are vampires the new gay?

There was a time when, if you wanted to be "edgy" on TV, you put a gay person in your show. Same with movies. If you wanted to raise an eyebrow and add some trendiness to your movie, insert gay person here. Then, after a few years, sticking gay people in everything got overdone, and it got to the point where all the reaction you got was a yawn.

Are vampires doing the same thing? No, the controversy isn't really there with vampires, but damn...entertainment seems to be oozing bloodsuckers. If you want to be cool and edgy, insert vampire here. Need a box office jump? Add a vampire. Maybe because I never really caught on with the whole vampire thing, but I'm about sick of them. They seem to be just about everywhere you turn. At one time, it was kinda novel and interesting, but it's been overdone already. Is it just me, or has the whole vampire thing jumped the shark?

the MS ride is right around the corner

The youngster and I got our freebies last night for this year's weekend trek from Saint Augustine to Daytona and back to benefit the Multiple Sclerosis Society. It comes in less than two weeks.

It's the first year our team jersey is sleeveless, which doesn't suit me and my farmer tan all that well, but that's life. I still think it's pretty cool.

The Jaguars

My optimism for a respectable Jaguars season took a serious dive yesterday.

We've had season tickets for 15 years...since the birth of the franchise. I may be suffering from selective memory, and perhaps some other piece of ugliness was so bad I've wiped it from my collective consciousness...but, what I witnessed yesterday looked an awful lot like the worst performance I have ever seen from our football team. It was so bad, it would have been funny if I didn't care so much...

Yo Kanye West

You're amazing
so amazing
lyrically challenged but amazing
too amazing
way rude but amazing
just amazing
so amazing
so amazing
get over yourself amazing
too amazing
you're amazing
a waste of amazing.....

Jamaican me crazy

The youngster came home from school about a week ago, and we had dinner. Having dinner together has always been a staple for us. From what I hear, it isn't with everybody, and I've always taken it for granted. I'm starting to realize the value of doing that, but I'm also realizing I'm getting off track.

At dinner, he got all serious and I was thinking...oh shit, what happened at school that you're telling me about before I get either the phone call or e-mail. It was nothing like that though. It was...every year the school organizes a few mission trips to some impoverished part of the Caribbean. This year, he really really really wants to go. The cost is...well, it ain't cheap. They'd be doing some undetermined (as of yet) project in a very poor part of Jamaica. Last year they built a house for 8 people. It'd be something like that. Lots of prayer. Lots of reflection. Lots of work.

I was proud that he'd want to go. maybe taking him with me to do community service in Jacksonville's poorer neighborhoods is rubbing off. Still, it's not something we can just write a check for. This will require some sacrifice and budgeting.

Last night there was a meeting, for families with kids considering this trip. My main concern was the only one that had been presented to me so far. Cost. I hadn't even given thought to the other possibilities, and the meeting opened my eyes. There was discussion about disease, injury, civil unrest, and other possibilities and how those get handled. The fact that no matter what you do, there is an element of risk involved that you have to be willing to accept, was borne out. One parent asked how much the kids are supervised when there's free time, and they go out on the town on their own. The guy laughed. He said, first, there is some free time, but the days are pretty packed and it's not like the kids have time to go out on the town much. The few times they do, though, they're chaperoned.

Another part that became evident was, just because you raise your hand and say, "I want to" doesn't mean you go. About 35 kids get this opportunity, and I saw about 50 at the meeting. There is a selection process, and the first criteria is trustworthiness. On that point I have little concern for the youngster. The second though, is grades. It's been well documented here that the youngster struggles with ADD, and his grades have been an issue. This year he seems to have matured quite a bit, and the grades are better, but still under constant surveillance. If there's one place in the selection process where someone else will go and he won't, this is probably it.

I want him to go. I think it'd be an amazing experience for him. If he gets selected, we'll do whatever we have to, to get him there. I'm just crossing my fingers that he doesn't get chopped off at the knees before he even gets started. I guess I need to figure out that whole passport process. I've been all over the place, but that was in my former military life, and a passport wasn't required. Now, I need to figure out how you get one of those, and all I know so far is...the post office can help.

go to class. do good. make us all proud

I think it's fairly well documented that my views are slightly right of center. Ok, maybe more than slightly. Still, I don't blindly go running with whatever comes down the conservative pike, and I don't buy the idea that whatever is being pushed by liberals is automatically the devil's spawn.

So it is with this speech the President wants to give to school children. I really don't get the uproar and opposition. People are actually refusing to let their kids to listen to the President tell them to do well in school...Why? Because he's Barak Obama? The President wants to tell kids to take responsibility for themselves and kick butt in school. In my mind, that's a tip of the hat to conservative America. Grab some personal responsibility, kids. Don't expect anyone else to do things for you. Don't wait for your government to do things for you. Don't expect the "village" to do things for you. You have the ability to be somebody. Do them for yourself.

I feel like there's a warped segment of people...people I usually tend to agree with...who are basing judgement on, "If Obama's for it, I'm against it." Let's not be throwing the baby out with the bath water. If the guy wants to tell our kids to study hard, I hope my kid listens. It certainly can't hurt.

not ready to drink the koolaid

Everybody wants to get all giddy because the jaguars looked good in their last preseason game.

The passing game has sucked in recent years and looked much improved in that game. There was a pass rush, which had been missing before. The offensive and defensive lines looked much better than in previous weeks. They dominated the Redskins.

Yeah...but.....

First, it was the Redskins. It wasn't Indianapolis.

Second, it was the Redskin second and third string. Unlike the Jaguars, the Redskins first string players had already proven they can play, and got to sit out the last preseason game. The Jaguars played against the guys who aren't sure if they're good enough to make the team. They're playing for a spot. So, there's a reason they're playing. They aren't as good as the guys who took the night off. If they Jaguars didn't look good against those guys, I'd be really worried.

I'm encouraged by the execution the Jaguars displayed, but I'm not buying into the idea that they can do the same things against top shelf talent. That, I still need to see.