BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

31Mar/110

A Promise

A Promise

Today I’m just going to write a little promise…

I know this is silly…

But I don’t care, silly or not… I’m putting this up!

This is to the girl I end up marrying.  Maybe I don’t know you yet.  Or maybe you are someone I do already know.   Or maybe I won’t even meet you for many, many, many years.  I hope I don’t have to wait years.  But I guess whatever is meant to happen will happen no matter what I try to do to change my path in life… so here you are:

These are my promises I will make to you and swear to never break.

 

I promise to…

Always be there to support you in everything you do.  Every choice you make, no matter what I’ll support you 100 percent.  I’ll fight for you and be your advocate.  I’ll always be strong for you and the both of us.

I promise to…

Always listen to you.  When you need someone to talk to.  Or you just need a shoulder to cry on.  Even if you just want to be held.  I’ll stay with you whenever you need it as long as you need someone just to be there with you.

I promise to…

Always do small things to make you feel special EVERY SINGLE DAY. I’ll do special things on Holidays, birthday’s anniversaries.  I’ll always give you something to smile about.  And you can pick what you like… flowers, chocolates, little stuffed animals.  Or even if you just want a handwritten card, or a walk in the park, make you dinner.  Anything.  Name it… I’ll do it!

I promise to…

Give you space when you need it.  I promise not to be too overly clingy.  I promise to let you do your thing and be you and you just let me know what your needs are and I’ll always give you what you need.

I promise to…

Try and change anything about me that you might absolutely hate.  Behaviors, habits, and things I say.  If something absolutely drives you nuts just tell me and I’ll do my best to change it for you.

I promise to…

Give you my time when you do need it.  You will always be able to count on me giving you my time over any other thing in my life.  I won’t ever tell you that I can’t do something for you because I will have to be doing something else.  It’s you and I… together… evenly yoked.

I promise to…

Stand up for you if any harm were to ever come your way and take care of you.  I’ll never leave you because of a rough patch in the road.  I’ll be with you no matter what even at the worst of times.  I’ll always be there; I’ll be your rock.  If you are hurting then I am hurting.

I promise to…

Always show affection.  I won’t hide our love ever.  I’ll make it known and public that you are mine and I am yours.

I promise to…

Always be honest, and truthful and never lose your trust ever on anything.

I promise to…

Never keep you waiting for any reason.  I’ll never make you wait and I’ll never be late.  I’ll always be there when I say I will be right on time.  If you are ever late, that’s ok… I’ll wait for you.

I promise to..

Never to make you feel unsafe in any way.  I'll never do, or say anything to you that would make you feel anything but secure and loved.

I promise to…

Share everything with you.  We’ll buy a house together, raise a family together… and just do it all together.

I promise to…

Let you raise our kids in the religion of your choice.

I promise to…

Always love you with the fullest of my whole heart.  I’ll never give you a reason to doubt us ever.

Most importantly... I promise to…

Always let you watch whatever you want on TV.

 

So there you have it.  That’s what I feel like expressing right now.  I mean every word of that.  So to the girl I end up with.  That’s for you.  Whoever you are.

 

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30Mar/110

Current Events Wednesday-My Energy Plan Is To Replace Cars With Dragons

Wow… the weeks seem to go by so fast anymore.  One of these days I’ll wake up old and gray sitting on my porch of my little old house in the middle of a construction project refusing to sell…

And then I’ll get fed up with it all and tie a bunch of balloons to the roof of my house and go on an amazing adventure…

Good movie.  Up!  Loved watching that.  One of my favorite movies…  Good memory associated with that movie... You know what else was a good movie and has that same good memory attached to it? This one...

10 points if you know what movie that is from…

Isn’t he just the most awesome little dragon dude ever!

ooooo an action shot!  Look at him go!

Maybe one day I’ll have a little dragon of my own.

If you think about it, really, dragons would probably be a very energy efficient means of transportation.  Also they would make great pets too!  So it’s like a two birds with one stone… or in this case two dragons.  But no stones… throwing stones is mean!

Better to roll stones.  Those rolling stones.

So yes today’s article is about energy.  NO, get your mind out of the gutter!  I didn’t say AN ORGY… I said ENERGY.

Yesh!  Come on now… Someone’s mind is elsewhere isn’t it?

So yes energy.   Tonights article is:

“An Energy Plan Derailed by Events Is Being Retooled”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/business/energy-environment/31POLICY.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

I’m going to cut the president some slack here.  We all do this… take on more than we can handle.  I always make a list a thousand things long and then end up passing out in the middle of typing on my computer.  I just run out of steam or energy.  It’s what we all do.  There’s just not enough time in the day, or year, or sometimes in this case term.  I think that there are a lot of important issues to focus on.  It’s definitely hard to get side tracked by life, especially when running a country.  Although I’ve never ran a country before.  I used to run cross country… does that count?  No?  Maybe?  Sorta close?

Well so mostly this article is saying what we already know and what’s been talked about a lot of the past few decades.  Basically we need to figure out a way to stop using dirty polluting ways of generating energy and need to focus on cleaner ways.  It’s a complex issue and a lot of it has to do with systems that have been in place for a long time, as well as costs associate with changing those systems.  There are all sorts of political issues as well.  Let’s just say it’s messy.  I think that the root of change comes more at the level of which the person who is using the energy and not the person who is producing it.

I’m just going to talk about what I’ve done so far with my new apartment to conserve.

1. I switched to wind power.  I pay 20 percent more on my electric bill to have my energy replaced by wind power coming from the wind farms in the Poconos and western PA.  I feel pretty good about that.  I think that wind is a great form of energy generation.

2. I bought surge protectors and put all my devices on these instead of plugging straight into the wall.  Even when devices like TV’s and microwaves and laptops are off they still draw a small amount of power.  If you put them on surge protectors and then power off the protector when you leave for the day or go to sleep at night you can save small amounts of power that add up.

3.  I keep my heat down low when I’m not at home.

Those are just a few things.  I think that probably the biggest thing we can do besides finding better ways to generate electricity is to use less of it!  Ultimately I feel like things will probably be slow to change no matter how much push or pull one attempts as far as new ways of generating energy or new ways of using less or creating more efficient devices.

I feel like what will happen is that as resources become more scares for traditional forms of energy generation (Oil, Coal, etc.) then it will become more expensive to use those.  As they become more expensive then the masses will favor the cheaper means… wind, solar, geothermal, hydro electricity.  I think that nuclear is simply too dangerous to be mucking around with.

But ultimately I don’t think it’s something that we need to just wait for a congress or the president to sign into effect.  I think people in general can think of ways to conserve energy!  I’m just super happy that my power is coming from wind now and not yucky coal plants, or dangerous nuclear generators OR from burning trash.  That’s probably the most yucky of them all!

Here’s my biggest thing that I don’t get:

Now, maybe I’m wrong… but check this out…

Look at that picture.  Just look.  Look at the size of the earth… and then look at the size of the sun!

I don’t understand why we can’t figure out a way to get enough energy to power everything on earth from the sun.

It’s like trying to power a watch from the energy provided by the hoover dam.  There’s LOTS of power just coming out of that thing.  We just have to use our noggins to use it properly!

Right?  Right.

I still think we should all just stop driving around in cars and start riding dragons.  Just saying.

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30Mar/110

Wibiya Bar (What E Ya Bar? You Went To The Bar? What? Huh?)

Some of you may have noticed a little thingymabober at the bottom of the screen.

Reader: I have a question…

Me: What’s up?

Reader: Yea that’s annoying.

Me: Ok A – that’s not a question… and B – well… to answer your statement…

True.  It might be kind of annoying but it’s super useful!  It lets me do all sorts of nifty things!  It allows me to have direct access to my twitter status’s and my facebook page AND my youtube videos… or as they say in England… youchewb.

It’s true.  They say it like that!  I know these things.  It’s a fact.  Trust me.  I’ve hung out with lots of people from that part of the world.

Also they say it chuna… and not tuna… also true factoid.  Just for your FYI.  In case you were wondering.

So let’s see yes Wibiya bar.  I think it’s pretty snazzy.  At least for the next week, or month.  I might take it down.  For now I like it.  So I’ll be leaving it up for a bit.

Now there’s a free version (the one I’m using) and a paid version (the one I’m not using).  What’s the difference?  Well the paid version lets you take away the little shameless self promotion logo they got going on.  Which is cool, but if you run a legit real site you’d probably want to pay for it.  Since I don’t really run a business site and I just run my own little thing I’ll leave it at unpaid for now.

My goal by the end of the year is to start uploading my songs to iTunes and charging for my music.  I hope to make enough money from sales of my best singles to start breaking even for music making equipment and the cost of running my website etc. etc.  So as soon as I put up my first song on iTunes you are all going to download it just to be nice right?  Please?  With a cherry on top?  Maybe?  Well if you ever get a gift card to itunes for a present consider downloading one of my songs from iTunes.  That would rock and I’d probably give you a big giant awesome hug if you did so.  Ok so it’s a big giant awesome VIRTUAL hug.  But still.

Ok well that’s about all I have to say for this evenings post.  Tune in tomorrow for more Kenny-ness ramblings.

 

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27Mar/110

Blowin’ In The Wind

I signed up for PECO Wind energy today!  Basically this means while my electricity may not actually come from wind.  My bill will go to put wind energy back into the grid.  The cost is slightly more.  It’s 2 cents extra per kwh… or kilo watt hour.  Honestly I don’t use that much electricity for it to make a huge dent in my wallet.

Here’s some information about it from the PECO site:

 

The wind energy you support is delivered directly into the Pennsylvania electric grid, reducing the need for energy from fossil fuel sources like oil and coal.  The more customers who sign up, the more Pennsylvania wind energy we can buy.  This means cleaner air and water for all of us!

Imagine the electric grid is a giant bathtub being filled with electricity from many different faucets.  Each faucet is a different generation source, like nuclear, coal, and wind.  Every time you turn on a light switch, you drain a little electricity from the tub.

Although buying wind does not mean that electricity is being delivered straight from the windmill to your home, it does mean that more of the electricity being put into the grid comes from wind, rather than other generation sources.  By participating in PECO WIND you are reducing the need to generate electricity from other sources.

http://www.peco.com/pecores/peco_wind/how_it_works.htm

I’m really excited that this was an option!  I think it’s awesome that we have an alternative energy choice.  I gladly support this.  I think it would be amazing if we could power the entire world from only wind energy.  To me it’s a no brainer.

I decided that I think wind power might be one of the most promising alternative energy options.  I like the idea that my power comes from the wind blowing and not from radioactive rods that have the possibility of harming millions in a meltdown or from coal being burned and the possibility of miners being trapped under the earth.

So there you have it.  I’m a fan of wind power.  I’m officially green on the power front!

Here’s a link to some wind energy basics:

http://windeis.anl.gov/guide/basics/index.cfm

 

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27Mar/110

Settling In And Some Random Thoughts On Thoughts

I’ll start with something I heard tonight that made me laugh… I was leaving Guitar Center and some dad was talking to his kids and wife right out front… all I heard of the convo was…

“If I had a nickel for every time you asked me if I had a nickel and I didn’t have one…”

The wife then finished his sentence with “… You’d be living in a paradox.”

Then the kid was just like…

“What’s a Paradox?”

And the dad hesitated… thought for a moment and then said…

“It’s when you are REALLY sick because you need a pair of doctors to help cure you!”

That’s one witty dad.  The kid saw through it and said “Daaaaaaaaad… you just made that up!”

The convo faded as I was walking away and they started to talk about nickels and change again.

Speaking of change…

So I’ve now been in my apartment nearly a week.  There’s this weird sensation when I first move to a new place that I still feel visitor esk even after I am all moved in.  It usually still takes a week or so to get to the point where I really feel like I live in that space.  Does anyone else ever have this sensation?  The last time I really moved was from college to home and OF COURSE I wanted to go back like immediately.  So I don’t have that whole wanting to go back immediately feeling.  Sorry mom!  I’m not gonna lie, I love living on my own.  But I’m VERY thankful to have been able to stay at home for so long and get all my ducks in a row, so to speak.  It was mutual though because I did lots of stuff for her and around the house.  Although, somehow I’m not longer getting free rent, but still stopping by to do things for my mom.  Yesterday I stopped by to pick up some random things and had to carry heavy stuff to the basement like giant bags of cat litter.  But I didn’t mind.  That’s what I’ve been working out for!  Haha, yep.

So, here I am all moved in.

I’m about at that point when I feel like it’s actually my place.  It’s pretty cool.  Things are starting to settle into where they feel like they should be.  I actually sat down to write this Blog about 3 hours ago and then fell asleep!  I’m up now for a tiny little bit and typing it and then it’s back to sleep for me.  Moving to a new place made things pretty hectic and also made it so that I had a million and a half things to do and def didn’t have time in the day to do it all.  And it’s made me really tired at the end of the day.  I think now that things are settling down and I’ve got my apartment all setup (well, aside from the fact that I have bare walls still and can’t figure out if I want posters, OR if I want to try and do something more grown up as in something of the framed sort) I can really get back to doing my normal stuff that I do each night after work and on the weekends.

I’m actually glad that I didn’t end up purchasing a house and that I decided to go with an apartment instead.  It’s definitely a much better transitional step.  Houses are great and I could probably have even more of a feeling of being lived in since I would own it, but on the other hand they require so much more time and money!  I know I’d be spending WAY more time dealing with house things than I would doing creative things that I love way more.

So I think I’m just going to ramble a little more and then hit the hay.  Along the theme of feeling like the place you live is now lived in and getting into the groove of things I’ve started to figure out where and when to do what things.  Previously when I lived at home I’d spend lots of time at my desk but here the couch seems more natural as a work area.  It’s much more relaxing and I can spread things out in front of me on the coffee table.  I really don’t know why but it just feels perfect as a workspace for music and creativeness while the desk feels much more right for doing business things.

Today I worked on some more of this animation thing and tomorrow I’ll work on recording (I keep finding things to fix on my new song!).  I have a grand plan for my website and my music and the whole animation thing to really start to take things in a bigger direction.  All shall be revealed soon enough.  I think tomorrow I’m going to also upload my first track to Tunecore and see what happens.  I just have so many things in queue that I can’t wait to get setup or made or created or whatever!  But at the same time I still have some more work to do around here in the mundane life realm. That sorta thing takes priority.  Anywho now that the craziness of relocating is starting to calm down I can get back on track with all my big plans.

I’m just really glad I decided to do this and now feel like it’s really MY place.  Every time I drive back from hanging out somewhere or work or being at home I get a little gush of happiness.  And especially when I get my keys out to unlock my door and step into my place.  Each time I feel more and more like it’s right and just feels like it really is my place and where I’m supposed to be at this point in time in my life.

It kind of reminds me of the times when I’ve been in a relationship with someone I really felt all gushy about and I would wake up each morning and the first thought was about that other person and then last thought before I went to sleep each night would also be about that person… I’d like that feeling more the next day than the previous day.  And it just made me feel all happy.  Hmmm… yea.

Anyone else know that feeling or what I’m talking about?  Hmmm… I miss that feeling.

I guess I’m in a relationship with my apartment since I think about it in a gushy way now?

… but I think we are in relationships with lots of things we get all warm and fuzzy over… maybe it’s… our jobs, our friends our favorite shoes.  And we just get a feeling of joy every time we think about it.  Hmmm... ok well I’m just starting to talk nonsense now aren’t I?!!?  So I think that signals that it’s time for bed.

What’s your last thought before you go to sleep at night and your first thought when you wake in the morning?

Well, anywho, it’s definitely time for me to sleep…

Good night everyone!

 

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26Mar/110

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

And it wasn’t about how everything was exactly as it seemed.  Not at all, it wasn’t a bad dream either.  It was just very strange.  I’ll tell you about it…

So the dream went like this.  I was going to see a play with a bunch of friends.  Then when we got there the lead the play was sick.  So instead of having an understudy or rescheduling the play they randomly drew a ticket number for someone to play that part from the audience.  Mine was drawn.  So I went backstage and they costumed me.  Then they positioned me in the middle of the stage with the curtain closed.

I asked the stage guy “how do I know what to do?”

He reply’s “don’t worry about it my man, you’ll know how to act from the way everyone else does.  But if you need my help just look up, I’ll be in the catwalk above you.”

Then in a panicked voice I said “Well what if I can’t look up!?”

He calmly replies, “Then just look to the side, or backwards, or forwards… I’ll be there too.”

I say “how can you be in multiple places at once?”

He then says back to me, “it’s my show… I can be anywhere and everywhere that I want whenever I want.”

Then he smiles and just disappears.  He does walk away, he just vanishes… and the curtains open.

Someone comes up to me, and just starts conversing with me.  He states the dialogue in a way that I know exactly how to respond back.  We go back and forth in some sort of joking manner and the crowd starts laughing.  They really love it.  Then more people enter the scene.  And it’s just completely natural.  I don’t have to even think.  Then slowly people leave the scene and it’s again just the dude and me.  Finally it ends with the guy and myself shaking hands and then he looks at me and mouths the words “you did it”

I look up towards the catwalk and the guy up there winks down.  We both take a bow and then the curtains close.  There’s a small thing back stage and we start walking to that, but suddenly people are coming from the audience and asking for autographs and they just loved every bit of it and they all want us to repeat the performance the next night and it’s completely overwhelming!

I start to cry with tears of joy and all the other cast members come out and we all are just hanging out with the audience signing autographs and talking… and as trite as it sounds… my alarm woke me.  So yes and then I woke up.

But it was just weird, never have I had a dream of that type before.  It was very odd feeling.  I don’t know exactly what to make of it.  Maybe I’ll just think about it for a few days and then try to interpret it.  There are some obvious themes going on there but yea… I don’t know I just really liked the dream.  If I could “rate” dreams, that would be a 5 star one (out of 5 stars).  It was very unique.  They should make a device that lets you capture dreams and then save the ones you like.   Maybe upload them to YouTube or parts of them if they are really cool.  That would be fantastically funny… sharedreamswithyourfriends.com…  DUDE check out this dream I had last night!

(Insert super awesome cool dream here)

Whoa… that was a rad dream man!

 

Actually that’s just a bad idea.  Scratch that.

 

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25Mar/110

Apple TV and The Beard Is Gone

Ok these were two short blogs combined into one.

Blog numbero one-o: Apple TV

So I’ve been hanging out in my apartment for a few days now and I’ve found that meals really could use some sort of entertainment.  I also have found that if anyone ever wants to come visit I need some kinda of entertainment as well.  So I was looking into many different options.  I thought about getting the whole tv package with Fios but I decided I wanted something a little more with my geeky techy lifestyle.  So then I thought ok I’ll just get Netflix and stream it over the web on my laptop.  Then I was like hmm I need something away from my computer.  I spend ridiculous amounts of time in front of my computer so I need something that’s a break from that.  So then I did research into these Netflix streaming devices.  I was JUST about to go with a Wii when I found the Roku… and then I was just about to go with the Roku when I discovered that Apple TV can stream it as well.

I then discovered that the remote that comes with Apple TV also works with my MacBook pro.  I also discovered that you can stream stuff in your iTunes and iPhone to the apple TV.  I also found it to be very sleek and cool and yea I just liked the whole deal about it.  So I decided to buy one.  And that I did… I stopped off at microcenter today and picked up a little Apple TV device.

Now, I have to hunt around for a TV that I like.  I’ll probably just get something mid sized at Wal-Mart.  Then I’ll sign up for Netflix and away I go!  If anyone wants to go TV shopping with me that’d be fun.  Just lemme know yo.

Oh a side note… my itunes/ipod seem to be psychic:

Yesterday I had a Death Cab for Cutie song stuck in my head “Expo ‘86” when I woke up in the morning… then on the way to work it came up on shuffle.

Today on my way home FROM work I got Thriller randomly stuck in my head…

I then got this Apple TV thing and opened it up even though I don’t have a TV… I tried the remote on my MacBook Pro for the heck of it and BAM…

GUESS WHAT THE FIRST SONG IS THAT COMES UP ON SHUFFLE?!!?!?!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!!??!

Thriller.  Yea.  Freaky.  Seriously what is THAT all about?

 

OK and now for part two:  The Beard Is Gone (the the tune of, the heat is on… do-do do-do doo do-do do-do)

So I broke out my can of Beard Be Gone last night and gave it a whirl.  It worked like a jiffy…. Before you know it my Burns were back in style and the Beard was off to a new owner in some other far away land.

 

I decided to take a horribly candid (but not really candid because I knew I was taking the picture I just tried to make it look like I didn’t know) shot of before and after.

These are bad pictures!  It looks better in real life.  I swear! (by the moon and the stars in the sky)

So bearded before shot:

My nose looks really big in this one… it’s not that big in real life.  It's just that I'm not all that great at graphing photos.

 

(after shot)

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24Mar/110

Current Events Wednesday: Elizabeth Taylor

If you just use her initials then she’s ET… but honestly…  she’s much more beautiful than ET.  Although I guess that’s all relative.  I mean to Mrs. ET He’s more beautiful.  Hey does ET have a misses?  I wonder if ET ever got married.  Then there were little E’s and T’s running around.  Sorry, you know me and my ADD esk thoughts… ok anywho… back to the late great Lizzy…

This weeks clipping is titled:

Elizabeth Taylor: The biggest star ever?

Link here:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/2011-03-24-1Ataylor24_CV_N.htm

 

Wow, I’m on week 3 of this!  OK, actually I didn’t read the article yet, let me go do that…

Reading…

Ok so the article ends with “what a dame”.  What a dame indeed.  Dame, I haven’t thought about that word in FOREVER.   We should bring that back.  While we’re at it we should bring back sexy… and also chivalry.  Back in December I posted a tweeter status about how I think all men should take a class on how to be a gentleman.  I still stand by that.  I think that we’ve sorta lost touch with some core values as far as gents.  I don’t know, call me old fashioned but I sometimes like to watch those old school black and white movies and see how the guys are always dressed up and always being proper to their ladies (or dames).

I mean…. This says it all…

and then there’s this one from “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof”

Sexy.

But yes it’s sad.  Today we lost an icon.  Biggest star ever as the article states?  I’m not an expert on movie stars… but who doesn’t know her?  And her career is FULL of huge accomplishments.  Not just movies, but fashion and style and I think jewelry, and perfume right?

“Her last important movie was in 1966, and still her star power endured.”

She really did endure!  It’s interesting because this is just one of those names that has been around ever since I can remember… she’s always just been one of those people who you’ve known since you can even remember… so to hear the news was pretty weird actually.  I don’t know it’s always bizarre when a super famous celebrity leaves us.

Hmmm… I don’t know… what am I trying to say here?

I think part of being a star isn’t simply staying in the art that made you big.  There’s something about people who we become enamored with that’s more than just raw talent.  They have something about their personality that we just love.  We just want to KNOW more about them all the time.  We just need them in our lives because they just give us warm fuzzy feelings whenever we see them or hear their voice.  I mean I think this happens with everyday friends and such, but it also happens with famous peoples too.

“There are actresses who aren't stars, and stars who aren't actresses — "and she was both," says Howard Bragman, longtime Hollywood publicist and author of Where's My Fifteen Minutes?”

Maybe that quote from the article kinda supports that?  It’s late and I’m rushing on this post.  So I’m lacking quality… I apologize… but I’m just kinda laying down my raw emotional reaction to this story.

 

Hmmm… I’m just reading through this article again here’s some of the quotes that are just sticking out to me:

 

“She had great lust for life — when she fell in love, she fell in love hard”

She loved "fiercely, blithely and sometimes rashly — but we should all be lucky enough to come to the end of our lives knowing that when love was offered, we leapt at it,"

“She showed a deep love of humanity even at its most fragile.”

 

Sounds like my kinda dame.

Well… I’m off to bed… so there you have tonights post…

fare-thee-well to Mrs. Taylor I only hope I’m as lucky as she to live a life as full and zestful as hers.

 

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23Mar/110

My FIOS Install Day

My FIOS install day.

 

When I woke up early this morning at 7:30am I thought I was going to have a Verizon dude at my door knocking at 8am on the dot.  My window of service was 8am to 12noon (so maybe I was being a little optimistic).  I took the day off from work because this was the day that I was given as one of my choices of install day.  So I just took it and decided ok let’s just get this over with and installed.  I wake up at 7:30am… er… 7:40am… I hit snooze.  I got a bowl of cereal and sat on my couch and surveyed the mess.  It made me think of those signs you sometimes see in touristy shops.  You know the ones that say “Bless This Mess” and there’s a little home with stuff strewn about.

Yep those are the ones I’m talking about.

Well, 8am hits.  I decided to read for a little.  I was going to shower but I didn’t want to miss the phone call for Verizon!  They could be here ANY MINUTE!  At 8:30 I decided to start working on organizing things.  I put away my clothing.  I put away boxes and bins into neat little places and closets.  I have 3 closets in my apartment.  So that’s pretty sweet.  And all 3 of them are basically as big each as my closet was at home!  I feel like I can really actually stretch out here and not just be all my stuff inside of one tiny room.

I’m really enjoying having my own space entirely to myself.  It’s pretty amazing.  I really am very happy with my decision to move here.  It’s just all so awesome.   Not that living at home wasn’t bad, but well… sometimes you gotta get your own place to really feel all grown up.  Ya know?

OK so I started cleaning messes.  At about 9:30am I was finished a good part of my living room.  I decided next to setup my drumset.  I got to work on finding all the pieces for it and putting it back together.  This took a good half hour.  I actually put it together slightly different than how I had it before and so of course I had to test it out.  Well, what can I say?  I love the new way it’s setup!  It’s sooo much easier to play!  So of course what did I end up doing for nearly an hour?  I’ll give you a hint… it starts with the letter D and rhymes with rum but add an s.  Well I COMPLETELY forgot about the FIOS install entirely!

It’s now 11am.  I ran over to my phone franticly thinking he had been trying to call and I missed my setup time!

No missed calls.

Where is he!?!??!!

I decided to make some tea.  Then I decided to take out the recycling and trash I had accumulated this far.  I took out the trash first and walked by a picnic bench in the back.  There were some younger folk who probably are about my age or maybe in college who were all chillin back there talking and reading and such.  I said hello and they said hello… then I went back a second time past them to take the recycling out… more hello agains.  I’m starting to meet the peoples in my apartment!  They seem pretty friendly so far!

So I do that and it’s now about 11:15.  So now I’m starting to wonder.  I call the automated lady who tells me my setup is still scheduled for today.  I decided to play some guitar, read some more clean some more tweet some more.  I vacuumed my apartment to try and stay on top of the already little bits of dirt and such starting to show.  It’s now just about 12.  No FIOS dude.  OK seriously?  I’m worried now.  So I call and push 20 different combinations of numbers and yes and no’s and answer a thousand questions to this automated lady finally, I get a person.  They pass me off to another person.  He says he’ll look into it.  I’m on hold for 20 minutes.  He says “the installer is out sick, so they are trying to find someone to take yours on as overtime.”  I say “ok”.  He says “It will get done today… I’ll put you in for 1-5pm install.”

Time passes… I unpack more organize more, make lunch.  I start working on the vocal tracks for my Comedymation animation thing.  I finish the vocal tracks.  I read more.

Finally at 4:15 the phone rings and the guy says he’ll be right here…

5:15… he shows up… he had to drive from Jersey.  I’m just sorta like eh, at least he’s here so as long as I get my internets I don’t care about how long it took.

On a side note I know how it is though to probably have tons of bookings and try to get from one thing to another and each job is different and sometimes you can get hung up for hours on one thing.  So I don’t mind.  I know they work hard and I know that they probably have way more workload then they can handle.  He starts doing his thing and I just kinda hang out…  Then I hear under his breath…

“now where the heck does that even go??”

This can’t be good.

He goes out into the hallway then looks in ceiling tiles then goes around outside then comes back and says to me:

“SO this install shouldn’t take long, should pretty easy, if I could just find the termination box… you know where that is?”

I look at him with my mouth probably hanging open going “the what?”

He just stares back and says “shit”.

Umm… what?

Then he says, hold up let me call my buddy who might know something…

This is sounding shady.  So he calls his buddy and his buddy says it’s in the back stairwell.  We run around looking in all the stairwells… nothing.

I call the landlord and he says it should be in the basement behind the yoga place.  We make our way past all the yoga peoples…

 

We get to the back and the Verizon guy looks around and then hmm’s and ha’s… that’s not it either.

Uh oh.  He kinds looks at me and asks if I have any ideas?  I shrug.  He shrugs.

This can’t be a good sign.

Then I think well at least it’s just internet we’re talking about and not surgery.  If I ever need surgery and the dr asks me where something is and then shrugs when we both can’t find it… I’ll be a little worried.

We call the landlord again.  He comes out to help us find this thing.  The only thing he can think of is the fire escape.  OF COURSE… because where ELSE would you put fiber optics boxes but in the fire escape??!?!

Low and behold…

There it is.  It’s now 6:30pm.  Time to get to work.

So an hour later I’m about 3/4s of the way hooked up.  Then, I go into the kitchen to make some food… I offer the guy something to drink and he accepts (he just wanted water… nothing fancy).  We talk some more… turns out he actually has a degree in engineering… but he can make more money as a FIOS tech than he can working as an engineer… really?  I guess in this job market who knows.  He’s super knowledgeable in music as well.  We talk about his brother who’s trying to make it in NYC as a musician and producer.  Then I go back to finish making food and I hear him saying something… I say what?

And walk back to the hallway… he’s says… “Ok baby, let me just finish this up here.”

Did he just call me baby?  Oh… right, Bluetooth.  He’s on the phone with his wife…

He hangs up and we talk about families and such.  He just keeps saying I got the perfect setup right here.  I thought he meant it was setup but he was talking about my apartment and where I’m living.  His phone rings again and he talks some more… It seemed important but he was trying to get off the phone to finish the work.  I said if you need to you can go talk and come back and finish if that’s allowed?  It sounded like something was happening that he needed to address and I mean family should come first over work.  So I went and read and he went and made a phone call.

 

30 minutes pass and I’m thinking he left… he comes back into the apartment and apologizes and just says “kids man.  And ladies, ladies rule the world.  Keep that in mind.”

Ladies rule the world… ok… got it.

He finishes up setting everything up.  By the time EVERYTHING is done it’s 8:30.

Yep.  That was my FIOS install experience.

I FINALLY shower.  Then I go and get gas for my car… hit up the Beer Yard… put the beer in the freezer, walk over to wawa… come back eat… sign up for my Verizon.net email and activate all that… look at the papers I got… open my now chilled beer…

And start blogging.  And here we are.

So now that I’ve got FIOS setup I’m trying to decide between Roku or Apple TV for my streaming player.  I’m going to sign up for a Netflix account.  Of course I also need to purchase myself one of those fancy pantsy flat panel tv’s too.

 

What a day.

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19Mar/110

Wish Upon A Hero

Today I wanted to write about a site called Wish upon a Hero.  Sometimes everyone needs a hero at some point and that’s what this site does.

You can check them out at:

http://www.wishuponahero.com/

I first found out about this site a couple years ago when I met a friend who has been with the site since the very beginning.

I personally think this is one of the most amazing ideas for a site ever!  The site is designed to connect people who need wishes granted to those who have the means or resources to grant wishes.

Sometimes you might find yourself on either side and things can change in life quickly one way or the other.  One day you might find you could grant all the wishes anyone could ever ask and then the next you are in need of one yourself.  The same is true in reverse.  You might find you need wish after wish and then suddenly find yourself in a position to grant a thousand million bajillion plus infinity plus one wishes!  This is why we all need each other and to help each other.

To date the site has helped grant 74,917 wishes!  That’s just absolutely phenomenal and hopefully that number will grow exponentially!

If anyone is interested in granting a wish please do so!  On the other hand perhaps might be in need of a wish to be granted!  Please take even just a few minutes to check out Wish Upon A Hero.

Sometimes we all need someone and maybe you can be that someone for someone else!

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