Depressing or Inspiring...

You be the judge.

My daily prayer...

I wish I could take credit for authoring this, but alas it was sent to me in jpeg by my friend (and former roommate from years ago), Redneck.

I have no idea of it's origin, but it shall forever be with me.

The Beer Prayer

Our Lager,

Which art in barrels,

Hallowed be thy drink.

Thy will be drunk,

(I will be drunk),

At home as in the tavern.

Give us this day our foamy head,

and forgive us our spillages,

as we forgive those who spill

against us.

And lead us not into incarceration,

but deliver us from hangovers.

For thine is the beer,

The bitter and the lager,

For ever and ever,

Barmen.

Let us bow our heads...

State of the Union

I actually watched most of the State of the Union address last night... instead of the 4 or 6 minutes I usually put into it.

The reason was that Bush actually had to compromise a little this year. For the past 6 years, he could pretty much say whatever the Republicans wanted him to say since they had all the power.

This year, you could actually hear some cracking in his back as he tried to bend over backwards to steer clear of impeachment.

I especially liked his "20 in 10" proposal... limit the US gas use by 20% in the next 10 years. Great idea!!

Wait... weren't you the one who pushed through an energy bill with so many loopholes for energy companies and other entities that it more than offset the 1.8 mpg improvements you required for SUV's and "light trucks"... by 2011?

Well, regardless of your past "initiatives"... if you actually follow through with this proposal, it will help everyone in the world.

As for the Health Insurance Tax Reform initiative... or whatever you're calling it... I'm not so sure I like its current version. But I think it's a step in the right direction.

As it stand now, though, it seems that you would like the middle class to purchase health insurance for the poor. I don't have a problem pitching in to help them out, and lower health care costs for everyone in the process... but shouldn't the people who can help the easiest also lend a hand???

The middle class are the people who are losing ground the fastest in this country, and your proposal will help dwindle their spendable income just a little more. Plus, I don't know how it works in your large, rich, fortune 500 companies, but out here in the real world, it's quite rare for an employer to fully fund the cost of an employee's health insurance... unless of course you're part of a union that has negotiated for decades to make this part of the overall compensation package. So what I take from your proposal is that you'd like the union members and the middle class to "resolve" the current problem of 45+ million uninsured Americans, and lower themselves in the class wars just a little more...

You know what's sad... we're probably willing to do it. Because we're compassionate and patriotic citizens who are willing to go out of our way to help a fellow American...

Oh, and in case you missed the speech... here's a link to it on YouTube

C'mon... do it again

They weren't here to start no trouble... they just wanted to dance!

1985 Chicago Bears

I wonder what an NFL Team would release today if they were to do a song and dance number... for some reason the song "Sexy Back" comes to mind, but I'm not sure why...

maybe because it has been beaten into my head for the past year.

Now that's just no good

Cellphone Tapping - short video (45 sec)

Seriously?!?!... if it was on Fox News, then it isn't a matter of national security, I guess.

Hell, I haven't even finished the book 1984, and it's already coming true.

Well, it's official... I've found my cold threshold.

I drove all night from DC on Thursday night to Vermont so I could hit the slopes for the weekend (now that they actually have some natural snow and have been able to blow enough to open 50% of the mountains).

Yesterday's weather made the entire drive worth it. Highs around 30 degrees, a little fresh snow, and just a little wind.

Today, however, not so good. As of now, the temperature at the top of the mountain is around 12 degrees and the winds are blowing consistently between 20 and 30 mph, with 50+ mph gusts. At least they didn't close the lifts... but from what I hear, it was close.

Tonight, we get to warm up in style... Jager-style!! and watch one of the most interesting performers I've seen in a long time. His name is Bruce Jacques, and he's pretty much a one man entertainment machine. Check out his website... www.brucejacques.com and see for yourself. He plays here at Mt. Snow every weekend at the mountain bar (yeah, there's pretty much only one).

Tonight... we drink and laugh... tomorrow... we pop Advil and hit the slopes for the AM... then hit the road for the PM.

I hope you all are having a great (and warm) weekend!

One blog CAN make a difference

[update: WPIX CBS-5 pulled every YouTube video showing this story, so here's the link to the WPIX website... check out the video in the upper right corner rather than spending the time reading the article... ]

Of course it helps to have more than a handful of readers ;)

But if all of the low-reader bloggers stick together, we also can make a difference.

If you feel that this type of radio broadcasting is unacceptable, especially when this broadcaster is a subsidiary of Disney, please repost this video to your blog.

Paging...

I work in a hospital... but I'm not a doctor, nor do I want to be.

Anyway, I'm sitting at my desk this afternoon and the following page comes across the intercom:

Paging Mr. Johnson... Mr. Harry Johnson... please return to your unit

Fortunately for me, my coworker was in our office or I might have fallen out of my chair and hurt myself. So, Dr. Su... thank you for being here for me.

I'm assuming that this was a serious page, and not some joke being played by one of the more interesting characters who work around here... but one can never be too sure. I heard Neil Diamond get paged once, too...

So if that is your name... wouldn't you go by Harold?

And just what was Harold doing away from his unit?

1984

Yes, the book. I'm finally getting around to reading it... okay listening to it on my mp3 player while I ride the train to work or walk around town.

It's a very interesting book that I felt I needed to 'read' at some point. Well, I just realized that I'm only half way through it... DAMMIT!!


I got to the end of the first section of audiobook (they break them up so you can download them faster) thinking that I was almost at the end of the book... nope. I completely forgot that there was more than one section.

I think I might go crazy before I finish this book... I'm really glad I'm not reading it, or I'd have burned the book already.

I love the concept, but it's just soooo repetitive and nothing has really happened so far.

I'll let you know what I really think once I finish the second half in a week or so.

It's my duty to inform you...

Your kid is obese. There I said it. It seems harsh, doesn't it?

But at some point someone has got to inform parents that their child is seriously overweight and that it could lead to medical issues, like diabetes or a heart condition, in the near (or distant) future.

And that's exactly what is starting to happen around the country. So far it's only hit a few states, but I'm pretty sure it's going to spread like wildfire. So the question is... is it the right thing to do?

That's a tough question.

First, we need to address the menu at schools. A big part of the reason that our youth are on average much larger than they were 30 years ago is the diet that they consume while outside of their parents' control. School lunches have rarely used Grade A ingredients... that's too expensive for the shrinking budgets that they have. But beyond that, due to the smaller budgets, our nations schools have become an excellent target for large corporations with products that aren't exactly the most health conscience.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi are the two largest companies that have contracts with so many schools that I'd be willing to bet they've lost count. Basically, they agree to pay the school a certain amount of money and a percentage of the gross intake by their vending machines. This gives the kids unrestricted access to sodas and other beverages that hold no nutritional value, yet plenty of empty calories, at any point during the majority of their day. This also happens with chips, candy bars, and plenty of other items that help kids balloon up.

Now, I'm not suggesting that the same kids wouldn't be eating the same things at home... they likely would be. But at least there the parents should have some control over the kids. So should schools be forced to change the items that they allow kids to consume? I don't really see a problem with that tactic.

But the current question is... Is there anything wrong with sending home a BMI score to the parents. Technically, the schools already measure weight and height... the BMI is just an extension of those measurements. Many argue that it hurts the self-esteem of the larger kids... I can see how that could be the case... but don't those larger kids already know that they are large? If their size didn't bother them, why should an arbitrary number?

Don't get me wrong... the LAST thing I want to do is give children complexes about their weight. They can already get those from any media source in the world. But I do feel that it's important for them to understand the implications of being overweight and learn easy steps to take to reduce their size. Ultimately, most children don't want to be overweight, but they don't realize how easy it can be to slim down. While it's true that many currently overweight children could never be a size 2 or whatever, there would be nothing wrong with them being more healthy and dropping 10 or 20 unnecessary pounds.

Ultimately, I feel that there are two things that have never been taught in schools, but are the most important things for young people to grasp... Personal Finance and Nutrition. These are the two things that EVERY person on this planet will need to deal with on a daily basis. Screw art... screw wood shop... teach our kids how to manage money so they don't get trapped by the credit card companies at age 18 and so they understand the importance of finishing high school and going on to some higher education... and teach our kids about what they are putting in their bodies... You'd be surprised how many kids would change their eating habits (or never develop bad habits) if you started teaching nutrition in kindergarten.

DAMN! It's just too warm!

I couldn't have said this better myself, so I'm not going to try...

Please read this and PLEASE make your opinions known so that our representatives know for certain that we want them to be aggressive in their action to do the right thing.

moving on

Last night we had a going away "party" for my roommate.

I put party in quotes because basically we just went to two bars and got wasted. He had about 15 or 20 people in his entourage... I was pretty impressed. Then again, at least 5 of those people were just along for the ride. I wish I had pictures of the night, but my girlfriend's camera is currently broken... and mine isn't worth using.

This guy has been a true friend in the past, and made things very difficult for me in the recent present (which technically... is now the past). So I'm kind of unsure how to feel about his departure.

When I moved out of my ex-girlfriend's jungle he gave me a place to crash on his couch for as long as I needed to figure out where I was going to live. Ultimately, we were able to convert his unheated basement into a bedroom and convince the landlord to allow a 4th roommate without raising the rent. I'm still not certain how he pulled that off, but he did. Now, although I had no heat in my room, the rent was about $200/mo cheaper than anywhere else I could have been living.

He and I were practically inseperable for the months to come...

we went to the same bars together...
we were part of the same bowling team...we were on the same kickball team...we went on the most excellent ski weekends to Vermont a few times a year...
we've gone whitewater rafting...we've even gone to Tahoe...

He helped introduce me to my girlfriend by encouraging each of us to journey to another bar together after we'd met while in the company of mutual friends.

There are so many things that I look back on with fond memories.

But recently, things had changed. And it all started with a drunken "communication" he made to my girlfriend back in July, shortly after she'd moved back to DC from Minneapolis.

Now, my roommate was never one to have had a working brain filter, so once the booze started draining down his throat, the verbal repercussions to strangers were inevitable. I'm truly surprised that he never got into any fights throughout the years, and I had to repeatedly remind him that if he had provoked the fight, he was on his own... if the fight was uncalledfor, then I'd have his back. I think those reminders were very powerful and probably kept him straight.

Anyway, back to the incident at hand...

We're back at the alma mater for an alumni weekend. We're at the favorite bar and he was about 5 or 6 Beams deep, when suddenly from nowhere he verbally communicated the word "whore" to my girlfriend. She quickly took offense (as any self-respecting woman should) and walked away. He realized that he'd offended, even if that wasn't his intention (which to this day is still unclear), and tried to backpedal by offering to buy her a drink as an apology. My lovely little lady can be a bit stubborn and decided to decine the offer. Her point was that the statement was completely unneccesary and she felt that she had the right to be angry for more than a minute or two.

Fast-forward to 4 hours later...

The roommate is now 5 sheets to the wind and barely keeping his eyes open while we're shooting pool in the basement. Somehow he manages to stumble over to my girlfriend with just enough energy to slur something ending in the word "slut". Once again, offense was taken, but this time it was a big deal. This time, he made the decision to walk over (there were only 4 of us in the room... his girlfriend was the 4th) make the comment directly to her face, then stumble away.

She broke down in tears, he and I had words, his girlfriend was embarrassed... but no apology was issued. Apparently there is some "principle" that no one but my roommate is aware of, because of which an apology is out of the question. I've had this discussion with him multiple times over the months, letting him know precisely that it has crushed our friendship and that a simple "I'm truly sorry and I don't know why I said it" would resolve the vast majority of the issues still lingering. I informed him that I was glad to know that our close friendship was worth so little to him that he was able to throw it all away on 2 drunken words.

That was July... since then, I spend almost all my free time with my girlfriend and barely even make a weekly appearance at our place. She is still uncomfortable around him... so she won't stay at my place very often, and I always feel bad wanting to put her in a situation that would make her skin crawl every minute that she's there.

But today he's moving. His stuff was in the UHaul last night, and by now I'm sure he's on the road. I didn't say goodbye... not last night when I jumped in the cab while they were walking toward the Metro... not this morning when I woke up... and I won't be sending him a 'goodbye' email, either. I guess it's the "principle."

The new age of reading

About a year or two ago I realized that some of my projects at work were quite tedious and had me falling asleep at my desk... sadly this is a side effect of working with databases all day long.

To help keep me awake, and to occupy the right side of my brain, I started listening to radio programs from around the country, most of which I could download and play at my leisure. Having exhausted many of my chosen programming, I got an idea...

why not listen to an audiobook while working???

So I signed up for an account with Audible (since they were offering 3 free books to try the service for one month) and I've been hooked ever since. I'm not currently working on the projects that were putting me to sleep, so I'm not listening to the books at work anymore.

Now I use them to enhance my commute to work, flights to exciting destinations and sometimes long roadtrips if I'm by myself. My commute takes me about 20-30 minutes each way each day. I walk much of it, and Metro the rest. Most of the books I listen to are between 8 and 30 hours long... so I'm usually finishing a book every 2 weeks. I figure it's about the best use of my time... might as well learn while walking to work, right?

I read books on paper, too... don't get me wrong, but I'm able to plow through 2x or 3x more books if I listen to many of them and read a few of them. Plus, my mp3 player is a lot easier to 'lug' around than a book or two every day.

I was chatting with an old friend from high school recently and we were discussing her night terrors. It seems that although night terrors can't currently be cured, reducing stress in one's life tends to severely diminish the frequency of the beatings your husband or wife will take while you're both asleep.

From our discussion I determined that her commute to work (thanks to wonderful city traffic) seemed to be the most stressful part of her life. So I suggested an audiobook for the commute. Her minivan (a necessity for a suburban mother) had a radio had an mp3 input jack, so it was cake. Download the book from the internet service to the mp3 player, plug it into the car, relax and learn on the way to work. It was brilliant!!

Since she started, she's been reporting a MUCH lower number of night terrors... Maybe it's not scientific, but I'll take that as proof that audiobooks can improve people's lives on multiple levels.

Anyway, as I finish my audiobooks, I'll post a short review of both the contents of the book, and the quality of the audio version... sound like something you'd be interested in reading about?

Hey, Thanks God... that's good to know

I just can't get enough of this guy! Pat Robertson... seriously, he just cracks me up over and over. I really wish that more comedians could be this consistently entertaining with their material. (Jerry Seinfeld excluded of course... "What is the deal with [insert subject here]?" will never get old.)

Most recently, Robertson was reported to have been enlightened by God about a catastrophic terror attack to take place in America this year, affecting major cities and likely millions of Americans...

but don't worry... according to God, it won't happen until the second half of the year, and most likely not until after September... so you still have plenty of time to stock up on your duct tape and plastic sheets!!

God also declined to inform him of the actual location so that something could be done to stop the event(s). So there you have it... Robertson has informed the world that God wants America to suffer a catastrophic attack, likely as punishment for screwing with the rest of the world so much. But doesn't God know us well enough by now to realize that after the attack we are going to spar with any country who had any link to 10/22/07?

Another attack would likely send our country into turmoil and enhance the downward spiral leading to our self-imposed demise. What we need to realize is that we are a large nation with a great number of fiscal responsibilities to our citizens. We can't just go around spending trillions of dollars that we don't have invading other countries with our high-tech equipment and bleeding our nation's treasury dry. (and it likely already is)

If Robertson is right... snicker... and we are going to be attacked again before Bush leaves office, then we've got a lot of thinking to do.

First, I guess that would mean that conservatives aren't that great at protecting our national security.

Second, will we allow Bush to send an immediate retaliatory force to whatever country or countries allowed this to happen?

Third, if we do send a force, do we simply "cut and run" from Iraq, or send every enlisted troop we have around the world to enact our revenge?

And fourth, how much debt do we really want to allow China to hold over our heads?

Of course, there are plenty more questions that we'd need to ask ourselves, but I don't want this post to become a book...

(it's funny how the initial idea for some posts morph entirely into some other creature by the time I post them... sort of like this one... I had intended to look back on Robertson's past predicitions and see if any of them were actually realized.)

It's a good thing that Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a crackpot... but it's sad that so many American's take his word as gospel.

I mean, here's a guy who adopted the name "Pat" (a nickname given to him by his brother because the sibling liked to "pat him on the cheeks and say 'pat, pat, pat'" while he did it) because he felt that Marion was to girly-sounding. Then again, I guess I can't really talk... since I made the mistake of calling myself "Little Chris" in college... eventually shortened to Little (or Lil), it's a name I haven't been able to shake for 12 years.

Anyway... just don't forget to buy a year's supply of duct tape and plastic sheets in the next few months... Pat has an idea that you'll be needing them!

In shock...

Just saw Saddam's hanging video on YouTube... I'm in shock.

I'm quite surprised that YouTube allowed the equivalent of a snuff video to be posted and viewed by millions. Now I know that people worldwide had an interest in the outcome of the trial and the execution, but doesn't that leave the door open for other videos of people dying (hopefully by accident)?

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that when I went searching for it, I was able to find it within 3 minutes, but I'm sure I could have found it somewhere else on a site that most children wouldn't be using on a regular basis... (Do kids use YouTube? That's a good question)

Anyway... I'm just still shocked.

Happy New Year!!

I'm back from the frozen tundra that they call Minnesota!

Fortunately, I took many warm layers and a good bit of my snowboarding outerwear. As it turns out, I needed it... but not when I could actually wear it! The weather was relatively warm (above freezing) Friday and Saturday, but it was raining and drizzling the whole time. Then Sunday as we were getting ready for the wedding, the rain changed over to snow and the wind began howling.

2-3 inches fell between the hour before the wedding and the end of the reception and the wind was blowing at 20-30 miles per hour throughout. Now THAT'S what I call Minnesota weather!! I've been up there twice before and both times it was warmer there than in D.C. But this time the state didn't disappoint.

As for the wedding itself... a short and sweet 30 minute Lutheran ceremony followed by a reception that more resembled a greek formal than the typical reception where most people don't know the other people.

My favorite over-indulgence was the 28 inch tall ice sculptures in the shapes of numbers to mark the tables. And of course, I was with the rest of the mutants over at table 9!

But it seemed that everyone had a good time and I can't really complain about the 8 hour open bar... it was definitely the least expensive New Year's celebration for me (well, ever since I was legal to buy my own booze). The only expense was the cab ride... and we split that 4 ways, so I guess $10 isn't too much to pay for a long drunken romp with filet mignon and salmon in the middle.

Anyway, I'm back on the east coast, and the weather is looking great!!... Not for snowboarding, but perfect for a pedestrian's commute to work. Oh and speaking of work... Today I'm supposed to take the day off to mourn President Ford. So let's take a moment to remember all the great things he did for our nation... ... hmmm... ok... I can only remember him pardoning Nixon... Oh well, soon it'll be time to indulge my inner rebel and go to work against the current president's will.

Did anyone have a particularly memorable experience this New Year's that should be viewed by the entire world? How about viewed by the 3 people who currently read this blog (and I think I'm one of them... how sad... )

Since National Hangover Day is all about reflection on the night before (and the year before) and about setting your sights on bettering your life, I hope you all set some reasonable and exciting goals for the new year... Personally, I did not. I never do. My only goal this year is to have a blast like I did last year... but maybe not spend as much money doing it. I'm a lover of life... I simply love my own existance. I try to enjoy everything I do... note the word try... even daily household chores. I've found that this outlook on life minimizes stress and allows for better human interaction in general.

So... let's all make the world a better place this year and be nicer to our fellow peeps.

word.