I mentioned on Saturday that, “I am even more of a Geezer today” and I hinted there would be more later. It’s later.

You see, I turned 56 on Saturday. I didn’t run out and buy a new Testerossa (not that I could afford the key fob for one. Besides, a classic Mustang or ‘Vette would be more to my liking). No, but I did change something. Me.

From the time I started shaving I’ve had at least a mustache. Yes, it was the 70′s, but it wasn’t any great fashion statement, I just never was very good at shaving the real estate between my nose and upper lip. After a while it just became natural.

Even into the 80′s and 90′s I always wore the ‘stache. I’m no Tom Selleck. Heck, I’m no John Bolton, but having a hairy upper lip was as much a part of me as hazel eyes and a strange sense of humor. It’s not that I chose not to shave it, I didn’t even think about shaving it.

Over the years I would occasionally grow a beard. Not all the time, but off and on. Until the last 10 year. Now, I don’t even remember the last time I didn’t have a full beard. Some time it would be neatly trimmed, and other times it would be needing to be trimmed. One theory (and I’m pretty sure this is accurate) is that I was just to lazy to shave. I never did care for it much. I didn’t even have a razor anymore!

I changed that on Friday.

At least I bought the razor on Friday. Then, I nearly chickened out. Friday night, Saturday, most of the day on Sunday – the razor sat, unused, in the bathroom. Finally, Sunday afternoon I took the plunge. After ten years of the beard, it was gone.

I look in the mirror and don’t even recognize myself. I think I like it, but it’s a big change. I sure don’t remember that second chin being under there. At least it’s cheaper than a sports car.

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You probably know I’m an old geezer. You may not know I’m also a gamer. I love playing online games, and I’ve created a blog for gamers like me who aren’t tweens, teens, or twenty-somethings — GeezerGamer.

My latest post takes a look at Star Wars: The Old Republic. I was invited to the latest round of beta testing, but my system wasn’t quite up to the task.

FYI, I am even more of a Geezer today. More about that later.

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I did get Up Before Dawn yesterday morning, fully intending to find some good posts for the First Cup. Well, it just didn’t work out that way. You see, my internet provider (which will remain nameless) had a bit of an outage. I found out that it started around 4am and lasted until the time I was walking in the door at work.

Oddly enough, I couldn’t get a network connection on my smart phone at the same time. I couldn’t even make a call! I had no idea what was causing that. Between the front door and the office my phone started ringing (no cell phones are allowed on the floor). Got to the office, called home (very glad that I could make a call) and found out that everything else was back on.

I sure am looking forward for the pro-rated deduction they’re going to make from my bill. They’re not? Oh well.

This morning’s First Cup is on the way.

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I have a new post at my WordPress.com site, Social Media when you’re not very sociable? Please take a look and leave your comments/answers.

That is all.

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Good Morning! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, even my friends further up the east coast. I hope everyone is safe, and remains safe as the clean up begins.

This is post #10 in my 100 Post Marathon, so I figured that called for a little update. You can read the basics here. A lot of what we need to do simply couldn’t be done on the weekend. I’ll be taking another vacation day today, leaving just one for the rest of the year. Cindy has missed four good nights of work, and the tips that would have come with them.

I plan on posting much more today than I did over the weekend. I was a bit stressed at the fact that I couldn’t really do that much Saturday or Sunday. I also completely understand that 1)People don’t read blogs as much on the weekends and 2)Everyone’s attention was focused on Irene. Let me suggest that if you ever hold a major fund raiser, you don’t do it during a natural disaster that garners days of 24 hour news coverage.

If you can help, we will really appreciate it. We need to raise about $1150, today if possible. That’s only $10 from 115 people – $5 from 230. Surely there are 230 readers here. If not, you can help there, too. Please point people you know to this post. Thank you for your kindness and help.

If you can…

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I’ve mowed most of the lawn, so it’s time to move inside and cool off. USA is showing National Treasure. Of course it’s totally unbelievable, but in such a fun way that I usually watch when I see it playing.

Of course a bit of Diane Kruger doesn’t hurt.

Tell your friends about the 2011 100 Post Marathon. Thank You.

If you can…

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Here’s something I’ve been curious about – are bRight & Early readers, who I believe skew toward the conservative side of the political spectrum, gamers? If you are, what games do you play? Console, PC, or just on your phone?

We have an X-Box in the house, but only a few games. The boys play it sometime, but I’ve never been very good at it. They have been playing a game online called Roblox. I’m not sure I get it.

I prefer to play games online. For quite a while I’ve played WoW – pretty geeky for a 55 year old. My guild includes pretty much everyone in my department at work. We are the numbers geeks after all. I am also looking forward to the release of Star Wars – The Old Republic. It looks like it is going to be a good one.

I used to play the games on Facebook like Farmville, Cafe World, and whatever that mobster game is. They became a bit old after a while, and I hardly ever get on Facebook anymore. I’ve been spending time on Google + (if you want an invite, let me know). They recently added games there, but the only one I’ve really spent much time playing is City of Wonder.

One game I like is called The West. I play on four different servers, or worlds as they call them – World 12, Arizona, Briscoe, and Colorado. You get to be a character in the American West and, like most games of this type, you have to perform various tasks to gain money and experience. You can choose to be a Worker, Soldier, Adventurer, or Dueller. I tend to gravitate toward Builders(Worker) and Adventurers.

What games do you like to play online? The comments are waiting for you.

Why a 100 Post Marathon?

If you can…

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It’s that time of year again — School Time!

During the summer I could sleep late and leave for work as early as I wanted. Of course I usually waited until the last minute so I didn’t end up with overtime. Still, I could have left earlier, if I had wanted too.

The biggest challenge during summer break is getting some computer time. Three computers divided by three growing kids and two adults is math that even I can do. That changes with the ability to use those magic words, “it’s a school night.” On the downside, I have to get up earlier.

Next year is going to be really interesting. We will have one child in each school; Elementary, Middle, and High School. That’s going to be fun.

The new school year is, to me, more of a marker of the years passing than a birthday. That means I’m getting older, and that’s not right.

Time to get back into the school year routine.

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Today would have been Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday. For years she made televisions audiences laugh with a comedic style that others have rarely approached, let alone matched. And, as you can see, she was quite the looker in her early days.

Cal Thomas has written this remembrance, Why We Still Love Lucy.

The 1950s, a decade dominated by the likes of Lucy, Milton Berle, Steve Allen, Red Skelton and so many other funny people, constrained performers from engaging in what was then called “blue humor.” In other words, you had to really be funny and not rely on bathroom humor for cheap laughs. In addition, these TV shows were done before live audiences. There was no such thing as a laugh track. If you weren’t funny, you didn’t get laughs and you died on stage.

[...]

Even in re-runs, her comedy still works: the Vitameta Vegimin supplement, infused with alcohol, made her drunk, but her drunkeness, far from being crude or a turn-off, was hilarious and still makes me laugh. Same with the scene where she is crushing grapes with her feet in an Italian village, and the time when she and neighbor Ethel Mertz were picking candy off a conveyor belt that suddenly speeds up. Lucy starts shoving chocolates down the front of her shirt. I defy anyone not to crack-up, regardless of their age.

Here is one of her classic bits, Vitameatavegamin:

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This isn’t X-Files strange, just a day or so of oddness. And maybe that’s not really the right term. Let me put it this way, I am extremely predictable. I take the same route to work, watch the same shows on TV, I’ve even caught myself wearing the same shirt the same day every week. When I started to think of it as my “Monday” shirt I, at least, put a stop to that. When I go to certain places to eat, I order the same thing. I get home about the same time every night, and save yard work for the weekends. That’s where the oddness starts.

Tuesday night I got home at the usual time. Being summer, there was still plenty of daylight left and there were some bushes that needed a good haircut. I got the loppers out and trimmed them back to decency. In the process I pulled something in my left shoulder. Yesterday morning there was a bit of a twinge, and still this morning I’m in a bit of pain if I lift my arm the wrong way.

I mentioned yesterday that I was getting a new Smart Phone. That’s not really odd, but I’ve had the same phone for nearly three years. It came in while I was at work. It’s going to take me a week to get used to all the new capabilities. Like I said, not really odd, but when I got home and went to activate the phone my carrier’s activation system was down. It was about two hours later that I was able to get the thing going.

Earlier yesterday, on the way to work, I tried to use my debit card and it was declined even though there was more than enough balance to offset the small purchase I was trying to make. I called customer support and they assured me I had plenty in that account and that some security feature had been triggered inadvertently. They also claimed that they had fixed it. They hadn’t, as I discovered when I went to lunch. Thankfully I had enough cash. Another call to customer support, a transfer to card security, several minutes of answering questions and confirming previous transaction and I was good to go. This time they were right. I checked on the way home.

Of course, when I got online last night one of the things I checked was the number of visitors to bRight & Early. On a typical day I will get 250-500 visits, a number I’m always trying to increase. Last night that number was over 10000, ending the day at 14,946. What? What great bit of writing could have possibly brought in that many views? Come to find out that it wasn’t my great writing, but a picture of Danica Patrick that I posted months ago that had moved up to the top of one of the search engines image listings.

See? Not odd odd, but not typical either. I wonder what today will bring. I hope I can get my shirt on without help. My “Thursday” shirt is one of my favorites.

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