Well I decided to go out and do it. With all the talk about wanting to get it done and actually having some time today, I had my upper ear pierced... twice.

Yea, my mother thinks I'm having a mid-life crisis.

What's funny is that apparently I'm a bleeder. It didn't hurt much more than giving blood... which is what I ended up doing. They used 16 gauge needles to get the size rings I wanted. When they pushed them through my ear I could feel something run down ear and drop onto my shirt. The girl that did the piercing was all nice and grabbed some paper towels to help stem the flow of blood. half an hour later the bleeding stopped and they where able to get the second one. That one didn't bleed anywhere near as much. As I told them, I guess you drained it all on the first try.

Right now it's a little sore, but overall it's not bad.

Posted by: Contagion at 03:19 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Well this restricted diet may actually be working. The stomach problems actually are starting to subside. It's been 4 days since I've had an episode, and that is a record over the last year. I'm down to taking my medication just at night which is good, because not being able to digest your food makes for some interesting situations in the bathroom.

Also, I lost 6 pounds in the last week. Which is truely amazing because the medications major side effect is that you gain weight. Oh, and I'm not even hungry, how cool is that?

Posted by: Contagion at 07:15 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Wes of Bodhran Roll, Please! is in dire need of positive thinking, well wishes and all around support.

For my re-enacting friends that stop by, this is the same Wes that plays the Bodhran at the different events.

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Okay, right now I'm thinking about getting my upper ear pierced twice. Actually it's pretty much a set deal, I just need to go in and get it done.

But I've been going back and forth on the idea of getting a tattoo. First off I know what I want, but I just can't find it in a "design" format. It's a Norse dragon's head inside a Celtic knot work circle. The problem is that I go from yes, I want it. To no, it's stupid.

So what do you all think. Would you get a tattoo? Why or why not? And if so, what kind?

Posted by: Contagion at 04:11 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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1 No tattoos for me. I don't care if other people get them, I just don't want one. There is nothing I want inked into my skin that I might want to live with for 50 years (or however much time I have left to me). I tend to get tired of things and a tattoo is not something I could get rid of easily. That's just me - like I said, I have no problem with others getting them.

Posted by: Teresa at August 30, 2007 05:23 PM (rVIv9)

2 I personally wouldn't get a tattoo strictly for decorative purposes. About the only tattoo that I've thought of is a possibility is maybe a "shared" one (such as an image split into two that becomes one when placed together) with whatever woman I end up marrying.

Posted by: Shadoglare at August 30, 2007 08:15 PM (cVQZJ)

3 I am biased (3 piercings in the ear and 2 tats)
I say go for it!

Posted by: Bruce at August 30, 2007 09:41 PM (a87ev)

4 I believe that a tattoo needs to be deeply personal. Personally, I have often considered getting some sort of Masonic Square and Compasses. In your case, the design sounds very personal, the dragon's head for Ktreva, and the Celtic Knot for the connection to Scotland, right?

I believe that most tattoo parlors have someone in-house that can actually create your design, but you may need to take samples of the knot.

Posted by: Petey at August 30, 2007 09:44 PM (JhiOW)

5 Petey's right, & I know I've told you before, don't do it unless you want to see it, on your body, for the rest of your life. A tattoo has to have meaning for you, & your idea really does suit you. Besides, you *do* need something to swear by...

I recommend that you don't go to the shop I last went to -- that f@cker is a butcher -- took me 4 months to heal the half-inch gash in my forearm!

Posted by: Wes at August 30, 2007 10:57 PM (BUOAa)

6 Every tat should be deeply personal.

The fact that I consider my tat of Bill the Cat in a leather speedo hoisting a beer deeply personal speaks volumes about my psyche....

Posted by: Graumagus at August 31, 2007 06:11 AM (dl+55)

7 I have mine sketched out, just haven't had the time to get to get inked. But I say it needs to be personal.

Posted by: Oddybobo at August 31, 2007 06:50 AM (mZfwW)

8 Yeah, sure, go ahead and get the tatoo. Then when you get to be my age, with gravity pulling your chest way south and the other parts of your body sagging you'll be able to look at that tatoo and wonder what the hell it is supposed to look like.
Tatoos are great, all you have to do is die young and they'll look fine.

Posted by: Peter at August 31, 2007 11:09 AM (DMnkh)

9 I love the young women who get tattoos of hummingbirds on their breasts. At about 50, the tats turn into flamingos!

Just don't get one on your man-mories and you'll be fine. ;-)

Posted by: Wes at August 31, 2007 11:21 PM (BUOAa)

10 I say go for it.

I already have one and am looking at 2 more probably in December.

Of course it needs to have meaning for you because why would you get a tatoo otherwise.

Posted by: Quality Weenie at September 01, 2007 02:57 PM (BksWB)

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My employees had a potluck as part of a baby shower for one of my people. The tables with all the food were set up around my desk, because thatÂ’s where they had room for it. It was chuck full with all kinds of food I like. Fried Chicken (CanÂ’t eat), Potato Salad (canÂ’t eat), Pasta Salad (CanÂ’t eat), Chicken Salad (canÂ’t eat), Cake (CanÂ’t Eat), Chocolate Pie (CanÂ’t eat) and on and on. The only things I can eat are the raw vegetables tray and whole grain rolls.

Yea, the temptation was great all day. But I managed not to succumb to it.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:47 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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This week I have another submitted beer. My friend Will brought back for me a bottle (after the stink you all made over the fact he gave me cans last time) of Yuengling Porter by G.G. Yuengling & Son Inc in Pottsville, PA. Now I will admit this beer tasted exceptionally good tonight, because itÂ’s the first beer I had in a week. However, I am devoted to my craft and refuse to let my situation taint my review.

As indicated above, it came in a bottle, the standard 12 oz brown bottle. It has a red neck and body label. The body label is oval in shape, has the eagle symbol that the brewery uses as its logo and the name of the beer on it. It also proclaims that it came from AmericaÂ’s Oldest Brewery.

This was a nice dark beer. With a strong dark brown coloring and slight hint of garnet to the coloring, it has your standard porter look to it. Light had difficulty passing through the body. It poured a nice thick half-inch tan head. However, it faded quickly to just a film on the top of the beer. It left no lacing on the glass at all.

The nose was a mix of roasted malts and sweet caramel grains. There was a hint of chocolate to the scent as well that helped make the scent that much more enticing. The taste was a mix of roasted malts with a touch of coffee. A slightly bitter hop tasted finished it off. It has a slightly bitter aftertaste to it. The flavor is a little on the thin side and very simple for a porter. There is a weak bitter aftertaste to it.

For a porter the body was too light. It should have had more of a medium body to it, but the mouth feel reminded me of the lager. There is a slight creaminess to it, but nothing that left a good coating in the mouth, as one would expect.

I enjoyed this beer, and again I think I was hyping it up since IÂ’ve heard so many good things about Yuengling. Again this is a good beer, but I can think of a couple dozen porters and stouts I would go out of my way for before this. IÂ’m giving it 5.5 out of 10.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:29 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Well the worst that could happen did. I “secured” the trash bags with the magazines in it Tuesday morning. After work I had to stop by the grocery store to pick up some items. When I returned home Ktreva wasn’t there yet, and the house seemed quiet… too quiet.
I enter the house and there is not a sound or sign of anyone. By this time Boopie should have been home, but there was no sign of him. As I carry the groceries to the kitchen I stop by his room to see if he’s hiding in there. All of a sudden he jumps up and is pulling up his pants exclaiming, “I’m changing my clothes because I’m sweaty” I’m thinking to myself, “Yea, those forearm exercises do break out a sweat.”

Then he tells me he tried to take out the trash, but he canÂ’t pick up the bags. Well of course he did, he wanted more nekked girlie goodness. At least this time he tried to come up with a plausible story as to why the bags are not in the same condition as I had left them. Although he wasnÂ’t able to untie the knots I put into the bag, I could see he tried.

Then for the next hour he wouldnÂ’t make eye contact with me and was very enthusiastic about helping out when I asked him to do stuff. Yea, guilt is a good thing to exploit when you have some chores that need to be done.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:56 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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ItÂ’s been a week now that IÂ’ve altered my eating habits per doctorÂ’s orders. I havenÂ’t had any red meat in that time period and I have discovered that IÂ’m quickly developing a strong hatred for poultry. Mainly because IÂ’m limited in what I can eat, ie I donÂ’t like pork (unless itÂ’s smoked and covered in BBQ sauce) and I have a mild allergy to seafood. I can still eat it, but I get nauseous when I do. Not that my spontaneously vomiting is an issue to me since I do it anyway. I just donÂ’t like feeling sick. That really leaves me with Chicken and Turkey on a daily basis.

This brings up an interesting series of questions I have for all of you.

1)Have you noticed that low/no fat versions of some of your favorite foods are also low/no flavor or it tastes like crap?

2)Does anyone else find that “alternative” meat versions of certain products are just wrong? Ie Turkey breakfast sausage is wrong on so many levels.

3)What in the love of god is up with people actually buying low-fat chips that cause anal leakage? Why would you do this to yourself?

4)Does anyone actually like the mouth feel or texture of tofu? Seriously, it reminds me of curdled milk.

5)Since IÂ’m not allowed to drink beer, I wonder if itÂ’s okay for me to have non-alcoholic beer. Just for the damn taste. (Grau, T1G and Bruce, please do not beat my arse for this question. I know itÂ’s blasphemy)

Oh and to all of you that sent me various recipes, thank you very much. IÂ’ll be trying a couple of them this week and IÂ’ll let you know what I thought.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:57 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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Upon returning home from work today I found the house still standing, Boopie did not blow it up, burn it down, or break anything that IÂ’m aware of yet. However, I did learn two pieces of information about my eldest.

First is that he is much like my sister in his inability to do something mischievously with out giving out tell tale signals. You know like getting into something he shouldnÂ’t have or playing with something that heÂ’s been told he shouldnÂ’t. Now, to be fair I did spend years learning how to investigate crimes. IÂ’m not saying IÂ’m an expert crime scene investigator like Gill Grissom, detective like Adrian Monk or even some actual investigative person, but I know what to look for and a lot of tricks of the trade. Unfortunately Boopie barely tries to cover his tracks.

Secondly I learned that my son is not gay. There was some speculation a couple of years ago, but after today IÂ’m pretty sure we can say he likes the girls.

How do I know this? During some thorough house cleaning I decided to throw out all of my old Playboy magazines that IÂ’ve kept hidden for years. I used to have a subscription, and wouldnÂ’t throw them away. Before anyone says anything, yes I looked at the pictures. Yet I also read the articles. They really did have some good writers. I let my subscription lapse 7 years ago and havenÂ’t read one since, so I canÂ’t say what they are like today.

I placed about 6 years worth of magazines into trash bags, and set them to be tossed with the trash on Wednesday. When I got home today one of the bags was untied and the nicely arranged magazines were no longer nicely arranged. They were in the house, so it had to be him. Sure he tried to put the bag back into the same position I left it in, but he wasnÂ’t remotely successful.

Now I thought about calling him out on this, but then I decided not to. Hell, by the time I was his age I had a nice collection of nudie mags my friendÂ’s would steal from their fatherÂ’s collection. Seriously, whatÂ’s the worst thatÂ’s going to happen?

Posted by: Contagion at 05:37 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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It's BoopieÂ’s first day of High School.

First I canÂ’t believe heÂ’s old enough for high school, especially since he still tends to act like heÂ’s in fifth grade. The hardest part for me isnÂ’t that I have a son thatÂ’s old enough to be in High School. No, itÂ’s the fact that I had to give him a key to the house and trust him to get to school by himself.

His school runs from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM. Both Ktreva and I have to be to work by 9:00 at the latest, and for both of us we are supposed to be there between 7:00 AM and 7:30 AM. That means that in the morning Boopie has to get up, get dressed, get breakfast, clean up after himself and get out of the house and to school on time with out anyone there. It also means that I have to trust him to NOT blow up the house, break anything, stay out of stuff that he shouldnÂ’t be getting into and most importantly locking the house up after he leaves.

Now a lot of people will say, “He’s fourteen, it’s time you start trusting him.” I just can’t. Over the last year and a half I’ve trusted him with various things. I’ve given him responsibilities, duties, chores and opportunities to show me he’s matured into a trustworthy and responsible individual.

He blew each one in a major way.

IÂ’m not talking about a minor infraction; IÂ’m talking about spectacular, catastrophic failure. IÂ’ll give you an example. If you remember I gave Boopie some Softair guns for Christmas. He was given these with the stipulation that you treat them like real firearms. You were safety glasses, they are not to be used in the hosue, you do not point them at another person and you definitely do NOT shoot at anybody with them. If you have friends that come over to the house, you are responsible for them. You need to explain the rules and enforce them. If you horse around, IÂ’m going to take them away.

The first time he had a friend over and they wanted to go outside and shoot I had to interrupt and tell them not to point them at each other. The friend “Tall Boy” responded that they where just toys. To which I replied that I didn’t care, they shoot a projectile that can break glass. You will not point them at each other. All was fine for a couple of months until Boopie and Tall Boy brought over another friend, “EMO Kid” to shoot. I looked out the window and there was EMO Kid pointing one of the guns at Tall Boy. Again I pointed out that they were NOT to be pointing the guns at each other.

Not five minutes later I see Boppie and EMO Kid shooting at each other with the guns. In fact Booopie got shot and was bleeding. Now they are my Airsoft guns, and he wonÂ’t get them back. He asked if he could have them back a couple of weeks ago and I told him that he has not proven to be responsible enough for them.

So now I have to leave the boy home alone in a house with black powder, swords, axes, knives, real guns etcÂ… Sure the modern fire arms are secured and he canÂ’t get to the ammo, but that doesnÂ’t mean he might not try to play with the other stuff. Or start going through my personal stuff. Actually IÂ’m more worried about him not securing the house or breaking stuff than anything else. Either way, IÂ’m not comfortable about the whole arrangement.

Unfortunately I didnÂ’t have much of a choice.

Posted by: Contagion at 01:33 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Last night I took KTreva out on a little date, just something simple; Dinner and movie. Now that may not sound like a great date, but when you have kids only a sitter for only 5 hours. You work with what you have. Plus since we hardly ever get out just the two of us, it was great.

I took her to a local Japanese restaurant that does the cooking at your table. We have two of these places in town and depending on the person you talk to depends on which one is better. To be honest I think they are about the same.

The best part of these places is the show you get with dinner. Now every time we've gone to anyplace like this, we've had an oriental guy that barely spoke English and it was hard to understand what he was saying. That is until last night. No, we had the only red neck oriental on the face of the earth. The guy had a slight southern accent and used the word "y'all" a lot.

I didn't have a problem with this, as he put on a great show and it was easy to understand him. It just through me off that he had a southern accent, especially since we live in the north.

Oh and if you are interested in the movie we saw, it was The Bourne Ultimatum. It was good, not as good as the first two, but definitely worth seeing.

Posted by: Contagion at 11:13 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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And now for a little time waster, how about Asteroids Revenge three. It starts off simple, but seeing how long you can last in the last mission is rather difficult. That was two hours of my life IÂ’ll never get back.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:24 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I really thought this was a joke.

Apparently not, Ninja Cheerleaders. Although it does have George Takei of Star Trek Fame in it.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Football season is right around the corner, and there are a lot of people I know that are gearing up for it. There are also a lot of fantasy football leagues starting or started and people are really getting gung ho over the whole thing. I thought this little NSFW (no nudity, just hard to explain) video would help celebrate the soon to be opening regular season of NFL football.

Yea, Weird Science for the football fanatic.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:38 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I loved the movie 300, and there are a lot of spoofs of the trailer out there, but I have to say this one made me laugh the hardest.

After watching this video, I just wonder how my mexican friend J-man would like this video.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:09 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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When I was in High School I would listen to Dr Demento all the time. They always had a skit by The Frantics called Ti Kwan Leep featuring Ed Gruberman and a Martial Arts instructor discussing peace versus violence. This was very popular an The Frantics have come up with other skits with the “Boot to the Head” theme. This one, while not Ti Kwan Leap, is still very funny. Especially since someone put it into video game context.

Click to watch

and for watching thatÂ…

.. A boot to the head *THUMP*

Posted by: Contagion at 09:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I finally found something other than water that I can drink. A diet cranberry juice that is made with sucralose instead of aspertame. Normally I'd say it tastes like watered down cranberry juice. But since I've had only water to drink (besides the two beers from the beer review), it tastes GREAT!

Now if I could only get Ktreva to let me add Vodka to it.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:21 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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All right folks, itÂ’s long overdueÂ… by about 14 months, but IÂ’m going to announce it now. BLOGCRAWL 2007! For those of you that have forgotten what a blogcrawl is, let me give you a recap.

It all started when T1G of Drunken Wisdom got lit one night and made all kinds of drunken comments on other blogs. The next day when he went back to read his masterwork, he found that they where not only nowhere near as funny as he thought they where, but also really hard to decipher. He asked of his readers to disregard his comments. That was when yours truly came up with the idea of a Blogcrawl.

I find drunken comments hilarious, as do many of my regular reads. So I thought, what could I do to help keep this fine tradition going? I decided that on one given night all the bloggers that wanted to participate should get drunk “Socially lubricated” and post comments on all the blogs in the Bad Example and Frizzen Sparks family.

Now, much to my chagrin, it didnÂ’t work quite how I wanted it to. Sure many people lit it up, but instead of making comments they stayed in a chat channel. From what I hear, they were having a grand olÂ’ time. Meanwhile myself, T1G, Tammilicious, Ktreva and Anethamatized got good and blitzed down at FritzÂ’s. By the time we got home, the chat channel was done.

Well I want to revive this Blogging holiday, and I have the perfect day for it. September 29, 2007. ItÂ’s the last Saturday in September. ItÂ’s going to be perfect for two reasons. First IÂ’m free that weekend, and secondly itÂ’s my birthday and for the first time in 17 years IÂ’ve decided IÂ’m going to actually celebrate it. Shooting early in the day and going down to FritzÂ’s later, leaving drunk comments when I get home.

So if you are interested in joining me, let me know. If you don't want to or can't join me in person, join me online. Also spread the word; letÂ’s see what kind of damage we can do!

BTW, before anyone asks... clothing is optional.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:10 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Okay, day two of the new Contagion. What has gone down so far?

1) Shopping for food that has no fat, low sodium and is something I want to eat is difficult.

2) Day two of no caffeine and IÂ’m ready to kill people. I canÂ’t drink any colored soft drinks, anything with caffeine or anything with sugar. That leaves me with water, unless I want to drink whisky all day, which I may just start doing. All IÂ’ve had to drink over the last two days is water and 24 oz of beer. The water at work tastes like morning breath.

3) For the first time in my life I poured perfectly good beer down the drain. It wasnÂ’t even a beer I hated, but beer I really liked. Why? Because I was past my two beer limit and the bottle couldnÂ’t be resealed.

4) Want to know why Americans are fat? It’s because “healthy”, “good for you” foods are almost twice as expensive as regular food. Think I’m kidding; go shopping for “healthy” lunch meats and breads. The other reason is that the amount of time it takes to turn something “healthy” into something palatable takes forever and it still doesn’t taste as good as a bacon cheeseburger and fries that only take 15 minutes to cook. It took me 1.5 hours to cook last night’s dinner and I still would have rather had the burger and fries.

5) If one more person mistakes why I’m eating “healthier” for me going on a diet, I’m going to reach down their throat and rip out a chunk of their lower intestine. If it was up to me, I’d still be eating and drinking the same stuff. It’s because I’m trying to keep my insides from jellifying that I’ve changed my eating habits.

So there you have it. Now youÂ’ll excuse me while I go eat some baby carrots and cucumber slices.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:30 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Tonight I have another beer brought back from vacation, Colony Oatmeal Stout by the Millstream Brewing Company in Amana, IA. Technically IÂ’ve had this beer before. The first time I drank it was two years ago in the Amana Colonies. It left a lasting impression on me; unfortunately you canÂ’t purchase it here in Rockford.

It came in a brown 1-liter bottle with a ceramic Grolsch style stopper. There is a large green label with a picture of a red mill on it. In large red letters at the top is the name of the brewery; the name of the beer is incorporated in the bottom of the picture. There is a picture of a wheat stalk on each side of the mill.

It poured a dark obsidian color that was opaque; light did not pass through at all. A nice 3/4 inch tan head formed. The bubbles were large and dissipated quickly leaving only a ring around the edge of the glass and very minimal lacing.

There is a fragrant combination of chocolate, coffee and oat malts. The scent is almost that of a specialty coffee one would get at Starbucks. The scent is very appealing. It has a full flavored mix of oats and mocha with a hint of coffee accents. With a slight bitterness to the aftertaste, itÂ’s very appealing.

It has a creamy mouth feel that one should get with a stout. The body is somewhere between medium and full. ItÂ’s thicker than a medium bodied beer, but not quite a full bodied one. There is a perfect amount of carbonation for a stout.

Overall I really like this beer. IÂ’ve been craving it off and on for the last two years. IÂ’ve bragged about it to people and have gone out of my way to bring samples of it to those that I think would like it. Unfortunately it doesnÂ’t come in 12 oz bottles, at least not in the last couple of years. So after doing my review it pained me, but I had to dump the extra out. ItÂ’s not going to last in the container once the seal is broken. I truly love this beer and would recommend trying it if you ever get a chance.

IÂ’m giving it a 7 out of 10.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:13 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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