More than meets the eye!

Wow! We went to see Transformers yesterday and it was my favorite movie of the summer so far. We saw Spiderman 3, Pirates 3 and Fantastic Four 2, but this one blew me away. Talk about action packed. I could have done without the cursing and bathroom humor, but I found it a much more exciting movie than the other three we have seen this summer. Next up on our summer to see list will be the Simpsons movie.

25 years since the greatest music festivals of the 80s!

I was a sophmore in high school and my brother took me to my very first concert. The 1982 US Festival was put on by Steve Wozniak of Apple Computers. I attended on Saturday and was fortunate to see Dave Edmunds, Eddie Money, Santana, The Cars, The Kinks, Pat Benatar, & Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. It was really hot out, but I got to see some really classic rock. The next year we attended again and were there for the now famous “Heavy Metal Day” and saw a great line-up of metal bands : Quiet Riot, Motely Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Trimph, Scorpions, and Van Halen. I checked out and headed to the car for Van Halen and listened from there as David Lee Roth was so drunk he forgot the words to songs.

Relive the US Festivals

Who kicked my bed?

I am dozing off to sleep and suddenly the bed shakes and I pop up alert. An earthquake shook me awake. I got up to check on my son and he asks, “what was that?” I fire up the computer to check the USGS site and here comes another. Two 3.9 quakes only 5 minutes apart. It has been a couple of years since we have had any that strong here.

USGS California Recent Earthquakes (Devore)

Pacific Euro Hotel (Formerly the Maas Hotel)

Almost 23 years ago, I loaded up a blue duffle bag just two weeks after graduating high school, hopped on a Greyhound bus and headed to the big city in San Jose. My best friend said he had an apartment and a job lined up for me. I arrived to find he was staying in the Maas Hotel. A one bed hotel room smaller than a walk-in with a TV and a mini-fridge awaited me. My job at Bentz Tool lasted only 2 weeks as Elroy sent me packing. I lasted another 5 months in San Jose before moving back to Barstow and eventually joining the Army. I found some reviews of the Maas Hotel(now the Pacific Euro) on trip advisor. Check them out and see that nothing much has changed in almost 25 years. It sounds the same as I remember it.

Back in the Saddle again…

I was asked to speak at Career Day today for Silver Valley High School in Yermo. It was great to be back up in front of students talking about the internet and being a webmaster. It’s been almost a year since I left teaching and I forgot how much I enjoyed it. Too bad it doesn’t pay more and schools aren’t interested in Computer teachers. NCLB has forced schools to focus on getting test scores up and teaching core subjects math, science, english and history over vocational subjects. It was great to be talking to students again if only for a day.

Sad news from Virginia!

It was very disheartening to hear of yet another shooting of this type. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were leaving Bible school along with one of our friends to return home after our pastor had been shot in the Killeen Luby’s shooting. Our prayers and support go out to all those touched by this tragedy. When things don’t make sense, you just trust and know that He is our comfort and strength in times of sorrow.