Fear & Loathing

Pearl Jam October 1, 2009 Universal City, CA, Gibson Amphitheater

2009-10-03T23:34:00.000-07:00

The show was great, although part of me wishes that some of the "big radio" hits weren't played and more rarities were. I tried to find as many clips as I could

Set List

(Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy

Severed Hand

Got Some

Do The Evolution

Dissident

Given To Fly

Johnny Guitar

Amongst the Waves

I Got Shit

Daughter

Jeremy

Unthought Known

....Small Town

Driven to Tears

The Fixer

Rearviewmirror

First Encore

Just Breathe w/string quartet

The End w/string quartet

Lukin w/string quartet

Red Mosquito w/Ben Harper

Better Man

Second Encore

Gonna See My Friend

I Believe In Miracles

Once

Alive

Yellow Ledbetter/(Star Spangled Banner)

I like This

2009-09-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

Well I guess I should confess that I am starting to get old
All the latest music fads all passed me by and left me cold
All the kids are talking slang I won't pretend to understand
All my friends are getting married, mortagages and pension plans
And it's obvious my angry adolescent days are done
And I'm happy and I'm settled in the person I've become
But that doesn't mean I'm settled up and sitting out the game
Time may change a lot but some things may stay the same

Frank Turner

Concert Go'ers We Have a Problem

2009-04-02T23:51:00.001-07:00

Have you ever wanted to go to a concert, and eagerly waited for the "pre-sale" on official date with great anticipation that you will be able to score tickets to see a show you really want to see? I was in this situation when I learned Radiohead was going to play the Hollywood Bowl in 2008, and even though I logged into ticketmaster at the stroke of 10:00am, I wasn't able to get tickets. Where the hell do 15,000 tickets go in 2 seconds!?

Trent Reznor, had the following to say:
"'The venue, the promoter, the ticketing agency and often the artist camp (artist, management, and agent) take tickets from the pool of available seats and feed them directly to the reseller,' Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor wrote on his blog recently. 'This is a very common practice that happens for often than not."
NIN: Ticket Scalping and Re-selling

Up to 30% of tickets to popular touring acts are funneled to secondary market websites such as eBay, StubHub, Ticketmaster's own TicketsNow and TicketExchange leaving the general public little chance to get a good seat at face value.

Ben Sisario at the New York Times continues on this topic...
"the ticket marketplace has become a fiercely competitive game in which major corporations compete over resale prices with the fan next door, scalpers have a Washington lobbyist and thousands of tickets disappear in a fraction of a second."
Online Sales Make Hot Tickets Harder to Get

Ticketmaser CEO Irving Azoff called the secondary concert-ticket market a "mess", but his company owns TicketsNow and is merging with Live Nation, one of the nations largest concert promoters, and venue owner. Irving offered little to those fans who wanted to purchase Bruce Springsteen tickets who were immediately redirected to TicketsNow when he stated it was simply a "glitch".

This is the best a CEO has to offer to thousands of fans who get redirected to an online ticket scalper? The man whose company is profiting from these astronomically inflated price has quite the limited vocabulary when people want answers. Hey Irving here are two other words "Fuck" and "You". As much as I hate the idea of paying for scalped tickets, I will go to eBay or CraigsList for tickets before I ever use TicketsNow.

Unfortunately, I don't think enough unification of fans who are against secondary markets can be formed to boycott all the scalpers sites. The solution is going to have to sit with those who have some leverage against the promoters and ticket vendors, and this is where the artist must step in. Tom Waits, AC/DC, Nine Inch Nails, Bruce Spingsteen, and Pearl Jam all have ideas on how to stop the madness, but time will tell if they are successful. I support their effort to cut down on the secondary market ticket sales, and hope additional artists will join them so fans who can't or won't spend hundreds or thousands of dollars can still the show.

Bonds *

2007-08-07T21:06:00.001-07:00

The night that Barry Bonds breaks the record, the site that gets it right is Yahoo sports. Props to Yahoo for displaying that fat asterisk next to 756.

Success

2006-10-01T19:23:00.000-07:00

Success

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mountain Bike Hazing

2006-08-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

I must have felt a little crazy agreeing to go on my first mountain bike trail ride ever in the 103 degree temperature, but Erwin Park was calling and a bike was waiting. An acquaintance of mine offered to let me use his mountain bike for the trails, and on our way over to the park he was explaining how to handle certain situations, and techniques needed for completing the course in one piece. When we arrived at the park there were quite a few cars, much to my surprise.

We quickly got the bikes off the roof of the car, attached the front wheels and I was getting a feel for the bike on asphalt before heading towards the trail. Despite what people say, “once you learn how to ride a bike you never forget”, the actual balance act may be true, but the handling and feel for the bike is just as different as various cars, especially when the terrain is made up of extremely dry dirt which has been grinded into a fine powder in spots.

The trails were not much wider than twenty-four inches wide, and the land was suffering from any sort of adequate rain fall making the course very fast and slippery. After a short distance we headed into the shade of the trees, maneuvering between branches, hairpin turns, gaps and roots left on the trail as “obstacles”. We reached the first steep decline and I was instructed to hold the back brake and let the rear wheel lock up, essentially skidding all the way down. It was a strange experience down this, but I managed my way down the first decline without falling off (yay!).

The dense trees offered little to no reprieve from the heat as we rode, and I had a fair share of “touches” with my foot trying to go around trees, roots, or other things left on the trail. I was having a hard time trusting my instincts to guide me through the turns I was currently on, and looking to the next – there were several times I caught myself caught looking just in front of me, thankfully I didn’t take a header into a tree due to this little lapse.

A dip into a small ravine was next, the drop was close to twelve feet down with the path at what seemed like just steeper than a 45 degree angle. The other side up was just as steep and a turn was going to maneuvered though along with a tree root, and unlike the other one you needed enough speed going down to assist you in getting up the other side before succumbing to incline and toppling over backwards. I took a deep breath and flew down the hill with determination to make it up the other side with out taking a header before getting there, and much to my delight the down portion was quite a rush – similar to that of a roller coaster. The up part didn’t turn out so well as my momentum quickly disappeared and I couldn’t crank in time to save myself from having another touch, so close to the top. Ultimately, it was a success, and what a rush.

The ride continued though more trees, and then we made it to an open field full of weeds which had been burned to a brown crisp. You could feel the heat radiating off, blasting you in the face with a strange musty scent. This was one of the fastest parts of the trail for me as I started to pedal with confidence that I wasn’t going to take a header into a tree or go flying into a ravine. Never had a hot breeze felt so good either, as the blazing sun was relentless, I was beginning to hope I was drinking enough water from my camelback, so I wouldn’t succumb to the heat.

Part two of the ride seemed a little more advanced than the first half, as the dips came in multiples with turns and tree roots to negotiate as you reached the top. I chose the high path on one portion, but there were two others which I was going to have to take head on. Outside of a few close calls, and brushing up against a couple of trees with my shoulder I turned out okay. I had a good time riding the trails and liked its variety, but I am not sure if I prefer it to riding on the road, but you have to worry about cars when you are on the road.

I had a great time riding today, despite the heat, and I look forward to riding again.

The Bus Driver has Arrived

2006-07-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

I didn’t think the day would come when I would be a driver for my van pool, but that day has come. Thanks to the number of people who have been dropping out, and many of them being drivers, I didn’t want to see it drop to just one eligible driver. I had resisted for two main reasons before; first I have become accustomed to taking a nap before getting to work in the morning. Until they come up with some sort of auto pilot for that I will have to grow to live without it about two days a week.

Second, I had been spending my time on the way back reading, I finished several books which I thoroughly enjoyed, The Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, and The Halfblood Prince to name a few.

Being the driver does allow you the privilege of listening to whatever you want in the morning. I expect to find the dial set to KERA 90.1 most of the time when I’m driving as it allows me to stay up with what is going on in the world and hear a variety of stories.

Maybe I can come up with some wacky rules for the passengers while they are on my watch. The thought of having to make exactly three “mini stops” before successfully parking the van is required. If you have any suggestions for new rules go ahead and leave a comment.

Just to close this out, a shout out has to go to Sunshine, the saver of birds. I am sure you’re becoming known as a “fine feathered friend” in to the birds across the nation.

Summer Concert Blues

2006-07-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

Summers have always been big for bands, even before the mega concerts like Lollapalooza; acts would pack their bags for the summer and hit the road. Every year I see more articles with the headline reading “Slow Sales for Big Summer Tours” and I have to ask myself what has brought us to this? In plain English the problem is straight economics.

Ticket prices have grown steadily over the years for big-named acts. First the reason were scalpers artificially driving up the prices, then ticket brokers, not to mention the facility fees, convenience charge, and of course tax. The new hot topic is the price it takes for these bands to fuel their busses to get from venue to venue, and how much it is affecting their profitability behind the tour. Of course these acts don’t want to take a hit in the profit margin to tour, so who gets to pick up the tab? That’s right the consumers.

Not only are ticket prices getting incredibly high to see a show, but often times there are problems getting good seats simply due to availability. Artists have tried to offer good seats to the people who join their fan club (lining their pockets with more $), and acts have even started putting prime tickets up auction style. When is enough enough, and when does “alienation” of their core fan base start to happen? Not all Radiohead fan’s can drop $500 + dollars for good seats to see them perform live this summer, but many of these people would really like to sit close enough to not need binoculars to see Thom Yorke and company.

Even those cheap seats are approaching ludicrous prices, like $50 for third tier seating in an arena. Pearl Jam had it right years ago when they attempted to take on Ticketmaster and their pricing machine. Unfortunately the corporation won, but something has got to change. They need to examine their supply and demand curves a bit, re-adjust their costs and reduce the ticket prices. Oh, and what is up with charging $30 for a tour t-shirt?

There is something special about being at a concert (I really enjoy them), but when is it just going to cost too much, and the $18 DVD of a stop on their tour going to be more enjoyable?

Pilgrimage

2006-06-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

It has been over a solid year of touring for Nine Inch Nails, and if you think that the pace would slow down or tire the band you would be mistaken. I was fortunate to catch them for their Washington D.C. performance at the Nissan Pavilion via Bristow Virginia. Of the three times I have seen them perform, this may have been the best performance yet.

The band put the theatrics away for this last leg of their With Teeth Tour, removed the video, added some new lighting schemes and turned up the intensity. The set spanned the entire catalogue, with some songs which seem to have become “staples” for live performances. Since the departure of Jerome Dillon, the touring members remain the same;

Alessandro Cortini – Keyboards/Guitar

Josh Freese – Drums

Aaron North – Guitar

Jeordie White – Bass guitar / guitar

The show opened with Trent appearing on stage behind a metal grading which was actually a lighting prop, with the members joining him shortly there after. The band wasted no time whipping the crowd into a frenzy, and this seemed to feed Aaron as it provoked him to dive off stage while still playing guitar. This wild antic was followed up with him knocking over his amp and swinging his guitar around like a maniac.

The first bump of the show was reached as Trent “choked” on either the fog machine, or something else which amused him because he kind of chuckled after it happened. There were several other parts which stand out in my mind; the lighting effect during the song “Closer” displayed red lights slowly collecting and filling up the metal grading lighting prop until it had reached capacity. Second was Aaron knocking over the keyboards set, and seeing Alessandro dive down to play on his hands and knees to make sure that element wasn’t missing from the song.

The last part has to be Aaron smashing his Fender guitar at the end of “Head Like a Hole” and then sticking it into the lighting prop. He was determined to go Keith Moon on it and didn’t let up until he was satisfied that the neck and body of the guitar had come apart enough.

Here is an incomplete list of the songs they performed:

Wish

The Frail

Only

Burn

Terrible Lie

March of the Pigs

Closer

Hurt

The Hand That Feeds

Only

Dead Souls

Into the Void

Somewhat Damaged

Head Like a Hole

*There was also a brand new track which was performed, but I don’t remember the name of it.

The Phantom Calls

2006-05-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

Somebody doesn’t want the San Antonio Spurs to repeat as champions. There were two significant calls which were made turning the game into Dallas’ favor. First was the play where Brent Barry had a steal and was called for a foul after falling down while scrambling for the ball. Somehow the refs claimed that he tripped the Maverick player who was involved on the play. Replay verified that there was no contact.

The other critical call which was made was when Nowitzki drove into the lane to step on Timmeh’s foot turning his ankle. The referees are supposed to watch the defensive player in this situation and not wait to see if the offensive player falls over. Timmeh made no contact with Nowitzki which would indicate a foul, but Nowitzki crumpled after stepping on Timmeh’s foot.

The refs seemed to think it was a foul however changing the scene of the game dramatically. Tim was the catalyst behind the Spurs charge back to capture the lead in the fourth using their patent inside-out game. Ginobili kept the Spurs ahead by driving into the lane and making shots, but the fouls kept being called for Dallas.

33 personal fouls were called on the Spurs compared to 26 on the Mavericks. The Mavericks shot 50 free throws compared to San Antonio’s 32. Nowitzki alone shot 24 free throws on 9 field goal attempts. Even through all that, the game was called pretty well until the deciding fourth quarter.

So now I wonder if Timmeh will be fined for the comments he made during the post game press conference. "It was incredibly frustrating because of the type of fouls that were called that I didn't think were fouls," Duncan said. "I didn't touch him. He tried to draw contact and I tried to move out of his way."

Game 4 is Monday night at 8:30 in Dallas. Go Spurs Go!

Quagmire

2006-05-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

That is the word which can sum up the time President Bush has been in office. There has been a buffet of items which you can select from to define this presidency: The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Abu Grahib, illegal domestic spying programs, ties to Jack Abramoff, and the Valerie Plame incident.

The most recent items are the domestic spying program, if you have a phone whose service is provided by AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. all the phone numbers you have dialed are now sitting in a database inside the NSA. Only Qwest communications did not voluntarily hand over information.

Now the person who was heading the NSA at the time this plan was implemented has been selected to head the CIA. Typically this position is held by a civilian, but Bush has appointed another one of his “yes men”, Gen. Michael Hayden. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the NSA refused to grant its lawyers the necessary security clearance.

Right behind this is the situation with Iran, and its desire to develop nuclear capabilities. According to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad they simply want the technology to build power plants, however if you ask President Bush they clearly have intentions of developing nuclear weapons. It has been rumored that a non-nuclear explosion which was set to take place in Nevada was to knock out the Iranian nuclear facilities. "The planned Divine Strake experiment will not be conducted earlier than June 23," said Cheri Abdelnour, spokeswoman for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency at Fort Belvoir, Va.

Who is going to be crazy enough to want to take over the presidency when Bush is done?

TNT Tom Foolery

2006-04-26T18:40:00.000-07:00

The NBA Playoffs have kicked off, and the Spurs are off to a descent start. However, I am in a situation where I can’t justify spending money for satellite or cable television for a couple of reasons; one my TV is 13” and second I don’t watch all that much TV. This leaves me not having access to TNT and their NBA telecasts, until my friend BullMoose hooked my up with his SlingBox feed.

Now that I have the ability to see the Spurs go on to defend their title, and with a little luck repeat I have the unfortunate pleasure of seeing TNT’s barrage of repeat commercials. In 2003 it was commercials for the Hulk movie, 2005 it was for TNT’s series “The Closer”, “Into the West” and Coors Light “love train commercial. Seems like they are about to out do even themselves with the number of times they are running the Vince Carter (Vinjury) T-Mobile commercial. I really don’t need to hear him say that his dog is bulimic again.

The other commercial is the three year old McDonalds commercial, where two schmucks are getting a platter of double quarter pounders with cheese ready to serve to their guests as h’ordurves (spelling?). I don’t need them to tell me to “pound one” any more ~ STOP RUNNING IT!

Then I saw this, and isn’t it the truth?

Go Spurs Go!!!

Conspiracy Theory 9/11

2006-04-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

There is a film available on the internet entitled Loose Change which presents several alternative theories as to what happened on that dreadful day back in 2001. Just with anything is history, there are always individuals who raise bizarre scenarios to tragic events which occurred, but can we really trust what was simply fed to us through today’s media? The truth will probably never really be known, but the film raises some interesting points.

Loose Change presents several theories as to why it could not have been a 757 striking the side of the Pentagon, and continues to talk about what could have caused such destruction. Such theories have been made as to make people think it could have been a missile, a smaller passenger plane, or even an A-3 Skywarrior.. If it was a plane that slammed into the Pentagon, where was the debris from the plane after the crash? Where are the markings on the ground of where it would have skidded its way to the Pentagon?

The film then moves on to the events which happened at the twin towers. Loose Change does not go so far as to lead you to believe that the planes were shot by a missile prior to impacting the buildings. What the film does state is that the planes alone could not have caused the towers to fall down. Prior to this moment, no commercial grade buildings of this type in history had collapsed due to fires alone. If it was true, then all three would have occurred on the same day, starting with the two towers, followed by building 7. On February 12, 2005 the Windsor Tower in Madrid burned for almost 24 hours, with the top ten floors collapsed, but the building did not collapse completely. So what did cause the towers to fall?

All through the morning of these events eye witnesses, police officers, fire men, and reporters all mentioned hearing and feeling secondary explosions. The lower windows on the towers had been blown out; marble panels in the lobby area had come off the walls, all allegedly due to an explosion almost 1300 feet up. Loose Change goes on to explain how secondary explosions caused the collapse, and not simply just the planes. After reading a few other articles, this portion of the film is not as quickly rejected.

The film saves its most wild tale for last. There is some controversy concerning the attacks on the Pentagon, fewer people seem to argue that it may have been secondary explosions which caused the towers to collapse, but the events which occurred with flight 93 just seems too far fetched. It goes into an elaborate plan where the flight 93 actually landed in Cleveland and its passengers exited the plane. It continues to suggest that the phone calls made were in fact faked, and discusses the probability of being able to connect a call made from a cellular telephone.

So after watching Loose Change I wonder what the motive behind its making was. Was it to provoke thought into the minds of people who simple accepted what was reported to them in conventional news media? Could it have been motivated by their loathing of President Bush? Or is it a masked plea to try and prevent the government from delivering the truth to its people? If it is the truth, why is it people here have constantly felt the need to question the legitimacy of the information being spoon fed to them?

Loose Change Movie
9/11 Truth Movement
Tower Collapse Analysis
9-11 Research
Prentagon Attack Errors
Loose Change Analysis

Enough Already!

2006-03-28T20:41:00.000-08:00

Enough already, over the course of the past three episodes of the Sopranos it has become abundantly clear that the show just isn’t the same without James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano. Sometime prior to the third or fourth season there was a demand on his part for more money as his recurring role, and speculation as to whether the show would continue on without him.

Episodes two and three of season six has Tony laid up in a hospital, not breathing on his own in a coma. Unfortunately the show has gone absolutely nowhere since Corrado “Junior” Soprano shot his nephew. Sure there may have been some power struggles among the lower ranks, but nothing has been done to promote a story line other than Tony struggling for his life, which takes up about one tenth of the show.

He has been wondering around not really knowing who he is, with recent events which occurred in his real life mixing with his dream world. There is all sorts of symbolism which are represented in this world, like a Finity Family reunion representing the afterlife, or his (well, Mr. Finity’s briefcase) representing his real life. Perhpas even the name "Finity" representing a finite amount of time Tony has left before his "associates" get tired of him and plot to clip him?

Edie Falco (Carmela Soprano) may be a fine actress, Steve Van Zandt, and Michael Imperioli work great in supporting roles, but even their combined strength simply can’t carry the show much further. It was a struggle getting through these two episodes because crying and bickering will only carry a show so far. Pining over some ones eventual collapse or recovery just doesn’t make for good television, especially given the history of quality the Sopranos has displayed.

Get Tony out of the hospital and get the show moving along. Simply put – it cant last any longer without him as the main lead.

Question of the Moment

2006-03-19T14:21:00.000-08:00

Often times I have heard people discuss the topic, “If you could have any super power, what would it be?” Well let’s narrow down this and say, if you could have to power of invisibility or the power of flight which would to prefer to have, and of course why would you choose that particular power over the other?

Did you already decide? Was it spur of the moment, or did you really think about the unique potential each one really offers?

The power of flight is something mythical in my opinion. It is something humans have always thought of doing, and it currently done with the aid of machinery. This type of power would almost be one to be flaunted, because people are going to see you zipping around the clouds, or wondering how you got somewhere with a fantastic “wind-blown” look. Would it be more for the extroverted personality, one who enjoys putting their skills on display, or is that something you would like to do?

Then there is the power of invisibility, opening many doors of possibility. You would be able to get away with many many things, and even have the potential of living a complete a life which isn’t dominated by a nine to five job because you could get anything you wanted without being noticed; if you wanted that is. You could see movies for free, spy on people, hop on a plane and zip off on some exotic vacation, find out what people are really saying behind alleged “closed doors”.

So for all the loyal and causal readers alike, take a moment to think about this and leave a comment which you would choose.

Personally, I like the power of flight over invisibility,

Calling My Shot

2006-03-04T21:09:00.000-08:00

Place your bets, call your shots, and give your local bookie a ring ~ its Oscar time. So in the spirit of making you the reader think I know more than I really do I am going to pick the winners for this year. Mind you, I haven’t seen a majority of these films, but I will try to offer brief explanation to my picks. With out much more to do…the nominees

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Philip Seymour Hoffman Capote

Terrence Howard Hustle & Flow

Heath Ledger Brokeback Mountain

Joaquin Phoenix Walk The Line

David Strathairn Good Night, And Good Luck

Phillip Seymour Hoffman has been doing a fantastic job in a number of movies over the last few years. He has gotten snubbed in the past and the judges know that he has, his year he is due, that is money.

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Judi Dench Mrs. Henderson Presents

Felicity Huffman Transamerica

Keira Knightley Pride & Prejudice

Charlize Theron North Country

Reese Witherspoon Walk the Line

The Desperate Housewife isnt going to get it, and neither is the Monster Baller, Charlize Theron. This year will go to the Legally Blond Reese Witherspoon for her role in the tale of Johnny Cash. *I have not seen any of these movies thus far.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

George Clooney Syriana

Matt Dillon Crash

Paul Giamatti Cinderella Man

Jake Gyllenhaal Brokeback Mountain

William Hurt A History of Violence

Paul Giamatti chose a heck of a year to give a great performance in Sideways last year going up against Clint Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, and Don Cheadle. He didn't even get nominated, so this year he will taste the snub, Matt Dillon is my choice. He gave a heck of a performance in Crash playing the role of a seemingly racist LAPD officer, and has earned the statue. Hmm, so far I have given the Oscar darling of 2006, Brokeback Mountain a doughnut thus far, shall we continue...?

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams Junebug

Catherine Keener Capote

Frances McDormand North Country

Rachel Weisz The Constant Gardener

Michelle Williams Brokeback Mountain

This is a complete roll of the dice, and well why not the Constant Gardener getting a little somethin' somethin'?

Best Achievement in Directing

George Clooney Good Night, and Good Luck.

Paul Haggis Crash

Ang Lee Brokeback Mountain

Bennett Miller Capote

Steven Spielberg Munich

Yup, Ang Lee is going to win this award for his work on Brokeback Mountain. For all the hype and praise this movie has received I don't see any other real competitor.

Movie of the Year

Brokeback Mountain

Capote

Crash

Good Night, and Good Luck.

Munich

Oh, it hurts to do that because Crash really is a fantastic movie, and really is my *real* pick for the winner, but I see the Broke machine leaving with one of the large awards it was nominated for. There seemed to be two major players with this one, Brokeback Mountain and Crash, both which have received hype as of late making it seem like a two film race. Wouldn't it be funny if Good Night, and Good Luck won?

So there it is, let me know what you think if you comment before the awards start. If you post after, you can thank me for helping you make all that money with my predictions. Isn't there some sort of percetage involved? ;-)

Cold Apples in Dallas

2006-02-26T23:30:00.000-08:00

Coldplay’s Twisted Logic Tour with Fiona Apple hit the American Airlines Center in Dallas February 27th 2006. The tour which kicked off several weeks ago started off like a well oiled machine right at the stroke of eight with Fiona taking the stage to an arena about one third of capacity, although the show itself was sold out.

Fiona’s voice was strong as she played her grand piano in a full length turquoise colored dress. She worked through several of her new tracks from Extraordinary Machine including a song I was looking forward to hearing, “A Better Version of Me”. She didn’t disappoint the masses by bringing back her breakthrough hit, “Criminal” and “Shadow Boxer” from her first album Tidal, as well as a small sampling from When the Pawn Drops….

One of the most difficult parts of the show was simply watching Fiona try to perform when she wasn’t sitting behind the piano. She has very little stage presence, almost going into Morrison’esque shouts during the songs she performs. She would do little more than stomp her foot or wave her hand which wasn’t holding on to the mic stand.

Though the stage presence wasn’t as strong as other performers the crowd which bothered to watch her showered her with applause and random shouts of “Fiona”, which rang through the crowd. She even giggled saying she needed to get back to that angry place so she could perform her songs. After about forty-five minutes she exited the stage to make way for Coldplay…

Their cue to hit the stage was The Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows” from the Revolver album, and once they hit the stage the crowd erupted to “Square One” from Coldplay’s latest effort, X&Y. They looked like a band who had been on the road for a while; rough around the edges if you will appearance wise.

Chris Martin did a great job of working the crowd, playing piano, guitar, and leading sing-a-longs. The stage setup was simple, nothing extravagant or anything which blew up during the show. A simple video screen behind the band displayed images, members of the band as they played, and a count-down clock which was synched up with moments in the song “Square One”.

One of the more noteworthy props was the giant glitter filled yellow balloons which were playfully batted around by the audience members until they reached the stage again, or popped. The band covered most of the X&Y album, and received one of their loudest applause when they did their tribute song to Johnny Cash, “Til Kingdom Come”, followed by a cover of “Ring of Fire”.

Chris Martin also made a brief appearance in the back of the arena, where he briefly finished up a song and then sprinted back to the main stage to wrap up the show. Coldplay has that rare combination of rock & and pop to draw in a more diverse crowd. The band has been together performed long enough together to put on an entertaining show which will be enjoyed by event he most casual Coldplay fans.

Coldplay Setlist ~ no particular order

Square One

Politik

Yellow

What If

White Shadows

Fix You

Talk

Speed of Sound

Swallowed in the Sea

Kingdom Come

A Message

Trouble

Don't Panic

Clocks

The Scientist

Got Put a Smile on Your Face

Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash)

Scary Wheeling & Dealing

2006-02-24T22:21:00.000-08:00

When I first heard of the sale of six ports to be run by the United Arab Emirates (UAE)I shrugged it off without giving it much thought. Bush vowing to veto anything which may stop the sale of the ports, the first time he would use his veto while in office mind you. Why did he feel so passionate about it? Why did he not feel the need to explain his reasons, and when questioned about the possible security risk it would pose he counters the question with “trust us…”

The same man who said that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The same man who almost refuses to recognize that some of the terrorists on the planes on September 11, 2001 were from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Then I heard some crazy stuff about the affiliation he has with a little group called the Carlyle Group, and their ties with UAE.

For lengths sake, here is a link to information on the Carlyle Group (The Guardian)

Lou Dobbs, from CNN, took this matter head on and came up with a terrific piece which aired on February 22, 2006. I am going to paste parts of the transcripts; the link to the full transcript is at the end of this post. I found it amazing, mind boggling, horrifying, and most important informative.

DOBBS: McClellan went on to say that the Committee on Foreign Investments examined 65 deals a year on average, but as we reported here last night, and we would like to remind Mr. McClellan, that the committee has turned down only one deal out of 1,500 deals that it has reviewed.

President Bush has put forth a challenge tonight that I simply can't ignore. The president yesterday said he wanted those who are critical and questioning of this port deal to "step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a Great British company."

Well, first of all, Mr. President, to equate any country to your principal partner in the coalition ignores that special relationship this country's enjoyed with the United Kingdom for decades and decades. This also is not just a British company and an Arab company, as I think you well know.

Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation is a British privately owned company. Dubai Ports World is a UAE government controlled and owned company. You see the difference, of course.

And furthermore, the money used to fund the 9/11 attacks, most of it, in fact, was sent to the hijackers through the UAE banking system. In fact, two of the hijackers were originally from the UAE.

The UAE stonewalled U.S. efforts to track al Qaeda bank accounts after 9/11. In addition, the Emirates does not recognize Israel as a sovereign state. And the UAE was a transfer point for shipments of nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

And if those aren't good enough reasons, I would just suggest I'm at a complete loss to offer what might be considered good reasons.

The oil-rich United Arab Emirates is a major investor in The Carlyle Group, the private equity investment firm where President Bush's father once served as senior adviser and is a who's who of former high-level government officials. Just last year, Dubai International Capital, a government-backed buyout firm, invested in an $8 billion Carlyle fund.

Another family connection, the president's brother, Neil Bush, has reportedly received funding for his educational software company from the UAE investors. A call to his company was not returned.

Then there is the cabinet connection. Treasury Secretary John Snow was chairman of railroad company CSX/. After he left the company for the White House, CSX sold its international port operations to Dubai Ports World for more than a billion dollars.

In Connecticut today, Snow told reporters he had no knowledge of that CSX sale. "I learned of this transaction probably the same way members of the Senate did, by reading about it in the newspapers."

Another administration connection, President Bush chose a Dubai Ports World executive to head the U.S. Maritime Administration. David Sanborn, the former director of Dubai Ports' European and Latin American operations, he was tapped just last month to lead the agency that oversees U.S. port operations.

CNN's Lou Dobbs Transcript

So, does this make Bu$h a terrorist?

The Music Execs who Cried Wolf

2006-02-10T21:29:00.000-08:00

This has become somewhat of a hobby for me because I have never heard any single group enjoy the kind of success the record companies do and complain as much as they do about sagging sales.

The record companies were rolling around in money likes swine do in mud about seven years ago. Sales and profits had never been higher, let’s run down a few of the top sellers from 2000:

’NSyc No Strings Attached : 9.9 million copies

Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP : 7.9 million

Britney Spears Oops!...I Did it Again: 7.9 million

Creed Human Clay: 6.6 million

Santana Supernatural: 5.9 million

The Beatles 1s: 5.1 million

Nelly Country Grammar: 5.1 million

Backstreet Boys Black and Blue: 4.3 million

Dr. Dre 2001: 2.4 million

Destiny’s Child The Writing’s on the Wall: 3.8 million

These were impressive numbers, record numbers in fact. Never had so many albums had such high sales, and this was during the “Napster” age. So let’s review this year’s sagging sales:

Mariah Carey The Emancipation of Mimi: 5.0 million copies

50 Cent The Massacre: 4.9 million

Kelly Clarkson Breakaway: 3.5 million

Green Day American Idiot: 3.4 million

Black Eyed Peas Monkey Business: 3.0 million

Coldplay X&Y: 2.6 million

Rascal Flatts Feels Like Today: 2.5 million

Gwen Stefani Love, Angel, Music, Baby: 2.5 million

Kanye West Late Registration: 2.4 million

The Game The Documentary: 2.3 million

These numbers reflect CD sales not digital downloads. So let the truth be heard, with the wild popularity of Apple’s iPod and iTunes digital downloads jumped 150% in 2005 as consumers bought 352 million of them. To push the total numbers up a wee bit more, ring tone sales totaled about $600 million dollars. Think of that, these little “ditties” aren’t albums or even songs but about thirty seconds of a song to be played as a ringer.

These companies had to battle such acts as Payola schemes, copy protection (root-kits in some cases) and filed hundreds of lawsuits against alleged “music pirates”. To further contribute to sagging sales was the popularity of downloading singles from music services rather than the entire album. I am afraid the days of making “albums” are long gone with a few exceptions (Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois was somewhat of a concept album). Make the single, get it aired a billion times through payola scams, have these consumers download that single and fill the rest of the album with crap so they have enough to put a disc on the shelf.

It’s still our fault according to them, we’re (consumers) aren’t giving them enough of our money. Never mind that wages have not increased much, energy prices have sky rocketed, healthcare prices have erupted and the price of education has as well. Oh yea, they’ll sue you with no hesitation or remorse.

Quick Hit

2006-01-28T15:13:00.000-08:00

I saw this story last night and thought to myself, “This is great.” Personally I don’t think that showing a picture ID to board a plane is violating any constitutional privileges it is a form of intrusion to privacy. The security personnel glance at the name and your photo id to verify the names on the ticket and ID match, maybe they will casually glance at the picture too.

Yet it comes to mind that if some individual was going to perform a terrorist act on a plane, and sacrifice their life for their belief or cause then are they really going to be worried about showing an ID? Furthermore, outside of a high ranking member whose picture has been plastered all over the place, what do these people look like? Would it be that difficult to obtain a fake ID with ties to an organization like that? Finally even if their name did appear on the list of known terrorists, and they made it all the way to the gate, is the individual going to be able to pick out that certain individual based on glancing at their id and ticket?

What if “Albert Gonzalez” was on the list, are they going to stop all the Albert Gonzalez’s from boarding the plane or give them extra scrutiny?

Anyhow, here is the link:

Fight the Power

Wall Talker

2006-01-27T22:23:00.000-08:00

An interesting thing happened to me at work on Wednesday when I was going back to my cube *sigh* from lunch. I meet my friend almost daily for lunch, and on this particular day after we had gotten up from our respective chairs we had stopped at the intersection in the hallway. The hallways are less than six feet wide, very long, and have hanging mirrored globes at intersections to use so you don’t plow over random passers by.

In this particular instance, my friend had taken a step or two down a hallway, and I had taken a step down the one which crosses it. We continued chatting for a brief moment, and I started to walk down the hall when I saw this woman was staring at me funny. There are all sorts of interesting people at the compound, so seeing a look like this was not strange to me there. As I start to pass by her she casually says “I would’ve thought you were talking to the wall if I didn’t see that hand for a second.”

I have been known to do some strange things from time to time, but I don’t typically carry on conversations with walls in the middle of the hallway. I would like to think that the wall and I have mutually realize that our conversation would bore each other if it were to happen, so we choose not to converse with each other. I understand, and I go out on a limb here and say the wall which makes up half of the hallway doesn’t mind either.

Going further into this, who would have been crazier though? I only heard things, or acted like I heard things by carrying on a conversation with a wall. The lady seemed to be seeing things, hallucinating if you will.

Some people say in the future we’ll all be crazy, but I won’t I guess its nice to know I wont be seeing things which aren’t happening, but rather just hearing things.

What was that…?

Eight-One

2006-01-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

Kobe Bryant went off for 81 points last night leading the Los Angeles Lakes to the win 122-104. What makes this slightly more amazing is that he had 26 points at the half, which is a good scoring night for 95% of the players in the league. However the flipside of the situation is this – it’s a team game. Still not since David Robinson of the Spurs, who scored 72, has gone off on a scoring rampage like this.

For those not in the know, the highest number of points tallied by a single player in a game was Wilt Chamberlain who scored 100. Jordan never even broke the seventies in his hey-day, although he ended up with 69 in one.

So if Kobe keeps this up will his arm need to be iced for the rest of the season to try and keep it from falling off? He is averaging 28 shots a game and almost 11 free-throws a game. Does this make him the leagues MVP, or the leagues “chucker” (Seinfeld reference)?

Ahoy Hoy

2006-01-18T20:06:00.000-08:00

How is one able to deal with the cube neighbor, who seems like a nice person, but has one of the most annoying little habits? I was over in a co-workers cube today, when one of the people that work in the area asked if I wanted to switch cubes. Of course I asked why he was interested in swapping, and it turns out his future cube neighbor has some obnoxious little traits of his own. First off he uses a speaker phone, why I don’t know; second he speaks at unusually high levels – even if the person he is speaking to is right in front of him. Third, he has one of the most distracting laughs, something out of a cartoon.

I said to him, yeah but I have to deal with the throat clearer. “The throat clearer?” is all I heard in response. This person has a terrible tendency to clear his throat about every 45 seconds to a minute, totaling what must be close to one hundred times daily. For no rhyme or reason either, he isn’t about to speak, or talk on the phone. He clears his throat before he starts to type, enough to drive me nuts.

“Oh, so that is why you are always wearing your headphones.” “Yea, now you know” I reply, but they don’t do a great job. If I keep them at a reasonable level I can still hear the clearing of the throat ~ it seems to have just the right frequency to pierce what ever it is I am listening to.

So how does one broach this subject? I already feel like an asshole for bringing it up, but I have reached my limit. I don’t want to come off as a prick to this person, but I think I need to convey how disruptive this thing is, especially since it has been going on for over a month. I have a good feeling that it has to be partially psychological now, and is nothing physical due to the duration and frequency it has been going on.

Oh, and it is starting to spread – the person on the opposite side of him has started doing it. She doesn’t clear her throat as often, but the pattern has started.

The possibility of physical and mental breakdown is now very real. No sympathy for the Devil, keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride. --H.S. Thompson

Glayvin

2006-01-16T19:53:00.000-08:00

So my neighbor who will remain “Oscar the Grouch”, and not because of his counting ability or witty remarks to small children as he helps them count finally got a citation for leaving trash outside his door. When I first moved into the complex there was no evidence that there was going to be such a problem, but time after time “Oscar” has been leaving trash outside his door for days at a time. I’m not talking one bag either, up to four bags at a time.

The neighbor adjacent to him down the breezeway takes a hint and starts putting their trash out front early, so I am surrounded by people’s trash. It is nasty to see and to come home to, further more I would shiver at what my friends or guests may think if they ever saw the filth. The punishment for this filth is supposed to be $20 a bag, which I thought would teach this chump a lesson since I have reported him on several occasions.

Unfortunately it seems that the person responsible for handing out these citations knew the people who lived there, so simply reporting them was going to be a losing battle since it would be squashed by the friend in the office. It seems the protection is no longer there and with a little luck the citation he received is for $80, sweet justice at last? We’ll see.

Vocabulary Lesson
What are some of your favorites? Hoyvin-Mayvin, and Car Hole are two way up there; ha!

Pick and Choose Your Battles

2005-12-16T21:47:00.000-08:00

There was a conversation on the vanpool today which started off innocently enough about the purchase, price and quality of HD capable television sets. A couple of the van riders piped up to confess they had in fact taken the plunge into the HD market, but haven’t yet decided to take advantage of HD programming outside of DVDs. This swayed the conversation to what is available through cable and satellite providers in the way of programming, and what each other would watch.

The conversation of Christian television, radio, and religious types of programming came up and the discussion started how it is safe for the family, and not lewd and such. I didn’t feel the need to start an argument over such a thing, because it is their right to believe in such a thing, and I don’t have a problem with that. If their beliefs and viewpoints start to interfere with me directly, attacking me, or persecuting me for who I am then there is a problem and I would have been compelled to defend myself. I always had a problem with the phrase “safe for the family” though when it comes to public programming, but that is another argument.

This particular subject was brought up shortly after I heard after I heard a story on NPR’s Fresh Air. It featured Scholar Bart Ehrman's discussing his new book, and explores how scribes - through both omission and intention - changed the Bible. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why

There are specific examples of how scribes intentionally changed the stories of the Bible as it was being transcribed, by hand over the years. Since it was all done by hand there were many opportunities for mistakes and modifications to stories, which in fact happened and has been displayed such an act was committed through the study of transcriptions which were years apart.

An example given early on in the broadcast was the story of a woman who had committed adultery, and the people had set a trap for Jesus, bring her to him. If he was to follow the laws of Moses, she would be stoned to death for her acts, but that would contradict his teaching of love, compassion and forgiveness.

Mr. Ehrman’s studies show that the story had originally been passed down to a scribe who had written the story in the margin of one of the manuscripts. Another scribe who would take that manuscript for reproduction would then move the story from the margin to the actual text, so this is a case where the story would appear in English versions adopted from the King James Bible, which would not appear in the original Greek version. He continues to talk about those who view the Bible as an authoritative guide; they would have to go to the original version, which no longer exists. If the new one is interpreted as authoritative, and theses scribes were able to modify the text as they saw fit, and was then interpreted as scripture then who or what is to say what I speak or write couldn’t also be considered scripture?

Another example is the crucifixion of Jesus which is told in the gospel of Luke and of Matthew.

So I bit my tongue and decided not to bring this up, avoiding such a fight which is based on deeply personal values. Just something to think about I suppose…

Fresh Air Story

Are You Sirius?

2005-12-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

Howard Stern is making lots of headlines of late because of his pending jump from Infinity Broadcast Corp., or what you and I would typically refer to as free radio. So the question becomes, just what is Howard Stern going to provide to his listeners once he is no longer censored?

He pushed the envelope on his way to the top, and spoke about things no one ever really did. There is no doubt he influenced today’s market of what a morning top show is considered. One that comes to mind is Kidd Chris, previously of a KROK (K-Rock) affiliate in the San Antonio market, who now performs his show in Philadelphia after a similar battle Howard, is presently wrapped up in. Sexual topics and “toilet humor” are some of his top draws, and now they are practically a dime a dozen.

So the popular question is, what can Howard do to lure 12 million listeners and persuade them to pay $12.95 a month? Surely he is going to have to pull more than old stunts which he is now banned from doing, such as "It's Just Wrong," where fathers and daughters undress each other, and "The Bathroom Olympics," where Howard and his guys race to see who can pee first. Cursing up a storm isn’t going to draw in people either because that too will drag on and become stale, saying the word “shit” just to say it just isn’t funny and will the show will become, well for lack of a better word “shit” if it is overdone.

However, Howard is determined to make the new show a success. You can hear it in his voice on the radio as he speaks freely as to what is happening behind the scenes as his last broadcast quickly approaches. How his radio director would rather give Stern’s archives away than to see him take the tapes with him to Sirius. He is passionate about bringing a huge audience with him to Sirius, so he can have people hear the show he has always wanted to do, but never could.

Free radio has big problems, from shortened, national style play lists, payola scandals, and lack of original content and higher levels of syndicated shows. The commercials, one of the main sources of revenue for these companies aren’t nearly as effective as they once were, and often times annoy would be listeners prompting them to change the station in search of something more enjoyable. Ultimately, when they had enough they hit the button and go to CD, their i-pod, or yes their newly installed satellite radio.

Sony Mucks Things Up

2005-11-21T20:20:00.000-08:00

Sony has officially crossed the line with their much reported Trojan they have implemented on select new releases. Now they are getting sued by Attorney General of Texas for this stunt.

NY Times reports (registration required:) “Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a civil lawsuit on Monday against Sony BMG Music Entertainment (6758.T) for hiding “spyware'’ software on its compact discs in a bid to thwart music copying.”

Record company exec: “I have a great idea, lets implement a technology which will allow individuals access to other peoples computers without them knowing. It can be a great sales srategy for us too, we can track where these poor saps go on the net, what they buy, what they type, and best of all what music they steal.”

Other Exec: “Gee that sounds great, the digital rights stuff is right up our ally, lets go get a drink to celebrate our victory.”

Schmucks.

Missed the Boat?

2005-11-13T20:21:00.000-08:00

At what point does a company admit that they missed the boat? This is a continuation to Pizza Delivery And The Blockbuster’s Missed Boat.
When a company brings a product to market, beating all of its competitors to the punch on a particular item, does it mean that “Company Y” has to go back to the drawing board and instantly make some sort of improvement to the product for it to be successful? Do they have to cut into their profit margin and sell it at a cheaper price to gain a larger market share from its direct competitors?

Of course not, think of all the gas stations out there today, all of which have self serve gasoline. Now think how much they actually differ from each other. Before the age of the credit card it was accepted that people go inside and pay a cashier to for the gasoline they had either already pumped, or were preparing to pump (some people still do this). Credit card readers were then installed on pumps, and certain pump manufacturers started selling these pumps to stations around the world. Surely their competition was already developing this product, but does it mean they missed the boat? Did they have to wait to release a new product which would allow authorization and activation in one fail swoop before bringing the product to market? Nope.

Of course it is this direct competition which eventually betters, or worsens the product eventually (think new coke in the case of failure. Then again that lead to classic coke being released. Never mind that). It is this direct competition for comparable goods and services which lowers prices benefiting the consumer, because it will lower the price of the current products leading to the development of the new items.

Or did I miss the boat?

If this is the beginning of some of the conversations going to or from work, it should be entertaining to say the least.

Ciao!

Still Around, Yes

2005-11-07T20:21:00.000-08:00

I am still around, and will continue blogging. I was paroled out of San Antonio after all those years.

Stay tuned

All That Could Have Been

2005-10-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

Nine Inch Nails made its debut in San Antonio October 16th in the SBC Center, and this was now the second time I saw them on the With Teeth Tour. Why would I bother seeing a band twice on the same tour when the probability of seeing repeated material was very high you ask, well, because the performance was that good the first time. They really weren’t going to be the same show, the first time I saw them was in a smaller venue, their club tour, however this time around was the arena show which means more extravagant props and effects.

The opening acts this time around were Death From Above 1979 and Queens of the Stone Age (QotSA). Unfortunately this time around Trent Reznor did a deplorable job selecting opening acts, previously The Dresden Dolls opened, at the time I knew nothing about them, and only heard one of their songs from a fellow’s ipod while I was in DC. The band impressed me, so I was hoping for the same from opening acts this time around, although I have never been a fan of QotSA.

Death From Above 1979 consisted of a bassist and drummer duo, the material was terrible. It reminded me of a band which couldn’t hold onto guitar players so they thought they were too good to simply let their musical dreams die. Unfortunately for the members in the audience, we were treated to forty minutes of noise and gibberish as vocals.

Queens of the Stone Age did not change my opinion of them, I still dislike them. Josh Homme’s musical style has drastically changed along with the member s in the band, and it showed in his selection of material. The general audience seemed to be in a daze for most of their performance. Playing in front of a banner which resembled trees the guitars were cranked to an 11 (Spinal Tap reference) and the vocals were drowned out. The only song which seemed to get the audience moving was their lone hit “No One Knows” from their album Songs for the Deaf. However I knew Nine Inch Nails would right the two wrongs I had witnessed thus far.

Appearing on stage behind a sheer while curtain, the stage lights were set up to project silhouettes of the members on the fabric, until it came tumbling down as Trent and company launched into a cut from his most recent album With Teeth. The energy and enthusiasm fed the crowd to obscene levels once the call for “All the Piggies to March” was made.

One of the most intriguing segments of the performance came during the video montage assembled for the song “Eraser”, weaving images of animals attacking in numbers. It seemed to make a “power in numbers” type reference while the band played behind the same white curtain. The other clips put together were assembled of images from wars, people ballroom dancing, and ultimately an image of Mr. and Mrs. W (it drew applause when this image came on, however I held my applause, and wondered what the people were applauding).

The remainder of the set was comprised of a variety of material from all his previous albums, some of the songs performed were (this is a list of all the songs I can remember which were performed and not mentioned earlier):

The Wretched

Suck

The Hand that Feeds

Only

Closer

Terrible Lie

Wish

Burn

Hurt

You Know What You Are?

Reptile

I can not say enough for the energy which is displayed on stage, the guitarist Aaron North is a maniac. He is constantly running around on stage, knocking over mic stands, twirling his guitar all around his head and around his back. Trent Reznor leads his band like a general, with strong presence front and center, sometimes armed with a black guitar. Jeordie White doesn’t go for the running around, but his presence is known, he seems to over shadow the keyboardist in the background (I don’t know this fellows name however). Unfortunately the original touring drummer, Jerome Dillon, developed a heart condition and was replaced by Alex Carapetis, who did a good job filling in.

My hope had almost come true, until those recognizable sounds from Head like a Hole started. Out of all the songs he could have done in place of this over played song, I would have much preferred to hear Where is Everybody, Happiness in Slavery, or Ringfinger. Unfortunately, according to Trent, The Perfect Drug is extremely difficult to pull off live, and Kinda I Want To won’t ever be performed live due to its complexity.

Never the less, another great concert, even seeing them the second time around as there were enough differences from the New York show I saw back in May and the one performed in San Antonio. Nine Inch Nails still knows how to put on a concert, and not to let down its many many fans. This is surely an act not to be missed.

Straight Economics

2005-10-05T22:33:00.000-07:00

I exited out of my hotmail account today, and I saw a news item flashing in front of me on the msn webpage today stating Sales of Large SUVs Nosedive in the Month of September. I couldn’t help but finding myself grinning at this headline. It conjured up images of “soccer moms” piling grocery bags into the back of one of these behemoths, and running out of room. Not because they purchased enough food to feed an army, but because of the limited space available in the back of these “people movers”.

So basic economics will tell you that as the price of a good or service increases, the demand for will start to wane over a given period of time, before that time comes there will be a happy median where the producer of the (I’ll use the classic vernacular here) “widget” is getting top return on their items, before sales start to suffer.

So the time has come which these gas guzzlers are beginning to slow down, even through all the companies “employee pricing” options. So what is the reason behind the slumping numbers? Not because everyone suddenly realized just how wasteful some of these vehicles are, no – simple economics; the price of gasoline.

The popular reason for the increases has to be because of multiple hurricanes battering the oil refineries which populate the gulf coast. Katrina sent the message loud and clear, as the damage was incurred the prices shot up, and causing a public outcry at the price per gallon of self-serve gasoline. President Bush did his best to try and ease the high prices by dipping into the national reserves, but this is a “kludge” not a fix. Temporary relief at its best, until hurricane Rita comes along.

So the oil suppliers and refineries saw that the demand for gasoline was not waning, so it is now my contention that the price of gasoline will never drop below $2.50 per gallon again in the United States. The producers of the fuel have seen they can get away with these prices; the demand does not go away despite what many Americans call “bloated prices”, and the President is forced to try and maintain prices by tapping the nation’s reserves.

On the other side of the fence, the oil refineries took a blow to their producing capabilities, smaller supply of the goods yields higher prices for the goods if the demand is still intact. This may lead the general population to believe that prices will crawl back down to prices we had shortly before Katrina hit, I don’t expect that.

The refineries will be repaired, and the supply will meet the population’s demands, but the ultimate source of the stuff is not being replenished. You can hear politicians and pundits say “there is no oil shortage, we have not even reached half of what the earth has.” While the facts are this, we really have no “absolute gauge” to tell us precisely how many barrels are left in the ground. The pundits I just mentioned are correct, we have not hit the half way mark, but getting to these rich supplies is the trick.

At the present time there is no way to tap some of these oil reserves which remain in the earth, they are just unreachable. To reach these reserves if the time ever comes will cost money, the technology for these drilling practices will also cost money, and then maintaining the crew to execute the procedure will cost money, not to mention they will probably be out in the middle of the Pacific ocean away from their families and loved ones, and that too will ultimately cost the employer money. So the price to produce the oil and gasoline has now increased, and you simply can’t sell the items at a loss because that doesn’t make business sense in any way shape or form. Not to mention the outcry from investors in these companies when they start to fail, employees quitting because they aren’t being paid, and the national coming to a standstill because we haven’t developed a reliable alternative to gasoline yet.

So what was all this about, oh yea – the sagging numbers of large SUV sales, makes me scratch my head and say “I can’t figure that out”.

The Trip Which Never Was

2005-09-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

I had been looking towards taking this trip of mine since I last booked it in May 2005. What better way to spend the beginning of autumn than biking you way across the state of Rhode Island, crisp mornings, warm afternoons, and beautiful scenery just about everywhere you go. A storm named Rita changed all this, so instead of being up in Rhode Island now I am remain in Texas.

I was tracking the progress of Rita since I first heard that it was going to enter The Gulf of Mexico, knowing that it could potentially affect my plans. I was going to be taking this biking trip with my sister who lives in the greater Houston area. As Rita made its way across the Florida Keys, there was wide speculation as to where it would hit. Would it hit the ravished city of New Orleans again, or head to land whose last major storm caused billions of dollars worth of damage?

The worst case scenario started to form, and my sister decided to evacuate her house Thursday morning doing her best to preserve the possibility of still making the trip. She moved her reservation from a Saturday departure to a Friday departure, however the airport became over run with people trying their best to get out of Houston before Rita hit causing huge wait times and severe parking problems at George Bush Intercontinental airport. Rita in the meantime mutated in to a gargantuan category five hurricane spinning its way towards the Texas coast line. The projected path at the time was a direct hit on Galveston, making its way towards Houston.

I received a message on Thursday evening from my sister informing me she was not going to be able to make the trip. I had to make a decision as to what I was going to do, go on the trip or forfeit the money I invested. There are a lot of things I don’t mind doing on my own, but the trip was to spend time with my sister, not specifically to bike across Rhode Island. So I decided to stay in Texas in preparation to help her out in any way possible, be it a place to stay or going to help her clean up her house.

Friday came, and I started making phone calls to find out if I could get a refund on my airline ticket. I now have a ticket with US Airways until May 2006 for a small rescheduling charge, which doesn’t bother me because I am sure I will be able to use it before that time comes. I also received a call / email combination from a shady sounding recruiter. Her email does not state her affiliation, and it was sent from a Yahoo account, which made we weary of even talking to this woman. I spoke with her none the less, and informed her that I was not an individual with eight years professional experience; I would have been in high school that long ago. I hang up with her, and continue to read about the congestion and evacuation problems of people fleeing the Houston area.

I ran out to return an item which I had purchased for the trip, and to make a copy of my offer letter for the new apartment complex I was going to be moving into. Once I was threw with the errands, and was back home I started to read the information packet about my new position. After reading through the “Intellectual Property Agreement” I sat the papers down and my phone rang.

It was an HR representative from a company which I had hoped to go to work for. I had a friend pass along my resume in the company about a month ago, but found that I did not meet their GPA requirements. I figured at that point the issue was dead, and I wrote them off, however here I was talking with them on the phone. They said they saw my profile on their webpage and wanted to set up an interview sometime next week. What freaking luck, a light was clicked off, and another one clicked on.

I was so confused and excited about this I called my friend who had originally passed along my resume to see if he slid it under some one else’s door there. Apparently he was as surprised as I was, and on Monday September 26 I am going to arrange travel plans to go speak with them about a possible position. This is coming on the heels of me signing an acceptance letter from another company who extended an offer to me, which I am scheduled to start on October 10.

Although I managed to lose my trip, I landed a new job, and have an interview with another company, and Rita did not make a direct hit on Houston. I will speak to these people about the position, while continuing my preparation for the position which I already have in the bag.

What a wild and crazy couple of weeks it has been.

Clear Desperation

2005-09-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

A Clear Channel’s clear desperation for an audience for its fast fading morning show, may the country duo and station in general in whole just fizzle away. What tactics am I talking about you ask? This morning I received a telephone call which I managed to sleep though, if I would have answered it I would have been a bit upset as to what I heard. It was a pre-recorded message promoting their morning show and how they are going to be “helping out with high energy bills”.

What the hell is this? They are promoting the assistance of paying my electric bill in a desperate attempt to recruit listeners via a telemarketing scheme. Look, if I am going to be listening to the radio, and actually trying to win something from them the last thing I want is something as lame as bill assistance. How about offering something people can’t typically just purchase, like front row concert ticket packages to various shows, back stage passes, or trips to see concerts (not the national variety either). If this is the best you can come up with, you deserve the future failure and ultimate demise.

Oh, Mistreated

2005-09-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

My pursuit landed me at a house party this weekend; I haven’t been to a house party since this acquaintance named Candice invited me and my friend to her graduation party. I figured this was all but the last of the house parties for me, but wait – what was that glimmer on the horizon? That’s right – a nice house party, this one was of the “house warming” variety. I am unfamiliar with housewarming etiquette, so all we ended up bringing was a refreshment contribution, of the party variety. I digress…

So yes, when I hear about this house party I am happy to attend because the individual who is throwing it is a kickboxing / ex-spinning instructor at the gym I go to. He was handing out flyers to people who attend his class, and of course I have seen this particular chica attend his class on several occasions, and of course I have an ulterior motive for attending. Yes indeed, the blind wishful thinking that some of these select women will be at the party.

You may ask yourself Why haven’t you just struck up conversation at the gym if you were interested? The reason for that is because doing so is always a long shot, gyms aren’t intended to be meet-markets, and I don’t want to invade their space when they feel unattractive (in their minds), IE sweaty, and just want to get their work in, and then get the hell outta there before another neanderthal tries to chat ‘em up. After all, the last one I chatted up never came to the spinning class again. Again I digress…

So I see the chica at the party, escorted by another woman, and no not in the lesbian sense either (yes, I broached the topic gingerly). Anyhow, me and my friend mingle a bit with some of the other attendees, while I keep watch over whats-her-name to make sure she doesn’t leave before I at the very least open my mouth to say “hi”. Next thing I know I am speaking to her friend, I find out that she is a kickboxing instructor who took over one of Mario’s classes (Mario is the home owner).

As the night progressed I was biding my time, waiting for the iron to be hot – at long last the iron was hot and I struck. So got to chat up Rafie, a nurse by day and kickboxing instructor on select nights, things went well – so well in fact I asked an received her number. So the trick again is getting the return phone call…

Apparently meeting women and job hunting are very similar, and yes very different. There is an incredible amount of time spent looking at each prospect, does she or the position offer what I am looking for? If so, you gather up their information and do your best to contact them, the common goal in both is to get a reply. If a reply is received then an interview may not be all that far fetched, and the “razzle-dazzle” can begin. After that they begin to fork in different directions.

So all in all – I’d say this was a foul. I watched the pitch, saw it was one I liked, swung the bat, and even made contact. However, it will still be a strike because of my current situation. Its all good practice though.

el Scorcho

2005-09-16T00:36:00.000-07:00

Oh my, has the concert scene changed…ok the scene is probably dependant on the band(s) which are playing that evening. For instance when I saw the Nine Inch Nails concert in New York with The Dresden Dolls as the opener the crowd was predominately in their early to mid twenties Oh my how the crowd was different at the Weezer / Foo Fighters concert Wednesday September 14, 2005 at Austin’s Frank Erwin Center.

The last time I saw the Foo Fighters was back in ’97 on their Colour and the Shape tour, at the time I was 17. However the Foo Fighters aren’t making top 40 radio stations play lists, with the rare exception of Big Me or Everlong, both of which are from past albums. Weezer is the guilty party for this young crowd, and their current pop hit Beverly Hills.

Let me see if I can explain myself here, the young crowd was comprised what looked like high school kiddos, or I suppose they could have been UT freshman looking for something to do on a Wednesday night now that Mommy and Daddy aren’t there to tell them they aren’t allowed to go out on a school night (yea I know, insert old man / getting old joke here). Never the less, I was amazed at the number which they showed up – even if one of them showed up with their mother and could not make up which over priced t-shirt they wanted.

“Number 5, no number 2, no number 8. Can I get the wallet?” Mother replies “No – what t-shirt do you want?” Son continues “what about the jacket? I want the jacket.” Mother again says “no, so what shirt, number 5? Five is cool.”

This charade continued on until my partner in crime got the t-shirt for his girl friend in hand and we escaped the t-shirt stand madness.

So the show was mediocre in the end. The opening band, Mae, had their guitars turned up really loud, and the vocals were difficult to try and decipher what he was saying. The bass player stood there like a statue, while the lead guitarist did a little side step body sway number which would have to be displayed to understand fully. I cant say I liked them or not because they left such a bland after effect on me.

Weezer was on next, and despite being responsible for bringing out the young crowd they put on the best performance of the evening. Rivers Cuomo and company did a nice job of playing songs from their entire catalogue, including songs from the album Rivers once detested, Pinkerton. Such crowd pleasers included Beverly Hills, Buddy Holly, and Hash Pipe. Rivers performed Island in the Sun as a solo on an acoustic guitar on the far side of the arena configuration. For Undone (The Sweater Song) They invited up a member of the audience to play guitar – which was interesting to say the least. Mike actually knew how to play apparently.

The Foo Fighters hit the stage shortly after Weezers confetti landed, blaring In Your Honor from the album of the same name. Dave Grohl seemed to be more interested in shouting, and talking about the “blonde slut from the Real World: Austin”. His once melodic voice has taken a beating from the cigarettes and crown he is known to consume, so the only bright part of their performance were the improves they did during the songs. For instance the song Stacked Actors mutated its way into some sort of twelve minute beast of a song. They worked in flawlessly, and all came crashing back into the song in unison, I never thought of the Foos as a jam band, but they did a swell job. Unfortunately they neglected to play any of their acoustic material from the new album, and the set was filled with songs I didn’t really want to hear again anyhow. Dave Grohl took the sticks for one song which I didn’t recognize, but he showed he could still beat the skins.

So all in all, the show was entertaining, and the price was right, free. The seats weren’t very good, but hey it was a free ticket from a San Antonio radio station so, once can’t expect too much.

A Proclamation if I were President

2005-09-12T22:15:00.000-07:00

Outlaw and ban all full sized trucks and sport utility vehicles. There is nothing more wasteful of energy resources than a GMC Yukon or Ford Excursion rumbling down the road with dubs or mud tires on each one respectively, with its only cargo: the driver. By severing these frivolous items we will display several things which would be respected across the world.

First off, we could relax our ties with the whabi-islamic fundamentalists AKA the Saudi Royal family, who choose to follow, enforce, and teach this flavor of religion. Furthermore if we reduce our dependence on this source for sweet light crude, we could stop the exponential growth of the Royal Family’s bank accounts.

Second, we could shake the global image of Americans being arrogant snots consuming up the largest percentage of the worlds oil for our Hummers. Surely this is one of the reasons which prompts people to carry out attacks on our great nation, and not because they hate the idea that “they hate freedom” as W’s clan would like you to believe.

Third, it would open a new business model for those individuals who decide to provide a service to all the people who claim to need these vehicles for their boats, recreational vehicles, and farm/ranch equipment. These businesses can provide the transportation of these goods at a cost, and reduce the amount of waste which is produced as a by-product of owing one of these vehicles for the specific case of transporting something other than people, and it becoming an everyday driver because of the small fortune they invested in it.

Which moves me into the last portion of this proclamation, these vehicles which provide services such as: trucking companies, service/repair companies, and other miscellaneous items would be able to apply for a license to own and operate one of these vehicles. That license would be issued by the federal government which would need to be renewed yearly at an expense.

I know, what I just provided is considered “completely un-American”, where it is our great right to choose to drive what we want regardless of what it is used for. However, if these cuts were enabled and thus lowered the costs of energy, slowed our consumption rate, and boosted our supplies, we use in other aspects of our life, it would help out the many rather than the few.

Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibilities to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality. Weird heroes and mold-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of “the rat race” is not yet final. --Hunter S. Thompson

As Heard on All Things Considered

2005-08-31T01:39:00.000-07:00

I thought this was an interesting story done on NPR about voice mail messages vs. caller id. I find it ironic that I hear this story on the same day I choose to leave a voice mail message for the chica I spoke with on Saturday. Enjoy.

Leaving Messages? That's So 20th Century
by Lori Gottlieb

Lately a lot of people have been complaining that I am not returning their calls. “But I didn’t get a message” I’ll say, and they’ll get all huffy and say ‘well, didn’t you see me on your caller id?”

Ahh, caller id. Now a days almost everyone’s phone service includes the option where the caller’s number pops up on the recipients digital display. And my friends are saying ‘that a number alone counts as a bonefied message. To me this kind of non-message message isn’t just passive aggressive, it’s ineffective. I don’t really have the time, or the sense of paranoia to scroll through all of my missed calls. My friends see it differently – they believe that because we have such busy lives, voice messages are out-dated. In their view not only is listening to the outgoing message a waste of time, mine lasts a whopping ten seconds but, they insist that leaving a voice message is redundant. As one friend put it ‘all I’d say on a message is call me back.’ My number on your caller id display says the same thing.’ Call me old fashioned, but I like hearing an actual voice

A list of ten digits seems too impersonal. Besides how am I suppose to analyze messages left by boyfriends if there is no voice to analyze? I can’t play a guys message for friends anymore and ask “what do you think he meant by talk to you sooon?” does his emphasizing of the word soon mean I should call him tonight? Or wait until tomorrow? Now all I have to work with is his electronic phone number, and you can’t get much mileage out of that.”

But while leaving messages with caller id seems impersonal there’s also something paradoxically personal about it. There’s an intimacy implied by the shorthand of the digital display. By the fact that I’m supposed to know that my friend Ellen called by simply recognizing her number.

It’s the technological equivalent of the ‘hi it’s me’ message, the kind where you are supposed to know who the ‘me’ is because you recognize that persons voice. Sure on caller ID some times a name pops up, but when its number alone and I don’t know who’s it is the caller feels insulted. And the most frustrating part is now that I’ve started checking my ‘non-message messages’ I’ve noticed that some numbers even have a ‘times two’ or a ‘times three’ after them. Meaning if the person has called back multiple times sending me the telepathic message – along with the dollop of guilt; that I haven’t returned their calls.

Having just left a voice message time’s one, I would have called them back right away; at least that is what my ten second outgoing message says

Feelin' a Rant Comin' On...

2005-08-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

There have been several items which I wanted to address, but I don’t think they can stand on their own for individual blog entries, so here we go…

The Daimler Chrysler Corporation must be sinking, drowning in its own refuse. They resorted to 50 Cent promoting their 300 series cars by featuring it in his videos, and now they have Snoop shizzilating the new commercials. Can the advertisers think of nothing better to do than to pair hip-hop icons with men which are at least double their age? Yea, that’s a good way to sell cars isn’t it? Fo’ shizzle.

Second on the list, is something I just don’t understand. Why is it old men tuck their undershirts into the waistband of their underwear? I can only imagine what is running through the mind of the reader right now, “who is this guy, and what is he doing watching old men get dressed?” This is not the case, it happens casually walking through the locker room at the gym. I don’t request to see this kind of thing, but once you bump into it, you gotta ask “why?”

Third, I had another random encounter and rolled the dice – why? Because you never know. I went downtown this weekend for an acquaintance’s birthday; I was invited by proxy (her best friend). I rode with a couple of people, and we had parked on the second level of a parking garage off of Commerce. The exit ramps out were a downward spiral, and there was a car nice enough to let us in front of her. I looked back and I saw this beautiful smiling face. I started smiling back and this continued for a minute. The guy driving, Nick, somewhat challenged me to go talk to her. Next thing I know I am hopping out of the car and strolling up to the driver’s side door. I chat with Lori (spelling?) for a few minutes and asked for her number. I did receive it, so we’ll see what happens now. I placed my phone call today and left voice mail.

Anybody can lose one fight, anybody can lose once, you'll come back from this you'll be champion of the world. - Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris from Million Dollar Baby

I saw Million Dollar Baby this week end, which I enjoyed. I can see how Hillary Swank won the oscar for best actress – she did an incredible job in that movie. I don’t want to give anything away about the movie, but I would recommend seeing it.

The Summer Belly Flop

2005-08-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

The New York Times recently ran an article about Hollywood seeing disappointing numbers at the box office this summer. Let this be a message from the public to Hollywood – give us good movies, not just sitcom re-dos and sequel after sequel.

”Part of this is the fact that the movies may not have lived up to the expectations of the audience, not just in this year, but in years prior," said Michael Lynton, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment

So it seems that the chairman of Sony Pictures is admitting that they were relying on the gullibility and boredom of “Joe Sixpack” to go to the movies. I can almost here a modified voice a-la Field of Dreams “If you make it, they will come”. It is finally starting to come back and bite Hollywood, now that DVD sales growth is slowing down, and big budget movies are flopping in triumphant fashion.

The current issue of Rolling Stone states:
“Dukes of Hazzard: Zero Stars! Can Movies Get any Worse?”

Wait a second, you’re telling me that a movie starring Johnny “Jackass” Knoxville, Sean William Scott (the actor still referred to as the guy who played Stiffler), and Jessica “Tuna is the chicken of the sea” Simpson didn’t give Oscar worthy performances?! You’re right that would be expecting too much, but it’s like they couldn’t even get their “big star” to promote this movie so they had to rely on Jessica Simpson’s uhmm…talents *wink* to promote the movie.

Marc Shmuger, vice chairman of Universal, said Hollywood has been too focused on short-term box office payoff and not focused enough on what he called "the most elemental factor of all" - the satisfaction of the moviegoing experience.

So now that the idea that piracy is not the sole reason for the drop of revenue, and the demand for quality movies has started, maybe the music industry will get the hint as well. It will be safe to say that people aren’t dying to see I Dream of Jeanie the Movie, Kicking and Screaming 2: Harder and Louder, or a remake of Bullit. Although the latter would have been rushed to production on the heels of The Fast and the Furious and Gone in 60 Seconds.

If you make it, they wont necessarily come…

An E-mail to Joel on Software

2005-08-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

I said I was going to do this a while back. Well since I have a wee bit of time on my hands I finally got around to giving ol' Joel what has been brewing in my head for the past few months. Enjoy, and let me know what you think:

Joel,

I’ll be the first to admit I am a casual reader of yours, but I must say that a posting you made back in January 02, 2005 really stuck with me. What could have possibly stuck with me for such a period of time you ask, well it was the “Free Advice for Computer Science College Students”. If nothing else I found it entertaining, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that there is a major item missing from your seven items. Luck, yes sir – something as artificial as luck is needed because it seems that very few places are willing to take a chance on new graduates for positions within their company; this can extend beyond CS majors, but for personal sake I will stick with it.

So let me reiterate what you had posted:

1. Learn how to write before graduating.

2. Learn C before graduating.

3. Learn microeconomics before graduating.

4. Don't blow off non-CS classes just because they're boring.

5. Take programming-intensive courses.

6. Stop worrying about all the jobs going to India.

7. No matter what you do, get a good summer internship.

Now for the explanations, unless you're gullible enough to do all that stuff just because I tell you to, in which case add: 8. Seek professional help for that self-esteem thing.

So if you have read this far, and I have managed to keep your attention let me cut the fore play and get down to brass tax here, because I just may be a candidate for step eight. I graduated after you wrote this article, and after reading your suggestions I reflected back on my academic career. The following would be my reaction to the advice you offered:

1. I would like to think I learned how to write before I graduated. I am no published author, but I do enjoy ranting a bit on my own blog, and I am writing this email to you now. Granted just because I am writing this gibberish doesn’t mean that I know how to do it as well as Hunter S. Thompson or Kurt Vonnegut. Never the less I would like to think I can hold my own, that being said onwards…

2. I studied C extensively while in school, more so than a lot of my fellow colleagues, or ex-colleagues as it is. I was even given the prestigious title of a *** C Programmer by Dr. Steven Robbins, author of “Practical Unix Programming”, and “Unix Systems Programming”.

3. I one up’d you on this little tidbit – I went all out and obtained a minor in business. I figured this education thing was like the stock market, and to be successful you need diversification. So I had my micro economics, macro economics, finance, management, business law, and marketing among others.

4. I didn’t simply blow off those non-CS classes, even though I did find some of them to be boring. Instead I did well in each of them, and even learned something from each one I attended, no matter how trivial it is. For instance marketing is a scam, and quite frankly a clever scheme how to get people to spend money on your product.

5. I was crazy enough to take quite a few difficult classes which only had a few people enrolled in them, In hind-site the entire program at the University of Texas at San Antonio (I know, its no Yale) is pretty code intensive, but more of those when I could.

6. India, I am contempt with India. There are going to be jobs which simply can’t get outsourced to other countries for sake of national security and those companies which don’t want to invest in off shoring.

7. Finally I had a good summer internship, with Raytheon of all companies. The problem is, it was their aerospace division in Houston, which has since all but closed shop due to losing its contracts with other competitors.

8. Yes indeed, since I qualified all the others – I too fit into this category. The self esteem thing took a severe blow since I am now part of the ever growing population of Americans who get laid off. I was unfortunate enough to fall prey to a reduction in force movement which swept though my previous employers business. I have been looking for employment only to hear the gentle sounds of crickets on the background, or the occasional cough like when a comedian tells a joke which bombs.

So I will ask you what you recommend for those individuals looking for work as software engineer, who followed your seven step program, but don’t have either five years experience or a security clearance. Not that the latter guarantees anything, but certainly more opportunities open up if you are in possession of this little gem. I cant tell you the number of cover letters and resumes I have sent out into the black hole of HR departments. I have attempted to differentiate myself from others on my resume, but in the age of auto-replies and web-based resume submission what can I do to get my resume on an individual’s desk?

A starving software engineer would like to know – I am sure I am not the only one.

Regards,

Rainman (no I didnt really sign it 'Rainman').

Downward Spiral

2005-08-16T14:13:00.000-07:00

“the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.”

I took my vehicle in to get the dash replaced since the patch work they did looked like a patch on a pair of jeans. You know the type, the jeans are a faded blue, and then there is a noticeable dark blue patch over the knee area. Well, the colors at least matched, but other than that the repair work which was done on it was sub-par.

I had additional work for the body shop as well; my rear bumper was struck this weekend causing some damage. The body shop did a real good job of repairing the door, and color matching, so I figured they could do a good job with the rear bumper as well. I kind of wish that it could have been the front that was dinged up because there are scratches on the front, and it always suffer more damage from road debris.

So I headed back to Enterprise Rent-a-Car to be supplied with a Chevrolet Montecarlo.

I wasn’t thrilled with this choice, but it was better than several of the other vehicles which were presently on the lot. So I got into the car after doing the standard “walk around”, looked at the gas gauge and saw that it was on E. I wasn’t going to take this so I strolled back into the building and asked “is it policy to rent out a vehicle which has no gas in it?”

I was not being factitious either; the individual who had the car before I got in it must have thrown it into neutral to roll into the lot. The alleged manager snatched up the keys and found a peon to get $10 worth of gas. I felt vindicated in some sort of weird way, but it was also going to cost me fifteen minutes of my life {insert Henry Rollins’ time murder bit here}.

So I get the car back and start to make my way home. I am a firm believer in seeing what the car can do, and abusing them since I don’t have to fit the repair bills which may incur. The montecarlo is the most poorly designed, unresponsive, slow piece of crap on the road. I was not going to be happy driving this thing, and the drivers seat offered zero comfort. I am not happy with this vehicle – in some weird way I preferred the sentra to this.

So Tuesday I decided to press my luck and request another vehicle. The same Enterprise employee was there who snapped at the peon, and I explained to her that I was not happy with the vehicle they had supplied me with. You think I would be given the Nissan altima – no I was thrown into a Chevrolet impala.

Same interior, same poor handling, poor engine performance, different shell, but after requesting a swap I figured it would be best not to press my luck by asking for something else again.

So not only is my opinion of these GM vehicles extremely low, but they still equip these vehicles with cassette players. No CD player was present in the car – are the people at GM stuck in the stone age?! Even a base model sentra had a CD player, but trust those “folks” at GM to cur corners every possible way they possibly can. What else can you really expect from a poorly designed car – maybe that is why GM is practically being forced to give these cars away with little no markup for the dealer.

The Nissan Sentra

2005-08-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

So I was (un)expectedly laid off on Friday, and wasting no time I started distributing my resume on Sunday. I say unexpected because I knew administrative cuts were coming, but I thought I manned a more critical role in the grand scheme of things. Whoops – guess what kid – you don’t.

This freed me up to take my car to the shop to get the repairs done. So I speak with a representative there, and they call up Enterprise Rent-a-Car for me. The rental car office is about a block away, but this is San Antonio, people don’t walk here that is crazy! So I sat around for about ten minutes waiting, when the customer service rep says “I can just run you over in your car.” He seems more than happy to get behind the wheel of my car to drive me the block, although I mention to him that I could have just walked.

I took the ride, and got door to door treatment, and went inside to request my rental. There was some moron on the phone requesting a “large SUV” to rent instead of the mini-van State Farm Insurance had approved him for. I guess he wasn’t a van guy, or thought he was entitled to a large SUV based on what he took in for repairs. Before I got to the bottom of the situation I was told my car was ready.

I walk outside to see a black 2005 nissan sentra. What a disappointment this is, but I don’t have any extra money to throw around for any sort of upgrade. Of course the lady outside marking the cars dents asked what was wrong with my car. I told her that it had been vandalized, and was in to get fixed. She mentioned that she too had an accord when she lived in Miami, and it too had been broken into several times. She since traded to a maxima, and moved to San Antonio of all places.

What a downgrade in living locations, Miami to San Antonio. I refer to this place as the nissan sentra of America. It’s not the best place to live, but there are certainly worse places to live.

My job hunt so far has also been the nissan sentra, but thankfully I have had the help of Mr. Anti-Thought to aid me in resume preparation, and willingness to pass it along to his manager where he works. I say it has been a nissan sentra because I had an interview today which resembled my old position way too much. More database applications, and if I have the choice (before desperation sets in) I do not want to work on database applications. So I am hoping to find a position which I will like more than my previous one and trying to see the silver lining in all this un-employment stuff. Call it the One Year Mulligan

Payola

2005-07-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

Like it never left, the record company Sony BMG settled a lawsuit for what was called payola back in the 50s. For those of you not familiar with what payola is, it is when a record company or some promoter affiliated with the record company compensates a radio station for playing a specific artist or song more often then it would typically be played.

I recall saying more than once, if you take something and cram it down people’s throats enough it will sell. This was displayed to a “T” with the inception of American Idol, and now such artists as Jennifer Lopez (J-Lo for those hipsters), Good Charlotte, and Celine Dion enjoyed extra air time because of such antics.

Radio is somewhat of a paradox, and it is impossible to try and satisfy everyone. First off on general radio, you only get to hear songs which have deemed “single worthy”. These songs get are played too many times and typically stay on the air longer than they really should, all making for a stagnant play list. How many more times can people really hear AC/DC’s Back in Black or the Eagles Hotel California? However, if you play more unknown artists, or tracks from the albums which aren’t known as well you may alienate some listeners who don’t want to give anything a chance.

Second, is edited songs – how annoying is it to hear a random beep or gibberish where a word deemed “un-wholesome” would be? There is way too much regulation on what is allowed to be aired and the spectrum should be widened. It was great when I could hear the original version of Pink Floyd’s Money until a few years ago they started changing the part when they say “Bullshit”. It appeared that way for years, but all of the sudden they change it.

Third, it is all about dollars. Radio stations are getting revenue from the record companies, thus record companies get money from increased album sales. All along the consumer, the listener gets screwed, but wait – you downloaded that hit song illegally. So the record companies are gonna sue Joe Sixpack for an obscene amount of money, which Sony then turned around and spent on payola.

So here is what you do with that payola, and the fines inflicted on Sony BMG, and all the other guilty parties partaking in this: come to the defense of downloaders. Support the EFF with a percentage of the money from this settlement and all others which are sure to be coming. Help stop the nonsense of making songs pushed down your and my throat a hit. Turn your radios off and turn on those cd and mp3 payers. Let a variety of music ring!

It Happened Again....

2005-07-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

As it turns out I am going to have to eat my words which I made in my last posting. It was I, after all, who said that it takes more than a screwdriver to break into a car. Well, unless the individuals who got into my vehicle were armed with a rake and a tension wrench they proved me wrong, six days after the original attempt my vehicle fell prey to a malicious attack. The attack this time around started with the trunk lock, only they changed their minds after doing a small amount of damage.

This time the guilty party managed to get into my vehicle leaving my Oakley sunglasses lying on the drivers’ seat and stereo still intact in the dash. I consider myself fortunate because whoever gained entry to my vehicle left everything, CDs, loose change and the above items. They were unable to break into the glove compartment where I had the faceplate of my radio secured that day (not anymore if who ever are responsible for this is reading). They did their best by puncturing the dash and making a nice pry mark. All this while the alarm was going off, and of course no one noticed anything.

The beauty of car alarms, they are great, but so many go off for no reason what so ever. They are so common now people tend to just ignore them, or lament to their friend how annoying they are.

So after the second attempt, on 18-July-2005 (first one was on 12-July-2005) I filed a claim with my insurance company to get the damages repaired. The estimate I received was $1,200, almost half of which will be coming from my pocket to pay for the deductible.

So this has caused me to do multiple things, first off it made me realize just how badly I need to get out of there (find another jobby-job). Second, that my employer needs to do something about the security, or lack there of in their parking areas, as I am currently collecting my thoughts to send the board a letter threatening legal action if they continue to condone the activities which are taking place. Third I changed where I park and I am doing sporadic checks on my car during the day, I may even start moving it so it isn’t in one place for too long.

Yes indeed, my paranoia on the situation has risen, that’s for sure.

Trunk area:

Drivers Door:

Dash Puncture Mark:

Glove Compartment Damage:

Memo to all the Schmucks

2005-07-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

This is a message for all you would be or aspiring thieves who tend prey on automobiles. This is a message for all you schmucks who would rather cause property damage just for the pure simple bliss of it. All this bitterness isn’t unfounded, but it is undirected because this mysterious person simply fled with nothing more than what (s)he came with.

Yes indeed, my vehicle fell prey to the wide world of auto breaks ins this past week. I essentially work in a bad area of town, and the problem is further compounded by the fact that people who visit the place have mental disorders and/or substance abuse problems. So it could have been any one of these people, or as it was relayed to me “some kid”, yes school has been out for the summer for about a month now. What better way of breaking the summer time blues than with a good ol’ misdemeanor?

So I walk outside after a pretty rotten day, and find that some moron stuck a screwdriver in my drivers side door lock, destroying the cylinder and prying out the molding partially. There is also some minor body damage below the molding from them prying it off or something. Thankfully they did not get into my vehicle, but the damage was made.

The inconceivable thing about is that it has happened many times before, and the place does nothing about it. They don’t accept any sort of responsibility, nor offer any sort of preventative measures from it happening again. Sweeeet!!

The Road to Physical Fitness is a Carts Ride Away

2005-06-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

If this is one of the many promised improvements they are making to the gym, it may be time to really explore that new Golds Gym that is opening soon. That’s right; the road to physical fitness is a golf carts ride away to the front door. The second I saw this I thought to myself, you have got to be kidding – a golf cart to give people a ride to their car?

I can only imagine the staff riding around saying, “no no ma’am save that energy for the treadmill, don’t walk out here.” Seriously, what is the golf cart doing at a gym where people go to specifically do physical activity? I was fortunate enough to be asked if I wanted a ride to the front door, a mere parking rows away from the front door. I replied the only way I knew how:

“I thought this was a gym…”

Which it is, and my attempt to strike up conversation with a chica there seemed to go well at first. It even went well the second time I saw her, being the next day, but I have seen nothing of her since. I would like to think I didn’t run her off, I kept the conversation strictly casual, no phone number requesting, yet. That was going to come if the conversation went well on other occasions, which I was hoping to lead to me asking her if she would like to see Jerry Seinfeld with me.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed, and my eyes open.

Destination India...? China? Russia?

2005-06-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

If there is one topic no group of experts can seem to agree on, it has to be the future of the IT field, especially those with degrees in computer science. I have read articles upon articles arguing both sides, IT will never go away, to the most recent one I read on CNN stating that the market will shrink by 30%.

Gartner researchers say most people affiliated with corporate information technology departments will assume "business-facing" roles, focused not so much on gadgets and algorithms but corporate strategy, personnel and financial analysis.

However, this projection along with what “Joel on Software” goes on to talk about puts me as a prime candidate to land a good job with management tracking, that is until I can get Alan Greenspan’s job as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. I am going to have to work on my government contacts, and maybe even get a friend elected as president before that happens though, but why not?

So back to the argument – IT jobs growing or shrinking? Are they all going to India, Russia, and China? Will I have to become fluent in Cantonese or Russian to get a job as a translator to these people so the company I may or may not ever work for can speak to their hired guns? That is what Stanford seems to think – learn that foreign language, and not Spanish, French or Italian – no.

Companies are increasing their reliability on software, computers and gadgets. These IT Geeks are going to have to be around to fix other peoples problems, or prepare programs for these CEOs who don’t know how to open an excel spreadsheet or complete a simple attachment to an email. Furthermore there are going to be government contracts which the US is not going to want to outsource, can you imagine the disaster that would be – the country that developed the technology we are going to use to attack them actually succeed at doing so? I don’t think so – especially with all the anti-terrorism talk going about.

The current situation is getting back to the '70s and '80s, where IT workers were the basement cubicle geeks and they weren't very well off," said Matthew Moran, author of the six-month-old book "Information Technology Career Builder's Toolkit: A Complete Guide to Building Your Information Technology Career in Any Economy

The bottom line really could be, that, compared with the availability of jobs during the dot com boom there is a steady systematic decline of jobs. The off shoring is also contributing to part of the job loss, but that can really be said for just about anything. So for those people that want to live in a dark office, wired on mountain dew, with little to no human contact, and do nothing but pound out line after line of C, C++, C#, or Java code may be very few and far between.

Truth be told I have no idea what I am talking about. I am unhappy where I am right now, and I will be testing the job market very soon – yes looking for a programmer position with more responsibility than just pounding out algorithms and god forbid report generation from some damn database. So here here to the underappreciated people who make computers go.

It's all About Timing

2005-06-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

There may just be a light at the end of the tunnel after all, although it could be all gibberish – some sort of cruel hoax to be pulled on the unsuspecting individual who has been dealing with the same problem I have.

Yes, ye ol’ wingman may have landed himself a little philly to call his own. So that leaves me swimming in the vast ocean again, but with words of wisdom: “be shameless.”

Be shameless? Why not, nothing else seemed to have worked thus far, and one can only take so much failure before the cynical beast gets unleashed. Unfortunately I already let one opportunity slip by while I was poolside this week end. She had a “bartenders” body, big boobs, no arse, and a slight belly working from beer. I was asked why I didn’t say anything after, and I couldn’t give a reason, and I am all for learning from mistakes.

So of course I will try and update any sort of progress I have in that department; although haven’t I been doing this all along…?

Sports Update: NBA Finals 2005
The Spurs are now up 2-0, and have won handily both games. The real test is going to be game three and how they react to being on the road. I don’t really envision Detroit winning four of the remaining five games (if necessary) though.

So who is the MVP this year thus far? Seems if you ask casual fans they are going to answer Manu Ginobili, but for others who pay attention it is still Timmeh Duncan. Unless Manu puts together another “all around” game like he did in game one, Timmeh will get it based on the fact that he puts up more consistent numbers in multiple categories, rather than just points. This is also with Wallace boys guarding him, Ben being the defensive player of the year this year too.

I haven’t seen Rip blow up Bowen yet, so it seems like Bruce is doing a better job with his assignment.

With Teeth!

2005-05-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Nine Inch Nails, live at the Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, May 15, 2005. There is some magical to that, of course for those individuals who live in or around New York may not have the same feeling. This was my first concert to see outside of Texas, and I must say that the show was amazing!

Chris and I hopped a train to New York from DC on Sunday, we had a hotel room reserved at 32nd and Broadway, the Hammerstein Ballroom was on 34th between 8th and 9th Avenues, and of course Penn Station being walking distance from all of this made it very easy to get around.

Once we arrived we went in search of something to eat, and I would prefer something that doesn’t have franchises around the United States or world for that matter. So we started walking, unfortunately nothing looked promising. The streets were littered with Sbarros, TGI Fridays, McDonalds, and Burger King – I thought to myself I have been here before, I know there are non-chain restaurants here. We pressed on and eventually I saw a place called Ginger’s a quaint little chinese joint.

The atmosphere was nice, pleasant décor and white table clothes on all of the tables. The unfortunate thing is that it reminded me of an Episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where Richard Lewis and Larry David are eating lunch and the tables are smashed together leaving no buffer between them and the person sitting next to them. Larry casually leaned over and asked the guy sitting next to him if he was getting all of their conversation. Well the tables weren’t quite as stacked there but they were within arms reach.

After lunch we decided it would be a good idea to find out exactly where the Hammerstein Ballroom was, so we started our walk over to 34th. As we made our way up I saw people were already gathered, it was then that I realized we were just in front of it. The exterior is very deceiving; it looked more like another office building. The people waiting three plus hours for the doors to open were eccentric, at least anywhere outside of a rock concert – just another face in the crowd there. Being dressed in black was there popular trend though, silly me though; I wore a blue and white t-shirt. The line extended for several blocks and we both felt that it would be silly to stand there for several hours prior to the doors opening. We retreated back to the hotel to check in and drop off our bags.

We got in the enormous line about forty minutes prior to the doors opening – it stretched all the way to 9th avenue and started to make its way down 9th. This prompted random passers by to ask, “What is the line for?” The other popular question was “Have any extra tickets for Nine Inch Nails?” Ticket scalping in New York is illegal, but when there is a demand a supply will be created.

We made our way into the Hammerstein, and I was surprised at how good the view was anywhere you stood on the floor. There are two mezzanine levels, and box seats on either side, the décor and architecture in there is not as detailed as it is in the Majestic Theater in San Antonio, but had a nice touch to say the least.

One of the things which caught my eye immediately was the Coin Operated Girl which were placed on either side of the floor area. If you dropped some amount of money in their bucket they did some little dance number, the women doing this were wearing these; I don’t know goth ballerina outfits. I had no idea if they were associated with one of the bands or were doing it of their own volition. It seemed like an hour or so before the lights went out and the Dresden Dolls took the stage.

The Dresden Dolls (lead singer/pianist Amanda Palmer and drummer Brian Viglione) had their faces painted white with red lipstick accentuating their lips. Brian pounded the drums furiously while Amanda squirmed behind her keyboard in a sexy way. Their short set included a handful of original songs and a good version of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs and Radiohead’s Karma Police. They also had a song called Coin-Operated Boy which explains the coin operated girls I saw prior to them taking the stage. I was impressed by their performance and songs, and I was surprised they stopped so shortly. Brian got his shots at the crowd in before leaving the stage stating “Look, we realize we are just filler until Nine Inch Nails comes on, so this is your chance to yell ‘Fuck You!’ to us”. The crowd did just that, but Chris and I kept our mouths shut, granted we were eager for NIN to come on, but were enjoying The ‘Dolls show.

They did leave sooner than I thought, and NIN came on sooner than I thought. The stage had interesting light bars (seven feet tall?) made up of blue and red LED lights. Various other lights were placed around the stage, but no screens or extravagant props. The crowd exploded with Trent singing “this is the first day of my last days” – the opening lyrics to Wish, followed by a short technical problem which prompted Trent to state “about ten people are going to loose their jobs because of that”, and launched into March of the Pigs. This was followed by Sin, The Hand that Feeds. Unfortunately I can’t remember all of the songs they played in specific order, but it did include:

The Collector

Getting Smaller

Head Like a Hole

Closer

Burn

Hurt

Suck

Reptile

Starfuckers

The show was amazing, high energy, good song selection; although I really wish he would have done another song rather than hearing Head Like a Hole. Trent initially appeared in a white dress shirt, which he quickly removed after the first song performing the rest of the show in a dark colored tank top, the rest of the band was wearing all black, long sleeve shirts with black pants. The guitarist was crazy, at one point he was playing upside down over one of the amplifiers, all you could see were his feet, and he played like a possessed man during some of the instrumentals.

The show ended with Trent throwing his guitar straight up in the air and letting it land on the stage after he was through singing Starfuckers, Inc. What a show – if you get the chance to see NIN jump at the chance, but make sure to save me a ticket.

Likes to Fight Guy

2005-05-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

There I was, leaving the Spurs game after they successfully mopped the floor with the Ray Cry Baby Allen and the rest of the Seattle Sonics. To my surprise there were still a lot of people making their way to their vehicle even after a good number of people started leaving with three or more minutes in the game. I parked in one of the lots furthest from the SBC Center; the amount of money they charge for parking is outrageous, and it went up 33% for the playoffs. I have wondered on numerous occasions what it takes to get into the parking lot racket; kick backs to the mob? Selling one’s soul to some scumbag in charge?

Anyhow as me and my friend maneuvered through crowd we came upon a few schmucks walking by a crew wearing Seattle jerseys. No big deal, it is a sporting event after all, people do like teams other than the hometown one. I am sure they were expecting a fair share of ridicule and harassment for wearing such garb to another team’s home court, but it is typically all in good spirits. Except this is San Antonio, one of the angrier cities, probably in the world.

So apparently the sight of the jerseys, the alcohol, and the amount of money paid for the alcohol ($6 - $8 a beer) brought out likes to fight guy. As we are walking by this guy starts talking trash, and gets pissed off and wants to throw over something stupid I am sure. You can hear schmuck yelling and screaming about how he doesn’t have to take this or that, blah blah blah. Luckily we managed to walk by this crew before anything did go down, and we weren’t about to hang around to find out.

It doesn’t take much to provoke people ‘round here – go to a bar glance at some one, and next thing you know they are in your face like you just did terrible things to his mother or something. Yes indeed, just another evening in ol’ SA!

As far as the Spurs, I am looking for my broom right now – it appears this series is going to be over real soon. The Sonics simply can’t match up against the Spurs no matter how much whining Ray Allen does. Ray – you and your team are going to packing your bags for that fishing trip real soon.

Humping the American Dream

2005-05-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

The NSA rolled their recruiters and propaganda into town yesterday to recruit some poor saps for some alleged positions. I was going to initially take a long lunch to visit these people, and see if there was anything that promised a better outlook than “we’ll contact you if anything pops up”. Luckily I had a friend going to it in the morning hours, and he called me up saying that there were a load of people there.

He continued to talk about the troubles with parking and the lines which one must wait in to get in to speak with the representatives. Of course hearing about this late prevented me from actually pre-registering as some people managed to do. So I asked my friend to call me when he got done and tell me if it was worth while going to the thing or if it was just a waste of time.

I receive a call about two hours later, and I try to get a sense of what these people were really doing here. My friend sounded optimistic, and gave a favorable outlook, he mentioned how he spoke with several people positively and left a few resumes with the representatives. Of course I wanted to get down to brass tax – should I go to it, or would I save myself time by simply submitting a resume online? He said it was worth going, so I left work about an hour early to attend the event.

Luckily, I had no problem finding a parking spot; furthermore the once ominous lines had dwindled so I could simply stroll in the front doors. After a quick registration and quick introduction speech I got to speak to a representative for a few minutes. Prior to me getting to speak to this rep there was some jag-off who was talking about how he took a single class in C++, and he now is equipped with everything he needs to know to carry out a developers position.

Ok, granted he could be a natural at it – real bright guy that would put a lot of people to shame, but then again this could have been yahoo who learned how to print <

Personally – it was a waste of time. The representative could have cared less about my questions and they were doing nothing more than collecting resumes at that point. The resumes were going to be boxed up and scanned by some poor schmuck so hiring managers could simply pick off peoples resumes who were fortunate enough to use the same key words these people were looking for.

Thanks for coming!

Lemme See Your Logo!

2005-04-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

Is there some sort of cult following I am not aware of here in San Antonio (second fattest city in the nation)? I am referring to stickers which people place on their vehicles, more often then not it is on trucks and sport utility vehicles. Come to think of it I have yet to see this particular thing displayed quite as proudly on a sedan, coupe or compact vehicle.

I am talking about the rise of the Harley Davidson Motorcycles stickers. Not a day goes by that I don’t see the motorcycle manufacturer’s logo plastered on the back of some domestic truck (Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge). I am sure people have always had these stickers on their trucks, but it seems to have reached a fever here in SA the way the West Coast Choppers t-shirts did about a year ago.

Are these people displaying that they own a Harley back at home, sitting in the garage? Does it represent some childhood dream of throwing on a bandana and leather vest and become a pseudo Hells Angels member? Were they part of the crew back at Altamont when they were hired as security for the Rolling Stones? Or are they just simply riding the marketing wave of a good ol’ American product?

I can’t help but think that the "American Chopper" neanderthals somehow created this trend. Then again maybe it is replacement for the person’s last name in old english writing on the back. You will never see me throw my last name on the back of my car, nor will you see me stick a Ducati sticker on the back of my car simple because I would like to own one.

So if you have any insight to this little observation please let me know what is going on.

In closing, the Spurs did exactly what I hoped they would do ~ pulverized the Nuggets and took away their swagger. The next game is Saturday April 30th – Go Spurs!

It was a Fluke

2005-04-26T15:24:00.000-07:00

I watched the first round match up between the Spurs and Nuggets Sunday, and what I saw was something I wouldn’t quite believe without seeing it first hand.

The Nuggets came into the series as an underdog, even though they have been the hottest team in the league since George Karl took over. They are using this alleged “lack of respect” to boost their moral, and continue on to say that game one was no fluke. Sorry fellas – I am going to have to call you out on this because I really do think it was just that.

Reason 1 – Andre Miller and his antics in the first half of the game, he was making everything. That included a half court heave just before the first half ended. That paired with a couple of Spur turnovers took their deficit and tied the game up. Miller didn’t hit much after the first half with Bowen hounding him.

Reason 2 – The Spurs shooting in the fourth quarter. You can try and run that line “The Denver defense shut them down.” Nonsense – because the Spurs just went cold, missing shots eight feet away and closer. Sure Camby and K-Mart can hound Timmeh, but that doesn’t explain how Manu, Tony, and Horry kept on missing.

Reason 3 – The Spurs reserves were almost non-existent. Furthermore they know how to make adjustments, and they will make them.

What really needs to happen is for a good ol’ ass kicking for the Nuggets. Take their swagger away, make them doubt themselves. Career night for Andre, and a piss poor shooting fourth quarter makes up difference.

Spurs look like they’ll get it in six now.

Excuse for Intoxication

2005-04-19T14:56:00.000-07:00

It is in the air again, once every year in San Antonio an odor fills the city. One which starts off with oysters, mutating into mexican food, margaritas, beer, vomit, and of course the ever present BO. That’s right folks, it is Fiesta time again in San Antonio, our own little version of what I imagine New Orleans’ Bourbon Street is on any regular night in the Big Easy. Night in Old San Antonio (NIOSA for those of you not in the know or simply from elsewhere) event which occurs on four nights of Fiesta Week is our local version.

To really appreciate the NIOSA experience you have to get blasted, public intoxication is almost encouraged in such an environment. How else you are going to willingly tolerate people constantly bumping into you, the stenches I mentioned above, and of course having something spilled on you. To my surprise this behavior and mix of alcohol and behavior doesn’t erupt into more fights than what would typically happen in this angry city in which I live. NIOSA is also a perfect display of what an overweight city San Antonio really is too.

The other item which makes me raise an eyebrow is the fact that I get a day off on April 22 for a silly parade. I work in a state funded agency, and our day off schedule mimics the calendar for days off which is set by the state. Well, you wont see me defiantly stand up against this type of thing – hell no – I will embrace this free day off with open arms. That day and any others this institution wants to throw my way will be embraced equally.

The NBA playoffs start this Saturday too, and the Spurs are seeded number two in the western conference. It appears as if they will face the Denver Nuggets, a team which has been on a tear with George Karl at the helm. The series for the season was tied at two, but let’s face it; Denver may be scary but are not play off ready. Prediction: Spurs win series in five.

Whats In a Name?

2005-04-13T07:43:00.000-07:00

There is now a new synonym for the word miss which came to be during the Spurs game last night. My friend and I are up in the stands, and we see Sean Marks come into the game replacing Robert Horry (I will come back to Horry in a minute). I brought up a statement which was made a couple of weeks ago when I attended the Spurs versus Hawks game, at which point the comment “That guy (Marks) has a shot…” I am a Spurs fan, and watch as many games as I can, but I can’t say how good or bad this guy is based on what I have seen. He has spent much of the time on the injured list this season, and when he has been activated he has spent much of the time on the bench behind Duncan, Horry and Massenburg.

Well it seems like the statement which was made a couple of weeks ago would come back and haunt. Marks had a terrible night shooting (1-6 on field goals, 1-2 at the free throw line), and now has his last name synonymous with miss. Example:
I woke up late this morning, went to catch the train and…marks!

Now for Robert Horry, who gained the name Big Shot ‘Bob during his career has a new one. Coming from his stint with the Lakers he developed a swagger, a type of strut that can only come from LA. Please don’t get me wrong – the guy is a gamer when the game is on the line, and for many a years I cursed his name; big shot after big shot he would hit against the Spurs first during his stint with Houston and then in LA. Until that time comes he seems so casual on the court, strolling up and down the court and constantly chatting the refs up. Since he didn’t like Big Shot Bob he now has the nick name Gotta Get Paid.

Imagine it, he gets off the bench and struts to the scorers table with a sigh “Gotta get paid”. Brilliant!

In all honesty though, Gotta Get Paid has really played well since Timmeh went down with a sprained ankle. Even Marks has come in and played some good defense and rebounded the ball well enough to make up for his lack of offence from time to time.

Man Dating...?

2005-04-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

I was reading the New York Times webpage while I ate lunch today, and stumbled upon a story entitled The Man Date. The Times webpage has a list of the top five stories e-mailed for the past twenty four hours or so, and this story ranked number two behind an open editorial about the amount of coverage death is getting in the media and perhaps our unhealthy addiction to it. So of course being, young and available I check it out to see what they have to say.

The story begins with Matthew Speiser, 25, and John Putman, 28 telling their tale of meeting in New York and their time spent together; better yet describing their Man Date. The story goes on to describe what types of situations would be classified as a man date and situations that wouldn’t. One of the scenarios that came up was going to the movies to see Friday Night Lights and the other situation going to a Jets game. The former being considered a man date while the latter would not be considered one. Further more it gave the impression that it would be okay for two men to sit next to each other at a sporting event, but requiring a seat buffer in the theater.

I chuckled to myself when I started reading the story because I see nothing wrong with me going to eat with a male friend of mine. I started to laugh outright when the movie chair issue came up because this very issue came up when I went to see Sin City on Friday. I went with my best friend, and I settled on a seat, and prior to him sitting down he asked if I was one of those people who required a buffer zone. I kind of just chuckled to myself and told him “no, you don’t have to skip a seat – unless you insist on doing so.” I have no problem with it.

In the article they mention that it would be ok for two men to sit next to each other at a sporting event without the fear of being labeled as homosexuals, but sitting in a theater would qualify. Why is this, the seats at sporting events actually put two bodies closer together, the movie chairs are quite plush and roomy now as opposed to arena seats. Furthermore in an arena you have to either take your knees to your chest, or stand up for some one to pass thanks to the eight inches they give you to put your feet down before the next row of seats begin. *Shrug* it doesn’t make sense to me either (or maybe it makes perfect sense to you – who knows).

Anyhow, after reading the article I will continue to go do things with my friends, regardless if they are classified as man dates or not. It may work out to my advantage because while I was out this past weekend the comment was made by a friend of mine, she said “my husband gets hit on more now than when he was single.” This particular scenario was brought up in an episode of Seinfeld where George reads that men who wear wedding bands have an easier time picking up women. I have also heard women lament about how “it’s a shame he is gay”.

So if being not as obtainable attracts more women, and there is a stigma that doing certain things with a friend of the same sex portrays a certain lifestyle - it would benefit me in the end to go on more of these alleged man dates.

Blahh – all gibberish I tell you; it hasn’t helped me out thus far and I don’t see a radical change either.

Clear Problem

2005-04-04T15:22:00.000-07:00

There is a reoccurring trend in the billboard market in San Antonio, the home of the media monster Clear Channel. Clear Channel owns numerous media outlets such as radio stations, television stations, and yes billboards. Now it is not uncommon for a large company to use another portion of it at one time or another yet it seems that Clear Channel has taken this to new heights.

Is it because they can’t sell the board space otherwise so they simply throw up something from another division? Or is it a lame attempt to try and boost ratings on their local radio networks? Personally I would go with the latter because many of the ads being run on billboards are for radio stations which Clear Channel has interest in, but is doing poorly.

Example you ask, sure – how about that lame excuse for a morning show run by “Kidd Kradick”. I am sure their ratings plummeted after they decided to give the axe to the “Woody Show” (it wasn’t that great either, but it had more substance than this Kraddick hack). After the ratings come out, and Kradick’s crew is near the bottom is right about the time ads go up promoting his show, on none other than those Clear Channel billboards.

Another lame attempt, and terrible marketing idea was to try and ask some fictitious character why (s)he listens to a particular station. The billboard I am talking about is bright yellow with black lettering with the following phrase:
Why do you listen?
“Afternoons with Jeff Bolton. –James”

Wow, who was the marketing genius of that ad campaign? Probably the same ones that insist that a radio station has more of these lame ass country artists playing at all hours, with more give aways, and fun. Fun?

If you chumps really wanted more listeners get a host or DJ with substance and talent. Play more music and fewer commercials you money hoarding freaks. Stop supporting so strongly of the content and language used on radio that the neocon conservatives insisted was needed to preserve morality. You people helped create this short play list type market – so use your clout to do something about it. Not that I envision them really doing too much in this regard.

No amount of seeing these billboards will sway me to tune in any more than I do now, which is never.

Life vs Choice for Schiavo

2005-03-23T21:31:00.000-08:00

In a story that has taken the country by storm since the ruling came out that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was going to be removed has since become a federal issue? Terri has been living on life support for twelve years, this isn't something that just came up. Yet once the feeding tube was ordered to be removed the GOP machine took swift action to make sure to preserve life of a woman who is in a permanent vegetative state.

Her legal guardian has had doctors run tests and spent time with her for some time; the doctor spoke with NPR's All Things Considered on Tuesday. He stated, although it hurt him to say so, that she was in fact in a permanent state of vegetation. Now there are doctors seeing video clips from four years ago claiming that the damage may not be as severe as it has been reported.

The sad part of this story is that the very people who are rallying to have her feeding tube reinserted are the same ones that are looking to cut the type of funding that is keeping people like her alive. Medicaid is paying a hefty portion of her medical bill, which the GOP wants to reform, and money from a lawsuit which was settled. This too is an issue that the GOP abolished with swift judgment to protect their friends who are heavily invested in these companies, or have other relations.

It was taken up a notch today when I read in the New York Times that three children had been "arrested" for wanting to take a cup of water to Terri. What kind of political stunt is this, and why in the world were they allowed and/or pressured to do this?

It is safe to say that after twelve years of being like this, no miracle is coming which is going to cure Terri from what happened. Her parents are clinging to a memory of what used to be their daughter, and can't bear to let go. It is tragic to lose someone, but Terri hasn't been herself for twelve years now. Who knows what kind of agony she is in, being forced to live when that was clearly not her wish.

My wish would be the same, I would not want to continue living if I were in that type of condition. Yet for some reason Terri's wishes are not being carried out - there is a time to fight and a time to let one rest. In my opinion they should finally lay her body to rest and let it rejoin her spirit.

And I Knew the Silence of the World

2005-03-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

The weekend of hopes, doubts and all those smashed in-between finally drew to a close yesterday evening with Tom Petty’s Learning to Fly playing from my speakers. I thought the song was appropriate for a drab Sunday, one filled with grey skies and drizzle.

Friday was a day of anticipation, and if everything had worked out the way I had envisioned it would have been a glorious day. Needless to day things didn’t turn out the way I would have liked, but there was a real bright spot, about eight minutes after four o’clock I receive a call from a friend of mine delivering good news. This is when I was told that I had a ticket to see Nine Inch Nails; this is something to some people and nothing to others, let me explain a bit.

My friend who purchased the tickets lives in the Virginia, and since he moved away last year I said that I would come and visit him. There were circumstances which existed preventing me from making a trip up there, but he had invited me to go up and visit for his birthday. We also talked about me going up there so we could go see Nine Inch Nails if they were to make a stop in DC, and if they didn’t stop in DC maybe a trip to New York would be in order. I didn’t know about the latter because of price, and if I was going to be flying out twice, once for his birthday and then again for the concert it could be a little difficult to pull off financially.

Well, it was earlier that week which we discovered that Nine Inch Nails was going to be playing the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York the day before and on his birthday. So plans were made – I would fly into Virginia, stay there for a couple of days, and then hop a train to New York to catch the show. Stay in New York until Monday, and then fly back home on Tuesday. This was of course provided we could get tickets, and this was going to be a challenge in and of its self due to the overwhelming demand for tickets paired with the fact that he was playing a small venue.

We prevailed in the end, the wheels were in motion and the trip was coming together nicely. Not only was I going to see my friend for his birthday, but we had tickets to see Nine Inch Nails in New York! The other twenty three and a half hours of Friday were lackluster at best.

A wave of confusion or the realization of what was really going on came crashing down on my little shore on Friday; you could see it developing in the email I was composing. The irritating thing about it is the possible motives which spurred this behavior. It was further perpetuated with further analysis of the situation, and some choice tracks I was listening to added fuel to the fire (F.O.D. by Green Day for example). I went to the gym to work off some of this frustration, which worked like a charm. I didn’t get frustrated playing racquetball, and even surprised my friend because I was smiling during my games.

After the gym and eating I headed over to another friends house who I had been emailing through the day about the situation. My goal by the time I got there was to have an idea as to what I was going to do to deal with the situation. The only requirement was for each of us to have a cold beverage in our hands when the conversation went down. With no time wasted we got down to brass tax, filled with raised voices in frustration and wild cackles of laughter. Any random passer by would have thought they were going by an asylum if the conversation reached an outsiders ear. The hour grew late and I headed home with The Art of Self Destruction blasting from my speakers to end this day.

Once I got there I had the urge to listen to John Lennon’s Gimme Some Truth”, because at that point it was all I really wanted.

I'm sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

A Sad Day

2005-02-21T11:15:00.000-08:00

It was about 7:15 am this morning, I had woken up just a few minutes before from a night that didn’t provide much rest in the classic sense of the word. It happens to me from time to time when I just don’t sleep well; this in spite of my current Sigur Ros fascination, which I have been playing regularly when I go to sleep.

I had just stepped into the kitchen to throw some waffles in the toaster when my home phone rang. “Who the hell is calling me at this hour?” I thought to myself as I made my way over to the phone. Whenever calls like that come early in the morning you have to brace yourself for the worst. It was Adrian and he stated off by simply asking if I heard what happened.

“No” I said in a garbled kind of morning voice that non-morning people get when they have to rise before double digits.
“Hunter Thompson killed himself.”
“What?!” I exclaimed. The interrogation was going to begin with “when did you hear about this?” Some how I was hoping it was just some sort of internet rumor that spread like wildfire, but he said that he heard it on the Today Show. I tend to watch Good Morning America, and they hadn’t said anything about it, or I simply missed it from earlier.

I walked over to my computer, and refreshed the New York Times page, and saw the headline in the sidebar. We spoke a few more minutes, and then I turned back to the computer to read the headline again: Hunter S. Thompson, 67, Author, Commits Suicide, from NY Times:

Hunter S. Thompson, the maverick journalist and author whose savage chronicling of the underbelly of American life and politics embodied a new kind of nonfiction writing he called "gonzo journalism," died yesterday in Colorado. Tricia Louthis, of the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office, said Mr. Thompson had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Woody Creek, Colo., yesterday afternoon. He was 67.

I will lift one of his phrases from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
“There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.”

Calling My Shot part 2

2005-02-11T13:49:00.000-08:00

Here we go wtih round 2. I am going to try an kncok out the rest of the rock nominees at least.

Best Rock Performance

Vertigo U2

Monkey to Man Elvis Costello

American Idiot Green Day

Somebody Told Me The Killers

Take Me Out Franz Ferdinand

The winner is: Propbably going to be U2, but I would prefer Franz Ferdinand to win this. I remember hearing them shortly after they won the SxSW show in Austin, and they hooked me then.

Best Alternative Album

Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand

Medulla Bjork

Uh Huh Her PJ Harvey

Good News for People Who Love Bad News Modest Mouse

A Ghost is Born Wilco

The winner is: Franz Ferdinand!

Best Metal Performance

Vermillion Slipknot

Nymphetamine Cradle of Filth

Live for This Hatebreed

The End of Heartache Killswitch

Whiplash Motorhead

The winner is: none of them! Giving an award for this category is an oxymoron at best. Which band can play louder, faster, or distort vocals more?

It Just Doesn't Make Sense

2005-02-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

This has been out for a little while, but I figured i would post something on it myself. From The New York Times

In the months before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal aviation officials reviewed dozens of intelligence reports that warned about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, some of which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations, according to a previously undisclosed report from the 9/11 commission.

Full Story here (NY Times)

This certainly seems like W had something to hide prior to the elections - classified until now; hmmm.

Memory's Faults

2005-02-10T11:45:00.000-08:00

On my way to the gym from work i listen to NPR to get caught up on the happenings in the world. They tend to run their wrap of the news on the half hour marks, but I get out to my car shortly after that. If it is still early in the hour they will typically go in depth with one of the larger news stories of the day, bringing in people to interview and give their opinions on events. If it is later in the hour you may catch stories about how cow bells were used in 70's era rock songs and have since all but disappeared, or one like that aired on Wednesday February 9th about how memory can fail.

It went on to say that the memory actually ends up distorting the truth. Granted the human brain could not simply capture all of the detail that occurs at a single event, it would be over whelming, but getting the gist of it typically comes naturally. They used the verdict of the OJ Simpson case about eight years ago as an example. They asked students at a college in California several days after the verdict was announced where they were when it was announced. In as little as 32 months time answers started to vary where they heard the verdict (Allow me to gloat a bit here, I was in my high school keyboarding class when Ms. Igo, the teacher came in and told us that he was not guilty. I vividly remember talking to a couple of people in the class and put my personal prediction of what the verdict was going to be, that being not guilty. Although I still to this day say he did kill them, even though he was found innocent). "The source of information becomes critical, but the brain confuses information gained directly from the senses with information from the imagination or from another persons suggestion."

Elizabeth Loftus is a memory expert at the University of California at Irvine; she says it is extraordinarily easy to induce false memories about people’s childhoods. Since the gist of the memory is there one could simply embellish what happened with details of things that never did happen.

Granted this is not earth shattering, people do forget things – but I found the story interesting regardless.

Calling My Shot

2005-02-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be fun to see what kind of acceracy I can pull at the Grammys. provided personal prefereance will leak into some of my predictions I will do it never the less.

Album of the Year

Genius Loves Company Ray Charles & Various Artists

The Diary of Alicia Keys Alicia Keys

Confessions Usher

The College Dropout Kanye West

American Idiot Green Day

The winner will probably end up being Kayne West, but I would prefer Green Day winning because of the way their album was written and constructed.

Record of the Year

Yeah Usher

Let's Get it Started Black Eyed Peas

Heaven Los Lonely Boys

American Idiot Green Day

Here We Go Again Ray Charles & Norah Jones

The winner will be Yeah by Usher hands down.

The last one I will do today is

Best Rock Album

American Idiot Green Day

The Delivery Man Elvis Costello

The Reason Hoobastank

Contraband Velvet Revolver

Hot Fuss The Killers

The winner here is, Green Day. I say this because I think they will get snubbed in the album of the year category, and it is simply too good an album to not win. The Killers album is also strong, and deserving of the nomination, but I don't think it will or should win.

We'll see if I get more up by Sunday!

Oh, I am still working on day two of the wedding wrap up. I'm just about through the ceramony, and the after ceramony festivities still needs to get written down. I am working on it though.

Just a Bit of Neglect

2005-02-01T09:39:00.000-08:00

I am still working on day two of my summary from the events of January 14th to January 16th. I would say I am about half way done with day two, and I will probably keep day three off of here for personal reasons.

Winter finally seemed to show up here for more than a two stay lay over. It has been in the lower 50s and mid 40s for the past few days, I realize that this isn’t real winter weather depending on where you live, but alas this is south Texas, home to two seasons, not four.

The other big event which occurred over the week end was of course the elections in Iraq. Prior to people going to the polls there were numerous reports of severe retaliation for taking part in the election process, how ever this was brought forward by the Suni population which is in minority to the Shiite population who largely seemed to favor Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The have mixed thoughts on the elections which took place, on one hand it is the start of a democracy, people selecting their leaders. However there are other problems which will arise, like the Suni's largely not being represented in certain cities across Iraq, and even if they all voted for an individual of their liking the Shiite population would overshadow them based on pure numbers. Furthermore this was released as well Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has vowed to continue fighting despite Sunday's election. He described the election as an "American game."

There is also this, compliments of Democracy Now:
Tensions Rise Betweens Kurds & Turkish over Kirkuk
In the northern city of Kirkuk it appears the main Kurdish alliance will win two-thirds of the vote in a regional election to form the provincial council. This raises new fears that tension could escalate between the Kurds and Turkey. Turkey opposes the oil-rich city of Kirkuk from being the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region. Because of the area's oil wealth Turkey also fears the Kurdish area may break away from the rest of Iraq and form a separate country.

Only time will tell what will happen.

Day One - Rough Draft

2005-01-21T23:48:00.000-08:00

So it is done, another graduate of the UTSA CS department tied the knot this past weekend. Given the magnitude of the event, and the number of components which must work harmoniously for it to smoothly I must say that it turned out rather well.

If Thursday evening was any indication how the ensuing week end was going to end up I was in bad trouble. I had a friend over that night who was posting items for sale on Ebay for the first time, which he wanted my help with. Meanwhile the wedding gift I had purchased remained unwrapped, toast to be finalized, bag unpacked, shirt un-ironed, and tux hanging in the car.

As it turns out I ended up writing a great deal of the summaries for the auctions, and then I had a problem posting the pictures with the item. It was most likely due to the size of the pics, but I had nothing to resize them at the time installed. Luckily my friend decided to skip the pictures, which was a relief because I still had stuff to prepare and the clock was ticking.

Once all the items were posted, the first item of business was wrapping the gift, so I bring out my wrapping paper, tape and scissors. I proceed to unroll the remaining paper off the roll and wrap it around the gift – of course I was short by about 2 inches. My mind quickly starts to think of contingencies, Wal-Mart was just down the road, so I figured I would get the other stuff taken care of first.

I bring out the ironing board and iron to get my shirt ready for the rehearsal, I didn’t know what the dress etiquette for a rehearsal is so I decided on a button up shirt and dark grey slacks. I figured it was dressy enough for anything I should walk into, but relaxed as well. This was also a blatant attempt to look half way presentable to people, those who I had never met, and those who I have not seen for almost three years.

I got the shirt ironed, and the slacks were ready to go hanging on a hanger, so the next order of business was getting the suitcase packed; time about 11:50 PM. I start to think about items I would need, and start to fold the necessary items into my bag. There were quite a few toiletries that would remain unpacked until the morning hours however.

So I finish packing up the bag and I check the time, about 12:30 AM – the decision of the moment was to run to Wal-Mart now or wait until tomorrow after work. I knew that if I waited I was going to be leaving a little later than I wanted, but I also had to consider that I still had a half day of work ahead of me. Run to Wal-Mart or try and get some sleep for Friday, well I chose the latter over the former because I didn’t want to feel run down Friday.

I get to sleep about 1:15 AM or so; which in all honesty isn’t that bad – provided I don’t make a habit of it. Of course during the ensuing misadventures I woke up to find that I didn’t charge my cell phone, which was going to be critical for Friday. Not only did I wake up to see that I hadn’t charged it, as I staggered toward the phone I see that I had a message received at four something AM. It was Chris informing me that his flight had been delayed for two hours, and that he would miss his original connecting flight in H-town. If things were to work out he would arrive in San Antonio at 2:13 PM which is a double edged sword in a way, I could get the wrapping paper and wrap the gift rather than having to take the stuff with me. I could also grab some lunch at home rather than eating some swill on the road, furthermore it would give Alex more time to get his stuff together since he insisted on following me up to Austin (I had also spent a good amount of time whipping Alex into shape, making sure he would get his tux the next day, booking a room, and reminding him to get a gift).

So I get myself ready for work, and head out the door; I had two stops to make on the way to work. First was the bank to pick up some cash, and the second stop was Krispy Kreme to pick up some doughnuts for some co-workers who insinuated they wouldn’t mind having doughnuts that morning. Typically on Fridays I am treated with breakfast tacos from Sarah (a co-worker – she even gets me potato & egg ones; much better than the chorizo & egg that is typically left over). So I get my cash and order the doughnuts only to realize that I had left my wallet in the car (this was a good sign ehh?). I had taken my wallet out of my pocket when I stopped at the ATM, slid the cash in and sat it on the passenger seat, never grabbing it prior to entering the doughnut shop. So I pay for the doughnuts and boom – my phone rings.

It is the Maid of Honor, which I am completely shocked that I am being contacted this early by her, and I am a complete scatter brain at the time. I fumble around on the phone and barely mange to get two words out that make sense. The discussion was something to the extent of what decorations needed to be purchased for the car, or if I had any ideas. I really didn’t outside of the classic shoe polish and cans (I later decide against the cans because they inevitably fly off the back, and if it was my car that was stuck by an out of control can thanks to some yahoo that just got married I would be a little agitated. So I decided against it, but this of course was after I had hung up with the Maid of Honor.

I get to work, and of course my top priority is to get that toast ready, so I check my email and luckily my toast was waiting in the inbox just as it should. I also decided to call the Maid of Honor back and apologize for being a complete a half hour earlier. We chat for a few minutes, and hang up. I ponder what to add to the toast, so I jot down a few things and decide to get a females perspective on it. I go to Sylvia, she gives me some constructive criticism and I manage to get it ready prior to leaving work. I did zero real work that day, but I had priorities damn it!

Just as I get ready to leave I get a call from Chris saying that he will in fact make the flight to San Antonio which arrives at 2:13 PM, which is close but manageable. So I leave work, and just as I do I receive a call from Alex – I make sure that he is squared away, asked if he got shoes which he replied “no”, but I did ask him if he had shoes to wear, which I was told “sure”. No biggie I thought, so I dash off to Wal-Mart to get my wrapping paper and shoe polish.

As I walked into Wal-Mart I call Crystals phone, and Crystal answers. I of course what she is doing, and she calmy replied “oh not too much.” “What?! I figured you would be running all over the place trying to get things in order.” I said to her. “Nope, I am cool as a cucumber” she said smoothly – it was weird cause she really did sound calm considering what was going down in a few hours. I asked if there was anything else needed from Wal-Mart that I could pick up while I was there. I was told there wasn’t so I ran in and out as quick as possible. I make one additional stop at a car wash to rinse my car off prior to the trip; it was pretty dirty with the rain that had come though several days before.

I get home, managed to get my phone on the charger, wrapped the gift with the newly purchased paper, and eat lunch (boca burgers are wonderful in a pinch). Right about that time I receive a call from Jason’s brother; the phone conversation went something like this:

Me: “hello?”
Jason’s Brother: “Ford, hi this is J***, Jason’s brother. Is Jason with you?
Me: “no”
Jason’s Brother: “Are you in Austin yet?”
Me: “No, I am still in San Antonio.”
Jason’s Brother: “Oh, is Alex in Austin yet?”
Me: “No he is following me to Austin around 2:30 this afternoon.”
Jason’s Brother: “Oh, do you know who dives a red car? Jason was with some one in a red car and my parents thought they were going to take something out of the garage.”
Me: “I have no idea who has a red car, maybe Louis does.”
Jason’s Brother: “No, L****doesn’t have a car”
Me: “Oh, well Jason called me from Crystal’s phone just a few minutes ago, maybe you can catch him on it still.”
Jason’s Brother: “Hmm, do you know how to contact Jason?”
Me: “Try Crystal’s cell phone, do you have the number? He called me from it about thirty minutes ago or so.”
Jason’s Brother: “Maybe I’ll call Crystal’s cell”
Me: “That sounds like a good idea, why don’t you try that.”
Jason’s Brother: “Yea”
Me: “Well I need to get going, see you later today.”
Jason’s Brother: “Ok bye.”

I look over, and decide to take my trash out prior to my trip – so I run the tenth of a mile to the dumpster in my complex, and the tenth of a mile back. When I get back I decide to go ahead and change so I will be ready for the reception (this would pay dividends later). So I changed, loaded up my car and called Alex to tell him I would meet him at his house at 2:00 PM.

I turn and do one last spot check, and head out the door – I had about seven minutes to get to Alex’s and amazingly I did get there in time. Alex is ready to go by the time I get there, and I turn and ask him “are you gonna be able to keep up with me?” He doesn’t really answer so I pull out of the driveway and get to the stop light only to see he is still parked stopped in the middle of pulling out of his driveway, he calls just as the light is turning green and says that he forgot something and he would meet me at the Exxon station about a half mile up the road. This would also work slightly to my advantage being able to get some water for myself, and I get a bottle for Chris because I know I never really get enough o drink on an airline when I fly.

I maneuver though traffic rather well, and the only real congestion is at the exit for Airport Blvd. from the highway, back up. All things considered the airport pick up went smoothly, Chris was easy to find curbside, and managed to get his bag into the trunk no problem. Of course he was hungry since the sausage & egg biscuit he had from Burger King in the airport at the crack of dawn would only go so far. Knowing that time is of the essence, I say we’ll stop somewhere along the way – because I know the later we hit Austin the worse the traffic is going to be. As we pull away from the airport I get a call from Alex, and he says that he needed to fill up somewhere along the way - *sigh* I ask how far he thinks he can go and decide that we can get about half way. I head out to 281 North to 1604 east to 35 north, figured that was the fastest way there. It is also this time that I realize that I forgot my invitation which contained the directions to the chapel, luckily Alex had his and told me enough to point me in the right direction.

I averaged about 75 mph heading north on 35 before stopping in San Marcos so Alex could fill up, and I took Chris to What-a-Burger to get some chow. Without too much delay we hit the highway again and get to Austin around 3:45 or so, an hours time to get to Round Rock through Austin on a Friday on IH 35 – disaster in the making.

We trudge through the traffic and make it to Round Rock by about 4:40 or so, I found out what exit to take by calling the hotel from the road. You see I had to drop Chris off at the hotel while I attended the rehearsal, and I figured at least one of us should show and attempt to explain the situation. I got to the hotel, dropped Chris off and dashed over to the chapel – it was about 5:05 PM at this point. To my surprise the chapel was really close to the hotel and only took about eight minutes to get there. The great thing was I was already dressed for it, so that worked out. I saw Jason in the parking lot and parked my car (I did manage to forget my camera though).

I follow Jason into the chapel where I see a bunch of people I didn’t recognize, Crytal was near the front door and not too far away from her was the Maid of Honor. I said my hellos and then I was asked if I knew where Alex was – of course I didn’t, I just got there saw Jason and walked in with him. I was introduced to L****, and reintroduced to J*** just before we were quickly rushed to position. Alex walked in shortly after that and we were ready for the rehearsal to begin.

After going over some brief instructions with the pastor, and were assembled in position and did a quick dry run. J*** was being obnoxious the entire time they were rehearsing, making little noises, giggles and jokes that weren’t funny. Then when Crystal walked down the first time her eyes were shrunk wrapped in tears, and as soon as she was handed off she started to sob ever so slightly. She managed to calm down quickly and we ran through the rehearsal again. Between takes there were a few pictures snapped of the participants by people to this day I don’t know.

There was then some discussion as to how Jason and Crystal would arrange themselves since the train from the dress was going to play a role in the union of the flames. Jason was going to pull a pivot move, and Crystal would simply turn back around to avoid in potential mishaps. There was also some discussion as to what the pastor was going to say during the ceremony after he busted out his “wiping noses and hinnies” line. When I heard that blast all I could do was look at Crystal, then my eyes darted toward the pastor, then to the Maid of Honor. Luckily I didn’t have to say anything, and it was agreed that the line would be removed.

The next step after the kiss was to escort the person standing across from us down the aisle on the way out. The Maid and I seemed to be right on cue with the steps down the stairs, but the pace needed some work – at first it was too fast, then too slow, finally we hit our stride and strolled on down the aisle. The other groomsmen and the maids right behind, and that was a wrap for the rehearsal. The next stop was the dinner which was set to take place at the Olive Garden.

The groomsmen were all going to take one car since it would only make sense to. I had to stop by my car, at which point I received the rings from Jason for tomorrow’s ceremony. I was also given my gift, a shoe shine kit, which was much appreciated since I didn’t own any of the shoe brushes to do a good job shining shoes. Shortly after that Alex pulled up in his car and we piled in, L**** did not ride with is so there were four going to the Olive Garden in one car.

Alex managed to get us there despite his troubles following instructions while driving at times, and prior to being seated. There had to be about thirty people to be seated, which was going to take some time for any restaurant to accommodate which refused to take reservations despite the early request. Luckily the people at the Olive Garden were on top of it, and we were seated pretty fast considering the amount of room the party occupied. The arrangement of the tables was interesting however, because it didn’t allow for the wait staff to work between the tables and made it necessary to pass everything down as it came out.

Jason and Crystal ordered a bottle of wine, to go with dinner which they shared with me and the Maid of Honor. It was a fruity light red wine, done dry like a chianti or merlot, but it was a light wine. I ordered the mushroom stuffed ravioli, because there were restrictions as to what we could order. I didn’t want spaghetti (I can prepare that myself with my special sauce easy enough), had lasagna earlier, don’t really dig eggplant ptarmigan, and didn’t want the heavy / creamy fettuccini alfredo. That left me with the ravioli; I think I was the only one who ordered that too. It was ok, but I would have preferred a marinara sauce topping over the sauce that was used.

The dinner was also a time to get down to brass tax, and start arranging a few things, like the hotel room for the following evening. It also included transportation down to the hotel, and a ride to the airport the following morning. The plan took shape as the following: Jason and I would get the bags required for their evening and honeymoon over to the Omni that night; on the condition they would accept them early. Second, I was going to be the transportation to the hotel, and to the airport in the morning using Crystals car, so if anything was left in there by accident which either Jason or Crystal required it would be on hand.

For the rest of the evening we thought it would be best if Alex got checked into the hotel where I was staying, J*** was planning on meeting Alex back at the hotel since his house was loaded with people from out of town. Jason and I would retrieve the necessary items from Jason’s parent’s house, then to Crystal’s parent’s house. So it began with Alex driving me back to the chapel so I could hop in my car and take Jason to his parents for the flower petals.

With Dave Matthews Band coming through the speakers we headed off on our trek to retrieve the flower petals for the bride’s maids to stuff into little bags. Alex and J*** were right behind us so that J*** could retrieve what ever he needed, and could then guide Alex back to the hotel. Me and Jason loaded the flower petals and headed toward Crystals place (this would be one of four trips there). I should have known better when pulling out of Jason’s parent’s neighborhood I made a wrong turn and had to turnaround.

On the way over there Jason had asked me to remind him to grab the benadryl prior to leaving. When we finally arrived at Crystals, everyone seemed to be busy doing something there, as we carried in the flowers; which almost seemed more of an inconvenience at the time because everyone there seemed to busy. Alas we managed to get out of there quickly, and hit the road back to the hotel. I called Alex and had him call the Omni to see if they would accept the bags prior to check in, and for him to call me back with an answer. Just after I hung up the phone and was approaching IH 35 I realized I forgot to remind Jason about the benadryl. Turn around number one, as we trekked back to Crystal’s.

When we arrived again, the frustration was starting to set in for Crystal, and Jason didn’t seem to be helping the situation by first wanting to take the small bag completely, but then simply took out what he needed. I asked “is there anything else?”, to which I heard “I don’t think so.” So we took off. I received the call back from Alex, and he had good news concerning the luggage situation – the Omni would accept it early so the next stop was going to be down town (or so I thought). As we approach IH 35 again I get a call from the maid of honor, asking how far away we were. I replied “we are about to get on 35, why” “Oh, well can you turn around?” she asked, of course this being the third time going back I had to ask “is it important?” She explained that it was a card that Crystal wanted to give Jason before the wedding, once I heard this all I could do was turn the car around again and head back for the card.

When I got to the house for the third time I asked Jason to wait in the car, and strolled in, received the card and asked “is Jason supposed to see this?” I was told no, so I slid it into the front of my shirt so it would not be visible as I walked back out to the car. I hopped in and sped off, again – only to reach IH 35, only to find out that Jason left something (I don’t remember what the 4th trip was for) back at Crystal’s place – so I turn around again. Jason ran in and got what he needed, but this time the brides and her maids were leaving the house as well to spend the night elsewhere.

On the way downtown I ask Jason if he knew where a bar was, and asked if he needed a drink. He couldn’t come up with anyplace other than the supermarket for beet, but beer would not cut it. Strong drink was required for a task like this – so we sped downtown towards the Omni. We found the place rather easily, but a turn on San Jacinto from 8th turned into a mistake so I had to work my way around the perimeter of the building. Luck did prevail ever so slightly though because I managed to find a parking spot about a block away from the hotel, on a Friday night, in downtown Austin, on a Friday night, and it was free to boot.

So we lug the suitcases out of the trunk and make our way to the entrance only to find the main driveway was right off of 8th, this would be right handy again the next day for the drop off, but first things first – the bags. We wheeled them in and Jason said he needed to do a little rearranging prior to checking them, so I asked if there was a private area we could go to do the rearranging. Unfortunately we were not accommodated, so we found a secluded corner in the lobby area to do the swap, while the rearranging was going on it was time for that drink.

I made my way over to the bar and ordered up a Sapphire & tonic and a Crown and coke. The bartender had quite a heavy hand, but considering how much the drinks were, it was a good thing. I strolled back over to the area where Jason was frantically tossing clothes around from one bag to another, and just as he was finishing I asked: “so you’re only taking one bag – are you going to have enough room to bring back anything you want to in the way of souvenirs? He thought about it, and proceeded to start rearranging the bags again.

He finished up pretty quickly considering, and we sat down in two lounge chairs, just as a crew of chicas got off the elevator. Being single, I looked them over and could only turn to Jason and say “this is the kind of garbage that I have to sift through, aren’t you glad you don’t have to mess with that?” He only chuckled, but he knew it was true. We finished our drinks and wheeled the bags over to get them checked in. Jason also paid the bill so he all he would have to do the next night would be collect the hotel keys, bags and head upstairs.

Finally we could head back to where I was staying, headed that way. It takes a solid 25 – 35 minutes to get from Roundrock to downtown Austin, so I was all to glad to see that the running around for the evening was rapidly reaching its end. It turns out Alex got a room right across from the room Chris and I were checked into, and when we got there we found Chris, Alex and J*** gathered around Chris’ laptop watching Dawn of the Dead. We all watched the last 20 minutes or so if it, then retreated to separate rooms. I finally could call Friday and end about 2:00 AM after getting cleaned up and turning the light out. I made sure the alarm was set so I could get up so we could be ready to go to lunch by noon Saturday. Tomorrow was going to be the day.

Post in the Works

2005-01-18T21:52:00.000-08:00

This weekend was quite busy, and I would like to take my time structuring and wording the rather lengthy post. I will try and get it up in a few days.

Congratulations Jason and Crystal!

So What Does it Mean?

2005-01-10T09:53:00.000-08:00

Last week I read an article on /. from some person giving advice to college computer science majors. Although undergraduate studies are behind me, but still lacking years of professional experience I decided to check out the article.

Without further ado, then, here are Joel's Seven Pieces of Free Advice for Computer Science College Students (worth what you paid for them):

1. Learn how to write before graduating.

2. Learn C before graduating.

3. Learn microeconomics before graduating.

4. Don't blow off non-CS classes just because they're boring.

5. Take programming-intensive courses.

6. Stop worrying about all the jobs going to India.

7. No matter what you do, get a good summer internship.

So lets see here, I think I learned to write well enough, and if not i have been practicing quite a bit via email and of course this blog. I have spent quite a bit of time with C, and even becoming a Dr. Robbins certified *** programmer. Next, I took micro economics, macro economics, to cut to the chase I have a minor is business, so in obtaining this I didn't simply blow off my non-CS classes. I took plenty of programming intensive courses, and I already came to grips with the India situation. Finally I had that good summer internship, but since that internship was with an aerospace contractor who lost their contract that meant no job was going to be waiting for me.

Here is the complete story

So after I get my other major writing task off my hands I am going to write him, and tell him a little tale. Not that I expect anything to be produced from it, but I would enjoy a reply. Where I am now will have to suffice.

Here's to keeping your ears perked & eyes open.

2004 is in the Books

2005-01-02T20:29:00.000-08:00

Where did 2004 go, and what does 2005 have in store? Personally 2004 has to be one of the best years in recent memory: completing my bachelors, finding a job in an otherwise saturated job market, taking care of some long overdue family business, and of course getting a place to call my own.

This New Years Eve was spent in a friend’s uncle’s house (which was amazing to say the least). Played some pool there, watched the spurs game, and played some Mexican bingo – only to be robbed of two victories. We went to Madison Avenue shortly after midnight where the real debauchery began. Although it was not I who was involved in this; I played wingman that night. There were no females there which peaked my interest, but the place was pretty quiet considering the amount of cars in the parking lot.

The rest of the evening could simply be described as chaotic, and it carried over into the next morning. That morning was spent with a headache of epic proportions and arranging the evening.

Now the task on hand is the wedding in two weeks; I need to get the creative juices flowing for that damn toast. I caught a severe case of writers block and couldn’t write anything worth a damn.

Here is to 2005!

My Own Airport Hell

2004-12-27T21:26:00.000-08:00

There is a bit on Henry Rollins’ spoken word album entitled Think Tank called Airport hell. He goes through all the items that really piss him off while he is traveling, and describes one incident which happened to him on a flight to Chicago. This was prior to all the heightened security measures, such as the baggage questions, and a simple walk through the metal detector to name a few.

So my personal airport hell goes something like this: the scene is the security check, there is a line which was expected since it was after all holiday travel time. The audacity of this crew though was simply astonishing. The crew consisted of two young children, a “tween” (who thought I would ever mutter that word on the blog?) and the two parents.

There are certain items which are required to have on hand to make it though the security check points – those items being your ticket / boarding pass and your photo ID. Since I detest lines I do my best to keep the people moving fluidly, but this crew ahead of me was as Bill Walton would say “horrrribllllle”.

She, the wife / mother, approaches the security guard, and he requests the standard ticket or boarding pass which she doesn’t have ready. She proceeds to dig for them in her carry on bag and finally finds them. Of course the next question coming is “do you have your ID?”. She digs again while trying her best to frantically explain that two of the passengers don’t have IDs, they are too young, and tells the “tween” to get hers out. The husband / father is just standing there, maybe playing pocket pool for all I know. The security guard goes through all the tickets and gives them the ok to pass through to the metal detector. I hand the security guard my ID and boarding pass, only to have him stop the father.

You see he was watching all of this, but for some reason he didn’t present his ID when the guy asked the first time, repeat the process of digging for the tickets, while the kids are out of control. All the while the guard is sitting there holding my ticket and ID. There was this little hope that he would glance at my name and ticket and let me pass by this crew, but no!

The next obstacle on this alleged gauntlet was the x-ray machine. This crew stopped at the edge of the two tables which were set up so people could grab a bin; throw their stuff in it to send through the x-ray machine. The guards in there are making announcements for people to take off their shoes to send through the x-ray machine. I manage to get a little table space, reach straight across this crew and grab two bins, one for myself and some other poor passenger having to endure this endeavor.

I quickly have my things loaded in the bin; shoes included, and turn only to see that this crew has created a human wall preventing anyone from passing. So I have to wait for the mother to get all the kids shoes off, while the dumb ass husband stands there. I am fed up at this point; I see a gap in the wall and decide to make my break. I manage to get through the x-ray machine in one pass – I retrieve my things and never look back. Something that should have taken about 2-5 minutes tops took about 15 minutes. Little did I realize that they were on the same flight I was getting on – hahaha!!

One Will Do It

2004-12-17T12:56:00.000-08:00

So after a bit of discussion the mob has spoken and one call is all it takes.
This is in reference to getting a number, calling it and leaving a message. It shouldn't have been an issue really, if some one is really interested they would return your phone call and for that reason alone is the reason alone is why there should be only one call.

Why waste someone's time though, has the culture created an image where immediate turn down is now socially unacceptable? Do they fear being called an asshole, or at the very least not have to be called anything in person?

So the new guideline has been set - make the call, leave a message if necessary, and await a response. If they want to contact you they will call you back.

On a side note while I was playing racquetball yesterday there was a statement, which taken out of context could mean all sorts of crude things:

"He likes to put it deep."

This was in reference to the serve I was hitting last night. It would go deep into the corner against the back wall which can be difficult to return.

So it Happens

2004-12-14T21:22:00.000-08:00

This last week end was fun, aside from Friday when I played racquetball like complete garbage. Saturday more than made up for it when a friend of mine got the call saying that there was a party in celebration of a girl’s graduation. It has been some time since I have been to a house party, and this was probably one of the better ones I have been to.

The house was amazing to say the least - huge in a quiet neighborhood. Wrap around drive way, pool, and out door fire place to keep the guests warm on that chilly Saturday evening. We spent most of our time outside; everyone who was there was going to have to come out because that is where the drinks were.

So it was that night that I took my chances and actually had some descent return. I received the number of a chica I fancied, but alas as I have lamented before it seems that getting the number isn’t the difficult part. Having that individual answer or return the call is the trick. *sigh* - the quest continues!

"I am the bullet in the gun
I am the truth from which you run
I am the silencing machine
I am the end of all your dreams"

It went too far

2004-12-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

Concerts have been increasingly violent, especially ones where heavier music is played. It is an epidemic in San Antonio where guys that go down into that circle and start throwing fists all in the name of a good time, used to be called moshing. However it seems that these people are just interested in seeing how hard they can punch someone else in the mouth to the point it is an all out fight. That is understandable to a certain extent, you chose to go down there and it is not surprising when a fight does break out cause one guy got hit by some one else.

Wednesday night up in Ohio it reached a new level, when a concert goer goes and kills one of the most recognizable metal guitarists around. Dimebag Darrel was killed at his gig last night by what I will call a former fan, who was allegedly accusing Dimebag of breaking up Pantera. Guess that guy never heard of a reunion or anything - did he feel that attached to the band? Their last album was deplorable, and it was probably better that they do their side thing.

I also heard that it was the same day John Lennon was killed by a crazed fan in New York, but I don't think that guy drew many parallels to Lennon's shooter.

Oh, and I gotta say T-Mac went off last night. 4 three point shots in the final 33 seconds of the game, one of them was a 4 point play. Sum all that up and you get a Rocket victory by one at the buzzer thanks to one of those. Very Reggie Miller-esque.

The Juice is Loose!

2004-12-03T23:25:00.000-08:00

So it has been reported that Baseball players do use steroids. This all began with the Balco law suit, and Bonds' personal trainer being one of the individuals distributing steroids to MLB stars such as Jason Giambi, Garry Shefield, and of course Bonds himself.

Jason Giambi testified how he injected human growth hormone, known as hGH, in his stomach, testosterone into his buttocks, rubbed an undetectable steroid knows as ``the cream'' on his body and placed drops of another, called ``the clear,'' under his tongue, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. However a year ago he testified to never taking any performance enhancing drugs, but now he says that he used them for 3 years; including the 2000 season when he won the AL MVP award. Now it seems that one of the largest contracts in baseball history may be terminated by the Yankees due to the violation.

Following Giambi's foot steps were his brother Jermy Giambi, and Garry Sheffield also of the Yankees. Although Sheffield never reportedly took hGH or testosterone injections, he did admit to using the clear and the cream. Then there is the trophy in all this - the alleged best player in MLB history has now tainted just about all he has accomplished.

Barry Bonds has reportedly admitted to using the clear & the cream. He claimed that he was told they were flaxseed oil and arthritic balm respectively, but seriously for a guy who is as methodical as Bonds, do you really think he just said "Ok, thanks for the great stuff man!"? Of course he knew what he was taking, and he and the rest of MLB players continue to lie about it even if they are testifying under oath.

Baseball is tainted, and it’s unfortunate that one of America’s oldest games has fallen from a once prosperous perch. It should have been evident that when the MLB players association was so strongly against drug testing that something was going on. Jose Canseco wrote that as many as 40% or more of players used some form of steroid. Ken Caminetti won his MVP award while shooting up the junk, and now more high profile dominos are starting to fall. Why is baseball so different from other jobs, NBA, NFL, NHL all have drug policies, even I had to prove that I was clean prior to assuming my position.

Rid this filth out of baseball, I would rather watch a crappy game where I know all the players are clean as opposed to watching guys hit the ball 425 feet 70+ times a season. Get the junkies out, make an example of Giambi (both of them), Bonds, Sheffield. Make the punishment so harsh that no player would want to mess with that crap again, and test every player prior to spring training. Better yet, call them up right now during the off season and have them pass it now.

Thanks Giving

2004-11-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

I decided to join the millions of people who decided to travel this past Wednesday. I was not about to pay the outrages air fare prices however, especially when the destination was about 250 miles away; no sir not me! There are certain risks that one assumes when they hit the highways however, and one of them is the potential of getting a speeding ticket. This of course is in direct relation to making good time. I read an amusing article about making good time on road trips at Something Awful

Anyhow my trek there was pretty easy, done in the day time so I could at the very least spot highway patrol a little easier. This was not the case when I decided to leave at ten o'clock to head back home. I wanted to make good time and was going between 75 and 80 miles per hour, which really isn't so bad when the posted speed limit is 70. Anyhow a truck passed me, and had a visible radar detector, great I think - simply follow this guy and I should be ok.

Wrong again! The truck weight station was on the right side, and all of the sudden I see the trucks brake lights light up like Christmas tree lights, so of course I step on mine. I gaze into my rearview mirror only to find a patrol car was planted behind one of the buildings at the weight station to trap people. He flashed his spotlight at me, which I interpreted as a sign to "slow down". I immediately realized the guy I was counting on to keep me out of any sort of tickets was unreliable.

So I accept the responsibility for my actions and continue on making good time when an old Nissan Nx comes passing me. He had been on my tail for a while, but he too had a radar detector. I rolled the dice again and cruised behind him. We were going about 80, and then I see him slow down some - I of course follow suit and sure enough there was a cop ahead with some poor sap pulled over. Yay! This guy actually knows how to use this thing, and it is has good results thus far.

Right about the time I gain a little confidence in it, we slow down again to find an officer on the east bound lanes finishing up a traffic stop. I look in the rearview only to see him pulling his patrol car over the median and onto the west bound side. *Gulp* I immediately think the worse and slow to the posted 65 mph speed (night time). I think I am pinched for sure, until he zooms passed me to catch up with the guy with the radar detector. Next thing I know that guy is being pulled over.

So I decided to take it easy for the rest of the way back to avoid any sort of run in with the law. They were out for fresh meat that night, and I did not want to be their next prey. I can imagine them gathering at the local Exxon to chuckle about how they instilled fear into the hopeful eyes of the driver in violation of the law only because there is a desperate hope they may only receive a warning for their infraction. Ha, not from this crew, but luckily I got away with making good time even after my short bursts when I topped 100 mph.

Them's Fightin' Werds!

2004-11-21T21:51:00.000-08:00

It seemed like a violent week end when I left for work on Friday morning. I get to the junction with the interstate I take to work where I am facing south. I look through the underpass and I see a 4-Runner at the yield sign heading north east, and I see a guy walking up. Next thing I know I see this guy throwing punches like a mad man through the drivers window; this couldn't have been an isolated case of road rage could it - the window was rolled down.

Nope, after this guy took a beating and traffic started to slow down around them the woman appeared. A thick girl who decided to wear some very unflattering clothes that day, honey that pink skirt and white shirt is doing no favors for any one!. I have no idea what the root cause of the fight errr, thrashing was, but the woman had to be involved somehow.

I drive to work, and write my friend telling him that there was something in the air today (Friday). So later that night I am watching the news and - what is this? A fight broke out at a basketball game. Ben Wallace shoved Ron "I want to concentrate time on my music" Artest, and then Ron laid down at the scorers table. Then the beverage came flying at him in sighting the near riot. Benches clear, fists are thrown like drunkards in a bar fight. All in all it makes basketball look like soccer or Raider fan. Wow, they will be talking about this for some time to come.

I also managed to man-up and say more than two words to an attractive woman this weekend. So I manage to chat her up a bit, make her laugh, even get the touch on the arm (I love that!). So when the time comes for her to leave, I ask if she would like to meet up later, and of course thats when she tells me she is taken (boy friend). Of course she was taken, attractive, intelligent - strike...I have some more before I am out. I don't know why she didn’t say something sooner though. *shrug*

Gimme Some Truth

2004-11-17T07:53:00.000-08:00

There has been a reoccurring theme going on as of late and there is no real rhyme or reason for it happening. This Saturday I tried to do get some answers, because it typically occurs with women, and what better source to answer these types of questions than from another woman? After asking my first few questions, I found that the problem may be more complex than I initially thought.

It seems that when you ask for some ones phone number there are a handful of scenarios that can happen.

1. You ask for the person’s number, try to call them and it is the wrong number all together. This is a clear indication that something wasn’t working out for some reason or another and it was a blow off tactic. Never to be heard from again unless you just happen to bump into this other person again; which is typically unlikely. Unless of course it is a Seinfeld episode where Elaine keeps giving out a fake number, and then she needs something from the guy who received the fake number, and has to wait for his call – all the while the people working there hold a certain resentment towards you. I have never actually heard this happening to any of my friends, but I was told that it does happen - frequently.

2. You ask for the person’s number and actually receive the right number. Great! You passed acid test number one, but that leads us this scenario which I have been privy to. Say you meet person y, seem to have a good time and ask for the digits, you receive a number, but may be skeptical of scenario 1. You wait some amount of time, days, hours, minutes, what ever and call. It is answered by voicemail, it happens for numerous reasons and I don’t so much mind leaving a message. However that message goes into the black-hole, never to be heard from again. You know you got the right number because the greeting said “hi this is person y leave a message”. One would think that they would receive a call back after leaving a message, but no not in this case. So what does that mean, they weren’t interested but actually went ahead and gave you the right number – maybe so they wouldn’t feel so bad? Or is it that they want to be called again, become the pursued and enjoy the chase. What ever case it is, it never seems to end up well.

3. Of course this is the all good scenario, they answer the phone to have a chat a bit, maybe set up something for the week end, or they return your call. Yay!

So that’s it, and any input would be at the very least interesting to read. So make sure and post your reply – thanks.

Hanging Around

2004-11-12T07:14:00.000-08:00

Delivery times with four hour windows should be eliminated. Its bad enough that these places will treat their customers like they have nothing in the world better to do than sit at home and wait for a delivery when its most convenient for them, but blowing that window is even worse.

Since I had the day off yesterday I had plans to take care of a few things during the day then hit the gym later in the evening. After I woke up in the double digit hours I made a call to the furniture store to see what my window was. “Nine to One” is what I heard from the lady. Fine I thought, already an hour into it I was happy to have the early window as opposed to the later window.

One o’clock rolls around, and still no delivery – so I place call number one. They claim the delivery guys are running a little late, which is understandable and I could leave a message with the dispatcher. So I do that hoping to hear back from them in a reasonable amount of time. You think that happened, of course it didn’t.

One thirty rolls around at which point I place another call. After giving the operator my information she says “it’s scheduled between nine and one.” So I quickly say “yea, but look at the time”. Duhhh…I get transferred again only to be told that I would be contacted by the delivery person directly this time.

Another 20 minutes rolls on by, and by this point I am getting a little pissed with the whole ordeal. Another call is made and the lady began to say the all too common phrase of the day “scheduled between nine and…oh, let me get the manager for you.” Finally moving up the chain of command, but still no delivery and no answer as to why the delivery has not been made. I get some schpeel about them having a new system, and that my delivery was numbered 23. I asked “of what, 40 stops, 230 where am I?” “You don’t understand – they don’t have 23 deliveries to make today.” So now I am really pissed.

She goes on and on about a new system, and they are still working the bugs out; so on and so forth. I’ve had it at this point and I demand restitution for my time spent at home. I was told that my delivery charges would be refunded to me, but being the skeptic that I am with this company I instantly ask “how do I know it was done?” I receive the answer of the day “you’ll receive a phone call from one of our representatives”. Sweet!

You think that phone call ever came – yea of course not so I am getting ready to try and get to the bottom of this and see if it was really taken care of or if I was being jerked around again.

And for the patient ones out there who have endured this little tale, that company which has remained nameless to this point is named Star Furniture. Some of the worst customer service in recent experience. Time to make that phone call about my refund.

Eternal Sunshine

2004-11-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

After having a real bad day, I went over to a friend’s house to see one of the best movies released in 2004. If this movie is eligible for best picture, it deserves the nod not only for best picture, but for writing and certainly directing. The entire premise of the movie is brilliant!

There is a theme in the movie - everyone who has more than five minutes screen time in the movie will have their heart broken at least once in the movie. I won't spill any more details than that. Oh, and that shot when Jim Carrey is a kid hiding under the table and Kate Winslet is dressed in those boots, yea thats nice in a retro kind of way.

*shift gears*

I also managed to get my hands on Brian Wilson's album Smile. If you are not familiar with Brian Wilson he was at one time a Beach Boy, and started writing this album back in the 60's. It was the proclaimed answer England, and the Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

Back & at 'em

2004-11-08T21:53:00.000-08:00

Wow this is the longest drought I have taken from this - ever i think. I will be posting again with more regularity, but probably fewer politcal things. On the other hand that swindle W managed to get the evangelical voters to come out and vote on moral issues rather than the real issues at hand.

These so called devoted people turned their cheek when they found Bush lied about war, and continues to do so. We have the largest debt in history, coming off a major surplus, and health care coverage is on the rise. All that paired with the fact that chief justice Rhenquist isn't doing so well health wise. That only means that an appointee may be closer than every one initially thought. If things go the way I think they will, Roe v. Wade will be over turned, and the age of hangers and falling down stairs will return.

Its a terrible thing.

I am going to make this one short only becuase it is already late and I neex some zzzzs after staying up too late this Sunday. Here is to a 4 day work week though (yay!)

OMFG?!

2004-10-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

The Red Sox win the World Series the Red Sox win the World Series!!! 86 years later the Red Sox are able to break the curse of the Bambino, and there was a lunar eclispe to boot.

The move is almost complete, and I am waiting on me broadband modem. Just a little while longer.

Movin'

2004-10-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

This will be a quick hit type of post.
Moving is tedious alone, but so is trying to put together a place where you dont really own anything. I have been busy rounding up things for the new place, and yes that includes getting poked for a couch, chair and armoir.

I expect to be wired up by next week some time. Let the broadband begin then.
Until then:

Go Astros!!!!
Go Red Sox!!!

If they both make it to the series I dont know who to root for...

Pet Peeve

2004-10-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

This happened to me in the gym today, and I must say it was one of the first times it happened. I was using one of the machines for some leg work, and next to it is the complimentary one that I typically hop between. If the other machine is occupied at the same time I am doing my work I may ask them from time to time if they would mind if I hopped on theirs, and they could use the one I was on. Works out most of the time.

So onto my nag of the evening, I leave my towel covering the seat while I go grab a sip of water. When an individual typically sees this display it means that some one is in the middle of using it, and chances are they will be back shortly. As it turns out I was gone for all of about 30 seconds, and what do I find when I come strolling back?

Thats right, some one sat their ass down at the machine I was using. So what you may think, it happens ~ deal with it. I am contempt with it happening had I not left my "mark", my towel was draped over the back support. The kicker is, the lady ignored the towel and promptly sat her ass down there without even moving the towel. Then the lady put it on the lightest weight the machine will do and proceeds to perform one set of like 70. 70 of these things and didn’t even walk funny after doing it. Memo to anyone that does 70 reps of one exercise and doesn't feel a damn thing when you are done: put a little more weight on there. That way you will actually feel something when you are done, and may actually see some progression rather than bitching about not seeing any results after the two weeks you have been "working out" and promptly cancel your membership. Of course this may not be all that bad if it eliminates people like this from going to the gym making it easier for others to get their work in a wee bit faster.

So now that I have ranted about that, if you see a towel draped on a piece of equipment, wait a sec and see if the person comes back. If you are that impatient about it, ask some one around if they know if some one is using it. There is a good chance some one will be able to tell you if they saw some one using it in the past 25 seconds. And finally if you have the audacity to use it with out asking, or waiting move the damn towel off, seriously. None of the other machines have complimentary towels draped over their backs so why the exception for this one?

Wow, do I sound like an asshole or what? I am not always like this, really.

Another Black Eye

2004-10-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

It was reported today that there was another blunder in the Bush administrations assessment of what Iraq was capable of, and what they were actually doing. The New York Times reports:
The Bush administration repeatedly cited the existence of the tubes as definitive evidence that Iraq had a nuclear program. But what the Bush administration never revealed was that the top officials inside the Energy Department had concluded the tubes were being used not for a nuclear program, but to build conventional rockets.
The result was a largely one-sided presentation to the public that did not convey the depth of evidence and argument against the administration's most tangible proof of a revived nuclear weapons program in Iraq

Just another case of Bush hiding the truth, covering up things, or telling a nation what he wants them to hear. Its a shame that the truth has to be delayed several months to finally come out.

The other bit of news today was Spaceship One reached an altitude of 62.5 miles up. The crew celebrated with campaign, and the lead engineer was reportedly drinking straight from the bottle. There is some chatter about making tickets available to the public for about $200,000 where they would enjoy fantastic views and about 5 minutes of weightlessness. Oh yea they claimed a 10 million dollar prize too. Apparently the sponsoring group took out an insurance policy on it, so those responsible will only be required to fork over about half of the purse. Some one have 5 million laying around?

OK Computer

2004-10-03T18:28:00.000-07:00

The first time it happened it was on my friends stereo which has a vintage CD player on it. While listening to the song Let Down I was told to listen to right around the 3:40 part, and the lyrics:

"you know where you are with
you know where you are with
floor collapses floating bouncing back and one day..."

This portion of the lyrics is missing on this particular CD player. The other layers in the song are perfectly audible, but like some one with a mixer managed to eliminate these vocals. This phenomenon became known as version 2.0, and the trend continued onto other Radiohead albums. The same CD player played 2 + 2 = 5 from Hail to the Theif with some of the guitar parts excluded.

Then last night, while listening to Let Down again and on this particular stereo all of the highs were missing. This stereo was not a component system, and played other CDs just fine with the full range of sound of them present and audible. Version 2.1 was heard, and I am beginning to wonder if anyone else has ever had this happen to them? Would Radiohead produce their albums to give off this bizarre effect?

And before I leave, ShadowLynx probably posted one of the best comments that I have seen. Other than that tongue-lashing I received for calling Pete Rose a bad manager, who should remain banned from baseball. The Pete Rose comment was great simply because I laughed about it, and it was from a complete stranger.

Attached to What?

2004-10-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

It seems that when I am driving around town I see various vehicles with political stickers on them. One of the most common traits seems to be the notorious "W'04" sticker. 24 times out of 25 it is attached to either a truck or large sized SUV. Today for example I saw two of these stickers, one attached to an Expedition and the other attached to a Silverado 1500. These are the one that benefited the most from the tax breaks that came, and they will continue to support him because they will support their "texas boy".

I also did some browsing today; a couch, bed and TV. Averaged out they each come to about $700. Needless to say I will have to prioritize these items. Couch is the top one, because if I ever have people over where the hell are they going to sit? Bed would be next simply because I am tired of my feet hanging off the end of my present one, and then the TV. The TV is last because I don’t watch a great deal of it, and I would use it mainly for movies or games that I play. Furthermore I don't intend on having cable television for the time being, but I do want an HDTV for the digital signals. I want a nice TV that will produce a sharp picture. Thats why that will wait.

Vacillation

2004-09-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

Before I get started on this post, if you don’t know what the vacillation means take a sec and look it up. In fact I'll make it easy for you:
click here

OK, now that you know what it means, or did you just peruse over it, it is in reference to certain social situations. I was at work on Tuesday and was emailing my friend; we talk often about inadequacies, fear & loathing, and of course social situations. Thats when the term "social cripple" was coined, and that is how the word vacillation fits into this.

Its not that I can't talk to people, or that I run and hide in a corner when I am in a public area. It is when I have to make that initial contact, the initial hello that I want to last more than a hello. I remember reading an article called "The Charlie Brown Syndrome" a few years ago that seemed to sum up what I suffer from. It is of course in relation to Charlie Brown and his affection towards Heather, the little red haired girl.

As you have seen in the comics or specifically the New Years special Charlie Brown is wanting to invite the little red haired girl to the party. He gets an invitation ready and is all set to deliver it, but he is talking with Linus about it and the syndrome kicks in. "What if when I get up the door, and slide the envelope through my hand gets stuck in the slot, and then the door opens up and...." it goes on. Of course he isnt going to get his hand stuck, but he thinks of that type of situation, and for some reason he cant bring himself to do it. Well that could be the same in certain social situations.

There are different social situations, like if you go to a party that a friend is throwing, and you meet some strangers there. That is different because a common entity is already there, a mutual friend. Even if its a friend of a friend there is still a relation (damn, data base speak is getting mixed in here). Anyhow, so that is different. But say it’s the gym and you want to just say hello to some one. There is that instinct inside of me that says, "yes do it you fool! What do you have to lose? thats right nothing!" Even though I know this and I am aware of it i still have problems with it.

I am sure it is just a matter of doing it on a more regular basis, after all things get better with practice. We'll see what happens, and see if i can learn to walk again like Forrest Gump did when he broke off the leg braces.

So what is the cure for the social cripple, who doubles as a "dream killer" (I imagine only one person gets this), and suffers Charlie Brown Syndrome? Any suggestions?

I have also been meaning to get this written down, and I did tonight:
Let an earthquake crumble it, let the fires rage, let it burn to fucking ash and then let the waters rise and submerge this whole rat-infested place."

Throw Me Off

2004-09-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

One of the darkest comedies I have seen in quite sometime. There is hardly a bit of smiling in this movie, with the exception of the Dave Letterman appearances. It was interesting how they filmed American Splendor as well, substituting in the "real guy" and the actor at times. The main character, Harvey Pekar (pronounced pee-car is the most pessimistic guy on the planet, beating out Larry David. Anyways the movie was good, and I was not disappointed with it. It is not for everyone though.

The other movie I saw this weekend was Run Away Jury which was entertaining. It had it fair share of technicalities that would NOT be allowed in a normal trial, especially one as high profile as this, but I realize it is in fact fiction.

I am going to keep this short, but I wanted to post this because it is just plain scary to think about. This could really wreak havoc on the internet Thanks /.

Going Out On a Limb

2004-09-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

I say this because this post is pertaining to the two contractors that were recently killed in Iraq. Eugene Armstrong was the latest victim of the radicals who seem to target contractors on Iraq. I said going out on a limb because I am going to make some harsh statements about some things, and in no way to I want to trample the lives of these men who were killed. It is a terrible thing that it happened and could have been avoided if a hotheaded president didn’t lie about evidence simply to get his paws on some oil.

On Good Morning America today they stated that they (the contractors) went over to Iraq to "help the Iraqi people rebuild". This kind of thing is great for the papers, TV, and obtaining sympathizers on your side but here comes the brutal reality of this; I am almost sure it wasn’t about the willingness of these contractors to help the people of Iraq. It was about money, the obscene amount of money these people get for working in such dangerous conditions voluntarily unlike the men and women of the armed forces who were ordered to go there. In fact I would say a vast majority of the contractors over there have no real interest in helping the Iraqi people rebuild, and they may hold a deep down hatred for them.

I have heard of people getting paid six figure salaries for going over there knowing full well that they should avoid that area at all costs. They know that the United States government will not negotiate with these people to save the life of a civilian who ignored all the travel warnings and went for the money. If they did it would totally disgrace the men and women who have died in this reckless operation of Iraq. The contractors are given all the warning in the world, that going there is a bad choice, but the money is the sirens call for these individuals who choose to roll the dice.

Again please do not mix this up with the men and women of the armed forces who are fighting constantly over there. They are being paid a fraction of what these contractors are, and at best they get wartime pay. I have no idea what percentage increase that is over their base pay but I am sure it is still minuscule compared to what the civilians are being paid. And I reiterate they were ordered to go over there, they were not given a choice.

I am sure there are some that think I am a heartless bastard who doesn’t know what it feels like to loose any one special in their family, and there even may be a few of you that agree with certain points that I make. Those are just my thoughts on the situation.

Golden Boy No More

2004-09-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

I managed to catch the B. Hopkins -vs- De la Hoya fight last night, and for the most part it lived up to the hype. The group that I watched it with shared my opinion that Hopkins was going to win, and he did with a well placed body shot in the 9th round. The crowd was behind De la Hoya the entire fight, and even booed Hopkins on his entrance to the ring. On top of that several times during the fight the crowd stated chanting "Oscar, Oscar". The purse on this fight also showed a huge discrepancy in what it takes to get paid in this business. Hopkins, the middleweight champion got paid 10 million in pursuit to his 19th successful title defense. De la Hoya on the other hand received 30 million ~ neither figure includes royalties from pay-per-view purchases or other royalties associated with the contract.

The under card of the main event was mediocre at best. The first fight took all of thirty three seconds to finish when the challenger knocked out the champion (See I cant even remember the names of either fighter). One shot to the jaw did it and the guy flopped, the second bout was a twelve round contest between a relative unknown in Salido and Juan Manuel Marquez. Salido took a very cautious approach to this fight, and it wasn’t until the late rounds that he seemed to come to life and show the he could at least contend on that level. Marquez on the other hand seemed to be in "cruise control" since his rematch with Manny Pacquiao had to wait at least one more fight.

So thats it for now, I will make another post a little later on. Until then make sure and yell out "Patrone!"

The Fox has Arrived

2004-09-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

I rid myself of some evil by refusing to use IE anymore at home. I downloaded the newest version of Mozilla's FireFox and I am very happy with the results thus far. The appearance is slick and it seems more responsive to loading previously cached pages. So I move on...

Iraq is has showed no signs of slowing down, and the chief of the Arab Leagye, Amr Mussa, warned yesterday that the gates of hell had been opened in Iraq. It seems that Mussa has it right when he said "help Iraq through this crisis, reestablish sovereignty throughout the country and end the American occupation."

I am running out of steam for tonight, perhaps I will be inspired to write a longer post later.

Bob & Weave

2004-09-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

That is the only way I can describe the wreckage of a highway that was IH 10 between the 10/410 interchange and downtown. The quality of the roads are deplorable to say the least, asphalt has been scraped up to remove old lane dividers, drainage gates have been installed and constant lane rearrangement has caused these conditions.

I was amazed that I wasn’t hit on my way to work today by some lady in a maxima that couldn’t seem to stay in her lane, but refused to simply let me get by her in the right lane. Let me explain this: I was driving in the right lane, which has fewer cars since it is right next to a concrete barrier. The maxima lady is in the center lane and starts to swerve into my lane as I creep past her. I honked my horn to get her arse to wake up and be more alert. This didn’t seem to work because it was only a matter of time before she started over again. This time I was passed her, but only after making a point of passing her; *sigh*.

Granted the lanes were re-arranged again this weekend, and I fell victim to the traffic that was piled up in the westbound lanes of IH 10 on Sunday. It was a terrible feeling being stuck in traffic, half nauseated and very thirsty. I sat in traffic for 40 minutes on my way home, and on my way I got to see some jackass in his camaro doing burnouts on the closed freeway area - nice abuse of power "city worker". I hope your rotors have some nice grooves in them, brake pads worn down to nubs and tires ball - all because you wanted to be Johnny Bad-ass on a sunday morning.

Enough of this putrid swill, its enough to give anyone a migraine if they think about it too much.

Oh yea the new phrase to yell on a day of frustration; compliments of Vanilla Sky: "Tech Support!!!" or "Tech Support; Its a Nightmare!"

Kerry Blasts Back

2004-09-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

After taking a hit during the RNC, and falling back in the polls after the RNC according to Newsweek Kerry blasted Bush today putting him (Bush) bock of the defensive side. Kerry said mentioned that it was a tragic number that was reached, 1000 dead in Iraq and went on to say that the war there has now raised the amount of hatred for America and now has more terrorists there then ever before.

This accompanying Dick Cheney's blast who warned voters the election of John Kerry would result in a major attack against the U.S. He said, "It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating."
Way to Go Dick!

And just to top it off, it looks as if Bush wants to skip one of the debates this fall and only participate in two. This coming at a time when people are actually interested in politics, and voting for the next leader of the U.S.A. rather than ignoring it like in years past. The more time they have to debate one on one will be better for people to make informed decisions. Bush's propaganda will only go so far during the debate, and his war cries and remembering September 11th will not be tolerated as much as they were during the RNC. Further more Bush's military record is back in the news.

"According to the Globe, twice during his Guard service -- in May 1968 and in mid-1973 -- Bush signed documents pledging to meet training commitments or face a punitive call-up to active duty. But records show he didn't meet the commitments, or face the punishment."
Story here

Speaking of September 11th, PBS ran a documentary about it last night (Tuesday) on Nova. It was a well put together documentary, and I am now glad I didn’t change the channel.

Das all for today, blogspot has a problem yesterday posting my stuff so maybe today it will be better.

Rock the...

2004-09-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

Casbeers! Not quite the Casbahh, but it is the name of the joint I ate lunch at today. It was a free lunch so I couldn't complain too much, and they went there knowing full well that the rowdy "coaches" were going to be there. Let me tell you something there were there in full force, I figured I would see a bunch of old, overweight men, with gray balding heads talking about high school football from the past week.

This was not the case however, they were loud and obnoxious with the most irritating laughs I ever heard. Charlie (head of the IT department) made fun of their laughs by making a half assed pirate laugh, strangely it was pretty close to the mark only a little lower on volume. The old men made it difficult for anyone else in there to hold a conversation and the entire restaurant was about to break into song and rejoice when they left. So word to the wise...avoid Casbeers on Tuesdays at lunchtime or you will suffer the wrath of the "coach posse" as I did today.

Oh, and get this - my flight back to town was delayed about 25 minutes yesterday. Reliable Southwest Airlines let me down as the ones who pride themselves as being on time as much as possible. They even go to such lengths as to avoid the busier airports to maintain this record; IE L.A., Chicago, New York (JKF or LaGuardia). Then my streak of seeing people from high school continued, this chica Natalie B. was on the flight. As I was boarding the plane I saw her, and I recognized her (or I thought I did so of course I did a double take). She saw me, but I don’t know if she recognized me, but she caught me looking at her. I didn't say anything to her, I was more interested in getting a seat on the crowded plane and keeping the other passengers behind me calm by not holding up the show any longer than absolutely necessary.

Luckily for me I had my brand new MP3 player in my pocket, I went with the Samsung Yepp 256 Mb. It has worked like a champ thus far and even passed the gym test today. So far I am pleased with the purchase. It isn't an iPod, but like I said I was interested in something with flash memory, not hard disk, and compact. So say "yepp" to Samsung's Yepp!

Ciao!

One Letter Does It

2004-09-02T20:19:00.000-07:00

The history of the United States is littered with letters that describe presidents of years passed (and of course letters arranged in a certain order to create words is not what I meant). Two that come to mind quickly are JFK and LBJ, and now as if it wasn't enough to be one of the only sons of former presidents to hold office his legacy will be remembered by one letter alone: "W". If you hear some one talking about presidents and hear them say "Man, that 'W' really messed things up, especially after he had the entire world behind him."

Thats right, he beat the others by two whole letters. So remember come November 2nd vote for Kerry and end his reign, after all you don’t want him as the only Bush to actually get re-elected too do you? Oh, thats right he lost the first election!

So while we are talking about "W", lets talk about his home state, and the place where I live and its absolute obsession with high school football. Every time I hear those words strung together I think of the character from the Simpson’s dressed in a cowboy hat and southern accent screaming "What in the name of high school football?!". It is a plague, and to prove this point, during the annual "Gucci Bowl" game between Clark & Churchill a fight erupted. It wasn’t on the field either, but rather in the stands. Oh, Hollywood also made a full-length feature film about it, and the stereotypes associated with it called "Varsity Blues".

Finally on the way to work this morning I saw a bumper sticker that read:
"Clinton's lies didn't take lives".

Ciao!

Chicago Eat Your Heart Out

2004-09-01T15:57:00.000-07:00

It seems that New York tops out Chicago again, although this may not be something to brag about. It seems that this years RNC is the most publicly protested convention ever, and has already tallied at least 1500 arrests since the protests began Sunday. It has also been reported that protesters have somehow gained access to the floor of the convention; those who made it in were promptly arrested and escorted out. There was another protestor who sprinted towards a TV crew screaming, "remember abu grahib!" while they were broadcasting live.

The two conventions are night & day in comparison. The DNC in Boston had very little protesting of any sort, and certainly not any directly towards Kerry (the swiftboat allegations came at a later time). However it seems as though all the protesting is not helping Kerry in the polls at all, but the republicans thus far have lacked firepower. Their desperate hopes of parlaying their popularity by holding the convention in NYC so close to the memorial of September 11 is as transparent a stunt as the alleged "republican moderates" that have appeared thus far.

Oh, and that speech by Laura Bush last night was as phony as her smile. I couldn’t stomach much of it, and changed it to finish up watching a mindless action movie.

Lets shift gears here:

Let me start with this; be considerate to your fellow co-workers if you decide to pop popcorn in the microwave in the break room. The smell of bagged, buttered, microwaved popcorn can linger for quite sometime - but especially so when it is burned. If that wasn’t enough, a second bag had to be prepared layering the putrid smells on top of each other. Did I mention that my office is across the hall from the break room? Yea it sucks.

I was also trying to figure out how to authenticate a user name and password against a Novell Network with out the use of LDAP. After several failed attempts the head of the IT department called up and said that he didn't care if we tried it out. Such a waste of time, although there is no guarantee that this will work either.

Slippin'

2004-08-31T15:52:00.000-07:00

So it seems that the new thing is for wireless companies to make a phonebook for the wireless carriers of america. For years and years wireless customers have had the advantage of unpublished numbers to avoid telemarketers and advertisers (unless of course you gave your number out for everything).

Luckily it seems that the listing is going to be "voluntary" at first. Of all the major carriers, Verizon is the only hold out to this idea, and not surprisingly the largest provider of such service. I am sure they would jump in the saddle if the $$$ amount was right. As long as I can avoid being listed I will be so, having the ability to call me, where ever, when ever is a privilege not a right.

Oh, and a funny thing happened last night: I was told "Pete Rose is a great ball player." I have no idea where this came from, but it sparked some conversation for the briefest time. Sure he was a good player, but a terrible manager who bet on baseball and lied about it. He lied about it for like 13 years, and then he comes clean about it in hopes to repair his tarnished name!? He should remain banned from the game for the acts that he committed and lied about for all those years.

Strange Vibrations

2004-08-28T00:40:00.000-07:00

You can see some of the strangest things while working out sometimes. There I was getting my cardio in, and on the TV they had the Olympics on, which is typically ok with me. They started off the program saying that it was going to be a night of air - diving, hurdles, pole vault, and long jump. So what would anyone expect for the show to kick off with, thats right synchronized swimming.

What the hell are these girls doing in the pool? First off they prance out there wearing tons of makeup, they would put clowns to shame (for those of you that watch the Simpsons, think to the episode where Homer invents the shotgun that applies makeup). Anyhow, they start prancing around doing these crazy little poses while on the edge of the pool before jumping into the water.

Now that they are actually in the water, they begin their herky-jerky production which isn’t short on splashes or the ability to tread water for long periods of time. If you take away the water and look at what they are really doing they look pretty silly. They don't have ballroom dancing as an olympic event, nor do they have lots of other things, so I don’t get how synchronized swimming makes the cut.

Then the cherry on top was the news that the USA mens basketball team failed to qualify for the gold medal game. The U.S. team, which entered the tournament with a 109-2 Olympic record, will play Lithuania for third place. This is deplorable to say the least, but it could have been better had the original players they wanted attended. Instead Stu Jackson and the rest of his crew decided that this would be a great marketing tool for the future of the NBA, and what it holds. What is that you ask?

A bunch of individuals who will cry for individual glory rather than team success, because team success won’t get you shoe deals or street credit. How many people are wearing a "Rip" Hamilton jersey, and then look around and see how many are wearing a LeBron James jersey. Self centered egotistical players who should have gone to school. The team was in essence a collegiate crew, with the exception of AI, Timmeh, and Marbury. They better at least meddle after this debacle!

"I think I need to change my attitude
I think I wanna change my oxygen
I think I wanna change my atmosphere
and I wanna reach out

bigger
better
bigger
better
bigger
better
bigger
better

I wanna be bigger stronger drive a faster car
at the touch of a button
I can go anywhere I wanna go" --Coldplay 'Bigger Stronger'

Where is the Playa?

2004-08-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

The quest for an mp3 player has begun for me, and the immediate use for it would be to take to the gym. So for this purpose size will be an issue all but ruling out an iPod. Not only are they hella expensive, but not ideal for working out with (plus I would be pissed if I dropped it or broke it in some way while working out). So far the best one I have found is the Samsung Yepp, with 256 MB of memory. I figure this will be enough considering I lift for about an hour and then do some cardio.

On my way home today I was listening to NPR's "All Things Considered", and while I traveled in stop & go traffic they ran a story about fish. Thats right, there is now another reason not to eat the nasty vermin due to mercury levels that exist in them. They say that the smaller ones contain lower levels than larger breeds because they don't eat other fish that contain mercury. So watch the number of portions you have if you are a fish eater.

I also saw this today, not sure how much truth there is to it, but interesting none the less.
No Change

Clear Problem?

2004-08-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

The current issue of Rolling Stone has an interesting article about the utter dominance of Clear Channel in the greater media market.
*snip*
"In less than a decade, Clear Channel has become a music company on steroids - and
a company that increasingly under fire. Clear Channel uses its size to crush the
competition while force-feeding audiences the same play lists no matter where they
live. Bands, managers, and music-industry executives argue that Clear Channel has
ruined the concert business.
*snip*
"Some artist and managers also complain that Clear Channel stations use their control
of the airwaves to pressure acts into playing radio-promo concerts. A manager of a
top forty group says that his clients songs were pulled from a large
market station after the band refused to play a free promotion concert in 2000."
Article appears in Rolling Stone issue 956 authored by Damien Cave.

The article continues on to say that Clear Channel have interested in creating their own record label. Now this is a recipe for disaster because they will never make a record that flops. The will have the ability to force feed what ever garbage acts they decide to sign to their label through out the country on their thousands of stations, and millions of listeners until it is successful. The mere thought of something like this is enough to make me ill.

The only alternative to this currently is XM Radio, or Sirius - both of which are subscriber stations, which thankfully don't have to abide by all the FCC regulations and can let album versions of songs play. This is a niche market right now, and until it starts gaining more subscribers the radio industry shows no sign of recovery any time soon.