What the hell do I know?

Opinions, ramblings and rants from a dark room on the 3rd floor.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Let's talk cars...

Which one's your favorite?

My new favorite was unveiled this past week. The 2006 Ford Shelby Cobra GT500.
Lab Kat has the best pics I've seen so far. Here's the skinny from ford media.

Please excuse me while I mop up the puddle of drool. The very first car I owned myself was a Stang, during their boring 80's stage. I didn't have the fastback/hatchback. I had the 2-door sedan. Black with red interior. I drove around pretending it was a
68 Stang.

Sorry for the pause... had to mop up the puddle again.

Leave a comment about your current car crush.

Thursday, March 24, 2005

The latest snowfall :-)

Imagine waking up to this....

My parents did. These pics were taken where I grew up. But that's not their house, although the decks are theirs. I can't wait to pay off the current mortgage and buy a new house in the mountains. Only 5 years to go...





Thanks for the pics Mom!

Monday, March 14, 2005

How many?

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are delusional spin from the liberal news media. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines its lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?

Monday, March 07, 2005

Welcome the newbie!

Welcome to Blogstonia mycroftdavis! He's been lurking around for a while and finally decided to add his considerable two cents to the universe. You can find him at Rational Blues.

I have to smack him though...he got to post an awesome link before I could get to it. Drat. Oh well...go read it anyway.

There Is No Tomorrow
by Bill Moyers
The Star Tribune

Saturday, March 05, 2005

a must read

I took the advice of Guy Andrew Hall of Rook's Rant and read A Promise to My Grandfather: A Follow Up on Daily KOS.

Well worth the time...and the tissues.

What is this world coming to?

Well, I've successfully completed my first week at my new job. The first two days were a bit hard, but in retrospect, more so because I was outside my old "comfort zone." I work in a completely different building now. I no longer get to see my two closest friends, nor eat lunch with them. So I felt a bit lonely and disheveled. The last two days have been much better. I'm starting to settle in and get my sea legs. I still have a ton to be exposed to and learn, but I have no worries about being able to handle it. Best of all, I can honestly say I have no regrets.

I was listening to the radio on the way to work earlier this week and a comedian talked about an alternate Google-like search engine....Gizoogle. I thought it was all a joke, part of his routine. But no...it's real. The returns are in izzle-speak and ebonics.

Now before I say any more, this is not about race. I do not have a prejudiced cell in my body. I grew up with a grandfather who was fond of spouting very unethical statements and from an early age I could see the unfounded hate within those comments and the hurt that they inflicted.

But, I have a problem with the dilution of the English language. Yes, occasionally slang terms become mainstream and are folded into what is considered "proper", however the whole ebonics debate is a symptom of a much larger problem that exists in our country...the vilification of intelligence. You see it on tv all the time...the smart people are made to look nerdy...dorky...foolish, while the characters who make poor choices have a brief 2 minute conversation of how they'll do better next time and then get all the rewards. While I'll admit that there are many story lines on crime dramas and movies-of-the-week where the intelligent people are the cool ones, consider what our adolescents are watching. Certainly more often than the crime dramas, kids are watching sitcoms, music videos and playing video games, where the triumph of the witless over the knowledgeable is far more pronounced. So at a time in their life when peer pressure is taking hold, kids see being smart as more of a negative than positive attribute.

I don't blame the people who make these shows and videos (although I wish they'd also make better choices), I blame the same people who are by-and-large failing the most at getting our youth on the right path...parents. I see it around me everywhere (I'll admit, sometimes in my own home)...parents are too wrapped up in their own pursuits to see the influences at work on their children. Who are the heroes to our youth...Stephen Hawking? Marie Curie? Bertrand Russell? Mark Dean or Dennis Moeller? No. More likely it's an over-priced, over-paid celebrity or sports figure.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!! There's a reason that the U.S. is in decline. We're not focusing on educating our youth. How do we expect to have an population that makes smart decisions (such as a presidential election) when they're not educated? It leaves room for the Carl Roves of the world to make a detrimental impact.