25 seconds.  I got to 25 seconds must have blacked out because the next thing I know, I’m in a corner curled up in the fetal position sucking my thumb.

The piece is titled “Voice Piece for Soprano & Wish Tree”.  It’s a piece alright.  Can you actually call that soprano?  I don’t really have much to say about it, although you have to wonder what might have happened to the Beatles had she not entered into the equation because if she was like this back then, no wonder they broke up.  This isn’t art, this a slathering of incomprehensible moaning.  You know, like the kind you’d find in a B-grade horror movie.   I can just imagine walking around the museum taking everything in and all of a sudden you hear “that”. She’s clearly not from our planet.

If that was art, I want to have my own “art” on display there.  I want to have a coked up badger with a beanie propeller hat on running around in a circle being chased by a 70 year old guy named Randolph who does nothing but yell “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” as he chases behind it.  I’ll call it “Motion Piece for Chasing Badger & Cocaine: It’s a Hell of a Drug”.

Sales dive with end of tax credits. Duh.

WASHINGTON – Sales of new homes collapsed last month, sinking 33 percent to the lowest level on record as potential buyers stopped shopping for homes once they could no longer get government incentives.

via New home sales plunge 33 pct with tax credits gone – Yahoo! News.

Got news for you.  It’s not the tax credit that’s the problem with home sales.  It’s the stupidly insane fiscal policies of this country that have the housing market still in a slump.  Matter of fact, it’s those same policies that have much of this country’s economy in the crapper.

As I’ve seen written and heard said in many places, it’s not a matter of Democrats vs. Republicans, or Liberal vs. Conservative.  It’s the stupid idea that we as a country can spend money we don’t have.

Of course fewer people are going to buy houses if they don’t have the money to pay for them.  So tell me why the 535 members of Congress can’t get that idea through their heads….still.  No money = no spending.  Economics 101 my friends.  A course our government employees either didn’t take, or failed gloriously.  If you give an incentive to spur something along like say, buying homes, and it works then take the incentive away only to see fewer home sales, why is that surprising?

A guitarist that serves as one of the inspirations for getting me to pick up the instrument years ago is still going strong, literally and figuratively.  (Just Google image search for him and you’ll see prime examples of the literal part…)

Phil Collen joined Def Leppard in 1983 after the departure of Pete Willis and has recorded and toured for every album since 1983′s Pyromania.  Something about his method of playing has always fascinated me and while I don’t practice as much as I used to, when I do jam I usually start out with a mix of Def Leppard tunes and try to follow along with his leads and even some of the intricate rhythms he does.  My fingers aren’t nearly as fast as his but I try to keep up.  Even more so, I try to model my sound after his live rig.  Plus I’ve always wanted one of his Jackson PC-1s.

Musicradar.com got an interview with him recently while he was in Nashville (yes, the country music capital of the world) shopping around some songwriting ideas to some music labels.  He talks about how he has become a country music fan now, the collaborations with Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw, what about his playing he wants to improve on, his sound and a variety of other topics including a new Lep album/tour and his side project(s) while Def Lep is on hiatus.

For those that don’t wish to read until the end of the article, Def Leppard plans on releasing a new album in 2011 followed by a supporting tour.  Recording hasn’t begun yet but according to Phil, songs are being written by each of the band members.

US District Judge Martin Feldman overturned the Presidents order to suspend all offshore drilling at depths over 500 feet.  Of course you have the oil industry and all supporting industries cheering this along with everyone who is or will be employed by one of these companies and I can see how this helps economically.

At the same time with what is still happening more than a mile below the ocean surface in the Gulf you have to wonder if the rigs out there are as safe as a deep water drilling rig can be.  Deepwater Horizon was supposed to be safe but as the days pass more and more information is surfacing about the conditions aboard the rig.  Is this happening elsewhere as well?   I don’t think we’ll get an answer to that until something else tragic happens.

I’m prone to believing that the disaster that happened in April is resultant of industry deregulation.  The idea that an industry will self-regulate properly in a capitalistic society is insane.  A company wants to make money.  The more money it makes by any means possible, the happier the shareholders are.

So who or what is going to keep it all in check?  What is keeping the workers safe?  I don’t think anyone has an answer to that right now.  Someone better come up with one or we’ll be having more problems in the future.

NOM-NOM, nuggets!

Santa Clara County, California has decided to outlaw the sale of combo meals containing toy incentives based on a study that found 1 in 4 children in the county are obese or overweight.

I don’t know about you but at some point along the way I was taught that it is the parents’ responsibility to care for their child(ren) not the government’s.  I understand the problem of being obese or overweight and I make sure for every meal I cook for my family there are vegetables or fruit to go with it.  I don’t fry everything, I don’t use butter all the time.  I also am not naive enough allow the incentive of a cheap 99 cent plastic toy that will be forgotten or broken in less than 48 hours to continually steer me to the McDonald’s drive-thru.  Besides, we all know McDonald’s hasn’t had a good Happy Meal toy since the Changeables in the late 80s/early 90s.

Kathy Lauer-Williams, the author of the blog post I’m referencing here makes a good point.  If toy incentives are outlawed as part of fast-food combo meals, what about the playgrounds at the restaurants too?  Should they be outlawed because they offer incentive to buy and eat unhealthy foods?  What the hell kind of common sense went into this 3-2 decision by the county?

Not only are the proponents of this legislation morons but the 3 votes in favor of enacting it belong to even bigger morons.  Have nothing better to do with your time then come up with bullsh*t laws that waste everyone’s time and money?

I have a few ideas that could utilize the money needed to enforce this law in a much more productive way:  plant a tree or two, start a community garden, fund a county library, use the money to repair a road, sewer line, water main, replace street lights with more efficient bulbs, pay a police officer, grow a set and use that money to fund a PSA telling parents to help their children eat healthier, help fund the re-election campaigns of the 2 nay votes on this legislation as they apparently have the only common sense on that board.

By the way, if your kids are like mine and run around like madmen all the time, they’d burn off the calories in that kids meal in no time flat.  Also, your kids and mine probably have enough common sense in their heads already to know that this is a stupid, stupid law.  You don’t want something, don’t buy it.  Little Timmy says he wants something and you don’t think he should get it, SAY NO!.  See?  That was easy!

Source:
LV PARENTING: Should Happy Meals be banned? – Morning Call.

Further reading and entertainment (read: Diggers’ comments):
Digg: Should Happy Meals Be Banned?

I set my glasses down on the floor next to the vanity because there wasn’t really any room on the vanity top to put them.  Wipe my face off, turn around to pick up the paint brush again and ccccccrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaacccccccckkkkkkkkkkk.

Instantly I knew what I did.  I’ve had these glasses for a couple of years and I’ve been SO careful with them to avoid sitting on them, dropping them, or doing what I did to day.  Stepping on them.  It wasn’t even a half-step and I immediately knew what I did.  This was full weight foot firmly planted on the floor.  The plastic frame broke completely, lenses are loose.  JUST WHAT I EFFING NEED.

On the upside, the lenses are relatively damage free so I could totally rock an awesome monocle now.  I just have to figure out which eye I’d like to see clearly out of.

Now painting will be SO MUCH FUN!

There really are more than 2 parties.

Bottom of the barrel Congressional approval ratings, growing deficit, more problems with the economy, the list goes on and on.  With yesterday being primary election day across the country one thing was abundantly clear by the end of the evening.   Incumbents are going to need to find another job at the end of their term.  Not that I’m surprised too much actually.  It’s taken a little while to grab hold of the public, but it seems they may be partially waking up to the fact that if you keep electing the same people over and over and over, you’re not going to see a whole lot of difference.

In Pennsylvania, incumbent fence hopper Arlen Specter was defeated in the primary by Naval veteran and current House Rep Joe Sestak.  Is taking an existing Congressman and shuttling him to the other chamber the best idea?  Probably not.  Is it better than re-electing the 80 year-old Specter would would be pushing 90 at the end of the next term?  Most likely.  You could compare this with the defeat of Senator Bill Roth in Delaware years ago by the currently serving former governor Tom Carper.  It was just time for younger blood.  To be honest, I can’t see how having people in their 80s making decisions on how best to run the country is beneficial.  Things change over time and one thing I have observed about politicians is that they don’t change.  Which brings me to my next point and frustration.

This whole two party system we’ve been humping for the last however many years.  It’s old, and tired as well.  Isn’t it about time we vote that out as well?  Did anyone take a gander at what has been happening in England lately?  They have 3 or 4 parties in their Parliament and neither one of them were elected to a majority this election cycle.  That meant that essentially nothing could get done without two or more parties agreeing to work with each other.  Each party has their own set of ideals but each party also realizes that if an alliance is not formed, nothing gets passed through.  So what happened?  They compromised.  They worked with each other.  Just imagine what that would be like in our country.  Republicans want to say no?  Fine, Democrats ally with the as yet unnamed third party and get stuff done.

Oh well.  One can dream right?  I do know that things are shaping up to be pretty interesting come November when the entire House of Representatives is up for grabs and 36 Senate seats are up.  Is it too much to hope for a third party gaining traction this year?

*Edit:  By third party, I do not mean the Tea Party since they’re pretty much Republicans who thought they could put one over on us by changing their party name.

BOSTON - MAY 14: Head coach Peter Laviolette of the Philadelphia Flyers calls a time out in the first period against the Boston Bruins in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Semifinals during the 2010 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden on May 14, 2010 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

It was possibly the most well placed time-out ever called by a coach in any sport.  After falling behind 3-0 in game 7 against the Boston Bruins, Peter Laviolette called time out to settle the Flyers down and reinforce that they needed only one goal to get back into the game and stop the hemorrhage.  At this point, the Flyers were dangling by a thread over the end of their season after battling back from being down 0-3 in the series.  After that timeout, it all turned around.  The Flyers became the team they were against New Jersey after that time out.

All of a sudden it was 3-1, then 3-2 and then 3-3 in the third in front of a silent Bruins crowd at TD Garden.  I was busy putting the boys to bed during the first period so I did not know how bad it was at first.  When I started watching the game, they were already down by 3.  I debated if I should even be still wearing my jersey.  I’ve seen this before.  They battled in the series to get back into it and then blow it in the last game.  That is who the Flyers were to me.  I bleed orange and black but when they get stuck in a series, they just blow it.  Or so I thought.

I stuck to it though, I said “hell, I’m already wearing it, and they’ve come back to tie the series 3-3, wouldn’t it be weird if they ended up winning game 7 and the series by a count of 4 to 3?  I was kept from panicking in part by the Flyers faithful that populate the Flyers’ Facebook page during the games.  Their comments were largely positive that night much to my surprise.  Even with the flood of Bruins trolls creatively instructing us how to insert random objects into our bodies, the overall tone was calm and a bit positive.  As Laviolette called the time out, you could read his lips as he told the team “Just get one goal”, “just one goal”.  The fans on the FB page caught it too and it became the mantra for the remainder of the first period.  We just needed one goal and we got it.  Then the negativity that was present vanished in an instant.  It was 3-1, but somehow we all knew it was just the beginning.

I could go even further back to game 4 in Philly when they won in overtime.  That was the turning point in the series.  The first 2 games were close could have gone either way, the the beginning of the momentum shift was in game 4.  That overtime win lit a fire in that team and they have kept it roaring ever since.  The beat down they delivered in game 5 in Boston, the near shutout in game 6 and the historical game 7.  There’s not a good way of putting it into words other than it’s been amazing and if the season ended tomorrow, I’d be damned happy and proud to be a Flyers fan.

I’ve seen them swept in playoff series, I’ve seen them fight it out to seven games before but I’ve never ever seen this and I want to see more.  Game 3 in the Eastern Conference Finals is Thursday night.  I have my two jerseys next to my chair in the living room and my Flyers hat that I wear nearly every day, I’ve got the playoff beard that’s been there since Game 1 against the Devils and I’ve got my piece of the frenzy that’s surrounding this team as they keep roaring through the playoffs and the last thing I have to say is

“LET’S GO FLYERS!”

So he’s suspended 6 games with a possible reduction to 4 games depending on his off-field behavior and his participation in a behavioral evaluation process.  This all came from Commish Roger Goodell today.  Strangely enough, we haven’t heard a word from the Steelers management yet on any further disciplinary action.

The Steelers as an organization have a reputation to uphold.  That may sound silly, but if you think about it, the Steelers embody the city of Pittsburgh.  Tough, no non-sense, hard working, and honest.   Ben’s extracurriculars don’t really fall into those categories and the Steelers don’t particularly like to keep those types of people wearing the black and gold no matter how good a player they are.  (example:  Santonio Holmes).

Why no additional punishment from the Steelers?

I think he’ll be traded.  If I’m one of the Steelers’ brass, I don’t want this guy representing the iconic football team (whether or not he was guilty or innocent of the charges brought).  The fact that he put himself in that precarious position more than once tells me this guy’s an idiot and doesn’t really get the fact that he is (was) the leader of one of the most regarded sports franchises ever.  He isn’t the image of the Steelers, his behavior doesn’t represent what I think the Rooney family wants the Steelers to represent and that’s why I think you’ll be hearing that #7 will be playing for another team, if he’s lucky.  After he’s done being an idiot, of course.

iPad Wi-Fi only, apple.com

As was being rumored all weekend, Apple has indeed run out of their initial pre-order stock of the iPad.   The new estimated shipping date of their Wi-Fi only device are pushed back to April 12.  Ever since the announcement of the iPad fans and critics have been equally voluminous in their thoughts on Apple’s latest idea.  Critics say it’s nothing more than a stretched out iPhone and that people will just buy it because it has the Apple brand on it.  Hardcore fans praise it as a device that will change the world of portable media consumption.

Those in the middle, like me, happen to think it’s looks pretty cool and would probably be a lot of fun to have.  I don’t see myself buying one because I already have an iPhone and a laptop so I see no need for me to buy a device that sort of “bridges the gap” between the two.  However, for those without an iPhone and/or a laptop who want something to browse the wealth of portable media out there, the base model of the iPad is a pretty good purchase in my mind and a lot of other people seem to think so as well.

Apple conspiracy theorists will claim that the iPad being sold out is nothing more than a marketing trick by Apple to portray a perceived “shortage” to incite increased demand-  “Wow!  So many people must think this thing is awesome that Apple can’t keep up with them all!  Maybe I’ll get one too and see what the fuss is about!”  Regardless of if there is any truth to that theory, Apple is still a profit-based business and isn’t going to just pump out insane numbers of a product without estimating the initial demand for it.  Trust me when I say they will quickly catch up to the demand.

Apple probably hit another home run with the iPad and good for them and I hope everyone who receives one will love it.  Were I buying one, I know I would love it.

The Apple Retail Store will have the device for sale on a first come, first serve basis after their initial April 3 launch date.  The Apple Store online will have new iPad’s for delivery on or around April 12.

www.apple.com