June 2011 Random Thoughts

Once a month or so, I clear out some of the content on my Running Commentary, Random Thoughts, and 12 Notes pages and place them here on the main page to make room for fresh content on those pages.  This is the content from June 2011′s Random Thoughts.  Enjoy!

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Anagram:  Ninety Degrees/ Tiny Green Seed/ Need it’s Energy/I Need Grey Nets/ Tiny Nerd Geese/ Dentine Geyser/ Rinse Edgy Teen/ Dying Tree Seen (6/1)

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Rep. Anthony Weiner is guilty of something in this “BiggusDickusgate” scandal.

Of what I have no idea.

Maybe that photo is of him, but he just doesn’t want to admit it, and the send of the pic was done by someone else, a buddy perhaps, or someone with more malicious intent?  Maybe it was an erroneous send, by him, that he doesn’t want to admit? Maybe he was hacked, and the pic, of whoever, was sent by someone alleging to be him just like he says.  I don’t know, I’m not the answer man.

Whatever the case, he has appallingly bad judgment.  Taking this to the media, and then not being able to definitively answer whether that is his schlong or not is just plain stupid.  How do you not know a pic of yer own meat?  Watching his response to the “biggusdickusgate” scandal unfold made me want to throw the bad call brick at him.  (6/2)

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Had a job interview today.  For an art handler position.  In Jersey city.    T’was fairly short, and the guy was interested in when I could start and was talking salary before the end of the interview.  He asked a few short simple questions, fewer than a normal interviewer would, but I did go over, in a somewhat meticulous manner, the stuff I did at Sotheby’s.  This seemed to settle things for him.  I hope that’s good news.  (6/3)

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I am a happy man, my bankruptcy case is finished, and successfully at that.  Now I can, with one less thing on my mind, get on with my life, and trying to find a job, keep a roof over my head, and pay the bills with what passes for the money that exists in my life.

Still a million things to worry about, but 1 big one off of my back makes things just a hair easier.  And life is that much better.  (6/4)

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Anagram:  Confrontational/ I Cannot Rant, Fool!/ Not A Frantic Loon/ Cool Nonfat Train/ Fart: Not In a Colon/ Oft Carnal Notion/  Cannot Train Fool  (6/5)

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It’s 1 pm.  I looked for work on several sites, craigslist, monster, indeed, & NYC.ORG with no success.  I’m sitting around waiting for the UPS guy to show up and deliver 2 phones, one she needed, one she got me because she thinks the one I have is too old, and the newer one I got in February broke. I haven’t run yet. I want to run, but can’t.  Yet. My wife is asleep, having worked until about 7 am.    Still haven’t heard back from the people I interviewed with, and I was hoping to have heard from them by now.  Dammit.  (6/7)

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My wife and I are going to our first ever Yankee game at the new Yankee Stadium together later today!  My third game, but her first. Yankees – Red Sox.  Sabathia - Beckett.  Should be a Blast!  LET’S GO YANKEES!!!!! (6/9)

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My wife and I left for a baseball game, her 1st and my 3rd at the new Yankee Stadium at 4:45 pm, for a 7:05 scheduled start.  Got there around starting time, but it was raining, so we lucked out, at least as far as not missing the start of the game.  That’s all we thought, figured the rain would not be too long, the word was the storm wasn’t that big.

3 hours later, at 10:35, the game finally started, and lasted until around 1:45 am.  I think I’ll be writing about this in the blog proper sometime soon. (6/10)

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I’ve sent in 5 resumes so far today.  3 for art handler positions, 2 at a hospital in Manhattan.  Not done looking. If there are any odd jobs you need done, drop me a line, let me know.  I’m willing to try almost any job once, just to see if I can handle it.  (6/12)

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Rep.  Weiner.  Dude.  Seriously.  Walk away.  Quit while yer behind, because you cannot get ahead at this point.    (6/12)

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Worked my first day as a house cleaner.  Made $40.  Better’n nuttin.  Working one day next week, less time, less money for that one. (6/16)

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Put in my unemployment claim today, even though they aren’t paying me.  The people I used to work with are fighting my claim.  Dammit, I have bills to pay, and no one wants to hire me full time.  (6/19)

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Worked 2 ½ hours today.  Made $25, gotta go pick up the money tomorrow.  (6/20)

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Welcome Back Mr. Olbermann!  (6/20)

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Wife got canned from one of her writing gigs today, no reason given.  Now, on top of me not getting any unemployment in, and not being employed, my wife is now making something like $600 less a month because of this, she who has been the breadwinner for far too long. Life can be cruel sometimes.  Way to start off the summer.  Dammit.  (6/21)

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Called unemployment today, trying to find answers about what the hell is going on with my claim.  Had THE most unhelpful human I have ever dealt with on the phone.  Her name was Amy.   She said she could not help, when I asked her to look at my claim.  I asked to speak to an examiner so I could find out for myself what was happening with the case from the person in charge of the case.  Said she couldn’t, after the person who I spoke to last week said I could.  She couldn’t be bothered, she never even tried.

I was placid.  Thought to myself, “No big deal, I’ll just call back, and deal with someone else.”  After all, she can’t be the only person working the switchboards at NYS unemployment, could she?

Call back 5 minutes later… get Amy again.  Hang up.

I’ll call back later,  after noon, when (I presume) Amy will be on lunch, and I can get actual help. Maybe even get someone not named Amy.  It’d be nice.  She’s the first unhelpful person I’ve dealt with there, and hopefully the last.  (6/22)

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Not many random thoughts this month. More of a specific, particular month for me. (6/30)

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That’s it from here, America.  G’night.

Dumbass

Today is  dumbass day!  I did not realize this early on, but then again, being a dumbass, it was clearly deemed information that should only be given on a “need to know” basis, and apparently I did not “need to know.”

Dumbass day is meant to celebrate all that is wrong with the world, like I said, but that doesn’t mean that Dumbass day is confined to just one day.  This day is so dumb that it can be celebrated any day of the week, any time, ever!  Because dumbass  never takes a day off, it doesn’t know when to quit, or how to quit, and doesn’t care what you think about it, because it is Dumbass.  Dumbass runs the world, dumbass is in control and it likes it.

Watch a viddy with Dumbasses:

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Dumbass day is meant to celebrate stupidity and all that is wrong with the world.  Which means the day is for a lot of people, but not necessarily everyone, so I’ve compiled a list of people dumbass day is for:

If you think people who complain that the wealthy pay too much taxes are idiots, this day is for you.

If you work in advertising and you like it, this day is for you.  If you like TV shows like “Southern Fried Stings”  or “Operation Repo”  then this day is for you.

If you think that a 6 pack and a bag of Cheetos is a 7 course meal, then Dumbass day is your day.

If you watch TV to figure out how you feel about the political world, this day is for you.

If the last sentence made you wonder what the  “political world” is, then this day is for you.

If you work twice as hard at what you do to make up for not knowing what you are doing, then this day is for you.

If you are a fan of Rebecca Black, then Dumbass day is your day.

If you think getting rid of Social Security is a good Idea, and you are poor, this day is for you.

If you thought the New York Rangers had a shot in hell of winning their series against the Capitals, this day is for you.

If you don’t know what that last sentence is about, then Dumbass day is your day.

If you believe sharia law has taken effect anywhere in the United States, the President was born in Kenya, or that tax cuts create jobs, this is your day!

If the most fun you have all day is playing Farmville, then happy Dumbass day to you!

If you love working in an office, HAPPY DUMBASS DAY!

If you think sports talk radio is even vaguely interesting, this is your day.

If you love where you live so much, you would never even think of living anywhere else, this day is for you!

If you have a favorite commercial, happy dumbass day to YOU!

If the best movie you ever saw has Pete Billingsley in it, Dumbass day is your day!

If you read this whole friggin Dumbass list and did not even smile once… You have shown some style and taste, and clearly means that this was tailor made for you, you DUMBASS!

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Don’t forget to celebrate dumbass day by doing something in public that will brand you forever to your fellow dumbasses as THE BIGGEST DUMBASS EVER!

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Best Political Jokes of the Year So Far

Runner up, best political joke of the year: Donald Trump. The guy is an absolute hoot. Hate him or like him, you have to admit the guy is an attention getter, and he is funny to me. Maybe there are people who take him serious, but when you repeatedly speak to the birther myth as if it is based in fact, then say that you are friends with “The blacks”, and then you look at the ratings of his show, which are in the tank, you can see exactly what the ranting and headline grabbing is really about.

It’s all about the apprentice jumping the shark, and “The donald” using politics to gain some focus back on him, and his sagging ratings for his shitty show. A real run for president, which some people actually talk about, would probably be accompanied by sane views, wisdom, sagacity, and as little actual stupid bullshit as is humanly possible. The donald is missing on all counts.

The dumbass makes Glenn Beck look rational, and that is zarking difficult to do. But it is incredibly funny to listen to him flounder for attention, but there is even more pathetic and funnier than the donald and his hairpiece.

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Viddy of the day: Stephen Colbert on Kyl’s ‘not a factual statement’ – Last Word

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Best joke of the year: NOT INTENDED TO BE A FACTUAL STATEMENT. The…THE best idiot line in recent memory, and that is a difficult thing to do in a nation of political idiots, and to understand why, you need to understand the context of the statement. Jon Kyl, a conservative Senator from the state of incomprehensible bullshit, told a major lie on the floor of the Senate. He said that Planned parenthood used 90% of it’s budget for abortions. 90%, that’s an awful lot isn’t it? Well, there was only one problem with the statement. It is patently false. The actual number is 3%, an 87 percent miss by the senator. It necessitated a statement where the now infamous “NOT INTENDED TO BE A FACTUAL STATEMENT” was uttered.

it brought about a SLEW of funny retorts, most notably by Stephen Colbert on twitter using the hashtag #notintendedtobeafactualstatement. A few examples follow:

Jon Kyl holds the Guinness World Record for “Largest Collection of Penis Enlargers.”

Jon Kyl let a game-winning ground ball roll through his legs in Game 6 of the ’86 World Series.

Everything you would only do in the privacy of your own home, Jon Kyl prefers to do on a subway car.

Jon Kyl thinks no one can see him when he puts a paper bag on his head.

Jon Kyl’s torso is covered in superfluous nipples.

For the past ten years, Jon Kyl has been two children in a very convincing Jon Kyl suit.

And the press has eaten this, and hundreds of other such statements up, because it is so damn funny. The press may be filled with self obsessed assholes, but they know a good joke when they hear it, and Jon Kyl has become one.

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Now, you and I know that this never would have happened had the senator from incomprehensible bullshit simply told the truth, if he had simply stayed in the real world, but he couldn’t, and now we get to, for the rest of his career, get to bash the hell out of him for his stupid bullshit by making up the most insanely funny abusive stuff about him, for his blatant lies and his covering it up with so stupid a line.

What a dick!

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Other funny lines that could at least raise a giggle:

President Obama has finally thrown his turban in the ring for his run for re-election in 2012. ~ unknown

Because of a holiday, the deadline for taxes is April 18, so you have three extra days to dig through restaurant dumpsters for receipts. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

Moammar Gadhafi gave a rambling speech that lasted nearly three hours. So now we know where all of Charlie Sheen’s cocaine went. ~ Conan O’Brien

The Pentagon held a press-conference about the military operation in Libya. They are calling it Odyssey Dawn. I believe it’s the first military operation named after a stripper.” ~ David Letterman

You saw the big controversy with Michele Bachmann. She did not look directly into the camera, which made it harder for the teabaggers to masturbate. ~ Bill Maher

Why is it no human being can withstand more than two years as a presidential press secretary? There must be an organ somewhere in the body that can only filter two years worth of heavy duty bullsh*t.” ~ Jon Stewart

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I just wanted to have a bit of fun tonight, and toss out some politics. I like it. Hopefully I spelled enough words right for most of this crap to make some kind of sense.

That’s it from here, America. Go to sleep.

2010: Stuff That Did Not Suck

At each stage I reach a balance, a conclusion. At the next sitting, if I find that there is a weakness in the whole, I make my way back into the picture by means of the weakness — I re-enter through the breach — and I reconceive the whole. Thus everything becomes fluid again.

Henri Matisse

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2010 wasn’t just Republicans, big business making tons of money and then not hiring anyone, high prices, low standards, smelly bastards and pushy bitches on the 6 train, and my inability to run 1500 miles during a very mild year with lots of time to myself pissing me off.  It was also a pretty damn good year, for a number of reasons.

First up on the political front, it wasn’t just a good year for the Republicans.  The strong left wing of America passed some very potent positive legislation that will help a great many people.  Credit card reform, Health care reform, the repeal of DADT, Tobacco regulation, the hate crime prevention act, and, of course, Wall street reform.  This president got a lot done, a lot of good done, and even though he will probably have a helluva worse time with Boehner the complainer running the House of Representatives, and a smaller majority in the Senate, if his victories late in the year are any indication, he really does know how to work across the aisle and get things done.  Looking forward to the next year’s legislative activity.  Should be interesting.

In other political news, We got to have fun with America’s newest idiot carnival, the Tea party candidates.  Now, there was one real winner for them, Rand Paul, can’t name another to be honest, but stupid the kid, AKA  Christine O’Donnell was just a blast to watch.  She is a former marketing exec., and that ought to tell you everything you need to know about the ex-witch.  That witch line was precious, it was a beaut.  The whole investigation into her campaign fund usage promises to make 2011 an interesting one for everyone. 

She’s an entertaining idiot. But not the only one. 

Sharron Angle was almost as interesting, with her second amendment remedies and hatred of… well… everyone.  Sharron wanted to disband the dept. of Education, wanted Soc. Sec. transitioned out, wants the U.S out of the U.N., proudly stated that she had tried to, as a state legislator, remove the legal mandate that insurance companies cover mammograms and colonoscopies, and then said she never did it after Harry Reid pointed out her statements, and claimed that Sharia law had taken hold in Dearborn friggin Michigan and some one horse town in Texas.

Now what do you get if you take Sharron Angle and add a penis and some shit stained boots? You get Ken “dumb fuck” Buck, that’s what!!  He even did Sharron one better, wanting to privatize the VA.   Man.  That lost him the election… that and the fact that he talked shit about the tea party when he thought no one was looking, and was shown to be entirely unethical when he was the Weld county D.A.

It does suck that we by and large don’t have these dime store putzes to kick around anymore.  Luckily for us though, there is a presidential election coming up in a mere 22 months.  The loons will be crawling out of the woodwork to entertain us soon enough.  

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Viddy of the day Part I:  Ken Buck tried his best to sell Colorado some kinda crap.  They didn’t buy it.  Smart people.  Here is an ad showing his views, in his words. 

 

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Viddy of the day, Part II:  Metallica, secret show.  Metallica put out an Album this year.  You may not have heard of it.  I have.  It was from a live show they did in a bar in Nashville 2 years.  This is a viddy from it.  Not the best quality, but so fucking what?  Harvester of Sorrow/Frayed ends of Sanity/fucking around, from Live at Grimey’s.

You’re welcome.

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On the work front, while I still don’t have a full time regular job, I did perhaps the hardest and most satisfying work of my life at Sotheby’s.  I got the first real sniff of what a union is like, temping there.  Man, I tell ya, a guy could get used to that kinda work.  Absolutely busted my ass, and had a ball doing it.  From mid March to mid November, I went to the upper westside of Manhattan and did a great deal of stinking, sweating, and throwing my weight around.  I’d never had a job where I could really do that.  It was fun.  I hope they call me back and make me permanent.  That would be the top moment of 2011, I tell you that.

On the sweat front, I really busted my ass this year.  I did not reach my goal of 1500 miles on the year, because of the snowstorm on the 26th, but I ran more this year than any other, and I pushed farther and was fast much of the way.   Hurt myself in a few places, but nothing earth shattering.  I ran perhaps the race of my life on Memorial day.  I hadn’t been running fast before that race, and still managed to pull a sub 7 minute mile average for the race.  After running the first mile in 8:30.  THAT was the 2nd biggest running event of my year.  The first?  From Thanksgiving to Christmas I ran nearly 200 miles, most of those runs being long. I averaged 8 miles per run during that span.  That is around 2 miles more per run than I had run for any significant amount of time.  Ever.

That felt good.

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That’s it from here America.  I’ll write y’all tomorrow.

BMI Plus Stimulus Equals Paranoia From The Right… Again

No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.

Harry S. Truman

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Saw something today while running through some articles on Hubpages today that frankly had me giggling just a hair.  It is a meme that is currently running beginning a run through the right wing of this country, and I thought I would get a jump on it by telling you about it.  It really is serious, if seen from the standpoint of someone dumb enough to actually believe it, but once you know the truth, it is worth a giggle at exactly how gullible those on the right are, especially where anti-government hysteria kicks in.

This one has to do with the Stimulus and your BMI.  And no, BMI is not some stupid new Government bureaucracy acronym, I am actually talking about good old BMI, Body Mass Index, a way to measure how overweight or not you are. And the Stimulus.

Seriously.

There are people out there who seem to think they see in this bill, along with new criteria set out by Hippa, that your and my and everyone else’s BMI, among other things, will be on public display. 

It really is a case of these people simply not reading the entire document, and making assumptions based on incomplete data that points in a direction they want to go in, at least insofar as they want to think bad things about government.  What they failed to see in the original stimulus bill, and it is as clear as day to those who have eyes and actually paid attention to what they read, that it clearly states that the bill does not alter in any way previously existing security and privacy rules already in place.

Meaning, if they couldn’t touch or go through your public records before, and make them public, and they could not, they won’t be able to now.

Silly people, if it sounds too dumb to be true, it usually is, and BMI AS PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE sounds too dumb to be true.

But, by all means right wing America, keep showing me and the rest of the world your paranoia. We find it entertaining.  And if you’re that worried about your BMI, get off of your fat ass and run a few miles, ya lazy bums.

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Viddy of the day:  Cenk Uyger, making me want to go beat the crap out of some rich man. Exxon, Chevron, GE, B of A.  These guys get away with murder, pay nothing in taxes.  It’s nuts.  We need Tax revenue, and we let these bums go without paying.  Bastards.

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Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.

Harry Truman

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Thursday’s links w/commentary:

America and Taxes A happy little ditty.  I wrote it myself.  I think it’s a nice piece with a number of facts about taxation, with a brief editorial on the end. Go over and read it, If you’ve gotten this far, you like something about my writing, and it’s more of the same happiness there.

Table 2 — Preliminary annual UCR  For those who don’t know, the UCR, or Uniform crime report is an annual report put out by the FBI that collates all data as reported by law enforcement agencies around the United States.  And contrary to the reports put out by Jon Kyl and the right, crime is down in general in the southwest, and in particular in Arizona.  One presumes in part because of some fine police work, and good hard working law abiding citizenry down there, and has nothing to do with Kyl and his criminally conservative friends in Washington.

Romer to step down as chairwoman of the Presidents council of economic advisers  There has been infighting between her and Larry Summers, says this report.  The report also says she insists she is leaving for personal reasons, and will be returning to her teaching job at Berkeley.  Peter Orszag stepped down as head of the Office of Management and Budget last week, another key economic post.  She couldn’t handle Larry, huh? No surprise, stories abound about how much of an asshole he is.   Hell, I’ll take the job.  I can Kick Larry’s fat ass and keep his bullshit in check.  And if I don’t get the job, expect Austan Goolsbee to get it.  Call it a hunch that skull and bones boy will get the gig.

Kagan win warns of battles yet to come  What? Polarization? In the Senate? NEVER!!!!  C’mon, anyone with three brain cells in their heads knew this was going to happen, that she would get in but it would be close.  Just because she’s friendly with Lindsey Graham doesn’t mean John Thune and Tom Coburn and David Vitter and that idiot McConnell are as well. 

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That’s it from here America, go grab a good nights sleep, tomorrow’s a big day.