Saturday, April 30, 2011

Sony, Steve & Apple... They all start with an "S"...

Sony has now made it's name synonymous with the title of Greed.  Well it always has, but it pretty much clinched it now.

Back in the 70's I used to toy with the notion of buying their products when all they were, were this television & stereo manufacturing company. But even then I couldn't stomach the pricing of their products. Their TVs were right on the cusp of being vomit inducing. I mean, they were the same CRT boxes that brought the major 3 in the house and baked your brain for 3 descent hours a night. There was no reason for graphic user interface quite yet and VCRs hadn't made it into the mainstream until the hump of the 80's.

So other than two REALLY great 'ghetto box' radios I purchased over a couple years apart, I didn't jump into any fanboy bandwagon leg humping affair to speak of.

Now without going into a bullshit history lesson and losing the one religious reader I do have, Sony keeps it's fan base moving through the background in it's industrial TV production & post production line until that fateful day when the great VHS/BETA war hit the scene.

Some of you probably haven't a slobbering clue of what I'm talking about, some probably grasp the idea, while others probably grimaced and grabbed the Geritol. For those who know what I'm talking about, Sony lost their ass in that little war. BETAMAX, as it was called, was a much better video cassette tape format for movies in SO many ways, but for several seemingly bullshit reasons VHS won out.

One of the most ABUNDANT being the upfront cost for the betamax player. Sony just couldn't get that 55 gallon drum sized butt plug called Greed out of their ass to drop the cost of the player to compete with VHS.

“But why/how did VHS get theirs so cheap so fast?”

Simple... It's the whole reason that Sony and the rest of the Greed parade is causing the rest of the world to decay faster than a bloated possum on a humid Louisiana highway. VHS and its technology 'secrets' were shared with everybody. So long as somebody came up with a new “whatever” and shared it with the group, everybody could keep the cost of production/research down so low that they could pass the savings on to the consumer.  [Sony has lost it's ass on multitudes of proprietary technologies that I have lost count, all because of of the below...]

Sony, being the ever greedy mother fucker that they are, won't share shit. You have to sign so gyotdamn many nondisclosure agreements and “we'll chop your balls off” clauses, anyone would be scared to death to violate. Plus, there's no room for research & development. Sony controls that too. Therefore, those costs have to be covered by someone... guess who?

Does any of this bullshit sound familiar? How about Apple? Does your Mac taste any better? Wonder why Steve wants to know where your ass is 24/7? Piss & bitch about the PC all you want. I'll go ahead and crash right here.

So, box Sherman & Mr. Peabody's ears again, fast forward to today. Here we are a week into Sony's PS3 server crash and he's still in denial. At least it's the first step; dependent what program you're in, but I don't see these fucks starting any rehabilitation of any sort. I digress...

Just like the days back in the VHS/BETA wars, Sony has/is under the misconception that they are capable of controlling the human condition. Same as several other rich, maniacal fucks out there in the world today. [just today they wield a checkbook instead of a knife or firearm] Now that Sony has so much Greed, it has turned to using 'greed' as its own tool for trying to control the influx of more money, thus the hopes of more power. This in turn produces more greed. Granted nobody writes Greed as a perk or character trait on a resume, but it seems to rear its ugly head after prolong period of exposure.

Here's a little better explanation of where I'm going... Lessons learned from the VHS/BETA debacle in the 80's, Sony does its damnedest to get set for the bluray/HD-DVD war to come out in 2000's. After years setting itself as being an industry standard and setting records as such, the public won't be so short to dismiss Sony when the time comes once the unveiling starts.

Even though hd-dvd is touted as being cheaper and just as quality (image & interactive), Sony boxes their sales with the hackers and pirates in full mind. You see, they KNEW/KNOW people are still going to be cost conscious when it comes time to a purchase. It will be in the long run eventually, despite what Sony thinks.  [internally not commercially/publicly, be smart people...]

A gyotdamn game that's $60 can only be bought once. I don't give a shit what you say. My kids break it, they can fuck off, I'm not buying it again. Sony says I can't copy that game, even though I bought it and it sits in “MY” house (that I bought and paid for, not Sony). The LAW says that I can.

Sony built equipment for computers and the home market designed with the soul purpose of being able to write 50GB of information to a disk that can be removed from that drive and then be placed on your shelf just like that as your other dvds. The hd-dvd format could only support 30GB at its maximum. 

Knowingly & supporting the need of human greed in the computer marketing schemes and storage capacity forced the death of the hd-dvd market.  People inherently 'wanted' computer components that would handle larger storage rates, equated this with the bluray players/drives and made their choice.   [haters, purists & other whiners will want to throw in Sony's ability to corner movie marketing rights too, but I have to keep this shit short...]

Knowing all this now, we have to wonder, “what the fuck were you thinking when you (Sony) decided to put the screws to the same people when you want them to keep paying bullshit money for the same technology, over & over again!?!” One, it's just another scheme added to the “something for nothing” blotter, that's for sure.

You remember that game I copied for the kids that I KNEW they were going to break? Yeah, well come to find out Sony made it to where I can't play the game I recorded onto the dvd drive THEY made, onto the disk they made (or sanctioned), which I inserted back into the game machine they built. So explain that one to me...

Along comes a group of individuals we'll call hackers. I'm going to call them the good guys because that's what I used to do under the hood of my car and other devices 'back in the day'. We figure shit out when nobody would give us the answers & we couldn't afford nor pay your bloated bullshit wages for the information. So these guys come along and blindly found a bullshit way to play the game on the machine I bought, in my house. They “share” the technology with me. It didn't cost a dime.

But Sony catches wind of this, has such a shit fit that the burning embers from the coffee cup sized cigar fall into the ass of his Hadi Teherani chair, thus the combination of combustible phlegm & flames shoot his ass into orbit.

Not only does Sony think “he” owns the unit in the house, the house, the game, “you”, the kids, the guy the wrote the program that got the damn game to re-run on the game system, but the damn software that actually got it to run on the system! So now Sony's going to sue, me, the hacker, the disk maker, the marker company (that I used to write the title on) & the carpeting manufacturer, cause Sony just fucking don't like them.

People have wanted to piss and bitch at me in other forums about being a socialist. They have even gone as far as even inference that I was a Nazi. Having been in the military and a staunch advocate of the first amendment (USA) I'll support their right to speak their mind, but I will literally crucify 'them' with extreme prejudiced if you want to go that route. No one deserves that. Unless you really were one.

I used to believe in capitalism and what it “used” to work/stand for. My grand folks busted their asses for my entire life and instilled the exact ethic, but for what. They beat themselves to death to enjoy what the healthcare system has stolen.

All the products we purchase dare us to fuck with them so they don't have to “honor” any warranty.  Not only do you buy the damn thing, it barely does as advertised.  Then when you call them on their shit, you get baited into purchasing something else to complete the original function or pay to repair what wasn't your fault due to a 'slip of the tongue'.

What the fuck have any of our society’s become?

Granted, some of us have brought it upon ourselves. In that a good portion of us use the phrase, “I'm as good as my word.” only to mean shit. In the US that alone can be taken to the bank for sure. No wonder the rest of the world laughs at us.

So what does this have to do with Sony or Steve Jobs? I'm not so sure that it has anything to do immediately to do with these two, individually.

It does shed light on a disturbing trend across the global community however. One that I have been commenting like a mutated beaver through a toothpick forest for a while. And that note is a corporate trend toward human control.

Not mind control! I'm not ready for a fucking tin foil helmet and the fucking billboard with declarations of world doom yet, but there is a real disturbing push for this - medicate this & that, sit down - shut up, super complicating the legal system, megalopolis telecommunication. Truthfully anything can be had by ordering online; including the ability to procreate (dating...), groceries, most income...

Now that fuel is taking on a sky rocketing cost again, other than the excuse of puritanical bullshit, what is the reason? Limiting travel perhaps? And if so, is there a reason and what is that reason?

I don't want conspiracy. I'm not that kind of writer, don't want to be that kind, ain't gonna be that kind, I want to bitch and fight with the fucks that hide behind money and that feigned power that money bought.

No, Sony isn't the lost fifth member of the Luminati and Steve isn't the slobbering retarded knuckle dragging cousin bringing up the rear. I'm simply stating that as technology and humanity evolves so does Greed and its growth patterns.

It has always been said, the most brilliant thing discovered have also been the simplest in design. If we don't maintain simple common sense and tell these assholes, “NO!!! You can't have $65 a game, that's too much! You get to charge $25 a game and that's it.” Then, “some” of this shit will stop. [in perspective guys. Give me a minute here...]

Now before you fucking haters start going off, here's a lesson in entertainment 101...

Game company gets a contract for a game... It's a bunch of money, but it's basically all they get to COMPLETE the game and that's it! Unless there is further stipulation or extenuating circumstances for a little bit more money, that damn thing had better be finished, on time and for that amount. NO fucking exceptions!!!

All those 'artists' the fucking whiners and bleeds and hips piss and bitch about getting 'paid' and that the pirates are ripping off that everybody are being made to hate on??? Yeah you guys need to suck a dick hard and fast. Those poor artists got paid early on. Probably not very well either. Just like everybody else, they got fucked by the machine of “we'll get picked up later”, just like every body else.

The music industry has fucked people like this since Edison, catch up people.

Gaming Industry 101 continues with Sodomy 789 with Marketing 989 by fucking the artists who did the packaging & other goodies to get it out to the store and on the tv & & & & & ….....

Those business houses had already been paid as well guys. That $60 a game made/make up for the out of pocket expense the bean counter “PROJECTED” he was going to spend. Once he got your money in his pocket, he lied to the bank about he got first so he could make “theoretical” cash first so that interest would be there to start the cash flow on paying off the loan on the original game R&D. Then your money would be gravy on the next game or movie or, or, or...

If I know it's Kid Rock and his guys that made the album sending me the recording that got my $12, then I have no problem giving him the $12. It's his money right? Common sense. Definitely $7. But if some asshole comes up and says he has Kid Rock's album, he want's $20 for it, but Kid only gets .12/.14 cents for his trouble... how hard are you going to tell him to go fuck himself? Are you going to believe ANY story about how hard 'he' had to work to get that album to you?

I didn't think so...

So how much of the "intellectual property" REALLY belongs to Sony?  Pushing a piece of paper across the table, making a yes/no decision, readjusting your nuts, making a pass at your secretary, taking a trip to Taiwan to fuck a 8 year old boy and suing a dumb assed vocal hacker for his opinion on a blog doesn't merit your bloated 7.5+ million bonus either.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Stones Man!!! It's the Stones!!!

I have turned into the very, exact same old fat bastard I used to make fun of when I was in college and now I'm paying dearly for it.

Other than the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Nazis, these mother fuckers in a couple far European countries that the Freedom of Information Act won't release for some time yet, and this one vacuum cleaner that I could never avoid the Christmas tree lights with, I would never, ever in my darkest dreams, ever wish a kidney stone on another human being. 

Wait, I take that back... pedophiles, rapists and a couple different models of this one coffee table, but other than that... Nobody!!!

Strait, gay, black, white, red, polka dotted, western, heavy metal, floral, print, Barney, t-rex, Rainbow Six or Rainbow Coalition you get struck by one of these gyotdamn things and you go down like a sack of squalling shit. No two ways about it. I don't even care if you're being interrogated by the worlds worst. Even if they have a gun to your head and they are about to pull the trigger, my little experience would probably tell them to pull the damn thing and end the misery.

The pain? As the commercial says, “It's that good.”

I “KNOW” pain. Been around it so long I no longer have to get it a gift for the the holidays. There's no prenuptial; As far as I'm concerned the shit can pack it's bag and fuck-off any time it feels like it. Of course I'll be losing something, but like a dutiful lad, I can & will 'take it' and live: gladly.

But this... kidney, stone thing. I've never... NEVER had the displeasure of having to deal with such a thing before. What it takes away you never realize you had to begin with. It's like being drug before the “Crossroads”.   It strips away a part of your soul, but you weren't there to gamble with anything to begin with.

For those who don't don't know what passing a kidney stone is like, allow to me blather with a pitiful attempt to share...

UGLY DEFINITION - Basically over a given amount of time you grow a rock in your kidney. Dependent on the myriad of chemistry given your body and different medical make-up Quick link, your body deposits these 'harder' chemicals into a general local until they basically make a stone. Kind of like an oyster would do in making a pearl from a grain of sand. Except the oyster doesn't seem to mind. The human condition however... if your “lucky”, your body will expel the 'stone' while it is in a 'smaller' state and you'll never know it. Just merrily pissing your way through life.

Some of us, be it medication, change in diet, age (the list get's stupid, long, complicated... you get the idea) one of these things might cause the 'thing' to stick to the wall of the kidney, drop to the bottom like sediment or plain hang around in the kidney for it's own selfish reasons. It's when one of these stones gets to be about 2mm or bigger when you'll want to pop smoke and call for the Med-Evac... you & your kidneys just made royal fuck-cakes for the wedding...

My call for the misery meat wagon was a 3.5mm. Male – female. Go ahead, pull the gender card on this one. None of you are safe on this one. Everyone I encountered has concurred in telling me that passing one of these is akin to pushing a baby out of your system.

Really? Really... No shit!?! Then gyotdamnit I want to see a rock big enough to kill a yack that wanders into my front yard!!! NOBODY deserves to go through that much shit for something no bigger than the last decision it took to piss away billions in bail out money to Wall Street with no accountability.  I can't even shoot that rock out of a kid's toy!!!

Manly men. Stand butch and think of all your knuckle dragging stories involving injury. I'm sure serious loss of body can account better than this story and doesn't even belong here.  So you guys don't get to bring that killer whale steak to the table and stroke your balls over that one... you know the ones...  I lost a leg stepping on a land mine... got blown in half...  We know guys, those experiences win!  Obviously, those rendered you into a state of blinding euphoric pain that current synthetic pain killers couldn't touch.  That's why they have to put some folks into a coma for a few weeks, to get it under control.  

I'm talking about the borderline pain to psychotic episode stuff where you think the doctors might have had a few classes involving the Marque de Saude as the guest instructor.

I'm talking about the shit that you barely hobbled away from. I'll even count the ones where you got your feet, they put the gurney under you and then you passed out for your entry into the “super balls” play off as your intro into the “you don't know pain” sweepstakes.

Personally, having experienced & witnessed more than I care to admit, I haven't met an individual YET that will say any other experience trumps that of passing a kidney stone. To this date.

To date myself (yet again & even more) and yet quoting another commercial, “Um, it's by Tutsie Roll...”

Yet dime store detective novel horror adjective run-on sentences still evade the proper device needed to explain the terror to an individual that has indeed never indulged the privilege of this divine experience. [this is called sarcasm for those that don't catch it]

Some women would love to take a dudes member through the back of his legs and super-glue it to his forehead for a couple of hours to share the 'miracle' of childbirth with her. This being said, my 'miracle' has been shared & like you, myself & 6 billion others are not special either... so we move on.

Getting back to guys, juvenile as women would like to promote us to be, we do try to understand our crippled brothers. Society is so quick to scream racism, prejudice, anti-whatever you want that we are going to cave in ourselves – yet, “guys” will box one another in the nuts just to experiment in the crippling affects, for no more repercussions than the payment of beer & pizza and the illustrious “bragging rights”; ever crippling as those may be as well.

Nazi Germany killed 6 million for their tainted results; bitches as the public may be & contradictory to morals, but aligned to ethics.  They brought world economies to devastation, untold death count to combatants and other innocents, while setting other precedents economically, morally/ethically into chaos that will never be straitened out for remaining generations.

Backyard 'rasslin' raced spinal cord & brain research forward at least five years alone for the price of 12 cases of Keystone and 6 Papa John's and by whom? By a bunch of “guys" that a multitude of you folks out there will refer to in the privacy of your darkened rooms as retards. Remember, I won't tell anyone. I can't hear you. I just have a good idea what you're thinking.

No, you're not Nazis, so don't take the piss & start the "legal lottery" war machine grinding away thinking your going to retire at the age of 14 cause you can't get a hard-on cause the bad man on the internet "insinuated" something.  I am saying that for a microcosm your thoughts of the morons jumping off their roofs onto the backs of their drunken buddies left you thinking of other human beings in just as morally/ethically depraved manner as those of the Nazi regime.  Don't let it bother you...  I did it too.

What does this have to do with kidney health and that of passing a kidney stone Russ!?!

Apparently the pain involved with discarding the stone isn't the stone moving through the small tube (known as the ureter) leading to the bladder, but the actual tube itself having a hissy over the stone not moving fast enough.  Like you having a hissy over the last statement in the paragraph above?...  That's the ureter with the stone...

The best example I can come up with is to think of it as your 6 year old kid kicking the back of my seat at the theater of an “R” rated movie; he shouldn't be there, doesn't want to be there and is annoying the shit out of everyone around him. The biggest meanest, most aggravated individual that he shouldn't be pissing off that he is actually hurting “IS” me!!!

Now envision me trying to reach around and throttle the living shit out of him, but I can't reach his ass. I'm going to throw him out! He want's his momma to save his whiny ass, but he's also getting more pissy & whiny that his folks also won't kiss his ass to take him out of of the theater either; so he just keeps kicking the seat harder & harder.

He kicks so hard that he bends me over in pain to where I can't grab his ass, but all that does is slow him down for a little while. When I catch my breath after a while, I try to grab his ass again and the scenario starts all over. That's when the hospital comes to the rescue and MY good friend Mr. Dilaudid comes to visit. At least that was what had to happen in my case.

Now Mr. Dilaudid didn't get rid of your annoying kid, but I sure as hell didn't care that he was there any more and I at least got through the rest of the fucking movie. For those of you that took offense, make sure you got the offense right... I called your kid an annoying piss granule.

Me?  Well, it appears that the 3.5mm was just the tip of the iceberg. All the haters out there can have a laugh at my expense if you wish (I’m a big boy & have a gratuitous callous on my ass; yeah, I “can” take it), but it appears I can pave a driveway with all the gravel in my kidneys right now. How the hell this happened I don't know, but I can guarantee you one thing...

My days of being a cordial & considerate patient are over.

Stay tuned folks, you think bitching is for the un-attuned? The misinformed blathering morons who just don't know how to take control of their lives? I say bullshit!

Somewhere, somebody will listen and heed. Not act in violence, but in “Common Sense” & cram the 'play on words' and spin/lie games up the ass of the establishment that has taken control over descent folks.

Or we can just let shit keep going down the same shit smeared hallways that we have always been and let these words keep echoing the same way as they have from others. I'm no Socrates or Ernest Hemingway by any stretch, but I'm no Charles Manson or lecherous bomber either.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Sensational Motorcycle Driving Baby!!!

Is this 'really a subject worthy of notoriety? Should I be 'acting out' on it to 'quite' the degree that I’m going to be bitching? Most will say no & leave it at that... Problem is... I’m going to bitch anyway...

I grew up when there was really only three TV stations to watch.

Purists can take a back seat to my nut sack if you think I'm going to recognize PBS all that much. I enjoyed Dr. Who, the Goodies, Monty Python and a few of the other classic programs, but that's the problem... there was only 'some' other classic programming. In my area there were endless seppuku fund raising drives to keep their fucking stations afloat.  The damn station was run by the local university to begin with... [how the hell do you get away with that?]  “For $19K you can be an 'acquaintance' of PBS and get this commemorative beer coaster with today's date penciled on the back...”

I could fucking vomit... Not to mention the fact there were individuals in this depleted economical area I grew up in that actually 'had' that kind of scratch to piss away like that! That's another story...

As I Was Saying... the major three were all you could get, unless your folks sprung for cable and all that really got you were a possible 3 extra channels. Two channels from a metropolitan city 150 miles away and one additional PBS station.

This being established, strait forward advertising for programming was just that – strait forward. The program that was to be broadcast at such-n-such a date would contain -pluh-.

Meaning - when you tuned in and watched your program, damsel in distress, detective would figure it out, save the damsel, catch the bad guy (or bad guy would get away if it were a nemesis), thus the 'sensationalism' advertised would be just that. NOT like what it is today...

Rant Alert - - -  Now I try REALLY hard not to play what I call the “semantics game”. I touched on this concept in Russell's Rules and my loathing for it's process, but to quickly recap... it's constantly played by those people in positions of power. These individuals most often have boat loads of money, but not always an abundance of education. Where this technique/game comes into the best offensive use is when time is on the offender's side.

Here is a “typical” example used by the military... enlisted officers (NCOs) are not allowed to carry out any punishment for dereliction of duties, poor performance, or plain fucking up by a soldier's actions. That is done by an officer and is then ordered to be carried out by an NCO (unless the “punishment” is forfeiture of money or rank). For an NCO to take action on their own initiative (which they HAVE to do on occasion, officers don't want a paper trail for these more minor offenses), it's called “remedial training”.

Literally semantics.

So, those last two paragraphs being said, I'll probably leave the next couple feeling as smooth as alligator hide.

Where I'm going with this tirade is my observation of the current misuse of “sensationalism”... but not in the sense of blowing something out of proportion. Although that is just as infuriating, I think that someone in the ethics department has been beating just the right amount of shit out of the journalism students and might have gotten a handle on 'some' of those infractions; at least for a while. I think they just need to stop showing the same story repeatedly until we believe it to be of impossible importance.

Making it boring and then hammering us with it every waking moment on the '5' is just asking to have your balls caved in.

No, the sensationalism I'm referring to is the bullshit they are calling 'reality' TV for one and then the second POS pre-broadcast of 'some' established mainstream franchises.

I “guess” the ignorant fucks who produce these shows simply won't trust the guys that do this for a living (you know, the ones that put film through the cameras, light the sets... those guys); they can't simply bank on human nature to tune in (to the 'reality' stuff anyway) to the human folly shit that they have to fabricate utter fantastical sugar glazed, maple sweetened bullshit in their ads to get people to tune in when the events depicted – never fucking happen.

Now, I don't know about you, but if I go on TV advertising something; tell everybody & that I have a bunch of it. You bet your sweet ass I better have it, otherwise I'd better have some rain checks for the merchandise that wasn't on the shelf. Granted, this differs from state to state & applicable laws apply and maybe there is a town by town thing as well, but you get the point. Don't make a fucking promise, shake your ass and then don't deliver. People will get pissed!

Otherwise you might wake up the next morning with your asshole absolutely roaring with absurd, tear blazing pain, stuck strait in the air, bare as a jay bird, out in an open corn field for god and the whole world to see next to the highway. At least that's how smart assed cops from the big city used to be treated when they got too preachy about the red necks not 'towing the line' in that depleted economical area I was talking about...

Anyway, it didn't do a damn bit for the TV show to insinuate that Rasputin was going to tear his nuts off making that left hand turn into Chip Fuck Falls. When in fact, the actual aired show shows Rasputin accidentally missing his kickstand, laughing and clumsily laying his bike down in the parking lot & then doing a halfhearted combat roll out of his fuck up.

If I were an advertiser I would have been pissed at the notion that I was funding a nut tearing show! What the fuck goes through these bean counters heads? I'll tell you, the same shit that makes them think that they need to do the same shit for established franchised TV shows as well!

Let's take the old 1979, Buck Rogers TV series for example. These asshole producers today would take this 'sure-shot', everybody's going to tune in anyway show and throw this sensationalism ad formula promo at it anyway. Fine, maybe not “sure-shot”, but damnit, “I” tuned in... breasts were still real... blinking lights... stay with the program damnit!!!

Getting back to sensationalism for the twenty first century... the 70's being a time of expounding, these freshly plucked scrotums would probably take a chance at new territory and risk making the audience “think” the storyline would be Wilma was a rape victim or maybe a guest starring of Gary Coleman would be a hint at pedophilia or better yet we'll have Dr. Goodfellow be a victim of some kind of diabolical crime against the elderly. You know, a mix of the whole rape, theft, beating then corpse desecration...  which of course, still being the 70's and asshole money chodes, the show would never have aired.

Come on people, these fucking producers have attention spans moderately longer than that of a a gnat's which is shorter than that of the 10 second spots they're making for commercials these days. This way these stupid dicks “think” they're being creative, they've sold the show and can move on to fucking up somebody else's future.

Never mind the fact that you can't use the same add later for re-runs.  Viewing folks obviously don't stand in line for a steaming plate of bullshit. So your producer of 'today' just fucked your 'tomorrow' producer because you now have to re-spend money on making adds for shows that should have already been made, fuck you very much... Like to see how that gets packaged now. Seeing as they don't have conventions rallied around packaging large selections of previously broadcast TV shows anymore.

Now it's 'click here', 'show your ass', 'grunt', 'put credit card number here', 'click here'... 'tune to this satellite coordinate' & 'we'll debit your account for as much as we please'.

OK, maybe the last couple of paragraphs is taking a bit of artistic license. There is always a bit of 'wash' that goes with putting a rerun into your particular local venue, so using the original syndicated voice over might play into your area's needs, but it would have been nice.

Speaking in regards of the national circuit, the fact that there are only about three (four tops) cable providers (US), they pay for all the re-run rights anyway, so there isn't room for a bunch of brouhaha over my moaning over post-production producing bitching.

“Then what are you bitching for Russ!!”

“B” is for “bitching” and it's good enough for me, that's just for starters. It's for 'blog' too, so the sentencing goes...

Sensationalism! Taking something that doesn't doesn't deserve the attention and giving it just that. Some would go as far as to say “me”. And judging from the number of viewers of this blog, I would say that nightmare is coming true...

Taking a piss ant flame & making it seem like a volcano explosion in comparison. I would love to have convinced every big tittied women I've met that I have a 14 inch monster in my trousers & that I can lick my eye brows too, but it won't make the truth any harder to bear. [the rest of you giggling fuckers can stare at the truth in your own hands right now...]

Changing the parameters in which the technique is used does not make it “right”.

Try this... You kill an animal to feed your family. Feeding your family is the right thing; it's survival, right? The act of killing is considered morally wrong. Ethically/morally, starving your family is wrong; the lesser of the 'evils' prevailed, the animal died and your family survives. It's OK, it's the circle. But “killing” didn't turn into “cuddling” either.

I know I'm stretching the shit out of this to make a point, but both semantics & sensationalism along with the mix of strong, stupid, politically active, religious radical people today? We really are fucked!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Did you even READ this!?!

There is a new crowd out there in the coffee shop hiding behind his/her laptop know as an ideologue!

Yeah! If you happen to be in the shop reading this be real sneaky... look up real slow and look over your screen... see if you can watch one of them peering over their screen right now. I'll wait.

They're the one's acting like their being watched by one of the Government's alphabet soup for writing encrypted secrets about hidden covert operations that they have never had access to in the first place.

I know, how did I know about these ideologue clowns? Seems I was ousted by one. Which I suppose makes me one?  Therefore, you had to have been one in order to be outed as one, right?  I don't know if that works like Plamegate or Fight Club, but now that my covers blown do I continue to play or do I have to stop writing... I'm so confused over here.  Do I get a pension?  401K... gold watch maybe?

Basically, these assholes appear to be the uneducated, untrained, musically illiterate, untalented, artless twats that can't even pass for poets, that sit in coffee shops sucking down massive amounts of brew and think up 3LD scripts for conspiracy advocates to drool over like drugged up fluff girls over an uncircumcised cock. Seeing as rock bands won't tour to the smaller venues any more these corn-holers use this to groupie up to the next best salad tossing thing.

Problem is you might step into a forum that one of these idiots has spent several months dropping drivel onto high school kids and producing a flock.  In doing so, you run the risk of making a huge enemy.  Something as simple as four educated words from your keyboard undoes 6 months worth of bullshit and now your in a firefight of epic proportions and that's just logging into a quilting chat room.

Trying to open these kids eyes can get you banned in less then 30 seconds and endless minions of tweeby kids are continued to be spoon fed bullshit by a ideologue hero with no more knowledge than what it took to undo his fly (and that might have taken him his lifetime). [pinwheels are cheep, but break so easily]

What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? Well, nothing I suppose, unless you have stock in Chinese tea options. But it does make me concerned for the shallow minded twats that tune in to read what these feeble minded idiots write each night before they tuck in their 6 year old brides that evening.

I'll admit I have strong opinions on Piracy (music & software, not those greasy assed wafer fucks trying to make an easy buck on the ocean fronts of Somalia), how Capitalism has been corrupted over time or how our kids have grown up to be spoon fed pussies, but I've had time to see the evils of the world and causality of my actions to 'know' what my words can do. Choosing to put them out in this blog is still my choice, but not to a 'closed audience', nor a fringe clientele.

I'm not pitching video games, sports teams, stocks, movies, fashion; pretty much any consumables. So there's no agenda other than my opinion to motivate you to this site. The only thing changing your mind is “you”.

Using the “Finger Pull Piper Pups” by Hasbro game forum, formatted the latest gaming console system is not the best place for lacing your slander about the latest anarchy movement against Sony isn't a great idea! Especially explicit detail on how your organization is going to shutdown their imperialist servers for throwing a hacker (you don't even know) in jail.

The idea 'may' be noble, but are you 'really' sure you want to support 'this' hacker. Not to mention the fact, once your over the age of 18, you can make your own choices to fuck up, US law says kids can't. Which makes ideologues spreading this shit on those servers predators in my book. So, you're just as bad as the ball-less fucks in the Taliban (we'll get to those latent, women hating, closet loathing homosexuals at a later date).

Let's not forget, these little finger bangers wanting to emulate the ideologues are only turning up to figure out how to get to the ass sniffing portion of level 6 and probably give fuck-all about your veil attempt at political involvement anyway.

I suppose it pisses me off when these assholes get on line, wax half-assed poetic about a current event they REALLY don't have a clue about. Then they want to go off on their little type capade with nothing more than a tissue paper moments thought about the affair. Once their self proclaimed Pulitzer is posted (all of about six sentences, not proofread & gutter spoke at best) at face value they sit and wait with baited breath for the first fish to nibble.

Four of five individuals will make some good comments and keep within the confines of the forum, but then this moron will set the hook and pull as though he had landed a 600 pound tuna. It will usually start with a small grammatical faux paux that gets twisted into the forum discussion. The other forum writers, if juvenile, see the name calling as a weakness, then dog-pile in and all is lost. 

The offended ideologue, uses tactics like challenging your educational level, punctuation or grammar (when theirs is like saying Andres Serrano pix are pop up book art for the kids), typical verbal provocation or attacks when it's them doing the attacking; possible slander of one's sexual orientation and then when all else fails, fall upon the old victimizing technique.

The last guy I had the privilege of running into actually ran every claim of the above, at the same time.

I think it was a new worlds record. If not, it was a personal best at the very least for me. It was the one I based the Socialist blog on. [hind site being 20/20 the mother fucker tried to get away with implying I was a Nazi]

Silly fuck had the nerve to imply I was a socialist... then the gall to lecture me on the hows & whys of capitalism and how it made America great... then the fucking balls to marginalize my educational background by brushing my retorts off as “collegiate wanna be twit”? (which he fucking misspelled) with my head up my ass [he was more kind]. He then indeed called me a ideologue, but to my chagrin, misspelled that shit too. [life would really fucking hurt if it weren't so gyotdamn funny]

In all fairness there was another guy, I believe from Australia, trying to iron out the ruffles; but it was getting a little messy in there. But my little ideologue was on a role and in order to keep everything on the strait and narrow, well, that's when I line item retorted his ass.

The fellow from Australia called it “ad hominem” and if he's good at Latin, kudos to him, if not, kudos for remembering where he heard it from. Problem is, my Ausie counter part didn't go the extra mile and quantify my retorts. How did he “know” if I had committed a logical/informal fallacy or not.

What turned out to be a quantifiable ending to the debate, ended up being a squalling festival about Russ being a bad guy: pathetic? The “full of myself” and “narcissistic shit”, reports of name calling. You can imagine the list. Hell I already knew most of the list before logging back in, but the other stuff... At no time during the retort did I call anyone a name or slander anyone. I simply stuck to “facts”.

I guarantee you folks!!! At any time during the rebuking of the claims of my little ideologue, should I have claimed that his mom swallowed my load twice to get it all down... that his dad actually got his reach around... That “both” his sisters were actually satisfied, twice and under oath, said that I indeed kiss better than he did... and returned important family information to him that his grandma said “Hi”, but to also remind him... that he should take special notice when he got home because he might not recognize her, because I shaved her beard and bought her a new pipe...

COME ON FOLKS!!!! I really, really, REALLY would tell you; but I didn't do such a thing.

That's childish bullshit. Even though it may be funny stuff for a spring break Hollywood movie, nobody's hiring me to write for them, so why waste the keystrokes.

My point is this: these ideologue guys (and equally moronic uneducated kids) are quick to rally and slow to realize. So quick to “say” they'll learn and yet so fucking slow to “actually” learn. They “think” they have learned about either the subject at hand (or life or 'make something up') and answer about it in the forum, then when they have been corrected or shown the proper answer they want to revolt on you. So when you quantify - show them the proper procedure and how to get the proper answer; they call you a snob & want to cry, piss their pants and have pity parties about having bullshit themselves into believing what they've defined “right” be. [this is a little bit of a hard concept to under stand at first read]

I guess a piss poor example would be your kids watching a cartoon about the horrors of smoking. They then want to beat a self righteous drum 24/7 for their own indulgent reasons & whether you quit or not, they dance at the foot of your hospital bed when you get cancer as they fire up a Marlboro.

No, wait... that's the “self righteous little bastard” take... 

Well, it's not near to the level it needs to be, but it will serve as an example none the less... Kid asks dad to go to a friends house. Dad says not till homework is completed first. Kid usurps dad for the “mom's easier” kill shot. Mom licks child's ass and kid goes out to play, leaving homework unfinished. Later into the evening, dad looks in kids room to see open books and no kid working, makes the deduction. Argue ensues with mom over the ethics/morals of child's switch-a-roo, mom plays the “it'll get done” card with the "what's the big deal" - "hump your fist for a month" follow up. 

Despite mom or dad, the child skirted the responsibility.   Even if the kid gets the work done, they will say, "But I got the work done.."  "Claiming" the "right".  If they don't complete their work, despite the degree of completion, their decree will still be something to the effect, "But I got 'this much done..."  Thus, still claiming to be "right".  When it is obviously (no matter the ethical/moral definition) "wrong".

In today's society the child usually comes home, pushes the books back in the bag, turns on the TV and watches mom & dad ignore one another for the next couple of days while the frustrated teacher tries to motivate his/her students to actually take their education seriously. NOT always the rule, but certainly becoming that way more & more.

If you Bleed Hips don't believe me, go far enough out of your fucking district and ask some brave faculty how it really is. You'll be surprised to know you have an ideologue growing under the glow of your big screen in your family room right now.

Our youth is in a sorry fucking shape and delusional. I'm glad I'm not going to be alive to be there for it.

Now...  About that Zombie Apocalypse...



Tuesday, April 19, 2011

I'm not a part of the Socialist party....

Alright, just cause I have the word 'social' in the title of my blog does not mean I’m a socialist.

For the love of god... I'm not a religious man, I just needed a 'moment' & a recognizable exclamation there...

Somebody out there in cyberia decided to string me along and drag me into a bit of the political butt-holery by skimming through a couple of my earlier blogs. That's all fine and dandy, but apparently my take on capitalism and its endless nom-nom machine through America's asshole set him off (only slightly, it's not like this guy went off the deep end and started death threating me).

Apparently I wasn't clear enough in my claims that the fortune 500 have pretty much wiped out 'all' the wealth needed to keep America afloat and have made us all look like complete asses in the world banks. I can't comment on the offended individual's economic education; I mean a few sentences on a public forum does not a person make (I'm defending you here guy, so don't get a case of the ass quite yet). I can only suppose he was playing devil's advocate in stating that not all corporations are 'evil'. To an extent I'll muddy up to, but as the folks at this Amway meeting down in Florida were telling me, “Walt Disney didn't go into building Disney World to make (me) rich.”

Now this guy didn't come outright with guns-a-blazing , nostrils flaring, blood shot eyes and phlegm shooting out of his ass screaming that I was a full blown socialist. But I will say that a couple of his naive, condescending comments of capitalism being the backbone of our country and that socialism being the peoples groveling choice to the government for permission, was my solution choice... well, that's mean spirited & juvenile. I would almost say borderline high school senior social studies or junior college government course kind of comment.

Here I thought I was pretty heavy handed with blaming the corporate financial institutions, some Wall Street insider banking pricks, then working my way down to the smaller interstate banks that fucked over mid America (I would say small to poor America too, but we don't have shit at all). I don't really remember bashing the corporate manufacturers that heavily, but I'll allow it for the moment.

Truth be known (and if your under the age of 40 you might as well just skip a couple of paragraphs anyway) there hasn't been a quality built/manufactured item that hasn't cost a ton of cash for quite sometime anyway. Oh, a few computer components like HDDs, sound cards and stuff like that seem to last a LONG time and keep right on going. I'm talking about things that take daily use and constant contact that just don't stand the test of time. Watches, cooking utensils, toys, some clothing, automobiles; things that we really do depend on for day to day living. Don't last for shit.

Some items have had to wait on technology (of course), but that 'should' have been the 'fix all', when oddly enough, the technological implementation invoked the exact opposite. When I get a technologically superior toothbrush that knocks the balls off a charging rhino in my hands why do I see reports of record setting levels of gingivitis being set all over the fucking US?

This is a Capitalism country... I thought this kind of reverse engineering happened in the socialist regions that my 'admirer' was commenting on. Is 'this' what he was so proud to be supporting? I'm sure as fuck not.

These Capitalists are also dumping their (our?) money into the very socialist (which was supposed to be me, I thought) countries that are actually manufacturing the goods (with the jobs we're supposed to be doing) that we're buying, that we are then in turn are not allowed to mess with after the purchase. [Part on the Hacking blog later]

Now who sounds like a socialist fucking nation to you?

I don't ask my government when to go to bed, my fucking HMO does that. My fucking car insurer tells me where and when I can drive. If I drive too far or to a designation beyond my original statement, they won't cover me in an accident.

My bank doesn't see fit to tell me when they want to charge my checking account for fees or on what date that may be or how much that charge may actually be once my account falls bellow $500.

There are many more instances like this and they ('your' wonderful capitalism America [I now make my call-out]) all hide under the old “you don't ask, I won't do shit” policy. I don't give a fuck what you say, it isn't all in the fine print of that little contract/tri-fold they send home with you either.

Let's be honest, unless I make mention of sticking a tazer to my nuts every couple of paragraphs you folks might make it through one of these long assed blogs either. So do you REALLY read all that paperwork that comes with your new iPud or laptop? Don't lie to me, I can't hear you. I can barely make it through a third proof read...

I'm not sure what the fellow challenging my patriotism thinks I want 'handed' to me in his professed socialist commune, but it's obvious he didn't 'read' my blogs.

He did at least glean from my 'rants' a summation I'll define as a “class warfare” that you would have to be more blind than Helen Keller than to not see. I just find the classification a bit more harsh, but not far from the truth. It's just too early for that particular language and yet not too harsh for an example.

Let's say Mr. Capitalist was in a car wreck with one of the corporate moguls he's defending.

Both have the exact same injuries, but they need to be operated on.

When they get to the hospital, there is only one surgeon. The injuries these guys have won't really kill them, but they are in great pain. So, one guy's going to be in a bunch of pain while the other goes under the knife to be fixed.

Who goes first?

Great little moral/ethical question right? Well, I'm punching my Capitalism fellow in the ass for not reading my blogs more carefully. You see, in this little story he only had $100 in his wallet when he came into the emergency room. Neglecting his ethics and morals (he's probably a great guy and willing to make the sacrifice because he's a great human being) of our Capitalism crying defendant, I'm banking on the lack of moral and ethical character of the other individual. Purely on nothing more than the speculation and actions of his predecessors/mentors before him.

You see, the Sony executive was on his way to a big beef, liquor and all you can eat hooker outing with the Japanese clients that night and he had $3K in his wallet, so without further ado and no interest in his tolerance for pain (and damn sure no interest in your fucking pain) bribed his way into surgery first.

THAT'S the class warfare I am trying to write about. Splitting cunt hairs about the name of an organization not having an affect on someone is so juvenile it bears being publicly beating. So saying Sony, McDonold's, LiteBrite, Ford, didn't cause the world's economy to collapse, didn't make you loose your house: is so still “sucking your momma's left tit” I should bust your ass for playing with matches!

Of course the NAMES of the fucking companies had nothing to do with any of it.

I'm talking/writing about people and their actions or lack there of. The corrupt individuals that horded moneys and then used that money to compound even more corruption until it got to where it is now; that's where I wish to strike a hammer. They hide under the title of these of these companies. Haven't one of you Einsteins seen when one of these dicks gets caught? They get a bonus and they move to another organization and try it again.

The problem is some of these assholes really do still know what they are doing. They are still in control of this 'game'. Others are pawns and are usually the ones you see going to prison or are executed; some quietly (drugs, suicide) or publicly (shanked while awaiting trial).

Personally, I think my little capitalism friend has a problem with 'asking', pure and simple.

He may talk a good game of “work hard and the rewards of a hard day labor will pay” may breath forth , but I really think he feels that the world is there for his taking.  He's the type that usually get's the 'shank'.

I have been kind to this point. I have no name or user name from the forum that I was reading, so I'm not dogging this guy out this way, but I'm letting other like 'this' know right now; reap what you sow...

I'm a Veteran... I didn't defend a socialist country. I sure as fuck didn't defend what's happening to it right now and what's happening to it right now (economically) is damnable, and that is so understated that profanity still hasn't caught up to the proper definition.

Mr Capitalism... Don't school me. I have learned so much more in my life time than you can imagine. In the few condescending sentences you managed to sum up about me (which were all wrong) I have deduced your demographic make-up and possible geographic local. Impossible you say? Let's see...

You're a white male average height, light colored hair. You don't really play sports and aren't as computer savvy as one is lead to believe. You're in the third year of college dabbling between business and history. You come from a heavily religious household, but you have fought it while away at school. Your folks also follow a Republican political structure. You are still fighting to get into one of the Frat houses on campus, but won't demean yourself to dropping bing cherries out of your ass into martini glasses for initiation. Seeing as your folks don't make 'that' much money you're attending a state school as apposed to the ivy league school you squalled about, but unless you get your sentence structure squared aware better you won't get into the masters program later.

If in closing, we allow for our Zombie Apocalypse, you 'will' be asking me for bread. Because you don't know how to make it. You 'will' be asking me for shelter, because your dumb ass don't know how to build that either. You 'will' be pleading for me to protect you “again.

When in return I only have this to ask you Mr Capitalism, “You had better be asking your worthless ass whether or fucking not I need anything from YOU!!!”

“So Mr Capitalism, what have you got for me?”

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Are you scared...? They are just words...

It has come to my realization (as an insects asshole does when it comes in contact with a speeding automobile windshield) that I “might” have scared a few readers from wanting to read my blog.

After some additional research I am beginning to get the impression that the blogging universe is being pigeonholed as a coffee shop, highbrow-ed, haiku, crispy nibbling bunch of wispy whiners that might not have the consciousness to make the attempt at educated potty humor.

Don't blow a snot ball on yourself or do a stereotypical 'spit-take' to think such humor couldn't/wouldn't exist. Dennis Miller tried it for years and Bill Maher still seems to be making a good go at it, so eat me.

Now I'm not going to immediately tell you I'm the same caliber of comedian as Bill, seeing as I haven’t honed a career at comedy for the last 25+ years, nor am I as graced in political satire. However, I sure as hell know current events and have experienced things in this world that he hasn't. Call me “Joe the Plumber” without the political agenda and a realistic approach to world views.

Besides, I'll be damned if I'll play bitch to somebody else's agenda and then have to back peddle like a fiend when I verbally step on my dick. Nah... when I fuck up, I'll fuck up for myself and deal with it in my own fashion.  Thank you very much. I'll choose to apologize or not, that'll be on my initiative, not someone else. At least you'll know if it is genuine.

Given the climate and cynicism of today's personality trait I would certainly perish the thought to think that a few words scrolling across the screen could have that affect in today’s society anyway. Most certainly 'here' in the good ol' USA of all places.  Then again, there are professional pissers & moaners out there looking to make a buck off of anything these days.

I mean, we have 24 hour news networks with polished beauties that spill such things as train wrecks, sodomized children, dictators enacting genocide (with pictures none the less), adulterating state officials all parading from their glossy lips while dancing images across our high definition giant screens no less. While I, another nameless twerp, who spills some black and white about more 'nameless' individuals (trying to minimize the global stupidity)  and somehow feels I might have offended.

Don't get me wrong, that's what I'm looking for, but a little response would have been nice. I think where I have been snubbed is the lack of the latter. My own contradictory narcissistic demand for being slammed is for not having been... quantifiably... slammed? Or maybe I'm just a bit self victimized by the same 'instant-gratifying' Frankenstein monster that corporate America has created and I'm pissing & moaning too early. I.e., it's only been about a dozen blogs & what the hell did I expect? Some folks have written for a couple of years before getting an audience.  Whine, whine, whine...

Personally, I thought the Apple computer fanboys would come out of the stone walls like the old 70's movie "Bug" and tore me a new one. Seeing as a complete PHD dissertation could be written trying to cover all the bases regarding the pros & cons of the Mac/PC war. That subject alone, hell, I could have set the internet back at least 5 years again. Not that I wanted that either. That's like playing politics... I feel dirty... Somebody get me a rape kit.

What I'm getting at is; Russell's Rules and the somewhat terse nature of my blog is designed for a few reasons, of which will obviously follow...

I have lived a hard life. Some, not of my choosing, and some I chose; some of those choices in broke from my control. Those definitely returned varying levels of comfort which we have all experienced: we've all been there and yet the largest number of us all still here. Yet this process isn't going to change either.  Yet, out of all the choices I made, a large bulk of them I didn't get the privilege to make.

The problem in our world is that there are some folks out there getting to do even more choosing for others right now. For those people that EARNED it, I congratulate them. It's the folks that are being taken advantage of, being coerced or are in some form or fashion incapable of being able to make your choices for your life (big or small); those are the folks I'm trying to write in place for. Both seriously and comedicly.

But then here we go with some of the 'high-minded' folks who might say “I'm putting words in 'their' mouths. And then my strong opinionated potty mouth retorts with 'fuck you', there are a several dozen news pundits putting words in peoples mouths everyday across the nation. 

How about I tell you, I have several art degrees... therefore I'm an artist, on record. Thus, being an artist, my writings are considered art. Sorry, you can't argue that, it'll stand up in the Supreme Court and the First Amendment too (I've had master degree courses, first year law too. Went spazzo, didn't get the degree, another story). So as an artist, I am constantly writing my works to evoke an “emotional response” so to best cover the largest number of 'like' individuals.  You know, folks that immediately have an affinity for my work to begin with.

Man, with a write-up like that make your checks payable to..... or Paypal for $10K at www.bullshit.com..... That's not a real site, so don't go there, remember, “humor”  [edit:  actually I think it is...  but I'm not supporting his ass unless he supports me... so there...]

It just so happens my first couple of works happened to scare a bunch of folks off or so that's what my interpretation is (at the moment).

This blog is also designed with a cheap “trip to therapy” in mind.

Lets be honest. Somewhere, somehow shit has gotten out of hand. Each generation has always said that the next generation is for shit and the earth is going to hell, but I really do think this time we may be in store for the real thing.

I'm not crying Chicken Little here or the whole biblical Armageddon, broken eighth seal shit, but some of those religious nuts may start to pull out their trump cards in a minute and we won't be able to stop them.

There are no more lands to explore anymore. So the idea of greedy land owners racing off to another territory to start over after they've raped and pillaged one place into oblivion (and are about to be prosecuted) is out of the question. I have already stated this about the middle east & we're seeing what greed's saturation has caused there. Now what's to happen in the 'more civilized' countries.

Folks, there's nowhere else to run. We're completely out of 'new territory'. We can't escape to a place where your hands can turn the soil, hard work pays for itself, common sense is its own reward, the law of the land.

What I'm basically trying to say is; bring back part of our social past that so many of our futurists so vehemently oppose before we loose our humanity.

Pain, humility, humble, thanks, gratitude, moderation, maintenance, respect, seniority. Sure, everyone has a voice, but in fucking turn and just because your senior it doesn't mean we have to go with 'your' idea, but respect WILL be shown.

Naturally the younger generation WON'T understand this, they've been led to believe the spoon in their ass is there (placed by divinity) to feed them through the rest of their lives and that everyone owes them this. For which they owe nothing. As a parent, I understand wanting to give your kids the things you didn't have, but that's the worst thing you could have done to them.

I'm not saying they can't have it.  What you should have given them was the tools to get it for themselves. Oh, you want a new bicycle? Then get up at 0600 with me for the next two weeks and help me put the roof on the house. When the child does “exactly” that, give them the money, take them to the store, they chose the bike and they take responsibility for it's upkeep. PERIOD! They were taught to fish.

Futurists want to bitch about cruelty and fairness. I say, “FUCK YOU!!!”

My kids still had bicycles and game machines, TVs and computers.  But when the economy completely fails, my sons will walk to your door, knock, then take 3 steps back and lay their belongings down at the foot of your steps and wait for you to answer the door.

As you answer the door, their hands will be fingers laced in front of themselves so you can see them. They will then ask if there is any work that needs doing around your property for a meal that day.

They will then do that job with no bitching, no whining, no complaining with a yes Maam or Sir; to whom it was that answered. When the job is completed, they will ask if there is anything else. If not, they will wait outside until dinner time, a minimum of 30 feet from the house.

After they eat, they'll thank you, and then they will completely leave your property.

New (ish) parents... what would YOUR kids do?

21 year old people or younger:  one, could/would you have known to do the same thing, much less have done it? Two, do you have the guts to do it, much less the pride?

This is why I'm writing the blog...