About The Rhino

My Name Is Mike and I was born and raised in New York City, on Staten Island.  I’m a 44-year-old runner and guitarist who was, until March ’09, stuck at a dead-end job in a law firm in Mid Town Manhattan.  Night shift weekend copy center supervisor.  It paid the bills.  But that job is gone.  I don’t miss it.  The money I miss, what there was of it, but the machines and the office itself? Not even a little.  Glad to have seen the back of it.

I am in the process of finding work all this time after that.  As could be guessed, employment is proving damnably elusive, so any help in that direction would be greatly appreciated.

I got Married on June 23rd 2007 to a beautiful woman named Sue who is originally from Brockton, Massachusetts.  She works from home, as a site administrator and  gets paid to write articles on several different sites as well.

If you want to really know who I am, go through my blog. Initially what i would do, after the run log and guitar playing info, I would add stuff that I thought needed to be addressed, either in my life, or in the world at large.  You’ll see that in a number of my 1000+ posts, particularly the ones from ’07 and early ’08, but it shows up in a more sporadic fashion in later articles as well.

I used to do a run portion of the blog, though now that has a separate page “running commentary”.  I used to have a section in each article, or many of them, devoted to music, but now that also has a separate page,  the “12 Notes” page, and I have a page for shorter pieces on news, politics, single paragraph, or even single sentence statements, that being the “Random Thoughts” page.   That’s also where I do my anagrams.  If you read my older stuff, I had anagrams in my article titles every day, but they became too much of a hassle to do every day, so my article titles are now anagram free.

What I do now is write on politics, business, government and news in general, as well as stories about my ongoing quest to find gainful employment, (2 stints as a temp since 03/09, one three months in summer ’09, the other from March to November ’10, nuttin permanent yet) and the occasional vignette about my personal life . I try to have some descent amount of graphics and videos out there to catch the eye of readers.

And of course I have my daily quotes, usually from wikiquote.  Pictures are courtesy of wikimedia commons, unless otherwise indicated.

I am a Democrat and former minarchist (believer in small government). Say what you will, any realistic shot at minarchism in American government is dead and has been since 1947 (even Reagen grew government). I’ll try not to be bitter and to be as non partisan as possible, unless I think It’s warranted.

I’ll write about sports every once in awhile, when it suits me.  Trade deadlines, beginning of season forecasts for the NFL and the NHL, as well as hockey, baseball, and football playoffs picks.  Lost interest in Basketball when the Knicks and Seton Hall started sucking years ago.  It is easier to watch the NBA now that the Knicks have actual talent. College Basketball… nah, not until the Seton Hall Pirates are an actual contender again will I care about that.

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Though this site is now titled “The Rhino Report”, it still has in the URL it’s original name, Mikey The Rhino.  The name Mikey The Rhino has it birth in a character in a book that, in it’s finished form, will never see the light of day, Titled “The Salmon Of Doubt”.  Yes there is a book titled “Salmon of Doubt” out there, but it is not the one that the writer had envisioned, because he died before he could finish it.    It is the work of my favorite writer of all time, Douglas Adams.  In this book there is a character, named Desmond the Rhino, and Desmond was…err…well, no beating around the bush here, he was a rhino.  In a zoo.  In Los Angeles.  Who escaped.  And the five pages about Desmond were from the perspective of the rhino, an animal that depends much more on its sense of smell than it does vision, and as a consequence has a peculiar view of the world, in comparison to what you or I might perceive.  He also has a run in with Thor (the Thunder God, Not Mr.  Heyerdahl)  and a party in suburban Los Angeles.  Read the story if you want to know how things went.

What struck me about the passage was the way it was written from the minds snout perspective of this animal.  And yes I said minds snout.  It relies on it’s sense of smell, like we rely on vision.  Minds eye for us, Minds snout for Desmond.  Now,  I have heard it said that I have something of a skewed perception of the world, So when I wanted to write articles about MY perspective of the world, Desmond immediately sprang to mind.    But since my name isn’t Desmond, and I didn’t want people addressing me by a name that isn’t rightfully mine, I figured, why the hell not, go with Mikey The Rhino.  It sounds good.  And it is kind of a tribute to the late great Douglas Adams.  Not the best tribute, but the best one that this rhino can come up with.  I wish I had the talent and skill and inventiveness that that man had.  I will try my best to be the best writer I can be.

FYI, Those who drop me comments, I usually only respond back on the page where the comment was made, Not here.  And I do try to  respond, when I feel a response is proper.

Drop me a comment if you like what you see.  Drop me a line If you don’t like what you see.  Drop me a line if you have questions or tips on better blogging.  When I started on this journey all I had were my scruples to guide me, But with the help of my wife and the encouragement of those who read My work (all three of you, lol), I think I have become a better writer.  Not great by any stretch of the imagination.  I’m not nearly good enough to write and get paid for it, but I’m getting better all the time.  Any tips on better writing, blogging, or anything to be truthful, would be greatly appreciated.

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A very excellent youtube viddy from the 1981 BBC TV version of  “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”  Fun with dolphins and mice.

A most excellent quote By Douglas Adams, Via wikiquote: ”Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”

Last Updated: 12/17/10  11:02 am EDT

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BTW I found a toy!  look below and you’ll see a counter which tells how many people have visited this particular page, and what state they are from.  The site, http://www.flagcounter.com/index.html also has an international counter.  Unfortunately, it can’t count all the people who have read this page before.  I just put it in just to see how many people view this page and where they are from, ya know, curiosity!