Oh yeah, I forgot to tell folks that Sue and I will not be posting anything while we are here in Michigan (except this post to tell you that their will be no other posts. Paradoxical, I know...). We get back on 1-2-2005. Until then, stay out of the kiddy pool and party like its 1999!
"Santa Claus is Coming to Town..." Well, in this case by "Santa Claus" I mean Sue and I and by "town" I mean the good old state of Michigan, but you get the idea. Sue and I are heading out on our fun 10 hour drive to Michigan on Wednesday. Man am I psyched! Can't wait to see all the friend and family that I have been bumming about not seeing lately. Sue pointed out to me yesterday that when we awake on Thursday from our trip hangover, we will only be two days from Christmas (one if you count Christmas Eve, which I would). That makes me happy.
Our time slots available for hanging out with friends are rapidly closing (and lets be serious: EVERYONE want a piece of Sue and I), so if you are interested in scheduling time with Sue and I you better put your request in now. Right now! I'm serious. Stop reading this and send email to Sue right now...I'll wait....done? Well what the fuck is taking so long? Are you computer-challenged? Are you a "special" kid? Did you ride the short bus to school? Did you try to bite your own ear? Can't type under the pressure can you? CAN YOU? Loser.... ;)
For those not in the business know, Nextel and Sprint merged today. Boring I know, but I have a suggestion for a new name for the company...Sextel! (say it with Jazz Hands for that added bit of excitement). They could replace that Sprint guy in the black trenchcoat with Jenna Jameson in ONLY the black trenchcoat.
Or to please the conservative majority, they could get Bill O'Reilly could be their spokesman! The ad line could be something like, "I'm not only the spokeman for Sextel, but I'm also their number 1 client". Then the commerical would cut to O'Reilly holding the phone to his ear and whispering slowly "...oh baby. Now say that you want to spank me with the Bill of Rights...Yeahhhh...thats a GOOOOOOD federalist!".
Hi all, I am still alive and I am surviving through finals. One more Thursday and then I am done until Jan.! I will be partying a lot in between!! I am still finding things to blog about, I just never have time to actually write one. I found a story today that I wanted to write about.
On ABCnews.com I found this story: Christians Aiming to Boost Religion which is about how a bunch of Christian conservatives are trying to force people to put "Christ" back into Christmas by trying to make businesses put up signs that say "Merry Christmas" instead of the considerate and neutral term of "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays".
My first problem with this is that "Christ" was not even born on December 25th! That was a day that Constatine picked to prove a point. Dec. 25th was first "the important Mithraic feast Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (the Birth of the Unconquered Sun). Replacing the pagan feast with Christmas was likely a ploy to make Christianity, the newly official religion of the Roman empire, more palatable to Roman legionnaires, many of whom had been devotees of Mithraism." Constatine decided to put Christmas on Dec. 25th to prove a point that any other belief would not be tolerated. Of course then he went out and killed all of the "pagans" since they did not believe in "his" religion. Should we begin that again too? Shall we revisit the Crusades and have that occur all over again, oh wait, that is basically the Iraq/Afghanistan war...right. We both have different beliefs and have decided to kill others for it.
Second of all, long before "Jesus", the holiday season was celebrated by many. The History channel has a neat summary of the history of Christmas. "Centuries before the arrival of the man called Jesus, early Europeans celebrated light and birth in the darkest days of winter. Many peoples rejoiced during the winter solstice, when the worst of the winter was behind them and they could look forward to longer days and extended hours of sunlight." There are many traditions that we do for Christmas that have been around since way before Christianity. Just to mention a few: "In Scandinavia, the Norse celebrated Yule from December 21, the winter solstice, through January. In recognition of the return of the sun, fathers and sons would bring home large logs, which they would set on fire. The people would feast until the log burned out, which could take as many as 12 days. The Norse believed that each spark from the fire represented a new pig or calf that would be born during the coming year. The end of December was a perfect time for celebration in most areas of Europe. At that time of year, most cattle were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter. For many, it was the only time of year when they had a supply of fresh meat. In addition, most wine and beer made during the year was finally fermented and ready for drinking. In Germany, people honored the pagan god Oden during the mid-winter holiday. Germans were terrified of Oden, as they believed he made nocturnal flights through the sky to observe his people, and then decide who would prosper or perish. Because of his presence, many people chose to stay inside."
The history of Santa is great too and yet on one bible website I visited to try to find some info. some guy was ranting on about how horrible it is for kids to believe and follow the Santa tradion. "The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick." He became known as the protector of Children and sailors. Why is this bad? If anything, it is a good story to tell Children. It is also a great way for children to fuel there imagination which is important for their development. What is wrong with believing in Santa, a symbol of peace, love and Unity?
The Christmas tree has been around for many years, way before Christianity. It also has a good story behind it and you can read it at The History Channel's web site. Ancient people would decorate there homes in boughs or with a tree to remind them that even though it is winter and cold, the trees still grow and soon it will be spring time again.
Warning: rant up ahead... This quote just made me sad: "There is a revival taking place in our nation that is causing Christian and right-minded people to say, `Wait a minute. We've gone too far,'" says the Rev. Patrick Wooden Sr., pastor of the Raleigh church. "We're not going to allow the country to continue this downward spiral to the left." Wait now, Bush only won the election by one state by a couple hundred thousand votes and many Democrats are Christian too. The "right-winged nut jobs" have not won anything first of all. Secondly, since when is being considerate to other's beliefs and wanting to wish everyone well during this time of the season bad? I don't get why the Christian conservatives think that since Bush won that all of a sudden they have the right to throw Chrisianity into everything. This is still America!!! Freedom to believe in what you want!? This country is composed of people from all over the world and from all kinds of faiths, beliefs, and backgrounds! The damn country was founded by people escaping religious persecution, but now all of a sudden they think that they can start it again! Why? Should we start hanging non-christians again because we think that they are witches? I don't get it? If these people want to be so accurate then they should not put up a tree, have no Santa, no presents, and they should be celebrating another day.
Just replace the word Grinch and you get: How the Christian conservative right stole Christmas...
Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you all enjoy and celebrate what YOU want to celebrate.
I can only hope that the celebration of peace, love, unity, and respect spreads on.
I read on CNN today that George Tenet (you remember him. He was director of the CIA; told Bush that the intel about Iraq having WMDs was a "slam dunk") was getting the Medal of Freedom. That's "the nation's highest civilian honor". Bush said he played "pivotal roles in great events." Are you fucking kidding me? HE GOT THE INTEL WRONG AND GETS A FUCKING MEDAL!!! I need to start being more incompetent so I can get some government recognition and perhaps some of those sexy intelligence agents that all those security education videos at work tell me are out to steal secrets in return for sex.
We all know New Jersey is the Garden State (thanks to the movie of the same name and the fact that the name is routinely mocked due to the fact that nothing will in fact grow in New Jersey). But did you know that New Jersey is also the place to go if you want to score that perfect heroin high? The AP reported today that:
"For the second straight year, DEA lab tests of samples bought on the street will show unprecedented levels of heroin purity. In 2002, New Jersey heroin was 71.4 percent pure, nearly twice the national average."
My favorite quote was from a DEA agent interviewed for the article:)
"You can't buy any better heroin in the world than you can buy in New Jersey," said Michael Pasterchick, special agent in charge of the Newark DEA office.
Of course, the article tries to make this out to be a public health issue. Something about addicts, overdoses, blah, blah, blah. I think they have the wrong take entirely. NJ should be living this sort of press up! All press is good press right? I mean, lets face it: NJ does not have a lot of other reasons to visit. They should create some sort of national advertising campaign based on this fact. I'm thinking a live, touring version of Pulp Fiction set in NJ :) With that sort of press, they could almost guarantee the hat trick. Once they have that, the endorsements will come rushing in. That's where the real money is in this scheme:)
Or create the first National Heroin Festival. Oh man that would be sweet! Think how jealous those bitches in Amsterdam would be if NJ were to win the "best heroin in the world" award THREE years in a row!
Quick Side Note: I'm really enjoying the fact that the word "blog" is not in the built in blogger spell checker, but "heroin" is.
Man, I love this country in a lot of ways. For all the cynical bitching that I do about America, it still has a lot going for it. For example: today I went down to the corner gas station (Wynn and US-72 for those in the area) and got 32 ozs of Pepsi for 32 cents. How can you argue with a country's economic plan when you can buy an ounce of Pepsi for a freaken penny?!?
I'm listening to the new Seether CD I got for my birthday right now. I really like it and have meant to post about for a while now. I really bought it originally just for the song Broken (the one with Amy Lee from Evanescence, another EXCELLECT band), but the rest of the CD is very good if you like good hard, angry rock (which we have previously established as some of my favorite music for those paying attention). However, it is important to note that the song Broken is like NOTHING else on the CD.
On another note, this is my fifth post in four days. Some of them were even good posts worth reading:) Most were not even my usual rants against stupid people or news (well ok, the Alexander one was a bit of a rant). Pretty good if I do say so myself:) See? I told you more was coming, and now I have delivered. I've been writing a bunch lately, so much so that I actually had a few in reserve that I have been doling out over the last few days (for example, I'm not listening to Seether at all right now. HA! You fell for that line like a cheap whore in a back alley).
Alberto Gonzalez was nominated for the US Attorney General Post on Nov 10th. I saw these couple of quotes from Bush about him in a CNN article, and I just had to comment:)
"The memo warned Bush administration officials that they could be held accountable for "war crimes" if they did not agree with the conclusion of Justice Department attorneys that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to al Qaeda and Taliban detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."
Translation: We are torturing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
"His sharp intellect and sound judgment have helped shape our policies in the war on terror," Bush said at the time.
hmm...maybe it would be better if you picked someone who DID NOT help shape the current policies on the war on terror. They did not seem to go over to well in a certain Iraq prison that I'll refrain from naming.
"He has an unwavering principle of respect for the law."
That is, unless you mean the Geneva Conventions or the international treaties we have signed against torture. In those cases, his "respect" == "do whatever the fuck I want and lets just see someone try and stop me".
Sue and I went and saw Alexander this weekend. I did not think it was possible to make a movie about one of the greatest military minds of this or any time boring, but Oliver Stone did a fine job doing just that.
My biggest beef with the movie is that it skips so many interesting things about his life. There are only two battle scenes: one in the very beginning and one at the very end of the movie. In between, the movie drags horribly. I saw Collin Farrel on Ellen yesterday saying the every scene in the movie is very emotional, and that is true. So much so that by the end you are thinking of Alexander not as the brilliant soldier that he was, but as a whinny, crying, little bitch.
The movie tries to paint Alexander's very bloody campaigns as little more than a side note through much of the movie. Instead, it portrays a message of politically correct tolerance for all in a time when such a concept was utterly foreign. It feels awkward and does not work in a lot of ways.
Other points:
Best Quote of the weekend: "I like my turkey like I like my women: Hot, moist, and stuffed!"
Best Ironic Quote from Rush Limbaugh today: "If you turned on the news channels this weekend, you saw an orgy of talk on morality..."
Recently, the Cobb County School district in Georgia required all textbooks with reference to evolution to include the following text:
"This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered."
Check out this link for a few other stickers that should probably be included in textbooks as well:)
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/textbookdisclaimers/
There is an excellent article on Alabama in the Washington Post today:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&e=2&u=/washpost/20041128/ts_washpost/a16443_2004nov27
P.S. I know it has been a long time since my last update (6 days! My god!). I'm sure the 3 steady readers of this blog have been saddened by our current lack of posts. But we have more coming I can assure you.
When Eric was out of town in Phoenix, I rented a few movies the Friday night before he came home. I didn't plan it to be a Macaulay Culkin weekend, but it was. I rented two great movies that he was in recently.
The first one was Saved! This was the little movie with Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin. It makes fun of super Christian people and what happens when some of them do things that are "un-Christian" like. It is hilarious and Macaulay Culkin plays the angry brother of Mandy Moore's perfect christian child role. It also has some good messages in it.
The second movie I rented was Party Monster. This one has Macaulay Culkin as the famous club kid Michael Alig and Seth Green as James St. James. Wilmer Valderrama , Dylan McDermott Chloe Sevigny, Natasha Lyonne Marilyn Manson are also in it. The movie is based on the novel that James wrote about their true lives as club kids. This movie definitely makes you think "Don't do too many drugs at once and not everyday". Michael Alig and the other New York City club kids were famous in the 80's and 90's for changing what clubbing was. They would dress up in crazy outfits and make-up and Micheal Alig would hold crazy party's. They also did tons and tons of drugs. They liked to do Special K, crack, and Heroin together. Eventually Michael Alig kills his drug dealer friend Angel over money. Micheal would do tons of drugs and not pay for them and so Angel got pissed off. Another lesson I learned watching this, do not live with your drug dealer ecspecially if you are not going to pay him. This movie rocked! I loved it and watched it many times. It is also based on a true story so it makes it even better! This movie is totally fucked up, but that is what I like. I recommend that everyone watch it.
Some of my favorite quotes:
Micheal: "Well, what do you know. That is a rat-hole, not a crack- hole! The rat is on crack attack!"
Micheal to Angel "We did all of your drugs and we need some more."
Angel:" What?"
Micheal: "We did all of your drugs and we need some more!"
My four days here in Phoneix so far have reminded me of the great opening to Pulp Fiction:
V: "You know the funniest thing about Arizona? It's the little differences. I mean they got the same shit over there that we do here. Just there its a little different."
J: "Example?"
V: "Well in Arizona people think 65 degree weather is the sort where you should wear a winter coat, hats, and mittens. And at Arizona State, the girls wear long pants and long sleeve shirts, but they are crop shirts that show their belly. And do you know what they call the biggest waste of water in Phoenix?"
J: "They don't call them yard sprinklers?"
V: "Nah man, they don't have grass in their yards. They wouldn't know what the fuck a yard sprinkler is."
J: "Well what do they call them?"
V: "They call them golf courses..."
J: "Golf courses..."
Sue and I are back from a abso-fucking-lutely awesome 4-day weekend with our college pals Paul (who needs a blog so that I could link to it here), Sue (no relation to my Sue except that they both kick some serious ass), and Kien (who does have a blog).
It was remarkably like being in college again. The alcohol on a Thursday night, the slurpees nearly every night (mmmm...), staying up passed 3am just to chat about random crap (or even until 7-8 the next morning), the little competitive streak that sneaks in when playing Mario Tennis for 3 hours, watching South Park into the early hours of the morning, constantly spouting movie line to one other at odd moments, and general good natured ribbing that comes from folks you have know long enough to call family. The best part was that despite the fact that we were together for only a weekend, it never seemed like we were in a huge hurry to jam as many activities as we could. It was very relaxing and enjoyable.
To our hosts, I would like to formally in writing pronounce to the world that you guys rock, I am honored to stand up with you when you get married, and that Sue and I will be there for you guys in anything that you need. Ditto to Kien of course. My old roommate is one of the best guys I have had the privilege to know. Are there any woman that need a good loyal, smart, funny guy? Cause this guy is it! (I think I just crossed the line from compliments to pimping)
I'm sad that we had to return, and I am REALLY sad I had to catch a 6:45 am flight the very next day. Nothing makes aircraft bench testing at 9:00pm at night worse than thinking about the hella good time I could be having with those guys. I'm stuck here until Saturday afternoon, so everyone needs to send Sue a nice IM/e-mail/call/etc. to relieve her boredom:) While your at it, everyone should do the same for me. Perhaps one of those nice, "I'm still alive and this is what I have been doing since the last time I emailed you", emails that get me back in the loop. Yeah, that would be cool.
A while ago I posted a blog stating that there was nothing to look forward to in terms of birthdays after your 21st. Today I remembered that I need to amend that. Now that I am 26, I am now offically too old to be drafted!
So I was sitting around today thinking about the need for more ideas for Christmas for various family members when I had an epiphany. I said to myself, "Self, why don't I just ask the loyal readers of this blog to come up with good books, movies, music, or other random crap that they think I should read/watch/listen to/do whatever is appropriate with random crap?" Then I can leave all the thinking to other people AND get exposed to some material I might otherwise never consider. Self is always coming up with good ideas like that. :)
So there is your challenge readers. The gauntlet has officially been laid at your feet. Leave your worthy comments!
The front page story of the Huntsville Times today was that people are confused and alarmed about the first "roundabout" in the Huntsville area. Sue told me that it was also one of the top stories on the local news.
I happen to go though it on my way to work. This morning, someone stopped on the middle of the circle TWICE to let some folks into the roundabout. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PEOPLE!!!! It's a simple concept. YOU GO AROUND THE CIRCLE! You exit at your street! How hard is this? The people not in the roundabout YIELD. Hence that big red sign at the entrance to the roundabout!
Well, even with some of the biggest efforts made to prevent Bush from being re-elected, it happened. I am sure as most of you know from reading my blogs, I am severely disappointed. It is not just because I dislike Bush and all he stands for, but I am saddened by the direction that this country is going in with the his re-election. It just amazes me that this election came down to so-called "Christian" values and morals and not social issues, ecspecially when both candidates were Christian. I still do not understand why people went with Bush and said that he was the one with Christian values and morals. Please explain to me how going to war for the wrong reasons fits into Christianity, how does the fact that many, many people cannont afford healthcare fit into Christianity, how does giving yourself and the rest of the rich tax cuts fit into Christianity? I don't get it! GOP does not equal GOD! I also do not get how people are for a man that vocally discriminates against a group of people. SNL had a good point the other day in a skit with Bush and Tony Blair. Blair said that he doesn't get how when he goes to war in Iraq, his popularity drops a lot and then in America, Bush's goes up. "I just do not understand!" I also don't get how people can handle the fact that most of the rest of the world hates America because of all of the things that Bush has done. I salute all of the Michigan people back home, you did your part. Way to go!
Oh well. All I can say is that I am so glad that there is alcohol! The next four years will have to be a drunken blur. Must escape the evilness of the red state. Must go to blue state...
Well, Sue and I now have the smug satisfaction of having voted. I love that feeling. And I always love that little "I voted (which shows I am patriotic. See? There is a flag on this sticker to prove it! And why haven't you voted dick-hole?)" sticker they give you after you successfully connect two ends of an arrow.
Alabama once again proved how retarded the whole state is with this election. The following is the list of constitutional amendments we voted on this time around:
Please vote tomorrow (NOV. 2nd)!! Vote for who you believe is the best candidate. Don't let anyone tell you who to vote for, vote with your own gut feeling. It is predicted that a large number of voters ages 18-30 are going to vote this year and I hope that they are true. If more college age people would vote, we could swing elections and we could get some new, young ideas into politics. You don't want old people to decide the president or your local issues, do you? Then get out there and vote! If you don't P. Diddy may hunt you down and kill you :)
John Kerry
George Bush
Ralph Nader
We were off in Freakin Ohio this weekend for a three-year olds birthday party and we thought, we can get home in time on Sunday to give out candy to the trick-or-treaters (buzzer sound), incorrect. The idiodic pions in this area decided that the kids have to trick-or-treat on Saturday the 30th not on the actual day of Halloween, the 31st. Why would anyone be this stupid you ask? Because according to them Sunday is God's day and we can't do that on God's day! What the F@#k?!?!?! You can do both!!! Dumbasses! Now all the children who are already 50th in the country for learning are going to look even dumber since someone decided to f@#k with the holidays.
Please dear God make this election campain end soon. I don't even live in a swing state and I want off this insane ride!
Oh and I looked it up yesterday: Once again I am voting in a Church. Uh hello? Where is the seperation of Church and State here? Why don't I just vote in the confessional? :)
Update: Also, perhaps I should learn to spell confessional correctly:)
Any weekend in which I did any one of the following would probably be considered a good weekend:
But doing all four in the same weekend? Well, lets just say that by the end I had same goofy expression I get when Sue tells me she wants some loven;)
FYI: Watching hockey here in Huntsville is still fun, but not quite the same as a MSU game. For one thing, the fact that only about 50-100 people show up to watch the game takes some of the excitement out of it. Its just not the same as having to fight tooth and nail to get to your seat and being late meant you did not get one:) Second, I have to agree with Ryan's comment that the games here just seem a little slower and sloppier. Its a lot like watching the difference between Red Wing hockey and Philadelphia hockey (finesse vs. brute power).
Sue, Ryan, and bunch of Ryan's friends and I all headed out to Huntsville's gay dance club Upscale again this weekend.
Rather than giving you the minute by minute break down, I thought it would be funnier if I just gave you a top-ten out of context highlights:
1) Got drunk. As always, I was the pace-car.
2) Met a cool UofM student.
3) Met a guy who is at least as big a Star Wars geek as I am
4) Got my boobs felt up in the club bathroom by Ryan
5) Got my ass grabbed by a bi-sexual
6) Hear a story about a woman getting molested at age 5.
7) Hear a story from one of the females that they had a lesbian experience with their female roommate.
8) Everyone thinks I dance like a straight white guy:)
9) Had a gay guy show me the "correct" way to dance with my wife.
10) One word: "DRAMA"
I broke out my old Star Wars CCG cards this weekend for the first time in almost four years and played a game while over at John and Mandy's house for some drinking /CD swapping / Balderdash fun (Side note: Balderdash so kicks ass as a party game).
Man, I forgot how much that game is like crack to me. Just one hit, and I am already digging through old boxes looking for various cards in order to create the perfect deck. And the Magic the Gathering game that I played 2 weeks ago in between poker games was like my gateway drug:)
Sweet Lord, I am such a geek! Note I said geek. There is a difference between a geek and a nerd, and I walk that fine line with pride.
I was hoping that my trip to Atlanta this week would sort of make up for it, but now that that is cancelled I just have to accept that I am going to be a dork for quite a bit longer...
Eric and I will be going to Atlanta this Thursday to see Paul Van Dyk spin at the club eleven50. We are leaving Thursday at about 4 and will return Friday sometime. For those of you in the Huntsville area, you are more than welcome to join us. We have a hotel room reserved just a few blocks from the club. Just let us know if you want to be hella cool and join us!
DAMN IT!! ITS POSTPONED UNTIL JANUARY!!
Today I was watching FUSE and I saw a couple of interesting things:
1) I saw a commercial for the Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD followed immediately by a recruitment ad for the US Army. The irony was not lost on me at least:)
2) I saw the video for the song "Goodies" by this girl named Ciara. Now in the song she mentions that she is a "strong, independent" woman. That would be fine, except she spends the entire video dressed like a woman who is desperate for a man to show her attention. If you are strong and independent, I think you should try wearing something that does not scream, "please look at me as nothing more than a piece of sexy meat":)
<Homer>mmmmm.....sexy meat....drool...</Homer>
I want to apologize in advance for this one...
Fuck the whole fucking world tonight. God damn it!!! I got some info on my family tonight from my mom. Suffice it to say that I am pissed off with specific parts of my family, myself, and the whole fucking US culture of addiction as a "disease". Look, I don't buy that crap. Addiction is a person DECIDING that giving into a problem is easier than making the choice to stop.
Is it too fucking much to ask people to take some fucking responsibly for their actions? We have free will of God sake! That is what it is for! Worse is that fact this specific family member has not learned at all from all previous encounters with this EXACT SAME PROBLEM!!!!! I'm honestly having trouble feeling even a little bit sorry for them. That's a horrible thing to say of course because they are family, but it is how I am feeling about it right now...
Fuck it; I have an exam tomorrow that I need to study for more. I just needed to get this rant off my chest...
Ruben put a presidental debate drink game today. Hilarious. Please DO try this at home:)
This morning NPR played part of an interview with Rod Stewart. No big deal, except that they played this line from the interview: "I had more fun and shagged more girls during that time than any other time in my life."
In doing so, I do believe that NPR became the first publicly funded media here in the US to broadcast anyone saying the word "shag":)
Dear God! The "special extended edition" of the Return of the King DVD will include another 50 minutes of footage. That will make the entire movie four hours and ten minutes long! I'll need a catheter just to make it through the entire movie in one sitting.
Of course, you know I will be asking Sue to be my Santa and get it for me for Christmas (it will be released Dec 14). I'm just whining for the sake of writing another blog entry:)
As some of you know, I tend to be a non-music radio listener. I started with just listening to NPR on the way to work, but during the day the NPR station here in Huntsville never plays anything but classical music. So to get my fix, I switch over to AM radio during those times.
For those who don't listen to AM radio, it is a interesting sort of listen. Most know that the rank of talk show host typically only goes to folks who are pretty hard-core right-wing conservative. Interestingly, there is actually a relationship between how early you are on in the day and how conservative you are required to be. For example, here in Huntsville the AM 770 station plays the following shows:
Noon - Rush Limbaugh - Rush is better than the rest of them, although he will still resort to name calling, scare tactics, and general twisting of words whenever it suits the point he is trying to make. However, he at least has some good points to make. I can usually listen to this for about 30 minutes or so before I want to call the station. The worst thing about this show is that he makes some fine points, but always seems to take them too far.
3:00 pm - Sean Hannity - Way more conservative. Interestingly, this guy is a complete dick when hosting the show alone, but is always very nice to any guest he has; even the Democrat ones (probably because he needs them to actually come back once in a while). I can only listen to this one for about 10 minutes before I have to turn it off.
7:00 pm - Michael Savage - Worst of the whole lot. He is a Pat Buchanan conservative ( just like regular conservative, except he also adds in a fear of foreigners and is in favor of isolationism). I swear this next part is true and that I heard it with my own ears: last week he said anyone who was not in favor of the words "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance must be a "sexual deviant". Usually I cannot make it home before this guy makes me yell at the radio.
Of course, the people who call into these shows are amusing as well:) Yesterday I was listening and someone called in to say the answer to the problems in Iraq was to just wipe out various cities one at a time until the population comes under control... and host thought it was a good idea! I've heard the same idea floated around about the Palestine/Israel problem as well on talk radio. Wow.... That would be like the government telling us that every time someone was convicted of a murder, they would wipe out everyone on the same block... Scary stuff man...
Hello all. I thought I would report in. It is the 4th week of school and damn am I tired! They sure keep us buried in paperwork in nursing school. I guess it is just practice for the real world. Anywho, this past weekend I went to Birmingham, AL to the Children's hospital as part of my Pediatric rotation. It was ok, but the floors I was on in the hospital were a little slow. One day we had a Jerry Springer family and I thought my family was screwed up? They were 10 times as bad as any problem I have. The children's hospital is pretty cool. It has every specialty you can think of and they even have a stem cell unit where they do transplants. The whole place is decorated very cute and colorful. It is a great place for kids to go when they are sick. It was kind of hard to see all of those sick kids ecspecially the young ones on the cancer floor, but there are so many great nurses and doctors there that really take care of them. Birmingham is a great city. Unfortunately me and the girls I was with were unable to party too hard since we had to get up at 5:00 each morning and do homework, but Friday and Saturday night we went and ate and drank downtown. The nights were so nice and cool that we sat on the patios and just took in the surroundings. We made the best out of our school excursion, but now I am home and have tons of homework to do! Argh! Some serious partying will need to occur soon to release some stress. Later.
Hurricane Ivan came through the area last night. We lost power for about 4 hours last night, which sucks! I was thinking that I missed a lot of good TV because of that storm, but then I remembered that the local NBC station interrupts with weather reports every three minute anyways:) The local weather guy was worried that there might be tornados, but in the end there was just a lot of wind and rain. My backyard is covered in tree/brush debris and our large growth of ivy fell over. Otherwise all is good here.
FYI: My jeep is like a giant sail in high winds. Driving home in that sort of weather is...well lets just say "challenging".
Work sucks today. Nothing but mind-numbing code that does nothing but move bits from one location to another. But at least di.fm is finally working again today (at least the mp3 streams are working. The WMA streams always seem to be busy when I want to listen to them). The Hard House music I am listening to right now on di.fm sure is making work easier to deal with:)
Speaking of streaming music, MSN had a bunch of links to 80's Radio links. I tried each one for a few minutes, and it only reinforced my theory that there was no good rock/pop music made in the 80's ( I used to say no good music..PERIOD.., but I had to modify that after listening to some of the music played at that 80's party with Wes's possie).
Say it is not so!!!! Another F$%$ing lock out? DAMN IT!
For those unaware, I love hockey. Some of my earliest memories are sitting with my old man watching the Red Wings take on the Edmonton Oilers in the playoffs each year. The Wings invariably lost, but it was still a great bonding experience...
Seems the owners want a salary cap for the league, and the player have said, "over our dead bodies". Its hard to feel sorry for the players, given that the average salary is now just under $2 million a year, and 2/3 of the teams in the league are losing money. Still, I can understand the players' position. It is not their fault that the owners overpay them:)
But Hockey is quickly moving towards Baseball in terms of team balance. It NEEDS a salary cap. The great teams like the Red Wings, Philadelphia, and Colorado can afford $40 million+ payrolls. Most of the rest of the teams cannot. So we are quickly approaching a situation like baseball: teams will spend insane amounts of money for a year, make it to the playoffs, then dismantle the team the next year.
Also, unlike baseball, basketball, and football, hockey does not have a huge national TV contract to even out some of the individual teams' revenue. Hockey's TV contract is such a joke that I read that Arena football gets about as much money from their national TV contract as hockey:(
Sue and I went shopping at Sam's Club today. They already have an aisle of Christmas items out! Worse, they had a CD player out playing songs from NSync's Christmas album. So I found myself wandering aisles singing, "Here comes Santa Claus. Here comes Santa Cl... DAMN IT!!". Stupid catchy chorus...
This past weekend Eric and I rented some older movies, but we thought that they were pretty good flicks.
The first one we rented was Stark Raving Mad with Sean William Scott playing a good, bad guy. It also has Lou Diamond Phillips and Dave Foley in it. It is about Scott's character who is repaying a debt of his dead brother back to Phillip's character. He is trying to rob a bank by having a big rave party in the club right next door to cover their work on the bank. It is a comedy and the soundtrack rocks since it is all John Digweed! Actually, I bought the two disc soundtrack thinking that it was just a Digweed album and then I found out that there was a movie of the same name. I looked it up on the web to find out what it was about and it looked good so we checked it out. I recommend it.
The other movie we rented was Pieces of April with Katie Holmes. It is a smaller, low key movie, but I enjoyed it. Maybe it is because I loved Dawson's Creek, but don't hold that against me like Eric does. Katie Holmes plays a character that is very different from Joey Potter in this movie. She is a goth dressed chick that lives on the poor side of NYC. The movie is about her inviting her family over for Thanksgiving dinner since she has not seen them in a long time. Her mother and her never got along and now that her mom is dying of breast cancer she wants to do something for her family so that she can see her mom again and try to fix their relationship. Most of the movie is Holme's character trying to make dinner which she has never done and meeting some interesting neighbors in her building including Sean Hayes as a weird, uptight, OCD man. Her family is very weird and as they drive in to the city, they try many times to turn around and not go at all. I would recommend this movie, I really enjoyed it and the end is a little suprise.
Government Weenie: "As a way of honoring the hard work of everyone in this country, we have decided to have everyone NOT work on the same day..."
Am I the only person in the US who does not think Hurricane Frances should be covered by the 24-hour news guys ever 8-10 minutes? How much can you say about a storm?
Every broadcast is exactly the same, "Well, its windy and rainy here in <insert city name>. People should be taking shelter. Back to you.". Repeat in a loop for 5-10 minutes as needed.
I love the shots they have of people in the storm too:) Because of the rain and wind, the camera lens is always covered in water before the person on camera can even show up on CNN.
TV Anchorperson: "Well, it appears we have some sort of blur on the screen talking about rain and weather...."
I know it is a slow news day and all, but sheesh...
For those who don't live in Huntsville/Madison, this blog is not going to mean much. For everyone else, read on.
Sue and I went to that new Pizza Inn restaurant on Hughes Road behind the Wendy's today. If you have never been, DO NOT GO. I generally love any place that give you as much pizza as you like. But the pizza at Pizza Inn was just awful. Much worse than even CiCi's, which is not saying much.
Normally I would not blog about something like this, but I wanted to be sure no one else suffered like Sue and I suffered today:)
Man, I love this one... Apparently Schwarzenegger's recollection of his time in Austria is a little ...uh....foggy :)
CNN.com - Historians dispute Schwarzenegger's convention comments
Man, nothing makes you NOT want to go to school like working 9 hours straight....
I hate the first day of class. I'm not even sure why I show up, except to prevent the teacher from giving away my seat in the class.
Break down of class:
- Teacher is 5 minutes late. I work on the crossword.
- Teacher hands out syllabus. Reads it to us for 30 minutes as if (1) we cannot read, and (2) we have not heard the exact same thing from every professor we have been in front of since the beginning of time. "Wow, you mean the grading scale is 90%+ is a A, 80%+ is a B, etc? Gosh, how original!"
- Teacher spends the rest of the class explaining things that any undergrad had BETTER have learned in order to have graduated with a computer science degree.
Lucky, the professor is not half bad, although she tends to get lost as she is talking about each topic. Perhaps I am just complaining because I was so tired from work that school was the last thing I wanted to do. I blame Sue. She makes me want to come home just as soon as I can:)
Well, today I went back to school. I was happy to go back since it is my last year and I was getting a little bored, but today I got a lot of information about how busy my life will be from now until Christmas! Geesh. At least the end is near, May 15th and I will be graduated...again. I am really excited about this semester though since I get to work with babies, kids, and critically ill patients. These are the three areas I am really interested in doing when I am done with school and I am a RN (real nurse). Well, my brain is sleeping now and I have tons of chapters to read before Thursday.
I've been trying to not post about politics since it is a hot topic among people, but I had to write something about some things I saw lately. Eric and I don't want our blog to be all about politics because we are about so much more than that!
I read in an article today that Dick Cheney has a different idea about gay marriage than the rest of the Republicans. In a recent campaign rally in Missisippi he talked about his own daughter who happens to be a lesibian and stated that:
"With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone. ... People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.
I find it ironic that super Republican Dick Cheney may actually have the hint of a real heart and soul. Could it be that this is a sign that some republicans may actually care about freedom for all after all? We can only hope that he would use his leadership position to help this issue and to help his daughter. I also find it ironic that great Republican leaders are dead set on certain issues until they affect their own family or interests. Cheney is one example, Regan (Super Republican in GOP's eyes) also did a 180 in the topic of stem cell research when it came to saving his own life when he got Alzehimers.
Another thing, I just had to post was that last night Eric and I watched the Daily show with Jon Stewart and who was his guest: JOHN KERRY! I thought it was great that he would actually appear on this show. His appearance on the show made him seem more like a normal run of the mill guy unlike Bush. He was very funny and Jon Stewart made some good points:
"I watch a lot of the cable news shows, so I understand that you were never in Vietnam," asked Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."
"That's what I understand, too, but I'm trying to find out what happened," Kerry joked.
As Kerry launched into one of his lengthy monologues about
why President Bush avoids talking about issues like the economy, jobs and the environment, the comedian interrupted. "I'm sorry," Stewart said. "Were you or were you not in Cambodia?"
"Are you the No. 1 most liberal senator in the Senate?" he asked, joking about claims that Kerry is "more liberal than Karl Marx, apparently."
"No," Kerry answered. "Are you or have you ever flip-flopped?" Stewart asked.
"I've flip-flopped, flap-flipped," Kerry said, poking fun at the GOP's label.
Stewart also sought answers to another hard-hitting question:
"Is it true that every time I use ketchup, your wife gets a nickel?" The
candidate's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, derived her wealth from her
late husband, an heir to the Heinz food fortune. "Would that it were," Kerry said.
When the conversation turned serious, Stewart asked Kerry how he
would counter Bush's ability in debates to turn issues into a choice between his position and the opposition. Kerry said the debates would be a challenge. "The president has won every debate he's ever had," Kerry said. "He beat Ann Richards. He beat Al Gore. So, he's a good debater."
I think that's why he lost," Stewart said.
"No, he won," Kerry insisted, then jokingly offered to hold their inauguration on the show.
Kerry offered an interesting observation on life as a presidential candidate. "You'd be amazed at the number of people who want to introduce themselves to you in the men's room," he said. "It's the most bizarre part of this entire thing."
I love the Olympics and all, but this evening they had a "Gymnastics Gala". Its a non-scoring, non-competing get together where all the gymnasts perform their events with no pressure, annoying music, and pretty lights. Basically, an excuse for NBC to have one more gymnastics event that they can make ratings/money on.
It is one more example of the media whore fest the Olypmics have become.... (not to be confused with the Olympic whore fest I described yesterday:)
Its been five days without a post. Can you believe that?
In keeping with the Olympic theme that I have been running with for the last few days, I saw this story about the amount of sex being had in the Olympic village:
http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=814602004
You have to respect any article that starts with a description of someone on the US team having a five-way with four guys from the German rowing team on top of their dorm in full view of other Olympic dorms.
Favorite quote:
"It's not an orgy," says one alpine skiing champion, Carrie Sheinberg, "but it is socially vigorous."
Socially vigorous huh? So that is what the young kids are calling it now....
I think the world needs some new Olypmic sports. No offense to the IOC, but some of the more bizzare ones just don't cut it for me anymore. Sue and I were discussing yesterday what the "Porn Olypmics" would look like... Suffice to say that I cannot reveal the events we came up with in this public forum:) Anyways, I was thinking about what new events I would like to see:
1) Greased Pig Wrestling: Maybe I have been in Alabama too long... Maybe I just like the idea of a woman chasing down a greesed pig for the chance at Olympic gold....
2) Olypmic Freeze Tag: Can't you just picture the silly game of freeze-tag played by guys who can run the 100m in under 10 seconds :) We could play in on a football sized field just to make it interesting.
3) Laser tag: Man, I loved laser tag as a kid. What a great idea!
4) Ultimate Frisbee. I know the Huntsville Party Possie would watch that.
5) And finally: Pirating. Argggghhhh! Thats all I got. Just arggghhhhh.....
I have a secret confession to make... I love the Olympics. I was only 6 years old, but I can still remember watching the track and field events in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angles.
The funniest thing about the Olympics is that I can get excited about events that would not care about any other time. For example, the other day I was watching rowing. Not the most exciting event, but I was riveted to the TV; yelling at it to "GO..... GO!!!!" (BTW: The US won by only ~0.20 of a sec).
I could do without the commercial whoring that the Olympics has come to be. I know that putting on the Olympics costs a HUGE amount of money. I know that a lot of the people who compete the Olympics have no other way to pay for the 4 years of training to compete in the Olympics. But still, it would be nice to go back to the old days where the Olympics was more about amateurs competing for the glory of winning, not giant endorsement contracts (I know that is not every athlete, but NBC has been gushing about that Phelps guy now for the last 10 minutes and it is starting to get to me).
Hello all. We have returned from our vacation to Canada/Michigan. I thought I would give a recap of our lovely trip. It was our first trip home in 6 months!
Eric, Bob, Bella, and I first arrived at Eric's parents home in Brighton, MI with slurpees in hand. MMM... Slurpees. It was a cool and lovely 56 degrees. We arrived at about midnight so we went to bed.
The next day we picked up two of our friends Kien and Kelly from MI and headed out to Toronto, Canada. MMM... Canada. I love Canada. I really miss being only an hour away from it. It took us 5 hours to drive to Toronto, an hour just to get through Detroit rush hour and customs. It actually frightened us that it was harder for us to get into Canada than to come back to the U.S. On our way into Canada, they asked for all of our ID's and only passports or birth certificates would do and asked us plenty of questions like we were used too. Then they didn't like that we had Alabama plates (not MI), so we had to pull to the side area and they searched our car. It was only a 5 minute search but it delayed us and we were a little worried that we would not get through. I am also guessing that they did not like Eric and my new punk hairdos so they probably thought we were transporting drugs. Silly Canadians, eh. We were lucky not to get a cavity search.
So we arrived at our hotel in downtown Toronto at 10:00 pm where our great friends Paul and Sue were waiting for us. At a little after midnight we walked to the club System sound bar What a kick ass club. It was huge. When we arrived they had a DJ competition and they were playing some great trance music. There were even half naked club dancers that were painted on the chest. There were boys and girl dancers for everyone to enjoy :) The club had plenty of areas to sit and chat with friends including a curvy velvet couch. This place put the Atlanta clubs to shame. We danced and chatted until about 5 am and then we made our way back to the hotel where we stayed up and talked until about 9 am. We had to have three to a bed, but we were all pretty comfy. We slept until about 3 pm and then some people went to get lunch. We then walked around the city of Toronto and took in the sites. The CN tour is pretty cool to see in the middle of the city. That was my third trip to Toronto and Eric and I had been there before so we did not do the tour of it. At about 5 pm the four of us said goodbye to the wonderful Paul and Sue and we headed back to MI. On our way back in to the U.S. the customs guy asked if we were from the U.S. and if we had any fruit from Canada. That was it. He didn't even ask for our ID's or talk to all of us. Crazy!
The following day we went to visit our two college friends, Alan and Tracy, that just had a new baby. He was so cute! We were able to talk to them and catch up on things. Then, after fighting MI construction, we met up with the rest of our college friends for dinner. We enjoyed seeing all of them again. After dinner we went and played some pool. We didn't get to spend enough time with them since we saw them on a Sunday night and everyone but us had work the next day. Guys, we miss you, please come visit us if you can!!!!!!
Monday morning we packed up the car and our dogs and headed up north to Houghton Lake, MI. We went to Eric's grandparents home on the lake where his parents, brother, sister in law and their two kids were. We visited while Eric's grandma made too much food for lunch and then we went out and rode the jet ski's for a while. MMM... jet ski's. We love going out on the water and doing donuts. Later we went for a ride on the pontoon boat with the dogs and his family. It was only 70 degrees, but with the sun out it was tons of fun.
The next day it was only 55 degrees and rainy so we did not get to enjoy the lake so we stayed indoors and played with the baby until Eric's brother left to go home.
The next day was another cool, rainy day so we went to Mackinaw City with Eric's parents and grandparents. Eric's grandparents wanted to take us all to a musical that was in the Mackinaw theater, so we bought tickets. We had three hours to burn so Eric, his dad, and grandparents drove over the Mackinaw bridge to St. Ignace to gamble at the casino. MMM... gambling. Everyone won something. Eric's mom and I stayed in the city and went shopping at the little stores. I bought Eric some Mackinaw fudge, the best fudge ever. We met up with everyone else and went to this musical, which ended up being horrible. It was about three guys ice fishing in Wisconsin. It did have a lot of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and yuper (upper MI pennisula) jokes, but it was ridiculous. Eric's grandma was mortified by it and it was funny to listen to her. We did enjoy a great dinner and then headed back to the lake house.
Thursday, the weather was still cool and windy and we even had to turn the fireplace on. We curled up and talked and played games all day with Eric's two young cousins that arrived that day with their mom. It was great to feel cool weather again.
Friday, my mom, stepdad, and two little sisters came to the lake house for the day. It was 68 and mostly cloudy, a little cool. We went out anyway. We are from MI dammit and cold doesn't hurt us. We spent the whole day jet skiing and boating. What fun. We went out to dinner and enjoyed some custard from the custard shack. Eric's favorite place. MMM... Custard ice cream.
Saturday, after a home cooked breakfast we started out on our trip back to Alabama. We were glad to be back at our house but sad to be coming back to the heat and this far south. Everytime we go back home, we miss the family and MI. Eric's mom was crying bacause we had to leave and that made us a little sad to leave too. You don't realize how much you will miss family and close friends until you move 600 miles away.
Thoughts on our trip:
1.) Canada rocks and I am sad that I live so far away from it. I wish I could got to that club in Toronto once a month!! With the currency exchange rate it is a cheap trip to visit Canada.
2.) Why doesn't Alabama have freakin 7-11's? What the hell is the matter with this place. It is hotter than hell and no slurpees? We are still confounded by this. We had a slurpee everyday but two when we were in MI even when it was only 50 degrees:)
3.) I don't like the southern heat. I miss the cool non humid Michigan days. It was great to be able to wear a sweatshirt one day and a t-shirt the next. It was nice to have 50 degree nights so you could sleep with the window open and curled up with cozy blankets.
4.) I agree with Uncle R's post about going to a liberal area and being able to talk with people that share your liberal views. Coming back to super Conservative, super religious Alabama makes me feel misplaced. Being able to play the lottery, gamble in casinos, and drink in every county is a wonderful thing! Yeah Michigan! Also being in a battleground state again made you think that your vote meant something. MI is divided and so there are commercials every 5 minutes for Bush/Kerry and they were both visiting many towns there. In Alabama, it doesn't matter who you vote for since stupid Bush will win.
5.) We have to move closer to Paul and Sue and the MSU crew! Every time we go back everyone asks us to move back. This time we were able to say that yes we definitely plan to move back north to the NY, MI, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana , Penn. area when possible. We will miss all the great people we have met here, but the pull from home is stronger. We have missed so many things in our families lives that we are saddened by it.
Well, we are back and we have tons of work to do outside with our yard. I have two weeks of freedom before classes start to I will enjoy them the best we can. Drinking the next two weekends is a must!!! Then I will drive through this next year of nursing school and I will be done! Yeah. Later.
Who knew that Apathy toward the government could be so funny?
http://www.felbers.net/mt/
The video on this website is really funny. One sided of course, but still really funny:)
I just read today on CNN.com that Alexandra Scott died yesterday. Many people may not even know who she is. She was a very special little girl that I did not know personally, but I was inspired by her and all of the things she accomplished in her 8 years of life. She was diagnosed just before her first birthday with neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of childhood cancer. She decided to set up a lemonade stand to raise money for treatment. She took in $2,000 the first year, and a series of stands had raised a total of $200,000 after four years. She was on the Today Show and Oprah and many children across the U.S. set up lemonade stands, one in every state, to help her reach her goal to raise $1 million for cancer research. She was an inspiration to many people and it is sad to see her lose her fight, but at least she went peacefully and she is no longer in pain.
This type of devastation makes you think about what is important. This little girl was fighting for her life and yet she took the time to go out to raise money to help save others. She was unselfish. She was brave. Cancer and many other diseases doesn't recognize evil, race, age, kindness, or sexual orientation, it attacks all, but we can do research to try to fight them. This is what we need in Washington, more efforts to help our people fight disease.
If you want to, you can go to her website and donate to her cause and read about her and her life: http://www.alexslemonade.com/
Kien beat me too it, but I also want to publicly congratulate my good college buddy Paul on his upcoming nuptials. Paul proposed to his 10 year girlfriend on Saturday. Sue and I, who have been married for three great years and think everyone should be married, have been waiting quite a while for this :) Ok, actually I have been pressuring Paul to do it ever since I found out that he was considering it. My plan was to waste 2 minutes of phone time every time he called the house until he finally asked her. Apparently my economic sabotage has finally paid off (do you know how much 2 minutes to New York must cost? While, I bet it is at least 50 cents!! )
I have two things to say to about this whole Paul + Sue Wedding:
(1) It is about fucking time. My God! <Gross Point Blank Quote> Ten years man! TEN! Ten Years! TENNNNN YEEEAARRSSS!!!! Ten years...</Gross Point Blank Quote> Also, per Marge Simpson everything is better when it is paired up together (I will now proceed about the house pushing random things together, like the blender and the George Foreman Grill).
(2) This is going to be the best wedding reception I have been to in quite a while... :)
This is yet another editorial published in my Alumni's newspaper that I wanted to share. The editorial staff put how I feel about Ralph Nader running for president into words when I could not. Here is an article written today in the State News for MSU:
Drop the suit
Sue and I only 3 1/2 days away from our first trip to Michigan since Christmas. I can't wait. We already have much planned in the way of seeing old friends and family (my apologies to anyone we are not going to see during our vacation home). Friday night we are heading to Toronto to do some serious techno-clubbing into the wee hours of the morning.
I'm ready. I'm excited! Sign me up for some of that hang-over prevention medicine they sell....
Bill O'Reilly of Fox News fame agreed to see Fahrenheit 9/11 and to do a one on one interview with Michael Moore. Good stuff from both sides.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,127236,00.html
I saw this and thought that the government had hit an all time low. Report: Bigger breasts offered as perk to soldiers. Now all soldiers and their families can have plastic surgery on the tax payers money. How great! Our country has reached an all time low.
I want a hamburgular beanie baby from McDonalds for...er... my niece. Right my niece! And the Ronald McDonald one for my new nephew.
Oh yeah, for those who don't know I have a new nephew: James!
Hilarious bit of political back and forth.
George Bush vs. John Kerry: This Land
There is something that has been on my mind for a while so I thought that I would blog about it. Why isn't slow dancing done in dance clubs anymore? Not long ago it was still very popular. I remember frequenting my favorite club at Michigan State University, Sparty's, until 2000 and they played 2-3 slow songs every hour or so. When did slow dancing and romance become so uncool in today's society? The clubs today that actually play music that is decent enough to dance to is full of empty, shallow, and slutty men and women. They don't want to find a boyfriend/girlfriend, they just want to get laid. Hell, the dancing these days is just dry humping. I may be a hopeless romantic, but slow dancing is fun and it is a very romantic way to spend a night. Now it seems that you have to be invited to a wedding in order to slow dance with your significant other. Slow dancing also was a time to dance with someone you have wanted to meet during an evening and you could even talk to the person. Talk to a person of the other sex at a club? What is that? The music is usually too loud that you cannot talk to anyone at the club. Let's just face it, people don't go to dance clubs to find someone to date. Dance clubs are just a glorified slave auction block to show off your goods to find someone to go home for one night so you can feel good about your self for a day or two. The single girls that frequent dance clubs, ecspecially the ones that try too hard and barely wear anything, are the kind of girls that boys want to screw or maybe date for a short while but they rarely marry them. Have you ever heard of a toast at a wedding reception where the best man said "I remember when Johnny met Carol at the dance club. They freaked all night and it was love after the first time they had sex...". Of course there are some men that just want a trophy wife and you can spot them when you meet their wives right away. They are a fantasy. Men usually date the girls that they can have conversations with and can enjoy life with. All of the married people I know did not meet the one they married at a club. A lot of them were introduced by mutual friends, met at school (Eric and I), or met at a club meeting or worked together. Just an observation. Who knows, there could be a few people that met this way and are blissfully happy. I just think that this speaks to where our society is at. Our children look up to movie stars and singers, not authors or firefighters. We are obsessed with celebrities, big cars, electronics, and high fashion. None of that means a damn thing if you do not have someone you love to share that with. From some of my friends that I have talked to it is hard to date in this day and age but I hope that no one gives up because it is worth the wait!! Single men and women, don't overlook the less than perfect looking people because you may have met that one person for you and lost them forever. Don't think that just because a girl is chubby and shy that she is not good in bed. They are the best and naughtiest in bed :) Tee hee...........
My loyal cell phone of 4 years is finally dying. It just randomly turns itself off when I am not looking:( Like this morning when I tried to call Sue. I pressed the talk button and placed it to my hear. When it did not ring I pulled it away only to see a blank screen. Actually, I was sort of happy to see that. I thought I was going crazy for a while there:) I would swear that I had turned it on earlier in the day, but when I pulled it out of my pocket it would be dead...
So anyways I need a new cell-phone (no comment from you Uncle R that it is just a tool of my oppression. I love my phone and am sad to see it go). Anyone in the Huntsville/Madison area recommend a good company to use? I have Sprint now, which works reasonably well in Huntsville, but does not work at my house. Sue has Verizon, which works well for her everywhere except on UAH campus. Ideally I need a phone that works at both. Anyone have any advice?
Sue and I are watching I Love the 90s right now, and they are mocking Crystal Pepsi. Sue and I are both in agreement that Crystal Pepsi rocked. Thinking about it brought me back to the High School lunch room. Of course, since I FUCKING HATED HIGH SCHO... Sorry. I need to channel my anger into more constructive things. Like teaching my dog to BITE THE CROTCH OF EVERY ASS I WENT TO HIGH SCH... Wait, I'm doing it again. I really need to work on that...
I may need to order me some on eBay. Only $6.50 for a can of 10 year old Pepsi? I'm in.
Update: (11:42am) Holy crap! That can of Crystal Pepsi on eBay is up to $46!
Man Jailed for Shooting Off His Testicles
LONDON (Reuters) - A British man who accidentally shot himself in the testicles after drinking 15 pints of beer was jailed for five years on Tuesday for possessing an illegal firearm, a court spokesman said.
David Walker, 28, was arguing with a friend at a pub in South Yorkshire, northern
England, when he went home to get his sawed-off shotgun, which he jammed into his trousers. But as he walked back to the pub, the gun went off, blasting pellets into his testicles. Doctors later removed what remained of his testicles during emergency surgery.
Walker admitted possessing a prohibited weapon at a hearing in June at the court in Sheffield.
Now call me a softie, but isn't the fact that he blew his nuts off with a shotgun punishment enough?
Has anyone else but me noticed that radio and TV censors have just gotten lazy lately? Its like all they do is bleep out one letter of the last syllable of the swear. Its just plain lazy!
<old man voice>Why, in my day they bleeped out the actual swear word, 2 words in front of it, and every third time they said "but" just to be safe!</old man voice>
I went to my Alum's (Michigan State University) web site version of their newspaper and found a wonderful editorial about Dubya's newest attack on gay marriage. The editorial was so great that I thought I would just post it in full text. I agree with everything he writes:
'Defining' marriage silly, heterosexuals have damaged institution
The sanctity of marriage is in danger of forever being drowned in depravity and sin. Stop the presses. Terror alert elevated: code turquoise. Oh, the humanity.
This whole debacle mushroomed earlier this year, when those rascally gays actually spoke up and sought their right to have their unions recognized by the government. They wanted the same benefits straight couples enjoy, including recognition of parenthood in case one half of the union befell tragedy. They wanted to make sure the child wouldn't end up in a foster home rather than with the person who raised the child its whole life because of a skewed court system. Eew. Since when do they deserve rights?
To combat it, most recently in our dear mitten of a state, a petition has been circulated to put a legal definition of marriage - a man and a woman united by law - on the ballot in November. Dubya even stammered about having the constitution amended to define the institution as such.
It's a tremendous push to, as the claims state, protect the sanctity of marriage. Marriage. The union of two kindred spirits in the eyes of the law, both divine and human. A pledge between a man and a woman. A pledge for two to forever be committed to one another, now and forever. Amen - er, I forgot. Religious zealotry doesn't factor into this at all.
And now these gays want to destroy this sacred institution by pledging their love to the same sex. And they want their love and devotion recognized. Not in my back yard, ladies. A promise ring will have to do. Go love and devote somewhere else.
Aside from misperceived Biblical references, taken out of context and contradicted throughout, I have yet to hear a plausible argument for the eminent threat that gay marriage has on the sacred sacrament and institution. I've heard and read arguments claiming to be about the threat but were actually free speech issues about the barring of anti-gay statements by religious leaders. Not one person has legitimately given a reason why gay unions will irreparably devastate the institution of marriage as we know it. As if the union of two gay men will suddenly cause the core of the Earth to boil over, spilling lava on all us sinners as God watches, chuckling, from above.
Perhaps the absence of a proven threat is a direct result of we straight folk. After all, we've done more harm to the sacredness of marriage than we can possible imagine. That is not to say that there aren't sacred bonds existing in heterosexual marriage, but we heteros have more or less made a mockery of the institution that the staunch conservative segment of the population seems to see as a glittering ball of humanistic harmony, disrupted only by those gays and their icky love.
Marriage has become a joke. A weekend fling. Role models like Britney Spears can cruise out to Vegas, get married for a night and be done with it. Bada bing. It's a quick walk from the altar to the divorce lawyer's office. Divorce rates have skyrocketed. Prominent figures and folks in your community have been married and divorced several times over, some unions lasting years, some less than a month.
Yeah, I got your sanctity of marriage.
We have the most asinine reasons for marriage in the straight and conservative community. Premarital sex is a sin. Masturbation is inhuman. But dammit, there's an overload of testosterone in an 18-year-old's loins that just needs to be expelled. What's a horny lad to do? Marry little Peggy Sue. After an awkward honeymoon and some uncomfortable sex, the two live unhappily ever after, afraid to part and stuck together because they used the "sacred institution" of marriage to get their rocks off without angering the Lord (these are the same people, mind you, who still think Christ was a dirty-blond white dude with smooth skin and a post-Renaissance style of dress).
We have prenuptial agreements, which are more or less a guarantee that the marriage won't last. We have mail order brides who come to the states for a marriage, some emotionless consummation and a green card. We can be married by the high priest known as an Elvis impersonator.
Could it really be that straight folks have ruined the "sanctity of marriage" to the point that they fear that gay people might do a better job? Heteros have spent over 2000 years ruining marriage in its purest form. Maybe the real threat in the whole issue is the threat of pride. Maybe homosexuals could go on to make the symbolic union of those in love something sacred again.
Danger. Stop the presses. Terror alert elevated; code violet. Those gross, icky gays could actually make marriage an institution of love and devotion again. We'd best stop them before they destroy us all. Scary times.
Andy Kryza is the State News opinion editor. Reach him at kryzaand@msu.edu.
Good weekend all in all. Friday night Sue and I headed downtown to a small hole in the wall bar called the Tavern with the Huntsville Party posse. Good bar actually. Good size drinks that actually come in a glass. Amber-bac and Guinness on tap. And the band was really good. Of course, I cannot for the life of me remember their name right now. Red...Something. They claimed to come from Ireland, but if they were the accent was REALLY weak. Great rock band either way. I got drunk enough to regret it the next day, but not drunk enough to regret it during the actual drinking (Sue might argue with that. She claims that I was dancing like the stereotypical white guy with Ann at one point. To which I reply, "I AM a white guy:)").
Saturday I was too hung over to go do any more drinking. Instead, Sue and I caught a showing of King Arthur. I thought this was one of the better movies I have seen this year. It was a lot like Braveheart, but shorter. Thank God BTW; I had to pee so bad by the end of the movie I actually used that little kid urinal because it was the closest one to the door:) Continuing the tradition started by Troy, this is yet another action/war movie with the underlying theme that either "there is no God", or "God does not help those that do not help themselves". Its more serious than I was expecting for a summer blockbuster, but that is most certainly a good thing. I really liked the acting, the casting, and Keira Knightley:)
I love this one. Shows a level of self-loathing that I just can't quite understand:)
"I'm better than dirt. Well, most kinds of dirt, not that fancy store-bought dirt... I can't compete with that stuff."
Yahoo! News - Bush Raises Issue of Edwards' Experience to Be VP
I read this story with a real smirk. Bush (and his republican croonies) have been making comments that John Edwards does not have enough experience to run the country. A funnier way of looking at this is that the Republicans are more or less saying that George W Bush himself was not ready to be president, since he had roughly the same experience when he ran for office (6 years as governor of Texas vs 6 years in the US Senate).
Warning: Spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen the movie, you may want to skip reading this blog entry. Don't say I did not warn you, cause this is your warning right here.
Lets just get the obvious stuff out of the way. First, I was not a big fan of the first Spider-Man movie. Quite frankly, I'm not certain why everyone was so googlely eyed over it. The CGI was not THAT good, and besides I am on record that CGI usually hurts a movie more than it helps (If I can tell it is CGI). Call me old fashion, but if I can tell it is CGI then the whole "suspension of disbelief" and "movie experience" goes right out the window. Make it seamless, or don't use it at all.
So now that I have that out of the way, I can talk about what I liked and did not like about this movie. On a scale of 1 - 10, with ten being the best movie ever, I would give this movie a 6. First off, the things I liked about the movie:
1) The fight scenes were much better in this movie. The CGI of Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus is fluid and dynamic. In keeping with the fact that Spider-Man is older and more comfortable with his powers now, he uses a good deal more of them while fighting. The train scene is particularly well done.
2) Alfred Molina ("Doctor Octopus") is excellent in this movie. He gets to play both a good guy and a bad guy, and his personal redemption at the end of the movie is very well acted. He is never over the top in my mind.
3) Stan Lee (creator of Spider-Man) gets to make a cameo.
Now the things I did not like:
1) The movie is slow. REALLY slow in spots, especially in the middle of the film.
2) Tobey Maguire just ain't Spider-Man. I'm not entirely sure why I don't like him as Spider-Man, but I just don't. I think it is the fact that he plays Peter Paker as such a whinny pussy. That is just not how I remember Spider-Man/Peter Parker as a kid. Not entirely his fault is the script, which is light on the usual quick quips that Spider-Man is famous for. This point alone probably accounts for most of the reason I gave the movie a lower score.
3) Couple of plot points that confused me during the movie and that afterwards just flat out made no sense. In the scene where Mary Jane asks Peter if he loves her, Doctor Octopus throws a car through the window of the restaurant right at Peter Parker. Any normal person would have been killed by that car, leaving the Doc with no way to find Spider-man. So why would he do that?
4) The grandmother's speech about "a hero in all of us" was sappy, cheesy, and REALLY boring.
Overall, I thought it was just alright. I was never blown away; I never had any empathy for a character in the movie.
Or at least, I know CSS/HTML-fu. As you can probably tell if you are viewing this website, I have been dorking around with the layout and style for the past few days. Changes are:
1) Switched to a cooler looking template. Of course, being the compulsive geek that I am I could not just be satisfied with the template as is, so I mucked with it for 4 or 5 days until it was just the way I wanted it. I apologize to anyone who got to see this site in the middle of one of the changes:) The thing that took me forever was getting the content column to be bigger. The original template specified an exact width of something like 540 pixels. That sucks when you use a wide-screen monitor with a resolution of 1280 pixels like I do. More than half the screen was being wasted! I feel like one of those infomericals late at night:
Announcer: "I've just got to show you this new product! Through the use of an incredibly large research budget (which was mostly spent doing shots of Jagermeister and teaching a one-legged monkey to dance for us), we are able to bring to you twice, THAT RIGHT, TWICE the content on the same screen!"
Sheep: "Oooooohh. Ahhhhhhhh..."
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