Ceasar Chavez Day

Jenn has today off for Ceasar Chavez Day. She's explained before that many of the people that help clear out the fields that her Endanger Species Recovery Program use to cultivate endngered native-Californian plants are migrant workers and the like. So I can see those folks getting the day off. But I think if SHE gets the day off, I should have the day off, too. I mean, the customers my company supplies labels to hire MANY MANY MANY migrant workers. I'm sure THEY have the day off. And since they're not working, the packing houses probably aren't packing fruit. So no one's labeling anything today. So I should be at home with my fiance doing dirty things in honor of the great man. That's just my feeling on the subject.

Another though, I wonder how they pcik which day Caesar Chavez Day is on. I'd like to think it's his birthday. But it'd be a shame if it weren't. As a by-product of my job, I know a lot more than anyone really should about the seasons of fresh fruit. And in California, we're in the middle of one of, if not the most, slow seasons for tree fruit. Apples are LONG done. Navel Oranges (the larger of our 2 main varieties) are winding down. Most Tangerine varieties are long done. Grapefruits are pretty much done. Stone fruit (peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, and pluots) don't start for anouther 2-3 weeks. The only think going strong right now are Valencia Oranges. That's it. This is about as easya time as it gets for the migrant worker! And this is the time frame when they get a free day off!?!? GYPE!!!

And the Winner is....

...one of Jennifer's cousins. In the officially unofficial race to get the wedding invitation response card back first, it was Jennifer's cousin by ... well ... I guess we don't know by how much until we get the second response. And even though she declined attendance, I think I like her. She must have looked at her calendar or saw it was in vegas, said, "Nope, not my scene, " and sent in her regrets. BOOM! It's int he mail just like that and we got it yesterday. That's a five day turn aroudn from when we mailed them on Thursday! FIVE DAYS!!! That's so impressive. I kinda wish she were going now so I could meet her.

Not too much else going on right now. Checking the mail for invites. I bowled a 222 a couple weeks ago witha 579 series. He cleaned the house over the weekend. It's as clean as it's been since we first moved in. Actually, Sunday before we started cleaning is when t was that clean. It's been a little sullied now, but it's still better than it was.

In other news, Jenn and I cancelled the movie channels on our Dish and signed up for Netflix. This is sucha great service, I should have signed up eons ago. We have well over 70 movies on our request list right now. The really cool thing is that the Distribution Center is in Bakersfield so when we place a move in the mail to when we get the next movie in our queue, it's just 2 days. That's even better than the 5 day turn around on the wedding response! I'd have to say that Netflix is one fot eh better innovations of the past 10 years. If you were to rate innovations on a scale of 1 to 10 where Paris Hilton's Career gets a 1 and HDTV gets a 10, I'd give Netflix a solid 9 (keeping in mind that TiVo has its own scale clocking in with a 28,360,195). It's the best thing to happen to DVD's since DVD's. DVD's themselves would tie HDTV with a 10.

That would actually be a fun blog, give ratings to top innovations of the past 10 years. Another time.

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter (yum candy)!

Barry's Day at the Beach

I get the feeling that BArry Bonds had a recent trip to the beach. He went in the water, got knocked over by a wave and rustled around in the sand a little bit. I have this suspision because that sand then got firmly lodged in his vag.

Barry Bonds had a sandy vag earlier this week. He did a brief interview after finding out that his knee injury is going to keep him sidelined for at least 1/2 the season. During the interview, he indicated that the media is getting it's wish. They've finally worn him down. They've finally gotten to him. He's tired and he might take the whole year off because he feels beat. It's what the media has wanted to do and they've finally succeeded.

Hey Barry, you know that tired, beat up feeling you're having? That might, just maybe, be your body reacting to the fact that you're 41 and for the first time in 10 years, you're not taking steroids to recover from the daily grind of the physically draining MLB season. THAT'S what the roids do for you. All those polls asking people if they thought roids helped people hit home runs is irrelevant becasue that's not why Barry and others were taking them: it was to help with the recovery. He's tired becasue the wear and tear of 10 years is FINALLY catching up to his body.

He can blame the media if he wants. But either way - whether you think it's the media or the roids - he can only blame himself. Forever, he's felt he's been above the fans, above the media, above the other players and worst of all, above the game itself. I can think of no better end to his story than for him to come crashing down to reality. Better yet, it's when he's within a small stretch of the Home Run record. I can think of no one more deserving to have his career fall just short of his goal.

Keep in mind that he admitted that he was given a cream that he thought was flaxseed oil but then admitted that he believes it was steroids. That makes him either the Dumbest Player in Baseball or the Worst Liar in Baseball (at least Sosa knows to have his lawyer lie for him). As much as I'd hate to say it, I really don't think Barry is all that dumb, so it must be the later.

I'd like to think that after this experience, Barry would now appreciate things a little more. Maybe, be a little more careful next time he goes to the beach. But I doubt it. He'll continue to be the same prick that stands for no one but himself and blames everyone but himself.

***************

Completely unrelated side note:

I read a great article that added one more laayer to the insanity to the Congressional involvement in the Schiavo case: the people trashing the husband and bringing this whole thing about are the same people fighting so tirelessly for the sanctity of marriage. Again, it just goes to show that they will support any issue and any position that satisfies their Religious and Political ends. These people are evil. Yes, they are Barry Bonds evil.

My Jon Stewart Moment

I didn't notice this until after I posted the Live and let Die post. I read some articles on the case and I notice something very subtle about all of the media coverage: those taking the Right to Die stance are called pro-Michael Schiavo (the husband) and those in favor of keeping the wife alive are described as "supporters of Terri Schiavo", the poor woman in the vegatative state. Think about that. The media is implying that if you support the husband, you are against the wife. In essence, it is the wife's choice (in spite of the testamony of the husband and several others) to be kept alive artificially.

Oh, and by the way, there's a Liberal Media Bias.

Live and Let Die

And I'm talking about the Paul McCartney not the abberation performed by Bums and Posers er, uh, I mean Guns and Roses. Ahd it been the later, it would have been entitled "Live and Let DEEEEIIIIIYYYYEEEEYYYYEEEEEEYYYYYYYY!"

Actually, the titale is only a very edgey reference to the song (or movie) in promoting a discourse about something else entirely different and unrelated (NY Post, here I come!!!). For the past week, my cheese has been curded by the on-going right-to-die case in Florida. Just to get this out there in public record for all to see should, God forbid, this ever become an issue: if the extent of my reaction to people in a room, events going on around me or any other stimuli be that I midlessly drool while my eyes follow a shiney balloon as it passes in front of me, please disconnect the tubes and let me die. That's far to miserable an existance to comprehend and even if I AM still in there and I still have my full capability of thought, just an utter lack of an ability to express that thought, here's what I'm going to be thinking, for all FIFTEEN of those years that I'm being kept alive: WHAT THE F*$% DID I DO TO THESE A-HOLES THAT WOULD MAKE THEM SO PISSED OFF AT ME THAT THEY'D WANT ME TO BE ALIVE LIKE THIS; UNPLUG ME FOR PETE'S SAKE!!!! Now you know. But enough about me, let's turn to the case at hand.

I can fully understand the parent's side of the case. I can understand wanting to keep her alive as long as possible. But, I think they're out of touch. Parents are not capable of making a rational decision in this matter. For example, when I told my parents that I wanted to be cremated and have my ashes spread in a really cool place (by the way, I want to be creamated and have my ashes spread in a really cool place after you unplug me) when I die, they reacted as if I had asked them to euthenize me becasue I had a tummy ache. "Oh, no, we're going to bury you. You're not getting cremated," they said. You see, I was in a fully cognizant state when I made this request and they still wouldn't follow through, how could I expect them to follow through on my wishes to be un-plugged? I can't. That's why you have a significant other: he or she is someone you can, and HAVE to, talk these things over with. Should she have done the paper work? Obviously yes. But when you're as young as she was when she had her heart attack, filling out paper work to deal with you if you should become a vegetable isn't at the top of your To Do list.

So there's that. I think the husband has HER interests in his heart. Otherwise, he wouldn't still be married to her and still be fighting for her wishes. It woudl have been FAR easier for him to throw up his hands and say, "You want to take care of her, you go right ahead," and go splits-ville. I also understand that the courts get dragged into this thing. It was the parents' only recourse, regardless of their inability to rationalize the issue. But the courts ruled. Obviously, I think rightfully so.

But then we have the uppity Republicans in the US Congress that feel it's their God Given duty to go shoving thier fat asses in the middle of any dispute that might be marginally political. Do you think Democratic law makers would have stepped in to pass a law in support of the husband if the judge had ruled the other way? I don't think so. But the "Keep Her Alive" stance is "Christian" stance. This boggles my mind on so many different levels that I will now bullet point them in an utter incoherent rambling mess below
- What the hell is the US Congress doing passing a law that is targeted at a single case? Isn't the the very definition of descriminatory and invasive? Aren't Republicans supposed to be in FAVOR of less government and more state's rights? And since when did they give a damn for ANYONE?!?!? If this person we're covered by the insurance of her husband, do you think they'd have still stepped in?
- Let's look at the Pro-Life movement for a moment. I'm extrapolating here, but let's assume that one of the arguements, a "Christian" arguement, is that every life is sacred and that we should not wield the power (or essentially Play God) to take that life. Why don't Christians argue the flip side of taht coin, too? Isn't it Playing God to keep this poor woman alive? Wouldn't she, without the assistance of un-natural, life-exending instruments, be long dead? AREN'T WE PLAYING GOD WITH THIS WOMAN!?!?! How is this Christian?!?!?
- On an evolutionary level, this woman should have been eaten by an Alligator or random scavanger animals 15 years ago.
- WHY IS CONGRESS GETTING INVOLVED!?!?! I mean, I know why. But WHY!?!?! Is this what we're electing people to do? To get involved in our personal daily lives to the point that they're going to write specific laws about me? I know I hit on this one with my first bullett, but it deserves another one. What's stopping them from passing the Howard Stern Act that says that anybody can say whatever they want on satellite radio except Howard Stern?
- Are they going to react like this for every single leagal judgement that goes against what they want? Will they some day be able to pass the "Barretta Act" which over-turns the finding of the Jury in the Robert Blake trial?
- When I turned 18, I registered Republican because I was fiscally conservative and I thought they were in favor of a small government. So I ask again, "WHERE IN THE HELL DID THEY GET IT IN THEIR HEADS THAT THIS WAS AN ISSUE THAT THEY BELONGED IN!?!?!"
- And when did Republicans EVER give a damn about anythign health care related?

I assure you, it will be a very very very long time before I will ever be able to even consider voting for a Republican ever again. This party is so out of touch with the world. Each and every member of the Republican Party has become a puppet of the religious right who's main goal is to reduce the freedoms of Americans so that they (the religious wackos) may save our immortal souls from ourselves. Excuse me, I think I know what's best for me and what I want to do with my own time. I sure as hell will be capable of knowing what's best for my kids and make sure that they know their limits. And I think it's safe to say that that man in Florida knows what's best for his wife. We don't need your help so kindly FUCK OFF!!!

Madness and Insanity

In order to avoid making this, my March Madness preview, a complete and total bore to those of you who don't give a damn, I will wax political for a moment before diving in. The NCAA is the biggest sham in the country today (after our Village Idiot President, but I hope that goes without saying). I am middle of the road when it comes to unions: they serve their purpose for groups of people well but frequently they far out-last their need and welcome (I'm looking at the Baseball Players Association). College atheletes, and specifically male Football and Basketball atheletes, are subjust to the most egregious exploitation since Ike beat Tina to keep her in line. The NCAA runs a basketball tournament where the #1 activity AROUND this tournament is filling out and betting on brackets and yet these atheletes are not allowed to hold a job (let alone get paid by the schools making millions off of their efforts) in order to avoid the threat of gambling interests paying off atheletes to work phoney jobs. The NCAA makes BILLIONS of $ off of this tournament and yet a poor kid can't work at McDonalds over the summer to help out his family. What would be the harm in letting the kids work for companies that are official sponsors of the NCAA events. Let kids flip burgers or hand out Viagra. If the NCAA deems the company saintly enough to sponsor their events, why wouldn't they be saintly enough to pay kids on the up-n-up? It's a mystery and a crime and should be stopped.

On the bracket!!!! (hey, I never claimed I wasn't a part of it, I just recognize my hypocracy)

We'll spoil the ending right off the top: I like UNC. Usually I hate picking #1 seeds to win it all, but in this case, they are so solid and have such superior talent than any other team in the field that, as long as they stay focused, they're unstoppable. That's the trick: they lose focus very easily. However, I think now that they're dancing, I don't think they'll come off the floor. In their region, Syracue (I miss when they just called it East), UConn is a 2 seed and the highest Big East seed. By the way, the Big East is by far the best top to bottom conference in the country and all these morons that put teams like Syracuse at a 4 seed and Pitt at a 9 seed are going to look foolish by the end of play on Sunday. But I digress. Kansas is a 3. Those are the only other teams that will challange. Florida is hot at the moment but WAY overrated. Plus they're the Gators so they automatically suck in my book. This bracket will be relatively straight forward with favorites winning, for the most part.

I have UNC facing Syracuse in the Final Four. Syracuse is in the Austin (artist formerly known as South) region. Their top competition is Duke, Michigan State, Oklahoma and Kentucky. Duke gets a 1 seed because winning the ACC tournament automatically gets any team a 1 seed and a blow job from Dick Vitale. They will be DEMOLISHED by Syracuse in the Sweet 16. McNamera can match Riddick shot for shot and 'Cuse actually has an inside game. Oklahoma is Florida Memorial Overrate team in this bracket and I see them losing over the weekend to Utah. Kentucky will pose the biggest threat but they aren't as deep, coming frorm a soft SEC. Yes, I said it, dammit! The SEC is filled with a bunch of panty sniffing wusses!

Who UNC faces in the Final is REAL tough. I picked Oklahoma State at a coin flip and mainly because their more physical than the other Final Four team (you'll have to wait for the next paragraph). I like physical teams in teh NCAA. That's why I like them over Illinois. Yes, the Illini have had a great season and, for the Big Ten, they are VERY physical. But the Big Ten is a very young and not very deep conference this year. Going through that schedule with one loss would have been like going through teh Big East football schedule this past year with one loss. They won't know what to do with a team like OK St. No one else in this region to write home about. I would be the least bit surprised if the 3 (Arizona), 4 (Boston College), 5 (Alabama) and 6 (LSU) teams all got upset in the opening round. This bracket is going to KILL people's pools.

That leaves us with our final Final Four team coming from Pitt's bracket, Albuquerque (aka West). No, I don't realistically see them making it to the Final Four. BUT, if there were a bracket where I'd want them to be because I don't see a single team that could kill them, this is it. I'm taking Wake Forest. They are by far the best team in the bracket. I do see Pitt upsetting #1 seed Washington in the second round on Saturday (if you're wondering where to find me Saturday morning, now you know). Unfortuantely, my sleeper before the brackets were announced, Louisville, will be the Sweet 16 opponent. And if Louisville were going against any teams other than UNC or Wake (who has an amazing point gaurd, which is like having a infinite live in Super Mario Brothers) in the Great 8, they'd be in my Final 4. But alas. This bracket also has everyone's favorite one-time Cinderella pick, Gonzaga, as a 3 seed. Unfortunately for Gonzaga, they used to do much better back in the day when no one took them seriously.

So there you have it: one man's look from the top down. I wish people would recognize the Big East for the Basketball Force that it truely is. Pitt would be a 6 seed, 'Cuse a 3. WVU a 6. Villanova a 4. Whatever. They're all morons. And yes, if Pitt makes it out of Boise and finds their way to Albuquerque, I will do everythign in my power to be in attendance.

The Girlie Report

Tomorrow, I plan on posting a preview of the NCAA tournament. I've been following College s far less this year than in year's past. Having a woman by your side can do that. But I'm happy and I don't really feel like I've missed anything. I really only follow during the year to know what to expect come tourney time and to be semi-educated on the teams in the field to fill out the most informed bracket that I could. Considering I've never in my life won a bracket pool, I really can't do any worse using the basic, "I like this team, I'll pick them," method. So that's what I'm doing and I'll be all set to watch action Thursday through Sunday for the next 2 weeks (that's a heads up to Jenn).

For today, I just hve some additional wedding news. It's getting into the level of detail that most guys don't care about but since I have some time and not much else to contribute until I actually fill out a bracket, that's what you're getting.

Jenn got a dress. Katie went with her, as well as her mom. Katie says she looks really good in it. Her mom, well, she doesn't say much at all on a good day, but her smile indicated that she seemed pleased enough (personally, I think she'd be happy if Jenn were wearing a naughty school girl outfit, just so long as she's involved (and no, Jenn refused my suggestions on the naughty school girl outfit even though I insisted that her mom wouldn't care, just as long as she was involved in picking the plaid pattern for the skirt)). Any way, Jenn hates tradition. It's not even that she isn't traditional or that she doesn't understand tradition. She hates it. She will specifically go out of her way to do things that fly in the face of tradition just in the off chance that someone who likes tradition might disapprove. As if that person were the embodiment of tradition, call her Mrs. Tradition, and Jenn's whole goal in life (or at least durig hollidays and other such events) was to piss off Mrs. Tradition. Anyway, to further her cause, her dress is NOT white, which promptly made Mrs. Tradition *huff* under her breather. She has shown me the dress multiple times on-line, which practically made Mrs. Tradition yank the power cords from my computer. And to top it off, she wnats more than anything else to model the dress for me when it arrives. And if Mrs. Tradition were in teh room so that she might faint upon seeing me see Jenn, then that would be ideal. This is where I've drawn the line feeling that making people faint, even imaginary ones, may be going a bit too far.

Mrs. Tradition also highly disapproves of our ordering of the invitations 6 months in advance of the actual event, let alone planning on sending them out. My feeling is most of my friends need to know when the wedding is in order to plan accordingly (flights, hotels, etc). But Mrs. Tradition says that, at earliest, 3 months is appropriate planning time. I've got Jenn's back on this one. The invites arrive on Tuesday. I figure, once our web-site with all the handy info is finalized (we're still looking at/working on the hotel specifics), the invites should go out. We'll see how that works.

And lastly, i washed my car over the weekend. Anyone who knows my car, or more specifically, has been on teh inside, knows how icky it was. Well, it is icky no longer. I'm not even embarrassed by the inside now. Hooray!

An actual important blog

Nope, I'm not talking about anything I'd have to post. About as important as I get is a wedding announcement. Through Michael Moore's website, I found a link to www.freewayblogger.com. It's a very funny/sad site (as you would expect coming via Moore). It shows a collection of signs that have been put up over and around freeways all over the country. Signs that protest Bush and the war.

When I lived in LA, I always thought that those signs were really cool. Well, mostly cool. Many of them were of the Virgin of Guadaloupe and that actually might have just been my eyes playing tricks on me. Anyway, I like the political ones. I always thought, "Damn, that's ballsy." I mean, what happens if you get caught? Seriously, what happens? I don't know. Does anyone out there? I'm a chickenshit like that and wouldn't do it specifically for fear of getting caught. Although just before the election, there was a shopping complex a block away from me that had a huge Bush Chaney sign stuck up there and if Jenn hadn't stopped me I would have torn it right off of it's posts. I kind of wish she hadn't stopped me. Especially now that I've seen the site. I feel like I would have contributed a little then.

Anyway, Bush still sucks. How completely insane is it that he's appointing a belligerant prick (normal person speak for "hawkish results getter") to the UN. That would be like a newspaper in Pittsburgh hiring a guy who wears a Cleveland Browns tie to his interview to cover Steelers games. What results is he seriously looking at achieving? Does he just want people to know that he has no plans to work with other nations in a civilized fashion, so don't bother trying? And also, this thing with re-nominating judges that have already been blocked. If the Dems ever manage to get control of any branch of the government again, I hope to God they bully the minority as much as they're getting bullied now. I hope they continue to fight the good fight. They are the last line of defense while Freeway Bloggers continue to fight the regime fromt eh underground. Viva la Resistance!

Bits and Pieces

I have 12 minutes left in my lunch hour and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. I posted on Saturday, and there isn't a whole heck of a lot to report since then. So I certainly don't expect to type for 12 minuts. But I've got the time comign to me, so no sense in actually working. Granted, I could play free-cell, but I play plenty of that on work time (aka OUR time).

Um, Jenn and I threw up a relatively simple web site to spout out information about our wedding. I'm not sure Jenn wants me to publicize this information yet, but since she's one of the 2 people that read this, I reckon it won't hurt: www.geocities.com/tidoublegerpb4. That last part is my Yahoo ID. Geocities is now a part of Yahoo, which I did not know. A nd to use the service free, you're sort of stuck with what they give you.

Originally, I was going to do fancy-schmancy custom page with our very own URL and separate hosting and everything. I was going to do tons of fun links and animations and pictures galore. But Jenn said it wasn't really worth the cost. It hought it would be fun to get back into HTML programming. I hand't done it since my Accenture days and the VB course I took last week really bit me with the programming bug. After throwing together the geocities spot in about 30 minutes I realized it would have taken me all day to do something equivalent. That's without the animationa nd floating buttons and hidden naked pictures. That time was better served on gift registry.

Wow, only 5 minutes left, now. Time does fly.

I won't spoil the gift registry fun. It's on teh web site. Also visit later in the week as I plan on adding hotel inforamation and maybe some hidden naked pictures.

My time

I've had a really busy week. I feel like I've let all 2 of you taht read this down by not posting this past week. 3 months ago, it would have been because not much was going on. This time around it was because I had far too much going on.

The time constraint which prevented me from posting was that I had some training to do. My kick-ass manager let me take a Visual Basic course. I won't bore you with any details, but if you get an e-mail from me with an .exe (executable) file attatched to it, you may want to hesitate opening it. Odds are I'm just trying to fuck with you or namely your computer. So even though I was only working 9 to 4, I was busy every minute of that time. I got to hear more Howard but I got to write fewer e-mails. I got to learn about where the best place to hide viruses in a program is but I didn't get to update people on recent wedding news. I learned how to write a program that would move the "OK" button every time someone tries to click on it so that they can never exit the window but I didn't get to find out about Blair losing another job first hand. *sigh* So I'm going to make ti up to you by posting on MY time. This is how much I love you people.

Jenn and I OFFICIALLY have a place, date and time for our reception. Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, September 17th, 5PM. This is obviously step one in the myriad of things that need to be reserved, scheduled, picked and planned prior to THEE date, but it is step one, and I'm glad it's out of the way.

Jenn designated Step 2 as getting the invitations. That day. No, we should not wait to get samples from the web site to make sure they are as cool and pretty as they look in the pictures. No we should not wait until our deposit is accepted and the space is OFFICAILLY OFFICIALLY ours. I must be done NOW!!! That's part of why I love Jenn: her spontinaity and extreme excitement about doing something ones she gets the itch. Of course with that comes extreme disappointment if things don't work out just right, but that's OK because she's really cute when she pouts.

So we should have our invitations by the end of the week and you should ahve yours in 2 weeks. With the invites, hopefully, will be an information sheet with hotel phone numbers, directions and a web address. My friend Austin designed a really cool website for his wedding where he would update it with important information and specifically had gift registry information. I don't have the URL yet. In fact, i dont even know where ours is going to be hosted or anything like that. I hope to get that done this weekend. If any one out there knows of a reliable, nice and cheap location to get a domain name and have a web site hosted, I would appreciate the info!

I'm sure I have other news, but this is the weekend, fuckers. This is MY time!