Saturday Lite

Well, it’s Saturday and back to work tomorrow. Slept late today. Cereal and then coffee. Made myself sit down and finish my taxes, basically plugging in the numbers from the rough draft onto the actual forms. It’s all signed, sealed and ready to be mailed off tomorrow. I’ve been online for a couple of hours and really have nothing very outstanding to report, nothing to link you to. Gotten everything pretty much ready for work tomorrow. 5 a.m. comes hard, my friends. On Thursday night went to Phil and Enma’s for a birthday dinner for Phil. Actually, his birthday was last Sunday, but because of conferences, he postponed the piss-up until Thursday. As usual, Enma cooked a great meal. Yesterday, I slept quite late and woke up moderately hung-over, but with no lasting damage. I was online for awhile, then curled up in bed and watched 5 hours of TV I’d taped all week, but hadn’t had time to watch. I’ve gotten hooked on Prison Break, Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy, House and Friday Night Lights.

You know, there’s something about Friday Night Lights that seems to embody all things American and I can’t quite put my finger on it. This entire Texas town (much like Ceredo-Kenova, WV used to be) is totally and singly obsessed with their high school football team. It’s like the only thing they have in their lives and the only thing that matters to them. You throw in the mix a kid whose father is fighting in Iraq and another who is a Katrina refugee. All the cheerleaders are cute and all the football players are cute with cute girlfriends. There are so many reasons why I should hate this show, yet I’m totally hooked on it and I don’t know why. Could be because Peter Berg produces it, based on the film he did.

Q: A terrible tragedy occurred on the Virginia Tech campus this past week. Over 30 people were horribly shot and killed by American guns used by another student. CNN International totally dropped all other coverage to focus on this. Even the BBC spent a considerable amount of air time on it. We know the victims names and we know the name and background of the killer. I’ve seen his roommates, his English teacher and other assorted people who knew him speak of him and his problems. On the day following the VT massacre, over 190 were killed in Baghdad. CNN barely mentioned it. BBC did at least one report on it. Why don’t I know the names of those people who were killed in Baghdad and why don’t I know anything about the person who killed them? Is it simply because we don’t care? They’re Iraqis and they are getting killed all the time so they don’t matter? Don’t you think that the people of the world see this and understand this and use it to form opinions of America, and rightly so?

As I’m writing this I’m uploading more photos into a new album. I’m not sure I’ll get it all done today, but hopefully by the end of this week. They’re photos from various places. From a dinner with work colleagues at a very nice Indian restaurant in Abu Dhabi, my stopover in Frankfurt and trip up the Rhine on my way home for summer break last year, and my family’s trip up into the Amish Country in Ohio. Frankfurt wasn’t a bad city, but the weather was so hot and miserable, that it was just impossible to enjoy it. The boat trip on the Rhine was super, though. Our family trip up to the Amish Country was great. We really had a nice time. Great food and friendly people and Morgan, Jennifer and I got to go horseback riding. Hope you like the pix.

If you know me, then you know I read a lot. I can’t remember when I have not been between page 1 and the end of a book. That sounds familiar. Maybe I’m plagiarizing myself. Anyway, I have a huge library in my flat because I tend to read according to mood. I really enjoy detective novels which are written as a series. There’s a new series I’ve been reading featuring Leo Waterman that I’ve been enjoying. It’s set in Seattle and features a private detective, of course. G.M. Ford is the author and he definitely has a keen sense of humor. I just finished the first in the series entitled Who In Hell Is Wanda Fuca? There’s a new movie out starring Mark Wahlberg called The Shooter. It’s based on a series of novels written by Stephen Hunter and they are all great. The main focus is Bobby Lee Swagger (I know!), but some of the series have centered on his father. They’re well-written and thoughtful. Can’t wait to see the movie. Last night I wasn’t in an escapist mood because I’d just escaped with several hours of TV, so I started a serious novel, one that’s been on my shelf for years. It’s Caracole by Edmund White. It goes without saying that the writing is superb as usual. I’m only about 50 pages into it so I’ll give it another mention after I’ve finished it.

Well, that’s it for me. Going to continue trying to upload these pix, but got things to do around here. Next time.