October 26th

Well here I am writing to you from 23,000 feet above the ground. Flying somewhere above Southern Virginia. Ah the wonders of technology, it makes you wonder what they will think of next. I spent the weekend up in Maryland visiting with some friends and family. Kind of a way to get the ol’ batteries recharged with the holidays coming up. I figured I had wanted to take Judy up to the DC area since she’s never been there before, it would be fun to show her where I grew up and all my old haunts. It’s kind of interesting when you go back to the area you spent so much time in and then being away from it for so long seeing how many changes (both in people and the area). The woods you remember playing in as a kid are now town homes. A Wal Mart has replaced the drug store where I used to ride my bike up to weekly to buy my comic books. Places that used to feel comforting and personal now all seem distant and foreign. It was almost like being a stranger in a place that just a memory of it’s former self. Some of the landmarks were still the same but none of them had that feeling of “Hi Mike, your going the right way” The whole area seemed very much like any other suburb of a big city. URBAN SPRAWL HELL!!!!! I know what your probably saying, “Mike you say that about every suburb that you visit!” True, true, true, but I always felt a special pang for the DC / Baltimore corridor, it was always a great mix of suburbs, historical areas, and country back roads. Now six lane divided highways with mini-malls have eaten up the country roads and auto dealerships stretching as far as the eye can see. Growing up Baltimore seemed so far away, now with new roads, Baltimore is a mere 30 minute drive (it you are not stuck in the wall to wall traffic jams with people trying to find a bargain at the 100 or so new Target or Old Navy stores that have opened over the last few years).

Don’t get me wrong some of the change is good, now I can get a decent bagel at all hours of the night and a Starbucks has popped up latterly on every other corner. Oh wait a sec, now they are on ever corner. (I knew if I wait just a second, it would change, soon they will be tearing down old Starbucks to build new one’s). Yes it great that the area is growing and more people are discovering all the conveniences, and proximity that the DC / Baltimore area has to offer to the hustle and bustle of the North East. But with all the changes it’s lost its uniqueness, its flavor you might want to say. With all the uniqueness gone and homogenized suburban sprawl coming in, another one of my favorite areas has been killed and vanquished to just yet another memory in my head.

It was great showing Judy the area, and was proud and special to be able to show it to her, but at the same time it was like I was showing her a shadow of my past, Not the warm and wonderful small town that I grew up, but the cold reality of seeing the house I grew up in all run down, and neglected, the town I spent my child hood in transformed into a modern suburban city with all the modern connivances. It was a real eye opening experience, you can never go home.

Ok, the plane is coming in for a landing, I’ll talk to you all tomorrow, Here’s something I always wondered, you know how they sell “Men’s Magazines” at the airport gift shop, but have you ever seen anyone actually reading a Playboy or Penthouse on an airplane??

That’s it from my corner of the universe

Peace

Mike

October 24, 2003,

Something I completely forgot about was that yesterday marked two major anniversaries for me. Of course the first one being that it’s now been six years since my mother finally succumbed to brain cancer. It’s a really weird feeling to think it’s been that long since I saw her last. Wow six years is a big chunk of time if you start thinking about it. That’s longer then William’s been around by two years, it’s three years longer then George Bush has been in office, it’s five years longer then I have been here in Atlanta, it kinds of makes you want to go wow. Its kind of mind numbing to think that someone who was so important to your life has been gone for so long. There isn’t a day that I don’t think about her and almost expect the phone to ring and it being her checking in on William or just seeing how life is going. Of course I would be totally freaked out by a ghost calling me, but then the shock would pass and it would be a grand conversation. When she was still around that we used to joke that when she passed on we would bury her with a phone so she could still talk with her friends. She is so missed.

Another anniversary yesterday was it was officially a year ago yesterday that I started my trek east from Seattle to Atlanta. It’s kind of interesting how quickly this time has flown by. I guess I can’t claim to be a newcomer anymore to this vast southern metropolis. Looking back now overall I think it has been a good move, William and I have grown a lot closer, I have met some really great friends, and professionally I think my career is headed in the right direction. Sometimes I might be a little hard on the area down here. But overall it’s a great area with a lot of potential, it only needs to be a lot closer to the ocean and I would consider this a perfect area. Will be interesting to see what the next years going to bring. It should be fun though.

Anyway I’m going to make tonight short since I’m heading up to Maryland for the weekend with Judy, I’ll talk to you all soon. Have a great weekend and I’ll talk to you on Sunday.

Peace

Mike

P.S. For anyone interested, after finally bugging Comcast for a week and a half I FINALLY HAVE CABLE BACK!!!! (of course now I'm leaving for the weekend, go figure).

You know sometimes I just hate big companies, many people have known that feeling for some time now. I’m the type of person who would rather go out of his way to use a local mom and pop business then using some faceless conglomerate. Being an independent business owner myself I would prefer the personal touch then just being associated with some emotionless conglomerate. These larger companies have it set up where you don’t have a choice but to use their services and literally have you by the balls. You are forced to use their services since there is no competition. These types of companies are usually represented by your home utilities (electric, gas, cable, telephone). God forbid you would have a problem with any of them, if you try to get an issue rectified you are then put into a vicious circle of talking to faceless drones who don’t give a rats ass about your service no matter what. You could be talking to these “people” (I use that term very loosely) and tell them that you haven’t had electricity for over a week, and the representative of the company would just say “what do you want me to do about it sir, I’m not a technician” (all emotionless, and sounding like they could care less). Ulg, it’s just enough to scream, but then you realize there isn’t anything you can do about it since you’re stuck with these poor schlubs. Arrgg.

I have been running into a major problem with our new cable company. In the apartment complex where I live we had a company called ATM supplying cable TV to us. But about a month ago our complex made the switch to a company called Comcast. Not really thinking badly about them at first since I had them for my cable provider in both Maryland and in Seattle and never really had a problem with them. That is until now. About a week ago my downstairs neighbor moved out of her apartment, and had her cable disconnected. Since that time I haven’t had TV service at all. So being a good consumer I give a call on Thursday to customer support and they apologized for the mistake and said I would have service back by Saturday. This got me a little miffed at them since I already had gone 3 days without TV. Friday went by nothing, Saturday nothing (thank god I have a DVD player and videos to entertain William), Sunday still nothing from the cable company. Sunday night I called them still pretty level headed until I talked to a customer service rep that told me “Oh sorry Mr. Farber (always hate when they screw up my last name) but we didn’t have you scheduled at all this weekend, what was your problem?” Now my ire was growing, and after going back and forth for about 10 minutes she said the earliest now I could get someone out there was Tuesday morning. Growling even more frustrated with them, the customer service person said she said I would credit you for the days I have been without cable”. Ok I could live with that. Well Monday went by and nothing, so then came Tuesday. Being all positive and looking forward to being back in the electronic age, I came home from work and clicked on the TV expecting to see all my video friends glowing at me, but instead I got a face full of snow and static. Quite furious I called Comcast again trying to see what was going on. Once again I got to talk to one of their drones. “Oh sorry Mr. Farber, but you were scheduled for a visit from 8am till 8pm, so the technician will be out within the next hour or so, Thanks for you patience” So I waited and waited finally about 8:35 I had of enough of waiting and called Comcast back again. This time the drone I talked to “Oh sorry Mr. Farber, but we actually had a cable outage in your area today and they had canceled your appointment for today around 2:30 PM since they thought the outage was part of your problem”. That was the final straw, I told the woman how the heck could that have been part of my problem since I haven’t had cable since last Wednesday. All she could say was “Oh”, and why was I told that only an hour and a half earlier that the cable technician was still on their way. All I got from the drone was “well I guess the person you spoke to earlier was wrong”. Oh I told her that’s just grand, how do I know that you’re not wrong and she was right? She then said “I could try and send someone out by Friday”. That was it; I asked to speak to a manager and she put me on hold for 10 minutes. After an annoying wait of hearing their talking head go on and on and on, the drone came back on and said “I’m transferring you to Mrs. White, please hold” All I could think hmmm maybe she was in the Library with Cornel Mustard with the lead pipe. Life should be that easy. Instead I was forwarded to Mrs. White’s voicemail. ARRRGGGGGG!!!

So once again I called back to the Comcast Call Center and didn’t even wait for the Drone to find out the problem, I just asked to speak to a manager. This time though the drone kept on saying, “Oh I’m sorry Mr. Farber but we don’t have any managers available at this time” I came back and said oh, no managers on duty, then who’s in charge? Even getting more annoyed the drone kept on saying “Are you sure your having problems with your cable?” After that comment I told the person I wanted to speak someone above her (which a slug would of even been above her). Suddenly, look low and behold we had a floor manager on line with me. A drone named Mike (he puts a bad taste to the name Mike) came on and went over the same thing that I have been dealing with for the last 45 minutes on the phone. He actually though kept on apologizing and telling me their was nothing he could do tonight. (By this time it was almost 9:30pm), I then proceeded to go back and forth to see how they could make this up to me, at first he said their was nothing he could do, but by the end of our conversation I had gotten all the days credited to me that the cable had been out, and also an extra $20 credit. He couldn’t grantee that someone would be out today but said that there probably would be. I’m not holding my breath. The bad thing about this is how trapped I feel since their really isn’t an alternative in my area to cable (apartment is point in the wrong direction for a satellite dish, and rabbit ears suck in my area because of the hills). It truly sucks how trapped it makes you feel. Oh yeah, I forget to say COMCAST CABLE SUCKS!!!!!

Ok I’ll let you know what happens tomorrow. (Not expecting postive things from the cable people).

Thanks for listening to my rant

Peace

Mike

October 20th

Ok, don’t rub your eyes; yes I’m actually going two updates in a row. Things are starting to slow down a bit and I actually have to do the much needed updates for the site and yes you might actually see the family album go live very soon. (Gee, I know you have heard this all before, but trust me it is coming sooner then you think).

So anyway, how many people out there have been following the baseball play-offs? Can you believe that both the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs were each five outs away from going to the World Series? And wouldn’t you know it each team’s curse came out to haunt them. Talk about the total chokes. Each team had their perspective games won, and it’s like ghost of a former baseball player or a legend of a pissed off goat took control of their destiny’s. Well I guess each team can say, “wait till next year” (which fans in both cities have been saying for many many years). Looking back at the Cubs game and seeing what happened with the “fan” interference, I think it’s all just a bunch of crap. The guy who got all the blame wasn’t the only one grabbing for the ball, looking at the pictures he’s the one in the middle but you see all of these other hands reaching for the ball. I just think it’s a way for the Cubs “fans” to blame something other then the Cubs themselves who after that just completely chocked and gave up eight runs in one inning. I’m sorry but that’s just uncalled for in a baseball game. Now because of this some poor slob who had been a Cubs fan since a little kid can’t show his face in public anymore. The funny thing I heard on the news was that Governor Jeb Bush of Florida was offering that guy three months rent free in a beachfront condo in Boca Raton. (You know, I would consider that for a bit, especially with winter right around the corner). Now, onto the two teams that have made it past any curses and into the World Series, the New York Yankees and the Florida Marlins. I only have one world for them: YAWN!!! No interest in it at all. I don’t even think I’ll bother watching it at all. Now we only have another 150 days till the pitchers have to arrive for spring training for the 2004 season. (Oh boy another season to watch the Mariners choke in August again).

A few people have been asking me to list on the site my top 10 favorite albums that I couldn’t live without and top ten movies. Let me just state for the record that is my list at the moment, it’s always elligble to change at any times. (My web site, my rules)

Ok here we go

Top 10 CD’s

• Gordon – Barenaked Ladies
• American Beauty - Grateful Dead
• Road Rage – Great Big Sea
• Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd
• Live Without A Wire – Counting Crows Live in NY
• Exile in Guyville – Liz Phair
• Anthology II – The Beatles
• Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel
• Sound Track – Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
• Sound Track – The Blues Brothers

And now top 10 movies

• Pulp Fiction
• Casablanca
• 2001
• Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
• Young Frankenstein
• The Godfather
• Swingers
• Clerks
• Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
• Schindler’s List

That’s the list in a nutshell but of course remember I always can change it, and it will be moved over to the “About Mike” section in a few days. I’m already compiling my top 10 movies of this year, and wow it’s been a great year so far,

While on the subject of movies, it was so sad to see that Kevin Smith has gone mainstream enough to be in the new commercials for Panasonic’s new recordable DVD player. Good for him to have finally “made it”, but still sad enough to see him gone legit. Oh well.

Ok kids that’s it for tonight

Hope your all well, and we should do this again real soon

Peace

Mike

I know, I know you remember when you always say if you work too much and sleep very little you body will let you know. Well my body let me know big time this past week. As a few people have noticed that last week the updates to Fabersplace.com disappeared. I had to sacrifice something with me working until 2 A.M. each night trying to meet a deadline. I kept on telling myself I needed to stop working by midnight but usually I would get so wrapped up in my work that before I knew it the wee hours of the morning would be arriving. To make matters even worse like an idiot I tried to keep to my gym schedule and be up around 5:30 A.M. That lasted the first two days of last week but by midweek I started hitting the snooze button more and more, and decided my body needed the extra hour of sleep. I still got three days of working out at the gym, but I have gotten into such a pattern that I never feel three days are enough. (Guess that’s a good sign). The sad part came later in the week when all the work and lack of sleep finally caught up with me, and boom I got sick. Not deathly sick or such but enough sick to feel completely flat for the weekend. The bad thing about that though was that it was a William weekend, so I had to put all my energy into being at a 110% for my son, and of course I didn’t disappoint. Of course I do have the luxury of having William spend time at his mom’s, so that as soon as he left I was ready to collapse on the floor. (Don't get me wrong, of course as many of you know I wish with all my heart there was even more time to spend with the little guy). But luckily with some TLC from Judy and a lot of steady sleep I’m starting to feel like my old self again.

This weekend William and I spent tons of time outdoors, the weather here in the Atlanta area was just about perfect, temps in the mid 70’s and not a cloud in the sky. William’s new thing is wanted to go on all the slides at a park and also pretending to be a fireman and sliding the jungle gym poll (of course with Daddy’s help). I love taking William to the playground since it’s a chance for him to start socializing with other kids and let him gain the confidence to start being able to more independent. It was really fun teaching William and a few of the other kids in how to play Red Light / Green Light, also Mother May I & of course Simon Says. One of our adventures was that we went up into the country and went to a pumpkin patch. This patch had pony rides, hay rides (they even let William steer the cart), an air cannon that shot corn husks at targets, large piles of hay for the kids to play on, and of course a huge corn maze. William and I did really well getting through the maze, ok I admit it we didn’t really follow the map (I’m a guy, common what did you expect?), we just found the checkpoints and made our way out finally. We both went “Yippee” when we made it out. It was so much fun playing with William; we always have such a great time when we are together. In the next week or so William will be taking his first bike ride. Grandpa Ira got William his first bike for his birthday, so all we are waiting for is for me to take William to Toys R Us to get a bike helmet. (Of course Mr. William wants only a Power Rangers bike helmet, if someone sees one at the store let me know, if it has pads with it even the better).

Ok as promised, last weekend I went to go see the review of the 4th film by Quentin Tarantino “Kill Bill Vol. I”. Not knowing really what to expect from the previews or early reviews of this film which gave this film an overall positive spin, I though “Oh god the reviewers are just going with the hype. I did love “Reservoir Dogs” & “Pulp Fiction” but found “Jackie Brown” kind of a bore. So in all truth I really didn’t know what to expect. Had the six years since his last film soften Mr. Tarantino’s touch as a writer or director? But when the film starts with the quote “Revenge is a dish best served cold” – Old Klingon Proverb, I knew from that point on that this was going to be a fun ride. From the opening scenes in this film your pretty much caught up in the tale of “The Bride” a former assassin played by Uma Thurman who is left for dead on her wedding day by her former employer. After four year in a coma “The Bride” is back for revenge against her former associates, and boy is she not going to go easy on them. I won’t ruin the story for you but will let you know, yes this film is quite bloody, but not in a Jason vs. Freddy type. But more of a cartoon, Japanese Animation type (spurting blood and clean wounds), actually I was talking to Michelle about it and though in all truth that “Pulp Fiction” and “Reservoir Dogs” were more violent and disturbing then “Kill Bill” (Yes lot’s of death in this film but see the statement above to get my feelings on that). The cast and the cinematography were fantastic. The film was laced with little "Tarantinoisms", and was fun trying to catch them as they wizzed by. The pace was always on the go, never really a dull moment in the film, and the ending leaves you wanting more. The Seattle Times basically said it perfectly in their review of the film “When it ended, I wanted to buy the soundtrack. I wanted to slice someone's arm off. And — after a nap — I wanted to see Vol. 2.” I couldn’t say it much better.

That’s it from Whooville..

Peace

Mike

October 10th

Hey all as we slowly woke up earlier this week and turn on the radio and hear that Arnold Schwarzenegger has actually done it and beat Gray Davis won the recall election. Thinking your still dreaming you hit the snooze button and you try to go to back to sleep. But then it hits you the state of California has done what many people have feared they would do. The people have voted Mary Carey the porn star as the new governor. Oopps there goes the alarm again. Wow now that would have been a real nightmare. Now back to reality. It’s going to be interesting to see what happen now that the elections are behind us now. Will Arnold actually make a good politician or should he be concentrating on ‘Total Recall 2’, oh wait that’s just what we went through for the past month. Like I have previously said, I wasn’t in full support of this recall, but now that it’s over with, people should live with the decisions that have been made and sit back and enjoy the ride. I don’t really think Governor Schwarzenegger will do any worse then Gray Davis, I will be very pleasantly surprised if he dose pull California’s fat out of the fryer, but I’m not holding my breath. (The one plus he dose have going for him is that the US economy is actually starting to make a rebound, and if the rest of the country does well, so follows California). The other night though I was watching Letterman and he said it perfectly, “Now Florida isn’t the stupidest state in the country anymore.” Truer words haven’t been spoken before.

At least all that stuff is behind us now. (So we hope). Onto more pleasant stuff, last Wednesday was Mr. William’s 4th Birthday. It’s so weird to think that I have a four-year-old son. Well according to William he’s officially a big kid now. So he doesn’t have to do a lot of the things a little kid dose. We even went to kids amusement park outside of Atlanta and he wanted to do a lot of the “big kid rides” like the roller coaster s, the crazy bus and even the spider. He was so brave, and I of course was the proud father with my chest thrust out for all to see. And screaming out to everyone “That’s my son.” I kind of feel that’s the way my dad felt also that day seeing me with William. He just had a grin on his face the time watching me play with William. It was a very good feeling to see. I just hope that carries over into my Dad wanting to be a more active part of his grandson’s life (that’s a whole different story for another day). Of course with most kids, William’s birthday went off without a hitch, and we got to spend the time playing with all his new toys and eating lots of birthday cake. I’ll have the pictures of his birthday and from my dad’s visit up on the site within the next week.

A few of you have noticed that I have added gratuitous advertising banners section off of the links page. A few people have asked why the need for this new page? Over the years of running the website I have always refrained from adding advertising or asking anyone for help in running the site. As time went on the costs of running the site have gotten higher and higher, and have figured it was a great way to help me get out of debt quicker, without having to beg for anything. (Don’t worry this year there won’t be any begging for any gifts or such, like last years PS2 drive, but a Plasma Screen TV would be nice for the holidays, just kidding). So if you want to help support the website and do online shopping, feel free to take a peek at the banner ads page, it’s only off of companies I have used in the past and feel good about sending you too. If anyone has any suggestions of companies to add or if I have one up there that you have had bad experiences with let me know also.

Well that’s it from Candyland

Peace

Mike

P.S. On Monday I'll have my review of "Kill Bill", I hope it lives up to the hype.