Was talking to my friend Leslie today, and she was describing to me what she had just ordered for breakfast from the Deli down the street (one of the things I miss about living in New York City, is being able to get anything delivered 24/7), but anyway, she was telling me about what she had ordered. Everything sounded great: a cup of coffee and a everything bagel with Whitefish Salad. But then she got to what she put on top of it, it made my whole body cringe. What could be so vile and stomachs turning to me, that it made me not even want to continue our conversation. What kind of vile disgusting thing am I talking about?

Why of course a tomato.

Yes my dear readers, I’m going to be revealing a peek into one of my worst phobias in life, the tomato. It’s a kind of an odd love / hate relationship between me and this fruit. Ever since I was a little kid the sight of a cut open tomato made me want to run for shelter. (I get the same way from uncooked eggs, but that’s another story for another day) It’s like when the tomato is growing it didn’t finish growing inside. The gooey, slimy, seed filled inside is just totally nauseating to me. If every I’m at a restaurant, and the sandwich comes with a tomato on it, I tear apart the sandwich to make sure that red (or sometimes green) fruit doesn’t touch my pallet.

Ok now this is where it gets weird. With my hatred of the tomato, I do love the taste of tomato paste (or sauce), also like the taste of tomato juice (V8 or a Bloody Mary), I think I can handle this though because a lot of the tomato taste is hidden by other spices and flavors. I have tried to get over this phobia over the years, but I just can’t seem to let this one pass (I did get over my dislike for broccoli, cauliflower & spinach in my early 20s, so there might be hope someday). Ok call me weird, but it’s what makes me unique.

Ok here are the pictures I promised you guys earlier in the week from our trip to the World of Coke last weekend.

The Gang Ready for the Big Tour (Judy, Cheryl, Danny, William, & Mike)	Hanging Around
A Great Shot through the main window (picture taken by William)	Da, Da I just need more coca-cola, please!!

Have a great weekend, have fun watching the Super Bowl; I’ll be back either Sunday night or Monday morning with my annual review of all the top commercials. Oh yea my pick to win the game is the Carolina Panthers in an stunning come from behind upset. 21 – 17 will be the final score.

Ok now let’s see what trouble I can get into

Peace

Mike

P.S. I don't remember if I mentioned this one yet but I found out that Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean, Black Adder) is highly being considered to play Lord Voldermort in the 4th Harry Potter movie read all about it here. (yes, you read me right the 4th one - 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', I know number 3 hasn't even come out yet, but they want to film the 4th one quickly so that the kids playing the title roles stay fairly close to the propper ages from the book). What do you guys think about this casting decision? Do you think he can pull it off?

January 28th

Well yesterday the democrats took their biggest shining stars to New Hampshire to put on a big dog and pony show. New Hampshire, a place where an everyday schlub can flip pancakes with the likes of John Kerry, Howard Dean, John Edwards or Wesley Clark, ah democracy at it’s finest. In my mind I kind of think that this probably was how politicians passed their message a 100 years ago, before mass communications took away personal contact, and politics became something that most of us only read in the paper or viewed on the evening news.

Back to the New Hampshire primary, after last weeks upset Iowa victory by John Kerry over Howard Dean (and I’m not even going to mention the so called “I had a scream" speech). Yesterday’s vote was going to be interesting to see if Kerry could ride the momentum over Dean or if Dean could regroup and bring himself back up all pull himself up by the bootstraps, to take the state. In all truth it had come down to two-man race in New Hampshire in the last week anyway, Al Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich, Joseph Lieberman and Wesley Clark really didn’t seem to have a chance in this race. Let me say this, I not saying the race is over by a long shot, and I don’t think either John Kerry or Howard Dean are a sown up conclusion for the democratic candidate for president. I’m not really even sure that either candidate could really beat George W. in an election if it were held today; they just have a long way to impress me. Maybe a democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards might be an interesting thought, but we will have to wait and see. Oh yeah for all of those living under a rock John Kerry won New Hampshire primary with 38% of the vote, and Howard Dean came in a distant second with 26%.

Ok enough about politics for tonight, I’m currently working on a few additions to the website, including a new section dedicated to William’s story. This section will mostly be focusing about the troubles we (Angela and I) ran into at his birth, and what we went though having a child being born with a birth defect. Yes, also I will be finally getting my family album up onto the site, ok no snickering now (I know I have promising this one for quite some time). Also I’m thinking of adding a message board to the site, but I’m willing to listen to what you guys think on this one. Also you might notice the site go down in the next week for a few days, I’m going to be switching servers, so don’t panic if you can’t see Fabersplace for a day or so.

All right, on that note I’m starting to get tired and my eyes are getting blurry. I hope you have a great night. If you get a chance, our friend Odd Todd had a really funny update about his driving history; it’s worth a peek.

Live Long and Prosper

Peace

Mike

January 26th

Ok, I have just witnessed another sign that the world is coming to the end, today the Pope was entertained by a group of break dancers. What you say, you don’t believe me? Well check out this link right here. I guess the church is trying to look more modern. Hmmmm break-dancing, guess they might try the Macarena next.

All right, enough of that. Hi All, how’s life been treating you? Did you have a good weekend? Mine was pretty fun, I had my sister and nephew down for the weekend. It was a great way to spend, especially with it being a William weekend. As I have said a few times in the past, part of the reason I wanted to move back east, so that William could become closer to my side of our family. It was interesting seeing how William reacts to seeing his Aunt and Cousin for the first time in eight months. But of course any kind of worries were completely unfounded, he took to Cheryl and Dan right away.

We pretty much kept busy from the moment Cheryl and Dan arrived on Friday night. We did a good mix between activities that would entertain both William and Dan and we also did a lot of touristy type activities around the city (Underground Atlanta and the World of Coke). We also had the chance to celebrate both my sisters’ birthday and mine (Hers is February 3rd and mine was the 18th of January, but you knew that part).

The only downer I think of the whole weekend was the drive to go get them at the airport. No don’t start thinking that I’m getting lazy all of a sudden and didn’t want to drive the 20 minutes to the airport. Cheryl had a free ticket on Southwest airlines, so she decided to use it for her trip down. The only problem is that Southwest doesn’t fly into Atlanta. The closest airport was in Birmingham Alabama, which is about 160 miles from my apartment. So off we went to pick them up, and then turn around and bring them back. It’s not a bad drive to Alabama; in all truth it’s actually quite boring. Thank goodness I had Judy to come along for the ride to keep me awake. But then again having my sister come off the plane with her zipper of her pants open, and not realizing it until we got to the restaurant for dinner made the ride of two and a half hours each way 100% worth it.

Well anyway, I’m pretty pooped from the weekend still, and I’m going to try and get up and do the gym tomorrow morning. So I’m cutting this short tonight.

Tomorrow night I’ll try to get some photos from our trip to The World of Coke up to the site

Talk to you all soon

Cee Ya

Mike

P.S. Here’s an actual story from CNN

JERUSALEM, Israel (Reuters) -- An Israeli rabbi has composed a prayer to help devout Jews overcome guilt after visiting porn sites while browsing the Internet.

" Please God, help me cleanse the computer of viruses and evil photographs that disturb and ruin my work ..., so that I shall be able to cleanse myself," reads the benediction by Shlomo Eliahu, chief rabbi in the northern town of Safed.

Eliahu, quoted by Israel's largest daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, said he had responded to a deluge of queries from Orthodox Jews worried that the lure of Internet sex sites was putting family relationships at risk.

The rabbi recommends that Jews recite the prayer when they log on to the Internet or even program it to flash up on their computer screens so they are spiritually covered whether they enter a porn site intentionally or by mistake.

First off, I just wanted to thank everyone for their well wishes on my birthday, it felt like my phone didn’t stop ringing all day Sunday, I think I must of gotten at least a dozen versions of Happy Birthday sung to me. I wish I had a tape recorder and put some of the better / worst versions on the site for you. I have to honestly say this year’s birthday was one of the most positive and fun that I have had in probably the past ten years. It was very laid back; I ended up spending the day with William and Judy, and we went out for brunch, went to the dinosaur museum, and went to a great used book store. Who could ask for anything else? What a perfect day, it couldn’t have gone any better. It was the first time that it was only me, William and Judy together, and it was perfect. William is such a great kid, and he seemed to bond with Judy very quickly. (Yea I was kind of nervous about it, but was very pleased by the outcome).

For all of those who forgot to send me a card or a gift, there of course is always time for either. If you have no idea what to get me, click here to see my wish list from Amazon.com (hint, hint, nudge, nudge).

Ok, as many of you know I have been dating Judy now for quite some time now, and things are going really well between us. But sometimes I just really worry about the poor girl. Sometimes I really have to convince myself I’m not dating Dory the Fish from “Finding Nemo”. Let me give you a quick example:

About a week ago Judy was driving to work from her house; she usually drives this route everyday and has never had an issue. One thing that Judy has always failed to notice everyday was a no left turn during rush hour sign right by the highway. She followed this path, day after day with no troubles, until last week. As she was driving to work she made the left turn, and was promptly pulled over by a police officer enforcing the no left turn rule. After a little back and forth banter, (“I have driven this way for many years, and never saw that sign” & “Everyone makes the left there, and they don’t get tickets”) the officer gave Judy a ticket and told her to be more aware of road signs. You would think that would be the end of the story. Judy would be happy, and just either go to court or pay the ticket. Nope, we couldn’t be that lucky.

I got a call at work this morning and heard Judy on the other end. “Mike, you will never guess what just happened?” Concerned I asked if she was alright, which she was, sounding very embarrassed. “Ok, what happened?” I cautiously asked her “You didn’t get another ticket did you?” She started giggling a little, and said “Well not exactly”, so I replied “What Happened?” What ended up happening was Judy, not even thinking about it drove to work the was she usually did, and made the left turn right in front of the posted sign again, and guess who was sitting there again waiting for her. The same cop pulled her over again, and when he walked up to her car he said “Hey, I remember you”, very embarrassed Judy said, “Please don’t give me another ticket, I haven’t had my coffee yet.” The officer looked at Judy’s license and said, “I will give you a warning this time, but PLEASE, start paying attention to where you’re going.” In Judy’s defense as the officer was walking away from her car four more people made the left at the intersection, and he motioned for them to pull over for tickets also. I’m still laughing about this as I’m writing this for you. OY

Over the weekend we also went to see Big Fish the new movie directed by Tim Burton staring Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney. It’s the story of Edward Bloom, a man who has always told tales about his larger then life adventures. His exotic stories spanned his life, and many of them seemed a little too far fetched to be true, especially to his skeptical son Will, who has never seemed to except his father at face value. When Edward is taken ill, Will decides to come to terms with his father’s imaginative tales and explore the truth behind them and try to separate the actual facts from fiction. A lot of the characters are both larger then life but real at the same time. Tim Burton masterfully mixes the past and present together, usually Burton’s films are very way out there art film styles, but this time it almost seems like his direction has hit a form of maturity, and growth. He still has panache, and artsy flavor to the film, especially in the flashbacks of Edwards’s tales/life, but it’s mixed very well with the mood and the drama of the present. The film is very smooth, and you almost hate to see it come to an expected end. (Judy was in tears at the ending, but then again she cries at a Halmark commercial on TV).

Ok that’s it from this side of 37, here’s to the next One Hundred.

Peace

Mike

P.S. Here’s something from CNN yesterday that will put a smile on your face.

New York rejects 'Oy Vey' sign

Monday, January 19, 2004 Posted: 5:22 PM EST (2222 GMT)

NEW YORK (AP) -- "Oy vey" was too meshugga for the city Transportation Department.

The department said Monday it rejected a request from Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz for a sign on the Williamsburg Bridge reading "Leaving Brooklyn: Oy Vey!"

The agency felt the sign -- featuring the Yiddish phrase for "oh, woe" -- would be more distracting than helpful to Manhattan-bound motorists.

"'Oy vey' was originally a Jewish phrase, but everyone knows what it means and it's now a common Brooklyn expression -- part of that Brooklyn attitude," said Markowitz, a Brooklyn native. "All I'm trying to do is put a smile on people's faces. I'm sorry if the DOT has no sense of humor."

The city earlier nixed a sign reading "Leaving Brooklyn: Fuhgeddaboudit!" at the Verazzano Narrows Bridge for what agency spokesman Tom Cocola said was the same reason: "a lack of directional information."

While the "Fuhgeddaboudit!" sign was criticized by some as an anti-Italian slur, Cocola said any concern that the "Oy Vey" sign might offend Brooklyn's large Jewish community was not part of the agency's decision.

Here’s an interesting thought about what’s going on in the world today. Let’s screw up the economy and go to war against a small but oil rich country. After we succeed in both areas, let’s now turn our focus on bringing our American views and dreams to another planet. Yes kids that’s right, George W. has decided in his infinite 'wisdom' that mankind needs to set up a permanent base on the moon, and then continue on to send explorers to Mars. Of all the ideas he could come up with, children are starving on the streets of major U.S. cities and unemployment and corporate greed is running rampant in this country. Jobs are being exported across the ocean at a record pace leaving thousands upon thousands with out work, and the president wants to go to the Moon. (Couldn’t be because China also has plans to go to the Moon within the next ten years could it?)

Normally I would have quite a bit to bitch and moan about with something this large that the President chooses to do, but this time (god, this is going to hurt to say) I actually agree with him. The human race has been known for two things throughout time, and that has been war and exploration. Now that almost our entire planet has been explored, we have nowhere to turn but outwards. Maybe with many focused on getting into space, it can turn our military away from war towards exploration. Much good can come out of our taking our first steps to the stars. (Baby steps they might be, but it’s still a start). Right now NASA is the only major American organization on the playing field but eventually the private sector will start becoming a major player in space exploration, and then the financial, scientific, industrial and humanitarian benefits will become more obvious. You really didn’t that the government would just be pouring billions and billions (god I’m starting to sound like Carl Sagan) of dollars in going into space exploration if there wasn’t:

1. strategic interests and
2. financial interests to be made

Once we get past Mars and the moon, don’t you think we will start looking at the asteroid field (filled with minerals, ores, & who knows maybe even precious metals) or how about Jupiter a planet filled with enough gases to be converted into fueling everything on Earth for thousands of years. I just can't wait to see Haliburton or Exxon bidding for that contract. I know this all sounds pessimistic, but it’s the truth. Anything our government dose has a reason behind it. Ok, let me rephrase that last one. No I don’t think there is a conspiracy here or such. No the black helicopters are not heading into space, or coming over the horizon as I type this message. I just think it’s a mix of good and bad. The bad being the social funds these endeavors will come from; The good is that I’m looking forward to the day I will be able to watch my son take his first steps in space as Earths first Firefighting, Police Officer, Explorer – Astronaut (wait a second wouldn’t that basically be Captain Kirk?)

On that note – I’ll be searching the web for reservations for the Tranquility Base Hilton Hotel.

Peace

Mike

You know sometimes I’m really confused. As many know from my various past writings, that I’m really not a big fan of George W. Bush, our beloved leader of this country. I just look at him and just have to laugh, and see a man who literally looks like a man without a single thought in his head. It’s almost like Dick Chaney points in him in a direction and tells him “Now George, go into that room full of people and read the big words on that television screen”. I really think one of George’s biggest fears is if the power to the teleprompter screen goes out. Wouldn’t it be funny if someone sabotaged the teleprompter machine and put in the lyrics to Stairway to Heaven or even the Gettysburg Address? Hmmmm, he probably would read it without even batting a lash, then when the crowd is laughing its head off, he would have to ask for an explanation of what’s so funny.

But anyway I digress, the reason I’m kind of confused right now is that I have always valued myself as a staunch liberal democrat, but now with all the caucuses and primary elections coming down the path, I’m not really impressed with what I’m seeing, or hearing. None of the democratic candidates have a message I can believe in or even stomach. I’m sorry, when I look at Howard Dean, all I see is a mix between a used car salesman and an old-time snake oil salesman, and he’s the best of the lot. The Democratic Party looks so lost, and really doesn’t look like there is a true focus other then Bush bashing and anti-Iraqi bashing. Listening to them debate the other day on NPR was like listening to a broken record over and over again. The only high point for me was when Rep. Dennis Kucinich in all his glory actually brought a pie chart to a radio only debate. Hmmm maybe he might be someone I want in office. It almost sounded like something George W. would do. Hmmm at least I still have almost 10 months to make up my mind.

Here’s some distressing news that I heard on the radio on the way in this morning, one of my favorite writers / actors Spalding Gray has turned up missing. Normally this wouldn’t really bother me, it would be like, ah another celebrity going off the deep-end or probably fooling around with drugs. But this is a little different since I have met Mr. Gray personally a few times over the past 15 years, and feel a certain kinship with our backgrounds and views on life. His books and his storytelling were kind of a style I kind of patented my writing style after, and kind of pushed me towards testing the waters of actually getting published. In his writings (which I highly recommend, click here to view some of his titles) he basically talks about his everyday life, his battles with depression and infidelity. His highs and his lows, and puts it all out there for you to view. Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you cried. But he always got his point across. What makes this so alarming is that in his books he was brutally honest about his bouts with depression and thoughts of suicide (and his mothers finally succumbing to the same mental issues while he was in his late teens / early 20’s), I just hope he didn’t follow in her footsteps. More on this story as it continues, and lets have postive thoughts.

On that note I hope all are well and enjoying life to fullest no matter where you are.

Talk to you soon

Peace

Mike

P.S. Today’s cool link is by a band called Jim’s big ego, it’s a really good – enjoy.

January 5th

Greetings, and Salutations. Welcome to the year 2004. Boy, the future is really cool, I mean look at this; we are already three years past Arthur C. Clarks visions of 2001, a world where we already have a space city in orbit, and a colony on the moon, and strange mysterious monolith floating out in space around Jupiter. Could it spell the next step of human evolution or spell our doom? Oh Man I can’t wait to see where this story goes.

Ummm, Oh Hi, sorry was remembering parts of one of my favorite books and movies, showing the future as a sign of hope and light. When I was a kid it was so incredible reading and using my imagination and looking forward to the visions put forth by various authors, and visionaries. Now that I’m an adult and supposedly living in “the future” I’m looking around and going, “This is it? I’m not really impressed” There have been changes and advances. Of course things are a lot “different” from when I was growing up, for example who 30 years ago would of thought about having a computer in every home, and access to any kind of information / entertainment right from your keyboard. No one could have imagined having access to over 200 TV channels, heck in some towns we barely had five or six channels, and most of them didn’t even come in without static or double images. There was no way to imagine that most people would have a telephone that an individual would be able to take anywhere they went. (This has hence brought the creation of the self absorbed driver on a cell phone, or the neurotic cell phone user, who can’t be more then 20 feet away from her cell phone at any given time. i.e. Judy). Of course there have been major medial breakthroughs, which would of marveled doctors years ago (including advances that led to William having a normal healthy life, instead of having to live his life with a birth defect). There are so many more advances that I could go into, but you get the point of where I was going with this, most of today's conveniences were all ideas of fiction and fantasy, not to long ago.

I guess now thinking about it, we are living in future, you really don’t think about all the changes around you till you really start thinking about it, I guess the biggest changes around you are the one’s you take for granted and become part of your everyday life without even noticing them. I once read, “the more things change, the more they stay the same” It kind of makes sense that way.

Hopefully 2004 will be better then 2003, it’s already starting out a lot better. 2003 wasn’t all bad, but it won’t be missed at all. I think a lot of positive is on the horizon for many of us. Hmmm maybe a new slogan would be appropriate “No more war in 04” naaa “2004 it has to be better then 03” or “2004 the year of change” hmmm kind of like that one. We will have to see if that one actually comes to fruition.

Anyway before I forget, I promised to get my top ten movies for 2003 listed here, remember these are my 10 favorite movies, I had a few I haven’t seen yet (Monsters, Big Fish, Mystic River, Lost in Translation & 21 Grams) so they can’t really be included in the list yet.

So here they are
10 - Bend it Like Beckham
9 -   Kill Bill Vol I
8 -   The Last Samurai
7 -   Pirates of the Caribbean
6 -   Once Upon a Time in Mexico
5 -   A Mighty Wind
4 -   Master & Commander
3 -   Lord of the Rings – Return of the King
2 -   American Splendor
and the Number 1 movie of 2003 According to Mike is:
Finding Nemo

It was tough to choose these films, there were quite a few great films out last year, and some just missed the list by a hair or two. But it was fun coming up with them. I hope you have seen a few of them and enjoyed them as much as I had.

Ok that’s it from here, I’ll be back soon to tell you about the trip to Maryland with Judy for New Years.

Peace

Mike

P.S. Over the next few weeks I'm going to be making some changes to the web site (including a new server), so hopefully you will like what's happening, and maybe after all the positive response I got from her last update (back in October) I'll try to get Judy to do a few columns a month. Alright, now I'm out of here.