Sunday, November 17, 2002

I gave a link out to the ladies a couple days ago...PickUpYourOwnDamnSocks.com. Here's the men's response to that. Guys, go check Buy Your Own Damn Tampons.

Thursday, November 14, 2002

I was just looking at this page, which describes itself as a "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness" It reminded me of one of my language pet peeves, the use of the phrase "I (he, she, we, it) could care less." The phrase is "I (et al) couldn't care less." If you could care less, it doesn't really convey the meaning that the phrase intends to convey, now does it?

There's a discussion of this at www.urbanlegends.com/language/could_care_less.html in which the author opines, in part, that the use of "I could care less" is sarcasm. I'm not sure I accept this wholesale. It might be used that way sometimes, but my experience when I've called people on the use of the phrase is that they honestly think they're using the correct phrase to mean that they couldn't care less about X rather than being sarcastic about it.

This author agrees with me.

Merriam-Webster says that "I could care less has an emphatically sarcastic ring to it when spoken." I suppose it does however I stand by my opinion that most people that use the phrase I could care less , sarcastic ring notwithstanding, are not intending to use it sarcastically. They're just...well...wrong.

That's my pet peeve of the day.

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Maybe it is the same year that something good happens to me also. The last month has been pretty damn good. Most fun I've had in years.

Anyway...any ladies out there reading this, go take a look at PickUpYourOwnDamnSocks.com. I think you'll get a kick out of it. I do.

Sunday, October 27, 2002

The Anaheim Angels won the World Series for the first time in 42 years. Wow. The Angels became a team the same year I was born. There's something cosmic about this that I can't quite put my finger on. Is this the year that something great will happen to me too?

Tuesday, October 15, 2002

Well, here I am again, and again I take note that I'm no better at this than I am at keeping a real live journal. Is my life that boring? Don't answer that.

Let's see...

I went to the Jimmy Buffett concert last week. Had a great time in the parking lot hanging out with friends and inside the concert listening to the music with a special friend. Everything else sucked about it. Getting into and out of the place was a joke. Every year this happens. Every year 20,000 people show up and want to get into the parking lot at noon. Every year the Irvine cops show up at 1:00 and run around like they've never seen such a thing and try to redirect all the cars. Why can't they figure out that this is going to happen and plan for it?

Getting out was just as big a joke. I paid $20 for "Premium" parking, which is closer to the gate. Ok, that was great, I got to my car quick...then I sat in my car for 20 minutes waiting for the line to move as I watched the people in general parking flow steadily out of the parking lot. After watching other "premium" parkers drive over the cones separating us from the general parkers, I decided to follow. Ok, ok, I didn't really drive over the cones, I went between them and was out in 3 minutes while the premium suckers just sat there.

Then the funny thing happened when I went back to work. One of the guys asked if I went to the concert and I said I did. He mentioned that there were a lot of freaks there, and I said that there sure were. Then he said something like, "all those old guys in grass skirts and coconut bras" !!! Those guys are my friends !!! I was thinking that the freaks were the 20 somethings that were listening to rap in the parking lot and probably have never heard any Buffett song other than Margaritaville or Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw. It all depends on your point of view, I suppose.

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

OK, I made it through September 11...I even went to a Memorial ceremony near where I work at lunchtime. Now, can anybody explain to me why I don't hear a damn thing about Osama Bin Laden anymore, but a great deal about Sadaam Hussein? What happened to the manhunt for Bin Laden? Why are we diggin up ten year old news in Iraq? Because we're being told that Hussein is on the verge of making "the big one"? Or because George Senior didn't finish the job? I'm sure I just don't see the big picture...because I'm just a liberal commie after all.

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

I had handed to me an interesting article by one of the guys at work today. The guys at work affectionately refer to me alternately as "bleeding heart liberal" or "Commie bastard" depending on their mood or the amount to which they, deep down, agree with me. The article can be found here. Of course, I realize (most of the time) when I am being baited, and this trap was so big you could have seen it from orbit. I just read through the article, smiled in a couple of places, and said nothing. That was too much for one of the guys who pushed the issue. I stated simply that I agreed with some, but certainly not all, of what the author was saying. This brought out the cries of "Commie Bastard", and my retort of "Blind Sheep".

That being said, I want to make it clear here, even though no one but me might ever read it, that I am still appalled by the events of September 11, 2001 (and I still can't bring myself to call it "nine eleven"). I even have a "Let's Roll" sticker on my vehicle and although I considered taking it off after reading the article, I have decided to leave it on because it still reminds me of the spirit, fortitude, and bravery of thousands of people and of the unnecessary suffering and death of many thousands more.

Maybe more tomorrow, the pieces of my mind are in disarray...

Wednesday, August 28, 2002

Apparently I'm no damn better at this online journal thing than I am at the old fashioned hand written kind. Let's see...what can I write about today? I'm working on a new web site that's taking most of my free time, although I am taking 5 days off over Labor Day to spend some time with the kid. We'll probably do Sea World and the beach, maybe Disneyland.

Friday, August 02, 2002

Just surfin' around and came upon the new Corona beer site at Corona.com. I must have wasted twenty minutes playing around there. The Lime football game was fun, and I found my all time favorite Corona commercial. Hint: go to the beach scene that has a fishing pole and tackle box and click on the pager on the table by the Corona bottle. This site is well done and a lot of fun. And it works...I want a Corona! Jeez...shouldn't I be working?

Wednesday, July 31, 2002

The annual Migration event is over. A great time was had by all and a respectable $18,000 will get split between our three charities. As always I'm a little down after the event. It's a syndrome known to me by the name I heard from my sister, "post con depression", which just means that you feel a little depressed after the hustle, bustle, and fun of a large event with a lot of friends is over. It'll pass...

Wednesday, July 24, 2002

Seems as though the Orange County District Attorney is "considering" the death penalty for Alejandro Avila, the suspect charged with the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of five year old Samantha Runnion. I'm no big supporter of the death penalty. Anyone that knows me will tell you that I'm way too liberal for that. But in reality, my opinion runs along the lines of: I don't believe that it's my (or any human's) decision whether someone lives or dies, but there are some cases where I think the person deserves to die for what they've done. This is a clear cut one of those cases.