Come Together

Back in August of last year I ran across a story that blew me away. In the small African country of Togo, the people were tired of years of living under a dictatorship and the family that had control since 2005. Like any group of citizens, they fought back in the form of protests. One protest, however, really caught a lot of attention: the women refused to have sex until democracy was given a chance! There's no way to know how much the no sex protest affected things but within months not only did they hold their first election, but a woman won!

It really blows the mind to see how big of a change the "little people" can make when we unite to fight against a common evil. It got me thinking recently about how many problems we are having here in America and how quickly those problems could be fixed if we, the people, stood united against the decision makers and forced them to make the hard decisions and changes we need.

Then I heard of a group who are standing together against a common problem... and it made me angry, sad, and disappointed all at the same time:

Justin Bieber fans are CUTTING THEMSELVES to get him to quit smoking pot.

WHAT?? Let me get this straight, we have people starving in our streets, retired members of the armed forces struggling to survive, an economy circling the drain, and a nation more divided than it has been in decades and the one thing we unite to fight is some f***ing pop singer toking some reefer?

If this is seen as a cause worth fighting out of all the ones out there, it really terrifies me what the future holds for this nation and the people who call it home.

Taking the "Self" out of "Self Control"

Before I go off on this rant, let me inform anyone who has never met me that I'm a fat guy. At 6'4" I weigh in just under 300lbs. Thanks to my height I carry the weight fairly well but most of it is in my stomach area, which is bad for the heart, so I know I need to work on that. Anyway, rant time...

As previously stated, I'm a big dude. I wasn't always big though. Growing up I was always tall for my age and that constant growing kept me very thin for most of my childhood. As I got older and my growing slowed, my eating habits carried on and I started gaining size. By the end of college, and pretty much ever since, I've been about 50+ pounds overweight for my height.

Looking back on the period of time where I went from skinny to fat, I blame nobody but myself. I was the one eating fast food multiple times a day to avoid having to cook. I was the one eating snacks while playing video games and watching TV. I was the one who didn't exercise as I should have. It wasn't McDonald's fault that I got fat eating greasy burgers or any other establishment or advertising campaign.

Now to finally get to my point, there's a new fork hitting the market called the HAPIfork (or Smart Fork). It weighs the bites of food you are eating and beeps if you are eating too much or eating it too fast. I think this could be a great invention for kids. Schools could use them to teach proper eating habits and even parents could use them to help curb heavy snaking after school. BUT I think in the hands of adults, it's just going to be another way to shirk responsibility.

By having a fork that tells you to stop eating so much, people no longer have to pay attention to what they are cramming in their mouths (which, honestly, is 95% of the problem now). Just grab your handy Smart Fork and stuff your face until it beeps and tells you to pull back.

Maybe I'm being overly cynical though. Self control is a big problem in the US and maybe having a little reminder here and there is what some people need to get back on the right track. If you're willing to drop the $99 when it hits stores in April, I guess we'll find out.

Click here for more info on the HAPIfork.

Happy New Year 2013!

I really don't have much to talk about today so I figured I'd do a quick 2012 recap and 2013 kickoff type of thing.

2012 was an interesting year filled with lots of ups and downs.

On the bad side there were all kinds of fighting and turmoil popping up around the globe along with government overthrows and violence galore. There were multiple stories over the year of mass shootings here in the US in movie theaters, malls, schools, and other public places. Hurricane Sandy and other natural disasters rocked us here and across the globe.

On the good side many of the protests and fighting lead to much needed changes. We successfully landed the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars and have been receiving tons of cool info ever since. Felix Baumgartner rode a weather balloon to the edge of outer space and did a one man free fall all the way back to Earth. The US kicked Olympic ass with 104 total medals in the London Summer Games. James Cameron dove to the deepest parts of the ocean to study life down below. The first person was cured of HIV.

Here's a really cool video Google put together that really covers a ton of 2012 in just a few minutes:



As for 2013, 13 has always been my lucky number so this year will hopefully live up to that potential. Here's to another 365 days of potential fun!

Xmas Recap

Hope everyone had a very Merry Xmas! If you have issue with the phrase "Merry Xmas", please refer to my last blog post :)

This year was the first year our family wasn't together for Xmas. My little brother got married earlier this year and he and his wife are in California and she is currently pregnant with my niece or nephew so they were unable to come home for the holidays. They were definitely missed but we still had a great time.

Me and my girlfriend headed down to my parents on Xmas Eve and spent the day relaxing, visiting a few family friends, and eating a delicious chili dinner. As with tradition, we opened our 1 present on Xmas Eve. Mine was a copy of Brian "Head" Welch's book from my parents which I was super excited to read. Girlfriend got a very cute hoodie and my parents got some badass new fishing rods & reels. Then it was off to bed so Santa could make his stop.

The next morning, as with every Xmas, I was wide awake before 8am and ready to go. We got up and once everyone's eyes were open we tore thru the wrapping paper like rabid badgers on a deer carcass. The highlights were the very awesome bear hood I got my girlfriend, my mom's new bracelet, dad's new creeper stool for the garage, and my deep fryer! I also ended up getting a copy of the same book my parents got me from my girlfriend which was fine by me, obviously I made it clear that I wanted that damn book!

We had planned for some friends of the family and my cousins to join us for dinner but everyone ended up sick so it turned into a very quiet day which was great. We Skyped with my brother and sister-in-law and I got to see her baby bump for the first time and a cool video tour of their new house. Then we packed it up and headed home to rest up for work the next day.

All in all it was a little strange not having my little bro around for Xmas but it turned out to be a great time as always!

The War on Stupidity

Before I dive into my rant I'd like to first say that I hope everyone has a very Merry Xmas and hopefully Santa will bring you everything you wanted! Now, on to the rant...

What the hell is this "War on Christmas" crap I keep hearing? First off, if you want a war to pay attention to, why not getting informed about the chaos in the Middle East and Syria? There are plenty of actual conflicts worth devoting your time to out there which are much more pressing than something petty like whether people are saying "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays". Sadly though, if it's not happening in their backyard most of us don't care so let's take a look at this "War on Christmas".

Basically it boils down to people searching so hard for anything they can be offended by that people have actually found a way to complain about other people wishing them good tidings. On one side, you have people who celebrate Christmas. Apparently the phrase "Happy Holidays" stopped including Christmas at some point because people are actually getting pissed off when someone says "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". 

Some Christmas celebrators also take offense to the abbreviated "Xmas" instead of the full "Christmas". I've even dealt with this over the years since we are a station with X in our name and abbreviate the holiday accordingly. After doing some research (aka taking 10 seconds to Google something instead of making assumptions) I found that X is an ancient abbreviation for Christ so to everyone who has claimed we "took the Christ out of Christmas"... YOU WERE WRONG!

On the other side of the coin, you have those who don't celebrate Christmas taking offense when someone wishes them a "Merry Christmas". I realize religion is a very touchy subject but even if you don't celebrate the holiday, December 25th is recognized as Christmas Day so instead of being upset that someone wished you a happy day for the wrong religion, just take it as a wish to have a good Dec. 25th and move on.

I celebrate Xmas but I wouldn't be offended if someone wished me a Happy Hanukkah or Happy Holidays or whatever. Stop being so damn sensitive and be glad someone is telling you to have a good day at all.

Stop the PC BS!

I've talked (and even blogged) about this in the past but this PC epidemic seems to be going worldwide!

PC, for those who don't know, means Politically Correct. Politically Correct is just a fancy way of saying "not offensive" which in theory is a good thing. You don't want to offend people or be offended. The problem is that people have become so hyper-sensitive that EVERYTHING is offensive to someone and the reactions are getting more and more unnecessary.

First on my griping block this week is the Dallas Cowboys. I've been a proud Cowboy fan since I was a kid and always will be but lately they've had me shaking my head worse then when Romo throws another interception. Nose tackle Josh Brent recently wrecked his car while driving drunk and caused the death of teammate Jerry Brown during the accident. I am very against drunk driving and believe that Josh deserves whatever sentence he gets handed (he was charged with intoxicated vehicular manslaughter and could face 20 years in prison).

My problem with this story is how the Cowboys office is reacting. Instead of using Josh as an example they are talking about treating the team like a bunch of toddlers instead. They are thinking about installing breathalyzers in player's vehicles to prevent future drunk driving incidents. WHAT? The rest of the team didn't drive drunk and kill somebody, why should they have to deal with the inconvenience?

My second story this week is about the radio DJs from Australia who prank called the hospital in England where Kate Middleton was staying during her pregnancy illness. These DJs, like many others, have been doing prank calls for years and managed to convince a nurse they were the Queen and Prince Harry and got the inside scoop on Kate's status. Nothing embarrassing or shocking by any means, just some basic info that she was doing better. Well the nurse ended up committing suicide and the assumption is that she was ashamed of being tricked. Instead of using this as a learning tool and training nurses how to better identify family members asking about a relative's status, the DJs were FIRED! WHAT? Someone overreacts to being part of a harmless prank and 2 people lose their jobs?

Please don't read this and think I'm some insensitive dick. I try daily not to offend people but in today's world, some people are just looking for something to be offended by. Some are just combative and want to find a reason to square off, some do it for the attention being offended gets you these days, and admittedly there are some people out there who get genuinely offended by things but they are usually the last ones you hear bitching about it.

Tis the Season To Be Greedy

This past weekend was Thanksgiving weekend which marks the beginning of the holiday season which marks a season of caring and sharing... or it used to at least.

This past Saturday I drove in one of the local holiday parades and was truly appalled at the way people acted. Some parades allow the participants to throw candy and others do not so we usually don't bring candy just to be safe. We had a few kids ask "Where's the candy?" but when we told them we didn't have any most would either go back to being kids or comment on how awesome our Van Moustache looked. The adults on the other hand were horrible. Multiple people basically begged for station gear and one man even told us "You guys can't come back next year" when we told him we didn't have any candy to throw out. Really? Go to the store and buy some candy if it's that important you greedy ass.

Then I got home and started seeing some of the images from Black Friday. Black Friday started as a big sale day and a kickoff to Christmas shopping. Now it's turned into a day where normal people can go out and act like selfish, greedy jerks in public. Here's a few pics that really sum up what Black Friday has become:

If this is how we act during the time of year when we're supposed to be at our most generous and caring, how can we expect anything else during the rest of the year?