Update on the JAK front.

I've not been on LJ for a few days due to company being over AND computer problems. Jaime is a gremlin I swear. BOTH my systems went FUBAR while she was here.

Last night I had to make the run to Traverse City for the second time in two days. I swear, BEST BUY should give a discount to people who have to drive over 50 miles to return defective merchandise. On my way up, my sister(*) got ahold of me to tell me that our grandmother had a heart attack a few days ago(**) and was in intensive care.

Seems she was being negligent in taking care of herself due to spending all her time taking care of my aunt who's pretty much given up on life. Grandma forgot to take her medication for enough days that she forgot she needed it anymore.

Gods, it's so heartbreaking to visit a relative in the hospital when she doesn't even recognize you anymore. I had to explain to her who I was twice. But at least she's doing better.

Afterwards I met up with a few people to have a late dinner and catch the midnight showing of TRANSFORMERS. It was fun. A lot of "What the Fuck?" moments. A lot of "Who's fighting who?" moments. And an error that I think only I noticed. (***)

(*) For those of you trying to follow the flow chart of my family bramble, that would be my half-sister from my biological mother.

(**) I had my phone on silent the entire time Jaime was visiting. I didn't get her message on sunday.

(***) One of the agents of the "beyond top secret government sector" gave the line "Gotta love the Japanese. They really know the way of the Samurai." when referring to a Nokia cellphone. Maybe I'm wrong; but isn't Nokia a FINNISH corporation?

I still haven't figured out if that was an intentional fuckup to further drive the point home that the agent was an idiot, or if it was one of those made-it-through-the-final-cut-because=the-editing-team-were-morons moments.

Keeping with tradition ... People! There's more to the song than the first stanza!

Read the words.

READ THEM

DIGEST THEM

UNDERSTAND THEM

then ...

Sing them with all your heart. Sing them to those ( foreign powers and those who hold domestic offices ) who want to destroy our way of life that was fought for and defended with the life's blood of people worth far more than the smirking chimp who soils the office he has squat in this decade.

SING THEM AND BE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN ... especially if it seems hard to be so in our current times.

cue the music boys

---

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

---

Sing it loud. Sing it proud!