I think my attitude toward some things is improving...

because I played trivia last night and things that would have normally upset me really didn't bother me.

I was 99% certain that Ian McKellen was the answer to the question, "who was the only actor ever nominated for an Academy Award for playing a wizard", but I was overruled.  I was fairly certain the last time the Washington D.C. area had post-season baseball, FDR was president, not JFK, but I was overruled. 

I didn't like the category on Guinness Beer, even though half of the answers were right there on the wall on a Guinness sign.  I really didn't like the round on the history of the U.S. in space, mostly because I should have and didn't know the answers.  I knew half of one, but again, was overruled.

So we did awful.  But it was fun.  That's all that matters.  I'd do it again, even knowing I would be with a team I didn't know and not doing well.  That must mean a shift in attitude.

I'm watching the final season of ER and the biggest, most pleasant surprise was that they finally put more than four episodes on each DVD.  That means the going speeds up. Strangely, I'm finding that the quality of the writing didn't really drop off all that much in the final three seasons, as I thought it would have.

So the VA doctors are changing my medications.  But one doctor wants me to stop taking some drugs prescribed by another doctor, but said I should stop not taking them if I start to feel poorly, and then wait until I see the other doctor to check and see if stopping them in the right things, because when X + Y = Z, then we should be doing A, rather than B.  I liked the doctor who I saw and what he said makes sense, but the protracted time between seeing the two doctors from different clinics is frustrating.  I won't see that other doctor until November.  Heck, I could get real sick between now and then if I stop those drugs and start to feel badly.  I'm doing it, but I'm not real happy about it.

Some moron who works as a non-sworn jailer for Orange County is in jail.  He had attached his cell phone to his shoe and was taking photos looking up the skirts of random women at a Target (that's where he was nabbed).  Really?  With all the porn and photos on the web, he was risking his freedom to snatch (pun intended) photos of women's undies from beneath their skirts?  What drives someone to do something that's so clearly dangerous.  If an outraged husband gets hold of you first, you may end up in the jail ward of a hospital for a long time, before you go to prison and register as a sex offender upon release.

If that's not weird enough, what are we to make of the 67 year old man who was nabbed in Orange County for dumping dirty adult diapers on a highway where cars and bicyclists were running over them and experiencing a "bio-hazard"?  He lives in a multi-million dollar home on the Newport Coast, and is apparently quite successful financiallly.  He couldn't hire a diaper disposal service?  He couldn't just bag them and leave them with his garbage? 

Sophie Tweed-Simmons is auditioning again. First it was on American Idol.  Now on the X Factor.  Just because your dad is Gene Simmons doesn't mean you're going to make it as a singer.  Jim Carrey's daughter Jane auditioned for American Idol and didn't go very far.  Of course, these days she's probably out shopping with her father's latest girlfriend, who is probably 2 or 3 years her junior.

Snoop Lion, or Snoop Dogg if you prefer, defends smoking with his 18 year old son.  I'm going to share something I've rarely shared with anyone.  The reason I never, ever tried pot was because I saw my late father and his then 2nd wife smoking it while we were on vacation in Wyoming and I was frightened by it's apparent affect on him.  He acted very strange in the hours after the two of them filled the living room of the cabin we were staying in with that smoke, as we played Monopoly.  So every time someone offered me a chance to try pot, I passed.

Heck, while I'm sharing, I'll share the story of why I don't drink alcohol at all anymore.  Next year will be 30 years since I was out late one night, tossing back more than a few and finally somehow driving myself home.  I don't remember driving home, but I woke up the next day in my bed with my undamaged car in the driveway.  That afternoon, while doing the Air Force security police thing, we were following a drunk driver off-base and couldn't stop him (there's a law called the Posse Comitatus Act that prohibits military personnel from enforcing law in the civilian jurisdiction except in a time of martial law).  We ended up peeling him from the wall of the building he ran his car into and impacted his face against after he flew through the windshield.  I stopped drinking (with two notable exceptions, dad's 50th birthday and my 2nd wedding) right then and there.

Apparently Samohi doesn't want its athletes exploited by anyone but Samohi.  The principal refused to allow one of the star football players, Sebastian LaRue to be honored on campus.  LaRue was selected to play in next year's Under Armour All-America game.  Like every other student, Under Armour and ESPN wanted to hold a ceremony to present his official game jersey to him on campus, but Samo's principal Laurel Fretz refused.  "...we cannot support a sporting good company coming to campus to take advantage of Sebastian in order to sell shirts" is an except from an email between Fretz and LaRue's mother.  Ms Fretz, are you not exploiting Mr. LaRue by selling tickets to his games, refreshments at those games and so on?  So it's alright when you do it, for the school's benefit, but not when someone outside the school does it?  Are you related somehow to Oliver North, who also believed the ends justified the means.  Change that nameplate on your desk to Ms Hypocrite.

I've been advised to start listing my twitter address within my blogs and asking those of you who read here to follow me on Twitter.  I don't know if it will do any good, I know most of the FB audience isn't on Twitter, but what the heck.  Please feel free to follow me, @cyclist1959 on Twitter.