This blog is now done, but hope springs eternal on Myspace.

I can't do it. I cannot have two blogs and as much as I will always appreciate Blogger for getting me started, I have officially switched to Myspace. I will now be blogging there exclusively, so, if you like reading my stuff. You should go there. www.myspace.com/thelighterpeople.

Highlights of Stockholm

Moving Back Home Again. . .Again

So, I'm moving. More to the point, we (my soon to be wife and Super Dog Reno) are moving back to the town where I grew up, Franklin, Indiana. It should come as no surprise that I am confronting this fact with a bag of mixed feelings. Add into the mix that we are buying a house, a first for the both of us, and you've got a "life-changing" moment.

(Alright abandoned this post awhile ago, so update.)

Since I started writing this particular post I have: bought a house, gotten married, cruised the Baltic Sea, moved and I think that is about it.

Check please?

The last month or so has been a whirlwind and is finally starting to slow down. As I write this I am stalling on installing a water softener for my new house. So, I will probably stop and start this post many, many times.

I have given up on the water softener. A plumber am not I.

So, first things first. I have this thing on my left finger and it has only recently stopped bugging me. I am now married. Perhaps more unbelievable than that is the girl that I tricked into marrying me. She is amazing and many more superlative words that I don't have time to go into right now. There is at least one moment every day when I look at her and think to myself, "You are a lucky bastard, don't screw this up." I mean, don't get me wrong, I totally deserve it. (Ashley wants me to be less self-deprecating, so there you go honey.)

The wedding itself was amazing. After months of planning (of which I had minimal to do with it) everything came off exactly as we wanted it to be. We had fun and it seemed that everyone else did as well. It is such a surreal experience, but one that I won't ever forget.

We then went on our honeymoon, which also involved a lot of planning (this time I helped). We decided to do something a little different, a cruise of the Baltic Sea. We set sail from Dover, England and stopped in Copenhagen, Berlin, Helsinki, Stockholm, Talinn and St. Petersburg. A couple of observations. Stockholm is a very beautiful city. This is mainly because the entire city is made up of very small islands, also called a archipelago. Home to the Nobel Prize, this city was my favorite. Second, being on a cruise ship makes you feel very white, unless you aren't white, in which case I don't know what it makes you feel. The staff of our ship was friendly, competent and mostly from the Philippines. I felt like I was on a plantation. Probably because our every need was catered to and that being on a cruise ship makes you feel like you are at that vacation resort in "Dirty Dancing." The main reason is how poorly the staff can be treated by rich, old snobs, who think the slightest inconvenience gives them license to treat people like shit. Overall, the cruise was great. St. Petersburg was amazing. I never thought that I would ever get to see Russia and seeing it really crystallized a lot of reading that I have done about the history of the country, which has always fascinated me.

Next phase, finding a place to live. Up until about a week ago, Ashley and I were living (in sin) in Broad Ripple, the bar district of Indianapolis. We both loved it there, but knew that we couldn't live there forever. This became a reality when Ashley's job would take her far south of Indianapolis. So, we knew we had to move somewhere that was between our two points of work. It just so happened that place was my old hometown, Franklin. It was weird to think that I would be coming home, again. This would mark the second time that I have moved back to Franklin. It is funny that while it doesn't rank as a place I miss or want to be, when it came down to options on the south side of Indy, I would much rather live in Franklin than a lot of other places. That same comfort and familiarity of the small town that drove me away at times is the same thing that drew me back. Add into this buying a new house and, whoa! So far things are good. I can see now why my friends who own houses are always busy, we have a ton of things we want to do with this place.

My life is changing and it is pretty exciting. More changes to come in the next couple of years I am sure. I can see that as you get older and you accumulate more important events, possessions and people in your life you look to something to protect all of that, be it God, money or other less desirable means. Our new house is on a golf course, maybe I can rely on golf. . .or start going to church, either way its nice to have things you want to protect.

Summer Living

Saw this sign while I was riding my bike. Though it was pretty funny. . .you know. . .because dogs can't read.

Summer is here and you know what that means, writing on my blog because I have nothing better to do. I am officially on summer vacation and it feels pretty good. Especially now that Indiana has adopted DST. Good God man, it is 8:48 pm and still light outside. Ben Franklin is a genius. I think he invented DST or at least thought it was a really good idea.

So I am back to write the first of what might be many blog entries. . .or it could be another month before you hear from me. Although I have the summer off, it is going to be a humdinger. I am getting married this summer to a girl who is everything I ever wanted. She is my best friend and is really good looking, so I can't think of anyone else to spend my life with. We are also going on a great honeymoon in Europe AND we are probably going to buy a house. All of these events put together equal a summer of flux and change and I am not nervous at all. I am damn excited people. Things are happening and I couldn't be more excited. Life seems to be a series of dull days marked by exciting events and I am getting ready to go through some exciting stuff. Hopefully I will post and let you know about some of it.

There were tow or three things that I was really itching to blog about, but I can't seem to remember what they were. I've had several epiphanies while driving around, but can't seem to remember any of them. I need to start jotting down notes, my mind isn't working correctly. I hate that feeling, knowing you had something meaningful to say, but just can't remember it. It's like when you go to the record store (do record stores even exist anymore) and you can't remember any albums that you want to buy. You know there are some that you've wanted for awhile, but you can't remember dick. Speaking of music, go buy a CD by "The Jayhawks" right now. God, they were a good band.

Credit Where Credit is Due

(This is a post that I have held in reserve, decided to post it. Things in my life have stabilized since then and writing this post helped a lot. Yay blogging!)

I have a problem. I tend to shy away from credit if anyone or anything makes me feel as if I don't deserve it. I need to stop that. A lot easier to say than it is to do. Does anyone else feel like this sometimes? Too many times in the past year I have felt as if I have accomplished something really great. It gives me an opportunity to really feel good about myself. Now, for the type of person that I am, this doesn't happen very often. I tend to play down my accomplishments and don't go around rubbing it in to others. Mainly because I hate to see others do that. and partly because I feel that if I celebrate too much, the joy of victory will be dashed by some unforeseen catastrophe. Don't fly in the face of fate or God or whatever, because before you know it. . .WHAM-O! I know it is silly, I know most things don't operate this way, but man it sure feels like it sometimes.
Anyway, the last couple of times that I have really felt good about something, someone says something to indicate that I don't really deserve to be proud and instead of sticking up for myself, I immediately start to think, "Well, maybe they are right." My moment has passed before I really got to enjoy it, all because I don't want to seem like a person who celebrates what they don't deserve. Also, because I don't want my good fortunes to make them feel bad. I don't have that killer instinct and it really hurts sometimes. What really gets me is when something good happens to someone else and they are telling me about it, I don't get jealous of the actual feat they accomplished, I just hate that they seem so comfortable in their success. Sometimes this makes me wonder if I shy away from succeeding because I don't know if I can truly enjoy it.
I hate when people say, "Oh, they just said that to you because they are jealous." To me, jealousy implies that the person doesn't think you deserve what you are getting. "Why is that happening to him?" If someone really cares for you, then they will be happy that you are happy, happy that you have found your way in life. If they are jealous they would just assume you be miserable.
I feel a little bit better writing this down. The thing that gets me is that these type of feelings have been magnified a lot in the past year. The conclusions that can be drawn from that are scary to say the least. Either, this is an internal issue that is going to get worse or certain external things in my life are causing me to feel like crap. Either way. . .yikes. I don't know if I will publish this post. . .need to talk to someone first.

Post Shmost

I should write something, but I'm not really sure what to write. I know I need to post, but I just can't come up with anything. The only remote thing that seems worth mentioning is maybe the Oscars, or how Scientology is a huge cult. But both of those things don't seem to spark enough interest for me to actually write. Writing about how I don't want to write about those things is more appealing. Maybe the problem is that I just got back from vacation and I am now dwelling in the day between vacation and going back to work. You are tired because you spent the whole day getting back home and you feel like you should be productive, but you haven't fully recovered from relaxing and you know your alarm clock waking you up to go to work is just around the corner. . .blech.

On a different note, The Sopranos are back and I couldn't be happier. Has it really been two years since Tony & family graced my screen every Sunday? The Sopranos is really the only reason that I subscribe to HBO. Other than that and a handful of other shows/specials, HBO is nothing more than the same crappy 10 movies repeating over and over again. Tony's back and I couldn't be happier, the season's first episode was fantastic and I can't wait to see what happens this week.

Alright, I've posted, I've done my duty. Make sure you check out my recommended reads, listens and watches. I figured out a way to add more than one and I will be adding more in the coming days.

The Paradigm Shift of My Musical Taste

I think that I am officially over Phish. This feeling has been coming for some time now and I've been reluctant to acknowledge it, but it is time. My obsession with those four guys is now over and I am both sad and relieved. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be one of those guys that discards his old band like an ex-girlfriend with disdain and complete disregard for anything that band stands for. Phish is linked to far too many great memories for me to just toss them aside. I still like the band and if a song comes on the ol' IPOD, I will no doubt jam out for old times sake. However, the days of me listening to nothing but Phish all the time are over. During my big Phish days, which have long past me by since their breakup, I didn't really search out new music and pretty much stayed with the one band. Recently I've wondered if I was completely blind or if there just wasn't any good music coming out during that period of my life. Like most things, it was probably a little bit of both. Anyway, this sole preference towards Phish made me a major music snob, disregarding all other music as crap. Even though I have taken Phish off their pedestal, my music snobbery hasn't left, it just has been transferred to a wider range of music, artists and bands.
One of these bands is Marah. Marah is pure rock and roll. I can't stress enough that they are a straight translation of a rock and roll band. They embody everything that rock music should be and isn't right now. Our obsession with giving every type of music its own unique genre has deprived us of what good rock music is and this boys and girls is GREAT ROCK MUSIC. Now while Marah is pretty far removed from Phish, surprisingly there are some things that they have in common. First is that you must see both bands live to really appreciate how great they are. Phish is great live because of the whole atmosphere that comes with going to a concert. Marah is great live because of the atmosphere they create onstage. Marah could be playing for two people and would still put on a show that would blow them away. Both bands share a great passion for the music too, which is contagious and a true music lover will grasp on to and hold tight because they now it to be true. People would always ask me what type of music I liked and I would always respond with "Music that is true." I know it is cheesy, but it is so true. If the music feels true, a quality that is about as hard to quantify as anything else, but if something feels true to me, I know it. Marah might make the truest music around. . .or ever.
My music taste has changed dramatically in the last five years and Marah marks how much it has changed. The reason that I think it is a paradigm shift is that while the change has been dramatic, it is subtle at the same time. Awhile back I read The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which is all about paradigm shifts. I vaguely remember that, as far as this book goes, a paradigm shift is subtle during the actual change, but then looking back the change is seen to be dramatic. I might just be making all of this up. The point is that, five years ago, I don't think I would have embraced Marah, but now I have. Music has a way of finding you in different stages in your life and fitting into it perfectly. So when your music taste is shifting it is more likely that your life is. Marah is a culmination of my life/music taste making a complete shift and Phish isn't apart of that shift.
So what is the point of the meandering post? Go buy a Marah album, see them in concert and embrace them. You might not realize it now, but it could be the beginning of a major change in your life. (BTW, if you want to read more about Marah, check out my buddy's blog, it is listed to the right under the "Much Love" heading. His blog is called "There was a time when I didn't talk..." )

Excuses, excuses (cough) excuses

So where have I been? I know I made promises to be there and post on a regular basis, but shit happens people, SHIT happens. First off, I had got sick, real sick. So sick in fact that my fiance and my doctor thought I had whooping cough. Yes, that's right, the children's disease from the 1800's. It turns out that I didn't, but whatever I had was really nasty. After I recovered from death, I was just about to post, I SWEAR, but then...

My computer died the other day. It just crashed and I had to go through the hoops that are Gateway techies to finally get a new hard drive sent to me and then I had to load everything back. So, now my computer and I are healthy and I have every intention to get back in the swing of things. In fact, my next post is going to be a doozy, with a review of the greatest rock and roll band that you haven't heard of. They are Marah and I saw them for the 5th time this past week, full review is forthcoming.

Public Enemy #1

Is this guy serious? I come home today to some good news in the sporting world. Something that might take the sting out of the debacle in the Dome. Artest was finally being traded. Not only was he being traded, but the Pacers were going to get something decent out of the trade, one Peja Stojakavich. I changed the roster on my NBA Live game. I started to contemplate ordering a Peja jersey, but above all else I was so excited to finally get rid of Ron Ron. Ever since last year I have been saying that we should get rid of this guy. At best he might be the dumbest person in the NBA, at worst he is just the craziest. I don't' care how talented the guy is, he completely ruined last season and showed little to no remorse for doing so. When he requested a trade, I thought, "Thank GOD! So long and good riddance." After waiting forever, finally he is gone.

But then. . ."This just in to Sportscenter it seems that the trade has fallen apart."

No...NO!!! He was gone, he was good as playing in a Kings jersey. "Artest is reportedly refusing to play for the Kings." That feeling I had when Vandy missed a field goal is starting to return. Visions of Big Ben tackling Harper. My general feeling of disgust for Artest has now gone to blind hate. I HATE this man. He wanted to be traded, we worked out a trade and he is REFUSING IT??? It is bad enough that he ruined last season, part of this season, but he is going try and sink this franchise. I love the Pacers and Artest is ruining a proud franchise. The franchise that Reggie built. If I see this man on the street, I might spit in his face. What a selfish prick! Ron, you are ruining the lives of Pacer fans everywhere, get the hell out of here. You don't have any right to determine where you are going to go. You completely stabbed this franchise in the back more than once. You let us down when we stuck up for you. We had your back and you choose to take the coward's way out. The very LEAST you can do is get out of town and let us get on with our lives, but apparently your sole purpose in life is scar a team, fans and the city. Thanks Ron, thanks a lot.

I've Got Nothing

Okay, so this every other day posting stuff is starting to get hard, but have no fear I haven't given up yet, I will continue to try. For those of you who haven't already, make sure you check my friend Tyler's post on his website, theyellowshirt.blogspot.com. His moment by moment recollection of the disaster at the dome is perfect. Just watched a older movie that was really good, "Murder on the Orient Express." If you haven't seen it, rent it today. It is a wonderful example of some great character work. Albert Finney might be the most underrated actor of the last half century. That is all I have, goodnight and good luck.

Utter and Complete Disappointment

I'm done.

I am done emotionally investing in a football team that continues to disappoint me. A team that has disappointed me so much that I have contemplated giving up on teams from Indiana all together. Bottom line, they choked. The stars were aligning, the Pats had lost, we had a great regular season, home field advantage, Super Bowl in a dome, and the Colts choked. In years past I haven't been as upset as I am now. I really didn't think that they were good enough to go to the Super Bowl the last few years. But this year, this year they were good enough and they blew it.

As much as I hate to admit it, but I think Peyton can't win the big game. At least the way he plays the game now. There needs to be someone on that coaching staff that can say to Peyton, "Run this play, not the play you want." When someone says to me, "Peyton sucks, he can't win the big one." I am not going to go into my usual lengthy defense of him, but simply say, "You are right." As much as I feel for Tony Dungy and his family, I can't help but think that the coaching staff that he is in charge of did a horrible job preparing for theis game. This team has some serious issues that need to be addressed. Not issues like bringing in new personnel or new staffs, but taking a good hard look at themselves and realizing that the way things are run now is not the way to win the Super Bowl. Win lots of regular season games? Yes. Break passing records? Yes. Get a good seeding in the playoffs? Yes. Win it all? No, no and no again.

Bill Polian is good at what he does, but his holier than thou attitude has hurt this team. It gives the attitude that we will continue to do things a certain way and it will produce the desired results. Instead, maybe the team should realize why no QB in NFL history has had as much command in play calling as Peyton has, maybe they should realize that they need someone on that staff that gets in players' faces, maybe they should realize that they can't win the way things are.

A few questions from the game. 1) Did we forget that Edgerin James was the team's running back and had a great year? 2) Why in blue hell did we try a 10 yard pass on 3 and 2 with two timeouts? 3) Were we trying to show Joey Porter that all we had to do was pass the ball and that would give us the win? I would have a question about Vanderjagt here, but the more I think about it, the less I think that this loss had anything to do with him. (Alright, it had a little bit to do with him and they should cut his ass right now.)

There are many more questions, but I can't muster to ask them, because I'm done. I will follow the team next year and cheer if they win, be a little disappointed if they lose, but I am not pinning my hopes on this team anymore. They had their chance to give me a little bit of joy and excitement this year and I shouldn't be surprised that they blew it, just like everything else.

I Saw "Brokeback Mountain". . .but Now I'm Watching Football.

Brokeback Mountain is a good movie. It is a very good movie. I don't think it is as great as people are making it out to be, but it is a really solidly good movie. It is shot beautifully, acted wonderfully, and for a story that spans many years is told seamlessly. I was hesitant to see this movie for reasons that I hate to admit, but two men getting busy makes me uncomfortable. There I said it. If that makes me homophobic then I guess I have to accept that. There were two things that really impressed me about this moive, the soundtrack and Heath Ledger. The music (I'm downloading the album right now) is touching and haunting. It accentuates the key moments of the movie so well that you can't imagine the movie without them. Heath Ledger is really good. It is a perfect example of how to give a subtle performance while still creating a rich character. Jake Gyllenhall is good, but has some moments were he seems to be forcing it a little. On a side note, saw the trailer for the new Albert Brooks movie, Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, looks freakin hilarious.

The Pats look like they are going to lose and I couldn't be happier. I really didn't want to face them in the playoffs. I thought we could beat them, but I didn't want to chance it. The Pats are the Colts' Achilles and if we don't have to face them...GREAT! Of course this is all assuming that the Colts win tomorrow and if they don't I am going to be super pissed. And yes, I am writing about football because I just said Brokeback Mountain was a good movie.

Wisdom...

I don't really feel like writing today, so instead here is a story from a Tibetan Monk, I think his name is the Dali something.

Once there was a disciple of a Greek philosopher who was commanded by his Master for three years to give money to everyone who insulted him. When this period of trial was over the Master said to him, "Now you can go to Athens and learn Wisdom."” When the disciple was entering Athens, he met a certain wise man who sat at the gate insulting everybody who came and went. He also insulted the disciple, who burst out laughing. "“Why do you laugh when I insult you?" said the wise man. "“Because," said the disciple, "“for three years I have been paying for this kind of thing and now you give it to me for nothing."” "“Enter the city,"” said the wise man, "it is all yours."

My Dog is...a Poop Machine.

So after I write this glowing review of my dog, he shits in my closet. All over the place. He has diarrhea, with could mean a number of things, most not very serious. If he doesn't get better I am going to take him to the vet tomorrow or Thursday. I'll keep everyone posted as I know you are worried.

If you haven't yet, go to www.thesmokinggun.com. Turns out that the author of A Million Little Pieces is a fraud. I just found out that he went to my alma mater, Denison University. I wonder what the officials at Camp Denidoo think is worse, having a major drug addict as an alum or the scam artist who fooled Oprah and millions of readers. That's all I got people...good night and good luck.

My Dog...is Awesome!

A couple of months ago, we got a dog. I've always wanted a dog, but have never had one. My parents, my Dad especially, were very anti-dog. They made a mess, they were too much work, we aren't around enough. The usual run down that parents give their children as to why they can't have a pet. We did have several cats over the years, but most of them were "outside" cats and the one inside cat we had was cute, but got fat and moody. My fiance and I always knew that eventually we wanted a dog and finally decided to get one. After a couple weeks of looking we found one through 1-800-SaveAPet.com. This service is great. It basically connects you to pet rescue organizations all over the place to find a dog that is right for you. The great thing is that you can find out a lot of information about the dog online before you make any kind of commitment. If the dog is staying with a foster family they can tell you a lot about the dog; hates kids, barks a lot, etc. So, after looking we found a dog we liked. However, when we called the rescue organization they said that dog was spoken for, but his brother was recently returned from a family because they were allergic. We said we would check him out. The adoption process of a rescued dog is surprisingly long, but relatively painless. We met Reno at a Pet's Mart and were instantly in love. However, you don't get the dog right away, they then set up a home visit to make sure you don't live in a hovel. It makes sense, this dog has been rescued from a bad situation before, no need to be rescued again. The visit went great and after some money and some paperwork, we had Reno. (In case you haven't guessed, Reno is pictured above.)
We were fully prepared to handle all the trials and tribulations that come with having a dog, but honestly there haven't been hardly any. Reno is the best behaved dog. He doesn't tear stuff up, doesn't jump up on people, doesn't bark loudly, HE'S GREAT! When we got Reno he was already a year old, was house trained, and crate trained, so all of that helped. I think a lot of people get puppies and aren't willing to put in the time to properly train them, which leads to bad dogs. I wasn't completely sure that I would be a dog person, but I am and it feels great. There is nothing better than coming home from a crappy day and him greeting you with such excitement and love that you can help but cheer up a little. He makes you feel so great when you feel crappy and since is a rescued dog, he seems to truly appreciate you. Reno's litter was found wandering the streets, so luckily most of his life has been pretty good. When you own a dog, you are apart of a whole new world, full of dog treats, crates, toys, vets, and dog food. You go to the dog park and join a group of dog owners who are generally nice, sometimes weird, and always entertaining. You wonder why everyone doesn't own a dog and you question those who don't like dogs. Part of the problem is that all dogs aren't Reno I know, but then again he is an one of a kind pooch. So, if you are thinking of getting a dog, go for it, it might change your life.

A token post

Alright, technically the day is over, but I still think this counts as writing every other day, so shove it.  I am trying to convince myself that quantity is good in posting, not quality, so please keep that in mind as you read these.  The theory is that some of these will actually be good and some will not, but I’m okay with that.  

I just watched a great movie tonight, “Crash.”  Man, is it fan-fucking-tastic.  If you haven’t seen this movie yet, please do, it gets you thinking.  It really is a serious movie, but I couldn’t help but humming “Everyone’s a little bit racist sometimes, doesn’t mean we go around committing hate crimes.”

I have a dog, have I told you guys that?  He is the first dog I have ever had, and might possibly be the greatest dog alive.  I promise a longer post later as to why this is the case, plus pictures.  

Okay, I posted.  I am sleepy, see you in two days with a more concerted effort.  

So. . .I'm back.

Alright, I suck, yada, yada, yada. I'm not going to bore you with the usual, "Sorry I haven't been posting, but I've been busy" diatribe. You know I've been slacking, I know I've been slacking. So, since we are in the time of year when we try and rededicate ourselves to things, I am going to rededicate myself to this blog. The goal is to post every other day, but I don't know if that is going to happen. Some dedication huh? To those of you who are "contributors" to this website, I'm giving you an opportunity to come back, otherwise you are out. (Eric, if you want to post your reviews, please do! I don't know if that is allowed or not.) This post is going to be short, but I am trying to wrap my head around the idea that a short post is better than no post at all. I've read some stuff, saw some things and heard some music, so look for new recommendations starting today. I'm back people, get ready for some slightly insightful comments tinged with sarcasm and some wit. Woo hoo!!!