blue monkey

my niece gave me a monkey from her barrel of monkeys for valentines day.

this is his first appaerance in a blog (to my knowledge)

~r2

new book

.............not mine.

sammy hagar's.

worth a read unless you are an eddie van halen fan, he doesn't fare well.

turns out eddie is a little difficult to get along with when he's drunk,........which seems to be quite often.

still one of the greatest 6-stringers of all time.

anyway, just thought i would share.

~r2

coolest game i have ever played, ever.

if you fashion yourself a gamer, then you will probably just nod when you read this.

just cause 2 is the greatest video game ever made....as of today.

that could change.

but it hasn't yet.

this game has everything

guns

explosions

tanks

race cars

tanks

jets

helicopters

gat-guns

a huge roaming area.

it's similar to GTA4, but better because you can go anywhere and operate any of the machinery.

i've even flown a passenger jet.

if you haven't already, you need to check this game out.

seriously.

it's football season

it must be, because the lions have already broke my heart.


i couldn't believe the call that nullified calvin johnson's TD. even my 11 year old daughter is still complaining about the call, and this is her first season actually watching football.


so it goes.


i a am lions fan, always have been, always will be.


that's why it sucks to watch them lose.


as the new season starts i find myself, once again, saying "maybe this is the year".

then they lost the first game.


i was encouraged by the defense, and mortified to see our starting quarterback get hurt, again.


maybe next week they will turn things around.

till then

r2

fyi

in case you didn't notice

i've added a link to my flickr photo gallery

and a link to my new deviantart gallery.

check them out if you get a chance.

-r2

family tradition

someone recently inquired about my hurley lineage.
i've traced the hurley name through my
maternal grandmother hope katherine hurley
all the way back to darby hurley who
was born in cork county ireland in 1617.
darby left from london in 1635 on a ship named "mathew of london"
this trip was warranted by the earl of carlisle and
the ship was captained by mr. richard goodladd.
this ship sailed on 21 may 1635 and
arrived on st. christopher's (saint kitts) island
in the caribbean sometime that same year.
most of the people on that ship were
wards of the church of england,
which means they were criminals or political exiles
sent to this island to pick tobacco instead of going to prison.
according to wikipedia.org, this island switched to growing
sugar cane sometime around 1640. this happened because
the new colonies in america were growing a better
tobacco crop. i'm just guessing, but i assume
that darby came to new york during this time period
and finally settled in maryland. i am searching for
information on ships that sailed from
st. christopher island to new york and
hoping to see darby's name.
darby was 18 years old when he left on that ship
and he had no hurley relatives with him. this is all i have for now,
hope it helps.

-r2

life in the fast lane

my buddy eric took me for a ride in his dragster this weekend.

that's the fastest i've ever gotten from zero to 120mph.

what a rush. there's nothing like the raw power of a big block.

i've got some specs & video that i will post soon.

-r2

what i'm reading

i've finished reading "dry".

the content is mature and very graphic in spots,

but overall it's a good story about addiction and recovery.

augusten puts a funny spin on some tragic events in his life,

and in the process illuminates the perils addicts will face on

the road to recovery.

speaking of roads.........

i just started reading "the road" by cormac mccarthy.

it's a book about postapocalyptic america and the story is

told from a fathers perspective as he and his son travel

through burned america.

i figured if it was good enough for oprah,

it's good enough for me. i will keep you posted.

-r2

speaking of family............

here's a picture i found

it's a picture of my mom

and i. these school pictures

were taken when each of

us were about 7 yrs old.

kinda neat

livi's piano recital

my daughter had a piano recital this last friday.

she did an awesome job,

especially considering

she was the youngest there.

she recieved 2 national recognition

awards for her recital

at spring arbor college

2 months ago.

i'm very proud.

as you can see, i also got into the act

(though not by choice). the parents

were asked to get on stage and try

to keep a beat.

in the future,

i'm gonna stick to guitar only.

-r2

HAPPY B-DAY

spam

(the quasi-meat, not the digital junk-mail)

is 70 years old.

every couple of years i relive my childhood

and fry up a slice or 2.

my kids won't eat it

because it scares the crap out of them.

anyway, help them celebrate 70 glorious years

as america's favorite pseudo-meat

by mailing a pound or two to your favorite uncle.

http://www.spam.com/seventy/

-r2

sometimes i get bored

this was me at laguardia in march, waiting to come home.

grace church - 10th & broadway - manhattan

here's a picture i took when i was in ny march of this year.

i took this picture late at nite.

i was on my way north from houston st. heading to union square.

this church was designed by james renwick jr

architecture style - gothic revival

grace church was opened in 1846

-r2

for my daughter

don't dance near cameras

...........nothing good can come from it.

-r2

mood swings

i quit drinking because i got full........

here's a recovering alcoholic that i met at the fuse conference in nyc who went on to become quite an author after his moment of clarity. he signed a couple of books for me, and i've just started reading the one titled "dry" which deals with his recovery...........pretty good so far (80 pgs in). he also wrote the bestseller "running with scissors" that was made into a movie. like a lot of recovering addicts i've met who have went thru a good treatment program, he is excruciatingly honest about himself, but quite funny at the same time. after hearing him speak about his life as an alcoholic, his life as a creative, and his recovery, i realized that i shared a lot of the same highs & lows (no-pun). thought i would share in case you were looking for a good read.

-r2

The Oracle of Bacon

i found recently that i have a

bacon number of 3 (sorta).

so anyone who knows

me automatically has a

bacon number of 4.

-

although i was never

in a movie (that i know of),

-

i met rusty wallace in 1999,

-

rusty wallace was in

Days of Thunder (1990)

with j.c. quinn,

-

j.c. quinn was in

Digging to China (1998)

with kevin bacon.

.

http://oracleofbacon.org/

-r2

i heard you missed me..........

..........i'm back. well, maybe you didn't miss me, but i'm back anyway. i spent this week in new york at fuse, which is a brand identity and packaging conference. it was a really cool setting, located at chelsea pier #60 right on the hudson river.

i met some

really cool

designers/architects/authors

at this conference.

i met daniel libeskind, who is a brilliant architect & a true visionary who has done some really inspirational designs including the jewish museum in berlin and the ground zero memorial gardens where the twin towers used to stand. he was the keynote speaker who opened the conference on monday nite (4/16). after daniel gave his presentation and shared some stories, he did the "rockstar" thank you and escaped from the conference hall. i happened to be leaving at the same time and crossed paths with him while we were waiting for rides in the parking garage at pier 60. we talked for less than a minute, but it was still cool. check out some of his work.
http://www.daniel-libeskind.com/

*

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more nyc stories to follow

-r2

last 5 movies from netflix

firestarter 1984 - drew barrymore
the 80s rule!!!





the apostle 1997 - robert duvall
duvall good, movie bad





the warriors 1979 - i suspect that this movie was the beginning and end for many actors
cult classic = bad movie, liked it anyway





dawn of the dead 2004 - ving rhames
awesome movie, a rare remake better than the original





babel 2006 - brad pitt, kate blanchett
a few good scenes, but they felt random and weakly connected at the end

-r2