My tattoo is...Star Wars?

So, ever since I got my first tattoo in 2003, there were three main tattoo's I wanted to get. The first was the one I got then, which is a Gaelic knot for completeness. The second one I got today. It is a Star Wars tattoo but little known one that most "non-nerds" wouldn't get. Which is the way I wanted it. The original image is termed a Mandalorian Death Head, coined by Jeremy Bullock who is the person who played Boba Fett in the Original Trilogy. On the picture below you can it on Boba Fett's sleeve (from the trailer for The Force Unleashed 2).





I then took a copy of that image from StarWars.com and traced it so it was a pure image.




After that I wanted it to be unique so I thought flames coming out of the eyes would be cool.

I then took this to the tattoo place (Doc Holliday's in SLC). When I gave it to him I told him that I wanted this but with cool looking flames and he said "Oh, I can play around with this?." "Um, sure" I responded. I figured he knows best. So I get there on tattoo day and he has a few skulls drawn up and I decided on the one that looks mostly like the originally just more skull like and larger flames. We just weren't sure of the colors and he asked if he could play a little. So I let him do his thing and I think it turned out awesome. He actually also gave me a discount because I got interrupted a few times as well. I recommend anyone to go here if the are in the SLC area.

The 306 Greatest Books #92 - Matilda

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Matilda by Roald Dahl. This book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists.

I rather enjoyed Matilda a lot (my daughter and and I both did). I found this to the best of the Dahl books that were on my list. The story was nice and linear, as opposed to several of his other books which seemed to be more disjointed. The characters were also some of his best and actually made you care about what happened to some of them, which is one sign of a good book. I loved how the story tied up very neatly at the end and how aspects of people's personalities came back in a rather surprising (at least to me) way. The story is about an extremely intelligent 4-5 year-old girl named Matilda. However, she happens to live in a house where her parents don't think anything is possible out of the girl and her school's headmistress hates children. So life kind of sucks for her. But she does have a teacher who goes to bat for her and in return Matilda not only helps the teacher out of a bad situation but helps herself as well. The morals of the story are great and at many points in the book I actually got rather upset at several of the characters. Another great thing about this book, and most of Dahl's works, are the use of larger words. Words you wouldn't typically find in children's books. He uses them in such a way that they fit into the context of the story and the person is able to understand the meaning of the words, just by the context. Matilda is another Dahl book I will add onto my personal Greatest Books list, and actually I think it should be ranked higher than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Does this mean I'm a real dad now?

So my wife told me my adventures yesterday constituted a real dad story so I figured I would convey them here.

Well Annabelle had gotten her two month shots and was a bit cranky and she wasn't sleeping all that well. But Veronica was at work and we needed to hit the store. So I fed her, waited for her to fall asleep, then off we went. Well if you remember a previous post my AC was not working. I had since gotten it to work on the 1 or 2 fan speed. So we headed out and had the AC on fan speed 2 as we were driving into the city. Well about half way (15 minutes in) the AC died again. Also the sun was in her face no matter what direction the road turned, which caused me to roll down the windows to get a breeze. But it was 98 degrees out so not much good that did. And I was afraid of her over heating so I would constantly look and feel back at her but since the sun was in her face I had to put up the sun shade which meant I couldn't see her either when I turned around or when I looked in her mirror. This meant I was driving down the highway constantly moving her sunshade to look and make sure she was alright and not overheating. I would occasionally move her hand to make sure I got a reaction out of her as well.

We finally arrived at Target, our destination. Which I didn't want to leave. And being so frazzled when we entered, I packed her into her stroller instead of a shopping car. So I'm the only one pushing a stroller around the store, piling things up on the front of the stroller. I also didn't want to get back in the car and drive back since it was so hot. But I figured the best way to help her. I would buy a container of Ben and Jerry's, wrap it in a blanket, and rest it on her. Well, after we left the store, this is what I did. Luckily it had cooled down to a chilly 96 degrees and the sun was no longer in her face at every turn.

She slept all through this, even me constantly checking to make sure she was still ok and not having heat stroke. Until just when we get home she wakes up and starts crying for some food, either that or pissed because her leg was cold due to the ice cream.

2010 Personal Goals - July Update

6 months in, 1/2 way done with the year.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing
April 1st - Nothing
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0
April 1st - 176.6
May 1st - 176.6
June 1st - 169.2 - Apparently walking around with Gummy Bear non-stop is a good weight loss plan.
July 1st - 170.0

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.
April 1st - Working out those extra expenses a little bit at a time
May 1st - Still working it out
June 1st - Getting closer
July 1st - Bah

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go
April 1st - Still working on the one
May 1st - One
June 1st - One
July 1st - One to go but I made a large payment on it last month

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Canterbury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Canterbury Tales, time to get back
April 1st - Finished Canterbury Tales. 13 left to go. Reading Madame Bovary now
May 1st - Finished Madame Bovary. 12 left to go. Reading The Maltese Falcon now
June 1st - Finished The Maltese Falcon and The Twits. 10 left to go. Reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now
July 1st - Finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 9 left to go. Not sure what to read next, I have a couple of choices lined up.

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st -Nothing
July 1st - Started working on Earthquake!

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing

Other items of interest:
Made our first family trip up to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons last month. That was rather stressfull but also a lot of fun. Don't recommend making long car rides with an 8 week old though. Working 2 jobs is rather stressfull as well but I am getting it done. Haven't been working at URS as much as I, or I bet they, like but hopefully I can get more done this month from home. And still chugging away at Earthquakes and Volcanoes. Down to the second half now. With Veronica back at work and me home more, maybe I will have more time to get my little projects done.

Chrysler's Car Repair Sucks

So I hate Chrysler officially. I have had so many problems with them that it is not even worth the effort to mention all of them but basically it comes down to this:

I had to have my car towed in to the dealership because I had something faulty in the engine. They "repaired" it. They didn't. Had to have it towed in again. Actually repaired it this time. Had to have it towed in one more time because some jackass forgot to tighten the damn part he put in so it kept short circuiting the engine. That was about 4 years ago.

Kept having problems with the alignment so brought it in to a dealership near us in Tooele. Well when I got the car back it was worse than it was when I brought it in the first time and the people there made it seem like my fault. I eventually got it fixed at a Les Schwab tire place (awesome by the way). Have since refused to bring it back to the Tooele dealership because they suck.

Well my car was leaking something nasty so I brought it into the dealership in Salt Lake City. They "fixed" it for $1700. Never stopped leaking. Brought it in again. They said it was residue built up that was leaking down so they cleaned it up and said it was good to go. Never stopped leaking. Brought it back they said this time it was something NEW. So payed $300 more. And it STILL HAVE NEVER STOPPED LEAKING. So I gave up with them, went with store bought leak stuff. Might have worked, not sure.

But then my Speedometer stops working, right when I am about to go out of town. So I find a mechanic in Tooele since Chrysler only hires incompetent mechanics. They take 3 days to realize they can't fix it because only a dealer can reprogram the computer or something like that. Crap, have to bring it back there.

Well I bring it back in telling them I need it by Friday morning because I have to go out of town. I also mentioned the leak, not to mention the AC failed and the gas gage was acting wonky. Well, after I called they aren't even going to look at it until Friday. Son of a BITCH. If I didn't have to bring it to them they would be lucky if they ever get my service again.