been a little busy

SOOOOOOOO

hectic job

stupid people making bad decisions

stupid people making no decisions

3 year old daughter (with a 13 year old attitude)

3 month old daughter

more stupid people making stupider decisions

banging my head against a wall

overwhelmed but awesome wife

more people at my office door

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

ARRGGGHHHHHHHH

hey, wait, I can get the football game online at work

all is good in the world

for 3 hours

detox during drive home

music very LOUD and very HEAVY

I'm home

relax for 20 minutes

emails from the office at night

(how can so few people make so many bad decisions?)

baby waking up hungry

gotta go

(yes Mo, this is why my blog is empty :-)

C

TMZ (the show)

Ok, so let's start off by saying that it's not that I don't care what celebrity's do in the their spare time, it's that I REALLY don't care what they do, so I am kinda biased against these paparazzi shows in the first place.

I also would like to state that I am not a recluse type person who doesn't own a TV etc, in fact I LOVE TV and movies, I can't get enough of them...the work that actors and actresses do is awesome (well, some of them) and a HUGE part of my life, there have been times when it was almost a pathetic addiction (before TiVO) I frequently used the expression "I NEED to see that show" or "I can't believe I missed that other show"...I even watch BAD movies, on purpose (usually horror flicks)...as long as they are scripted and not crappy reality stuff. But when it comes to actors and actresses personal lives and the tabloids/ tabloid sites that talk about them I just don't care who is dating who etc.

I will give TMZ.com some credit, they do break some bigger stories for the people that are interested in that type of thing, and it is a more popular site then the sites we have for our magazines x 1000 I'm sure (maybe even "1 Miiiiiilllliiiioooooonnnn" as Dr Evil would say), and even my boss sends me a link to their site at least once a week (usually related to something I still don't care about or have the time for LOL, come to think of it, how does he?? Hmmmm)

So last night as my wife is flipping around the channels (hello summer snooze fest, c'mon football and the new fall season) she stops on TMZ the show. I could not actually believe that this is on TV. In the 20 minutes I watched I got to see Serena Williams walk through a parking garage to her car, Eva Longoria walk from a restaurant to her car (omigod her shirt is hanging funny, she must be pregnant), Resse Witherspoon walk from a store to her car, the brunette chick from Sex in the City walk from one store to another, Lindsay Lohan walk from her car to a store and Britney Spears and Harry Potter get criticised for not wanting to talk to the HUGE group of people surrounding their vehicles, as they walked to them. Really? REALLY? This is what people are interested in, THIS is enough to have a show about EVERYDAY? People actually are making a living waiting outside stores and parking garages for people that someone might recognize to WALK to their destination from their car or back. I'm not talking about so and so is having an affair or got a DUI (even though that is lame too), I'm talking about walking....to....their...car, from....waitaminnit...a store...omigod...get that on tape NOW! Rush it onto the TV, because it is SO important it cannot wait. Seriously, we all need to get a collective life and think about things that are a little bit more important.

I know I'm ranting again, but the only redeeming thing about the whole show was when they once again have to show non-celebs Heidi and Spencer (walking to their car of course) and the cameraman asks Spencer if he was in the Olympics what event would he do, he replies "swimming" and then says "I'd win more gold's than Phelps". It flashed back to the studio and the main guy (Harvey Levin?) says "WHAT A DOUCHEBAG!"

Yes, Harvey I couldn't agree more...but I don't think he's alone

C

It's about time

That people realized how important I can be

The Secret to My Sanity (or a reasonable facsimile)

As previously mentioned
job=stress
home=stress (but in a good way)
but outwardly
me=no stress.

My secret...is it just because I am SO well adjusted that nothing phases me? That I can deal with anything life throws at me and just smile and say thank you?

Well, if you know me at all, you know those aren't even close...I do crack, I do lash out, I just try to keep it low key, because on the few times I truly lost my shit, it started a domino effect that just kept going and going down the levels of the office. It was kinda cool to see once, but I try my best to avoid it happening again.

For the most part though, I have found that the thing that works best for me isn't alcohol, drugs, fightclub (don't talk about fight club), counseling, religion (don't get me started) or any extreme measures...my solution is simple.

...I go to the gym on a ridiculously regular basis.




OK, I'll be the first to admit my original reason for going 10 years ago was to look better for the ladies, I was getting older (in my late 20's, ooooohhhhhh) and it was the thing to do...but then after mission successful (I met my wife)...that reason wasn't the main focus...then it was actually getting healthy and looking better. It also helped that it was an interest for me in getting the job that I have. I have a pretty good grasp on what we are talking about when planning future issues, and how to make the books read easily for people who don't.

Once again as I normally do, fast forward a few years...I'm 39, and the aforementioned stresses of life start to catch up with you (plus the whole, well, looking 39 thing)...now the gym is a crutch of sorts...on days when I don't get there before work, I feel like ass...and I even somehow convince myself I look like that too (not that my normal look is stud or anything, but I like to think I at least don't look my age). For some reason I even still buy into the whole "abs" thing, even though I better than anyone know exactly what the models in the mags go through to have abs on those days...dieting, water depletion etc...I can't imagine how other people think if I have even bought into it.

Anyway, back to the real reason...being at the gym for an hour and a half, reading the latest zombie/vampire novel while doing cardio, then lifting for an hour or so is revitalizing...I don't talk to anyone, I don't even really look at anyone. Heavy music + my own little peaceful world where noone needs anything from me (that is VERY rare, believe me). It is like a little piece of freedom (with a lot of fake people floating around in various outfits they shouldn't be wearing). Occasionally I will answer emails from work, but only if they are pressing and/or funny. It is actually amazing that something that can be good for you physically can also be so helpful mentally. I can't even imagine how great it would be if I went to a good gym :-)

In short, I would recommend it to anyone, and let's hope I remember this next time I am complaining about not having time to go to a movie, but still finding time to be at the gym...that movie will be out on DVD in a few months, but every hour I train is an investment in the current days sanity and my health in the future to spend with my girls.

Plus, I won't kill anyone in the meantime...and there are a group of people in the office that will like that one.

C

Stolen from Rich's Blog

Sorry man, had to steal this one...it is just too crazy.

I actually shop at Walmart occasionally, but this is pretty eerie

The spreading of Walmart stores since the 60's, likening it to a virus

My life?

Home life. Work life. My life?

What happened? One minute I was totally in control, could do what I wanted when I wanted, video games, comic books, movies (at home OR in the theatres), hanging out at the beach, sleeping in on the weekends, drinking with the guys (a lot)...you name it, if I wanted to do it...well, I did.

All of the sudden (well, not so all of the sudden, more like all of the "10 years later") the "my life" part of the equation is gone. Monday-Friday day with sprinkles of nights and weekends thrown in I am heavily invested in my job, which is at times rewarding and fun with healthy doses of stress and infuriating circumstances I can't control (though I insist on trying...hello head, meet wall). When I am not at work, the real hard part starts (but also more rewarding)...it's being a husband and a Dad (not necessarily in that order). I am a huge fan of lists, and it is now official that running 3 national magazines doesn't have nearly the to-do list of 2 young girls under 3. They both rock like no other, but wow, there is ALWAYS something. Throw in their equally awesome mom, and the list is neverending (I'm not even kidding...it NEVER ENDS).

I realize it's time to be grown up, logically, it's time...I'm well on the way to 40, but for some reason I just don't feel it...I bought the Wii last week on the pretense of my 3 year old wanting to try it...but in my spare time between 10:00pm and 1:00am when I'm not working, it's whatever is on my TiVo and the occasional video game thrown in (I take my immature where I can get it).

I don't consider myself a bad Dad by any stretch, but I catch myself quite often thinking "ugh" when I just get a chance to sit down and someone needs something...of course I get up and do it (why do the easy things always take exactly 7 minutes?) and then sit down again, just in time for the next request. In fact, as stressful as work is, I even found myself slightly yearning for the relative peace of people only needing something every 3 minutes at the office, rather than every 1.5 at home. Hopefully this will all pass as they get older, and our interests somehow come together better, I'm still not into Enchanted, the Wiggles, Caillou or the color pink.

I try to relate to my girls as well as I can, but ultimately, I think it comes to me having more control at work, so that is my comfort zone...it may not be my first choice of what I want to be doing at the time, but I call the shots for the most part. (plus, even after 7 years, I still look for the mags on every newsstand I go by, when that is done, I'll know it's time to move on)

Control at home...well, not so much.

I control the order with which I do my assigned tasks.

OK, no, I don't even really control that.

But I pay the bills...that's something...right?

I guess what it comes down to is finally accepting that the list at the top isn't 3 separate lives, it IS my life...it's where I am now, and where I'm going to be for a long time...so whether it means growing up, or growing down to the girls level occasionally (I have caught my wife dancing with my eldest in the living room with various headwear on more than one occasion)...I need to live with it.

and I'm pretty sure I can do it. Of course, a little luck won't hurt :-)

C

This motivational poster reminds me of home

been busy lately...but just saw this again on TV

I


cannot



wait

Heard on the way to work today...funny

Things that are the same.
An OK movie and an ex-girlfriend.

They were both good at the time, but I don't need to see either one again.




Especially if the movie was bit of a bitch.

(Loosely translated from Demetri Martin on XM Comedy 150, my frequent savior on drives home after a hard day)

Reality TV(d)

Yep, that's how I view the majority of "reality" TV...I liken it to a disease that you may think you are having fun one minute and then you find out later on that you were just hurting yourself.

First let me clarify that I don't mean ALL reality TV...just the crappy stuff, you know 98.7% of it. I still give Survivor a chance every year, and sometimes I keep watching, other times I don't. I can give American Idol respect for at least being about something, I just don't like the genre of music they sing (give me an american idol "metal" edition and I'm all over it, or at least until it just gets TOO stupid).

I'm talking about the not-even-close-to-reality TV of relationships, people living in houses together, blah blah blah that are so obviously vehicles for wannabe actors and egos of massive proportion that actually think the public cares what they say or do. Now wait for the crazy part though...


they do! That is what gets me the most, there are important things going on in the world that we don't care enough about that really DO need our attention (Believe me I am not preaching here, I am one of the worst, my wife and I sponsor a child in Africa every month, and that is pretty much my sole claim to fame of being a "caring" person to those not directly around me) and then there are the most useless, self involved people in the world that are being propelled to celebrity status by virtue of a partially scripted, sometimes entertaining, always pathetic reality show. Those people are the ones we care about, they have their every move followed, analyzed and commented on, and it drives them to do more and more stupid crap to get noticed more.

The not-so-Real World started it all, back then it was sort of cool, you didn't know what to expect and the relationships seemed real. Now, everything that is REAL has been done before and they had to start making stuff up...it's unfortunate that most of reality TV draws from that plan and not the original. After every single dating show ends up with the final couple not staying together for more time then it takes to get to the reunion special, how is it that people still watch? A MySpace wannabe who would get a "sort of cute" comment in a bar if anyone saw her all the sudden has her own show because she is willing to take off her clothes and kiss other girls...and a pile of men AND women are lining up to be with her, even after they saw what happened to the first "winner" (I'm not sure exactly what happened, but there is a season 2, so I doubt they are at home waiting for her to get home from work).

One of the most depressing things each night is the audible "ugh" when I once again check the menu on my TiVo and the entire network TV section is a useless landscape of lame "unscripted" (yeah right) TV shows. It has actually come to the point where the commercials for the fall shows are better than what is on TV on the networks. At least some of the cable stations are getting it right with some great new shows (but we'll talk about that later).

My biggest thought among all this is that if we all got together and stopped watching or caring, maybe they would all just go away, people would start to actually work for a living again instead of dreaming of being bachelorette #27 on season 14 (please god, don't let that be my daughters goals) and concentrate on what good they could do in the world.

Then, to top of the reality TV world, we have the same people explode into the tabloid world. I don't care what your kids look like, I'm sure they are very cute, just please let them have more to their lives then you cashing in on their baby photos. At least Brad and Angelina I can see the passing interest in what they look like...$20 million though...really? (note: they will most likely give the $$ to charity...good for them). Over $1 million for what amounts to Britney's niece? (because god knows what Jamie Lynn has ever done, and she will most assuredly NOT give the $$ to charity).

Which brings us to the most irritating aspect of all of this...fame for being famous. That essentially means you have done NOTHING. At least Britney did some stuff before she became a train wreck, but anyone who says they only pay attention because they like to see celebs fall must not realize that you are actually helping them to not fall...they call the papparazzi and tell them they are coming (for $$)-they sell photos to tabloids and then complain about how they got out etc etc. The people that need to most go away (IMHO) are people like the Kardashians and Heidi and Spencer. I have never seen any show any of them have been on, and have never read a tabloid, but I know WAY TOO MUCH about these people that have done nothing to warrant knowing about them. I will never understand how this has happened that 2 self-serving talentless hacks with brutal narcissistic personalities have captured the interest of the public the way that Spencer and Heidi have. Good personalities. Nope. Talent. Nope. It's amazing, but people continue to care too much about people like them, and they laugh about it all the way to the bank. The scariest thing is, while turning through the channels I happened to catch Spencer saying his ultimate goal is politics.

Politics. Spencer. leadership. scary shit.

I think the saddest thing about all of this is that I'm willing to bet it happens. Even scarier, I think someone like him will fit in with the current state of that not-so-reality show going on right now called government.

(disclaimer: not ALL government is a bad thing, just the ineffectual, never gonna lose their seat no matter what happens guys, who will continuously pander to the big money holders and don't have a forward thinking bone in their bodies)

OK...that's it

more positive next time

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Once a Geek Not ALWAYS A Geek

OK, so after the amazing performance of The Dark Knight at the Box Office this weekend, it is actually 100% official, I am almost kind of sort of a cool person to know.

No, I had nothing to do with that movie, and in fact, I haven't even seen it yet (though my wife and I WERE able to sneak out to see Hellboy 2 today with my mom in town watching the girls).

The point of this whole post being, a lot can change in a somewhat short amount of time.

Let's go back to 1987. Living in Nova Scotia (just above and to the right of Maine before you ask). Graduating high school with honors and looking towards a degree in Chemical Engineering with a scholarship in Chemistry.

1989. Finally convinced myself that that was not the way to go and to follow my dream of being a comic book artist (after having collected for years...sign 1 of being the aforementioned geek).

1991. Graduated from Art School, still collecting comics with almost seek-help status, and also into computers even more than I was before, hey these Apple computers look cool, let's try those.

Many years of that passed, I was the geek who read comics religiously and was ALWAYS at my Mac (the one with the 120mb hard drive and 8mb processor that still took floppies...my IIFX, it was amazing). I designed t-shirts for people at the beginning of my career...wow...what a Loser. Had a house with 3 other guys and we always tried to party as much as we could, we were kind of popular (probably not as much as we thought) weren't we? We even had all the "magazines" laying around the house with all the "hot" women in them...wow, we were the $#!t.

Now, fast-forward to today, living in Los Angeles surrounded by women (OK, my wife and my 2 little girls, but they are all very cute)...Apple computers are the coolest thing this generation has seen in forever, along with all the i-line of products (and yes, I have them all except Apple TV, and would have had that if there hadn't been a strike). The movie theatres now have about 527 comic book movies playing right now, and they are the ones everyone is going to. 6 of the top 10 this year are comic related. So now I think we can label that cool, which would make knowing the background of all these guys even cooler, right? Not convinced? Well, those girls from the magazine covers? Now they email me to try and get into the magazine that I lead the design for (when I'm not judging them in bikini contests). So without having to even change a thing about myself I am almost, kind-of sort-of a cool guy to know.

Problem with all this is-now it doesn't help me, I have the perfect family, a great job etc, and instead of being the club-hopping, socializing guy I could be I'm still a geek that can't wait for my Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Lost fixes (and don't get me started on the X-Files movie). Just a cool geek now.

I really have gotta go see Dark Knight.

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Be careful what you email

So I have a few people that I know that need to be careful with the forward/reply all buttons on their emails (among other typical email mistakes). It has caused not only small problems on several occasions, but has even been cause for people to have their offices packed in anticipation of the empty box crew showing up at their door with HR.

Now really, none have ever been on that scale, but definitely I have had more than one "oh crap, did he really just forward that to ........." or "they didn't hit reply all with so and so still on the list did they?" It is a strange mix of dread and humor at the same time, more humor after you have gone down the list and realized it is not your ass on the line somewhere in the ongoing conversation.

I always try to be very careful what I put into emails and try to keep my thoughts as straightforward as I can, especially if the body of the email contains the names of any higher ups at my company in them anywhere, but every so often I'm sure everyone has a slip-this is just a caution...be careful what you email, and make sure your friends and co-workers do the same.

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