Victory is mine!!!

Hello again!

At our Old Fashioned Fourth of July in my homestown, at the suggestion of a good friend of mine, I entered my bike in the Motorcyle Show sponsored by ABATE. (www.abate.com) Well, I was sceptical at first because I have alway thought this was a big Harley Show and my bike is definately not a Harley... (twice the bike, half the money) but it is a beautiful bike. Well, I cleaned her up and took her to the park and entered it into the Import Street category. There were 5 other bikes there of varying degrees of beauty. (I felt bad for the rat bike rider who had to enter our category... his category was dropped from the competition this year. www.ratbike.com) Anyway, there was this one bike, a Honda Shadow that was a custom job done completely by the owner. He did a fantastic job! I even voted for his bike in best of show. Anyway, he had a really great bike, but when the judging was done, the judges like Sacrifice better than his green flaming Shadow. I took first place in my category! Not bad for a whim! Anyway, here are two photos. The first one includes the other guy who took second. I don't know if you can see it, but he had a great bike.

Just thought I would brag a bit and let you know.

The trophy was more plastic than metal but still nice.

Proud as a peacock!

Greetings again from Central Illinois Land!

I have just recovered enough to put down this short missive about how proud I am of my kids. This last weekend we spent all day in the heat and the sun and the wind and the rain at a local Old English Fair and my kids were a joy to be around. My son was even willing to try on some new "Historically accurate" clothing that was nothing like he had worn before. He was even willing to wear wool, in the middle of 90 degree heat! And on top of that, he competed in the archery contest and made a good showing for himself. He even made his own bowstring and medieval arrow that is as good as anything I could make! And my daughter was also very pleasant to have around, especially when we had our dog at the fair and she kept a very close eye on him and helped me out, and I got to see her outgoing personality in action again. At these fairs, she tends to loosen up and go exploring and visiting with people she sees only occasionally and usually comes back with great experiences.

And then after the weekend, I went with my son to the Summer Camp at the Boy Scout Camp at Camp Drake. Camp Drake is a great place to be as a Boy Scout. While there, I discovered that my son posesses the same ability that myself and my father have, and that is a sharp eye and steady hand with a gun, especially a rifle. He scored 10 out of 10 on the target range, trying to put 3 bullets out of 5 into a target the size of a quarter at 25 yards. He did this every time and sometimes put 4 bullets into the same hole!! It was great to see!

Shooting sports are a big thing in my family, so much so, that our motto could be God, Guns, and Gears. (gears meaning vehicles) I suppose that I will be purchasing a new gun for him soon, but that is okay. You can never have too many guns. Everyone should have at least one.

And more about my daughter. Apparently she is excelling in her "Little Vibrations" show chorus and will be performing at the 4th of July at our local park! My wife says she is really good. I have not seen any of the practice sessions, but that is because I want to be totally surprised!

This is the reason you have kids. So you can live vicariously through them. It also makes you feel a bit more important in the world when your kids excel! I will try and post pictures to this posting later!

That's all the gushing for now! Later!

Making Movies

Well, It looks like my 15 minutes of fame will come this Saturday. I, plus addtional members of my family are going to be extras in a independent, low budget film called "Press Start." It is a spoof of video games and other games in general. I have read the script and believe me, if you were a gamer of the recent past, you will understand all the small pokes and jabs at games from video and RPGs and collectible card games. If you want more information check out WWW.PRESSSTARTMOVIE.COM.

I get to be the Chef, from the old video game called "Burger Time" and also as the Knight that gets his armor knocked off of him leaving him in only his boxer shorts from a game called "Ghosts and Goblins."

The last time I was involved in a movie, was one I wrote and directed back in my junior college days. It was actually alot of fun, but a lot of work. I am looking forward to it. I will let you know how it turns out!

Later!