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March 23rd, 2003
Hey Still Watching the Academy Awards, kind of figured Chicago would be walking away with the show. Will give you all my full report tomorrow night. Will say the biggest Ass of the night was Michael Moore in his views of the Government and war with Iraq. Yes I agree with him completely in what he said, but it was the completely wrong forum to do it in. After he got a standing ovation for winning the best documentary for his film "Bowling for Columbine", he literally gets booed from the stage for his remarks. He just could of done it a lot more tastefully. I was mortified for all the others who got up on stage with him. Sad very, very sad.
Had a great weekend with William, we went from a tour going to a dairy processing plant to going to watch jets take off from Hartsfield Airport (that's Atlanta airport). You know sitting there watching how excited he was doing everything it just made me think: Playing with your son and hearing him point out how much fun he's having "PRICELESS"
Will have a bigger update tomorrow, hope your all doing well
Peace and friendship always
Mike
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March 19, 2003
I could spend this whole column talking about how the war against Iraq has finally started and how bad war is etc. but that would be doing what every other website is doing tonight. If you want to hear all about the news about the war check out CNN not Fabersplace.
Today was just one of those days were everything seemed slightly off kilter. Even seeing William tonight seemed slightly off. Not that it was bad, but he was a typical three year old and very tired (he even fell asleep on the drive back to Angela’s). Then to top it off we ended up having some pretty heavy thunderstorms on the drive home from seeing the little guy. I just think the universe was trying to ready itself for the coming war.
Ok I’m going to call it a night now. I still have to get my college basketball bracket ready for the beginning of tomorrow tournament. Right now I have Arizona and Florida in the finals, I’m thinking about changing it out, what do you think? Am I full of it, or do I sound like I might have a chance.
So anyway I’m out of here. I hope your all doing well and I’ll talk to you soon.
Peace and friendship always.
Mike
P.S. Our buddy Odd Todd has finally updated his website with a new cartoon. If you’re not familiar to Todd I would highly recommend viewing all his cartoons. Ok this puppy is tired I’m so out of here. - Peace
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March 18th 2003
Well, well, well. What kind of mess we have found our selves in. I decide to buckle down and start focusing a few projects and the whole world goes to hell in a hand basket Man I don’t even know where to start. Hmmm first off will you please tell me when did the first amendment go completely out the window? Since it’s now anti-American to even consider taking an alternate view from the general public. I always thought we lived in America a country where it encouraged being able to speak your mind and have a differing view from the government. It’s called a democracy folks. Remember our founding fathers, 1776, the declaration of independence, etc. Hell folks this is the reason we are about to knock the socks off of a semi powerful dictator who doesn’t even have control of his own country. I heard one comedian this last week say that the us should feel really good about going to war against the Mayor of Baghdad. I run hot and cold about what our country is going to do. I do understand about wanting to protect ourselves and taking out someone who is posing a threat to our liberties. But if the people in our country can’t handle some constructive criticism or to face a differing opinion, maybe they should really think about what we would be fighting for.
At least on a positive note in the world, the police have found 15 year old Elizabeth Smart after being abducted from her home for over nine months. I couldn’t even begin to consider what her parents felt for the time she was missing, or the joy that they felt when she turned up alive and healthy. I know if that ever happened to William I would just go out of my mind with worry. It literally is a parent’s worst nightmare. This tale is by no means over, I really don’t think we have even seen what kind of psychological damage the poor girl went though, it will be a tough journey back, and I hope they can pull through without too much pain.
Things are going well otherwise. Like the rest of the world I’m waiting for everything to happen and hope we all make it through safely. On that note I wanted to wish Cindy Katz all the safety in the world and may your call up to active military service be extremely uneventful. Peace be with you.
On that note I have ranted enough for one night, just to answer a few of the e-mails questions I have gotten. I’m doing ok. Yes I am happy, and I’m really having a blast with Atlanta, and to the e-mailer from Portland. Not yet but will probably be doing it this summer. How is that for a cryptic answer?
I hope your all doing well, sorry it took me to long to get back on track. I’ll talk to you all soon. The next 24 hours is going to be interesting (hmmm could almost make a good TV show and hey wait I could get Kiefer Sutherland,opps think it might have been done once or twice). Be safe all and hug a loved one.
Peace and Friendship always
Mike
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Marcy 11, 2003
Ok so I’m sitting around just thinking about how with everyone on edge with us about to go to war, the economy really tanking out, gas prices going to their highest levels ever, it would be nice to write about something happy and positive. Hmmmm well let’s see how about I write down the 5 or 6 things that at least are making me feel good about the world:
- It’s 70 degrees out today here in Atlanta while it’s snowing in Washington, DC.
- Spending more and more time outside
- Baseball Season is less then three weeks away
- Spending a great weekend with William
- Finding a real good pizza place not to far from my apartment
- Being able to wear shorts outside in March
- Knowing that George Bush is getting many sleepless nights worrying that he might not get to play "Protector of the Free World" if Russia, France and China get their way.
Sometimes you can just get so overwhelmed with work, life and the world around you, but never forget I’ll always be here to give you that mental goose that you can use to just make it through another day.
Here’s something that I was wondering about dose anyone out there actually know what’s going on with David Letterman? Tonight on the Late Show Vince Vaughn is guest hosting. I do like Vince (especially in the movie “Swingers”, “Made” and “Psycho”), but I really don’t think of him as talk show host material. Last night it was Whoopie Goldberg hosting the show, which is a little more understandable since she has her ill-fated talk show many many years back. It’s neat seeing all these different guest hosts but I do miss Letterman, Get Well Dave, and come back soon.
Ok I’m starting to ramble once again, so I’m going to crash for the night. Hope you’re all doing well and enjoy yourself.
Peace and Friendship Always,
Mike
Out of the mouths of babes comes the Dead Cat Test, a true story:
A kindergarten pupil told his teacher he'd found a cat.
She asked if it was dead or alive.
"Dead," she was informed.
"How do you know?", she asked.
"Because I pissed in his ear and it didn't move," said the child innocently.
"You did WHAT?!?", the teacher squealed in surprise.
"You know," explained the boy, "I leaned over and went 'pssst' and he didn't move."
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March 9, 2003
Well here’s something kind of goofy for you. I’ll call this the tale of the cursed movie. It might not be for the faint of heart though so just know you have been warned. Friday night was going to be a quite leisurely evening. So I decided to just to pick up a movie and get some Chinese. Well things started out normal and I finally decided on the movie “One Hour Photo”. I had heard great things about this movie and Robin Williams was supposed to be horrifying in the title role. But I’ll talk about that later. The checkout was nothing out of the ordinary, and then went a few miles down the road to pick up dinner. After getting home, I started unloading the car and realized “ummm where is the movie?” I tore the car apart and found nothing. So back in the car I go and drove back up to Blockbuster. Going into the store, I told the clerk that I left the movie in the store, and they had no trace of it. So the clerk searched the store and low and behold nothing. So after 20 minutes of searching the store, I decided to go check the car one more time and boom guess what I found slid tightly between my front seat and the center console. DOH!! So sheepishly I went back into the store and apologized to the clerk and told them thanks for his help.
After getting home I warmed up the Chinese food and searched around for the remote for the DVD player and dug in to an entertaining but very disturbing film. Robin William was fantastic as Sy the photo guy, a very disturbed character who gets completely lost from reality and we find out through out the course of this film he has been stalking this supposed perfect family. I definitely would recommend it but be prepared to leave the film disturbed.
So after watching the movie I decided to return the film, but all day Saturday things came out that I could never make it to Blockbuster (I was proud of myself though I had the movie in the car since Saturday morning). So finally on the way to go pick up William on Sunday morning I would leave a few minutes early and I would return the movie. I made it to the video store and was about to drop the film in the return slot when something told me to look in the DVD box, and guess who forgot the movie in the DVD player at home. So instead of wasting time and running home in the morning I went on with a great day with my son. So finally to make a long story short the movie finally made it back to blockbuster at 11pm an hour before closing. Despite all the efforts of youre absent-minded host here.
Well that’s enough ranting for the night, hope you had a great weekend and I’ll talk to you soon.
Peace and friendship always
Mike
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March 7, 2003
Good Morning all, yes I know you have read that right, Good Morning. I decided that since I was so dog-tired last night that I was going to write my update today in the morning. Last night I went to go see one of my favorite bands “Great Big Sea”, it was only the second time they have played Atlanta, and the first as a headliner. I really didn’t know what to expect with this being my first show in Atlanta since moving here. The crowd was a lot smaller then I had seen with GBS before. The theater sat probably about 1500 people but was only at the most 1/2 full (they even had the balcony roped off). Yes it did bring a more of a close feel to the show, but also a band feeds off of the crowd, and it seemed like only 1/2 of the crowd really was into the band. So I don't think the full energy was there. Of course knowing almost all of Great Big Sea’s songs I knew almost all of the music that they played. Not that I was disappointed by any means with the show, but in a lot of ways it definitely wasn’t the best show I had seen them do. I still recommend you getting out and seeing them when they come to town, they are a fun little band from the tropical island of Newfoundland. As Alan the lead singer of GBS said last night “We are Great Big Sea, we come from the sunny tropical island of Newfoundland. Newfoundland is Canada’s version of Hawaii, Yea right”. Check out below some of the pictures I snapped from last night’s show.
I’m not even going to go into what George Bush talked about in his news conference last night, it’s just a repeat of almost everything we have heard over and over again. On a quick follow up to a subject matter that I spoke on earlier this week, about the guy who got thrown in Jail for wearing a Peace T-shirt, it was reported today that all charges by the shopping mall that had him arrested have been dropped against him. To read the full story click here.
Hope your all doing well, have a great weekend; it should be spectacular weather wise here in Atlanta. Enjoy the pictures
Peace and Friendship always
Mike
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March 6, 2003
Hi All, Just a short note tonight. I went to see Great Big Sea tonight here in Atlanta. It was a great show. I'll give you a full review and pictures I took at the show. I'm dead tired, I'll talk to you tomorrow morning.
Peace and Friendship Always
Mike
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March 5, 2003
Hi all, just a few little things to talk about tonight. Both are from articles that I saw off the Internet today.
The first one got my dander up about a 61 year old man in New York State that was arrested on Monday at a local shopping mall for wearing a tee shirt that had a slogan on it. Ok your probably thinking, what kind of crude X rated saying did this man have on his shirt to get him in so much trouble? Well my friends the horrid saying that shook the management in a state of anger and caused them to haul this evil, evil person off to jail and charge him with trespassing, was a saying that can cause you to shudder in fear. The saying so incredibly offensive to some at this shopping mall in New York State, “Give Peace a Chance.” Umm excuse me, yes you read this correct, the man was arrested for having “Peace on Earth” on the front of his shirt and “Give Peace a Chance” on the back of his tee shirt. When did our justic system throw out the first amendment and start arresting people for speaking their minds. Read the full story here. Another report going through Hollywood is that the Screen Actors Guild is asking studio’s not to black list certain actors because on their stand on the upcoming War with Iraq. I’m sorry this is just feeling like the early 1950’s all over again, I’m just waiting for the Anti-American hearings to start being broadcast any day now. Hey I just thought of the new reality TV show, we can call it “Turn in Your Anti-American Neighbor” put it on Fox right after American Idol, I’m smelling a guaranteed hit here folks. (Gee and they said TV development is tough).
The other story sounds like a bad skit out of Saturday Night Live skit. It was revealed today that during the now infamous Dan rather interview of Saddam Hussein that the translator that was used for Saddam had actually used a fake Arabic Accent. In my mind I can just picture the translator switching from accent to accent, it is just way to funny. Now the network is so panicked and reassuring the public that the interview was 100% accurate. It’s almost fun to watch them put a spin on this one. Read this story here.
Ok, so tonight I really didn’t have much to say, but it just shows what kind of goofy world we are really living in, and I’m just the person to bring it to your attention.
Tonight here in the Atlanta area we are experiencing a series of Thunderstorms. There is just something so relaxing and calming about hearing the rumbling thunder in the distance. I really have learned to appreciate it after living on the west coast for the past 10 years and rarely having them.
Ok my eyes are becoming small slits on my face, I think it’s time I wrap this puppy up for the night. I hope your all doing well.
Peace and friendship always
Mike
P.S. Happy 8th Anniversary to my Dad and Max, I know they can’t see this since they are off celebrating out in San Diego, but my wishes still go out to them. Congrats guys, have fun. You deserve it.
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March 4, 2003
I usually don’t follow the tabloids or celebrity rumors but this one is growing hair so quickly, there might actually be some validity to it. Just when you think Michael Jackson can’t get any weirder the press comes out and shocks you once again. Today the Associated Press reported that in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair they are publishing a story called “Loosing His Grip” The story goes into more details about how Michael has been “befriending” young boys and once they hit puberty he tosses them aside. The article goes on then to report that he also paid a witch doctor to put a curse on David Giffen, Steven Spielberg and several other Hollywood figures. Vanity Fair just goes on to explain more of the twisted life that has we have come to know as Michael Jackson. Like we didn't know all this before? This is just getting messier and messier; I think this whole thing is going to end up ugly (I know no jokes about how Michael looks now). To read the full story on Michael Jackson' s newist freak-out click here.
If you take a peek at the Family page you might notice that I have finally started making some progress on getting all of my family images posted. Currently we are looking about at least 150 new pictures, some of these pictures dating back almost 100 years. That number should grow as family members send me new pictures. So you probably will be seeing new images all the time as I get them. I should have it up and running within the next week or so.
Nothing else much to report, other then getting a little home sick for Seattle a little bit. Real Audio offers a great package that for the baseball season you pay $20 for a season to listen to any baseball in MLB. For the pre-season they are letting you listen to the broadcast for free. Today I got to hear the Mariners broadcast from spring training in Arizona. It was so good hearing Rick Rizzs and Dave Niehaus again, listening to them is like hearing from an old friend. I have heard broadcasts from all across the country but have never heard of anyone having the same enthusiasm as the Mariners broadcasters (well I guess they had to have some kind of magic to keep the Seattle fans interested in baseball for how many years the M’s totally sucked).
Nothing else really going on in my corner of the world, hope you’re all doing well. I’ll talk to you soon.
Peace and friendship always
Mike
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March 3, 2003
Well today was one of those interesting days, as you know that since I have been here in Georgia I have been trying to decide what to do with my future. Well after a few months of fruitless interview and interview, I finally settled in getting some work. For a while it seemed like when sending my resume out it felt like it just disappeared into vapor. So thank goodness now the search is over for a while, between this and some upcoming freelance gigs I should be fine. But anyway I digress. One of the requirements for this job is that they require a drug test for all potential employees. Let me tell you right off the bat that I have nothing to hide from you ever and I would freely admit to you if I did drugs or any other kind of vice. But those days are so long behind me. I guess I just don’t see a reason a web designer should be tested. If I was operating heavy machinery I could almost see the reason why, but in all truth the heaviest thing I will be operating is maybe a mouse or a scanner. I just don’t get it.
While I’m on the topic tonight I just don’t get why some employers are now checking your credit scores to come to work for them. I don’t think it’s necessary or fair that an employer should know if you were late with your Sears bill two months ago as a factor for employment. Like above I could see maybe doing the credit check if you handled money or do some form of finances. I just find both very unjust and a full invasion into the general privacy of the public, and it seems to be getting worse everyday.
Today’s handy link is to clarhoward.com, Clark hosts a syndicated radio program that helps the consumer against big bad corporate America. Take a peek, you can also find a few great deals there too.
Ok on yahoo.com you can enter a pool to win a TV if you pick the Academy awards correctly. Let me know what you think and what your choices would be.
Here are my choices that I picked.
Best Picture: Chicago
Best Director: Martin Scorsese (Gangs of New York)
Best Actor: Jack Nicholson (About Schmidt)
Best Actress: Salma Hayek (Frida)
Best Supporting Actor: Chris Cooper (Adaptation)
Best Supporting Actress Julianne Moore (The Hours)
Best Animated Film Ice Age
Best Foreign Language Film El Crimen Del Padre Amaro
Best Adapted Screenplay Adaptation
Best Original Screenplay My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Best Art Direction The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Best Cinematography Gangs of New York
Best Sound The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Best Sound Editing The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Best Original Score Frida
Best Original Song "Lose Yourself" - 8 Mile
Best Costume Design Chicago
Best Documentary Feature Bowling For Columbine
Best Documentary Short Twin Towers
Best Film Editing The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Best Make-Up Frida
Best Animated Short Film Mike's New Car
Best Live Action Short Film Inja (Dog)
Best Visual Effects The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Bonus Question How long will the show go over? 26 Minutes
We will see how I did the night after the Academy awards.
Hope your doing well, talk to you soon
Peace and Friendship
Mike
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March 2, 2003
Wow, Ok who snuck March onto my calander already, it just feels like it was just yesterday that I was moving into my new apartment and telling you all about it. Well here in Atlanta March is definitely entering like a Lion (rain and cold weather, I look up into the sky and rain and go “I left Seattle for what?”)
The weekend was pretty good; lots of running around, hanging with friends and even got a chance to see a great improv performance at the Whole World Theater. The show seemed a little more structured then Second City, but was still very entertaining. Seeing the show got me starting to think again about possibly taking up acting training again. We shall see, will have to see how my schedule goes over then next month or so. Today I went for a road trip up to the mountains of North Georgia. Wow talk about the middle of nowhere. I was just amazed at the beauty of the mountains, and some of the views I saw were priceless. Your probably saying “Mike, sounds great, but where are the pictures?” sadly to say “I left my camera at home” DOH! While wandering I somehow ended up in the south west corner of North Carolina. Until today I didn’t even know Georgia bordered on North Carolina. I thought wait a minute did I just jump over South Carolina, No, Georgia is so big that South Carolina is to the north east of Georgia. So to the due north of Georgia is both Tennessee and North Carolina (now I know). While wandering around North Carolina I found a huge flea market and auction, it was quite fun seeing what goodies I could find in the sticks. I ended up walking away with an old fashion Coke Cola sign, and a few kitchen nick knacks. So it was a success.
As we slowly march towards war with Iraq, I’m finding a starting line being drawn with the American public. When we went to war with Iraq in the early 90’s you had a lot of differing view on the war, and it was all right. But I’m noticing that with the current situation, that there is either black or white. No gray, no in betweens, it’s either your in support of the attack of Iraq, or your Anti-American and a traitor to your country. I have had many friends split on this and have never seen such a horrible reaction to this concern. There doesn’t seem to be anyway to be in the middle it’s either one way or the other. This concerns me, and puts cold chills down my back.
 On a lighter note my sister Cheryl decided to finally give up the bleached blond look for the more mature look. (She’s calling it the soccer mom look; I just think it looks great). Let me know what you think.
Anyway, I hope your doing well and had a great weekend. I’ll talk to you soon
Peace and friendship
Mike
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February 26, 2003
Ok I’m sitting here tonight trying to figure out where to start writing tonight’s update. Have you ever had a day when you just feel completely restless? Today I felt like I was climbing out of my skin. It was not pretty. It’s not like I didn’t have things to do but I felt like I kept on finishing everything too quickly. The positive thing about it is that I fixed some of the web sites functionality and got all the links on the website updated. Like I wrote last night, if you know of any great links or want to suggest a website to us please feel free to send it to me.
I was watching the news tonight and they announced that the city of New York will be making a formal announcement tomorrow at the decision of the new design of the World Trade Center. Overall the design is pretty interesting, some unique and neat architecture. If you want to take a peek at some of the concept drawings click here.
Alright this is kind of surreal; I’m turning into to watch Letterman (it is so nice to have the option of watching TV again) and Dave is actually having a guest host. Tonight’s host is Bruce Willis, So far he’s bombing big time. This is almost like watching a lamb waiting for the kill.
Nothing much else going on so I’m going to make tonight kind of short. One last thing though, I was listening to NPR and they were reporting on George Bush, and today’s great quote about Saddam was that "Saddam is a devious soul, a master of disguise and deceit". So now we will never know where Saddam will turn up, he could be the clerk at 7-11 for all we know. Hmmm
Ok I’m history,
Peace and friendship always
Mike
P.S. Oh yeah I forgot, I updated The Red Handed website. If you get a chance to take a peek let me know what you think.
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February 25, 2003
Well here we go, two nights in a row with an update. I think all the horrors known as "move in pains" are finally behind us. Let’s just hope so (if I had any real wood around the computer I would be knocking on it). I promise that I won't be using the What's New section of the web site as a daily bitch session. I have always tried to keep that out of this site, and trust me over the last year and a half I have had a lot to bitch about.
Yesterday Saddam Hussein challenged George Bush to a televised debate on International Television, I’m sorry but just the thought of that even happening just tickles me funny, I don't know who would come out smelling worse in that event. It's kind of making me think of the old MTV show celebrity death match. With George and Saddam going at it head to head and the winner takes it all. Some how it would end up being a tag team battle with George Sr. and Osama Bin Laden getting involved. Ok, sometimes my imagination dose runs away with me, but I’m feeling much better now.
So anyway, cheers to Nick in Calgary, Alberta Canada who recognized the ending to last night’s column from the 1970’s Fat Albert cartoon. "HEY, HEY, HEY". I’ll try to keep on throwing little quotes or references into the column, I don’t know if I’ll make it into a contest, but at least it’s nice to know that people are actually reading my spew. It was so weird a few weeks ago going to a dinner party at mutual friend house. I had never met the host’s of the party before, but when I got in and made my greetings I had one of the hosts come up to me and say, "you know Mike, I have had the same feelings about Chuck E. Cheese that you wrote about in your column". After the thundering shock of pure amazement that someone actually reads what I write, I started trying to figure out how many people visit the site daily that was kind of daunting in that fact alone. But I’m glad that I have been getting positive reaction to it all. I have some ideas that will finally be bringing my site to the next level, (no don’t worry no naked pictures of myself on the site, I wouldn’t want to have your eyes explode from their sockets). You will start seeing slight changes and improvements on the site over the next few months. One of my first huge projects will be updating the links page. It’s been at least four months since I took time out to see what updates are relevant and current. If anyone has any links they would like to see added to my site please e-mail me.
Our deepest thoughts go out to the families of all who perished in the recent fire at the nightclub in Rhode Island. I have been to many concerts and have even experienced a riot or two but I couldn’t even begin to think about the horror the people at The Station nightclub could of experienced. What probably started out as an evening to see a washed up hair band, ended up in terror for so many. Our prayers go with you all.
Well once again I’m finishing this column up way after midnight (I really got to start writing earlier).
Peace and Friendship always
Mike
Today's funny comes from the desk of David Volk, of course you can always read about David's life here. Hope you like, it should help with all the bad news that's going on in the world today.
The Jewish News
A Jewish man was riding on the subway reading an Arabic newspaper. A friend of his, who happened to be riding in the same subway car, noticed this strange phenomenon. Very upset, he approached the newspaper reader: "Moshe, have you lost your mind? Why are you reading an Arab newspaper?"
Moshe replied: "I used to read the Jewish newspaper, but what did I find? Jews being persecuted, Israel being attacked, Jews disappearing through assimilation and intermarriage, Jews living in poverty. So I switched to the Arab newspaper. Now what do I find? Jews own all the banks, Jews control the media, Jews are all rich and powerful, Jews rule the world. The news is so much better!".
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