So I've decided I want my 80's collection back. All of my MP3s went away when my spare HD crashed - I had to do a full wipe. So, stripmates, since I can't remember every single 80's song I had I think it would be best if we put our collective wisdom together. Post a comment with some songs!

For some reason I have The Cars and Human League in my head and I can't get them out!

I had all kinds of things to write last week but for some reason I couldn't load this site on my laptop. Previously I was able to load the site just fine, but now it won't even load at all. Very strange.

Anyhow, I've lately just been pretending that I'm enjoying my job lately... put yer head down, grind through the holiday. '06 isn't that far away! Very soon its going to be time to look out for #1 like the "old" (e:joshua) used to do. If you think I'm a fascist now you should have seen me circa 2001. I've toned it down.

It was nice to see the beautiful and charming (e:lilho) and the fellas out on Saturday - my plan was to get sloppy drunk but at last minute I decided to be responsible. The Larsonmobile got broken into late Friday/early Saturday, and I was so uncontrollably pissed off during the afternoon that I decided to go on an extended bender. I chilled out a bit. Good news - the window will be replaced tomorrow at noon, and Progressive didn't try to job me on the claim!

Anyhow, it looks like I am going to Chicago tomorrow, then St. Louis the next day with a brief stop to Peoria, IL in between. I've been enjoying seeing the United States the past couple months. Well, with the exception of certain areas that I wont disparage in public. I have free drink coupons for the airline, so my ride home is going to be short and sweet after 2 or 3 Dewars and soda.

P.S. Atlanta had billboards up with the Tutankhamun showing there recently - the sign said "The Original King of Bling" - I had to laugh.

I'm dying... I just want to come home. On the bright side of things, it looks like I'm going to be home earlier than I planned. I can't tell you how much I anticipate getting off the plane in Buffalo. This week has been long and horrible, and my frustration bled out a little bit to an email to my boss - I think he is realizing that I'm burning out a little. Despite the very long hours and relatively low pay, I'm well aware of how marketable this job will be on my resume. Its going to help me immensely in my quest to get an MBA in the future. GPA is nice, and a solid GMAT is nice, but for the better schools I'm well aware of the fact that the difference between the haves and have nots can be whats on the resume. My work partner this week has a double Masters from MIT, half of the coursework of which was taken at Harvard. He hangs out with a lot of admissions people, and when he tells me that he is "convinced" that this job on my resume is going to be huge for me, then how can I not take that into consideration? The job is killing me, thats the bottom line. Theres times where I want out, and there are times that I am euphoric over the job. My boss is the best boss I'll probably ever have. I'm not sure what to do.

Oh yeah - Ohio sucks. This has got to be the reason why Ohio State football sucks. I've made sure to be vocal about my devotion to Michigan this week in basically what is Ground Zero for Buckeye fans. Wearing a Michican hat in Buckeye country is like wearing Rush Limbaugh's "Club 'Gitmo" shirts in Berkeley, CA. You're liable to get harrassed, spat on, verbally abused and not served at restaurants.

I'm in West Virginia, and I'll be in Oh Hi Oh for a couple days after. See you Friday Elmwood!

I love the descriptions of different weed -

1) We selfed our sativa pheno Blueberry, this is a rare find, full on purple stocks, very beautiful plants. A 1 in 100 find, medium yielder, likes organics, can be a touchy feeder. Really great medicine. Succulently sweet with piney undertones. A sativa dominant high, up with a strange facial tingle that lets you know that your stoned, but no feathers tickling your ass. This is a plush ride, like a pimp daddy's cadillac.

2) Odin kept his hammer in his pants, only the ladies and an occasional enemy he wished to defile ever got to see it so the legend goes. Odin’s hammer is an F1 hybrid of mythical proportions comprised of Kodiak Gold (Thunderfuck) and Acapulco Gold. Tha Hammer offers some real WHACK in the head dept. as both parents are some real head hitters, great weed for sex and frolick. I will bet Odin’s hammer was pretty abused just like this F1 will be! Nasty, crazy-ass grass! Likes organics. Be careful this is some serious creeper!

3) Acapulco Gold x Highland Nepalese. True American Weed. A landrace based 100% Sativa hybrid that will fuckin’ amaze you. Tops in tokes, true reefer madness, like heroin in a joint except you don’t barf. Old school sativa lovers need to try this. Big super vigorous sativas with big yields, great outdoors in southern climates. A real Texas ball buster.

4) The original Sour Diesel clone was crossed with a classic citrusy Kush ibl to make something really explosive. Easy to grow, making high yields, crazy shit in both the flavor department and deep stash headies compartment, weed that you lied to your wife about and said it was gone much sooner than it actually was, all just to fulfill your hunger, your fiendish fiendish cannahunger.. this weed proves some good things actually come from New York ..SOME BAD ASS SHIT!!!

Well actually, I'm not going to berate anybody on their vote for mayor, although Helfer is clearly the better choice :) Definitely vote NO on Prop 1, for the love of all that is secular. Sheldon Silver and his cronies haven't learned how to properly run state government yet; the last thing he needs is more power.

I feel like absolute ass. I stayed home today (not like there is anything for me to do at work lately) so I went to vote, then went to Talking Leaves. You know, its amazing how many obscure art magazines with virtually no circulation they shelve there in the place of news magazines. I guess if I want to read something relevant to anything I'll have to trek to Borders. I did pick up the lastest issue of High Times though, because (a) I'm dying to smoke, and (b) I've wanted to pick up an issue for the longest time but I can' t exactly pick that up when I'm travelling and my co-worker is around.

The girl at the counter of Talking Leaves was like, "I swear I recognize you from somewhere!" Seriously, its not even a joking matter.... I get that ALL the freaking time. So she asked me, "What high school did you go to?" It turns out she is 3 or 4 years younger than me, and we both went to the same high school! Now this may not be terribly rare for you people who grew up in the Buffalo area, but for me this is a rare occurance. She was a cutie, too!

There is only one thing pulling me out of this apartment today - okay, maybe two.

I've heard of this thing before from NPR, and they were talking about it again today. You can read about it here -

If you haven't heard about this project, check it out. Its got to be one of the most interesting and important projects going on in America today. Essentially the idea is to bring in your relatives and record them - an oral history project. Have them talk about their lives; funny stories, sad stories, the whole gamut. This way, you have a recorded piece of your heritage that you can reflect on years later when those people have passed. Copies of these recorded conversations are then kept at the Library of Congress. I wish that I could have done this with my grandfather before he died, VERY badly. StoryCorps has recording booths in two locations around Manhattan, as well as two roaming trailers that travel the country to get people to come in and do this.

How I would love to prepare a list of questions to ask my grandmother, and get her to go record it all with me. I'd love to ask her questions about her relationship with my grandpa, her circumstances growing up, the type of jobs she did when she was young and recently married, what she was thinking when (e:jason) and I were born, her happiest moments, her proudest moments, mentionings about her sisters and brothers, her advice for my brother and I on how to deal with life as we go, and anything involving what she would like to do with herself now and in the future. Among other things!

My boss told me this morning that over the weekend a certain video game company is requesting our services! I will beg, borrow and/or steal to go to those audits.

(e:ajay) I think you actually didn't read who posted the rant - it was me. You may be actually talking about the commentary that (e:jason) left on my last post... you know, that stuff you couldn't respond to directly so you chose to ignore it?

Anyhow, in response - I read 4 newspapers a day and parts of others - if you are suggesting that Niman is a "black sheep" you couldn't be more wrong. The thrust of his horeshit commentary is just as prevelant in major print media - the only difference is that in major media they are professionals and Mike Niman isn't. What does that mean? Its the difference between what you say in polite company and what you say amongst your friends - its the wording. His crybaby antics are inspired by and parroted because of what you read in papers like the New York Times, Washington Post and Baltimore Sun. Maureen Dowd is just as radical and arrogant as Mike Niman is.

As far as my comment concerning "policing" what journalists write - stop changing the subject - we aren't talking about President Bush, we are talking about Mike Niman. What I'm getting from you is that journalists, in your opinion, should be able to write as irresponsibly and untruthfully as they want to. That is hilarious to me considering that what I'm talking about precisely is the reason why Rather got in trouble. His editors did little to no fact checking because they were so in love with a false story that it didn't matter if it was true or not. You are fucking absolutely right that journalists should be policed by their editors in order to adhere to a standard. To not do so is absolutely insane because what you end up with is a media that you can't trust because of their partisanship and arrogance. The Minnesota Star-Tribune got into trouble recently because of this exact problem, and when the facts came out they got a black eye. Only after intense pressure did they feel compelled to write a correction. After that fiasco, who is actually going to trust what they read in that paper now? Editors checking the journalists is extremely important because it provides something that the print media sorely lacks right now - INTEGRITY. Now, for fucks sake please, don't digress. Do you think that its important for journalists to have integrity in the eyes of the readership?

Anyhow, I find it interesting that you would bring the war stuff up, considering that my post that you are responding to had NOTHING TO DO with the war. I expect better. Try to stay on topic please. The only thing I might add to your digression, since I'm feeling charitable, is that a) Cheney liquidated his Halliburton assets in 2000, and b) if you are suggesting that the Oil for Food scandal was somehow the United States' fault that is the stupidest thing I've ever read. The most interesting thing out of the OFF scandal, by the way, is that Marc Rich (Clinton's boy that got pardoned) was found out to have been wheeling and dealing with Saddam Hussein directly during the embargo. Notch another one up for Slick Willy!

By the way, I voted for Clinton. The single worst decision I ever made as a registered voter. Well, no... maybe I regret Gore more. :)

I read Mike Niman's article in the Artvoice, essentially lighting up the communal religious organization known as 12 Tribes. I went ahead and did what Mike Niman DIDN'T do, which is engage these people in conversation today. Yes thats right - Mike Niman was given an opportunity to actually talk to 12 Tribes before publishing his article and he didn't. Why am I not surprised? The man has an irrational and innate hatred of anything related to the Bible, and the fact of the matter is that the other side of the story didn't matter to him. Only his prejudiced and halfwitted opinion article matter to him.

Want the truth? Different races live together in the local 12 Tribes commune. The organization consists of every race on Planet Earth, and there are multiple communes around the world. Wow, clearly they are white supremacists if they are best friends, live together and take care of each other. The organization is neither Christian or Jewish, but they live by the Bible in a peaceful and if anything, reclusive lifestyle. I'm completely outraged and incensed by Mike Niman right about now. I mean, don't get me wrong, his completely lopsided and irrational articles appear in Artvoice practically every week - the only thing that he suceeds in every week is displaying how much of a fringe lunatic he is. I've hated Mike Niman for a long, long time but this week is absolutely the pinnacle. If it doesn't scare you that this man is a college professor paid by the state, it should. DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU READ IN THAT ARTICLE.

Artvoice should be held responsible for publishing such utter garbage. Do you think you'll see an apology from Mike Niman anytime soon? Hell no - he's busy with his head in the sand and I personally guarantee that he is a chickenshit just like every other radical left wing writer in this country. Flip through the Artvoice this week - practically every response to Mike Niman's article lambbastes him and points out his obscure, poorly researched and small-minded predilection. He feels the need to defend himself by suggesting that because he's participated in Co-Op organizations for 25 years that he has the authority to speak on the subject? HORSESHIT. Not good enough for ANY publication in America let alone our shitty local pubs. Want the truth? Guys like him get away with this crap because they are completely unpoliced by their higher ups. I'm certainly not surprised that Jamie Moses let this one pass - he's just as much of an asshole as Mike Niman.