I haven’t posted any overtly political snippets lately (at least not in my mind although undoubtedly someone will point out something to me).

Anyway, blog sensei had posted how her preference would be to vote on issues instead of voting on personalities as we now do: I wish we had a political system that let us vote on the issues, not on one person who is supposed to embody everything we believe in, from our taste in music to our position on alternative energy or universal health care.

The more I thought about it, the more I found myself in agreement.

Then, I was thinking about the upcoming political conventions, are these things really necessary anymore? Aren’t they just an excuse to spend money which could be put to much better use for all of this country’s citizens?

Political nominating conventions had more relevance in a day and age where there were only a few television channels and people traveled mostly by train.

Today though, we have four or five cable news channels, C-Span 1 and 2, a couple of public TV channels and the old standby broadcast news outlets. This plus newspapers, national news magazine, the internet and of course a slew of radio stations.

The primary process has undergone a radical change over the last decade, by the time the convention rolls around the candidates for the two major parties have been decided? Is there some surprise in who is going to be nominated at this point - I think not. So, why have these big conventions? I mean at one time their purpose was to get a party’s message out and at this point in time, if you’re a person who is going to make the investment of time and watch the conventions, chances are more than likely you’re pretty well-informed to begin with and have been following the campaign for the last 12 months.

The banker and father of one takes a sip of his beer and stares at my breasts.

“I bet you get amorous when you're drunk. I'd like to see that.”

Yesterday’s Post had a disturbing article. The writer placed an ad up on Craig’s List posing as a married woman seeking a married man to have an affair with.

The article probably confirmed a lot of women’s poor opinion of my gender. Hell, I can’t say I didn’t find it sleazy myself.

While I could understand the motivation (of the men), it just struck me as very sad.

There is this great ‘gender divide’ in how men and women come at relationships. I’m not excusing cheating, but some people are put together one way and some people are put together another.

Among my friends I’ve known serial cheaters and I’ve also known loyally devoted husbands.

Coming off my own seven year hitch, I always felt it was more of a bother than anything else. The other thing I thought was, if you do it (cheat) it tells you a lot about your relationship (and probably how you shouldn’t be in it).

There are always going to be moments when any man (or woman) is tempted, it’s easier to cheat, the tough thing is sticking it out with someone and making things work. Then again, it took me a bit of time to arrive at that wisdom.

Days rocket past so rapidly. I haven't been paying attention to the news because of the headlines in my own life. I am happy that the Mets finally made it to the .500 mark and still manage to catch a game every now and again.

In the meantime, I have been doing all those things I manage to put off. I make a list a couple of days out and see how many things I can cross off of it.

I’m not always as successful as I would like but it seems I get much more accomplished than I would have it things weren’t written down.

Wahhhhh, wahhhh, wahhhhh - this is me crying and being depressed, just not pretty.

So, today (and over the last several days) I found myself in confronted by a situation to really get upset about. I know I had my moments too.

Fortunately, I think I am getting a little bit wiser as I get older (not much, just a modicum mind you).

Rather than indulge myself in the obsession over something bad and spiraling into a good, deep depression - I stopped.

Usually there’s this period when I’m angry or depressed about something (fill in the blank with the negative emotion). It doesn’t do a lot of good feeling crappy, it just colors the day making it that much harder to get through it.

Now today, I tried something different, I stopped and thought how feeling that way doesn’t do me a whole lot of good. I still feel a little crappy but, when I come out the other side (from whatever crappy emotion it is), I feel a lot better when I start moving into a productive direction again.

So, I was thinking, maybe I might just want to skip over the crappy, obsessive, depressed part and get to the better spot and believe me when I say that’s a great deal of progress for me indeed..

As much as the whole Iraq thing gets painted in a negative light, I think some of the most interesting comments on it can be found on Salaam Pax‘s blog which got a lot of press leading up to the war.

Surprising how it isn’t getting as much notice now?

Moderates who want Americans around long enough to establish a stable, democratic government tend to get drowned out by the more extreme views on either side of the spectrum.

In a perfect world, things would be easy enough as asking someone to join in the spirit of partnership but then the world is a far from perfect place.

So, I find myself in agreement - I don’t cotton to a lot of the posturing that lead up to the war but, the genie is out of the bottle now and foreign policy works best when it isn’t built around public opinion polls.

Anyway, all that doesn’t matter now. Saddam is gone, thanks to you. Was it worth it? Be assured it was. We all know that it got to a point where we would have never been rid of Saddam without foreign intervention; I just wish it would have been a bit better planned. Does this mean that I will be wearing a (I [heart] Bush) t-shirt? NO, because I don’t believe there is any altruism in politics and the way he sees the world scares me.

What I do really and sincerely hope for is that the day you and other soldiers and US civilians here don’t have to stay behind those high concrete walls isn’t too far away; and that you feel safe walking in the streets without those hard and heavy flak jackets, so that we can sit and talk about these things in a Karrada Street tea shop.

There are many challenges Iraqis have to face now, so please stick around a bit longer and try helping us get thru them. One of the more serious challenges is the fact that Iraq has become a sort of an open playground for many political and religious factions who are using Iraq as a fighting ground. So there you have it [Mr. Somewhere-in-the-north-of-Iraq], and by the way you never told me whether you had a blog or not.

I was flipping channels last night and came across some Elliott Gould movie - it was odd since I thought I knew most of his movies (child of the 70s). He was behind the wheel of some sabotaged car, it was a really badly done sequence.

It was then I realized I was watching Capricorn One. Notable for being one of the few dramatic roles OJ Simpson has played besides murder defendant - it also has the distinction of being one of being so horribly bad it managed to put me to sleep when I went to see it during it’s original run.

I remember going to see it with my friend Don before he left for California - we had gone to a drive-in (when they still had those - Drive-ins were great in that you could actually get smashed watching a movie - a big thing when you’re a teenager but, the thought of which gives me shivers to think of now).

It was also during the showing of Capricorn One I was alerted to the fact that I sleep drive (and also talk in my sleep), which managed to freak my friend out no small amount as he thought I was awake and watching the film.

Capricorn One ranks right up there on my list with other such classics as My Dinner with André and Daredevil. Two other films which I managed a good nap during..

They recently upgraded blogger. This I imagine would be a good thing if I wasn’t so resistant to change.

I’m still struggling with the whole OS X thing and this is just another rock on the pile adding to my woes.

I just got the Panther upgrade last week - so I could install it on several of the machines around the house. It came to a point where I haven’t been given much choice as most of my clients these days are running OS X.

Everybody talks about the benefits of System 10... it’s Unix, it’s truly multitasking, a single application crashing doesn’t take down the machine but, it really is a Tech Support guy’s wet dream more than anything else.

Finally, they can set privileges on a machine - meaning you have to adjust to the computing environment the Tech guy decides is right for the company.

Gone are the days when you could customize your machine to work the way you’d like it. Seems like a pretty big step backwards. One of the great things about working on a Mac was being able to customize the machine so you could take advantage of all those great shortcuts. Hell, half the people I run across don’t even know the basic finder (OS) shortcuts.

Of course, it depends on the client and the tech guy at the client and how rigid a person they are.

Unfortunately, as is often the case, while they may be good tech guys, they certainly aren’t aware of what makes a job easier to do. So, you get locked into this situation of having one more hurdle thrown into your path when you’re just trying to do your job.

In the late eighties, I remember being at these big companies where they would have all these computers set up on peoples’ desks which were clients to a larger mainframe. When the desktop computer came along, there was something freeing about computing in general, the tools were finally in the hands of the people that used them.

The more rigid these networks become (and the computing experience), the less likely is the possibility of innovation, wouldn’t you think?

SPC Neil A Wallin, 109th Area Support Medical Battalion, a medic testified that: “Cell 1A was used to house high priority detainees and cell 1B was used to house the high risk or trouble making detainees. During my tour at the prison I observed that when the male detainees were first brought to the facility, some of them were made to wear female underwear, which I think was to somehow break them down.”

In some parts of the city men wearing women’s underwear is considered a good Saturday night - talk about a culture clash.

The link takes you directly to the full ARTICLE 15-6 INVESTIGATION OF THE 800th MILITARY POLICE BRIGADE.

This is the investigation undertaken by the military after learning of prisoner abuse, it seems quite thorough - surprise, surprise.

This link will take you to a timeline of the events that led up to the investigation. Again, there doesn’t seem to have been any foot dragging about conducting an investigation once the information about abuse was brought to light.

Is it bad press?

Certainly.

Does it help our country in its foreign policy goals in the Middle East?

No, it does not.

Maybe, we should just round up this bunch of soldiers who are responsible for these abuses and just hang them. Plain and simple, just throw a rope over a tree and be done with it. Let’s forego any investigation and just allow ourselves to be swept up in the moment. The pictures speak volumes about the horrors endured by these prisoners. It’s just something we really can’t be expected to discuss. It’s just a reflection on how this administration has failed us in so many ways - how could the chief executive allow something like this to happen? The indignity!

Oh, please.

I’m not about to put myself in the position of being an apologist for the current administration but, neither am I going to give myself over to the ‘chicken little’ frenzy of the moment. Something bad happened, it came to light and it is in the process of getting fixed.

It proves a point.

Think if something like this happened before Iraq was invaded it would get this kind of press? Think there would be the level of outcry? How likely would it be that there would be any kind of change after the fact and the abuse would stop?

Ask yourselves those questions before allowing yourself to be carried away in your moral indignation. Be thankful you are living in a society where although something like this can happen, there is still the opportunity to bring it to light and effect some kind of change so it is less likely to happen going forward.

Republicans or democrats, you are not the enemy. You are the opposition and there is a difference. Even as both major parties move closer to the center, people should recognize vilifying the opposition does nothing to enhance your argument. There are real issues the current administration can be taken to task on. Issues that affect the lives and future of every citizen. Set out your argument in a logical fashion and you will stand a much better chance of swaying opinion.

In the meantime, let’s not forget we bombed and destroyed a Chinese embassy on the watch of the previous administration. Nobody was out in front of Congress offering up their job on that one and believe me the consequences could have been a lot worse from that gaff.

Jamey Hill, a local postal worker, said the photos of naked prisoners in sexual positions, in a pile or on a leash, were nothing compared to the images of murdered Americans dangling from a bridge in the town of Falluja in March.

“I’m not happy about it (the prison abuse). I’m not very happy about having the pictures of us on the bridge either,” Hill said.

Tanya Vargas, 29, who said she knew two of the soldiers linked to the scandal, said it had been hard to believe her friends were involved.

“What were they thinking to do this, and then to take pictures of it?” she said. “When they come home, it’s not going to be the welcome home the soldiers usually get,” she said.

These are your fellow citizens! While I am not in agreement with what happened and recognize something went wrong, pause before giving yourself over to hysteria of the moment.

Prison life was punctuated by riots and guards’ shootings of inmates. The few soldiers who had worked in civilian prisons in the United States taught the others what they knew, the report says.

Karpinski, a Gulf War (news - web sites) veteran and a business consultant in civilian life, is faulted for much that went wrong. But her job was never going to be easy.

Last June, Karpinski took command of the 800th MP Brigade, a unit led to believe it was going home shortly after major combat ended May 1, 2003.

Instead, it got a new mission: running the entire U.S. prison system across Iraq — 12 camps and jails.

“Morale suffered, and over the next few months there did not appear to have been any attempt by the command to mitigate this morale problem,” the Taguba report says.

Those sent to Abu Ghraib found themselves living in one of Iraq’s toughest regions — the Sunni Muslim rebel stronghold west of Baghdad. The prison, which also houses the base, became a target for guerrilla mortar barrages that killed dozens, mainly prisoners.

Last night I went to the Mets game.

I had probably the best seats I’ve had in several years only 8 rows off the field right at third base.

You think you’ll be sitting among the ‘swells’ but, you’re really not. You still find the same drunken, loud-mouthed fools who appear to at ballparks more frequently these days.

It was a beautiful night to be at the game, the weather was perfect, even if the Mets lost. Also, it was worth suffering people loudly pleading and cursing players to throw them a ball at the end of each half innings’ toss around.

Sometimes though, even among all the drunken shouting there can be a few funny moments. There were two ‘portly’ fellows behind us who were shouting out Milwaukee’s third base coaches’ last name which became a bit of a betting game among us in the latter stages of the game (well past 20 times in one inning).

Their moment came when the scoreboard urged the fans to cheer, ‘Let’s Go Mets!’ and they shouted ‘Pull Up Your Pants!’ at the guy an aisle over and a few seats down.

Seems he had a real look going - tats, ponytail, some poor man’s excuse for a beard, a wife beater t-shirt with a motto you wouldn’t want to repeat in polite company and a pair of jeans which kept him in an almost permanent half moon state.

I hadn’t realized what the commotion was about until my companion pointed out the wayward man’s condition and then found myself taking up the cheer as well.

So, I managed to nab a couple of days of work last week. Always nice to pick up another client (although that has happened less than I would like of late).

It’s fairly obvious the market is shifting. The demands of clients are changing again. It’s a lot like it was in the late eighties and early nineties when the desktop computer first appeared on the scene.

Back then, before the computer made it’s impact on the workplace, there were all these other jobs in the graphics industry. There were typesetters, stat camera operators, board people (not bored people - even if they usually were), comp artists and a bunch of other professions which are no longer in great demand.

The group of guys I get together with occasionally for coffee are all storyboard artists and their profession is also in the process of undergoing change. I have peers close in age and out of work who are finding it hard to get another job at the pay scale they were accustomed to.

Things have changed...

If there is one sure thing a person can bet on, it’s the likelihood some aspect of their professional life will undergo dramatic change. A person has two choices, they can either try to foresee the change coming and take steps to confront it or ostrich like, they can hide from it until events are beyond their control and they are carried along by it like a piece of flotsam in a tidal wave.

When I got the my first computer, it was a new toy plain and simple and it held all the allure a new toy holds. Fifteen years later, I find myself struggling to keep up as the rate of change increases with each passing year.

Just as I get to the point of being comfortable with a program, boom! Here comes another upgrade making the damn thing the swiss army knife of all programs.

It seems it has become all about making it easier and easier to do things in terms of program upgrades. I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with that if it meant that things worked better but, in many instances they don’t. It’s more like giving an automatic weapon to someone who doesn’t know how to use a popgun. They just manage to create a bigger problem which will have to be fixed at some point.

Well, I digress...

So, we have all this new equipment, all this new software and now when you see a job listing you’re basically supposed to know every package, be the world’s greatest designer and be able to mop the floors when there is downtime... cause we can’t have any waste nowadays in the corporate world, you know?

I just find it interesting I’m hearing the same complaint from a bunch of different people.

The curious thing is, have wages gone up? Not really, if anything there appears to be a downward pressure on wages these days. One friend was commenting on how he finds clients calling him at the last minute, expecting him to be on site at the drop of a hat (meaning he has to live in Manhattan) but ironically a lot of these jobs don’t pay enough for someone to live in Manhattan.

So, things are changing again...

As I’ve said in the past and in conversations with friends, when a person is caught up in the bubble of the present, it’s hard to see the bigger picture. When a trend is going on, you have a lot of trouble seeing it because you’re in among the bushes not high up on a mountaintop.

So, last week I was down among the bushes again. I was reminded what a small world this industry is (which is really bothersome). When you’re confronted by change, you have to change along with it to survive but, the hardest thing there is to change are people’s perceptions of you.

I worked on a project, it was fairly straight forward and afterward the person I was working with came over and expressed their surprise (I was matching a layout and setting up a word template - not really rocket science). The person was surprised I had done such a remarkable job matching their layout (???? Huh?).

It was a compliment to be sure but, it reminded me once again, how hard it is to combat people’s perceptions. Once you’re pegged as being good for something, it’s hard to branch out into other areas (or make clients think of you as a resource for other projects).

It just makes me realize I have to put in more time and do a better job at marketing myself and my skills and I’m probably not alone in that either.

The announcement was recently made, one of my favorite comic titles is about to be canceled. I just picked an issue up out of curiosity originally but found it a good read and was hooked. Since then I’ve picked up each issue. I was a bit dismayed by the low circulation figures I had seen for the book so, I can’t say I was totally surprised when I heard the news.

I had never read anything else by the writer Micah Ian Wright. In fact I didn’t know much about him other than the fact he was writing a book I had come to enjoy.

Turns out Wright was a rather virulent anti-war guy. He claimed to have been an Army Ranger so had first hand knowledge of the destruction and aimless violence inherent in war. He even was author of a book gathering old war posters:

You Back the Attack! We’ll Bomb Who We Want!



From Publishers Weekly Former Army Ranger turned antiwar comic book artist Wright had what he calls a moment of clarity after participating in the U.S.’s 1989 invasion of Panama. Feeling that media coverage was blatantly pro-war, but that the post-invasion results for Panama were far from positive, he offers this as a (belated) warning against war on Iraq. Reworking American propaganda posters from WWI and WWII, Wright reveals his satiric take on current events: one poster reads, “Millions of troops are on the move - All To Protect Your Oil Supply! Is your SUV really worth their lives” In another, a girl sitting in her father’s lap asks, “Daddy, why don't YOU or any of your friends from ENRON have to go to war” And many are messages from the Orwellian-sounding “Ministry of Homeland Security:” The Statue of Liberty points to the onlooker and commands, “You! Stop Asking Questions! You’re Either With U.S. or You’re With The TERRORISTS!” The antiwar contingent will read these and weep, rather than laugh.

So anyway, quite the stir was apparently caused this weekend when the Washington Post ran this story:

In the Style section last summer we profiled a Los Angeles writer named Micah Ian Wright, who’d just published a shrill antiwar poster book called “You Back the Attack! We’ll Bomb Who We Want!” In his book, he described himself as a veteran of combat, a former Army Ranger whose experiences during the 1989 invasion of Panama turned him into a peacenik. In interviews with The Post and other media, he played up that background.

Needless to say, there has been significant fallout.

I caught Kill Bill volume 2 this week with Sung. It was great seeing Sung and the movie was absolutely terrific. Also, I just wanted to note there is a special screening as part of the Tribeca Film Festival this coming Thursday, rumored to be attended by Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman the movie will run in its entirety (both parts 252 minutes).

There was an article in the Sunday Post about these two books, The Bitch in the House and The Bastard on the Couch.

Women today have more choices than at any time in history, yet many smart, ambitious, contemporary women are finding themselves angry, dissatisfied, stressed out. Why are they dissatisfied? And what do they really want? These questions form the premise of this passionate, provocative, funny, searingly honest collection of original essays in which twenty-six women writers—ranging in age from twenty-four to sixty-five, single and childless or married with children or four times divorced—invite readers into their lives, minds, and bedrooms to talk about the choices they’ve made, what’s working, and what’s not.

_____

Last year's much-ballyhooed The Bitch in the House, edited by Hanauer, collated essays by women on their frustration and rage. Now Jones (Hanauer's husband and a novelist and journalist) offers the male version, wherein guys discuss how they feel about their standing in today’s shifting cultural landscape (that is, if they care at all). As Jones notes, “The fact that women are in charge of their own birth control and reproduction may be a gigantic cultural shift, but I've yet to hear a single man complain about it.”

It was interesting synchronicity running across the article today. I had awoken contemplating my own current bachelordom and the experiences of several friends who are married. One described waking up in the middle of the night to find his wife sobbing woefully, another described his wife’s ennui and the unease it causes him daily, still a third described his wife’s conflict with her own parents. Then, I was also thinking about an old flame who indicated she was separating after 20 years with her mate, a series of comings and goings in and out of her life for two decades.

Numbering among ‘the bastards,’ I was trying to think about what we do... we men.

The phrase blessed ignorance is what came to mind. It’s not that we don’t know or aren’t aware of our mates. It isn’t that we’re so cavalier as not to care about their feelings either. We just lack the capacity and the tools.

Men like to fix things, if they can’t fix something it frustrates them and quite plainly, women can’t be ‘fixed’ to men’s satisfaction. It’s like asking someone for the solution to the equation 3 plus 2 and getting the answer ‘BLUE!’ Just like one of those robots in an old sci-fi film, a man’s brain more often than not short circuits (if it could, you’d see sparks flying out of our ears).

I’m in my 40’s now and have less of a clue about women than I did as a young man. Well, maybe I should qualify that, I’ve gone into the blessed ignorance phase of life I think. Like a doctor, the approach can best be summed up as ‘just do no harm.’ Of course, men probably have about as much of a grasp of what motivates women as doctors have an understanding of the human body - some things can be fixed but by and large we don’t truly understand the inner workings of the complicated machine.

So, probably the only thing I can offer up for myself and the rest of the bastards of my gender ladies, is to beg for your patience and indulgence while we try to make our way through this morass that is life.

I get the thing from the Learning Annex. On the cover is a big picture of Lizzie Grubman.

The ability to make a client's image sparkle and shine - whether it's an individual, a restaurant, a special event or a cultural phenomenon - is a valuable skill that's much in demand - and nobody does it any better than Lizzie Grubman!

In this expert in-depth look at what it takes to launch and maintain a successful P.R. career, Lizzie will reveal: * Her "been there and done it" P.R. tips and strategies * The essential skills and qualities of a top P.R. person * What P.R. firms are looking for when they recruit * The importance of networking - and how to develop your own P.R. network * Attention-getting ways to present yourself in writing and in person * The 101 things a P.R. pro does * Where the money is * And more!

Lizzie Grubman is one of New York's top spinmeisters and founder of Lizzie Grubman Public Relations. Her celebrity clientele have included NSync, Reid, Jay-Z and Britney Spears - as well as some of New York City's hottest restaurants, bars and clubs.

Funny, I was thinking she might be teaching a class on offensive driving.

Offensive? F**k you! Get over it.



Somehow over the last two decades or so, people in this country have come to the assumption war is enacted with the military precision of a video game.

Surprise! It’s not.

So, what does that mean?

It means a lot of people are hurt or killed. People lose their lives in stupid, stupid ways which never seem to make sense and generally seem to cheapen the value of human life.

Now, there’s a certain outrage that goes along with looking at pictures of innocent women and children injured and killed in a war zone. It’s a moral indignation which rises in one like bile after an unsettling meal and of course war is humanity’s unsettling meal.

But, it’s not going away.

I’m not condoning the injury of innocents in a war nor do I place small value on any person’s life however, it’s hard to escape the fact that when you talk about the human condition, you are talking about animals and though we may like to gussy ourselves up in the robes of society an inescapable fact is we are indeed animals. Bigotry, racism, ethnic cleansing all spring forth from the dark, recesses of the human animal in no shortage no matter how civilized we declare ourselves.

Is it right? No.

Should we try to do better? Of course.

Are we doing better? One would like to think so.

However, until that day when mankind as a whole can escape those baser aspects of the human makeup, I sure as hell want to be the biggest, nastiest bastard on the block, if only not to be trounced on by someone else.

We live in a free society (regardless of what people would have you believe) and the level of discourse in this country is far more open to debate than it is in much of the world.

Something to remember when people are pointing fingers.

I’ve avoided talking about baseball so far this year. Not that I haven’t watched it, I’ve just avoided writing about it.

Nothing made me quite as happy as the first day of the season when there were four games on ESPN one after the other and I could sit and do work with the games on in the background for hours on end. I can’t explain other than to say there is something very relaxing listening to a baseball game on a warm day - something that just feels so right with the world.

I’ve mellowed in my hatred towards the Yankees this year. A big part of it is because of Donny Baseball’s return to the team as the hitting coach and another part of it has been that the insufferable Yankee fans of the last few years have had little to crow about with their $180 million payroll.

Poor Yankees. Poor, poor Yankees.

So much money, so little to show for it so far.

There’s an old saw about some of the best trades in baseball are the ones you don’t make. Last year the Yankees went out and got Jose Contreras, beating out the Red Sox and this year they managed to nose them out in the A-Rod sweepstakes. When the Yankees signed Contreras, the Sox promptly turned around and spent the same money on three other players (all of whom were instrumental in making the team competitive).

There are a bunch of things I would do if I was running the show (queue the trumpets to the refrain of ‘If I were king...’). I’m not saying signing A-Rod was a bad move but, I would’ve probably had Jeter move over to third and played A-Rod at short. Also, I don’t think I would’ve stocked up on so many guys to DH. Now that the team has Travis Lee, why did they spend all that money on Jason Giambi? Already, I’ve been hearing the trade rumblings (which hasn’t surprised me).

The funny things about the Yankees run in the late nineties is they had a bunch of guys that played as a team. They were the heart of that team and somehow, somewhere along the line the people making decisions decided it was more sexy to get the most expensive home run hitter they could get instead of putting together a team. Gosh, it sure seems like the 80’s all over again.

Meanwhile across town, the Mets have proved to people why they deserve to play in a place called ‘Flushing.’ They certainly haven’t thrown good money after bad but, what is it about the Mets these days? Every time things begin to look up, they lose another player to injury.

Sometimes it’s hard to be a Mets fan... giving all your love to just one team...

Well, I’ve been watching both the Yankees and Mets games this year. The Yankees if only to satisfy my sadistic glee watching them look inept in the field and at the plate and the Mets games hoping against hope they’ll eventually get everyone healthy and prove they have a decent team (yeah, I know but, a guy can hope).

I must say though, I am liking what is coming together (Cameron is just a joy to watch in center field). What I don’t understand is how Art Howe gets such a free pass with the team having done so poorly since he arrived when Bobby Valentine never got the benefit of a doubt.

Ah baseball, what can you do?

The only person needing one of those monstrous golf umbrellas would be the fat lady from the circus so, all the rest of you stupid f**cks just stop it! At least hold the damn things higher so the rest of us can navigate the streets!

(:>)

I look up and a month has almost passed, where did April go? Now that the warm weather has begun and it’s nicer out - I try to get out a little bit more (which I’ve been doing). I was in the city three days last week (which is something of a record when I’m not working) and this week has just flown by. I’m also in the process of finally moving over to a different machine and breaking down the clone after many years of faithful service.

It’s hard to believe but, I think I’ve been using the clone since the summer of ’97 so, I figure I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of it.

It’s still good for doing Quark jobs (and actually pretty stable to boot) and is the main ‘browsing’ machine. Now, it’s just a matter of backing things up and wiping things clean. I’ve got an old IIci also, it still runs and I put an upgrade card in it (just like I did with the clone) so the ci is a power mac and the clone has a G3 processor. I’m thinking I still may find a use for both the machines, running a looping Acrobat file with portfolio stuff on it in my studio.

There’s this dual machine I’ve procrastinated about setting up. It’s sitting there all set to go - the laptop has been my main machine but I can see even its days are probably numbered - as much as I might want to resist it may soon be time to get new hardware.

This week I got to catch Hellboy with Ed and Brian (and afterward got to enjoy a very good Indian dinner with the guys). I have to say it was one of the most entertaining movies I’ve seen in awhile. Too many times, movies based around comics are lacking in story or acting but, Hellboy was a good, old fashioned, popcorn movie. Good story, good pacing and good acting - nothing deep or heavy, just a few hour diversion and better done than most. Worth checking out if you have the chance.

Another missed opportunity occurred because of a dispute over sharing of intelligence information with FBI criminal investigators regarding Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the 19 hijackers, the commission said. The search finally was assigned in August to an FBI agent working his first counterterrorism lead, who on Sept. 11 sent a memo to the FBI office in Los Angeles about Mihdar.

The missed chances came at the end of a summer of heightened intelligence reports about bin Laden's determination to strike the United States. These intelligence reports carried such headlines as “Bin Laden planning multiple operations" and "Bin Laden threats are real.”

I really don’t appreciate the money and time that’s being wasted by Congress.

Why?

I don’t think Bill Clinton is to blame for what happened on 9/11/01.

I don’t think George Bush is to blame for what happened on 9/11/01.

Even Richard Clarke is misplaced in apologizing for those events. The truth is Osama Bin Laden is to blame and the fanatics he leads in al Qaida.

As much as we would like to believe we control the world around us, the truth is we just don’t.

Prior to the events of that horrible day no one would have imagined something even remotely happening like that.

It was the stuff of bad action movies. Maybe, we should have Congress investigate Hollywood?

Maybe they’re to blame?

It’s ridiculous to think this plan came together in the 9 months after George Bush took office. It’s also ridiculous to think every single terrorist act will be stopped before it occurs. I’m not happy with some of the things our government has done in response to September 11th. In the rush to be ‘safe,’ people are all too willing to sacrifice those things which make our society great.

It’s a chaotic world people, get used to it.