Happy Birthday To Me! (& Christopher Walken & Air America Radio)

It's that time of year again. March 31st. . .My Birthday! And this year it's one of those milestone birthdays. . . 30!

Finally out of the terrible tweens. Unlinke some people, I'm not depressed about turning 30. I am glad to get the 20's over. There were some good times, but there were also some tough times and hard lessons leared. I'm glad they're done with.

I'm more ok with myself now than I have ever been. I also know that I am more focused on what I want to get accomplished in life. So I am expecting great things in the coming years.

So what am I doing for the big 3-0? Well, I have the day off from work and I am waiting to hear from the mechanic, what the damage is on my car? It was overheating earlier in the week. So I am bummed at what it may cost, but that's life. Tonight, I am meeting up with friends at a bar/restaurant near my house for food, drinks and laughs. I am looking forward to that. And then, tomorrow I have tickets to go see my absolute favorite band, Dream Theater, play at Radio City Music Hall. What makes this show incredibly special is that it is their 20 anniversary and they are filming the show for a DVD! I can't wait!!

And then I'll spend Sunday recovering, because I am 22 no more. I'll make sure I post here some more.

Thanks for all your support and love the past year as I have blogged. I look forward to sharing many more birthdays to come with you.


(Edited to add)
This is the funny-ass card my Dad sent me. Those are my sisters, my Dad, his wife and of course, Dubya.

The inside read: "GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT. . .to Have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Now you see where I get my sick sense of humor from!

Finding Forgiveness

Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it.
Do you want happiness, a quiet mind,
a certainty of purpose,
and a sense of worth and beauty
that transcends the worlds
Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed,
a gentleness that can never be hurt,
a deep abiding comfort,
and a rest so perfect it can never be upset?
All this forgiveness offers you.

-Taken from ­–The Course in Miracles


Since New Year’s I have been working on “Forgiveness” as a major theme in my life. It was theme that ran through much of last year as I worked on reconciling with my father and forgiving myself of some things I have held onto for years. I continue to tackle this theme as I work on resolving my emotions regarding the comments (Read the events: Here.) of someone, who until recently, I considered one of my closest friends. (Or at least someone with whom I had a very special connection.)

I believe the words written above about Forgiveness are true. I know they are from experience. Then how come I am having such a hard time forgiving my friend?

He has called me a least five times since the beginning of January. And five times I have let it go to voice mail. I think the Universe was trying to tell me something one of those days. I had been practicing a mantra to help with forgiveness, mainly to change my attitude whenever I thought of this person.

“I forgive you, (insert name here), and I release you to the Holy Spirit.”

I had been saying that mantra all afternoon. So who calls that night? He does. Alas, the student (me) wasn’t ready and let it go to voicemail.

So I think the next post or two will continue on this topic. I know that I have to get to some point of forgiveness with this issue with my friend, if even so I do not carry such negative emotions. I know all the benefits of forgiveness, I am just having trouble with this particular situation. Perhaps it is because this if a friend and not a family member. No matter what happens in life, my father is my father. And with regarding to forgiving myself, I’m the one person I’ll have to deal with everyday of my life. But a friendship is something made by choice.

If you have words of advice or wisdom about how to make forgiveness work or stories how forgiveness has played a role in your life, please feel free to comment.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Hope everyone is wearing their green today! Myself, I am glad just to have another excuse to have a pint of Guinness. Not like I need another one really.

"What, it's Wednesday? Let's celebrate with a pint of Guinness!"

Awhile back I wrote about my Puerto Rican heritage, from my mother's side. On my father's side, I'm Irish. Go figure with a last name like "O'Gara!" I even have Irish citizenship. I have never visited the Emerald Isle, but, strangely, it feels like Home to me.

Next year, I plan on making my first visit to Ireland with my father and sister. I imagine the conversation with the Irish Customs Officer to go a little like this when I show him my Irish passport.

"Welcome home, Mr. O'Gara!"

"Thank you. I've been gone for too long?"

"How long have you been away, sir?"

"All my life."

Below is my family's coat of arms, taken from the official O'Gara Website.













This will be my next tattoo, on my right shoulder. On my left shoulder, I will get the crest of my mother's family, Clavell.















That way I honor both halves of who I am.


However, tonight I will drink Guinness instead of Barcardi & Coke (which has deep family meaning as I am a descendent of the Bacardi family), eat corned beef & cabbage instead of pernil and empanadas, and I'll sing "Whiskey In the Jar" and "The Tale of the Irish Rover" as loud as I can!

"My Name is, What? My Name is, What?. . . "

At work, there is a place to access various needed forms through our website. You enter your name and the required password for the different sections. At first, I entered in my username for our network which consists of my first initial and then my last name, which is the same as my work email address

However, I learned recently that employees who did not have email addresses are still able to access the forms. This got me thinking and experimenting. I type in “Jim O’Gara,” the password, and it works. I type in “James O’Gara,” the password, and it works. I type in “Spider O’Gara,” the password, and it works

Apparently, so long as one has the right password, any name will work. Believe me, I’ve tried! Here is a list, in no particular order, of the names I’ve used so far:

Scooby Doo	Shaggy	Fred Flintstone
Barney Rubble	George Jetson	Spacely Sprockets
Willy Wonka	Veruca Salt	Augustus Gloop
Rikki Rocket	C.C. Deville	Nikki Sixx
Joe Satriani	Eddie Van Halen	Steve Vai
Valentine Michael Smith	Bilbo Baggins	Frodo Baggins
Gandalf the Grey	Samwise Gamgee	Legolas
Peter Gabriel	James Hetfield	Ozzy Osbourne
Zakk Wylde	Tom Dumont	Frank Zappa
Albus Dumbledore	Severus Snape	Harry Potter
Hermione Granger	Rubeus Hagrid	Alex P. Keaton
Connor MacLeod	Duncan MacLeod	Juan Sanchez Rameriz Villa-Lobos
Punky Brewter	Yogi Bear	Leonardo DaVinci
Peter Parker	Otto Octavis	J. Jonah Jameson
Bruce Wayne	Clark Kent	Hal Leonard
Professor X	Logan	Jean Grey
Stone Cold Steve Austin	Ric Flair	The Rock
Indiana Jones	Obi-wan Kenobi	Luke Skywalker
Jean Luc Picard	James T. Kirk	Geordi LaForge
Data	Q	Spock
Ron Jeremy	Chu Toi	Turner D. Century
Ray O’Light	Rachel Prophiling	Even Playenfeld

If you got all those characters, celebrities, and musicians, then you need a life!! Apparently, I do.

It is a good thing that some friends of mine, who work in the computer field, told me that a record of these names are kept on the company’s server somewhere before I tried “Heywood D’Jablomi.” Even though I know my entries are being recorded, why do I still enter in crazy names?

Simple, because I’m bored. And I know my company’s one IT guy is too busy with more important projects. Besides, if he ever questions why the great wizard Gandalf the Grey or Captain Jean Luc-Picard of the Starship Enterprise are downloading forms from my company’s website, then he will see that it is my computer that is the culprit. And he will laugh.

So I will continue to pretend to be Austin Powers or Anthony Robbins to alleviate both my boredom and the IT guy’s boredom. Perhaps I will even try Wang Chung tonight, just to have some fun tonight.

(C’mon, I know you’re singing that chorus now! “Everybody, have fun tonight/Everybody Wang Chung tonight.” Feel Free to give suggestions for names I should try in the future.)

30 to 30

Today marks the 30 day countdown till I turn 30 years old. 4:36pm on Friday, March 31st will mark the closing of my thirtieth year on this planet Earth. I bet that makes my parents feel old!

So I am going to try to catch up as much as I can with posts I have promised this month as I approach this landmark birthday. Along the way, if any of you have any words of wisdom, advice, or nonsense about turning thirty that you’d like to share, please feel free.