Why didn't I write this book

This was sorely needed: a book and web site outlining the rules behind calling shotgun.

As I thought, I have been right all along.

Maybe if it was Wendy's

Story about a couple that was charged over $4,000 for 4 Burger King burgers.

Well at least they got their meals for free.

Assholes in charge

Wondering what the Republican Party is - listen to Congressman Tom Tancredo, son of an Italian immigrant, who recently said illegal aliens are "A Scourge That Threatens The Very Future of Our Nation". Now I have a list of things that threaten the future of our country and illegal aliens didn't make it. Top it off by the fact that his family just got off the boat here - he's not only a bigot but a hypocrite.

This country has too many assholes in office - that is what ruins the very future of our country.

STOP DANCING OR I'LL SHOOT!

Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Dhani Jones was arrested today for....refusing to stop dancing - outside a club.

There's your taking a bite out of crime.

Reminder

To date 105 people have died worldwide of the Avian Flu - over 29 million have died just in Sub-Saharan Africa of AIDS.

Priorities.

Top 10 favorite songs

Back to music for a bit. I figured I would take a whack at putting together my top 10 favorite songs. Not an easy feat mind you but here are the rules - only one song per artist. Also, If I don't listen to it anymore, it cannot be on this list. Here we go:

1. "Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands" - XO - Elliott Smith - My favorite Elliott Smith songs seem to master the slow burn. This is where the song starts with maybe Elliott on acoustic for 75% of the song and all of sudden here comes the band. Love this. Can also be heard on "Shooting Star" from the CD From a Basement on the Hill or "Can't Make a Sound" from Figure 8


2. "All Over Now" - I'm with Stupid - Aimee Mann - This is the 3rd act in what I think is the best 3 song set I've heard. Songs 1 and 2 are "Superball" and "Amateur" and producer Jon Brion expertly ties it all together by slipping lines from "All Over Now" into "Superball" and then the chorus of "Superball" into the end of "All Over Now". So subtle you might miss it and when you hear it - brilliant.


3. "Figment" - Resigned - Michael Penn - Picking a song from the brilliant album Resigned is near impossible but this song stands out for its beauty and for the sheer brilliance of the words: all of them. This is one of those songs that you can read over and over again and find different meaning each time. So many of Penn's songs are poetry. What Penn has mastered is also making the poetry sing.


4. "Until the End of the World" - Achtung Baby - U2 - OK, I didn't know the religious meaning of this song until recently but still - this song is simply one of the best rock songs ever made. Every part of the band is at their best here.


5. "Four Seasons in One Day" - Woodface - Crowded House - Such a sobering song. Once I sat down and really listened to the words of this song it hit me so hard I nearly cried. The beauty of this song is that it doesn't make it's statement with a brick like many sad songs do.


6. "Last Goodbye" - Grace - Jeff Buckley - This song swoops and dives and is one of those songs that is orchestrated to the point of putting you in the subject's place.  Of course with a break-up song, most of us have been there.


7. "Life is Sweet/Afterlife" - Life is Sweet - Maria Mckee - This song is actually two songs - and is probably the only feel good song on this list.  The thing with feel good songs is that they can be trite or sugary sweet.  This song is real.


8. "There, There (The Boney King of Nowhere)" - Hail to the Thief - Radiohead - Can't believe that my favorite Radiohead song is from Hail to the Thief - a great cd, but no OK Computer.  But this song is classic Radiohead - not trippy, great lyrics, and layered.


9. "Polaroids" - Fat City - Shawn Colvin -Never mind that I consider Colvin, Michael Penn, and Neil Finn to be the best songwriters alive,  I once said that I would marry Shawn Colvin based on her voice alone.  This is a song that showcases it. 


10. "Paper Bag"- When the Pawn... - Fiona Apple - Paper Bag is such a simple song, but Apple is a genre bending artist that is more than just a pop star - she's a songstress that could have fit in in the 40's. 

Here's my top 10 iMix on iTunes

Disclaimer - all of these songs are on my computer and I'm sure I missed some things that just haven't ripped. REM seems to be missing as are Prince, the Police, and Peter Gabriel. I also had to fight against the urge to include Driving Me Mad by Neil Finn, but since he was Crowded House, it seemed to be against the rules.

My coffeeshop

It's kind of lame, and I'm not sure exactly the purpose, but I've started another blog to kind of be the repository of my coffee shop ideas.  I want to own a coffee shop but don't have a plan on paper nor the money.  So I'll start saving and writing.

Here's my new blog:  A Caffeinated World

Brad Pitt

From last week's Bradley vs. Pittsburgh Game

Look at the team names Read it out loud. Thanks to Grace for noticing this...

What Constitution?

Yesterday I was watching some local news - you know for entertainment. The story was about some New Jersey town enacting a law to limit where registered sex offenders can live (registered makes it sound so legal). It appears that every town in New Jersey is enacting this type of law - it's a domino effect where each city doesn't want to be the defacto sex offender city. So all of these people will end up in the few places that don't enact this type of law. The reporter asked a councilwoman about this and the fact that they may end up in Camden or Philadelphia and through the biggest smile ever she said "that's not our problem".

First off I'm not supporting these criminals - I do however support this pesky little thing we call The Constitution. Since when do we allow low brow, paranoid, suburbanites to disregard the Constitution (not coming out against all suburbanites)? I know we want to protect children - but shipping sex offenders off to poor cities isn't the answer, it's just avoiding the problem. These same people will soon be complaining about the taxes going to the poor in these same cities.

It is amazing how the rights that many have died for are constantly being eroded in the name of law and order.

NO MORE CRUISE!

I know I'm a little late - but now I'm on board - no more Tom Cruise for me. The boycott has started. Now that's a little like swearing off a nail in the head, but he has gotten my money in the past - no more. If last year wasn't enough - this year he's forced Isaac Hayes off of South Park. One day the drugs are going to wear off and Katie is going to have a hell of a story. Of course she's got a little thetan in her, but I digress...

So apparently someone is running an ad against the grand master, or whatever cruise calls himself. Actually the ad is against scientology and paid for by their foes. WOO HOO - Scientology has foes? Oh yeah - non-insane people.

Why pay for Tom Cruise movies when his real life is much more entertaining?

24 Prediction

There have been rumors that eventually 24 will shift focus at some season to a different set of characters and a different location - somewhere outside of LA. I think last night we may have seen that transition begin. The characters Theo and Collete will be back as major characters at some point - mark my word. With all the deaths of major characters this year - now seems to be the time to make a drastic change. I don't think we'll lose Kiefer - I just think the focus will change a bit.

BTW - Curtis Watch extends for another episode. He must be feeling a bit like South Park's Kenny at this point.

Must pee TV

I kid you not, the following is the the plotline for tonight's ER on TV Guide.

Dr. Weaver contemplates hip-replacement surgery after she finds it hard to do her labor-intensive job; Dr. Kovac tries to ease Abby's fears about raising a child together.

Wow. I'll be waiting with baited breath for this one. ER bravely going where others fear to tread - hip replacement surgery. Hmm - watch ER or talk to grandma about her hip replacement for a half hour? Net - 30 minutes saved talking to grandma.

Wear your gas mask to work day

Folks - they're dropping like flies on 24. So far this season we've lost President Palmer and Michelle. In the past two weeks Edgar, Tony, and Lynn. And poor Curtis keeps getting the Final Destination treatment.

Also - hasn't 24 been eighties-tastic this year? On top of Kiefer we've had the mom from Poltergeist (Jobeth Williams), Robocop (Peter Weller), and best of all Soul Man (C. Thomas Howell).

Also you'd think with the stellar security history of CTU that there would be a gas mask on every desk in that place.

All this and Kim is still alive?

What to do with Chef?

What should Matt Stone and Trey Parker do with Chef now that Issac Hayes is leaving South Park?
	Replace him with a painfully white guy
	Kill him off once a week
	Mr. T needs a job!
	He moves to Spain and marries Tom Cruise
	Tell Jack Bauer he is withholding vital info and let nature take its course
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Singer Isaac Hayes quits "South Park" - good riddance

Singer Isaac Hayes is quitting "South Park" and I have to say this is the most hypocritical thing I've heard in awhile. Hayes had no problem with SP blasting religions until his was the target. So all these years he took the money and fame that came his way due to his involvement with the show and turned a blind eye, took the money, and ran.

Another thing - I know people are serious about their religion, but this is what he has problem with enough to quit? Not naked Ben Afleck in Cartman's bed? Not Scott Tetterman must die? Not anal sex between Saddaam Hussein and Satan?

You talk about a screwed up set of priorities. I say good riddance.

Caller ID on Macintosh

I have to HIGHLY recommend the program Silica for mac users that have caller id and a mac with a modem (not all do these days). Silica is simple - it provides an on screen display for any call coming in along with details it finds from your address book (picture and name) right on your monitor and that's all it does. No more running to find the phone to see if you want to answer it. The installation is easy because there really isn't one - just download it and start the program running. It's also very customizable, allowing you to change position of the window, the color, and various timing options.

Couple of notes - You need OS X although if you're not using OS X why don't you put OS 9 and your abacus away. Second, some of the current macs (all of them?) don't come with modems - although there is a USB modem available made by Apple. Finally - you need to have Caller ID from your phone service (had to say it - someone would think this adds it).

If you use your computer a lot, Silica is really helpful.

What do I think about NBC?

I've grown a facsination with the service YouTube. Those that read this blog probably know this already. Well part of what Youtube allows someone like me to do is to find content that I want to see without searching a million websites and without worry that it won't run on my mac.

This past weekend Saturday Night Live ran a great digital short that was essentially a Natalie Portman rap video. It was up for a little on Youtube and then taken down due to copyright infringement. Apparently NBC says that users can go to the NBC.com site to view the video. This is true as long as you're on Windows - their videos don't run on anything but Explorer Windows.

What makes this such a bad decision is that they call this the "viral video of the week" - without truly understanding what viral marketing is. If you truly release something virally, it works best when it can be distributed freely. That way it reaches more people. As it stands now the only way to access this video is to go to NBC.com. Problem is who would? Doesn't NBC suck outside of The Office and My Name is Earl? If you asked anyone on Sunday morning if they saw SNL last night, they probably would say no; why? Because it sucks. So all that said, wouldn't it make sense to put a popular video in as many places as possible? Wouldn't people see it and say "Hmm, maybe SNL doesn't suck anymore." Don't you think they reaped the benefits of the Lazy Sunday video being passed all around the internet?

This is the problem with the media conglomerates of today - they want to take advantage of today's users, but are unwilling to do it on terms that todays users will agree to. There are a ton of funny videos out there being provided by people who get it.

If I can't view yours, I can move onto another.

The Slogan Generator

This is fun - especially if you put your name in the search box.

The Slogan Generator

My favorites: "All Spencer, All the Time.", "Yo Quiero Spencer.", "What Would You Do For A Spencer?"

An old but funny video

My friend Grace sent this to me many years ago when I was having women troubles. She sent it to me tonight (two years and without women troubles - thanks Kristen).

It made me laugh then - and makes me laugh now.

In the news

Alrighty - so I missed a few things over the past few days...

Domino's Owner Thomas Monoghan is creating his own town in Southwest Florida where abortion wouldn't be legal, where contraceptives wouldn't be available, and porn - well you get the point. This town will be called Ave Maria and apparently the law of the country doesn't apply to people that live there. A man's money trumps the constitution in this country.

Both Mississippi and South Dakota will apparently be attempting to outlaw abortion in their states. In South Dakota the law has no exceptions. This is all to force a Roe v. Wade fight to the Supreme Court stocked with Bush appointees. Since the Republicans don't like the constitution - it's their aim to change it. Sure Bush being President cant be too harmful.

And finally RIP to Don Knots, Dennis Weaver, and most importantly Herm Ludwig.

Maybe Brownie did do a good job

Everyone should watch the following video and pass it on to their friends.



(Here's a link to watch this video on YouTube if the above doesn't work)

It's amazing that the White House tonight has said not to read too much into this video. It seems impossible not to. Michael Brown tells President Bush that this is "the big one", he's worried about the Superdome as shelter, and the National Hurricane Center says they're worried about the levees; but in the days after the devistation was realized, George Bush said otherwise.

Watch the video.