The Coast

Headed down to the coast this afternoon and staying for a few days. It'll be nice to get down there for the first time this summer and do some fishing and just a smidgen of drinking. Supposedly the surf has some good fishing but the bays are so inundated with fresh water from constant rains that everything has moved offshore.

I forgot to mention that the other day on the news, a headline read "Investigators looking into specific clues in a specific location." Hopefully I don't need to expound on this.

So I hear the civil rights groups are defending Vick by comparing dogfighting to hunting. I hardly want to get into this. Where do these worthless fools get off thinking the ideas they shove down the throats of minorities are going to gain them any reliability points? Every issue I've heard them comment on, since I've been paying attention, seems to be one they feel they can contort into being a race issue. In my opinion, and this seems trite, the issue needs to be black and white to legitimately pull the race card. Given enough leeway, you can make any issue revolve around race and this is exactly what minority leaders do. I wonder how long it will take for people to finally realize these people are at the beck and call of white democrat politicians. To try and excuse Vick of his disgusting side affairs by saying it was part of his harsh upbringing is the same as excusing a child molested because he was molested as a child. The logic fails to substantiate.

To close for a few days I'll leave you with an e-mail I just received. Enjoy.

Dump the male flight attendants. No one wanted them in the first place. Replace all the female flight attendants with good-looking strippers! What the hell -- They don't even serve food anymore, so what's the loss?

The strippers would at least triple the alcohol sales and get a "party atmosphere" going in the cabin. And, of course, every businessman in this country would start flying again, hoping to see naked women.

Because of the tips, female flight attendants wouldn't need a salary, thus saving even more money. I suspect tips would be so good that we could charge the women for working the plane and have them kick back 20% of the tips, including lap dances and "special serv- ices."

Muslims would be afraid to get on the planes for fear of seeing naked women. Hijackings would come to a screeching halt, and the airline industry would see record revenues. This is definitely a win-win situation if we handle it right -- a golden opportunity to turn a liability into an asset.

Why didn't Bush think of this? Why do I still have to do everything myself?

Sincerely,
Bill Clinton

Military spending

People, check your facts before commenting on politics. I hear constant moaning about how much we're spending on our military to fund the war. The fact that we're right above France should be an eye opener to some of you libs.

Woot

Just finished up my real estate license test and I'm waiting on the hard copy to be sent to my broker. Now I just have 2 years before I'm eligible for my broker's license. Hopefully I won't get into any trouble with the Commission before then. The wording of the questions for the state portion are horrid. I'm still baffled as to why people still rely on questions that have 3 possible correct answers but you have to pick the one that 'best fits'. It's so frustrating trying to analyze how realistic each of the answers are and choosing the best one - I think it might even confuse some to believe that the other possible answers are in fact incorrect. I don't see the need to attempt to confuse test takers. At least I won't have to see that poor excuse for an examination again in this state.

Friday

It's Friday and I don't have much of anything to write about. Unfortunately, 3 miners were killed in the rescue yesterday and they are halting all rescue attempts. This is a sad state of affairs but rather than endanger anyone else I think they made the correct decision.

I want this rain to stop. If it's not raining, it's threatening enough to keep me off my bike. The trails are either under water or too muddy to even ride and they probably won't be dry for another month. Urban riding is fun but can hold my attention for only so long...

News Media

My disdain for the news media is endless. I'll not make this a massive post because I know I could rant for ages.

The past two days there has been so much hubbub in the news concerning a tropical storm that was to hit the Texas coast. A tropical storm. We get dozens of these every year and not one does noticeable damage. The news covered all the search and rescue teams set up before hand to prepare for the hell that nature was going to unleash. What happens? Some unusually high winds and...wait for it...a STORM! With RAIN! Batton the hatches mateys, we're in for a big one. What a joke this is. Today I can't even find a decent weather report on the storm because it was so anticlimactic.

Yeah yeah, I know that everyone wants to avoid a disaster wrought upon a sunken city with a bunch of people that were so purposely forsaken by racist rich white people and the government. We want to negate the massive conspiracy to let black people drown when hurricanes come. I'm glad my tax dollars went to these rescue groups that (any professional in the field could tell you) were unneeded.

Thank you, Kanye.

Bush still hates black people.

Dolts.

Do you like clubbing?

Pure genius, taken from here.

I went to a fashionable London nightclub on Saturday. Not the sort of sentence I get to write very often, because I enjoy nightclubs less than I enjoy eating wool. But a glamorous friend of mine was there to "do a PA", and she'd invited me and some curious friends along because we wanted to see precisely what "doing a PA" consists of. Turns out doing a public appearance largely entails sitting around drinking free champagne and generally just "being there".

Obviously, at 36, I was more than a decade older than almost everyone else, and subsequently may as well have been smeared head to toe with pus. People regarded me with a combination of pity and disgust. To complete the circuit, I spent the night wearing the expression of a man waking up to Christmas in a prison cell.

"I'm too old to enjoy this," I thought. And then remembered I've always felt this way about clubs. And I mean all clubs - from the cheesiest downmarket sickbucket to the coolest cutting-edge hark-at-us poncehole. I hated them when I was 19 and I hate them today. I just don't have to pretend any more.

I'm convinced no one actually likes clubs. It's a conspiracy. We've been told they're cool and fun; that only "saddoes" dislike them. And no one in our pathetic little pre-apocalyptic timebubble wants to be labelled "sad" - it's like being officially declared worthless by the state. So we muster a grin and go out on the town in our millions.

Clubs are despicable. Cramped, overpriced furnaces with sticky walls and the latest idiot theme tunes thumping through the humid air so loud you can't hold a conversation, just bellow inanities at megaphone-level. And since the smoking ban, the masking aroma of cigarette smoke has been replaced by the overbearing stench of crotch sweat and hair wax.

Clubs are such insufferable dungeons of misery, the inmates have to take mood-altering substances to make their ordeal seem halfway tolerable. This leads them to believe they "enjoy" clubbing. They don't. No one does. They just enjoy drugs.

Drugs render location meaningless. Neck enough ketamine and you could have the best night of your life squatting in a shed rolling corks across the floor. And no one's going to search you on the way in. Why bother with clubs?

"Because you might get a shag," is the usual response. Really? If that's the only way you can find a partner - preening and jigging about like a desperate animal - you shouldn't be attempting to breed in the first place. What's your next trick? Inventing fire? People like you are going to spin civilisation into reverse. You're a moron, and so is that haircut you're trying to impress. Any offspring you eventually blast out should be drowned in a pan before they can do any harm. Or open any more nightclubs.

Even if you somehow avoid reproducing, isn't it a lot of hard work for very little reward? Seven hours hopping about in a hellish, reverberating bunker in exchange for sharing 64 febrile, panting pelvic thrusts with someone who'll snore and dribble into your pillow till 11 o'clock in the morning, before waking up beside you with their hair in a mess, blinking like a dizzy cat and smelling vaguely like a ham baguette? Really, why bother? Why not just stay at home punching yourself in the face? Invite a few friends round and make a night of it. It'll be more fun than a club.

Anyway, back to Saturday night, and apart from the age gap, two other things stuck me. Firstly, everyone had clearly spent far too long perfecting their appearance. I used to feel intimidated by people like this; now I see them as walking insecurity beacons, slaves to the perceived judgment of others, trapped within a self- perpetuating circle of crushing status anxiety. I'd still secretly like to be them, of course, but at least these days I can temporarily erect a veneer of defensive, sneering superiority. I've progressed that far.

The second thing that struck me was frightening. They were all photographing themselves. In fact, that's all they seemed to be doing. Standing around in expensive clothes, snapping away with phones and cameras. One pose after another, as though they needed to prove their own existence, right there, in the moment. Crucially, this seemed to be the reason they were there in the first place. There was very little dancing. Just pouting and flashbulbs.

Surely this is a new development. Clubs have always been vapid and awful and boring and blah - but I can't remember clubbers documenting their every moment before. Not to this demented extent. It's not enough to pretend you're having fun in the club any more - you've got to pretend you're having fun in your Flickr gallery, and your friends' Flickr galleries. An unending exhibition in which a million terrified, try-too-hard imbeciles attempt to out-cool each other.

Mind you, since in about 20 years' time these same people will be standing waist-deep in skeletons, in an arid post-nuclear wasteland, clubbing each other to death in a fight for the last remaining glass of water, perhaps they're wise to enjoy these carefree moments while they last. Even if they're only pretending.

Service

Why is it impossible to find people that are willing to do their jobs without blaming you, the customer, for their woes? I was at the bank today to grab a few temporary checks because I ran out yesterday. Now, this is an issue due to my own incompetence and I would understand if an individual at the bank might be a bit annoyed that they must go print out a few checks for some dumbass that didn't order new ones when he should have. As I walked into the bank and asked someone at the front desk for help, she told me that she was unable to complete that task for me and a woman walking by instructed me to come to her desk so that she could get the temporaries printed out. I gave her my information and showed her my I.D. - she kindly asked if I would like to order more checks (probably not her job) and I politely asked her to do so. Everything went off without a hitch and the woman helping me was a shining example of someone with respect for her job.

I'm now going to take time out of my day to find a way to send some feedback to the bank about the experience I had and the great service provided by this employee. Most people I know will only take time to fill out complaint forms. I believe this to be a symptom of the general malaise associated with poor customer service. People get fed up with being mistreated constantly by anal workers and become super sensitive to any sort of discrepancy between what they expect and what they get when it comes to service.

I rarely complain, but when the level of service I receive is far below what the entity portrays their standard to be, I will let them know. There is no reason to persecute some poor man or woman in a minimum wage job because of a simple mistake and I always keep that in mind. When they refuse to do their job and don't abide by the policies of the employer then, yes, they should be punished.

News Today

Link to story

"Saraa Barhoum picked at the buttons on her pink bellbottom jeans as she twisted on a chair inside the bustling new Hamas television headquarters. The afternoon light bounced off the sparkly outlines of butterflies on her frilly top, and a colorful hijab framed her 11-year-old face.

Saraa wants to be a doctor. If she can't, the young star of Hamas television's best-known children's show said, she'd be proud to become a martyr. Saraa says little Jewish girls should be forced from their homes in Israel so that Palestinians can return to their land."

I mean, at least they're brainwashing their children rather than giving them toys covered in lead based paint. I wonder if she's the daughter of one of the asshole doctors that tried to bomb the airport in Scotland.

What about this Jose Carranza, the illegal immigrant from Peru that was a party to the executions in New Jersey? This guy was out on bail for aggravated assault and sexual abuse of a child. Great job, New Jersey - you vote in local government officials that make the city a sanctuary for illegals. In my honest opinion, you have to be a dunce to believe that sanctuary for ILLEGALS is a good move. I have not heard one legitimate reason to let these worthless people run freely in the US. I don't care if for every one murdering child rapist there are 10,000 law abiding illegals (now that's quality right there), I still want them gone.

Honestly, what is wrong with America right now? If you're against the war, you blame Bush and every conservative in the country. Fair enough, I can deal with that. It gets sort of confusing here and I don't think these people truly understand what they're saying so I'll keep it simple. The same people that blame the administration for killing innocent thousands in Iraq are, for the most part, the same people that are for 'amnesty' for some form of it. They then blame Bush because the War has caused the administration to overlook the issue of immigration. They are ALSO the same people that voted for the politicians that have passed 80 public laws so far this year (to give you perspective, 482 laws passed from 2005-2006). Let us continue to sit on our asses, complain that the current administration is bunk and expect things to work out the way we want.

I remember seeing, among the disgusting amount of political 'humor' material I've seen, something that went along the lines of 'Are you happy now?' referring to voting Bush in for a second term. I pose the same question to those of you that voted in these congressional members.

It's up.

Here's to the first posting on my blog. It has taken me a while to finally fall into the black hole of 'blogging' but boredom at work gets the best of all of us. I doubt this page will get more than a handful of views, but anyone that might find it enjoyable makes it worth the while. There's not much you need to know about me besides the fact that I'm a twenty-some-odd year old Texas male...I'm sure more will be laid out for you in time.