Damn.

Depression and anxiety are a cast-iron bitch, mm'kay? Between the electrical problems (for which I had to shell out shekels I can hardly spare right now-- oh, thank you "ownership society!") and recognizing that most of the openings that cross my path isn't really a job-- just a resume-sink-- sigh, anyway--

I'll try to update more in future, aaaiiiight?

Time Flies

and see how fast they really are.

But really-- I've just not been motivitated to post lately-- it's all been far too depressing.

The Rick Santelli rant was telling; and compltely in keeping with the conservative mindset.

Punishment is the marker of conservativism; revenge is their Polaris; and it underpins the nonsensical victimology of the poor, hard working white man.

Grow a pair already!

Per the Wall Street Journal, Gallup says:

President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats have more support from the American public on their efforts to pass an economic stimulus bill than do congressional Republicans who oppose it

My own singularly informal and utterly unscientific polling shows much the same results-- We The People know we're in the deep and stinky, and are looking to the Democrats to help pull us back out.

I, like many others, supported the President's efforts at bipartisanship, but as John Cole over at Baloon Juice put it, "I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane."

Democrats have got to understand-- it is in the Republicans' best interests (in the narrow, partisan, power-hungry sense of their interests) to force the American economy into a deep depression.

That way they can say, "See, the DemonRATS couldn't get it done, elect us and we'll bring back prosperity by cutting taxes again!"

It is time and past time to put paid to this Republican nonsense. The fact of the matter is that they will scream, shout, demand, and generally pitch a bitch to get their "ideas" (yes, I use the term VERY loosely) into the bill, then they'll vote against it anyway.

Mr. President, I know you're not reading this teeny little blog, but if you were I'd tell you it's time to go to the mattresses with these people. Use your bully pulpit and your world-reknowned communications skillz to tell this story to the American people. The Republicans aren't interested in post-partisanship or bi-partisanship; they're interested ONLY in power for their party.

They really need to get beat down.

Wii Be Gettin' Fit

Dripping with sweat and gasping for breath, I decided to buy a Wii console after playing tennis with my grandkids on their console.

I was at a bit of an advantage with them-- they are, after all, only eight and ten years old; and I did play varsity tennis when I was in high school (yes, we had high schools back in those days).  The thing, though, was that this was fun.  Sweat dripping off my nose, and soaking my shirt; but I had an enormous grin on my face as I hobbled over and fell on the couch.

Two weeks later I took my wife to her regular doctor's appointment; and mentioned to the nurse at the desk that I had heard the Wii Fit was a good thing for us sedentary types.

I think she trailed off about ten minutes later; but not until I'd heard far more than I ever expected about the benefits that she had gotten when she got one for herself.  When the Renkova came back out to the waiting room, she told me that her doc had given her much the same sort of enthusiastic recommendation.

Hmmmm.... seems like a pattern here.  Health professionals say it works, and well, its from Nintendo- by definition, it has to be fun, right?  So, off I went to We Be Toys 'n' Shit, to get a Wii Fit balance board and game pack.

I've had it for three weeks, now, and it is an interesting little piece of technology.  

First the annoying: the little voices that come from it.  Such as, when it tells you to step up on the balance board, and as you do, you hear "Ooooh!"  I think its the sound of pain; since it's decided I'm "obese." 

Yes, the bloody machine's decided that I'm obese based on my BMI index.  The game lets the user input height and age information, then calculates the BMI based on the user's weight.  Every "body test" I take on the machine, it squeals, "That's obese!" in that annoying little-critter voice.  

I generally toss it the bird, but the damn machine doesn't notice.

There are four different types of activities- Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobics, Balance Games.  Under each of those activities are multiple games, way too many to get into in a short post, so for the moment I'll just rant about one- the slalom skiing game in "Balance Games." 

The object, obviously, is to shift your weight to make turns on skis through a slalom course.

I've skied.  Back in the day, I loved it (though I was always "the only black guy" on the hill) because although it was cold as all hell, it really took care of my need for speed.  Anyway, I thought this would be easy.

Wrong.

I think by my third day of running the "beginner" course, I was regularly making a clean run; that is, hitting all the gates.  Not pretty, but at least getting down the hill.  That may sound boring, but I find myself doing it over and over and over and over and over-- my current fastest time is 25.86 seconds- suck on that, USA Skiing!

Srsly-- the shit is fun.  If you can spare the shekels, get one, especially if you're a fat-ass sedentary SOB like I am- er, was.  It's good for you!

Ask not for whom the bell tolls

I visited CNN.com today, as it is one of my wife's favorite sites.  I can hardly stand CNN, thinking of it as Fox News Lite; but that's never stopped the Renkova from playing their "news" video at ear-splitting, brain bashing volumes.  (Just kidding, Svetlana, just kidding... really)

I'm unemployed; my resume is out there on monster and careerbuilder and I've joined a job-seekers group as well.  And at that, right now I'm getting unemployment insurance payments- I still have a house (and it's still warm), and my cupboard is far from empty.

Nonetheless, having spent part of my childhood fairly poor (I can remember meals that consisted of turnip greens picked from the back yard and "hot water cornbrad," cornmeal mush fried into patties), it's one of my principal worries.  We're a long way from there-- but I can see it off in the distance.

So, when I read this, it struck home-- there are people in America who don't have enough to eat.

So much has changed in this country-- before Katrina, I would never have believed that dead bodies would be left in the streets of an American city.  Before Gitmo I would never have believed that the highest levels of the American government would approve of torture.  And I would never have believed that here in the land of fat folks that people would be going hungry, but here we are.

I find myself muttering and fuming about those rat-bastard-prick conservative Republicans and the Renkova chides me about being forward looking, thinking about how to help turn things around for the future, for our grandkids' sakes.

But as I told her, sometimes a mighty rage is a legitimate response.  Congressional Republicans should treat themselves to a screening of Pulp Fiction:

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

Just change one line-- "And you will know we are the American People when we lay our vengeance upon thee."

Another message from our Corporate Overlords

It seems that the failure of our banking system is the direct result of... wait for it... people dying with a credit card balance.

Seriously, the behavior of these people is difficult to spoof.

The universe tends to turn out as it should.

tee hee, tee hee