April Day(s) of Reckoning

Day 164

It feels like forever since I did one of these columns. And that may or may not be a good thing. Doing these columns certainly makes me take stock and see if I had improved any. Having to post them in such a public arena really makes me want to complete these goals.

And when it comes to New Year's Resolutions and goals, do not guarantee anything or you will look pretty silly later on. I guaranteed last time that I would have officially completed the novel. I have one month (I hope) before my coupon expires to get my book published and I really need to push it now. But I guarantee nothing. Except for the fact that I will finish off my little chapter.

I need to guarantee more like the way Broadway Joe Namath guarantees.

WRITING:

I am still working on the novel. Wait, let me rephrase that. I am going to work on finishing my novel. Which means I need to get ahead on my ScriptFrenzy project and on this blog. If I can double up some blog entries and get a few pages cranked out on my script, I can finish the novel.

My ScriptFrenzy project is progressing and is a lot more fun than I thought it would be. The Scripped.com software is pretty awesome and makes scripting a lot more easier than I thought it would be. So far I am up to 41 pages out of the goal of 100 by the end of the month. Some days I can only do a few pages but some days are better than others and I can put out 10 pages or so. I will definitely do this again next April.

The blog is still going strong even though the last few weeks have been hard. I just don't know what to blog about anymore and I have to admit that I am getting lazier about writing too. Some stuff I want to blog about just takes forever to type! But I really shouldn't complain, this has been a lot of fun.

READING:

I finished this book a few days ago and it had to be one of the best autobiographies about professional wrestling I have ever read. It was engaging, funny, sad and motivational. Bret was one of the most famous and successful wrestler but then even his career was marred with heartache and unbelievable trials, in and out of the ring. Two of his brothers passed away tragically when they were young, close family members bickered and now they are no longer close, the injuries sustained by his friends and of course the famous Montreal Screwjob where in front of a national audience and in his homeland of Canada was lied to and he lost his World title by his own boss. But even in all the tribulation he still kept his head high and worked through a stroke. The amount of pain and loss this man faced makes me look at my own life. I could go on and on about this.

I am not sure what to read next. I still have Veeps to finish off but I am ahead in my book reading schedule. I have read 4 books this year already so I could take the rest of the month off.

Exercise and Eating Right
Ugh, I don't want to talk about this. With Easter I have pigged out on junk food like nothing else. So I have not been eating all that great. And this last week I barely exercised because I have not been feeling well. But I did exercise today and yesterday so I am getting back in the groove.

Lately for exercising I have been running up to the Logan Temple and walking around the block. It is great because it has quite an uphill (which I run every time) and it is beautiful to look at. I went walking around and running up the uphill portion when I noticed my neighbor running around it also. And boy did she run it, she must have lapped me a couple of times! So now the goal by the end of summer is to be able to run around it without tasting blood and feeling the spectre of death come upon me!

I have not done any drawing lately but I might pull out the drawing pad and do some doodling. Chances are I will be plotting my script instead since that goal needs to be done by the end of the month.

Damond and the BB Gun

Day 163

I am very thankful that I had such a good friend when I moved to the United States. Moving was not an easy thing for me, I was in a strange country and I had cows as neighbors. Actual cows! This was something that a city boy like me had to get used to.

I was picked on quite a bit in the 8th grade which made that grade absolutely hell but I did have some very good friends that helped me through it.

One of those friends was my neighbor Damond. We hung out through all of high school and he was partly responsible for making me who I am today. He and his family were a good influence on me. But that is not to say that we didn't get into mischief because that would be a bold-faced lie. And it is not like we really got into a lot of trouble because for the most part we were good.

I remember one time we were out in the Honda trails (these bike trails up above our houses in the mountains) shooting our BB guns and we got bored and came home. As we were biking home we noticed these pigeons in the middle of the road in front of Damond's house. We got off our bikes and we pumped up our BB guns to shoot the birds. We shot and missed and the birds flew away and our neighbor from across the street came out livid.

"Those better not be BB guns!" She screamed at us. Apparently these were pet birds that were being raised by these neighbors. Who the heck raises pigeons? When I heard her yell that out I thought she said "Those better be BB guns!" Why? I assumed it was because if they were real guns we would have killed those dumb birds.

So I yelled back to her "Don't worry! They ARE BB guns!"

Damond turned and looked at me like I was the biggest moron on the planet. She started to yell at us even more so we took off back up towards my house. Surprisingly she didn't know it was us so we lucked out. Maybe she thought we were too good of boys to do such a horrible thing. The joke is on her! Hey, I was only telling her the truth!

I mean really, pigeons? Rats with wings? Look how mean they are!

Where Do You Stand?

Day 162

I hate it when I sit down to blog and all I do is stare at the screen with a blank look on my face. I hate it when I have a blog topic that I want to write about but it ends up being a long blog and then I lose interest so I quit. Now I am back to square one again. Just staring...

Today is definitely one of those days. I have been trying to blog for the last hour or so. And the only thing that is coming to mind are urinals.

DISCLAIMER: POTTY TALK

Let me explain myself. A couple of years ago I was listening to a radio program in the morning as I was taking Kristy to work. The host whose name was Tom had just installed a urinal in his garage and the rest of the crew made fun of him because of it. Then a couple of nights ago Kristy and I were watching the Marriage Ref and found a guy that wanted to install a urinal in his home. And everybody made fun of him for it.

I don't need anything fancy. This Kohler Bardon style works just fine.

Let me tell you, in my dream home we would definitely have a urinal in our garage. I think it is a wonderful idea. It would be private so no one would see you pee unless they were standing behind you. And it would be cleaned regularly. If I was outside playing or doing some yard work and I had to take a leak, why come into the house when I could use the urinal in the garage? Little boys would love to use it too considering they hold on till the very last minute to pee. Do you want them running into the house, tracking in dirt and mud to go to the bathroom when they could just pee in the garage? If I am working on the car do I need to wash up to use the bathroom? NO! Just use the urinal in the back!

Now I would have just a simple urinal. None of those trough-style urinals which I find creepy. Only one person could and should use it at a time. And nothing like this one!

So urinals... ...where do you stand?

Sunday Confessional: Hot Chocolate

Day 161

I love hot chocolate but not in how you think I would love hot chocolate.

I like to eat hot chocolate plain like a Pixie Stick. Right out of the carton or right out of the packet, I will eat it plain.

My mom used to get mad at me when she would find a hot chocolate wrapper that I had forgotten to throw out to cover my tracks. I don't eat as much as I used to but I have been known to sneak a spoonful once in awhile.

Surprisingly with all the yummy flavors that Stephen's Hot Chocolate puts out it is amazing that I don't eat more of it.

The new Cherry Chocolate is awesome but I will always go back for a cup (or spoonful) of Irish Creme.

List-Mania: The NES

Day 160

I think I grew up at the right time in life. Especially when it comes to video games. I was around to witness the birth of the Atari 2600 (you can see my blog about that here. Gaming went away and when I was entering middle school it made a HUGE comeback with the Nintendo Entertainment System and I begged and begged to get one and I finally got one for my birthday.

Looking back, I think I played this game system more than I should have and my grades are proof of that. But I have fond memories of playing the Nintendo late in the night. I used to love to trade games with my friends and my cousin Josh or rent them from the local Maverick and Video Store. I also remember getting together with a bunch of kids in our neighborhood and getting all our systems and televisions together and playing all night. A precursor to my Madden Fests.

I sold my Nintendo years ago on eBay (and made quite a profit!) to a guy attending BYU. At times I regret it since that game system was so much fun to play. But the couple of hundred I made was something I needed more at the time.

So here are my favorite NES games.

5) ZELDA II: THE ADVENTURE OF LINK
Seeing those old golden cartridges really makes me nostalgic. I played this game for hours trying to find all those Magic and Heart containers. I don't think I would have defeated this game without looking through those gamer magazines. I still hate those Blue Knights.






4) GOLGO 13
I hated this game at first but when I began to figure out the controls it became one of my favorites. You played agent Golgo 13, an assassin and you went around killing people and figuring out who the DREK empire is. It was quite the mature game for its time since it contained blood, sex and smoking, something not seen in games. The sequel had far better graphics but this game had the better story. Just replace DREK with NAZI and you were fighting Nazis.

3) BIONIC COMMANDO
Speaking of Nazis, you got to fight them here too even though they were not named Nazis. I used to play the arcade game version at L.D.'s Cafe in Richmond and I couldn't wait to try this one out for the NES. It was way different but much, much better. You would travel from map to map communicating with your allies and eavesdropping on your enemies. And swinging on a bionic arm like Spider-Man. This was one of the few games that didn't offer a "jump" button. You would have to swing around instead. A lot more fun.

2) SUPER MARIO BROS 2
People claim that Super Mario 3 is the better game but I felt this one was the best. The graphics and game play were superior to the first one and the fact that you could play 4 different characters certainly made this game more charming. And the main enemies were cool and the ending cannot be beat. I got so good at this that I rarely lost one life.



1) TECMO SUPER BOWL
Before there was Madden, there was this nifty NFL game. The best part of this game aside from 8 different plays (used to be only 4) was that you can choose any NFL team. The rosters were complete, you had injuries, you had awesome cut scenes of huge plays and they kept track of the stats all through the season. This game was the best. Some players were absolutely unstoppable when it came to running and there was that one play that you could use that you could complete every time. No matter what the defensive call was made. This was the NES and NFL at its best.

But there were a ton of stinkers available too.

When I saw the advertisements for a new X-Men game I was ecstatic. I saved up the $40 to buy it and it was a huge stinker. The cast of characters was awesome but the game play was so lame. You had to fight these main bad guys (you didn't even have to fight them, you could just run past them) and the graphics were so awful that you couldn't even tell who was who. Such a HUGE disappointment. But I did defeat the game.

Sedated, Caught and Tagged

Day 159

I was all set with what my blog was going to be today (List-Mania) and I was catching up on my fellow blogger's blogs when I noticed that I have been tagged. Or at least I think I have been tagged. All I know if that Lewis tagged a "Matt" on her blog and I am thinking that has to be me. How many Matts does she know that blogs too?

So how this works is that I write 7 things about me, and 5 things that make me smile. And then I get to pick someone and tag then to do the same. You'll find out who I picked at the end of my blog.

7 Things about Me...

1. The number 28 is my favorite number. I was born on the 28th (and if it was a day later, I wouldn't be around) and it has appeared throughout my life in strange ways. Like those numbers in Lost. One of my favorite football players wore this number too.

2. Those who knew me in high school knew that I was not the biggest sports guy. But I like sports quite a bit actually. I even coached the 9th Grade Girl's Basketball team (ages 14-15) down in Riverton, Utah for 3 years. It was one of the best experiences that I have ever had. And that will be a future blog.

3. When I get tired I tend to ramble on and on and on.

4. I have a crush on Winona Ryder. Always have and always will.

5. I absolutely loathe Satan's fruit. You might know them from their commonly known name: ONIONS. But I will eat onion rings. Go figure...

6. Once a year for about a week or so I get to badger and test out new police recruits for Bridgerland. They put me in scenarios to help train new officers. Nothing like getting paid to scream obscenities at cops. I get to play drunk and shoot at them with guns loaded with paint bullets. I think my family would be shocked at my behavior!

7. I love animals and love to watch nature shows. One of my favorite shows was Animal Precinct. It is a reality show set in New York City (where I served my LDS Mission) where you follow the ASPCA's Humane Law Enforcement Division as they work as advocates for the five million pets and other animals in New York City. Most of the time that show made me sad.

5 Things That Make Me Smile

1. Music. I love music and can appreciate any type of music. Music alters my mood, it can pump me up, it can relax me and it can help me write. And it does more than that. I don't know what I would do without my iPod.

2. Animals. Watching them play always makes me smile. Some of my favorite animals are Killdeer birds, cats, platypuses (of course) and bunnies. I will be one of those old grandpas that sit in a chair and look out the window while stroking one of my cats.

3. Sitting cows. Something about these fat animals sitting all polite and daintily just makes me laugh.

4. Fresh donuts.

5. The Simpsons. I can always watch this show and I quote them relentlessly.

So who should I tag? How about my fellow bloggers (I do like saying that) that start with a "J"? So Jennifer and Jaimee, you're It!

Snake-Man!

Day 158

Some days I know exactly what I want to blog about and other days it is a struggle. Today was going to be a struggle since I am still feeling kinda ill and I have no idea what I am going to blog.

But then I checked my e-mail today and I got a nice e-mail along with a cool picture and I knew exactly what I could blog about. I have a great family and a great extended family too that has always been very supportive of me.

Snake-Man!

My mom's sister Margo sent me a picture of a superhero that she drew awhile ago. When I was younger I always looked up to my Aunt Margo for her artistic abilities and I still look up to her for that. She has a real gift that she likes to share with her family and friends. One of my favorite things she did was she took a piece of wood and painted a pheasant on it and then stained it. It hung in my grandparent's home and I absolutely loved it. I must have gotten my love and knack for drawing and art from her.

I am glad that she is following my blog. There have been many wonderful things to come out of doing this blog and by reading my fellow blogger's blog. I feel that I have learned a lot and that I am closer to these people and that they know me better.

Thanks to all my readers! I appreciate your comments and e-mails. And thanks for the drawing Margo. It is awesome.