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One day, back in Louisiana... I was with my friend Mike. I don't remember the occasion; I think it was July 4th, or maybe Mardi Gras... or something. But, I was in the French Quarter with him, and there were a lot of people celebrating and being generally rambunctious.

On Bourbon street, there are intersections blocked off so that no one tries to drive on them. Because there are commonly groups of people on any day. Well, we happened to be in an area that wasn't blocked off... one that allowed cars to enter/exit... but because of the celebratory day, there were still large groups of people (I remember thinking, looking at a manhole cover, that if I were to remove it... ten or more people would likely fall through it before anyone realized the danger, because that's just how packed everyone was on the street). A white Ford Taurus was trying to push its way through the crowd... very slowly. The guy driving kind of had a sense of humor about it... The guy was obviously a moron and probably made a wrong turn somewhere. Well, the crowd didn't like his honking so much, I guess. One guy jumped on his hood, yelling and laughing... Another guy jumped on his roof doing the same thing. His wife, in the passenger seat, looked quite frightened. He looked like he had everything under control... "Yeah, yeah guys... We're all adults - haha". The crowd started pushing his car, rocking it in an exaggerated side-to-side motion. And then I saw the cop on the horse. And another one, and another one. "What's going to happen to these drunk people?", I thought. One of the cops eventually made it to the door of the Taurus and helped the driver out of the car. And then he promptly put handcuffs on him. Another cop got off his horse and into the drivers seat of the Taurus. The third, helped the wife out of the car and they disappeared into the crowd, along with his horse and the horse the 2nd cop left behind.

I can only imagine the chaos happening right now, after the Saints have won the Super Bowl. However, I don't want to imagine the chaos had they lost it.

-06FEB2010-

-20DEC2009, 9:25AM-

-19DEC2009, 11:40AM-

I now have 30 years behind me. It feels like a lifetime. The things I remember like they were yesterday, I'm starting to wish more and more that they actually were. In addition to that, I wish I could remember yesterdays. One of my more exciting memories was about 8 years ago, when I was first driving into DC to my new duty station. 30 miles from the city, the interstate was incredibly well lit. Traffic was light (as I was driving in at about 10:30), and I felt like I was in a whole new world. The road was rough, the concrete walls were high on the right side, there were elaborate overpasses everywhere. It was my new home. I got my first taste of DC drivers, when I got to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, I was in the right lane, and there was a merging lane just before the bridge. A car was coming on, and I slowed down to let it in. But it didn't move over. I couldn't see too well ahead, but judging by the driver's behavior, I assumed that it wasn't a merging lane - but an additional lane, which explained why the car wasn't moving over; it didn't need to. So I sped up. Turns out, that it was indeed a merging lane, and the merge point was forced right when I was next to the car. Tires chirped and a horn honked as the driver of this car took what I did to him (or her) personally. I was followed closely, all the way until I pulled into the gate at Bolling AFB. In Washington, D.C. people don't merge when there's an opportunity. They merge at the last possible moment, whether it's construction closing a lane, or if they're getting onto the highway. It took me a long time to figure it out, but the reason they do this is to block other cars behind them, so that they don't get in front of them using the merging lane to pass. This is especially evident when traffic is heavy.

The guest house, where I would be living for the next 10 days was what you would expect for a government run hotel. I shared a bathroom with the room next to me (and was locked out at least a dozen times, causing me to pee in the sink once). I had two suits that I would wear for my first day at my duty station. I ironed them. I was on my own and very nervous... I had no idea what was expected of me, or if I'd be able to succeed when the opportunity to presented itself. Somehow I made it to that point where 99.9% of others didn't. It was never a plan, but it happened that way because of a method I learned to employ early in life. In one hand you have a stupid decision. In the other hand you have a smart decision. Which one would you pick? Do you go to the barracks party and drink when you're underage, or do you hang out for a little while and then leave when things get rowdy? Do you buy a big brand new television with a 23% interest rate, or do you get a small one that you can afford and actually fits in your living space? Do you go to a fast food joint three times a day, or do you go to the dining facility where you can eat for free (this is where I learned to eat for sustainment, and not for pleasure)? It was those decisions that got me to where I was 8 years ago, which opened up even more doors for me than I could ever realize (as long as I kept picking the hand with the smart decision in it).

Over the next five years, I would embark on an experience that few people would not be impressed with. I traveled the globe, for free... Often crossing paths with people seen on television near daily. The work was tough, but sometimes the work was little more than waking up in the morning. I kept my head down, and my eyes open. I accomplished nothing spectacular, but I didn't screw anything up either. My time was mostly spent soaking up the experience, because I knew that when my tour was over, that chapter of my life would be permanently closed.

And so it did, and with it civilian life on my own opened up. My then-fiancee was very supportive and receptive to any career choice I made (whether I were to go to Omaha, Nebraska - or even overseas). I submitted my resume to everyone, every company I could think of. The place that I picked was the place that created this job position for me, where I'm given free reign to make our company better and keep our customers happy. It's been three years since then, where I truly took my life into my own hands, and I still feel like I have accomplished little. Being 30 years old now, I think I'm too old for procrastination. But what do I want to accomplish? I honestly don't know. I feel like the last 30 years has been preparation for my life to this point, and now that I'm here, I don't know what to do. So I'm updating my website (hey, maybe that's all I need to do!).

As I type this, Nina is going into labor (she hasn't had a chance to update her blog for some reason), leaving it to a good chance that her child will be born today, 30 years to the date from when my mother did the same for me. Ironies are everywhere. My wife's brother's birthday was yesterday, and his wife's birthday is on the 21st, the day after my sister's. What a crazy month. -12DEC2009

Yeah, so it's been over two months since my last update. Sue me. -01DEC2009

Well, it appears I was right to hedge my bets with Convalescence. Don't get me wrong... I still think it's a great song, but definitely not going to be in my top ten. I think the structure of the song is a little simpler than needed to keep my interest for a long time (unlike Opeth's 11 minute long The Twilight is My Robe - usually my favorite song at any given moment). I think I was a little infatuated with the fact that the lead singer was the opposite of what you'd expect... It's not just his glasses (he stopped wearing them in 2006, I think); even in his interviews he's incredibly boring and unenthusiastic, so much to the point where it seems more likely that he's pretending. I'm still on the lookout for the album it was on, and if I don't find it by the end of the week in stores, I'll just order it.

As for other music, I'm in a sort of divide and conquer mode, but without the divide because there's only one of me. Right now, there's another artist that's holding my interest named Marc A. Pullen (Homepage) who produces mostly instrumental music - all for free. Some of it is very experimental, but most of it (that I've been able to listen to so far) is metal. I was originally planning on listing the songs that I thought were good, but I've changed my mind. You can find out for yourself because it's going to take me months to listen to everything he has on that site (you click the album, then the track, and then it opens up a Last.fm page where you can download the song). The music isn't mindblowing, but it is consistently good.

September's Lesson of the Month - Don't make big purchases for anything you don't need, because when you do, you'll need to purchase something that you do need and you won't have the money for it. So last Sunday, after church (We've gone to church for the last two weeks. It isn't horrible.) we went to a small, local electronics retailer -IQ Home Entertainment to get a new TV. The one we've been using is a 20 inch Panasonic I've had since AIT (1998), and as TV stations seem to be gearing up more and more for HD stuff, other things are getting smaller, like text. I can see it fine, but my wife can't because she's mostly blind (which is why she didn't object to marrying me har har). We'd gone there before and decided on a 42 inch $680 Samsung something or other. When we went Sunday, of course they didn't have it in stock. But guess what they did have in stock - a 50 inch Samsung something or other! And they just happened to be having a special deal on it (...) that ended up knocking its price down from the posted sale price of $899 (from $999) to $799, a mere $120 more than the smaller TV. So in a moment of not wanting to walk out of the store empty handed I decided we'd get it. It had to be taken out of its box to fit in the car, and even then it still didn't fit. It had to be angled forward so that it was leaning on the back of the front seats, and with that, there was about 1 inch of clearance on either side. We brought it home, set it up, took it down, moved the TV stand and the adjacent bookcases, and set it up again. The thing is a beast. I remember when I was in the Army, I'd go to someone's house and see their monstrous TV and immidiately think "Do you really need all of that? What is the point of having such a monstrosity in your little living room?"... But now I say that when I walk into my own place.

So where was I? Oh yeah - the unexpected expense. I bring the Subaru over to the dealership for an oil change and general inspection... and they find a transmission fluid leak coming out of one of the drive axles (or something like that). Okay - the car is still under warranty for another 15,000 miles and it's covered... but what isn't covered are the four new tires I have to buy. With an all wheel drive vehicle, the tires have to be the same size. If three are worn, and one is new, it will burn up the differential because one tire will be rotating less than the other three (because it's bigger with thicker tread), and the differential is constantly trying to keep them all in sync. So they found a bubble in one tire, and a nail in another tire. Replacement is $240 per tire, plus labor, plus balancing, plus alignment, equaling about $1300 plus tax. For tires. I'm going to do some shopping around, of course, but I'm probably looking at a minimum of $1000 (because I want decent tires).

Florida Representative Alan Grayson made a pretty over-the-top speech on the House floor yesterday, saying that the Republican health care plan is 1. Don't get sick and 2. If you do get sick, die quickly. This of course, is not true, but aside from that I find it incredibly ironic that it was the Democrats who wanted the plug pulled on Terry Schaivo (which I agreed with), and it was the Republicans who wanted her sustained on life support, regardless of who had to pay for it.

One can say the Republicans don't have a plan - it's a current work in progress. Using the same rules, you can just as easily say the Democrats don't have a plan either. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's discuss one of the key components of the Republican health care non-plan. Interstate purchasing of private health insurance policies. This is a great idea, but not for the reasons every Republican pushing for it says... They say it's to increase competition between insurance companies, but only a moment of thought will lead you to the conclusion that a health insurance company in Utah will have to charge a New York resident 4x more than Utah residents for the same policy, to pay for the 4x more expensive health costs in that state. It doesn't make much sense. The idea shouldn't be to increase competition between the insurance companies... but rather, to increase competition between the states. You see, some states have incredible amounts of laws, regulations, and mandates requiring health insurance companies to cover certain services, removing limits on service coverage, and a plethora of other things that sound really good to people... if you ignore the side effect that insurance companies have to make more payouts (if they try to get around it, they get sued), and as a result, your premiums rise. Getting a policy in Utah that does not cover hair transplants will be inherently cheaper than getting one in New Jersey where insurance companies are required to pay for it... maybe not by much, but you add up other things like gastric bypass surgery, birth control, sex change operations, breast implants, chiropractor sessions, the list goes on and on and on and eventually, you might be able to cut yourself a policy that is cheap, and serves every one of your needs even if hospitals charge 4x more and you're paying 4x more than someone in Utah for the same coverage. (Utah may mandate some of the things I listed... it's just an example) Well, in comes competition between the states. New York sees that its losing tons of revenue to Utah because their health care laws are too onerous and costly. What happens? New York is forced to change their laws to make health insurance companies located there more competitive with those in Utah. It's called a market based solution, and it will cost nothing out of our treasury. In the end, a working mom with four kids might not be able to get massage therapy at no cost out of pocket... Oh well. -30SEP2009

I am starting to enjoy music again. Don't know why, but what I once was incredibly obsessed with, turned into a mild interest, and then into little more than a (tower, then a) box of CD's that I hadn't touched in 8 years or more. It was rekindled, I think, when I got my windows tinted on my Subaru about three weeks ago. I called several places, and the one that responded quickest was Skyline Tint, saying they could apply the tint whenever I brought the car in. I drove there, parked, and walked into the warehouse where, in the background was Arch Enemy playing (Arch Enemy is a Swedish Death Metal band, that I liked but never loved). It was a mid to late 20's Japanese guy who runs the whole operation, alone. He said he once employed about 7 people regularly, but this last year has been incredibly rough so he does everything himself (and even by himself, he was able to take my car without notice).

So, obviously, while he was tinting my windows we talked about music. He was born and grew up in Japan, and apparently death metal is pretty popular over there (this explains the only live CDs (of bands I listen to) I'd seen before my hiatus from music, were Children of Bodom, and In Flames - both Live from Tokyo). It took about thirty minutes before I got enthusiastic, and wanted him to listen to some of my favorite music. My car was right there, with about 150 hours worth of music on the MP3 CD 6-disc changer, so it was pretty easy. He liked everything I played... and while I was listening 'from his perspective', I started to really appreciate what I was listening to, just like I had when I was 20. When it was all said and done, he recommended a handful of bands to me, and I did the same for him. I bought one CD off of his recommendation and it was okay, but not great. There are still more I want to try, but in the meantime I've been interrupted.

This is where Last.fm comes in... I was back to playing music off of there, streaming and random. After about a dozen songs, one came on that seemed to pop out above all the others - from a band from France called Split (homepage) (turn down your volume before clicking it - it streams their raw music recordings) the song titled The Least of Our Smiles. After listening to it (you can download it from that link by clicking the "Free MP3" button, by the way - just pretend it's the cookie monster singing) several times, and after lots of searching, I finally found their official website in the hopes of being able to buy their CDs. I sent them an email.

A day later, a response came from one band member, saying that there were no CDs out, that they were still looking for a publisher. So he gave me a link that allowed me to download all of their music (five tracks in total). Everything was great (not as ear popping as The Least of Our Smiles, but still very good stuff); we talked back and forth for a bit and he asked me if I'd ever heard of the band Between the Buried and Me (I hadn't). I checked out their MySpace page (or maybe I should say 'I checked out TheirSpace page') and listened to the music on there... I could tell they were very talented, but couldn't tell how good the music was due to the horrible quality that is the MySpace music stream. So today I bought one of their CD's, called Alaska (look at that cover - doesn't look anything like the music sounds)... and while I still have mixed feelings on it (I've only listened to it once), there was a DVD included with it that's opened my interest in another direction. One of the videos on the DVD was of a band (that happens to be based in DC) called Darkest Hour, and the song was called Convalescence (you can download it direct from the publisher from that link). I think I've listened to that song about ten times today... I don't know how well it will hold up over time, but right now I think it might become one of my top ten. I take a special amusement in that the lead singer looks like an English teacher.

A car chase happened right around me last week. I was on a ramp to get onto I-295S, and a old Buick was getting on it at the same time I was - when he was next to me he floored it and I pulled over to the left side of the ramp. The cops had been tailing him, and he tried using my car as an obstacle but I got out of the way too fast. They turned on their lights, five cars in total, and sped by. I got onto the interstate just to see gravel dust flying ahead as the Buick passed cars on the shoulder. Unfortunately, I did not get to see where the chase ended, but I was very tempted to try to keep up with it. - 26SEP2009

I flew to New York last week. As I rolled my luggage out to the taxi, I heard a locust behind me scream in terror, the scream cut off as my Samsonite-ish case squished it before I could even react. The cab driver was friendly, and spoke English. We talked politics and economics, I tipped him well when it was all said and done. Flying United, 90% of my flights with them in the last two years have been delayed. Imagine my surprise when the plane I was leaving on arrived on time. I sat next to a portly Indian guy in the very back of the plane, who didn't understand a word of English. The seats didn't recline, so when I got the opportunity I moved to one of the two empty seats in the row directly in front of us. I hope that I didn't hurt his feelings...

So, not only did we board on time, we also took off on time. The weather out of Washington was great, and the flight was smooth. (For those wondering about why I never visit Veronica on these trips, it's because I'm actually further away from her there, than I am when at home) The weather in New York was cloudy, and the clouds were thick and gray. They told us to turn our electronics off and fasten our seat belts... and we proceeded to circle the airport for about an hour. I assumed that we weren't landing due to the imperfect weather... but was getting a little airsick from the prolonged bumpy flight through the clouds. At the end of the hour, the flight attendant comes on and informs us that the pilot (never referred to the pilot as "the pilot", but instead just "she") had trouble getting the landing gear down, but it's down now, and that we were just going to wait for a couple of other planes to land before we landed (I assumed that this was to keep those planes on schedule). She also said that "she" might not be able to turn off the runway once we landed (this sent up a red flag in my brain - if "she" can't turn off the runway, "she" better land that plane perfectly straight... otherwise we'd roll off the runway out of control). So we circled some more, and came down to land. It was pretty surreal, as we sped by on the ground, seeing all those heavy duty fire trucks lined up on the adjacent runway, ready to go. It was then that I realized that they didn't let the other planes land first because they wanted to keep schedule. They did it because there was a chance our plane would incapacitate the runway. Once we landed, the pilot apparently had full control of the front landing gear, as we were able to turn off the runway, and onto the taxiway, up to the gate. I hate flying. -30AUG2009

Why do people "join causes" on Facebook? I don't think I would feel any better by clicking "Join Cause", and subsequently being put on a list of other Facebook Users who also clicked "Join Cause" for said cause. Every time I click "Ignore" when someone asks me to join a cause, I get a little bit more frustrated. So much to the point where, I'm now posting about it on this website of sorts.

Got a toaster oven today. It works. It's replacing the expensive toaster I bought years ago, that I broke months ago, while turning it upside down to empty out the crumbs (the plane that you push down to push your bread down broke on one side... apparently it wasn't meant to be "lifted", and broke rather easily. I'm never buying Oster brand again.). But now I can cook little pizzas and frozen burritos without worrying about explosions and cheese melting over the sides into a crust onto a plate. -17AUG2009

Today is the unofficial (unofficial only because I may forget about this one, and make an official one later) Crawdaddypage Appreciation Day. Here I am... with a website over eight years old... posting... Granted, it's very irregular, and I haven't done much in the way of change in the last five years or so... But I'm still paying attention to the thing!

What brought this on? I've been checking a number of other people's personal websites on a regular basis (and I don't mean just the ones in my links section... nearly half of which are dead dead dead)... and they all started out really strong. Daily updates. Weekly updates. Daily updates. And ... as is ominously as common, the last post being something to the flavor of "I'm working on something huge."... and then years pass with nothing.

Realistically, this is a very inefficient way to have an "attention to me" section on the internet (Facebook, Myspace are much better). And that's all I've used it for in recent years. What would make this site better? More pages. Pages of my wedding. Pages of my 2+ year old car. My Ireland page, that I worked so hard on, but for whatever reason have stopped after being not even 20% of the way finished... Pages of new games... music... photography... You know... the stuff that I created this website for in the first place.

In the meantime... Appreciate the site for what it is. It's the Crawdaddypage Appreciation Day. Have a hot dog. Eat a biscuit. Slather some barbecue sauce on a sandwich. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, preferably. -16AUG2009

Because I am fair and balanced - I applaud our president in this action:

(Linky.)While I definitely don't agree with his initial statements over the "coup" weeks (months?) ago, I am glad to see him take a strong stance here... and one that actually makes sense. -10AUG2009

It's been difficult trying to think of something to post. I have wanted to update for about a week and a half now, and have had plenty of time to do it... But I can't seem to think of anything to post without boring myself. I know you're tired of hearing my excuses (and I'm certainly tired of having them), but what else can I post when I have nothing to post?

Of course, there is the argument that I have plenty to post about, but have some sort of mental block keeping me from posting it. It is a possibility... I'll even say that is likely. If that were the case, it doesn't change the fact that I've stared at my monitor for two minutes between finishing the last sentence, and starting this one.

Sotomayor got confirmed by the Senate. Looks like my prediction was wrong (I predicted that she wouldn't get confirmed). In speaking of predictions, back in March, I predicted that we wouldn't see double digit unemployment until after the minimum wage hike. Well, the minimum wage hike happened, and the statistics for July will be released by the Department of Labor tomorrow (even if it isn't double digits for July, I'm still technically right if it ever reaches double digits before the economy recovers). I also predicted that the economy would come back strong, not too long after... But I didn't take into account the Cap and Trade bill, or the "Public option" bill, both of which will do nothing to help us, but do everything to cost us. For the moment, it looks like neither of them have a chance... But if either even look like they're going to get voted on, there's no telling what will happen. Regarding the Public option bill, I do take amusement in the Democrat reaction to protestors. Now that they have the ball, they seem surprised... even insulted that they are getting tackled. Morons. As more and more people lose their jobs because of government mismanagement, overreach, and misdirected policies, the protests will get larger. This time, the groups won't be solely made up of college kids with nothing better to do, as seen during the Bush administration. I just hope that these new protestors are smart enough to understand what the Bush administration did in 2008 to contribute to the fact that our economy is still floundering, so that we don't have another repeat of Democrats in Republican clothing, come 2010 and ultimately, 2012.

I've been playing old games on my computer. This computer I built earlier this year can easily handle the biggest, baddest, most resource hungry games ever to hit the market... And here I am, for the last four months or so, going through some of my old games that I never quite spent enough time on. Games that have been sitting in a stack for three years. I even bought a couple of old games from GOG.com... games that I wanted to buy years ago but never did, and now I'm playing them. I think it's because I'm starting to feel old, and want to go back to the days when I was younger. -06AUG2009

Littered all over this stepladder are warnings seemingly meant for people not yet old enough to read. This ladder conducts electricity. Metal does that? Really? I guess I won't place this on any live electric wires then. Not for Commercial Use. What business is it of yours what I use this ladder for? It's a stepladder. And finally...

(Click the image to get a bigger one.)

Yeah, just in case you didn't understand how to stand on a stepladder, here is how you do it. You wouldn't want to get befuddled, and plummet all 12 inches to the earth below.

When I first started this post, it was about federal mandates and how we're being increasingly encroached upon by nannies all around us (like the airbag warnings in car visors, that are impossible to remove without destroying the visor). But then a fresher realization came to mind... Lawsuits. If these warnings weren't on the ladder, then someone might have cause to sue the company that made it (China), which is a little less stupid, but more sad. Since complaining about stupid lawsuits is nothing new, I'll stop here.

I ended up getting my windshield replaced. Everywhere I called it was going to be $600 or more. Windshield City, though, did it for $195. The molding isn't set perfectly, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It's much better than the molding on my Prelude after going to Safelite to get the windshield replaced, where the guy who worked on it, who couldn't even speak English, actually destroyed the molding clips and taped it down, so that when I removed the tape I had molding flopping around. And on top of that, the car leaked every time it rained. So far, it hasn't rained, but I'm hoping the Subaru doesn't have the same problem. I should also mention that the guys working there were pretty cool, and had no problems if you wanted to stand near them while you worked, and would even BS with you if you stood there long enough.

I saw Bruno this last weekend. I don't recommend it to anyone. I liked Borat, but Bruno lacked the improvisational humor, and had too much of the "shock" that I could have done without in Borat.-13JUL2009

A Chick-Fil-A opened up near my apartment yesterday. I don't know why I get excited when I see a Chick-Fil-A... It's not like their food is especially good. All it is, is a chicken patty (not chunked and formed like most other chicken patties), a couple slices of pickle, and bread. I think there might be cocaine ingredients in there, somewhere... Well anyway, they also do breakfast - and guess what they have on their menu for $2.35? Breakfast burritos! So I tried them this morning, one sausage and one chicken. The chicken one was better, but neither were anything to scream about, unfortunately. Egg, peppers, meat, and a packet of salsa. No potatoes, no cheese (or, at least not enough that I could taste it). Good quality, good flavor, but not great. I still long for a breakfast burrito of the same quality that you could get at Bubba's in Jackson Hole, WY.

I got a new computer chair. The last one had all the cushion of a pillow case, and was getting torn up. I ordered a new windshield last week. Still haven't gotten the call from the place I ordered from... The longer it takes them to contact me, the more reluctant I am to trust them to install it. Other than that, there is nothing new going on.

Sara Palin announced her resignation from her governorship today. Almost every media outlet I've looked at, has tried to make it look like she's doing it to angle herself to run for president in 2012. While I seriously have problems with her wealth redistributionist policies, I still think she's received a very unfair shake from the media and her opposition. Her family, especially (I remember, when Obama came out, the GOP were trying to go after his wife. After McCain won the primary, he did what the Obama supporters wanted, and that is to leave the candidate's family alone, which is perfectly reasonable. However, when Palin came out, it was an all-out assault on her family, which was justified because she "brought them into the spotlight with her"... Funny, I don't seem to remember her daughter ever speaking for her like Michelle did for Barrack). This move, I think, is because she's tired of being in the spotlight and has decided to end her political career. I know I'm going against the grain with that, but I think it's a better explanation than the DNC chairman's assessment that it is simply a "continuing pattern of bizzare behavior".

Tomorrow is the fourth of July, also known as Independence Day. At the same time there's a proposal sitting on the desks of our congressmembers that would turn you, or your employer into a criminal for not purchasing health care. - 03JUL2009

Juicy, no? Article here. Obama's foreign policy, for the most part, so far has been to apologize to everyone for everything America has done to them. Now here we have an Iranian president, reelected in a very fishy election, unashamed of the innocent people protesting shot down in his streets by his regime, demanding an apology for the comments that Obama made (way too late - and if you saw that press conference, he really tried to be nice about it. "Let's see how this plays out." What a cop-out.). No, I don't think Obama will apologize. But I do wonder if he will address this at all, and if he does, how (UPDATE: He dismissed it. I wonder if ole Mahmoud will respond.). There's a lot of things going down in Washington that are set to change the country in a big way (that's what 53% of the people voted for), and I'm in a mode where I'm overwhelmed by it all, so instead of getting angry or frustrated, I'm just enjoying the show. In the back of my mind, I'm remembering McCain, and aside from Obama's medical reform non-plan, he's pushed for everything Obama is doing domestically at least at one point in his career. My only hope is in a handful of fresh GOP congressmen, who actually understand the importance of economic policy over personally held moral values (and the forcing thereof on others). They probably won't make it far.

In speaking of personal moral values, the South Carolina governor Mark Sanford (R) had an affair with some Argentinian lady, and disappeared last week to go see her. He's married. And he has four sons. The GOP needs to stop running on the moral high ground because they are obviously incapable of holding to it. Rush Limbaugh today said something to the effect of "Well, at least the GOP has standards, even if they can't hold up to them." which is completely pathetic, and another reason why I've lost interest in a lot of talk radio (now I mostly listen to Jason Lewis (grab his podcasts!) and Grandy and Andy (get theirs!). There's also a Republican senator from Nevada... Ensign or something like that who also cheated on his wife. Again - take away the moral high ground, and what do you have? They need a new platform. One that actually affects the country. Less government. Less spending. Maybe even eliminate a federal program or two. Simplify the tax code. Maybe do something about the debt we're in. I dunno.

(The above paragraphs were written JUN 25, 2008, and aren't structured very well)

Michael Jackson is dead, and I find myself not caring. I didn't really take to his music, and honestly, he was a running joke for most of my life. Farah Fawcett died on the same day. I don't know much about her, except that some people thought she was hot.

As many of my readers may know, I was on vacation from May 29th through June 9th. A road trip to North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and North Carolina again - lots of people to see, and lots of driving involved. Words of advice: Don't rent a Ford Fusion if you plan on driving for more than a couple of hours at a time. The head rest is awful in that, if you lean back in your seat, your head is pushed forward so that your chin nearly rests on your chest. To combat this, you're constantly sitting up, relying on your lower back muscles to keep you from leaning back too far, and this causes great pain throughout your neck and back. We took the headrests completely off, and it made a world of difference, but then I got scared of whiplash and put mine back on.

The trip was awesome. We got to see tons of people that we haven't seen since our wedding (and my wife got to meet my cousin Stacey, and her husband and son for the first time), we had great food everywhere we went, and we both got our first tour of New Orleans from my cousin-in-law, Frank. If I talk any more about it, it will be a new page (I'll let you know when it's up, if it ever is. I've been horrible at creating new pages, and adding on to this website, generally) complete with pictures and maybe even some video.

There's a place called Sunny's Deli in a business park near where I live. I've gone there several times and was never impressed, but never disappointed either. They decided to leave menu flyers all over the neighborhood and I noticed they dropped their prices. An item caught my eye: Breakfast Burrito - Ham, Cheese, Egg, Potato - $2.45. Sure to be better than McDonald's breakfast burritos, I decided to try it out the next morning. Awful. Easily the worst breakfast burrito I've ever had in my life, taking the crown from one I got at a Brownsville, Texas Exxon station. The ham was standard sliced sandwich ham. The cheese was okay, but very pasty and gummy. The egg was good. The potato? Mashed. I was thinking home fries, or maybe tater tots, or some form of hash brown... but no. Mashed potato. It was all at the bottom too. There was also some sort of salsa, that was mostly sweet, which doesn't go with mashed potatoes as well as it might hash browns. The guy who owns the place is Chinese, and didn't speak English too well. It's possible that if I told him how to make a proper breakfast burrito (diced ham or sausage, cheddar cheese, any potato but mashed potatoes) and if I told him it would be okay to tack another fifty cents onto it if he needed to, that he might actually do it. I'll let you know if that ever happens.

Other than that, there's not much going on. I'm trying to keep busy for work so that I don't get booted, and after hours I play games on my computer. Nothing new or exciting... Except the Prelude needed a freon recharge for the first time since I've had it. Such an impressive little car - the A/C still works splendidly. -26JUN2009

The wife and I have been watching a reality TV show (is there any other kind of show these days?) called Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment. If you're not familiar with it, the basics are: No prize at the end, a mix of city slickers get thrown into Alaska with a very limited amount of supplies, and they have to hike from shelter to shelter until they find civilization, hunting/fishing/stabbing for food along the way. At any point in time, one can push a button and a helicopter will pull them out, and the rest continue on, with the extra burden of that person's supplies. I really took a liking to one guy on there, Jake, who seemed to have by far the best attitude of the group. I developed a great amount of admiration and respect for the guy... He was extremely laid back, humorous, and did things that were necessary for the survival of the group, alone, while everyone else was depressed and sleeping late. As the series progressed, I felt like he was a good friend of mine. After he would say something witty, I'd point to the TV and tell my wife "He's my friend."

Well, last night's episode he talked about his boyfriend, Andrew. My eyes widened. "He's gay?" I mumbled to myself, to which my wife looked at me incredulously, "You couldn't tell? It's pretty obvious, babe... I knew from the first episode." Well, I happen to be keeping in touch with an old army buddy of mine, who happens to swing that way (which, incidentally, I did not know until he told me, long after we had both separated from Ft. Bragg)... I mentioned this to him, and he replied "Dude, he's got the accent, the looks, the charm and the required level of narcissim [sic]. SO GAY. And just on his introduction you knew, er, well you didn't but everyone else did. HA! But seriously, I think your gaydar works fine. Maybe you just don't realize the blips as being possible homos because you really don't care about their sexuality." While this comment toward me made me feel like I was an upstanding person, I looked up the guy on Al Gore's amazing internet, and found a number of sites that made me slap my forehead with the palm of my hand. Jake's horse training site. Jake's photography site. Jake's twitter site. Even his Facebook picture is teeming with gayness. But the real question is, if I didn't know he was gay beforehand, would I have known after viewing pictures of him riding horses with a see-through white shirt, buttoned half way? I honestly don't know.

Yeah, I know this was a strange post, but I haven't updated in a while, so this is what you get. Also for a good read, and to see a bit of this guy's personality, click here.

This paragraph just for me (because no one likes reading about my political-ish stuff). Obama picked a Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor. I believe this is more of a toe-dipping in that Democrat strategists are seeing how far they can go, and how much they can get away with, than it is an actual nomination. After hearing a number of things she's said, and what she apparently believes I find it hard to accept that she has the slightest chance of getting confirmed (or is it affirmed?) by even a Democrat controlled Congress. Right wing pundits are going ape-s**t over it; Obama and his advisors undoubtedly expected nothing less.

The Dow has been stagnant since I last talked about it. A 10% VAT (or, if you're a right wing pundit a "VAT tax" because you aren't smart enough to know you're being redundant) is being considered at the federal level (I wonder when politicians and their supporters will realize that higher taxes after a certain point = less production = less revenue, and that we've been past that "certain point" since Clinton) (Also, when are politicians and their supporters going to realize that more taxes do not mean more revenue? You tax one sector of the economy, all that means is another sector of the economy loses that portion of cash flow, which means less tax revenue from that sector). North Korea is upsetting the UN with their underground nuclear explosions and missile testing; I think the sooner this is nipped in the bud, the better. Problem is, we can't afford to do it ourselves... it's time for other countries to be the bad guys this time (they're used to the United States stepping in, spending tons of money, and protecting their socialist run governments, as we have for decades. This time, we have our own socialist government to support, so we won't be doing any of that. North Korea will probably grow into an amazingly serious problem in the next few years). General Motors and Chrysler are on their way to being spayed, and will soon be owned by the federal government and UAW (now there's a winning combination). More people are dying of the swine flu recently than a month ago, but somehow it's no longer in the news. Interest rates are set to spike. Oil - last I checked was sitting around $42 a barrel, is now $63 a barrel (still low, but ... that was pretty quick). - 27MAY09

Happenings: My wife is getting promoted soon. I've been especially busy at work for the last month. I got a new laptop because I was getting frustrated that flash banner ads would entirely cripple my old one while browsing the internet. I haven't bought any new PC games (I have bought some old ones, though). The crack in the Subaru's windshield now takes up nearly half the window, straight across. My lips are chapped, and they hurt real bad. When I was in New York last week, I found a place called Beers of the World, that actually carried one of the best beers I've ever had, Svyturys, from Lithuania. I bought a case and a half of it.

Website updates: None. Except that now, my Asurion page has finally been indexed by Google, and I'm getting a large number of hits from it.

News: New fuel efficiency standards are in the works. An insane 35.5 MPG average for cars is to be mandated by 2016. It's policies like this that will bring change to America, right? Well, for those that have a short memory, George W. Bush signed into law in 2007 a very similar policy... one that mandated 35 MPG, by 2020. If it were the policies of the last 8 years that brought us to this economic downturn, then why is Obama continually expanding upon them?

A thought came to mind... What if General Motors (assuming they'll still be around in 2016) simply refused to go along with the new standards? What if they quietly continued to produce and sell cars that only got 30 MPG? What would the federal government do? Would they fine them into oblivion, thereby destroying American jobs and production? Would they jail the people who made them and sold them? Would they take the corporate jets away from the executives? I would like to see a scenario like this play out in real life. -19MAY2009

-02MAY2009-

Yeah so I've been a horrible website master (by not updating very often). I'm cooking myself dinner right now. I enjoy experimenting - I'm simmering some cheap steaks in beef broth and spices, and I'm taking the broth and putting it in a pot with carrots and celery (and a moderate amount of pepper), and simmering that. It smells amazing, and it's hard to keep myself from plating it early (in about half an hour, the steaks will hopefully get really tender). In the meantime, I'm typing here.

So I got addicted to Robin Hood for a bit. It's a Facebook game that serves absolutely no purpose except to annoy your friends with constant automatic updates of your progressions. I, of course, did not know that the game did that because I never looked at my home page (if I did, I would have seen what everyone else was seeing). But eventually, I did notice. "I deposited $3,403,283 in my bank! PLAY ROBIN HOOD", "I fought someone and won! PLAY ROBIN HOOD" Ugh. The game is nothing but a cash cow for the developers, as you can buy tokens and crap for real money, that you can use to upgrade your character. I can talk endlessly about the problems of the game, but all that would do is make me look even worse for playing it (and even worse, being addicted to it). But I'm over it now. Done. Finished. I will deposit my money in my bank when I get on Facebook (which, before my wife asked me to join her Robin Hood band, I rarely logged on), and when I have enough to buy new land (to bring in more money) I will do that... But fighting (clicking on a random name) people and doing quests at this point is... well... pointless.

In the news we have a swine flu outbreak (overreaction and panic, which will ultimately lead to legislation being passed and one or two lucky companies getting a large government contract); Barack Obama's 100th day (he's the best president since FDR - depending on your definition of "best") (it's hard to be angry because I can't say McCain would have been any better... In fact, I'm glad we don't have Mr. "I looked in his eyes and all I saw were the letters KGB" Mc"Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran" in charge of the country); Arlen Specter left the GOP, giving Democrats that 60th seat to make them filibuster proof (not that they could have been filibustered before, with Specter voting with them anyway); the economy is still imploding, but now at a faster rate than before. -29APR2009

I need to update more often. -23APR2009

(Nearly) Every morning I have a PowerBar Harvest (Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip. The only good one.), so when they are in stock at the grocery store I buy them in bulk. They come in a box of 15, but when scanned they need to be counted as individual products (they don't sell the box as an item). So, the last time I bought some, about two weeks ago, I noticed that the cashier only counted them as 10 instead of 15 PowerBars. I corrected her, grabbing one from the bag that was already placed in my cart so she could scan it to count five more. The grocery bagger was very surprised at this, and informed me that something good was going to happen to me for being honest. "That's what they say." I said, shrugging it off. Monday, last week my boss said that I needed to pay a visit to the headquarters in New York for training. I did, and turns out that training was the secondary mission... The primary mission was a promotion. A promotion with a pay raise, and no strings attached. I specifically asked "What new responsibilities will I be taking on?", and was specifically told "None. Just keep doing what you're doing.". Unbelievable. I'm not saying that the two events are related in any way... I'm just sayin'.

I meant to mention on my last post about what I saw that night watching the NBC Nightly News show... They had a 6 minute segment about how the rest of the world was faring during this tough economic time, comparing EU countries to each other, about how Spain is kicking out immigrants so their residents can go back to picking strawberries, etc... And then they got to talking about the Dow. 5 seconds - "Stock markets finished up for the month, believe it or not.". That's it. 8.6 - 11% gains in a month across all three and that's apparently not news, according to this particular news show. A few days later, the Dow has its best four week run since 1933. Did you know that? Aren't you glad you view this website every day, so you can learn these things? -05APR2009