I'm sure I've mentioned this a few hundred times... I'm a huge Louis L'Amour fan. I have read everything he's written (even the short stories and poems). I read and reread his books and they never seem to get old for me.

Lately I have found that TV is becoming more and more irritating. The shows they have come up with nowadays are completely pathetic for the most part in my opinion. Even the brainless ESPN has become boring for the most part. I really don't care much about the opinions of some washed up athlete that was only mediocre as a player. Then they want to pay him some ginormous amount of money for his opinion. If he was that damn good he would be an assistant coach for a team instead of an opinionated dumb ass for the network (they tend to rile me).

With that said I have been rereading a few L'Amour books as of late. The problem I'm finding is that I can't put the dang book down. I read for 4-6 hours on the weekends at a sitting. At night before I go to sleep I make sure that I give my self a minimum of 45 minutes to read. I don't know if that's an illness, but I just can't seem to get the same excitement from a movie as I can from a good book.

So what do you think? I know some of you are avid fans of some of the TV programming on right now. Are the shows better than the books? Does the movie do justice for the book it is based on? I tend to think no for the most part, especially lately. I will have to admit that I went and saw Avatar and that is one of the few movies I've seen in recent years where the imagination of the Producer/Director/Writer is on par with mine.

So if you are a TV person instead of a writer what are the shows I should be checking out? If you are a book person instead of a TV person what are some new authors to try. I like anything well written. Westerns are just a favorite because L'Amour is so good at what he does. Clancy, Cussler, Koontz, and Griffin are a few of my other reads.

I was raised to open the door for people as we entered a building. It didn't matter if it was a man, woman, or child. I can almost feel the flick on the back of my head if I didn't open the door at the bank, or shoe store to this day.

With that in mind, I was at the convenience store yesterday. I jumped out of the truck and headed to the door. Coming up the sidewalk was a young gal (20's) and an older man (60's). I just opened the door without thinking of it, to let them go first. The girl stopped and looked at me with a somewhat dirty look and asked me, "Do I look helpless?" I told her of course not, I was just trying to be considerate. The old man walked right by her with a little smile and thanked me then proceeded to walk in the door. She stood there waiting for me to close the door so she could open it herself. I am stubborn though so I just stood there with the door open and she finally gave in and walked through.

It got me to thinking, is that normal now? Are we bad people if we open the door for somebody? Whatever happened to a little big of consideration for your fellow man/woman? I was just a little bit irritated and almost felt guilty for trying to be a nice person.

If not for the older gentleman I woulda been pretty ticked. As we were waiting in line, he stepped to the side and told me to go ahead. I smiled and thanked him and bought my iced tea and was gone.

Some people need to learn the difference between an insult and a kind gesture. I wonder about the household she grew up in. Doesn't anybody do nice things just because anymore???

I seem to be a beacon for telemarketers. I have switched numbers, had my name taken off numerous lists, went to a cell phone only and none of it seems to work. The latest and greatest called to ask if I would be interested in refinancing my home. Doesn't sound like a bad idea oh but wait.....I don't own my home.

I sold my house roughly 14 years ago, and we decided not to buy again until we moved to our final stop (hopefully) and guess what it's not California. So I explained to this rather friendly if not too bright person on the phone that I leased my home and that I'm quite sure it would be a waste to try and refinance my lease payments. He didn't seem to understand all that well. He thanked me for my time though and we parted company. That was the end of it, or you would have thought that was the end of it.

This wonderful little phone call took place about a day after I got home from our trip to Disneyland. Well guess what arrived in the mail today? I won't keep you in suspense, it was a check for $50,000.00 The stipulation on this check was simple. If I deposited this check I agree to the terms of the refinancing agreement made with the associate over the phone recently. I decided to make a phone call and explain to them that they had made some sort of error and sent me a check by mistake.

The phone call was made to some place back in Georgia. The young gal (young sounding voice) was very pleasant and had one of those really soothing southern accents that I just love. I explained to her that I received a check and that it had to be a mistake because I didn't own a home and so how could I refinance something that I didn't make payments to own. She looked it up and told me that I was wrong.....I must have made a mistake when I spoke with the Loan adjuster (who's name was Michael I found out). I decided that these guys were gems, so I explained to her that the only mistake was theirs, because I DON'T OWN MY FLIPPIN HOUSE!!!!!! She curtly told me that I didn't need to get loud and nasty. She then proceeded to tell me that if I had changed my mind about the refinancing all I had to do was tell them I changed my mind.

I told her no that was fine, I was going to keep the check and go ahead and refinance. So I deposited the check. It is of course on hold, because it's $50,000.00. I just wonder how long it will take them to realize that they gave me a check for $50,000.00 and I have no collateral to take that loan against. That's if the check is any good. I verified that it was indeed a real company and they are a large investment firm that deals with refinancing. So the check is sitting in my savings account and I figure I'll get a couple bucks in interest before they demand it back.

So if you don't own a home and you don't want to buy a house, but you want $50,000.00 maybe you will be the next lucky recipient of the refinancing company with an obviously extra spot of cash. I can hardly wait for the next phone call from these "professionals". I do believe that Ian has named it best...Carnival of Idiocy....And then they wonder why we are in a financial meltdown...Classic!!

I remember when I was in my freshman year of High School the big deal was Sony Walkman. It was a very cool thing to be able to carry a cassette player (bit pre ipod here) and a head set to listen to your favorite music whenever you wanted. A few of my friends had one. They were rather expensive and so the families with the cash were of course buying them for the spoiled kids they were raising. I say this with a memory of the envy I felt. I always wanted to be one of the rich kids that had everything whenever they chose.

Christmas came around that year and under the tree was a small rectangular box. I had no idea what could be in a box so small. Since I didn't wear jewelery (a lot of guys wore gold chains back then, not my thing) I hadn't a clue what it could be. I opened it a bit slowly trying to figure out what it could be before the package was revealed, but without the slightest luck. It was a plain brown box, no identifying features on it. Having decided that I couldn't figure it out I tore open the box and what could be in there but a cassette player just LIKE a Sony Walkman. This particular one wasn't a Sony though. It was an emerson and unlike the cool silver case that came with the real deal. This one had a leather carrying pouch. Now by my adult self standards, this one would absolutely be better than the crappy plastic cased silver walkman. Unfortunately I wasn't judging by adult standards, I was judging by teenager standards. I didn't say anything for a couple of minutes. My dad was immediately apologetic as he explained about this cassette player he bought me. He tried to tell me how he understood that it wasn't the fancy brand, but it did all the things that the other one did, and it even had a few features that the cool one didn't. I could see on his face that he wished that he could afford the fancy name brand. I could feel inside that I really wanted the fancy name brand. However this was far more important than some stupid cassette player. My pea brained 14 year old self realized that too. I told him it was just about the coolest thing I could ask for. I immediately ran into my room and found a cassette (AC/DC) and started playing it. The smile on my dad's face was a great as if I would have received a brand new car.

The hard part was bringing the player to school the following monday. I knew that there would be other kids with new Sony Walkman's and mine was just not cool. I didn't care that much and was determined to bring it and in fact use it at school. I got to my first break of the day and pulled out the player and sure enough there was a couple of other kids with the cool name brand, BUT there were also a couple kids looking at me carrying the same player that I had. Relief washed over me in a matter of seconds. I was at ease and those kids and I had formed an unspoken bond right then and there. We ended up seeing each other at lunch and talking about what kinds of music we liked. I made 3 new friends that day. We aren't the best of friends now, but we still see each other from time to time and still talk.

I find myself at my fathers junction now. My kids wanted a certain game and I just think it's a bit expensive and they are still pretty young. So I bought them a knock off version of it. I got it for them for no occassion other than I wanted to get it for them. In many ways I'm still a kid at heart and this is one of those little pockets of proof that I'm not grown up yet.

My kids saw the game and realized immediately that it wasn't the one they wanted. They didn't bat an eye though, they were all smiles and managed at least 5 or 6 thank you's as we opened the box and got all the wires plug into their appropriate places. Now granted the games are a lower quality than the real thing, and the selection is a bit less, but for the money it's a pretty good deal.

I overheard my middle son talking to his friend on the phone. He was explaining that they had a new game at home, that dad picked up for them. I heard him tell his friend "We don't need the other one, this thing is cool, and besides dad likes it so it's probably better anyway." My son gave me that same smile that I gave my dad all those years ago. I don't know if he said that cause he knew I was listening or not, but it doesn't even matter. Either he really believes that what I like is good enough to be awesome, or he believes that my feelings are enough to be saved with a little white lie. I think my parenting is coming full circle with my childhood and it's a pretty good feeling....

Well, it's that time of year where everybody (maybe not everybody) has made their New Years resolution. A bunch of us make promises to lose weight, get to work on time, stop drinking, stop smoking, hell the list goes on and on.

I too have done this so often that it hurts. I decided this year that I was going to take a bit of a different approach to the whole resolution thing. I read a post by dayne at Coach your mind. He asked what our IT was. I knew that my IT was procrastination. I realized that I do that entirely too much.

I printed out that post and taped it to my desk. That has become my New Years Resolution. Here's my reasoning. If I can stop procrastinating, then all of those crappy resolutions I've made in the past will definitely come true. I will indeed change my eating habits and I will definitely start exercising regularly. My sleep habits will improve and I'll definitely not be cussing in front of my kids.

It all comes down to following through with what we want to do. As a procrastinator I find that I don't follow through with my plans, regardless of the intentions. I know that often times they are the right thing at the wrong time, but that really isn't the point is it. If there was a right time for it, I would have done IT a long long time ago. I think the right time is NOW. So procrastination be gone. I'm tired of letting myself down and this is my first step towards fixing that.

Anybody else out there have the procrastination bug following them around? Isn't he an irritating little bugger (notice I called it a He).

I was fortunate enough to be acknowledged by Ian with an award for "The F Facebook Award ".

Thanks much it's definitely appreciated. I am glad that I have chosen blogging over delving deeper into the facebook irritation. I'm pretty sure that blogging has kept me on keel if nothing else..

Thanks again :)