I…don’t want to be at work…

Time flies when you’re having fun and four days was simply not long enough.

So we should start from the beginning, eh? What would that be…Wednesday? Well, first we here Glenn on the radio talking about Barneys New York. Apparently, they are having a rather green Christma…I mean, holiday. Well, seeing that we have a Barneys over at Northpark Mall, I half jokingly have Christine go over to investigate. What do you know? Apparently, if you are reading this blog shortly after I posted it and click the Barneys link above, they have some green greeting or something too.

Well, Jason has come up from Houston for Thanksgiving and I met up with him, Melissa and Litsa at the Galleria. After a short stint there, it was time to eat and it was decided that Jason’s palate needed to be expanded. Expanded in the Asian direction. Melissa appears to have a new favorite restaurant, Litsa enjoyed it and even though it was like tip toeing through a minefield (I later learn Jason doesn’t like seafood), he finds something. I try something new myself and it’s back to the Green Tea Ice Cream Cake for me. Yes, same place I took my Mom for her birthday!

That done, Melissa and Litsa had off to finish off the day, Jason and I find ourselves at Northpark Mall as the nearby movie theater. Inside, we do peer over at Barneys New York. What’s this? Rudolph the Organic Recycling Reindeer? His nose is green? This is retarded…I also notice one green eye is hanging out of his socket. Jason thinks it may have happened afterwards…but being Barneys, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was intentional.

Note: I later find out through Christine and her picture taking that both eyes were supposed to be normal…oh well.

Despite a nice nighty-night at about two in the morning, I was up nice and early for Turkey Bowl 2008. I did the filming work last year when they played in Grand Prairie. This year’s game was at MacArthur HS in Irving. Talk about timing, this was also when this super cold front swept across Texas. It was ticking over the freezing mark, but being a nice strong cold front…let’s talk about WIND!

Those that know me, you know that I am oddly resistant to cold weather. I’m not saying that I do polar bear swims for a living. I can get cold…but usually big clunky Filipinos don’t like the cold…hmm, but there aren’t many big and clunky Filipinos either! My Mom and siblings get cold, I don’t. I still remember sea and anchor security watches on the Cole in the winter and everyone is about mummified on station except myself. There I am wearing nothing more than BDUs (maybe a base layer if the wind’s over 20 knots) with sleeves rolled up. We could be rushing into that 20-30 knot winds while going about 20 knots ourselves…so a tad on the breezy side. I’ll have gloves to keep my digits warm, but that’s about it.

Well, time for it all to be put to the test once again. I would not be running around on the field and wanted to try a less chaotic camera angle. One of panning on the sidelines, versus the “Guy On the Field About to Be Ran Over” perspective. By the second half of the game, the almost icy wind was taking its toll on my right hand and forearm. I couldn’t wear gloves or I wouldn’t be able to operate the controls on the camcorder. So there I was standing out there, trying my best to keep the camera steady and losing feeling on both hands and my right forearm. By the way, Ben and his team wins again!

That done, to the house where I baked some pies, minimally helped with the ham and began doing a brush edit on the game. Then I changed into more normal clothes and headed off to my Godparents’. Ben and Robert were there, Lisa and Jimmy and Linda lived out of state and had come home. Lily, I learned in the morning, was also out of state now and she was home as well. Dylan also showed up as well. There was also a brother-sister group that I had seen at Lisa’s wedding, but didn’t know who they were or their relation to the family…but that rounded out the people in attendance for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving meal was pretty good, though it was insisted to cram just about everyone onto the dining room table. For that, I did not go beyond two plates of food. I did not feel like elbowing and eye jabbing people to get to the food.

Then it was dessert time. Good Thai snacks along with their chili pepper which I took a good bite from. About three people stopped and stared intently at my face, recording every little nuance. You know what? That’s familiar…I remember that many years ago in Virginia Beach when Anthonie intently stared at me after convincing me that the big green ball on my sushi plate was guacamole and I ate the entire ball in one gulp (it’s really wasabi, by the way…never tried it? Go to a sushi bar or going to Arby’s and gulping three cups of horsey sauce with two spoons of pepper will do. BTW, I wasn’t much affected by that at all). Well, I could feel the burning fire spread across my tongue…I’ve had this pepper once in my life beforehand which probably gives me good resistance to spicy food.

But they were waiting for my ear drums and eyeballs to melt and drip down my head, with which I was giving them none of that. There was some slight disappointment, they wanted to see me hop up and down I’m sure. So I felt proud, that is until my Godmother sat down next to me and ate one whole pepper in a single bite. Super Tactical Christopher, Master RSC of the Cole…whooped by his Godmother in a Thai pepper “contest”…boo hoo.

Note: My Godmother is the one in the middle.

Near the end, I hung around and Ben said he was gonna meet a couple of friends and watch movies. Two choices were Hitman and 30 Days of Night…or something like that. He didn’t care for vampire movies, and he kept his standards low on Hitman. I like to see if there are things I missed, so Hitman also it was for me.

So it’s time for the Hitman movie review. Did I like it? In a sense, yes. To many I know who like the game, it’s overwhelmingly favorable though some disappointment by a few. This was different. I feel this movie was a game adaptation to film…for viewers not familiar with the game.

The girls just had an “Eh…” feeling for Hitman, citing low ratings from the newspapers. Well, we know I don’t really listen to movie reviewers much anymore. I think the level of logic by some…I dunno. I also have to remember about two years ago when I was over for Christmas and the decision was to be made to watch Syriana because of the glowing movie reviews. I think we all remember what I thought about that movie.

Then there’s the whole game-based movie part. It was already amusing to read reviews…but I doubt they seriously understand game-based movies. And in some way, I don’t want them to…on the flip side, it makes reading their reviews that much more amusing. With examples from Roger Ebert and E! Online, what a fuss over 47’s barcode. Just an example, but it’s amusing…especially for those of us who played the game.

Honestly, I thought this movie was going to suck anyways. This was one of those movies I did not know how it should go as far as being a movie, so my standards were also lowered significantly.

In the end, I really liked it…though here are the caveats. Some things that kind of disappointed me, but I didn’t care about…some little twists to the game weren’t there. He did choke someone with their belt, but is that the same? Disguises were done…just not in the same manner. He wasn’t as mystical as in the game either…just some oddball with a barcode on his head and bed manners that absolutely fail! Also, a lot of his own past and personal story is nonexistent in the movie…I think they sacrificed that to keep non-players from getting lost. Like I said, it seemed accommodating to the non-player.

What I didn’t like…the soundtrack. I had listened back to my Hitman 2 soundtrack. Many could’ve been done well in the movie, even remixed. As if the whole lack of depth of 47 will turn off some to the movie, the movie…listed as an hour and forty minutes…felt rushed in the storyline. As well as the mystique assassin, he goes all over the world to do his hits…he was in only three locations in the movie, though there’s a map with pushpins to represent his handiwork. Sorry, not good enough for me. If they wanted this to be successful, I think they could’ve easily and loosely followed the storyline of the games with some hints of creativity here and there. Not possible? I think Silent Hill did a good job of that, and I think turning that into a movie for non-players is a much larger challenge.

That done, it makes up for some good action…and surprisingly it was also pretty funny in some parts too. His versatility in combat was shown with remote explosives, sniping, cool-guy firearms handling, explosion evading and even a little dramatic close quarters fighting with empty hands and gigantic Hissatsu blades. Some of the little nuances that gamers will recognize in the game were also put in the movie. Olyphant might’ve not made a menacing 47 (but I honestly can’t think of an actor that can either…and don’t even say Vin Diesel…) like he had the walk down, I know as Anthonie and I joked about 47’s walk inthe game. When he did his walk, the camera angle was similar to the game. All in all, if they made Hitman the TV series, this would’ve been a very good first episode. I am mixed in my feelings that it was a much better movie than I thought but it left us players out. For a game-based movie, I don’t know if it’s a good formula of having some of us hang for the benefit of those that don’t play. Oh well.

Friday, I just about stayed indoors. For all I care, the Silent Hill siren was sounding outside. I was in Mesquite a little bit after midnight. I remember Town East Mall saying they would open their doors at one in the morning. I thought about going there and seeing what’s going on, but figured there wouldn’t be much of a turnout and continued on. I’d later learn in the news that Town East was among the first shopping places in the metroplex to open and there were legions of shoppers lined in front of the doors. Then one o’clock came, the doors opened and people were rushing in, pumping fists in the air as if they were getting free cars. Featured on the news was also Mesquite Police, though I didn’t get to see the story. But yeah, with the whole Town East Boulevard/I-635 construction in progress this Christmas shopping period, Mesquite is gonna be a popular shopping venue that will probably try a lot of peoples’ patience.

I did go to see Christine as she had to work, I also had a surplus of pies and managed to get one in Melissa’s hands. From my Godmother and Melissa, looks like my cooking doesn’t kill just yet again!

Saturday was the gun show and it was time to meet up with my new friend. Figured I’d help a friend overseas, especially in the quest to enhance himself on the two-way shooting range. That and I get a slightly used optic that I was eyeing, and two people have run it and it checks out fine. My short time with the optic has revealed my thoughts about it and I am keeping a running diary on it. There are no whiz-bang perfect optics for combat and you just have to understand the capabilities and limitations with what you have. I was prepared for that, and I learned a lot more in the day I’ve had it. I’ll be keeping a running diary for myself on this optic, but so far I am liking it…just have to mentally reprogram myself to a few things.

Afterwards, it was more or less a Metro Time Attack as I coursed through the cities of the metroplex either looking for goodies (not shopping, shopping includes events where you loiter until something catches your eye) and meeting people. I also stopped over and got Ben his Turkey Bowl DVD and then stopped over to see Maribel and gave out my last surplus pie.

Sunday, after hours and hours of being really OCD and trying to line up my optic perfectly (it’s not, and I gave up…lol…) it was off to check it through Tony. Christine seemed satisfied with the alignment and nothing struck Tony wrong. So now it was off to the overpriced range. That, and I bought the wrong bullets! But it was good enough for a starting zero. At least it is shooting closer to POA than earlier (which was about ten inches up and right at fifty yards).

That done, it was time to meet Tony on his lunch break. There we just sat and ate Taco Bell (because Christine had her lunch breaks cut in half, we would have Taco Bell…so this four day weekend I got to become very familiar with all that is Taco Bell!). Then it was back to work. Chip came to the Galleria and I met with him after Tony returned to his patrol…some things caught his eye and he wanted me to see it. Well, Chip and I checked out that American Girl store that I mentioned a few weeks ago. Weird…we were in and out in about five minutes.

Then in the Galleria itself was a new yoga store. So lots of young women in stretchy-stretchy outfits, one of them doing yoga on a display window. It was strange, it was weird…but at the same time…Awwwww Yeeeah!

Oh, in the movie Hitman…the hot prostitute (hey, that’s how she was cast as…) helped the movie, lol.

That done, Chip headed up to Frisco and it was back to me reassuring and redoubting myself over the alignment of my optic and testing out more ideas (well, as much as can be had indoors as scanning a neighborhood with rifle on the ready is generally frowned upon).

And now I realize…it’s about over. But this is the teaser. Christmas is around the corner, then New Years. The fun…the fun!

Final note…Tony sent me an amusing video for you all to be reassured that Navy VBSS is on top of their game.

Oh yeah…some of you inquired about the Neiman Marcus tree I was talking about on my last post or so…enjoy!

OOOOOOOOOOOH! Gloating time…if you’re reading this TODAY, go to Glenn’s website and scroll down to the Picture of the Day! Awwwww Yeeeah!

Whoa…it’s been a crazy weekend!

I guess I should elaborate!

DIABOLICAL!

So on Friday evening there was the whole City Lights event put on by, I believe mainly, Neiman Marcus. This would be my Mom’s second time to go, my first time to see it. It was located around the block of Neiman Marcus. I dunno, Neiman Marcus is one of those weird luxury stores to me. I can’t order anything out of their Christmas catalog without feeling my wallet burst into flames.

So we get there and you have all the important heads come up and talk about how wonderful a show they have and some business thank you’s around. Though I don’t really want to get into the PC observation mode, I still couldn’t help that of the three main speakers, two of them were top Neiman Marcus people, it was only Dallas mayor Tom Leppert show said “Christmas” which meant nothing except that my mind wasn’t stimulated enough at that moment to think of more important things. Though shortly after that, they lit up the lights they put around the Neiman Marcus building. That was pretty nice, even if you factor out “…for Dallas” in it. It was a pleasing decoration of lights and I also smiled.

Next was the appearance of Santa which was preceded by a phone call by said red suited House Ninja. Everyone kept aiming their cameras to the sky, so I guess he did something coming from the top last year. I was ready for anything. From a HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) parachute insertion, hang gliding, rappelling down Neiman Marcus with his SWAT elves…anything.

Anything, except for when my Mental Terror Alarm went off full blast as my ears picked up what sounded like a high pressure gas leak from a pipe. Two things went into my mind. One was to locate the source of the sound, and second was that firearm’s use was no longer a high priority as muzzle flash may ignite the gases. I’m great to have a conversation with, huh?

Eventually, that sound started sounding more like a jet. It was loud, and it was getting even louder. I may have as well gone back in time on the flight deck of the Tarawa to watch that Harrier land just a few dozen yards in front of me…except without ear plugs. Someone then pointed about the same time I saw. About a block and a half away was Santa…in some weird Rocketeer jet pack. He was finally coming up in front of the building and it was getting even louder. The thrust to keep him in the air, coupled with the buildings close together in downtown, was making his arrival a very ear shattering experience. I grit my teeth and snapped a few shots until he, much to everyone’s relief, finally landed and shut off his jet pack. That out of the way, he spoke a little bit as well and then it was time to unveil the tree and window decorations on the street level.

From where I was standing, I would not be able to see the tree. A television camera was mounted with a large screen TV at the corner of the street so we could see it through there. Finally, everything was unveiled and what I could hear from the crowd…I heard every response in the spectrum in the middle zones, not the extremes. Finished taking the pictures, I turned to the TV to see the tree…except I couldn’t see it. I squinted at what I was looking at. I saw a lot of floating dark balls, but whatever was being viewed looked like a room full of mirrors with one or two elves dressed in yellow bouncing around.

The Neiman Marcus guy explaining the theme design for this year said it was a theme of the future, or something like that. Even the family was future, being three yellow robot arms (and not bouncing elves as I first thought)…signifying Dad, Mom and child. That’s Neiman Marcus for you!

The next event was on the other side of the block, with a tree lighting in the plaza along with a concert. I went there ahead of time to find an ideal spot, which I found a reasonably good spot. I came across a professional photographer who may have mistaken me of being a journalist, but I don’t think so…you never know. We made small talk as we surveyed the area in front of us to see what was interesting to photograph. It didn’t take long to get to the tree lighting, which this was pretty nice. Afterwards, there was a concert to which I snapped a few pictures of. That done, I figured I would go back myself and try to see this tree myself.

As I came by, I went to see the window decorations. Well, while interesting I saw nothing that could give it a Christmas feel…you could put this out any time of the year and it would be fine. My Mom told me last year they used live models…that wasn’t the case this time.

Then the tree…not a tree in the technical sense. Or, as my fellow photographer friend told me, “…the tree…well, no allergies!” Well, I’m gonna try to keep this blog short since I have more stuff to write. Remember…the theme is the future. Check sometime between now and after Thanksgiving on my website, there should be a link to my albums where I will upload my experiences of the Neiman Marcus tree…it would take a whole paragraph to just describe it. In short…it’s weird!

Starting Saturday morning, it was pretty much a run and gun day. Though in the afternoon I was able to meet up with Chip, visit Christine on her break, then take a little bit of a distant drive. Went somewhere different and had a very amusing arcade experience. Since that is all full of inside jokes and experiences that can only be enjoyed by us, you’ll just have to take my word for it, lol!

Then on to Melissa’s friends’ party…well, it was in honor of them moving up in the world of their jobs. The alcohol level was quite high and I doubt there will be any public pictures uploaded by me. If Melissa puts them up hey…one, it’s not my fault they’re up there…two, since it was pretty much my camera I can control when I was in the picture, ha ha! But yeah, other than gulping down some high grade stuff from a bottle, I usually elect to stay steady enough to take pictures that aren’t blurry. Besides, it takes a significant amount of alcohol to make me…sleep on the floor.

Sunday, Christine and I went to the gun show. People tell me I can get stuff for cheaper on the Internet…I’m not going to reiterate my beliefs of being community based, but that is my line of thinking. I very much like the interaction of a human I know and trust over saving over a couple of dollars if I can. Well, because that causes me to go around and interact with people, it paid in dividends. I ran into somebody while looking around…ex-Navy and that’s all I’ll say. But it’s a small world and he knows somebody that I also know while in the Navy, I’ll keep it just at that for now. Just like that, we’re friends…he also knows very much about the Cole, so there’s a bonus. I’m not just another face that he saw at the show. Turns out he’s selling something that I want. It’s not the best deal around…but is it all just for the money? As Christine says, I’m helping homies out. No sterile, unresponsive, super deal website will give me that amount of satisfaction. So once again, you think you can sort through your own life by just sitting your butt on the computer? Well, I guess you can… Funny, someone else prominently was discussing something similar to that today as well, but since I just finished ranting two or so posts ago, why do it again?

I’ve enjoyed my A1 Burger, as Christine has seen. And well, I realize that everything else is more inside jokes and fun…and this is getting long. It was a very busy weekend. Which makes me really wish that it is Wednesday already. I can’t just take the fact that this is a very reduced work week for me. I guess if I was a bum all weekend…but hey, I could’ve been Tony…reenlisted and done the dog and pony show with noodles for lunch! I should have…I think I’ll get on that right now!

Death God!

Touch me, and be cleansed!

So yesterday’s drive into Silent Hill was just flat out amusing. I barely left the physical metroplex (which to me is the ring of highways surrounding the Dallas/Fort Worth area…in this case, it’s I-20) when I noticed the sky getting darker and darker. By the time I hit Ennis, a dark bluish gray misty fog was in play and it was pretty much like that for my entire trip. As I made my exit and arrived to my destination, I started getting some crackling radio feedback. I did my drop off and headed back, arriving back on I-45 with patches of clouds and a sunny blue sky. How amusing.

So last weekend was the confirmation round. Confirmation round is pretty much done and moving on now to acquisition phase.

So I decided that perhaps I’d TRY to at least eat a little “better” (more green sunshine for my belly…ugh…) before the onslaught of Thanksgiving and then Christmas down the line. Then I get a call from Wayne while I’m driving to and from Silent Hill. Our favorite Whataburger is back…

…after so much waiting and enduring other limited menu pieces that we didn’t really care for, our A1 Thick and Hearty Burger is back! Oh well, I guess I’ll be acclimated to being a Fat Fat Fattie by the time the turkey gets tossed in the oven!

Since that page is a general special page, if you hit the above link and it shows something else…no more A1 Burger for you!

Ah, and Christine would make a GREAT AC-130 gunner. Though it goes to show that even between the two of us, our methodology of fighting can differ a little bit.

Strange studies…did you see the study that women with bigger hips are probably brighter and have a higher chance of giving birth to smarter kids? Or how about while here in Texas the women look good, but Dallas is rated to have the ugliest women in the state? How do they come up with this stuff? Though as far as vanity goes, Texas is the lowest in custom license plates (1%) while Virginia is the highest (16%). This brought a laugh from Chip, a certain Family Cruise visit easily proved it. I remember when we were even going through the airport parking lot how everyone was commenting on the various license plates. Then there’s the study that shows a stronger bond and esprit de corps in the workplace with a higher amount of swearing…well, I did have generally a great group of people and great experience in the Navy, ha ha!

…says media superstar Paris Hilton. Gotta love the young generation’s role models. If we’re gonna give celebrities the status of being role models, can’t we find any DECENT ones? Trying to think of one off the top of my head…actually, there’s one that I always seem to mention and as far as I can tell (being someone who is not “connected” to all things entertainment), who is that…Mandy? I don’t see her getting in all these ridiculous amounts of trouble. She’s successful, does some talent with music and film and what not…but then again, she seems to be well-behaved. Can’t have THAT for a role model, now can we?

ADD Note: Whoa…she has a new CD? Oh yeah, she sang before, didn’t she?…

So lately, more and more people have been bringing up the clueless state of this country’s populace lately. About a year ago, I read an amusing (but not surprising) article in the newspaper about how businesses today are trying to deal with the new generation of workers…which is pretty much my age category and younger, those that can work. Turns out, this is the generation where everyone got a trophy, there were no winners and losers and everyone was special. Well, they’re not getting their praise and all that at work and they are going into mental breakdown. How sad is that… I remember in the article they even did things like have someone with a bucket of confetti stand by and throw confetti in the air and praise people just for showing up on time to work.

Bill had today brought in his analysis on the growing trend of road rage. Jeff had talked about it about two days ago as well. We have all heard my mounting frustration of being on the road (btw, I may have bad days but I have so far succeeded in NOT taking it out on drivers around me…those drivers around me, do NOT get an attitude with your crappy driving and if I annoy you that you confront me…you do not want to do that). Bill has a key portion of the blame going on the Internet.

When it comes to tech stuff, I don’t know…he is tech handicap himself! Though in this line of thinking I can see where he’s going. He finds that nowadays, a lot of people go on their computer and create their virtual happy world. Where they get to do whatever it is they want on command and things go well and blah blah blah. Then they go out to the real world…they can’t take it, because they are as small as everyone else, usually not mattering to everyone. Most importantly, they can’t get what they want all the time. This frustrates them and causes people to be ticking time bombs in some ways. Someone brought up the fact that when you bump into someone in person, you’ll do a quick “Excuse me” a maybe reconciliatory gesture and move on. In the virtual anonymity of your car, you cut someone off or vice versa and the only thing left to take it up a notch is to mount a machine gun to your roof.

I have repeatedly brought up how more and more people tune out the world. It makes them upset hearing this or seeing this and blah blah blah. Yeah, I love being a gloomy person, let me tell you. Everyone’s watching American Idol and Dancing with the Stars, but tune out anything related to what’s going on in the world. Me, I love watching people get their heads sawed off or people burning in an airplane crash…I love it, can’t you tell? That all still makes me a little lightheaded, but it happens and I’m not going to tune it out because it makes me a little uncomfortable. How weak have some people gotten? A few months ago, two news helicopters collided filming a car chase with police. One person I know can’t watch the video from one of the helicopters that crashed. Have you seen the video? You see the car they are tracking, then about half a second of static, then the world is spinning. That’s it…yet someone I know cannot stomach that. Then they make the excuse that it’s about the people dying in there. Quit with the excuses.

I, for one, am glad of the limiting of my computer use. I have brought my computer usage to where it has been since I was much younger. Mainly for work and research. There is some entertainment here and there, but hey…so what? A little here and there doesn’t hurt. But if you’re using up your daily life on pretty much entertainment (don’t loophole it, if you’re not honest with yourself then you’re just screwing yourself over), you must be very fulfilled in what you’ve done for the day. Actually, most of my “entertainment” comes from writing and posting these blogs. They have also saved me money from buying game consoles or a more powerful computer. I’m happy with the few games I play, if I want to shoot I’ll do it in real life at the range…it’s stress relief too!

There was even a discussion of how many people can really do the hard work. Not saying my job is so tough, but it is fairly involving and does require about as much gritting of teeth as when I was in the Navy…except with no air conditioning (but on the flip side, no repeated topside preservation!). A lot of people I know twiddle with a keyboard and/or paperwork, physical labor is minimal. Apparently, some industries (like construction) are getting a little hurt because of that.

Then, everyone thinks they’re special. Especially when they go online to their virtual happy land. They get to spew how great they are on their MySpace and Facebooks. In real life, they’ll only have maybe half a dozen decent friends but online they’ll have hundreds. Don’t tell me it’s the whole diverse and global reach either. If that’s the case, I can have my hundreds…though my definition of “friends” in the virtual world is roughly with very slight differences the same as that in the real world. People will put their entire life’s effort to something online…well, good for you. There’s plenty of people that can honestly applaud your efforts, or you can cleverly exploit and dupe them into thinking how great you are. I mean, those were some giant US military missiles hitting the NYC World Trade Center towers, right?

I’m just glad my worth in the real world is much more weighted than in my virtual world (which isn’t much of anything, so I guess that kind of nulls out the sentence, ha ha!). I don’t need to have my “legacy” posted on some virtual list where I have to keep going to the computer to constantly gloat to myself. My accomplishments are not some initials that will vanish on a memory reboot, a virus or any other hindrance on the world of ones and zeroes. If you die, will people be able to stand and show that you definitely came to this world and made a difference, or will people be trying to search for URLs in your bookmarks or other gaming systems?

I had made a comment, along with others, that we kind of looked forward to some of the new cars coming out. Latest entry being the GT-R, amused to see how that will turn out. Then we have some people that obviously have no time as it seems they have multiple browser windows opened and spaced with anti-GT-R (or whatever car’s being mentioned) to quickly send our way. You know what’s funny? A lot of them say “Skyline” even though it’s said this is more or less a ground up vehicle. The other side will say, “Yeah…that’s what they say.” And if not, so what? What’s in a name? To me, it looks more like a 350Z…another car they tried the ground up bit, since it sure doesn’t look like the older Zs. Then you look at some of these people’s profiles…yep, the Internet makes everyone look important. So important, you’re gonna talk about things like to Skyline or not to Skyline…but hey, whatever makes you and your favorite car brand feel special.

Wil had posted this a few days ago. I’ve seen it for a while, but it does need refreshing sometimes…

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787,Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:
‘A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.’
‘A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.’
‘From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.’
‘The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years’
‘During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage’

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:
Number of States won by: Gore: 19 Bush: 29
Square miles of land won by: Gore: 580,000 Bush: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Gore: 127 million Bush: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:Gore:13.2 Bush:2.1

Professor Olson adds: ‘In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Gore’s territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare…’ Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the ‘complacency and apathy’ phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached the ‘governmental dependency’ phase.

I had talked about the people that drown the world away with their iPods (I’m not picking on you iPeople, though when it comes to these traits, a majority of you have them white headphones), little games and other systems. No matter where you go, it’s just a game and you talk about how awesome you are. All everyone knows about you is how good you are at manipulating buttons and switches.

When Paul commented about the VT shootings, I found the latter part of his comments to be fairly important…

For many years college police departments have ignored active shooter
training. Many do not have shotguns or rifles as they are “too offensive.” Scanning
the many photos and video, I still find that many do not carry bandages or litters.
You see multiple officers dragging out hostages (that have not been bandaged) in
every type of carry configuration. We must do better.
As for swiftness of response, it is critical. We have raised a generation of selfserving
kids who would rather go fetal and cower than take offensive action.
Further, most would rather run than come to the aid of their fellow student. Few if
any would take the fight to the cowardly murderer and stop his onslaught.
I applaud the actions of the 76 year old engineering professor Liviu Librescu and
consider him a true hero. A concentration camp survivor who understood the
meaning of life and who probably deserved to live more than most of his students.
Instead of running, he knew what was at stake and he chose to hold the door with his
aging body so that his young, strong and able bodied students could scramble to
safety. It is sad that the male students of his class left an old man to watch their six
while their only concern was to save their own skins. This does not say much for
some of the students at the school.
As for the “memorial” for the shooter, he was a cowardly piece of shit that decided
to vent or “twist off” on unarmed kids. He had many choices in life and decided this
was the best course of action. My only hope is that there is a Hell and he is burning
every second of every minute of every day…

If you’re getting offended by this, I guess that means I’m talking to you. You probably closed this already, because you can’t stomach this. You’ll go to your BFF Jill and show her this place where you can just laugh, assure yourselves I’m crazy and move on into your virtual world, talking to a “friend” who is really a 40 year old pedophile that will rape and kill you when you finally meet. I wish I was joking, except it’s happened a few times already.

Some of you even want to get a job that’s “tough”…civic duty like police, fire, emergency…or the military…or helping people in a hospital or what not. If you are offended by this, or if little things (you may think they’re big, but sit it out and see if you can realize if it’s genuine or if you’re making a fool of yourself…) get you riled up, I worry if you want to do those type of jobs above. You can’t handle sounds from a speaker, or even your little virtual world? Well, for one, we’ll eventually Matrix ourselves anyway…but till then, you might as well start spending more time in the real world, that’s where it really matters anyways.

Wil:

Veterans…PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE consider public office. All of you with your patriotism and drive, youre exactly what this nation needs when you return to the civilian world.

Jim:

This is precisely why our warrior class needs to reaffirm the ideals they are grounded in, all of them. In times of hardship, the temptation to serve a Caesar will be great, liberty by its nature always being the harder row to hoe.

*Awww…looks like the Paris Hilton story is retracted. Oh well, whatever keeps her clean and out of jail…I think I still would’ve welcomed a drunken elephant story, lol.

Unless, you are the PHS Band this week. Congratulations, they have played and won the Texas state marching band championship for the third time (not second, like the Dallas Morning news reported, ha ha). This is a back to back win, connecting with the last time they won back in 2005. This after a few years since we first won the state marching championship my senior year in 1997. I wonder if Mr. Coulson’s got the Armani seamstress up and running overtime plotting yet a new marching uniform design, lol.

As for another green, Glenn’s hilarious. Didn’t watch the Cowboys game last weekend, but apparently NBC had some halftime candlelight vigil going or something. So Glenn celebrates Coal Week…it’s pretty funny, unless you really get up in arms about this sort of stuff anyways. Check it out here on Hot Air.

And what’s this…surprise, surprise. I was thinking this aloud yesterday, but now it seems “24″ is joining the ranks of shows that are being postponed because of all the strikes and stuff. While a little disappointed, I see how some of these guys think that we’re gonna fall over dead without them. Uh-huh…riiiiight. I find it funny how big people think they are in the universe…I for one loved and studied astronomy when I was little, we aren’t even close to big, ha ha!

That didn’t have anything to do with being green…though the “24″ set did say they were gonna go green, I made my point about it a couple of months ago (and am not bothering trying to locate it to link it…you want it, find it yourself!). I do have an idea though…and I’m putting it here, so when someone rips it off you can go back and see that I said it! I think “24″ Season Seven should go on schedule…just not on air. Whenever they bring the next season back (let’s say this summer or fall), it should start in at some very random moment with Jack Bauer shopping for groceries, buying some Kix. There will be subtle hints that this season is happening at some time shortly after season seven (because, after all, season seven occurred starting January). So Jack is over there but the box of Kix he’s buying is beat up and he can’t read the nutritional facts. He calls up Chloe in CTU to pull up the nutritional facts and yells at Chloe because she’s going slower than she usually is. Chloe admits that she’s busy serving WebMD to learn about child labor and in a First Time Mother Internet forum to find out which side she should start, er, feeding her soon to arrive baby!

Jack then threatens that instead of slapping Chloe’s baby awake when he/she/it (hey, it’s all happening in California…), he’s gonna waterboard the baby. Use you imagination to figure out what happens there. I’ve got me a very interesting opening episode in my head. Then, just also put out the “real” season seven but put it on DVD. Then people will buy it…those that Torrent and YouTube it, Jack Bauer finds and kills them…with Chloe’s baby.