I really don’t see how this…
… is any different than this…
John McCain spent a lot of time attacking Barack Obama tonight in the debates and talking about how Obama “just doesn’t understand.” Yet this is his choice for the Vice President? Even Katie Couric was baffled and seemingly disturbed by this “response.” I can honestly say that I feel like I am better qualified to be Vice President. If it weren’t so serious, this could be really funny. All you Palin apologists please post your views.
I recently discovered Buckethead. Here’s the first sentence from the linked article:
Brian Carroll, better known as Buckethead, is an American guitarist and songwriter.
Buckethead wears a KFC bucket on his head and a white plastic mask. On stage he likes to do the robot dance and work his nun-chucks in addition to playing the guitar. He’s a fairly odd guy.
My friend and I got into a discussion about why Buckethead is famous. I said that it was because he is a good guitar player and many people like his music and appreciate his skill. She said it was because he wears a bucket on his head and nothing else. I disagreed because while Buckethead certainly gets attention with his attire, I don’t think he would have been famous for very long if he didn’t also have the guitar playing to go along with it. I also stated that people go and see him play the guitar, not stand on stage wearing a bucket on his head.
We argued about it for an hour, neither able to convince the other. In the end my friend just kept insisting that he was “Axel Rose’s bitch” and kept accusing me of trying to make her think Buckethead was a good guitar player (which I wasn’t). At that point I was just trying to get her to acknowledge that he even plays the guitar, a point that she just ignored whenever I brought it up.
Later we went out and got drunk and it wasn’t a big deal. I just wanted to see if anyone else had an opinion on it, so post some comments please.
Here are some links to Buckethead songs on Youtube:
Jordan (Live) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-woe3SCAaA
Soothsayer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adV8-_hgL4g
And a picture with his guitar photoshopped out for all you deniers:
I was contractually obligated not to discuss or divulge details about my former employer, Dell, as part of a severance package I took when I left the company at the end of July last year. However, I am no longer constrained by that contract so I feel like I can say whatever I want. Plus, the money is already spent, and they can sue me if they want, but you can’t get blood from a turnip as they say.
I bring this up after coming across an article about Dell wanting to sell its manufacturing plants. I saw this writing on the wall last year and was actually a bit relieved that I was offered a severance package. I’m not so sure many of my former coworkers will share that fate as they are unceremoniously dumped on the street after the sale.
This actually started about a year and a half after I was hired by Dell when they built a laptop factory in Malaysia. At first they insisted that only 10% of laptops would be produced there and the remainder would be produced in the US. I saw the writing on that wall too and immediately jumped at the chance to move to desktop manufacturing. Within a few months 100% of laptop manufacturing was moved to Malaysia and Ireland. It was a good business decision considering the 10 year tax holiday provided by the Malaysian government, but it showed me that Dell was no longer committed to US manufacturing.
So I spent the rest of my career at Dell in desktop and server manufacturing. At first things were going extremely well, but then the desktop market started to slide as laptops became cheaper. That slump then combined with a move to tech support in India. Customer outrage at the poor service level rose and the reputation of Dell took a big hit. Another big hit came when it was discovered that Dell was cooking its books.
Due to these things and other factors, my satisfaction with the company began to wane and I have to admit, my performance began to suffer. I began making big mistakes and was generally unhappy while I was at work despite the great group of people I worked with. It was not a good situation for me and I was unhappy to the point that it made me physically ill on occasion. I decided that if the chance arose, I would leave the company.
In Spring 2007 it was announced that Dell would start selling computers at Walmart and other retail locations. At that point I knew it was over and actually started working on my resume again. I actively cautioned my coworkers that this was just a prelude to the end of US manufacturing at Dell. The only reason Dell even manufactured in the US was due to its direct model, and if that model was going out the door, manufacturing couldn’t be far behind.
Shortly thereafter, my shift was eliminated and severance packages were offered. I took one and considered myself lucky to have been offered one. Since then, Dell has announced the closing of a whole factory which was the building next to mine in Austin. Last report has it closing towards the end of this year. It was one of four factories in the US producing desktops and the volumes just didn’t support that many facilities.
So the news that Dell plans to sell off its manufacturing isn’t really news at all to me. The clues have been there all along. I just thought I’d offer an insider’s view of the story behind the story. It feels good to get that off my chest and maybe I’ll tell more later.
Okay, so let me just warn you that any posts from this date forward may be officially Not Safe For Work (NSFW). But then again, if you have time to be surfing the web at work, you probably need to be replaced, made redundant, or fired anyway.
Here’s a little ditty that I had heard about, but hadn’t seen. Apparently this asshole was asking people to pray for rain during Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention. I’m sure people actually did pray for rain, but we know now that no rain was forthcoming. I guess that means it’s okay to vote for Barack after all.
This guy took a big gamble in asking for rain and if it had rained, I’m sure it would have paid big dividends. But since it didn’t rain, I’m equally sure he’s praying for this little video to be swept under the rug.
My friend Michelle just sent me a question that I thought would make an interesting blog post. Her question:
If we went to the moon in 1969, why aren’t we going now? NASA first says money, then says it’s radiation that cannot be flown through. Did the radiation become more dangerous? can radiation grow? I say no to both and guess money. And then I say why isn’t there money? And then I say we spent it all on useless wars. Do you have an opinion on this? We discussed this at work, and it was the most intellectually challenging discussion I have ever had here.
Yes, yes I do have an opinion on this. First let me say that I am not aware of any statements that NASA has made regarding not going back to the Moon because of radiation. This sounds more like Moon Hoax propaganda. However, the Sun’s radiation does increase, but by such a small amount that over even 40 years it would be hard to measure. Even over the last 2000 years, the Sun’s output has remained virtually stable, only varying by about 0.1%. Only on the scale of millions of years would we notice the increase. In about one billion years, the Earth will be so hot that life as we know it will not be able to exist.
The real reason we aren’t going back to the Moon is an almost complete lack of public interest or political will. The Apollo project was cancelled due to the lack of political and public support. That support began to wane almost the instant Neil Armstrong’s foot was placed on the Moon. It hasn’t returned. Politicians these days lack any real vision for the future and spend most of their time pandering to the electorate on social issues and having their palms greased in smokey back rooms.
I think the biggest problem is that Americans are just plain lazy. Kennedy said:
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…
I think a lot of people miss that last part. Doing hard things keeps us challenged and keeps us innovating, but we haven’t done anything hard in a long time, probably since the Moon landings. Nothing we have done since has matched that and we haven’t even really attempted to do anything special.
So what now? Personally, I think the United States is done. Unless something big happens in the next few years to really motivate us as a people, we will recede into history just as our European forbearers have. Our time as the world’s leader is over and that task has been handed off. So good luck to India and China. I see them as dominating the next 100 years of progress and history.
Check out this link to the Pew Research Center’s Pew News IQ test. It asks you twelve questions about current events and shows you your score as well as how you rank according to demographics. I answered all twelve correctly and scored in the 97th percentile. The test was fairly easy in my opinion, especially since it was multiple choice. But despite that, most people did fairly poorly. Even the most casual news watcher or reader should be able to get all of these. I guess that means people just don’t keep up with the news.
I just read an article (link is dead - Ed.) that might prove to be the biggest waste of time since the Senate baseball hearings. Apparently Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) has decided that the Patriots spying scandal needs to be investigated. Spector says he wants to do this because he has questions about how the NFL handled this matter in relation to their anti-trust exemption status.
I say what a crock of shit! This is an utter waste of time and not worth the attention of a US Senator. At best it might be a legal matter to be hashed out in court, but I think the situation was handled and no more should be said about it. I think Specter’s Republican colleagues should take him aside and show him the party platform plank about returning to small government.
If we really want to investigate a business, why not start with ExxonMobile?
I was listening to a conversation on the CB radio today about fuel prices. The price of diesel is about $3.50 give or take. I guess that’s what you get when you elect an oil tycoon to be your President. Moral of the story, think before you vote.
If you haven’t yet, go see Sicko. I think it is Michael Moore’s best film yet. And it’s more than just a hit piece on healthcare in the US, it’s also about what is wrong with us as Americans. I’ve known that our values have been screwed up for a while, but this film really made it hit home.
I think it is pretty obvious from my previous posts that I am an Obama supporter. However, I’m always listening to differing opinions and views. One person who has entered my radar in a big way is Ron Paul. Running as a Republican, he is considered to be a fringe candidate with little support. However, his candidacy has a very George McGovern feel to it. Much like McGovern, no one is expecting Paul to win, but his message has the same “radical” common sense of McGovern’s campaign over 30 years ago.
Several of Ron Paul’s positions are very intriguing and I find them to be important and very controversial. First Ron Paul is for the abolition of the Federal Reserve system which only serves to keep this country in perpetual debt. Second, he is for the abolition of the income tax and IRS which only serve to complicate the tax code, encourage excessive government spending, and take money from the middle class. Third, he supports a non-interventionist foreign policy and the immediate withdrawl of troops from Iraq and bases from around the world. Finally, he refuses to support any bill that infringes on the rights of citizens to bear arms.
There’s more to Ron Paul. Check out this video introduction.
