Intellectual Poison

Grady and I went to the store earlier tonight to pick up some sugar so my lovely wife could mix up a batch of the surprisingly excellent chocolate zucchini muffins she's made many times before. The trip was mostly uneventful, if you can call chasing a 3 year old around a store uneventful, and yes, I did put him in a cart so we could actually get the shopping done.

Anyway, on the way out, I've got my son held in one hand and two bags of groceries in the other. We're in the crosswalk to the parking lot and I actually even made eye contact with the idiot bitch in the SUV as she saw us and, rather than stop so we could cross safely, CUT HER CORNER MORE SHARPLY to cut in front of us so she didn't have to stop.

It was made all the better for that fleeting eye contact with the totally implied "Fuck you" as she just drove right on by. I had a mind to chase her down and smack her upside the head but I doubt that would have gotten any sense in that thick skull.

Should I give her the benefit of the doubt that she really didn't see me? Maybe but I'm pretty damned sick and fucking tired of giving people here the benefit of the doubt. Rarely has that benefitted doubt resulted in them being stand up people, they pretty much always seem to turn out to be morons or just rude assholes.

Yep, pretty goddamned sick of living here again. Even if I did get my lawns mowed today.

Labels: culture

Did you know all new US Passports being issued have an always-on RFID chip embedded in them? Do you know what that means?

It means you are, effectively, walking around broadcasting your full name, address, social security number and all of the countries you've recently visited.

Why is this a problem? Because that info is, essentially, floating around you in a cloud of personally revealing and dangerous info. And a thief can, very easily, scan that info, save it and then use it or sell it to identity thieves.

But there's a solution. From Wired Magazine:

All passports issued by the US State Department after January 1 will have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy for officials – and hackers – to grab your personal stats. Getting paranoid about strangers slurping up your identity? Here’s what you can do about it. But be careful – tampering with a passport is punishable by 25 years in prison. Not to mention the “special” customs search, with rubber gloves. Bon voyage!

1) RFID-tagged passports have a distinctive logo on the front cover; the chip is embedded in the back.

2) Sorry, “accidentally” leaving your passport in the jeans you just put in the washer won’t work. You’re more likely to ruin the passport itself than the chip.

3) Forget about nuking it in the microwave – the chip could burst into flames, leaving telltale scorch marks. Besides, have you ever smelled burnt passport?

4) The best approach? Hammer time. Hitting the chip with a blunt, hard object should disable it. A nonworking RFID doesn’t invalidate the passport, so you can still use it.

That's right, folks, it is Hammer-Time!

Labels: identity theft, privacy, rfid

If you've had a television turned on within a hundred yards of you within the last six months then you've been shilled at by Kirstie Alley for Weight Watchers. Now with Valerie Bertenelli (who is still as cute as a button and remains a crush object from waaaaay back in the day).

The only thing is, Kirstie looks awful and her "humor" is almost as funny as cancer. The ads are aggravating and I don't understand how and why she's a spokesperson for a weight loss scheme when she is overweight, looks bad and apparently refuses to pay more than $20 for a dye job on her hair. And she has a voice like a warbling howler monkey.

I'm sure I'm being petty but I really don't care all that much. I need a filter for my box that allows me to circumvent personalities that are detrimental to my mental health or blood pressure. The short list would include: Kirstie Alley, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Tony Snow, Paris Hilton, Ryan Seacrest, Simon Cowell, any and all characters from Friends with the potential exception of Matt Leblanc but he'd have to be taken on an case by case basis, the rest of them could be stuffed in an industrial shredder for all I care, Madonna (adoption is NOT a friggin' PR opp, you skanky old 'Ho!), Bud Selig because everything he says is a lie or just intended to cover his own ass and assets (dirty much, Bud?), Gilbert Gottfried (a living made by having a voice that makes people want to punch you again and again, nice work, whiny) and I'm sure I could go on and on but I'll stop here, post this and then move on to the next task, of which there are plenty.

Happy Monday, Universe! Let's hope this week sees some movement forward on the work and/or income front.

Labels: celebrity, irritation

This post should have gone up over on What Not To Do but was accidentally posted here. This situation has been rectified (which might just be my unofficial word of the day because it is so damned much fun to say).

Labels: blog, cross post, wntd

There is, as in all things, a downside to being unemployed. The downside today is that all of my pals are probably still out cold right now in hotel rooms in Las Vegas. One of our friends is getting married and this was his weekend bachelor party in the city that wants you to lie to your significant other and take out a second mortgage so you can gamble some more.

I wish I'd been able to enjoy the event with my boys but there was just no way to justify or rationalize dropping the cash right now. We're in need of pretty much all of it.

But it doesn't mean that I am happy I missed the fun. I thought about them alot last night, I hope they had a great time and will come back with some suitably entertaining war stories.

[Update: I would like it noted just how badly I wanted to start serial calling them this morning because I know they didn't get in until late, late (or early depending on your perspective). But who, in their right or wrong mind, would want to hear my voice at 8 am after a long, long night of drinking and partying? Which was kind of the point. Luckily I got distracted by coffee and a cream filled donut. Mmmmm, donuts.]

Labels: las vegas, missing

Critical Mass pedals politely through S.F. A smooth ride: After last month's heated confrontation between a bicyclist and a driver, participants were determined to make this month's event a more pleasant experience.

There was a concerted effort to demonstrate good citizenry and exemplary behavior. Internal policing was supposed to take care of any "Massers" who might be inclined to be jerky towards pedestrians or cars.

And this is a very good thing. Nice to know that a big group of bikers can behave. I liked the quote in the article, it made the whole thing make alot more sense to me.

"Every other bike ride I go on, I feel like cars might hit me," Jeff Lyon of Oakland said. "For this one, the cars have to slow down."

And yeah, that definitely has some allure. Maybe more so for me because I live in a town where bikes are almost treated like extra points.

Good for Critical Mass, I still think its reality is more pain-in-the-ass than enlightening but I am very impressed with their ability to sit upright and discard the thuggish image they'd acquired.

Labels: bicycle

I hate stock market reporters. I hate that they spew data and numbers without even the slightest nod to the profiteering being undertaken by the oil companies.

Nope, instead they say pathetically stupid things like "Well, your 401K plan is benefitting from the record oil profits" which completely overlooks the fact that crude oil prices haven't really changed all that much in the last year. And yet, Exxon Mobile is returning record profits each quarter.

Why? Because gas costs fucking $3.59 a gallon and they could easily be charging $2.59 a gallon but they'd make much, much less profit and, at the end of the day, big companies couldn't be bothered to give a shit about the people they are screwing over.

Of course there's no inquiry or give a damn from the White House, our Fool-in-Chief is a Texas oilman, he grew up screwing people over for "black gold". He sees profit margins like what Exxon is turning in as a sign that the economy (of his rich exploitive pals) is doing quite well and to hell with the "commoners" who have to cut back on groceries to afford to keep their cars running.

Do you remember the proposition last November? Do you remember that deal that would have made it totally illegal for the oil companies to raise their prices for no reason?

Well, now they have safely secured their ability to squeeze more money out of everyone in California that drives a gas burning car. But then, what should I expect from a state that elects the goddamned Terminator as governor.

If Arnold wanted my support and the support of more Californians then he'd take some action to bring the oil bullies into line. Of course, then they could just roll up shop and go home, which would be difficult. All I know is that I'm envious of Venezuela and their rejection of OPEC's fetid teat.

Labels: collusion, ethanol, oil, profiteering

It has been a little while since I've tossed out some new words I've come up with. I lost a few because they didn't get written down soon enough but I think I caught more than I lost, we'll see. One thing I have discovered this morning is that sometimes my new words are other people's mispelt words.

Absoslutly - definitely a slut. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Doploma - one of those dopey pay-fer diplomas you can buy online from a non-accredited university to display on your wall is a doploma.

Promuse - an amusing promise or a promise made while wistfully thinking.

Saddisfy, saddisfying or saddisfied - some folks aren't happy unless they are sad. When those people have achieved their desired level of sadness, they have been saddisfied.

Transfortation - the process of converting your couch and its cushions into a fortress is called transfortation.

[Update: Karen has offered another new word, cynnisfied - satisfaction is only achieved once a proper level of cynicism has been reached. A broadly inflicted by-product of the ShrubCo years.]

Labels: fictionarium, new words

Reading the MLB - New York Yankees/Tampa Bay Devil Rays Monday Recap is nice. I like and admire ARod's baseball ability.

And I really like it when the Yankees lose.

So, you go hit 120 home runs this season but the price will be the Yankees go sub-.500. That'd be worth it to watch Steinbrenner fume.

Because, with that $425 I can take a flight on a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber that's currently located at my local muni airport.

And that would be freakin' sweet!

Come on, I promise to take pictures and video and share the experience!

[Update: Okay, it appears that the money will not just come rolling in. I suppose I'll have to content myself with a tour of the old bird. And photos. They'd better not leave the keys in it or I'd be tempted to take it for a joyride.]

Labels: airplane, flight

Last night's UFC Fight Night featured a bunch of pretty good fights and the title match of Mirko Cro Cop against Gabriel Gonzaga was unreal. Great fighting and a stunning, HOLY-SHIT finish with Gonzaga, the larger man, throwing a high kick and connecting cleanly, dropping Cro Cop like a rag doll (and bending his ankle and knee all over the place which looked nauseating on replay).

But damn, that was amazing. Jaw droppingly quick.

And much better than the Orlovski fight where he sandbagged the third round.

Also, I might as well add that this season's Ultimate Fighter, the lightweights (that's 155 pounders) is good fun. The coaches (BJ Penn and Jens Pulver) fought once before and are fighting again at the end of the season. The fighters themselves are a bunch of fucking nutcases. Almost all of them are loony, Dana King, the prez of the UFC puts it to little man syndrome. The rock harder because they have to.

And the season has been good and entertaining. If you're into that sort of thing and I know plenty of people are thoroughly appalled by the UFC and the general glorification of fighting.

Hate to say it but men are going to fight whether you put it on television or not. It is man's nature to fight. Not all men have to fight but all men, on some level, identify with the clear win/loss dichotomy of the ring.

Anyway, the quickie turned into a not-so-quickie. Sorry about that.

Labels: fighting, TUF, UFC

In this week's episode of raising two beautiful and normally very sweet little boys about two years apart in age with one nearing 3 and the other nearing 1. Each week there's something different from the last, each week there is an evolution of behaviour. A stepping up of both their respective games. In Sully's case we already have a pretty good idea of what his next stages are looking like because we've been through them already with Grady.

But Mr. Grady, he is a bit of an enigma with behaviours coming on that contradict his normally sweet nature. I mean, this is a big brother who offers his little brother a kiss goodnight most nights. He is a little boy that delights in making people laugh and he loves to laugh at himself being silly.

Earlier tonight we were playing Superman where one touch and I'd fall over. I was holding Sully and he was laughing and it was really funny. Grady would bap me with a pillow and Sully and I would roll over backwards. And Graydon would turn to face his mom on the bed and bust up laughing.

But, and there is always a but if its a blog post, isn't there? But he will also be a kind of mean little kid from time to time. Usually when it involves a toy he doesn't want someone else to have, note that it isn't a toy he's playing with, he just doesn't want the other kid to have it. But sometimes he'll just lash out for seemingly no reason. Or for a pretty bogus reason.

Take, for example, his latest two incidents. Both against his little brother unfortunately. Yesterday morning, the two boys were playing in the office with me. They had a bunch of hot wheels out and a couple of toy motorcycles. When Sully grabbed one of the two toy bikes, Grady leaned over and bit him on the back of his thigh. Hard. Hard enough to leave teethmarks and Sully has a bruise now.

And we had a long talk about it, Graydon got to see and listen to Sully crying because he hurt him. I showed him the mark he made, he appeared to feel bad and probably did. And we talked about using his words instead of biting.

Fast forward past a 4 year old's birthday party (with a bounce house filled with balls) and a trip to a kid's event at the park down the street to tonight. When both boys were playing in their room, my wife and with them. We'd opened up one of the crawl-thru tubes and they were having fun playing with it. And Grady bit him again. This time for no reason at all. Very hard, on the foot.

Of course, it is very easy to overreact when one child is screaming bloody murder and a quick check of his foot confirms his every right to scream. It looked like it hurt and both my wife and I were upset by this second biting in such a short time. Granted, Grady was exhausted tonight but that's not any excuse.

We're trying to deal with the biting in as positive a way as possible. Trying to concentrate on Sully instead of Grady to not give him the attention. Not yelling but talking to sternly and using short sentences. It is very distressing though.

By the way, yes, we are aware that biting is a normal phase of toddler development, we'd just like to move through the phase as quickly as possible and with as few bruises on the baby as possible. Also, Sully will occasionally try and take a bite out of his parents too. We're living with pint-sized cannibals!

If any parents have any insight, advice or just plain ol' encouragement, I'd love to hear it. That and I'd love to get 15 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Labels: parenting

Rove: ‘I Wish The Iraq War Never Existed,’ It Was ‘Osama Bin Laden’s Idea’

That's right, folks, Osama bin Laden was the one that sent America into Iraq. Osama bin Laden is, according to Karl "What Revisionist History?" Rove, the real commander in chief in these United States. Osama bin Laden stood in front of the American people and spewed lie after lie after lie to propel the US into the war in Iraq. He's THAT much of a terrorist mastermind. Or not, or it could be that Karl Rove is a disgusting revisionist incapable of existing in what the rest of call reality.

That's right, folks, the unfettered glee and war boner that Karl "Go Die for My Political Schemes" Rove had for the war against Iraq in 2002 has turned into a flaccid, limp hindsight revisionism that does nothing but even more capably demonstrate how thoroughly unfit any of these turds are to be in power at all.

Here is Rove yesterday:

“I wish the war were over,” Rove said. “I wish the war never existed... History has given us a challenge.”

Here is Rove back in 2002 when he was aching to stomp him some insurgents (metaphorically speaking since he's a chickenhawk who never served):

In January 2002, Rove told conservatives, “Americans trust the Republicans to do a better job of keeping our communities and our families safe…We can also go to the country on this issue because they trust the Republican Party to do a better job of protecting and strengthening America’s military might and thereby protecting America.”

In June 2002, Rove was giving PowerPoint presentations candidates advising them to “focus on the war” in their fall campaigns.

In August 2002, Rove was chairing the White House Iraq Group, whose mission was to “develop a strategy for publicizing the White House’s assertion that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the United States.”

In September 2002, Time reported that when friends asked whether Bush planned to invade Iraq, Rove was been known to reply, “Let me put it this way: If you want to see Baghdad, you’d better visit soon.”

Karl Rove is a man without an ethical bone in his crapulent jelly filled body. He is a thoroughly corrupt partisan enemy of America. He acts not in accordance with US law, not in accordance with what is good for the nation, his advice is partisan and dirty, he is a traitor to the US.

And he should damned well be held accountable for his myriad crimes and just plain evilness. The thought of that soft bitch in prison just makes me grin from ear to ear.

History is not a white board that you can erase and re-write to better suit you. History is there for all of us to see and know and remind you lying scumbags of.

Labels: bush, revisionist history

Customer Service Representative

Applicants must have a strong work ethic and general sales experience with an overwhelming desire to work in the investment industry. We are seeking full-time contractors.

And the starting pay for this opporunity of a lifetime? How's a poverty level $12/hr sound. Oh yeah, they'll take your Saturdays too.

The only upside here is that it grows into a tele-commute position but I know of very few people that would have any interest in busting balls for a company for a take home of $24K a year.

This listing is, by no means, atypical. The help wanteds out here are galling in their requirements for low-level positions. And then the pay is almost always about 20-40% below standard industry scale.

The other problem that I've run into lately is that, even after custom building a resume and writing a well thought out cover letter and then submitting it for a position, nothing. No response, no email thanking me for submitting, no nothing at all. And, as someone in a position of information need, this lack of communication is annoying at best.

I understand that there are people that do nothingbut submit their resumes for every single job posted on Craigslist or SC Jobs. But it is easy to tell if someone is worth a look or not. And I'm not submitting my resume for jobs that I cannot or will not do. I'm a highly targeted job applicant and I don't waste my time working on cover letters for jobs I don't want.

It is just annoying. A pal wrote me the other day and said that he thinks the whole resume job submission process is one big, lame waste of time. He may be right. It isn't so much what you know but who you know.

Labels: employment

It seems that Cho Seung-Hui has hit a chord with introverted, loner, stalker losers all over the country with numerous threats made by teens and young folks all across the nation.

So far they are just threats of violence and braggadacio (as an aside, I absolutely love that word). But it may progress to the point that somebody does try to open up their own can of whoop ass somewhere and take "revenge" or try to fulfill their holy mission of cleansing or whatever twisted jibber-jabber they use to rationalize their attack.

It is a pretty scary idea though, isn't it, a nation beset by random rampages on college and high school campuses? Who needs terrorism when we're raising our own here at home?

Also, I have actively started avoiding the news channels. I tapped out on insights into his life and the mashed up reality he existed in. He was quiet to a fault but it would appear that there was a raging storm of emotion and thought behind his intractable stoneface.

The saturation of the news with this story almost helped to drown out the angry and ugly beating Slimy Al Gonzales got by the Senators. Another GOP Senator has called for his resignation. He is much beleaugured but has outlasted my prediction of two weeks back in March 21st. Oh well, I don't mind being off by a week or two.

Labels: death, rampage, tragedy, Virginia Tech

It occured to me that I haven't written much about this young baseball season and, of course, my fantasy scores as well.

First off, A-Rod is destroying the ball and having alot of fun doing it. I wonder what will happen if the Yanks stay at .500 and that keeps happening? Or, more pointedly, when's the implosion coming?

Secondly, Ian Kinsler and Eric Byrnes have easily been my smartest picks in the early running. Kinsler was a sleeper second baseman who's just behind A-Rod for home runs. And Byrnes just plays balls out baseball. A 25-25 man last season (that's 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases) he's also good for highlight reels and the occasional cycle (worth serious points in some leagues).

The Giants are off to slow start but things are improving, especially with an extra-innings win over the Cards last night. And both Big Al and Barry went deep. Would have been nice to see, only the game wasn't televised here. Which, 'scuse my french, pisses the holy fuck out of me. I've been noticing that most of the local games aren't on the box. But, of course, today's is on. Nice. Barry looks healthy, he looks happy and the record looks very, very attainable right now.

As well as the NL West. Yeah, the Dodgers look pretty good but Nomar's only one muffed step away from the DL and Schmidty's already on it (to which I must pause and say HA HA HA). Kent is ripe for an injury as well. And then things can start to unravel for them.

Back to the Gyros. Let's run the lineup. Dave Roberts, his off-season acquisition was highly underrated and his impact on the team has already been awesome. His speed, his ability to get on-base and make the pitcher have to deal with him is a very slick weapon.

Omar Vizquel, another underrated threat. Check out his numbers, he gets on, he hits for high average and plays the game very intelligently. And that's not even mentioning, until now, his magnificent defensive capabilities.

#3 has been a rotating spot but I'll put Rich Aurilia in there because I like him there best and Durham in fifth. Aurilia already has a very good eye at the plate and batting in front of Bonds means he gets pitches to hit. With Roberts and Vizquel already on base much of the time, he will put up career RBI numbers. His versatility and just the fact that he's an old Giant comeback home makes him a favorite.

Barry Bonds, hate him or love him, he's having a great start to the season. His swing looks good and he's got pretty good mobility for a 43 year old guy with very roughed up knees. I think he will break the home run record. Probably not before mid-June at the earliest.

Ray Durham, he's kind of fragile but is a pretty fierce hitter with still good speed and he can definitely field his position at second. Not a spring chicken but that pretty much makes him unflappable. He can carry the team with his bat for short periods.

Next up should be Randy Winn since he his for a good average and has better than average speed. He's a very solid all-around player.

After Durham it's would normally be Bengie Molina. He's not a great offensive force but he's an ace behind the plate by both calling a great game and managing the pitchers.

Pedro Feliz comes up next, he's still kind of an enigma on offense. He can crush the ball and he can also look like he's never held a bat before. His defense is strong, as his arm on throws from third to first.

Here's where Winn is hitting, eighth in the line up. I think he should be hitting closer to the big bats. But that's not my decision and I'm pretty sure Bruce Bochy knows what he's doing with a ball club.

And look at that, they took two games in a row from the defending world champion St. Louis Cardinals so he must be doing something right.

On the fantasy front, I'm dominating one league, a strong leader in another larger league, a mid runner in a third and the caboose in my last league. Not forever though, just for now.

Also, note that I started this post five hours ago. That's what two small kids will do to your time.

Labels: baseball

Steve-O, the moron of Jackass fame, is a bad spokesperson. Worse than Carrottop. Yes.

You know what's really incredibly annoying when surfing the web and reading news? When a site refuses to load up because the damned advertising server is down or busy or puked on itself. I understand that advertising drives the internet and all but it seems to me that timeout settings are about thirty seconds too long.

If your ad can't be served to a news page in under 2 seconds then skip it and just load up the news. Serve it up after the news is loaded, I don't care but don't you dare make me stare at a blank screen while the loadbar tells me adclick or doubleclick or whatever is off on a coffee break.

Labels: annoyances

I happened to click onto CNN last night when they were interviewing two of Cho Seung Hui's previous roommates. The stories they related, the additional evidence presented and excerpts from his plays paint a pretty sad and lonely picture. Until you remember that this guy murdered 32 people.

And yet I still have a tinge of sympathy for him. He had no ability to make friends or didn't want them, he wanted to be with women but had no skills to interact with them so he stalked them. He had alot of problems and never knew that he could and should seek help.

The extreme nature of the murders and the anger evidenced illustrates just how isolated and alone someone can be with their demons. He shot each and every victim three times to do as much damage as he could. And when he'd spent his fury, he killed himself because he knew there was nothing but prison walls or the death penalty (does Virginia have capital punishment? I think so but its hard to remember).

Time will tell if his plays were glimpses inside his own history or whether he was just an angry, bitter kid. If his plays are his reality then he had a pretty awful upbringing that included beatings and sexual abuse. But that's neither here nor there and it doesn't, on any level, justify his murderous actions. Nothing can justify his murders. Nothing can justify his snuffing of 32 lives.

And for that he will very rightly be remembered as a monster.

Also, as an aside, people screaming for gun control reforms are trying to capitalize on this tragedy for their own ends. Gun control would have done nothing to prevent this tragedy, the guns were purchased legally and without incident. Also, rushing to legislate in the wake of tragedies is a stupid idea. Just look at the Patriot Act.

Labels: death, tragedy

Wal-Mart gives up on plans for New York City

In an interview with the New York Times, [Wal-Mart CEO Lee] Scott denounced the city for its obstacles to his firm's plans for stores and super-centers in several boroughs, including Queens and Staten Island. "It's not worth the effort," Scott said. He added "the glue is the unions" of the coalition that blocked Wal-Mart.

Thanks unions! Thanks for standing up to the ugly, money sucking hole that is Wal-Mart. And thanks to Lee Scott for basically giving a roadmap for repelling Wal-Mart's encroachment.

The article also very rightly points out that Wal-Mart is just the tip of the iceberg and the most visible. Other big-box retailers need to clean up their shit too. It is just that Wal-Mart is the biggest, the most visible and has the most openly egregious record of exploitative business practices.

I reported to the WorkForce office in Watsonville yesterday morning for my don't-show-up-late 9 am job training appointment. I made it in with several minutes to spare and then found out that the don't-show-up-late part was more a guideline than a hard and fast rule.

But that was fine by me. I got to sit and play my Clie for a few minutes but I do wish I'd brought my coffee. Especially when the receptionist told me the training usually went to 11:30.

When they brought us into the training room, a woman in the corner broke us out into Spanish speaking and English speaking groups. The Spanish speakers stayed in the room we were in and the gringoes followed her into the room next door. Oh sorry, did I say gringoes plural? I meant me. I was the only English speaker there.

Which meant that I was going to get some free, state-required job training and information. And some of it is useful info for someone like me, I'm not a noob to the job market, I have a college degree, I have business experience. I'm not the typical unemployed person in this town and the lady I was working with understood very quickly that I am on top of the process, know all about the web aspect of job searching and, instead of two and a half hours, I was done in under 45 minutes.

Which is how I got to go riding yesterday.

Labels: career, training, work

.

How terribly sad and completely avoidable.

[Update: We've seen the gunman (maybe gunboy is more appropriate?) but there is still very little to go on. I will go out on a limb and suggest that part of his rampage stems from anger or frustration over a girl. I could be wrong but that's my hunch here.

Update #2: Va. Tech Gunman Writings Raised Concerns

The gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre was a sullen loner who alarmed professors and classmates with his twisted, blood-drenched creative writing and left a rambling note in his dorm room raging against women and rich kids.

The Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site that the note railed against "rich kids,""debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus. ABC, citing law enforcement sources, said that the note, several pages long, explains Cho's actions and says, "You caused me to do this."

The article later points out that he went to Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va and that two of the women he killed went there as well. And all of the warning signs were there, he'd even been referred for counseling because of his nightmarish stories in creative writing.]

Labels: death, tragedy

I have begun a new blog project/experiment. It is called The Crass Commercialist with a pretty easy to understand philosophy, drive traffic and make money by any legal means available. I plan on publishing stats of traffic and revenue generated by various schemes.

I might should feel guilty about taking what some might consider as a step to the dark side. But I'm looking at it as an experimental platform and, hopefully, a showcase for future projects to leapfrog from.

Heard of any new blog money making ideas? Leave me a comment.

And, oh yeah, stop by the new blog, click lots of links and spread the word.

So far I've just got AdSense and a Job Thread Job Board but there will be more added over the course of the next week or so.

Labels: blog, income

I hate to add more rain to the parade of the east coasters who happen to read this blog on occasion but Nande and I got back from a beautiful little bike ride along the lower flanks of Nisene Marks. My buddy's wife was off with his big hound dog so it was just me, Nande and my buddy who's still recovering from ankle surgery.

We've been having these gorgeous days with nice warm sun and it was perfect in the woods. There were places where the earth was still damp and wet from the night's fog and other places where we could just soak in the sun for a few moments.

The trailhead is a little sketchy as we park in private lot and drop in near some private houses. But we're respectful, quick and keep the dogs close so it hasn't been a problem yet.

But once you're in, the trail descends quickly and it feels really land-speederish like in Star Wars. The galloping hound at my heels doesn't really work for the imagery but it's alright. It is a ton of fun to burn hills with Nande sprinting alongside. And she was built for trail riding. Have I said that before? She is. She's tall and has long legs which let her float over the trail at good speed.

Unlike her usual companion, a stout black lab who I've caused to tumble off the trail because he insists on trying to run about three inches off my front wheel. And that works very poorly in tight single track.

Anyway, not too far in there's a car that got there a number of years ago. It is on its roof and the forest is swiftly dismantling it and turning it back into its elemental states. Kind of neat and a great object to sit and snap photos of for hours on end. The fact that its right near a cool little cliff above a four or five foot deep pool to toss sticks in for the dogs is just bonus.

This trail isn't especially long but you can ride multiple loops to just keep adding miles to your ride. The trail also leads into Nisene so you have to be careful of walkers and folks on horseback. We ran into one lady on horseback today who wanted to make sure Nande wasn't going to freak out around her horse. I truly didn't know what she'd do but she was, more or less, respectful. And we were able to cruise on to where we could either take another good fun descent that we'd have to pedal back up out of or we could turn around and head back.

We opted to heading back and retraced our path back towards the trucks. We didn't run into the horse again, which was nice, but we also didn't have enough time to stop and play in the water for too long. Unlike this video I took from a previous trip.

A really nice way to enjoy a beautiful Monday. Especially since my job training this morning was so quick. I'll write a short post about that later.

Labels: biking, life with a dog, photography

Because I was laid off in February and have been recieving aid from the state, they have decided to make sure that I have some job skills to be making applications to get off their teat.

So, later this morning, I'll be headed to the local WorkForce office to report for job training assistance. I hope they have somebody that can teach me some higher graphing functions in Excel but I'm not holding my breath.

Also on the job front, I came across Indeed.com, a slick and quite cool job search engine aggregator with custom RSS feeds for searches. What that means is that it is really easy to set up some auto-run searches while you're off doing other stuff and then check your feed aggregator (Bloglines or Google homepages are good ways to do this) and you'll be kept up to speed on all the latest developments.

Anyway, I've got to repost my services ad on Craigslist, send out some good news emails and get myself ready for some edu-ma-cation!

Labels: work

Dogs are dogs and they really exist by a different set of norms. For instance, my dog thinks cat poo is better than caviar and will actively seek it out to eat it.

No, I do not let my dog lick in the face. I don't buy that crap about dog's mouths being cleaner than mine. I don't eat poop. And I don't lick my own butt. So far as you know.

Many times, when we go to the dog park, Nande will arouse the attention of an amorous male hound. Sometimes its a big ol' Shepherd who can run with her and try and get her attention. Sometimes its the beautiful golden retriever puppy that wags his whole body when his tail gets happy. And sometimes the horn dogs happen to be some of the wee folk of the dog park, the lap dogs, the toys and the Napoleon complex mutts (you know, the ones that charge all over the place yapping loudly like they are in charge?).

It was this last that we got on our most recent sojourn to the park. A very cute and eager little black chihuahuanamed Duke. He is probably the smallest serial molester in the world. Once we showed up, he did nothing except try to figure out how to get his nose back up Nande's backside. That and trying not to get crushed by the other big dogs.

And Nande doesn't even seem to notice that there's a dog standing on his hind legs at her butt so it can lick at her private parts that aren't so private apparently. She gets so focused on the ball or stick we're playing with that she literally tunes out the rest of the world. Unless they piss her off and then she snaps around at them with instant Mr. Hyde ferocity. Which works for all of ten seconds and then the snouter is back again.

Is there any polite way to ask someone to stop their dog from sexually molesting your dog? I mean, without them looking at you like you're completely insane and probably a bit of a jerk? Or do I even need a polite way?

Or should I just leave it to Nande to shoo them off when they become bothersome? Anyway you slice it, the image of the little dog, with his tail going a mile a minute, on his back legs is gonna stick with you. And no, I don't have nor would I post, a picture of said canine molestation.

Labels: etiquette, life with a dog

Happy 411 Day, today is the special day when you are supposed to call information and thank them for all their selfless help. Oh wait, they charge a buck for each number they look up for you.

Nevermind.

[Update: And today is 4/12 anyway. Damn. And where the hell are my pants?]

Labels: holiday

Kurt Vonnegut has passed away. I hadn't known that he'd been seriously hurt not that long ago. And they just announced on the news that he's passed away. That makes me terribly, terribly sad. Such a mind to lose, his was a wit and perspective that the world will sorely miss for a long, long time.

Labels: death

Don Imus has gotten into big trouble for stupid off-the-cuff remarks he made about a women's basketball team. I'm wondering if Howard Stern has said these sorts of things and worse? Maybe he hasn't, maybe that's just what they want me to think.

Anyway, I didn't listen to Imus before, this stupidity won't make me listen to him now. I understand the ramifications of overt racism in the media today but really, I couldn't care much less about this. But please, big media and outraged minorities, can we limit the screen time of Imus? He looks like an old leather handbag that gets lemons shoved up his backside all day long. Pretty, he ain't. Not that Stern's any prize either, there's a reason they do radio.

Anyway, "Nappy-haired ho's" is kind of tame. Remember Howard Cosell's "Look at that monkey run"? Now that's an over the top comment. Anyway, to sum up, Imus = Meh. But then, I'm not a nappy-haired ho. Nor did any of the basketball players I saw look like nappy-haired ho's. But my standards might be different.

Labels: current events, racism

In the course of the last three days my left elbow has spent just about all of that time in some various state of nerve unrest. A couple of days ago I was playing with Nande, yes, after she gave me a black and bloody eye, and she accidentally bonked her teeth into my elbow at just the right place.

She made my lower left arm pretty much go numb for a good twenty minutes and then it was intermittently throughout the rest of the day and the next.

And I thought I was almost all better tonight. Aside from being sore from going whip crazy on the weeds yesterday (I created a four foot pile of weeds! fear me!) I was feeling alright. Until I straightened up Grady's bed in anticipation of his going to bed sometime soon.

When I stood up, I didn't hit, I didn't smack, I bashed my elbow into the corner of his bureau. I hit the nerve squarely because it felt like the fourth of July was going off inside my skin. Complete with heat, popping, fizzes and cascading showers of pain. It has settled down somewhat since but it seems very tired and in need of some good rest without the normal 4:30 or so kicking. One can only hope.

And, on that note, I'm going to go and get into bed and see if I can get some rest. Tomorrow is supposed to be a big day. Lots of projects are going to get crossed off