Life in Basin City

2007-03-20T18:16:00.000-07:00

Wing! The singing sensation streaking across New Zealand!

If you have not heard this hard-rockin' seamstress of song yet, you must check it out for yourself: http://www.wingmusic.co.nz

You can go directly to a list of samples of her songs which include her versions of Highway to Hell, Hells Bells,or if you don;t like AC-DC, she has something lighter like Dancing Queen. I strongly reccomend listening to the sample of AC-DC's "Highway to Hell" - it rocks!!!!!

http://www.wingtunes.com/public/samples.aspx

2007-03-20T18:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am going to try and add a picture... I've not done this before, so I hope it works...

I was watching Court TV's 20 Most Shocking Moments last night, and laughed my ass off when I saw this... this old dude, was being sentenced for killing a cop when he was high on Meth - well, I guess he did not like how his sentence sounded, so he starts getting violent. Now remember, he *killed* a police officer already... the police in the courtroom are not exactly going to just let him have his little fit... they taser his ass! And the look on his face as he is "riding the lightning" is priceless... it looks as though he is frozen with half and half helpings of "I can't believe this is happening to me" and "Holy crap... this shit hurts!" Anyway, they taser him pretty good... and it lasts for a good while... all during this time this guy has the same stupid big-eyed fishmouthed expression - kind of like the Jerri Blank's Dad in "Strangers With Candy" [the comedy series that used to be on Comedy Central]. I mean this guy is just frozen in that position like he cannot move... well at least nothing is moving that we can see on camera... I am sure stuff was moving pretty well and pretty fast in his BVDs!!! If his relatives were worried who was going to pack his underwear for prison, I guess they don't have to worry after all; as you can see in these pictures - he's packing his own underwear now!

2007-03-05T14:19:00.000-08:00

2007-03-02T12:21:00.000-08:00

2007-02-11T07:45:00.000-08:00

The Zoo was a blast! Well, yesterday marked a very important day... I met Eileen's daughter! She is great.. we all met at the Zoo at 1:00. It was a little chilly, but as we zipped around from one exhibit to the next, you did not really notice the coldness anymore... what a great kid! Very-very smart... and I think she had a great time. Her favorite exhibit was the Tigers... I liked the Meerkat's and the Orangutan... the Meerkat's were so cute.. they would huddle together in a group and all would be watching the sky, as if on the lookout for a hawk or something. Then one would actually scurry right up front to where we were and stand up an look right at us! Too cute for words. The Orangutan was playing with a white sheet, or maybe it was a pillowcase.. it would keep putting it over its head and doing funny things with it. The Elephants were cool as well... we got to see a really cuty baby elephant... and we got to see them feed apples to them... Oh! We also got to meet an Alpaca! Like "Tina" in Napoleon Dynamite? It came over to me and put it's snout right on my arm. The only bummer was that Eileen's camera slipped and hit the ground and got knocked out of whack. The little button that should rewind the film would not work; so I am hoping the shock just knocked the film off of it's track and that it will be an easy fix... it appears to look OK on the outside, no cracks or dents, so I am really hoping that it will be alright. Ever since I was a kid I always wanted one of those dinosaur-head toys where the head is on the end of a long plastic stick and there is a trigger that you press to make the mouth open and shut and they had them at the gift shop.. so I had to get one. Eileen's daughter got a Tiger head... I got Eileen a rain-stick and also got a Meerkat stuffed toy for the young one. The gift shop was great... it has lots of cool things.. and very reasonably priced. The Merry-go-round was a big hit as well.. all around it was a fun time! Afterwards we went to eat at Texas Land and Cattle which was grrrrrreaaaaat! [said in a Tony the Tiger voice] I really had a great time, and it was so nice to meet such a great kid! But I do want to go back to the zoo really bad now... maybe we can go again in a couple of months.. some animals were not out because it was too cold; and we didn't get to ride the train, so right there are a couple good reasons to go back. Plus we might be able to go to the museum as well... I have not been there in a loooooong time and I bet that would be great too. And Nasa! I bet that would be a fun place to go as well...

2007-02-03T22:25:00.000-08:00

She’s the light of my life…

Just thought I would put into words how I have been feeling lately;

Eileen went for her procedure the other day; I of course took off work so that I could be with her… I was so touched that she wanted me to be there in the room with her to hold her hand. At a few times, when the pressure was intense, she squeezed my hand; but I didn’t mind at all.. she could have squeezed for as long and as hard as she liked; I was just happy to be there for her… holding her hand.

Eileen is amazing to me… I brag about here at work all the time. When I tell people how we first met and then how we re-met, they say it sounds like something out of a movie… and that we each got each other the same Christmas gift; they can’t believe it.

I am going to reprint a poem I wrote that I sent Eileen not too long ago:

My world was dark, I couldn't see,
Then your beautiful light shone on me.
I looked up with my searching eyes
And you make me feel good inside.
The best thing that there could ever be
Is now right here inside of me.
Your light shines through the night and day
Shining hope and happiness my way.
I thanked God for letting me see
And this is what He said to me:
"If never was there any night
There would be no need for light."
Sometimes the only way to see
Is to close your eyes and feel free.
I closed my eyes and felt the light,
And my world was free of night!
The light is love, and you the heart
And you are the most beautiful part...
If you can make me feel this way
Then you must be brighter than the brightest day!

Eileen really does “light up my life”…

Anyway, it is 12:20am on Sunday morning as I write this… I was just thinking of how great she is and all the wonderful things about her and I thought, you know? This is something I should put in my Blog! So here it is…

In two weeks we are escaping for a weekend to Lake Charles… I acquired a vintage bottle of 1996 Dom Perignon Rose that I got just so that we can share..

In July, we are taking a week to go to Napa Valley! I am currently scouting some cozy Bed and Breakfasts and I think we will have a wonderful time. Of course, to me, any where we go is wonderful, as long as I can gaze into those beautiful brown eyes…

2007-01-14T18:00:00.000-08:00

Have you seen that Pompeii special on the Discovery channel? I was watching this thing on TV about Pompeii; you know the volcano that erupted and all the people in the village were killed instantly? Apparently, from what they say, everyone died in less time than it takes to blink an eye from a boiling gas cloud. So, they were frozen in their spots, then covered with volcanic ash, and then when the city was uncovered some 1500 years later, scientists were able to preserve the 'spaces' where the bodies were by pouring in Plaster of Paris and letting it harden. So they get these statues of the Pompeii residents doing whatever they were doing during that millisecond when they died. So they have people talking, stretching, yawning, etc. Ok, so here is my thought.. If I were alive back then, and I was a villager of Pompeii, my luck would be that I would have been doing something embarrassing or humiliating at that unfortunate moment; like squatting while going to the bathroom, or 'flogging the dolphin'... and then they would have turned my last embarrassing moment into a statue to be on public display for all time...

2007-01-14T17:53:00.000-08:00

Contest, Part 2: Well, the day of the judging finally came; and the member of our team that was forbidden to participate in building the house because she was going to be one of the judges got some unsettling news... HR decided to not use employees as judges, they were instead, going to bring in people from other firms to come in and judge. They thought this would be fairer. But what wasn't fair was that the person who couldn't help build, and who now couldn't help judge, would also now not be able to partake of any winnings that we got. Fast-forward to when the judges came; they looked around and said "I thought we were just judging door decorations"... well, they made their decision and we ended up with second place. So we all got a day off with pay. But not the girl who was going to be a judge but wasn't.

2006-12-07T19:01:00.000-08:00

The Contest

At my very odd place of work, the higher-ups spend a larger than usual portion of their time thinking up activities that we "worker-ant" employees can be involved in. I suppose these activities are intended to build morale and teach us how to work as a team, but the truth is, departments are pitted against each other in a no-holds barred frenzy of scheming, thwarting and sabotaging. The latest activity is a department decoration contest for the holidays. At stake are the official bragging rights and a day off for each employee in the winning department.

Three days ago, our department supervisor called us into a secret, closed door meeting; we were there to brainstorm and decide what theme our department was going to do. My coworkers came up with a bevy of suggestions, from “Village of Lights” to “Working in a Winter Wonderland”… we finally decided on “Gingerbread House”, partly because our particular department consists of 6 cubes in a rectangle - we look like one of those mini ice-trays that you had in your mini-fridge at college. [What is it about college that they give you only partial things? You don’t get a regular sized ice-tray, only this thing that looks like it can make 6 Chicklet-sized ice cubes… you don’t get a full oven range with 4 burners, just one hot plate... you don’t get a full seven-digit phone number, they only give your four numbers instead… anyway, I digress] So, because of the positioning of our cubes, it is “ideal” to create a house with a roof on top. This was what we had come up with at the end of hour one. Next we had to come up with a game-plan… what would the sides look like? How would we make the windows? Should we use cotton or paint? These types of questions were answered during the second hour. The third hour was devoted to deciding who in our group was going to do what particular task. I was assigned to be the structural engineer to make the roof "happen". At this point my mind is already fast-forwarding ahead to try and figure out what the simplest way to accomplish this would be, but my excited co-workers keep interrupting me with suggestions… “All you need to do is get some PVC pipe from Home Depot”... “How about wood? You could get some 2X4’s and cut each piece down to make the frame”... “No, big sheets of plywood… don’t they make really light plywood?”... “Bed-sheets! Go to Goodwill and get some really cheap bed-sheets! If you can’t find brown, just get some light colored ones and dye them!” While hearing these *brilliant* suggestions, in my head I am replying with the many reasons why they won’t work, are too complicated, or are just plain idiotic. But on the outside I am nodding my head, saying things like “Gee.. that’s a swell idea!” Eventually everyone is throwing up ideas for all sorts of things we can do to make the “bestest Gingerbread house ever!" As each idea is blurted out they get more giddy and enthusiastic, and everyone is subconsciously trying to “top” each others previous suggestion, so the ideas are getting wilder and even more unrealistic. I haven’t said anything for a while at this point, which I guess was a mistake, because then my supervisor says: “You’re the creative one… we need something that nobody else has done… something that will just blow everyone away!” And now everybody is looking at me expectantly… for some reason, my mind cues up to a scene in the movie “The Cable Guy”, the one where Jim Carey surprises Matthew Broderick with a big-screen tv surround sound system that is so spectacular that “it would make George Lucas cream in his pants”.. I remember that during that scene, playing on the big-screen TV was a video of a fireplace burning. I know what DVD that is… it is actually called “Fireplace – Visions of Tranquility – soothing music and natural sounds”… the whole DVD is 60 minutes of footage of a crackling fire. Why do I know this? Because I actually own that DVD. Don’t ask why… you really probably don’t want to know… anyway, I explain about this DVD and suggest that I can bring my small flat-panel LCD up to work, wrap some brick-paper around all of the TV except for the screen part, so that it appears to look like a chimney. Bingo… they liked that idea… which is good because it is actually pretty easy compared to creating a working gingerbread house roof. Finally we are let out of the closed-door meeting to return to our cubes. Already, other departments in the office are huddled together in various random spots, whispering and conniving. My headache is three hours old, and as I unlock my computer I see about 15 emails that came while I was in the meeting.

The next day started with me lugging rolls of brown shipping paper, tape, Styrofoam, fishing line, and other building blocks of the Gingerbread house from my car to my cube. I quickly log in and see that my email box is even fuller than the day before. But there is no time for real work… we have a Gingerbread house to build! “Where is the PVC pipe?” someone says… “Umm.. I think this 80-pound test fishing line will work just fine…” “I don’t know if that will work.. won’t it break?” Silently I am thinking that they probably should be more concerned that I don’t break their nose with the giant plastic candy cane they are holding. Ever hear the phrase “Too many cooks in the kitchen”? That’s exactly how it was. I am standing on a file cabinet, pushing ceiling tiles out of the way so that I can start tying the lattice work that will support the roof while everyone else just kind of looks up at me offering advice. I am already at the limit of what I can take, and when that happens my normal reaction is to just tune people out and physically do what I already figured out in my head… but what also happens is that I am concentrating so much on what I am doing, that when I am pressed for an answer to one of their questions, my response ends up sounding ridiculous… for example, someone asked something like “Are you going to tie a line from the center of the roof down to each corner wall?” and my response was something like “uhhmmm… yeah… I am going to tie this…. thingy up here so that I can…. loop it over the tile thingys topwise… and that should… yeah, that should work…” As soon as I say it I think how it doesn’t really specifically answer what they asked, but I am just too busy to stop and reword what I just said. So I am tying fishing line all over the place and out of the corner of my eye I can see what other departments are doing… people are pulling dollys around, some people are measuring things, someone else is going around looking for tape and thumbtacks. As the day progresses, real work still has not even been started, and other employees are getting louder. An employee from one department made the mistake of entering another departments territory and they were accused of spying. Someone else was chastised for taking all of the empty paper boxes. People began hoarding. Tools, especially cutting instruments, were fiercely guarded. An exacto knife became the most treasured and desired possession.

All day our department did nothing but convert our area into a Gingerbread house. No files were reviewed, no emails were answered. Ringing phones were left to be forwarded to voice-mail. When I finally left for the day, I left with half of the roof done and a list of supplies to get from Walmart. I stayed an hour and a half past the time I usually leave… later I found out that others stayed much later than that.

One group that stayed late was a department whose theme was “Ice Palace”. They had spent most of the day building a very detailed and creative castle… it was huge… it was about five feet tall, 3 feet wide – one half was the castle part, the other half was the building that we worked in. From what I heard, it was beautiful. So beautiful, that somebody in the buildings cleaning crew stole it later that night! When I came in the next morning, that departments employess were furious… some people were ranting, others were being consoled… it appears that the thief only desired the castle-part of the decoration, and all that was left was the mangled half with the part that was supposed to be our building. Again, I only heard this, partly because we were no longer allowed to enter that departments territory, and partly because it was being treated like a crime scene. We have cameras everywhere, and it is not like they are even hidden… I can’t imagine how someone could think they could have gotten away with a giant castle, but maybe they thought the cameras were fake, or they were not turned on, or maybe the castle was just so spectacular that they didn’t care… I never actually saw it so I don’t know. Some people thought it was a ploy hatched by another department… others thought it was a scheme to try and gain the sympathy of the judges. Some people say the castle never existed in the first place. It has already become an office legend. But our IT person solved the mystery as he played footage of a member of the cleaning crew scurrying out the door with a gleaming pink castle in their greedy little hands.

End of Part 1… I will post Part 2 after the winner has been announced…

Here is a random thought I just had… You know how the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books had titles like “The Secret of the Old Mill”? I always thought that a funny title for one of these books could be: “The Mystery of the Mysterious Mystery”! I like how the same word is used differently each time in that title… anyway, not sure why that has not been done, or why I even thought of it just now.

2006-12-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

The best theory so far on what a Hollaback Girl is:

Ever wonder what the term “Hollaback Girl” means? It's got something to do with cheerleaders-that much is clear, judging from the chanting and the marching band that's honking and tooting in the background...

"Uh huh, this my shit" - Gwen is introducing us to her shit.

"All the girls stomp your feet like this" - This talk of shit and stomping has nothing to do with actually stepping on feces. But what does it mean? From a reading of the later text, we can conclude that the song takes place in the world of high school athletics, and that Gwen is apparently leading the girls in a calisthenics exercise. The "shit," is what she calls the exercises she's teaching the other girls.

"A few times I've been around that track, so it's not just gonna happen like that" - Here, Gwen exhorts the girls to try harder as they jog around the track, reminding them that physical fitness is "not just gonna happen," but must be worked at.

"Cause I ain't no hollaback girl, I ain't no hollaback girl" - These lines are the most confusing, but their meaning will become clearer later.

"Oooh, this my shit, this my shit" - Gwen repeats this four more times. She wants to make sure that we are well acquainted with her shit.

"I heard that you were talking shit, and you didn't think that I would hear it" - Gwen has been the victim of some slanderous high school gossip, and she doesn't appreciate it.

"People hear you talking like that, getting everybody fired up, So I'm ready to attack, gonna lead the pack" - Gwen is going to round up a "posse" of her girlfriends and retaliate against the person who's been talking "smack" about her.

"Gonna get a touchdown, gonna take you out" - Gwen is going to beat up the person who wronged her, after she completes the cheerleading routine that will inspire the football team to score a touchdown. Gwen has interesting priorities.

"That's right, put your pom-poms down, getting everybody fired up" - It seems the entire cheerleading squad is going to beat up the person who spoke ill of Gwen; they have put down their pom-poms, and they are now "fired up" to exact swift and terrible vengeance on Gwen's behalf.

"A few times I've been around that track, so it's not just gonna happen like that, cause I ain't no hollaback girl, I ain't no hollaback girl" - Gwen is apparently the captain of the cheerleader squad; she is the girl who "hollas" the chants, not one of the girls who simply "hollas" them back. Given that the squad is preparing to beat somebody up on Gwen's behalf, she's picked a strange time to remind them that she is their leader and they are her sheep-like followers. Gwen obviously rules her squad with an iron fist.

"Oooh, this my shit, this my shit" [repeated four times] - Again with the shit.

"So that's right dude, meet me at the bleachers, no principals, no student-teachers, both of us want to be the winner, but there can only be one. So I'm gonna fight, gonna give it my all" - We learn that it was a "dude" who gossiped about Gwen. She challenges him to a fight at the bleachers. If he imagines it will be a fair, one-on-one fight, he is sadly mistaken. Gwen and her aforementioned "pack" will pounce on him like rabid wolves.

"Gonna make you fall, gonna sock it to you, that's right, I'm the last one standing, another one bites the dust" - Gwen's pack of furious cheerleaders leaves the boy a quivering, bloody heap behind the bleachers for the groundskeeper to discover the next day.

"A few times I've been around that track, so it's not just gonna happen like that cause I ain't no hollaback girl, I ain't no hollaback girl" - Having completed their ghastly work, Gwen's squad members return to the field and resume their cheerleading activities, as Gwen reminds them once more that she is the boss and they are all her bitches.

"Oooh, this my shit, this my shit" [repeated four times] - By calling her exercise routines "shit," Gwen is showing us that for all her bravado, the character in this song secretly suffers from profound self-esteem issues. She is a complex anti-heroine for an age of changing gender attitudes and expectations.

"Let me hear you say, this shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S" - Here, Gwen steps away from this bloody spectacle for a moment to comment on the madness and ugliness of what we've just witnessed, and, by extension, the petty rivalries of high school in general. This shit is bananas, Gwen tells us, and we can only agree. And lest we miss the point, she spells it out. And repeats it another three times.

"A few times I've been around that track, so it's not just gonna happen like that, cause I ain't no hollaback girl, I ain't no hollaback girl" - Back on the field, Gwen is still bullying the squad to carry out her routines. But now we see her in a new light, as the sad, lost creature she truly is.

"Oooh, this my shit, this my shit" [repeated four times] - As the song fades out, Gwen is left only with her "shit," the mindless exercises that bring her no comfort from the raging emptiness within. As much as she "hollas," no one hears her cries for help.

2006-12-04T14:12:00.000-08:00

The Joke

This happened back in 1994… After hearing a coworker tell a joke that I thought was clever, I decided to try and pull it on Delana, my girlfriend at that time. I called her and said "You won't believe what happened to me on the way to work today"... the conversation went something like this:

"This morning I stopped at the Shell station to get some gas and while I was in line to pay I saw someone that I thought I recognized from high school; after talking to him for a few minutes I realized that I was mistaken and I never met this person before, but trying to be polite, I found it awkward trying to end the conversation without looking like a dork. As I was leaving this guy starts asking and then practically begging me for a ride "just up the street". Before I realized it, I had agreed and me, this guy and his duffel bag start walking towards my car."

(At this point, Delana begins to show genuine concern and she can't believe that I made such a poor decision.)

I continue: "As we are driving I am realizing that my definition of "just up the street" is not the same as his. I tried to ask exactly how far it was that he needed to go and he started acting weird. He stopped talking entirely and things got completely quiet. Trying to kill the silence I finally ask "So, what ya got in the bag?"

"None of your fucking business" he says.

"Well, it's my car and I need to know if you have any weapons or drugs or whatever" I say.

Again, more awkward silence. Then he starts to slowly put his hand inside the bag.

"Hey... you need to tell me what is in this bag!" I say.

"I told you... none of your fucking business..." he says, but at least he pulls his hand out.

After a short time, he again starts to slowly reach in his bag. "Look man... you need to tell me what is in the bag - it is my business because this is my car!"

"It’s none of your FUCKING business... just keep driving!"

I realize that I need to get this guy out of my car immediately; I already bought gas so I know he won't fall for that; the only idea that I can think of is to pretend as though I left my wallet back at the gas station. After a fast drive back, I ask if he will at least go inside and get my wallet. As soon as I see him walk in the gas station I floor the accelerator! Not only did I get rid of the weirdo, but I still have his bag!

Excitedly, Delana says: "Oh my god! Did you open it? What was in his bag?"

Triumphantly, I reply: "None of your FUCKING business!!!"

A second goes by and all I hear is silence. "Delana? Get it? None of your fucking business? It's a joke... Hello?"

Then I hear the dial-tone. For the next 2 hours I keep trying to call her back but she took the phone off the hook. Needless to say, our relationship began to go downhill after this.

2006-12-03T23:10:00.000-08:00

The Best Night of My Life

It all started much earlier that day, I

2006-11-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

I Would Walk 500 miles... you know that song, "I Would Walk 500 miles"? It is from the Benny and Joon movie... anyway, I heard that song again today and it reminded me, what does "haver" mean? A line in the song says "And if I haver, then you know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the one whose havering to you" What the heck is that? I have no idea what haver means. I looked on the Internet, but there is hardly any information there about this, though others have wondered about that word in this song as well. So after a more obsessive search, I found what I believe might be the definition from a UK site: "Haver: from misbe-hav-iour Misbehave, foolish, talk foolishly, babble." I am not 100% sure but I think that might be it. So if you ever wondered what that word in this song meant, there ya go!

2006-11-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

I messed up! I accidentally deleted something when I was trying to edit it; I have to get used to how this thing works

2006-10-05T16:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I am new to blogging, so please forgive me if I sound boring.. hopefully I will get better as time goes by. I can say this and I can say it right off the bat.. I know how everything is going to end. It is kind of like those M. Night Shamalayan movies.. how there is a twist at the end that will make you see the whole movie differently? And when you see the twist you say "Oh... wow! I did not catch that before... now it makes sense.." That is about the only thing I have going for me. If you could even call it that. The only thing I cant see is how others will interpret how "the movie" ends... I guess time will tell. [There's a phrase I hate...] I'm single. I have never been married. I haven't dated in years. I work, I make pretty good money... but life is kind of boring. See, I told you I am not good at this.. I am already drawing blanks on what to write.

2006-09-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

Are you hip to the new office vernacular? These are the new words/phrases to keep up with if you want to make it in the corporate world!
BLAMESTORMING - Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
SEAGULL MANAGER - A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.
ASSMOSIS - The process by which people seem to absorb success and advancement by sucking up to the boss rather than working hard.
CUBE FARM - An office filled with cubicles.
PRAIRIE DOGGING - When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see that's going on. (This also applies to applause from a promotion because there may be cake.)
MOUSE POTATO - The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.
SITCOM's - Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids or start a "home business".
STRESS PUPPY - A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.
PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE - The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.
ADMINISPHERE - The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the "adminisphere" are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
404 - Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located.
OHNOSECOND - That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake (e. g. you've hit 'reply all').
JOHNNY-NO-STARS - A young man of substandard intelligence, the typical adolescent who works in a burger restaurant. The 'no-stars' comes from the badges displaying stars that staff at fast-food restaurants often wear to show their level of training.
SALMON DAY - The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.
CHAINSAW CONSULTANT - An outside expert brought in to reduce the employee headcount, leaving the brass with clean hands.
FLIGHT RISK - Used to describe employees who are suspected of planning to leave the company or department soon.
KEYBOARD PLAGUE - The disgusting buildup of dirt and crud found on computer keyboards.
YUPPIE FOOD STAMPS - the ubiquitous $20 bills spewed out of ATMs everywhere. Often used when trying to split the bill after a meal: "We all owe $8 each, but all anybody's got is yuppie food stamps."
SWIPEOUT - An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.
IRRITAINMENT - Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The O.J. trials were a prime example.

2006-09-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

The night is hot as hell. It's a lousy room in a lousy part of a lousy town. I'm staring at a goddess. She's telling me she wants me. I'm not going to waste one more second wondering how I've gotten so lucky. She smells like angels ought to smell. The perfect woman. Hours later and my head's feeling several sizes too big and that cold thing happens to my stomach.