Do You Use Facebook?

   And more importantly, perhaps, do you like it?

   Because I am interested in tech and startups I have been aware of Facebook since its beginning but resisted creating a profile until a friend guilted me into doing so.

   Since then, I have been amazed at the old friends, work contacts, and acquaintances that have come out of the woodwork and reconnected with me.

   A very pleasant series of reunions, I'd have to say!

A Great Quote

   I stumbled upon a great quote in Newsweek from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D - Nevada) - "Based on everything we have heard, we can reach only one conclusion: With 160,000 courageous American troops serving in Iraq, President Bush has an exit strategy for just one man – himself – on January 20th, 2009."

   The full statement is here.

Paid Well But Not Enthralled

   All I have for you this evening is a simple question.

   If you are paid well have you forfeited the right to complain about your job?

Little Things

   Do you care how the toilet paper roll is positioned?

   I much prefer the paper coming off the front while my wife always loads a new roll with the paper coming off the back.

   Now I am right-handed and she is left-handed but I'm not sure that is relevant here?!

2008 NFL Draft

   Now NFL football is my sport of choice. I loved it when I was a kid and then kind of lost interest in the late 80's/early 90's and then became fanatic after that.

   When we lived in SoCal I had Chargers' season tickets for a couple of seasons and loved (almost) every minute of it. The second year the traffic coming home from the games on Sunday evenings was horrific.

   I remain a diehard Charger fan here in the heart of the Bronco Nation, which, as you might imagine, can be unpleasant and lonely at times!

   But I digress. Today was the beginning of the 2008 NFL Draft, which while something I can't imagine ever spending the time or money to attend in person, still represents the beginning of speculation about the coming season.

   The Chargers, with their only pick until the fifth round, due to past trades, used their first round pick (number 27) to get another big corner, Antoine Cason from Arizona. Not being a college football fan, I don't know anything about this guy but despite the fact that I think he's an a-hole, I have to trust
A.J. Smith's drafting instincts - he has done exceptionally well in the past several years.

   In any case, I am seriously pumped for the approach of training camps, the preseason, and beyond!

A Solid Product NOT Made In China

   Not much beyond a plug for an incredible product made, not just here in the U.S., but right here in Colorado. If you have anything you need to hang on a wall in your place of residence or employment, check out the Heavy Duty Wall Hanger. These things rule!!

She Should Still Be Ashamed Of Herself

   Sen. Hillary Clinton continues to look more desperate.

   Now she is arguing that she is ahead of Sen. Barack Obama in the popular vote. She is including the 2.3 million people that voted in Michigan and Florida for her. She neglects to mention the inconvenient truth that she was the only Democrat on the ballot in those states since the other candidates had the class to remove themselves when the national party punished the state parties for moving their primaries up.

   Uhhhh..Senator? You're going to lose. The only question is whether you get out with your dignity or not.

   Please practice what you preach and do what is right for your party.

More Evidence Of What Is Wrong With Our Country

   I saw a television ad today that made me laugh and then made me mad.

   A local automobile dealership, that I don't care to give free publicity to so I won't name, launched into a blatant plea for consumers to use their federal economic stimulus payment to put in a down payment on a new car.

   OK, probably not the best use of this cash when people are facing foreclosures in record numbers but hey, this dealership sells American cars. I still think most American cars are piles of shit but it is hard to argue the patriotism of buying one, I suppose.

   But then the kicker - you get your down payment knocked down another couple grand when you use your federal economic stimulus payment to buy a new Suzuki!!! Awesome...That is really helpful. Let's use our Chinese-funded rebates to buy Japanese cars. I guess at least the dealership pays city, state, and federal taxes on its profits..

How Hard Is It To Eat Your First Meal Following A Teeth Cleaning?

   I hate going to the dentist for my 6 month cleaning but do I ever love the feeling of cleanliness those sparkling pearly whites retain following my visit!!

   The painful part, of course, comes when you decide you cannot fast any longer and must eat something to stay conscious. And thus begins the end of that ultrafresh feeling!!

   There's always next time, right?!

Nine Holes..The Perfect Way To Start A Monday Morning!

   I defer to the title of this post!

   This morning I got a brief glimpse into the life of the old, retired guys that play their regular game at 7:30 each Monday morning down at the local muni.

   Now all I have to do is live long enough to become one of them!!

Glad to See McCain Making Sensible Statements

   Given his advanced age, I am willing to give Sen. John McCain the benefit of the doubt when it comes to determining whether his Alzheimer's is behind his sentiment that "Cutting taxes is more important than balancing the budget".

   Dude, you are getting stranger by the minute!

Sam Adams' Beer Drinking Glasses are Shweet!

   The title says it all. Not only do the new glasses Boston Beer has invented make good beer taste even better, but Jim Koch, ever the supporter of homebrewing, even sprung for a pair of the glasses, for each member of the American Homebrewers' Association!

   I received my pair last fall, out of the blue, with a note explaining the painstaking effort taken in developing the glass design, and mention of how much homebrewing and homebrewers mean to the Boston Beer Co.

   Very classy!!

Rant..On..

   EVERYTHING is "Made in China" and I, for one, am fucking sick of it.

   They are a corrupt polluter, longtime human rights violator, and are ruining our economy to boot!

   If you love our country and want to see the economy rebound, please send back your federal economic stimulus check with a note asking that it be used to pay down the obscene debt the Bush administration and their ill-advised war has driven up. Or better yet, ask that it be sent back to the Chinese financiers from whom our government borrowed the money to cut the checks with in the first place.

   OR, at the very least, if you must spend your check, PLEASE do not buy Chinese products with it..

Rant.Off.

How Do These Companies Stay In Business?

   Today I had not one, but two, encounters with companies that presented me with terrible customer service experiences.

   The first was at Lowe's, to whom I have sworn eternal loyalty, in the wake of one-too-many downright miserable experiences with Home Depot.

   My wife had pre-ordered and pre-paid for several items which I was picking up. The people she'd worked with had instructed her to have me go to the customer service desk in the front of the store, with my receipt, and ask for assistance.

   Now the customer service desk has a register at one end of it that is put to work as a normal checkout line based on some random set of circumstances.

   Because there was a line of people preparing to buy their individual screws and random power tools at this register, I walked to the middle of the counter where an employee was waiting patiently to be helpful. She started to help me and then her manager came up and directed me to stand in line behind the three people checking out. I told her that I had been directed to come straight to customer service so they could pull the items being held for me and I could be on my merry way. She didn't think much of this and sent me to the line anyway.

   As I stood there, seething, I counted five employees standing around in the area, playing grabass with the supervisor, instead of helping people. If you are going to be a worthless sack of shit, on the clock, at least pick up your Big Gulp and bag of chips and trot your ass back to the break room, wont cha?!

   Oh yeah..I had another story from later in the afternoon too, but frankly I am so pissed again now that I don't have the patience to tell it in gory detail.

   Let's just say that UHaul apparently has a policy (written or not) that, at any given time, there is only to be one tough guy that works the register and handles checking in and out trucks, installing hitches, and inspecting drivers' licenses and only one additional tough guy that works on maintenance in the garage and only comes out to "help" the first tough guy reboot the computer, but cannot help any customers directly. Even when there are four people standing around twiddling their dicks trying to turn in keys and get on with their days.

   I am convinced that their remains a HUGE market, in any market for that matter, for a company that treats people kindly and intelligently, and respects people's time.

Sloppiness And Laziness Reach A New Low

   I had to sign a bunch of legal documents today and, in doing so, came across one that asked for my acknowledgment that I was referred to by various aliases. My first thought was that this was a form intended for married women, a group of people that commonly have had credit established in more than one legal name.

   But no, here was my name, with and without middle name, misspelled!

   When I asked why I was signing this, the response I received was, "Well, you may be referred to, with these spellings of your name, in these documents, and this document acknowledges that you are the same person in all cases."

   My response - "These are clearly typos - couldn't someone go through and fix these so that only my correct, legal name, properly spelled is used?"

   "Well, that would lengthen this process considerably."

   "OK." I proceed to sign my name next to all the misspellings.

   "Uh, you need to sign each line exactly as it is spelled, even if it is misspelled."

   Me, (kind of) under my breath - "You've got to be fucking kidding me!"

   Clearly, sloppiness and laziness has permeated much further into our broken systems that even I had feared..

The Day Before A Break From Work

   ..is tough.

   I know firsthand, as today was precisely that for me.

   A frantic dash to tie up loose ends, followed by a shimmer of fear that perhaps I'd forgotten to pass off some important task before I logged off for the last time.

   I think I got everything covered but I guess I won't know for sure until I return to work.

   Until then, I'm sure I'll have at least one night featuring dreams of work nightmares!

Mandatory Mental Health Day?

   At the risk of turning this into the all golf, all-the-time blog, I will make one more comment regarding the Masters.

   Don't you think it should be illegal to have to go to work on the day after the Masters concludes?

   Can you imagine the number of people daydreaming in their cubes today about artificially green fairways?!

   I can't help but think that workforce productivity took such a beating today that companies would be better off encouraging their employees to take a much-deserved mental health day to play 18 and come back refreshed and ready to produce on Tuesday!

Congratulations To A Gary Player Protege

   Congratulations to South Africa's Trevor Immelman for winning this year's Masters tournament.

   He held Tiger Woods at bay and sealed the deal, earning the coveted green jacket this evening.

The Masters

   I love watching the Masters.

   While Augusta National has been long vilified for the members' unwillingness to accept their first female member, the fact remains that they continue to annually host the most prestigious golf tournament (in the U.S. at least, arguably globally though).

   I personally think it is idiotic that there are no female members - you'd think it wouldn't kill them to let someone in even if only as a token to get people off their backs, and each year I tire quickly of the perpetual asskissing CBS' crew does to keep their lucrative stranglehold on the tournament's broadcasting rights.

   But I have to say there is something extremely fascinating about watching the world's best golfers play year after year on the same course (yes, it has changed over the years but remains largely the same year-to-year), particularly when compared to the other three majors that change host courses yearly. And of course it is meticulously maintained so the visuals on TV are incredible.

   If you love golf I imagine you are already watching. If you are new to golf or have any interest whatsoever in getting started or even just in checking out what it is all about, I highly recommend catching some (if not all) of Sunday's final round - they rarely disappoint!

Tuff Going into the Office on Friday!

   Man, it sucks physically going into the office on a Friday!

   It has always been difficult for me to work on Fridays - I trace this all the way back to my consulting days where I routinely worked 4 10 hour days and had three-day weekends weekly.

   But while it has been several years that I've had to work 5 days a week, my latest job does afford me the ability to work from home a couple of days a week. I usually make one of these Friday, mainly to avoid the Friday evening commute.

   But today I had to go in and while I had a very productive day, it still sucked having to make the schlep back home at quitting time.

   Oh well, it is Friday after all - I shouldn't be too bent. TGIF!

Death by Migraine Would Be An Unpleasant Way To Go

   I feel a doozy coming on. I think it was precipitated by not eating enough this afternoon/evening. In any event, I need to get to bed and try to sleep this off.

(Most) Big Companies Suck

   They can't help but do so.

   They are often publicly-traded, making them beholden to Wall Street and their shareholders.

   Due to sheer numbers, they cannot treat employees as much more than numbers.

   Stay away if you can!

   And, oh yeah, good luck with that!

Opening Oneself Up to (Constructive) Criticism

   Today I finally did what I've been meaning to for many years now. I entered the American Homebrewers' Association's National Homebrew Competition.

   Of course, the twist is that I didn't enter a beer..I entered a mead.

   The mead is nearly 3 years old now and tastes fantastic (in my humble opinion), but we'll see what the judges think!

   The local drop-off spot was Breckenridge Brewery which looks like a very cool place to sample their tasty brews and some incredible-smelling BBQ!

Too Bad About That Little Problem

   I've liked Sen. John McCain as a person for a long time and today I ran into an item that reminded me precisely why I've felt that way. Any "Weekend at Bernie's" reference makes me laugh out loud! Classic...

   Unfortunately he has been a supporter of this abominable war from the start (and continues to be).

Convenient Parking For The Getaway Vehicle??

   I love stories like this.

   It just goes to show you that people with disabilities are able to do just about all of the things "able-bodied" people can - good or bad!

If You Need An Example of How Religion Is Bad

..look no further.

   The only reason these sick fucks haven't been cracked down on sooner is because they are masquerading as a religion. Long disavowed by the real Mormon church, they have been largely left alone until lately. Despicable!

Newsflash!

   The Clintons are rich!! Can you believe it?!

   Tired of the endless calls for her to release her tax returns, Hillary and Bill Clinton finally released them.

   Honestly, I'm not really clear on what people were expecting to see..That it is all a sham and they are living beneath the poverty line?!

   It saddens me to no end that unless you are a multimillionaire (or in the cases of John McCain and Barack Obama, merely married to one) you have less than a snowball's chance in hell of being a viable candidate for president.

PC Gone Waaay Too Far!

   I heard a story this morning about the rising number of incidents at preschools and elementary schools where little kids are getting charged with sexual harrassment for..get this...being kids.

   Apparently, little 4 year old boys that hug a teacher a bit too tightly (and might graze their breasts with the top of their head) are sexual deviants in the making!! What a load of crap.

   This is representative of everything that is wrong with our country. The whole political correctness movement has become a caricature. Its original intent, to encourage people to be nice to one another, despite our differences, has metastasized into a situation where people (and in this case, kids, who are innocent and don't mean anything by it) have to walk on eggshells at all times lest we offend some coalition (of one or more)!

"Lighten up, Francis!"

Leave Richardson Alone!

   I wish the Clintons and their minions would leave New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson alone.

   The guy has the right to support whomever he chooses to, regardless of some unspoken oath of loyalty they seem to imply he swore to as a member of the (Bill) Clinton administration.

   Here's a thought - if you ran your campaign in a bit more compelling, above-board, positive fashion, perhaps Richardson would have endorsed you instead of Obama.

Please Send Mueller A Copy of "The Giving Tree"

   FBI Director Robert Mueller wants more funding for the FBI to fight terrorism. Uhhh..friend? I thought that's what your buddies in the White House and Defense Department were so engrossed in over in Iraq? Remember? Making us safe from the terrorists?

   If you need this money so badly here at home why don't you have a little powwow and see about diverting some of the funds we the people have paid up for Bush's ill-conceived war?

   If that doesn't work out, perhaps our tax dollars could be used to send Mr. Mueller a copy of Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree" to help him better understand that money isn't limitless (unless you're the Federal Reserve) and doesn't actually grow on trees.

Who Leads When The Leader Is A Sheep?

   While it really is great, and about time, that we had our first female Speaker of the House, it is a shame that it had to be a spineless caver like Nancy Pelosi.

   Way to show your true colors when it dawned on you that you need to run for re-election this fall and don't want to upset your constituents back home that support Hillary Clinton!

   Please be more careful in the future and refrain from thinking independently!

April Fool's Is In Full Swing on the Internet

   April Fool's Day stories and actions are running rampant across the internet today (and actually started appearing yesterday).

   While I consider most of them pretty weak, I did thoroughly enjoy what Michael Arrington did on TechCrunch, particularly because it was sprinkled with real information, making it considerably more believable than the amateur crap that most people posted today.