June 2003 Archives

Frustrated, I hopped back and forth from the TV to the computer. The news wasn't showing the numbers, and the website crawled. Everything was planned out, even serious decisions of what was to come in the life after. She'd get her degree - in time. (Not that she'd do anything with it.) I'd quit working. Half would automatically get invested, earning a minimum of 5% a year for living expenses. The rest would be available to do with what we please. Friends wouldn't get money. (Well...maybe the closest friends could get some, but where does that list end? too tough to call right now.) Everything would be done as anonymously as possible. There'd be a definite upgrade in living, driving and eating conditions. Yearly vacations to Sandals St. Lucia. What would do now, like after we won? Call parents? Where to take the ticket? Where would you hide $135,000,000?

Finally, the numbers appear on the screen...44...14...7...41...9...25. Shit. Nobody else won? Good. Let's get some more tickets.

Did anyone else see this image of Saddam show up in Google News this morning? It happened to me at approximately 10:35 AM CDT while searching for the term jose conseco. I could not get it to reappear, however.

Reading this story about "Thong Man" reminds me of lifeguarding in college. I only saw him once, but others saw him more. And by more, I think you know what I mean. His "swimming" involved the sidestroke. Keep in mind he was ambidextrous, and liked to face us when swimming. Most of the time he wore a white thong (and we all know what happens to white suits in water), but one day he must have forgot it, just as this "Thongman" must have. Ahhh...the memories

Andy's mom is struggling with her mom's impending death. Her feelings about afterlife ring true to my heart. I have been struggling writing a post about the effects of death twelve years removed. There's so much pain in death, and hope of afterlife that sometimes you struggle with life and being able to live.

I've been able to grow personally over the past twelve years, the most profound in the few years following Mike's death. First, there was denial, holding in every emotion about it until one day it exploded. Then learning how to deal with emotions of death, and finally accepting them. There's always days where the denial bubbles up. You see a face, hear a voice, and quicky turn to see disappointment. Or, the happy dream quicky fades as my eyes open in the morning.

Then there's the little weird reminders. Two weeks ago, the batting order for our softball team read, "Mike, Danny, Rob." It was exactly out my Dad would call our names, gathering us into the car, oldest to yougnest.

It's not the death that's tough. That pain goes away relatively quickly. After a death, it's struggling with living that's tough.

Unbrand America has an interesting concept. They plan (with your friendly monetary support) to advertize their cause, protest publicly, and encourage you to place black dots across corporate ads in your home town. I have to say that I agree with what they're saying here. I tend to stray away from the extreme left organizations, like PETA or Greenpeace, but mostly PETA.

It's mainly because their pledge says alot.

I got this one from work. From The Man Show: That's My Boy!. (Video: ~1400 KB)

The question was raised, "What family would tape this?" The answer, of course, is any parent that wants bargaining power over their children.

Hilarious. "It's so go good, ya know? When it first touches your lips?" We spent two nights watching all the extras on the DVD, although the commentary was lacking. I expected a bit more effort on insight into the film. But, when you think about it, I doubt it was challenging to act in this film. The movie definitely kept me laughing. One of the classic college film along with Animal House, and Van Wilder.

John Warner reviews Alissa Quart's Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers in yesterday's Morning News. He makes alot of interesting points, mostly based on his commercial youth, including Gordon Gekko's mantra. I found this to be most true:

Ironically, the rise in consumerism embraced by the contemporary right has had a corrosive effect on the "family values" and issues of morality that conservatives claim to embrace. Wal-Mart recently moved to stop distributing consumerist bibles like Maxim and FHM in their stores because they may improperly expose youngsters to sexual images, but they aren't thinking twice about selling lipstick and blush to a ten-year-old.

Long ago, when I delivered papers to make some spending cash, I imagined people picking up their paper from their front stoop (or the bushes, depending on how lazy I was) and curling up on the couch to read the days news. As I kid, they were always old people. Last night, the wife and I ordered to receive the local paper at home. Our intention was to get the Sunday paper, but that quickly evolved into the Thursday through Sunday version. Now, we will be reading the paper from the couch on Sunday mornings. Funny, I don't feel that old.

There's a "suspicious package" that allegedly is small, round, and has a clock on it with some ticking inside was found a block from work around 4:30PM today. The Dane County EOD and another official were on the scene. We saw a guy in a bomb suit (aka "the stay-puff dude") x-ray the package and disappear into a truck. But it didn't seem all that important as I was able to get within 50 feet of it.

Then I walked home. Maybe I will update more later.

Update: It was a kitchen timer.

Sammy Sosa got caught using a corked bat. Many know that; Sammy even admitted to it. His team was quick to rally around Sosa. Others aren't so supportive.

I find Sammy extremely believable. But...

Warren Buffet speaks out the latest tax cuts:

Suppose this measure goes through and the directors of Berkshire Hathaway (which does not now pay a dividend) therefore decide to pay $1 billion in dividends next year. Owning 31 percent of Berkshire, I would receive $310 million in additional income, owe not another dime in federal tax, and see my tax rate plunge to 3 percent.

And our receptionist? She'd still be paying about 30 percent, which means she would be contributing about 10 times the proportion of her income that I would to such government pursuits as fighting terrorism, waging wars and supporting the elderly. Let me repeat the point: Her overall federal tax rate would be 10 times what my rate would be.

When you listen to tax-cut rhetoric, remember that giving one class of taxpayer a "break" requires -- now or down the line -- that an equivalent burden be imposed on other parties. In other words, if I get a break, someone else pays. Government can't deliver a free lunch to the country as a whole. It can, however, determine who pays for lunch. And last week the Senate handed the bill to the wrong party.

Heather's pictures reminded me of family vacations to Great America and Walt Disney World. My brothers and I would be dressed all the same, thus making it easier for my parents to discern us from the other knee-high children running from Goofey to Mickey to Minnie with reckless abandon. Somehow, though, I always seemed to get myself lost, following a pair of legs I swore that looked like my mom’s.