Posts Tagged ‘family’

A lot of random thoughts this morning so lets go through them Impromptus style:

You know I remember back in 92 when I was still a democrat and Paul Tsongas was running in the primaries against Bill Clinton. Tsongas was one of the most honest pols to ever come down the pike. I saw Clinton for what he was right off and couldn’t believe that people couldn’t see what was in front of their faces. After that primary I became an independent (or as it is called in Massachusetts “unenrolled”).

How many new “unenrolled” people are we going to see over the next year thanks to the actions of this president?

What is really amazing is how this is a communications phenom. The rise and resurgence of the Republicans begining with Reagan and continuing with Sarah Palin can all be traced to the new ability of the right to communicate. Twenty Years ago Came Rush Limbaugh, Then came Fox News, then came the internet, and now Sarah Palin defeated all of the major media using Facebook. All of these things are revolutions in communication, allowing like minded people to see they are not alone. It’s like an Army of Davids or something.

Back when I was blogging for Hiwired I interviewed Glenn Reynolds for our podcast about his Army of Davids book. It came up that the technology also empowered the crazy uncles as much as it did anyone else.

Oh and a quick plug for Zolex PC for virus removal. It’s run by a friend of mine and he does first rate work.

When I look at the MSM and their actions I end of thinking Peter Seitz and his famous quote a year after his ruling that created free agency in baseball:

“They were like the French barons of the 12th century,” he said. “They had accumulated so much power that they wouldn’t share it with anybody.”

BTW one of the things I noticed as a person who was on the net since the mid 90’s is that Rush was really ahead of the curve when it came to the net. I would see something on Drudge, Rush would then talk about it and it would drive further traffic to Drudge. I’ve never seen such an effective symbiotic relationship in media. Drudge should send Rush a thank you card every time he visits his accountant.

Speaking of facebook I still haven’t signed up, I’m going to resist the Facebook, myspace business for as long as it is humanly possible.

Yesterday my wife was on facebook and saw a rather interesting picture of an acquaintance of hers. Seems that this acquaintance and her friend had a picture taken of them at a concert posing next to a giant inflatable penis. The acquaintance’s friend flagged it with her name, and my wife saw it. If my wife can find it then her acquaintance’s boss can too. I guess technology does empower stupidity.

On that note my son just purchased an Apple laptop for college, it contains a built in web cam and he talks quite a bit with his friends on it. Let’s hope I don’t see him next to a giant sexual organ on the web anytime soon.

Speaking of Penis’ on the web in the 90’s we had the first president who was elected despite having admitted marijuana use in his younger days. Today we have the first president who admitted Cocaine use in his youth. Considering the number of paid web porn sites how many years do you think it will be before we have the first president or candidate who had a subscription to Hustler online or Abby Winters or something. After all these are all paid by credit cards and the records are kept somewhere. And once it is revealed we will find out exactly what kind of porn the president liked. Talk about too much information.

The web never forgets.

One final note on the subject. The final count for that day comparing the Sarah Palin post and the porn Parody post was a 22 x advantage for the Palin post in traffic. Of course if there was actual porn IN the post it might have been closer.

On a 180 degree turn the Madonna della Cava celebration was a big success, the heat was nasty but there was a large attendance, mass was packed, the food went over very well and even the band went home totally stuffed. Next year we hope to be even bigger.

We sold CD’s of the previous year’s procession and they sold briskly. I’m hoping that we will have some Marian Books such as St. Louis De Montfert’s True Devotion to Mary and The Secret of Mary available as well.

After all the primary purpose of Mary is to keep people from burning by leading them to her son. All the good food and good times in the world won’t do it without the prayer to back it up.

Turns out the brother of the organizer of the procession is my friend Vinny who works in Washington on ethics issues. I mentioned Rahm’s tax free home to him. Since it is legal I don’t seem much other than embarrassment coming from the story, assuming it ever gets reported.

It is more likely to come out then the Mohammad cartoons will show up in that Yale Book

Image copywright Jyllands-Posten

Images copyright the respective artists

Could you imagine the outcry if it they were refusing to print a picture of Piss Christ?

I guess that blows my chances of ever getting a grant from Saudi Arabia.

Oh and I’ve stopped putting up the Carter Arthur Watch. I think this administration has reached the point where comparing Obama to Carter is an insult to Carter. That’s pretty bad.

One more Carter thing. I noted in my review of Spys in the Vatican that Zbigniew Brzezinski didn’t bother with realism when it came to Poland and the soviets and was willing to displease the state department to protect Solidarity. I wonder if that was an aberration for him or did he change over the years?

I haven’t been watching or liveblogging Morning Joe either. They are still the fairest people on MSNBC (not a high standard to reach) but I just can’t put up with the anti-palin stuff anymore. I’ll still catch it on occasion but it’s no longer must see TV.

And I’d still be very pleased to have any kid raised by Mika as a daughter in law and not just because they might produce grandchildren as handsome as her.

One last Morning Joe note. Christine Hefner (a handsome woman too) was a panelist on the show for a while last week. It would be a fun project to figure out exactly when having the former head of playboy on a regular discussion panel was no longer a big deal.

You know I don’t think there is a better fast food item than Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich I’ve never tasted a fast food product that compare to it. It is spiced absolutely perfectly.

And there is only a few weeks until the first of the New Tom Baker Doctor Who Audios are available.

I don’t see them on the Mike’s comics site yet but I’d like to give them first crack at my dough.

Speaking of Doctor Who audios India Fisher’s run as the Doctor’s Companion Charley Pollard that started with #16 Storm Warning in 2001 will end this year with #126 Blue Forgotten Planet scheduled for late next month.

That run of 9 consecutive years is far longer than any companion in history. It should be noted that the final two years were with the 6th doctor rather than the 8th who she started out with.

Well that’s way long enough for a single post so I’ll close with a plug for Rich’s comic blog. He went on Hiatus for a week to go to a convention suspending his Doctor Who/Forever Knight strip Forever Janette and his Ancient Roman comedy strip based on Fvlminata House of Paulus for a week. Instead of writing a blurb about the trip he put up a comic to tell the story. I wish I had that much talent.

Talk about a sucker’s bet

Posted: July 28, 2009 by datechguy in personal
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My oldest son turned 18 this month and is about to start his first year of college in Aug. He has a job, a car that is paid for and easily makes enough to cover insurance, however we decided that it was time to give him a chance to build a credit history. We decided to add him to our credit card. As he is going to college locally and living at home it won’t be a problem to keep an eye on what is charged.

Well less that 24 hours after his card arrived the offers started coming in for more:

And when you DO use the Card there are NO Interest Charges–that’s 0% APR—on ALL your purchases up to $250, so long as you check your Billing Statements each month and make at least the Minimum Payments Due by the Payment Due Dates, and keep the balance on your account below your credit limit.

Sounds pretty good especially when you figure no annual fees, but think about it…

It’s really easy to get a card over $250 for a total balance. That is a max of about $60 a week. Pretty easy to even briefly go over that and once you do….

…the base rate goes to 19.95% as a minimum with the rate being equal to the highest rate published in the Wall Street Journal within a 3 month period plus 10.5%. And if you are late on a payment then you add 20.99% to the rate with a minimum of 25.99%. (not counting fees).

If you are a real careful teenager then you might manage to do OK, but how many real careful teenagers are there. This is a suckers bet, and I’ll wager a ton of teens and their parents fall for it.

Fun day at the beach

Posted: July 23, 2009 by datechguy in personal
Tags: , ,

This Sunday our parish priest talked about the importance of taking time to relax and rest, so this week we spend a large chunk of the day on Salisbury beach.

We got there fairly early and I had a wonderful time, a bit of a dip followed by a combination of a good book and audio doctor who’s on my temporary Ipod.

Once done after a quick bite we went to Joe Playland where we absolutely demolished the Family Guy Pinball machine and had our first look at the new Indiana Jones Pinball that includes all four movies. The original game is one of the single best pinball machines I’ve ever played.

This new machine was expensive (75 cents a game) but was very creative. Here is a brief film I found on the machine elsewhere:

Is it superior to the old game, I’m not ready to say that but it is pretty good.

We then drove north toward Hampton beach and the strip there, then further up the coast for a bit and saw some of the most expensive houses you’ve ever seen. They were a sight almost as beautiful and incredible as the coast itself.

From there the next stop was Kimball’s farm for ice cream in Westford Mass. I remember when it was just an ice cream stand with a few farm animals. After a time a gift show was added. The last time I visited they had mini golf, bumper boats and a driving range. Monday when we went down a new BBQ grill area serving all kinds of fried grilled and BBQ meats and fish, an exotic animal area, a midway/arcade (no pinball how barbaric) and finally hot air balloon rides where for $15 bucks you get 8 minutes at 300 feet.

If you are looking for an excellent first date to take a girl, this place is it.

So in the end it was a fun and relaxing day, I haven’t gotten in a lot of blogging and a lot of it hasn’t been political, but you know what, I’m not going to let my problems or this president keep me from living and enjoying the one life I have. All these things are important and I’ve expressed my opinion on them and will continue to do so, but not at the expense of my life.

Presidents and supreme court justices come and go, but real life is always there.

Still looking

Posted: July 8, 2009 by datechguy in employment, personal
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Well made it to the finals of another position but still haven’t crossed the finish line. Hopefully the interview this week will work out.

I have managed more interviews lately I don’t know if it’s a sign that the economy is getting better or just that the people more impressive than me are filling positions.

Anyway my extended benefits last till mid October I have until then to get something before we get to the “take the 40% paycut” stage.