slapdummy

Deathmarch to E3

It's been a long week.  I worked more than 70 hours this week and I don't think it's going to slow down until after E3 is done which is two weeks from now.  I'm setting up more than a dozen items for the show and I think we are understaffed for our booth, which always makes it interesting.  I should be grateful that I'm going to the conference, but it's going to be a lot of work and I'm not even going to be manning a section in my area of ownership due to the staffing issues.

The only good news is that even though I have to share a hotel room it will be with somebody cool. Although the hotel also seems pretty damn nice. I think it will be one of those hotels where I will be stunningly underdressed in comparison to most of their clientele. Then again, hopefully the room service will be edible.

Breathe West Lake Sammamish

I'm fairly into Six Feet Under and have been for a while.  It's an incredibly well-written storyline with multidimensional characters that I actually care about. I'm not a subscriber to HBO (I have enough TV in my life as it is), but I bought the first couple of seasons on DVD, before I curbed my spending habits. Now I have been using Netflix to grab the DVDs to watch and share with a couple of friends.  We just finished season 3 recently and wanted to wait until season 5 was available before getting back into it. We all agreed that watching season 4 just to hang around for the final episodes was just too annoying to consider. 

Well, the fifth season arrived last month and with it came a set of commercials for the release. It was a typically well-done ad for the series, but the music for the commercial was captivating.  The voice was fantastic enough but the lyrics and tone were beautiful.  The particular song is titled Breathe Me by a female artist named Sia on her album "Colour the Small One". She has worked with another of my favorite bands Zero 7, which has some of the same qualities as her work. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was to learn that she had performed in Seattle on April 7th without knowing about it.

Regardless, one of my favorite times of day right now is my morning drive North on West Lake Sammamish to work. About mid-way to work when the sun is out and my sunroof cover is off, I play Breathe Me and it's wonderful. The light of the sun fades in and out with the tree tops and the music fits perfectly with the drive.  I usually can get two plays of the song before the treeline breaks its synchronicity with the sun and it's back to the real world.

Tax Man Cometh

I used to have an accountant years ago when I filed as an independent contractor.  He retired and I eventually switched over to having H&R Block work on my taxes.  It usually works out fine since I often have stock sales, dividends and multiple W-2 forms. However, this is the last year for them.  My tax liability was $80.00, but for a total of 25 minutes of work I was charged $119.00 since they charge by the form.  I'm in the wrong business.

Decorated conscientious objector buried with honors

This is fairly amazing. I don't know how I never heard of Desmond T. Doss Sr. before today.  Non-violent acts of extreme heroism seem virtually impossible in combat, but here it is:

While under fire on the island of Okinawa, Doss carried 75 wounded soldiers to the edge of a 400-foot cliff and lowered them to safety, according to his citation.

During a later attack, he was seriously wounded in the legs by a grenade. According to the citation, as he was being carried to safety, he saw a more critically injured man and crawled off his stretcher, directing the medics to help the other man.

And he still lived to be 87. I say again, "Wow".

Link: CNN.com - Decorated conscientious objector buried with honors - Apr 4, 2006.