Brendan Carroll's Blog: Working my way back, page 10

Movie Tavern

Finally got to go to Movie Tavern in Humble! I know that is probably not on many bucket lists, but it was on mine. The food was pretty good (the fries were great!) The drinks were huge and had I not had some 'wee bonnie lassies' with me, I would have tried one of their margaritas. I've heard they are pretty good and not too expensive either. (You know I have S.A.S. Starving Artist Syndrome.)
We saw Shrek 3-D. Excellent little movie. I'd recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for a few belly laughs.
Unfortunately, about ten minutes into the movie, I realized that I am Shrek and my girl is Fiona!! You can bet I was glad that she was not with me at first.
As I watched this basically funny 'child's' movie, I realized that there was a message here for all ages. Great story, good moral and a happy ending. What more could you want?
Anyway, before it was over, I was texting my significant other, telling her that she had best watch this movie if she ever wanted to know the real me.
I'm an ogre. I didn't know it way back when I saw Shrek, the original. I never realized that when he was saying "Ogres are like onions. They have layers." that he was talking about me!! I have layers, too. Some are very obvious to anyone nearby, but many are so deep, I don't even WANT to recognize them.
Sometimes we go through life, struggling with our identity, reading heady books, meditating, listening to self-actualization tapes, studying Bhuddism, Taoism, Confuscianism, Communism, Socialism and a whole host of other isms and suddenly, one day, we see our true nature portrayed in an animated film about a big green ogre. How funny life is. Let us hope it stays that way!

Is it me or is it Memorex? More like T-Rex

I found a new thread on the Kindleboards author forum this morning and thought it would be fun. I checked out several parts of my latest novel up for editing in the Red Cross of Gold Series for gender identification. The Genie supposedly analyses blocks of text and identifies the gender of the author. After putting five different blocks of text from "The Company of Women" (strangely this title seems to match this idea), I learned that I am neither male nor female, but both. When I write ...

Here be piranhas...

I'm going to venture out into the world of Amazon forums and try a few postings as soon as my account clears. For some reason, Amazon keeps telling me that I can't post because I haven't bought anything which is ridiculous. I've bought numerous things from Amazon.
As I was comtemplating the idea of trying a post or two there in the promotion threads, it occurred to me that Amazon is an apt name for those forums. The Amazon river is also full of vicious predators in the form of piranhas and...

If Only... If Only...

Had to go to my new doctor today. Wasn't too bad. Had to go shopping... Wally World of course! Is there any other store? So I'm browsing the baking aisle when suddenly I remember I have lost all my cornmeal in the move. I neeeeeed cornmeal. How can you make cornbread without cornmeal? How can you eat chili, stew, soup, etc, without cornbread? So I reach for the Aunt Jemima and see that the generic brand is much cheaper. I change my mind and direct my hand to the store brand... the brain in my butt (a vestigial brain leftover from when I was a T-Rex) failed to respond in time and the hand went wild, knocking Aunt Jemima from the shelf. Noooooooooooooooooooooooo! I screamed silently, but down she fell... all five pounds of her. The bag split upon contacting the tiles and yellow grit was soon everyhere in the aisle. It was awful. Just awful.
If that had been the end of the bad for the day, I could have endured it with a shrug, but no. I stop by the mailbox and what do I see? A notification from the United States of America's Postal System. I put in a change of address almost three weeks ago on line to save time. But here was a snail mail verification number that had to be entered on line to make the change happen... errrr, am I missing something here? Was not the purpose of making the change on line foregoing the snail mail method, speedier changes, less paper, all that green stuff? But nope, not only that, when i tried to enter the verification code, it was all wrong and I had to start over. Now I will have to wait another 7-10 days to get my mail forwarded to my new address. To make matters worse, The United States of America Postal Service charged me a dollar for each individual name listed at my adress... yep, that's right. They charged me. And I still have to wait 7-10 days for the verification. Am I happy? No, that is a painted on smile. I'm just a clown.

Home at Last

The place is beginning to look like home and right now, a good place to curl up and die with all of the aches and pains I have developed. Just because you have uprooted your entire household and moved it halfway across Texas doesn't mean that you can stop eating, bathing, wearing clean clothes, so all those things must continue even though you have a million jillian other things to do. But things are calming down a bit and today my aches and pains are forcing me to forego any more unpacking, moving, lifting, tugging.
Goods friends and self did eat some Memorial Day hotdogs yesterday. Plan on having some S'mores today and maybe some more blue margarits! Yay!!! Have a reverent and safe Memorial Day weekend.

Great News!

We have DSL!! It's a miracle. At last. I feel like I've been gone on an epic journey to the underworld where they don't know an Ipod from Eyeball. I haven't gotten all the unpacking done, but I'm getting there... slowly. Still trying to read a few pages a night. Working on The Weight of Blood by David Daglish. It grows on you and then you start looking forward to learning what horrible things is going to happen next. Well, I just wanted to leave a note saying that I'm still alive and kicking. :0

Short Blurb

Today the movers come. It reminds of the scary movie title "Something Wicked This Way Comes". I remember seeing that when I was young and being really worried about the education level of the person who wrote the book and the people who didn't correct it before making it into a movie. Then I grew up about forty years later and went "Ooooooh."
I only just saw this movie for the first time when they made a remake of it. I'm just slow sometimes.
Anyway, the movers are coming at noon and I'm still looking for boxes. I hate to shut down my computer and box it up because last time I did, it took half of Manhatten to help me get it up and running again. The place I'm moving to is in the East Texas Lake country and it's not far from Houston. Now look, Houston is huge!! I'm talking enorgigantimongous! Yet a mere 40 minutes away and I'm so far out in the boonies when I called Verizon to transfer my service for home phone, etc., they said we don't service that area. There is no cable, no Sprint, no ATT, and the guy at the local telephone/cable/sattelite company answers the phone "Hey, this is Paul!" Enough said. Woe is me.

How Do They Know?

Something that amazes me is the innate almost magickal perceptions of animals that some people might call ESP. A great mystery of nature and wonderful. How on earth can people still deny the existence of the hidden powers of the mind? I'll give you an example that I have tested over the years and found to be unerring.
My Puglet has ESP. She can and does read the human mind on a regular basis. Now some people (scientists, dog whisperers, researchers, debunkers, etc.) have said that they are...

Wanted: Dead or Alive?

OK, so I'm talking to a dear friend about strange topics which happens to be my forte and somehow I was reminded of an odd incident that happened to me concerning the above illustrated badge.
My son, bless his heart, had a variety of problems growing up including bi-polar disorder, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder and a touch of paranoia. Naturally, he was an interesting little fellow to say the least and my heart goes out to all the parents who have dealt and are dealing with these ...

Bait and Switch

Sometimes it is very hard to believe that people can be so naive, but it must be so since the old idea of bait and switch skuldugery still exists in this so-called enlightened age. For example, recently, I have been searching on Craig's list for a late model used car in order to buy a second car (the emergency car?). So I've looked at all these automobiles and called a hundred different places asking questions. I've wasted about $200 so far in gas and incidental expenses driving to different ...