The Jerkstore...

Welcome to The Jerkstore

2010-06-30T23:53:00.000-05:00

Countdown

2010-06-30T02:36:00.005-05:00

In the early 1980's and before, if you had leftovers or a to go box from a local eatery you would heat them up in the oven or on the stove top. Then, everyone purchased and now owns a microwave for the most part. No one thinks twice about eating fried spaghetti any more. This is a shame.

Inside your house you could put your life on hold and not worry about what was going on in the world for a few minutes. Putting your feet up and unplugging from the world outside became a thing of the past with television in the 1950's and the internet in the 1990's. So what else could you do to get away?

You could leave the house and get out in the world, but then everyone started carrying cell phones so you were never too far away from someone reaching you no matter where you were. Now we share our pictures, thoughts and social status on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (seriously, who still uses MySpace?) and whatever else you can think of.

I feel like I'm done. I've toyed around with the idea of leaving Facebook behind like I did my other social networking page several years ago. But how absurd is this? Writing about how I'm thinking about not having an online page about myself anymore? What the hell is going on?

If I added up all the time I spend on the stupid computer and Facebook, I'm sure at the end of the day/week/month/year I could be accomplishing something. Even if it is something small. I think I'm over it.

Here is a video portraying how I'd like to run away...

Blah Blah Blog

2010-06-18T01:37:00.003-05:00

Limbo seems to be a word I am all too familiar with. It has either been moving to Kansas City and transitioning away from life in Sioux Falls or working a nine to five in the hopes that some day I will be able to do something for a living that I actually enjoy. Because, let's be honest, it is difficult to get up every day and be excited about working a job on the phone. I have no one but to blame but myself, as I have been easily talked out of working at a retail store location for the company that employs me.

This fall as I enter the season of my senior year, I hope to make a transition academically. Well, not so much the academic side of being a student, but what I do with my "free" time while there. My profession of choice when I exit college is to find a job as an assistant sports information director or maybe sans assistant. The guys that run the SID office at my school have agreed to take me under their wing. I'm feeling pretty good about the idea of getting back to more writing. Something that was severely lacking last year as sports editor for the campus newspaper.

My core classes for school have pretty much concluded. Now it is all a matter of wading through electives and a few other requirements. So it continues. Waiting for the next big thing to happen. I'm just hoping that this jumping from lily pad to lily pad does not continue to the point of me just waiting to transition to death eventually. I'm positive this is just the outcry of someone who is tiring of juggling 15 credit hours of school along with a 40 hour a week job that consists of telling people how much I understand their shortcomings.

I stayed up tonight partaking in an activity I used to really enjoy. Reading about World War II on the Internet. With the advent of Wikipedia, it has watered down the thoughts and opinions of everyone from former U.S. military vets to Holocaust deniers who post their thoughts on Angelfire constructed websites, but it still works. Tonight I focused on the bombing of Dresden and asked myself, "was an attack of this magnitude necessary? Did the Allies use sound strategical logic bombing a cultural center rather than focusing on the factories on the outskirts of town?" All this pondering, while still maintaining my status as everyone's favorite commenting asshole on Facebook.

I know why I stay up late at night. I know why I chose to stay in the job that I am in while I am preparing for something else. A quick note, I would have an interest in staying when I'm done with school if I am presented with an opportunity that doesn't make me feel like I only needed a middle school education to perform my tasks. I digress...

I seem to be afraid of what the next day will bring. I force myself to stay awake because I know something is around the corner that is making me anxious. I don't know what that is, but it seems like it's out there. Maybe it's because I've worked a succession of jobs that do not engage me mentally and intellectually. Maybe I'm so adjusted to the ho-hum mundane worker bee mentality that I'm getting nervous about the prospect of becoming the equivalent of Moses emerging out of the desert after 40 years.

Anyway. Time to actually face down my bed and the prospect of waking up again to watch the USA play Slovenia!

Certainty

2010-05-24T22:59:00.007-05:00

Music. It is a common theme on this blog. I've been working on a music project for awhile, and I am in the midst of completing the final leg. At it's inception back in 2004, when I would break up with my last girlfriend before meeting my wife (again), it was intended to chronicle the songs surrounding the relationships I had from high school up until that point. Very typical of someone at that age I suppose.

One song struck me in particular tonight and it has to do with my wife. Our relationship goes back quite a ways. More than 10 years now as a matter of fact. We have only been "together" for half of that time, but the parts where we tried and failed are what I'm tackling with this final piece, among other themes.

This is pretty quick, but it resonated pretty deep tonight. In September of 2000, I was on hiatus with my on again, off again girlfriend at the time. Stephanie, was on with her on/off again. But I didn't care. I was in Omaha and I was going down to the town where we met, Maryville, Missouri. I didn't know what I was doing, I just did it. I had just confessed my feelings for her from the previous year when we met after all. I had to see her. I had to do something.

I skipped out on my cousin's wedding reception and set off for the campus of Northwest Missouri State with no plan. I didn't have a place to stay. I had not a clue what Stephanie and I were going to do. We ended up going to Kansas City. I did the typical dinner and a movie, which for the night was Olive Garden and "What Lies Beneath." It all ended innocently enough with me dropping her back off at her dorm, and me grabbing a spot on my friends couch who still went to school there.

But what made me even post this tonight was digging up the Bob Marley song "Waiting In Vain," which musically and lyrically is very germane to this part of the story of my wife and I.

I distinctly remember driving the back highway to get to Maryville in my white Volkswagen Golf, listening to this song with the admin building and the high rises on the horizon with the sun setting behind my car, thinking "I am certain this will never work out." Thus proving that certainty is never certain.

Riot!

2010-04-15T01:25:00.003-05:00

So under my new plan I would be posting this only under my political blog. I'm writing with people from school but I figured I would include it on this blog too. It needs more attention.

Over the weekend, as most of you Kansas City news watchers or readers will know, there was a disturbance at the Country Club Plaza in Midtown. As most residents know this is an upscale, outdoor shopping center with nice restaurants and bars sprinkled in. Saturday night as many as 900 minors between the ages of 11 and 17, reportedly descended upon the three block district and proceed to harass, assault and vandalize person and property.

These are the facts from the perspective of the local media reporting on the story. The other major component of the story being reported by the press and television is the response by the police. Officers were dispatched to the area to break up large packs of kids and teens with pepper spray or mace. Most of which were just walking around in groups. Granted they were slowing traffic to a standstill, which is more than the normal pain it is to drive there, but mass amounts of pepper spray?

Two things disturb me about the activities of the kids and the actions of the police. First, we’ll address the issue of why were 900 or more kids at the Plaza past 10 p.m. on a Saturday night. There is widespread speculation as to how and why the event was organized. I’ve heard reports from kids being upset about schools being closed to having nothing better to do. I really believe more of the latter, and I’m alright with that fact, I can identify with being a teenage loitering nuisance because I was one at a particular point in my life.

What I take an issue with is the amount of reported vandalism, assault and sexual harassment as most people would, not their right to gather in mass groups in any particular area of town. My most obvious question is “where are the parents?” At group of 50 or so kids I can understand. But nearly 1000? This shows more of societal and fundamental flaw within the ranks of the parents whose children were participating in the late night gathering. I’ve read in the Kansas City Star some city council members are talking about developing more programs for kids to be involved with. I’m certain this could help, however parents becoming more involved with the lives of their children would remedy situations like this further and should be the basis of preventing issues like this from happening. Yet not mention is made of it. It seems to me that calling out parents for doing a subpar job of raising their children is taboo.

What’s more, is that if I were involved in some of the reported beatings and vandalism and my parents caught wind of it, specifically my father, would have had some physical things to say to me. Where are the fear based consequences for kids acting out like this in the home? Better yet, are the people who would carry out the punishment available?

Let’s be honest here, and this is an issue the Star and local television news will avoid, but most of these kids were African-American minorities. Kansas City isn’t the most race friendly towns I’ve ever been in. Suffice it to say it may be one of the worst in the Midwest. All you have to do is look at a census map and focus the demographic on race. You wouldn’t exactly call this place a melting pot. So why isn’t this being addressed in the paper or on T.V.? You can be assured it has the potential to spark further conflict. Whatever the case may be, no one wants to touch this one with a ten foot pole and most will just hope it gets swept under the rug.

The second problem I have is the actions of the Kansas City Police Department. I have talked to people I go to school with who were down on the Plaza that night and say people who were just walking around were maced or pepper sprayed by officers with little to no warning. Incidents were people were beaten or harassed I’m sure had reached the officers in and around the area, however the reaction was not surprisingly over the limit of just keeping the peace and dispersing the group.

In situations where large throngs of people can quickly escalate and spiral out of control, a firm and even-handed approach may pour water on the fire. The KCPD seems to have had other plans in mind. And now, with the prospect of white people from the suburbs looking to other places in town to take their business, fearful business owners will most likely call on the police to step up security in the area to make people feel safe. However, if things do start to come to a boil, will regular people who just want a nice evening out be left out of the crossfire? Based on the confusion from Saturday night I would be inclined to say no.

For the next six weeks the area will be teeming with officers, plain clothes officers and mounted police. The ranks of Kansas Cities finest will be protecting mostly white shoppers in an oasis of Kansas City social and economic segregation. But you have to stop and ask yourself, where is the concern for the violence in the areas located directly to the east of the Plaza? Star writer Tony Rizzo released a three-part story last spring entitled “Murder Factory” that nailed the zip code of 64130 as the highest homicide producing area in all of Missouri. More killers locked up in Missouri prisons and penitentiaries hail from this part of town, which is narrowly divides it from the Plaza by Bruce R. Watkins Drive.

Most likely, the issue will die down because most kids will be discouraged by the heightened police presence in the area. Some may return, however my prediction is you have seen the apex of this “movement.” The problem is not gone, as most people will probably assess the contrary as they gradually come out of their hiding places and back down into Midtown. The thing to keep in mind is where will something like this happen next? The Power and Light district where the owners of the operations have already targeted minorities based on a dress code? Or, God forbid, somewhere in Johnson county?

The disenfranchised made their presence felt, or kids acted up with nothing better to do. You’ll have to decide which is the truth. Although coming to any conclusion may take you to a place regarding the community and city in which you live that you would not dare to bring up at a Sunday barbecue.

Obligatory

2010-04-10T23:48:00.003-05:00

Life, and this is far from groundbreaking, works in funny ways. I'm a competitive person, although it doesn't show most of the time. Let's take where I work just as an example. The reason I work where I do is so I can focus on school and get a paycheck in the process. That was the plan anyway, and now I'm #2 in our site out of roughly 600 people and #20 nationally in our company out of approximately 6000 people. It adds stress, but I could win a free trip.

I had no outlet for my competitive nature after high school really. Since I have been in school I seem to compete against myself for my grades and others I guess you could say. I've made the dean's list every semester since I have been at Park. When I went back and was accepted in the fall of 2007, I started a separate blog to keep track of the experiences. I should have kept it.

This blog was the driving force in bringing me back to something I have had a passion for since I was in high school, and probably before that. Writing, and more specifically journalism, is something I feel a great deal of attachment to. I've worked very hard at it since returning to school in January of 2008. I've endured trials, tests and rewards. My wife and I bought our first house. We adopted a dog. I lost a job. I got another one. I lost that one and got my current one. We bought a Great Dane. Through those ups and downs, it is nice to begin to see some of the payoff.

Tonight I attended an awards ceremony for Missouri colleges. Our paper won sweepstakes, which is an easy way of saying all the points compiled for our efforts in about 30 categories were added up and were higher than any other school in our division. I won a few individual awards, but this sweeps award was pretty sweet. It's still sinking in what we accomplished. The sum of our parts equals the top paper in the state of Missouri among colleges our size. I'll let you in on a little secret, in the big boy division, the University of Missouri which is thought of as a premier journalism school, did not win. That's not to say it's not a quality institution for our profession, because it is, but this shows that you don't have to go to one of those schools to get a quality education and practical experience for journalism.

Next year myself and another of my colleagues will become co-editors of this paper. I only hope we can contribute on a higher level to bring home this award again next year, because right now it's pretty cool to be where we are at. Who knew several years ago when I was only dreaming of living in this town that I would not only be successful in my personal live, but finally moving in the direction of success in a profession I should have tried to get into in the first place.

How To Stop Being Me

2010-03-01T16:36:00.004-06:00

When I go back and look at this blog, I figured something out. Number one, I wrote a lot when my wife and I were still boyfriend and girlfriend and had 300 miles worth of the Midwest between us. Number two, I wrote a lot when I worked at Commerce Bank because I had a ton of fucking time on my hands and I discovered (again) I really enjoyed writing.

I decided it would be a good idea to go back to school, get my stuff together and finish a journalism degree. Since then, my recreational writing has been reduced. I'm not happy about this. I don't want to say I had a loyal following, but I did. People enjoyed reading my stuff and it was encouraging enough to make me believe in myself. Now, I'm not sure if anyone reads this anymore. Since I only write about once a month I wouldn't blame anyone if they didn't.

In my time of non-recreational writing, I've moved from reporter to sports writer to columnist to sports editor at my school newspaper. Not too shabby for the past year and a half. I even had ambitions to be editor of the paper. After some conversations, I hoping to realize that goal. I think I've lost focus on what put me on this path in the first place.

I've made mini resolutions about getting back on the writing train. So, I'm not going to do it now. If I don't post on here for another three weeks, so be it. If I start writing every day again that's fine too.

I just think it is time to whip myself back in to shape.

A Question of Faith

2010-01-19T00:59:00.003-06:00

Just seeing the above trailer is enough to make you reconsider some things if you are Catholic and raising children. The cat is out of the bag now, so to speak, so you wonder how much of this is really still going on. However, having actually seen this documentary it is enough to break your belief in the Catholic church. It certainly broke mine.

Without a doubt a majority of priests were not child rapists, I certainly encountered none of this as a kid and to my knowledge, neither did any of my friends. It is challenging though to identify yourself as a part of an organization who remained complicit in one of the most disturbing and shocking revelations in the 20th and this century.

This isn't the first time that Catholicism has been under the gun for controversial reasons. If you know your history, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, it isn't that hard to find these days with all the information of the internet at your fingertips.

So, as I approach the age of 30, and while my wife and I are planning for kids getting my head around the prospect of taking my children before a church that not only turned a blind eye to these actions but circumvented the law and allowed these monsters to remain free and continue to practice their form of dirty religion is a challenge to say the least.

One thing you have to understand is that my family and my wife's family are both stout Italian (mostly) Catholic families. Our parent's generation isn't quite as hardlined as our grandparent's, however revealing to our parents that we are deciding to take our children in another direction as far as faith goes would be shocking to them.

So the question remains, how hard have people fallen into this with the Catholic church? Is it certain that Lutheran ministers or pastors at Baptist churches haven't raped children? Of course not. It's a big world out there and anything (unfortunately) is possible. Are people so fearful still of Hell that defying the church somehow puts them in an unjustifiable position with God? Does challenging a corrupt and problematic organization somehow cause you to fall out of favor with God? These I suppose are good questions to ask, but there lies the problem with the Catholic church in general. There is no room for such questions. This, coupled with the history, could make for one of the largest and long standing criminal organization with the best of intentions in the history of the world.

New Year

2010-01-06T16:13:00.006-06:00

I am starting my sixth year on the blog which started on MySpace, then eventually migrated to its current residence when I figured out that MySpace was sooo immature. At least compared to Facebook. I'm not going to do a yearly recap, nor will I lay out resolutions I know I wouldn't be able to keep. Predicting the future was something I was never really adept at.

I will share that I am forming a new sports obsession that will no doubt get some ridicule from my friends. Soccer, or known to the other five billion people on the planet as football. Or futbol. I'm getting my toes wet by watching some Premier League games and learning the terminology, which is more difficult than I originally anticipated.

I figured since English football fans are so passionate about their clubs, I'd better pick a side and move forward. I figured cheering for Manchester United was like discovering the NBA and cheering for the Celtics in the 50's, or the Yankees in pretty much every decade in the past century. I thought Chelsea could have been a good choice, and they are one of the best clubs in the Premier League right now. But I think I'm going to settle on Arsenal. More on why later. For now, it's because their home uniforms are red, which works for me. It's my favorite color. Or colour.

Along with soccer my other Euro-passion will begin it's testing phase later this month. Formula 1 racing is something I have been very into for the past few years. I've gone on a few times about why it's much better than watching left hand turns all day, while beer swilling, redneck, racist homophobes cheer the "sport" on. So, much to be excited about despite college football commencing for the year.

School begins on Monday, so my schedule is about to become more hectic. Last semester about killed me, but the schedule will not be quite so grueling. To add to things, my unpaid internship in the Park Athletic Department begins this semester as well, which I am looking forward to with a ton of anticipation. Here is to hoping the great "go back to school" experiment pays off.

And just to show that turning 30 this hasn't detached me from being completely immature, I give you this...

Soundtracks

2009-12-11T00:48:00.015-06:00

What is it about nostalgia that turns people on? Do you need to be a nostalgic person to find meaning in your past? I never understood people who were unable to draw some value from the places they have been. Maybe there are just some people who never admit it. There seems to be a certain sexiness to "living in the moment" and not being caught up in the past or the future. I would say that I am present with other people, but left to my own devices I spend a good portion of time reminiscing.

I would suppose that for most people who feel a sense of connection to events in their past they have certain touchstones that invoke feelings and memories. My gateway into these happenings is music. When I phase into new artists and albums I haven't heard, it seems like I am focused on forging ahead. When I dig through the library of my past, it isn't normally just to hear a tune I can't get out of my head.

People and places are trapped inside songs from a specific era in my life. When I listen to Liz Phair, I'm not just listening to "Whip Smart" because I enjoy it. Well, I do enjoy it, but I'm in my basement room at 1113 South Joliet Avenue in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I have long hair, I'm skinny, awkward and meeting new high school people who came from other middle schools. I'm meeting people I'm still friends with now, but I see them in the context of the time when sitting down with Liz. I'm in Sarah Keyman's basement, hanging out with Brienne and Kari, two people I'm still "friends" with. One more so than the other, but that isn't the point. The point is I can't just listen to this album and be detached, it has too much meaning. The music reminds me of the sounds and even the smells of the house 15 years later.

Five years ago I set out to make a compilation of music. I wanted to start it at a major fork in the road of my life. When I met the first girl I think I ever really loved, or at least took the time to try, and the splintering of my parents' marriage. Sort of the end of my "age of innocence." I figured it was significant at the time, but just never really knew why. Raging emotions, loss and discovery are major components of any teenagers life. My emotions were accelerated by the loss of trust in the failed marriage of my parents, and trying to recapture it in the powder keg of a teenage relationship. Maybe I'm too self-absorbed, and no one else looks at life like this with intense reflection and philosophical thought, but for me it is inescapable.

I don't have albums in my closet (literally), I have access to a time machine and to all the events in my life. Over Christmas break, along with cleaning and hanging drywall in our basement, I am going through all my old music and compiling them by these things which took place. I'm not sure why, but something happened with me over the past few months. I'm not sure what. Is it my quickly approaching 30th birthday? Is it because within X amount of years I'll be a father? I don't know. Somehow I doubt it. I don't fear either milestones. I think it is merely a coincidence, although my sister and her years of scholastic work would probably say otherwise...

I can't help but imagine a person who is into their life as much as I am would do it for any other reason than some self-gratifying and self-aggrandizing purpose. I feel the need to catalog my life, and I do it according to music. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Another Rebirth

2009-11-30T23:35:00.006-06:00

So if you found your way back here, thanks for checking this blog out again. School and work has been a hurdle this semester to say the least, so the updates are few and far between on all points in my vast blogging empire (wink). I overextended myself quite a bit this fall, however I think I'll make it out in one piece, and the spring is shaping up to be more relaxed and interesting.

I also shed the blog of the great people who contributed for a spell here in recent months. Number one is that the participants are on our new Kansas City Politico blog that we will be getting off the ground with the new year. Number two is with the track record and nearly five year history of this being a personal blog, I figured it was time to get back to basics.

The blog, as some of you might remember, used to reside on my twice defunct MySpace page. To be quite honest, part of me wants to abandon Facebook as well. However, what keeps me hanging on is the direct communication between friends and family members I have limited face to face contact with. I'm not a Mafioso superstar, nor am I a prolific virtual farmer. I keeps it real.

Checkup

This semester I've found myself, I think. I've always known deep down I'm a writer. Now, whether I'm a good writer is yet to be seen. But the idea of me as a photographer or partaking in photography is something of a bug I've caught in the past couple months. I always saw it as something I had to do, or endure, when looking at my audit at Park. Now, it seems like I've find a bit of a passion. I haven't jumped in head first, or even feet first. I'd say my toe is in the water checking the temperature. I have no idea how I would use it, or what I could do with it. Sometimes it is good enough to be cognizant of something raw and new. There aren't many times in life when people can harness something like this and have the latitude to move with it. Right now, I'm just enjoying the ride.

It is, to my dismay, my season of a dosing of reality. I thought my time management skills were sharpened to a fine point, but it seems like next year I have some work to do in that arena. This is fine, because when I get comfortable and 'good' at something, I get lazy. Life has a funny way of making you evolve.

The Homestead

Things at home are evening out. I could do better to not be so snappy with Stephanie, and she's being strong and constantly showing she is the more mature person by being as patient as any human being has even been with a stressed out me. I haven't had time for anything other than things that are not particularly fun, so the residual frustration gets dumped on her. I am currently penning a document to the Vatican for early sainthood. Seriously.

My dogs are eating my house. I just thought I had to throw it out there. But they are the highlights of my life, other than my wife. It sounds cheesy, and maybe it's because I don't have children, but there is something to caring for something that is dependent on you. Missy is still digging, still posing as a menacing trickster in adorable fur, and Ted is my boy. He's over the 100 pound mark, as tall as I am and has the winningest personality of any dog I've met. He's the dude.

Anyway, a return to my old ways with this post. Completely self-absorbed like blogs are supposed to be. With finals looming I can't guarantee that I'll show my face until after the dust has settled, but there will be more frequency since I know the direction everything is going in.

Goodnight.

Back To Work: Boring Me

2009-10-18T22:06:00.005-05:00

I haven't posted on the personal blog in awhile, so I figured what better way to make my illustrious return than writing about me and what I've been up to.

I'm knee deep in school and work, with little time for much of anything else in between. When I do get some spare time I watch some television and do some reading. I've made a few trips up to Lincoln, Nebraska to watch some football.

Some things I have been enjoying have been David Cross's "I Drink For a Reason," watching "Bored to Death" and "Dexter." Of course I'm never without my new iPod Touch and my litter of Podcasts. Some of my favorites are "WTF with Marc Maron," "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me," and of course my old standby "Smodcast" which is director Kevin Smith and his producer Scott Mosier talking for an hour or so. It's funny, trust me.

I realize this post was very boring. And short. Boring and short, just like me. But it's been awhile and I'm scared, so next time will be better. I promise :)

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

2009-08-25T13:37:00.004-05:00

This past Sunday morning was a pretty rough one for me. Simply put, I mixed a few too many cocktails with several pounds of assorted meat the night before. It was quite the binge, I'd say. When I awoke Sunday morning (at 4:30AM, alone, fully clothed and lying diagonally on the bed, mind you), I felt less than horrible.

That aforementioned Saturday, I had hosted a party for some "friends" at work. Bad idea...I won't make the same mistake again. Essentially, these "friends" just wanted a place to get drunk and stupid. Meanwhile, I found myself wandering around my own house, trying to talk to all the different co-workers, and feeling completely alienated when doing so. I'm not really a part of their clique at work...I fully accept that, but it was, after all, my house and I shouldn't feel alienated there, right? Right.

I remember being eighteen or nineteen or twenty-two (sort of) and attending parties of this caliber. They weren't really fun then, either, but they were at least a bit more acceptable. It was always sort of an "I don't care who I'm with as long as I'm drunk/stoned/whatever" atmosphere. I like to think I've grown way up. Fortunately, I've maintained some friendships from that era of my life. Unfortunately, there are still people out there my age and older who are a part of that crowd.

None of this is really news to me and probably isn't worth a blog post either. It was an eye-opening experience, nonetheless.

For future reference, when the wife and I have people over it will be a two-couple max at a time. So, Stephanie and Zach (if you're reading this), be prepared to come entertain us in the near future; we'll return the favor by providing you our full attention. Sorry, Zach--no Bacon Explosion--ever again.

BFF,
JFW

You Say Tomato...

2009-08-11T02:23:00.002-05:00

Do you ever have one of those days where you feel stuck in the middle? Most of the time I feel like a man shouting in an echo chamber when it comes to my conservative versus liberal friends and family members. I'll get emails from my Dad telling me how my guns I don't own will be taken away. I used to get emails saying how George Bush was listening to my phone calls and I should be worried. Because telling my wife to pick up bananas at the store is important information.

It's a culture of fear, and it is choking us to death. The public at large is taking their eye off the ball while casting stones at one another. Middle age white men line the streets and take the day off work to protest tax increases that didn't, and might not happen. Gay men and women march to protest their right to be married. Why are we waiting for a pat on the butt from a government we all say we don't trust? Why do we feel the need to be validated by something we dislike?

More questions than answers, which is a roadblock for everyone. The path to resolution is paved with an easy answer these days. Watching white men over history try and protect what their idea of American should be is appalling in history books. It's even more astounding watching this generation claw at it as it slips away. Latina women on the Supreme Court, a black guy with supposedly no birth certificate in the White House, and affirmative action taking their jobs. It's enough to make you think we white guys are about to be lined up next to dinosaurs and Dodo birds.

Back to everyone freaking out and attacking the people on the other side of the fence... I'll leave you with this. When talking politics these days, it's not about which political party is going to screw you. It's about when and both sides with their hands on the hot poker in your backs side will choose to shove it in.

I've got something to look forward to.

2009-07-02T01:34:00.007-05:00

Going to see Neko Case with my wife coming up later this month, and I'm pretty pumped up about it. Here is a 20 minute interview with her. The DJ, or host if you will, is your garden variety broadcast douchebag, but the live performance with her bandmates is pretty cool. If you've never heard Ms. Case, or didn't know who she is, you should check her out.

Enjoy!

Eureka!

2009-06-29T13:53:00.009-05:00

Before I threw my newest issue of Maxim into the big blue bin in the garage, I thought I could get some use out of it. I didn't want my last post to be the last things we said to each other, I figured since we were both adults we could figure some sort of common ground out. So we went around the house to see what sort of mischief we could create or functional relationship we could develop.

The first thing we tried to do was see if we could get Ted a second pillow for when he is not in the living room. He's a big fan of sleeping since he is growing so much, and he does enjoy laying next to me while I write or surf the net, so we tried to use Maxim as a pillow. I don't think Ted appreciated the dumbing down through osmosis.

I thought maybe our relationship was getting off to a chilly start, so I figured I'd maybe try to break the ice with a drink. I guess Maxim isn't a big fan of tequila or margarita's. I enjoyed my frosty drink while Maxim looked at me unsatisfied and slightly bored. I guess I should be used to it.

I figured if I showed of my video game prowess Maxim would warm up to me a little bit. Without much doubt I shredded through "Beat It" in tribute to the fallen King of Pop. When I handed my axe over, Maxim sucked it up. So much for me being a guitar hero to save the encounter.

Since Maxim has been objectified and mistreated by men since it's been around, I figured I'd put Maxim in some demeaning situations to see how Maxim would react. Unfortunately dusting my PlayStation 3 (which I found to be poetic justice) proved to be another misstep in the afternoon. I guess my way with the Maxim's of the world has diminished since I've been married.

I figured maybe Maxim would like a more dignified job, like protecting my family and my house. I plastered Maxim across our security stop sign. I never though it would deter criminals from robbing our home, but now Maxim's distracting layout and oozing sex on paper could stop would be burglars from entering my humble abode. Alas, making criminals think twice about a life of crime was not what Maxim had in mind.

After this Maxim and I had words, and I attempted to forcibly get Maxim to clean George's cat box. As you can see, it was met with much resistance.

Maybe since Maxim is so beautiful on the outside, Maxim would be interested in hanging up next to some photographic art in our entry way. Maxim responded to this a little better, but for reasons my wife would be able to explain, I figured it would be better to try and find a more appropriate place to dwell.

And this is how we end. Parting is such sweet sorrow, Maxim. However, I know you'll be back in a month.

I'm okay with getting older.

2009-06-29T12:32:00.007-05:00

(Now that you are done oogling at Megan Fox, let's get rolling).

Based on what has happened to my mailbox. Not so much to it as what has happened inside of it. I still play video games whenever I have time. I have all the major gaming systems of this generation, as they call it. I'm patiently biding my time until the new installment of NCAA Football comes out so I can start as a coach of meager means and rise to the top of gridiron glory, as I do every year.

I also subscribed to a gaming magazine, a subscription I kept for many years. At the start of 2009 Electronic Gaming Monthly became a casualty of the decline of print media and stopped publishing their rag. I figured I'd get a refund check. I figured wrong.

A few weeks ago I open up my mailbox at the end of my block to find a copy of something I haven't even seen since I was 22. I wasn't even sure if they still put the damn thing out. Maxim appeared and I didn't know why. I remember it had samples of cheap teen boy cologne and pictures of mostly naked women I could subscribe to Playboy and see without the tease, if I really wanted. The magazine always appeared to be a bit of a jerk off to me.

Now I am older and wiser. Ok, not really but I still know good writing from writing that I hope when the human race is centuries long gone that archaeologists from far off planets do not discover, only to deduce that this was the pinnacle of our journalistic endeavors.

I still page through it before I toss it in our recycling bin (yes I know, how snobbish using a recycling bin rather than the trash) for some laughs. This month, Maxim tears apart the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro versus the 2010 Ford Mustang. Two cars I would be interested reading about in Car & Driver or Motor Trend.

Of course, Maxim has nary an automobile expert, so they rely on women of N.Y.C. most likely displaying the pictures in the magazine gauging the quotes. "The Camaro looks classier. But red's pretty arrogant. And I'd really prefer if it were a Bentley." - Hannah, 22.

Thank you, Hannah. I always wondered if gallivanting around in a red Camaro, and American classic, was arrogant up against say, a $400,000 Bentley.

If you are a casual watcher of television, like to come out of your parent's basement, or have your newest Megan Fox fan club mailer you are well aware of Michael Bay's latest abomination and spite against humanity, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Now, every sensible critic I have read has panned the movie, because it wreaks of suck. Maxim, however, is treating it like Gosford Park 2.

Fox is placed in various degrees of degrading positions, actors will scream dialogue like you're at a Dane Cook concert (because just telling a joke isn't funny, unless you yell it out) and historic landmarks will be reduced to piles of rubble. I'm not even upset Michael Bay is perverting more classics from the 80's like I was after I walked out of the first live action Transformers, now it's boiled down to the fact this guy is still making movies. Did you know Maxim's publishing offices are nestled comfortably between the New York Times and the New York Public Library? Lock up your wife and kids.

I understand movies are supposed to be fun, make believe and an escape from our normal lives. But at what a price? Certainly I will keep my brain cells in tact for such cinematic seriousness like "The Hangover."

Lady Gaga is an abomination of Satan himself and Madonna. Her songs are second rate and her "out there" attitude makes me weep for kids thinking she is the definition of cool. Kids who will never discover The Replacements or The Minutemen and never truly understand what a true rebel in music is.

"I'm dressed conservatively today, I should take off my pants just to freak them out!" A woman threatening to take off their pants in a Morton's Steak House has never been so potentially boring. Bi-curious activity (when it's a "hot," lipstick lesbian type) sells to the Maxim reading community, because it's mentioned in every feature involving the women it interviews. I use that term loosely, obviously. "So we know your new album/movie/homemade porn is getting straight into the everyday life of impressionable teens and young adults around the world. So do you like to have sex with women?" This was probably a real question or has been one in Maxim's time. How do I figure? Because this was a question...

Maxim: Do you prefer sex with men or women?
Ms. Gaga: It depends of the guy or the girl. But I'm not discussing my sex life with you. I will say that I'd be a happy girl if I could make the whole world gay.

Edgy. Then gay people wouldn't have a gay identity, or be defined apart from straight people which isn't a bad thing according to a few gay friends, minus the whole government reserving marriage rights for wholesome straight people. I wonder, no wait, she clearly doesn't know what she is talking about. Bless her heart, she may have the gay community's best interests in mind, but I doubt it.

I like how in one breath she let's you know she does in fact, have sex with women. But she won't give you the details, which is what we seem to be wrapped up with as a society. Truth be told, if I did have to think about her with other women, I'd rather let my imagination do the walking. Fancy that, using my imagination.

Did you know that growing up in New Jersey gives you enough material to play psychotic roles as a hick in movies like "Black Snake Moan" and "Monster" like Christina Ricci? Time to place this in the bin and take a shower.

A Minor Self-Indulgence of Sorts

2009-06-29T00:59:00.008-05:00

Sometimes you realize you're in a place you didn't think you'd end up in. Kansas City isn't a world away from where I grew up in South Dakota, however some days you get little reminders you aren't where you came from.

I did (willingly) give up my friends and family to relocate. In the end, it was for the best. I'm very happy with my life right now. I'm doing well at a job that is finally flexible to my school schedule, which I'm doing ever better at. So, to say I miss my old home would probably be something a person with zero perspective in the middle of a great situation would say.

I do miss portions of it though. Tomorrow some old friends are staying with my wife and I. They're coming back through Kansas City from St. Louis so they can follow and catch their beloved Minnesota Twins. 'Circle Me Bert' signs be damned, we will be joining them.

I have friends here. I have good friends here. But their arrival reminds me, even though the relationships aren't what they were 10 or even 15 years ago, I had potentially lifelong friends back home. Them, along with some others, I see sless than the seasons change in the year.

Most people will take a visit like this and just enjoy the time. I'm not saying I won't, because I've been looking forward to this for awhile whether anyone else was or not. But for some reason I've never been able to escape my ability to draw out the darker side of most any situation. I'm not sure what this says about me, and with most of my posts being very self referential, I'll back down a bit and spare you all the self-analyzing boredom my own wife can't even stomach.

So, here's to a good night off with some old friends at a baseball game and my house while I tame the same old same old.

Allow Me

2009-06-27T00:51:00.009-05:00

Let me throw my considerable weight around on this issue, since everyone under the Sun feels the need to talk about it.

I did my minute of memorial service for Michael Jackson soon after I found out he died. I feel a sense of loss each time I hear a story of someone dying, reprehensible character or not. However, the reverence and attention Michael is receiving is surprising and not at the same time.

The love of celebrity and fame isn't anything new to anyone in my generation. When a figure like Jackson dies, there are going to be some varied degrees of a spotlight on the subject. But let's get real for a minute. None of us knew Jackson personally, were never going to know him personally or may even want to judging on what you believe had been written about him in the press for the past two decades.

You would have been more likely to make a joke about Jackson's alleged pedophilia than listening to "Bad" these days. I'm sure there are some true blue fans who never lost hope in him, but I think most of them are in Germany. Or Indonesia. The rest are going back through their long forgotten catalog of Jackson hits, or scrambling to iTunes to download "Thriller."

So let's not kid ourselves here. How much thought in your day went into the personal life of Michael Jackson before you heard he died? "I need to get to the store and pick up a loaf of bread for tomorrow. I really need to get to the gym more. I wonder how Michael Jackson is holding up since he sold Neverland Ranch? Did I check the mail this afternoon when I came home from work?" He's dead now, and so today we care.

The greatest crime is how we treat these people. We lift them up to heights and wealth none of us will ever attain, and when they slip up or have a perceived slip up, we in our righteous indignation rip it from them and rub their noses in excrement to show they are no better or worse than us. Then, when they die, we hold candle light vigils and teary memorial services for them and remember the good times. It may be a good day to die, but it's never a good day to show a shred of dignity or decency.

I, for one, think this is a little hypocritical and even unfair. Depending on the "crime" I suppose. So let's let Michael's family grieve. Leave the weeping to his close friends and intimates. We need to get on with our own lives. I heard Kim Jong Il was going to fire a missile at Hawaii. And congress was trying to pass an energy bill that will tax us until infinity. But before we get back to reality, let's listen to a little "Billie Jean" while we get a Starbucks and then settle in for some TMZ.

Rinse, repeat.

Words Are Flowing Out...

2009-06-24T09:10:00.004-05:00

Hmmm...I don't really feel like writing much either. Actually, I would love to write, but there's just so much to write about. Seriously. The topics are endless: Ed McMahon dying, neo-Nazi octogenarians, heat advisories, Jon & Kate divorcing, a doctor being shot down in church...the list is endless. So! I've decided to write about all of it...and more. Reader, be forewarned: There will be much rambling.

Ed McMahon is dead. People dying is typically sad; the greatest sidekick ever (save Andy Richter) dying is a bit more sad, I guess. I'll be honest, as I am, and tell you what Ed's death makes me feel. First, it makes me feel old, which isn't really out of the ordinary, I suppose. Second, it makes me miss Phil Hartman (I have to admit, I always liked Phil's impersonation of Ed McMahon way more than I liked Ed McMahon himself). Mr. McMahon always sort of creeped me out on The Tonight Show and more so on Star Search. However, I have fond memories of watching him with Dick Clark on TV Bloopers and Practical Jokes. Ed's set-up and delivery, albeit completely scripted, was some good stuff. For real.

Speaking of completely scripted events, 88 year old white supremacist James von Brunn shot and killed a security officer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum not too long ago. I don't even know what to say about this guy. I tried to read up on him and his "the Holocaust never happened" drivel, but it became, at best, laughable and, at worst, disturbing as all get out. Grand Wizard von Brunn is just a small speck of poo in a clogged and overflowing toilet of hatred and deceit where all the other excrement feel sorry for themselves and each other even though they're the people who are messing up the plumbing. It's well known that the remedy to a backed-up toilet is a perfect balance of plunging, time, and persistence. Happy flushing!

Let's move on to heat advisories. They are dumb. That is all. Wait, okay...elderly people and young children should definitely get some extra attention when it's sooooo hot outside, but the weatherpeople of the world are being a bit ridiculous with the stupid heat advisory maps and such. Seriously.

Okay. My wife and I are guilty of Jon & Kate voyeurism, but we haven't been following it obsessively like Entertainment Tonight or US Weekly. If there's anyone out there who thought this family, given it's complex back story, would have a fairy tale ending, please don't procreate. J&K's situation is precisely what happens to two well-meaning jerks when they reproduce at a rapid pace and decide to let the world watch what happens. Is it just me, or is Jon reverting to his seventeen year old self? And don't Kate's eyes scream "I will pose nude for Playboy in the near future"? Just sayin'...

On a lighter note, infamous Dr. George Tiller was gunned down by a pro-life extremist while ushering at his church. Irony abounds. What's that? Oh, you'd like to know my personal beliefs? Okay...well, hmmm. Killing people is stupid; not only in the way crazy pro-life man did it, but also in the way the good Doctor Tiller did it. Now don't go getting your tubes in a tangle, feminists of the world. I'm all for women's rights...I really am. You know something, though? I don't get why loads of women can be so up-in-arms about reproductive rights, but not nearly as many seem to give a damn that women are paid far less than their male counterparts for equal work. Maybe that's the problem: Demand more money at work so then you can afford to buy contraceptives, avoid pregnancy, and therefore avoid abortion. Also, blogger Mark Smith pointed out how strange it was that a whole bunch of white women gathered at the Plaza for a vigil when Dr. Tiller was murdered, but they don't seem to notice that people are murdered every day on Kansas City's east side. I don't get it and I'm afraid they don't either.

Hooray! It's over!

Dilemma

2009-06-22T20:18:00.001-05:00

Here is a riddle. What are you to do when you are supposed to be a writer, but don't feel like writing? At all.

Is it any wonder?

2009-06-02T01:54:00.006-05:00

So I'm up too late once again, ready to unleash my meandering palaver onto the internets.

I'm stuck right now. I'm not a big fan of partial birth abortion. But killing the guy who practices it? I suppose his first mistake was thinking he could get away with it in the Midwest and die of "old age," or the state of Kansas more specifically. Between Fred Phelps and Jayhawks, I know I already live too close.

Not to say I've found my stay in the state of Missouri much better. I guess for someone growing up in a state with the population less than half of the city I live in it's a bit of a different beast. It's not to say I'm Woody Boyd, but I guess I could be a bit of a hayseed. However, I am fairly progressive in my thoughts and beliefs. I think it's perfectly fine of gay people to get married, I'm mostly pro-choice because I don't think it's the governments right to tell you want to do with your body, and I'm not particularly religious. But the way people treat one another down here is ridiculous. I'm glad I picked Kansas City and not somewhere out of the Midwest.

After I saw George Tiller had been assassinated all I could say was "what the fuck?" While I think his practice is egregious, it's just my opinion. And while I think my opinion consistently rules, I don't think I've killed someone who has disagreed with my inherent awesomeness. And why is it always crazy ass anti-government or ultra-religious people who pull this sort of crap off? You never hear about the educated, homosexual Atheist killing the preacher of an ultra conservative church for gay bashing do you? As if America needed a bigger reason to avoid religious or anti-government nut jobs as elected officials.

I don't think I'll ever take residence in the state of Kansas, just so when I'm elsewhere in the country I don't have to be looked down on by the rest of the world.

A Human Condition

2009-05-28T01:47:00.006-05:00

Working the job I do, you have your finger on the pulse of the sense of entitlement out there. People want something for nothing, the customer is always right and feel despite the fact you treat them with the utmost respect and dignity they have no qualms rubbing your face in their inability to return some common courtesy.

Of course not everyone is like this, some are decent and even nice. For the most part my contact with people beyond my own circle of friends and family leaves something to be desired. Now, you have to take into account the people I talk to have legit issues which are irritating. However, what people expect out of a relatively small amount of money is completely disproportionate.

Let's say you pay $85 dollars a month for your cable bill. Extrapolate it over the course of a year and you pay $1,020. It's not enough to cover one of my paychecks. So how would you losing a few hours of service be grounds for you to request an entire month of service? I don't work for a cable company, however this hypothetical request is something I deal with on a minute to minute basis.

All in all, and despite people asking for the sun, moon and stars, I still love the challenge of what I do. The job is a daily acquisition of puzzle pieces making you better than you were yesterday, and I really appreciate it. I need things to exercise my mind or I would go nuts. More so than I already am.

So I have this to fall back one while I'm hiatus from full-time school which I am excelling at to my surprise, but to the surprise of no one else. Maybe one of the things I feared was I knew I could be successful at this and I'd have to hear everyone say "I told you so." Being a 4.0 student and the drive I have to get there (which not surprisingly, doesn't require as much as I thought it might) is bleeding over into the professional aspect of my life. Now, if I could apply it to getting into the gym and landscaping my yard, my wife would love me that much more.

"What does this have to do with anything?"

Glad you asked, let me explain...

Detaching myself from how I operated from about the age of 15 to the age of 27 is a process still in development. A big part of who I am stems from my broken home as a teen in high school, and it is something I don't talk about much on my blog. At least compared to the rest of the mindless and some meaningful topics I tackle or stumble over.

Self reliance is a trait most see as invaluable. However too much can be poison. I wasted ten good years of my life figuring it out. I dropped out of college, messed up friendships and relationships, and even fell into some that damaged me emotionally and financially. I ran over some good people, and cut strings from people I thought I'd be attached to my entire life. Counting on only yourself leaves little room for others.

My relationship with my family hasn't been the same since I decided I didn't need them. My extended family is an afterthought, the people I looked up to as a child were demystified to the point of them being useless while I searched for someone else to fill the void. What I learned was I became me through the people I wanted to dispose of, which caused a deep resentment directed at myself. I hated and disliked me, because of what I thought everyone else who had my last name (or my Mom's) screwed me out of what I deserved in life. Funny thing is, they wanted to do everything they could to keep me from being so bitter. Being right all the time blinds you from those who are trying to assist you.

My sense of entitlement and my success in life I thought would just be a given. I deserved it just because of who I was. Did it come from how I was raised? I was praised quite a bit, but I never followed through on it. The people I was close too and loved, it was good enough for them so why even try harder? I've learned over the past few years, and more recently with this current job, just being there doesn't entitle you shit. It fosters a great deal of complacency, and you get lazy.

I missed out on a lot of life in some respects. The loss of a close family member and a couple of friends couldn't make me see the light in my early 20's, but a group of kids 10 years younger than me, and disgruntled cell phone users from around the country helped me break the mold. Most of all, my wife and companion has helped me. She probably wouldn't know why exactly, and maybe neither do I. There are quite a few unspoken phenomena in our relationship.

Repairing what I've lost and salvaging what I can is a double edged sword at this point. Moving from Sioux Falls to Kansas City allowed me to bury things that needed burying. But it also prevents me from mending some fences, which is hard to let go of. But I carry on and do what I can when I can. The older you get the smaller your world becomes. When you are striking out on your own, everything and everyone is so important. But the moments you have with the people you trust and love become more real when you don't try to be everything to everyone.

It's sort of cliche, the closer I get to 30 the more I see the previous 29 years shrinking in the rear view mirror. It's a good thing, because the weight I was carrying around my neck almost choked me to death. Basically what I'm hoping for is not to be so bitter when I have crappy cell phone reception and have to call to get it fixed and don't hassle the guy or gal on the other end of the line too much. All I can hope for is everyone else out there is coming to a moment of self-realization akin to what I am experiencing.

Making the rounds

2009-05-22T02:47:00.008-05:00

Deciding what is important and what you value is shaped by those around you. At least to a certain extent. From a young age you quickly learn what "cool" is. Sometimes you do all you can do grab onto it and the rest of the time you do what you can to punch it in the face.

Taking movies or music seriously as art or something with a message is difficult. If your neighbor doesn't know about it, then it has value and carries weight with people interested in staying ahead of the curve. The older I get I learn that finding value in what moves you is more daring than conforming to what is easy or what is difficult. Someone who likes Brittney Spears because they like pop music gets more respect from me as opposed to someone who likes Fleet Foxes or MGMT because they're supposed to.

Why all the exposition? Every few years I decide it's a good idea to dust off the Metallica albums I own, which is all of them. This band came in and out of my life at various times. Angst riddled teen (twice), curious pre-teen, college student, mid-twenties with an insta-family guy, and approaching thirty year old dude.

When you have a group as commercially successful as Metallica is, it's hard to take anything they do and make it believable. It's like saying the Yankees have heart and are scrappy. They get paid too much. Art doesn't come from guys with a zillion dollars in the bank. Or does it?

I'm always mystified by the rise of Metallica. At least now I am. When I was 14 I just loved what the music did to me. It tickled the bone in my body that wanted to break stuff. For a kid whose parent's marriage was a ticking time bomb, it was the perfect soundtrack to the dimise of childhood innocence.

Like any good current or former metal head, I'd say Metallica's albums from the 80's are my favorites. But I'd be remiss not to mention post "Black Album" efforts from the band are interesting in their scope and ability to branch out. I can respect a band for not beating a gimmick to death and doing something new at the risk of alienating the masses.

Maybe it's because of their new Guitar Hero game taking me back. I don't play the real guitar much anymore, and it reminds me of when I did, and when I was good at it. Really good. I'm not going as far as to say I'm trying to recapture my youth, because that would mean I'm admitting it's gone.

Having parents who went out when I was nine or ten meant being babysat my the girls in my neighborhood who ranged from 12 to 16 years old. This also meant there were no limits on what I could watch on television. Not that I paid any mind to the no MTV clause in my childhood contract with my Mom, who insisted it would rot my brain. You can imagine impressionable youths having their minds warped while watching videos like this.

I still love the video. Completely unlike everything on MTV, which I was actually getting bored with at the age of nine. Pretty funny and a sign of things to come.

I knew what I was watching. The radio station I fell asleep to every night had a Top 9 at nine countdown, and despite mainstream success being a few years away for this band, it was number one night after night when "...And Justice For All" was released. The video hooked me, even though I didn't really know it yet. All the older guys in my neighborhood listened to this stuff and being cool kept you from being harassed and mildly accosted.

I posted the picture above of Metallica because it's the first image I remember and was connected to. Pre-big time success and still out there on the edge which scared your parents. Remember recording tapes from your friends? I do, and my first Metallica tape came while I was still at Cleveland Elementary School. It was a mix of "Justice" and "Master of Puppets." The music was scary and dark for a kid who probably should have been listening to Roxette or Micheal Jackson. The first song on my tape, which I snuck past my parents until I got the actual CD for Christmas in 7th grade, was "Blackened" where one of the famous lines is as follows.

"See your mother put to death, see your mother die."

Pretty heavy for a fourth grader. Guns 'n Roses was probably as close as I got to something this dark. Knowing now lead singer James Hetfield was writing about his mom dying from cancer and not being able to do anything about it because of her Christian Scientist faith puts some context I probably could have used at the time. It scared the crap out of me and interested me all at the same time. I was confused by it and yet couldn't put it down.

I'm not sure what this says about me, or why I still go back to it occasionally with a fervor while all my friends listen to God knows what, modern country like Toby Keith or some bullshit like that. Maybe because even though being married and living on a cul-de-sac in suburbia makes for a comfortable life, I'm still sometimes uncomfortable waiving to neighbors as I grab the newspaper off my driveway. I can talk to them, but I'm never comfortable.

Maybe I don't want to give all of me away just quite yet. I've left a lot behind, most of it for the better, but I still hang on in certain ways. And if that means putting "Ride the Lightning" on in the car when I'm carting people around who would rather listen to Chris Daughtry or Keith Urban, which by the way helps me sleep at night, then so be it.

Big Day Tomorrow

2009-05-08T22:28:00.003-05:00

Ted

This is the latest video of our dog, Ted, who we will bring home tomorrow. Get ready to rock.

There is only one thing left to say...

2009-05-05T10:31:00.001-05:00

UPDATE
Well fuck you then, Nightmare Inc.

When it's 1:33am...

2009-05-01T01:33:00.007-05:00

...things tend to get a little lonely around these parts. Being out in the middle of nowhere there is little to no activity. Some people might find some solace in it, but for someone who needs constant attention at times (har) it can be a little wearing.

I am getting used to the grind of my life though. Well, at least the pace. Although the break begining next Tuesday will do me some good. I'll practice writing by keeping up with this, making my fellow contributors produce and updating my shiny new sports blog. Also, my fellow writers for the Park Stylus and I will be busy (hopefully) getting us online this summer.

I'm also taking part in a little social experiment. So far, I've only been able to badger the night owls, but I'm testing to see how good of a Facebook friend I really am. I'm challenging myself to talk to as many people as I can that pop up under chat. I figure if you're going to be my friend, I should be able to talk to you.

This is what my nights have become. Normal people talk with their spouses, walk their dogs and try new recipes. Maybe it's not so odd, but having the same schedule as my wife would be nice.

Only about another year of this. Hopefully.

Editor's Note: The comment feature has been opened to support anonymous commenting to protect the livelyhood of some of my followers. You are welcome :)

I can post here too, I guess!

2009-04-30T23:16:00.005-05:00

I was told to post a complaint or something that has been bothering me lately...so here it goes!

Christians bother me when they talk about faith. There. I'm putting it out there. I don't spend enough time around members of other religious orientations, so I won't generalize out at this point.

When I think on this, a picture of a girl from one of my classes comes to mind. I took a class in college called "Is Globalization Sustainable?" It was the most depressing fucking class I have ever taken. Whenever there was a discussion about religion in any sort of historical sense she would put on her headphones. The professor asked her why she did this one day and she said,

"These evil words won't plague my pure faith."

I know right?

I then proceeded to make her cry.

I have lots of stories like this, and they have shaped my opinion, as well as the entire history of Christianity. You know, wars, corruption, etc. I'm waiting to be corrected. I hope someday I will.

Little Known Facts

2009-04-30T01:01:00.011-05:00

If I have talked to you in the last four months, there is a good chance you know I'm enrolled in a class based on ethical philosophy called Choosing and Using Values. For some reason, the population of class is overtly Christian. On a certain level, I don't have any issue with the personal beliefs of an individual. On another level, I question the idea of intellectualism and religion mixing and coexisting effectively.

I'm sure no one from my class reads this blog, so I'm sure I'm safe. Our last online discussion question was as follows.

Should there be international laws put in place to outlaw human cloning?

Valid question. Rather than breaking it down rationally, this was the first response. Excuse all the philosophical mumbo jumbo. I know, I think it sucks too.

This topic is incredibly interesting to me. If you think about the virtue theory we could just clone people to have our virtues and none of our vices. We would then have a better version of ourselves. Though this might seem intriguing I think it would cause a lot of controversy. Cloning to have organs to save lives is another interesting purpose for the procedure. With this idea I have to take a Divine Command Theory and revert back to my belief in God. To me everyone is here as long as he needs them here. When our job is done here on earth God will call us back to heaven. By cloning organs or ourselves to save us would be going against God's will. He did create man to be intelligent and has given us the ability to improve science. Therefore, I do think we should do whatever possible to save someone, but there has to be a line drawn at some point. We can't live forever.

Notice how she capitalizes 'God' but not 'Earth?' Yeah, me too. And I wonder how you take a Divine Command Theory? Most times after class and before my next one I take a big Divine Command Theory in the basement of the building where I take this class.

I won't include my snarky response. Hey, I've been nice all semester, it's the last week of class and this person probably won't even read my response. If we have to draw the line where we stop trying to save lives, can't we draw a line somewhere saying God (if you believe in God) or using God's name as a reason for things we can't explain is no longer acceptable? Try telling the parents of a seven year old kid, "we could have saved your son's life with a heart transplant but there were none available after the accident and we ran out of time, and the religious people banned human cloning which would have given us more availability. But hey, we can't live forever right?"

Hey, it's plausible. Life isn't an episode of Grey's Anatomy where a heart is always on hand to save the kid. Thank goodness. Life as that silly show, not saving kids. You know what I mean.

The point is I'm glad the semester is over for this class tomorrow at 11:25. Not because I didn't like the material or how it made me think about how big of an asshole I am, and how I lack certain ethical standards, but because I'm tired of listening to kids interpret how God would feel about eating a cheeseburger on Good Friday. I'm not joking. I asked this young student if eating one of my wife's Boca Burgers was acceptable, and if pretending it was meat was openly defying God because it's posing as a burger but it's not. She didn't like that question.

These are the things I missed the first time around in college. I'm glad I'm back to play the part of the older jerk with the dreaded "life experience" who should just be working some dead end job, but has decided to come back to school and hurt their chances of getting a good job because I'm clearly smarter.

Oh come on, you knew I couldn't make it out of this post without saying something of the sort.

Seriously....

2009-04-28T13:11:00.006-05:00

Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act introduced to protect the blind from quiet cars

OK, first off I'm not a big fan of Hybrid cars I think there a waste of money and bigger pollutant in the end run then just as efficient diesel & gas cars. Also they distract from the bigger issue of needing a much more practical public transit system.

But I digress from my point which is...two of the largest morons in Washington took the time to draft a bill that addresses the problem of blind people not being able to hear hybrid cars. Like when did this become an freaking issue??? I mean seriously your telling me that some took the time to draft legislation and then had the audacity to waste other Senator's and Congressman's time with it.

The people that drafted this shall go into my file under the tab for the first people to shoot when I become Emperor of the World.

I was told I could blog here....

2009-04-28T12:42:00.005-05:00

I guess the admin wanted to pull in more of the tween audience since that is where my intellectual capability usually reside, Like OMG that Twilight was like the best move EVA!!! But seriously...I like to think of myself as an opinionated ass that while I might not always be right I'm always willing to tell you why I feel that way if your willing to tell me why I'm right.

I like others on this site have some disdain for the mainstream media and the status quo, but I lack the elqounce that they have in voicing their opinion, so I'm more of a comentator and occasionally I would throw something out there for the pleps to read and comment on. Almost all my thoughts and observations are based on issue in the public realm and politics. Occasionaly I might throw soemthing out a little more personal, but we shall see.

Well, I'm at work and I need to earn my paycheck...I shall hopefully have something else posted on here by the end of the day depends on if I have the time.

Function

2009-04-28T02:00:00.002-05:00

Stuff like this makes me distrust public officials and law enforcement. Of course this is an isolated incident, and most officers would never do something like this. However, it makes me wonder with how tight some of these guys (and girls) are, they are bound to snap on occasion and pull something like this.

Wow.

I'm not a big fan of the IRS...

2009-04-27T14:59:00.000-05:00

...that's all.

Welcome To Me...

2009-04-24T13:03:00.004-05:00

Greetings, dear reader, and thank you for stopping by today. And a big thank you to the administrator of this blog for enabling me to spread the disease that I like to call "my opinion".

You know, I've racked my brain trying to think of what I'd like to discuss in my premier post here at The Jerk Store. I figure the best place to start would be to explain what I'm sure a majority of my ramblings will be about. First though, I'd like to assure you that I am in no way a conspiracy theorist...at least I don't think I am. With that said, I would also like to assure you that I don't take much of anything at face value. I like to consider myself a "rational cynic" of sorts. The one area that I truly enjoy exercising my enlightened pessimism at this point in time is the media; namely news outlets of any kind and the bile they generate through underground wires and/or beam into outer space en route to our living rooms...or wherever.

For example, my beautiful wife and I have enjoyed viewing the ten o'clock news broadcast from KMBC Channel 9 here in Kansas City. We've scoffed in amazement when they begin by reporting a "late frost" that might damage flower gardens and then follow it up by reporting three deadly shootings on Kansas City's east side. We've chuckled when, on a Monday, they're telling us that the economy is in dire straits and then on Tuesday tell us that the economy is recovering. Finally, we've thrown up in our mouths a little when Bryan Busby spends damn near ten minutes talking about a storm system over Montana and has seven different radar maps to prove it.

Actually, one of my personal favorite moments in KMBC news history occured maybe a little over a year ago. There was a winter storm a'brewin' and a miniscule amount of ice/snow/sleet had fallen in the metro. Local reporter Marcus Moore was dispatched to stand next to a street that was becoming slick and tell us about the state of readiness the local department of transportation was maintaining. Just as one of the anchorpeople were introducing him, the live video feed showed a car sliding down the street into another car or inanimate object (I can't remember which). When this happened, Marcus exclaimed "OH, SHIT!!" The anchorpeople looked confused, but Marcus carried on with a priceless oh-shit-eating grin on his face.

So, this is what you can expect from me. I will consistently point out all the little flaws and injustices that I notice when it comes to news of any sort and I'll mix that in with a refreshing antecdote from time to time.
Here's something to think about: Feel-good/non-stories. They don't belong on the news. I'll pick one right now at random...

...the 2nd most popular story from CNN.com at this moment is about some dudes who played high school football against a rival back in 1993. The game ended in a tie and so they're going to replay the game. News? No. To put this into perspective, a mother killing her daughter and North Korea trying reporters were the 3rd and 5th most popular stories, respectfully.

Bring it like you brought it, yo.

Lol @ me

2009-04-16T00:34:00.006-05:00

Oops!

For my Ethics class, aka Choosing and Using Values, we have discussion questions online in a message board format. Look closely at these pictures and take note of my first response line. Yes, you have to click on the pictures. Lazy.

This was completely unintentional and it's all the system's fault. Always is.

And take two, opening said thread...

Hey, I thought it was funny thinking about all the reactions reading it might get.

Teabag!

2009-04-15T23:49:00.006-05:00

Well, this took less time than I originally estimated.

Today, for those not in the know, is tax day. Where you willingly pay in, because if you didn't have to you've already filed and have probably spent your tax money. It happens every year, and just like Christmas it brings pain and misery to all but is easily covered by mass quantities of booze or other mood altering substances.

The significance of today, is the angry, middle-aged white American's took the day off to protest tax increases. Seems like a noble cause to me, I'm surprised I didn't hear about it until earlier today from my wife who also learned of this phenomenon today as well.

We are in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Hoax? I'm not sure. I lost my job at the end of October and had a job by the beginning of December and was back to work to ring in the new year.

So in protest of corporate bailouts, handouts and (eek!) socialism, mostly Caucasian men and women lined streets in cities across the country and made their voices heard. In Kansas City more than about 3,000 people gathered at Liberty Memorial to air their grievances to the man. What does this tell me? That less than one percent of Kansas Citians either don't care or know better.

Taking a queue from other white, middle-aged men over two hundred years ago, they protested by not dumping consumable products into Boston Harbor they were being taxed too much for, but by getting riled up from watching too much Fox News. Har, har, too easy I know.

Here is the problem, and my point. If you make less than $250,000 you actually got some tax breaks and or will get tax breaks. Right? Do I agree with how they are spending the money? No, but ignorance bothers me. A lot. I wonder if Rupert Murdoch loves watching people jump and dance on command.

If there were a larger market for Fox to become a liberal news outlet, you'd wake up tomorrow with a loving retrospective on Karl Marx, or the daring and heroic life of John Reed. You thought they were in it to be fair and balanced? Wake up. It's about money, it has been for the past 30 years. Now get with it. They don't care about your right-wing political beliefs.

Where were these people last October or November when Bush was pushing his last minute, final kiss off before leaving office, giving of Wall Street nearly $785,0000,000,000? I have more of an issue with giving tax money to guys who sell bullshit as opposed to actual commodities. I can touch and feel a car. You can get laid because of your car, or in it at least. You can't drive a credit default swap.

Now people want to wet their pants about businesses being bailed out. Right wingers want to complain that their small businesses wouldn't be bailed out if they failed. When it was their guy doing it? Cricket. Cricket. Cricket. Which brings me to this.

You are all being played. You (both sides mind you) are suckers in a grand scheme to rob you blind. You are painting each other with brushes created by hogs with the stink of cash and fine wine on their breath. Brushes made in Indonesia for nine cents a day of course. It's the American way.

You've all made your bed, and now you have to lie in it. Catch the double entendre? There will be no socialism, there will be no fascism. Things will swing back the other way more violently and suddenly thea the last time in four or eight years time. Meanwhile the real crooks stay in Washington because no one wants to get off life support for cash in their districts and impose term limits on congressmen. All the while the real people at the top will be pissing into solid gold toilets (true story, Google Meryl Lynch scandal) and lighting Cuban cigars with hundred dollar bills, Rush. The pied piper.

The Tax Day Tea Party website features CNN "failing" while trying to get a story. She (the correspondent) presents the interviewee, with his kid in tow no less, with facts that the state of Illinois gave him a tax break, provided he makes under a quarter mil. Rather than answer the question, he babbles some frothy rant about Abe Lincoln wanting people to be free, blah, blah, blah. The poor woman almost gets hit with picket signs while trying to do her job. I love they took a shot at it being anti-CNN because Sean Hannity's troops were leading the rally. But come on, she is a liberal.

Read the comments on the page. Unbelievable. The wool over the eyes of everyone throwing stones from both sides has to be suffocating.

I weep for the future.

The sports feature

2009-04-15T01:04:00.002-05:00

So my illustrious career as a sports writer (maybe) or writer in general is starting from humble beginnings. More accurately, started from humble beginnings from right here on this here blog. I'd like to think I have shown some development, especially since last fall in 2008 when my formal training began.

So the past few issues of Park University's newspaper, The Stylus, I've had the opportunity to write some pretty interesting pieces on some figures in our varoious athletic programs. I'm going to put both up on the blog here, but I'm posting my first one, well, first.

Hope you enjoy...

The cold damp atmosphere on a Friday afternoon on a mostly empty Park University campus is seeping it’s way into a mostly empty Breckon Sports Center. No games, no practice, just employees of the athletic department waiting out the rest of an anxious Friday afternoon.

Through the front doors of the arena strides Jon Meriwether with the cool confidence of a student athlete who has walked into the dual domed structure a thousand times. The last three years of Meriweather’s life have been spent playing, practicing, dazzling, working out and building a reputation as one of the best players to lace up and take the court on the Pirates men’s basketball squad.

Believing in your own press in this day in age of ESPN and total media saturation are easy trappings. Shining yourself on for cameras and scouts is as expected as calling for press conferences to announce your new hip-hop album or endorsing Chevy Trucks. The life of an amateur athlete, especially in the NAIA, allows for it’s players to be refreshingly down to Earth.

“To be honest the thought never crossed my mind,” Meriwether recalls. “It is sort of weird to me to think of myself as one of those guys. A top player. When I was told about being seen in that way, I was wondering if you had the right guy.”

For a player just named to the NAIA Division I All-American second team, you might think modesty would be as rare as a ray of sunshine breaking through the overcast sky outside. But the more you talk with and get to know Jon Meriwether the person, as opposed to Jon Meriweather’s stat sheet, you rapidly learn he would rather talk about his teammates, past and present, as opposed to himself.

“Being humble came straight from my Dad,” Meriwether said. “He was just that way when I was growing up.”

Let’s play a little bit of catch up here, Joe Meriwether was a 10 year veteran in the NBA and played from Madison Square Garden to The Summit in Houston, Texas and some points in between. Letting Jon in on what he accomplished during his prime wasn’t something that could be found without a little research.

“When I got a little older I was like, ‘why didn’t you tell me?’ He was a monster in his day and his stats were unbelievable,” Meriwether said. “I thought it was incredible but he would always tell me that he was just playing ball.”

Being a coach’s kid is never easy. At least not for a majority of kids that grow up in homes consumed by sports. That other one percent was the Meriweather home. Being the son of an NBA player and college coach would add even more pressure. But not in this case. To the contrary, pressure is the last word he would even think about coming of age at home.

“Even from early on, I wanted to do it,” Meriweather said. “I would be tired after games and would want to just go home, but I would go back into the gym to work on my shot. I never felt that pressure from my Dad. I just always liked basketball and wanted to be good. I was just playing.”

Even when leaving Division I Morgan State University, the senior Meriweather did not fret and did not dress his son down for leaving the game so unceremoniously.

“At that point it was all my choice,” Meriweather said. “When I was off for a year and a half, my Dad didn’t even suggest that I go back to playing. I missed it. It was my decision to come back.”

Sitting behind Coach Jason Kline’s desk he doesn’t seem uncomfortable in the least. A player just entering into a program might be a little apprehensive to be perched with ease at his coach’s desk, but not Meriwether. Being in a position of leadership is not foreign territory.

“We all seem to know our roles on this team,” Meriwether said. “Our jobs are defined. We help each other out and make up for what each of us might lack individually as a team and a family. That’s something that we have tried to instill in the younger players on this team.”

Meriwether points to a picture on the grey office wall to shift the focus away from himself and back to other players he sees as his mentors and an inspiration to his game.

“Brandon Voorhees was the man,” Meriwether said. Leaning back in his coach’s chair, a wry smile crosses his face as he recalls some of the NAIA All-American’s on court exploits. “We were on the road and we were down with only a few minutes to go in the game. We sort of just let B take over. He was white as a ghost and we knew he was tired, but he kept going and going. We won that game because of him, but after the game you wouldn’t have known. He didn’t say a word and just kept it to himself, rather than going on and on about it.”

Lessons in sports are a dime a dozen, but those are generic notions you read about on a daily basis. Stories and moments in sports are wrought and sometimes stretched to the point of being a tall tale, like Paul Bunyan or passing in the NBA. Most wouldn’t know it, but it’s the things we as spectators miss that actually make a difference to the young men and women taking the field or running on to the court.

“After seeing what Brandon went through that night,” Meriwether said as he pauses before revealing his thoughts. “It was truly amazing to watch. I learned then that is what it takes to be a good or even great player. You have to leave it all out there.”

Establishing yourself in one place is a goal most people strive to achieve. Having to pack up and do it every few years to sail away into unfamiliar territory is something that Meriweather is becoming accustomed to. He has his eye on the big picture, but he refuses to leave the dream behind.

“I’d like to follow Brandon over to Europe and try out over there and eventually play in the NBA like my Dad,” Meriweather said. “Right now it’s just hard thinking about leaving and not knowing exactly what the game has in store for me right now.
At the end of the day, this is something that every athlete faces.”

There is a plan B though, but it’s one of those ‘break in case of emergency’ type of things. Not to say what Meriweather has planned for the future would be any less rewarding, it’s just when boys draw up plays in the sand, or in the palm of their hands with the rest of their friends, you don’t see yourself behind a desk. It is not the dream. The dream is playing for the love of a game as long as possible, because deep down you know one day it will be gone.

“It is sad, don’t get me wrong,” Meriweather said. “You grow up living your life and centering it around basketball, knowing that it won’t be there in the same way I’ve known all my life will be a challenge. But that’s just life, you have to grow up and readjust. You just have to go out and attack it and not let it attack you.”

Finding a parallel between life and sports isn’t challenging. Applying it and weaving the two together is the accomplishment. Jon Meriweather will go down as one of the best players to grace the court at Park, this much is easy to see. But there has to be more out there than stats and awards and national recognition. Meriweather has recognized that. He knows he’s a great player, and so do most people, but he knows making everyone else around you better on and off the court is what excellence is all about, and the most important lesson learned.

Not going to the dogs

2009-04-11T01:27:00.006-05:00

I know the last few posts have been present and future dog related. I've been short on time and therefore, short on content. Never fear the semester is winding down. However I will be spending more time over on my Red Sox blog considering opening week is underway and my MLB.TV subscription is being taken full advantage of.

I've also finished reading "The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison." Good book for about eight bucks new in paperback or less at your local used book store. Listening to SModcasts, breaking in my new Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds hats and figuring out how we are going to facilitate another dog.

We took delivery of our riding lawn mower today. One big problem is that the transmission will not stay engaged. So, getting it replaced and wheeling and dealing my way into a better model with a warranty is how I spent my afternoon.

Our LCD TV has been on the fritz, so Steph and I were disappointed we didn't get to watch the Royals game in HD. We went out and enjoyed the nice day and walked our dog instead. My Mom got a tattoo. Steph and I went to dinner at 54th Street Grill (meh) and then came home and read a book and watch my Sox give another toothless performance from the plate.

We closed out the night watching The Soup and 30 Rock in bed. Since 11 o'clock is much too early, I came into the office and watched the Braves and Nationals then the Padres and Giants. Then, I downloaded some blues, but not because of what went on during my good Friday.

This was the extent of my day.

Miss Moo

2009-04-07T02:21:00.004-05:00

So a few weeks back I purchased a new laptop with Windows Vista on it. I saw a commercial where some young girl took pictures and uploaded them to her computer using the same operating system. I figured I could at least try and make a slideshow. Thankfully, I was able to top the young tike from the Microsoft ad.

It's a little raw since it's the first, well, anything I've ever really put together. I'm sure they will be a reimagining of this someday when I'm a little better at this. Hope you enjoy.

Also, when I transferred it to YouTube, it messed up the transitions for some reason, so it may look a tad pixelated, YouTube promised me that it's still processing and it will look better soon. You know I'll hold them to it..

Hello, big world...

2009-04-04T18:07:00.006-05:00

So my wife beat me to the punch, what else is new? So my post on April 1st was not a fool, we really have been looking into bringing another pooch into our home. In a few weeks, two week old Theodore Winston Swalley will enter our house, probably a little bigger than this. He's a Great Dane, or German Mastiff, and we hear they get quite large.

For those that don't read my wife's blog, here are the same exact photos she put on her page...and yes, the red collar is by design.

Scooby-Doobie-Do?!?!

2009-04-01T02:03:00.002-05:00

Maybe in about six to eight weeks. We'll see.

Stay tuned...

Great, wonderful, tremendous, fantastic...

2009-03-29T21:49:00.004-05:00

Door to door salesmen are guys (or girls) that I love messing around with. I don't avoid answering the door, and I don't pretend that I'm not home. I enjoy talking to them and hearing their rundown of Brand X product. I usually don't buy anything.

Sometime in the fall, a couple guys were strolling our cul-de-sac selling AT&T U-verse. My wife and I despised our Comcast service, equipment, etc. So we were willing to give it all up for U-verse, that came highly recommended from a few of our friends. There was something I forgot to check into.

I'm an idiot. I mean, it was October after all. Baseball is a pretty big deal at that time, especially with the Sox in the playoffs. My mind must have been elsewhere. Looking for a new job, school, Nebraska football. Who knows.

It was supposed to be so awesome. HD DVR in our front room and every other room with the ability to watch recorded shows on the other two boxes we had in the office/man cave and our bedroom. More HD channels, and we'd be able to record more and watch TV at the same time. But despite the apparent awesomeness...

Come to find out that U-verse is about the only cable provider that doesn't carry the MLB Extra Innings package I get every single year. What the hell am I supposed to do when I come home at 12:30am from work? I want to watch the Padres and the Marlins, or the Mariners versus the Rangers.

I can always get MLB TV, which would be handy because I am on the go so much with my laptop, I know I'd be able to watch it quite a bit. But there is something awesome about opening up our big windows in our living room, pulling up some couch, and watching a game or two on a Sunday afternoon or a cool late spring night.

I'm going to miss that this season. AT&T better get their shit together.

You will see this movie, you will...

2009-03-27T01:22:00.005-05:00

A long time ago, somewhere in the early 80's, my Grandfather who's face I don't recall but who's face I wear gave me this book. Teachers, family members and clergy always used to tell me I was a creative child. I had an "artist's vision." Well, maybe.

Never the less, I think this is one of the first books I really remember as a kid. It is one of those books that unlocks your imagination when you are young. Now as I approach 30, have a wife and a mortgage...

...the film adaptation could not have come at a better time.

Welcome to my childhood...

2009-03-20T01:23:00.002-05:00

Today, products sold to children are advertised on television with slick and polished ads. It's hard to imagine that back in 1987 the following would entice anyone to shell out hundreds of dollars on electronic equipment from Japan. Little did our parents know that this would come to dominate our lives (in some cases, like me, still) and turn into a multi-billion dollar a year industry.

I've been enjoying watching the following...

First Nintendo commercial in the U.S.

Sometimes I'm amazed that I wound up with a social life or girlfriends growing up. Watching these videos only reinforces the fact that I am quite the salesman.

Predicting the future

2009-03-13T12:06:00.004-05:00

I just finished watching Jon Stewart's interview with Mad Money's Jim Kramer. And while both men don't really run what could be called true journalistic or hard news programs on cable television, they both have rabid audiences that sometimes do take their words at face value. Despite the lack of seriousness either show does or does not provide, I found the happening, as I'll call it, compelling.

Here is a snippet from the interview. If you would like to see the full interview click here to go to Comedy Central.com.

Despite Stewart not being considered a true journalist in the traditional sense, you can see in some points of the interview he is about to pop and come apart at the seams. In my humble opinion, it's only a matter of time before this happens, and I can't wait...

Giving the devil his due

2009-03-12T17:07:00.012-05:00

Political allegiances are not formed until you have real responsibility in your life. It seems to me it would be hard to pick up any particular banner if you live with your parents and don't pay rent. No, living in a dorm room on campus probably does not count either.

Life is a series of challenges and problems presenting themselves at inopportune moments. You either make the best of them or succumb to them. Either way you end up being an example for the rest of society to learn from. Having your thoughts, life and money on the line is the true test of where your politics lie. All broad topics aside, let's move back to one singular issue.

You probably noticed we are in the middle of an economic crunch right now. Some people have told me they are tired of hearing about it, however ignoring a problem never made it go away. Believe me, I've tried on countless occasions. Maybe it will go down the rabbit hole temporarily, but in the long run it will catch you.

Over the past week and a half, the waning torch for the Republican Party has been most recently passed from Bobby Jindal, who reminds me of Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock, after his blunder on national television following a nationally televised speech by President Obama, to one Rush Limbaugh.

Rush as evil conservative overlord to many Democrats is nothing new. I have been familiar with his work since his syndicated television show in the nineties while President Bill Clinton was in office. I was a strange kid. Even in my own home, Limbaugh was a lightning rod.

Recently, Limbaugh has stated since present President Barack Obama has taken his oath, he hopes to see the president fail. Let me give you some more context here. Rush stated in his radio program since he is opposed to liberal policy and liberal goals in our country and society, he would like to see those who uphold these principles fail. Fair enough, everyone is entitled to their opinion for their own self-aggrandizing purposes.

When the hearts and minds of people that are tuned in cannot separate fact from fiction, entertainment from reality, or making sense from making money, what Limbaugh uses as material on his radio program are unsettling ideas in the hands of the ignorant. Don't get me wrong, the left have their overt ring masters of political agenda as well, with the likes of Keith Olbermann now leading the charge. The aim of either of these gentlemen don't lend much credibility to any sort of personal bona fides.

President Obama and top aides have listed Rush as Republican numero uno over the last two weeks, giving his cause more credence. I always felt more comfortable with Rush rallying the troops from the sidelines, rather than being even whispered about in the pantheon of national public office. Now, with this attention, CNN recently felt it necessary to give 90 minutes of uninterrupted camera time (as in no commericals) to Rush as he addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

This is the amount of time generally reserved for presidents, senators and other distinguished men and women who at least pose as people who are do gooders within the public trust, no matter which alter ego they slip into while off Capital Hill. Not steaming hate tanks who rally people under a message of hate and disdain for the opposition. There is a pile of money, over 400 million dollars to be exact, to be made over limp balls of clay from coast to coast.

What is unsettling is a major media outlet felt compelled to raise awareness and the importance of a man who has been on an agenda train of victory through heavy handed rhetoric since his rise to national prominence. Through the campaign Rush, and other conservative commentators, held the President up as an empty suit. An inexperienced politician from a crooked state with no political governance who could do no right. Somewhere in the master plan I'd like to see, socially, where Limbaugh falls into the equation. What has he contributed? What has he given to the masses on a regular basis other than rhetoric, words, and a lack of understanding and working together?

The battle cry of opposing a liberal media is nothing new in Rush's repertoire. Using it as an instrument to push the end game of Rush having control over this conservative movement are means to justify the ends. I'm not talking about the unwavering influence among his own, because he has it. Not even the money, because the checks are signed and he is set for life. The man in front of the golden microphone has an ego stretching beyond the world of entertainment, and attention from presidents will only serve to do the opposite of quelling it's behemoth-like appetite.

Many revere him as a great American hero who has the interests of the common man in mind, others wake up in a cold sweat seeing him froth at the mouth and jowls as he sets his sights on loftier goals. For those who put him on a pedestal, he is the ultimate example of the man with his and on the string tied to the carrot. Common people don't amass piles of money, live on prescription painkillers for years and fly to foreign countries to have illicit relations with women in brothels. Each time you buy into his idea of how America should be, all you are doing is buying him another Monte Cristo. From Cuba. A socialist country.

For those who fear suffering under his wrath, get over yourselves. He recognized a market and exploited it all the way to the failing banks. For the purposes of entertainment, the man is a Rhodes Scholar, as long as you can see him for what he is. However, this is the quandary in the question.

What is one to do with the message? How seriously is the message taken and how far does it go? Apparently, straight to the White House. And in the middle of heightened unemployment and an economy wrapped in a Faberge egg, beware of men who seek failure to quench their thirst for attention.

Music I (and you!) can enjoy

2009-03-11T22:54:00.006-05:00

I've spent my entire spring break battling a fever and bronchitis. I needed something to come along and cheer me up. Luckily, through my steady diet of Halls and prescription drugs, along came a nice little surprise I nearly forgot about.

One of my favorite artists of the past several (or more) years released a new album fairly recently. I'm not sure on the exact date, lately I just download music when I get around to it and not necessarily when it comes out. So to my knowledge, the new Neko Case album has only been out for about eight hours now.

For those of you not familiar with Case, she was a part of the Canadian super group The New Pornographers. If you don't know who they are, then I really can't help you. Just kidding. I'm not going to be a music snob, though my wife will chuckle when she reads that line.

Middle Cyclone builds on what Case reached in her last release Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. The only contrast being Confessor having some more haunting elements laced within it. I guess if you had to put her in a genre, Alt Country would be appropriate. I've always hated that term, and as Case revealed in a new Rolling Stone interview, so does she. I think we are soul mates. Okay, I don't really believe that.

This isn't a review though. I would encourage you to download some of her songs and get acquainted. Case has a rich, broad voice and is powerful like Patsy Cline. If you find that you are saying to yourself "I need to find something new to listen to," this would be a good place to start.

It was a cold afternoon...

2009-03-09T01:04:00.007-05:00

I'll admit it, it has been awhile since I have been to church on a regular basis. I believe I went three times, maybe four, yes, four times last year. Easter, my sister's wedding (which wasn't mass I recall), Christmas, and once about a year ago when Stephanie and I didn't think we would be able to close on our house. For the record, we did.

This morning, I attended Catholic mass with my wife. Rather than giving up something for Lent, she is deciding to go to church. I figured some spiritual currency could do me well. I have a sore throat. Anyway, the church by our house, Holy Spirit, is a classy, open, large, yet simplistic example of modern design in holy architecture.

I'm not here to wax layouts and floor plans for the house of the Almighty, what I'm here to do is report the status of kids in the Catholic church to all you heathens out there. Children today have it so easy. Catechism and mass Sunday mornings, back to back, no excuses. That was then. Now we have a separate story time for kids. I should have followed my sister's professional choice. She'll have waves of head cases for the rest of her life.

Just as I was rolling over the thoughts in my head, the first reading came to the congregation. Let me back up. For those of you not down with St. Peter and the Papal dynasty, Catholic mass is structured. And when I say structured I mean institutional. The first reading is placed somewhere between the opening blessing and the seventh time I check my watch.

Today, of all days when I decide to show up for church, is the story where Abraham is asked to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, to God. "No wonder they sent the kids out of the room," I say to my wife. This is my issue with some things in the Bible. You are tested by God and could possibly be asked to sacrifice a kid you tried to have for like 60 years of your life, then finally had success after your child bearing years were over.

The priest tried to rationalize the motives, or possible misinterpretations on Abraham's part. "Maybe he didn't understand God, child sacrifice, unfortunately, was part of the norm back then." Yes, a giant bearded sky god who told you to kill your kid. Hard to lose the message right? Here is an idea, maybe it didn't really happen?

I know it is not an answer most people of faith like to hear. But accepting the Bible as 100 percent literal is something I completely disagree with. So, maybe ushering the children out was a good thing, or maybe it wasn't. Listening as a young tot to scripture and homily after scripture and homily I soon discovered this book was full of holes.

I wanted to know how Noah was able to get the animals from different regions of the world on to his boat. Was he able to get the poisonous dart frog from South American jungles onto his boat? Did polar bears swim down (or up) from the polar caps (or shifting ice masses)? What about dinosaurs? Why no direct mention of them in the Bible/mass/Sunday school? All questions I started asking around the age of eight. You know what? No one really had a good answer for me.

I can't say I'm surprised. People who follow organized religion closely seem to have a knack for relying mostly on faith in an operation ran by some of the most intelligent people in the world. You think I'm kidding? You should see the academic resumes of some of the highest powers within the Vatican. They are running and gunning a multi-billion dollar a year industry. Even in this economic crisis.

This isn't to say the Catholic church isn't without their new, er old, ways of making money. The once forgotten practice of selling indulgences, a practice causing Martin Luther to leave the Roman Catholic church and start the Protestant movement, is back en vogue with Pope Benedict the XVI. Pope Ben will forgive your sins and allow you to pass Go (Purgatory) and go directly to the Community Chest (Heaven I guess) for the right price. What's old is new again. I wonder if blood letting will be brought back to the medical practice soon?

You might have guessed, this post really has no solid point to it. My musings rarely often do. It's just a guy who is being asked to father some children while coming to some grips with faith and raising said hypothetical kids within it. Got it? I'm of the mind that it is alright to believe in God/Jesus or whoever without having to show up for church each week and do the same thing over and over and over and over and...well, you get it.

I started thinking about this in church one Sunday while I was in high school, soon before I stopped going on a regular basis. A church gets a tax exempt status from the government, but if it catches fire, who do they call? Do tax paying Atheists have a say in where their money goes? Or does it fall under the category of public safety? I'm not saying I agree or disagree with the question. I just like asking it.

I think I might be changing my thoughts regarding the new U2 album as well.

Irish Eyes are Crying?

2009-03-06T01:55:00.006-06:00

It's 1:55 a.m., it's Friday night for me, and I'm three and a half songs into the new U2 album and I don't like it. At all.

We'll just let that sink in for the few people that will read this. I had to stop my iPod because I couldn't take it anymore. I'm not sure if it's because musically I'm in a different place the past few weeks, or if it's because I'm so tired. I want to go to bed, but I need to write and play my guitar I'm dusting off. These Replacements songs are harder than I remember from a few years ago.

Back to Bono, The Edge and the gang. The gang meaning those other two guys most of you don't know the names of. Sometimes anonymity can be a good thing though. I think I'll start over from the beginning tomorrow. I did enjoy the past two albums from U2, even though "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" felt like sides three and four to "All That You Can't Leave Behind." At least they waited a few years to put part two of their "White Album" out. I guess that's unfair, that would mean "The Beatles" would sound the same track to track.

I'm sure this could be seen as blasphemous among my contemporaries. Maybe even treasonous. Maybe it's just not me anymore. It wasn't like, "hey this is sort of boring I'm going to listen to something else. Or nothing." It was more like "make it stop" and that could be telling me something. Who knows what for sure.

I like U2. Quite a bit. More so than most people who like the same music or have similar tastes as me. I thought they were done on their ABC special when they had a Spinal Tap moment, becoming stuck in a giant lemon in Latin America. You remember, it was their "Pop" Euro queer/Pink Floyd phase from the late nineties. Disclaimer: I don't have any beef with gay people. Just an expression to paint a picture.

Like I said, I'll give it a whirl tomorrow and we'll see. Look for a possible follow up. Also, a new computer can't come fast enough to our humble abode.

Scaring your parents

2009-02-21T16:56:00.021-06:00

At a certain point in my life I went through a metal phase. My music got louder and faster. I had always sort of been into Metallica, but noting really beyond that. In the summer before my eighth grade year, circa 1993, I really got into it.

Along with my new found taste for all things metal, I started growing my hair out and smoking stolen Doral Lights from my Dad with some other metal friends. I bought a big stereo from Best Buy with my Christmas money and instead of listening to my demonic soundtrack on my headphones, I pumped it throughout the house.

T-shirts started to fill my drawers and sometimes I was asked to turn them inside out at school or wear my gym shirt instead. For example, the Metallica picture to the right here was a popular one.

The biggest transgression, at least in the eyes of my Mom, were the posters on my basement bedroom walls. Here are some samplings from what occasionally got me in trouble, apart from having an album with a song titled "Fucking Hostile" on it.

I mean, if the year before you were buying your kid a Bobby Brown tape and the next year he had these posters in his room, you might be concerned. Or maybe not. Have you read the lyrics from "Humpin' Around" ??

I got away with the posters above, however I wasn't so lucky with the one below. As I was hanging it up with care, it was immediately shut down by my parents.

My Mom put up with a lot of crap from me, however this one stepped over the line and I guess I can see why now. A muscular looking, uh, woman with her boobs hanging out sacrificing a viking on an altar while straddling him with a demon skull in the background and the word 'demon' on it was probably went a tad overboard.

We only had one real record store in Sioux Falls at the time (and now probably the only one still I guess). Ernie November was a treasure trove of cool stuff for a 13 year old kid that was naughty and bad. You could even buy parental advisory albums and not get hassled like you did at the mall. I can't tell you how many times my parents unwittingly took me there so I could buy things they wouldn't approve of. Ah, memories. There is no one to outfox anymore.

I should really go to bed...

2009-02-20T01:09:00.011-06:00

People who get into journalism to change the world are wasting their time.

It's an opportunists stance, and that's great, but I'm going to go ahead and take a dump on your parade. The wide-eyed ideals of young kids, the few that remain, who grasp onto a notion that simply graduating with a degree in communications for journalism will equal a great job where their voice will be heard is fleeting. Am I speaking from experience? No. But how often do I do that? This is blog, and I didn't do any independent research for your satisfaction. Sorry.

From what I've seen so far, a vast majority of aspiring kids looking to write in public for pay generally end up covering a local crime beat or high school sports. That's fine, and I'd be cool with that some day, but the idea you shouldn't write just because you won't be David Halberstam, Hunter S. Thompson or some other Pulitzer Prize winning journalist is lame. The world needs plenty of people who will be mediocre journalists and write menial pieces for suburban newspapers. Hell, I'll write the livestock report for Lone Jack, Missouri if my wife would let me get away with it. Pay wise anyway.

But being good enough doesn't seem to be good enough for most people my age or younger. Everyone wants to be the Peyton Manning of their chosen profession. Guess what? Unless you're extremely gifted and/or lucky, it ain't gonna happen. You can stir shit up, but more than likely you'll just end up hated, mocked or fired. Or if you're fortunate, all three.

The point is, kids who realize they aren't the next Diane Sawyer just give up and work in HR for Hardee's or something. That's great, and I'm sure it pays the bills, but it's not what you really want to do or have a passion for. Who the fuck grows up and says "Someday I will process benefits better than anyone in my division." ??

Once upon a time I thought coming out of high school it would be a good idea to get a computer science degree instead of becoming a journalist for the money. I was, in a word, retarded. Now I'm 29 and taking classes with kids who don't remember MTV when it was cool or what tight rolled pants are. I mean, what the fuck am I supposed to talk to everyone about? You started playing video games on a Playstation? I once spent 20 hours trying to cheat the blinking blue screen on my Nintendo to play Kung Fu!

So really examining what your expectations are in life is paramount, especially for all the Dick and Janes who want to be writers. Maybe you should take a weekend and recalibrate what you really feel like you deserve out of life, and what it owes you. The world is full of them, writers that is, and chances are you and me will just be like all the other cats busted up on the highway to the New York Times. But don't despair, pay your bills, don't raise asshole kids and maybe, just maybe, you can be in the right place at the right time and do some work that is at the very least intellectually stimulating/satisfying to you and means something once or twice. Something to look back on and really be proud of.

Eric Hinske ain't Alex Rodriguez, never has been and never will be. Hinske is slow, possesses questionable fielding skills and can't hit a 12-6 curve ball to save his goddamn life. But he does have something A-Rod doesn't have. A massive ego and an inferiority complex that makes him think he needs steroids to enhance his already ridiculous God-given ability. Oh, and a World Series ring thanks to the important players on the Red Sox.

See, I can't even get through a post on my other blog without pimping my team and slamming the Yankees. So be it.

A change is coming...

2009-02-17T00:01:00.000-06:00

Well, maybe. I'm entering my fifth year of writing here on this blog and I feel like I need to switch some things up. If everything goes according to plan you could be seeing some additional voices. With businesses going under, hostile corporate takeovers and consolidating interests I figured why not do the same thing here?

If my little plan does not go according to, uh, plan then nothing will change and this blog will forge ahead like you've known in the past. Last year was a bit of an aberration as far as my frequency of posting. Adjusting to school, a new house and new jobs took it's toll. I am pledging to return to form this year and ramble on about senseless crap. You know, fun stuff.

A swing and a miss...

2009-02-16T02:01:00.001-06:00

At some point, the train carrying my friends left me at the Kevin Smith station. In high school we would sit around and watch Clerks, Mallrats and eventually Chasing Amy our senior year. I remember watching the latter at a friends house and losing my mind laughing. The material was so edgy and out there for 1997, and to a small-city Midwestern boy who had little to no contact with the gay community at the time, it was eye opening. Of course, Smith's exploits into the inner workings of gay versus straight life are comic book exaggerated (a stretch, I know), and need to be somewhat tempered.

I've held on. Dogma had a great concept, good dialogue but poor acting for the most part. Some scenes were brilliant, some were flat out ridiculous. I held on through Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which does not stand up. It still has a small place in my heart, but it's dwindling. I liked where Smith and crew went with Jersey Girl, but Bennifer (remember that??) and the Gigli effect killed it. It was too precious for Smith anyway.

Clerks 2 made me believe again. I was quite pleased and that movie tugged on the heartstrings. It was 95% nostalgia, but it was a great ride. This takes me to his latest effort, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I'll admit I had high expectations like most people I knew.

It has probably one of the hottest comic stars right now in Seth Rogan, along with some wise casting to fill the roles around him. He was brilliant in The 40 Year Old Virgin, believable in Knocked Up and just mediocre in Superbad. I am yet to see Pineapple Express. Sadly, he didn't wow me much in this movie. Smith's leading man formula and Rogan's improvisational magic he has been known to weave on stage did not mesh.

Yes, that's right, I don't really like this movie at all. I laughed in parts the first time through, but mostly at my wife's reactions to all the raunch because she's not a huge fan of it. She's coming around the more I infect her, so to speak.

I took in my second viewing tonight, and I didn't laugh once. Even the infamous "frosting" scene didn't do anything for me. It just feels like too much of a rip off. Smith and his merry band of movie makers seemed to pride themselves on using "their cast." Now, the cast just seems like it's out on loan between Judd Apatow hits. It feels fake. And wrong. Smith was on the cusp with Affleck, Jason Lee and Joey Lauren Adams. They became stars after playing roles in a few a Smith's films. Now it seems like he's playing catch up with people that don't seem too interested in making his writing pop like it used to.

Watching Smith try and shove a square peg through a round hole is painful. It's painful to write this. Most of his movies are treasures among my DVD and Bluray collection. Jesus, I listen to SModcast while falling asleep nearly every night. I'm a fan. Still. But I just can't fake it with this movie. He's trying way to hard to get over his "30 million dollar hump" with this one.

The only character that salvages this movie in any respect for me is Elisabeth Banks. She is the one person who made the lines, the character and her story come alive. While everyone else was dying onscreen, Banks showed me that she should be one of the better actresses in Hollywood right now. She made me believe, watching Darryl and Mooj argue near the beginning of the movie while Cal jumped in and out of the conversation almost made me cringe. I was watching The 40 Year Old Virgin and The Office. It was horrible.

Smith and some of the reviews tried to prop up the movie because of it's heart and love story. It just felt so goddamned empty to me. It didn't get it's dull hooks in me at all. The love scene between Zack and Miri seemed off putting, the climax at the end fell way short and like I've said, the acting was lost in translation from Smith's script.

The movie swung for the fences on the shock value in going for a very hard 'R' rating and whiffed. Big time. It seemed like he was doing it just for the sake of doing it. None of it felt believable. Not even close. Tonight made me sad, upset and a little disappointed. As much as you can put emotions like that into a movie anyway. But I did feel compelled enough to write about it.

I'm sure I'll give it a few more shots. Who knows, it could grow on me. It just doesn't seem that likely at this point. It's hard to imagine the Weinsteins continuing to budget Smith and uber-producer Scott Mosier after this one. It should have been huge as far as the money it should have made. I think they've passed on his next project, a horror film tentatively titled "Red State." Even the name is too late in regards to it's other meaning. Smith, once a progressive writer, seems to be a reactionary now. I'm approaching 29 in the next ten days. It looks like "my movies" from my teens and twenties are going to stay in that era and not board the next train with me.

Drew Barrymore Must Die

2009-02-15T15:03:00.002-06:00

Well, at least her pattern of making saccharine fluff. It's not all bad though, just some of it. She has been at the helm as executive producer for her production company, Flower Films, for two gems. Donnie Darko and Fever Pitch are movies that I enjoy repeatedly. The Jekyll to her Ms. Hyde however, has given us Charlies Angels 1 and 2 (partially saved by the sultry Demi Moore and late Bernie Mac) and the movie I endured in the name of love last night.

He's Just Not That Into You is the epitome of what I dislike in Hollywood. The problems are marketed as real life (they aren't), yet the characters and the settings are as stereotypical (they are) as Mexicans mowing my lawn. Did you know that Africans all live in huts with livestock running everywhere? Asian women dress in the quirky way 12 year old girls find charming and gay people only work in design departments? That's what this movie taught me in the breakup and consoling montage portion. The sets are straight off the showroom floor from Crate & Barrel and everyone is dressed like an Abercrombie model.

This is the quandary with Barrymore and the movies she pushes out into the public. Some are very good, the others are candidates for the yawn olympics. Her movies and their consistency are as big a tease as Ivy. Indeed, I felt as uncomfortable as Tom Cooper last night.

The cast of characters reads like a Rolodex of beautiful people. Ben Affleck, the ever bland Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Ginnifer Goodwin, Bradley Cooper (Zach from The Wedding Crashers), and the guy from the Mac vs. PC commercials. I understand no one wants to pay ten bucks to see a guy like me on a 40 foot screen, but give me a fucking break. My friends and I a pretty homely looking. No one has a modeling contract, and nobody's dad looks like Kris Kristofferson.

The biggest problem I had with this movie? Other than the insipid story and it's ability to tie a bow on each situation like a Brady Bunch episode? The soundtrack. Yes, that's right. Each time I am bamboozled into seeing a movie like this, it is littered with music I absolutely love. "Can't Hardly Wait" by the Replacements and "This Must Be the Place" by the Talking Heads are two songs that just about made me jump up and leave the theatre. You simply cannot do this. Injecting good music into a bullshit movie is against the rules.

The night wasn't without an interesting social commentary. I couldn't have picked a better place for us to view this film. I figured since our dinner choice was near the Country Club Plaza we would go to said outdoor shopping center out of convenience. My common sense forgot to remind me that it would be a madhouse, full of people that I spend my days making fun of. Too worried about their looks, their clothes, their cars and who they surround themselves with to give them time to reflect on what is real in the world, man. A tad over dramatic, I know, I was kidding. Mostly. But we did walk out of the theater and into reality where not much had changed from screen to street.

When I go to the Plaza I'm generally ok with it. However when I'm leaving I always feel relieved that I'm exiting that place. For those unaware, it is the apex of an interesting dichotomy here in Kansas City. It lies just south of Midtown where heroin and crack addicts are seen lining outside of blood banks for extra scratch and north of a gentrification project that would make Malcolm X froth at the mouth. Most interesting to me, is that east and west are as polar opposite as ebony and ivory. Literally.

To the west is Ward Parkway, land of estates and castles. Johnson County which was and still is the landing pad for white flight in our city is also fixed where the sun sets. To the east is the most dangerous neighborhood in all of Missouri and Kansas. At least according to an expose recently published in The Kansas City Star. More murderers from this particular zip code are behind bars than any other postal stop in the Show Me State.

Here is where you can see $50,000 motorcycles line the block as their middle aged riders sip cappuccino while a street performer dances 18 hours a day for your spare change. Kids that play soccer and wear khakis on the weekend meet kids who know someone who has been murdered or is in prison. It is a visual orgasm for even the most casual people watcher.

The movie is not unlike the region of town we were in last night. It's fake and unrealistic. People will list it in their top five things to do in Kansas City, but it's a lie. There is no real culture there, no real landmark. The Christmas lights, which kills me how this city fawns over them, are a joke. It caters to people who reside in the top of the financial food chain, which is fine, I have no problems with this. It does however trap people with less I.Q. points than what is in their bank accounts. Not much difference though. Constantly watching people trying to fit in and please the people that could care less about them is like watching a sheep in wolves clothing.

This post will come off as snarky, conceited and display my inferiority complex. That's fine. Saying that, people in general will prove me right every time. I heard no less than five conversations leaving the theater where people would say "Oh my God, that is so true. The movie was so realistic, it's just like my life." And that is the problem. It's not. Your life is not like that. My life is not like that. The theater was not the only thing doing plenty of projecting last night.

This is why Drew Barrymore must be stopped.

Back to What I Do

2009-02-13T02:01:00.001-06:00

It's been awhile since I've had one of those short and sweet posts. This one is to ask a question.

Do you ever have one of those nights where you know you should be going to bed but you just don't want to? You ever wonder why? I wonder through my thinning hair if you could install an on/off switch to my brain.

Happy Friday the 13th ya'll.

Happy Through the Sadness

2009-02-09T02:01:00.000-06:00

My wife and I like to hang out and watch award shows. She likes to see who is wearing what and I like to criticize and make fun of everyone on the show. Tonight was no exception, but the night wasn't without them.

Robert Plant (who is doing his best Cowardly Lion style) and Allison Krauss picked up a couple Grammys, including album of the year. If you haven't downloaded or purchased 'Raising Sand' in the last year, you're missing out. This collaboration, which includes the front man from arguably my favorite band of all time, has been on my radar since it was announced. I waited with eager anticipation to actually pay full price for it on iTunes. A rarity this day in age. I didn't want some crappy leaked demos.

The fact that this project won some hardware tonight isn't a huge surprise as the album has been a critical darling since it hit the airwaves. I was surprised it won album of the year however. Last year another surprise took place when Herbie Hancock walked away with album of the year beating out the likes of (thank God) Amy Winehouse. Coldplay or Lil' Wayne seemed poised to win tonight, as the Grammys are notorious for picking something obvious one year, and picking a dark horse the next, but never two years in a row. Thanks for keeping me coming back.

Other than the few wins by Plant and Krauss, it was a downer of a year. Coldplay beating Metallica for rock performance of the year, John Mayer still being alive and well, and the attack of the Disney kids. Luckily for all the pre-pubescent fans, CBS front loaded the show with the Brothers Jonas and Hanna Montana, but not before they threw in a little faux-lesbianism with Katie Perry singing "I Kissed a Girl" which is the best ode to bi-curious activity since Jill Sobule's 90's classic (the video featured Fabio, remember? plus it's a better song) of same name. I'm sure old Jill is pissed her song will probably be erased from most of the record books thanks to Perry.

Not more than 30 minutes after saying to my wife that Coldplay looked like a homeless version of The Beatles from their Sgt. Pepper era, one of the band members not named Chris Martin apologized to Paul McCartney for ripping off his style he created 42 years earlier. I'm sure Sir Paul was flattered.

The night's biggest abomination, other than Kid Rock, was Keith Urban and John Mayer sharing the stage with blues legends B.B. King and Buddy Guy. Why King continues to keep Mayer around is astounding. Maybe he is trying to subtly tell him he has the potential to be a solid blues musician, rather than a James Taylor-esque whinny douche bag who writes songs for middle aged women, destined for elevators around the globe.

Equally horrifying, at least to me, was Kanye West. What the fuck man? You used to be a solid socially conscious MC and hella producer. Now you look like an extra from "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo." Sad, sad, sad.

While waiting for the show to start, and milling around the house, I overheard from my wife's E! pregame show that Chris Brown and Rhianna were unable to make it to the show as they were doing their best Ike and Tina Turner impression. Good on ya kids, pop music needs a little controversy. So I say take the black eye and scratch marks, because I'm getting sick of hearing about Nick Jonas and his purity ring. Like he's not pulling in ass like an NBA player. Give me a break.

Whitney Houston gave out the first award for best R&B Performance, won by the incredible Jennifer Hudson, and is still showing signs of the Bobby Brown affect. I guess crack and prescription painkillers take awhile to run their course.

All in all, it was a great show to sit back and text my sister complaints and shared grievances. It's good to know that someone out there shares the same twisted thought process as yours truly. Next up, Oscar Gold!!

Now What?

2009-02-08T10:39:00.000-06:00

Today officially marks the end of the NFL season. Players who decided to go to Hawai'i and not stay home and nurse a broken ego will duke it out for conference supremacy in the Pro Bowl. I might add, this is the last year it will take place in Hawai'i. Next season it will move to the continental U.S. in Miami, much to the dismay of Ray Lewis and Peyton Manning.

No one cares about the Pro Bowl. I know I don't. I never watch it and I probably won't watch it today either. So what we have now is what I like to call as the sports "dead period." I'm huge on college football and baseball, neither one of which is seeing much action now. My fantasy baseball league won't have our draft until March, which gives me approximately four weeks of watching college basketball and the NBA.

I attempted to watch the NASCAR Bud Shootout last night. When that didn't work out I ended up watching Zack and Miri Make a Porno with my wife. Chew on that one for a bit for things to do on a Saturday night.

In any event I do have F1 racing starting soon, and hopefully they start broadcasting all the races in HD now that I have the Speed channel. I never thought I'd become one of those HD snobs that I hated so much, but once you regularly watch shows and movies in HD it's hard to go back.

Adding to the anxiety of waiting for another season of college football, which is a mere seven months away, was purchasing my Spring Game tickets for my beloved Huskers. Who knew that buying tickets to travel a couple hundred miles to watch practice would get me as excited as it does.

Yesterday was nearly 70 degrees in Kansas City. Does anyone else find the yo-yo weather this winter to be a little disturbing? I'm not one of those greenie freak out people, but walking my dog in shorts and a t-shirt was a little odd. Especially considering it was the first weekend in February and not the middle of April.

Tidbits from the Big Tree

2009-02-01T14:53:00.000-06:00

If you still check in on this blog from time to time, which I would be surprised if you did, then you'll notice I've posted two columns from the campus newspaper I write for, The Park University Stylus. Not only do I lend my talents to the editorial side of things, I cover various sports on campus. Like men's basketball and women's volleyball.

Each time I do a column I'm going to post it here before it goes to print. So Park students, you're in for a real treat because you'll always be privy to what is coming out in the next issue. All the others will continue to read and have no knowledge of what makes it into the paper or not. My posts that don't will probably be filled with naughty language like you've come to expect from me in previous years.

The sentiments contained in this post are between not serious and somewhat believable.

I am also one third of the way to my post total from last year. You should be proud.

The Information of Errors

2009-01-30T14:50:00.000-06:00

The state of how people obtain information and what they do with it has started to disturb me. In the age of the information superhighway, it's possible to have a world of knowledge at your fingertips. It's a great deal of power to have on your side, especially for those of us that can remember when you couldn't check on the arguments for Cosmological theory in a split second on Google and you had to look up articles in a library. Possibly on microfilm or some other horrific precursor that predated our beloved friend and partner in academia, the Internet.

Back in the day, to use a phrase, you could only have access to the opinions of those that were in your immediate zip code or metropolitan area. Knowing what Larry the Blogger in New Mexico thought regarding the breeding habits of the Whiptail Lizard (it's the state reptile, seriously, look it up) could only be enjoyed by those in his part of the country. Now, it's possible for people from Maine to Outer Mongolia to come to understand the wonders of this fascinating reptilian specimen.

Not that I have a problem with Larry who writes about his favorite animal, it's just that for his nine to five job he's a clerk at an AM/PM outside of Santa Fe on Interstate 25 and hasn't spent five minutes in a classroom studying biology or any of the thousand other things you have to know to become a traditional expert on wildlife.

This type of thing begs the question, do you have to be professionally trained to become an expert, professional or casual, in your field of interest? It all comes down to whom you trust. If you can take the opinion or what could be construed as fact from Larry, and that's good enough for you and millions of other blog readers, then that could show the beginnings of a sea change in how people gather and process information.

My Grandfather used to bird watch and would log all sorts of interesting facts and habits of birds indigenous to South Dakota, where I'm from. Now imagine if he also had the ability to wield the power of the internet (which he doesn't, for the record) and present his findings as fact. "The Hooded Merganser only comes to feed on every third day. It must be so that it only needs to feed two times per week," he could write. Is a residential backyard with a bird feeder and a birdbath a scientifically acceptable controlled environment?

Imagine a seventh grader in Seattle doing a report in his or her science class on birds of the Midwest, and using my Grandpa's blog site as a credible source. What sort of grade do you think they would get? This is presupposing any legitimate schoolteacher would allow such nonsense, but play along. Shouldn't the information detailed in this report come from say an encyclopedia where the information is somewhat dry and boring but undeniably accurate? Or should my 74-year-old Grandpa and former regional manager of a Cummins Diesel Truck dealership be the beacon of information? Sure, the text in an encyclopedia is not as colorful as the wit and candor of good old Grandpa, however I'm certain it has more quality information where the child could gather it all in and come up with an opinion of their own, thus achieving a higher grade.

This is the problem we face. Taking the easy road and trusting someone else's word for it is what we are seemingly shifting toward. When you read someone else's opinion, it's unfair to say that you, the reader or listener, cannot dissect what they are saying and form some variation of it on your own. However, it is a passive way of ignoring what some see as the big issue at hand. While reading opinion as your sole source of information can be fun and enjoyable it leaves little time for critical thought. To not have time for facts is to not have time to create your own ideas and opinions.

It's not news to most people that the newspaper industry as we know it is dying a slow and painful death. It hasn't completely fallen by the wayside, however the people that get their information from traditional print journalism aren't getting any younger. Facts and interesting stories with depth are being condensed to give way for larger advertisements for Verison Wireless or Macy's so papers like the Kansas City Star can sustain themselves and be somewhat viable. Should we sacrifice facts so we can write in a more appealing way to my generation? I'm not so sure that facts and details are so expendable. They way we write? Sure. Leaving out the important stuff? Not so much.

I'm not saying don't read blogs, or the opinions of others, because if you just take my word for it you probably missed the point of this entire piece. Go out and be receptive to anything you can get your hands on. No one ever regressed in intelligence because they had too much information. Getting out there and being able to recognize was is fact or fiction equips you to know what is right for you. Letting someone else do that for you could be one of the biggest mistakes you could make.

Mission Accomplished?

2009-01-23T14:41:00.000-06:00

I'm writing this on the eve of what is building to be one of the most historic days in American history. At least so I'm told. Today, in remembrance and celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is a day to reflect on the struggles of the oppressed minority in our country and to do what we all can do to make our world a little better than how we found it. Taking one day out of the year to try and better and repair centuries of bitter racial divides is clearly not enough. However the formation of the day itself marks the recognition of a step in the right direction.

There is still work to be done. Not only on trying to mend a broken relationship between races in the United States, but on erasing the lines that keep us apart. We all hold unique and special traits among ourselves as individuals and as descendants of differing nationalities. Reaching out and coming together by identifying what makes us, well us, and not necessarily trying to erase those distinctions to live free but rather accepting them for what they are and realizing we're not all that different underneath it all. This seems to be the objective of a different, and not necessarily new, generation of people clamoring for something they are not used to.

Tomorrow when President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama becomes the 44^th President of the United States of America, it will signal a change throughout the presidential history in our country. Never has a person that is not a white male, who was also not of meager means, been elected into one of the most powerful offices in the free world. For those who support Mr. Obama it will be a time of hope and optimism. For those that didn't cast their vote for the former U.S. Senator it will be a time of initial criticism and a game of wait-and-see.

Whether you support the man or not, we as citizens are called on to support the office. Our country is facing what seems to be dire consequences from many problems that most cannot identify. At least specifically. Leaving most people I talk to confused and unable to ascertain what is going to happen next. Whether it affects your livelihood or the livelihood of those around you, to say we live in a giant uncertainty is a gross understatement.

Will those that support Mr. Obama, and even to a larger extreme those that revere him before stepping foot in the White House, be able to temper their ideas a promise of hope and change? Will those who despise the fact that he has ascended to the Office of the President be patient enough to see his policies through? Or will they pile on and start the campaign for 2012 before the first 100 days have been completed? It seems the old credo of “what's so funny about peace, love and understanding?” aren't just lyrics in an Elvis Costello song. I've also heard that patience is a virtue.

Using a presidential election as a metaphor for racial change is just one of the many aspects on what will take place tomorrow, or what has already taken place by the time most of you read this. On a symbolic level, something has been accomplished and for that we should take a moment to be proud of it. However, our time to stand back and admire what has happened has a short window attached to it.

Right now we face real problems that lie beyond the obvious racial divisions in our country. A weakening dollar and manufacturing industry. A crumbling banking empire. A military complex that grows stronger as those who provide it's dutiful service become overextended. Even the basics of holding on to your job and making ends meet is in jeopardy. So placing your hopes in one man, however noble or disingenuous you see him as, is a game that the public cannot afford to play these next four years. Change must start at a household and neighborhood level. Taking care of ourselves in our communities is what must happen in order to resurrect and save ourselves. Change shouldn't come from above, it should come from you and I.

Missing Out?

2008-07-23T09:12:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was my 10 year high school reunion and as I'm sitting here today I'm thinking I would like to say that I would have liked to have been there. Confusing enough sentence? Maybe, but the fact sort of remains that I'm not that unhappy that I didn't go.

Sure, I would have liked to have seen some people that I don't normally get the opportunity to see when I'm back home in Sioux Falls who don't live there either, but other than that, I only thought about what I could be missing for a few brief moments while I was down at the Lake of the Ozarks. The fact of the matter is that I haven't really kept in contact with that many people from high school since we all either moved away, went to college or both.

I didn't stay home for any typical reason that most people use to not attend a high school reunion, for example working at Wal-Mart or weighing 450 pounds, I stayed home just because I didn't really feel like it. It's pretty generic and probably even lazy, but I didn't feel like dragging my wife up to Sioux Falls for the third time in about two months. Gas is expensive, and I need gas money to get back and forth to Lincoln, Nebraska in September, October and November for Husker games.

I almost decided to go the week of, I won't lie. I even told my wife I was considering it. A few people were in my ear about coming up, and I felt bad (and still do) that I turned them down in a way by not coming at all. So I'm sure I'll sit and struggle with it for a little bit, but not too much. Had I still been living in Sioux Falls it would have been a no brainer and I would have gone. I guess living away gives people like me an excuse not to go. But it sounds like everyone had a good time and that's great. I'm glad to see that my class was still operating on the same level they pretty much were the last time I was around them. The get togethers were informal and not at some stuffy fucking country club, which is what my Mom's high school class has done every time. Screw that. If they had done that I wouldn't have even given it a second thought.

Well, now I've got 10 years to decide what to do when I'm 38. Maybe I'll give it more thought this time.

Who's House?

2008-07-01T21:42:00.000-05:00

Have you ever wondered why people will always insist that they are right? Do you ever ponder the question of why people are so adamant in their beliefs that even when shown the folly of their ways will continue down the path of self-righteousness? It stumps me just as much as it befuddles you, the curious yet intelligent reader of this blog. Both of you.

What seems to be the most frustrating aspect to me is that people who take this position generally decide to take all opposing views as a personal attack on them, God and their country. If they say "tow-may-to" and I say "tow-ma-to" they say "fuck off you jerk off." I guess what I'm saying is if I'm going to get into a healthy and heated debate I'd at least like a little foreplay before we exchange blows.

It's funny to me that people who defend the country's honor and safety against would-be terrorists by sacrificing young men and women with children into a country that was all but absent in the attacks from September 11th, will turn around and say that they hope a bomb would have gone off in Independence, Missouri yesterday while Barack Obama was giving a speech defending his own patriotism.

The thing that irks me is that these people can, within a single breath of a conversation, wish a fiery and violent death on a United States Senator and then justify and support the deaths of thousands of troops all while saying that Jesus loves us all and we are forgiven. Maybe ultra religious conservatives who wish everyday for death are happy to wish it upon others so they can come to salvation. Who knows. I'm almost done with trying to examine the psyche of the closeted John Hagee supporter. You know, the people who are all ready to quote the Bible and will tell you that they'll pray for you but will stop short of saying that God is punishing us by increasing the price of gas because of our support for the gays. They don't want you to think they're really nuts under their shallow sea of piousness. They haven't tap danced on the lines of public craziness. Yet.

All I know is that now that the headphones are off from 9 to 5 so to speak, and the public opinions of the near senior crowd is giving me a headache.

A Dog's Life

2008-05-29T22:54:00.000-05:00

So what is a newly married couple to do for eventual child training? Buy a dog apparently. This isn't saying we are attempting to have children at this point, well, we're practic... ok so never mind. So we brought home our canine bundle of joy today from an animal shelter here in the greater KC metro. As you can see, she's a lab and no more than 10 weeks old. Her name was Misty, however we decided it was too stripperish but didn't want to change the sound of her name too much. We eventually decided on Missy. So, to friends or family that might be named Missy and reading this, don't be offended. At least try not to be. Indiana Jones was named after a dog after all.

In other news, I'm in the middle of studying for certification and licensing in my new job this week, so things on top of the new mutt will be a little busy. The ladies I work with (two of them) in my office are quite religious and Republican. But they also have open minds while talking to me. At least for the time being. There are only five of us in our strip mall office space and that makes me happy. Goodbye and good riddance corporate banking! Hopefully for good.

Strange Fascination

2008-03-25T14:57:00.000-05:00

This is something that I've been meaning to write about for quite some time. I'm not sure why I haven't, maybe because there is a certain level of discomfort when I know that my wife will read this. It's nothing bad. I just seem to have a strange affection for bands that have female Japanese lead singers. It used to just be chick bands or bands with chicks fronting them. Don't you love saying that word? Say it out loud right now in front of your computer no matter who is around. Chicks. Awesome.

Here are two of my favorites. And no it's not because they are hot or I have some strange thing for Asians like some people do. It's very specific. Japanese female, must sing lead in a group or musical act. That's it. Perv.

Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead

Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof

Sneak Preview

2008-03-18T22:21:00.001-05:00

Ok, so last month I complained about how much buying a houst sort of sucks, but not really. Well, it's almost all over now and barring any last minute snags we will be homeowners next Friday. I'm posting just one picture of the front of the house. I apologize for the quality, it was photographed by the sellers. If we don't get this house, I'm placing the blame squarely on you, the reader, for jinxing it by reading my blog. Jerks.

Just kidding. I love you.

Best Video of the Week

2008-02-25T15:40:00.000-06:00

You'll probably see this everywhere soon, but if you stayed up late enough to watch Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, you saw and awesome video. If you aren't familiar with the video, I put one up that has Kimmel explaining the background for the video he is in. So sit back, relax, and take 6 minutes to watch a pretty funny music video.

This one could be even worse.

Buying a House Sort of Sucks

2008-02-20T19:04:00.000-06:00

I know, it's been awhile since I've posted, but more than likely now that I have removed this blog from my former MySpace account no one is reading it. Hell, I don't even really write in it that much.

Anyway, in the past month my wife and I have been looking for new homes. As you read a couple posts back, apartment life sucks when people try to steal your car. The attempted theft on our sweet, beloved Neon only accelerated our want and desire to purchase a new home. I was fairly excited about the prospect of moving into my own house. I was aware the process of purchasing a home was fairly lengthy, emotional and complicated. I just didn't know how aggravating it would actually be.

The easiest part of it was getting pre-approved and such. Finding houses in the area of town that we liked wasn't much more difficult either. Our Realtor is even pretty easy to work with. Although she does have some hair-brained ideas about our chances of getting a home that's been on the market for awhile in a "declining market." Our broker says not to worry, so I'll believe her.

Here's the exciting part. The house we want to buy is a foreclosure. It's actually a brand new home though. Let me explain. The builder didn't sell it fast enough or just went under and lost it to a bank or the bank that originally financed the build. So, technically it's new because it's never been occupied.

Here is what you may not know about buying a foreclosed home. When dealing with a bank it takes for fucking ever. The listing agent never answers her phone. Our Realtor has to leave messages for the most mundane items that are not carried out until the next day. Oh hey, we have a question about what you just told us, we need to call you back. Oh well, looks like we'll have to wait until tomorrow.

With us being first timers, it's all very nerve wracking. The good thing is that the offer we made was accepted yesterday. All we have to wait for now is our home inspection to come back all Jim Dandy next Friday and we'll be good to go when we close on or before March 28th. So, wish us luck, we are hoping that the hard part is over. Somehow I doubt it though. We are keeping positive and hope to be in our new home soon. Pictures of the real house will be posted as soon as we actually close and take possession.

Notice now that I'm married my posts are now resembling mass family emails rather than points of view on anything of interest to anyone but my wife and I? Yeah.

Feeling South Dakota

2008-01-16T18:01:00.000-06:00

That's right, this weekend I will be braving the elements to see some people back in my hometown of Sioux Falls. So if you know me, and I know you, and you read this entry give me a call. I'll be in town from Friday afternoon until Monday morning.

This week marked my return to college. I'm now attending Park University for a journalism major and public relations minor. Well, eventually on the PR minor. We'll see how the rest of this works out. My classes are quite interesting. Let me explain.

I haven't been to school for over six years so I thought it would be best to part-time it this semester and only take two classes. Not only that I'm taking day classes Monday through Friday. My Monday, Wednesday and Friday class is Interpersonal Communication. My professor in this class is, well, interesting to say the least. She's a bit of a dunderhead, but she seems like she'll be interesting and somewhat entertaining. My other class is even more offbeat.

Since I'm attending a liberal arts university, I have to take liberal arts classes. Of course every university has electives that one must take, but this one is a little out there in terms of class requirements. It's a music appreciation class. It's an intro class of course, but get this. No tests, no written essays and the syllabus is still to be accepted and approved by the department. The professor is obviously gay, which is fine by me but it obviously freaks some of the other students out a bit. This makes for some entertainment value for me.

Ah, the students. Most of them are like me, but younger. I feel quite old and I'm sure I look old to them. I'm married and I'm going bald. I look like I'm 35 but I'm only 27. At least to them anyway. I'm sure things will work out fine, I have a good feeling about my classes for the spring and that I'll do well. Plus, the company I'm working for is paying for it as long as I get a C or better.

Let's see, what else. Oh yeah! Now that I'm a proud member of the Nebraska Cornhusker Touchdown Club it is opening new doors for me and my Husker obsession. Being a booster now, I was invited to a club function in Lincoln, Nebraska on February 7th that involves the new head coach, Bo Pelini, and the rest of his staff. It's social hour, dinner and a presentation on the newly recruited football players!

I won't be attending this year because no one else will go with me. And it's in the middle of the week and an hour and a half away. Oh well, maybe next year. My season tickets should make me feel better for this next season.

Happy New Year

2008-01-03T11:23:00.000-06:00

Out with the old and in with the new. In our case, meaning my wife and I, we are out with the old door and ignition switch in her car and in with a new one(s). You see, the night before New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve Eve, her car was broken into with the intention of it being stolen.

My wife was going to buy cat food in the afternoon while I was going to sit on the couch and play a rousing session of Super Mario Galaxy on my Nintendo Wii. She ran back into the apartment stating that someone tried to steal her car to which I promptly responded in true idiot form, "what, like right now?"

I went down to discover the ignition switch on the passenger floorboard of the front seat and the drivers side door had been pried away from the car to gain entry (as shown above). What the would be thief did not realize is that Neon's after the year of 2002 or 2001 had chips in the keys with the expressed purpose of not being able to hot wire them from the inside. Would it kill car thieves to subscribe to Consumer Reports to learn about theft deterrents such as this?

So we spent most of our New Year's Eve afternoon filing the police report, calling State Farm (our insurance agency) and getting the car up to the local Dodge dealership. The rep from State Farm said two other clients had their Neons broken into over the weekend. The tow truck guy said he just picked up a Neon a couple miles away and the only difference is that it was black.

Now the car is checked in at the dealership, but the body shop is backed up. It is winter in the Midwest after all. At least we only have to pay our deductible rather than upwards of $1000 for the cost of the repairs. So we ended 2007 with a bang, so to speak. Hopefully the year of 2008 doesn't involve any more destruction of our property. Who knows, it is Kansas City. Maybe this is karma for my last post of 2007?

Goodbye for now, sweet Neon!

Get Your Opinion Off Your Car

2007-12-29T09:04:00.000-06:00

This is my first post on this blog not transferred over from my soon to be defunct MySpace blog. This isn’t a historic even or anything, I just figured I’d give the first non-MySpace entry its due. So, congratulations little guy, you deserve it.

I have an issue this morning. Well, it’s more an issue from last night that spilled over into this morning. My wife made enchiladas last night. No, my issue is not with the Mexican feast that she lovingly prepared. My issue comes from when I had to travel to our local grocer for a couple of missing ingredients.

I parked next to a 1992 Ford Taurus with an interesting bumper sticker. If it wasn’t at night and my cell phone had a flash on it for the camera, I would have taken a pic to post on here, but this will have to do…

While I don’t have an issue with his sentiment to promote the buying and purchasing of American products, I do have a problem with the tone of the phrase used. Does my owning and driving of a Volkswagen somehow make me less American than this gentleman?

Am I hurting the American worker by driving a car that is made in Wolfsburg rather than Claycomo? Should I buy a German flag magnet and put it on my car? My Dad is German after all. Nah, the Germans would never make something that tacky. However, some American company would probably manufacture it. In China.

I don’t hate my country. I don’t even hate this guy whose bumper sticker offended me. What I hate is the continued assumption that if you aren’t supporting someone’s particular cause in this country then you are somehow against them, and it’s personal. I think some people have watched too many Dirty Harry or Arnold Schwarzenegger flicks.

Let’s break down the message on the sticker itself.

“Get My American Flag…” – so, this guy and anyone else who purchased this mass produced sticker is somehow assuming that the American Flag is his intellectual property or he designed it? Could be. Or does he think that people who own foreign cars are out to actually steal all of his American Flags? Who knows, he could be crazy and actually believe that all the flags in the contiguous 48 states are his.

“…Off Of Your Foreign Car.” – who knows? Maybe I could just be driving my buddy’s Honda to the store quick for a six pack or a magazine. Maybe I have a good ol’ Chevy in my driveway and I’m catching the icy stare from this dude for no reason. “My friend is an asshole anyway,” I’d tell him in order to defend my poor choice in transportation. “He wipes his ass with toilet paper with the Declaration of Independence printed on each square.”

This flowed into this morning because our local sports talk radio station, which I spend about 90% of my time in my car listening to, 810 WHB has a program on Saturday mornings called “Racin’ Boys.” Now, I don’t particularly care for NASCAR or any other form of Americanized racing (man, maybe I do hate this country) but I’ll listen to anything while I’m half asleep on a weekend morning before 9AM.

Someone called in to the show and said that he didn’t have a problem with Toyota’s being in NASCAR. He said the people that do are hypocrites because they probably watch Sunday racing on their Japanese TV’s while they wear their favorite drivers T-shirt, probably purchased at Wal-Mart and manufactured in China.

The guy had a thick Missera (maybe you’d have to live here to get that) accent and used the vocabulary of a 5^th grader, but he made a very valid point. We don’t really live in an American economy any longer when it comes to the purchasing of most products.

We live in a global economy and it’s probably going to stay that way while most people are looking for “Everyday Low Prices.” So, until American auto manufacturers can produce a car that isn’t a complete piece of shit that I can afford and I feel is safe yet mildly sporty at the same time, I’m going to stick to buying Volkswagens.

Just sort of a side note here, have you noticed that the two big foreign car makers are from former World War II Axis powers Japan and Germany? Even most people associate exotic cars (IE Ferrari and Lamborghini) with Italy. Does anyone else find this awfully coincidental? Maybe it's just me.

I make a conscious decision to not shop at places like Wal-Mart. I don’t like it. They don’t pay their employees much, or take care of benefits for the non-management workers that make up 85% of their global staff, and yet they are the richest retailer in the world by leaps and bounds. I won’t buy from a company like that. But mostly it's because a majority of the people that shop there have the IQ of Forest Gump with none of the sunny disposition and life lessons that he had to offer. Not one damn piece of chocolate either.

That is called a personal decision. Well, “that’s not unusual Zach,” you might say. To you and me, probably not. You are literate enough to follow what I’m talking about, so you’re smarter than most people. But a personal decisions to purchase American made cars, or bar soap, or socks should be just that. You shouldn’t have to buy your opinions and put them on your car.

This country is now full of personal opinions on cars. “Stay The Course,” “They Started It, We’ll Finish It,” and my favorite “Support The Troops.” Give me a fucking break, do you really need to put crap like this on your car to prove you’re that much more American than someone who doesn’t? Keep your opinions to yourself, and keep your bumper clean. Your crappy 1987 Ford 150 will thank you for it.

And In The End?

2007-12-28T22:24:00.000-06:00

Category: MySpace

I've been toying around with the idea for the past few months of ending my run on MySpace. I know, let it sink in. What is a person to do with no MySpace?? How crazy is that? Being between the ages of 14-35 and having a MySpace page is almost like having an email, or a toaster.

Honestly, I'm just sort of getting tired of it. I'm not a shut in, but I'm not really all about sharing myself with the rest of the world through this site. Of course I want to stay in touch with my friends with whom I'm in contact with, frequently or infrequently. I'm sure I'll keep a Facebook because it's less annoying. We'll see.

I'll more than likely continue to blog as well. Maybe at a steady pace again. I have two blogs, one for the Red Sox and one for the Huskers. You can catch me on either, but I think I may start another to blog about other stuff like I did here. I'm considering putting up all my old posts from this blog and puting it on the new one. Yikes, that would be alot of work. I'll let you all know.

Anyway, it's not goodbye, not yet. I haven't really decided entirely. This isn't a cry for help, I don't want a bunch of people telling me how much they'd love me to stay on MySpace. It's more about not having as much time for something like this any longer. It's not really a focus anymore.

Currently listening :
Heresy & the Hotel Choir
By Maritime
Release date: By 16 October, 2007

10:04 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

J.F. Whitaker

Good riddance, jerk.

Posted by J.F. Whitaker on Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 9:23 AM
[Remove] [Reply to this]

Cory

Fear not, your legacy lives on...

Posted by Cory on Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 9:24 PM
[Remove] [Reply to this]

Questionable Effort

2007-12-16T22:23:00.000-06:00

Not my best writing effort ever, but I did spend time on it while bored at work so better to post it than just let it die. For your reading enjoyment...

It's not that uncommon to like Led Zeppelin, although some of my friends that I made and associated with would say that during my freshman year of high school I had an unhealthy obsession with the band.

I'm not sure exactly what tipped me off into purchasing "Houses of the Holy" in October of 1994 (see, I still remember that). My old man had a couple of Zeppelin records but they never generated any interest in me when I was a five-year old kid listening to KISS, Steely Dan and Bruce Springsteen. Before this time in my life I couldn't even hum "Stairway to Heaven."

So when I was at Best Buy with my Mom some fall Sunday afternoon, I decided that I would buy a CD with naked kids on the cover. My Mom of course knew what it was, she grew up in the seventies after all. No concern her child was forging an unhealthy interest in pedophilia.

It was one of those "I'm feeling adventurous" type days, even though buying an album from this band was anything but. You just have to keep in my that during the fall of 1994 I was reading Spin (still good back then) and listening to bands like Guided By Voices, Built to Spill and early Liz Phair. I listened to every band that magazine said was cool. I even still listened to leftover Seattle grunge. So for me, this was about as against the grain as you could possibly get because I'd already gone through my metal phase. Imagine my shock and awe at the bombast that came through my stereo speakers as "The Song Remains the Same" filled my room and house. I had a big stereo as a teen.

My interest in Zeppelin intersected with the release of "No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded." Remember that? It was a VH1 Special, an album and eventually a VHS and DVD. It was the year before they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The revival was on. The channel that debuted the special played Zeppelin videos and their concert film "The Song Remains the Same" over and over again. I taped it all, watched it and re-watched it a hundred times. I made others dine on my cornucopia of Zeppelin.

I played bass guitar before this epiphany of musical infatuation. Not until this band got under my skin did I get serious about learning and studying a craft and an instrument. Not long after I purchased my first Fender Stratocaster. Sure it was a Squire, but I was plugged in and poised to rock.

I bought books and brought them to school. I was ridiculed among friends for being so into a band that was seemingly only as cool as their parents. When someone asked me about Zeppelin, I didn't know if they were serious or if I was being mocked for the 78^th time that particular day.

The music to me was a gateway into music that I had never though of opening myself up to. Specifically, the blues. It's a sad affair when white kids from England have to compose songs on the backs of true pioneers, only to repackage it into a spiffy and pristine package suitable for middle America. But I needed a way in and I got it. The rest was a musical hodge podge of different world music as well. While I don't listen to too much international (or "ethnic") music I can still recognize different influences now. So, it helped.

From the fall of 1994 until the spring of 1995 if you saw me with headphones, you probably could guess I was spinning "Presence" or even "In Through the Out Door." Oh, I also had a four CD box set. I asked for it for Christmas because it had two songs that were not in release at the time. Remember, this predated internet downloading.

I've no doubt sealed my fanhood in the preceding. But I'm not here to tell how big of a Led Zeppelin fan that I was, or still am. What am I trying to say? I'm not even completely sure. The only thing that I know is that most people, teenage boys specifically, go through a Zeppelin phase. It's not hard to understand, it's a myriad of musical influences mashed together into something very pleasing. It's very sexual music, dumb as it is for me to type that even though I've seen it written about 376 times regarding the band. Anyway, teenage boys are all about the sex, or at least the sex they imagine in the palm of their hands.

Saying that, liking Zeppelin is boiled down by some as being for the tasteless and the musically inept. Most of the time, I may be inclined to agree. Really, you say? The songs are all over classic rock radio twenty-four hours a day. They've even lost some of their mystique by selling songs to Cadillac and letting the "Immigrant Song" be apart of Shrek the Third. I about puked when I saw and heard in a trailer that it was in the movie. Fuck Shrek, I hate those movies.

Even a few days ago at their reunion concert for Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertergun, videos surfaced immediately on YouTube and everywhere else. I wanted to see the show, but you couldn't film a Zeppelin concert back in the day without being practically beat up and consumed by the band's manager, Peter Grant.

Even with the shine off of Zep a bit, the reunion sparked something with me and I did something I didn't think I'd do. I was content to let my Zeppelin CD's sit on the shelf for the rest of my life, only listening to them very occasionally. However, last night I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning (lame that it's late now, I know) ripping every album of theirs into my iTunes.

Despite growing up (whatever that means), my musical tastes evolving or the music becoming dated, which it hasn't, I still can sit here at work and write while listening to "Four Sticks." They may not be trendy or hip or cutting edge, but when a band is good they're just good. If you don't get what I'm trying to say then you probably don't like the band in the first place, probably never will. And that's fine. I'm not going to go on and on about the layers of songwriting and production value that went into these albums that made them great compositions. Like my point in this entry. You either get it, or you don't. Either way is fine with me. I've gotten to the age where I don't care what you think. I've been there for awhile, but it bears repeating I believe.

If Zeppelin decides to play in the States, I know I'm going to be there. Not so much to say that "hey, at least I got to see them before they died." No, it's more to go and see a band that still knows what a rock and roll band is supposed to do and still do it well.

Planet Cool

2007-12-11T22:21:00.000-06:00

I read the Drudge Report. That's 'read' in the present tense and not 'read' in the past like, Example: "Yeah Bob, I read Playboy for the articles one time and that's plenty for me." More like, "that's correct Bob, I read Playboy for the naked ladies." Hey, everyone should do it. Read conservative and liberal publications is what I meant, but Playboy as well. You can't be fair and balanced if you don't play on both sides of the fence, right? Although I don't think I'll be picking up a copy of Playgirl anytime soon. I draw the line at sexual preference.

So as I was perusing the conservative news aggregate, I came across a story about Al Gore profiteering off of his environmental speeches. As usual, I have issues with both sides here.

Number one, a conservative friendly news site, such as the one Matt Drudge runs, complaining about capitalism makes me laugh. You sure don't see them running stories and complaining about the price of oil or gas and how much money the suits at Exxon or BP make.

Number two, I've always sort of had a problem with Al Gore in general. Yes, I voted for him as Vice President in my 6^th grade mock election back in 1992 and for President for real eight years later, but I always had bad dreams about it.

What's my problem with Gore you ask? Well, it's quite simple if you were alive in the 1980's or watch a lot of VH1's nostalgia programming. I like the fact he makes the environment and issue, because I do think it's important. I also like the fact he's out there for South Park to make fun of. What would we do without him to combat Manbearpig? But I digress.

I'm sure if you think and remember really hard, you'll recall his wife's name. Tipper Gore? It's too funny a name to just forget after the past seven years or so. Dig a little deeper and you may even remember a little something called the Parents Music Resource Center, or more famously, the PMRC.

Right now, Al Gore is seen as cool and hip and embraced by people that read Rolling Stone and are socially conscious. Back then, Gore was the establishment and the one who gave cause to his wife's complaints about dirty music and dirty music videos. Remember the clips of Frank Zappa, Dee Snider and even John Denver testifying before a "Senate Committee" about the danger that their music didn't put children in? Al Gore was up there trying to censor artists and warn parents about W.A.S.P. Well, we should have all been warned about W.A.S.P., but they're the exception because they suck so much.

Everyone loves Gore because he cares so much about the environment and he's trying to protect our kids and our kids' kids. Really? How much of it is Gore's need to raise global awareness and how much is reserved for finding a way to make money outside of political office? Something he clearly has little interest in these days.

I don't have a problem with Gore trying to make a shekel or two while telling people about disappearing polar bears or rising tides. If someone is willing to pay than that's fine with me. What I have an issue with is conservatives complaining about capitalism when the other side does it effectively and mass amounts of people thinking that certain individuals are hip and happening when they're anything but.

Some may think that Gore is a wolf in sheep's clothing, at least those that would rather he just shut up and go away and continue to get fat. I think he's still just a politician in activist clothing. He's heart could be in the right place, but he's still a giant douche. And as we all know, politics and voting and everything wrapped up in it is just a choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich.

Currently listening :
Trees Outside the Academy
By Thurston Moore
Release date: 18 September, 2007

Moral Compass

2007-12-05T22:21:00.000-06:00

Current mood: awake
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Ah, can you smell and feel that? Christmas is in the air, the lights are shining, the presents are being wrapped and families are making travel plans to spend time with their loved ones. It's a magical time of year, just don't let anyone in the Catholic League or Focus on the Family hear you say the words "Christmas" and "magical" in the same sentence.

Catholic League president William Donohue is on the prowl again, this time against kids and polar bears in shinny armor. The PG-13 movie "The Golden Compass" will be released this Friday, December 7^th nationwide. The movie is aimed at parents and their kids and is going to be one of the highest grossing "family fantasy" films of the season. With a star studded cast in Nicole Kidman and 007 Daniel Craig and totally awesome special effects, what's stopping you from buying your ticket now?

What's all the hubbub bub? Well, some Christian conservatives believe that this movie is an open ended and full out assault on organized religion. Focus on the Family's "Dr." James Dobson and Donohue are sounding the call and leading the charge against the film, which is adapted from novelist Phillip Pullman's trilogy "His Dark Materials." I'm going to plant the seed now, Pullman is public in his atheism.

The basic issue with the plot is that the "evil" and "mysterious" force in the movie is an evil and mysterious cult-like group referred to as the "Magisterium" which is a diluted version (at least in adaptation form) of the Catholic Church. The group has gone horribly awry from their roots and wields a hunger and lust for power that would make Montgomery Burns himself blush.

Just a little Catholic trivia for those not in the know, but Magisterium is also a term used in the Church itself and refers to the teaching authority of the Church. You can start to see why some conservatives are clearly upset by this fact and by the movie.

The reason they are upset is because this point is no coincidence. Pullman intended the books to be anti-organized religion. He is reportedly upset that the themes of secularism are watered down in the movie because New Line Cinema studio executives thoughtfully came up with the idea that an anti-religious move wouldn't be commercially viable for families this close to Christmas. As if most people even remember what Christmas is really about anyway. A gaggle of conservatives are worried that the movie will be a gateway to reading the books (oh my!) the movie is based on, turning sweet, innocent children into Godless creatures of the night who will stop at nothing at bringing down the Catholic Church and organized religion as we know it.

My issue with all of this commotion? The continued dismantling of the family. Whether your family is a single parent home, gay or lesbian couple with adopted kids or good ol' fashioned straight parents, people like Dobson and Donahue want to make your decisions for you. They don't want you to research the movie to see if it is fit for your children and in line with what you preach, or don't, in your own home. They want to make you "safe" from the thoughts and opinions and stories of others and mold their idea of what is good and right into your psyche.

I'm fairly sure that children seeing this movie won't be worshiping any God of the Golden Compass afterwards. If anything, and by the sounds of it, the movie will only teach them to question what they are told and taught, which should be normal. Sadly our society that is becoming increasingly saturated with social conservatives would want you to believe otherwise and would rather impose their will on you than let you be the decider.

Personally, I want my children to question and ask questions when I make a decision that will affect their lives. This way they have a certain level of understanding as to why or why not they are allowed to do certain things. It's exactly how I was raised and I think I turned out okay.

Do you know which religious group didn't have an issue or decide to take up a cause against the movie? Are you ready for this? The Catholic League of Bishops. That's right, the people who are actually paid servants of the Catholic Church thought the movie was positive because the characters in the movie demonstrated "free will" for their resistance to the Magisterium and went further by saying that this quality is a reflection of Catholic principles and is "entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching." What? Really? Shouldn't it be as easy as Dobson and Donahue seeking the advice of the very people they should be taking their moral and religious cues from? Not so fast my friend, they instead wish to challenge them.

When it gets down to it, this is the biggest issue I have. Uber-parishioners. Uber comes from Germanic tongues and is a cognate of both Latin (Super) and Greek (hyper) words. If individuals in an army are soldiers and normal citizens civilians, than individuals in the Catholic Church (priests, nuns, monks, bishops, etc) are to soldiers as normal citizens are to parishioners.

My experiences with parishioners are mostly negative. They believe that they have special say over religious matters and that they are, in fact, bearers and holders of the keys to the kingdom. Let me give you an example.

This past September my wife and I were enrolled in an "Engaged Encounter Weekend" because we, both being Catholic, decided we wanted to be married in a Catholic church. At the meeting the leaders and hosts were two married couples and one priest. The married couples passed judgement on everything from birth control to living together before being married. The priest, who was quite humorous and down to Earth, admitted to accepting his best friend's admission of being a homosexual and also admitted to being a recovering alcoholic. Very human.

The couples or, uber-parishioners, took the holier than thou route and told us the only way to a happy marriage was by doing what they did. The priest said the best way to a good and happy marriage was through God, personal faith (not collective faith) and communication. Now, usually you take the advice of the person with the most experience. However, I was less inclined to listen to what the married couples had to say. The priest in this situation, or most, I'm sure has given council to many married couples over his 45+ years of priesthood. The couples had only their experiences to draw from.

My point is that sometimes we listen a little too much to the people with the biggest microphone or the loudest voice. Or even those that outnumber minorities. We should be listening to the people who have devoted their lives to God or a god, if that's what you believe in. If not, then that is fine too. It's not up to me to judge you, because if there is a God, that's his job. I have enough to worry about.

I'm Catholic. I admit it, not practicing, but I am. I believe in God, but not necessarily everything that has passed from the dawn of time until now on the subject. No, I don't believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old. I figured that out in second grade during my fascination with dinosaurs. I believe in science, even (gasp!) evolution. If you aren't Catholic and/or you don't believe in God, that's fine too. If I had kids old enough to see this movie, they would also be old enough to understand that this movie and the series of books is just plain fantasy.

If my kids grow to believe that the Bible is in the same fictional reality as these books, that's fine too. All I'll be able to do, and all any parent can do, is raise their children the best they know how. They don't need the "Dr." James Dobson's and Billy Donahue's of the world telling them what to do. Excuse me, public religious uber-parishioners, fuck off, raising my hypothetical kids is my fucking business, not yours. So keep your maladjusted thoughts and theories to yourself.

From pre-marriage counseling to movies, people that believe in God a little too much turn weak minded people in dangerous people. They turn them into murdering terrorists who shoot up abortion clinics or they turn them into the next Bill Donahue.

Currently watching :
Dexter - The First Season
Release date: By 21 August, 2007

10:30 PM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Stephanie

Well said sir.

Posted by Stephanie on Thursday, December 06, 2007 at 9:47 AM
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Kristin

Now I'm gonna have to read the books and watch the movie. Lily's too young to understand any of it anyways, but now you've got me interested.

Posted by Kristin on Friday, December 07, 2007 at 12:53 PM
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Kristin

By the way I flunked Philosophy the first time because I stopped going, maybe you should have tutored me.

Posted by Kristin on Friday, December 07, 2007 at 12:54 PM
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Hanging Around

2007-12-03T22:19:00.000-06:00

Current mood: sick
Category: Blogging

I'm sick today. My wife had the stomach flu on Friday and was pretty much out of commission the whole weekend. I thought I was in the clear until this morning and I came down with the same thing. I spent the entire day purging my breakfast and finishing season one of Dexter. I wish I had Showtime so I could watch season two. Oh well. My Dad had a Showtime t-shirt when I was a kid.

I haven't really posted anything of a serious matter in quite some time. I think it's been about three or four months. I used to have a healthy readership, at least that's what my little hit counter-thinger told me. I never really got into the blogging business for "the hits" or the fame and the glory that so many people expect. Writting is just something I would do in my spare time anyway. Even without people to read about it. Because as we all know, most of my life is fairly ordinary as are my thoughts.

I've been spending the past few months maintaining my sports blogs. One because my favorite baseball team won the World Series and a second because my favorite college football team underachieved all season, fired and then hired a new coach. I have a lot of accessible information to regurgitate to the public.

I must confess, I've been playing around with the idea of completely abandoning MySpace and Facebook, for that matter. Isn't not having a MySpace the new having a MySpace? I'm always looking to keep abreast of the newest trends among my age demographic.

I'm going to have even less time to juggle all of the little nooks and crannies I put my thoughts in starting in January. I'm going to go back to school to become a journalist. Or maybe I'll write PR for corporate swine. I guess it depends if my soul is for sale. I'm pretty sure it will be. Then I'll be happy to post in a few years on my MySpace blog about the wonders of corporate banking or meat packing. Maybe even drilling for oil in Alaska. Watch out, I'm pretty convincing.

It's December and it's only snowed in Missouri one time. It didn't even stick to the ground. I remember growing up in South Dakota and it hardly making it past Halloween before it snowed. My wife is convinced that it may never snow south of Iowa again. I told her to stop being such a goddamn hippy.

Anyway, I have really nothing better to do. My new issue of Paste hasn't been able to hold my interest since I got it in the mail last week. It's the December/January issue so you know it's one of those "countdown" issues. I fucking hate those.

It's like when Rolling Stone, possibly the most self-congratulatory magazine on the planet, took it upon themselves to name the best songs, artists and albums a few years ago. Rolling Stone, if you haven't figured this out yet, seems stuck in the late 60's or early 70's or reminding us how genius Dr. Hunter S. Thompson was, rather than finding the next great Gonzo (or, gasp! something different) journalist/political commentator/recreational drug captain. Rock and roll is dead indeed, however if putting Panic! At The Disco on the cover will keep their rag in heavy distribution and "relevant," so be it.

I've never seen a magazine posing as a music and entertainment source to be so blatantly liberal either. Don't get me wrong, I would consider myself liberal too, mostly. It's just become a monthly thing, and politics is a waste of time. Even though I talk alot about it. I subscribe to Rolling Stone for the musi...wait. I'm not sure why I pay for Rolling Stone to be completely honest. Back to countdown lists. The greatest artist of all time? Really? You really have to guess? The name of the magazine is the name of a...oh fuck it.

Bob Dylan is something of a conundrum for me. I like his music and recognize his brilliance just like John Lennon did. However, I am never short of stunned when it comes to the amount of people out there that are helplessly bound to the teat of one Robert Allen Zimmerman. I had this conversation with a friend of mine several months ago. We came to the determination that I like Bob Dylan the artist, but hate Bob Dylan the icon.

The biography that is currently playing across the country, "I'm Not There" is something that leaves me scratching my head. Google it or something it if you don't know what I'm talking about. Is it really necessary to have Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere or black kids play the part of Bob Dylan? In the same cotton-pickin' movie? Is Bob Dylan so much greater than Johnny Cash or Ray Charles that we can't have just one actor play him? I think Bob Dylan is a selfish asshole. And he has bad fingernails.

I saw Bob Dylan in concert a year ago a few weeks before I moved to Kansas City. It was at the ballpark where Sioux Falls' minor league baseball team plays. It was terrible. He sounded like shit and I felt sorry for him. I, felt sorry. For him. How absurd is that? I guess some things can be said for a career that has faded in such an unpropitious fashion. It was sad.

On that note, this concludes this blogcast for today. Be sure to leave your hate for the Dylan rant at the beep.

Currently listening :
Raising Sand
By Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
Release date: By 23 October, 2007

9:11 PM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

J.F. Whitaker

You're sick on so many levels, dude.

Posted by J.F. Whitaker on Monday, December 03, 2007 at 10:28 PM
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Stephanie

who you callin a hippie!?

Posted by Stephanie on Tuesday, December 04, 2007 at 7:21 AM
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Derek

Its finally snowed here, about twice now in the last week. Its been getting later and later every year it seems, maybe that hippie wife of yours is on to something.... i think i might have even heard a polititian talking about this whole "global warming" thing..... huh....

Posted by Derek on Tuesday, December 04, 2007 at 8:43 AM
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I Believe

2007-11-27T22:18:00.000-06:00

Mark Wahlberg is a pretty good actor. Boogie Nights is one of my favorite movies and he was pretty good in his supporting role in The Departed.

I prefer to remember him like this...don't you?

Not Really A Year

2007-11-25T22:17:00.000-06:00

Current mood: calm
Category: Life

As you may or may not know, a sabbatical is typically a year long break or break having to do with the Sabbath. Since I really never intended on neither, I decided to return to my writting in this here blogging machine.

I stopped mainly because of one singular life changing event. As all of you probably know, I was married about a month and a half ago. Moving in with my new bride and learning how to live with each other has robbed me of my time to write in here. Happily robbed, willingly even, if you will. Also, they took away MySpace, Facebook AND YouTube at work.

How about we sit down, pour ourselves a nightcap and catch up, shall we? The wedding went off without a hitch. It nearly didn't due to the monsoon that was driving my bride-to-be into a frenzy of pissed off I had never seen, and didn't see. Not seeing the bride until taking pictures had it's advantages.

That's right, I saw her before the actual ceremony temping bad luck and spitting in it's face. We did the pictures beforehand and the rain finally stopped. The ceremony was great, no mistakes were made and Stephanie went through with it.

The honeymoon in Puerta Vallarta was awesome as well. We had heard from many people that one person always is excited to come home. The truth is, we could have lived down their for the rest of the lives if family, careers and money were not an issue.

Moving in together has gone fairly well. I have to use the spare bedroom closet, which shouldn't be shocking to most of you ladies that are reading this. But so far so good, married life is what I expected and maybe even a little more.

I found out today that I have bronchitis. I'm taking antibiotics and anit-cough medicine that makes me drowsy but not enough to make it cool.

That is pretty much all for now.

Currently listening :
Oh Beatrice
By Tacks the Boy Disaster
Release date: 06 November, 2007

Obviously...

2007-11-14T22:17:00.000-06:00

Current mood: calm

...I'm on sabbatical.

Currently listening :
Schmancey
By Fancey
Release date: By 13 November, 2007

6:47 PM - 2 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Cory

Three word blog?!?!
Well, I've 3 letters for that...OMG.

Posted by Cory on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 8:26 PM
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Derek

Next time, when you're doin the deed, have your lady call you D, snoochie boochies!

Posted by Derek on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:05 AM
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absenteeism

2007-10-18T22:12:00.000-05:00

I know I've been out of the MySpace blogosphere for a couple of weeks, and you'll have to forgive me but I've been somewhere between mildly lazy to moderately busy.

About the neatest thing on the tube last week was Animal Collective's national television debut. I love the fact they performed the song they did, it felt like they were playing to their audience rather than pandering for acceptance. Not that I have a problem with that, it's just what they did.

Turn it up, the video is quiet. A little too quiet...

Currently listening :
Tras
By Battles
Release date: By 15 June, 2004

1:42 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

J.F. Whitaker

Word to your mom's, I came to drop bombs.

Posted by J.F. Whitaker on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 at 9:20 AM
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People In Kentucky Might Be Stupid...

2007-10-08T22:15:00.000-05:00

Who's more retarded? A multiple choice test will follow.

a. the hot 18 year old employee
b. the assistant manager named "Donna Summers" (not kidding)
c. the manager's fiance
d. the guy on the other end of the phone.
e. the judge who game the employee $6.1 million

Or is she a stone cold genius? Who wouldn't take a shot in the mouth for a few mil? I know I probably would.

Currently listening :
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
By The Flaming Lips
Release date: By 16 July, 2002

3:06 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Derek

This girl got 6.1 million for taking off her clothes, in front of a woman, id say she's the smartest woman in kentucky, hehe. Or just the highest paid stripper in the world.

Posted by Derek on Monday, October 08, 2007 at 7:55 PM
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Molly

The funny thing is this was not an isolated incident. This has happened at 72 fast food locations since 1994. What's wrong with people.

Posted by Molly on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 at 12:40 PM
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I’ll Take My Diet Sprite Shaken, Not Stirred

2007-09-18T22:11:00.000-05:00

Current mood: blah
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

I've just returned from a four day weekend and I'm less than thrilled to be at work today. Not because I've just enjoyed being away from my cubicle nestled in the corner of my office in which I work, I'm not jumping up and down with excitement because today is our employee appreciation day. We aren't just getting together and having a meal as a department. Oh no, that would be too easy and pleasant. Today is Commerce Royale. It's a tricky and clever word play on Casino Royale, if you have not figured that part out yet.

So far today I've counted at least three people from my department (who are all women, only women seem to volunteer for these things) that are dressed like Las Vegas craps dealers and pit bosses. I just came back from taking a short break in our 10^th floor lobby trying to finish a book I've been reading for two months and these Annie Lennox look-alikes were scrambling between their offices and our event hall on the 6th floor. I am so not ready or excited in the least for Commerce Royale.

I suspect that we'll have some decent food catered in from some restaurant downtown and that there will be cheaply made casino-type games with even cheaper backgrounds set up behind them. I'm telling myself to bet on the fact that I will be bored with all the festivities within 3 minutes, much like Wesley Snipes informed Bruce Payne in Passenger 57 to "always bet on black."

Company picnics have never been, well, a picnic for me. I spend 40+ hours with all of my co-workers every week. To me, 40 hours has been an appropriate threshold for people you generally have nothing in common with and otherwise would not spend any time hanging around. Sure I'm being paid to gamble with pretend money, it's just that I'm also in the middle of a work environment nightmare. It's like going to the casinos on the river here in Kansas City, except that the Jack and Coke is replaced by apple juice, your boss is there reminding you of something you need to do by the end of the day, and the blackjack dealer is the fraud manager from the 8^th floor. It's almost equivalent to picking up a hot chick at the bar and making out with her, only to find out she's your cousin. It's sort of like that, only without all the worry of incest.

For now, I will tackle the folder on my desk that is labeled "Bankruptcy" and try to accomplish something before my lunch break I have decided to take at noon, which will last until one. One o'clock marks the beginning of Commerce Royale. If I do win any prizes, which will no doubt be all Commerce Bank paraphernalia, I'll probably give it to someone else. I generally don't like the color green. It's a good thing I work in a bank.

Currently listening :
Neon Bible
By Arcade Fire
Release date: 06 March, 2007

Tuggin' One Out

2007-09-17T22:10:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't posted on here in some time, but it's mainly because Stephanie and I have been spending a lot of time with each other and wrapping up all of the planning for our wedding. Married life is set to commence in nearly four weeks.

For all of you out there that are Catholic, and maybe some that are not and wished to get hitched in a church you may have had to go through a little something I like to call "Wedding Boot Camp." When Stephanie and I met with the priest that was going to marry us he said that in order to be married in a Catholic church type environment that we were to complete pre-marriage counseling.

We had our choice between meeting with a married couple each week for several weeks in a row, or we could take a highly concentrated dose of marriage know-how in one no holds barred weekend extravaganza. Guess which option we hopped on?

This weekend will mark our foray into the subject of learnin' about some marriage. As you can tell, I'm already critical of what we'll learn/study. I'm excited to do some things to maybe get to know Stephanie a bit more, but given our past, and the previous long distance format our relationship was in, we've done a lot of communicating.

We'll be sent away to a Catholic Compound somewhere in an undisclosed location in Kansas City, Kansas somewhere by our speedway. It will be miles away from Arrowhead Stadium, which is where the Kansas City Chiefs will be playing their home opener. Since we will be at a church stronghold, we will not be watching the contest. We will be at our retreat. I always thought it was cute that the word 'treat' is in the word 'retreat.'

We are not looking forward to this at all, I won't try and hide it. We will be rooming with people we don't know who are also pre-marriage material. It's really out of our comfort zone as Stephanie is generally shy and reserved around people she doesn't know and I know I just don't like people in general.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to God because I do believe in a God and in Jesus. It's just hard to get behind organized religion. I know what you're thinking and you can dispense with the Catholic priest jokes. I've been to one church retreat and that was for my confirmation about 11 years ago. It was a 24-hour fast/lock-in at the church and was an overnighter as well. It culminated with a pizza feast at the end, but overall the whole experience pretty much blew. Seriously, enough with the molestation jokes.

So, we are about to jump in with both feet not knowing how deep the water is. I think that is the most difficult part of it, the unknown. Will my roommate(s) suck? Will I buy in to what they are trying to teach? Will the food suck? All I know is that I don't want "Wedding Boot Camp" to be like this…

Currently listening :
The Ba Ttle of Seala Nd
By Airiel

9:12 PM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Brienne

I am amused by the title of this blog.

Oh, and we did the classes. Well, we made it to 2 of 4 and they still married our dumb asses.

That's all. Good day.

Posted by Brienne on Monday, October 01, 2007 at 9:28 PM
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Screw You, Work

2007-09-11T22:07:00.000-05:00

Screw You, Work
Current mood: annoyed

Today I get to work and I log onto my computer. Nothing special, I get online and check my hotmail and MySpace. Come to find out an hour later MySpace is now blocked by our surf control. So now what am I supposed to do all day? Work?No big deal. I think it will be good to curb my monitoring of my page. If I really need to check on it (which is a goofy thing to say anyway) I can always do so from my mobile. In fact I'm posting in this blog from my phone at my desk. Fancy, yes?

Currently listening :
Planet of Ice
By Minus the Bear
Release date: 21 August, 2007

Breakdown

2007-08-30T22:07:00.000-05:00

Current mood: worried
Category: Life

Art is important in culture and a vital portion of society, any society. Art is also a double edged sword. She is a passive beauty queen and a belligerent harlot. She'll hold your hand and tell you she's there, but then she'll come home with you and you'll wake up the next day with nothing.

Most things that pass for art today are a poor excuse for that little three letter word that some of us choose to place stock in. Tying Britney Spears or Maroon 5's works to what most people consider good work is like a kick in the teeth to people like me. I'm not an art snob or anything, however I do judge like anyone else. That being said, I don't spend my time arguing the impact of postmodernism in the context of my own life, or even in the grand scheme of our society. I don't hang out in art museums, coffee shops or internet chat rooms or message boards discussing the relevance of any particular genre or subgenre of any form of art.

It's the wrong kind, or what is made out to be of that kind, is what can get us into trouble.

Popular culture, sports and media choke us to death. The swirl of intrigue and prospect of glimpsing into something that was never meant for us pulls the wool over our eyes with our own hands. For the most part, we spend only so much time learning when we are out in the world trying to make a living and raise a family. Don't get me wrong again, these things are important, however we put too much stock in them. The pop culture items of course, please by all means, raise your children. We use popular culture to tune out and desensitize ourselves to important issues in the world. We have enough going on in our own lives to have to put the time and energy into figuring out the ways of the world or even begin to try and make a difference in our community. We're too busy, too tired and too confused by the big big world and it's big time problems.

I've said before, popular culture and sports are important to me and they have their place. I even take the time to write about teams that hold a particular interest for me. There are other things that move my pulse as well, and I still take the time to make out what is going on in the world. While the Boston Red Sox earning a spot in the postseason is important to me, it actually bears no importance at all.

Current events and politics are not a waste of time. A lot of people my age will say that they are. The more you ignore the issues at hand the more you let go of what you already take for granted, and vast numbers of people that subscribe to that school of thought contribute to what I see as a growing problem in our society. This is the mass unplugging of American's from the happenings in their world, their country, their state and their communities.

Our apathy breeds mistrust and apprehension amongst ourselves. You can't talk to anyone without there being a disagreement. Everyone wants to be right, everyone wants to be rich and have their own sense of entitlement. No one seems to want to work for anything. Everyone wants to make a point, no one wants to prove their point. Too much interest in celebrities and what they wear and where they eat. It's a shame.

Do I like David Ortiz and what he does on the baseball field? Will I devour every statistic and fact about his baseball career? Yes. Will I Google him and try to find out what he does in his free time? Do I want to see his house or his cars? Do I want him hounded by the media so I can realize the minutia of David Ortiz? Absolutely not. What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? I'm not entirely sure. I'm just tired of watching everyone throw their attention away into and onto people and issues that will yield no return.

I get frustrated and built up inside and then I lose track. I get trampled under the feet of the people that I want to rise above.

I know we are all part of the problem. I think we can do more. I'm not trying to make a difference, I'm just trying to not get run over.

Currently listening :
Execution of All Things
By Rilo Kiley
Release date: By 08 October, 2002

8:18 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

J.F. Whitaker

Whoa, man...it's like...planet Earth, man. When you said the thing about, you know...like...getting, like...run...like...over, man. That was the right on, man. Right on.

JERRY BEAR LIVES, MAN!!

Posted by J.F. Whitaker on Thursday, August 30, 2007 at 8:49 PM
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Wake Up

2007-08-30T22:03:00.000-05:00

Straight from the soldiers' mouths. Take 10 minutes and watch this.

Here is some bonus coverage.

After watching all of this, if you don't think what is "going on" is not a giant slap in the face, if you think our current administration AND congress, both sides, are really here to support troops, Iraqis, Americans, me, you...if you believe that, wake up.

Currently listening :
The Great Pretenders
By Silver Lakes

Red Bridge

2007-08-29T21:59:00.000-05:00

I've always been fascinated by suicide. I'm not fascinated in a romantic sense or even a pejorative sense. It's just something that goes beyond my reason and process of thought. That alone will always make the subject interesting to me. We all think of the standard questions. What drives a person to do that? How does one get to that point in their lives? Could I ever get to the point of wanting to end it all by my own hand? These are all questions that most people ask themselves at one point in their lives. The questions are asked by those who have some casual wonderment in the subject or possibly because they feel like they have overstayed their welcome.

Some people that read this may think that it's a morbid thought and not worth the time to take to examine such a topic. This splits people into three main categories that I classify regarding many subjects. Those that want to learn something and open their mind to a question or topic and embrace it for what it is, those that immediately close themselves off and do not wish to think of such things and pretend that such horror does not exist in their world and, of course, the indifferent. Meaning the people that just don't care one way or another because they are too wrapped up in their own lives to try and understand others.

I watched a movie this evening that I knew was out there but never had the opportunity to watch. It's a movie called "The Bridge" and it was released in the fall of 2006 to much controversy, criticism and praise. Here is a quick synopsis of the film. The movie focuses on the large number of suicides that occur every year in San Francisco, California on the Golden Gate Bridge. The filmmakers interview family members of those that have killed themselves, witnesses to suicides and most shockingly, shows actual people falling to their deaths. It's very powerful with the beauty of the bridge itself set as the backdrop and contrasted against something so dark. It's moving to hear the recounting of stories of the "victims." Personally, I feel that the actual victims in these situations are those left behind. However, clearly the prevailing moments are the shots of the bridge itself and knowing what may or may not happen next with the person that they, the filmmakers, have focused on.

I'm not here to give you a description of the movie, you can find that on your own. It has left me with a certain supposition regarding my own life. I know that I am a strong person and that I'm able to pick myself up when life has kicked me in the stomach and left me on the side of the road. That no matter what happens, I have people around me that love me and care about me. They have invested time in me and my very existence. I know that doing anything would let them down. I've never contemplated suicide personally, however it is comforting to know that if things get tough I have people around me that will be there. That's not to say that I reserve judgment for those that would chose to take their own life. I've always felt it's not my place to judge anyone for anything.

I'm leaving this entry with the trailer from the movie. I recorded it on my DVR and usually I'll erase a movie after I've watched it once. For some reason I can't erase this one. It's not often that a movie or documentary will stick with me. If you have access to the Independent Film Channel that's the best way to view it for free. Either that or I'm sure it's available at Blockbuster or Netflix. It all depends which category you fall into if you decide to view it or not. It is disturbing at times, however the point of the film is to not gratuitously shock you into submission. With movies that are churned out over and over again in the mainstream, sometimes it's sort of advantageous to devour something a little more intellectually nutritious.

Stephanie

just call me a close-minded idiot then.

I don't understand why you watch this stuff. It kind of creeps me out that you do honestly.

Posted by Stephanie on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at 11:50 AM
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Stephanie

Ok I officially need to stop joking around on this thing. I'm apparently not very good at it.

sorry I got ya all rilled up...

I love my crazy fiance!! :)

Posted by Stephanie on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at 2:52 PM
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Golden Girl

2007-08-28T21:58:00.000-05:00

Current mood: giddy
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Not that this is really worth writing about, however I spend a good portion of my day reading stories off of fark.com and today someone posted a story counting down the top 15 "Sexiest Women Over 35." Yeah, it's off of MSN. Yeah, I'm not really big on top 10, 15 or 100 lists because of them being overly-subjective. I just feel the need to support a lady that has been on my mind since early in my adolescence.

So, here's to you Liz Phair. I love you. Don't worry Stephanie, I still love you more .

Currently listening :
Exile in Guyville
By Liz Phair
Release date: 21 Decemb