Hey crew! How was everybodys Labor Day weekend? Too short huh? Back to school 2morrow, for everyone except my brother and Ivy who are just starting 2moro :P. I did a good deed Saturday & have a funny story from Sunday. Both involve kids: one a high schooler ( to a college freshman high schoolers ARE kids) & the other a toddler.

Saturday I was driving down 115. It's a long streight 2 lane road in a valley with a lot of corn on both sides and occasional patches of woods. In other words no shade. Anyway I had been hiking for a few hours earlier (on the hottest day of the week 83 F/ 29 C ) and was headed home to take a shower & relax. I saw this kid walking along the road. I went past him & then I thought how sweaty & tired I was from hiking. There were no houses along this stretch of road so he must have walked pretty far already and he looked only about 14 or 15. I did a quick U-turn and pulled up next to him. I go "Hey son! Want a lift?" The kid goes "Yeah! Thanks" and hopped in. This is the country >>>> city kids worry abt strangers, we don't. He said he was going to the store in U___ville. That's another 3 miles (5 km) from where I picked him up! The village of U____ville consists of a bar, a vollie fire station ( no coincidence they're next door to each other :P ) , a small grocery store, some houses, 536 ppl and 1 traffic light. Get the picture? The kid said he'd find someone to drive him back but I insisted on waiting for him. He came out with a bag of stuff, and a can of soda he wanted to give me. I told him "no." So anyway, I drove him home & his house was over a mile past where I picked him up. This kid was gonna walk 9 miles (14.5 km) :o round trip! I told not to ever do that again on such a hot day, he could get heat exhaustion.

Here's the funny story. Sunday I was over Nick & Denises house for 2 hours while they went shopping. For me 2 hours watching their kids is nothing. My friend Scott is home from college in Cleveland for the long weekend so I brought him with me. We're playing Dungeon Siege and Vinnie (the middle one) walks right past me, pulls Scotts hand & whines that he has to "go pee-pee." I went "Take him! HURRY!" Well a few moments later I hear a commotion & Scott yelling for me to "Come'ere." I nearly died laughing :lol: >>>> There's Vincent standing IN THE TOILET wearing just his T-shirt & squealing with delight :shock:. Scott is kneeling on the floor splashed with toilet water :lol:. He looks at me sheepishly & goes "Don't get mad huh?" When I could finally stop laughing I asked him "WTF happened?" Well, he took Vinnie into the bathroom & took off his pants & Huggie (so far so good). But then instead of sitting him down on the blue plastic potty like Vinnie is used to, Scott stood him up on the rim of the toilet, held him under the arms & told him to "aim at the water like a BIG boy." Well, Vinnie was totally confused >>> he tried to turn around and sit down. He slipped off the rim, out of Scotts grip & into the toilet bowl :P. That's when I came in. I told Scott "Why would I be mad? But YOU'RE giving him a bath b4 they come home." It's the next day & I'm still chuckling. You can tell Scott has no babies in his family :roll: .

That's it. I hope you laughed at the image too. I'll tell you guys about today in the next blog, I'm kinda tired. Have a great week!

Hey crew! Well the blog title explains it all:

1) Family & friends. Yeah it sounds chiche but you realize how much they mean to you when they're not there. Even the Rodent.

2) My cat. Pets don't question, they just give unconditional love.

3) My soulmate. Jessi is more than a GF, she's a part of me. She's altered my being.

4) Being young enough to do the things I want to & old enough to know the things I shouldn't.

5) People. Most ppl ARE decent. And the ones who aren't get what's coming to them. Karma exists.

6) Suprisingly,most of my teachers if I'm honest abt it. The real di*ks were the exception.

7) My house, my room, my town, my Road, the neighbors (with 1 exception, some of you know who I mean).

8.) Living in a country that's free enough to make mistakes & powerful enough to survive & correct them.

9) A sunny day, a laughing baby, a rubbing cat, noisy playing little kids, a cool breeze, my green mountains.

10) You guys. The best friends I've never met. From all over the world. I'm awed & grateful about what we've done & shared & helped each other thru druing the 3 yrs I've known you.

Hey crew! Well I completed my first half-week of University. How come my little brother is still off until September 9th?:evil: I got through add/drop. As you know one of my courses got cancelled because hardly anyone signed up for it (except me of course :P ). I had to find a 100 level (freshman) course still open that meets MWR 10-11:00am or change my whole schedule! Well I found something. Not something I would have picked (Stagecraft 182) but it fits. I'm not exactly interested in theater. I also couldn't find Royal Theater at first even though it's right across the Commons from Weinberg Library :lol:. You can recognize us freshmen--- we're the bewildered looking ones wandering around with campus maps:P and carrying backpacks like we did in high school ( University students don't do that :roll: ).I had no problem finding Loyola Hall of Science, it's across from the Admissions Building. But I had an awful time finding Claver Hall-- it's way across campus surrounded by dorms. What's it doing there? I also stopped by St Thomas Hall because that's where WUSR is located. I'm thinking of joining. Freshman don't get on the air, we're humble go-fers :cry: but you have to start at the bottom. By the time you're a Senior you have some control over the playlist when you DJ. So I'm still learning my way around & getting used to something COMPLETELY different than high school was.

So today is the championship round of the Little League World Series. They're down to 4 teams and after today it will be 2-- the U.S. and International champions. In the last round San Antonio,TX beat Staten Island, NY 6-3 YAY! Anyone who was born in New Jersey hates Staten Islanders. Here's a trivia fact for you: Staten Island was part of NJ in colonial times but they seceded and joined New York :evil:. Heavily favored Chula Vista, CA came back in the last inning to beat Warner Robbins GA 11-10. I was so pi**ed. The Californians are huge & the little guys from GA played their hearts out. I wanted them to advance. In the International Division Mexico and Japan advanced to the final round. So by tonight it will be either Texas or California against either Japan or Mexica on Sunday for the World Champion. I'm hoping Texas vs Japan but my head says the other 2 will make it. Well I'll let you know next blog...

Hey crew! Well the end of summer is fast approaching and you know what that means--- my third annual coverage of the Little League World Series.:D As you know from previous years, I start following teams in the 8 Regionals and report on the 16 teams of 13 year olds (8 U.S. and 8 International teams) that make it to Williamsport PA for the playoffs. Yeah it's in my home state but I've never been there. PA is pretty big & I'm at the other end of it, several hundred miles away. My team never made it there, :roll:we never came close. We never even won the county or anything.Frankly, we weren't very good :P. The Rodent isn't into baseball, so no hope there. But someday when I have kids or when the little cousins are older..... :lol: I thought it was going to be a good playoff this year. The teams seemed pretty balanced. Whoa was I wrong! :shock: In the first round (which just ended Sunday) it was common to see teams behind 10-0 in the second or third inning! Going in I liked the teams from Mercer Island WA, San Antonio TX & Wyane Robbins GA. Well, Peabody MA, Russelville KY and Mercer Island have been eliminated. Staten Island NY and Urbandale IA have to play a tiebreaker but they're the 2 weakest of the survivors and will exit in the next round. GA,TX and Chula Vista CA (and the NY/IA winner) move on to the next round, so I'm 2 for 3 in my picks :o . In international play (which is harder to follow :evil:because ESPN doesn't show all of their games) Canada, Germany, Dutch Antilles and Saudi Arabia have been eliminated while Taiwan, Japan, Venezuala & Mexico advance. Do you guys see a pattern here? It seems mostly teams from areas where it is warm enough to play year-round are beating teams that have snow on the ground half the year who can't practice as much. Just an observation. I hope that the next round is more closely matched than the first. Keep ya posted.

Okay, now that I've put all the non-baseball fans to sleep I'll move on. :lol: We had the BBQ at Scotts house Saturday. It was fun. I brought 4 bottles of soda (can't show up empty handed) and Jessi brought a rhubarb-strawberry pie. IDK she could even bake! Gerry made a spritzer with 7-Up and blueberry wine from a winery in New Jersey. Yeah NJ has wineries, darn good ones too. It was delicious, I like blueberries. Scotts parents didn't mind us having beer and wine in their yard. Ya know this is rediculous-- as Gerry pointed out while we were eating-- now that we're 18 years old America considers us mature enough to sit on a jury and potentially send someone to a gas chamber or firing squad, BUT WE'RE NOT CONSIDERED MATURE ENOUGH TO LEGALLY DRINK A BEER :o ? How ****ed up is that logic? Anyway after all the hotdogs, burgers, chicken and watermelon were consumed we jumped into the pool. We needed to cool off as it was very humid. Since we had a bit of alcohol in us things got a little rowdy. I got pushed in when I wasn't looking. I also got pantsed :oops:. Most of the guys got pantsed at least once, which I'm sure the girls totally enjoyed:lol:. At least from the comments they were making to each other I'm sure they liked it :P. I thought the BBQ was going to last until late but ppl started leaving at dusk. There were a lot of hugs and "Keep in touch man, see ya in November" being said. It was the closing of the door on high school and the opening of the door to a new life in University. As I told Ivy here, there have been so many changes in my life since last August that I don't feel like I'm ME anymore :?. Does that make sense to you? But it was an awesome way to end the summer and say "see ya" (NOT "goodbye") to each other. Thank God Jessi is going to the local County College & I'm commuting to Scranton. If I had to wait until the holidays w/o seeing her IDK what I'd do. It's bad enough all my friends are being scattered. But the brave new world of adulthood awaits. I wonder what the next part of the ride is gonna be. World of adulthood here I come! :D

Hey crew! Sorry I haven't blogged. I haven't been busy, I've been bored. When it isn't raining out it's 94 F (35 C ) outside and you can't do anythig strenuous. :evil:That's bad news for an outdoor person like me. This Saturday we're supposed to have a barbeque :D at a kids house to end the summer & be together one last time before we all go our seperate ways in life. :(

Next week when school starts I have to go for something called "add drop" at the Registrars Office. Apparently one of my courses section has been cancelled and I have to re-do my schedule. :? I hope this won't happen every semester! I'm imagining waiting on long lines, I hope I'm wrong. Does anyone know the drill? Otherwise scheduling at University is awesome! Nothing like HS >>>> you have 2 or 3 courses that everyone has to take. You have to take 3 courses in each of 4 areas (Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, Humanities & I forget the other one) during your 4 years. You have to take whatever courses your major requires, but I haven't picked one yet. Most ppl don't until they're sophmores so I have a full year to decide. Other than those requirements everything else is an elective. How cool is that :) ? You have an academic advisor but I'm told that they pretty much go along with anything you want if it's reasonable.

I said I would discuss more adult topics like politics from time to time & I will, but not today. I just want to mention that I have read that some words do not have the same meaning in other countries as they do here in America. For example here the word "conservative" is synomimous (sp) with "libetarian." It means small government, self-reliance, personal responsibility and helping people with private charity as opposed to government run programs: a Scandanavian type social welfare state would never be tolerated by people here. It's unthinkable. But in France I understand that "libertarian" means the same as "liberal" which is the opposite of what liberal means here. So b4 we begin discussing things we need to all understand that the words we use mean different things in different countries. Thoughts?

Les Paul,of Mahwah NJ, the musician and inventor who achieved immortality through the guitar that bears his name died today. He was 94. Besides inventing the solid-body electric guitar, Paul also helped transform the way sound is recorded by inventing multi-tracking, reverb and close-miking. He is the only person to be inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

In 1947, Paul recorded a single that changed the course of music by inventing multi-tracking. He layered eight guitar tracks on top of each other: he would record one part then record himself playing along with the earlier recording. He kept doing that until all eight parts were on one disc. He also invented the solid-body electric we all play. "The minute I picked up the guitar, I fell in love. I knew that I would play it for the rest of my life. The only problem with it was that it wasn't loud enough." So he started experimenting. One of his early models was a block of wood with strings and two pickups attached. In 1952, the Gibson guitar company started manufacturing his invention and calling them "Les Paul model guitars". If it hadn't been for him we'd all be playing acoustic (can you guys picture me lugging around a big upright bass?).

Paul was given honorary Grammys in 1983 and 2001, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. "I have been credited with inventing a few things you guys are using. Have fun with my toys" he said in his acceptance speech. Once, asked which suited him best -- performer, guitar designer, or ground-breaking recording engineer -- Paul replied: "You know, I'd like to add a fourth category: Somebody who made people happy." Slash once said "We all must own up that without Les Paul, generations of little punks like us would be in jail or cleaning toilets. This man, by his genius, made the music road we still travel today."

Mr Paul, you changed all our lives and our culture. Millions of kids like me would not be playing without your inventions.The world is better because of you. Rest in Peace.

Hey crew! First I want to thank everyone who commented on my last blog. Do you guys want me to occasionally comment on current events like that or just stick to my personal life? Let me know please.

I did something stupid this weekend. I could have had an awesome time & I messed it up & only had a good time. As you all know I look forward to the Fair every August. As soon as it ends I start waiting for the next year. It's my fave summer event. Well, recently I noticed that I was getting out of shape. :shock:Nothing drastic but I could notice a little gut & the start of "love handles." This will NOT do. I'm not gonna start college looking flabby! It has been raining so much all summer that I haven't been doing my usual outdoor activities. Instead I've been watching TV & being inactive more than usual. So Friday I decided to start doing something about it. I worked out for almost 4 1/2 hours. :shock: Originally I thought it was only 3 hours but it was 4 1/2. I didn't warm up or do stretches I just plowed streight into it. I exercised until I literally could not do anymore. I was dripping with sweat (my shorts & T-shirt were soaked) and totally exhausted. So I took a long shower & drove over Denises to watch the kids ( who are no strangers to soaked shorts either :P ). I felt a little sore & really tired but nothing major. I even sent Lynn a looooong PM after the kids were sleeping. Well instead of sleeping over like I usually do I went home when my aunt & uncle got back. I had a very restless night which should have been a warning.

The next morning my dad yelled "If you boys want to go to the Fair get up!" I tried to jump out of bed & couldn't. Everything from my neck to my ankles hurt. My shoulders,biceps, chest,lower back, abs, hamstrings, knees and calves. I had to go down the stairs 1 step @ a time like a baby >>>> put 1 foot on a stair then the other foot on the same step. I swallowed some Aleve & slowly went out to the SUV. This didn't look good: the Fair involves a lot of walking and I could barely walk :cry: ! So I basically sat in the bleachers & watched the tractor pulls, the barrel races and the demolition derby. Then I shuffled over to the 4-H area & watched the livestock competition finals. I didn't go on the rides in the midway or play any stands or go thru the exhibits. I missed some of my fave stuff like the acrobats & clowns. I mean I still had fun but it could have been totally awesome not just good. You know what I mean?

So now it's Sunday evening & I'm still pretty sore. I messed up my fave day of the year because I didn't think ahead. So live & learn, do not exercise excessively (esp w/o warming up) b4 you are going somewhere. So s'up crew?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT--- It seems I need to explain some things abt the Fair:

A TRACTOR PULL is when you have a tractor pulling a sled with a device called a "drag." It increases resistance the further the sled is pulled. Whichever tractor pulls the sled the furthest wins. If you blow the engine you're disqualified. "Pull on Sunday, plow on Monday" is the motto. "4-H" stands for Head,Hands,Heart & Health. It's similar to Future Farmers of America. Little kids (6-12) raise little animals to exhibit @ the Fair (rabbits,goats,sheep, chickens etc) & teens raise & exhibit bigger animals (horses, cows, pigs etc). BARREL RACING is a rodeo event is when a rider rides in a figure 8 around 3 barrels set in a triangle 100 ft apart. You compete to be fastest & come closest to the barrels w/o touching them.

Hey crew! Just a few things today. We had a big storm yesterday & a brief comment on double standards and free speech.

A powerful "supercell" thunderstorm pummeled the area Wednesday afternoon! Thankfully, conditions like this don't happen too often in our area, this is a more Midwestern-type storm they said. The powerful storm knocked down trees throughout town, some landing against homes and vehicles. A lightning bolt struck the ------Township Farmer's Market at about 12:30 p.m.The storm knocked out electrical power to Carbon County homes and businesses for several hours & about 2,000 customers lost power during the height of the storm. I was on the computer when all of a sudden the sky got black & then buckets of rain and high winds and thunder & lightning and then the electricity went off. Luckily nobody was injured. It came out of nowhere.

We all remember that when anti-war protesters called President Bush things like Hitler and "Satan" and "Nazi" etc. the media told us that this was "democracy at its finest", we were hearing the "voice of the American people" expressed by a patriotic "grass roots movement" against the war (complete with pre-printed signs handed out by well funded organizers). However it looks like "grass roots activism" doesn't apply when it's a LEFTIST priority that's being protested against. Noooo, opponents are being called a "mob" and their home-made signs are "hate speech." Hmmm, calling President Bush "Satan" or "Nazi" wasn't hate speech? Here's how the libs are describing the groundswell of opposition being expressed at Town Hall meetings this month to the planned government takeover of health care : "Angry Teabaggers and other opponents of health care reform are heckling members of Congress at their Town Hall meetings back home in an effort to sway the debate..." Whoa, sway the debate? Isn't that covererd under the concepts of democracy and free speech? Now the Obama regime is telling us to report anyone organizing a anti-National Health Care protest to the White House ( liberal fascism anyone?). As usual the double-standard applies-- the left only believes in free speech when it applies to them.

Government-run health care is in big trouble even among the Democrats. It's going down to defeat or a LOT of people will be tossed out of office next year for ignoring the will of the voters. People here believe in individualism, it's what this country was founded on. If you are truly incapable of caring for yourself then the government should step in, but otherwise you should everything for yourself and Big Brother should stay out of your life. If we wanted to live in a nanny-state Socialist cr*phole we would move to Denmark or France ( I'll not mention Canada so not to offend my friends here). The Presidents approval rating has dropped 17% in the last month, it's below 50% and also below Bush's rating at the same time in his term. Thank God people are finally waking up & seeing this Marxist "President" for what he is. We will STOP government run health care---- YES WE CAN.

I'll be going to the Fair this weekend if the weather cooperates. See ya soon!

------------------------------------------

EDIT---OK, a lot of my Canadian friends seem to think I'm trashing your system of health care. I'm not. What I object to is our "leaders" trying to FORCE your system on us when most people clearly don't want it. And then demonizing the people against it.That's what I'm talking about.

While I'm on the subject I've tried to find info on your system that's objective. It's difficult, with the right saying it sucks & the left saying it's paradise. Here's what I found: Your system is excellent at basic care for everyone. If you have a sore throat or broken arm it gets taken care of quickly & for free. If however you need to see a specialist or an MRI or CT scan you get put on a waiting list & told to come back in 8 months. That's why you have Canadians coming to Buffalo or Bangor or Chicago & paying for these things who would have DIED before they got to the front of the line. There's no profit motive to buy tons of hi tech equipment like we do. Think about it.

Hey crew! I haven't written a blog in weeks because of all the problems with this site. Now that the blogs seem to be back I'm rewarding TV.com by actually writing about TV for the 1st time in my 3 years here. Don't worry, I'll be back to my usual blogs about my life in the next one. So here are the 1st Helostwin Awards listing my fave shows with a few comments. Enjoy & comment:

Best Show overall--- Degrassi the next Generation. Supurb. Awesome stories,writing & acting.

Second place overall-- Secret Life of the American Teenager. Similar but with a managable size cast.

Best New Show--- Zeke & Luther. Absoultely hilarious. And they do their own stunts too.

Best SciFi-- Battlestar Galactica. This narrowly beat Firefly which was only 1 season. Both were awesome.

Best Spinoff--- Suite Life on Deck. TSL leaves Boston & goes to sea.

Best Reality Show--- Endurance. It's Survivor done entirely with 15 yr old contestants.

Best Cartoon--- Tie: Kim Possible and Danny Phantom. A teen girl secret agent and a boy half ghost.

Best Drama--- Flight 29 Down. An updated Lord of the Flies, or Lost done with teenagers.

Second Best Comedy--- Wizards of Waverly Place. A sort of take off on Harry Potter.

Honorable Mention--- Unfabulous, Boneheads, The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody, House of Carters, MTV cribs, AaronStone, DinoSapiens, As the Bell Rings, Life with Derek, Goosebumps, Zoey 101, What I like about you, The Amanda Show, Greek, Mikes Super Short Show,Summerland.

And now the worst ones:

WORST overall--- Strange Times at Blake Holsey High. The name is longer than the laughs. Absolutely awful.

Second worst--- Drake & Josh. Yeah go ahead & yell but I could never stand it.

Worst wardrobe--- Radio Free Roscoe. They look like a Goodwill Store exploded.

Worst Comedy--- iCarley. Miranda Cosgrove was never funny ( see D&J^^^^).

Worst Musical--- JONAS. When will they learn that musicians can't act? (also see: Billy Ray Cyrus in Hanna Montana, Ozzy and Gene Simmons).

So that's it crew. My first blog ever about TV. Maybe I'll do it again in another 3 years.

Hey crew! I know that I haven't blogged in 2 weeks but a personal matter happened. I'd rather not mention it publically if that's okay. For those of you who know, you have my eternal thanks. I really don't have much to write about as most of my time was occupied with something I can't discuss so this blog will be short.

It has come to my attention that some of you don't know what "crew" means. Since I start every blog with it I better explain: "crew" means a group of friends. At least around here it does. It's used the same way my Brit or Aussie friends on here use "mates." Maybe it's just a regional Mid-Atlantic term, IDK. So when I write "Hey crew" it means "hey friends."

Speaking of around here, does anyone watch Forensic Files on Tru TV? Because if you saw the ep Cats,flies and snapshots recently, then you saw my town. Not the road I live on but close enough. The show is like CSI but with true cases. The camera drove down Rt 115 and went past the deli I used to work at. It showed the mall and those green rolling green mountains I always talk about & love so much.

After a month of rain the last 2 weeks have been nice. Blue skies with low humidity. I spent some time in the woods (not as much as I would have liked) and did some fishing last Sunday. The Susquehanna River has hundreds of creeks (we pronounce it "crick") and kills branching off it. "Kill" is a Dutch word that means "stream." It's commonly used instead of stream in PA, NJ and NY because the Dutch colonized this area first b4 the English came & they had named everything already. Some have naturally occuring brown trout and others are stocked by the Game Commission. Anyway that's what I spent Sunday afternoon doing. After a few hours I wasn't having any luck so me, Tommy & Eddie walked downstream (so not to scare the fish for our friends), stripped down & jumped in. Man it was FREEZING! Skinnydipping in a ice cold creek in July, it just doesn't get better than that! As it got toward evening the fish still weren't biting but the blueflies were :P so we decided to call it a day. Nobody caught anything but we had fun. So what have you been up to?