Shining a Light on Things: Spending time with family, Batman & a real-life Joker

I wish it was the weekend again. These last couple days at work have been downright criminal with system problems, & I'm beginning to feel like my favorite hero here...(I'm not kidding, when will it all end?!) 

Getting back to the weekend, this past one couldn't have been nicer. Sunday morning I finally bit the bullet & drove to my sister Donda's house in West Virginia for the first time. (It's only the second time I've been there too.) I've often talked about making the trip down, but she lives HOURS away from me and truth be told, I felt a little apprehensive about doing this solo.

But the weather was gorgeous & I enjoyed the long drive--even when I got lost!

But the important thing is, I got to spend a sunny day with Donda & my beautiful niece Drew. (I only wish I didn't have to work yesterday, it would've been nice to hang out with them for the evening. We're both night owls... my next trip may have to be an overnighter!)

Donda, I sure love what you did with the place!  So about those refreshments...

After my arrival, we spent a leisurely hour or so sipping cherry Cokes & carrying on (including some wobbling around on Drew's trampoline while Miss Olympic did handsprings behind me) & then we all piled in the car & went to Arby's to grab something quick before hitting the theater to see the new Batman movie.

(I'm not going to post any personal reviews here; I don't think I enjoyed it as much as admired it, but Batman seems more a hero for adults now than kids...it was pretty dark.)

‘The Dark Knight' was a fine but sad tribute to Heath Ledger; man, his portrayal of the Joker outshone everything else in the movie! He really was brilliant.

There's really not much else to say here, other than a big thank you to my sister & niece for spending their Sunday with me.

They even sent me home with two big hunks of my favorite dessert, a pineapple upside down cake that Drew made--it was excellent!

(This kid is almost as tall as me--what happened to that shy little ten year old with the nifty detective kit?) No matter, she's as sweet as ever & quite the young lady.

I was planning to end this bat-blog here, but a friend recently showed me something online and I felt compelled to share it here.

I generally like to keep my blog in an 'up tempo', but at the same time I don’t want to pretend I’m not dealing with some fucking psycho. 

Part 2:  A Real-Life Villain (What would the Batman Do?)

Here is the jist of it; a former acquaintance of mine (from across the Atlantic) recently posted something on his creepy blog page that I took to heart.

He didn't use my name, he didn’t have to; seeing how he makes a point of letting everyone know how much he despises me (why?) and his Netherlands IP showed up in my blog’s visitor tracker shortly before his drunken rant, it didn’t take much bat-sleuthing to know that he's talking about me here. 

Here’s what he had to say about yours truly.

"Have you ever noticed how the numb nutz who have no life in reality tend to have the biggest counterfeit lives in hyperspace? I mean what normal person has time to build sites and fill it with reams of tedious photos of their humdrum existence? It would be sad and pathetic if it wasn't so sad and pathetic.

I guess it explains why most of them middle-aged losers are still single. No time for the present when the past is in such dire need of embellishment. I guess society at large should be relieved that the potential child molesters find some release for their pent up sexuality."

(A friend of mine saw it, pointed it out to me, and posted his feelings about it before this joker took it back down.  It was up there long enough, though. I kept a screen-print.)

When I first read it, I wanted to respond yes, my blog is filled to the rafters with nonsense, and yes I've probably spent far too much time on it too.  I just see this as a hobby, what's the harm?  How is it different from coin or stamp collectors?  I know people who spend entire evenings for weeks at a time building airplane or ship models, woodworking, restoring old cars.  Or blogging. 

But my response would just be a waste of time—and what I choose to post here is MY business.  Of course. David’s comments here (especially the child molester line) were so filled with hatred & poison… I’ll never understand it.

It’s so weird, there was once a time & place when I actually admired this guy.  But I’d much rather be sad & pathetic than this two-faced monster.