Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Gettin political...

Sometimes, I dont even know who I am anymore. Im actually watching politics on TV!! Right now! Seriously!

I figured that the DNC would be a good way to get a better understanding of where Obama stands since I hadnt really gave a crap before. I dont know who Im gonna vote for, but dammit, Im gonna vote. Why? Because its an American freedom and Im all about stuff like that. Here are my thoughts on the DNC based on who Ive seen so far. Please keep in mind that I still hate politics and thus dont know who was saying what so I will just describe them as best I can.

Leggy blonde lady - This is the first speaker I saw and what a welcome mat. She sucked. To me her whole speech, spoken in a very Hilary-like voice, went like this:

"John McCain doenst know how many houses he has!"
"John McCain isnt a 'sidekick', he's a groupie!" (referring to relationship w/ Bush)
"John McCain (insert belittling comment here)!"

It just really sucked. She really didnt say much about Obama at all. F-minus for this chick.

Next up was a dude that is or was the Mayor of Denver or something like that. This guy's speech was great I thought. He really pounded the point of focusing on America and whats going on here and coming together as a team. He talked about how they had shitty pollution and how everyone from the top down made a change and turned everything around in Denver with less pollution, more public transportation, etc. It showed that we can turn around our current situation too. This guy ruled.

The next lady was an old lady who thought it would be funny to start off by acknowledging that she was old. It wasnt. Her speech, however, was pretty good. She got shafted at a job and was getting less pay than men of equal status. She sued and won but then lost an appeal in the US Supreme Court. That sucks. This didnt really do anything for me on a political vote level though because outside of the sob story, I really dont remember what her whole point was. She also bashed McCain too and I hate that crap. I do remember that she touched upon the solidarity and focusing on America points though so I give her an average grade.

We next were treated to some time with Michelle Obama talking about her speech the other night. She seemed pretty cool and collected about the whole thing. Her and Barack just seem like regular people to me. Like the type of people who you would meet at a function and have a couple cocktails and a little conversation with.

Then a mayor or governor of Montana came out. This guy was funny when he started trying to get the crowd fired up and they responded. It was like when Hulk Hogan used to start twirling his wrist and putting it to his ear on each side of the ring to get the crowd fired up. I kept waiting for this Montana guy to leg drop someone. It did harp on the "lets work together" mantra, but there wasnt much else that was too memorable. Because of his antics, I give him an above average score.

Now Chelsea Clinton is up on the stage. I gotta be honest, for a chick that used to look like she was severly beaten with the ugly stick, she aint bad lookin now. I suspect science gets a thank you there. She intros her mom (and hero). Awww...

Hilary comes out and starts talking like a robot. Im so thankful that she isnt going to be President, just for this reason alone not because of anything to do with political views. She does give a pretty killer speech though. She even made fun of herself by referring to her "pant suits" and that was actually funny. It showed humility too and I liked that. Then she went off on a robotic tirade, endorsing Bar-ack O-ba-ma and getting really fired up about America. She was feeding off the crowd and they kept cutting to shots of a proud Chelsea, an applauding Michelle Obama, and even big Billy clapping and loving it. I really liked the part where she basically said to her supporters, "Were you just voting for me or are you voting for the country? If youre for the country, vote for Obama." It was a great speech and focused, again, on working together to build America back up again and stop relying on foreign sources.

I think (hope) this is the end because I really dont wanna watch anymore. I now owe it to myself to watch the Republicans do their thing so if anyone knows when that is, please let me know. Im too lazy and dont give a crap about politics enough to actually find it myself. The only reason I watched the DNC is because there was nothing else on after Family Guy ended.

All in all, I liked what I saw and heard from the DNC. It reminded me of the words the late Shannon Hoon, formerly of the band Blind Melon:

"AS THE FUTURE BEHOLDS, OUR LIVES WILL UNFOLD. WE WILL ALL GROW TOGETHER AS ONE UNIT... A TEAM. AS TIME PASSES I WILL FEEL I HAVE BROTHERS TO LOOK OVER ME. AS I WILL WATCH OVER THEM. FOR WITHOUT EACH OTHER THE FUTURE WILL HOLD NOTHING. BUT WITH A TEAM LIKE US THE FUTURE IS OURS."

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Body Damage - a week in review

The Closing Ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics are winding down, a great ending to a somewhat crazy week.

Monday and Tuesday were "storm days", our first sight of a potential hurricane. As usual, the media acted like the end of the world was coming in order to get people to flood their local Publix, Wal-Mart, and Home Depots.

Wednesday, I met up with a buddy at Tatu sushi at the Hard Rock where we downed some of what I like to call "base food" before heading into the Stone Temple Pilots concert where I proceeded to put on a beer drinking clinic. The show kicked major ass. Scott Weiland sounded unbelievably good and didnt seem strung out on drugs at all. Maybe there is a direct relationship here? They played a lot of classics and managed to play at least one song from each album. Then they came out with an encore of Dead & Bloated with the entire crowd singing along. I was 10 beers deep at that point, double-fisted Heineken's throughout the entire show. Yeah. The show ended and we headed to a few bars where I proceeded to drink another 3 bourbons and pick up a few new friends to drunkenly makeout with. My buddy bailed and I ended up eating at some obscure diner with the ladies in Ihavenoclue, FL at 3am. Around 3:30am I started to head home and that was a really dumb idea. I got home ok and drove fine but I was really lucky. I put myself on "timeout" on Thursday.

Thursday I was hurtin but I hid it well. I had to drive to meet with a few customers and it was a long day. McDonald's at 2pm saved my life that day I think. It was still a very rough day. Meetings went well but I wouldnt have minded if I was at my house in my bed. Im getting too old for this shit. That night, I met up with a friend and his girlfriend at MGFD. We dined outside in the middle of a monsoon but we managed to stay dry and the food was great. They have a nice bourbon selection there so its a little hard to resist. I managed to limit myself to 2 though, until I got home and threw a few more back, finding myself kinda drunk again for no reason whatsoever. I start to think I have a drinking problem at this point.

Speaking of drinking problems... Friday I headed up to West Palm to hang out with my cousin and his fiance since it had been awhile. We went to a party at their neighbor's house that got way out of hand. We had picked up a bottle of Basil Hayden, my favorite, and then proceeded to drink the entire bottle. Then the Bacardi 151 made an appearance along with a bonfire. Uh oh... We had one of the girls blowing fire and dousing the fire pit with glasses of it as well. This was hilarious and naturally we had to go and get a huge bag full of fireworks to throw into this inferno. We lit up some cubans and enjoyed a nice smoke while tossing fireworks into the fire pit, about 150 at a time. There are few things in life that beat bourbon, cigars, and drunken pyrotechnics.

Saturday I woke up and didnt know where I was for a second. Kinda common because I travel a ton but weird nonetheless. Much to my surprise, I had zero hangover. I figured my body was probably used to being 50% bourbon at this point. Around 1130am, we headed out to go pick up some ammo to go trap shooting. After buying some ammo and grabbing a much needed bite, we headed to the range. I had never shot before. I will admit Im not a fan of guns and I did experience some anxiety once we got there and got ready to shoot. After getting a walkthru, we started shooting some clay pigeons. I nailed one on my first shot and was hooked. It was awesome. I got better and better as we went along too. The gun didnt have the recoil I thought it would and we shot both 12 and 20 gauge. The only part about the whole day that sucked was that it POURED rain all day. The rain pounded down, only letting up long enough to lure us out away from shelter where Mother Nature would have a chance to soak us to the bone. I ended up buying a shirt and hat because I was drenched and figured I should grab a souvenir anyways. When I got home, I headed into the Grove to Jaguarto grab a bite and enjoy a few bourbons. Met some cool people and had a good amount of "base food" and then met up with some neighbors at Sandbar for a few beers. Around midnight I realized I was kinda wasted and needed to get up really early for the SFDB Classic so I headed home.

I woke up Sunday ready to hit the links. I got to Melreese/International Links around 745am and headed over to the range. Id hit my driver terribly the previous weekend and was hoping to work out the kinks since the driver is usually the best club in my bag. Well, I didnt figure it out. The driver killed me all day. I did manage to battle back on each hole though and ended up shooting a 93 which wasnt so bad considering I didnt make it past the ladies tee on at least 6 shots. Meeting up with Rick (from SFDB), Steve (formerly of Owenized), and Nonee Moose (commenter at SFDB) was fun. Rick was the only one who really played well but the rest of us had our few bright moments and there were a lot of laughs. I got home, showered quickly, and headed on over to the Rusty Pelican for brunch and managed to avoid drinking any alcohol.

The week ends with the Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics, the best Olympics ever. I look back on a week where I did some not-so-bright things, a ton of damage to my body with alcohol, gunpowder, and golf, but it was a fun ride. I also met a lot of new people and thats always good. Next week is Labor Day weekend which means an extra day off. I can only imagine what is in store there...

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Tired of Texting

The era of texting is upon us and I am already sick of it. I first learned of the popularity of texting while over in Europe back in 2001. It hadnt really caught on in the US yet and wouldnt for some time so I remembered thinking it was weird and probably for people who couldnt afford the minutes to talk. Today it seems like everyone texts, probably because they do. At first, I liked it and thought it was convenient. But that was in situations like looking for someone at a bar or letting someone know your flight had landed. That is what texting is good for - a short notice or exchange of info.

Nowadays though I find myself getting into what I call "text conversations" with people and it really annoys me. I hate punching the damn buttons for multiple texts. Its just inconvenient. If we really need to have more than a 2-text exchange, why cant we just talk like normal humans? You know, just hit "send" and hash out whatever we are texting about in less than 2 minutes. Its so impersonal and cerebral. Then there are the people whose phone makes noise with every button pressed and every text sent and received. God, I loathe those people. They continue on with this for what seems like an eternity. "Beep beep-beep, beeeeeeeeep!"

I'm no exception either, well, except for the noise making part. However, Im weening myself off of the text message. I'm concentrating on keeping myself from falling into text conversations and when I see one forming I hit the send button and make a phone call instead. I like being a human, after all.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Blind Mind to be featured on Fox News Dallas tonite at 6pm

Yup, thats right folks. Im scheduled to be on Fox News tonite in a piece about airline travel, airport traffic, and airport shopping. I basically talked about how Ive noticed a slight decline in airport traffic due to the higher ticket prices and Im loving it. Means less lines in security and less idiots in the airport. I also have noticed airlines cutting back on the number of flights which means flights are more full. The reporter also asked if I spend more/less money at the airport. I never buy crap at the airport outside of food/alcohol and most of the time Im in the 1st class lounges anyways. But, I did comment that I read up on how Best Buy is installing kiosks where travelers can buy MP3 players, etc, so clearly someone thinks people are still spending. For the record, I think this is a dumb idea. I just dont see it being profitable.

So, check out Fox 4 News Dallas tonite and you can see me live. A little gift for all of my fans who read this blog and live in Dallas. All zero of you haha.

Wow, talk about your all-time worst ad campaign backfire

This is extremely disturbing but kinda hilarious at the same time...

TORONTO - Greyhound has scrapped an ad campaign that extolled the relaxing upside of bus travel after one of its passengers was accused of beheading and cannibalizing another traveler.

The ad's tag line was "There's a reason you've never heard of 'bus rage.'"


More sick details here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080806/ap_on_re_ca/canada_bus_beheading