Monday, December 22, 2008

'Twas the night before Wednesday...

Wait, what was that? We’re not supposed to open presents until the 25th of the month? Tradition, you say?

Oops. Well, scratch that.

Yeah, we’re not big on tradition I guess. Mostly me, and mostly it’s not even necessary being
against tradition, as it is being impatient in general. Especially when there’s a gift and my name is attached (to or from, doesn’t matter). So we sat around the first week of December telling each other how we know what the other is getting, and making deals about if I can open this one, then you can open that one, et cetera.

Then came the fateful day. What day exactly is not important, and I can’t even remember what day it was and it’s not like we’re going to make a
new tradition out of it or anything, so just focus on the fact that it was the first week of December. We decided to open a present each, and next thing we knew, the tree was bare. Was a good X-mas? Yeah, I’d say it was.

I got The Girl a new dining table. When we moved in here, we had inherited this hideous excuse for furniture. It was a round, glass-top dining table with four chairs on rollers. The wood was about the color of pale and it looked like plastic. And the fabric padding on the chair was a pale baby blue. I guess it was supposed to be old-folks furniture, but it seemed even to gaudy for that; it had to be blind-folks furniture or something. Anyway. It’s gone now, replaced by a cherrywood-colored set, 48” long with 4 chairs. It’s not the greatest quality in the world, but it was a bargain and will do for us until we get to where it is we’re going, and even into some of the time once we get there.

As for me… well I got a great gift, one that I actually asked for last year: an old-fashioned, Double-Edged Safety Razor.
Score! I’ve been shaving with it for a week or two now, and I can say that it’s a bit different than the cartridge razors my generation has grown up with, and quite a bit better once you figure it out.

I have had issues with the bottom of my neck for many years now. I have not been able to shave more than a couple of times a week for that time, and even then it gets irritated quickly. I’m not 100% sure what the main culprit is, but I suspect is has a lot to do with the fact that my stubble is like rod-iron gates, and today’s razors
generally suck ass. I just couldn’t do it. I could shave once against the grain for a close, smooth shave, and then 3 or 4 days later I could shave with the grain and look halfway presentable for half a day, or I could shave with the grain every 2nd or 3rd day and look like I was constantly a day removed from a long vacation. This was life with my face.

It’s not the greatest set in the world, but from what I understand, the more expensive ones are really just more convenient in how they accept the blade itself, and as long as you have a badger hair brush (this is, apparently, the holy grail of the “DE” shave) you’re on the right track. And thus far I’m very impressed. Impressed enough in fact that I think all of you should do it, too.

Think of this: I don’t have much an issue with irritation any longer, the blades last at least as long, and they’re seriously pennies on the dollar. Contrast this with today’s cartridges, which run anywhere from 2 or 3 shoddy blades all the way up to 5, across your face with each and every stroke. And to top it off, you can generally only get a couple of good shaves out of it (unless you’re cheating) before you have to replace the cartridge, and those run anywhere from $8 for a 4-pack to $11 for a 4-pack,depending on the model.

You do the math, right? I mean, better results, less cost… it’s like someone saying you can either sleep with an ugly partner that bitches constantly, or a pretty one that is gentle and compliant.

I’ll take “That’s a f*cking Easy One” for $2000, Alex.

Best. Christmas gift. EVER.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Close Calls at the 'Bob household

Rheumatoid and The Girl
For the last year or so, The Girl has had the misfortune of having a case of swollen knuckles. They come and go and are usually accompanied by some strange red “lumps” around the knuckles as well. It seems that during the Winter has been the worst, and finally this time around we decided that it was getting scary enough that she should seek medical advice on the matter.

This was made scarier by the mention of
Rheumatoid Arthritis by the lady that caught sight of them when she was renewing her Birth Control.

We don’t currently have insurance, because… well, we don’t fall ill often and we tend to
heal. And we’re legitimately together, so it’s not like we’re scared of coming up with Genital Warts or something, and the cost of insurance is still high, especially when you consider that you still have to shell out the dough for Co-Pay when you visit the doctor. I mean, wtf, really. You pay insurance, so that you can visit the doctor, and pay again. Seriously, I think something’s amiss here.

Plus, the last time I saw a doctor was for a routine physical, where I
caught something and damn near died 3 days later, so yeah, no thanks I think I’ll stay the f*ck away from all the sick people.

Anyway, $157 dollars later and we were waiting on a phone call for the results of the blood work. And spending free time researching information on – and treatments
for – the disease.



Early Call
We were expecting to be called no earlier than Saturday (today) but more than likely have it put off until Monday. Yesterday however, she got the call while I was at work. It came back negative.

Which is both great news and a little,
tiny bit of a bummer. Because, if it’s NOT RA, then what the hell is it? It’s got to be an allergy to something, but god knows what, right? I’m currently thinking it might have something to do with her coffee regimen. No, seriously. During the Winter, she drinks more of it (and all the strange stuff she adds to it). She also had some flare-ups in late spring, near finals for that ending semester at school, during which time she was drinking coffee more heavily again.

It doesn’t seem to be a topical thing as much as an internal thing, so I’m sticking to dietary items, but there’s also the idea that it’s related to the flocking on the inside of the dishwashing gloves, though I doubt it. What else could it be? I’m thinking that perhaps a call to the family doctor (read: Daddy Dr. Stepdaddy) is in order.

Hopefully it’s not too early.



Silver Lining imagined, disintegrates
One good side to the RA thing was that it would be a legitimate reason to not have kids. Why don’t you guys have kids? Because she has a disease that appears to be at least partially hereditary. Would put a quick stop to all that discussion rather quick.

C’est la vie. It was not meant to be, though. Kids are still on the table. Damn.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Random Postage-Due Occurrences

Yesterday was an odd occurrence: we received a chain letter at work.

And I don’t mean
I opened my email, and there was this forwarded email about making a wish and then forwarding the email to 10 people or else I’d be hit with 3 years of bad luck, just like these other people who got hit by a car THE VERY NEXT DAY AND DIED or got syphilis and typhoid and genital warts. I mean that the mail carrier came up to me, and said “this is yours.”

Not quite. He came up to me and said that we had a letter that had been sent to us postage due. $1.
68. Not only that, but there was no return address. So, no return address, no postage, and I’m on the verge of saying “I don’t want it.” I mean, what if it’s anthrax? What if it’s pornographic material? A Bomb? But it’s not my company, hell it’s not even my store, so I figure that just to be safe, I’ll run it by the Store Manager, see what he wants to do with it.

Good thing I did, let me tell you, and not just because the Store Manager said “pay for it.” That
has to be the first step, but what followed was pure hilarity. OK yeah it was a chain letter, but it was more than that. It’s hard to explain, but let’s try by example. It was 30 pages or so, and it ranged from a personal ad for a cross-dressing homosexual, to the expanation of Jehovah’s Witnesses as an evil cult, to lawsuit information for god-knows-what. The first page was a flyer to try out to be the boyfriend of this person as well as the lead singer in the band they were hoping to form (I can only guess it was the person in the personals ad you’re auditioning for). No kidding; auditions to be the boyfriend AND Lead Singer of this yet-to-be-created band. And you couldn’t just sing any songs you chose, you had to sing a particular set of songs outlined in this boyfriend/lead singer audition list, and do it right goddammit.

Wow. Talk about strict requirements, eh?
Good LUCK finding someone to fill that role, ma’am or sir (whatever you are/prefer).

So. Glad. We. Accepted. That. Letter. $1.
68 does not even begin to come close to the worth of this chain letter. How often… When was the last ti-… it’s not every day you get that kind of laugh in the mail.

So worth it.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Home-Shopping with the 'bob

House Shopping 101
We’re not in dire need of a new place mind you, but we’re looking. Not at much, we’re still poor, but we’re looking. I had been saying that I think the market’s probably going to take another year or two to bottom out, but here’s the thing: bottoms come after the declines slow. If we’re spending $13K annually to rent, and in that year’s span home prices in our range drop only $10K and then bottoms? Was it worth it? No.

And what’s more, I think the market around here is at a point where sellers & banks are starting to realize that the market is not the 2005 housing market, and what’s more,
that there’s no such thing as a “2009 housing market.” Meaning, essentially, that there’s what homes sold for last year, and there’s what they’ll sell for in a year or two. I think we might be able to get away with offering a lowball amount of what we predict that the house will/would sell for in 1-2 years. And while at first it may seem rude or low, the reality is… if a home is listed right now @ $200k let’s say, and we offer $170k? That may seem low, but in 12-18 months, when it’s STILL on the market & they are forced to reduce the asking price to $185K, suddenly that “lowball offer” seems about right.

And I’m counting on the banks & sellers to start to come to this realization, that they should be thinking 18-24 months out. I think the time is about right.



Business 101
Another thing we looked into was just buying the property and plopping (?) down a manufactured home onto it. This seemed like a feasibility when we found a 2-acre parcel listed for $80k. We figured, if we could get into a decent-sized (read: 1,500 sq.ft. Or larger) manu for $50-60k, then we’d have basically what we really want for a ‘starter’ home, and at a good price.

This did not materialize. And for many reasons, which I shall enumerate.

I call to see if I can sit down with the local manu- folks and go over available plans & pricing. I get the address, and they tell me that their offices are NOT at the show area, which I knew but hey I needed the address anyway so gimme gimme gimme. About an hour later I arrive at this place, and it’s not even an office suite, it’s a house in a residential neighborhood. Walk in, and I’m greeted by the biggest, most assuredly virgin, inbreed dork I have ever met in my life. He makes me look like a damned porn star he’s so virginly pure and stupid. And it doesn’t get that much better when we meet the incestual father of the inbreed dork. He’s the ringleader I guess, and he comes in, and asks what we want.

Uh, a latté, two shots of flavor & no foam.
What do you think we want?!

After we worked through the difficult task of figuring out what we were doing there, we sat down and went over the plans & price list. And right away, I was thinking there’s no way we’re doing this. For the size we would want, we’re looking at at least $85k, and then if you want just a little bit more, maybe a triple-wide (!), it jumps to $125k. You want a solid foundation with that? Add in at least $16k. Sort of makes you wonder what they’re doing in business. I mean, if I was going to have a house built at around 1,800 sq.ft. Or so, I think that honestly, instead of paying $125k plus $16k for a triple-wide & a solid foundation, I’d just have it actually built, thankyouverymuch.

We stayed, we asked the questions we had intended to ask since we had already driven all the way out there, but pretty much when we got back to the car, we made a list of reasons why we would not be doing business with them. It goes a little something like this (and a-one, and a-two, and a-one, two three four!):

  • So, you sell manufactured homes, you’re trying to push the manufactured homes thing as being as good or better than a “regular” frame house. Yet…… you run the business out of a regular frame house in an old-fashioned, framed-house neighborhood. Riiiiighhhht…… OK look peeps: perhaps you should have maybe used some of those fabulous proceeds to procure a manu- for yourself, to use as office & residence; sort of show us how awesome these things really are, and how much you stand behind them?

  • If you have an inbred, half-retarded offspring that maybe once got a boner over a calculator and/or Bert & Ernie, keep it locked in the back room, well-distracted with lettered blocks or something. He’s scaring away your customers. No lie, the first thing I thought when I saw him was oh great, this isn’t even legit, it’s going to be one of those MLM schemes isn’t it?

  • Business 101, y’all: if I stroll into your place of business/residence, don’t ask me what I am doing there. Assume it’s not an accident. Show me what you got, ask questions. I’m here to be sold. So sell. See it’s called business, and you’re doing it wrong.



Dag. We need to move to the midwest. I mean, $150-200k, and all we’re getting is a city lot. California’s too expensive :-(

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Family photos for the holiday; Or not, hey whatever

The other day all six of us trotted out to the woods for some pictures. It was the same day, in fact, that I shot the video of the trees. The idea was Holiday Cards. You know, those crappy little things with the pic of the family on the front in those gay-ass sweaters, all smiling and looking just left of the camera, except for little Timmy who’s got Pink Eye and is looking into the lens and pouting, and picking his nose. Yeah, those. Well, The Girl wanted some of that goodness for our little family. You know, Me, Her, Miles, Zoey, and Chase & Hunter. That “little” family.

I don’t know quite where to begin. I mean, where did it all go wrong? I’ll tell you: waking up in the morning. Maybe before that; I think the
very idea of this might well have been flawed. And as much as I want to wring her cute little throat sometimes, I can’t really lay the blame on the lil’ woman. After all, I gleefully went along with it, thinking all would work out JUST PEACHY OMG!

Getting ready went smooth. The drive out went smooth. Finding a perfect spot was a little rough – in fact I don’t think we
did find the perfect spot. But the troubles really began when we tried to get everyone sat down and still. Honestly, I had envisioned the whole thing in my head. And let me tell you, it did not go according to that grand master plan. The dogs, they did not sit. Or when they did sit, it was facing the wrong direction. Or it was too far apart. Or it was any other bloody thing it could be that was not ‘the right thing,’ and you can imagine that this got old really fast. Really fast.

Cue screaming & yelling, right? Right. Boy did I. The dogs were not happy with daddy, and likewise I was not happy with them. It’s sitting! It’s not hard! You do it all the damned time!

Well the frustration did not end, and subsequently we did not get “The Picture.” We got SOME, but they were not of all of us, and we BARELY got any of all the dogs as it was. The Girl managed a few, and we’re thinking of putting the cards together with one or two of them. People, if you get a Holiday Card with a picture of four dogs, just
imagine we’re in there too, OK? And you know what? I eventually calmed down. I reconciled myself to the fact that normal families composed of actual people can’t get this simple act right most of the time; what, were we bat-sh!t crazy for thinking we could pull it off? Two people and four dogs?! Yeah I vote for bat-sh!t crazy

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Sticking with RapidWeaver. For now....

With the recent news of Karelia releasing version 1.5.2 of Sandvox, I suddenly found myself comparing it versus what I’m currently using. I’ve done this dance before – when I initially bought my current software – but lately I’ve been running into frustrations that I was fully aware of, and others that I wasn’t even aware they existed before I saw how Sandvox handled them. I’ve been toying around now for like two weeks trying to decide what to do about it/them, and I was pretty close at one point to saying “hell with it” and just either buying it, or not doing a website at all (oddly different ends of the spectrum, I know).

Wanting to switch website creation engines was really about trying to simplify the process; the easier I can make it, the better for me. Of course this has to be balanced with my desire to do things
my way; after all, if it was just about ease-of-use and nothing more, I’d have not ever spent a dime and just gone on blogger or something. Or not done a damn thing in the first place.

I mean, I guess what I wanted out of my website was basically myspace, but without all that crappy myspace messing it up, you know? I want my pictures, my movies, my blog, my this & that. But more than just wanting that stuff, I want it to be the way I want it it be. I’m picky like that; sue me.

RapidWeaver has its shortcomings; managing sidebar content is NOT as easy as I feel it should be. What I want I feel is simple enough, but it requires hacks or third-party add-ons to accomplish, and even then only gets close, it doesn’t actually do it: I want my sidebar content to be synced across parent/child pages. So that – for instance – the sidebar you see on my bios main page is the same as the sidebar you see on the bios child pages (me, Betty, Miles, Zoey). And if I make a change – either adding something, deleting, or modifying – that change is automatically reflected on each page, without me having to change it on each one, individually.

Only like 5 pages anyway, right? What’s the big deal? Well
Chase & Hunter will eventually get their own pages too, provided they manage to stay alive to their 2-year birthday. So that’s 7. Then there’s the photo pages. See as it stands, there’s already some 20-odd pages, and it will only grow with time. So that means, if I want my sidebar content to be the same across all pages, right now I have to do it manually across all of them. And what’s more, even if I did hack something together to sync them, it’d only suffice for changes. Anything added or deleted would require I go back and do that manually.

Sandvox is nicer in this regard, though still not perfect. As it stands, at least it can sync content across parent/child pages, or even site-wide. See how it works is, you add a “pagelet,” which is a little piece of something that sticks around on the sidebar. It contains most anything, from a link list, to your amazon list, to HTML code you put in to do fantastic things (such as display porn. Just saying). You put these “pagelets” on a parent page (a page with underlings; in the above example, it would be the Bios Home page), and you select to have it inherited by all the children pages. Now, any changes you make to it – or simply the process of adding it – sync to all the pages underneath it as well.

But what it’s missing is finer-grain control. If I create a certain number of pagelets on the parent page, the children pages cannot have a different order. This is mostly fine, except for the pagelets you specify site-wide. These take precedence over everything, so if you have 3 or 4 created from the master template, but say on the Blog page you want your archives for the Blog at the very top or very bottom (duh), you can’t really do that because the site-wide ones will not allow a pagelet specified on a page “below it,” to be moved above it (or below if you specified to have it on the bottom). So you’re limited in the order you can actually work with on particular pages.

RapidWeaver allows more control of course (to the point of not allowing any cool syncing features al all! *groan*). It’s a pain in the ass to have to set up the pages manually, but it can be largely short-cut with some ingenuity and the use of plugins like
pluskit & blocks, or @stash. There’s no getting around the addition & subtraction of page elements so far as I can see, however. There are still some niceties that RapidWeaver has over Sandvox, too. That finer-grain control. Just on the blogs, for instance… Sandvox has no way to create tags or categories. Tags like “New Family Members,” as I currently have. Or “Personal” or “Politics & Policy,” my personal fave… And the work that would go into trying to duplicate that functionality… well let’s just say that I ain’t doing it. Period. Either it’s built-in, or it’s not happening, folks.

Then there’s what I can do on any particular page. Say I want to add a video to this page. I just drop it in. It’s not as pretty to get done, but hey, a line of code later, and BOOM! A youtube video of a hot girl doing a hot dance (ga ga ga… ;-) ):



You see, what I wanted to do was make it as easy to create/lay out as it is to look at. Right now it’s not as easy to create as it is to look at, but at least I have some freedom to do it like I want, even if it is more work up front. The more I investigated Sandvox recently, the more it became apparent that it was NOT what I wanted to do; more than anything, I simply wanted to borrow some of the functionality and add it to MY toolset. Alas, as of this writing, I cannot.

RapidWeaver, you still get the nod. By a nose hair, you damned woolly beast; by a
nose hair.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Putting up more videos; Check them out

So yeah obviously the drought was short-lived. There’s certain things that I simply MUST post. I will get to those in a minute. In the meantime, I wanted to say that I think I’m going to go in a slightly different direction with some of the things on my website here. I think – for instance – that I’m going to post more videos. I’d been working for a while on how I was going to set them all up, and I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do it, but after fiddling for a few weeks, I decided on a way and made it stick. It took quite a bit of trying, let me tell you: I had to modify a few things inside my damn program to get what I wanted, and even then it’s not quite what I wanted. But it’s close enough dammit, and as the cool fellas say, “it’s good enough for the girls I go out with.”

Before it was kinda thrown together and not all that sweet-looking; I didn’t want to navigate it, kinda hard to ask you to. Anyway, that’s done with; now it’s just a matter of getting you over there to check out some cool stuff. Head on over to the
movies page then, eh?

The thing that really got me started on it was the video with the truck. About a week ago, we went on a nice little hike in a town about 30 miles south of here. It was a nice hike and we finished it off with a decent lunch at a local restaurant (we had coupons! Yay!). But on the way there, I spied a hidden-ish path along a bridge that lead down to the Eel River, and dammit I wanted to get me some of that on the way back.

So I did.

One of the walls was freakin’ hellish-looking, y’all. I came upon it from the topside looking down, and promptly found another way to the bottom; there was no way I was taking my lil’ Tacoma down
that. We had fun, splashed, ran away from the dogs for good measure (it’s becoming “our thing;” hopefully the dogs don’t develop a complex). Then on the way back, I spied that hill again. I had my navigator get the hell out of the truck and stand atop the slope, so as to make sure my clearances never actually got too close for comfort, and I gave it a go.

Lo-and-behold, the truck scaled it like it wasn’t even there. It was a pretty decent climb, folks. Take a look at the video. And hey, understand that the video doesn’t do it justice. The slope was close-to-if-not 45º, no lie. Add in that it was deeply pocked the whole way up, and the fact that I started slow and maintained that speed all the way throughout, and you know what you got? A new nickname for the truck, dammit: “The Lil’ Tacoma that Could.” Or maybe “The Mighty Tacoma.” or “The Invincible Tacoma.” Maybe “The Amazing Tacoma.”

We’re still working on it, dammit.

Anyway, it got me thinking: I really should throw up more videos that show off certain things that just don’t come across well in photo. One in particular that I can think of, is the
local trees. Words don’t do them justice. Pictures don’t do them justice. But today, I thought to take a panning video of them, and by-golly, it did better to show the scale than I’ve previously managed erstwhile. That video is as well on the movies page, so hey – take a look, see if you’re impressed. It does a decent job showing the height, but it’s still a bit flaky about showing how truly massive they are around the base, too.

You still have to see them in person to believe it.

And boy do I have a story of frustration to go along with the videos of those trees, dammit. Just you wait; just you wait...

How to Cure Hiccups

I’ve seen too many people suffering needlessly. I have to share this. Look, if you’re suffering form hiccups currently, are you have in the past, or you think you may in the future… if they run in the family, perhaps you know someone that suffers; here’s how to cure hiccups. It works. Seriously, it works, you just have to trust me, and do as I say, to the letter. Hiccups are caused by a spasming diaphragm below your lungs. What you want to do it calm it. So here’s what you do:

  1. Hyperventilate for a few seconds. Breath in deeply, rapidly (but not too rapidly). Warm your lungs up.

  2. Now that the lungs are warmed, prepare yourself. Are you prepared? Good.

  3. Take a deep breath, and then hold it. Now that you’ve just taken that deep breath, take in just a little bit more, and hold it.

  4. OK so you’ve taken in a DEEP breath plus some, and you’re holding it. It’s a lot of pressure, I know. You probably feel it against your throat, right? Don’t worry. You only have to hold it for like 40 seconds.

  5. Yes, 40 seconds. Dammit don’t argue, just do it. You can do it.

  6. 1,2, skip a few… 40. OK, notice anything? That’s right, the hiccups are gone.


How does this work? I don’t know exactly. I learned from my dad when I was about 8 or 9 years old. It’s worked each and every time for me since then without fail, and it’s never failed anyone else that I’ve told it to. I think it has something to do with stretching the diaphragm out and keeping it like that, though I’m still notquite sure of the mechanics. Look, don’t worry about it, alright? But forget drinking a cup of water upside down with a wrench between your knees or something like that (don’t look at me like that; what you never had a crazy uncle?). Just take a deep breath + some, and then hold it for 30-40 seconds. Works every time.

And spread the word; random bob is full of useful, pertinent advice that will get you laid.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Bob takes a break

Short Version:
OK, so it’s not like I’m unaware of the fact that I don’t have much of an audience. I don’t feel bad about it. I mean, it’s a big bad internet out there, and I offer no porn, no news headlines, no life-altering insight… I offer slightly amusing stories that are probably less amusing if you don’t know me.

And maintaining my site/blog takes time. Time that I could be doing something else with. So I’m thinking, why not do something else with it? And so I think I will try that for a while.

It’s been real, it’s been fun, right? Eh.



Long Version:
Not long ago, I was perusing some Mac-specific sites when I read about a program by the name of Sandvox being updated to version 1.5.2. This intrigued me. As of today’s date, and for the past year & a half, I have maintained my website using a program called RapidWeaver, currently at verison 4.2. I moved to it because iWeb was limiting, and at the time I made the move it was between RW and Sandvox for my money. I gave the nod to RW obviously.

But I like to know what’s out there. Anyway, I downloaded the latest version of it, to try it out. And I got to tell you, I liked a lot of the things I saw. It seemed like it was more my style than RW. RW is powerful, but it’s also code-heavy. You don’t need to be a wizard to put together something, but it’s not as layout-friendly as Sandvox or iWeb, and honestly while I know some code, I use it mostly to parse certain things and pull them out (like files that the website doesn’t default to letting you have it). One of the things that intrigued me most was its handling of sidebar elements.

They’ve been a pain in my arse in RW since forever. Basically, you have two default options: you can either do each page’s sidebar individually, or you can select a page’s sidebar and then copy it to the rest of the entire site. Well anything in between is sort of an impossibility, you see. And the way this site is laid out, I have the blog and its child pages, the photo galleries under ‘photos,’ and everyone’s bios under “bios.” And to me, it made sense to want to keep the sidebars relatively stable within these groupings, but not
bewteen them. I mean, I want my bios sidebars to be the same as all the other bios pages, but I want the photo pages to be similar only to the other photos pages. In RW, there’s no easy way to pull this off currently.

Let me make this clear: you can come close in RW, but it requires purchasing other plugins, either using the
@stash plugin, or teaming up the Blocks pages plugin with pluskit, which is a bit more of a pain but also a little more capable in some circumstances. This all I found out when I went to RW’s forums to throw in a feature request for something similar to Sandvoxes handling of it. How does Sandvox do it?

They have what they call “pagelets,” which are basically just little widgets. You can add them to the sidebar of the main site template, and they will sync across all pages of the site (unless you ask a page to NOT inherit them). Also, you can specify on any parent page to have sidebar elements (widgets) you add to them be automatically inherited by all the children pages. This – to me – is an optimal arrangement. If I want the whole site’s pages to be identical, I can still do that by specifying widgets from the master template. If I want them on a per-page basis, I add them as such. If I want them across a subset of hierarchical pages – which I do – then I specify the widget as being a part of the parent page; all the children pages automatically get these elements on them, and updates to the widget span all pages that include it.
Brilliant!

So anyway, I got to thinking about what I wanted to do. I was contemplating buying Sandvox at about $80, and porting my site to it, essentially. But some of the things I like about RW would be harder to duplicate in Sandvox. They could be done, but it would be labor-intensive, and part of the proposed move to was to get away from this
labor-intensivity. But it would be more a one-time affair than a site-management way of life, so I was still considering it.

But then I got to thinking: why do all this labor anyway? What’s it for? I mean, what would I get out of it? I don’t have an audience; no one would be there to notice. I would spend $80 and many,
many hours of labor transporting over my blog history, so that only I would notice. And all these cool sidebar things I was going to add, who would get anything out of them? That’s right, me, me & me alone. And suddenly, the monetary & time investment didn’t seem worth it. But what’s more, blogging in general didn’t seem worth it.

I don’t do this for money (at this point); you’ll notice no ads on my site as of yet. And if there were, I’d be getting nothing for them as no one stops by to click on them anyway. So far, I’ve done this for myself. I like to write and to tell stories from my own perspective. This has sort of been my journal, you know? But it’s been a pain-n-the-ass journal, what with formatting, linking, publishing & republishing, et cetera. Hell if I wanted to journal I could do it on my own computer for much less frustration.



Anyway
Anyway. So there you have it. I think I’m going to go silent for a while. I just don’t feel like I really have anything worth sharing that anyone really wants shared in the first place. I’m thinking there is an ever-so-tiny chance that this is a permanent thing, but I’ve been wrong before and I’d probably be wrong now too, so I’m not nailing the coffin shut exactly. But I am saying that the ‘bob will now be taking a hiatus. And if I DO come back, there’s also a chance it will be under the Sandvox Banner. I think. If I were. But probably not.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The new pups are filling out nicely

So, yeah. I found out I lost a substantial amount of weight recently, but the overall goal was not to find out my weight, but to weigh the new puppies. I had tried this before, if you recall, and came away with what I thought their weights were. This was awhile ago though, and we wanted more up-to-date information.

So I reluctantly put myself on the scale, while
The Girl tried to cover my eyes. This did not work obviously, but it did give me good insight into how much they actually weigh.

They each outweigh Miles now. Miles weighs in @ around 68-70lbs, and the lighter of the two –
Hunter – weighs 71lbs. Chase is closer to 73lbs. So hey, I guess I should finally break down and give them each their own page then, huh? Weird. I guess the x-factor for getting your own webpage here is weight. Who would have thunk, right? Certainly not me. And hell, with my incredible shrinking abilities, maybe I won’t have a page, soon.

Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Incredible Shrinkng 'Bob

That is me, apparently. Weighed myself a few days ago, for the first time since moving here a year and a half ago. I knew I had lost some weight, but I was shocked to see where I was. I’m hesitant to share, actually.

155 pounds.

Yikes. I mean, that’s 25lbs in that year that I’ve lost. I knew I had lost some unneccesary weight. Hell, I moved up here with a svelte 32-33” wiastline. I own a couple pairs of 31’s I would squeeze into on occasion. Now, the 31’s need a belt lest they become ankle warmers. So, I went from – let’s average – a 32.5” waistline, to a <31” waistline. It gets muddy here, though. See, My waist has shrunk, but my weight lifting has held pretty steady, ,and actually seen some gains in some departments. I’ve had some injuries over the last year that have kept me out of the gym (garage) for maybe 3-4 months of good workout time too, but overall, I still fill out my shirts about the same save for the waistline.

I’m not sure where all this weight was to begin with, I guess I’m saying. But now that I know I have some room, I’m going to hit the weights a little bit harder, and really push to get some of that weight back. Just the good weight, though. I figure, maybe I can make it up to 175lbs of meat. Whadya think?

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Related News Articles

“Obama Win Triggers Run on Guns”
From Yahoo News.

So, wait: are people really
that scared that a run of black gangs are coming to their houses? You know, I think maybe those people took all those emails a little too seriously, perhaps. I know they keep framing it as “right to bear arms,” but something tells me it’s more than that. After all, what do you think you’ll need an M-16 (AR-15) rifle for, exactly?

You want a
good reason to stockpile weapons? I’ll give one to you. How about the economic crisis that has been triggered by the Bush Economic Policies, which were basically like Robin Hood, only in reverse, sort of a “Steal the money from the poor to give to the rich.” Yeah. All these newly out of work people are going to be kinda pissed (see below).



“Democratic Leaders Seek Aid for Failing Automakers”
From the NY Times.

So let me get this straight: They f*cked up and now we have to pay them money so they stay afloat? What the hell? What’s really awful about this is that the companies are still going to dump workers to “stay afloat,” which basically means “we aren’t good at our jobs, so, uh, sorry, you lose yours.” Which is totally backwards, isn’t it?

I know that if the companies fail, they’ll
all be out of work, but I still almost think we should let them. I don’t think these failed executives deserve another try. Let someone else come in and swoop up their capital in the liquidation sale and try their own hand at it. They’ll probably need some workers that know how to run the equipment, so jobs might not be lost for long.

See, this is the problem with letting businesses become so big & monolithic in nature; we should never even question letting a bad business model fail. If it sucked, it should just die off. But here we are, weighing the options; ‘Is it better to give rich, greedy bastard executives more money now that they f*cked up?’

Boy would I like to say no on that one.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Pumpkins for Obama

Look! Even pumpkins are smart enough to vote the right way. He just showed up on our doorstep in November 4th, and gave a spiel about why we (and other humans as well as pumpkins) should vote for Obama this fine day. Laid it all out on the table, explained the tax systems and everything.

OK I lied.

The
other day when The Girl got home she actually took the time to read my blog. This happens maybe once a week, and usually I get scorned for it. It’s OK, don’t feel bad – I’m used to it.

But she saw the bare pumpkin pic, and decided to take action. So in celebration of America
not being completely retarded, We now have (and put out on our porch! Talk about fair-weather friends, eh?) a “Pumkin for Obama.”

This does not mean, however, that he can come here and take it. It’s ours.

So, yeah. We’re not into
Halloween much, but apparently, politics gets us all into the mood to carve up a pumpkin. Man; we are weird...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

I’m a little late telling you about this, but we did watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall some weeks ago (October 15th!). The movie follows our protagonist, “Fat Dude.” Now, a word of warning: if you watch this movie, beware that the “Unrated” version has Fat Dude showing off his dick. A LOT. Like, if you thought that maybe you’d get to see Sarah Marshall’s goods (Kristen Bell, who IS hot), you’re almost out of luck. You get to see some side-boob at one part, but you’ll have to be inundated with lots of Fat Dude dick in order to get there.

The movie is
alright. It’s not superb, it’s not overly funny. It’s not even really worth rushing out right now to go and rent. It’s not even really much of an all-out comedy. But it’s not bad. There’s things I liked about it, actually, mostly the sort-of surprise revelation that the protagonist is far from innocent. I don’t want to give it away, but he’s not a bad guy, it’s just that his relationship fell apart not solely because Sarah Marshall was a Bitch, but rather it was a combination of things, some of which were Fat Dude’s fault directly. After all, a relationship is two-people big (or more…), and both sides have to be involved and sacrifice & share & take responsibility, right?

Right. Most romantic comedies though, forgo this simple truth, and go for the easy-out, “the protagonist is all-good and the antagonist is all-bad” definition of relationship breakups. So I really respected that
Sarah Marshall took a detour from that.

Still pretty dumb overall, though. I mean, they go out of their way to show that he’s not perfect in the scheme of things, but they fail to show him doing much to break out of his mold. And his life’s work? Well I’ll prepare you: it’s dumb. It’s corny. You’ll not even be able to laugh at it. Nor with it. It’s just dumb, and you wonder,
why?

Maybe it’s the guys who wrote this trash; sort of their way at laughing at you for
actually watching it.

Discovery Atlas: Need Help with that Pillow?

I’ve discovered what it is, I think. Each episode comes with a sedative. We watched the one on Italy last night, and I fell asleep. Again.

I thought that it was a fluke when I fell asleep during the the
Brazil episode. I don’t really care much about Brazil (though I do understand all the girls have nice asses and go to nude beaches, if the internet serves me right). I figured that maybe it was the lack of caring, and surely other episodes in the series – ones on places I cared more about, perhaps – would be engaging.

Guess not. Sh!t, I’m Italian. And I fell asleep.

These
Discovery Atlas episodes… they suck. Don’t bother. Stick with Planet Earth or something. Don’t waste your time.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

We're DEFINITELY Halloweeners around here...

What you see to your right is not a stand-in for the family pumpkin. It is not a representation of our Halloween Pumpkin. It is the actual Halloween pumpkin that The Girl purchased about 5 days before said event. This picture was taken shortly before I am now typing this. It is now – as I type this – November 4th, the day that all the halfway intelligent people hoped that all the red states saw the error of their ways over the last 8 years as they headed to the polling booth to vote for Obama. It is 5 days passed Halloween. What you see to your right is not the back of the pumpkin. That is the front.

We’re
very into Halloween, as you can tell. Glad we spent the money!

Is it too late to carve it up and stick a candle in it? Sh!t. What about a refund? Can we get one of those?

Get out the Vote!

You know what today is, right?

Today is the day we all VOTE!

If, uh, you haven’t already done so, like I have.

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??!?! Go Vote!

And dammit, do it the correct way: We need Change, we need someone who will give tax breaks to the people who need it most, not the rich people; we need the Democrats in 2008. What do ya say, huh?

Monday, November 3, 2008

What I'm currently All Excited About

Yes that’s right, a trash can. This is a sure sign of being either old, or boring, or both. I’m not sure exactly where I fall on this line of definition, but I know I’m on it.

We just got this trash can. Well I call it a trash can, but they actually term it a “
Rectangular Recycler,” because inside is two different cans – one for trash, one for recyclables. I wanted a new trash can to replace our old one, because it was a) a cylinder, and b) it would hit against the wall whenever you opened the lid due to the way it was designed, which leaves a black mark on the wall (the hinge backing is black).

Another issue for us recently has been our recyclables situation. Our cans were right outside the back door, but you still had to go outside to put stuff in them, and then to top that off, if we left the house –what with our
new puppies – we would have to move them into the garage so that they weren’t a mess when we got home.

So. Anyway, the idea is that now the large can inside the new “recycler” will be our trash can, and the small one will be our “plastics/metal” bin and sit closest to the kitchen center, and the old one will be the paper bin that will sit to the side of the refrigerator, out of the way. We like to have easy access to the trash, and since we have mostly plastic/metal recyclables, all the most-used bins will be easiest to reach. Since the paper one gets used only
sometimes, it’ll be more out of the way; but still easy enough to get to.

You don’t want to know how much we spent to make all this possible. Hell, I don’t want to know but I’ll tell you anyway. It is regularly $180, but we happened to have a 20% coupon from Bed Bath & Beyond. Crazy, huh? I know I know, I’m a freakin’ nut; who the hell spends $140 on a
trash can, right? But it’s stainless steel, the lid closes into the unit so that it sits right against the wall without bumping, is soft to activate with the foot pedal, and when you release the lid closes softly as well. And you know what? It will be worth it just to be able to not have to go outside every time we have a recyclable to go out, or leave home and don’t have to shuffle containers around to keep dogs out.

You may think we’re crazy, but dammit I’m trashy in
style, yo.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Topglock.com: Politically Clueless & Stupid; not worth your time

I have to share an email I got and the response I sent back. But first I suppose a little background: I am FOR guns. I do believe that the population should have access to weapons, NOT just the governing body; to me, that’s some low-hanging, “we’re your overlords now” fruit that’s just ripe for the picking. Anyway. So when I moved out of So Cal, I wanted to arm myself appropriately. I figured on a simple pistol. Nothing major, I’m not planning on fighting the Russian infantry or anything, right? Just something to protect my family should anyone ever decide to enter with intent to cause harm.

So I registered with a website to check out prices & such;
topglock.com. Well I registered my ‘junk’ email address because I figured I might get spammed. Was right! Most of it is legitimate self-advertising, so I don’t much mind. I figured, what the heck, if I ever actually DO decide to purchase, it might be from them and I’d like to keep abreast of any deals.

Well I won’t be purchasing from topglock.com, you can now rest assured. Their president is a flaming idiot. And by “flaming idiot,” I mean “blind following republican.” They’re one in the same, anyway.

I got a politically-charged email, urging me to vote the right way this November 4
th, and according to him, that was for McCain. Because, apparently, without understanding of the terms “marxism” and “socialism,” he feels comfortable using them as labels still. Well here, I’ll let you read it:


I am a patriot and a true believer in the American ideal. I’ll share some of my story with you. I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. My father was a building contractor, custom cabinet business owner, and apartment complex owner. My mother worked in the banking industry and took care of my brothers and me. I’ve always been taught to do one thing in life: “Do whatever you want to do…but do it as good as you can.” To my parents, it didn’t matter what I chose to do in life as long as I did it to the best of my ability.

I looked up to my father’s success and often asked, “How do you become an entrepreneur/business owner?” His answer was, “You just do it. Find something you love and just do it.” In high school and throughout my twenties, I found that answer to be frustrating and irritating beyond belief, but now I see the truth of it. I still wish that I would have been coached better and been able to sit in the office rather than push-mow acres of lawn, work in the stain room of the cabinet business, and sweep parking lots, but I owe my work ethic to that as well.

After some soul searching and inspiration, an idea or two, and a small loan, I started this business from a small apartment, being newly married and with a new baby, often working 20-hour days. Over nearly 10 years, I’ve managed to build this business to a respectable level with the help, dedication, and overwhelming support of some wonderful co-workers. I’ve stood tall in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. I’ve challenged the status quo in this industry and the “good ole boy’s network” that is prevalent here. As a result, I can look my children in the eye, look in the mirror and like what I see, and sleep well at night. We have and will continue to have challenges, but I will try to face each one with the same honesty and devotion to my employees and customers that I always have.

My point is not to brag, but to inspire. I started from next to nothing and built my success on hard work and dedication. This Presidential election is very much about that. Barack Obama is the first truly Marxist-leaning Presidential candidate that we have had in this country. ‘Marxist’ may seem like a strong word to throw out there, but look at what he has proposed. He is unabashedly in favor of a redistribution of wealth. Although that may sound nice to some, those people need to realize that all that will happen is a decay of our society as well as the beginning of the takeover of our American ideals. This country is about the ideal that a single person can make it happen for him or herself. Obama’s ideals are those that wish to take that away from you.

Think it isn’t happening? Take a look at the $1 trillion+ bailout that we are paying for. Our country now owns banks and private industry. I have to ask: where does it stop? We are marching ever further towards a socialist economy, led there by the people that we elect. In fact, my friend and I started the website www.dontbailout.com that sells t-shirts illustrating the people behind this enormous mess. My questions about the economic disaster are: “Where is the truth?” Who is to blame?” “And why aren’t these people being publically hung for what they have done?” The answer is that many in our government would have to answer for it and they aren’t about to investigate themselves.

So on to the Second Amendment. Let’s truly understand why our founding fathers put that in The Constitution. It wasn’t for self-protection (that is a natural right). It was to protect us from abuse of power from the government. I am in no way advocating starting a revolution, but if you can see past the horizon, you will see there is a point that we will need that power. There is a point that we will need to stand up and say, “NO MORE!” Look up what communist/socialist/Marxists nations do to gun ownership. I urge to you look at the facts and remember what becomes of socialist and Marxist nations before you consider your vote this November. Although you may not have all the faith in McCain (I certainly understand that feeling), please realize that at least he is not a socialist/Marxist and destroyer of the American ideal. Vote conservative and take the time to teach people around you about the American ideal and the importance of their vote. It is a sad day when polls show that nearly 50% of the people of this country are completely brainwashed and have no understanding of the country that they live in.

Here are some YouTube videos that may be inspiring for you to watch and listen to:

Obama on abortion with a rebuttal by McCain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcGFPR6H6aE

Obama on taxes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=491_5WxfcgI

Newly uncovered audio of Obama on redistribution of wealth (socialism/Marxism) and cover story of DrudgeReport.com on 10.27.2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck

Call the McCain campaign and urge them to start fighting with the gloves off! This is OUR nation and if we are to have a defender of it, I would personally like someone who is willing to kick the hell out of the other side of the aisle rather than someone who is willing to reach across it. McCain needs to realize that and finally see what is at stake here.

Best of luck to all and remember to vote!

Eric R. Thompson

President

TGSCOM Inc.




And of course if you know me, you know you don’t send a politically-charged
anything unless you’re ready to discuss fact & theory, right?

You can just take me right off your mailing list then.  Shameful.  You're woefully uninformed, sir.  buzzwords may sound nice, but it's the meaning that matters.  "Marxism."  "Socialism."  Blah.  You don't truly understand what these words even mean, yet you are attaching them to someone you don't understand, and you haven't even bothered to look at the issues and the plans that follow them.  Yes, I know, he's BLACK OMG!!!!

Got news for you: the tax system always has been and always will be a system of redistribution.  That's EXACTLY what it was set up for and WHY it is tiered the way it is.  And it makes perfect sense; the people who make the most have the most ability to help support the system.  You idiots fail to realize certain, basic facts:  The richer you are, typically the more people you have working underneath you doing a LOT of the work.  These people are NOT paid according to the money they bring in.  If everyone was paid based on their ACTUAL contributions, you know what we'd have?  Communism.  Actual, true, theoretical, by-the-book communism.  

We don't like that, we like the idea that if you can organize the means of production in your favor, you deserve the spoils.  OK, but the fact remains that the people at the top are NOT doing the brunt of the work despite getting the brunt of the pay;  I fail to see how the CEO of Countrywide earned his MILLIONS of dollars, or the CEO of AIG, or hell, let's even throw some non-defunct company CEOs in the mix, too.  If we were each paid by the amount of actual work we did, the ditch diggers would be the rich men.  Here in America though, we like to believe that the guy sitting in the truck drinking a Coke and telling the ditch diggers how & what to do deserves more money.  We call it "Capitalism."

PAYING INTO THE TIERED TAX SYSTEM ALLOWS YOU TO CONTINUE SKIMMING PROFITS OFF OF THE LABOR OF THOSE BELOW YOU; IF YOU CONTINUE TO GIVE THE TAX BREAKS TO THE PEOPLE WHO NEED IT LEAST AND FORCE THE TAX BURDEN ONTO THOSE WHO NEED ASSISTANCE THE MOST, THE SYSTEM FACES THE VERY REAL REALITY OF FALLING APART.  IT'S THE RICH-POOR DIVIDE, AND THE FACT IS THAT THE RICH MAKE UP A PALTRY % OF THE PUBLIC, AND THE POOR ARE THE VERY-VAST MAJORITY -- YOUR MONEY WILL NOT SAVE YOU WHEN THEY COME WITH PITCHFORKS TO TAKE YOUR SPOILS, AND SIR I'M AFRAID EVEN YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH BULLETS IF THAT DAY EVER COMES.

You don't want mutiny, you want status quo; you want everyone to be happy where they're at in the scheme of things.  Helping to keep the working class easily above water does many good things for EVERYONE.  If they have money to spend, that money will probably go to you.  Yeah you'll probably get taxed an extra 3% on those dollars you earn ABOVE $200K, but you'll have more of them to be taxed on anyway.  And furthermore, if they are not worried about slipping into poverty, they're less likely to critically examine the fact that they're doing most of the work and getting pennies on the dollar for their effort; they'll remain gleefully employed at their current state, happy to continue playing the game, and by extension, let YOU and other moderately-and-above wealthy people continue to play the game & make money for many years, for work you are no longer actually doing.

But hey, let's give trickle-down economic theory a go, right?  It might work!  Except, you know, for every-freakin'-time it's ever been tried.  Oh yeah, Reaganomics worked so well.  And hey, it's worked so well the last 8 years, too!  Let's take a look at the similarities, huh?  Inflation during both times?  High.  1980's we have loose oversight and the S&L collapse.  2000's we have loose oversight and the Financial/mortgage collapse.  Recession fears (and reality!).  Divide between rich & poor grows.  More people out of work.  Tax breaks go to the RICH instead of those making the least and who could probably use a tax break the most...   Coincidence?  Really?  Think so?

Suffice to say, I will not be buying from you.  You're scarily out of touch with reality.  But hey, go ahead, keep spouting fear & hate for that which you don't understand, and hey while you're at it, keep not looking into the facts of the matter or studying the economy & history and all those nifty buzzwords you keep throwing around without true understanding.  Keep the 'labels' alive, man.  You're a prime example of why we need better education in America.

Obama's not going to fix everything, he might not even fix that much.  But stopping the ship from sinking sounds like a much-needed improvement for our condition, rather than continuing the rich-folk spending & hoarding spree that got us to this dance.

I used to be registered republican.  I actually support the basic premise; the 'ideals' of republicanism, like personal responsibility, less gov't, etc.  But the reality is, the GOP does NOT do this.  They are corrupt.  They say all this pretty stuff, they say they're for "family values" thereby implying no one else is, which isn't true.  But the fact of the matter is, while you & everyone else like you is focusing on these buzzwords they throw around, they're legislating your house & home away.  Less gov't?  This has been the single biggest expansion of US gov't ever over the last 8 years.  They're taking away your personal liberties (have you read the PATRIOT act? you should).  They're giving money to themselves, and that money is coming from YOU AND ME.  Only the "in crowd" is benefiting.  So while I support the republican ideals, I reluctantly side with the democrats, because despite how you and your cronies like to frame them, the legislation usually is actually in line with my core republican beliefs.

When's the last time a republican balanced the budget?  It took a DEMOCRAT to do it, didn't it?  Personal responsibility?  Yet the republicans are knee-deep in deficit-spending; they're spending money that they don't have as a staple of their policy.  How is that "responsible?"  Answer that!

Now let's also specifically tear apart your linked bullshit:

ABORTION:
that video was terrible.  What, if you inject middle-school humor you suddenly have a point?  OK then, YOU answer the question, dipshit!  What, from conception?  Well then when's that?  Well any answer you're about to give seems like a rather arbitrary answer, and if YOU can arbitrarily come to a conclusion, WHY CAN'T I?  OK so I will:  Life starts in your balls.  And each time you jerk of, you're GUILTY of MURDER!!!!  And each time your wife has a period and wastes an egg, SO IS SHE.  And I will pass legislation to charge you as such.  Sound fair?  Or sound arbitrary?  But don't you see, that's EXACTLY what you're doing by deciding FOR EVERYONE when or what it is.  

His answer is FAIR.  It's a difficult question that is really dependent on the person involved, their religious & scientific beliefs, and other life experiences.  He cannot answer unequivocally for YOU, and as such, you shouldn't be able to answer unequivocally for HIM or ME or ANYONE else.

To fashion laws that only allow your point of view on the matter is DANGEROUS.  But it seems, anyone who doesn't support YOUR opinion, even if they do so in an articulate fashion with good rationale, is worthy of "warning."  

Passing laws to tell people what they can think is a very slippery slope.  Have you ever stopped to consider what happens if one day what YOU think is not in line with what the ruling class decides is fashionable or correct?  What then?  What if someone DOES decide that having a period or squeezing one off in the shower is a form of abortion; sort of "murder by inaction," for failing to create what could have been a human life.  What then?

This, in essence, goes against the very idea of gov't staying out of people's lives; you're trying to actively insert gov't into people's personal lives, legislating what they should believe and making them conform as such.  Ever think of it in that perspective?  So.... gov't is bad if they want to create social programs to lift up the populace, but it's good if they want to legislate what you believe?  This does not compute.

TAXES:
Wtf are you smoking?  It must be some good republicanized shit.  You're not actually showing anything that proves a point.  Have you an understanding of the tax plans?  Do you KNOW that "Joe the Plumber" isn't even a licensed plumber?  Or that the company he "plans to buy" doesn't even do enough business to qualify for that tax bracket?  And do you understand that this TAX INCREASE OMG!!! only affects people making over $200K annually?  What percentage of the population is that?  Want to take a guess?  The fact is, the MAJORITY of the population makes far less than that.  And did you bother to understand the full meaning of what Obama had to say?  That IF THESE TAX PLANS HE HAS IN MIND HAD BEEN IN EFFECT FOR THE LAST MANY YEARS, JOE WOULD HAVE PROBABLY HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SAVE ENOUGH TO HAVE ALREADY MADE THE PURCHASE, instead of talking about it in terms of future-tense still, in the year of 2008.

Of course you don't see all this; you're still too busy smoking that republican weed I like to call "I'm white & ignorant and therefore better,"  and searching for those reality blinders you need to put on before you leave your house for the day.

You should read a book.  I would recommend starting with something in History, and then moving on to Economic Theory and the history thereof.  Education would do you good.  I'd stay away from Porky Pig though, I don't think he's very intelligent;  that may be the reason you're so damn ignorant – the pigs you're hanging out with are bad influences.





So spread the word;
topglock.com should maybe instead be called “Top Cock?” I’d vote for that. Sh!t, I mean, talk about being disconnected from any sort of reality. And hey, if you’re brave enough, you can even try and go to those links. They’re “great,” and by “great” I mean “Steaming piles of hateful, misinformed propaganda.” Which aren’t the same thing, but I was trying – for what, like 4 words? – to be nice to the guy.

Let’s all hope that he goes and gets that Education he so desperately needs.