At the Drive-In...

   So the Oscars are finally over with, blah,blah,blah... It was no big surprise, It was kinda obvious who was gonna win for what. Most of the time the Academy awards are soooo predictable! I, like the good little film drone that I am, watch them anyway. Don't you think it's kinda weird that we watch the film industry's biggest night on TELEVISION? I always thought that the Oscars should be shown at a theatre after all that is the medium we are saluting right?

   I LOVE going to the theatre to see movies. I don't care how bad ass of a home theatre system you have it's just not the same! Going to the movies when I was a kid was a huge treat! My folks liked to go to the Drive-in theatre which in retrospect was so cool. I would kill for there to be Drive-in theatres still operating today! We would take blankets and pillows and then shove my sister on the backseat floorboard and cover her with them while we payed for the tickets at the box office" Two adults and one child" my Dad would say while my sister giggled the whole time and I would kick her to get her to shut up and stay still! My Mom would pack dinner which usually consisted of Fried Chicken, Frito's and some Shasta Cola all tossed in a cooler thrown in the back of the station wagon. Then we had a big ol' paper bag full of popcorn that we popped at the house and had grease stains all over it cause of all the butter and oil! Me and my sister would either sit in the back seat leaning on the front trying to make sense of the dialogue from the Drive-in window speaker that sounded like a tin can walkie talkie, or we would sit on the back of the station wagon tailgate window ignoring the movie and stuffing our faces with popcorn and candy! It was always a double feature,[The Apple Dumpling Gang & The Wilderness Family]  the first film was usually pretty cool but the second one, it seemed always sucked!

   If you think about the whole concept of the Drive-in it's kinda warped! First of all you have to watch the movie from your car and if you're a kid you're forced to watch it with your family all packed into the Impala for 5 hours, It's worse than a road trip! Then if you were lucky enough you got to go to the snack bar to load up on greasy popcorn, pizza, hot dogs, candy and soda. The family fight/argument was inevitable too, usually over talking during the movie or non-sharing of the allotted food! My dad would bring the sixer of beer and was usually asleep after the first quarter of the second movie. My sister was so jacked up on sugar she would go into the sugar coma about the same time. That usually left me and my Mom to watch the rest of the second feature alone which was fine by me! I would chew on the unpopped kernels of popcorn and suck down my last Shasta Cherry Cola all the time lost in the b-movie glory. At the end of the night my Dad would carry my sister in the house all half asleep usually slamming her feet and head against the door frames! We were already wearing our pajamas which I hated because I usually had to go to the bathroom at the Drive-in and do the walk of shame to the snack bar in them!

  Two years ago I took my kids to the Fiesta Drive-In in Carlsbad New Mexico because I wanted them to experience that lost little piece of Americana, It was great we saw the double feature and ate crappy food, they asked a million questions about the Drive-in and fell asleep during the second movie, needless to say I stayed awake! There are still a few Drive-In's left in the US and I heard they are building a new one in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is so cool! If you have the opportunity go check one out but watch the movie this time! Here is a web site with a listing of all the open Drive-In's in the US. Drive-In Theatre its alot of fun and cheap too!

If you build it...

   Sorry, I've been busy and then my computer of  10+ years up and died on me, two blue screens of death and Goodnight Irene... I had it forever,  I replaced the hard drive and operating system twice and put 3 different DVD/CD drives and 2 cooling units in it, so I guess it had enough and went toes up on me. That's cool, it went above and beyond service, I took it out to the backyard and put two bullets in it and put it outta it's misery. I had a back up computer a friend gave me he's gonna hold down the fort until I can get a new one. I really wanna Mac but it's gonna be expensive and i don't have the patience to save the money for it, I want it now!!! , so I guess I 'll get a $500.00 job and soup it up my way!

  It's funny how the computer is more important than the dishwasher or the dryer, Hell one of those goes out and you do the manual thing. But the computer bites it, it's like one of your kids gets pneumonia, you freak out and wonder what the hell your gonna do, I did! I hate that I depend on it for everything! I've been trying to stay away from it at home but "I keep getting pulled back in", Its my photo album, my typewriter, my mail service , my accountant, my reading source, my encyclopedia, my adviser and so much more! Hell to some it's their lover!

  What I really wanna do is build my own computer it'll be a learning experience and fun and allot cheaper, I've always been a Frankenstein kinda guy so I'm gonna look into that too. Is it nerdy that I can do that, nawww no more nerdier that being able to build your own motorcycle or car, just a different format. In fact that is gonna be a long range project too, build my own motorcycle, I have the resources and the talent to help me, even if I don't ride it a lot It would be so cool. But for now I'm gonna concentrate on the computer, Oh yeah and i saw some plans on the web to build an adobe horno oven from scratch, I'm for sure gonna do that this summer, I'll make it for my parents first and if I like it I'll make my own! God gave me the talents to do cool things and lately I haven't been using them, Life's short I don't wanna live with regrets of a least trying! See ya in the backyard and garage...

The Flu had a "Gripa" on me!

Anyone who knows me knows I don't get sick anymore, I used to all the time, three sinus infections a year and at least one cold! I got tired of it and started drinking 3 cups of Green Tea a day and voila... I quit getting sick, Nothing!!! I was cured It was great I was on a six year bender of not getting sick! Well all good things must come to an end or Karma had its way with me. I got the Flu!! Damn it!!! I felt something coming on last week and was like "Nawwww, Im cool, nuttins's wrong just a little allergy from all that nasty dust! JUDO CHOP!!! I was down like a Lead Zeppelin! Man I had forgotten what it was like to be sick, I was woozy, feverish, vomiting and sweating like Nixon!
   I don't know what happened, actually I think I do. I have been really watching my diet lately I cut eating all the crap like sugar and candy, junk food, sodas and started eating better and less! ( I've lost 15lbs so far) I think it was the less that killed me! I should have been taking a multi-vitamin to make up for all the other stuff I was now lacking in (like Ice Cream sandwiches have a ton of vitamins...) anyway my defenses were down and I picked it up from someone or thing and it had its way with me! I was outta it for 5 days when I finally made it to the doctor on the 3rd day she doped me up with anti-biotic (gimme drugs, gimme drugs...) and I stayed home from work for 3 days, It's the most time ever I've taken off of work for sickness! It sucked, all I did was sleep and watch movies.

Men are babies when it comes to being sick, we whine and complain cause we are used to our mommies or wives coming to our rescue (not at my house...), women tend to suck it up and deal with it. I swear to God this is the last time I'm gonna get sick, I'm going to Sam's and am gonna buy one of those jars of vitamins that's bigger than your head and eat them like their frickin' M&M's!!

Your Karma ran over my Dogma

Karma, it used to be one of those things when I was young that I never really gave a second thought to. Maybe I didn't understand what it was , maybe I thought it was another load of crap lesson to make you behave. It wasn't till I was in my 20's that I started to take interest in it. The Bible sez "You reap what you sow" that's easy enuff to understand but I feel Karma is a little deeper. I was brought up to do the right thing, I did most of the time out of  respect and fear of getting in trouble. Doing the right thing is easy when your a kid the consequences are more scary and so you just did it. As I became an adult I saw doing the right thing was not always the best thing and I became a member of the "Nice guys finish last" club. So I became selfish sometimes and did what benefited me allot. That seemed to work for a while and then I started noticing crappy things were happening to me. I didn't like that one bit, I thought to my self "What did I do to deserve this?"

  Of course in my naive selfish mind I tried to relate the bad thing that happened to the situation or person that caused it and not to the fact that I was being a jerk or selfish with other things and this was my payback. It wasn't till then that I discovered Karma and realized that Good becomes Good and Bad Becomes Bad and the return you get from either is never related to the deed itself or the time you receive the Karma back.
  I'm human just like anyone else I have needs, feelings, hopes, desires and most of all emotions. My heart is a fragile one and I'm the first to admit I get my feelings hurt kinda easy. That goes with the territory of me. Most of my friends know this and I get over it right away now. I still ask for it by doing stupid things and have to pay for it in the end. I am now on a mission to right my wrongs though! The say "When you start out on a mission of vengeance, dig two graves" I don't want to end up in one of those graves.
   Some people feel that you can do a bad thing  and if you do a good thing that makes it even. That's not the way it works kiddos! That's self imposed forced Karma which is bad, because the point is you still did a bad thing, you must pay in the end. You must redeem yourself with that person or action. I've been on both ends and it really works. I have friend now that I never thought I could be friends with again but I am. It's because we made our wrongs right and came to a understanding.

 I cant and won't live in a bubble and think I'm immune to all those things and can do whatever I want, You can't, you end up paying for it in the end and in a way you hadn't thought about.

Righting a wrong is a must do in life. It puts you at peace with the situation or person and just makes you feel good.

Anti-Valentines Day...

I wasn't gonna blog about this because I think most people feel the same way about Valentines Day but WTF I'm gonna do it! I F@#$%&G HATE VALENTINES DAY! Yea I said it... It's not that I don't believe you have to show your significant other that you care/Love them, its the fact that there is ONE day to do it! The way I see it if you really love/care for that person you should show them always not that one day! When  I was a young romantic ( I was a charming one too..) I made it a point to always show that person that I loved them not only through my daily actions but I declared my Love for them outright all the time. I remember always reminding them how lucky I was to have that person and that I loved them unconditionally and I meant it... I would watch them sleep, fall in love with the way they danced carelessly, they were the first thing on my mind when I woke up and the last thing on my mind  when I went to sleep. I was proud to walk in the room with them and and other people knew it and could tell I was in love with her...This was not a Honeymoon or first year, this was how I felt always.

   When you love someone you fall into a routine and its easy to get complacent with the "I love you" as the last thing you say on the phone, or the quick kiss goodbye/goodnight, don't get me wrong the effort is there but it seems to take a backseat to life once the "Honeymoon" stage is over with. I'm no expert on this, who is??

   If you really love that person it should be celebrated everyday, you don't gotta be all squishy and mushy. Remind that person why you love them and what they mean to you. Men are horrible at this unless they are in crisis or trouble, but they will do it if they see you making the effort and see it in your eyes. I don't pretend to have all the answers I wish I did but I just see Valentines as a quick "Oh yeah,I Love You" reminder day. I just think that's its lazy or an excuse or Hallmark and Hershey's guilt you into doing it! It's total bullshit that a card, candy and flowers show love! Bye-Bye Hallmark,Hershey's and Flower Shop, find another zombie...

Does it get Colder Than Hell In Hell??

  When did I become such a wuss about the cold??? C'mon I grew up in mostly cold environments, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Virginia. These were all places with four seasons. I liked when it snowed I waited for it and welcomed it. It would be colder than day old penguin shit and it didn't bother me! In fact I used to laugh at people who cried about the cold. I remember living in Great Falls Montana when I was about 9-10 years old. It would snow so much there and we would still have to go to school, my Mom would force open the screen door and me and my sister were wrapped up like those Russian nesting dolls, layer after layer of clothing, it added another 30lbs to us and we would trunge our way to school in 4 feet of new snow. God forbid we miss one day of school!! Colorado was like that too, ass cold! My testicles would become ovaries they shrink up so far into me!

  Taos NM was snowy and cold but not that bad at least not for me, I expected it. At 35 degrees people were still having cookouts and walking around in shorts, flannel shirts and sandals. It was a given living there, besides that it was beautiful with the snow on the mountains and on the broken cars in the driveway...

 I think it started when I moved to El Paso in 1991. I kinda got used to the heat living in Las Cruces NM for 7 years so when I moved to EP no big change 2 degrees hotter! My job was primarily outside. I was a TV news photographer so I was always prepared for the weather. I wore shorts 1/3 of the year and loved it. But about five years ago I noticed I got cold easier, WTF!! Really... If you know me you'd say no way he's a big guy (Im working on that BTW...) I got that Native American physic how could I be cold ??? I caught myself always wearing a hoodie in and outdoors, I would sleep with a blanket in the summer, Hell I even wore PJ's-Star Wars ones of course!! Maybe its age, I remember my grandparents would have the heat on so high in the kitchen you would start sweating the moment you walked in. The heat would hit you like you opened an oven door. They were always cold! I hate that I'm like that now, I'm trying to acclimate myself to it all over again, Losing weight has helped too, my circulation has improved alot.I'm trying to wear smaller lighter jackets and not bake everyone in the house.I'll make do here in sunny EP or where ever the Lord puts me ( Albuquerque, I hope..) but  I wanna retire in Belize !!

Stranded at Home

I love a unexpected day off as much as anyone, Well the day-off Gods smiled down on me or laughed and gave me three! Last week El Paso was hit by some freezing ass weather, I mean it was colder than a Mother-in-laws love! Well they cancelled school and my work in a effort to save on power and water, so I was home with the kiddos! I wasn't prepared for this, I had a little food in the house and it was so cold I didn't wanna battle the "Walmarters" so i had to make do. Then to top it off I disconnected my Internet service the day before so I had no Internet, this did not sit well with my kids... My daughters are addicted to pinche Club Penguin, it's like heroin to them! All they do is play that damn game, day in and out it's like their Facebook! They must have asked me 3 million times in the past 5 days "When are we getting the Internet back" I finally started telling them "Never!!!" Then the tears started... Well I put out that fire by taking them to the library on Saturday and they got their fix but still complained it wasn't enough time!

   Then meals were the drama... I forget what it was like to be a kid sometimes even though I act like one half the time! They are always hungry! Always!!! When i was young I made do as a latchkey kid with cheese and crackers and cherry Kool-aid! I was too busy playing and scheming to take over the world... Well my monsters were stuck inside and I guess the cold made them hungry so they proceeded to place their orders. Well I was cooking like an Italian Grandmother! I made Soup, Chili, Stew, Pizza you name it I made it. I let them deal with the snack end and all was good, I did have to brave Walmart though which was full of panicky shoppers acting like the Apocalypse was coming. All the Twinkies were gone...

All and all it was a good time, I got to spend some time with my kids where they had no distractions outside of the TV. I taught my daughters how to play Blackjack and then they proceeded to kick my ass in it. I watched a good documentary with my son called "Waking Sleeping Beauty" about recent Disney animation. We watched movies and hung out, I cleaned my "Hoarders" computer desk, there was so much crap on it I would have won everything on "Lets Make a Deal" !

   The Internet comes back on Wednesday so everything will be back to normal, Ignore Dad, Complain to Dad, Order Dad around.. Oh well at least they know I'm in the room!

My Phone is not a Toy...

"My phone is not a Toy!!" that's what I tell my kids when they get a hold of my phone. In reality it is a Toy, My Toy! I  just got a new Android based phone, it might as well be Crack because "I can't put down the pipe!" It does everything, its so cool... I bet it'll wipe my ass if I find the app for it! I didn't think it was gonna be this cool when I bought it and after 5 hours with it I was walking down the aisle with it.

In reality I hate cell phones! I hate the fact that it's become a necessity! I'm a be there, live in person kinda guy! Being a parent has teathered me to the phone, but I've accepted it and now and live with it.

I love when people buy a new phone it's like when a little girl gets a new Barbie. Man, we buy a screen cover for it and a little case and check on it all the time, we even have a special place we charge it and give it special ringtones and wallpaper. If we could we'd buy it a Dream House and a cool Corvette!

Then a year later we are dropping it, lousing it, bitching about it and it's all scratched up and scuffed and we call it "Stupid Phone!" I bet it's little phone feelings get all hurt, It's like the new Barbie that you had and now is discarded under the bed or thrown in the backseat of the car!

Then the inevitable approaches, The Contact Expiring...

  We start spying other peoples phones and find ourselves cruising by the phone carriers store or looking on the Internet. All the time our own phone unsuspectingly thinking everythings alright...Then that day comes. "It's not you, it's me" we inadvertivly tell the phone as we shove it in the junk drawer or worse yet hock it on craigslist or eBay! The cycle starts again...

Do as I say, not as I do

   I try to be honest with my kids especially my son now that he's approaching those teens. I like all parents wonder where do i draw the line on what to tell him about my past. I wasn't a criminal by any means but it was a different time with different rules. I went out by myself allot or rolled with the wrong kids sometimes, But don't all boys? We were so damn impressionable by the rebel kids or tough guys, I was. I soaked it all in! Everyone of their nuisances and angst ridden traits!

  Eventually you get to the point where you become one of them or I my case I hung out with them because they thought I was kinda cool in a nerdy kinda way. I was smart and knowledgeable on crap they didn't have time for or could care less about. I also knew allot about music that helped allot. I think I finally moved to coolsville by myself when i was about 20. I still did a lot of stupid crap but I looked cool doing it or so I thought.

  I was coming home tonite from the store with my son and almost hit a garbage can out in the street, he thought it was funny, so I proceeded to tell him how we used to bash mailboxes with a baseball bat leaning outta the truck at 3:08 in the morning. I always preface every story with "don't ever do this", just cause I did it doesn't make it right or cool. I tell him allot of these lately cause he's trying to find himself and I want to steer him on the right path learning from my mistakes.  I'm trying to steer him to the path of nerddom and it's working he's kinda nerdy and cool at the same time.  He's left handed so he's a little different than most kids, real artistic and creative.

  Pretty soon I'm gonna have the BIG serious talk about drugs, I always say something about the dangers of them and makes sure and point out that alcohol is the most dangerous drug. I'm gonna tell him the truth too on how I partook in drugs (pot) and quit when I got bored. He knows now that I did but not the extent and stories. I'm not gonna glamorize it in anyway, I'll probably tell him what my Dad told me "If you wanna try anything,  tell me and we'll do it here at home the first time, that way I feel better about you trying them and you'll be safe", Wow, that really detered me from drugs for a long time, Honest! I thought " Why should I try it if my Dad said he'll buy it and we can do it at home?" It kinda took the fun outta it!

My Movie friend "Donald"

   Tonite I went with my daughters to Ballet Folklorico practice because I wanted to find out more about their upcoming trip to San Antonio. While I was waiting for the meeting to start I had a great time with one of the dancers brothers, we'll call him "Donald". Donald has Downs Syndrome, he is 17-18 years old and was so much fun, He had a notebook and was writing down the names of movies that he liked to the best of his ability. All the movies he liked were Disney and kids films, right up my alley so I was able to guess the titles from his best try at spelling them. He really surprised me when he spelled out the name of a movie that I could not recognize but what clued me in finally was the O in the title was drawn out with 4 small holes inside of it. I said wow that looks like a button, well it was it was Coraline! His speech was very subdued and convoluted but he said "Coraline"  with the biggest smile after I said it!

   He went on writing out titles and I went on guessing what they were, He wrote the Hulk and flexed his arms and grunted, I picked up on that one right away! What was the biggest help was that he wrote out the movie title the way they appeared on the box so it helped  me pick up on what they were. I did my best to guess what he was trying to convey so I could see him smile and laugh. I love spending time with these kids because their heart is so pure and simple like a child or God's. I always pictured angels like Downs children. 

   I'm glad I was taught at an early age about people like this, I was told to never pity them and just treat them with the same respect as you would treat anyone else. I hope I see Donald again, he made me forget about my pity problems and see inside his heart and the joy and happiness of the simple things we forget about.

A Fear of Menudo...

   Living in El Paso has always been like living in limbo. You live on the border of 3 states and 2 countries with basically 2 cultures your either Mexican or "Mexican't" ! I myself have always called myself Hispanic or New Mexican. That's how I grew up, even though I pretty much grew up a Coconut ( brown on the outside, white on the inside) my upbringing was always New Mexican, Northern NM if you wanna be specific. There was a short time in the 1970's that I was a "Chicano" that was the cool thing to call yourself then though, it was always kinda tough or rebellious, I always felt like I should of had a switchblade or been a member of the Brown Berets calling myself a Chicano!

  So moving to Las Cruces/El Paso was a culture shock for me, I could write about this endlessly and will in other entries but right now were gonna talk "Menudo"... I was brought up eating Posole which was a hominy with pork stew some times made with chile (I make mine w/o and add it later). I had heard about menudo but never eaten it, it looked gross! Most of all though it contained "TRIPE"!  I quiver when I say it!!! When i was  a kid I spent allot of time at my grandparents house in Taos New Mexico. My grandpa always had 5-6 cattle that kept him busy and outta my grandma hair, which she liked. Well once or twice year he would slaughter one for the meat. It was so cool we would walk it down to the slaughter house down the cammanito(dirt road) and he would do the deed and then we'd go pick up tubs of cut, unwrapped meat and wrap each steak or cut of meat like Christmas presents!

  This is where the horror begins... One of the weird scary things that we would bring back was the stomach! My job was to cut open the stomach and wash all the digested or un-digested grass/alfalfa outta the stomach. So here I was about 8 or 9 years old forced to wash out the grass outta the stomach which looked like some sorta Sci-Fi monsters skin inside, all diamond shaped honey combed and stunk like all hell. All I would think about was the poor cow and felt like the stomach was gonna come to life and swallow my hands up at any moment! I would cry sometimes and gag then was told to "Go wrap meat with your Grandma!!" That kinda scarred me to this day... I tried to eat it and just could not, it was rubbery and greasy and always took me back to that laundry room work sink where the horror began!

   Which brings me to this past weekend. My daughters had a Menudo sale for their Folklorico group and I went for support, I didn't plan on eating any but my daughter asked " Aren't you gonna have some Dad, all the other parents are?" Then the guy who made it asked too! So I "Cowboyed Up" and got a bowl ( second time in my life I had it...)  and carefully separated the tripe from the hominy and doctored it all up with oregano, lime and onions and swallowed a few spoonfuls for offspring approval and claimed I was full from breakfast, which I was, Thank you Oatmeal!!! Then walked away like a gunfighter with the greasy menudo behind me... cue "The Good,Bad and the Ugly" music here...

Tired of being a "Big Guy"!

   I watch TV sparingly these days I'd rather watch a movie if I'm gonna waste my time. I recently downgraded my cable so now I'm forced to watch network TV and all the other basic channels. The trend I'm seeing allot of now is all these shows about fat and obese people. There's Fat Camp, Heavy, The Biggest Loser, More To Love, Drop Dead Diva, Dance Your Ass Off and the list goes on and on with more shows to come! I could blog about these shows in general and the guts it must take to be on them or about Americas fascination with fat people, but I won't and can't because I too am overweight and that's not fair or right. What brought me to this after watching a "Ton" of these shows was I need to do something about my weight finally and I am. I see men my age on these show severely obese and on the brink of death or dying already and I don't want that! I got my kids to worry about and raise, in fact they even tell me straight out "Dad you're Fat!"

   Losing weight has never been a priority for me because 1. I like food and like to cook,  2. I never cared about what people thought about me and my weight, F-'em if can't accept me for who I am! I can lose weight real easy it's never been a problem for me I just cut back on sweets and fast food and it comes off quick. That's easier said than done though. My kids are my kryptonite, they can eat almost anything that they want and do and nothing happens to them their little bodies burn it off quickly, so they have their little treats lying around and I get into them or they go out for Ice Cream and I get one too! Now that I'm older even if food is in the same room I gain weight, my metabolism has slowed down like a white man in slippers!

But something interesting has happened to me in the past two years,One, I've lost my appetite and I don't and can't eat as much! I used to have the hollow leg syndrome where I could eat two plates of whatever for dinner or a whole Pizza if I was super hungry. Now days I 'm good with a slice of pizza and I serve myself smaller portions at dinner too. I come from two schools, first is the school of "You can't leave unless you clean your plate" now that's a messed up path to obesity, I remember my folks saying , "There's a little boy in China (Africa, India, Mexico, you insert the third world county your folks used)  who would love to eat that cause he doesn't get fed daily!" Well mail it to him cause I'm done!!! Second is "I'm a guy, I can eat whatever and as much as I want whenever I want!" The problem with that is we continue with this state of mind as we get older and wonder "Gosh, why are my pants so tight???" Then to top it off I'm fighting my Native blood, Indians never surrender...

  Which leads my to "Now". I have quit eating candy and all that crap when I'm hungry for a snack, and have got off my ass and started being active again and what do ya know the pounds are coming off! I don't weigh myself, that's too depressing and cruel to your ego, I just go by how my clothes fit and how I feel daily. My goal is to fit back into the size of clothes I wore in college, I know I'll make it! Now If I could just block that Damn Food Network!!

Debt Card Roulette

   Convenience is cool, everyday more and more our lives are simplified by technology. I'm not even gonna bother listing all the technical conveniences that we use every day, it's crazy! Well for the past two days I've paralyzed by my debt card... I love my debt card it's all I use, I love the fact that they take it everywhere,everywhere!! I even forgot all about my ATM card until yesterday...

   I got my new Debit card and followed the directions and activated it and clipped my old one up into bite sized bits. All is good as far as i can tell, but nothing is ever easy for me! So here we are at Wendy's (not my choice..) My kids and I order our food, which is a ordeal in itself. I go to pay and give the girl my card she swipes it and waits for the receipt,  it comes up and she says "It was declined sir" Run it again I tell her, she makes a face and runs it again, and once again DECLINED! OK this is the part where the panic and a million thoughts run through your head. "Do I have money in the bank?, Did I put the right code, Did someone hack my card and drain my account?, How much did I spend at the strip club last nite?" Then I glance back and everyone is glaring at me with folded arms and drooling hungry mouths! My son gives out a sigh and my daughters say out loud "Great we're not gonna eat today!"  I quickly dial the number on the card and by some miracle I didn't have to wait, The operator told me I have $5.00 in my account!!!  WTF!!! I though I had at least $ 13.00...  Of course this had to happen on MLK day when guess whats closed?? Starts with a B ends with an ANK! I was pissed my kids were salivating looking at their food wilting on the counter and I had no cash, so I had to whip out the AM EX, damn at Wendy's!! 

  I called the bank this morning and they said "Don't worry Mr Quintana we'll straighten it all  out, sorry about the inconvenience! Yeah right!! Same shit different place and day, this time at Walmart. At least I wasn't embarrassed there, that's old hat at Walmart isn't it, like every 3rd customer!  I had cash this time, I'm a damn boy scout now!

Grocery Hell

OK, so I hate going grocery shopping, it's one of those necessary evils in life, consequently I hate going out for dinner all the time it's boring, expensive and I never get to go where I want. Don't get me wrong I love to cook, it's like therapy for me, I wish I had a shopping service or one of those cool stores like Whole Foods or one of those bad ass HEB's like in Austin TX. Alias I am designated to Walmart or Albertsons. Walmart is HELL... even more so now with all the people from Juarez that have moved over here, but that's a whole new blog.

   If you think about the process of grocery shopping it's mind bogglingly stupid! Let me review: You get the food off the shelves, you then put the food in the cart, you go up and down aisles looking at the food, talking about the food, reading the labels of the food, remembering what food you need. When you finally finish choosing your food you go to the register and unload your food to the convener belt, the cashier charges you for the food, then you put the food in bags and put the food back in the cart. Next you take the food to the car and unload the food from the cart and load the food into your car. Bare with me here we're almost done... Now you drive the food home, unload the food from your car and then get the food outta the bags and finally put the food away! Only to repeat the process all over again in a week or two!

   I used to go grocery shopping at 1:00 am because no one was in the store and you had to weave in and outta the food stockers and drunks looking for that last 30 pack and a family bag of Doritos. Now sleep is more valuable so I try to go in the evening after dinner with all the single moms and old people. I miss paper bags too they were a big part of my childhood, they were the only matching luggage I had, they were a carry all and an arts and crafts necessity! I also miss the old cash register before UPC labels, when you could switch the labels on the food and go to the naive cashier and pay $1.78 for steak!

  I cant leave out my most favorite part, the shopping cart, it was the first vehicle with four wheels that you could drive without permission and then hopping on the back and cruising to your car down the sloping parking lot all outta control! Well I gotta go I forgot something at the store...

and I'll see you at the Movies...

   I was having this discussion at work the other day on the topic of going to the movies and how we watch movies. We were talking about 3-D and someone said they can't watch it because all they do is look for the overlap and mistakes in the effect. I quickly responded with my film watching philosophy " When I go to the movies I leave all my film making/industry knowledge at the door and let myself get lost in the film/story." After all that's what we go to the movies for right? To be told a story...
   Well I'm about to embark on that journey. I'm gonna start writing a movie...finally!!! If this were LA It's as common as taking a dump, everyone does it. I've wanted to do this for a very long time now and now events and time have extended their hand and so my journey begins. I have come to the conclusion that anyone can write a film after some of the crap I've seen and boy have I seen allot! I watch everything and now with Netflix on my Wii I see my choice of crap!

  What qualifies me to write a movie? Nothing! Nothing but my ideas on what I think is a good story. When I was teaching I used to teach screenwriting as part of the curriculum. The one thing I drilled through the kids was you have to tell a story, you just can't shoot video off the top of your head or put what you think is cool. There as to be some sorta structure to your story. You know, boy meets girl-boy loses girl- boy gets girl back or some convoluted version of that, as long as there is structure.

   Now days being a screen writer is not easy , you have to be clever and creative in your dialogue and storytelling, It's not easy! But I feel I'm up for the challenge. What am I gonna write about ? Am I gonna use my experiences as background ?  What genre will I write for? These are all the things I have thought about and drove my ideas. Will I tell ya whats it about? As they say in LA "It's an Idea I've had in my head for a while..." Stay Tuned!

Like a Virgin

   "Like a Virgin" yeah and that's how I'll stay, of course I'm speaking metaphorically here (that train has long passed...) I was born a Virgo, I'll die a Virgo! C'mon WTF!!! or as I always say [Hillybilly accent please...] "What kinda Hippy Dippy Bullshit is this!" You know its funny when something like this happens everybody jumps on the bus, me included! I never gave much credence to the Zodiac, when I was younger, Yeah. I used it as a tool to hook up with a girl " We're a match made in the stars!" Other than that I never believed it it all the way, I mean how could a bunch of empty planets, rocks and gasses determine my personality traits!
  I have to admit though I do hold true to alot of Virgo traits though, I am a good teacher and pretty organized at somethings and very critical of people, if that's a good thing? Other than that I'm pretty much a mix-mash of what I ate last nite and how the traffic was this morning. I've never understood how your sign could rule your day or life, we all have that friend who won't do a certain thing that day cause their horoscope told them not to, "Fine, I'll have Chinese food by myself then Mr Aquarius with a bad moon rising"
   Why now,  why was it sooooo convenient to all of a sudden say "Hey, ya know your Astological sign , well we F'ed up, our bad!!!" Did sales drop in those little zodiac scrolls you buy at Circle K or did the new agers and hippies all decide "Hmmmm we better say something already! Planet axis tilt!!! Tilt-schmilt!!! I have the solution I say half the worlds population run to the opposite side of the planet and jump up and down all in unison that'll knock us back into alignment and we'll be back to our original signs, I'll meet you in China, RUN!!!
Bueno-Bye

The Social Networx

I have lost my love for Facebook... Yes she's now a $4.00 whore, what happened??? I was Mr Facebook I was updating my profile 2-3 times a day commenting and liking my peeps posts and pages and then just like that I didn't love her anymore. "It's not you it's me" I said to her, she beckoned me to come back but alias I would just cruise by or drop by for a ...ehhh nevermind...
   I did the same to My Space, Although I never liked MS from the beginning, it seemed to cheap or High School or something and weird people and kids were on there making all their snide comments and flirtations.I still have my page up I don't know why I haven't deleted it it's  just floating there in "Space" that's not mine anymore.
  OK I admit I still use my facebook page almost daily but I'm not a "Soch" anymore. There are some people on there that are genuinely funny with their daily post and life comments that I have to read them, and I don't wanna isolate myself anymore than I already am from society and the few friends I have so I stay connected and active. I guess as I'm gettin older I long for the old way of socialization as in actually talking to someone face to face but with everyone so far away and busy, busy, busy who has the time. Maybe I should use a webcam and go on one of those roulette chat sites, I'd probably be told "Get off dirty ol' man!!" yeah of course I'd be shirtless...
  So if you see me on facebook I'm there for a reason and not cruising for comments or "Likes" and yes I still "Like" you all very much just not in a Facebook kinda way... Bueno-Bye

Re-Boot or Lets try this again...

So where do I start... Here's a good as place as any. I started this blog when i was home unemployed and would post stuff that was happening in my life which wasn't much since I was unemployed. I didn't wanna blog about Don Knotts acting skills or "Why can't i get a job?" endlessly. Then the candy holidays approached (Halloween, etc...) and I got lazy or depressed or something and I forgot about Mr Blog! We lo and behold come February 2010 i found a job!!! Hooray!! It was with the Government and in a field I haven't touched since college so I got busy and busy and busy... Oh yeah and to top it off it was in Las Cruces 34 mi. away from my place! So lets fast forward to now and my life since then whhooooooooooooooosssshhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Lets see...hmmm I now wake the chickens up, my car is falling apart, my son hates school, my ol' lady's obsessed with her ballet folklorico group, I work with super smart people which make me feel like a idiot, debt from my unemployment has consumed me, and I was arrested for the first time! I'll touch on some or all of these in the months to come and not all of it was bad I was just being a whiner, (some cheese to go with that whine please waiter...) I finally got a new SLR camera!!! I lost my love for facebook, I'm finally getting gray hair ( yes that's good ladies... for me at least)!
I'm hoping to write at least 2-3 times a week here but it'll probably be twice. I have plenty to write about cause I'm always in the right place at the right time or the opposite more so! I'm the guy that the mentally ill approach or the cops pull over cause i match the description, and then I'm also the guy that finds a wad of cash in the parking lot with no ID on it or wins the drawing for a lifetime worth of Wonka Bars!
I'll also be posting a lot of my pix on here too for your enjoyment and feedback, please, please with artificial sweetener on top leave comments on my Pix or for that matter my posts! I wanna know someones looking at my meager talent! So pardon my grammar and run on sentences loaded with commas and ellipse's, its how I write...
Dennis