Got My Mickey On

I am just back from a Disney World vacation and I am re-energized and motivated once again.
Thanks to my awesome girlfriend for making my first vacation in a while possible.

Disney World simultaneously inspires me and depresses me. This was my third trip there; the first two I took during the week prior to Christmas. I have to say that even though its in Florida, it is impossible not to get in the Christmas spirit visiting WDW at that time of the year.

It may be obvious why WDW inspires someone like me who is an entrepreneur at heart and someone who is in the entertainment business as well.
But why would it depress someone like me? Well, for a couple of reason; 1- I always thought that I was a big thinker but when I take a look around that place I come to the conclusion that my dreams weren’t as big as I originally thought; 2- I always had a thing for theme parks since a very early visit to the Bronx Zoo, of all places, and in the back of my mind wanted to create something like that; 3- There is no way that at this point I could generate enough capital to start a huge project like I would want now. At the age of 51 now, I suppose that even if I stumbled across enough millions of dollars to start a new project I probably wouldn’t anyway since that would certainly be enough to retire and do the traveling that I would really want to do.
Sure, the second thought listed does sort of mean that I still dream big in a way, but the third one counteracts that so I may have to, let’s say…think elsewhere…to satisfy myself.

WDW impresses me simply because of the customer service that they offer. It is first rate and first class and no other place can touch it that I have ever visited. The very first place I went to eat after leaving WDW was a place at the Orlando Airport to eat. The people working there were just not WDW class and I was standing there watching them and waiting for them and all I could do was critique them poorly while doing so. 

One of the Walt Disney’s mottos was “If you can dream it, you can make it happen.”
I left WDW ready to restart ideas that have been on the back burner for a variety of bad reasons and even have a couple of new ones to kick off.
Hopefully the reality to which I returned won’t be an obstacle for me. With one of the things I have been trying to do for the last 3 months I am having an issue with a friend of mine who is a web programmer and I can’t get him to do the work that I need to get the website that I need up and running. He can’t “wrap his head” around my idea so he isn’t “so motivated” to do the work even though he’ll get a percentage of the project for doing it. Here is a guy who simply lacks the vision necessary to get him out from the cubicle in which he works and he hates.
He needs a trip to WDW himself.

While in Florida I took the girl to ESPN’s Wide World of Sports to watch the preseason opening game of the Atlanta Braves (who train there) and the Detroit Tigers.
First of all, it was a $100 for the two tickets, which was absurd. But I always thought it would be cool to go to a Spring Training game because these games are always played in smaller parks so all of the seats were good. This was true for this park too, which holds about 10,000 people.
At the game, which the Tigers won 2-1, I was able to get some good pictures of Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, the Upton brothers and a few others as well as Fred McGriff, the Crime Dog, who brought out the lineup card for the Braves.
The Braves held the Tigers without a hit for 7 innings and I started to think there was a chance to witness a little history until they scored 2 runs off some scrub in the top of the eighth to take the lead.
In the bottom of the ninth the Braves broke the combined shutout bid when non-roster invitee Joey Terdoslavich hit the first homerun of the year for either team.

All I could think of was the nicknames and the teasing Joey would have to endure in any of the dugouts in which he will sit during his baseball career. Because there is no way anybody can hold off calling this guy the Big Terd.
I can see the sports headline now…”Braves Cut Terd,” “Terd Flushed to Minors,” “Terd at Third,” etc.

The Big Terd

If I haven’t already done so I would recommend ABC’s “The Neighbors” for some comic relief. The “Neighbors” are aliens who live in a development into which an Earthling family moves.
All of the aliens have taken on Earthly names and all of them are names of famous athletes.
The leader of the aliens, Larry Bird, is played by Simon Templeton. His wife, Jackie Joyner-Kersey, is played by Olatokunbo Susan Olasobunmi Abeke Olagundoye (Toks for short) which ironically enough sounds alien itself. Olagundoye is pretty hysterical and I have seen her do a whole bunch of impressions that are outstanding. Her full name is actually and I kid you not.
Dick Butkus and Reggie Jackson are their two children’s names. Jamie Gertz plays the Earthling wife and may be the only name of which you may be aware on the show.

Larry Bird, Jackie Joyner-Kersey, Dick Butkus, Reggie Jackson
"The Neighbors"

I am a bit behind on the Bachelor, but I do know that I correctly chose 2 of the four women to make the final four on the show. This prediction was made on day one of the show, of course, and without the inside information from ABC employees. This isn’t as good as I have done in the past, but considering the fact that 26 women started the show, still isn’t too bad.

Well its off to prepare for a podcast taping tonight with my refreshed attitude and motivation. More new Dungearoke songs to record also.

Peace out.

Done

Red Hot?

It’s time to take a look at the keyword searches that have brought people from around the world to my tiny little blog originating from Newark, DE, USA.

maria molina measurements

erica campbell

deep roy

soccer gay

andrea tantaros

deep roy eastbound and down

demi lovato background give your heart a break

eliza dushku hot

erica campbell hot 2008

hayden panettiere hockey

As usual, its mostly dudes searching for hot girls. How Deep Roy got in the middle of that, I have no idea though.
I also can’t figure out what hockey and hayden panettiere have to do with other and then further can’t figure out why that search would land me here.

Gay Soccer continues to be a popular search worldwide and when some people do get here I get a nasty note now and then, which just makes me laugh.

I should mention that now that I have mentioned these search terms again that there will be more traffic on top of it.

What I would like to do now, though, is get back on track a little and add some new hot women to the blog. This way when horny dudes from around the world search for them they will land here and then hopefully click on ads that will send money to me.

Somehow Katy Perry has landed in the top 4 of Maxim’s Top 100 Hottest Women list for the past three years. She isn’t even close on my list but I figure since she is popular I will put her here. She is dumb as a stump though so even if she paid me to get busy with her, I just wouldn’t do it. After all, whoever would marry than tard Russell Brand and then wear outfits with our dictator and our ass clown VP’s names on it is qualified for short bus transportation.

Katy Perry

I should add that Maxim has lost all credibility when it comes to listing hot women. Not only is Katy Perry not worthy of the top spot, as she has won before, but this year they put Lois Griffin (from The Family Guy) at #85 and Stephen Colbert at #69 (ahead of Sophia Vergara I might add) and Natalie Portman didn’t even make the top 100.

So soon there will be a Dungeon of Manlove Hot 100 and it will be official.

The first red head to make it here is Christina Hendricks from Mad Men fame. But there really isn’t anything about her red hair that might potentially place her on our Dungeon Hot 100 list, if it comes to fruition. Nope…I think it just might be something else...or some things.

Christina Hendricks

Next is Arriany Celeste. She is really only known for being a ring girl at UFC. But who cares, right? While she has dabbled in film and music, I think its just a matter of time before her hotness just lands her a regular gig doing something more substantial. But then again, the UFC has money so I’m thinking it might be hard for her to leave that day job.

Arriany Celeste

So that’s about it. Thought I would make a contribution here before two weeks flow by again.

Oh yeah…the Super Bowl is coming up soon. Hey, will I get sued for saying Super Bowl? Will NFL lawyers tell me to cease and desist? Ah… let them come, I can use the publicity. I like the Ravens over the 49ers in this game. But I more interested in my block pool at my gym where I could possibly win a years worth of membership fees. Go Flacco!

Done

More Degrees of Bacon

Politics later, dumb stuff first.

I watched the pilot for The Following on Fox with Kevin Bacon last night with my girl friend. (Yes, that’s right ladies, I’m off the market, sorry.) This one looks like a winner. It is about a convicted serial killer who escapes from prison to finish off someone he nearly killed before he was caught. Bacon plays the retired FBI agent who the killer stabbed in the heart as he was trying to save the girl the killer didn’t kill originally. Bacon gets called back in as a consultant who knew the killer the best and re-captures him, as the killer wanted from the beginning. The killer has a cult following on the outside who he directs and Bacon will get re-involved with new murder investigations throughout the course of the series.
This one looks to be a winner and finally a great replacement for 24, which has now been off for a few years.

Kevin Bacon

Fans of the game “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon” are going to get a whole new set of names to use to win their game now. With credited extras and cameos there could be a hundred more by the time the series ends. If you don’t know what that game is, go here… http://www.sixdegrees.org/kevinbacongameforgood for a brief example of the game and to check out his cause.

Since I tape my podcast on Monday nights I have to wait to watch The Bachelor on a replay On Demand. So I have just seen the first two episodes even though three have aired. The second round of KO’s provided no shockers and there was one girl who quit. So I am still in the game with my predictions.

I have watched the first couple of American Idol shows basically because nothing else I wanted to watch was available. I really can’t stand the dynamic, fake or otherwise, between the two new female judges, Mariah Carey and Nikki Manaj. What I really can’t stand is how the latter just needs to have all of the attention. This season will be more about the judges than the singers and it will continue to slide down in the ratings. The first two shows did not win their time slots for one of the very few rare times in the show’s history.

I have been captivated by the show The Amish Mafia on Discovery. Living near Lancaster, PA and heading their often (just did a show there a few nights ago) made my attention turn this way.
This show’s first season only had 6 episodes but it was riveting as could be for me. I have seen and heard enough about the Amish culture to be rather shocked at some of the things that I saw on this show.
There have been plenty of skeptics of the show who believe that the show is faked in all sorts of ways. If you have happened to watch it the one issue that I have is that there are some actual crimes being aired on the show and that sort of makes me wonder if it has been real at all. I also thought that perhaps some sort of deal was struck along the way somehow so that if an incident of, lets say, felony vandalism was being captured that it was taken care of financially instead of through a court system.

John, Alvin, Lebanon Levi, and Jolin from the Amish Mafia

Now that I think more about the overall show though I guess what happens doesn’t really surprise me. People are simply imperfect. Even the most devoutly religious people, as the Amish are, are still human and subject to succumbing to temptations.

Speaking of shows that are off, Fringe aired its series finale this past week. I thought it was good but lacked action I think necessary for a “war” that was being waged. But all told the show was great and I’ll miss it just as I thought it was running at its peak.

If you’re up for watching some porn just go to the SYFY cable network and watch something called “Lost Girls.” I think that is the name of it. I had the channel on when I turned on the TV the other night and there were two girls going at it…and you know what I mean by “going at it”… for about 5 minutes or so before the show started getting into other things. I seriously thought that a strap-on was going to come into play at any moment. 

Cable Porn

Alas, it didn’t.

Naturally I watched the rest of the show.

----------------------------------------  

Now it’s time for politics so you can tune out now, if you want. Keep in mind that I am officially a registered Republican but consider myself a Libertarian. You have been warned.

Professional golfer Phil Mickelson has made the news of late. It seems as though the new tax increases in California are just a bit over the top for him and that he wants to “make some changes.”

Voters in California passed an increase for those earning over $250,000 a year, you know, all of those who Obama says aren’t “paying their fair share.”

With these increases added to the rest of Phil’s tax burdens he will have to pay 63-64% of his income in taxes.

Last year, Mickelson made about 62 million dollars, according to CNBC, and his California state tax bill alone was set to be about 6.5 million dollars. The tax increase jacked that up another 1.8 million because they made retroactive to January 2012. So the voters of California literally have voted to steal money from people who believed that their rate was one thing but now told, “no, sorry we are taking more.”

Well, here is what those greedy bastards have done. Phil is now contemplating “changes” in his life and that could very well mean moving from California. If he moves, and I think if he moves before a certain date, California will not get that extra 1.8 million. I saw on CNBC that they wouldn’t get the other 6.5 million either, but that doesn’t seem to make sense to me so lets just say that California is out 1.8 they thought they had and budgeted to spend somehow.

TEXAS HERE I COME

Also, Phil was part of an ownership group preparing to buy the San Diego Padres and now he is probably pulling out of that deal also.

So this is what potentially happens, and has happened in states like Maryland, where “millionaire taxes” are enacted. People move, change their habits, and find other ways to save their money.

The same thing is happening in France right now since the new Socialist President of France jacked up rates to 75%. One famous actor, Gerard Depardieu, moved out and now even the former President Sarkozy is moving to London to avoid paying that Communist rate.

There are growing numbers of people in this country, as evidenced by the re-election of our own Socialist President, that somehow have been brainwashed into believing that the government should be the center of our lives. Further, they believe that the government is entitled to just simply tax us as much as they want as spend our money the way that they want and that somehow paying these confiscatory rates is somehow akin to patriotism.

We need to reeducate these sheep in our country who believe that and make sure that they realize their money is THEIR money, not the governments. We need to make sure that these sheep understand that FREEDOM means that people like Mickelson can move wherever they wish in this country to any place which best befits him and his family. Mickelson should be able to do so without being called a traitor for trying to KEEP HIS OWN MONEY THAT HE EARNED. And let’s never forget that the money we make is OURS, it is not the governments. The government is not entitled to our money. We do not work for the government; the government works for us and they are supposed to continue to create and maintain environments so that we, the people, can pursue life liberty and happiness, not create obstacles to any of the above.

These sheep need to learn some basic math. That Phil Mickelson, if he pays 60% of the 62 million dollars he made is going to pay over 36 million dollars in taxes. I think that is WELL BEYOND his fair share already yet we are told that he still needs to pay more.

The same people who beg for Obama to take this money are paying rates of a total of 25% with everything included. So these sheep also need to learn that it is THEY who are not paying their fair share. Because if its ok to tax Mickelson 63%, then that means it ok to tax everyone else at that same rate.

We play a game on my podcast called “Be Careful What You Wish For.” If you sheep don’t think its possible that our mighty leader and his minions think that they need to get more money from you too, you are sorely mistaken. Let’s face it; everyone DID just get a tax increase this past January 1^st. Sure, it was something that been cut a couple of years ago (the SSI rate which never should have been cut to begin with) but its still a tax increase. How do you think you get set up for increases? Just like that…a return to “old rates” that you were comfortable with before. This helps make you comfortable with “small” increases.

More are coming and they have to with the new health care laws. Oh yeah, you are already paying more for health insurance than you were before. That’s not a “tax increase” though for the sheep in their minds. It’s the evil insurance companies.

So we need to re-educate our sheep to make sure they know that the reason the insurance companies had to raise rates was because of their mighty leader, the one who would take us to France tax rates if he could. But he knows that such a jump would wake up the sleeping giants who are already starting to stir and who usually have guns.

Ah…but just keep those sleeping giants from having guns and it makes passing all of that other evil Socialist crap much easier now, doesn’t it?

Done

And the Winner is....

Well it took the MLB Hall of Fame balloting and the season opener of The Bachelor to get me motivated to write my first blog entry of 2013 and not necessarily in that order.

But we’ll take baseball first here. For the first time since 1996 no one was elected to the Hall of Fame. This year’s ballot included two particular players who would normally have been a lock for this honor – Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Of course both of them, and a few others on the current ballot, have been accused of using steroids in their careers. Bonds, the all-time home run leader with 762 and Clemens who won a record 7 Cy Young awards in his career both spent time in court fighting off allegations against them. It seems as if they simply didn’t convince enough members of the HoF voting jury that they weren’t guilty.

Here is the final vote count remembering that it takes a mention on 75% of the sportswriters ballots to earn an entry into the HoF.

The 2013 ballot featured 37 candidates, with 13 returnees and 24 newcomers.
Players remain on the ballot for 15 years as long as they receive at least 5 percent of the vote.
Listed are the players' names, number of votes, vote percentage and years on the ballot.
Craig Biggio    388  (68.2%) 1
Jack Morris    385  (67.7%) 14
Jeff Bagwell    339  (59.6%) 3
Mike Piazza    329  (57.8%) 1
Tim Raines    297  (52.2%) 6
Lee Smith    272  (47.8%) 11
Curt Schilling    221  (38.8%) 1
Roger Clemens    214  (37.6%) 1
Barry Bonds    206  (36.2%) 1
Edgar Martinez    204  (35.9%) 4
Alan Trammell    191  (33.6%) 12
Larry Walker    123  (21.6%) 3
Fred McGriff    118  (20.7%) 4
Dale Murphy    106  (18.6%) 15
Mark McGwire    96  (16.9%) 7
Don Mattingly    75  (13.2%) 13
Sammy Sosa    71  (12.5%) 1
Rafael Palmeiro    50  (8.8%) 3

Everyone below is off future ballots
Bernie Williams    19  (3.3%) 2
Kenny Lofton    18  (3.2%) 1
Sandy Alomar Jr.    16  (2.8%) 1
Julio Franco    6  (1.1%) 1
David Wells    5  (0.9%) 1
Steve Finley    4  (0.7%) 1
Shawn Green    2  (0.4%) 1
Aaron Sele    1  (0.2%) 1
Jeff Cirillo    0  (0%) 1
Royce Clayton    0  (0%) 1
Jeff Conine    0  (0%) 1
Roberto Hernandez    0 (0%) 1
Ryan Klesko    0  (0%) 1
Jose Mesa    0  (0%) 1
Reggie Sanders    0 (0%) 1
Mike Stanton    0  (0%) 1
Todd Walker    0  (0%) 1
Rondell White    0  (0%) 1
Woody Williams    0  (0%) 1

It is a joke that Jack Morris is up that high but because of the depth of the field and the lack of enthusiasm for voting for those who writers believe cheated the game, he is there and still has one more year.

It is a little shocking to me, as a result, that Biggio, Schilling, Raines and Trammell didn’t get more votes. Sosa barely registered and how the hell is Don Mattingly still that low?

It will get interesting next year as Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas become eligible. People are throwing Mike Mussina’s name into that group but I don’t think he is a Hall of Famer.

The following year brings in Randy Johnson, who should be a unanimous winner (as Maddux should be next year.)

I would love to find out who the one sportswriter was who actually put Aaron Sele on his HoF ballot.

Time will tell how long some of these players are punished. This was a huge statement by the sports writing community though and, as far as I am concerned, is a shame. The whole steroid era is a disgrace and it’s horrible because there were some real exciting years and players. Now we are forced to look back and know that most of it was just a scam.

That goes for that fraud Lance Armstrong too, who is apparently mulling over a confession. 

 More importantly, The Bachelor started this past Monday. As some of my friends know, I have correctly chosen the winner of the past two seasons from the first show of the year.
This year’s choice is not as clear as the past two were but I have chosen Lindsay Yenter, the girl who wore a wedding dress to the first show. My other picks for the final four are Selma Alameri, Tierra LiCausi, and Daniella McBride. My two wild cards are Lesley Murphy and Ashlee Frazier
There is a rumor out there, however, that the winner is Catherine Giudici.

Ashlee Frazier

Daniella McBride

Lesley Murphy

Catherine Giudici

Selma Alameri

Tierra LiCausi

Lindsay Yenter

I love this show because it’s the best comedy show out there. Think about it; 26 desperate “women” go on a national TV show to find “love.” The whole premise is such a joke which makes it, ironically, interesting for me to watch despite the reason ABC and the producers of the show want us to watch it (although they truly don’t care why we watch it.)

I find it hysterical that women who might otherwise seem half-way normal and attractive would go through this humiliating exercise in rejection like this. I get it that people want to get noticed and perhaps some could parlay an appearance into something else, but if they were at least be honest about it and say that is why they are there I would have more respect for them.
No, instead, I get to laugh every week as someone else does the crying ride home in the limo to the airport as they know that their wonderful vacation in California is done. That is really why these chicks cry…because they get to go to some wonderful places and do some pretty cool things. Most of them couldn’t really care much about the dude, although I sure can’t say it for all of them. It’s just more about the fun that they have. A possible appearance on Bachelor Pad is a plus too. Besides they all get to hang out as ex-cast members with all of the old cast members from seasons past. So while some may find a date, it seems to mostly end up being with others from other seasons.
Watch it just to watch these girls cry. It truly is hysterical.
The reason that I pick winners is because women who watch this show don’t have a clue about men’s taste in women. They mostly seem to choose some “down-to-Earth” homely girl as their favorite. You know, the one that is “there for the right reasons.” It’s just funny to know right away that most of the time the guy is going to pick the hottest one there. It was exactly how it laid out the last two years. This year, however, there is not a clear stand out so it’s a bit tougher.

That’s it. I’m done.

From My Cold Dead Fingers

With about ten days to go before the end of the Mayan calendar I began doing a countdown to the end of the world.

Naturally it was all in jest as I certainly don’t believe that 12-21-12 will be the date when the Earth blows up or anything remotely similar.
But for some people it will be the end of existence for them since people naturally, and even un-naturally, die every day.
With about 8 days left in the countdown the mass murder of 26 innocent people took place in a little town in CT, 20 of whom were children mostly 5 or 6 years of age.
A countdown even in jest seemed inappropriate for a few days and I’ve just sort of stopped it even after a few more passed.
Some people are really freaked out about this and some places have taken measures to make sure that floods of people don’t make their way into these places space to do bizarre end-of-the-world things.

So many others are far more articulate than I when debates begin about things like gun control and mental illness so it rarely makes sense to get in the middle of them when the debate gets heated. Even after when I read things that make sense that I could pass on to others it doesn’t make much sense because these things have made their way around the social media networks and I’m just parroting at that point. 

There are a couple of things that I read or noticed that I thought were interesting to note though and I will parrot them accordingly:
- Doctors accidentally kill more people in the US than guns purposely do. Yes, doctors save lives too, but so do guns when criminals know that potential victims have them.
- The flu killed 5 times as many people in the US as guns did in 2010 (50000 to 11000 - source CDC) Let's not get into heart disease and cancer stats.
- Alcohol induced deaths in 2010 were just over 25,000. We know what happened when alcohol was banned in this country.
- President Obama wants to tighten gun control but just sold 20 F-16 fighter jets to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. You know, that group that basically wants to kill as many non-believers as possible.

- Heroin, Cocaine, Meth and all sorts of drugs are banned and illegal in our country yet there continues to be a growing problem with them in our country.
- 446 school-aged children have been shot in Chicago this year, which supposedly has the toughest gun laws in the country. On the day of the Newtown massacre, 10 teens were shot in Chicago, 4 of who were killed. Just another day; no headline news of note to read there.

- Since Australia’s gun ban, armed robberies are up 69%, assaults with guns up 28%, gun murder up 19%, and home invasions up 21%. That, my friends, is called evidence that gun bans are not working.

- In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
- In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
- Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
- China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
- Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. (Seems that the end-of-the-world date was a little off for them.)
- Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
- Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

There is this other argument about assault rifles and semi and automatic weapons. My understanding of the whole debate about guns when the US Constitution was created is that the 2^nd amendment was written so that citizens could defend themselves against a government out of control. At that time the government didn’t have tanks and bazookas and grenades and chemical weapons and F-16 fighter jets. They had single-shot rifles. Citizens had the chance to fight on an even playing field.
It would be a bit extreme to suggest that citizens should be able to go out and buy tanks to defend themselves but its patently obvious that even with the ability to buy an automatic weapon that we are way overmatched if a battle ever came down to the citizenry and the US Government forces.

Here is the 2^nd Amendment to the US Constitution, for those who haven’t actually read it in a while, or ever.

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

I have heard some people read that sentence and state, emphatically, that to own a gun you have to be part of a militia.
I read it clearly as two different things – a militia and the people.
I am placing an “and” in there where the comma is but to me the comma is the “and.”

But let’s take the first part which says “militia.” What does that word conger up in your mind these days? Terrorist group, perhaps? That is what gets sold to us these days by the leftist media. American militia groups are on watch lists in this country but it seems to me that if they are well regulated they should be just fine. How do we end up categorizing a militia as a terrorist group today?

I have a deep concern about giving any government too much power. Just look at some of the above examples I posted about what has happened in countries where governments took away guns from people.
I feel the same way about taxation in this country. I consider money to be powerful. Take a dollar and consider that one unit of power. The more dollars that the government takes from us through taxation the more units of power that they have. When a government devalues that dollar by printing more of them, they are taking power from us. This is something to fear, in my opinion. I don’t care who is in office, Democrat or Republican, they do not get the power. Our Constitution was written to guard against that. Yet I still hear people talking about how it is out of date or is a “living and breathing” document that can be changed because society changes. (There is an amendment procedure to deal with that so in that sense it is living and breathing.) But who are the ones who always seem to want those changes? The ones who want us to pay more taxes and remove guns from our homes thus taking power out of our hands. Does that make sense at all? DOES THAT SINK INTO HEADS AT ALL?!?!?!?!

The end of the world isn’t coming Friday for most of us. I’m not worried about that. I am, however, certainly more worried about many other things that are related to what is written above here.

Please trust that I have only thought about this an hour or so today and only today. I have otherwise kept my vow of focusing on the positive during this Holiday season, which has been fantastic for me thus far. I am fully confident that Christmas will come and it, too, will be awesome. I wish all of my friends a healthy and happy holiday season and a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (just in case I don’t write again…and it won’t mean because my world has ended, it will only mean that I am busy having fun and enjoying myself.)

Done

When Reindeer Fly

It’s tough to build an audience writing once a month but it’s been busy. Now that everything will slow down for a bit perhaps I can catch up with whatever this is here.

Well the end of the world is coming on December 21^st. The official countdown begins. This is the 3^rd end-of-the-world countdown I am experiencing in the last year and a half.
The last two were lead by Harold Camping, a kook, who was merrily playing his Pied Piper role to a flock of sheep who really should have revolted after the first time the world continued to thrive, let alone the second time.

This one is the real thing though, according to those who believe that because the Mayan calendar ran out of space on the rock on which they carved a calendar that the Earth will get sucked up in to a black hole of nothingness, or something like that.

If the world does end on the 21^st, it will now officially be ok with me though. There was one thing that I wanted to do at least one more time before I died and I did it a few times this past week, so I’m good to go now. It was one of those things that seemed to be in the same category of “when pigs fly,” or “when hell freezes over.” So everyone buckle up for that launch into oblivion in 17 days.

So we are well into the holiday season here in the United States and wherever else on the planet that isn’t dominated by heathens and atheists.

Frankly, I’m not a religious man. But I did grow up in a predominantly Christian society so I do celebrate the Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Both holidays I celebrate a little differently because of my beliefs or, you might even say, lack of them. But I do find people’s faith a very powerful thing and sometimes wish I could experience the same thing.
I have to settle for my own understanding of everything in that subject and am quite comfortable there.

I have had, in my life, a stack of real terrible things happen around Christmas time. For quite some time it soured me on the whole month. It was really a horrible way to live though; hating a whole month of the year and wishing it would just get over quickly.

There came a point when I found it necessary for my own sanity to rise out of the pit of misery from which I refused to remove myself for years.
The process of turning that part of my life around revolved around taking a brand new look at everything and simply coming to terms with my experiences on a whole new level. I focused only on the positive things that crossed my path refusing to allow negativity to breach the filter into my thoughts. This didn’t matter how little there may have been that was positive; I would only be grateful no matter what happened.

Sure enough, and soon enough, this time of the year became the most important to me. Mainly because it was evidence of a great power perhaps just in the fact that I could knowingly overcome adversity at any given moment I decided to do so, or perhaps…just perhaps…there is magic in Christmas after all.

Whatever it was, or is, I still refuse to allow myself to be anything but positive. Even though the last two Christmas seasons were pretty rough I still hung on to every little positive thing I could because I knew, from my new experiences, that I would pull through emotionally, if not in any other way. In the end, for me, I think that is probably the most important part.
That, maybe, is sort of similar to what those of faith experience in their journeys through life. So it is why I share a kindred spirit with them if not the exact same walk through our short period of time on Earth.

During this time of the year I prefer to do things that help me create special memories about which I can think through the year or around every Christmas season. Sure, it is a time for giving as well but I am pretty clearly someone who finds that buying presents doesn’t always quite fit into “giving” the way that I define it, or feel it.
Sometimes just the simplest gestures can have a very profound effect when it comes to giving and sharing.

Are you creating those moments for yourself or someone in your life? Ever just go to the mall and sit and admire the decorations that people spent a lot of time placing out? Ever just do some people watching at the same time? Ever drive around neighborhoods to see how people have decorated their homes? Make cookies together? Decorate your own tree, listen to Christmas music and hug and dance slowly together with someone special in the middle of it all? Take time to go see a Christmas show? How about an elementary school Christmas show where innocence and true spirit fills the air? How about accidentally attending a Guatemalan midnight Christmas mass given in a language you don’t speak? (One of my best experiences ever.)

The whole month goes too fast. It pains me to hear people wish for it all to be done. I always want more of it. The great thing for me is that I know I can carry that spirit with me right into the next year. Knowing I can do that simply makes life grand and spectacular for me. This season helps wash away negativity for me and there was a lot of it this year. But I can turn my frown upside down and sing Christmas songs; both clean and dirty of course, and become renewed again.

Can you?

Poorly Played....Poorly Played

Well now that the election is over and I have started to get over the horror of what happened I can get back to jotting down notes about crap that doesn’t really matter much.

I purposely avoided writing over the past few weeks because I am beyond passionate when it comes to things of a political nature. I struggle with the thought of cranking out political commentary twice a day or just sticking to the inane.

This blog is written in a Google environment though and I am someone…and you can call me paranoid…that is afraid to criticize our current regime…I mean, administration…too harshly.

Before getting to the BS I will just mention that our supreme leader who was to bring us all together and galvanize the world is now facing the fact that there is a growing outcry around this country from people in states who are gathering petitions to secede from the union. The number is over 20 that I can tell right now. That is a failure in leadership.
Oh yeah, and our glorious leader’s middle east policy is so fantastic that there is a full-blown crisis breaking out across the region like none I have seen in my lifetime.

On our podcast, The Dungeon of Manlove, we play a “game” called “Be Careful What You Wish For.” It generally is about musicians who upload their crappy music to the internet with hopes of being discovered and adored by the world (much like the goal of our podcast, I should add.) Over 60 million people wished for this re-election in a similar type of contest which has, unfortunately, much greater consequences.

I cut out “friends” over this election (but made some new ones) because I had a strict rule about discussing politics in the Facebook forum. Those who were actively against my side who broke that rule had two consequences; 1- were subject to my retort and; 2- subject to being added to my useful idiot list and removed from my “friend” list. Twenty such people, including my personal lawyer, are now looking to replace me.

Ok, so I apparently needed to get that off of my chest. Consider it done.

I have a time-honored tradition in my life that once Thanksgiving hits, I stop paying hourly attention to news of the world. I allow myself to absorb holiday spirit and become immersed in it. For 11 months I stress over the daily decisions by politicians and policy wonks and those who wish to destroy my way of living. On T-Day Eve, its over. Its all about Santa, Frosty, Rudolph, Jingle Bells and gaining 10-15 pounds eating Christmas treats.
In the past I used to take the last two weeks of the year off from work to vacation and just sit in places where people rush around like mad freaks and watch them rush around like mad freaks and simply relax. I’m not really able to do that now because I like to try to keep myself open to perform at holiday parties, but even in that situation I am working at a party so it’s a lot less like work.

I am very much looking forward to Wednesday night then so I can begin that process and just work more on creating dirty song parodies for the Dungeon show.

I have found new motivation in life writing, performing and recording filthy song parodies. In just a couple of months we have recorded two dozen of them and have been playing them on the podcast. Music, and apparently any type of music, attracts listeners. Our subscriber base expanded four fold in the last two months jumping from about 1200 to over 5000. It’s a phenomenon!

I was doing one of my mentalism shows the other night in North Carolina. I love doing them because most of what I do has not been seen by many who watch them as opposed to the hypnosis shows where many more are familiar with potential contents.
For this particular show I sent a prediction to my hosts a week in advance. On show night I was going to do a demonstration and the results of which were going to be revealed from inside the sealed prediction envelope.
The demonstration involved gathering random numbers from about 20 people in the audience. I wrote down the numbers on little pieces of paper and then had someone begin to add them.

While they were being added I did another routine which was another awesome one in a series of awesomeness that had been unfolding all night. During the middle of it I was checking the addition of my audience helper and the numbers weren’t adding up right.

After the current skit was completed I had to add the numbers myself and indeed they weren’t adding up to the number that I had predicted. I asked everyone to check the floor around them to see if I had dropped a piece of paper because my number was 28 short of what it was supposed to be.

When it was determined that the floor was clear I realized that my finale was blown and the secretary of the vice president of the company was holding the envelope which everyone knew had this prediction that was going to be revealed.

Well, basically that was the end of the show. Fortunately the rest of the evening went flawlessly, but what everyone will remember, unfortunately, was that I bombed my finale.
So people were starting to head home for the evening when I turned around to my table where I had all of my show supplies and sitting right there was the missing piece of paper with the number 28 on it. Unfortunately it was too late to salvage the finale other than to a couple key people who were at least able to see that my prediction was true.
Apparently when I picked up a calculator to give to my helper in the audience I dropped the piece of paper.

A few key people did see what happened and remained impressed nonetheless but I literally dropped the ball on the ending of what had otherwise been a great show night.

I now believe that The Voice is the best singing contest show on TV clearly now surpassing American Idol and the X Factor (which has never been as good as The Voice anyway.)
The talent on this show is well beyond these other shows. I know that many of the singers on there have been those who are currently working or have had deals in the past and it sometimes lacks the appeal of Idol where it seems like a regular person can be discovered, but its still great.

The winner of The Voice should be 18-year old Trevin Hunte, a big, burly, unassuming guy with a range that makes him able to do songs that women sing as well as men. He has a true gift that we will get to hear for decades to come, hopefully.



Trevin Hunte



But even with him leading the way there are other clear stars that will shine. Terry McDermott, a classic true rocker; Amanda Brown a sultry rocker; Nicholas David an early 70’s throwback with a Barry White type of voice; Cassadee Pope who can best be described as an Avril Levigne; and Sylvia Yacoub who nearly blew her chance trying to sing Celine Dion the other night, but at least came close enough to pulling it off to keep her in the competition.



Sylvia Yacoub



Cassadee Pope

I imagine that a couple of guys who have snuck their way into the top ten because of their looks will may outlast a couple that I have mentioned, which will be a shame, but those that I have mentioned I believe will have long careers in the music industry.

I think you can tell that I am rooting for the two girls above in the photos. Because someone has to offset the teeny bopper girls who vote for hot dudes who can't sing.

I would watch the X Factor but I rarely watch any shows that I watch at their regular broadcast time. I watch them late at night when I am done with anything else that I am doing On Demand (my cable company’s service.) X Factor is On Demand but only for a short period of time. So if I don’t watch it right away, I miss it. So if I miss a couple I have a tendency to lose interest.

Poorly played, X Factor, poorly played…just like my finale…just like the election.

Done