Lack of updates this week...

Yeah, I don't know where the time went..all I know is I had about 40 meetings this week, and was barely at my pc. So no updates, might do one this afternoon if I don't have anymore meetings.

Random Ninja Video

I laughed, so I posted...

Drive Thru Police Brutality...Cops can't count

I supposed some of you may have seen this before. I hadn't. I'm not sure whats more funny, the girls obvious displeasure for police officers or the police officers idicy..I'm going with the latter.

20 bucks is worth???

from Digg

For the love of money they say. How much would you do for 20 bucks. Seems this man was willing to go pretty far.

Man Plummets 50 Feet to Grab Missing $20

Mark Giorgio figured a 50-foot fall was worth $20. Giorgio, 47, was counting his money Monday while walking across the U.S. 41 bridge over the Manatee River when a $20 bill blew out of his hand and flew over the rail.

He followed. And plummeted 50 feet into the river.

$20!!! Man, maybe I need to be really poor to understand this. Although I have witnessed a twentysomething frantically chase a $20 bill around Union Station Metro on a windy day. He knows who he is. If only I had a video camera that day.

Voiceover Guys..

From digg

This was created for some crappy fake award show. It's somewhat funny, especially the happy ass disney guy.

You can take that contract and...

I'm sure you can finish the rest. This is mainly in reference to the contracts proffered by ridiculous cell phone companies. I pretty much have refused to honor their contracts under any circumstances. 2 Year?...HA! In your dreams if you think I make it to month 18. I remember years ago when there was a push to have phones without contracts, but then the cell companies countered by offering the cheapest prices and new innovations like "FREE NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS" and "CALLER ID". Ah when things were much simpler. Basically you signed a contract so you could get a the phone for a cheaper price and a larger amount of minutes per month, and I could at least live with a one year contract.

However, at some point cell companies wanted to push us a bit farther, for "ADDED SAVINGS" by making us commit to 2 year contracts. Now any self respecting tech person knows the amount of changes cell phones go through in a 2 year period. Something new comes out every 6-8 months and you probably want it or some variation of it (Unless you are McCoy and you wait like 3 years to change phones to the point where your current phone doesn't actually ring anymore) . Either way...asking someone to commit to 2 years of anything is usually not possible. Especially not something as transient as a cell phone. So I end up breaking contracts. They try to scare me with their "Early Termination Fees" or whatever, I call bullshit. I see you your $175 fee and laugh. Not because I am rich, but because peace of mind is worth more. For example. I currently have a pocket pc style phone, with high speed internet access and a full QWERTY keyboard. I previously owned a Sidekick II and wanted to upgrade to something more professional. Unfortunately, after 2 months of using the phone, I decided I hated using it for phone calls, and wanted to try something else. I happened to be at the mall yesterday with "girlfriend" and went into the Verizon store to see if there was a way to cancel the phone service on my phone while keeping the data services. The busied customer service rep initially said no, and that he wasn't sure. I didn't feel like waiting, so I left. There was another Verizon kiosk in the mall, and I queried this customer service person the same. Different answer (Lesson learned yesterday between mine and "girlfriends" experiences, if there are two stores for a cell phone company in one place they will undoubtedly give you two different answer to your questions...Asinine) this guy says he knows it can be done, but not sure how. Sigh.

After that mall experience I went to a different mall later in the day, and picked up the Motorola PEBL, from T-Mobile. Easy experience, no problems. My thinking was that I would get that for voice and hopefully scale the voice plan out of my Verizon phone, figuring they had to have some kind of Zero minute plan. Alas, I found out this morning my thinking was incorrect (because, I of course, think logically. unfortunately anyone who answers the phone at Verizon does not). The customer service person's only suggestion was to cancel my current plan, pay $175 early termination fee, then re sign up to get a Data only plan. Not only would I lose my phone number I'd also be out 175 bucks just to keep the same phone. Bullshit I say. I ate the cancellation fee, and transferred my old number to my new T-mobile phone. Goodbye again, Verizon, hopefully for the last time....bastards.

Take your contract and shove it up your ass.

Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums...

Just a quick post...interesting to read. Well at least it was to me since I loosely own some of the albums on this list (7 of the top 15 to be exact)

Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums

6) What's Going On

"In 1969 or 1970, I began to re-evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say," Gaye once said about the creation of What's Going On. "I was very much affected by letters my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situation here at home. I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world." The last thing Motown wanted its fans to think about, however, was "what was happening in the world." So with Gaye determined to shatter the label's hugely successful pop formula and address issues such as the Vietnam War, civil rights and the environment, Motown founder Berry Gordy was not pleased, to say the least. He claimed that "What's Going On" was the worst song he had ever heard.

As for "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," Gordy asserted that he didn't even know what the word ecology meant. For his part, Gaye said he would never record for Motown again unless "What's Going On" was put out as a single. After initially being rejected by Motown's quality-control committee, it was; when it became a Top Five hit, the album -- and a burst of socially conscious music from Motown -- followed soon after.

Producing the album amid a haze of marijuana smoke, Gaye made one intuitively brilliant decision after another -- from letting the tapes roll as his friends mingled and chatted to recording the rehearsal exercises of saxophonist Eli Fountain. When Fountain complained that he had just been goofing around, Gaye replied, "Well, you goof exquisitely. Thank you." And that's how the plaintive saxophone line that announces What's Going On came to be.

Total album sales: 1 million

Peak chart position: 6

Status Report

Just a quick update on me and my thoughts, not that any of you give a damn, but this is my blog so I'll put whatever I want to on here.

Last Night: Ray's the classics restaurant in Downtown Silver Spring. The food was outstanding, I had a battle with a 30oz rib eye, and lost easily. The appetizers were great, the sides, dessert was amazing (and I never eat dessert ever). I recommend anyone who likes good food, should be there immediately, and it doesn't have that shitty 10% DC tax like the other good restaurants.

Today: Currently listening to Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor, in a time where hip hop and rap music in general is awful, this is like a breath of fresh air. The album is really good, and not about snapping your fingers or drugs, or crime or anything like that. If you have a relatively open mind give it a shot. It's also not super ego pretentious like Kanye West.

Wednesday: worked from home because I had a tech come out to "fix" my 50in LCD tv...he did no actual fixing...he typed into his computer for a while, called some people and then said I needed a new bulb and he had to order it. Mind you I told the people on the phone it needed a new bulb, they could have ordered it then...but whatever. Might get fixed today. Although I did realize that me working at home is no different from me being in the office, so I will try to take advantage of that more often.

Future Work: Man I have no idea about this job, it's not particularly challenging, but it pays well, and will probably pay for me to go back to school. Which leads to..

Future School: I had been under the thinking that I would get an undergrad degree in Information Systems Management...take the classes on line and then thing about a masters program. However, after a conversation with mom the other day, it's looking more like an MBA is the way to go. I don't know...if I can get some kind of financial assistance or scholarships I just might do that.

Back to Last Night: watched the 2nd episode of The Wire Season 4, which if you read McCoy's blog you would already know that it is the best show on television. In either case the episodes get better and better and HBO's idea of showing the episodes 6 days early for people with On Demand cable service was pure genius. I used to have to pick between sunday night football and the Wire...not anymore.

Weekend: Ah, who knows...my tv is all dim and shit so I have no desire to watch any HD football goodness on it. Unless it gets fixed I won't be watching anything on it. No plans in particular, however everything leads up to sunday at 8pm...where my pathetic Cowboys take on the Skins in a Week 2 Must win to survive in the NFC East game. At least it's at home, but I have no faith in them anymore, such a horrible quarterback that Drew Bledsoe is. Oh well.

G.H.E.T.T.O.

Simple title, simpler story.

Me and "girlfriend" ...actually before I get into the story I need to come up with some kind of way of mentioning my girlfriend without actually saying her name. I'd copy Arlene with her "the boy" references, but that doesn't actually seem to fit me. I think I will use "girlfriend" with the quotation marks around it until I figure something better out.

Ok, so rewind, "Girlfriend" has just moved into a new apartment in VA (Virginia sucks ass) and needed some more stuff for the apartment. Mind you we had already gone to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond (to be referenced as BBB from now on) the day after she moved, but last week she seemed to need some more stuff from BBB. In her typical indecisive fashion she only bought 1 of the things she went for, even though everything she was looking for was in the store, but I digress...the point of this story is in the checkout line. We got rung up at the customer service counter, because for some reason at BBB you need 3 people to work customer service, but only one on the actual registers. While waiting for the cashier to enter in some coupon, I glanced over to the other Customer Service People to see what they were doing. As one of them bent down to pick something up, her shirt lifted up, exposing her lower back...and there it was. A tattoo.

Now I know plenty has been written and said about the significance of a lower back tattoo on a female i.e. target practice, and/or questionable sexual history. But this one had a more concrete and unmistakable meaning. Her tattoo read "G.H.E.T.T.O." spelled out just like that in some type of gothic font. I don't think I've seen a more questionable tattoo that was just one word. It was like a stroke of brilliance on her part. I'm sure she asked herself "What tattoo can I get that explains me in one word? And what location should I put it in for maximum impact" and thus the word "ghetto" on her back was born.

"Girlfriend" noticed the tattoo as well and as we are walking out of the store we both pretty much had the same reaction "Well I think that summed up everything we need to know about that person without having spoken to her once". I questioned whether or not I should mention that she was Black/African American/whatever...I figure most of you would make that assumption anyway. Maybe I'm being to judgmental but at this point I don't care, whatever person decides that's something that needs to be on her body in that place, probably has little to nothing in common with me other than skin color. Whatever.

Black people make me sad some times.

Sigh...

Some Parking Game

This held my attention for a few minutes today...

Parking Game

Thanks Jordan(NY)

9/11..

CNN.com is running a blurb at the top of their page about them airing the original broadcasts from 9/11 online for free this Monday. In real time starting at 8:30am. I am unsure how I feel about this...granted it happened 5 years ago, but still I have vivid memories of the occurrences of the day. I still remember all the details of the day and days after.

Any mention of 9/11 reminds me of my father. He worked in the World Trade Center from the mid 1980's til around 1995. As you should know the World Trade Center had been bombed once before in 1994. Not nearly the same scale as 9/11 but at the time it was unheard of. He worked on the 33rd floor at that time, and at the last minute he decided to go to a meeting in another part of Manhattan instead of staying in the building. I was in middle school at the time and I remember being rushed to the front office after the bombing so my mother could contact me and then waiting for some kind of contact from my dad...wasn't the most fun of days.

So you say, why the hell is he writing all of this about his dad, I don't really care. On 9/11 four planes took off that would be involved in the bombings, one coming from Newark Airport. As it turns out my father was flying to Houston that morning for work from Newark Airport at the same time as Flight 93, the flight that ended up crashing in Pennsylvania. His flight took off at 8:51, Flight 93 took off at 8:42.

Maybe it's me making too much of things, or whatever. But I know exactly how I felt at the time, finding out my father was flying out of Newark that day after the towers had been hit and the plane had crashed in the field...and not being able to contact him to figure out if he was ok or whatever. As much as I've been desensitized to everything you can count me out of watching any rebroadcast of that day. 5 years or 50 years, I have no desire to open that back up.

P.S.: I will try to fight the urge to write about the state of America in those past 5 years since 9/11, but I won't make any guarantees.

Lewis Black

I think Lewis Black is funny, some people don't. Whatever. Here's a clip of one of his performances. It's 20 minutes long so don't say I didn't warn you.

More Burning Questions...

1. Why does it get harder and harder to stay in contact with certain friends and not others, and how is this even possible with all the technology present?

2. The process that goes into greenlighting movies, and who pulls the final trigger? Like I want names and addresses for each studio.

3. Why am I still working for someone else?

4. What's so wrong with me wanting to wake up on sundays at 10am and watch football talk or actual football until midnight?

5. Why do they have to ruin college with all those silly ass classes?

6. Why aren't there any working ATMs in the working class section of Alexandria, VA on Mount Vernon Rd.?

7. Why on earth did I sign up for myspace?

-Fin

Donkey Sports, Inc.

from Deadspin

I'm not sure if I need to do much explaining here, as the picture should say it all.

The company will also provide::

• Referee and game ball.
• Clean, well-cared for donkeys.
• Valid livestock health certificates.
• Easy to understand game organization information.
• Shoes that will not mark any floor.
• IMMEDIATE euthanasia to avoid any potential Barbaro situation.

Original Link

Donkey Sports Inc. Site

P.S. Rowe sent me this link.

Today...

Today is one of those days where I'd much rather just sit in Starbucks with my laptop and watch people walk by. It's raining, and just generally crappy out...This makes me long for the days in college when I either didn't have class, or didn't go and hung out with Jordan (not wigdor) and just watched people and shit.

Instead, I'm stuck in my soul less little office, with no windows, just with the knowledge that it's crappy outside and I'm trapped here until at least 3pm.

Maybe I will write a long blog about something today, or maybe I will close my door and listen to music 'til 3pm..who knows. All I know is I don't want to be here.