Something in the air...

I make it a rule to not blog about my personal life but today I'm making an exception. It all started when i realized that Saturday was a bad date night pretty much all around. I was at a lame party, Brett was sick, Rosanna and Lonnie came home with horror stories....

It all started a few months back when I met this girl online.. I've come to believe that nothing good ever comes from stories that begin this way, but I'm too cheap to buy a girl a drink. Anyway this girl and I have somewhat of a connection. She even joked about wanting an H3 for Christmas, so I bought her the matchbox version, telling her it's a little small but gets better gas mileage.

So Saturday night I get to the party, oh it was at a bar so I had to run a tab... but considering I have spent many a Saturday night at a bar this wasn't too much of a stretch for me.

I get there and she comes up to me to greet me that was nice. We sit down and immediately she asks if I bring anyone. I told her that I invited Brett but he was sick. I started making small talk with the girls, and the guys. Not wanting to come off clingy, I start mingling with other people and had some fun conversations. I got the feeling that some people were loose associates but not really good friends. Many of them had full days and weren’t totally into being social, but I did my best being a master conversationalist.

The party broke up and I graciously said good-bye to everyone. Perfect timing as I had started getting text messages from Stefanie (not a typo, that’s how she spells her name). We agree to meet up for a drink near her house. I head back to the west side and arrive at the bar apparently just after a fight had spilled out of the front door.

Stefanie goes on to tell me how bad her date was. I bought her a couple drinks because she had to spend all her cash on dinner and the movie. It says something when you need a drink AFTER a date. After some mutual bitching we say our goodnights and head home.

The next night I head up to the Office (the bar not a place I do work) so I can tell Lonnie Happy birthday. It was Saturday but I was… well we all know where I was by now. To my surprise her sister Rosanna was working for her because she and her date for Saturday took Her out. Well Rosanna wasn’t too into the guy either… and he WAS clingy. But in the process they got Lonnie so drunk she was throwing up most of Sunday.
After some mutual bitching we say our goodnights and head home. (Cut and paste makes writing so east!)

Monday I do the gracious thing and email the girl from the party back thanking he for inviting me, telling her I had a good time… okay I did have a good time but she really wasn’t part of it.

Then I get a reply:

First of all, thank you for the car...that was really sweet and
thoughtful.

However, no I did not have a good time on
Saturday. I think I made it pretty clear to people that I didn't want
anyone to come alone because I didn't want to have to entertain anyone.
So, when 3 of my friends showed up alone, I was really pissed. It's great
that you are able to talk to people, but that annoyed me because I then felt
that you were bothering my friends. And, my cousin agreed to talk with you
for awhile so that I could get up and go talk to other people. I don't
want you to get the wrong idea about her. She's not interested in
you.

All in all, I wish the night hadn't happened. I was
incredibly uncomfortable with the entire situation. I guess it's my
fault for putting myself in that situation. You're a really nice guy, but
our personalities do not mesh well together.

I’m actually torn between telling her off and taking the higher road (so I guess I’ll just do it publicly on my blog).

The bottom line is I really don’t want anything to do with someone that would speak that way to another human being. Apparently her idea of a party is: bring someone you know, talk only to them, leave without speaking to other guests. Maybe she doesn’t get invited to many parties, but honestly, I can see why.

First reactions to the State of the Union Address

It can be said that George W. Bush is not the greatest speaker in the world but tonight you didn’t know that. The president seemed more confident and self-assured. His tone was strong and full of conviction. His words were, well, annunciated. Go figure.

Onto the substance of the speech.

The address began with complements to newly appointed Speaker Pelosi. The thought that occurred to me as he was praising the first woman speaker was, what a catfight would occur between Speaker Pelosi and President Hillary Clinton. The destruction of the country might just be worth seeing that play out!

Bush’s domestic agenda started with a plan to strengthen the already booming economy, “through enterprise not government”. The key point to me was that none of his domestic agenda called for increased spending or raising taxes. In fact his plan for providing private healthcare involves a tax cut. This is especially important to someone like me who is employed by a small business and doesn’t get the extensive health benefits a large corporation can afford.

Where he lost me was toward the end of his domestic energy plan. While I’m fine with nuclear energy and even ethanol to some extent, what I don’t get is reducing gasoline usage by 20% in ten years. Mostly because today I filled up my gas-guzzling SUV (okay it’s not that much of a guzzler but it does hold a decent amount of cargo) for a ridiculously low $1.83 per gallon. That’s the lowest gas price I can remember since well before Katrina. At these prices we can't afford to not use more gas!

The simple fact that gas prices have gone down shows that there is plenty of gas to go around. Decreasing the use of gasoline can only be done if there is an alternative that meets both our expanding economy’s need for increased fuel and that fuel works as well as gasoline. Reducing our decency on foreign energy in place of our own domestic supply would be my preferred alternative.

Onto the war. Without going into the detail of his increased troop initiative from last week, we got a laundry list of accomplishments from the democratization of Iraq. All good things, and he did lay out the danger of those things coming to an end without our forces there to protect Iraq from the preverbal wolves at the gate… every gate surrounding Iraq.

More on our enemy, by quoting Bin Ladin among other terrorists he did a good job at painting the picture of what we are facing. These men make the villains in James Bond films look like the care bears. “It is better to be dead than to be alive while the non believers share this world” is just one quote he used. And they say Ann Coulter is intolerant!

Finally the end of the speech was the part of agenda where we give away all our money to Africa because they have none.

Overall I predict a slight boost in Bush’s popularity, but it will be short-lived when the first casualties from the Iraqi troop increase start being shown on cable news. His confidence may stem from the fact that at this point popularity polls no longer matter. He is free to be himself and I think that’s who we saw tonight. For the fist time he laid out his agenda, which was not for bigger government but lower taxes and free enterprise incentives.

Where was this president for the past 6 years?

Reviews that should be posted elsewhere

Because my new side gig USA Voice.org is experienceing technical difficulties I have decided to repost the last 2 reviews that have gone unread at my trusty old blog.

Review 1: 24, season 6

24 Season 6 off to an explosive start.

Unless you have been living under a rock, the hit series 24 has been going on for five years with all of your friends, as well as certain political and sports talk show hosts telling you how great it is. Season six promises to be as good, or better than its previous seasons.

Star Kiefer Sutherland plays Jack Bauer, federal agent. Getting his orders directly from the president he sets out to quietly and covertly stop terrorists. Season six opens up with Jack being freed from twenty months in a Chinese prison. Obviously tortured and needing a Shave, Bauer is quickly sent into action as a terrorist in Los Angeles wants Jack’s life in exchange for information that could lead to the end of a series of terrorist attacks across US cities.

Jack Bauer is simply the American answer to James Bond. Rarely wearing a suit and tie, Bauer is seen yelling, chasing after bad guys and shooting to kill just a little more often. Oh, and Jack has a wife and daughter, so no affairs with sexy foreign spies.

24 offers a unique perspective on the serialized drama, with each episode happening in real time. Each one-hour episode tracks the events of that hour, with twenty-four episodes making up a season. Aiding in the storytelling is often a split-screen view showing simultaneous views of action in different settings.

Despite it’s praise from noted political figures such as Senator John McCain (R- Arizona) and conservative radio mainstay Rush Limbaugh, the show is not overtly political. Characters such as President Palmer are not given party affiliations, leaving you free to see your own political views in the character depending on their role as a protagonist or antagonist. Other shows that do promote a political agenda do so by taking an extreme side, while 24 sets up a character to be a political extremist but brings them back to a more realistic level rather quickly.

Despite its extreme praise from the right you don’t need to be a registered Republican to enjoy the show. Though heavy praise comes to this show from the political right, it is simply enjoyable as the most action-packed show on television. If you want to get into the politics of 24 the show depicts the war on terror the way we hope it won’t be. The terrorists are portrayed as Middle-Eastern militants trying to execute another 9/11 every week. Other TV shows and some movies dealing with the same subjects do their best to disassociate Islamic organizations with terrorism. 24 dares to go there and it seems to be a formula that works.

The first episode of the season is a great jumping-on point for new fans, and if you’re upset that you’ve missed the beginning of this season, fear not. Fox has released the season premier on DVD, containing the first four episodes of this season, just in time for you to catch up by Monday night.

Review 2: The Naked Trucker and T-Bone Show

Part skit comedy, part sitcom, all bad: The Naked Trucker and T-Bone Show

Tonight Comedy Central premiered The Naked Trucker and T-Bone Show. We’re eight minutes into the first episode and I’m already panning it.

Not since Ugly Betty Has a show’s title been a deterrent to viewers. But since Ugly Betty won a Golden Globe I suppose the big shots at Comedy Central decided to green light this monstrosity.
The show starts out with what appears to be two men at a diner discussing the literary value of a diner menu versus a John Steinbeck novel. One man appears to be suffering either a learning disability or severe brain damage. The other is a naked trucker who seems articulate and is reading The Grapes of Wrath. This might be funny in a Seinfield-like way if the T-Bone (the one with the severe brain damage) did not sound like his tongue was entirely too large for his mouth.

The show continues to a studio with a live audience. The duo introduces video segments through failed attempts at humor as it is obvious they did not have enough writing talent to write a sufficient plot device to link the disjointed video segments together.

One nearly high point, well as close as this show will have to one, was a guest starring appearance by Will Ferrell. Ferrell plays a hitchhiker who challenges the truck to a race in a segment called “Hitchhiker Of The Week”. Ferrell capable of funny and almost is, but T-Bone’s mush mouth and Ferrell’s rambling make me feel even more sorry for the trucker, beyond the fact that he’s naked and sitting on a leather truck seat on what appears to be a warm day.

Much like David Spade’s The Showbiz Show, Too Late with Adam Corolla, and the mortality of South Park’s Kenny, don’t expect this show to last very long.