Michael Brown

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 07:37:31 GMT

I'm not sure what's happened to fashion in the past few years, but somehow tapered jeans for women have come back in full force in Fall/Winter 2006 collections. These are the same hideous jeans that were oh so popular in the 80s that, until recently, have been a fashion faux pas. Typically, they're worn with shoes that resemble ballerina slippers and a polka dotted shirt. This look has especially been embraced by the hipster crowds but has branched out and is attracting all kinds of people. I have the same disgust for the leggings that were popular this past summer, but that's another rant. The tapered jeans are more commonly called "skinny" jeans and can be purchased from just about anywhere now. The reason I hate this style so much is because they make girls look as if they have sticks for legs and huge asses. Don't get me wrong, I love a girl who's well proportioned, but these jeans distort that into something very bad. Unless you're anorexic and have no hips, these jeans don't look good on you and they never will no matter how many of your friends tell you so. They simply aren't flattering to the female form. Every time I see someone wearing them I think about mom jeans. The 80s gave us some good music, but horrible fashions. What's next... acid washed jeans? Designers need to stop trying to rehash horrible styles and think up something new.

Fri, 05 May 2006 05:52:04 GMT

I just got an IM from someone saying they saw me on myspace. Here's the brief conversation:

sabnc99: you around man
me: ?
sabnc99: saw you on myspace man
me: do i know you?
sabnc99: nah man
sabnc99: would you be interested in a blow job man?
me: haha.
sabnc99: ight man sorry for the bother
me: no problem man.
me: you're the man now dog, man.
sabnc99: would you go for it man for $
me: i'm afraid not man.
sabnc99: ight

I'm wondering if it's someone I know. If it is, they got me. If it isn't, it's still pretty damned funny.

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 07:13:13 GMT

I'm absolutely in love with the new commercials from Mountain Dew for their MDX energy drink. The ad campaign started up during the super bowl a couple of weeks back and is being played all over TV now. Basically, the commercials feature nocturnal animals singing to 80s songs. I'm addicted to the "All Night Long" one. Check out benocturnal.com to see what I'm talking about.

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 06:15:27 GMT

So today is the last day of what has been the most cursed and blessed year of my life. It began with anger and depression, and now is ending with happiness and excitement. I've struggled with so many things this year; trying to live and be loved wore me down over and over. With this being only the third post of the year (sad), you wouldn't know anything about me getting that new bike I talked about previously and then getting hit by a car two weeks later. You wouldn't know about the classes I took this past semester or how I did in them, nor would you know about my new apartment I got a month ago. You wouldn't know about the relationships I attempted or the one that succeeded. I survived this year, somehow, with grit and determination. I gave up many times, yet I'm still alive and I'm still fighting.

So this is the list of those who have meant the most to me this year:

David - You're my best friend. You kicked my ass when I needed it and you stayed with me when times got tough.

Tasha - Somehow, even when I was at my worst, you believed and had faith in me. Thank you for being the stronger one.

Demi - You listened to me bitch way too much. You always had a loving heart.

Matt - You were a hell of a good roommate and friend.

Rob - Regardless of what happened this semester, you were a great friend in the spring and summer. I haven't forgotten that.

There have been others, but those are the ones who played the biggest roles. There is one more person, however; A girl by the name of Amelia. While she was in Italy in June, we'd talk online and every week it seemed as if I'd tell her about how I met the perfect girl and every week the name would be different. When she came home in the beginning of July we began talking on the phone and by the middle of the month I went over to her house to see her. I suppose the rest is history because we've been together ever since. The 22nd of July marked wonderful change in my life. Every other relationship this year seemed completely trivial and for once, it felt so right. I was searching for love the entire time, yet when I finally stopped looking, we met. I suppose that's how love works. To you Amelia; I love you so much. You opened my eyes and allowed me to not be afraid.

My life is stable right now. I'm hopeful 2006 will be less turbulent than 2005. My goals are to get back into cycling full force and stay strong. I need to do well in school and I need to not let the small things bother me. Many times this past year I've been someone I'm not proud of for various reasons, yet I learned so much about myself and my weaknesses. The steps I've taken backwards to look at who I truly am and the leaps I've made foreword have been worth it. For those I've hurt and those who have hurt me, it's water under the bridge as far as I'm concerned. 2005 is now the past and there it will stay. As time fades, I believe the good things will stand out, however. I found love, even when I had given up. I found determination. I found the beauty in life.

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 08:12:29 GMT

So much has been going on this month and at the same time nothing has been going on. I moved into my new dorm at the end of May to start the first summer session. I've got my own room and it's about 100 times better than my previous dorm so I can't complain. I live in a suite and have 3 roommates, but I have no idea who they are. I just sit in my room all day but then again they aren't very social either so I'm probably not missing out on much. I'm currently taking Elementary Spanish 1 (extremely easy) and Politics in Film. Both seem to be going well and there's only 1 week left of class. The summer doesn't even feel like it's started for me so I'm excited about going home and not having to do anything. I was in my first race a couple of weeks ago and came in a pitiful last place, but if you can't be the best at winning you might as well be the best at losing. Still, I'm training harder each day. Speaking of cycling, I'm really close to buying a new bike. Mine just isn't going to take me much farther.

Now on to more important things, I met a new girl. Her name's Ashlee and she's just amazing. How she's been able to crack this outer facade I put up and see the real me is hard to figure out, but when I'm with her I'm not ashamed. I don't feel like I'm being judged. We sat out in her car for 5 hours last Monday just talking. It's so hard to find someone you can relate to that well. Did I mention she's beautiful, too? Her birthday is this Monday so to celebrate we're going out to eat and then to see Gym Class Heroes with David and Rob. I'm really looking forward to it because food is good, music is good, and being with good people is wonderful.

What would a post be without some sort of talk of drugs? I stopped taking the Prozac because, well it has some serious sexual side effects. Impotence isn't fun and solving one problem only to cause another one isn't fun either. I'm supposed to be taking Zoloft now, but I'm worried it'll cause the same thing; I've not read good things about it. My psychiatrist told me that she could prescribe Viagra for me if I needed. At 21, I'm not going to take Viagra. The idea made me laugh a little, though.

How about some random stuff?

Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006

This is just craziness. Never in a million years would I have guessed that Apple would move to a more PC platform. I'm actually excited by the possibility that I could dual boot OS X with Windows to play games. Maybe it'll also bring hardware prices down.

Michael Jackson's Innocent

Last week Michael Jackson was found innocent on all charges of child molestation. Normally, I would be on the side of a child accusing someone of molestation, but when it comes to Michael Jackson things are a bit different. This case was essentially the same back in the early 90s when he was accused and ended up paying an out-of-court settlement. Michael Jackson has money and it seems to be an easy to way to get rich by accusing him of something that wouldn't be too hard to believe. No matter how screwed up he is in his head, he didn't molest the boy and I'm glad the jury came to that decision. I'll bet that the family files a civil suit against him in order to still have a chance at getting money. They'll probably win that or he'll just give them money to be quiet. Michael needs to go back to making good music and hire someone to tell him how he should act in public.

CNN

CNN.com now has free video. This might not seem like a major thing but a few years ago they switched to charging for it and it's nice to see that being gone. You might have to be a news buff to appreciate that, though.

Damn, it's already 4am. I really need to go to sleep. I think I'll drive back home to Winston-Salem and see my dad. After all, it is Father's Day.

Fri, 06 May 2005 07:09:37 GMT

Almost five months without an update. So much has gone on with my life since then, I'm not even sure where to begin. I moved into my dorm at UNC Charlotte shortly after flying home from New Hampshire after Christmas break. I immediatly fell in love with this place. I met some cool people and everything looked to be going good for me. At the same time, I lost touch with some major parts of my life and I called it quits with Tasha. I was looking for something more in a relationship and even now after everything that's happened I'm not sure what that is. So just what has happened? Well I met a girl named Rachel who seemed to be completely different from me yet at the same time very similar. The "fresh" feeling of a new person was amazing but at the same time caused a number of problems. Starting up a relationship so close to the ending of the previous one lead to a lot of trust issues. I stopped going to a couple of my classes and as a result have failed them. My other ones seem to be fine, though, and I've changed my major from Business to Political Science and Anthropology. At the beginning of March I was involved in a very bad cycling accident which left me with multiple broken bones in my left wrist/hand and ripped ligaments. Two surgeries later and I'm still working on getting back to normal, but at least I'm back on the bike. Thank God for my bike too because it seems to be the one thing I have that allows me to just be myself. Over this semester I've also had a major problem with depression. The problem's always been in the back of my mind, but lately it seems to be the only thing I think about. I've been seeing a psychologist for the past month and today I saw a psychiatrist from whom I was prescribed prozac and risperdal (antipsychotic medicine of all things). I hope they work for me because I feel as if i'm at the very end. Nothing has worked out for me this semester. I have met a few supportive people through it all, however. Needless to say, Rachel and I aren't together for better or for worse. She's seemed to move on quite easily although that appears to be a reaccuring theme for girls in my life. To her I'm no more than a fading memory. I lived the past two months constantly under the influence of oxycontin and vicodin. The numb feeling seemed very comforting at times, but I'm done with it now. I need for things to change. I want to escape all of this. I want to be able to get on my bike and ride forever. Tasha and I have began a friendship again. I'm so confused with life. Perhaps we all go through times of extreme testing just to see how well we can last. I can't remember a more difficult time in my life than now, though. With all of this being said, I'm back to posting on here. I have to get my feelings out somewhere.

Sat, 01 Jan 2005 01:01:04 GMT

As I sit here with around four hours until 2004 comes to an end, I'm stuck thinking about this year and how it's impacted my life. Over and over again, this year has been chock full of disappointments and sadness for me. It's also been chock full of extreme happiness and excitement. I started the year out excited and happy because I finally was a student at NC State doing what I'd always wanted to do, Computer Engineering. Sadly, after about a week of class, I quickly realized I hated engineering and had made a huge mistake. Losing $5000 for a pointless semester wasn't exactly what I consider fun. Howard Dean lost to John Kerry in the Democratic primaries because he was supposedly "unelectable." Funny how that turned out. In the summer, David's dad died of cancer. Words can't tell you how much that's affected me. My car's engine died when the head gasket blew which cost $1600 to fix. I started classes this past semester, but dropped all but Ethics even though I had A's in all my classes. Being back at the community college made me feel even more like a failure, though. I ended up with an A in Ethics. I managed to get 3 credit hours worth of classes completed in 2004. In November, I felt like I was shot when Bush was re-elected as president. I have to live through 4 more years of his crap? There's been other small bumps in the road of life but those are the major ones. On the other side, I started riding my bike this summer after Lance Armstrong won his 6th Tour de France title. I learned a lot about life and not to worry about the small things because, really, they don't matter. I don't have to deal with NC State anymore and I easily transferred to UNC Charlotte. I was able to spend another year with my girlfriend, Tasha. She's the one who gives me the strength to continue on and have a purpose for being here.

I had to experience this year because it's made me stronger. I'm able to deal with more and rise up above the bad. I'm truly happier now, having gone through all that I have. Life throws us lessons about it when we least want to learn. I'm glad it happens that way.

Thu, 23 Dec 2004 23:13:56 GMT

Last Thursday I flew up to New York with David to see my girlfriend, Tasha on Long Island, and spend some time in the city. While there, we went to the Statue of Liberty, toured most of Manhattan, and spent way too much money. I've been to NYC a number of times before but this time I actually acted like a tourist. I felt like I was on a vacation. David ended up spending around $800 on new clothes but they were for good things. We found a leather Versace bomber jacket for $189 at Century 21 and it's original price was $1630. I ended up buying a pair of pants, dress shirt, and velvet blazer. It snowed one of the nights we were up there which was nice considering down here in North Carolina we hardly get anything in the winter. We flew home Tuesday morning. After dropping us off at the airport, Tasha drove home from Long Island to New Hampshire. Luckily for me, I'll be flying there Saturday for Christmas and then come home January 6. I move into my dorm at UNC Charlotte on January 7.</p>

In NYC, you see a lot of really weird things, but this tops it off for me. I brought my camcorder with me and when I saw this guy standing there in the middle of Times Square with a sign that read "452 Lovemaking Positions $1" I had to record some video of it. Here's a screen capture from the segment I got on tape. It made me laugh. I wonder if he actually made any money that night. I probably should've given him $1 for having the balls to stand outside holding a sign like that.

Tue, 14 Dec 2004 09:38:50 GMT

Before you read any of this post you should probably know that I just lost about an hour's worth of writing so most of what I'm retyping will be a slimmed down version of the old post I had. I'll try to control my anger.

I had a good flight home from New Hampshire. Having the time away from work and the worries of the world really helped me get my head on straight. Speaking of work, I wasn't fired for not being there the day after Thanksgiving. I had a meeting with the store manager and she wrote me up and gave me a warning to not do it again but other than that I wasn't in any trouble. I've also been working around 30 hours a week so I'm guessing none of the managers were as mad at me as I'd assumed. On a bad note, I hit my sales manager's car the other night when we were leaving the store. I thought she was pulling out onto the main road and so I let my car roll forward and looked to the left to make sure no traffic was coming. By the time I looked forward again, I saw she had stopped and I wasn't able to stop. Luckily, I only hit her going about 5mph and the only damage was a 6" crack in her bumper. Nothing even happened to my car. She told me that she didn't even care about the bumper and that if I pay to have her oil changed and a hose replaced we can call it even. That'll come out much cheaper than replacing her bumper.

The day after I flew home from New Hampshire I went to the DMV and got a new driver's license. The one I had said "Under 21" and the picture of me is less than flattering. Most people hate their driver's license photos, but the one on my new license doesn't look so bad. Below are my driver's license photos over the years. The one on the left is me on my 16th birthday. The one in the middle, which people say looks like a pedophile, is me on my 18th birthday and the one on the right is the one that was just taken. You can tell I've really gone from geek to chic (joke) in the past few years. My hair is really long now and probably needs to be cut, but you can see how it looks when it's short in the middle picture so I'm thinking long is here to stay for a while.</p>

I had orientation at UNC Charlotte this past weekend. My schedule isn't that great but I love the campus and location. I'm sure I'll be much happier there than when I was in Raleigh at NC State. I'll be majoring in both Business Administration and Political Science. That way I can still take classes which I'm very passionate about (politics) and also get a degree which will get me a job (business). Perhaps I'll be corrupt enough to be successful in both business and politics.

On Thursday, my friend David and I are flying up to New York to see Tasha and act like tourists in NYC. He's never been before so it should be fun going to all the major attractions. We fly back the following Tuesday and then I'll turn right around and fly to New Hampshire the next Saturday for Christmas. I'm trying my best to keep US Airways in business and my bank account empty.

If you do nothing more today, watch these crack-induced cartoons. My favorites are the "salad finger" ones.

Scott Peterson, was given the death penalty today. I'm not sure what will be worse for him, knowing he'll die soon or being raped by other inmates. I know I shouldn't wish harm on anyone, but if you have a very attractive wife who's pregnant with your child, and you murder her and then show no emotion about it, you probably do need to die.

I think I've touched on all the major points I wanted to touch on. I really feel that I've just had no time to really do the things I need to get done. That'll all change soon, though. It looks like I'll be pulling an all nighter here. I've got to be at work in little over three hours and I've still got an Ethics paper to write for class at 12:30pm. G'night.

Sat, 27 Nov 2004 04:56:13 GMT

I turned 21 years old today and it seems the major age milestones in my life are over except for maybe 40 and 50. It only seemed like yesterday when I turned 16 and got my driver's license. At 18, I gained the ability to vote, and now at 21, I can legally become an alcoholic. I went out to eat with Tasha's family today in celebration and then went back to her house and watched a documentary on Ansel Adams. We never made it to the mall to go shopping, but that's probably for the best considering that most likely would've been a living hell. Hitting 21 has really made me think about where I am in life and where I want to be. I don't feel this old yet I know the years to follow will come sooner and sooner. I wonder where I'll be in another 21 years. Regardless, I'm grateful that I've made it to 21.

Fri, 26 Nov 2004 02:28:15 GMT

I hope everyone's had a good Thanksgiving so far. I'm currently in Nashua, New Hampshire at my girlfriend's house. I flew up this past Tuesday and surprisingly had no problems. Usually my flights get canceled or delayed and my luggage ends up lost. As for today, I woke up and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and then had an insane amount of food. I'm still in pain from it all. Tomorrow's my 21st birthday and also the busiest shopping day of the year. I'll be getting up extremely early and to buy myself some birthday presents. Since tomorrow's the busiest shopping day of the year, nobody was allowed time off where I work (OfficeMax) so naturally none of my managers were happy I came up here. I actually think I'm fired because of it. I talked to my general manager yesterday and she told me to come in to talk to her next Tuesday about it. I won't be thrilled about losing my job, but I do think it's a bit sad that we, as a society, value selling people pointless crap more than being with family and friends. I told them, before I left, that even if I were in town, I wouldn't work on my 21st birthday. After all, you only turn 21 once in your life and spending that day in OfficeMax dealing with pissed off customers isn't how I'd like to experience the first day of my legal adulthoodness. I'll just have to deal with whatever happens. We have a month to go until Christmas is here and then the depression will set in. I wish I could get as excited about it as I did when I was a kid. Waiting for Santa to come was the best feeling. Oh well, enjoy the rest of Thanksgiving and try not to get in fights with people while you're out shopping tomorrow.

Fri, 12 Nov 2004 17:36:26 GMT

On November 9, the best Internet browser reached 1.0 status. In case you're living on some other planet and have never heard of Firefox, let me enlighten you. This browser works a lot like Internet Explorer, only it loads pages faster, blocks pop ups, has tabbed browsing, takes up 4.5 megs of disk space, and is much more secure and stable. Firefox has gone through a number of name changes. A few years ago it was called Phoenix and then changed to Firebird. About half a year ago it was changed to Firefox because of legal issues. It's branched off of the Mozilla browser which is a browser/email combination and Mozilla started from the old Netscape browser back in the late 90s. Really, all you need to know is that Firefox works and works well. Once you use it, there's no going back to Internet Explorer. Download Firefox and give it a shot. You won't be disappointed.

Fri, 05 Nov 2004 14:59:11 GMT

After almost two days, I think I've come to accept that Bush beat Kerry and this time, he did it with a legit number of votes. I don't think I can possibly state how devastated and angry I've been because of this but I'll try to explain how I'm feeling and what we should do in the next four years.

In January of 2003, the Democratic party was so afraid to stand by its beliefs, it went along with everything Bush and the Republicans were saying and doing. For the most part this meant standing behind them in support of a war against Iraq. I was strongly against any kind of war against Iraq and the only person to stand up and be a democrat was former governor of Vermont, Howard Dean. From the day he addressed the Democratic National Committee, I just knew he'd become the next president. When he announced he would be running for president I finally felt as if there were someone I could actively support and stand behind. Every other Democrat running against him in the primaries failed in comparison to Dean's strong campaign and strong support. It seemed as if nobody had a chance against him for the nomination. The media came out strong against Dean, however. It's amazing how fast they can turn on you. There were reports about how he was a loose cannon and couldn't be trusted. This is where John Kerry came into the picture and became the front runner in the race for the Democratic Presidential candidate. Kerry eventually began to use statements from Dean as his own opinions and the media dubbed him "electable" and Dean "too liberal." I actually noticed a huge amount of Republicans who supported Howard Dean so I knew this wasn't true. Unfortunately for most of the country, they saw Dean as having no chance against Bush and thus, chose Kerry. I was mad then, just as I am now. My guy lost when victory seemed so certain.

I wrote a bit about Kerry when Dean announced he would end his campaign explaining my feelings then about the situation. In that post I made my feelings quite clear. This is an excerpt:</p>

February 19, 2004
Right now I'm angry. I'm angry because Kerry is corrupt and doesn't represent the same things Dean does. Kerry has voted to back Bush on the issues which have ruined our country. I honestly can't believe Kerry has the balls to stand up and say anything against Bush and the war. He voted for it. He's no better than Bush in my eyes and there is no way I can support him. I just want to get up and tell Kerry to stop with the boring political rhetoric he spills out all the time and be honest.

I remember telling people that I might as well vote for Bush because Kerry had no chance against him. A couple of months later I realized I had to stand behind Kerry for the greater good of the country. I replaced my Howard Dean bumper sticker with one for John Kerry and continued the fight against Bush.

Kerry seemed to do well in the campaign and really saw his numbers jump after defeating Bush in the recent debates. Right before the election we found out that the FBI was going to investigate Halliburton and its ties with Cheney to see if it received unfair consideration for reconstructing Iraq. We also saw more soldiers being killed there. All the polls were also on Kerry's side. I, as well as the Democratic party, felt very confident that we would win. I stayed up all night watching the results from the election on Tuesday in amazement. In all, the Democrats, lost seats in the Senate, Congress, and even lost to Bush for the Presidency. When all was said and done, I felt like I had been shot. It was the exact same feeling I felt back in February with Howard Dean. How could this have happened? Judging from the polls, those who voted for Bush believed Bush had better values than Kerry. Eleven states banned gay marriage as well. All this while our economy is in shambles and we've alienated ourselves from the world with our arrogance in going to war with Iraq alone. What happened is that the evangelical Christians came out in full force behind Bush and most all Republicans too. People vote for Bush because they think he'd be a nice guy to go have a beer with and for a lot of people, that's all they care about. Excuse me, but what the hell does that have to do with being a good president? I will say that I don't think Kerry was that good of a candidate and didn't connect with people on a personal level very well. He always came off too robotic and, in all honesty, did seem to change his political feelings based on the polls. I still think he would've done a much better job than Bush and I considered him more of a tool for the Democrats than anything else. Now, we're all in a very sticky situation because Bush can essentially do whatever he wants in the next four years with no hesitation. He doesn't have to worry about being reelected and he has the Republican Senate and Congress to help him out. The statement "Is the evil you know worse than the evil you don't know?" suits this election very well.

What can we do now? We need to think about the reasons we lost and what we can do to change. We can't give up. We must educate people more so now than ever. We have to continue to fight for what we believe in and not give up. We can never give up. If you haven't been active before, become active now. Do something. Our goal should be to slow down and possibly stop the damage Bush will cause this country. I'm actually thinking of running for a public office in possibly four years. I can't escape my dedication to a political life. It's something I have to be a part of and now, I'm even more determined than ever. We shall overcome.

Thu, 28 Oct 2004 23:43:46 GMT

Quite a bit has happened in the past month and I'm sorry I haven't posted anything up until now; I suppose I've just been too lazy. Now, however, I'll give a little insight into what's been going on. My last post focused on the first debate between Kerry and Bush. Kerry went on to beat Bush in the next two elections as well. John Edwards was also successful in his debate against Dick Cheney. Within the past few days, it's come to light that around 370 tons of explosives are missing in Iraq. This has become a big issue John Kerry is pushing because it shows how poorly the Bush administration is handling Iraq. I was part of a debate yesterday at school put on by my ethics professor in which I represented the Democratic Party. The guy representing the Republican Party came in with no notes and thus, presented no real arguments making him look quite unprepared (which he was). The debate focused around Iraq and its impact on this election. The only real argument the other guy had was that Saddam killed his own people and gassed the Kurds. This might hold up if we were living in 1991, but I was quick to remind the audience that the reason we attacked Iraq was because they were supposed to have weapons of mass destruction and would use them to kill us all. In our closing statements, the other guy admitted that he wasn't a good debater and that neither was Bush, but that Bush was the candidate who would keep us safe from terrorists. That made me smile.

About two weeks ago I drove up to Long Island to see my girlfriend, Tasha. The drive didn't even seem to take long but I did get lost in Queens trying to get to Hofstra University, where she goes to school. I went to IKEA for the first time in my life. That was one of the best shopping experiences I've ever had. I'd like to furnish a house with nothing but IKEA furniture because their stuff looks so good. We also took the train into New York City and we went to the usual tourist spots: ground zero, empire state building, times square. While walking past the NBC Studios, we noticed a few photographers standing outside and a rolled up red carpet. I asked one of them what was going on and I was told that Usher would be having a birthday party later that night. Tasha and I stayed there and got to see such celebrities as Donald Trump, Pharell from N.E.R.D, Naomi Campbell, Starr Jones, Puffy's assistant Farnesworth Bently, Usher himself, Patti LaBelle, and more. We had a pretty action packed day there. I also bought some Dolce & Gabbana jeans at Century 21 for $60 when they'd normally be $200. I figured what they hell and got them just to say I have some jeans that cost more than $15 from JC Penney. The drive home seemed a bit longer than the drive up because I ran into horrible traffic around Washington D.C. because I was stupid and stayed in I-95. I managed to get home fine, though.

Last, but not least, the Boston Red Sox won the world series last night for the first time in 87 years. Maybe next year the Cubs will get their chance.

Thu, 28 Oct 2004 23:42:52 GMT

Who saw the debates last night? I kind of figured Bush would look like the idiot he is, but he was still able to amaze me. If you watched, you weren't alone. Around 55 million people watched the debates and I really hope that if anyone was previously undecided, they aren't anymore. Bush came out and, once Kerry started speaking, became visibly angry and agitated. He just couldn't come up with anything to put on the table. Even though the 9/11 Commission has proven Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, Bush continues to believe Iraq did and even used that in the debate. I'm glad Kerry nailed him on all of that. There was one point where Bush interrupted to make a statement and then just stood there for a good 3 to 4 seconds in silence but it seemed like an hour. I'm just speechless because so many people have written off Kerry as able to win on November 2. Now I think that this is really the turning point for the Kerry campaign. I'll be honest; I was seriously having doubts about the chances for Kerry but after last night, I'm re-energized.

The past few days have been quite explosive in the Middle East. Yesterday, at least 34 children were killed by a car bomb along with 10 adults in Iraq. Today, there's been a bombing at a mosque in Pakistan which has left 25 dead. There's also some serious fighting going on right now Iraq's Sunni Triangle as well as the Gaza Strip. According to Bush, the world is safer though.

If, by some odd chance, you missed the debates last night or you want to read over everything you can check out the transcript.

There's a new group made up of family members of soldiers who have died in Iraq coming out against Bush named Real Voices. The commercial they've made is being shown in showdown states and a few days ago I saw it on TV here in North Carolina. It shows a mother talking about her son who's died and her pain. At least the left 527 groups make truthful ads whereas the republicans have lies like the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

The next debates are on Tuesday between Cheney and Edwards so that should be interesting. Hopefully Edwards will be able to perform as well as Kerry did last night. There's not really anything to worry about though. :-)

Sat, 25 Sep 2004 05:42:35 GMT

I bought a Plymouth Sundance for $150 today from a doctor who flies into the airport my mom works at. Amazingly, it runs quite well and only has 120,000 miles. I'm hoping to be able to resell the car for around $600 or maybe more so that I can offset the cost of my recent repairs to my own car which ended up being around $1600. New engines aren't cheap. This thing is so hideously ugly though. Why anyone would've actually paid $10,000 (msrp new) in 1991 for this thing is beyond me. I should really take some pictures so you can get the full effect of it. Regardless, I got one hell of a good deal so I can't really complain.

Tomorrow will be hell at OfficeMax since we're having our inventory counted. For those who have worked in retail, you know what kind of a pain they can be. I went in tonight and tried to pre-count a few aisles so that I might be able to go home a little early tomorrow night. I'm scheduled till 11:30pm but I'm sure my manager will want me to stay later. He called me today and asked if I'd be willing to come in at 4am in the morning tomorrow. Perhaps it's sad, but the only time I'm ever up at 4am is when I haven't gone to sleep. There's no chance of me actually waking up at that time.

That leads me into why I really can't work in the morning. I'll be out canvassing neighborhoods to help register people to vote and to educate them on why they need to vote for the Kerry/Edwards ticket. I'm not even going to go into how shocked I am that Bush is ahead in the polls right now, but I will say polls can be quite wrong. Hopefully I won't piss off any God-fearing, gay-hating, Southern Baptist republicans tomorrow. I'm also looking forward to meeting some good people who share similar political views. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Finally, if anyone still doesn't have a Gmail account and would like one, I've got plenty of invitations that I can send out. Just post a comment with the email address you'd like the invite to be sent to. It's hard to think that I was able to sell the invitations for around $80-$100 back in May/June and now I'm giving them away.

Mon, 20 Sep 2004 05:22:12 GMT

I'm probably being completely selfish with what I'm about to say, but I have to say it anyway. Many of you probably know about the, now famous, yellow wristbands people are wearing that say "livestrong." What many of you might not know is what they represent. Let's rewind to 1997 when a professional cyclist by the name of Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular, lung, and brain cancer. At that time, he was at the top of his career and was destined for greatness. He was given around a 10% chance of survival, at best, but miraculously was able to fight and actually lived. He then created the Lance Armstrong Foundation which raises money for cancer research.

Now let's fast forward to the beginning of July of this year when the Tour de France was starting up. Lance was attempting to win his 6th Tour victory which had actually never been done before. For this symbolic event the Lance Armstrong Foundation created wristbands that said "livestrong" on them. They were sold at a few bicycle shops for $1 and the money raised from selling them went for cancer research. If you've kept up with what's gone on in my life for the past few months you know that I've dealt with a good friend's father passing away from cancer. He was diagnosed around the same time the wristbands began to be sold so I went and bought one for me, my friend, and his father. Now I mentioned the wristbands in an earlier post and that was before they really got popular. Now you can't go anywhere without seeing someone wearing them. The first thought would be "how great" because there's lots of money coming in for a great cause, but sadly, the real reason many people are wearing them is because they've become a fashion item. It used to be that to have one of the wristbands you had to actually be a fan of cycling and know of a bike shop to buy them at. I'm not sure where people are getting them, but they've become quite the thing to have and they're going for $10 to $15 on ebay these days. I'm just getting very annoyed with people saying to me "your bracelet's cute, where'd you get it?" While at work I noticed a girl around 6 years old wearing one on her ankle and that made me feel pretty angry. Perhaps I'm putting too much importance in them, but I have a personal reason to attach so much meaning to them. I want people to know what exactly they mean and the history behind them before they just put it on because everybody else has one.

With all that being said, I am glad that the foundation is getting so much money because cancer research is incredibly important, but I want the wristbands to be worn for the right reasons. I even ordered 10 more of them earlier today so that I can give them out to family members. I guess it bothers me because I've followed Lance back from as early as 1994 when I first saw him in the Tour DuPont race. I remember being in 6th grade in 1995 making a poster that said "Lance Armstrong -- Cycling Champion" and under it having bull horns to symbolize him being from Texas. It's like when you have a sports team you cheer for and when they're bad, you're the only fan but when they start to win, everybody jumps on the bandwagon.

Regardless, if you do want one for the right reason by all means head over to www.laf-store.org and order a pack of 10 at least. The wait time can be up to a month, but there's really no other places to buy them except on ebay and that's just ethically wrong to do. I hope that all this interest and publicity will bring the sport of cycling to more people here in the US.

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 14:48:06 GMT

The last few weeks have been quite eventful for me. I should probably start back three Saturday's ago when I was driving to the next town over for a large group bike ride which was about 45 miles long. Around halfway there, my car jerked a bit and then an alarm started sounding and I noticed my engine was overheating. To make a long story short, my head gasket blew and oil flooded my radiator. Basically everything else in the engine was ruined too. Now over two weeks later I still don't have my car and the final cost is expected to be around $1500 because most everything has had to be replaced. My faith in humanity was restored a bit when someone else going on the bike ride picked me up, with my bike, and took me the rest of the distance. My dad was able to get the car back home. Tasha also flew home the Monday after my car went to crap.

About a week and a half ago, I decided I needed to get a job and noticed that the local OfficeMax was hiring. Forgetting my extreme hatred of all that are office supplies and the three years I slaved away at Staples, I went in and talked to the manager. He gave me an application, interviewed me, then offered me a job starting at $8.25 an hour. That's pretty good money for a part time job in North Carolina, so I took it. The people who work there are nice and it's not much different than Staples, so there isn't much to learn. I suppose it's better to have a job like this than in a field I've never worked in before such as food service. At least I'm working now.

What would a post here be without some sort of political talk? Well last week I wore my "bush is an idiot" shirt to my accounting class and when I walked in the teacher said "why are you wearing that shirt?" I replied, "Because it's the truth." Then she told me that she was amazed I hadn't been arrested for wearing it, so I tried to explain that we all have the right to free speech. I even went on to explain why I think he's an idiot. Since I live in the south and this was brought to the attention of the entire class, you can probably imagine the comments that were hurled my way by other people in the class. Some blonde girl sitting beside me said that I needed to be punched. There was a 40 something year old lady in the class who even tried to debate me, but when she started talking about how all Arabs want to kill Americans and how the Islam religion preaches killing Christians, I just stopped listening to the ignorance she was spewing. I asked her if she knew what the crusades were and she said she didn't. That's really dangerous. I contacted my Ethics teacher about what my Accounting teacher had said and he forwarded my email to some HR guy. Then the HR guy had a meeting with the accounting teacher about how people are free to wear what they want. The next class she was really pissed at me because I got her into trouble. She told me the shirt offended her and that she had never seen anything like that in her life. Perhaps she should watch news from one of the many protests that have gone on against bush and she'll see a lot worse than my shirt. The irony in all of this is that she looks like a lesbian. She has a butch haircut, lives alone, and talks about her dog all the time -- that doesn't exactly scream straight female. I'm stereotyping, though, and that's a bad thing to do.

I'm sure I could continue on about how letting the assault weapons ban expire is a serious failure of the republicans in congress and Bush, but I don't think I will. I would just like to know how they're all for a "war on terrorism" but they aren't for banning military style weapons for civilians. The kids in Columbine High School weren't killed with little pistols.

As of writing this, 59 people have been killed in Iraq today because of car bombs. Don't you just love how we liberated the people of Iraq? That smell of freedom and democracy sure is sweet.

Sun, 05 Sep 2004 01:17:29 GMT

Today has been an eventful day for the gaming world. The long awaited demo for Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault was released and the Tribes: Vengeance beta is now open to everyone.

Download the Medal of honor: Pacific Assault demo.

Sign up for the Tribes: Vengeance beta and then download it.

Be warned that both files are rather large. Medal of Honor's demo is around 550MB and Tribes is around 470MB. I think both are worth the wait in download times, though.

Fri, 27 Aug 2004 18:46:26 GMT

So two Russian airplanes were blown out of the sky Tuesday and it didn't make much news; now explosive materials have been found in the wreckage. It still makes no news. I realize the general population of the United States doesn't understand who the Chechen Rebels are, but what really bothers me is that in a time of "fighting" "terrorists" we are complacent when it comes to all "terrorists" who aren't Arabs. To America, it seems, two Russian planes being blown up isn't as important as two American planes being flown into the World Trade Center. Oh and those aren't the only two planes being hijacked. Nobody cares about African planes either.

I noticed on the news this morning, before coming to class, that John Kerry is starting to slip in the polls. Regardless of all the bad news coming out, people are still supporting Bush? I, seriously, can't understand it. Actually, the polls are only made up of 800 people or so. Think about that. The media is able to skew the mass population's beliefs and morale based on 800 people's opinions. Yesterday, it was revealed that 1.3 million more people dropped into the poverty level in 2003 and 1.4 million became uninsurred during that time. Today, Bush admits he screwed up on the Iraq issue, and yet he still gains in the polls? At least the Olympic Committee doesn't like him. I think there should be a test people have to take in order to vote. Because with the horrible economy and poor quality of life, you'd have to be an idiot to vote for Bush.

The Republican National Convention will be starting up Monday, but the delegates are already being greated by protests. I really wish I could be there for it.

A Stem-Cell research facility was bombed in Boston. God hates those crazy scientists anyway.

And finally... I really need to move to Canada.

Tue, 24 Aug 2004 02:55:00 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/08/23/walmart.wedding.ap/index.html

I really don't know what to say about this. Some people must really enjoy being white trash.

Sun, 22 Aug 2004 21:32:42 GMT

The Fall 2004 semester starts up for me tomorrow. I'm really not looking forward to having class everyday again. Luckily, since I'm changing majors to marketing/advertising, my schedule is quite a bit easier than the schedules I had for engineering. I've got Intro to Microeconomics, Statistics, and American Womens Studies on Monday-Wednesday-Friday then on Tuesday-Thursday I've got Intro to Ethics and Intro to Accounting. Pretty simple as far as I can figure. I haven't bought any of the books I'll need, but then again, I usually don't. I learn from listening to lectures. I'm really looking forward to the Spring 2005 semester when I'll be at UNC Charlotte.

I finally bought the Trek 1000 about two weeks ago as soon as the 2005 series came in. The 2005 is much better than the 2004 so the wait was worth it. It cost $549 from my local bike shop, but the MSRP from Trek is $629 so I got a pretty good deal. It also rides really well. The first day I took it out I got stuck in a rain storm but every day after that I've had beautiful weather. I've got some pretty nasty sunburns though. This whole cycling thing is quite addictive. I'm already looking at upgrades for my bike. Speaking of cycling, American cyclist Tyler Hamilton won the gold medal at the Athens 2004 Olympics in the men's time trials.

My girlfriend, Tasha, flew down from New Hampshire a little over a week ago. It's been great to see her again after almost two months. Yesterday, we went to Natural Bridge in Virginia with my parents. It's this huge natural formation carved out by the river running through it over millions of years. Thomas Jefferson once owned it and George Washington carved out his initials on the side of it. Shortly after we got there, it started raining pretty hard but as with most summer showers, the rain quickly ended. After walking the trail through Natural Bridge, we toured the wax museum which showed historical events of the area. We then left and went out to eat. On the ride home, we were treated to one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen.

On a more somber note, you might remember me talking about how my friend's father had stomach cancer. About a week and a half ago, he passed away. He was quite brave and I hope he's in a better place.

Fri, 06 Aug 2004 01:06:26 GMT

Doom 3 was released this week after 4 years of developement by id software. It was leaked online before the official release and at a time 70,000 people were downloading it. That isn't surprising considering so many people have been waiting for this game. The price of Doom 3 is also higher than other new games by $5. That being said, the hype was all true. This game is simply amazing. I'm currently about halfway through the game and have loved every bit of it. It's also one of the longer first person shooters I've played. I did run into a few problems initially, though, since I use Windows Server 2003 Web Edition as my main operating system. I've got all the server software turned off and performance for my system is much better than when I run Windows XP. The problem is that the installer won't allow you to install unless you've got Windows 2000 or XP. In this mini-guide I'll tell you how to get passed that problem and introduce you to some cheats and tweaks to get the game running better.

Read More...

Sat, 31 Jul 2004 16:37:43 GMT

We all know that Apple Computers is possibly the greatest company to ever exist, but if you need a good reason this is about as good as I can find. I'm a very political person and Apple seems to be a very political company. Usually this union wouldn't work, but pretty much all Apple users are quite liberal so it isn't much of a problem. An example is when Apple appointed former vice president Al Gore to its board of directors early last year. Couple that with the fact that Co-Founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, is a tech advisor for John Kerry and you'll see what I mean. When former president Bill Clinton's book came out earlier this year, the audiobook version was advertised on the front page of Apple's iTunes Music Store and a few days Apple began giving away the 9/11 Commission Report in audiobook format. Now Apple has put up the first two nights of this week's Democratic National Convention for download at no cost. Rock on Apple.

Wed, 28 Jul 2004 05:05:03 GMT

july is coming to a close, but i'm not sure i'll ever forget it. there's been some good memories and there's been some bad. i suppose i'll start off with the good.

GOOD:

on sunday, lance armstrong won his 6th tour de france. nobody's ever been able to do that. i've been following cycling since around 1994 and watched him win during the tour dupont's that took place along the east coast in the mid 90s. i even got a team motorola water bottle from lance in the 96 tour dupont. he's been a great inspiration for his determination to continue after surviving cancer and coming back to be so successful. i've somewhat slacked off in cleaning my room out, but i haven't completely stopped. i've just been occupied with more important things (read below in the bad section). i'm planning on buying a trek 1000 so i can ride in a charity event in september. that should be fun. oh and the democratic national convention started monday. my cat cisco somehow managed to get outside sunday night and i found him in the basement earlier today. my dad and i were able to get him out and he's safely inside again. we were really worried for a while.

BAD:

a friend of mine's father was having stomach pains and went to the doctor to get it checked out. turns out it was stomach cancer and he's been to the hospital and is now at the hospice house in town. essentially the cancer had spread so much that the doctors couldn't really do much. so for the past few weeks i've been going to see him and my friend. just being there for support is all i can really do but it doesn't seem like enough. it's really been difficult. to show your support for the whole cancer cause, you can buy a yellow wristband at your local bicycle shop or online at wearyellow.com

so that's kind of a quick rundown of the past month. not terribly eventful but it certainly has been an emotional roller coaster. i hate that i haven't posted here to keep all the feelings recorded. my classes are going to start back in less than a month. not returning to nc state will be nice though. as i've previously stated, i wasn't happy there. this summer has gone by so fast. i can't believe i've already spent a month in new hampshire with tasha and a month back here. i really wish things would slow up. the friend of mine who's father has cancer and his girlfriend both signed up for livejournal accounts. you can view his here and her's here. they're both good friends and good people.

my girlfriend, tasha, is coming august 12. :-)