Big Don's Blog

At last, a place for me to ruminate and offer my own stylistic, sincere, and silly ideas.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

The Blog Effect

No, I have not been posting like originally thought I might. It is not that I don't have any thoughts each day, it is more that I don't have anything profound each day, and I don't take the time to treat this blog like a diary.

None-the-less, I did have a thought about blogging this morning. This probably stems from my guilt for not blogging in a while. (Are you as confused as I am?)

So, here is my thought:

Blogging is another 'Andy Warhol' effect. Everyone gets 15 minutes of fame, at least in their own minds. With a single post on a new blog you have world-wide access. The only issue beyond that is if anyone is listening (reading or looking).

After that initial post, if you keep up the posts, the 'American Idol' effect then kicks in and you start to get a few followers. If it turns out that you have real talent, in whatever style your blog is presented, then the word starts to get out and you viewership expands.

These hard-core, long-term, obsessive bloggers tend to fall into two categories: professionals (who have a specific agendas for writing, pictures, political, or religious blogs) and the amateurs (who enjoy sharing their life stories and diaries, or have a fun fictional character). Either way, if your readership is large enough, you can enroll in the AdSense portion of the blogasphere and may make some money.

I have not personally heard or known of anyone getting rich this way. Mostly it is rumors and innuendo. There are those blog sites that are totally commercial. These boys are simply phishing for hits from search engines on a given topic. They are the cheap billboards along the internet highway.

Anyway, that is my thought for today. Maybe something more profound and interesting will pop into my brain in the near future.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Modern Transportation

Arrrgh!

I flew from San Diego (where I now live) to Chicago (where the adult-children still live) for the massive Easter Brunch that has become a tradition for us. When making my reservations several months ago, I went for the cheap and got a trip that had one lay-over each way in San Francisco. The outgoing leg was a red-eye from SFO to O'Hare.

Despite my efforts, I was not able to get any sleep on the flight out to San Francisco. When I got home, I just walked over to my bed and crashed. No biggie.

The rest of the day was a hazy blur, but it ended with me visiting my ex-door neighbors and playing cards till midnight.

Sunday came and I gathered everyone up to go to the brunch. We sat and ate for two and a half hours. Man, was it good! I then talked my youngest into driving me back to the airport on her way home. I also scrambled to get her taxes done (which meant filling out a 1040X for re-filing taxes. Then off we went to the airport.

Well, the weather was a factor at O'Hare. Many planes (including mine) were late getting in, so I was very worried that I would not make my flight from San Francisco to San Diego. And, that was the last flight out from SF. I asked about the non-stop from O'Hare to SD and found out that it was over-filled because the previous non-stop was cancelled.

Undaunted, I waited patiently to see what would happen. My aircraft did arrive and they turned the plane around very quickly. We were told, however, once we pushed away from the gate, that due to head winds and weather, it would take us longer to get to Frisco than the schedule indicated. Of course that meant I would miss my connection.

After we took off, the pilot informed us that they had found a 'short cut' to SF and we should arrive as early as 10PM. That gave me twenty minutes to make my next flight. Cool.

The bad part was that it got very bumpy after takeoff, what with all the weather. So, I tried to snuggle down and get some sleep. No good.

The movie was 'Narnia'. Unfortunately, that got my attention and I watched the whole thing. (Pretty good, actually.) So now with only 90 minutes of the flight left, I closed my eyes and tried to get a short nap. Oh, lucky me, more bumps!

As we landed in San Francisco, my watch said it was just after 10. By the time we de-boarded and I rushed to the gate (of course it was in a different wing of the terminal) I had a reasonable chance of catching my flight. So, off I gallop.

The good news was that my flight was still on the monitors and had not departed. The bad news was that it was delayed because of aircraft issues. So I got to sit and wait until they found and delivered another aircraft.

I finally got home about 1:30 this morning. To say I was tired is an understatement. I slept through most of my alarm this morning and I rolled into work about 9:30. All the sugar and massive qualities of food finally caught up with me.

I got your message when I landed in San Diego along with an auto-message from Untied Airlines, saying that my flight was cancelled and I was "scheduled to depart from Frisco to San Diego at 6AM on Monday".

So, that is my Saga-de-jour. If this story seems dis-jointed and poorly written it's because I still haven't regained full conscienceness yet. (Excuse me while I clean the drool from my keybiard.)

Monday, April 10, 2006

Questionnaire: do you really know yourself?

OK, so I was visiting one of my favorite blogs (boredhousewife) and Lisa put out a list. Here are my answers to the same questions (although, at this time Lisa did not have a question 24, so I added it.)


1. Last kiss? The guy in the cube next to me has Hershey kisses in his office. Does that count?

2. How do you flush the toilet in public? I use my foot. It's not that I have a phobia, because I always wash my hands. But every little bit of prevention helps.

3. Do you wear your seatbelt in the car? Yup.

4. Do you have a crush on someone? Usually several people at once.

5. Name one thing that you start to get tense about if you are close to running out of it: Patience.

6. What famous person do you (or other people) think you resemble? I have been compared to many a famous and handsome movie star in days gone by. Actually, several people say I remind them of Charles Grodin.

7. Favorite pizza topping: Mushrooms and black olives.

8. Finish this sentence: if my life was a sitcom my theme song would be... "Running on Empty", by Jackson Browne.

9. Do you pop your knuckles? Yes.

10. What song do you dislike the most when it gets stuck in your head? Any song. My head is so empty that any song echoes around and drives me crazy.

11. Did just mentioning that song make it get stuck in your head? Nope.

12. What are your super powers? I have the ability to put people to sleep at the drop of a hat. I just start talking about my life and before you know it, they are out!

13. Peppermint or spearmint? Peppermint

14. Where are your keys? Sitting on the shelf next to my front door.

15. Who's answers to this questionnaire do you want to hear? I will not tag anyone, so this is a voluntassignmentment.

16. What's your most annoying habit? Because I live by myself (for now) I am sure most everything I do is annoying, but not to me.

17. Where did you last go on vacation? A lake in Wisconsin (I was living in Illinois at the time).

18. If you could punch one person in the nose and get away with it, who would it be? There was this kid in fourth grade who used to pick on me all the time. I'd like to find him today and let him have one in the snoot.

19. What is your best physical feature? My brain (sad, isn't it?), although some women have commented on my eyes.

20. What CD is closest to you right now? Closest: Civilization IV - a PC game. All my music CDs are on the other side of the room.

21. What 3 things can always be found in your refrigerator? Mold, moldy bread, and moldy cheese.

22. What superstition do you believe/practice? Although it is the 21st century I will still throw spilled salt over my shoulder.

23. Does size matter? Geeze, I hope not! It aint what you got, it's how you use it.

24. Paper or Plastic? Depends on my mood, but they don't really ask any more, do they?

25. Do you talk on your cell phone when you drive? Yes, but I usually use my headset.

26. What are your favorite sayings? "You can't swing a dead cat without..."

27. What song(s) do you sing most often in the shower? Something Tony Bennett or Sinatra.

28. If you could go back or forward in time would you and where would you go? I would first go back in time to see certain historical events take place. Then I would go forward to see how human-kind ends up.

29. What is your favorite Harrison Ford movie? Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back. Second: Mosquito Coast.

30. What CD is in your stereo? None. I take them out when I am done.

31. What OCD qualities do you have? Staying in a rhythm and routine on a day-to-day basis.

32. how many kids do you plan on having? I have two grown-up daughters and I can't have any more.

33. If you could kiss anyone famous who would it be? Scarlett Johansson. Those lips make me crazy.

34. Would you really want to kiss someone you didn't know? Yes. I like kissing. I am very oral.

35. What do you do when no one is watching? See question 16, I do lots of stuff.

36. If they made a movie about your life, what actor/actress would play you? Ron Howard (although he is a director now).

37. Would you rather die in a blaze of glory or peacefully in your sleep? Blaze of glory.

38. What candy, from when you were a kid, do you miss the most? I have been a Snickers fan for so long, I don't remember.

39. what is your favorite movie? The Great Race.

40. Favorite musician(s)/bands you've seen in concert? Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, Led Zeplin, Harry James.

41. Have you ever been in love? Are you kidding? If you want to talk about 'True Love', yes a few times.

42. Do you talk to yourself? Again, see question 16. I do catch myself talking to myself, especially early in the morning and in the shower. I ask myself for requests on the songs I sing. It really does work well fo rme.

43. Is there anybody you just wish would fall of the face off the earth? No. Any bad people that I wish were not here are usually replaced by other bad people.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

More off my chest

SO what is really pissing me off about the 'Righteous Republicans' who are running the party now is that they got rich off the American government that they so strongly defend. And why not? They do not want to loose the golden goose that has lined their pockets. (BOCTAOE)

If they were truly patriotic, they would be selling the products to the US at some discounted rate, rather than with an inflated profit margin that ensures their personal wealth. Remember during WWII when many companies offered to make materials for the war effort for a profit of $1? Certainly, I am not expecting that today, but common people. Let's not criticize others for being unpatriotic when all you seem to be doing is promoting the Iraqi war so that you can sell more stuff to the US government.