Dear Rep. Gus Bilirakis:

Congratulations! From the looks of things, Democrats have once again conceded your home base of Palm Harbor and Pinellas County. During this primary season, I have gotten more mailers (2) from you than from the three Democratic primary challengers (none). No signage was put up, no canvasing took place, no interest in GOTV efforts, no intention to help down ballot candidates in turning out voters. Are you listening John Dicks?

It happens annually - my district race turns into a farce where no one presents themselves (tactically or politically) as worthy congressmen. Oh, this includes you Gus, but you’re the incumbent. It says volumes if others don’t present themselves as a better choice than yourself - let alone their primary opponents.

Signed,
Disgruntled

So I travel to an old Links page on the Stonegauge while doing a cleanup in aisle three (just ordering things, changing others around, etc). This links page hadn’t been changed since well before I switched the site to MT and then, ultimately, Wordpress.

And what do I find but a gem of the past. The Truth about Scooby Doo! A gem that’s become rather trivial after the major motion picture was released that both celebrated and mocked the cartoon series.

It’s sophomoric at best. The comedy isn’t as biting now as when I originally read this… But it’s still a little chuckle.

(editors note, a lot of the questions that I have still remain unanswered from last season. I gotta wonder if they will be covered this time around. Some of those questions are re-hashed here)

Lets Blog it Out! went ahead and reported several weeks ago (to much rejoicing from this writer) that Entourage, season Five, kicks off on September 7th. With that in mind, I gotta wonder just what is in store for the Boys this time around?

Season 4 and 1/2 didn’t exactly wow me from the start to the end — the faux documentary a-la The Office that chronicled the filming of Medellin just seemed blah. The whole Anna Faris thing was just too out-there (even though Eric having a career is important). But here we are with Season #5 and let me throw out some questions going into the new season:

1. Is Johnny Drama still tied to his French connection? — Going at it on the Riviera at Cannes was manifique! for the most hard-luck member of the group. My question is, was it really love and how will it play out in season Five? Or was it just another promiscuous-yet-embellished encounter for Mr. John Chase?
2. What will partake in the war over the Medellin edit? — So Harvey now owns Medellin after purchasing it for a buck… I would think that the edit will cause warfare between director Billy Walsh, the cast (Vinny, Johnny particularly), the producer (Eric), Harvey and the guy that oversees and contributes to all the anarchy: Ari Gold. This is the most obvious driving force going into Season Five…
3. Eric’s relationship status: will the sap stud again? — Eric and Sloan are kaput as we learned post-Medellin (and I am not going to be surprised when Seth Green ends up revealed as Sloan’s new beau). The question is, will the serious man hook up in a relationship again? One of my questions from last season still stands as well with Eric: Will Tori come into play again?
4. What’s the deal with Vincent Chase’s career? — Vinny has had one big hit. One. His passion project (Queens Boulevard) was buried, his creative lsut (Medellin) tanked at Canes and he is hurting financially without a payday. He’s living in Johnny’s condo last time we saw him and though he has another project lined up — he may have lost it after everyone saw how much of a dud Medellin’s current version is.
5. Will Turtle get back in the music Biz? — I keep overlooking Turtle. Where Turtle goes, so goes the group… If he doesn’t have a story line besides the “Day f—ers” again this time around, fans are in trouble)
6. Will they unveil Mrs. Ari’s name? Or Turtle’s? — Technically, Mrs. Ari’s name has already been revealed in a previous episode (Terrance addressed her by a name in season 3) but the name “Mrs. Ari” persisted, making the issue still in doubt. Unless they are going to bring her up by the name Terrance (Malcom McDowell’s character) used, they might as well throw us a curve ball and have her named something ridiculous — thus ensuing the nickname game. Meanwhile, Turtle and more backstory is still missing. Big chance to cover that (huge!) in relation to the revelation of his name.

So many questions, so little time (these HBO seasons just don’t last that long). Will we get some answers or do we have to wait even longer?

OK, it was cute leading up to the week how worked up people were getting about the storm. It was a tad annoying being told Armageddon was upon us and we had to be prepared, but it was cute in it’s anxiety breeding ways.

But here we are, Friday, and Fay still hasn’t left the state of Florida. Oh, she’s finally over the ocean again but technically? She’s still here… I mean, those are Florida waters.

And I must say: as a 20 year resident of Florida, following the likes of storms both tropical, non-tropical, frontal, and just standard summer storms… I have never seen a storm take such an abrupt, hard turn before:

Fay -- on Radar -- from Monday (August 18) thru Firday (August 22)

I’ll give the ongoing weather caused by Tropical Annoyance Storm Fay this credit: It paints one damn beautiful picture…

I’ve got a few minutes here while waitng for technical support to get back to me on a plugin issue with some software, so I’m doing my normal Wednesday web-surfing rounds while I wait and I come across the always enjoyable Penny Arcade (10 years of Tycho and Gabe! All rejoice!) and their latest comic and it gets me to thinking…

One thing I hated about the Star Wars prequels was the defining of the Force, or the defining of Storm Troopers (they were all clones!) and other rationalizations that killed the mysticism of the original trilogy. Conversely, it’s the pop culture references to Star Wars and inane in-depth discussion that I love. I mean, Clerks? Randall and Dante musing about the construction and destruction of the 2nd Death Star? INSANELY Funny in it’s inanity.

There are other places that don’t immediately come to mind regarding Star Wars and inanities about the how and other side stories that never get to the forefront of the story. One of the classics that I can think of is this image:

…and of course Penny Arcade’s latest comic seems like another great example… Though it goes a bit beyond just Star Wars: It’s the story about henchmen’s families. You see guys getting offed here and there… But we don’t care about them. That doesn’t mean other’s don’t.

If you’re a Tampa Bay area resident, you might want to partake in Creative Loafing’s annual “Best of the Bay” awards before voting ends on Wednesday. It gives you the opportunity to vote on best restaurants, best clubs, best TV personalities… worst politicians, favorite players for the three Major League sports teams in town…

Not sure when the results will show up… But take some time and mark a ballot with your personal faves from around the area.

Anyone tried Dicewars yet? Strategy! Flash! Dice!

It’s been a long time since I wrote anything rhyme-based. In fact, despite all the hurt and emptiness — I haven’t been inspired to write shit. Usually the hurt, the pain, the anguish, the longing… It all drives me to write. It (or usually the source of everything inside) becomes a muse. I’ve had some great muses in my time (I’m talking people here, not instances of anguish) where the longing was what drove me to scrawl out lines of internal conflict and what not. Three above the others. And one trumps all.

It’s odd, though, that Current Source has inspired almost nothing for me. Here and there? Yeah. But nothing profound… The only poem that I had written was months old.

While I like the rhyme and the declaration — which goes beyond the obvious call for someone to drop their emotional wall and let someone “in” — it was foreshadowing of sorts. A warning sign I kept ignoring.

Continue reading »

Anyone else getting hit with massive amounts of spam labeled “CNN.com Top 10″ or some such? How about being blasted the last 12 hours with another Phishing attempt from someone posing as MSNBC?

Let me first make this clear — you don’t have to be signed up for either site for these malicious emails to be sent to you. They aren’t news pieces, they are attempts to get your interest and lead you to fake web sites. So, no, you weren’t signed up for things without asking.

That being said, I just guffawed looking at this headline:

msnbc.com: BREAKING NEWS: NASDAQ index gains 720 points overnight upon war announcement

Uh, newsflash: NASDAQ doesn’t do shit overnight. Unless you are in Asia. In that case, why send out an email in English with that title? Because the English speaking world (most of it) who follow MSNBC are awake during NASDAQ trading.

But I digress. I find humor in this… But I’ve also given it more attention than it deserves.