Monday, December 15, 2003

Dear Fellas,

I can't believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile once when I was a kid. Now they're everywhere. The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry. The parole board got me into this halfway house called the Brewer, and a job bagging groceries at the Foodway. It's hard work, and I try to keep up, but my hands hurt most of the time.

I don't think the store manager likes me very much. Sometimes after work I go to the park and feed the birds. I keep thinking Jake might show up and say hello, but he never does. I hope wherever he is, he's doing okay and making new friends.

I have trouble sleeping at night. I have bad dreams, like I'm falling. I wake up scared. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember where I am. Maybe I should get me a gun and rob the Foodway, so they'd send me home. I could shoot the manager while I was at it, sort of like a bonus.

But I guess I'm too old for that sort of nonsense anymore. I don't like it here. I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I've decided not to stay. I doubt they'll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me.

PS, Tell Haywood I'm sorry I put a kinfe to his throat. No hard deelings.

Brooks


The Shawshank Redemption is like dying and being born again, every time I watch it. It doesn't matter that I must have seen this movie over 100 times. From the amazing score, to the powerful messages embedded within, I'm deeply moved everytime I see it. The above passage is definitely the most sad in the movie, and I'm always moved by it. It's an amazing and uplifting movie. I reccomend buying it, THEN watching it. That way you will always own such an amazing film.

It's been a rough couple of weeks alright. Since getting back I've had tons of work to finish up after the break. It all went well without a hitch, and upon checking my grades today in a hopeful chancing moment, I found my first A of the semester. It's kind of sad that Megan's leaving tommorrow, who knows if I'll ever see her again. I hope so, since after returning to CA, and her London visit, she's going to move to NYC, a stone's throw away from home for me. As well Lauren will be graduating and leaving as well. I will miss her something terrible. I always felt like I could relate to her well and I've always enjoyed her company. Such is life-many meetings and many partings.

It's been snowing for about 2 days straight now. Thanks Syracuse for the dump on our heads. It's like not only are we supposed to be grateful, but say thanks for the hat too :P The snow drifts are making things annoying. I'll have to clean my car off tommorrow at some point. It looks like a big cannoli. One more final to go tommorrow, and then if I get motivated maybe make some additions to my website, due at 5pm. Hopefully leaving Tuesday, rather definitely leaving Tuesday, no matter how long it takes to get home. I must be home for the 17th. The Return Of The King is 2 days away! I cannot wait for this movie. I cannot wait to see my family. I cannot wait for Christmas. One of the happiest and heart-fulfilling times of the year is almost upon me. Yet time seems to stretch out like a road, traversable yet to no result. It will be good to get home; This semester has been taxing on the soul.

Monday, December 01, 2003

Well been awhile since my last update. Thanksgiving break was great. It was so wonderful to see my family and relatives. I really missed them this semester, and they missed me as well. It's really rough to be away from my niece and nephew that long because I feel like they're such an integral part of my life and vice versa. It was my nephew's birthday a week ago, so we celebrated that over Thanksgiving as well.

Got home around 6 on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and hung around for a bit. Wednesday was a bunch of errands and chores and then a trip to the New Brunswick bars with the crew. Thanksgiving itself was pretty good. The whole family was there, the food was good, and good times were had :) Friday was flu-shot day which always sucks because I seem to alwasy get some bad reaction from them. I helped put up the Christmas tree and tried to go see Matrix Revolutions again with my father. Black Friday. Movies. Bad combo. Needless to say it was sold out. Hopefully it'll still be in theaters in 2 weeks when I get home. I just recently started seeing films again with my Dad, something we haven't done together in a long time. I feel like it's a way of bringing us closer in a sense; doing things together again. He's getting pretty old and there's not much I CAN do with him anymore, at least physically. Saturday I hung around most of the day and opted not to go out that night 'cause I was feeling very tired. Watched the Ice Skating World vs. America with Mom. We used to always watch those together. Brian Boitano kicked some ass too. And Oksana Baiul...I still want to jump her.

The trip back to 'Cuse was pretty quick and uneventful. God bless the iPod. 5000 songs to keep me company on the way back. They sure make the trip fly by. The trip to and from school is cool like that too, in that it's the longest car ride I usually have in any given year. A good chance to listen to music when my car rides are normally less than 10 minutes. I essentially did no work over break whatsoever. I started on my IST 355 paper and got about a page and a half lol. Oh well, three papers due this week, then it's just time to gear up for finals. And of course my final website project is due. ::sigh:: We'll see how that turns out. I already know I'm going to have a good deal of all-nighters regarding that little ditty.

I've also had this score from a film stuck in my head since last night. Watching Road To Perdition spurred it on, and I can't place where it's from. The theme is getting clearer and clearer though, and always the film or source is just beyond mind's reach. I'll eventually crack it...hopefully before it bugs me too much.

16 days until Return Of The King!

Monday, November 24, 2003

Welcome to SATAN'S ASSHOLE!

That's exactly what the past 2 weeks have been. But it's almost over. I get to go home tommorrow afternoon, and do some relaxing. It will be great to see the family I really missed all of them this semester. It was just my nephew's birthday too so I gotta get out and get him a gameboy game :)

So I've been working like a madman lately yes. Everyone keeps asking me where I've been. I feel like Weird Al Yankovic between record releases lol. The huge 452 LAN Diagram is done. I had to host 3 sessions in the ILab cuz my professor would look "favorably" upon anyone who helped out other students. The rest of the class was clueless let's just say. All done, printed in spanking beautiful color, and
the other projects of hell week are finished as well. The 1 hour, 20 minute presentation went splendid, with praise from the professor afterwards at being the best group in the class, what every other group should "strive to be like." hhehe. Can't wait to see my friends from home. I miss the Jerz.

And yes I'm annoyed about the whole MJ deal....happening AGAIN.
Benefit of the doubt people. Mike's not normal, never said he was, but I don't think he did this.

Michael Jackson's Official News Website

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

CNN.com - Mickey Mouse hits a milestone - Nov. 18, 2003: "'Mickey Mouse speaks an international language,' Sklar said. 'When I go to Tokyo and see how kids react to Mickey Mouse the same way they do in Paris. It's reassuring that there are some things that cross international boundaries.' "

Happy 75th Birthday Mickey. I don't think you're the AntiChrist.

Monday, November 17, 2003

Pick up lines are so funny:

Do you need an exorcism? Because you keep making my head spin!

You've been a bad bad girl! Go to my room!

They say the good-looking ones travel in pairs, and that's certainly true in your case.

Confident women are sexy, and you look very confident.

Let's flip a coin; heads I get tail, tails I get head.

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

GameCube: The Hobbit: "The Hobbit features a unique style that directly contrasts the look of the gritty EA-developed Lord of the Rings titles. Bilbo is short and stubby, cute and colorful. He looks as though he might know and be friends with cel-shaded Link."

Friday, November 07, 2003

Ok so I did see The Matrix Revolutions on Wednesday night. I was in such a bad mood that I had to get out of the house and not do any work. Also Christine is yelling at me that she can't stalk me when I don't post in more detail, so this post is for her. I really liked it. I saw the horrible reviews. I think it was so overhyped, just like Reloaded, that it couldn't have been ended any better. I couldn't have written it better myself.

Everything I predicted after the 2cd movie came true though. Go me!

In other news I've just been really upset lately. My sister is in surgery right now. I was a wreck yesterday and I'm not faring much better today. There's a 1 in 200 fatality rate, which is not low at all, it's quite high. It's like there are a ton of things going on lately that I don't need on top of everything else.

This weekend at least should prove some distractment. Kathy invited me to go to dinner with her parents, sister, and sister's family at a Mexican place. Looking forward to that definitely. I might go to the football game. If we don't beat Temple I will hit myself in the temple. Maybe see Revolutions again. Once today is over things will be a lot better. They will.
Jobs On The Rise

Yes, I said it and I'll say it again. The economy has been on the rise. And every Liberal can call me a Nazi and a faschist whore for that hehe. The economy has steadily been rising under Bush's economic plan and will continue to. We're not in a recession, and we're not going to crash and burn. There will be jobs and American will be fine. Rejoice and go get a job :)

Wednesday, November 05, 2003

Ok this was WAY too funny not to post. It's a fictional conversation between Gollum and his alter ego Smeagol. The basis is whether or not to buy the Return Of The King video game that released today, because it has been quipped as having "more footage than the movie itself."

Sm?agol: We could getssss the game, yes get it and play. Be happy.
Gollum: But we would be spoiled. The game is tricksy.
Sm?agol: Game wouldn't spoil us. Game is our friend.
Gollum: Game will betray us! Tell us plot!
Sm?agol: No...no..... EA looks after us. Ea wouldn't hurt us.
Gollum: Electronic Arts wants you to play. Yes play and be spoiled.
Sm?agol: But we reads the book, We knows what happens.
Gollum: But we haven'ts seens whats it's going to looks like Precious.
Sm?agol: But we wantsss to know how game is.
Gollum: We could let her play it
Sm?agol: Yes. She could play it.
Gollum: Yes, Precious, she could. And she tells us if it was good.
Sm?agol: Once we've seen. Then we's could play it ourselves. Be the master.

I actually bought The Two Towers last year before I saw the movie, and I was eager to see how much was included within the game! Plenty of DVD quality movie footage yes, and plenty of behind the scenes interviews with the actors and creator. I see it as just another facet of the movie itself. Quite like The Matrix Reloaded video game. That game was of course a huge promotion for the movie. It was in essence a prequel to the second movie, and contained about an hours worth of real video footage. They spent 3 months filming for the game! And SO much of the backplot and story is explained. I knew what happened to Neo at the end of the second movie better than anyone else, because it came straight from the Wachowski brothers lol. I look forward to both games, although I'm wondering if I'll have time to play them much before Christmas break...
"But the emotional impact of this movie is zilch. When Moss and Reeves lock lips, it looks like two wire coat hangers trying to get it on."

Ok so let's just bash the Matrix franchise some more lol. I won't. I'm going tonight to see it after class, You bet your ass I am. It may be reduced to "Oh, they're great video games! Spectacular video games! Perhaps the best video games in the history of human civilization! But video games nonetheless," but I like the movies, I like their message, and their special effects, CGI and filming techniques are second to none. Rock on Wachowski brothers, I'm eager to see the fate of man unravel.

Monday, November 03, 2003

Want to know why I love Mark Hammil? Ok yes he was Luke Skywalker, and I'm the biggest Star Wars fan out there, and yes my old screen name was Jediqr7p for a number of years, and I know way too much about the Star Wars Universe than any person should about one that doesn't even exists........

But Mark didn't just ride the coattails of the trilogy, he's been busy at work.

Hamill is 52 now and wants other parts of his resume to shine: the non-Jedi movies, his hundreds of cartoon voice-overs, his comic book work, the CD-ROMs and his Broadway stints. He wants to be known for more than just the guy with a light saber.

"It seems to me that it's semi-fraudulent for me to be still playing on it," he says. "It seems to me that I just owe the public new product. If I wanted to be a nostalgia artist, boy, I could embrace it wholeheartedly."

Hamill's newest product is "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks," a two-actor comedy written by Richard Alfieri that co-stars Polly Bergen as a formidable Florida retiree who hires an acerbic dance instructor, played by Hamill, for six weeks of lessons.

Check it out!

I've seen many of the other things Mark has done, and it's always awesome to hear his voice in a cartoon or game. It just wouldn't be Star Wars without Luke Skywalker. I load up Star Wars Rebel Strike for Gamecube, and hearing and seeing Luke makes the story so much more involving. Yeah I'm a Star Wars geek...but I'm proud of it!

I love you Mark Hammil. You inspire me to no end.

I SALUTE YOU!
Been awhile since I've updated. It's way too late for me to do a long update now anyways-but I've been crazy busy. Halloween was pretty decent and the Red House Halloween party was next to amazing. There's just a lot going on this week and I've had a lot to worry about concerning my sister lately. I was thinking today though, about how great it will feel sitting down in in a theater at Reading Cinemas in Manville this December. When I sit down to watch Return Of The King, the semester will be over, and I will be home with family and friends. The stress, the constant worries, the toils of my family, the sickness of my friends and the weight on my heart will be so much better once I'm home. Tommorrow begins another long week...

So I'll start the revolution from my bed
Cos you said the brains I had went to my head
Step outside the summertime's in bloom
Stand up beside the fireplace
Take that look from off your face
You ain't ever gonna burn my heart out
And so Sally can wait
She knows it's too late as
we're walking on by
Her soul slides away
But don't look back in anger
I hear you say
-Oasis-

Wednesday, October 22, 2003

Pray for Robert DeNiro. He has announced today he has prostate cancer. :(
Just when you thought it was over, a whole new crew comes back for a new season of The Surreal Life!

New housemates including Ron Jeremy (Porn Star lol), Traci Bingamton (Baywatch, Vanilla Ice, Trishelle (Real World)

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

"Indiana Jones is a very, very engaging hero," Allen, the female lead in "Raiders," told The Associated Press. "He's the hero who puts on the German uniform, when he knocks out the soldier and goes to put on the suit, it doesn't fit. When he goes to hit somebody, he hurts his hand. He's not one of these heroes who's perfect or over-muscled. He's every man, in a sense. That's very appealing to an audience." -Karen Allen

"This film will only be made with the consent of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford," Rhys-Davies said. "None of these guys are in it for the money, anymore. If they're doing it at all, it's got to be better and more remarkable than any one of the 'Indiana Jones' films before. And that's a pretty tall order." -John Rhys-Davies


Give me a break...this is pretty sad. What do you expect people? Nothing processed, or name brand is 100% from fruit :)

Monday, October 20, 2003

-Getting Excited-

Well tonight was a dose of fun I haven't had in years! Meg, Jay, Kat, Kelly, Chris and I all carved pumpkins at the Red House tonight. It was really awesome. I ended up doing a really cool Cyclops one, and so did Jay for that matter. We had no idea what the other was doing until Rob commented on mine. Jay looks up and says "You're not doing a Cyclops are you?" Lol at least they don't look that alike at all! I can only remember carving a pumpkin maybe twice throughout my whole childhood. Painted a few but never did the full deal allllll the time. This one turned out awesome though. Photos will be up in my Ofoto album in about 8 minutes. They're uploading as I blog :)

So the party is this Saturday! AHHHHHHH! Amar, Dena, Matt, and Christine are all still definites. We're now trying to find a way to get Jesse up here but that's proving harder than originally thought. Jesse goes to Penn State, great school, good football, fun riots (I've heard), but crappy location. They're really out there in bumblededoo kinda like Villanova. Then again Syracuse is kind of isolated in its own as well. Not to mention UConn, UDel, etc. I think only Rutgers is near interesting things lol. And maybe some of those Cali schools. Let's not even mention NYU. So if we can find some way to get him to a train/bus station I could totally pick him up from there, but it looks grim so far. It will be good to see my friends though, I really missed them this semester. You'd think it'd get easier since I'm a senior and I've been through the whole ordeal/routine of going home, not liking it at first, then growing comfortable. When summer ends you don't want to leave again but you're a little eager you have to admit. Then you miss your friends and home again as the semester trudges on. This semester is blazing by though. I mean it's October 21st already. Geesh it was the 15th my last post!

My hell week went off without any problems. Took those 3 midterms, 2 exams, and 2 papers and the presentation and kicked all of their asses. ALL OF THEM. I was bouncing off the walls [again woahhhhhh] on Thursday night when I finished. Headed out to Darwin's with Kathy and saw the end of the Boston/Yankees game. Great game boys. It's not that I don't like the Red Sox, I actually have liked them for years, but the fans are total assholes. No Yankees fans, did I see at least, were harassing Sox fans or being outright rude and belligerent. Saw plenty of Bostonians being asses though, not a big surprise or big coincidence? You decide. Friday was a bar night, Chuck's woohoo. Saw a lot of people there. Ended up going home and wanted to go out again but I was wayyyyyyy too tired so I crashed lol. Saw The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Saturday evening with Kathy and her sister. Amusing but not worth the money as usual. But then again I got to see Erica Leerhson and Jessica Biel in tight fitting apparel so maybe it was worth SOME money. Went out to a huge party Saturday night and ended the night off watching some weiiiiiiiird stuff on VH1. Sunday was a total relaxation day, as was pretty much the whole weekend. I totally needed it, so that was aces high.

Didn't do as well on my Networking midterm as I had hoped. Our professor does these multiple multiple choice questions where they're multiple choice but it's usually 4 or 5 of the answers given being the answer itself. A lot of people sucked because of those. Would have been high 90s otherwise. Grrr. Math test I did awesome on though, and that's the second one. Hope the rest of the semester is like that, I'll make Dean's List, Honor Roll, and IST Recognition this semester if so. Time to catch some sleep busy week still ahead of me with lots to do. Gotta get those invites out too!

People come together
People fall apart
Nothing can stop us now
Cuz we are all made of stars
-Moby

Wednesday, October 15, 2003

Want to know what this week is? Hell. Absolute hell. 3 midterms, 2 other exams, 2 papers, and a presentation. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. SU scheduling should focus on the amount of work in classes related to other classes during the semester so you never get stuck with crap like this ever. Nightmare. Just finished 6 hours of research and work on my Law paper. We'll see how the infamous Molta Networking Exam goes tommorrow, I think I should be set.

Today started off really happy but I got some really bad news earlier from my sister and I can't get it out of my head. Some really serious stuff, so please keep her in your prayers if any of you pray. It seems like whenever I remark to myself that it couldn't get any worse that something really bad comes along and makes you wish you never said it. If that were all that was happening this week I'd be a lot better off even with all the work. I spoke to Jennifer earlier and her news was even more disturbing and upsetting. I think the worst feeling in the world is someone asking for you to be there for them, and then not being able to do it. It's crushing me lately and I really just need for this week to end. I need to not be engrossed in work 15 out of the 19 hours I've been up the past day. God just get me through tommorrow and Thursday and it will be ok...

Monday, October 13, 2003

So 24 is the most amazinginly powerful action show I've ever seen. It still doesn't touch the Sopranos or Six Feet Under in terms of those kinds of shows. They're different genres in my opinion. But sitting here with Asa watching the last episode of Season 1, I was totally blown away in the first 17 minutes. This and the last episode are amazing. Absolutely amazing. So amazing that I think I'm going to have to go tommorrow and pick up Season 2 immediately. That will be completely watched by the time Season 3 starts at the end of this month. Even though Matrix Reloaded comes out Tuesday I'm totally going to make 2 trips lol. OH YES DAVID PALMER IS THE M A N. YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH take that you wife HO! Amazing.....I love it. Every second of it. Time to finish the last half of the episode.

Sunday, October 12, 2003

This was a pretty interesting weekend. Thursday night was a big chilling on the porch night and then down to Marshall street. THen when I came home, Jay,Duke, Carl, Dave, and I all got down with 4 hours of DDR. It's so addictive that we had to make an organization as to who was going to play next or we would of ended up noogying eachother all night. Even when it wasn't your turn all of us were standing next to the pad step-dancing along with Friday was another bar night which was total fun as usual. Saturday was slow as all hell until Saturday night when Amy and Meryl had their party. We all got pretty smashed and it ended up being a really good night. Amy and Meryl were both in their good 'ol form by the time Asa and I got there. It was pretty nuts because it was like a NJ reunion. There were so many people from NJ there. Dana ended up showing up, but NOT KELLY because she passed out upon returning to her house. Kathy and Becky showed up and it was all in all a really great night. We hit Wegman's afterwards for a late night run and got some goodies. It was good to see Amy and Meryl and I totally have to hang out with them both more. I've seen so little of them this year. They both looked great, and Meryl totally lost weight I think.

I'm really starting to get excited for our Halloween party, it's going to be so much fun and I can't wait to see my friends. So far Matt, Amar, Christine, and Dena are coming up. Hopefully I'll figure out where they're all gonna sleep! :D Just been doing tons of work today, so much due this week and I really gotta crack down. So hopefully I can get my costume done in time for Halloween. There's so much to do this week-costume, midterms, getting my car fixed, and tons of other things ::sigh:: But this week will come and go, and I'm going to kick its ass. Time to watch some 24 with Asa. We're on the last disc, I need to buy Season 2 ahhh! Hopefully Carnivale later with Kathy. Love that show now!

Friday, October 10, 2003

SEE what did I tell you, it's been under 15 minutes and so far GREAT news has hit. Tears For Fears is reuniting! There hasn't been an album featuring both Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith since 1989. I'm so excited. Most who know me know I'm a pretty big 80s fan, the music of the time was great. And people who say they hated the 80s just had unhappy childhoods and probably got skinburn too often on their slip n slide. Tears For Fears remains one of my favorite artists simply because of the depth and meaning embodied within their songs. Orzabal forsaw things to come and wrote about them in his songs, and if you look at the lyrics you can clearly see that a lot of these things have come to pass. I dedicate today Tears For Fears day and I leave you with one of my favorite TFF songs involving a line about luck :)

Head Over Heels

Head Over Heels
I wanted to be with you alone
And talk about the weather
But traditions I can trace against the child in your face
Won't escape my attention
You keep your distance with a system of touch
And gentle persuasion
I'm lost in admiration could I need you this much
Oh, you're wasting my time
You're just wasting time
Something happens and I'm head over heels
I never find out till I'm head over heels
Something happens and I'm head over heels
Ah don't take my heart
Don't break my heart
Don't don't throw it away
I made a fire and watching burn
Thought of your future
With one foot in the past now just how long will it last
No no no have you no ambition
My mother and my brothers used to breathe in clean in air
And dreaming I'm a doctor
It's hard to be a man when there's a gun in your hand
Oh I feel so...
Something happens and I'm head over heels
And this my four leaf clover
I'm on the line, one open mind
This is my four leaf clover
Ladybug landed on me and hitched a ride for a good 2 trips during work today. That means I'm lucky lately and today's going to be a good day woo.

Thursday, October 09, 2003

So Rent was amazing, as expected. The guy who played Tom Collins, Marcus Paul James, was absolutely my favorite. I've listened to Rent for years but hadn't seen it yet, so tonight was my first time seeing it. Marisa knew Brian Gligor as well, the lead roletaker of Mark, so I got to meet him and a few other cast members. Tonight was really awesome, after the past few rough weeks I really enjoyed the show. It was the release I'd been needing. Now I'm off and out tonight to wherever. Think I aced my math test too. What a great day...
Just finished watching the first episode of CARNIVÀLE. I miss HBO. Period. HBO's come up with another award winning show, I can tell already. It's Not TV. It's HBO. Damn right. Here's the premise of the show:

1934. The Dust Bowl. The last great age of magic. In a time of titanic sandstorms, drought and pestilence - all signs of God's fury and harbingers of the Apocalypse - the final conflict between good and evil is about to begin. The battle will take place in the Heartland of an empire called America. And when it is over, man will forever trade away wonder for reason.

Debuting on HBO this September, CARNIVÀLE follows a traveling carnival as it wends its way across the Dust Bowl, focusing on a mysterious young fugitive with hidden talents who is taken in by the carnival, and on the charismatic, shadowy evangelist who will ultimately cross his path. The 12-episode dramatic series takes place at a time of worldwide unrest, with evil on the rise around the globe and the Great Depression wreaking economic and social havoc here at home.

As they become aware of their abilities, Ben and Brother Justin find themselves wrenched from their lives to realize that the world they thought the knew -- this tenuous, prosaic reality shared by humankind -- is actually a chessboard upon which is played the ancient conflict between Light and Darkness, and they are key players in the battle.


So Ed Stalh (John Connor from T3, or the little boy from The Man Without A Face all grown up) is the main character in this show, and the Little Man From Another Place a la Twin Peaks as well. I watched the first episode and I was really awed by how the commercials and promotions gave a very difference impression of the show. I thought it was all about weird carnies and like voodoo tarot and card reading. It turns out the show actually has religious implications. Excellent performances by all of the cast, and you feel as if you're actually in the Dust Bowl; the locale is so bleakly portrayed. I hope the next two eps download quickly or I can find out when they're doing one of those marathon deals with the show. They probably will over my xmas break again which I'd be totally down for. I have to convince my father to get Tivo, and if he won't, I'm shelling out for it myself. Especially since my boss and cousin taught me how to "hack" Tivo muahaha. Imagine being able to record 700 hours of anything you wanted. I could have ever season of every HBO show I wanted. Amazingness. Way to go HBO, you never fail to amaze me with your shows. Now if they'd only get off their butts and release Six Feet Under Seasons 2 and 3. Then again Season 1 was only released last like February..maybe this next one will yield another. I'm an HBO whore...totally.

Going to see Rent tommorrow YEAHHHHHHHH! I'm really excited about that. I'm going with Marisa, and I'm really glad I found someone to go with. I would have ended up going to one of the Rochester shows alone. Meg and Jay didn't want to shell out the $ to go see it, but I think it's such a great show that it would be really stupid of me to pass up this chance. I mean I passed up Wesley Willis last spring semester, (ok well I was under 21 which isn't really my fault but let's just say it was) when he was in Rochester, and he died this summer. Let's not tempt fate twice eh? Tommorrow's gonna be rough, math midterm and nightmare CCNA review where they insist on giving us tests and quizzes even though the course is NOT graded or part of my college curriculum. Mmmhmm. Aha. Right guys.

I'll leave ya with one of my favorite songs ever.

Blind Melon - Change

I don’t feel the suns comin’ out today
its staying in, its gonna find another way
As I sit here in this misery, I don’t
think I’ll ever see the sun from here
And oh as I fade away, they’ll
all look at me and say, and they’ll say,
Hey look at him! I’ll never live that way
But that’s ok their just afraid of Change
When you feel your life ain’t worth living
you‘ve got to stand up and
take a look around you
then a look way up to the sky
And when your deepest thoughts
are broken, keep on dreaming boy
cause when you stop dreamin’ it’s time to die
And as we all play parts of tomorrow,
some ways will work and other ways we’ll play
But I know we all can’t stay here forever,
So I want to write my words on the face of today
and then they’ll paint it

Sunday, October 05, 2003

Just had a chat with Brett. Good to hear from the old chap. He doesn't seem to be too happy out of college. As he puts it "get up, go to work. Come home, go to sleep, do it again the next day." I hear ya Brett. Was going to go to Faegan's tonight but didn't really feel upto it. A lot on my mind tonight and i'm not in the mood for drinking or really being around the inebriated tonight. Cracks me up that some people don't even remember me being out with them when they were 2 feet from me all night lololol. Ah alcohol I do drink to your health. So it's official Christine and Dena are definitely both coming up now, this should be an interesting Halloween party. If I could only get my costume together I'd be a happy happy man.

Talked to Ray tonight, glad to hear she was doing well. More drama in her life as usual. Poor girl has to learn to stop going for the guys who have girlfriends lol. She wrote a few songs about me though, THAT was really cool. No one's ever written anything about me before and they were really touching.

Time to go relax for a bit, get my mind off things. Maybe some 24 with the captivating Keifer Sutherland. GO JACK BAUER GO!
So apparently some people actually do read this, and they even check my Listen-To excerpt in my AIM info. I feel so special. Amy & Meryl you two rock lol, nice to know I count as some kind of Real World spin off in your lives lol.

So so far this weekend has been totally awesome. I was really down in the dumps the past two weeks. There was just so much horrible stuff going on then, it was like I was waiting for the clouds to lift. So many family problems, not to mention the car incident, and the death of a childhood friend. But just as always things turn out for the good again. I drank at the house Friday night, forgoing Chuck's cuz Kathy was too tired and passed out early in the morning where she went out after that lol. We all headed over to Kelly and Kat's house and had some more drinking. Chilling on the porch and some VERY interesting conversations lol. The pictures from that night are pretty hilarious. Especially when Kelly took her rats out. The facial expressions alone are priceless. Saturday I was planning on going to this Pumpkin Festival in Cortland. Chris had told us about it, and there was some beer tent where for $20 you could drink all you want for 4 hours. It was pouring when I woke up though, and I decided I'd rather just chill and do a little work. Almost ended up going to see that Lost In Translation movie today with Megan and Jim, although backed out because I was feeling a bit exhausted. Got some work done, and took a glorious nap (the effects of which are evident by my being up this late lol) and then went out to Kathy's.

It was Dana's 21st birthday tonight, so I went out with the Sumner girls to Chuck's which is always a good time. Poor Dana...I wonder if she'll remember portions of her 21st lol. Half the house, either current members or past members, were at Chuck's, and a lot of other people I knew were there. Among the bunch were Amy & Meryl, and it was really good to see them. I miss hanging out with them and I'll have to make a point of trying to more this semester. If only work would lighten up a skotch I could get a lot more things done that I've been wanting to. As good as tonight was there was still a few points of glum news that I half expected, but even so didn't really care to find out the truth. As far as I know I really haven't discussed this with anyone so it's one of those "Pete keeps it on the inside" kind of deals. Maybe when Matt or Amar are up for the Halloween party I'll talk to them about it. I really can't wait for them to come. Christine had told me a day or so ago that she didn't think she'd be able to come up due to UConn's homecoming week falling on the weekend of the 25th. Today though she updated me and said screw homecoming, it was only some minor deal anyway she was missing. I'm really glad she'll be coming up. We were good friends freshman year of highschool and faded a bit after that. She's pretty bitter towards guys now, as she seems to have had some really bad experiences with a few relationships in the past couple of years. She came camping with us though over the 4th this past summer, and I think everyone who went ended up becoming better friends for it. Christine remembers that weekend and I'm sure she'd agree lololol.

Also Amar is definitely coming up, even if Matt doesn't get his act together contacting him lol. Apparently though Matt's gonna be up that Friday, maybe I'll hit the bars with them. I really can't wait to see him either. It sounds like he's doing well this fall and I really hope so, I know the past few semesters have been rough on him, and I hope it fares better lately. The party is going to be so amazing...I really hope I can pull off my costume by then; I'll be pretty upset if I can't.

Otherwise it's been the usual work and class deal every day lately. My boss is off for about a week's vacation so it'll be kinda quiet and hopefully I'll get a little work done at class and get more sleep as a result. Fixed the house's internet AGAIN, and this time it should be final so no one will come complaining it doesn't work. I should get paid for that :P Got to know Marisa a little better this week, really interesting girl. Then again if you're a girl and you even know what Family Guy is, you're awesome in my book. It was cool though that we seemed to share a lot in common and she's got a passion in her life which is quite a rarity especially. Marisa's big into dance, and has done it for years. She's in like three dance troupes on campus, and in a few shows too. I look forward to seeing one; I've been raised to appreciate dance since my mother was a big ballet dancer, and did a lot of other shows and such in NYC and Brooklyn. Way before I was born, but I've seen pictures, she was such a gorgeous dancer. I actually really enjoyed my niece's ballet recital I went to last June. Not that surprising, I've liked dance for some years now. In another world maybe I'd have learned some dance. I still want to learn ballroom dancing. Maybe one of the classes this semester or next... So it's cool that she's that dedicated to something, and dance is something you can be really passionate about. I admire people like that, and feel that there's too little of them left. It feels like we're in a day and age where people are shiftless and kinda just loaf around not really doing anything concrete in their spare time but sleep or play games. Rock on Marisa! lol

Time to go chill with Asa and catch up with him. Haven't seen enough of him lately.

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

So I'm writing this blog from the comfort of the Red House family room. And there's no Cat5e cable connected to my laptop :P Yeah you got it, I've gone wireless! Thanks all to my boss. My boss is seriously the coolest guy ever. Here's a little story on how I got to work where I do.

Last spring semester I had IST 35, a really interesting class with a really good teacher, Mike Wunderlich. Really smart guy. So about 1/4th into the semester I ask him if he knows of any jobs on campus. I've been here for 3 years and I knew there was no way I was getting into CMS (Computer Mediating Services) and that my knowledge was much greater than 99% of their student staff. SO he puts me in touch with Jeff Pitt, actually calls him right there from the classroom and puts me on the phone with him before class lol. So I talk with Jeff a bit, and go meet him and boom, I've got the job. I begin working, joining 2 other students, and it's a great job! I actually did so well that they fired the two other kids and kept me on this year and gave me a raise. I work right across the street from where I live, allowing me to get those precious extra minutes of sleep whenever I feel like it. I get great hours, and very fair pay. And the extras rock. It's like getting job perks in the real world almost. For instance Jeff loaned me this wireless access point till the end of the year. He might even let me keep it! I can take off of work whenever I really need to, and I work my own hours. Of course I'm not getting paid like I was this summer, but that's OK, I'll be back to that soon enough when I graduate.

I'll have 1 1/2 years of experience with them (by the way my group is calls CSG, Computer Services Group who serves the Arts and Sciences college solely), and 2 years of experience with AIG (my big internship company). I'm really optimistic for how much I can start off earning when I graduate and head out there. The other day a guy stopped in who was the first guy to ever work as workstudy student. He started out making 55k right out of college with no more experience than working a year with CSG. Yeah...I think I'll be ok lol.

Awesome...I just saw MTV news, all about POD's idea for promoting their new album. They're selling the cd, with a dvd of tons of extra footage, AND they're including the coolest PS2 game ever-Amplitude. I own both Frequency and its aforementioned sequel. It's the coolest thing ever, you run down these "tracks" within a song, like vocals, bass, drums, guitar, etc and you play notes on those tracks. Now the notes can be on the left, middle or right of the track. Thinks get even more complicated when you can go from the end of one track and create a streak by immediately starting a new one. If that isn't complicated enough, you have multipliers equal to the number of consequative streaks going. Add in a few other powerups and it's one helluva fun game. Looks like bands are finally getting the idea to entice music listeners to buy cds again. It's quality of the quantity in my opinion. Ugh time go to work on a group project...if Craig would call already...
Things like this absolutely horrify me...but I'm amazed at the resilientness and resourcefulness of children.

Monday, September 29, 2003

Yeah so this whole past week has blown major donkey chunks. Ok wait a minute that's just the anger talking. No offense to any donkeys. You're very noble, helpful, and respectful creatures. That said here's a recap of the past weeks events:

Death of a Friend: A friend of mine from elementary school who I've stayed in touch with over the years died this past week from leukemia. It seems like every time I seem to forget about death's grasping clutches another person is taken from my life. This might have been easier to take had a friend not lost her uncle this week as well. Seeing her mirroring how I was feeling kind of gave it a secondfold strength. This was last Monday for me, so it started the week on a down tone. I'm glad though, she's in a better place and she won't suffer any longer.

Class From Hell: Yeah so my professors decided to pick this week to add insult to injury. I had so much work I was up for 4 out of the 5 schoolnights until about 3-4am working on assorted projects, assignments, and reading. Ugh at least that big chunk is done with!

Who's Laughing Now?: So after a pretty bad Friday night (rainy, and not much going on), I wake up Saturday morning to find my car broken into. The small triangular window on the passenger rear door smashed in, the rear hatch lock decimated and assorted scratches all over. The object of desire? My roadside assistance kit, containing jumper cables, tire inflator, some flares and cool reflective markers. So some schmo must have though he had the motherload of a laptop. Wish I coulda been there to see that one. God DOES have a sense of humor lol...Not that bad a thing but it really put a downer on the rest of the weekend. I was pretty down in the dumps all Saturday and it really killed my Sat. night. Back to almost normal on Sunday. I mean a third of the semester hasn't even passed and already I've have my car damaged twice! Claims adjuster just called. Rather than going all the way home to Ideal Auto Body (the guys who rebuilt this car from scratch when Mom and Dad had their act of God accident about 5-6 years ago) or I could find a place here. I'd like to find a place here if at all possible. It's a pain to drive 8 hours and have to wait a few days there to get it fixed. The guy didn't even take anything else. I had EZ-Pass and change and all that in the car, but I guess he was paranoid enough to be in a hurry. So an appraisal person's gonna come and take a look at that this week. Woohoo...

At least there's some bright news. My sister is thinking of coming up to visit me for parents' weekend. That would really make my semester right now. I keep hearing from my nephew via email, and I spoke to my sister the other day. I really miss my family this semester. I thought that that wouldn't be such an issue my senior year, as I've gotten 3 years to get used to it. Guess not. They're such a part of me I can't imagine not having my parents, siblings, niece or nephew. Sometimes it really is the small things in life that matter most. Rent is coming to 'cuse! The travelling one at least. I can't wait for that. I've been really excited to see it. Our party date is set, October 25th! Red House Halloween Whorer party! Whoooooooo! About 6 of my friends want to come up. I hope they all do! It would be so awesome to have an awesome halloween. Still trying to piece together my costume. Not too easy, but maybe I can pull it off....

Time to go cook some Italian goodness!

Monday, September 15, 2003

This weekend rocked majorly. So much fun.

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

Been really busy the past week or so, not too much time to update. I'll try to now briefly since I took a nap at 5 that ended up being till 10pm, and there's no way I could sleep right now lol. Classes are pretty awesome, thanks to those of you who inquired during the past few weeks. It's going to be a rough semester all right. I work every weekday at the same job I had last semester. In Sci-Tech I work for Computer Services Group, NOT CMS (which sucks ass and 99% of its employees have never touched a computer). They actually fired the two other students who worked their last semester and hired me on full time with a raise! Woo for being a homewrecker. I've got a lot more responsibility this semester and they've even given me my own office. Rock on! It's nice 'cause I get to work with a bunch of Macs now I'd usually never have a chance to work with otherwise. This is what I've got on my desk:

-2 desktop PC's
-2 PC Laptops
-G3 Mac desktop
-G3 Mac laptop
-g4 Mac laptop

Ahhh the wonderful sense of having 7 computers at your desk and never needing any more ;P Work is fun, I get along really well with everyone, especially the two new university employees Lisa and Dick. They're both pretty cool and everyone has a similar sense of humor as me. Everyone's a republic and middle or moderate conservative, so we share a lot of similar values as well. Nice to have someone on my own wing to talk politics with. Not to mention Jeff, my manager, is a sports fan too. Yay for jobs that are more fun than they are work. So I work there every day spankin' early in the morning, the time which fluctuates. Usually I work, go to class, then head back to work till the end of their work day. A bit taxing and tiring but when the paychecks start coming in I'll be very happy. I'm living a lot more thrifty this semester which I'm proud of.

Ok yeah I did buy a digital camera this past week, but I needed it for a class this semester anyways so it was a school-related purchase :) I swear! lol Classes are hard, oh yeah, and I've gotten a crapload of work already and shoveled through a lot uptil now. Anyone who's still NOT in school, you suck big time and I hope your deodorant fails to work tommorrow. Every semester I think it's the hardest I've ever worked in my life and then the next semester Life smacks me and wakes me up to a new world of work. Oh well. I never expected an easy senior year, and I'm sure as hell not getting one. The house is great though and we're having an art show this Saturday. Going to be a big deal too. Mix of an art show, open-house, and sale all in one. Got my animations all ready to premiere for the first time publicly, and not just to friends, at the show. Contemplating buying the Creature Speakers to rock the body rock the body. These things are amazing in sound for their small size. Looking for a cool way to hook up my Ipod to speakers apart from my stereo so I can use it for other things.

Other than that not much new news, except that our first Red House party is going to be October 25th, officially the first Halloween party of the 2003 year on campus. Hell yeah to that, hopefully it will be even better than last year, a pretty tough contender to beat.

Here's the pics I've got up so far of The Red House and College Fall 2003

Peace in the Middle East and rain on my house!

Tuesday, September 09, 2003

Those bastards. This was my idea last semester! I have the whole proposal written up. Maybe I should sue!

Monday, September 01, 2003

Listening To: Tindersticks - Tiny Tears (God I love this song...)

God tonight was rough. Shit went down tonight and my heart definitely troubles me this evening. It seems like every time I do the right thing in my life I'm always the one who either ends up getting hurt, or feeling much worse off than I would be if I just had stayed out of it. Sometimes it's so easy to do the right thing, but so many times it's so hard to, yet only because of the results. It's only a week into college and my spirits are low. Yeah college is fun, but I keep on feeling like there's more to this, or there should be for me. Guess I'm just kind of sad tonight, the world can be such a great place sometimes, and others it can really just appall you.

Talked to my nephew online today for a bit. My niece's birthday on Thursday, and her party is tommorrow. I feel guilty for not being there for her, or his birthday for the 4th year in a row. I hope I can make that upto them somehow. He understands, but she's only 6 and the concept of college isn't as clear to her. Maybe one day I'll travel when I work, but I could never settle overseas or too far away. My family means so much to me, and with every passing month it's so much clearer. I left for my senior year of college and Mom was still upset the night before and that day. It's like you get into your little arguements with your parents, which are nothing compared to some of the disagreements we've had in the past. This is like the holy time of no war lol. We get along pretty well, and they still grate my nerves sometimes, but I know how much they care and that it's not right to be difficult for the sake of being so. Then one day your mother or father will say something to you, and you realize how much they really do care about you.

I had a really upsetting dream the other night. My father was dying, I don't know of what, but in that weird dream way you just know it's something horrible and there's nothing you can do to stop it, let alone delay it any. Later that day I was reminded of a conversation my brother and I had during our vacation 2 weeks ago. Dad's 64, and despite his excellent health my parents aren't getting any younger. He said something to the effect of "We're going to have to take care of Dad very soon." My sister as well shares the sentiment. I will never put my parents in any kind of home. It is against every moral I've built in my life. You don't desert your family. Very little scares me in life, but death does. Not my death, I'm not afraid of dying at all. I was when I was little. I could remember getting really upset at like 8, 9 or 10 right before the school year started thinking about it. I think I thought I was going to die like in a week or something lol. I don't fear death, but I fear who it will take from me in the coming years. It really is rough to come in at the tail end of siblings. I've known one grandparent out of four, and she passed away in 1993. I think that even definitely opened my eyes to just how powerful death is at stealing away those you love. Looking back at how old I was and what it was like to have her live with us for abour a year and a half slowly withering away. I pray no one I know ever gets cancer, and that they do find some way to stop it one day. Cancer, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, and MS are the saddest things ever to witness. I know people who have each, and it racks my heart to see them sometimes. Even my uncle Tony who had a stroke and whose mental capacity is a faint shimmer of what he once was. Faith really is an amazing thing. Everything can scream the opposite at you, and despite that you believe in a reason, in something to the contrary. Maybe it's because Chris's father passed away this past year, and Jay's mother as well. Two men I really respect for their strength during those times. Just thinking about the first Six Feet Under episode is enough to mist my eyes. One of my housemates, Lauren, her boyfriend Edward, his father also recently just passed away. It's like I don't want to think about it, but it's kind of placed in front of you repeatedly.

Saw some dogs today at the pet store. Reminded me of Buttons a little. I can't believe it's been like 5 or 6 years now since he's been god. I don't think there's a week that goes by where I don't recall some memory with him. What an awesome dog. Screw Dick's Sporting Goods for their crappy collection of baseball gloves. I was hoping to buy a new one so I could preserve my old one. The thing is like a relic now. Over 16 years I've played with that glove. BBI, Babe Ruth League, and the All-Star league. I really miss those days.

Well my head hurts way too much and today has become a day to deal with rather than live, so I'm off to bed. Hopefully no troubling dreams cuz my plate's full enough lately. God bless all of you who try to do the right thing in your lives~My heart is with you.

Monday, August 18, 2003

Ok well this is going to probably be a long post since I haven't updated in awhile. I went on vacation a week ago, right after I finished up work. The guys at work took me out to lunch and that was awesome as usual. It's been such an experience working at AIG, and I really feel like one of the team in the office/company, and part of a family in the LAN group. I got an amazing letter of reccomendation from Tim, my boss. Like a bar of gold when I get out of school. He even is trying to arrange for me to work over winter break so I can make some cash! W00t!

Anyways that Friday night Matt, Jesse, Kevin, Amar and myself headed out to Hoboken (35 cents for the Garden State tok-en!) to do the bar scene and end our summer off. That was a pretty wild night. I owed Jesse a few drinks and Kevin too, so they both got trashed as Matt and Amar owed them similarly. Good night until Amar got sick and Kevin too. Kevin took it much better and after some hurling at a gas station in Hoboken, (yes we never even made it out before the rawrfing began), Amar and Kevin went at it. After stopping like 3x for Amar and Kevin of course. Wow...what a sight. And Kevin says he's only been drunk like twice hehehe. Glad to be a condoner of that! Got Kev some bagels and he was much better but Amar I must say had a ROUGH ROUGH night hehehe. Poor kid was going at it the whole ride home. And then we got pulled over. Cop saw that Amar didn't have his seat-belt on-kind of hard to have that when your head is in a bag. So he pulled us over, with Kevin asleep and Amar hurling organs. Does the whole routine, looks around in the car with his flashlight. Checks Amar's and Jesse's licenses, and then goes to Amar's side. Amar is still retching and the mone moment was when Amar spit up and the cop looked at him and just said "Aw that's just disgusting," and walked away briskly. Meanwhile Jesse was getting harassed by the woman cop who none of us even knew was there lol. She asked him what he was doing, he said "Standing right here because he told me to," to which she replied "Good answer."

Got home, got about 3 hours of sleep, then got up to pack the cars for LBI. Ahhh LBI- Long Beach Island to you none NJ natives. The best beach I know, and I'm happy to get there whenever I can. We rented a house with my sister's family, and a gorgeous one at that. It was great to spend a week with my sister and her kids. I really miss them all schoolyear-long and even now during break I rarely get to see them. It's like I'm almost a father sometimes, weird, but quite enoyable. The island wasn't as busy as usual, but we came up with plenty of reasons as to why. It was still hoppin' down at Beach Haven at Schooner's Wharf. (Kind of the big bustling area with stores, huge miniature golf course, and the water slides etc.) Matt and Andrew came down that Thursday and we went to the Ketch and then onto Joe Pops. Interesting night again. Good drink prices, $.50! Woo! Got back this past Saturday, the 16th, and took care of some packing that day. Sunday I went to church with the 'rents and continued packing. Same for today. Dad goes in for surgery tommorrow so I'm going to probably stick around until Wed afternoon/night or Thursday more likely to go back to Syracuse. Can't wait to get back. The Red House is going to rock this year, and it's going to be a good year...I know it.

In other news my car was in the shop again. To the tune of $620...gah...Damn you Dave's Friendly Texaco, Damn you. At least the AC that was fixed a month ago is still fixed and not leaking etc. Tires are OK too, so there's an upside to it :) Time to grab a bite and see what's up for tonight.

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

I may have posted this before but it's back up for your enjoyment because it's seriously the funniest thing I've ever seen. Don't stop there though I suggest you watch most of them including the original. You can find them at JediMaster.Net
HERE IT IS! LEAKED EPISODE III SCRIPT!

If you really take that seriously I'll beat you, really I will.
FACT:

Online piracy crime is erupting like a flaming cancer, spreading its growling, fiery malignancy across the groin of the technology world (a.k.a, the internet) and is suffocating cash-starved entertainers. Rock and roll musician Lars Metallica has gone public saying that illegal downloading has cost him so much money that he has had to lower the quality of his music due to lack of funds.
Holy crap Jim McGreevey finally did something worthwhile. Watch your asses sleep-deprived drivers. If you get into a sleep or drowsy related accident you could be fined upto $100,000 (froma measley maximum $200) and spend upto 10 years in prison! Finally our retarded governer does something better. Read the article here. At least Christine Todd-Whitman did a good deal of things for this state. The only other thing I like of McGreevey's is his new car inspection policy. If your car is 2000 or later, you only have to get it inspected ever 4 years. Not a bad idea.

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

This post on IMDB is the funniest US vs UK argument I've seen in awhile. All sparked over American Wedding lol. Take a look here.

Monday, August 04, 2003

This was too funny. Anne Coulter has the sharpest political whit I've seen in a long time.

"Another tape-recorded message from Saddam Hussein surfaced this week, making it the third audiotape he has released in the past month. If we're really serious about finding this guy, maybe we should start searching Iraq's recording studios."

"In other terror news, the government issued a warning to the airlines this week about terrorist attacks on commercial aircraft being planned before the end of the summer. Al-Qaida has apparently sized up the new security measures put into place by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and has discovered some areas of vulnerability. Among the weaknesses the terrorists hope to exploit is the fact that airlines are prohibited from looking for Arab terrorists."

"Uday Hussein didn't need a phony study to comprehend Bush's lack of "nuance." The London Sunday Telegraph recently reported that, soon after the war began, Uday was deeply depressed. According to the former director of Iraqi television quoted in the Telegraph, the last words he heard Uday speak were these: 'This time I think the Americans are serious. Bush is not like Clinton. I think this is the end.'"

Quite the intelligent women eh? Saw her this past year speak live at our school. One of the best political Q&A sessions I've ever been to. Only wish I had her book then so she could have signed it.

Wow well what a weekend. Got out of work for a half day on Friday, ran home picked up my contacts, finally got in contact with Amar, Matt, and Scott and set out for Atlantic City. That's when we hit the typhoon. Worst traveling weather EVER. Ugh. Brought along the Ipod and it passed the first long term traveling test with flying colors. I just exchanged it yesterday actually as my new one came in 4 days ahead of schedule! Go Apple! Once we got down to AC we met up with Tammy and Lindsey and went out for a walk on the boardwalk. Went to the Hard Rock Cafe there for dinner, pretty awesome since I'd never been to any HRC's up until then. Afterwards we got ready to go out and hit up this bar on the boardwalk. Not bad except for the really drunk in-his-50's guy (who was wearing a fanny-pack) who came up to me and proceeded to:
1.) Give me a hug
2.) Offer me a beer
3.) Inform me that if he was gay I'd be a hot ticket and he'd hit on me
4.) Actually DID hit on me.

Then his friend came over, just as blasted but aware of it at least and a good 20 years younger. Then their hippie chick came over and proceeded to investigate what we were discussing. So now I've got a thirty-something hippie in my arms, a 50 year old man trying to grab my ass, and his younger friend patting me on the shoulder.

Woo....hoo.....

The hippie wouldn't let me go either until I did "peace" to her and we did that whole 60s connect our fingers. I think I know why guys in the 60s never got laid. The women wore some hot clothing, but the men were stuck in the middle of a sexual revolution, at their sexual peak, wearing clothes that guaranteed they weren't going to get laid. To quote Denis Leary (WHOSE ROAST IS ON THIS WEEK!), "I think the qualudes explained why we were wearing the bell bottom pants don't you?"

After finishing up there we went over to the WILD WILD WEST Bally's casino. Fun times. Amar and I dropped about $40 a piece in the slots. Yeah mindless, yeah stupid, yeah we were both $40 poorer. Then I hit up the $5 blackjack tables. Ooohhhh booyah That was fun times up there. Good dealers, good hands, and good profits. Matt made out exceptionally well at the craps table, and Scott after losing a crapload at the roulette table, made out with over $200 of THEIR money. Not bad eh? Tammy broke even, but she's becoming quite the gambler ::wink wink:: so she'll be under in a few days again lol. Next day we drove off to Lindsey's which was really a great end to the weekend. Matt ended up coming to Lindsey's after all and Jesse and Kevin showed up that night as well. It was good to be in the sun and go swimming. The fluorescents are humming angrily at me as a type. They know I was out getting natural light. I'll smash a few of them later when no one's looking.

Matt brought along Dance Dance Revolution, actually all of them. I had never played before because I didn't want to try it at the movies or the arcade and look like an idiot. So I did the training modes and all and got the hang of it really quick. It was really fun and became a highlight of the weekend. You actually had to put yourself in the "queue" to play! Next morning we all were up fairly early and headed off back home. Took a quick nap, headed out to Menlo with Amar, Jesse, and Kevin to pick up my Ipod and see what the Old Navy over there had to offer. Stopped off at Friendly's for dinner, and then straight off to see American Wedding. Not a bad flick, although I wish the few characters they cut out were in there. Chris Klein can go to hell though, I'm glad he was cut out :P Got some sleep, maybe all told about 12 hours the entire weekend...But I couldn't feel better. Really.

Now it's back to my last week of work WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Time to go bring the hurt to the humming lights....

Friday, August 01, 2003

"Actually, I think the radio star killed the radio star." Lol this post on IpodLounge cracked me up. Someone had asked if Ipod killed the radio star. As you can tell from previous posts, I think the radio star killed himself too :P Check out IpodLounge if you're interested in getting an Ipod. Definitely the best piece of hardware I've ever bought. I had 2 problems with my last two yes...I'll go into that really briefly.

The first Ipod I dropped, not that hard, but I got an error afterwards which isn't related to that thankfully. It's a folder with an exclamation point in it. This is like a corrupted folder/hard drive etc. It's actually a problem they've been getting. Probably because of the Malaysian made hard disks from Toshiba. When will you use Western Digital! So I returned that one on the 7th to BestBuy. I never bought the service plan they offer either. It's $40 for 2 years. Why should I pay more for that when Apple's warranty is 4 years! So I used my new one for abotu 3-4 weeks this July then 3 days ago the hold button started wackin' out on me. I would turn it off and it would still think it was on. I'd have to fiddle with it a couple times to get it on. I was freakin' out when I was at the diner with Matt and Amar and I tried turning it on and it appeared dead. Now amid all the discussions of battery life for the 3rd gen Ipods, mine had been pretty good on the two I've had. I get upwards of about 6-9 hours and they advertise something like 10. I have kept it not in the charger for 3 days at a time too and had a full charge when waking it up. Yes the Ipod "sleeps" and never is really off. That's how it achieves that kooky instant-on capability. I hadn't had one problem with the 2cd Ipod, but that hold button was annoying. Luckily there were 2 Apple stores somewhat nearby, one in Menlo Park Mall and one in Short Hills Mall. So I went with Matt to Menlo on Tuesday and they were amazing. Best customer service yet, seriously. I'm considering buying an Apple laptop (because I've wanted an Apple system, but not a desktop persay) to start putzing around with since their networking is a close second to Windows NT and 2000 servers. I even got to keep my current Ipod till then, so I'm not without music. And I'll have the new one in time for my LBI vacation! Rock on!

Waiting for Matt to give me a call to see if we're go for Atlantic City. Never been, can't wait to go. Hopefully he can get the money. He got the work coverage already w00t! Then it's off to Lindsey's for the annual "End of the Summer Shore House Retreat." YEAHHHHHHH. I look forward to this all summer every year. It's like the beginning of my official vacation. Actually going back to school will be a much needed downgrade of work compared to what I've been shelling out this summer. Then I've got one more week of work, and it's down to LBI for a week with my parents, my sister, her husband, and the kids! I really can't wait, I saw them both last Monday, and it was seriously like leeches attached for the entire 3 hours they were there lol. I miss em tons, and it's good to know the sentiment is shared.

Needless to say I'm not getting any sleep over vacation, or not any extra anyways lol. I know Marc and Alyssa will have me up by at least 5 am daily lol. I wouldn't trade that week for anything in the world though. When they were over we watched about 3/4 of Big which of course they had never seen being only 8 and 5. It's scary to think that's a classic already even to me. I often think about how many movies and experiences they'll never know about. I feel like it's my duty as an uncle to educate them. Yeah the fact that my nephew totally loves Star Wars is all Pete's fault. I was still in my Star Wars phase about the time he was 2-3. Hey at least I've got someone to talk to about it lol. I can be a closet case fan :) Funny how every time I see, get an IM, or talk to him on the phone, Marc has got some new interesting bit of information about what he's done in a video game, or what's new in his Animal Crossing town. Such a great game, I'm glad I bought that for him for Christmas last year. Him and his sister play it now, just what I had aimed for. Teaches him how to write letters, since he's a full blown reader for over a year and a half now, and her who's just starting. God I haven't played that game in months...time to boot it up again :P

Thursday, July 31, 2003

I love it when artists post their thoughts/comments on songs they've done. Here's a complete Track By Track from Linkin' Park about their new album "Meteora." Great album, and they bridge a lot of different sounds.
YEAH CHRIS ROCK!

Funny ass article about rappers trying to be pimps. Didn't they want to be gangstas yesterday?

Chris Rock was appalled by "Lil' Pimp," a cartoon movie in the works about a child pimp.

"That's where I draw the line. That's where I get corny. My daughter will not be at the kid pimp movie," says the comedian, whose movie "Pootie Tang" was akin to a pimp fashion show. "I want to meet the white executive who said, 'Yes! Lil' Pimp!'"

Lol what will this world churn up next. If any of you haven't seen Bad Boys II yet, get your ass out and SEE it soon! It was quite simply the best movie of the summer besides Matrix Reloaded if you count that as a summer blockbuster. Ahh it's almost the weekend, thank GOD. I need the shore, the beach, the bay, the shore house. And I need it soon...

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Ahh memories of Red House fooseball I cannot wait to return and continue my undefeated streak.
Napster's Glorious Return!

Finally. Maybe the music industry has been reading my blog? :P

Monday, July 28, 2003

Dubbed "Mr. Entertainment" star, Bob Hope has passed away. With over 475 tv shows and 1,000 radio shows, his career has spanned many decades. A man who was born in 1903 and made me laugh many a time. Some things are timeless and will always bridge the gap between generations. Rest in peace Bob. When Christmas rolls around, it will be bittersweet for your special will not be a part of my holiday anymore.
Concerned that information about your file-sharing username may have been subpoenaed by the RIAA?

How Not To Get Sued By The RIAA For File-Sharing
(And Other Ideas to Avoid Being Treated Like a Criminal
)

I fully support the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They are a group of, as they put it, "non-profit group of passionate people — lawyers, volunteers, and visionaries — working to protect your digital rights." First of all these guys are non-profit which I really respect pro-bono work. Helps me to maintain the belief that not all lawyers are bloodsucking maggots as popularly believed. They're supporting a legal means of file-sharing which I think is a wonderful idea. There are two ways mp3/movie/media trading can go from here.

1) We continue to share files. Artists continue to lose a slight bit of money (since most of their income comes from concerts/venues anyways), but the music industry takes a big hit. The music industry will continue to lash out at anyone they can in a desperate attempt that is likeable to punching a 20ft wave. Sales of IPods skyrocket...

2) The RIAA and music industry get a much needed clue and work with artists and the common consumer to come up with a veritable solution that benefits everybody. Such things have already been put in motion, but they are not at full potential yet. Buy.com's BuyMusic just launched last week, and they actually are pretty reasonable. $7-$9.99 per album and individual songs ranging from $.79-$.99. That I could deal with. You even save by buying the album as a whole. I haven't seen any prices higher on standard CDs yet. Music needs to encompass an integration onto online media.

This is one area where the Britain comes through with shining colors. I recently borrowed and ripped (the RIAA does not scare me :) the Ministry of Sound's "The Annual" 2003. 2 CD-set mixed by DJ Sammy. Pretty decent. Not as good as 2002, but still some good hits. One song was really awesome and I totally got into it and went and found the video shortly after. Divine Inspiration's "The Way" is the name of the song. Upon going to the Ministry of Sound webpage I immediately saw the concise nature they'd arranged things into. When I found Divine Inspiration's page there was the music video streamed online for all to watch, and on the left menu bar options to download the song, and in many versions! I don't know about you, but when I find a good techno song (or even a rock hit that's been remixed), I go and try to find as many remixes as possible. Each one is usually better than the last. Well I found about 2 or 3 yesterday for this particular song, but there were some hard to get ones, or versions which only came in WMA (Windows Media format) which is horrible and gets delays playing in even winamp. Sounds like it needs to buffer like you were streaming it live online...hum. Well on the site you can buy all the versions, order the cd, buy it in vinyl, or burn it straight to cd. They only iff I have with this site is that they limit the times you can burn it per month. Some sites limit the times you can download it, or number of times you can burn it at all. Some of them don't even let you do that, but allow you to export it to a MP3 device. This doesn't make too much sense to me, (well it does for OBVIOUS reasons) but my logic here is that when I buy a CD, I now own the right to make personal copies to my heart's content. As long as I'm not passing them out to anyone, I could have Madonna's Hollywood cd copied 500x. Roughly 30% of my mp3 collection (out of 11,000 songs that's something like 3300) are legitimate owns, meaning I own the actual CD it came off of. The rest is a blatant smack to the music industry :) The accessibility of the site and the "shopping cart" buying experience makes it very Amazonlike in feel. I think it's well integrated, and if we could mimic the same thing on artists own websites, I think we'd see a resurgence in album sales once again. If I remember correctly there was a movie industry monopoly way back at the beginning of this century. FIL 485 taught me well, because I remember that monopoly was abolished by Thomas Edison. I serioulsy doubt the music industry will collapse, lol. They are going to have to adapt a little quicker though or suffer horrible sales not much unlike Jacko's latest album >:L

Pearl Jam is a once again bona fide unsigned band again! lol

Friday, July 25, 2003

This is the funniest thing I've ever seen. Most of them are pretty ridiculous but there's a few that crack me up.

Here's my #1 favorite reason to Hate The Matrix (And No I don't lol):

You've worked as a policeman your whole life, protecting the innocent, enforcing the law. You retire with honors, then take a job as a security guard, working the metal detector on the ground floor of a skyscraper in order to help pay for your wife's arthritis medication. You're sitting there, on a slow day, reading your newspaper, when a girl walks in wearing a trenchcoat. She issues no demands, no warnings, no "freeze" or "drop your gun." She just tears you in half with a spray of machine-gun fire, then does cartwheels along the walls while killing all your friends.

Here's a close runner up:

You are a hard-working single mother, making ends meet by doing time as a secretary in an office building during the day, a drug-store clerk in the evenings. You are on the office phone with the babysitter one quiet Wednesday afternoon, telling her how to calm little Dakota down, to get her to stop crying her eyes out asking why Mommy is never home, telling her that you'll be there soon, honey.

A split-second later your head is severed by a shattered helicopter rotor blade, the skull bouncing off a nearby wall, leaving a spray of arterial blood on a motivational poster. Your eyes bulge wide, your brain inside remaining alive just long enough to recognize the horror of your fate. Aviation fuel splashes in through the shattered windows and ignites, incinerating mothers, husbands, fathers, best friends.

And somewhere, a theater full of young, chubby males cheers because Trinity made it out before the crash.

That someone even took the time to write that totally speaks for the youth of America. We are the youth of the nation? God help us all.
Yikes! Stripes! Fruit Striped Gum!

Anbody remember THAT stuff? Geesh...we had some weird products in our childhood I'll tell ya. If you're feeling nostalgic try visiting Yesterdayland , it's a website devoted to the past liek 60-70 decades. Everything you remember having, playing with, watching, and doing is pretty well summarized there.

Well this week sure has gone fast. This summer hasn't been so bad concerning the Mundays. I haven't really been unhappy to go to work on a Monday yet. Last summer by this point I was just aching to get back to school and stop working. Now I'm enjoying going to work. This time next year I might be here as a hired employee! I'll be receiving salary...woah...weird!

Guess it's a good sign to be enjoying my work, I guess it shows that I'm prepared to enter the "REAL WORLD" OOOOOOOOOOH AHHHHHHHHHH EEEEEEEK. I never really get that. I mean yeah a lot of us will be graduating this year, but I mean come on, we'll most likely still be living with our families for a year at least. You won't be completely independant and out there on your own JUST yet lol. I know I plan on staying home for at least 2 years to get myself a bit settled. I think I'm going to work my ass off on overtime next spring/summer and get my loans paid off as fast as I can. God bless my grandmother, God rest her soul, for what she left me in her will. I had never known but apparently I was her favorite grandchild out of like the 32 of us. I do bear the name of her husband, and I did see her quite frequently. I pray none of you ever has to have a loved one living at their house their last dying days. Last dying days...she was with us for 2 years ::sigh:: That seems like so long ago now, but it was 1993. Things were so much different then... My sister didn't have ANY kids; I was just a kid myself. Every winter when Mother wears that fur coat, I can't help but remember it was my grandmother's coat too. Memories of rides to Christmas Eve mass in the backseat of the car rush back in. I hope that she's happy though, and with all those that left before her.

I always get to wondering if I'll meet all of the grandparents I never knew. My Mother's mother was the only grandparent I ever had. Being born late has its advantages. Sure I don't get cracked down on as hard as my brother and sister were. Any mistakes my parents made with them aren't made on me either lol. I've got like a second set of parents in Fred and Doreen, and I'm lucky enough to be an uncle to two wonderful kids. I hope I'm as good a parent as my sister one day. Then again I can rest assured that my kids will have a wonderful aunt. That's so weird to think about even. My sister and brother will be my children's aunt and uncle. It's like taking the whole generation we have right now, (my immediate nuclear family) and shifting it down a generation. Can I even see Peter in 10 years? Who will he be with? Where will he work? Live? But he's only 21, and he can't see that far into the future.

Sometimes I envy my brother and sister. They knew our grandparents. Not for too long, but they have a memory of them at all. I hope I one day meet my great grandfather. Apparently he's the one I take after the most. I've seen a picture of him where it's the entire family sitting at a picnic somewhere in Brooklyn. It's strange the locale seems so out of place; they're in some kind of grotto of foilage. There's everyone else, pretty miniscule in size, and the one man, massive and distinguished. I definitely get my size from him. Everyone else are short in stature. I wonder if they look down on me, and what advice they'd offer, could I speak to them.

Went to Cryan's last night. What a great place that is. It's like a mini-high school reunion every time we go. Found a new and amazing drink (well new to me anyways.) Dr. Pepper. No, not the soda. Those will definitely help me get on my way this Saturday night ;P Which is the eve of Andrew's next Rutgers party. Whoooo. Tonight we're hittin' up Clydes, this awesome Martini bar in New Brunswick. Can't wait for that. Today couldn't go faster :D I'm really enjoying the middle to tail-end of this summer. It's ridiculous how little time I have to myself really but I dont' think I'd have it any other way. I'm definitely not getting a surplus of sleep this summer, but as a matter of fact that doesn't bother me. I'm really looking forward to Lindsay's in August. She has us down to her shore house every year the first weekend in August. It's like a relaxing weekend for me and a chance to start up a base tan for our week down the shore. LBI I can hear you calling already. We're going to Atlantic City the night before to visit Tammy since she's only 20 mins away from Lindsay's. I've never been, should be fun.

Ugh I think these phones here need relative voice volume control. The last guy who called was definitely screaming. "HEWWOO INEED HEWP WITH MY COMPUTERRRRRRRR!"

WOAH WOAH WOAH EASY on the EARS there Chewbacca! I'm bleeding from the ears Pachino! Although I think it annoys me more when they speak too softly. I feel like I'm being molested via telephone. I think I'll go put in a harassment claim now.

Thursday, July 24, 2003

You know this morning I went and grabbed an egg-McMuffin for breakfast since I hadn't had one in forever and was running late. I said thank you to the guy, and he said to me "You know you're the first person who's said thank you in a month." Saying thank you for an egg-Mcmuffin...What is America coming to? :(
This poor scientist!

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Well my worst fears are realized. CyberLife went out of business a few years back :L I got nostalgic today during a slow couple of hours at work and started looking up thing about Creatures 1, 2, and 3. Creatures was a revolutionary kind of game. It wasn't a game at all initially. With 2, 3, and Creature Adventures it got more kitschy and more fun-oriented, although C3 was the most complex artificial life system I've ever seen created, especially for home useage!

Creatures was created by CyberLife in the 90s and released 1997. I remember the first time I saw advertisements for it in a gaming magazine. Must have been around the time they were making Diablo cuz I was on the prowl for that game too. All I saw was a few eggs and a weird looking creature standing next to it with a big grin on it's face and saucer-plate eyes. It was the cutest thing ever, and the only words on the otherwise black page was "Their life is in your hands..." I had no idea what this was for as not even the game title was there. These truly were teaser ads at their best! I kept looking for new ones in the months to come. I finally found a more detailed ad a few months later detailing the first accurate artificial life system. These creatures had their own set of drives and needs and they had an AI unlike any I'd seen before. Yeah Tamagotchi's were the craze eh? I had one, and those were gay. Very gay. I wanted something that really was capable of AI. Creatures answer the call of my plea. The creatures would roam around their world, Albia, and the goal was to breed as many as you could and pass along genetic traits and genes. There was a villain of course the Grendel. These green baddy's could beat the heck out of your norn and even kill them! They spread disease, germs, and many a bad joke. And this was the first emergence I'd seen of a huge widespread internet fanbase. Remember this is a time when the internet was just gaining popularity for the common American. People created COBs, (objects you could import into Albia such as food machines, Grendel traps etc sky was the limit!), and traded Norns online to eachother by exporting and importing them.

Creatures 2 expanded on the series with a whole new world that had a thriving ecological system. Not only did the creatures biosystems become more complex but the ecosystem was just as, if not more! Plants would drop seeds which would germinate, some plants required pollination from animals flying around the world. There was introduced the genetic splicer which allowed you to combine any two creatures. There was a new one as well, the Ettin, a cute little white guy with dreadlocks who liked to steal things and run away with them. The Grendel was back but this time you could teach your Norns to defend themselves, or avoid him.

Creatures 3 finally came about the time I was a sophmore in HS. This game was so complex in terms of the biosystems it really blew my mind. I got into genetics at this point and read a ton on them, and wolfing runs. Kind of my own home Darwin experiments. I'd have a wolfing run in which I'd hatch about 10-20 eggs and leave them alone for a few days with no formal teaching. After that time I'd come back and see who was weeded out. Survival of the fittest indeed! The norns now had an immune system, could develop antibodies, and genetic flaws and adaptations were inherent. Quite the interesting game. I had found out that the C3 CD had broken somehow on my move into the Red House last fall. :L It had always run so slow on my old computers, I was going to retry it after like 6 years to see if it ran beautifully on my PC now.

Today I ordered C3, unopened, still in the cellophane from Ebay's Half.com. $1.75. I also ordered the same conditioned C2. Guess how much? $.99. Now I'm starting to see how things depreciate in value over time. A hi-fi stereo from the 70s is worth next to nothing today, and I never reallyl noticed this before. When C1 came out it had to be at least $30-$40. ::sigh:: It will be a pretty unique and cool screensaver kinda thing to leave running all the time :)

Thinking of buying Creatures Adventures (a kiddier version) for my niece and nephew. I think he'd really be into that seeing how he loved Animal Crossing. Yeah yeah, I played and own Animal Crossing. It's such an amusing little game lol. Something fun about visiting your nephew's town and having him send you letters and gifts in a little virtual world. It even has a cool password mail system where I can send him something without having to transfer it from a memory card. He just enters in a password, and I assume the game calculates and decodes what it means and what item it refers too.

That game definitely too up too much time...lol
Anyone who knows me even modestly, knows that I'm a huge Michael Jackson fan. I have been for years since the early years of the 80s. In my eyes that man will always be the King of Pop. There is none higher. I don't stand there and defend everything the man does, but I can understand a good deal of it and sympathize. People wonder why he has such a fascination with childhood and children. I believe this stems from the fact that Michael never had a childhood. He was 8 and in the Jackson 5 by that time. Most children were playing and the like, but Michael was under the rule of their stern father, Joseph Jackson. Not allowed to go out and play, always required to stay close or with family, it was definitely not a normal child's life.

Jackson 5 is really about as pop as I get, considering I don't really respect other pop artists all that much. Ther's a few choice ones, but no one shines a candle to MJ and the J5. Yes there was the whole controversy in 1993 about Michael and that young fellow. While most people would stop there and continue to read the publications unfavorable to Mike, I've kept an open mind and found out as much as possible regarding that situation. That allegation was settled out of court, and later the boy admitted his parents had instructed him to lie to attorneys and police. Yeah it's easy to make somebody a scapegoat and ostricize them for things they've done, and even things they haven't. People can be really cruel by nature sometimes, and it's sad to see an individual suffer as a result. Still despite all the cruel things said about him, and all the criticism, I'm glad Mike is still around and battling it day by day.

Today I read an article on CNN concerning Michael and MP3's. While many music artists are all for the new bill that's being reviewed, Michael is quite against it and and jailing of any person who shares or downloads MP3s. This bill, if passed, would make it a FELONY to share OR download any MP3 under copyright. Mike made a statement involving this. "I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans in jail for downloading music. It is wrong to download, but the answer cannot be jail." Well spoken Mike. You've probably read my Mp3 rant below, and I couldn't agree more. This is a sloppy way of the music industry trying to clean up mistakes that they've made. It's a long hard road back from being greedy bastards! :P "Here in America we create new opportunities out of adversity, not punitive laws ...," he said. "It is the fans that drive the success of the music business; I wish this would not be forgotten." Most musicians are so quick to antagonize their fans when it is their fans who earn them all of their money. The music industry wouldn't mean jacko (no pun intended on one of MJ's nicknames lol) if there wasn't a consumer base for it. Mike ends off the statement saying that he thought the music industry and music fans should work together to figure it out. This has been the simple most intelligent idea I've heard concerning piracy in music yet. And not just because Mike said it.

I think it's a great idea to have the two mediums collaborate to find a solution. With the music industry attacking MP3 downloaders, and the downloaders just adapting and fighting back, there won't be any viable solution anytime soon. Just because you can't stop the P2P sharing services, doesn't mean you should take it out on the users. Certaintly mp3 trading is NOT a felony. There are MUCH worse crimes and certaintly offenses for which no laws prohibit yet!

Read the full article here.

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

All right, it's time for a rant. I want to talk about people who are lazy. I see it more than ever in the corporate world, as if I didn't see enough of it among my peers. I admit at times I'm lazy, but it's something I dislike, and I strive against it.

Lazy people. You know the type -- the foo-foo's who don't have an ambitious bone in their bodies but like to tell everyone otherwise. Lazy people are our civilization's procrastinators; the people who will stop us from evolving as a species if allowed to breed. Lazy people are like rotten apples; leave one rotten apple next to a healthy one and it will become rotten too. Laziness is a disease, a serious one, and it has gotten worse in our society.

It used to be that people had to work very hard to get what they wanted. Back in the day, our forefathers had to chase deer for miles to get a little supper, or they had to slave for 16 hours on farms for some fat baron just to get a piece of bread. Now, you can sit at home, watch TV, get obese, and get money for it. What the hell happened?

I'll tell you what happened. Precut carrots.

Precut carrots are the symbolic demise of our society. We can't even cut a silly, stupid, little carrot anymore, so someone had to go out and do it for us. Everything is prepackaged, preshrunk, prewrapped, precooked, preeverything, because we are too lazy to do it ourselves. And don't give me this "I don't have time anymore" crap. Just because you don't know how to plan your day like a person with half a brain, doesn't mean you should live your life with lazy shortcuts.

The worst part is that this laziness affects the amount of food in my future childrens' mouths. The disease of laziness has taken hold of corporate America, including all my legit rackets. I don't buy all this crap from fancy business magazines about productivity gains, longer work weeks, etc.

It's propaganda from other lazy people who infiltrated media. Yes, I am talking to you clowns in the media who need two weeks to write a 500-word article. Get off your lazy asses, you ignorant idiots, I don't have a fancy English lit college degree and I pump these babies out in 10 minutes.

Back to this productivity crap. When I go out on a tech call to fix some mindless problem simply solved, I'm dumbfounded by what I see. People are doing anything but the work they are supposed to do. Talking on the phone. Checking their worthless stocks. Having their 28th coffee of the day, (or their 18th bathroom break of the hour). Mindlessly looking into space for little green men. Playing with themselves. Etc., etc., etc. If cameras weren't around, I swear my Louisville Slugger would get a nice workout.

They work for two hours and hang out all day...

These mo-mo's spend about two hours of the day actually working (and I'm being kind), and they have the balls to tell my manager they are overworked. The few times they don't check out as soon as the clock strikes five and "work" an extra 30 minutes, it's because they were so lazy and stupid during the day, they needed to catch up later on.

Imagine, I think I run a tight ship and yet, I have a bordello on my hands. So what's happening, then, in the rest of Corporate America?

Like I said, we have a disease on our hands. As my grandmother used to say, "La gente è pigra" : The Lazy Pretenders.

Lazy people use little tricks to make it look like they're actually accomplishing things. They love sitting on their success until it turns to mold. We've all met someone who does something half-smart and feels he doesn't have to prove himself for the next few months. Sort of like the French soccer player who scored one big goal and assumed he should play on the national squad for four years because of it (don't ask me his name, I don't remember, if I did I would have told it you).

Among the little tricks lazy people use is taking credit for a job that was much easier than they made it out to be or seeking the easy job that could easily be exaggerated later.

No matter how smart a lazy dirt thinks he is, things eventually catch up to him. Sure, a pretender or a regular lazy person can make a nice living and have the 2.3 kids and the house, but he'll never be part of the elite.

His path to success will always be capped. You need motivation and ambition to be part of the elite, and that is the greatness of our capitalist society; the cream rises to the top. In the end, determined and self-motivated people (not always, most of the time) get ahead of pretenders. It's the go-getters that make up 1% of the population and control the other 99%. Those who know me well have heard me say this a thousand times over.

Lazy people are happy. Most of Europe operates like this, at least the bureaucracy does, and that is why I'll never live in Italy. I couldn't stand watching the dumb @!$%s taking six months to fix my driveway when they could have done it in two days. No matter how much power I could one day have in Italy from my "extended family" lol, I couldn't change things because too many pretenders are fixed in the system.

So what can we do? Simple. Do the exact opposite of lazy people. Why? Because having drive, ambition, goals, and the desire to execute these things with 100% effort will allow you to move ahead in life so that, one day, you might have the power and money to either change certain things or fire whoever isn't pulling their weight.

Whew....ALMOST DONE hang with me!

Lazy people blame others, their environment, or their tooth fairy for everything that didn't go their way. Don't be like them; take responsibility for inaction and stupidity.

If you are some kind of manager or boss of a donut shop or a large corporation, lead by example. You have a huge influence on the culture of your organization. A lazy boss who delegates everything and does nothing is the most dangerous kind of virus in an organization. Don't be that person. The worst employees are the employees who despise their customers because A) those customers have better jobs and make more, or B) they think they're above their job. If you're above your job, then get above it, or if you're in the process don't take it out on the consumer.

Don't wait for things to happen tomorrow; do them today. Do like I was told my grandfathers did, and walk five miles over broken glass to work, barefoot, there and back in the snow. Whatever you do, don't take siestas, it's the lazy person's way of reenergizing their laziness.

That's it. My rant is done. I made my peace.
And if you read all this, you've got my respect :)