.  I suggested they would work for Christmas gifts for our moms.  We chose two and some wallet accessories and had them gift wrapped by them so they look professionally wrapped.  We then found a brand new jewelry store, had just opened today, and they had some Longhorn watches that looked pretty good fo Dad.  I could have gotten the watch and matching wallet but I didn't in case I see something better in the next few weeks.
    Here's the fun part of the night as we got on the escalator, Wife asks what I'm getting for Girlie.  I haven't even had a chance to think about it, we only got the other two gifts because my mom has become a purse fanatic, and Wife is doubling up on the idea, otherwise she ends up with a gift certificate for her mom.  I say I don't know, she says mmm-hmmm.  It better not be more than $50.  I say umm, ok, then it'll be $50.  To which she says "liar!"  I repeat I don't know.  If you need to hear I will only spend $10, then I am saying $10 it is. 
    My point here is bringing this up was only because she wanted to argue, if I say ok, whatever number you say, she will call me a liar, if I say $300, she will say fuck no.  If I say I don't know, last year, I didn't even give her anything, we weren't talking, she'll mention the gift from two years ago.  What can I say that won't be seen as defensive, when I say nothing, she reminds me of the money I have hidden in the closet which I can use for whatever, but of course that doesn't matter.
    So what is it?  Do you feel like fighting or do you have something growing in your head?  I maintain I have done nothing different.  Maybe she has gotten tired of my fat ass and wants to not just be passive aggressive, but wants me on guard.  After all, if I can't work OT and bring in extra money, what good am I for?

11/14/15 Self-Entitled Leaders Of Tomorrow?

    This morning I caught a quick read my sister posted on FB.  It was about the possibility that helicopter parents and the new generation of everyone gets an award and nobody is a loser is fixing to start paying off, and now.  The article was a little disjointed, maybe that is why it was taken down, but what I gathered some very very special kids were gathered out in between some buildings complaining/whining about Halloween and how it allows rapists to dress up and make well most of the Yale population scared of being raped.  They were crying and demanding "safe space".  What the hell is that?  Don't go out if you don't feel safe, it is one night, and this year was a Saturday.  I don't demand the city make the woods behind my house a "safe space", if I go out there at night and a snake bites me, I should have known it is better to walk out there during the day.  Wife and I have seen many times, right at dusk, young ladies running on the many city trails, headed into some dark part, all we can think is "why put yourself at risk?"  Getting back to the article though....
    Do you want to be treated as adults or are you still in need of your mommy tucking you in bed and rubbing Desitin on your rashy ass?  Pick one.  Adults, first of all, use their words, they don't scream to get their point across.  The one chick that took center stage, started screaming and threw her backpack down, I am sure she ruined her Jello Pudding Cup doing that, but she got in the older man's face demanding him to resign over something written on a letter.  I was sure she was going to hit him, it was most uncomfortable.  She was yelling at his actions and how they are going to reduce the student population, people are going to transfer out in droves.  The hell is she smoking?  People don't intentionally dropout, specially not from ivy league schools.
    The other thing that bothered me was the use of the finger snap instead of clapping.  It is a half ass effort, if you agree with the tantrum girl, clap and be loud in unison, if she is an idiot, don't make a sound.  That finger snapping comes across as hey, yeah, we , ummm, kinda, agree, sure.....
    I pride myself in raising my kids with the notion that they are going out into the real world.  We could have sent them to private schools, but then what, find them private jobs?  They need to mingle with the common man, and the common man is a stupid man, maybe naive, but if you never deal with him or her, you will always think you are special.  I taught Boy, and always repeated myself to his friends, "school is not daycare, you go there to learn.  That teacher is there for 20-30 students, not for your idiot ass to be consuming class time with your shenanigans.  There are things you are not going to like, learn to deal with it.  Out there, you are nothing but a brown kid trying to get ahead, you're not special, yet."  One day the world may indeed revolve around you, but first it needs to go around me a few times because I am awesomer and more accomplished. (little joke there)

11/13/15 I Have Shamed My Masters?

    It only happens once a year or so, but occasionally I do mess up at work.  This week I was called out and I hate the feeling.  How do people that mess up daily handle the negative energy, the "you let me down" feeling?  I feel like a piece of crap, unworthy of my salary, not that I'm returning it.  Wife says I don't know how to get over shit fast enough, but when you never get negative feedback, it is a weird sensation to be accused of being less than great.
    The job itself was simple enough, make 1 cut on two separate samples, measure the layers seen and move along.  The samples were tiny, first of all, maybe 2mm cubed.  There was a definite sharpie mark on the first one, the second one kinda looked like a mark, possibly a scratch.  I should have spent more time figuring this part alone, and I might have spare myself the scolding, but after looking at them for a couple minutes under the regular microscopes, I loaded the sample into our tool which can cut on the surface, exposing new faces which are clean and free of smudges.  Maybe I should have spent an hour on each piece, but after making my first cuts, the sample was still unclear to me.  The layer of material that I put down to protect the surface from the beam which cuts it, measured exactly what they were expecting the layers underneath to measure.  I didn't agree with that, so I redid the work with a different material, to double check my work, I did a third site with yet another protective material.  The second sample I loaded sideways, but I didn't realize it.  There was a sharpie mark to mark the top, but the samples were the size of a grain of rice, and once I finished with S1, I was unsure and just wanted to get done with the job.  I spent the same amount of time battling the samples and concluded that either the two samples were very different or I had gotten confused.  Another distraction was the tool decided it needed to be heated.  About once a week, the beam randomly shuts down and we have to put the tool to sleep for a half hour or so, and when we wake it, it goes through a heating cycle.  This is most irritating, because we never know when, the tool just says heat me in a couple hours, sometimes that means a couple minutes, it'll shut itself down.
    The whole heating thing probably cost me an hour or so, it always does, and at the start of the shift I probably killed another hour procrastinating since it did not appear to be much work.  It should have taken three or four hours, maybe half the shift with all the little mishaps, I honestly don't know how I lost the whole night and didn't get it done.  I keep feeling like I need some time off, Thanksgiving is two weeks away, and although I hesitate, I will probably take a week off during christmas, some time away from here might do me good.

11/12/15 Everything You Say, Can And WIll Be Used Against You?

    Conversations with women can and do suck, at times.  Apparently, I blew a grenade in my face Friday night, but did not feel its effects until Wife decided to pull at a piece of shrapnel five days later.  Today started out like most days, I went and picked up Chubs, then killed some time so Wife could get home and we could have lunch before I go to work.  In a perfect world, I would have gotten up earlier and cut the grass, but as I have mentioned, my energy is not where it was a few years ago.  I say to heck with it, grass gets cut when it gets cut.
    Everyone who knows her, knows Wife is very capable.  "I'll cut the grass, I do it most every time."  Doesn't just do it, has to throw down the gauntlet of how inept I have been since she is now doing the man's work outside.  This used to be Boy's only chore, I never officially declared "Boy you are hereby free of ever cutting the grass again."  He is just not around to do it when it needs to get done.  Of course this has nothing to do with taking down the Halloween decorations inside, which I have been doing because when I let them do it, they just shove everything into the bins, animal style.
    Anyway, my big grenade Friday night, which I had zero interest in going to in the first place was telling our old friend that she looked good, she had one of those surgeries, where they cut your stomach or whatever, and after not seeing her for 3-4 months, she looked surprisingly slimmer.  What am I supposed to do?  Everyone accepts me to be this pervert, of course I noticed, but that is all I said.  The night was about her daughter's baby shower, which again, why did I have to go?
    Fast forward to today, Wife said nothing else all weekend about the encounter, I was with her all weekend, I have not worked any OT, so I am home-bound.  She just about finished cutting the front yard, I came out ready for work, dressed in my best Crocs and shorts, and she starts on about how she is the family mule, has to do everything.  I stopped her in her tracks and said "no, you are the turtle in a box".  This is our inside joke because Wife never wants anything new, always acts like all that mani/pedi BS is way overdone by everybody, she colors her hair at home, she doesn't need a stylist.  Every time I buy her a new purse, I have to force her to keep it because we are too poor to be buying frivolous shit at the mall.  So I basically summed her up as a turtle in a box because just give her a little day old lettuce and she should be happy.  Not today, today apparently she was carrying a beast of burden, which I guess is all of us.  Accused me of wanting a skinny bitch who would be useless around the house.  I have not been doing anything new or talking to anyone new.  All I do is work, and go home.  Fuck these accusations, I know skinny bitches are a pain in the ass.  They are nice to look at, specially if there's a big ole set of tatas, but come on Fool, after 27 years, where is my fat ass going?  You think I want to impress anybody anymore?
    Of course, a couple hours later, I misunderstood her position.  After a woman spins out, isn't it always the man who didn't understand?  Why?

11/11/15 Career Day For Chubs?

    Chubs had a career day on Monday.  He didn't mention much about it during the weekend, but I guess between him and Mama, they knew what he was going to do.  He wanted to dress as a genetic engineer.  I am not exactly sure what that would encompass, but I am sure that dude would wear a tie.  He took my lab coat, and a white shirt with my company logo, one of my ties and shorts, why not, this is Austin.
    Of course, he looked like a mini-me, if I ever put on my lab coat.  He was playing it up pretty good, but the narrow minded kids at his school, seeing his hairnet guessed he might be a lunch lady?  Oh well, guess that is why they have career days in the first place, so kids can see themselves becoming things they never even knew were possibilities.  Poor boy, he said he took off the hairnet, but had it on after school when he was waiting with his classmates outside to get picked up.
    Between my job here in the lab as a materials analyst and Boy in college talking about electrical engineering, robotics, and all sorts of fun alternatives, my Chub's future looks bright.  Another possible morsel of brightness is that he is being sought out to go to one of the magnet schools.  We don't know much about it yet, but if it gets him out of general population and in a more focused environment dealing with science, I will fully support it, if he wants to go.
    For now, we just keep supporting his interests.  We go to the bookstore regularly, and now that he reads like a big boy, he wants thick books he can read, he 's not in there looking for picture books.  Both boys are going to have better book collections than mine, if I don't get on the ball, but for now I am mainly interested in classical literature, so they can try to out-nerd me for awhile.
    Shoot, we were talking with Boy sunday night after the bookstore we all went to Whataburger, and he said he should be done in another four semesters.  That is really not a long time, man, I don't know how we are getting it done.  Wife is also talking about possibly getting back on the horse and pursuing that PhD.  I highly encourage her to do so, if only because those goobers sitting above her really respect titles.  She may walk in there like a brown employee who should be cleaning floors and driving busses, but goddammit you will address her as Dr. Gallegos.  Idiots!!  I know, I know, she'll insist on Dr. Delgado-Gallegos.

11/10/15 Back To Looking At Houses?

    This time around it is Wife's idea, not mine.  She is entertaining the idea of us moving.  Again.  I hate the thought of it, after all the hoopla last summer, but here we go again.  We are still having trouble refinancing, which is just so much crap.  We have never missed a payment or been late on the house payments in any way, yet because of our high credit debt, we are still a high risk, and so far, no luck refinancing.  We have our fingers crossed that this last place we found is going to work for us, but mister oh-so-friendly from the bank has stopped calling and was even cold and told Wife to talk to so and so next time.  Not sure if that is how they operate, or he knows something we don't.

    We appraised the house, it was OK, they said it is worth about what we thought, within $5000.  This means we should also be able to borrow some cash to pay off some debt, but we'll see.  If this falls apart, then we will probably be in move-out mode by the summer.  Our mortgage is just too high, for the house.  I don't know what Wife is thinking past her fantasy of us living in our RV.  I think she has seen too many episodes of tiny houses.  I could stand her for about a week in a tiny space, more than that and we risk having to put on boxing gloves.

    Her plan is actually staying in it while we pay off everything.  I tell her in a perfect world maybe we could do the RV thing, but we have two boys, I'm not going to live like that, if I don't have to.  I might entertain the idea if we buy a couple acres, set up RV, then go about building a new home onsite.  If I could see my new home going up, I might tolerate living like an animal for a couple months.

    She is really liking that Easton Place, which has broke ground, but has yet to build a house.  We stopped by at a trailer on site and talked to one of the salesmen.  He says their model homes should be built around March of next year.  I think that is a lot dragging butt, but we'll wait and see what the product looks like.  Another thing is that this place is not cheap, prices are starting in the mid $250's, and the guy was already talking of a price hike.  I am not going to give up my 4000sq ft for possibly 2000sq ft and a lower payment of a couple hundred bucks.  If I do give up my house, there has to be some good stuff laying about, a new Rolex, for instance, maybe.

11/9/15 Goosebumps (movie)

    We went and saw Goosebumps Friday night, mostly because Chubs wanted to and he asked Boy to get us tickets.  Surprisingly, Boy wanted to also watch it and decided to join us, along with his friends.  The movie was pretty good in that kid movie cliche kind of way.  Jack Black plays the R.L. Stine character, he is the writer of the Goosebumps line.  A bunch of scary stories that exist in stores, Wife was saying Boy read a couple growing up, Chubs is not interested.  Anyway, next door to R.L. Stine is an empty house, where the new boy and his mom move to.  Very quickly, the pretty girl next door starts talking to the boy, and Mr. Stine tells him to beat it and not make friendly with the daughter.  Of course, next scene, pretty girl is back to talking to the boy, Stine again threatens him.  The boy then sees what appears like child abuse, a lot of yelling and flailing about, he calls the cops, a couple of small town cliche cops come, totally inept.  Of course, everyone thinks the boy is crazy.

    What is a boy to do?  Break into the house of course.  He has already made a friend at school and invites him along, the boy f course can pick a lock better than anybody and they find tthemselves in Mr. Stine's library.  He has the full collection of his works on a bookshelf, each one has its own lock.  The books have nothing to do with the girl, but can they leave them alone?  No.  The boy opens one, just to appease the other boy, who comes along mostly as a distraction, as he adds nothing but confusion and the screamings of a little girl, packaged as a little boy.  Opening the book, then becomes the worst thing they could have done.  It is a book with the abominable snowman and he escapes from the book.  The girl finally shows up, better late than never, and goes about trying to clean up their mess.  The snowman bolts and in their chaos, another book gets rattled around and it opens too.

    Eventually, they corner the snowman in the locaal ice rink, Mr. Stine shows up and saves the day, does a lot of yelling, and takes the boys home where he discovers his worst creation, a ventriloquist dummy has escaped.  He is smarter than an average scary guy and disappears with all his books.  he then haphazardly trows books out his window as he drives this totally bad ass creepy car.  He is simultaneously opening the books and burning them, so the monsters can't be captured back in.  Mr. Stine is thinking of giving up, when the boys give him an idea to write a new story where all the mosters are rounded up and conquered.  He has only to find his trusty typewriter, which he has given to the school as a gift, the school has it in a glass case as a sort of local treasure.

    I don't want to ruin the end, and I did kind of zone out and fall asleep, although this is me, the story was good and entertaining.  I was a little caught by the young girl's pretty face, and was thinking if Mila Kunis had a younger sister, as soon as the movie finished, Wife said she looked like a younger Mila Kunis as well.  I also thought this was the perfect role for Jack Black as he has that face of serious, but not really, and he does seem more comfortable in a kid's world, thinking of School of Rock.  I personally did fall asleep, but that is a bit unfair, we had gone to Olive Garden at 6:30pm and ate with some friends, then went home, by 9:00pm.  The meal made me sleepy, told Wife I would lay down for 30 minutes, then they woke me at 9:30pm.  I did not recuperate, I was still sleepy.  The movie was cool, if you can say that for a kid's movie.

11/8/15 New Chapter In Our Evolution?

    I think we are on the verge of a new alpha male.  Historically, the alpha male was a leader, a hunter, even a killer.  To be called alpha male, their had to be an advantage physically.  The bigger, the better.  But things have changed.  Our society has become so complex that there is no choice but to accept that the new alpha male representative is very much a Bill Gates.  Super nerds with brains are going to rule in the foreseeable future.  What good are muscles, when new high paying jobs will require one to spend most of their days on a keyboard?  Or coming up with solutions for things that haven't even been thought of.
    Boy and his friends seem like the type.  I could not focus in school with all the different girls around me, not that I was hitting on them or anything, but just admiring their beauty was quite a distraction.  Boy and his friends don't even seem to notice girls, they are a total non factor.  He does notice them in the sense that they piss him off.  If they are in his class, he is sure they will only slow his learning down.  He has yet to have a decent female lab partner who doesn't act like a girl when things get real, according to him.
    Still, I can't help but smile.  These boys are going to hopefully lead us forward in the near future.  Sounds bad, but most of our economy is based around keeping the military at the forefront of weaponry.  Boy has always said he would love to work where things go boom.  I told him to slow down, mostly I don't want him losing a finger at the house.  He's been priming himself for that type of career, working with robots, building rockets that scared the crap out of me.  Even building a potato gun once when he was a sophomore or so.  Launched a potato about a hundred yards out in the green space behind our yard.
     I don't know that he even sees it, but he loves putting things together.  He needs to end up with a job that gives him that freedom of creating.  Just a couple weeks ago, he went to a Wizard Con, dressed up as a character.  He spent most of the day making this over sized hammer as part of his costume.  It was still in one piece that night, I don't think he even worried about it holding up, he calmly told me how he solidified the hollow tube with fiberglass and all this other stuff.  I have never even thought of working with fiberglass, he is comfortable with it, because they would use it when they built those rockets in high school.
    I am impressed with these boys at what they take for granted and already do now.  I am just happy that we have always been able to support his experiments, financially and spiritually.

11/7/15 Bringing Me Down?

    I started last week talking about the new aggressive female when I mentioned aposematism.  This was followed by the newly accepted man-child, with the addition of the new and improved nerd, society can start rolling along, clumsily though it might be.  Who knows, maybe a new war wakes up this half men and balances us out?  I still think too many in our population are going to hobble along in the welfare class, quietly growing to unsustainable levels.
    Unfortunately, I know a couple of these welfare people.  They actually think they have something to be proud of when they qualify for section 8 housing.  They declare themselves out on their own.  I chuckle and die a little on the inside, knowing it is through my taxes that you are making it on your own.  These peeps qualify for some aid to buy food, aid in their doctors with medicaid, aid in housing.  I say cool, no problem getting a little help for a while but what is your vision, Butterfly?  And I don't mean waiting for that thug to get out long enough to impregnate you before he goes back in for parole violations.
    The current population of the US is about 300 million people.  Looking around the internet, something like 110 million people are already on welfare and we're headed to the baby boom generation reaching retirement age.  As this substantial size of the population reaches retirement age and they stick around longer than ever, both good and bad, the fewer and fewer left of us still working are going to have a heavy burden to carry. Subtract the children from the equation and we might be relying on less than 100 million people carrying the other 200 million.
    One more thing to add that I have noticed that will continue the unfair shift to a larger unemployable population.  The educated wait or at least choose to have one or two children.  The population sitting at home have nothing else to do but spit out children.  Going forward from that, we will produce the two children who will both go to college and hopefully be productive members of society.  Mrs. Welfare will produce four to eight or more children and they might all go to college OR look at their surrounding and mimic what they learn and just lean back, have babies of their own so they can continue what they learned from mama.
    Who let this get out of hand?  Growing up in my small town, we had two housing developments for the poor.  There was one street which was all government housing, and there was a small neighborhood of a few streets that was the same thing.  If we look around now, just down my street here in Austin, there is rampant growth of these apartment ghettoes for section 8 housing.  Why not?  The developers are guaranteed to get their rent, just build as cheaply as possible, as quickly as possible.  There are politicians who allowed this to happen, they'll say it allows a roof over people who otherwise might be living on the streets.  Austin has been a favored destination since the 90's for creative people, the city didn't have to set itself up with a "we'll take your tired and hungry and poor."
    Something like 136 new people a day are moving here.  Are these people in a position to afford living here?  Houses are creeping up in value, at some point they will be like California houses, why not?  They showed up and drove the prices up.

11/6/15 Why Isn't Life More Fluid?

    Here we go again, a bunch of rain is scheduled for tonight and into tomorrow.  Why don't we start figuring we are not machines, we can very easily say "tomorrow we stay home."  Wife was venturing out last Friday, headed to Bastrop.  She called me, "I have a bad feeling about today", I told her they give you ten days to take, come back home.  "No, I have a meeting to get to, it is a very busy day."  I said OK, you have made your choice, be careful, I love you.  Sure enough, the day turned to shit, she had a very hard time trying to get home as all the roads experienced some flooding, did her boss call her once? I mean in the morning it was soooo important to be there.  And No, generally bosses don't give two shits, other than do what I say when I need you.
    I work in town, I just have to get on 35 for a couple miles, most of my drive is on very new and flood safe roads, I assume.  They have never flooded before, but +12 inches of rain is a lot of water to absorb.  In the morning Wife should use that big thing that holds her hair in place and decide if it is raining, take a day.  It is two weeks until Thanksgiving, you have most of your days off still, take a day.  Sleep late, enjoy life, like many an unemployable.  Watch some crappy daytime tv.  I love an old saying that Adam Carolla said "I bring home the bacon, you bring home the Baco's."  We'll be fine if you relax and stay safe on one friday.
    Then there was Chubs, they had a tornado scare or something to that effect, that some schools were evacuated, while in his school, they sat them in the hallway and literally told them to try and shove their heads in their butts.  Why is this still a safe position?, and in this day and age with the growing girth of us americans, we need a new place to shove our heads, our asses are too far away, it's just a bridge too far.  Chubs said he was told to just sit indian style and stay low to the ground.  I say put a trash can on his bucket head, better than nothing, if things start flying around.  Better yet, he could've stayed home, again if the rules were more fluid.  Worse comes to worse, if kids are going to perish, better with their parents than alone at school.  I know that is a bit dramatic, but that is why they are lined up in the hallways, the walls are the best they can do without their parents there to hug them and tell them it'll be ok.  Idiots!!  Use the bad weather days, that is what they are for.
   

11/5/15 Attack Of The Nerds?

  Nerds used to be a derogatory word to describe a person who studied too much.  I didn't hear it used too much around me, although I am sure I would have fit the description in my youth.  We didn't have the internet yet, at home, but we had encyclopedias, and these bad boys would travel with me every time I went and sat on the throne.  The information was nowhere near what kids can learn nowadays with the internet plugged in everywhere, even their phones.  I do remember being proud of myself for having read every book we had in our elementary library, probably the size of a bigger room, several shelves worth of books.
    It is counter-intuitive that the more information you load in your brain, the more the other kids are going to label you a nerd or a geek.  Why?  How is this bad?  The smarter you are, the more ways you can see life.  It's like having more colors in your box.  College just keeps adding to the color palette.  Where nerds might get access to a box of crayons with up to 152 separate colors, some of you knuckledraggers are going through life fisting a black and white crayon in each hand trying to understand why life don't make sense.
    Women are going to have to catch on that the world is not set up for the biggest strongest male anymore.  The reason this has always been the archetype is that we were once hunter/gatherers.  Nowadays, the higher paying jobs are going to go to the smartest person in the room.  That person is the one that is going to have the highest probability of providing their young ones with the advantages to succeed going forward.  Engineers, lawyers, programmers, doctors, all professions which require nerds due to the amount of knowledge one has to upload to be proficient.  The world will start to shrink for the muscle bound, no brains type.  Even cars today are getting more sophisticated, Joe Mechanic has to be on top of his game and know how to work a computer into his diagnostics, if he is going to be successful.
    I welcome our 100 pound overlords, for they will conquer with fast and furious fingers, we are already upon their golden age, not a matter of if it will happen, but when.
   

11/4/15 Monkeys And Their Pointy Sticks?

    I am still reading The Lucifer Principle, every chapter is like a fine meal, I am just dumbstruck at how he simplifies humanity through the ages.  It may very well be a popular book, but if it is not, it should be.  The latest chapter or two was going on about how our primitive ancestors who were able to walk on two legs and start throwing rocks and stones as weapons, suddenly took a huge advantage over the other ancestors who needed their arms to walk, gorilla style.
    Suddenly, the best pitcher (one who can throw a stick or rock with effectiveness) was going to be raised to top of the hero list in any given community.  He was going to have "dibs" on the women and thus procreate more, which means we come from the best of the best.
    This of course was important so our primitive homo sapien ancestor could incorporate meat into our diet, which without it, well look around at any given vegetarian, versus meat eater, density matters, especially if one is going to live in the elements.  With primitive weapons and a little skill, antelopes and other quicker animals were possible to be included on the menu more frequently, and those that provided said protein sources were typically the stronger males of the group, even the weaker males would have to take a begging posture for a "handout".
    Funny how once we figured out the bigger the weapon, the more powerful the man, we find ourselves at Los Alamos at the end of World War 2 making the biggest weapon ever.  Even funnier that at a certain point, the balance shifted.  It is no longer the world of the strongest man, because in order for that bomb to get invented, it took the brain power of many many "nerds" in glasses with their calculators.  The Manhatten Project should be a class project to be viewed by all kids, sometime in high school.  It is also fascinating how the Bomb came to be, on the shoulders of a few brilliant men, figuring out it could be done, first because a theoretical formula told them what the outcome would be, then putting it all together on the military's timeclock, at a cheap price of two billion dollars.  I don't know that the Russians would have completed theirs without their spies stealing our information, but regardless, would we be so stately without another super power watching over us with mutually assured destruction?

11/3/15 Why Don't People Learn How To Swim?

    If there is a god, he sure as heck don't like Bastrop.  A couple years ago he let the fires from hell burn through for weeks it seemed.  Just for fun, he let some more fires get going a couple weeks ago.  Thousands of acres were on fire.  I don't understand, it's as wooded as anywhere east of Austin.  I love driving to Florida, driving through all these tall trees, most of the way, it is beautiful.  But anyway, why is Bastrop more flammable than anywhere else? 
    Well, god or jesus or whoever controls the weather when one is religious let loose with the rains, dammit, it rained more than a foot here in Austin.  What the hell, I understand a good downpour, but twelve inches is a monsoon or something crazy.  The rain came and went, didn't really bother me much here in Austin.  Oh yeah, Girlie called, needed help with her car, I went out there and basically saved her life, but I just got a little wet, no big deal.  This all happened Friday, Boy was pissy because he had plans to go to Wizard Con (like Comic Con...), but Wife told him "you are not to leave the house, streets are flooded all over."  He had a couple of friends over, and he still managed to get to Southpark Meadows a couple times during the rains, but I guess that is alright.  Wife took three hours to get home that evening, 71 was closed, she tried another road and it shut down too, then they were trapped for a time as the water was over the road in front of her and behind, she made it home around 6 or 7 that evening.
    Wife was telling me a horribly sad tale of one of the People that drowned, he was related to one of Wife's coworkers, seems he dove in the rising floodwaters right on his property to get his mother out of the water from her wheelchair, the family forming a chain with each other.  He was on the very end, and not a good swimmer.  After struggling for a bit, he let go and yelled "just take care of my daughter" and vanished into the water.  They found his body the next day along  fence line. 
    That is the saddest thing I've heard in a long time, and if Wife was making it up, someone swiftkick Wife in the brown eye, I hate her telling me stories that make me cry, when I'm just sitting here cool as a cucumber right before work.  I had just been patting myself on the back over working all afternoon in the garage putting the Halloween stuff away.  I wanted to here "oh babe, did you take some ibuprefen so you're not so sore later?", or "are you tired?"  thanks for the Bastrop newscap!

11/2/15 The Night My Dog Saved Me From The Trombone Section, Or I'm An Idiot?

    Adam Carolla said it best when he said "I had no idea grown ups were such idiots."  We had a slow day today, went to the mall, Boy needed a new jacket.  I'm actually surprised, all of a sudden I look sideways at him, and he's no longer my little humunculus, as Sheldon called Leonard on Big Bang Theory.  Boy might actually reach my height, seems about an inch shorter now.  For awhile, I thought he was going to to stay in the 5'5" range.  Anyways, we ended up finding an acceptable jacket at Buckle.  He was pissed because he went in there by himself and was being ignored, yet we come in and I waste no time getting their hook and start taking jackets down from the wall, and a couple gals make their way over quickly.  Go sniff the good looking guy who ain't buying shit, I don't care, but don't expect me to stick my thumbs in my butt and wait for you to stop flirting.  Once I gave her the stick thing, and got her attention, she snapped to doing her job.
    I left Boy with Wife to finish paying for the jacket, I needed some stuff from the tool section at Sears, my toolbox finally gave out.  My sockets kept falling out of the holding spots, so I got a new metal tool box, with socket holders, and added in some new screwdrivers and wrenches while I was there.
    Boy also needed some groceries, so we left the mall right at 6:00pm, and headed to HEB.  He got a couple bags of food, took money from us to cover his rent and poof, like a cloud of smoke, he was gone back to his apartment.
    Coming into the house, we noticed the kids in front running around in costumes, did some math in my head, these kids were having some sort of Halloween party, they were dressed up, I was thinking good, just don't knock my trash can over.  Funny thing, once we came in, they came to the door and we could hear them yelling "Trick or Treat!"  I thought cool, we had about half the candy bags left over from last night and we about gave them a whole giant bag of candies, because who does that?  We could tell they were dorky band kids, not thugs or scary marauders.  Half the kids were wearing glasses, and if you're capable of reading this, you know what I mean, band kids aren't hood kids, or anything intimidating.
    Enter FB, and about an hour later Wife is reading to me concerned comments about the group of "defiant" kids who wouldn't leave so and so's front door.  These people were nice enough to set their two german sheperds on the kids, "sieg heil" indeed.
    Wife walked the neighborhood last night with Chubs and although it was a beautiful night and I try to focus on only the positive, she did say most of the houses had their lights off.  Come on you cheap bastards, does it hurt to participate and bring a little joy to the kids in the neighborhood?  When you decided to move into a nicer neighborhood, you also volunteered to not be a cheap ass, buy a bag or two of candies, believe me Satan is not celebrating little girls dressed as princesses or boys dressed as Jedis, if you think Jesus will judge you for giving in to the holiday, then you are as stupid as I thought.  I'm sorry but this is not a starter home neighborhood, this is a move-up neighborhood, the only reason you don't buy candy to give is choice.  Halloween was on a Saturday night, the weather was perfect, oh well, another reason I think my neighborhood sucks gonads.