It's Tuesday and I'm proud and pissed!

     I picked up Emma from her Writing Fellowship at Grub Street on Boyleston Street in Boston right after work. She had an excellent day! She rode the MBTA into Boston by herself and was even early for the start of her adventure. At lunch break, after a hard morning of writing, her and her new friend Tara went to lunch at Subway. They finished lunch quickly because they want to explore the Out Of The Box Festival that was occurring at the Boston Commons. I am so happy that she is finding the joy of Boston on her own. I know it can be a scary place but you can't live in fear. You just have to be careful. When I was younger I used to wander the streets of Boston and I had a blast. Until I had a run in with five black youths who took all my money that I had, but I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I never went into Boston after dark until I was bigger and older. I am extremely proud of my daughter. Now onto being pissed......

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Protesters ran through Los Angeles streets Monday night, breaking windows, attacking people on sidewalks and at one point raiding a Wal-Mart store, while others blocked a major freeway in the San Francisco Bay Area in the third night of demonstrations in California over George Zimmerman's Florida acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

     Why? Why do you destroy your neighborhood? Why do you attacking innocent people? I don't get it. This case should have never gone to court, there was too many doubts. It was over zealous prosecutors who wanted to make a name for themselves. First of all was Trayvon own father who said that the voice crying for help on the cellphone call was not his son,  Reasonable Doubt. There were cuts and abrasions on the back of Zimmermans head from being slammed into the side walk, Reasonable Doubt. The Prosecution withheld evidence from the defense - "Kruidbos testified last month that he found embarrassing photos on Martin's phone that included pictures of a clump of jewelry on a bed, underage nude females, marijuana plants and a hand holding a semi-automatic pistol." - Reuters. Just a total cluster f$%k. The jury was placed in a position where there was no other choice but to find Zimmerman innocent.
     Granted, Zimmerman should not have confronted Trayvon as per the Police requests. But it happened, I feel sorry for everyone. A young man is dead, another mans life is destroyed and a country is in turmoil. Why? Because of poor judgement. The media I think is responsible for fanning the flames, didn't they come up with a phrase I have never heard before White Hispanic. What the hell is that? I thought when you were Hispanic you were Hispanic. What is this White Hispanic? I'll tell you, its the media playing the race card and stirring up trouble. It makes me pissed that everything has to be about race. We are all the same, all equal, all just people living on this planet. If we can not get along, then what does the future truly hold for mankind? If you want, leave your opinion because that is what living in America is all about.... Freedom and being able to express yourself in a non-violent way. I have never seen anything in life that could not be discussed. Just had to get this off my chest. My prayers and thoughts go out to all who have been affected by this unfortunate incident. 

Luke is at Camp and Emma Start her Writing Fellowship.

   

  Luke started camp a week ago. He has been going to Camp Belknap for the past 5 years, he loves it. Personally I think that he loves the fact that he leaves his family and that he is on his own. Good for him, I'm proud that he is so independent. I have written him every day and I have heard from him only once. Which is fine, I understand that he is growing up and needs his own way in life.
     Today, Emma starts her Writing Fellowship at Grub Street. She took a class there during her April vacation and loved it. She then applied for the Fellowship and provided a sample of her writing, there were about 600 local kids who applied and 20 were selected. My baby girl was one of the chosen few. She was beside herself, all she wants to do is be a writer. She is very good at writing. She won a poetry contest at the Everett Parlin Library, this validated her writings as something that was not something that she should abandon. I am so proud of her. Following her heart, wish I was brave enough to do that when I was at her age.
     When I was in High School, one of my teachers told my mother that I should go to New York and break into acting or writing. This was because of the comedy show that I wrote for my Video class. Not only did I direct and write it. When someone couldn't deliver their lines right, I took there place in the show. I managed to play 5 roles myself. Follow your dreams kid or you'll end up selling toilets like yours truly.
     This past Sunday, I upgraded my son's phone to a iPhone 4s. $99.00 not to bad but another $50.00 for the Otter Box protective case. Only rule is that the Otter Box stays on it. Don't want the phone face cracked. I am a firm believer of the Otter Box, they stand behind their product. I felt bad for Emma, because she want the Samsung S4 but that phone is $299.00. I told her I will give her the same amount as I gave Luke $99.00 towards her phone but she has to come up with the rest. So I know where the stipend for the fellowship is going....LOL!
     I have two great kids and would not trade them or change how I have arrived at this moment of my life. Because if anything changed I would not have these two great kids!

Life according to Doctor Who!

I learned everything I needed to know from Doctor Who!

 

 

1. If something scary looking is coming towards you, whatever you do, don't stand there and scream. Doing so is a certain recipe for death, no matter how wimpy or funny looking the thing is. You are always faster than the alien swamp robot. Just run. Don't worry about looking like a coward, a 900 year old time lord does the same thing all the time and the girls are always going after him.

2. Always carry a screwdriver. You never know when you'll have to open locks or fiddle with electronics. Admittedly, a sonic screwdriver is best but, since True Value doesn't have any in stock, anything is better than nothing. 

3. Wear a coat. And I'm not talking about a fluffy nylon wind breaker either. Choose a classy suit coat or long coat. Bring a scarf along, over 6 feet if you feel like it. These coats are great for carrying your tools and gadgets around with you or warding off the chill in an antarctic research station. After all, how do you expect lesser civilizations to respect you if you show up in a "I'm with stupid" t-shirt? (Of course, the arrow would point to your traveling companion.)

4. Get a small classic ride with a roomy interior and an impressive engine. If your passengers get in and say, "This is roomier on the inside than it looks on the outside." You're part way to cruising the universe stopping evil-doer robots.

5. Be able to fix anything. Seriously, anything. You never know when you're going to have to manipulate some DNA, rewire a warp drive or reprogram some nano robots. You won't have a chance to look up any information and you must appear to know what your doing at all times to calm the uneducated panicked people around you. 

6. Join a large organization, tick them off, run away, become their unwilling president, run away again, fight for them, everyone dies but you. This is a pretty important step for any one's emotional development while growing up. You need to feel kind of bad about the everyone dies part, especially when someone asks you something you don't want to answer.

7. Have an arch enemy. I know what you're thinking, "Duh, who doesn't have an arch enemy?" But, you have to not hate this arch enemy. This arch enemy must have the same skills as you and must have pretty much the same motivation as you but with a minor twist. You don't like authority? Neither does he. You like to meddle? So does he. Ran away from your home planet? So did he. You like to be in charge? So does he. You would rather not kill innocent life forms if you can help it? He doesn't really care one way or the other. 

8. When everyone else is horrified, be cheerful. Doing so makes others think you know something they don't. They then look to you for leadership if things get really bad. It also helps you not break down into a crying lump of time lord on the 400th time you find a civilization wiped out or whatever.

9. Always have a companion with you in your travels. Companions are helpful and, best of all, expendable! Oh, you have to feel bad for at least a few minutes when your companion dies because you didn't get the power unplugged fast enough on the transmatter beam for the 5th time. But, just don't mention this to your next companion or that the previous 50 or so companions are all dead, depressed or stuck in another dimension. That would spoil the fun of having someone around for you to impress.

10. The prime directive is for pansies. Some advanced civilizations (even your own) think you shouldn't interfere with lesser civilizations. Poppycock! If you see something your moral compass tells you is wrong, change it without delay! Everyone will be happier, even if they don't know it.

I'm a Proud Papa!

People who know me, know that my failed marriage was tough for me. I tried my best to make it work but in the end I was asked to leave. Now out of that 17 year relationship I got two of the greatest kids in the world. Both of them are intelligent and see the world in a unique way. This past week was a good week for them.
On Monday, Pioneer Charter School of Science held their Sports Award Ceremony. Since Luke is involved in three sports Cross Country, Boys Basketball and Track he wanted to go. Well the son of a gun got an award. He received the Coaches Award for Cross Country. This is given to the individual who gives his all both on and off the field, who supports the other athletes and is a go to person for the coach. I was shocked, but even more so, Luke was Shocked. Its his outgoing personality that helped him.
That same night I was informed that Emma had taken her English and Math finals and got A's on both. I am just so proud of the two of them. They really are great kids. Their mother is does an excellent job with them concerning school and deserves all the credit for their success! In a couple of weeks Luke is off to Summer Camp again and Emma got chosen for an internship at Grub Street. Grub Street is in downtown Boston and is a writing school. This summer she will be working alongside published authors and learning about her favorite past time, Writing. She is so excited ........I know that she will be a writer, she's that good.

The times they are a changing............

It's a shame that everyone gets old. My parents are both wicked old. Dad is 90 years old and Mom is 84 years old. My Dad is a Veteran of WWII, Korea and Vietnam. He was always the strongest and baddest around. He never took shit from anybody and when someone tried him, fisticuffs ensued. But he never was beat.
The underworld element knew of him and wanted to know if he wanted a job but of course Dad refused and continued to work at O'Connell Supply. The past 5 years have been rough for both him and me. Him because his body has begun to deteriorate due to his age and me because I am watching this man who was a Rock for me, grow weaker.
Of course he doesn't want anyone to know how he is doing and will probably kill me if he ever find out that I have discussed him in my Blog. The two men that are helping him the most is my cousin Dave Chouboniare and my Uncle Fred Dean. They take both Dad and Mom to their doctors appointments. This is a great help to me and I love them dearly for doing this.
Here is what week days look like:

3:00 am - I get up and put the compression boots on my legs for an hour, if I'm lucky I fall back to sleep.
4:15 am - I get out of bed and proceed to the kitchen to make their lunches.
4:45 am - Hit the shower and shave.
5:05 am - Get dressed
5:20 am - Drop of lunches and see if Dad needs anything
5:30 am - Off to work in South Boston
6:10 am - Work at Webb
10:00 am - Spend 10 minutes talking to Dad to see how he feels. "Your at the Olympics?" .... Jeez!
2:00 pm - Lunch for a half hour, usually a call from Mom to tell me Dad is driving her crazy.
4:00 pm - Leave work to head home. Some days I take the kids home from school
5:30 pm - Arrive home from dropping kids off or running errands for Dad "I'm out of chewing tobacco!"
5:35 pm - Take their orders for dinner (hopefully they can live with the same dinner)
5:45 pm - Cook dinner.
6:30 pm - Serve them their dinner. "Dad, I made supper for you. What are you doing in bed?"
                 "I'm not hungry!"
                  "But Dad I just made waht you told me to make..."
                   "You took too long!"
                   "It was 35 minutes ago."
                   "35 minutes ago I was hungry, now I'm not!"
                   "I'll leave it in the fridge. In case you get hungry."
7:00 pm - I make myself a bowl of cereal and watch two episodes of Seinfeld.
8:00 pm - Crawl off to bed to read comics.
8:45 pm - Listen to The Archers podcast (English Radio 4 Soap Opera)
9:00 pm - Drift off to sleep for six hours.

                Rinse and repeat.

On weekends I cook breakfast, Lunch and Dinner for the 'Rents. Its tough to do, but I guess that's why I'm here. I was told by the Doctors that I would live til I was 24, I'm 51 now so I've got 27 extra years. Not too shabby.

Emma and the broken arm...

It's funny in life, I have been waiting for my daughter Emma to break her arm for years but she has been lucky. But not anymore........

It seems that she has been sporting a small stress fracture for some time. I guess she had been complaining as far back as January. But this is the first I have heard of it. She must be like her old man and have a high tolerance for pain. So they put a cast on her arm and then she went back to school.
     I don't know what she is going to do about Dance. Dance is the one thing in her life that she loves and she does quite well at it. She has a Duo with Miss Katie, I hope that the cast will only be on for a couple of weeks and will be off by the dance recital.
Update: After speaking to Emma her follow up is in two weeks, hopefully she get a good report and have the cast removed before the dance recital. I think this is the last year that Miss Katie is dancing because of High School Basketball and Track. So this duo will be her Swan Song hopefully Emma will be ready.

Ultimate Nerdfest Weekend for Emma and Me!

     This past weekend was the Ultimate Nerdfest for Emma and I. First it started out with a stop at New England Comics in Malden, MA. to pick up our pull list for the past three weeks. It was .......

The place was packed. In the back they had a couple of local comic book writes that wrote the books Healed. This book explained what would happen if every disease was cured in one day. There are 5 issues in the series and they are eye opening. They were also pushing their new book called Baby, what would happen is a kind of baby Godzilla came to town. We each picked out our two free books and got in line.
     After finishing there we went to Quincy to another NE Comic Store that was having a Signing by the Gentleman who did the FCBD book of The Tick. While I was there I noticed in the back a Moonstone Comic of Kolchak, but what intrigued me was that Barnabas Collins was also on the cover. What a cover, Kolchak , The Night Stalker and Dark Shadow's Barnabas Collins. I had to have it and it was mine. My daughter picked up some Dr. Who buttons and Lego Figures. I think we will be making another trip to that store again when its not so busy.
     It was getting close to the time that we had to be at the Thomas Crane Library. The Library was hosting

Hosted by the Nerd Fighter group of Boston. Have I missed something? What the hell is a Nerd Fighter? According to Emma they are a group of young people who bask in the glory of being a nerd. Back in my day we called ourselves "The Nerd Herd". Just a bunch of kids who liked comics, sci/fi movies and Dungeons and Dragons. I was shocked when my daughter asked me to sit in the Library Cafe while the movie was playing. I was kick out of a Nerdfest. Me, Roger Trujillo, The O.G. (Original Geek). Hell, I should have been worshiped for paving the way for Nerddom!  I don't think I have ever seen Emma so happy after this meeting of the minds. She wasn't so different for other kids, there are other who read like she does, there are others who like Doctor Who and there are other who write Fan-Fiction.
     We left there and proceeded home to feed my parents. We quickly fed my parents, grabbed Luke from The Meadows Basketball Court and went to The Movies! We went to see Iron Man 3.

Let's just say that the movie was AWESOME! But the best part of the movie came when .....SPOILER ALERT............ Tony popped out a one shot repulsor ray to zap a evil villian. Both Emma and I shouted at the same time OOOOHHHH! in unison. Not one other person said anything but we got a huge laugh afterwards. It was really a unique feeling to know my daughter was thinking the exact same thing.
     Those two kids are the greatest thing that came out of my failed marriage. I would go through that miserable existence I had again so that I would have my two kids. I don't know what the future holds for me and the kids but I can not wait to see whats going to happen.