Friday Fives

When was the last time you... 1. ...sent a handwritten letter? I can't even remember 2. ...baked something from scratch or made something by hand? Every single night I cook dinner from scratch for me and my wife 3. ...camped in a tent? last summer. Am an avid camper, fisher, four wheeler. Not particularly good at any of those things, but I do enjoy them. 4. ...volunteered your time to church, school, or community? I volunteer one week a month for the Red Cross on their Distaster Action Team. 5. ...helped a stranger? I always help stranded motorists, but to be honest that is about it. via Friday Fives.

My Legal Digital Download Experience

Due to an overwhelming response from my reader*, I went legal. I went to I-tunes to give it a shot and downloaded two songs, because I had two soda caps which were worth one song each. I had to download the software which took about an hour on dial up, but that is how long to took me to download Kazaa-lite **. I went to search for my usual suspects > Metallica, The Beatles, Smashing Pumpkins, Led Zeppelin. Not a single hit, only tribute albums. I remember reading that certain artists sign up with certain services, so for a good cross section you would have to download several different applications. Or, you could just download Kazaa-lite * which handles all of these and for free. I finally found something I wanted, some vintage Scorpions. The download interface was pretty decent, and the sound quality was excellent. Also, it does allow me to burn the track to a CD for my own use... which many don't. I would say it was a decent and pretty user friendly experience, but the downside is very limited selection. Let's not forget that even though the RIAA is purely evil, downloading music for free is stealing from the artists. This is wrong, unless your downloading Metallica... because Lars is cute when he is angry and litigious. Would I recommend I Tunes over illegally downloading, not really.. the choice is too limited. Also, rather than 99 cents a song, I'd like a set amount like $10 or $15 a year for unlimited access. Now that the excitement of downloading and burning CDs is over... I only download about a song a month. * well, not my reader. Actually one of Roy's readers... snowball. ** implying that I had downloaded and used Kazaa, which I have not. That would be stealing. I'd much rather pay $19.95 for a CD that cost only 23 cents to manufacture.

England part III - brush with greatness

I was going to tell this riveting true tale about how I was inadvertantly on a Johnny Depp movie set in Wells, England and didn't even know it until I was two cities away. I could have run into Johnny Depp, but didn't. It's an interesting story, really... but not one worth me typing up and you reading. I have pictures to prove it though. oh really, well sorry to bore you. Why don't you tell us all your Johnny Depp story? That's what I thought.

the Richard Simmons arrest

You may know, exercise guru Richard Simmons got into a bit of trouble recently after slapping a man who made fun of him at a Phoenix airport. I am prepared to release my statement - Can't we come together as a society, and get a couple of decent David Gest jokes out of this?

I am back!

Good news, I am home. Some quick backround, I just spend a week traveling across the south of England. I was doing research for the blog here, so I can write it off now, right? Sorry for that last post, things got strange at the end. Probably sleep deprivation, or something Hunter Thompson might call 'the fear'. Anyhow, the trip was great and I have much to share, including pictures. I spent a lot of time in pubs talking with local folk, strictly as research for the blog mind you. They are keenly aware of what is happening politically here and can't stand our administration. America had two big allies when we went to war against Iraq: Spain and England. The leadership in Spain just all got voted out because of their allegiance to us and the whole fraudulent war against Iraq. Every single person I talked to there (both young and old, and from different ends of the political spectrum) all said they can't wait to vote out Tony Blair. They said without question he will be gone because he allowed himself and his country to be led along regarding the completelely and provenly false pretenses of the war. Those were our two allies, everyone else already thinks we're collosal dicks... now it's official that everyone in the world does. It is important to have allies, and right now we have only Britain... until Blair leaves office which seems a certainty. God forbid Bush wins re-election because in the end there will be NO ONE to stand up for our interests anywhere anymore. Sounds dramatic, doesn't it? I bet if you went into any bar in America about 20% would even know who Tony Blair is. Well over there every single person knows who George Bush is. I swear I went on vacation to forget about this shit, but this is the most pressing issue in the free world right now. Sorry, back to fun stuff. While I was there I learned how to drive on the wrong (or, as the English say... proper) side of the road. We rented a car for two days, it was a stick shift. So I had to get into the car on the wrong side, shift with the wrong arm, and then drive on the wrong side of the road. Wow was that weird! Try doing that after a few pints of good strong ale, gov'nah. Other observances for you > they drink their beer flat, and neer room temperature. It took several of these ales to get the hang of the taste (again, I did this for you, the reader). Though I would like it a bit colder, the no carbonation thing isn't bad at all. You can really taste the flavor of the beer, which is quite good. Also, without foam you can drink them MUCH quicker... I heard. I saw Stonehenge and it was much smaller than I imaqined. I mean much smaller. I somehow thought the site was acres wide across, it's only about 60 feet at the most. I mentioned the 'motherland' in the last piece as an homage to Roy... because he called it that. I guess since I am white... it is my home of origin. However, I didn't seem to have anything in common with anyone there at all. I feel much more comfortable in Mexico, personally. Here is another wacky thing: when offering to help, they do not say 'can I help you?'. They say "All you alright, then?". The first time I heard this I was in the subway trying to figure which line to take. A nice lady who was an employee of the Underground (their subway system) asked me "All you alright, then?". I freaked out because I thought I was in trouble and did something wrong. Then I noticed they all say this when you walk into a store. I still find it disturbing. Anyhow, here is the picture link, and expect a big meaty blog piece in the next week about King Henry the 8th. Quick synopsis, he was a collosal asshole who changed the course of the world. Picture link to ofoto, you may have to log in... but you don't have to pay. * a quick note about the pictures. In case it isn't painfully obvious... that crosswalk I am walking across is the crosswalk from the cover of Abbey Road by the Beatles. It was like a pilgrimage for me, seriously. I trimmed down the picures you have to wade through from 463 to 24. If you wanna see the rest, come over with some ale.

Greetings from the Motherland

Dateline: London - bad craziness afoot. I have fled the relaxation room because of crazed and drunken Germans playing the most violent game of foosball known to mortals. Not fun drunk... like me, but crazy drunk. Drunk that a 32 year old (as of today) may have thought fun when I was 16. I have walked the entirety of London three times, and I swear my feet are bleeding. Good news, in fleeing from the Luftwafte in the game room I was pushed to the internet cafe of the Hostel. It's near midnight and I am at a coin operated internet kiosk that says I have 13 minutes left on the two pounds I just put in (two British pounds equally roughly $4 us). Someone just came running through the lobby launching a fire extuinguisher at the staff and disappeared. There is probably about $100,000 in electonic equipment there that runs three local hostels... but no seems either bothered or even surprised. What the shit is going on here? Good news is that I have found a way around the last call of 11 pm in London. Every corner market sells strong cheap good cider for a pound a piece (meaning about $2 a piece, considerably cheaper than the going rate of $5 a beer after exchange rate). So this is my one and only post from England... tomorrow morning we take the Underground to the airport to fly out. A long day of traveling that begins at 8 am London time when we get up at the hostel until probably about 8 pm landing in Colorado. I dunno, it is an eight and a half hour flight and the time difference back is almost that... so maybe I land the moment I left. I don't care. I get on the plain and watch movies and drink profusely. British Airlines rules the sky, I wish we had them instead of United. talk to you more about all of this soon, with bunches of pictures, lono