OMG!

OK so i finally decided (after a lot of internal conflict and soul searching) to take my fifteen year old daughter to the clinic for a check-up and to have her put "on birth control", talk about a scary prospect! I decided better safe than sorry! While she claims to still be a virgin she has gotten serious enough with this latest jerk that i decided i was way too young to be a grandfather. I also wanted her to hear the stats about V.D. and other various and assorted problems from a health professional (As i tend to think once i start speaking in the "father" tone she switches "off") while she was a captive audience (if you understand what i mean)...lol. While i realize the fact that she is on birth control now might sway her decision to experiment with sex sooner rather than later i finally told myself it was the right/sane thing to do. Is it odd far a Father to wish his daughter to be a lesbian? When seeking advice from my own father he simply stated that all you can do is hope that what you have taught them sticks when your not around, that you need to be there for them when they come to you to talk and to try and provide an atmosphere that encourages communication by being non-judgemental. Wow talk about a tall order.....I have told her on many many occasions that she can talk to me about anything and that yes i may get upset but that i would do my best to understand and help. I really wish being a parent came with an instruction manual, but knowing my luck it would be in Japanese...lol

Whoever said life gets easier with age...lied

Later...

Ghost Rider Freak! (Geek)

Well According to the synopsis of the film released by Sony, Ghost Rider works as a bounty hunter chasing down rouge demons for the devil. uggghhh! In the original story line Johnny Blaze was the son of stunt motorcyclist Barton Blaze, the top attraction at Crash Simpson's Daredevil Cycle Show. The Elder Blaze was killed performing a dangerous stunt, and Johnny, now an orphan (his mother Clara having died shortly after his birth), was adopted by Crash Simpson and his wife Mona. At first frightened of motorcycles, Blaze soon conquered his fear and became an accomplished amateur motorcyclist. Blaze practiced stunt riding on his own, and became romantically involved with his stepsister Roxanne Simpson. Blaze also began to take interest in the occult. Just when then the Simpson Cycle Show was about to get a chance at fame with a booking at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Crash Simpson learned that he was dying of a rare blood disease. Desperate to save his stepfather, Blaze performed a ritual to summon up the "devil," whom Blaze believed to be the Biblical Satan but was actually the demon lord Mephisto. Mephisto agreed to save Simpson from his fatal disease in return for Blaze's soul. At Madison Square Garden, Crash Simpson performed the greatest stunt of his career, a cycle jump over 22 cars widths, and crashed to his death. Blaze was shocked, since he believed the "devil" would protect his stepfather. When Mephisto appeared to collect Blaze's soul, the demon explained that only promised to save Simpson from the disease, and nothing more. However, before Mephisto could take Blaze's soul, Roxanne Simpson arrived and recited a spell of banishment she read in one of Blaze's occult books. Mephisto was forced to leave without Blaze's soul, but was able to graft the essence of the demon Zarathos to Blaze's body. Zarathos was a demon who attacked human souls. In order to capture Zarathos, many centuries ago Mephisto stole the soul of an American Indian now known as Centurious. When Zarathos' attacked on Centurious therefore proved ineffective, the demon's followers lost faith in him. Mephisto then stole the living flames that was Zarathos' soul. Over the centuries Mephisto amused himself by placing the essence of Zarathos within various human hosts. Johnny Blaze was the latest of these. Blaze was unaware of the separate consciousness of the being that dwell ed within him, and believed that the demonic personality was a sinister side of his own personality. At first the demon manifested itself every nightfall, mystically burning Blaze's flesh to become a fiery skeletal being. Using his demonic hellfire to create a fiery motorcycle to ride, the composite Zarathos-Blaze entity became publicly known as the Ghost Rider. Whenever the Ghost Rider returned to human form, Blaze's flesh would immediately restore. At first Johnny Blaze dominated the Ghost Rider's personality. After a few months, Blaze's automatic transformations at nightfall ended. He then became the Ghost Rider whenever he mystically sensed "evil" in his vicinity. Later, Blaze was able to control his transformations as well as the actions of the demon when it manifested itself. It was during this period that the Ghost Rider became a member of the Champions of Los Angeles, a short-lived group of superhuman adventurers. But the more Blaze became the Ghost Rider, the stronger the demon became. Eventually Zarathos tried to take control of their composite form. Blaze no longer summoned the demon within him to help him accomplish his ends, such as fighting crime. Instead, Blaze valiantly struggled to prevent Zarathos from taking control and wreaking havoc. Centurious still lived and sought vengeance on Zarathos for being the reason why he lost his soul (as well as revenge his girlfriend who had been sacraficed to Zarathos). Centurious entrapped Blaze's soul within his "crystal of souls" and then defeated Zarathos. Zarathos cracked open the crystal, releasing Blaze's soul and many others, and entrapping Centurious within the crystal when it mystically resealed. An associate of Centurious offered to send Zarathos into the crystal to take vengeance, and the demon agreed. Zarathos' essence was sucked out of Blaze's body into the crystal, where Zarathos grapples eternally with Centurious, neither able to defeat the other. Johnny Blaze thus been permanently freed his bond to Zarathos. Blaze and Roxanne Simpson traveled through America together by motorcycle. then they (Marvel Comics) did away with the character after 81 issues, much to my and many other peoples protest....(Including the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club) years later they brought him back in another incarnation during the rise of the Midnight Sons storyline. The Ghost Rider roared to life once again when a teenager Dan Ketch and his sister, Barbara, chanced upon the illegal activities of the crime lord Deathwatch. The siblings attempted to escape, but Barbara Ketch was mortally wounded. Soaked in blood after dragging his sister's body into a trash heap, Dan Ketch came across a mysterious, mystical motorcycle. Touching its glowing gas cap (actually a mystic amulet), he stood transformed into the Spirit of Vengeance. Ghost Rider's return attracted the attention of Blaze, who believed him to be Zarathos. Blaze set out to exorcise the demon, thereby liberating its hapless host. But when Ghost Rider convinced his predecessor he was not Zarathos, the two became allies. Later, Blaze and Ketch learned they were long-lost brothers (the whole family was cursed by the way) Eventually losing his wife and children, Blaze again finds himself possessed by the demon Zarathos (Long story). And so Ghost Rider -- blood-born Spirit of Vengeance, High Lord of Hell on Earth -- haunts America's highways, visiting his righteous wrath upon the souls of the wicked and the damned. (geek I tell you). OK so now all of you know way more than you ever wanted to know about a childhood hero of mine, i just hope the movie does the character some justice. I'm not encouraged by the previews so far. However i had to eat my words when Tim Burtons' Batman came out as well as Neil Jordans' Inteview with the Vampire.

also..other tidbits the Ghost Rider, Blaze possessed superhuman strength, enabling him to lift (press) about 5 tons, and immunity to must forms of conventional injury. He could create mystic "hellfire" that could harm or traumatize a human soul, and with which he created a fiery motorcycle he rode. Blaze possessed none of these powers in human form. Johnny Blaze is one of the greatest living stunt motorcyclists (hence the flaming motorcycle). He has some knowledge of the occult, but has forsworn using it.

OK so I bit the bullet and went to see the film today with my eight year old son in tow...I explained the story to him before we went and told him i had read all the reviews and i wasn't expecting much. Well I have to eat my words......the movie is a bit campy in parts and was obviously written for a young to teenage male audience, but it was fucking great. While Nicholas cage does not exactly fit the comic book visual for Johnny Blaze and even though his approach was a bit odd (puts me in mind of Peggy sue got married) he was awesome. The special affects were top notch...and even though the really screwed up the mythology of the character by blending old and new story lines...the movie actually did justice to the character. And I have to tell you i literally transformed into an eight year old myself siting there in that dark theater watching one of my childhood heroes come to life and roar off the comic book page on to that big screen. Girls probably won't like it but if you even slightly enjoy comics go see this film.

after we left the film all jazzed up we went over to the toy store and bought a few Ghost Rider Toys...and then we popped into the local Comic book store to discover there is a new Ghost Rider series out. We bought all eight issues to catch us up to current and flew home to play and read. It is nice to share something near and dear to me from my childhood with my child.... Maybe someday he will remember and share with his child. (I can only hope)

Later...I have a toy motorcyle to play with...lol

Teenage Girls are all Insane!

So i get up this morning after having only 3 1/2 to 4 hours of sleep and realize my daughter has had a slumber party....There are five teenage girls here...yes i said five. I should have figured it out when i pulled into the driveway at 3:00 a.m. and found my 100 foot extension cord plugged into the outside wall and a boom box at the other end of it in 30 degree weather....lol but it is an improvement over the bleak outlook she has had over the past few weeks. I guess since i don't have a vagina i don't get it...I really cannot understand why girls spend so much time grieving over these lazy stupid useless piece of shit boys, who aren't worth one ounce of their tears.

Back to my original thought...Teenage girls are all Insane.

Later...

Strange Trip?

Ever have one of those weeks where you should have just stayed in the bed? Man I have, I won't go into the details; but i would much rather have skipped the majority of last week entirely. Me and the kiddos went on a very long road trip today. We were in the truck for almost the entire day. We drove halfway across the state of Texas to pick up snakes that ended up being very sick. It amazes me that people will spend upwards of $400.00 dollars on a reptile and then not do what it takes to keep them healthy, the thing that kills me is that i have spoken with the guys several times over the past two weeks as well as by e-mail and never mentioned that the animals in question were covered in parasites and had several layers of stuck shed on their bodies. Naturally I'm a dumb ass and brought them home anyway...Hopefully the vet bill won't kill me....

My daughter was actually a very suitable companion today considering her recent mood. It amazes me that she is so into "my music" at least in that arena we don't have much of a problem...we just enjoyed the ride and listened to tunes most of the day. We stopped a few times to pick up junk food etc. and even though it made for a very long day I had fun, which is more than i can say for myself in a long time.

We spent the rest of the evening picking mites off of reptiles and chowing down on burgers...all in all a good day.

Later...

The Past Week

The past week to say the least has been busy and somewhat surreal. My daughter is still nursing her wounds from her break-up with jerk-boy. I wish there was some way to regulate teenagers hormones...lol I wish there was someway to take away her hurt but it is basically a "no win" situation if i try to console her i'm bugging her and making it worse...if i leave her alone the i don't care about her...so i have to find a happy medium for both of us. We are also in the process of letting go of some of the animals in our collection to give us more time for other endeavors. While i hate to see them go, it will allow me to spend more time with my children and my wife, which in the grand scheme of things is much more important. I loaned some of our adult female Ball Pythons to a friend so that he can pair them up with one of his co-dom males. I also managed to pick up a few new babies in the process. The first one is a "Nabire type" Green Tree Python which was just too good a deal for me to pass up even though i wasn't looking to pick up another one until i could determine the sex of the mainland "Wamena type" that i picked up a few months ago. The second one is a "Jungle Type" carpet python which i picked up to go with the intergrade coastal x jungle that i already own. Tyler and I had a fairly good weekend, we spent several hours in the truck on a road trip talking and listening to music, and yesterday we tossed the football around for about an hour. He gave me a lot of crap at bed time on Sunday..he has been doing that a lot lately he attitude seems to be getting worse when he gets disappointed. I need to find a way to channel these little outbursts. As a result i made him go to bed earlier tonight that seemed to get the message across. Work sucks lately...the few people that i seemed to have any kind of simpatico with have found better jobs or quit, leaving me behind. I would dearly love to quit but i can't find a job that pays what i make in my area. The animals of the four legged variety seem to be acting strange around here as of late, they have been much more affectionate and right up our asses. oh well life could be worse.

Later...