Category: General

Ok… I just had to post something about this. Apparently, rap mogul Jay Z is initiating a boycott of Cristal Champagne, because their managing director referred the the rappers and ‘blingers’ as “unwanted attention.”

I have a number of problems with this… on both sides.

First off, how stupid does this guy have to be? In just about every rap song, some guy who grew up in the projects is now extolling the virtues of Cristal, or “the Cris” or whatever the hell else they’re calling it. The company has gotten better than free advertising, in that an entire generation of rap fans, wannabes, and hangers-on want to drink that swill at $450 a bottle. ‘Unwanted attention’ you pretentious prick? Nobody in their right mind should pay $450 a bottle for anything, let alone champagne. And you just shot your blinged out goose in the ass. Smart business there.

Secondly, why in the hell do these rappers, wannabes, general dumbasses drink something that costs that much? Ok, I can understand the rappers… I mean, they have to spend money like its going out of style (I think its written in their record contracts), and there are only so many gold teeth and Bentleys you can buy. However, I’m willing to bet that 95% of these people who have had, or want to have Cristal wouldn’t know good champagne if it rubbed Vaseline on their hineys and called them special. If you were to slap a Cristal label on a $4.78 bottle of the local brut, I guaran-damn-tee they couldn’t tell you the difference. Kinda like when you feed that annoying asshole non-alcoholic beer all night and they act like they’re so blasted. Whatever… you shithead. Even on the Sopranos this season, AJ was arguing with his parents Tony and Carmella how his Blockbuster job doesn’t pay enough and uses the argument, “the prices in the clubs is so high!… Cristal is $500 a bottle and there is a 3 bottle minimum!”. To which his folks reply, “YOU SPEND $1500 ON CHAMPAGNE!?” “Uh… not every weekend…” He is in desperate need of a punch in the face… which he never got, by the way.

Unless you’re pulling down 6 figures a year, you shouldn’t be drinking it. Even if you ARE pulling down 6 figures a year, that usually means you have some knowledge and skills that are worth 6 figures, and you should friggin know better.

Why the hell do I care? I don’t know. It just pisses me off, I suppose.

I don’t know if anyone else is a Kevin Smith fan (Clerks, Dogma, Chasing Amy), but I love the guy. He has a blog where he writes about all kinds of stuff. You can tell that he is first and foremost a writer. Very entertaining. His blog is http://silentbobspeaks.com

Now, bear in mind, he is definitely for mature audiences. But I find him very funny. For example, here is a post he wrote about visiting a strip club in his native New Jersey. On the Perils of Strip Clubs. Again, be warned. Adult language and themes are included.

He also has a post where he talks about a benefit he had in his house for his daughters school. It is amusing to read since the kind of fundraisers that hollywood types have certainly differ from the type of participants than yours or mine. Johnny Rotten vs. Stan Lee. Even just read the names of the people he got to come and read poetry. Very impressive. Would have been a fun night to be at.

Then, on the biographical side, he has written a multipart history of his life with Jason Mewes (Jay, to his Silent Bob) who has been a drug addict for many years. It details how Kevin tried to help him repeatedly over the years. I’ve never known a drug addict, but he really gives a feeling of what it is like. Even if you don’t know who these people are, you might find this story interesting. It begins here Me and My Shadow pt. 1 Its a heartbreaking tale that ends up in a good place. It is very long, but worth the read if you have some time.
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9 – Conclusion

Ok, enough Kevin Smith. More soon.

Just another quick post.

As you know (if you’ve been reading) I haven’t been eating much. Even when I do get hungry, I’ll be damned if I can think of anything that I want to eat. Still have no groceries. Don’t eat much fast food. Drink lots of ice water. Anyway, the other day, having not eaten since 9am, at 8pm I decide I need to get something to eat. Trying to think of what was around my house to grab, I’m coming up empty. Nothing sounds good at all. After some thought, I finally decide I’ll get a Subway sandwich. Haven’t had one of those in a while. So, I drive to Subway which is a few miles from my house. Walk in the door and get in line. As I get to the head of the line, there is a crude handwritten sign tapped to the sneeze guard saying, “Temporarily out of lettuce.” WTF!? You’re joking right? I’m no “sandwich artist” or anything, but other than bread, wouldn’t lettuce pretty much be the number 2 item included in 90% of peoples’ sandwiches? Now I’m pissed. I certainly don’t want a sandwich with no lettuce. There is no other food that I can even think of to eat. However, feeling actually hungry a little bit, I know I gotta eat something. So, I walked into the Albertsons there in the same strip mall and wander around for about 20 minutes. I ended up buying a pack of hotdogs and buns. Not that I really wanted that, but couldn’t think of anything else, specifically anything else that wouldn’t remind me of her. I still know that is stupid as hell, but it is what it is.

What a pain in the ass. I’m boycotting Subway and the rhesus monkeys they got working there. How the fuck do you run out of lettuce. Ok, now I’m just ranting.

Until next time.

This post will just be some small random stuff that’s on my mind right now. Mainly things I’m sick of, with some other stuff tossed in.

Would Barry Bonds just please die in a fire? This ‘chase’ is excruciating. ESPN is still going live to every one of his at bats, like someone in the nation still cares. I don’t want to hear any more about the most unlikable cheater in the history of sports. Talk to me about Albert Pujols’ 23 home runs already. At least thats a legitimate story.

I have never seen a single minute of the show 24. None. In 5 seasons. I don’t know how I managed to do that, but sometimes you can really feel like the outsider when you’re not watching a show. Same goes for ‘Lost’. Never seen it. I guess with those types of shows, if you don’t get in on the ground floor when its first starting, the learning curve is so steep to catch up that you don’t even want to try. That’s why the Law and Orders are so popular. Very little story carry over. Each episode is a discrete unit. You can see any episode, in any order, from any season, and not feel like a schmuck for not knowing whats going on.

Being a sports fan, I go to a lot of sport websites. As such, I cannot understand why we are getting daily updates as to the condition of Barbaro. (That would be the horse that won the Kentucky Derby and broke his leg in the Preakness). You would think they were reporting on the health of the president or something. Granted, I haven’t read any of the articles, but the only people who really care about horseracing are degenerate gamblers and rich old men anyway. Do I really need to know that this horse is walking around more today than it did yesterday? Doctors are optimistic that he’ll recover. Well great. I will sleep better tonight knowing that. I thought they shot horses with broken legs. Maybe we can go back there.

Everyone has those friends who forward you endless amounts of crap that they get emailed from people forwarding endless amounts of crap, and so on and so forth. If it makes you crazy sometimes, there is a website out there where you can delicately attempt to extricate yourself from the person’s mailing list without hurting their feelings. http://www.thanksno.com/ You just forward the offender to this site and let them read it. Hopefully, they will get the hint. By the way, if you are one of those mass forwarders, next time you may want to think a little before forwarding that cute kitty picture to 300 people. Chances are not all of them are excited to see the subject line of “FW: FW: FW: RE: FW/ FW: FW: FW>Cute kitty pic!”

Ok… I’m done for now.

Have I mentioned that I love the internet? Well, I do. The reasons are to numerous to list here, but I will give my latest reason. I have recently started watching the CBS show, The Unit. It’s something that’s right up my alley. Secret, highly-trained military unit carrying out covert ops all over the world. Interestingly enough, the first time I watched it was the day after ‘d’ day when I was in the hotel with absolutely crap cable channels. Anyway, I was busy last night when the season finale was on. So, I set the DVR and recorded it.

Tonight, I go to watch the episode, and it was great.  So, I get to the end, and it says “stay tuned for scenes from our next episode.” Huh? I thought this was the finale. Well, there were TWO episodes on last night. Yup, I only recorded the first one. Well, sheeeeeee-it.

So, I’m wondering how the hell I’m going to see this show. I check the tv listings, and there is no replaying of the show scheduled. Damn. Then it comes to me… maybe I can find it online somewhere. I do a little searching and sure enough, I find it. In high-def, no less. Takes about 40 minutes to download over the big fat broadband pipe I got. Just finished watching it. Granted, the episode was good, but it wasn’t earth shattering or anything… the world wouldn’t have stopped if I had missed it (unlike missing The Sopranos… that IS life or death), but it was still good to see. If you are wondering where I found the episode, it was on the newsgroups. If you don’t know what that is, google is your friend.

Anyway, back to work. I have to get Equitable Stroke Control done for my 2nd job. More later.

Today, May 15th, is the 4 year anniversary of G and my first date. Yes, I remember these dates… thats the kind of guy I am. Met at Bittercreek Ale House and had a really good time. Moving on.

I have some pretty good family. Older sister has had me over for many meals in the past month, and has invited even more than I could attend. Its always nice to feel like you’re wanted.

Then, after reading an earlier post, my little sister brought me a yellow cake with chocolate frosting when we got together for mother’s day. How cool is that? (The cake is terrific, by the way).

Speaking of mothers day, in my haste to get to my sisters for brunch, I forgot my card/gift for mom. Good lord do I feel like a putz. If it wasn’t a 30 minute trip one way back to the apartment, I’d have gone and gotten it. Well, at least she has something to look forward to, right? Brunch with the whole family was nice. I’m back to being the fifth wheel (only one with no partner) but I’m pretty used to that. I was single a long time before I got married. Will probably be sinlge a long time again.

George came over on Saturday and we had a guys night. He brought the rest of the beer that I had taken to his house for the BBQ last weekend. So, we drank beer, ordered a pizza, played some xbox 360, and watched the movie Munich. All in all a pretty decent evening. Also on Saturday, I found a great area rug for my bedroom. The comforter I bought is greenish and has circles/polka dots sorta on it. I found this rug that is the same sort of patern. Matches very nicely. This is the first ‘decorative’ piece I’ve bought for the apartment. Mostly, I want to protect the carpet in high traffic areas. Save me some cash when I move out. I really need another rug, a bookshelf, throw pillows, and some art for the walls. I don’t want to live in a sparse white box. I’m a fairly creative guy. I think I have a theme for the living room. I’m going with black, red and shades of brown/khaki (existing carpet, recliner and leather couch are shades of brown). Then, I’m going to do a ‘jazz’ sorta thing. There are a couple ‘paintings’ at Cost Plus that are cool, and I can put up some Sinatra pictures and mount my vinyl Sinatra album covers on the wall as well. Combined with the really cool ceramic stuff my little sister has made, I think I can get a decent result out of it. Will just cost some cash, so I have to do it piece by piece.

For those of you who don’t know, farkers are the denizens of Fark.com. One of the greatest websites on the planet. I’ve posted my blog link on my profile and have gotten a nubmber of hits from there.

I just want to thank all of you farkers for your thoughtful words. Even though you’re all complete strangers, in a wierd way I feel like somehow you’ve all got my back. Nice to know that I’m not alone out there “In The World”

So, stick around, read some stories if you like. As you notice, I’m posting quite often. If you are so inclined, come back sometime.

See you on the forums.

Shooter_McGavin a.k.a – Jason

Hey all. I really appreciate you guys reading this, I really like to know you’ve been here and have shared in my thoughts and ideas. On to the post.

Since all of this started, my appetite as gone right into the shitter. I eat maybe a meal and a half a day. Trying to drink a lot of water due to the kidney stone episode a few months ago, which I have no desire to relive (story of another post). When I do eat, I’m trying to eat things that are good for me. Thusly, I have dropped at least 20 lbs in the past few months. I am down to the very last hole on my belt. Measuring the distance, I have lost 3 to 4 inches off my waist. I have boxers that I can’t wear anymore because they don’t stay on and my watch does hula-hoops around my wrist. So, even if I don’t feel good, at least I look good. Not that I can recommend the divorce diet to anyone.

Also, on the food topic… since I moved into my apartment 5 weeks ago I have cooked in exactly once. See Some ‘PD’ friends below. Tacos for cinco de mayo. Bear in mind, that I enjoy cooking and what I made was certainly not gourmet. Mom asked me the other day what I’ve been eating and I couldn’t even remember. I guess I eat a little at the cafeteria at work… and maybe a few nights a week at family and friends places. The occasional pizza. My love of pizza is one thing that has not gone away.

I also still crave sweets every now and then. Of course, I don’t have any in the apartment, so I usually do without, but I have indulged once or twice. I have been craving a nice yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I would make one, but I don’t have… uh… anything.

Well, I think I’m going to go to bed early. I was awake way too late last night and could hardly drag ass out of bed this morning.