Predictions for 2006

These are my psychic predictions for 2006.

• Sports: Barry Bonds takes over as the all-time homerun leader. The White Sox will fail to make the post season. Roy Jones, Jr. is put into a coma, but recovers.


• World Events: Osama bin Laden’s body is found, but neither the war in Iraq nor the “war on terror” are affected.


• Local Events: A scandal will reveal that the NYPD has systematically underreported crime statistics over the last eight years.


• National Events: Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez is forced to resign. Dick Cheney is forced to resign “for health reasons.”


• Economy: Google’s stock price drops to $80. The Dow at the end of the year will be under 10,500.


• Entertainment: Peter Jackson begins preproduction on The Hobbit. Studios experiment with releasing DVDs of movies at the same time they appear in the theaters in order to combat piracy.


• Technology: TiVo goes bankrupt, but Microsoft adopts the technology.


• Natural Disasters: A hurricane will wreck havoc above the Mason-Dixon line. A blizzard will cause Washington D.C. governmental offices to close for three days. There will be an earthquake in Missouri causing panic, but minor damage.

Artwork: Toys

Artwork: Christmas Tree

No post today, just some artwork.

First train to run after the strike

My cousin sent me this. LOL!

A fictional Christmas memory of me and you

A Wookie elder in Life Day robes.
Originally uploaded by Captain Typho.

Stolen from Captain Typho’s blog.

[Yes, I'm totally cheating today! I'm stealing from myself.]

The challenge: Write a fictional remembrance for the Christmas (or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Wookie Life Day or...) holidays.

Rules: If your eyes are passing over this right now, (even if we don't speak often) please post a comment here on my blog with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL CHRISTMAS MEMORY of you and me. It can be anything you want -- good or bad -- BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE. And, if you feel like it, when you're finished leaving your comment, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) with the memories people create.

My Secret

If you scroll down this page and look under the Currently Reading heading on the right column you may find out what my secret is, based on some of my recent reading material.

The Best and Worst

Stolen from Captain Picard’s blog:

Though all presents are given with good intentions, what are the best presents and the most pointless Christmas presents you have ever had?

The best present I got wasn’t for me, it was for my dog. A co-worker got me a feeding toy that had a recording device in it. Every time my puppy hit the ball with his nose he was rewarded with a treat and the sound of my voice praising him. He eventually destroyed the recorder, but he had great fun and I loved watching him play with it.

The worst presents I got were from my father’s side of the family, unfortunately. For some reason almost every year one or more of them would give me a board game. I hated that because I was an only child and my parents had no intention of playing the board games with me so every year I was given something that was going to end up in the garbage.

SIGH!

Silent Night

Or more like “Silent Afternoon.”

I ventured out on Christmas Eve afternoon just for the hell of it and, man, was I surprised.

It was empty out there!

I was sure that because of the three day transit strike right before Christmas the stores would be packed, but that was not the case. I easily found parking mere feet from the front entrance of the main store I wanted to visit in the mall. In the store itself the ratio of salespeople to customers was almost one to one. After we finished shopping, we went to a restaurant in the same mall and had no waiting time whatsoever.

I heard similar stories about other local shopping areas yesterday.

Wow, revenues will probably be poor this year.

Scalped

Better or worse?

I think he needs to trim about 3 more inches.

Yanks introduce Damon.

An end to the strike?

I started the day off working at home as I have since Tuesday. After 11 the HOV restrictions on the bridges and tunnels into the city are rescinded, and today I was able to get a lift into the city. It took about 90 minutes to get to work, and about an hour to get back (I left work at 7 p.m.) which wasn’t bad, but I feel beat now.

Around noon rumors started that the transit workers and the transit authority were talking again. By 3 p.m. word was out that the process of getting the trains and buses manned again was underway. They say it’ll take 10-18 hours before everything is up and running, but that should mean that people will be able to commute normally tomorrow morning.

We’ll see.

I’m going to take a nap now.

No!

Johnny Damon is now a Yankee.

SIGH!

You mean to tell me no one in our minor league system could fill the centerfield role?

It’s on

The transit strike went into effect at 3 a.m. I worked from home, and other than an initial problem with sending emails from my work account which was resolved by rebooting, it worked.

Tomorrow should be very special.

For the person who has everything

Running out of gift ideas? Buy Cthulhu slippers for your deranged loved ones!

Based on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu stories. The Cthulhu Plush Slippers are made of quality fabric and your feet will never be warmer than when they're tucked cozily inside a cute pair of demons. One size available; fits men sizes 9 - 12.

Hey, even the Elder Gods need to make some dough.

A Bronx tale gone awry

The New York Times website has a great article about the strange case of Lillo Brancato Jr., once a promising young actor, now a drug addict who is recovering from gunshot wounds he received from the cop he murdered last Saturday.

Whew!

Talk about going downhill! What happened to this guy? As a protégé of Robert De Niro, the world should’ve been his.

Tsk, tsk.

NSA spying on U.S. citizens

It was revealed this week that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to spy on U.S. citizens, and he’s been doing so since 9/11.

Now, I’m not one of these naïve people who think “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you shouldn’t be worried about your government spying on you,” but I do wonder why everyone thinks this is significant. The FBI and the local police spy on Americans every day, right? That’s okay but when the NSA does it it’s wrong?

Or are people mad because the NY Times sat on this story for a year and it could've changed the 2004 election?

Strike averted... for now

The deadline for the transit strike came and went at midnight. No agreement was reached, but the workers didn’t go on strike. Instead, the leader of the union held a press conference at 7:15 a.m. and announced that there would be an incremental strike, starting with private bus lines in Queens on Monday morning and following with a full-scale strike on Tuesday morning.

Stay tuned!

Golden Globe Nominations

Some interesting nominations for this year’s Golden Globe awards:

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
TERRENCE HOWARD HUSTLE & FLOW
[I had huge problems with this role, but he is talented.]

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
MATT DILLON CRASH
[Say what? That movie sucked.]

BEST DIRECTOR - MOTION PICTURE
PETER JACKSON KING KONG
[Wow! Good for PJ!]

BEST TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
PRISON BREAK (FOX)Original Film and Adelstein/Parouse Prods.
[YAY!]

ROME (HBO)HBO Entertainment i.a.w. BBC
[Boo!]

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES - DRAMA
WENTWORTH MILLER PRISON BREAK
[YAY!]

BEST TELEVISION SERIES - MUSICAL OR COMEDY
EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS (UPN)Chris Rock Enterprises, Inc. and 3 Arts Entertainment i.a.w Paramount Network Television
[Interesting! I’ve been watching it off and on. I have some comments about the show to post another time.]

BEST MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
INTO THE WEST (TNT)DreamWorks Television
[This was damn good. They need to show this in schools.]

LACKAWANNA BLUES (HBO)Bellah Films, Good Shepard Prods. i.a.w. HBO Films
[I thought the show was too episodic, but I do like black period pieces.]

SLEEPER CELL (SHOWTIME)Showtime, Anne Kindberg Prod.
[YAY!]

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
S. EPATHA MERKERSON LACKAWANNA BLUES

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
NAVEEN ANDREWS LOST
[He is HOT. LOL!]

The fill list of nominations can be found here.

The Most Popular Toys of the Last 100 Years

According to Forbes, these were the most popular toys by decade:

1900-1909 Crayola Crayons
1910-1919 Madame Alexander Collectable Dolls
1920-1929 Raggedy Ann Dolls
1930-1939 View Master 3-D Viewer
1940-1949 Candy Land Board Game
1950-1959 Mr. Potato Head
1960-1969 G.I. Joe
1970-1979 Rubik’s Cube
1980-1989 Cabbage Patch Kids
1990-1999 Beanie Babies
2000- Pres. Razor Scooter

Click here to read more about toys over the last century.

Looming Transit Strike

The New York City transit workers are poised to strike Friday if they don’t get a new contract. It seems that even though the MTA has a budget surplus and they’re giving away free rides, they haven’t gotten around to giving their workers a raise.

If they go on strike my job isn’t going to reimburse us for cabs or arrange for car services or pay our parking fees if we drive in so...

Please go on strike! It means I get to stay home!

Hasta La Vista, “Tookie” Williams

Aren’t you glad you’re not the “govinator” today?

Convicted murderer Stanley “Tookie” Williams is scheduled to die in about 12 hours in California. Pressure is on for governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant him clemency and commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.

No matter how this goes down, everybody is screwed.

Tookie has been nominated six times for a Nobel Peace Prize. But does that make it okay for him to have killed four people?

Not if they were members of my family, it doesn’t!!

But if this man is put to death, we look like beasts. I think it’s safe to say that the person who did those crimes in 1979 isn’t the same person being put to death.

And if Charles Manson’s death sentence could be commuted, you can certainly do that for someone who has renounced violence. I mean, really. Why is Manson not dead?

Then there’s the fact that Arnold wants to be re-elected. He stands to lose votes either way. If he doesn't commute the sentence, he’ll be destroyed in the next election by his opponent. Think of the ads they can come up with. But if he does grant clemency, he's “soft on crime” and he “caved in to the radical left.”

Oh, and there’ll probably be a riot if Tookie dies, God knows.

**SIGH**

--

UPDATE: Arnold did not commute the sentence. Tookie will die tonight.