Brain Of J

When Sabrina says so......

2006-06-15T13:29:00.000-05:00

When I get a comment from Sabrina_C, who I didn't even think read this anymore, asking "where the fuck" I've been...........well that's when I know I need to update something.

Its been almost 2 months and a lot has gone on. So for my first post since April, here's a few things that have happened/been happening since I posted last.

Went to the Hooters in my town to watch the Bernard Hopkins vs. Antonio Tarver fight last weekend. It was on Pay-Per-View which was the only reason I went to Hooters for the fight. Overall the fight was pretty good, Hopkins basically scared the crap out of Tarver and then went on slowly beating him for the length of the fight with a few rounds taken by Tarver here and there. But with about 2 minutes left in the final round of the fight, two idiots decided to start a fight of their own in the middle of Hooters. I know Hooters isn't exactly the classiest restaurant in the world, but its still a restaurant. Of course, there were no bouncers so the fight/arguement went on for a few minutes before eventually being broken up. But it pissed me off because not only did I miss the last 2 minutes of the fight, but in the course of the arguement/fight, I got a beer spilled all over me. Good times.

On Thursday June 1st, I saw Pearl Jam at Continental Airlines Arena. Wozzy's Den has the full breakdown of the show. I'll just say that it was probably the best concert I've ever seen. The set list was great and the energy given off by Vedder & company was amazing. I was thrilled with it.

I've been watching a lot of the World Cup and I think I'll do a little write-up of what I've seen either today or later this week.

First Wedding Plan Post

2006-04-18T12:04:00.000-05:00

I've tried to keep most, if not all of the wedding planning stuff out of my blog. I don't think I've mentioned it more than once or twice just in passing. I know that most people don't care about going to look at different DJs or reception halls. I don't blame you. If it wasn't my wedding, I wouldn't care to hear about it either.

But something happened last night that I have to share with you readers. The fiancee and I went to check out a photographer. Seemed simple enough. My mother got the name from someone she works with who said this guy was good and his prices were pretty good too. So we made an appointment for 8pm.

We were good and showed up at 7:30pm figuring we could get everything started a little early. The guy was right in my town so luckily we didn't have to travel far. So we went in to the place and the owner wasn't there yet. But his associate was. And boy was this guy a nut.

He tried to do something as simple as show us a video on a laptop computer. Well he couldn't get the computer to work, mostly because he tried to open the video 4 different times without giving the computer a chance to actually play it. So it got bogged down and I had to help him out to get it working. That took a good 10 minutes. Meanwhile while all that was going on he was talking about how women don't cook anymore because they all work so he was telling me and the fiancee that we should learn how to use a microwave. Mind you, the fiancee is italian and a great cook and we both actually enjoy cooking. But even when we told him this, I believe his exact words were "yeah well, she might cook for the first year but after that you should probably just forget it". So we watched the stupid movie which was just a whole bunch of photographs set to some music.

Then the owner walks in. Sits down and starts talking to us. The guy was unbelievable. Its like a rule that wedding photographers have to be completely goofy with a stupid sense of humor and unprofessional. I wasn't in the mood for it last night.

So the guy finds out that I'm half Italian and that the fiancee is completely Italian so the proceeds to refer to our wedding as a "guinea wedding". I swear, he said it at least 3 times. I was waiting for the fiancee to haul off and hit him. On top of that, he kept saying these stereotypically Italian things in a stupid Godfather-like voice. It was just beyond insulting. On top of that, he kept making a stupid buzzing noise with his mouth that got on my nerves after about 30 seconds.

He also kept trying to convince us that we should see each other before the wedding ceremony on the day of the wedding. Generally its considered bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her dress before the wedding. Yet he kept pushing the issue, telling us that it would allow more time for better pictures. Even after I said "look, you keep bringing it up, and its a good arguement, but its just not going to happen", he kept bringing it up. He even joked around about the fiancee getting annoyed at him for continually bringing it up. Finally she said "I don't want to mislead you at all into thinking that we might consider it. Its absolutely not going to happen so just drop it". That apparently was clear enough for him to understand.

By the way, the name of the place is Allan Reider Photography. If you want to be insulted or hear someone use the ethnic slur "guinea" as if it was commonplace, you should stop by. Needless to say, we aren't going to be using him. I'm not real sensitive about words or anything like that, but when you are in a business that depends on you working with clients, I feel its important to be as professional as possible. This guy was anything but.

Oh yeah, he also kept calling "photography" pornography thinking that it was funny. At one point he got a phonecall from an employee and he answered it on speaker and goes "Hey John, I'm with some clients right now. they're putting their clothes back on, can I call you back". What the fuck???

Looking Forward to May 2nd

2006-04-17T08:37:00.000-05:00

May 2nd should be a great day.

"Pearl Jam" by Pearl Jam is being released that day. Possibly one of the most anticipated albums in quite some time. I already have it pre-ordered. "Riot Act" was their last album of new material and that came out at the end of 2002. So its been awhile and I'm excited.

"10,000 Days" by Tool is also being released that day. Yet another of the most anticipated albums in awhile. Especially since Tool seems to be releasing albums only every 5 years or so. Their last release was Lateralus on May 15, 2001.

Also, although much less anticipated, the new Thursday album comes out that day.

But I can't remember the last time that two bands that release albums so sporadically, released their new albums on the same day. At least not two bands as musically important or with as large followings as Pearl Jam and Tool. I'm just not sure which album I'm more anxious to hear.

I hate "7th Heaven"

2006-04-11T14:33:00.000-05:00

I can't stand this freakin show. I also can't believe its still on TV. I noticed this last night when I saw my sister watching it. So I sat down and talked to her for a few minutes and ended up watching "7th Heaven" for a short time. I forgot how much I just can't stand that show.

The last time I really watched it was when I was dating a girl a few years back. Inexplicably she actually liked the show and watched it pretty religiously. That should've been my first clue that I shouldn't have dated her. But anyways, it had been awhile and I just figured the show was just taken off the air because no one in their right mind could connect to the family on that show. But much to my shagrin, I found out that I was wrong. And that takes me to my first problem with the show.

Its completely unrealistic. But I'm not talking about unrealistic in a funny or entertaining sort of way. I mean, I watch the Sopranos, 24, Simpsons, and a few other television shows and I know you have to suspend reality somewhat in order to watch the show (especially if its 24). But "7th Heaven" goes way beyond that. Its a huge family that pretty much never fights. And when they do have the occassional little spat, they always solve it quickly through peaceful communication. No raised voices, no holding grudges. I've never met anyone in my life that comes from a family like that.

So this show gives an unrealistic expectation of a "perfect" family. And it therefore makes people think that their family is overly dysfunctional. Its just wrong.

The good news is that its finally going off the air. Besides being surprised that its stayed on for so long, I'm also disappointed that there are so many people who are so lonely and unhappy with their own lives that they need to watch an unrealistic "perfect" family instead of trying to connect with their parents or children.

It boggles my mind that a show like "7th Heaven" stays on the air for years and years and years, but a show like "Arrested Development" gets cancelled after 2 seasons. Stuff like that makes me lose faith in the American people's collective intellect.

iPod frustration

2006-04-04T09:13:00.000-05:00

So my beloved iPod is broken. Very upset about it. I bring it into the lab with me and, using iTrips, I'm able to play my music on a little radio we have in the lab. Two weeks ago, things started going wrong.

It would play some songs fine, it took longer to boot up than usual, but then it started freezing for long periods of time and playing like 20 seconds of a song, then freezing for 30 seconds and skipping to the next song. It was pissing me off.

So I figured it was something that I could take care of pretty easily. I did some looking around Apple's website and found a couple ways to take care of the problem. So first I checked to see if the software was updated with the most recent update. It was. So then I just completely restored my iPod. It took all the songs off of it and put it back to the factory settings. Then I went to reload my songs onto it. It froze halfway through putting the songs back onto it. So I restored it again and tried once more. Same thing happened.

So this sunday I had some time so I went to the Apple Store in Short Hills Mall. I got there around 12:30pm. I wait for about 20 minutes before realizing that I needed to make an appointment. So I made an appointment (which I could've done from home) at 3:15pm which was the earliest appointment I could get. Left and went back around 3. Wait and wait til finally they called my name. I went up to the guy and explained what happened and what I already did. So right off the bat he said it sounds like a "hardware problem" which is kind of what I figured. So he takes my iPod, takes one look at it and goes "ok I've got some bad news. It sounds like a hardware issue. But the probelm is is that this iPod has the HP (hewlitt-packard) symbol on it which means we're legally not allowed to service them at Apple stores. You need to call HP Tech Support about it. Sorry." So I wasted all that time for the guy to give me the HP tech support phone number.

Fast forward to today. I call HP's technical support which I hate. They suck, are rarely helpful, and rarely speak in an accent that I can understand easily. But I was in luck today because the guy I talked to spoke fine. Unfortunately he sucked and wasn't helpful. He told me that it was a hardware problem most likely, which I already knew. And that he could give me telephone support for $45 since my warranty was up but that it most likely wouldn't help since I already had restored it and there's not much more they would tell me to do. Now that pissed me off already. Now if I didn't look for myself about restoring the iPod, they would've charged me $45 to tell me how to do something that is public knowledge and can be found relatively easily on the internet. Anyways. So I didn't do that obviously. But he said that the only other thing they could do was to replace my iPod for $260. I definitely said no thanks to that one too. But he told me that since iPod's are an Apple product, HP isn't allowed to open them up to fix hardware problems.

So in the end Apple told me they couldn't service it because it had an HP logo on the back. And HP told me they couldn't fix it because its an Apple product. So now I'm stuck going to a place like Circuit City or Best Buy to see if they can fix it for me. Can't wait to see how much that's gonna cost.

Hypocrite Howard Hoo Hoo

2006-03-16T09:30:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: I am an XM radio subscriber and have been listening to Opie & Anthony since 2001.

Well Howard Stern is in the news once again after an interview with Sean Hannity where he finally admits to having Infinity Broadcasting censor Opie & Anthony. Let me make one comment about Hannity. I don't necessarily like his views about some things because he's way more conservative than I am with anything. But the guy sticks to his guns and asks questions that are different and not those soft, easy questions people like Larry King ask. So my hat's off to him in that regard. Plus he's from NJ so that's kind cool.

So here's the background to this story. O&A and Stern worked for the same company (Infinity Broadcasting) on different FM stations. Stern for some reason viewed O&A as competition even though they worked for the same company and Stern was on in the morning and O&A were on in the afternoon. But he did, so he had an executive at Infinity place a gag order on O&A where they couldn't mention Stern's name or they risked getting fired. Here's the whole story about it.

My favorite quotes are when Stern, the self-proclaimed Champion of Free Speech said "That's right. I believe in censoring anyone who is my enemy" and "I believe in censorship when it benefits me". Apparently he's never heard the famous freedom of speech quote "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to my death your right to say it". So Hypocrite Howard finally admits and in the process, show's that he's not a champion of free speech, he's simply a champion of not paying FCC fines and saving his own ass.

I also like the underhanded move of telling guests scheduled to appear on O&A that if they appeared on that show, they would never be welcomed back to do the Howard Stern show. Now this is something that happens in the radio business between two different broadcasting companies. Say Infinity tells someone that if they go and do an interview with a ClearChannel radio show that they will never be invited to do an interview with anyone employed by Infinity; that kind of stuff happens. But in this instance, they both worked for the same company. It was personal.

Also, there is audio of Stern on his own show denying ever having a gag order placed on O&A. Now he admits it. Not very bright. There is also a great audio clip of Stern saying that its important to do 5 solid days of good radio and that that is a radio personalities job. Well guess who's been taking an awful lot of Friday's off since he inked his big $500-million contract? That's right Hypocrite Howard. I guess all those legal problems are starting to weigh on his.

Now I know a lot of my friends are big Howard Stern fans, but I don't see how the hypocrisy can be denied. I mean, if you still like him than fine. But censoring someone for your own benefit and than 4 years later make yourself out to be a free speech fighter because you got fined is just indefensible.

UAE, Italy, Gumble2Gumble, my wrist

2006-02-22T14:50:00.000-05:00

This post is for tomjoad, who's recent comment convinced me to write a new post. Who may or may not be sitting down here by the campfire light with Rage Against The Machine and Bruce Springsteen. We may never know.

UAE and our ports

When I first heard the news reports I can honestly say I thought that the news was being a bit Arab-phobic. Considering most of what I hear about the UAE has to do with Dubai and how its fucking beautiful and holds golf and tennis tournaments and has an island in the shape of a palm tree and another island being created in the shape of the world. Pretty cool. But then I started reading about the ties to terrorists. But that's not even what made me most angry. What made me the angriest are these "facts" coming out of the White House and Congress and other outlets:

#1-Bush didn't know about the sale until outrage started in the media. This means that the leader of our country didn't know that entrance points into the country were about to be controlled by a foreign company who may or may not have ties to terrorists. Anyone can understand the importance of this point. I honestly think the point of whether or not the UAE has ties to terrorists is secondary to the fact that the PRESIDENT is saying he had no idea about this deal until it was reported to the rest of the country. This is a problem.

#2-Congress had absolutely no clue about the deal either. This means that the part of government in charge of oversight was left out of a major deal that has to do with a possible problem of national security. This is another obvious problem.

#3-That Bush has strong ties to people involved or people who were at some point involved with the company planning on taking over the ports. In particular, David Sanborn who was the company's Head of Ops in Latin America and is now Bush's nominee for Administrator of Maritime Administration. Interesting connection huh?

#4-The fact that Bush immediately said he would veto a bill disallowing the sale if Congress passed such a bill even though Bush said he didn't know about the deal until everyone got upset about it.

#5-The fact that the White House PR guy, Scott McClellan, is giving extremely shady answers (which seems to be his real job lately) about this. Saying "this is a deal that is supposed to have been scrutinized" by a national security review process. Sort of like how this Administration is SUPPOSED to have the national security interests in mind before the interests of friends.

Italy

Italy passed one of the most insane laws in current day in a civilized country. Their high court (the equivalent of our supreme court) has ruled that sexual crimes are not as serious a crime if the victim is not a virgin. Mean that rape is not as bad if the girl isn't a virgin. To me, that's completely crazy. And the court is dealing with some serious backlash due to its verdict, and it damn well should have to deal with it.

Gumble2Gumble

Besides being part of the plot of a hilarious Family Guy episode, Bryant Gumble has caught my attention recently as stated in the comments by tomjoad. He said that he doesn't get very into the Winter Olympics because there are not many black athletes. Get a good visual picture of Bryant Gumble in your head and then let that statement sink in. Besides the fact that sports aren't supposed to be a competition of which race shouldn't be an issue, the Olympics are sports based mostly on good natured competition and national pride. Next thing we'll see Bryant Gumble complaining that the Summer Olympics don't have enough black swimmers. His comment is just ignorant.

My wrist

So I had a hockey game on Monday night. Unfortunately we lost. But I also hurt my wrist. I'm not entirely sure what is wrong but I can't really rotate my hand at all. I'm actually leaving work in 15 minutes to go get an x-ray to see if there is a fracture or if its just sprained. I'm hoping for just a sprain but I want to know for sure. Hockey is actually going pretty well though. I think we are 4-2 which puts us about 3rd in our division. Its not the cleanest brand of hockey, at times our play could be called "extremely sloppy" but I have fun and its a decent workout.

Fundamentally Nuts

2006-02-07T14:16:00.000-05:00

Welcome anyone from myspace that was bored enough to actually check out my blog.

In the past week or so every day I read about another person being killed in the riots in Iran, Afghanistan, etc. All this because of a silly cartoon in a Danish newspaper. The hypocrisy in this situation astounds me and its making me question the intelligence of the people involved. I'm getting the feeling for and more that fundamentalists of any religion are just absolutely stark raving lunatics.

The Danish cartoons. #1...its a fucking cartoon. Not meant to be serious. Not meant to be hateful. What's even funnier in a sad sort of way is that the whole reason behind the cartoons is how unsettling it is that illustrators/writers/reporters/filmmakers have self-censored themselves due to a fear of backlash of fundamental muslisms. After the stabbing of the Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh after completing a movie critical of parts of Islamic culture, people have been scared throughout the world to put anything into mainstream circulation that is critical of the muslim world. I am getting the feeling that a much larger part of the muslim world than I used to believe has this "us against the world" mentality where any form of criticism to their religion is taken as a personal attack punishable only by death.

This obviously has the effect of backing up what all of the Muslim moderates said after 9/11 that Islam is a "religion of peace". Apparently the rioters and pretty much the entire countries of Iran and Palestine haven't quite gotten that memo.

Quite simply, there needs to be some sort of reformation in the Islamic religion. The moderates (the sane ones who don't feel that killing people is a religious duty) need to stand up and tell them fundamentalists that their actions are destroying the perception of their religion. Islam may have the worst PR firm in the history of the world.

A friend e-mailed an article yesterday about this. In it, the writer compared muslims rioting and torching embassies because of cartoons to Hindus burning down a supermarket for having a sale on steaks (since cows are sacred to them). I've always gotten annoyed when people say that Islam is a religion based on hatred. But in light of what has been going on recently, its getting harder and harder to convince myself otherwise.

I also found this nice little story online. Nothing says Christianity more than a big sign saying "GOD HATES FAGS". This seriously makes me want to cry and kill someone at the same time. To summarize, a group known as Westboro Baptist Church (from Kansas, big surprise) is starting to protest funerals for soldiers saying that the deaths are a punishment from God for this country being friendly towards gay people. Putting aside the fact that there are many other countries who are much more friendly towards gays (allowing them to marry legally for one thing), this is a huge case of retarded thinking. This group also protested at the funerals for the West Virginia miners saying the same thing. They got noteriety in the early 90's while protesting funerals for AIDS victims. This type of hate in the name of religion is no different to radical Islam or any other psychotic religious zealotry. It bothers me more than anything going on right now in the world and is the main reason why I don't identify myself with one religion.

Oh yeah, FYI, if you are fighting for this country in a war and injure yourself after a bomb explodes next to you, pray that you don't damage or lose the body armor you were wearing. Because they might charge you $700 for it. Although I guess you should feel lucky enough that you had decent body armor to begin with.

Also, I just spilled soda all over my lap so it looks like I pissed myself. Guess I'm not leaving my office for awhile. Time to kick back and relax.

Today's Tune: She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart (80's feel but so damn catchy)

And then Jack Bauer stabs a guy in the neck with scissors and all is right in the world

2006-01-26T13:26:00.000-05:00

Let me put this out there right away, I'm a big fan of "24". If you are living abroad you should probably stop reading and skip all the 24 talk since new episodes don't start for you until later. Sorry.

So this last episode they started playing some love triangle between Jack Bauer (played by Keifer Sutherland and the main character on the show for those of you who don't understand the greatness of the show) his ex-girlfriend and his current girlfriend. It was looking like they were going to play it up and make the show start to suck. And then Bauer fights a guy and ends up stabbing him in the neck with a pair of surgical scissors. So this got me thinking. Jack Bauer has to be the best television law enforcement (aka TV cop) character ever right? I don't see how anyone could doubt that. Here would be my top 5.

1) Jack Bauer
2) Walker, Texas Ranger......soley because it is played by Chuck Norris and if I don't put it up here, Chuck may teleport into my office and dispose of me with a swift roundhouse kick to the sternum.
3) Inspector Gadget
4) TJ Hooker
5) I don't think I can even name another character worthy to be put on this list.

The Wedding & Skiing

Plans are coming along pretty well for the wedding. The date is set, the place is booked, the church is set, she's got her dress, she picked out the bridesmaids dresses, and we are supposed to be registering this week at some point. Not at all painful so far. I still don't think its going to be at all. A very informal engagement party is planned for our friends. And we are going to go check out a DJ this week or next week. I'm actually really concerned about the DJ. That's part of the reception that is going to be a big influence on how much fun it is. I've been to a wedding where the music was awful and in turn, not many people danced and it just wasn't as much fun. So picking a good DJ is key for me. Wish me luck. I also want to try to audition the cheesiest band just for shits and giggles. I need to find something like John Lovitz's character in Wedding Singer. That would rock and keep me laughing for a few months.

The fiancee and I went skiing this past weekend. It was actually a birthday present to me from her. We went up to Killington, Vermont and had a great time. Didn't do much skiing thanks to crappy afternoon weather the one day we did ski, the Steelers game in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday, and a few other reasons. But regardless I didn't care at all. I had a great time. The place we stayed at was awesome, huge fireplace right outside our door, a nice like common area to lounge around in with chess board topped tables, and a very inn-like atmosphere.

Palestine

Well apparently the Palestinian people don't really care about peace between them and Israel and have ELECTED a terrorist organization. As for the comments, please spare me the whole speach about Hamas not being a terrorist organization. In my opinion, if you willingly and knowingly have a follower walk into a crowd of innocent civilians and blow themselves up with the intent of killing as many of those innocent civilians as possible, that makes you a terrorist organization. Plain and simple. I think this is a huge slap in the face of peaceful diplomacy. These people should never be allowed to further complain about Israeli retaliation/attacks. I'd love to see all other nations stop giving aid to Palestine until Hamas as a whole is disassembled. Unfortunately (yet someone fortunately) this will never happen. What is going to happen is a lot of lives are going to be lost thanks to the vote of people who know nothing else but violence. Its sad and to me, it signals the end once again of open discourse between two nations trying to create peace in an area of unrest.

Alito

Unfortunately it looks as if the lying judge Alito will be confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. This is great for people who are fine with someone once in an organization planning to lower the number of minorities and women at Princeton. As well as people who are fine with someone lying over why they joined said organization. As well as people who are fine with a supreme court judge who believes that the President should be allowed to do basically whatever he/she wants with no legal repercussions. Boy, I can't wait. Especially with cowboy Prez. Bush in the white house. This government is making a move out of country seem more and more appealing.

Today's Tune : Strife - Stand as One (Redemption)

2006-01-09T12:29:00.000-05:00

I know I say this everytime, but work has been so busy I haven't had time to update. Last week I had Monday off for the new year and I still managed to work abut 45 hours in 4 days. It included a 12 hour day on my first day back after an 11 day vacation. That was rough. But on to better things.

I started playing in a roller hockey league with Dig4Grunge and a few other friends from home. Last night was our first game and we actually won. I believe the final score was 8-7. I was nervous as all hell before the game. But I managed to score a goal on a weak shot that squeaked through the opposing goalies legs after a great pass from Dig4Grunge during my first shift. So that calmed me down a lot and gave me a little bit of confidence. But I still feel like the weakest player on the team especially since its been over 3 years since I played my last organized roller hockey game. Its a lot different from when I played in college. The rink is probably at least twice as big but the surface is a lot smoother. So my stats after the first game are 1 goal, 0 assists, and a -3 rating (I think, could be -2...Dig4Grunge can confirm). But it was great playing again and I've found myself all day today hoping our next game comes up soon.

Yesterday was also an exciting day for a completely different reason. As I alluded to on here before, I did in fact get engaged in mid-December. We've started planning things already to try to get everything planned out as early as possible. But the planning hasn't been bad at all. We've actually managed to have some fun with it. The past few weekends have involved going to look at some reception places. Most of the sucked and were made fun of as soon as we got in the car to leave. The hardest part so far has been trying to narrow down the guest list and try to keep it below 180 people. There are a lot of people I would love to invite and feel bad that I won't be able to, but I guess they'll deal. Its tough trying to decide who to invite and who not to invite. If we both invited all the people we want to, we'd end up with about 300 people at our wedding which is definitely too expensive and not an option.

But this sunday we already got the date at the church and we booked the reception place for the date. So two big things are taken care of. In case any of you are curious, I will be getting married on February 25, 2007.

On a crappier note, I got yet another flat tire this weekend. I believe this brings my count up to 8 new tires for this car. I'm ready to go back to using wooden wheels at this point. I'm tired of spending almost $200 to get a new tire put on and all that crap. Its annoying and its expensive and its just generally pissing me off. Thank God for AAA though since they towed me from the parking lot my car was in to my house. So now I have my undriveable car sitting in my driveway with a flat tire. The worst part is that I got sick of dealing with the shitty runflat tires I had before so I bought non-runflats and kept a can of tire-weld in my car in case of a puncture (my car has no spare since its small and came with runflats). So I hit a pot hole, get a puncture, but the goddamn puncture is in my sidewall which means tireweld won't work on it and I have to have the tire replaced. I'm pretty sure the tire has less than 10,000 miles on it.

Well I hope everyone had a happy new year. Didn't do too much myself but I still had a great time.

What's been going on.

2005-12-20T07:57:00.000-05:00

Its 7:58 in the AM and you're watching Perspectives.

So a lot of stuff has been going on in the past few weeks. Some I'll mention here, others I won't.

Work has been absolutely killing me lately. Last week it seemed like every day something went wrong and we had to alter what was planned for the next day accordingly. And that happened every day. It honestly was probably the most stressed I've been at work since starting here back in July '03. Plus one of my coworkers quit so now we are down to 4 people.

The thing about the 3 other people is 2 of them aren't exactly the best workers. They don't seem very dedicated and are the kind of people who just want to get out of work early or on time and let everyone else do the work. Meanwhile myself and the other coworker work our asses off. Oh yeah, of course the other two are the two that get paid the most out of the four of us.

But things are better this week, at least in terms of how things are going with the job. Shouldn't be any late days this week plus I have Friday and Monday off and I took vacation days for the rest of next week off. I need this vacation very much and I'm very excited for Friday.

Two Weekends Ago

So on December 9, my girlfriend and my sister completely surprised me and my sister's boyfriend and threw both of us a combined surprise birthday party. My birthday was the week before (12/2) and his was on the 14th. Totally took us by surprise.

Both myself and wozzy thought we were going out for his brother's birthday which was actually on the 9th. We show up to the bar in Hoboken and find most of our friend's already there. Plus they paid for an open bar for 3 hours for us which was awesome. It was just a really great time.

Other stuff

This week I'm supposedly getting a bite to eat with the one and only bicyclemark since he's making his yearly trip back to the States.

Christmas is coming up. I'm actually excited about it this year. Although I've gotten no shopping done for it and its already the 20th. But I'm planning on going shopping tonight with the fiancee and hopefully I will get everything done in one night so I can work on what I'm getting her. Hurray for last minute Christmas shopping.

Not really in a blogging mood right now so I'm cutting this one short. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and Happy Kwanza since there is a good chance I'm not going to be posting before any of those holidays.

The week in review

2005-11-30T08:24:00.000-05:00

Once again its been awhile since I've updated. Can't blame it on work this time. Just haven't had much to say. But here's what's been going on and what's been in my head.

---Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi) died last week. I highly doubt this is breaking news for everyone. Mr. Miyagi will always hold a special place in the hearts of people from my generation. We grew up with the Karate Kid. Even excused them for making a shitty sequel. Maybe didn't excuse them so much for making the third one, which I know I saw but I just can't remember anything about. And we've all most likely gone on with our lives pretending that they never made Karate Kid 4 with Hillary Swank. No Ralph Macchio = not truely Karate Kid. I remember seeing the original Karate Kid for the first time and then me and my friend, Dig4Grunge, trying to do the swan kick and kick each other in the face. Good times for little kids. And everyone wanted their own Mr. Miyagi, even if the movie relationship seemed to get more pedophile-like with each movie. But whatever, everyone wanted a little old asian handiman to teach them karate. The first movie came out in 1984, yet "wax on, wax off" is still recognizable and used today. So to Pat Morita I say, "man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything". SWEEP THE LEG!

---I've been tapped by the same Dig4Grunge to do this short little thing that I feel compelled to do for some reason. So here is a short little.....actually I don't even know what to call it.

Weapon(s) of choice:
Riverdancing. My sharp wit. Sarcasm. And if it comes down to fisticuffs- Jack Johnson and Tom O'Leary. Also, my good looks seem to disarm women.

Relative Psychosis:
Worrying too much to the point that I come up with ridiculous scenarios and thoughts in my head.

How Hard It Can Be:
Pretty fucking hard sometimes.

So, What's Next?
Lunch. Probably some more coffee. And hopefully a new job that pays a little better and doesn't take me 40 minutes to drive to.

I'll Name That Tune In...
under 30 seconds. Actually, I have no idea what this "question" even means.

---Random imdb.com fact of the day: Josh Pais (playing Raphael) is the only one of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to go on to have an acting career after TMNT. He was also the only TMNT to wear the costume AND provide the voice for the character.

---The White House finally released its "strategy" for victory in the war in Iraq. You can find it HERE. Read it carefully, and keep in mind that this is supposed to be a stragety for victory. It doesn't really read like one. It seems to be more of a cheerleading document saying how awesome we are and how we are doing everything right. Pretty much a bullshit PR memo sent out to prove that they know what they're doing. After you read it, head over to ThinkProgress (a decidedly liberal thinktank) to see what they have to say about it. Pretty interesting.

---Its starting to feel like the Republican party's wheels are starting to fly off left and right. Between leaks coming out of the White House about the Prez becoming more and more detatched from ordinary citizens, the ongoing investigation/scandals involving Frish, Taft (repub governor from Ohio) with his failure to report gifts, the ongoing Abramoff problem, DeLay issues, Randy Cunningham pleading guilty to receiving gifts (basically as bribes and you should see some of what he got), plus the Fitzgerald investigation encompassing Libby, Rove, possibly Cheney and who knows who else, the little problem of Cheney apparently being ok with torturing people, and the overall sense of being above the law. Oh yeah, and a Presidential approval rating sinking more and more, even though he keeps thinking that what he's doing is perfect. Has there been a president more out of touch with common Americans in the past 25 years? And now its come out that most of his "public" appearances aren't exactly public. They are filled with either contributors to the Repub party or other people who are in support of the Repub party. Gives the Prez a nice cushion so he doesn't realize what a fucking mess he's made.

---At one point, I actually had some sort of respect for Bill O'Reilly. At first, I thought he told it like it was and didn't sugar coat things. But since it was proven that he's a fat piece of shit hypocrite who likes to cheat on his wife (yeah I consider making sexual advances on another woman cheating even if she doesn't respond well to those advances) while calling Clinton evil for doing the same, he's become more and more insane. Its almost scary to think that people still watch him and agree with what he says. Something is obviously not right up in his head. I believe that since its become painfully clear that the Prez and entire Republican party is way out of control and basically being found out to be the cheating liars that many of them are (NOTE: not ALL of them are all that bad) and since his lawsuit for sexual harassment, he's lost it. And now this come out. Apparently to Mr. O'Reilly, calling out your government and disagree with them is akin to being a Nazi sympathizer. This is just plain crazy. There is a difference between forming a rational arguement against someone or some position, but this is more of the type of arguement where the person just throws out harmful words in an attempt to make the original person look bad without actually forming a rational rebuttal. Way to go Bill, my opinion of you has sunk even lower.

---Its my birthday on Friday. Feel free to buy me this. Or this. Or this. Any of those would kick ass.

Well that's about it for now. I'll leave you with one more pearl of wisdom from Mr. Miyagi.... "Man walk on road. Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk down middle, sooner or later, get squished just like grape."

Today's Tune: The Matches - Eryn Smith

And Some Ya Lose....

2005-11-21T16:05:00.000-05:00

Football. The new American Past-time. Whether its college football or the NFL, I'll watch it. But this year has been one of heartbreak and amazement for my teams. Here is a brief rundown.

NFL (in general)

It seems like this season has seen an unusually high number of serious injuries. By serious injuries I mean injuries that sideline a player for at least 10 weeks of the season. Maybe its because a lot of big name players are suffering season ending injuries or because the NY Jets (my team) have had a lot of injuries. Whatever the case, its not just me that is noticing it. I don't know what it is about this year. Daunte Culpepper, Priest Holmes, Chad Pennington, Donovan McNabb, Ben Roethlisberger, Darrell Jackson, Joe Horn and more. This is just off the top of my head. All major contributers to their teams and all have missed significant time due to injuries.

The New York Jets

Talk about a disappointing season. Its just gotten to the point of being pathetic and ugly. And that's an understatement. The last 14 drives have resulted in 10 turnovers and 0 points. That is just beyond pathetic. They are a failure of a team. It obviously doesn't help that by the end of this weekend's game, they were using their 5th quarterback of the year. Their starter, and supposed franshise QB, hurt his shoulder again earlier this season and is done for the year. Their back-up got hurt in the same game and may return by the end of the year. The third string, Brooks Bollinger, got a concussion this Sunday. Fourth string, Vinny Testaverde, re-injured his ankle but not before committing 3 turnovers. Its just bad. Plus we've lost our backup running back and backup fullback, our starting tight end, and a wide receiver.

I, like most Jets fans, went into this season thinking that this was our year. Things were going to be different. No more under-acheiving. We gave Pennington a free pass on last year's playoff game because it turns out that he was playing with a partially torn rotator cuff. But now he was healthy (or so we thought). Plus we had some upgrades in the off-season and didn't lose much. The defense looked menacing and everything looked to be in place for a very successful 2005 season. Well that didn't quite happen, and I can't blame it all on injuries although they definitely didn't help. But the Jets looked flat from the first game of the season against the Kansas City Chiefs who ran all over our supposed "menacing" defense. It seemed doomed from the start.

And that's when the doubting and eventual depression set in about the 2005 NY Jets. We started the season talking Super Bowl chances and by week 8 we were talking about getting a high draft pick (and how management would probably fuck that up). I've sat through a 1-15 season before so I'll be at every game (although the January 1st 1:00pm game might be a no show for me). Good thing about sports is that there's always next year.

Penn State Football back on top

As most of you know I'm a graduate of Penn State University. While I was there we had one very very good football team who ended up losing the last three games of the year in crushing fashion. We also had 2 decent teams while I was there, one of which ended up making it to a minor bowl.

So with PSU ranked #4 in the country with no more games left on their schedule, you have no idea how badly I wished all season that I could have been back there going to all of the games. The 2005 PSU season is the complete opposite of the Jets season. Most fans went into the season simply hoping for a few wins. With 3 top 25 teams on the schedule plus a very good Michigan team who started the season in the top 25, it didn't figure to be a great year. Add to that, the fact that PSU was projected to finish 6th in the Big Ten. They just won it on saturday.

No one gave them any credit coming into the year and I didn't blame them. We went 4-7 last year and have had 4 losing seasons in the past 5 years. The team this year was full of freshmen and sophomores and people kept talking about how Joe Paterno was too old and needed to retire before he tainted his legacy. Well I like to think of this season as a big fuck you to all the naysayers and people who wrote bad things about Paterno.

Most of all this team is just inspirational. They are a bunch of small, young kids with a 78 year old coach who weren't supposed to do anything. And they pulled together and came within 1 second literally of being undefeated and a possible contestant for the national championship. Now all I can do is hope that #1 USC loses to #11 UCLA this Saturday or that #3 LSU or #2 Texas loses. If PSU goes to the national championship, there is no telling how much money I would pay for a ticket to that. It feels good for my school to be back to where they used to be a top 10 college football team.

And if you are a PSU alum, you need to check out this link. Its what PSU plays before every home game. .

Today's Tune: Pearl Jam - Sad

Am I Taking Crazy Pills????

2005-11-18T20:33:00.000-05:00

So its about 8:30PM on Friday night right now. I'm watching the US House of Representatives live right now on C-SPAN. Haven't done thing in awhile. I almost wish I didn't.

I'm completely convinced that the majority of the Republican party has completely lost their minds. Its just insane. I feel like banging my head against the wall during every 2 minute speech given by a Republican.

Every single one of them so far has simply said something along the lines of "a lot of people have come down here and said that the President lied about pre-war intelligence. and those were the same people that voted for the war to begin with".

Do they completely refuse to accept the possibility that the Democrats voted for the war based on FAULT INTELLIGENCE????

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) right now is trying to compare the mission in Afghanistan with the war in Iraq. Only problem with this in my opinion is that we knew that Afghanistan supplied terrorist training that directly caused an attack on the U.S. Bush & pals tried to say that Iraq did the same thing, but were proven wrong. I don't see any parallels besides the fact that both countries were under oppressive rule. But if we went around "liberating" every oppressive regime, we'd be in Africa for years on end.

Back to listening the politicians.

Frustration

2005-11-16T08:30:00.000-05:00

Frustration n. - 1. The condition that results when an impulse or an action is thwarted by an external or internal force.

That seems to be the word of the day lately for me. I'll explain, hopefully without being too wordy.

Government
I'm growing more and more frustrated with the Administration in this country. I've been reading some great blogs, my favorite of which is firedoglake. I can't figure out where that name came from, but its just an incredibly interesting blog if you want to keep up with what's going on with the CIA leak case and a little bit more. I check it multiple times throughout the day.

Back to the frustration part. It seems like everything is crumbling around the Prez and Vice Prez.....especially the Vice Prez. Its becoming more clear that the Prez lied to the Congress about reasons for going to war in Iraq. The most comical thing about this serious situation is that the Prez keeps saying "well, sure my reasons were wrong, but the Democrats wanted to go to war also". Of course he is leaving out the fact that they based their convictions on intelligence that was either completely false or twisted to suit the ~~regime's~~ administration's desire to go to war. Thankfully, a quick 2 years later, our Congressmen/women are finally realizing that they had been lied to all along and are starting to act up. This is not simply a Democrat-based phenomenon. A few Republican senators are starting to speak up as well. Although many Republican's (read: Pat Roberts) are trying to slow the Senate Inelligence committee's investigation on whether the Prez knowingly lied to Congress. Good to see our politicians put politics ahead of national security and dying Americans.

I'm also frustrated and completely astounded by the fact that our Vice Prez is actually leading a charge to stop a sweeping bill to outlaw the use of torture by the USA. A lot has been said of this and I'm not going to repeat it. It just kills me that the VP of this country thinks its completely ethical to physically and psychologically torture a prisoner.

And speaking of prisoners, it just came out that there are over 13,000 Iraqi's being held by our country in Iraq. Since the start of the war, about 35,000 people have been detaineed with only 2% actually being convicted of something. That is just wrong in my opinion.

And the Valerie Plame saga continues to get more and more twisted. If you want to know more, just check firedoglake on a constant basis and read it ALL. Yet Rove still has a job, Cheney is still in office, and people are still conveniently "forgetting" things.

Work
My job is getting more and more and more frustrating to the point that I no longer look forward to coming into work. Believe it or not, there was a time not so long ago that I actually enjoyed coming to work. Not any more. The people here are starting to get on my nerves. I constantly feel like I am working harder than most people I work with. The problem is that my bosses don't really pay attention to anything so they don't see it at all. I get paid pretty poorly yet I work my ass off and other people get promotions and big raises.

So I've been passively looking for a new job and is changing to very actively looking for a new job. But there is so little out there in my field nowadays that its very disheartening. I found a prospective job yesterday and I'm planning to apply for it sometime this week once I get my resume and cover letter all hammered out. Its very close to where I live, so no more 70 mile round trip commute. It would be more like a 5 mile round trip drive. But I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much.

Everything else
One huge thing that has been on my mind lately is stuff with the girlfriend. Nothing bad, actually everything is going really well. But neither of us really are big on the idea of moving in together before marriage. Her parents hate the idea and my parents aren't too fond of it either. But it just gets frustrating. I love spending time with her and I really can't wait until I can come home from work to her and just spend a weeknight just doing nothing with her. Than I see my friends Dan and Dana who live together and I get jealous of what they have. And I see the girlfriend's brother and his new wife's apartment and I get jealous of that. It just seems so far away that its getting almost annoying to have to wait. But I guess its just something that I'll have to deal with for now. But not too much longer I hope.

Dammit
I really didn't want this whole post to come off as me just complaining. Believe it or not, I've been in a pretty good mood lately. My birthday is coming up (just send a check as a present, that'll be fine) as well as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and an awesome weekend the gf and I have planned that involves going down the shore and then a trip into NYC to see the tree. Can't wait for all that stuff to happen.

Well hopefully I'll be posting more frequently now that things have slowed down for a little while at work. No promises though. But I can guarantee that it won't be another month til the next post. Until next time........stay informed.

Today's Tune: Jamiroquai - You Give Me Something

lack of motivation

2005-10-18T08:17:00.000-05:00

I have no motivation to do anything at work right now. Absolutely none. I have a document due tomorrow that is barely halfway complete and right now, I'd rather do it tonight at home.

On my way to work this morning, I got all happy because I thought it was thursday and I'd be getting paid and the weekend was coming soon. Then I remember it was tuesday. I hate when that happens. Ruins my whole day before even getting to work.

Liars and a new hero

2005-10-17T12:50:00.000-05:00

Found this picture on some website. Thought it was hilarious and worth putting on my blog. Considering that I absolutely hate Karl Rove, I've been getting great joy out of what has been going on with what has been named Traitorgate by many bloggers.

My intense dislike for Rove has much to do with his weasely political tactics. But my absolute hatred stems from what he did to John McCain. For those of you who never heard about it. Rove spread the word in South Carolina that McCain was the father of a biracial bastard child. What McCain actually did was adopt an orphaned Bangaladeshi child. Nice guy right?

So I plan on blogging a lot about the whole case that Patrick Fitzgerald is putting together. This guy is my new hero. There are a lot of people who believe he practically put Judith Miller in a corner and caught her in a lie in order for her to testify outside of her original agreement. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I did not plan my time very well today and don't have much time left to expound on this theory or my feelings on what's been going on.

But if you want to keep up with it, I strongly recommend reading Mark A. R. Kleiman and firedoglake. I've been reading them religiously for the past few weeks. Great stuff.

Pearl Jam

2005-10-14T10:10:00.000-05:00

I know I'm late on this. Its going to be short. I feel like shit right now. I think I have a cold. Not fun.

Well on October 3, I went to Philadelphia to see Pearl Jam at the Wachovia Center. The whole night got started off in a typical way. We decided to meet up at my friend Matt's house. This is the same Matt who I've spoken about before on this blog and my old one. So the girlfriend and I get to his house at 4:30pm and meet up with Matt, Jenna (his girlfriend), Billy, and one of Matt's friends. I mention to Matt how I plan on following him to the concert. The conversation went something like this.

Me: Ok, so I'll just follow you down there.
Matt: blank look
Me: ...um cuz I kinda like to weave in and out of traffic and I'm not sure if you'll feel comfortable keeping up.
Matt: blank look and a smirk

This is about when Billy started to laugh and told me that even though we met at Matt's, Matt hadn't gotten directions. Now, I always assumed that whoever's house you meet at to go somewhere, it kinda falls on them to get the directions from their house to wherever you are going. Well Matt didn't do this.

That's about when I found out that Matt's house doesn't have an internet connection. Yeah, I'm not sure how that works either. But that's when I started making phone calls to people who might know how to get there. When I couldn't get through to anyone, I started calling people that I knew would be in front of a computer. Problem with that was that a lot of people were still working since it was about 4:45pm on a Monday.

I finally got through to a friend of mine from college who gave me directions. The only problem was that once we were off of the Turnpike, she kind of missed a step in the directions and we almost ended up in Delaware. I had no desire to go to Delaware for some sales tax-free shopping. I did have a desire to go see Pearl Jam. By now it was about 6:45pm and the concert was planned to start at 7pm. There was only one opening band so we knew we had to get there quick. So a few phone calls later, and we were on the way with correct directions.

Lucky for us, we got into the arena just as Sleater-Kinney was finishing their set. No one had any desire to see them play so it wasn't a big deal. Although they covered Danzig's "Mother" for their last song which we got to hear in the concourse and it sounded pretty cool. It was funny to hear an all-female band do that song.

The girlfriend and I split from the rest of the group and took our seats.......behind the stage in the upperdeck. I hate when this happens at concerts. I feel like its just a way to sell a couple hundred more tickets. I also felt kind cheated that I woke up early, the morning after a wedding to call ticketmaster for these tickets and that was the best I got. Not happy.

Fortunately, Pearl Jam (specifically leadsinger Eddie Vedder) made sure to notice the people behind the stage many time throughout the show.

The Actual Show
They sounded great. Better than when I saw them in Seattle. They had a ton of energy and the seats actually turned out to be pretty cool cuz we were able to see everything going on on stage. It was almost like having a birds-eye view of things.

If anyone is interested, the set list is here. A few things to point out. I was impressed that they played so many songs off of CD singles and Lost Dogs (the recorded songs never put on any major album). Stuff like Wash, Leatherman, Sad, Alone, Hard To Imagine, Last Kiss, Sonic Reducer, and Leaving Here.

I was really surprised the number of covers they played. They played two Neil Young songs (Harvest Moon and Rockin In The Free World), a Dead Kennedys song (Bleed For Me), "Last Kiss" is a Wayne Cochran song, a Motherlovebone tune (Crown of Thorns), and even the Elvis song "Little Sister" which was awesome.

One of the strangest part of the night was during their version of "Crazy Mary" (which was another cover). During the song, a loud noise filled the arena (sounded like a big bang, almost like an electrical short or a blown amp). The song came to an abrupt halt as Eddie carefully backed away fromt he microphone. He then went back to the mic, said the song was "the scariest fucking song we've ever played", made a reference that he believed crazy mary was haunting the show and noted that he "don't even know who mary is". It was pretty funny. Especially since he refused to continue the song for a few minutes. But with the help of the audience cheering loudly, the finished the song with no problems. Definitely one of the stranger things I've ever seen at thes how.

Another highlight was when they played "Betterman". Eddie started the song solely on stage but before he could finish the first line, the entire arena was singing along with him and he backed away from the mic and allowed the audience to sing while he played guitar.

The show was great mainly because they seemed to just be having a wonderful time on stage. They brough out Sleater-Kinney for a couple of their encore songs (they played 2 encores). During Rockin In The Free World, Sleater-Kinny took over their respective instruments during the second verse of the song which Eddie and the S-K singer danced on stage. Eddie was also running around the stage catching tambourines that were being thrown like frisbees to him by one of the roadies/stage crew.

Conclusion
The show was great. Much better than the Seattle show (they played way too much off of Riot Act at that show). Although I was a little disappointed in the song selection. While it was great to hear them play songs that they reserve for special occasions (Eddie mentioned that Sonic Reducer and Crown of Thorns were two songs only played on special nights), I would've liked to hear song of my all-time favorite Pearl Jam songs (mainly Porch and Leash). But hey, guess you can't get everything. I was just thrilled to be able to see what turned out to be a very memorable, enjoyable, and fun concert.

New toys

2005-10-05T15:46:00.000-05:00

Like most guys, I love getting new gadgets. Yesterday was a very fun (yet expensive) day for me.

I bought myself a new cell phone. I cancelled my Cingular subscription and went over to Verizon. The reason for cancelling Cingular was because most people I talk to (including the girlfriend) have Verizon so it just made sense economically to talk to all these people for free no matter what time it was. I also have been increasingly annoyed with Cingular since the merge with AT&T. I was an AT&T customer so since they merged I was unable to upgrade my phone unless I purchased another 2 year plan with Cingular in which case I could get a crappy phone for free. I also found that I was getting a signal in LESS areas instead of more like they had said I would.

But I called Cingular and they told me that the only way I could keep my number when I switched was for them to cancel my service immediately. So I told them to go ahead. By the time I hung up with them on a landline, my cell phone had been cancelled. So I went to Verizon and got a phone and they informed me that the only way I could keep my old number is if I HADN'T cancelled my service already. Completely opposite of what Cingular told me. So I know have a new number which meant texting everyone I had in my contact list my new number. Pain in the ass.

But I like my new phone. Its fun. New gadgets are always good.

I also got my new tires on my car. They rock. I've been having a lot of fun with them. They grip just as well (maybe slightly less) as my old Pirellis. But are over $100 cheaper per tire and ride much smoother since they aren't run-flats. That was the nicest thing about them on my way to work today. Just how smooth they were on a highway. Good stuff. Hopefully they'll be just as good on the way home.

The Pearl Jam show was great. I will be writing a full review as well as posting the setlist when I can. My friend Matt has the set list so I need to get that from him which may take awhile (if you know Matt, you understand). Hopefully I'll have this up by Monday.

Too excited to work

2005-10-03T10:23:00.000-05:00

I'm going to see Pearl Jam tonight in Philadelphia. Its been almost 3 years since I saw them I think. It was either December 8th or 9th (I think it was the 8th) in Seattle, Washington. Four of my friends and I flew out to Seattle for the sole reason of seeing Pearl Jam in their home town. The concert was right before finals (I was still in college at the time) but I really didn't care. I studied on the plane as best as I could. It was worth every penny and every minute of my time. As much as I hated Seattle, it was amazing to see PJ there. There is just something about seeing a band in their hometown (or at least a city close to their home town).

But tonight its simply Filthadelphia. A city I don't even really like. I've been excited about this concert since the day I got the tickets. I actually had to wake up early on the day after a wedding to call ticketmaster from a hotel to get them. They are my favorite band and the weird thing is, I've only seen them once before. I'm gonna be like a little kid tonight and its gonna be great. I'll be writing a recap of the concert sometime later this week.

A Government No Longer For the People

2005-09-29T13:13:00.000-05:00

Yes I know, I just updated wednesday and now I'm updating again. But I need to write this before I forget or just don't have time again.

It has become increasingly clear to me that the Bush administration no longer cares about the people is it supposed to be serving. Read that again and realize just how scary that thought is.

For the past year or so it has seemed to me that Bush, Cheney, and their cohorts are laughing at us little folk every time they do something or don't do something. The administration just seems to have an air of brashness, entitlement, and arogance that I'm really getting offended by.

Katrina
Everyone knows the debacle in New Orleans and the rest of the gulf coast during Hurricane Katrina. Apparently 5 days of weather reports and warnings wasn't enough time for our federal government to mobilize and be pro-active. So instead innocent people died. Fellow citizens just like you and I died from a hurricane. Its not like a handful did either which happens during just about any hurricane. Hundreds of people lost their lives. They were guilty of nothing more than being too stubborn to leave all of their possessions or being too poor, old, or disabled to have a way to get out of harm's way. It makes me sick.

But what make me even more annoyed was about a week later, Bush pretty much does a "whoops, my bad" press conference. And it says a lot that most people were more surprised that he actually apologized (humility is not his strong suit) rather than what he actually said.

John Roberts
I knew it. He was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court today. And why not? He's only been a member of the SC for a few months. By the way, if you agree with Roe v. Wade, start making plans to protest or leave the country. Roberts once wanted to have a memorial service for all aborted fetuses.

DeLay
Finally indicted for conspiracy to violate campaign financing laws. This makes me very happy.

The Prez says stop driving
Never to be one to go about things in the correct way, Bush told the country to cut down on driving during this apparent energy crisis. Which would work out great if we all had rich daddy's. Unfortunately, the rest of us actually have to go to work to earn money to support families and ourselves. This sometimes includes driving long distances (I have a 70 mile commute round trip). What bothers me is how the government has done nothing in the past 5 years to look into rising profits for oil companies and nothing in the past year to look at price gouging by the gas stations. Instead they say to stop driving. Thanks for the help.

Wipe Their Asses with FOIA
FOIA = Freedom of Information Act.

According to this act all federal agencies are required to disclose information requested in writing by any person. Obviously there are exceptions, especially when the information is classified because of security issues. But the Bush admin has repeatedly been stalling or flatout denying FOIA requests. This has been especially common since 9/11 and even moreso since the Iraq war started. More info about this can be found in a book called "Censored 2006" or found here on Project Censored's website (they put out the book).

The Conclusion
I had a few more things but I don't have time to put them into words right now. Possibly add a second update about this.

But the conclusion I want to make is that it seems like Bush and his buddies are using the government as their personal playpen. They seem to feel like they are untouchable. It reminds me of that SouthPark episode where Cartman wrote a song or something and the record executive stole it and when Cartman said it was against the law the record exec kept saying "I AM ABOVE THE LAW". I feel like Bush, Cheney, and many other people in Bush's camp feel like they are above the law. This government seems to not be working for the people it represents. It seems to be working solely for those who run it.

The Saga Continues...

2005-09-28T12:42:00.000-05:00

Finally posting a new one. Like I said in the comments of the last post, I've been really busy at work. More than that though, I've just been really stressed. Pretty much about everything. So when I have some free time its mostly been spent relaxing.

But yes, the endless saga with my car continues. The good news is that I think I finally have it all figured out.

Here's what happened:

So my car has 17" wheels (rims) on it. The tires that they put on my car are called Pirelli eufori@'s. I would not recomment these tires to anyone, unless I wanted to see someone spend a lot of money every 6 months. A few months ago I replaced the two front tires, one rim, and had a hole patched in one of the rear tires. Then I had a bubble in another front tire and had that replaced. MINI charges $205 or so for one of these tires. The rim that needed to be replaced was about $170. So within the past year I've spent about $800 on my tires alone. That is ridiculous.

The tires I have right now are run flats. Also would not suggest getting run flats. I don't have a spare so for legal reasons, MINI puts run flats on the cars out of factory. If this ever happens to you, change them immediately. The run flats cause for a very bumpy ride and the problem with mine is that they bubble and crack very easily.

But now, I'm getting non-run flats. I have some tire weld and an airpump in the back of my car in case of a puncture. I also have AAA in case of a blowout.

The great this is that I did it all on the internet through TireRack.com. This site is great. I really could've spent a couple thousand on stuff for my car there. They also shipped the new tires directly to the garage that will be putting the tires on. So I'm excited now for that because the tires just came in and I'll probably have them on my car by the weekend.

Also, if you're into politics and think the media buries a lot of important and interesting stories, a book came out for you. Its called "Censored 2006" and is put out by Project Censored. It covers 25 of the best censored stories of 2005. I started reading some of it at the bookstore last night and it was pretty good. Some really interesting things.

Where is everybody?

2005-09-19T15:57:00.000-05:00

Seriously, its been weeks since I've had 1 comment on here.

Is it that I've just been boring with my (relatively) recent posts?

Or is no one looking at this anymore? Seriously, if you are reading this, comment. Just say "hi" or "I read this and your site sucks". I really don't care. I'm just wondering if anyone is looking at this anymore.

Interview and a few links

2005-09-07T13:22:00.000-05:00

So I'm not in the lab today which makes me pretty happy. Except that its boring sitting at my desk all day. I'm not really a desk job sort of person. But it does give me a chance for a much overdue update.

Beer Pong League of America......site run by a friend of a friend. ESPN format for BeerPong League wesbite. And yes, I've already put in an application for a New Jersey Team.

Kanye West......if you haven't seen his comments from last week's television money raiser, than you are missing out. Great comments and just an unmistakeable "what the fuck is going on?" face by Mike Meyers. I think Meyers' face is my favorite part of the whole thing. I've already watched it 5 times so far today.

Interview by Tenacious B

1. What is your dream job and why?
I actually have two dream jobs. The first is being an owner/brew master of my own microbrewery. The second actually has to do with what I went to school for. I've always wanted to work in a BioSafety Level 4 lab. Kind of like what you see in that movie Outbreak. It is where the deadliest viruses are handled. Stuff like Ebola is worked on there. The viruses contained in these labs have no vaccine and no cure. They also have a mortality rate of about 90%. There are very very few in the country. Most of the work that goes on inside these labs are secret. Just something I've always dreamed of doing.

2. What is the longest amount of time you have been without a girlfriend?
The cheap answer is 14 years I guess. Since if I remember correctly, I had my first real girlfriend when I was 14. But I'm gonna go since college because I honestly can't remember that kind of information from high school. So since my freshman year of college, the longest amount of time has been about 7 months. That was actually pretty shortly after I graduated college.

3. If you could put together the perfect concert, what 3 bands would play (band doesn't have to be together or alive)?
This is by far the most difficult out of the 5 questions. Tool is definitely one. I've seen them twice and they put on the most amazing visual show and they also sound incredible in concert. The Who. Never got the chance to see them obviously. And I'm talking the original lineup with Keith Moon. Just from everything I've heard they used to put on great shows. Pearl Jam after Ten and just before Vs. was released. I have a live CD from a show in Los Angeles from around this time and its incredible. Found it in Italy and still haven't found another in the States. Lucky me.

So the bands are 1. Tool, 2. The Who (from around 1976), and 3. Pearl Jam (from around 1992)

Tough ones I had to leave off were Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Less Than Jake, and Alice In Chains.

4. Which of your friends do you think is most likely to come out of the closet in the future?
I'm going with someone I know doesn't read this and most people that do, don't even know. Its an ex-roommate and friend of mine from college named Brendan. Kid always seemed a little gay. Never dated anyone in college. Never kissed any girl except for one his friends because she felt bad and was drunk. And whenever myself or Bill (another roommate) had a girl staying over, Brendan always seemed way too nosy about whether we were naked under the covers. And I never got the feeling it was cuz he wanted to see the girl naked.

5. What is your favorite memory from any of the baseball trips?
Definitely from St. Louis. It would have to be that crazy night at Buca Bar on dollar drink night where we all somehow spent over $50 each. I still want to know how that happened. Matt spent close to $100. It was dollar drinks for anything at all. Top shelf liquor included. My favorite part of the night was when Danny gave me a camera and said to follow him into the bathroom. I realize how weird that sounds, but it was perfectly normal since it was Dan. So I followed with the disposable camera in hand since he was carrying two drinks. We get in the bathroom and he hands the bathroom attendant (the guy who gives you a paper towel to dry your hands) a drink in place of a tip and then tells me to take a picture of him with the bathroom attendant. So I did. I asked him the next day if he rememebered that and he said "Dude, what are you talking about? I didn't even bring a camera out last night". Meaning he took someones camera, got me to take a picture of him with the bathroom attendant and then gave the camera back.

Other fond memories are driving something like 15 hours out to Chicago in Doug's car and being the only one to stay awake the entire time with him. Mostly thanks to Red Bull and coffee. And of course pulling the running in place and saying "its like I'm travelling at an incredible rate of speed", finding out Francis was found by hotel security in St. Louis sleeping in the hallway, the taxi ride from hell with Jay in Los Angeles with the Russian cabbie and his friend, being woken up at 4AM by Ghuzzi and Ryan after they ripped all of the "No Smoking" signs off of the walls on our floor of the hotel in San Fran, and lots more.

At the end of the answers please attach this:

Want to play? The Official Interview Game Rules: 1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below asking to be interviewed. 2.I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different. 3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions. 4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post. 5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Today's Tune : The Mars Volta - L'Vie L'Viaquez

Rehquist and more

2005-09-03T23:28:00.000-05:00

Well believe it or not, I think I'm the first of the blogs that I read to break this story. So that's cool. But the fact that I'm able to do so is because I'm having a very boring Saturday night. The girlfriend is at her brother's fiancees bachelorette party and my friends are MIA. In the words of SabrinaCognata...."AWESOME".

So Chief Justice William Rehnquist died about an hour and a half ago. I'm not going to spend a long time talking about his past accomplishments and whatnot. I will say that I liked many of his views of expanded States rights, but I never liked how conservative the Court became with him as the Chief Justice. That is all I'm going to say about the past.

I've been watching different news programs tonight and I keep hearing talk about how Bush can now appoint the first female Chief Justice or the first hispanic Chief Justice. I don't care what color or sex the new Chief Justice is going to be. I'd like that person to be a respectable person and someone who puts their personal politics aside. I'd also like it to be someone who is intellegent and personally I'd like it to be someone who believes in States rights but also someone who is on the more liberal side (aka, someone who won't try to reverse Roe vs. Wade and someone who maybe relaxes some of the stupid censorship laws). But I highly doubt any of these hopes will come to fruition.

But it bothers me that the news is focusing on what race or gender the new CJ will be. I don't care. I don't think most people care. If Bush does go with a female or a hispanic, in 40 years all that fact will be is a stupid piece of trivia. I'd rather the news focus on Bush not fucking up this major decision. That's pretty much all I'm praying for.

I ended up watching a pretty good movie tonight. Its called "Sometimes In April" and its about the 1994 Rwandan genocide. If you've seen "Hotel Rwanda", do yourself a favor and rent this movie. Its told from a different point of view and focuses more on the entire situation going on instead of just the goings on at the Des Mille Coulline Hotel. I feel like its a much more complete story as compared to "Hotel Rwanda". And its actually shot in Rwanda unlike the other one. It still amazes me how little the USA and Europe did back then. What still pisses me off is how the US government refused to call it a "genocide" and instead just there were "acts of genocide" taking place. Bullshit.

Very Short Update

2005-09-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

Its been over a week since I've updated this thing. I have been absolutely swamped at work. The past week the routine has been getting in around 8AM, heading straight into the lab, going to lunch around noon, calling the girlfriend in Italy for a few minutes, eating lunch in about 15 minutes, and then going back into the lab. Most night I would be in the lab til 5:30 or 6pm. I think one night I got lucky and got out at 5. But regardless, posting something new has been the last thing on my mind.

I've done some cool things though lately. I went to a movie premiere (nothing big, just a short film a couple friends were involved with) that you can read about on Long Pause. I also went to see System of a Down with The Mars Volta last week. I've been dying to write a small review about this show but time has not been on my side.

I was planning on updating this on Tuesday. I went to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and brought my laptop with me. I was picking up the girlfriend and figured while I waited for her plane (I got to the airport a good hour and a half before it was scheduled to land) I would take advantage of the WiFi in the airport and post on here. No such luck. Apparently the terminal areas don't have WiFi which I think is kind of weird and I may have even been doing something wrong. But my computer could not find a wireless internet connection. Oh well. Her plane ended up being delayed an extra half hour so I had to kill almost 2 hours in an airport. Tough to do, but I managed.

I also want to finish my trilogy of Top 5 Sports Movies. Next up will probably be the Unintentionally Funny ones. But I definitly need some time for that so maybe look for that in another couple of weeks.

"Peace, bitches" - Helen Keller

Top 5 Sports Movies - it begins.....

2005-08-22T09:08:00.000-05:00

Today I will be listing my Top 5 Intentionally Funny sports movies of all time. This list shouldn't come as a surprise although many people may disagree on the placement of the movies. The only rule about this is that the movie has to be billed as a comedy. It can't be a part of this list if its considered funny without meaning to be. So here it goes.............

Top 5 INTENTIONALLY FUNNY SPORTS MOVIES EVAR!!

1) Caddyshack (1980)

Not only is this movie my favorite funny sports movie, it very well could be one of the funniest movies of all time. I mean, just look at the lineup....Chevy Chase at his apex, Bill Murray in a great role, Rodney Dangerfield in his best motion picture appearance, and Ted Knight as Judge Elihu Smails. I really don't think a sports comedy will ever be this funny again.

Some of my favorite parts:
-When Bill Murray is pretending the scythe-like thing is a golfclub and he's playing in the Masters. He keeps swinging and cutting the flowers. He's doing a commentary about a "cinderella story" groundskeeper about to win the Masters and then yells "Its in the hole!". Classic Bill Murray. What's even better is that whole thing was improvised by Murray.

-When Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) goes into Murray's house to retrieve his golfball. The conversation is classic. That whole thing was not in the original script either. Its also the only time Chevy and Murray were together in a movie scene and the only time other than when Chevy returned to SNL as a guest that they've been on screen together.

-Murray talking about caddying for the Dalai Lama and ending the story with "And he says, 'oh, uh there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed you will receive total consciousness'. So I got that going for me, which is nice".

-Rodney Dangerfield's character, Al Czervik pissing off all the rich uptight people. Especially when he tells a woman "You're a lot of woman ya know that? Yeah, how'd you like to make 14 dollars the hard way?"

Just an all around great movie, I think I'm going to go rent it tonight actually. Also, Caddyshack 2 never happened.

2) Slapshot (1977)

Best hockey movie ever made about a small town hockey club trying not to go bankrupt and be forced to fold. Made famous by the Hanson brothers. The only famous person in the movie is Paul Newman which makes it even better because the movie is filled with mostly unknown actors and actresses (although the guy that played Ned Braden was also in the Twin Peaks series, but that came over 10 years after this movie).

By far my favorite part is when the Hanson brothers start a brawl with the other team during warmups before the game even started. Then, after the fighting during the national anthem, the referee skates over to the brothers and starts yelling at them about playing clean or he'll kick them out. One of the brothers just screams "I'm listening to the fucking song" in the middle of the ref talking.

The movie is 18 years old and still holds up after all this time. And like Caddyshack, the sequel to this movie also never happened.

3) Major League (1989)

One of the funniest baseball movies ever made. The people in this movie are quality. Check out the lineup: Tom Beringer, Rene Russo, Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, Wesley Snipes, Dennis Haysbert (also played the President in "24"), and Bob Uecker (as the announcer Harry Doyle, the funniest sports announcer in any movie ever).

I don't think I need to say much more about the greatness of this movie.

4) The Bad News Bears (1976)

Kids cursing, kids drinking, racial slurs, and baseball. Doesn't get much better than that. This movie could never get made today. The remake is a watered down version of the original which makes sense in today's ultra-PC media culture. Honestly, its been quite awhile since I've seen this one, but the movie is still great today.

One of my favorite lines is "Hey Yankees......you can take your apology and your trophy and shove 'em straight up your ass" for obvious reasons. One of the more memorable lines (which got cut from the new one) is "All we got on this team are a bunch of jews, spics, n*ggers, pansies, and a booger-eatin moron" said by one of the kids.

If you've never seen the original, you really need to go rent it. Forgo seeing the remake, I've heard its a piece of crap.

5) BASEketball (1998)

True its not an actual sport, but I'm gonna go ahead and still consider it a sports comedy. Starring the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. This movie is hilarious plus they managed to make up a semi-interesting sport that everyone can play. I always thought that Stone and Parker had a part in writing this movie, but they actually just starred in it. Regardless, its funny.

One of my favorite things about this movie is the cameo appearances by Al Michaels, Tim McCarver, Bob Costas, Dan Patrick, and Kenny Mayne.

Also receiving votes: Happy Gilmore (which would've been 6), Bring It On (but I don't consider cheerleading to be a sport although some people do, love the movie either way. one of my guilty pleasures), Out Cold (simply because the car prank is top 1), Major League II, Bull Durham, and A League of Their Own.

I know I'm probably gonna get some crap for my #5 choice which is fine. It was tough to choose a fifth. I'm confident in my top 4 though, some people might have them in a different order, but I don't see anything wrong with having them all in the top 4. Although I might have forgotten about a funny sports movie. If that's the case, feel free to let me know.

Today's Tune: Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill

Quick Thoughts

2005-08-18T09:32:00.000-05:00

Saw a friend's movie last night. Two good friends produced it. A few friends were in it. It was fun movie. It was only about 35 minutes so it was pretty short. But entertaining. I think a big part of why it was entertaining was because everyone that was at the "premiere" knew a lot of people in the movie. But nevertheless it was nice to see over a year of work finally come to fruition.

I'm thinking about making a new list on here one of these days. I'm kind of stealing the idea from my favorite sports columnist, Bill Simmons. I want to make up a list of the top 5 sports movies in the following categories. 1) Intentionally Funny Sports Movie, 2) Unintentionally Funny (aka Cheezy) Sports Movie, and 3) Serious Sports Movie. Examples of each would be 1) Major League, 2) Rookie of the Year, and 3) Hoosiers. I'd like to do this and I know a lot of you are sports fanatics like myself and also watch way too many movies like myself. I think it would be fun to do as long as you don't tell me I'm retarded for putting a certain movie on there. So look out for that coming soon (maybe even later today).

I also found out something wonderful last night. My buddy Sal, while in Baltimore at a bar, was very drunk and came out of the bathroom, stood right in front of some girl, and simply said "I wanna be on you". That would be funny as it is, but I think its great that he pulled a line from Anchorman on some unsuspecting girl. Unfortunately for him, apparently the girl never saw the movie and didn't think it was funny.

I'm making a bold prediction right here. The Jets will win the AFC East. New England will get the wild card spot. Jets record at the end of the regular season: 12-4 (I can realistically see them starting the season 9-2 or even 10-1 through the first 11 games).

"Every decade has had some taint"

2005-08-17T21:20:00.000-05:00

The title of this post is actually a direct quote from the Commissioner or Major League Baseball, Bud Selig. If you don't understand what's funny about that quote, go back to your cave.

Worst Weekend Ever

This was just a terrible weekend. It started Friday with having to take the girlfriend and her brother-in-law to the airport. I had to say goodbye to her for 2 and a half weeks. It sucked. She is a ton of fun to hang out with and I knew I was going to miss being around her (and I was right). So after our goodbye, I had to drive her car back to her apartment (where my car was) alone from JFK Airport. Of course, I missed the exit I needed to take a shorter way home and ended up having to drive over the Whitestone Bridge, down the Cross Bronx Expressway, over the George Washington Bridge, and then down the Parkway. But of course it wasn't that easy. There was traffic getting onto the Whitestone Bridge so I decided to kill time by calling up a friend of mine I hadn't talked to in awhile. Of course traffic cleared up after awhile and I soon made it to the tollbooth, still on the phone. I pull up and give the guy money for the toll, still on the phone. He asks me for my license, still on the phone. Then he drops the bombshell "can I see your registration and insurance for you summons". I'm STILL on the phone at this point and I go "What summons?". That's when he proceeds to tell me that I haven't hung up the phone at all and I notice that he's a cop. Lucky me. So I have no clue where the girlfriend keeps her registration or insurance. I fumble around the glovebox and keep telling the cop that its not my car and I'm just trying to get home from the airport. After what seemed like 15 minutes of searching and holding up traffic at the toll, the guy finally lets me go with a little lecture but no ticket at all. I was very lucky.

Saturday I was bored out of my mind. With most of my friends in Baltimore and the rest of them busy with their own stuff, I did absolutely nothing all day. And considering it was 102 degrees outside, I didn't even leave my house except to go to the garage to get something. I watched "Constantine" which wasn't too bad and I played around on my computer and I did some reading. That's about it. Sunday was the same thing except I went to sleep earlier.

Overall this weekend was terrible. I couldn't sleep Friday or Saturday night. I did nothing both night but sit in my basement and watch movies.

The next two weeks without the girlfriend are going to be strange. I'm going to miss her a lot and I feel kinda weird without her around. The worst part is that I can't just call her whenever I feel like it. I have to wait til I know she's going to be at her house in Italy and I have to account for the time difference. Which really only means calling around noon my time and hearing from her around 7pm my time. That's about it. Its a pain cuz I'm used to being able to call her cell phone whenever and she'd usually be there. Its just really boring without her around. I have so much fun with her and love seeing her and stuff, so now that she's gone I've been watching movies and playing games on my computer. Which is just making the days go by slower and making it seem like even longer before I can see her again. Its been making me depressed and causing me to feel physically sick. I don't like it at all.

But I got really sick of people saying "oh wow. she's gone for 2 weeks. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?". Like I'm some social outcast who has no friends outside of his girlfriend. Yes I'm sad she's gone. Yes I miss her. But I just got so sick of hearing that question. I'm going to read, hang out with my friends, hopefully play some tennis, and then in 2 weeks I'll see her again. Just bothered me. And yes I realized that I spent the first half of this post complaining how I did nothing all weekend, but that was really mostly because a few of my friends were in Baltimore or had prior plans.

And on top of it all, this week has just been awful at work and it'll probably get worse. I will now light myself on fire.

I Gotta Fever......

2005-08-10T13:49:00.000-05:00

Just for the record, I started this post at 8:49AM, wrote the title and then got distracted. It is now 2:21PM. I suck....

I HATE THE FUCKING MALL

I did something yesterday that I hardly ever do. I went into an Abercrombie & Fitch store. Yup, that's right. I hate that place more than any other mall-store. A mall-store for those of you who don't know, is a store that can be found in most malls but aren't easy to find outside of the mall atmosphere (Gap, AE, FootLocker, stuff like that). I just can't stand A&F. The music they play makes me think that I wondered into some shitty rave or club. Its fucking house music in a clothing store. Unless the clothes are gonna grab light sticks, do E, and dance around like idiots; there is no reason to have that music in that store. But worse than the music choice is the fact that they have it at a volume that you'd find in most clubs. Maybe this is some big marketing technique used to confuse the shit out of costumers so they'll pay $60 for a plain white t-shirt.

The other thing I can't stand about the store is the people that work there. The fact that they are forced to wear only A&F clothing so they look like giant billboards for a store you are already in just bothers me. I mean, you're already in the store. They dont' really need to advertise the store anymore. Plus they have this "i'm a better dresser than you" air about them. That's great pal, I'm glad you look good in your $120 pre-ripped jeans and pre-faded shirt; but believe it or not, I care about other things. Like getting out of the store in a timely manner. I went there to buy a cologne that I actually like. Unfortunately, this is the store that makes it. It took me 20 minutes to make this purchase. And it wasn't cuz the cologne was hidden in a cave deep within the store, no no no it was right next to the counter. But the cashier took forever to ring me up. Actually it wasn't ringing me up that was the problem, it was opening the box to remove the security device that proved tricky for this girl. By the time she finally got it out, I was seconds away from spraying myself in the eyes with the perfume and cologne samples just to have something to do.

The store just bugs me.

So not only did I go to A&F, but the mall it was in is called Short Hills Mall. Most people on here probably know of it, but if you don't, its a more high-class mall. They have valet parking and its not uncommon to see a Ferrari or some other exotic car parked in the special valet parking area. This is high comedy because the valet parking area is literally right next to the regular parking area which is 30 feet from the mall. This mall also has stores like Gucci, Fendi, Hugo Boss, Versace, and other designer clothings stores like those. So like I said, its more on the upscale side of malls.

Some of you may remember this mall from a certain Opie & Anthony bit where they took some homeless people from NYC, gave them some money, and bused them to the mall. Possibly one of the most funny, but socially alarming bits ever. Lets just say the rich people there didn't like seeing homeless people trying on designer clothes.

But here's the thing I don't get. Why do malls have cars inside them? Regular middle-class malls sometimes have a car somewhere for people to look at for a few seconds. This mall had 4 and those were just the cars I passed walking halfway around the first floor of the mall. There was an Audi A3 (a completely ugly car that I can't stand but a mid-range priced car), a Porche Boxster (priced around $46,000), a Land Rover (high end SUV), and then a Bentley. That's right. A fucking Bentley. In the middle of a mall. The thing that was there went for $227,000. So in other words, inside of a mall there was a car sitting there that costs about as much as a house would in most states. I couldn't believe it. Are people actually walking through the mall, suddenly see a car, and decide that they would love to spend almost a quarter of a million dollars on a car. Doesn't seem like a purchase made on a whim to me.

So yeah, that was my exciting trip to Short Hills Mall.

One More Thing

Last week I bought a video game. Not a game for XBox or PS2 though. A game for my computer. I bought Rise Of Nations for my Apple PowerBook G4. I figured I needed something to do if I'm bored and I've loved this game since the first time I played it two years ago. Its a really fun game and its not the type of game where you beat it and that's it. There are so many different scenarios and different choices you can make which influences what happens in the rest of the game.

The basis is that you pick a civilization first. You are given land where that civilization was. For example, the Romans are given Italy, the Mongols are given land around China, Iroqois are given land in Northeast North America, etc. Its pretty cool. But the idea is you have to conquer the world. Good times. So far I've obliterated the Incas and the Lakota Indians from the face of the Earth like the good white man I am. I'm playing as the Mayans in case you care.

That's all

That's all I got today. Hopefully tomorrow I will have jury duty (i was supposed to have it today but I didn't have to show up). I'm saying hopefully because I want to catch up on some reading plus I dont' want to go to work tomorrow. I'm not at work on Friday either so I'm not sure if I'll be updating before the weekend.

Also, 1 month and 1 day before the Jets opening game against Kansas City. I am so excited for football this year.

Do The Evolution

2005-08-08T11:01:00.000-05:00

I'm going to see Pearl Jam! I'm so freakin excited. Over the years, since 1993, there has been one band that I've always enjoyed. That band, of course, has been Pearl Jam. While they might not be my favorite "right now" band, they've always been my favorite over-all all-time band. I know a lot of people disagree, but I could care less. They've always been a sure thing when I wanted something to listen to. There are very few bands I can say that about.

So at 10AM on Saturday morning, the girlfriend and I started calling Ticketmaster fervently to get tickets to see Pearl Jam in Philadelphia. The part that wasn't fun about it was that we were at a wedding the night before and woke up around 9:30 to make sure not to miss the start of when the tickets went on sale. What else sucked was continuously getting busy signals. At least until I finally got through after about 5 minutes of dialing non-stop. But stupid Ticketmaster would only give me 1 ticket (there was a limit of 4). So I bought the 1 and kept calling. I got through again and this time Ticketmaster allowed me to buy 2 tickets. I still don't understand why I couldn't get at least 3 earlier. But whatever. I'm going to see Pearl Jam and I don't care.

Even though they are most likely my favorite band of all time (just barely passing A.I.C and Tool), I've actually only seen them once. But that was all the way out in Seattle. And yes, it was the only reason why I went to Seattle. We bought the tickets, then we bought the plane tickets. That was definitly one of the least thought out, but most fun trips I've ever taken.

RIP - Peter Jennings

As I'm sure most people have heard by now, Peter Jennings died last night at the age of 67 from lung cancer. I'm not big on network news shows, but I always liked Jennings. Or should I say I never had a problem with him. I was never a big fan of Dan Rather, although his insanity amused me. Brokaw sounded like a drunk old guy at a wedding. Jennings always spoke in that caring tone of voice that made you believe that everything was going to be alright.

Other stuff

I know I mentioned a few weeks ago how I may be going to Italy. Well that fell through unfortunately. The plane ticket was pretty expensive but what really stopped me was work. Which still is pissing me off. I asked to take about 12 to 14 days off of work. Mind you, I have been working here for just over 2 years and I think the most time I've taken off at once was 4 days. So they come back to me and tell me that while they can't stop me from taking the time off, they would rather I didn't because we are going to be processing and there will be long days. They technically didn't say no, but the last thing I would want is to do something that I know my managers don't want me to do especially right before evaluations. The week that the processing is going on is the week in the middle of when I would be able to go to Italy. So I would only be able to go for one week at the most. But I still tried. Only problem was the tickets were over a thousand and I would've ended up spending like 4 and a half days there. Which was not nearly enough time for the amount of money I would have to spend to get there. Point is, I'm pissed I'm not going and I'm still a little annoyed at work for pretty much blocking this trip for me.

So after friday for the next two and a half weeks, the girlfriend will be visiting family and relaxing in Italy. I will be very jealous and I'm going to miss her a lot. But I will be going next year without a doubt. I'm booking the flight no later than May and I'm telling work in January that I'm going to be take a minimum of 2 weeks off in August.

Anyways, hope everyone had a good weekend.

Today's Tune: Frank Sinatra - Summer Winds

Let's Groove

2005-08-04T07:58:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head? Of course you have. That's what's been going on with me since Tuesday night. Its now Thursday morning. I've had Earth, Wind, and Fire's "Let's Groove" stuck in my head for two days. At least its a good song. I got introduced to this song by a college roommate named Wayne. Wayne was an asian kid from Vermont who liked snowboarding and smoking pot, the two official State pasttimes of Vermont.

I'm going to a wedding tomorrow and I'm going to need to hear this song played. I'm seriously considering burning a CD with just that song on it. My plan is to go up to the DJ and ask him to play that song, if he doesn't have it, I'll just whip out the CD and tell him to play it. Of course, I'll be drunk so I'll have no problem spending 15 minutes trying to convince him to play one of the best funk/R&B songs of all time.

NHL - Welcome back fuckers

Well the whiny players and the whiny owners are back in the swing of things. Free agency started on Monday and since then there have been a minimum of 5 signs a day. Things keep getting more and more heated. This season should be very interesting to watch. The Flyers signed Peter Forsberg who might be the best all around player in the league. They also made a whole bunch of other moves. Right now in the Eastern Conference my picks would be the Flyers, NY Islanders, and Boston Bruins. All making smart moves and getting better.

I was reading an article by John Buccigross who is a prominent hockey writer, and his take on the new salary cap was that it will reward GMs who make smart and aggressive moves. My first thought was that the Rangers are screwed. I don't think that's a good sign. When I think of Glen Sather, the first things that come to mind definitly AREN'T smart or aggressive. So not much will change this year with the Rangers I'm afraid, except that their payroll will be less than half of what it was last year.

My Favorite Sports or Sports-Related Commercials (in no particular order)

1. An older Sports Center Commercial where Pedro Martinez is sitting on a counter in a cafeteria reading a newspaper with his elbow in the tub of one of those big juice machines. Stu Scott walks over with a tray of food, starts filling his glass with the juice from the machine Pedro has his arm in and simply says "Nine strong innings last night Pedro" to which Pedro responds "Thank you Stu". And that's it.

2. The Terry Tate, Office Linebacker commercials. Especially the one where the guy is walking out of the break room and gets levelled by Terry Tate who screams at him while he's on the floor "Break was over 15 minutes ago, Mitch!". And there is a montage of him just nailing people around the office. One part cracks me up when he's standing over a guy on the floor and yells "You know you need a cover sheet on your TPS reports, Richard!". Just watch it here actually.

3. The famous "Chicks Dig The Long Ball" commercial with McGwire, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Heather Locklear. Maddux and Glavine are throwing around while McGwire hits bombs during batting practice. Locklear is cheering and Maddux and Glavine wonder why pitchers don't get the same attention. So they decide to become better hitters. You then see them hitting bombs during BP and Locklear walks over and says "Hey Greg, hey Tom" so they look at each other and go "chicks dig the long ball" until Locklear asks "Have you guys seen Mark?". The big awfully unfashionable glasses that Maddux used to wear at the time this commercial came out makes it even funnier.

4. Any of the Budwieser commercials featuring the football player "Leon". I love every one of these. Especially the one where he walks off the field after a play and the coach asks what's wrong and if he's hurt. Leon says "Yeah I think I hurt my psyche on that last play. When I dropped the ball and all the fans booed, it hurt my feelings pretty bad. It could be difficult for me to get back out there again today. Leon might just need a little Leon time." Hilarious. I love these commercial probably the most out of all on the list.

5. The "cut that meat" commercial. I don't know what its for but its the one with all the football players cheering for people doing their normal every-day jobs. The best is when Peyton Manning is yelling to the insurance adjusters or whatever and says "you're my favorite. i have you on my fantasy team". Its just funny.

6. Just about any SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, or NFL Countdown commercial.

7. The Michigan/Ohio State commercial where there is a girl and a guy sitting on a couch kissing. One is wearing a Michigan sweatshirt, the other is wearing an Ohio State sweatshirt. Then on the bottom of the screen it just says "Without sports, this wouldn't be disgusting". My mom didn't get it but anyone who follows college sports thought it was hilarious.

8. All of the United Way Charities commercials with football players. One that comes to mind is the one with Duce Staley where he's in the classroom participating in a spelling bee. The girl before him gets the work "cat". He sees a picture of a flower and raises his hand to spell it. The teacher goes, "ok Duce. Spell chrysanthamum".

9. The Snickers commercial where a QB gets sacked hard. The coach goes out on the field to see if he's alright and asks "Where are you?", "Who am I?", and "Who are you?". The guy gets the first two questions right but when he's asked who he is he raises his eyebrow and says "i'm batman". Then you see him on the bench talking to some huge lineman and he goes "hello good citizen, I'm batman. you could be my sidekick. would you like that? would you like to ride with Batman?" See it here as well.

10. The Nike commercial during the NBA lockout with Spike Lee at a girls Junior High School game taunting a girl named Regina Miller.

Update

For anyone who checks this out but doesn't check out Wozzy's Den. Our softball team won our two playoff games and now we are headed to the championship game on Monday night. Check out recaps at Wozzy's Den.

Today's Tune: "Let's Groove" - Earth, Wind, and Fire

wireless rules!

2005-07-28T21:14:00.000-05:00

So right now I'm sitting in my living room with my laptop on my lap. Wireless internet baby! It rules. I'm so thrilled I convinced my dad to put it in my house. I was gonna just buy the wireless router myself but then I realized that my dad could probably just write it off as a business expense. So we went to Best Buy since he didn't believe me that they had one for like $70 plus a $30 rebate. We found it and he bought it. So i'm happy. This happened a couple weeks ago and I honestly don't know if I wrote anything about it on here. But since its been here I've been surfing the net in my basement and relaxing in style. Its awesome. The only problem now is that my only complaint with this Apple Powerbook G4 is that it gets very warm. Its the first laptop I've ever owned and the first one I've actually used on my lap. It gets pretty heated, but right now its simply keeping my nuts toasty.

But right now I have on the television and I'm watching the tail end of one of the crappiest movies I've seen in some time. "The Day After Tomorrow" is on HBO. This movie is such a piece of shit. I don't even have to see the whole thing to know it. Apparently, according to this movie, the temperature can drop so rapidly that one minute you can be walking around in winter garments fine and the next minute the "coldness" stalks you and creeps along freezing metal objects and buildings. What the fuck is that? This movie blows. Please never waste the time to ever see this movie. Not only does it totally confuse the difference between weather and climate, it has such a shitty political overtone that it might as well be a Michael Moore movie. So only the industrialized countries have these climate changes (and only in major cities) which aren't really climate changes and more of just awfully bad weather (which has nothing to do with using fossil fuels or global warming) and the only countries that can shelter refuges just happen to be third-world nations. And these third-world nations miraculously have no bad weather or anything. Really? Just like that huh? And then the President goes on the Weather Channel of all channels and announces how wrong he was and how grateful everyone should be to the third-world countries. Plus then at the end you see astronauts in space looking at the Earth and saying how clear the air is. Which means that respiration on Earth has apparently ceased and now they have bigger problems to worry about since CLOUDS ARE HERE FOR A FUCKING REASON!!!! Without clouds we'd be extremely screwed, just as much as if there was an ice age brought on by global warming (which is technically impossible). And if you want a link to this movie's IMDB page, too fucking bad. That's how much I'm pissed at this movie right now. Look it up yourself.

This could very well be the freakiest picture I've ever seen of Jenny Finch. I'm pretty sure that's Danica Patrick next to her.

Thought you'd all enjoy that. It makes me laugh sometimes. Well that's about all I have to say right now.

A couple blogs to check out if you have some time. PostSecret is awesome. I love the idea behind it. Also the one and only Joey Books has his own fucked up blog. Its a good time.

Ahhhhh, home crap home

2005-07-25T14:34:00.000-05:00

Foreward: My life is not interesting. My writing is too detailed. I'm keeping it vague from now on. I just read what I wrote and realized that it would bore the shit out of me to the point that I would light myself on fire voluntarily. So from now on, less detail about the boring-for-everyone-else shit that I do. Unless its really funny or involves stories about stupid people. So here is the updated version of this post.

Well I'm back from beautiful Newport, Rhode Island. I had a wonderful time there with the girlfriend. The town is gorgeous and the mini-vacation was extremely relaxing and fun. We did a lot of stuff but not too much where it would've become stressful or a hastle. I am not at all happy to be back to the daily grind of driving to work. Especially this morning when it was raining and people felt it necessary to drive 50 mph on a major highway in the left lane. It took long enough to get home last night thanks to traffic, I was not thrilled to be stuck in some more thanks to an accident this morning.But I am back. A few notable things happened while I was gone.

This Rove stuff is getting really heated. I'm putting off commenting on it until real facts come out. As of right now it seems to me that everyone involved in this is lying a little bit to make themselves come out cleaner. Whether its Rove, Wilson, Novak, or Cooper; someone or everyone is lying at least a little bit. What is clear though is that this should never ever have happened regardless of where the leak came from or how things went down. I feel like the administration is purposely hiding something and they feel like they can get away with it because they think they are above the law. It makes me angry. I hope this admin goes down as one of the most crooked admin's ever and one that blatantly lied to the public the most.

Lance Armstrong also won his SEVENTH Tour de France. I think by now, everyone realizes how amazing it is. Its a feat just to compete and finish a Tour de France and even moreso just to win one. But this guy won 7 straight. Also include the fact that he was given about a 10% chance of living after being diagnosed with cancer and this feat borders on the miraculous in the truest sense of the word. There is a lot of talk about whether he is the best athlete ever. I can understand arguements for both sides. But you can't deny that what he has done in the past 7 years is incredible. Imagine if a football team won 7 straight Super Bowls (never happened). Actually the only time a team has won 7 or more championships in the 4 major sports was the Boston Celtics (1959-1966) who won 8 straight titles. The mighty Yankees teams throughout the years never did it, the powerhouse Canadiens teams in the NHL never did it. That's what really puts it into perspective for a lot of people. I just think its an incredible feat that he accomplished. What's scary is that, even though he's retiring, there is a good chance he could've won at least one more Tour. He may go down as the most dominant athlete in his sport ever.

Well Mexico is all pissed about a t-shirt. Which makes me wonder if an entire country can sue for libel. And if so, can the US sue all the European countries who talked a bunch of shit about the US at the start of the Iraq debacle. And can France sue the US for the whole "Freedom Fries" bullshit. This story makes me laugh. Especially since Mexico didn't realize that complaining about this will boost that t-shirt's sales by like 500%. People really have too much time on their hands if they are complaining about a t-shirt.

And I know this one will interest Bicyclemark. The Teamsters quit the AFL-CIO. This is incredibly huge news. I'm not a fan of unions for the most part but regardless this is a huge hit to the AFL-CIO. And the Teamsters are most likely the first of 4 major unions to leave the group. Incredible.

Today's Tune: The Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me)

I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel

2005-07-21T14:55:00.000-05:00

I leave for Newport, Rhode Island today for a relaxing long weekend with my girlfriend. I'm really excited for a bunch of reasons. Everyone who I've told that has been there before has said that its great and a lot of fun. I'm also excited to be going away with the girlfriend. This is going to be our first vacation/trip together. The best part is, I'm not even worried or nervous at all or anything. I know we're gonna have a great time together. But sitting at work today is killing me. This day is going so slowly. I'm going nuts. I'm sure when I get back I'll talk a little about it and maybe put up some pictures even.

Last Minute

So I think I'm going to Italy. In August. Yeah, I know. Not very far away to not be sure. I'm sure I want to go but I still need to get a plane ticket and all. This is what happened. My girlfriend grew up in Italy, most of her family is still in Italy, her parents still have their house in Italy. So every summer they go for about a month to relax and see the family since a lot of the family live in the same town as them. The town is right on the coast in the Gulf of Naples. I've seen pictures of the view and its breathtaking to say the least.

So this summer my girlfriend is going for two and a half weeks. I really wanted to go and she really wanted me to go. But the trip is more of a family trip and she wasn't about to ask her parents and I didn't blame her. I didn't even feel bad about not going. I completely understood. Then, the other night she says "so I talked to my dad today and he really wants you to go to Italy with us". I was stunned. Very very happy, but stunned. First it means that her parents like me a lot which is really important to me. Second, it means that I might be able to go on a relaxing vacation. So I'm excited because I know I would miss her a lot if she went for 18 days while I'm stuck in New Jersey.

But its crazy now. I'm not going to be around this weekend, I haven't even brought it up to my boss at work cuz he's on vacation til Monday, and I've just scratched the surface of looking for flights. But I'm determined to go. I want to see where she grew up and spend some time with her family. Plus she told me I'd have to drive the scooter she has over there so I'm super excited about that. By the way, their house is on the mountain overlooking the ocean and beach. Yeah, why the hell wouldn't I be excited.

Concert In The Park

The other night I went into NYC after work to go to the annual Concert In The Park in Central Park. They have a bunch of them throughout the summer and Tuesday happened to be the one I was able to make it to. My parents went in around 2pm and spend the day relaxing in Central Park (my mom is a teacher and my dad makes his own hours when he's not travelling). I met them after work. I've been going to these for many years now and its always enjoyable. The New York Philharmonic plays about a two hour concert outdoors on the Great Lawn in Central Park. People set up blankets and bring dinner and just sit out and relax and enjoy the music.

I was a little disappointed with what they played but regardless it was a very stress-free evening. So much so that I fell asleep on the blanket twice. Both time my girlfriend poked me in the ribs to wake me up because I was snoring. During a classical music concert I was snoring. I was just a little embarassed. But I don't think anyone really heard me.

Well its now 3:55pm and I'm about to leave. I started this at 9:30 this morning and just got caught up with work and other stuff. I cutting out of here early cuz I have stuff to do still before I leave for Newport. Anyway. I'm sure I'll have lots of stuff to say about Newport and the weekend when I get back. Maybe even some pictures if I feel motivated enough.

Today's Tune: The Cure - Just Like Heaven

Finally...

2005-07-15T15:53:00.000-05:00

Ok so I'm finally updating this thing. After quite a bit of commenting on my last post, we finally found out that Joey Books is my good friend Dig4Grunge from Please No More. I wasn't really surprised about it, but he did have me going for awhile.

Yes I know its been awhile since I've written anything on here. I did have a whole big thing written two days ago and then blogger crapped out on me when I went to publish it. So I got discouraged and didn't want to rewrite it that day. Some of it I'll probably cover today. But the other reason is that things have been extremely busy at work. I've been in the lab just about the entire day for the past two weeks. Since July 5 actually I've been in the lab for at least 7 hours of my day. It takes awhile for me to write these entries mostly because I get distracted, so I just haven't had time. But now I do, and I will have lots more after next week so expect to see some more updating being done.

Now, onto the other crap.

London

I never wrote how I felt about the terrorist attacks in London. In all honesty, I was pissed off. Just plain angry. These people have no regard for anything. If they attack the troops in Iraq, fine, I understand that they are fighting against a military that they feel shouldn't be in the country. I don't like seeing military people getting killed, but you sign up knowing that there is a certain level of danger there. But those people in London were going to work, going to school, or just going to run some errands. They had nothing to do with what was going on in Iraq or anywhere else. And it just sucks. I absolutely hate seeing people die and I hate it even more when its innocent people dying for no good reason. It pained me very much when I heard what happened. That just about sums up my feelings.

Darfur

Speaking of people dying, in the past 2 years over 400,000 Sudanese people have been slaughtered by a government backed militia. And the UN and US have done nothing about it. In fact, the US invited the head of that government to the White House and decided that they wanted to "improve relations" with Sudan simply because they believe that Sudan can be a valuable assett in the fight against terror. Yet the government there is allowing their own people to be raped and killed. Not just allowing, but helping. It makes me sick to my stomach.

So I felt like I needed to do something about it. There is way too little coverage about this in the media. Aside from people like Nicholas Kristof at the NY Times, Nat Hentoff at the VillageVoice (Liberty Beat) and a handful of others, the problems going on in Darfur have been completely blacked out from the media. So I feel like I need to tell people about what is going on.

And this is what I want to do. I'm thinking about writing up a petition and printing up a whole bunch of information about what is going on. I want to go around my neighborhood and educate people as to what's happening and try to get them to sign the petition. This petition won't call for troops to be sent their but it will call for Bush and Congress to put pressure on the Sudanese government to actually do something and also call for Bush to actually admit that there are atrocities taking place there. But I've never really don't anything like this before. So if anyone has any suggestions or anything like that, I'd love to hear them.

Once I have the petition written up, I will post it on here. It would be awesome if other people printed it out and did the same thing around their neighborhoods.

Tom Cruise is insane

And apparently insanity is a sexually-transmitted disease, because Katie Holmes has gone off the deep end too. Let me first say that I'm very tolerant of people's beliefs. I might think they are a little strange, but for the most part I feel like people can believe whatever the hell they want to believe.

Until they start preaching their beliefs on someone else. That is where my dislike of Tom Cruise comes in. As soon as he started bitching at Brooke Shields for going on an anti-depressant all because his "religion" doesn't believe in psychiatry, that's when I lost any respect I ever had for him (which wasn't much to begin with). I do have a slight panic disorder. I've mentioned this before on my old blog. And I did try to improve it with an anti-depressant for a short time. I didn't like how it made me feel so I stopped. But I saw first hand with a very good friend of mine how the correct medication can do wonders for mental disorders. So when Cruise said what he said, I took it to heart. It was at that point that I decided I'm not going to see another Cruise film in the theater ever again.

And this whole Tom Cruise - Katie Holmes love in is getting ridiculous. She practically disappeared from family and friends for two weeks in April and won't say where she was. Then she returns and is dating him. Kinda weird if you ask me. A lot of people are saying that its a big hoax just for publicity. I don't really believe that. But I do think she's been brainwashed by the Scientology club. Don't believe me. Check out this interview with her where she responds to questions that weren't asked and has a "Scientologist friend" answer questions for her. You can almost hear the dust rattling around in her head. I also can't ignore that blank look he gives during any type of red carpet appearance. That big stupid smile that makes him look like he's just thinking "I like ice cream". I'm just getting sick of hearing about it. Although at the same time I can't wait til Katie Holmes single-handedly brings down Tom Cruise's questionable sexual orientation as well as the Church of Scientology all at the same time. Maybe she just needs a good slap to un-brainwash her.

Also, the story about Rob Thomas is hilarious (sorry I can't find where I read it). I hate the guy, but anyone who publicly says he'd rather be called gay than a Scientologist is cool by me.

Karl Rove

So real quick. He told a secret to a reporter, then lied about it, now admits it. The White House originally said that anyone involved with the CIA operative scandal would be fired immediately. Now they are backing Rove. Twisting and spinning this story more and more every day. They seriously no longer have any regard for truthfulness. I used to be a pretty big Bush forgiver. I wasn't a supporter, but I did feel that a lot of stuff people complained about were found in Clinton's presidency as well. But this is just awful. This isn't lying about getting a blowjob in the Oval Office. Add onto it the Downing Street memo and the fake "proof" to give us an excuse to go to war, and I'm just about sick of this administration.

I hope the Bush, Jr. admin goes down in history as one of the most morally corrupted administrations since the Civil War. The lies and deceit just keep rolling in.

"I swear its just a cold"- Michael Hutchinson

Today's Tune: Killswitch Engage - The Rose of Sharyn

Clear The Lane

2005-06-30T09:05:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to get back into extremely political music once again. This seems to happen at least once a year usually lasting two or three months. And its probably my favorite time to listen to rap. People don't mention this enough, but rap has some truely amazing music with seriously deep political overtones. But people would rather focus (and give radio play) to the rap that talks about killing people, degrading women, having sex, and selling drugs. This whole thing started with breaking out a Bad Religion CD that I hadn't given enough of a chance. Its their "The Empire Strikes First" album. Brilliantly named, released about a year or two ago. But when I bought it, I immediately didn't like it and stuck it in my CD book. Recently I took it out and gave it a listen again and realized how good it really is. My favorite song is probably "Let Them Eat War" and talks about how this country doesn't do shit for lower class citizens except send them off to die in other countries. Good stuff. Then as I drove to work this morning, an older Bad Religion song came on called "Drunk Sincerity". I'm posting the lyrics because its amazing how much this song strikes a chord nowadays even though it was released in 1996. Its almost scary. Here are the lyrics:

The smell of virgin pages wafted through the swinging doors
And the croaking speech he’d heard from countries counselors before
They said ’we all care for you, we know how you suffer
But I know you can succed, I used to have it so much rougher’

There’s hope in the words and emotion in the eyes
It’s so easy to be misled by the savvy gentle guise
And like fools we trust the delivery
But it’s all just drunk sincerity

In maternal family assembly poised regarding the blue tube
The numbers crept up higher and the hawks stayed out of view
Then the generals said ’we don’t want our boys dead
Your sons and your husbands will be coming back heroes soon’

With steam, heat, and rhythm in the back seat of the car
And adolescent perspective projecting life’s forecast to the stars
You heard love from the lips and you were rapt by the hips
And the promise was eternal but you couldn’t see that far

There’s hope in the words and emotion in the eyes
It’s so easy to be misled by the savvy gentle guise
And like fools we trust the delivery
But it’s all just drunk sincerity

The chorus talking about hope in the words and emotion in the eyes and being misled. Sounds a bit familiar huh?

I also heard this song on XM by a rapper called Immortal Technique. Really good stuff. The song I heard was called "Bin Laden" and was a remix featuring Chuck D and KRS-one. There was a line in the song that said "All the televangelists preaching out of their Bentleys. Calling abortion "murder" in a medical building, but don't give a fuck about bombing Iraqi children". I really liked that line. The whole song is good, even the original (non-remix) version featuring Mos Def is quality. You may want to check them both out.

Other Stuff
My parents come back from Italy on Sunday. Happy and utter disappointed at the same time. I would've liked one more week with both my parents and sister out of the house. But it will be nice not having to worry about coming home from work and making sure I make something for my grandfather to eat. So whatever.

This weekend is also 4th of July. Make sure you do the patriotic thing and blindly support and believe everything the Prez says. But seriously, have a nice long weekend. My company rocks and is giving us Friday and Monday off instead of just Monday. So I'm happy about that. Unfortunately my girlfriend has to work on Friday, so we can't really do anything together during the deal. But whatever, I get to sleep in.

Today's Tune: Propagandhi - Today's Empire, Tomorrow's Ashes

A few quick things

2005-06-28T14:06:00.000-05:00

This is possibly the coolest thing I've read in awhile
So the Supreme Court recently ruled that city government can take land away from a private owner and transfer it to a new private owner if that new private owner is going to build something on that land that will increase the city's revenue. Cash hungry government. Big surprise. Besides being a shot to the back of the head of Liberty, this goes against so much of what I thought this country still believed in. The fact that you have the right to make a living and enjoy your life and liberty without anyone taking that away from you legally. Well no longer. That is why this guy, Logan Darrow Clements, is my hero. If you read nothing else on my site, please read this press release.

For anyone who plays Fantasy Football, this article is just sad
Here is an article from Foxsports.com about dispelling some "myths" about Fantasy Football. I would love to know where they found half of these myths. Did they go to a senior citizen's center and as all the residents what they thought Fantasy Football was? Myths 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8 just shocked me. A book club??? Yeah Fantasy Football is like a book club. Who the fuck thinks that?? Just shoddy journalism.

What a dick

2005-06-27T15:40:00.000-05:00

Jeremy Roenick pretty much bitched at the fans for being pissed about the lost NHL season. I understand that it wasn't the players themselves fault. But it was like 99% of the NHL Players Association's fault that this season was lost. I hope Roenick does return for the 2005-2006 season. I'm thinking about getting a Mini-package for Rangers games and I hope one of the games is against the Flyers so I can boo him for the entire game. I used to have a huge amount of respect for the guy. I even wanted to see him become the next NHL Commissioner, but this was just wrong. How can you blame fans for being pissed off that a sport that they love was absent for a full year (the first time its happened to a North American sport) mostly due to stubborness and greed.

I couldn't be more disgusted

2005-06-26T21:09:00.000-05:00

So I settled in tonight for my usual Sunday night routine. Simpsons at 8pm and 8:30pm, Family Guy at 9pm, and American Dad (usually) at 9:30pm. Its a great way to cap off a relaxing weekend.

Tonight's episode of The Simpsons dealt with gay marriage; with one of Marge's sisters, Patty, wanting to get married to another woman. So thanks I'm sure in part to the FCC and PTC, they ran an advisory before the episode that said this:

"The following episode contains discussions of gay marriage. Parental advisory may be necessary."

or something along those lines. But regardless, to me its completely ridiculous. Its a fucking cartoon first of all. No one in their right mind would be watching it and thinking that the marriages are actually happening or anything. Secondly, I'm thinking that if you let your kids watch The Simpsons, you aren't really concerned about them seeing animated gay marriages.

This is just another example of those assholes in the religious Right trying to "purify" television, movies, radio, and any other form of media. It makes me sick and I hope they all burn in hell.

What I Do At Work..........An Example

2005-06-24T13:54:00.000-05:00

A little backstory. There is a girl I work with who I've gotten to be pretty friendly with in the past two years of being here. We joke around with each other and I make fun of her in a good natured way just about every day I see her. We've given each other relationship advice in the past and stuff like that. Its a good time and it makes work a little bit more fun. But she's leaving in August to go back to school. So I was joking around with her today when she was in my office and then sent me an e-mail that said this:

You’re gonna miss picking on me….

So obviously I had to send her something sarcastic back. Here's my response:

They came out with these two awesome inventions a few years ago. I know the are still pretty expensive, so they aren't very common. But they are called "automobiles" and "cellular phones". These so-called "automobiles" as they are being called now, allow a person to travel at medium-high velocities across many miles of roadway without having to rely on an animal such as a horse. Some of the fancier "automobiles" even have something known as "air conditioning" although mostly found in more upscale models and very rare amongst the working class. This "air conditioning" allows a person to create an internal environment inside the "automobile" at a set temperature designed by said person.

The other new invention, "cellular phones" are a device much like the rotary phones found in some of today's homes. However, these "cellular phones" allow the owner to use it beyond the household often in different States altogether. A cord connected to telephone wiring systems are not necessary for these modern marvels. They utilize giant objects in outer space to allow the owner to talk to someone somewhere else while doing things such as walking, running, jogging, driving an "automobile", or simply lounging around out doors.

It is my belief that these two miracles of science will allow me to further pick on you for many many days to come.

That whole thing took me about two seconds to write. It just came out. I called her a few minutes after I sent it and she said she was still reading it cuz she couldn't stop laughing. I love my job sometimes. She actually said on the phone "that's something I can picture reading on your blog". So right then, I knew I had to share this gem with other people.

I'm also very excited because my sister left for Italy today. My parents are already there. Leaving just me and my grandfather and we usually just leave each other alone for the most part. So I practically have the house to myself, which I love. Sure I'll miss my parents and my sister, but they'll be back soon enough. Right now, I'm just ready to enjoy some time in an empty house.

Today's Tune: Millencolin - Ray

A Book Idea

2005-06-23T13:53:00.000-05:00

So last night I had a rather different idea for a book. Actually it came to me as the girlfriend was writing a text message to one of her friends. Just wondering what everyone thinks about an idea like this. There would be two steps to actually putting the book together.

Step 1
A website would be set up describing the intent. The intent is that the author of this book sets up an outline of a story. Just a simple outline of where the plot needs to go and the outcome of the story and whatnot. The website would also give the author's cell phone number. It would ask that anyone with the capabilities to text message for them to text the author one sentence that they believe should be in the story. One sentence and that's it.

Step 2
After getting and recording a whole bunch of texts (this would literally mean thousands of text messages), the author would then arrange them in a way that would make the story make sense. Point of view would obviously need to be changed in some of them to keep it consistent throughout.

Its kind of a corny, dumb idea when I think about it. But at the same time, I think it would be a really interesting end product and it would definitly be amazing to see how one sentence from thousands of people could come together to create one complete thing. I don't even know if the result would be any good though. I tend to think that it would suck and be completely incohesive. But I still think it would be a pretty cool little experiment.

Any thoughts??

Today's Tune: Huey Lewis & The News - If This Is It

I'm Batman...............once again, no you're not

2005-06-21T14:48:00.000-05:00

I finally saw Batman Begins last night. The whole thing started off weird before we even got into the theater. My girlfriend drove there. The second after I got out of her car I saw two women trying to get into a minivan. It looked like one was sitting down with the other one half in the car and half laying on top of the first woman. I figured right away that one or both were disabled. So as soon as they both saw me, they started waiving for me to go over. So I walked over and it was obvious they needed some help. The one woman was ontop of the other. The one on top was handicapped and I'm guessing didn't have the use of her legs. The other woman was fine but she was sitting in the other woman's wheelchair and couldn't lift her into the car. So I had to help out and lift the disabled woman into the minivan. It was definitly a strange situation but I was glad I was there to help out. But onto some thoughts about the movie............

Random Thoughts During "Batman Begins"

-Hey that creepy guy named "Friendly Man" from The Forgotten is in this. And even though he plays Batman's dad and a huge philanthropist, he's still creeping me out.

-Its nice to see Rutger Hauer is getting work these days (with this and Sin City).

-Katie Holmes is much less hot now that she's been soiled by Tom Cruise. She has that Scientologist stink on her now.

-I'm so happy that they didn't get Joel Schumacher to direct this. That would have totally ruined this like he did with the other ones.

-Christopher Nolan is one of the few directors besides Burton that could pull off this movie. But I still would've liked to seen what would have happened if Darren Aronofsky (Requiem For A Dream; Pi) had directed and written it.

-Amazingly the new Willy Wonka looks roughly 48,423 times freakier than the original.

-I can't believe the guy that played the evil Dr. Crane was the same guy that was the main character in "28 Days Later". He looks about 10 years younger in this movie.

-I hate this new trend in cinematography. Where all fight scenes have to be filmed close up with quick cuts and shaky cameras. Coupled with the fact that the movie was very dark, I didn't know if Batman or some criminal was getting hit half the time. We should take a page out of the Chinese martial arts movies and get back to wide camera angles during fight scenes. But I guess that would take too much time to actually make the fights look real and good at the same time.

-Why do people clap at the end of movies? This bothers me slightly less than people talking on cell phones/cell phones ringing during movies. But only slightly less.

-Katie Holmes mouth looks crooked half the time. Like it slid over to one side of her face. She's officially no longer attractive to me. Ok that's a lie. She's officially much much much less attractive to me now. I wouldn't even call her cute anymore. She's at the "I wouldn't throw her out of my bed" stage right now. But if she breaks up with Cruise and makes fun of Scientology in public she'd be back up the list in no time.

-It bothered me for the entire movie that in the first Batman you see the guy who will become The Joker kill Bruce Waynes parents. That's when he did the whole "did you ever dance with the devil in the pale moon light?" routine. In this one, someone else kills them. I know that this movie is much more true to the comic book that any of the past Batman movies. But it just bothered me. But I'm glad they made it right in this one.

-Morgan Freeman makes any movie better. Well I'm not sure if he would've been able to save The Honeymooners or Gigli. But he makes practically any movie better.

Anyways. Go watch this movie. I think it was my favorite of all the Batman movies which is saying a lot at least when its compared with the first one as far as entertainment value and darkness. Batman has always been a very dark story. The sense of revenge along with the fact that Gotham has always been a dark, depressing city. Both movies delivered on that front. This one was way more true to the comic, explained more, and just had a better plot.

Side notes
I also watched "Shaolin Soccer" last week. This movie is hilarious. I usually don't laugh out loud at movies, but this movie had me bursting out laughing in a couple places. Very funny and a great concept along with some amazing special effects. Its definitely worth renting.

My car got another flat tire. I guess I ran over a nail. It was the driver's side rear tire this time. They were able to patch it but the drivers side front tire had most of the tread worn away (I drive my car pretty hard). So I had to get that replaced. Another $270 down the drain after taxes and labor. I need to find cheaper tires to put on my car. Each tire is $220 alone. Fucking insane.

Anyways. That's it for now.

Today's Tune: Samiam - She Found You

Exciting New Stuff, Boring Old Stuff

2005-06-17T09:58:00.000-05:00

First the boring stuff.....

1) The blog is rolling along as you can see. I need to do something to get readership up and expand beyond my usual guests. Not that I don't love you guys for coming by, but I yearn for many more people. So there's that.

2) I also want to keep this one more focused than the last one became. The short story is that originally three of my friends checked out my site and would comment and we all had a great time with it. I actually helped them and encouraged them to start their own blogs, which they all did. Then one of my other friends came on and pretty much just posted ridiculous things. A few times I wasn't in the mood for it so I deleted his comments. Which caused another friend (one of the original 3) to get pissy and complain. Eventually they all started to make comments on my old blog to purposely try to get under my skin. Now that's the way me and my friends are in person, and its great and I almost never mind it. But when I write a post about something serious or even semi-serious and take the time to do it, I appreciated people making comments about what I wrote that were at least somewhat serious and purposeful. So I got pissed and decided to scrap the whole thing. Maybe not the best idea ever, but its what I did. Fact is, I knew I would miss blogging so I immediately started this blog. But if I do let my friends in on this site, there are going to be some rules. None of them will affect anyone reading right now because you are all courteous commentors and whatnot. Mostly just to deal with comments meant solely to piss me off. I'm not overly sensitive or anything like that, but writing this stuff takes time and while the subjects might not always be serious, I'd rather not people make a complete mockery of it. Alright enough of that crap.

3) I'm feeling very nauseaous right now. It started last night. My mom felt like this yesterday afternoon. My sister was up in the middle of the night getting sick. I'm trying to decide if I should throw up or not. I'm at the point where if I think about it, I know I could but I really don't enjoy vomitting, so I'm trying not to think about it. I hope I feel better by tonight cuz I'm going out to Hoboken for a few people's birthdays.

Now the EXCITING STUFF..............excited?

1) On Tuesday I went for an interview and they contacted the placement agency that found the job for me the very next day. Apparently whatever I said to them, they really really liked. I was proud of my bullshitting skills during the interview. I actually made this statement when asked what I hoped to gain out of a new position in that company: "I would like to be able to better myself and hopefuly expand my knowledge base". Yes, EXPAND MY FREAKIN KNOWLEDGE BASE! And that was completely on the fly. Right off the top of my head. I couldn't believe it came out of my mouth. It was like I was possessed.

But I don't think i'm going to take the job. From what I've heard, the hours are extremely long and while they are offering about $10k more than I make now, I'm going to be getting a raise soon plus the commute is much shorter. So the extra $10k may only be an extra $3k by the time all that is factored in. And its just not worth it for that much. I'm comfortable at the company I'm with now, so I'm trying to not take this job. The problem is is that a good friend of mine works at the job placement agency that I went through and he's been my contact there. I was very excited about the job after the interview but now that I've gotten time to think about it, I'm not anymore. But its tough to tell a friend that you aren't going to accept the job since it would've meant him getting a few thousand dollars. But I gotta do what I feel is the best thing to do for myself right?

2) My girlfriend booked our trip to Newport, RI yesterday. I'm really excited about that. Its going to be our first trip together anywhere really. I was looking at pictures and stuff of the area and it looks beautiful. We have such a great time together wherever we are, even if we're just laying around in bed or on a couch, that I know we'll have an extra great time in Newport. Much better than the trip to Vermont with the ex that I like to refer to as "the Vermont Debacle". Yes it was that bad.

3) My parents leave for Italy tomorrow. Which means two weeks without the parents at home. And even better, my sister leaves for Italy next Friday. So I'm going to have the house practically to myself for an entire week. My grandfather will be there since he lives with us, but we usually stay out of each others way. So its going to be very nice.

Anyways, that's pretty much it for right now. Hopefully by next week I'll be back talking about politics and other important worldly events.

Today's Tune: Josh Tobin - I'm a Gangster (Player Haters) if you've never heard this song, go download it right now. Quite possibly the funniest thing you will ever hear in your entire life!

Good To Be Back

2005-06-13T09:29:00.000-05:00

Its good to be back. Hello to those who've read my Sunlight Disinfectant blog. Thanks for coming back. And hi to anyone who stumbled on here for whatever reason. I'm working on getting this back to where my old site was at with some changes to sidebars and things like that. So until then, keep checking back. Things will be posted quickly (since work is pretty dead lately).

On the upcoming front, I will be posting a set of things I want to do differently with this blog as compared to my last one. Anyways, thanks to everyone for coming back and bearing with me.