Sweaty weekend. Cleaned up on Friday night in anticipation of my mother-in-law. She didn't arrive at 1:30am, so I went to bed. In the morning, we found out she and her friend had checked into the hotel at around 3am and couldn't figure out how to call out. It was a long drive from New Orleans...

Saturday, I'm covered in neck-to-toe fur. I am a camel. Camel's have humps. They also have tails, but I can't seem to keep mine on during a show. We gauge how well the show went not by audience response but by how sweat-soaked my undershirt is. I have no desire to be a mascot. At least, my sweat doesn't stink. Bonus. Cool neighbors. Double Bonus. Sleep was good. Triple Bonus.

Sunday, Work... *sigh*

The Friday Five: a.k.a. It's too early for me to think too hard...

1. How many houses/apartments have you lived in throughout your life? Let's me count the places...
age 0 - 1 1/2: An apartment I don't remember but have pictures to prove I lived there.
age 1 1/2 - 17: The childhood home.
age 17 - 18: Good grades in high school means Free Room and Board in the Dorm, kiddies. Even though it was about a 5 mile from my parent's house, it was good to be on my own, sort to speak.
age 18 - 22: Back in the childhood home. When your roomate and his girlfrield weigh over 500+ combined, walking in on them will cure you of dorm-life.
age 22 - 24: My first apartment. My salary was so small I lived in a rent subsidized complex. No, it wasn't a ghetto, in fact, it was the best apartments in town.
age 24- 26: Moved to New Orleans for love and work. We rented a little shotgun house across the street from the railroad tracks. To be precise right across the street from where they connected the cars together... at 2 in the morning. Shook the whole house, weird when you're on the toliet. No showers, just baths. No insulation. Gas-fueled "fire in the wall" heaters. In a freeze, we could wake up and see our breath. And redneck neighbors we never talked to, but on several occasions dialed 9-1- and just waited... I almost miss it...
age 26 - present: Our lovely rented townhome. I can't wait to buy a house now...

2. Which was your favorite and why? Despite all of its... problems... I think I like the little shotgun house the most. It had class. Sure, it was lower class, but class none the less...

3. Do you find moving house more exciting or stressful? Why?When it was moving out on my own, it was exciting. But I am NOT looking forward to moving again...

4. What's more important, location or price? I'm poor. Price is important, but the location can't be in an unsafe place. We like the neighborhood we're in now. The price is just right.

5. What features does your dream house have (pool, spa bath, big yard, etc.)? A sewing room for my wife with a pad-lock on the outside. Other than that, I'd like a garage so I can form a garage band. Other than those, I don't need certain rooms, but enough space.

I had a thought. Surely you've heard of the "Carnival of the Vanities" - you know the traveling list of links of posts from biggish bloggers. Its intention is to give exposure to posts, that for one reason or another, people didn't see. It's kind of... well, the idea behind it is here.

It's a great idea and I've participated in a couple of the Carnivals and followed the Vanities in its travels. But, I guess my problem with it is, from what I've seen, it's nearly all political content. Not that I have a problem with political 'blogs or anyone whose 'blog is political. Oh, not at all. It just seems to me that bloggers like myself who don't do much, if any, political stuff... well, The Carnival isn't quite the forum for personal 'blogs to get more exposure.

What I enjoy about reading other people's 'blogs is the "people-watchin" aspect. Hopefully, that doesn't sound "stalker-ish." In real life, I enjoy observing people and how they react to situations, so that's how I approach reading other 'blogs. It's only natural for me to "people-watch" on the web. Again, I hope that doesn't make me a stalker.

For me, content and personality is king when it comes to reading a 'blog. I think I've found some very different and unique personalities to put on the ol' blogroll, but I crave more.

So, I had a thought. What if there was a "Carnival of the Vanities" that wasn't so political? Would anyone be interested participating in a project that helps the little bloggers get more notice?

I figure it would work pretty much the same. Folks send their best posts to a host site for a week and different sites host it. I've even got a name for it: The Cult of Personalities. Or is there something like that out there already that I don't know about?

Come on, let me know what you think. Willing to help? Anyone? Anyone? Link to this post and help spread the idea around...

During the hiatus, war broke out. But you probably knew that, didn't you? I never really felt like I should address the whole war thing, but now I feel like I should.

Before the war started, I was against it. I thought that the U. N. inspections should have been given more time to work. Actually, to say I was "against war" is inaccurate. I was more against the timing of it and I did think that military action should have been authorized with the United Nations. I fully recognized that something had to be done about Saddam Hussein and his horrible treatment of his own people. Forcing him out seemed like the only option.

It's interesting to note that in the months and weeks before a single GPS-guided missile had been launched, I was surfing through many a war and anti-war blogs, left-wing and right-wing blogs. I guess I was trying to gather as much information about both sides of the issue before committing to an opinion. The problem was every site I visited made valid points about their stance. On one hand, the right-winger/pro-war folks made points like the UN needed to show it's authority, while the other side of the debate wanted more diplomacy and time. Both sides made perfect sense to me. During my own self-debate, I needed to stop blogging and the war started. So, any opinion I had about "going to war" is quite unnecessary at this point, eh?

Now, my feelings are we all need to support our troops, no matter how opposed one might be to war. In my opinion, protesting the war at this point is a useless waste of energy. It's a waste of energy because it's on and nothing will stop it until Saddam is in hell. It's quite ironic that anti-war protestors have proven to be more of a nuisance than the Iraqi troops seem to be.

I think the protestor's time and energy would be much better spent focusing on campaigning for a presidential candidate that could defeat the incumbent (of course, I don't think Bill Clinton can run again). Or, perhaps saving their energy for the surely inevitable time when the U.S. has overstayed their time in Iraqi, yet our boys aren't brought back home. Surely by election time, many folks will be quite fed up with a humongous deficit, a down economy, and government that spies on its own people and a change will be in order.

One quick side note: I do not believe this is a war for oil, as many anti-war protestor's and their signs would have you believe. No, now it's about liberating an oppressed society of humans. Later, when it's over and government contracts are being handed out, maybe, then it's about oil...

When last we left our hero, ML was busy fighting a deadly trio of arch-nemisises - Lack O'Inspiration, Ang Zi Odie with her toadies Werk and Lyphe, and, The Time Master. These three villains ganged up on our hero with hopes of finishing him off once and for all.

In the past, ML fought them all, but never all at the same time and never with the possibility of such horrible consequences. He survived Hye Skool and his junior. He battled D'Preshun to a near draw, but defeated that foe with a 1-2 combo of laidback attitude and self-worth. Now, he sits on the verge of defeat at the hands of three cunning foes.

The Time Master had always been difficult to deal with. With his Infinite-Finity Device, he could speed time up, so his rivals would feel as if they were always on the go. Or to be really nasty, he would slow time down, so the days and hours dragged on and on.

Lack O'Inspiration had a calm demeanor about him. Using in mental abilities, he could force the most intelligent person's minds to turn off. He would keep them alive, but most intelligent and all creative thoughts were quickly suppressed, leaving his victims paralyzed with self-doubt.

Ang Zi Odie was quite possibity the more cunning of the three. She would manipulate people from the shadows of her lair and surprise her victims with her presence when it was too late. Her henchmen, Werk and Lyphe, would quickly do her bidding without question, and were rewarded with their victim's soul.

Having faced each separately, ML was confident with his abilities to take them all on. The battle was inevitiable, the outcome wasn't.

The battle plan was remarkably simple. The Time Master would slow ML's day to a crawl, while Werk took cheap shots. Just when it looked like Werk would be defeated, the Time Master sped time up and Lyphe would continue the fight. The long drawn out battles with Werk and the quick catfights with Lyphe would start to take their toll on ML.

That's when Lack O'Inspiration would join the fight. His mental powers could slow ML's abilities to fight off Werk and Lyphe, and any creative thoughts the hero had would be suppressed by ML's own self-doubt and worthlessness.

When last we saw the grey man, the plan was implemented and it looked like he would be defeated. Ang Zi Odie had crept in through the shadows and proved to be the ringleader who planned our hero's demise.

But, all was not lost. ML was holding his own against the enemy. He knew he could not continue the fight forever. So, he tricked his foe into believing he was defeated. And while they celebrated, he rested... and waited.

It wasn't long before the trio became overconfident and lazy. ML was just waiting for the opportune moment. And, how appropriate, he thought, that it came on April 1st.

Lack O'Inspiration had for just a moment stopped concentrating on suppressing ML's creativity. That would be all the hero needed. ML remembered the words he kept deep down in back of his head. And he screamed them out loud!

"The Greatest Thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return!"

No, wait! Wrong story.

And he screamed them out loud!

"Only I can defeat myself."

And with that battle cry, he lept into action. Lack O'Inspriration was quickly finished off. ML just needed a burst of creativity to get the upper hand. The Time Master was a much harder foe to fight. When the Infinite-Finity Device slowed the day down, ML kept himself busy and hardly noticed. And when time was sped up, he took a few deep breaths and took time to enjoy the ride. The machine's circuits became overloaded and blew up, leaving the Time Master without powers. After his defeat, Werk and Lyphe were easily overcome. As they slinked back to their mistress master, Ang Zi Odie knew she could not face ML alone. She swore she would be back.

ML knew she would and promised to be ready. As the sun began to rise across the battlefield, our hero triumphantly shouted, "I'm back, baby!"

Sadly, only 5 people heard and they didn't seem to care...

Alternate Ending for the DVD: a.k.a When Blogger crapped out...

ML knew she would and promised to be ready. As the sun began to rise across the battlefield, ML tried to access his home lair. He typed in his codename and password into his wrist computer.

The display lit up:

"SORRY, PUBLISHING IS TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE."

What was this? It would seem that the forces of evil were still running strong. ML was triumphant but it seemed no one would know about his victory. A new enemy had surfaced - Blogg Err.

To Be Continued...