I Fought The Law...

As some of you know back in 2003 I had surgery on my back. Well I have a handicap placard which I occasionally use (i.e. when I park downtown in Morgantown). Well today I went downtown to go to the school board office to see why I haven't been receiving calls to substitute this week. So I drive downtown and park in the handicap spot and as I pull in the I see that the meter checkers were on patrol in the parking lot. Now what usually happens if I pull in and they are in the parking lot checking meters is they come over and I show them my registration card which I keep in my wallet and all is good. Well for some reason this did not happen today, so after I waited a bit I headed on down the street.

I go to the board office, stop in and visit my dealer, and then head back to the car. When I get there I unlock the car and start to get in and as I do I notice something orange under the wiper blade. Well it turns out that the orange thing under my wiper is a ticket for $100.00 for parking in a handicap space without a handicap permit. I hit the roof...I mean I was pissed because there hanging on the rear view mirrior was the permit. I drove down and around High St., the main drag through town, looking for the meter checkers to ask them why I got the ticket. Well finally I decided to come back to the house and call the number on the ticket and complain.

I stormed in the house, slammed the door, frightened the animals and got on the phone...I was steaming. When the lady came on I tore into her (I later apologized) wanting to know why I had received the ticket when my placard was properly displayed on my rear view mirror and that some @--hole meter reader had given me a ticket and I was not going to pay it.

Well I ended up having to go back downtown and to the parking authority office and showing them the placard and registration. When I got there the lady I talked to on the phone radioed the guy who wrote the ticket*. He came in, confirmed it was me he saw walking away from the car, and apologized and said that students sometimes use their parents and grandparents handicap parking permits which is not allowed.

Well now they now who I am so it better not happen again. I was bored this afternoon but that was not the "excitement" I was looking for.

-c

*-the lady described me over the phone as a 30ish looking guy...gee thanks... add 3 years to my age. I figure it was the beard and the flannel shirt I was wearing that made me look older.

The Beard Chronicles..Part 1

So it has been about a week or so since I have last shaved...mainly because I am lazy. Since then my beard has been growing out and I am at the point of trying to decide what to do with it...continue to be lazy and not shave, whack it down to a goatee(this is what the lady who cuts my hair says I should do), or cross the line and get rid of it all. I really don't know what I am going to do. Part of the time it annoys the living daylights out of me other times I can ignore the fact that it feels like tiny bugs are walking all over my face.

So what do you out in the blogosphere think I should do?
-c

On A Lighter Note...

So I realized that I apparently have this thing for having my picture taken with animals be they stuffed, metal, or fiberglass...
Case in point:



















Stuffed Moose
Alaska June 2000










Make Way for Ducklings
Boston, MA March 2003















Muir Woods
San Francisco, CA August 2004











Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Co. , Mark Twain museum Hartford, CT December 2005















Yankee Candle Factory Southern MA December 2005

One can only wonder what it will be in 2006...

The Bitterness Continues...

SIGH....

Full of Spite

Well...

Black Tuesday is almost here, thats right its Valentines Day

I hate...no...I loathe Valentines Day.

I believe that one of the great poets of the 80's said it best:

You love her, but she loves him

he loves somebody else -You just can't win.

And so it goes until the day you die...

One thing's for sure...

Love stinks!

Sound bitter?

I don't care...

WIRED!!!!: The Followup

So I finally got to sleep...at 5:30 am.

Around 4am the Guinness and the coffee started to fight in m stomach. Spent most of the night surfing the web and talking to my friend who is down in Antarctica over IM

at 5 am I heard a strange noise then realized it was my aunt in the next room riding her exercise bike before she went to work. Woke up at 9:45 am when my cell phone alarm wentoff so I decided to get up so I can sleep tonight.

Nothing really planned for today probably going to finish my Application for University of Cincinnati, watch some Family Guy and Futurama dvd's, do some laundry, and put together comic boards with bags.

-c

WIRED!!!!

Ok... so I can't sleep and its all thanks to this guy...

Thats right I am riding the caffeine train. I just got in from driving all the way from Albany, NY to Cleveland, OH. I left around 5:30 PM and drove straight through only stopping for gas.

caffeine used not to bother me at all however since October 2004 I have been pretty much caffeine free (occasionally enjoy a cup of Joe or a diet coke if nothing else available). Anyway now if I have even one cup of diet coke after 6pm I am up half the night. So needing to stay up and alert on 7.5 hour drive I started preparing early today.

11:00 -Venti Caffe Mocha from Starbucks

3:30 - 20 ounce Diet Vanilla Coke

5:30 - Venti Carmel Marcharotti(or something like that) from Starbucks

7:50 - Large Marshmellow fl. Coffee from Dunkin Donuts

10:30 - Large Diet Coke

So as you can see I will probably get to sleep...oh..NEVER!!!

If it weren't so cold outside I would go run around the block a few million times.

Maybe a Guinness will help me get to sleep...

-c

Reading List Update

Reading List of 2006 (January)
Baudolino - Umberto Eco
Gospel According to Tolkien-Ralph Wood
Team of Rivals - Doris Kerns Goodwin
Harry Potter Series
Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
The World is Flat - Thomas Freidman
1776 - David McCullough

Completed:
Baudolino - Umberto Eco
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Finishing:
Gospel According to Tolkien-Ralph Wood

Next:
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Team of Rivals - Doris Kerns Goodwin

Additions to the List:
The Physics of Superheros - James Kakalios
God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It - Jim Wallis

Random Picture

Muir Woods: San Francisco, CA August 2004

World Domination 101

Many people talk about world domination while few have actual plans for achieving this goal. I am of the later group. I have a plan and there is a 95% chance that it would work.

The plan is based on the popular perception that the current electoral system is corrupt and unjust (and the fact that people are stupid and will vote for almost anyone). The plan would eventually let me go on to rule the whole world would begin with becoming governor of California. First, after moving to California write and publish my manifesto and begin building my group of followers. I would then announce my candidacy for the governorship and say that if elected I would let the former governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, run the state. I would even give him part of my governor's pay. Granted, he's has been hugely unpopular, but the winner of the almost any election in California only gets 25% of the vote. If you add together the people who want to reelect him as governor and the people who will vote for someone they have seen in a movie divided by the ungodly number of people on the ballot it comes to at least 25%.

I could use and adapt the same strategy to run for the presidency. I'd promise that if I won, the incumbent at the time would be my chief of staff and I'd do whatever he told me to do. Voters would think, "That guy did what he said in California, and we'd like for him to have a second or even third another term, so what do we have to lose?" Then after I won, I'd move into the White House and immediately break every promise I made. People would whine and complain and the pundits on cable news would never shut up talking about the move but I would but I'd smooth it over by going on Jay Leno or David Letterman and use a joke, like "Hey, news flash, people: politicians lie! Duh!" The following day I would then declare total martial law over all territories formerly known as the United States of America and rename it something like "The Holy United Imperial Republic."

Then using the significant portion of the U.S. Armed Forces that had sworn its loyalty to me I would end the years of bipartisan inaction and gridlock with The Age of the Great Cleansing Fire. The culmination would be the burning of the Constitution, the dissolution of Congress, the establishment of "re-education" camps in WV, and the systematic displaying of the heads of those who opposed me on iron pikes around in front of national monuments.

Then I'd would start a war by ordering the army to attack France, mostly to boost my popularity, but secondly to get more cheese for me and my friends. Second would be Switzerland (for the chocolate and the fact they are "neutral") then I would work my way East to Germany where I would stop for a beer before continuing to slowly take over the world.

I know it is a grandiose plan but I believe it will work, because you have to have dreams.

-c