Intellectual Poison

For reasons that won't make any sense without a lengthy explanation that I don't have time to get into now, I've been using a mirror to watch television while at my desk in the office.

If you want to make your brain work harder than it normally does, try to read baseball stats in a mirror. Its damned hard at first but gets slightly easier with a little practice. Kind of like riding a unicycle. Only its a tv.

Labels: brain game, mirror

Momentarty - the tart of the moment, inspired by Eliot Spitzer's call girl and Mindy McCready.

Labels: nwotd

It isn't quite official but it might as well be. My position in the school district will cease to exist on July 1st and my employment in the district along with it.

Which is to say, hit the bricks, punk.

While there are aspects of my employment that I am going to miss, I'm already seeing a bit of a silver lining (stupid optimistic streak!) in that a return to the private sector means more money, merit (not limp seniority rules) raises, bonuses and alot less chair-fillers (the losers who get into a bureaucracy and then do almost nothing but occupy their chair).

I would have stayed if I could have. Despite growing misgivings about the state of education in California and my personal issues with the office manager at one of my schools (who pulled another total asshole move today that had pissed me off before my meeting with HR but doesn't matter in the least to me now that I know its not my fight). I would have stayed despite making about two-thirds of my pay at my last job. I would have stayed despite the communications chasm within and without my department.

But that choice has been taken away from me and now I need to pick myself back up and get another damned job. One upside is that, by taking the bull by the horns and setting up the meeting with HR, I know alot earlier than I would have and can start working my employment cycle earlier.

The severe downside is that there are an awful lot of people who are also out of work and looking.

Its time to start thinking about what kind of job I would like to have next, the kind of people I want to work with (not apathetic bureaucrats) and I can look forward to making substantially more money again. All of which are good things but the process is a drain, financially and emotionally and I was looking forward to not having to do it again for some time. But that's no longer up to me.

Time to sharpen up my resume, dust off my LinkedIn profile and start working my business contacts to get some movement going. Know anyone who needs an exceptionally creative visionary PR/marketing guy who can also fix computers, plan conferences, shepherd CEOs and basically kick ass at any job he's given? Drop me a line.

Next step?
What industry do I want to work in?

Oh yeah, maybe I'll take a drive up to take a big steaming shit on the sidewalk in front of the Governor's office.

Labels: layoff, unemployment

As anyone with younger children knows, Disney loves its cute white jailbait stars like nobody's business. And they have no problems vamping them up and out and making a 16 year old girl look like she's 25. Quite the opposite, the tarting starts earlier with each generation.

The music videos they show on Disney between shows are indistinguishable from MTV videos with vixens catting around in trampy clothes and looking all hot and bothered. Except the "vixens" in these videos are 15 and 16 years old and thinking how hot they look segues directly into icky feelings of perviness.

Why am I writing about any of this? Because of today's news that Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana aka Disney's Money Train is deeply sorrowful about her photo expose in the new Vanity Fair where she poses topless though wrapped in a sheet.

And what's the result of her public admission of being sorry about it? How about being the #3 and #4 most searched terms on the internet today (just behind The Rocket's latest revelation of bedding a 15 year old country singer). That is, her photos have already been looked at millions and millions of times, her exposure has been exponentially increased and her name recognition sales power has also gone up with it. Boo-friggin'-hoo indeed.

The photos aren't racy, they aren't explicit and they aren't even close to porn. But they do show an awful lot of skin of a jailbait star treading the line between pop queen and wank fodder for dirty old men. And maybe for young men too.

Do I really think she's sorry about the photos? Hell no.
Do I really think she's trying to increase her exposure? Hell yes.
Do I think Disney should be ashamed of pimping underage teens? Um yeah.
Do I think Vanessa Hudgens pics are way better? Hell yeah. Not that I've seen them, of course.

I don't know where I'm going with this but that I kind of hate Disney for pushing these underage girls out like eye candy and exploiting their sexuality for monetary gain while pretending to be wholesome purveyors of innocent children's entertainment.

Oh yeah, I'm also thoroughly sick of hearing anything about Miley Cyrus and/or Hannah Montana. Almost as sick of Amy Winehouse stories and Paris Hilton's poor me crap.

Labels: Disney, exploitation, jailbait, Miley Cyrus, pimp, underage

Report: Clemens had relationship with Mindy McCready which started when she was 15 years old. But his attorney swears it wasn't sexual. Oh no, of course not.

Which is to say, Roger Clemens is an even bigger asshole scumbag than anyone knew. And that's saying alot given his outrageous defense of the steroid allegations against him and lying to Congress.

One really important thing to keep in mind when providing testimony to Congressional committees is that lying to them can (and should) mean jail time.

I expect additional charges will be brought against if these new allegations are true. That and I expect more and more of his friends to abandon him since these charges are not about cheating at baseball but banging a 15 year old country singer for half her life.

Nice work, Rocket. I hope your life continues to disintegrate around you. Methinks your loud protestations of your innocence and the misrememberation by all those around will be your ultimate downfall.

Hall of Fame? Hell, you're going to be lucky to keep your filthy ass out prison.

Labels: adultery, baseball, cheat, Roger Clemens

Random play is a wanderful thing (yes, I meant that and will post the new word shortly). Random music will pop and up I will instantly be transported back in time to another place in my life.

Such as Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf that's playing right now. I can close my eyes and be instantly back in Lisa Colt's room hanging out with her and having her explain to me all of the sexual nuancery in the music.

I also recall it was a turn-on watching and listening to her mimic the moans in the song (there are seven if I recall). Lisa was the adopted daughter of my mom's boyfriend at the time. She was a few years older than I was but we got along well, I found out later why she got along with me so well when we, umm, had a little fun together one night.

Anyway, I'm sure my mom will love reading that bit. But this little traipse down memory lane serves to remind me that I need to start adding to my music again. I haven't gotten any new music in a little while now, not that I'm complaining as I've got a pretty decent sized collection to begin with and, let's face it, Led Zep, The Doors and The Police aren't recording any new music anyway. But that doesn't mean there isn't any good new music, I just haven't had the time to go hunting.

Labels: memory lane, music, time machine

For every girl who is tired of acting weak when she is strong, there is a boy tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable. For every boy who is burdened with the constant expectation of knowing everything, there is a girl tired of people not trusting her intelligence. For every girl who is tired of being called over-sensitive, there is a boy who fears to be gentle, to weep. For every boy for whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity, there is a girl who is called unfeminine when she competes. For every girl who throws out her E-Z-Bake oven, there is a boy wishes to find one. For every boy struggling not to let advertising dictate his desires, there is a girl facing the ad industry's attacks on her self esteem. For every girl who takes a step toward her liberation, there is a boy who finds the way to freedom a little easier.

Labels: gender, identity

I created a MyMiniCity, the aforementioned Sulgradistan and the city (not really a city since there are currently only two people living there) needs your help. Each unique click adds to the population of the city.

Your click can create some digital life. Click now but don't bother clicking often.

And if you have a city or you create one then leave a comment and I'll click on yours.

I have yet to figure out if there's anything else to the site or just click-throughs translating to population growth. It doesn't appear that I can make my citizens riot or freak out or anything yet.

Labels: click, myminicity

Never underestimate how atrocious a two year old can be. They have absolutely no conscience.

I happened to be flipping channels last night and came across this rather bizarre program listing. I don't know about you but I've not wondered about the relative hype-itude of colon cleansing for some time now.

Labels: colon, hype

Today's new word is inspired by recent delightful interactions with one of my schools' office managers who has asked me to install software on her computer that she's already been specifically forbidden to have installed.

Sinstallation - a "sinful" installation, i.e. putting software on a computer when they are not supposed to have it. Sinstallation leads to my boss coming down on me very, very hard as it exposes the school to piracy lawsuits and exposes the network to an unqualified and unwanted user.

And no, she did not get the software sinstalled, I checked with my supervisor who informed me of the history.

The office manager and I are currently embroiled in a low-level passive/aggressive war. She wants me to go above and beyond for her school regardless of the fact that I have contractual obligations to work for my other schools when my schedule has me there. She's also a wicked control freak who hates that I'm not under her thumb.

Labels: nwotd

The Oakland A's bring back Frank Thomas after the Blue Jays discarded him like an empty pack of peanuts.

Frank Thomas is a Hall of Fame player. He's also a Hall of Fame guy with an awful lot of wisdom to impart to younger players.

I'm excited he's coming back to Oakland even if its just to run out his career with a little dignity and some class.

We're glad to have you, Frank!

I love my Tivo, it gives me power over the idiot box. But they seem to think I've got a 2 second memory because they refuse to accept that I have read and understood the message about the need to connect to the server. I have, at last count, deleted the exact same message eight infuriating times this morning and it just keeps coming back.

What insane rationale could lead them to think I need so many reminders or that I really do NOT want to delete the message when I have deleted it eight times already? That is just asinine.

By the time I ended up leaving for work, I'd "deleted" the same ridiculous message more then 14 times. Which is about 13 times too many.

By the way, ever since replacing/upgrading the main hard drive we have tons of suggested viewing, more space to record shows we want than ever before and the interface is back to being somewhat zippy (the dying hard drive made everything slow, slow, slow).

There's still too much Oprah and Dr. Phil but at least they are more buried among my shows so it doesn't bother me so much. Not anywhere near as much as the messages that cannot be deleted though.

Labels: stupid GUI, tivo, undeletable

If you are a fan of hockey then you are already well aware of what a fantastic Game Seven was played in San Jose by the Calgary Flames and the Sharks. The game was played hard by both sides, with alot of hits, some cheap shots and some blatant assaults. But that's hockey and that's alright by me.

When the assaults get called for the fouls that they are. But the officials were really bad, missing clear fouls committed directly in front of them. If it were up to me, that officiating crew would be demoted right out of the playoffs.

But anyway, the hockey game itself was fast, furious and explosive. And historic in Jeremy Roenick's record-tying 4 points via two goals and two assists.

And the Sharks won, of course, that's what really made it a great game. Unless you're a Flames fan.

Labels: hockey, Sharks

The iPhone video threat: Can networks keep up?

The iPhone now accounts for my mobile web traffic than any other device in the US and it is #2 globally. And a huge proportion of users are using their unlimited (suuuh-weet!) data plans to spend hours and hours downloading and viewing YouTube videos.

I am not one of them as I probably go to YouTube less than twice a week and usually the only time I do go is to demonstrate how freakin' awesome the iPhone is. Yes, I did watch alot of YouTube this weekend but that's because of UFC 83 and my deep and overpowering need to see Matt Serra get the snot beaten out of him by GSP.

The article details some pretty amazing stats. More than 9 billion videos were served up in 2007 and YouTube alone consumed as much bandwidth as the entire internet did in 2000. Think about that for just a second and then pick your jaw up off the floor.

The issue isn't stopping YouTube, its making YouTube less of a bandwidth sink and suck. YouTube should look into incorporating BitTorrent technology to spread the bandwidth suck down. Or companies (and school districts) will continue to just block the site altogether which sucks because there's some superb content to be found.

Labels: bandwidth, iphone, youtube

Check out NASA's top-10 views of Earth and enjoy the beauty of our planet with all us stupid humans mucking all to hell.

I think my favorite of the bunch is #9 the Nukuoro Atoll in Micronesia but most of them are pretty awesome. I really like the Green Aura image too.

Dodgers fall past Giants into last place

With a payroll of $118,536,038 compared to the Giants' relatively middle of the road $76,904,500, the Dodgers are living down to their expectations quite nicely.

The more they flail and fail, the happier I get. The same goes for the Yankees.

Oh, and Easy, the Red Sox are fourth in the league payroll this year, more than $70 million less than the Yankees. But then, no team aside from the Yankees is breaking $150 million and the Yankees are spending nearly $210 million on their roster this season.

That is a ridiculous inequity and there is absolutely no reason they should be allowed to spend so damned much and pretty much destroy any concept of an even playing field.

I'll suggest it again because it tickles me, I want salary-weighted scoring (that is, the Yankees would have to score 10 runs for every run the Marlins put up with their meager $21 million payroll). Sure it would rip the bottom out of the contract negotiating market but it would also force teams like the Yankees to actually create and develop a team rather than just buy All-Stars.

My favorite art and satire blog has come home, Gallery of the Absurd: Say Goodbye to Circus Hour. Readers may recall several of my posts lamenting the collaboration of 14 and Candy on Circus Hour because of the drastic change in signal to noise.

And, no offense to Candy, but it had gotten to be too much. Not just for me but for many of 14's fans.

As of today, 14 has come home to the Gallery of the Absurd and I could not be happier. If you are looking for quality painting with a satirical celebrity bend to them (14's repeated skewering of Paris, Lilo and Teh Brit should have won her a freakin' Pulitzer alone!) then head on over and immerse yourself in the joy that is 14 and her genius in acrylics and oils.

We had a cold and windy (some might even say blustery) weekend but we also had a good portion of my family visiting from New England. And anytime I get to see my family is a good time. Even more so when Grady and Sully get some family time with their cousins, aunt and uncle and grandparents.

Add in a trip to a windy beach with four little boys, a stop at a playground on the way out and then a totally kickass sushi dinner and you've got the makings for a pretty excellent, if short, visit.

I do wish we lived closer to my side of the family because I really do enjoy their company, they are interesting people with interesting lives and, of course, I love them. But its just that 15 month long New England winter I COULD hack, I just choose not to. I like my two wheeled toys far too much to stare at them for most of the year.

And now its back to work, back to trying to suss out whether I'm on the shortlist to get pink slipped (i.e. notified about my contract not getting renewed for next school year) and back to helping keep the technology of the educational system running as smoothly as it can given the obstacles put in our way by the Governator and Shrubya.

Labels: family, weekend, work

Today also has finally seen the shutting up of the little mouth that could in Matt Serra fighting Georges St. Pierre. Matt Serra has been on my MMA radar for a little while now. He's a loud mouthed New Yorker guy who's got just the right amount of nasal in his voice to make it impervious to doors, walls or miles. One of those voices that you can't shut up once it starts up.

Suffice it to say that I look forward to his fights solely in the hopes of watching him get his ass kicked.

And he got his ass kicked tonight. So I'm an even happier camper.

Some of the fighters I know on the undercard had good nights too. Rich Franklin got back to his winning ways and it appears the only fighter who has his number is Anderson Silva, the reigning champ who's dismantled Franklin twice. Nate Quarry won his fight against Kalib Starnes, who, according to reports, did almost nothing but back up the entire fight. If he fights in the UFC again I will be absolutely shocked as Dana White, the UFC president, HATES a lame fight. Mac Danzig won his first fight since winning The Ultimate Fighter 6, I like the guy and enjoy his fighting style. And Ed Herman lost, that always brings a smile to my face too.

But the big smile is all about Matt Serra not only not vindicating his lucky first match victory over GSP but getting beat down pretty good in the process of losing his belt and any hope of ever being considered one of the best fighters in the world (GSP is ranked #2 in the world on the Yahoo MMA rankings). With some luck, Serra will go home to New Yawk where only the eastern seaboard will have to listen to his annoyance yapping.

[Update: Thanks to the wonders of the interwebs, I've now seen three of the fights from tonight including the main event. Basically, GSP dismantled then beat then kneed then celebrated. Serra looked feisty once or twice but the entire match was dominated by GSP. He is an outstanding fighter who shouldn't have lost to Serra in the first place. If there's a third rematch, I expect GSP will kick his ass all over the octagon again. The Rich Franklin/Lutter fight was pretty good for the most part, when Lutter gassed out he became pretty easy prey for Franklin to tee off on. And the Bisping/McCarthy fight was nice to watch too. Bisping's a good fighter with a big mouth. The only other time I saw McCarthy fight it was one of the three worst fights I've ever seen in MMA mostly because of his love taps to the abdomen style of fighting.

Good fights, good action. Maybe I'll check out a few more tomorrow. Supposed to be a good knockout or two in the mix.]

Labels: Georges St. Pierre, GSP, Matt Serra, mma, sports

Anyday that sees the Yankees getting shut out by anyone counts as a good day in my book. But when its my "lowly" Orioles doing the shutting out then its like an extra layer of icing on the cake. Add in a shut out by the Giants' Tim Lincecum (and relievers) over the Cards, the A's edging out a win, Boston getting a win and the Dodgers losing.

All in all a good day for my particular baseball allegiances. I'm sure Easy might be thinking otherwise since his Cards were on the other end of that shutout.

Labels: baseball, Cardinals, Dodgers Suck, F the Yankees, Orioles, SF Giants, Yankees

The volume of unlicensed downloads shows that the public's appetite is higher than ever - showing more money is being left on the table than ever before by a music business that fails to make money from following where the market takes it.

I told them I would if they didn't stop, they didn't stop so now I'm doing it.

Vocus PR has decided to ignore my repeated requests for removal from their mailing lists and continue to send me totally un-targeted press releases for products and companies I wouldn't do business with even if I could.

I've now taken to contacting the clients directly from the press releases to tell them what an annoying and bad PR agency they have hired. I'm sure there are some lines I'm crossing but I really do not care anymore. If Vocus PR wants me to stop informing their clients of their piss-poor public relations practices then they should honor my request to be removed from their stupid database.

Since they have not and, apparently, refuse to then I am forced to make good on my promise.

Bad PR sticks around much longer than any good PR. And Vocus Public Relations is the bottom feeder worst scenario PR agency that you do NOT want representing your company.

Why would they add me to their lists when I'm not an editor, reviewer or analyst? To fluff up their end of month numbers for the packet of info they send to their clients. Its a standard practice in PR to make your efforts look better than they are by adding contacts, touches (outreach via phone or email to specific editors) and coverage.

If they'd honor removal requests then we wouldn't be having a problem. But they ignore them and keep sending garbage releases to me. So I'm going to jab them with a pointy stick and see how they like it.

[Update: Not a PR agency, a PR services company. They still need to honor opt-outs and not continue to sell my email address as a legitimate contact for their customers. But thanks for the heads-up, Conner.]

Labels: bad PR, public relations, publicity

** Warning, NSFW but really funny **
You get little lead-in except the title: Girl In Trouble (Brother Caught Everything on Cam), which pretty much says it all. It made me laugh out loud, it made my wife laugh out loud and it might make you laugh out loud too. In the butt.

Can I say that I'm glad I have boys but I'm sure they'll be they're on special brand of hell when they hit their teens. In the butt.

Labels: in the butt, raising children

The most eye-opening and cringe-worthy thing I've seen coming out of the removal of people from the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints child bride cult is that the women have a hair styling book from the early 50's as their sole guide.

Oh and they have an absolute lock on frumpy dresses that leave almost everything to the imagination. Teh Hawt they are not.

And yeah, I am taking pretty easy and cheap shots. But perhaps that's because I haven't seen many pics of the "husbands" who are really pedophiles. The whole thing is just sad and pathetic really. Aside from the whole banging little girls thing, the cult wasn't doing anything really wrong but the sex with kids is, just a little bit, frowned upon by society.

Labels: bad hair, cult

Aliza Shvarts decided to use her womb as a canvas for her senior art project, artificially inseminating herself, taking abortion drugs and then videotaping the miscarriages and saving the blood. Yeah, pretty disgusting and shocking though she insists she didn't do it for shock value but to stimulate conversation.

Here's my conversation for you, Aliza.

"I'm really, really, really glad you weren't my roommate this year because repeated miscarriages and storing blood and everything else you did for this 'project' borders on the freakish and grotesque. As for any discussion about abortion, your project hasn't changed my thoughts in anyway, abortion should be legal, it should be a choice arrived at by the potential parents, it should not be a community decision, it should not be a rallying point for pro-life jackasses who feel empowered to try and dictate what other people do or do not do with their bodies. And yes, I get the irony in that last sentence because I am condemning what you did with your own body. No wait, that's not true. I don't care what you did with your own body, I care that you want other people to examine it as art when, I feel, its just a tawdry attempt to shock for exposure. Which has worked."

Was that what you were hoping for, Aliza? Is your middle name Susan because then your initials would be ASS which would be mildly ironic since you seem so focused on the not-ass portion of your parts.

Truthfully though, reading about how the exhibit will be presented, it makes me want to go and puke.

The full article is available here.

[Update: Its performance art, not nasty, nasty amoral real miscarriage art. Thanks, anonymous, for the tip to the update on the story.]

Labels: art, lame, performance art

Unless you've been completely unaware of what's been going on in the California educational system you're already well aware that there are layoffs taking place all over the state due to the 10% budget cut proposed by Governor Meathead.

Well, it appears that I may not have escaped the layoff sniper's scope. I may also not get tagged and retrenched but there's a reasonably good chance that any layoffs in my department will kick me to the curb as one of the newer recruits.

Nevermind that we're understaffed as it is, it certainly doesn't mean squat to anyone else.

Anyway, we've got another departmental staff meeting tomorrow and I'm sure there will be some discussion of potentialities and how they may affect the grunts like me.

Labels: budget, layoffs, work

Yanks unearth Sox jersey at new stadium that had been buried in the concrete foundation by a Red Sox Nation construction worker.

I'm sorry but this is fucking hilarious. And that the Yankees are considering a lawsuit against the guy. I'm sure he'll have lots of fan support from Beantown if it comes to it.

Besides, the Yankees are their own curse. As long as a Steinbrenner is at the helm, they will continue to poison the game of baseball with their pay-for pennants.

Labels: baseball, curse, F the Yankees

Apparently I'm not as edgy as I thought I once was. I accidentally clicked a link to check out my blog from work and, unlike previous attempts when the filter blocked me, my site loaded up lickety-split.

So I have either not been swearing as much as usual or the district has decided that I'm fairly innocuous. Either way, its nice to be able to see my site directly and not through Google's "cache lens."

Labels: blogging

Just as I was leaving one of my schools yesterday, a parent parked her over-sized SUV in the lot. Nothing unusual, parents treat the staff and teacher parking lot as their own space. Its annoying but I'm pretty used to it by now.

In fact, the parking situation at all of my schools is almost an afterthought and wasn't terribly well thought out and the problem is exacerbated by thoughtless and/or self-absorbed parents.

Anyway, the parent and her son were headed on to campus when I muttered under my breath about what a great parking job she'd done. And it was noteworthy. She had parked in a handicapped space without a placard and was obviously not handicapped (at least not physically) but she'd done such a bad job of parking that she was halfway blocking the wheelchair access ramp. The same ramp I was about to use to get out of the lot and off campus.

She overheard me, apologized and came back to move her car. I didn't really care to wait and just rode off the curb leaving her to think of me as some kind of asshole. Which I am but that's not the point.

The point is she failed before she'd even turned off her car.
1. The parking lot is for teachers and school faculty. Not parents, not dropoffs, not losers in their Fast & Furious toy cars. Teachers and faculty and there aren't enough spaces for us as it is.
2. Parking in a handicapped space is a pretty clear sign that you're a complete asshole. Presuming you're not handicapped, of course. She wasn't yet still felt empowered to park where she had no right.
3. She parked so far over the line as to block the access way for any real handicapped people who might actually come to the campus (and have to park on the other side of the lot because this parent decided to take the handicapped space).

That's three quick and easy strikes she could have easily avoided by just removing her head from her ass before parking in the staff lot. The problem is that there's no way to effectively enforce the rules about not using the staff parking. Which means that the parents abuse the hell out of the system because there's no real way to stop them. Nor would they listen in the first place anyway. Which is where the kids get it from too, I'm sure.

The mentality of the parent's is galling sometimes. Especially when I hear from a teacher about a kid that's been a discipline issue since Kindergarten and the father decides that its his third grade teacher that is the problem. Um yeah, dude, actually YOU are the problem for not being a more active and participating parent.

Labels: children, education, mentality, parking

Unertia - the non-movement one finds in trying to get small changes cleared in a bureaucracy.

Labels: nwotd

I've had my iPhone for a little more than a week now and absolutely love it to death. It isn't perfect but it is pretty damned sweet all the way around.

But I am also starting to feel a little penned in by the restrictions placed on the phone by Apple. There are quite a good number of apps that could enhance or extend my iPhone and allow me to do more, better and faster.

So the question is whether I want to jailbreak my phone or not. The most compelling reason I've come across so far is called Snapture and it gives the camera some features that it sorely lacks.

I think I'll end up jailbreaking my iPhone sooner rather than later.

Oh, and on the not-perfect tip, there are a few niggling annoyances with the iPhone that were easily avoidable and kind of short sighted and stupid. The lack of an SD or mini (or even Micro) SD slot is extremely limiting and, I believe, was done solely to drive 16 gig model sales. And that annoys me.

The sunk-in ear bud plug is really stupid and annoying. They recessed the plug so that only certain skinny plugs will work which means I can't just plug my iPhone into my stereo, I need an adapter. Stupid and annoying.

And the lack of the ability to cut and paste text is killing me. So far as I've been able to tell there is no simple way of moving text from one app to another on the iPhone. And that is very, very trying. I'm expecting a jailbroken phone will have some options of adding a cut and paste functionality but I don't understand why Apple didn't think to include it in the phone to begin with.

Labels: iphone

New drug policy lets cheats off the hook like, oh I don't know, Roger Clemens.

I get that there is no way to go back and verify who was cheating and who wasn't. But to broadbrush the Mitchell Report and just say anyone noted in it gets a "Get Out of Jail Free" card smacks of sweeping it under the rug.

I mean, now that Bud Selig has gotten Barry Bonds out of baseball, he seems to have lost his bloodlust for steroid abusers.

Is the game cleaner now than it was five years ago? Undoubtedly.
Are there still cheaters playing?
Also undoubtedly.
Should cheaters get a free pass?
Nope. Not in my book. You cheat, you earn millions of dollars for cheating and then you get a free pass? Sorry but fuck you and the needle you made your millions on.

This decision to let the named cheaters wriggle off the hook is Selig's attempt to sweep all of this into the past and lay it all on a few very high profile players when the reality is that PED use in baseball has been rampant and it took place on his watch. Bud Selig is as much to blame for the steroid era as the players who had to do drugs to stay at the top of their game.

Labels: Barry Bonds, baseball, PEDs, Roger Clemens, steroids

In dealing with school kids everyday the exact same problems come up again and again and again. Usually one after the other, the exact same problem. And it doesn't matter in the least that I just explained the solution to the kid before them because they weren't paying attention.

And it gets exasperating. More so when they keep asking me to take them to the games.

Almost to the point I feel like recording a short explanation and just hitting replay everytime they ask me the same question.

But they will probably just ignore the recording and ask me again anyway.

If someone could come up with a way to make kids actually pay attention and listen, they'd become instant gajillionaires!

Labels: children

I am a very small part of an enormous academic machine that serves the Pajaro Valley. We educate thousands upon thousands of students, support hundreds and thousands of teachers, keep thousands of computers up and running as best we can and operate under ever-decreasing budgets and looming pink slips.

It isn't an easy or fun situation from time to time. The inertia of the machinery can become as much of a burden as the mental toll of coping with the bombardment of help requests from, well, everyone.

But the situation is exacerbated by internal inertia, general crankiness and worker bees doing almost nothing but filling up their seats and pushing ever closer to retirement and the benefits promised for a lifetime of "service" that ended ten years ago.

I have limited experience in the system but I have a decent body of experience from the professional world to compare and contrast to. For what is standard practice in this educational bureaucracy would get you shit canned in a New York minute. Things are just basic common courtesy are lost in the joy that is a bureaucracy based on absolutely nothing beyond seniority. Not job performance, not response times, not anything but how long your ass has been filling your seat.

Which means that there will always be cranky people approaching retirement who are literally in their job for no other reason than to run out the clock. Which means that they couldn't give a damn about doing a good job, they just show up, duff through their day and go home and ignore the parts of their job that require them to do actual work.

And I know that I need to adjust my expectations are I will go completely insane. But I want to get a few minutes with my boss to properly set my expectations in line with his. That way, when another codger dodges my support requests, I'll kick it up the chain per my boss's procedures.

But hey, I did just invent a new word to describe what its like trying to work in a bureaucracy (and no, not the easily made up bureaucrazy). Unertia - the non-movement one finds in trying to get small changes cleared in a bureaucracy.

Labels: bureaucracy, inertia, work

I just read about a Shooting and Crash right near one of my schools. Close enough that a stray bullet or two could easily hit the buildings I work in. Yes, the incident took place over the weekend when there aren't kids all over the school but this still took place less than a block away.

Have I mentioned lately how much a despise the town I live in and the gang-banger jackasses who inhabit this town?

I wish there were some way to adequately relay to each and every gang banging wanker what a complete and utter waste of space they are on this planet. The culture of violence and disposable lives thoroughly disgusts me and I am absolutely looking forward to moving on. But I know it isn't going to be happening anytime soon since the housing market is trying to become a black hole and suck the known universe down into it.

[Update: Here's the story from yesterday afternoon's shooting down the street from my house. Gang related violence just a few hundred feet from my house. How delightful!]

Labels: shooting, violence

Yep, this is me actually posting directly from the phone with a picture just for fun. Oh bummer, the image upload doesn't work. Dang it.

Labels: iphone

It was with great pleasure that I read an email from my favorite blogging artist, 14, late of Gallery of the Absurd and recently blogging at Circus Hour. The pleasure was fast, strong and lasted all the way through to the end of the email.

Readers may recall my recent rant against the collaboration with Circus Hour and my regret in having to unsubscribe to all of it rather than continue to wade through Candy's posts (which I had no interest in) to get to 14's posts (which are digital gold to me).

It seems that my comment on GotA started the ball rolling for 14 to re-evaluate, reconsider and then, eventually and happily, return to blogging at GotA. Which makes me a very happy blogger indeed.

Labels: blogging, collaboration

I bought a unicycle last week and have started to get some training time in over the last few days. I'd been preparing myself to need a few days to start to get the hang of the balancing act that's required to stay up. And the rather counter-intuitive method of locomoting around.

I have been pleasantly surprised at how quickly I've been able to pick it up and get to a point where I can stay up on my wheel with an occasional bit of assistance in maintaining verticality.

So far the hardest part has been keeping Nande and boys outside of my potential fall zone. Nande got tagged once early on and has learned to give me some space but the boys just think its cool and want to bash into me with their ride-on cars.

One good resource I've been using alot is the FAQ over on Unicycling.org. The best bit of advice I got is to make sure my seat height is set correctly or it'll make the learning curve alot steeper than it already is.

I'm not ready for Unbeatable Banzuke but I'm having fun and learning something new. Video proof of my skills may be in the offing but don't hold your breath!

Labels: learning, unicycle

I'm late to the iPhone party but I just got my invite last night and have been having a ball playing around with it ever since.

And now I'm starting to move towards making my iPhone all it can be by adding applications, tweaks, GUI personalizations and whatever else I can to make my iPhone cooler than it already is.

If you are using or have heard of any awesome iPhone apps that I should look at then please leave a comment for me. I'd love to get a hack to change the ringer volume adjusting rocker on the side of the phone to do alot more, like scroll and maybe app switching. And I'd love a back button as on my Clie.

I've already updated my iTunes Cover Flow and collected something like 1400 album covers to get my art up to speed. Because flipping through blank album covers is lame and not cool at all.

I'm also in the market for a decent protective case or other carrying mechanism to give it some measure of protection while still being as usable as possible. Any input is welcome.

Labels: iphone

Not much time to post this morning as I'm running a little late.

I checked the Los Gatos Apple Store last night and found that they did have a few iPhones in stock. They initially did not want to set one aside for me but when I explained that I was coming up from Santa Cruz, they understood (its about 20 miles) and reserved one for me.

Now I'm happily learning to ins and outs of my sweet new device since you can't really call it just a phone. But yeah, it totally rocks in every sense of the word.

The Giants had another thrilling win last night after an amazingly awesome pitching performance from Jonathan Sanchez and the lone run of the game scored in the bottom of the ninth with an off the wall double. Really great stuff to watch.

Only one more day until the new Tivo hard drive gets here, I'm not sure if my wife can wait that long.

Okay, that's me for now. I'll be back later, I hope.

Labels: iphone, updates

And now, Two Face Baby will haunt your dreams too.

You're welcome.

Actually you are welcome, I did not look for nor post an image of no-face baby. Because two faces may be hard to look at but no face is just too much (or is that too little?).

Labels: mutation

I posted a little update in the comments on the last post about my ex-neighbors who just won't get the hint and go away. The real estate agent who just took over the account was unaware of the issues and was appreciative of my calling her when I saw the two women go into the house over the weekend.

She also got a locksmith out right quick to repair the sliding glass door, which just happens to be one of those models with the sliding door on the outside so you can't just drop a bar into the track and be done with it. No, that would be too easy.

But the house is secured again, she's on top of things and I expect that the next time the boys come over for a party, they'll realize how unwelcome they are and go somewhere else. Hopefully that somewhere else won't be my living room.

Now if we could only put together enough scratch to buy the house for ourselves because it is selling for an absolute freakin' steal right now and they're even willing to negotiate down.

Plus, I just found out that my dream house out in Freedom has just gone on the market. I wish, wish, wish we could buy that house and move out of town but it just ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

Labels: neighbor

It is a fairly rare occurrence when my mother scoops me on some cool new web widget/site.

But she did and passed along a neat site called ZipSkinny that provides detailed demographics and more about any zip code you punch in.

One of the neater features is that you can compare up to 20 different zip codes. You could compare across a region to find the area you want to move to or you could compare where you live now to where you used to live or whatever. Its just a fascinating collection of information and presented in a very easily understood format.

Labels: data, information, statistics

It was with great sadness and a quiet hard drive that our Tivo expired last week. It had been struggling to work and had become difficult to watch so it wasn't a huge surprise but one morning it spent all day trying to power up unsuccessfully.

The strangest thing is how much of an impact the loss of the Tivo has made on our lives. Now, all of a sudden, we need to pay attention to what time it is and to turn on the box if there's a show we want to watch. It would feel quaint if it weren't so annoying.

And I can't stop time anymore, that's a bummer.

But we've only had to suffer for a few days as there's a new hard drive in the works and on the way. My wife wanted to upgrade to the HD Tivo but we would still want to keep this machine up and running since it is one of the coveted Lifetime subscription boxes.

That is, while many people are paying a monthly fee to Tivo, we paid one lump sum and never have to pay for Tivo service again. On that box. When we upgrade to HD we will probably have to start paying again since we missed the boat on the Lifetime HD service (plus it was either $700 or $800 and we didn't have that available at the time). But damn, HD Tivo has got to be about as close to television nirvana as you can get.

We'll get the new drive by Friday which means we miss Survivor so we'll have to watch it live, that'll be very strange.

Until then we will miss our Tivo which is kind of funny because I rarely watch tv, I just like having it ready for when I do have a few minutes. The upside to the hassle is that we'll be adding even more capacity to our Tivo and will be able to record around 180 hours of TV. And that's an awful lot of Oprah!

Labels: television, tivo

I had a good day, went to San Francisco, saw the Giants play their home opener, badly but they played it. Got to ride my motorcycle a bunch and am sort of burnt and a little sore now. Anyway, some thoughts.

- Giants fans are remarkably polite, at least 8 or 9 people turned around and said, Excuse me, to me today.

- There were really a lot of people in the park today. It was too much at times.

- While people waited for forty five minutes or more to get their garlic fries, I walked up to an absolutely empty counter and got mine in fifteen seconds. Still makes me smile.

- A hundred and eight miles on a motorcycle is no joke. Its also alot of fun. And not one real close call.

- It was very nice to have been able to check my Aerostich motorcycle suit. It would have been nicer to know beforehand.

- I really enjoyed the pre-game festivities in celebrating the 50th year of baseball in San Francisco. It was cool seeing all the old timers driven around the stadium. Not sure if any pics came out.

- Oh, cool, the flyover did come out. I'll get it posted tomorrow, I hope.


- One last one that I forgot in all the hub bub. iPhones are selling so fast that Apple can't keep up with demand. I have to wait a week to get mine. Dammit!

Labels: baseball

The empty house next to mine isn't so empty all of the time, apparently. I happened to be out on my deck and saw two women enter the house through the sliding glass back door the afternoon.

The same sliding glass door that the asshole's kids broke, on purpose, so that they could get into the house whenever they wanted to while it sits empty. Nevermind the fact that they don't have any rights to the house and are breaking the law by entering it. They don't care in the least because, well, they are fucking idiots.

Anyway, I saw the two women go in and thought they might be a realtor and a client checking things out. But there was no car outside and, when I called the realtor on the board up at the street, she confirmed my concern.

In talking with my other direct neighbors, she said her son has seen both of the asshole's kids in the house and around the neighborhood even though they don't live here. Which is just great to know that a few gang-banging thug wannabe's are using the house attached to mine as a flophouse/drug den/whatever.

Well, guess what ain't gonna fly?

The realtor came out and made sure the place was empty, checked the bar at the back slider and thought it was secure. I had them lock me out on the deck and was able to get back inside in under ten seconds. Her next statement was about getting a locksmith out ASAP.

Which is good. I told her she should post signs and lock both the gates as well.

With some luck the place will sell (it is going for an absolute steal and I'd buy it if I could) and the asshole and his loser children will find some other place to inflict their presence on. I hope our good neighbors are able to buy it, they are good folks and we get along with them really well.

Its amazing to me that this dick and his family haven't lived here in more than a year and they are still making the place uncomfortable. Now that's asshole power!

Labels: douchebaggery, neighbor

The tv just advertised the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter which I've had my on for a while since I saw how well it worked at a pal's house.

They even had it at a good deal of $20 for two. But then, in the small print, they charge $16 for the shipping. That's 80% of the purchase price being added on to ship the things.

And there is absolutely no way, no how it costs even $8 to ship.

I hate companies that think people are stupid enough to fall for it. Almost as much as I hate that people are stupid enough to fall for it.

Labels: bad marketing, shipping

Regular readers will already be aware of the rather roller-coaster-ish emotional turmoil I've been struggling to work through over the last few months. It is funny how there can be a whole series of negatives that seem to anchor an emotive state and keep the funk in charge.

But sometimes it can take just one brief and shining moment to obliterate the nasty emotional detritus from one's brain and mindset.

Call it an epiphany, call it turning a corner or flipping a new leaf but the end result is a completely changed mindset, a happier universe and a growing optimism for the future.

I'm not going to go into the details of what exactly happened but it did happen and our house, while not the picture of peace and tranquility, is a happier and more supportive place for all of us to be.

And my buying a unicycle had almost nothing to do with that. But it certainly didn't hurt at all.

Labels: epiphany

Farmer cuts property in two to give to ex-wife including his tools, the cattle scales, a harrow (?) and a sowing machine. He's still trying to figure out which way to split the cow. I hope they don't have any kids.

Anyone who's anyone that spends time online is aware of how freaking fantastically awesome Craigslist is. There's no getting around how useful, how easy and just how great the site is. Part of that greatness is the lack of advertising all over the site, the simplicity of its use and the underlying philosophy (Craig, the founder, has no interest in becoming a billionaire or going public or leveraging his amazing traffic flow into clickthru cash).

But the site has its drawbacks. Not that there's much that can be done about them because the drawbacks aren't really on the site, they are in the users.

Every time I've listed something for sale, I will field a few emails and a few phone calls. Almost without fail, the first caller will be into the sale, will get directions and will say they are heading out the door to come right over and see/buy the item. Only something always happens and they never show up. Most of the time they never even bother to call or email or anything. Its as if they've been abducted by aliens.

I had one guy once who said he was on his way over. Never showed and he called back a few hours later with a sob story about a broken car and blah, blah, blah. So we set another appointment for him to come by the next day. The next day came and he blew it off again. And then called a few hours later to apologize and try to set yet another appointment.

Which we did and he blew off again. So when he called a few hours after he said he'd be there, I effectively told him to piss off and go jump in a lake.

But then there are the people who do show up and try to buy the item for a tenth of your listed price.

But not me. If I want to buy something and I make an appointment with the seller to be somewhere, I am there, usually even early. And I don't haggle on prices unless the item is more than a hundred bucks.

If you use Craigslist, do it the right way. Follow through on your appointments, don't flake and don't start your negotiation with an insulting lowball. Your cooperation will be appreciated.

Labels: craigslist, flake

Because I'm a number geek, today makes me smile.

Its the fourth day of the fourth month in the eighth year of the century.

That's 4+4=8 and yes, I'm aware that I'm a total geek because I notice and think these sorts of things are cool.

Labels: dates, geekery, numbers

One of my favorite blogs, Gallery of the Absurd, merged with Circus Hour many months ago. The author of GotA is 14, a very talented artist with a very sly wit and a finger on the pulse of what's hawt and tawdry in celeb-gossip.

Candy, the author of Circus Gallery, is also focused on celebrity gossip so you'd think the combination of their blogs would result in a Grade-A kickass blogaliciousness.

However, Candy's posts are less sly and witty and alot more snide, snippy and kind of just come of as the rantings of someone who's sort of bitter. I'm sure she isn't bitter and I'm sure plenty of people love her posts. Far too much of her posts are trying to be clever and funny and they just come off as desperate and mean-spirited.

But the signal to noise ratio of 14's superb posts to Candy's annoying posts quickly became more of a hassle than a pleasure to read. Sometimes collaboration isn't the quickest route to a better blog. Sometimes you should just stick with what's working as its working.

As it is, I stopped reading Circus Hours months ago and just tonight I finally unsubscribed from GotA because it is no longer going to be anything resembling the blog I once liked. And Circus Hour is just annoying.

And I'm kind of pissed off about having to drop the blog because they wouldn't set up RSS feeds for each blogger, just the whole blog and Candy posts probably five times as much as 14. And, as stated earlier, Candy's posts were just a waste of my time.

Labels: blogging, collaboration

The Ten Worst Job Interview Questions Ever via Esther on Twitter (which I am blocked from using at my schools so I'm posting it).

My comment includes my favorite interview question I'd ask. "Which one are you, a circle, square, triangle or squiggly lines? Why?" but I'd only do that if I was pretty the interviewee had a good sense of humor and I was going to recommend them for the position.

Not to heaven (which I tend to believe is just a nice fairytale carrot) but into the realm of smartphones, convergence devices and reclaiming my Mr. Cool status.

You see, I added the final $20 to my secret savings yesterday and now have enough money squirreled away to afford an iPhone.

Yeah, baby. i-to-the-mutha-fookin'-phone!

I've been debating for the last several weeks about whether the Touch would work for me and I've concluded that it just doesn't. Its beautiful, skinny and sexy and all but lacks two important functions. One, the phone and two, the camera.

I am trying to cut down on the numerous devices I carry with me and the Touch wouldn't really allow me to leave anything at home. I'd still need my phone and my delicious new SD1100 IS (which is coming with me anywhere I go anyway so maybe this is a moot point).

And man do I need to replace my Razr, it is beat up, beat down and ready for the recycler.

So, after much internal debate, I'm going to stop by an Apple Store either this weekend or on my way back from the city on Monday and pick me up a new delicious gadget so I can stop drooling over everyone else's iPhone and drool all over my own!

Labels: Apple, gadget, iphone, tech

I just deleted a comment on my most favorited picture, the one here. The reason was because it was a throwaway comment he posted solely so he could post his stupid ass pet collar customization site.

That's right, there are idiots now trolling Flickr and spamming photos there.

Labels: Flickr, lame, photography, spam, troll

Today's new word came to me during a conversation with a teacher over the pending layoffs in my school district thanks to Governor Meathead's short sighted education budget cuts.

Immunionized - protection from willful and/or capricious firing by union membership

Labels: nwotd

The 13 Most Irresponsible Self Defense Gadgets Money Can Buy via Cracked.com.

I particularly liked the stun gun tampon and sap cap (a baseball cap with a hidden pouch full of powdered lead to use as a blackjack).

One of the very best things about baseball is the opportunity for a player to dominate, to bend the other team to his will with his arm or bat. Barry Bonds was a player like that, even before he became a cheater and sideshow and witch-hunt and blah, blah, blah.

But his era is over, left tainted by allegations, testimonies and a really big head.

The Giants are looking forward and what they have to look forward to isn't so depressing as its been made out to be. The big story about the Giants has been the expense of signing Barry Zito and the return, or lack thereof, on that investment.

The reality is that Barry Zito is at his best as a third pitcher. He's not the ace, its a bad spot for him and it makes him put too much pressure on himself.

And he's obviously not the ace when you see Matt Cain pitch the next night. He's got to be the ace. He brings it, he brings it really freaking hard, with attitude, fire and hutzpah. Matt Cain is the ace of the San Francisco Giants.

But hold on now, its the third game of the year. And who's scheduled to pitch but Tim Lincecum. Only it isn't Lincecum when it comes to game time, its yet another potential star pitcher, Merkin Valdez. My first time seeing him and its a surprise, the reason is because both teams were told about a MAJOR storm that was going to delay the game by hours. Only it didn't. At least not at first.

Anyway, Valdez looks good, strong, confident. Not an ace. Yet. Four strikeouts with no hits in two innings. Solid like solid can be.

And then Tim Lincecum gets into the game in the fourth after Jack Tascher delivered, again (and is becoming another burdgeoning stud in the offing). And delivered four very solid innings, four hits, one run, four strikeouts. He got into and out of two tight jams. And remained perfectly calm the entire time, no grimace, no smile, no nothing. Same as Cain (although he snarls some from time to time).

Its patently obvious that Tim Lincecum is the ace on the staff. The manner in which he carries himself, there's no doubt. But what about Matt Cain? He's the ace, just look at him. And then you see Lincecum in action and its just too damned hard to make a choice between the two.

Which is a problem I'm happy to have.

Call them both aces, drop Barry (that's Zito) to third in the rotation, let him breathe and play.

Sure, it is appearing that the offense is going to be a little anemic (24 left on base and only two runs plated is more than a wee anemic). But they've got speed and maybe it isn't such a bad thing to go through a rough time. It builds character, weeds out the posers and you'll come through the other side better than you started. Or something like that.

There's light on the horizon, the Giants aren't going to be too hard to watch. Small ball, speed, great starting pitching, good defense and maybe it'll be a season worth watching.

And look at that, Brian Wilson, the new closer, just recorded his first save by striking out Furcal and Bengie Molina just recorded his first throw out at second to end the game with a double play for the first win of the season. That was damned satisfying to watch!

Have I mentioned I'm going to Opening Day next Monday? Hell yeah! I missed it last year but not this year. Still undecided about riding up or driving up but it is a day game and I could have a really nice ride up. Even do Skyline into the city, ooh yeah!

Now I need to find a nice zoom lens for the XTi and I'll have two quality cameras to play around with. Can you tell that I can't wait?

Labels: baseball, SF Giants

I'm not much of a fan of the commercials for boner pills. Now, I'm not saying I'm not a fan of a pill or med that allows a man to enjoy a fuller, more satisfying sex life. Quite the contrary, the more sex going on in the world, the better as far as I'm concerned. People who get laid regularly are happier, healthier and less prone to road rage or other fits of violence.

Its the commercials I despise.

The most recent is for Cialis where the older couple is chillin' in their empty nest of a house, about to get their freak on in the living room when the door opens and its daughter home from college on a surprise (but a happy surprise they are quick to say) visit.

But with superduper boner pill Cialis, you've got a 36 hour window to sprout some trouser wood. Cialis is, basically, the Clapper for your cock.

You want a boner? Clap once.

You want some rest? Clap twice and boner go down.

Clap on, clap off, the Clapper!

And don't even get me started on those incredibly annoying Enzyte commercials with the dude with the shit eating grin and the unbelievably irritating soundtrack. And then they have the gall to play those stupid ads back to back, just in case you didn't get enough of the smarmy pap the first time.

Viagra, at least, can poke some fun at itself (and others, hardyharhar).

Labels: boner pill, ed, marketing

So in the last two days I've gotten major props from one of my principals and my tech liaison at another school. The principal has recommended me for a promotion to another position in tech. The liaison made sure my boss knew just how much he appreciated my work and what a great job I'd been doing.

Which, as you might guess, makes me feel pretty damned good about my job, my work, my schools and more.

Sometimes getting external recognition is more important than knowing you did a job well. And its alot more likely to result in raises and/or promotions.

Labels: feedback, work

I heard a short news blurb about Congress Grilling Oil Execs on High Prices and "asking tough questions" about gas prices and profits and tax breaks.

The thing is, expecting oil companies to voluntarily give up profits and tax breaks is utterly insane. They will milk that teat for absolutely as long as possible and won't be removed without much kicking and screaming despite the fact that the baby in this example is 50 years old and a multi-billionaire.

The first order of business for a non-oil-addicted-buffoon president should be to remove the tax breaks immediately. These companies are making record profit after record profit in successive quarters, there is simply no argument for continuing to support them. They make more money than the majority of countries on our planet.

Second, gas prices should also fluctuate to the lower side as well instead of the never-ending climb up towards $4 and more a gallon.

Third, I want a politician to stand up and point the finger (you choose which one) at the oil execs and call them on their position, force them to admit they are raping America and Americans in the name of stockholder profits. While families are being forced to make the choice between gas for the car and dinner for the kids.

There is just no reasonable and valid argument for a company making record profits each quarter to be getting handouts or breaks from the government. None. Because unfettered greed is not a valid argument. It is, to quote some gaming pals, an epic fail.

The combination of an oil-baby-fool for a president (who's family has been in bed with the Saudi's for decades), the war in Iraq cutting world oil supplies, tax breaks and ever-rising gas costs is a recipe for revolution in the streets and oil executives heads jammed on pikes. That they have the audacity to try and say their profits are reasonable is disgusting and, quite simply, wrong.

Labels: collusion, economy, oil, profit

China lays out conspiracy claims against Dalai Lama saying he's responsible for suicide attacks and protests. Which is like saying Mother Teresa was working for the terrorists.

The Dalai Lama is a peaceful man dedicated to making the world a better place. That China is trying to make him out to be a terrorist is thoroughly disgusting and repugnant.

China is the 10,000 ton gorilla beating the shit out of Tibet and is trying to claim the higher moral ground by casting a spiritual leader as a terrorist?

Fuck China and Fuck their Olympic Games. I am going to really enjoy watching the entire nation squirm in the international press for their abuses and horribly twisted ethics.

So Hulk Hogan has a new girlfriend in the wake of his wife divorcing him surprise style.

I noticed that Jennifer McDaniel is "volcanic" according to Google Trends so I checked out the links (images first then the news) and found this depressing article, Hulk Hogan Is A Creepy Old Man.

Why is he a creepy old man? His new girlfriend looks absolutely exactly like his 19 year old daughter, Brooke (yes, there are comparison pics). And that, my friends, is incest by proxy.

What a delightful role model he is. First his son puts a Marine into a coma by driving drunk too fast and underage. Now he's banging his substitute daughter.

Ewwwwww!

Even when I make a point of shutting down and going to bed early, something will inevitably make my sleep suck or wake me up five times during the night.

Last night I was exhausted, couldn't keep my eyes open and called it a night around 10. I even took a single Nyquil to help me sleep and to try and overcome the first stages of the cold I picked up.

It did not work, I was up almost all night blowing, sniffling, unable to breathe or needing to go to the bathroom. And, as usual, I have woken up more tired than when I went to bed.

This is not a situation that ends well if I don't start getting decent sleep. And today is going to be long ass grind given how I feel right now.

Labels: deprivation, sleep