My friend, Hales, asked me to participate in this harmless liar’s game. I think it sounds like fun! I’ll post seven items about me, only TWO of which are true. The others are “little white lies”.
1. I used to work in Military Intelligence
2. I have never broken a bone in my body
3. I used to work in the adult film industry
4. I used to be one of the best recruiters in the Marine Corps
5. In real life, I am one of the most blandest people you will ever meet
6. I have four tattoos, one of a wolf howling at the moon, one of a wearwolf, one of an eagle globe and anchor, one of a set of staff sergeant chevrons with my dates of service underneath.
7. When I write, I usually don't know what I've written until I get to the end and wake up to see what's on the page.
I now hereby pass on the Liar’s Torch to these writers ( in no particular order!). Keep the liar’s game going. Visit their sites and see if you can guess which of their statements are little white lies:
Kayden McLeod
Brigit Aine
Imari Jade
D.M. Slate
Monday, March 15, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Movie review: The Time Taveler's Wife
Hey everyone,
Ok, so I finally got to see The Time Traveler’s Wife last night, but before I get into what I thought, let me give you some of my past with this particular story.
In 2007 I was deployed aboard the USS Bataan for the first six months of the year. Needless to say there’s not much you can do on ship other than work and gym and eat. Oh yes, there’s sleep too but that’s a given as long as there were not any operations to occur.
During my deployments as a Marine, I got a lot of reading done. I think during my first deployment in ’02, I read close to 32 books, all of novel length. My second I came close to matching that but I want to say I really only got to 20. It took me about one week to read The Time Traveler’s Wife and I absolutely loved every bit of it. It will pull your heart from your chest so be prepared for tears.
The movie, though still gave me that achy feeling, didn’t quite impress me as much. As with longer works turned into movies, there’s so much missing that the reader knows made the story grand. They hit all the major topics and scenes but in my mind a lot of the smaller aspects of the story is what made me hurt when I finished it. Not the bad hurt but the kind you get when you finish one of those great stories and know it has truly ended, leaving you feeling a little alone because those characters are gone from your life.
If you’ve seen the movie before the book, give yourself some time before reading so you won’t get lost in how it jumps the various scenes of the characters’ lives. If you read the book then prepare yourself for a movie that just doesn’t have the amount of time to get all of the book into it. I will not say don’t see the movie…I liked it, but I LOVED the book.
Take care and I’ll talk some more later!
Ok, so I finally got to see The Time Traveler’s Wife last night, but before I get into what I thought, let me give you some of my past with this particular story.
In 2007 I was deployed aboard the USS Bataan for the first six months of the year. Needless to say there’s not much you can do on ship other than work and gym and eat. Oh yes, there’s sleep too but that’s a given as long as there were not any operations to occur.
During my deployments as a Marine, I got a lot of reading done. I think during my first deployment in ’02, I read close to 32 books, all of novel length. My second I came close to matching that but I want to say I really only got to 20. It took me about one week to read The Time Traveler’s Wife and I absolutely loved every bit of it. It will pull your heart from your chest so be prepared for tears.
The movie, though still gave me that achy feeling, didn’t quite impress me as much. As with longer works turned into movies, there’s so much missing that the reader knows made the story grand. They hit all the major topics and scenes but in my mind a lot of the smaller aspects of the story is what made me hurt when I finished it. Not the bad hurt but the kind you get when you finish one of those great stories and know it has truly ended, leaving you feeling a little alone because those characters are gone from your life.
If you’ve seen the movie before the book, give yourself some time before reading so you won’t get lost in how it jumps the various scenes of the characters’ lives. If you read the book then prepare yourself for a movie that just doesn’t have the amount of time to get all of the book into it. I will not say don’t see the movie…I liked it, but I LOVED the book.
Take care and I’ll talk some more later!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Creature of Habit
For those of you who are not familiar with some of the inner aspects of my life, I am a father of a son with an autism spectrum disorder. I'm blessed in the sense that Jeremy can talk and function -- more so than he did two-plus years ago -- and he constantly makes progress ever day. But, as some know, there are aspects of autism that will most probably never go away. One of these for Jeremy is his routines. Each day is scheduled as much as can be without driving everyone crazy (that is an exaggeration but you get the idea) and there are some things that you just don't break in his routine or else you he will let you know--sometimes it is an unpleasant experience when he informs you of the break in his routine.
I tell you the above, not to preach or even come close to acting like I have some mass expertise in autism, but to tell you about one of our weekly routines and how though it was nowhere near the usual morning, you still have to stick to some routines.
One of our weekly routines is on Saturday morning, Jeremy and I drive around Slidell, Louisiana. On Saturdays, I take Jeremy and on Sunday, his pawpaw takes him. We do this because Jeremy loves to wake early in the morning and on the weekends we do this so the others can sleep for just a little longer. So I have Saturdays and Jeremy and I usually go fill my truck up with gas for work the next week, get a car wash (and yes I've had to wash the car on rainy days--again, some routines you don't break), stop at Sonic for one of those frozen-crack-concoctions I love so much (the frozen mocha java chiller), then we might drive around some more but it usually ends in McDonald's for the family and then we go home to eat.
Today we followed routine, yet it was definitely a day when routine didn't follow us. Last night the temperature was somewhere in the teens and stayed that way until early morning. Now usually Jeremy and I are up around 7:00 am --on a good day-- and on our way, but because of the temps, we pushed the trip until close to 10:00 so that it wouldn't be too cold and end up with a sick child in the house. First routine broken and yes I paid dearly for that one by him running in the room ever minute, on the minute, to tell me it's time to get up and "let's go, daddy!"
We departed and went to the gas station to fill up and get our car wash. Much like on a rainy day, the car wash was not worth the money. I was not surprised at all. We pull in to the car wash and stopped on signal as usual--Jeremy anxiously awaiting the cleaning bar to sweep across with pressured water, soap and the other cleaning steps the wash makes. If you'd ask Jeremy he could recite each step of the car wash all the way down to the pay box telling you to pull into the wash verbatim. The presoak went as planned and the truck was covered in a light coat of soap. The next pass would have been the pressure washer coming across to spray the soap away…Of course the car wash had been out in the elements so as you can guess, no water came from the wash. Such was the same for all the passes except when the rinse came across and finally the soap was cleaned from the truck. Then the air dry kicked on and such was our car wash--a beautiful waste of money.
Luckily the lack of wash did not cause Jeremy to remind me of the break in routine and I thank God for that. I think McDonald's helped with that.
With that said, have a great weekend and if you get a chance, let everyone know what habit you are a creature of!
I tell you the above, not to preach or even come close to acting like I have some mass expertise in autism, but to tell you about one of our weekly routines and how though it was nowhere near the usual morning, you still have to stick to some routines.
One of our weekly routines is on Saturday morning, Jeremy and I drive around Slidell, Louisiana. On Saturdays, I take Jeremy and on Sunday, his pawpaw takes him. We do this because Jeremy loves to wake early in the morning and on the weekends we do this so the others can sleep for just a little longer. So I have Saturdays and Jeremy and I usually go fill my truck up with gas for work the next week, get a car wash (and yes I've had to wash the car on rainy days--again, some routines you don't break), stop at Sonic for one of those frozen-crack-concoctions I love so much (the frozen mocha java chiller), then we might drive around some more but it usually ends in McDonald's for the family and then we go home to eat.
Today we followed routine, yet it was definitely a day when routine didn't follow us. Last night the temperature was somewhere in the teens and stayed that way until early morning. Now usually Jeremy and I are up around 7:00 am --on a good day-- and on our way, but because of the temps, we pushed the trip until close to 10:00 so that it wouldn't be too cold and end up with a sick child in the house. First routine broken and yes I paid dearly for that one by him running in the room ever minute, on the minute, to tell me it's time to get up and "let's go, daddy!"
We departed and went to the gas station to fill up and get our car wash. Much like on a rainy day, the car wash was not worth the money. I was not surprised at all. We pull in to the car wash and stopped on signal as usual--Jeremy anxiously awaiting the cleaning bar to sweep across with pressured water, soap and the other cleaning steps the wash makes. If you'd ask Jeremy he could recite each step of the car wash all the way down to the pay box telling you to pull into the wash verbatim. The presoak went as planned and the truck was covered in a light coat of soap. The next pass would have been the pressure washer coming across to spray the soap away…Of course the car wash had been out in the elements so as you can guess, no water came from the wash. Such was the same for all the passes except when the rinse came across and finally the soap was cleaned from the truck. Then the air dry kicked on and such was our car wash--a beautiful waste of money.
Luckily the lack of wash did not cause Jeremy to remind me of the break in routine and I thank God for that. I think McDonald's helped with that.
With that said, have a great weekend and if you get a chance, let everyone know what habit you are a creature of!
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