The Down Town

U.S. rattled as Mexico drug war bleeds over border

2009-03-01T13:13:00.000-08:00

U.S. rattled as Mexico drug war bleeds over border

"Violence of this kind is common in Mexico where drug cartel abductions and executions are a daily feature of a raging drug war...But U.S. authorities now fear that violent crime is beginning to bleed over the porous Mexico border and take hold here."

Glad we worked so hard to secure our borders this last decade. Maybe now that it's too late someone will try and do something about it, but then will be called a racist for trying, and still nothing will get done.

I'm just glad I don't live in a border state.

Another Plane Crash

2009-02-13T16:20:00.000-08:00

It's sad, really, to see the tragedy so shortly after the spectacular landing of a jet in the Hudson River. To see the widow of a 9/11 victim killed in an airplane. But it does, yet again, make me wonder...with the ever-present danger, which comes only after a thorough going over by airport security people who seem to be convinced that if they're polite to the passengers the terrorists win, and before you get to play baggage roulette and hope your suitcase ended up on the right wheel (let alone in the right state), why doesn't anyone take the train anymore?

Epic Fail

2009-01-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

What is Epic Fail? It's a term, defined basically as a failure so bad that the mere word "failure" does not fully describe it. So why not call it "epic failure?" Well, that's because a bunch of folks were taking funny pictures of people being idiots and typing "FAIL" over them and putting them up online. So then truly spectacular failures got "EPIC FAIL" plastered on them.

Combine the new term Epic Fail with a mock-motivational poster creator at Despair.com and you have the new Epic Fail poster. One of the best ever can be seen at http://www.joesaidso.com/2008/08/tech-tidbit-epic-fail.html

Well, now it's my turn to add to the genre with a Yugo poster.

Luckybug Creations

2008-12-25T17:38:00.000-08:00

My wife, Heidi, is the creative one between the two of us. Now she's getting to know the techie stuff, too. Soon she won't need me anymore. *sigh*

Anyway, that's my way of introducing the new Luckybug Creations blog design, which she managed to edit and upload without any help from me!

Luckybug Creations blog

Speed Racer

2008-10-02T00:06:00.000-07:00

Normally, I would have viewed having to see Speed Racer as something that someone well versed in automotive culture must do. Actually, I really wanted to see if my son liked it. So when my wife rented it, I was eager to pop it in the ol' DVD player and have a spin.

It is, without a doubt, the most ADD-friendly, fastest-paced, most visually intense movie I have ever seen, car flick or otherwise. It is a full-force assault on the eyes and ears. Miss just a few moments, and something else later won't make sense. Miss just a few minutes, and you completely lose track of the film. A strange and ridiculous as the actual racing is, the Wachowski brothers (who wrote and directed The Matrix) really pushed the envelope of filmmaking yet again, delivering what is a masterpiece of explosive color and sound. And John Goodman was good in the role of Pops Racer.

Watching it, at times I'm saying to myself, "I can't believe I'm watching this shit," all the while staying glued to the damn movie because I just can't look away. I actually watched it twice, just to pick up the second time what I missed the first time. Which was a lot, thanks to the frenetic pace.

My son Elijah, over three-and-a-half years old when we first saw it, instantly fell in love with it. He was bouncing around the living room with a white and red car in his hand (the closest thing to the Mach 5 he could find) laughing all the time. It is definitely more of a kids' movie, although I could add it to my "guilty pleasures" list.

Stupid Security

2008-10-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

I got a mention on the Stupid Security website recently, for submitting a link to an article about a new DHS anxiety detection screener. You know, so that people already anxious about flying can be subjected to extra body cavity scans and labeled a terrorist?

The original article I refer to is at Security Management. It's called Future Attribute Screening Technology, which makes the nice handy acronym of FAST. Isn't it lovely how government legislation, military and security technologies can always be described by acronyms that are also words, often words that describe the technology itself (like the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003)?

Proponents of the technology say that they can detect the difference between someone nervous about flying and nervous because they're about to land an airplane where there isn't an airport. Me? I'm skeptical. After all, it's described as working like a polygraph test. Except that polygraph tests aren't all that reliable. But it's not like a polygraph test because the person won't be connected to a machine at all, it's supposed to work as people walk past it. So it's supposed to be like a polygraph machine, but do more with less input.

I think I'll take the train.

Car Memories

2008-09-30T05:27:00.000-07:00

Below is a little story about cars. I started writing down my automotive experiences in a little journal and I thought that maybe one day I'd gather them all together for an e-book. Well, here's the first part.

My earliest memory of a car is my parents' 1978 Oldsmobile Delta 88 station wagon. A big white beast to a grown man of 6'2", it was the Titanic to a 5 year old kid. It had a classic 70's maroon vinyl interior. It would be, of course, one of the cars that defines what an automobile is to me in the future. My earliest memory of it is what happened when it backed over a stray Hot Wheels dropped in the driveway on the way into the car. Often, kids living in peaceful little suburbs watching Saturday morning Popeye cartoons can have a distorted sense of their own invincibility. I could beat and bang on those little cars all day long, and not do any damage. The big Olds just mangled the thing with the slightest bump going down the driveway. That changed my perspectives quite a bit. I was actually a little afraid of that car for a while.

Maybe it's something about your parents' car, like your first true love or your childhood home. In your mind, it becomes The Way Things Ought To Be. And once something like that is lost, you try and replace it with something similar. Sometimes with cars it's about sentimentality for the past, reliving happy childhood memories a mile at a time in a classic car like the one you used to ride in as a kid. But a lot of times it's something deeper. Your experiences can embed themselves in your mind as the defualt settings for life itself. If positive, they take on the meaning of The Way Things Ought To Be. Since my happy years of camping trips and playing in the rear-facing back seat of the big Olds I always preferred station wagons over SUVs and don't understand why all modern car interiors must be in grayscale. I also grew to have a love of Oldsmobile, but this car was but a small part in that.

The Down Town

2008-09-30T05:09:00.000-07:00

The new blog title is from a Days of the New song. I've been feeling a bit nostalgic for 90's music lately. And the lyrics are a good fit for me right now.

Previous blog titles (and artists):
Move Along (The All-American Rejects)
The Road I'm On (3 Doors Down)
The World I Know (Collective Soul)
Right Here (Staind)
Better Days (Goo Goo Dolls)

Voting in the State of Fear: Obama +1

2008-09-29T05:03:00.000-07:00

I've seen politicians paint a dark picture of the future, of recession or war or crime, and tell potential voters that their dark picture will come true if they vote for their opponent.

Rarely, though, is a slickly made video of the dark picture produced. The Barack Obama campaign came up with just such a video, one of a faux-NBC newscast projecting John McCain as the 44th President of the United States. Next to it is the campaign's donation form, right there on the screen.

There are no pictures of unemployment lines, no images of dead soldiers on some desert battlefield. They don't show stock tickers awash in the red of losses, or of foreclosure signs on homes. It's just an announcement of John McCain being elected President. All the rest, for much of the country, is implied by the rest of the Democratic and Obama campaigns and the personal political views of the person watching it.

It's wonderfully open-ended. The Obama voter just inserts their worst fears into the blank space provided. And it doesn't require someone to be a 100% True Believer. Take someone voting for Obama because they're out of a job, even though they support the Iraq war. Such a voter, I think, when viewing this video, would more likely worry about their family's finances under another 4 years of Republican administration rather than think of what will happen when Barack Obama sends the troops home. Such is the power of negative politics that voters would take a mere image of an opponent accepting the Presidency and turn it into a negative campaign ad in their minds.

It is a fascinating ad, one that can be very highly motivative to donate a lot of money to Barack Obama for someone with real fear of another Republican in the White House. Yet to someone else it could be their November wish come true. Being on the Obama website, it's probably intended for his true believers, to put a little fear in their hearts and money in his accounts. The same ad on John McCain's website would likely put hope instead of fear into the hearts of his followers, and likely some money into his accounts as well.

That division is what makes the ad all the more interesting. Obama's campaign was built on hope, but I believe the Democratic party is driven by fear. Instead of choosing the hopeful message of Barack Obama projected to win the Presidency (with the line "First African-American elected President of the United States" along the bottom of the screen) they chose the fearful message of John McCain winning the Presidency. The implication is to donate not to help Barack Obama become President but to prevent John McCain from becoming President.

Perhaps though, instead of Democratic fear mongering, this is a submission to lingering divisions in the party from the drawn-out primary battle. After all, Hillary Clinton supporters might not get fired up over Barack Obama, but they certainly do seem to hate John McCain and all things Republican, and if there's one thing that unites the Democratic Party, it's Republicans.

Obama Fear Video

Bias of Omission

2008-09-25T16:26:00.000-07:00

Bias in journalism large and small often takes the form of omission. Leaving out valuable or interesting information that readers may find useful because it doesn't fit with the story the author is trying to convey is about one small step shy of just plain making shit up.

One particularly egregious example of this is in today's Chicago Tribune article, Immigration Polarizes Small-Town America, in which a sign is described as having "pleaded for kinder treatment of Latino residents." The content is described in the article as"'Stop your racism to Hispanics,' it read, in squared black letters."

The reality may be a bit more complicated. Read one of his signs at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070102461.html?nav=emailpage

If the picture is authentic, Gaudencio Fernandez's sign labels Manassas, Virginia as the National Capital of Intolerance. It refers to a European American extermination of Native Americans, a 500 year history of rape and murder and other misdeeds by European Americans, compares the cooperation between Manassas and PWC (don't know what that's referring to) to the collaboration between local governments and the KKK early last century. There's more, much more.

Now, from what I've read there were multiple signs involved and the messages changed, so at one time the sign might have been in a pleading tone and contained the words your racism to Hispanics. I doubt that the text of the sign as commonly displayed would have made Mr. Fernandez the sympathetic character needed to close the article on the note the authors were looking for.

By the way, if he wants to make his yard ugly with poorly written hatred for America, well, ironically, that's his right as an American. That's not what this post is about.

But what this is really about isn't immigration or the First Amendment. It's about how there is bias in EVERYTHING the news media does. This isn't some left-wing or right-wing "they're all against the truth as I see it" bias. A lot of it is innocent decisions made to pick and choose what the editors think will be the most important or most interesting news while keeping to the limitations of space in a newspaper or time on a television. Editors have to omit some information, otherwise newspapers would be 1,000 pages a section and 24 hour television news would need a dozen channels to cover it all.

You may personally decry the American-sports centric bias of the local sports pages that won't cover the Pakistani cricket team the same way they cover Major League Baseball. It's not that the editors of American newspapers hate cricket or despise Pakistan, they just know that they'll sell more papers recapping the latest Yankees-Red Sox game and printing commentaries on the Cubs' chances of a World Series title. It's not bias in the form of printing fabricated "facts" to alter public opinion, it's just a business decision based on presenting what the readers want to see in the space allowed.

Some bias of omission, however, is not so innocent. I doubt the whole text, and a retread of the entire debate over the sign would have fit in the space allowed for the article. And I'm sure that's the argument many would take when confronted with the difference between "The Sign" as it appears in the article and "The Sign" as it appears in the Washington Post photos. But that's not enough reason to cut a long paragraph of inflammatory rhetoric against "European Americans" into the words "Stop your racism to Hispanics." There's just too much left out of that to believe it was a simple trimming of a few words to fit the article onto a page, because it completely changes the meaning of the sign's content as read in the article.

Whether this is intentional deception on the part of the authors or an editor trimming out context from a piece he doesn't fully understand is beyond my knowledge. Whether fair or not, the vast chasm between the words of the article and the sign as seen multiple places elsewhere online does deliver a blow in many readers' eyes to the credibility of Jim Tankersley and Christi Parsons, the authors of the article in question, as well as the Chicago Tribune, the news organization that printed it.

But this type of bias is something to keep in mind. If you don't feel like you're getting the whole truth, Google it!

Moved Along...

2007-03-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I'd create this little bloggy thingie to keep folks updated on what's been going on, funny thing is I've been too busy to keep it going. So for now I'm gonna just let it go, it'll be online for any possible future use but for now, you can read stuff from me at CarsandRacingStuff.com, in the Articles section. Also, if you go to my topic page on the site, I'll have an index of stuff I've written online soon.

I've abondoned my MySpace account, stopped designing digital scrapbooking freebies, closed two Yahoo groups I owned and shut down the Forum on Luckybug Scrapbooking lately, all to try and reduce my time spent maintaining my online life. In the newfound time I've been updating and building CarsandRacingStuff.com, finishing moving in (it's only been 2 years), and spending time with my son, Elijah. I'm still active on one Yahoo group, NASCAR World Order, and I occasionally stop by Infield Parking, but for now I've just been busy with the website and the home life.

Hopefully I'll be back this way soon.

I'm getting on the Pit Box

2007-03-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

My work and writing is starting to get recognized! I've been accepted as a new writer on the NASCAR racing website Inside the Pit Box! A few of my articles should be online soon.

However, if you'd like to see all of my work, it can still be found at CarsandRacingStuff.com

Congratulations Kevin Harvick!

2007-02-19T07:27:00.000-08:00

How 'bout that Kevin Harvick? What a finish to the Daytona 500! Great to see Richard Childress back in Victory Lane at the Daytona 500, I'm sure that means a lot after what that group went through.

It was a merry little Christmas...

2006-12-29T08:09:00.000-08:00

Well, the holidays were okay. Some parts were great, some parts sucked. But isn't that everyone's holiday?

For me, the part that sucked the most was working Christmas Eve. Then my boss tells me because I did that he's going to switch my Sunday next week to Saturday. Well, I can't work Saturday. So now I worked a holiday I really didn't want to and because I did I don't even get overtime the next week.

So my job sucks. I want to leave, but where to go?

But one of the good parts of Christmas was some money to Best Buy. I got money to BB because I wanted to get a few gift cards together and get something big, and because I've f---ing had it with Circuit City. But that's another story for another time.

So I got a new big hard drive and 1GB keychain drive for working on my website projects. OK, the only one that requires that kind of technological involvement is CarsandRacingStuff.com, and in just the last 3 days I've put that new technology to good use, getting dozens of new photos online and tweaking the layout to look better. We just went through a site redesign, and I had to finish changing the articles section over to the new design.

Anyway, work sucks, and it's great motivation to make a better website so that maybe one day I can get out of there and work from home. That's what I got out of Christmas this year. That, and homemade fudge.

Luckybug Scrapbooking

2006-12-18T22:30:00.000-08:00

Well, many of you readers, ok, anything regarding the viewership of this blog can't be described as "many" but...

OK, start over. Since you likely found this blog through some scrapbooking stuff I do, it might be of interest, but the site I webmaster for, Luckybug Scrapbooking, is now ranked in Google search's top 50 for the search term scrapbooking!!! We've been #1 for a while when looking for scrapbooking topsites, but just plain ol' scrapbooking is probably the biggest search term, so I'm excited!

Old Spam

2006-12-12T07:28:00.000-08:00

I just got a spam e-mail message that was quite obviously predated. Spammers now predate their messages, giving them send dates before they were really sent, to get them to the bottom of your inbox. I can only guess that this is to differentiate it from other spam.

Well, yes, sometimes I get spam with odd old dates on it. 2001, 2000, 1998.

This morning, I just got spam from November 6, 1951. Checking with the Computer History Museum's Timeline of Computer History, we can see that the computers of the day were huge, expensive machines completely unlike my little blue box.

Not that those machines even sent e-mail. They had other output methods, depending on the machine, none so simple as words or pictures on a monitor. The first e-mail was actually sent by Ray Tomlinson in 1971.

Seeing as how the first e-mail was sent in 1971, and spammers quite often predate their messages, you'd think the most rudimentary spam filter could figure out that a message dated 1951 isn't quite right.

How big are yours?

2006-12-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

It's easier to describe this with pictures, but I don't have them so I'll just write it out. I got this in an e-mail from my sister.

The sport of choice for the urban poor is basketball

The sport of choice for maintenance employees is bowling

The sport of choice for the working class if football

The sport of choice for supervisors is baseball

The sport of choice for middle management is tennis

The sport of choice for executives is golf

Conclusion?

The higher you go in the management structure, the smaller your balls are.

Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye Trent Yawney!

2006-11-29T09:43:00.000-08:00

Well, something must've happened during the NHL lockout of a few years ago. Seems like the Blackhawks suddenly care about playing good hockey again.

First they get Nikolai Khabibulin, but their rookie coach, Trent Yawney, might have been dragging the team down as the new Hawks couldn't seem to adjust to the NHL rules changes nearly as well as the rest of the league.

This season they had Michal Handzus Martin Havlat, and still couldn't get anything going. Some key injuries (particularly to Handzus and Havlat) completely deflated the team. So now out goes Yawney! In goes Denis Savard.

Seems like the Hawks, despite a 7-12-2 record, really are trying. I might make it to a Stanley Cup Finals game in Chicago yet (but probably not this season).

Happy Birthday!

2006-11-23T07:02:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday to me...happy birthday to me...

Of course, how do I get to spend my combined birthday/Thanksgiving holiday?

Stuck at work, walking around empty buildings and microwaving pizza rolls while everyone else gets turkey and stuffing.

Happy f***ing birthday to me...

Leeroy Jenkins

2006-11-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

OK, if you're a gamer, you've seen this a million times before.

But I'm guessing most people that read this aren't, the most people who find this blog are car people or scrapbooking people, so here goes:

The Leeroy Jenkins video.

It's supposed to be a faithful reenactment of an incident that happened in World of Warcraft.

A little background: they're talking about Leeroy since he's away from his computer. He misses the little planning session, then comes back about 1:21 into the video, and choas ensues.

The dialogue is hilarious, and incredibly well done for a reenactment, it comes off pretty well as original.

Highlights include:
1:25: "Leeeeeerooooooooy Jeeeeeenkiiiiiiiiiiiiiins!!!!"
1:30: "Oh, my God, he just ran in"
1:39: "Oh, f---"
2:05: "G-- d--- it, Leeroy"
2:28: "It's not my fault"
2:46: "Leeroy, you are just stupid as hell"

Move Along

2006-11-04T09:52:00.000-08:00

Well, off I go to rename the blog again.

This is a new song I got off of iTunes, and I've been listening to it a lot lately. It fits life pretty well right now, and has a good pace for driving.

Basically, the family's been pretty stable the last few years. OK, other than the major addition to the family (Elijah), our jobs and home life has been stable for years. Then Heidi lost her job. I thought her old employer might invite her back, but apparently the brokers that run the office lied to the agents there about Heidi's leaving. One of the brokers even lied to her own daughter.

Ummm, yeah, I don't think I'd want Heidi back there, no matter how good the money was.

So, we move on.

Previous blog titles (and artists):
The Road I'm On (3 Doors Down)
The World I Know (Collective Soul)
Right Here (Staind)
Better Days (Goo Goo Dolls)

Almost Election Day!

2006-10-31T07:44:00.000-08:00

Is it over yet?

I live in Illinois, apparently a state with some of the ugliest and most corrupt politics around, which makes it so much worse.

As an example of how bad we are, well, how bad other people are, because I don't live in Cook County anymore:

The county president, John Stroger, has a stroke right before the primary. People near him promise he'll run, because if he doesn't it goes to his primary challenger, Forrest Claypool. So he's in the hospital, wins the primary, and people keep promising he'll run. So the date passes where it would no longer go to Claypool if Stroger pulls out, and suddenly (I think it was within a week) his ill health means he won't run. Really? Just happens that his health worsened right then? Uh, huh.

It gets worse. So now that the powers-that-be can handpick who goes on the ballot, rather than upstart reformer Claypool (who wouldn't keep paying back those who did favors for Stroger, I'm sure) they nominate Todd Stroger, John's son. Now, he's not new to politics, serving (I think) as a Chicago alderman. He's new enough, though, that the nickname "Toddler" has stuck among his opponents.

As they say on TV: but wait, there's more...

So now in the general election, Republican Tony Peraica says he wants to consolidate departments or some such thing to reduce the Cook County budget, which results in an overall reduction of county departments.

So then Todd Stroger is going around saying that he's going to close a hospital, and when called on it by Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune, Stroger spokeswoman Jennifer Koehler said:

Well, Peraica has said he plans to reduce the number of county departments from 97 to 35. That's a two-thirds reduction. And we don't see how he can do that without severely cutting into health care. So in the absence of specifics, we filled in the blanks.

In the absence of specifics, they made up stuff (also known as lied) about the opponent. Of course, the stuff they made up (also known as the lies) just happen to not be the nicest scenario imaginable.

Kinda reminds me of the scene in the Chris Rock movie Head of State, with the commercial that says, "he's for cancer." You have to have seen it to understand.

If you think that's bad, I won't even touch the governor's race here. Or the Peter Roskam-Tammy Duckworth fiasco, that's near me (but again, not my district).

Melissa Bean and David McSweeney are my district, I think (it was last time, I moved since then), but if I see those names on the ballot I don't think I'll vote for either one. I'v gotten their mailers, and the Bean mailer just tells me I don't want to vote for Bean and the McSweeney mailer just tells me I don't want to vote for McSweeney. They're that bad. I can't help but wonder if the Bean mailer, the one with the oil refineries in Deer Park, being so completely over the top, wasn't actually sent out by McSweeney's campaign to make Bean look bad.

All this stupidity makes me wonder, does the lesser of two evils really matter when they're both the worst possible candidates?

Read the source on the quote here.

The Spock Market

2006-10-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

Normally I'm not going to use this blog as some sort of self-centered "this is what I had for breakfast" sort of thing.

So when I say, "a couple of days ago I signed up in the Spock Market..." you'll know I really mean it as an introduction to some promotion of a really fun game.

So, a couple of days ago I signed up in the Spock Market. A cable channel, G4, has a show called Star Trek 2.0. This show plays an old episode in a small window, surrounded by Trek statistics, comments from their website, and the coolest feature, stock prices from the Spock Market.

The Spock Market is where you buy and sell "stocks" in "companies" that are basically characters or elements of the show, tied in to Star Trek 2.0. So when something happens on screen, it affects the stock price.

For example, one company is Soundtrack Generators LLC (STK). It's around 70-75 right now. When there's lots of dramatic music in an episode, STK goes up. When there's no music, it goes down.

Episodes are at 4:00 pm central on Saturdays, with 3 episodes in a row.

I started a few days ago and I've turned 1 million into, at last count, 32.3 million in one weekend. Gotta love IPOs!

Play the Spock Market

Hillary-Condi in '08

2006-10-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I used to be a political junkie. Junkie, I realize, is an appropriate term, for all the useless junk I read, watched and listened to over the years. Let's see, there's Iraq, Mark Foley, Kelo v. New London (eminent domain), and that's just the first three I can think of.

I'm so burned out on politics after the 2004 disgrace, I can't seem to muster the effort to even keep up with events most days.

But now, I've finally found something about the 2008 presidential election that I found interesting. It's a funny little song with Hillary Clinton and Condi Rice. Check out the video.

The best part is when Condi sings, "how can you secure our borders when you can't secure Bill's pants?" It doesn't matter where along the "spectrum" your politics stand, that's funny.

Bear Season

2006-10-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

Well, the Chicago Bears are 4-0 for the first time since 1991.

Instead of talking about Rex Grossman, or predicting a championship, I thought I'd just take a moment to mention a certain good thing that the Bears bring to Chicago and Illinois: unity.
All summer long, Chicago is two towns, Cubs and Sox. North and South. Blue and black. One side plays in a beautiful shrine to America's passtime, if not all of sports. The other plays and wins, which is fun no matter where you play. Both teams have their personality, and both teams have their fans. A lot of times, from gentle joking in the office to shouted profanities at the games, Cubs and Sox fans mix like vinegar and baking soda. Which is to say, it can get messy.

But once the leaves turn, the boys of summer go home and America turns from its passtime to its passion: football. And Chicago unites behind its Bears. Fans who insulted one another over their color of baseball jersey are now wearing the same dark blue and orange. There isn't a Cubs station and a Sox station on the radio, they're all Bears stations now. You don't have to worry about cheering for the wrong team in the wrong bar now...unless you're cheering for the Packers.

We Report, We Decide...

2006-09-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

Propaganda, anyone?

I usually try to be a channel flipper when watching the news. You can't get too used to watching a single news channel, because then your world view is at the mercy of that channel's editor. You need different perspectives.

So that's how I explain that I was watching Fox News the other day. So I'm watching Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech, and what does Fox News' screen say? "Axis of Evil" Leader Briefs United Nations

I mean, I can understand calling him something other than his name. I had to look up a news story on Iran just to spell Ahmadinejad for this blog entry. But how about "Iran's President" or something like that. Doesn't matter if you want to wipe Iran off the map, to paraphrase Ahmadinejad, but that comment, in my opinion, goes beyond news and into editorializing, if not propagandizing.

I mean, how would Fox News viewers react if CNN ran the line "President Bush speaks on Iraq quagmire" under Bush making a speech?

The Road I'm On

2006-09-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

Well, after the connection between The World I Know and September 11, perhaps September 12 is a good day for a new song.

Okay, so it seems that I don't pick fast-paced, happy, upbeat songs for my blog. I wonder what that says...?

The Road I'm On was picked not because of the lyrics, but pretty much just for the title. I like the song, but it doesn't really fit me. The Road I'm On has to to with the real-life roads I'm on. I spend almost 2 hours a day in my Pontiac Vibe going to and from work. When I get to work, most days I spend about an hour in a crappy worn-out Chevrolet S-10. Now it's getting to be swap meet season for model cars, and so now many Sundays I spend anywhere from a half hour to two hours each way going to a show to look at cars, some of which I will take home and build.

So, in a nutshell, cars are a huge part of my life. And roads. Hence the blog title.

Previous blog titles (and artists):
The World I Know (Collective Soul)
Right Here (Staind)
Better Days (Goo Goo Dolls)

The World I Know and 9/11

2006-09-12T07:03:00.000-07:00

I just remembered last night, too late to make a post, that the song The World I Know was turned into a tribute song after September 11th by adding quotes and audio clips between the lyrics.

Remember what it was like back then? Every once in a while people should see the videos of 9/11, because it seems to have a way of refreshing the memory. Unless all you can think of is politics, about which president was responsible for what, in which case you might want to check for your soul. It might be missing.

A Day Late and a Billion Dollars Short...

2006-09-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday the State Street Marshall Field's became just another Macy's.

I'm at work as I write this, listening to the protests on the radio. Just a thought...if people cared enough about Field's, it probably wouldn't have been sold off.

Marshall Field's didn't really mean anything to me, but I have a respect for history. I would have loved to have bought the store. Sure, things would have to change, since obviously the old formula didn't work.

All I would want, if I had the chance to buy it, is the one solitary State Street store. It's a prime location in Chicago, and it has history and class. The architecture, coupled with the historic Field's name, could be brought upscale, since the old everything-to-nearly-everyone department store formula didn't work.

My plan would have been to:

Cut loose the suburban shopping mall anchor stores. Just the State Street store, because that gives shopping at Field's exclusivity, which helps with the second item.

Build on the class of the brand, removing most products and replacing them with high-end merchandise. Tailored clothes, top-end computers, plasma-screen televisions, designer status-symbol products, perhaps even Maybach cars.

Focus on service to the customer, not just selling to the customer. Not repair or maintenance, per se, but hire product experts instead of sales or stock people. For instance, the camera desk folks should know as much or more about cameras and photography than a the manager at a Wolf Camera.

If home delivery isn't around any more, bring it back. The focus on big-ticket items makes it a must-have, in addition to the nod to the history of the store.

Build up the Walnut Room to the level of the new retail products, probably by hiring a locally recognizeable chef.

Basically, the idea is to turn it into a department store of people's dreams, a magnet for people with money to burn, so that walking down State Street with a full dark green bag says something about the person carrying it.

I know that may sound a little elitist, but it's not about shutting people out. It would be open to the public, with the staff instructed to treat all people equally, whether they walk in on custom Italian shoes or Chuck Taylors. If you don't happen to want to spend big money for the best products available, well, that's what common department stores like Macy's are for.

Luckybug Scrapbooking

2006-09-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

OK, I normally don't post business here, but it's a special occasion, so what the heck.

On September 9, 2005, I became a real webmaster. I had tinkered with blogs and free forums and Yahoo! Groups before, but this was the first real honest-to-God-I've-got-a-domain-name website I ever created.

That was the beginning of Luckybug Scrapbooking, an adventure that has gone from a few pages of directories in html to a nearly full-service website with tons of sections, many of them interactive, and a lot of php programming.

So, you can see the original, September 9, 2005 version of Luckybug Scrapbooking, and hopefully visit the current Luckybug Scrapbooking and see the difference.

19

2006-08-31T10:52:00.000-07:00

The Detroit Red Wings have announced that they will retire Steve Yzerman's jersey number 19.

Aside from everyone's acknowledgement of him as a first-ballot inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the years he played for and captained the team (including three championships) this was kind of a no-brainer. But they had to make it "official," and they did.

Other Red Wings retiress:
1 - Terry Sawchuk
7 - Ted Lindsay
9 - Gordie "Mr. Hockey" Howe
12 - Sid Abel

Next on the list, I think, is current defensive star Nicklas Lidstrom's 5, further reducing the Red Wing's available single-digit jerseys.

E-mailing from work?

2006-08-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

So I get this e-mail from my sister. She's one of those who sends out the jokes and funny photos making the e-mail rounds.

It's this optical illusion titled "Oriental Eye Exam" because pulling the corners of your eyes up is supposed to help you see what it says. Which is, "no sex causes bad eyes".

Below that, however, is the standard confidentiality e-mail footer that came from several people up the e-mail chain. It begins, "CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The School Employees Retirement System of Ohio intends..."

It looks like the employee of the School Employees Retirement System of Ohio sent it to two people who didn't read that confidentiality notice. Not that the School Employees Retirement System of Ohio would want to be proud of or claim the content of the message, but that's beside the point. One of them sent it to someone who forwarded it on to 16 people, from there there's a step missing, then it gets forwarded to 23 more people, to 7 more, 24 more, to 4 more, and then on to the 25 people on my sister's e-mail list, including me. Not counting anyone else who got it from a different person when the chain of e-mails breaks off in a different direction.

All these e-mails floating around with, "CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The School Employees Retirement System of Ohio intends..." as a footer on something that refers to sex and can be seen as derogatory towards Asians.

Oh, yeah, let's not forget me blogging the thing, that probably doesn't help, either.

America's Dumbest Thief

2006-08-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

Yep, I think the prize has to go to Annie Donnelly, of New York.

She embezzled money. A lot of it. $2.3 million over the years.

What did she do with it? Bought lottery tickets.

Umm, do you really need to hit the jackpot when you've got that $2.3 million you stole?

Officials don't know if or how much she won, but chances are if she hit the big one she'd probably not be working as a bookkeeper and stealing her office's money.

She faces 4-12 years in prison.

We Lost a Planet! Where Did it Go?

2006-08-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

Well, it's still there. Pluto is no longer considered a planet, according to the people who decide such things.

That's gonna make a lot of money for the folks who print science textbooks. One less styrofoam ball for the planet mobile in the classroom.

And a lesson to us all. It was only discovered in 1930. We've had our nine planets only 76 years. But it seems like something we've always known to the schoolkids who have grown up since.

Science is like that. Science should be like that. Challenge the "conventional wisdom." Because "conventional wisdom" used to say that the Earth was flat and the moon was made of cheese.

The Columbia

2006-08-21T06:53:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was the Summer Plastic Meltdown, a model show and swap meet hosted by the model car club that I'm in, C.A.R.S. in Miniature.

Upon hearing that the awards were going to be sponsored, and that the Sci-Fi category was pretty thin, I went out and made a model from the TV show Star Trek: Enterprise. The model is of the NX-01 Enterprise, but with the decals included I made it the NX-02 Columbia.

Building models on a deadline never works. I didn't have what I needed to finish it right dull coat), and not enough time to apply what I did have (gloss coat). So it looks a little splotchy, which I'll fix now, but it's after the show.

I thought I had done well, being the only one to enter the category...until around 11:45 when a Star Wars AT-ST showed up on the table. Heidi came by the show a little later and I told her about it. When she saw it the first thing she said was, "Sorry, B." Yeah, it was better. The Columbia is only the second model I've done and I'm still learning.

Maybe it was the votes turned in before the other model got out there, or the support of fellow club members, but...I won! By 1 vote! One of the "officials" was telling me how much fun it was watching the voting go back and forth in the category.

The person who built the Star Wars model did win in another category, so it all worked out in the end for both of us.

So, thanks to Jack Wyzlic for sponsoring the award. Here's a photo of the model and the award.

The Tribune Comedy Troupe

2006-08-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

A series of Old Style radio commercials feature a Cubs fan comedian, and end with, "it takes two things to be a Cubs fan. A sense of humor, and an Old Style." Or something very close to that.

They're right about one thing, it does take a sense of humor to be a Cubs fan. It certainly does.

The World I Know

2006-08-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

Of course, with the concert, I just had to change the name of the blog. Now it's for The World I Know by Collective Soul.

No, it's not my favorite CS song, but the title works for the blog nicely.

Previous blog titles (and artists):
Right Here (Staind)
Better Days (Goo Goo Dolls)

Collective Soul

2006-08-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

Well, they used to be one of my favorite bands until I saw them in concert Friday.

Now, they are definitely my favorite band.

Heidi and I saw them at the Wisconsin State Fair. They put on a heck of a show, with a lot of energy, played a good mix of songs, and played the songs in a way that was different from the albums so it was interesting.

They played on a stage set up on the pit road of the Milwaukee Mile speedway, and we sat in chairs by the outside wall. A section of the grandstands was filled, too.

Of course, Heidi was making fun of the fact that they're playing a state fair, which isn't quite the arena shows that big successful bands play. But they mentioned during the show that they are independent now, so that explains it. We were 20 rows back for $10 a ticket, which is a heck of a lot better than the prices for those arena shows. So I like the independent thing.

Letter to the Editor

2006-08-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

My first time writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper, and I make the online version. It is in the Chicago Tribune website, for August 5, 2006.

The correct (they misplaced a quote) version of the letter appears below. It is in response to another letter to the editor.

Opinions Influenced by Politics

The August 3 letter from Eleanor Ann Macdonald states that "[Molly] Ivins' columns are honest, informative and critical of a man whose career she has followed from Texas to the White House. [Ann] Coulter's are poisonous, offensive and hateful to almost everyone. I believe [Joseph] Hines' opinion is influenced by his politics."
What, and your opinion isn't?
It's interesting to see that some people will find truthful what they agree with and find bias in anything that they do not agree with.
I think someone needs to tell Eleanor Ann Macdonald that her opinion is influenced by her politics, too.

Bill Crittenden
Woodstock, Ill.

Right Here and the IRL

2006-08-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

Well, the song I have picked for the blog title for a while is a song I saw performed at this year's Indianapolis 500 (I wasn't there, I watched on TV).

I thought the song was actually very fitting to the IRL, considering it's troubles but then also the direction it's heading in.

Mired in irrelevancy, ignored by the media and racing fans in general and basically all but forgotten except for the month of May at the Brickyard, the IRL has been in trouble for years.

Then along comes Danica Patrick. She's not your average female racer, posing for FHM and basically emphasizing the female side of "female race car driver." She goes and leads the Indy 500 late in the race, and has a chance to win.

This year the big story was the comeback of Michael Andretti, only to be passed by 19-year old Marco Andretti, who was about 200 yards from victory when he lost the lead.

So, anyway, long story short, the IRL was boring, and now it's not. Which leads me to a selection of lines (the first two verses) from the song that make it fit so well with the IRL, much more so than that annoying i am INDY song.

I know I've been mistaken
But just give me a break and see the changes that I've made
I've got some imperfections
But how can you collect them all and throw them in my face

But you always find a way to keep me right here waiting
You always find the words to say to keep me right here waiting
And if you chose to walk away I'd still be right here waiting
Searching for the things to say to keep you right here waiting

Oh, and by the way, Yahoo! has a story on their front page asking if Danica Patrick is the IRL's version of Anna Kournikova. Ouch. But, hey, more scantily-clad photo shoots than wins will do that to a woman's reputation.

Lawyer Troubles...

2006-08-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson is having lawyer issues. His law firm will likely sue for fees it says it is owed. Which will mean Michael Jackson will need more lawyers to defend himself in that lawsuit.

OK, not to get onto the subject of Michael Jackson, but the news item got me thinking.

If you were the head of a law firm, and a prospective client came to you and said it needs you to defend him in court becuase someone is suing him because he didn't pay his last legal team, would you take that case?

I think I'd pass.

The Dominik Hasek Story

2006-08-02T10:59:00.000-07:00

Well, Dominik "the Dominator" Hasek was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks way back when. He wasn't very good, and fellow Hawk Chris Chelios said something along the lines of Hasek not being able to stop a beach ball.

So Hasek goes to the Buffalo Sabres. They win the Eastern Conference, and play in the Stanley Cup. Third overtime, late in the series, and Brett Hull puts one past Hasek to win the Cup for the Dallas Stars. The Sabres fall, and are not a contender again.

So Dominik, sensing the end of his career near, makes a deal to play for one of the top teams in the game. Top-tier goalies at the time were making $8 million per year. He made a deal for $1 million for one year, with performance bonuses that would bring the total to $2.5 million if the team wins the Cup.

So Dominik Hasek signed with the Detroit Red Wings for a year.

With the likes of Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, and Niklas Lidstrom backstopped by "the Dominator," the team won the Stanley Cup. Dominik Hasek now has his name engraved upon hockey's Holy Grail.

But you know what the best part was for me? Two of his teammates, who had a large part in helping get Dominik the chance to hoist the Cup, were none other than Chris Chelios and Brett Hull.

Hasek to return to the Red Wings

2006-07-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

It's been reported that Dominik Hasek will return to the Detroit Red Wings this upcoming year.

Chris Osgood will remain with the team as Hasek's backup, as Manny Legace will not be on the team this season.

Details and a story about Hasek to follow, but I've got to get ready for work.

It's not about politics. Really!

2006-07-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

I'd rather not get into the politics of Israel-Lebanon here. This is more about people and their arrogant personalities. Or rather, one person's rather arrogant personality.

All the opinions about how to stop the killing, fix the problems, about who is to blame, negotiations for a cease-fire, what about the two abducted soldiers, and what's John Kerry's contribution to it all?

"If I was president, this wouldn't have happened"

Noooooooo, he's not bitter about 2004. Not at all. No, this goes beyond bitter.

OK, to be fair, I will post the remainder of his comments: "The president has been so absent on diplomacy when it comes to issues affecting the Middle East. We're going to have a lot of ground to make up because of it. He has made it so much worse because of his lack of reality in going into Iraq. We have to destroy Hezbollah."

Wait...we have to destroy Hezbollah, but without it resulting in war? John Kerry can do that?

Must...not...get...into...political....discussion....

Right Here

2006-07-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, the blog name has changed, this time for Right Here by Staind.

When I change the blog from now on, I'll include a little list of all the previous names this blog has had, and who did the songs I named it for.

Better Days (Goo Goo Dolls)

Music on the Web

2006-07-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

Why, oh, WHY do people insist on assaulting web browsers with their latest pop favorite when you happen to cross cyber paths with their blog or MySpace profile?

Has it ever occurred to users that their music might clash a little with what I've got going in in iTunes?

You like a song. Fine. But there should be a play button for it, not like it is now, where it plays automatically and you search for the button to stop the noise.

Want to buy some V1agrja?

2006-07-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

Dude, you'd have to have some serious problems to order prescription drugs from a guy who e-mailed you.

Also consider, do you want to buy prescription drugs from someone who doesn't (or can't) spell their product correctly?

Scary thing is, somebody must buy this stuff from spam, because they keep sending out the e-mails.

I feel sorry for the guys who buy it. First their...you know...doesn't work like it should, and then they're gullible enough to buy "V1agzra" from a spammer. I don't know what rock bottom feels like, but that's got to be close.

Alleged Militants?

2006-07-21T10:30:00.000-07:00

All that is wrong and useless about the United Nations can be summed up in two words used to describe Hezbollah, as said by a representative of Kofi Annan:

"alleged militants"

Without getting into a political diatribe, suffice it to say that the UN is useless, I have my reasons for feeling that way, and "alleged militants" is evidence of my case.

Reaction to Montoya's move

2006-07-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

Well, in case you haven't read about it, McLaren pulled J.P. Montoya from the car immediately after his announcement that he was leaving F1 at the end of the season for NASCAR. They replaced him in the car with Pedro de la Rosa.

However, they won't release him from his contract, keeping him from actually going to NASCAR early. McLaren chief Ron Dennis says, "Juan Pablo is contracted through to the end of the year. And if we so choose, he will test and race again."

He then says, "He still is contracted to us, unless there is some other commercial arrangement between ourselves and the NASCAR team or Juan himself." So it's not really about needing Montoya's skills, it's about getting some cash from him on his way out the door?

What's ironic about all this is that McLaren is currently running Mercedes-Benz cars and getting a large amount of support from their factory connection. Juan Pablo Montoya has the capability of becoming an instant star in NASCAR, bigger than Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and doing it in a Dodge.

I think if I were someone in power at Daimler-Chrysler, I would give Ron Dennis a call. I think it would go something like this:

Bill: "Hello, Ron."
Ron: "Hello, Bill."
some small talk ensues
Bill: "Ron, I need you to release Montoya to race in the U.S."
Ron: "Bill, I've been over this before. He's a McLaren driver until the end of the year."
Bill: "I know he's technically a McLaren driver, but his butt hasn't seen the seat of the car in weeks."
Ron: "We may still use him in races."
Bill: "But why? You've shown that you're moving on past Montoya, why go back? You moved on, why not let Montoya?"
Ron: "We would, but we have a lot invested in him, unless he's willing to make an arrangement to lessen our investment."
Bill: "But you're not going to see anything from that investment. That's already clear. He's not racing, remember? Actually, investment is part of what we're talking about here. This is Daimler-Chrysler, which includes both Mercedes-Benz and Dodge. Dodge is who he'll be driving for in the States, and he's got an opportunity to do more for our Dodge brand than he ever did for Mercedes. So he's important to us, and we'd like to invest some time in the minor league Busch Series before his Cup season starts next year. And unless you like the sound of Red Bull-Mercedes more than McLaren-Mercedes, you'll let him go. Now."

A little about me

2006-07-18T23:34:00.000-07:00

From Theresa.

1. are you missing someone right now?: Yes
2. are you happy: Yes
3. are you talking to anyone right now: No
4. are you bored: A little
5. are you german: nein
6. are you irish: nope
7. are you french: no!
8. are you Italian: some
9. are your parents still married: last time I checked, which was a while ago
10. do you like someone right now: Sure. Who doesn't?

TEN FAVORITES
1. televison show: Grey's Anatomy
2. flower: Hydrangea
3. color(s): Blue
4. sport: Racing
5. mall: Woodfield
6. music: Everything!
7. food: Mexican
8. season: Winter
9. animal: Dog
10. state: Wisconsin

TEN FACTS
1. hometown: Schaumburg, Illinois
2. hair color: Brown
4. hair: buzzed
5. eye color: Hazel
6. shoe size: Depends on the shoe
7. mood: Exhausted
8. orientation: Married
9. available?: Nope
10. lefty/righty: Righty

THIS OR THAT
1. love or lust: Love
2. hard liquor or beer: Neither
3. night or day: Night
4. one night stands or relationships: Relationship (duh, I'm married!)
5. television or internet: Internet
6. pepsi or coke: Coke
7. wild night out or romantic night in: Depends on whether or not we can get babysitting
8. colored pictures or black and white pictures: Depends on how you're gonna use 'em
9. phone or in person: In person
10. aim or myspace: AIM

TEN HAVE Y0U EVER
1. ever been caught sneaking out: Does sneaking out of bed to play Gran Turismo 4 count?
2. ever skinny dipped: No
3. ever done something you regret: Yes
4. ever bungee jumped: Hell no!
5. ever been on a house boat: No
6. ever finished an entire jaw breaker: No
7. ever wanted someone so badly it hurt: Yes
8. ever been caught by your parents with a hickey?: Yes
9. ever danced in the rain?: No
10. ever had a hang over?: Nope

MySpace

2006-07-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

I'm on MySpace now.

Better Days

2006-07-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I've found a title. For now. So "Untitled for Now..." goes away now.

I've decided that since I can't decide on a permanent title, I'll just change the title every now and then.

For those few people who really know me, you know the meaning music has for certain points of my life. So the title of the blog will be whatever (non-obnoxious) song fits my life for the week.

So for now, that's Better Days by the Goo Goo Dolls.

Gasoline

2006-07-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

Whatever "side" you're on in the current Israel-Lebanon, uh, I guess you could call it a war, hopefully the turmoil in oil markets convinces more people that ethanol is a good idea.

Think about it. Rockets and bombs falling in the Middle East means disruption in oil supply.

No rockets and bombs falling in Iowa means no disruption in the ethanol supply.

It makes sense.

Formula 1 Driver to try NASCAR

2006-07-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

It's not American driver Scott Speed. Not some mediocre F1 pilot looking for some wins and recognition. It's a major driver.

Juan Pablo Montoya is going to drive in the NASCAR Nextel Cup in 2007. He'll drive the #42 car for Chip Ganassi. Montoya and Ganassi have a connection, as Ganassi was the car owner for Montoya when he drove in the CART, winning the 1999 championship. He also won the 2000 Indianapolis 500.

He's having a rough season this year with just two podium finishes, including a second place at Monaco. He stands sixth in the points.

"When people think of moving from Formula One to NASCAR, some people think I'm crazy, but I think it's exciting."

I have to agree. There many obviously skilled drivers in Formula 1, but I've always wondered how they would fare in rough bumper-to-bumper traffic, such as at the Bristol night race. Or drafting at Talladega. Now the world (and me) finally gets to see.

Montoya also said, "I don't think you're going to be happy getting more money and being miserable all day."

The world got an idea of what might happen a few years ago when a F1 driver and a NASCAR driver traded cars for a spin around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road circuit. NASCAR was represented by Jeff Gordon, who traded his Chevrolet Monte Carlo for the Williams/BMW of...Juan Pablo Montoya.

E Pluribus Unum

2006-07-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

A caller to WGN radio's John Williams Show, in trying to support mandating English as our official language, pointed out the slogan on our coins and on the back of the one dollar bill: "e pluribus unum", which means "out of many, one." Basically that English is the thing that makes our many into one.

As John pointed out, e pluribus unum, which appears on our coins and dollar bills, is a phrase in a foreign language.

I was laughing too hard to hear the woman's response.

So now I wonder, will a law making English the official language also require the change of our money to reflect that English-only policy for the federal government?

Don't forget that "Annuit Cœptus" and "Novus Ordo Seclorum", two other Latin phrases, appear on the one dollar bill.

Where's your sign?

2006-07-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

I work as a security officer. I have six years experience in the field.

I've noticed over the years working in security, for various companies and various sites, and talking to others in the security community, that people are simply unclear on the concept of "private property."

Do we really need to cover the entire planet with signs stating "No Treaspassing"? That may be. One of the most common excuses I've heard for trespassing is some variant of "I didn't know I couldn't ________ here." Sometimes you get the "there wasn't a sign saying I couldn't."

So, wait, do you have one of those on your home's front door? No? So, you'll be cool with me sitting on your deck having a barbecue while you're out of town? No? Well, where's your sign?

Big, bright, Day-Glo colors and reflective at night, gaudy and ugly, three of them posted where they can be seen from anyone passing by at any angle, or don't complain when someone comes on your private property and makes themselves at home?

There's just something wrong with that.

Of course, some don't bother with the niceties. They just run away when they see security, so they know they're not supposed to be there. But they show up anyway.

Who Loves Comic Sans?

2006-07-06T06:03:00.000-07:00

Not everybody, apparently.

Comic Sans...you know, that standard Windows font that seems to be just about everywhere these days?

You probably don't know it when you see it, and you probably don't realize just how many times a day you see it. But it's out there.

Annoying as it is, I don't want to go off and ban the font, but there are apparently some people who do. Or, at least, they want to sell funny t-shirts and mugs to people who do.

Ban Comic Sans

the source for anti-comic sans propaganda

Thanks to the gals at DigiShopTalk.com for clueing me in to this site.

Jiffy Lube Stiffing Customers?

2006-07-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

Noooooo! Really?

Well, it's been known to happen. However, no one has gotten really good video of it...until now.

Is Your Mechanic Cheating? at KNBC of Los Angeles is an eye-opener.

The only problem I have with the video is the reporter on the street and in the studio seems to be enjoying himself a little too much. A little too caught up in having got his story. Not very professional.

However, the Jiffy Lube district manager takes the gold medal for lack of professionalism. Finding himself in front of a news camera, he denies who he is to get out of the spotlight.

But for the record, I used to work at a Jiffy Lube in Illinois, and we NEVER pulled this crap. Never.

Bill Elliott Returns

2006-07-05T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well, the day after I find out that one of my childhood sports heroes has retired, I find out that another is getting back into his sport.

I got a bag from Burger King yesterday that basically says that Awesome Bill from Dawsonville is getting into the 00 car of Michael Waltrip Racing, and it will carry Burger King sponsorship.

After all those years for McDonald's, now he's going to wheel a car around the track with Burger King on the hood.

What makes the deal special to me is that Michael Waltrip became my favorite driver when Bill Elliott retired. Now they're getting together on this deal.

And I've been really liking Burger King lately, ever since they've been doing the 2 Whoppers for $3. That's all I get now, when I need food out: 2 Whoppers, extra mayo. The one on the way home from work knows me by that order. When they get 2 Whoppers, extra mayo at 11:30 PM, it's me. They don't know my name, but they know my Whoppers.

I've gotta stop doing that so often.

Steve Yzerman hangs up his skates

2006-07-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

Well, another milestone of aging has passed. My childhood sports hero has retired.

Steve Yzerman announced his retirement today after 22 years in the NHL. He is 41 years old.

He joined the Detroit Red Wings in 1983 at the age of 18, and stayed with them throughout his entire career.

"Steve was a great ambassador for the game of hockey and will be sorely missed," said Mario Lemieux.

His hockey achievements include:
1984 NHL All-Rookie team
1989 Lester B. Pearson Award (honoring the league's outstanding player)
1998 Conn Smythe Trophy (honoring the playoff MVP)
Won 3 Stanley Cup Championships with the Red Wings
Olympic gold medal, hockey (for Canada, 2002)
692 goals, ranking eighth all-time
1,063 assists, ranking seventh all-time
Longest serving Captain in NHL history (1986-2006)

Steve is still not done with hockey or the Red Wings, stating, "I look forward to a future in the game of hockey with the Red Wings in some aspect."

The Guys' Rules

2006-07-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

I'm sure by now everyone has gotten that e-mail about guys and their "Rules".

Well, I have a particular problem with "ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is."

I get that a lot in my house. My wife is a scrapbooker, and really good at crafty things, so she knows a lot of color names that just baffle me.

I don't remember the exact color names, but when she starts doing something like explaining the difference between taupe and wheat, I just say something like "16 crayon box. It's all beige to me." Dark beige, light beige, those are differences I can understand.

Yet I can tell the difference between Bay Side Blue and Grabber Blue.

Go figure.

Four things...

2006-06-30T10:04:00.000-07:00

I saw this over at Scrappin Mama. It's a good way to introduce myself, I think.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1.) Security officer
2.) Auto shop (oil change, porter, tire changer)
3.) Movie theater
4.) Fast food (McDonald's)

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1.) Miracle
2.) We Were Soldiers
3.) Star Wars (any of them)
4.) Star Trek (any of them)

Four places you have lived:
1.) Woodstock, Illinois
2.) Wonder Lake, Illinois
3.) Schaumburg, Illinois
4.) Hoffman Estates, Illinois

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1.) Grey's Anatomy
2.) Modern Marvels
3.) Voyages
4.) Star Trek (especially Enterprise and Deep Space Nine)

Four places you have been on vacation:
1.) München, Bayern
2.) South Bend, Indiana
3.) Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
4.) Honolulu, Hawaii

Websites you visit daily (not counting my own):
1.) DigiShopTalk.com
2.) Two Peas in a Bucket
3.) Yahoo!
4.) National Weather Service

Four favorite foods:
1.) Mexican
2.) Steak
3.) Italian
4.) Burgers

Four places I would rather be right now:
1.) At a racetrack
2.) In bed
3.) At a hockey game
4.) On vacation

United States Grand Prix...Friday Practice

2006-06-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

Well, Michelin is back at Indy this year. They seemed to have their stuff together this year, unlike last year.

It felt good to see Michael Schumacher stuck in the gravel. Really brightened my day. Is he channeling old Enzo the way he treats people? The way he responded to his chance at being the first 5-time winner at Indianapolis was pretty disrespectful to the other 4-time winners. Couldn't be bothered for an autograph on the way into the garage.

It was pretty funny to see the guys in the garage watching the World Cup. The TV over Schumacher's car before he went out had a match on. F1 always shows the engineers, concerned looks on their faces, watching the monitors while their driver is zipping around the track. Question for this weekend is, how many are watching their car, and how many are watching football?

If another driver goes into the gravel and their team is cheering, we'll know.

My Blogger Resumé

2006-06-30T07:12:00.000-07:00

I started blogging about a year ago with one called Home Sweet Home? about property rights and eminent domain.

Then I created a blog about space and science fiction called Bill's SpaceBlog.

I still have strong feelings on the issues of property rights and eminent domain, but I found that I just didn't have the time with Luckybug Scrapbooking going online in September.

I started another website, CarsandRacingStuff.com in December, and Bill's SpaceBlog went away, too.

However, I've stayed on Blogger because of the websites. I have two blogs for each site. One is alerting people of updates, the other is content. Luckybug Scrapbooking gets the (Almost) Daily Quote Blog. CarsandRacingStuff.com has a History blog, which is a kind of "On this day..." sort of thing.

You can see the list in my profile.

Anyway, you might notice some stuff about space, property rights, science fiction, and eminent domain sneak in here from time to time. That, along with all the other stuff that doesn't belong on any of the other blogs.

Untitled for now...

2006-06-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess this is my introduction to my personal blog.

I'm Bill, an aspiring web business owner. More on that later. I have four blogs related to my websites. There's some stuff I'd love to say there but it doesn't really belong, so here's my personal stuff. I couldn't think of a title yet, and I have a lot of links and stuff to add.

But I needed to post something to get it online, so here it is.