Tag: Andy Wonders

Do You Think Hillary Clinton Will Run for President in 2016?

As this year’s Presidential Election is now over, it’s not too early to start thinking about 2016, is it? Sure, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is poised for greatness in a few years if he wants it, what with the way he seems to be handling things after Superstorm Sandy, and wouldn’t he look sweet in the jacket that says “Chris Christie – President” on it? But the big question on most pundits minds, or at least somebody’s mind, is what will Hillary Clinton be doing in four years. She’s supposed to leave the office of Secretary of State, which means she’s going to be forced to spend a lot of time with Bill. Sure, they look happy when they are together, but do you notice that it isn’t very often? And also sure, didn’t Bill look like he was having fun running around the country stomping for Barack Obama? Imagine the good times he can have out there campaigning for Hillary?

I’m guessing that in the next couple of weeks the stories will all be about “Can Barack Obama do this?” and “Can Barack Obama do that?”, but I’m thinking that sometime before 2013 the first solid names will be launched in terms of candidate for President – 2016. With that, do you think Hillary Clinton will run for President in 2016?

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

 

Is It Wrong to Vote for a Candidate Based on the Negative Ads of Their Opponent?

In Illinois Barack Obama pretty much is a lock to win its Electoral votes. No matter your political leanings, this leads to a little bit nicer TV, although there are enough other, well-funded ads to fill the TV space at times. On my front, though, it’s not about the TV ads that is driving me crazy, it’s about my State Representative race between Stephanie Kifowit versus Pat Fee. My problem – There are things I like about both candidates with the conservative in me liking the job Pat Fee has been doing, but the liberal side in me also sees some benefits to Stephanie and her track record as an Aldermwoman where I live.  It’s one of those cases where if you molded the two candidates together you would have my perfect representative. The problem is Stephanie’s ad campaign that is mostly negative flyers littering my mailbox seemingly every day with some of the worst Photoshop I have ever seen. It’s a campaign based on bashing of Fee, pandering to the typical “If you are a senior, Pat Fee will take away your money” message and superimposing Pat Fee’s head on another body, in a pose to make her look evil. Combine that with the fact that Kifowit also seems to be tightly tied in with the ultimate Superpower in Illinois, Michael Madigan, and the general Democrat in me is leaning to the dark side. Not that Pat Fee hasn’t run some ads with a negative message of her own, they just aren’t as pandering, nor as misleading, as the Kifowit mailers.

A Kifowit representative came to my door the other day (Hell, it might have been Stephanie herself), but I didn’t have time for her because Milo was barking his head off, and I had pork chops on the grill. The more I thought about it, though, I wish I had a minute to find out if it was her. Why? Because I would have liked to have told her that if she lost by one vote, that vote mostly likely was mine. In the end it wouldn’t be based on her track record, nor the job I thought she would do. Nope, at this point it is mostly being based on the fact that her ad campaign is exactly what I find wrong with politics today. And so I plight: Is it wrong to vote for a candidate based on the negative ads of their opponent?

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

Have You Tried Windows 8 Yet?

So last night I took the plunge and did something I didn’t think I would do, my being generally an Apple kind of guy now, but I decided “What the hell?” and upgraded my Windows PC to Windows 8. I’m not really sure why, maybe just my geeky need to have the “newest”, but I caved into the hype, and the discount, and even though Windows warned me I would need to pretty much reinstall every bit of software I had on the computer, I did it anyway. Most things went seamless, surprisingly enough, and although the screen layout takes a little getting used to, I’m actually kind of liking the “tile” format of the Start screen. I was also shocked as hell when I rebooted my computer and Windows fired right up, but I’m having one issue, and I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence with my Comcast internet connection, or if somehow Windows 8 now keeps blowing up my internet connection. In the simplest way to put it, with my PC running Windows 8 (at least that’s my initial synopsis), my internet connection keeps dropping.  I’ll be surfing to re-download some software and everything will slow to a crawl, I’ll see the lights do the rolling “disconnected” dance on my cable modem, and then things have to do the “reconnect” game.

For my scientific method I’m turning off that PC and going to see if my Apple keeps its internet connection, and if all seems to be running well I’ll fire up the PC again and see what happens. I suppose I’ll post an update later to let you know if it seems to be a Windows problem (I really hope not because so far the process has been seemless), or a Comcast problem, but for now I plight: Have you tried Windows 8 yet?

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

Will You Be Dressing Up for Halloween?

Happy Halloween! It’s a day for ghosts, goblins, candy, decorating gone crazy, and maybe dressing up in a crazy outfit to break the monotony of the year. Me, I’m not much of a Halloween person, never really have been mostly because I’m too boring when it comes to a costume, or more likely more lazy to put something together. Where I live doesn’t help as we don’t get many kids at the door (last year I think the count was a big zero), which normally is a good thing because it leaves me a lot of candy, usually Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, as I generally buy something I know I’ll like to eat later. That’s not saying I haven’t dressed up in the past because as a kid I’ve had my share of costumes in a box, probably flammable, with the way-uncomfortable plastic mask, and I remember going out trick-or-treating for UNICEF in college, which was a great way to get a lot of free candy under the cover of fundraising.

My favorite costume idea, and it’s my go-to when people ask what they should be for Halloween, is “gum on a shoe,” nicely donned by the W.G.N. one Halloween. The costume is simple: You put an old shoe on your head and attach pink crepe paper (a la the “gum”) to it, streaming down around your body. So, if you’re looking for an easy costume, there you have it! As I will be boring again this year, I do plight: Will you be dressing up for Halloween?

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

Should Anderson Cooper Report from a Studio or On Location?

I’m watching the coverage of Sandy, the storm that might just be the precursor to the Mayan end of the world on December 21st, and mostly I’m watching CNN. They seemed to have the better weather guy doing a great job explaining just why New York City was screwed with this storm, and they had a variety of reporters in the field which is always entertaining as most people (including me) are hoping something wacky might happen to them, maybe be swept over by a big wave, yet we hope that it’s not bad enough to cause their demise. Piers Morgan was showing why he really shouldn’t be covering nature’s fury, I think it was Ashleigh Banfield in Battery Park in NYC showing the water rising, and then there was Anderson Cooper in Asbury Park, NJ, being battered around by the wind and the rain, his signal cutting in and out, and trying to host a show. I’m watching, fascinated, hoping for that TV moment, amused by him trying to hold an interview with the Mayor of some town where neither of them can hear each other, and my wife says “Why isn’t he in the studio?” I look at her like she is crazy and say, “Because he’s Anderson Cooper.”

Sure, it really isn’t informative TV. I mean we learned pretty much nothing from the interview with the Mayor that Anderson was talking to, but when compared to Rachel Maddow over on MSNBC, safe and sound in her studio and wondering how all of this was going to impact the election, on CNN we get entertained by TV feeds cutting out, reporters putting their finger up to their ear trying to hear the opposite side of conversation, misinformation telling us that the New York Stock Exchange is under four feet of water, and Anderson Cooper showing why he is more man that Rachel Maddow could ever hope to be, or maybe just a little more crazy. And so I plight, wondering if my wife might be correct: Should Anderson Cooper report from a studio or on location?

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

Have You Ever Tasted Food Meant for a Dog?

I’m a fan of the show “Shark Tank.” If you’re not familiar with the show the basic synopsis is for entrepreneurs to come before a panel of five potential investors to pitch their projects and companies. If the “Sharks” like their business, or sometimes just have faith in the people, they will offer an investment in the company. There are four people who are the regulars as investors, namely Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary, and Robert Herjevec, with the final spot rotated by Barbara Corcoran and Lori Greiner. Each potential investor has their field of expertise and unique personality so for most of the dreamers on the show there is someone there, if the business seems like a good fit and the partnership seems workable, that they will get the mentor of their dreams, or at least a reasonable offer for the smart ones to take and the idiot ones to turn down.

With the show’s simple format, my love of seeing new ideas and projects, sometimes quirky personalities of the entrepreneurs, and the attitudes of the investors, its an entertaining hour of “Why didn’t I think of that?”, “That’s a perfect fit for so-and-so to work with them!”, “That person is an idiot for not taking that deal!”, and “Good for them!” comments. It was the other day that I saw something I never thought I would see, however, and it wasn’t Robert Herjevec dropping a dog. Nope, it was seeing Matt and Meg Meyer, two quirky dog lovers, with their business of frozen yogurt treats for dogs, getting the “Sharks” to taste dog food. Okay, technically it wasn’t dog food, it was doggie yogurt, but it is always fun to also see the investors “try” the products and this was no exception, especially the reactions of Mark and Robert. Matt and Megg didn’t get any takers for their business, as seems to be the norm for people pitching dog products (It keeps looking to me like it’s a bitch of a business to get into on a national scale), however, the episode did stir up an old plight idea I have had for a while, as every now and then, since we have a dog and sometimes see interesting treats for him (the cupcakes at Sprinkles seemed like the closest I would have gotten to do it), I sometimes wonder how those treats taste. I mean, his beef jerky treats don’t seem to be any different from some of the jerky you would find in the candy isle, his little cookies smell wonderful with their pumpkin aroma, and in looking at the ingredients for most of the things we get him, nothing looks that horrible, but I have yet to bridge that gap into dog treat taste-testing as the “Sharks” have seemed to now crossed. And so I plight: Have you ever tasted food meant for a dog?

If you have, I would also love your comments if you found it any good, or if your reaction was one of “Yuck” as was the reaction of the “Sharks,” but in any case…

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

Has a Google Search Ever Led You Down the Wrong Path?

This morning there are about 286 results in Google if you search tap-dancing militant islamic fundamentalists. Add quotation marks around the phrase and you end up with 286. (Go ahead, tell me you aren’t tempted to try the search and and see for yourself?) Some, but not many of you, may remember this “search” from the writings of Zay N. Smith who used to write a quirky column called “Quick Takes” for the Chicago Sun-Times, then for WBEZ, and now can be found on a “not so easy to find his writings” website called The Beachwood Reporter (His column may not always be that easy to find – but I highly recommend looking for it). I bring that up is because sometimes Google will send you to weird places or sometimes a site probably that’s not really what you are looking for based on what you search, and as happy as I was for the extra traffic to the web site, I was curious as to the spike in traffic to an old podcast posting when, during an earlier match-up between the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys, all of a sudden our page titled “A Tee Pee, the Chicago Bears, Cowboys & Aliens, a Carnival, and Shooting Up in a Theater!” started getting a lot of visitors.  Sure, the page title had “Chicago Bears” and “Cowboys” in it, but as I looked at the stats for the day it appeared people were searching for “Bears pissing on Cowboys” and low and behold there the page was, a #2 rank in Google. As the page didn’t have the word “pissing” in it I can only assume that some magical Google algorithm intertwined “pee” and “piss,” not realizing the “pee” referenced in the article was combined with “tee” so therefore about a tent and not the act of urinating. With that, if you search “Bears peeing on Cowboys,” the page shifts to #1. In the search world I guess that makes sense, and from a quick perusal of the results it didn’t seem there was a page of images of bears urinating on cowboys, but with the mixture of words, our page ranks up at the top!

I suppose the two topics, the Zay N. Smith quest for “tap-dancing militant islamic fundamentalist” Google domination, and “Bears pissing on Cowboys” aren’t directly related, but in trying to figure out the increase in traffic for my website that day, for whatever reason, it triggered that old Smith “search” thought, and I was curious what the count was up to. For what it’s worth, if you do search for Bears pissing on Cowboys, being #2 out of 4,670,000 results isn’t that bad (Add the quotes around it and you only get 6, with this post being one of them). Anyway, if you remember a Google search that didn’t quite take you to that page you were looking for, please share in the comments, but for now I plight: Has a Google search ever led you down the wrong path?

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

Will You Watch the Presidential Debate or Monday Night Football?

This should be a quick plight as it’s pretty much straight to the point, but after sort of paying attention to the previous two debates, knowing that I can get all of the relevant clips filtering out the B.S. the next day, and I’m a Chicago Bears fan, it really won’t be a decision for me at all as they’ve decided to put the final Presidential Debate up against the Chicago Bears/Detroit Lions Monday Night Football game. I have a 99.995% chance of skipping the debate and watching football but wonder about the rest of you, what your decision will be, and if neither of those two, feel free to comment about what your Monday night viewing will be. And so I plight: Will you watch the Presidential Debate or Monday Night Football?

I Call My Parents a Version of …

First I will say that I know some people have two parents of the same gender so there may not be a correct answer in my choices list so feel free to leave a comment if you use something else, however, this plight is because of my watching “Real Housewives of New Jersey.” As I’m watching the reunion show, which I’m finding out eventually might get as many episodes as the normal series (Jersey had three reunion episodes, not counting the “Lost Footage” show), Teresa Giudice started referencing her parents as “Mommy and Daddy,” and I have to say that I found it a little weird – a 40 year old lady calling her parents “Mommy and Daddy.” “Mom and Dad,” a “Mother and Father” fine, but “Mommy and Daddy” almost filters back to her being an 8 year old girl crying to her parents. I was trying to think of the last time I called my parents that and it had to be the pre-teen years, and I’m thinking the same is for my sister.

I did have a friend who called his parents by their first name, which I also find a little weird, but hey, what do I know? I guess I just found it a little weird, and then wondered how other people reference their parents, and so I plight: I Call My Parents a Version of …

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

Do You Know Anyone Who Has Hugged a Garbage Man?

The first Presidential Debate is over and now the debate will shift to who won. Me, I was watching the debate, wondering if Jim Lehrer owned a watch and thinking Mitt Romney just seemed a lot more sure of himself up there, but by the nine-o’clock hour I was getting tired of the seeming lack of control by Mr. Lehrer and since I wasn’t playing the Obamacare drinking game, decided my mind might be better served by relaxing a bit and switching to a new episode of South Park, complete with a lampooning of Honey Boo Boo, fat Americans, and the awesomeness of James Cameron who saved the day by “raising the bar.” I believe I made the right decision just before going to bed.

In addition to the debate of the debate, there will surely be a new blast of ads supporting each candidate, but one that already hit was from the AFSCME (that’s the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees to you and me) and was part of their “Meet…” campaign, designed for you to meet American workers that Mitt Romney supposedly doesn’t care about. In any case, one of the ads is about a gentleman named Richard, a garbage man who does the route in front of Mitt’s house in California. Richard talks about his job, about some of the things he does, and how people really appreciate him to the point that he mentions some of the people on his route will give him a bottle of water when it’s hot outside, and that some people actually hug him. It was the minute I heard this that I said “Really, people come out and hug you?” Fine, I can see an instance where a little old lady might hug a garbage man, like when the guy might spot a treasured heirloom in the trash, questions if it should be thrown in the trash, and joyfully presents it to the homeowner much to their delight, and sure, I’ll buy the bottle of water thing, but in general I have to plight: Do you know anyone who has hugged a garbage man?

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