2005, what's it good for?

I'll have another post about politics in 2005, but for now this is just for me.

It’s New Year’s Eve once again, and I guess this is that post that everyone makes. Thinking about what happened this year, what they want for next year, bla bla bla.

Oh, it’s not like I’m not going to do that. Just wanted to warn you.

This year has been one of the more interesting years that I can thinking of. There were some extreme highs and lows. I’ve had some of the best times of my life, and some of the hardest. There was never a lack of something going on this year.

Even with so much going on, I think 2005 was a set up year. Call in the closer. Put on your seat belt. Big things are going to happen in 2006.

Since I’m too lazy to put this in paragraphs, I’m gonna make lists.

Most Memorable Events in 2005:

• Had one of my favorite trips ever going to Los Angles this summer.
• Met people from Iowa and Nebraska. Who knew cool people lived there? :)
• I saw 2 oceans and 1 gulf this year
• New Job –Got the hell out of Kansas and got back to ATL!! Dirty South baby, Hell ya!

Wow, I’m struggling here. I really thought there’d be a bit more than 3 things. There are a few that I’m not posting, but in general, I guess I didn’t do that many big things this year. However, the wheels are in motion, there will be big things in 2006.

Here’s a preview of the big plans that are already in motion:
Big Red X – Big Red evolves
Trips all across the US
Trips outside of the US – Finally.
New House
I will become ridiculously old in 2006 - Vegas in November!!

We’ll see how things work out.

Have a good time tonight everyone! Get Hammered!! Be Safe!!

Old School

Like every Christmas for the last 10 years or so, a few of my high school friends get together for our annual Christmas dinner somewhere fancy.

The degree of dinner fanciness has changed with the times as well. I think the first few years we went to the waffle house, then it was off to Outback or another steakhouse of that level, and these last few years, the dinners have been amazing at some very nice places.

It’s really interesting to see how far some of them have come in their professional and personal life. Maybe it’s just the group, but they all seem to be doing quite well. We hear about others that we knew in high school that isn't fairing quite as well, and it's good to see the ones that I care about and keep in contact are doing well.

For many of us, this is the only time we see each other every year. Although you’d never be able to tell that if you saw us together. I guess knowing each other since 9th grade or longer makes you pretty familiar with someone.

It's not that we don't want to know about all the details of each other's lives, but we don't think it's necessary. We always know the big and important things. It's something nice to look forward to during this time to be able to catch up with all the little details.

A lot of things may have changed with our lives, but they’re all still the same people on the inside. It’s like I always say, people don’t really change.

Sometimes, that’s not a bad thing.

What would you rather? * Updated

In case you were wondering, here're my answers.

Have a million dollars
OR
Be able to speak 5 languages fluently?

Definitly 5 languages. There're a milion ways to make a million dollars. There are over a million people that has more than million dollars in the world. I bet you can't find 10, 000 people in the world that can speak 5 languages fluently. Besides, the ability to understand and communicate with other people is by far more valuable than money.

Win a Nobel prize for an idea you stole
OR
Become wealthy from an invention that hurts people?

People hurt people. Inventions do not hurt people. As much as I hate guns, I wouldn't blame the person who invited the gun for all the bad things that has happened because of a gun. Although just for argument sakes, you do NOT need an automatic rifle to shoot a deer.

Find but then lose your true love
OR
Never find a true love?

It would be all so much easier to never find a true love. Never knowing how wonderful and the pure joy that only being with your true love can bring. Never knowing the unbearable pain of spending your life looking for something then to only get a small taste before it's taken away.

Yet, however small the time you get with a true love is far better than never having been in contact with her/him. The joy always outweight the pain. Eventually.

Have sex with someone with no arms
OR
No Legs?

No legs. They're just in the way really.

Feed your children by regurgittion
OR
Have to lick them to bathe them?

Unless the kid wants their food with a strong taste of Jack, I'd go with the licking them clean.
Answer in the comments section!

*Bonus Question

Have your parents walk in on you having sex
OR
Walk in on your parents having sex?

Can you believe there are only 4 more days in 2005?!

Presents

Presents are great. It’s always nice to get stuff. That’s not my bag though. I’m so much happier giving someone something than receiving. This, however, is where I become a bit high maintaince as far as getting me a gift.

See if it’s something I really needed or really wanted, I would’ve gotten it for myself. I point out stuff, but those are nice to haves, and I don’t really need them so sometimes I may look at it and say great, but never use it when someone gets me stuff. Sometimes I appreciate getting the gift, but isn’t as thrilled as I probably should be about it.

However, sometimes I do get quite excited about a present. This doesn’t happen enough, but once in a while, someone gets me something that I wasn’t expecting, and it’s the perfect gift.

I’m really not that hard to shop for. Just have to think a little bit.

So I present to you. Best Present I received this Christmas *

* I haven’t received all of my presents yet, so this may change. Although I doubt anything short of Dusku could beat this.

As you may or maynot know, I love zombies. Forget terrorists, forget global warming, forget this administration. The biggest danger to human kind is Zombies.

This book teaches you everything you need to know to protect yourself from the eventual (oh, it's gonna happen) take over of zombies in this world.

Thanks for the present!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and got lots of goodies!!

If I Only Knew Better

Christmas eve. We’re not a family big on traditions or holidays. We would do the basics like present exchange, but not much else. For a long time, I wished that we would have what most people consider as a ‘traditional’ holiday together. A big dinner, lots of family, decorations, tree, baking, cooking, you know, the works.

I was young and stupid. I know.

My parents used to own a small store, and like all other retail stores, Christmas time was a big deal for the store. It was always ridiciously busy the week before Christmas and so I’ve always worked at the store during this time. I generally never had time to hang out with friends during Christmas break. I would usually be there from 9am to about 10pm every night around the holidays. I dreaded that evil store.

Christmas eve was always an event. For some reason, besides the regular Christmas rush, our store attracted a lot of last minute shoppers (probably because we’re the only store still open so late) and so we stayed opened until everyone was finished with their shopping. There’re lots of funny stories about last minute Christmas eve shoppers, they're a special breed I tell ya, but that’s for another time.

Every year for probably around 8 years, my parents would close the store around 9pm on Christmas eve. We would go home for a nice big hot pot dinner. Afterwards, we would all watch a movie that the kids have all already seen so we can explain it to our parents. That was Christmas eve.

That may not seem like a lot, and at the time it surely didn’t seem like it to me (since I was young and didn’t know better). Being so busy around this season, there was also never decorations. My friends’ houses would always have all these elaborate decorations that I wished I had. I remember one year I had 2 dollars and I walked across the street to Wal-Mart. I bought and put up one stran of little lights outside my window. It looked so pathetic and Charlie Brownish, but I was so happy and proud of it.

Because the store kept us so busy during this time, we generally didn’t have presents to give either. Many times the parents would give us cash. I usually made something to give them. We didn’t have much back then, but most of the gifts that I made during that time are still around the house.

I remember hating it so much that Christmas eve was different than other people’s. Instead of relaxing, cooking, eating, and goofing off at home, we would always be working at the store. Always the store.

I didn’t know what I had then. What seemed like something terrible and so different (working Christmas eve with the parents), was the tradition that I was looking for. What seemed to be harsh back then, are my best and favorite memories of Christmas eve.

Things changed 6 years ago. Our family is and would never be the same again. The store isn’t around anymore. In these last 6 years, with everyone so spread out across the country, 3 of these last 6 years we didn’t have Christmas together.

One of the years we didn’t have Christmas together as a family, I thought I’d do what I’ve always wanted. I seriously decorated my place. Lights, flowers, tree, decorations everywhere. It’s like Chridiarrhead explosive dierhhea all over my place.

Yea, that wasn’t the way to go. I think all the blinking lights almost gave me a seizure. That was not the tradition that I had thought I wanted.

Even during the years when I didn’t spend Christmas eve with my family, I usually spent it with friends. It was always a good time, but it’s not the same.

This will be the first year I’ve ever spent Christmas eve by myself.

It’s funny. All that time when I was younger, I was looking for some fabricated holiday tradition drilled into my head by too much TV and movies. All that seem so silly now. All I want now is a tradition that I can never have again.

What I wouldn’t give to be working tonight with my parents at the store.


Have a wonderful Christmas Eve everyone.

No More Wings!!!

So the lesson learned from my messy hot wings lunch endeavor is don’t do it at work. But always do lunch!

A colleague has encouraged me to start going out for lunch, and I think I’m catching on. I started with the Taco Bell and McDonalds yum yum cuisine. Now I feel as if I’ve advanced from noob to intermediate. I’ve had pizza from Sbbarro’s Pizzeria, Mongolian Chicken from Uncle Chan’s, and you can imagine how I fair with Popeye’s Louisiana Style Chicken. If I actually eat at the place I can prolly jump up a few levels.

Anyway, I’m diversifying my taste. My favorite thing to do during lunch (when I can afford the time) is to check out the web sites of the restaurants. Usually I only check the site if I have their product in front of me.

Today I had a calypso from Larry’s Giant Subs. I read a napkin and discovered that as a penultimate to the veggie sub, the NY Special-Black Angus Roast Beef sub has the least calories (306.34 cal) of a list of 10 subs under 7 grams of fat! It contains the most sodium though.

I kept reading until I found www.larrysubs.com. And I had to check it out.

I always start with the "Find Locations", cuz it’s fun tracing my path. Then I go to the "Who We Are/History" section, and by the time I’m near the end of my meal I check out the "Menu" so that next time I’ll know what to get. I was preoccupied by Larry’s photo album. A must see.


"Most of our locations have a 20-foot, lifelike gorilla mounted in the dining room, which is impressive to the whole family." from Larry's

Where Has the Leadership Gone?

Patriot Act report targets meth

So they’re putting in legislation in the Patriot Act to fight Meth. That sounds great. Meth is probably the biggest drug problem we have in this country besides prescription drug abuse. And no, Esctasy is not destroying all your children like the media would like you to think.

So that’s a good thing right? Fighting Meth. Well, here’s the part that makes you wonder. This legislation is being put in the Patriot Act

Hmm.. the Patriot Act. The set of laws that was created after 9-11 to help protect us from terrorism. The last time I checked, Meth was mostly coming out of the midwest, not the middle east.

Maybe someone read that wrong in a memo. I think it's the same guy that wrote about the WMDs.

My point is not that we shouldn’t fight meth. Meth is horrible and it’s spreading. In our seriously disfunctional society, we have moms who feel they need to take Meth just to keep up with things. This is a whole other rant about parents and their crazy perceptions about what they think their kids need.

Personally, I think there needs to be more jokes about Meth heads. After all, all the jokes and humilation about crack heads helped me stay away from the pipe. I mean really, I have enough things people can make fun of me for, who needs the crack head jokes too?

Getting back to my point. I understand that people stick all kinds of legislation in bills that had nothing to do with the original purpose. For example, the RAVE Act (A personal attack on my way of life by the way) was attached to the Ambert Alert bill. Who’s going to vote no on the Amber Alert bill?

The point is that there is absolutly no leadership in the administration or Congress today. If the adminstration was so serious on the Patroit Act, it would not let it be dilluted with anything that wasn’t about securing the borders, having better communication among the intelligence community or something that would actually be helpful in protecting the country. No, instead, you somehow think fighting meth is a good strategy for fighting terrorism.

Brilliant.

The Republican leadership are all under indictment for their lack of moral judgement (ironic that morality is how most of them won their elections). Using insider information to sell stocks? Embazzlement? Lying? Well, that’s all fine as long as gay don’t marry I suppose.

The Democratic leadership is fighting amonst themselves and looking absolutly ridiculous to the public. In a perfect time to stand together as one party and take back serious credibility and seats in the government, the democratics are totally blowing it.

Oh well. Go out and spend and buy more stuff. That's what Jesus would want.

Happy Tuesday!!

Monday Funny

Check out JibJab's latest video!

I’m not dead.

I check on THIS once a month.
But what do you know?

For lunch today I had the hot wing combo number 2 for a mere $6.50 from a small joint called the Best Hot Wings on Eisenhower Parkway. Zaxby’s and dare I say MoJo’s had best bow down. A combo number 2 includes 10 hot hot hot (that’s extra hot) wings, fries and a medium drink. I also asked for blue cheese dressing and no carrots just celery. And they got it right on the first try!

Now that I’ve finished my mid day sustenance, I find that my fingers stick to the keys of my keyboard. What’s worse is now the keys are all different colors. Red is dominant of course, but there is also green, yellow and whitish blue. The mouse is a permanent attachment to my hand.

Let me explain. Along with my hot wing combo number 2 I received two napkins. That’s what, 1 napkin per 5 wings? Hey, that’s all right. I’m generally not a messy eater. But opps, they forgot to give me napkins for the hot sauce itself. The purpose of the fries is to sop up the remaining sauce after eating the wings. Duh!

So I’m out of napkins, but I have a pile of construction paper near by and that’s when things get a little messy. I told you about the keyboard. While I was washing my fingers, in the mirror I noticed specks of particle paper in my hair, goat-tee, fingernails, between my teeth, on my sweater, everywhere. I was a confetti of food crumbs, eraser shavings (I work through lunch) and multi-colored paper dust. You try using construction paper as napkins and see what results you get.

So to wrap things up, I am a messy eater and I need more than two napkins especially if I ordered chicken. I mean come on, if I ordered a bucket of fried chicken and got only two napkins, some heads will roll. And you know this. Yeah, I asked for more napkins and the clerk said, "What you get, dey in dere." But I need extra! I ordered extra hot wings; I need extra more napkins. Get on it!!!

That’s it.

Big Red Xolution

It's coming soon!

TUI

Sure they tell you about the dangers of drinking. Sure they tell you certain things not to do while you're drinking like drive, operate heavy machinery, pilot a plane, and perform open heart surgery.

All are good advices, but if this government really wants to keep us safe, they should give us a complete list of ALL the things not to do after one have been drinking. Let me just give the folks at... I don't know who the hell would be in charge of this most important of jobs, let's say for now the department of homeland security. They are the brilliant minds that gave us the use duct tape for any emergency campaign.

Ok, folks at homeland security, here's one to start you off with. Remember, if you don't tell us exactly what to do in all situations, the terrorists win.

TUI - Texting under the influence. You're at the bar, it's too noisy to call or talk to anyone on the phone, so naturally we turn to our text messaging capabilities. This all so useful feature is generally a useful and fun tool, but as I will describe, it can be an instrument of the devil.

Oh sure it's all fun and games while you’re there, but like a 3 dollar hooker, you're satisfied in your drunken moment, but you're left the next morning wondering what the fuck were you thinking when you text things like 'I'm Rick James... Bitch' to almost everyone you know, or steal your roomate’s cell phone to text 'Are you thinking about sex right now' to a girl he just met and thinking about dating.

Oh, it was funny then. Boy was it hilarious. I think a guy at the bar bought me a shot to get me to do it. (Umm.. I mean someone could have. These are all fictional examples) Now the next morning you're thinking wow, I'm such an asshole. Holy shit I'm an asshole. And you would be correct in thinking that.

Yes, the dangers are limitless. Another hidden danger comes from all the stored text messages in your phone. You know no one actually erases any of their text messages. Seriously, look. I bet you have hundred of text messages in your phone right now! Anyway, these old forgotten text messages will bit you in the ass. At the most awkward time, you will read them and think to yourself "fuck, this bar is not where I want to be".

So Congress, get off your ass and call an emergency hearing. The holidays are an especially dangerous time for TUI. Just as legislation has help to protect us from DUI, TUI must be next! Don’t let the terrorists win.

Just think what they’d do when the terrorists figure this out. Beheadings would be a thing of the past. Hostages would be taken, then their cell phones would be used to text things like “Allah rules!” and “Death to all Infidels!!” to everyone in your address book. Is this what you want your mom or grandmother to be getting at 3am?! The horror!!

W, this is a call out to you and administration. I know you’re behind me 100% on this. I’m sure you’ve spent a good many nights at the bar and texting all kinds of things you’d later regret. I’m sure things like the tax cut for rich people was a funny drunken text message that accidentally became a reality.

Also, Jesus would want you to get rid of TUI.

Rummy, I know you feel me too. I think it was an accident, but I got the text that you used to begin the Iraq war. I think it went something like this

“Let’s go kill’em! Go time! I’m Rick James…… Bitch.”

TUI strikes once again. Then thousands of 500 pound bombs struck Iraq.

People, it’s not all up to the government. I expect you to do your part as well. We need a grass root campaign to help fight this problem that’s ruining our society. Here’s a nice little slogan. Repeat after me.

Leave your phones at home!
Leave your phones at home!
Leave your phones at home!

Kinda catchy isn’t it? Now imagine doing the conga to it

Leave your phones at home! (Hips to the right)
Leave your phones at home! (Hips to the left)
Leave your phones at home! (Hips to the right)

Scream it loud, scream it proud!

Don’t worry America, in the few areas where the government or church isn’t telling you exactly what to do. The Pup is here to fill in that hole. Americans shouldn’t have to think. Cause we live in the greatest nation in the world. A place where even the thinking is done for you to give us more time to consume.

Be safe this holiday season, and remember... Homeland security and Pup is watching over you. Certainly not just when you're in the shower.

Somewhere

It’s hard to not know. Harder to know that it would be so easy to find out. One press of the finger. It would be there. Like a drug addict, the click would give me the release I want and make me feel so much better. So much better to know because if I knew perhaps I could pretend that things were different.

I will not find out though. No matter the craving. I will not because I made a promise.

Maybe someday, somewhere.

Make of our hands, one hand
Make of our hearts, one heart
Make of our vows, one last vow
Only death will part us now
Make of our lives, one life
Day after day, one life
Now it begins, now we start
One hand, one heart
Even death won't part us now

There's a place for us
somewhere a place for us
Peace and quiet and open air
wait for us somewhere

There's a time for us
some day a time for us
Time together with time to spare
time to learn, time to care
some day, somewhere

We'll find a new way of living
We'll find a way of forgiving
somewhere

There's a place for us
a time and place for us

Hold my hand and we're halfway there
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
somehow, some day
somewhere

There's a place for us
a time and a place for us
Peace and quiet and open air
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
somehow, some day
somewhere

-PSB

Back to our regularly scheduled happy programming.

What the Fuck is wrong with you people?

According to sources close to the Pentagon and Congress, the military will probably be asking for another $100 Billion dollars next year for the Iraq thing. I say thing because I have no idea what it has become. Certainly it’s not a war. A colonization? A police operation? A zombie invasion? What the fuck is it anymore?

Whatever it is, one thing’s for sure. It’s costing a shit load of money. To date, I believe they’ve spent about $277 Billion dollars. I don’t care who you are, even the biggest country in the world, that’s a lot of money.

We are still quite a long ways away from being done with this thing. Next year’s $100 Billion is not unique, this is going to be a regular pattern of the things to come.

We have the largest deficit in the history of this country. We owe trillions of dollars to people like China (fantastic human rights records), and Saudi Arbia (fantastic human rights). Of course, we're still giving the super rich a break cause they sure could use it.

Meanwhile, there are more people living under in the poverty line than ever. Our personal debts are at an all time high (can't blame them, they're just learning from their governement).

I know wars are expensive, but somewhere in there, someone HAS to be fucking up big time or getting cheated out of their money. How do you go through $277 Billion dollars in a year and a half?!!! Most governments can run countries for decades for that type of money.

Hell, we could really use that money here in this country. Our education is so horribly funded that we’re falling behind other countries. As the CEO of Intel said recently, many companies are having to move their operations elsewhere not because of cost, but because the number of highly educated people are becoming more scarce in this country.

In case you want to argue that there are more people going to higher education than ever, look at the type of schools that includes (many more on-line ones). Students are coming out of colleges with over $100K in debts. Great way to start a young person’s life. How can any of them even think about going to grad school?

Look at the trends in this country. People are getting less educated. People are becoming more religious and conservative. The military is taking the majority of the country’s funds. The class separation between the wealth and the not continues to expand.

That’s fucking wonderful. We’re becoming the state the terrorists have always dreamed about.

You say we’re safer? Is being safer worth the cost of becoming a a bunch of fucking in-debt uneducated religiously fanatic militants?

I’ll let you decide that for yourself.

Simplicity

Is it really true what they say about ‘the best things in life are those that you have to work the hardest for?’ Would we really not appreciate something simply because it was simple to achieve?

With the right planning, don’t most things work out pretty simply? Why should things be difficult if there was enough planning involved in the first place? I can’t foresee all the scenarios you say? That maybe true, but I think careful planning would eliminate 90% of the foreseeable complications. Yes, there’s still 10% to deal with, but that’s not that bad.

So why make things hard? You say many didn’t have a choice in choosing the easy life. You’re probably correct. You would probably be correct to think that some just doesn’t know how, doesn’t know what 'easy' looks like.

Look at the majority of the lottery winners. Statistics shows that most of them go through almost all of their money within 5 years. This includes those that won the big hundreds of million pots.

Did those people just not know how or want to live easily? Did they not accept their role in an easy life and instead subconscientiously sabotaged themselves back to the hard life that they are familiar and most comfortable with?

This goes the same for other things and for things other than money. Choices, they’re a bitch.

It’s no wonder so many people turn to religion. Making choices and living with the choices you’ve made is difficult. Having someone telling exactly what to do in every situation is a lot easier. So in this cases I suppose people did choose the easy life.

I’ve always said that when I die, I would love to spend eternity looking at ‘what-if’ scenarios. What if I did this vs. that, or what if I did or didn’t do something. What, if anything, would be different. I think that would entertain me for a really long time.

Is this why religious people keep talking about the after life? Easy vs. hard life? If I subscribe to what I just said, planning would allow you to achieve the easy afterlife. If there is one. But also to an earlier point, would you appreciate something that was easily gotten?

I’ve always been a bit of a megalomaniac for as long as I can remember (among other issues). Through the years, the reasons have drastically changed. An all powerful being as most imagine would be omnipotent and omniscience (no, not the same thing). I think in the beginning I was drawn to the power. I mean, who wouldn’t want that.

However, as I get older, that just doesn’t seem as important or appealing any more.

The more I think about it, the more it becomes clear. I no longer want omnipotence. I care very little any more about those things. What I truly desire is omniscience, and more importantly with that, answers to my questions.

To know. To understand. To be able to answer my ‘what-ifs’.

Perhaps I’m being a little dramatic with saying omnipotent and omniscience, but you get the idea.

So many questions. So many possible answers. Only one way to find out and play out the ‘what-ifs’.

Why can’t things just be simple and easy?

Oh yea, I wouldn’t appreciate it as much.

Work

Work. Work Hard. Work is the only thing that will see you through.

Not that I have a choice as my job has grown into a daily 12 hour monster that just seems to just get more complicated and time consuming.

Last week I left my house on Tuesday afternoon around 4pm. I got back Sunday around 2pm. I don't mind the traveling, actually I quite like it. The only problem is that all the work that needed to be done from Tuesday till Friday will need to be made up. Probably all by the end of the day today.

Oh, today's gonna be a great day.

I'm glad at least it's raining. I'm glad to see nothing but grey and darkness out my window.

Work. Work Hard. Work is the only thing that will see you through.

I'll put on my mask. My mask of professionalism and taking good care of my clients. My mask will make me concentrate only on all the work I have ahead of me. That's the mask I will see in the mirror. Maybe if I have it long enough, I'll forget what's underneath.

"Fallen" - Sarah Mclachlan

Heaven bend to take my hand
And lead me through the fire
Be the long awaited answer
To a long and painful fight

Truth be told I've tried my best
But somewhere along the way
I got caught up in all there was to offer
And the cost was so much more than I could bear

Though I've tried, I've fallen...
I have sunk so low
I messed up
Better I should know
So don't come round here
And tell me I told you so...

We all begin with good intent
Love was raw and young
We believed that we could change ourselves
The past could be undone
But we carry on our backs the burden
Time always reveals

In the lonely light of morning
In the wound that would not heal
It's the bitter taste of losing everything
That I've held so dear.