Shameless advertising and Tofurkey

It's lunch break today, and I just took a survey at MySurvey. MySurvey is a great website that allows you to make money just by answering a few questions about your buying habits and preferences. Gosh, MySurvey is just plain fun!

Hooray for commissions. For $1.50, I will be a slave to the man. (And seriously... you do make a little money by taking the surveys and some times it's fun.)

On another note, I just realized that thanks to "Tofurkey" and Boca burgers, by tomorrow afternoon I will have gone three and a half days and the only meat I've eaten is a few strips of beef in a stir-fry I made. I wasn't even trying to go meatless... That is without question, the longest I've ever gone eating that little meat. Now lets load up on real turkey tomorrow!!!

Sears, grand?

If you haven't heard already, Kmart and Sears are merging to create the 3rd largest retailing giant, behind only WalMart and Home Depot.

Kmart's former boss, Eddie Lampert, was a major holder of Sears stock. He's now in charge of both as a combined "Sears Holdings" operation.

Will they....

A. Compete with Wal-Mart and give retailers in America a run for their money, through the use of brand combination (Martha Stewart AND Kenmore, Joe Boxer AND Craftsman?)
B. Reduce Kmart to a historical vestige (a.k.a Kresge, Dayton-Hudson, Woolworth's) and push the development of a new concept Sears Grand to replace and rejuvenate Kmart locations across the country?
C. Sell, sell, sell prime real-estate that is worth more than store-by-store sales, until there's nothing left, then lay everyone off while Lampert flips open his golden parachute and uses the money he makes for his next big adventure.

Or a combination of two or all of these choices?

I lean towards a combo of B & C, likely headed towards C, with Lampert not being quite that evil. He did do good things with struggling AutoZone, and after all, it's hard to out-evil WalMart. But, my personal feelings about the evil empire of retailing will be for another post.

Leaves......

I raked one large bag of leaves yesterday, which brings us to about 12 bags this season. However, a giant maple in our neighbors' back yard still has nearly all its leaves! Argh. (It's a great shade tree though, can't complain.)

Arrested Development last night was awesome - the best comedy on television. I had to tape American Dreams, so I can watch it tonight.

Tiff and I watched "Spirited Away" which is a Japanese film classic. It was actually quite good. I am not normally a fan of animated film, but this one was extremely creative. If you can get past the first 10 minutes or so, which are pretty dull, the movie pays off.

Friday night, Netflix sent us our DVD for "Super Size Me" which is another outstanding movie. If you are thinking about eating healthier or you're sick of commercialism, this is an awesome movie. I don't know if I can ever eat fast food again, and that fact makes me feel GREAT. McDonald's must have loved this film....

Michael Powell

Did your local ABC affiliate decide not to air Saving Private Ryan last night? Turns out WTAE in Pittsburgh is one of the nearby affiliates that aired Far and Away instead. Good Veteran's Day choice - that didn't insult the sacrifices millions of men and women have made to protect American freedom at all. Michael Powell of the FCC, who has prompted this nervousness with the whole "Booby-gate" issue is a clueless knee-jerk reactionary. (Kind of a redundant set of words, don't you think?) As a result, this. With Bush 2.0, more "oops - didn't realize my shortsightedness would cause this mess" is sure to follow.

I watched the garbage that is Survivor last night. Taped The OC. (No - didn't watch our local affiliate's Saving Private Ryan... After my tirade above, I have to say, I've already seen it and I am intimately familiar with the D-Day invasion due to my bizzare obsession with all things World War II.) Tiffany and I have gotten hooked on a little show on the Food Network called "Good Eats", hosted by Alton Brown. We haven't made anything yet from it, but it's a more educational show about cooking in general, than it is a "how-to".

Have a good weekend!

Construction workers

For the record, I have a lot of respect for construction workers. They're working on a building right outside my office, and this guy is just standing on one beam, looking up at another beam that a crane is bringing in. The beam is swinging pretty good in the wind and he's just trying to reach out and grab it to put it in place for the welder. It's about 40 degrees out.

I hope they do an awesome job on the new part of that building.

We caught yesterday's Gilmore Girls on tape last night, and then I stayed downstairs to watch Lost. Gilmore Girls is firing on all cylinders this season - it's like the characters were all sleeping through last season and they all just woke up. They pushed bit characters like Paris, Jackson, and Kirk back to the background again. Hooray! I think Paris and Kirk are hilarious, but they're not main characters.

Speaking of figuring out who are main characters and who aren't - Lost. Is someone going to die already? My bet is Claire. (Safe bet, she's not in the credits...) Sawyer, or whatever his name is, still creeps me out, even though they tried to humanize him a little bit. They're running out of characters to flesh out, so I think the story's going to change a little here, sooner than later. I'm excited, and I will be tuned in. You can count on it.

a good night's sleep

I actually slept last night for nine hours. I fell asleep at 9, woke up briefly to shuffle upstairs to fall asleep in a proper bed, and then didn't wake up until 6am. I really needed a good night's sleep.

John Ashcroft is done and over. Hooray! Don't let the door hit you on the way out... John will be remembered by all as the man who did the most to break down freedom in America and impose big government more and more on the daily lives of citizens everywhere. Don't believe me. Why not take the time to actually read the USA PATRIOT act while you still have the right to? (Yes - USA PATRIOT is actually an acronym, not a name... You can bet someone is really proud of that load of horses**t...)

You may suggest that Ashcroft's replacement may be worse, and I grant that possibility. But, I think I'd actually have to see it to believe it. Ashcroft's incompetence will be hard to top. So far, the biggest complement I've heard from anyone was that he was "steadfast". Ooh... To me, that sounds more like "too stupid or too scared to admit when one is wrong". And for goodness sakes, he covered the breast of a statue. That's juvenile at best. What a dope. I'm sure he was very steadfast in his resolve on that issue.

FOX News

Late post today, stuff came up at work that ran me right through lunch, so I didn't have much time.

Have you ever actually watched FOX News? If I were an outsider coming to America for the first time, I'd think that everyone hated each other in this country and that there is a right answer to everything and a wrong answer to everything.

It doesn't matter what you're political persuasion is, FOX News is Rupert Murdoch making sure you stick around for the advertisements and keep making him loads of money. It's free-market capitalism at its best, and news at its worst. It's a good thing that people have enough free will to turn off this drivel.

The world isn't black or white, and neither should the news be. Try listening to NPR if you want to get different sides to a viewpoint and then truly decide for yourself. Otherwise, if you want to give up your right as an American to think for yourself, sit in front of that tube all day with Bill (Falafel) O'Reilly and I hope you can live with yourself, sucker...

a short post

Watch Arrested Development on FOX. Sunday nights - 8:30pm for now, although they'll likely move it before the season is over. If you're watching something else (for instance, the incomparable American Dreams on NBC) at the same time, tape it. Arrested Development is the funniest sitcom on television since the Simpsons or Seinfeld in their respective heydays. (I personally think it's even funnier, but I'm trying to be polite.)

Oops

Sorry! I think I accidentally deleted an anonymous post from someone who I used to know in Oil City, PA. (I posted my most recent post twice, and deleted the first one without even checking for comments, then I saw that there were comments from a cached copy I had.)

Thanks, and to my anonymous poster, nothing personal!

How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?

Go to The Daily Mirror and download their front page from the day after the election. I wonder how many people realize how stupid we look to the rest of the world right now...

Work has been keeping me really busy. I've been spending a lot of time working on some things for one of the departments I support, but I have some ideas on how to improve it for next year that I think will work out nicely. I have to say that even the most annoying people here that I have to support are really not annoying at all. It's been over a year working at this place, and I am seriously happy that I made the decision to come here.

Tiff and I got our elliptical delivered today and it fits in our basement. Just. Anyone under 5'8" can use it without hitting their head on the floor joists in the ceiling. I think it will get me to work out more... I'm hoping. Tiffany did all the grunt work building it. (I helped with a couple of pieces.) She never lets me build anything, but I don't really mind!

I taped the O.C. season premier to watch Survivor. I'm about ready to give up on Survivor, except the fact that two strong characters that are still in it are lesbians. It got me thinking about how it was such big news that Ellen came out on her show in 1997, and now we've progressed far enough that it's becoming more and more accepted by mainstream America. If Bush 2.0 actually gets an amendment passed banning gay marriage, it's going to ensure his place in the history books as a grasping, slow-to-change idealogue.... just like Ronald Reagan. Strike that. I think maybe Laura just needs to smack him around some more to get some sense into him.

T -1460 days and counting

I'm going to keep posting to get into the habit, even though I haven't finished the format or even moved this over to be my main page yet.

Only 1460 days until we put a Democrat in the White House. A lot can happen between now and then. Right now we have a Supreme Court that is still independent and moderate enough to keep our run amok radical congress and president from doing too much damage. I'm still holding out hope that Bush 2.0 will listen to his wife/kids and reason and moderate a little bit. (The other part of me hopes he will get even worse and thus, ensure his legacy as the most incomptent "leader" this country has ever seen.) Bush 2.0 had a record of moderation in Texas. But, then again, moderation in Texas is only ordering the 32oz porterhouse.

Are you watching Lost on ABC? It's a pretty slick show with a lot of compelling characters. My favorites are Locke - (I admire someone who keeps everyone guessing...) and Sayyid. (And if I were going to crash on a 'deserted' island, the women company that survived could be a lot harder on the eyes than this!) Last night's episode wasn't so hot, the moth analogy was a bit tired. But, Locke sees stuff in that kind of black and white, simple way. It fit.

A first post

It's the day after Bush 2.0 was elected. (Tech-geeks - 'fraid it was a mistake. Bush 2.0 is still an early beta judging by the first run... Talk about a buggy presidency!)

I guess I started a blog to channel a little of my aggression until the race for 2008 begins. I heard a fascinating report on NPR that talked about the 2004 race being as important for the Internet as 1960's Kennedy/Nixon battle was for television. Who knows, in 4 years, this might actually be a blog that lots of people read...

Anyway, there'll be more updates to this I think than my old website, since I actually put in a blogging system rather than doing it the old-fashioned way. I'll work on updating the look and feel more to my liking and bring back some of the old links and stuff that I used to have.

Thanks for stopping in!