What am I missing here?

What is the deal with jihad anyway? I think I understand that all religions contain members that want so badly to impress and gain favor with their god, but how does "let's kill the infidels" get started? Or rather, I can understand how it gets started, but how does it maintain inertia? And this question is older than the region that provokes this particular feud, but what is so holy about holy land. I'm just a dummy living in Babylon, but shouldn't The Kingdom of any religion lie in the hearts and souls of the people?

I feel inhuman when I read about most tragedies - the one exclusion being the time I farted on Ruggies' head at the exact moment that Shamlou hit a home run off him in Nintendo baseball - but I just don't get this fight. If you can't beat them, join them. Work together for the betterment and enrichment of everyone's life. Don't just pretend so you can try and sneak up on them later, in the name of your god.

Debt, and a light bulb?

I pay all my bills once a month, and it's usually between my monthly paydate of the 26th and the 1st of the next month. Today being the 29th, I recently just paid all my bills. Mind you, I did not pay them off, just paid as much as I could. For the sake of perspective, my debt load was ginormous 9 months ago. The wife and I decided to attack the debt in a most vicious manner, and to date we have paid about half of it off. The beauty lies in the reality that the interest is starting to really wane (in the beginning the interest was more than anyone really wants to know about).

Of course the next day I received my 30 days notice from the landlord that she can raise our rent 4%, and so......she is raising it 4%. Too bad I don't have this guy as my negotiator.

This just in: If you really need to, you can always just stick with your explanation, however improbable and crazy it just might sound.

Yin, Yang, and no Mang?

Not that I thought they'd all just get along, but shit!!!!!

On a much more beautiful note, just got back from the SCOJA nuptials. When he said "Mammoth," I never in my wildes fantasies thought he meant on the top of Cornice!!! Awesome ceremony, awesome location, awesome persons in attendance, spectacular weekend...........I'm not really sure how one would top this one. Kudos, and Mazaltov!


True love, and truly beautiful

Babies

Clipstone Street doesn't normally acknowledge that part of the continual ying and yang of life known as "new babies." Nevertheless, C.S. means no disrespect, we like babies. Babies are cool, and these new babies will probably understand the world better than us by age 11, so really it's in our self-interest to like them.

Anyhow, a much belated "Welcome!" is long overdue. Sorry babies, you don't know it yet, but C.S. houses some of the world's most notorious slackers.

*mini-shout to the new babies mothers. Unfortunately this has to be a mini-shout out b/c we all know what happens when you give a woman an inch....

Sports

The Miami Heat won their first NBA Championship, and I'm sure it was much to the lament of LA Laker (Kobe) fans. I liked seeing Dwayne Wade and Udonis Haslem achieve their goal, a bit indifferent about Shaq, and then felt that it was just downright unjust that Gary Payton gets a ring. I just don't like that guy. I loved seeing a pass to him bounce off his shoulder because he was too busy crying to a ref and not paying attention to the game that he happened to be dead smack in the middle of.

Lefty left the US Open Championship on the 18th hole of Winged Foot. I don't really like Lefty either, so I'm happy for Ogilvy. I'm starting to like Phil, a little, but I still think he plays to his image too much. He's got that "ah, shucks" attitude, but I've read that this is just an act and that many on tour are not too fond of him. Additionally, I have a friend that went to High School with him. Same grade even. And about 8 years ago, he saw Phil out at a bar and went up to just say "hello." My friend told me that Phil completely rebuffed him and when my friend told him that they graduated from the same class in High School, Phil's response was something to the tune of "So?," or "What does that mean to me?" Sure, maybe he was having a bad day, and I know I'd never want to be that recognizable [no privacy], but a simple handshake for a fellow alum doesn't seem like to much to ask.

I'm going to the Dodgers/Mariners games tonight. Field level seats and all. First game of the year, and first game in the $20M new stadium seats. So you can bet that my ass is ready! My new health plan has finally launched though, so no Dodger dogs and I'm debating about no beers. No beers!!? We'll see. I almost feel like a traitor saying this, but Dodger dogs just aren't that good. Maybe for the sake of this blog, and Dodger dog's reputation, I have to "sample" just one tonight. I'll post my findings here later.

Happy Father's Day

Special shout out to all the father's everywhere, especially you new dad's....

I Told Her Not To Do It

I tole her not to do it, but my woman went and stold herself a baby....

Just kidding. Not about this being a baby, he actually is a baby. Or was a baby. This baby was rented from some friends for the weekend. Pretty good deal too. I think the arrangement was 2 Super-the-Call Blasters, Chips Con Todo, a can of Kodiak, a fody of Mickey's, and a future promise that we'd move back to San Diego eventually. I got the better end of the bargain as M undoubtedly got the lion share of the Malt Liquor and dipper. She always did, and that's how I knew she was a keeper.

Give it to me

Just read through some of the comments from the last post from a great blog that used to exist. Maybe you've heard of it? Crackpod? Anyhow, back in the day it used to be this really cutting edge blog. Great ideas. And then it just died.

But Krypt'cal was in the comments....and where is he now?

Universal Studios

Recently we had a group event for work at Universal Studios. My initial response to this was somewhere in between wanting to call in sick for the event and/or developing a raging case of poison oak in my anus. But for those of you who know me, and have witnessed my reaction to poison oak and other nefarious invaders, I'm sure you realize I wasn't really pulling for the latter.

But Universal Studios?? Come on! I used to go there when I was 10, and shit. I was too cool for U.S. then, and I'm certainly too cool now. But if it's a work day, and I don't have to do any work, then I can be easily persuaded.

We hit the tram ride up first, and I was thoroughly, and I don't want to underemphasize this so excuse the caps, I WAS THOROUGHLY UNIMPRESSED. Don't get me wrong here. If you're not from around here, and you came to L.A. and you want to see some movie and T.V. stuff, then the tram ride is probably pretty cool. I, on the other side of the wagon wheel don't really care. Until the Jaws part of course. Actually, I remember it being pretty cool in 1978, and now it's pretty........lame.

This is a pic of Jaws going by:

But the day started to get interesting when I ran into one of my all-time favorite movie characters.......Beetlejuice. It just doesn't get any better, and if you think it does, you had best go rent Beetlejuice and try that again.


Beetlejuice. Love that guy! So the day wasn't so bad. So what if I thought the highlight would be finding some warm churros from a cart vendor? I didn't even get any churros the whole day! If you can believe that......
Highlight was definitely the "Waterworld" show. Water, jet ski's [how do you really spell the plural of Jet Ski?], fake violence, real clowns, park goers getting doused with water, fiery explosions, poor dialogue. I'm in. I was rooting for the good guys, and I think we won! Not really sure what happened. I do know that I saw the show launch a real Cesna airplane from behind the set and it landed in the water part of the show. I think I was the most stoked person in the audience, or 'they' were holding in their enthusiasm. Bastards.

Yep, this guy is on fire:

More of the fun:

How's this guy get his hair so perfect?

The People v. Skiletsrage

Hangman, hangman, hold it a little while, I Think I see my friends coming, Riding many mile. Friends, you get some silver? Did you get a little gold? What did you bring me, my dear friends? Keep me from the Gallows Pole. What did you bring me to keep me from the Gallows Pole?

Well, let's just say it's the People: 1, Skiletsrage: 0. I had a traffic court date last week, and though my case had been heard via mail, and I was found guilty, I had one more chance to be heard. My defense: well, I was really pinning it all on a dismissal. After watching every case go down in flames, I decided I was going with Plan B. I was going to change my plea from "Not Guilty" to "No Contest," and I was going to request traffic school.

Some highlights from court:

• A guy who claimed to be a driving instructor told the court that a fire engine was behind him and the only way he could yield was to make a right hand turn through an intersection, and that intersection happened to have a red light. So we (the court) watched the video tape. And........that's funny. No fire engine came through the intersection. Plenty of other traffic seemed to go about their business, but no fire truck. Weird. Judges decision: Guilty. Request for traffic school? Denied.
• An old guy looking like Colonel Sanders stopped for the red light, in the middle of the intersection and then backed up. He did this because he obeys all traffic laws, and apparently to a fault.
• Another older gentleman was pleading innocent because the photo of his vehicle clearly showed that we was not in the intersection when the light turned red. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that the vehicle he was referring to was a Cadillac Escalade (that had indeed stopped for the red light), and he was actually the owner and operator of some other and much older SUV. When the plaintiff's witness pointed this out to him, he responded by saying "Oh, yeah, then I guess you're right. I did run the light."

All in all, a very enteraining few hours.

I am weary

I'm on page 164 of TSGitR, and the epilogue ends on page 419.....and I'm pretty sure I'd like this story to proceed to the beginning of the end. I almost feel as though I'm part of the prosecution and I'm being prepped for the case.

And, at least so far, these guys are off the charts guilty. Not just Lay and Skilling, and Fastow, but the banks, the lawyers, the accountants. It's amazing how deep it runs. There is right and then there is wrong. There are gray areas and then there are creepy realms that scheisters live in, where it's not technically wrong, but you couldn't find a non-scheister to agree with you. These guys went well beyond any possible doubt.

TSGitR

In honor of Lay and Skilling's recent convictions, I'm going to dive back into this book and finish it, damnit. I am so tempted to just rent the movie, but now I'm determined. I will give the two authors credit. The pages are quite lengthy for this type of book, and no part (yet) seems to wander, and I'm still not even halfway done. Anyhow, I'll set a goal of finishing this book by Scoja's wedding. How Crackpod would that be?

No Pain, No Gain

Some days it seems so effortless to put up blog entries. They usually start as a silly thought, and then I just let it rip a little. And then other days it's considerably harder. Today is one of those days.

I don't want this to be news-filter blog, political blog, too personal of a blog (as I'm not sure how those around me feel about it, or whether or not I will regret it later), and so I'm left wondering about the blog? What's it for if I can't vent about stuff? I guess that's the last blog type on the list that I do not want the blog to become: the rant blog.

Some things I want for the future:

a.) I want a different job. Maybe this means a new employer, and maybe it doesn't, but for right now, I want a new job.
b.) I want to live in a different city. The part of LA that I live in is soooooooooo tired.
c.) I need to get in a little better shape. Ideas for exercise include hiking, surfing, anything that raises the blood pressure other than reducing the size of my arterial passageways.
d.) I really should start playing music again. I was never good, so it's not for anyone but me. But I really should; shouldn't we all? What a waste to not learn a little.
e.) Can everyone just take it down a notch? Might be me, might be the media, but it seems like violence and death are really fashionable right now.

Top thing I can think of that will not happen: Bush's proposed Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Why will politician's never give up? He can't think of a better use for our taxes? And let's pretend for a moment that Church and State are separated.....What would Jesus think? I know I'm in trouble now, but give me a break here.

Another idea: the housing market is coming down. We're also heading into a mild recession.

Jah

Ricky Williams owes the Miami Dolphins $8.6M (or something like that), and he just signed a deal with a Canadian football team for a one year deal for $240k. I guess if he doesn't spend any money, and finagles a tax-exempt status, he could play for the next 35 years or so, and assuming the Dolphins don't want interest, he'll break even.

Or he could just try to sign a deal like Clemens: $22M.....for one year! What the hayride is that all about!!?? Sure, it's pro-rated since he's just coming in, but he'll still get some TWELVE Million Dollars. Nice.