Change of scenery

Due to the bad layout of xanga pages I have started a new blog that is/will be updated more frequently check it out if you want.

http://www.loudmouth.squarespace.com

On the way to work today I found myself hearing a song that I hadn't heard in a long time "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan. I forgot how much I love that song. I mean I was singing it at the top of my lungs, kinda like Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire singing "Free Falling" by Tom Petty. It was the perfect start to my morning. It has to be one of my all time favorite songs by my all time favorite artist.

I love the line"People'd call say beware doll, you're bound to fall, You thought that they were all.......kiddin' you." The pause right before kiddin' you gets me everytime. I love it. That song for me is always going to be special cause it's the first song I heard by Bob Dylan that made me a "Dylanite".  Everytime I hear it I'm taken back to when I was 17 years old and driving True Road in Pryor, OK coming home from my friend's house and having the windows down on my '79 el camino and some shitty stereo speakers flying past cows and trees and barns till I took a left on to the road to my house with a full moon that lit up the pastures and stars for miles listening to the best organ part I've heard in any song being blown away by someone in his early twenties who could write like he did.. I was there this morning and God I loved it.

If you haven't heard the song in a while, I recommend giving your ears a treat. Beautiful.

Today on my lunch hour I was flipping through the television channels. I usually flip right through the Daystar® Channel and the TBN® channels, but lately I've been finding myself checking these stations out to see what is going on in Christendom. And I was taken by surprise at what I saw. I don' t know why; it should have dawned on me considering the latest hub-bub surrounding the Da Vinci Code.Anyways, the Christian networks were all a buzz with the latest "The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code" tape sets and "The Jesus the Da Vinci Code Doesn't Want You to Know" type of stuff. It was very dramatic like a expose from 60 minutes.

I guess I can understand where they're coming from, the Christian networks I mean. But on the same hand The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction. It's found in the fiction section of the bookstore. It certainly doesn't require a legit religion to devote all its time debunk it does it? Surely the congregations throughout America are not intimidated by a work of fiction. I find it sad if they are. If the God you believe in is the Creator of the Universe....well that's about all the advertisement you need. Why work so hard to disprove something that already makes itself known to be false?  It would be different if the book posed itself to be a work of non-fiction, but it doesn't (correct me if I'm wrong here). It's not even that great of a book, it's just controversial. It's an easy suspense thriller to figure out.

Anyway, I'm sure there will be people protesting the release of the movie because church member's have nothing better to do with their time. And God loves pickett lines and pickett signs and he inspires a great deal of hateful ones too.  That's a whole other blog entirely.

Today I went to Panera to have some coffee and read a newspaper. I haven't done this since I was in college and I rather enjoyed it. So I'm reading along (USA Today) and I'm enjoying the first page about the NSA and the telecom industry. I move to the second section...SPORTS YES! Apparently Bonds is in a slump and everyone pitches away from him so he won't beat the Babe in HR's. Then I move into the section called Life. This is where most regional and national papers take into account the "life things" of the American public. You know those things that make up life. Make it interesting and worth not going to your local pawn shop and buying a used hand gun and shooting yourself in the head type of thing. The first story was about American Idol and how some dude got voted off but shouldn't have. Then there was something about Britney Spear's new baby that may be born to a divided household if Kevin Federline doesn't clean up his shit. Then we moved along to what programs will be in what time slots this fall and that the one of only two shows that I watch is getting canceled (Son's and Daughter's). On and on it goes in the life section. This is the American public; this is what media create as life pages in the US. It's like E! in print. God bless us.

On the flipside of things and about the NSA and the phone thing. Let me first preface this with I know that it's nothing more than a database with telephone numbers (no personal data, no addresses....you know nothing like that.) But I have to say it kind of urked me. I mean I hate to think that any of my information is managed by anyone other than myself (without my permission). I'm sure alot of my information can be googled at a moment's notice, but government doing that? That isn't American. That's actually closer to China or Cuba or countries where they use fear and national interest to eradicate and erode the civil liberties of it's citizens. So what if they're only monitoring calls to "terrorists"? This is all way off base, especially in light of the fact that without having all of this type of civil liberties challenged we did know that there was attack looming in the distance with the United States before 9/11, but the government chose inaction rather than action. It's all there, it's all come to light in the past year. So please don't buy into the media blitz of "tis for the good of the country". It's a front for safety. I'm almost positive that when google and yahoo started doing business in China, China choose to have them turn over any information to the government that involved people looking into democracy or anything else libertarian for the "good of the country."

It's all a matter of perception but does require some ruminating of the facts that are available for anyone with the internet or paper or television. Oh yeah, by the way, all of this done under the guise of war time? Officially there is no "war" going on. It ended almost two years ago. Mission Accomplished.

Yesterday I found out my dog has been showing signs of "separation anxiety". I'm glad we've nailed it. Let me explain it to you if you are unaware of what I'm talking about.

Do you own a lab? If you do does he shit on your living room floor out of spite? Does he dig up anything you plant in your yard including potted plants and a tenderly cared for vegetable patch? If so then you're dog is probably suffering from "separation anxiety" as well. You see my dog Guinness is a chocolate lab and I love the bastard, but lately he has been much more of a nusiance than he ever  has been. He chewed up my Apple wireless remote, tried to do in the wireless mouse (no luck) but did get the television remote and a few of my wife's home decor.

After a week or two of this I did some research. Apparently labs like a lot of attention and a lot of exercise. Yesterday I took  him running and hiking for about an hour, today I got up and did the same thing. This is something that I'll have to do for the next three years at least if I want my dog to know that I like having him around. Otherwise you may see a xanga or myspace post for a damn good dog if my wife has her way. But it seems that these exercises are working. He listens better already and is less rambunctious?sp?

I basically have a workout program with the greatest motivation for me ever: my dog. If he doesn't get it, then he goes. I'll keep you posted.