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January 29, 2007

What's New? A Podcast of: Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up: Hooters are Nicer in Houston, Nintendo Wii Elbow, A Sweet 16 Party, and "Artie Lange's Beer League."

For this podcast of "Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up," The Dude on the Right went to Texas for his niece's Sweet Sixteen party and found Hooters are nicer in Texas. He also fills Stu in about teens these days, the dangers of playing Nintendo Wii, and watching boobies on his laptop at the airport. Stu Gotz, meanwhile, went to see a movie with his kids and thought it sucked.

Posted by Rightdude at 7:08 PM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2007

Blogging From an Airplane, and Watching an R-Rated Movie on a Plane.

By: The Dude on the Right
Here I am, some probably 25,000 to 32,000 feet up in the air, in a tube being held up by a whole bunch of stuff I learned in college (something about airfoils and jet propulsion), on my way to Houston for my favorite niece’s birthday. I just got done watching last Monday’s episode of “Heroes” titled “Godsend,” thanks to iTunes. Since I screwed up my TiVo Season Pass (how the hell did “Two and a Half Men” get ahead of “Heroes”?) I was able to give Apple and NBC a couple of bucks by downloading the episode yesterday as part of my pre-trip planning. I also typed a couple of movie previews, and since I’m just killing a little more time because someone already did the crossword puzzle in the American Way magazine, I figured I would type this blog, which if things go as planned, I can post tonight. Obviously, if you are reading this, things went as planned.

Weird how things sometime turn out when you are flying, though, because at first there was no one sitting in the seat in front of me, then these two girls seat-jumped (worrying me that the one now in front would put her seat back), and then the dude who actually was assigned that seat showed up. He nicely let her stay in his seat, instead taking the aisle. He then proceeded to slur his words a bit (by his own admission he was at the airport bar and almost missed the flight), explaining to her that country music in San Antonio is a lot different than country music in Chicago, and she nicely dealt with conversation. As my luck would have it, the dudette decided to spend the flight staring out the window, with her seat in the upright position, while drunk dude proceeded to put his seat as far back as possible, and probably drool a little while he napped. Two empty seats next to me, someone in front who didn’t put their seat back, and a nice take off and safe landing. That’s about all I ask for in a plane flight.

Anyway, I should probably start to wrap-up this quick little blog entry, which is really just a test of seeing if I have my laptop set-up to remotely get my blog updated, thanks to the free internet access at the hotel I am staying. Sadly it doesn’t look like internet access on the airlines will be happening soon, but then again, maybe it’s a good thing because the people in back of you could peak through the seat and see that you are looking at internet porn. Which does lead me to an interesting dilemma because since I watched “Heroes” on the way down to Houston, I brought a couple of DVD’s to watch on the trip back to The Windy City, one being “Thank You for Smoking” and the other being “Artie Lange’s Beer League.” The dilemma part: They both are rated “R” and they both contain nudity. Hopefully on the flight back there won’t be anyone sitting behind me to wonder what kind of pervert watches that kind of stuff on a plane, or maybe, better yet, a hot dudette will be sitting behind me, moving to the seat next to me because she is interested in the kind of pervert that would watch that kind of stuff on a plane. But that’s a story for a later blog.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Posted by Rightdude at 11:27 PM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2007

What's New? A Podcast of: Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up: Go Bears! And Movies, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Sweet Sixteen Talk.

For this podcast of "Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up," The Dude on the Right is happy the Chicago Bears are heading to the Super Bowl, and screw the orange crop, he's hoping for a sudden freeze in Miami, complete with snow, on February 4th. The Dude also saw "Pan's Labyrinth." Stu Gotz, meanwhile, is worring The Dude will start painting himself in Bears' colors, and took his kids to see "Arthur & The Invisibles." Stu also helps The Dude with his "wearing a tie" dilemma.

Posted by Rightdude at 8:04 PM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2007

What's New? A Movie Review of "Pan's Labyrinth."

For this movie review of "Pan's Labyrinth," The Dude on the Right was amazed he liked a movie with subtitles as much as he liked this one. Don't bring the youngin's, even though there is a fairy tale story, because the rest of the movie deals with reality, and as usual, is sucks.

Posted by Rightdude at 8:22 PM | Comments (0)

What Tie Should I Wear, and I Pray My Niece Doesn't Wear Cher's Dress.

By: The Dude on the Right
The last couple of days have brewed a cornucopia of blog ideas, ranging from smoke alarm batteries, to a dream where I was eating human stew, to another dream that included a fight resulting in two dudes falling from the top of the Hancock building in Chicago, to yet another dream of my neglecting someone else’s baby. But nothing is occupying my mind right now more than what tie I should wear to the Sweet Sixteen party of my favorite niece (and her friend), and now, after watching “My Super Sweet 16” on MTV, how the hell can my niece and her friend’s party ever top that of Cher (and no, not that Cher), especially since I don’t think my niece is going to get a new Jaguar as a present.

On to my first dilemma – what tie to wear? In the photo included with this blog I’ve narrowed it down to seven ties. From left to right, I start with the colorful and swirly tie, which might have worked back in the early nineties, but damn, for whatever reason, boring stripes seem to be back in style (I did like the swirly and colorful era because when you spilled something on your tie, it blended right in). Up next is my red, “power” tie. The problem here is I’m going to a Sweet 16 party and not a job interview. Now there’s my Daffy Duck beach party tie, which would be perfect if I knew if the party had a theme, like a beach party (and don’t get me started, yet, on the Mardi Gras theme Cher had for her party on MTV), and it was probably the favorite tie I would wear when I was in my Radio Shack manager phase. I could reflect back to my high school days when the rebel dudes would wear their ties with a big, ol’, fat knot (the 4th one from the left), but if I did wear that tie, along with the humiliation of a 39 year old dude being seen like that, my mom would disown me.

Up next is another of my favorite ties, but sadly it’s after Christmas so a “Grinch Stealing Christmas” theme tie probably won’t work, and then comes my tie which only works if you wear it on one of two days, January 8th (The King’s birthday), or August 16th (The King’s deathday). Any other day and you just seem like an Elvis kook. Sadly, the seventh tie is the one I sent to the dry cleaners today, because unless the theme of my niece’s party is “Be a Slob With Your Food!”, “Get a Job!”, “Fun at the Beach!”, “Remember the Early Eighties in High School”, “Christmas a Month Later!”, or “Elvis. ‘nuff Said!”, I’ve got to stick with the boring, dark blue tie, that matches my suit.

But my choice of tie is nothing compared to my worrying about how my niece and her friend’s party will compare to Cher’s.

Thanks to my buddy Stu Gotz, who mentioned the show “My Super Sweet 16” on MTV, I decided to watch it. It was Cher’s party, and she has been known to throw the coolest parties, and supposedly her Bat Mitzvah was legendary. Her theme was Mardi Gras (thankfully none of the girls seemed to know what you had to do to get beads because that would be just wrong), and she was ready to just die because the float she was supposed to ride to her party looked like crap a couple of days before said party. Then, of course, was the car shopping, where she pretty much wanted a Jaguar, and not the $30,000+ version, nope, she wanted the $90,000+ version, and would die if she didn’t get it. So the party starts, she arrives via a magic trick (which, of course, she was totally worried it wouldn’t work because she would be so embarrassed), she does some dancing where her pants kept falling down (didn’t she at least rehearse in those pants prior to the party?), and is worried about what her friends will think about her dress that is pretty revealing.

I know my niece didn’t have a Bat Mitzvah, so she doesn’t have that party to compare it to, and aside from the fact I’m not sure if my niece will be arriving on a float, if the party has a theme, if she’ll be doing a spotlight dance where her pants fall down, and I’m assuming my sister and brother-in-law won’t be getting her a $90,000 car as her gift, I’m not sure how my favorite niece’s Sweet 16 party can stack up to Cher’s. But as her Uncle, I just pray to Little Baby Jesus that my niece doesn’t wear a dress that was skimpier than the outfit of a stripper named Destiny I remember seeing years ago in Las Vegas. Cher wore that dress.

And I still have to try to figure out what tie to wear, and why the hell I had a dream where I was eating human stew.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Posted by Rightdude at 7:02 PM | Comments (2)

January 18, 2007

What's New? A Podcast of: We Welcome "Trash's Trash," Is "American Idol" Meaner, and some Shout-Outs.

For this podcast The Dude on the Right introduces a new feature, "Trash's Trash," wonders about the mean-ness at "American Idol," questions his regard for "Da Coach," and gives some "shout-outs."

Posted by Rightdude at 8:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2007

What's New? A Podcast of: Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up: "Alpha Dog" Talk, Football Talk, Weather Talk, and Anniversary Talk.

For this podcast of "Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up," The Dude on the Right is mad at the weather people, Stu Gotz is mad he liked Justin Timberlake in "Alpha Dog," and Stu solicits The Dude's view of the upcoming Chicago Bear's game. Stu also wonders why Mama Gotz wants to do some special celebrating for their five-year anniversary.

Posted by Rightdude at 6:19 PM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2007

Dick Goddard, Woolly Bears, and Does Mother Nature Want Me to Build a Snow Fort?

By: The Dude on the Right
Here in the Chicago area it's been a very mild winter, with one snow storm at the beginning of December and then pretty much nothing for almost a month and a half.  Hell, the weather has been warm enough that a lot of folks were able to go golfing here in  January, although getting a tan didn't seem to be an option.  But once again a storm seems to be upon us, although the weather folks still can't seem to pin exactly what is going to happen.  My Weather Channel forecast seems to be saying I will be getting two, maybe three inches of snow between now and Noon tomorrow, the local dudes seem to have me in a swath that will get between five to seven inches of snow, and I'm not sure what the Farmer's Almanac says for me since I haven't actually read one since I was about seventeen and my dad bought it.

With that, there's a part of me that likes the fact that even with all of our technology, even with all of our computer models, even with all of our experts, the weather still gives us uncertainty.

It makes me sort of remember when I was a kid growing up in Ohio.  As a kid, and because there wasn't cable TV yet, all we had was Dick Goddard to tell us what was going to happen.  Sure, there were probably some other dudes on some other channels, but Mr. Goddard always gave a breath of honesty to a weather forecast:  That as much as he could look at the way things were taking shape, Mother Nature has a mind of her own, and he had no way of totally reading her mind.  He also had the power of the Woolly Bear, a strange caterpillar that Vermillion, OH, has adopted as its own.  Anyway, as a youngin', we would hear about snow coming, but thanks to Mr. Goddard, there was always an uncertainty about how much snow was actually going to make it.  That led to one thing, and one thing only - going to bed knowing most likely we were going to have to go to school, but there was always that chance, that Mother Nature decided it would be better for us to stay home, build snowmen and snow forts, have snowball fights, make our parents drive us through the snow-covered streets to the great hill in Amherst, and thanks to Mother Nature, and not Dick Goddard, we got a snow day.

The fun thing to hear, a year or two ago when I was visiting my parents in Ohio, was that Mr. Goddard still knows that Mother Nature has her own mind, even as far as the computer modeling, the forecasting, the satelliting, have come in all of these years.  There he was, in front of the weather map, telling everyone in his viewing area that in the next twelve to twenty-four hours he couldn't tell them how much snow was coming.  There was a chance of anything from less than an inch to almost a foot of snow, depending on how the cold front moved, and in my head, I knew that he knew that Mother Nature still has her own thing in mind, even though I wouldn't go to bed dreaming of a snow day.

And so, with the winter weather that is supposed to come tonight, I wait again to see what Mother Nature has in mind for my Monday.  It's not nearly as exciting as when I was a kid, because there is nothing like a snow day when you are ten year's old and you can build a snow fort, but I would like to know if I can sleep in tomorrow, maybe pretend I was ten again and build a snow fort, or if I'm going to have to head out, in a measly inch or two of snow, and do some business consulting.  As I do every time I hear a snowstorm might be coming, since I was like five years old, I pray Mother Nature wants me to make a snow fort.  And that Dick Goddard (or now, in Chicago, it's Tom Skilling) just can't read Mom Nature's mind.

That's it for this one!  I'm The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

Posted by Rightdude at 6:59 PM | Comments (0)

What's New? A Movie Review of "Alpha Dog."

For this movie review of "Alpha Dog," The Dude on the Right feels bad for Zack. Sure, he gets kidnapped, but Zack seems to be having the best couple of days ever for a fifteen-year-old. Then he ends up dead. The Dude, thinks the movie, though, is very good, and Justin Timberlake is great in his role.

Posted by Rightdude at 5:42 PM | Comments (0)

January 8, 2007

What's New? A Podcast of: Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up: Happy Birthday Elvis!, A trip to the Eye Doctor, and a Technical Weekend.

For this podcast of "Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up," Stu Gotz would like to perform the marriage ceremony for a couple of our staff members if he can get them drunk enough, which shouldn't be hard, and he also has issues getting his family's eyes examined. The Dude on the Right deals with technical issues. And the both of them talk about football, movies, TV, and Elvis. The Dude also hips Stu that he can relive his "Calvin and Hobbes" memories thanks to a website.

Posted by Rightdude at 6:46 PM | Comments (0)

January 6, 2007

Do My Favorite Niece and Favorite Nephew Deserve Lottery Tickets?

By: The Dude on the Right
On my MySpace page blog I listed a few of my goals for the New Year.  Along with a Chicago Bear's Super Bowl win was my winning the Mega Millions jackpot when it was over $100 Million.  But now that the jackpot is over $100 Million, I have created a new dilemma for myself, especially with my big win with yesterday's jackpot, a $10 win that gives me the cash for buying new tickets for Tuesday's drawing.

You might ask, "What kind of dilemma is there when buying lotto tickets?" but because I'm nuts, well, here goes.

Many, many years ago, when I finally had some of my own income and would buy a few lotto tickets when the jackpot got into that "What the hell would I do with fifty million dollars?" range, rather than, in my head, bask in the glory of being able to imagine the great new house, a cool car, not working for the man, well, my thoughts turned to my family.  Not so much mom and dad, other than figuring I would have to pay to get their phone number changed and maybe buy them some cool stuff, but rather the thoughts turned to my brother and sister.  If they were in a financial bind would they come to me for help?  Hell, if they weren't in a financial bind, would they come to me expecting a hand-out?  And even if I gave them something, what would stop them from coming back to me later, looking for more?

And so I developed a "buying lottery ticket's" plan.

If the jackpot was small I would buy a quick-pick ticket or two.  If I won - great!  But if the jackpot was larger I would buy five tickets, all with the same numbers, based on my family.  My thinking was this:  I buy five tickets, all with the same numbers, and they come in.  I give my brother one ticket in exchange for a dollar and I give my sister one ticket in exchange for a dollar.  I keep the other three tickets, with the agreement between us being that I will take care of any need's mom and dad might have (since I have the other two tickets), and if any of us are fiscally irresponsible with our winnings, in the future, well, we can't go to any sibling looking for a hand-out.  We would all be on our own with what where my winnings and now part of those are theirs.  So say the jackpot was $100 million and my five tickets were the only winners?  That leaves my brother and sister with $20 million each, and me with a nice $60 million dollars.  (On a side note, imagine if there were six winning tickets, and I have five of them - that other person first finds out that they won and thinks they have $100 million, then they find out that there are six winning tickets and they are still happy because they at least won over $16 million bucks, then they find out that I have $83ish million dollars worth of tickets to their $16ish million.  Would they be mad at me?  I'm sorry I digressed.  Back to dilemma-ing.)

But this morning I came up with my new, "buying lotto ticket's" dilemma.

I have a favorite nephew, and I have a favorite niece.  In fact, right now, they are my only nephew and my only niece.  And I wondered, in the shower this morning, if I should now include them in my lotto ticket buy?  My nephew is in college, so he is supposed to be an adult, and my niece will be 16 in a few weeks, making her an adult in at least a country or two in the world.  Does this now mean they deserve their own tickets?  And really, can I trust my sister to make sure they are taken care of, or would my fear of them coming to Uncle Dude, looking for money in the future, become a new reality?

But then the financial reality of including them in my ticket buy came in.

Let's see:  Instead of five tickets I buy seven.  The jackpot is still $100 million bucks and I have the only winning tickets.  Instead of being worth $20 million each, now each ticket is worth about $14.3 million.  That means my brother, sister, niece, and nephew find themselves with $14.3 million apiece, not a bad chunk of change for them thanks to my good fortune.  Meanwhile my jackpot diminished from $60 million bucks to take care of myself, my mom, and my dad, to a paltry $42.9 million.

So I have to decide if my favorite niece and favorite nephew are worth a little over $17 million bucks to me, or should I count on their mother to make sure they are taken care with her winnings?

Then it occurred to me that instead of five tickets with the same numbers, well, I could up that to ten.  With that same $100 million jackpot each ticket would be worth $10 million.  I'd give one ticket to my brother, one to my sister, one to my favorite niece, and one to my favorite nephew, leaving me with six tickets, and I'm back at $60 million buckaroos!  Now my brother and sister are pissed because their winnings went from $20 million to $10 million (and especially my brother since my niece and nephew aren't his kids), my niece and nephew are pissed because if I weren't so greedy about the $60 million they'd each have another $4.3 million, and if there happened to be another person with a winning ticket, that poor bastard goes from winning $100 million to less than $10 million, all because I wanted to stake my claim at that $60 million dollar mark.

See, I told you I was nuts!

I've got a $10 winning Mega Millions ticket and now I don't know how to spend it.  I could buy ten Mega Millions tickets all with the same numbers with the potential to piss off a lot of people; I could buy seven Mega Millions tickets all with the same number and maybe lose $17 million bucks for me; I could stick with my "buying five tickets" plan and hope my sister takes care of her kids; Or I could, oh hell, maybe I should just buy two "Quarter Pounder With Cheese Meals" and be happy for an hour, until I realize that it  means I will probably also lose a bet with my sister.

You see, I'm nuts, and also with dilemmas!

That's it for this one!  I'm The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

Posted by Rightdude at 8:42 PM | Comments (1)

January 5, 2007

What's New? A Podcast of: Goals and Calendars, Redesigning the Website, Using Cocaine, and Maybe I Shouldn't Lose Weight.

For this podcast The Dude on the Right develops goals for the New Year. Getting organized isn't as easy as it seems, and neither is redesigning the website. He also wonders why Barack Obama's old cocaine use is an issue. The Dude also rethinks his goal for losing weight during 2007.

Posted by Rightdude at 7:09 PM | Comments (0)

January 4, 2007

I Need Anyone in the World's Opinion!

By: The Dude on the Right
As the New Year has begun I thought about doing some web site redesigning, and with that I'm looking for your input.

Pretty much, since most of what we are doing right now revolves around movie reviews, and hopefully more concert reviews, I updated a few pages and am looking for any comments you might have.  On the movie front, I have one design for "Rocky Balboa" and another for "Dreamgirls."  On the concert side, the new page design has been incorporated into an old Bob Seger concert review.

Yes, I will admit, there is some tweaking I need to do, but for the most part I just want to know what you might like about the redesigned pages, what you don't like about the redesigned pages, and maybe who does your hair since I need to really find someone who gives a good haircut.

More surprises are coming soon, to be announced shortly, but for now I just want to know if you like anything about the new page designs.

That's it for this one!  I'm The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

Posted by Rightdude at 7:28 PM | Comments (2)

January 2, 2007

What's New? Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up!: Stu Talks "Night at the Museum," The Dude Talks "Dreamgirls," and Stu Worries About "The Sopranos."

For this podcast of "Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up," Stu Gotz and The Dude on the Right talk holiday time with fun things like Saddam's hanging, Britney's sleeping, and Jesus' return. There's also some movie talk about "Night at the Museum" and "Dreamgirls," some football talk, and TV talk to fill up the space.

Posted by Rightdude at 7:23 PM | Comments (0)