The Original Blog

UNC is in the Final Four again this year.  That's good news.  The Heels should be in the Final Four every year, pretty much.  But this is where this team really should be.  Hansbrough and company have worked hard and have kicked the shit out of a lot of really good teams to get where they are.  If they play well and play hard and play smart, then they should bring home the trophy.  My thoughts on basketball. Its only going to get in the low 50's today.  That's cold.  That's completely unacceptable.  Its spring, for Christ's sake.  It was 80 degrees two days ago.  This cold weather has no place around here anymore.  My thoughts on the weather. Met Peryn's new man last night.  I didn't actually meet him, as he and I went to boarding school together.  But I hadn't seen him in probably 15 years.  So we went out to dinner and had a nice time.  It is pretty obvious that he (Adair) and Peryn will be married, etc.  And this is a good thing because he comes from...

It never fails.  Each and every year its the same damn story. Every sports reporter outside the Triangle dumps on UNC and thinks that every single opponent the Heels face is going to destroy them.  They all act like UNC is so incredibly over-rated and that their opponent is the real deal. Washington State was going to topple the mighty Heels with their suffocating defense.  Wait, the Heels beat them 68-47. Held WSU to the lowest point total of an opponent all year.  It was the fewest points allowed by a UNC team in the tourney since 1946. Who's up next.  Well, if you listen to the assholes writing the stories, its the best team to ever walk onto the hardwood: Louisville.  A team that captured headlines all throughout the season (sike) and sat atop the polls for most of the season (again, sike).  Yes, if you get to the elite eight, you're a good, deserving team.  But, come on.  I don't think the Heels are going to lie down and cry. This year's team has now set a new sing...

CLOSE ON QUINT QUINT Yeah. The U.S.S. Indianapolis.  June 29th, 1945, three and a half minutes past midnight, two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine slammed into our side. Two or three. We was still under sealed orders after deliverin' the bomb...the Hiroshima bomb...we was goin' back across the Pacific from Tinian to Leyte. Damn near eleven hundred men went over the side. The life boats was lashed down so tight to make the bomb run we couldn't cut a single one adrift. Not one. And there was no rafts. None. That vessel sank in twelve minutes. Yes, that's all she took. We didn't see the first shark till we'd been in the water about an hour. A thirteen-footer near enough. A blue. You measure that by judgin' the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know... of course the Captain knew...I guess some officers knew... was the bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signals was sent. What the men didn...

WALTER This was a valued rug. He elaborately clears his throat. WALTER This was, uh-- DUDE Yeah man, it really tied the room together-- WALTER This was a valued, uh. Donny, the strike-scoring bowler, enters and sits next Walter. DONNY What tied the room together, Dude? WALTER Were you listening to the story, Donny? DONNY What-- WALTER Were you listening to the Dude's story? DONNY I was bowling-- ...

So we've had really nice weather the last few days and I've attempted to read outside of my nearest coffee shop.  Trouble is, the people who shared in my idea of getting outdoors are complete idiots and their mindless blathering clogs my ears and strangles my mind and makes it impossible to concentrate on what I'm reading. Today's morons were these two college aged girls.  Now right off the bat, I new they'd be idiots because they were young girls.  And we all know that 98% of young girls have absolutely nothing worth a damn EVER run through their minds.  These creatures are the closest things to worthless that we should ever come near. Well these two brain surgeons were true to form.  I read the same paragraph about 20 times and finally gave up.  I sat quietly, trying my hardest not to hear their conversation.  But unlike the two older ladies who were quietly  talking to each other, these two stupid girls were all but screaming.  I could only shake my head in compl...

I have been collecting, or I should say saving  the wine bottles that I have had the pleasure of drinking over the years.  I've dropped a pretty penny on some of these bottles, so I figured that having them on display would at least help their memory live longer.  And I essentially dropped all that money on an empty bottle, since the wine was quickly gone, but the bottle remains. Anywho, I was looking over them last night, and I wrote down some of the bigger ones that I've had over the years.  The following list is just from California.  My French list will be coming in the not-too-distant future.   And yes, you should be very jealous.  And yes, these were some of the most amazing bottles of wine anyone could ever hope to drink.  Again, be jealous... 1974   Heitz Martha's Vineyard 1997   Maya 1997   Joseph Phelps Insignia 1997   Clark Claudon 1997   Caymus Special Selection 1997   Arajou Eisele Vineyards 1997   Dalla Valle 1991   Caymus Special Selection 1996   Harlan Estat...

She should have died hereafter: There would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all of our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death.  Out, out brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more.  It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

So I've got a kid on my staff that believes in a literal interpretation in the bible.  And oh all the things that I've heard lately that have completely assaulted my intelligence (and it's an election year, so there have been plenty of things), this is about the most outrageous. Question: If evolution is a myth, then every animal on the planet at the present time would have had to have been on the planet way back when.  So, how in the holy hell did Noah get all those animals on a boat?  I mean, come on!  That would have to be one hell of a big boat.  And where'd he keep all the food?  And how come the animals didn't eat each other or Noah, for that matter?  I'm sorry, but you have to be some kind of serious dimwit to believe the bible literally  happened.  It boggles my mind that people like this really walk among us.  It scares me that people like this actually walk among us.  These are some pretty STUPID people! That's why I put a picture of the raptors in...

For the second day in a row, these god damn Hillary volunteers have taken up residence at my go-to coffee shop.  The bitch is campaigning here in NC tomorrow, so these fucking idiot children are all excited about the prospect of seeing their savior walk on water. And these god damn children are barely old enough to vote.  They still have their little heads in the clouds, thinking that Clinton gives a single damn about any of them.  This is the exact class of morons that can single-handedly ruin this country.  Them and the latinos, who probably won't be voting legally anyway.  But these kids haven't been out in the real world.  They haven't worked, sweated and then had asshole liberals tax them like crazy.  They'll see.  When their savior turns around and burns every one of them, they'll know they were stupid little fuckers all along. I'm really just pissed because I'd like to go to my coffee shop in peace and read my book without hearing these stupid fucking...

I try each day to keep from adding a picture of either Bar or Marissa.  This blog is becoming more about them than it is about any thoughts or opinions I have on various issues. Then again, I think these pictures say a whole lot more than I ever could... I wonder what these girls are like in real life? What would they be doing on a lazy Sunday afternoon?  What are they reading right now? I know that it is superficial to focus so much on the exterior.  Beauty is after all only skin deep.  Blah, blah, blah.   I read books like its going out of style.  And not every book makes me ponder the deeper issues of human existence.  Some books are about as skin deep as you can get.  Doesn't mean that I throw them away because they aren't causing my brain to fire up a storm.  No, I enjoy them for other reasons.  Some because of the way they are written.  Some because they simply make me laugh.  Some because they make me forget that I'm trudging through a shit job, or a shit month, etc....

As I sit hear sipping my morning coffee on Easter Sunday, I felt it necessary to type some thoughts. When I was a child, Easter meant an Easter basket.  And it meant a trip to the church.  Of course, back then, we went to church every Sunday.  But this particular Sunday was important because we wore new clothes.  Mom and Peryn would wear their new dresses (I take it the had white in them... I can't remember though).  And I would have a new tie with pastel colors. As I got older I became like so many who would essentially only go to church on Easter Sunday.  Like students who only attend class for the tests, I would pack into an otherwise empty church to here about Christ rising from the dead. But nowadays I don't buy it.  Nowadays I'm pretty much a complete atheist.  I lean between atheism and agnosticism.  I mean, I dig on the buddha and really like his teachings.  And as I get older and more spiritual, I will definitely devote my attention to buddhism. Christianity never ...

So the 2008 NCAA Tourney is underway.  The Heels absolutely dominated in their first game last night.  I think its was the largest point margin in the first round of the tourney by any team.  And of course, Duke almost lost   in the their first game.  The beat Belmont by one point .  That's right sports fans, Duke almost lost in the first round... a one point victory. Now, I said when Roy Williams came back to coach the Tarheels that Duke University would continually get worse and worse with each passing year.  I made the prediction that they would never win another national title under Coach K.  That they would look back at the fall of the great "Duke Empire" and realize that Roy Williams came, saw and conquered. The media and Duke fans alike have had a love-affair with the Duke program that has been based on unrealistic predictions and flat-out lies.  Yes, they have been one of the all-time great programs.  But come on, they are not that good .  They had a nice run of r...

I thought that I'd be remiss if I didn't create an appropriate tribute to the #1 beauty of all time: MARILYN MONROE. Its all well and good to have a blog filled with stunning pictures of super models.  But let's not forget who started it all.  The importance of Marilyn cannot be emphasized enough.  She is one of the most important cultural icons of all time.  Yes, the other women in this blog are stunning, but they can't hold a candle to the overall magnitude of Marilyn. I first became enraptured with Marilyn in my mid-teens, and I haven't looked back.  I must confess that I don't know as much about her as I'd like to.  I do have several books about her, and they are definitely on the reading list.  The problem is that the damn reading list keeps getting longer, and I can only read so fast! Anywho, I just thought I needed to post some thoughts on my all-time favorite... One last thing, too.  The first 3 shots are my favorites.  I do like the ones where Maril...

I love it that the judge in the Mills/McCartney case basically laughed in that horrible woman's face.  What a terrible person.  I'm sure she married the man for his money and then tried to steal it all through the divorce.  But now we all see that she's just a greedy bitch.  And she's not going to get the huge chunk of change she wanted. Karma is a bitch.  I hope karma hits that worthless woman so hard that she becomes a complete wash-up, with no friends and no money.  The best would see her living in low income housing and taking orders at a fast food restaurant. There are consequences to our actions people!  You can't live your life as a terrible person and not get burned..........

"It is not advisable to venture unsolicited opinions.  You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener."

Some thoughts on these opportunistic whore names Ashley Alexandra Dupre: I'm laughing my ass off that every day we learn some other embarrassing thing this stupid girl got herself caught up in.  Screwing governors and movie stars for money.  Making some of the worst music imaginable.  And screwing on camera for Girls Gone Wild.  This girl is a model human being.  Real salt of the earth kind of person! But its proof positive that people are out for immediate gratification with absolutely no thought as to the consequences of their actions.  Who cares what may  happen!!!  I want to do this something  right now!!! I'm sure this rocket scientist, shall we call Dr. Dupre, is in fact quite intelligent, has impeccable morals, and is an overall wonderful person.  She's just getting a bad wrap.  She was forced into having sex on the Girls Gone Wild videos.  She had no other option but to charge 1000's of dollars for sexual favors.  She was framed, damn it!!! Yeah right!  The stup...

Its been nearly FOUR  months since I decided to ween off my anti-depressants.  Is it just me or does that seem like a VERY long time?  I have never been all that crazy about the idea of being dependent on pills.  Now I have abused my share of prescription drugs over the years.  But that was always for immediate gratification.  The thought of it taking a 1/3 of a year to get over medication is down right obnoxious. So you can bet your ass I'm not going to jump at the chance to get back on any kind of meds.  And truth be told, I'm a lot happier without them.  Now granted, the edges can sometimes be a tad more jagged, but hey, that's being alive!  Life isn't supposed to be an easy ride.  Its bumpy.  Its up and down.  You're supposed to get pissed off.  You're supposed to get fucking mad.  And you're supposed to get sad.  That's life baby!  And the thought of taking some little "happy pill" to white wash the whole experience is bogus. And these cat...

And with spring in the air, thoughts and memories begin to thaw in my mind... I've got REM's "Harborcoat" on right now.  They have always been a spring and summer band.  Life's Rich Pageant will always remind me of my trip to Bill McKinnon's home after my first year at EHS.   And then there's WSP.  While I don't dig much on the Panic these days, man did they ever take up a good portion of the hot summer months.  And the Dead and Phish.  Ah, my hippie years!  My lost hippie years! One can't forget Jimmy Buffett either.  He reminds me a lot of Marcia.  Sadly, Angie also steals some memories.  But we try to cut her out of as much as possible.  And of course, there's the Christmas days when I'd hang out with him at Toppers. But more than any one thing, spring is happy.  Spring is youth.  Spring is "everything will somehow be ok."  Its "nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile."  I'm not a winter hater.  I actually like...

This is a scene from the movie "Beautiful Girls." It pretty much sums up why I've got all these super model pics on my blog. Check out the movie if you haven't seen it yet. It's incredible........ "You got to take this shit down." "Why?" "You're like a serial killer." "Don't cap on my supermodels. Leave it alone." "It's creepy." "Look who's talking, Mr Jerry Lee Lewis." "Oh, fucking Mo!" "I don't judge. If she can cut her own food, she's fair game." "OK. All I'm saying is you got to take all this down because it's creepy..." "Look. The supermodel's a beautiful girl, Will. She can make you dizzy, like you've been drinking Jack all morning. She can make you feel high for the greatest commodity known to man: promise, the promise of a better day, the promise of a greater hope, the promise of a new tomorrow. This particular ore can ...

Pops is turning 60 tomorrow.  Wow!  I don't see that so much as him getting old as ME getting old.  And when my little sis has a birthday, then my age takes yet another hit. Age.  "You're only as old as you feel" and other stupid things people say about age!  If that were true then I would be in my mid-70s.  I usually feel quite old and quite tired.  Aching knees, arthritis in my finger joints most days.  Blah, blah, blah. And age is always contrasted to... others, I guess.  Duh.  For instance, I will say things around my staff that they say dates me quite well.  References to say... well, for instance Madonna being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I remember life before Madonna.  I remember watching just about every single one of her videos when they were World Premiere Videos... back when that station used to play videos.  I'm hesitant to call it MTV for fear of dating myself!  Hah! But the old man turning 60.  We used to play tennis together.  Now...

So I don't have a TV.  That's important to know from the get-go.  I don't want a TV and have really enjoyed not having one around the house.  It forces you to pass time in more creative ways.  I read basically whenever I am home and awake.  And I listen to a lot of music.  The trouble, though, is when I'm too tired to read and its too early to go to bed.  Its a time of limbo where I have to occupy myself as best I can.  Now is one of those times. So what do I do?  Crank 80's music, of course!  Duh!  Right now I've got Simple Minds "Alive and Kicking."  Why 80's, you might wonder?  Well, I am a child of the 80's.  I was around to see the very first days of MTV.  Believe it or not, they used to play videos on that station. Now I've got Lionel Ritchie's "All Night Long."  My good friend Antonio loves this song.  He and I cooked together at Toppers in Aspen.  We would play 80's music on Thursday nights when Topper was off.  Wi...

That's right, 2/24/94... I've been keeping a journal off and on since (ironically enough) 4/19 or 4/20 1992.  Its a hoot to read back over what I was thinking and feeling thru the years.  And I just came across this one from a little over 14 years ago.  My god the time flies!!! 2/24/94 I'm just sitting here copying Dave bootlegs for Peryn, so I thought I'd write in the ole journal. I saw Dave and Widespread last night [in Raleigh and Mickey was still standing (I think)].  It was a good show.  They both jammed out pretty hard,. I think I'll smoke a cigarette and then delve into a topic... As if I haven't spent years on this topic: Alice Burruss.  Well, here we go again!  Alice came back to State this semester.  She's in one of my classes, so we've been seeing a lot of each other.  Recently we've been talking more from the heart and its gotten us closer.  Well, guess what?  I can't stop thinking about her. You know they say that the first love is u...

It dawned on me last night that I may want to move back to the Aspen valley.  This thought comes as a large shocker, because I swore that I'd never step foot there ever again.  But the reasons for that declaration was largely due to the fact that I was a drunk and a junky during my last stay there.  I hated myself during those years and I would have in turn hated anywhere I was living.  So in all fairness, the valley was an innocent victim. What I am really looking for these days is a quiet place to live where people will leave me the hell alone.  I really want to quietly be a nobody and go thru my days with little disturbance.  I thought that I could achieve this goal at the beach somewhere.  Like, say, when I win HGTV's "Dream Home Giveaway" and I move down to the Keys.  Or, I could move to a mountain town and get the same effect. The thing I always liked about the valley was that just about everyone who lived there was there because they WANTED to be there.  They h...

Long ago- before the age of email and internet and blogs- there was an art form known as letter writing.  It was an amazing thing, friends and neighbors.  A person would put thoughts to paper.  Emotions would spill onto pages like so much ink.  And penmanship (you might have to actually go look that word up) was sexy.  And these thoughts that were written down were then enclosed in an envelope and sent to lands far away.  The trip would take days.  Sometimes even weeks.  The whole process taking between 7 to 14 days from letter written to response received.  And the joy, the sheer joy of holding a letter from a loved one in your hand.  The feeling of the paper in your hands.  The act of reading the words, the meanings.  And perchance a seductive scent left on the pages to stir the emotions.  What sweet rapture. I went to a boarding school from 1989 to 1992.  During these three years I wrote to all my friends back home.  And during these three years I was quite popular, so I received a ...

I just looked over my blog and noticed the hypocrisy of writing about celibacy and then having all these pictures of hot women running down the right side... So I mentioned that our brains have certain programs hardwired into them.  Try as we might, we cannot completely delete the need for sex.  It is part of human survival.  It must happen. Try as I might to go through my days quietly and peacefully, I am constantly drawn to the beauty of women.  I can't help it.  I have eyes.  They see things.  They notice things that my brain finds pleasing.  And women are one of them... I am past the need to pursue any desires that my eyes might create (see the next blog).  But try as I may, my eyes are still going to be drawn to things of beauty.  But now they are just lumped in the same category as soothing music.  Beautiful women and jazz both make me very happy.  But I am not running out to join a jazz band.  And I'm not running out to "bag a babe," as it were. I'm just le...

Celibacy: 1) The state of being unmarried, esp. one under a vow not to marry; 2) Complete sexual abstinence. Those two definitions pretty much sum me up.  And I rather like both of them.  But I'm going to concentrate on the second definition right now.  The first definition is pretty much synonymous with happy and enlightened.   The need for sex is pretty much hard-wired into our brains.  Guess is has something to do with keeping the species going.  I can't very much do anything about the programs that are hard-wired into my brain.  Try as I may to delete them, they are here to stay.  So what I CAN do is just not use them.  Put them in a folder and file them deep down. And that's what I've done.  And I haven't missed a beat.  Of course, its been quite awhile, so the "pains" of celibacy are behind me.  And happy about that I couldn't be. Thoughts on these "pains:"  When someone has been in a relationship for some time and then finds themselves...

So Obama won the Wisconsin primary yesterday. (Oh, by the way, I am very much a conservative and wish they both would jump off bridges) Anyway, the nation is forced to watch, read and listen to these two wretched politicians go back and forth at each other.  And I for one can't wait until 2009 when this whole damn election year will be over. My only thoughts on the whole thing today is about have far we have gone (in a very, very bad way) to have a person like Hillary Clinton as a potential presidential candidate.  It shows that we are a very stupid and very desperate country.  It shows that the democratic party is borderline evil.  And it shows that we need to close the damn borders!  I mean, Hillary is huge with the Latino population.  They shouldn't even be here and now they're affecting our election. And what the hell does this population know about her anyway?  Do they actually think she gives a damn about them. Yes, Hillary is the Latino population's candidate of ...

This one is dated January 19th, 2008: Saturday Night There's just something inspiring about writing with a fountain pen.  It feels to me the way thoughts should be kept. I haven't put thoughts to paper in while.  I have been flying on autopilot for the mot part.  Work, read, sleep.  But with this fountain pen as a means of inspiration, I should strike while the iron is hot, as it were. I am no longer a smoker.  December 31st, 2007 was my last day of smoking.  It has not been difficult at all.  My mind was made up before hand and I didn't look back. I have also quit drinking.  This has greatly helped my non-smoking.  It keeps me out of bars and away from other smokers.  And I figured that taking myself out of the element was the best way to be successful. It has brought up questions as to whether I will drink again.  And the way I look at it is this: I am an alcoholic.  That much is sure.  I have been an alcoholic for a very long time.  But I now know that every alcoholic is...

I just read that the UNC Class President Eve Carson was shot to death (shot many times) this morning.  Yesterday a girl at Auburn was shot.  Then there's the Va Tech shootings.  Oh, and the NIU shootings.  What the hell??? This is way, way past alarming.  This is way, way past terrifying.  The question "what's going on here," is so void of magnitude as to be insulting.  I think it can easily be called an epidemic.   I was listening to Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" two days ago and it struck me that when that song came out, the idea of a school shooting by a troubled student was still very much isolated and quite disturbing.  Now a days it is doubly disturbing, but because of its' frequency, not because of its uniqueness.  We're becoming so used to hearing that someone else was shot somewhere else by someone else with some kind of troubled past that the news doesn't even shock anymore. This one is hitting really close to home.  No, scratch that.  This ...

Some of you probably know of the difficult and rather painful process of beginning a life with anti-depressants.  It takes quite awhile for your body to adjust to the pills and their effects.  But once you have adjusted, life can be quite fine. I was on anti-depressants (this last time) for about 1.5 years.  I have been trying to ween myself off since December 2007.  Its been a LONG process.  Right now I'm on the lowest dosage every other day.  The day I'm on is pretty good.  Just mildly dizzy.  But the day I'm off is bad.  I'm super dizzy and sick feeling. And that's part of the reason why I decided to quit taking them.  I hate to be tied to a drug that has such control on my physical well being.  I hate to think that missing one day will knock me off my feet.  And truth be told, I can function just fine without them. But let me just say from first-hand experience, quitting your anti-depressants is one hell of a long, miserable process!

I'm reading Per Petterson's "Out Stealing Horses" and I just came across a line I really liked. "A shipwrecked man without an anchor in the world except in his own liquid thoughts where time has lost its sequence." I like that.  That to me is a very visual way of describing your mind slipping away. "A shipwrecked man without an anchor in the world expect in his own liquid thoughts where time has lost its sequence."