Raleigh Barbies

Mattel recently announced the release of limited-edition Barbie Dolls for The Triangle market:

"Cary Barbie" This princess Barbie is sold only on the square in Cary. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade Handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named Honey and a cookie-cutter house. Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with the augmented version.

“Holly Springs/Apex Barbie" The modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Wind star Minivan and matching gym outfit. She gets lost easily and has no full-time occupation. Traffic jamming cell phone sold separately.

"South Raleigh Barbie" This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, a Ray Lewis knife,a Chevy with dark tinted windows, and a Meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills) ..unless you are a cop, then we don't know what you are talking about.

"North Raleigh/Wake Forest Barbie" This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of BMW convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own Starbucks cup, credit card and country club membership. Also available for this set are Shallow Ken and Private School Skipper. You won't be able to afford any of them.

"Clayton Barbie" This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans two sizes too small, a NASCAR t-shirt and tweety bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud light and a Hank Williams Jr. CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick mullet-haired Ken's butt when she is drunk. Purchase her pickup truck separately and get a confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free.

"Garner Barbie" This tobacco-chewing, brassy-haired Barbie has a pair of her own high-heeled sandals with one broken heel from the time she chased beer-gutted Ken out of Clayton Barbie's house. Her ensemble includes low-rise acid-washed jeans, fake fingernails, and a see-through halter-top. Also available with a mobile home.

"Chapel Hill Barbie" This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair, arch-less feet, hairy armpits, no makeup and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her Willow. She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two Chapel Hill Barbie’s and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag bumper sticker for free.

Crotch Rocket

Okay, over the past year or so I've been re-visiting my transportation needs. And over the past 6 months or so I keep moving towards smaller and smaller vehicles.

For a little while I was fancying the Smart Car. It is a tiny little car that first hit my radar screen in the movie Da Vinci Code when it was in a car chase scene. It appears to be an okay car with top speed of about 90 MPH, and is expected to arrive in the U.S. in 2008 with an estimated price of $11,000. Not too shabby.

But what is really getting me excited is the idea of owning a crotch rocket! Having a nice motorcycle might be just the thing to get the testosterone flowing. I've had bikes in the past, so it's not really something new.

I'm giving serious consideration to the Kawasaki Ninja 650R. It is more-or-less a sports bike in styling, but has a few design modifications that make it good for road travel. Which is good if I expect to use it this year for commuting to work.

The MSRP of $6400 is reasonable (to me), especially when the dealer I visited was more than willing to deal. It is January after all, not too many sales for him.

I don't know, maybe it's a mid-life thing going on here, but then that would mean I'll be living into my 90's (!). But why not have fun now while you can do it and can afford to do it at the same time!?!

Oh yea, I would pick getting it in red, of course!

My Fine Is $500.60

MAK reposted this "quiz" and I just couldn't resist. It would appear that I'm in the middle of the road here .... $500.60 in fines!

Er, at least I think it falls into the middle!?! (Max value $1090.60, so just below middle!) Can you figure out the .60 parts?

To play, for each of these "offenses" that you have committed, add up the fine. Then post onto your blog with the subject title "My Fine Is" and the amount!

Smoked pot — $10
Did acid — $5
Ever had sex at church — $25
Woke up in the morning and did not know the person who was next to you — $40
Had sex with someone on MySpace — $25
Had sex for money — $100
Vandalized something — $20
Had sex on your parents’ bed — $10
Beat up someone — $20
Been jumped — $10
Crossed dressed — $10
Given money to stripper — $25
Been in love with a stripper — $20
Kissed some one who’s name you didn’t know — $0.10
Hit on some one of the same sex while at work — $15
Ever drive drunk — $20
Ever got drunk at work, or went to work while still drunk — $50
Used toys while having sex — $30
Got drunk, passed out and don’t remember the night before — $20
Went skinny dipping — $5
Had sex in a pool — $20
Kissed someone of the same sex — $10
Had sex with someone of the same sex — $20
Cheated on your significant other — $10
Masturbated — $10
Cheated on your significant other with their relative or close friend — $20
Done oral — $5
Got oral — $5
Done/got oral in a car while it was moving — $25
Stole something — $10
Had sex with someone in jail — $25
Made a nasty home video — $15
Had a threesome — $50
Had sex in the wild — $20
Been in the same room while someone was having sex — $25
Stole something worth over more than a hundred dollars — $20
Had sex with someone 10 years older — $20
Had sex with someone under 21 and you are over 27 — $25
Been in love with two people or more at the same time — $50
Said you love someone but didn’t mean it — $25
Went streaking — $5
Went streaking in broad daylight — $15
Been arrested — $5
Spent time in jail — $15
Peed in the pool — $0.50
Played spin the bottle — $5
Done something you regret — $20
Had sex with your best friend — $20
Had sex with someone you work with at work — $25
Had anal sex — $80
Lied to your mate — $5
Lied to your mate about the sex being good — $25

Making Love on Logo

The 1982 movie Making Love is appearing on Logo tonight at 7:30pm. If you get a chance to watch it and haven't seen it yet, by all means give it a try. I watched this movie in the theater and loved it and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was released onto DVD last February.

I wrote about it back then and have since watched it. Honestly, it didn't hold the same magic that it did back then. It's a little dated. But I think it has a lot more to do with it being the first "real" film that I saw depicting two men kissing. Ooohhh! Did my heart flutter when I first saw that!

So if you get a chance, tune into Logo this evening and watch the movie. Or catch it on one of it's reruns! You won't regret it.

Lenoir Gets To Google

It looks like Lenoir, NC, will be host to some of Googles servers. The search company is planning to build a server farm in the area and will employee around 210. Lenoir is a smallish town just north of Hickory, or about 60 miles NW of Charlotte.

The state gave Google quit a few tax breaks to locate there. The state wants the job to replace the lost furniture making and textile jobs. That sounds great, except that 210 isn't very many jobs, especially at a price tag of $100 million. And who will fill these jobs?

The focus in Lenoir is on jobs. Just two-thirds of Caldwell County residents have high-school diplomas, according to census data, and many Google positions will require higher education.

Google executives sought to blunt fears that locals would be passed over, saying they have talked with education officials about training. In addition, jobs will be available in security, landscaping and janitorial services.

The long and short of this seems to be, the state will give the company millions in tax breaks to hire a couple of hundred people. These new hires will most likely be transplants for other areas of the state or country, whereas the locals will only work as the building support people.

With my libertarian leaning, I've got to say I am opposed to this. At least the part where the state is offering the incentives. And I'm not sure just how much the town/county are going to profit, considering that Hickory is just a stones throw away and from what I know of that town, it has more stores than shoppers.

Missed Wii

I've decided I want a Nintendo Wii. Of course, so does everyone else so there isn't one to be found. Except for this morning, when the Best Buy flyer in the paper had them advertised.

So I jump right into the shower and out the door to the nearest Best Buy. I was there 15 minutes before it opened, and there were people standing around the door. But as I approached, I was told that they had given coupons out for the number in stock about 15 minutes earlier. Damn!

One guy did offer to sell me one of the coupons. He said he had 2. Absolutely not! I may want one, but not so much that I'll spend extra for it! They will be out soon enough elsewhere.

Just Fire Isaiah Washington!

I think over the past year or so I've become much more vindictive about transgressions by people who do anti-gay acts. And at the moment, the target of that emotion is Isaiah Washington. He is the actor who plays Burke on Greys Anatomy.

In short, back in October he pitched a fit with another actor, Patrick Dempsey who play McDreamy. It was something to the effect that he wasn't his "faggot." This was in reference to T.R. Knight who was apparently late and Patrick wanted to wait until he arrive to begin filming. T.R. came out of the closet a week later, Isaiah issued an apology and supposedly everything was over and done with.

Then at the Globes ceremony, a reporter commented to his wife about some fashion being "that is so gay" whereby Isaiah responded with "I love gay. I wanted to be gay. Please let me be gay." I can only imagine that this was in sarcasm.

Later a reporter asked about the incident and Isaiah responded "I did not call T.R. a faggot. Never." This got under Katherine Heigl (Izzy) skin, made her mad, and she spoke up that he was wrong to deny it and pretend it didn't occur.

Then T.R. goes onto the Ellen Degeneres show. He tells her about the incident, that he was called a faggot and that is made his mind up to come out. At one point he said about being called a faggot "isn't that awesome?" Some sites reporting on this (notably AfterElton) say that he was joking. But what I saw was a mistake on his part, meaning to say "awful" instead, especially the way he turned away as he said it. (He seemed scared during the interview...is he new to the talk show circuit?)

ABC has issued a statement saying they do not condone this type of behaviour. Isaiah has issued another statement saying he is sorry. Shonda, the executive producer, hasn't really said much of substance. This time, I don't think it'll be easily swept under the carpet. GLAAD has weighed in and condemns it.

There are a lot of people out there screaming for Isaiah to be fired. You can count me in that crowd. From my point of view, it isn't so much what he said and how he acted. It is more that some examples are needed at the national level to show that we gays are tired of this shit. We are tired of continually facing harassment, discrimination and just plain bullshit. If we can bag a few scalps and make headlines from it, then all the better.

So, just fire him and be done with it!

'Bye G'Kar

This morning I had to perform the difficult task of putting one of my pets to sleep. G'Kar was my german shepherd dog that I've had for 6 years now. I had gotten him from the German Shephed Rescue when he was about 6 years old. He's pictured here in 2004 for christmas.

I took him to the vet a little over a week ago because he wasn't looking good. What I thought originally was a badly sprained leg turned out to be something much more serious, but what that something was we never determined exactly. There were x-rays, ultrasound, several nights stay and intravenous feedings. He had started recovering and got to come home. He seemed to have his pep back, but after just a couple of days, he was in bad shape again.

I suspected that he had given up last Thursday when he decided to just let the snow pile up on him instead of getting shelter. From then he quit eating and barely drank any water. Finally Friday I had made the decision that he was in just too much pain.

At the vet, he received the first injection, the one that puts him to sleep. I couldn't bear to stay for the 2nd which actually brings death. I suppose it was prophetic that in the next examination room was a puppy's first visit to the vet, and I could hear the advice they were giving to the new (and newbie) pet owners!

I will miss him quite a bit. D'Len and Guinan are already missing him.

DVD: HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray

Not too long ago I was in a discussion with a friend about which format in the DVD wars would win out. My thoughts then, and now, was that HD-DVD would prevail. My logic (such as it is) figured that the more generic would win out over proprietary. That is, HD-DVD would win over Blu-ray because Blu-ray "belongs" to Sony, meaning Sony would have more influence and say on what happens to the format.

It happened in the VHS vs. Betamax, where the generic won (backed by Sony). DVD vs. DIVX (Circiut City). MP3 vs. RM (Real), WM* (Microsoft) and QT (Apple).

It would seem that the battle is over, based on how the porn industry is acting. Only one title has come out in high-def format, in HD-DVD. That in itself doesn't win the war. But in this article, there is some nuggets that show the end. Specifically, Sony will not allow porn onto the DVDs they produce:

During an interview with AVN earlier this month, Joone (a pseudonym used by Ali Davoudian, an AVN award winning pornographic film director/producer and founder of the company Digital Playground), said that he was basically forced to use HD DVD because no Blu-ray manufacturer would make his discs.

The article did mention that other disc manufacturers were willing to produce the format. But that fact remains that Sony will not do it, which puts a false restriction on the use of the format. Are there other content types it will not allow? The marketplace doesn't like those types of restrictions.

I confess that I can't see the porn industry going to high-def any time soon. Nobody wants to see the pimples during their fantasies, but that is what high-def will give them. I guess there might be a market soon for air-brush experts!

In any event, I think HD-DVD will win out.

New Strength

It's a funny thing about weight lifting, you gain strength by doing it. But the real fun is when I actually notice it!

This past weekend I decided it was finally time to load up the firewood hoppers inside the house. This involves loading up on firewood, carrying it into the house and putting it into the hopper. Most years my arms were sore afterwards, what with loading up one arm with quite a few logs.

This year, not a problem. It was easy, and I never tired. I like it when I realize how much more fit I've become.

(Picture = not me! Not yet!)

Comic Reaction

This comic from todays WSJ ($) amused me so much that I sent it to several people in an email. Subject: "There are days I feel like this!"

The surprising thing to me was the number of people who replied back expressing the same sentiment.

It must be winter here in NC and it's finally gotten cold. It's affecting folks mood!

Let's Get Serious

Okay, I need to get serious about updating this blog once in awhile. Actually, just updating it at all would be an improvement. So, only 17 days late I will make this one of my new years resolutions. To blog more! I hope you will enjoy it!