Welcome!

Take a look at the world through my eyes.

The Disclaimer

I must apologize for the lack of congruency of some of these blogs. I actually started writing these at the beginning of 2006. These were only blogcasted through a closed circuit of e-mail friends who every now and then responded. I tried to keep as many responses as possible. But unfortunately many have been lost. This at times will make some blogs seem kind of chopped up.
If you are offended or insulted by the content of any of these blogs, my apologies. But then again, perhaps it is just what you needed!
Also if you find your name in any of these blogs I am obviously talking about somebody else with the same name. You’re not the center of the universe you know. Gaud!!!
Proper spelling is not something that I have ever really understood. I really do not know how this particular activity ever came into existence. Therefore I do not participate.

The Blog Cast

All blogs written by the author are broadcast via e-mail. If you are interested in getting "The Blog Cast" please contact Rusty at rustyfirestone@gmail.com so he can add you to the list.

Rusty the Baby

Rusty the Baby
My first blog!

Three Religiions

Three Religiions
Facing the wall

Monday, June 29, 2009, :Thoughts on post mortem and “Remember God is always right”

Captains Blog: Thoughts on post mortem and “Remember God is always right”
Well last week I ended my monthly membership at the Gymn a friend and I were training at. I decided I was going to change my routine for another type of exercise which is more of a mountain scaling type training.
I could not help but reminisce on the times me and my best friend had in the gym together. The daily experience was usually a physical duress mixed with moments of philosophical enlightenment. On the last day of lucidity and pain I and my work-out companion were reminiscing on the meaning of life between vigorous pulls on a low row machine. We were going through the different activities of the human existence that made life bearable. I am not sure how but some way all this existentialism kept being interrupted female passerby with particularly rounded out hind quarters wrapped in tight leotards. Luckily these interruptions only lasted the two seconds it took her to walk by.
Where was I? Ah yes existentialism. Anyway we were going through that which classified the human experience in a list form. Some of these were the first alcohol experience, grade school mortification, being with a woman, siring a child…etc. Then it dawned on me. I said “Is killing another man a part of the human experience? Because if so this is not something I may never know. What about you?” This to which my companion paused thoughtfully and replied “There was that time I almost killed you.” This of course took me off guard for a moment then I smiled. “Ah yes but luckily I had the foresight to hide all but one of your cartridges and the only one I left you I emptied out all the shot out of so you were just shooting blanks. Ha, who da fool now!”
Enough of that rot… I took my son, Thomas, to see the Transformers over the weekend. There was a host of new additions to the pantheon of characters but as far as special effects I felt that most of what I was seeing was the same as the first movie. I will admit there was some new effects but hardly made it worth the hours that I spent in the theater. What did make it worth while was definitely not the lack of plot and predictability of the out come but the fact that as soon as the lights came on at the end of the movie I looked over at my 10 year old son to see stars in his eyes and smoke coming out of his ears. He looked at me and said ¨That was awesome!!¨. It was at that point when I realized that every 10 year old boy wants to be Sam or some kind of variant of Optimus Prime. Interestingly enough they did incorporate into the story where a hero, a Colossus, dies and then comes back to life to save the world. Where have I heard that one before? Speaking of ripping off Greeks and other traditions there was also an element of stealing the earth’s sun in a Modern Day Prometheus fashion. Apparently the movie did rake in colossal profits over the weekend despite bad reviews. I guess it was guys like me who were hanging out with their 10 year old sons. This BTW did make it worth seeing. So my suggestion to you the reader is to see this movie ONLY if you have a 10 year old son or 10 year old male relative who will make it worth your whilel. Let it be known that I wanted to go see Up with Tammy and Maddy. Damn the modern multiplex!!!
Later that day…in the evening to be exact, I decided to watch a different movie to wind down and to also to continue my Hellenistic experience. This movie was Zorba the Greek. I was fascinated as this was a movie taken from one of my favorite novels written by one of my favorite authors Nikos Kazinstakis. The movie was masterfully directed by Anthony Quinn who starred as Zorba as well. It was one of the few movies which actually caught the spirit of a book in cinematic form. It shows Zorba a simple man who embraces life as it comes. He loves women and believes that friendship is the most important treasure there is on earth. When his friend and “Boss”, the young English narrorator of the story, says that he does not want to pursue a relationship with a beautiful young widow on the island of Crete he says “I do not want to cause trouble”. Then Zorba ensues with one of my favorite quotes of the movie and perhaps the thought which encapsulates the whole film as well as Mr. Kazinstakis’ novel: “Boss!! “Life is trouble, to live is to cause trouble and there will be no trouble when you are dead!”



Cause some trouble this week!


FeO2

“Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. “ Roman 6:9


This one is for my Pops who is a child of the sixties. It’s a Roger Whittaker.
I don’t believe in if anymore
“Now if you load your rifle right
And if you fix your bayonet so
And if you kill that man my friend
The one we call the foe
And if you do it often lad
And if you do it right
You'll be a hero overnight
You'll save your country from her plight
Remember God is always right
if you survive to see the sight
A friend now greeting foe

No you won't believe in if anymore
It's an illusion
It's an illusion
No you won't believe in if anymore
If is for children
If is for children
Building daydreams

If I knew then what I know now
(I thought I did you know somehow)
If I could have the time again
I'd take the sunshine leave the rain
If only time would trickle slow
Like rain that melts the fallen snow
If only Lord if only
If only Lord if only

Oh I don't believe in If anymore
It's an illusion
It's an illusion
No I don't believe in If anymore
If is for children
If is for children
Building daydreams…..”

“I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying.”. Woody Allen


¨The only thing I do gracefully is fall from grace¨ Rusty Firestone

Sunday, June 7, 2009: Captains Bolg ¨Plan B is that if all else fails he will just become a Franciscan monk with an internet community¨

This was my statement when I was predicting my fathers plan to Tammy about my hia move to Tarija, Bolivia. Then Tammy stated ¨That would be a great opening line for a comedy novel. Unfortunately it is too close to reality. Either way I do support all of his emotional endeavours.
Speaking of community I did attend my the local water syndicate meeting this morning. Living here in Tiquipaya, Bolivia (a rural suburb of Cochabamba) where we do not have a city water system so the community formed a syndicate. It was interesting as most of the people that attend tend to be mostly “campesinos” or country folk of indigenous racial decent. The meetings for the most part are held in the local language of Quechua which I do not speak. Who’s fault is that?!?! Anywho as I walked into the room I could smell that half the people were chewing coca as the locals have for several thousands of years and they were all staring at me as I was the only white boy in the crowd. I new that most of them new who I was as North Tiquipaya is a very small community and they see my riding my bicycle around on a very common basis and many are aware of the social projects that I direct in the local and greater community. The feeling of the meeting had a very Cezar Chavez twist to it. It was not very different than having a meeting out in the fields. I was reminded of the movie that I watched last night Blood in, Blood out. A movie about a group of half brothers who were torn by the LA gang culture. What made me think of this movie is the fact that there was this character who was having a conversation who was the major gang leader of the Sam Quinton Hispanic gang. The gang boss was reminiscing when he asked the other inmate “Have you ever picked fresh grapes from the vine? There is nothing like it. There is no more pure feeling that eating grapes directly off the vine. It is like you are next to God” This of course brought me back to my own roots of how I used to visit my grandparents in the San Joaquin Valley. My Grandparents were Hispanic immigrants as well who were tied very close to the migrant workers as they were ministers in the Nazarene Church. I remember from my visits seeing all the workers come on Sundays for church and they would bring all kinds of freshly plucked fruit from the fields. I also have memories of going out to fields and seeing the workers work and doing some picking myself.
While I was thinking all this at the meeting when it came to me as sort of a revelation that these people, my neighbors, were the only thing that I really had as safety and stability in the community that I lived in. Once when I was hosting a visiting mission group I had 2 participants robbed while walking around the neighborhood. It was a freak occurrence and nobody was in harmed way but when we went to report it to the local police they did nothing. It was the local community leaders and neighbors that took action and a form of community justice was brought about. I find this ironic as with local politics my upper class friends are opposed to the current Bolivian President who wants to formalize community justice because it is the only thing that has saved me around here. Perhaps it is that they do little things like during a meeting they all call each other “companiero” which translated literally mean “companion” but is used as “comrade”. Anyway this was this week’s effort at community building and being involved.
On a side note I am still amazed when I look around seeing a contrast between my being a person who was born in a country that lives by the sword and it’s citizens not standing up for what they believe in (liberal or conservative) and where I am now where people stand up all the time but there is never any war. Hmm.

“The best surveillance systems are your neighbors watching your back and you doing the same for them”

¨I hate it when people say somebody has a ´speech impediment´, even if he does, because it could hurt his feelings. So instead, I call it a ´speech improvement´, and I go up to the guy and say, ´Hey, Bob, I like your speech improvement.´ I think this makes him feel better.¨ Deep Thoughts, Jack Handey

Have a great week!

FeO2

Sunday, April, 10, 2009 "Moonlighting"

So I woke up this morning just before dawn with this really bright moon shinning in my eye. For those of you who have read my face book daily post you will know that my first thought was ¨I really want to play with fire.” Such a strange urge that I have not felt in a while. Anyway I looked around to see Tammy laying there at my side strangely pointing at something in her sleep. Was she trying to tell me something from the great nether world of sleep that she would not be able to while she was awake? These are all strange ways to begin a day.
So from here I got out of bed and left the guest room that we have been sleeping in since our house is being remodeled. I walked across the moon lit lawn to our house. Once I got to the house I poured myself a bowl of corn flakes. As I emptied the box I realized the call of the morning. So I proceeded to the fire place and lit the cereal box on fire. As I watched it burn and wondered “What do abnormal people do at these times?”
But I am now happy to report that tonight I will be back in the house as the workers are all done plastering the walls. My room is still in need of a paint job but I at least will be able to sleep on the library floor.
Anyway I have to go as I have a strange need to flip my Bic!
FeO2

Sunday, April 5, 2009 "I bet you forgot about me!!"

Forgive me reader for I have sinned, it has been 9 months since my last blog. Or something like that…anywho as some of you may or may not know I have been having health issues. I have been battling hepatitis A. It was interesting that I was chatting with a friend of mine and she was asking me how I got it. After I was explaining to her how one gets hepatitis A, which what is called a fecal-oral transmission (Basically you are eating other peoples poop cuz they ain’t washin’ they hands!) my friend responded in a “Yeah I know how you get hepatitis but what I want to know is how did you get yours?”. I this point I did not know what to say. My mind wondered to many superhuman ways that I could have gotten this disease. Perhaps an asteroid came flying in from outer-space and struck me a la Monster vs Alians and then contaminated me with hepatitis A. Or perhaps there is a strange lab near my domicile which is doing strange experiments in the middle of the night and some how I was contaminated that way. But alas I believe I got it from eating cheap food that I bought from a local street vender who had no running water to wash up which is pretty much everybodies story who contracts this disease. Dirty hands-dirty food. I lead such a boring life.
On the other hand though I have found yet another way to torment my friends in the fact that I was handed the web site of a church in which a friend of mine is the pastor. I checked the site and it has a section where he post his sermons. As I am a junkie for most anything in print I could not help but stop and read several of the sermons. Also the designer of the site made the mistake of putting a section into the page for posting comments for all his congregation to see. :-D Moo-hoo-ha-ha-ha!!! http://www.knoxpasadena.org/index.html.
Anywho I spent most of the weekend reading, downloading music, watching communist movies by Iron Weed Productions, and fudsin’ around in the garden.
How was your weekend?

“What is it about a beautiful sunny afternoon, with the birds singing and the wind rustling through the leaves, that makes you want to get drunk?”
Jack Handey

Raoul Duke: [narrating] We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like:
Raoul Duke: I feel a bit lightheaded. Maybe you should drive.
Fear and Loathing

It's been a while, Monday, Nov.,17, 2008

I went to my first Karate championship this weekend as a spectator. I actually thought that it would be more cumbersome than it actually turned out to be. I watched my own children compete. I was really proud of them. They both have been training for barely 6 weeks and they did very well. Thomas took second place in his division and Maddy took first in hers. I will admit that Maddy only had one other little girl in her division. But as we look into history we do see that many heroes and conquerors are normal people who stood up when the occasion came. To mention a few G. Washington, S. Bolivar, W. Churchill, and Chicken Little. Maddy is my Chicken Little. She and the other little girl she fought both deserved the medals they got. There were many of other little girls in the stands who were little sisters that could have been out there but were not. As Woody Allen once said “Showing up is 80 percent of success!” As for poor Thomas, he cried when he lost his last round. It’s kinda hard when it’s your first time to compete in front of 400+ spectators all yelling and screaming and your only 10 years old. It’s a lot of pressure. He stilled rocked!
So Sportsfans please to be looking at pictures of the weekend sporting events by clicking on:
http://picasaweb.google.es/rustyfirestone/Karate#

So now it is time for the Random Movie Review. Friday night I watched “Quantum of Solace”. It is the second instalment of Daniel Craig’s James Bond. I give it a thumbs up. There was a lot of fast action and the story line was good enough as far as 007 movies go. If you read my blog on the Bond movie about Casino Real you will remember I called Mr. Craig’s Bond “a thug”. Apparently this is what many other movie reviewers have had in common with me when writing about this latest Bond as well. Mr. Craig’s for some reason is gadget less. No laser watches, no explosive extractable teeth, not even a glow-in-the-dark-musical condom! Mr. Bond was all about machine guns and fist fighting. Apparently Roger Moore complained about this saying that his Bond was more of a lover. Try “Womanizer” Mr. Moore.
But there is something that Mr. Craig and Mr. Moore have in common. They are both the only Major English Bonds that there have ever been. Of course I am not counting David Nivens who is known as a “Lesser known Bond”.
Sean Connery was Scottish, George Lazenby was Australian, Timothy Dalton was Welsh, Pierce Brosnan was Irish and Barry Nelson, was of all things an American and the first on film Bond ever.
In other movie news: I saw the Cohen Brothers Movie “Read and Burn” I am usually a fan of these 2 siblings but for this movie I will just have to say “Watch and Burn”.
Also I would like to welcome a new group of friends to the blog-cast. They are all from high school. “You’ve been served”. Heh-heh!

Have great week!


FeO2

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." Forrest Tucker
“I hope that after I die, people will say of me: ‘That guy sure owed me a lot of money.’”
Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008

So this morning I went running down to give my children the regular scheduled morning assault that they have become accustomed to. The assault usually consists of my grabbing one of them and spinning them around then body slamming them back on their bed and head locking them with a nerd scobbing to the scalp. All this has been scientifically proven to be good for their circulation and bone development. Anywho as I was on my way down I was yelling “Here ah come!”. Once I got to the bottom of the stairs I saw Maddy standing there in her newly learned Karate stance. She had this look on her face that seemed to say “You bes’ run boy, cuz I’m gonna make it rain!”. This of course scared the bajeezes out of me. I was not expecting this. But this is what I get for agreeing with Tammy on the point of our children taking extracurricular physical educational classes for them to develop better neurologically. Now I’m soon to get my arse kicked by a little girl! I guess I will now have to take some kind of martial arts class myself to maintain tactical superiority. Or as Rev. Gym would say “Maintain the objective.” Or perhaps it would just be better to call in an air-strike on my own position with a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label.....nice and cheap like.
In other news I can’t believe my crabs are still alive! Wait I mean Thomas’ pet crab is still alive. I think that is what I mean. Also for personal entertainment I have taken to reading fictitious blogs. Pretty cool.

Comments recieved from this blog:
Rusty....your philosophical depth never ceases to amaze me...you are surely a chiroprac-tor. Wait. That may be the wine talking.
Saludos.
Jorge

I hope you get your ass kicked by a little girl, and that someone is around to video it for me to see! :)
(Lisa S.)

Yes I am sure that one day that little girl will Rodney King me but pray that I will always be at least taller than she.

FeO2

Saturday, August 30, 2008 "Fertility"

So another chiropractic mission trip has come and gone but not without leaving its memories. Of course there is all the hard work that everybody put in to this trip but other memories are left as well. Such as the event at the end of the trip where at one of the tourist sales stalls the woman selling the wears asked me if two of the trip participants were my children. Of course I was flattered to think that Alicia and Jorge to be my own. Who would not be flattered?
Later I did have a thought prompted by one of Alicia’s comments. Alicia pointed out that the woman probably said that we were related cuz we are both white. That would mean that the woman was thinking that Alicia was my daughter and Jorge was my Mexican son-in-law. It was a good thing that Erika was not there or else she would have confused her for my grand daughter as she was much smaller than the rest of us thus making her the “love child” of Jorge and Alicia. We would not have been complete without Uncle Buck and Auntie Meg there. Of course we would all have been sorrowful over their bareness as the woman at the stall would have deduced that this was the case as they have no children such as I. Yes the Lord has blessed my old heart with laughter as he has increased unto me my family, cattle, and stock in cats these last couple of weeks. I have been left not wanting. Especially since the whole group was blessed with pregnant Emily and that is probably what brought on the whole fertile fan fare in the first place. I think it all started when both David and Charles “El Bonito” started to argue over claims to who was the father. Luckily the other Charles “Keiser Sosei” was on hand to settle the dispute on the fatherhood of the child with the loud statement being “The father is a red-head!!!” All I had to say to this is “That woman got here pregnant!”

So I leave you with a few last thoughts
“Never trust a pregnant woman!”
Rusty Firestone
"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." Jack E. Leonard
“I remember how my great-uncle Jerry would sit on the porch and whittle all day long. Once he whittled me a toy boat out of a larger toy boat I had. It was almost as good as the first one, except now it had bumpy whittle marks all over it. And no paint, because he had whittled off the paint. - Jack Handey (aka Jack Handy) -->“
Jack Handey
Have a great weekend!

FeO2