Ruined My Life

WE'VE MOVED!

2007-04-08T12:06:00.000-04:00

The whole thing picked up and just moved down the Information Superhighway. Shannon says it's an opportunity to do new and better things, I bet it will be a means of continuing to ruin my life. Overall I think it will be easier to:

1) Add Links and Places to Go
and
2) Blog with pictures

Click here and then add it to your favorites if you read this and actually care.

Other People's Blogs

2007-04-07T13:21:00.000-04:00

Now, I'm not going to claim to be a genius, but I do think that there are a lot of REALLY REALLY REALLY dumb people blogging out there. Sometimes I wonder what planet they're living on. One such case, someone who had a fight to the death between Family Guy and the Simpsons.

I don't know where to start. I made a comment (though I was logged in as my wife "Shannonoz"), but feel that this needs a bit more comment. I am sick of people claiming that Family Guy is anything but a cheap, poor quality rip off of the Simpsons. The show sucks! There is no subtlety in its jokes, there is no creativity or originality. The Simpsons made fun of it being a clone and it took the show's creator two months to figure it out.

My wife was saying yesterday that the Internet has given the masses the ability to take content back from the news media. Another thing it's done is brought idiots together so they can share their stupid thoughts.

American Idle

2007-04-06T10:48:00.000-04:00

So Sanjaya lives and the people who have too much free time and no taste or responsibilities in the world are going apeshit crazy. Today, I noticed that Yahoo! had something on their main page and people are really upset about this Sanjaya thing.

Come on people, get over yourself. The idiots who won in the past aren't any good. Milli Vanilli sold a lot of records too and they SUCKED. Go listen to your Clay Aiken records and read Teen People and USA Today and think that you're in touch with culture and the arts in your own little delusional world. The rest of us are going to have fun screwing with the show and watching it go down in flames. LONG LIVE SANJAYA.

I wonder if the woman on a hunger strike against Sanjaya has croaked yet? Eat a Cheesburger for Sanjaya! (or if you're Catholic eat a Filet O' Fish with Cheese today).

Oprah and the Road

2007-03-28T17:21:00.000-04:00

So, Oprah's book club has selected Cormac McCarthy's new book The Road as it's new book. Quite a departure, considering it's a tale of a post apocolytic world in which cannibals roam the streets. Nice stuff for the weepy baby boomer set that makes up her audience.

My favorite are the reading questions so that middle aged women can discuss the horror of the book.

Here is how I imagine the conversation going...

Discussion Moderator: Cormac McCarthy has an unmistakable prose style. What do you see as the most distinctive features of that style? How is the writing in The Road in some ways more like poetry than narrative prose?

Karen: It’s, well kind of grunty. It’s so different than the writers in Redbook.

Leanne: Yes I agree, but it’s not like poetry. Nothing rhymes. There are no nice images of leaves of grass or flowers.

Donna: I like how it’s a family story with a man and his son.

Low roar of nodding and approving. Ok, next question…

Moderator: Why do you think McCarthy has chosen not to give his characters names? How do the generic labels of "the man" and "the boy" affect the way in which readers relate to them?

Donna: Maybe if he gave their names they wouldn’t be quite so universal. Or maybe he thought that they wouldn’t be calling each other Barry and Vick. I don’t know.

Karen: This is just like men to objectify people and not name them. They have more of an identify.

Leanne: My brain hurts, I didn’t notice, I just didn’t want them to be eaten.

Moderator: How is McCarthy able to make the post-apocalyptic world of The Road seem so real and utterly terrifying? Which descriptive passages are especially vivid and visceral in their depiction of this blasted landscape? What do you find to be the most horrifying features of this world and the survivors who inhabit it?

Donna: I didn’t like all the gray and no food. What would we do without Applebees?

Leanne: I think the lack of bathing would be unpleasant!

Karen: It’s like an old black and white TV show, that’s creepy! (low roar of agreement again).

Moderator: McCarthy doesn't make explicit what kind of catastrophe has ruined the earth and destroyed human civilization, but what might be suggested by the many descriptions of a scorched landscape covered in ash? What is implied by the father's statement that, "On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world," [p. 32]?

Karen: Wow, that’s deep. I don’t have any clue.

Donna: Was it terrorists, I bet it was terrorists.

Leanne: I wonder if Al Gore had something to do with his global warming and all. That sounds dangerous, why does he support it so?

Karen: Maybe it was aliens? But where did they go? It reminds me of Tom Cruise in war of the worlds, do you think he stole it from that movie? Maybe he did, there was ash in that movie.

Donna: How did they bury those monsters in the ground?

Karen: I think it was aliens who conspired with global warming to … Oh Desperate Housewives is on, I’ve had enough of this.

Asshole of the Week

2007-03-28T12:34:00.000-04:00

So, just when I thought the New Jersey state legislature was the Asshole of the Week, I've discovered the woman who is hungerstriking against Sanjaya on American Idol. Below is a news article on this moron...

No Soup for You!

She's also on MySpace. You can read J's blog here

For once, I think I'm completely shocked into silence. I understand protesting war, injustice, inhumanity, goverments, laws, etc. But to risk your health because of a TV show, and a bad one at that? I don't think that those people who worship the Evil Pagan God Clay Aiken would even go that far.

So, once again, to assist nature and Darwinism, I ask that you visit Vote for the Worst to help continue this and any other hunger strike out there. In the meantime, I'd like to suggest everyone to Eat a Cheesburger for Sanjaya. It's very easy to do, any cheese will work (cheddar, provelone, munster, montery jack, etc.) and it will make you happy.

Legislating Versus Common Sense

2007-03-26T18:08:00.000-04:00

So I'm torn. The government is constantly telling people what to do, but then people are such fucking idiots. Who do I side with? I think I have to side with the people on this. Darwinism at it's finest. If a few Gen Y'ers crash and burn thanks to texting while driving, BOO Fucking HOO. The question is, does that text message really make you so much more productive that your day is made??

But I Needed to Tell My Friend Something NOW and it Was IMPORTANT

How about this, people pull your head out of your asses. Governmental officials, leave us alone. Can't we all just get along??

Have Fun with American Idol

2007-03-22T15:09:00.001-04:00

So, don't like American Idol? Want to screw with the people who love it? Want to mess up the chances of the next Clay Aiken? Here's your shot. I heard this on the Howard Stern show yesterday. It's called Vote For the Worst. What is it? It's a web site dedicated to voting for the worst singer on American Idol in an attempt to either 1) prove that the show's producers are rigging the votes or 2) take control of it and crash it into the ground in a glorious ball of flames. Either way, the goal is to vote for the worst singer to make a mockery of the show. Of course, Clay Aiken didn't need it to almost win.

Celebrity Sighting 2

2007-03-22T10:11:00.000-04:00

So, this time I saw a REAL celebrity in the airport. Last time, as many of you know I saw that freak Clay Aiken and caught a ration of shit from the crazies who love him and think he is some new Pagan God.

This time I saw Don Cheadle in the Admiral's Club in LAX. The guy looked like he wanted to be left alone, otherwise I would have said hello and mentioned that my wife's company does good work in the third world, including Rwanda and that I thought he was robbed in the Oscar hunt. I'm guessing he was out promoting his new movie with Adam Sandler as he was on Jimmy Kimmel that night or the next.

Rock Hall Mistake?

2007-03-12T18:48:00.000-04:00

So, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland has decided to admit it's first Rap/Hip Hop Artist. I respectfully must disagree with this decision. While I do not like rap/Hip Hop, I do understand that people do care for it greatly. Like Country or Opera or Bluegrass or World Music or Gregorian Chants or Classical it's a genre of music that exists and has fans. One thing, however, that it is not is ROCK.

As a proud Rockist I am upset by this decision. I think that Hip Hop should have it's own hall of fame. If they wish to include rock artists they can, but to be honest, I don't think the two belong together. The rule for eligibility is 25 years from the first album. That would put us at 1982. There have to be bands whose first album was released in 1982 that are more deserving to be in the ROCK Hall of Fame... How about:

Gang of Four
Husker Du
Bad Religion
Sonic Youth
Mission of Burma

These are all bands that released an album in 1982, a few of them were debuts. It seems to me that Sonic Youth has done more for rock than any rap artist.

Ugly Americans

2007-03-07T19:13:00.000-05:00

I constantly hear when we Americans travel abroad that we are the "ugly americans." However, I have encountered a number of Europeans lately who (and I do NOT want to generalize all Europeans this way) are some of the most misguided and pompous people I have met. They've accused us as being racist, conformist, misguided, etc. Meanwhile, while telling me we're racist they scream about, "ARABS, ARABS, ARABS who want to take over!"

The issue that we discussed at length was the banning of religious symbols in French schools. I am a privately religious person who believes in the right of my fellow man to decide his own path. I try to live the cliche "I don't agree with you but I will fight to the death to defend your right to believe that."

So, I was told that children should "not be allowed" to wear turbans, burkhas, crosses, yarmulkes, etc. in schools because it promotes freedom for the individual. I have no idea how denying choice to the individual does so. It seems to me that allowing people to express their religion or thoughts in a public arena (without imposing those beliefs on others) is one of the cornerstones of a free society.

Personally, I believe that Europe is so obsessed with maintaining and protecting an antiquated European Cultural Ideal that they do not have room for other ideas. The U.S. is not perfect by any means, but at least our system is set up to protect the individual and their expression through law instead of forcing them to conform. It's ironic though how the Europeans feel that our system forces conformity.

To be honest, I think they're upset because they can't waltz through our country whenever they want, are faced with views that they disagree with, and are presented with a multitude of cultures that carry the weight of nearly 300 million people. I would humbly suggest that they learn a thing or two about the right to free religion and expression. This is one area I know that we, as Americans, are light years ahead.

Let's Go to the Airport

2007-03-06T21:09:00.000-05:00

So I travel for work. A lot. There are weeks when I feel like I'm living in the airport. As such, I have a system for getting through security. My phone and keys have a place in my brief case (and are placed there as soon as I am out of the car), I know when I need my ID, I know what to do with my laptop, shoes, and jacket. I even have the liquids thing figured out. As a result, when there isn't a line I breeze through and am back together quickly.

While I don't agree that the measures at these checkpoints do any good, I live with it because I have to. However, I've noticed a lot of people who seem to show up at the airport and I want to ask them, "Did you know you were getting on a plane today??"

So many fellow travellers show up with more shit in their pockets than I thought humanly possible. They wait until they get in line and then they're pulling out phones and change and belts and moneyclips and lighters and pocket knives and pens and PDAs and Crapberrys and Starbuck's cups and small children. It's like another dimension in their pockets and they always seem to have forgotten that none of it can go through the metal detector. While they're pulling it all out, they look up while mouth breathing and ask, "Do I have to take my shoes off?"

Get a clue, please! We're all in it together at the airport, stay alert and organized. Don't have your pockets filled. Please get out of my way, I'm grumpy in the airport and all I want is to get to the Admiral's Club as quickly as possible.

On another note, the amoount of noise pollution at airports just keeps getting worse. They're putting in tile floors (so the sound bounces), playing CNN at full blast, making gate announcements, making security announcements, and playing Muzak on the planes as you get on. Delta, why the hell do you think Michael Bolton is going to relax me? If anything, you're adding to my tension. Thanks!

Work all the Time

2007-03-06T17:41:00.000-05:00

I was speaking with my wife this weekend and I thought she summed up the world very well. There are two types of people, those who gain energy from people and those who are drained by people - gaining energy from being home in their nest. I have determined that while I have to deal with people day-to-day, I am one of the latter types.

My work requires travel and right now I'm in the middle of a large trip. I'm the only person in my office who understands my desire to go without sleep, food, etc. in order to get home. There is something about home that helps me recharge. Travelling with coworkers is tiresome, no matter how much you like them. After a while I need to sink into the couch and just spend time with my wife.

I feel as though work is creeping into the spaces I hold dear. It's not that I mind working late hours or hard (ask my wife, she can tell of many cold dinners), it's that after a while I need to get away from people - clients, coworkers, strangers, vendors, waiters, hotel employees, etc.

I was thinking this weekend how when I was a kid, the best times I had were those playing in my room by myself. Spending time alone or with family seems like the greatest thing to do with my time. As the second year of my marriage is drawing to a close I find that my family (my wife and I for now) is the greatest social bond I have ever made. We can be together without asking anything from the other beyond the other's company. It's nice.

I find myself searching for a better balance between life and work. This doesn't mean ignoring my responsibilities, it means finding time for myself. I'm not a drinker, I don't work out, I don't have many hobbies that take me away from the world. My refueling comes from spending time with the ones I love. Being away from them (specifically Shannon) drains me beyond any task set before me.

The Healing Power of Shitheads

2007-02-27T20:19:00.000-05:00

I'm constantly amazed at how famous people get away with shit that the rest of us can't. Naomi Campbell, in a fit of decadence and general brattiness threw her phone (not the first such incident) at her maid in a fit of rage. Now, after getting caught and dragged to court, she regrets it. Boo Fucking Hoo

She regrets it because she got caught. I like how she's using crystals to heal her anger. How about losing the sense of inflated self importance and that the world is there to kiss your ass? That might help more than crystals.

The Today Show did an interesting piece today on Fame. Apparently high school kids would rather be famous than smarter. I say we take all these fame whores, ship them to an island and do away with the cult of being famous for fame's sake. I would find that VERY healing.

I do, however, believe that all Gary Glitter stories are really a public service. That guy is creepier than Clay Aiken.

A Note on Dipshits

2007-02-20T16:20:00.000-05:00

I take it all back. Clay Aiken is not what is wrong with the world... The people who worship him like some Babylonian God are what is wrong with the world. Of the 98 comments left on my earlier post (I have to admit I'm kind of impressed), this is one of the only ones that actually seem to get it...

CLAYMATE ATTACK! WOO-WOO-WOO!

Poor Martin. Now you've done it. You've insulted the greatest and most holy visionary of our time, Saint Clesus of ASS-sissy.

Of course the crazy nutmates missed the entire point of your blog, but what else is new? They ain't too bright -- especially when they're under the influence of the Clesus Juice.

I just wonder if the comments are weepy women in loveless marriages or half-retarded Gen Y denziens who wouldn't know good music if it smacked them... And yes, I do hate everyone else. Calling me a hater doesn't upset me one bit. And musically, I identify myself (quite proudly) as a Rockist. Google it...

Oh, and he was wearing some strange Green and Yello striped shirt. I still swear he got into a fight with a lawnmower.

A Note on Fame

2007-02-20T08:20:00.000-05:00

So, I'm in the security line at RDU this morning and who do I see behind me but Clay Aiken? I know, famous people have to fly like the rest of us, but he's enjoying being famous a little too much. He's got this huge shit eating grin on his face the entire time. None of this bothers me until he barges into the Admiral's Club and then locks himself in the conference room. Apparently I'm sitting next to a shared wall and I just hear him coughing and making goofy noises back there. He sure is a goofy son of a bitch.

The thing I don't get is, why is he still famous? He can't sing, he's just goofy looking (I think he was attached by a blind barber), and he really hasn't done anything worthy of continued fame. He's part of a generation where being famous is good enough to be famous. I swear, he's more frightening looking than Gary Glitter.

Now, I was on a flight one time when Penny Marshall got kicked out of first class to the back of the plane. It was just her and her romance novel. She wasn't happy, but I have to respect Laverne for not having an posse or trying to draw any attention to herself.

Man I hate Gen Y sometimes...

Now THAT'S a Hockey Player

2007-02-16T15:31:00.000-05:00

Brendan Shanahan lost a tooth last night in the New York Rangers 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. What made it more remarkable is that he took a puck in the face, then went back and picked up the tooth before getting a dentist's appointment on the bench. The Daily News caught a GREAT picture of this...

Nice Job Shanny!

Holy Shit!

2007-02-09T16:59:00.000-05:00

So the Anna Nicole Smith thing gets weirder. Now Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband is claiming that HE might have fathered the kid! WTF????

Hello Dahling!

What next? Is OJ going to find a way to get involved in this mess (one can only hope).

Time Suck

2007-02-09T10:45:00.000-05:00

So I realize that blogging can waste hours and hours of time, but I've discovered a more worthless time suck lately... MYSPACE. Beyond the idiocy of posting intimate pictures and details out there for the entire world to see and then being surprised that your employer looks at them, the whole idea seems to be stupid to me. Let's all create a bullshit online persona so we can strut around and make no sense. Maybe I'm showing my age or generation (GO GEN X), but come on, spend your time doing something better. Watch classic TV and learn who the Fonz is. Discover that the past has some relevant cultural touchpoints and that you're not the center of the universe. Just stop living in that little bubble you've created.

Lock up the Kids, Gary's Getting Out!!

2007-02-07T10:08:00.000-05:00

So, the next time you're at a sporting event and here that song with the hard guitar that goes NAH Nah Nah Nah "HEY!" Nah nah nah nah, chew on this...

He Looks Like a Child Molester

He's getting out soon! Kids, there is a Boogie Man, and this is what he looks like.

Not Everything Should be About 9/11

2007-02-02T13:48:00.000-05:00

I, like many Americans, watched in horror on 9/11. Thanks to television, we got to see if all unfold live. However, I want to now say we need to move on, even if just a little tiny bit. Not everything is about 9/11. 9/11 has created a sense of paranoia in this country that has allowed everyone to overreact about everything.

In response to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force fiasco, one of Boston's city fathers said...

"Just a little over a mile away from the placement of the first device, a group of terrorists boarded airplanes and launched an attack on New York City," police Commissioner Edward Davis said in an interview with The Associated Press

Does that mean if we discovered the 9/11 hijackers had breakfast at a particular Denny's that we could overreact to everything because only a mile away, the 9/11 hijackers had breakfast just a week before they borded planes...?? I mean, come on! Use some fucking common sense, check Google, and get your dignity back. I said the other day that Boston was officially the dumbest city in America. I can't believe they are proving me right so easily!

Now that it's nearly six years later, I vote that unless you lost a close, immediate relative (spouse, parent, sibling, grandparent) that you can no longer use 9/11 as an excuse to: 1) suspend rights, 2) act stupid, 3) pass a law.

The Dumb Get Dumber

2007-02-01T14:23:00.000-05:00

This, I think, is my favorite quote from today regarding the Boston Hoax....

"It's clear the intent was to get attention by causing fear and unrest that there was a bomb in that location," Assistant Attorney General John Grossman said at their arraignment.

Personally, I think it's clear that the intent was to get people to watch a cartoon while stoned out of their mind. Come on!

And then, there is this gem...

"It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme," Mayor Thomas Menino said Wednesday. "I am prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today's incidents."

It's called viral marketing! I think the legal action should be that the Mayor of Boston shuts the hell up!

America's Dumbest City

2007-02-01T09:06:00.000-05:00

Well, the title of America's dumbest city officially goes to Boston today. Is it because of their love of the Red Sox? No (but that helps their ranking). It's because they thought the Aqua Teen Hunger Force was coming to get them. Even that idiot Dianne Sawyer laughed at them this morning, and she's borderline retarded!

As a result, I name Boston America's Dumbest City thanks to its
incredible paranoia and then anger because they overreacted. I mean, come on! It's advertising, it's a prank, it's stupid! Why didn't any of the other cities go nuts, lock down, and freak out?

Bravo Boston, Bravo...

Periodic Roundup and Odds and Ends and the Such

2007-01-31T16:14:00.000-05:00

Just one or two interesting things I wanted to get off my chest/bring up...

First, I really hate this guy. Curt Schilling has been out of the news for a while so now he has to have all the attention in the world. "Hey, look at me, I'm a giant asshole!" I really really REALLY hate this guy and hope that he has the shittiest year of his career.

Red Sox Asshole Seeks Attention

Second, I was invited to participate in the National Security Bloggers. I'm not sure I totally get this since I really haven't written about national security at all. I mean, I want to scream when I watch President W . trip/fall/blunder his way through foreign policy and International relations, but I don't find it that interesting to write about. It's too easy to make fun of him, it would be like mocking the retarded.

Finally, I find myself wondering what the hell is wrong with GenY again. They just don't seem to get it. I'm discovering that, as an employer, you have to tell them a lot. just because you have a late meeting doesn't mean you sleep in, be up and ready to go when the office opens. Sometimes I wonder if they have common sense...

Asshole of the Week

2007-01-30T14:38:00.000-05:00

This week the award goes to the Pequannock Township school board. Why? Are they not teaching math and science up to standards? Nah... Did they cut gym class and now all the kids are obese? Nope... They've just moved us one step closer to being a police state. They are randomly testing ALL students at the high school to see if they've been drinking. What a bunch of horseshit!

Let's Just Rip Up the Constitution

If I had a kid in that school, I would forbid him to submit to the test. The school district has no right to pry into the lives of its students in such a fashion.

We've become so paranoid in this country that everything that might harm us or our children needs to become illegal. Being free isn't always safe. Kids might drink, their freedom and privacy is more important than catching them. My wife worries that in 25 years global warming will be a big deal, I worry more that we won't have any rights.

I squarely place blame for this on the shoulders of the baby boomers. They sold out their ideals, they want to shrink wrap everything and make the world a bland place where no one is ever hurt or upset. They are turning their kids into evil little consumerist facists. News like this scares the hell out of me.

In Our Microwave

2007-01-23T17:59:00.001-05:00

Roach, cocks, albinos
Originally uploaded by dylan555.

So, yesterday a coworker comes to my door and says, "we have a bug problem in the kitchen." I ignored it for a second as I was doing something else until I looked up and saw sheer terror on her face. Here is what I found...

Needless to say, I threw it out today.

Asshole of the Week

2007-01-19T11:36:00.000-05:00

This week's selection... Everyone else. In my hotel room today I saw several fun news stories.

First, Michael Vick. First the whole Ron Mexico fiasco, now he is trying to hide pot in a water bottle. Everyone in the country knows that you can't take liquids on the plane, but this genius decides that taking liquids on the plane is the best way to hide his drugs... GENIUS

He's Only Football Smart, not Smart Smart

Then, I see all this crap about Grey's Anatomy. I know the show is popular, but honestly. WHO CARES??? So one guy insulted the other, made dumb remarks in pulbic, etc. I don't even know who the hell T.K. whatever his name is, or the other guy.

And finally, a radio station morning crew is in trouble and may face charges of manslaughter because an adult woman drank too much water and died trying to win a Nintendo Wii. The coverage of this has been awful. People are actually blaming the radio station? This woman was dumb enough to try to enter this contest, signed a release, and they're to blame?? I'm sorry but she is a fucking idiot and everyone that says the radio station is at fault are bigger fucking idiots. Here are a few websites covering this, the first is great calling it so tragic. It sounds like Darwinism to me.

Piss Poor Coverage

I hope they have the Drink Poison to win a PSIII Contest Next. I can't wait to see how many hopeful contestants will drink hemlock and then have their families blame the radio station for their idiocy.

Maybe the real assholes are the public because they seem to be blaming the station and caring about two idiot actors feuding. At least I didn't have to see Dianne Sawyer talk about it though Mr. Robin Roberts isn't much better.

Periodic Recap

2007-01-15T11:58:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I've recapped anything at all. Basically I was on the road a lot for work including NY, Chicago, Austin, Wilmington DE, Jacksonville, FL, etc. etc. etc.

Basically the last few weeks have been spent in windowless rooms, conducting interviews with people about various topics. fun fun.

I wish I had more to say but I don't. Maybe I'll have interesting redneck adventures in Pensacola.

Happy Stern Day

2007-01-09T10:06:00.000-05:00

One year at Sirius and he keeps getting better. What the hell are you thinking if you don't RUSH out and get Sirius today? Howard Stern is absolutely fantastic. From talking about the stench in NY yesterday to discussing nothing with his Dad today and all the celebrities and bands. It's fantastic!!!

Congratulations Howard!

The NFL Ruined My Life

2007-01-08T09:14:00.000-05:00

God, as Sid put it this weekend was the Footbapocalpsys. First the Coyboys lose on a bad snap extending their playoff futility to ten years. Then the Jets lose and now the Giants get beat by the Eagles! All I can root for now is injury and dashed hopes. My predictions:

1) Marty Shittenheimer will once again implode. Maybe he'll decide to mix it up and not run the ball because that's what everyone expects.

2) Rex Grossman won't be prepared 100% because he'll be thinking about a dentist appointment coming up.

3) The Eagles will continue to win and piss me off.

Beyond that I think I'm prediciting a Bears Colts Superbowl with this being the year Peyton Manning finally wins.

The Evil Twin?

2007-01-03T15:48:00.000-05:00

My site has an evil twin, of sorts... When you misspell my site you get a bible study site. I'm guessing someone thinks I actually have readers!!

Ruinedmylife.blogPSot.com">

Awesome!!

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T11:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I for one, am thankful that 2006 is over. Many good things happened in 2006, but many not so good things happened too. Personally it was a pretty stressful year with two grandparents passing away and a third breaking a hip. Professionally it was good but too busy. Let's hope that 2007 is happier, a little easier, and smooth.

My hopes for 2007:
-That celebrities stay out of trouble and shut the hell up
-That Dianne Sawyer leaves television to pursue pleasant personal interests
-That I get more sleep
-That people stop trying to tell each other what to do
-That there are more potatoes in my diet

I have other hopes too, but those are the biggies I care to share here.

I Agree with the Old Lady

2006-12-28T16:36:00.000-05:00

So another poor country has adopted the Euro.

Slovenia, I wonder if they aren't too tidy

I was in Europe this spring and I have to say, the Euro sucks! The money is all weirdo coins or bills that are in different sizes. The only thing worse is the Pound in England. At one point I had $40 worth of change in my pocket.

So, in response to the idiots who want to do away with the dollar bill... CUT IT OUT. The dollar coin is a sign of our country falling into the abyss!

Website of the Whenever

2006-12-27T10:17:00.000-05:00

Here's a great site I just found. Why find friends when you can post enemies out of spite!!

Post a Loser

My Wife is Trying to Take Over My Blog

2006-12-22T08:58:00.000-05:00

My lovely wife doesn't like that she has to cut and paste links within the blog, and since the blogger thingy doesn't work, wants to teach me how to post links. (She just gave me the IT lecture about not being able to teach me properly because I'm on the Mac right now instead of the PC)...

Now I'm hearing the boycott sites that don't support Mac thing again. While I like the Mac, it really is a pain in the ass. I don't care what anyone says it's slower, less stable, takes longer to boot up and crashes ALL the time!!!! She said it would be solved with new memory but it's been like this since we took it out of the box. I think the Mac is better thing is a myth that's all about the interface.

So here is a link for you... How about I post a link to the creepy Gen Y web tracking big brother think Delicious?

Evil Gen Y Tracking Site

My wife is not a bad IT teacher. She didn't do the IT lean once. :)

Just remember, don't use this site. It might look cool but do you really want your web surfing to be tracked that easily? Why make Big Brother's job easy for him???

File Under Who Gives a Shit

2006-12-20T10:34:00.000-05:00

So CNN, that bastion of high quality, important news is about to name its most controversial celebrity of 2006. Well thank the fucking lord! While that Bush is a bad guy, I really want to know if Mel Gibson or Michael Richards was a bigger asshole. Maybe someone like Britney Spears will surprise us all. Or Maddona will reclaim her rightful title.

All I can say is Who Gives a SHIT?? Is this really how a "legitimate" news organization should be spending its time and money? To be honest, I guess there were no non-celebrity related news items this year. I'm glad to hear that CNN is shedding light on this important issue facing our nation. Celebrities are a cancer that have plauged this country for years. Something must be done to prevent activist judges and liberal groups from allowing celebrities to be forced on our children.

MY list of the most controversial celebrities is...

OJ Simpson - What a move, Mel Gibson needs NEW crime to get noticed. OJ is still getting mileage out of one that's 12 years old.

Kid Rock - Marries then divorces Pamela Anderson in record time. What does this say to the aspiring white trash of America? I thought you were supposed to stay in a bad marriage and yell a lot.

Dianne Sawyer - Weepy women are back. She has to make any worst of list in my book. What a moron.

Michael Richards - How dare he try to have a career? I thought he'd just milk Seinfeld for the rest of time. Plus, I never knew he was funny, that explains a lot.

Jason Alexander - Whoops, he should be on the saddest list.

And the winner is.......

Kato Kailin! I'm shocked that he didn't find a way to get a book and TV deal in the news immediately after OJ came out with his. I guess he's still afraid the "Real Killers" might visit him in the night.

Assholes at MADD

2006-12-14T11:55:00.000-05:00

Once again, the assholes at MADD don't want anyone to drink. I know drunk driving is bad, but I want to start an Anti-MADD organization that:

1) Protects the rights of adults to legally consume a legal product
2) Protects our constitutional rights against drunk driving check points
3) Tells MADD to shut up and stop telling the rest of us what to do

Education is a good thing, I have no problem with them going out and talking about the ills of drunk driving, but there lobbying and attempts to restrict my rights to make the world safer are driving me nuts. Now they want to stop people in NY from drinking on the train...

"We have to provide a safe and secure ride for all our customers," Pally said. "A state agency encouraging people to drink by selling it themselves? It makes no sense. We should not have the railroad be a bartender."

Deena Cohen, the president of the Long Island chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, enthusiastically supports Pally's proposal. "People get off the railroad and they get into cars," she said. "Somebody is going to get killed."

Personally, I think we have to leave it up to the adult making the decision whether or not to drink. We can't ban something because they MIGHT break the law. This is no different than the people who want to restrict free speech, suspend civil liberties in the name of protection, etc. It's punishing the innocent. In our code of laws you punish the guilty.

Conflict of Interest

2006-12-13T11:52:00.000-05:00

So John Mainelli used to write a radio column for the NY Post AND consult radio stations at the same time. He keeps writing things about Howard Stern, saying he has slipped or lost traction all in an attempt to convince the general public that satellitte radio is a pointless venture that won't go anywhere. His negative press is really designed to keep the public in the dark listening to crappy FM. His quotes in this article really illustrate this:

http://www.radioandrecords.com/radiomonitor/news/format/talk/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003520921

The man is afraid, as are all terrestrial radio execs, and they should be. I can only speak from the perspective of a Sirius subscriber, but I have to say that in my two years of subscribing I have not once listed to FM. Why? The reasons are so simple:

1) Choice - I have so much more choice. Raleigh now has THREE country stations and no alternative rock station. We also have two pretty crappy rock stations, one that plays a mix of classic rock and newer stuff for 20 somethings and another that plays softer rock for 40/50 something women. They BOTH suck. On Sirius, I have THREE classic rock choices alone. This doesn't take into account Left of Center (college rock), Alt Nation (alternative), the Underground Garage (just good rock), etc. The choice available is staggering and the programming is so much better than terrestrial radio.

2) Signal - I can listen wherever and whenever I like. If I drive to DC for the weekend, the stations go with me. If I want to stream over the Internet at the office I can. Some people will tell you that the signal and sound quality suck, don't believe them. It's as good as FM.

3) Howard Stern - For those fans who say "I miss him," too bad. Go buy Sirius. He has been funnier and more creative without the FCC breathing down his neck. Don't buy the stories that say he's losts guests, cache, creativity, etc. He is funnier than ever. His guest roster is as good as it's ever been (a mix of A and B level celebs who are entertaining and promoting everything from books to hit movies to hit TV shows). For the life of me, I don't get why people won't subscribe, it's no different than cable TV.

4) FM Sucks - Just to kick FM again, I know a little bit about how programming is picked for you, the listener. It is not, as many people romanticize, local management listening to music, picking what they think their listeners would like and then playing it. It is researched, surveyed, tracked, compiled, and programmed using computer algorithms. Sure there is local research, but the music all becomes a number as weekly, monthly, or quarterly market research is compiled. The process is so sterile now and often removed from the local market. It's depressing.

I know I sound like a commercial, but this John Mainelli guy really pissed me off today. Traditional radio is afraid of Sirius and XM. They're afraid of no commercials, better programming, no FCC control, etc. Go to www.sirius.com and get the three-day free trail, it's worth it. Buy it as a Christmas present for friends and family. Together we can kill the vapid wasteland of FM radio and make radio something cool and fun again!

Asshole of the Week (or everything that is wrong with the NBA)

2006-12-12T14:29:00.000-05:00

So, what happens when you play for the same franchise for years? If you're in today's NBA you become an idiot and demand a trade. So this week's Asshole is none other than Allan Iverson. Not only does he want a trade, but now he doesn't want to go to Charlotte. Likely because they're not instant winners.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2695147

For never being a team player, for not understanding that the coach is in charge, for demanding a trade, for being a ball hog, for thinking you're God's gift... you're this week's Asshole.

Periodic Recap and Commercial

2006-12-12T11:30:00.000-05:00

Not much to report. I was out of town last week in NY, Chicago, and Texas doing a marathon of focus groups so I'm just tired and busy and tired and busy and busy.

I'm a little too occupied to be worked up about anything today. Either that or all this work has fried the short-term memory.

Where was I? Oh, if you're looking for a good Christmas gift, buy someone a Sirius radio. To be honest, I have no clue why people still listen to FM. Even if you're not a Howard Stern fan, there is a lot on Sirius. The music destroys normal radio. It's easy, just do it. It's not difficult or expensive or a hassle. I promise. It is still the best Christmas present I've gotten in recent memory.

BTW, I've been lucky enough to not watch Good Morning America for a week. So nothing about the bubble head.

All Creatures Great and Small

2006-11-30T09:35:00.000-05:00

What a day, it's only 9:32 and I've seen some great news already!

Danny DeVito got sloshed and went on the View yesterday. That is AWESOME. Good for him.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/475842p-400286c.html

(I posted the link twice to see if it would work)

And then Shamu went batshit and tried to kill his trainer. Apparently this killer whale had tried to throw this particular trainer out of the tank a year ago. I think there's a feud going on here. Of course, Dianne Sawyer was shocked, sounding weepy she asked, "why would this giant sea creature do this?" There are so many things wrong with this statement I don't know where to start...

1) Giant Sea Creature? Does she think a killer whale is some sort of monster from a Jules Verne novel? Shamu is the creature from 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the one the squid was afraid of. Or maybe Shamu is some mythical thing to her like the mermaid or the Kraken.

2) Why is anyone surprised when an undomesticated animal that is penned up in an area MUCH smaller than its natural habitat goes crazy? If I was captured by some crazy person and forced to perform tricks for snacks I'd bide my time and wait to fuck him up too! Maybe forcing animals to do amusing tricks isn't wise. I'm interested in seeing what the trainer does now. I wouldn't go back in that tank, I think Shamu knows he didn't kill the guy and will come up with another plan. I'm guessing no one remembers that movie ORCA.

The funniest thing about it was the retarded audience members saying things like, "why did the whale do it?" and "I knew right away that wasn't part of the show." Now if SeaWorld had a show where Shamu ate (or tried to eat) a trainer every time, I'd pay to see that!!

Damn it!

2006-11-29T09:17:00.000-05:00

I stand corrected... Everytime I pick an Asshole of the Week, ten minutes later I read an article that makes me more angry. Here it is...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061128/ap_on_bi_ge/ihop_ids

I love IHOP, but now I'm not so sure I can ever go there again. Facists!

Assholes of the Week

2006-11-29T09:05:00.000-05:00

I think this week I'm going to pick everyone outside my house as the Assholes of the Week. Why? Well there are a lot of issues in the world that are a mess, but several states have decided they want to play Big Brother and tell people they can't smoke in their own cars if their kids are present. I'd really like to see the government stay the hell out of my life.

I saw this on the Today show because I couldn't stomach watching GMA this morning. Everything is so damn precious or shocking. The Weepy Women are making a giant comeback.

I don't understand the desire to tell people what they can and can't do. I might tell people they're stupid a lot but I don't want to control their actions. There is a fine line between legislating safety and being my mother.

What's Wrong with America

2006-11-25T11:11:00.000-05:00

So, a lot of people point to one thing and say, that's what is wrong with the US. I don't believe there is one thing wrong with the country, but I will point to TV's Nancy Grace as being one thing wrong with this country. Her ratings-whore attitude, her disregard for the constitution to take the so-called moral high-road for "victim's rights," her an eye for an eye view of the justice system stands against everything our system is based on.

This woman should be arrested for manslaughter. Her behavior likely drove a woman to suicide (http://www.melinda-duckett.com/). She forgets the idea that you're innocent until proven guilty. She forgets that punishment should never be the sole aim of a justice system. She forgets that maybe rehabilitation should be included somewhere in there.

A lot of people talk about what is obscene, well Nancy Grace is obscene. I hope she gets fired from her job and ends up writing a weekly legal advice column in some dinky paper in the middle of nowhere.

Did I Speak too Soon?

2006-11-21T16:00:00.000-05:00

No sooner than I named my first Assholes of the Week and others crawl out of the woodwork wanting the title. Let's look at some runners up...

The American League MVP Voters - How did they NOT give this to Jeter? No Godzilla, No Sheff for the entire year, no pitching and they still finish with the best record in baseball. Why? Derek Jeter.

Diane Sawyer - Just because. This knucklehead fawns over everything. Plus it looks like the rubbed an entire jar of vaseline on the camera that shoots her.

Cosmo Kramer - The heckler was right, you're not funny.

Fox Broadcasting - First you put OJ on, then you take him off. Didn't you know it would upset people??

Diane Sawyer - Whoops, sorry, already mentioned her.

I still think MADD is the winner but man, I guess the holiday weekend brings out the worst in people.

Assholes of the Week

2006-11-20T14:26:00.000-05:00

A new feature here on my blog... Asshole(s) of the Week. I'll try to pick someone new who is ruining our lives. This week, those facists MADD! Why? They want to put 1984-style monitoring devices in cars, all cars...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061120/ap_on_go_ot/drunken_driving

I hope the ACLU stands up to them. I really hate how they use "saving lives" to infringe on our civil liberties. Drunk driving laws are worse than Bush's anti-terror, enemy combatant laws. I know I'm in the minority on this but I still don't think saving lives is enough to restrict or step on rights.

For MADD's hysterical reaction to drunk driving and their lack of care about the Constitution I name them the ASSHOLES OF THE WEEK.

Kramer

2006-11-20T11:28:00.000-05:00

It seems that Michael Richards is going on the any publicity is good publicity rule. What an idiot. Maybe he and Mel Gibson can start a USO show or something... I found this on the Web (apparently he was being heckled)...

“Shut up! Fifty years ago we’d have you upside down with a f**king fork up you’re a**,” Richards, 57, screamed.

But the verbal assault didn’t end there. Witnesses said the comic then demanded the patron be removed from the club. “Throw his ass out. He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! A nigger! Look, there’s a nigger!

As the audience gasped, Richards said: “You see? This shocks you. It shocks you to see what’s buried beneath you stupid motherf**kers.”

As audience members started to walk out, the black male chastised Richards for using the n-word and called him a “cracker-a**,” prompting the comic to shoot back: “Cracker-a**? You calling me cracker-a** nigger?

“Are you threatening me? Oh, it’s a big threat. That’s how you get back at the man.”

I just like that his comments make little or no sense. I had no idea he did standup. Of course he's still not as annoying as Dianne Sawyer...

Eight Day Period Recap

2006-11-06T10:06:00.000-05:00

Before anyone (Shannon) complains, they are only periodic recaps!

So what have I done? Work, work, work, work, sleep, and a little work.

Worst Meal of the Week
It would have to be the turkey in the church basement. I think it was more salt than meat.

Dumbest Diane Sawyer Sighting
This morning, wondering if Saddam Hussein saw the handwriting on the wall about his hanging when he was dictator. Then they showed an interview she did with him 15 years ago. I'm very surprised she didn't ask him about Melrose Place, Knot's Landing, or his favorite holiday. What a fucking bubblehead.

For some reason it was one of those weeks that blended together. Likely it was a reaction to the week I'm going to have this week. I'm tired and I'm trying to prevent the entire months of November and December from being destroyed with trip after trip of work. When you add Christmas shopping and the household things that fall aside to the mix it's too much.

I remember the Huevos Shancheros, buying the new Who album, watching the Cowboys get beat yesterday, and going to Shannon's grandmother's 90th birthday but that's about it. Beyond that I think my brain is in overdrive so I'm reacting and not thinking.

Caught with his pants down

2006-11-03T17:53:00.000-05:00

Now I could care less what people do in their lives. Have sex with whomever you want, do drugs, drink, listen to Pat Boone. Who cares? But I do love this story...

A top evangelical leader who is accused of paying a male prostitute for sex admitted today he contacted his accuser "for a massage" and purchased methamphetamine from him. But the Rev. Ted Haggard said he never had sex with Mike Jones and threw away the drugs.

I think my favorite part is that he bought drugs but threw them away and he got a "massage" but had no sex. Bullshit! Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. This is revenge for telling other people how to live. If you keep your mouth shut they don't care when you fuck up.

Now I, for one, don't understand why someone would buy meth if they weren't addicted to it. Isn't that how it works. Billy tries meth with some friends one night and likes it. He does it for free for as long as he can and then his friends say, "dude, this shit costs money. Buy your own or I'll stab you in your sleep." So Billy goes and starts buying his own and gets hooked. Then he starts stealing TVs and grandma's money, selling his mom's doll collection and powertools so he can get more. Then one day he stops using meth because he's dead or in prison or in rehab. The end...

I'm positive there are variations on this theme, but you don't just wake up one day and go to the corner and say, "I've heard quite a bit about this meth and I'd like to partake like all the kids..." And you sure as hell don't start calling male escorts to buy you drugs and not either do them or get rammed in a cheap motel.

So, the next time you think you should tell a stranger how the fuck to live their life, remember this little tale. Some day you will fuck up and look like a jackass and the world will be ready to point and laugh...

I do guess that vapid shithead Dianne Sawyer will interview him at some point and say "What would you say to the people who want an apology from you?"

Work is Ruining All Our Lives!

2006-11-02T09:42:00.000-05:00

So, the government is worried because worker productivity isn't growing but wages are...

WASHINGTON - The productivity of American workers slowed to a standstill in the summer while wage pressures were rising at the fastest clip in more than two decades, a combination likely to raise inflation concerns at the Federal Reserve.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, showed no change in the July-September quarter while labor costs rose by 3.8 percent. For the past year, labor costs are up by 5.3 percent, the fastest increase since 1982.

Maybe the answer here is that this is a good thing. What happened to being concerned about the quality of life of your employees? I don't need a McMansion or to eat out 10 nights a week or to wear the most expensive clothes. I need to spend time at home with my family, with people I care about. I need to go on vacation and read books. I need to watch sports on TV and walk my dog. Increasing productivity means more hours at the same pay. That seems like a breakdown of the social contract between employers and employees.

I'm the last person to claim to have balanace in my life, however, I strive for it. We've gone mental in this country. To be honest, we need the baby boomers to retire so there are more jobs than people, that would be good for us. Remember how great things were in before the dotcom bubble burst?

If we burn people out and make it all about buying crap, what good is that? We need to bring manufacturing back to this country, we need to bring back the 40 hour work week, we need to keep work sane. Otherwise, what is life worth?

What do you want to do when you grow up little Billy?

2006-11-01T09:57:00.000-05:00

I want to carve apart people and animals legally!

Look I know someone has to do it. And I know that those animal skeletons in museums don't just appear all beautiful and put together. But why is Yahoo doing such a fun little piece on this?? Maybe next year they can pull out the story about the mortician who does puppet shows with the dead.

On a completely unrelated note, I like the labels but I wonder if they will ever be coherent because I'm not starting a unified organizational structure like a certain someone.

By the way, there is a link there. I'm not sure it's appearing (even though I used Blogger's tool) its www.skullsunlimited.com (and the news story is on yahoo!)

Begging Children

2006-11-01T08:55:00.000-05:00

I swear, the kids are getting worse and worse at dressing up and begging. Come on, it's not like you have to do this more than once a year! The costumes were fair (especially on the older kids). I had a few girls show up in jeans and say they were fashion models.

Beyond that, no one said Trick or Treat. A few did, and I can't fault the tiny tiny children who are unable to do more than grunt and fart. The best were the kids who tried to scare me, at least they were in the spirit of it.

I promise, I won't complain about almost running out of candy. Shannon saved the day with a creative solution and we made it through. Plus we had more kids this year than last year. There must have been 100. There were hordes of kids and parents in the street.

Gripe of October
I don't mind parents driving kids to our neighborhood (it's a safe place to Trick or Treat), I just don't think that once you're in the neighborhood mom and dad should get to drive you around to maximize your candy. RUN! Hustle from house to house. I want to see those little bastards work for it. I can respect that. And that idiot Dianne Sawyer wonders why kids are fat these days.

Blogger vs. Google (with some Gen Y hatred thrown in)

2006-10-31T11:46:00.000-05:00

So I upgraded to this new google thingy and you know what? It's no different! I just have to sign up with a dumb google username which I'll never use because all of my other stuff is done through Yahoo. They said I could customize the look of my blog but when I click on it, it says you might lose changes you've made. Why on Earth would I want to start from scratch.

I just wish these internet wizardoo companies would stop buying each other and changing so damn much. Establish a service and keep it consistent. I don't care if the shitheads who are collectively known as Generation Y like things dynamic or need to keep it real and fresh. They suck! As a generation they don't pay for the things they should (like music) but they'll pay for things that should be free (ringtones, internet services, customer service, etc.). What a bunch of fucking chowderheads. I want to scream at them, stop wasting your money AND screwing things up for me at the same time.

Well beyond my little complaint about Gen Y, to recap, I think that Blogger should just be kept simple and easy. I don't have a lot of time for this shit.

Monday

2006-10-30T18:20:00.000-05:00

I really don't have a lot to post. Time has been weird lately as I was on the west coast last week and didn't adjust and then we changed the clocks. I'm all sleepy and awake at the wrong times. It's dark now and it feels like 10 o'clock at night. Plus the weather is cold in the morning, warm during the day and I'm either freezing or sweating inside.

As a result I'm just sitting at work muddling through. I went through 50 or 60 business cards today, throwing half of them away. I half cleaned my desk, had three conference calls, and ate half a sandwich for lunch.

There is still a big pile of shit on my desk but that never leaves.

Meal of the Week
It was out so I hope my wife doesn't take offense. It's a small sushi place called Jinpachi. It's on 8711 Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood. If you're in LA, make a reservation at the sushi bar (310-358-9134). It is fantastic. I've never had better.

Recent Past Reading
McSweeney's Issue 20 was pretty good. A few nice stories in there including The Big Dud. I also finished Chrisopher Moore's A Dirty Job. I thought it was funny as hell and a really good read. I bet if you read a certain someone's book journal they'd hate it.

I'd do a what I'm reading now section but a) no one cares and b) I'd have to change the format of my blog and I have absolutely no clue how to do that shit.

Five Day Periodic Recap

2006-10-27T17:45:00.000-04:00

So, why wait until Sunday when there were no posts for the week and not that much happened??

1) My wife ruined a pan. Really it's true, it's on her blog (which I noticed is not correctly linked to here). Sigh.

2) I spent the week in a windowless basement room but I was in California! I was there for a conference which was fun and interesting but I got outside for a total of 37 minutes for the week. In that time I checked e-mail, cursed my laptop, and drank a soda. Though I did manage to have the BEST sushi ever.

3) I saw where the fourth Planet of the Apes was filmed (Century City, very close to Fox Plaza) and laughed everytime I drove under the footbridge, thinking of nothing but Torch Carrying Apes in Jumpsuits. Some days it would be nice if they were real...

4) I'm all jetlagged and confused as to what time it is.

Highlight of the Week
Barely beating out seeing the Planet of the Apes location... Penny Marshall (TV's Laverne from Laverne & Shirley) was on my flight yesterday from LAX to St. Louis. How did I know? They kicked her out of first class to the second to last row of the plane. She wasn't too happy about that arrangement.

Seven Day Periodic Recap

2006-10-22T21:24:00.000-04:00

Apparently I can't have a "Weekly Roundup" because it would be stealing from my wife's blog. As such, I am going to have the Seven Day Periodic Recap while on the phone with my wife and she tells me I'm not permitted to have a weekly roundup. So here it is...

1) Got a new head-gasket on my car. Subaru paid for the repair thanks to an extended warranty. Very nice.

2) I worked too much and flew to California at the crack of dawn on Sunday for a conference.

3) I ate some fantastic macaroni and cheese that will make me remember to ask for macaroni and cheese every week.

4) I asked my wife to recap the week but she didn't know what I did this week.

5) I reveived my super asshole Gold card from American Airlines. What does it mean? I'm more special than you on the plane (unless you're Platinum status, then I'm just a smudge on your windshield).

6) I wrote a Seven Day Periodic Recap. I considered changing over to wordpress but I don't know how to use the interface. Sigh.

Hasta La Vista Prisoners

2006-10-21T11:46:00.000-04:00

So, the great state of California has decided that prisoners are like trash, let's move it out of state!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061021/ap_on_re_us/California_prisons

Don't these people have rights of any kind? I believe they do. It would seem to me that one of them would be the ability to receive visits from family. I'll guess that many of them come from poor families and may have mothers, children, wives, brothers, etc. that would like to visit them. How on Earth is someone poor from Fresno going to be able to visit their son in prison out in Indiana?

This reminds me of Robert Moses. He did a lot of good and build many many highways through New York. I use the word through because he would split poor neighborhoods with roads like the BQE (Bronx Queens Expressway). Over the next 20 years, this action hurt these neighborhoods by breaking down social bonds, hurting local economies, etc. Won't the Governator's action have the same effect??

So, young men in prison who maybe screwed up and can still lead productive lives are being removed from another possible support mechanism. The real criminals here aren't the prisoners OR the Governator. It's the prison unions and private companies who are profiting from human trafficking. These corporations are making money off of laws like 3 Strikes or mandatory Minimums. They're the biggest backers of strict law and order punishment.

Maybe we'd be better off keeping them near home and trying to strengthen a natural support mechanism... the family, so that when they get out they have someone who cares about them.

If workers in Indiana want good paying jobs they should stop shopping at Wal-Mart (who has shipped all the light manufacturing overseas).

Something that Makes Me Happy

2006-10-19T18:31:00.000-04:00

My wife is taking some time off from work to re-calibrate her life and her brain. It seems that she's started a blog on cooking...

http://simplycooking.wordpress.com/tag/cookbooks/

I hope my one reader will check it out. Of course, that one reader is me so it's kind of pointless for me to set up this link. Hmmmm

A Nation of Pussies

2006-10-18T10:42:00.000-04:00

The Baby Boomers are raising a Nation of Pussies. First it was bike helmets, then car seats for 10 year olds, now dumb shit like this...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061018/ap_on_fe_st/playground_tag_ban

Why not ban fun? Let's strap kids in like Hannibal Lechter and protect them from their youth.

People wonder why kids are fat, people wonder why the next generation has facist undertones... It's all because of the nanny state being created where we're all told what to do on a constant basis. You know what, if Junior is chasing a kid and trips and skins his knee, tough shit. Maybe he's a clumsy kid. Kids get hurt.

This is reminding me of my feeling that everyone is really, really dumb.

People are so Fucking Stupid

2006-09-07T18:19:00.001-04:00

I was once told that the difference between memoir and fiction is that memoir is 51% true.

This whole James Frey thing won't die. Why are people upset? He wrote a work of literature, used some real stuff, upgraded in other areas to tell a better story, and wrote a book that people liked. Now, because it wasn't 100% true (which I thought was the realm of biography, which is still revisionist history) people are like "I want to gouge my eyes out for enjoying that book." They're going to offer refunds.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/09/07/authorlies.settlement.ap/index.html

People are so fucking dumb. I am going to start blaming Generation Y and their Baby Boomer parents for everything, including this.

People are so Fucking Stupid

2006-09-07T18:19:00.000-04:00

Morning shows are ruining my life

2006-09-06T10:19:00.000-04:00

All I want is the weather and a few sports scores. Maybe some hard news like the world is falling apart, that would be nice too. What do I get? Diane Sawyer nearly in tears over the Crocodile Hunter. The guy was irresponsible, why are we surprised. I feel awful for his family, but I'm not shocked.

So that was annoying but expected, but the thing that drove me NUTS was the fawning and cooing and insanity over Tom Cruise's baby. WHO CARES? It's a kid with hair and a funny little face. It's no different than my cousin's baby (who is cuter) or other babies I see. I don't want to see anymore of Tom Cruise. Make a good movie and then we'll talk. War of the Worlds made no sense and it kind of sucked.

To recap... Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts are the devil. Matt Lauer should do more hard news and the guys on CBS just make me chuckle. At least they're trying their little hearts out.

Damn Hippies in Carrboro

2006-08-31T10:15:00.000-04:00

What can I say, I agree with them 100% on this one. I might not be a vegan or spiritual or believe in the community telling me what I should and should not do but I agree with them on this one. Let Dancing Guy Dance. As far as I'm concerned we need fewer corporations telling us what to do. I say Boycott Weaver Street Market, Boycott the Carr Mill Mall and its related businesses. Corporate censorship is just as bad as governmental censorship.

This is a pretty good video outlining everything...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E5B12i69js

I have to admit, the guy is a little weird when he starts the prison talk...

Weaver Street Market

2006-08-23T09:23:00.000-04:00

So a while back Bruce (aka Dancing Guy) was told he could no longer dance at the Weaver St. Market in Carrboro, NC. If you haven't been there, its like the epicenter of the hippie universe. A natural co-op grocery store with a "public" lawn. A place where the community hangs out, eat, etc. It really feels like a public space.

www.weaverstreetmarket.com

If you look on the front page, you'll notice an artistic representation of the lawn and the front of the market. You'll see what I mean by public space...

So, about two weeks ago the word began to spread that they've told Dancing Guy to stop dancing...

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/476463.html

http://news.pajamasmedia.com/entertainment/2006/08/18/10340865_Gotta_dance_You_.shtml

(sorry if the links are a little ugly/long, I'm not great at anything beyond typing into this thing)

The town has been up in arms. Yesterday the property management said that there will be no dancing, singing, guitar playing, etc., etc. No performing of any type. This came about in a super secret PR session.

Residents are upset, but there is all this wishy washy talk of love and no conflict or spite.
http://orangepolitics.org/2006/08/live-on-the-lawn/

I repeat my motto, Spite is not only a good motivation to do something, its the BEST motivation to do anything! I think people should just boycott the entire Carr Mill Mall and Weaver St. Market until they reverse the policy. If you open it up as public space, you shouldn't get to change that years later...

Chapel Hill/Carrboro is as bad as Cary. Too many restrictions. This is nothing but corporate facism. The best way to fight it is to stop consuming...

Big Brother

2006-08-22T17:25:00.000-04:00

What in the world is wrong with people? EVERYONE thinks the answer to the world's problems are to give the US Federal Government more information and have them track it to fend of terrorists, bigamists, child molesters, bad grades, tax cheats, poor algebra students, etc. When will people just leave us alone? We have become such a nanny society. In North Carolina the state legislature passed an asinine law to track when I buy cold medicine. Why? To catch meth heads. I just found this Web site calling for a national database of marriages...

http://fightbigamy.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/08/why_we_need_a_n.html#comments

Why on Earth would we want that? Its such a dumb fucking idea!! Let's track the movements of people who have not broken the law to catch a few people who might be breaking the law.

How about this, let's fund the police and make them do (gasp) detective work to catch criminals. No more roadside checks for drunks (i.e. warrantless searches), no databases, no more of this bullshit. The beauty of being an American is that we're supposed to be left the fuck alone by EVERYONE else. Our neighbors, our governments, our police... Sigh

People should read about Stalinist Russia and the paranoia that grew from being able to report your neighbor for un-revolutionary activities... The US is slowly turning into that.

Who CARES??

2006-07-12T16:47:00.000-04:00

Why is everything in soccer so goddamn melodramatic? The world cup has ended, its time to stop talking about it, but no. There was trash talk (gasp!) and head butting (double gasp!!). So what? That's part of sports!

MILAN, Italy (AP) -- FIFA president Sepp Blatter says Zinedine Zidane could be stripped of his Golden Ball award for the best player at the World Cup due to violent conduct.
"The winner of the award is not decided by FIFA, but by an international commission of journalists," Blatter said in Wednesday's La Repubblica. "That said, FIFA's executive committee has the right, and the duty, to intervene when faced with behavior contrary to the ethic of the sport."

I say to FIFA, don't be such pussies. I might watch soccer if there was MORE headbutting! Add fighting like in soccer. Anything to make it interesting. Even writing about it is making me YAWN sleepy!

US Eliminated from the World Cup

2006-06-22T12:18:00.000-04:00

Does the US being eliminated today mean that everyone here will shut up about the World Cup? I'm sick of hearing about it and am ready for the sports page to cover more baseball. Soccer, so boring. So so so boring.

1984

2006-06-15T09:20:00.000-04:00

I know nobody reads this blog but I still have to rant. I've recently come across a new Web site called del.icio.us and it makes me really worried. Doesn't Generation Y realize that tracking every movement, everything they do is BAD?!? Isn't 1984 required reading anymore?

I know I am paranoid about the government and being tracked and the such but how the hell else do we stay free? Since 9/11 government AND business are trying to take more and more away from us in the name of "protecting our freedom." That's as silly as Big Brother's party slogans...

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

My wife said that I hate the generation behind me with a black tarry hatred and she is right. The baby boomers screwed up their kids and created a generation of unique conformists who all share a watered down commercial culture that values NOTHING.

Be afraid...

Who Cares

2006-06-12T16:22:00.000-04:00

The US lost its first World Cup game. While I feel bad for the guys on the team, I really don't care. I wish ESPN wouldn't cover it, I wish the local paper would ignore it. There is nothing more painful than watching Soccer. Let's get back to the real world championship going on right now... Stanley Cup Hockey!!

Creedo

2006-05-19T16:46:00.000-04:00

I think I've found my new Creedo...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockism

Big Brother is Listening

2006-05-12T09:35:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning to learn that the NSA is tracking phone calls. All of them. What frightens me the most about this story is not that the government is abusing its power or that a small group of men want to exert control over the rest of us. What frightens me the most is that the citizens of this country are not vigilent and angry about this. A great deal of reaction was ho hum.

I heard one person say, "well if its a machine its ok..." Everyone should read 1984 over and over until they get it. The government has no right to track my movement or my actions.

Don't Tread on Me!

Movies I Won't Be Seeing this Weekend

2006-05-05T15:02:00.000-04:00

Mission Impossible III: Tom Cruise suspended from stuff yet again

Hoot: A Wilson Brother pays off the boat

Wow, the studios wonder why they lose money. Crap crap crap crap.

Random Rolling Stones Thought for the Day

2006-05-04T17:12:00.000-04:00

So those who know me know that I think Gimme Shelter is the perfect rock song. None better has been made in my opinion. It sweats this gritty, sexy, dark, and evil mood. However, I've been listening to Exile on Main Street a lot lately and Loving Cup off of that album is entering my top 5 songs. It's the opposite of Gimme Shelter. Loving Cup is the love song full of hope and longing. The love song looking at the world as a place of possibility and thrills during the chase. Plus it has a great bridge.

Why Regular Radio Sucks

2006-03-01T09:04:00.000-05:00

So, Howard Stern has gone to Sirius (and it's awesome). So on the day his old company learns its ratings are in the toilet, what do they do? They sue him. What a bunch of cry babies. CBS Radio sucks. All terrestial radio sucks. If you're reading this I'm telling you that satellite radio is SO much better. The music, the talk. EVERYTHING.

Here's a link on their lawsuit. What a crock...

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060301/cbs_howard_stern.html?.v=1

Two things I hate at the moment

2006-02-28T09:31:00.000-05:00

1) Rioting over a cartoon. We in the West need to stand up for freedom of expression, it's the most important one we have!

2) Having to register (or pay) to access articles on websites such as ESPN. Thanks Generation Y, thanks for being dumb enough to pay for everything and screwing it up for the rest of us. Sigh

Best spam EVER!!!

2006-02-10T17:27:00.000-05:00

Forwarded to me by my boss...

Everybody knows the great sexual scandal known as "Klinton-Levinsky".
After the relations like this Klintons popularity raised a lot!
It is a natural phenomenon, because Bill as a real man in order not to shame himself when he was with Monica regularly used Voagra.
What happened you see. His political figure became more bright and more attractive.
It is very important for a man to be respected as a man!

Those spammers are on top of the news, aren't they?

Awaken

2006-01-24T09:35:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I've been able to write anything for this. I've been busy as hell at work going all over hell and creation. Before Christmas I was gone for two weeks straight. Then it was off to NY with the wife for New Year's. The week following, my grandfather passed away suddenly so the past two weeks have been spent helping to work out my grandmother's situation. All in all, it's been a very hectic, tiring, long few weeks.

The good news is that while the fall was long, we're settled and unpacked in the new house (pictured here). We still need to buy some furniture for the dining room and hang a curtain or two, but it's shaping up nicely.

On an unrelated note, I noticed that Lauren seems to be up and around again. I wonder if I shall hear from her at some point with talk of her recent adventures.

W....TF?

2005-09-03T09:28:00.000-04:00

All I can say is where the hell is Bush's so called leadership in a time of trouble like we've seen recently?

Styx Roxx

2005-08-18T15:45:00.000-04:00

Styx Display - Hard Rock Hotel Chicago 8.18.05
Originally uploaded by dylan555.

So, my client is staying in the Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago and what is the main piece of rock heritage they have there? A costume from the Styx guitarist for the "Live at Budokan" album. WOO HOO!

Chicago Hotel 8.18.05

2005-08-18T12:00:00.000-04:00

Chicago Hotel 8.18.05
Originally uploaded by dylan555.

The view from my room on a hopefully uneventful trip to Chicago. I turn 33 this weekend, I'm not quite prepared for it. It snuck up on me like a thief...

Starting Over

2005-08-11T17:29:00.000-04:00

So S and I have been trying to buy a house for a while. We found one we loved, fired our first realtor because he wouldn't show it to us, and put an offer in.

Well, we had it inspected and there was a lot of work that needed to be done to bring it up to par. Fine, we struggled with the owner and got it done. All the major things were taken care of, leaving us with a few minor repairs that I could actually perform myself.

Things were humming along nicely for a late August closing until... we received the appraisal this weekend. The bank (which sat on the appraisal for a month) said the house was worth FAR less than we offered. So, either the current owner reduces the price or we walk away...

We walked away. The process now begins again. This blows. It really, truly blows. Sigh...

Wish us luck

More Spam?

2005-08-11T10:41:00.000-04:00

Do people really think junk mail works? I got this on my last post...

Feeling lonely? Hook up with Real Singles now for $4.99 to connect, and only $0.99 a min. A true match is only a phone call away. Give it a try 1-800-211-9293.

Now come on, what is that really going to accomplish??

Laziness abounds

2005-08-02T18:13:00.000-04:00

Wow, I must be the laziest person on the face of the Earth ever. Well, maybe not THAT bad, but pretty bad. It's been nearly a month since I've posted anything and it seems the last month has given me a bit to say. I've had some interesting travels (Washington D.C. and Columbus, OH in particular). I've bought a new house with my new bride. I've lost weight, put on weight, moved my office, eaten interesting foods and been busy.

That being said, it seems that all I ever do anymore is watch TV and play videogames. I have a pile of New Yorkers piling up. I think I'm five or six behind now and they keep arriving in the mail on a weekly basis. Plus, I have a brand new McSweeney's Quarterly to read AND I still haven't gotten through the summer issue of 'The Believer.'

I have been trying to read a bit lately. Currently I'm reading Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. It's ok... The stories within the larger novel are interesting and well written but the arc that ties them together is lacking something. Maybe it's that I really could care less about each and every one of the characters. I don't know.

I'm also (on Flickr) trying to figure out a mobile photo essay type thing. I think when I start going on the road I will use my nifty camera phone to send pics back and compile them somehow. Of course it would help if I could actually write HTML or understood how to set this damn blog up. It would allow me to include the stereotypical "what I'm reading" and "what I'm listening to" columns. The problem is that my CD player changes on a constant basis. What really concerns me is that at lunch I went out and tried to fire up the Sirius Satellite radio and got no response. Oh the humanity! It better not be broken...

Prolog: The State of Rock Criticism

2005-06-09T10:34:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I've been thinking about the state of criticism in rock music lately and I'm kind of unhappy about it. I want to collect my thoughts and write a longer post but I think that there are a few major themes:

1) Good reviews are handed out like candy to awful, commercially manufactured bands.

2) Good artists are expected to produce albums that are "classics" each and every time they record. A good album or show isn't good enough anymore. Mostly this is due to point 1.

3) The rise of the Internet and the listeners' ability to offer a review has created this personal, almost insanely isolated atmosphere where people either love or hate and album. There is no middle ground. Plus both sides end up reading each other's reviews and say the exact same thing over and over and over again.

Case in point... Ryan Adams. I saw him live last night and he played for three hours. He bantered with the band, with the audience, and put on a very good show. Now, the two major complaints about him are that he is a jerk and that he can't edit himself. Every review, article, critic, etc has repeated those points. Here is an example from the News and Observer here in Raleigh:

http://www.triangle.com/music/concertreview/story/2485660p-8889588c.html

Now, I enjoy David Menconi's writing. He's not one of those critics you hate, but he's as guilty as anyone else.

I guess, and I want to write more about it, that I just want a rock critic to tell the truth. The truth should go something like this:

-Top 40 sucks
-The White stripes new album is different and that's ok. Maybe he's pulling a Dylan-type thing and zigging when everyone wants him to zag. It's a solid album.
-ColdPlay is getting played out
-Ryan Adams doesn't need an editor, he's been putting out good albums. Someday he'll write a great one
-It is not acceptable to listen to Milli Vanilli, even in jest.
-Joss Stone or whatever her name is, is no different than other commercial shills
-Audioslave is the best rock band out there
-Green Day's new album is ok, not the best thing ever
-Madonna still sucks
-Local radio sucks worse than ever

That's it for now...

My Flat Tire

2005-05-31T20:18:00.000-04:00

Damn! Here are a few pics of my flat tire from tonight.

Picture 1 "Wide"

Picture 2 "Close Up"

Picture 3 "Old Tire in Back"

It's been a weird night. First the tire, then some German kids looking at my neighbor's house. They want to rent it and have some weird polyamorous relationship next door. Sigh.

This is a test

2005-05-16T19:49:00.000-04:00

Sam
Originally uploaded by dylan555.

This is a test, I've been playing with Flickr, this web site that helps you post pictures and they have a new feature with blogging and the such. My hope is that it lets me post this rather easily and it looks good!

New Mexico

2005-05-07T17:40:00.000-04:00

There's something about being more than a mile above sea level and still feeling like you're well below the mountains' peak. It makes you humble. The sky is big. Bigger than anything you've ever imagined growing up in the East. You find little towns like Cordova and Madrid. Old mining towns where the promise of getting rich never seemed to fully pan out. All that is left of some of them are roads and crumbling buildings. Every so often you find a ghost town that's been invaded by artists. The remnants of a drug store turned into an art gallery. The soda fountain intact.

You find a strange combination of people, all running from something in their lives. All wanting to be left alone. The new cowboys with their motorcycles and distrust of everyone they don't instantly recognize. Artists wandering around bra-less, covered in tattoos, green hair and nose piercing. Mexicans whose families have lived on the land for thousands of years before there was any such thing as a Mexican.

Into this you pull your rented Lincoln towncar. A giant couch that screams tourist and you hope to not be noticed. You and your new wife enter this new world with a feeling of wonderment and awe. You're like children ready to go out into the plains and soak it into your lungs. The sun, the snow, the rocks, the rivers, the mountains; they all leave their imprint on you. The soundtrack is silence, broken occasionally by the Rolling Stones (Daddy you're a Fool to Cry) or the Doors (LA Woman). Just enough to remind you that you're actually still in the world. That other people still exist and you haven't left them behind.

Being out there, miles away from anyone else when it starts to snow and you think maybe this is what life is about. There is no meaning but soaking in times where you're surprised and new again. Avoiding the rut of day-to-day life. Grabbing your wife's hand and running headfirst into the dark. Maybe that familiar blue feeling way down in your stomach isn't depression but boredom. A routine of getting up, going to work, coming home and going to bed. Buying useless shit and watching television on the weekends to change things up. Maybe that blueness is your brain telling you to breakout.

"Cut the shit buddy, get out there and live before it's all over."

And in those moments you remember all the times you've had this revelation and how every time it falls away. Forgotten until the next time, leaving only the nagging feeling in your bones to get out and run.

Envy

2005-05-07T17:28:00.000-04:00

Well for the longest time I've seen other blogs and had a bit of, well envy toward them. People with digital cameras and a little know-how have been making these slick pages with pictures and frames and little old idiot me has this jamboree of text. I've been reading just enough that I want to try this. Please let me know how the photo shows up.

The picture is of the Plaza in Santa Fe, NM. At night its really quiet (at least in March it was). During the day, local Native Americans sell stuff on blankets to tourists. Most of it is silver jewelry, but they do sell other stuff as well. Overall, Santa Fe is a nifty place.

Well, this photo is my attempt to play with our new digital camera and do some different things with the light filters and shutter speed. So we'll see if my blog now gets more spice, or if I just end up posting the 32 year old man's equivalent of pictures of my grandchildren.

For L

2005-05-05T18:03:00.000-04:00

In response to the e-mail I sent you and you sent back, I've had this rolling around in my head...

The second I step away from the ledge I am transformed. My former coworkers gaze at me with giant saucer eyes, in awe of what I have become. I have shed my coocoon and become more. Soaring above the city, larger than life like a superhero.

That's where I am right now, its a soundrack in my head on a little loop.

Runaway Bride

2005-05-05T17:29:00.000-04:00

Very briefly, the media needs to stop beating this dead horse. She screwed up. She sure as hell doesn't need to apologize on national TV! Dianne Sawyer needs to stop talking about her in the morning.

I figured out why I like the CBS Saturday Morning show the best, it doesn't cover the flavor of the minute. Its like a home economics class.

I say to network news, its time to leave this poor woman in peace. Her 15 minutes of fame ran out the second she was found. Spend your time being the Fourth Estate and cover Bush's benefits cut proposal on Social Security!

Ron Mexico

2005-04-26T15:12:00.000-04:00

A new link has been added under 'pointless distractions.' You too can have a name like Ron Mexico!

Me Thinks Thou Doth Protest Too Much

2005-04-20T15:02:00.000-04:00

I find it very interesting that just when questions about his ethics come up that Mr. Tom DeLay starts attacking the courts, Justice Kennedy, and the Internet...

See this:

a

I'm just wondering, since when has the Internet become so bad for conducting research that it shouldn't be used? I know there are a good number of pay per use legal research services out there that use database technology to make it easy to sift through documents. DeLay is the one who is acting in an outrageous fashion.

While we may disagree with the courts, they are there to protect the rights of the minority from the tyranny of the majority. Additionally they are there to stop other branches of government from acting like idiots.

I've stopped believing that conservatives (especially neo-cons) want what's best for the country and want to work things out. I think what they want most now is to be right all the time. Children!

Why I hate People

2005-04-05T15:33:00.000-04:00

Now, breast cancer is no laughing matter, but I'm sorry this group does not get to lay claim to the color pink. They do not get ownership over it, and they do not get to be offended by someone else using the color. There may be legitimate complaints about this, but this sure is hell isn't one.

The article is associated press from ESPN

Nutt doesn't want to offend cancer survivorsAssociated Press

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Arkansas coach Houston Nutt said that players caught loafing will no longer wear pink jerseys during practices in an effort to avoid offending breast cancer survivors.

Nutt received negative reaction from people when they saw the players in the pink jerseys. Breast cancer survivors and their supporters often wear pink ribbons, and the nationwide Race for the Cure, which raises funds for breast cancer research, uses the color pink as well.

"That's the last thing I want to do, is to offend a cancer victim, someone who I know how strong and brave they are," Nutt said. "That was the last thing on our mind, to discredit somebody who has shown a lot of toughness. I've had members of my family who had cancer."

Nutt said the coaches are considering another color, possibly burnt orange, the color of Arkansas rival Texas.

Marriage, Santa Fe, and life

2005-04-01T16:52:00.000-05:00

There is so much I could say or write about the past two weeks, but I'm not sure where I'd start. I'd also probably be so disjointed and unorganized in what I said that anyone reading this would be very confused. I will say, however:

-My wedding day was the fastest single day of my life. Everything went perfectly, everyone had a great time. S and I had a wonderful time. It was the happiest day of my life. I just was so unprepared for the emotion, the hectic nature, the sheer volume of what goes on. It's like I blinked and it was over.

-Santa Fe is one of the coolest places I have ever been. S and I had a wonderful time. Bandelier National Monument is incredible, Ten Thousand Waves spa was amazing (check out their web site, we had the Waterfall tub), The International Folk Art Museum was one of the coolest places I've been, the Turquoise Trail was cool. The only thing we didn't like was Taos. That's mostly because it's a tourist trap.

The state of New Mexico is incredible. The landscape seems to change every ten miles. What a great place to go.

The food was great too, though every restaurant said their chiles were hot as hell. I don't know if it's me or if it was off-season, but the food was pleasantly warm. That's it, nothing overpowering.

Oh, BTW we saw where Young Guns was filmed.

Santa Fe

2005-03-16T17:52:00.000-05:00

I cannot wait, the honeymoon is the vacation I've been waiting for. We're going to Santa Fe, New Mexico. From what I have seen, it looks like it will be an amazing time.

Oscar in brief

2005-02-28T10:38:00.000-05:00

Chris Rock was great, though they should have let him run with it more. Hotel Rwanda was robbed. And finally Antonio Banderas cannot sing a lick. That man should stick to his day job... oh that's right his acting is average too. Alright, he should stick to being Melanie Griffith's wife, uh I mean husband.

My attorney advises me to write this...

2005-02-21T11:46:00.000-05:00

What a shame, what a great writer. It's best in small doses, but Hunter S. Thompson could write.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/02/21/thompson.obit/index.html

Phony

2005-02-10T13:45:00.000-05:00

So here I am in Irvine, California. I just left Nashville where the people are really nice and honest. We went to a place called Robert's Western World, saw a great house band play, ate steaks, etc. Now I'm in LA and everyone is dressed so that they look better than the next person.

For some reason I come out here and get all tense. The weather is nice, the landscape is nice, I can actually see snow capped mountains from my room. There is just something about the driving, the laid back attitude, the never ending fashion show, the trendiness that drives me nuts. Now I now New York has some of those same things, but it just feels different. There is an undercurrent of honesty in it that doesn't make it so bad. You're as likely to meet a power broker as you are a garbage truck driver, and to be honest, you can talk about the same things with both of them. Bring up the Yankees and you can talk for hours. There is a common threat that just feels nice.

On a side note, on the flight out here I was reading the latest McSweeney's Quarterly and it had a lot of Icelandic writers in it. There is a style there that was weirding me out. I can't full describe it.

Article

2005-01-26T18:07:00.000-05:00

This is an excellent article that says what I weakly attempted to say this morning.

http://www.dailyfreepress.com/news/2005/01/25/Opinion/Smoking.At.Home.A.Right-840589.shtml

Another invasion of privacy

2005-01-26T09:36:00.000-05:00

So this company Weyco (http://www.weyco.com) has decided that it will ban its employees from smoking. This is a complete ban, not just at work but at home as well. I saw the owner's lawyer on GMA and Today and they feel the company is well within its rights to do so.

It amazes me how business is forgetting that it does not own its employees. An employer can't just decide that while at home, its employees must or must not engage in a perfectly legal activity. What next? No fatty foods? No drinking? No voting for a candidate the company disagrees with? Everyone should go to www.aclu.org now and join. They're the last organization in this country standing up for the rights of the individual.

Today

2005-01-23T20:17:00.000-05:00

Not much to say today. I've got a big trip coming up for work that will send me to Nashville, TN and Irvine, CA. One on one interviews. At least this time I don't have to conduct 45 of them. It will be good, I need a trip out of town for work. There's something about travel that gets me feeling good and connected with the world again. When I'm home, I don't seem to venture out much. I stay glued to the TV or read and have a quiet life. It's not that I'm a different person when I'm out, but it's good for my brain. I people watch, I think. It's liberating for my brain.