Mike Hucka-be-havinitbothways

Does anyone believe this was anything other than a calculated move from the start? That it was a way for Huckabee to attack Mittens and still try to sound like a goody-two-shoes?


Douche.

The new year and all that

It's the last day I can post this and have it be true so I'm sticking it to this guy while I can. He gets to wave the LSU thing in my face for the next year, so it's my last hurrah for a while.

Here's some new year's day Hoppin' John in hopes you have a healthy & happy Oh Eight.

This is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules.

A sloooow day at work and I got out early enough to be home in time to watch The Big Lebowski. So with all the bad juju that's been flying around, this is like hitting the "reset" button. It makes everything feel better. Every scene in that movie is goddamn magical.

Also, my dad did me and the rest of the department a real solid today. He sent lunch to everyone in the office -- he's a big hit, everyone loves him.

The dude abides.

Claus... is that German?

It's been almost three weeks since I posted last. Sorry if I've been boring everyone to tears (of boredom) in absentia, but the weirdness at work has gotten me kind of down and I haven't felt much like posting here.

I know, bad blogger.

So in lieu of a real post, here's a couple funny videos to distract you for a moment. Enjoy.




And while we're at it, this is the one you really REALLY have to watch. Saved the best for last.

"Separation" anxiety

So yeah. As you may have heard already my newspaper is going through what a lot of other newspapers have gone through. Teh downsizing. Last year it was buyouts for people who'd been at the paper for 30 years or more. And on Monday, surprise, they announced the "voluntary separation plan." Which is buyouts offered to about 80 employees total (43 in the newsroom), and you can read about it here. I wasn't going to write about this on the blog but since word has hit the Web I'm getting emails from friends and colleagues across the country and I thought I'd better address it here. I'm one of the people on the list.

Oh and last week was my 8th anniversary at the paper.

In 1992 I was Photo Editor at The Anchorage Times when the crosstown rival Anchorage Daily News bought us and closed us, bang. Other than the loss of someone close to me it was the worst day of my life. And it set my career back by about five years.

To answer your question, no. I don't plan on taking the offer. I know it's a roll of the dice, because I don't know what'll happen next. They may keep me around, they may not. I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it.

Those of you who've been through this (and worse) at your newspapers, how long did it take before you could simply go to work and worry about putting out a paper again? Does it get better, or is this just the way it is now?

On the island of misfit... MURDER

Annual creepy television tradition Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer was on the tube tonight. There's a TV near my desk at work that was set to CBS, with the sound down, and there it was, showing Rudolph and Santa and the abominable snowman and Herbie the elf and the rest of those smarmy mofos in all their claymasturbation glory. God that's a horrible show.


But that's one man's opinion. And I'm sure a lot of people sat down with their kids tonight to watch this show, while mom wore an apron and baked cookies in the kitchen, or they made popcorn balls, or decorated the tree, or whatever the hell it is that goyische nuclear families do this time of year. I don't pretend to understand them or their folkways.


So, knowing that all those little kids are crowded around the electronic hearth getting their sugary fill of pre-Xmas programming, it seems odd that CBS would show a ghastly murder immediately after Rudolph. I mean right on Rudolph's heels. Burl Ives had just finished singing (or whatever happens right at the end of that show, I really don't know) when they went to NCIS, showing the opening scene where two guys walk around a golf course, and one trips a big explosion while trying to hit his ball out of the bunker. The guy is instantly turned into a mess of polyester-wearing bloody chunks and mist. Some of those bloody chunks end up on his golf partner's screaming face.

So on top of the bad writing, you have worse programming. I'm sure not all of those families had switched their TVs off, and plenty of Rudolph-lovin' kids saw a TV representation of a guy who looks like dad getting blown to bits. Now that's good television. I guess CBS would have run Straw Dogs but they must have thought it started off too slowly.

Testing...

Does the blog look weird to you? It looks fine to me on one browser (Safari), it looks like homemade crap on Firefox. And it happened after I posted the two videos below. So..... please send me a comment. Does the blog look like it should or not? And let me know what browser you're using pleeeeaze.

Viral Video Friday... on a Monday, no less

Proof that Sesame Street's Count is kind of a perv.



Proof that some people are idiots. Especially the ones on television.