UberPhipps

It hasn’t been a good month for me in terms of parking….

I have to admit…I am extremely addicted to Hulu.  I like not being tethered to my TV to watch the TV shows that I never get to see because I am always out or traveling for business.  It’s nice that everything is in one location, as oppose to searching for it relentlessly on youtube or alluc.

Interesting article about Hulu that I read a while back.

The presidential debates tonight got me surfing….surfing about renewable energy resources.  In the process I stumbled upon this company called 3TIER.  They are a company that is trying to understand and predict weather and climate changes and its impacts on renewable energy generation. Very cool stuff.

I think before any large scale efforts are done in terms of renewable energy resources or alternate energy here in the US we need to actually get some plans together to determine what can really help mitigate both our dependency on foreign oil and the destruction to the environment.  Things like where wind and solar farms should be placed need to be determined in a scientific manner.  Also the effects of creating these large scale farms need to be looked at.  I can almost guarantee a large wind farm will effect climate changes in neighboring states.  Anyway…the maps 3TIER has created appear to be very useful.  But I still think more detailed analysis should be done to find relations with the data that this presents with other climatology and energy research to make better decisions for the future in terms of energy management.

Went on another date tonight.  Sort of last minute.  As in she called me at 6 and asked me if I was free (I was playing videogames at the time…so I left immediately).  We didn’t really click.  Either I am too weird or she was too weird.  I can’t quite tell (I am hoping it is her).  It is interesting how certain people draw out different personalities in one another.  Tonight I was high strung.  I am normally high strung..but in a relaxed manner.  Tonight was just no good.

I have been going on a few different dates lately.  Some have been great…most have been bad.  Not bad in the “she had one arm and looked like Ronald Regan” bad.  More that I just didn’t like their personality and every word that came out of their mouth was poison to my ears and made me want to goudge my eyes out.  But that’s not too bad.

Of the few dates I have been on, only one girl had enough “promise” for me to make time to see her again.  Hopefully I can see her a few more times to form a good solid opinion of her.  She seems nice enough…..but then again..they all do at first.

I went down and visited my Dad this weekend.

It was nice out.  We went to the beach.

See the rest of the pics here.

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Every time I see my grandmother she always asks me about my “love life”.  She tends to ask me when the whole family is around as well expecting an answer right then and there.  Somehow this always seems to turn into a giant joke.  This weekend was no different.  She asked and I of course told her the truth.  I didn’t have one (love life that is) at the moment but I had been going on dates at least.

She then questioned why it was taking me so long to find a “good girl” as she put it.   She thought it had something to do with what I wore when I went out.

“Michael…you don’t wear that when you go out do you?  You look awful right now, so drab.” - (I was wearing a hoodie and I hadn’t shaved.)

“No.  I actually do look nice when I go out.  I know that is hard to believe but I am not new to the dating scene.”

“Have you thought of wearing bright colors.  Girls like bright colors.  You need to wear a RED shirt. Red would really win them over.”

“Red….I don’t really do red to well.  I am very pale.  It makes me look sickly.  I stick with earth tones reall….”

“Actually my mother always said if you can’t figure out what to wear go with the eyes.  You should try wearing blue as well”

“I do wear blue from time to time. I actually think I have more blue than any one color, but like i said I generally try to stick with Earth Tones…you know like greens, browns, and…”

“No no…you really need to get red shirt.  You know it should be a collared shirt, right?  You realize I mean a red collared shirt.  Not a t-shirt.  I am sure of it.  A nice red flannel shirt would do it for girls.”

“Flannel…like a lumberjack.  I don’t do the lumberjack look it makes me…”

“Should I ask if they are asian…these dates?”

“Um…..two of them were white….they weren’t all asian”

“I knew I shouldn’t of asked.  What is it with you and asian girls?”

“I don’t know..something evidently”

This went on for a good 20 minutes….god help me.

So I was on the phone with one of my friends tonight.  She was talking to me about breaking up with this boy she has been “sort of seeing” for 3 months.  Because she has been only “sort of seeing him” she was thinking of doing it over the phone, but she wanted my opinion.  I of course told her to do it over the internet and to in fact do it as I was talking to her.

I was obviously kidding….  I personally think no matter how serious the relationship is that Face to Face breakups are the only way to go…but maybe that’s just me.

It’s interesting how people avoid confrontation……it seems to be more prevalent in this area.

if I didn’t say it was nice to hear from her.  That sure did cheer me up.

Here is something she wrote a long time ago……maybe to me..maybe not…..still nice to read regardless

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learn patience.
stop and think for a moment about someone other than yourself.
ask yourself if there is anything you can do for someone else.

and mean it.

before you speak about your own life ask someone about theirs.

ask questions.
ask many questions because you really want to know.

tell the people you care about that you love them.
always tell them!
and be grateful that they are even in your life.

list all the selfish and shitty things you have done and do not do them again.
learn from your mistakes with people.

learn kindness.
always put others first.
always listen to your friends (not in them giving direction, i mean shut your mouth)

don’t be careless with your friend’s feelings.
lend them a hand or a shoulder because they need it.
don’t wait to call them.
don’t put them off.

become a caretaker and not a taker.

i am always thinking these things.
and i’ve thought about all of these things the past few days especially.
over and over and over and over.

i hope you will too.
i hope i can force these thoughts on you.
it’s not too late to change who you are.

——-

-phipps out

…….

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Anyway, I saw my dad again this weekend.  Went down on Saturday for just the day.  Took more pictures at the beach.  It was a good time as usual.

I love this picture.

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have you seen the new ipod commercial.  I like the song they have on it.  I believe the song is called “bruises” by Chairlift.  I could see it being a good song when someone gets depressed.  hah.

I tried to do handstands for you
I tried to do headstands for you
Everytime I fell you on yeah everytime I fell
I tried to do handstands for you
But everytime I fell for you
I’m permanently black and blue

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I get to see more surgery tomorrow in Philly.  Should be a good time.

-phipps out

So I have been going down to south jersey just about every weekend since my dad has come back.  It has been really nice.  Last weekend I went down when the tropical storm was hitting down there.  It was actually quite lovely on that saturday.  The wind was ridiculous and the rain was horrid which always makes for lovely pictures.  During one of the calm periods when it wasn’t pouring o I was able to take a few pictures of it.  My dad made a turkey that day for dinner.  Seeing as turkey is something like 90 dollars to buy in the grocery store in New Zealand he was itching to have one.  I of course made a fantastic pumpkin pie for dessert.  I think my pie recipe is second to none.  On that sunday, I had breakfast with an old friend from high school  at Uncle BIlls pancake house and then headed over to the beach with my dad.  The waves were rocking that day for jersey.

This weekend I went down again.  I wasn’t able to make it down until saturday night, so my dad and I made plans to hit up Brandywine National Park in Delaware the next day.  We figured we would see a little history and do some hiking.

Brandywine National park is where the Battle of Brandywine took place during the American Revolutionary War.  Basically the American’s got there butts kicked here which left the area under british occupation for a little over a year.  One of the main things to see in the area is of course George Washington’s headquarters during the battle and Marquis de Lafayette’s quarters.

So….my dad and I went up there today to check it out.  Of course we decide to go on what may have been the hottest September day I can remember.  It felt like 100 degrees out there.  Anyway, we get up there and we end up doing a tour of what we thought was Lafayette’s quarters only to find out that we were misinformed.  We both had initially thought this was the Headquarters of Marquis de Lafayette (a french volenteer at the time)….but the tour guide politely told us that this was a myth and that no proof existed backing this up..

so in the end..the tour we did was just of a house owned by Quakers during 1777.  Yeah…sort of a jip.  Luckily we didn’t pay for the tour (we sort of just snuck our way into it, trying to blend in as best as possible with a group of extremely old retired people….um….I fit right in.

So after being in the extremely hot “Quaker oats” house we hiked over to Washington’s Headquarters to check that out.  When we got there..we noticed how no one was there.  Not a good sign when you actually want to go in.

So we just peaked around the outside like a bunch of thieves for a bit.

And left our mark and got out of there.

Overall it was a good day.

Feel free to browse the rest of the photos taken on the day in my Brandywine Battlefield 2008 Flickr set.

-phipps out

So I had strep throat all last week.  Horrible.  I had a fever on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and then again on Thursday (for some reason Wednesday I was good).  Needless to say I was not doing much last week, which sort of sucks because we were starting another push at work this past week and we needed to get cracking.

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This weekend I ended up going down to see my dad despite not feeling 100%.  He is moved into a nice new apartment in South Jersey.  Despite it not having much furniture it looks really nice.  Hopefully everything works out for him….I worry.

I also went to a one year memorial service for my friend Steve’s brother (Justin Millett) who passed away last year.  It was nice to see all my old friends go down to SJ to support Steve and his family.

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I was thinking…(yes I know crazy)..that the songs that they play in the backgrounds in trailers can sometimes make or break a movie.  That may sound stupid, but I know I personally saw Pineapple Express not because it was another Seth Rogen movie….but because they had fly tunes in the background playing during the trailer.  The song Paper Planes by M.I.A is a great chill out song.  I saw her perform twice last year (sirens festival and at studio B in Brooklyn) and both times she rocked out.  Anyway, that song alone made me want to go see the movie (which by the way….is fantastic.  A little gory at times, but fantastic none the less).

Go see the movie if you have not already seen it.

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So I started reading the book “When you are engulfed in flames” by David Sedaris.  I had read “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” and liked it quite a bit.  I felt like I was able to relate to some of the stories in “dress your family”… hopefully that will be the same in this book.  Speaking of books…I am currently having trouble with the childrens book I have been trying to write.  I think I have rewritten it one too many times now.  Each time I finish it thinking it is good until the next day when I read it again only to trash it and start over.  grr.

-phipps out