Glendale is the shit.

I'm really liking the place. Take away all the armo's driving their Mercedes Benzes bought from selling food stamps and the place would perfect.

I was out at a buddy's place with my guitar & amp and 18 bottles of assorted beers in tow. He had his bass guitar out.

It's good to be making music again, even if it's just to fuck around. It's good to be creative.

Oh Looky Here! A Woman Republican Veep!

Wow, Mr. McCain! You pulled a fast one! You overlooked Mitt Romney and bee lined it straight to Alaska to choose a Republican woman as your running mate. You had to jump on that bandwagon, huh? Think you'll pull in all of those stragglin' Clinton hardliners by bringing a woman up to the platform with you, aye?

Ultimate fail, douchebag. What, did you think that having a woman is enough to capture the undecided votes found amongst the Clinton dems? That you'll pull some of those 18 million cracks off the glass ceiling to rain down on your busy campaign? Let's take a look at your running mate, shall we, Mr. McCain?

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. Republican. Anti-abortion pro-lifer. Lifetime member of the NRA (ok, she gets brownie points for that one). Gov. Palin is not a liberal. She's as conservative as they come. A conservative evangelical Christian. To say her autistic child is a gift from god is simply a terrible thing to say. God doles out kids stricken with birth defects? Talk about Old Testament. Anyway...

So, a few reasons right there the left and center won't even touch her. And if you're a Clinton dem.. no, a FEMALE Clinton dem, you're going to avoid this woman like the plague. I'm guessing a high number of Clinton's supporters are probably anti-gun and pro-choice. They're highly in favor of liberal ideals. Duh. That's a no-brainer.

I think this was a poorly executed ploy by that old windbag to try and garner the votes of the disenfranchised and those who are bitter over Clinton's loss. He wasn't thinking about policy and procedure, of political experience (gee, what's he going to say about Obama now, since he can't use the oh, you're not experienced enough card anymore) or about his own party. Sure, he may get some of the new guard repubs.. But there are too many old guard, religious right repubs in the country who just won't get over the fact that his running mate is a woman. What happens if that old fart dies? I mean, he is in his 70's; he's the oldest man to ever seek the presidency. No country bumpkin hick from Mizzura wants a woman in the White House. He's shot himself in the foot. No female dem will vote for him and no neo-con whitebred republican will either. I'm very interested in seeing how this one's gonna turn out.

I heard Palin talking in a speech that she acknowledges Clinton's 18 million cracks.. but she's going to actually break through that ceiling. With what? A diaper and an NRA membership card? Srsly? Please. Don't quit your day job, guvnah. We don't need that kind of rhetoric in today's American society.

Better.. much better.

If you've never had that feeling where you did something really good and you actually feel proud of yourself then you're missing out.

I don't always feel that way but when I do it's fantastic. And, tonight, I felt that way. It's because I actually got some laughs for once after a good comedy set.

I need to pick on feminists more.

Miley Cyrus and I share a birthday..

Goody. I hear Miley is going to shut down Disneyland on October 5th to have a birthday celebration.. AND do it for charity.

So where the fuck am I going to go now for my birfday??! Bitch.

At least when Liz Taylor took over the park for her birthday, it was after hours. Maybe Miley doesn't want people hiding in the trashcans hoping to catch a glimpse of her taking racey shots of herself in the shower.

Death Race.. A sucky date movie

Not only did Death Race suck but so did the date. I should have just gone with my gut instinct from the the first go.

Now that that's done with.. time to move on to the next one. The next woman, that is.

First Dates

Often, first dates are wrought with nervous excitement, curiosity and a little doubt. If you've met the person online, there may even be a little bit of difficulty. I say difficulty because the person whom you may be meeting may not have the best or most up to date images of themselves online (if you have 6 year old pics representing your current self, you really need to retool your profile.. not that I'm saying this is the case for either the person I met or myself) and meeting for the first time can be awkward.

Not only is there a kind of fear in meeting, there is fear in where to meet. You should always meet in a friendly, open and well-lit area. It should be interesting and fun but not loud to the point where you cannot hear the person you're meeting, unless it's a movie. We met at Father's Office in Culver City.

Father's Office is a friendly, young and energetic "gastropub". In looking up the term "gastropub" I found that it is simply a pub that serves higher end fare. And certainly, the food is rather delicious. I had the seared Albacore tuna on a bed of cucumber slices with olives and a cilantro oil dressing. Very tasty. My date had the Office burger. It looked rather nice though I did not partake. It was thick, rare and the caramelized onions simply invited to bite into it with watered mouth. As well as the dishes, they serve a sweet potato "frite", or sweet potato fries, that are just to die for. I can't quite remember where else I've had sweet potato fries, but they are unexpectedly delicious. I couldn't help but eat most of my date's fries. My apologies to her for doing so. (fuck that.. I paid.. So I take the apology back)

What really sets apart Father's Office from other pubs is not only their selection of fine beers (at least a few dozen from what I could tell) - in the menu they seperate them into sections such as Hoppy and Sweet/Fruity - but their knowledge in pairing these libations with the food they served. Both my date and I had this awesome white beer that tasted very similar to this very nice white wine I found at a local wine bar I sometimes frequent. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you what the beer is (nor the wine, at the moment) but it's very fruity, very sweet and just lovely. Aside from this beer, I did have the Lindeman Peach Framboise (I prefer the cherry) and a Chimay (white label).

Sadly, I don't think my date and I connected. Certainly, we had good conversation, we cliqued on a certain level and I found her attractive but... the substance was not there. I cannot say for certain whether there was enough "data" to really make a judgement call but I think both she and I showed a lack of interest. And though I invited her to a screening of a film next week, I think we'll simply remain friends, if we remain anything at all.

However, my newly established love for Father's Office shall continue to grow as I cultivate my relationship with the place. I wonder if it's cheating if I visit the Santa Monica location as well.

Find info on FO at http://www.fathersoffice.com/.

Car Accidents Suck

Just like stupid people.

Retards..

Ok. So.. this article only proves my point that we, as a people, can't even say shit.

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/va/20080810/121842511100.html

When the word 'retard' is used, someone gets offended. In this case, it's the Special Olympics, along with 21 other disability groups nationwide. And what are they going to do? They're going to boycott Ben Stiller's latest movie, Tropic Thunder.

Goody. Just what we need - a bunch of fucking retards boycotting a film because they refer to someone in the film as retarded. So fucking what? Do you think the real retards in the world actually care? Are there a bunch of kids with Downs Syndrome sitting around in a huddle somewhere going, "fuck Stiller, that fucking asshole! He can't use the word 'retard!' How inappropriate!"

Loosen up. It's a word. And does the movie actually refer to people with mental disabilities? Are they specifically picked out and picked on? Is Stiller actually pointing out these people and purposely making fun of them? No. I don't believe he is. We don't see people saying 'where's my baseball' (reference to What About Mary's retard guy) or people bumping into walls or drooling in any way in the film; it's a movie about making a war film, for Christ's sake.

I don't think people who are mentally challenged are concerned about whether or not they're thought of as retards. They're just trying to live their lives as best as possible. And, have you ever interacted with a person with Downs Syndrome? They're the happiest, carefree people in the world. They make people with positive attitudes look like Eeyore.

It's one thing to use the word 'nigger', 'chink', 'jap' or any other deragatory term; people who are called these can comprehend them. Then they get butthurt for being called something deragatory (and for the record, you can call me anything you want, make fun of my parents and lineage and call me a cracker-ass fat retard with bad skin. I don't care). But that's neither here nor there. The point is - people who are mentally challenged don't comprehend it so they're neither upset or offended by it. It is these groups that represent them that get all butt hurt. They're the ones who have to go out and boycott this movie. It is them that give meaning to the word 'retard' because they're reacting to it.

Let it go and it will mean nothing. You haven't even seen the movie yet (I heard about it through a collegue) so why the fuck are you making a big stink about it? Mr. Stiller, in my opinion, did not make this movie to ridicule mentally challenged people. He made it to make others laugh. And, last time I checked, there weren't any "special people" in the movie. They're just poking fun at someone who is slow. And there are still a lot of stupid people out there that equate the word 'retard' with someone who drools and wears a helmet while walking around with their walker. These people will make fun regardless of whether there is a movie or not that uses deragatory terms. However, I bet you that these people are a dwindling minority.

Political correctness is bad. It stifles, it dumbifies, it holds back free thought. And, as I've said a million times, people need to be offended at times. In this case, the supposed targets don't even know what's going on. They're lucky that they don't. They are, in my opinion, better off in a lot of ways than those of us who actually comprehend.

So, to the Special Olympics organization I say this: good for you to address this because YOU are the true retards. You're wasting your time with a movie that will do fine with or without your boycott.

A simple equation

((Beach sand) + (a volleyball )) / co-workers = a damn good time.

There is a high probability that I will be sore as fuck tomorrow morning. And there's something to be said about a farmer's tan. Sexy!

30 oz of pleasure

So a buddy of mine moved into a new apartment. After some errands I went down to check it out - boy is it nice. Looks can be deceiving from the front. It's frackin' huge. Very art deco, too.

Anyway, we hit the beers in the fridge (I think there were at least 18 bottles when we started. We ended with maybe 6 or 7) and finished off the last of his absinthe. Then a friend of his showed up and we all went down to Damon's, a hip seafood and steak joint with fine cocktails (and desserts to boot). I did not partake in the libations as I was already fucked up. I didn't need another. What I did need, though, was a fat 30oz prime rib, rare. Along with the very tasty tomato bisque, I was in heaven. I haven't had prime rib in over a year. It was almost better than sex. Almost.

It's funny because I didn't go through any of the horrid feelings I thought I'd go through after not eating meat for so long. In fact, I didn't even have a hangover this morning. The gods be praised.

So, the next morning (I passed out on his floor), after a brief conversation about how delusional some people who believe in god are (it started off about another friend of ours, actually, who is a co-worker of his) I set off for home. On the drive home, I spied a billboard from Atheists Alliance International. I guess there's an atheist convention in Long Beach coming up (which I may have to check out).

Location of the billboard: somewhere after the City of Industry (going southbound) off the I-5 freeway. It says: Don't believe in God? You're not alone.