Prohibition

It handed a once legal enterprise with a lot of demand over to the hands of criminals to build massive enterprises of corruption. Prohibition doesn't work people will find a way. All it does is empower the underside of our culture to make money and protect it with violence. Sports gambling is no different. In light of the coming super bowl and the billions of dollars that change hands in wagers remember this... your upstanding congressmen who voted to ban online gambling effectively voted to move all of that money back into the hands of the mob. If you don't believe me make a trip this week to your local bookie and tell me that you can't notice the shit eating grin they are wearing on their face.....business is good....and a whole lot of honest people are forced to be criminals, in the name of protecting our morally righteous culture. Thanks Congressmen shit for brains..

PS I took Chicago to beat the spread for $100

Encore...

Before I say anything let me say that Justin Timberlake rocks!! That was one of the best concerts I have ever been too. I was even impressed by pink. The show was good all around vocals apprearnce you name it it was the bomb. With that being said I hate how the encore is now an expected part of the show. I mean they don't even pretend to leave and wait for the crowd to cheer louder and louder to get them back on stage. I hate how it is just expected what if we don't want an encore? what if we want you to go back to your hotel?

Get Plugged in to the Twin Cities

Some links to sign up for in our great city see all that it has to offer and save a little cash

The Onion Do the events update they have lots of free contests and cool events that are pretty cheap, that you normally wouldn't hear about, ....if any of you win the moose non-celebrity bar tender of the week I expect to be invited.

The Guthrie they have lots of cool shows and readings also some great deals on last minute tickets and events. Good season ticket program too.

The Ordway with Chicago coming, Monty Python and other great shows you can't lose.

The Minnesota Opera House all right I know this is not for everybody but they sometimes have some great ticket discounts and it is something different to do, I am actually excited to see what they are going to do for the 2007-2008 season so stay tuned

Sports fan? Tired of high price of tickets? Check out the Minnesota Swarm $240 for season tickets and it is pretty entertaining in the wonderful Excel Energy Center..

And last but not least the City Pages Insider

Just a few things to get you started....I will be getting season tickets to most of these venues and love to swap events with people so if you got passes to the Wild, T-Wolves, Vikes, or Twins let me know and maybe we can swap a few events.

Hyphen

It is not the year you were born or the year that you died....its the hyphen in between that matters...

Revealed....

Well three weeks ago my book became available for sale and some interesting things have happened. One it has sold better then I have expected. And two if has startled the shit out of a lot of people. The sales have been a much unanticipated reward but the backlash from it was something that I did not expect. I have had lots of positive praise on it but I guess like all things in life it is the negative that stays with you. I have had lots of people call me a monster, state that I should be on a watch list, or that they are embarrassed for me for being so open and graphic about my life.

All things that took me by surprise but then I noticed, I tend to be two different people and that people who know me from my writing would not recognize me in person and that people who know me in person would not recognize me from my writing. That was kind of profound for me. Why can I be open on here and in print but not to those people closest to me?

For the detractors who call me a monster and ask me if I am ashamed of what I have written I simply say that I didn't have a choice. To hold it would have been the end of me. My life folding in on itself. These words and pages are the steam vents in my volcano that keep a catastrophic eruption from happening. They are the pit crew that repairs my self destruction. This is my doctor treating a leprosy of ethics.

For those of you who are interested here is the controversy of my life....Gagging on the Wishes

Sunrise...

Has anyone else noticed how beautiful the sunrises have been for the last two weeks? Few occasions in life really stop me in my tracks and just look on in awe but I have taken a liking to stopping on my way to work and watching the beautiful sunrises.

Here is a little email chain that went around recently that I really enjoyed...

Coffee

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together
to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into
complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and
returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups -
porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some
expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:
"If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up,
leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to
want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it
is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.
What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you
consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each
other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in
society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life,
and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life
we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the
coffee life has provided us." Living brews the coffee, not the
cups......... Enjoy your coffee!

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make
the best of everything they have."

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

May you have a Happy 2007!

Jedi Mind Trick

Watched alittle starwars yesterday and you know what I can do Jedi mind tricks.....its called lying. I mean isn't that what they are doing? These upstanding moral members of the galaxy are summing all the powers to get someone else to believe a lie. So much for the Jedi code of honor. Maybe they need a little Kant refresher.

May the force be with you...unless you are using a Jedi mindtrick on me then feel my light saber.

Tip of the Day

Don't drink hot coffee while you are walking around a corner in the office or someone is bound to get hurt.

Happy New Year Cub Foods.....

Two more resolutions....

1.) No Shopping @ Kowalski's anymore (They messed with Taco Tuesdays by no longer stocking the Taco kits so you have to buy the seasoning and the sauce separate I was fine with being over charged and kind of pretended I didn't notice, but this was the last straw.....sorry your store is not that much "nicer" and I am not that pretensions so Happy New Year Cub Foods I am coming back)

2.) Drinking Changes -
No more shots* ( *Now I will still do a celebratory shot with people on special occasions, but gone is the 10 shot night just because it is Friday, one it is expensive, two it adds up to a lot of excess calories that are collecting around my mid-section, three I am too old to be falling down drunk)
Water in between every round* (seriously it is not that I want to stop drinking, just that I need to do it less, for my liver and for my potbelly)