prediction check 2

Time to check on Brad Carter's first prediction from the blogger bash of July 29, 2008.

Citibank/Citicorp/Citigroup will fail or receive a government bailout within 4 months (i.e. before November 29)

stupid, shitty ending

J2 filled a balloon with glitter and lemon juice and exploded it on me. Why? Who knows why he does anything? For the previous several days he had been wearing this stupid hat that he found in my parents' basement. Wearing that hat made him look retarded. In vengeful response to being glitter bombed, I tore the stupid hat to pieces. An absolutely preposterous bout of wailing and crying and hyperventilating ensued. What the hell is wrong with him? Is he just over-tired, or is it the cocktail of drugs he is on or is he so emotionally debilitated that a retarded hat means that much to him? Or am I the one who is yet again on the wrong side of everything? Now I am embarrassed, pissed at the world and silent. I have no interest in talking to anyone about anything.

Thanksgiving vacation part 1

The family piled into the minivan Saturday and hit the road. We had a very efficient 6 hour (including stops) drive to my parents'. Sunday my brother and his family came over. It wasn't too bad as I mostly stayed in the basement and played Wii with the kids. Monday J and I left the kids with my mom and went to Grand Rapids. After driving through a snow squall we first went to the mall on the east side of town. J got some new shoes, navel rings and thongs and we identified items for the lists we have to create for various family gift exchanges. Next we checked into our hotel where we cleaned up and enjoyed not having any kids around.

In the evening we headed downtown and went to Founders Brewing, The BOB and Lady Godiva's. Founders is a brew pub with good sandwiches that is run by beer snobs, but not in an entirely bad way. Having a large, bushy beard and wearing a black, winter hat seem to be prerequisites for working here. The B.O.B is a multi-level building with restaurants, bars and clubs. On Monday night only half of it was open. We had a couple beers and J interrogated me about our/my past. Lastly we stopped at a strip club and were duly disappointed by Grand Rapids' no actual stripping policy. Tops and bottoms stayed on.

Tuesday we slept late and went to Zoup for lunch. Next on the agenda was the larger mall on the west side of town. J got gloves. For dinner we went back downtown to Hopcat where I enjoyed a Nosferatu beer. After that it was back to our white bread, suburban haunts. A little dessert at Cold Stone Creamery then trivia at BWW next to the hotel.

Wednesday morning we got up early enough to take advantage of the continental breakfast at the hotel before heading back out for some final shopping. For lunch we went to Qdoba which we wish they had in Peoria. After getting back to my parents', having dinner and putting G to bed, I met my brother at a local sports bar where we played trivia.

Now I am in my parents' basement and smell like cigarette smoke because Michigan has not banned smoking everywhere like Illinois has. I miss J smelling like smoke after going out, something sexy about it.

just entertaining

This product (which I came across on the Walgreens website of all places) means you don't have to argue over whose side of the bed ends up with "the wet spot".

Fascinator Throes
a moisture-proof playscape for sex
Watch out, all you Italian leather sofas and dry-clean only duvets. These supremely plush throws are specially lined to slurp up love juices, lubes, lotions and all the leftovers of sexual play. One side is an extraordinarily soft surface, the other is silky satin, making it a reversible, versatile, skin-tillating sex-scape. An inner moisture barrier ensures your bedding stays spotless. Toss it on top of sheets, sofas and fancy home furnishings that you want to shield from your throes of passion. Machine washable. Available in Shag or Microfiber. (5 X 6 ft.)

horrifying or entertaining

The video clip below is long, read on when you're done watching it.



I know, of course, that you could find 12 people who voted for McCain and interview them in a similar way and cut it together to make them look like the absolute ignoramuses in this video. I am sure Reno will point us all to it if such a video exists. I would watch that video and feel the same dread and doubt about the future of American civilization that I got from this video.

To try to show that the 12 people in the video are NOT isolated cases of abominable obliviousness, the film's maker commissioned a scientific poll. You can see its results here and direct from the pollster here.

One of the several nuggets gleaned from the poll:

57% of Obama voters were unable to correctly answer that Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate.

Scrabble word unjustly denied

I was playing Scrabble once with J and her mother. I had the letters for a great word in a great location: "wive". I placed it on the board.

"that's not a word"
"of course it is: to wive means to act as or perform the duties of a wife"
"look it up"
"damn, I can't believe this isn't in the dictionary! You know, 'hey, good job wiving the other night', you've got to accept it"

Anyway, I lost that battle, but have tried to use "wive" as a verb ever since then.

It turns out that it was merely the inadequacy of the dictionary on hand at the time that lost me that word. Merriam Webster's website has it. It doesn't have the definition it should, but it is a word nonetheless.

how Ford can save money

Ever notice that many Ford vehicles have a number pad on the door? Apparently you can punch in a code on that pad to open the door. Have you EVER seen anyone or known anyone who actually uses that "feature"? In the era of keyless entry keys and key fobs, this "feature" seems totally antiquated and useless. Yet Ford spent money to put this "feature" on hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of vehicles. Has this feature led to even a single additional sale? Can you really picture a prospective car buyer saying: "I was going to get the Accord, but hey, the Ford Five Hundred has this cool keypad, so I'm going with it"?

Or they could fire J's pothead uncle-in-law. Eliminating his salary would save a few bucks.

I guess I'll go along

KPOW tagged me with the meme going around. Kind of like infecting me with the flu.

So, to keep the whole chain-letter aspect of the award/meme going, here are the rules:
(1) List six things that make you happy
(2) Pass the award on to 6 more kreativ bloggers
(3) Link back to the person who gave you the award
(4) Link to the people you are passing it on to and leave them a comment to let them know.
(5) Request scantily clad photos of your blogger friends of the opposite sex.

Here goes:
#1.1) Unanticipated hottie sightings
#1.2) The unrepentant and overwhelming exercise of US military force doing what it is supposed to do: kill people and break things
#1.3) Quoting and/or talking like Yoda to annoy the kids
#1.4) Megyn Kelly
#1.5) The Existential Pleasures of Engineering, not the book specifically, but the experience of its subject
#1.6) Mountains
#2) Nah, everyone's already been infected
#3) Done 3 places
#4) Not necessary, see #2
#5) Now we are talking! Females only, but friends, enemies, chycks I don't know are all heartily encouraged!

Note that these are 6 things. Not THE 6 things or the 6 really important things, just 6 things.

unleashed

At the Alta trail head of the Rock Island Trail there is a very simple sign that reads "DOGS MUST BE ON LEASH" and yet I consistently see people walking with their dogs unleashed. I have also noted an increase in dog crap in the middle of the trail. What is wrong with these people? Keep your beasts on a leash and don't let them shit in the middle of the trail. I don't think that is asking for too much. I am sure they would be offended if I took a crap in the middle of the trail, why do they think it is acceptable to let their dogs do so?

chicken soup is not good for anyone

Chicken soup for the soul? Not unless your soul is the carpet in J2's bedroom and the soup has been barfed up! That's what I was cleaning up about an hour ago. No soup for him, ONE YEAR!

mileage with no beginning

With the end of daylight savings time and passing of the autumnal equinox, it is too dark to jog on the trail after work so I have been pounding city sidewalks. Both locations I have jogged (on University between Northmoor and Willow Knolls and on Orange Prairie) have several mile markings painted on the concrete as well as directional and turn around arrows. I have yet to see a starting point for any of the mileages. Does anyone know where zero is?

where's the love?

Now that gas is below $2 per gallon I expect to see all the people who wailed about the evils of Big Oil and George Bush and Dick Cheney when it was over $4/gal extolling their virtues with equal fervor. I will not be holding my breath.

people

People suck. There are individuals I like, but people (as a plural) suck.

what's with these old people?

Why is the AARP running a bunch of ads featuring people who are NOT retired whining about having to pay for medical services or products?

where to submerge my sorrows

Now that Obama has won, I am watching the new 90210 and drinking. There will be a lot of the later in the coming years and a lot less news watching than I have done heretofore. Perhaps this will be an opportunity to focus more inwardly and close to home. I can concentrate on myself and my personal relationships and less on the world at large and American politics in particular.

I am going to think about what I should start graphing to document the effect of Obama's election. I am considering parameters such as price of gas, stock values, price of bread, tax rates and/or revenues, et cetera. Only with data will we see what Obama voters have sown.

who pays taxes? (hint, it's probably not you)

Along with the article linked in my preceding post, the November 10, 2008 issue of Fortune had a nice graphic showing how much of the federal income tax is paid by whom. This is no surprise to me, but I thought that those of you who complain (like Obama and Biden) about "the rich not paying their fair share" might find it interesting to see that the "rich" already do pay way, way, way more than their "fair share".

How long do you think this country will thrive or even survive if we have an ever smaller fraction of the population supporting an ever growing panopoly of governement "programs", "services" and "investments" (i.e. welfare)??

Peoria family in Fortune magazine

Do you like Obama's plan to take more from the "rich" to give to the "poor"? Here's one of the local families whose money you are advocating taking and giving to other people:

Before you vote, read the whole article.

whose money will Obama take?

Each picture is a link to part of a Fortune article about a real family from whom Obama wants to take more money. Read their stories before voting.

no longer champion, but gives a great interview

Kimi Raikkonen is no longer F1 world champion, but I read his interview in F1 Racing magazine and like him even more now. Here are two bits from that interview:

What gets you up in the morning?
I don't get up, when I wake up it's around noon. If I don't have anything special to do, I sleep as long as I'm tired. I'm never in a bad mood or cranky in the mornings, I just don't wake up if I'm not interested in getting up. It's not a question of needing a certain amount of sleep - I sleep as long as I'm tired. I can easily sleep a whole day, no problem.

Is your undemonstrative personality a deliberate tactic in the F1 paddock to protect yourself?
I don't have any thoughts in the back of my head. I am the way I want to be.

last bit of good weather?

No freezing to death while trick or treating, two great days to jog on the trail. The time change will make jogging even more difficult during the week as it will soon be fully dark when I leave work. Pretty lame post. I thought of some good stuff this week, but was too busy to post and now I've got nothing. Need to write those things down as they occur...