Tim Russert died today at the age of 58. I’m incredibly shocked and saddened by this, more than I can ever recall for the death of a television personality or reporter alike. Tim Russert brought a level of trust and integrity to political journalism that is sorely absent in today’s highly polarized partisan landscape. Going into a landmark presidential election season makes it even more difficult. It’s hard to image watching election night totals roll in without Tim’s constant presence and analysis. My prayers go out to his friends and family. Watching MSNBC right now, and seeing the responses of his friends and coworkers, it’s clear this man will be missed by all. I can only say good night sir, and thank you for your balance and professionalism.
Archive for the 'Life' Category
Never having been a huge fan of Family Guy, I regarded the recently released Blue Harvest DVD with indifference. That is, until I wandered over to Adult Swim’s website for my weekly Robot Chicken fix, and stumbled across many, many clips from the Star Wars: Episode IV parody. I must say, it’s some of the funniest TV I’ve ever seen. More consistently funny and on-topic than the Robot Chicken Star Wars special, this is actually watchable by anyone who’s even a casual Star Wars fan. This has promptly been placed into the #1 spot on my Netflix queue so I can see the whole thing in sequence. Giggty.
Who does a better “James Brown”?
Eddie Murphy [NSFW]?
Pros:
- Spot-on vocal impression.
- Unintelligible lyrics.
- “What the f**k is James talkin’ ’bout Man? I don’t know, we gettin’ paid, keep singin’.”
Or Weird Al?
Pros:
- The dancing, or parody thereof.
- The hair, outfit, and set.
- The “caped, hardest-working man” scene.
You decide…
So, the Fed just cut interest rates by 3/4’s of a point. Which, to quote FARK, “means they’re paying last month’s Visa bill by taking a cash advance on their Amex. Next month they’ll take a cash advance on their Mastercard to pay off Amex. Rinse, repeat, recession.”
You’re doin’ a hell of a job, Bennie!
This site is so dead on genius, I can’t even describe it. I do think it describes a class of people, rather than a race, but that doesn’t detract. For instance, this brilliant little gem…
This is in spite of the fact that Whole Foods is a profit driven-publicly traded corporation that has wisely discovered that making white people feel good about buying stuff is outrageously profitable.
Or, almost as good…
If you want to go for extra points - white people really love FAIR TRADE coffee, because paying the extra $2 means they are making a difference.
I know plenty of people like this from a wide array of races, and they all irritate me because of their illegitimacy. They don’t shop at Whole Food’s because organic food is better for the environment or their health, they shop at Whole Food’s because it costs more, so it better fits into their economic class, or their idea of what their economic class should be.
Thanks for the find, Bradley!
Very well, James, I’ll play along…
Jobs I’ve held
Let’s see, I was a cashier at a little supply shop called The Artist’s Flat, a do-everything guy at Safeway for 5 years, an IT guy for a reprographics company, and a technician for a Computer Renaissance store.
I’m currently the IT Manager at The Key School, where I’ve been for 9 years, and I run a business (with a partner) providing IT support and managed services.
Places I’ve lived
- Louisville, KY
- Cincinnati, OH
- Glen Burnie, MD
- Annapolis, MD
- Severn, MD
- Arnold, MD
Movies I can watch over and over
Wow, this list could be embarrassingly long:
- Any of the original three Star Wars films
- Star Trek II (Kaaaaaahhhhnnnnnn!)
- Saving Private Ryan
- 12 Angry Men
- Rounders
- Sneakers
I could go on and on…
My guilty pleasures
George Michael - Hey, the man can sing.
An occasional cigar and good scotch also rate quite highly.
Shows I enjoy
Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Psych, ER, Scrubs, Alias, TNG and Voyager (yeah, yeah), Tyler’s Ultimate, America’s Test Kitchen, The Daily Show, Seinfeld, Futurama
Places I’ve been on vacation
I don’t typically go on vacation, being much more of a home body, but I went to Disney World back in October, and I really, really had a good time. I’m not even a “Disney” person, but man was it a blast. I can’t wait to go back.
Favorite foods
Again, this could get long:
- Fried Chicken - Homemade only
- Most pasta dishes involving tomatoes and cheese
- Mashed potatoes - The good kind, involving lots of butter, cream (heavy, sour, or half-and-half), Yukon gold potatoes, and a potato ricer.
- Shrimp most any ways other than cold - I have a soft spot for New Orleans style BBQ shrimp
- Chocolate, and all its assorted uses
- Eggs and grits
- Really, good, coffee
Websites I visit daily
FARK, Slashdot, Wikipedia, Engadget, IMDB, NPR
Body parts I’ve injured
- I pulled an aquarium on my head when I was 9 months old and have a nice scar to show for it. Yes, the aquarium was empty.
- I was hit by a car in 5th grade and severely injured my left knee.
- Numerous scrapes and scars from working at Safeway for 5 years and building computers for ever.
- I recently broke my big toe on my right foot. It still smarts over a week later…
Awards I’ve won
None. Who am I, Meryl Streep?
Nicknames I’ve been called
Chuckles / Mr. Chuckles, Dos, Dick (In reference to my last name…)
The picture you are seeing is not a photoshop manipulation. That is, in fact, my daughter devouring a full-size Imperial Star Destroyer, crew and all. Ackbar has nothing on her!
Seriously, though, yesterday was Kaylee’s 6 month birthday, and she had her doctors visit today. She is 22 lbs, 10 ozs, and 27.75″ tall (long, really). She’s the size of a large 1 year old, which makes buying age-appropriate clothing and toys difficult, but she’s still my little girl!
More pictures are available at SmugMug. If you need the gallery password, then you know how to get in touch with me.
I stopped in to my local Best Buy last night to pick up the new Spoon (Spoooooon!) album, which of course they didn’t have. So I began to browse for a few other CD’s on my “buy me some day” list. I wandered over to the J’s to look for some guilty-pleasure music (as mentioned in a previous post), and came away with one of two (not the one I really wanted). Slightly frustrated, I headed over to the dance section not expecting to find what I was looking for, and didn’t. More frustrated now, I head over to the “new release” / “bestseller” section, thinking perhaps the aformentioned Spoon album would be there. No, just the same tired selection of shitty hip-hop and washed-up pop stars. Finally, on my way to the check-out line, I swing by the H’s looking for Dare!, an eighties classic. They didn’t even have a placeholder for The Human League; instead I ran into two rows of William Hung.
The reality is, my local Best Buy (and perhaps all Best Buy’s) exemplify the Walmart Effect. Large big-box moves in to an area. Big-box offers large and varied CD selection and prices them as loss-leaders to bring in the customers. Local and national record stores drop their prices to stop the hemoraging of customers, to little avail. Eventually, all real competition in the area is out of business (as was the case for my local Tower Records). Big-box then begins to cut-back on their CD selection, offering large quantities only on albums they’re paid an incentive to carry, as they’ve discovered (or perhaps knew all along) that it doesn’t make good financial sense to give over so much floor space to items they make little-to-no profit on. The end-result is that people like myself and many of my friends, who have a geniune love for good music, are left to do our CD shopping on Amazon or iTunes. The former makes me pay for shipping and wait for my CD, the later gives me DRM-laden poor-quality reproductions, and both options kill the actual phsyical experience of CD shopping, for which there’s something to be said.
So, where does all of this leave me? I ended up leaving with A Funk Odyssey, a groovy little album with a few low spots but generally a good purchase. It was, however, at the bottom of my list. I’ll probably pick up Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga locally when I find it (or kite it from Bradley), and I now see that Dare! is up on iTunes Plus for only $8. I’ve given up finding Towa Tei anywhere but Amazon, and I’ll leave Synkronized for a future guilty-pleasure shopping experience…
Found on FARK. It put a smile on my face during an otherwise crappy day.
