Author: doerfpub

Sniped

I have had an article on my desk since December 21st, 2007 just waiting for me to get time to actually comment on it.  Based on recent follow on stories, this turns out to be a perfect time to do just that.  The subject of the Entertainment Weekly article was Wesley Snipes and his pending fall from grace due to alleged (at the time) legal issues with the Internal Revenue Service.  So with Wesley all dolled up in his heritage clothes he agrees to meet with the article’s author in his “huge stucco estate with postcard views and endless lawns… identical to every other million-dollar house.”  The article points out his fall from $10M/film status down to ONLY $2M, his staff bringing them fresh fruit and the pending trial on eight counts of tax fraud that could net him 16 years in prison.  Apparently he was trying to defraud the IRS of >$11M (or a little more than one of his earlier movies) and get this… not filing a return at all from 99-04 – later in the article he blames his advisors – apparently he never expected this may be wrong – but admits “the [$11M] refunds may have been a bit aggressive” but based on a premise that income from U.S. citizens wasn’t taxable (WHAT?).

The story rambles on a bit but eventually comes to Snipes’ stardom downfall on claims of “color of his skin”, “[s]ystematic racism”, “so few guys who do action and do it well … even fewer who are African-American”, “black man is usually the culprit”.  This from the actor who was star of the movie White Man Can’t Jump and in Passenger 57 had no problem referencing race with “Always bet on black”.  Oh the hardships of a multi-millionaire, mansion living, staff serving actor who doesn’t feel he should pay as much (as in none) taxes as 99% of the rest of the American citizens. 

… but recent jury decisions has brought this into a whole new perspective.  I now have the “rest of the story” thanks to a recent AP article stating that he will serve 3 (hmmm seems someone may have benefited from his fame since it was suppose to be up to 16 years). 

Continue reading Sniped

Thought or No Thought

So I was watching the Deal or No Deal show last week when it became clear to me that someone associated with that show can’t think through a situation very well.  For those who didn’t waste the 1.5 hours that night (yes, I did get sucked into it, but mainly because I was absolutely too lazy to stand up, walk three feet and pickup the remote to change the channel – I’ll blame it on the 4 mile run that night), An Iraqi War veteran was the contestant – actually I’ll describe as he is – an American Hero – three tours of duty (2 voluntary), purple heart and two bronze stars so I can live a safe life in the States – Thank You.  Anyway, he was doing the case picking thingy and getting the various offers from the banker when the show decided to have some fun with the soldier.  Out come the Robert Palmer video ladies carrying a round box about 18″ high with a lid on it.  As they approach the contestant they open the box to reveal….. a wig sitting atop the standard human bust which they also take out of the box.  So after a a night of talking about Iraq and making jokes about insurgents, they bring out a head.  I was taken completely back and stared intently at the crowd and contestant to see their reaction.  Clearly it was subdued and if not a bit stand-offish, but the contestant did make a quick deflected comment about it probably being for Howie but beyond that it was not taken that well.  Did the creative genius that thought this one up ponder, even for a minute, that a severed head image would be a humorous gag in this situation?

 Next time, I’ll leave a little in the tank to make that extra three feet after the nightly run.

A Sense of Accomplishment

The most observing I have done for the last week is the amount of phlegm that one can cough up at any one moment.  It is staggering, but I will go out on a limb here and state that you probably couldn’t care less about the biproducts of my nasty virus. 

However, I was well enough to make it over to our local Panera Bread to pick up some sinus relieving soup.  I had finished ordering and was waiting for my pickup when I glanced over at the soda fountains.   There was a little girl trying to fill up her cup.  This looked like a tremendous hardship because she could barely see over the counter ledge, much less be able to reach up to the dispensers.  Before I had assessed the situation, one of the employees came by and asked her if she needed some assistance.  With confirmation, the employee helped her put the cup in the proper place, asked what flavor and pressed the button.  She then asked the girl to tell her when to stop.  At first I thought this was odd, but as it played out it it became more interesting.  After a little while, the child informed the employee to stop – I thought it was a little premature since there was clearly a good .5 inch left to the top (I don’t generally steal sips, but I make sure I get what I paid for), but the employee stop dispensing and helped the girl take it down from the counter.  The employee asked her if she wanted a lid and then helped her over to the lid area and pointed to the right size for the girl to take.  As the employee watched, the girl struggled for a bit but actually go the lid on herself and then grabbed a straw for herself.  Showing solid parenting, the little girl thanked the employee and walked back to what appeared to be her father with a wide grin on her face.  The she said “Look Daddy, I got my own drink!”  with a very proud expression on her face. 

My thoughts went directly back to the employee.  I would guess that in just about every other scenario I have witnessed (including my own experience) the approach was to take the cup from the child fill it up, put the lid on, stab the straw and hand it back to the kid.  In contrast, the person helped the girl to get “her own drink” and in turn not only did the girl acquire her drink, but also lefther with a sense of accomplishment.  That employee needs to be in our school system where she can use this special trait on more subjects.  Hats off to Panera and their apparent quality applicant review process.  (yes, I am assuming it has improved since my previous post on a Panera observation)

4 Months and Counting

Rarely do I get so torqued up that I actually convince myself that a personal boycott is in order…. okay, that may not be entirely true since I do have a number of bans in progress, but they are all for very good reasons!  This particular boycott is still in its infancy (compared to my Sprint BAN dating back to 1986) and was initiated on January 29th 2008 when I read about a particular bill being reviewed in the house.  Just in case the link goes dead, here is the paragraph that ruffled the fur (all rights to paragraph remains with the ArsTechnica author)

“Not content with the current (and already massive) statutory damages allowed under copyright law, the RIAA is pushing to expand the provision. The issue is compilations, which now are treated as a single work. In the RIAA’s perfect world, each copied track would count as a separate act of infringement, meaning that a copying a ten-song CD even one time could end up costing a defendant $1.5 million if done willfully. Sound fair? Proportional? Necessary? Not really, but that doesn’t mean it won’t become law. ”

Yes folks, that is $1.5M for copying a single compilation cd.  I will let that sink in just a minute… tick…tock….tick…tock.  I have had enough.  On the spot I committed myself to a minimum one year boycott of all big label music purchases or any artist that actually came out and supported their efforts.  It is now over 4 months and I have not even thought for one second about breaking the agreement.  Does this mean that I ended my music purchases, stopped filling my silent voids with raunchy guitars, thunderous drums and unique arrangements…. NOPE.  What the RIAA has failed to comprehend in their pursuit to litigate every single person in the world is that there are other outlets for music.  The stranglehold is gone.  Big labels are no longer needed – the Internet has essentially removed the unneeded middle men/women.  Instead of wasting my hard earned money on uncaring artists, I’ve turned to 100% Indie and at this point I see little reason to every go back.  Thanks to distribution houses like CD Baby , and the emergence of studios catering to the non-signed bands, there are plenty of bands out there who actually deserve our attention.  Oh and don’t forget the pod sector (Insomina Radio’s SoCal, Chicago and UK as examples) cranking out wonderful DRM free samples to help get the word out.  For the record, I have bought over 30 CDs as a result of these three podcasts and their sister feeds.  So if you are not put off by the RIAA tactics or enjoy seeing how the big label bands treat your money on shows like MTV Cribs, nor wonder how much investment there is in simply cranking out a greatest hits or compilation CD (yet priced at the same rate as a new cd with studio fees etc.) then please don’t click on any of the links in this post.  I on the other hand am getting ready to listen to my August House, Half the World and Band of Horses CDs.

As a side note, I did find something out while tracking down the Pro-IP link, I noticed that on March 6th, 2008, the compilation piece was pulled from the bill : In case the link goes dead, here is the statement that brought my smile (rights remain with ArsTechnica author) “Today, a House subcommittee removed the controversial provision from the Bill and passed it on to the full committee for further comment” Interesting enough, apparently they didn’t consider the magazine and newspaper impact.  This of course doesn’t change my boycott, but good to see there are some logical thinking people in congress.

A Day of Irony

Today was a little odd in the sense there were at least two visuals which made me stop and hesitate for a moment to provide time to verify what I was really seeing.  The first of these happened on my way to work.  On the highway ramp next to where I work, there is a huge billboard sign with a picture of a cute little blonde girl on it.  There is a bold caption at the top that states “When smoker’s are nearby, I smoke too”  I actually do not understand the attraction to smoking myself and as long as an individual can read, there is little excuse for not accepting the outcomes that result from that addiction.  However, the visual that caught me offguard as I rounded the ramp, was a small red truck at the bottom with two men and a small blonde girl sitting between them.  As he was yielding for the oncoming traffic, the driver pulls out a pack of cigarettes and starts beating it on his palm to get his cig out.  I find it hard to believe that he didn’t take notice of the billboard as he passed by and if he did, apparently the message didn’t sink in. 

The other image occurred at the exact same intersection where I was almost hit a few posts ago.  As I came upon the location I looked to my right and noticed there was 2 seconds left on that corresponding walk light.  This brought a tad bit of satisfaction since that meant I would not have to wait to cross the street ahead.  I then noticed a police car nearing the intersection from the right – glancing at the walk light, took note the time was up, shifted over to the left to look at the traffic lights and it was turning yellow… but the police car was not slowing down (I am a little more cautious on this per the last incident there).  Sure enough the police car enters into the intersection and begins the turn left at the same time the light goes red.  I stopped in my tracks and stared the the cop as he accelerated past me – no flashing lights, no urgent call… just plain blew the light.    What really made it interesting to me is the fact there was an article in the paper two days ago about how the police department has been cracking down on people who run the red lights downtown.  This enforcement initiative was requiring two officers that they felt could be re-deployed to more important areas if the city installed cameras ….. say cheese 8^)

Book Recollection: The Year of Living Biblically

 A year or so ago my brother gave me a previous book by A. J. Jacobs entitled Know It All about the author’s journey to read the entire Britanica Enyclopedia from A-Z.  Hands down, that has been one of the best books I have read for some time.  A. J. has a very dry humor that can hit like a fish in the face and leave you laughing well into the next couple of pages.  Couple that with the opportunity to learn more stuff than ever thought possible in a relatively short book.  Laughter and education almost always warrants a 5 star effort in my rating system. 

Ron also bought me A. J.’s latest offering entitled The Year of Living Biblically.  Honestly, this title concerned me when I first saw it, but based on his last book, I was definitely going to give it a chance.   I think his previous novel may have had more humor, but definitely an equal amount of education and entertainment.  Once again, I lost a hefty share of sleep while consuming every page of this book because there were times I just could not put it down – this from a somewhere less than devoted religious individual.  Ron must be trying to tell me something 8^)

Although not up to the Know It All level, I still give it a 5 star effort based on the tremendous amout of knowledge gained about the Bible (my baptized religion doesn’t really encourage self-reading of the Bible so a lot of this was new – apparently we are not qualified to interpret the Bible … or more likely, they do not want us to because quite frankly there are lots of jaw dropping passages in there.  I have never considered the Bible a literal life pattern, but rather a moral guideline – you do not have to be extremely religous to understand the morality behind “Thou shall not kill”.  Sidebar – about 7  years ago I was talking to a coworker and was describing a discussion I saw on TV with someone who believed the Bible should be accepted as literal truth and required compliance to get to heaven.  To my astonishment my coworker stated he believed the same.  My jaw dropped, but I let it pass in accordance with good advice previously given on not engaging in politics or religion at work – I was aware of some things in the Bible at that time and would have enjoyed questioning him about those, but now I am more armed.

So in this book, Jacobs spent 8 months trying to live the Old Testament as literal as possible and same for 4 months with the New Testament.  I can’t believe his wife put up with him during this endeavor especially while dealing with the birth of twins.  To help him on this effort, He had a number of different spiritual advisors in different religous camps in an effort to understand all of the nuances and interpretation conflicts.  With the exception of Bill Bryson, I think there are few people who put as much effort into their writing craft. 

Now on to the stuff that stuck:

Continue reading Book Recollection: The Year of Living Biblically

Book Recollection: Steve Martin – Born Standing Up

It has actually been a couple of weeks now since I finished this book, so unfortunately, I do not have a lot of content for this recollection.  This of course really means that there was not a lot that really stuck with me in regards to this autobiography.  I have always liked Steve Martin so I was actually pretty excited about reading the book.  When I was younger I remember always watching SNL with my brother Ron and it always made us laugh – yes, there was a time many many years ago when SNL was actually funny – I gave up on that show a couple of years ago because quite frankly it is boring and stupid – if there is something entertaining they beat that horse until it morphs into grating … but I digress.  I am also a proud owner of many of his albums (large black vinyl disks that have little grooves in them which are translated into sound via a diamond tipped needle that rides along in the grooves … help for the cyber generation out there).   This book is a fairly quick read and flows very conversationally.  Here are the few things that stayed with me:

  • Steve started his standup at a very early age working a little comedy/entertainment side show at Disneyland – was close to where he grew up
  • He definitely worked very very hard at his craft and althought it looks spontaneous he actually plans out many of his acts.   This even included taking the people out of the theater to provide a more interactive experience – guessing the theater owners didn’t exactly warm up to this idea since it left the seats empty
  • Worked for the Smothers Brothers variety show
  • His shtick was to appear totally out of synch – jumping from one logical thought to a completely different one resulting in the audience continually thinking about what was to come next
  • He has now strengthened his relationship with his sister
  • His motivation was continually trying to earn his father’s respect who apparently didn’t think much  of his career choices.  I do not think he ever obtained this before his father passed away.
  • He is still extremely funny since more than once I laughed out loud at something he had written

That’s it.  Nothing to earth shattering.  Again, it is a very quick read and worth the time to get some insights into a true comedian.  I was a little shocked by the high marks in the Amazon rating system (around 4.5 at the time I looked).  I would probably put this closer to 3 myself compared to the other books I am reading at the moment.  In fact, I hope to post a true 5 star book recollection tomorrow.

Here’s to the life of the one and only Wild and Crazy Guy

The Mellow Years

While walking to my car in downtown Peoria today I was nearly ran over by a car.   To provide context, I came to a crosswalk downtown and initiated my crossing under the white lighted stick figure representing all clear.  As I made it one car length across the 4 lane (2 per direction) intersection Mr. Sticky changed to a flashing hand and began couting down from roughly 17 seconds.  I was in a leisurely stroll for a change and made it past the second lane in another 3-4 seconds leaving plenty of time to complete the traversal before the blinking hand turned to the forbidding solid talk to the hand gesture.  3 steps into the 3rd land I noticed out of of the corner of my right eye a silver/white quarter panel nearly hit the ground right next to the back of my right leg.  I completed the turn to see a vehicle essentially slamming on the brakes to keep from taking me out as he turned left through the intersection.  I turned around and started walking backwards while staring back at the car’s driver and taking note I still had 10 seconds to go on the countdown.

I continued walking backward in order to continue observing the driver of the vehicle yelling at me and pointing to the sign.  As soon as I was just clear enough away, he revs the car past me all the time yelling at me and pointing to the sign – now at 7 seconds.  As I completed the rest of the crossing I glanced at the license place but it was partially obscured, mentally checked off the distance to the next intersection, new from walking that intersection that the wait is at least 30 seconds, and took note that the light was going to turn before he made it there and then….. turned away and headed the opposite direction towards my car.  I must say, this was a little startling to me.  Not because of the physical danger that had passed, but my expected reaction to the situation had changed – absolutely no alarm, no change in facial expression, no increase in heartbeat and no adrenaline rush resulting from the plausible run to the other intersection to address the situation further.  I have changed, I mentally assessed the situation in the same manner, but for some reason I chose a different course of action – I decided it wasn’t worth it and instead spent my energy enjoying a nice spring day. 

I still know there is a silver/white vehicle out there with an Illiniois license plate beginning with MRF that owes me an apology, but I don’t really care.  Actually, I do care a little in a curious life observation manner.  I would speculate that being downtown at that specific location around that specific time is a common occurance for that invididual.  I see the same people every night heading to my car and have started noticing the same types of vehicles passing by around the same time. We humans are creatures of habit and it is amazing how common our weekday to weekday lives are.  I’ll keep my eyes open for MRF to see if I can validate this theory -if nothing else, because the idiot can’t drive and apparently doesn’t know anything about pedestrian law. 

Clearly I have mellowed to a degree based on similar events and outcomes experienced previously in my life.  It is somewhat alarming, but to be honest, the rest of the walk to my car was extremely relaxing.

The Longest Walk

I had to drop off our dogs at the groomer yesterday morning which requires me to traverse some additional side streets as opposed to the normal highway path to work.  This has the bad side effect of making me vulnerable to unplanned delays generally brought on by that large yellow vehicle that transports our future (sorry, I had to do it in honor of the crappy/cheesy Foreigner and Whitney Houston songs)  Anyway, generally I have to just fight through the stops every 100 feet to pick up another set of kids.  If this is our future, it looks like we might be in trouble since they are apparently too lazy to actually walk two driveways distance to group up in order to limit the stops the bus has to make.    Resigned to weight out the delays, I started taking notice of the children getting on the bus.  On the second stop, there was not anyone waiting and the bus just sat there…. and sat there… and sat there.   after literally 30 seconds (yes, that is an eternity when you are trying to get to work in the morning).  Then the storm door slowly creaked open and a young girl slowly shuffled out to the stoop, continued that pace down the driveway with her head pointed down, dragged herself to the bus door and reluctantly hauled herself into the bus.  It was a agonizingly long, but extremely depressing.  Obviously she didn’t have any desire to go to school, no thirst to learn, no energy to engage.  I began to think to myself just how sad this was from the perspective of the the state of education in the U.S.  Why can’t school be fun, what does it take to make a day full of learning fun and how much extra effort does it take a teacher to motivate their students.  Okay, there could be a lot of reasons she doesn’t want to go from the depression brought by the cruelties of peer pressure to outside influences like family issues.  But I could probably counter that with the school’s inability to foster a learning environment to the opportunity for children to escape for 7 or so hours from a less than perfect environment to a highly caring classroom.  I am no longer in school and I do not currently have children so I can’t really comment too much on this, but it seems logical to me that learning can be both fun and entertaining with a little bit of extra work.  As I write this I recall that my brother actually devoted time to helping out at an underprivileged school where he lived.  He was able to introduce them to new concepts and exciting math related things in a very creative and encouraging manner.  I know he spent a lot of time on that activity, but he was also working hard at his normal day job.  How hard can this be for someone who works at it full time?

Looking back, I can remember plenty of teachers that actually contributed to my education and prepared me for my adult years – I can only hope this girl comes across at least a few of them in her school career.

An Extra Smile With Dessert

In honor of Good Friday, I thought I would comment on a good service experience I had the last time I went to Vegas.  After a long day of taking in the sites, sounds and odds, we decided to graze at a buffet and unwind.  The pick that night was the Rio’s international buffet (as in not the seafood buffet since I am not a big fan of creatures from the water – which is why I generally do not observe the in disguise fisherman lobby no meat obligations of my religion).  All in all, the main course food was pretty good, but the pleasant surprise came as I went for my dessert.  Arriving at the dessert area I noticed there was a counter with a rather unique form of ice cream that I believe was Italian, but it was not the Spumoni type that I have had before.  All of the choices in flavors caused me to hesitate a bit as I contemplated the perfect dessert.  Actually, I was so focused on the selection, I completely overlooked the fact that there was an individual in a chef hat manning the counter.  He was apparently a good read of people as well since he immediately asked me if he could answer any questions I might have or possibly offer some suggestions on tasty combinations. 

For the next 5 minutes he answered all of my dumb questions on what it was, how it was made, and interesting tidbits related to it.  He then provided a couple combinations of flavors that was his favorite and some others that some of his customers recommended.  All of this with what appeared to be a genuine interest in my happiness – I was stunned.  I thanked the man, eagerly took the little cup containing my tasty creation and headed back to my seat in happy anticipation.  Delicious!  While I cooled the tummy, I kept an eye on the dessert counter.  Sure enough, he was treating everyone that came up to him in the same manner, joking with them, commenting on something that might be unique to an individual (nice hat, unique purse, striking tie, how’s the casinos treating you).  In almost every case, the customer carried on a short conversation with a smile on their face.   On my way out, I actually looked for a tip jar out of curiousity but found none.  This man clearly enjoyed his job and had great personal skills – a rarity in todays service industry.

I left the Rio buffet with a smile and an experience that set a new standard for service in my book.  Probably more amazing is I had completely forgotten at the moment the complete lack of service we encountered when we arrived at the buffet.  Apparently the Rio (or should I refer to them as Harrah’s) is too cheap to invest in a personal experience at the order counter – instead of simply hiring one or two inviduals to man the credit cards and handling any questions, they installed a bunch of cold and uncaring computers so you can do all the busy work to actually pay them.   Numerous people in line were confused (generally the older crowd) and some even left in disgust. 

So on Good Friday, I give you an example of Good Service (minus the self-check in 8^)