my time on terra firma

...will not take place tonight. The DM (Dungeon Master) has to stay late @ work, so the game's been scraped for this week. For those of you who aren't in the know (or have a life), the Dungeon Master is the dude who describes our current situation, what we must do to complete our mission, how much gold we've found, who we're encountering and, depending on the nature of these beings, determines if we need to pump them for information or pump them full of arrow bolts and magic missiles. Without getting too far into it, it's role playing. Normally, it's done by teenagers...from the eighties! Today, kids still role play, but they do it online or on their gaming consoles. We're the last of a dying breed; 30+ grown men who congregate in someone's basement, role 6, 8, or 20 sided dice, and pretend to be a rag tag bunch of thieves, warriors and sorcerers (of varying racial backgrounds such as human, elf and dwarf), who've banded together to stop a cult hell

http://www.nps.gov/usar/

Nubbin' on my mind. 19 days until Christmas!!! http://www.waroftheworlds.com/

Why??? I keep telling myself that it's a rebuilding year, it's a rebuilding year!!! They are my team though, through thick and thin. I feel that the next two or three seasons are gonna be good ones. Joe Gibbs and the team just need time to get their act together, that's all. But, as of right now, IT'S A REBUILDING YEAR!!! My future brother-in-law is a Falcons fan...never in a million years did I think I'd catch grief from a Falcons fans. How many rings do they have? Oh that's right, none! What type of world do we live in where a 'skins fan has to defend his beloved team from the taunts and jeers of a Falcons fan??? Where's the justice? Where's the love? Will the 'skins get a fourth ring? Will the Falcons ever get one? Is this the end of all of the questions? http://www.syncmag.com/

I couldn't bring myself to do it; there was no way in hell I was gonna go out into that mass of human misery called "Black Friday" and conduct my holiday shopping. I love Christmas, but man do I hate the shopping!!! Tis the season to get your family members everything they've been longing for for the last 12 months...by any means necessary!!! I know, I used to work retail; it's never a pretty sight. Whatever happened to "seasons greetings" or "tis the season to be jolly" or "peace and goodwill to all mankind"??? Seems like within the last several years, that's been replaced by long lines of moody, whiny, pushy people who wouldn't hesitate to push you down to the ground for the last stack of Yu-gi-oh playing cards or the last copy of "Halo 2". Things aren't as bad as they used to be; thanks to online shopping, you can avoid any and all contact w/rude procrastinators who've waited until the last moment to buy t

I'm thankful for: -The ability to grow and change. It's good to know that if I believe that I'm a screw up today, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'll be a screw up tomorrow. I can turn things around @ a moments notice; my life is limited only by the boundaries of my imagination... That's just beautiful. http://www.nyctourist.com/macys_menu.htm

There's a strange phenomenon occurring in a household in the suburbs of our nation's capitol. From the outside, the house looks normal, a front door, windows, two car garage, an attic and a basement. Nothing out the ordinary really. But, once inside, it becomes abundantly clear that something's amiss. The dinner table is cleared, save for three place settings consisting of a plate, a fork, a knife and glassware for drinks. In the center of the table lies a beautiful pork roast, mashed potatoes and steamed green beans, but there's no heat coming from them; they've been sitting there for 45 minutes. The food should go back into the oven, which has been pumping out heat upwards of 325 degrees since it was turned on 2 hours ago. In the laundry room, the washing machine slugs and sloshes about aggravating the water and suds into a frothy submission. The clothes that were supposed to be in the washing machine are resting comfortably on top of it. Near the threshold of the

Man, what a day. I'm sooooo far behind that I shouldn't even be doing this...but I needed a break from the monotony!!! I've gotta log the addresses of all the folks that donated money to our foundation. Joy! But, it's all good. Tonight, I'm gonna hit the bike, get some writing done and maybe get to bed early. Everyone must see "Ray" & "the Incredibles"! Great, great films. Highly enjoyable. Other than that, just another hectic day @ the Roberts Group. Later. http://www.punkinchunkin.com/

It's the weekend, baby! I live for it, I admit it! Is that the wrong way to behave? Probably. But, I don't care 'cause that's where I am in my life. After working a 40 hrs. work week w/an additional 7.5 hours for commuting, (I'm getting off easy, there some people who work 10, 12, even 16 hrs. days and have a longer commute!!!), it's finally "Miller Time"! I think that I'll see "the Incredibles" tonight. The rest of the weekend will be sent cleaning and watching movies! I've got "Ringu", "Amores Perros" and "My Wife Is An Actress"; www.netflix.com is a beautiful thing! Maybe I'll get some writing in. Lord knows I need to. And sleep, can't forget sleep. http://www.sorryeverybody.com/

Push a button, make a difference. Give peace a chance. http://www.rockthevote.com/

The only thing good about this week is that it's over! It wasn't the worst week I'd ever had, it just dragged on and on and on w/no real ending in sight. I'm responsible for handling the bank deposits for a new organization that I work for and they are being bombarded by donations...that they need copied in triplicate...and processed into an Excel Spreadsheet. Fun times, fun times...To make matters worst, today was the day of the building-wide pumpkin contest. Our office had a pretty pumpkin. Very thick and health lookin'; really beautiful for a squash... What a shame! I only had kitchen knives to work with. In the end, our pumpkin looked like someone had given very sharp utensils to a small child. A blind small child. And after two hours of nearly cutting into my own flesh, assorted jeers and sneers from my co-workers (naturally, nary a one helped me out, the bums.) and my boss inquiring about how I would bill my time feeling a squash for the flattest a

Nuthin' deep today folks! Party tonight, Ren Fest on Sunday! Peace out!!! http://frazettaartgallery.com/ff/index.html

Damn Gina! I didn't realize that two weeks had passed since my last entry. What have I been doing??? I've gotta keep the faith and be more faithful to this blog. Nothing to really write about but that's never stopped me before. I've got another speech due next Wednesday, I need to start that tomorrow or Saturday. Going away party for a friend who's moving back to Canada on Friday, Ren Fest on Sunday: http://www.rennfest.com/mrf/index.html This is the last weekend; after that, I'll have to wait a year for a roasted turkey leg and a steak on a stake! Homework was due today and now I have to call the folks @ school and tell them that my assignment's gonna be late. For shame. Bad form Tony, bad form. :( http://www.vidasworld.com/

These guys are gonna be my new favorite band... http://robertrandolph.net/

Lost my driver's license. Fun, fun, fun. Then, I took time out to beat myself up; how could I've been so careless? After a few hours, I think about something else. I know it's wasted energy, but sometimes I can't help myself! And, the internal dialogue is actually internal pictures of me getting carded and leaving it somewhere; not really drunk but just inebriated enough to forget to ask for it back. How much energy is wasted on a re-enactment that may not be accurate? Got to be more careful w/my time, it's precious. Still it's hard to let it go! I can just see myself on the bus, head bowed, eyelids draped, mouth slack-jawed, internal imagery just punishing my psyche again, again, again... Sh*t I did it again... You can either visit this URL or visit it through Amazon. After you visit through Amazon, you'll get 1.57% off your purchases. It's not much, but every little bit counts. http://a9.com/

So my friends did a friendly thing and bought me the first four Harry Potter books for my b-day in July. I have to say that I can see the appeal; the stories are well written, the movies can't possibly compete w/JK Rowling's literary descriptions and Harry is a character that you simply must root for. Even though I've seen the first three movies, they cannot (nor can any movie) hold a candle to the books! I was miffed @ my friends after we watched the first movie; they could've told me that Harry was "the chosen one" (I hadn't read the first book yet so I had no way of knowing. Chosen one? That'll take too long, start w/Joseph Campbell...) before the movie started. I'm not an avid reader, but I'm trying to become one. Ultimately, I would like to kill a book a week; if every book were as well written as these, that would be an easy feat. I find myself zipping through the pages @ an alarming rate. I'll start on page 105, follow several passag

Saw "Ladder 49" last night @ AFI Silver w/a slew of firefighters. This is a very moving picture. A little predictable @ certain points but overall, a movie I would recommend to a friend. I thought that everyone was well cast and churned out star-power performances! It's good to see Travolta doing his roll as a fire chief justice (I'm still trying to get the taste of his performance in "the Punisher" out of my mouth) in this movie. Joaquin Phoenix's character was very blue collar, very likeable as a true firefighter who was out to save as many individuals as he could. His character reminded me of a saying I saw while I was in the military, "Ain't no hero, ma'am, just doing my job." http://ladder49.movies.go.com/main.html http://www.afi.com/silver/new/ Went to a wedding last Saturday @ Penn State. Really nice; congrats Sara and Michael! Wishing you lots of love...and babies!!! http://www.pennswoods.net/~splantz/wedding.htm

The best time of the year. I LOVE transitional seasons!!! Not too cold, not too hot, just right! My favorite seasons are as follows, Spring, Fall (a VERY close second!), Summer and finally Winter. I've never been cool w/cold weather. The only time I've really enjoyed Winter is when there was too much snow on the ground and school was canceled. Never cared for snowball fights; as much fun as they were, there was always some idiot who thought it was a good idea to sneak you w/a snowball to the face when you weren't even looking. And, who needs the cold??? I mean, seriously, you've gotta put on layer after layer of things to wear! If you need to go to the store, you can't just throw on a pair of pants and a tee shirt and be on your way....no, no, no, no, no! There must be thermal this and thermal that! In the fall, you need a coat and maybe a hat. Spring, nuthin' but clothing. Summer, you're fine! But Winter, no, you're in for something very uncomfortable.

Not much to write about today; saw a new movie last night. I can't say that it's beautiful, 'cause words really can't describe how I feel about this movie...But if I could, I would have to say that the last time I saw anything that attractive, I wanted to buy it dinner, take it home and show it a good time. http://www.gofishpictures.com/GITS2/main.html

I have a friend who will be turning 29 this Friday; for as long as I've known her, she's been battling numbers. More specifically, her age. And, not so much the number but where it lies, early, middle or late. When I first met her, I remember we had this discussion about the age of 25. You're in your late twenties I'd tell her (her "middle twenties" is something that she concocted; as far as I'm concerned you're either in your early or late 20's, 30's, 40's etc!). No! She would put her foot down and tilt her chin to the air, eyes closed, arms crossed. I'm in my middle twenties!" and after 15 minutes or so, I had to give in...for that day. As the years have crept up on the both of us, the position has changed. Middle twenties, then upper middle twenties, then last year, her late lower twenties. You see where this is going! By the time I saw 28, I was already making old man sounds whenever I got up out of low seated chairs (fellas, y

So, I've officially waited until the last moment to write this blog entry. And, I have another speech due not this Wednesday but the following Wednesday! How long will it take me to put my butt in a seat and commit to writing said speech??? Hmmmm! I've specifically written this entry to see if I'll wait until it's toooo late! And, this one's a toughy; I can't fly by the seat of my pants as I've done on previous speeches, there has to be an actual plan! Tick tock, tick tock... http://www.oqo.com/

What a beautiful weekend. Cleaned on Friday, saw "Garden State"(****) & "the Bourne Supremacy" on Saturday. Sunday, Maryland Ren Fest and then saw "Starsky & Hutch" (better than I thought) & "Taking Lives" (oh, Angelina!!!), Monday, more cleaning and moving of personal objects from one room to another. The only thing I didn't get to do is write my speech. That suct! Mainly, 'cause I've officially waited until the last minute, again, to write a speech. Which means, as soon as I get home tonight, no "Daily Show w/John Stewart", no "Street Fighter 15th Anniversary", no "Namco museum" no clearing out of the TiVo, no goofing off w/housemates or antagonizing the cats (or is it the other way around) and no surfing the net! Just several hours of me and a speech. Several hours of me in a mirror; honing my delivery and trimming away the fat of the speech until I'm satisfied. What a way to spend one&

My housemate has Olympic fever...and there's no cure! She's been TiVo'ing all of the NBC televised events (she hasn't TiVo'd any of the other broadcasts on MSNBC, Telemundo and Bravo; I don't think she has the time to watch 'em all), and watching them in succession. She knows the names and back stories of just about all of the American Olympians and I'd wager she knows a percentage of their opponents as well. She's too smart to fall for the dramatics of the Olympics (the music starts off slow and then builds, athletes move in slo-mo, determined looks on their faces; contorted in pain...moving to discomfort, aggression, defiance and finally, triumph. Music builds to a crescendo. Arms raised in victory; dancing, wooping and/or lunging forward, weight resting on their front knee, one arm shoots back @ the elbow in a "Ka-ching, I gotcha!" type motion), she watches for the competition and for the US of A. She watches w/baited breath when the US

It's over. Every box has been packed and shipped, every floor has been swept and inspected, every hole spackled, every sink has been scrubbed and wiped down. Our house is no longer our home. It has been "cleansed" of all of our personalities and is now ready to be filled w/new ones. Someone else's. Another family's. Since everything is gone, our voices carry a lot further, there's no furniture, dining room table, TV or what-not shelf to absorb the vibrations of our voices. It now sounds like we're standing in cave rather than the cozy dwelling of a family of three. I remember when we first moved in. None of our furniture was there yet and there was five of us, my mother, myself, my sister, my step-father and my grandfather. So much has changed. If someone were to ask us @ the very moment we put the last piece of furniture in place what the dynamic of the family would be like when we took the last piece of furniture out, we'd probably think that things

I've been working on this project for a few days now; I have to take the names of contacts from a 24 page fax and re-type them into a word document. Fun, fun, fun. Very easy to get distracted and think about doing something else. Took me @ least two days to type it up, but now, I'm having major issues trying to mail merge it into mailing labels. Never a dull moment. So now, I'm copying the info out of a word doc. and into a spreadsheet. From there, I'll cut and paste the info into columns that will make the mail merge go easier. It seems like there's just one obstacle after another; every time I do something w/this assignment, I'm forced to change direction and try something new; it seems like if it isn't one thing, it's another. Just when I'm ready to curse out my CPU and throw it out of the nearest window, I figure out a new and faster way to get the job done. Every challenge seems to be an opportunity to overcome said challenge and come away from

So, it's come to this; after 16 years of living in the same place (give or take 4 years for military service), I must move. I'm still in the midst of packing. I'll have to pack all afterwork tonight and tomorrow night. Just 10 good solid hours of packing and purging, packing and purging. And I can't rest, not even for a second. Not because I'll waste little precious moments that I could've spent packing, no. Because I'll drift off to the Land of Nod and waste LARGE precious moments that I could've spent packing. As w/any individual who's moving, fatigue and stress seem to be a totally natural thing. Of course, saying I'm fatigued and stressed in a blog cannot fully convey the feeling of running a 20k for a charity only to be dragged into a dark alley and beaten w/sacks of oranges by street toughs when you cross the finish line ...But for lack of a better phrase, I'm pooped. And, I haven't moved in so long, this is totally foreign to me. I

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22456-2004Jul28.html

Gotta love working in the nation's capital. I think it'll wear off one day, but until then, I love going out and exploring. If anything, I get to see something I've never seen before; a new museum, restaurant, embassy or theater. Today, I found a 7-11...not that exciting. Okay, most of my journeys are pretty lame, but I also end up stumbling into something I've never seen before; they always start out lame but end up serendipitous and fulfilling. By doing this, the city seems smaller and smaller. I feel more and more comfortable w/my surroundings and fortifies my confidence insofar as knowing my way around the city. And, since I work less than three blocks away from the White House, I use that as my reference point. Who knew that getting lost could be so rewarding. http://www.wagenschenke.ch/

Tuesday...it ain't Monday. Another day, another visit from our clients. It seems like there's an ebb and flow when it comes to client visits. We could go weeks w/o seeing a single client; only receiving e-mails, phone calls, faxes and snail mail from them. I don't mind that so much, I believe that you need a "x" amount of distance from your clients and vice versa. Not distance as in not answering them via correspondence, but PHYSICALLY separated by blocks/miles/states from them; giving us the opportunity to breath and do our jobs. If they can pop in whenever they want, they would see how messy and counter-productive we really are and I don't think the client should see that. Yes, a few days ago, I entered a blog that said that I felt that it was wrong for us to deceive the client; I think the client should see your work space...once! After that, there's no need for repeated viewings! Man, I've gotta find more interesting things to write about... http:/

Not much today...just more very important clients stopping by for a visit. Weekend wasn't so bad. Did a number of things; watched "the Bourne Supremacy" (great film! tell all your friends about it) on Friday and then hung out w/a few friends afterwards. Saturday, I went to an art show which featured beautiful Farsi calligraphy written on a beautiful nude women...nice! Naturally, the photographer was trying to say much more than "hey, I can talk a woman into letting me scribble ancient text all over her body, take photos and post 'em on the 'net"; considering the fact that the dude's from Iran, I would imagine that it would take a lot of chutzpah to pull this off! He's really good, I want to see more Iranian artwork; in fact, let's see it from all over the globe!!! Then, there was a poetry reading, I learned about a poet named Hafez. I don't know a lot about him but, thanks to this exposure, I can find out more on my own. Sunday,

Finally. http://www.starwars.com/episode-iii/bts/production/news20040724.html

Solicitors! The new four letter word! Why? Why must they call here day in and day out; asking for people they don't even know??? I'm sick, sick, sick of 'em!!! The company that I work for is only 25 employees strong; the solicitors call thinking that I'm some nameless, faceless administrative assistant working for some large, Fortune 500 company. They feel that their call will slip through the cracks and get to the person they need to speak with! I cannot recall the countless amount of times someone has called asking for my supervisor like their buddy, I put them on hold, turn directly to my left and ask if they know the person (after my supervisor tells me that she doesn't know the person), then tell the person the usual spiel: (Supervisor's Name) is unavailable @ this time, may I take a message or would you like his/her voice mail? 99.9% of the time, they say they'll call back. They won't. They never do. For the last time, no, we're not m

I'm not a morning person, never have been. From as far back as I can remember, I've never really been the type of person to roll over and bed, feel the sun kiss my face, hear the birds sing, wake up to the sound of an alarm clock and think, "today's the best day of my life!". I'm usually the other guy; deep in slumber, sawing logs (like all snorers, I've never had the distinguished privilege of hearing the sweet, melodic sounds of my nocturnal singing performances) I've got a my drapes closed @ all times, birdsongs are overrated (it's like they're phoning it on or something; a total lack of originality!), the alarm clock goes off. I placed it across the room on purpose; that way I'll have to get out of bed. I throw a shoe @ it. This morning was different. I rolled over and felt the sun caress my face like a lover I lost ages ago, heard the beautiful chirp chirp chirp-ing of a mother bird and her young, jumped out of bed, stretched and f

Gotta love it when the "very important potential clients" show up; I've never really cared for the whole "cleaning up to make the office look neat and efficient" song and dance. I know that it's good business, but I know how cluttered my area is as are the areas of my co-workers. If I were a client, I'd accept the fact that we human beings are not necessarily the neatest nor the most efficient. The clients are smart enough to know this or I don't think we'd be working w/them. Still, this is a business, so you MUST put your best foot forward @ all times. I know that this is important to the company and I'm a team player. My area has been cleaned from top to bottom; can't help but feel a tad deceitful, it's never this clean, my greetings are never this friendly and I'm never dressed to the nines. It's a living.

So, this is the first entry. I guess I should tell a little about myself. I'm a single, 30 year old, African-American male; I was born and raised in Alexandria, Va and I currently work for a company that conducts research on fragrances and flavors in Washington, DC. I'm a huge movie fan; my netflix rental queue is nearly 500 deep. Everyone must see "Spidey 2"!!! Great film! I'm looking forward to "the Bourne Supremacy" and "Catwoman"...on DVD...on mute...w/the lights down low...candles...wine...Barry White. ..I love Tivo! Unfortunately, I watch way too much TV, TiVo doesn't help any. Favorite shows: "the Simpsons", "Arrested Development", "Six Feet Under", "Everybody Loves Raymond", "Family Business" and "King of the Hill". Radio: "Fresh Air w/Terry Gross", "The Kodjo Namdi Show" and "This American Life w/Ira Glass". I'm an active Toastmaster (an o