Strange State

My brother wrote a great book...Strange State.

Check it out here: http://strangestate.blogspot.com/

Or here: http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=264655159

Great reading if you're into history and oddities!

Who knew?

Today is my little baby girl's 4th birthday!! Where has the time gone? I'm not ready for 3 kids. I liked the babies. I will adjust in time, and I'm sure I will find wonderful memories in the years to come. For now, I'm holding on to the baby in all of them.

Oklahoma 1-0

So the Sooners are 1-0, but they face a little bigger challenge this week. I'm still not covinced that Miami can hang with the Crimson and Cream (white?). We'll see tomorrow...

Good music coming soon...Tree63, Phil Wickham, MercyMe

My middle child turned 5!!! I can't decide which is worse: the grey hair or the balding.

Hopefully, I can get back to posting. Probably no one reads this, but I feel like its good therapy.

I Love My Les Paul

Here I am in action:

That is one good looking guitar!!!

4 Days Dead is Alive...again!

Well the group is finally taking off...again! We were on a little hiatus, but I am hoping to get things jetting soon. I plan on having a few gigs in Aug and Sept. I'll have pictures soon.

OU Sooners are comin'!!!

This is what I'm talking about!!!

O' Brother Where Art Thou?

I seriously need to find some time to do something with this blog!!!

Fortunately, I am about to find the time. My life is settled down to a dull roar. The voices in my head have winged away.

College football is on the way!!! More on that later...

My brother is in Puerto Rico. I really need to give him a call - I am a slacker brother!!!

My wife and I are going to the Simpsons movie tonight! Woo Hoo!!!

Sir Mac Back!!!

If you haven't heard, Sir Mac has a new album out called Memory Almost Full. It's great! I am an unabashed Mac fan so my opinion is a little biased; however, this is a really good album. He seems to be in a little of a reawakening in his music and his lyrics. His lyrics are espicially compelling. Sir Mac in the past has had some fairly awful lyrics surrounded by beautiful music. No more say I! This is an excellent album that should garner him some awards from a public that is just now beginning to understand how incredible this man's talent is. If you get a chance, pick up this album. I can only hope he'll go on tour soon!

Here is his website:

www.paulmccartney.com

I'm planning on taking my wife and oldest daughter to see him should he come anywhere close. I saw him a couple of years ago in Dallas. What a great show!! He played for over 2.5 hours - his hits, his history and more. His voice and playing were in great form. He basically put these new, young bands to shame. I can't remember the last time I saw one of these new bands play for 2.5 hours. No stamina, I guess.

Wow...church!

My wife and I decided to take the girls out to my dad's new church in Shawnee. It was to be his first Sunday in his new digs, and we wanted to support him in that effort! We had a great time. The church is a wonderful place full of wonderful people. The atmosphere was worshipful and deliberate in its attempt to set a tone of reverance. More importantly, to my wife and I, we felt good to be in a church again that wanted to worship. We just came from an ugly situation in our previous church that could have easily turned us sour on the whole church experience.

Please do me a favor...don't let a sour situation in your church cause you to turn your back on all churches. You have to do a little looking (sometimes a lot of searching) to find a church that 'fits' your family's personality and passions. God has some remarkable things waiting for you, but you have to learn to get out of His way!!

This is my wife...

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Milady the Right Reverend Charleen the Nefarious of Wimblish upon Frognaze Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Aristocratic Name Is...

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Milord Sir Lord Jeremy the Facile of Melbury Bumpton Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My brother has moved to sunny Puerto Rico (go ahead and hate him - it's okay, he understands the hate!). He apparently went to this restaurant and sent me a picture of it. This is a restaurant!??! It's sickening. Charleen and I are already planning to come out as soon as possible. This looks amazing!

MY MOVIE THIS SUMMER!!!

I never see a movie on opening day, but I am going to probably make an exception this one. I am going to take the day off and see this movie! I, along with millions of other fans, have been waiting for this movie for a long time. It's like Christmas and my birthday rolled into one!!!

Caught in Traffic

"Ernest?"

He hated that name...even the shortened Ernie was enough to set him off.

"Ernest? Answer me, young man!"

He could feel that little vein under temple start to dance in a rhythmical, measured cadence. If she kept using that name, he wouldn't be able to control himself much longer. That name.

"Ernest? Ernest!! Where did you get it? To whom does it belong?"

There she goes again. Why won't she stop? That little vein now felt like a freeway running through the side of his head. It was beginning to hurt. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt the first slow wave of a migraine. He was doing everything he could to control himself, and now it looked like he was going to pay for it.

"Ernest? Where did you get that arm?"

My Harry Potter world!!

I am currently rereading the first six books. What a great ride! Here are a couple of great websites if you're a Harry Potter fan:

http://www.lashawnbarber.com/ffc/

http://www.jkrowling.com/

http://www.mugglenet.com/

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/

http://joindumbledoresarmy.warnerbros.com/

Who has time!!??!!

I started this as a way to release some creative rants, musings and writings. So far I don't seem to have the time to rant or muse. Oy vey!! Sigh - hopefully the summer months will find me more willing to take the extra time to do something useful with this and my biggyblogger site.

Here's a couple of cool websites...okay, not cool...would you go for just strange and interesting?
http://www.onelight.com/thei/hollowmoon.html

http://hogueprophecy.com/

As my wife and I have pre-ordered our two copies of the 7th book in the Harry Potter series, I wish to take a moment to plug the fifth movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - OMG!!! It looks so good. These movies keep getting better and better! Though no where near as good as the books!!

Enough is enough...

I have another site that is devoted to my interest in crytozoological mysteries. On this site, I post my musings and article links for people who have much the same interest. My brother and my mom also contribute useful and interesting items. It's a completely amateur site. We aren't trying to sell you a bill of goods based on our so-called 'expertise'. Saying that to say this...

We often check out other sites. They are deplorable. They are hack sites that float any ridiculous item as a mystery (that they'll be sure to include in their next book!). Many of the sites (and one in particular that shall remain nameless due to litigious hair trigger on the part of the blog owner - he's got bills to pay!!) are almost whoreish in their attempts to sell you a book. One of the more digusting sites had a unseemly donations request that made me want to scream, "Go get a job!!" The money plea seemed to hinge on the fact that the internet, the cryptozoological world and possibly the sun would cease to exist if this over promoted hack didn't get money from you. What a scam!

1. If you don't have a legitimate mystery posting...don't!
2. If you have to beg people for money, go get a job! We are not obligated to support you.
3. If you have to troll the internet for similar sites to post message promoting your own site, you look like a weasel.
4. Just because the dumb ass media keeps interviewing you doesn't mean we care what you have to say.
5. Have something to say. Be prepared to support it.
6. If you are going to write books on subjects that involve serious scientific study, please don't get mad when we question your ability to have anything to say. You community college degree in literature or drama doesn't really count as a conducive background to scientific research.

Isn't it scary?

I was reading an article on line related to the teacher candidate that was refused her degree by her university because she had a topless picture of her on a Myspace page. She is now suing for her certificate, degree and damages.

It certainly gives me pause as to what I put out on the internet. Will my affinity for gopher puppet shows cause me to lose my job or be denied a promotion? It's a scary thing. You should think about it as well. I mean...come on...what kind of world would we have without gopher puppet shows?

Side project - Biggy Blog!!

With the encouragement of my brother, I've started a sister site - www.biggybloggers.blogspot.com This site will focus on my interest in cryptozoology - Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Blobsquatch and more. I am hoping to turn this into a site that seriously discusses the mystery and myth surrounding Sasquatch. My brother will also contribute from time to time. More on this later...

We took the kids to the Shriner's Circus today. What a blast!! The kids had a great time especially during the animal acts! Good stuff...I'll be posting a bigger post later!

* Saw The Departed - Wow!!

* The Ant Bully is cute, but an indoctrination film for people who want to see ants take over the world.

* My 3-year old walks on her toes and has a squeaky voice...very cute!

My wife and I celebrate our 13th year together this coming June. Traditionally, there are certain types of gifts given for anniversaries depending on which particular anniversary you've arrived. It seems that lucky 13 is lace. I don't usually follow these guidelines when thinking about an anniversary gift, but this year I thought lace would be nice. I am going to look into what sort of things have lace. Obviously, panties, etc. However, to be honest, that would be more of a gift for me!!! So I have put on my thinking cap...I may have to change the batteries!

4 Days Dead...that is the name of the band that I am currently playing guitar. What a great name! I'm a big believer that many bands don't 'make it' because they chose poorly when assigning themselves a name. Now, please don't misunderstand, I'm not developing illusions of grandeur nor am I harboring some fantasy of being discovered. I just want to play and make some good music with like minded folks. In order to do that, you need to be a band that people want to hear - 4 Days Dead sounds like a band people want to hear. We need work - song selection, dress and appearance, but a square has been filled with a very good name.

Blogging Equals Freedom

In an age where it seems our freedoms are facing a swift erosion, a blog such as this represents a great deal of freedom. Currently, court decisions are favoring the blogger in free speech issues. This has allowed this medium to explode. Blogging isn't for everyone, but it is a great way for someone to share with others who are like minded.

I found this blog to be well done and fun to read:

http://southeastsasquatchassociation.blogspot.com/

Yes, I am into some cryptozoological issues - not everything. To be sure, there are some very different ideas out there! I want to believe that there are still mysteries out there to be solved. Modern science is so boring and arrogant. The established scientific community seems to think there is nothing out there "big" to discover. This belief, along with science for profit motivations, have turned scientific discovery into a sterile, boring search for minutia. I like to think that they're wrong. In fact, there are great examples of "big" discoveries waiting to happen - the inconsitencies of physics, gravity, how anesthesia works, human artifacts much, much older than the accepted timelines, and on and on...the list is quite large, but not much profit so not much effort!! So it's exciting to think that there is more out there that we don't understand - that romantic, mysterious pull is what legends are made of and what progress is driven by...

We finally have a name!

4 Days Dead - It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? So now our new group has an identity on which to hang our collective hats. We have played two events to much praise and enthusiasm so we must be doing something correctly. We have another event in less than two weeks...

My guitars liberate me. I can be anything I want to be when I play. When I pick my guitar up, hold that plectrum aloft to strum that first chord, I am connected with everyone who's ever played - McCartney, Hendrix, Clapton, King, Guy, Keaggy, Vaughan, Van Halen, Sheperd, and the list goes on and on. What sets it apart for me is that many people learn to play and settle into an acceptable status quo - not me! I want to keep learning until the day I die - please let me be near a guitar on my final day!

Here's an interesting link:

http://www.bigear.org/vol1no1/burnell.htm

Enjoy!

Who knew the trees would be so disagreeable? Hadn't everyone else approved the idea? The trees would ruin everything. Couldn't they see that this was best for everyone concerned? It was rude. That's what it was...rude.
Of course, the trees took no notice nor heed of the increasingly turgid comments of the wood folk. The trees had lived a long time and seen many ancient and wonderful things. They were not easily swayed once they had arrived at their decision. Unfortunately, The decision came with a heavy responsibility as many of the wood folk, as well as many of their own number, would not survive this night.

The Stout's Defense Statement

Hello,

This is my first entry of my new blog. I am hoping to use this space to share views, opinions, crazy stuff and writings with anyone intereseted. I am also a pretty big buff of the mysterious aspects of the world I live. This will also be a great place to share stuff with my brother who is soon moving to Puerto Rico. I've done a bit of research on Puerto Rico. It has a very rich history...pirates, natives, rum trade, slave trade, espionage, scandals, etc. It should provide my literary brother with inspiration.

So this is an exciting start to a new adventure for me. I plan to lay the good, bad and ugly out for analysis and discussion. So for now...

Check out www.damninteresting.com

Be sure to watch the BBC productions of Jeeves & Wooster starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie

Go outside and see the real world!