RIP MJ! We Are The World Thinking of You Today

What is more to say than this song? Michael was one of a kind. Disagree with his choices along the allegations late in his life but nobody can dispute the pop icon that he was. It is too hard to pick a single song so I thought We Are The World would be the perfect alternate. I only wish I was able to see him live just once.

Slip Sliding Away

I do not think I am any kind of Nostradomus but I would like to be the first to go on record to say that Ultimate Electronics is about to start with the "Everything must go" signs. They are running unprecedented radio ads and have kids standing near their stores with signs saying "We shop Best Buy and Wal-Mart every day!".

For those of you that are not familiar with this store, it is Minnesota based and was formerly known as Audio King. If I want something high-end, it would be the first place I'd look to see and compare but I'd still most likely buy on the internet. I personally would have never changed the name from Audio King as "sound" was and still is their forte.

I used to shop Audio King and have shopped Ultimate Electronics from time to time. Why are they tanking (in my opinion)?

1. They tend to lean to high end. This economy does not support that.
2. On most occasions when I have been there, their sales staff has been very stuck up / cocky towards me. They very much have a "too good for you" attitude.
3. They are trying to compete with Best Buy and Wal-Mart. People go to those stores for something small all the time...ink, CDs, games, memory cards, etc. That gets you in the store where you see the big ticket items. When it comes time to buy those, you find yourself back to the big stores, not deciding to look and see what UE has.
4. Back on December 26, I mentioned their lack of brands in mp3 players. I see now that they have 35 (cr)apple models and 7 others. At least they are expanding a little. Still, I think they are painted into a very small corner and that is hurting them.
5. They are trying to win by mentioning the competition....FAIL!

Bottom line is that I hope they succeed since they are Minnesota based and are really the only place to get higher end sound gear. Like #5 says, they are to the point of pointing out how they are better than the competition. That is one step above bad mouthing the competition. What UE needs is to find the place where they are different than the competition.

Like in any business, 99% of what competetors do is the same. Live with it. To succeed you need to find the 1% that sets you apart from your competetors and you NEVER bring them into the conversation. If you do that 1% well, people notice and you don't need to worry about the competition. They need to worry about you!

WWW Plus Two

I really did not think the day would come. My Dad is not nor has no intentions to change the way he is. I do not have any issues with that. Stay true to who you are.

When my sisters and I found out he wanted a computer for his birthday, I was shocked. We snapped up a nice Dell laptop. I got it all setup with links, accounts, etc.

If you have seen the movie Men In Black, Will Smith "J" goes through a process where his entire identity is deleted all the way to his fingerprints. Every reference to him in society was deleted.

As I created email accounts, facebook accounts (yes, even my dad is on FB, Al).....I realized I was creating his online existence. Nothing about him was there before I created it. I was like Christophe in "The Truman Show". Godlike. "And on the 15th business trip to Carmel, IN, Mr. Orr's online existence was created!" OK, now I am just full of shit as usual.

Finally, an air-card service was found that has good signal in the sticks of Aitkin County. Just like that, they are online.

The challenge is talking them through the where's and what's to see and click on.

ME: Don't you see "login" at the top of the page?
THEM: Where?
ME: At the top of the page.
THEM: No.
ME: Well tell me what you see.
THEM: I see a blue bar with "http".
ME: Oh - not that far up......

You get the drift.

Still, this is a great thing in my opinion. It is not that I don't enjoy the calls from my dad to "look something up on my computer"....as if MY computer had all the world's information stored in it. I still want those calls. I just look forward to him seeing more of what is happening day to day. Sharing email. Jokes. Stuff like that.

Thanks dad for taking the step. Even if Sharon becomes your Information Secretary, I think eventually, you'll get it.

Know When To Retire....

I am not a huge fan of the NWA - Delta merger. Everyday, more NWA planes are sitting at the gate in Delta Livery. My first trip on an A330-300 was in Delta colors. I just hope I get a chance to ride one still painted in NWA colors.

I don't mind travel for work and certainly love it for play. I have developed a list of favorite airplanes for various reasons mostly related to space and size since I am not quite "waif".

I loved the A330, like 757s in first class but in coach they are a bit cramped like any Boeing plane. I get along very well with the A319/320's.

At one time, NWA Airlink had some RJ-85s which had 4 engines on a regional jet for short runways but were gas hogs. They were great because their coach seats were bigger than most first class seats on other planes. For airlink, I am currently a fan of the Embraer 175s. Nice plane.

YES - I AM GETTING TO THE POINT!!!!

When Delta bought NWA, I expected it to be the end of the old smokers also known as DC-9's. These planes originated with Republic Airlines which was purchased by NWA.

I DESPISE these planes. Small, cramped, immovable armrests and they are LOUD inside. These planes mostly originated in the 60's and are still in service so we'll give them a point for reliability.

I am now seeing these painted in Delta colors. Why? They are gas hogs! They burn in 500 miles what an Airbus or Embraer burns in 1000.

Well, I guess we get the last laugh. I saw one tonight at Indianapolis at a gate. The nice, pretty new Delta paint looked like someone lit a bonfire under the plane behind the engines. The old NWA colors hid the exhaust markings but not the nice, pretty white that Delta has back there.

They should have just left them red and silver until they retire them which should have been yesterday!

Jottings Time....

I have had so many things on my mind lately and have not found the time to blog the individually. I will try to keep them short but address a few of them here.

Making People Happy - Part Deux

First of all - a while ago, I talked about how those on the USAir flight wanted to sue and get MORE than they already received in this post. Today, a new story about how USAir had all of their belongings returned to them after having everything cleaned professionally to remove the grime and jet fuel. In my opinion - they have gone far beyond what they needed to do! These passengers need to accept that they are alive, have their belongings including diamonds, laptops and wallets returned to them.

Concert!

I had not been to a concert in a while. Not knowing if I would be traveling, I did not buy Billy and Elton tickets early. Plus, I have been lucky in getting last minute seats even on Ticketbastard. Well, last minute came and went and the Saint Paul show was still "sold out". I really wanted to go since I have only seen Billy about 6 times and the Billy/Elton F2F tour 2 times in the past. Many had tix available on Craigslist but were not budging on price which I am sure cost them in the end since many said they could not go at all and HAD to get rid of the tickets. My last dilemma was that Jess did not want to go and so I took Ashlie and her boyfriend (yes, scary for me). Few had 3 seats to sell and I did not need 4. OK, where else will they be? Madison....Ashlie had a conflict.....Omaha - pushing the limits of a road trip....Fargo....BINGO!

We decided on Fargo and got last minute seats on Ticketbastard on the side of the stage, 5th row. Just a meager $580 for 3 seats....but worth it still. Billy was a little sick but still rocked the joint. Elton's voice was as strong as I have ever heard but he just does not tear it up like Billy. Billy's "Fargo" movie references in the accent was completely lost on the people there but I sure thought it was funny as hell!

The Fargodome is bigger than I expected holding 25,000+. By the traffic and uncoordinated parking process, you'd have thought they had 200,000 going in there. What a COMPLETE joke!

State band in Eau Claire until noon....drive to Fargo...concert....home all in one loooong day!

THWARTED!

Work decided to start monitoring the web. Good idea since a trip through some areas of highly paid people yielded a show of various web pages. Abuse was certain. With the monitoring, blocking has also started to the high traffic suspects like BLOGGER, Facebook, YouTube, and streaming sources. So far, Sirius is up for me still. I hope they do not block it. I know our Pres streams XM so fair is fair, right? Don't count on it!

It is too bad that it has reached this level. I know I have never been caught on the net, right Al?

WEATHER

Only in Minnesota. I live in Wisconsin...yes - but for all practical purposes, I am a Minnesotan still. I just live in a WI town that is convenient to MN for work.

No, this is not a global warming rant - although it could be. Saturday we went to the school bus races / crashes at Cedar Lake Speedway....a good time! When we left there it was 41 with frost possible. Today, it was 97. It was 100 in Granite Falls, west of the Twin Cities but just 34 in Grand Marais on Lake Superior. I find that amazing that there is such a variance in towns 260 miles apart (Saint Paul to Grand Marais).

Planning for the weather has been made an "Inconvenient Pattern"....gotta be Al Gore's fault.

TRAVEL

I need to say goodbye to the area for a while I guess. I am currently scheduled for next week in Indiana, the week after in Indiana, one week off (possibly changed to....yep....Indiana) the 4 weeks straight with 2 in Bensalem (Philly area) and 2 in Dallas. The Dallas meetings might get moved to none other than....Indiana or even to MSP which would alleviate those two weeks of travel.

GOOD TRAVEL

Yep, another vacation is planned. Gotta do the late summer Disney run for the free dining. Too good to pass up although it is really getting in the way of our "every 2 years" plan with this being our 3rd trip in 14 months to WDW (2 personal and 1 marching band whirlwind).

We made our Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) today which means we are 90 days out! It really brings out the little kid in me. I just love that place. It will be my Wal-Mart when I retire. I can hand out strollers instead of carts.

I think that sums it up for the Orracle's life! I know I had more pressing, grinding, under-the-skin issues that have crossed my mind in the last few weeks but they are gone so we'll leave it at this for now.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

Posting this post on my blog to share some pics with other Disney fans from http://www.passporter.com/ (If you are not a Disney fan....disregard the link....you would not get it)

Now Here's A Guy Who Decided To Retire...

John Madden. A legend. Maybe for only being the guy that was out there to state the obvious.

"If this team wants to win, they're gonna have to outscore their opponent".

"If your arm gets hit, the ball will not go where you want it to."

"“Hey, the offensive linemen are the biggest guys on the field, they're bigger than everybody else, and that's what makes them the biggest guys on the field.”

That is the fun guy that we all know and comedians make fun of.

The real John Madden was a guy that did things his way. Kind of like Steve Cannon in my last post. John hated flying so he got a big motorhome and traveled in style. He was his own man, his own style.

This made me begin to think about the pop culture we have today. Legends keep retiring and / or dying. How will we replace them?

John Madden. Howard Cosell (a while ago but still applies), Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Paul Harvey, The Rat Pack, Garth Brooks (OK, that was only there for Al).

Who is original today? Apparently nobody because we are forced to allow their children to replace them. Paul Harvey's son even tries to put the same inflection on the words as his dad. Kenny Albert is a loser version of his father. Joe Buck is NOTHING compared to his father Jack.

What gives them the right to become the next guy? Talent? No way in hell. It is their name and the fact that there is nobody original left in entertainment, sports or comedy today. Music is diluted crap. Everyone uses the same beat, same lyrics and same voice treatments as the guy before.

Sports announcers are just has beens in the game without any talent for actual announcing.

We are so washed out by the big guns that we don't allow anything unusual or new today. If Madden was just starting today, would he get the gig? Would Paul Harvey get a job doing Newsss if he auditioned today? I bet no to both. We are 233 years old as a country and have run out of ideas for creativity. It was a good run I guess.

Steve Cannon - Radio Legend

I had a dream of being on the radio. I loved talk radio. Even living up in the middle of nowhere, WCCO was always on. 24/7/365 on our 5 foot long "Hi-Fi". Boy, that thing (now at my sister's cabin) sure is a throwback to the days when a radio was a piece of furniture. But I digress.

When Jessica and I moved to the cities, I was faithful listener to The Good Neighbor, WCCO. Dark Star (before he turned into a shill), the Morning Show with Dave Lee (better when it was Boone and Erickson) and the good old Cannon Mess in afternoon drive. I probably had my chance at radio with some connections at KSTP in town but I did not pursue anything. I guess you can say I have made up for that with my DJ business. Not even close to the same but it gives me that outlet.

Today, I am a Howard Stern fan. I find terrestrial radio painful to listen to. I liked radio back then because it is not what it is today. It was guys like Steve Cannon and Dark Star being renegades. On KSTP, Tommy Mischke (recently fired) was that guy. It does not surprise me that one of the very few people that Steve Cannon stayed close with is Tommy Mischke. They are cut from the same hunk of fabric.

Loners. Their way. Different. Rebels. Anti Institution.

Steve Cannon did his show alone. Well, him and his characters that certainly more than one person believed was real. Backlash LaRue. Ma Linger. Morgan Mundane.

He declared himself King of the Kilowats....the Prince of the Airwaves. He even dodged his own farewell party by signing off one day earlier than planned.

He signed off every day with, "I've got the money" or some variation like "I've got the sheckles".

On his last day, he said, "I've got the memories".

No, Steve. We do.

RIP Steve Cannon. You were truly one of a kind. I am glad to have been able to listen all of those years.

Cold Hearted Orracle

The local news is all a-buzz with the rising Red River. 1997 was catastrophic with the river hitting 37.1 feet. I think flood stage is something like 10 feet given the god-forsaken-flat-ass-barren land that it is surrounded by. With the rain this week, extra snow and fairly quick rise in temps to melt the snowbase, it is predicted to crest at or above 40 feet.

So now, we mobilize the National Guard. We close schools so kids can help sandbag. We all go into "caring and giving" mode to help those that are "victims". Are they really victims though?

A tornado? Hit or miss. Could be here or there. Might be big or small.

A blizzard? Hit or miss. Might be Southern, might be Northern. Might cause damage, might not.

An ice storm? Oh, hell - you get the idea.

A flood does not randomly drop itself unsuspectingly on people. It tends to follow the same path. In fact, the Red River Valley is a natural flood plain. It is designed to FLOOD!

Call it a "one in 100 years flood" if you want but it can happen every year....especially to a river that flows NORTH into still frozen waters.

I have the same (lack of) sympathy for those in New Orleans. Hurricanes will come again. You live at and/or below sea level. DON'T BUILD FRIGGIN HOUSES THERE.

Tragedies are sad. I do feel bad for people going though them. There is a demoitvator at www.despair.com that says "Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win AND never quit are idiots!" Then again, there is a poster on that site that says, "BLOGGING: Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few."

Farewell from your heartless Orracle.

RSS - My "NEW" Obsession

I guess I have always spotted the RSS symbol and even knew what it was. I have not taken the time to use it until messing with sharepoint at work and getting issues logs setup for cross team use. RSS feeds are great because it takes the risk of apathetic people out of projects to a degree by bring the new information to them vs them having to take the time to look at it.

Now, I am obsessed. RSS is the coolest thing ever. It brings the internet to you.

I realize that me coming to realize this on March 19, 2009 is kind of like someone finally moving from VHS to DVD. I am loving this especially with the Outlook 2007 RSS functionality.

OK, geekiness be gone now. I just have to learn now if people can use RSS on my blog or if I have to physically add it to the page. Let's enjoy this much for now.

I Need Some New Websites....

My weblife has become routine, predictable and somewhat boring. I am in a rut! How many MILLION websites are there and I hit the same handful without any idea where to go next?

My Staples...

• Startribune.com or wcco.com for the local news
• Woot.com to see what the deal of the day is
• Facebook.com - many times a day for updates and to see who might be out there now only to be dissapointed that Al has not joined yet
• Yahoo mail - I get lots of travel emails there.
• Sirius.com (on workdays) to listen to Howard

Most of the time...

• USATODAY.com - I always like to see what McPaper has going on - especially the travel section
• CNN.com - no idea why - kind of a last resort to find something interesting
• videopoker.com - this goes in spurts like recently for the tournament that was held. I like this site - great videopoker. I pay the $5 a month to get access to all of the functionality
• EVERY SUNDAY - www.postsecret.blogspot.com - this is good but only once a week
• YouTube just to try to find something entertaining

That is about it! I might hit Tripadvisor.com when planning a trip but other than that, I can never think of where to go next.

I need for you, my readers to be the Viagra to my Weblife and spice it up for me! Show me what I have been missing (closed circuit to The Rube - I don't mean porn sites!!).

Old Money....You Don't Know Me!

An intriguing thing happened to someone I might know. This person, we'll call him "Spiffy", showed me a fistful of sequential, crisp, freshly printed-smelling old-style $20 bills. Innocent enough I guess.

These bills were from 1969.

Alegedly, Spiffy received them from a Wells Fargo cash machine.

Now, I have a few theories about the source of this old money. Let's just hope this guy is on the level and not some 2009 Bonnie and Clyde.

1) We'll go with his thoughts first. Someone found a stack in grandma's sewing machine and brought them to the bank. I guess that is possible but would they still have that freshly printed smell?

2) Maybe this is bailout money from the Feds. Could it be that the bank bailout money sent to the banks was just old cash that the Reserve had in the back corners of the warehouse?

3) Recently, I received some crisp, smelly $20 bills (legitimately of course) from a Wells Fargo machine but they were 1989. A mere 20 years old vs Spiffy's bills that are 40 years old. I am almost 40 and while I have not been circulated or washed, I don't smell very new. Perhaps Wells Fargo found them in an old Stagecoach somewhere and decided to put them into circulation.

4) Maybe Wachovia is the culprit. Wells Fargo after all did just acquire them. Perhaps Wachovia had the old money stashed.

5) Lastly, and I did not want to go here....maybe our guy Spiffy is up to no good.

Closed circuit to Spiffy....you don't know me when they strap you to the polygraph machine and make you explain yourself. Hopefully, you have spent them. Perhaps you'll finally get the flat screen you have been longing for. No matter what, get rid of those bills. I think they are highly suspect.

Making People Happy

I was listening to the cockpit to tower audio of the USAir flight that ditched in the Hudson today. Sully was so calm. I was pretty surprised at how he sounded. It reminded me of something that kind of made me think a week ago.

The passengers of flight 1549 wee given $5,000 immediately for personal belongings that were lost in the ditching of the aircraft. Then, they were given the highest elite status for a year. Now they are crying that it is not enough.

What in the hell do these people want? They survived. Why do they feel they need more than that? I think USAirways offered more than enough to cover their losses. I know that when I travel for business or even for pleasure when I have WAY too much crap along with me that the total value of our items probably does not exceed $5,000 for all four of us let alone 5K each.

If USAir was negligent in any way, I might see it a little different. Say someone forgot to fuel the plane. Maybe a pilot lands long and goes off the runway into the river. Different story to a degree.

Blame the geese. Blame anyone, but you cannot blame USAir. You should thank them for their generosity and for their highly trained staff of pilots and flight attendants that did absolutely everything correct to save every life on that plane. Some of these rubes did not even get wet!

It's probably pretty easy for me to sit here in my chair and judge them. I imagine it was a sickening feeling. I bet they were filling their drawers thinking of what was to come. You can't sue for soiled panties though. I am sure they will continue to push and some judge will conceed that they suffered or had hardship or some weak-ass excuse enough to give them many thousands more.

I think they have been compensated plentifully and most of that is in the form of life.

Lots On My Mind....But Nothing Big

I've had a ton of things on my mind lately but none big enough for their own post.

First off - the woman with octuplets. I know - Keep your laws off my body. But seriously - she has 6, lives at home and needs 8 more? I don't think it is a good situation for the kids. Her mom insists she is obsessed with having kids. Wow....I have 2 and feel like we cannot give them enough. Not just material things but time. She is a single parent. I guess I really only think in the long run she is short changing these kids' chances. Even the whack pack family that is always on TV with the 18 "J" kids...Jedediah, Jessie, Joshua, Jeez, etc - they are freaks too. China is not the answer with a 1 kid limit but maybe we need to draw the line at a dozen. In that family's defense, they are (supposedly) debt free and do take care of them although all the bonus freebies from being on the TV show sure did not hurt.

Next up - this frigging weather. I know this is closer to normal than we have been in a while but how many damn days do I have to see the temp in the range of -10 to +9? This is getting rediculous! Global warming....whatta joke! I see some old friends on Facebook living in Hawaii, Florida (hmmmm, both from Palisade...must have been some smart juice in the water up there). At least some of us had the sense to get out of this godforsaken land. I love my house. I love this town. When the kids are gone...all bets are off on whether we stay or not!

Lastly - Christian Bale. On one hand, I think this guy is a jackass. On the other - take out the references to "the set" or "Director of Photography" and this rant could be applied in ANY work setting. We all have our favorite people we work with that do nothing but get in the way and cause a distraction. A word to the millions of Orracle readers out there, this clip has a few F-bombs in it.



What a gem this guy is! You can hear his director even cowering at his feet. Who does he think he is?

I guess that is it. Here is hoping that we see some double digits sometime soon.

The Orracle

A Picture Perfect Story!

Today I had one of those truly amazing things happen to me. By amazing, I mean something that you could never predict and only see on those last minute "feel good" news stories they play as the newscast ends.

I went to work and before I could be properly motivated to dig in for the day, I decided to check my Facebook account. I saw something in my inbox from a person I do not know. Unlike other social networking sites, I have never received spam on Facebook from people trying to get me to go to their site so I felt it was OK to read and respond.

The e-mail said:

"hi Lyle, You dont know me but im trying to locate someone with you name who i beleive is a wedding dj/entertainer?? and that visited las vegas in 07... trying to contact a Mr lyle o urgently but not sure his full surname.Please let me know if this is youmany thanks alex"

I responded that I do have a DJ business and was in Vegas in November of 07.

He came back with:

"oh my god, Its taken me a while to track you down.....i found something that may belong to you...Did you lose anything on that trip? "

Well, yes we did! We lost a camera.

Once I said that, he actually called me on my cell phone. This gentleman has been looking for me for 14 months only by my first name and last initial. How many Lyle Os could there be? I think he emailed many of them. That clue was only possible because of a picture of me in my tux and name tag on while DJing a wedding. He originally took it to lost and found but when they told him if not claimed, it would be auctioned off, he felt that he could do better.

He said he had given up on the big search process but would think of other ways to search from time to time and this time he tried Facebook and thought I looked like the guy he remembered in the pictures that he saw back in '07.

This story would be amazing enough without the next fact. Alex lives in London, England. I guess the WWW has made this a smaller world for a task like this but still, it adds challenges (thanks Al Gore).

I want to say thank you to Alex L. You truly represent all that is good and honest and would fall into a very small percentage of people in this world and for that, I cannot thank you enough.

We cannot wait to get this camera back and relive the vacation. I am only hoping that the same will happen with the camera we lost at Disney in May 08!

The End Is Coming and I Could Not Be Happier!

At first glance, one might assume this will be my inauguation blog....how Obama won't change much, how it is a false sense of hope. No, I am gonna let that one cook. My benchmar has been set as I received my 401K statement for July 1-December 31 today and it was only down 30.1%. That is the benchmark I will use to evaluate change.

This post is about radio. Today, Clear Channel cut their workforce by 9% nationwide including some semi-popular talk show hosts and inconsequential jocks at Kool 108 and other stations. The fact that they cut from multiple stations in one town is part of the problem. Any given company should only be allowed one AM and one FM station in a market. But I digress.

This is not about the Chad Hartmans or Doogies or any other half-assed radio personality. The cuts came at WCCO, the juggernaut and at KSTP AM recently. You see, local commercial filled radio is dying. Talk still has some edge but the music side is REALLY dying.

Stations locally like KQRS which advertises "their vault of albums" only plays about .0029% of it. According to them, the Eagles only recorded Witchy Woman and Hotel California. Don't get me started on the copycat morning show idiots such as Tom Barnyard. I am pretty sure his following includes a long list of people without any other exposure to other forms of entertainment and they are convinced HE is it. HE...is a fraud along with every other yuckster on his show.

Yes, the end is coming. It is time for everyone to realize it and make the move to satellite radio. Want top 40 (repeated over and over)? Channel 1. Want 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s deep cuts (seriously deep cuts), alternative country, songs like the Rodeo Song (unedited)? Go to satellite. Want sports? They are all there. Want sports talk, left wing talk, right wing talk, CNN, MSNBC, Gay talk or Oprah (please don't say yes to Oprah Al) - it is there too. Want comedy, playboy talk, or the original, King of all Media Howard Stern? That is there too.

I cannot feel bad for the locals. As the conglomerates continued to buy up every station in every major market, the quality went exponentially downward. I won't even rent a car without satellite anymore.

Good bye Clear Channel, AM/FM inc and all of you other giant medium killers.
Rodger Wilcox....Over and Out.

My Wish For Washington 2009

I don't think any of us should ever be surprised at the continuous scandal and garbage that happens in Washington. I once heard the statistics of offenses, bankruptcy ocurrences and overall scum committed between the members of the House and Senate in DC and it was apalling. If I could make one wish for the new empire of people designated to "protect" us, it would be that they simply work a little harder on picking low hanging and seemingly more obvious fruit.

You may remember a while ago when I was going on at my disgust for the lengthy process of confirming the Sirius-XM Merger. Stern said this week that he even had to do depositions as did his security guard, Ronnie the Limo Driver. They went through their appointment and notebooks looking for clues to confirm that Stern and others were only planning to railroad the public people and buy short or some stupid stuff like that. It was a total witch hunt.

We also all remember one of our better presidents, Bill Clinton was found guilty of getting a hummer from Monica BlewClinsky. At what cost?

Yet while they were protecting us from the Sirius-XM merger and making sure our president got in trouble for having his pole smoked, Bernard Madoff ripped off tons of people and charities of $50 billion. Simultaneously, Tom Petter did the same to many in Minnesota and elsewhere also in a Ponzi scheme. The totals for Petter are not out yet but numbers in the billions are floating for his scheme as well. I am not a Rhode Scholar but I am pretty sure Ponzi is derrived from the latin for "Invisible to the people set out to protect us".

I met a guy on a flight that is a truck driver. He said he had to go through 7 types of testing and validation to haul hazardous materials. We're not talking Plutonium and TNT....just corrosives and your run of the mill HAZMAT stuff.

So maybe someone will get a clue in Washington or wherever these geniuses reside that make the rules we need to follow and police the system to protect us. Until then, my suggestion is to sell the waterbed and buy a good old-fashioned mattress to put your money under until the Ponzis and Wall Street shenanigans are over.

Happy New Year.....Finally!

Here we are with 2009. I'll say it again....FINALLY! I like the holidays. Ah, let me adjust, I like most things about the holidays. It comes down to gifts. It is not the financial "hit" you take.....that does not bother me. It is the simple act of going, finding, thinking and buying what you think is a good thing for person "X" but really they could do without. You know this because they get you the same thing. Not the same thing - but just another thing that is nice but you could do without.

I love buying the kids - mine and others tons of things. That is what I love most. For adults, I think it is time for our families to do the name drawing thing and buy one big gift for one person.....from a LIST! It would be so much simpler! We live in a day and age where for the most part, most people but what they want for themselves.

Hey, I **LIKE** that.

And then you go buy it.

Somehow we get through these holidays every year. Maybe someday we'll get to just do the get together....the dinner (I'll even cook again)....and just celebrate not being at work and watching the kids have fun. Don't buy me anything. I really don't need it anyway.

Happy New Year to everyone.

iCannot Stand the iPenetration into the iMarketplace

Ashlie wanted a new mp3 player. First stop, Best Buy. They carry Sansa and crapple. No Creative Zen. Sansas are not too bad but I see them on woot about 2x a week selling refurbs so I assume they have a high rate of defective units. Best Buy has a deal with Sansa and their eMusic site hence the reason they carry them.

We wanted a Creative because we have had several previous Creative models and have liked them alot! Plus, the Zen has an SD slot to expand the size of the storage. This way - we can buy a 4 GB and add an 8 GB SD card for $20 more. She can use that for the thousands of pictures she wants to put on her mp3 player without eating up all of the music space.

Our second stop was Ultimate Electronics. For those of you that are familiar with the Twin Cities, Ultimate Electronics is the new name (for the last 3-4 years) of the old local Audio King stores. They changed the name so people would assume they did not carry just audio products. UE is a nice store - and carries both low and high end. Their high end is better priced and better displayed than Best Buys Magnolia store within the Best Buy stores. All they carry is crapple!! I could not believe it!

This shopping happened on 12/22. Best Buy had an overflowing parking lot. UE had 5 cars. When the salesgeek said they only had crapple, I asked if he was aware that there is a large contingent of people out there that hate crapple. He said yes but they still decided to go with the single brand. Unable to hold back, I said, "And clearly the store is thriving!". His answer was that they had $40K in sales that day. OK....40K a few days before x-mas....in electronics? Best Buy did 40K in the Oakdale store between 5 PM and 7 PM and it was probably the 4th 40K of the day.

As we walked out, Jess reprimanded me for being an asshole to the salesgeek. "Why do you have to do that?"

The answer is....I don't know. I love to harasss salesgeeks. In Best Buy, I purposely go over to the cables area to listen to their pitches on why you need an $80, 6 foot HDMI cable and then tell their customers that the same cable is available online for $10. I get such personal enjoyment from this side of myself....but it is bad, I know. I have always been this way. In college, I'd go to Sam Goody just to ask why their CD prices were $4-6 higher.

In the end, we found the Creative 4 GB unit at Target. We bought two....one for Ashlie and I went back to get one for Jessa. They earned my business by carrying more than just crapple.

Freshly Blown, Flown and Poked!

Stormy sent me an email pointing out that the cruise has been over for a long time and insinuated that I have not posted much. She was right. In thinking about a title for this post, I think I nailed it!

Now before you all jump to conclusions, you better read on!

I had to go to Indiana last week one more time this year. That, believe it or not is NOT the flown part. It does have relevance to the story. Bored out of my mind, I went for a drive since I had a car this time by myself (usually we rent together which ties you down more). I found a casino named Indiana Live! Casino. It is actally more of a circus tent until their new, permanent building is done. Still, it was nice. I played some video poker and somewhere in the second $20, I hit a royal flush for $1000 followed by countless quads (four of a kinds). I left the machine up a ton and went to get a burger. Enroute, I played a dollar slot, something the Orracle rarely does and hit another $720.00.

I did proceed to spend back around $800.00 of my winnings playing dollar video poker which is something I have wanted to do but could not because of the steep $5 per play cost. I felt like a whale! I left up $1200 which was less than I could have but I had a great time so no regrets.

Upon getting back home, I decided to buy a snowblower. I have wanted one for 15 years and somehow end up not getting one. Nothing fancy - 2 stage, 6 HP, MTD brand....nice enough. Needless to say, I love it. I have used it 2 times. I think the neighbors are expecting me to blow the entire yard out eventually! I have a wide path for the mailman (even if he is an old, crotchety bastard), paths around every tree and shrubbery for the dogs to run on, and have blown out a major opening to every sidewalk and fire hydrant. I LOVE....that thing.

Then for Christmas, I received Flight Simulator X. I have not had FS since they still had the program on 3.5" disks and I loved it then. I can tell you that having not flown on FS in a long time, not reading many directions and jumping immediately into a 747, I have flown 4 flights and there have been NO survivors. I made it almost out of the metro on my last flight though- so I must be improving. I really need to buy a good joystick to handle the planes better.

Today, I slept in after staying up with the kids until almost 3. I love watching them have fun with their new games and other presents. I slept until 1, cooked a major breakfast complete with Vennie Sausage, eggs, hashbrowns and the secret onion/portabella concoction for over the egg. WOW! Other than that, I have been playing VP on video poker.com which is really fun and costs NOTHING compared to the real casinos which rarely offer up those beautiful royals like I found in Indianapolis!

That is it! I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I hope all is well with everyone as we close out the 2008 and move to 2009.

Closed circuit to Al - I ran into Stacy Voracek in the mall last week (she was Kirt's admin that Crazy Roger fired). She said to tell you hello and that she still listens to Charlie Robison!

Until next time,
The Ho Ho Horracle!