Wasn’t sure where to put this, so when all else fails, “Anything Goes” seems a safe place;)

So first off I wake up feeling all depressed. Not sure why, might have had something to do with the wrong number at 6:30 AM. Who knows.

The warm weather has snapped and we are in the teens again

I go to do a bank run….my back left tire on my truck is flat. Great. Since I work only 300 feet from my house, I run over to the house and grab the SUV.

Get the bank run done, walk out….back left tire on the SUV is flat. How in the freakin world do I have the SAME tire on 2 different cars go flat on the same bleepin day!

Luckily a guy pulls into the bank parking lot who just happens to have an air compressor. He offers to let me air up so I can get to the gas station. Yay Midwest freindliness.

Get to the gas station, get to sit there for an hour while they figure out the tire is trashed from numerous slow leaks. Wonderful. I have them put on the spare and tell them to order me a new one. Nevermind I still need to get the tire on the truck looked at.

And to top it all off, I have had *ZERO* motivation today to get anything done here at work.

Can I just go back to bed now?

Another week, another product placemant! WHOOP! After last weeks non-product placemant challange….it just felt like there was something wrong with the world. Hooray for Sony Playsation stepping in with the challange to do street grafitti on a large wall in Harlem to promote Gran Turismo 4.

Yes, let’s drop a majority white crew of business folks with little to no street knowledge into the middle of Harlem and have them go nuts! Yes, they did hire professional street artists, but still…seemed like a stretch to me.

So, all that aside, how did the teams do? Well oddly enough Book Smarts seemed to be on the ball when they decided to ask street kids to give them suggestions for the painting. Good for them. This is who you are trying to reach, you should go to them for advice. I applaud them, which may be a first for Book Smarts. (Although the concept of using Bren as a model for ANY part of the design, though it was only his fist, seemed like it sent the cosmos off it’s axis)

So for the first time I have to tear Net Worth a REALLY large new hole! Tara took the lead as project manager. She kept going on and on how she “knew” Harlem so she was a natural for this project and she wanted to give Harlem something that would also add to it. All well and good, but you need to think of two things 1)You should really know the product you are trying to sell and 2)Giving back to the community is all nice and good, but does it get the point of the product across?

Tara only focused on one element of the game since she didn’t understand the product. The Gran Turismo series is all about fixing up your cars and racing through different enviroments, not just one. If you don’t undertand this principal, than point 2 is already doomed because you won’t be able to get point 1 across.

So when it came time for Net Worth to go to the Boardroom (yes, Net Worth lost in case you didn’t guess), the team seemed splut on who to blame. Should it be Tara for not understanding the project well enough…Audrey for being annoying and arguing with Craig and for knowing the game, but not sharing the info with Tara? What about John, who also was familiar with the game and did not share the info?

What you do is you split from your original plan of bringing Audrey and John because they “hid” their knowledge of the game, instead you bring Audrey and Craig, because Craig DARED to question you in the boardroom! So what does this show Trump and his cronies? That your personal axes over rides your business decesion making process.

Bye Bye Tara…you weren’t impressive.

Yahoo! News - Kan. Police Make Arrest in BTK Killings

Anyone who knows me knows that I am fascinated by serial killers. I don’t want to be one, don’t think they are great guys, I just find the psychology amazing.

BTK though…this guy doesn’t fit the traditional mold. He almost seems to have desired the public attention. From the above linked article:

Another letter to the newspaper also underscored BTK’s need for recognition.

“How about some name for me, its time: 7 down and many more to go,” it read in part. “I like the following. How about you? ‘THE B.T.K STRANGLER, ‘WICHITA STRANGLER’, ‘POETIC STRANGLER’, ‘THE BONDAGE STRANGER’ OR ‘PSYCHO’, ‘THE WICHITA HANGMAN’, ‘THE WICHITA EXECUTIONER,’ ‘THE GAROTE PHATHOM’, ‘THE ASPHYXIATER’.”

That is HIGHLY unusual. Typically serial killers may enjoy taunting the police, but looking for national attention? Highly odd.

If this does turn out to be him, I will be very interested in the studies done on him.

Weird, weird episode. Let’s see, we had Angie bowl over EVERYONE in the reward challange. Young, old, in-shape, out-of-shape…good for her. And it certainly got her head off the chopping block for the potential of boot out in this episode.

Koror found their flint, how I have no clue. After tons of effort though they got the box off the ocean floor, and hence, they now have fire.

With Ulong winning reward they got their flint and fishing equipment. So with Ulong now having fire AND food/protein you would think they would kick ass in the immunity challange. Oh my, oh my, oh my….couldn’t have been further from the truth of what happened. Where Ulong kicked Koror’s hiney from her until next week in the reward challange, Koror slaughtered Ulong for immunity.

So your tribe is going back for it’s second Tribal Council out of the first two episodes…never a good thing. It’s demoralizing, it makes your team work harder and it gets harder and harder to pull yourself out of this hole.

In the first week you always get rid of the bossy loud-mouth. (Well almost always, there was the very bizarre guy, Peter, in Marquesas who just freaked everyone out with his ramblings) You have to start looking for the weaklinks or the future threats.

This is always a tough decesion. If you get rid of the weak links you MIGHT stregthen your team. If you get rid of the popping up alliances, you make your postion in the tribe more secure. Decesions, decesions.

So this week you had the weaklinks of Ashlee, who appeared to be mentally giving up already or Kim, who did absolutely NOTHING during the immunity challange. (and was made even funnier by host Jeff Probst pointing that out repeatedly during the challange). Kim was a double danger though as she apparently has a mini-alliance forming with Jeff.

So your vote really comes down to a weakling or a weakling/alliance former, whom do you choose. Apparently you go with the weakling only, so long Ashlee.

This decesion made really no sense to me, but that is the land of Survivor for you.

My Mother and I purchased XM Radio for my Father for Christmas. At the same time I got myself the online account so I could at least listen to the music channels. All I can say is I love it. I must admit that I stay on Fungus 53, the Ska/Punk/Hardcore station 99% of the time, but man do I love it!

I am espicially addicted to the show on at 6 PM EST called “Hee Haw Hell”, a 1/2 hour of psycho billy, rockabilly and cow punk….how can you not love that? Today’s episode alone featured Dash Rip Rock, Hillbilly Cafe, Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper, Groovie Ghoulies, Demented Are Go, Nashville Pussy, Southern Culture On The Skids, Hot Stuff and The Cramps! COME ON! That is one solid 1/2 hour of rock!

So anyway, you can get a free 3 day trial if you want by heading here. Come on…it’s worth it just for Hee Haw Hell!:)

Yahoo! News - Firefox Reaches 25 Million Downloads

W00t! Firefox is over 25 million downloads! Just yesterday I uninstalled Netscape on all my machines. Mind you Netscape was my browser of choice since day 1 of being on the web. Sorry folks…Firefox has totally won me over.

Got our LLC papers for the new company today. Now, on to the business license, checking account, trademarking, manufacturing, shipping….yeesh…seems like forver until we get a product out!

The New York Times > Arts > Television > ‘Simpsons’ Animates Gay Nuptials, and a Debate

So The Simpsons talked about gay marriage….what is the problem here? As far as I can see, none. No matter how you view the subject of gay marriage, the issue was handled pretty deftly I thought. The episode ran with a parental advisory and I didn’t see anything in the episode that seemed that offensive.

Enter the Parents Television Council, those self-appointed watchdogs of all things television. These are the same folks who reportedly account for around 99% of all complaints to the FCC. They take offense at everything, but quite frankly I take offense at them. Check out the quote from the article at the top:

L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Parents Television Council, criticized “The Simpsons” for addressing the issue of gay marriage, though he cautioned that he had not seen the episode.

Hold the phone…he is complaining about something he had not even seen? Wow…that takes some mighty large brass ones. He goes on to say:

“I’d rather them not do it at all,” he added. “You’ve got a show watched by millions of children. Do children need to have gay marriage thrust in their faces as an issue? Why can’t we just entertain them?”

Um…again, you had not seen the episode. There WAS a parental advisory run before the episode and during all advertisments for the show that I personally saw.

The problem I have with groups like the PTC is that in their view NO ONE should see this material. They believe they are helping parents out so that they can let their child watch any show.

And there is a fatal flaw in this country today. No one wants to take responsibility for their children. They all want society as a whole to raise their child and they want to be troubled as little as possible. When I had my retail store open I constantly had parents drop their kids off at my store while they ran their errands. They would leave the kid at our place, give them no money and they would come back in an hour or two to get them. I was turned into a free babysitting service, which I never did appreciate. Why not take the kid with you? Why not teach them how to behave in public? Why not teach them not to run around? Oh that’s right…because it would inconvenience you. Silly me.

So now parents even expect the television their kids watch to be monitored by OTHER people. Here’s a radical idea, how about instead of sheltering your kids from all these “harmful” subjects, you instead have an honest to goodness sit down talk with them and answer any questions they may have on the subject? I know, again…silly me.

Hiding a child in the closet and shielding them from subjects does not work. It makes them more curious and more apt to try or experiment with the things they think are taboo to them. I will be blunt folks, I drank WAY more alcohol when I was under 21 than I did after I turned 21. I also started smoking when I was 16 and got up to almost 2 packs a day. (I quit several years ago) Both were things that were “taboo”, and that just made me more interested in them.

Folks, I don’t want to tell you how to raise your kids, that would make me no better than the PTC if I did. All I would hope is that maybe, just maybe, we could see a swing back to the actual parents taking back over the raising of their children. Then maybe I could watch The Simpsons without all the hoopla.

Jeff Gannon, Bush’s Barberini Faun - Independent Media TV

An excellent primer and commentary on the “Jeff Gannon” controversy of late.

I can not say how much this whole situation turns my stomach. How did he get through the security check? How did he even get anywhere near the WH?

And btw, my disgust has nothing to do with his sexuality, it has to do with how this taints journalism.

Wow, an episode of the Apprentice without a name barnd product tie-in? Was Trump not feeling well?

That being said, it was an interesting challange. Each team was given $5000, a blank mobile trailer and a trailer construction crew to come up with a mobile business. Between 8 & 4 the next day they could be open, and whichever team made the most money won.

Book Smarts went with a mobile massage/spa idea after Bren was made Project Manager. Overall a decent idea, but I had my doubts about it. Stephanie made a very valid point about the massage stands you see in malls never being used, but no one seemed to want to listen to her.

Street Smarts made Tana Project Manager, and went with a suggestion of Angie’s to make a mobile casting call. Huh? You want people to pay $25 to visit with a casting director? Um…..ok.

So, gotta say neither idea impressed me, but that’s life. What were the nit-picky things though? Bren was pretty lousy as PM, but most PMs do suck. His decesion to have his 3 marketing people drive from Manhatten to Queens to deliver burgers was idiotic. You couldn’t order a pizza? No Chinese? Nah…make people drive 30 - 45 minutes to deliver ya the food! And as per usual, Michael was useless. (Although it was worth it just to have Erin make her “Michael, Mommy’s talking” comment.)

While I didn’t like Street Smarts basic idea, they did seem to have little to no problems after the hiring of the casting director. And Angie’s inability to secure a casting director was just embaressing. I believe it was Audrey who finally pulled it off.

So come task day and you really couldn’t tell what was happening on either side except for…*shock* Michael being a whiner. When all was said and done though, Street Smarts won in a $981 to $918.50 victory. (I am still trying to figure out how Street Smarts did $981 when they were charging $25 each) Since they won they were sent to spend $20K on pearls as their reward. Good for them.

In the boardroom though, Bren brought Stephanie and Michael back in with him. Stephanie for being, in his opinion, a whiner, and Michael for being a slacker. Trump didn’t take long to end mine’s and everyone elses pain. Bye-bye Michael.

If this seems a little disjointed, it is. This episode just did not grab me for some reason. Not sure why.

Yes, I am a reality tv junkie. I admit it, get over it.

So last night we were treated to the start of the 10th edition of Survivor, Survivor:Palau. It amazes me that Mark Burnett can still find new ways to twist this game. Sure, we have had the “only the clothes on your back” start before in Survivor:Pearl Islands, but it is still fun to see how that throws the contestants.

The addition of the “Immunity for the first man and woman to get to shore” though was an excellent twist. When do you jump out of the boat? Do you show how anxious you are? Do you want to piss off your fellow players this early in the game? Within seconds of these people meeting each other, already they are in the game and making decesions that will possibly effect them for the full 39 days. Fantastic.

The second twist though didn’t play itself out until day 2. Why were there 20 Survivors as opposed to the old set ups of 16 or 18? (it had always been 16 up until Survivor:All Stars). Can’t you just picture the production meeting “We will make it like picking teams in grade school, except the last two left don’t get picked, they go home!” The Survivor production crew are some nasty, nasty people sometimes. Adios Wanda and Jonathan And by the way, the man/woman immunities from the beach ONLY guaranteed them staying through tribe pick. Ouch.

So, teams are picked, and they are informed they shall all live on one beach as opposed to the usual 2. Nice…let them play off each other psychologically. Nice and nasty. Off to reward/immunity challange all in one boat. “Hey, we are about to compete against each other, but we need to work together to get there.” Again, nice little mental twist.

During the combined challenge they were to grab items such as flint, food, water and tarps. Only the items they took with them could they win, and each item was weighted down. So the question came to be, do you slow yourself down with more items, or take less so you can move faster? Nice! Make them think strategically while panicked. Koror tribe took only flint for fire while Ulong tried to take everything except for the flint. Kinda easy to figure out who won this one.

Here was the interesting thing though, notice Koror took flint, Ulong took everything but the flint. If you think about it for half a second, they were expecting to share everything! They all were living on the same beach, one had taken fire, why did they both need to take it then. Silly, silly Survivors. They of course learned AFTER the challenge they were now living on different beaches. Since Koror had won they got to choose if they would go back to the old beach, with the pre-built shelter, or go to a new beach where they would have to build. They chose the new beach and were told to set off in their own outrigger boat. Ulong would return to the old beach in their own boat and head to tribal council that night.

Now comes two classic Survivor moments. Koror has their flint, they are heading to their new home all excited…good time to capsize your boat and lose your flint you worked so hard for. Oops. They can’t find it (although somehow the camera man did) so they now have no fire, no shelter and night is coming. Guess they aren’t as bright as they thought.

And over at Ulong it is time for the traditional “Pick who gets booted first” panic. Everyone thinks the easy target is Angie, because they say they need a strong tribe. As far as I could see, the only thing Angie was guilty of was having a lot of tattos. So Jolanda gathers the votes against Angie and sets about trying to set the rules of the tribe on work ethic and such.

Jolanda, Jolanda, Jolanda. Have you never watched Survivor before? Do you not know that setting yourself up as the vote gatherer and boss this early on is like writing your own ticket home? You silly, silly woman. In a total non-suprise, Jolanda is evicted by a vote of 5 to 3, we didn’t see vote #9.

Folks, if you are going to go on Survivor, do yourself a favor….learn from others mistakes.

All X-Box owners need to read this immediately! Go to Xbox.com, select your country and look for the large recall notice

SIN CITY

*drool* *slobber* must see

Figures.com - New York Toy Fair 2005 - Powered by PhotoPost

Not a huge fan of this site, but I do like seeing what is going on at Toy Fair. Back in my writing days I went to TF 1992 - 1998….I miss it.

If you are playing Halo 2 online, please remember something….teamwork. If you are playing Big Team Battle on Waterworks…cover the Wraith while it moves the boxes. It’s doing a job that helps everyone. Don’t run off while a Ghost is shooting it up….help it take out the Banshee…watch out for the rocket launchers…it is there doing a job…help it!

Gee….can you tell I got a bit pissed last night?

Huge thanks to MacManX and Kafkaesqui for their help in figuring out my calander problem:)

Well… Mambo is sweet, but it wasn’t working out for blogging like I hoped. So I am going to with WordPress for now.

I have to admit, I have allowed the innovations in the web get away from me a little. I haven’t dealt with PHP files or MySQL databases at all. I had to open up some PHP files for editing, and it was like looking at greek to me. I will get a handle on it though.

I do think I will use Mambo to redo the company website though. It’s awfully freakin powerful and looks like it will do everything I need it to do. Plus it has several different shopping carts built for it already. I also am taking this oppurtunity though to hire an old customer/friend from the early days of the retail store to do the intial dev work for us.

So much going on with the old company…redoing my personal site…with the new company…many sleepless nights to come I think.

Star Wars: Site Info | Survey

Give your feedback on what you want to see the official Star Wars website do in the post Ep III times.

Sorry folks, still busy trying to learn everything about Mambo!

Trying to learn Mambo…more later.