This isn't all that interesting a Strom story, but considering that I haven't had any articles of late I'll point this out . Day 79 of the Strom Thurmond Death Watch(TM)
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This one goes out to Renee an expext on the issue of Crack ! Who knew that she and Kenneth Lay had so much in common. I certainly didn't, but remember as Cartman been know to say "My uncle says smoking crack is kinda cool" so maybe they it's wrong to judge it's not like they have been on the cover of "Crack Whore" magazine....( yet )
They want to construct a 25 story Cross in Michigan. You know this is one of those things I never understood about Christianity and it's history, I mean Jews don't walk around with a slaughtered lamb, Confusionists don't carry their dead relative bones about on them, why is that symbol so important? I mean as I understand it Jesus was a fisherman of men (people) and that carries a good meaning, I understand the sacrifice element and all that, but if I was Jesus and came back, I think I'd get alittle bothered that people are so obssessed over it. I dunno I am not a Christian, just my take.
For work since some of it revolves around Corporate Privacy and trying to promote best practices, I subscibe to lists and briefing documents on the issue. Today, I got an an email from this group about some issue from the Privacy Leadership Initative , no big deal right? Except they emailed it directly to the whole list instead of Blind CC as is the custom. The really funny thing though is a place called the Privacy Leadership Institute shows poor leadership, I know, very geeky rant, but I found it funny. It was interesting to see how many names popped up that I know..
I saw Ronin last night and was impressed with it, it was a well written spy story, this morning I figured out why David Mamet had been one of the writers. Contrary to what I wrote recently about Mamet, I generally think he's one of the best writer's for movies and plays today. A shame Heist was bad, but I liked that these were real characters with a history and back story. Especially finding a good story of these mercenaries after the Cold War from different backgrounds was well done. (I'd point to where I last discussed Mamet, but my archives are missing, hmmmmmmmm, that's odd.)
Saturday, watched the Suns make fools of themselves and Jordan have a 41 point game. My buddies seats were good so it was alot of fun, though we both agreed that next year he needs to move one section over for a better look at Wizard's Dancers (BTW - ugly site design, but I wasn't going to look at the website design). A shame Wizards have the highest priced tickets in the league, but the Dancers and Mascot spent hardly anytime out on the floor. When I saw the Suns in Phoenix, they were out on the floor 2-3 times as much and gave a ton of t-shirts out. Phoenix has a similar record to the Wizards, but work towards keeping the fans in the game much better. Granted the Dancers are eye-candy and the tshirts are cheap giveaways, but you know I little love back to the people forking over all that cash goes a long way.
Sunday, veggied out watching the football games, New England really earned their spot you have to give them credit. Pittsburgh just fell apart, I suspect they didn...
I always have loved trains, probably partly due to seeing them buzz by as a kid in Ohio and hearing their horn off in the distance at my Nana's house. When I travel around Germany it's by train, and even in the States I have riden it when it was practical. That's why I was really pleased to look at this page . I have spent enough nights in a train station watching the stillness pierced by the metal giants shooting past to relate to the picture. Reminds me of the road, of travel to new places, to scratch that itch . (Thanks to Jeffe for pointing out the page)
Congress is going to consider a bill next week "Honoring the life Dave Thomas and expressing the deepest condolences of the House of Representatives." As much as I was felt bad that the guy died, I think Congress has better things to do with it's time than this bill. As Traficant would say "Beam me up!"
I am in the process of editing a transcript from a webcast, we pay the phone company for it, but I always need to edit it for errors. It's about as boring as it sounds. Anyways in this webcast one of the participants said "We have expanding knowledge". What the hell does that mean? Where do you buy expanding knowledge ? and who knew the term was so popular ?
Friday Five
1. What cologne or perfume do you wear? Tsar, not sure who makes it.
2. What cologne or perfume do you like best on the opposite sex? Hmmmmm, never good with names of that stuff....
3. What one smell can you not stomach? Black Cherry soda...(bad college drinking story)
4. What smell do you like that others might consider weird? Train stations....even the subway in New York, a bit mysterious, sick and never sure where it might lead you.
5. How do you plan to spend your weekend? I don't know...but that's a good thing.
Hart building has reopened , welcome back.
To the affected Senate Staffers: I can relate, after the shooting at the Capitol our office was closed for a few days and working in the environment afterwards was weird. But don't fret it will get back to the normal insanity quicker than you think. Take care of yourselves.
An old buddy of mine's kid is hilarious "Nutella...like chocolate gravy". So true, so wrong, so very, very cool. For those of you not in the know, Nutella is amazing, I learned of it in college in Germany and haven't lived without a jar nearby ever since. In fact (Thomas looks into desk drawer) there is a jar in my desk as I type.
Have you heard about the problems at Kmart . In college I worked at store #4711 on and off for 3-4 years. I can't say this comes as any big shock, the management techniques were really poor and attitude of management left alot to be desired. I left the experience honestly expecting them to close sooner or later.
Flashback , I forgot my vest at home one day with my name tag on it, the manager asked where it was, I told him, "Sir, I memorized it!" Strangely he didn't find it funny.
There were alot of good people I worked with and I hope they come out of this alright.
Back from Billy Joel and Elton John, a brief review for you.
It was honetly great we were in the 425 section (nosebleed) at MCI Center, but it worked out well. The way the stage was set up we had a great view of them. As for the music there were a few favorites from Billy, I would have love to hear, but hearing several thousand people sing "Piano Man" together is really amazing, from the reaction he gave us, I think he might have even been impressed. Elton was alright, not really the person I went to see, but he does his material very well. I still gut read him as an arrogant prick, but maybe that is just my image through media's eyes. He seemed to have fun and they (Billy and Elton) worked very well together.
We were up above the crew working the rigging of the light, and it was fun to see one of them bopping his head to the music along with the crowd. If you have a chance to catch the show I highly recommend it.
Night all off to bed, I'll add some links and spel...
As I occasional mention, I love following the exploits of Representative James Traficant. His one minute speeches are deeply loved by staff on both sides. Anyways, it looks like he may final lose his seat, ladies and gentleman a moment of silence.
From National Journal
Traficant's District Eliminated In Ohio Redistricting Plan
Ohio Republicans Thursday won Democratic support for a congressional redistricting agreement that shores up the political base of Democratic Rep. Tom Sawyer, eliminates the district of Democratic Rep. James Traficant, and provides enough Democratic votes in the state legislature to enact the plan. Ohio is losing one of its House 19 seats, and the plan carves up Traficant's Youngstown-based 17th District among Sawyer, Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland and GOP Rep. Steven LaTourette. The GOP plan has been emerging this week, but did not pick up needed Democratic support until Thursday, when two Akron wards were added to Sawyer's district, impr...
Friday Five time kiddies...
1. What do you have your browser start page set to? At work I also have it set to the company, where ever I am working's homepage. If someone hacked our site over the night I'd like to know first thing, not hours later after it's been like that all day. At home, I really haven't paid attention, probably Yahoo .
2. What are your favorite news sites? /. , Tech Daily by National Journal , Drudge , AZ Daily Sun , AZ Repulsive , NY Times , Washington Post , RollCall , and of course The Onion . After checking email in the morning, I do a quick scan of them.
3. Favorite search engine? Google , is there any other?
4. When did you first get online? 1995, a Prof of mine had an email address, I didn't even know what that was....a few months later, I found Mosaic and started wandering around, been hooked ever since.
5. How do you plan to spend your weekend? Sushi Happy Hour tonight, grocery shopping and maybe a museum tomorrow, and Billy ...
Our office takes up the entire floor of the building and so we have two kitchens one at each end. The regular staff kitchen with full size frig, mega-coffee machine, etc, etc and at the other end just a tiny kitchenet for the conference room, small frig, coffee maker, etc....well this morning I went to get some coffee from the machine. No coffee made, okay fine I'll make some....but there is no pot ....check all the cupboards....nothing, check the dishwasher...nada....., go down to the other kitchen and they are using all the coffee pots for a meeting....well, fine, good enough, but that should leave us at least one regular coffee pot.....it evidently was in the other dishwasher being run..... because you know who would want coffee at 9am in the morning ......
I went downstairs to the deli for coffee, but I wasn't happy (even though the coffee is better).
Warning: Don't get between Thomas and coffee, it just ain't healthy.
Carl Hiaasen is on NPR discussing his new book and I had known he had written a song for the book along with Warren Zevon , one of my favorites. So went to Zevon's site to see if it had any information on the song. Sure enough you can download it as mp3, but even better they announce that Warren's next album is "My Ride's Here" and will be released this Spring, I can't wait! :-)
I have found it interesting the number of people who have found my site from Google of late, looking for something I really don't normally discuss. Evidently if you look up the terms "episode", "download", and a certain WB program you get my blog in the results list. Why? At first I could not figure out why either until I did the same search to find the results. Remember this post ? This post is the reason. So if you your looking for young Clark Kent information, you got the wrong site, but please feel free to look around at your leasure.
I saw this article on my lunch hour about this Iceman in Bozan (or Bolzano), Italy. Home to a good friend of mine, Rainhard (he's the one in the blue shirt, I am wearing the red). He was kind enough to show me about when I visited this summer, even taking me to the Museum and I got to see the Iceman. If you ever ever in Bozan, I highly recommend checking it out.
Campbell was right, even the smallest of us search for meaning out of the world. I have had an interest in Campbell's work for a few years since I read the Power of Myth . If you have any interest myth, folklore, or understand how people derive meaning from life I highly recommend reading his work or watch him ! Also Star Wars fans, Campbell was a major influence on you know who . But before you go reading about Campbell read the Miami Times story first, it's amazing. (Thanks to Rebecca Blood for pointing the Miami Times story out.)
From Drudge ...
FLASHBACK: CLINTON OFFICIAL MET WITH ENRON CHAIRMAN; $100,000 CASH DONATION TO DEMOCRATS TIMED TO PLANT APPROVAL
TIME MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 1, 1997
On Nov. 22, 1995 President Clinton scrawled an FYI note to chief of staff Mack McLarty, enclosing a newspaper article on Enron Corp. and the vicissitudes of its $3 billion power-plant project in India.
McLarty then reached out to Enron's chairman, Ken Lay, and over the next nine months closely monitored the project with the U.S. ambassador to New Delhi, keeping Lay informed of the Administration's efforts, according to White House documents reviewed by TIME magazine.
In June 1996, four days before India granted final approval to Enron's controversial $3 billion power-plant project, Enron's gave $100,000 to President Clinton's party.
Enron denies that its gift was repayment for Clinton's attention, and White House special counsel Lanny Davis says McLarty acted out of concern for a major ...
Friday Five
1. What was your first job? Probably Scout Camp Consuler when I was 15, but if your talking real job it was a Pet Store at 16, cleaning dog cages and well cleaning dog cages, I did it for 4 months until I realized the bosses favorite little employee had been there a few years and was still making minimum wage (still $3.35), I decided it wasn't worth it.
2. How old were you when you had your first kiss? High School? Jr High? Didn't really ever fall in love until later in college, so didn't pay attention until it mattered.
3. What was your first car? What happened to it? Point of personal pride, I got to thirty in the USA without owning a car. Not that I haven't thought about it, just never liked driving and living in DC you don't need a car necessarily. When I do get a car I'd love to get the old 70's Landcruiser by Toyota.
4. What was your first concert? Cheap Trick, at open air arena in by Firebird Lake in Phoenix. They had cool ...
Hate those pop-up ads, you know the ones, X10 camera and all that crap. Well this site shows you an opt out for them, not all of them work for me, but it may have a conflict with IE 6.0 since I have played with the P3P settings. But if you are sick of those ads go check it out (Thanks to webgrrlie and welcome to the DC Bloggers !)
Need to draft a bio (no, not for here), going to make public the rough draft...comments, ideas email to me thomas_vincent@yahoo.com
J. Thomas Vincent currently resides in Arlington, Virginia. He has been acused of living in numerous states across the United States, but if hard pressed the most likely response will involve Northern Arizona. His driving interests are technology and politics and the communication between those worlds. In addition since the Berlin Wall came down he has had a continuing passion for Trans-Atlantic relations.
He studied at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff Arizona, earning a Bachalor of Arts in International Affairs with a Minor in German. His interest in German was strong enough to warrent a semester of study in Tuebingen Germany. After completing his studies, Thomas interned for Representative John Shadegg and then spent 4 years on Capitol Hill working for House of Representatives Majority Whip Tom DeLay.
Thomas has always had friends who work...
From Today's Tech Daily PM "Cary Sherman, senior executive vice president and general counsel for the Recording Industry Association of America, said instead that recording labels "need to aggregate as much content as possible to bring consumers in." " Aggregate content, does that mean be a monopoly , I some how suspect so...
Earlier today I said Ocean's 11 wasn't bad, notice I didn't say it was very good. I basically felt it was a minor level tribute to the Old Brat Pack trying to play cool, but not much else. I mostly agree with Harry's review , with the exception of his comments of Mamet's The Heist , because it was the worst Mamet picture in my memory.
Well, I am back in the office so rather than work, let's do something real important and catch up on the Friday Five from last week. :-)
1. You've just won a complete collection of movies starring one actor - what actor would you pick? Ethan Hawke , I always have enjoyed his films and I own none of them. Well then again, maybe all the Humphrey Bogart
2. What was the last movie you saw in a theater? Ocean's 11 , surprisingly it wasn't bad.
3. What was the last video or DVD that you bought? Scary Movie for my Brother as a gift...I don't buy movies.
4. What movie could you watch over and over again and not get sick of? Casablanca
5. How do you plan to spend your weekend? I went and hit golf balls at the range Saturday, I did the docent thing Sunday. Since I hadn't been back in town long it was good to have a quiet weekend.
Happy New Year!
Have a good one, so did I, I have been busy in the Wilds of Northern Arizona, with an unconsistant internet access and not alot of time nor effort to blog....but I should be back to my usual madness soon.
I hope your New Year was a good one. I pondered posting resolutions, but it seemed silly since no one ever keeps them. So in reverse logic and from an idea posted by the punk princess I have decided to post resolutions that I intend to fail at.
New Years Resolutions at Bear Droppings...
Stop picking on serious journalists
Stop picking on Strom
Stop sarcasim on the site