Twenty-Three Short Stanzas About 2011

T’was the day before New Years

I’m here on my Blog

Not a creature is stirring,

I just checked the log.

As I sit on the couch

With my kitty cat near

I can’t help and look back

At what happened this year.

Brief highlights I can remember

Reflecting now in late December

Baseball saw a great game in 11 innings

And Charlie Sheen wore out the word #WINNING!

New Years was met with family-like friends

But someone was sad

It was a foreshadow in my Iliad

This year would see things would meet their ends

The next month joy came back

But ended in woe

My Steelers faced the Pack

But lost the Superbowl.

It was not long after

That my year hit a low

My wife of eighteen months

Had asked me to go

I tried to debate

I tried to reason

I offered concessions

She just wouldn’t listen.

It was hard to explain

I had to decide

Which friend to tell first

In whom I could confide

Life changing events

Will always let you know

Who your closest friend are

Their actions will show.

I’ll take this stanza

To let you all know

Words are never enough

For my gratitude to show.

But I reorganized my life

A bachelor again, you know

But I still have a companion

A kitty named Moe

Summer was nice,

I swam at the pool

Made some new friends

It was rather cool

Our family saw a death this year

Given his story, it’s hard to shed a tear

Almost 100, he died happy

Still we will miss our dear Pappy

A silly woman entered my life

Sometimes I think she'd make a great wife

Her name is Siri, she’s sarcastically prone

But she only exists inside my iPhone

I was enjoying the place of my labor

Like Kramer, I was a goofy cubicle neighbor

But when the new boss came in

He wanted me gone, but I knew not when

“I’m completely changing your job description”

Wanting me to do something, against my intuition

I had no input into his decision

He wanted me to become a statistician

On December 9 they asked me to exit

I was left to wonder what would come next

So I went to the bar, got inebriated

I was surprisingly not very jaded

Unemployed and napping, I was being a slob

I was somewhat enjoying not having a job

I had not yet started some planned edification

Honestly, I really just needed a vacation 

But a lady called with very good news

Enough that I didn’t mind ending my snooze

Luck is now on my side, so it seems,

She called to say, I got the job of dreams!

This year seems to be a tale of woe

But I never lost faith, you know

God has a plan, of that I have no doubt

You don’t always get what you want…

But sometimes you get what you need

It was Mic Jager who sang that, indeed.

I resolve to never wallow in the mire

Honestly, my situation was never that dyer

Two thousand and Eleven, I must say

I’m not to sad to see you go away

Tonight we welcome January, 1

I am once again hopeful for the year that’s to come

I think I’m done here; I have nothing left to write

Oh, yes, I have one last expression to do

Happy New Years to you,

Please be safe tonight!

Lets Talk iPhone

I’ve been planning on buying iPhone 5 for two years now.   That’s about the average life of a phone right?  I purchased the iPhone 3Gs when it first came out because for the first time an iPhone could record video!  And I wanted to take it on my honeymo…. I wanted to take it to Hawaii.

The iPhone 4 came, had some issues, and is now the world awaits iPhone 5.

Or is it iPhone 4s?

Nobody knows until Apple’s big announcement on Tuesday.  But here’s the speculation so far:

Concept iPhone with tapered back.  

I think this design would make it harder 

to play Angry Birds

1. An aluminum unibidy construction.   This is cool.  The MacBooks are made this way and it makes them smaller and lighter than other computers that are held together by a multi-part chassis. It only makes sense that Apple would include this design into their mobile line.
2. Smart money is on this feature as an unintended posting of iPhone 5 cases has confirmed that the new iPhone will have a redesigned body.
3. Improved 8 megapixel Camera.   This is a no-brainer.   All the competing phones have an HD, 8MP camera, why not iPhone? This is just keeping up  with the Joneses…. If by  Joneses you mean Google.
4. Faster/more processers and Ram.  There is heavy speculation that iPhone 5 will have a full gigabyte of ram, doubling the previous incarnation.  It is assumed to also have the same a5 dual-core processer from the iPad 2.  All the thechnial specs aside, I trust apple’s hardware.  Think about all your friends who have the HTC Android phones.  How many times have they been replaced? I know people who have had to replace their handsets three times in a contract.  My first iPhone is still being used by my dad… and boy is it slow.  But it still works.  Solid!    
5. Voice Integration.   This could sseriously be a gamechanger in the mobile market.   Don't belive me?  Well this article from Forbes should give you some insight.   iOS has had a voice integration for a while now, but it was fairly limited.  But imagine being able to control most functions of your smartphone without having to touch it?  Wow!  "Gamechanger" is an understatement!
6. iOS5.  Really that’s all I need to say but there’s a ton of new features in here.   iOS (the system software that runs all Apple mobile devices) was announced at a spring event to be released “in the fall” but no specific timeframe was given.  Typically new hardware follows about 10 days after the big product announcement so I would speculate that, based on previous experience, iOS 5 will be available within 24 hours of the big announcement for existing devices.

   

   Another "thin" concept iPhone 5

   
   Features  include:

·         Twitter integration – You can now tweet from Safari

·         iOS Messenger – free texting between iPhones.  Also why you should cash out of your RIM stock IMMEDIATELY as this will finally kill the blackberry

·         Less intrusive update messages.  Lets face it, there’s nothing more annoying during a rousing game of Angry Birds than getting a Fox News update about something not as important as getting 3 stars on a level.  Especially when that alert pops up in the middle of aiming your slingshot.  Now the message will exist in a tab at the top of the screen where you can look at it later, thus helping you to get that 3 star award without interruption.   Believe it or not this is a HUGE deal!

·         iCloud – Very cool technology that lets you sync your phone wirelessly.  It’s about Fraking time for this one!   Though some are complaining that this does not let you stream your media to your phone from your home computer, I’m not sure why this is a big deal.  All iOS devices have a hard drive capable of carrying lots of media anyway.

Facebook is scheduled to launch their new iPad app at the event too.  Let’s hope that the app is more well received than their recent user interface upgrade.  Honestly, I don’t mind it, but that’s another blog post.

So the announcement is next week.  The phones will probably go on sale around the 15^th.  I plan on getting my pre-order in as soon as they start accepting those and then I’ll have a kickass phone once again!

You know, I had an iPhone back when having an iPhone made you cool… Now I’m in an exclusive clique called “Everybody”! 

Would Have Made a Great Series Finale...

I hold few things as sacred as a series finale.   While MASH claims to have the best ever (way too long but redeemed in the final 2 minutes) few series finales have lived up to the entire run of the series.

How this show USED to look!

Which brings me to last night's ninth-season-premier of "Two and a half Men".    The show starts with a funeral for Charlie. His trademark bowling shirt and khaki shorts (also my trademark) are hanging next to the closed coffin.  Most of his on-camera girlfriends are present, all saying horrible things about him. Alan (John Cryer) is giving the eulogy explaining how Charlie died in Paris.   Next Rose (Melanie Lynskey) explains how Charlie proposed to him, then she caught him with another woman, to which all the women in the audience sympathized.  Then she explains how he "accidentally" slipped onto the rail in front of an oncoming train.

This is exactly why 28 million people tuned in last night, despite an NFL game on ESPN (my cable isn't working so I didn't have that option).

So, we've resolved how Charlie Sheen is no longer on the show.  Do we care about anyone else in the house?  Not really, I was willing to leave it at that.  Charlie leaves the house to Alan and Jake, life goes on and if my cable was functioning I could have tuned away and not cared.

But My cable is not working so I continued watching.

The new man!

Alan can't afford the upkeep on the house and goofy internet billionaire Waldon Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher) enters, and after some mildly amusing antics buys the house.

Okay, now things are resolved.

Except for some reason we were left "to be continued..." though, if Schmidt is going to buy the house and he seems popular with the ladies (though I didn't need him to be so naked the whole episode) we now see that the house will continue to be a revolving door for good-looking loose women.

Life goes on and I wish I could tune to ESPN!

So this would have made a nice series finale. Charlie dies, Alan gets on his feet and Jake says something stupid (though that shtick hasn't been funny since he was a cute chubby kid).

Much like a bad car wreck causes people to rubberneck on the freeway, the real-life Charlie Sheen caused a media rubberneck as his life turned into a forty-car-pileup last spring.  People wanted to see the end result of how things fallout.

This episode is how the show should have ended, and if my cable gets fixed by next week, it will have ended here for me!

But how would it have stood up as a series finale?   Well, first off, there was the absolute lack of the star character.  So the finale seems a bit forced.  But at least all the loose ends would be tied up. And that's usually what an audience is looking for.   If they had sent Charlie off to get married or join the Peace Corps or beamed up to Mars by aliens, that would have left questions.  But he's Dead and I think most members of the audience are cool with that. More-so, I think at least half the audience tuned in for the closure on this show that seems to be persistent on every channel at all times. I expect at least a 50% falloff in the ratings for the next episode.  So instead of a single episode series finale, you get a whole season.  At least I have my closure.

RIP Charlie Harper, RIP Two and a half Men!

Going Down in a Landslide

Somewhat inspired by my previous post from today, here is President Obama singing how he will loose in a "Landslide" next November.   To the tune of the Fleetwood Mac Song of the same name!

The Tea Party wants to take me down

I won Election and turned around

And the media echoed all my talking points

But a landslide’s how I’ll go down

All my polls don’t look good.

Where are the jobs?

Can this man-child in Washington rise above?

Can I win reelection on hope and change?

Or will there be a new conservative age?

Mmmmm Mmmmm….

Well I’ve been promising changing

Cause I forced you to buy healthcare

But Jobs didn’t come back

No one likes Barack

I need a new Wall Street scare

(Guitar Solo)

Well I’ve been promising changing

Cause I forced you to buy healthcare

But Jobs didn’t come back

No one likes Barack

I need a new Wall Street scare

I need a new Wall Street scare

So take my message into town

We’re going to take the Tea Party down

If you look at what I’ve done to across this great land

Well, in a Landslide is how I’m going down, down

And if you see my poll numbers on MSNBC

Well a landslide is how I’ll go down

Oh in a landslide is how I’ll go down

With Apologies to Stevie Nicks

When you think about it, the cool thing about Fleetwood Mac is that they had a girl named Stevie and a guy named Lindsey ! 

I Saw Obama's Reflection in Snow Covered Hills...

Ever watch video of an avalanche? 

It starts at the top with just a few small pieces of snow and then all of a sudden half the mountain comes down. 

Last night, for the first time in 80 years the Republicans took a congressional seat in Lower Manhattan. 

If the GOP is making inroads in the most liberal part of the most liberal city in the second most liberal state then Obama has next-to-no chance in the heartland next November. 

The landslide is coming, hope Obama brought his skies! 

More on this later...

Holy Crap, a new blog post!

Okay,  I’m kind of tired of looking at the picture of the monkey in a Santa hat from my previous blog post showing up every day in the RSS feed on my home page, I think it’s time to blog about something. 

Now, I know none of you watched the Obama hosted pre-game show last night, and neither did I (you'd know this if you followed me on Twitter).  But I did listen to it via the Mark Levin Podcast today.  So as a service to you, so you won't have to listen to it, here is my analysis of Obama's speech: 

1.  Offering a tax cut to businesses who hire or give raises to employees: 

While I’ve never met a tax cut I didn't like, unless sales are up and the business is expanding there is no reason to hire more people.  Raises work as a means of retaining good employees.   This is proposal based on flawed logic.  Obama doesn't realize that a business is in business to make money. It does not exist to play games with the tax code, but to maximize profit.  Hiring only occurs when it helps the goal of profit.   

2.  Rebuilding infrastructure 

Isn’t that was TARP was for? What about the last stimulus?  Shouldn't we have repaved every road, rebuilt every bridge, and rebuilt every public building by now?  The money designated for these projects never ends up helping the economy because at every level the unions take a cut and the work never gets done because it's being performed by aforementioned unions. 

3. Repairing and rebuilding schools

This could have been lumped in with #2, but I decided to separate it because it was a specific point in Obama's speech. The President makes the claim that teachers can't teach, and children can't learn as well in dilapidated buildings?  This has nothing to do with jobs!   Jobs come when the economy starts expanding again and that rarely if ever happens in a classroom.  The classic complaint that teachers are underpaid is refuted by the fact that most people are paid according to what they directly produce.  Teachers, while providing a necessary service, are not the producers in the is economy.  In a classroom there is no combining of raw materials to create something of greater value than it's component parts.   Investing in rebuilding classrooms does not expand the economy. 

Obama spoke on more than this but this is roughly when I stopped paying attention, and being slightly hungover today this is all I’m willing to really write about at this time. 

So I’ve complained but didn’t offer a solution.  You’re probably saying, “If you’re so smart how would you fix things?”   Okay, give me a minute.

I think I would use the Jerry Seinfield approach.  The comedian once said about department store clerks who ask “may I help you?” that they are either trying to help him or trying to sell him something.

Government works much the same way.  Any time the government tries to “help” the situation only ever gets worse.  Don’t try to help the economy.  Go back to your designated tasks of building a few roads, delivering mail and keeping the king of England on his side of the Atlantic.  Those of us who actually live and work in the economy will take care of that ourselves! 

My unfortunate announcement

Dear family and friends,

It is with sadness I must announce that Krystle and I are no longer together.

We have come to the decision to separate, with a dissolution being finalized this Friday.

I will forever cherish the time that I was fortunate to have spent with her. She would like to express the same sentiment toward me as well.

We only wish the best for each other in all things going forward.

Sincerely,

Andy Zoric

P.S. if this message has upset you, here are some pictures of animals wearing hats to make you feel better.

How do you solve a problem like Qaddafi?

Our fearless leader has a problem. He now has to mobilize the military against his good friend Moammar Kaddafi. Don't call it a war, call it a kenetic something-or-other... Kind of makes it sound like an X-Box accessory.

Regardless, we are now left with the question How do you solve a problem like Gaddafi?

With apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein

How do you solve a problem like Gaddafi?

How do you get a dictator to step down?
How do you find a word that means Gadaffi?
Brutal, megalomaniacal, genocidal, a terrorist, a bully!

Many a Libyan would like to expel him
They’ll send him out to a foreign land
But how do you make him go?
The UN or NATO?
But not without a US no-fly errand

Oh, how do you solve a problem like Qaddafi?
How do they get him off their sand?

He’s the top man in Tripoli
Spells his name with a G (or a K or a Q)
A terrorist with fashion sense
He’s a dictator and magistrater
He’s a brute, he’s a thug, he’s a real baddie.

He’s shot down our jets
Been a general mid-east pest.
He was a colonel when he took over and hasn’t had a promotion since!
He’s a bad boy and hence,
Al Qaeda start riots
In protest.

How do you solve a problem like Gaddafi?
How do you get a dictator to step down?
How do you find a word that means Gadaffi?
Brutal, megalomaniacal, genocidal, a terrorist, a bully!

Many a Libyan would like to expel him
They’ll send him out to a foreign land
But how do you make him go?
The UN or NATO?
But not without a US no-fly errand

Oh, how do you solve a problem like Qaddafi?
How do they get him off their sand?

And if you want to dispute my rhyme scheme and cadence (I really don't even know what that is), here's a link to the song from the movie.

enjoy!

A Not so Elementary Watson

Or I’ll take 3 pounds of grey goo for $1000, Alex

This week International Business Machine (or IBM for short) faired its Watson supercomputer in a Jeopardy! match against former Jeopardy! grand champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. In short the computer won.

Watson is a supercomputer. Represented at his Jeopardy podium by an avatar on a flat-screen and a voice eerily reminiscent of HAL 9000, the real Watson was in a server room next door. Consisting of several racks of dozens of IBM servers each. The total area of Watson takes up about as much room as four standard sized book cases. But to make Watson work he is housed in a special climate-controlled server room that feels something like a meat locker if you were to walk in there. All in all Watson would fill up the area of a very nice sized living room.

According to IBM’s Watson website:

Operating on a single CPU, it could take Watson two hours to answer a single question. A typical Jeopardy! contestant can accomplish this feat in less than three seconds. For Watson to rival the speed of its human competitors in delivering a single, precise answer to a question requires custom algorithms, terabytes of storage and thousands of POWER7 computing cores working in a massively parallel system

That’s a lot of effort just to be able to compete with three pounds of grey goo that comes as standard equipment on every human. And your brain is a lot more portable than Watson.

As Jennings said in his final Jeopardy response: “I for one welcome our new computer overlords” (borrowing a line from “The Simpsons”). But are the computers taking over? Has Watson had an original idea yet? The answer is likely “no”. While Watson can filter an incomprehensible amount of data in to a few probable answers in just a few seconds, but Watson has no creativity. Like a desktop calculator, your iPhone or Amazon.com's "recommended for you" Watson knows only what he is told, and cannot formulate his own thoughts. That is where humans still hold the advantage.

That being said, had Jennings bet enough to best Watson in final Jeopardy would Watson eventually send a cyborg back in time to kill Jennings’ mother?

Riot like an Egyptian!

This morning I heard "Walk like an Egyptian" on the radio on my way to work today. On top of that, last night I watched the HBO documentary on Reagan. I guess stuff from or about the 80's just makes me feel good. So with all apologies to the Bangals I present to you my latest song parody:

Riot like an Egyptian

In the old Cairo town square
People are gathering, you know
It's a protest (Oh whey Oh)
They say Mubarak's got to go

From the Pyramids to the Nile
They're fed up with the prez'
Democracy? (We don't know?)
30 years and nothing's changed.

Protesters light the fires and say
'Ay Oh Whey Oh, Ay whey oh'
Riot like an Egyptian!

Protesters got their signs
Written in perfect English
You scratch your head (Oh whey Oh)
Who is really behind all this?

All the prices are going up
Why all this inflation?
It’s a perfect in (Oh whey Oh)
For the Muslim Brotherhood

Everyone in Mumbark’s regime stays Away
Ay oh whey oh, ay oh whey oh
Riot like an Egyption

Turn on your phone And try to Tweet
There’s no internet, try Facebook
Mubarak turned it off (oh whey oh)
Telecoms brought it back

Rioters outnumber all the cops
Been replaced by the Army
Protesters go on (oh whey oh)
Bomb the embassy down the block.

All the media with their scripts
Can’t seem to get a handle on this
It’s not like Iran? (oh whey oh)
Sharia is going Egyptian

All the Muslim chicks in their covered dress say
Ay oh whey oh, ay oh whey oh
Riot like an Egyptian
Riot like an Egyptian

Persepolis does not need a sequel!

First off, this is not a movie review, though I do plan on mentioning a few movies in the paragraphs to come. This is a commentary on the Egyptian revolt currently happening half a world away, yet somehow it all seems familiar?

It seems familiar because I’ve seen the movie “Persepolis (2007)”. It is an animated film, based on the true story of a young girl who is just outspoken enough during the Islamic revolution in Iran that her family sends her to France for her own safety. She eventually returns only to find she does not fit in where her now fundamentalist Muslim countrymen.

While I usually reserve the phrase “unnecessary sequel” for movies with words like “Harold and Kumar” in the title, the lack of need for this sequel is more pressing as it pertains to the world stage.

In Persepolis the Shah, the western supported leader of Iran, is overthrown by popular opinion of the Iranian people. However what ensues is the rise of what we now know to be a theocracy of fundamentalist Islam. You may not think that as recently as 1979 that Iran was a progressive city with vibrant culture and tourist destination, but guess what. It was!

Young Marji, through whose eyes the story is told, is excited to learn that the communists were gaining a foothold to take power from the Shah. However, the communists, never acting out of the interest of the population in general, see their best chance at consolidating power by using the predominant religion of the region.

There may be a young Marji in Egypt right now. Much like the Shah’s regime was supported by the west, so is Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. Much like Iran was a tourist destination where westerners found generally the same freedom they find at home, so was Egypt. In fact I just saw Facebook photos of a friend of mine at the great pyramids just before the rioting started.

The question is, what type of sequel will history write to this story? Keep in mind not all sequels are bad. For instance Rocky II was a much more moving story than the first Rocky movie. But what my biggest fear is for Egypt is that we will get Teen Wolf Too.

Following the success of the Michael J. Fox film Teen Wolf somebody had the bright idea to do another. With either Fox’s skyrocketing success, or his good sense not to be in the second film, we get a half-assed rewrite of the original script with new star Jason Bateman. Essentially Teen Wolf Too is just the same basic plot, with many of the same characters in place and only the location and central character change. It can only be described as a completely unnecessary sequel.

Egypt does not need to be Iran Part Two. Meaning the exact same thing that happened to Iran does not need to happen again only five hundred miles Southwest. The people of Egypt, who will likely not rest until there is regime change, must be prudent in their next steps. Even the people of Iran asked for Regime change in 2009. The government was much more swift to put down that protest and there was no change. However, Mubarak’s administration did shut down the internet as did Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Unless Egypt gets a true democracy, expect more of this oppressive activity, and for it to only get worse.

What will expatriate Egyptians say about their homeland ten years from now? Will they be like Marji and, with a heavy heart, eventually return to post revolution home? Or will there be peace and prosperity in Egypt for years to come?

In the news:

The Adventures of Andy Presents:

IN THE NEWS!

It’s been a while but I can’t help myself today so here are today’s headlines!

REPORT: JOHN EDWARDS ENGAGED...

Former presidential candidate John Edwards is engaged to longtime mistress Rielle Hunter, according to a report.

The Jan. 17 issue of the National Enquirers says that the ex-North Carolina senator asked the mother of his lovechild to marry him only three weeks after burying his wife, Elizabeth, who died from cancer. The couple is said to be tying the knot some time this summer.

Editorial comment:
I’m sure he can’t wait to knock up someone else on the side!

Katie Couric: Muslim Cosby Show Needed To Fight Anti-Muslim Bigotry

Katie Couric has said that she thought of a way to end some of the hatred and bigotry in America – aMuslim equivalent to the “Cosby Show”

Editorial Comment:
Yes, I agree, The Cosby Show did wonders for the image of Blacks in America after the Blacks declared Jihad and destroyed skyscrapers in New York.

Viking Found 'Organics' on Mars...

More than 30 years after NASA's Viking landers found no evidence for organic materials on Mars, scientists say a new experiment on Mars-like soil shows Viking did, in fact, hit pay dirt.

The new study was prompted by the August 2008 discovery of powerful oxygen-busting compounds known as perchlorates at the landing site of another Mars probe called Phoenix.

Editorial comment:
I’m sorry, I thought this was going to be a story about Brett Favre.

Court ruling opens the door to more nudity on TV...

Call it full moon rising -- soon, there could be bare butts all over the boob tube.

The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated the $1.21 million worth of fines that the FCC levied against ABC after alleging that the network violated broadcast indecency standards for daring to show actress Charlotte Ross' naked behind during a 2003 episode of "NYPD Blue."

When overthrowing the fine, the court cited the FCC's own declaration that "nudity itself is not per se indecent." It also reiterated that the FCC's context-based indecency test is "unconstitutionally vague," as previously determined by the court when the FCC demanded fines from Fox when profanities were aired during the 2006 Billboard Music Awards.

Editorial Comment:
FINALLY!

Additional Comment by Marge Simpson:
” Fox turned into a hardcore sex channel so gradually, I didn't even notice.”

From the episode “Lisa’s Wedding” aired March 19, 1995

China plans $1.3 billion 'seven-star hotel'...
Beijing authorities plan to build a "seven-star hotel" modelled after Dubai's Burj Khalifa -- the world's tallest building -- in a $1.3 billion joint project with Saudi Arabia.

The hotel will be erected in western Beijing's Mentougou district some 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the Chinese capital's centre, the state-run BeijingMorning Post said in a Thursday report, quoting a local parliamentary meeting.

Editorial comment:
Priceline's new commercial will probably sound something like “Seven-star hotels at five-star prices!”

That's the news... I hope it was as good for you as it was for me!

Ted Williams: Private Sector Success

It may only have been the fifth day of 2011 year but feel good story of the year may have just happened in my own back yard.

The man with the golden voice: Ted Williams, a panhandler in Columbus, Ohio who literally overnight went from homeless to having a dream career doing voice over work with the Cleveland Cavilers, the NFL and other media outlets.

Look at the timeline here. First a private citizen records a video, an audition video if you will, and posts it to YouTube (owned by Google Inc. NASTAQ: GOOG).

The Columbus Dispatch (privately owned) posted the video to their website generating media buzz.

The Cleveland Cavilers (privately owned sports franchise) courts Williams with the website www.wewanttedwilliams.com.

While most media types will focus on the inspirational factors of his story, such as his overcoming addiction; his spiritual awakening and surviving homlessness; the real story here is that Williams became a success without the help of government!

Ted Williams has immense vocal talent. From the YouTube Video where he his just goofing off talking about classic sole, I find myself wanting to hear that voice.

He also has what it takes in the free market to succeed. He tried. With little resources other than a hand-printed sign and a busy intersection he auditioned until someone noticed him. Soon he will be the voice of NFL Films, the Cavaliers and many, many commercials I’m sure.

Humble beginnings are common among America’s great success stories. Facebook started in a dorm room. Apple Computer began in a garage. On the other hand, Amtrak finds it’s roots in congress.