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After last semester's overdose in writing I have been enjoying not having to write at all this semester. Well that and most of my school time is spent in an Art studio....it is mentally challenging, for the first time in years I'm drawing...it's kind of interesting after spending years creating images instantly to spend so much time creating images. It's really made me think about composition....my other really fun class is an Intro to sculpture class which in and of itself is a complete departure for me as I have never though about art in a 3D manner. Not to say that I haven't carved things from wood but I've never really thought about it from a composition POV. It's been very fun though I end each school day mentally spent. Additionally after spending last semester commuting by motorcycle the VA came through for me and approved my disability and back paid me to the date of my retirement, I bought a truckling, I say truckling because I found a nice little 1994 Toyota Tacoma and not a moment too soon as this winter has been very messy....anyway I found something and it made me miss Japan Kirsten Dunst is turning japanese on Fooooo  –Tony Peters • February 27 2010, 7:16pm EST • 5 replies 
Thanks to a friend who couldn't use them, I scored They Might Be Giants tickets to replace the broken Valentines gift that I originally bought for Kelly. We took in the show last night with two other friends who happened to be going, Nathan and Raquel, and it was a great time. Most of my concerts have been metal, so I'm used to screaming and head-banging, and I didn't exactly know how to get into the music, especially since I was the least familiar with the TMBG catalog. But I expected a tame show and the band surprised me by being really energetic and crazy, and really getting the audience riled up. This was a rocking and rollicking show. It was also the first show of their new tour, so we got to hear a few songs played live for the first time. I couldn't tell the kids songs from the adult songs, or the covers from the originals, without being told, which I guess is a compliment to how well they own their aesthetic. I could have done without my least favorite part of any concert, going through the motions of cheering for two encores as if they weren't part of the show, but all three "endings" were big productions that I was glad to see. It's been twenty years since I considered myself a TMBG fan, but today I am a fan all over again. –Scott Hardie • February 27 2010, 10:36am EST • 2 replies
... another encounter with Ugly On A Stick. I had no idea she was even there until she went out of her way to shout, 'HiiiIIIiiiii' from an aisle away. It took me a few seconds to recognize that she was directing this towards me. I politely nodded back in her direction (always the gentleman) but initiated an avoidance maneuver by taking a hard left down the juice aisle. Avoiding is only delayed since she has the only register open for those of us with more than 10 items. It went something like this: UOAS: Vegetable crackers? I mean, vegetables are actually in the crackers? That seems kinda lazy. Me: Actually it's efficient. And I'm told they're brain food. UOAS: Really? Me: Yeah, my daughter eats them all the time. Eight years old and she reads Proust at bedtime. UOAS (eyeing the small amount of grapes I chose): That's not a lot of grapes. Doesn't seem worth it. Me: Actually, if my daughter eats too many she gets flatulent. UOAS: What's flatulent? Me: Cranky. UOAS: Yeah, I get flatulent after a long shift. Me: I have no doubt. UOAS (Eyeing my coupons): I don't use coupons. It's too hard to keep straight how many items I have to buy to use them and I keep forgetting the expiration dates. Me: I recommend the vegetable crackers. So, shopping on Fridays goes on the same blacklist as Saturdays. Forewarned is forearmed as the quote goes. –Steve West • February 26 2010, 6:49pm EST • 3 replies
[removed by author request] –Jackie Mason • February 21 2010, 3:09pm EST
[removed by author request] –Jackie Mason • February 20 2010, 9:29am EST • 3 replies
Our lives have had lots of ups and downs lately. I'd blog about each of these separately if I could. DOWN - Kelly is laid off again. We were already planning to tighten our belt and this just gives us more incentive to save, so maybe we can turn this into a positive, but it sure sucks not having enough money to pay the bills. Fortunately, my food costs are minimal these days. We're living on $250 a week for groceries and personal expenses, putting everything else towards bills and savings. If we can stick with it, we'll be into a cheaper home in the summer and have the credit card paid off by the end of the year, which will give us more breathing room, but I hope we never stop saving again. UP - The diet is going well. Today is my personal record, day 46, the longest I've ever gone on a diet. I've lost three pant sizes and they're still getting looser. However, I do find myself cheating too much for fairly flimsy reasons; tonight we wanted to meet a friend for dinner and remembered liking an Italian restaurant in his neighborhood and I had two plates at the cheap buffet line. But I'm still committed to this, and I'm finding a pretty good balance at ~1000 calories a day most days. I have a lot more energy and find myself zipping around stores and hopping around the apartment. However, I'm suffering constant pain, in the form of muscle aches and especially headaches that torment me daily. DOWN - Our cat is dying. She's had hyperthyroidism for 18 months and is down to 5.0 pounds from a high of 12.7 pounds. For a while, she just kept slowly deteriorating, eventually getting to a point a few weeks ago where she was throwing up daily, not using the litter box, not eating, howling 24/7, and more. The vet gave her lots of expensive medication that has those other symptoms partially under control (our dining room is still her bathroom), but it's pretty clear she only has a few months left at best. I thought she was 9 years only and I had more time with her, but I've recently found out that she's more like 15, which explains a lot. UP - This is really lame coming right after "our cat is dying," but I'm a fanboy and I confess that I'm stoked about Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, as stoked as I've been about anything in years. I spent four hours on Saturday just savoring the double-length premiere and watching bonus videos online and reading articles and immersing myself in my favorite show. It's been on for 10 years and it's still as great as it ever was. If you ever liked the show and drifted away, watch the first ten minutes of the season premiere at cbs.com and feel the thrill again. DOWN - I'm thrilled for Matthew's wedding last week, but seeing the photos on Facebook reminded me why I felt so bad to have to miss it in the first place: It's forever. This isn't like missing Christmas or a summer vacation where you can just make up for it later. My best friend of fourteen years got married, and I couldn't be there with him, and I will never get another chance. This doesn't take anything away from how good I feel for him, and I'll get over it, but right now it's pretty damn depressing. UP - My projects are going great, suffering only a lack of time for me to do more. I'm shopping some great venues for this fall's GooCon and negotiating with the managers, and hearing hopeful things about new attendees this time. I've got a devilishly tricky plan for this year's Rock Block tournament and some new rules in mind. Gothic Earth is about to get some new players and keeps growing bigger and better. I'm also in the early stages of a new game and a whole new site that you'll like, but I have to take one thing at a time. I do these things in part to keep myself busy, and boy are they working. –Scott Hardie • February 17 2010, 11:22pm EST • 3 replies
Short one today. Looking at my GOO record, I found that the first GOO I ever guessed correctly was Ray Charles. That is also the first GOO that Russ Wilhelm guessed correctly, or at least that's what I am led to believe by looking at the GOO. Which led me to make a comparison between the two GOO records... *sigh* ...To think what different paths we took, having started at the same point... :) –Aaron Shurtleff • February 8 2010, 1:13pm EST • 1 reply
Once again, I have to preface this by saying South Dakota snow stories are much more impressive, I'm sure. But here in DC it doesn't get much heavier than this. A couple of feet in a two day period left a lot of snow to be shovelled out of the way. Here's a picture of Lauren standing on top of about six feet of snow where her bus stop used to be. Schools are closed as are federal government offices. However, I have to go do banking work tomorrow. Money makes the world go round, you know.  I am sooooo sore. But, the Super Bowl is on, the kids are fed and safe, and I'm loving life. –Steve West • February 7 2010, 7:00pm EST • 9 replies
[removed by author request] –Jackie Mason • January 31 2010, 6:49pm EST
[removed by author request] –Jackie Mason • January 30 2010, 8:07pm EST • 3 replies
Today I came across this photo gallery of independent restaurants around our area. Some of them we've enjoyed, like GooCon favorite The Lobster Pot, and others are ones we just haven't gotten around to yet. As pretty as the food looks, I find myself looking at the dining rooms and noticing how many of them look decorated for private parties. That got me thinking that Kelly and I will be getting engaged and planning a wedding before long. But would I choose one of these restaurants to hold our reception at? I want a place that we feel connected to. I want a place that we've been to so many times that it feels like it represents us. That's how I came to realize that the most appropriate place for our wedding reception is the local Chinese buffet. We really need to get out more. –Scott Hardie • January 26 2010, 7:56pm EST • 10 replies
I registered for The Placement Exchange yesterday. I'm hitting the job search full-force in hopes of landing a full-time job in higher education again. Office Max is fun -- don't get me wrong -- but it's just not where I want to be long-term. So, I'm on the prowl. I took a little hiatus for a while as I was just doing the hourly job gig, but 3 months of aching feet and a constant sore back has taken its toll on me. I want a cushy desk job again, where the only walking I do is to the bathroom and the cafeteria. That's where I belong. In honor of firing up the job search, I have decided to fire up my Higher Education blog, Challenge and Support. I hope to share a little bit about my search, gain some knowledge from readers, and basically give the old "Hey, you're not the only one going through this nightmare of a search" vibe to anyone else out there who is on the hunt. –Erik Bates • January 25 2010, 11:27pm EST • 4 replies
Good News: Brenda got a job. Bad News: The pay sucks! Good News: Potential new career track. Bad News: Education ($$$) ultimately required. Good News: She'll be working at our daughters' school. Bad News: School diseases potential coming home now times three. Good News: Bought Brenda roses as congratulatory gift. Bad News: Met UOAS at the cash register. All kidding aside, it's great that Brenda now returns to the ranks of the employed. She really liked her time at home, being able to accomplish tasks that she had little time for otherwise. But she feels great being able to leave the dole of the state (thanks, Maryland!). I truly wish I made enough so that she could stay at home (her expressed preference) but alas. She'll be an assistant to one of the special needs classes (not Olivia's) and feels very insecure about her qualifications. I assured her that as long as she brought the right temperament to the job, the children will be rewarded by the experience. She's hoping that she'll make observations that will benefit Olivia. I'm hoping that she doesn't get burned out by having to do what she'll do 24 hrs/day. She starts Monday. I wish her well. –Steve West • January 23 2010, 1:11pm EST • 6 replies
Well...there I was minding my own business and laughing at Robin Williams' little Irish diddy, when Barry comes on and sings a song. As fthe first few notes come out it hits me.... that's the song. THAT IS THE SONG. What the heck is she mumbling about this time you might ask? A music box. When I was a kid, I had a few music boxes. In particular, was one particularly sweet song that I really liked. I had no idea what it was called, but liked it all the same. I suppose it was the sweet nostalgic sound of it. Has anyone else ever experienced that kind of moment? Totally unexpected playing of a song you really liked but had no idea what it was even called? It's so totally out of left field... Speaking of Conan... T_T (yes those are tears) Certainly is going out with a bang! though ^_^ –Lori Lancaster • January 22 2010, 5:09pm EST • 1 reply
[removed by author request] –Jackie Mason • January 20 2010, 8:32pm EST • 2 replies
I'm starting to shift my thinking on who's the problem in my relationship with UOAS. Even the most passably inane thing she says requires a sarcastic comment from me. It seems to have become a moral imperative in my mind. UOAS: Wow look at all those Boston Market dinners. I live on these things. Me: Really? I take the meatloaf one and make little meat sculptures. It's a really fantastic medium. UOAS: (quizzical look) Me: Maybe I'll eat one someday. UOAS: You sure buy a lot of English muffins. Me: I'm convinced that inside one of those tasty muffins awaits a toasted portrait of the Virgin Mary. I hear Golden Palace Casino will give me a cool million for that. (I buy muffins for consupmtion only. Never have I looked for hidden images) UOAS: Really? Me: Yeah. And if it includes Baby Jesus it goes up to a million five. UOAS: I think I heard about that. Me: Yeah, they were this close to paying me a hundred grand for St. Francis of Assisi but the deal fell through. They were only willing to give me 200 bucks for Bartholomew, though. I was holding out for more when it got moldy and they backed out. UOAS: Flintstones vitamins, huh? Is there a Pebbles in there? Me: I hear that every third bottle has a pornographic Great Gazoo flashing the other vitamins. Some disgruntled manufacturer had a weird sense of humor. UOAS: (referring to the groceries being almost all checked out) There it goes a little at a time. Me: I'm assuming you're talking about my money. (knowing full well what she's referring to) Brenda is convinced that UOAS has a blog site of her own in which she talks about her weekly ordeal of having to deal with difficult customers. And then 'Gruesome And Smelly' said... I'm thinking I deserve it. –Steve West • January 16 2010, 6:14pm EST • 1 reply
In lieu of "weight loss Wednesday" since I'm much too busy on Wednesdays even to get online, let me write today that I'm on day 14 of a new diet, which is 13 more days than nearly all of my attempts last. This is, in fact, the second-longest I've ever lasted on a diet, and in a few weeks it will be the longest. This should indicate how lousy my self-discipline is and why I've ballooned to this size, around 450 pounds. I'm forced to guess because our scale only goes up to 400 and I crept past its limit years ago and kept growing. I have no more motivation this time than the obvious: I'm way too big, I'm out of my twenties and need to harness my metabolism while I still can, I need to do this before my knees or my back give out and the sedentary lifestyle becomes mandatory, et cetera. After thinking about it for weeks, I settled on a very low calorie diet, which might be dangerous (one guy died when it affected a pre-existing heart condition), but the same diet has worked for thousands of people who needed to lose a lot of weight. The biggest risk that I'm taking is not doing it with a doctor's supervision, but one doctor refused to treat me unless I had bariatric surgery and another doctor refused to treat me at all (she referred me to OA), so I'm taking my chances with it. So far I've maintained a steady average of 700-900 calories per day and around 20 grams of fat. I expected the fatigue and light-headedness, but I didn't expect other odd physiological symptoms, like random spells of itchiness all over my body, or my gums stiffening. (I'm on vitamins; they're fine.) I take these oddities as signs that my body is beginning to change, but the best signs are the compliments from people who see me beginning to get slimmer, and that keeps me going. Here's to 14 days and counting. –Scott Hardie • January 16 2010, 10:03am EST • 4 replies
Stuff I ran across while randomly surfing. Hilarious protest signs (most involving misspellings). First rule of Nacho Fight Club - Feel free to talk about Nacho Fight Club. I'm guessing the other 55% were stoned. Rasmussen Poll on current congress Google - Now serving cowardliness 100 most annoying things of the decade from Retrocrush. In honor of Stephen Hawking's birthday, here's an article on Pi being calculated to the 2.7 trillionth digit. I'm still wondering, "What comes next?" 100 Website naming disasters. Most had to have known, didn't they? Irony Hell –Steve West • January 9 2010, 10:20am EST
Unless you are a Japanese School girl on a mission ^_^ So, what does happens when you take one somewhat awkward love-confession, and a somewhat dramatic girl? It's been nominated for the "second annual YouTube Video Awards Japan." Definately makes me appreciate the flat terrain of IL! XD –Lori Lancaster • January 4 2010, 3:59pm EST • 3 replies
A brand new drug has come onto the market that is touted as being a treatment for autism. It's a homeopathic drug called Respen-A. It affects the malfunctioning areas of the brain typically associated with autistic children. The literature is sparse and clinical trials are few but there is a conference scheduled for January 16 in Nashville, TN. Brenda and I are excited by the prospects of this drug which is administered by a transdermal patch once daily. This is not being heralded as a cure for autism but testimonials appear that claim they alleviate or at least lessen various symptoms related to limited social behaviors and increases in communication skills both verbal and non-verbal. Most of the information available is from the manufacturer's website so there remains to be seen any objective testing. The drug is FDA approved and the side effects appear limited and occur only in very large doses. Our first step is to consult Olivia's pediatrician and get him to get his ass in gear to find out about this treatment and advise us on the appropriateness of Olivia being a candidate. She is somewhere in the middle of the autism spectrum and the testimonials were from parents whose children were classified as having mild autism. But the symptoms that were alleviated were in some cases quite severe. So there's hope that although Olivia's symptoms may not disappear, she will have a better opportunity for progress in her education and life-skills. In the meantime, I've already scouted out plane fares to Nashville in the hopes of attending the seminar in the morning and returning the same afternoon. All-in-all the trip will cost me between $400-500 and the drug is about $75 for a month's supply. The money is immaterial to the potential benefits i.e. Olivia is worth it. What concerns me is this: Every new diet has a doctor's name attached to it. Dr. Fred Starr is the physician promoting this new treatment and is holding the conference, sharing the scientific data that supports the hypothesis. However, this is America - capitalist central. Like the diet doctors, he may have a wish to capitalize on this disorder to make a good living. Which is okay with me as long as it works. I just don't want to be a victim of the latest "autism diet" fad. This really looks promising but I need to remind myself to keep my expectations low so I won't be crushed by limited results or dismiss gains that may be small but observable. –Steve West • January 1 2010, 10:50pm EST • 4 replies
The soap says Cambria & Taylor. "Is that trilobite soap?" "What are you talking about?" "Wait, I'm sorry. Maybe trilobites were Pre-Cambrian." "...You are such a nerd." –Scott Hardie • December 30 2009, 10:13am EST • 6 replies
10: Thirst - A priest must cope with having become a vampire. It's a psychological power struggle between two outcasts with their souls on the line. Slow but very methodical in its effect; every moment matters. 9: Gran Torino - Completely predictable, but still very powerful. An old man befriends a troubled teen and teaches him what it means to be a man when lives are on the line. 8: Up - Hilarious and exuberant. Another Pixar masterpiece. The emotional punch of the opening minutes, which rivals the death of Bambi's mother, gives the later adventures a critical gravity. Great fun for all ages. 7: Push - The only movie on this list that didn't get wide critical acclaim. Superhero deconstruction tales are commonplace these days (this isn't the only one on this list), but this one was smooth and very stylish, and it charms worked on me. 6: Coraline - As good as The Nightmare Before Christmas, with bizarre fantasy visions come to life with incredible attention to detail. Children should love this tale for many years to come. It should have been released at Halloween. 5: Star Trek - Abrams figured out how to make the old series fast, cool, and fun (really fun) again. This is terrific entertainment for fans and non-fans alike, and I can't wait to see more. 4: Watchmen - Like all fans of the novel, I have a few minor quibbles with Zack Snyder's interpretation. But he preserved 95% of the incredibly rich layering of themes in this post-modern superhero epic, and that makes for one outstanding tale. 3: Revolutionary Road - Kate Winslet is the best actress of her generation, and shows why once again in this stirring drama. Leonardo Di Caprio shows a husband consumed with fear and denial. Better than Todd Haynes's Far from Heaven. 2: Ponyo - Miyazaki deserves all of the praise he gets as a master animator and storyteller. Even this minor, post-"retirement" film is a treasure. Even the tiniest details are crafted with loving attention. 1: Nothing but the Truth - Rod Lurie fictionalizes the Valerie Plame scandal and crafts another riveting political drama in which a heroine won't sacrifice her principles no matter how much she pays for it. This is a bracing criticism of Americans who traded their values (and common decency) for perceived security during the Bush administration, and Kate Beckinsale plays the Christ figure who suffers for all of them. Very powerful and thought-provoking stuff. The Full List It ruled: Nothing But the Truth, Ponyo, Revolutionary Road, Watchmen, Star Trek, Coraline, Push, Up, Gran Torino, Thirst, Sunshine Cleaning, Adventureland, Angels & Demons. It was ok: Sherlock Holmes, The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Soloist, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chocolate, Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach, Surrogates, Knowing, Chandni Chowk to China, Tales of the Black Freighter. It sucked: Paper Heart, Fanboys, Under the Hood. –Scott Hardie • December 28 2009, 11:28pm EST • 4 replies
We're enjoying our winter vacation in central Illinois so far. Tue 12/22 - When you're hitting the road for your vacation right after work is over, every extra minute feels like an hour, which means I did 45 hours of overtime. The drive was easier than we thought, probably because we had days to prepare this time. Last time we drove from Florida to Illinois, it was a family emergency and we scrambled to hit the road, and the drive was a bear. Thu 12/24 - I slept 12 hours after we arrived, which is longer than I've slept in a year, and it was a great way to start a vacation. I needed this break. We played some board games with Kelly's parents and brother, ran into a college friend who somehow wound up in this same tiny town, ate a delicious turkey dinner cooked all day by Kelly, and opened presents. Santa brought me lots more board games to play. Kelly and I have been forced to conclude that we are now board game geeks, and we're pretty happy with that. Fri 12/25 - The annual Christmas party with Kelly's mother's family, in the Chicago suburbs. I have mixed feelings about the family, but I have mixed feelings about my own family sometimes, so I'll be happy to join their clan someday. I almost scored an electric guitar and amplifier in the gift swap game, but wound up with a carpeted cat bed instead. Kelly was overjoyed to get a drill press that her father claimed for her before I could. This day was my first in the bracing Illinois deep-freeze again in many years, and it was one more (unnecessary) reminder why I left. Sat 12/26 - Shopping with Kelly's mother in the area. I tried a Maid-Rite sandwich for the first time and regretted never having one when I lived here. After an hour of browsing a lot of junk at an antiques mall, some of it ugly racist figurines from a different era, I came across an elephant statuette that I hope my mother will really like, as a sign that her son has finally embraced antiquing if nothing else. Sun 12/27 - Visiting Kelly's Amtgard friends in Springfield. Kelly knew almost everyone, but I smiled and played along. It's hard to believe that it's been two years since we moved Kelly out of that city. Everything is different and exactly the same. Three hours of board games and I could have played longer. Today - I stayed home to do laundry and finish some mandatory work projects while Kelly and her mother ran errands. Her father is asleep and the house is peaceful and quiet. Outside, there's a thick eight inches of snow as far as I can see. This is what I needed. Tomorrow, we will head to Chicago and St. Charles to see old friends. We already limited the number of people that we planned to see because there wasn't much time, and now I fear that we're going to have to shrink the list even further. To my friends in the area, I'm sorry if we missed you, and I hope to return to Chicago again soon to make it up to you... preferably in the summertime. :-) –Scott Hardie • December 28 2009, 5:21pm EST • 5 replies
[removed by author request] –Jackie Mason • December 27 2009, 7:11pm EST • 5 replies
[removed by author request] –Jackie Mason • December 23 2009, 11:01pm EST
The movies that are going to be written about in Brittany Murphy's obituaries are Just Married, 8 Mile, Clueless, and maybe Sin City. But the one most sadly relevant is a movie that few people saw, The Dead Girl. Each chapter of the movie shows how a different woman is affected by the discovery of a woman's body in a field, until the last chapter doubles back and shows us her haunting final days. Murphy invested the young woman with desperation, sadness, and doom, qualities that will only seem more intense now that she too has died young. It's not for everybody (Steve Dunn didn't seem to like it), but it was the best movie in 2007 that I saw, and it succeeded on the strength of its powerful acting. Murphy will be missed. –Scott Hardie • December 20 2009, 6:09pm EST • 1 reply
Snow time. I don't live in Fargo so I defer to Denise and others for even more horrible snow stories. But the forecast yesterday was for anywhere between 6 and 32 inches of snow depending on a whole bunch of meteorological variables and other mysteries. Looking out my front door this morning I can see they got the "between" part right. That's a lot of damn snow and it's still falling. I remember as a kid when I attended Catholic school, offering some lame excuse to a nun that I couldn't get my homework finished because it had snowed so much over the weekend and I couldn't get out of the house. Our snow shovel had broken and we were really trapped in the house Sister Guido! Therefore, my concerns were focused on survival and not homework. I lied to a nun. I am going to hell. Not just going but taking the Hell Express - no stops. I'm sure all of the nuns at Our Lady Of Perpetual Indegestion that I lied to take some small satisfaction of that sad truth. –Steve West • December 19 2009, 10:32am EST • 7 replies
[removed by author request] –Jackie Mason • December 19 2009, 10:08am EST
I saw a trailer for a new Free Willy movie coming out soon, starring Bindi Irwin. They're going to cash in on that kid for as long as they can, before she breaks down and can't be Miss Junior Croc Hunter and more. Maybe working in the same career that killed her dad is good for her psyche; who am I to be skeptical? This got me thinking about the hypocritical Free Willy movies themselves. They're about whales trapped in lagoons, and get turned into local attractions by greedy entrepreneurs, until brave youngsters do the right thing and free them back into the wild. But the movies themselves trap and exploit these whales for profit, making any kid viewer an accomplice to animal abuse while pretending to abhor it. The makers of the original film went to some lengths to get the whale Keiko released into the wild -- but only after a letter-writing campaign for years by the fans. Who will write a letter for Bindi? –Scott Hardie • December 16 2009, 12:17am EST • 1 reply
Did I mention that in my last post? I think I talked about applying for jobs, but I don't think I've mentioned that I finally got one. For the past 1 1/2 months, I've been working the minimum-wage gig at Office Max. It's not a bad gig, really. I'm tired, my feet, back, and neck hurt almost constantly, but I think i'm losing a little weight from all the physical activity (well, more physical activity than my desk job I had last year). It's paying the bills... sorta. I think I'm actually pretty good at this whole retail/sales thing. I'm still looking around for some jobs in Higher Education, though. Good times! –Erik Bates • December 11 2009, 9:16pm EST • 6 replies
Bowie is just a hole-in-the-wall kinda town but it's full of proud residents. I like it a lot. But man, we've got quite a few odd businesses. Number one on the hit parade is a place named the Cat and Dog Veterinary Referral. They don't accept patients. Only referrals. I was very confused by their business name thinking that there's no way a place can stay in business if their raison d'etre is to refer you someplace else! Bowie was founded a thousand years ago by the Belair family patriarch and the mansion they lived in has been converted to a museum. I've never been there. I didn't actually know where it was until a few years ago. Yet there's a museum on the ground floor with a gift shop. Who's paying for all this? It seems to be a county site so the answer is I'm paying for it. I'd prefer my tax dollars go to buying the volunteer fire department a new truck. But my funds apparently are diverted from nonsense like that to make sure the stupid Belair Mansion museum doesn't run out of fuzzy dice with "Welcome to Bowie" emblazoned where the one pip should be. Speaking of pretention. We actually have a private club called the Bowie Tennis and Bath. The name hearkens back to the days when a private swimming pool was called a bath instead of the festering urine pool that all public pools are when patronized by rich little turd-droppers minded by their illegal immigrant nannies. The nannies don't bug me too much - it's actually the name. We have two dog "parks" that are no more than a 50 x 200 foot bare patches of unused yards surrounded by chain link. Not only are there no doggie type carousels or whatever dogs romp on, there are no trees in either place. How can you have a park with no trees. Especially a dog park. Hello?! They're dogs! They do have decorative dog poopy bag dispensers and receptacles that are expected to be emptied by county vehicles. How'd you like that job? I'm ranting just a little here so I'll stop before I talk about the U-Store-It place that I'm convinced is a serial killer hideaway or our City Hall that rents out space to the local cable company instead of giving it to the local town cops desperate for space. God, I love this town! Seriously. –Steve West • December 11 2009, 7:18pm EST • 3 replies |
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