Going out of town
I'm going to be out of town for a couple weeks, one week in Georgia for job training, then going to Dominican Republic with Erick. My mom and step-dad will be in Dominican too.
So anyway, I'm not sure I'll have internet access and I probably won't be posting much for a while. I'll be back on the 22nd.
As I'm writing this, it occurs to me that maybe no one cares. Oh well, I'm telling you anyway.
  ¶ 3:46 PM 0 comments

  The Car


So Erick has the opportunity to get this car in trade for a guitar. It is really cool, but do we really want to invest the time and money in having an old car like this? It's from 1927, the same year our house was built. If you want to ask me what kind of car it is, etc, I don't know.
All I know is, his brother and the trumpet player from the band are both urging us to get the car. I'm saying that we already have an old house and we already have lots of plans to fix the house up. We don't need another project. I don't think you can have a car this old that isn't a project. Plus we'd have to park it outside.
But, wow, it's really cool. I have visions of us driving down the Alameda and going out to dinner downtown in it. It does run, apparently.
Oooooh, I just don't know!
It's one of those things that you hate to pass on because you don't know if you'll ever get a chance to do it again, and will you regret it if you don't do it? Or will you regret it worse if you do?

  ¶ 3:46 PM 3 comments

  Why are we paying for this type of nonsense?
So the U.N., which still hasn't defined terrorism, and therefore isn't ready to attempt anything so rash as actually DOING something about it, is giving out an award to one of their bureaucrats for anti-smoking ads which ran on a terrorist-sponsored television network. Yes, they gave out an award to someone for getting the word out about the evils of smoking while completely ignoring the admonitions to suicide bombing and anti-semitism on this same network. Ummm...

Then there is the World Heath Organization, a United Nations “special agency.” WHO's Director General has just awarded its prize for “best anti-smoking and nutrition” programs to al Manar – the television station owned and operated by Hezbollah, among the world's most lethal terrorist organizations.

In fact, Hezbollah has killed more Americans than any other terrorist organization other than al Qaeda. Al Manar routinely broadcasts programs to millions in the Middle East inciting suicide bombings against Americans in Iraq and against Israelis wherever they may be found.

The U.S. government has placed al Manar itself on the “Terrorism Exclusion List” and even France has banned the TV station for violating that country's hate laws. (Examples: in November, al Manar ran programs accusing Jews of spreading AIDS in the Middle East; earlier, it ran dramatizations depicting Jews using the blood of Christian children to bake holiday pastries.)

But in the view of the World Health Organization, al Manar is doing important work by warning viewers that smoking is bad for the health – and, incidentally, instructing them that massacring infidels in good for the soul. A catchy slogan for both campaigns might be: “Blow up! But don't light up!”

The U.N. was not supposed to be such a burlesque. Between aggressors and victims, the U.N. was not meant to be neutral.

Hey, good job guys.
Read the whole article here.
via Power Line
  ¶ 1:07 PM 0 comments

  A Bad Day for Beer Drinkers


Aaaargh! This really pisses me off.

Erick and I have often enjoyed going to various brew pubs and bringing home a "growler". A growler, if you don't already know, is a big jug of beer(see above). The brewery fills it up with the malty beverage of your choice at the bar and seals it. You take it home and drink it. This is a fine arrangement.

But noooo, the government has to stick it's nose in. Sometimes I really, truly, hate California.

I was at BJ's tonight, a brew pub near the guitar shop, and I was ready to buy a couple of growlers for the guys' band practice (Playing music is thirsty work). I went up to the bar to place my order, and the bartender apologized and informed me that a NEW LAW had just been passed making it illegal to repackage alcoholic beverages, thus making growlers illegal.

I did some searching, trying to find out more about this, but I haven't had any success. I'm sure there is some well-meaning reason behind this, but man! I thought our governor was trying to make California more business friendly. Well, this sure isn't the way to do it. Why is it the government's business if companies want to package their beer and sell it to adults? It's no easier to drink a growler in the car than it is to open a can or a bottle. Plus, the types of beers sold in growlers are high quality and more expensive than the crap sold in 40 oz bottles in liquor stores, ruling out the whole teen drunkenness thing. My other thought is that this is the big beer companies trying to keep the small breweries from selling bottled beer. If that's the case, I'll take back the "commie" statement.

I'm going to keep looking into this, if only to find out what the reasoning is. As my brother in law said, "I don't care what your politics are, you have to admit, this is pretty pink."  ¶ 11:36 PM 1 comments

  Pretzels



The last day of the NAMM Show I was sitting at a table in the GHS strings booth, chatting with Larry, one of the sales reps. It was 6, and the show had just closed, so Larry brought out some beers and an enormous pretzel jar. You know how sometimes when it's been a long day and you're hungry, a certain food just tastes soooo good, even though it might just be average normally? Well, that's how these pretzels were.

They were sourdough, and really salty. So Larry walked off to take care of some business stuff and I was sitting at the table by myself.
There were still lots of people walking by the booth, and that pretzel jar really was huge. Random people started coming up to me and asking if they could have a pretzel. Always wanting to be nice, I let them. "Sure, go ahead!" I smiled.

One of the people bumming pretzels was a teenage kid with suspiciously red eyes. So I gave him some pretzels, then a few minutes later, he was back. "Can I have some more?" Hmmm. "Uh, ookay."
Starting to feel a tad uneasy, since these aren't my pretzels after all. Then he came back again. "Dude, those are so good! Can I have a few more?" I reluctantly complied. "You're going to get me in trouble," I said. "Go 'way now!" He laughed and walked away, munching on his pretzels.

Yet another person stopped by and asked, and just then, another sales rep, a lady who worked in the GHS booth came up. "NO!" she huffed in disbelief. I reddened, and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." I said. She took the pretzel jar and walked away, shaking her head.

A few minutes later, unbelievably, the kid was back. "Aw, where did the pretzels go? Dude, those things rock!" "Get out of here!" I laughed.

Luckily, I saw where that lady put the jar, so I still had access. I even dipped some pretzels into my chocolate ice cream.
homer> mmmmmm, pretzels /homer
  ¶ 7:01 AM 0 comments

  Oh my goodness...
The phones came yesterday! They're really small, and very cool.

This is the only way he let me take a picture with the phone. He actually was having fun with it, calling me from the other room, and recording his voicemail message. We changed the ringtone to sound like an old-fashioned phone.
  ¶ 7:00 AM 1 comments

  Mooo-om!!
So I'm getting ready to go on a combined business trip/vacation, and I don't travel super frequently (well, maybe 2-3 x per year), so I always get a little nervous before going on a trip. I have recurring dreams that I'm at the airport and forgot my plane ticket, or worse, forgot to go to the airport entirely. And I'll walk around with a slight feeling of anxiety for a few days prior. I'm not afraid of flying, and I don't mind being away from home, so I don't know what my problem is, exactly. Maybe it's just knowing that I have a lot to do and not much time to do it in. In any case, this trip is more complicated than I'm used to, since I'm spending a week in Georgia attending a training class for work, then flying to Dominican Republic to visit my parents who are building a house down there.

Anyway, in an email to my mom, who is an extremely seasoned buisness traveller, I mentioned the fact that I was nervous. I think I also mentioned that I was afraid of forgetting stuff I need.

So she sends me a very sweet email back, reassuring me that I'll be fine, etc., and also giving me a list of stuff to bring. Including these items:

• socks
  
• soap
  
• shampoo
  
• toothbrush
  
• toothpaste
  
• money (!!!)
  
• and the piece de resistance: UNDERWEAR!
  

Uh, did I mention that I'm 29? Hilarious!
But I'm glad she cares. Once a mom, always a mom, I guess!

Note: the link on Dominican Republic goes to my mom's website, which has pictures of Dominican and the house they're building.
  ¶ 2:54 PM 2 comments

  Darfur
Jon was writing the other day about the UN's (and the world's) seeming lack of concern over the genocide going on in Darfur. On that subject, I thought this editorial cartoon was telling.
Really, if the UN won't step in to help in a situation like that, what are they good for, anyway? Can they stop disagreeing about semantics long enough to actually do something useful?

Oh, apparently not.
  ¶ 10:12 AM 1 comments

  Word of the Day
Kerfuffle: An uproar or disturbance of some kind.

Sample sentence: I really needed to post something new after the whole lady-with-fruit (she's a man, baby) kerfuffle.

Synonym: Hullabaloo

If you can think of other synonyms, please share. I'm having a mental block right now.
  ¶ 1:31 PM 1 comments

  Interesting Perspective on Torture Claims
From the opinion page of London's Daily Telegraph:

The men's claim that they were tortured at Guantanamo should also be set in the context of the al-Qa'eda training manual discovered during a raid in Manchester a couple of years ago. Lesson 18 of that manual, whose authenticity has not been questioned, emphatically states, under the heading "Prison and Detention Centres", that, when arrested, members of al-Qa'eda "must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by state security investigators. [They must] complain to the court of mistreatment while in prison". That is not, of course, proof that the Britons were not tortured in Guantanamo. But it ought to encourage some doubts about uncritically accepting that they were – which seems to be the attitude adopted by most of the media.

Hmmm, so the terrorists we have imprisoned might acutally lie to make Americans look bad? Nah, can't be.

I don't doubt that there was some mistreatment of prisoners, but I think this statement in an al-Qa'eda training manual (which I had never heard about until now, by the way. Thanks mainstream media.) should be taken into account when evaluating claims made by prisoners. Let's give our soldiers the benefit of the doubt, or at the very least, trust them more than we trust so-called "insurgents."

The whole article is here.

Hat tip: James Taranto
  ¶ 1:23 PM 1 comments

  Entering the 21st Century
We're finally getting cell phones! It took a lot of convincing (okay, begging and pleading), but Erick finally gave me the OK to sign up for a plan. We went with Cingular, and the phones get here Friday.

He's still not convinced, he doesn't want a phone, but lots of other people want him to have one, especially his brother, Josh. There was one time when the band was playing in Brisbane (1 hour away) and Josh didn't realize until he got to the club that they needed to bring a sound system. Had Erick had a cell phone, Josh could have caught him while he was still in San Jose and could swing back by the house to pick up the equipment. As it was, Erick didn't find out till he got to Brisbane and had to drive all the way back home.

So anyway, there was one condition on Erick agreeing to letting me get a cell phone:

He gets to buy a handgun.   ¶ 8:57 AM 2 comments