Crazy Awkward T-shirt moment

So I was gardening today, and a neighbor happened to step outside her house with her children. She was being sweet and waved to me and made her kids wave as well, you know, like a good neighbor. She asked me something about the hydrangeas from beyond the fence, and I went over to my side of the fence to reply to her. I walked over with a giant smile and started talking to her, and all of a sudden her face got all twisted into something very unpleasant, she took her (somewhat startled) kids by the hands and stormed into her house.

I didn't quite understand what had just happened - I mean, I swear I was looking pretty much at her eyes (no lower than the neck at least), gave the kids nothing but a little glance, perhaps made a funny face at one of them. I had no idea, and kept mulling over this strange exchange, until I caught my reflection in the glass door on the way in.

Here's what I was wearing. It's a t-shirt from a German tattoo shop.

Sigh.

Fawcett, Jackson... and Billy Mays????

Dude, what the hell??!?!?

Well, we knew Farah was going, but still, it was sad when we heard that she finally succumbed to cancer.

And then we heard about MJ (No, I am not going to link to it; the man's death took down the internet for a few hours, so clearly everyone knows what's up); incredibly sad, what a troubled childhood combined with an incessant spotlight from the media can do to a soul. Say what you may about how crazy he was, but the guy was genius. And he may have made it to a moderately normal life if only the media gave him a chance...

But today, I hear about Billy Mays. I mean, what the hell?!?!? That's just crazy! I loved the guy - who's going to sell us oxyclean now? (certainly not the shamwow guy - he's too busy busting up hookers)

RIP all you guys. And Billy Mays, I'm going to miss your annoying-as-hell high-pitched pitching voice dude...

Hiking on the Appalachian Trail

I think this will go viral as a new idiom:

"Hey Joe, where's that report you were supposed to submit today?"
"Er... I went hiking on the Appalachian trail..."

Or even better:
"What the fuck Joe, where's that report you were supposed to submit today? Did you go hiking on the fucking Appalachian trail???"

Of course, for those of you who don't know what's happening, I am of course referring to Mark Sanford's sad saga. Poor republicans. For being the party of moral values, they sure are finding it real hard to keep the snake in their pants. Bloody hypocrites. So yeah Sanford? You can go to hell. Oh one more thing: awful penmanship. Those letters make me want to puke.

And finally, apologies for those who thought this was about, you know, the Appalachian trail. Here is a post from a while back that may help.

Best Thai Restaurant in Virginia (maybe even Virginia/Maryland/DC area) - In Manassas????

I got dragged out to Manassas (which in my opinion, is to Virginia what New Jersey is to America - its armpit) for some bullshit wine and jazz festival. This was bullshit because:
1. I hate Jazz. Jazz should be limited to elevators and smoky bars where you can pick up women who used to date the rich and famous ten years back and have slipped down the societal ladder until they've finally had to come to terms with having to blow losers like you in exchange for some trinket you may or may not buy them. I shouldn't have to pay money to listen to Jazz. I hate the word Jazz. No four lettered word should be worth 29 points on Scrabble. But enough about it.
2. The wine festival was also bullshittical. I had drunk a bunch the previous night, and so I didn't want to get too drunk again, but I needn't have worried. Each tasting was a TEASPOONful. It sucked. I mean, you can't really taste wine if it evaporates before it reaches the back of your throat. Plus these were wines from Virginia, which weren't all that great to start off. (They had a jalapeno wine. I mean, come on. Give the drink some respect.)

Anyways, I agreed to go because I liked the people involved. So we drive all the way to freaking Man-asses on the worst roads ever (Virginia must be broke. First of all they are mighty stingy with their wine at their festivals, and they pave their roads only every time we have a world war), and then we hit old town Manassas.

To tell you the truth, old town manasses isn't bad. I mean, at least they've tried. Its a pretty enough place. I wouldn't say it's worth going for a day, but if you are in the area, do go and walk around a bit. After you go to...

Siam Classic.

I don't know if you like Thai food, but if you do, this is the best Thai food you can get in the area. I've eaten quite a bit of Thai food, but honestly, I've gotten so used to the usual (you know, green/yellow/red/penang curry, pad thai, pad prick, all that stuff), that I thought that that was pretty much it. Wrong.

The people (it's a husband and wife pair) that own the restaurant also do the cooking, and boy, does the lady cook up a storm. A lot of the stuff you'll get on the menu are somewhat unconventional (the kind of food that your mum would cook that you wouldn't get at a restaurant), but incredibly tasty. We had a dude who had spent a bunch of time in Thailand, and he swore it was the best thai food he'd had outside of Thailand.

Yeah, I know, you're thinking I'm building this WAY up, but try the place; you'd be surprised. Off the top of my head I'd say try the bird in a nest or the bangkok noodles. And DEFINITELY try the red bean dumpling and coconut ice cream dessert and thai coffee. Incredibly good. And one last thing. The spice comes on a 1-10, but you can ask for a 20 or more (which I wouldn't unless you're like my friend Erik who likes torturing his duodenum). 8 gives you solid heat but doesn't make you want to die.

And the people are really friendly. And the place is reasonable (15 or so per entree). I left a very very happy man...

Pushupmom loves me. I think.

So I went to see my mum this weekend; I'm seeing her after about a year (hey, I call every week, ok? I'm not a jerk, she just lives far away).

First thing she tells me after giving me a quick up-and-down?

"Yogi, you've put on weight. Especially here. (Jabs at my midriff). Little paunch... Getting old, what?"

And then she proceeds to stuff my face with some super delicious Indian food. Thanks mom. I love you too. And now back to my crunches and pushups to get rid of all that lard...

I hate primary school band concerts

First of all, more work = less blogging. Man, this bullshit is beginning to get me down a bit. It's nice and pretty outside, and I was hoping to get some free time because the last few weeks have been brutal at work. No luck.

That being said, I did get to see my nieces' gym video and band concert video. You know what, I think music teachers need to be a little less tolerant with young beginners. If the little kid doesn't know a C from a F within a couple months, cut him/her from the team. Don't make them do solos at the end of the year. This might be news to you, but not everyone has the ability, nor even wants to be, the next Chris Botti. So why put them, us, and indeed, yourself through all this torture, I don't get. Trust me, we'll ALL be glad if they didn't lay their dainty little fingers on an instrument ever again.

I got to see a bunch of kids play instruments half as big as their bodies and managing to sound like the terminal wing of an asthma clinic having sex with an unwilling horse. My niece was great (honest), and so were a couple kids, but that was about it. They could have just had a nice quartet and been done with it. But no, being cut from a team makes you a psycho killer or a misfit in society for life apparently, so we had forty fucking seven solos, most of which SUCKED BALLS.

There was the kid who tried to play the trombone, and had clearly not figured out the relationship between slide and pitch. There were the drums duo who managed to be out of sync for EVERY SECOND of their (mercifully) short piece. There was the piano duo that, not satisfied with sucking while playing solo, played together, with one girl handling the low notes with her left hand and the other handling the highs with her right. Disaster.

But none was worse than the self-important little kid who came out and played two lines from the the Titanic song over and over AND OVER. 6 FREAKING TIMES. And all the while, her mom (from where the self-importance gene was clearly passed down) sat down in the front row and played conductor while managing to both beam with pride and be in a trance from the apparently captivating cacophony. This was the only piece when I both wanted to puncture my eardrums AND stab my eyeballs to lessen the pain of the experience.

So, music teachers, for everyone's sakes, when a kid sucks, cut them from the group, ok? Please. Thanks.

Deep Thought

Why is it that when someone kills somebody else in the name of Jesus, the immediate defense is that the guy "is crazy, he has nothing to do with the real christian religion", but when someone kills someone in the name of Islam, "that's just a flawed religion that teaches people to kill".

Well?

Update: Nice comment, Anon. And true too. The Old Testament's God is a pretty vengeful dude. Jesus gets warm and fuzzy and doesn't tell gays they're going to be killed.

kid violence on a bright beautiful morning

Nov. 18th 2028.
Mr and Ms Sypnewski hold hands as they look at the destruction wreaked on their pretty town home by their delinquent son, Matt.

"All we did was suggest that he cut back on the crack."
"I thought we were such good parents..."
"When did he get this violent?"
" I don't know. Maybe we'll never know."

Jul. 6th 2009.

Matt Sypnewski, egged on by enthusiastic parents and a motivated coach, takes a kiddie step towards experiencing the joys of mindless distruction.

Greeks love alcohol

I mean, it has to be, because how else would you explain this notice (at a Greek festival I went to last weekend)?

Why Operation Rescue is a Terrorist Organization

Take a look at my previous post on this subject, and the comment. Astute. While I have been pro-choice all this while, it's only now that I've started reading a bit about the dark world of the fringe "anti-abortion at ALL costs" groups. I was reading about the killing (which is bad enough as it is), and what is emerging is that the murder of Dr. Tiller was but one flash point in the chillingly well-planned terror campaign on a woman's right to choose. Yes, terror campaign. Yes, Terrorist Organization.

What do you call an organization that has a well-planned and unapologetic program of violent rhetoric and assassination of high profile opponents to instill fear in people in order to achieve their goal?

You call it a terrorist organization.

In this the case the terrorist organization is "Operation Rescue" (Scott Roeder, who is charged with killing Dr Tiller was but a pawn the organization), and their target is women who, for whatever reason, choose to terminate their pregnancy. (Read this moving diary from DKos about a woman who exemplifies exactly the kind of life story that pretty much IMO renders the whole debate moot). They kept egging people on - calling Dr Tiller a baby killer, calling him a Nazi, accusing him of being a mass murderer of 60,000 fetuses, until some fool went and actually killed him. Oh, they knew. They KNEW that there would be someone who would take it upon themselves to "do the right thing, and kill the devil". You can't spew hatred for decades, bomb clinics, harass nurses and doctors, defile their names, and then pretend you didn't do a thing. Manson didn't kill anybody personally, did he? Nope. Was he responsible for the deaths of people? Yep.

Oh sure, now they're backing away, (Here Media Matters NAILS Bill O'Reilly. Nice try, BillO, but YOU called him Baby Killer too) but make no mistake; these people have one agenda, and one agenda ONLY.

They aim to terrorize women by any means possible and take away any control that women have over their own bodies. And they will not stop unless we are honest, call them for what they are, and then do something about it.

Housing market ain't done tanking yet

Oh, wait, you thought the worst of the housing market crisis was over?

bwahhahhahhahaa.... bbwwhahahahhaaaa.... BBWWAAHHAAHHAAHHAHHAHHAAAAAA.....

Read this. And puke.

As a very unscientific correlate, there were no "up for sale" signs in my neighborhood till this calendar year. There are three signs up now. On my street.

How Fox News killed Dr. Tiller

Surely, you have already heard about this - the doctor from Wichita, Kansas who has been strongly pro-choice, and has performed abortions, including late-term abortions, was killed yesterday by a gunman. He was at Church.

Now, the controversy about late term abortions is valid, and should be debated. But why have a reasoned debate when you can create blind hatred? The right wing loves an enemy, and oh boy, did they ever have one in Dr Tiller. They have always hated the man, and they have created and then stoked the flames of the anti Tiller hysteria so much so that his clinic has been bombed, he has been shot, and his name sullied thoroughly. And now they have killed the man. True to their style, "pro-lifers" remain thoroughly unrepentant.

And if you have seen Fox "News", you would know that this man has been totally demonized by this channel. They have called him a Hitler, a Nazi, an executioner, and they even gave him a name: Tiller the baby killer. They taunt, they threaten, they vilify, and now they're surprised that someone would go and shoot the guy?

Olbermann had a great segment on this tonight. Watch it all the way, and quarantine Fox News. I know I will.