The Victorious Opposition

I spent Monday at William & Mary Law. It was a great trip. William & Mary is literally right next door to Colonial Williamburg in the southeastern part of Virginia. It’s about 150 miles from where I am now - a couple of hours down I-95 to Richmond and then east on I-64 to Williamsburg. Depending on the traffic around DC and Richmond, about 2.5-3 hours of driving. I drove down Sunday afternoon and stayed overnight, since I needed to be at the law school at 9AM on Monday. I left early so I could get there when it was still light out and do the drive over to the law school so I’d know where I needed to go. The upside was that I didn’t have to watch the Washington Suckskins embarrass themselves again.

There were four of us for the tour on Monday. Two were clearly undergrads there with their parents. One was an active duty Army Special Forces guy on a break between deployments and doing law-school investigations for when he gets out in 2 years; he’s been in 8 years, so he’s probably early 30s. I was clearly the oldest. And the only one who wore a suit & tie. I felt overdressed. But it’s better to be overdressed than underdressed for stuff like this, in my opinion.

The tour was done by a 3rd year student. It was interesting to get a student’s perspective on the school. She was fairly candid. One thing I’ve noticed is the extent to which all the applications require you to disclose information about past academic & legal “indiscretions”, and the amount of space dedicated to school’s honor codes. She made a point about it on the tour. When I did my undergrad, cheating was incredibly rare, and while people got put on academic probation for crappy grades, there was very little that one could have considered an “honor code” issue. Seems like it’s become quite prevalent in the last couple of decades. Any of you who’ve been in school more recently than me have any thoughts on this? Is it the ease of access through the InterWebs? A cultural thing?

Sometimes fans and drivers complain that all the safety innovations put into NASCAR (and other series) over the last few years mess with the excitement of the racing.

Watch this crash from this afternoon:

He walked away from that. Without injury.

Holy crap.

You know me, I’m not about to defend Wilson, but I sure as hell, am not on this side of the aisle.

ATLANTA (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst to President Barack Obama during a speech to Congress last week was an act “based on racism” and rooted in fears of a black president.

“I think it’s based on racism,” Carter said in response to an audience question at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta. “There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.”

The Georgia Democrat said the outburst was a part of a disturbing trend directed at the president that has included demonstrators equating Obama to Nazi leaders.

“Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care,” he said. “It’s deeper than that.”

First of all, Obama is our nation’s first “half white president”. No more, and no less. Second of all, where in the fuck does a peanut farmer from Georgia of all places get to tell the rest of the nation What is “racism” or “racist”?  I am truly of the opinion that this is going to be the Democrats’ “Schiavo Moment”. They just keep pressing, and pressing, under the guise that they are somehow not a part of all this racist equation they love to admonish.

I’ve never seen the tactic of “stand behind me, or you are a racist” tendencies from an administration. This is a first for me. FWIW, I have given Obama the benefit of the doubt on a great many issues. I have stood idly by, while he’s consistently pushed for the USA to become similar to a Western European nation. Why do I do this? Well, it won’t happen is a very good reason to start. I don’t care what the fuck this administration has brewing, they are slaves to special interests. Change my ass.

As for getting my lecture from “Jimmah” about what a racist is, I’d expect him to be the best of the best (racist that is). If he’s going to blatantly label anyone who dares disagree with Obama a racist for doing so, I have no qualms labeling a WASP southerner a slave owning douche. A lily white liberal, with a lily white wife, hailing from a lily white jurisdiction..The irony drips. I’m not on Wilson’s side about his outburst, but seriously, I am not going to kick back the recliner and let Jimmy Carter tell me what’s good.

For the last week or so, I’ve been posting a daily EMT Law of Nature as my Facebook status. I think I’ve run out of laws for now, so I figured I’d post them for your amusement:

EMT Laws of Nature

1. No person who weighs more than 300 pounds ever gets sick or injured on the ground floor of any structure. They must be carried up or down at least one flight of stairs.
2. Proof of Darwinian Evolution is the number of people who think using both bleach and ammonia makes for uber cleaning.
3. The exception to Law #2 is drunk drivers, who rarely if ever are the ones killed or injured in the accidents they cause.
4. They aren’t dead until they’re warm and dead.
5. Never underestimate the power of a fraternity to convince someone to drink until they stop breathing.
6. The highest-priority call of the shift will arrive with 30 seconds of your food, during your sole meal break.
7. When someone injects themselves into an emergency scene saying “I’m a doctor”, the most effective way to make use of them is to send them for coffee.
8. It is, in fact, possible to be sufficiently drunk that you are unaware that you have been shot through the leg and are bleeding at a life-threatening rate.

Enjoy.

Take a look at this. That’s, for the most part, the ride I did today, two ways. I won’t lie about it, I am freakin’ pooped. The temperature was over 100 in some places, so I’ve got that sun beat tiredness going on as well.

Anyway, after about a 50 mile ride, I came to the conclusion that I know what my next toy will be, I’m buying a motorcycle, probably going to start with a 600cc. Does anyone here ride? I could use some pointers before diving into this thing head on. I wanted the Ducati Monster, but it looks like a pain in the ass to maintain. I could go for a Honda or Kawasaki, if they are in my price range. Let a brutha know!

I was a little more lucid with the authors than you guys, but I was hitting a major deadline at work and overclocking my ass off. It’s over now, and I am chillin’. I sorta like these little adversities, because it makes people closer, you enjoy the little things more (I really do enjoy commenting on politics) and getting outside in the sun is pretty nice.

So, what do I do with myself now? I’ve been on the fence about buying another car. A proper classic, if you will. The young Manwhore in me is stuck in the eighties, and I have always wanted a Buick Grand National. It’s just been a fucking Rad car since the day I saw it. I’ve loved eighties cars for being little grandma farters, while having fire breathing beasts underneath them. If we fast forward to today, the cars of today are like peacocks, letting you know in the parking lot they are out to kick ass. There’s a little bit of charm in the conservative reserve of a muscle car from the eighties. It was a more reserved time, that yeilded a car like the Buick Grand National. You would have never known what it was, but it was one of the fastest production line cars that GM ever made.

The problem is finding one of these beasts that hasn’t had the V6 run to shit by the charger that is a tough find. Anything I’m looking at right now runs about 20 grand, if I decide to play some serious ball. Are there any classics you like, that might be flying under the radar I should consider?

Take a peek at her.

Yeah, I am still alive. Not much new on the big “D” front. I am going to work soon on a really fucking cool (but super top-secret) project. It promises not to disappoint any of you, and it involves someone who you might remember that created the name you say “three times”. This will be an honor and pretty much the culmination of my life’s work of achievement as an artist. It’s an influence I grew up with and admired from Big Adventure.

So, I’m pretty much swamped with stuff, and really have barely enough time to log onto the Drudge Report and get pissed off about Obama anymore. I’ve been relying on this blog and the “liberal screech” to go point and counter point on issues. Usually NPR gets me whipped up enough to remind myself that I’d like to “heal the world, punch a liberal”, but I’ve simply got to focus on this pursuit right now.

I was IMing Harley last night, and he left me with this little morsel:

Enjoy!

Just some quick updates, and an open apology to my co-bloggers as I have been busier than a Mexican at a Home Depot liquidation sale. We have been setting up for a two day presentation to our business partners over here in Burbank, in an attempt to keep the business wheels turning. I was asked to take the creative lead on our exhibit space, which is an area of design that I had very little experience with. For my part it went over pretty well, and we (just last night) received our final buy off and some kudos for the space. I really wanted to take some pictures and show it to you guys ( I was quite proud of myself, more than I usually amuse myself with my own efforts), but as many of you know where I work it’s pretty sensitive information that could get me bent over if I did. I’ll see if there’s anything I can actually post, but you’ll just have to take my word for it that Team Manwhore hit one outta the park.

I have to meet with some business partners today, and a schmooze dinner later tonight, both things I really don’t like to do. It may surprise you, but I am actually a little reclusive and shy with people I don’t know. It’s kind of a strange dynamic for a person who has had to act and be filmed (in high definition, I had to do make up that made me look like a French tart), set up and present to crowds in excess of 100 people at a time. This whole event is going to be filmed, and I have a lionshare of the presenting to do myself, in addition to the fact that I had to make a fool out of myself in this video I did.

With about ten years in the creative industry, times like these are unavoidable. I’ve remarked in the past that creatives make poor managers, yet the only way to promote people in a business structure is through management. It’s kind of dorked, and usually any creative management approach to any looming deadline is to rethink everything late in the game, and move to a no huddle offense to make up time. I’ve been spinning like a dervish with all of the changes, indecision, politics, and reworks that have pocked what I considered to be my well reasoned schedule and approval process. No matter how long I’ve been doing this, no matter how many times I’ve wound up for one of these things it always comes down to the 11th hour. Somehow, someway, in the creative mindset there is a self destruct mechanism that cannot be a party to process.

What that means for me was a lot of late nights, going to the gym and then home to sleep, getting up and doing it all over again. When I was in school, our teachers would always tell us that they were going hard on us with the all nighters and lofty demands because they were forcing a decision out of us. We either would decide that we really, really wanted to be in this business, or we did not. While I don’t like not having a life, I still wouldn’t trade this in for some kind of a job at a bank or something, so I guess somewhere in this sentence is my tacit acceptance that them’s the breaks in this industry.

I have some meetings and presentations through tomorrow, so my involvement will be a little spotty, but by Friday I should have washed ashore, tattered and chapped but no worse for the wear. Thankfully, I won’t have to do this again until July. By then I should be able to pick myself up by the bootstraps again, and mustered enough sack to do this one more time.

Consequently, we are presenting at the local news station of the television station we’re owners of (don’t need to think too hard to put that one together), and in many of my back and forth trips setting up our space I saw one of the local anchors. It was a pretty interesting juxtaposition; me being a creative, and this guy all suited up and serious. I guess you really do have to play the part here.

Interesting day on the site, we just had the most page views ever, with today’s visits still clocking as people continue their searches. I wanted to shake hands with all of our regulars, who all share a part of this success with us. It’s always been a pretty lateral relationship for me with you readers, because you are really more important than we are.

We haven’t been around very long, but we’ve experienced some modest successes along the way, and today was one of those. It’s pretty odd out there in the blogger world, as you never really can predict what people want to talk about, or what people respond to on any given day. One dinky post, or one comment to a hopeful candidate, and you’re an overnight celebrity, just ask Joe the Plumber. Such is the life of the Coliseum, and on that note a quick reminder to self to be careful what you wish for. It could define you, just as Joe the Plumber. FWIW, thanks to you regulars, I do really appreciate your help on the VO path.

OT:

Why does everyone hate Palin now? I was holed up in my room with the flu today, I literally tracked that story, along with the KU story from MSNBC on TV, to a story about her being a liability on yahoo. The talk on the pundit shows is that Palin is actually the reason not to vote for McCain now, and that this shopping spree will doom her career, and she’s now not allowed to be a hockey mom.

Seriously, this is the year unbiased media was shot dead, karate chopped to death, and replaced by a Matrix Sentinel who parrots Barack Obama’s campaign. We have BDS, ODS, and now we need to add to it PDS. I’d like to point out that this has happened twice to a female candidate, mind you. Shillary was the first that the loving left tarred and feathered, and now Palin is the objectification (heh, heh) of infection.

Ah, the left.

Update:

I was feeling frisky, so I expanded on this unhinged hypocrisy over at the Rants.

For Christs sake, John McCain is the one trying to be the president, not Sarah Palin, yet anytime this woman tries to show her face in public, the left smears her in the most pathetic of ways. As I stated before, this is not the first time they have engaged in this predatory activity, they first stalked and poached Shillary in favor of Barack, a move in which Barack looked even more pathetic than Hillary. Now, having learned form the experience the left is determined to destroy the hopes of a woman in office with an (R) in next to her name in favor of a weak and inexperienced candidate who happens to carry the badge that pays. The all knowing, peaceful, good economy (D).

Seriously, this is it. That’s the story, as I knew it before I wretched and turned off the news today. It’s pretty shameful, I have to say, and we should all think about it for a minute. In favor of one minority getting a leg up in the world, the left has started an utter jihad on another, a woman. It’s like the sixties, hippies and Islam all wrapped into one. For fuck’s sake, how does any heterosexual man attack a woman on her desire for clothes and shoes? WTF? This is like being attacked as a man over tools, boats and cars. It’s petty and stupid.

If I needed to get up in front of the entire country, I would want to be dressed as best as I could afford. My mother would demand no less. Not only would a woman want to be dressed to the nines, but your Manwhore would appreciate that himself. I might be a hockey Manwhore at heart, but I’m bringing it for the presidential debate, TYVM. If you hand me the black card, I’m taking it. BTW, women are not the only one’s with the penchant for “splurging on self”. Men hold this torch very well, themselves. Wow, an entire song from a man dedicated to pampering oneself.

The left. Scumbags are really a term of endearment, sometimes. I can’t believe that this form of attack is befitting the party of “Love” and “Diversity”. Welcome to the bottom, assholes. On your left are shovels, placed strategically for digging. Feel free.

I am supposed to be packing tonight for my trip to Florida tomorrow. My flight leaves at 10 am, from LAX. Today, after I got my baby out of the shop I drove her to work to get my itenerary, and agenda from work. I am more preoccupied with my car right now than I am with my trip to Florida. I don’t know if anyone else is like this, but I tend to be very obsessive about things, and in no particular order. When I bought my baby, I got her fixed up over a year or so, and really I fell in love and out of love with her. I almost caved and bought another classic (I went to a MOPAR show today and was within a gnat’s ass of buying a Roadrunner, but my conservative side got the better of me) but I walked out and looked at her in my garage and remembered my dreams about her when I bought her more than a year ago. I bought her from a guy who was more concerned about who owned her than how much money he would get.

He’s offered to buy her back several times, now that I’ve restored her to almost showroom condition, piece by piece. I started by stripping the engine out, and getting her ready for paint. I painted her, sent her to a mechanic who rebuilt the engine, and then got her back after it was all rebuilt. I added a few bolt ons, but my idea was showroom original. Of course, the twerp I bought this from had ne real dedication to original, and probably because he didn’t have the money or the stomach for a restoration.

I have slowly been running through the car and restoring her, and it actually shows when you lift it up. Anyone who has ever swapped a part can actually see the parts that are still original, and the ones I have swapped out. I’ve been doing it right, I started from the the engine, to the body, to the interior. This weekend, after a trip to Anaheim from LA, I realized I had some more work to do. I had a belt replaced, new tie rods, another alignment, and I restored the fuel lines.

After I picked her up today, I drove her to my work down the 101, and tried to open it up and clean the fuel lines out. Low and behold, in the work parking lot, I saw a huge puddle under her after about an hour. I got underneath it, and tapped it to see which fluid. Sure enough, it was a systemic Ford problem. I had a Ford Truck a while ago, and I had this problem with it too. Apparently, in Fords, the engineers thought that running a line from your radiator to power your AC with AntiFreeze was brilliant. I don’t know if any other makes are like this, but Fords have a well under your dash on the passenger side, that houses your AC module and runs Antifreeze through it to assist your AC unit.

Wonderful engineering until the node that builds the pressure breaks and leaks Antifreeze from the radiator. So, as I’m looking at the puddle, I immediately recognozed the problem, and knew exactly where to look for the source of the leak. Much like running Windows, the problem was exactly the same as the newer version Ford Truck I owned, and I knew it from experience. I never realized how long an engineering flaw would be allowed to run in an engine layout, but there you go.

Long story short, This thing is leaking Antifreeze onto my garage floor, and I just got it back from my mechanic. He fixed so much stuff, she was purring like a coked up kitten, and now I have to let her leak out all her antifreeze over the week I will be gone in Florida, and when I come back I need to take her back in and fix it again. This week I am supposed to be re-ordering all of the interior pieces I need (given the engine was take care of) and re-badge her, restore all of the interior parts and guage clusters to new, and make sure all of the numbers match.

If any of you ever had it in mind to restore a vehicle, heed my warning. That lofty price you see on the show car at the classic show represents blood, sweat, and tears. There’s a story like mine to accompany any restoration, and it’s never finished. If you’re inclined you might just want to buy the damn thing. It’s not worth it to buy that one with the cobwebbs for nothing and then drive yourself crazy trying to put it back together.

If anyone is interested, this is the show I attended, and it’s a block away from my house. I talked to some dude who had a few Challengers for sale (if anyone doesn’t know, they run about 50-80 for a roadworthy one now. Fucking Moparheads). The first thing I noticed on his car was that it wasn’t really touched, and there was a bullethole in the rear quaterpanel. He came right over when I pointed it out, and told me all about it. Apparently he was almost jacked for his car and had the .35 caliber bullethole to prove it. He kept his car all original, and told me he never restores his cars, he just buys them and keeps them. He told me “Look, they go up in value, don’t mess with them”.

Fucker.

So I’m writing this about 8pm PST and I just stepped in my house. I have just completed another 12 hour day. A part of the territory with creative positions is the long hours they entail. This stems from two things, a.) creatives are poor at management (generally, that’s why there is a degree for management) but get promoted to management positions, and b.) many things creatives do are very time intensive and asking for them in the eleventh hour means long nights. Right now I’m preparing for a Global Summit set to be held at an undisclosed theme park that was created in Anaheim from the remnants of orange groves (could I make that any more obvious? ).

I am making a total of three exhibits for our potential retailers to walk through, which is a pretty tough task. This meant designing the piece on paper, getting the necessary approvals, getting the budget and purchasing our props. There was also some painting involved, some large scale graphics, and a dash of “Manuel” Labor as we call it here in the city of Lost Angels. In addition to all of this, as I am coming to find in a large company is a litany of meetings with people who have nothing but opinions to offer, and nothing other to do than schedule meetings that turn each project into a subjective bureaucratic circus to wind through. I sat through a meeting with my boss yesterday with twenty people, all talking over each other, and there were literally four people in the room that had any experience with regards the design and the setup of this space. That would be your friendlily neighborhood Manwhore, our Director of Home, my boss, and the model maker. Everyone else were the typical Los Angeles corporate types, sporting a company approved iphone in the place of the blackberry, a cup of premium joe from the Starbucks we have in the commisary, and dressed to the nines with high school approved designer labels.

Hearing people talk about my project, as if they had any clue as to what my vision was, is a little like hearing someone drag their fingernails down the chalkboard, and seeing who is saying it adds into it the feeling that I must be getting water boarded at the same time. What keeps me sane during these little hoot-nannies is the idea that only I, and my team can make this happen. There is also some remnants of our Father (who art in cryostat, hallowed be thy name) placed creatives on the highest pedestal, in terms of corporate hierarchy. Therefore, when we weigh in, the stiffs usually have to back down. However, they also have a dog in the fight by scheduling so many meetings, often my calenders can be filled from 9 to 6 on any given day.

Dragging a creative to a meeting, is like dragging your dog back to the place it pooped on the carpet. We know it’s there, we know the exercise is necessary, but please don’t do it anyway. Please! That’s pretty much they way I feel during meetings, and for the record, I am NOT a team player. I like it when I am the point person, even if the project might need more people. I am not a Russian general, and I don’t think that throwing more people at a problem equals success. Therefore, meetings are a complete waste of time for me. If someone is working with me on a project, we need very little communication. If you need to communicate with me, come grab me. I would grab you. I am not one of these formal email, fill out a form, and observe process people. I find that a direct engagement will eliminate any communication errors. However, this is not how a large corporation functions. I feel at times we might as well be numbered for accountability, just like the tags you see in the shoes you buy.

I can imagine working_man is probably going to have some choice words about my puerile rant, but this is the shit that bugs me these days. That said, and on a more positive note, your friendlily neighborhood Manwhore will be in Florida in two weeks. I go from an undisclosed them park in Anahiem, CA to an undisclosed theme park in Orlando, FL in a two week span. For the Florida leg, I will go on the company dime to visit the city my parents reside in, and I will stay at the Yacht Club Resort for week of “creative” indulgence.

Somewhere in Africa, a child is starving. I couldn’t give two shits, I still hate meetings.

The Los Angeles Metrolink train crash over the weekend has gotten short shrift due to Hurricane Ike (and rightly so) but the legal reverberations might last just as long.

Preliminary investigations point to engineer error but NTSB expects a year long study before anything conclusive can be revealed.

Federal investigators Sunday rifled through wreckage and snapped photos in what could be a yearlong investigation into why a rush-hour commuter train collided head-on with a freight train, killing 25.
The announcement by operator Metrolink that it’s engineer caused the nation’s deadliest rail disaster in 15 years by running a stop signal left behind a tangle of questions, including whether it was too soon for the railroad to be pointing fingers when federal investigators could be months away from ruling on a cause.

Families, neighbors mourn L.A. train wreck victims

Did track signals operate properly? Was the engineer of the commuter train text messaging moments before the crash? Did dispatchers warn of the imminent danger? Could afternoon glare have impaired the engineer’s vision?

“It’s clear that an error was made. At this point, I don’t know that any one can conclude that it was a cognitive error on the part of the engineer, or if there was an equipment malfunction that led the engineer to misdirect the train,” said University of Southern California engineering professor Jim Moore.

I had read this morning that two teenagers have text messages in their possession from the engineer that was sent minutes before the crash. Although the engineer’s phone was not recovered, his phone records and those of the teenagers will be sought. Federal investigators said that audio recordings from the commuter train are missing required verbal safety checks between the engineer and the conductor in seconds before the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation, planned to interview a dispatcher in an attempt to determine why the commuter train was on the same track as a Union Pacific freight train Friday in Chatsworth, a residential neighborhood on the northwestern edge of Los Angeles. The crash injured 135.

The actual tracks are owned by Union Pacific, not only do they get priority on their own tracks, but federal law mandates that thay they provide a series of switches and side rails.

“Even if the train is on the main track, it must go through a series of signals and each one of the signals must be obeyed,” said Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said. “What we believe happened, barring any new information from the NTSB, is we believe that our engineer failed to stop ... and that was the cause of the accident.

Another area of liability will be “positive train control” and why this new technology (cost prohibitive, I’m sure) was not in place as a safety measure.

I was thinking about the horrific scene and what first responders go through. Most agencies provide counseling after incidents like this.

A very good friend of mine was the first person on scene here. The bus driver took the ramp too hot, the bus jumped the side railings, flipped on its top and fell approx. 20’ to the ground. I worked in that area and took that ramp about a thousand times. Many times testosterone inhibits an accurate accounting of feelings in time like these but you can imagine first on the scene, observing a bus normally 10’ high pancaked down to about 4’, overturned, with only those not dead inside moaning for assistance, scenes like this will shake even the most resolute.

I’m sure dwex has some stories, being an EMT. Probably my most memorable event was about 8 years ago. While supervising a shift and being about 1 mile away, we got a call of a multiple vehicle accident on the Benicia Viaduct. This viaduct is a 3/4 mile section of raised freeway (2 lanes) over a railroad track, so there is no shoulders or center dividers. I was first on scene and witnessed approx. 10 cars and two big rigs, all mangled together. No doubt there were injuries (11 people were transported, 3 died) but my first priority was traffic control since the viaduct was around a large curve and all lanes were blocked. After coordinating with allied agencies and other units to block ramps and reroute traffic, I had to arrange routes for fire and ambulance response since they could not get the scene normally. Then an abbreviated triage of the injured had to be conducted with life flights (emergency helicopter for transport) being called. There was no car fires or gas spills so the wounded could remain in place (thankfully). Once fire and EMT personnel got there (seemed like an eternity, multiple people screaming for aid) I could let them deal with the medical. But then helicopter have to be landed, scenes and evidence have to be stabilized, information of everybody present has to be obtained, witness statements, evidence collected, injured assisted to waiting ambulances. Once the injured are removed and things are stabilized, then measurements must be taken, photos (Ariel photos), diagrams of roadways, skid marks, debris. A command post has to be established for the press, in between all this, annoying phone calls from various level commanders needing to be appraised of the situation. After spending about 5 hours at the scene, officers have to be sent to various hospitals in the area obtaining statements. Every newspaper in the area calls, they need to be briefed, then with any fatalities, proper notification of next of kin must be made. After all this, the actual accident report ( I didn’t have to write it, only a supplemental) has to be written, this process took about a week.

Then when you get home and the wife asks how your day was, you plop down in your comfy chair, sigh, and ask if there is anything in the frig that will kill a few brain cells.

I haven’t mentioned it, but my left foot has been killing me all week.  I finally broke down this morning when the swelling increased my shoe size by “1” and went to an urgent care clinic to find out what the hell it was and lo!  It was gout.  Apparently, it is possible to drink too much; who knew?  I guess it will clear up in a couple of days if I just take my pills.  It “may or may not” become a recurring deal.  I’m just more annoyed than anything else.

At any rate, it hasn’t adversely affected my posting this week nor will it in the future.  However, if I seem short-tempered this week, it’s probably just that I miss the booze.  I’ll give it a couple of weeks and then “gradually” reintroduce beer and wine into my diet.

I wanted to talk about how I left my last company. Many of you know what I do for a living, and for those who don’t, I am a toy designer. It is a weird industry and even I can’t explain why someone who takes themself as seriously as I do is in an industry that never will. Hey, it’s Manwhore you’re talking about here, so expect some oddities. So how does a Manwhore tell the boss to fuck off?

We’ve recieved some new members today, and I have registered you all. If anyone hasn’t registered yet, and wants to, feel free. I am checking periodically. If there are any problems getting activated let me know, and enjoy!