Well, maybe not. But at the very least, he and his band Dire Straits are a bit psychic.
In 1985, they released the album Brothers in Arms. One song from that album was more than just a song, in my opinion. The song, Walk of Life, was also a prophetic description of events that were to happen nearly 10 years later.
I'm sure you all remember the O.J. Simpson trial. Well, here's where things get strange. Sometime either during, or shortly after the trial, I heard Walk of Life on the radio, and some of the lyrics seemed oddly to fit some of the details of the trial. I'm not going to post all of the lyrics here, but excerpts. If you have a mo, go pick the tune up from iTunes, or your chosen music provider. Now, I'm going to put words from the song up, and then my interpretation of them. See what you think....
"Here come Johnny sing oldies, goldies."
Can there be any doubt that this refers to Johnnie Cochran, and his playing of the race card? Isn't that one of the 'oldest stories in the book?'
Or, how about "Turning all the nighttime into the day," which is turning black to white, yes? Or lies into the truth, perhaps?
"He got the action, he got the motion, oh yeah, the boy can play." Obviously more references to Cochran in court. Actions, motions, these are judge things.
"Here comes Johnny, gonna tell you a story. Hand me down my walkin' shoes." This is a blatant reference to the Bruno Magli's made so famous by the trial. Some of the strangest lyrics are near the beginning of the song, however.
"I got a woman down in the tunnel." Isn't that how they referred to the area where Nicole's body was found? The tunnel or somesuch?
Part of the chorus is: "You do the song about the sweet lovin' woman, you do the song about the knife, and you do the walk, you do the walk of life." I shouldn't have to point out the similarites here.
The last words I'm going to cite are these: "And after all the violence and double talk, it's a song in all the trouble and the strife. You do the walk, you do the walk of life." Obviously, the violence and double talk could refer to many things, many places, but when combined with the other lyrics, it's pretty clear.
Oh, and guess what? O.J. did the Walk of Life. Bastard should be rotting in prison, and instead, he's out 'looking for the real killers.'
Well, just thought you'd enjoy that little theory. I've been saying it since the 90's when I first made the connection.
Hope all is well with all of you.....
T.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Saying good-bye to Justin.
One of the problems with having a large extended family is that very often, you can go for loooooong periods of time without seeing people. Case in point: my cousin Justin. The last time I saw him he was maybe 5 or 6, I don't remember. It really has been that long.
On Friday October the 13th, 2006, I attended his funeral. He was 16.
He lived in Colfax, a small town nestled into the Western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It's a small place, everybody knows everybody.
The day was divided into 2 parts: A Catholic Mass for family, and following that, a get-together for...well, pretty much the whole town from what I could tell....
The Mass was dignified, and very emotional. They usually are. I honestly know little enough of the faith I was raised to believe in to relate any particular details of the service here, except to say that I know they did Communion.
This was his Missal (is that even what they call it):
The second event was at the Community Center, and was much looser. Many of his school friends were about, and relatives I hadn't seen since...well, prolly the last funeral. That seems to be the way it is. Somehow it's always the funerals.
There was a banner for people to sign:
And I guess you'd call it a shrine:
How do you say good-bye to a 16 year old boy? I barely knew Justin. We lived half a state away from each other. They ran a slide show, set to music. Songs that meant a lot to Justin, and songs that he had introduced people to. Some of his friends got up and spoke a few words. A friend of his mother's belted out a rendition of "Amazing Grace" that literaly brought tears to my eyes.
The event was capped by a dove release at sundown:
It's taken me quite a while to post this, as you can see. It's been a pretty emotional week.
Now, I hear some of you asking why Friday the 13th? Well, it would have been Justin's 17th birthday. The video below is a local news story about it. I warn you, it's pretty harsh.
News Story.
The asshole father is luck it wasn't MY kid he did that to. Were that the case, he'd be attending his own funeral.
Well, that's all I have for now.
T.
On Friday October the 13th, 2006, I attended his funeral. He was 16.
He lived in Colfax, a small town nestled into the Western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It's a small place, everybody knows everybody.
The day was divided into 2 parts: A Catholic Mass for family, and following that, a get-together for...well, pretty much the whole town from what I could tell....
The Mass was dignified, and very emotional. They usually are. I honestly know little enough of the faith I was raised to believe in to relate any particular details of the service here, except to say that I know they did Communion.
This was his Missal (is that even what they call it):
The second event was at the Community Center, and was much looser. Many of his school friends were about, and relatives I hadn't seen since...well, prolly the last funeral. That seems to be the way it is. Somehow it's always the funerals.
There was a banner for people to sign:
And I guess you'd call it a shrine:
How do you say good-bye to a 16 year old boy? I barely knew Justin. We lived half a state away from each other. They ran a slide show, set to music. Songs that meant a lot to Justin, and songs that he had introduced people to. Some of his friends got up and spoke a few words. A friend of his mother's belted out a rendition of "Amazing Grace" that literaly brought tears to my eyes.
The event was capped by a dove release at sundown:
It's taken me quite a while to post this, as you can see. It's been a pretty emotional week.
Now, I hear some of you asking why Friday the 13th? Well, it would have been Justin's 17th birthday. The video below is a local news story about it. I warn you, it's pretty harsh.
News Story.
The asshole father is luck it wasn't MY kid he did that to. Were that the case, he'd be attending his own funeral.
Well, that's all I have for now.
T.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Ok, fine. I admit it...
I'm the worst blogger.
Ever.
I've been busyblahblahblah...
I had to 'shop the photosblahblahblah...
On a happier note, I'm ready to regale you all with the Tales of the Magic Kingdom.
Tis going to be a loooong one, and there will be many photos. I'm sitting here eating Pixie Stix and Warheads as I write this, (thanks jessi) and remembering again how much I like sour.
So, to the task at hand:
SUNDAY
Shopping
Tho today was not actually the day we left, it was the first day of my vacation. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I got a call from work. While I was at Costco, I might add. We were stocking up on road food. Someone had called in sick...Well, you would have been proud of me.
I actually said no. That's right, for the first time in my history with this company, I said no to being called in. Well, we finished shopping, had lunch (dog and a soda $1.50) and headed home. I was in bed too early, and couldn't sleep. Oh well, it's always like that.
MONDAY
It's easy to tell when you defecate a fish.
We were up early, and despite some initial running around, and car issues, we got out of town. I remember looking at the clock, just after we filled up. It was 10:25. We took the scenic route out of town:
After awhile, we fell back on our favorite road game: Madlibs. We have a great time with these silly little things, and for some reason, they always seem to produce watch phrases for the trip.
The 1st one this year?....
Yeah, it's easy to tell when you defecate a fish. That had us all roaring with laughter.
As you all prolly know, the first leg of our trip is always to the Central coast to pick up my son Michael:
That's him on Gadget's Go Coaster in Toontown.
At about the halfway mark, we find ourselves just outside Livermore, and in one of my favorite areas. I could happily spend several days out here taking pictures. These are from a moving car, and suck:
We arrived safely, had a huge bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and fixin's for dinner, and collapsed in a tired heap.
TUESDAY
Nibbling a magic poodle.
That's another Madlib, can you tell?
Can you feel the excitement? Today is the day we get to the park. We actually managed to get up and on the road in record time. We were on the road before the sun had cleared the horizon. We gassed again, and headed south. We were making really good time, and then there was a slow down. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say there was a chunk of steel maybe 5'x 4' x 3' just laying in the middle traffic lane.
Nasty.
Well, we got to the hotel, my mom and Summer arrived, and we were off. There are some rides that are staples, and it's not if, but how many times will we ride them. These include Space Mountain:
Thunder Mountain:
Grizzly Peak, Californa Screamin', and Soarin' over California. Also Splash Mountain, Pirates, and Indiana Jones. I could prolly scrounge up photos of all those, but I ain't gonna. We had a good day, and finished it off with some late night shopping:
WEDNESDAY
What the screaming blue fuck is a clafoutis?
One thing that we usually to is dinner at Goofy's Kitchen. It's character dinner, and it's also a buffet. You can surely get your money's worth ($35.00 a head), and the food's usually pretty good. I ate a ton this year, and headed over to the dessert line, ready to push myself into gastric hell. My sister pointed to this:
And asked me "What's clafoutis?" I had to admit, that I did not know. We asked Pops. 40 years a chef, worked everyting from breakfast houses to gourmet dinner houses. Cooked with Cordon Bleu chefs, world class pastry chefs. Never misses a cooking/food question on Jeopardy.
Yeah, he had nothing. Shit, it looks like an axe wound, and didn't smell much better. So, if you can solve the mystery, please enlighten me.
I was so full after dinner that I went back to the room and just veg'd out. It was about a 50/50 split of crashers and back to parkers.
THURSDAY
It's a pirates life for me
My sister, ever the planner had designated Thursday of our stay as Pirate Day. Everyone had a pirate shirt of some description. Here's pop wearing the one that he, Michael and I were all wearing. This photo was taken by Michael:
Imagine descriptions of all the rides. I've told you all about them before....
FRIDAY
It's a jungle out there.
The highlight of Friday was lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. They have pretty good food, and the store is chock full of all kinds of cool stuff. Not Disney sorveniers to be sure, but all wild animal, nature-themed cool kinds of stuff. They also have this totally cool fishtank:
We also posed for a photo with the brass plug that marks the geographical center of the park:
SATURDAY
Parting is such sweet sorrow
The end came all to quickly, as it always does. Check out was at 11, and we made it with about half an hour to spare. We got on the road, and set our sights on the Central Coast once again.
Another night at Michael's, and off we set for home. We stopped at Garlic World again, and bought some fresh produce. Yum.
So, there you have it. I know the details got kinda sketchy at the end, but I'm tired. That's a lot of typing there, you know.
Well, here's hoping blogger doesn't choke on it,
T.
Ever.
I've been busyblahblahblah...
I had to 'shop the photosblahblahblah...
On a happier note, I'm ready to regale you all with the Tales of the Magic Kingdom.
Tis going to be a loooong one, and there will be many photos. I'm sitting here eating Pixie Stix and Warheads as I write this, (thanks jessi) and remembering again how much I like sour.
So, to the task at hand:
SUNDAY
Tho today was not actually the day we left, it was the first day of my vacation. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I got a call from work. While I was at Costco, I might add. We were stocking up on road food. Someone had called in sick...Well, you would have been proud of me.
I actually said no. That's right, for the first time in my history with this company, I said no to being called in. Well, we finished shopping, had lunch (dog and a soda $1.50) and headed home. I was in bed too early, and couldn't sleep. Oh well, it's always like that.
MONDAY
We were up early, and despite some initial running around, and car issues, we got out of town. I remember looking at the clock, just after we filled up. It was 10:25. We took the scenic route out of town:
After awhile, we fell back on our favorite road game: Madlibs. We have a great time with these silly little things, and for some reason, they always seem to produce watch phrases for the trip.
The 1st one this year?....
Yeah, it's easy to tell when you defecate a fish. That had us all roaring with laughter.
As you all prolly know, the first leg of our trip is always to the Central coast to pick up my son Michael:
That's him on Gadget's Go Coaster in Toontown.
At about the halfway mark, we find ourselves just outside Livermore, and in one of my favorite areas. I could happily spend several days out here taking pictures. These are from a moving car, and suck:
We arrived safely, had a huge bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and fixin's for dinner, and collapsed in a tired heap.
TUESDAY
That's another Madlib, can you tell?
Can you feel the excitement? Today is the day we get to the park. We actually managed to get up and on the road in record time. We were on the road before the sun had cleared the horizon. We gassed again, and headed south. We were making really good time, and then there was a slow down. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say there was a chunk of steel maybe 5'x 4' x 3' just laying in the middle traffic lane.
Nasty.
Well, we got to the hotel, my mom and Summer arrived, and we were off. There are some rides that are staples, and it's not if, but how many times will we ride them. These include Space Mountain:
Thunder Mountain:
Grizzly Peak, Californa Screamin', and Soarin' over California. Also Splash Mountain, Pirates, and Indiana Jones. I could prolly scrounge up photos of all those, but I ain't gonna. We had a good day, and finished it off with some late night shopping:
WEDNESDAY
One thing that we usually to is dinner at Goofy's Kitchen. It's character dinner, and it's also a buffet. You can surely get your money's worth ($35.00 a head), and the food's usually pretty good. I ate a ton this year, and headed over to the dessert line, ready to push myself into gastric hell. My sister pointed to this:
And asked me "What's clafoutis?" I had to admit, that I did not know. We asked Pops. 40 years a chef, worked everyting from breakfast houses to gourmet dinner houses. Cooked with Cordon Bleu chefs, world class pastry chefs. Never misses a cooking/food question on Jeopardy.
Yeah, he had nothing. Shit, it looks like an axe wound, and didn't smell much better. So, if you can solve the mystery, please enlighten me.
I was so full after dinner that I went back to the room and just veg'd out. It was about a 50/50 split of crashers and back to parkers.
THURSDAY
My sister, ever the planner had designated Thursday of our stay as Pirate Day. Everyone had a pirate shirt of some description. Here's pop wearing the one that he, Michael and I were all wearing. This photo was taken by Michael:
Imagine descriptions of all the rides. I've told you all about them before....
FRIDAY
The highlight of Friday was lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. They have pretty good food, and the store is chock full of all kinds of cool stuff. Not Disney sorveniers to be sure, but all wild animal, nature-themed cool kinds of stuff. They also have this totally cool fishtank:
We also posed for a photo with the brass plug that marks the geographical center of the park:
SATURDAY
The end came all to quickly, as it always does. Check out was at 11, and we made it with about half an hour to spare. We got on the road, and set our sights on the Central Coast once again.
Another night at Michael's, and off we set for home. We stopped at Garlic World again, and bought some fresh produce. Yum.
So, there you have it. I know the details got kinda sketchy at the end, but I'm tired. That's a lot of typing there, you know.
Well, here's hoping blogger doesn't choke on it,
T.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Home again, home again....Jiggety jig...
Well, actually I got home on Sunday night, but this is the first time I've had a chance to catch my breath since I got home.
I had Monday off too, but spent the whole day doing all the bill paying/check cashing/ runaround that inevitably follows any vacation.
So, first things first:
Kat and Kelly, thank you both soooo much. If you ever need anyone to post for you, or wash your car, or make you some beef jerky, you just let me know.
Second:
Yes. I have a metric fuckton of pictures from the trip. I shot 403. I'm not going to bore you with all of them, but I do have quite a few in mind. I've got to process them down a bit tho, so they'll look nice on the page....
My son shot over 1000. No, I'm not putting all of them on here either, but there will be at least a couple.
So, for now I'll leave you.
Look for pix and a verrrrrryyyy looooooooong post in the near future.
T.
I had Monday off too, but spent the whole day doing all the bill paying/check cashing/ runaround that inevitably follows any vacation.
So, first things first:
Kat and Kelly, thank you both soooo much. If you ever need anyone to post for you, or wash your car, or make you some beef jerky, you just let me know.
Second:
Yes. I have a metric fuckton of pictures from the trip. I shot 403. I'm not going to bore you with all of them, but I do have quite a few in mind. I've got to process them down a bit tho, so they'll look nice on the page....
My son shot over 1000. No, I'm not putting all of them on here either, but there will be at least a couple.
So, for now I'll leave you.
Look for pix and a verrrrrryyyy looooooooong post in the near future.
T.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Is that a roll of nickels, or are you just glad to see me?
Hi, it's Kelly again. I've been reading over T's blog to see if there is anything I can riff on that might be of any interest whatsoever to his regular readers.
Let me just interject here real quick before continuing... I just noticed that he mentioned recently that a woman at his job was taking two weeks off for maternity leave. Just WTF she hopes to accomplish in two weeks is beyond me. Silly woman. Either she's got a dozen kids at home and maternity leave is no big whoop to her, or this is her first, and she thinks two weeks is all you need to give birth, heal your hoo-hoo and bond with your baby.
TJ has mentioned that he likes to play the games of chance once in a while over at the Piñon. I think I've gambled there once or twice. Mainly, though, my gambling is restricted to the 10-20 minutes spent waiting for a table at the cafe inside the Carson Valley Inn, the casino down here in G-ville. The hostess gives you a drink coaster-lookin' thingie that flashes and vibrates when your table is ready, and while ya wait, ya gamble. Duh.
My game of choice is nickel video poker. Yeah, big frickin' spender, me. But don't laugh, I've actually won upwards of $17 or so recently on a lowly nickel machine. When you're playing nickels, you can afford to take the crazy bets. I'm a sucker for drawing to an inside straight. If I was playing a dollar machine, I'd play the straight and narrow, lose small and win small.
I did catch some kind of fever once, at the Horizon Casino in South Lake Tahoe, straight up the mountain from me. I was killing time before a movie, and played some nickel slots. Won a sizable amount, maybe $20 or so. Moved up to quarter slots. When I'm not piddling around with video poker, I like to play the old-school Double Diamond slot machines.
No fuckin' around, no cutesy graphics, no options to slip in 45 coins... you just plug in your two quarters, spin the reels, and you either win or lose. Mostly lose. But this one time, after winning on nickels and stepping up to the quarters... I won. About $75. Time to step it up to dollar machines. Lo and behold... I get up to about $220.
Okay, all casino floors have this quiet little area, away from the hubbub. It's the "high stakes" slots. It's basically where all the $5 and over slots are. The carpets are a bit cleaner, the ashtrays are emptied a little more regularly, and the servers' smiles are a little bigger, if not exactly more genuine.
I was hyped and breathless when I stepped into this sanctuary, believing that the gods were on my side that day, that I could do no wrong. I sat down and started feeding $20 bills into machine after machine. I won NOTHING, not a THING, not even spinning a single cherry for an easy two-fer, before the money was gone. I am ashamed to admit, I was so sure that I had been horribly wronged, that something had gone so awry, that I took out an extra $20 from a nearby ATM to try to set things right. Needless to say, I missed my movie, and felt pretty sick to my stomach.
So I guess for about an hour there, I felt the high and low of a gambling addict, and it scared me. I have an addictive personality in the first place, and I can totally see the attraction. But, from now on, I think I'll reserve my addictions for more affordable pursuits... coffee, cigarettes, Jim Beam. And the occasional rush of drawing to an inside straight... when there's a whopping five nickels at stake.
Let me just interject here real quick before continuing... I just noticed that he mentioned recently that a woman at his job was taking two weeks off for maternity leave. Just WTF she hopes to accomplish in two weeks is beyond me. Silly woman. Either she's got a dozen kids at home and maternity leave is no big whoop to her, or this is her first, and she thinks two weeks is all you need to give birth, heal your hoo-hoo and bond with your baby.
TJ has mentioned that he likes to play the games of chance once in a while over at the Piñon. I think I've gambled there once or twice. Mainly, though, my gambling is restricted to the 10-20 minutes spent waiting for a table at the cafe inside the Carson Valley Inn, the casino down here in G-ville. The hostess gives you a drink coaster-lookin' thingie that flashes and vibrates when your table is ready, and while ya wait, ya gamble. Duh.
My game of choice is nickel video poker. Yeah, big frickin' spender, me. But don't laugh, I've actually won upwards of $17 or so recently on a lowly nickel machine. When you're playing nickels, you can afford to take the crazy bets. I'm a sucker for drawing to an inside straight. If I was playing a dollar machine, I'd play the straight and narrow, lose small and win small.
I did catch some kind of fever once, at the Horizon Casino in South Lake Tahoe, straight up the mountain from me. I was killing time before a movie, and played some nickel slots. Won a sizable amount, maybe $20 or so. Moved up to quarter slots. When I'm not piddling around with video poker, I like to play the old-school Double Diamond slot machines.
No fuckin' around, no cutesy graphics, no options to slip in 45 coins... you just plug in your two quarters, spin the reels, and you either win or lose. Mostly lose. But this one time, after winning on nickels and stepping up to the quarters... I won. About $75. Time to step it up to dollar machines. Lo and behold... I get up to about $220.
Okay, all casino floors have this quiet little area, away from the hubbub. It's the "high stakes" slots. It's basically where all the $5 and over slots are. The carpets are a bit cleaner, the ashtrays are emptied a little more regularly, and the servers' smiles are a little bigger, if not exactly more genuine.
I was hyped and breathless when I stepped into this sanctuary, believing that the gods were on my side that day, that I could do no wrong. I sat down and started feeding $20 bills into machine after machine. I won NOTHING, not a THING, not even spinning a single cherry for an easy two-fer, before the money was gone. I am ashamed to admit, I was so sure that I had been horribly wronged, that something had gone so awry, that I took out an extra $20 from a nearby ATM to try to set things right. Needless to say, I missed my movie, and felt pretty sick to my stomach.
So I guess for about an hour there, I felt the high and low of a gambling addict, and it scared me. I have an addictive personality in the first place, and I can totally see the attraction. But, from now on, I think I'll reserve my addictions for more affordable pursuits... coffee, cigarettes, Jim Beam. And the occasional rush of drawing to an inside straight... when there's a whopping five nickels at stake.
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