Rant - Excerpts from a news story about my posting yesterday from George

Pennsylvania boy planned 'Columbine' event at high school
Police find dozens of weapons in boy's Pennsylvania home

(CNN) -- Police have taken into custody a 14-year-old boy who is suspected of planning a "Columbine" type event at a Pennsylvania high school, a police spokesman said.
Police in Plymouth Township near Philadelphia took the boy into custody after a search of his home turned up a number of weapons, including a 9 mm rifle with a laser scope and dozens of air guns, said Deputy Chief Joe Lawrence.
Police also found an operational hand grenade, three other hand grenades in the process of construction, bomb-making equipment, manuals and 30 powered weapons that fire BBs.
The boy's mother bought the rifle for him several weeks ago at a gun show, police said. No ammunition was found for the rifle.
The grenades were made with plastic casings that authorities believe the boy bought on the Internet, Lawrence said. The operational hand grenades included black powder, BBs and a fuse believed used in fireworks.

"It is my judgment that this individual considered that something to be glorified and was doing so," he said.

full story can be read here:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/11/student.arsenal/index.html

My thoughts...

The reason I am posting this is because this just goes back to what I said yesterday. The kids a re doing this not wholly, but at least in part because they feel that it is a way to be remembered... Does anyone remember the movie Higher Learning directed by John Singleton?Michael Rapaport's character Remy because a Nazi skinhead who goes on a shooting rampage and is eventually brought down by the police, when they flash back to his Skin head friends they are remembering him over a beer and saying his death represents "White Power" the same mentality holds true here and with any extremist point of view.

Again let's not sensationalize, but use this as an example with the right moves, we can help people to come forward and expose the plots around them... This is not different than what ideally we would like on a larger scale around the world with other forms of terrorism.. and yes the school attacks are terrorism by definition.

Rant - School Violence - (take 2 with spelling corrections for those that complained)

OK, so there has been a ton of shit in the news lately that has aggravated me and I need to just vent about it... hopefully I don't offend anyone here... some of it is trivial some of it is pretty serious... but it is all super annoying.

For the sake of the two loyal readers I have (and that may be over stating) I will break it down into categories for you all.

National News (and the sensationalism of it):

Oh no, "Shootings at school seemed unreal", "we live in such a nice small town, how could it happen here".... Sound familiar? Hey let's rewatch the videos for columbine hundreds of times until we can recount every step of Harris and Klebold, let's make them heroes for every malcontent youth who feels their lives suck so bad that the only way to have some lasting eternity in this anonymous world we live in is to do something that is sooo shocking, that they will be remembered for it after they off themselves. They have become cult heroes to a group of future Unabombers, extremists, which are at a point in their lives when stealing from the local convenient store isn't thrilling enough and doesn't have the right adult influence to move them to a more "proper path". Now I know it isn't that simple, and I know that I have no idea what the proper path is, but I am also not being paid to shape the minds of young children either, and I am pretty sure we can all be thankful for that.

So today we hear in the news that another school has had children come into class and shoot two teachers and two students in Cleveland. I must say it is very sad, the children truly are our future, but has anyone ever stopped to think that the media is a big part of this problem as well? How many times will they play the 911 calls from these kids while the shooting occurred, and why were they even linked... did we need to hear them? Does this change the actually story at all? No, but what it does do is sensationalize the story. It makes it into a train wreck, you are so horrified by the sounds that you need to come back for more... the networks might as well be injecting Heroin in your veins... because folks you're addicted. Now don't get me wrong, I am horrified by these events... Actually locally here in Fairfield County, two kids were charged with breach of peace at Wooster Middle School in Stratford after discharging caps in a stairwell and forcing the school to be locked down for roughly an hour. My friend Mindy told me about the experience, it is scary, and you don't know how to act. You think you do, but you don't. Now forgive me if you think I shouldn't be talking about this because I don't know what it is like to go through something like this... and you are right that would be extremely insensitive of me to be that guy telling to quit you're crying, but I have been there....

When I grew up I attended Dartmouth High School in Dartmouth Massachusetts, a decent size high school in a nice quiet town, Friday nights we went to the football games (but never did very well) and then would hang out at the landing afterwards or at a friends house... pretty standard for small town high school, that is until three days before my birthday, my senior year. April, 12, 1993, now I remembered the time frame, I had to look up the date, but that being said... I was sitting in Journalism class I believe having heard a story from one of my friends about how a few kids we new who were a bit younger had gotten into a fight before school and really beat up this kid. I grabbed a hall pass from my teacher and went to the bathroom and as I was heading back into class I heard a scream. A friend of the two kids involved in the fight earlier that morning had been stabbed in between two classrooms. Three kids came back to the school, the kid who had been beaten up, his cousin and a friend came back to look for the kid from the fight. He was down in the principals office along with another boy who had been there being punished. Apparently the two of them warned the principal there would be trouble when they saw them come in. The principal went out to look for them, but it was too late. Dartmouth High School had received the rudest of wake up calls... Life isn't so innocent, and while Jason Robinson and I were not friends, I was friends with his friends.

The long and the short of this is journalists need to take some responsibility in the way they report. I know when they do this, they get better ratings, but they are also encouraging the crimes at the same time. There are a number of reason why we are so hated around the world... but when these stories as horrible as they are take front stage, right next to the other biggest story of the day (usually something like Lindsay Lohan emerges from rehab, or Pop star bottoms out losing her baby to K-Fed). Let us talk about things that are important, let's find solutions to the things that are troubling us and others, let's not sensationalize these stories for the sake of selling a paper....

Rant - School Violence

OK, so there has been a ton of shit in the news lately that has aggravated me and I need to just vent about it... hopefully I don't offend anyone here... some of it is trivial some of it is pretty serious... but it is all super annoying.

For the sake of the two loyal readers I have (and that may be over stating) I will break it down into categories for you all.

National News (and the sensationalism of it):

Oh no, "Shootings at school seemed unreal", "we live in such a nice small town, how could it happen here".... Sound familiar? Hey let's rewatch the videos for columbine hundreds of times until we can recount every step of Harris and Klebold, let's make them heroes for eveyr malcontent youth who feels their lives suck so bad that the only way to have some lasting eternity in this anonymous world we live in is to do something that is sooo shocking, that they will be remembered for it after they off themselves. They have become cult heroes to a group of future Unabombers, extremists, that are at a point in their lives when stealing from the local conveint store isn't thrilling enough and doesn't have the right adult influence to move them to a more "proper path". Now I know it isn't that simple, and I know that I have no idea what the proper path is, but I am also not being paid to shape the minds of young children either, and I am pretty sure we can all be thankful for that.

So today we hear in the news that another school has had children come into class and shoot two teachers and two students in Cleveland. I must say it is very sad, the children truly are our future, but has enyone ever stopped to think that the media is a big part of this problem as well? How many times will they play the 911 calls from these kids while the shooting occured, and why were they even linked... did we need to hear them? Does this change the actually story at all? No, but what it does do is sensationalize the story. It makes it into a train wreck, you are so horrified by the sounds that you need to come back for more... the networks might as well be injecting Heroin in your veins... because folks you're addicted. Now don't get me wrong, I am horrified by these events.. Actually locally here in Fairfield County, two kids weer charged with breach of peace at Wooster Middle School in Stratford after dischargiung caps in a stairwell and forcing the school to be locked down for orughly an hour. My friend Mindy told me about the experience, it is scary, you don't know how to act. You think you do, but you don't. Now forgive me if you think I shouldn't be talking about this because I don't know what it is like to go thorugh somehting like this... and you are right that would be extremely insensitive of me to be that guy telling to quit your crying, but I have been there....

When I grew up I attended Dartmouth High School in Dartmouth Massachusettes, a decent size high school in a nice quiet town, Friday nights we went to the football games (but never did very well) and then would hang out at the landing afterwards or at a friends house... pretty standrard for small town high school, that is until three days before my birthday, my senior year. April, 12, 1993, now I remembered the time frame, I had to look up the date, but that being said... I was sitting in Journalism class I believe having heard a story from one of my friends about how a few kids we new who were a bit younger had gotten into a fight before school and really beat up this kid. I grabbed a hall pass from my teacher and went to the bathroom and as I was heading back into class I heard a scream. A friend of the two kids involved in the fight earlier that morening had been stabbed in between two classrooms. Three kids came back to the schoo, the kid who had been beaten up, his cousin and a friend came back to look for the kid from the fight. He was down in the principal's office along with another boy who had bene there being punished. Apparently the two of htem warned the principal there would be tourble when they saw them come in. The princinpal went out to look for them, but it was too late. Dartmouth High School had received the rudest of wake up calls... Life isn't so innocent, and while Jason Robinson and I were not friends, I was friends with his friends.

The long and the short of this is, journalists need to take some responsibility in the way they report. I know when they do this, they get better ratings, but they are also encouraging the crimes at the same time. There are a number of reason why we are so hated around the world... but when these stories as horrible as they are take front stage, right next to the other biggest story of the day (usually something like Lindsay Lohan emerges from rehab, or Pop star bottoms out losing her baby to K-Fed). Let us talk aobut things that are importnat, let's find solutions to the things that are troubling us and others, let's not sensationlize these stories for the sake of selling a paper....

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

First, if you want to check out my Ellis Island pics and Liberty Island pics... click the photo above.

Ok, so Jane and I were joking around when I said I had never been to the Statue of Liberty, and a day was planned... This past Sunday, we spent the day in NYC being tourists... and for the first time, I saw the Status of Liberty, and I must say, Lady Liberty has a great ass... any one ever wonder what she's got on under that dress? Now that I have that out of my system... I must say, I was soooo in awe of what I was seeing, I mean she is huge, and presents a conflicting feeling. She seems very imposing, but yet welcoming which is best stated by Emma Lazarus at the foot of the monument:

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

Undeniably one of the most beautiful monuments I have seen, and I have seen my share. I think next time I go, and there will certainly be a next time, I need to make sure to plan ahead and get a timed tour of the monument's inners. I certainly boarded the Circle Line boat departing Liberty Island in awe of what I had seen only to make my way to an equally impressive island in Ellis Island.

I had to stop when I got to Ellis Island just to appreciate for a second the massive number of people who's dreams were realized by walking through the doors of this building, it wasn't until later i realized how many dreams were shattered when they entered, the forgotten many... apparently, they would split up families... and if they Father was well enough to stay he could stay with the kids, if the father was not, they would send the perfectly healthy mother home too because they did not share the rights of men, it was feared they would become prostitutes if they stayed. Kind of shady... but the place was still amazing... you felt humble walking thorugh the hallways... although Jane and I had gotten a bit tired by the end of Ellis Island...

The best G.W. Bush speech ever

Another night at the tables... with an odd twist

So you ever get the feeling that you should have opened your mouth and said something? Last night I was playing in a poker tournament with some friends. There were 25 or so people playing in the tournament... We played for a few hours. I don't care about the money, I go in to the tournament to win, the price is reasonable enough where I am not so worried about the cost if I lose. So we ge tto the final table... and it is decided that four people will get paid. We play down to the final four. When it got there, one person was clearly the front runner with in the neighborhood of 95k in chips with the remaing 30k spread between us pretty evenly with the top guy around 12k one at 10k and one around 8k. The three of us on the low end discussed splitting 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, giving him first place. Then someone it was decided that we would play it out and split whatever we won, meaning if one of us overtook the chip leader and won, we would all split. Personally like I said, I don't care about the money, I wanted to overcome the chip leader and didn't change how I played. You could tell that he was getting annoyed as we began to play it out, because he wanted to go and play in another game. One by one the other two guys got knocked out, with my stack doubling effectively splitting the other two guys chips down the middle. so at this point it was roughly 105k to around 20k or so and we began playing... I offered him a split of first and second, he denied, played very tight and didn't call many of my all in's with blinds 1500/3000 there was no reason for him to... they hurt me more than they hurt him. Finally he calls my all in, I have A/Q to his A/J spades... I flop rips, he flops the flush draw, and beat me with a flush on the river. So in the end we split 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, but at this point it was 12:30am and he wanted to play some more cards, and didn't have the opportunity. So while I know I played well to be heads up against you in the end... and joked with one of the other two guys before the tournament started that I would see him in the money (which we both were) I just feel bad. We should have split at the beginning, but my ego wouldn't let me. Like I said, it is all about winning, the money is a nice bonus.

Yom Kippur Weekend

So... all in all this was a pretty good weekend... I made it down to my parents house Friday around 10ish and we went to shul for Yom Kippur on Saturday. After which, we came home, broke the fast, and I did some work while we watched House and the Sox game played. There was one episode of House that came on when he was trying to convince the photographer to abort her baby. When the do the surgery and they see the babies hand... I was blown away, and could not wait until Sunday to see baby Skyler. So Sunday we headed to my brothers around 11ish, and I finally got to meet Skyler... she is sooooo adorable. I only wish we had left a little earlier so I could have had more time with her. I must say though, it was amazing holding something soo small in my arms, and knowing that it was of my own family blood... this is my niece :). We stayed for around an hour and then headed out so Stef and Jeff could put the baby to sleep. They are pretty lucky, apparently they have her on a pretty good sleep regiment that has the baby sleeping throug much of the night. Good for them. On the way home we stopped for lunch at this seafood shack in Bourne along the canal.. Got myself some GOOD fried clams, not like the ones herein CT, they are just better out there. After we got home, I just hopped in my car and headed to Foxwoods. I first sat down for a sit and go tournament... and even though I was beat pretty early, I still managed to cash and went from there over to the cash tables and played 1-2 for three hours or so. I didn't do that well... I only made around $150 for the day, meaning in the 3 hours at the cash table I made roughly $30, but hey, what are you going to do... It was fun, and I bumped into my friend Louis who I hadn't seen in 7 years since working at Microwarehouse. He apparently is working in the tanning business now and was with some girl he met this morning at a training he conducted. Good for him... Anyway, that's all for now.. gotta go get reaedy for work... Ciao'.

Righteous Kill

Ok, this is my last "catch-up" posting, and going forward I hope that I will post as things occur. So Monday I served as an extra for the upcoming 2008 release of Deniro and Pacino's second pairing in Righteous Kill. Three months ago, Charles Rosenay of Boppers DJs fame sent me information about open registration with a NY casting company so I figured what the hell, I called my friend Paula and asked her to take my head shots for me, in trade, I told her she could use them for her portfolio. She does wonderful work. If you are in need of a photographer, check out her site. I went down to the Grant Wilfley casting open call with one of my co-workers Alex Exum to register. He and I spoke a few times about the calls he had received to do things like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 and others but could not make it, then on 9/11/2007 I got a call asking if I could make a Monday 9/17 shoot, so I said why not. I found out that Sunday after three delays on the self report line that I needed to be in Bridgeport for 6 a.m. Oh the horror. I had dinner the night before with my friends and went home to bed around 10 p.m. or at least tried to as the Sox were losing there game, but we can save them for another post. I was up at 4:30 and out the door by 5 to make sure I was there on time. I figured that this would be a good opportunity to learn how filming actually works for some of my writing. I could not believe how disorganized the whole thing was. My job was to be a guy in the outfield playing toss with a few others while the filming took place of the ball games. So from 8 a.m. or so through lunch and then all afternoon, we were either throwing the ball around, or they had me move over and play soccer for a bit (which was kind of funny because I am really bad). They shifted us from left field to center, and then to right, and eventually to an adjoining field to make it look like different people on different days. Periodically I had opportunity to go up and meet Deniro or Pacino as they were both there along with Wahlberg, Leguizamo, and Dennehy, but opted not to. I really didn't see any point to bothering them, they were crowded by kids asking for autograph, who really had no idea who they were, but did so only because there parents told them to and the Softball teams from Central Park were taking pictures with them, and I felt bad for them, I wouldn't go into you place of work and try to bother you like that. Yes I know it is different, but still I wanted to respect them and not try to intrude into their space. So towards the end of the day, there we were, Deniro 15 feet to my left in front of his sun protecter (a giant black screen he stood ehind to protect from the sun) Pacino 25 feet in front of me on the back of a motor cycle, filming his scene. Pacino was giving his classic grunts, the "oh yeah's" if you will, and us, a few of the extras just hagning around watching the scene when the guy next to me, probabley in his late 20's early 30's, if I had to guess just a hair younger than me turns to me and says "This is probabley going ot be one of the most memorable moments of our lives". I turned and looked at him, seareching for words, but the only thing that came to mind was something along the line of "are you serious?" or "your life really isn't that lame is it?". I hope you know where I am coming from, I mean being here and doing this was a lot of fun, and I have great stories to tell about it, like this girl crude 25 year old girl that acted like she was 15 pretending to be an actor, but not have the common courtesy to respect the directors call for everyone to be quiet. She spent more time running in and out of our group than where she was supposed to have been on a bench with her laptop. Back to that guy though... I was telling Dave and George aobut it that night, and this isn't even the highlight of my summer, let alone my life... heck it wasn't even the highlight of my week... I had a more memorable time with my friends two days before playing paintball and seeing Jane that night than I did on the set. I guess I feel bad, or rather lucky that I have such good people around me that an event like this can be fun, but get me fooled into thinking it was really that great of a moment. Anyway, if they call me again, I am not so sure I would jump at this type of scene again anyhow. All I know is I hurt from head to toe... my shoulder from throwing, my hamstrings from playing softball, my thumb from the vibration I got off the bat in one bad hit.. and it was a long day too... got a little sunburned, got the "hollywood tan" as one of my co-workers put it, and did it all over the course of a day that started at 4:30 a.m. when I woke up, and ended a around 7 p.m. when I finally got home. Anyway, hopefully next time it is somehting where I can sit and read all day, or even add to this blog... Have a good day.

Woodsball baby... paintball in the woods

So Saturday Dave, George, Scot, Sandra and myself drove up to this new paintball field in Oxford. It was really pretty fun. It has only been open for a few weeks now, but they are quickly getting it ramped up. It was a lot of fun The five of us late in the teamed up to play against this group of kids. Now first I must say that our average age was around 33 compared to their 16-18 years, and most of us have played less times than you can count on one hand. That being said, we owned these guys... in so much so that the field asked us to come and join them on their team for upcoming events sponsored by Brian Tippman. Not sure if we a replanning on doing it, but if we do I am sure it will be fun. Dave and I had a few heated moments though when he claims I shot him in the back after he was already out. Apparently we were talking about two different moments... but he knows that I would never malicious attack him, and I am thankeful he knows that becuase otherwise, he might be inclined to just shoot me when I am not paying attention, and that could get ugly. All in all though it was a fun day. There will probabley be plenty more paintball stories to come on here.

Baby Skylar

Skyler Elliot Zeitz 6 pounds 6 ounces 18 inches long Born September 8, 2007 at 2:15 am

So I am now an uncle... you should have seen me that morning, my brother had been trying to reach me for a few hours apparently. It was mom's birthday and and I had already called to wish her a happy birthday. I was a little bummed that morning because my condo complex was supposed to have a yard sale that day, but apparently it didn't happen. So while I was at breakfast with Dave and Sandra, Jeff called again to tell me the great news. I must tell you, i was on a cloud when he told me, and I can't wait to meet the youngest member of the Zeitz family the weekend of Yom Kippur. I have totally been on cloud nine about this because now I have a gorgeous baby to spoil, anyone have suggestions on how to do it? meh, I am sure I can figure it out... so i am sure I will have more to write about that soon. :)

My first blog:

So I don't necessarily expect anyone to see this blog... in fact.. I don't really care. The fact is, this may end up being my only posting, but who knows. Plus the last few weeks have been kind of cool, so I wanted to post them for prosperity... and can kind of go from there, besides the way I figure it, if a blow hole like Schilling can have a successful blog, I can at least have one right?

Years ago my friend George had often talked about doing something like this. "The ramblings of a mad man" or something like that he called it. Maybe that's what this will be, who knows, maybe it will be somehting more. There is so much that comes up that I want to talk about, I figured this would be a good place to start, even if no one reads it.

So good things. Sooo many good things. Just in general, I know this is cheesy, but can we all just be a little thankful once in a while? I mean everyday we wake up, the sun is still in the sky, we get to live. Now not everyone's life is perfect. I certainly know mine is not, but I don't pretend it is. I enjoy the things that make me happy, and accept the ones that don't. Now I don't neccesarily believe the "if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger" thought process, but I do believe we can't truly appreciate how good we have it with out suffering (on some level) through the bad times. Without the hard times, we would never really know how good the good times were and we could never really appreciate them for all of their glory.