One thing to fool them all

So I'm a Grandfather now.

2010-01-26T01:20:00.001-08:00

So on January 22nd at 6:11PM EST I became a grandfather at 44. Her name is Morgan Alexandria Cayton and she is the most amazing thing I have ever seen.

Where have I been?

2008-11-12T17:25:00.001-08:00

Let's just say I've been experiancing some new adventures. Life is good and I am definately broading my horizons.

Grueling schedule

2007-11-06T12:16:00.000-08:00

Auuuug! Working from 5 pm until 8am the next morning to provide 24 hour IT support is kickin my butt. At least it's every other night.

Today was a good day

2007-10-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

Had an interesting thing happen today, received my annual evaluation. I work for a large IT company that specializes in DoD contract work. Contractor work is pretty cut-throat at that level and it's usually everone for themselves. The base I work on seems to be above that and people seem to pull together pretty well as a team; military folks, contractors from different companies and civil servs as well. So my supervisor hand delivers my evaluation, which usually means bad news. So I'm a bit nervous as he hands me my eval to read and sign. He's got a stoic look on his face so I'm dreading the read. Then one by one I read through the items seeing one "excellent" after another. I get to the end and low and behold a perfect evaluation. Not only was it perfect but it even had added comments from both my supervisor, and the actual customer. I look up and he's smiling from ear to ear and shakes my hand and tells me congratulations. I get a job well done from the folks I work with and then my wife treats me like a king when I get home. Days like his don't happen too often, but when they do...boy life is good.

Life comes at you all at once

2007-10-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

As we age doesn't become apparent that life is a series of peaks and valleys. At times you seem to have everything together and all is well; at others it seems like there's not enough time in the day to get it all done.I guess that's why life is such an adventure.

Lunar Event

2007-08-31T12:31:00.000-07:00

How often is one treated to a Full Lunar Eclipse first thing in the morning followed by an exquisite Full moon that night.

August 28, 2007 was a good day.

Optimisticality

2007-07-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

Recently, I gave a friend some advice. She is generally a very positive person and usually keeps a small group of us feeling the glass is half full. I think I just endured a fairly terrifying experience and I'm happy to report I stand behind my advice; In fact I took it.

The world of DoD contract work can be ... less secure[pun intended] than regular commercial work. In fact the process of acquiring a security clearance can be very time consuming. My company dropped the ball on my clearance and a few days ago I was placed in a status of no jurisdiction. Basically that means I could no longer work around classified material. Since that's pretty much all I do that meant I couldn't work. So I go through the humiliation of being escorted from the building and having local middle management throw around terms like leave without pay.

Proudly, rather than go on the offence I chose to simply be a part of the solution. I provided documentation showing I had been inquiring for months as to my clearance status. As it turns out, I was a casualty of our company security officer's negligence. So, conference calls were arranged and my clearance process should begin again in a day or so. In the mean time my interim status will be reinstated and I can begin working again. Throughout the ordeal I remained positive and kept the glass half full.

Considering I kept that outlook in the face of what seemed like I was loosing the job all together, I'm pretty proud of that.

It was kinda fun traveling the road less traveled, thanks Hope ;P

Book recommendation (poetry)

2007-07-10T06:41:00.000-07:00

Everything Preserved
by Landis Everson edited by Ben Mazer

Amazon Link

From Publishers Weekly

Everson, who makes his book-length debut in his 70's as winner of the Poetry Foundation's Emily Dickinson first book award, swapped poems with a young Jack Spicer and John Ashbery, then stopped writing for 43 years until a recent creative outburst. This volume-divided into two sections, one for nine poems written between 1955 and 1960, and the other comprising the remaining 66, written since 2003-quickly establishes the charms of the playful early work, as in a poem that describes "at least twenty deer" driven by famine to graze on the speaker's pillow and other "poor, unfamiliar pastures." There is a plainspoken, aphoristic strangeness at the heart of many of these early poems-set to subtle music. "The perfect form of woman is a ghost," Everson writes in his last and most ambitious early piece, "The Little Ghost I Played With." The recent work is much more uneven-though much of it has been published in major literary magazines-and there are still plenty of pleasures to be found. Everson evokes the ordinary with a continually surprising touch: percussive language evokes longing for a deceased lover ("I'll take your long legs and / the afterthought of thunderstorms / or sex all day rolled up"); a lemon tree in Eden "hides the smell / of new babies"; and a space probe begets thoughts on onions and innocence. "I am / written on thoroughly, a lost novel / found again," Everson writes, as if starting an autobiography, then turns unexpectedly: "I remember the predictable plot too late, / realize the silly sad urgency of moss."

Folks this read is only for serious poetry lovers, there are many advanced elements in this one.

Never pull a poet

2007-06-30T04:37:00.000-07:00

Fellow poets! Never overlook the diverse uses of your skills...

Extenuating Circumstances
a poem by Paul Violi

I don't know how fast I was going
but, even so, that's still
an intriguing question, officer,
and deserves a thoughtful response.
With the radio unfurling
Beethoven's Ode to Joy, you might
consider anything under 80 sacrilege.
Particularly on a parkway as lovely
as the one you're fortunate enough to patrol
‹and patrol so diligently.
A loveliness that, if observed
at an appropriate rate of speed,
affords the kind of pleasure
which is in itself a reminder
of how civilization depends
on an assurance of order and measure,
and the devotion of someone
like yourself to help maintain it.
Yes, man the measurer!
The incorrigible measurer.
And admirably precise measurements
they are‹Not, of course, as an end
in themselves but, lest we forget, a means to propel
us into the immeasurable,
where it would be anybody's guess
how fast the west wind was blowing
when it strummed a rainbow
and gave birth to Eros.
If we accept that a parkway
is a work of art, the faster we go
the greater the tribute
to its power of inspiration,
a lyrical propulsion that approaches
the spiritual and tempts‹demands
the more intrepid of us to take it from there.
That sense of the illimitable,
when we feel we are more the glory
than the jest or riddle of the world
‹that's what kicked in, albeit
briefly, as I approached
the Croton Reservoir Bridge.
And on a night like this, starlight
reignited above a snowfall's last
flurry, cockeyed headlights scanning
the girders overhead, eggshell
snowcrust flying off the hood,
hatching me on the wing
like a song breaking through prose,
the kind I usually sing
through my nose:

So much to love,
A bit less to scorn
What have I done?

To what end was I born?
To teach and delight.
Delight . . . or offend.
Luck's been no lady,
Truth a sneaky friend.

Got the heater on full blast,
Window jammed down,
Odometer busted,
Speedometer dead wrong:
Can't tell how fast I'm going,
Don't care how far I've gone.

--------

Can you just picture the ticket book on the ground as the thoroughly disgusted officer makes his way back to his cruiser, head shaking?

Never judge a book by it's cover

2007-06-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

This will give you chills... http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?ei=UTF-8&vid=646496&cache=1&fr=&.fdbk=mail:v/0

Man vs. Woman in the shower.

2007-05-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

How to Shower Like a Woman

1. Take off clothing and place it in sectioned laundry hamper according to lights and darks.
2. Walk to bathroom wearing long dressing gown. If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.
3. Look at your womanly physique in the mirror - make mental note to do more sit-ups
4. Get in the shower. Use face cloth, arm cloth, leg cloth, long loofah, wide loofah, and pumice stone.
5. Wash your hair once with cucumber and sage shampoo with 43 added vitamins.
6. Wash your hair again to make sure it's clean.
7. Condition your hair with grapefruit mint conditioner enhanced with natural avocado oil. Leave on hair for 15 minutes.
8. Wash your face with crushed apricot facial scrub for 10 minutes until red.
9. Wash entire rest of body with ginger nut and jaffa cake body wash.
10. Rinse conditioner off hair.
11. Shave armpits and legs.
12. Turn off shower.
13. Squeegee off all wet surfaces in shower. Spray mold spots with Tilex.
14. Get out of shower. Dry with towel the size of a small country. Wrap hair in super absorbent towel.
15. Check entire body for zits, tweeze hairs.
16. Return to bedroom wearing long dressing gown and towel on head.
17. If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.

AND NOW

How To Shower Like a Man

1. Take off clothes while sitting on the edge of the bed and leave them in a pile.
2. Walk naked to the bathroom. If you see wife along the way,shake wiener at her making the 'woo-woo' sound.
3. Look in the mirrior, look at your wiener and scratch your ass.
4. Get in the shower.
5. Wash your face
6. Wash your armpits.
7. Blow your nose in your hands and let the water rinse them off.
8. Make fart noises (real or artificial) and laugh at how loud they sound in the shower.
9. Spend majority of time washing privates and surrounding area.
10. Wash your butt, leaving those coarse butt hairs stuck on the soap.
11. Shampoo your hair.
12. Make a Shampoo Mohawk.
13. Pee.
14. Rinse off and get out of shower.
15. Partially dry off. Fail to notice water on floor because curtain was hanging out of tub the whole time.
16. Admire wiener size in mirror again.
17. Leave shower curtain open, wet mat on floor, light and fan on.
18. Return to bedroom with towel around your waist. If you pass wife, pull off towel, shake wiener at her and make the 'woo-woo' sound again.
19. Throw wet towel on bed.

Christmas is All Around!!!

2007-05-23T02:49:00.000-07:00

The greatest song ever!!

PostSecret

2007-05-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Every Sunday they come with their most intimate secrets. Secrets of fear, of revenge, of hate, of loss and of death.

But they also come with secrets of freindship, of family, of fun, of hope and of love.

They all come with one thing in common, they come with secrets. Do you have secrets?

I do...

Whatever!!!

2007-04-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

Ok so I’m relaxing in my fav recliner tuned in to the latest webcast on web development, with a focus on SharePoint (of course, duuuuh), my Sweetie is sitting on the couch with her feet up watching Gilmore Girls, my middle daughter, the 15 year old, is chatting away on IM while surfing her friends’ MySpace sites, when suddenly the mancub (that would be my 13 year old son) flies by the doorway screaming like he’s seen a ghost. Naturally my bride expects me to investigate, so I pause the webcast and haul my carcass out of the plushness of my body molded chair. I lumber into the dining room and ask my boy what in the world is going, “D…Dad there’s some kind of animal in the carport! It has some kind of tail and it freaked me out!” So naturally my adrenaline is pumping and I head out the door, barefooted mind you, to defend the keep from the intruder. Having some kindred spirit connection to Brave Sir Robin, I of course instruct my son to pull the box away from the wall so we can get a look at the beast. Tentatively he complies and slowly reaches for the box…as he inches the container back a sudden burst of beastial fury and a ear-piercing screech send us both running for the hills. The cub flies into the neighbor’s carport screaming like an 8 year old school girl, while his courageous father(yours truly) runs out the front of our carport in full view of the surprised folks relaxing on their porches. It is then that we discover that our hell-spawn is nothing more than a dazed dove.

An eternity passes as we both just stand there staring at each other…dreading the inevitable ridicule we most assuredly will face upon returning to the living room. So as we return to the warmth of our comfort zone we are greeted by cackles and hoots. Our only retort …. Whatever!

Lighter side.

2007-04-10T12:51:00.000-07:00

A colleage referenced a funny shirt she saw a little girl wearing one day. It was a little pink t-shirt that read on the front...

"Boys are stupid. And they stink a little too."

and on the back it read...

"When they grow up...not much changes!"

I think that pretty much says it all :P

National Poetry Month!!

2007-04-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

Beginning April 1, Poets.org will send one new poem to your inbox each day to celebrate National Poetry Month. The poems have been selected from new books published this spring. Visit our Spring Books List for a complete guide to this year's best poetry titles.Miss a day? Visit our Poem-a-Day archive >
To sign up for the Poem-A-Day Email click there --> http://www.poets.org/poemADay.php

The Last Nerve

2007-03-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

Often, to help in an attempt to cope with bad behavior, people say, "Try putting yourself in their place and maybe you be a bit more understanding." Well, I find that this works well with just about every emotion I am faced with except one. Irritation. No matter how much I try to empathize with someone who is visibly irritated, I can't seem to find that groove. Now first let me qualify my observation as one who sits on both sides of the fence fairly often. And for the life of me even when I'm irritated I catch myself chastising my own emotional state. I often catch myself telling my 13 year old son, "Look, people are not here to irritate you."

Humorous statements like, "I'm allergic to stupid." or "she's not the brightest bulb in the store." say volumes about what is going on inside a person. I bet if we had a large LCD display that displayed what was going on in our minds, floating above our heads for all to see there would be less of that. That's one good definition of discipline I think, the ability to be accountable to oneself inwardly not just outwardly. In fact I would go so far as to say that is a strong characteristic of good character.

I think if a person can somehow become aware of this state of mind they can really move mountains and become a part of the solution not the problem. If that makes any sense.

Maybe I'm wrong but, as yet another birthday approaches, I find myself becoming more and more allergic to people who are allergic to stupid.

Are there meds for that? I wonder.

New Blog

2007-03-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

I will save this blog for more personal/family type posts but for a more formal arena I'm now blogging at http://johnqbrunsonjr.blogspot.com/ where I can discuss some of the more serious topics that revolve in my mixed up little world.

Small world

2007-02-26T11:23:00.000-08:00

So I'm walking aqround the mall and make my usual Walden Books stop; I notice a book signing going on out front. Being a Sci-fi/Fantasy type I am naturally stopped by the covers of the author's books. Turns out he's a local author that has been writing since Jan 06. So I strike up a conversation and ask all the usual questions and decide to buy the first book and take it home for a read. Well I'm happy to say that I am very much enjoying the book and would highly recommend it if you are so incline to said genre.

Give it a read http://www.amazon.com/Aethereal-Christopher-W-Wilcox-Sr/dp/1593744358/sr=8-1/qid=1172518069/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-3436073-2816151?ie=UTF8&s=books

The other side of experience

2007-02-12T05:16:00.000-08:00

I find it very interesting how one's perspective can be so altered on the other side of experience. It's a shame that so many prejudices(inward/self) keep us from taking advantage of those that have gone before us; I don't mean before us in life but rather in experience. We really are more close minded than we ever admit and each experience seems to wake us up a bit more.

Obituary

2007-02-09T05:39:00.001-08:00

JOHN Q. BRUNSON Sr.
John Quittman Brunson Sr., 68, widower of Patricia Newman Brunson, died Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007, at the Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia.Born in Albemarle, N.C., he was a son of the late Muldrow McCoy Brunson and the late Vasti Silvey Brunson. Mr. Brunson was a U.S. Army Vietnam veteran.Surviving are a son, John Quittman Brunson Jr. of Sumter; a daughter, Regina Elaine Thomas of Sumter; a brother, Joel Brunson of Sumter; a sister, Joan Smith of Arkansas; and five grandchildren.Graveside services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the Brunson Cemetery with the Rev. Mark Bordeaux officiating. The family will receive friends at the graveside following the service.Online condolences may be sent to www.sumterfunerals.com.Elmore Hill McCreight Funeral Home and Crematory, 221 Broad St., Sumter, is in charge of the arrangements, (803) 775-9386.

Passing

2007-02-06T18:54:00.000-08:00

So...my Dad passed away today.

Interesting week

2007-01-27T04:32:00.000-08:00

Definately one for the books. First my 18 year old daughter is rear-ended on pinewood bridge by a DUI. The crash involved 4 vehicles and we spent an evening in the ER. Very fortunately, thank the big man above, she's ok. She's very sore and now has no car but all that really matters is she is ok. What made this one odd was out of the 4 people who were involved only the DUI fella got hurt; usually it's the other way around. Anyway, hopefully some good will come out of this for him. It was his first offense and he had a clean record.

Also this week(Monday), I work on base and while walking to another building I find an engagement ring on the ground. Well, it was in a parkinglot surrounded by many buildings. All the guys in my shop tell me there's no way I'm going to find the poor girl that lost it so I should sell it off and cash in. I estimate the piece was worth around $2500. Well , my sweetie once lost the diamond out of her ring and I was there when she noticed. She was so sad it hurt my heart just to watch. No man wants to see his sweetie cry and all I could think of when I looked at the ring was this poor girl and how dissapointed she must be. So I go back to the parking lot where I found it, this is Wednesday, and stand there and try to figure out where to start. I watch a few people park and walk to there buildings and I decide to start with one. So I e-mail the First Shirt(head NCO) of that unit and ask him to put the word out and see what shakes loose. Well he finally replies yesterday (Friday) that he may have found her. Sure enough she describes the ring to a T and I drop it off to him to give to her (she's was home on leave). That just makes my week, is that not the coolest!?

Oh and I may be sporatic in my updates and responses on the Sumter Board, I have to learn the C# programming language in a very short period so I will be cramming in most of my free time.

Until next time!

Then again...

2007-01-17T16:52:00.000-08:00

You could just drag them (your teenaged children) behind your car but I think that may be against the law. I'll have to check :P

Strength of Character

2007-01-15T06:35:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you have to choose the choice you don't want ... and live with it.

Ouch!

2007-01-14T10:46:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you day dreamily catch something said that has such a dramatic impact on your inner monologue that it ebbs into your conscience and becomes rooted there like a tick. That happened to me today, this morning in fact while sitting next to my sweetie in church. The who/what/where's aren't so as important as the why's. In this case the why is a question posed from the pulpit toward the very end of the service.

"If you died today, what would I read on your gravestone tomorrow?"

Wow, now that's a shot to the chin. In spite of my arrogance/pride/self edificating intellect I was really taken aback by this. I repeated the question over and over in my head...what would it read? That's when I realized that I may not like what it said. So now the roots begin digging in; now that I know, what to do about it?

What indeed?

Such a motely fool...

2007-01-12T16:22:00.000-08:00

Yes, now that some time has gone by and I can hold my head up in shame, I can reveal my previous blog blunder. My pathetic attempt at switching and the fact that in utter disbelief of the first dump, I actually repeated the steps and dumped the second.

So that explains my absence over the holidays following my fun-filled vactation at Palmetto Richland Vacation and Spa Resort... I do not recommend it btw.

So, as I am not dead and finally beyond wanting to slay the entire IT staff at Blogspot, here I am.

...hide your daughters!

And so I begin my prattle...again

2007-01-08T16:36:00.000-08:00

Once again into the beach my friends! There are good times to be had.