Really?

Things that are sad

Few Things....

Bring me greater pleasure then drinking a beer, having my music cranked, and working on LINUX!


I am such a geek.


This statement is brought to you by Captain Obvious... When you need to have the blatantly obvious pointed out to you.

Festivus Celebration!

The Kern household never one to mock sacred traditions of old. I present to you now a very Kern Festivus celebration!



So to the left we have your blogger extradoinare truly, kicking off Festivus with the traditional metal pole adorned with nothing. We did splurge this year and get a rusted pipe.










And here we have lil brother just before his "Airing of Grievances". It really wasn't pretty once he let loose with the golf club.

To the left here we have my father "Big" Tom airing his grievances in the form of a black t-shirt.

Some days my father and I so alike it's almost scary.



And now for the feats of strength... This was the most impressive one of the day.

And finally we have the traditional wrestling of the head of house hold. I am happy to say that I was able to pin my mother in under 30 seconds. I will say this she is very scrappy.

So there you have it folks a very very Festivus!!

Festivus! (for the rest of us)

Happy Festivus Everybody!

Yes I know I'm late... it's the thought that counts

Yes I know it's not a pole... you gotta work with me folks.

This broken wheel is coming undone...

It's the middle of December and I just realized it. What's more it's just over a week to X-mas. wow...

I always use December as a time to reflect on the last year... was it good? Did I accomplish anything? What did I do set the world ablaze?

Yes it was a good year, I accomplished the things I wanted to and few extra, did I set the world ablaze? Only in my pants...

Sorry...

Ok moving on. Happy Birthday to ye-blog. On December 1, 2000 I wrote the first entry in what became the "semi-journal" my orginal intent was just catalog what was going on in my life that last semester of college and my finding my way to be a "real adult" well 6 years later. College is becoming a more distant memory and I still haven't found my way to being a real adult. But I gotta say I'm having fun :)

So what is in store for 2007? Probally more fun, and hopefully a few more stories that I can regail my friends with.

You know how I know your gay.....

You have a flickr account.....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/catalexiis



(and the sad part is someone will probably be offended by that title)

Huh?

I'm trying to read your mind...

So the next time your in Missoula Montana you really need to pick up some "Moose Drool Beer" it's a brown ale so those of you who aren't into beers that aren't bud, miller, or coors keep on walking. Or if your Nancy and don't drink beer... well I can't help that your Nancy. So for those of you who are not Nancy and aren't afraid to be adventurous with your beer drinking then I highly suggest the Moose Drool. And if you don't make it back to Canada Jr. that often just do what I do... Watch C/E's cat and they bring your beer!

I'm simple really I am... beer and food and I'm a happy camper... that probally explains why certain friends can't seem to get rid of me.

So with it being less then 2 weeks to Xmas 2006 (gentlemen start your engines!!!) I'm starting to receive Xmas cards. I always enjoy them simply because I look to see who actually address them to "Tom" or "You and your family" or some such plural thing. Pretty consistently the same 3 people send me a card addressed to "Tom" the rest do the plural thing....

Right now Kristi is wondering if she addressed the card to "Tom" or to a plural of people... Kristi I'm happy to report that you addressed the card correctly.

I'm keeping my eye on the rest of you.

Speaking of Xmas cards... every year at about December 20th I think I should really send out cards. However 2 things stop me from this every year.
1. I can't find the card of Santa taking a shit down the chimney with a caption that says "How you know you've been really bad this year". To much happiness needs to be tempered with some smart assness every now and again.

2. Everyone I would send a card to I actually see over the holidays except for like 2 people. And honestly I don't think that they would care.

My toilet keeps filling... I just discovered two things...

1. The bleach tablet is getting in the way of the valve.

2. I have a big brick in there. (How did I not notice that beforehand?)

Now I know I live in a desert but I don't think I'm conserving water if it takes me two sometimes three flushes to to get the toilet completely cleared.

Speaking of things in the toilet...

At some point on Friday the conversation with the file room girls, or as Eve (the woman not the game) calls them "file room wenches", to my personal life and my lack of a s/o which to me is not a huge deal. When I started my tale the tall file room wench (Laura) "yes we know that you hate women and we've heard this story before". Which tells me 2 things (damn what is it with the 2 thing tonight?)

1. I need to not tell that story any more.

2. How come after three years I still bring her up?

I mean honestly it's been 3 damn years. Why she still comes up I don't know. So from here on out I will not bring what's her face up in conversation because according to Laura (the tall one) and Izzy (the hot one) of the file room wenchdom "yes we know you hate women"

I don't hate women... they just never give me a chance to show them how much I can love them ;)

Evil wabbit...

Plan 9 from Syracuse

Let me tell you a story, a story about a man driven to see his dream get full filled and setting out to do what most of us would consider to be insane or at the very least not our first choice of ways to achieve that dream.

His name is Ryan Dacko, his dream is to make a truly independent movie. The making the movie part he is still working on. Actually the part he is working on right now is getting to L.A. to meet with a producer (currently Mr. Mark Cuban). Now here is the interesting part that makes this whole thing blog worthy.

Ryan isn't driving to L.A. in the hopes of meeting Mr. Cuban, Ryan is running across the U.S. from Syracuse New York to L.A. thats somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,950 miles.

Now that I have your attention. Ryan started running in August of this year. With no guarantees of even meeting a producer. And there are still no guarantees of a meeting.

So where do does your humble blogger Tom fit into all of this? I don't really fit into any of it. Actually Cody fits into all of it. Cody knows Ryan from his days in the Coast Guard on the ship "Polar Star". Now all I had heard from Cody before today about Ryan was how he wrote scripts for movies on the boat and worked on storyboards.

For three weeks in December Ryan has been running across Northern Arizona on I-40. Not a fun task to be sure. Somewhere in those three weeks Ryan would be running through Flagstaff and as we all know I'm never one to pass up a trip to Flagstaff.

So that is how I got involved with Ryan.

Just so that we are clear. I get winded on a tread mill... So there was no way in hell that I was going to run through Flagstaff with Ryan and Cody. I could however play support truck. So I with Ryan's sister Delaine waited for Ryan and Cody at multiple points along a very cold and windy I-40 in and around Flagstaff. It was interesting talking to Delaine since we did have alot of time between Ryan and Cody visits.

I spent one afternoon working with Ryan and Delaine and found a ton of respect in just this one little dose. Ryan has been running across the country for 115 days now and Delaine has been with him for the last 55 days.

What can you do? You can start by "Digging" this story after that you head to Ryan's myspace page and add your self as one of his friends. Finally don't forget to write Mr. Cuban to tell him why Ryan should get funding to make his film.

As Cody says doing all of this is much easier then running 2,950+ miles across the country to achieve your dream.

TOOL Covers....

So while searching youtube for a clip from the daily show where Lewis Black goes off (Lewis Black go off? Never!) on Fox news about the that damned dancing penguin movie.

I was unsuccesfull but for some reason I decided to go looking for TOOL cover songs... and well now you get to ignore the glory that is TOOL covering another band.

Covering the Ramones



Covering Led Zepplin

Somewhere between Azeroth and Endor....

Not to long ago Curtis and I were talking about gaming, as we often do. The topic turned to MMO's (massive multiplayer online) games that we both play. We were lamenting the fact that our team in Eve was dying and both of us are loathe to seek out another group to run with since we both truly enjoy the community that we are apart of in Eve. The conversation quickly turned to another topic soon thereafter... I believe the topic of discussion was whether to see the dancing penguin movie or Bond. Lets just say that I will never look at penguins in the same way again.

So while sitting in the dancing penguin movie (which btw wasn't that bad) I got to thinking about EVE, Planet Side, and Star Wars Galaxies. EVE has been my game of choice for the last 2+ years now it's large it's complex there are many many many aspects. I've always had a blast in EVE.

Planet Side was never really more then a diversion... you know like a ex-girlfriend that comes back into your life. You two keep each other around just long enough to remember why you are exes in the first place.

Star Wars Galaxies was my first MMO and is still the only one where I litterally lost track of time when I played it. More then once did I play for 12 or 14 hours. And for a while there SWG was all that I did. I chalk alot of that up to shit going on in my personal life that I didn't want to deal with though.

So as I watched the dancing penguin movie and watched genitalia inter cut with the dancing penguins flash across the screen I came to a thought.

EVE is a good game but I really want something that isn't quite so deep. Something a bit lighter and easier on the old gaming pallet. At the very least something that is matured to a point where a newb can have a good base of more experienced players to work with.

With that thought the seed was planted... and now against every fiber of my being... I'm dealing with damned dirty fairies and elves...

/sigh

And unto thee they said... let there be great fire and wookiees

Once again the whole having friends who blog thing has brought out the envious side in me. Not that it's that hard to do. I'm forever compensating for something... You flaunt your married-ness with home life and either kids / pets / or lack there of. I flaunt my single-ness and my general lack of attachments to anyone or thing.

So really it's pretty much all aspects of my life.

My latest place where I feel a need to compensate... Cody and his damn blog pictures. And it's not just his blog it's his damn myspace too!

I pick the oddest things to get worked up about... I really need to find a way to relax... Oh look a fridge full of Guinness.

OK so getting back to object of tonight's angst... Take a look at those pictures. I think the guy has talent his pictures are how I see my pictures in my head. Use of shadows almost all of them off the cuff and "natural".

Really I think that is what drives me up the wall most about photography is that so much of it is unnatural and posed.

Now I realize that alot of photographs are posed for artistic reasons or because there is a large group but I look at so many and there always things that seem a little to perfect.

And don't get me started on advertising. I may be in the coveted 18-49 male demographic but I resist 99.9% of that advertising

YES LORD JOBS I WILL NOT REVEAL THAT YOU ARE THE .00001% THAT GETS TO ME

That was weird I blacked out there for a second.

Anyway... I am envious of Cody and his pictures... Or maybe I'm envious of Cody and his mad iLife skills. And Eve's ability to do the ninja camera thing.

Ok so the married people have me on that one. In order to get my "natural" shot and be in said shot it can no longer be "natural" and must be posed in some way shape or form.

And the pictures I have posted here? Well I worked from home today which means I finished working a hour early since I didn't drive in and was already here and didn't have to drive home. So I took a couple of pictures at lunch. I even did the faux iPhoto thing to them in Picasa and well look at mine compared to Cody's "nature" shots...

I need to go compensate some more.

Na na na na na

for the record.... after a equal number of beers cody and curtis can still dance better to me.


I will truly need to find a drunk woman at the bar... or one who takes pitty on me.