Card Trick or Treat

And something from a year ago...

All Hallow's Eve

Well, maybe not ALL hallows. I plan on leaving St. Francis of Assisi alone.

PANIC! IN THE PUMPKIN PATCH
3 mins 30 - SFW

NOW THIS KID SCARES ME
4 mins - SFW

And now
A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR
Remember 1978? Nah, me neither.

I CAN'T TELL YOU
how much I want this man
3 mins 15 - SFW

THIS HOLIDAY HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY
THE AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION
6 mins - SFW

Hits as of now: 25996

Wad. A Man.

As long as I'm posting quotations, here's one from Eric Wadle:

"And, as for my name, everyone who's known me
since I was young has just called me
The Wad. Much easier"

Out Source of Contention

"Outsourcing is akin to making
a skyscraper taller
by taking material from its lower floors."
- Byron Katz

I wanted something light and entertaining today, but I loved that quotation when I found it.

"Outsourcing" is another one of those terms that's being used incorrectly more often than correctly, so that by now most people misunderstand what it means.

If Company A stops taking care of some function for itself and instead pays Company B to do it for them, that's outsourcing: the work has the same function, but it's now coming from an outside source. For example, if Google decides to stop publishing it's own annual report and instead pays some marketing firm to create and publish the report for them, then Google has outsourced its annual report.

But if Company A closes a factory in Indiana and moves the work it was doing to a factory that Company A owns in El Salvador, it's still Company A that's doing the work, even if the location has changed. That's not outsourcing; it's exporting jobs.

I have no problem with people bitching about scummy business practices, but they should get the vocabulary right.

Hits as of now: 25622

Euro Trash Day

Sam Sparro
Black and Gold
Not to be confused with black and tan...

Hits as of now: 25378

Seren Dippity Doo

So far, the best part of moving into my own place
after so long has been unpacking things from storage and
re-discovering things I forgot I had. I've unpacked
the useful things like dishes and lamps already, but now
I'm starting to get into the books and papers, and
I keep find all kinds of surprises.

This includes a box of just random pictures that I had filed away
as a sort of personal clip file of things I might draw or paint
someday. But in this same box there was -for some reason -
a ten-year-old J. Crew catalogue with this oddly cute boy
on the cover. I thought I'd use him as this week's Man for Monday
even though I didn't know his name.

But then, when I got back online after the weekend and
started making my rounds of my usual stops, I found this
same guy had been featured on Definition of a Man just
last Wednesday, as part of a series of guys named Hunter.
It turns out he's Hunter Shepard. And his face is still
an odd mix of homely and cute. Killer body, though.

I love weird coincidences like this.

That'll do, Pig Boy

This morning there was a spider in the shower. A sort of reddish-gold colour and a bit larger than a quarter, legs included. He was squatting in the corner, probably unable to crawl out.

And I very patiently grabbed up a handy toilet brush and coaxed him onto it so I could get him out of the shower before I turned the water on. So now I'm freshly washed (though I didn't look nearly as good as Paul Vandervort up there getting that way) and the spider is free to live out his life somewhere else in my apartment.

For someone who doesn't like dogs or cats in the house, I'm really rather sympathetic to spiders and earthworms for some reason.

Hits as of now: 24409

Underperforming High School Musical

I've found a way to save money on gas.

Yesterday, my daily commute was 50 miles. Today, it's 1.8 miles, if I don't just decide to walk.

Even better would be to find some guy and ride him to work. I'll have to keep working on that one.

Throwing in the Towelette

Lives there a man with soul so dead,
who never to himself hath said,
"Fuck this shit—I'm going to bed!"

- anonymous wall graphiti

Hits as of now: 24188

Why So Serious, Black?

One Republic
It's Too Late to Apologize
On YouTube, there are many preview trailers for movies that don't actually exist (including one of mine, if I ever finish the damned thing). But most them aren't this beautiful. I actually wish this movie did exist, because I'd love to see it.

Hits as of now: 24013

Youngquest for Fire

It's been a busy day, what with signing a lease and picking up the keys to my new apartment and all, but I really did spend my spare time shopping for a guy for you. And I finally found one.

Nick Youngquest, Australian rules Football player
and underwear model. I think this is the first pic
I've seen of whom where he doesn't come across
as arrogant. Non-arrogant is a big improvement for him.

Hits as of now: 23917

Federal Reserve Bored

UNHAPPY MEAL
2 mins 45 - SFW but not for the Play Place

NEWS I COULD'VE USED YEARS AGO
2 mins - SFW

And now
A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR
30 secs - SFW

FINALLY! AN ECONOMIC EXPLANATION I CAN UNDERSTAND!
2 mins 45 - SFW

Hits as of now: 23189

Twelve Step-by-step

Another piece of the puzzle that is getting my life back under control is in place.

Yesterday I put a deposit down on an apartment. On Monday, I go to sign the lease and get the keys, and Tuesday I start moving in. It's just a little one bedroom place in a run-down complex near the office, but after months of being homeless and living off the kindness of friends, it will feel good to have my own place again.

It's not anything like the place I used to have, so I doubt that I'll get to play the host for a while, but there is an interesting view from the bedroom window: it overlooks the soccer practice field at the local community college.

Hits as of now: 22968

Snob Appeal for Common Sense

"Republicans must stop saying that
Obama is an elistist and
just admit that you don't like him
because of something he can't help,
something that's a result of the way he was born.

Admit it: you're not voting for him
because he's smarter than you." - Bill Maher

I'm not a huge Obama fan, but it is creepy to watch people find reasons for not voting for him. They'll use words like "terrorist" and "traitor" because their puppet masters at Fox have trained them to do so, but I keep getting the feeling that the word they want to use is "uppity."

Fifty years ago, the actual phrase they would have used would have been "uppity nigger," only now these people are too ashamed to say it.

I guess that's some kind of progress.

All Too Short a Date

I'm always a bit conflicted about this time of year.
It's good to have an end to oppressive heat, and
I think autumn is a mysterious, romantic time of year.

But I always hate to see summer end.
It always feels so young, active, and sexy.

Hits as of now: 22845

Awe-summary

A bit dated after a month, but what the Hell? I just found this, and the last line is as true now as it was a month ago.

... unfortunately.

Still Photo Shop

Didn't your mother warn you that your face would stick like that?

Eskimo Joe
Wake Up
3 mins 35

Hits as of now: 22655

Generation Gap the Mind

A photo-trip through the years with Josh Brolin,
who is getting all kinds of attention for his portrayal
of a certain C-student in Oliver Stone's film W.

Josh is attracting attention now, but let's not forget
what a stud his father was at his age. With all that
silver hair, he still looks good now, too.

While looking for these photos, I learned that James Brolin
was once considered a possible replacement for Roger Moore
as James Bond. Though I can't quite imagine a Yank
as James Bond, he did look good in a tux.

Movie Trailer House of Cards

THE FARCE IS STRONG WITH THIS ONE
3 mins 40 - SFW

COMING SOON (i fear)
1 min 40 - SFW

And now
A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

COOL AND CREEPY
2 mins. 45 - SFW (but not for that area around the back door where the smokers congregate)

Hits as of now: 21918

Fifth World View

This morning NPR's Diane Rehm had with her a collection of ten economists and financial experts of various political stripes (whenever The Nation's William Greider gets invited onto a talk show, the guest list is pretty diverse.) to discuss the current economic crisis (meltdown? disaster? circlejerk?) and what long term changes it might create for American capitalism.

Most of my life, capitalism as practiced in the USA has seemed too blood-thirsty and amoral for my tastes. It's pretty obvious that greed works, but it just seems unwise to base an economic system and the larger part of our society on a human vice! European businesses for years have complained about the outrageous and often unethical lengths USAmerican businesses will go to make money. They even speak of "American capitalism," to distinguish it from what's practiced in Europe.

Admittedly, I didn't hear all of the radio discussion this morning - just two long passages, one from each hour - but I did hear a few mentions of our system changing to become more "Asian." More like the economies of Japan and China, where there is more government intervention and control.

I couldn't contact the show to get a question in, but I wanted to ask the experts to compare USAmerican capitalism to that practiced in the so-called "Fifth World" of Scandanavia, Switzerland, and Iceland. (Okay, maybe Iceland is not a good example right now.) If we want an economy where there's freedom enough to start a business and make money BUT the government enforces the "rules of the game" to prevent unethical and foolish business practices; if we want a society where people enjoy a balance of security and freedom, with a high standard of living; then the Fifth World nations would seem a good model to follow. Certainly a better model than China.

_ __ __ ____________________ __ __ _

I'm no kind of expert, but if you don't know the term, I'll explain it the way it was explained to me. . .

Years ago, Cold War era sociologists and political scientists divided the world into First, Second, and Third World nations. First World nations had industry and capitalist economies. Second World nations had industry and communist economies. Those two groups would fight for control of the Third World nations, which had little or no industry but had natural resources. (I did tell you these were Cold War thinkers, right?)

A decade or so later, some other sociologist coined the term "Fourth World" to describe countries with some industry but where most of the wealth was controlled by a minority of the people. Dictatorships and theocracies fall into this category. I'm pretty sure I'd include Mexico too, but I can't quite decide if the USA qualifies.

Then, later still, some Swedish economist coined the term "Fifth World" to describe the economy of Sweden, where there is industrialization and "controlled capitalism," and where virtually everyone is middle class. Regulations there have made it hard to be wealthy, but they've also pretty much eliminated poverty.

To me, it all sounds like a very "Star Trek: Next Generation" place to live, but I'd prefer that to a society spawned by Winston Smith and Ralph Nickleby gang-banging Ayn Rand.

(I remember now why I stopped
writing these Thursday things:
I don't know when to shut up.)

Hits as of now: 21786

Schoenheit, schoen wieder

I got curious about this Hengst Fabian Leimlehner, so I went looking online and found this little clip.

Watching him, I'm torn between wishing I could do that and wishing I could do. . .

. . .other things.

Spitze! Einfach spitze!

Austria . . .
Land of mountains, land of streams,
land of fields, land of cathedrals,
land of hunky muscleboy gymnasts
like Fabian Leimlehner here.

Positives: sweet Austrian accent, face of an angel, body of a god,
flexibility of... ...well, an Olympic gymnast.

Negatives: He's over 5400 miles away!
Oh, well. I'll have to content myself with UT eye candy.

Shotgun Wedding Planner

"I believe that marriage is meant
to be a sacred institution
between two unwilling teenagers."
- Sarah Palin

(as portrayed by Tina Fey last week on Saturday Night Live)

Hits as of now: 21487

Face the Morning

It seems that my Photobucket account has been targeted by somebody who thinks many of the photographs I've posted here are too revealing. So, for a while at least, I'm gonna keep things above the waist.

Well above.

I love a great face. I can respect a guy who works hard to
build himself a beautiful body. That's an accomplishment.
A great face, on the other hand, is often a matter of luck,
of the right combination of DNA arranging all the usual
ingredients into something really beautiful. It's luck I envy.

These guys are, in order, Oliver Goodwill, Justin Clynes,
Emanuele Fiore, Nate Nesbitt, and Ian Somerhalder.
Looking at them together I can tell the weather must be
cooling off: in the winter my tastes shift to brunettes.

Momma Casting Dispersions

Cass Elliot
Dream a Little Dream of Me

Years ago, in college, I was having lunch with three friends in a local sandwich shop. One of the other guys was a guy straight out of high school who knew fancied himself a music expert. He did know a awful lot about the current stuff, but he was very young.

During the course of the conversation, someone mentioned Momma Cass.

"Who's that?" our music expert asked.

The rest of us started laughing. Then the waiter came by and asked what was funny.

When we told him, he looked at this guy and said in complete deadpan, "She was a sandwich critic."

Hits as of now: 21314

Peeping Tom Brown's School Days

New month, new man of the month...

Immodest Proposal

"I am no more modest
than my talent requires."
- Oscar Levant

Broken Homophobia

I begin October with some sarcasm. Enjoy.
And tell me where to find a shirt like this, please.

Hits as of now: 20245