Well it’s not really a blog, or at least not a real one. It’s a satirical personal journal of President Bush, so if you get upset at things poking fun of our president, do yourself a favor and just don’t follow the link.
I happen to think it’s pretty funny and quite well done (though I think the mispellings and grammar are a bit over the top even for satire), but I know many out there will not find it funny in the least.
Here is the link to Dear Leaders Daily Thought
Well I had the first nice relaxing weekend in awhile now. No schedule, no pre-set plans or ideas, just driving up to my parents camper/trailer on the 28th and coming back on Sunday the 30th.
My good friend Evyn joined me for the weekend, which worked out well I think as she has been under some stress as of late and I think the ‘laid-back’ weekend was helpful for her as well.
As much as I tease my parents about their ‘camping’ due to their trailer which has a shower, microwave, sink, toilet, oven, refrigerator, freezer, 21″ TV, VCR/DVD, 2 easy chairs, a couch/pull-out bed, and a king sized bed, I was thankful for it this weekend due to the heat. Their trailer has air conditioning and I shudder to think how terrible the weekend could have turned out if we had to sleep in tents or had no respite from the 94+ degree weather.
I brought my telescope, guitar and amp up, Evyn brought her bocce ball set. We played an ‘improvised rules’ version of bocce ball that I’m sure would have made any self-respecting Italian man cry, but I’ll argue our version was much more fun. Since it involved a playing area with no boundaries, a beer in one hand at all times rule, and since obstacles on the playing field were allowed (including dogs), it made for a rather exciting and fun game.
I was also able to get a hand-me-down digital camera from my parents as they had just purchased a mid-range 6 megapixal model. So I finally have a digital camera. I plan on getting a nice SLR pro-sumer camera sometime in the next year, but this will hold me over until then, and at least it will allow me to start posting some pics.
On Sunday after packing, but before leaving to head back to Milwaukee, one of the local hummingbirds found my parent’s feeder and spent most of the next hour or so sipping from it for a few minutes, then flying away only to return a few minutes later to repeat the process. I tried to get a good picture of him, but he is still too untrusting of me and flew off when I tried to move in closer, here is the best shot I was able to get.
A very cool picture of the Space Shuttle as it approaches the International Space Station to dock.
Jul 21
Posted by Craig in Satire | No Comments
Louisville, KY – A small tsunami measuring approximately 4 feet high terrified small children and frightened dozens at a local park pool in Louisville today. The wave, which originated in the deep end of the pool traveled the nearly 100 feet to the shallow end in under 6 seconds, giving parents and children wading there little time to react.
Though there were no reported casualties, several small children were knocked off their feet, pushed into the side of the pool, or became caught in the undertow as the wave receded and dragged out towards the deep end of the pool. The wave also reportedly caused several items of property to be displaced or lost.
‘It was horrific!’, Patty Gilberg sobbed, ‘ There was nothing I could do. One minute I was playing with my daughter Hana, and the next thing I know is this giant waves hits me, and before I can recover I see Hana being dragged back towards the deep end of the pool screaming’. Pausing to compose herself, Gilberg continued, ‘If it wasn’t for rope dividing the deep end from the shallow, my Hana might have been swept completely out of her end.’
Eye witness accounts indicate that the source of the wave came from the failed dive attempt of one Derrick Higgins, 32. Higgins, who weighs a reported 368 pounds, stated that as he moved towards the end of the diving board on the 5 meter platform, he slipped, causing him to fall the 15 feet to the water in a spasm of uncontrolled contortion and flailing and not in the graceful splashless dive he originally intended.
Officials have promised an investigation to determine if any policy should be created or if they should install some type of tsunami warning system. In the meantime Robert Yuless, Louisville Parks Supervisor, gave the following advice regarding pool tsunamis.
This was actually pretty funny (at least I couldn’t help laughing). Pong and space invaders done stop motion style with people seated in an auditorium. It’s better than it sounds.
Some people just have way too much time on their hands.
CORRECTION: This is not stop motion video, but rather was put together using digital processing. Still cool nonetheless.
Yeah it’s been an interesting day.
What I’d like to know is what the hell is wrong with cats? I mean, it’s roasting in my apartment, my thermostat says 88 degrees and my cats still want to lay on me. What the hell? Get off of me you little four-legged heat generators.
I wonder though, since the human body has a lower temperature than a cat does by about two degrees or so, if I actually feel cool to them when it’s this hot. I doubt it, but I can’t think of anything else that would explain why they would still want to lay on me.
Thankfully, there is a severe thunderstorm on its way, and with it comes a cold front. I love watching thunderstorms and the cold front is 2 days overdue as far as I’m concerned.
Day 3 (July 2nd)
This day started out with Gwenn, Tracey, and myself all meeting at The Monkey Bar. The Monkey Bar had a free shuttle service running from the bar to Summerfest all day long and we all figured it would be nice to have a few cheap drinks and head over in an hour or two.
Gwenn and I also had some unfinished business regarding who’s the better pool player. I’m happy to report I left for Summerfest leading 9 games to 7.
Once at the festival grounds Gwenn left for the Nine Inch Nails and Bauhaus show which she had tickets for. So I ended up in a group with Joel, and Tracey, and a few others I was less aquainted with.
First on the agenda was checking out the Brew City Bruisers! This is a Milwaukee area female roller derby league. Oh yeah! Alot of the interest also stems from the fact some of the girls are friends or involved in the group in some way.
The show was great, even though it was a bit toned down due to the fact that the track was makeshift and slightly smaller than what they would normally be racing on and the fact that the crowd was at some points just inches from the track. Grace Killy (Anna K), who is one of our ‘gang’ did us all proud with her skating. Unfortunately her team (Maiden Milwaukee) lost their match.
The turnout for the exhibition was amazing and the place was standing room only. Hopefully the interest generated will carry over and they’ll get good crowds when their inaugural season officially begins this August.
After the roller derby exhibition, we headed on down to check out Soul Asylum. After listening to a few songs I went to go to the bathroom and then got some food, when I got back some of our group had left as I guess there had been some drama while I was gone. Since the primary reason I went to the fest this day was to see the Bruisers and then Joan Jett, I excused myself and headed down to see if I could get a good seat for the Joan Jett show.
While looking for a seat I found the part of the group that had left the Soul Asylum show while I was away.
Bands I saw:
Soul Asylum: I only stayed for a few songs, but I enoyed what I saw. I had forgotten just how many songs had gotten air play from this band, and they sounded pretty good. Had Joan Jett not been playing at another stage immediately after Soul Asylum would be ending, I would have stayed for the whole show.
Joan Jett: I consider her a living legend in plain ol ‘Rock and Roll’. She is certainly a pioneer in the Riot Grrrl/Grrrl Rock movement and nobody tours harder year in and year out. I had never seen her before so I made it a point to see her this year. I was not dissapointed. The band sounded tight and she was in great form. I think she’s got the best rock scream of all the women rockers. Very gutteral, yet high energy.
Summary of day 3(star rating out of 5)
| People Watching | **** |
| Music | ***** |
| Food | *** |
| Personal Drunkeness | ** |
| Observed Drunkeness | ***** |
| Overall | **** |
I just saw the coolest internet video I’ve seen in a long long time. Check it out here.
Well done. With all the crap going on in the world, video’s like this one are little treasures.
Friday June30th.
This was the day of Greg’s Summerfest party. I had taken the day off of work and got down to the party about 1pm. Greg’s place is about 8 blocks from the summerfest gate which made it a ideal place to park and hang out for while, not to mention Greg’s a great guy and throws awesome parties.
M&I bank had a promotion that day for M&I customers. From 3pm – 4pm the first 500 people who showed their M&I bank cards at the promotional tent would get a free ticket. So, at around three a bunch of us went down, got our ticket, entered Summerfest, got a re-entry wristband and then went back to the party.
Around 6pm Greg announced it was time to go to Summerfest for real, so everyone started heading down. Being part of a large group at Summerfest is a pet peeve of mine. Not that I don’t like people, it’s just that it’s impossible to do anything when you’re part of a large group at Summerfest. You need to poll opinions on who wants to see what, where we should all go right now, and even once a descision has been made getting the group moving to the destination can be like pulling teeth. Inevitably, once the group does get moving, someone in the group will run into someone they know, which means everyone stops. Wash, rinse, repeat. End result, 30 minutes to walk from one end of the grounds to another.
I was supposed to meet a girl there but I was already about 2 hours later to the grounds than I had told her the previous day, but after a few text messages I found she was at JoJo’s Martini Tent. Her friend had an in to a private party at one of the stages but they had to get over there soon. Already being late and with a large group by the time we got to JoJo’s she had to leave for the party. Ah well.
Once at JoJo’s my friend, Gwenn, decided to try a Martini and got a Cosmo (I think). I was no longer in any shape to drink alcohol (having had more than I needed at Greg’s party), so I didn’t try it when she offered everyone a sample. I was actually in danger of dropping out for the day, as the drinking at the party was catching up to me and I was feeling very sluggish. I figured I needed to get walking and start drinking soda, so Gwenn and I left the main group and headed down to the US Cellular stage where Blue October would be playing later that night.
The walk and switching to soda’s did me a world of good and I caught my second wind shortly after we got to the stage. Some band called , ‘As Fast As’ was playing. Odd band, that seemed to favor Beatles’ covers along with some indie-esque rock originals. All in all not bad.
The US Celluar stage had a huge video board on one side of the stage that you could text message. You’d call the number on the board and then your text message would be displayed to the crowd. So Gwenn I both sent a few messages. It was fun watching them, though someone must have been screening them as I never saw anything with swearing or inappropriate content. Considering the quality and size of the video board I was very dissapointed to see it was ONLY used for the text messaging as it would have made for a great video board in conjuction with a camera to show the bands.
Blue October was a band I knew nothing about until after I started researching this year’s headliners. My friend had their latest CD so I borrowed it and was very impressed by them. They’re a hard band to pin down. Definitely alt-rock, but they have a violin/keyboard player which really gives the band a greater range than you would expect from a typical alternative band. Their front man, also has that magical quality called presence, and had it in spades. You simply just could not keep your focus off of him. The violinist would do a little solo, or you’d look at another band member for a second but then you’re focus would always go back to their singer. I remember trying to figure out just what it was, or what it is about certain front men/women that gives them this quality while watching the band. Was it how he was dressed? His voice? demeanor? Probably a combination of all these. Not many people have it. Bono is one I think, Freddy Mercury certainly had it, Mick Jagger to an extent has it. So did the lead singer of Blue October. I probably didn’t hurt that the show was great either.
Bands I saw:
| As Fast As | *** | Blue October | ***** |
Summary of day 2(star rating out of 5)
| People Watching | *** |
| Music | **** |
| Food | ** |
| Personal Drunkeness | ***** |
| Observed Drunkeness | *** |
| Overall | **** |
Jul 13
Posted by Craig in Personal | 2 Comments
Wow. I must admit I feel a little bit sorry for this guy, but then again, it’s his own fault.
It also illustrates the primary reason I’ve made a conscious effort not to use this blog as a pulpit for politcal views; It just invites ad hominem attacks and flame wars.
A few days ago ‘Pete’ (the owner of the blog in question), posted this article on his blog. (WARNING: Graphic abortion picture appears on that page).
Anyone who is familair with ‘The Onion’ and the content that publication produces, would immediately know it’s not a good idea to use quotes from an Onion article as a means to support your position on anything, let alone a position as volatile as abortion. This is, of course, due to the fact that The Onion is a satirical publication. Nothing published in it (other than its music and movie review section) is real.
Pete obviously did not know this, and when he came across an Onion editorial titled, ‘I’m Totally Psyched About This Abortion’, he penned the article I linked to above on his blog as a response.
Now I realize not everyone is familiar with The Onion and it’s satirical nature. Even the mainstream media (AP, The Washington Post, etc) has been fooled into using Onion articles as sources in articles in the past. It happens, and when it does, a responsible publication or author will publish they were fooled, wait out the inevitible few pot-shots from readers and then get on with their blog, hopefully a bit wiser for the experience.
Not Pete.
He first decided he’d try and post a response picking apart the satirical article, ‘putting the satire right back at them’. Now, satire is meant to make a point, and if you disagree with this point you should feel free to argue it, but if you do, it’s best to formulate your argument in such a means that it attacks the point the satire is making, not the satire itself. This is because satire by definition is hyperbolistic, exaggerated, and illogical. It makes it’s point by being ridiculous. This fact was apparently lost on Pete.
Fine. I still don’t really have a problem with the guy. He got caught in an embarrassing situation on a public forum and isn’t very familair with satire. Once again, at this point you should just cut your losses. Post a statement saying you were fooled into thinking the article in question was legitimate and get on with your blog.
Not Pete.
He now claims the first entry was a joke he posted while full aware of the satirical nature of the Onion article. Ok, but why would you source a satirical article in a ‘joke’ article and not make it clear that the source was satire? I’m sorry Pete, but that’s a pretty poor attempt at a joke. The original article is the one I linked to above, this one is the ‘It was all a joke’ article. Not only does he claim the first article was a joke, but he now claims the ‘Intellectual left’ is out to get him. He backs this by saying that he had to close down his comment section due people posting personal information on him and the fact that the ‘Intellectual left’ can’t leave a comment which doesn’t consist of anything more than a string of cuss words.
At this point I still feel sorry for the guy, although he’s also rapidly beginning to get my ire up. Having seen my share of flame wars on blogs I know how ugly they can get at times. Also, posting a bloggers personal contact info as a means to further your point or position in a flame war is wrong. There is no excuse for it.
So I’m feeling a bit sorry for the guy, however, I’m also angry over his ‘Intellectual-left’ comment. This is not due to the fact that I would probably be catagorized as falling under that definition, I would have been just as angry had he said ‘conservative right’. It’s a cop out phrase and does nothing more than create a stereotype in the minds of your readers. When you start using labels such as that as reasons or causes you are no longer in the relam of fact, and have now entered spin, opinion, and bigotry.
I decided to look at the comments myself to see just how bad they were. I guess Pete thought that if he disabled them, no one would be able to see them. Not true Pete. Once you put something on the internet it’s damn hard to get it off. If the data isn’t still actually on your webserver, it’s probably been archived by Google or some other web service. The end result is the comments were easy to find and read, and holy cow are there alot of them. Below are links to them.
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/turnstile/115271854178491623/
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/turnstile/115219671206889457/
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/turnstile/115259322998005708/
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/turnstile/115266379145170133/
After reading these almost all sympathy I had for this fellow has left me. The majority of these comments are at least intelligent, and while many are calling him an idiot, they are not malicious about it. In fact many of them are pleading for him to please just admit he made a mistake. It’s kind of sad to read them really.
Truth can be very hard to discern in this 21st century world. The signal to noise ratio tends to be overwhelming at times. But I think there is a lesson to be learned here.
1. With the internet comes a potential vast audience, and with that comes accountability. If you do publish something stupid, it’s best to just admit it, weather the embarrassment and then bravely soldier on.
2. If you publish something stupid or incorrect on the internet don’t try and hide it. Someone will find it.
3. Finally, though I do not condone the publication of personal information as a ‘tactic’, if you are going to be blogging you need to realize this information can easily be found. The more controversial you intend to be, the more you’d better be prepaired to have the information eventually surface.
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