Bringing the Drama

at lunch i usually read different news sites to keep up with world events since i don’t get a newspaper at home. the internet is a wonderful thing in that regard. while reading, i came across this article on foxnews.com. i don’t pretend to be one of those people who read fox news and treat it as the only truth out there. but i was disturbed at what the article was about. i have posted about rock the vote being misleading before. they try to get rock stars to tell you how to vote. well apparently in this case, rock the vote is trying to get you how to think. the lead off, i do not think social security will be there for me when i retire. even if its revamped, i’m not going to count on it, which is why i put money toward the 401k at work, etc. the new plan by bush to open up private accounts for people instead of traditional social security, i can’t say i find a problem with it. why not try it? at least from my point of view, i’m not counting on it anyway, so what the hell? obviously the system is not going to run forever, and i believe in more self sufficiency the better. if i had more control over my money rather than “SS Tax” on my paycheck, i’d be cool with that. and since the reform includes not just taking the money, but putting it into a program of government funds, i think its a pretty good idea. if you read about the funds that are options you can see that none of them really suck. bush said at the state of the union that the reform would benefit the people my age the most obviously since we would have more time to put money in the new funds. the people like my parents would not see their benefits changed in any way. however, special interest lobbyists like AARP are railing against the new plan for obvious reasons. they are one of the most powerful lobbyists in the country, and they represent the older population who are obviously afraid of change, even if they are told that nothing will change. now today after reading the article on rock the vote’s view on social security, i can’t say i’m surprised. they have an obvious democratic lean, but they veil it in “we’re out for the young people.” right. anyway, the article i read today talked about how RTV’s survey steered the person answering to the conclusion they wanted, that young people think social security reform is wrong. in the article on RTV’s site they even say

70 percent would oppose private accounts if it meant “cuts to your guaranteed benefits would be so severe that you could not make up the difference with money from your private account.

of course you’re going to be against something if it means hurting you in other ways. i’m not going to support clemson to victory in a football game if that means my car gets stolen. that’s basically what the foxnews article said. what if the reform works? they apparently didn’t give the survey that option. so there was no question asking “would you support private accounts if your private account resulted in more money for your retirement?” of course someone would say “YES!” but that would not be in line with what RTV wanted to hear. instead of asking “do you support private accounts?” they asked “would you support them if that meant your benefits would be cut?” the benefits are going to be cut, that money is going to be in your private account! can’t they just ask the question and move on? instead they asked questions, phrased them a certain way to get their outcome. its sad when someone has to resort to lying to get their point across. MTV won’t tell you that RTV is screwed up. they were too busy giving out trips to the video music awards in exchange for registering to vote during their 20 million loud campaign. RTV knows they asked loaded questions, and yet they try to proclaim themselves as the voice of a generation. it makes me sick. do they think everyone under 30 is a mindless sheep not able to read between the lines? apparently so.

my neighborhood seems to attract people who like to go door to door with things. last week it was a couple of people from a jehovah’s witness church, one time it was a little girl selling girl scout cookies, and yesterday evening it was a guy who said he was being funded to go to college, but then ended up trying to sell me magazines. he said that the company he was working for specialized in taking kids out of troubled homes or off the streets and sending them to college, which is great. but they make them sell magazines to pay for it? ok. i gave him a five and talked with him about how going away for college worked so well for me. he said he was from baltimore and was going to go to school at LSU. anyway, it seemed sketchy…and it was weird, i listen to his story about his situation, and then he has me read the list of magazines he’s selling. he asks me if i have any kids, because i guess the first page was kids magazines. so i said i didn’t have any, and the look he gave me was kind of funny. “you don’t have any kids?” as if i should have 4 running around behind me. well whatever. i hope the five dollars i gave him helped him with his college funding. i hope he was telling me the truth in saying that he was actually going to college and i hope he can get the home improvement job he was telling me about. he seemed nice enough, but i guess it just seemed odd. maybe next time i’ll just not answer the door. i get uncomfortable having to tell people i don’t want to buy anything when they are selling something i don’t want, like magazine subscriptions. i used to hate going door to door, but when i did it, i was selling wrapping paper to get points to get a clock radio or a radio controlled car. you know those sales things kids can do? selling magazines for college though, well, i just hope the people are actually going to college and not using the story as a front just to sell magazines.

today my friend ryan came over and we played dance dance revolution. it was pretty fun, and i lost almost every battle. crazy. i ended up standing off center so when i’d go to hit the arrows, i’d actually not be hitting an arrow at all. it was a lot of fun, and i can only imagine how much fun having four pads with people dancing on them would be.

so tonight i watched return of the jedi. i was inspired after seeing a website with all these still pictures of star wars episode III, so many in fact that i felt like i watched the movie. anyway, i have now finished watching all of the original star wars trilogy, something i’ve been meaning to do since i bought the dvds last fall. i know that george lucas fiddled with the ‘new’ versions, and i can’t say i fault him for anything other than hayden christiansen being included in the final scene. as you may remember, the very end of the movie, luke sees obi wan kenobi, yoda, and his father in ghost form. well, in the dvds, his father (darth vader) is now replaced with hayden, the guy from episodes II and III. the older actor who originally was in that scene has been replaced. it just looks wrong, on one hand i understand him being replaced to show the form he had before he became darth vader, but before he dies he changes from the dark side, so why not have the older actor there? obviously i’m not george lucas, but i found it bothersome. leia and han’s relationship continued in the movie of course, they went together to destroy the energy shield. it was cool, but i’m not sure if i was ever in a position to destroy an energy shield that i’d let the woman i love go with me. why put her in harm’s way? but like i’ve said, i don’t have a wookie sidekick and i don’t drive the millenium falcon.

for the record, i consumed margaritas while i watched the movie, thus their mention in the title.

i don’t know who all is reading this or has figured out i have a blog other than the person who set it up. anyway, i’ll explain what’s going on. i’ve been wanting a new blog for a while since xanga was pretty restrictive on what i could do as far as posting links, etc. and now i have this wordpress blog and i have no clue how to make a template. i’m sure its easy, i just have not figured it out yet. and also, i’m going to try to manually import my old xanga posts over to this blog since this new blog is so good at archiving. this option may seem tedious but when compared to the 5 at a time importing available, it is easier. i had to do a lot of editing with the imported posts, so the one by one approach may work out better.

i’m so glad i have a 3 day weekend. i don’t know exactly where my life is going right now. so i guess the weekend where i get to do some things i’ve been wanting to do for a while may be good for me.

welcome to the new blog

what a day! clemson beat maryland in basketball on the road tonight. it was awesome. i couldn’t even watch the last couple of minutes, i came in here to poke around on the internet because they were causing me heart trouble. they need to work on their free throws.

today on the way home, andy, chad, and i got in an interesting discussion on this girl at work, donna. she proclaims herself as christian, and that’s great. she’s a nice person, but she proclaims it in such a way, that makes the bad things she does reflect on this image she makes for herself. also, she kind of beats you over the head with the fact that she’s christian, so when she ends up saying something about how important God is, its almost as if what she’s saying has been cheapened, which is what andy said this afternoon. andy went to lunch with her and laurin today, and i asked if donna brought up any of the drama going on in her life. she’s been in the process of having a house built and i don’t know if its because she’s chosen the wrong contractor for EVERY job or her attitude when talking to the contractors puts her at a disadvantage. as a general rule, when i need someone to do something for me, i don’t talk down to them, esp when its a guy who’s one of the only ones to do it. she is on the phone a LOT at work with the contractors, its a bit distracting. anyway, so andy tells us about how donna was saying she just bought a brand new tv, an HDTV that will fit perfectly in the living room. okay, this really made me lose any sympathy for her. she’s a single mom with two kids, and she drives kind of a hoopty car (her words). she doesn’t feel comfortable driving to work because she is not sure if it’ll make it, and sometimes she’ll rent a car to drive to work. so what does she do about it? goes and drops $3000-4000 on a new tv. andy also expressed some frustration over her continually saying the good things in her life were blessings and the bad things in her life were sacrifices she had to make. i told him that i think part of donna’s problem is that she lives in a christian bubble and just kind of floats through life. yes, you depend on God, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to make any decisions. for instance, her choosing to buy the new, expensive tv instead of getting a cheap used car or paying for some of her new house expenses, that’s not exactly a good decision. that’s not God wanting her to make a sacrifice to not have a car, that’s her having her priorities wrong. andy said that donna told him that he’s blessed for being smart when he told her about what he thought about her priorities…i told him it doesn’t take an engineering degree to make a decision that seems to be a no brainer. she’s a nice person, but her reality is just a tad askew. i alluded to this when she was hired, and andy says that now he’s starting to see it. so where am i going with this discussion? i’m not sure, just don’t be like donna. yes i depend on God to lead me, yes i pray that He’ll provide, but that does not mean i sit around and waste the tools He gave me.

so i didn’t get to do as much work in the flower beds as i’d like. i heard i was on a committee at church, and today i got an hour and a half notice that we had our first meeting today. awesome. so that threw off my whole afternoon. next weekend i should have two good full days to work, so its cool. i need to go buy more dirt, i figure i could get one bag of dirt for each plant, and i have like 15. so i need to go get more. incidentally, when i went to walmart friday, i walked up to the garden area door and the greeter guy says “welcome to walmart”. i said “thanks. so do i go out and get the dirt and bring it in to be checked out (it was in the parking lot)?” he said yes, so i took a cart and got 6 bags. i pushed the cart back in and when i passed the guy, i said “hey, i got it” and he says “welcome to walmart”. it was kinda cute, the guy must be pushing 80, so i let it slide that it seemed like he didn’t recognize me from 5 minutes before.

i played xbox with this kid earlier tonight. i was playing espn nba 2k5, and the kid i was playing with cheated me i think. when you sign on, you already have a team selected, so when people go to challenge you, you can see what team they are playing. not this kid, i challenged him and he changes teams on me. not a big deal, but then the game starts and he gets a 19-2 lead. i’m not a bad player either, so i think he was using some cheat or something. anyway, i make a comeback, and then he starts trash talking to me. then every shot i’d make, he’d drop an f-bomb or another four letter word. then the connection was really kind of crappy, so the game would freeze up, and in the 4th quarter, the game gave me the option of quitting because the connection got so bad. i was so mad at the kid for making me watch replays of his good plays and just generally being a jerk, i quit. not before he blamed me for the problem. yeah, right. anyway, the kid couldn’t have been over 14. i really feel sorry for him, i mean, he acted like a complete jackass and he’s not even old enough to drive. ah well.

so last night i bought 3 new cds….kanye west, loretta lynn’s ‘van lear rose’, and keane. all three are excellent. i listened to the kanye most of the day, thus the ’song of the day’. i recommend them all.  and all were 9.99 at best buy.

anyway, i’ve been dating this girl for about a month. i kept telling myself that i should like her. she had so many things i would want in a girl, but i just didn’t like her. i got some good advice from my parents monday night when i went over to their house for dinner. my mom put into words what i had been thinking. “you can’t love a girl with your head, it has to be with your heart.” so after three days of my head and heart arguing back and forth, the heart won. so tonight i called her up and told her, and she said she felt the same way as me. we proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes just talking and watching the end of the duke/virginia tech game together.(congrats hokies!) anyway, i want to thank the couple of people i asked advice from. they helped immensely.

this weekend i think i’m going to really attack the flower beds and do some yard work. i’m getting into that “must clean” mood. and i’m looking forward to it.

i’ve had the past two days off because of mardi gras. i didn’t go to any of the parades. pretty much, been there done that sort of thing. i took the past two days to make a couple of dvds, watch some movies, do some work around the house, play xbox, whatever. this morning i watched ‘empire strikes back’. it was the first time i had seen it in a long while. i noticed some things, like how much of a whiner luke skywalker is. i mean, seriously, what is his deal? no wonder mark hamill never did much after star wars. on one hand, he didn’t really have to, and on the other, he’s pegged for the rest of his life as luke. too bad for him. anyway, that and i really liked seeing the relationship between han solo and princess leia change from the first star wars. i wish i could find my leia. not to say i know how to drive the millenium falcon or i have an 8 foot wookie as a sidekick, but i liked how leia pretended she was super strong and didn’t like han, but he saw right through it. and then of course, right before han got frozen, she says “i love you” and his response, “i know”. so alright, its not “i feel safe with you” from garden state, but its something, and i liked it.

tomorrow i’ll have to go to work like everyone else.  and it’ll already be thursday.

today after church i went and ate with my friend danielle, then after that, went to see “the life aquatic with steve zissou”. now, let me preface, i have seen all three previous wes anderson movie and enjoyed them. bottle rocket was the funniest, then rushmore, then royal tenenbaums. the common thread between them was the main character coming to grips with just being a regular guy instead of this fantasy person. well, at least that’s my diagnosis. not every movie had the character getting to the realization point though. ‘the life aquatic’ however, bill murray’s character reached that realization, and it was shown in the movie. probably the most moving moment of any wes anderson movie i’ve seen. i loved it. but it was because the last half hour was just so good, the rest was good, but not great. i was going to rank it with the royal tenenbaums up to that point. i loved the wes anderson touchs throughout, but this one added some new ones. i liked the fake marine life, the fluorescent snapper, the crayon seahorse, cate blanchett’s accent, owen wilson flying for kentucky air, the zissou adidas, etc. it was great. and again, the soundtrack for the movie was traditional wes anderson, great great music! that in addition to the token black guy on the crew playing guitar at random points throughout the movie, and they were all bowie songs redone in portuguese.

aight, so i’m not really sure what to type right now, other than i’m going to go out on a limb and trust someone i know will want to go with me to see new found glory and eisley in may. tickets went on sale today, and i definitely want to go. i’ll see if i can work some magic tomorrow. i can be very convincing sometimes. (for the record, the base price for tickets is $16.50, yet the TM charges are $7.25. should i have expected anything less from the evil monopoly? thank you US government for going after microsoft and not TM….enough digressing)

tomorrow night i’m going to the only night parade in slidell. my mom’s riding in it, so my sister and i (and possibly some friends) are meeting up and going. i’m not really into mardi gras this year. mostly cause plans never came together to do anything cool, so i’m just looking forward to the two days off of work. my buddy chad is going up to gatlingburg with his wife. its a shame i don’t get to take off monday and thursday, then i’d have a whole week off! drat!

the jazz fest lineup got announced. i’m excited, nickel creek is playing. it could mean that they’ll be playing a regular show around town while they are in new orleans. we shall see.

oh, and i’m dating this girl i got set up with by my friend laurin. she’s nice, and she’s coming over to my house saturday to cook. she says she’s a good cook, and laurin agrees. plus she’s an accountant, so she’s going to help me with my taxes. i’m still a bit uneasy about the whole thing. i talked to my friend joy last night and got some good advice. if after three weeks things still aren’t happening, then call it. so this girl’s got a week and a half.

i promise to be better about updating. things just haven’t been all that blog worthy lately. at least not to the degree i’d like them to be. then i read my friend kari’s blog about a bad pancake experience, so then i get inspired.