I finally went to see the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight and words fail me. It was incredible. The movie lasted 2 and half hours but it went by so fast. Heath Ledger as the Joker absolutely makes the movie. I really believe that this is how the Joker was supposed to be portrayed and if he was to make the transition from comics to real life, this is what he would be like. His performance completely blows away Jack Nicholson as the original Joker.

The movie is a rollercoaster ride from beginning to end but its not just about the guns or fights or even Batman himself. If you've seen the new Bond (Casino Royale), then you know that they've made a transition on Bond where he doesn't rely on guns or gadgets but on drama and suspense. It's more gritty and real. The same is true of this new Batman. The performance given by Ledger is absolutely Oscar worthy and he plays the part with such gusto that you can't even tell it's him. It is the epic battle of good versus evil rolled into these 2 characters and they do not disappoint. The interesting thing about it is that the Joker overwhelms the movie. He steals it from Batman and all the other cast of characters. You find yourself looking forward to the next time you see him because you want to know what he'll be doing next. The sad part is that we won't be getting a repeat performance since as most everyone knows, Heath Ledger died in January.

Next on the list, Ironman.

I've realized that no matter how much harder I work, I won't see another dime or earn extra time off. I can try to do the job and do it well but sooner or later, I have to let it go or it will drive me nuts. I love my family and I actually like my job but I can't keep running at this pace and especially without sleep. I haven't taken any vacation since Christmas and I'm ready to pop. I'll probably take a week in August even if I don't go anywhere. So you may not see anything from me for another month or until my vacation. OR I may end up using this more as my creative outlet and letting off steam.

Anyone got suggestions on how to help me de-stress and sleep?

Out of curiosity, what does everyone think it looks like?

For those that are still wondering what my link to the band is, one of the band members is my bro CP. CP has been amazing! He has been the rockstar of the family. He's been with a couple bands including Corsaire, WHK, and Ike Reilly. He's also appeared on TV with VH1's World Series of Pop Culture. Him and his fiancee were known as "team smartypants" for the show. His stardome has been amazing and it just seems to keep getting better.

Check them out if can. The show is free and you get to hear 2 bands.

So where is this going? I like to read the rootsweb newsletter (sent via email) that they send out every week. They have interesting tidbits on what people have found and offer insight into what we can use to help us in our search. The latest newsletter had an article about a woman who had found where a relative was buried and managed to get a headstone for his grave for free. It seems that the Veterans Administration offers free headstones for soldiers of the Civil war. If you can verify their service during the war, they will pay for a headstone to be placed where the individual is buried. This is fantastic news because the Hattaway cemetery has 3 Civil War soldiers; Alfred Baton Hattaway, Nathan Hattaway, and John M Hattaway. Currently, there are no grave markers in the cemetery other than some cement slabs. I would love to have 3 headstones put in the cemetery and especially for free. As the saying goes, "if its free, its for me." I'm also hoping that by having this post on my website, I might help someone else get a gravemarker for their relative. According to the rules of eligibility by the VA, anyone who was a soldier prior to 2006 and did not receive a dishonorable discharge is eligible for a free gravemarker.

Happy Hunting and always enjoy the mystery.

I don't know if I've mentioned it in the past but my sister-inlaw has her own blog. She's had one in the past which I had a link to in the Links section. She recently changed over to a new blog service called tumblr.com. It's pretty nice. I can't say how the backend compares to the blogspot service but it seems more customizable for the user. There is also the ability to post youtube videos (which she's doing alot of lately) in addition to the usual things. The only drawback that I've seen is the lack of comments. The site doesn't offer a place for readers to enter comments on the stories she posts. She's been able to overcome that with a free service that she's added to the site called Disqus.

In case you're wondering, her online name is Vika. It's Russian for "I like to blog". Joking. Seriously, it's Russian for Vicky.

Be sure to check out the dorky video by my bro and his friends. They have some online video hosting service called Vimeo. You can upload a video of yourself singing a song and watch the match magic unfold. It's not a bad rendition but Andy needs to work on his Karaoke or just lip syncing ability. By the way, the shades don't help unless you want to be called Cory Hart (I wear my sunglasses at night).

I'm not sure of the symbolism but I'm pretty sure its an eagle (or a penis with wings and talons). If I had to guess, I would say an American Eagle. It looks like some of the early depictions of the American Bald Eagle. I've seen it used in the military as a representation of power and authority. It looks really cool but again, the whole pain factor is a major deterrent. I'm a wuss and I know it.

I don't know if it's that I'm gaining in popularity or there are web attacks. I'm more inclined to believe the later. Either way, I don't mind growing my statistics but not at the expense of site security. I may have to view the logs to take a deeper look. In the meantime, checkout the stats to see for yourself.

What was amazing to me was how one piece of information can change everything and suddenly send you down a path you had never thought to look. I've always heard that genealogy is like a puzzle with many different pieces. As you talk with other people or research documents, you find more pieces to the puzzle. In this case, I found a key piece of the puzzle. I was looking through Ancestry.com for Lou Gene and in particular, I wanted to find the WW1 draft card for him. It seems that it didn't show up as Lou Gene but Lugene. Once I found that, I was able to find his exact birthday and location. When I went back through the census records, I found him (with a slightly butchered name Lieu G) as a child in the house of "Renza Hataway". In all my research, I've never seen a Renza Hataway. So I was rather surprised. As I thought about it more, I realized that Renza could be short for Lorenzo. When I did another search for Lorenzo, He showed up in the 1860 census for Pike County, Alabama. At the age of 5, he was living in the house of Daniel Hataway.

It seems that there is quite a bit of information on Daniel. Daniel was a Civil War Soldier who served with the 61st Infantry Regiment of Alabama. He also filed quite a few land grants with the state. The problem that I now have is that I can't link him to a family. I haven't been able to find his parents. According to the census records, he was born in North Carolina and his wife was born in South Carolina. That leads me to believe that he's related to the Hattaway's of North Carolina but which ones, I'm not sure. It also leads me to believe that he made the journey through South Carolina with the other Hattaway's (based on the fact that his wife was born in SC).

This year, they made a trip to Europe and visited quite a few sites including Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. While it was only a week, they saw 1 city a day. Let's just say that they have sore legs now. Victoria got some great pictures as usual and now that they're back, she's been posting the pictures online.

Along with that, I wanted to mention how great they've been. Allow me to explain. My son Joshua received an assignment from his 1st grade class involving a book called Flat Stanley. The assignment was to mail a picture of Flat Stanley to someone that we know in a different city or country and ask them to send back pictures of Stanley from that location. They also need to write a short account of what its like in that city or country. Since I knew that Andy and Victoria were heading to Europe, I asked them to take Stanley with them on the trip. They were not only kind enough to take him but also take pictures of him at many famous locations. The picture on the left is of Stanley at the Eiffel Tower. They got pictures of him with the Venus de Milo, Arc de Triomphe, and The Louvre. That's just to name a few locations. There were quite a few. So to summarize, Josh was the hit of the class. His pictures were very well received by the class and they were all jealous. I really want to thank Andy and Victoria for their help with this. They did an outstanding job of helping Josh with his project and I owe Andy a Guinness (I LOVE YOU MAN!!). I will be uploading all the pictures of Stanley to this site once I've download them. Click on the link below to see all the pictures from their trip.