BEEFCAKE PIC STYLE!!!!!

Is It Reality, if it Features Professionals?

61 Days To go

Before this screwed-up year 2007 ends. I've had better. A nasty break up, money spent on an expensive apartment, fired from a job, car accident, a death of a co-worker on my birthday.


Yeah, I've had better years.

Bogus Stats

Ever watch "Fox and Friends"? It's one of the weirdest shows on cable. It's on the Fox News Channel, so it likes to pretend that it's a balanced news show, but really it's the Joe Franklin quality Today Show wannabee with a right wing bias.

I watch the show sometimes the same way one looks at a car accident. Anyway they highlighted one of these bogus polls, expressing shock that more Americans knew the ingredients to a Big Mac than they knew the ten commandments in the Bible.

Now why the shock? We are supposed to be a secular capitalist society, so on the face of that, it's not a shame. We are not putting religion before commerce. This is the same channel that talked about financial opportunities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Second, the ingredients in the Big Mac were part of a very successful ad campaign for the largest food corporation that ran for decades in a mantra like fashion. It involves a mere 15 words using modern language in a staccato style designed for easy memory. The Ten Commandments on the other hand was written well over two thousand years and was presented in at least two languages before being translated in English about 600 years ago. It is different depending on what denomination is being practiced. Some have the first 3 commandments devoted to God, others have the first 4. The commandment uses words like covet and consecrete that almost no one uses in normal every day conversation. They uses terms like Bear False Witness instead of lies. They refer to keeping the Sabbath instead of going to church or temple. Even the most devout church goer has probably heard the Big Mac commercial more times in his life.

You can read off the ingredients of the Big Mac three times in 30 seconds. Even that guy from the Fed Ex commercials from the 80's can't read the Ten Commandments in that short period of time.


Now, since this America and our laws are under the constitution. The fact that people don't know the Bill of Rights is a little disturbing. I wonder if fox would have the guts to compare whether people know more about the Constitution or the Ten Commandments. What woule their conclusion be?

Sigh, Heavy Sigh...

Well, my neck hurts more in the days following the car accident. I'm out a few hundred dollars until I find out what is up with the driver that hit me. My putt-putt mobile is shot. It was a giveaway car from my dad when he got a new one. I had gotten by in my years in Seattle without having a car. I never really wanted to own a car especially after the first Gulf War convinced me that the only way to not get screwed by the oil companies is to not drive at all.

But I moved back to Jersey to involve myself in a failed relationship, I knew in order to get by in the corrupt messed up state that is known as New Jersey, I needed a car.

It was an old car, even my dad got it cheap, when he totaled his previous car, but the little car that could more than fulfilled its promise. It was a good car. I don't think I'll find one that won't drain my patience as its replacement.

And to add insult to injury, I haven't been paid yet on my new job. I had to wait more than three weeks to see it in the first place, but it still hasn't reached my account. It's a considerable amount of money, so I really need it, especially if I were to move ahead in life.

I hate talking on the phone looking for someone to do me a favor, because I never know who to talk to, where to get information, and especially how to get compensated for someone else's negligence. I guess that's why I'm a loner...

Baseball Bummers...

Once I got over my sorrow over the Mets not getting in the playoffs, I was rooting for some hard luck teams to win some games,

didn't happen,

then I was looking for some good baseball series,

that didn't happen either.

My God, what a disappointing post season. Of the 7 series played, 5 of them were sweeps including the World Series. Only one series (Cleveland and Boston) went to the "do or die" Two teams that swept other teams got swept themselves later. The Yankees didn't even make it interesting.

So although I was kind of glad Boston won, I was really disappointed the Rockies didn't make it competitive.

The Last of The Scanmobile?

So I was in a car accident early today.

Very early today, around 4:15 in the morning.

I was on my way to work, my first day as a certified baggage handler at Newark Airport.

I have spent the last month training for the job. It's a long commute but one I have done successfully every day until today.

I was less than ten minutes from work when WHAM! I was hit from behind from a car. In the five or so seconds I was doing a 360 on the Garden State Parkway, I felt my life flashing, my heart racing, my eyes seeing the car that hit me tumble off the road. When I regained control of the car, (I actually had the ability to let the car do whatever it would do) I was on the left side of the highway. I was three lanes over on the right when I got hit.


I got out of my car, the door was jammed, yelled out to people I knew wouldn't hear me "Motherf*****!!!!! You're lucky I'm Okay!!!!!!"

After I put my flashers on, I walked back on the left highway shoulder towards where the car skidded off the road on the right side. I called 911, but saw no one moving out of the other car. I grew concerned but was able to give a precise location where the car was. I was asked what kind of a car hit me, but couldn't tell because the car was across the highway in the shadows of bushes and trees. The police arrived a few minutes later and after about ten minutes I saw two people coming out. The ambulance finally came soon after. There was about four state trooper cars but not one person came to talk to me.

Finally, one came over to me but only asked me for license, registration, and insurance. He asked me what lane I was in, I said the second from the right, my lane of choice, and the police said the people in the other car said they were in the middle lane.

There in lies the problem.

It was four lanes, to be in the middle one, one would have to be halfway in the second lane and halfway in the third lane.

Anyway, when the police told me to move my car I knew I needed a tow truck.

Damn! Even if I get compensated by the other driver, it still meant much dinero disappearing form my pocket at a time when I really can't spare it. I have been sucked dry by my move back east, my inability to get a good graphic design job, and the abandonment of a lease by an uncaring roommate.

I'm trying to figure out the lesson in this, I guess it's simple...


...Be thankful to walk away from a crash when someone hits you going 80 miles an hour.

World Series, Yeah I'll Watch It.

Okay, I have been really busy with my two jobs, and avoiding baseball after the Mets collapsed. If I had the time, I would have given my favorite teams of this post season. By the time I was ready, two of my top three favorites were swept out of it.

The 8 post season teams were in this order:

1. Chicago Cubs
2. Cleveland Indians
3. Philadelphia Phillies
4. Colorado Rockies
5. Boston Red Sox
6. The Whatever Angels
7. Arizona Diamondbacks
8. New York Yankees

It's consistent with my list of teams I wrote in a previous blog.

So, the World Series consist of the middle teams on my list. So I'm not getting the dream series of the Indians and Cubs, which would have had two of the most hard luck teams facing each other. At least it wouldn't be a near repeat of the debacle of the 2003 World Series between the Yankees and Marlins or a repeat match of the 2001 World Series between the D-Backs and Yankees. In 2003, we were close to having the Red Sox facing the Cubs, it would have been sweet.

Anyway, I have always liked the Red Sox. I rooted against them only in the 86 World Series. They have fun players, especially Manny Ramirez, a classic baseball flake with talent. When they beat the Yankees after being down 0-3 in the 2004 AL Champ series, it was my favorite baseball series not involving the Mets. So if they win I'll be happy. They will be the first team in the 21st century to win two titles, and as a Yankee hater, that is sweet.

However, the Rockies are an intriging stroy. They had a amazing run to end the season. They had to win pretty much every game the last two weeks of the season to force a one game playoff, which they did. In 1993 when the MLB expanded by two teams, I liked the Rockies more than the Florida Marlins from day one. They had the better uniforms, the better logo and better fans. They played their first year at Mile High Stadium and set the record for most fans ever at nearly 4.5 million. They added seats to their new stadium to deal with that success. They were selling out most games and signing some great players but a problem arose over the fact they played at high altitudes. They started losing more than they won. Much of the games involved runs in double digits. Many top lined pitchers didn't want to play there for what it would do to their ERA.

Anyway the Rockies started to store baseballs in their humidor to weigh down the baseball a little, and since then the Rockies have done well.

Game one is on now, the Red Sox are winning.

Let's go team!

Third Time's the Charge

Anyway, for me this has been the year of ruining electronic devices by means of submersion in water.

The first time happened at work. I was listening to my ipod, a gift I got for Christmas in 2005. I listened to it on a converted platform I made from a gift ipod holding lamp thingy I got a year later. I took the lamp part of it off because the lamp made it tacky and too tall to use it for amplification. Since the platform was not really made for an ipod, I had to be careful when I fast forwarded songs. One day in April, I pressed a button and it fell into the bleach water. What bothered me was the bucket was in the wrong place, a place I never liked to keep it. I pulled it out right away but it was too late. It was broken. I felt guilty because it was a present. Two months later the guilt was gone, because the sentiment of the gift seemed false.

The second thing I broke was a little over a week ago. At 6 in the morning right before I left for work, I dropped my cell phone into the toilet. Same situation, I grabbed it within a second but it was too late. I tried to revive it, but I made the mistake of trying to make it work too fast, so after two plus years, a phone that wouldn't make a call to Hawaii or Ireland, heck the phone wouldn't work in my new apartment was shot and needed to be replaced. So far the new phone is working fine in my new apartment, so I was fortunate.

Anyway, I went to do laundry at my parents lat week. I had ipod, a gift for my dad from his work at UPS that he gave me that I used at UPS to try to make work almost tolerable, in my pants pocket. I forgot I had it in there and freaked out that the ipod went through a load of laundry. It would have gone through the dryer if I hadn't seen the head phones dangling. The ipod had been protected by a cover but this time I knew, I should leave the ipod alone. I knew not to touch it. I left it off, saw telltale signs of water getting in the device. I turned it on today after four days.

It works.

yay.

I can watch my one episode of Weeds.

Some Words...

I haven't said anything about the baseball post season for awhile. I really haven't had time, I've been really busy. I just want to be on record I am looking forward to a World Series between the Rockies and the Indians. The Indians haven't won since 1948, and the Rockies haven't won in their history which goes back to 1993, but they have suffered through some very lean years.

It's a great story, the Rockies. They have won 19 of their last 20 games going back to the end of the regular season. They had to win 13 of their last 14 to even get to a point to have a one game playoff for the right to play in post season. If they won only 12 of the last 14 it would have been close but no cigar, with no one talking about them right now.

As far as the Indians, I will probably root for them when they play the Rockies. If the Red Sox get in the World Series, I'll be a bit torn. I like the Red Sox, but they won recently in 2004. However as a Yankee hater, I love the idea that the Red Sox would have two World Series under their belt since the last time the Yankees won.

Where's My MotherF***in' Iced Tea?! or The Year of The Choke.

So, I'm finally facing up to the truth. Starting tomorrow, the baseball playoffs start and I am thankful for the next few weeks I am going to be too busy at my three jobs to whine about how the Mets aren't in it.

As the title suggests, the MLB season was the "Year of The Choke" Yes, the Mets were the biggest story of the season in regards to choking, historically so, the third worst choke (In my estimation) in MLB history. But they weren't the only team. There were a minimum of 4 teams that had the opportunity to be in the playoffs, it was theirs for the taking, only to have it blown away.

The Milwaukee Brewers jumped out to an incredible lead in the early part of the season. They had an 8.5 game lead in late June but went on a tailspin soon after and fell behind a Cubs team that made an incredible comeback. The Brewers hung in there but faded in late September. It could have been worse, but I don't think the fans are going to be just happy to have a winning record for the first time in more than a decade. The Brewers were hoping to become this years version of the 2006 Tigers. They choked away the large lead but it was early enough not to be as painful as the Mets.

The Detroit Tigers looked strong enough to repeat as American League champions, they were holding their own in a tough division. It looked like that the American League wild card was going to come from the central, but a surge from the eventual champs, the Indians combined with the massive surge from the Yankees, kept the Tigers from a second consecutive playoff appearance. They were in control of the Wild card while battling for Central Division supremacy. Another team who choked took over, giving the Tigers fits until the Yankees took over and won the wild card. This choke wasn't too bad, but when you are close on two fronts that's no consolation.

The Seattle Mariners were no one's pick for a playoff appearance. I resented that, but they had some of their best pitchers leaving for free agency and the one they signed were mediocre at best. They have had three losing seasons in a row and only an optimist would hope for a better than .500 record. And that's just what they were doing. They finished April 10-10. It was a weird April at that, being snowed out completely early on and having to make up those games intermittently throughout the season. Then they went on a post All Star climb that had people noticing but dismissing. They were streaky throughout the year but all of a sudden they were three games in front of the Wild card race and only one game out of the American League west behind the Angels. They were winning with smoke and mirrors with timely hitting and great relief pitching. They were poised to play a three game series with the Angels at Safeco, A sweep would put them in first place. A sweep happened alright but it was the Angels doing it and the Mariners went on an 8 game losing streak that had them fall out of the wild card race by September in a free fall that would not be matched until the end of the month by the Mets.

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I'm not ready to talk about it yet.....