The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Archives for May 2005

A Father’s Fear/Concern

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I shouldn’t include fear in the title because it suggests that this is a bigger issue than I think it really is. But since I use this place as my Fortress of Solitude I have to vent a little.

In a few weeks my son is going to begin his first Summer at a new camp. It comes highly recommended and it has a number of things about it that I truly like, but, there is always a but I am nervous.

I am nervous because no one will love him or care for him like his family does. I am nervous because he is a kind and sensitive boy who I really do not want to see hurt or upset. I want camp to be a wonderful experience that he loves and treasures.

But I know that as part of his socialization he needs to learn how to get along in many different situations and that sometimes he will be in places where people may not be as nice or as caring as they could or should be. So it really is important that I allow him to participate in things that help him grow and help him learn how to take care of himself.

Of course he is not being sent to a place that we have not checked out. He is not being sent to a place where I have any real fear for his safety, aside from the normal concern of any parent. And that normal concern is enough, it is the kind of thing that can be paralyzing if you allow it to be. So you cannot constantly focus on what can happen. All you can do is try and provide some guidance and try to make sure that they are as safe as they can be without forcing them to live in a bubble.

So what can I say, I am just another concerned father who loves his children very much.

Caddyshack- Movie Quotes

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Bill Murray has a great line in Caddyshack that I have been chuckling over for the last couple of days.


“So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I’m a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald… striking. So, I’m on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one—big hitter, the Lama—long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga… gunga, gunga-galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he’s gonna stiff me. And I say, “Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.” And he says, “Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consiousness.” So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice”

Roller Coaster Fanatics

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When I was a little big younger I loved them, just loved them. I still enjoy them, but I admit to having nerves that fray a little bit more easily now. I am not real sure why, but I know that it is relatively recent phenomena for me.

I just read about the worlds fastest and tallest roller coaster.


“…the maiden run Thursday of “Kingda Ka” — the world’s newest, tallest and fastest roller coaster.

Installed at the Six Flags Theme Park near Trenton, New Jersey, the monster ride uses a hydraulic launch system to slingshot riders horizontally from 0 to 205 kilometers (128 miles) per hour in 3.5 sickening seconds.

The momentum flings the 18-seater train into a 90 degree climb to a height of 139 meters (456 feet), followed by a vertical plunge through a three-quarter spiral and a final jaunt over a 39-meter (129-foot) high “camel hump.”

And for some perspective

“To put the velocity of Kingda Ka into perspective, a Ferrari 360 Modena takes one more second to accelerate to half the speed.

A fighter plane launched off an aircraft carrier gets to 150 mph in about two seconds, while a Top Fuel dragster car can reach 100 mph in less than one second.”

“

Compromising My Anonymity

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I have been blogging for just short of a year now and during that entire time I have been careful to maintain my anonymity. It allows me to speak more freely and to be more open than I would normally be.

There are people who know me who know about this blog and that is ok. They learned about it when it was young and fresh and there really wasn’t much in the way of a personal nature to it.
I am not even sure if they still read it because they never comment about it here on in the real world.

But now I have a few family members who want to be let in. I feel a little bit like the Mighty Oz because they are trying to pull away my curtain. Unlike him I have never pretended to be a great and powerful wizard, but it doesn’t change the fact that allowing some of these people to read this could be uncomfortable at times.

I am a bit more exposed here and frankly do not want to discuss many of the personal things I write about with family. It is not that they are not accepting of me, they are and I am glad for that. But it is still a little weird and uncomfortable and there are stories that they do not know that I haven’t shared with them because I just haven’t.

So the decision is going to be forced soon. I can tell them that I am not comfortable including them in this, I can let them read it and just let the chips fly where they may or I can start a new blog and let them read that.

Things to think about.

Movie Quotes, Johnny & Willie

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If I wasn’t addicted to the keyboard I would be in the other room watching more of the Star Wars movies, the original set that is. Since I expect to go see Revenge of the Sith in the very near future I took that as a good excuse to watch the originals again. Never hurts to remind myself of the little things that I have forgotten as well as the reality that I just really enjoy them all.

Over at Treppenwitz the movie quotes have slowly begun to fly and I cannot help but join in with some of my favorites, movie or otherwise. Here is a random sample:

Gail Stanwyck: Look at her would you look at her. She looks like a hooker. Could you love someone who looked like that?
Fletch: What are you talking about? Of course not! Five, ten minutes tops, maybe.
Fletch

You’ve got the brain of a four-year-old boy, and I’ll bet he was glad to get rid of it.
Groucho Marx


Well, art is art, isn’t it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh… Now you tell me what you know.
Groucho Marx


D-Day: War’s over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.
Bluto: Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he’s rolling.
Bluto: And it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the goin’ gets tough…
[thinks hard]
Bluto: the tough get goin’! Who’s with me? Let’s go!
[runs out, alone; then returns]
Bluto: What the fuck happened to the Delta I used to know? Where’s the spirit? Where’s the guts, huh? “Ooh, we’re afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble.” Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I’m not gonna take this. Wormer, he’s a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer…
Otter: Dead! Bluto’s right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.
Bluto: We’re just the guys to do it.
D-Day: Let’s do it.
Bluto: LET’S DO IT!
Animal House

Ok, I could really go on all night

Inigo Montoya: Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father: prepare to die. Now, offer me money.
[slices Count Rugen’s cheek]
Count Rugen: Yes.
Inigo Montoya: Power too. Promise me that.
[slices Count Rugen’s other cheek]
Count Rugen: All that I have and more. Please…
Inigo Montoya: Offer me everything I ask for.
Count Rugen: Any thing you want.
Inigo Montoya: I want my father back, you son of bitch.
[stabs and kills Count Rugan]
Princess Bride


Vizzini: Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.

Vizzini: You only think I guessed wrong – that’s what’s so funny. I switched glasses when your back was turned. Ha-ha, you fool. You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is “Never get involved in a land war in Asia”, but only slightly less well known is this: “Never go in against a Sicilian, when *death* is on the line.”. Hahahahahah.
[Vizzini falls over dead]
Princess Bride

In the meantime I have been listening to the Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson VH1 Storytellers album. They do a great version of Ghost Riders In the Sky, Always on My Mind and Crazy.

It is a nice way to ease into a more peaceful state of mind and prepare myself for a big effort at the office tomorrow. Fridays can be particularly challenging as it is a day in which you are almost inclined to slack off a bit, but it is also a day in which things can get very busy and very hairy in a hurry.

So with that in mind I am going to sign off and get some sleep. Lailah tov from Los Angeles, see you in the AM.