It could happen to you !

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It has been so cold here I couldn't find my johnson to take a leak! ...and now I've got a man-vagina!... (well, you get my drift).This isn't like me.I was so inspired yesterday that I tried updating my blog here at the local Coffee shop.I went to hook up my camera, but only drew uncomfortable attention to myself.Now I question my own motives for having this video blog.If everyone had new IPhones we would all be taking a shitload more pictures and posting them wherever we wanted... just because we have the technology to now flaunt it ! I mean privacy concerns, copyrights and increased legislation are not making anyone's space anymore safe (either for the recorder or the one being recorded ).Yesterday at MacWorld, people were snapping pictures with thier fancy digital cameras everywhere I turned.If I was part of the witness protection program, I could have been tracked by the mob so easily by now.Think about it...only fifteen years ago Faith Popcorn (a marketing futurist ) predicted that we would all be "cocooning" ourselves with this false sense of security and all the products and services that go along with it. We have gated communities, alarm-devices, minature survellience cameras, tear-gas pens and stun guns .This is so lame.Does anyone feel any less terrorized or intruded upon? Does anyone really feel more safe ? People now have a hard time distinquishing between private and public space.Most will saunter around with their new kewl cell-phone and a snotty feeling of entitlement when they are nammering away to their friends who are two aisles down in the supermarket. Or better yet, at the checkout stand feeling totally "put-off" when the clerk interrupts your oh-so important call by asking you if you wanted paper or plastic! Privacy control and security are all part of this illusion. We might as well assume that we are all on the lamb, and this is just another symptom of our sick society.Perhaps one suggestion would be to walk around like the Blues Brothers with Fedoras and Ray-Bans on. An old hippie once told me..."Just because you are paranoid, does not mean they aren't out to get you!" No truer words were spoken. Now as new-media celebrity, and police victim Rodney King has implored us to do over a decade ago..."Can we all just get along?"

James Brown Popcorn

This was the hardest working man in show buisness. Without his moves and grooves, Michael Jackson or Prince wouldn't have a leg to stand on... This was one of his better performances.James Brown VIDEOS and MUSIC at : http://www.getpedia.com/1/jamesbrown.htm

Chris Rock - How NOT to Get Your Butt Kicked.

Very funny clip of Chris Rock. www.upyourvideo.net

The Winds of Change

The new year continues to unfold around here at the C.I.A. Meetings are going on which tell me that something BIG is brewing. I shouldn't let the resturant closure or the Campus Store Inventory deter my natural momentum for keeping the ball rolling around here. The weather today was a cross between sun, rain and wind. Whenever it gets windy, I suspect that changes abound.My employer wants me to compile a history of Greystone that can be viewd on a flat panel monitor for the Atrium (which will undergo a huge change).I have been the one who has cataloged a whole variety of pictures and documents relating to this place.I feel confident that I can produce a multimedia production which will really showcase the best of what we have here.I plan to begin this project with the legacy of William Borne and Everitt Wise.Then I will talk a little about winemaking before Prohibition and after the Phyloxera epidemic.Then I will speak briefly about the Bisceglia Brothers and finally mention how the Christian Brothers came to the Napa Valley.I am looking forward to this project.It will be especially gratifying to talk about the marriage of wine,food and art after the Paris tasting and before the C.I.A. opened it's doors here.

Happy 2007 !

Just like an old fuddy duddy, I went to bed early and woke up around midnight to the sound of my Mexican neighbors honking their car horns, blowing off fire-crackers and pumping up the mariachi music full blast. Needless to say, I got up and put on my earphones and sat at the computer. I figured out that i could call my sister in Australia and that it would only be around 8pm where she was. We eventually got hooked up on "Skype" and did our best to work out the audio/video bugs so that we could chat anytime we felt like it. I don't make any new year's resolutions because my will power has always translated into won't power, and that is too much of a perfectionist set up for me. The good news is that I haven't found it necessary to take any drink or mind altering substance for almost 30 years. Actually, my sobriety date is March 13th, 1977 so that is the date that I will thank my fellowship and higher power.This year should be a good one, God willing.

Merry Christmas

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Today started slow. I got out of bed, took a shower and made a milk shake.Then I sat down at the computer and called all the members of the OLPH men's club to remind them of the meeting taking place on Wednesday evening. Then I jumped in my little white potato of a car and drove down to Napa. There I went to my nephew Edward's house for a wonderful day of opening presents and eating Croation Cuisine.Ed and Ant's new baby Mila will be Christened on New Year's Eve so I hope that I can take next Sunday off. The picture you see here is of the little tyke in a good mood. She is five months old, and quite a talker. She likes to stick her tongue out and give everyone a raspberry.Then she cuts little farts and breaks up laughing.She had us entertained for hours.The time went by quickly and before you know it, it was dark outside and people were stuffed. We had already chatted and exchanged gifts. I recieved a nice shirt from Rita and Hamish and a Nike+Ipod Sports kit from Ed, but unfortunately I have the wrong kind of Ipod! Also,I don't have a new pair of Nikes to slip into...Which, by the way are necessary items to get going with this program.So,If I buy a Nano, it would be my fourth Ipod, and I am sorry, but that is ridiculous! The other present I got was a cool book about Motor Scooters from Mario( Antonella's brother )I really appreciate his thoughtfulness. All in all it was a great day and I hope we do it all again next year.

Festive Appearances

I enjoy my work but
I have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility that a lot of people read as control. Today, a group of thirty people did not show up for one of our cooking demonstrations at 10:30 AM. We called the group to remind them and only got voicemail. Patricia Landis is in Panama taking a vacation and she is the one who made the reservation. I let her know how I handled the situation.I am also training someone to work the concierge desk even though I haven't been called on to do so. She is a nice person who is my age. Her name is Marnie and she lives locally. She is the manager/owner of a workout gym in St. Helena. So far we have been enjoying working together. I hope it continues that way. She is the best friend of Mary Lee who is someone who has been on-call as a concierge ever since I have been here.This a picture of them and a friend at our Christmas party which took place on the sixth of this month.

What have I done?

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Another silly movie showing me fumble around trying to find the right settings, etc. Generally making an idiot out of myself.

The Return of...

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After my attempt at staying in shape, I went to ACE® to buy a shower curtain because I am having my bathroom painted in the morning. I spent most of the afternoon cleaning and scrubbing the floor, then the shower tiles , the toilet, the sink, etc. etc. I don't want these guys who are doing the painting to think that I live like a pig. My apartment needs a good dusting every week though.Where does all this grey dust comes from? During the summer months the spiders make good use of it, as it becomes the choice material for making thier webs. Where am I going with this...hmmm. Well as Banteron told you, This morning he went for a run/walk with his buddy, Don. They yabber on about their lives and what new projects they are working on just to stay busy. Then it's time for a cup of mud. Today Bant had his usual roasted brew only this time it included a big dallop of Espresso Ice Cream in the cup. Yummmm ! This weeks blog is announcing the return of "Banteron from Boca Raton". My alter-ego.

Sketching what I see...

I have been practising my drawing skills here at work now that it has been kind of slow.Yesterday, I drew this teapot to learn how to do reflective objects and chrome better. It is tricky and requires observation to get all the detail. I don't always draw things the way I SEE them. I rely a lot on my imagination, or rather what I THINK something looks like. I don't know if I could make a living doing this quite yet. I could be a lot more disciplined around this practise. I am building a portfolio and plan to have another show at some point. This time I will plan it a little better.

Showing off

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I have been playing around with this video blog thing for a little while now and I want to broaden my ability to create effective content. So,here i chose to show off some of my black and white art work... only it's blue ! Yep, I got Quicktime Pro to let me colorize the video. Now if I can only figure out what I am going to upload next.

iTALK

Spec commercial for a new cell phone from Apple by award winning filmmaker Christopher DeSantis with design by Gregory DeSantis.

The Men's Group

I have been in the men's group at our Catholic Church for some time now, and I have been president since July. I have just recently added a web site here in Google to support the members. I have invited around twenty-seven regular members who have e-mail, and so far only one has signed on. I plan to announce to the group on Wednesday that this web site has been created so that we all can stay in touch with the group and each other. It is my intention that this site builds community and good will among the members. These are a great bunch of guys who have lived in and around Calistoga for some time now.

Persnicketity Persmimmons

This blog has nothing to do with persimmons other than I posted this pretty picture which was taken last year about this time .Today my sister Ellen sent me an email which was one of her famous surveys. She does this from time to time. It consisted of 50 questions that are varied and diverse. They are fun to answer and to ponder about... " What was the last fuzzy thing you touched? " or" Who was the most famous person you have stood within three meters from?" These kind of questions make for a time of reflection in an otherwise boring fall day at work. Luckily, my manager and my supervisor were not in today, which was nice. I don't feel that I have to perform like a trained monkey so much. My scooter is running great. I tell everyone that it is like an "E-ticket" ride at Disneyland. I hope that I don't repeat myself too much. I do so much of that at work. It is really hard to say anything original because people are constantly coming up with the same stupid questions that I have to pretend they are asking me for the first time. Sheesh! My good buddy, Steve Ruggenberg has decided to move on from work as a demo chef at the De Baun Theater. I have an idea why he is moving on ... but it's all good.

Digestability

I haven't made the time to blog since the Worlds of Flavor Conference over two weeks ago. The reason being what I call "Digestability". This is where the information and conversations have been coming at you at such a rate that you have no time to reflect. Forming an opinion is sometimes like having a turd form. A collection of matter conjoins to form a mass which may be symbiotic or may not be. Bringing ideas together into a cohesive package is not always the easiest thing. Too many things get out there way before they have been cross-referenced for their viability, let alone proper grammar and spelling. An idea is only as good as it's support structure and digestability.

Back from the W.O.F. O6'

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It has been a long day... I have worked straight through without taking much of a lunch break yet i feel energized from the people I met today. It is nice being of service and feeling like I am doing the right thing with my life.

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by banteron with a Public Domain license.

Almost Halloween

It has been a busy week. The Robert Parker event took place on Thursday, and Friday was the B&P graduation. Tracey, Dawn and Andrea invited me to the ceremony and dinner which was fantastic. I don't think I have had a better week as far as food tasting goes. Yesterday was the Pelligrino "Almost Famous" chefs competition. The lunch that was prepared was mostly Northern Italian- which is my favorite cuisine. Parmigiano Reggiano crustinis, gnocci, pesto, ceasar salad, linguini and desserts that were scrumptuous.On another note, Yesterday I drove my scooter back from Vallejo and froze my tookus! The bike is now over 1000 miles and next paycheck I will bring it in for it's first servicing. I enjoy riding it but the cold weather is begininng to come around.This coming week is the "Worlds of Flavor" conference at the CIA, and Spain is the hosting country. The place will be packed for sure. I will bring my digital camera to document as much as I can. After this event we enter our "quiet" period until thing pick up again after February with the Mustard Festival.

Is anyone out there?

When I starting writing this blog, I thought that more people would read it (ego).Now I realize that I barely read it even after I have written it ! That be said, I might as well recount the past week since I have last posted. Friday the 13th came this week and it was a doozy. We had a truck take out a power line in St. Helena which caused a major traffic tie-up, up and down the Valley. The CIA was without power for around two hours. People were just starting to head home when the power came back up.I try to stay cool in those situations because it is usually a time when the managers go into overdrive. I simply called PG & E and asked for an update call as soon as they knew when we might expect to get our power back. I must say, that PG&E really has got it down now to a fine Science. After two hours, I got a call from a guy who said we would have power within 5 minutes and not to tell anyone else, lest it be a false alarm ( the guy even covered his own tracks ! ) Well, he was right. The power came back and everyone who was about to leave for home, grumbled and filed back into the building. We lost 56 lunch reservations and had to close our campus store... oh well !

Spending Spree

Yesterday I went to a Mac Expo at Santa Rosa Junior College. I attended two workshops.One was with Barbara Heimann who taught Photoshop at SRJC until her retirement. The other was with Burt Munroe. He is a real Photoshop expert. He demonsrated some of his techniques, but went so fast I could hardly digest the information. I know enough about Photoshop to get by, but I know there would be tons more to learn if I was interested. I also won a book and t-shirt on Digital Photography which will go in my colletion.I also ended up buying Jim Heid's book on ILife O6'. I got it for twenty bucks when I would otherwise spend forty five. I also purchased Micromat's Techtool Pro for my Minimac which has been giving me a little trouble lately. I have a feeling that it is memory issues. Lastly, I purchased a little kit to keep my ipod scratch free. All in all, I dropped around $150.00 after I paid Roy at Revolution Moto to attach the wire to my tail light.

October Blues

Today is Tuesday, my regular day off. I am feeling sad. I found out after reading the paper today that an old friend of the family has passed on.Frances McAteer was our neighborhood "mom" if you will. This wonderful woman would open her heart and home to almost any kid she knew. We loved her because she would make us laugh and was always interested in what we were doing. She would always have a smile to greet us, as well. Most of the neighborhood knew Mrs.McAteer, not just as a State Senator's wife, but as an encouraging and generous friend. Those days when it was unusually hot in San Francisco, she would let all the kids come and swim in her pool. We would dash out of our houses and run with our towels over there to be the first one off the diving board. I think that there must have been about twenty-five kids in her pool at one time.That was a treat not to be missed. I remember one time she took me along on a special trip to Alacatraz. This was long before it opened up to the public ( and even before the Indian "take-over" ) when there was a committee forming about what should be done with the property. She taught kids respect to be respectful of one another and to be polite towards adults. One time, Governor Edmund G. Brown was visiting her husband Gene at their home. I had the good fortune to meet him, because Mrs. McAteer invited me in and introduced me to him. I felt important because of her. I will never forget this kind gesture.