Month: October 2004

 

Mutter me that….

heh, two for two…

  1. Right now:: aqui
  2. Halloween::Eric Draven
  3. Provider::Resource
  4. Rescue me::Mo Town
  5. Confidence::edge
  6. Fungus::’Shrooms
  7. Candy corn::sweet
  8. Reunion::Rejoin
  9. Winner::vindicated
  10. Tradition::Pride

A certain State of Mind


It was so easy living day by day
Out of touch with the rhythm and blues
But now I need a little give and take
The New York Times, The Daily News

It comes down to reality
And it’s fine with me ’cause I’ve let it slide
Don’t care if it’s Chinatown or on Riverside
I don’t have any reasons
I’ve left them all behind
I’m in a New York state of mind


–Billy Joel, New York State of Mind

Home.

That’s what I’m thinking of on my next sojourn out fo the Suburban sprawl that is Palm Harbor, Florida. Not the fact those Yucking Fankees got their asses handed to them by the Bosox (can someone give me a “Hallelujah”? Can somebody give me an “Amen”?)… The fact I’m going home to the state of my birth. To the palce I spent nearly 10 years before I came to this ill ile of torment.

I’m going up with my father next week for my grandmothers birthday. Nice timing, as I had planned on going 2 weeks earlier but alas – scheduling conflicts and what not prevented that from happening. Not only will this be the first time I am in New York since 1995, but the first time I am in autumn weather (REAL autumn weather, not the sun-dried shit in Florida where everything stays green) since 1994 (ok, 2001 I was in Reno, Nevada in October… But I don’t want to count that).

I ventured 2300 miles on my own to LA, got around the city pretty good and yet thinking about going around New York intimidates me moreso than LA. It’s not the fact New Ork is a big place (which it is) but the fact so many people are crammed into such a tight spot in the city…

And that’s where I want to go in my free time — the city. Well, that and Montauk…. but I’ve already alluded to that

A certain state of mind — the mind of an escapist? That doesn’t seem right. The mind of a fugitive from justice? Nah, I ain’t no Richard Kimble…. A pilgrim? That doesn’t feel right either but it feels more accurate and along the lines of what I am looking for…

Mutter me this….

Been a while since I did a Free Association from Unconcious Mutterings….

  1. Blackout:: Dark
  2. Platinum:: Album
  3. Leather and lace:: Erotica
  4. Court:: Martial
  5. Mind your own business:: Nosy
  6. Gambling:: Addiction
  7. Lily:: bouquet
  8. Evasive:: Manuver
  9. Turn-on:: Sexual
  10. Suspect:: zero

A long time coming in it's going

Visit FanHome

…and get a big, fat, juicy 404 error.

An era has officially passed.

Come, Reep

Under Stephen King’s famed Demon Moon….

The Demon Moon

The Boston Red Sox have erased 86 years of pain in an instant. Congratulations, Red Sox Nation on winning the 2004 World Series!

Just to cover the dis-satisfied…

Matt at Defective Yeti has continued his worthwhile marketing for voters with a pair of gems…

Whine-games

I’ve known my friend Bill for a couple of years — well, six… Six years we’ve discussed things, six years we’ve talked sports and politics and shit, six years of the same old stuff….

I’ve gotten to know him pretty well and I know he is miserable because he doesn’t have the opportunity to get a job that is up to his level as a college graduate. I know that he is too high-strung to try again at a retail job… I know he’s discouraged to stick his neck out on a job and just keep trying….

I know he is wasting opportunities by sitting home and fretting over what he doesn’t like… What he doesn’t want… And what he worries about.

I told BIll that he ought to seek a job outside of the Bay area… outside fo Florida as well. I know Bill and me are alike in a good number of ways and I know I am itching for a start somewhere else – somewhere new. SOmewhere that isn’t so ass-backwards as Tampa Bay… He’s talked about Boston in the past, he’s got family up there and what not… yet it’s only been talk all these years and at times I have discouraged him because of the talk…

And yet Boston should be looking awfully good to him right now.

The only thing sthat are keeping him here are his nieces and his love for Tampa Bay Sports. The family stuff I can understand, but the sports stuff is absolute bullshit in the grand scheme of things. He’s witnessed the Bucs win the Super Bowl and the Lightning win the Stanley Cup…. He’s been in attendance for one of these events (as was I) and basically the only thing left woudl be the Rays winning the World Series — but he’s more of a Boston fan than Rays fan anyway.

He’s lived here almost 30 years and now, I think, it’d be high time to get his ass out.

It’s high time I start planning on my escape as well… But I digress, that’s a story for another entry at another time.

I feel naked

It’s been almost a year since I started wearing chin hair pubes on the norm with my goatee…

I shaved this morning and looking at my face, I feel like I’m staring at a baby’s ass or something… It just ain’t natural.

It’ll be a few weeks before I get my face back where it should be with hair. Till then I’ll just… suffer….

OHMIGOD and also PLEASE DEAR GOD, NO!

Oh my God, the Boston Red Sox have become the first MLB Team to ever overcome a 3-0 defeceit to win a series and have beaten the New York Yankees to capture the American League crown! It’s wondrous! It’s amazing!

It’s a God Damned disaster in the making.

You think you’ve got enough political bullshit going on right now from Herr Dubya and John Kerry? Well, just think about this people — The Boston Red Sox versus the Houston Astros… Get Geographical…

Boston vs. Houston… Massachusettes vs. Texas…

And it barely gets any better if St. Louis wins. It’s still Boston vs. Busch 😛

It’ll be a good game for the National League tomorrow but I hope to high hell that the Astros don’t win for the sake of the media spin being absent over the next week….

Eternally Mindful of a Sunshiny Eyeful

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d;
Labour and rest, that equal periods keep;
“Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep;”
Desires compos’d, affections ever ev’n,
Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to Heav’n.
Grace shines around her with serenest beams,
And whisp’ring angels prompt her golden dreams.
For her th’ unfading rose of Eden blooms,
And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes,
For her the Spouse prepares the bridal ring,
For her white virgins hymeneals sing,
To sounds of heav’nly harps she dies away,
And melts in visions of eternal day.

From Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope

It didn’t take Charlie Kaufman that long to get me tied deeply to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and it wasn’t just because I’m a big fan of Jim Carrey (yes, even in non-comedic roles) or the fact I think Kate Winset is sexy. No, it was something else that scared me into paying attention to this movie.

I’ve been planning to head up north sometime soon to visit family in New York – on Long Island… And the city I stayed in when my Aunt and Uncle were married 10 years ago is the place where most of the events of Eternal are supposed to take place – Rockville Center. And half the reason I was planning a trip to New York was so I could go out to Montauk and see the Atlantic, the light house, etc…

Does Charlie Kaufman have a camera in mind?

The movie is great in the romantic sense and poses the question – would you erase someone you loved, but have broken up with, from your mind? There are negatives about everyone and everything you ever come across in your life and the truth to the matter is that these things are part of you — part of your mind, part of your heart, part of your soul. It could be an experience of pure humiliation, it could be a period of unquenched sadness, or perhaps when the kids down the street beat the shit out of you…. Whatever it is – it’s part of you. To simply erase thqt would take that part of you away… To shed part of your very existence.

Yet Kaufman offers hope in this movie to the broken hearted… Maybe it’s just a dream seeing it’s a story and a work of fiction – that two people who should be together will meet again down the path or be drawn back to one another.

I loved Adaptation. I left a review that is often requested on the web for the movie. I could understand the character and his fears and such and that’s what drew me into it. In this instance, it’s the desire to shed feelings, to feel betrayed by someone who’s moved on, to be driven crazy by someone but in the end – ultimately realize you are better off with them.

You’re better off with it. With the pain, with the sadness, with the joy, with the elation, with the misery, with the angst, with the apathy, with the torment, with the grief, with the fear, with the laughter, with the tears… They are who you are as much as your significant other. Running from your dirty laundry is just going to make it more painful when you have to live with it.,

If your mind stays “spotless”, your world and your life is blank…. It’d be nice to forget sometimes or somethings, but to forget is to regret living.

what is it with…

Myspace.com? It’s like everyone has a profile over there… Even me…

Baseball invite

Wanna talk about the ALCS? The NLCS?

We’ve got an open thread on game five of the ALCS going on at Baseball Boards…..

Problems solved — comment away

Permalinks are working. Comments are working. The only “Bug” is that I have to approve comments before they get published (even if I remove that setting from the Admin control panel) so your comments likely will not show up right away.

WordPress frustrations

No comments.

No permalinks…

Not until I get thsi bugger fixed… 🙁

I've failed you, Rebecca McKinney

There’s been a story that has been runnng pretty strongly through the Tampa Bay Area for the last week… It’s something that I take a personal interest in… No, that’s not correct. Or it just feels wrong and short stepping for me to say I take a personal interest in it.

Let me start by telling you the situation: A sixteen year old girl by the name of Rebecca McKinney was hit and killed on McMullen Booth road in Pinellas County, Florida last week. She was crossing 6 lanes of highway after the school bus dropped her off.

I tell you that I take what happened personally not because I am related to Rebecca McKinney – I never knew her. I never met her. I take personal interest in this because I feel like I have failed Rebecca McKinney and thousands of pedestrians and motorists around Pinellas County and in the Tampa Bay Area.

I’ve been vocal in the past 6 years about various transit conditions in Pinellas County. You can point out absurdities left and right, which I did, but what it comes down to is change. And from an advocates point of view, I changed absolutely shit.

And for that I apologize to Rebecca McKinney’s friends and family.

I’m not a government official – I just badgered them time and again and didn’t accomplish anything. I’m not a Department of Transportation worker. I’m just a citizen who wanted those assclowns to stop mis-designing roads and thoroughfares and making other bad decisions based on money and not wanting to spend.

The reason I feel I failed her, that I indirectly caused Rebecca’s death, is that I’ve grown tired of the rhetoric. I wasn’t vigilent… I couldn’t have changed things myself alone but I could have kept trying. I should have kept trying. I should have kept writing, I should have stopped being pissed off at the fact certain St. Petersburg Times editors weren’t thinking my letters newsworthy… Or my letters to Pinellas County Commissioners were turned into mush because of political bullshit being spewed from those very County COmmissioners who are out of touch with conditions out there. Heck, I should have started to badger Pinellas County Sherrif’s for their lack of policing the roads. There own cruisers tend to speed instead of doing traffic duty.

And what’s going to come of Rebecca’s death? That also makes me angry – there will be talk, denials, there will be scapegoats made out to appease those upset by what happened. There will be planning, workshops, there will be community forums…

And yet nothing will change. There won’t be vast improvements made for pedestrians. There won’t be driving alternatives for daily commuters who were witness to this accident. There won’t be help for law-enforcement officials to make sure drivers obey the laws of the road. The simplest plan will be adopted, the one that costs the county the least amount of money. Commissioners will applaud it and say it’s a step in the right direction…

And then nothing…

…until the next tradgedy.

A 16 year old girl was robbed of her life, of her future. If the Pinellas County School Board, the Pinellas County Commission, the Pinellas Sheriffs office and the Department of Transportation want to dismiss this like I believe they will ultimately do – it’s blood on their hands. If these bastards don’t think changes are in order – no matter what the cost, for the sake of lives young and old – then let them be escorted out of office post haste.

This is the 21st Century in Tampa Bay and the market is one of – if not the – worst for pedestrians and for motorsts alike. I’m sick and tired of the thrift-shopping solutions for transit woes from government officials.

Rebecca McKinney probably wouldn’t have died if changes had come to how we do things around here.

And for that, I’m sorry. My vigelence may be renewed, but at too high a cost.

Things change

About a year ago I was in real bad shape…

I can’t convey how bad it was – I thought i was going to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. I thought I wasn’t goign to be able to physically perform with someone, I thought i wasn’t going to be able to go out and aout and more and would be at the mercey of someone who cared for me – or didn’t really but felt a responsibility.

At one point… exactly a year ago within the last few days — I got that wheelchair I worried aobut and my mom got upset… Telling me that if I get in one, I’m never getting out. Why would she say that? Basically it’s something that you see with elderly people who give up or who have their lives fall apart. Why try any more? It’s not like they will recover that well.

Meanwhile things continued to go down, get worse for me… It came to the point where physically trying was redundant because my body would fail onn me, int eh attempt.

Now it’s been a week since I got back from LA and it hits home every day when I think about how much things have changed in the past year. I didn’t give up, I didn’t stop fighting… I didn’t stop sticking my neck out either (but that’s a different story). The difference si night and day. Where I was doing physical rehab to try to keep some strength, now I am trying to use that strength I’ve regained to live my life agian.

Now if only I wasn’t stuck in the suburbs… but again, that’s a different story.

Everyone's eating for two…

What’s with thing sright now?

Michelle’s pregnant… She told me after she told her boyfriend Josh the news… Me and her had been talking about her feeling sick the day before and I had the creeping suspicion that she was preggo. Then again, seeing her and her boyfriend Josh all over each other usually caused that “creeping suspicion” too.

Terra is pregnant too… I’m less worried about Terra than Michelle because of circumstances and such…

But congratulations to the both of them… Certainly unplanned but certainly exciting.

Jon Stewart 0wnz j00

Anywhere you go on the Blogosphere in the next few hours are going to be talking about this… So I will just point out my favorite moment in Jon Stewart’s assault on CNN/Crossfire:

CNN.com – Transcripts

STEWART: It’s not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. And I will tell you why I know it.

CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you’re accusing us of partisan hackery?

STEWART: Absolutely.

CARLSON: You’ve got to be kidding me. He comes on and you…

STEWART: You’re on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: What is wrong with you?

That basically sums it up with Jon Stewart and the Daily Show. It’s not news. It’s pointing out the absurdities from those in power and making a joke about them. If and when Stewart has guests, it’s not to make an ass of them (of course, unless the guests set themselves up for it) but for Entertainment sake.

On Crossfire — you’re supposed to be newsworthy. Not entertaining but Newsworthy. THat has escaped the media the last few years – where’s the reporting? Where’s the accountability? Where is askign politicians tough quesitons and making them answer instead of tap dancing around the issue?

This isn’t a partisan game as Tucker Carlson insinuates at one point during Crossfire this afternoon. It’s doing America a service by reporting news and makign sure that the “news” isn’t bullshit spin.

Comedy Central is just that – Comedy. And it’s a sad, SAD state of affairs in America when their program is directly compared to programming on CNN or FOX News.

Links and such

Trying to comment? Trying to access a Permalink? Right now it’s 404. I’m working on it.

The Pigskin and the Pigheads running for President

From Snopes.com:

Did you know….??

The Washington Redskins have proved to be a time-tested election predictor. In the previous 15 elections, if the Washington Redskins have lost their last home game prior to the election, the incumbent party has lost the White House. When they have won, the incumbent has stayed in power.

This election year, that deciding game takes place on Sunday, October 31 … vs. Green Bay.

Go Pack!!!

Debate Bushism's

First, there was a country….

Then there was a singular turned into a plural

George W. Bush — single handedly keeping Drinking-Games alive with the slip of the tongue…

Continued G-Reeve-ing

I’m still upset over the news of Christopher Reeve’s death. I’m a child of the 1980’s and Christopher Reeve as Superman was my Superman. He beat the shit out of the animated versions of Superman or the comic books… I know someone out there that doesn’t see this blog often has a picture of me as a kidd wearing a Superman outfi for Holloween….

And to think my childhood hero is gone…? It just… It makes my heart cry.

Patty Davis wrote a memorable piece in Newsweek about this death and how the Government helped it along. It ticks me off that moral law controls the United States on an issue like this.

I, myself am a disabled American and even though I can’t benefit from Stem Cell research, I certainly don’t think we should keep people from researching what benefits can come from Stem Cell research. I don’t think God would of wanted us to pass judgement on the weak like this.

I left that post mentioning Reeve’s death yesterday with a line from Stephen King’s book… that doesn’t do it justice…

Rest in peace, Superman….


Forever and always the man of steel

Would Lennon have looked like this today?

Would Lennon have looked like this today?

You be the judge.

The end of Roland Deschain's Journey – The Dark Tower

I’ve reviewed the last few books with just general babble in my opinion… Not talking details at all about The Dark Tower books except for those who know the Dark Tower. I’ve tried to keep my reviews spoiler free so that other people can enjoy what happens to Roland and hsi ka-tet as they approach the apex of existence: The Dark Tower.

Stephen King spins his final tale – another work of Metafiction with himself involved in the novel – in the thirty-plus year saga of the Gunslinger and his quest. It closes the door on the series but it also opens the door to the reader – the Constant Reader that Stephen likes to reffer to…. How so? ON discord perhaps? Discontent? On frustrations? On heartbreak?

It’s just a book to so many who have enjoyed them over the years, it’s a pilgrimage to the center of a fiction writers imagination.

From here on in, I want to give a constant spoiler warning… I will not be holding back on my comments… I’ll say the book kept me interested and it was a page turner… Now if you do not want to know what happens in the book — READ NO FURTHER!

You still here? OK… Well, lets get down to basics: Roland does indeed reach the Dark Tower and breach it…

The bad news is that King decided to get rid of some people along the way. We have a few people form past King Novels show up — including Shimmie Ruiz who happesn to be a breaker of all things — but that doesn’t really make up for the breaking of the Ka-tet. It doesn’t make up for the bitter end between Roland and Susannah (nor her choice — more on that later). Nor does it make up for the ultimate hook that closes the book out with (which I nearly skipped after reading Roland reciting names of those he has met on his journey).

For those who have read the Dark Tower novels and who have read soem of King’s other work, there has always been a indirect tie to the Tower books from his other stories. In Insomnia was a painting with two men… Patrick Danville was supposed to save the lives of those two figures and one of those men MUST NOT DIE….

Patrick was one of those two men, so it seems… As he and Roland of Gilead are the ones that are left to approach the Tower. I kid you not.

Eddie Dean hath fallen. O Discordia.

John “Jake” Chambers hath fallen. O Discordia.

Susannah Dean ventures back into one fo the many Americas in existence… This all but a day before Roland reaches the Dark Tower.

Those are the killer blows of The Dark Tower. Eddie being the most lovable character of the saga, Jake being part of the story from the very start…. It just broke my heart when I read about Eddie dying…. jake dying was shocking to me. It was shocking to Stephen King as well who explains in the book himself that, in his notes, all four of them were supposed to live to see the tower.

And Oy? Unfortunately, Wizard and Glass told you the outcome of Oy’s journey to End World….

Eddie’s death was the real problem I had with The Dark Tower – that’s just someone I couldn’t see dying and yet who’s death seemed the most likely. His death is ont he heels fo the Beam of Shardik / Manturin being saved, which adds to the bitterness of it happening.

And Jake? He saves Stephen King in the year of ’99….

Susannah and Roland venture together through a good bit of the book but dreams start telling her she must leave Roland. And leave she does…. For Eddie Cantor….Toren?

I don’t know where else to go with this discription of the book… It had most everything you have seen in the Dark Tower stories except a lengthy flashback. Chills, spills, gunslinging…. Roland never ahd the “dry twist” of arthritis… That is explained. Ted Brauntigan and Dinky Evanshaw are park of the group that saves the beams from the Breakers (say thank ya)….

And what happens when Roland reaches the Dark Tower? What happens when he reaches the top? I’ll leave you with a few words and hear them very well, I beg… I’ll leave you to read the novel itself and enjoy the novel as I did… But one line summarizes the begining and the end of this Magnum Opus of Stephen King:

The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed.

More to the Discord….

Christopher Reeve is Dead.

Ken Caminiti is dead.

O, Discordia….

It was bad enough waking up Wednesday to see the news that my favorite comedian — the king of Comedy for that matter — Rodney Dangerfield had passed away… But these two deaths are just further blows to my system. Reeve was my hero growing up (as Superman) and Caminiti was a player I admired until I found out about his steroid use and what not….

All three fo these men will be missed…. SOme for their fame and visions of hope, some for their humanity, and others to serve as a warning to professional athletes.

O, Discordia indeed.

The trip

Where to begin, where to begin?

“I’m only sorta gimpy. I can get there by myself.” I told a curb side check in agent for American Airlines. He smirked and let out a laugh and I went on my way into Tampa International Airport to start my trip on Tuesday morning. I had my Eastman backpack swung over my shoulders, dress pants on and my “trusty” cane in hand as I navigated the terminal and made my way to the airside concourse.

American Airlines made it real easy on me and helped me out the entire way to and from Burbank. Being it lead onto the plane by a Stewardess in Tampa or the ticket-agent trying to get me a replacement flight to Tampa from Dallas if I didn’t make that conneciton flight (more on that later)… AA kicked ass in their service.

The big thing about this that upset my parents and extended family was I was going 2200 miles by my lonesome as my first trip solo. Not to mention I’m still a gimp to one extent or another, walking with and without a cane at times.

Not like I needed to care about being gimpy once I got on the streets of LA.

If there’s one difference that is night and day in La Cuidad de Angels compared to Tampa/St. Pete and the suburbs, it’s the fact that pedestrians have the right of way. Here in Florida, I’d get run down sooner than a car actually wait to turn during a green light. In Los Angeles? I got honked at for not walking and waving cars on at an intersection. That was the biggest adjustment, and the most pleasing.

The other thing that hits me hard every time I am out there is getting used to being surrounded by minorities. Mexicans, Japaneese, African Americans, etc…. One huge eclectic mix. Here in the south, people can only hold closed minded views and hold fear when thinking about situations like that. Me? I fucking LOVED it.

Sure, there is the idea you could get jumped by a gang here and there — that was before I did some thinking and observing. Grandma’s were out walking with canes, unmolested by teens hanging out and kids walking around with CD players weren’t being attacked… I think that gives you an idea it’s safe to be out and about during the daytime and not so intimidated…

At any rate, half the reason I was able to do this trip was my buddy out west, Mark Albracht who I know from SkyscraperPage.com. Me and Mark have known each other a while and have been friends for the past year +…. He had picked me up at the airport and we also spent some time in Hollywood looking around and stuff. It was fun to be out there and see some of the places that I have only heard about (the Kodak theater, the Egyptian….. The Walk of fame…).

Damn, there is so much to talk about and yet I am just rambling through it. And at the same time, there is little to talk about because I didn’t do much while out there. While I liked being on my own on a trip, I would have loved a peer with me (not a parent) to enjoy some of the things that I passed on or didn’t spend enough time with.

Of course, the trip did have it’s low point – my birthday . The day started off as it normally did in LA but I had an appointment that morning. A long overdue ABI checkup. What went so bad? Being forced into an MRI that i didn’t want to have done, having to sit around for four hours until I had the prodcedure, then being in physical and emotional pain with how I was dealt with by the staff… To summarize my birthday was to summarize my life: spent with me trying to look good, voyaging, meeting a friend, being duped by a faux ally, pain, humiliation and ultimately ending alone. Great attitude, wouldn’t you say? 😛 😉

Oh, I forgot to add the part about Burbank. Saturday morning I left my hotel (after barely getting any sleep) to encounter the worst fog I had seen first hand since I was a kid. The flight was grounded until almost 9 and could have made me miss my conneciton flight home… And like I said, a ticket agent stepped right up and arranged things for me if I did miss my connection. Luckily, once airborn, we made up time lost and actually came in ahead of schedule (but still not enough time for this guy to grab a meal while on the DFW International concourse.

I’m planning on getting away some more in coming weeks. A trip to NY for instance…. Who knows where else. Where I’m wanted and where I’m curious would most likely be it.

He's baaaaack

…All you had to do was ask

Super Stonegauge Brothers 3…. :p

John in the land of the rising hills

Go Bye Bye

OK, well, I should finish packing but I am trying to take care of what I can before I go…. Like leaving a message on Der Stonegauge to say “See ya later Aligator.”

I’ll be back Saturday Night. Anything pressing? Sheer curiosity? Think I have you on my banned list on IM and in email? Send me email and you’ll find out that I haven’t. Didn’t. Wouldn’t and all that jazz.

And in the meantime — I want hockey back 🙁

To the city of light, I fly… Later Skaters!

The week ahead

This is going to be a doozy of a week for me — trying? Challenging is more like it.. Lonely as well as interesting…

LA’s fine, the sun shines most the time… and the feeling is laid back….
John’s a gimp and tends to be a wimp and he has a habit to… keep on lookin’ back. 😛

I’m going out west all alone for the first time in my life. A trip on my own itself would be a challenge but one that takes me 2500 miles without a saftey net is something that troubles the shit out of my family… and me to one extent or the other.

But I want time away form them. I need time away from them and thsi suburb (but going to the sprawl of LA is almost as bad). I’ve been stuck imobile for almost a year and now that i have my mobility back, the only thing that I want to stop me is finances and being able to pay for trips where I want to go.

Oh, there is that little matter of my birthday on Thursday too. Not that I am looking forward to beign 25 years old and basically not where I want to be. I’m trying to make headway but… Heh… I’ve accomplished a bit that I never intended too and I have things everyone accomplishes by now — except me — looming over my head. This trip is one of them… Most people do shit on there own by now or have done it once or twice. I haven’t. That’s got to change.

Web projects

Well, people already saw on my last post I am thinking about doing a Buccaneers Web Log… That being said, Stonegauge Productions may have a new client soon enough.

Danielle’s boss is in desperate need to not only get a lower-costing hosting company but also improve (visibility, sales, etc ) her store’s web site – Chantilly Lace Gifts… It’s an E-Commerce site that isn’t doing any commerce (no sales in a year of existence). It doesn’t get any exposure and damn it, it doesn’t even give you a glipse of the store itself.

Nice design pre-designed site but a challenge from top to bottom.

Humor Me — Buccaneer Web log

Anyone interested in working with me on a Buccaneer Web Log?

Yes, the Bucs suck right now… Yes Bruce Allen is a moron… Yes Jon Gruden needs more humillity… That doesn’t mean to say we shouldn’t support Los Buccaneeros on the web — even in criticism.

And for those who are unsure why I bring up the idea of a Buccaneer web log…. Seeing I already own and operate Boltsmag, I figure a Bucs blog wouldn’t be a bad addition…

Just post comments if you’re interested… we’ll talk.

Ya down with ODP — DMOZ Posse

I might have already mentioned this somewhere but if I didn’t, I am back in action with the Open Source Directory Project with a couple of categories here and there.

Click here to view my Profile on there. Not much but it shows you what I edit…

If you’ve ever been interested in teh Search Engines and web directories, becomign an ODP editor is soemthing you ought to look into.

Gruden and Bush – uncanny similarities

You know, I could talk up and down about he Presidential Debate last night (“You forgot Poland!” ) but I digress. That’s what all the other political blogs are for…. Soemone came off like a politician and someone came off hapless… That’s all I am saying.

However with Los Buccaneeros de Tampa Bay falling assunder — looking at going 0-4 for the first time since 1996 — I couldn’t help but start thinkign about Gruden and Bush last night. I mean, the debate put El Presidente on my mind and of course any Tampa Bay resident is going to put the Bucs on their mind at one point or another.

  • Bush came into power and was blessed with the state of the economy and state of the federal budget which the previous administration helped along. He was handed a world that wasn’t embroidered with peace but if he acted decisively and quickly – he could have dealt with a lingering foreign problem… September 11th happened (which was tragic) and people started to blindly follow him through the days that followed.

    Jon Gruden came into power with The Buccaneers blessed with the Buccaneer roster anda shrewdly managed salary cap that the previous head coach helped along greatly during his tenure. He was handed a team that was dominant but couldn’t win the whole she bang, but if he acted decisively and quickly – he could turn the team into not just a one time Super Bowl champion but a dynasty. The Bucs were coming off a first round loss to the Philadelphia Eagles (again) which featured an inept offense (which was tragic) and people started to blindly follow Gruden (after he was hired) because he seemed to be the answer to things.

  • Bush went to War with terror. Patriotism went through the roof and the man could seemingly do no wrong.

    Gruden brought the Bucs to the Super Bowl and won. Team frevor went through the roof and Gruden could seemingly do no wrong.

  • Bush went off on a tangent and wanted to attack Iraq, and verbally sparred with his allies when they wouldn’t agree with his plans.

    Gruden went off on a tangent and started to attack his free agency carelessly, and verbally sparred with his General Manager when he (Rich McKay) wouldn’t agree with hsi plans.

  • Bush continued to do as he pleased and sold Iraq on false pretenses…

    Gruden continued to do as he pleased and cut John Lynch on porrous pretenses

  • Bush surrounds himself with sychophants in his administration in order to continue with his carekess plans without opposition

    Gruden surrounded himself with a sychophant (Bruce Allen) in the organization to continue with his careless plans without opposition.

  • Bush’s cronnies made bad tactical decisions (Fallujah, Hallburton, etc)

    Gruden’s cronny has made bad tactical decisions (signing Darrell Russell, Signing Charlie Garner, etc)

  • Bush doesn’t think of the Future with the national debt, tax cuts and costly defict spending.

    Gruden diesn’t think of the Future with his shunning of rookies, trading draft picks and costly/careless signings.

  • Bush will not fess up to his mistakes

    Gruden will not fess up to his mistakes

Maybe it’s just me, but this is how I see it. The similarities stop at the fact Bush can be kicked out of office in November and Gruden is contractually signed for a long time to come….

"Dead or Alive" as to "Contained"?

How can the President, knowing that Osama Bin Laden has worked with limited resources in the third world and orchestrated the most heinious attacks on the United States of America, tell the American people that Osama Bin Laden was “contained” as he did last night during the debates? Osama runs free along the Afghan and Pakistan border and his Al Qaeda network is alive and well around the world and yet the word “contained” is being used to describe this grease fire?

This is an insult to anyone who lost a loved one on September 11th, 2001. You cannot simply say Osama Bin Laden is “contained” and that American’s should sit back and accept a political description of the situation when, just 3 years ago, Bush was rallying the country with the slogan “Dead or Alive.”

To all those who say John Kerry flip-flops on issues — if you do not see the President flip-flopping on this issue, you have blinders on. If you can accept “containment” over closure, you’ve turned a blind eye to those who have suffered and lost because of Osama Bin Laden.

Saddam Hussein was a ruthless dictator and politically – he was “contained.” He had no allies to hide with, he was out in the open and the world had imposed strict sanctions against him. Osama Bin Laden is a rogue and he and his terrorist network are anything but contained.