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February 24, 2003
Well here I am, thinking it’s been forever since I wrote any kind of update to the website. Some people have written me asking if I went on an unexpected vacation, or if I been taken away to the mental institution once again. Sorry to say, both would have been a more pleasant experience then the fiendish hell I have been going through for the past week or so. Well in all truth it’s just the continuing pain I have going through since I moved into my new apartment. As I wrote the last few updates about the pain I went through when I moved in here. Well the adventure hasn’t let down yet. When I moved in to the apartment the complex gave me a list of utilities to sign up with for the move in. It went fairly smoothly, until it got to the cable company. The piece of paper I got from the rental office had Comcast listed on the form as the cable company (both TV and internet); they came out and installed my TV but had trouble with the Internet connection. After a week of them sending technicians out they figured out that they don’t service my neighborhood, and that I would have to go researching the company that dose our neighborhood. So I found out that the complex has two different companies doing the cable TV and cable Internet. So I had no trouble getting the Internet set up, but after only four days of living happy with cable Internet and TV, it all fell through the floor. DOH!
With Comcast realizing that they were out of the picture, they cut my cable TV off. So with no cable signal coming though the Internet was useless. So I called this rinky-dink operation that ran the cable TV system here in the complex. They couldn’t get out to me till last Friday. When the installer finally got here he installed the cable TV wrong (I actually had to show him how to do most of the install). But when he finished it he realized that the system wasn’t recognizing the Internet system. He ended up leaving me in lurch. I got on the phone and started bitching at the un-costomer service. They told me that I couldn’t have anyone come out till Monday and that I should also see about contacting the Internet company. So when I called the Internet company they blamed the TV company, and then I called the TV company back they blamed the Internet. So it went back and forth until it was decided that the cable TV people would send a technician out on Monday between 9am and 2pm. Monday finally came and I waited, waited, waited and waited. 2pm came and went and no cable guy. So I called the cable company to find out that I was left off the schedule. They said they could get someone out to me but couldn’t guarantee a time for me to have someone come out. So instead of wasting another day I asked to speak to the manager on duty. After telling me that they couldn’t get me serviced until Tuesday I went over this persons head. I asked to speak to her manager. I had to go up four more levels, but got to have the service manager come out to fix the problem. Around 5pm on Monday the manager came out and started working. It took him about 2 hours but he finally figured out that the cables had been mismatched outside from the very beginning. He apologized greatly for my displeasure and offered to pay for the internet service that I had missed out for the past few weeks.
So now I’m back and will be coming to you more regularly (no bathroom jokes please). I hope to see everyone coming around, and now that the apartment is coming together all are welcome to visit (ok still no couch but that will be rectified soon enough).
Watched the Grammies last night, was surprised by Nora Jones taking away most of the major awards, liked her CD but thought Springsteen would have been the big winner. Glad to see the Foo Fighters, Dixie Chicks & John Mayer winning also. Most of the program was kind of dull, Ok, Simon and Garfunkle opening the show was incredible, and then the tribute to the Clash by Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven, Dave Grohl, and Elvis Costello and the E Street band.
Ok that’s it for tonight; please hug all that you care for. The world is getting weirder and weirder. I’ll talk to you more tomorrow night.
One major note, we here at Fabersplace.com marked a momentous event over the past week. We are proud to announce that we passed the 10,000 visitor mark. Thanks to everyone who has came to our little site over the past four years.This site is as always a work in progress, we hope we can continue providing fun and interesting content to entertain you. And if your not careful you might learn something in the process. HEY HEY HEY!
Peace and friendship always
Mike
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February 16, 2003
Well I can officially say I am a tired pup. I spent the whole weekend tarring apart my bedroom and then proceeded to paint it. Being in a new apartment I didn’t really want to have the typical boring white walls that you find in your standard apartment. So trying to be a little creative (and watching lots of Trading Spaces) I went ahead and came up with a fairly cool idea and decided on some fun colors that can work with a lot of different accents or designs. I started the full process of the painting yesterday, I was able to get the first coat done yesterday, but then started realizing that I was going to have to do a second coat. Oy, the blue paint was starting to run low. Well I braved it today and got literaly into the can of paint and took almost every drop out of the can. Finally after another few hours I was done, and left the room to let it try. (Sorry I won’t give you a blow by blow of the paint drying, my web site isn’t that slow). But needless to say the room looks great now. I still need to do some touch ups with where the paint splattered and where the tape peeled some of it off. I hope you enjoy the pictures of the paint job. A few people have asked me why no pictures of my self lately on the site. Well being the main photographer of my site it’s kind of hard to be in the pictures. I promise I’ll have some new one’s up soon, and you always have the cam@fabersplace.com to get your fill of current images.
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 Got a call from Dad this morning and he told me that he had a little bit of snow outside of his house, “a little I said?” yeah it’s 11:45 and we already have 18 inches, guess I’m stuck here in the house with Max for the next few days. The snow was coming down pretty hard and wasn’t due to let up till Monday afternoon. I remember as a kid being so excited about the snow, every kid dose. Snow = NO SCHOOL. But as you get older you don’t appreciate it as much. When you become an adult you start thinking it more of a hindrance or a pain since it hurts your chance at getting to work, or means you have to stay home with the kids when have no school. I guess not having snow for the past ten years I look forward to it. I’m the type of person that can just sit and watch the snow fall, in a kind of Zen way it’s kind of relaxes me and sends all the trouble of the world right out the window. The only problem is that it really doesn’t snow that often here in Atlanta, so I have to live vicariously though my friends in the Northeast.
Well it’s been a long day, and I have been going full steam ahead for two days. I know I keep promising you a review of Adaptation and of my thoughts on the Academy Awards nominations. It’s coming I promise. I hope your staying warm and keeping dry and kicking back to enjoy the snow (even if it's in your mind).
Talk to you soon
Peace and Friendship always
Mike
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February 14th 2003
Hey all,
Just a quick note to wish you all a very Happy Valentines Day. I hope your spending it with your loved one's or like Stephen Stills sang "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one your with". Truer words were never spoken.
Have a full week of updates coming next week, got to just get it into my head that I have to start writing early in the day not at 11pm. Makes the motivation a lot easier and the ideas flow a lot more coherent. Hope you have a great weekend and try to stay dry and warm (both a luxury here on the east coast). I'm going to be staying around the apartment and paint my bedroom. (Pictures of the project, inspired by the TV show Trading Spaces will be up Sunday night). I'll also try to catch Daredevil at the movies, so that review will be coming also.
OK, Put a fork in me I'm done.
Peace and Friendship Always
Mike
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February 11, 2003
Ok, I’m sitting around now trying to figure out where to even start about the new apartment. Let me get this out first by saying things now are looking a lot better with this place then they did a little over a week ago. The apartment is actually very nice. It’s a 2 bedroom 2 full baths with a fireplace and a deck. It’s about 1400 sq ft., my old apartment in Kirkland was 1100 sq. ft and I thought that was huge, so this place is monstrous. Now for the other side of the coin, the problems with the apartment started up the week before I moved in, I decided to make the move completely accessible and easy for William, by getting him involved in ever step. The decision process, the move, and the setting up of his room. So I came over and got the key from the landlord, but was warned by the leasing agent that the apartment wasn’t painted or cleaned yet. Which was understandable since I wasn’t moving in for another week. Well to say the apartment was disgusting and dirty was an understatement. The worst part though was that the apartment was filled was a pungent natural gas odor. It was hard to explain to William that this room was going to be his to put all his toys in when he came to stay with Dad. He was also more fascinated by all the dead bugs on the floors (like I said the place was filthy). So when I turned the key back in I told the landlord all about mess and the gas smell. He said it would be taken care of. My bad for believing it.
The following Saturday I arranged to pick up a moving truck and load up all my stuff from Roy and Ivy’s. I got Roy, Daniel, Shod and JR to help with the move. When I got down to the new place. I was shocked to find the place was still in poor shape, they didn’t do anything to fix the gas smell, they did kind of clean the place, but failed to repaint, and patch up the holes in the apartment. There were water stains in the closet walls in Williams room, the doors to the closets were hanging off the hinges. The shower doors in the master bath wouldn’t open, and it there was mildew and mold growing in the shower. The leasing agent who was going through the inspection with me was in shock at the condition the apartment was in. She was like apologizing left and right about the condition of the apartment, and said she had never seen one in this condition to move in. She was asking if there was anyway to delay the move in. I kept on saying no, mostly since I had the moving truck with my stuff and friends on the way already. We ended up with a list of two pages worth of repairs that needed to be made.
So needless to say for the past week I have been a noodge with the apartment complex getting them to fix and change things till they are right in the place. I have already had the apartment repainted, cleaned, a new stove, and a possible new wall in Williams room for them to fix the leak behind the wall. I’m still trying to convince them to replace the chandelier in the dining room for a ceiling fan, for all the crud they put me through this past week, the good thing is that they haven’t been charging me rent till everything is satisfactory to me. I would be mean and say that might be next May, but I really am very happy with this place. It has a great feeling to it, and I think a lot of good and positive things will be coming from here now that the entire negative is behind this place. Almost like all the bad karma has left the building. Now I have to start looking for a couch and love seat or chairs for my living rooms. If anyone has a set they want to donate or sell to it to yours truly all offers will be considered. (Ok, I'll pass on anything with flowers on it, but anything else would be great).
Well I can keep going on about the apartment for another hour or so, but don’t want to bore anyone with the rest of the gory details. Lot’s of other subjects to talk about in the world around us, but that will wait till tomorrow. I also owe you a review of the Nicolas Cage movie "Adaptation" so I’ll have that in my next update also. Also will go over the newly announced Academy Awards for this year. I still can’t believe "Chicago" got all those nominations.
I'm glad to be back, don't forget to take a peek at the web cam when you get a chance.
Peace and Friendship Always
Mike
P.S. Download Red Handed's First Single - All I Needed (4.6 MB) it's quite good. If you want to order the CD click over to their web site www.redhandedmusic.com/band.
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February 10, 2003
And here I bet you thought that I forgot you all. Got lots of things to tell about the move and all that's been going on for the past week and a half. I'll be writing a full update tomorrow. But I finally have access to the internet (part of the story). So I hope your all doing well, and will talk to you tomorrow.
Peace
Mike
Oh Yeah, The Cam@Fabersplace.com is now live with 24/7 access. Just be prepaired to see anything or anyone popping up. - Mike
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January 31st, 2003
Hi All, well tomorrow is the big move and I would like to say I’m nice and calm about this whole thing. In all truth I’m feeling very nervious about the whole moving prospect. First coming into the unknown and then being out there on my own again. It’s kind of nerve racking to be truthful with you. I know everything will be ok, it always is. But still part of me just wants have more stability. But when your doing what I’m doing in life you jump forward with both feet.
I wont be online through the weekend since with the move I probably won’t have cable until Monday at the earliest. So have fun, stay safe, and we will talk soon.
Peace and friendship
Mike
Here's a funny joke I was sent earlier today.
This guy goes to Amsterdam to videotape a presentation.
While staying in his hotel he finds an awesome porn channel on the TV, but, alas, he has no VCR or way to record it. With a flash of inspiration, he sets up his video camera, points it at the TV, and tapes a few hours of hard core video.
On arriving home, he tells his best friend about the trip.
The conversation gets around to the porn tape and the man lends his friend the tape.
A couple of days later, the friend returns the tape. "Did, ahh, did you watch your tape?"
"No. I was watching the original. Wasn't any need to see the tape."
"Well, uhh, before you lend it out again, maybe you should watch it," the friend advises. The guy did as he was advised. And never lent out the tape again.
You see, the fella had forgotten to take into account the *reflective* nature of a television screen . . .
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January 30th, 2003
Man oh man; last night I took William to one of him favorite places on the face of the earth. A place so vile and evil in it’s true attentions that it should be banned from every major city on the face of the earth. Where my friends would such a horrid place exist, and why would I ever take your child to such a place. This place I will mention soon send chills down my back and brings joy to most children. This place I mention is of course Chuck E. Cheese. A child’s eyes completely light up when you mention taking them too see this 2nd tier mouse (Mickey being first tier). When finally they get to this destination (I refuse to call it a restaurant) full of flashing lights and loud music and noise, the kid totally loose control and start pulling you in every direction to play this see that. Kind of fun to see William so excited about everything but it is too bad it’s for something so commercial. A lot of the “games” they now have at Chuck E. Cheese I have seen on my numerous visits to the casinos in Las Vegas. The only difference is that instead of awarding coins to the kids, it dispenses tickets, which the child would collect for some cheap little gift (straws, plastic cars, or such). They then serve a pizza that tastes like the $1.99 frozen special from the grocery store. But that doesn’t matter anyway since your kid is too excited to play instead of eating, if you get a few bites of the pizza into him your doing good. Your kid is so hypnotized by the lights and music then it’s almost impossible to get them to leave. (Maybe that’s how they get new employees, who all seem to be in a strange trance also).
Here’s a quick rundown of the trip to Chuck E. Cheese
Dinner for Me and William $13
Extra Tokens to play more games $20
Ice Cream for Desert for William $1
Money for New Toy since we didn’t have enough tickets to get something
that William doesn’t already have $10
LOOK OF HAPPYNESS ON WILLIAMS FACE PRICELESS
(ok I know corny, but so worth it)
I’m starting to get closer and closer to move time. I found a great 2 bedroom 2 full bath apartment in Marietta / Sandy Springs area right outside of Atlanta (I can be downtown in 20 minutes, and to William in 35 minutes). I’ll post a floor plan and pictures of the move up here next week. Everything is going fine so far with the schedule. I’ll give you all the new information in the next update. I’ll try to do one tomorrow night, before I shut down the computer for the move.
I saw the new Nicolas Cage movie “Adaptation” today; I’ll give you my full review in the next full update.
I hope your all doing well, I’ll talk to you soon
Peace and Friendship
Mike
P.S. Dan Faber's web site for his band Red Handed went live today. Look for lots of fun stuff coming there in the next week or so.Band pictures, information, concert dates, and where to purchase their first cd. Click here to see what we have for them so far. - Peace.
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January 28th, 2003
 Hi all, well as promised I wasted two hours of my life which shall never return to me by watching the state of the union address tonight. I won’t bore you with a blow by blow of George W’s speech. Since basically it was the same hubbub that he’s already been putting out for the past two years. I didn’t see anything new or anything to give me hope that the down turn the country is in will rectify itself soon. In fact it still feels like the economy is about to take another turn for the worse. But I digress. The rest of the speech was very entertaining in his cheerleader outfit and staring to accuse Iraq of every major crime in the last 12 years. Ok he didn’t have on a cheerleader outfit but the rest was true. I just kept on rolling my eyes at almost every word that he spoke. It’s a fact that we are going to war with Iraq, it’s just a matter of when, and how many sound bites the president can get in before then. If you want to read the full story of the presidents speech click here. I could go on all night but you know what I have better things to talk to you about. One las t thing , do you think George W. humms 'Hail to the Chief' when he's entering a room?
Over the weekend I forgot to mention that we had a pretty big moment in William’s life. For the first time ever William got to go potty in the big boys urinal. It was so exciting for both of us. William was so excited about it he wanted to go four more times during breakfast. (I think he just liked it that he was having fun flushing the darn thing, ah kids). Just being a proud poppa here. Next William will be asking me for the car keys. Wait he already has a few times.
 Also over the weekend I got to see a movie I had been looking forward to seeing for quite some time “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”. The story is the unauthorized autobiography of Chuck Barris famed assassin for the CIA. Oh yeah he was also the creator of the Dating Game, The Newlywed Game and of course the Host of the Gong Show. Mr. Barris had claimed in his book that he had been working since the early 60’s as a trained assassin for the CIA and did the game shows as a cover. The movie shows through his eyes what he believed to be real, and sometimes not so real. Barris played true to life by Sam Rockwell. Drew Barrymore plays Penny, Barris’s long time suffering girl friend, a very interesting character / free spirit who kind of drifts and floats throughout the movie. For years I couldn’t stand Drew Barrymore but over the past couple of years the roles she has chosen have helped her grow as an actress and a person. George Clooney who had the dual role as the CIA agent who drafted Chuck Barris and also in his first stint as a director, in which both he handled quite well. The movie plays very smoothly is an extremely beautify shot film, cutting into what was happening in Chuck Barris’s mind and what was happening in reality. You truly leave the theater thinking, Ok was he just thinking all this up or did it really happen this way. Lots of great cameos throughout the film but I’ll let you see for yourself who shows up in this movie. (Heck they even had Gene, Gene the Dancing Machine). I would truly recommend this one, and might even consider adding it to my DVD collection when it becomes available.
That’s it for tonight, hopefully life is treating you well and not tweaking you on the nose.
I’ll talk to you soon
Peace and Friendship forever
Mike
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January 27, 2002
Your probably going it seems like it’s been forever since Mike has written a new “What’s New”. Hey it’s only been a few days, and things been busy on this end of the electronic jungle. I have slowly been getting ready for the move into my new apartment. T-minus five days and counting. I took William yesterday to take a peek at the new place. Well the aprartment complex didn’t send the cleaning crew in yet to get ready for me to take over the apartment. So when we were walking around the apartment William was pointing everything out to me like, "Dada, look at all the dead bugs lying on their backs". I had to reassure him that the bugs would be gone by the time Daddy moved in. He was fine after that point. He did like that it has a swimming pool and a playground for him to explore and play in. It was neat having William over but to a three year old it doesn’t seem like much unless his toys and some furniture are inside the apartment with him. Next time he visits will be a lot more fun for him.
Well the Super bowl has come and gone and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have soundly beaten the Oakland Raiders. To say I’m happy that Tampa Bay won would be an understatement. I think I have thee teams in the NFL that I have always despised. Number one has always been the Dallas Cowboys. Since I grew up a Redskins fan, it was a natural revulsion for Americas Team. In second place is the Denver Broncos, not that I hate the team by no means. I just always disliked John Elway. Every since he pulled the I’m going to stay in school since I didn’t like that the Baltimore Colts drafted me, then came out of school and played when Denver made him an offer. Then in third place were the Oakland Raiders. Yes they had great teams over the years. But I have always associated them with thugs and dirty players, also it didn’t help that a lot of Gang Bangers in LA wore the Raiders gear. (Ok maybe I’m also holding a grudge against them for beating the Redskins in the Super bowl 20 years ago, but still). The game actually seemed like it was going to be a real nail biter until 1/2 way through the first quarter and the Raiders fell apart. Yeah the final score was 48 – 21 but the Raiders weren’t even that close as the score shows.
But the real reason I brought up the Super bowl is my favorite part of the game – The commercials. I had written little updates about all the different commercials. But in all truth this years ads just didn’t really have any true spark or originality to them. Yes there were funny one’s, there were surprising one’s but overall most of them just left me flat.
Here are my favorites ones:
Pepsi Twist – The Osborne’s meet the Osmonds. Ok the Pepsi twist disguise thing was very old, but throwing Ozzy in with meeting Donny and Marie (the look on Ozzy’s face was priceless). Then him calling for Sharon and him ending up with Florence Henderson was too funny.
Budweiser - The Jackass commercial. Very funny and well done, with the horses playing football. And the Zebra reviewing the play. Not slapstick at all but one of the funnier commercials of the day.
H& R Block – Willy Nelson having fun with his own tax problems. The scene with Willy in the Locker Room with Shaving cream over his beard yelling “It’s Burning my face, It’s Burning my face” was a classic.
Honorable Mention: Monster.com – The Runaway truck, funny but to scary to think about. And Bud Light – The Upside down Clown. Guy in clown suit drinking beer ummm from a precarious angle. The patrons in the bars reaction are priceless.
The movie previews weren’t all that bad during the game, Some of them looked to vague to even tell what they were about (Terminator 3, Joe Almighty) and others showed too much (The Hulk, can we say CGI boys and girls). The two that made my night were ‘Anger Management’ the new film with Adam Sandler and Jack Nickelson. Talk about two different ends of the spectrum folks. And of course The Matrix – Reloaded and Revolution too kick ass for words. This movie (and it’s next sequel) just seems more impressive each time I see it.
Well that’s my choices for this year. I hope next years commercials are a lot better, and original. This year just seemed to have a rehash over and over again. Yawn.
I went to see the movie “True Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” the unauthorized autobiography of Chuck Barris of the gong show fame. I’ll give you my full review tomorrow.
I’m getting tired. It’s now 1am on Tuesday morning. I hope you are all doing well, and didn’t mind the short break I gave you from my ranting.
See ya tomorrow night (I’ll probably have a lot to say about Bush’s state of the Union Address, and the man himself then).
Peace and Friendship Always
Mike
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January 22, 2003
War! What is it good for?! Absolutely nothing!
The war drums in this country are beating louder and louder with George Bush being the main proponent to the attack on Iraq. It’s becoming more and more obvious daily that he’s trying to avenge daddy’s greatest mistake in office. How hypocritical of him is it to claim, “That Saddam’s excuses are like watching an old repeat over and over again”. Umm George have you looked in the mirror and listened to yourself lately? Who knows where this will end but even the US’s closest allies are starting to back off the path to war. I only hope our Allies can try to make this just come to a peaceful solution with as little human life lost.
Onto a better subject matter, I think I might have found an apartment I really like, and have turned in an application in for the place. Will know tomorrow if I get the place for a February 1st move in. Don’t get me wrong, living with Roy and Ivy has been nice, but now it’s time for me to spread my wings and get on with my life again. I have always said the move to Georgia was a positive step in my life. Now it’s time to act on it. I’ll post a copy of the floor plans in the next few days.
I also have been designing the covers (both back and front) to Dan Faber’s bands first CD. Here they are. I still have to do the text for the back cover, but you get the general idea. I will be posting info in the next week or so on how to order their new cd. Believe me when I say they are really good. Kind of the same style as Blink 182, but better.
Hope you’re all doing well
Peace
Mike
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January 20th, 2003
Well the faithful day has come and gone. I’m here to tell you that the cross over from 35 to 36 wasn’t as painful as I originally thought it was going to be. Yes the ritual burning of my age into my chest hair was kind of tough but other then that it wasn’t so bad. It was a great treat to celebrate the occasion with my three favorite people in the world; Cheryl, Danny and of course William. The day did have its auspicious moments but overall it went well. Will being 36 change me to a more mild and mature Mike. NOPE don’t count on it. I have the strange feeling that this next year is going to bring some extremely memorable moments. I can’t wait to see what they bring.
The quest for a PS2 has come to a close with the passing of my birthday. A lot of people had thought I had succumbed to the level of Karyn and started begging for items on my website, but a few of you out there wrote me and actually saw through my dally ranting. The truth was I was doing a parody of a mix between a Saving Karyn and NPR Pledge drive. If you go back and look at what I wrote I even taken some of them word from world. There is no way in heck that I would actually ever really want or expect anyone to give me money for a birthday gift. It would be too hypocritical of me especially after all the blasting I gave Karyn for her begging for money to pay off her Gucci handbags and shoe credit card debt she had gotten. No way no how would I ever be that shallow to do that for real. (The PS2 arrived from Amazon.com on Thursday, thanks.. talk about eating crow).
In the world around us it seems like we are gearing up more and more for war against Iraq. It seems like the US government is just looking for any excuse to go in there and rip Saddam from power. “CNN REPORTS THAT SADAM HUSSANES SNEAZED TWICE DURING A SPEECH TO HIS GOVERNMENT, THE US GOVERNMENT CLAIMS IT’S A SIGNAL FOR WAR”. It would almost be silly if it weren’t such a serious issue. The government is still trying to play on the terror fever that struck after September 11th. It just strikes me funny, the US is trying to go to war with Iraq a country that is barely making ends meet, while on the other side of the world you have North Korea which is basically thumbing it’s nose at the world and trying to throw every treaty out the window. The US is tying to do the diplomatic solutions (the preferred route) with North Korea; I just find it interesting how hypocritical the US is being about each situation.
Pete Townsend of recording band The Who was arrested in London for child pornography, he’s claiming that he was researching it for a book he was writing. All I can say on this subject (other then how sick and wrong the subject is) is that it brings new meaning to the Song Lyric from Tommy by Mr. Townsend “Tommy can you hear me, Tommy can you feel me” ouch, ok that was even bad for me.
Well I hope everyone’s doing ok, and life is bringing all they are hoping for.
Talk to you soon
Peace
Mike
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| This picture isn't from my birthday, but I could't resist putting it up of my sister from her first Snow experiecne in many many years. |
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