Category: Personal
The life and times of John Fontana — personal blog posts about things John is dealing with / going through / thinking of / experiencing.
Current: Jesus hates coffee and absurd protests
I saw this last week on Current before it aired on TV:
This brought back memories of sorts — cuz I had come across a ridiculous protest online in the past… I ended up commenting at Current about it:
This reminds me of the faux protests of Star Wars through the The Force is a tool of Satan web site. It landed on the web sometime before the Prequels started and has been a rallying point and a laughing point since.
I know that the over-consumerism in reality is a noose around our necks (suffocating us from truly enjoying the season or any holiday – because some SALE has been inspired by it! Or some greeting card, etc)… but a protest like this with an animate pastor/reverend who seems like a caricature of TV Evangelicals everywhere? Laughing point, not rallying point.
That’s just me though.
So what’s the hubub? Current contacted me yesterday and asked if they could read my comment on air. W00t! That will be (I THINK) 2:26 PM this afternoon.
Edit: Didn’t air at the 2:26 PM airing. Maybe later today?
I need to start paying heed to what I write
Back in July, I wrote a disgusted little message to myself:
Note to self: People make time for what’s important to them. Be they friends, ideas, events, etc. Proof of this is someone’s trip to (South Florida) while not being able to stop by while only a matter of blocks away during upteen days of (recent) past.
So what should we have learned here kids? “You make time for what’s important to you” as I said directly. You make time for kids, you make time for pets, you make time for friends and certainly for those you have interest in. When you or someone else doesn’t make that time – well, search down deeply enough to see if what’s important to you is as important as what is keeping you from those that matter to you.
Why am I bringing all this stuff up? Because after an eye opening encounter I’ve gone right back to this square one. From the point where I have someone aware of what’s been obvious for a while to right back to what I used to deal with.
Closing from that post in July that I linked to and quoted at the top? It still applies: And so it goes, and so it stays…
Smashed
One time of year I always love is when I have to depart from the sunny and just-too-damn-humid climate of Tampa Bay and wind my way to the original sprawl-town-USA locale of Los Angeles — which has actually started to go back to the concept of rail transportation and it makes getting around a snap compared to Cars-only-screw-pedestrians Tampa Bay. The trip takes place in the fall as part of my annual checkup and ABI tuning at the House Ear Institute near downtown LA.
I’ve stayed the last few years north of the Mid Wilshire center, not quite Hollywood, not Downtown, not Wilshire and not that great a hotel but it worked in it’s simplicity. This time around, I pampered myself and stayed downtown at the Westin Bonaventure. I haven’t stayed at a hotel that nice before and a three star rating from certain online travel companies seems cruel. At any rate, the location is extremely centralized — blocks away from subway access, shopping, Union Station (Flyaway is a blessed thing) and what not. It was a bargain compared to my normal hotel – so I paid a few extra bucks to stay there.
What I didn’t take into account was being out of shape in my post-op condition. I also didn’t take into account my unfamiliarity with the building would lead to blood, pain, and embarrassment.
2400 miles from home without anyone to hang out with – I go stumbling around the Galleria in the first few floors of the hotel and try to find a skybridge to other buildings and there shopping offerings.
Cuz what else are you going to do when you’re bored and have a little cash to spend besides shop?
So I find this exit to a skybridge — whoo hoo! — and start walking down a long corridor with skylights. I ignorantly think I am on the skybridge itself (the Bonaventure has several and ALL are uncovered) when in fact I am walking beneath the pool deck/patio of the building.
So I come to the end of that hall and find a pair of double doors saying thank-you, leaving-the-hotel, blah-blah-blah…. I can see a flight of stairs down and a flight of stairs up a short distance in front of me. I swing those doors open and walk a few steps — never observing the two steps down immediately in front of me.
Anarchy ensues.
I tumble and smash my face into a concrete-ornamental-edging at the side of the wall. I wither and moan in pain. I’m shaking, I’m bleeding, I think I’ve broken my nose.
2400 miles from home, no family in the greater Los Angeles area… The gimp-with-a-limp has worked himself ineptly into a fine mess.
I try my best to collect myself. Standing up — no, more like staggering to my feet. I get my bearing and see those stairs I missed, I also see the blood all over my hands and mutter a whiny “Oh shit” in response to this. I stagger up those steps back to those doors I mentioned… I find them locked from the outside. Imagine that.
Looking back, it feels like an eternity trying to decide what to do — go upstairs to who-knows-where or down to street level? I chose the former as to the latter and I find the pool deck of the hotel. I’m too shook up to really know if anyone who I passed spoke to me or even acknowledged me as I walked back to the hotel with blood flowing from my nose.
The fallout of all this is me walking bloodily to the lobby and asking for help, and the hotel springing to action to take car eof one of their customers. I appreciate the hell out of that but I’m stille mbarassed by being there while a convention was gathering and people checking in and out and what not. Of course, hotel security took care of that by getting me behind closed doors and takign care of me…
Probably the most anecdotal happening in LA in my time visiting the City of Angels on my lonesome. This would only have been better with company
East Lake Class of 1997
OK, so lets start with soemthing short and undetailed: I graduated high school ten years ago back in June.
Yup, that’s right, it’s been ten years since the summer of 1997 — when the Spice Girls were still somehow relevant, when that little probe touched down on Mars and shocked and awed the US and the rest of the world (OK, that was July… I’m just referencing the past here).
Well, next week will be my 10 year high school reunion from what has been announced over and over again to registered alumni on MySpace. Some people are out of this world excited about this. On the other hand, I had a former classmate tell me in person (and I am paraphrasing here) “I don’t want to see those people.”
Me? I’m the latter but at the same time, I’m a bit of the former. I’d love to see or talk to some people that I knew and were friends with again – touch base and what not…. Then I remember how odd High School was for me socially: not the normal variety of High School awkwardness that most go through but try being hearing-impaired to a grand extent on top of it.
This is where I should insert a colorful anecdote or two about social awkwardness without ones hearing — like thinking someone asking me if I worked at Publix was asking me if I supported abortion, or the time someone simply asked if I was going to a homecoming dance and I had no clue what they said and just guessed they wanted paper — but I’d rather not. Besides, both those aforementioned encounters were with people above and below the Class of 1997 and this is supposed to be about those people.
You know, over the years in my online endeavors, I’ve hoped to come across some of my friends or past acquaintances by chance and sometimes less by chance and more deliberately. I’ve hoped to hear from some people through this web site or through some of the alumni directories that I’ve been registered with… But mix in the social ineptitude from my high school days and you don’t have that happening.
That’s why darling, it’s regrettable, that you are so god damned forgettable…
On another note, I had someone else contact me on the night of their ten-year high school reunion…. Someone I hadn’t heard or seen in close to 19 years… An old classmate and friend from my childhood on Long Island (who was taking the same position as I — not attending her reunion). So my cynicism about people not getting in touch with me over the past does get muted just a bit from that. Not just that but it made me feel better knowing I wasn’t, ahem, so “god damned forgettable”.
east Lake’s graduating class of 1997 was somewhere around 700 — give or take — and only 75 are committed to the reunion. Me? I’ll be in Los Angeles and on a jet plane home during the reunion events next weekend – so nix the idea of me and my shadow being anywhere near this.
Of course, I’m not sullying those who are attending or those who wish to attend…. I’m not trying to knock high school reunions in general either. I am trying to point out that sometimes, the link to a past you didn’t enjoy isn’t going to be popular. And me as a link to the past tends to be highly unpopular.
Do I have to say the words?
You know, I tried to find the perfect way to write up a story about my night last night but “Do I have to say the words?” seems perfect in describing it. What I thought was obvious had to be stated. What I thought was apparent, had to be admitted.
What comes from it remains to be seen, but at least I’m not sitting on things.
(this absolutely vague message was brought to you by Al Gore, astrologers everywhere and the letter O!)
Slowly, Her Name Fades Away
Well, the daylight slips away,
And I start to forget her name
She loved me for such a long, long time
Unlike any other lover of mine
She was so different,
But in the end, the same
Slowly, her name fades away
Our time just passed,
I thought it’d last
But my mistake …
She’s one and the same.
Well, she couldn’t cope,
A lover on a rope
So I must say,
Her name fades away
It’s guaranteed
That her and me
Would have run away some day
But as time went by,
That thought did die,
And our love passed on a Wednesday
Miracles forge —
and also disrupt
Slowly, her name fades away
What she meant to me,
I now can’t comprehend
I thought it was love everlasting,
At the end, it was just make pretend
Our love was once a fantasy,
A tale that I did once believe
But it’s sad to say, she’s gone away
Slowly, her name fades away
©1998 John P. Fontana
'Scope this
Paraphrasing here, but 10-07-2007, astrologer for King Features, Francis Drake says that those born today (IE — me) “could be in for the year of your life….aim big”
Stay tuned to see if anything of the sort happens to Johnny.
in a pickle, monkey in the middle
You know those movies where a guy gets stuck between two women? Or maybe even just thinking about a divorce and the children who get caught in the middle of it: You’re being pulled two ways, you want to be with evreyone and help everyone but it ends up feeling like it must be either-or. That’s how I’m feeling right now.
Ya see, I help out some people free of charge and there are plenty who have taken notice to what I do. That being said, there is currently a conflict between the guy I work for and a former employee and I’m being used by the former employee to get revenge on my “boss”
Which is petty bullshit.
Seeing I’m an adult fully capable of making my own decisions, I can tell you I do not like being used as a pawn between waring factions. My “boss” doesn’t present me as such but the ex-employee does.
I don’t like my name being invoked as a comeuppance at public functions, especially if it’s done to misconstrue the truth. I don’t like it, I don’t appreciate it, and I certainly won’t stand for it.
Now if I could just figure out what I am going to do…. **sigh**
Deaf Hard — With a Vengence
My buddy David sent along this story about a deaf person’s Starbucks encounter and brought back “pleasant” memories of being treated in the same degrading way in the past.
Of course, this time, the hearing impaired person got the comeuppance. Cruel in a way but with how horrid you can make someone (afflicted, disabled, or just different) feel by treating them below you, that’s cruel in itself,
W-T-F Wi-Fi Blame Game
I am not an IT guy. I am not a professional network administrator. I am not even an able bodied person. I’m a month off friggin’ head surgery for God’s sake!
With that in mind, I would appreciate it if someone would stop saying “You don’t, you can’t, you don’t, you won’t” and other such bitching and complaining when the wireless network at home goes down. I see the problem, I do what I can to fix it, I apologize for shit getting in the way. Now say thank you, bow before me and respect me.
The only WON’T or DON’T in this bitching fest is the willingness of certain residents in my home to learn shit about a home wi-fi network. Someone with better eyesight, someone with a brain that he won’t use. Someone who defaults to others because he’s a lazy misanthrope.
I’m sick of being blamed. You don’t like my shit or how I do it? Do it yourself.
Poetry
Since my sophomore year in High School back in 1994 I’ve done my share of writing rhyming verse and what one may or may not call poetry. Some of the following prose was written between 1994 and the present. Some are romance, some are broken hearts, some are stories, some observations, some just nutty. It’s subjective if any of them are good or not…
- Aspirations of Romance
- A Time to Every Purpose
- At Loss to More
- Be Honest With Me
- Crimson Crown
- Deception
- I’ve Lost You Again Today
- Letter
- Losing Hand
- Lost Inside
- My One
- Never Gonna’
- New Found You
- On Your Mind
- Picture Perfect Love Affair
- Ripped from a Soft Womb
- Scoreless
- Slowly, Her Name Fades Away
- Yer Ono Blues
- … [More to be listed]
A month later
So it’s exactly a month since surgery-eve and I’m doing ok physically… Aches and pains still but I’ll manage. Not wanting to go out in public much due to my eyes not being tip top, nor my hearing, or my hair for that matter. I’ll live though.
There are some things starting to get to me though. I guess I was spoiled rotten during my hospital stay and my recovery and now I feel like I’m socially in a black hole. Limited reach outs from friends, limited shout outs and more, and less.
There’s also a lack of focus I am experiencing right now that un-nerves me. For the past 2 weeks I’ve been spot on with focus. On the ball. I see something that needs to be done, I do it. If someone else has something that needs to be done and isn’t sure of steps, I consult. I consult when not requested (and not in a rude way, it coincides needed productivity for a dormant product). I was all over the friggin’ place. AND I was hitting the ball out of the park on this shit! It was incredible, it was a rush…
…It was temporary?
I’m procrastinating more right now — with incoming emails, with to-do projects and what not — than I have at any time since I went to the hospital. There’s just this… social dread? I dunno… Part of me wants to get it done, knows I gotta get it done, knows I NEED to get it done.
The other part of me wants to chill out and surf the web and wait for someone to distract me. The people I want to distract me get credence while the people I don’t drive me back to work.
How about that? “Test your worth to John! Send him an IM during anti-social/anti-productivity hour and if he drops you for a project, you know your value!”
Newest skill test at the state fair, ya’ll. :-p
Oh, one other thing that is getting to me lately… Why can’t I enjoy movies any more? I feel a horrid pain when I watch Superman Returns (who hasn’t?) due to Bryan Singer’s epic scoping of the film and lack-of-editing to make Superman seem more likable. I saw The Two Towers before surgery and thought it (again) a disaster of editing proportions. That’s what I am seeing everywhere — edit, voice-over, edit, edit, chop, dissolve, blah, blah, blah… And these aren’t action sequences where I see them (most of the time)! Is it just heightened perception or should I burn my DVD Collection, get rid of my cable box and renounce Speilburg?
do not hate, ren-o-vate!
The only thing that blows harder than being stuck in one location while recovering from a major operation is being stuck in one location while recovering from a major operation AND that location being under renovation.
I mean, I’ve been home about 3 weeks so I really shouldn’t be bitching but having my bathroom totally demolished (tub removed, tile removed, vanity removed, mirror and medicine cabinet removed, etc, etc) makes things just a LITTLE hectic. I also feel bad for my younger brother who is doing all the work — kicking ass and taking names of course, but it’s a lot of work.
The new tub is in place now, that’s nice. When I can actually bathe again and use the facilities in peace will be even better. Maybe by the end of the month? **Shrug**
Focus, Daniel-san
You know what’s hectic? Getting a thousand things on your mind you want to accomplish, only being able to accomplish a fraction of them because you’re depending on other people, and not starting on other things because you lack the focus to follow up on your thought. It’s maddening.
It’s good to be thinking straight again but it’s horrid having so much I want to get done and only being able to do a fraction of it before I burn out.
up in oak
I have something else I want to talk about just because I’m sort of impressed by how things have gone… Another’s improbable journey to success without really trying (much).
I have a fetish for acorns and trying to grow saplings. I’ll admit that right now and you could probably search this blog and find other posts talking about it. I’ve tried pines before, to no avail, but after messing with laurel oak acorns the last 2 years I can say I can germinate a oak sapling pretty far. The only issue that comes up in the end is where the hell should it be planted? Who wants it?
Case in point, I grabbed one acorn from a neighborhood oak tree just a block from my house last fall on an impulse… This was November or December. It hadn’t fallen off the tree yet and was still green… I decided to take a chance and stuck the acorn in a six inch pot… I didn’t make a big thing about trying to get the acorn to germinate and when it didn’t emerge in a short timespan from the pot, I started to write the plant off entirely. I placed it on a shelf outside my house and let nature take it’s course. It’ll happen or it won’t.
Yet January came around and a small sapling germinated from the soil. Pleased, I took care of that little sucker and by the time March rolled around, I decided to take another chance with the plant and move it into a new pot. A large pot at that – 2 gallons. From a six inch pot to two gallons seemed like an improbable jump as I’ve never tried it before. That’s another reason I did it. To hell with the risk. The potting soil I used wasn’t store bought — well, it WAS regular, store bought potting soil but it came from plants that had died around my home. Waste not, want not and all that.
I transplanted the young sapling — three inches tall at most — and presumed I had put it at risk because the soil could be contaminated or filled with bugs or something.,.. I didn’t write this tree off but again – I hadn’t put it’s best foot forward in my decision making and was careless.
Or was I?
It’s late August now and the sapling in question stands nearly 30″ tall in that 2 gallon pot. With it’s size, I know it needs either a permanent home or another pot upgrade ASAP and yet I am shocked and thrilled alone at how well this plant took off. I’ve never had an oak sapling take so well, and there is a need for a tree in my yard (as we cut down an Indian Rosewood last year that was a nuisance – and remains so in it’s role as a stump that won’t die). I’ve talked to family about planting it out in front of my house and they are receptive to the idea though not jumping up and down at the concept. It’s still a little shit plant and still needs to develop… but it’s a risk worth taking if someone wanted this thing and to plant it in a permanent home now.
30 inches and another “expansion” sprout on the way. I’m thrilled… And I’m thinking I need to buy some potting soil to try this again with another acorn this fall.
the fallout
So where was I?
Oh, yeah… Dwelling on inevitability. Surgery. All that joyous stuff that makes life grand for me. August 7th, 2007 was an extremely surreal experience in that my focus had to be elsewhere instead of impending doom and gloom (thank you Oren Koules, Jim Sherrin and Doug Maclean). Surreal may be a strong word for it. A grand, welcome distraction might be a better phrasing. Having a friend come over to spend some time with me and further distract me only aided to things.
The next day was no better – wanting to deal with that story and yet lying in a hospital gurney most of the day while waiting an angiogram: the pre-operative procedure as bad as I dreaded (but with a great staff of physicians trying to deal with my issues and some medical breakthroughs since my last angiogram that kept me from being bed ridden).
You know, I feel like I’m being shallow in the details but at the same time — there weren’t many meaty details before I was trucked off to the ninth floor at Tampa General Hospital where I stayed overnight before surgery. Besides pain issues with thanks to the angiogram, everything went swimmingly.
And how can I properly term my stay at TGH besides saying I was surrounded by good omens and positive energy? Days previous to surgery, I’d gotten a religious card sent to me with the only Patron Saint I identify with. It’s sorta grim but after I learned about him (and wrote about a poem where I invoked him) I didn’t see it as an ill omen as-so-much familiarity. I can deal with familiarity.
When I got to the ninth floor, who greets me warmly but an old friend from High School who works as an Registered Nurse on the floor? It was good mojo to see her, realize who she was and have come right up to me and say hi.
Another thing that was positive and yet drenched with negativity was a nurse I had overnight who I couldn’t understand due to her accent. She was warm, pleasant and tried her best to overcome things and I found myself mad that I had gotten frustrated with her.
A week to go
It didn’t hit me until yesterday. July’s over and my operation is scheduled for August 9th… That’s next week.
So much I don’t want to do, so much I want to avoid, so much I want to be irresponsible about… and no time for it.
What's the Font?
I’ve been struggling to figure out what is the name of the Typeface being employed by the Tampa Bay Lightning in their (alleged) new logo layout:
In all honesty, the closest typeface I can find to font being employed in the logo is the Star Jedi typeface — yeah, that’s the Star Wars font for all those who don’t want to click on the link. I’ve been searching a few font sites but I’m not even sure where to begin looking regarding this typeface. Some people complain how “Cartoony” the font is, some people complain how “comic book” the font is… Yet it looks like a variant of Ariel or some other standard typeface and not cartooni-ish or whimsical in the least bit (that’s coming from someone who has actually seen what font creators think “comic” or “cartoon” fonts look like).
Any leads to the appropriate type face are appreciated.
unwell and unfair
It’s not bad enough that I’m going under the knife in a sensitive procedure early next month… I gotta have an angiogram the day before the operation to boot.
First off, the description of an angiogram doesn’t make it sound so horrible — they’re checking the blood flow in arteries to make sure there is no blockage and such… I’ve had one before and the procedure itself was no biggie.
Yeah, and then the pain killers wore off.
That procedure was exactly 11 years ago on the 16th or so. I wasn’t just bedridden in the hospital after but also an enormous among of discomfort as well.
“Discomfort” being insurmountable pain in my leg and abdomen. Being told not to move didn’t help things.
Maybe angiograms have improved in 11 years time and post procedure discomfort level is much less than I experienced in 1996… That’s about the only hope I can grab on to with this. An Angiogram the day before an operation on my noggin’… I guess Karma’s biting me in the ass (again) for whatever wrongs I have committed in my life, cuz all I have is dread now for August 8th and beyond.
Note to self: Your printer is not your enemy
Note to Self: There is a reason why you like HP printers. They’re pretty easy to use if you’re not being bullheaded. They also have never sucked when you have used them.
And of course, it’s a lot simpler to clear paper jams than fidgeting with buttons or trying to rip the paper out. Silly.
DVD play revisited
More than three years ago I wrote about the end-of-life of my original DVD player. It was a pretty sweet machine and I was sad to see it go.
Especially sad when I’ve tried the competition.
My first replacement player was a Toshiba progressive scan blah-blah-blah that was purchased in 2004. The player was slow, annoying and overheated easily. I started looking for a replacement for that sucker (casually) last fall and mentioned to family how I’d like a new DVD player for Christmas.
My older brother obliged me. I wish he hadn’t.
While I was looking at the new systems and thinking there was a chance I could buy a player from either side of the current format war, my brother went out and bought me a DVD Recorder. Pretty nice, right?
Yeah, it’d be real nice if it wasn’t a bottom-of-the-line Memorex player which cannot even send closed captions to my TV in a timely fashion during standard DVD playback. Movies end up being somewhat like watching dubbed karate movies with captions being displayed well after someone speaks.
Just a little annoying for this hearing impaired movie fan.
Factor in a poor remote control that focused on recording aspects instead of play (as well as additional captioning lag, if not dropped captions, if you paused or fast forwarded through a portion of a DVD) and you have all the makings of a gift that counted for the thought — nothing more.
So for the last several months I’ve been watching movies on my computer instead of on my DVD player which is bothersome as well (17″ monitor replacing a 27″ TV will do that) and I finally decided enough was enough. Twice now, I have had equipment purchased for me by my elder sibling (who’s motto sometimes is “I don’t care” — he’ll get the job done but getting the job done is more important than doing it well sometimes) and both times I was fed a shit sandwich. Enough is enough.
I went shopping on Amazon yesterday.
The only thing that guided me on my search was the quality I had found in my original DVD player. Panasonic had won me over in it’s simplicity and quality (you know, what companies are supposed to do with their products instead of winning you over by being the lowest priced object on the “clearance” rack at Wal-Mart). I didn’t want tons of bells and whistles (no DVD-R this time, no Blu Ray or HD-DVD) and ended up choosing a highly-ranked unit that costs a little more than a fifth of what I paid for my original player back in 1998).
The only down side is having to wait for it to arrive.
Macho meh
A couple of years ago, I wore a chin goatee on the norm… Sorta liked it. Sorta got annoyed trying to keep it at a good length and not let it end up becoming a goat/troll thing (I do not want to do the Lou Albano thing).
As things have been lately, I just get lazy and had let my face fill up with hair and then decide to shave… repeat x times and flirt with various ideas.
Well, the other day I started going through one of my Beatles Anthology CD cases and came across some of the Sgt. Pepper era John Lennon photos (specifically from the Strawberry Fields Forever video shoot). I realized my hair was a comparable length and my stubble was growing in once again. I decided to take a chance… I decided to risk it all….
I shaved under my lip and my chin and started growing handlebars.
And I’ve actually been out in public with this thing. Can you believe it?
Fortunatley I don’t have a picture to show you, but to be honest — it’s probably not going to be around long enough to turn into Paul Teutul’s massive handlebars.
Note to self
Note to self: People make time for what’s important to them. Be they people, ideas, events, etc. Proof of this is someone’s trip to Jupiter while not being able to stop by while only a matter of blocks away during upteen days of past.
So it goes, and so it stays…
J.J. Hardy and ChiSox at Devil Rays last Thursday
My friend Bryan Wolfe has been a Wisconsin sports fan since I met him — he was a die-hard Packers fan at age 14, and able to talk circles around most when it came to football. I admire the guy for it, I really do. His passion also carries over to the Milwaukee Brewers and the Bucks in the NBA.
Of course with the Brewers exploding in the NL Central as baseball’s best team, Bryan is feeling vindicated for holding onto his belief that the Brewers were on the verge of something special.
With all of that in mind, I’m writing this for Bryan who was dumbstruck last Thursday at the Devil Rays / Chicago White Sox game at Tropicana Field. I don’t know all the details and I don’t want to paint this as a reaction specifically because of his Milwaukee sports pride, but my friend is now smitten with a girl who wore a Brewers jersey to the game. Not just any Brewers jersey but JJ Hardy.
Jenny, are you out there?
With exact circumstances unbeknownst to me, Bryan and Jenny struck up a conversation somewhere in and around the stadium and Jenny wowed Bryan with her insight and knowledge. She invited him to sit with her and another guy but Bryan chickened out because she was “with someone.”
That someone being her uncle, he would later find out.
So, if you’re reading this Brewers-fan-Jenny who attended last Thursday’s Rays-Chisox game in St. Petersburg with your uncle — Bryan is searching ever so desperately to get in touch with you again. He’s planning on attending more Rays games because he thinks you are a regular and hopes that will do the trick.
Me? I’m blogging for my good friend in hopes that you somehow stumble across this on the World Wide Web. Lord knows I’ve had others do that before whom I never would have suspected to ever see things I wrote.
Dry and true
So there has been rain in the Tampa Bay area the last few days, yay rain…
…Whoopty friggin’ do.
Anyone in Pinellas County that wants to think we’re in the clear with drought conditions need only look at the official Pinellas county rain gauge on their web site. It feels sick and cruel that the tally through today (July 2nd) is 10.59 inches of rain for the year.
2007 is half way finished and we’re only about one fifth of the way to the average rainfall total (Clearwater, Florida’s average yearly rainfall total is 49 inches according to Florida Living Network. The St. Pete Chamber of Commerce lists the city of St. Petersburg’s annual rainfall total at 48+ Inches).
We haven’t hit the Fourth of July yet, nor the peak of the hurricane season (two sub-tropical storms and only a bit of rain from both) and I’m fearing how our water outlook will come November.
Out of "Office"
Dunno how many people saw this cuz Current.tv isn’t that mainstream a channel (yet?) but this mix of pop and mock has me grinnin’…
Strong for them, hell for you
How many times have you been supportive of someone who is close to you or who has meant something to you in the past, all the while you end up feeling like crap for doing it? Not because of you giving support to this person, but because of the topic?
It’s almost like what should lead to a breakup… Being there for someone but feeling trampled on in the relationship. You care and want to be there but you can’t keep being a friend for someone when they don’t respect you or even consider what certain topics/phrases do to you inside.
Respect… And Disrespect. If you are there for someone when they need you and they aren’t there for you, if you will apologize to someone about things – but they won’t ever apologize about any anger they’ve caused… It’s just not healthy and just not worth it. Friendship or more — it’s a two way street.
Show me some respect or find another person to dump on… I’m not playing the inanimate teddy bear any longer.
When in "Drought" — fill your pool!
I’ve been watching and paying close attention to the Skypoint Condo construction at 777 Ashley Drive in downtown Tampa since they broke ground in June of 2005. The first inhabitants of the building are due to start arriving early in June as units begin closing proceedings.
And with the construction crew finalizing details in and around the tower, I must voice a complaint.
Like I said, I’ve been following Skypoint closely since 2005… Usually by way of conversation on Skyscraper City or web cams provided by TECO (now defunct) and Ox Blue. With the Ox Blue cam specifically, anyone can view the progress on Skypoint from July 2005 until current.
What you can also find is photographic proof of the Skypoint-resident-only pool being drained and re-filled three times within the last month while Tampa and much of Florida are in severe drought conditions. I don’t think I need explain how many thousands of gallons it takes to fill a pool or emphasis the waste.
Check it for yourself — go to their flash webcam site and jump to April 18th (use the calendar on the left hand side that pops up) — the day of the first filling. The pool stays full until May 3rd when it’s drained during the course of day. Five days later, on May 8th, the pool is refilled again and then abruptly drained for the second time on May 14th. The third filling took place just this Monday (May 20th) and it is still full as of May 23.
Three fillings in a pool that no one has yet used, in a building where no one yet lives. I wonder if the city of Tampa even considers that a violation, seeing that they are suggesting you tattle on neighbors using too much water.
Speaking of Harry Potter…
Has anyone else noticed how similar the Daily Kos logo and the cover to the upcoming “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows” look?
Kos:
Potter:
I noticed it just this weekend and now I can’t un-notice it.
EDIT: Edited the Kos picture so the BANNER was the focus, not the sponsor.
Stumbleupon Stonegauge…
Seeing I’ve been running Stonegauge in various forms for almost a decade and have blog posts from the last five years to go through… You may or may not want to simply check out the random Stonegauge page tool. That link (and the URL http://www.stonegauge.com/?random will wisk you away to a random post on the blog.
Tragedy, leadership and eloquence
With the massacre at Virginia Tech, the United States enters an unfamiliar and yet unforgotten territory of national mourning due to a domestic tragedy. The senselessness of what happened, the blame game of what went wrong, response times, woulda’-coulda’-shoulda’ and the like.
And of course there are clowns, such as myself, who think past the immediate tragedy and how things are and will be framed by powers-that-be in the country.
Case in point, there was a compelling diary on Daily Kos that compares elected official responses at Columbine High Shcool and Virginia Tech. Of course you know the players just as well as I do: former Vice President Al Gore and president George W. Bush.
While there is some nitpicking (the President doesn’t name names of victims… not that they were open knowledge until the day unfolded), the one thing that stands out is the difference in eloquence and leadership in the speeches given. Two similar tragedies and two varying responses to the mourners and grieving communities.
Hooked up on Crackberry!
It’s back home! My baby!
…but I was stupid enough to send it with it’s battery. It (the battery) was DOA when I tried to turn the device on. Overnight charging, anyone?
Crackberry indeed
I miss my baby and I am so worried about her.
At the end of February, I accidentally broke the lens cover on my Blackberry 8700g and it was rendered an annoying shade of useless. I found I could get it repaired for about 75 bucks from BBRepairshop if I shipped the unit off to them.
And that’s what I have done — the package with my addiction unit is in transit to Houston, Texas… Where BBRepairshop.com resides.
The question is just how my unit returns to me — in working order I hope — and if I will continue wasting money on my 2 year contract with T-Mobile if it does return to me in worse condition than it left.
ye gods!
I have little to no doubt that Roland Deschain, aka The Gunslinger from Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga, would have absolute convulsions if he took one good look at the Burj Dubai under construction in the U.A.E.
Palm Harbor, Yahoo'ed
I’m a regular user of Yahoo! Local as a tool… Pretty good for looking up local information and I find the interface a lot better than online Yellow Page listings in general.
That being said, there are still problems there…
Local businesses need to be reviewed and sometimes listings need to be removed. For instance, Jaguar Coffee has been gone from Palm Harbor for years upon years (how I miss Java Jungle — Jaguar Coffee’s predecessor) and yet their listing still exists. Same with the now-closed Palm Harbor Ale House as well as other businesses.
The Yahoo Local listings are very much an online social network of reviews and user driven content… But of course users have to be willing to get active on their own Yahoo Local area in order for the content to be accurate.
Oh Maddie-poo
I just had the clinic call and report Madeline (who I only dropped off at 5) is all finished with surgery and I have to pick her up between 7:30 and 8 PM.
My little girl is going to be a conehead for the next few days… A drugged up conehead at that. But at least they say she’s fine.
Daddy's nervous
I’ve waited longer than I should to have Madeline spay. She’s a frisky 21 months old now and as sweet as ever… So now that I have some things in better order in my life, I figured I better go and get this done for her. After all, I am contractually obligated to her breeder to have this done.
And I find myself nervous about it.
I mean, things are scheduled — got the clinic, got the date (February 26th), got the time, got the pre-surgery instructions… I’ve personally dealt with this (well, not having my sex organs removed — but I mean surgery) before so I know the deal. I’m just worried.
Worried about what happens immediately after, how to deal with things, what coudl go wrong, etc… Likely things will be fine but… Hey, I’m a worrier. Once I get this out of my system, I’ll be fine. Maybe.
Everyone loves getting mail
Not one of my better poems, was written in a bit of a rush the other night when I had this thought on my mind… Inspired in part by The Lake House
Letter
I want to write you this letter
And
I want to spend time in thought and
Trying to figure out what I’d say to you
It’s great when you get a letter in the mail
And I’m thinking about writing a letter
And
It’s been a few weeks since we talked and
Right now you’re on my mind
Whether you like that idea or not
So it’s been a few weeks since we talked
And
The last time we did, we fought and
I let you walk all over me,
While you had good reason to be pissed
Yet I was all apologies
And
All in all is all we are
You never offered me the same
For you getting all angry and acting lame
I’d better not write you this letter after all
Why I better not write this letter
Is
Because you just don’t respect me and
You got me tied around your little finger
And just twist and twist me tighter than a knot
Knots can be so cruel
And
They can be like feeling locked inside
Yeah, feelings can be knots too
Cinching tighter and restraining things
So I’m writing you this letter
And
I’m just a piece of twine twisted around
Your pinkie is red from this yarn
That we’ve both been spinning for ages
And it’s great getting letters in the mail
And
Last one I sent you was years ago
And I tap-tapity-tapped it up on my keyboard
My handwriting is a horror unto itself
The horror of my day
Is
Realizing I still have feelings for you
And you’ve pretty clearly moved stage left
The lights are bright on Broadway
“The Producers” is better watched with an audience
And I don’t know if you care
About
Getting a letter in the mail from me
Letters in the mail are great but even better
When you don’t expect them
I’m the king of “don’t-expect’em”
And my wrist is getting
Cramped
Writing out this yarned ramble
Ramble – what we know so well
What we loved, what we lived, what we did for hours
And I watched this movie
Tonight
And it got me thinking that i ought to
Write you a letter
You could care less about the addressee
Your residence wasn’t hard to find
So I’m closing this letter off
And
Hoping to put things to rest even though it’s
Special to get a letter in the mail
And I want to share special with you again
All in all is all we are
And
Kurt Cobain is formally dead and
You can’t respect someone who kisses your ass
It just doesn’t work
So I watched this movie tonight
And
I wanted to write you a letter
I wanted to write you this letter
It’s great getting something in the mail
————
© John Fontana
Taking a chance
Yesterday I had something happen that hasn’t happened before… Well, it has but I wasn’t confident to the same degree when it happened in the past. I wasn’t compelled to act immediately like I did…
I applied for a job.
Not just a job, but a high profile job.
Not just a high profile job, but one in a different city, in a different region…
Not just a high profile job in a different city, but one that is being offered by a campaign attached to a former presidential candidate.
I really should be more skeptical — and I am in a lot of fashions — towards the job I applied for with John Kerry. It was advertised on Daily Kos and that means hundreds of thousands will not only see this thing but probably apply for a job too.
The thing is… I know this job. I AM this job. I have been doing most of the roles that are described in the online agenda for years on my own. I’ve done them voluntarily, I’ve done them for next to nothing… I know this role, I have confidence I could do this job and do it well.
But in the end, it ain’t up to me now is it? At least not right now.
I’ve never lived away from home for more than a few days. I have been 2300 miles from home without family oir friends around as a social safety net though. While Boston would be like that, it’s much easier to reach my extended family in New York and Connecticut.
What’s gonna happen now? I don’t know… Could I even get up to Boston for an interview? Let alone find myself taking the position? have no clue, but I know one thing — I am that job. I have confidence in that fact and I only wish I had this opportunity more often, closer to home, to prove it.
On your mind
I don’t know how often other people do this but I always get curious about other people’s thoughts — thoughts involving me, thoughts involving others and such. While opinions and perceptions can come off hurtful when you hear them – they can also raise you up to new heights.
But the one that always gets me is when I hear someone dreamed of me. Me! I was on someone’s thoughts enough that I ran through their mind… Even if I had nothing to do with the underlying fabric of what went on in the dream and the psychology of what happened (dreams have a great wide amount of meanings)… It’s just special to know that the thought was there.
So here’s my next one — yeah, a little verse on this St. Valentines Day… Inspired by the ones on our minds.
On Your Mind
When last was I
A Sight for sore eyes?
The last time you
Longed my hand?
When last was I your
Knight in shining armor,
Your prince,
Your noble man?
When last did I
Paint a picture
That made you melt because
You were my muse?
When last did I
Earn your undivided attention
While we discussed the
Front page news?
When last did my thought
Earn your affection
Because of the joy
That I bring?
When last did we
Fly through the heavens,
Together —
In the night
While you slept,
And you dreamed?
© 2007 John Fontana
Note to self — if you gotta blog, blog here
You know, I get my thoughts out pretty well on here. It might be snipping about personal matters, it might be poetry, it might be just re-listing song lyrics (which seem to be popular with the Search Engines) or quoting movies. Whatever the case, I blog here not-so-much but I do blog here from time to time.
I also blog elsewhere… And tonight I figured I would blog on DFA-link int he Pinellas County DFA group about my fondness for Al Gore and how I am holding out for him to enter the 2008 Presidential primaries.
The only thing I didn’t expect when I blogged this was the fact the post was going to get wider exposure than what I was aiming for. Much wider. Hugely wider.
Blog for America front-paged wider.
More than three years ago, I never would have dreamed in my wildest imagination that I would be featured on the front page of Blog for America — the then-It blog of the Howard Dean for President campaign. Dean failed in his attempts, but he founded Democracy for America in an effort to organize Democratic support better. Blog for America lived on and is still highly thought of on the liberal/progressive blogosphere.
And at 11:45 PM ET, on February 12th 2007 — yours truly has made it to the front page. Whodathunkit?
Incomplete or not, here it comes…
I started writing this one months ago while someone was kvetching to me in the usual disrespectful “you’re there while I need you” manner and gave me a little vision during it.
So one good thing came from my sap act:
Dance of the Ages
Dancing barefoot in the grass
Gypsy woman reflects the ages
Curly hair tied back with rags
The melody makes love to her
Fabric waving through the air
Her dress flaps loose, without a care
Playing on the tamborine
And watchers heeding her every move
Gypsy woman lives on the road
No roots or ties, she knows no home
Her band of gypsies come and go
Strangers eyes are her closest friend
Night falls and the music ends
She washes, naked, at the rivers edge
Pale moonlight bathes her in a glow
She longs for the throes of passion
Day comes and the troop pushes forth
On their course, their road heads north
Gypsy woman heeds that cry
Somewhere new, there’s a strangers eye —
To captivate and to alure
A lovers gaze, a young man’s urge
To tease and taunt through her dance of ages
She lures them to her like cats to string
© 2007 John Fontana
More poetry
On a creative tear.
Moral Suicide
What is a standard worth
When you are
Unhappy in life under it?
What is a principle worth
If it keeps you alone
Day-dreaming of a bliss that
Isn’t real?
The rules and laws
You set for yourself
Are made to be broken —
–unless you dread where
Life will lead
Without them
Unhappiness is a constant,
When longing an unattained goal
Which amounts to the
Standard practice
Of my life
© 2007 John Fontana
Intelligent Warming
Well, why don’t some of us believe in Global Warming besides political reasons? Matt Baldwin (he of Defective Yeti fame) surmises things in three frames.
One article leads to $5 into a non-existent campaign vault
Al Gore is the 800 pound gorilla in the room for all Presidential aspirants in the 2008 election season. No matter who you prefer or which political party you are tied to — Gore is the name if he were to run for President (and remains the marquee name in the shadows). I’m not going to throw around bitter trash about 2000. That’s over, that’s done with and the country’s been screwed up since.
At any rate, there is an article with former Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile who is hinting that we may know if Gore is in or out by Oscar night.
With that knowledge and with that little glimmer of hope, I took a leap and put $5 bucks to good use.
Switcheroo
So just in case you haven’t been on Stonegauge in a matter of days, just so you know, I updated the look of the site to something totally different… What do you think? (Oh, it’s not like I expect any comments as I don’t get any comments — but I ask anyway just for shits and giggles).