Why Yes I Am Quite Random, Why Do You Ask?: Have I Got A Story To Sell You

Go check out my good friend's blog.

Why Yes I Am Quite Random, Why Do You Ask?: Have I Got A Story To Sell You: Word of warning, this won't really be a fun blog. Nothing really nerdy or geeky to discuss. This will be me getting up on my soapbox and ranting about a recent event down here in Australia. Granted, it's not like I have many readers at this point but if someone should stumble across it somehow, they should have fair warning. This is just my opinion, based on whatever information I've come across on this, and I don't know every little intimate detail.

For any overseas reader, here's the situation: over in Bali, a fourteen year old boy vacationing with his parents was arrested for buying drugs, in an alleged sting operation. He's facing at least 12 years in prison if convicted.
Now, I'm not blogging that he should be released, far from it. I mean, his defense at the time? "He said he [the dealer] needed the money". If I had a poster of someone facepalming right now, that would be the most appropriate response. Then it emerged he had a recurring drug habit before entering Bali. Yeah, now your story looks real credible now, kid.

Christmas 2011 -- Birth of a New Tradition

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous 
piles of cheaply produced goods -- merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor. 

This year will be different.

This year Americans will give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans.
There is no longer an excuse that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands.

Yes there is!

It's time to think outside the box, people. Who says a gift needs to fit in a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper?

Everyone -- yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut. How about gift certificates from your local American hair salon or barber?

Gym membership? It's appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some health improvement.

Who wouldn't appreciate getting their car detailed? Small, American owned detail shops and car washes would love to
sell you a gift certificate or a book of gift certificates.

Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plonking down the Benjamin's on a Chinese made flat-screen?
Perhaps that grateful gift receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or driveway plowed all
winter, or games at the local golf course.

There are a Gazillion owner-run restaurants -- all offering gift certificates. And, if your intended isn't the fancy eatery sort,
what about a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint. Remember, folks this isn't about big National chains -- this is
about supporting your home town Americans with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open.

How many people couldn't use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle, done at a shop run by the American working guy?

Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a local cleaning lady for a day.

My computer could use a tune-up, and I KNOW I can find some young guy who is struggling to get his repair business up and running.

OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin their own wool and knit them into scarves.
They make jewelry, and pottery and beautiful wooden boxes.

Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip. And, how about going out to
see a play or ballet at your hometown theatre.

Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.

Honestly, people, do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese lights for the house? When you buy a five dollar
string of lights, about fifty cents stays in the community. If you have those kinds of bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy
or babysitter a nice BIG tip.

You see, Christmas is no longer about draining American pockets so that China can build another glittering city. Christmas is
now about caring about US, encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams. And, when
we care about other Americans, we care about our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we couldn't imagine.
THIS is the new American Christmas tradition.

Forward this to everyone on your mailing list -- post it to discussion groups -- throw up a post on Craigslist in the Rants and Raves
section in your city -- send it to the editor of your local paper and radio stations, and TV news departments. This is a revolution of
caring about each other, and isn't that what Christmas is about?

“My name is William Shatner and I was a Starship Captain. But I wasn’t the only one.”

The Captains, minus Chris Pine from the 2011 Star Trek movie.

Last night I had a chance to sit down and watch "The Captains" which is a documentary about all of the actors that played captains in Star Trek throughout the years. My biggest complaint is that I wish that William Shatner would have just been one of the interviews, not the one conducting the interviews with each actor.

The movie is filled with excellent interviews that shows many insights into the careers and lives of the actors beyond just the shows and movies they were in. That's what I'm into, yes I love a good performance, but more than that I love the behind the scenes stuff, seeing the human side of the actors and actresses behind the facade they toss onto the screen.

My other complaint with the film, is that I would have rather seen each interview in it's entirety, not have it split up and switch back and forth in several pieces the way it was shown. It's understandable to see them like this, the pieces are longer than can be expected, in today's TV the scene normally cuts away every few seconds because no one can focus on a static shot anymore. and I'm just as guilty as the next person.

The movie would have been much better with less Shatner, I'm not dissing the man, he deserves anything he wants to do, the man is a legend, but in this format it just doesn't work. I'd rather have a professional interviewer on screen all the time asking the questions, Shatner makes this more about him than about all of the actors.

Overall I enjoyed the interviews, but it could have been oh so much better with just a few tweeks.

The Bloggiest Blog Of Blogs: Electric Blog-a-loo

As promised earlier in the week, I'll gonna now give you a complete run down of all the blogs I do, and why they are important enough to read. (Sure I'm a little smug there, but if you know me, you know I'm only kidding about the smug factor.)

First off there is Confessions of a Twentysomething Manchild, my first successful blog, where I blog about all kinds of odds and ends, anything and everything you could ever ask for. This blog is fun for people of all ages, especially people that like reading about nerdy stuff.

Next there is 4-Point Nearfall, a blog that centers around Downriver Wrestling, and also will include some anecdotes about my life as a wrestler back when I was in high school. I'd appreciate it if everyone reads it, but you may be lost unless you understand the world of folkstyle wrestling.

Following that, the next blog down the shoot is, In The Crease, a blog that is all about Downriver Hockey, my fellow sports writer Shane Preston will also be posting on Hockey, and may share this blog with me, we haven't yet discussed all the details just yet.

The last downriver oriented blog that I'm working on at current is Hoop Dreams, which is all about Downriver Girls' Basketball. Self admittedly I don't know a lot about downriver girls' hoops yet, but I swear I'll learn, this is where I'll post about what I learn.

I'm also working on another blog, The Press Box, which is also sports related, but more about what I see at the state and national level of sports.

This is being cross posted on all of the blogs I currently run. Thanks for reading. -Dave

Magnets and the Superhero Flavored Candy!

Two stores, two amazing discoveries in the past few days.

First at a dollar store in Allen Park, I discovered a bunch of Superhero candies.  Some were gummies (my personal favorite variety of candy) others were these crunchy tart candies that are shaped like heroes. There were also candy sticks, or what used to be called candy cigarettes and then there were the taffy pieces. Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine each adorned different flavors of taffy.  The best part of these taffies though, is that normally I would pay a quarter a piece for them, but these come in packages of 10 for $1. There was also some Spider-Man candy rope type things, I haven't tried them yet, but they look good.

Other candies discovered, were gummies and crunchies based on Super Mario Bros. characters, and also more candy sticks based on some Hanna Barbara characters.

At anther store, not all that far from the office that has recently opened, I found some other cool things, namely some Superhero themed magnets that will be used to decorate my space at work.  I'll have magnets all over my desk, and some lawn gnomes on top of my desk from here on out.  I'll save the gnome discussion for another day though, for now it's all about the Superhero magnets.

My mother was with me as we stopped at Five Below, that's where I bought a few cool things a couple of weeks ago, and also where I found the gnomes and magnets, and some other stuff.

The magnets are the coolest thing so far though, I got two cool bigger Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ones, as well as the 'normal' ones with Captain America (three variations), Spider-Man (2 variations), Thor (2 variations), The Punisher, The X-Men (2 variations), Iron Man, Superman, and another Ninja Turtles one. There is also one there about gnomes, which was funny to me that I was able to get that the same day I got the gnomes.

As the name suggests, everything in the store is $5 or less, and they have a lot of cool stuff, I will be back again.

2 For Tuesday -Special Double Blog Day

I don't have a terrible lot to say, but I just wanted to thank everyone that read this last month.  It's very tough to get a new blog going when you aren't famous or something. I've tried to write about a multitude of topics, share my personal thoughts and feelings, as well as touch on things that I just thought were cool. The blog has been active for about six weeks now, and we are nearing 4,000 page views. While I could still write without readers, I could not have fun writing without readers.

I'm very grateful for each and every one of you, and it'll only get better from here.  Lot's of changes going on here in the newsroom, for those of you that don't know, I will be moving from a political beat to the sports department in just over a week, in preparation for that I have started sports themed blogs for each sport that I am covering, they will all be live on the News-Herald site, thenewsherald.com hopefully by the end of the week. I'll do another entry on here with the specific links once I am ready to unveil them, hopefully those of you that like sports will enjoy reading about them on those blogs as well.

Once again, thanks for reading. -Dave

ATTN: SINGLE MEN - Important Bedroom Information!!

Disclaimer here, I did not write this, it was sent in an e-mail to me, and the original author did not want to share their own name. It's genius though when you think about it.

Since becoming a single guy again, I've come to realize that its very important that we guys foster an atmosphere of camaraderie among us...and help each other whenever we can.  As we can probably all attest, its not easy being a single guy in today's world.

We've all jumped in here whenever we could...to try to help solve some of the problems of Bedford township.  But we're not chopped liver!  WE have PERSONAL problems, too.

Well, the other day...kinda by accident...I solved one of our major problems...how to easily get the bottom sheet on the bed.  You may have already come up with this solution by yourself.  But if you haven't, you're welcome to use these instructions.

1.  The hardest part is putting it on correctly the first time.  This shouldn't take too long, though.  I can usually get it done in less than an hour.

2.  After you're SURE you have it on correctly, do this...

a.  Get a PERMANENT (very important!) magic marker.  Take the 2 pillows off the bed temporarily.  On the 2 spots on the bottom sheet where the pillows were, draw an up arrow on each spot.  Make sure the arrows are short enough to get covered by the pillows...in case you later have any overnight guests.  At the bottom end of the arrow, put the word 'UP'.

THAT'S IT !!!  Smooth, huh!

Now...here's the beauty of it...for the next time you change the sheet...

1.  If you put the sheet on sideways, the arrows will point to either side...so you'll know you have it wrong.

2.  If you have the top at the bottom, you'll be able to tell immediately...'cause the arrows will be pointing in the wrong direction.

Now...here's the REAL beauty of the arrows...

3.  If you have the arrows pointing to the top...but the word spells 'PU'...you'll immediately know that you have the sheet INSIDE OUT!!  Slick, huh!

If you decide to use this system, let me know what you think of it.