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I'm testing this out. If it works, I'll start posting the occasional family video or personal video post semi-occasionally. This trial run is an older video of Lash playing with his Hulk Hands from his 2004 birthday.

Quick Update to Last Post

Yep, I definitely have taken the Ren.Lit. class before, so I dropped it and added a class called Religion in Film. Hopefully it'll be interesting.

School's In

The spring semester started for me yesterday. With two 3-hour classes back-to-back, Wednesday is going to be a long long day for me.

First up was a class called Form and Function on writing fiction. It studies writing and has you practice creative writing, but doesn't have the workshop element to it that a standard creative writing class has (I've taken the writing poetry version of this class in the past). It seems it'll be fun and so I wish it were the second class and not the first, to help recoup my energy. There's a student in there I have some concerns about, but I won't go into further detail until I know I'm not being paranoid.

My second class, a study in Renaissance Literature, I began to realize that I might have already taken the class and simply forgotten it. The class reading list was 99% familiar to me. If I have, it'll suck for me as I have to jockey for new classes.

Weekend Update

I know, this being Thursday, the weekend update is a little late...

Saturday, the Chrisses had us over for dinner (40 clove garlic chicken, collard greens and bread--yummy, with tofu chocolate pie for dessert--more yummy) and games. Denise, Chrissy and Chris' sister, J, played Scrabble for a while while Chris introduced me and the kids to the wonder that is Katamari (more specifically, the PS2 game We heart Katamari). That video game is sooo addicting we went out and bought it for Aeia's birthday the next day (and bought ourselves the presursor--Katamari Damacy--for everyone to play while we wait for Aeia's birthday and the receipt of her birthday presents. We ended with the kids falling asleep to Never Ending Story while the adults played two games of Bell Bottom Bad-Asses on the Mean Streets of Funk. Nice fun nerdiness.

Tag, Chris! You're It.

Back in this post, you said "I'll get one when you get one..."

Well, you're up. I'm thinking of some kanji on the back of my neck next.

Musings

Over Winter Break I had a mini-marathon of Natalie Portman movies. One gave me a wee thought:

It kind of seems to me like the part of George W. Bush as POTUSA is based on, at least a tad bit, Jack Nicholson's POTUSA in Mars Attacks. They definitely came off very similar. Coincidence?

Nine Down

Today was our ninth wedding anniversary. We didn't do anything special for it--it falling on a Tuesday and all (we might get a sitter and go out Saturday). The kids and I got Denise some flowers and cookies (and I added a book and dice).

Not a card, phone call or e-mail from any friends in the know or family, though so that kinda blew.

ABC's

A - Age of first kiss: Romantic? Can't remember--preteen. Platonic? I'm sure I was kissed as a baby.
B - Band listening to right now: Okkervil River
C- Crush on: Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor
D - Dad's name: David Alan Peterson
E - Easiest person to talk to: Rael
F - Favorite Song: Ooh, this is so hard, and is bound to be changed every few days. Psychokiller by the Talking Heads.
G – Greatest Love: My kids
H- Hometown: I can't really say that I ever had one. We moved a lot.
I – Instrument: My instrument is my mind. But I love singing and still plan to learn guitar.
J- Junior High: Anna L. McKinney
K - Kids: I've got three, and if you read this blog regularly, you already know this.
L - Longest car ride ever: Though I was too young to remember it--California to Colorado; in memory--California to Salt Lake City.
M - Mum's name: Karen
N – Nicknames: Dave; Dusty has one for me that I won't share here
O - One wish: All I want is peace in the Middle East... (in-joke aside, my one wish is that my kids are raised full of happiness and love)
P- Phobias: Remission
Q - Quote(s): These were the best years of our life. At least that's what they told us. Personally, I hated high school. I hated all of you and I hope you all rot in hell. (AND) That's life. If nothing else, its life. It's real, and sometimes it fuckin' hurts, but it's sort of all we have. (AND) My mom always says that, when she can see I'm like working something out in my head, she's like, 'you're in it right now' and I'm looking at you're telling this story, and you're definitely in it. (Three quotes from two movies. And I just want to say this to you, my readers: be in it right now, always)
R - Reason to smile: Love
S – Something You Love to Do: Play
T – Time you woke up today: 8a.m.
U – Unknown fact about me: I'm addicted to dvds; oh wait, everyone knows that. Hmm... I'm not telling any.
V - Vegetable you hate: Cauliflower
W - Worst Boyfriend/Girlfriend? Shelley Marie Barker
X - X-rays you've had: I've been x-rayed head to toe--more than once on some occasions.
Y - Yummy food: Fry bread
Z - Zodiac sign: Gemini

Blurred

Something Lighter: Nerdgaming

Last night Denise and I nerdgamed at the Chrisses'. Had a lot of fun despite having to maim John's character in order to save it. I missed the previous session due to previous engagement at Ian's birthday party, so I missed out on John's character already sacrificing his eyesight for the good of the group. After last night, he can no longer clap (what is a blind one-armed archer to do?). I think one of the most interesting aspects of this particular gaming group for me is that some 13 years ago I ran the games that led up to the adventure Chris is now putting us through. It's like watching another director handle the sequel to one of your own opuses and enjoying it thoroughly. Though sometimes frustratingly. Chris can be much more esoteric than me at times.

More...

I was up quite late Thursday night slash Friday morning with my friend Aimee who is dealing with a hard loss of her own. Aim, you're in my thoughts right now, and if there's anything I can do for you, don't hesitate to let me know.

Imaginary Heroes

I just watched this movie on HBO a couple days back, and felt a bit cathartic. Here's a snippet of the review written by George Schmidt on imdb.com:


Why does a family fall completely apart when a serious crisis occurs?

Well in the case of the Travis family it is the shocking, out-of-nowhere sudden horrific suicide by their eldest son Matt (Pardue), a star athlete with nothing but a bright, shiny future ahead who inexplicably offs himself sending his relatives into a whirlwind of emotions (and lack of to boot). Sharp tongued yet surprisingly loving mother Sandy (Weaver, the best thing about the film) resorts to smoking marijuana when she's not dodging the next door neighbor (O'Connell) ; ineffectual father Ben (Daniels in the trickiest performance – making an asshole likable) whose undying love for his dead son sends him into the deepest depths of depression and lashes out at his remaining brood; college age sister Penny (Williams) who attempts to anchor her grief in brief return visits only to party with blinders on and namely middle son Tim (Hirsch) who just is trying to move on with the whole affair and not dwelling on it as best he can yet still getting himself into a series of situations leading to a fall he may not be able to recover from.

That saves me a lot of energy trying to rehash the plot here for y'all.

I left my viewing of it wondering if I could, or should, purchase it for my aunt Deb. On one hand, I think it could speak to her very powerfully. On the other, I think it might piss her off a bit. While I'm not extremely close with most of my family, avoiding the creations of emotional shitstorms is still a pretty good idea.

A bit over ten years ago, my cousin Matt took his own life (a chilling parallel to the movie for me, and ultimately what makes me think of this right now at all). This is literally the first I've ever written or talked about this. When it happened, I was very busy being the strong one every relative around me could lean on. The one person I tried to turn to for support of my own, my ex Shelley Barker refused to give any support because his death was suicidal. This was the end of our relationship, and the beginning of her years of stalking me. I'm digressing.

The first years after his passing, my aunt and uncle began spending a lot more attention on me and my situation in life than they ever had previously. Whether true or not, it felt like they were using me as a sort of surrogate to their parental feelings and expressions. My response was to distance myself from them emotionally, and then once I moved to Chico, physically. As I write this, I realize this is when I began closing myself off from most everyone else in my family as well (save for my grandmother, with whom I've always been closest).

Somehow, I never dalt with the death of Matt. Watching this film was somehow both a wake-up to this fact, and an instrument of letting go. I don't know if I'll begin reconnecting with family more now or not. At this point, I'm not even sure what my point is in writing this post at all.

In my life, I've lost two family members (whom I knew personally), one best friend and one love. Each has affected me in such different ways. I'm now able to feel a warmth when I think of Matt, when I used to just feel empty.

Kids

It's funny sometimes the things kids will worry about. Aeia is strong in her convictions not to jump on the furniture/bed in her room or Lash's. Not because it's the rules, mind you, but because she's afraid of crashing through the floor.

Rael started mimicking Denise on his toy drum today. He'll be walking soon too. Scary.

Jacketed

My grandmother, the loving and giving person she is, sent me a new leather jacket as a late holiday gift. I think it's swell, and really appreciate it.

Now, she says that there was something I'd written in a blog posting about my childhood that suggested this purchase to her...I've spent the last hour or so searching my archives and I'm at a loss...

Regardless, I love it. And I needed it. The last really good, really warm jacket I got (interestingly enough, also a gift from my grandmother)was stolen by Denise and I never get to wear it anymore. I resigned myself to sweatshirts and such. Now I have jackety goodness again and I don't plan to let Denise borrow it.

Inking Possibilities

A year ago, I posted this post about getting a tattoo. I still haven't gotten around to getting one, but I've added new possibilities as I near a likely day of finally doing it:
1. A feather quill to symbolize the writing.
2. Something completely self-designed

Break Time's Over

Lash and Aeia started back in at school again today. FINALLY the winter break is over for them. This last week or so they've really been climbing the walls and driving me a little up the wall as well. Already, now that they're back in school, moods and behaviours are improved.

I Am Jack's Bewilderment

I didn't realize my post about Scrubs would screw up my template so badly.

Oops.

Maintained

Toilet's fixed.

Slow Maintenance Thursdays

One of our toilets is on the fritz and our management folks aren't exactly being prompt about it. Thankfully, we have another fully functional one, but it can be annoying to run downstairs in the middle of the night. Better fix it tomorrow.

Darkening

After years and years, I've grown a little bored of being green haired. Knowing me, it'll be green again after I tire of the break from it, but for now, I've dyed my hair black. So far, it's brought positive reactions from those to see it, which is cool. I'm still getting used to not being an unnatural hue.

Meme of the New Year

I stole this meme from a friend as a wrap-recap to 2005.

Take the first sentence from the first entry of each month for the year and post it again.

January:
As many of you know, I've been faithfully re-reading the Dark Tower series, and first reading the last three books in the series (all released in the past year), far and beyond my favorite story of Stephen King's.

February:
I do so love the BBC show Coupling.

March:
Sometimes it's really aggravating.

April:
In 1988 DC Comics gave its fans the opportunity to vote on the fate of one of its comic book characters: the second Robin the Boy Wonder, Jason Todd.

May:
For some reason I think I should thank Braz King for this.

June:
Saw dr. today about the CT from Tuesday.

July:
Saw War of the Worlds on Friday with the Chrisses.

August:
Monday was Lash and Aeia's first day back to school.

September:
Ultimately, today was a good day.

October:
For the past three weeks we haven't had our Sunday night Deadlands game.

November:
We had two players not show up to Ian's Deadlands game this past Sunday, and we had a major battle.

December:
Instructions: Copy and paste the questions to your blog (with your answers, not mine), and tag at least three others to do the same.



And with this one, I tag no one. But do it if you fee like it.

First Post!

(of 2006 anyway)

I'm going to have soooooo much trouble remembering not to write "o5" on all of my checks and correspondence for a good few months.

So how was everyone's New Years'? I have to admit, mine didn't start out the greatest (but it all works out swell in the end). When Chrissy called to let me know that we would all be nerdgaming for New Years, I was immediately down. Gaming was really not what I wanted to do for New Year's (and to be my opposite, it was immediately right up Denise's alley), but if I say I'll be there, I'll be there and we went. In the end we gamed, and I had a good time despite myself. As far as nerdgaming goes, it was fun, and the kids all had a great time playing and watching movies.

(Here we have Rael in our friend Stan's arms, reaching for the nerdgame book Chris is reading. Rael enjoyed being passed around to a lot of adults for attention).

By midnight, Denise was tired, Rael was tired... so after the clock turned over to the new year, we ended up rolling home. The college kids in our complex were deep in partying when we got here, so it was noisy.

It also was a good thing we came home instead of staying to sleep over (as originally planned) as we were woken up this morning by Denise's sister Autumn on the phone announcing she was in town and coming over with Christmas gifts. She had her latest beau with her, and she looks like she might be swelling just a little... and the visit was nice, which is HUGE coming from Denise's side of the family.