"Our dear liberated heroes"

Stories like this absolutely drive me insane. And as one witness can attest yesterday... I was livid for a while after I heard about it. It usually takes a lot for me to write one of these posts, and this story today was the final straw. Read them over, form your own opinions, discuss amongst yourselves; I don't give a shit. This is my blog post and if you don't like what I have to say then write your own post about it. Do not negotiate with terrorists. This doesn't have anything to do with infringing civil liberties, harassing potential suspects, or impeding due process of the law. These are people convicted in court of murdering innocents for political gain. They should not get the freedoms that they denied to others. I was in Spain when 191 of my fellow residents were killed while they were just trying to get to work. And even though I've never been to Lebanon, there is no political situation on Earth that can justify executing a man in front of his four year-old daughter and then bludgeoning her to death with the same gun. None. I know people that post on this blog don't agree with my opinions on this, but there are people in this world that do not agree to follow the rules of law or man. When you encounter one of these people, and it comes to that point, there can only be one solution. You strike hard and fast, and with the aim to finish it. That's all I have to say.

Things I suck at:

I can officially add "regularly updating a blog" to the long list of things at which I'm just no God-damned good. After the initial excitement of the blog's novelty wore off we were terrible about updating this thing. Then the beard-off came around and like an pro athlete suddenly traded to a winning team we rocked it for about two months only to watch our performance fall off like a bunch of no-heart sad-sacks. Unfortunately for our four devoted readers I don't think the blog updates will be coming with any increased frequency. So as an apology and in the spirit of self-flagellation I give you a short list of things Cole sucks at:

1. The performing arts - This would include dancing, singing, theater, etc. I'm just really uncoordinated, tone deaf, and generally untalented when it comes down to it. Although the fact that I suck ass in these aspects doesn't prevent me from appreciating the talents of others.

2. Cooking - I can't pinpoint the reason for this one, but I think it comes down to my lack of interest. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy good food, but I could care less about how it gets from the ingredient stage to the part where I stab it with my fork. Most of my cooking experimentation consists of finding ways to cook faster. Case in point, I now microwave my condensed soup.

3. Keeping in touch with people - I think the cause of this one is my need to focus all my energy on not sucking at whatever I'm currently doing. This makes me forget to contact everyone from my friends to my grandma (sorry Emma, the Twins are on a hot streak).

4. Growing up - Pretty self-explanatory. I agonize over being tied down by the purchase of a vacuum cleaner. Ben Folds sang about it, I live it.

5. Applying sunscreen - For some reason every summer I forget that I'm so white that I could be considered transparent and I decide that I don't need sunscreen. Part of it is my desire for that beautiful, deep tan that people of other ethnic backgrounds enjoy, and the other part is ignorance about the effects of skin cancer. However, as evidenced by family history my heart will suddenly explode before I ever experience the pain of melanoma. Thank God.

So there you go folks! I know there's stuff that I'm good at too, but no one really wants to read about that. Feel free to add anything that I missed, but please be gentle.


Now in facial hair related news: Jason Giambi's mustache kicks ass! We debated about this during the beard-off, but now I'm well-convinced that steroids would unfairly enhance beard-off performance.

Our Crazy Minds

The brain is an amazing muscle. A little over a year ago I began documenting my dreams. This only lasted like two weeks, but I never read them since it happened. Until tonight. It was amazing how much I remebered from the dream after reading it a year later. I think I am going to by a digital voice recorder so I can keep track of them on my way to work and then right them down later on. I had initially intended on writing a book about them, but I some what ditched that idea. I did begin a different novel however, and I think I'm going to incorporate them into that. I doubt it will ever be published. I had documented my moods and intoxication level (I was a drunk back then!!) as well to see if that made a difference. There is one crazy dream i read about that was interesting because it involved things that had happened that day, but in much different contexts. Anyway, I think i would really like to start doing that again. If you have time, you should try it out, its quite the experiment. Well, that's all I have for now. I need to go to bed so I can try to make it to work on time in the morning. Luckily it is thursday tomorrow and I am taking a vacation day friday. Should be a good day. peace.

Daniel Day-Lewis is a pretty kick ass actor.

I haven't seen The Last of the Mohicans (LotM) since before the coming LotM reference was applicable. But I can not believe how different Daniel Day-Lewis looks in LotM, Gangs of New York, and There Will Be Blood. It's like the shape of his head changes and he looks like a completely different person.
This got John and I talking about how a friend of a friend tried to get a girl to make out with him by watching LotM, which (as it often does) got us talking about things that are frankly beyond our cognitive capacity. John and I came to the agreement that the friend should have just gone for it because when a situation like that occurs the girl is basically giving the green light for the makeout session. It's obvious that she doesn't want to watch the movie, it's just a guise to get on the couch. C'mon, we know from experience. Now, this realization has certain implications for both men and women. For guys, every time a girl is on your couch all you're going to see is the mental image of Chuck Norris giving you the thumbs up and whispering "Go for it." For girls... I obviously don't know anything about what you're thinking, but you can no longer expect to just watch a movie. Sorry ladies, things are about to either get very awkward or very sexy.
So in order to bring this post full circle I ask this question: Is Daniel Day-Lewis a good enough actor to get a dude laid? I vote yes.

Deal sealer from LotM. Enjoy.

Old people porkin?

I thought this article was quite interesting, and amusing. Courtesy of azcentral.

Safe sex may seem like an unusual discussion topic for seniors, but members of Goodyear's PebbleCreek retirement community gathered Wednesday to learn about it.

Officials from Banner Estrella Medical Center said some West Valley adult communities have noticed high rates of sexually transmitted diseases among residents.

Dr. James Brown from Banner Estrella said lack of education and comfort is a primary reason for this.
"With the older people, they think they're immune," Brown said.

To help educate seniors about preventing HIV and other STDs, Brown spoke to a group of PebbleCreek residents.

Brown said statistics show 15 percent of new AIDS cases across the world are found in people older than 50. This is a large number considering this age group accounts for 25 percent of the world's population, Brown noted.

While the elderly usually teach younger generations, today's youth are more knowledgeable when it comes to AIDS, he said, yet both groups are equally at-risk.

After age 50, Brown said, only 22 percent of women and 38 percent of men discuss sex with their doctors. Brown also said postmenopausal women are physically more susceptible to contracting AIDS.

The hourlong seminar was sponsored by Kare Bears, a PebbleCreek organization that helps residents through illness, medical treatment and loss.

Program Director Elaine Reichard schedules speakers for monthly meetings, and this month she chose Brown.

"I lost a son to AIDS," Reichard said during the meeting. "It's not a pretty disease - it's a terrible disease."

Reichard later said her son lived with AIDS for almost 15 years. "Seeing my son live with the disease was terrible," she said. "I don't want to see anyone else go through that."

Brown also discussed stereotypes associated with AIDS, as well as its symptoms, and how it's contracted, prevented and diagnosed.

"It's important to bring it out and discuss it," said Kare Bear President Jim Reynolds. "For me, the only difference between (AIDS) and cancer is that (AIDS) is preventable.

"The more knowledge they have, the better it is," Reynolds added.

Some friendly advice

I was gonna post this as a comment, but I felt it became too long. I don't know if this means much, but I thought I'd offer it.

I too landed my job through careerbuilder. I used it to view job postings, not to post my resume. I also had much success with jobbing.com, viewing jobs and my resume was posted there as well and I got random calls. And I went to a huge career fair sponsored by them as well.

As for the job itself. It doesn't have to be what you want to do for the rest of your life. In fact, the average american completely switches careers 3-4 times within the span of their life. So don't feel that you have to land a job that you are going to retire at. Also, money isn't everything. Also, go to as many interviews as you can, even if its for a job you don't think you'll like, it is good experience and will help you when you get an interview for a job you really do want.

Career builder also has some really good advice on their website as far as mock interview questions, and I think some stuff on how to find a career that is right for you. The advice and resources articles section is helpful as well. I don't know if this helped much, but I hope it gives some sort of positive direction. One more thing, I know my current employer checked out my facebook (even though I had it set so only UND peeps could see it, a UND alum worked there and he checked it out. luckily he was cool with everything on there!!) Good luck man, and everyone else out there searching. Be patient, something will come along. peace.

Job Search: Now featuring the spectre of starvation.

So the five of you who regularly read this blog know that I've been searching for a new job for quite a while now. A few weeks ago I just ran out of patience and quit. There's really not a whole lot to say about it, it was a terrible job, I was unhappy going to work every day, and I'd like to think I can do better. I'm still staying on part-time outside in the yard, but my regular job (with my regular paycheck) is long gone. I will say this, the money was not bad, and I'm going to be missing it soon, but I'd like to think a job can offer more than just monetary rewards.

So if any of you can offer any helpful advice I could obviously use the assistance. I think part of my problem is that I don't really know what I want to do. Hopefully a little free time will give me the opportunity to figure some of that out. Getting me a job will probably need to be a team effort, and I'm really going to need all five of you. And if any of you out there are in the same spot as me I could offer some hard-earned advice too. The articles on MSN careers are comically useless (check them out if you're not using a few minutes of your life), but my friend Gary recently had success landing a sweet job through CareerBuilder. And I had to take my name off Monster because I'm not interested in managing a tire store. Wish me luck, I'll need it. Keep you posted.