I guess i shouldn’t be surprised considering my grandfather raised me up on stories of a few companies controlling this world.  And the fact that all news stations are currently controlled by 7 people.  7 PEOPLE! are you kidding me.  I mean what the fuck. I guess i ask what news is unbiased and not censored.  I watch Fox and MSNBC for the right and left perspective and try to make up my own mind.  Aljazeera is awesome for finding out how the world percieves us.  And NPR is great too.  but the all have their slants.  I dunno what to do.

Here is an the amazing article that prompted this whole shit.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/01/ge/index.html

Good Bye Woodward and Bernstein.

So……. where do I begin.  I loved Billy Mays.  Even before the Pitchmen.  The show on the Discovery Channel made me love him even more.  I don’t know why but I am truly affected by his untimely death.  It did not help that on the show they introduced us to his son and father.  Both had the awesome beard too.

I guess whats affecting me most is that he was an average guy who became famous in his little microcosm.   He truly loved what he did.  I mean how many people do you know that have a passion for doing such a trivial job like selling products.  It did not matter that some where gimmicky or did not work.  He stood behind them regardless.  He also enjoyed helping other people get their products off the ground.  He was intelligent and knew what people would buy and for how much.

For me it boils down to not believing in the American dream anymore.  With all the crap going on in this country,  the reckless spending, the fortunes wiped out,  the Bernie Madoffs,  The bank failures.  The car companies combined with Governement Motors, Our elected representative government failures,  and just the sheer stupidity out there in the world.  Billy Mays was simple.  Loud, obnoxious, gregarious, megalomaniac, but pure.  Self made and a family man with a passion for selling products. It really does not get much simpler than that.  He would yell at me and I would listen.

May you sell some products to God Billy!

Big love returned this evening.  Thank the celestial heaven.  This season started off great with us being thrown right back into the family.  They caught us up early on and went straight into the dysfunction of the functional family.  Alby keeps getting better and better as they explore his homosexual tendencies.  It makes for great crazy.  Did I mention how much I love the opening credits.  We got to see all the major characters even if only for one scene, but it helped getting me right back in the mood.  HBO series are like that great prostitute you find on craigslist, bone a couple of times, and then she disapears for a couple of years.  Im sure most of you know what that feels like.   The ending of the season opener even made me cry a little. I know, GAYYYYYYYYYY.   Well,  now that the season opener aired I’m sure we will be counting down the last remaing episodes till the finally.  [Sarcasm] Oh! and by the way.  the fourth wife is pretty hot.  sounds like Borat.  Oh, and one more thing.  Albys latest wife who helped poison Roman is the girl on House that died last season.  It really bugs me seeing her because that episode of House really scard me.

So I just finished watching Phelps make history. WOW!  That was amazing.  In part this is all thanks to my On Demand service with Verizon Fios.  I hate giving made props to a utility service but I must say that they are keeping up with HD content as fast as it is being filmed.  I have been able to watch all the Olympic events that matter to me and not have to record them or look for them.  They are just there waiting for me to hit play.  Absolutely amazing.

WOW! I have not felt that in a while. Although I was not scared per say of myself, this was the first earthquake since having kids. My thought quickly turned to my children who where home alone with my mother in law. The hard part is that everyone immediately uses there cell phone to call loved ones and it completely clogs the cell towers for more than a half hour. I was not able to get through until I reached a land line and called my mom. The boys slept right through it. And everyone was safe. My wife was very close to the epicenter and the Nixon Library got shook pretty hard. They even closed it down until they can inspect the facilities. I was at Taco bell waiting for my food when everything started rolling. All the patrons just looked at each other in a very laze fair attitude. The one thing this reminds me of is to make sure i am prepared for this kind of catastrophe. Make sure you have drinkable water, generator, canned food, emergency kit, and batteries. Or in my case just get a gun and steal it from your neighbors. BTW, that is a joke but not really!

I was a little shocked by the winner.  I thought she was a little to young for the position.  Patrozza I feel would have made a better winner.  After Gordon Ramsey explained his decision it made sense.  Still, I wanted Patrozza to win.  He even had a better service for the finale.  Oh well.  I feel this was the best season yet for the show.  I hope it comes back again.  I now have Kitchen Nightmares to look forward to.  I actually like that show a little bit better because it gives you a glimpse of the real genius that is Gordon Ramsey.  Plus it is a little more of an intelligent show than the usual reality elimination crap that survivor has created.

Well. This is night three of Christine being in D.C. I am happy to say that this is the last night. It has been challenging with her gone. You really don’t appreciate something until you don’t have it anymore. Meghan came out and helped out on evening with my parent. That was greatly appreciated. Work has been hard because it just so happens that I have a huge deadline later this week. Great timing huh? The nights with the kids and the morning have relatively easy but exhausting. The trick of single parenting is as follows.

When I was a lead at Disneyland Doug taught we one very important lesson in my youth. In order to be lazy you must work really hard. Now I know it sound contradictory but here me out. You must unplug your section, make sure your bones and carts are ready and have all flashlights working. Have your rotations planned out and your lighted signs and gel coats ready to go. Now you are ready to hang out all evening and not work. See! Be lazy. In other words. 1 hour of prework and prep facilitates no work later. Instead of playing catchup why not smoke and relax. So to apply this to parenting. Get dinner and afterbath set. Make sure you have your diapers and bottles prepped and ready. have reading material and stuffed animals in hand and make sure pacifiers are cleaned. do laundry even if you dont need it yet. And for God’s sake clean up after you leave each area. This facilitates less work and more quality time with you child. Or in my case children. Alos less clean up means more t.v. time. And while Christine is away more porn time. Yeah! Porn! Just kidding. Not really though.

It has been kind of lonely here. Alot of penis in this house. We definitely need some female here. we received Aiden and Chases birthday invitations so those will go out soon. I had my Birthday over the weekend and it was pretty mellow. And by mellow I mean uneventful. Christine made procured reservations at The London of West Hollywood for Saturday so I will surely post about eating at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant next weekend. The last couple of months have been pretty hard on me. I will probably right a nother post about that in finer detail. Anywhoo. That is all for now.

Toodles Peaches

Don’t answer that. Its rhetorical.  This morning I awoke to the saddened feeling that both my kids double strollers where stolen from my front porch.  Did I think by leaving them out there this would not happen.  Probably.  I tend to think that because I love in a good neighborhood these kind of things usually shouldn’t happen.  I rarely lock things up and I usually leave things lying around.  I guess it takes an incident like this to become paranoid.  Or at least putting things away behind lock and key.  Makes me sad.  To share in my misery some of the neighbors got there things stolen as well.  Bikes, Balls, and even a banquet table.  I guess it makes me feel better that other people Thought like me and got just as screwed.  Oh well.  Off to Craigslist I will go to replace my stuff.  What a shitty feeling.

Well,  after my early departure from Softmirage, I was faced the daunting task of having two weeks off.  Oh what a glorious time it was.  I never once opened up a 3d program.  I spent many days with my kids.  I have a much better appreciation of all the hard work there grandparents put in during the week.  At times a was going a little brain dead trying to come up with activities for me and the boys to do.  Needless to say a few Disneyland trips where in order.  I braved the park by myself and them and realized watching two kids is hard.  On one of our trips I went with our friend Jen Fassoth and her girl.  We ended up having a blast but I must say that my arms are tired from carrying the boys in the queues.  I did take a couple of days off from the boys and hung out with my friends.  It was therapeutic.  I saw Iron man with Fulton and Angelo and I had forgotten how much fun our witty banter was.  I spent an eveing with Miss Ramos and we ended up drinking…  Alot!  I got a few drinks with James and had a night out with the boys Cam and Jeff.  I completed my landscaping job in the front yard and I must say, It looks scpectacular.  I put in so many sprinklers it looks like Fantasmic!

I developed a new bond with my kids.  It really is amazing watching these little guys grow.  They are talking so much and their little personalities are shining through.  It really is amazing being a dad.  I am really looking forward to knowing them and raising them for a long time.

I look forward to my new job with excitement and intimidation.  I have no ideas what to expect considering that I am moving into a larger firm with many more talented artists.  I hope I do well.  I will be carpooling to my new location and hope that we do not get on each others nerves. I think it will be fine though.  My new job offers me a 9 80 schedule which gives me every other Friday off.  I am really looking forward to spending more time with my kids.  Also,  it will start alleviating some of the pressure of my parents having to watch my kids 3 days in a row.

Well,  Thats it for now.  I also took the kids and Christine to the Huntington Library a couple of days ago.  I will post those pictures up soon and write a full story.  Wish me luck. I’m out

Today our boys got baptized. it was done at St. Johns Lutheran Church in the city of Orange. All our family was there and all the god parents also. Cameron and Eric, Meghan and Laura had accepted the responsibility and made it to the church to support our little guys. It felt really good getting them baptized and the whole ceremony went off without a hitch. Aiden had fallen asleep during the actual sacrament and chase fell asleep immediately afterwards. We held them through the mass and we were delighted on how easy it was. Coincidently there was another set of twims that got baptized at the same time. One of them was even wearing the same sweater vest as Chase. After mass we went to our home where everyone drank and ate and had a good time. We ordered the trendy sprinkles cupcakes and they lived up to the hype. I highly recommend the red velvet kind. The food was Lebanese from Open Sesame and again I ordered too much. Maybe its the Cuban in me or the need to over count but I thought we would not have as much leftovers as we did. Aiden and Chase had a really good time and loved running around with all there friends and family in our house. They boys received many gifts which Christine and I really appreciate but thought it was unnecessary. Although baptism is referred to as a your birthday in the Lord I do not see it as a gift giving occasion. But thank you all very much if you gave the boys a little gift. I also want to give honorable mention to Cameron for getting the boys college accounts which they will receive when they are 18. Every little bit helps and it pleases us very much that people are so selfless and realize the importance of education. The evening concluded great and Christine and I cleaned up and relaxed with the knowledge that we did something nice and will remember it always. I also want to say thanks to my parents. Without their help I do not think we could have planned a better party. You can see all the pics from the day here.

At this time I will go into explaining where my beliefs lie at this time. If you wish to stop reading here I understand. I use my blog as a journal and sometimes I like using occasions like these to write down my feelings with the hopes that one day in the future I can read these and follow through the progression of my feelings towards subjects. I also do not like writing to much personal information on these things because they can be used for harm so when I do it is because I feel it is important.

I was born and raised Catholic and the teaching of Cathol. [Eddie reference] After High school and my confirmation I struggled with my faith and what exactly I was doing as far as the dogmatic practices of my church. At that time I started experimenting with other religions and seeing what was out there. I even attended a sweat lodge and particpated in several Wicken ceremonies. It left me with a greater appreciation of other religions and It allowed me to speak intelligently on the subject. I kept on going back to my Cathol roots during times of crises. I then met Christine and she opened me up to the worlds of Protestant churches. Although it was completely new to me because I did go to a baptist preschool. I was too young to know the difference. She started teaching me about Lutherens and the world of the Protestant Reformation. At this early stage I still went to some other churches as well as a non-denominational Christian church with my friend Angelo. It did not appeal to much to me due to the lack of ceremony and it’s feel good music. I like somber and structure. At this time the world started to become a crazy place with Islam becoming a large influence here in America. Religion started to become more important to me or at least understanding it. Christine and I then started going to a Lutheran church by our house. Unfortunately the people started getting way to much in our business and I hated being asked for supper every weekend. we left the church and had no real yearning to go back. Which leads us to today. I realize that I do like the Christ religions and the Catholic church is my preference, but I am not too happy with it these days. Lutheran’s are great because they are the closest to Catholics. We baptized our kids Lutheran because I personally don’t believe it makes a difference what church they are baptized at. No religion is the end all be all. I look forward to maybe going back to church again and even talked about going to the church we baptized our guys at with my wife. I think it would be nice.