Over the last year and a half, I started to think I would never make this milestone. This is my 2000th article on JoeUser, a testament to staying power, stubbornness, and not a little loquaciousness and inflated sense of self importance. I could not merely allow 2000 to pass without notice, and over the past week, with this article looming, I have invested a good deal of time and effort in deciding what, precisely, I should offer for my tooth article. 2000 is, after all, rarified air, an...
A few weeks ago I went hunting for the song "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. The Rufus Wainwright version was what I was first going for, but I came across an amazing surprise, in my personal opinion. Check the following link out (I am WAY too tired to try to embed this...lol): Link If you like this, you really should check out her page, and, especially her version of "Hit Me Baby, One More Time". I know, I know...but she actually shows what this song COULD have been. She's workin...
So I'm sitting here watching Bob Dylan on YouTube, and finding tablature for a few of Guthrie's songs. It got me to thinking: anyone who looked at my playlist and knew my beliefs system would be shocked to see my playlist (RATM, Natalie Merchant and a bunch of others make the playlist). But those who really know me know it's really no surprise at all. See, when the debate turns to our moral responsibility to help our fellow humans, suddenly I sound like a flaming liberal. We need fair wages, ...
As we begin working towards the 2008 primaries, attention has focused almost exclusively on Barak Obama and Hillary Cklinton, the media darlings of the DNC. While Obama's star might not fade, I believe I can say without exception that Hillary Clinton will not win the Democratic Party's nomination in 2008. The reason why can be found with a close scrutiny of most major news sources: Barak Obama is a member of an untouchable minority, Hillary Clinton is not. Don't believe me? Walk into a com...
The poor today are pathetic. I mean, they're really, really bad. See, over the years, there's been a push to give poor people the lifestyles of a pseudo-lower middle class. Unfortunately, when we started doing so, the poor lost a certain je ne sais quoi , a style, a culture that distinctly identified them and gave them a certain flair, and haunted their children with memories that we never will shake. I miss polyester. I mean, if slacks can't throw sparks when rubbed together in t...
The poor today are pathetic. I mean, they're really, really bad. See, over the years, there's been a push to give poor people the lifestyles of a pseudo-lower middle class. Unfortunately, when we started doing so, the poor lost a certain je ne sais quoi , a style, a culture that distinctly identified them and gave them a certain flair, and haunted their children with memories that we never will shake. I miss polyester. I mean, if slacks can't throw sparks when rubbed together in t...
In May, I will hit my 37th birthday. That will be about 5 days short of 19 years since I filled out my Selective Service registration. Like many young adults my age, I received my registration information not long after. In the years intervening, I did not hear from the Selective Service. Not in 1993, when I first attended college and had to verify my registration. Not last fall, when I returned to college. But in February, when I applied for Texas workforce grants to assist with m...
OK, it is now clear to me. The mantra of "reduce, reuse, and recycle" apparently no longer applies. Not only do we have Al Gore refusing to reduce his consumption, we have the following defense from one of his Al-colytes: I could be wrong, but I dont think he is saying for us to use LESS energy, he is saying we need to change WHERE we get it from. Taking the pledge may have shown he is dedicated to both, but I think he is more interested in cleaner, renewable energy then he is in using less....
On another forum that I frequent, we are discussing "nanny city" laws that overregulate a person's property. The kinds of laws that target broken down cars, "junk" piles, etc. These laws are meant to improve a community, but in the end it is my contention that they just wind up being laws that target the poor. So that got me to wonder: how many of the people who postulate on these things have actually been poor, or know what it's like from day to day? Let me explain. No, that would take t...
I'm going to start my oldest two girls on blogging here in the next week. Now, they already know and understand that I will be looking over their shoulder. If they publish it, I will be checking it. I'm not too worried about them, although I may have them create custom audiences to start out. Realizing in advance that JU has no way to authenticate ages or to heavily police the blogs, would it be possible to create a separate forum where kids like mine could post their articles and make it ...
A friend of mine presented me with a situation. Basically they have an employee who MUST learn basic computer skills that are lacking in order to retain their job. They asked me what I would charge for instructing that individual, I quoted a price of $25 for an hour's session, and I would charge less for additional hours if followup instruction was needed. I could tell they weren't crazy about the price, but I've learned to put a value on my time, and that hour's instruction must take into accou...
I am sick to death of Mac snobs. In variably in any discussion with Mac fanbois, they will cry about Microsoft being a monopoly. Yeah, uh huh. Keep crying because your computer manufacturer was insanely stupid. The computer company that really brought the idea of upgradeability to personal computing, now puts out boxes that can't be upgraded. The computer company that started serious work on GUI, yet didn't have the foresight to protect it so that Microsoft could use it to create competing op...
It's been 2 1/2 years since we've had the Internet out of our home. The last few months have been a matter of just getting things setup since, as an employee of the ISP, I get my Internet at a substantial discount. The last time someone had come out to set up my Internet, they claimed they couldn't get a signal. And since they never made a ticket, I couldn't look in our billing software to see why they didn't install. After all, I know we're in a prime location; the tower is less than 1000 fe...
It all makes sense to me now! For those who know me, I am a HUGE Douglas Adams fan, have been for many many years. So I was pontificating and I have decided the world will end on October 10, 2010. Bonus points to anyone who can make the connection as to how and why I came to that conclusion. I'll tell ya after I get a fair sampling of guesses
My dad and I travelled fairly similar educational paths in many ways. He also started out college and finished much much later. I remember a day back in the 80's when he had received an alumni letter from the first college he had attended. I had until that time thought you needed to graduate a school to be an alumnus. But as my dad said, when they want money for some cause or something, EVERYONE's an alumnus. I didn't fully appreciate that until yesterday. See, my interrupted attem...