is the rehab going to cure him of his bigotry, too?

ahh, some stories just write themselves.
presumably Mel Gibson is really sorry he got hammered and took the car for a spin down PCH. me, if I feel like drinking tequila and getting some fresh air, I just walk around. or I resist the urge. I'm sure Mel has problems and etc. one of them is that he's a bigoted jerk, and I'm not sure that the rehab is going to help him with that.

it wasn't really fair to put his father, a holocaust denier, in the news. he's not famous. he's just the father of someone famous. and if he happens to be an idiot jerk, that's not news, is it?

but this latest thing, where Mel gets all carried away, I dunno. if you've got six hundred million dollars you ought to be able to insulate that sort of crazyness from the general public. and is your life really over if you get a DUI? i don't think so. after all, you've got six hundred million dollars. that can buy you a lot of leeway. it won't buy you some sense, though.

what a dick.

i find myself doing this at work a lot...

somehow, some way, they bred some goats that become frozen with fear or excitement. probably you have seen this already, but if you have not, i invite you to youtube, if for no other reason to further burn through their venture capital and see how fast you can put them out of business. and also to entertain yourself.

fast-forward to 18 seconds in if you want to get right to the good part.

If I had a farm-like place to live with some property and I wanted to smell domestic animal funk all the time I'd have to get a couple of these things. After the first 10 or so years I would prolly get tired of it. Then I could sell them to a petting zoo.

gateway makes me laugh (again)

got a very important fedex delivered to the house yesterday. seems that gateway corporate finally figured out their computers didn't arrive when/where they were supposed to. great job, guys. nice to know you're on top of things. letter was addressed to the people that used to live at my house. a year ago. I went ahead and opened it, in case they were sending me bearer bonds or something. nothing like that. just a letter saying they made a mistake and that the person who used to live there may be billed if they don't send the packages back IMMEDIATELY.

then it said that they packages must be taken to the nearest fedex pickup point. riiiiiight. i'll get on that immediately. wouldn't want you to bill someone I don't know or don't care about for something you f'd up on.

I ought to let them do it just to get the orig. people bent. they f'd me when they sold me the house (didn't disclose some stuff that they could have). but I won't. on account of i'm such a good person. well, good-ish. it'll take some techie work to get the pornbox running again.

in other news, they fired harold reynolds for sexual harassment. I guess you can only chase skirts at ESPN for 11 years before they finally cut you loose. Officially, the last straw was an inappropriate hug after a dinner w/ a PA. It sounds lame when you put it that way, but we all know it wasn't just that. He had to have a file stuffed full of improper incidents and violations. not to mention all the stuff that didn't get reported. and let's face it, it almost never gets reported. what a cheesedick. I love that he doesn't even pretend that it was a pattern.

it's like the guy that went to prison on California's three strikes law for stealing a pizza. he cried and cried, man, I caught a case and now i'm in the pokey for stealing a pizza? no. you're in the pokey for being a dipshit repeat offender. for which you ended up getting 6 years, not life. (incidentally, the three strikes law applied indiscriminately is not an effective strategy - it puts people in jail, but jail is very expensive.)

gateway giveth, gateway taketh away

the last few posts have been on world events, the current geopolitical climate, &tc. today I have something that is just as hard hitting, but a lot closer to home: Gateway is going to take back the computer that they delivered to my house in error. there was a mix-up, and I called to give it back to them, but lost&damaged doesn't work on the weekends. so the gateway guy told me to keep it until I heard from them. I never did, but the person that was supposed to get it got my address from the fedex delivery info, and sent me a letter. I sensed fraud, so I got back in touch with Gateway. turns out it was just a big mix up. oops!

I've had it for a week, and it's been a good run. I didn't do too much on it, just some configuring. I haven't had a home computer of my own since I was in college, so it was weird to have one in my room again, do some setting up. didn't even install a game.

before i boxed it back up, I made sure to delete all the personal info that might have been on there. and then, just to be safe, I went into the boot menu (press your F2 key on your pc during startup) changed all the boot drives to , and installed password security there, too. so there's no way to get the computer to boot up unless you can get that password. even if you do get the computer to boot, it'll still be stuck when you get to the login screen. it wouldn't be sporting to keep all this top-secret info to myself, so here are the passwords:

gofyourself
blowme911

that's case-sensitive, mind you. i forget which passwords went to what, but it was some combination of the two. i don't know why I felt "blowme" warranted the emergency designation, but there you are.
blogger won't let me post a picture right now. I'll do one later.

what happened here?

i'm a fan of short hair. but this is not a particularly good look. Steve Nash, an exceptional basketball player, decided to cut most (all) of his hair off. I can relate, since have a similar hairstyle, though not, I hope, a similar look.

that's all. just a photo of a bad haircut. I could talk about how the cockroaches are making inroads in my house, but who wants to hear about that? i'm taking steps to settle the score with those things immediately.

will they airlift all the people that live in downtown detroit?

apparently, if you go to an f'd up place and it breaks into a crazy shitstorm then the US government has an obligation to get you out. I had no idea that this was so.

i'm not talking about the employees of the us gov't, i'm talking about the thousands of people that were in lebanon before israelis started blowing stuff up. the ones that were there on business or vacation or who knows what. Beirut used to be a beautiful cosmopolitan city, a famous vacation spot. now, not so much.

most entertaining was the reaction from people that the gov't didn't come quickly enough, and that they had to pay a fee to be removed. how did they expect to get out of the country, anyway? the fee amounted to an airline ticket. are these people even paying taxes? I doubt it. also, how did they expect to get out of the country if they were to leave on schedule? get someone else to pick up the tab?
here's the logic:
no bombs = i pay for travel
bombs = someone [not me] pays for travel

if i'm traveling in a foreign country and it goes bad i don't expect the US to do anything about it. it's a foreign country. they have no sovereignty there. it's just my fault / bad luck for being there. i didn't know I could go to the embassy or consulate and have them get me out.

I was wondering if maybe the US could do something about the other citizens stuck in Iraq? there's a bunch of them; they're in the armed forces. no? oh.

not selling my turntables

decided not to sell my gear.
it's an emotional thing.
your stuff is only worth what someone else will pay for it. if you can't get the money you think it's worth, they why sell if you don't need the money? you'll just be bummed later.
this sort of fiscal policy is retardo for big items, like a house. but for a small thing, it's a good move. and it's not costing me anything sitting in my living room.
love you. and I'll get back to less me-centric posting immediately, dear reader. I promise. -c-

Phuc me

A vietnamese family moved to Garden Grove and gave their kids new names. Fairly common w/ immigrants, esp. if you don't want your kids to be named Phuc. (yes, it's pronounced "fuk".) The parents wanted the kids to have solidly American sounding names. They looked around, asked around, and decided to rename their two boys Fernando and Jose.

I am not making this up.

you've got some junk? throw it on craigslist.

I thought I'd search for an electric guitar on craigslist. you never know what you might find out there. it really brought home the idea that clist is full of other peoples junk. I would post a link, but the person might take it down, and then you wouldnt' see this awesome list of stuff for sale or trade.
here's the full list. let me know if you want me to pick something up for you.
the title of the posting is

Tools, Bed Sheets, Taekwondo belts, Great stuff for EBAY profit. MOVIN

i admit I got sucked in by tools. I am too lazy to bother trying to go get someone's used tools, but I thought I'd just take a look. it was more like "garden equipment", but here's the full list, because it rules so hard. I added some comments, where appropriate:

We are Moving, so clearly time is limited, so easier to trade for cash or something of value. Some of this stuff you can sell on ebay or on craigslist for more $.

I have yard tools, including shovels, rake, black and decker electric weed wacker, weed puller, and two large beige pots from Home Depot, valued at 40 dollars each.
I also have brand new still in package never used:(IDEALLY TRADED ALL TOGETHER)
Royale Velvet Bed skirt Cal King (ivory)
2 Royale Velvet King Pillow Sham (ivory with lavendar flowers)
Standard Queen size pillow cases with lavander and blue
Cal King Set from Fieldcrest, valued at $85,00 (ivory with lavander flowers)


Things Remembered graduation frame with option to still have it engraved for free from the store.
this is the most excellent regifting I have ever seen.

2 Taekwondo Belts 1 Yellow, and 1 Orange Belt
if these were "rex" kwan do belts, i would go get them. bow to your sensei.

One sprint phone with recharger

Two beautiful white lamp shades with chrome/silver lamp shade holder

How to apply make up DVD, and teach yourself guitar cd, with teach yourself guitar book (sold separatly initially).
awesome.

2 1993 California License plates (same numbers)
huh? 1993 was a big year for thecase (kissed a girl, almost got to second base), but i'm not sure I want some 1993 plates.

3 sheets of scratch and sniff stickers (worth $30+ on ebay- from 1980s)

Pokemon and Yugi cards (about 20)

1980's little professor calculator

THe Battered Woman Video Series ($60 value on internet)
no idea what this is.

Lots of cd's and movies.

Lots of Psychology books (1 brand new one from Robin Smith-Ophrahs favorite therapist (paid 25 bucks).
This is the one thing on this list you need to take with you FOR SURE.

Gemological Institue of America (GIA) Gold and Precious Metals, and Diamonds course materials.
i'm intrigued by this. would like to review them, learn something.

5 foot 5inches cat tower (you know the thing cats like to climb and scratch- good condition- beige).

Mostly looking for reasonable cash offers, but if you have something really nice, let's negotiate:)
I'll give you $10 for all of it. Hell, I'll give you $10 just to throw it away.

a little history

they're closing a court in England today.
it opened in 1735, and has been in continuous operation ever since. Dickens used to hang out there, looking for characters in his stories. Casanova (yeah, that one) stood for charges there. So did the Kray brothers. and Oscar Wilde. and lots and lots of other not-famous people.

they're turning it into a hotel. ahhh, progress.

that's what defeat looks like

i love this picture.
i have heard reports that zidane did not come out at the end of the game because he was too upset. no idea if it is true. i didn't even watch the trophy presentation, so I can understand why someone w/ more invested might not want to be a part of it.

if you're going to say something ridiculous, why not go for maximum effect?

yeah, so disgraced excecutive (and, if memory serves, a convicted felon) Kenneth Lay is memorialized at his service and this happened:

The Reverend Dr. Bill Lawson compared Lay with civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesus Christ, and said his name would eventually be cleared.

riiiiiiight. something must have gotten lost in the translation there. or maybe the Reverend got a little carried away. it happens.

I liked the comment from the former employee better: he was a good man that did a bad thing. not sure that makes him a good man.

I think that means he was just a man. and if his bad thing had far reaching negative consequences for a lot of people, doesn't that make him a bad man?
just asking.

really. good. email.; I need to get busy on my TPS reports.

so I arrived at the corporate office this morning and noticed that my old chair, the one that is torture to sit in, had been returned to my cube. (remember I had back surgery exactly 3 months ago.) the conf. room chair, which I borrow from the conf. room, was gone. and I also got this email in my inbox:

This morning we found a conference room chair in your cubicle. Back in December we also found a conference room chair in your cubicle. Conference room chairs are designated for conference rooms only. Please do not remove them from conference rooms to place in your cubicle. If you are experiencing some kind of discomfort from sitting, please contact HR to schedule an ergonomic evaluation.

second best part about this email: i'm supposed to contact HR for an ergonomic evaluation. like I didn't already do that before I, umm, had a major surgical procedure. and after.

best part: "Back in December" someone found the wrong chair in my office and WROTE IT DOWN FOR FUTURE REFERENCE. they prolly thought, damn, we better get this documented, in case it happens again IN THE NEXT SEVEN MONTHS.

seriously. awesome.

traveling, but euro style

[no graphic - i'm OOT]
maybe you noticed that the world cup ended?
I won't go into all the drama and unpleasantness that came at the end of the finals. My favorite player got himself thrown out. it was a classless move from a player that really should know better. people will be talking about it for the next 20 years (or more). it was that bad.

more importantly, I forgot to pack deodorant on my business trip to NorCal. oops. i'm rocking a very euro smell in the cube right now. very. euro. oh well. it's like camping. but i'm at the office. I'll wear the same pants to work tomorrow to emphasize the camping aspect.

in other news, I bought some new cds. i've noticed that my musical taste is embarassingly unsophisiticated. i always knew it, but it still makes me laugh. i make up for it by being pretentious about lots of other stuff (books, especially).

what i'm reading: Freakonomics, by S. Levitt. I'm re-reading it. if you're of a mind, i strongly suggest reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell first, and then Freakonomics. They are an excellent pair of books, w/ some content overlap.

last good movie I saw: V for Vendetta - what a bust I didn't see this movie when it was in theaters. i loved it. not sure why alan moore (the orig. writer) had his name taken off the project. maybe it didn't fit his vision.
I thought it was outstanding.

Incidentally, if you're bored in a bookstore (like if your girl can't find something to read), thumb through any of the Alan Moore graphic novels. they are superb.

that's a lot of writing for nothing very funny. I'll see what I can do. call my people. xoxo

never thought I'd say this: thank God for France

i mean it, intrepid reader. thank the holy heavens for a good result against the portagees. I love their sexy maroon-colored uniforms and the talent that fop C. Ronaldo brings to the ball, but if i had to watch two teams I don't care about in the WC finals I might have spiraled into a flat-spin of depression and self-recrimination. as it is I hope that France beats Italy. and by "hope" i mean if it happens my head will certainly explode (again). expect henry to score in this game. he needs to score if they have a chance against Italy.

the guidos looked like sh*t in the early rounds, should have lost to Oz if those d-bags hadn't bumbled it away, and pummeled a mediocre ukrainian team. but now they look tough, esp. for a team (les blues) that doesn't score a lot of goals. why they don't score a lot of goals is a continuing mystery, but there it is.

France will be tired after two tough games, but I hope they'll come out with energy. it's the world cup final for pete's sake. just typing those words gives me goosebumps.

what else? I'm off the IR on friday, so I can run and play basketball and and kick the ball around this weekend for the first time in three months. get excited. i'll be stinking it up on courts and fields all over south county in no time.