Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Thats It!

I hate not being able to sleep. I'm quitting drinking after this holiday weekend. Who knows, maybe forever...

a quickstrip for my friends:


laughing at the misfortune of others is wrong? No.

All Animals are created equal, but some are equaler than others

Sometimes...in fact, most times in my experience, when people get in high level positions of authority, they become accustomed to people not calling them on thier strange, rude, and innappropriate behavior. It's the rare person who can, when appropriate, set aside thier authority and have a normal conversation. What most people fail to realize is that their authority only extends so far. Out there in the real world, we are all just men. Just wanted to throw that out there.

Come join me and Lauri for the third annual Thanksgiving morning, bloody mary and mimosa fest. I can promise pigs in a blanket. And I'm considering a vegtable plate...you know, for the vitamins.

The Funk: A revived Draft Post

We DeClerks are famous (or infamous if you please) for our moodiness. The reaction I sometimes get when my mood turns toward the melancholic is sometimes surprising to me. It seem to me the world at large expects that we should project happiness and joy all the time when we are in public or among friends. How are people supposed to know when to leave you the fuck alone if you act all happy slappy all the time?
At work, Lauri always tells me, "People can tell you're in a bad mood today..." Good! then they are correctly perceiving my facial features, tone of voice and body language. The thing I don't understand is that they persist in wanting to fuck around with me. "what's wrong?" they say. "i'm sick of people like you..." I think to myself.
What never occurs to these people is that them continuing to talk to me only leads me to have to be more hostile towards them to make them go away. If they would only think to themselves, "if Pete is in a bad mood perhaps I would be better served in leaving him be today and perhaps he will work through his frustrations and be in a better mood tomorrow." The world would be a much friendlier place.

Best Podcast of all time?

I'm not sure if they knew it or not, but I recorded a bullshit session that Me, Randy and Alex had on Saturday night for a possible podcast. It's better than any podcast that we've done before because it was basically real. There are three problems with this podcast, however. One, I forgot to turn the ceiling fan off so you can here the air hitting the mic. Two, we weren't very close to the mic so it kinda sounds like a background recording. Three, it has background music that would violate copyright laws if I published it. If you feel you can't go on living without hearing it. Let me know and I'll burn a CD.

Warning: Political Rant

It feels weird to say, but if the Republicans hold the line on the auto industry bailout, this is one time I actually agree with them. I think that the Big Three have run their business into the ground too many times to be bailed out again. Remember, they were the ones who, in the face of Global Warming were producing bigger and less fuel efficient cars. Lets see, there was the Hummer, the Hummer 2, the Escalade, and the Expedition just to name a few. And even though the American consumer backed them all the way and bought bigger and bigger cars, the auto makers should have been looking toward innovation. We all watched as gas prices went from 2$ per gallon to $4. Didn't somebody at some point think, "maybe people are not going to be able to gas up these gas guzzling behemoths."? Meanwhile, Toyota is laughing all the way to bank because they brought hybrid technology to the road.

"but Pete," you'll say, "what about the hard working American auto workers, they will be out of a job..."

Thats right they will, but...what can I say? I feel badly about it, but how many of us can say we are knowingly working for a dying company? If I knew that I worked for a company that consistently put out a bad product, I don't think I would bank my retirement on it.

And how are we ever supposed to put out a better product if a bad product is continually supported by the government? Maybe there is some genius car maker out there that just can't get a foothold on the market because his competition gets and infusion of gov't money on a regular basis? Those who work on the assembly line will be able to find a jobs new assembly lines.

I'm not going to argue that we should become a country that doesn't produce anything, I think we should be a country that produces the newest most innovative products in the world.

Here's something to ponder over, what if, when the iPod was invented the gov't decided that it didn't want to see the people who make Sony discman's out of job(I know Sony is Japanese company... bad example), so they sunk a bunch of money there. That would have been a pretty stupid move.

If we are going to be a free market society then the working class has to realize that they need to be as innovative and adaptable as our products if we are going to maintain market superiority.

I know Obama thinks that the Big 3 will see this as a wake-up call and change their ways and he's afraid of what the failure of the automakers will mean to the overall economy, but I think in the first place he's being naive and in the second place, we may just have to take this one on the chin (easy for me to say because I'm not going to retire for another 35 years). Who knows, maybe this is just the catalyst we need to start seriously looking into clean transportation.

I know, I sound like some old corporate douchebag, but we have to realize that Democrats are capitalists too. We may not think that the free market is the best way to educate or provide health care to a society, but its definitely the best way to sell a car.

mystery posts

If you are a contributing member of this blog (or have the permission to do so but never do it) you can sign in and see that there are several "drafts" of posts that were never posted. Pete has one about the auto industry that he started yesterday that I think he needs to post because I agree with it 99%.

Also, I want to note that I neither condone or condemn the use of the neti pot. It is simply a funny video. However, I brought this up at dinner with some friends the other night and one said that he uses it. He also has two kids who were born intentionally at home and served in the peace corps, so there you go.

Who watches the makers of the Watchmen

If you now read or have ever read comics, you probably know that there is a Watchmen movie coming out this spring. Now, besides the fact that I mess my pants everytime I see the previews because they look so freakin cool, I have to remain objective here. So here are some reasons to be optimistic AND some reasons to be pessimistic:

Reasons for Optimism:

• Its directed by the guy who did 300, which I thought was a pretty good representation of the graphic novel.
• The scenes shown in the preview are pulled directly from actual panels in the graphic novel so this looks like it will also be pretty faithful.
• The chick they go to play the silk specter is friggin' hot.
• In Jackie Earle Haley they could not have picked a better Rorschach
• Watchmen is arguably the best graphic novel (I would argue that it is one of the best 3 but whatever) ever so if it even gets it vaguely right we should be in for a good movie.

Now, Some reasons to be pessimistic

• For me, the look they have chosen for the film, from what I've seen in the previews is close but not quite right. The book is set in a alternate 1980's in which we have continued on the brink of nuclear annihilation with the Soviets since the 1950's. Nixon has continued on as president in this world and whole place just looks a little dilapidated and dirty, sort of unwilling to move forward. I think this look was given to the book on purpose by the writer and artist. The film just looks a little to slick.
• They got the look of the heroes wrong as well. The main story line of the book takes place when the heroes 'The Watchmen" are all past thier prime. So Nite Owl has a pot belly and Silk Spectre and Viedt should be over 40. The muscley armored suits that are typical to superhero movies aren't really appropriate here.
• With the book being set in the 80's it risks not being relevant. Knowing what we know now, the Soviets just aren't that scary anymore so it might be hard taking that underlying threat seriously.
• Because the book is so complicated, there are inevitably going to be some VERY big ommisions that explain backstory, character development and build tension. for those of you who have read it: The Pirate Comic, Rorschach's psychaitrist's file's, Behind the Mask to name a few.
• I honestly don't know if they are going to be able to pull it off. The book is really subtle and really complicated. I've read it three times and still find new stuff everytime I pick it up. Its hard for a film adaptation to pick up the subtler points of any book.

Well, there it is. I will remain very cautiously optimistic.

I will say this, if you have not read the book. You need to check it out. Its really good. If you are a fan of Sci-fi, it is probably one of the best works of our generation. It definitely change the way you think about comics. It's dark, complicated, and violent. Really, read it. Especially read it before you see the movie.

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Trying it out

I am going to try to post more now since I have Internet at work. Beating the system. I still don't have it at my humble abode because I suck. But oh well nobody is perfect.
So I guess not too much is going on just sitting here at work wishing I was anywhere else. My brother Big Al is in town. He is going to be staying with me this week. It'll be a tight fit in my little home but no biggie. Wow this is so boring. Writing is hard work.
OK Back to work. Bye.

On Halloween

Governor Palin confers with Joe Six Pack