:: Wednesday, January 28, 2004 ::

Jenascia Rules!

America's Next Top Model

Tuesdays, UPN, 9:00 pm EST

Jenascia rules.

Vote for her here.

'nuff said

:: posted by Rob 5:11 AM [+] :: 0 comments
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"They call me Cold Miser..."

Wheeeeee! As if you didn't already know it, winter is finally here. After a relatively mild December, here in beautiful, balmy VA (which, to my understanding, was supposed to part of the South) we are currently under a deluge of snow, sleet, freezing rain, and ice. Nothing like coming out to your car first thing in the morning and spending the next half hour chipping away the icy coating that covers it. Not just a little frost on the windhsield, mind you, but an actual solid sheath of ice completely covering every square inch of your car. And good luck trying to scrape it off with a regular old plastic ice scraper. No, if you left your ice axe behind on K2, or your jackhammer or rotary saw are in the shop, too bad! You got to wait for the defroster to heat up your car enough before you can even try chipping away at it. It's like finding a frozen mammoth in the Arctic, perfectly preserved, and waiting for archaeologists or paleontologists to carefully remove it from its icy tomb. The only saving grace is that with my Jeep's soft top, all the ice on the back can be cracked off with a few well-placed smacks against the fabric. No such luck for the windshield, though...

And one final rant:

Whenever we get weather like this, the meteorologists always say don't go out on the roads unless you have to. Hello? Who just gets to decide on a day-to-day basis whether or not they have to go to work? My company pretty much wants you there regardless of anything short of an asteroid impact, and I suspect that even that would be pushing it. But apparently, some people have the option of just saying, "Nope, too icy. I'm staying home today." Either that, or the weathermen are on crack. All I'm saying is I want a job like that. Work when you want to, don't when you don't. I'll take some of that any day.

Oh, wait. I get it. It's those government employees. Bastards. :)

"...I'm too much."

:: posted by Rob 10:50 PM [+] :: 0 comments
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Spelling America with a "K" now, are we?

Warning: Political rant ahead...

For the most part, my political views are fairly well known (if not always clearly defined). That being said, everyone, be ye Republican or Democrat, independent or indecisive, liberal or conservative, radical or reactionary, should read this post by Wil Wheaton, blogger extraordinaire and he of Wesley Crusher fame.

I mean, seriously, why aren't more people up in arms about this? I truly cannot understand how the "citizens" (and those quotation marks are there for a reason) of this country are so blind to what's going on. This is supposed to be a democracy. These kinds of things should NOT be allowed to happen here, terrorist threat or no. But only we, the citizens of this spectator democracy, can do something about it, by refusing to be spectators and actively demanding our leaders follow our wishes, rather than their own personal (and in my opinion, idiotic, dangerous, and downright harmful) agendas.

Wake up, America! Demand satisfaction, demand justice, demand freedom. Life is not just Republican or Democrat - embrace unorthodox ideas and concepts, like (gasp!) more than two political parties. Or (shudder!) a Constitutional Convention to update a document that's more than 200 years old, and has little bearing on a 21st century world. Or (horrors!) elections based on the popular vote of citizens rather than politically appointed electors.

Wild and crazy ideas, I know, but without them, and others like them, the American Empire (which is what we are, dont fool yourselves) is doomed to be a historical footnote.

Trust me. I'm a historian.

:: posted by Rob 5:51 AM [+] :: 0 comments
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Happy New Year!

Well, another new year is here, and it has been quite some time some my last post. But never fear, faithful readers (many of whom have repeatedly bugged me to update this blog!), but one of my new year's resolutions is to keep this blog updated more regularly, and I promise to do my best. Since it has been so long since my last post, there's a lot to be said, but I'll start out slow and try to post frequently to catch up to now.

The biggest news of the past few months was my sister Mallory's wedding on October 11 to my new brother-in-law, Art. Minus a few hiccups and a little bit of inclement weather, it was a beautiful and wonderful ceremony held outside at my parent's home, Green Mansion (or as I sometimes like to refer to it, the Summer Palace). I had the honor of being chief groomsman and best man to Art, and I am so happy and thrilled for the two of them. They honeymooned in Yosemite afterwards (how cool is that?) and are now back home in Brooklyn in happily wedded bliss. For my part, I got to meet lots of really cool and fun people, friends of Mallory's and Art's, old family friends, and family I haven't seen in a long time. Over all, it was an exciting, fun, and special time I will always treasure.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! My Thanksgiving was pretty low-key this year. I chose not to make the pilgrimage down to the parents' (after all, what's the point of going to the Summer Palace if it's not summer?). Instead, I inagurated my new cooking skills (such as they are) by cooking Pad Thai in my new wok, and it was excellent! That's actually another of my new year's resolutions, to actually cook more, as opposed to microwaiving and making effectively instant foods. The wok's getting a bit of a workout so far, but I still need to do more. I need to set aside more time and plan more, I guess....

Merry Christmas to everyone, too. Pretty low-key for me this year as well, but I did spend it with the family and all was good. Hope everyone out there had a good holiday season, and I promise to update more! Hopefully, I'll soon have some news on other resolutions I've made....Stay tuned!

:: posted by Rob 2:40 AM [+] :: 0 comments
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