Congressional Term Limits (revisited)…

A poll done by the US Term Limits Foundation shows that 83 percent of Americans support the idea of term limits for Congress. Unfortunately we, as a nation repeatedly shoot ourselves in the foot by voting into office, time and time again, the very same people we want to limit. No politician will ever create a bill or vote themselves out of a job. Especially such a lucrative job!

Term limits would eliminate Career Politicians with long term ties to special interest groups and lobbyists. Decision making would be sped up as politicians try to accomplish things during their limited term and not keep things dragging on for years.Brings a never-ending supply of fresh, relevant ideas. Most of all this could help restore confidence in our government by the people.

Why is all “good”, “bad”?

This topic is pulling my thoughts into many directions. Not only towards discussions of why but also towards debating “Intelligent Design”, “Creationism”, God/Satan, etc. I got to thinking about how almost everything we humans do that we really enjoy and that is easy (keep those 2 criteria tied together for the sake of this conversation) is bad for us. Eating delicious fatty foods, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and weed, mood altering drugs etc. Is it mere coincidence that not one single “vice” is healthy or good for you and most often a detriment to your health? Why isn’t smoking a great way to be healthy? Why is eating until you are content a good thing? It is fuel for the body after all. Why isn’t lounging on the sofa day in and day out good for your body? Why doesn’t the more rest you get turn into a stronger, leaner, healthier body? Why does working hard and micro tearing muscle tissue, make you stronger? Why is it that things that are good for you like eating right and exercising are actually chores that you have to work hard at doing? You would think that over time humans that have survived the longest would have a strong taste for healthy foods. The ones with the taste for unhealthy foods would die off and the fittest would survive. The healthy eating specimens would procreate and continue on. Doesn’t seem to be the case now does it?

I direct this conversation to humans because as I see it, in nature, all animals do what they want and eat what they want with no negative effects. Lions can sleep all day and only wake long enough to devour a side of raw meat and live a long full life doing so. What no issue with Cholesterol or Atherosclerosis? How’d they get so lucky? Can dogs eat just about anything and be fine with it? Yep! It seems to me that in nature, anything goes with the exception of the case for humans! Does this mean that over billions of years, everything on the planet evolved to the masterpieces of science they are and somehow only humans, the very top of the food chain, got jacked up? That really doesn’t make much sense now does it?

This points my thoughts to a 3rd party influence. It may be God with a plan to make us “earn” everything, Satan trying to temp us with evil or maybe an intelligent designer with a bad sense of humor. I dunno but it sure seems more than mere coincidence and it surely sucks for us Humans! Because happiness to me would be lounging on the sofa with a keg of beer and a pile of ribs! ALL THE TIME!!!

Chess is my new “Frag” high!

For many years I played online 1st person shooters. I was very good at it and for a while, quite literally, no one could beat me at my chosen games. It was a rush to win and to win big! I am older now and no longer play 1st person shooter games. I would get slaughtered these days as bad as I slaughtered others in the past. These days I am getting more out of strategy as opposed to instinctive “twitch” killing. My new game of choice is Chess. Windows 7 has a really nice version. I just recently learned how to play and I am still only playing against the novice levels of the AI. The part I really like is that I get the same fist-pumping juice when I win in Chess as I did playing the blood and guts games online. I find my self yelling out “YEAH!” as I checkmate the opponent. I have even caught myself flipping the “bird” at the screen as I say to myself in victory “TAKE THAT”! I still have along way to go to be even remotely good at the game but beating the “newb” level of the AI still gives me a “Frag High”!

Boundry mic technique

I have been recording drums for quite a few years and during all those years I basically stuck to using 3 mics to capture the sound. The premise, as I see it, is that you only have 2 ears so 2 mics in stereo should be able to reproduce what you hear in real life. So if it sounds good in person, it should sound good with 2 mics. The 3rd mic comes into play to help with the “boom” you “feel” when you listen to music. You dont necessarily get that in through your ears. You can feel it in your whole body. That is hard to capture with just the 2 mics reproducing what you hear. I use the 3rd mic for the kick drum on the drum set. This captures the boom and also helps me match levels with a bass player or bass recording that was most likely done at a different time from when the drums were recorded.

Recording with 2 mics dows have its drawbacks. You get a broad sound with no focus on a particular part of the drums set which means when you want to bump a part up in the mix you can. You have to rely on the drummer to play his parts knowing that HE will have to be the one “mixing” as he plays. Need the toms to stand out during a fill? Gotta hit them a bit harder. You think the cymbal crashes are too loud? The drummer needs to alter his playing to make it work. Actually this is a good thing as the drummer should know how to do that for live performances anyway!

One of the other major drawbacks and the main focus of this blog post, is the room. Unless you have a professionally designed room, you will have to deal with the less than perfect artifacts that a room can create when recording drums. When you make a sound in a room, the room reacts and duplicate that sound. Sometimes it’s a pleasant sound. Mostly, in home studios it’s crap! That’s why we put up room dividers & wall treatments to help diffuse that sound. 1st preference would be a great sounding room. 2nd preference would be NO room sound at all so we could add digital room emulation after we track the sound. In my home studio i have been keeping the mics as close to the drums as i can so that the sound of the drums is much louder than the subsequent sound of the room that is echoed 5-10 ms later. That “room” sound is always there. Being that my room is simply a bedroom, it sounds bad. That has been my challenge for years. If I move the mics too close to the drums, I lose the natural sound of the drums. It can sound like one drum is only in your left ear and some are only in your right ear. The best sound of a drums set is one that is balanced naturally and sounds just like it would if you were a few feet in from of it, hearing all drums and cymbals in a nice blend. To do that you need the mics placed away from the drums. Hence the dilemma. The room then comes into play again! Let me try to make this clearer. Your brain can hear very very short differences in time delay. Sometimes its only perceptible but you can still hear it. So the closer you put the mics to the drums, the further they are from the wall. That increases the time it takes the sound to travel from the drum, to the wall and back to the microphone. It may be only 10 ms but you CAN hear that in the mix. You can literally hear the “room”. Did you ever hear a song that you thought sounded like it was recorded in a small room or a garage? That’s the mics picking up the sounds bouncing off the walls.

Enter the boundaries! I got to thinking that if I really like the sound of the drums but don’t like the room and I cant eliminate the room, the only thing left is to make the delay between the drum hit sound hitting the mic  and the delay sound coming off the walls as short as possible so that we can even perceive it! I thought, “what if I put the mic up against the wall so there is quite literally almost no delay at all?” The sound recorded would only be the drums! I took a pair of mics and pointed them directly at the was about 1/2” away from the wall. WOW!! NO delay! Sweet! I can record in a crappy sounding room and  hear far less of the room! Yeah! There is still sound coming from the opposite wall but I am trying a few things for that. I found that people make microphones that suit this technique perfectly. They are call boundary mics and are used on ceilings, floors and walls. I am searching for a pair now!

Sarah Palin in 2012? Really?

Sarah Palin is with out any rational argument, NOT qualified to be President of the United States. She has done nothing in her career worth mentioning to further Alaska nor the country. She has ZERO international experience. She does not have a remote grasp of hierarchy of our political structure and she cannot, by any stretch of anyone’s imagination, make a valid speech and/or carry on an intelligent conversation.

What she has is good looks and a strong desire to make this a better country closer to HER values. That is admirable but no different than 90% of the people that live and work in this country. I do not want her making decisions for our country no more than I want a high school cheerleader as President!

The amazing part about her “fame” is that she makes mistake after mistake after mistake and yet she still has a core group of people that feel she will be the best Republican candidate for President in 2012. How? How do we find so many people that have no clue to blindly follow people? George Bush 2 terms in office? REALLY? Sarah Palin ran for VP? WHAT? Now she is a possible candidate for PRESIDENT? WTF??? Why don’t we just put Taylor Swift or one of the girls from Dancing with the Stars? Better yet how about Reese Witherspoon for that matter? She has GOT to be smarter than Sarah Palin!

What is wrong with our country when we elect people based on how cool they are or how they look or what they did on TV the month prior to election? Sarah Palin’s name should not be mentioned in the same sentence and “President of the United States”! EVER!

Show at the ZONE!

Our show at the Loading Zone in Nashville was a hoot! Family and friends came from all over! Even as far as FLORIDA!! We ate, we drank, we danced, we jammed! Thanks to everyone who came out and to Jody and Brandon from the Loading Zone for a wonderful evening full of great memories!

   

REMINDER: Gig on the 24th!!!

2825 Smith Springs Road Nashville TN 37217

Horror movies have changed

Remember when a horror movie was completely unrealistic but still terrifying? Like a guy living in a lake and killing people or zombies trying to eat your brains, a crazy man with knives for fingers invading your dreams, Dracula, Frankenstein or the Werewolf! Then there were the movies like The Omen and The Exorcist that played on the supernatural. All those movies scared the pants off of millions of people!

These days horror movies seem to have crossed the line IMO. They are no longer movies that could not be real but rather exploitations of ideas and concepts that we have to fight in real life every day. Like the “SAW” series for instance. That series did nothing more than to give too many people too many ideas of what they could do in real life. We have enough psychos in our world with twisted ideas of their own. We shouldn’t be feeding them more ideas. And heaven forbid we tempt someone who didn’t know they wanted to do bad things until they saw these movies!

I also feel that TV shows, especially all the police shows give way too many ideas to criminals. There was a time when a drug bust was a good enough crime for TV. Now every show has to be about a brutal murder and all the details given for people to “learn” from.

I am all for scaring people. Even grotesque has a place in entertainment. However, I think people should stop blurring the line between fantasy entertainment and “way too close to reality”. This is my opinion!

Gig on Oct 24th in Nashville

My band “D.B. Shovel” is playing at the Loading Zone in Nashville on Oct 24th. We play from 9pm until they kick us out!
C’Mon down and drink a few beers with me!

2825 Smith Springs road Nashville TN 37217

China/America… Economies inter-dependant?

Everyone seems to finally realize that we are not in a good spot with regards to China and the lack of import/export balance with the USA. The numbers are eye opening! Do a Google search for China Trade Deficit and read the news. It is scary. Not only is the deficit highly imbalanced, it is actually still growing in China’s favor! In July of 2009 the balance favored China by 20 Billion Dollars. That means we bought $20,000,000 more goods from them than they bought from us! Here is the killer. With all of the jobs being lost in the USA and the economy floundering in pain, the deficit rose this month to a staggering $32,000,000!!! That is a 32 BILLION DOLLAR imbalance!

Many people say that if China’s economy falls, so does ours. We owe them somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 BILLION DOLLARS in loans. Here is my simple solution. PAY THEM BACK!!! How about we start charging IRAQ and AFGHANASTAN for our military services? How about we send them a bill for the past years of this “WAR”? How about that bill being around, oh, I’d say 800 BILLION might be fair! If not how about SOMETHING! For the balance, we could divide it amongst the American people. I think we would accept spending billions on freeing our chains to China and bringing millions of jobs back home much easier than they would willing spend that on health reform that no one is really sure will work. If we pay off China, we could immediately cease all importing and exporting. All those things we import, we can build here in the USA and give our citizens some jobs! SNAP! With one signing of a pen, we could eliminate the trade deficit and slow to a crawl the growth of dangerous China as a world super power.

Let the USA thrive again and not be dependant on ANYONE but ourselves. If anyone wants to do business with us, we need to make it on our terms and in such a way that it benefits US more than anyone else.

TN Rains…ALOT!!

When most people thing of “rainy” cities, they immediately think of Seattle WA. It’s not widely know that Nashville Tennessee gets more rain! Seattle gets an average of 37 inches and 138 days of rain per year. Nashville already has 39” and 112 day of rain with 3 1/2 months to go left in the year! Nashville averages 48 inches every year!

Believe me when I say I am sick of the rain! 

 

Sources:

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KBNA/2009/1/1/CustomHistory.html?dayend=22&monthend=9&yearend=2009&req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle

Used cars

Too bad the CASH FOR CLUNKERS program took many, many good cars off the road and trashed them. Now that I am in the market to buy a used car myself, I wonder how many of those “clunkers” which were in fact perfectly good running vehicles, would have been good for me. I saw a gorgeous Volvo Wagon, at a dealer with CLUNKER spray painted all over it. I was pissed! Our tax money made it possible for someone to be so enticed to buy a new car that they trashed a perfectly good used car that was probably worth $3500-$4000. So for an extra $500-$1000 of our tax money as a gift, someone is out a decent Volvo.

I do not want to spend the outrageous prices being asked for a new cars and I do not want a POS. I just want a decent car at a decent price with moderate mileage on it. Seems quite impossible to find. Seems that the price of used cars has gone through the roof for what you can get. I think people are realizing that buying a used car is wiser than buying new. Sellers who know this are adjusting the price of their used vehicles. $3000 buys you CRAP these days it seems. Cars with dents, rust, 100,000+ miles or worse, all 3. To buy a used car with low mileage in good shape with a warranty, you are approaching the price of what a new car “should” cost. Also it is very hard to find a vehicle with good MPG. Yes there are some used Honda Civics, but people are asking premium prices. Even for ones with 100k miles on them.

I hate that we need to have a car. I am fine with simply riding my motorcycle almost all of the time. However, there are many times when it is just not practical. So we are forced to have 2 vehicles. We are bent over a barrel! We can’t even fix the motor in Amanda’s SUV for less than the vehicle is worth in the first place. Such a waste of a nice vehicle. Maybe I should buy a motor lift and rebuild it myself. Either way I am dreading this whole car thing.

Spoiled Rotten

Serena Williams’ behavior was unacceptable and she should be banned from pro tennis for at least a year. For her outburst on the court  and violent threats to a line judge during the US Open Semi Finals should not be tolerated. The $10,500 fine they imposed on her does little more than a slap on the wrist in private. That kind of of money is not a punishment to someone with her income. The Tennis Association made no statement with this puny fine showing that this sort of behavior is unacceptable. I wonder if Serena Williams makes them too much money for them to risk losing by actually having a spine and some values!

Kanye West? I have heard him sing one song and it was weak. However, I have heard more about his mouth and attitude than about his music. People should stop buying his music. People should stop supporting him and giving the message that what he does is ok.

Seems to me that when you take a thug punk kid and give him millions of dollars along with fame. They become nothing more than rich punk kids with no values. Michael Vick? Terrell Owens? Pacman Jones? They do nothing for the image of their sports!

White walls

I added wide white walls to my road king!

Plumber greed

With so many people out of work, you would think that people would do whatever they could to get income when offered. Not so with Plumbers apparently. I called this weekend to find someone to install my hot water heater. I was amazed at the outrageous prices I was quoted. one guy started at $1500 to install a water heater that he would bring with him. WHAT??? They only cost about $400. When he quoted me the equally outrageous “installation only” price of $350-$500, I had to call him on the fact that he was obviously marking the water heater price up from $400 to $1100. So He wanted to make about $700 profit on the parts on top of his already bloated installation fee. So instead of being reasonable and getting some work, he ended up with no money from me. Maybe no income at all for that day. Which means les money for his family and for any employees he has. This would be like a hot dog vendor asking $100 for a single hotdog. When no one buys one at $100 he goes with no profit.

I ended up buying a hot water heater at a great discount, picking it up myself and installing it myself. After getting the necessary parts from Home Depot, the actual install didn’t take more than 20 minutes of work. Amanda and I connected the gas line with a new line and soldered the new adaptors to the 2 water lines. This was not $350 worth of work. It’s not like you have to go to school and get a degree to install a water heater. I would have paid $75 for one hour of time for a pro but everything beyond that is pure greed!!!

What can we really do?

Let’s really face it. Our government is corrupt. More corrupt than you can ever imagine. I believe that it is every single politician at the Congressional level. Maybe they aren’t all corrupt in taking money but they are all corrupt in that they play games with our tax money in order to get Bills passed. Bills that help them be in favor with someone. The sad part is that some politicians go in with the best of intentions. I believe that if they don’t play the game the way it’s played, they get nothing done and do not keep their seat in Government. So they “play ball”. Trading votes, voting for or not voting for something for the sole reason of weakening or strengthening popularity or power for someone who in return can help you when you want to get something done. Also the sneaking in of crap into Bills! What the hell does the study of some endangered squirrel have to do with health care reform? NOTHING! Yet they sneak this and other crap in as “provisions”.

I often suggest that we cannot rid ourselves of corruption without changing all incumbents in Congress. The only way to force that would be to start term limits on serving in Congress. this will not happen because we need congress to basically pass a bill that would fire themselves. In all our checks and balances written into our Constitution, I don’t think there is a check and balance in place for controlling Congress. I don’t think the President can even do anything about it. They are in control and will remain in control. Spending our money wastefully, forcing their beliefs on us and laughing all the way to the bank. Supposedly, “we” are the people that put them there and “we” can take them out. Unfortunately most people are simply blind to what goes on. They all blame Congress but come election time, they vote their party line and continue the same old corruption. No one is supporting candidates that are independents or 3rd party. They just don’t have the money and subsequent media presence to make a meaningful impression.

I think we will have to sit back and watch our country fall apart and then rebuild from the rubble a better country with a Constitution without so many gaps. I hope that when we do fall apart, another country like China doesn’t step in and take over. I have many suggestions to prevent that but none will every get done. There are simply too many extreme opinions. So what can we really do? Nothing really. Just bend over and take it like a prison bitch!

Finally fixed the pillars!!

Amanda and I finally had enough of looking at the rotting pillars on the front of our house. So we made new ones!

After the pillars were made and primed, we made a blocks from 2×4’s and a 1x cut to size.

We made it to fit nicely inside the pillar

We centered the block on the ceiling pad and screwed it into place

After lifting the pillar into place around the block, we side screwed the pillar to the block. Then we made a new platform by mating 2×4’s to the original block with glue and wood screws. Then we ripped thin veneers off of a 2×4 to make the trim.

We then filled the bottom block with wood fill to look like one block.

Top trim.

We pulled down one of the old posts and grafted in some wood.

We repeated the install of the second pillar.

Amanda sanding

After we installed them, Amanda primed them and they are now ready for paint!

I’m filling in again….

I will be playing guitar for a friend’s band this weekend. His guitarist and drummer will be out of town so my drummer/friend Ruben and I will be filling in.

We will be playing at Big Shotz  on 2nd avenue in Nashville TN at 10pm both Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th of October 2009. C’mon down and help us get through the show and have a good time!

 

Big Shotz
115 Second Avenue
Nashville, TN

Friday Oct. 28th @10pm
Saturday Oct. 29th @10pm

Automobile Irony

The automobile freed us from the limitations of the horse and steam train. It freed us to live where we wanted, work where we wanted, shop where we wanted and vacation where we wanted. “FREEDOM” we all exclaimed as we roll down our windows or flipped down the convertible top to take in all the fresh air we could ingest. Fresh air that was not to be found in the congested cities we were all used to as a nation.

Now, we are so spread out and populated that in most places we simply cannot live without our car. We have all but abandoned the train as commuter transportation, the bus infrastructure in most smaller cities and towns is dismal and inadequate at best. We need to shop, we need to work, we need transportation to every nook and cranny of our overbuilt society.

Amanda and I would like to NOT need a car but there is simply no way around it. If we move near my job, there is no way she could get to work without a car. The same goes for me. We are basically forced to buy gasoline, buy a car, buy insurance and drive. Society gives us very few if any options. If we were lucky we could both work near each and off of a bus line. That is near impossible. I am sure some people have found a way to do it because they happen to work down town but for the masses, we are stuck.

I find it quite ironic that the very same technology that gave us freedom and allowed us to spread out, now shackles us. We are no longer “free” but rather “bound” to NEEDING our cars, the gasoline they consume and all the other expenses that take too large a portion of our paychecks!

The balance of justice?

1st a little back story. I had an old $200 car that I traded to a friend for some work on my house. This was almost 3 years ago. I signed over the title and we wrote up a Bill of Sale. He then sold the car to another person, signing over the title (still in my name) and sharing a Bill of Sale. The 3rd person did not register the car nor insure the car. She simply drove the car until one night in her apparent habitual drunken stupor, caused a collision resulting in $2000 worth of damage. 2+ years later I get a call from the insurance company representing the victim in that collision informing me that I am responsible for all debts as I am still the registered owner of the car. I called the police about the woman who wrecked the car and they said she was in 3 accidents that month. Each one she was drunk. They finally put her in jail and impounded and subsequently demolished the car.

So just to make this clear. I, a law abiding citizen who pays his taxes in full, is never late paying a bill, has no tickets or arrests on my record, works hard and lives a simple life is now in debt $2000 to pay for the actions of a drunk, non working, drug addict with a LONG arrest record?

Ah the justice system at work!

Tough times but could be worse!

Amanda’s SUV motor went kaput! We are down to one $300 car that was only intended to be an emergency and bad weather car for me. We enjoyed not having a car payment. It was allowing us to spend that money on getting the house repaired. The list is long and just as expensive. We seem to just be on the good side of things and something happens. We have a vacation coming up and then before you know it, the holidays will be here again. There always seems to be something we need to save for.

We both get down from time to time about it but at the end of the week, we are just grateful to have jobs and the money to actually pay for these things. Even though it takes a while. Things could be a whole lot worse!

Tea Set #1

Amanda and I started collecting serving sets of a single tea cup and saucer. We plan on buying 1 pair at a time whenever we are in a new town(especially when out on our motorbikes) and see something we like. we hope to eventually have a full set, each with a story of their own as to where/when they came from and where we found it. Exciting!!

We found this one in Murray KY. It is a WWII era German made set. We both saw it at the same time and loved it!

Buying up all the gold

I don’t know what this all means but I am feeling that the current crop of “gold buyers” that have sprouted up everywhere is leading to something bad. I got this same feeling and wrote about it, years before the housing crunch, years before the China issue and years before the banking collapse. I see something happening and I get a feeling. Sometimes I can see the outcome. With the “Gold Rush of ‘09” as I am calling it, I can’t see the outcome. I only know it’s not going to be good.

How can one single company buy up $200,000,000 dollars worth of gold and not have a real outlet for profit? It seems that there are many companies on TV, in hotels and even in retail market places offering to pay top dollar for your gold. Hmmm? This makes me wonder. My gut feeling says it may have something to do with the low value of the Dollar in the world and something to do with the value of gold in the world. My mind goes to scenarios where the USA goes bankrupt do to the debt to China and the blatant mismanagement of our country by the government. In the end when the dollar is worth “$0”, people holding the gold will have the only thing with any value globally. Could this be a precursor to a revolution? Is this gold rush that big? I feel it may be. Does the US Government know about what is going on? Are some politicians secretly behind it all? Is this happening from the top? or is it happening from the bottom by citizens? I feel that the world as we know it is going to change within the next 5-10 years. The USA will change drastically in the next 5-10 years. This Gold Rush may be just the beginning!

Footwear of an older man

I just realized that most of my entire life was spent wearing Tennis Shoes. Growing up we called them “Sneakers”. I never played much tennis anyway! I remember wearing my tennis shoes until they either wore out or when sitting overnight was no longer enough for the stink to dissipate! LOL!

43 years have passed and when I look in my closet, I see about 3 pair of sneakers that I have had for years. I have one pair for mowing the yard and working on my motorcycles. I have had them for about 9 years. I have another pair that I bought and they just don’t fit my style anymore. Finally I have one good pair that I use for exercise and fun. That about covers it.

I remember thinking about this many years ago and wondering how adult men can wear shoes all the time. It seems weird. I remember that my dad didn’t even own sneakers. He did everything in shoes. For me now, I rarely bust out the sneakers at all. I wear boots for just about everything. Military boots. I wear them for working in the yard, i wear them to work most of the time, I wear them when I am simply hanging out or going to grocery store. Suffice it to say, they are my go to footwear. I even polish them up nice and wear them out to dinner with a button up shirt! They cover it all for me. The only other footwear that I wear often, is my flip flops. I even bring them in my motorcycle saddlebags. When we go someplace warm I will take off my boots and walk around in flip flops until we leave. Then I will put back on my boots.

I am sure this blog entry is a big wordy for such a simple topic but it was on my mind and wanted to get it on “paper”.

Ok everyone, break into small groups and…

The government of these United States has gotten way out of hand. They are in every aspect of our lives. The role of the Federal Government should be to provide for the common defense and to insure domestic tranquility. Not to manage everyone’s money and have a program for everything under the sun. The states should be able to handle most every issue they are faced with.

I would love for the litmus test for any government action to be that the action should fall under one of 2 categories. Providing for the common defense and to insure domestic tranquility. The only problem I see if that “insure domestic tranquility” was left wide open to interpretation. I may think that the government spending our tax money to help the auto industry is plain wrong but someone in the auto industry may think otherwise.

I simply believe that if we had 50 individual states that were allowed to manage themselves, laws would soon enough reflect the will and culture of that state. The people would have more say over how they live. How can someone in New Hampshire or Rhode Island vote with the best interest of both their own states and those of say Arizona citizens? They can’t. The culture is different, the geography is different, religion is different and simply PEOPLE are different. We have 50 states with 50 different cultures. We need to allow the existing 50 state level governing bodies to govern themselves in accordance with the Constitution of the United States and all contributing to the common defense. If you don’t like a state move to a different state! TX has the death penalty. If you don’t like it, vote to change it or move.

The Federal Government has such a reach into our lives that it is now choking and stifling our country. We are in a downward spiral that cannot be fixed with the same old mentalities and methodologies.

When you have a big group of kids that you need to teach or manage, you cannot simply handle them all at the same time. One, it is simply too much and nothing would get done. No one would listen. If you break the group into smaller groups, like every teacher knows how to do, you can address each group individually and tailor you words and actions to suit the group. You cannot reach a group of inner city children with the same dialog and actions that you would use to effectively reach a group of rural farm raised kids or wealthy suburban kids. You have to adjust and work with what you have. We need to mimic that style of management on a Federal level. You simply cannot govern with one tactic and expect to effectively manage states with such disparate cultures. What is good for some may not work for others. We need to break them down, speak and manage each group or state individually so that their voices are heard!

X-Games vs Olympics

The Olympics were originally intended to test and show the might and skill of athletes in a forum honoring legendary Greek Warriors. How did it ever evolve to “ping-pong” and “curling” among other lame “sports”? The original Olympians would either laugh or be disgusted that the event turned into what it has.

I have two basic criteria that should be used when determining if a sport should be allowed in the Olympics:

1. There should be some chance of you getting hurt badly.

2. There should be no possible way that an average person off the street could ever get lucky and do just as well as the “athlete”.

Enter the X Games! 15 years ago the Extreme Games took over where the Olympics went off track. The X Games are packed full of events that are exactly as the name describes. EXTREME! There is danger as every single event and there is no possible way in hell that an average person could walk off the street and do well let alone even finish an event. You need YEARS of skill to even make it through 1 attempt at any of the included sports. Contrary to the Olympics where I could easily get lucky tossing the stone down the ice and win a curling match. Gymnastics is a completely different game though. That takes years of skill! Too bad the judging is so very political, the true winners hardly ever get the scores they earned.

I think the Olympic committee should take a hard look at the X Games and get back on track. I love the tradition of the Olympics and the fact that it represents countries as opposed to individuals but too much of it is lame compared the power and excitement of the X Games!

Griffin Technology “Tune Buds”

I found ONE direct replacement for the Apple Crappy ear buds. No adapter is required and the microphone works for answering calls. I found them on Amazon for a mere $20 which is $9 cheaper than Apple’s junk. The reviews seem to be decent for sound quality and most of all they actually stay in your ear unlike the Apple ear bud which is notorious for NOT staying in position for more than a few seconds at a time. I am really looking forward to getting them. In the meantime, I am going to take an older set of ear buds from my old MP3 player and cut off the buds. I will splice them in on the stock Apple cord after removing the stock buds. This will retain the stock Apple “clicker” which is fantastic! This may work well as others have reported but I am sure it wont look as good with having a white apple cable and then black cables with some heat shrink tubing between them! At least I have some options!

iPhone Ear buds?

OK here is another gripe about the iPhone. The Ear Buds that come with it sound terrible for one. After 1 week of listening to music, the left buds blew and now it is distorted in that ear at all but very low volumes. I started researching getting them replaced under warranty and found that thousands of people have the very same problem! WOW! All these blown buds and Apple hasn’t come out with something better? I decided to dump MORE money into this iPhone and buy a replacement set of ear buds. Turns out that Apple made the jack that connects the ear buds proprietary! Only Apple buds are fully functional. You can buy an adapter that will allow you to plug in and listen to music but you cannot answer the phone by the bud volume control. You have to pull the phone out of you pocket, unlock the keypad (if you keep it locked like I do) and “slide” to answer the phone. Why does Apple always feel the need to be so proprietary and then NOT give you options? I wouldn’t mind the “Apple” jack if they offered some nice bud options. So now I will buy a nice set of ear buds and hope no one calls when I am listening to music!

I guess with any product that it so advanced in many good ways, there has to be some list of crap that goes with it.

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LOL!!

I found this review on the internet:

Apple iPhone Stereo Headset

• PRICE: $29 (free with iPhone)
• PROS: Best clicker of all: you can just grab it and click without looking.
• CONS: Crap sound, uncomfortable fit, and the white just screams “I’m a douche bag. Mug me!”

Apple and Market Share

I was reading some discussions on Apple Computers and how they are limiting their market share by making their products proprietary and very expensive. I heard both sides and all sorts of suggestions on how they could really make a difference if they would just do this or that. Then I got to thinking. Maybe they don’t want to big market share! Maybe they are happy with their incredible high stock value and growth. Maybe the market share they have is keeping the investors rolling in cash. I think the iPod and iPhone made a huge dent in their respective markets. I guess Apple is doing the right thing by making the Mac an “elite” product that not everyone can afford. If everyone had one, it wouldn’t be special anymore. Imagine seeing everyone driving a overpriced Mercedes. Wouldn’t seem so special anymore. Kind of like Harleys. They were really cool when few people could afford them. Then “financing magic” made it so everyone could have one. Then they lost their “cool”.

So Apple keeping their computers in the hands of fewer people and charging alot seems to work fine for them.

No Stimulus for me!

It seems that there is a program to help almost everyone that needs it. Except for me. I have great credit and a decent income to debt ratio. I would like to spend my money but I just can’t bring myself to spending $4500 more than the next guy who has an eligible car to trade in. My old beater gets too good gas mileage to qualify for the rebate from the government. So I don’t buy a car. Amanda and I were looking into taking advantage of the market and buying some land or a 2nd house. Nope! Credit too good to qualify for any programs and I make too much money to buy an inexpensive property. Underwriters were taking a beating by people who bought smaller homes and then foreclosed on their larger homes. So no one would finance me without me putting 28% down. I was told NUMEROUS times that if my credit were worse I would qualify for government programs and assistance and lower down payment.

IMO it seems that all of this assistance is geared towards people who do not make enough money and don’t spend it wisely in the 1st place, to actually stimulate the economy. It is seeming more and more like handouts to the irresponsible people who took on loans they couldn’t handle, bailout for everyone who made bad business decisions and less like a good plan to help the whole country. We also seem to be encouraging people to take on new loans by enticing them with rebates to buy new cars and assistance to buy new houses.

Maybe I am just in the wrong demographic. Maybe I actually don’t NEED assistance and should be grateful that we can make it on our own. I am just tired of always being the demographic that pays more and gets less. I have been paying more in taxes for years because I have no children, while people with kids that are more of a burden on the infrastructure actually get to pay less taxes and even get rebate checks form time to time. Now there are people who stretch out unemployment not because they have to but because it is easier to collect for a long time and stay home not paying for child care. So while some people stay at home with their kids collecting money, I am one of the ones working and paying for it. Also my house value went down in the market but the city determined that my house value went up $20,000+ dollars raising my property taxes! For the 1st time I can ever remember, my house has a higher tax appraisal than the market value.

I know this is all happening to many people in my position but this is my blog where I get to complain!

I guess I should just be grateful to have a job and be able to pay for anything!