Odd things which make me happy.
I got a new printer this past week (came yesterday actually). This makes me incredibly happy, how very strange.
When I first starting using a computer (many, many years ago), I had this zeal for the thing. I had to know all the little bells and whistles, all the little ins and outs of the computer and the operating system. The passion was very helpful in advancing my career without question but, like all great passions in life it burned hot for awhile but, couldn’t maintain the bright blaze I felt at its origins.
Now the computer sits on my desk, a squat gobbler of time and while I still enjoy being on the computer, I have come to approach it with a certain amount of trepidation as it has proven at times to be the same kind of idle distraction television can be. When I am writing or working out projects, it’s great to have a tool like the computer there but, if I am using it to avoid getting the things I need to get done to move forward in life, it becomes an enemy.
So, this week I got a new printer and am very happy for it.
It is the first time I have purchased a black and white printer since I got my old Apple Laserwriter IIf. I milk hardware, I use it as long as I possibly can in an effort to try and wring every last bit of usefulness out of it. Long ago, I stopped being seduced by the lure of the latest and the greatest and I managed to keep the Laserwriter going for a long, long time. I got a new board at one point on eBay for a song (so the thing became a IIg), I went out and got additional memory for the thing and installed it myself, I even had an external hard drive attached to the thing for awhile. Somewhere along the line though, the fuser went and even though I managed to pick up another one on eBay, even though I started the job of installing it, I never did finish it and the printer has sat around for quite a bit of time in pieces (the computer equivalent of a car up on blocks in front of a person’s house).
I’ve had other printers. Old equipment clients no longer had a use for, taken home and cannibalized. One huge monster of a printer just sat around for the longest time before it fell and broke. I never hooked the thing up and it just seemed to be too much to get the it fixed (although I did explore the option), another I used happily for awhile before selling it to a client who lacked an 11 X 17 printer.
There are a couple of inkjets around here as well but, I don’t really like inkjets all that much. They’re great for the occasional color piece you have to print and the color is wonderful but, if you’re printing anything long you can grow a beard waiting for the whole thing to print. So, I needed a new laser printer and had been putting off investing in one for three years at least.
Last week I took the plunge and Saturday the thing came and in a hour I had it hooked up, on the network and running. I am soooo happy! Really! I can run envelopes through the thing, and it prints large and I splurged and got the one with a few paper trays so I don’t even have to be involved removing paper. After everything is said and done too the oddest thing about the whole experience is the new printer, a printer that prints 11 x 17, letter and a whole bunch of other sizes - a printer with a good deal of memory (although I am already thinking of getting a couple of more chips and putting them in with a hard drive too) - a real workhorse of an animal turns out to have cost me about $300 less than what I paid for my old Laserwriter which I picked up over a decade ago. Even though it was a much beloved piece of equipment, it had a tenth of the memory, a serial connection and the largest size it could print was legal (8.5 x 14). $300 less, imagine that!
If only they applied the same kind of price logic to the other things in life, I’d be living it up right now! Then again, you’ve got to take these things as they come so, I’ll just go off and enjoy my printer now thank you and count my blessings.
Dec 10, 2006
Dec 5, 2006
I see a trailer park in your future...
Also of note this past couple of days was the email I got from someone who shared with me the rather graphic photos of Brtiney Spears.
Personally, I’ve never been much of a fan of Britney’s. She operates on some other world as far as I’m concerned (same planet Madonna is on). Sure I can’t help but know who she is and can’t help but see when her picture is in the paper or on TV, there is no avoiding it but, as far as the daily goings on in her life... feh.
The other thing I’ve never really quite understood was the whole fascination with her looks. I never thought she was a very good looking women or at least I didn’t find her attractive - something about her face just struck me as odd, I can’t quite put a finger on exactly what it was, maybe her chin or something but, it just didn’t do anything for me on that level.
Same thing with Paris Hilton, it’s like... huh?
Her face kind of reminds me of a dogs. I’m not trying to be nasty even though it’s probably sounding that way but the proportions and relationships between the girls’ eyes, nose, chin and mouth somehow makes me thing of a Saluki or some other kind of hound.
Anyway, there was the front page of the paper last week that had me laughing:
Then, just a day or two later I get pictures emailed to me of Bitney getting out of a car without any underpants.
At first, I honestly thought it was somebody’s idea of a joke, some quick kind of Photoshop doctoring someone had put together, something done by a guy with way too much time on his hands. Imagine my surprise when I found out the photos were the real thing! My first response to the photos had been, “Ewwwwww!” followed by thinking what a crappy job of retouching. Then, when I realized it hadn’t been retouching, well suffice to say that was an even bigger ‘Ewwwww!’ moment.
Also of note this past couple of days was the email I got from someone who shared with me the rather graphic photos of Brtiney Spears.
Personally, I’ve never been much of a fan of Britney’s. She operates on some other world as far as I’m concerned (same planet Madonna is on). Sure I can’t help but know who she is and can’t help but see when her picture is in the paper or on TV, there is no avoiding it but, as far as the daily goings on in her life... feh.
The other thing I’ve never really quite understood was the whole fascination with her looks. I never thought she was a very good looking women or at least I didn’t find her attractive - something about her face just struck me as odd, I can’t quite put a finger on exactly what it was, maybe her chin or something but, it just didn’t do anything for me on that level.
Same thing with Paris Hilton, it’s like... huh?
Her face kind of reminds me of a dogs. I’m not trying to be nasty even though it’s probably sounding that way but the proportions and relationships between the girls’ eyes, nose, chin and mouth somehow makes me thing of a Saluki or some other kind of hound.
Anyway, there was the front page of the paper last week that had me laughing:
Then, just a day or two later I get pictures emailed to me of Bitney getting out of a car without any underpants.
At first, I honestly thought it was somebody’s idea of a joke, some quick kind of Photoshop doctoring someone had put together, something done by a guy with way too much time on his hands. Imagine my surprise when I found out the photos were the real thing! My first response to the photos had been, “Ewwwwww!” followed by thinking what a crappy job of retouching. Then, when I realized it hadn’t been retouching, well suffice to say that was an even bigger ‘Ewwwww!’ moment.
On people’s passing.
Over the last few weeks while I’ve been otherwise occupied some notable people have departed our mortal coil. In each instance I was inclined to write something to note the person’s passing but, stopped myself. Even the note about Ed Bradley a few weeks back was a slip of sorts.
It’s not that these people won’t be missed or don’t leave behind them something important in the way they affected the world around them. It’s not even so much a superstitious avoidance of the subject of death either. No, I actually saw a few people pass during the last year and so death has certainly reminded me of it’s powerful and inescapable grip.
Rather, I don’t want to spend time focusing on death itself. People die each and every day around us all - if I was so inclined I could probably just have the blog equivalent of an obit column and that isn’t what I want. The other thing is as I find myself at the middle portion of my journey (I hope) through the world, rather than fall into the trap which many do as they age, namely that of spending an inordinate amount of time looking back, glorifying the past, painting it in softer and rosy hues instead of embracing the future with a full heart full of eagerness and hope.
There is no such thing as the ‘Good Old Days.’ Those days are just days filtered through the barriers of memory with all the nasty bumps and scrapes edited out. The best days lie ahead of us and I want to believe they will be even better if we approach them with a hopeful outlook that is both positive and optimistic.
Over the last few weeks while I’ve been otherwise occupied some notable people have departed our mortal coil. In each instance I was inclined to write something to note the person’s passing but, stopped myself. Even the note about Ed Bradley a few weeks back was a slip of sorts.
It’s not that these people won’t be missed or don’t leave behind them something important in the way they affected the world around them. It’s not even so much a superstitious avoidance of the subject of death either. No, I actually saw a few people pass during the last year and so death has certainly reminded me of it’s powerful and inescapable grip.
Rather, I don’t want to spend time focusing on death itself. People die each and every day around us all - if I was so inclined I could probably just have the blog equivalent of an obit column and that isn’t what I want. The other thing is as I find myself at the middle portion of my journey (I hope) through the world, rather than fall into the trap which many do as they age, namely that of spending an inordinate amount of time looking back, glorifying the past, painting it in softer and rosy hues instead of embracing the future with a full heart full of eagerness and hope.
There is no such thing as the ‘Good Old Days.’ Those days are just days filtered through the barriers of memory with all the nasty bumps and scrapes edited out. The best days lie ahead of us and I want to believe they will be even better if we approach them with a hopeful outlook that is both positive and optimistic.
Dec 3, 2006
The great thing about the internet.
Is being able to read things sometimes so detached from themselves, you wind up having a physical reaction to them, they actually stir such a deep feeling within you. I read something the other week so dysfunctional, so out there but, it was a treatise masquerading under the guise of something else.
It comes from the same place all the religous fanatics who were their religion on their lapel and trot around with the sense of moral superiority, the place from where an oppressed minority can scream about never falling prey to bigoted behavior because of their experience and yet still embrace all the prejudices others can succumb to.
The particular passage has nothing to do with either of those topics but it resonates within me by echoing those same ironies mentioned above.
It moved me to look up a new word: Misandrist.
Maybe, I’m getting wiser though because rather than allow myself to become enmeshed in another’s stupidity, I’ve got my own things to deal with. I have to admit however to continually being amazed by the level of people’s self denial.
Is being able to read things sometimes so detached from themselves, you wind up having a physical reaction to them, they actually stir such a deep feeling within you. I read something the other week so dysfunctional, so out there but, it was a treatise masquerading under the guise of something else.
It comes from the same place all the religous fanatics who were their religion on their lapel and trot around with the sense of moral superiority, the place from where an oppressed minority can scream about never falling prey to bigoted behavior because of their experience and yet still embrace all the prejudices others can succumb to.
The particular passage has nothing to do with either of those topics but it resonates within me by echoing those same ironies mentioned above.
It moved me to look up a new word: Misandrist.
Maybe, I’m getting wiser though because rather than allow myself to become enmeshed in another’s stupidity, I’ve got my own things to deal with. I have to admit however to continually being amazed by the level of people’s self denial.
Nov 22, 2006
If you didn’t get the note...
It probably means I haven’t loaded your email address into the address book on Fat Man (I’m thinking of renaming the laptop Little Boy). I want to wish all my fellow countrymen a very Happy Thanksgiving! I’m looking forward to a wonderful meal, lots of catching up with family and then hiding while everyone goes into a frenzy the day after shopping until they drop!
Enjoy your holiday!
It probably means I haven’t loaded your email address into the address book on Fat Man (I’m thinking of renaming the laptop Little Boy). I want to wish all my fellow countrymen a very Happy Thanksgiving! I’m looking forward to a wonderful meal, lots of catching up with family and then hiding while everyone goes into a frenzy the day after shopping until they drop!
Enjoy your holiday!
Nov 20, 2006
Best news of the day
Well, I guess this means we’ll never know... (cough, cough, bulls**t!)
Makes you wonder after all this time if he wouldn’t have been better off confessing. Yeah, he won, he stayed out of jail but, he wasn’t and probably never will be forgiven. Interesting twist in a way as the crime will haunt him for the rest of his days. Thankfully and amazingly FOX has shown there are depths even they won’t sink to.
Well, I guess this means we’ll never know... (cough, cough, bulls**t!)
After a firestorm of criticism, News. Corp. said Monday that it has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and TV special “If I Did It.”
“I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project,” said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. “We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.”
Makes you wonder after all this time if he wouldn’t have been better off confessing. Yeah, he won, he stayed out of jail but, he wasn’t and probably never will be forgiven. Interesting twist in a way as the crime will haunt him for the rest of his days. Thankfully and amazingly FOX has shown there are depths even they won’t sink to.
Nov 19, 2006
If he did it?
They’ll be a lot of press over the coming days about the OJ book. I’m avoiding the book and the press - actually I’m a little annoyed. The whole thing isn’t newsworthy, the press should boycott it but, I guess that wouldn’t happen. The disingenuous title is jut the start of the audacity of this latest escapade. If he did it?
Well, if he did it, here’s what he left behind:
Now, I ask you - if it was your wife (ex or no) murdered in such a violent manner and you had suffered through the indignity of being tried for her murder even though you were completely innocent would you go on to write a book about the ways you might have carried out the crime? Well, I think we all know the answer to that one. Funny how he isn’t coming out and saying he’s doing it so he can continue to fund the search for his wife’s killer(s). If I remember correctly before the trial, OJ had set up a fund to find the murdered of the mother of his children. Seems like that pretty much went away after his trial concluded - funny how that worked. Yeah, I know he can’t be tried again for the murders but, you’d think they would get a bit creative and take the damnable book, go digging around and see if they could get him for something obscure like violating the victims’ civil rights - just spit-balling here.
I was looking at the sales by rankings on Amazon and the book came up which is what had me thinking about it. The thing I was interested in though was in the tags people had given the book - take a look for yourself:
They’ll be a lot of press over the coming days about the OJ book. I’m avoiding the book and the press - actually I’m a little annoyed. The whole thing isn’t newsworthy, the press should boycott it but, I guess that wouldn’t happen. The disingenuous title is jut the start of the audacity of this latest escapade. If he did it?
Now, I ask you - if it was your wife (ex or no) murdered in such a violent manner and you had suffered through the indignity of being tried for her murder even though you were completely innocent would you go on to write a book about the ways you might have carried out the crime? Well, I think we all know the answer to that one. Funny how he isn’t coming out and saying he’s doing it so he can continue to fund the search for his wife’s killer(s). If I remember correctly before the trial, OJ had set up a fund to find the murdered of the mother of his children. Seems like that pretty much went away after his trial concluded - funny how that worked. Yeah, I know he can’t be tried again for the murders but, you’d think they would get a bit creative and take the damnable book, go digging around and see if they could get him for something obscure like violating the victims’ civil rights - just spit-balling here.
I was looking at the sales by rankings on Amazon and the book came up which is what had me thinking about it. The thing I was interested in though was in the tags people had given the book - take a look for yourself:
boycott / shameful / disgusting / murderer / pathetic / repulsive / scum / guilty / sick / evil / liar / controversial / sociopath / boycott regan books / delusions of grandeur / domestic violence / horrible / killer / narcissistic personality disorder / revolting / tasteless / wife killer / a good guide / a new low for a revolting bottom feeder… / acquitted / amazing / amazon / amazon dont sell this / amazon should be ashamed / amazon should be embarrassed / amazon shouldnt sell / amazon shouldnt sell this book / america killer / anything for money / authors who ought to be in prison / be better than this - boycott this book / bezos will do anything for a buck-can yo… / blood money / blood stained pages / bloodstained trash / boycott book and tv show / boycott harpercollins / boycott it / butcher / cant be happier for him / chutzpah / confess / confession / contemptible / criminal / criminal psychopath / curious / depressing / despicable / dirtbag / discusting / disgrace / disgraceful / disgusting trash / disrespectful / disturbing / double jeopardy / earned his money the hard way / egregious / enterprising murderer / entrepreneurial / exhibitionism / exploitative / f ked up / fallen hero / fantastic / football legend / for shame / foul / free citizen / free speech / ginsu knife / go away oj / good coverup / goodby / gross miscarriage of justice / gutsy / hang him / harper collins / he did it / hilarious / how can amazon sell this / i am the only white person in america wh… / i did it by oj / i got away with murder / i love me some oj / i will stop shopping at amazon / immune from justice / inappropriate / incompetent prosecution / incredible / innocent / innovative / irony / jarodpranno / jaw-dropping / killers shouldnt profit / legal genius / low life / lowest from of life / make money / makes mockery of law / matricia berg / memoir / merde / murderers cant profit from their crimes / narcissist / next time kill kfed / ngger / no conscience / no one was paying attention to him / obscene / outrage / pig / poor children / poor taste / problems of the world / profiting from murder / regan books / remember nicole was almost decapitated / replusive / revolting stain of humanity / rifftrax / right to leave his kids an inheritance / rip nicole simpson / rip ronald goldman / rock bottom / sad / score / scum bucket / shame on amazon / shame on bezos / shameless / shameless father / simpson / simpson insect / sleaze / sleazebag / sleeze / slime shameful pathetic boycott / slimeball / somebody shoot him / subhuman garbage / tasteless-whos got the knife / thought process disorder / totally guilty / trash / true confession / unbelievable / vile / vile and revolting / vomit-inducing / what about the victims / what laws would amazon be breaking if th… / why do you think we care / why not sell porn too / wife beater / will oj sell knives next / work of art / worst seller hopefully / wwwdontpayojcom / wwwmyspacecomvi ncepalamara
Nov 16, 2006
Cum Cum Disease and you.
I have trouble even believing this. I laughed out loud when I read it then, I thought most guys would welcome such a malady and after that I thought I wanted to find such a women and help her with her illness.
I have trouble even believing this. I laughed out loud when I read it then, I thought most guys would welcome such a malady and after that I thought I wanted to find such a women and help her with her illness.
Growing numbers of Japanese women are afflicted with an illness that gives them orgasms virtually 24 hours a day. And with suggestions that it could be deadly, the women hardly know whether they're coming or going, according to Shukan Post (11/24).
“If a guy simply taps me on the shoulder, I just swoon. Even when I go to the toilet, my body reacts. I’m a little bit scared of myself,” one woman sufferer tells Shukan Post.
Nov 15, 2006
Just when you think you know all there is to know about something!
Today, as has been the practice over the last few weeks I had iTunes running and I decided to listen to Sgt. Peppers straight through. It’s still an amazing listen even after all this time, it stands up as one of the most spectacular albums of the last century. At the end is A Day in the Life, a song which I’ve loved for a long time now. When the Beatles released Sgt Peppers, I was just a kid so I can’t say it had much of an impact but, certainly it received lots of airplay over the next decade. A Day in the Life is unique because it did something a lot of rock music hadn’t done up to that point and it did it on such a grand scale.
Now the thing is with the internet youcan find all sorts of interesting things, things you’ve never seen perhaps or find out things you didn’t know and such is the case with A Day in the Life:
It had been prearranged for this session to be filmed by NEMS Enterprises for use in a planned television special. However, the film was never released in its entirety, although portions of it can be seen in the “A Day In The Life” promotional film, including shots of studio guests like Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Donovan, Pattie Boyd and Michael Nesmith.
Today, as has been the practice over the last few weeks I had iTunes running and I decided to listen to Sgt. Peppers straight through. It’s still an amazing listen even after all this time, it stands up as one of the most spectacular albums of the last century. At the end is A Day in the Life, a song which I’ve loved for a long time now. When the Beatles released Sgt Peppers, I was just a kid so I can’t say it had much of an impact but, certainly it received lots of airplay over the next decade. A Day in the Life is unique because it did something a lot of rock music hadn’t done up to that point and it did it on such a grand scale.
Now the thing is with the internet youcan find all sorts of interesting things, things you’ve never seen perhaps or find out things you didn’t know and such is the case with A Day in the Life:
Nov 12, 2006
Basking in the afterglow.
So, we’ve just passed through the glory of another election season which fortunately means an end to all sorts of nasty ads the American electorate is deluged with every time an election rolls around. Little did I know that there are several different levels of attack ad: heavy, middle and light. If you missed this recent episode of All Things Considered, you missed out on an interesting interview with some of the voices you may be surprisingly familiar with as Melissa Block spoke with two men who are known for their voice work on political campaign ads. Makes for interesting listening.
So, we’ve just passed through the glory of another election season which fortunately means an end to all sorts of nasty ads the American electorate is deluged with every time an election rolls around. Little did I know that there are several different levels of attack ad: heavy, middle and light. If you missed this recent episode of All Things Considered, you missed out on an interesting interview with some of the voices you may be surprisingly familiar with as Melissa Block spoke with two men who are known for their voice work on political campaign ads. Makes for interesting listening.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. He said he could put himself together again! But, after wasting thousands of our tax dollars... all the king’s horses and all the king’s men. He failed us! Humpty Dumpty, wrong on wall sitting!
Nov 11, 2006
Supporting the Union Man.
I grew up in a Union household which might strike some as strange I imagine given supposed political leanings. A big part of the whole cleanup process is sorting through things and figuring what needs to be tossed and what should be saved for posterity.
The EYOC was a Union big shot at one time. It was long ago, back when I was very young but, he was a pretty big deal. At one point he was in hiding because of a strike he called – if you can imagine something like that. Unions were never popular with a certain segment of the population, hell unions weren’t even popular with other unions when they called strikes and the members of other unions were obligated not to cross the picket line.
We forget about those days today I think.
Unions are painted in a negative light because of their sometime association with more notorious segments of the population but, even so Unions are responsible for a lot of good that happened in this country (a lot of which has gone away).
When we had the transit strike last year, the public wanted to hang the Union out to dry for going on strike but, nobody seemed to hold management in equally low regard for having negotiated in such bad faith. People forgot how the TA cried poverty at the end of one fiscal year, raised the fare, only to miraculously have a great surplus due to some magical bookkeeping (which was what the Union had been talking about all along). The TA played a game of brinksmanship forcing the Union to call a strike and at the end of the day the Union got the blame.
What I found ironic was how some of the professed liberal, democratic bloggers I read regularly railed against the transit workers when they were out on strike. Guess those principles are only good when you don’t find yourself inconvenienced?
Anyway, among all the flotsam and jetsam I continue to dig out from under I found a multitude of documents detailing negotiations with management and various docs with a certain historical significance. Now I’m just waiting to hear if the University I contacted wants them as part of their collection. It sure does make for some interesting reading though - you’d be surprised how little things have changed.
I grew up in a Union household which might strike some as strange I imagine given supposed political leanings. A big part of the whole cleanup process is sorting through things and figuring what needs to be tossed and what should be saved for posterity.
The EYOC was a Union big shot at one time. It was long ago, back when I was very young but, he was a pretty big deal. At one point he was in hiding because of a strike he called – if you can imagine something like that. Unions were never popular with a certain segment of the population, hell unions weren’t even popular with other unions when they called strikes and the members of other unions were obligated not to cross the picket line.
We forget about those days today I think.
Unions are painted in a negative light because of their sometime association with more notorious segments of the population but, even so Unions are responsible for a lot of good that happened in this country (a lot of which has gone away).
When we had the transit strike last year, the public wanted to hang the Union out to dry for going on strike but, nobody seemed to hold management in equally low regard for having negotiated in such bad faith. People forgot how the TA cried poverty at the end of one fiscal year, raised the fare, only to miraculously have a great surplus due to some magical bookkeeping (which was what the Union had been talking about all along). The TA played a game of brinksmanship forcing the Union to call a strike and at the end of the day the Union got the blame.
What I found ironic was how some of the professed liberal, democratic bloggers I read regularly railed against the transit workers when they were out on strike. Guess those principles are only good when you don’t find yourself inconvenienced?
Anyway, among all the flotsam and jetsam I continue to dig out from under I found a multitude of documents detailing negotiations with management and various docs with a certain historical significance. Now I’m just waiting to hear if the University I contacted wants them as part of their collection. It sure does make for some interesting reading though - you’d be surprised how little things have changed.
Nov 9, 2006
You can’t make stuff like this up:
A man was rushed to hospital in Britain with severe internal injuries after trying to launch a powerful firework from his bottom, an ambulance service spokesman said...He is now recovering in a Sunderland hospital after sustaining internal injuries including a scorched colon.
Just for fun.
Every once in awhile I’ll just play around a bit to stretch the muscles so to speak. Sometiems, I’m not exactly sure if that’s a good thing (Jack of all trades and the like). Still, I see today how much things have changed and continue in graphics and comics over the last decade or so. I find it amazing how rapid and complete that change has been.
Way back when, I managed to do a few coloring jobs for Marvel but, it was long before the advent of Photoshop even (I think at the time Letraset hadn’t even released Colorstudio). Just me, a bunch of xeroxed pages, Dr. Martin’s dyes and that was it. Even getting additional copies was a bit of a chore.
In the back of my mind I always think about doing comics again some day so, when I saw this illo up on Mike Wieringo's blog I thought I would play around some and see how it came out:
Every once in awhile I’ll just play around a bit to stretch the muscles so to speak. Sometiems, I’m not exactly sure if that’s a good thing (Jack of all trades and the like). Still, I see today how much things have changed and continue in graphics and comics over the last decade or so. I find it amazing how rapid and complete that change has been.
Way back when, I managed to do a few coloring jobs for Marvel but, it was long before the advent of Photoshop even (I think at the time Letraset hadn’t even released Colorstudio). Just me, a bunch of xeroxed pages, Dr. Martin’s dyes and that was it. Even getting additional copies was a bit of a chore.
In the back of my mind I always think about doing comics again some day so, when I saw this illo up on Mike Wieringo's blog I thought I would play around some and see how it came out:
What you say you want but, what you really choose.
I have always been amazed at the litany of complaints from some quarters in regard to the dearth of good men in the world. Do the ladies want good men? No! Good men are boring! They work, keep jobs, support their families... what’s interesting, exciting or sexy about that?
There always seems to be a constant parade on daytime TV of poor women being victimized by bad men. So much so, I think about half the current broadcast schedule would go away if bad men didn’t exist. Yes, it’s all about good women and bad choices (read men). Men who are dangerous, exciting, wild. Men who elicit passion in those of the fairer sex. Men who are fixer uppers, men with drinking problems, men who run from responsibility, bad boys, bad boys what you gonna do?
In another illustration of this, let’s just take the example of LOST shall we? Two handsome male leads on the show, Jack and Sawyer - the object of a great deal of female attention and in the press, much has been made of the love triangle between three leads Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Who would Kate decide on at the end of the day, who would she give her heart to?
Well, as of this writing, the show is in its third season, the Losties have been on an island for somewhere between two and three months and how does the old scorecard tally up?
Sawyer 2 • Jack 0
Ana Lucia threw herself at Sawyer last season and Kate finally made her decision in tonight’s episode for a cage match with the shady Sawyer. Meanwhile, intrepid Doctor Jack? Lots of flirting but, no payoff. Carlos Mencia did a bit about this recently too and I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right. Just curious is all.
I have always been amazed at the litany of complaints from some quarters in regard to the dearth of good men in the world. Do the ladies want good men? No! Good men are boring! They work, keep jobs, support their families... what’s interesting, exciting or sexy about that?
There always seems to be a constant parade on daytime TV of poor women being victimized by bad men. So much so, I think about half the current broadcast schedule would go away if bad men didn’t exist. Yes, it’s all about good women and bad choices (read men). Men who are dangerous, exciting, wild. Men who elicit passion in those of the fairer sex. Men who are fixer uppers, men with drinking problems, men who run from responsibility, bad boys, bad boys what you gonna do?
In another illustration of this, let’s just take the example of LOST shall we? Two handsome male leads on the show, Jack and Sawyer - the object of a great deal of female attention and in the press, much has been made of the love triangle between three leads Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Who would Kate decide on at the end of the day, who would she give her heart to?
Well, as of this writing, the show is in its third season, the Losties have been on an island for somewhere between two and three months and how does the old scorecard tally up?
Ana Lucia threw herself at Sawyer last season and Kate finally made her decision in tonight’s episode for a cage match with the shady Sawyer. Meanwhile, intrepid Doctor Jack? Lots of flirting but, no payoff. Carlos Mencia did a bit about this recently too and I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right. Just curious is all.
Nov 8, 2006
Laughable.
Perhaps the funniest moment in the whole post-election glad handing is this snippet appearing today:
What does this illustrate?
Basically what it comes down to is we shouldn’t point to global public opinion as a factor in determining who we vote for. While it’s nice to be popular among the nations of the world at the end of the day our government and our nation’s people should be motivated first about making our own nation a better place. Our foreign policy should never be dictated by the whims of other nations.
The global community is not beholden to US laws and restrictions and while the US may be painted out to be some lumbering and clumsy giant, the world could in fact be a lot worse off without a strong United States. Listening to government officials in China, Pakistan or France go on about how our government needs to desperately reform is more than a little ironic.
People who point to world public opinion are näive at best, and blind to the realities on the ground in many other places around the world. The fact there are people in other nations hemming and hawing about the results of the midterm election and how it will negatively affect their dealings with our country should only illustrate how we cannot be swayed by public opinion which isn’t motivated by our own best interest.
Like the man in the song sang, “You can’t please everyone so you’ve got to please yourself.”
Perhaps the funniest moment in the whole post-election glad handing is this snippet appearing today:
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told broadcaster TV2 he hoped that the president and the new Congress would find “common ground on questions about Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“The world needs a vigorous U.S.A.,” Fogh Rasmussen said.
Some also worried that Democrats, who have a reputation for being more protective of U.S. jobs going overseas, will make it harder to achieve a global free trade accord.
The accord, said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, “is very important for the future of trans-Atlantic relations.”
And in China, some feared the resurgence of the Democrats would increase tension over human rights and trade and labor issues. China’s surging economy has a massive trade surplus with the United States.
“The Democratic Party… will protect the interests of small and medium American enterprises and labor and that could produce an impact on China-U.S. trade relations,” Zhang Guoqing of the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in a report on Sina.com, a popular Chinese Internet portal.
What does this illustrate?
Basically what it comes down to is we shouldn’t point to global public opinion as a factor in determining who we vote for. While it’s nice to be popular among the nations of the world at the end of the day our government and our nation’s people should be motivated first about making our own nation a better place. Our foreign policy should never be dictated by the whims of other nations.
The global community is not beholden to US laws and restrictions and while the US may be painted out to be some lumbering and clumsy giant, the world could in fact be a lot worse off without a strong United States. Listening to government officials in China, Pakistan or France go on about how our government needs to desperately reform is more than a little ironic.
People who point to world public opinion are näive at best, and blind to the realities on the ground in many other places around the world. The fact there are people in other nations hemming and hawing about the results of the midterm election and how it will negatively affect their dealings with our country should only illustrate how we cannot be swayed by public opinion which isn’t motivated by our own best interest.
Like the man in the song sang, “You can’t please everyone so you’ve got to please yourself.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)