Daily Update

Daily Update

Weight: 350

Currently Reading (fiction): Sons and Lovers, DH Lawrence.

Currently Reading (non-fiction): Traveling Music, Neil Peart.

Currently Listening To: The Speed of Love, Rush.

Rush Lyric of the Day: We’re on the train to Bangkok. Aboard the Thailand Express.

Food Update: Had a really healthy dinner last night, two homemade fruit smoothies with no sugar added, and a bowl of brown rice. Then I ruined it all by going out at 9:30 and getting two double cheeseburgers and a medium fry from McDonald’s.

Writing Update: I’ve been working on three short stories recently, one of which I plan on serializing on my blog. I also have written a number of poems recently, including about five last night, and I will begin posting them soon on my blog.

Baseball Update: I’m going to see the Reds/White Sox game on Friday. It’s interleague play, and of course the White Sox are the reigning world champs. I decided just to splurge a bit and treat myself, so I bought a 60 dollar ticket. 9th row, right behind the Reds dugout, by first base. I can’t wait. I’m going by myself, but that’s no big deal. I’ll probably take my camera.

Today in History, June 13:

1625 – Charles I marries Henrietta Maria de Bourbon.

1774 – Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to ban the importation of slaves.

1777 – General Lafayette arrives in Charleston, South Carolina to help train American soldiers.

1920 – The United States Postal Service decrees that children may not be sent via parcel post. (It took them that long to decide that??)

1934 – Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet for the first time. Mussolini later calls Hitler a “silly little monkey.” But he wasn’t joking a few years later when he was hanging upside down with a bullet in his skull!

1944 – Germany deploys its new V1 guided missile against London, the first time a guided missile is used in combat.

1966 – The Supreme Court rules on the Miranda v. Arizona case, ruling that police officers must read a person his or her rights before arresting them.

1892 – Birth of Basil Rathbone, who would later have a retirement home in Evansville named after him.


Daily Update, Special Anniversary Edition

Weight: 225

Currently Reading (fiction): Sons and Lovers, DH Lawrence. This is my third foray into the works of DH Lawrence (previously I’ve read a collection of 4 novellas of his, as well as Lady Chatterly’s Lover). I love the authentic, gritty look at England in the early 20th century that Lawrence captures in his writings.

Currently Reading (non-fiction): Traveling Music, Neil Peart.

Currently Listening To: Nothing at the moment.

Rush Lyric of the Day: Invisible to telescopic eye. Infinity, the star that would not die.

Weekend Update: Saw the Reds play the Cubs Saturday on a drizzly, freezing-ass cold rainy night in Cincinnati. Our seats were literally at the very top row and I had a jacket on and was still cold (54 degrees game time temp). We could look through the grating behind us and see the city. The view across to Kentucky was nice too. And we could even almost see the field! Actually, the view is not that bad, even from way up there. The Cubs won, scoring all 4 of their runs on a grand slam by Dad’s newest favorite baseball player, Michael Barrett.

Food Update: No time for breakfast this morning. Ate beef for the first time in 10 or 15 days on Saturday when we had burgers at Byrdwell’s house. Beans and rice for dinner last night.

Today in History, June 12:

1924 – Birth of George H.W. Bush.

1930 – Birth of Jim Nabors (back home agaaaaain, in Indiaaaaaaana....)

1935 – Huey Long delivers the longest Senate speech on record, at 15.5 hours.

1939 – The baseball hall of fame is dedicated at Cooperstown, New York.

1942 – Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.

1964 – Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison.

1967 – All bans on interracial marriages are deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

1970 – Byron Christmas loses his virginity. Sonja Christmas....doesn't.

1978 – David Berkowitz is sentenced to 365 years in prison for the Son of Sam killings.

1987 – Ronald McReagan utters his famous challenge to Gorbechev – “Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall!”

1994 – An Unknown Assailant* murders Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

1997 – Interleague play begins for the first time in baseball history.

*OJ Simpson

Daily Update, June 9, 2006

Weight: 220

Currently Reading (fiction): Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence

Currently Reading (non-fiction): Traveling Music, Neil Peart

Currently Listening To: Sing It Pretty Sue, Johnny Cash

Rush Lyric of the Day: Everybody got to deviate from the norm.

Food Update: No red meat since late Monday night. I’ve had turkey for lunch the last two days. Had some chips and a fruit smoothie for dinner last night. Strangely, I’m not that hungry today, despite not really having a valid dinner, and I also skipped breakfast because I didn’t have time this morning.

Weekend Update: Going to Louisville tomorrow to hang out with a friend. Originally it was to be me, Jeff, Reid, and Byrdwell, but both Jeff and Reid have had to back out for various reasons, so now it’s just me and Byrdwell. We are hanging out at Byrdwell’s house in Louisville, then heading up to Cincinnati for the Reds/Cubs game. Maddux is pitching tonight, so I’ll miss seeing him by 1 day. I’ll have to settle for Zambrano v. Claussen. Reds are in 1st place after their win last night....8th win in a row.

Today in History, June 9:

62 – Claudia Octavia, wife of Nero, is executed at Nero’s orders.

68 – Nero commits suicide to avoid the death penalty, which had been imposed upon him by the Senate after deposing him.

597 – Death of St. Columba, patron saint of Ireland. (This is another one of those weird coincidences I have occasionally while doing these Daily Updates. Earlier today, I was looking up the lyrics to the Cranberries’ song “Yeats’ Grave.” I failed to include the word “lyrics” on my search, so I ended up with a website detailing various grave locations in Ireland. Part of the information I read on the page was about a monument to St. Columba, who I had never heard of. Then, later, I’m doing my Daily Update, and I find out today is the anniversary of St. Columba’s death.)

1865 – Charles Dickens is traveling with his mistress on a train, and while crossing a bridge, the train derails and the first six cars go over, crashing into the river below. The only first class car that stayed on the track is the one Dickens was in.

1870 – Death of Charles Dickens by a stroke.

1935 – Bob Smith has his last drink of alcohol before founding Alcoholics Anonymous.

1954 – Joseph Welch famously derides Joseph McCarthy in the Senate by saying, “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”

1973 – Secretariat wins the Triple Crown, taking the Belmont by a record 31 lengths.


Daily Update, June 7, 2006

Weight: 220 (according to the doctor yesterday)

Currently Reading (fiction): Valhalla Rising, Clive Cussler. His last four or five books are getting steadily more outrageous, more formulaic, and more totally overdramatic. They have all basically had the same plot....twisted, evil, murderous corporate bigwig worth countless billions of dollars, bribing half of Washington into his back pocket, and working on a nefarious economic scheme to take over the world, and ultimately foiled by those pesky but loveable marine engineers from NUMA, Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino, both of whom escape certain death at least a dozen times per book.

Currently Reading (non-fiction): Traveling Music, Neil Peart. A must read for anyone who lived through the 50's and 60's music scene.

Currently Listening To: Floridays, Jimmy Buffett

Rush Lyric of the Day: I was only a kid, on a holy crusade, I placed no trust in a faith that was ready-made.

Food Update: Oatmeal with blueberries and flaxseed meal for breakfast, green tea, decaf earl grey, two turkey sandwiches for lunch (sans cheese since I was sick yesterday and the doc told me to lay off dairy for a few days), and some Triscuits.

6/6/06 Update: 666 was not good to me, as I was up half the night with "stomach issues" (if ya know what I mean), and had to miss work. On a positive note, Roger Clemens brought Lexington a lot of publicity by pitching 3 innings for the Lexington Legends as he prepares to pitch for the Astros again starting in late June. My friend Jeff was supposed to be at the game, but his wife ended up going into labor 3 weeks earlier, and they had their baby yesterday (meaning it was born on 6/6/06).

Today in History, June 7:

1099: The Siege of Jerusalem begins during the First Crusade.

1329: Death of Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland.

1494: Spain and Portugal sign a treaty effectively splitting the New World between them.

1654: Louis XIV is crowned King of France. He names his palace after a picturesque town in central Kentucky called Versailles (pronounced "Vur-sales").

1896: Birth of Douglas Campbell, the first American flying for an American unit to become and Ace in World War I.

1917: During World War I, allied troops detonate a series of trench mines underneath German trenches, killing 10,000 German soldiers.

1942: The Japanese invade and occupy Attu Island in Alaska's Aluetian island chain. They stayed for only a few days, with the commander stating, "Well I'll be goddamned! You mean to tell me we're on some remote, ice-covered island in Alaska? We thought this was Seattle!"

1982: Graceland is opened to the public. Elvis is forced to move to Las Vegas.

1998: In Texas, James Byrd, a black man, is dragged to death behind a pick-up truck by a group of white men. Governor George Bush calls Byrd's death a "warning to negro insurgents."