Let the record show that I did just quote Rob Thomas. The jury can now give me the full sentence of the crime.
So, how about all this hot weather we've been having. It's so hot that insert requisite cheesy joke here. Or at least here in Michigan. It's been consistently in the mid-upper 80s, even hitting 90 late last week. Now a lot of people like to complain about it. Yes, the weather makes us sweat, and sticky, and smell, but you know what? I frickin' love it man! I've been enjoying every minute of it. I'll take this over snow any day of the week. First of all, I can go out and run without a shirt and sweat a lot. Then I get to go in and take a nice cold showers. Cold showers in the summer and just fantastic. Then, since I have no roommate, I can lounge around in just my boxers (how about that picture ladies!). Some would say "why not just lounge around naked?" First of all to get good airflow in my room, I keep the door open. Second, I've tried that, and it just does not make me comfortable. I need some....barrier between the nether regions and everything else. Now there's an image NO ONE wants to see.
What else about the summer? Oh yeah the women! Women and what they wear. I love it! Perpetual eye candy all day long! Short shorts, skirts, tank tops...whatever it is, showing skin is a good thing! I really hate the winter. I mean snow just...its definitely my least favorite form of precipitation. Ideally, I'm going to end up living somewhere it never snows. But I did come to a sort of epiphinay, a realization. That is, as much as I dislike snow and winter maybe it serves a purpose. When spring arrives and the weather gets warmer, the female of the species, in an evolutionary and ritualistic manner, all shed their outter layers. They emerge from the darkness of winter and display their colours for the males to spar over. And the kicker is that this often happens at an earlier date and temperature then one would expect! It never fails.
Speaking of attractive women, what's with Lindsay's Lohan's new look? Now, I'm really indifferent when it comes to her. She falls into the "attractive young female semi-actress" category. As a purveyor of pop culture I do like to keep tabs on what's going on with whom. Well I caught Miss Lohan on Conan last week. I first noticed her new look around the beginning of May when she hosted SNL. She went from a curvaceous red-head to a streamlined skinny blonde. Now the blonde I don't mind, no complaints there. But now she's this thin waif. Lets try some links to some pictures: before, before, before & after. Ok, that's enough LL links (though some may argue there are never enough). I couldn't get a good "after" pic so that one will do. She's a stick now! There's no need for that! She was doing fine with what she had. This whole Hollywood/model/actress thinness is overplayed! When will young girls and women realize that, it's perfectly fine (and in my opinion better) not to be stick thin. There is nothing wrong with a little extra here and there ladies.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
I've Got Your Letter
Today we take a break from our regularly scheduled blogging to respond to some reader feedback:
From: A Loving Family Member
Subject: Your Hair
Mark, are you ever going to cut your hair? Do you realize that you are making yourself even less attractive to women? Do you not want to get a date? Words can't even begin to describe the debacle that is your hair.
My poor family, worrying about the status of my hair. I'll let the record show that the last hair cut I did receive occured the first weekend of march, which was just about 4 months ago. The hair has surpassed the mullet-esque phase and now has moved onto the 70s cock-rock-star phase. I'm thinking of growing a porn-stace just to make it complete. That or a neck beard. And in terms of the ladies, if somehow I do manage to score one, all the more power to her. If she's into me when I'm not my most beautiful, then she'll be really into me when I finally decide to cut it.
From: Your Friends in Lakewood
Subject: Visiting
Dude, are you ever coming home? You spend like all your time up in Michigan and it sucks there. We need some Mark in our lives.
Its good to be loved, that's for sure. I'll be back to the 'Wood sooner then you think. God bless cheap beer.
From: Anonymous Friend
Subject: Stories
Maaaaaarrrrk!!! Wasssup? Love the blog man, but you gotta tell more stories. Like that time where text omitted to protect the innocent (or guilty) or when you got so drunk that text omitted. Man those were great times!
Ahh yes tales of debauchery and bacchanalia! But alas, this is not the intended purpose of this here blog. Occassionally, yes I will recount some tale of days of yore, but not on a regular basis. And since this is not an anonymous blog, I'd rather not deal with the repercussions of these stories.
From: SexxxySpartan2004
Subject: U R Soooo Cute!
i dont no u, but i c u all the time. do u have a g/f? cuz if not, id really really like 2 b yors. I want 2 run my fingers thru that long red hair of yors and u seem so kewl...and HOT!!!!
Um....yeah, do you read this thing at all?
Well that is all for today folks. I appreciate the comments and feedback. Tomorrow I hope to have something up on this hot weather we've been having.
From: A Loving Family Member
Subject: Your Hair
Mark, are you ever going to cut your hair? Do you realize that you are making yourself even less attractive to women? Do you not want to get a date? Words can't even begin to describe the debacle that is your hair.
My poor family, worrying about the status of my hair. I'll let the record show that the last hair cut I did receive occured the first weekend of march, which was just about 4 months ago. The hair has surpassed the mullet-esque phase and now has moved onto the 70s cock-rock-star phase. I'm thinking of growing a porn-stace just to make it complete. That or a neck beard. And in terms of the ladies, if somehow I do manage to score one, all the more power to her. If she's into me when I'm not my most beautiful, then she'll be really into me when I finally decide to cut it.
From: Your Friends in Lakewood
Subject: Visiting
Dude, are you ever coming home? You spend like all your time up in Michigan and it sucks there. We need some Mark in our lives.
Its good to be loved, that's for sure. I'll be back to the 'Wood sooner then you think. God bless cheap beer.
From: Anonymous Friend
Subject: Stories
Maaaaaarrrrk!!! Wasssup? Love the blog man, but you gotta tell more stories. Like that time where text omitted to protect the innocent (or guilty) or when you got so drunk that text omitted. Man those were great times!
Ahh yes tales of debauchery and bacchanalia! But alas, this is not the intended purpose of this here blog. Occassionally, yes I will recount some tale of days of yore, but not on a regular basis. And since this is not an anonymous blog, I'd rather not deal with the repercussions of these stories.
From: SexxxySpartan2004
Subject: U R Soooo Cute!
i dont no u, but i c u all the time. do u have a g/f? cuz if not, id really really like 2 b yors. I want 2 run my fingers thru that long red hair of yors and u seem so kewl...and HOT!!!!
Um....yeah, do you read this thing at all?
Well that is all for today folks. I appreciate the comments and feedback. Tomorrow I hope to have something up on this hot weather we've been having.
Monday, June 27, 2005
Happy Birthday to Greer
Greer Rocks! (to the left of me in this pic)
A special shout-out today to the one and only Erin Greer (or just Greer as we all know her as) as she is celebrating her golden birthday. Erin is a wonderful friend of mine. She's one of those people with whom I became friends with after we left high school. Kinda random, but a good kind of random. We always seem to have fun (sometimes too much) when we're together. And she's a saint as she deals with me when I'm drunk and trying to hook up with her. One of these days Greer, one of these days...
Anyway I hope you have a wonderful day. I'm glad you're in my life.
A brief P.S. from my past post on Cleveland suburbia. Thanks to Teets, who passed on this little nugget where the FreeTimes has deemed, once again, Lakewood to be the #1 neighborhood/place to live in Cleveland. Yes, we rock!
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Our House in the Middle of the Street
Big Supreme Court decision just released.
The big court has now established that it is OK for governments to seize private property for tax revenue purposes. This was a serious issue in Lakewood (click here, here, or here for info) in 2003 as the mayor and council labeled a portion of the city as blighted. This enabled them (so they thought) to seize the property through eminent domain and use it for a retail and high-end housing development. Well of course this caused an uproar in both the neighborhood and the city. One of the designations that council came up with for "blight" was that the houses in the neighborhood in question did not have attached garages. Well, the majority of Lakewood homes do not have attached garages, so that was a stretch. 2003 was an election year as we were electing a new mayor and this issue was on the ballot. The then-mayor went on 60 Minutes to discuss the eminent domain issue and came across horribly. This ultimately led to her failure to get reelected and the defeat of the ballot issue in support of the new development.
Lakewood is a classic inner-ring suburb (and a great city). It's packed full of homes and there is little, if any, open land for new developments. With new "lifestyle" centers such as Legacy Village and Crocker Park, Lakewood and other inner ring suburbs need new developments to fiscally compete with these other suburbs that do have the land to develop. When this issue came into light a few years ago, the debate focused on the fact that the city wanted to take homes away from their owners. The majority of homes in Lakewood are 70-100 years old. Yes people (including my parents) have spent their whole lives in these homes and feel a connection to them, but they're your average American home. Nothing special. Where the city went wrong was their whole approach in seizing the homes. They pretty much played the role of the bully and expected things to turn out the way they wanted. This was a mistake. If the city had approached the home owners on a civilized manner and negotiated with them, then maybe things would have turned out for the good. Or if the city had waited 2 years....
I love Lakewood. Aside from its insane amount of bars, its where I grew up and I ultimately call home. I realize that it has its problems but I'll take the good with the bad. Another issue that the distractors of the proposal pointed out was "well, what if the development doesn't work out." Well, I'd much rather have the city take a risk in a development rather then sit back and lose retail & tax money to other suburbs.
In news on other Cleveland 'burbs, Scene magazine has an intriguing article this week on another city in the area.
The big court has now established that it is OK for governments to seize private property for tax revenue purposes. This was a serious issue in Lakewood (click here, here, or here for info) in 2003 as the mayor and council labeled a portion of the city as blighted. This enabled them (so they thought) to seize the property through eminent domain and use it for a retail and high-end housing development. Well of course this caused an uproar in both the neighborhood and the city. One of the designations that council came up with for "blight" was that the houses in the neighborhood in question did not have attached garages. Well, the majority of Lakewood homes do not have attached garages, so that was a stretch. 2003 was an election year as we were electing a new mayor and this issue was on the ballot. The then-mayor went on 60 Minutes to discuss the eminent domain issue and came across horribly. This ultimately led to her failure to get reelected and the defeat of the ballot issue in support of the new development.
Lakewood is a classic inner-ring suburb (and a great city). It's packed full of homes and there is little, if any, open land for new developments. With new "lifestyle" centers such as Legacy Village and Crocker Park, Lakewood and other inner ring suburbs need new developments to fiscally compete with these other suburbs that do have the land to develop. When this issue came into light a few years ago, the debate focused on the fact that the city wanted to take homes away from their owners. The majority of homes in Lakewood are 70-100 years old. Yes people (including my parents) have spent their whole lives in these homes and feel a connection to them, but they're your average American home. Nothing special. Where the city went wrong was their whole approach in seizing the homes. They pretty much played the role of the bully and expected things to turn out the way they wanted. This was a mistake. If the city had approached the home owners on a civilized manner and negotiated with them, then maybe things would have turned out for the good. Or if the city had waited 2 years....
I love Lakewood. Aside from its insane amount of bars, its where I grew up and I ultimately call home. I realize that it has its problems but I'll take the good with the bad. Another issue that the distractors of the proposal pointed out was "well, what if the development doesn't work out." Well, I'd much rather have the city take a risk in a development rather then sit back and lose retail & tax money to other suburbs.
In news on other Cleveland 'burbs, Scene magazine has an intriguing article this week on another city in the area.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
I Can't Believe the News Today
So apparently I do have readers. I'm appreciative of the comments you are leaving and perhaps at some point I will delve into all the ridiculousness that has been my life. But not today.
No, I'm going to take some time to focus on the how I view the news. First of all, like many 20-somethings, I'm a Jon Stewart devotee and try to the best of my abilities to watch The Daily Show on a, well, daily basis. He keeps me informed of the day's happenings in that oh-so-special humerous way of his. One thing that has struck me lately is his open-mindedness toward guests, specifically those on the right. We all know that Stewart is a Leftist, but its his ability to push that to the side when interviewing members from the Right. And I like that. It sure beats those pundits you see on FOXNews, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, etc. The past couple of weeks he's had on such guests as Newt Gingrich, Colin Powell, and a couple of authors who have written Right-leaning books on the Mid-East. Stewart is non-hostile and it such a joy to watch. The guests also seem to enjoy coming on a show where they know they can be a bit less serious and seem, God-forbid, human! I wish all shows could be like that and politicians could be more human.
Quick side note, I've had this mock-conversation going on in my head now for a couple of weeks. The scene: a nice summer day in the city where we have 3-4 20/30-something females sitting on a restaurant patio discussing their recent personal lives. These women are much in the Sex in the City vein. One woman is talking about this guy she's been dating. She likes him, they're having fun, but there is one thing that she can't get past. He's watches The Daily Show habitually. So much so that 1) nothing physical can happen until the show is over, and 2) when they are intimate right before the moment of climax he says "And now here it is, your moment of Zen." What this has to say about me, I haven't a clue. Feel free to leave me your thoughts.
Back to the topic of the news. Aside from The Daily Show, I really don't watch any other news program, per se. I haven't watched a network newscast in quite a long time. Lately though I have become a fan of Anderson Cooper and his show. It's an hour-long show, so he's able to tackle more topics, and be more in-depth. He's also comes across as more genuine. I mean, I grew up in the 3-network age. Aside from the fact that my parent's didn't get cable until, um, 2000(?), the Big-3 networks is where you got your TV-news from. We're now in the age of multiple 24-hour newschannels and are overwhelmed with the amount of talking heads, tickers, and graphics on the screen. For whatever reason, Cooper stands out. He's very down-to-earth and covers a lot of practical topics that are interesting.
Together, Stewart and Cooper and becons of light in the mess that is cable news.
No, I'm going to take some time to focus on the how I view the news. First of all, like many 20-somethings, I'm a Jon Stewart devotee and try to the best of my abilities to watch The Daily Show on a, well, daily basis. He keeps me informed of the day's happenings in that oh-so-special humerous way of his. One thing that has struck me lately is his open-mindedness toward guests, specifically those on the right. We all know that Stewart is a Leftist, but its his ability to push that to the side when interviewing members from the Right. And I like that. It sure beats those pundits you see on FOXNews, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, etc. The past couple of weeks he's had on such guests as Newt Gingrich, Colin Powell, and a couple of authors who have written Right-leaning books on the Mid-East. Stewart is non-hostile and it such a joy to watch. The guests also seem to enjoy coming on a show where they know they can be a bit less serious and seem, God-forbid, human! I wish all shows could be like that and politicians could be more human.
Quick side note, I've had this mock-conversation going on in my head now for a couple of weeks. The scene: a nice summer day in the city where we have 3-4 20/30-something females sitting on a restaurant patio discussing their recent personal lives. These women are much in the Sex in the City vein. One woman is talking about this guy she's been dating. She likes him, they're having fun, but there is one thing that she can't get past. He's watches The Daily Show habitually. So much so that 1) nothing physical can happen until the show is over, and 2) when they are intimate right before the moment of climax he says "And now here it is, your moment of Zen." What this has to say about me, I haven't a clue. Feel free to leave me your thoughts.
Back to the topic of the news. Aside from The Daily Show, I really don't watch any other news program, per se. I haven't watched a network newscast in quite a long time. Lately though I have become a fan of Anderson Cooper and his show. It's an hour-long show, so he's able to tackle more topics, and be more in-depth. He's also comes across as more genuine. I mean, I grew up in the 3-network age. Aside from the fact that my parent's didn't get cable until, um, 2000(?), the Big-3 networks is where you got your TV-news from. We're now in the age of multiple 24-hour newschannels and are overwhelmed with the amount of talking heads, tickers, and graphics on the screen. For whatever reason, Cooper stands out. He's very down-to-earth and covers a lot of practical topics that are interesting.
Together, Stewart and Cooper and becons of light in the mess that is cable news.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
