I got Facebook requests from my uncle Jim Frederick and his daughter Lori and now I finally see something useful for out of Facebook. I haven't seen them for years and now realize I miss them very much. The world seems so small on the computer and so far away on real life. Wait until I tell my brother Dave!
For a 4th of July celebration, I think we should shoot some missiles to North Korea, to return the favor. Have some very large and accurate explosions rock the world of the stupid peckerheads running that backward nation, and let them see what nuclear power is really about. There has been no real use for North Korea recorded in history. Now that the Chinese are our business partners, we should make an arrangement, like Don Corleone would do. It's nothing personal. It's business.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
The Golden Age of White People
As I consider the 20th vs. 21st century problem, I see that our centenials need realignment. In Infinite Jest, DF Wallace has the president selling the naming of years the way stadiums and venues sell their names to corporate sponsors. Dolphin Stadium is now Landshark Beer Stadium. Much of what happens in IJ occurs during the Year of The Depends Adult Undergarment, for example. So realignment is possible, if there are sponsors available.
The centuries 1901-2000 and 2001-3000 don't fit their histories. It should be 1850-1949 is one century (The Golden Age of White People) and 1950-2050 is another (The Rise of Everyone Else). In TGAWP, white people owned and disowned slaves, wiped out indigenous populations, seized 3rd world countries like fruit off trees, and even went into murderous wars to eliminate Jews and Poles and other minorities of even pretending to be white people. By the end of WWII, white people had killed so many other white people, their numbers and power were greatly reduced. The majority in the next century, 1950-2050, TREE, is the minority from TGAWP and so people of every other shade and color are ascendant. China runs the world, Arabs own the oil, a Hawaiian is president, and if you don't speak Spanish you won't get a job in Miami or LA or New York in government or retail.
This is a more natural time flow, and history using this model is more Hegelian. Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis, all achieved by moving the begin and end numbers around. Someday a swarthy professor somewhere will outline this theory, and the world's history will be changed.
Corporate sponsors can buy the centuries. The Wall Street Journal might buy The Golden Age of White People. Nike might buy The Rise of Everyone Else.
The centuries 1901-2000 and 2001-3000 don't fit their histories. It should be 1850-1949 is one century (The Golden Age of White People) and 1950-2050 is another (The Rise of Everyone Else). In TGAWP, white people owned and disowned slaves, wiped out indigenous populations, seized 3rd world countries like fruit off trees, and even went into murderous wars to eliminate Jews and Poles and other minorities of even pretending to be white people. By the end of WWII, white people had killed so many other white people, their numbers and power were greatly reduced. The majority in the next century, 1950-2050, TREE, is the minority from TGAWP and so people of every other shade and color are ascendant. China runs the world, Arabs own the oil, a Hawaiian is president, and if you don't speak Spanish you won't get a job in Miami or LA or New York in government or retail.
This is a more natural time flow, and history using this model is more Hegelian. Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis, all achieved by moving the begin and end numbers around. Someday a swarthy professor somewhere will outline this theory, and the world's history will be changed.
Corporate sponsors can buy the centuries. The Wall Street Journal might buy The Golden Age of White People. Nike might buy The Rise of Everyone Else.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
20th Century Man by Ray Davies (and the Kinks)
Lyrics to 20th Century Man :
This is the age of machinery,
A mechanical nightmare,
The wonderful world of technology,
Napalm, hydrogen bombs, biological warfare,
This is the twentieth century,
But too much aggravation
It's the age of insanity,
What has become of the green pleasant fields of Jerusalem.
Ain't got no ambition,
I'm just disillusioned
I'm a twentieth century man
but I don't wanna be here.
My mama said she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Just give me some security,
I'm a paranoid schizoid product of the twentieth century.
You keep all your smart modern writers
Give me William Shakespeare
You keep all your smart modern painters
I'll take Rembrandt, Titian, Da Vinci and Gainsborough,
Girl we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I'm a twentieth century man
but I don't want to die here.
I was born in a welfare state
Ruled by bureaucracy
Controlled by civil servants
And people dressed in grey
Got no privacy, got no liberty
Cos the twentieth century people
Took it all away from me.
Don't wanna get myself shot down
By some trigger happy policeman,
Gotta keep a hold on my sanity
I'm a twentieth century man
but I don't wanna die here.
My mama says she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Ain't got no security,
I'm a twentieth century man
but I don't wanna be here.
This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
This is the edge of insanity
I'm a twentieth century man
but I don't wanna be here
[ 20th Century Man Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]
This is the age of machinery,
A mechanical nightmare,
The wonderful world of technology,
Napalm, hydrogen bombs, biological warfare,
This is the twentieth century,
But too much aggravation
It's the age of insanity,
What has become of the green pleasant fields of Jerusalem.
Ain't got no ambition,
I'm just disillusioned
I'm a twentieth century man
but I don't wanna be here.
My mama said she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Just give me some security,
I'm a paranoid schizoid product of the twentieth century.
You keep all your smart modern writers
Give me William Shakespeare
You keep all your smart modern painters
I'll take Rembrandt, Titian, Da Vinci and Gainsborough,
Girl we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I'm a twentieth century man
but I don't want to die here.
I was born in a welfare state
Ruled by bureaucracy
Controlled by civil servants
And people dressed in grey
Got no privacy, got no liberty
Cos the twentieth century people
Took it all away from me.
Don't wanna get myself shot down
By some trigger happy policeman,
Gotta keep a hold on my sanity
I'm a twentieth century man
but I don't wanna die here.
My mama says she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Ain't got no security,
I'm a twentieth century man
but I don't wanna be here.
This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
This is the edge of insanity
I'm a twentieth century man
but I don't wanna be here
[ 20th Century Man Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]
20th vs. 21 Century
Today's theme starts in my head and moves out into the world: the calendar puts me and my generation in Buck Rogers time. Born in 1949, I am very much a 20th century man. My father was in the Korean War and damn near convinced me to go to Viet Nam, though Korea had been one of the biggest military fiascoes in history, and he knew it. I lived through the threat of nuclear war, the murder of JFK, RFK, MLK, Chicago, Nixon, Watergate, blah-blah-blah. So did you, right? But all I remember are TV shows and music and getting high. A wife, kids, the usual.
The point is: I don't think I ever grew out of the 20th Century. Most people I know did not either. I still read 20th century authors more than new writers. I listen to 20th century music, my collection centered primarily around the 60s and 70s. I don't trust most of the newer technologies, like Twitter, which seems silly. How it saved protesters in Iran at 140 words a clip is beyond me. I don't like Facebook or Craigslist or MySpace, though there's little difference between them and my blog. I wake up feeling thirty and feel like the bathroom mirror has been rigged to play a cruel joke. I can't be that damned old.
Down the street a kid got killed in an auto accident 2 weeks before graduating high school. It was a one car accident. Police say he was texting while racing down the road and drove right into a tree. What my 20th century mind does not get is this: why TEXT on a cellphone instead of TALK? It's a phone, right? And the coming text novels will find their places, being read and written by drivers everywhere.
Michael Jackson's death and the endless tributes show I'm not the only one who feels this way. MJ was definitely a 20th Century icon, and his passing is mourned, like Farrah's, with a certain nostalgia. Celebrities live on film. It's always startling to find they have the same frail bodies as the rest of us. And it seems like the 21st Century is devouring the stars of the 20th. As it will consume us all.
Maybe having Bush in charge for so long has something to do with the inabilty to transit the 100 year mark. Everything seemed stalled, like we had returned to the Nixon era. I keep waiting for The Monolith to be found, like in A Space Odyssey. Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
Or maybe that is the destiny of Everyman, to finally grow and master the terms of one time, only to have it swept away, by endless cycles of planetary spin.
The point is: I don't think I ever grew out of the 20th Century. Most people I know did not either. I still read 20th century authors more than new writers. I listen to 20th century music, my collection centered primarily around the 60s and 70s. I don't trust most of the newer technologies, like Twitter, which seems silly. How it saved protesters in Iran at 140 words a clip is beyond me. I don't like Facebook or Craigslist or MySpace, though there's little difference between them and my blog. I wake up feeling thirty and feel like the bathroom mirror has been rigged to play a cruel joke. I can't be that damned old.
Down the street a kid got killed in an auto accident 2 weeks before graduating high school. It was a one car accident. Police say he was texting while racing down the road and drove right into a tree. What my 20th century mind does not get is this: why TEXT on a cellphone instead of TALK? It's a phone, right? And the coming text novels will find their places, being read and written by drivers everywhere.
Michael Jackson's death and the endless tributes show I'm not the only one who feels this way. MJ was definitely a 20th Century icon, and his passing is mourned, like Farrah's, with a certain nostalgia. Celebrities live on film. It's always startling to find they have the same frail bodies as the rest of us. And it seems like the 21st Century is devouring the stars of the 20th. As it will consume us all.
Maybe having Bush in charge for so long has something to do with the inabilty to transit the 100 year mark. Everything seemed stalled, like we had returned to the Nixon era. I keep waiting for The Monolith to be found, like in A Space Odyssey. Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
Or maybe that is the destiny of Everyman, to finally grow and master the terms of one time, only to have it swept away, by endless cycles of planetary spin.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
The PIZZA HUT/ COMPLETE SAVINGS SCAM
Have you noticed unauthorized charges on your credit or ATM card showing up on your statement? The charges we get are SHOPPERS DISCOUNT and COMPLETE SAVINGS, $12 each, every month. Where did these companies get access to our credit card information?
It turns out when you order online at PizzaHut.com, they supply your credit card info to a 3rd party company, in this case, COMPLETE SAVINGS, and they start charging you a monthly fee for discounts you never get on products you never order. The way it works: the PizzaHut site offers you money off your order for filling out a survey. The survey is much longer than you expect. when you click out of it, it signs you up as agreeing to Terms and Conditions, which is a lie. Then PizzaHut gives your credit card info to a company you never heard of.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090311200902AAM5Wys
http://www.robotninjamonkey.com/2009/05/pizza-hut-and-complete-savings-scam/
This also happens with VistaPrint.com, the business card company, only they set you up with SHOPPERS DISCOUNT. It turns out fandango.com and FTD.com do the same:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/485779/avoiding_or_dealing_with_the_wlishoppers.html?cat=3
Shoppers Discount is WLI Shoppers Discount, part of WebLoyalty.com, and they slip these insidious small charges on credit card consumers around the world.
You can get more info by doing what I did, Google SHOPPERS DISCOUNT SCAM and see what comes up. Do the same for COMPLETE SAVINGS SCAM. Then go look at your bank statement. This is happening to hundreds of thousands of consumers.
The disappointment is that major corporations like PizzaHut are part of this scam. I will never buy their products again. I have reported this to our local consumer advocate, Al Sunshine at wcbs4.com. If there is a class action suit or government agency looking to bust these companies, I want in on it.
It turns out when you order online at PizzaHut.com, they supply your credit card info to a 3rd party company, in this case, COMPLETE SAVINGS, and they start charging you a monthly fee for discounts you never get on products you never order. The way it works: the PizzaHut site offers you money off your order for filling out a survey. The survey is much longer than you expect. when you click out of it, it signs you up as agreeing to Terms and Conditions, which is a lie. Then PizzaHut gives your credit card info to a company you never heard of.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090311200902AAM5Wys
http://www.robotninjamonkey.com/2009/05/pizza-hut-and-complete-savings-scam/
This also happens with VistaPrint.com, the business card company, only they set you up with SHOPPERS DISCOUNT. It turns out fandango.com and FTD.com do the same:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/485779/avoiding_or_dealing_with_the_wlishoppers.html?cat=3
Shoppers Discount is WLI Shoppers Discount, part of WebLoyalty.com, and they slip these insidious small charges on credit card consumers around the world.
You can get more info by doing what I did, Google SHOPPERS DISCOUNT SCAM and see what comes up. Do the same for COMPLETE SAVINGS SCAM. Then go look at your bank statement. This is happening to hundreds of thousands of consumers.
The disappointment is that major corporations like PizzaHut are part of this scam. I will never buy their products again. I have reported this to our local consumer advocate, Al Sunshine at wcbs4.com. If there is a class action suit or government agency looking to bust these companies, I want in on it.
Friday, June 26, 2009
The Moon in June
June is like The Month for dead celebrities. Ed McMahon, Farrah, now Michael, all had their numbers come up this month. According to the tabloids I see waiting in line at the grocery store, there's a couple more knock knock knockin' on heaven's door as well. Patrick Swayze seems worse every time I go buy milk and bread.
How awful it must be to be a celebrity! In America, and probably all over the capitalist world, we brainwash our children (not deliberately, but by automatic media pilot) into thinking life's goal is to stand on a stage while lights flash and people scream, holding a wireless mike and dancing while the music roars. Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, between Disney and Nickelodean, there's plenty of Celebrity Clones being produced. American Idol is a good example. Look at the thousands who try out. I suppose the ridiculous money entertainers get paid beats setting your dreams on being an assistant manager at K-Mart. It just seems very shallow, but hey, what do I know?
Sometimes writing I feel the same way, have the daydream of reading to a group of enthralled listeners, acceptiing a prestigious award. That's why there are more writers than readers. Your choices are 1) On the stage or 2) in the audience. In America, we want to be on the stage.
How awful it must be to be a celebrity! In America, and probably all over the capitalist world, we brainwash our children (not deliberately, but by automatic media pilot) into thinking life's goal is to stand on a stage while lights flash and people scream, holding a wireless mike and dancing while the music roars. Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, between Disney and Nickelodean, there's plenty of Celebrity Clones being produced. American Idol is a good example. Look at the thousands who try out. I suppose the ridiculous money entertainers get paid beats setting your dreams on being an assistant manager at K-Mart. It just seems very shallow, but hey, what do I know?
Sometimes writing I feel the same way, have the daydream of reading to a group of enthralled listeners, acceptiing a prestigious award. That's why there are more writers than readers. Your choices are 1) On the stage or 2) in the audience. In America, we want to be on the stage.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Working Alone
Work work work. I have finally matured enough to be able to work alone in my house, without either 1)going right back to bed and sleeping the day away 2)buying a cooler full of beer and ice and inviting my brother over for a bullshit session. I haven't accomplished that much, but it's growing. I have a novel that was in the Amazon contest and even got a scathing review, published here, from some intern at Publisher's Weekly. (The DooMee2 sex aid for women, part of the book's sub-theme, develops an alarming side effect, which I thought was funny but she apparently did not.) I am changing the entire novel from 3rd person (he,she, it) to 1st person(I, we) which is something that should have been done earlier. The whole book is from one character's point-of-view. Live and learn. I hope to have this done by August 30. Those of you that read the book or the excerpt at Amazon.com can contact me to see the new revision. The ones that wrote the stupid comments that made no sense can sail a nate in a sauceboat.
Win $10 by identifying the origin of "sail a nate in a sauceboat." Contest open to all. Send a $12 reading fee here to me at Believable Lies.
Win $10 by identifying the origin of "sail a nate in a sauceboat." Contest open to all. Send a $12 reading fee here to me at Believable Lies.
Monday, June 22, 2009
What in the World
I got an email on White House digital stationery from Michelle Obama wishing me Happy Father's Day. It includes a video of the Obamas playing with their kids, and Barack somewhere tells you what to do, like he knows. I had emailed the White House one of my proposals on how to run the country, so I guess we are now correspondents. My proposal was to give the $900 Billion bailout money directly to the consumers, the American people, who also happen to be the people providing the money in the first place. Let the money trickle up through the banks and retailers and medical system, and the World Market, that depends on us buying lots of things everyday, will flourish. This of course is too simple and practical and actually viable for any real politico to get involved. They get elected by rich people helping them and they stay elected by helping rich people. The rest of us are the idle conversation they have while on TV.
I have another idea to save the country, but it too is simple and practical. I may offer it anyway, but I'll need encouragement. Another email from the White House, asking: Now what?
I have another idea to save the country, but it too is simple and practical. I may offer it anyway, but I'll need encouragement. Another email from the White House, asking: Now what?
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