Celebrity vs. Non-Celbrity Rant

Celeb Rant

OK so who is this? Lara Croft Right? Angelina Jolie? No it's Allison Carroll she's been the official Lara Croft for the video games promotional stuff since 2008 where have you been? (That is what many people will say about me after this rant I guess)

I am beyond tired of Non-Celebrity-Celebrities. The people who are famous for just being famous. How the heck did they become famous? People who appear on or win these reality TV contest shows are NOT CELEBS! WHY OH WHY Does the frack'n Media treat them as celebrities?

When I first heard about that couple who had eight kids and got a reality television show to tell about them just because they had eight kids I didn't know or care what their names were. Then I started hearing about Nick and Sally or Cathy or whatever her name was/is. Every once in a while there would be a news headline that said "Sally upset over wedding cake" OK who the heck is Sally again? Oh Yeah she's that woman on that stupid reality show. People actually watch that show?

I am also sick of when the media using just one name in a headline. "Jessica is Pregnant" OK WHICH JESSICA? Simpson? Hawn? Beal? Sarah Parker? Rabbit? Private Lynch? WHO? WHICH ONE?

It used to be in reporting you would give the person's full name THE FIRST TIME you mention their name (an usually also in the tagline or headline) THEN after the first mention you can give just their last name. Since you have already mentioned their full name and your readers know who you are talking about. If you have a small closed audience and always mention the same people I guess you can get away with this type of first name only reporting, but most of the time this is just too confusing.

The same applies with organizations and companies. You give the full company name, or the companies public trading name FIRST then later you can use the acronym or abbreviation. The few exceptions are The FBI, CIA & KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti - English translation is Committee of State Security) organizations that are widely well known often world wide and are not often confused with something else.

OK we can get when someone says "Jacko" they mean Micheal Jackson or "Jay-Lo" is Jennifer Lopez but other than that most of the time it can get pretty confusing and then frustrating if you aren't up on the Celebrity of the Minute.

So please World Wide Media stop with the "Simpson goes back to Jail" Head-Lines. Which One? Jessica? O.J.? Bart? You know it's worse when the name is Smith or the first name is John. OK which John are you talking about now? Which one is currently the most popular John?

[Edit note:] Why is there some bracket like lines with the KGB translation? It doesn't show when I preview, but shows up in the final form. Weird.

Stuper Bowled 44

Coming Sunday it's the annual NFL Budweiser Clydesdale Commercial Celebration with a football game. Wait that's not right, OH yeah it's the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue? Um the revival of Rock 'n' Rollergames? Oh that's right the SUPER BOWL. The Indianapolis Colts vs. The New Orleans Saints. It's the first time for the Saints to the big show, and the umpty umpth for the Colts.

So what commercial will everybody be talking about on Monday morning 8 February 2010? I don't know and I don't really care. I will of course watch the game and actually pay attention to the commercials, except for when I really really gotta go to the head.

Sometimes I take pride in the fact that I am as old as the Super Bowl, but since Super Bowl XL that pride has fallen by the wayside along with my youth and my excellent health. Just call me Middle-Aged Man!

The first Super Bowl I recall watching or being interested in was SB VII (7) The Washington Redskins were the favored team, even though the AFC Miami Dolphins had an undefeated season, and ended up winning 14-7. It was a major disappointment. It was also disappointing because my fave quarterback Sonny Jurgensen didn't play because of a leg injury he had during the season. I recall my brother used to (and probably still does somewhere) have a joke book that had photos of the Redskins season that year with cartoon "thought" balloons. One of the pictures was of Sonny on the sidelines on Crutches. I forget what the saying was. I don't have many clear memories of the actual game, like so many other games though the years. The Skins did have revenge 10 years later in SB XVII. My fave Super Bowl though is XXII when the Skins beat the tar out of the Broncos 42-10. That was the best 2nd quarter of any Super Bowl I've seen, and as I said the first one I saw was number 7 and I've seen every one ever since. I've been bored with some of them especially during the 1990s but the last few have been exciting. For a few years there the commercials were more exciting than the game.

I do have some vague memories of a commercial campaign around that time for Noxzema cleansing cream. One of the Super Bowl commercials from back then was with Joe Namath and a the Noxzema girl who was a then unkown Farrah Fawcett. I recall she used to sing the jingle part of which went "Let Noxzema cream your face.." something something "it can't be beat"

Joe Namath and Farrah Fawcett from Noxzema shoot.

If I recall correctly at the end of that commercial with Joe and Farrah she smacks him in the face with a handful of the stuff. see it on youtube OK so maybe the last part of my quote isn't right.

Anyway a classic Super Bowl commercial is the famous Coke commercial with Joe Greene and a kid, where the kid gives "mean Joe" his Coke and Joe gives the kid the sweaty jersey from his back. My faves have always been the Budweiser Clydesdale commercials. One of the best I think is the one where the horses are playing football and you see a zebra "reviewing" the last play, two cowboys are standing against a fence, one of them says "That referee is a jack-ass" the other one says "Nope I believe that is a Zebra".

Zebra Referee Commercial

Remember during the 80s, if you were alive then, the Bud Bowl commercials? It was one of the first concept "mock Super Bowl" commercials where they pitted regular Budweiser Bottles up against Bud Light, the bottles had on little helmets instead of bottle caps, I think they were stop motion type animation. Pretty silly but they had them for a few years until people got sick of them. I think they are much better than the "Waaazz UP?" or that STUPID E*Trade talking baby. UGH I can't stand those things.

There have been some side line gimmicks that feed off the success of the Super Bowl. The Puppy Bowl, Various Half-Time Specials like the "In Living Color" Live Half-Time Special one year and more recently the Lingerie Bowl. The LB is apparently a real thing though as there is a real Lingerie Football League. I think it started as a joke, but got such a super reaction it became a reality. CSI:NY a couple of weeks ago had an episode that featured the LFL the story centered around the death of a quarterback for the NY team that was found dead floating in the whirl-pool sauna. I've never really watched any of a Lingerie Bowl, or a LFL game if those are real.


Anyway with the game I hope the Saints win because I always think its cool when a team that has never been before beats a more established team.

Mabye I'll cheer to see more of this:

Credit Score Rant

Rant: WARNING this got me so angry I might use some very strong language.
As if anything related to credit scores could get any worse. I heard that now some companies are thinking of looking not only at your credit score, but also at your history on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The idea is to check out your associates and friends credit histories and compare theirs to yours. WT? Apparently some Creditors are Using Social Networks to check your credit worthyness. The idea is if your friend Joe Blow is chronically late with his payments then you might be also. Well if your friend Joe Blow had blonde hair and dyed it Pink and got a Mohawk then the chances are pretty good you would too. Right? Well that is the logic they are following and with a whole boatload of other things associated with your credit score THIS IS WRONG AS WELL.

First of all your credit score is oh so mighty and powerful, that without it you can't get bank loans to buy a car or house and now they are saying even getting a job can be affected by your credit score. UGH.

OK so there are thousands of commercials that say you need to know what your credit score is and you can get it FOR FREE. Well the catch is you can ONLY GET IT FOR FREE ONCE A YEAR! If you want unlimited access to YOUR OWN CREDIT SCORE you have to pay $7.00 a month or a year or some asinine amount to each of the 3 credit reporting companies. IT SHOULD BE FRACKIN' FREE 'NUFF SAID.

Oh and any creditor who wants to can check out your score any DAMN TIME THEY FEEL LIKE IT. AND YOU NEVER GET TOLD! Unless you start looking at your credit score yourself.

THIS SHIT NEEDS TO CHANGE. The individual should have access to their score AT ANYTIME. It's the CREDITORS SHOULD HAVE TO PAY $1,000.00 EVERYTIME THEY LOOK AT YOUR SCORE.

So Equifax, Experian and whoever else the BIG AND MIGHTY THREE CREDIT SCORE COMPANIES ARE PLEASE START GIVING ME MY FREE CREDIT SCORE EVERY MONTH AND TELL ME WHEN SOMEONE REQUESTS TO LOOK AT IT. AND CHARGE THEM, NOT ME TO SEE IT.

How long have credit scores been around anyway? It seems they have only been around for 20 or 30 years or less. Maybe I'm just too damn ignorant of what exactly the credit scores do or how they are collected, like millions of other Americans. If the crap is supposed to be so damn important than how come it's SO DAMN HARD TO FIND OUT and to correct if there is a problem. Worse yet why is it so damn hard for the victim of identity theft to correct the problem and straighten out their credit score, after having had their ID stolen.

I am beginning to think this whole credit score business should not exist at all. AMERICA LETS GET RID OF IT FOR A BETTER system that helps the individual and NOT THE BANKS or the CRIMINALS.

Last words of 2009 (barely)!.

OK so here we are at the very tail end of the year 2009. This past year has been OK for the most part, except I did lose two good friends in the latter half. I'll have some of the boring details of my year (maybe in a day or two) on my website Nesredna's Knook on my Year In Review page(s) there.

RANDOM PICTURE:

So Happy New Year all 4 or 5 (if that many) of you who read this silly Blog. I've been in shows with some of you, I've laughed with some of you, I may have cried with one or two of you, and one of you I might have... well never mind that I'll just edit this bit later. LOL!

Back To Classic Pinstripes.

I should have posted this a week or two ago, but didn't get around to writing it until now.

Anyway... Nick Johnson who at one time was the first baseman for my beloved Washington Nationals was traded to the Florida Marlins during the 2009 season. I first blogged about that on 31 July in my NO Nats NOT NICK! post.


Nick began his Major League Career with the New York Yankees in 2001. Around the time I wasn't really paying much attention to baseball let alone the "Damn Yankees".

Well then in 2003 at the end of the season he was traded to the Montreal Expos, it was around this time that I was beginning to get back into paying attention to baseball, a little before the talks about getting an MLB team back into DC started. Nick was with The Expos when they made the transition to become the Washington Nationals. Once the Expos/Nationals were established in DC I immediately followed them, since I had been a Senators fan from way back. Nick when he was healthy with the Nats was one of the best at finding a way to get on base. His On Base percentage is exceptional. I got used to seeing number 24 on first base for DC. That was until around the middle of this past 2009 season when the Nationals traded him to the Florida Marlins just before the deadline for mid-season trades. The Marlins switched his number to 20.

Well now Nick has traded in his "fishstripes" for the classic pinstripes of the Yankees. He signed a one-year contract 23 December, 2009 with the Yankees for a cool $5.5 Mil. Well he's back to his roots, I'm not too thrilled with the team he is on now, but I will still sort of keep track of his career (at least through baseball cards LOL). Well it looks like both numbers 20 and 24 are already taken on the Yankees Roster so I don't know what number he'll end up with.

A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Gas Pump.

Friday 04 December, 2009 While on my way home from work, I stopped to get gas at a Shell station that is about 4 or 5 miles from my apartment. It is somewhere between 6:30 and 6:45 PM. Well first I have to wait a little bit to get to a pump that will put my gas tank on the correct side. There was a spot that was in front of a minivan's rear-side (the van was facing me) the pumps right in front of me had cars. I had to squeeze between the van on my right and the car in front of me. To get to a right hand side pump that was free. As I'm going for that pump a car appears in front of me and is backing up, and unbeknown to me the van was now pulling away. So after an irate guy requests that I move back to the pump the van just now left. I start to go about my business.

Then a newsguy with his cameraman approaches the guy in front of me who apparently doesn't want to talk the news guy (Richard Reeve with WJLA-ABC 7) with his cameraman approaches me and asks me if I have a few minutes to answer some questions about the upcoming snow storm. I agree and I answer a few questions for about 3 minutes. The news guys leave. I Then go back to pumping my gas.

While I'm driving away I think "Cool, I'll probably end up on the 11 O'Clock News" which I did for about 3 seconds.

The main point of the news story was to tell about the upcoming winter storm we are supposed to get tomorrow evening and a new road treatment mixture they are going to try called "Ice Bite" which is a natrual organic blend of enzimes and beat molasass. Well if it works why not?

Here is a link to the video.
Region Readies for Winter's First Bite|ABC 7 News

Schneider-Man moves from NY to Phillie

Well once again my favorite current MLB catcher Brian Schneider is moving on to another team. This time he's going to Phillie. When I first got back into baseball around the time the Montreal Expos were set to become the Washington Nationals Brian "Schneider-Man" Schneider was their catcher. He began his Major League Career with the Expos in 2000, and was their starting catcher during the transition to Washington DC to become the Nationals in 2005 and my favorite current catcher in the game. He was with them until the off-season in Dec 2007 when he was traded along with outfielder Ryan Church (who is now on the Atlanta Braves) to the New York Mets for youngster Lastings Milledge (Now on the Pittsburgh Pirates). That trade really got me upset, but I started getting used to seeing Brian and Ryan in The Mets Blue and Orange (or are they Blue and Purple with black?).


Well now Brian is going to once again be wearing red.

Um remember this from 2007? The media seems to have all but forgotten. The media circus of the "Race to the Record" is a thing of the past, but it still turns my stomach every now and then.

OK I said wearing RED!

There that's better, except now he will be looking more like this:


Wait that's the guy he will be backing up Carlos Ruiz. Oh well you get the idea. Anyway Brian signed a 2-year deal with Phillie for $2.75 Million. Well now that sort of rounds out the NL East division with Ex-Nats, Schneider now with the Phillies, Church with the Braves, 1st Baseman Nick Johnson with the Marlins, and Pitcher Tim Redding with the Mets.

A Recent Read Number 16

"Since hanging around with the Crime Scene Cleaners, I have been giving serious thought to the choice of method by which people put an end to their own lives, and what these methods say about them."

NOTE: This review may contain SPOILERS.

Mop Men: Inside The World Of Crime Scene Cleaners by Alan Emmins. This is a fascinating book. If you have ever wondered who has to clean up after a messy murder or a suicide involving blood splatter then you might want to crack open this book. The author spent a month traveling around and working with a man an his company that for a fee cleans up the blood and what-not from crime scenes and messy suicides.

The author often poses philosophical questions about death, life and his views on it before and after hanging around with the Crime Scene Cleaners company. The owner of the company got the idea for his company after seeing the movie Pulp Fiction (the author mentions the movie a few times in the book). He said he was originally going to go into the mortuary business, but he wanted to do something with his life. He is quite a character, but seems to have his head and heart in the right place. If it weren't for the crime scene cleaners it would be up to the family of suicide victims, and motel cleaning staff to clean up the gory mess. The author mentions a few times that most people wouldn't be able to cope with that responsibility.

At first the book seems to be a sort of behind the scenes look at the business of cleaning up after messy suicides and murders. It soon becomes a cross between that and a mini-autobiography of the author with a little bit of drama tossed in. There are a few areas where the book drags, but maybe it was just that I took a bit of time reading this book.


Mop Men: Inside the World of Crime Scene Cleaners by Alan Emmins 2004 (2008) Thomas Dunne Books (St. Martins Press) 306 pages. - ***.5

A Recent Read Number 15

"I desperately wanted to talk to a human being, but knew I would never get the chance. You are kept from any form of fellowship, conversation or human interaction. "

NOTE: This review is written about 5 months after I finished reading the book. This is the last of my back-logged book reviews for now. This review CONTAINS SPOILERS.

23 Minutes In Hell - By Bill Wiese. Before I begin this review, this is another near-death experience book written by a Christian author that skeptics will pass off as an oxygen deprived fantasy. There have been a few reviews and website postings that point out some inconsistencies in the telling and then go on to crack jokes about the book and it's author.

In a nutshell the author a Christian preacher came home one night, went to bed and then had an awful experience. He was in his bed and then at "3:00 AM" he was suddenly falling and finds himself landing in a dark prison cell. The cell walls are solid stone, he then becomes aware of nasty evil creatures that then proceed to torture him physically. At some point he manages to escape from them and "explore" other areas of the dark world he has found himself in.

He describes pits of fire, with people burning in them screaming and trying to escape only to fall down or be pushed back be other nasty looking creatures. His descriptions are in line with everything about "Hell" that is in the Bible in fact later chapters go on Ad nauseum about where the Bible mentions hell, the exact wording and how many times it appears.

The first couple of chapters tell of the author's Hellish adventure, which is similar to other books I've read one being My Decent Into Death: A Second Chance At Life by Howard Storm. The descriptions of Hell are pretty much the same, how they got there is where they differ.

I'm not sure what to think about this book, as I had originally heard nothing but the nay-saying skeptical "reviews" of the book. I tend to question the authors knowledge of the timing. How did he know was "3:00 AM" when he first "fell" into Hell? Was he looking at the clock at that exact minute? He was supposedly sleeping before he found himself in Hell. I can understand his knowing it was 3:23 AM when he came back as people usually check the time when they get back home after being someplace else. Seeing the time when you come back gives some sense of comfort.

I will leave it up to people who read the book what to think about it, and wither or not they believe the author really experienced what he has written about. As I said at the beginning skeptics will take this story with a grain of salt and call it a fantasy. Christians may get scared of some of the things in it and try to increase their faith in God and in Jesus.

23 Minutes In Hell by Bill Wiese 2006 Charisma House (A Strang Company) 170 pages - **

A Recent Read Number 14

"He's Alive! The dead man started singing with me."

NOTE: The review for this book is being written about 6 months after I had finished reading this book. It does CONTAIN SPOILERS.

90 Minutes In Heaven by Don Piper. This is an interesting "autobiography" about a man who had an out-of-body experience. Skeptics will say that what he experienced was a typical chemical induced mind created fantasy. The author and many Christians believe that he actually experienced the after-life in Heaven.

On the cold rainy evening of January 18, 1989 Don Piper an ordained minsiter was returning home from a Baptist Church conference. He didn't make it home. He was in an accident on a small bridge with a very large truck. When the paramedics arrived on the scene, they found no pulse on his mangled body, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A fellow Baptist preacher came upon the scene. He was told by God to pray for this man, even though he was told, and knew that he was dead. It turns out that he knew the man he was praying for, although he didn't know it at the time as the body was covered with a tarp and he didn't lift up the tarp. He was there to pray for this man, even though the emergency workers at the scene told him the man was dead and nothing could be done.

State law said that he had to be officially pronounced dead before the body could be removed from the scene. While they were waiting for someone who could make that official pronouncement a preacher was praying over the body. He only knew that he had to pray for the dead man and to pray that there were no internal injuries. He then began to sing. He sang a hymn called "What A Friend We Have In Jesus", the man who "was dead" then sang along. The preacher alerted the emergency workers on the scene. The authors very long road to recovery then began. He would never be completely back to normal but he has gone a long way.

The first three or four chapters describe the accident and the authors experience of Heaven in great detail. The other chapters then describe his pain, and the progress of getting back to his life. As he tells of his recovery he also tells of the tests of his faith in God and his desire to return to the Heaven that he caught a glimpse of.

Skeptics of these types of experiences will say that he didn't see or experience Heaven. It was all just chemical reactions. Christians may believe this fascinating story of one man's trip to Heaven and the Hell of pain he has endured to tell others his tale.

Unlike typical near-death experiences the author didn't travel down a dark tunnel to a light. From the moment of the accident, he was enveloped by an intense light and then was in Heaven. His vision of heaven was being surrounded by immense love and people he had loved in his life who had gone on before him. Family, friends they were all there and they were all happy. Music was all around being sung and also being experienced. The only thing missing is an image of Jesus and angels floating on clouds playing golden harps.

I am not going to try to determine if what the author experienced was real or not. I'm not going to say it was all just a well meaning fantasy. I think that each person that reads the book needs to decide that for themselves. I feel that for books like this one Christians will probably have their faith in God reinforced, and skeptics if they choose to read it will pass it off as a fantasy produced by an oxygen deprived hallucination.

90 Minutes In Heaven by Don Piper 2004 Revell (Baker Publishing Group) 207 pages - ***