Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays.

So I hurt my knee jogging last week. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the wound this time. Just imagine the ant bite swelling on a larger scale. It swelled up so big I could hardly see my knee cap. The funny thing is that it happened while taking a leisurely jog last Thursday. It is funny because I play basketball every Sunday and I haven’t had a problem. In fact, the swelling was mostly gone by Sunday so I decided I would test it at the game even though it was still a little sore. I’ll be damned if it didn't feel 100% during and after the game. I iced it anyway when I got home and this morning it is a little sore but not bad. I used to have problems with the knees back in high school but not much since.

I have a new test website up and running that I practice with during my website design class. I put up several potential Waterford logos that Jeff created for me. The two basic ideas were mine, skyline and schooner, but the artwork is all his. I encourage you to check out the logos, give me some feedback on your favorite if you haven’t already, and check out the links to Jeff’s site and to the SNL clip. Here is the site: jj405.tripod.com This won’t evolve into the Waterford site but it is a good test area. Jeff’s dad is actually going to host my real site on his server and is in the process of reserving a domain name for me. The logo is kind of exciting because it puts a “face” on the company and makes another step toward becoming real. Oh yeah, the link to my site can also be found on this page if you click on my full profile and click “my webpage.”

My recommendation for this week is an oldie but goodie. It is the movie Gung Ho. It has some sentimental value because it is the first movie my parents brought home with our first VCR. I believe the VCR cost something like $600. It did last over 10 years though. Anyway, my brother and I grew up on this movie and watched it again last weekend (first time on DVD). Maybe I find it so funny because of the sentimental value but we still thought it was hilarious. If you haven’t seen it, it is about a Japanese car company opening a plant in a small town in PA (Hadleyville). Michael Keaton is great. If you have Netflix, you should check it out.

Speaking of sentimental, I'm listening to Sirius Alternative 90's for the first time this morning and all my high school and college days were in the 90s so each song seems to bring back a different memory.

Have good week.

Spring Time for Jonathan

Hello everyone. I had an enjoyable weekend in Michigan where the annual “Dream League” strat-o-matic baseball draft took place at my brother’s house. The baseball geeks were out in full force and a good time was had by all. I think I made some good additions to my championship team and started the season well by going 5-2 against the top two teams from last season. Nothing else exciting going on around here except that the weather has improved dramatically. You know it’s been cold when 32 feels like spring has arrived. For those interested I got a 96% on my first Spanish exam. I’ll be fluent in no time.

I appreciate all the suggestion I received from my request for business names. Continuum was the easy winner. I don’t know if this had anything to do with the John Mayer album that I did not know existed at the time I put the list together. (Ir)regardless, I decided not to go with that name or any of the others on the list. I came up with a name that has at least a little meaning and story behind it. The name is Waterford Financial Management, LLC. I’ve already filed the paperwork with the state. According to my always reliable source, Wikipedia, it is the oldest city in Ireland. The name comes from a Viking word for “windy fjord” which I thought was somewhat similar to “windy city.” But the primary reason for choosing Waterford is that the actual “Phelan” name comes from Waterford. (I realize the O’Failan (or however it’s spelled) comes from the next county over Kilkenny.) Since I will have several family clients it seemed like a good name. Now I’ll just have to make a trip over there sometime to check it out.

I have a couple recommendations this week. The first one is food. You see as a health conscious, unemployed dude I pretty much stay in to eat except for once or twice a week. Although I don’t mind cooking, I don’t have a large cookbook that I work from and it is time consuming so I frequently eat these little Lean Cuisine dinners with several healthy side dishes. So I thought I would share my favorite dish with everyone. Keep in mind I’m not picky about food and I don’t really care much about it as long as it is healthy. I just eat so I don’t starve. I encourage you to try the Chicken Carbonara. Have it with a salad and side of vegetables and it’s a meal. I think it is better than half the crap I pay $20 for out at a restaurant and I know it is a hell of a lot healthier.

One more recommendation, The Sarah Silverman Show on Comedy Central on Thursday nights. It is completely not PC and way over the top. Last episode was by far the best of the first three. It can be very stupid at times but overall so far it is funnier than Earl and not quite The Office.

Wow this was long. Talk to you later.

Wicked.

So the folks were in town last weekend. It was a lot of fun and a lot of food. We went out to eat a lot and usually ate too much. But you know what Frank the Tank says, "it feels so good when it hits your lips." Anyway, we saw Wicked on Friday night at the Oriental Theatre. I think I've been to the 3 main theatres downtown now and they are all so amazing on the inside. As for the show, well, it had some funny parts. The singing and the production was all very good but it was just so long. 2:45 including intermission. I think it felt longer because the seating was tight and the temperature was too high. I was sweating and I'm never too warm. They could have spiced it up a little with Ice Cube's song Wicked, too. Of the three musicals I've seen I would put it behind Phantom and before Les Mis. The best part of the show was when my dad figured out for the first time in his life, that the Wicked Witch is actually green. You see, he is color blind so he couldn't figure out why they were making fun of Elphaba (Wicked Witch). I wonder if he knows that in the Wizard of Oz that when Dorothy arrives in Munchinland the movie goes from B&W to color. Hmm.

They also bought me a suit as a delayed Christmas present. We bought it at the Carsons on State Street that is going out of business. I would advise everyone to stop in there once before it closes because there are great deals on everything. My suit was 50% off plus another 10% after the first markdown. There rest of the men's clothing is slim pickings but check it out.

I found it funny that the day after I raved about free copyrighted material from You Tube on this page, Viacom announced that it was forcing You Tube to pull its content. Which, of course, includes MTV and half the videos I had saved in my favorites. Damn corporations spoiling all our fun.

Looks like I may have a hiking trip to the Grand Canyon in the works for next August. I can't wait. It was so much fun when I was out there last summer. This time I'm hiking to the bottom and hopefully back up.

That's it for now. I'll have a few more recommendations next week.

Bear Fever.

I personally don't have it but most of the natives do. Including the people at the Field Museum. I took these pictures this afternoon on my stroll down to the lake in 12 degree temperatures. After about ten minutes I wiped my nose and realized that I couldn't even feel my hand on my nose because it was so numb. The ice provided some unique photo opps down by the harbor. It looks like you could ice skate from the museums to Navy Pier. It is only supposed to get colder over the weekend too. High around 5 on Sunday and Monday. The funny thing is that it is so sunny today that I don't even have to run the heat in the house. It's 73 in here now and the heat hasn't been on since nine this morning.

My cold was short lived. I think I knocked it out on Sunday with all the exercise I got in the basketball game. I came home after the game and got a huge headache and when I woke up the next morning I felt just about 100%. Spanish class went well this week. The teacher pushed the exam from Wednesday to this Monday. It has been going a lot better the last couple classes because she has slowed way down which gave me a chance to catch-up. With all the CD and online resources it is easy to get lots of practice without doing the same lesson over and over.

I thought I would try something a little different here instead of just tell everyone what I'm doing because quite frankly when I'm not driving around the country my life isn't too exciting. And since I've choosen to no longer devulge details of my lackluster love life I will make some recommendations of new things I find/try/see/etc. This could include movies, music, volunteer opportunities, etc.

So when I first heard of YouTube I thought it was just a stupid sight where average joes just post stupid home movies (kinda like blogs) but turns out you can pull up all sorts of good copyrighted material that can be hard to find. Lately I've been staying up too late pulling up music footage from my favorite bands. There are old live concerts, videos, SNL skits about appendages in boxes.

I also recently watched a movie called Prozac Nation, which apparently was a best selling book, starring Christina Ricci. It was about living with depression and, although fairly depressing itself, it seemed like as good a depiction of living with serious depression as I've seen, based on what I know about depression. I find depression to be interesting because it seems to affect a large portion of the population yet it doesn't seem as though it is in the news very often or discussed very openly. There still seems to be a stigma attached to it, which I find strange because a mental illness like Alzheimer's does not seem to have that stigma. Probably because people who don't have Alzheimer's find the symptoms easier to understand than those of depression and people are generally more compassionate and understanding of illness related to age. Anyway, if you are interested in the topic you may want to check out the movie but I warn you that it is a little edgy.

Sorry for running a little long this time but I'll be back with more recommendations soon.

Go Bears!