The Denver Nuggets

A few weeks ago, I met a friend of mine (let's call him lazyj - you might know him from jaxed) at a relatively popular joint downtown for a little dinner.  While talking, the NBA came up, as it always does, and within the NBA, the Denver Nuggets. 

 

My friend's opinion:

 

"The Nuggets have no chance to win the Northwest if Camby gets hurt.  If it gets hurt it's over."

 

Well, Nuggets fans, where is your God now?!

 

DENVER (AP) -- The Denver Nuggets suffered another major setback Wednesday when they learned center Marcus Camby , the NBA's leading rebounder, will be out indefinitely with a broken right pinkie.

Camby will need surgery on the finger, after which a timeline for his return will be set.

Yahoo props.

 

Damn. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bring Back Television

Sigh.

 

The pathetic state of network programming in 2005 has really chaffed my hide.  If you look, you can find out how I feel about it here, or here. 

 

But you really want to know what to watch?  Here's the list.

 

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. Lesbians, vampires, and kung-fu.  Perfect.

Star Trek - The Next Generation - Seasons 1-5.  After that things got a little out of hand.

The Twilight Zone/Night Gallery (original versions).  Classics, all.  Why can't anyone make scary shows anymore?  Also, it must be said:  Rod Sterling was a stud.

Soap/WKRP In Cincinnati/Barney Miller - Quite simply, three of the funniest shows to every grace the small screen.  "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."  Stunningly funny.

 

I'm pretty sure that all of these are available via The Man on DVD.

There are more that I know I'm forgetting, but I don't want anyone to feel left out.  Feel free to leave your selections in the comments.

 

You'll notice that I didn't include the rough 'em up, shoot 'em up stuff on my list.  That's ok.  Instead, I'll post this:

 

Mr. T. vs Everything

 

...for all you A-Team fans.

 

"I pity the fool."  Heh.

Feelin' Secure?

So, yeah, I've been on a brief hiatus.  A combination of slow news weeks, Christmas, birthdays, and family visits have done me in.

But I'm back.

 

And I decided, for your tinfoil hat pleasure, I'd gift you this holiday season with this non-revelation.

 

NEW YORK - The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most of them.

Really?

These files, known as "cookies," disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made inquiries this week, and agency officials acknowledged Wednesday they had made a mistake. Nonetheless, the issue raises questions about privacy at a spy agency already on the defensive amid reports of a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States.

You don't say. 

The Bush administration has come under fire recently over reports it authorized NSA to secretly spy on e-mail and phone calls without court orders.  Since The New York Times disclosed the domestic spying program earlier this month, President Bush has stressed that his executive order allowing the eavesdropping was limited to people with known links to al-Qaida.  But on its Web site Friday, the Times reported that the NSA, with help from American telecommunications companies, obtained broader access to streams of domestic and international communications.

 

Story via Yahoo.

 

Wow.  I can't believe that such a thing would happen.

 

Listen up, people.  Anyone who thinks that they are private when they surf is a fool.  Perhaps even a damn fool.  I kind of expect (not necessarily ACCEPT, ha) that pretty much everyone in the government who gives a hoot about what people say on their blogs has read this at some point.  I've seen the server and hit reports.

 

So.  With this in mind, I'd like to say this:

 

I know you're out there. 

You have my file already.

Read all you like.  I have very little to hide.

 

Now.  Where did I bury that cash?  Kidding.  KIDDING.

 

 

 

I Heart Lifehacker

Ah, Lifehacker.

 

Obviously, the Hack has what could only be described as unconditional love for us all.  And I love it back.  Why?  Well, quite simply, because they post hints like this. 

The biggest shortcoming in Gmail's user interface is that damnable dropdown menu item to delete messages. I don't know about you, but I delete messages a LOT and I need a convenient button to do so.

Happily programmer Anthony Lieuallen provides a choice of Firefox extension OR Greasemonkey user script which adds a delete button to your Gmail.

Link to the info is here.

I delete a LOT of mail.  Unfortunately, my gmail addy is all clogged up with junk at the moment.  I am in the process, though, of cleaning a lot of that up using labels and filters.  If you need a gmail invite, let me know.  Gmail has also added a bunch of happy new features.  Check it out.

 

Lifehacker.  Sigh.  I really, really like that website.

 

Short, Shameful Confession No. 1029

Man, I can really dig on some old Janet Jackson tunes.

 

I'm not kidding.  I've been listening to her old stuff (pre-1996) for the last hour.

Fighing The Man

It's just looks catchy, doesn't it?

Welcome, internet, to The Consumerist, the latest title from Gawker Media. The Consumerist loves to shop, and is reconciled to utilities, but hates paying for shoddy products, inhumane customer support, and half-assed service.

Each week The Consumerist will guide you through the delinquencies of retail and service organizations. The Consumerist will highlight the persistent, shameless boners of modern consumerism — and the latest hot deals, discounts, and freebies around.

Join us. You'll tell us when you've been royally screwed by yet another company, and we'll channel your rage. Together we will storm the revolving doors of faceless corporations to call them naughty words for genitals, and they will begin to fear us.

The Consumerist. Capitalism is broken. We'll help you fix it.

Heh.  I smell a permalink, and soon.  We'll see.

The Consumerist.

Go man go.

Oh, No. NOOOOOOO!

Dear God, please make it stop.

 

Wilmer Valderrama will star as motorcycle cop Ponch in Warner Bros . Pictures' big-screen version of cult late 70's classic series "CHiPs" says The Hollywood Reporter .

You mean... CHiPS, the Movie?

.

.

.

.

.

 

That's it.  I'm boycotting Hollywood, except for Peter Jackson.  Of course.

 

 

Beat Down

Ever took a really, really good beatin'?

 

From the police?

 

I have.  Here's the story.

 

Several years ago, I was working as a clerk in a law firm in Washington, D.C.  The Washington Redskins were going to the Super Bowl that year.

The city was excited.  Everyone was partying like it was... well, 1999 or something.  I know that you can forgive the Prince reference.

 

So, my roommates and I went to a friend's to attend a Super Bowl party in Georgetown.  All of my roomies and my roomies friends quickly went from completely sober, to mind-bendingly, stunningly, shockingly sloshed.  We were young, and the Redskins were winning.  But, as I recall, I was just as shockingly sober, as I didn't feel particularly well.

 

The game ended.  The 'Skins won.

 

On the streets of Washington, chaos ensued.

 

The world is full of tremendous parties.  I understand very few gatherings are like (former) New Orleans, or Rio, during Marti Gras.  I remember being in Mexico during Spring Break in 1989, and in some ways, I think that I *still* haven't recover from the massive throng of humanity.  And I know that everyone can think of other examples.

 

However, all that being said, those were NOTHING like the streets of Georgetown the day the the Washington Redskins won the Super Bowl.

 

The street were all roped off.  TV stations were on rooftops with cameras, which will be important later in the story.  There was almost a full-blown riot going on underneath this woman's ritzy Georgetown apartment.  So, naturally, she wanted to go down and join the revelry.

 

Of course, I volunteered to go down with her.  What can I say?  She was embarrassingly drunk, and completely attractive.  It was my duty.

 

Down we went.  It was an amazing sight, indeed, made even more amazing by the fact that we were in the thick of it.  The Washington D.C. police were out in force.  There weren't going to be cars on fire THIS year.  I had no problem with this.  Unfortunately, my female buddy wasn't so pleased with the showing of Washington's Finest, and said something to one of the officers.  This would be defined as Major Mistake No. 1, as she was almost immediately singled out and dragged over the rope partition in the middle of the street.

 

Major Mistake No. 2:  In response to the affront, I asked the officer for his badge number.  Three times.  Angrily.

 

You can guess the response.  Pulled over the rope partition, into the middle of the street, and the full-blown beating by at least two policemen commenced.

 

Time now for an important Public Service Announcement:  if you are being beaten in the middle of the streets by cops, BE SURE TO COVER YOUR HEAD.  I cannot stress how important this is.  I fought back, but I did cover my head as I laid there on the ground in the middle of M Street, being beaten to a pulp by two of the District's Finest (or Worst, as the case may be), and I strongly suspect this action saved me serious, serious injury.  As it was, though, was not good.  I was definitively and thoroughly beat up as I was dragged into a police car and accused of assaulting a police officer.  I told them, "Not only did you beat me in the street, and not only were there thousands of witnesses and TV cameras all over the place, but I work for a law firm.  I'm going to sue the hell out of you."

 

Several hours later, I was released. 

 

I went home, sat in the bathtub for an hour and plotted my revenge.

 

And the final response?

 

I went to my firm and made some inquiries.  They told me this, which I will never forget:

 

"You have no way of winning a case in this city, at this time, and if you try to file administrative actions with anyone against those cops, then the D.C. police department will harass you until the day you die.  Move out of the District and to Virginia or Maryland as soon as you possibly can."

 

So I moved.

 

But that has haunted me ever since.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bizzare

Heh.

Ok, so has anyone had a problem that they absolutely, positively, couldn't explain?
I do.  It's called severe, nasty sleeplessness.

It started out several years ago.  College, I think.  Personally, I think that it began with a problem with an old girlfriend.  It was funny, I was all pretty much ok, and then, out of nowhere, I just... stopped sleeping.  At first, it was just a little passing joke - something that I thought that I could get over.  Then, it became much more serious.  There were weeks at a time where sleeping was just not an option.  And it always happened at the same two times of year:

1.  Christmas holidays.
2.  Early spring.

However, I am not one of those people that tries to ignore those types of problems.  I read books, I worked hard, I tried to do new things.

And with that, after a while, the problem somewhat went away.

But I had to deal with it again, twice.  And, as some of you might guess, I'm presently dealing with it again now, as it's 5:12am in Denver, and I've been wide awake since 12am.  That would make it more than a week since I've gotten more that three hours of sleep.

Events and such can sometime cause this kind of situation.  Also, desperation.  Like several friends have often said, "It's not that I'm crazy for not sleeping at night.  It's just that the voices in my head are always louder when the lights are out."  Ha ha.  But there is a nugget of truth in that statement.

Depression, loneliness, and such are nasty things.  They will keep you awake.  They will convince you to do things that aren't the best for you.  They will break you and help you to destroy your own life if you aren't careful.

So, with this in mind, I will tell you all a secret; something that I've thought carefully, and quite a bit, about, in the last several days.  One of those things in the Post Secret type of mindset, so why I'm posting it as a basically non-anonymous person, I have no idea.  But I think that I need to get it off my chest.

When I was a sophomore in college, I met what I thought was the love of my life.  We got pregnant, and had an abortion.  And, in all honesty, I have not been the same ever since. 

That is not a license for all of the anti-abortion types to start hatin' on me or this blog, nor is it an invitation that all pro-choice types (of which, I am one) to start coming out and high-fiving me.  My blog is pretty politics neutral.  It's just the way that it is.  But to be honest, I have not been the same person since that girl, that I loved dearly, had that abortion.  That's all.

So.

In the meantime, I'm going to try to get some serious, serious help and figure out why, after all these years, I still occasionally can't sleep at night, and why, after all of these years, I still dream about that situation, and when I don't dream about it, I just... lie awake.

Ok.  That's all I've got, laid out for the world to see.  Jennifer, if you are out there, I'm sorry, sincerely, and I still miss you.

This post, though, is for Tim R.  Rest in peace, brother.  Your friends and family lost you too soon.