Wednesday November 9 is the 2011 Country Music Awards – an event once so important to me that I would put my schedule on hold so I could enjoy watching this annual awards show on tv.  For a few years now, I have committed my Wednesday nights to leading a small group for church’s student ministries.  The past 2 years, one of my kids happened to be sick on the same Wednesday nights as the awards show, so I volunteered to be the parent to stay home with the sick kid and I didn’t have to miss the show nor play hooky from youth group – I had a legitimate reason for calling in sick.  This year, there is again a virus circulating through our family, and I think I have a mild case…  but things have changed.  Even if one of my kids was ill tonight, I would be the one to go to youth group and let Hubby stay home with the sick kid(s).  Luckily, I think we’ll both be able to make it to youth group tonight, and I am so excited!  The new series we started last week is about demons, and it gave me a great connecting point with my girls – we had a great group time last week!  Now that I’m back from maternity leave and free from the distractions of pregnancy, I am stoked to build relationships with my youth group girls and help them build their spiritual relationships with Jesus Christ.  I am so excited about youth group tonight that the country awards show hardly matters to me – I might try to set up a recording device so I can watch it later, but watching it live doesn’t matter to me at all when once it was dire for my entertainment.

Maybe I’m getting old…  no, I think I’m growing up!  It’s so cool to me that God is teaching me about prioritizing and also about using my free time and leading me toward hobbies that glorify Him.  How amazing is it that I can be entertained, relaxed, refreshed, and feel fulfilled, not by doing something that only I enjoy but by doing something that affects others in a positive way as well?

Another week, another post.  As one of you mentioned in a previous post of mine, this blog lets my friends know about my life even if I don’t post often so I guess any danger of this blog closing has vanished as it is a really good point. Anyway, I finally finished the DVD I was working on for my cabin last Saturday- well, mostly.  There is still one I am trying to fix because the DVD player I tried it in kept glitching at the menu, even after I changed the video and readded it.  Yes, each camper got a DVD with a customized menu- an animation of themselves done with Corel’s Painter 4 Essentials.  With it, you can turn a photo into something that looks like a painting.  Oddly enough, though it goes through an animated process “painting” the picture, you can’t save the animation.  Luckily though I still had Camstudio installed from when admin was trying to save a video when JibJab was a bit slow in allowing his paid download last year.  It did the job perfectly.

Since then, I have been busy or just plain tired.  Mondays are back to having no time to post, and I have been getting up early every day this week, today included, so I have just not felt like posting.  Today however I had an incident that couldn’t wait for a post.  Actually, it’s the latest in things that have been going through my mind as a post for awhile about names and relations.  About names, a couple of recent namesakes have run across my life either personally or in the news.  One of them is the CINO (if you are familiar with the political term RINO you will understand this abbreviation considering his recent interview with the local paper) named Milton Bradley.  I wonder, is that his real name?  I know many entertainers have stage names, but I don’t really know if that applies to sports figures.  If the name is real, how did kids treat him growing up?  Milton Bradley of course was once a big gaming company in case anyone reading this has forgotten.  It’s not a big name anymore of course having been absorbed by the gaming behemoth Hasbro, but still when the ball player Milton was growing up I’m sure the company was still known.

On the same topic I met a student teacher the other day when subbing at a middle school.  His namesake was a  famous inventor every child in school learns, so I am sure he must have been teased mercilessly.  His name? Tom Edison.  Undoubtedly he is still asked by kids about it, and will be for some time considering his chosen profession.  I can attest to this considering my own last name is a common word if not a namesake (though kids did once ask if I’m related to a character on TV with the same last name- yes, a character- not an actor 😛 ) and I get asked about it all. the. time.

Before I move on to today, I should start a bit earlier.  Kids aren’t the only ones who ask about relations when they encounter a name.  When I encounter a child with a particularly famous last name I sometimes ask about it.  Of course, most either have no idea who I’m talking about or just say no, they aren’t related.  Well they are, as we are all related to the first man and woman known as Adam and Eve, and later Noah since he and his family were the only survivors of the great flood.  They are related, but many generations removed of course.  However, one time when I was student teaching myself, I came across a girl with the last name of Fogerty and of course had to ask about John Fogerty.  Instead of the expected response she said that yes, he was her uncle.  Pretty old for her uncle I would have to say, but maybe she meant great-uncle.  I clarified since John Fogerty could still be a common name and not in fact refer to the former CCR member, but she maintained that he was her uncle.  Well, I suppose someone has to say yes to this question.

Today’s encounter started with a guided reading group.  We were discussing a book where a shy boy had a talent for playing the piano.  He started out telling no one, even his friends, about this talent but ended up overcoming nervousness and performing in front of the school in a talent show.  We talked about performing and of course I shared that I acted.  The kids’ eyes really lit up at this, and I mean really.  When I said this they assumed I meant I acted on TV.  I have never met this kind of fixed attention before when I brought up acting, but it turns out they had a reason for linking acting with television.  Their teacher is the mother of an actor who plays a major role in Smallville, and even came to visit last year.  I probably shouldn’t say which one, but his last name is not the same as his mother’s, so I might if prodded.  I looked up his bio at a few sites and there’s no mention of his mother’s name so it may not even take much prodding…

EDIT: I guess I should have looked up Milton Bradley on Wikipedia before I asked my question, as it has this to say about the baseball player:

Bradley is named after his father, Milton Bradley, Sr., who filled out the birth certificate form without his wife’s permission. As Milton’s mother says of his father, “He wanted a Junior, and made damn sure he got one.”^[1] Junior, who shares a name with a popular board game pioneer, has always been teased about his name, but has never changed it because the memories it evokes “only drive him harder”.^[1]

The problem digital TV is that you either get the picture or you don’t. I was watching a show this evening when everything went black. I tried other stations and they were black too. I’m fairly certain there is some sort of weather going on between me and the stations antennas. In the old analog days, just a couple of months ago, the stations would have filled with static, and I could have watched the end of the show. Now I just have to wait until I can watch it on the net (and they don’t seem to have fast forward), or catch repeat. I think I’ll just skip it.

I started thinking about this digital drop point. Why should they drop off so quickly? I haven’t studied the technology behind it yet, but I wonder why a digital signal should just drop off to nothing. On occasion, I’ve noticed the pixelated views of the digital signal when the wind starts blowing, or rain falls. I’m thinking that an advanced receiver could capture enough pixels to keep the sound and video going for a bit. A time delay buffer should be able to mix and fill in the missing data. It’s done in digital videos and photography, so why not on TV. Just wondering…

So, what to post today?  I have spent a wholly unexciting week at home not getting the things done thet I need to, such as attempting to secure a post-school-year job.  There is also the basement and garage over here that need some attention.  And of course the blogging that I’ve ignored- sorry readers and fellow bloggers.  Instead, I have just watched some movies and a lot of recorded TV shows that have built up over the weeks.  There wasn’t even 4th/5th grade ministry at my church this weekend as it’s the last weekend of the month, when they go to service with their parents.  And what a message, by the way- the first of many.  I may just have to comment on the series when my pastor is done with it.  I’ll tell you though it isn’t a very happy topic.  Drama is also on hiatus for a few weeks.

I suppose I could ask for assistance for my brother’s sake.  He is trying to learn more about a painting he just bought.  It’s undoubtedly not worth anything, but he would still like to learn more.  We tried to dig up some information online but failed for the most part.   If there is anything in what we read we didn’t recognize it as pertinent.  In any event, the painting is of a woman over a worn sheet of music.  He tells me his girlfriend’s son tried to play what was visible, but no one recognized it.  It is signed at the bottom Gor 1963.  Is Gor his name?  His initials?  If one of my readers, lurkers even, can help here that would be great.  Here are a couple of photos of the painting.  Ignore the frame- he added that himself.  Thanks.

The continuing saga of Illinois’ embattled governor just keeps getting more and more interesting.  As his impeachment trial opened yesterday, Rod Blagojevich took to the tv airwaves to defend (?) himself.  I saw clips of a few of his tv appearances, and that’s why I included the little question mark above.  It didn’t seem to me that he was doing a good job of defending himself.  In fact, the ladies on The View noticed the same thing, with them noting, “Seems like you’re doing yourself more harm than good.”  The View ladies then hilariously chided the governor, asking him to say “I’m not a crook” – Richard Nixon-style.  Blago refused.

And of course by now you’ve heard about the Oprah for Senator announcement he made on Good Morning America – Blago has admitted that he actually considered Oprah Winfrey to fill Obama’s old Senate seat.  I’m not even going to go there – there were too many other gems that came out of Blago’s mouth yesterday.  Among them:

On his Larry King Live appearance, Blagojevich launched into a bizarre analogy involving cowboys and steer to describe his situation…  I’m not going to go into detail; it was quite lengthy, but it’s worth looking up on youtube or somewhere if you’re so inclined.  WHAT was he TALKING about?!?

Back to Oprah for a minute.  According to Blagojevich, Oprah has more influence than all 100 United States senators combined.  She does have lots of dough; as well as an uncanny ability to get women to diet and save money.  But she doesn’t have the power to declare war or pass legislation that changes lives…  so no, Blago, not even close on that one.

Also on Larry King Live, Blago was shown clips of Saturday Night Live where they make fun of him, namely his thick mane of hair.  “He looks like one of those Fisher Price toy people with its hair on backwards!”  Too funny!  But Blago didn’t think so.   “What show was that?”  he asked.  But a few sentences later, he talked about how they can make fun of him during skits or whatever and that he didn’t care.  But if he had never heard of Saturday Night Live as he acted, how would he know it was a show comprised of skits?  He was just trying to insult Saturday Night Live by acting as though he had never heard of it!

And throughout the governor’s press junket yesterday, he kept repeating – “The fix is in” referring to the “fact” that the Illinois House is impeaching him because they’re out to get him – not because he did anything wrong.  I agree with Blago on one aspect – his impeachment in inevitable.  In the mean time, I have to admit how fun it is to watch this guy in action and marvel at the fact that he was ever elected to such a major public office.  I think he might be certifiably nuts!

What does a sub when it’s Thanksgiving week and three of four districts he’s signed up in is off all week? Catch up on TV of course 🙂 . For the fourth district it is near impossible to get a job off the web when few show up (teachers must have been told to not take this week off if possible) and it’s the time of day when the system calls subs as well as shows the jobs on the web. When trying to select such a job it is locked 95% of the time because the system is offering it to someone over the phone at the same time. So, as I tried this morning I finished yesterday’s paper (I’ll go out sometime later today to retrieve today’s paper currently laying at the end of the driveway), viewed a few more themes for this blog, and ate some breakfast. I think I like the theme I am now using, so barring any annoying bugs this should be the one. It has a static width optimized for 1024×768 it looks like, meaning there should be no gap issue with my readers- why did only one mention it by the way? Surely others encountered it unless only the one uses Internet Explorer- regardless of the window size and there is now only one sidebar making more room for pictures. Those with browser window sizes less than 1024 wide should see a scroll bar at the bottom since the theme width is locked, but the sidebar is on the right so that will be the first thing unseen. The window will have to be pretty narrow I think before you start having to scroll to read the actual posts. I really hope this is a good one because my options are quite limited. Three-column doesn’t work because I like to post images, a lot of the themes are static optimized for 800×600 so that would limit the image size again, and many just don’t appeal to me.

Back to subbing, I expected to have Wednesday through Friday off, but I was really hoping to work today and tomorrow at least.  There is still a slight chance for an afternoon job today, and a chance of course for tomorrow for the time being so I might yet make some money this week.  If I don’t though, there is a pile of recorded shows dating back to the beginning of the summer.  Why I didn’t watch the summer shows I don’t know, but they’re there along with several fall shows.  I would really like to replace all the VCRs in this house with DVD writers one of these days, but money is tight and the other member of this house is quite comfortable with video tapes and wouldn’t know what to do with recordable DVDs.  I set up my little DVD/media player for her to watch some shows I had downloaded, but for now she is skipping them and watching her own backlog of videotaped shows instead.

Speaking of a backlog on shows, I am down to reserve #12 of 32 on season four of The Office at my library, on three copies so I should hopefully have it by Christmas to watch.

I felt too restless to write blogs, but I’m too tired to take the kids anywhere, so it’s either write in my blog or sit here on my computer looking up scary ailments that could be afflicting my husband.  So blogging it is…

As you may have read on other tangents.org blogs, our community theater is about to open its production of The Nerd – an (I still hate putting the word “an” in front of hilarious, but oh well) hilarious comedy written by Larry Shue.  My husband is portraying the Nerd, a character named Rick Steadman, who is without any social ettiquette whatsoever, to put it mildly.  He does an excellent job at the part, if I do say so myself, and that’s a compliment, really it is – he’s not a nerd in real life!  In the play, Rick has an autographed picture of Hugh Downs, and all this time during rehearsal, I’ve been wondering, who is Hugh Downs?  The name sounds familiar, but I didn’t know anything about him, so I looked him up.  Turns out he is a fellow Ohioan, born in Akron, went to high school in Lima, and he’s still alive.  He anchored the newsmagazine show 20/20, hosted the Today show, was the announcer for The Tonight Show with Jack Paar, and he also hosted the game show Concentration.

So having an autographed picture of Hugh Downs is quite nerdy.  But then again, I looked him up on wikipedia, so what does that make me?

SPOILER ALERT!!!  The following blog post contains a synopsis of the final episode of the ABC reality show, The Mole.  Do not read if you don’t want to know what happened!

Last night’s Mole finale did not disappoint.  Well, maybe for those of us who got 0 points in the tangents.org mole poll…  But as far as dragging out the results episode like most reality shows do, the Mole was not guilty of this.  The episode was only an hour long, they still had one elimination to reveal, and they revealed the winner of the game without dramatizing things by adding a commercial break.  Turns out,  good guy Mark took home the cash, all so his wife can stay home with the kids and not work anymore (be careful what you wish for; sometimes I wish I could go back to work and get away from the daily chaos of the chorus of crying kids!).  Then, it was time to reveal the mole…  but first a dramatic commercial break, of course!  We returned from commercial, and they milked it even further with some more dramatic pausing…  and then we learned – CRAIG is the MOLE!

At least I don’t have to go back and count up points for our tangents.org mole poll – I believe Jamiahsh is the only one who ever guessed Craig, therefore, with 1 point, he is the winner of our tangents mole poll!

After the big reveal, which happened quite early in the hour I might add, compared to the way they’ve done things in past mole seasons, time was spent recapping episodes with the knowledge of the mole’s identity.  It was fun to see the different contestants’ reactions to Craig being the mole, and it was even more fun to watch the clips that were recorded during the playing of the game of them suspecting Craig.  I always like when they explain the hidden clues from every episode that (supposedly) pointed to the mole.  I say supposedly pointed to the mole because a few of the clues were far-fetched; for example the business about the latitude and longitude.  One of the clues I liked is the one where they altered the backround where Craig was giving an interview.  There were two “i” statues, and they altered them so there were 4 “i” statues when Craig was doing his interview.  Get it?  4 “i”‘s = four eyes – Craig is the only player to wear glasses.

Anyway, it was a great season like always.  Even though I lost the tangents.org mole poll, I’m actually glad I did because if Nicole (she was my guess) was the mole, I would have felt it was so obvious it actually would have dampened my enthusiasm for another season.  But since I was SO taken by surprise, as far as another mole season goes, I say, bring it on, and soon!

The comic book.  When people today think of comic books, usually superheroes come to mind.  With the introduction of Superman in 1938, this trend grew through the golden years and later with dozens of superheroes created.  Big names like Stan Lee come to mind, who has become so big he was given his own reality show, Who Wants to be a Superhero? which lasted for two seasons.  Many comic-book heroes have made their way to the TV screen in the form of cartoons and live-action shows, and have been making it big in movies as well.  Within the last few months we have had Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and the much-anticipated soon-to-be-released Dark Knight (Batman).

However, superheroes are just one of many genres of comic books.  Among the years westerns, war, sci-fi and fantasy, detective, horror, and many others have had some big hits and long-running series over the years.  While I have read several different genres as a kid, one really stuck with me, or maybe they are a couple different ones.  Harvey comics, which brought us the likes of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich are of a genre which you might call funny comics.  I don’t know the true genre name for these but they were close to my heart growing up.  Another series I have always enjoyed was kind of a genre unto itself, though others have tried to duplicate its success.  Like many superhero comics, this series has been going strong since the golden age of comics.  It has spawned some cartoons, at least one live TV series (plus a pilot that never got off the ground), and even a movie.  The series I’m talking about is the Archie comic book series.   Since 1941, readers have been able to follow the high-school antics of Archie and his gang, which has periodically changed to fit the times.  The most recent incarnation made the characters more anime-like.

Recently, while at the library I encountered two DVD collections of the old cartoon series.  One set was for Sabrina the Teenage Witch from the early 70s, which unlike the later cartoons and TV series actually resembled the Sabrina I know from the comic books.  It was actually not shown on its own originally, but part of The Archie Comedy Hour.  I also found a DVD collection for the original cartoon, The Archie Show.  The latter was apparently a smash hit 40 years ago in 1968, before I was born.  Each cartoon contained a new dance move and a new song from The Archies, a band that was put together for the show not unlike The Monkees, but instead of becoming a band unto themselves they hid behind the cartoon faces of Archie and friends.  This one show apparently cornered a whopping 55% of the viewership when it was on.  In any event, I wound up checking both of them out and just finished watching the Archie DVDs (and not too soon, as it is on reserve and not able to be renewed- it’s due today) and two of the three Sabrina DVDs.  As typical for cartoon series of the time they were done on the cheap with static backgrounds that when made to move like when a character is walking or running will repeat, and a few voice actors doing all of the voices.  Okay, these sort of things are still done, even with the voice actors in hits like The Simpsons, but they are still done to keep the costs down.  Some of the voices the actors came up with left something to be desired in my opinion.  I really didn’t like Jughead’s or Veronica’s voices.  A couple others, like Archie and Mr. Weatherbee grew on me as I watched, and still others I had no problem with at all.

Now that I am nearly finished with these two collections I look forward to being able to watch other series, except maybe the recent Sabrina cartoons which were actually a spinoff of the 90s TV series, which in turn was a modern remake.  I haven’t read the recent anime-style comics for the same reason I didn’t enjoy the TV series, and for that matter don’t enjoy the modern Battlestar Galactica- nostalgia.  They are simply not the same characters I grew up with.  The ones I do want to watch range from Archie’s TV Funnies, US of Archie, and Archie’s Fun House from the same company that brought us the two I watched (Filmation); to later incarnations like the New Archies and Archie’s Weird Mysteries which may or may not be relevent to my nostalgia.  I also would like to pick up any Richie Rich cartoons I might find, and any other Harveytoons which are like the comics I read, and any comic collections that are released on computer similar to MAD’s CD set from about ten years ago.  I understand there is one for Archie now that can be had at archiecomics.com.  When I have some income again I will have to pick it up.

Today was the first day I’ve been to a play tryout where I didn’t read for a role. I was just there as a producer. It was kind of fun just sitting there watching others try out. No worries, no trying to figure out a role/persona. I really enjoyed myself. We had some new people trying out for roles, and it is good to get new blood in the theater. We just can’t have the same people in shows over and over again. I’m all for the new people getting parts.

I’m currently listening to the Tigers and Indians baseball game. The big difference is I’m listening to it on the Indian’s Radio network, instead of the Tiger’s Radio Network. I find it strange that the announcers don’t seem to know the Tigers. Maybe it is because I don’t know the other teams as well, but I don’t think the Tiger’s announcers are nearly as bad when it comes to the Cleveland games. I have caught them in other games, not knowing players, but you should know your division rivals. Cleveland/Detroit has been a big rivalry for as long as I can remember. I would think the Indians announcers would do better. The only reason I listen the the Indian station, is that I get it on all of the radios in the house. The Tiger station, I need to be in the car, or get my daughters battery powered portable to hear it. Even then, it is very touchy as to location, and direction of the antenna. Tiger’s just won!

Need to get some time off work soon. I enjoyed the 3 day weekend, but I would like to get time off to see my family all over the country. I guess I need to talk with the peoples in charge at work.

I’m looking forward to a movie or two with my girls this weekend. I’m going to have some time with both daughters at home so it is possible.

Suffering from a sore back for the past few days (it seems like weeks). Not much I can do about it other than resting it. Slow walking, moderate stretching, and making sure my back is supported while sitting are all helping. Not sure what I did to pull the muscles, but it was nagging for a while.

I haven’t watched much network or cable TV (other than part of a ball game) all summer. Can’t say I miss it. I went a few years, while working 2nd shift, without TV, I am guessing I could continue for a long time. Being in the middle of the woods, I don’t have cable (to far in the country) or satellite (too many trees). I don’t see myself getting those anytime soon. I really think I could live without TV. Owned or rented movies, well that is a different story.

I really guess that is about it. I am thinking of upcoming days that will be happening in July so I will have more to write about at a later date…