Leave it to my friend Jason to come up with the coolest pumpkin design I’ve seen in a while. He dubbed it a Pixkin because the character depicted is from a Pixar film.

I heard a statistic on the news this morning that disturbed me. Only 1 out of 9 people in the US vote. 1 in 9. That’s pathetic.  I have no stomach for politics or politicians but still make it a point to vote. Voting is our right as Americans. It’s a shame more of us don’t put it to use. If we did maybe we could enact some real, positive change instead of having to put up with the status quo that currently exists in Washington.

It’s official. Okiboy is getting hitched. I proposed to my girlfriend Saturday evening in the beautiful surroundings of the Memphis Botanical Gardens (specifically the Japanese Garden).

This has been in the works for a while but I finally mustered up the courage last week. I was nervous all day Saturday right up until the actual moment. Strangely enough though I was calm when I actually got down on one knee (my bad knee in fact) to pop the question. 

I chose the Japanese Garden for several reasons. 1) It’s one of the most beautiful spots in the city. 2) It reminds me of being back home in Japan. 3) I figured that would be the closest I’d be able to get K. to Japan for the foreseeable future.

We had the garden all to ourselves (with the exception of the carp in the pond and the geese around it). The sun was setting behind us and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. I don’t think God could have provided a more romantic setting if he had tried.

The best part of it all was… she said YES!!!

007 Sony VAIO/Cybershot DSC-T50B – With the latest James Bond flick less than a month away the obligatory product tie ins are in full swing. This combo from Sony will only set you back 4300 bucks. It’s a small price to pay to pretend to be Bond though. Combine that with the latest Aston Martin plus a new special edition Sony-Ericsson phone and you’ll be fully Bonded out. Minus the beautiful women, breathtaking locales, and Q of course.

I’m not a huge baseball fan. Regular season games are extremely boring unless experienced in person and the season is too darn long. That being said I love playoff baseball… IF the Yankees are playing.

I’ve been a Yankees fan since I received my first baseball card back in the mid-80′s. My friend Mike helped me start my collection with some extra cards he didn’t want. I had no clue which teams played where so he figured why not start me out with the two teams in the biggest market of the all, New York. Mike gave me all his extra Topps 1986 Mets cards  so I’d have an NL team and the 86 Yankees so I’d have an AL one. Being an avid baseball fan, Mike felt that would give me a good start on my way into the world of baseball and baseball cards. I never really became an avid baseball fan but that even did spark my longtime interest in the mighty Yanks.

Fast forward to present times. My beloved Yanks seem to

be in disarray. This time last week I was looking forward to another post season. Another chances for the Yankees to redeem themselves and climb back to the top of the mountain. By Saturday evening I was depressed because yet again their trip to the big dance was a practice in futility.

I’m not sure what the answer is. Firing Joe Torre isn’t the answer. He’s a good manager. Trading A-Rod isn’t the answer either. I don’t think throwing more money at the problem is the fix either. Maybe some team building exercises in the off season are in order. Torre and the boys could go do a ropes course or something. All the corporate muckity mucks do it.

With the Yanks exit comes the end of my post season baseball viewing. I don’t care how may Tommy Lassorda commercials they air. I’m not really a baseball fan so why watch when the only team I care about is no longer in it? I’ll focus my attention on the NFL, College Football, and the upcoming NBA season.

Goodbye baseball. I’ll see you next October when my Yanks give the playoffs another go.

Here’s a quick post to prove I am still alive. The crickets and dust you’ve observed around here lately is due to my upgrading to Blogger Beta before finding an editor that used the new API. That was foolish. Finally I found a build of Microsoft Live Writer that supports Blogger Beta. I’ve never used Writer so I thought I’d give it a spin. Seems okay so far. Now that I’ve got a working editor again we’ll see how I do with posting. Later.

I finally got around to replacing my FM transmitter. I should say I finally scraped up the money to purchase a new one. Recovering financially from being on disability for two months has been a slow frustrating process. I’ve been ipodless in the car since my other transmitter died back in April. Over 3 months of listening to the radio has been excruciating. Thought I’d get back into the swing of things with a Random Mix.

Playlist: @ Big D Radio – Go To List

• Imogen Heap – Clear The Area – Speak For Yourself

• Jay Z – Bonnie and Clyde ft. Beyonce – Blueprint 2: Gift And A Curse
• Pearl Jam - Even Flow
• C + C Music Factory – Just A Touch Of Love (Everyday) – Gonna Make You Sweat
• Linkin Park – KYR4 TH ICH (Chairman Han) – Reanimation
• Fort Minor – Right Now – The Rising Tied
• Cyndi Lauper - The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough – The Essential: Cyndi Lauper
• Smart E’s - Love Is Blind – Sesame’s Treet
• Madonna – Isaac – Confessions On A Dancefloor
• T.I. – What You Know – King
  I love this song. It’s very infectious. Can’t say I like the rest of the album but whenever this song comes on the radio or the ipod my stereo gets turned waaaay up.

Don’t Cry Over Spilt Water aka The Okiblog officially came online June 8, 2002. 4 years later it’s still going even though it limps along at times due to lack of posts. It’s time for another overhaul of the site and hopefully and upgrade in content but I haven’t found time to do that. Now that I’ve got a girlfriend my time at home is limited. Couple that with not having Internet access at the new crib for almost a month and you’ve got a recipe for maintenance of the status quo. I had planned on working on Project Okiblog 3.0 while I was out of work after surgery. Recovery from the surgery and it’s complications prevented that from happening. One of these days I’ve got to set aside time to migrate the site over to Okiboy.net if for no other reason than I’m shelling out money each month for a domain that isn’t being used. That’s starting to add up. Money don’t grow on trees you know.