Saturday, November 24, 2007

Repost

I've been looking through the archives of my blog. My life over the last five years has been pretty well documented. Although I don't think google is going anywhere soon, and therefore neither is blogger, I've been wanting to copy all of my posts into a text file to back it up somewhere.

Five years is a long time. One sixth of my life, documented, several times a month. It is funny that when I read some of my old posts I can remember exactly what I was thinking at the time. Some I think exactly, "What was I thinking?" and others seem all together unfamiliar to me.

If there are any of you that have been following my blog over the last few years, or even only months, since July 07 at the very least, you will know that my life is at somewhat of a crossroads.

I've been counting down the days to a no fault divorce. I realize that there are some pretty big questions that I need to deal with. Some might be easier than others. Some have been decided already.

One question is: What do I do with the last 9 years worth of photos? I'm not talking about a shoe box here. There are literally thousands of photos documenting my life with Tracie. The last I knew Tracie has copies on her laptop, lots of them are on flickr and many are backed up on DVDs as well as my parent's computers. I plan on keeping them, the DVDs and the copies I have on my own laptop and flickr. I'll probably take more effective steps to back them up as well. So really I've decided what to do with those. Put them (the dvds) in a box. Retire the laptop when I get a new computer and only boot it up when I want to wallow in self-pity.

The second question is: What about this blog? I mean there are lots of posts discussing how much I love Tracie, how Tracie is the best thing that ever happened to me, and Tracie this that and the other thing. Which is fine, except for the fact that, I plan for my life to go on. I plan on finding someone new. Apparently I've finished with my starter wife and am now moving on to Wife 2.0. Do I ask her not to read the blog? Do I say read it at our own peril? Do I say, "This is my past, read it if you want, and realize that I've move on from most of those things."? Do I not say anything at all and hope that the new woman doesn't type, "Gary Milner Internet Superstar" into google?

The third question: Should I try to do something about this train wreck I call a marriage? Sometimes I think that I should buy a plane ticket and fly back to Australia to try and change Tracie's heart. Realistically I know that this would be crazy. Crazy enough that you could make a movie about a crazy person who would do that. In the nooks and crannies of my heart, I want Tracie back. My head argues that I can't, that I shouldn't, that I don't really, want to have her back. I won't be able to achieve my life's goals with her by my side. My heart is breaking because I truly love her, and need to find someone else to be complete. To be the type of person I want to be.

My heart fires back to my brain, "If you have to convince yourself that you shouldn't be married to her, maybe you should. A divorce is something serious enough that you shouldn't have to convince yourself. It should be obvious."

Those are just three of the questions that I'm working my way through right now. I'll just have to see what I think in five more years. Will the answers be obvious to me then? Will the heartbreak be over?

A funny thing. I saw a link to a webpage with various word-illusions. The girl in the Love-Hate Shirt was one of them. I posted the photo on flickr in April 06 and was reminded of it today. I wrote the paragraphs in block quotes before I even started on any of the personal stuff.

I'm reposting this, I think, because the last time I posted about it, I didn't mention that this effect is called an "ambigram".

There is at least one ambigram generator on the internet, but it makes rotational ambigrams rather than mirrored ambigrams. The difference being that the second word is visible when you view it upside down rather than in a mirror.

I would really like to have a shirt like this. I think that I will put it on the to-do list in my head. I guess that means that it could be years before I actually make or acquire one.

Now I'm not so sure why I wanted to repost this photo. Maybe I've been in love with the girl in the mirror this whole time while I've in fact been married to the real girl this whole time.

-Gary

Monday, November 19, 2007

Winning Team Wins You Pizza

So I went to a Tigers hockey game three weeks ago, and I noticed that on the back of the ticket there was a coupon for a free personal pan pizza if the home team wins by 3 or more points.

Well, they won by three points. Now, it seems to me that the most obvious thing to do in a situation like this is to try and find more ticket stubs that people threw on the ground to obtain more than one free pizza. Nine free pizzas to be exact.

I told the girls where I work that I walked around the arena looking for ticket stubs. They all seem to think that this should not be done. It is just completely unreasonable to pick ticket stubs off the floor for a free pizza. I say there's not a lot I wouldn't do for $63 worth of pizza. I don't know if they are influencing each other in their responses but I would totally do it again.

In fact, although I am not a big hockey fan I have started listening to the tigers play on the radio so that in cases where they win by 3 or more points on a Friday or Saturday I can drive down to the arena and get more tickets. Because, you know, they only check for tickets at the start of the game, not at the end.

-Gary

Friday, November 16, 2007

Pushing Daisies

So, I have a new favourite show. It's called Pushing Daisies. 30 Rock is still the funniest show on TV, but Pushing Daisies is the best.

Ned, the show's hero has the power to bring dead things back to life by touching them. When he touches them again they revert back to being dead, permanently. If they stay alive for more than a minute, someone in the vicinity must die to take the revived person's place.

A private detective discovers Ned's ability and convinces him to solve murders for the reward money by going to the morgue and asking the recently deceased who murdered them.

This is the most original show that I have seen in a long time. It has the look and feel of a Tim Burton movie. Picking a genre for this show is difficult. The imdb calls it comedy/drama/fantasy/mystery/romance, and they are absolutely correct. I've watched the first two episodes so far and will probably watch two more tonight. Six have aired so far and nine have been produced.

The writers strike that started last week must end soon. Greedy executives please give the writers what they want. They deserve it. It doesn't make sense that when 15 year old kids post shows on Youtube it's worth a billion dollars, but when the networks stream the shows themselves, they aren't.

I really hope that Pushing Daisies gets the chance it deserves.

-Gary Milner

Friday, November 09, 2007

More Heros

A thing we have to remember about tv shows.

It is much harder to get a new series going that get a hit series renewed. I think what may have happened with Heros (Lost and Prison Break can be included in this) is that the creators had to work really hard to get the series made in the first place. The story had to be perfect and the show actually had to be good.

Maybe the writers spent all their energy and ideas on the first season not even knowing if it would get made. Then suddenly they're a hit and get picked up for 20 more episodes the next year and can't think of anything good for the show.

I absolutely loved Prison Break season one but I couldn't even stomach season two. Lost seems like a show I would really like and I was going to rent season one and two on dvd to get caught up, but then I realized, what's the point. They don't get off the island. No matter how compelling the show is at the end of the season, they're still there. Stuck. Just like Gilligan.

-Gary Milner

Monday, November 05, 2007

Heros Continutiy Problems

I'm becoming disenchanted with the tv show Heros. There are several problems with the show.

First, for example, a couple of weeks ago, they had a character in the Ukraine talking to a character in California and it was the middle of the day in both places. It's a nitpick, but, they film indoors couldn't they turn the lights off?

Second, is that they are adding new characters with stupid powers.

Third, it is impossible to know who to hope for. It isn't clear enough who the good guys are and even if you just pick someone to be the good guys, they switch back and forth between being good and bad all the time. I just don't like it.

-Gary