Happy New Year to everyone. Hope you have a safe and happy one. I am spending mine at home, but nothing new about that. I am not that big of a fan of the whole New Year’s ritual.
As for resolutions, last year I made two and actually followed through! One was to blog every day. I got up to speed on January 11th and only missed one day, March 11th. Otherwise I made at least one entry a day this year. The other was to lose weight, and I succeeded. No clue how much I lost, but I did lose.
So this year, I am going to build on my success of the past year:
* Be more serious in my blogging. Longer entries, more serious matters and more of a direction for the blog overall.
* Lose even more weight. I slacked off towards the end of the year due to sinus problems, but I plan on hitting it hard again.
* Work on getting the bulletin board some more traffic.
* Try to increase business for my original company while balancing the new one more.
I think that’s a good start, and I will just go from there.
Did the big upgrade today from WordPress 1.5.1.3 to Word Press 2.0. While this has no effect on what you see, it has a significant change to what I see on the back end in the actual management of the blog. If you ever have a desire to start up a blog of your own, I highly recommend WordPress! For those of you running older versions, do not fear the upgrade! The instructions are easy, and it only took about 5 minutes.
No no no no no no! There are some movies that are 100% perfect the first time. You (meaning any filmmaker) have nothing to add to it! Leave it alone! Would you remake Gone with the Wind? No! Would you remake Citizen Kane? No! Would you remake Breakin’ 2 – Electric Boogaloo? No! Leave the classics alone Hollywood! We don’t need to have every film remade, reenvisioned, remastered and special editioned!
On December 7th, Comedy Central aired the ninth season’s finale of South Park. The episode was entitled “Bloody Mary” and dealt with the dual themes of Alcoholics Anonymous and a statue of the Virgin Mary that was bleeding from the ass. Yes, it was the typical South Park oddness. Yes, it was gross. Yes, it was funny. And finally, yes, it was offensive.
Isn’t that what South Park is all about though? Has there ever been an episode that didn’t offend at least a few people? South Park is about irrevrance and flying in the face of established icons of society. They have taken on just about every icon you can think of from the goverment, to religion to terrorism, and Viacom, the parent company of Comedy Central, has always stood by them. Not this time.
After the December 7th airing of “Bloody Mary”, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights started complaining to Viacom about the episode for portraying the Virgin Mary and Pope Benedict XVI in such a manner. (The Virgin Mary statue shot blood on to the Pope) Last night, December 28th, Comedy Central was scheduled to show the episode again, but without explanation, the episode was replaced with a much older episode. When the press contacted Comedy Central for a comment, they did not respond. The Catholic League did get a response from Joseph A. Califano Jr., a member of Viacom’s board, who also happens to be a Roman Catholic. He was offended by the episode and promised to have Viacom president and CEO Tom Freston take a look at the episode.
Folks, let me make it clear, I am NOT attacking Catholics for being offended by this episode, or even their calling for the episode to be yanked. I believe they had every right to complain about this episode. What I am complaining about is Comedy Central/Viacom caving in to the complaints. Again, this is a case of political correctness rearing it’s ugly head. The most powerful vote a person has is their remote control. If you don’t like what is on, turn the channel! Why should anyone tell me what I can’t watch? I find lots of things offensive, but I just simply turn the channel and don’t worry about it. I don’t see any reason that my view of the world should be forced on to everyone else. Viacom should have told the Catholic League they appreciated their comments, but that is what the show is about and they would go their seperate ways.
The big question now is what will happen to the DVD release. The Catholic League called for the episode to not only not air again, but they also want the episode kept out of the season nine DVD set. Viacom pulled the episode, all screen caps have been removed from the South Park press site and from the South Park section of Comedy Central’s website. If they caved this much, will they do it on the DVDs also? An item that a person has to choose to pay for, choose to put in their DVD player and choose to push play? The idea that any group can dictate what I watch, even to the point of what I put in my personal player…it makes me sick. This is the United States of America, home of the free? Land of free speech? Well…only so long as someone doesn’t whine about it, then it’s Land of the Whiners.
Let me stress this again…if you don’t like what’s on, turn the channel on YOUR TV, not on mine.
First a friend of mine got hit, and then my mom just got hit….beware of WinFixer! It is a pain in the behind to get rid of! We ended up hiring a tech to come out to our office today, and $135 later, we are rid of WinFixer and another one that hit one of my employees called SpyAxe. A program I had not heard of called Spy Sweeper seems to have cleaned both out thankfully.
What sort of doofus comes up with these programs? What do they gain? Does anyone actually buy these “programs” they offer?
No one is in their offices.
There’s not enough days to really get anything of substance accomplished at work.
What you do get done feels insignificant.
Stupid week between Christmas and New Years!
BAH!
I love Christmas, I always have. It always feels like such a let down though when you get to December 25th. All that build up, shot in just one day. It always feels like it should last longer. I have one friend who takes down all her decorations on the morning of the 26th. By the evening, her house is Christmas free…annoys the heck out of me. Is her house though, so more power to her.
As a retailer, I very rarely get to actually enjoy Christmas. We are so busy in the build up that it is hard for us to enjoy it. So, several years ago my family made an odd decesion…we don’t take down the majority of our Christmas decorations. The trees stay up, as well as some of the garland. And I turn the little lights on all year long.
So, if you are ever in my house (unlikely), don’t be shocked if it’s July and you see a Christmas tree. We like Christmas and we keep it up.
Ok, could someone please tell me why time off from work is supposed to be fun? I am bored SENSELESS! After much whining by friends, I agreed to take off the 24th, 25th and 26th. I always take the 25th off, but I gave in on the other two. Will someone please end my agony? I’m serious, I am about to go out of my mind from boredom. There is only so much web surfing you can do, number of naps you can take and DVDs you can watch. I will try to make it through tomorrow, but I may go nuts.
I check this out every year, and it never gets old. NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), located inside Cheyenne Mountain, CO (yes, I said “INSIDE”), has one primary mission, protect the airspace over the USA. One day out of the year though, they turn their massive monitering ability over to tracking one lone object as it travels the skies of the world.
Starting at 12:01 AM, December 25th at the Internaional Date Line, NORAD tracks Santa Claus as he travels the globe on his annual mission of bring toys to all the good boys and girls of the world. Follow along on the radar, watch videos and look at pictures of his various stops through out the day.
You know, I thought I recaped episode 12, but I didn’t…oh well. It’s over now, the last two episodes were sleep inducing. The final two were Dawna and Bethenny. Dawna won. It reallyw as not recapping. I defended this show for a long time, but the last two episodes were just plain old awful!
I wish I had something, ANYTHING to talk about, but I am totally blank today. Darn holiday shopping season. All I do is work and sleep. I did find time tonight to watch Love Actually, a cute little British film with an amazing cast. Well worth checking out, and will probably be added to my annual Christmas movie list.
