So Stacey has a cousin with two children. In order to crack down on the tikes, her and her husband decided to withhold dinner from the kids if they acted up. There have been two instances in which this power has been enforced on the kids, once because they wouldn’t clean or something and another time when they were out playing with neighbor kids and didn’t come in when they should have. Thanks to the fast fingers and creativity of their daughter (9 years old), none other than the Police and the city of Moorhead come to their doors asking why they are abusing their kids. That’s right, the kids called the cops and reported their own parents for endangerment! It’s funny because these people have heads firmly in asses. Don’t really think it would be a good idea to follow these two into a parenting class. The mother thinks she knows absolutely everything there is to know about parenting. I guess having kids really early in adulthood, like at 17, makes you hyper-intelligent in the ways of motherhood.

I do not condone starving children for the purposes of correcting bad behavior. I would never do that to Maddy. Sure, I’d make her do dishes or something, but never take dinner away from her. Eating, as far as I know, is something we have to do. Anyway, needless to say, the kids were old enough to know better.

As Stacey put it, there has to be more to this than we’re hearing about. More on that later.

It has been two years today that Stacey and I were married in Wadena. It was a good size ceremony, filled with originality and wonder. I have never had so much fun in my life. I’ve never been on the edge of tears longer than I was that day. It had everything. There was dancing, singing, joy, worship, praise, glory, celebration of love, and a commitment to share the rest of our lives together. It was a day that I will never forget. It was a day that Stacey worked her ass off to make happen. It was a day that helped me reconnect with my family and connected me to a new one. In all the joy and celebrating, my wife and I created a basis for the rest of our lives together. We opened Pandora’s box, so to speak. It was a wonderful day, April 30, 2005, because it ushered in a new era in both our lives. In doing so, I came one step closer to my dreams of family life. I’m amazed at where we’ve gone since then.

So many things have happened to us since we were married. Moving, having a baby, taking on new responsiblities and through it all, there are the two of us. Stacey has grown more beautiful since Maddy was born. Everyday I see her, it reaffirms that I couldn’t live without her. What was I doing before she came into my life? Oh, that’s right. I was crashing and burning. I was going nowhere. Now what’s the plan? For a start, there’s having something to live for. I met the love of my life on the internet. It was a shot in the dark that panned out very well. There are troubled times, to be sure, but then again everyone has them. The times that trouble us are those that find me turning psycho about something small, becoming paranoid that I’m not doing what’s in the best interest of the whole. In short, it’s when I think the best course of action is to beat something to death, forge a happy ending when there should just be an ending.

Stacey will read this, I have no doubt. She will read this and some parts will make her happy and some will make her wonder what I mean. I would say to her: “This is a rant, just like those other blogs that people write to ‘rant about life.’” When I rant, it’s just a lot of words, not all of them bad. I’m freewriting right now. I’m sitting at work while she’s at work/home and I’m getting all my thoughts out in the blog. Two years of marriage is a lot to write about. We thought about the happiest times that we’ve had in the last two years. There was some really good ones. We said those that immediately came to mind, but what are the others? There are too many to name here. That’s what happens with the majority of things that you experience with someone else are good. I think I should leave with a thank you.

Thank you, Stacey, for making me the happiest man on Earth. I hope that I’ve made you laugh, cry, feel joy, pain, made you happier more often than I’ve made you sad, and have been the man that you need/want/deserve more than not.

I love you, happy anniversary.

Justin

I came into this marriage thinking that everything had to be wine and roses all the time. In that line of thinking, I make things way harder than they have to be. I always have to talk things out, make a huge deal out of something small. Generally, I beat things to death. I’m sure that Stacey would agree with me on this.

We went to a movie last night (WOW!) and saw “Fracture” with Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. The plot is of little consequence, a throw away for everyone involved. The one element of the film that we both thought was horribly misplaced was the “love story” between the sure shot DDA and his soon to be boss at a new firm. Why do American movies, or any country’s for that matter, feel the need to add a love story where there could be more action to move along the plot. It was absolutely ridiculous. The two people who were supposed to be going at each other were not right for one another. I guess not everyone has to have their perfect opposite (Sonny and Cher, John and Yoko ring some bells in the mismatch category) but these two were nowhere near each other.

Anthony Hopkins, A-Hop as I will now call him, seemed really bored. He was basically playing Hannibal without teeth. I don’t care much for Gosling. His character was cocky in a way that was unbelievable. The movie aside, I had a very fun time with Stacey. It’s nice to go out and not have to worry about the baby. Well, I know Stacey worries a little. For the most part, I know Maddy will do well with whoever watches her. I guess that’s because I don’t see her all day and can only take the way she is with me as a basis for my belief that she’s the best child to ever live in this world.

More of a dystopia than a straight up apocalypse, the world of Mad Max screams that the end of the world is coming.

We all know the story, we all know why Max is mad. The setting for this film is perfect to portray a civilization on the verge of death. A highway patrolman trying desperately to keep order on roadways plagued by terrifying bikers is the perfect buffer between a normal life and agonizing fear and death. Max is the one remnant of normal society, albeit a violent one.

Violence is hardly different between our world and this one. The bikers control the roadways, gas is expensive or non-existent.  The only way to answer questions is to shoot first and not worry about the questions.  As a highway patrolman, Max runs the gauntlet and can’t help but get his family killed in the fray of his professional life.  GUNS GUNS GUNS!

This was one of my favorite movies growing up, and now as an adult I watch it fascinated.  My daughter is named Madeline Maxine…  get it?  Aside from that, though, this movie rings true in so many ways.  It’s hard to ignore the feelings I get when I watch this movie as an adult.  With the way things are going, we’re going to see this world far sooner than we knew in 1979.   ****

Yesterday, for example, it took me two and a half hours to do a single inspect. It was easy, too. A deer hit. There was no other drivers involved and I didn’t have too much damage to document. I’m just an idiot.

But I digress, back to the tour.

The layout of the apartment is the same as the one I used to live in when we first came to Bemidji. It’s a little smaller than we’d have liked, but who can be picky? We’re going to be making a healthy living finally and will be able to save up some money. I can’t wait to have the debt gone! No more bills for stuff like that. It’s a great feeling!

Well, I’m going to go back to reading and writing about other stuff. Moving day has arrived!

In one of his 29 videos, Cho states that he wanted to inspire the population of “weak” and “helpless” to rise up and do what he did. If NBC had not received the package from him. NBC did exactly what he knew they would do. They blindly fell into the trap that everyone already knows. The media, in fulfilling their duty to report everything all the time, decided that the best course of action would be to spread this kid’s message of hate and disgust for society to the very society that he was disgusted with. What is that supposed to do? Why not hand the whole package to the authorities that Brian Williams reported NBC was working with to minimize the damage? It doesn’t make any sense! The number of people who would do something along the lines of what Cho did are more than we would like to think.

Thanks to NBC, they will come out of the woodwork.

My mom told me about a news item on television last night in my hometown. I guess someone at my old high school decided that it would be fun to light a fire of discontent and run. No wonder cowards like that get picked on.

It makes it worse when the government can’t handle this stuff. Bill O’Reilly, someone that I alternate admiration and disgust for, says it best. The whole of last night’s episode was very good. Here’s the link.

Sitting here at my office, I can’t imagine what the families of the 32 are thinking and going through. If I were them, I would stay away from television for the next three months. I figure that’s about as long as it will take for this to get old. I could be wrong, just look at how long it took for that whole Anna Nicole thing to go away. And don’t get me started on Britney.

Now, I’m going to research cable and telephone prices.