August 28th

Well tonight I’m going to play the role of the proud father. As a lot of you know I have my weekly Wednesday night visits with William, and we usually do dinner and either go to a park to play, Chuck E. Cheese, Dave & Busters or Jillian’s. Well last night was a usual night of fun and games at Jillian’s, one of his favorite games is a snow mobile race simulations called Artic Thunder, which he’s gotten quite good at (not bad for a soon to be four year old). Well after playing a few different games, William wanted to go explore the place, for those of you who don’t have a Jillian’s in your neighborhood, it basically is a huge entertainment complex full of video games, pool tables, skeet balls, a restaurant, a bar, and a full size bowling alley. It’s a great place to spend a hot humid summer evening. So like I was saying William had always wanted to explore the place and had liked watching the bowlers. So I told him, if they have a small enough ball we would play, so we went up the counter and they ended up having a six pound ball that he could lift with both hands. He was so excited to start playing. This being a newer modern facility they had automatic bumpers for the alley, so William was able to knock down the pins each time he rolled the ball. He was so trying to look like the bigger kids in the way he was throwing the ball, but he’s still so small that the ball took forever to get down to the pins. It was so cute. By the time we made it through the first frame we had gathered about five or six waitresses and waiters cheering him on. He was so excited just being there and doing stuff the big kids had done. After about six frames William was starting to get tired and his arms were sore from bowling. So thinking better of it I decided to call the game quits and asked him what he thought of bowling. It was so cute, as we were walking back to the cashier he turned to me and said, “Da Da, that was fun, but I want to wait to do it again till I am a bit bigger”. It was so cute to hear that come from his mouth. I’m always amazed to hear what will come next. Sometimes he shows more wisdom and common sense then his 30 something dad. The time I get to spend with him, makes me realize how right moving to Georgia to remain an import part of his life was.

On a brief note, the smear campaign of Arnold Schwarzenegger has started, I’m not even going to justify these negative issues (which included sex, drugs and alcohol) what they are claiming happened was almost 30 years ago when he was very big into his body building career. If interested in reading about it here’s a link to the fox news site. Enjoy.

Also on a weird side of life here’s a little video from Channel 7 News in Seattle, Keep watching, it’s actually quite funny. (Not for the faint of heart).

And for all of those people out there who actually still remember the 1970’s VH1 is showing this great series called I Love the 70’s, it’s a yearly retrospective throughout the Me decade, Grab your lava lamp and mood ring and enjoy the ride.

Ok that’s it for tonight I’ll talk to you all soon

Peace

Mike

August 26th

Something interesting I noticed this past weekend when I was out wandering with William. His mom had gotten him a confederate soldier hat, and William was wearing it everywhere we went on Sunday. While we were out no matter which store or restaurant we went to, people kept on going, “I really love your hat” or “your wearing a very special hat boy”. Not making much of it William and I thanked them and went on our way. I had noticed this attitude about the people in the south for quite some time now, which I think even after almost 140 years after the civil war has ended, that the south actually did loose the war. You can’t tell anyone in Atlanta that, they usually just stare at you with a blank look on their faces when you try to mention to the contrary about it. Slowly I try to understand this mentality, but have yet to do it. It’s their sense of pride I do understand and respect, but the way they go about portraying it is completely unbelievable. Flags, Hats, Stickers, Tee Shirts, Toys, Signs, License Plates & much much more. It seems me being a “Yankee” or an “outsider” you just are supposed to get it. Most of the people I have met say “Michael, you have to be from the south to even begin to understand what Southern Pride is about” Ummm right, I guess I don’t see the point in having pride in rooting for a “team” that got its butt kicked a century and a half ago. At least the Chicago Cubs is a “team” that hasn’t won either in almost half a century, but at least is still trying to make a go of it. Maybe I should start a new fad by having a Babylonian or Roman Empire flag outside of my house. NAAAA that would just be too weird.

As promised, I have wanted to talk about the TV show the “Amazing Race 4” for some time now, but since some of my friends (I’m not naming names, they know who they are) didn’t catch the season finally, I decided to hold off to talk about who won until they got on the same page as the rest of the world. I wrote some time back about how this was the only reality TV show that even came close to catching my interest, (Sorry Joe Millionaire just isn’t my thing). Well after 13 legs and visiting such exotic places as: Amsterdam, Kota Kinabalu, Mumbai, Mooloolaba & Sandakan. The race came down to a close finish between two teams in Phoenix, Arizona. If you would of asked me even a month ago would the show come down to the teams of Reichen & Chip (Married Gay Couple) or Kelly & Jon (Engaged Straight Couple) I would of thought you were nuts. I would of really of thought more on the lines of it coming down to Jon & Al (Clowns, not a Couple) or David & Jeff (Best Friends, not a Couple either and they did come in 3rd place). That’s the thing with the show though, you never know what turn the race can take and how one bad or good turn can push you to the finish. Showing how a team can finish strong Reichen & Chip really pulled it together in the last leg to win it in the end (and trust me when I say they should have been eliminated so many times earlier in the race). Not that I minded any of the teams that were in the final three, but as I said earlier the best team was eliminated two legs ago (Jon & Al). Now, we wait for the next race which will be on TV next summer. But before that I'm thinking that all I have to do is find a willing victim to be my partner for "Amazing Race 5". Yes that's right I'm going to audtion to be a contestant for the next race. (Part of my reason for working out and getting into much better shape is to do AR 5 in the next six months or so), Hmmmm any suggestions, or volunteers to join me? To read the full story of the Amazing Race, see the CBS Amazing Race website.

Here's a cute little story from Yahoo about Seattle's current dry snap, can you believe they just set a record on consecutive days above 70 degrees.

So anyway, that’s it from my little corner of the “Deep South” (really nothing deep about this area, but that’s a whole different story)

Peace

Mike

P.S. The Mariners lost again last night, so it’s now a three-way tie for the American League Wild Card, and two-way tie for the American League West. Hold onto your hats folks it’s going to be interesting.

Well my dear friends, you might be hearing a really bad sucking sound coming out of the Boston area. No it's not the sound of construction coming from the big dig (a huge tunnel project the city of Boston is undertaking), the sound my dear friends, is the sound of the Seattle Mariners season being sucked dry. Yes the team that had surprised everyone by having a lead in the American League West from almost the beginning of the season, has now come crashing down to earth. Just a week ago the M's had a five game lead over the Oakland Athletics, and the playoffs seemed well at hand. Boom a week later, the Mariners have a five game loosing streak and are now officially only one game ahead of the A's. It's not like the team has been getting beat by any last minute heroics from the other team, nope the Mariners have just been playing overall bad baseball. It's like someone came in one night last weekend and traded the players for players from the local high school. Some of the playing and lack of hitting has just been pathetic. These are the same teams that the M's just beat whole handedly just a week ago. But as a Mariners fan it just seems like the same thing every year, over and over. The team management doesn't make any major transaction at the trade deadline, and then they have to worry about worn out players in the stretch. Arrrgg sorry but as a baseball fan it is just so frustrating to see. I know, I know I might be over reacting and this might just be a slight dip in the year for the Mariners, but from past history this just feels like the same thing again. What can the team do to fix it? I don't know. If I knew that one I would win the jackpot in Vegas all the time. I'm almost ready to jump off the Mariners band wagon, this ship of theirs has got so many holes they will need someone to help patch it up. (Sorry wasn't going to make any sticking fingers into the whole of a dike jokes).

Anyway thanks for letting me vent my spleen and just go off for a few minutes in the world of baseball.

Tomorrow night I'll return to my usual updates including what I thought of then end to the Amazing Race, and how I'm actually playing with the idea of auditioning for AR 5 if comes to be.

Peace

Mike

August 20th

Have you ever had a day when you just feel like you want to just stand at the top of a building and start screaming at the top of your lungs? Well yesterday was one of those days between work being a total waste because of this stupid virus that’s been flooding everyone’s e-mails (Sorry if anyone got e-mails from any of my addresses, but trust me that after 5200 e-mails with the virus attached to it, I didn’t once open it and send it to anyone, ah the love the computer industry). And people wonder why I want to change careers. LOL. OY. Then to top it off I had a meeting that I was supposed to be at where I had a nice jacket and tie laid out in the morning, but since I was half asleep still when I left for the gym I left everything sitting on the couch in my living room. So before my meeting I had to run to a few stores to at least find a tie to go for the young professional look. Thank goodness to the great people at the Men’s warehouse and having a great markdown on ties, (a wonderful tie for only $9.98, woo hoo). Then to finish off the poopie period of the day, I had gotten home and found out that a new game I bought for my computer (Sim City 4) doesn’t work on my laptop since it doesn’t have an advanced video card in it, and it can’t be updated since it’s a laptop. Also you can’t return software once it’s been open so I was stuck with a lame duck game. Grrrrrr. Then I figured I needed something for dinner so I figured simple and cheap would be good for me, so I went to Subway. When I got there the guy working at the shop was very very slow and looking like he was ready to close. So I go through and order a tuna sub and sun chips (somewhat healthy, overall), when I get to the register and he rings me up, I as usual pull out my debit card to pay, he gives me a blank stare and says we don’t take plastic because we don’t have a scanner right now. Ummm I say excuse me, you have the Visa and MasterCard logos right on your door. Yeah but it doesn’t mean we can take it? He said with a grin on his face. HUH I thought ok this is just too much for me with the day I had. So I tell him I have no cash, then turn around and get ready to leave, the guy says wait a minute, I think oh god here we go. But to my surprise he turns around and bags up the sandwich and says you look honest, pay me next time you come in. Sitting there with my jaw on the floor and after the day I had, all I had to say was THANK YOU!!! It just goes to show that no matter how crappy of a day you might have, there will always be something in it to help levitate the stress.

Ok well that’s about it for tonight, I hope no one got hit too much with the Snipe virus

Peace

Mike

Howdy Partners and welcome back to Fabersplace, things have been a little busy over the past few days. Lots to get to since I haven't talked to you for a bit. Well did you do it? Did you survive it? What am I talking about, why of course the worst disaster to hit the eastern seaboard since 9 - 11, this past Thursday showed us the end of humanity as we know it. (Well that's what Fox News Said on Thursday night) What am I speaking of, of course the great blackout of 2003. Millions of people across the northeast United States and southern Canada were thrown into complete darkness for hours and even days. Of course the news media at first thought the blackout could have been a terrorist attack, but was later proven to just be an overloaded transformer somewhere in Ohio. Yes I know it probably sucked to get stuck without power, but it also showed us two things (1) how vulnerable the American power system is to a terrorist attack, and how much chaos it could really cause if someone had a well thought out plan, not that I'm suggesting anything for all my terrorist readers (JUST KIDDING, as far as we know Fabersplace dosn't have any terrorist readers, yes we do have quite a few mentally disturbed one's but not one terrorist). (2) It went to show once again how dependent the general American public is to a higher standard of living and how we are lost without all our modern conveniences that we are accustomed to in this country. I am actually really impressed though at how well behaved most of the general public was in the adversity. The only real case of major looting that I had heard about was in Ottawa, Canada, which I found so humorous since the Canadians are so known for their politeness and civil obedience. Once thought that did cross my mind, it's going to be curious to see the spike in births nine months from now in the northeast region of the US.

Judy and I went to Myrtle Beach to visit Cheryl, Danny, Del and Amanda who had been renting a house there for a week. It was great getting to see everyone again, and go someplace that I had never been before. The area we were staying in was wonderful beach just about half an hour north of the city, which was nice since we were away from all the commercial areas, but close enough if we wanted to do something fun (including a four story mini golf course, which totally rocked). The trip was very very relaxing and was good to clear my head and meditate on life. Still have no real resolutions or fixes, but sitting on the beach and watching the waves hit the shore is a great way to relax. I'll have some pictures up in the next few days, normally I would have them up right away but I forgot to charge my digital camera for the trip, so I went out and got a disposable camera, and have to go through the painstaking task of using up all the film and then take it to Costco for developing. I think this is the first time in about two years that I have actually used a traditional camera, wow maybe I am a slave to modern technology. Ya, think?

Ok, I'm out of here

I'll talk to you all tomorrow

Peace

Mike

P.S. Ok how's this for stupid, the major television networks are pulling any Arnold Schwarzenegger movies from their schedule until after the upcoming recall election in California, so they don't show any favoritism towards any of the people running for office. Hmm if that's the point shouldn't they also stop showing old re-runs of Different Strokes, also should stop showing 'The People vs. Larry Flynt' and shouldn't the porn stations stop showing the Mary Carey movies? Hmmm something to ponder, but fair is fair.

August 12th

You know sometimes when the world seems like it’s getting read to give you a major head ache and your thinking that everything is just dumping on you, Just remember this, you don’t have it anywhere as bad a the current Californian Gov. Gray Davis. Yesterday when I was doing the treadmill at the gym I was watching the today show, and the lead story of course was the California recall election, and while Katie and Matt were talking up the days features they showed a live feed of Gray Davis, all smiles, and ready to talk, Just seeing him there, I had nothing but pity for the guy. I know he’s been a shit governor but come on folk, it’s not like he was elected two years ago and everyone now is changing their minds. The man was reelected to office in November, for those who can’t count; it was only nine months ago. If you wanted a change you should of done it then, not after the fact. The economy hasn’t really gotten any worse since November. Yes the economic sucks, but it’s doing so in almost every state in country, it’s just more apparent in California since it’s such a large state. The truth behind the recall election is that was basically sponsored by the people that lost the last election. These folks were basically sore loosers and weren’t happy with the results. The whole recall movement wasn’t really taken seriously until a certain X factor came into the picture. Of course we all know that I’m referring to the running man himself Arnold Schwarzenegger. Once the rumors that Arnold would consider running for office did the whole recall movement take off. At last count they had over 240 people (including porn star Mary Carey, seen in the image) are running for high office of California. Just seeing Governor Davis I just thought, “you know my life isn’t really that bad, after all.” The strange thing through out the whole California debacle there has been a major player missing from the headlines. Who am I speaking about, why of course our buddy George W. Bush the leader of our country. Where is George? Why of course on vacation for the next 35 days. Excuse me hasn’t he been on vacation since he got in office? Go figure.

Ok I’m cutting it short tonight; I want to try to finish the new Harry Potter book tonight (only 200 pages left to go, think the only book that I have read that was longer was “The Stand” by Stephen King).

Hope your doing great,

Peace

Mike

August 10th

Well here I am on a Sunday night trying to figure once again what to write about. This weekend was a William weekend. It has been awhile since I have really talked about what I have been up to with my favorite Super Hero and soon to be America’s first fire-fighting astronaut. It’s so amazing watching William go through the change of a toddler to a little boy, but also to see the maturity and wisdom that comes with him growing up. I don’t know what it is, but it seems even more apparent over the past month or two. Part of me wants to still think about him as the little kid who used to clinging to his mom’s side and got joy from just watching a wind up toy go across the floor, instead I’m now seeing a young boy wanting to explore and do everything. Case in point, today we went to the beach at Lake Lanier (the closest thing to a real beach for the Atlanta area). Originally we went to go play in the sand but when we got there and saw that they had a water park attached to the beach, the though of just playing in the sand and building sand castles became pretty much moot. It was just so neat to see him running around and playing with other kids and me, splashing water and letting his imagination keep him busy for a few hours. There were a few instances when I just had to step back for a few moments and drink the whole situation in. Yeah I know this update is sounding like a total proud dad moment, and partly this is, but also it’s amazing to show that how much things change over a few months. Thinking back none of this would have been possible, because of many issues, and no I’m not going to get into the issues between Angela and I, that’s not for my web site, and things have been going better for that factor also. It used to be like pulling teeth to get William away from his mom, but now he’s ready and excited to go when I get him. Just going through everything since the divorce has made things weird enough, but now with all the good that is coming from the relationship between me and William it makes it all good. Now all we need is for the overnights to start, and all will be right in the world. Small little note on the side, When going out to the lake with William yesterday I made sure he was all protected with suntan lotion. I made sure then that I got some also on myself. Except I forgot to do it on the back of my shoulders, I didn't really think too much into it, until I got home. When back at the apartment I asked William if Daddy's shoulders were red, he said just a little bit. So I decided to check it out in the bathroom, and boy could you see where I had my shirt on. Jokingly thing to myself I wondered how much pain I would of been in if William had said "It's really, really red Da, Da".

After last week’s announcement of Arnold running for governor of California, the media has been having a total field day with everyone and their brother having a reaction to the Terminator becoming “the Running Man of California”. Part of the whole thing has my mild curiosity going. It's kind of like watching a car wreck and seeing what happens with all of this, but the logical person inside my head is going to probably sit back and let the feeding frenzy take place and may the last “man” standing have what’s left of the Californian economy to play with. And as much as I grudgingly say this, I think Arnold will be there standing on the top of the heap at the end. We shall see in a few months.

Anyway I hope your all doing great and I’ll talk to you tomorrow night

Peace

Mike

August 6th

Just sit back and listen to this one kids, you know if I would of told you 10 years ago that Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to be running for the any political office you would of probably wanted to check me into a funny farm. Well actually there a lot of reasons for wanting to get me into a permanent wing at the Bellevue Mental Institution, but anyway I digress. Tonight during a taping of the Tonight Show with Jay Lenno, (God I miss Johnny Carson, and Letterman is just so much more funnier and more original, again I’m digressing), our buddy Arnold the Republican made it official that he will be seeking the office of Governor for the State of California. I have a few different thoughts on this. The state is so screwed financially how can he make it any worse, the economy is shrinking and people are leaving the state in droves and being replaced by illegal aliens (and I don’t mean from outer space, ok bad Arnold movie joke). The state suffers from some the highest real estate values, and the job market isn’t keeping up with it, basically the state is on the verge of a major collapse. If he dose win just think about all the wonderful fitness programs the state of California will have in the schools. This is almost the perfect scenario for an Arnold Movie if you think about it. The major plus is that now we have a new slogan for California… “The California economy…We will Be Back”. Thinking about a actor as governor isn’t completely unheard of. OK, yes we did have Ronald Regan and he did a so so job when he was in our universe. Even when Regan was fully with it, look at his eyes he wasn’t really there. No I’m making fun of Alzheimer’s so no hate letters this time. And of course the second example of this was Jessie Ventura. When Jessie ran for office you kind of thought it was just a joke, but boy did he prove everyone wrong. He actually showed that someone who used to wear tights for a living could run a state successfully. Who knows if Arnold will even win in the recall election, are the people in California desperate enough to bring in the Terminator as governor? I can’t tell you that, but hey, it would make all his news conferences almost as entertaining as a George W. Bush one. Watching Arnold tonight he's already getting his catch phrases going.. Here's one of my favorites from Arnie's big announcement "It's time to PUMP UP the California economy". This will be interesting wouldn't it be funny if it came down to Arnold vs. Larry Flint, oh did I forget to mention that Larry Flint the publisher of Hustler Magazine is running (no wheel chair jokes meant) for Governor also? Opps. This is going to be fun.

Tonight’s funny is an actual true story about how a man in West Virginia who was a Powerball winner who has donated more than $3 million of his record winnings to churches was drinking at a strip club when $545,000 was stolen from his sport utility vehicle. Talk a peek here at the story, it’s almost a tale of a fool and his money quickly parted. Take a peek of this strange but true story.

OK I’m out of here now

Talk to you soon

Peace

Mike

P.S. I'm really thinking about adding banner adds to the bottom of my links page to help offset the price of running the web site and also to help me get out of dept a little bit faster. I'm a little torn on it since I partly feel like I will be selling out to Corporate America, but I will be picky about who I put on the site and won't put anything too obnoxious on here, and I promise there will be no evil pop up adds, and it will only be on the links page so it won't be right in your face anyway. What do you think?

August 5th

Another night when I have a few ideas about what to write and then when I sit down to finally getting around to typing it, the idea is completely gone. Poof. Wait, it was there, honestly. Gosh sometimes I feel like I have Swiss cheese for memory, but maybe something is telling me that the subjects I was originally going to write about would have been a bomb anyway. It’s interesting that something’s that I have a photographic memory for and other things that just disappear from my mind like a whiff of smoke. I always joke about it and say it’s from all the things I experimented with in college, but then I remember that the problem started before those fun filled days. (See I do remember stuff, now where did I put those car keys?) Hmmmm maybe I should start calling myself Dory. LOL

Like I briefly mentioned in yesterday’s update I have been hitting the gym bright and early every morning for over the week now. It’s so weird leaving the house everyday in the dark to head out to exercise. In all truth though I have been quite proud of myself for doing this, I was just finding that I didn’t have the time to go to the gym after work, I found myself only going once or twice a week and not really seeing any results. So I figured to myself if I’m going to continue paying for the gym I need to use it more then once a week. I’m just hoping to start seeing the results from a mix of weight training and a cardio workout. (Not even going to go into self-image thing, but it is getting better). I am finding already that I have more energy and like it when I increase the weights that I’m using. I used to laugh at people that worked out everyday, but now I can see the pluses to it. Will keep you informed on the progress I make.

A few people have been trying to drop hints at what happens in the new Harry Potter book (only on chapter 13, been a little busy to read all the time). To all those people (you know who you are) STOP TRYING TO TELL ME WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO HARRY POTTER, I’LL FIND OUT SOON ENOUGH. YOU’RE THE SAME PEOPLE THAT RUINED ALL THE SECRETS TO “THE 6TH SENSE” FOR ME! THE MOVIE SUCKED AFTER KNOWING WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!!! I’M NOT LISTENING LA, LALALALALALALALALALALA……

Ok I’m feeling much better now

Hope your doing great

I’m off to enjoy a Thunderstorm

Peace

Mike

Tonight's fun web site came from Judy, want to see your favorite web site written in Redneck or in Pig Latin take a peek at The Dialectizer, even Fabersplace.com looks good in Redneck. Have fun.

August 4, 2003

Ok somebody has to call the police, something has been missing from all our lives and we didn’t even realize it. Where the hell has summer gone? I have been looking high and low and haven’t seen summer at all. It just felt like it was yesterday and I was getting ready to head down to St. Augustine to watch Danny for the holiday. Don’t get me wrong I have been having a blast these past few months but it’s just that things are just flying by. Ok no old age jokes about how time seems to fly faster as you get older. Would love to hear about some of your adventures, I’ll even set up a new section to our site to post pictures from your summer vacation.

Today in the news it was announced that Colon Powell would not be returning as Secretary of State if George W. Bush wins a second term. No offense against the democrats (which I am a proud member of the Democratic party), but there isn’t one of them that I would even consider voting for if the election was held right now. None of them have a postive message, all they are doing is Bush bashing. But then again, I’m one biggest Bush bashers there are, maybe I should run for office, and I can say I didn’t inhale (Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink). In all seriousness as much as I hate say it right now the state of the country would have to get even worse for Bush not be elected to a second term. God that just left a bitter taste in my mouth, but hey on the positive side to it just think of all the George Bush jokes we have to make for the five and 1/2 years. Gee OK maybe it is something to look forward to.

I know I owe you all a few movie reviews, (Pirates of the Caribian, Terminator 3, and Laura Croft: The Cradle of Life) I’ll try to get to those in the next days, I just didn’t want you to think I forgot, and god forbid me not see a movie, don’t be rediculous

Not that I’m going to be asking too much from you as it is, but I also was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for me to improve the website. OK the only thing that is off limits is the family album, have been slowly trying to get that section live, but have been waiting for some pictures from some relatives (they know who they are). But any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Ok that’s enough for tonight

I’m out of here; I'll talk to you soon

Peace

Mike

P.S. I have officially been getting up at 5:30am and going to the gym everyday now for a week, should we start a pool to see how long I can keep it going? Later.