Thursday, December 25, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
God Ole' George W.
If you haven't seen this yet.... you should
(you only need to watch the first 15 seconds or so)
Someone threw a SHOE at the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES!!! How's that for an approval rating?
Is it wrong that I laughed when I saw this? As an American Citizen my initial reaction to someone assaulting our President should have left me shocked and appalled.... but I was neither. How insulting this is though!
It is a bit weird for me because, if it had been any other President I may have felt that it was a shot at our country, a very symbolic offence to show disdain for America, my home and the country that I love. But, because Bush is a man that most Americans don't approve of either, and because I personally try to distance myself from him as much as possible, I don't feel personally offended by this in the least! I almost want to pat the guy on the back for doing something that most of the world would like to do as well.
It's very bizarre. I think if he had thrown his shoe at Barrack Obama, a person who I feel represents our country and what it stands for, I would have been much much more offended than I am at the insult to our current president. That is a sad thing. I think that we should be upset that someone threw a shoe at the leader of our country... but I can't bring myself to feel sorry for a man that I absolutely cannot stand. A man who has really embarrassed this country and almost completely lost for us the respect and love of the world that America used to enjoy.
o boy o boy o boy, its a crazy world.
(you only need to watch the first 15 seconds or so)
Someone threw a SHOE at the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES!!! How's that for an approval rating?
Is it wrong that I laughed when I saw this? As an American Citizen my initial reaction to someone assaulting our President should have left me shocked and appalled.... but I was neither. How insulting this is though!
It is a bit weird for me because, if it had been any other President I may have felt that it was a shot at our country, a very symbolic offence to show disdain for America, my home and the country that I love. But, because Bush is a man that most Americans don't approve of either, and because I personally try to distance myself from him as much as possible, I don't feel personally offended by this in the least! I almost want to pat the guy on the back for doing something that most of the world would like to do as well.
It's very bizarre. I think if he had thrown his shoe at Barrack Obama, a person who I feel represents our country and what it stands for, I would have been much much more offended than I am at the insult to our current president. That is a sad thing. I think that we should be upset that someone threw a shoe at the leader of our country... but I can't bring myself to feel sorry for a man that I absolutely cannot stand. A man who has really embarrassed this country and almost completely lost for us the respect and love of the world that America used to enjoy.
o boy o boy o boy, its a crazy world.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Fun from Asia
So today I was on Facebook and saw that my friend posted a picture and link from engrish.com see here -->
The whole website is for people to send in pictures of "Engrish" that they have taken in Asia.
The website is pretty entertaining and I recommend taking some time to check it out next time you're bored online.
After I spent some time looking at various pictures, I decided to check out the engrish.com "Brog" (engrish for blog) and I found this:
A music video from a Japanese group called Sour... and its pretty freeking cool.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
I AM Big Brother!!!
o boy, this is crazy stuff
According to this I've had 6 visitors from Pittsburgh, a couple from Waymart, State College, and Braddock and various other cities... and that big circle in the bottom right is the city of Flourtown. I've never heard of Flourtown before, but apparently someone is reading my blog there. Maybe its a friend from college who is living on the outskirts of Philly now, maybe its a random person, who knows. (I don't, but I'd be interested to find out).
Since this is a personal blog and I currently have a pretty small group of readers, this is very interesting stuff. I assume that most of my returning visitors are friends and family, but definitely not all of them know me personally.
With the limited information that Google provides me, I can only guess at who is reading my blog in the various cities. I have a pretty good idea of who my readers in Pittsburgh are, but for the person who visited my blog once on November 22 for 11 minutes from Denham Springs, LA... I have no idea who that was (it was most likely random). But, while the information doesn't tell me exactly who is reading my blog, I can definitely tell who isn't reading it... (a certain best friend in San Diego for example!)
It's pretty cool thouhg that people in places where I don't know anyone and that I have never visited are finding and reading my blog.
The information we can gather from the Internet is pretty fascinating... and a bit scary I guess. But since I am posting my thoughts over the Internet for anyone to read, I am very interested to know who actually is taking the time to check it out. I don't get very much feedback so for the most part its just me chatting off into the universe... So, please don't be shy about leaving comments or becoming a "follower" to show your support and let me know you're enjoying it (or that you disagree with me). I know people are reading, but for the most part, I have no idea who is reading, and I'd love to know who's out there and make this space a little more interactive!
So I have my this blog (which is run through Google's Blogspot) hooked up to a Google Analytics account because I was curious to see how many people were reading my blog.
A couple times a week I go and checkto see, are people reading my blog or am I just talking into empty space? Sometimes it feels like I am! With Google Analytics I can see not only how many people have visited my blog (277 visitors so far), but also how much time they spend on the site, and how they found my blog (email link, facebook or myspace link, through surfing Blogspot blogs, or via search engine).
I noticed that about 1/2 of the people who have been to my blog found it via Google (I had a huge spike in visits when i posted about Bikini Corrie - over 140 people came looking for that clip!) And currently about 30% of my visitors return to see the blog again. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.
I wasn't too surprised that I could figure these things out via Analytics, BUT today I found some information that I really was surprised about. Now I already knew that Google can track every search we've ever done down to an IP address (and DON'T WORRY, I don't have any of my reader's IP addresses!! ahhh scary!) but I was surprised when I first signed up to find that I could track my visitors via the country they are in. 
Wow, people have visited from 18 countries! This is pretty cool. Most of my visitors come from the US and Canada. But then I stumbled upon something even more interesting. Not only can I see what country (or state) my readers are from, but I can also see what city they are in! Lets take my home state of Pennsylvania for example:According to this I've had 6 visitors from Pittsburgh, a couple from Waymart, State College, and Braddock and various other cities... and that big circle in the bottom right is the city of Flourtown. I've never heard of Flourtown before, but apparently someone is reading my blog there. Maybe its a friend from college who is living on the outskirts of Philly now, maybe its a random person, who knows. (I don't, but I'd be interested to find out).
Since this is a personal blog and I currently have a pretty small group of readers, this is very interesting stuff. I assume that most of my returning visitors are friends and family, but definitely not all of them know me personally.
With the limited information that Google provides me, I can only guess at who is reading my blog in the various cities. I have a pretty good idea of who my readers in Pittsburgh are, but for the person who visited my blog once on November 22 for 11 minutes from Denham Springs, LA... I have no idea who that was (it was most likely random). But, while the information doesn't tell me exactly who is reading my blog, I can definitely tell who isn't reading it... (a certain best friend in San Diego for example!)
It's pretty cool thouhg that people in places where I don't know anyone and that I have never visited are finding and reading my blog.
The information we can gather from the Internet is pretty fascinating... and a bit scary I guess. But since I am posting my thoughts over the Internet for anyone to read, I am very interested to know who actually is taking the time to check it out. I don't get very much feedback so for the most part its just me chatting off into the universe... So, please don't be shy about leaving comments or becoming a "follower" to show your support and let me know you're enjoying it (or that you disagree with me). I know people are reading, but for the most part, I have no idea who is reading, and I'd love to know who's out there and make this space a little more interactive!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Denver Drag Queens!!!
Wow, I love Drag Queens!Although I didn't realize it when I signed the lease, I am currently living in Denver's gay neighborhood. And this is awesome. I love where I live. Its a relatively quiet block and its walking distance to basically all of down town.
It is also only a couple of blocks away from Denver's Hamburger Mary's. Hamburger Mary's is an "open-air bar and grille for open-minded people." It is also, according to their corporate website, "the ONLY national franchise actively marketing to the gay community," which I think is awesome.
Anyway, Hamburger Mary's has franchises all over the country and the first drag show I ever went to was at a Hamburger Mary's in California (it was one of the most fun nights of my life!). So imagine my excitement when I moved into a neighborhood that had its own Hamburger Mary's!
Well, I've lived here for almost an entire year now and have never been to one of their drag shows, so FINALLY I rounded up some girl friends and went this past Friday night. It was fabulous.
The first great thing is that there is no cover! So the show is basically free (with the exception of the dollar bills that you give out to the ladies as they preform!). The drinks were reasonable too, I had 7 cocktails on my tab (they were not all for me, I bought a couple of rounds!) and by bill was $35.... not too shabby. But of course, the most important thing is the Drag Queens.
Our MC for the night was Nicole Sommers (bottom left in the picture) and she was fabulous. She's over 6 feet tall, has very large hands and a pretty deep voice, and if you look closely, you can see where she shaved her chest for the show.... she was very entertaining. Brittany Michaels (top right) also helped MC and took some time out to chat with our table early in the night.
Nina Flowers (top middle) was Aimee's favorite, her makeup was awesome and she was definitely the most fierce out of the group. Nina will actually be a cast member on a new reality show in 2009 called "RuPaul's Drag Race" on the Logo network (premiers Feb. 2). So thanks to my little brush with reality fame, I will definitely be watching that show!
My favorite performer was Scottie Carlyle (bottom right in the picture). Now this woman is an inspiration. She's definitely no spring chicken any more, but she's still going out there and doing what she loves and having a good time. I mean, how many people that age have much of a night life at all, let a lone being on stage in drag. I'm sure people have said some not-so-nice things about her age and maybe told her its time to hang up the heels, but she's still out there doin' her thing... now that is awesome... yet another inspiration in my life!! It just goes to show you, its never too late in life to do what you love.
Most of the show was lip syncing and dancing and just a good time in general. At one point Aimee leaned over and made a comment about how many people would (or actually wouldn't) come to see actual women dress up and lip sync, which is kind of a funny if you think about it... but its much more entertaining to see men dressed over the top as women shaking their stuff than to see me up there doing it.
If I had to give one critique, I do wish that there would have been a bit more banter from the MC's. It was a little subdued for me, but although it wasn't the best drag show I've ever been to, the ladies definitely were enjoying themselves and so was the crowd, and that is all that really matters. I would definitely go see them again, no doubt about it.
I still have on my list to go and see Demented Diva's, the comedy / drag show every Tuesday night at Lannie's Clocktower AND Charlie's Cabaret on Colfax which has a drag show every Sunday night... I just can't believe I haven't tapped into the Denver drag scene before now... I love it!!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Like a Rock
Today the senate is set to hold a hearing on the Big 3 Auto Industry bailout.... geese Louise all of these bailouts are turning my stomach and making me a bit upset. I know its one of those situations where you're damned if you do and damned if you don't, but the fact is that the tax payers are bailing out companies whose poor management put them where they are today and the CEO's are getting off SCOTT FREE and with TONS OF CASH!! (dolla dolla bills y'all).
When AIG failed and their CEO Martin J. Sullivan resigned, he received a $47 MILLION SEVERANCE PACKAGE!!! are you kidding me!? He, who is probably responsible for getting the company into the sub-prime mortgage game and way too much risk than the company could afford, but while millions of Americans loose their jobs, their retirement savings, and their homes he walks away with almost $50 MILLION!!!
And since his company had to be bailed out by the government (aka, you and me) guess who paid that fucking thing!? US!!! It is complete BS. We are rewarding these people for fleecing the American public. How about we bail out the companies and put the CEO's and other top management in jail for throwing the entire world into an economic crisis!!! Instead, these people have more money than they will ever need while the rest of the country suffers in a crisis that these people created!
And now here we are again, considering another bailout for Chrysler, Ford, and GM.
When AIG failed and their CEO Martin J. Sullivan resigned, he received a $47 MILLION SEVERANCE PACKAGE!!! are you kidding me!? He, who is probably responsible for getting the company into the sub-prime mortgage game and way too much risk than the company could afford, but while millions of Americans loose their jobs, their retirement savings, and their homes he walks away with almost $50 MILLION!!!
And since his company had to be bailed out by the government (aka, you and me) guess who paid that fucking thing!? US!!! It is complete BS. We are rewarding these people for fleecing the American public. How about we bail out the companies and put the CEO's and other top management in jail for throwing the entire world into an economic crisis!!! Instead, these people have more money than they will ever need while the rest of the country suffers in a crisis that these people created!
And now here we are again, considering another bailout for Chrysler, Ford, and GM.
So, on November 19th when the CEO's of those three companies went to DC to ask for the bailout they flew in their PRIVATE JETS! According to ABC News that is $20,000 round trip for ONE of them to get to DC (the could have flown first class for under $1,000).
Like I said, this is a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. There are millions of Americans who work directly or indirectly for these companies, not to mention the millions of Americans whose lives do (or will) depend on the pensions promised to them by the auto industry. What will happen to those people who worked for GM for 30 years, are currently in their 70's and are living off of their pension? This is a real problem we need to consider. How are we going to deal with this if these companies go under?
I understand that the cost of labor in the US makes it very difficult for domestic automakers to be competitive, and I'm sure that has lead to some of the financial turmoil in these industries. We definitely are not on a level playing field in this area, BUT, as John Stewart pointed out, while Toyota was working on the Prius, American companies were working on impractical and inefficient car designs. Its no secret that if you want a fuel efficient car, you're most likely going to buy a foreign model.
And this isn't just a trend in the US auto industry, this is a problem country-wide and far reaching. We are falling so far behind in math and science that if we don't do something soon we are going to be in some (even more) serious trouble as a country. Where is the scientific innovation coming from? With US troops all over the the Middle East, we have no money to invest in the future of our scientific programs (we weren't able to invest in US auto companies researching hybrid technologies, like the Japanese government with Toyota and the Prius). And we're pumping out tons of liberal arts and business majors a year from our Universities, to fuel our service economy, (psychologists, teachers, lawyers, sales, etc..) but what we need are more exports! We need more engineers to come up with inventions, innovations, or ideas that we can export to other countries! We cannot survive long-term as a world power if we are importing WAY more than we are exporting! The focus in this country has got to change.
But we can't blame the country on the failure of the American auto industry. These CEO's were not planning properly for the future. "Going green" has been "cool" for quite a while and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that that it is a good place to be focusing your energies on. They can point fingers and say that the Japanese government helped fund research for the Prius and the US government didn't, but American companies haven't had trouble figuring out how to get a truck to pull an airplane! What a ridiculous place to focus your energy!!! Get a grip people and take some of the blame. Ford said on Dec. 2 that Ford they will be accelerating some of its hybrid and plug-in electric vehicle plans, but come on guys... talk about too little too late! SERIOUSLY!
Now, should millions of working-class Americans loose their jobs and pensions because of poor management? You have to say no to that. A collapse of the American auto industry could be a serious blow to our already fragile economic state. But should the tax payers bail out a bunch of filthy rich CEO's ? Its a Catch-22.
Ford and GM CEO's have agreed to make $1-a-year but I guess that's easy when you made $22million last year! But I do commend them for being willing to, at least in show, take huge pay cuts to keep their companies afloat. Still.... like their late entry into the hybrid market, it sounds like too little too late to me.
I'm exhausted just thinking about it.... and although I have a strong opinion on these things, I have no idea what the answer is here!
Cicero
I received this quote from my Grandpa today with the email subject line "what have we learned in 2000 years"
How applicable to our times today.... so applicable that I thought I should post it, but before I did, I checked it out online. According to TruthorFiction.Com the actual quote is:
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." Cicero - 55 BC
How applicable to our times today.... so applicable that I thought I should post it, but before I did, I checked it out online. According to TruthorFiction.Com the actual quote is:
"The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall."
Allegedly, the quote is also debunked on Snopes.com, however I was not able to find it myself. (but someone did post the it in their blog, here)
Still, I think it is very applicable to the United States, and some good food for thought on our domestic and foreign policies.
hmmmm these are troubling times... yes they are.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tidbits of the Day
(1) I was playing scrabble w/ Aimee tonight and searched to see if "vained" was a word (which it is not) and I found this lovely entry in the Urban Dictionary:
blue vained yoghurt pumper - Slang for a certain male body part
Used in a sentence:
"Hey you, do you want to handle my blue vained yoghurt pumper, you bitch."
O, how lovely..... ARE WE SERIOUS PEOPLE!!!
We should all thank Ronald Bouman for this lovely entry, he must be quite the gentleman.
(2) Also, I just briefly caught the Victoria's Secret fashion show on TV and they panned the crowd and I saw that Martha Stewart was seated next to P-Diddy.... who would have thought. They seemed to be enjoying eachothers company... weird.
(3) "The past brings regret, the future brings worry, the only time to live is right now” I really really like this quote. (from Eckhart Tolle: The Power of Now and from Aimee's blog!) This is how I try to live my life... its not always easy but it's a really good mantra to focus on when I get too caught up on planning for the future (like worrying how i will pay for my student loans!!!)
ok thats all for now!
Good Night
blue vained yoghurt pumper - Slang for a certain male body part
Used in a sentence:
"Hey you, do you want to handle my blue vained yoghurt pumper, you bitch."
O, how lovely..... ARE WE SERIOUS PEOPLE!!!
We should all thank Ronald Bouman for this lovely entry, he must be quite the gentleman.
(2) Also, I just briefly caught the Victoria's Secret fashion show on TV and they panned the crowd and I saw that Martha Stewart was seated next to P-Diddy.... who would have thought. They seemed to be enjoying eachothers company... weird.
(3) "The past brings regret, the future brings worry, the only time to live is right now” I really really like this quote. (from Eckhart Tolle: The Power of Now and from Aimee's blog!) This is how I try to live my life... its not always easy but it's a really good mantra to focus on when I get too caught up on planning for the future (like worrying how i will pay for my student loans!!!)
ok thats all for now!
Good Night
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