I'm finding something out. No, check that. I've been finding something out. Being creative takes an enormous amount of energy and brain power. At least for me it does. I have a feeling it comes naturally to some people, how I wish it would come naturally to me. Case in point, there have been lots of things for me to write about in the past week. But I haven't written anything because all the energy used to write creatively has been taken up by the demands of work. My department at work is in the process of moving a show from one studio to another, resetting the set, relighting the set and turning it High Def with the goal of shooting some episodes next week. It's a tall order. Add on top of that next week's elections and all the graphic prep, show organizing, figuring out where six or ten satellite feeds are going along with rehearsals and the very fluid daily show with all the normal demands that makes. Is this complaining? I hope not. I can't find a sane moment with which to decide.

Anyway, I've got pictures from last weekend's DC Shenanigans, but with the super full schedule at work I keep forgetting to post them there and then forget that they're at work when I leave. Maybe at some point I'll remember to post them. I also had a job interview a month ago that seemed to go pretty well. It was one of the ones that gets filed under "weird." "Why," you say? I went to it on four or five hours of sleep because of the work schedule. I kept getting asked questions that you need to be awake to answer. Like, "How do you approach a project," and, "Who is your favorite editor and why?" The latter question I couldn't even answer because I couldn't come up with the name of the movie that was playing in my mind much less name its editor. Somehow they put my resume on top but after trying to figure out what, exactly, to do, it just didn't sit right moving to another job at the moment. ...

MP, I forwarded your latest post on to one of the senior news producers at my job. I'm not sure he'll use it, but I'm sure he'll find it interesting. It's an amazing post.

I've noticed a trend with each subsequent recent visit I've made to Washington, DC. I'm not sure the humor will come across because I don't have much time to write and the scenario may be one of those "you just had to be there" moments.

Way back in July Tom and I visited DC for the 4th Fireworks. One of the stops on our tour was the Library of Congress. We didn't know it until we got there, but, being the 4th of July, the library was closed...bummer. The entryway did provide a good shelter from the rain that was falling, though. So at least we got to see the outside. Back in August I visited BP. I don't remember what we actually did (heck, I don't even remember what I did three weekends ago, but I know I didn't get in to see the LOC. Then, middle last week, I noticed my weekend had completely freed up. So after some emails, Facebooks, phone calls and voicemails, I made my way back up to DC to BP in his new digs.

This time the LOC was actually open, allowing visitors, we entered the building and I stood in the foyer emptying my pockets of all things metal. It was almost as hard getting into this building than an airport. BP was first through the metal detector and had pointed out his pocket knife, the graduation gift from the aunts. It was not allowed in the building and left him with two choices. It would either have to be thrown out or he would have to leave. At some point I walked through the metal detector not noticing that BP had walked back through on his way out deciding it was better not to invoke the wrath of the aunts by stashing the knife or asking a guard to hang on to it.

All of that to say, I can tell you the exterior of the LOC is quite nice. The building is pretty old and kind of impressive. The foyer is quite nice as well and pretty echo-y. Maybe next time we'll actually be able to get in the library room itself, especially since BP and I have decided that he should leave his knife at home and remember to bring his Fed ID.

I was remarking to myself earlier today how different swimming is from running, the difference between the two workouts. After a run I typically collapse into some mush somewhere thoroughly satisfied that I have just worked out and lay there for the rest of the night. It's a great feeling. When swimming I never really feel like I've worked anything out until I stop. It's then that I realize I'm breathing hard and am having a harder time than normal lifting my arms. The major difference in swimming is the high after the swim. I can't really explain it because it is so unlike running which I am accustomed to. After running you're tired and can't move and have a high. After swimming you are also tired, can move around easier but don't want to because of the high. It's like you can enjoy the high more after swimming because your body isn't beat up from running. I just thought I'd share that especially now since I can do that cool underwater swimming turn in some kind of fashion like the pros.

Anyway...

Fall, I believe, has officially arrived in Hampton Roads. In the course of a week we went from highs in the high 70s to highs in the high 60s and even those highs are dropping a degree or two a day. Although it's kind of sad as another summer is ending and I took my bike out for one of the last rides of the season last night, it's a welcome change from the highs in the 90s with a ton of humidity. We're having bonfire in the backyard kind of weather, which I would definitely be taking advantage of if I had a backyard to take advantage of it in. But aside from the welcome change in weather, Fall means at least one more thing, sooner than later jondale and tomdle will decend on France - literally - and, with MP, will have more fun than humanly possible.

On the agenda is Rennes, Normandy, Paris and the Palace of Versailles (three days in Paris). I cannot express the level of my excitement, nor will I try. Hopefully the pictures will speak for me in that respect.

This morning I came across a bit of interesting news that deserved some research. It looks as though Mac OSX's Finder - along the lines of the Explorer for all you Windows users out there - will be rewritten in Cocoa as opposed to Carbon, the programming language the Finder has been on for at least as long as OSX has been out. Honestly, I have no idea what this means except to say that if Cocoa speeds up the Finder at all, even approaching the snappiness it had in OS9, I will be upgrading as soon as it becomes compatible with my Post Production apps. Some interesting reads on this are out on the web. This one from Apple Insider has the generic "official" rumored report. Three more I'll link to are from way back in 2001. The Register's report is why OSX's Finder was not made a Cocoa application, a blog post from MacRumors.com taking note of Apple CEO Steve Jobs remarks at a Keynote address regarding the Finder's sluggishness, and, perhaps the most interesting, further discussion on the subject from a seperate The Register article which MacRumors.com linked to in their blog post.

Now to something completely different. Over the course of the last week or past couple of days, I've broken down and decided to get a gym membership to some place that has a pool. Since the area YMCAs are relatively close to work and home I decided on them, until I saw the lap swim schedule which was not friendly to my schedule at all. Bummer. So I landed on the next best thing, a city rec center. Since I no longer live in Virginia Beach I had to pay $100 for a three month membership which is not too shabby seeing as how the Y was going to cost $60 a month. Sucking it up and shelling out some money for a pair of goggles after digging out my board shorts bought across the street from Huntington Beach and packing up the beach towel AD gave me, I made my way to the rec center, gave them their money, and swam for about 25 minutes; my first aerobic exercise in about two months. Top it off with a celebratory BK Whopper and you've got yourself one incredibly happy, possibly the most content, infamous jondale.

So I was in Subway today. More specifically I was in line at Subway today awaiting my turn to order my usual foot long tuna sub on Italian Herbs and Cheese with Pepperjack Cheese, everything except jalapenos and pepper sauce red stuff, with mustard.

I love that sub.

I am a usual at this particular Subway. One of the employees must love his job as a submarine sub preparer, and there is this little oriental woman, maybe a grandma age, they make the subs just right. It's worth it to go this particular Subway. Anyway, I'm in line behind a guy, giving him his "space" or, at least, what I consider to be "space" which is far more space than normal people give. Then I get poked in the back. An older gentleman walked in the door after me and is almost standing on top of me. He's taller, has on a golf/polo shirt and a pair of sweat pants that are too short.

"You can stand closer, he won't bite you," he says to me, or something like that.

"I like to give people their space," I replied. Following with something to the effect of not liking to stand on top of people.

Now, mind you, this is one situation I have never been in. I hate it when people stand so close to me that they could share their gum but I've never been able to tell some other person just in casual conversation that, no, I'm not going to stand closer to the person ahead of me and have that double as saying you are too close to me could you please back off. He didn't get mad, which was great, because I didn't realize what I actually said until after it left my mouth.

Luckily we had something else to joke about. One of the employees was making subs so fast she could have either entered submarine sandwich making as an Olympic sport or had been hired from MacDonalds and not been told she doesn't have to work at Warp 9.5.

The whole thing just goes to show the kind of entertainment you can have when you get the hankering for a sub, watching a super fast sub maker try and figure out if a person who hardly speaks any english wants another sandwich besides the one she's already making, and the old guy behind you who wants, among some other condiments, exactly five jalapenos on his sub.

Okay, I thought you all would like to hear of my escapades from the past 30 or so hours. Almost three weeks ago I got my cast off and was told that after two weeks I could buy a pair of Vans and work myself into those, slowly getting out of the air cast. Last Thursday was two weeks. Since I flew home for the weekend on Thursday last week, I decided I would wait to buy a pair of skater sneakers until I got back, which was yesterday. So yesterday for lunch I went to DSW, Sears, Macy's and some other sports shoe store in the mall. I could not find a pair of Vans that were not gangster and decent looking. I thought I was going crazy. After work I went to 17th Street Surf Shop (a surfer/skater store) to no avail, Kohl's had nothing I was interested in, Dick's also had nothing. They didn't even stock Vans. You see, I remember the old school Vans style. It was a simple skater shoe. Nothing about it stood out, no big lettering, no overt design to go with super huge baggy pants. It was a simple skater shoe. No more. Now they are angry shoes, gangster shoes. They have huge lettering or skulls or are just not cool enough to wear. It was frustrating.

After my trip to Dick's I called home and was counseled to get a shoe like what I had in mind, not necessarily Vans. This was about 6:30pm or so. So from Dicks I went back to Sears where I saw a pair of Converse that I liked. They didn't had my size but the sole felt weird on my formerly casted foot. I found another pair that could work except those had a defect in the sole and the store didn't have another pair in the same size. At this point I went home.

Today I went to a different Sears, one about 20 minutes from me. They didn't have my size of my back up choice but did have the size of the one that felt weird.

Sheesh.

My decision was to just chalk the weird feeling in my formerly casted foot up to the fact that it hadn't worn a sneaker since August, wasn't molded anymore to any sort of sneaker and bought the pair of Converse. I have them on right now but will take them off to drive home with. I'm constantly paying attention to what my foot is telling me in case I made a bad choice.

Well, the weekend is over. Praise the Lord, all of my flights were right around on time. Pictures will be up soon, sometime today maybe. I'll post the link when they're up.

I think the coolest thing to think about is the next time I'll see Tomdle. It'll be in Dulles International Airport on our way to France. Look out MP, trouble is coming your way...better be ready.

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Update #1: Pictures are up, just go here to see them.

Once again an all too familiar day like this one has arrived. Later on today I will be at the airport waiting to board a plane that will take me back to where I rest my head these days. I'm not unthankful for such a place, nor do I despise it there, I'm just not ready to go back. I have not come down from the last weeks of life yet and had hoped that a weekend away would help me come down at least ten notches (leaving about 1000 to go). I think I almost came down one notch. Going home before you're ready is like being told to finish your ice cream as fast as possible or you will have to throw it out. There's still ice cream to enjoy, but eating it so fast gives you a wicked brain freeze and almost makes you wish you had either thrown out the remainder or passed up the offer preferring to wait for a time when you could sit down and enjoy the whole thing.

I suppose I can't complain too much. This weekend was all about an eye doctor appointment which went very well and seeing a certain sister do a fantastic job drum majoring GC's football game. The weather was awesome. There will be turkey and stuffing in my bag and an extra bag of freshly picked, in season, upstate New York apples traveling back with me as well. And this trip being over means I'm that much closer to the France Adventures in a month or so and then Christmas where I can hopefully get a whole week to do absolutely nothing save a movie or mall outing filling an hour here or there and then only at need.

I'll expound more on this later, but I'm throwing this idea in the mix. I would like to form some kind of coalition, something along the lines of the '90s Contract With America. I'm, and I suspect many other people, are fed up with Taxation without Representation and I at least am ready form a redress of grievances, even consider running for office with the intent to do accomplish a list of tasks and then move on. The tasks to accomplish? The platform to run on? Here goes, at least what comes to the top of my head at the moment:

1. Energy Independence, including drilling here, removing old, crazy stupid, nonsensical environment standards and promoting development of new consumer technologies but allowing the market to decide what is best to implement.

2. Securing the boarders and working to remove the inability to put troops on the boarder of Mexico.

3. Deport ALL illegal immigrants.

4. Work for a 10% Flat Income Tax, significantly reduce the size of the IRS, get rid of the Death Tax, Marriage Penalty Tax, Capital Gains and whatever other taxes are the most ridiculous things in the world.

5. Begin to significantly reduce the size of our Welfare State, reallocating those and other monies, particularly those new monies generated from the Flat Tax, toward actively paying off the National Debt and continuing to do so until it is paid off.

Ah, the weekend. Two whole days to get so much accomplished which usually has nothing to do with anything during the rest of the week. Take today for instance. I am writing this post. How nice of me. I probably won't get to write one again until Thursday night or Friday. And I'll probably take a nap when I get home today. That never happens during the week mostly because I never sit on my couch for more than 15 or 20 minutes, enough time for the body to dictate to my conscious self what it is about to do. And I'm also downloading some programming software. I'm tired of having to go through two menus on my iPod to turn off the Wifi. I want to do that on the home screen so I'm going to try creating a little program to do just that. Yesterday was my recharge day. I'm not sure how well it went. Probably worse than normal because I'm not feeling very alive today at all.

I got tagged by MP the other day. Supposedly I have to write six things about myself that I haven't written on the blog yet? Yeah, sorry MP, that's not happening. There are probably a good amount of people who already know me better than they wished so I'll spare the rest.

Yeah, anyway, some really good stories and situations happened last week. I can't write them all because it would take a very long time and I think my comments section would go on forever. Suffice to say that Monday's work schedule went from 7am to 10:15pm and Thursday's from 7am to 11:15pm. Honestly, I don't mind all those extra hours because most of that overtime will be going to the big November Extravaganza. It does, however, not help things when one tries to do the best job one can do and gets climbed on for the effort. We'll just say that, if certain people had been in charge Thursday night, certain other people would have either been fired or been asked to finish the night and not come back the next day. I'm glad certain people were not in charge. I may make a post about this story when I am more awake.

Wow, this is getting pretty aimless. I think I'll end it here and finish trying to figure out what to write later.

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