Expatriate

I love South Carolina.

Way better than I expected. The people down here are so incredibly friendly....this is the way people should treat each other.

Two days left then back to the misery.....

Neighbours called here on Monday to tell us we have water in our basement...lol...

Really...

It is hard being me....

I may never come back.....might head down to the docks today and see if I can get a job on a Crab boat.

..Gotta go....the kids are screaming for me to come and watch the dolphins play in the ocean again....

Awesome.....

Fuck my basement

Winter Blues...

The snow is starting to get to me.

Also the Norland Curse is flexing its muscle...

Avery has a fever and yesterday it snowed in Myrtle Beach with the temps being a balmy -3.

Seriously...why does god hate me??...Like I know I am an asshole but really??...Do I deserve this???

...Maybe.

Anyway...when I get stir crazy I see the real value in having documenting things and these watching these two videos today made me see the good things again...and really without the bad to weigh the good against...would it have the same value??

(Bullshit alert..beep ...beep)

'Your turn..My turn' at 'The Stick'



DSCF1082 from Gene Norland on Vimeo.

Norlands Chrome from Brian M on Vimeo.
After looking at the quality of my video I am pretty glad that I grabbed the new camera after all.

Snow..

Well .. I tried to do a complete set of Midnights.

..But on the 2nd day I developed a nasty migraine that kept me from  doing the 3rd shift. This is common for the night shifts and me... they have a terrible effect on me physically and I try to trade as many away as possible.

To be honest it could all be psychological.

Either way... I called in...



Fuck them.

My employer hates me and I am way past giving them any sort of consideration when it comes to weighing my health against the operational needs.












I woke up this morning to a fresh layer of snow on the ground with more coming down on top...
Great big Flakes...beautiful to look at..however...enough is enough...indeed...

Took a few pics and played with the kids  and Aunt Tracey's Golden outside. It is a beautiful day for a winter walk as well but to be honest I am just going through the motions.

Myrtle Beach is looming and I could take some 20 degree temps and a walk on the beach right about now.



I have also heard from my amp friends and it sounds like I will receiving my new amp way sooner than expected!!

Should be here shortly after we get back from our vacation.

This is super awesome.

Things would be perfect if only Avery would get rid of her cold.

Fingers crossed...

Sometimes you just have to look the Norland curse right in the eye an meet 'crazy' head on!

Speaking of Crazy.

A friend of mine at work has created his own website.


He is a collector of License plates and has decided to display them online. When he brought this to my attention at work I could tell he was feeling a little embarrassed by it.

I quickly took him to this little corner of cyberspace and he now realizes that his dorkiness will always pale in comparison to mine own!!!

I have added his site to my BLOG list.

Gregs Plates

I love it.

Valentine

We don't usually make too much a big deal out of Valentines day.

 I don't know why to be honest. We are both still very much in love and all that corny business but I suppose our lives now are just so much about the kids and their needs that it just isn't practical to put too much energy into anything else.

I am kind of hoping that we'll be able to leave the kids with Gerry and Shirley at times while we are at Myrtle Beach and be able to enjoy some one on one time.



You gotta  kind of take it when you can get it.

We did manage to get out for a nice walk today and then we went for lunch at Skeeters.

Valentines day 026 from Gene Norland on Vimeo.

Not overly sexy but it was very nice.

Avery made everybody in the family a special Valentines day bag with pictures she had drawn and messages.

Very sweet.

Took a few pictures while on our walk. So far I really like this camera.

The thing that Canon does so well is make things super easy to use. That helps morons like me.

In for three midnight s starting tonight at 20:00 hrs  ...that super sucks it....but the vacation is getting closer and some where in New Jersey there is a electronics Genius working away on my amplifier....

New Camera ( Morin Wins Again )

Well after facing shot after shot from Morin on how shitty my BLOG pics have been I finally broke down and bought a new camera..

The CANON SX500 is

And I got a really good deal on it as well.

I found me a motivated future shop teenager/college student and I talked him into matching the Amazon.com price. This isn't fair play.


I should feel guilty about this but I FRIGGIN DON'T!!!



I am tired of everything being so expensive and if I can save $80.oo on a camera I am damn well going to do it.








..let future shop take their kill on the North End Slob that makes six figures and  who feels like he needs a 80" 3D TV in order to watch this weeks flavour on American Idol or his life just won't be complete...
Make that guy bleed..lol

That extra $80.oo will fill my car with gas and buys us dinner on our upcoming trip to Myrtle Beach.

My Fuji camera was a POS but too be fair .. As described it was Waterproof, Shockproof, Dustproof and Freezeproof....but it finally wouldn't load pics on the computer...lol..

I tried to document the latest snowstorm...which was a nasty bitch.. but couldn't get the USB thing to do its magic...

Dig the Zoom below

ZOOM!!!!!!!

Took it as a sign and started shopping.

Anyway... I went with the Canon SX500 IS for $225 w a 16 G card thrown in......
....that deal is MORIN-ESQUE !!!!!

It is a bigger , bulkier camera but to be honest those little dropsy MFers give me the creeps!!

I took some pics and here they are...so far I can see a real improvement.

It has a 30x Optical Zoom and I told Morin he could borrow it to see if he could find his Penis...but that is a fools hope.

Day Off

I finished a 60 hr work week and it just about killed me.

Today I had the day to myself.


The kids were in school and Kim actually had a teaching day and aside from a stop at Mazda for the cars first service my day was clear.

:o)

The service only took about 30mins.

I have to say they are pretty awesome in there but we've never really had anything go wrong with our cars so it is hard to tell.

After that I whipped over to the States to pick up some guitar stuff that was waiting for me at the parcel pick up place.

I had ordered a new reverb pedal that will go nicely with my new amplifier ( CAN'T WAIT!!!! ).



That deal has been finalized and I just need to wait until it's built!!!!

Oh yah!

The new pedal is a simply designed WET reverb pedal from Brian Neunaber in California. He makes wicked awesome stuff that can only be ordered directly from him.



I got turned onto this little pedal when I tried it over at my friends house when I was plugged into one of his boutique tube amps that didn't have reverb built in.

I was completely knocked out by it!!

I have since educated myself a bit and realized that reverb , for the most part , really kills the tone of the guitar and if used at all should place out front.
This is the opinion of many ...and from what I've heard recently I have come to agree with it.

Also picked up some Rolling Rock and filled up with gas. Good ol USA!!
Probably saved $60.

When I got home I hooked the Black Berry Playbook up to the TV and watched a Robben Ford concert in its entirety from Youtube.






Between Youtube and Netflix I may cancel all my satellite programming  I honestly can't remember the last time I sat down and watch a regular broadcast.

After that was done I watched the U2 Slane castle concert. Great performance.




19:40 ..brought me back...remembering the days when I was about 17 yrs old...just discovered U2..playing in my first real rock band...all the excitement of having life spread out before me...full of promise..
Actually got a little choked up thinking about it.

Great day...starting to unwind and I still have another three days off .

Snow in the forecast overnight...bring it

  

Super bowl Sunday

I'm ready for some Football!!

I am taking the Ravens...and they were kicking ass til the power went out in the dome??

WTF?

Coitus interruptus

Did somebody forget to pay the bill???