Presidential Address - 2/24/09

I'm not sure I've ever had so much national pride as I did when this speech was over.

Finally, someone stood on that podium and stated the words 'climate change'.

Finally, someone was brutally honest enough to say that there was no easy way out of this recession. It's going to take a long time and a lot of hard work. Working in an employee owned company I've started working harder to ensure my future and I really hope the trend catches on.

Here's my take on a couple of points from tonight's speech:
-Renewable Energy: What he said was great but not nearly specific enough for me. I would have liked to seen more of a plan laid out. I also hope these contracts are doled out resposibly as this opens up the door for a ton of corruption.
-Education: One year of national service to ensure you will have an affordable education? Love it.
-The Wars: This was the first Presidential address I've seen in 7 years that didn't lead with the war. I'm glad he didn't spend lots of time on this because I think we all know where he stands on both Iraq and Afghanistan. I suppose it's too early in the administration to hear any real specific plans on these conflicts.
-Auto Industry: I really hope Obama's push for more reliable renewable energy translates to the auto industry somehow. Everybody keeps blaming the EPA for keeping technology down. What a bunch of shit. Lazy asses... It wasn't that long ago that the best selling car in this country was the Ford Taurus. What the hell happened? The cars got ugly and even more unreliable (and over priced). My Ford truck has 160,000 miles and has only cost me about $2,000 in unplanned maintenance in the 6+ years I've had it. I feel really lucky but this should actually be normal. It probably is for Honda owners.
-Credit: I turned to my roommates when he was saying that banks needed to lend again and said if a bank would give me a loan I could afford a house. Then it struck me that I can't get a loan because of outstanding debts. Wow, financial institutions making irresponsible loans. I guess I'm as guilty as anyone else.
-The deficit: I think this was my favorite part of the entire speech. It's time for everybody to open up the books and start cutting fat. From our federal government to my company to my own household. 2 trillion dollars cut in 10 years? I bet they can find way more than that.

So my company is due for our own little 'State of the Union' address in a week or so. I really hope the higher ups were as inspired as I was by this speech and come to us with a plan. I'm so damn sick of everyone saying 'Oh, we just need to get through this' or 'I have no idea how we're going to get through this' (speaking of the recession). Work harder, cut the fat, show some initiative and just shut the fuck up about it! Mostly, have a plan. Everyone should have a plan.

Stereotypes

I get most of my news from the homepage on Comcast on my way to check my email so please bear with me.

I saw the headline 'Woman Fails Driving Test 775 Times' and I thought to myself 'there's no way it could be an Asian, that's just way to funny'. Yeah, well, guess what. Asian Lady.

I'm often guilty of believing stereotypes. I'd be flat out lying if I told you I always wait to know a person before I judge them.

fun pics free.com-Funny Pics and Crazy Pictures

Is buying into stereotypes tantamount to racism? I'll be honest, I don't trust people with mullets or cornrows (let alone cornrow mullets if such a beast exists). Name one stand up person that has either one of these hairstyles. MacGuyver? Allen Iverson? Wear a pink popped collar shirt to a bar with sunglasses on your head at night? You're a douche.

You can't help but judge people immediately based on looks. Why do you think people dress up for interviews and court? Stereotypes.

Gonna drink Captain till I die so my Mom can be Rich

It's stories like this that really piss me off:

http://http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-finance/20090218/Florida.Smokers/

Go ahead. Blame Marlboro for making you a chain smoker. Blame McDonalds for making you a fatass. I hate these fucking people!!!!! Own up to your shit!

Somehow the jury decided this guy was 58% responsible for his habit. How the hell they figured that out is beyond me. Truth is, he was 100% responsible for his horrible habit. Yeah, horrible. I hate smoking but I hate companies getting blamed for shit like this even more.

I think I'll sue Seagrams because I'm not a rocket scientist. It's not because I was too lazy to finish my engineering degree, it must have been the rum.

Movies - Overrated/Underrated

While I'm walking the dog my mind tends to wander. I mean, it's just me, the dog and nature. Today I started thinking about movies that sucked and it turns out some of these movies were pretty highly touted. Conversely, some are very much under appreciated. Here is my list:

Overrated:
Titanic-
God I fucking hate Titanic (the James Cameron version). The sad thing is I've always liked Dicaprio's acting but I think that this movie is actually his worst. 10 years later the special effects don't even hold up. Drawn out piece of shit. Also highest grossing movie ever. You get like one topless moment and it's not even that great.

Underrated:
The Patriot-
This to me was Mel Gibson's attempt at an American Braveheart. The movie kicks ass the whole way through with the exception of Heath Ledger's character being a little bitch (makes up for it in Dark Knight). It's a little unrealistic but then again there aren't allot of Revolutionary War movies out there.

Overrated:
There's Something About Mary-
When this movie came out and for a couple years afterwards it was hyped up as the funniest movie of the decade. The entire f'n decade! Are you kidding me!?! The movie has some mildly average moments at best. One scene that people still talk about. That's it. I don't even know any quotes from the movie except 'frank and beans'. The sad thing is I'm a Stiller fan. Which will become evident, now.

Underrated:
Zoolander-
To me this is one of the funniest movies of all time. Hilarious from start to finish. Very, very quotable. Stiller is fantastic, Owen Wilson is tolerable and Will Ferrel is probably in his funniest role ever as the twisted fashion designer Mugato. 'I'm getting the black lung Pop',' You can deri lick my balls capitain','It's a walk off'. Classic.

One more gripe: How the hell did Saving Private Ryan not win best picture in '98? How!?!

Technology will save us all

I think the only thing that will pull us out of this recession is innovation. That's why I'm glad there's this:

NASCAR

So on the morning of the biggest event of the season for NASCAR I feel I need to defend my decision to actually watch and enjoy this event.

Flash back to 1999. I used to watch the NASCAR highlights just for the wrecks. 'Bunch of dumbass hillbillies ridin around in circles' I would say. Then a friend of mine drug me to a race, kicking and screaming the whole way. That morning we woke up at 3 am to start our trek to Dover which was only about an hour away. It took about 3 hours to get there. Once we pulled in the lot we started drinking. Yeah, do the math, it was about 6 in the morning. I was bs'ing with some people next to me and I'm all like 'Yeah this is my first race'. They swore I would be hooked. I didn't believe them.

I had watched parts of the Daytona 500 that year and I saw a rookie driver kicking ass so I figured I should get a shirt or something so I would fit in. I walked to the merchandise trailers and got a Tony Stewart shirt (who I pull for to this day) then we made our way into the stands.

The fly by during the national anthem was cool but it couldn't prepare me for what was about to happen. 43 cars w/ 800+ horsepower each pulled up slowly to the starting line and then the green flag dropped. It was unbelievable. They roared by like freakin thunder or something.

Needless to say I was now hooked on NASCAR.

Since then I've been to about 20 races. Here's what the best part of the 'sport' is: In all of these races there are about 100,000 fans (sometimes more). Everybody's drunk. Everybody's rooting for different drivers. Guess how many fights I've seen considering these numbers. None. Not even one brawl. Try going to an NFL game and let me know how many fights are in your section alone. These are the greatest fans I've ever been around. Run out of charcoal? That's ok. Just ask your tailgating neighbor. Even if they are Gordon fans...

So mock it if you will. Laugh at me for my redneckishness. But I dare you to give the experience a shot one time. You might, begrudgingly, have fun.

This shit is sad

I saw this on craiglslist and it gets to me everytime.

A Letter from a Shelter Manager

I think our society needs a huge "Wake-up" call. As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all...a view from the inside if you will.

First off, all of you breeders/sellers should be made to work in the "back" of an animal shelter for just one day. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don't even know. That puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it's not a cute little puppy anymore. So how would you feel if you knew that there's about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at? Purebred or not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are "owner surrenders" or "strays", that come into my shelter are purebred dogs.

The most common excuses I hear are; "We are moving and we can't take our dog (or cat)." Really? Where are you moving too that doesn't allow pets? Or they say "The dog got bigger than we thought it would". How big did you think a German Shepherd would get? "We don't have time for her". Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs! "She's tearing up our yard". How about making her a part of your family? They always tell me "We just don't want to have to stress about finding a place for her we know she'll get adopted, she's a good dog". Odds are your pet won't get adopted & how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you, your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn't full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. If it sniffles, it dies. Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in that day to take him/her for a walk. If I don't, your pet won't get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the "Bully" breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don't get adopted. It doesn't matter how 'sweet' or 'well behaved' they are. If your dog doesn't get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn't full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed it may get a stay of execution, but not for long . Most dogs get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just don't have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.

Here's a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being "put-down". First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk happy, wagging their tails. Until they get to "The Room", every one of them freaks out and puts on the brakes when we get to the door. It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, it's strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet techs depending on the size and how freaked out they are. Then a euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They will find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the "pink stuff". Hopefully your pet doesn't panic from being restrained and jerk. I've seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all don't just "go to sleep", sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves. When it all ends, your pets corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of the other animals that were killed waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? You'll never know and it probably won't even cross your mind. It was just an animal and you can always buy another one, right?

I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and can't get the pictures out of your head I deal with everyday on the way home from work. I hate my job, I hate that it exists & I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and realize that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter. Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes. My point to all of this DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE! Hate me if you want to. The truth hurts and reality is what it is. I just hope I maybe changed one persons mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, or buying a dog. I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say "I saw this and it made me want to adopt". THAT WOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT

General Stupidity

I declare that roughly 60% of our population is just flat out stupid. I never really believed this growing up but as I've gotten out into the real world my eyes have certainly been opened.

I bet you don't believe me. That you say to yourself 'How can the majority of people be stupid?'. I had trouble believing it myself and it never occurred to me until a few years ago why.

You see, I was lucky enough to have parents that cared about my education. Even in Kindergarten I would stay after with the teacher so I could catch up to the upper echelons of the class. By middle and high school I was always in the above average classes. This is where I started losing touch with the nation's stupidity.

Because I was surrounded in school by kids of above average intelligence I thought this was how the rest of the world was, mostly. I still knew there were a bunch of dumbasses but it never occurred to me how many.

When I got out of high school and moved to college I was in high level engineering classes. No real dumbasses there so my blurred perception continued.

It really wasn't until I started in the workforce that I realized how many idiots there really were. Sometimes I would try to explain a simple concept to these guys and they would look at me with these glazed over expressions and I could tell their brains just froze in their tracks.

Think about it; most that will read this blog are in the same boat as me. That is, blinded from all this stupidity through school and technical careers. I ask you to do one thing if you really don't believe me. Try going going to the MVA one time. (Or the South).

It's not even a reflection on gender or race either. I was watching this woman and some dumbass kids at a bar this past weekend and I swear she sound like she was saying 'duh, uh, derrr, like duh'. From her outward appearance this woman bore the trappings of someone at least mildly intellignet. Not so. She was a complete and utter nitwit. Trophy wife you say? Doubt it, just dumb.

Some examples of our nation's stupidity:
-Bush was elected
-Bush was elected again
-American Idol is popular
-Carlos Mencia had his own show
-Sarah Palin
-Congress spends more time on sports and PC issues than fixing our country
-McDonalds has pictures on their cash registers
-People find it clever to use this: :)

Some things to watch that scream stupidity:
-anybody interviewed on local news at a crime scene
-most pro athletes trying to weasel out of something
-soccer moms trying to drive SUVs
-right wing conservatives
-left wing liberals
-today's children's programming (just bright colors, no substance)
-local news
-drunk girls age 21-24
-any comment left after a news story on any site (mainly Yahoo!)
-spelling on web posts
----sidebar - I was going to add Springer to this list but it's a given
-daytime court shows
-criminals on Dog the Bounty Hunter (I know people like this)

Look at the look on the dipshits face that ran our country for 8 years. Damn!

Dodging Bullets

I work acroos the hall from the President of my company. Most times the door is wide open. Today, not so much. It seems our recession has finally infiltrated my little corner of the world.

We're a fairly small company of about 180 employees working out of 3 branches. Today 11 of those employees were let go at my location alone. Some of these people had been with the company for 10, 15 even 20 years and most were good at what they did.

Now most times I never fear losing my job. I always tell myself 'Hey, even if I do lose my job I'll have another one by tomorrow'. Now I'm not so sure. Lucky for me I was pulled aside with a couple other people and told I was safe and that they need me to help get through this tough patch.

You know why I'm still there? It aint because of my bouncy fuckin personality, that's for sure. It's because I can do way more stuff than my actual job calls for. It's because I force my employers to view me as indespensible. New ideas, innovation and all that crap.

Apparently just doing your job at an acceptable level isn't good enough these days. I'm ok with that. I don't care for people getting blindsided and losing their jobs but I guess that's just the harsh reality. I was lucky to be raised with a strong work ethic where going above and beyond was commonplace.

Sidenote-I was walking down the hall yesterday and asked the HR person when our awards banquet was going to be ('cause I'm all about a free lunch) and she just kind of brushed me off. Now I know she wasn't just being ignorant.

Oddly enough one of the headlines on my Comcast homepage said 'Jobless rate hits 34 year high'. Most times I don't know people that are associated with statistics. Then I saw this which was fairly hilarious:

I guess what I fear is for my hard work to not even matter one day. For the economy to get so bad that they just shitcan me anyway. Man that would piss me off.

And that brings me to my point. Michael Phelps. This asshole just so happens to be decent at swimming and everybody kisses his ass and gives him sponsorship deals and tons of money and do you know what his only job for the next 3 years is? Keep your fucking nose clean and be a marketable athlete. Piece of shit couldn't even get that right. I wonder if being a horsefaced douche is in his new book. Bitch.

What I miss from the 90s

So I'm starting to get this 'old man' disease where if something comes out that you didn't grow up with it must suck. Granted, a lot of stuff does suck so here is a small list of things I miss from the 90s:

1-Funny network TV shows

Case in point, Seinfeld. I can watch reruns of this all day. 10 years after it went off the air people still use the catch phrases in everyday life. Classic. How about the first couple years of Friends? Good shit. I'm sorry but Scrubs and Earl got nothing on Seinfeld.

2-Groundbreaking Music

One thing that really does suck today is music. Bunch of talentless hacks. Anyway, when grunge came out in the early 90s it kicked ass. It was almost like a 'remember where you were' moment. I even remember were I was the first time I heard Pearl Jam. You might not have agreed with grunge with all it depression and such but at least you know what it was about. I can count on one hand some bands that have come out in the past couple years that actually have talent. What's grounbreaking? What's the sound of the new millenium?

3-Good hip-hop/rap

What has taken the biggest fall since the 90s in my humble opinion is rap. The 90s started really strong w/ NWA and Public Enemy and got even better a few years later with the emergence of Dr Dre, Snoop, Ice Cube, etc. It evened finished the 90s strong with Eminem and a few good Beastie Boys albums. Now it's all this dirty south crap where they say the same goddam line over and over and over again and then you do some dumbass dance to it (see; soljaboy). It has also lost any relevance to society. That's what rap is supposed to be, a reflection on society. That's why it was good. Now it's about grills and other various dumb shit. Dre's gone, Eminem retired and poor Flavor Flav is stuck on VH1. Al least someone agrees w/ me.

4-The 90210 look

Bear with me here. The kids on 90210 set the fasion trends for most of the 90s with the hair and the Guess jeans and button down shirts. Let's not forget the most important fashion aspect, the sideburns. I looked damn good in this shit. Now I wear long sleeve shirts under short sleeve shirts (under long sleeve shirts) and have no hair. That look back then was so much sharper and cleaner now everybody's just fuckin lazy with how they look. I blame Ashton Kutcher.

A quick list of things I don't miss from the 90s: pagers, Creed, dail up modems, Zima