I don't like Christmas music very much so I'll leave you dear readers with this song that embodies the Christmas spirit. OK, at least it is a song that I find uplifting.

Also check out this website. Wouldn't it be great if that caught on.

I wish I had something profound to write to wrap up 2006. Truth be told it was another year and it was a fast one. Since time is relative maybe the year went by slowly for you. I guess we each experience the world from our unique perspective.

If I had the power I’d bring the world a little more peace in 2007. Ask a child why he wakes up to the sound of bombs every morning and you’re bound to get an insightful answer. So I have to say as the year comes to a close I am thankful for all that have. Life is a precious gift and we seem to get so caught up in day-to-day survival that we forget to be thankful that we don’t have terminal cancer or that we have someone to love us.

The world is full of suffering, death and loneliness and every minute you live without being under the thumb of one of these struggles is a minute to be thankful for. For whatever trials I face in 2007 I am vowing now to be thankful for what I have and not pay attention to the trivial things I do not. I think we’d all be better served to adopt this attitude for a while.


You never know what tomorrow brings and it could be something that makes all the trivial crap just that…trivial.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how life is truly what you make of it.

I’ll skip the Zig Ziegler feel good BS. I did once hear a nugget of wisdom from that camp. Basically you have no control over what happens in life, but you do have control over how you react to it.

I tend to stress about things pre-emptivively. Lord knows if is hard to stay upbeat when you have an I-Pod full of sad bastard music and always dwell on the negative. So I’ve decided to not do that anymore. It sounds deceptively simple, but it has required a lot of work since I set off on this quest. I wish it was as simple as flipping a switch, but it isn’t.

So maybe that is my New Year’s resolution. I will make an effort to spin things positively and not make myself a miserable wreck. Growing up I would have seen this as a cop out, or denial, or worse yet avoidance. I did the therapy route and it helped, mainly because I had a professional dissecting and breaking down my negative thought patterns. I suspect it is an ongoing project though and I’ll spend the rest of my life having these negative things pop into my head. Ultimately it is up to me to hold them up in the light and see that 99% of the time they have no merit.

So I am vowing now to stop stressing and worrying and most importantly letting things get me upset or down. It’s hard for someone who owns way too many Morrissey albums to ever qualify as well adjusted. I’ve always sort of laughed at those people who always seem happy. Don’t they see the forest for the trees? Truth is it was I who was letting stupid little trivial things I have no control over dictate my own comfort level with this thing we call adulthood.

Adulthood is hard work and it is scary and more often than not it is a thankless job, but it is one we’re all saddled with. So we should make the most of it. I’m no longer going to give merit to the things that make me sad or anxious. Maybe it is denial, but it damn sure beats the other option.

I really hope this isn’t what it sounds like.

I’m in my 30s and have an existing heart condition. So I’m probably draft safe. Yet I hate to see anyone forced into the military. Especially for such a stupid cause. If we were under attack here at home, I’d gladly fight and defend us. For such a pointless and deadly operation, there’s no reason for anyone to get drafted into Iraq.

Honestly if Duhb wants to send some more young people into the fire, I know at least two that are just sitting around the White House and not doing much. The truth is the children of privilege will be safe and sound. The kids that fight this war, draft or not, will always be the same ones that get sent into any conflict. It will be the inner city minorities that don’t have many other opportunities. It will also be the farm kids from the mid west. Between the factory jobs being outsourced and the government taking over farming, the country and city jobs of America are gone.

If the draft is political suicide, then ask yourself what the present administration has to lose? Unfortunately the strictly political answer is nothing.

OK, how about something newer?

Sometimes you get reminded of an old song and you just have to hunt it down.

Hats off to anyone buying me a Christmas present.

First off I hate the commercialization of the holiday. This trend of going into debt annually for Christmas is out of hand.

By first world standards I’m not materialistic. Sure I have a car and some clothes, but I hardly have a house full of all new crap. In fact I don’t have a house at all, but a small apartment.

Last but not least the few things I wouldn’t mind having are items I change my mind about hour-by-hour. Like a Playstation Portable looks really cool in theory, but I’m not a huge video game fan and I’m definitely not going to buy those little movie discs. Same thing with an I-Pod. I love them in theory, but I have an old school one my family got me a while back. It is a first generation mini and lacks the video capability, color monitor and the other snappy stuff the current I-Pods have, but do I NEED that? I don’t even know that I want that.

As you can see the ideas I have are for things that aren’t cheap. They’re definitely things I wouldn’t go out and spend money on myself. So I’m really hard to shop for. I use Netflix.com to catch movies and TV series I want to see. Once I watch a movie I rarely feel like watching it over and over again. The same goes for music. I mostly download music these days and buying a whole album is almost unheard of.

I guess I’m just not materialistic enough for this holiday and when it is all said and done I’d rather get nothing. Especially if it means putting anyone in that miserable state of stress and financial strain. The best thing any of us can do is liberate ourselves from the commercialism that seems to go hand-in-hand with Christmas.

I’ve been saddled with a lot of anxiety lately. Mainly on a world-wide level. I haven’t been blogging because it is hard to admit to these things. I’m taking nothing at face value and throwing out everything (including the kitchen sink) until I find a paradigm that works.

In all likelihood I’ll come back a nihilist. The current war looks like a disaster and honestly even if we “won” Iraq what point would it serve in a free and open country were the very people we are fighting against live among us? Meanwhile we are dumping money and resources everywhere else but home. China will be the one and only super power in 30 years and the funny thing is they didn’t even have to lift one finger. Their revolution is a quiet one fought with population numbers.

We’ve outsourced everything and the one asset we have over every other nation is our military might and that force is stuck in a losing battle right now. I guess it just sometimes get to me that we are aren’t even trying to plug the hole in our ship and by the time the collective conscious catches on, we’ll all be treading water.

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you—Nobody—Too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise—you know!

How dreary—to be—Somebody!
How public—like a Frog—
To tell one's name—the livelong June—
To an admiring Bog!

The hand of justice is swift…well, kinda.

It is stories like this one that make me wonder if the death penalty is a good idea.


There are decent arguments on both sides of the issue, but if there is even a chance someone innocent has to die at the state’s hands it is morally wrong. Ultimately we are the state in a democratically elected government for the people. I’d hate to think an innocent death is on my hands. Ditto to unnecessary human suffering. That’s just me though.

I enjoy a good conspiracy theory every now and then. Over the weekend I was up at some ungodly hour and caught a quick snippet of one in particular. Maybe having seen Mel Gibson's new flick got me in the mind set, but it caught my eye. A growing number of conspiracy folks believe the Nazi's had a moon base back in the 40s. I'm serious, google it and see. I guess when we get our moon base there we'll be bumping heads with the 3rd Reich. I'm more inclined to believe no one made it to the moon and there is some TV studio deep beneath a Colorado mountain where the set they filmed the landing with is still in tact.

I wake up this morning, turned on HBO and find this

I watch becasue I faintly remember the movie. Turns out a very young Seth Green and Jack Black are in it. So somewhere between "Point Break" and "Saved By the Bell" lies this flick. It reminds me of simpler times when flannel was fashionable. My biggest beef was they filmed it in Canada and it is painfully obvious they are not, in fact, in Cinci.

This guy has been making me laugh since I was 5. Here is a Weird Al classic.

Andy Dick apologizes for being back in the news.

I think in the next 48 hours we'll be announcing a plan to get out of Iraq. I hope I'm right on this.

I love her voice and this song has been stuck in my head for days. So if you don't know Regina Spektor, take a listen.

So this is Christmas?


I swear every year about this time I grow to hate the holiday that much more. I respect the folks who actually keep it about the birth of Jesus or helping others and those who see it as a time for family togetherness.


Unfortunately in our culture it has quickly become the holiday of expectation. The faces I see in the stores are not jovial holiday elves, but people who look completely stressed out. Every time an SUV full of bags cuts me off, I feel sorry for the poor Mom who just braved the mall this time of year. I’m sure she is at her wit’s end.

Even with my own repeated announcement that I want no part of gift exchanging, their still comes disappointments and expectations. It seems like family is always the first to be let down and my free time is going to be filled the next few weeks trying to squeeze in a visit with everyone I know. At some point I’m going to end up letting somebody down because there is no way to fit everyone in.


Then there are the things you can not get out of. Work always has some sort of gift exchange where you have to bring a gift. Children also don’t understand an anti-commercialism stance so I get the kids in my immediate family something. I can not leave out my girlfriend, because like it or not she’ll be getting me gifts. So then even without taking part in the Christmas madness I have at least a handful of people to buy for.

Aside from the financial reasons to tap out for Christmas it just genuinely doesn’t bring happiness. You should get gifts for people because you want to and not out of some sense of obligation. Far worse is the feeling when somebody gets you something despite the fact you asked them not to. Then you feel terrible for not returning the gesture. Honestly I didn’t expect to live paycheck to paycheck in my 30s, but that is the cold hard reality of the situation. It doesn’t exactly inspire me to play Chris Cringle.

Duh. it is actually 4 years smoke free. I quit new years 2003. Oh well. I still want one.

!!!!!!!!!!!


I’m about to celebrate 3 years of not smoking come January.

At $3.50 a pack, that means I have saved roughly $3832.

I don’t have a penny to show for it. I still crave the damn things and I’ve gained and lost the same 20 lbs over and over again.

So is self improvement worth it?

Probably not.

I think we are always in conflict with our true nature.

Otherwise getting up every morning would be a joyous celebration of life. In stead we nuke our turkey bacon, drink our coffee, catch a few minutes of Headline News and then force ourselves to get up and begin the day.

Some of us shovel our way to our car, some of us break out in a humidity induced sweat walking to the bus stop and a few of us catch the subway. Truth be told though, how many people genuinely enjoy the way they spend 8 hours every day?

Even the so called admirable fields inspire burn out. That 23 year old inspired teacher will one day be counting down the minutes to her retirement. Even the fresh faced intern will one day grow tired of prescribing the same 3 antibiotics over and over again to people who would probably get better if they just drank some orange juice and waited a week.

Maybe a mass exodus is in order. Nothing will change until we do. Are we truly a slave to MasterCard? The position of authority is in the name itself. So what if your car gets reposed? Without a job, you will not need it anyway.

I guess we can’t all sell oranges by the off ramp. I just hope I see Paris before I die.