November 25th

Ah what is a guy to do?? As many of you know I have been getting up early almost every morning at 5:15 to be able to go to the gym before work. Usually everything goes off pretty well without a hitch, but then every once in a while I run into a slight problem, today was one of those days.

This morning was one of those really dark cold days where the bed felt almost too good to get out of. I usually pack my clothing for the workday the night before so I wouldn’t be half dead to the world and forget anything. But last night I was so tired that I went to sleep without packing for the next day. As usual the alarm went off at 5:15 and slowly I dragged my butt out of bed. I went through my usual routine of waking up and getting ready all at the same time, added by getting my clothes ready for work. Ok 5:40 and I was ready to get out of the house and head over to the gym for my daily sweat session. On top of me taking gym bag, I also usually bring with me my daily planner, some food for lunch and a book to read during my breaks.

So out into the cold I went and loaded my stuff into the car, for some reason I looked at my planner and though "wait a minute where’s my checkbook?" I searched though my daily planner, it wasn’t there. I tore out all my clothes from my gym bag. “Hmmm maybe I left it on my desk” I wistfully thought.

So back into my apartment I went, and turning on all the lights though out the house, searching high and low for the check book. So finally after 20 more minutes of frantic searching I, finally gave up in disgust and decided I would just continue my search when I got home after work. Very pissed off, I made my way back out into the cold and darkness towards my car. Luckily for it being so cold outside my car windshield had to defrost. While waiting for the ice to melt I decided to check my gym bag one more time. Sadly enough after taking all the clothing out, nada. But low and behold sitting right there in the outside mesh pocket of the bag (an obvious choice where to place it, and overlook it in the dark) was my checkbook. Ulg it’s not fair to torture myself like that so early in the morning. Well at least I had my adrenaline running and ready for the gym.

Sometimes I just scare myself.

Ok… Last weekend Judy and I went to see Elf, the new movie starting Will Ferrell and James Caan. This movie was an overall feel good movie about a human boy being raised by Santa and his Elves. Not quite fitting in at the North Pole, Buddy is sent to New York City to find his real family. And that’s where the “fun” begins. Of course the people in Manhattan used to being self-absorbed and into their little routines tend to ignore the happy innocent guy wandering the streets dressed in yellow tights, and elf shoes. The story follows Buddy (Ferrell) through meeting his biological father for the first time, getting a job as one of Santa’s elf’s at a department store, and falling in love for the first time. All in the meantime trying to spread Christmas Cheer to everyone he crosses paths with. The film was very “cute”, it had some very funny moments, but overall it was extremely entertaining but not deep at all. Kind of like Christmas itself, all warm and fuzzy, but after you get through the first few gifts it looses that special feeling. I recommend seeing it, but not at full price. Hey at least it beats sitting through the Cat in the Hat (still think Dr. Seuss would be rolling in his grave if he knew what they did to his creation).

We also snuck into a showing of The Matrix: Revolutions. All I can say is my god, they should of stopped on the first one. Such a cool movie and then for the creators of the film to put out two pieces of poop sequels, I’m not even going to grace this film with any kind of review at all. The best thing I can even say about it was “IT SUCKED, and I’m sooo glad I didn’t pay to go in to see it".

Ok, on that note I hope everyone has a Happy Turkey Day, spends it with friends and family and you get totally stuffed. See you all on Friday.

Peace

Mike

Would you trust this man with your children?

God what were those parents thinking? OY!

Have a good weekend, See you all Sunday night.

Peace

Mike

Two Jews walk into a bar…. One of the more classic opening lines for jokes all around the world, or of course you have Three Blonds were sitting at a table… or of course there is always Michael Jackson was playing with some kids.. ummmm wait that one isn’t too funny. Especially with what has come out over the last few days. Yes that’s right folks unless you have been living under a rock for the past few days. The “King of Pop” is at it once again. Our buddy “Jacco” is once again being accused of child molestation. Yes I know what your thinking.. “Wait, didn’t this happen before?” Yes it actually did happen about ten years ago, but before it went to court Michael Jackson paid off the kids family a sum of somewhere around $20 million dollars not to testify, and with that the charges were dropped. Well since then the state of California has changed the laws, so that would never happen again in any cases (not just Michael Jackson).

Well two days ago, the police showed up to Michael’s Neverland Ranch outside of Santa Barbara, CA with a search warrant and an arrest warrant for Mr. Jackson. Sadly enough though he wasn’t home. Michael just happened to be in Las Vegas filming a video for his newly released CD, wow I didn’t even know Michael was still “making music” (ok, I really have to get my mind out of the gutter). When reached for comment Mr. Jackson said it was a planned smear attempt, to ruin his reputation that was timed with the release of his new CD. Yeah right.

I’m sorry I do feel very bad for the victim, any time a child is put into that situation it’s just criminal. I think anyone doing something like that to a child is right up there with murder. In a way it is murder in such that you would be killing the child’s innocence and trust. I’m sorry, but if Michael Jackson is found guilty he should be thrown into prison with the rest of the general population, no preferential treatment since he is a celebrity. I know this will sound kind of extreme but I really think they should go after the kid’s parents also at least for neglect. How stupid could these people be to leave their young son alone overnight with a known pedophile? Yes they could be “fans” of Mr. Jackson, but when you’re a parent you have a certain responsibility to your child first, what they did is almost equally as wrong since they basically left themselves open it, and now their child is paying the price. Come on folks, what the hell were you thinking when this was happening. GRRRRR that just makes me so pissed. Ok this is making me angrier as I go along. If anyone ever tried something like that to William I don’t know what or who could stop me from going after the person who ever harmed him.

Ok, maybe this subject is hitting closer to home then I really thought it would. I’m going to end today update here. To read more about what's happening with this case click here to go to the CNN website.

Don’t worry I’ll be better soon.

Peace

Mike

P.S. I have to end this update on a happier note, the new prieview for Harry Potter and the Prisioner of Azkaban is out, and all I can say is WOW!!! June 4th Can't come soon enough. Take a peek.

Here’s something interesting I was noticing on my drive to pick up William on Saturday morning. Let me give you a little background first to set up the story. Angela (my ex) lives in a small town about 40 miles north east of Atlanta, about half way to Athens, GA home of the University of Georgia. On the drive up to pick up the little guy I noticed that my car was surrounded by automobiles of all shapes and sizes sporting flags in support of the two teams that were playing at the University. Normally that wouldn’t be any kind of issue for me, being a sports fan myself, I do understanding the need to advertise the fact that you’re a sports fan, not even really spending the time to write an update on, then why am I doing this?? Basically my issues with whole thing was that the football game didn’t start till 4pm, these “fans” were heading out to the game to start tailgating at 8:30 in the morning. Dose anyone see a problem with this, or is it just me who doesn’t understand tailgating?

Yes I do admit it that I really don’t have that much experience with college tailgating; the two colleges that I went to didn’t really have much of a history with it. Frostburg State my first college (well it was a college, some might say I didn’t really attend) had a football team that was really, really bad, and since the college was a true party school there never was a time when you didn’t drink and socialize. Hence that’s why after two years of inebriation I dropped out and ended up going to the University of Maryland. Before you start going “Ummm Mike, University of Maryland has a really huge football program” Yes that’s true, but I didn’t go to the main campus of Maryland (College Park, is where the football team is based from), I went to the Baltimore campus of UM. UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County) was a great school, since it was a lot smaller then College Park (45,000 students vs. UMBC 7,600 students), and I was able to get a more personalized learning experience (they also had a very progressive film and art school at the time, but I digress). So since the big school had the football program, our sport of choice was Lacrosse, and no offense to any lacrosse player out there, that sport just doesn’t install the party atmosphere that football dose.

So hence, I really have no experience at all with college football tailgating. I can see partying for an hour or two before a game or event (not even going to go into my stories of parking lot adventures at Grateful Dead shows), but eight to ten hours before? That’s just a little too much for me. The one funny thing about it I was on the phone with Judy, telling her what I was viewing, and she said, “oh that’s nothing, there probably are people who have been in the parking lot partying since day break.” The only thing I could get out of my mouth was “Do some people have problems giving up their college experience?”

It got me thinking, if you have any good tailgating stories, e-mail them to me at kalico@fabersplace.com, and I’ll post the best one’s I get up here on the site.

That’s it from the inner reaches of my mind.

Peace

Mike

November 12th,

There has been Something that has been bugging me for a little while now and figured I might as well get it off my chest. A while back I wrote about how the radio stations in Atlanta are among the worst I have heard, (like any situation there are a few diamonds in the ruff so I don’t mean to generalize), anyway I digress. Every once in a while I listen to some of the more right wing based radio shows, and I’m always amazed by the close mindedness of the hosts and just listening to how the democrats running for office don’t stand a chance and that George Bush basically is untouchable and almost walks on water.

Yes I will be the first to admit that the democrats really don’t stand a chance with the group of nine that they have running now, but that doesn’t mean that something funny could happen between now and next November to strengthen their position. I.e. the economy turns bad again, Iraq turns even worse then it has become or just something bad happens to the President. But then think about it, for the Democrats to win the next election next year they have to count on some really bad things to happen over then next year. OY, that’s not a platform to look forward to. I just don’t think the country can handle another 4 years of George W. at the helm again. Well yes for the humor value alone it would be fun, but otherwise no I don’t think so. His whole presidency is solely based on some very bad financial decisions and if you can say it, the coincidence of being in office on September 11th 2001. Yes I am man enough to admit that the economy is doing quite better now, but every economy eventually turns around, the market actually has been turning around for the past year and a half now. The President is of course taking full credit for it, the only thing he has done to stimulate the economy is to give a larger tax refund, which most people were lucky enough to get. Where the general public then went out and like a little kid in a candy shop spent all of their newfound wealth, which hence helped all the big corporations raise their corporate goals. Ah you got to love a free society.

So everyone is happy and spending their money frivolously. Oh except for one group. The Unemployed. You remember a lot of them, the dot comer’s / high tech workers, or the auto plant workers, or the Boeing workers who have gotten their pink slips over the past two years or so. The President is so happy because the unemployment rates have been dropping over the past few months, which is partly a truth, but it shows that many people have just given up finding work. The President is happy to show that more jobs are being created now then in the past few years. What he forgets to tell you that most of these positions are all low wage positions, not the white collar or high tech jobs where most of the cuts had been over the past few years. I know so many people that went from making 70K a year a few years back at a dot com to making $7 an hour working at Starbucks just to put food on the table.

Ah, you just got to love the mediocrity of politics, it’s so sad.

Ok that’s enough of my muses for tonight.

I’ll talk to you soon

Peace

Mike

November 9th

Hi All, hope you all had a great weekend, things here were pretty mellow. It’s so obvious that fall has arrived in Georgia and that winter is getting closer and closer. There is a crispness in the air, and the leaves have all turned to a crimson glow like the tress are going to a final show before their long winter nap. Yesterday Judy and I decided to just hop in the car just point the car and just go wherever the car took us. (Something I used to do all the time). We headed up into the “mountains” of north Georgia, to look at the leave colors, and just to see where the road would take us. Also driving has always been a good way for me to clear my head, and lately my head has needed a good scrubbing. Just the everyday stresses of life, also a lot of the things that I’m going through with Angela over William (Custody, Over nights, etc.). I’m not going to go into the latter part now, eventually I will tell you all everything that I have been going though but for now things are at a delicate matter that it can not be discussed in this forum. (Coming soon to bookstore near you, “My Life as God’s Sitcom™ ” by Michael Faber).

The ride was nice, we ended up in a small town called Helen, GA. Helen was a small no nothing mountain town, until they decided to revenant itself as a Bavarian style tourist trap. Row after row of stores selling all kinds of contrived nick knacks to draw the tourists in, and spend gobs of cash on useless chachkies with a German twist. We had a town similar to Helen in Washington State, called Leavenworth, same kind of idea but Helen takes the whole theme to the next level. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon just exploring country roads and not knowing where exactly we would end up. Guess I just made a kind of a metaphor about my where my life is right now, and not even realizing it, hmmm Go Figure.

Last night I was able to catch a great movie that came out last summer, called the Italian Job. A lot of people never got to see this movie when it was originally released, since in their infinite wisdom, the film was released the same weekend as the 2nd Matrix movie. The film was critically praised, and the cast was phenomenal (Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Seth Green, Donald Sutherland). But no one saw it. (Myself included) by the time I had the chance it was gone from the theater. Now that the film was available on video, it was a not to miss. I had seen the original 1969 version of this film starting Michael Cain many years ago (some late night showing on some cable channel) and found the remake just as enjoyable. The synopsis was pretty simple about a group of honorable thieves planning a flawless crime, the job was executed flawlessly, the escape was clean until one of the group turns against his comrades. The rest of the story you will have to see to believe. I highly recommend, a must see if you get the chance.

I didn’t get the chance to see “Elf” yet, hopefully this week, since next weekend we are already coming up the opening of the new Russell Crowe film “Master and Commander.

Something real quick to make you feel old, I was reading on the net the other day about a new format on the radio starting to show up in some cities. Classic Alternative it’s called, to hit the market of all those Gen X’ers, out there. Bands like R.E.M., Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Ecco and the Bunny Men, the Cure, The Talking Heads, etc. all on there. If it came out in from the mid 80’s to late 90’s, it’s up there. Ulg, I guess now I know how my dad felt with the “Classic Rock” station.

Ok, That’s it from this side of my mind, hope your doing well.

Peace

Mike

P.S. This picture doesn’t really have anything to do with this past weekend, but it show’s “Batman” with a few friends from Halloween.

November 6th

So as I was sitting in traffic today wondering what the heck I would be writing about tonight and low and behold the radio brought my salvation. The radio here in Atlanta is either very dull or has a very sharp turn to the right, with most of the talk shows hosted by conservative right wing political zealots, who think the current administration can’t do any wrong and that if you disagree with their point of view are the enemy. If anyone calls to argue a point the hosts either turn down the volume of the caller and shout them down (a very old radio trick to make the host seem louder and more powerful then the listener) or just hangs up on them, and then bad mouths them without any opposing voice. Arrgg it’s so aggravating. The only real voice on the radio here in Atlanta is of course the local NPR station, but even their broadcast is limited since they share airtime on the local classical music station. Booring!!!!!

What is one to do when local radio sucks?

Why of course the Internet, I’m finding myself surfing the net more and more to find decent radio stations from around the world. There are so many different styles of stations broadcasting over the net it’s truly incredible, whatever mood you are in you can find the style of music or talk to match. They even have services that you can create your own station and program it to what ever feel like listening to. One of the interesting things though is that I have found in my listening habits is that I usually find myself listening to West Coast stations more then anywhere else in the world. I guess some old habits die-hard. If anyone has any good suggestions for online stations please drop me a line. Of course both iTunes and Windows Media Player come with a whole mess of good stations, here are a couple of radio station directories I have found:

• Streamaudio.com
• Launch.com
• Real Networks
• MSN Online Radio Station Guide
• Live Radio.net

Hope your all doing great tonight

Have a great weekend, I’m going to try and catch the new Will Ferrell film “Elf” I’ll give you my thoughts on Sunday night.

Peace

Mike

P.S. I Just thought I would put the picture of William and me from our trip over the summer to the world of Coke. Why you ask? Why not, it's my site.

November 4th

Yes dear readers, this isn’t an illusion nor a fantasy, not even an alternate universe version of Faber’s Place. Com, we are back in action once again and will be coming to you almost daily or when the mood strikes me to write something that’s been on my mind. Yes I know you have heard this before from me but this time I really mean it. I have too much to talk about and have been keeping quite for so long. (God that sounds like a Tori Amos song).

Gosh so much has happened to us since last we spoke, no idea really where to start, I guess with the obvious one, the recently past US Presidential Election. Well it looks like George W. is going to “running” the show again for the next four years. I don’t know why but this year’s election felt so important to the world. I wasn’t a huge fan of either candidate but John Kerry was more in tune to my beliefs (especially since he had chosen John Edwards as his running mate).

I’m a little disappointed that the American people had chosen to re-elect an individual with the IQ of a Disney character. On Election Day I was so hopeful and upbeat that Kerry was going to win, even the exit polls and large turnout were pointing towards a landslide against the president. Boy was I in for a shock. When the results started coming through it was almost depressing to see how low Kerry was doing, I don’t think he ever had a lead going. Around 11pm Judy and I finally went to be and George W was leading 196 to 113 I think. Figuring it was pretty much over at that point we shut the TV and bitched about the election for a few minutes on our way to sleep.

When we awoke the next morning I had planned on hearing on TV all about the landslide victory for Bush, but to my surprise it was down to five electoral votes, and there were some concerns in Ohio about the voting. I thought “Oh CRUD” here we go again. Mercifully we ended up with Kerry realizing the cards were against him and decided to concede the election.

Do I think George W. won the election fairly. NO. Do I think there was tampering with the electronic voting machines in different states YES. This is one of the first times in the last 60 years that the exit polls were off 180%, and there is just too much irregularity in the stats to make it this cut and dry. I’m not usually a conspiracy theorist but man, I think the Republicans did it again to the American people by stealing the election, but they just did it a lot smarter and sneakier.

Ok that’s enough rumbling for my first shot back, I hope everyone on your end is doing well. The next four years are going to very dangerous and very tense. I’m hoping to be here to help lighten the mood the whole way, and ranting and screaming the whole time.

Talk to you soon

Peace

Mike

P.S. Here some pictures from Halloween, William was the Black Power Ranger and his friend Sara was a mermaid.

November 2nd

Wow the beginning of November already, don’t worry I’m not going to go into the whole “where has the time gone, yadda yadda yadda” Sorry Just not in the mood for it anymore. It’s so contrived and not really me. I hate reading BLOGS (for the novices, it’s basically a term for web diary), that it’s always cherry sunshine and nothing really into the way someone is thinking or feeling, or sometimes you get the other end of the spectrum and these people let everything out on their sleeves, a lot of time it’s like “Excuse me, that’s way too much information” (half the time most of these people are just a few short updates away from a good therapy session). I kind of think that my updates are somewhere in the middle and usually entertaining / informative, but never a holier then attitude, my attitude with my updates are usually very much on line to what Bill Cosby used to say at the beginning of Fat Albert “we are here to have some fun and if your not careful you might learn something in the process”. I have been doing the updates more regularly now for about a year now and have gotten a lot of positive reactions to most of my updates. Some people have said they are a little long winded or a little too William centric. But hey that’s me, sometimes when I get on a subject or a role I just can’t shut up, and talking about William all I have to say, if you don’t like it you will hate what I’m talking about tonight….

Ok tonight I’m going to be wearing the proud dad badge, being a divorced father you miss out a lot of your child’s growing up, it’s usually just passed onto you from your ex in a by the way matter. (First steps, first words, first potty, etc.) and a lot of time it puts an alienation between father and child, and drives the father further away. But today makes one realize how great fatherhood really is. For William’s birthday his Grandpa Ira purchased (at my urging) a bike with training wheels. Well finally today William and I went to Toys R Us and picked out a bike helmet and safety pads for his inaugural bike ride. Let me tell you my chest was beaming with pride when we got to the park and suited my little cyclist up for his first ride. William was a little tentative at first but then slowly gained confidence as we went along the bike path. Remember gang, William is just a month past his 4th birthday, so to be thrown on a bike all of a sudden, and not have his legs built up so even the smallest hill was giving him trouble. It’s great to think that six months from now I’ll just be lucky to keep the kid with-in my line of site. It was obvious that William enjoyed his first outing, because later in the afternoon he wanted to go back out and ride again. (Of course we went out again, I wasn’t going to say no to him going for a ride) After his second ride, I looked at him and told him I was so proud of him for being brave, and such a good biker. He just turn to me and said “DaDa your being silly”.

Ah kids everyday is a brand new adventure.

Anyway have a lot of other stuff I want to touch on but that will come later in the week. I’m tired and still have to clean this place up after the attack of Hurricane William.

That’s it for this end of my universe

Peace

Mike

P.S. Tonight's web link is a hilarious short film from Kevin Smith featuring Dante and Randall from Clerks. Hope you like - Mike