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October 31, 2006

Happy Halloween!

I figured a link to the Wikipedia entry on Halloween might be appropriate for this blog entry today. This used to be my 2nd favorite "holiday" of the year when I was little, but it has since lost its appeal for many reasons.

I know that I really haven't posted any new content on the blog as of late. Between a hectic schedule at work and keeping extremely busy during the past few weekends, my posting schedule has gone all to hell. Hopefully I will either be inspired to write something or need to rant about something in the next few days.

I do plan to post something soon regarding my Playstation 2, Guitar Hero and my wanting to get Final Fantasy XII.

Stay tuned...

~out...

Posted by ed at 08:52 PM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2006

Stuck in traffic with the rest of Louisville

I left work today around 5:10pm. My route home has been to take the Watterson from where work is all the way around to US-60. Even though the route is roughly 4 miles longer, I go this way because the Watterson has three or four lanes of traffic depending on where you are at any given point. Traffic also flows much better through this section of Interstate, typically slowing down for a brief period just prior to the ramp to I-64.

Today, however, I found myself stuck in traffic till roughly 6pm. Traffic came to a complete stand-still right around the ramp for I-65 at the airport. After I sat in traffic for a while, I gave Amanda a call to see what she was doing and to tell her that I was running behind because of traffic. When she answered, she explained that she too was stuck in traffic ... only she was seeing the same kind of stand-still at I-71.

I turned on the radio to see what had happened.

Apparently, the Vice President was in town today doing some promoting for a Republican here in town. The cops were blocking all the routes between the airport and his destination, therefore all traffic on the route was blocked off. That's why Amanda was seeing the same kind of backup that I was seeing over 15 miles away.

After being in traffic for way over an hour, I finally made my way home. I got in the door and was feeling very uptight and frustrated. I expressed to Amanda my feelings about the traffic today, to which she whole heartedly agreed. I'm sure that I'm not the only one that felt like this today.

My rant is as follows...

It really goes to show how out of touch from the working man and woman most politicians are today. Everyone in their right mind knows and understands that most workdays end between 4-6PM, and as a direct result leads to the phenomenon known as "rush hour traffic". People are trying to get home from a long days work to be with their family or friends. Only a politician would arrive during rush hour and back up and entire city for a good hour or so, bringing traffic to an absolute halt. And for what? Some national emergency? Nope ... just to make it to a dinner event to raise money for another politician.

... end rant.

I really do wish for the day that we see a politician who really cares about the working man and woman. Someone that will honestly step up for the people and take back our government. Worst case scenario, I would at least like to see someone who cares enough to arrive at an hour that wouldn't effect the vast majority of the city going home from work.

~out...

Posted by ed at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2006

The machine gun shoot

Yesterday was a day that had been planned for several months in advance. Dave, Zack, Mark, Gabe and I went down to the Knob Creek Range and participated in the yearly Machine Gun Shoot. In case if you're not aware of exactly what this event is, I would recommend visiting the official Web site and getting the 411 on what can only be called the greatest gun spectacle on earth.

There were all kinds of guns and gun enthusiasts at the event ... with hundreds of booths setup for your browsing and purchasing enjoyment. The gun shoot was amazing all by itself, but having all of these guns and things around just really made the day, in my opinion. Seeing all of these people around you that truely enjoy being gun owners is a very powerful feeling.

Speaking of the gun shoot ... there were two specific things that really stood out to me. First, the 50-cal guns. When these things were fired, you felt your insides vibrate. When we first arrived at KCR, the first couple of rounds really caught me off guard. I definately jumped a few times, but as the day progressed, I became less edgy about the gun firing and actually enjoyed feeling the shock wave that these powerful weapons produced.

The second thing about the shoot was the night show. They loaded tracer rounds in a vast majority of the guns and let 'em rip when the sun went down. I know this is really geeky of me to say, but watching these tracer rounds being fired out of the guns into the hillside really reminded me of a space battle scene straight out of Star Wars. There were red tracers, there were green tracers ... and it looked like I was watching a real life space fight with lasers.

One of the more sober moments of the day was when a preacher came on the loud speaker around 4 or 5pm. He was praying for all of the soldiers out and about defending the country, praying for those who have fallen protecting the country and for those who have made it back home safely. What was a truely remarkable site was this: I was smack dab in the middle of the tent were all of the venders were, and not a single soul was moving. The vast majority of the people (several hundred at best guess) were standing there, most with their heads down and listening to every word that the preacher had to say.

Afterwards, a lady was on the loudspeaker singing the national anthem. Once again, everyone was dead quiet and not moving. Once she finished, someone behind me shouted "hoooraaaah!" and everyone began cheering.

God bless the USA.

Overall, the event was a great time. I bought a hoodie for me and Zack. I knew it was going to be colder when the sun went down, so I wanted to make sure that he and I both stayed warm. While everyone did have a good time at the event, Zack unfortunately lost a $35.00 knife that he had been wanting a while, and he whined about it for several hours after the fact. Dave and I told him that it was a lesson learned and to be more careful with your things. There will always be other knives to be had and lost, after all.

...out~

Posted by ed at 08:20 PM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2006

Seven years ago

Seven years ago today, Amanda and I began our relationship roughly seven days after meeting each other in person.

For those that don't know, Amanda and I met online when she was down in Murray, KY attending college at Murray State University. The funny thing was that we were both from Frankfort. We ran in the same circle of friends but we never once met. It was only when she moved Western Kentucky did our paths cross.

The story behind our meeting was purely by coincidence. I had just gotten out of a relationship a few weeks prior and wasn't ready to get into another one at this point. One night I was bored and went to Excite.com to browse the forums. Now, what's wierd about this is that prior to this day, I had never once visited the Excite.com Web site and to this day I never go there. Heck, I don't know if it still exists or not ...

Hmmm, I guess it does.

So, while I'm browsing I come across this posting in the forums from some woman. I don't know who she is, where she's from or nothing. The post was quite sad. It explained how she had gone through so many bad relationships in the past few months (or years, I'm a little vague on the period of time). She went on to say that she was really beginning to feel that there was no such thing as a "good man".

Well, that did it for me. I registered an account on Excite and posted a reply to the forum message. I didn't have much to say other than something along the lines of "Don't worry, there are good guys out there. You just got to keep looking." After the post, I signed offline and didn't think about it much until the next day when I received an e-mail from this anonymous person.

She introduced herself as "Amanda". Keeping in mind that I wasn't looking for any kind of relationship, I thought that it might be a good idea to e-mail back. After all, there was nothing wrong with having an online friend ... something that I was very familiar with after working at MSN for a few years in the mid-90s. We e-mailed back and forth quite a bit just trying to get to know one another. Eventually, one of us asked where the other was from.

Once we found out that I was in Frankfort and that she was from there as well, the convesation got to be very interesting. We began to ask if we knew certain people. Sure enough, Amanda knew quite a few people that I knew and vice versa. I worked with one of her very close friends when I was the bar manager at Tumbleweed.

We moved from e-mails to talking on the phone once in a while. One day she told me that she was coming back home to Frankfort for the weekend and asked if I wanted to meet up. I told her that sounded like fun, so we agreed to meet the Thursday night she got in.

There's more to the story, but I posted that last year. Feel free to read up on that one if you want to know more about how that Saturday went.

Thank God for me being bored one night.

...out~

Posted by ed at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

October 01, 2006

As sirius as one can get

Amanda has been wanting satellite radio for some time now. Her want really came to a head when some moron decided to break off her car antenna to use for a crack pipe. Since that point, she hasn't really had a radio in her car to listen to.

Granted, she's had her CD player, but that can only get you so far. We have a limited collection of music, so after a period of time it can tend to repeat. I personally feel like I know most of the songs in our collection by heart, and I'll be the first to admit that they feel like they're starting to get old.

A few weeks ago, Amanda and I were in Best Buy looking for speakers for my Aveo. During this time, we happened to walk by the satellite radio display, which I saw Amanda paying great attention towards. We looked over the radios that they had available and glanced over the booklets that were available. It seemed that there was really no difference between XM and Sirius. Both have talk, sports, a wide variety of genres ... but I know people who have Sirius and have nothing bad to say about it. Not to mention that they have Howard Stern.

So I've known that Amanda has wanted satellite radio for a while now. Today, I went to Best Buy hoping that they might have a deal on a Sirius radio ... and sure enough, they did. I grabbed a clerk to make sure that I didn't need to purchase any additional items to make the radio work in Amanda's car. I was satisfied with the response he gave me, so I took the unit up to the front and checked out.

Oh, and I bought myself a 1GB thumb drive for $25.00.

I brought home the radio and handed the bag to Amanda, saying "here's your surprise". She knew I was going to Best Buy to pick up something, but she didn't know what. The look on her face when she pulled the box out of the bag was priceless. She finally had her satellite radio.

At this moment, she's outside in her car signing up for the monthly Sirius service. I hope that she enjoys the radio and the service.

~out...

Posted by ed at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)