Inside the Head of a TV Junkie

On Jan. 30, 2008 I received almost 4,500 page visits to my post about the Democratic candidates and gay issues. See image below.

Haris.tv has put together a nice tutorial on how to setup your WordPress Blog with FeedBurner so you can view your subscription stats. Check it.

According to Rasmussen Reports (1/30/08), John McCain would beat both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama if the election were to be held today.

Follow the Rasmussen Reports on a daily basis to see where the candidates stand as we approach Super Tuesday.

<rant>I dislike Dave Matthews and his music. I switch the radio station when one of his songs begins to play. People who love Dave annoy me, especially when they try to make me love Dave. I do not love Dave nor will I ever love Dave. I have listened to my fair share of Dave songs and I do feel that I have enough exposure to all that is Dave to form the opinion that he and his music suck.</rant>

The main reason I dislike Dave Matthews: People like him because “it’s cool” and treat you like you’re a crazy person if you don’t like him just as much as they do. I still can’t get over the way people react when I tell them that I don’t like DMB.

“What?! What’s wrong with you? It’s such great music. You obviously know nothing about good music.”

Yet, ask a DMB fan to name one song that has touched them deeply or has deep meaning to them and I bet they’ll be hard pressed to name a song.

The music is bland, lacks passion or integrity, and is intended only as background noise. Each song sounds the same or at least very similar which shows a lack of talent in music writing.

I just don’t get it. Dave has managed to somehow convince good people that like good music that his music is good. I guess I can’t fault him for that, it’s definitely working out well for him. He certainly isn’t hurting for cash.

Let me just finish by saying that I don’t think every song I listen to has some sort of deep meaning or has changed my life in some way. That would be ridiculous. I’m also not saying that you have to not like Dave Matthews. What I am saying is please don’t act like Dave Matthews is the standard by which all other music should be compared. He is not the Jesus of music and will not go down in history as one of the greatest musicians of all time. Enjoy your Dave songs, silently, and allow me to voice my opinion of dislike for him and his music without being made to feel as if I’ve just punched a sweet new born baby in the face and enjoyed it.

I thought this would be a good day to post this article. A week away from Super Tuesday and the day the people of Florida vote (even though the Dems have no delegates at stake in FL). The following quote is from this article about how the current democratic candidates are frustrating some gay activists. An interesting read.

Even as they expect to support whichever Democrat gets the presidential nomination, many activists are disappointed that the three leading contenders rarely mention gay-rights topics unless responding to a question.

“They don’t want to broach civil unions, marriage, equalizing benefits for same-sex couples,” said Jennifer Chrisler, head of the Family Equality Council, which supports gay and lesbian families. “The vast majority of politicians don’t lead, they follow.”

There are other frustrations as well. Activists were dismayed that the Democratic-led Congress failed to approve two much-anticipated bills late last year - one defining anti-gay assaults as a federal hate crime, the other prohibiting anti-gay job discrimination.

We don’t need four more years of this:

I found this cartoon drawn by the Arizona Republic’s own Benson. Love it.

Well, Arizona was in the news today because of a stupid statute on the books that allows anything and everything to be put on a license plate as long as it meets a very small list of requirements. Not only does it allow for crazy law suits like the one listed in the story linked below but it also allows for a plethora of crazy looking license plates to be created and used throughout Arizona. I think it’s pretty dumb, but what do I know?

Except follows from the 9th Circuit Appeals Court:

The License Plate Commission “clearly denied the application based on the nature of the message,” Judge Richard Tallman said in the court opinion.

He said the commission’s job was limited to deciding whether groups meet the legal guidelines for specialty plates. That means deciding whether the sponsoring organization serves the community, is not “offensive or discriminatory in its purpose,” and does not promote a religious message, Tallman said.

The Life Coalition met those criteria by providing evidence of its community and charitable work, Tallman said.

Full story here.

Image of the new plate:

What ever happened to having a standard license plate for everyone in the state to use? At least this one looks more like the standard plate than some of the crazy ones we have here in AZ. Let’s just hope the commission learned their lesson. AZ doesn’t have the $$ to spend on lawyers!

This weekend I filled out the paperwork that was sent to me by the US District Court in regards to the fees charged to credit card/debit card transactions outside of the US. I actually did this on-line which made it just a bit easier. I had to tally up all the days that I’ve been out of the country from 2/1/96 through 11/8/06. I went through photo albums and looked at tickets and receipts I had from various trips to get an accurate idea of the amount of time I’ve spent out of the country during that time period. Here’s a break down:

• High School European Trip #1 - 13 Days
• High School European Trip #2 - 15 Days
• After College Graduation European Trip - 39 Days
• Winter Olympics, Torino, Italy Trip - 11 Days
• Total Damage: 78 Days!

Kind of crazy but I wouldn’t give back even one of those days. Get out and travel. You won’t regret it!

This weekend I was reminded of how much I enjoy the classic, old school Whitney Houston. Check out a few of my favorites via YouTube music videos. Classic!!

I was searching through my Windows box today and found some DVD .iso files that I forgot I had.  I’m now in the process of converting “The Commitments“, “In America“, and “Open Range” to .mp4s so that I can play them on demand from my couch through the Xbox360.  I love technology.  (That reminds me of Kip’s song from the end of Napoleon Dynamite… you know, the one he dedicates to LaFawnduh)

“I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got” - Razorlight - Razorlight