Category: General Musings

By:

The Dude on the Right
Last weekend was my 20 year high school reunion and I didn’t go, and the more I
think about it, I’m a little bummed I missed it.  The worst part about it,
as things ended up working out, in hindsight, I could have gone.

The first
hindrance in making any plans was that by the time I found out when the reunion
was, I had already put in a request for concert clearance for Bon Jovi. 
Jovi was playing in Chicago last Friday and Saturday, and when I put in the
request, I said either show would be fine.  Not knowing if I would get
clearance for Friday or Saturday, or get clearance at all, I couldn’t make
definite plans.  And in a case of unbelievable coincidences, I missed my 10
year reunion, because of, well, a

Bon Jovi concert.  Anyway, my plan was that if I got clearance for the
Friday show, or didn’t get clearance at all, I would head back to the homestead
Saturday morning for the reunion on Saturday night, then head back to the Windy
City on Saturday.  As it turned out, I didn’t get clearance at all, so
could have gone, but something else got in the way.

In addition to this web
site, I also do some business consulting, and one of the companies I do work for
was having problems with this GPS unit they recently purchased.  They
wanted to use it to find manholes for a construction job they had, and got the
manhole coordinate files from the General Contractor.  I got it installed,
but something wasn’t right.  When I installed it at their office, I knew
that the manholes were anywhere from 30 to 40 miles away from their office, but
the GPS unit kept saying the manholes were about 500 miles north.  That put
them in Canada.  The G.C. files also contained a "coordinate system" file,
saying the coordinates were in something called a "Stateplane
Illinois East 1201" system, yet every time I entered that into the GPS unit, I
kept getting the same thing, manholes 500 miles away.  Not being a mapping
dude, I tried to do some investigating on the internet, but no matter what I
tried, the result was the same.  Then one of the computer dudes at the GC
said they had problems getting the right distance out of their office, but when
they were actually in the near vicinity of the manholes, it worked fine. 
Well, the company was really jumping to get this thing to work right, so I
agreed to go up to northern Illinois on the Saturday of the reunion, pretty much
cementing my missing the reunion.  The thing is, in my gut, I knew it
wouldn’t make a difference.  I figured something was wrong with either the
coordinate file or the coordinate system they said it was, but I went up to the
north shore of Illinois to do some testing anyway.  Sure enough, I get up
to the North Shore and the manholes are now around 470 miles north of me. 
Yup, according to the GPS, they are still up in Canada.

As things worked out,
on Monday I got a hold of the engineers who supplied the original coordinate
file, and low and behold, the coordinate system was in something called "UTM
NAD83 ZONE 16," or something like that, and the coordinates were in meters, not
feet, like the G.C. supplied file said they were.  I popped that into the
GPS unit, and yup, everything was right with the world, or at least the manholes
were right where they were supposed to be.

My problem, still to this day, is
that at times I don’t listen to myself.  Everything told me not to waste my
time heading to northern Illinois last Saturday, it wouldn’t make a difference,
and it didn’t.  No Bon Jovi clearance, the GPS unit still wouldn’t work
right, and in the end I could have gone to my reunion.  I will give the
folks that organized the reunion credit, though, because they put it together
even though my

high school closed down, and they posted some pictures from the shindig, but
I have to say, that for the most part, after checking out the photos, I’m having
a hard time recognizing most of them.  Me, I look in the mirror and I don’t
look like I’ve aged a day after high school.  Well, alright, maybe a year
or two.  The hair is the same, I’ve still got the svelte body I had back
then, and figure I would have walked in the door with everyone saying something
like "Dude, you look exactly the same as I remember you!  What’s your
secret?" to which I would reply back "Who are you?"  All I know is I hope
Bon Jovi won’t be in Chicago the same day as my 25th year reunion because that
started the entire process of missing my reunions ten years ago.

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

By:

The Dude on the Right

This is my last

podcast, at least for this year until next year when it’s the Chicago Cubs’
turn (yea, right, like that’s gonna happen), on the super-duper, most-fabulous,
unbelievable, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, World Series that just went
down between the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros.  It was a great
series, except for the singing, and maybe it’s just my opinion, but I don’t
think that the Major League Baseballs, the NBA’s, the NFL’s, or even the hockey
folks, understand that we don’t really need to have someone famous singing the
National Anthem, just someone who can sing it well, or at least just enjoying it
(like a kids choir), at least at the playoff/finals time.  Most singers
can’t sing the Anthem, and we are constantly reminded of this, during these
championship games, so why can’t the league folks just grab the people who can
do a great job, and plug them in.  My favorite is the dude who does the
Cubs’ games,

Wayne Messmer.  For baseball all I ask is a couple of things: 
Drop the singing of "America the Beautiful" at the

7th Inning Stretch and go back to either "Take
Me Out to the Ballgame" or a local favorite for the team, like the Houston
fans singing "Deep in the Heart of Texas."  Let the famous person butcher
these songs, at least we can have a laugh, as we, in Chicago, always laugh at
Mike Ditka singing at the Cubs game.  This is almost turning into a blog
rather than a podcast, but click on the podcast link and listen to it, because
my favorite World Series audio is from a news broadcast after game 4.  As
much as I make fun, I’d probably be doing the same, but it’s pretty funny, at
least for me.

As always, I welcome your comments.

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

By:

The Dude on the Right
Well, the celebrating is over!  The Chicago White Sox have won the World
Series in one of the best World Series I have seen in a while.  Alright,
maybe it wasn’t the best, but with a team to cheer on, there was a vested
interest in the games.  That and the fact that my sister and her family
won’t be able to taunt me because their Astros, well, lost.  They could
have won, won any of the games, but they didn’t.  So I’ll just let this one
last thing fly: "Na
na na na.  Na, na, na, na.  Hey, hey, hey.  Goodbye."

So,
now, with baseball over in Chicago, there is only one thing to ask: 
Are you
ready for some football?  Yup, all focus now turns to the Chicago
Bears, who tonight sit alone, atop the mighty NFC North Division, with the
phenomenal record of 4-3. 

Kyle Orton is the man, or at least the first quarterback in a long time to
play seven consecutive games, and that gives me hope, especially since he seems
to get a little smarter with each game.

Anyway, enough about sports, what
about this place.  Well, this week I’ve got a lot planned to finish. 
There will be a movie review of "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", a podcast on some last
thoughts about the World Series, a DVD review of "Kicking & Screaming," and
maybe also "Batman Begins," a written CD review of

Bon Jovi’s "Have a Nice Day," hopefully a CD review of the latest CD from 
"Story of the Year," and a movie review of either "Saw 2" or "The Weatherman,"
leading up to, hopefully, covering Bon Jovi at the United Center next weekend. 
And if that’s not enough, I came up with an idea for a new web site this
weekend, so even though you may not see it directly, I’ve got to put some
initial work into it.

So I’m off to get my audio clips ready for my podcast,
have some CD listening to do, and some writing to be posted later.  And if
you say, "But Dude, I’m tired of coming back here day after day only to find
nothing new," well, if you’ve got a

Yahoo!,

Newsgator,

MSN, or an RSS
news reader, you can always subscribe and get What’s New? when it’s new.

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

By:

The Dude on the Right
First, I have to admit, I did fall asleep and missed the ending of Game 3 of the
World Series last night.  I was tired to begin with, the game was all over
the place, and Aaron
Neville’s version of "God Bless America" just put me to sleep.  So,
yea, I missed everything from the 7th inning slumber until my body woke up
somewhere around 3AM, the TV still on, and me wondering what happened.

In any
case, as much as I would like to see the White Sox win the World Series in
Chicago on Saturday night, the person in me who wants to get back into a normal
groove sort of just hopes the Sox sweep the Astros tonight, and I won’t even
taunt my sister
and her family much if that happens.  Also, from the way things have
been going, it seems God is on the White Sox’ side, and definitely not on my
side to win the lottery.

I will say this, no matter what anyone says, and with
some respect for the Astros, it’s been a hell of a World Series so far, but it
just seems the White Sox have been able to capitalize on nearly every break they
have gotten, whether a mistake by the other team, or a wacky call.  The
Astros, last night, had a home run that wasn’t a home run, but nobody made that
big deal about it, and who would have thought that Oswalt would give up five
runs in an inning, but for me, with everything that has happened for the White
Sox so far in the post-season, it seems that God and his cronies of Baseball
Gods want the White Sox to win the World Series.   Either that, or
they are in the midst of the cruelest joke He and his He’s could pull – let the
White Sox win the first three games, then shift every break to the Astros for
four games and let the Sox go down in history as the first team in Major League
Baseball to lose a World Series after winning the first three games of a seven
game series.  Two groups of people would love that:  Cubs’ fans, and
Astros’ fans.  And to top all of that, they would also probably not have me
win the Mega Millions which is now up to $147 million.

And I guess lastly, I’m
hoping the White Sox win the World Series tonight, simply so that no one in
America will have to suffer with the choice of singers Fox is pulling out to
sing our "National
Anthem" and "God
Bless America."  Most every ballpark or city would have their go-to
guy, or gal, to sing these songs, and they are fantastic at it.  In
Chicago, most no one does it better than

Wayne Messmer, and I’d like to also think that Houston has one of their own. 
Both the "Anthem" and "God Bless" don’t really need to be sung by someone
famous, just someone who does a fabulous job.  The TV folks still haven’t
figured that out.  If I can get the gumption, I just might also try a
podcast about this singing stuff, but I suppose we’ll just have to see if I can
get back in my groove.

I’ve got to go now, Game 4 is starting, I want to get
this posted tonight, and if He and his He’s want this series to continue, I
guess, in continuing with my prayers for this World Series time,  I now
pray "Go ahead, but if that’s your will, at least let the Astros win two and get
it back to Chicago and let the Sox win there, or at least let me win the lottery
on Friday night.  $147 million would surely drown my sorrows if you really
want the Sox to go down in history in the wrong way."

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

By:

The Dude on the Right

I’m still having problems with getting the iTunes music sounding good enough to
make into a CD review podcast, so

this podcast is simply about the World Series.  I started the word of
wars between myself and my sister’s family, but they are doing their best to
combat it.  Really, the only thing that will decide this is the end results
of the World Series, so this podcast has some religion in it, namely a prayer
for the White Sox to win, or at minimum, that I win the Mega Millions jackpot
this weekend so I can buy off my relatives in Houston town.  I have to say,
in all honesty, I praying for the latter.

As always, I welcome your comments.

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

By:

The Dude on the Right
I suppose I threw down the gauntlet, with this line in my last,
“if it’s a White Sox/Astros’ World Series, it’s going to be a
fight for pride between myself and my
sister’s family.”; I have no concerns, I have the utmost faith in my
White Sox,

they’ve always been my team, sort of ;-)"  Thinking back on it, I
really shouldn’t have encompassed all of the family into the "loser" category,
just my sister.  It’s always her I have had the beef with, but I suppose,
as a family, I would hope they would also rally around her like they have when I
grouped them in as a bunch.  So, I’ve got the entire family blasting me,
and I suppose it is fair, except I still contend the SAT’s were tougher back in
my day.  Ahh, togetherness!  But, it is a White Sox/Astros’ World
Series, and as much trust that I have in my White Sox, I really have to hope and
pray that The Wizards of Oz show that a
Wild Card team doesn’t
belong in the World Series.  Why?  Because if the White Sox don’t win,
I will never hear the end of it, and that is now my fault.

In any case,
tonight I posted my podcast prayer to God, to please help the White Sox win the
World Series.  I know he listens a lot to many of the singers out there, so
I really hope he has the time for me, and if he doesn’t have the two to three
hours to devote to the World Series games each night, I’m just hoping he has a
few seconds so that my Mega Millions numbers pop up in those little tubes. 
If that were to happen, my sister, and her family, could taunt me all they want,
but I wouldn’t recommend it if, I mean when, I’m 100+ million dollars richer.

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

By:

The Dude on the Right
Okay, I apologize for my latest lack of not getting anything posted, but I have
a lot of excuses, so let’s get to them.

First off, I went back to Ohio to
visit my parents.  I could lie and say that I forgot the charger for my
laptop, but the truth is that I didn’t even take the laptop out of its case. 
I just thought it probably felt so cozy and warm in its snug case that it really
didn’t want to be disturbed, let alone have me pounding away on its keyboard. 
Sure, I could have probably used Mom’s computer to type up some movie previews
and my KMFDM review, but Mom really wanted to play Solitaire, so I was stuck
watching sports, which gets me up to…

Second, there were just too many
sports things going on while I was back in the old country.  Now that I’ve
jumped aboard the White Sox
bandwagon, the

ALCS playoffs seemed that much more important to me.  With that,
baseball filled my evenings and college football filled my afternoon. 

Ohio State didn’t seem to be doing that well against

Michigan State, so I headed out to see my Dad at the hospital (he’s got some
wacky infection, it’s a long story, I’m not going to get into it), and then I
ended up back home to find the Buckeye’s taking charge of their game.  Then
came one of the most exciting college football games I have ever seen, namely
the Notre Dame/USC
game.  Un-fucking-believable!  Notre Dame controlled the clock yet USC
seemed to score most times they had the football.  On one of the Irish’s
last drives, I told Mom that they better get a touchdown because USC could
probably come back.  Sure enough, there was USC, a couple of seconds left,
threatening to down the ball to set up the field goal to set up overtime and
low-and-behold, it’s a touchdown and the Notre Dame fans are decimated.

Third,
after the six hour drive back to the dude-pad from Ohio, the only thing left to
do was, well, watch the White Sox win the American League Championship Series,
in another fabulous game where

Ozzie Guillen let another one of his pitchers throw nine innings, something
totally unheard in today’s baseball.  Tomorrow’s challenge – scoring World
Series’ tickets.  My dream
World Series
has lately been an Indians/Cubs series, but I have to admit that I have loved
watching the version of baseball the White Sox have played this year.  It’s
been exciting, it’s been suspenseful, but mostly it’s just been fun.  The
problem now is if it’s a White Sox/Astros’ World Series, it’s going to be a
fight for pride between myself and my
sister’s family.  I have no concerns, I have the utmost faith in my
White Sox,

they’ve always been my team, sort of 😉

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

By:

The Dude on the Right
I was going to see the movie "Waiting" today, at least to add another movie
review for the weekend, but alas, the football game between the Chicago Bears
and Cleveland Browns started, and since I did see "Two For the Money" on
Saturday, I didn’t feel that guilty.  But as I camped out on my couch,
listening to the radio feed from
WBBM and watching the TV
feed on FOX (the FOX announcers were, well, not that great, and the

Chicago radio crew is great), it is now official:  I’ve lived in
Chicago long enough to switch my allegiance from my old home teams, those being
based in Cleveland, to my new home teams, those being based in Chicago, although
there is a slight baseball wrinkle, and that came up during the end of the
baseball season when the Tribe was playing the White Sox.  There I was, on
my couch, cheering on the Bears and pissed that the Browns trounced all over
them.  So, and I somewhat apologize to anyone I know back in Ohio (sorry
Mom), but, for football, I’m a Bears fan first and a Browns fan second. 
I’ll cheer on the Browns with all of my heart, unless they are playing the
Bears, and I found that out today.

Now, here comes the baseball wrinkle. I’ve turned into a Cubs fan, which in inherently wrong, since I "grew up" in
Chicago on the south side, across an expressway from the old

Comiskey Park.  But, the first game I remember going to in Chicago was
a Cubs game, during Rush Week at
Theta Xi.  I guess
that is where I started my liking the Cubs, but in those early years, I’m pretty
sure I caught more beer-an-inning White Sox games than Cubs games.  And
things were pretty simple, for the most part, because in my dreams, I would be a
Cubs fan and an Indians fan, and only have to worry about things if they both
ended up in the World Series.  Then this year came, the Cubs were sucking
as usual, the Indians weren’t doing much at first, and the White Sox were just
unbelievable.  I found it odd, but I started cheering on the White Sox, and
not caring about the Cubs and Indians.   Then the end of the season
came, the Indians were unbelievable, the White Sox were average, and I have to
say, I was cheering on the Indians.  It is here that I decided my baseball
allegiance now goes something like this:  Chicago Cubs first; Cleveland
Indians second; and Chicago White Sox third.  I suppose this allegiance
will never be tested because during the regular season, if the Cubs play the
Indians, I’ll cheer them both on, but if, by some twist of impossible fate, the
Cubs and Indians end up in the World Series, I’ll finally have to make a choice.

I know what you are saying, "What about basketball?"  That, again, won’t be
answered until a playoff series because, well, I’ve grown to like the Bulls,
especially during the Michael Jordan era  (although I was cheering on the
Cavs until Jordan would, inevitably, crush their hopes like a bug).  And
last year, I was really pulling for the Bulls, but I’ve also become a fan of

LeBron, so that is at least keeping my interest in the Cavs on a higher
level (they better never trade him, or it’s over for me).

I have to say, it was almost weird cheering on the Bears, hoping somehow that Kyle Orton would
pull out some dream ending to the game, but I’ve been living in the Chicago area
some 19 years now, more years than I can remember living in the Lorain, Ohio
area, so I guess it shouldn’t be that weird.  I just so much wish that the
Bears could have won.  Maybe next time.

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

By:

The Dude on the Right
A while ago, at an office I do consulting for, I simply made the statement to
the secretary dudette, Blondie, and my accountant buddy, Fruitcake, he of the
firm Dewey, Cheatum, & Howe, that "farts are funny."  I had
Howard Stern on my
radio, he had one of his farter dudes on, and I was cracking up.  They
inquired as to what I was laughing at, and I simply blurted out "Because farts
are funny."  So I turned the radio up a bit so they could here, and sure
enough, they both found it funny, although the secretary dudette said she also
found it kinda gross, but laughed none-the-less.  So, today, Stern once
again showed that something as simple as a fart can be very funny, especially
when added with a little text on your radio screen.

For those of you who don’t
know, and maybe you don’t care, but I do, Howard Stern is leaving the normal
FM airwaves
to go to Sirius Satellite Radio
next year.  I’ve been a fan of Howard for quite awhile now, and not just
for some laughs because of farts, but because he is one of the best at
interviewing people and somehow getting them to spill stuff no one can get out
of them.  In any case, the other day the satellite radio folks updated the
channels on the radio in my dude-mobile, and low and behold, there were Howard’s
channels, 100 and 101, but sadly, with nothing but dead air.  No promos, no
static, just nothing.  Listening to Howard after that, all he lamented
about was that it was driving him crazy that there was nothing on the channels. 
Then, by certain genius, a listener told Howard he should just have farts going
on.  Then the wheels of the other genius, namely Howard, started rolling,
and even as the other folks on the show,
Fred, Artie, and Robin,
started suggesting things like fart competitions and wind chimes, Howard stuck
to the simple – just have his farter folks, well, just fart (or queef as I
believe it was during the midday shift, which, sadly, I missed).  The only
added bonus, some updating text on the Sirius radio display commenting on the
farts.  In my land of being easily amused, and with the utter belief that
farts are funny, it was some of the most funniest low-tech/high-tech radio I
have heard in a long time.

Yes, there I was, off this morning to an
appointment, cruising in the dude-mobile, flipping between listening to Howard
and listening to a dude fart.  Sorry Howard, I probably spent more time
listening to Junior
the Farter rather than you, but in all honesty, I was mesmerized. 
Silence, then a blast.  Suddenly the screen on my radio would change giving
Junior a 3.5 for that fart.  More silence, then a super-long blast, and
then my radio would tell me that Junior’s last far was 17 seconds.  And it
just continued, and I couldn’t stop listening, and I couldn’t stop laughing.

This isn’t rocket science, which I could help you with since I do have an
Aerospace Engineering degree,
but I will go to my grave saying that "Farts are funny."  Today, Howard
just helped me prove that I’m right, especially later in the day, when I was
heading back to the dude-pad, heard Will the Farter, and still just couldn’t
help but laugh, and whoever was typing in the text going into my radio display,
you’re pretty funny too.

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

By:

The Dude on the Right
I just couldn’t bring myself to actually go out and see a movie this weekend, I
mean my choices were and Exorcist-type movie which is actually more about the
priest, and "Mr. Man," which, well, just didn’t look that good. So this morning
after reading my newspaper I actually hunkered down with a DVD I picked up, the
movie "Crash," and
it was a great drama that really didn’t hold back showing a lot of people are
either blatantly racist or have it in them without realizing it. But that’s not
the important thing today, and I know, we are remembering 9/11 four years ago,
but fall is officially here as NFL Sunday kicked into high gear.

Right now my Bears
are struggling on offense, and I see my
Browns aren’t
fairing too well as of yet. Hopefully that will change by the end of the
afternoon, but as football season has officially begun, I also am filled with
impending dilemmas, namely the fall television season is ready to begin, which I
mentioned in my last Blog. And here’s where the problem lies. As I keep trying
to expand the web site, get back to concert reviewing and covering more things,
I also have this grand notion of starting a podcast, but where will my TV
viewing come in. Sure, the TIVO and VCR will be used diligently, but when will I
watch things. My original plan a few years ago was to record things during the
week and then watch everything over the weekend. That was fine for then, but if
I’m doing the podcast thing, especially on a mostly daily basis, it won’t do
much good to give you any kind of TV recap when it’s a week late. I guess I’ll
just have to figure things out, with I guess the first thing actually being
getting my podcast up and running.

Hope you had a good weekend and have a great week. See ya next time.

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