Read This!

I emailed some of you guys this article earlier, but thought I would post it as well in case I missed anyone. Click on the title to go to the link. It is really well written and offers some perspective on what is going on with the war of terrorism.

Jennings is a Jerk

Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings decided to be controversial (well, controversial as a programer in Utah can get on his blog!) this week by ripping on Alex Trebek and Jeopardy. Why bite the hand that fed him $2.5 million in winnings last year? Kenny where is the love? Perhaps he's pissed they won't let him back on the show, but even so Trebek is an instituation! Mocking him is not cool....the guy who runs "Wheel of Fortune" I can understand.

A Chilling Thought

With escalation going on between Israel and Lebanon lately, I have been hearing many broadcasters hearlding this as our "World War Three". Perhaps they like the dramatics of the sounds of this, though it is difficult to determine the ripple effects from the boiling pot that is the Middle East right now. So as we watch Ms. Rice waltz around trying to forgo any more conflict, thought I'd do some research.

What is a "World War"? Thanks to the folks at Wikipedia here is a definition. A world war decribes a military conflict affecting majority of the world's major nations unually spanning multiple continents and are very bloody and destructive.

Fast Facts:

World War One/World War Two
Affected States 36/62
Deaths 10M/55M
Injured 20M/35M
Conscripts (i.e. drafted) 70M/110M
Battlefield Area 4 km2/22 km2

Also found a quote that is relevant:

"I know not with what weapns World War Three will be fought, but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein

Marriage programs to get a boost from feds

Do you find this funny as well? Silly George!

Writer's Block

I have been tasked with writting a poem for a friend of mine and can not get past the first few phrases. I have never been blocked like this before. The topic has to be love and committment since it will be read at a wedding this fall. I still got time but, man, I get to the third line and it goes south. I have written things of this nature before, but perhaps it's the pressure of having an actual writting assignment that is getting to me. The other reason for my inabilty to fill up a notebook with fancy rhymes of romance and adoration is the possibility that I have grown far too synical to be an "everything is coming up roses" kind of writer. I don't know.

This leads me to the realization that tragedy, grief, and saddness are much more rich topics to write about. For every happy song out there is at least five sad songs. My Grandpa loves the old Hank Williams/Willie Nelson ballads -i.e. My heart was trampled by a metephorical bulldozer - this he refers to as the essentials of a good song: "crying, sighing, and dying". Years ago my younger brother once spoke up during one of Grandpa's favorites and said, "Grandpa, why are your songs always so sad?"

My point is that creatively speaking it may be harder to write something possitive than it is to dwell on the rough side of life. Is this because we take the joy in our lives for granted more often while sad things hit us deeper? I prefer to think that the human condition is not so hopeless but the emotions we feel on the "darker side" of the spectrum tend bring additional complexity and convoluted feelings. Hence a world of ideas for the creative processes.

It is not that happiness is not a good thing. It's just not as dementional while sadness and despair is so much more interesting. If this makes me jadded, then atleast I will be a jadded but published writer.

Paris the Icon (not so fast!)

Today I read this article...yeah, got tired of reading about Israel so I looked for something lighter. Hotel heiress Paris Hilton has dubbed herself an icon and said she was on the same level as Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana. I about lost it when I read this declaration from the wannabe warbler. While her popularity is certainly there, I think people are more interested in what dumb thing she is going to do next than how she feels about the AIDS epidemic (Princess Diana's personal mission) or brag about her string of box office success (oh wait, no one bothered going to see the movie she is in!).

The question is what have you contributed to become an icon? You are blonde and a size zero but you don't pride yourself in intelligence like Lady Di and you don't have the trademark blowing a kiss pose like Marilyn....if you think that dead-eye, vacant glare you give the cameras can equate to that, thus giving you an iconic trademark, I think we got problems.

Furthermore, the fact that you are a self-proclaimed icon really doesn't get you the respect. I mean be a bit humble, Paris. It's stunts like this that make you even more annoying.

Miller Time!

Last night I scored tickets to the Steve Miller Band concert at Common Grounds Music Festival. With me as always was “Bessie” my partner in crime (specifically for the hard cord 70s and 80s music experiences)….Journey comes on the radio and I call her! Bessie understands my appreciation for the randomly obscure as well as knowing better than to let a once in a lifetime opportunity like this to pass her by. Given she would probably only go for Steve Miller tickets once in a lifetime but that is just semantics. Anyway, I just noticed “Bessie” also wrote a review on her site “Mrs. Ca”, check it out.

The sun was slowly sinking behind the skyline as Bessie and I were making our way up to some primo seats. We are a pretty big deal…VIPS...alls I’m saying...The “Huntunes” were finishing up their set which was good because I was at the point where after you make fun of a band for so long you begin to pity the guy that gave them the okay to play! I spose as long as the band enjoyed themselves then that is all that matters, because the crowd sure was not! Two of the band members had shaved heads. I couldn’t tell you what they sang but I can say that the thought of how it would feel to burn your bald head did cross my mind a few times when they were up there, dressed in black and bobbing to the beat. They tried to do a version of Cash’s “Folsom Prison” and I nearly threw my chair at the stage. How dare they ruin such a sacred song! To say their version was weak would be generous.

Another monent of note was when the Mayor got up and welcomed the crowd. I found that hilarious because as he walked down the main aisle and passed Bessie and I, I discovered how tiny he is. I talked on this blog about the Kenny Chesany phenomenon...you know how Kenny is really only three feet tall and that it is just lighting and effects that make him life size? Well, same thing here. Our mayor is an Oompah-Loompah. Go figure! While waiting in line for the bathroom later on he came by and was shaking people's hands which weirded me out a little. I guess all us in line were a captive audience but even so, ewh!

The concert was sold out and the freaky side of Lansing came out of the woodwork for Steven. The first thing that struck me was that I forgot to wear tie-dye! I totally didn’t think! The loyal ones probably know what to wear because they are permanently living in 1970 and probably haven't changed or dare I say bathed since. There were a few women wearing (and I use that term loosely) bathing suits as well which of course was weird because besides there was no beach in sight and nobody wanted to see their bodies....see Mrs. Ca's entry, she nailed it!

So, Steve and his posse came on stage but Bessie and I didn’t buy into it until the third song “Abracadabra”. It was awesome! For a couple of his other lesser know tunes I tried to sing it over and it totally worked with the music. He's a blues rocker at heart which I enjoyed.

The crowd really got going when psychedelic images were projected on a big white trampoline above the band as the colorful instrumentation began for “Fly Like an Eagle”. After over ten minutes of flying I began to tire and found I was spending most of my time avoiding being crushed by huge drunk girl to my right rather than enjoy the music. During this time though I did take in our surroundings. In front of us sat Hugh Hefner with his trophy gal and just beside them accumulated a group of women dancing along the gate passing around drinks and joints and continually yelling such marque phrases like, "This is the best band ever!" and "Play Jokester!" Actually I started that to see if they would repeat me...and they did! Morons!

As the refraim played for the thirtieth time, Bessie turned to me and yelled “This is not Freebird!” which got me laughing. I guess if I was high or drunk or mentally altered in some other way, I wouldn’t have minded so much because that the state Steve intended for his listeners to be in I spose. Just staying “tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock” over and over again for three straight minutes though was great because it really drove the point of "time slippin’"…because singing the refraim a half dozen more times didn’t quite get me there.

Steve brought us back into the fold with “Rock N’ Me”. By this point I was yelling for "The Joker" in between every song but tricky Steve waited till the end to slip in that number. What a joker!

Well played Steve, well played!

In conclusion I would like to thank Bessie for coming along as well as for putting up with my code name for her in this entry! I thought it was pretty funny. I would also like to express my appreciation to the Oasis VIP area where I enjoyed a pleasant evening sipping wine along the shores of the Grand River. I also would like to thank drunk girl and her gang for keeping it lite and not crushing me or my friend when you decided to bust a move that resembled more of a near fall.

I enjoyed myself but I better get started on working on my guy to hand over some more tickets for the other performers this week. It will take plenty of sucking up but I am fotuneately not above groveling! The ones of note performing this week are Poison, Styx, Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent, & Etta James. Any would be great to see!

Later!

A Failure to Communicate....

Our telephone, email, and fax are out again at work. To say that negativity would describe the office climate presently would be an understatement considering I heard talk in the hallway earlier that involved getting our clients to black list the companies involved. I’ve been hiding back in my office avoiding the whole mess, though I may have to step up soon. My boss’s face is an exceptionally darker shade of red now. The minute he starts clenching his arm I will have to get off the bench, though I doubt my co-workers will enjoy hearing how I would handle the situation.

Technology is a huge problem in our office. There is no clear entity to place blame between us (the user), the cable company and the telephone company. This is tricky because now we have to figure out who will fix it. Typically our office manager (who has a fuse shorter than the rest of us) goes directly on the offensive. He says it is being handled though I use the term “handled” lightly because he has been acting like a total ass to each company’s representative. Why? Because he thinks that by being irate and course he will be taken more seriously and solve this mess expediciously. He’s been on hold most of the day…no kidding! Who would want to deal with someone who uses these tactics in troubleshooting? As the hours pass he keeps getting madder and madder. Go figure on such simple logic as his.

Perhaps I will tactfully step in and take the reigns once our office manager goes to lunch. I think with as confused every party is in this mess, we need to give these guys the opportunity to step up and offer a solution since we haven’t been able to come up with one our selves, that would be more productive than spending another four hours deciding who caused it. We got a problem between us and though we are unclear how things got so messed up, can you help us fix it?

Why be so hard-nosed about simple situations? People will deal with you if you treat them with the respect and dignity in which you wish for in return. That’s called adult relationships aka good business relations. This is coming from the gal low on the totem pole (3 years working here) who is reacting to an office manager thirty years on the job. Hmmmmm……

Who'd You Wake Up With This Morning?

This works every time without fail!

You get out of bed and stumble through the morning routine of getting a shower, finding breakfast, downing coffee, taking out the trash, kissing the family goodbye...etc.....and on the morning commute you still aren't quite awake. You feel like you need about three more hours of sleep and are already an hour late for whatever waits for you on your desk in the office. I know I am not the only one in the the morning who feels like this. All of you so called "morning people" are on speed or some other form of false empowerment. If you are working atleast 50 hours a week, springing out of bed to take on the world is not your first thought when you roll over to hit the snooze button the first time.

I own the Bruce Springsteen Greatest Hits Album and pop it in every morning on that commute when I need that extra inspiration to get me moving and improve the attitude. It starts out with the tune "Born To Run". Can you top that? Didn't think so. The hurried drums and bass guitar surging almost like a pace for your heart beat to match. You can't help but absorb some of the magic Bruce injected in these lyrics by the time you get to the refraim you are singing along with it. You get into the rythmn as he plows through some more verses and you find you are finally awake.

The sun peaks over the horizon and you realize Bruce came through for you again. Rest of the commute is easy coasting. Hopefully you'll be able to ride this wave through most of the morning.

Honorable mention: Glory Days, Thunder Road, Bad Lands, Dancing in the Dark

They'll all do the job!