Three Things

                            Someone's Got It Worse Than You

Several things have made this clear to me recently.  I am a pretty optimistic guy, but I still get bogged down sometimes thinking - gah! This SUCKS! Luckily though, I am also a fairly reflective guy (a recent acquirement, reflection).  

So, as I was sitting in the Emory University gymnasium the other day after three or four hours I was all, Man, this is going to be TERRIBLE.

After the 11th hour I was still thinking that, but then I noticed that there were LOTS of other people that had been there as long as I had.  Then as I was leaving after 12 hours I noticed that some of those people were STILL there and weren't going to be able to leave for at least another hour.

Add to that the fact that it was 106 outside and I got to spend all day in a very air conditioned building with the Girls cheering them on, I decided that it wasn't all that bad.

                                       Orange Juice With Pulp

You know what they don't sell in stores? Orange Sauce. It would be like apple sauce except it would be made with oranges. They don't sell that. Do you know why they don't sell it?  Because it would be GROSS!!!!

 

Recently I was on a trip with some friends and we bought some OJ, and we weren't paying attention because that's what we do - Not Pay Attention, and we got the OJ with "Lots of Pulp". It was very disappointing the next morning as I was pouring my OJ to see orange sauce come sludging out of the container. I tried to drink it and it nearly choked me it was so thick with pulp.

The container has a picture of a man and a little girl.  The man is laughing as the little girl drinks her juice.  I'm sure it's supposed to be the dad having a good natured, early morning laugh with his daughter as she enjoys her juice, but really what it comes down to is more like this:

                    Uncle Larry laughs at Becca as she drinks a glass of sludge.

My buddy decided to try and strain it with the coffee filter.  My initial reaction was great! Ugh, that's going to be the worst tasting OJ in the history of ever. But, he was taking the initiative where I would have just not drank it.  He poured some in and it just sat there. Do you know why it just sat there instead of filtering through the filter? Because it was 99.8% pulp and 0.2% juice.

I decided to go with this plan, and I scooped out spoonful after spoonful of orange sauce so the delicious pulp-free OJ could go into the container. 

It took forever.  However, I am proud to say that I was able to get three big glasses of OJ out of it. And it didn't even have a coffee taste.

Orange sauce. Gross.

                                           Super Heroes

The Avengers. The Amazing Spider-Man. The Dark Knight Rises.

The first one has already proven to be awesome (over $1 billion worldwide - that's INSANE), and in my opinion, the other two are going to be awesome also. I don't think they'll do as good as The Avengers, but the Batman one could.

Anyway, I've been reading some articles on what super heroes should have their own movies. I won't go into the whole list, I'm just going to focus on the one that makes me scratch my head in wonder.

Dr. Strange.

You're probably not familiar with Dr. Strange.  He's not your typical super hero.  He is The Sorcerer Supreme. So he does magic The Magik. You wouldn't understand The Magik.  I don't.  Captain America doesn't.  The only one that does is probably Dr. Doom and people from other dimensions.

So there's all this talk about a Dr. Strange movie.  I don't know why. I really don't.  I love super hero movies, but I wouldn't go see Dr. Strange. Even though the one picture I've seen of speculative actors to play him would be my celebrity doppelganger, Patrick Dempsey.

The Fandom says they also want a Justice League movie.  The Avengers movie got made, so why not a Justice League?  Because that would just be a copy cat knock off, that's why.  Marvel spent years building the roads and bridges that lead to The Avengers. If DC was going to do an JL movie they would have had to started several years ago.  

As it is now, they can't even get Superman out.  Henry Cavill's going to be too old to do a sequel, not to mention a JL movie by the time they get it out. Plus there's the whole thing of Batman. He's part of the JL, but it's Batman, not The Dark Knight.  This Batman has to work with people.  I can't see The Dark Knight working along side Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, & Aquaman.

So, DC, I don't know.  They probably just need to focus on getting Superman out so they can keep a franchise going once Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight series comes to an end.

Current Top 10 Favorite Things

Okay, so I'm going to stop re-posting old things for now.  Here's what is currently making me happy.


10.  Sitting in My  Backyard - I like to sit in my pink plastic Adirondack chair in my backyard and watch the crows fly through the neighbors' yards. It's pretty cool to see them swoop from air to branch or just navigate their way through the trees.  Every once in a while I'll see a hawk do it, and that's triple cool, but the crows are pretty cool on their own. (don't tell GQ that I'm enjoying the crows.  She's convinced they're stalking her)

9. Marley - The newest addition to our family is proving to be quite a character. Whether he is jumping up on our bed while we're reading to the Girls, chasing his tail, or just chewing on one of his many toys (and an occasional Barbie) Marley is definitely keeping us entertained.

8. Victory Golden Monkey - A Belgian style beer that packs an impressive 9.5% avc into a 12 oz. bottle.  I've added it to my Gentlemint with the description, "It's the kind of beer that you drink during a long dinner with friends."  This bonus of course, is that you're basically getting 2 beers at one time - Economically Buzzworthy.

7. Shift Pale Lager - The folks at New Belgium Brewery (makers of Fat Tire and other good beers) recently released this new beer in not only a can (for pool consumption!!!) but also as a tall boy! 16 oz. of quality pale lager.

6. My iPad - I would have never gotten this on my own, but the principal at my school bought one for each of the teachers and paraprofessionals. I know, right?!? I have got to say, those people at Apple really know how to make the electronic crack.  This thing is a lot of fun and really handy in so many ways. I've got my Kindle books on there, games for the Girls to play, drawing apps, an app that lets me create and edit Word docs, and so much more.  It's ridiculous how much I am enjoying this.

5. Real Sugar in my Coffee - A while ago I switched to Splenda b/c I realized I was taking in too much sugar and it was making me kind of  grumpy.  I guess my body can't process it like it used to, and so I switched. I had switched to Coke Zero before this.  Not that Splenda wasn't good, but real sugar is just so much better. I'm watching my sugar intake because no one benefits from my over  indulgence.

4. Three Websites - The Art of Manliness - http://artofmanliness.com/, The Thing About Flying - http://thethingaboutflying.com/, and Casual Disagreement - http://casualdisagreement.com/. Each of these gives me regular entertaining, thought provoking articles to read on an almost daily basis.  I'm happy that I am actually going to some sites that aren't just pop-culture oriented (not that there's anything wrong with those. I still go on them too, they're just not on the top 10 right now).


3. The Popularity of The Avengers - Holy Record breaking Comic Book Super Hero Movie!!! American, and seemingly the world can't get enough of this movie.  I'm pretty sure that if all comic book movies were this good there might not be a need for many other types of movies - I'm looking at you, Nicholas Sparks fans.

2. My Madness Pandora Station - I have loved Madness since I first heard, "One Step Beyond" back when I was 10.  It was a bug that I caught and never shed. They make me happy in a way that music should make you happy.  The Pandora station has introduced me to songs of theirs I've never heard due to only being released in the UK as well as similar bands such as The Selectors and The Specials.  Madness is one of the only ones that is still around.  The English Beat is still touring, but it's just Dave Wakeling with a new group of musicians. Not to take anything away from them, because they put on a great show. I also get to hear The Toasters, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Aquabats, and more newer bands, as well as bands that influenced Madness like Toots Mayall and Desmond Dekker.

1. Summer Break - Hot diggity dog!  Two months off.  I know that a lot of us in our 40s and older like to think that we got all three months off for summer when we were kids, and it certainly felt like it, but I'm pretty sure it's very close to what kids (and teachers!!!!) are getting now. Of course, to some (GQ) it seems like 10 months of interrupted regularly scheduled days, to those of us that get it off, it's pretty freaking awesome.  Any teacher that tells you that summer break isn't one of the reasons they are in our profession is a liar; plain and simple. BTW, no picture can do summer break justice.


Well, that's what's making me happy right now.  GQ & The Girls aren't on this list because they're beyond List Worthy.  They make it all worthwhile.



Go check out some of these things and see if they make you happy too.  Happy Summer!