Who not to sit next to…

Posted on November 5th, 2010 by craighope

Here is a good book idea.  A book that lists out all the crazy undesirable people you want to avoid sitting next to on an airplane.

We recently flew and my wife and I sat next to nice older guy who was heading to Arizona for his yearly Navy reunion.  He talked our ear off.  We discussed politics, pets, and how his wife hates to travel.  He pulled the curtain back on his life way too open.  His daughter is an overweight hairdresser who married a douchebag.  His own mother was a hateful person.  Get the drift?  I digress.

All I wanted to do is read my book and keep to myself.  Yes, I might be an ass for my self absorption but hey, that’s what I want.  I bought a ticket to fly somewhere, not a ticket to a social hour.  Reading on the plane is a good place to block out noise with the steady drone of the engines.  Here’s a tip.  Put in headphones early.  Get seating and go dark.

Anyway, there are many different types you want to avoid sitting next to.  The obvious is the overweight mouth breather.  Babies are cute, but the screaming child is not fun.  The restless toddler who has the parent that does nothing is annoying.

Any more?

TIMEOUT! “Fox News is ‘destructive’…” ????

Posted on September 28th, 2010 by craighope

This pisses me off.  Obama has had a burr in his saddle for Fox News since the beginning of his presidency.  That’s fine.  I understand why.  He disagrees with the viewpoint.  Fine.  But he claim it is “destructive” based on “… I think Fox is part of that tradition – it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view,”.

MSNBC follows the same theme with a liberal point of view.  Let’s be fair and declare MSNBC destructive too.

As a consumer of news and analysis, I get who is who and what their agenda is.  I appreciate both sides.  Understanding the agenda as it relates to the content allows us to absorb the material.  After all, we are thinking people.

I just think it is very un-presidential for Obama to target one organization simply because he disagrees with the viewpoint.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/28/obama-fox-news-is-destructive-to-america/?hpt=T2

Olive Garden, I gave you a chance

Posted on September 16th, 2010 by craighope

Olive Garden

Swing and a miss!   Just got back after a 2 hour adventure at the local Olive Garden.  Thirty minute wait to be seated and about 1 hour 15 min to get food.  Not a good showing.

We gave it a chance.   We held off on going until now.  New location.  New staff.  Etc.  The kids wanted pasta so I decided to take them to Olive Garden.  Lee’s Summit opened this location about 3 weeks ago.  I figured they have worked out the kinks with their service as many new restaurants do.  Didn’t matter… or they needed more time.

The 30 minute wait to be seated is not so bad and I can live with it.  You get that at many places.  The kids are another story.

I hadn’t been to an Olive Garden for 15 years.  I think the last one I patronized was over by the old Bannister Mall (it became a chinese buffet after that, which I probably frequented more).  I digress.

The Olive Garden TV commercials are so inviting.  It shows young, diverse, fit, smiling couples with nice teeth bubbling with excitement to eat pasta and bread sticks.  They look like they are having so much fun.  I want to have that kind of fun.  I can have that kind of fun.  Olive Garden should be full of vivacious people like this.

Au contraire….

Here is where reality smacks you in the face.  It starts outside the front entrance where people are smoking.  Quite a few people. (You have seen these power smokers… the older lady who smokes the Virgina Slim and her hand never leaves her face and the cigarette stays 1 inch away from her lips between drags.)   As they take years off their lives, the smell of cigarettes wafts into the foyer where everyone else is waiting.  Very unpleasant and the kids made mention of it more than once.

There were a number of people who left their table, exited, smoked, and returned (looking back, I know now this was related to the long wait for food).  How did we know they were the smokers?  They smelled like ashtrays.  It was gross.

I never did see any of those young, diverse, fit, smiling people with nice teeth.  Quite the opposite.  It WAS diverse for sure.  The diversity consisted of the elderly, Nascar fans and possibly an overeaters anonymous meeting.  The bottomless pasta bowl and free bread sticks were the sirens calling them in.  Where else can you get a sit down dinner of 1200 calories for $10 or less?

Let’s begin with salad.  ”Salad” in the academic sense.  It had lettuce and was coated with some sort of oily substance.  Too much onion.  The only saving grace was the cameo appearance by the tangy banana pepper.  The bread sticks were good.  Kids loved them.  Not my thing, but I will offer a small gold star.

My glass sat empty for too long between replenishment in the 1 hour 15 minutes we sat at our table.  Another mark in the bad column.

The kids ordered normal kid fare.  Spaghetti with red sauce and chicken fingers (the boy loves his chicken fingers like Hugh Hefner likes blondes).

I ordered something lighter (The Venetian Apricot Chicken).  Sounded tasty right?

[Jeopardy Theme]

[tick, tick, tick]

[montage of me with a gray beard, kids with their graduation caps and diplomas]

Here comes the food.   You might have thought they make the pasta in house as long as it took.  Chicken fingers are your normal crap.  The spaghetti with red sauce left me unimpressed but I didn’t have high expectations from the kids menu.

My chicken dish was the equivalent of a high end frozen dinner.  The chicken breasts were flat (I prefer mine busty and full.  These were more like Goldie Hawn).  The broccoli, asparagus, and tomatoes were limp and bland.  The “citris” part of the dish must have been orange marmalade slathered on top.  Trust me when I tell you that the picture below did not resemble my dish.  (well, maybe the Goldie Hawn part)

Olive Garden: Venetian Apricot Chicken

To the server’s credit, at the 40 minute mark she recognized terrible service and was doing as much as she could.  Her tea replenishment picked up as soon as she caught on.

Will I go back?  Maybe, but I will give this place some more time.  I hope they get more microwaves in their kitchen to keep up with the demand.

PS.  Ron Best is listed as the General Manager.  I am not throwing him under the bus, but he needs to be informed.  They win as a team and lose as a team.

Buildings and Books

Posted on September 8th, 2010 by craighope

The news has been full of angry and outraged conservatives chiming in on the Mosque in New York and the Florida nut job buring Quran’s.

This country can have some difficult situations to make sense of sometimes.  The religious right push for oppressive positions but forget about forgiveness.  The liberal minded will side with whomever they want to like them, but never offer any shame or societal justice.

Both of these groups/people have the right to do their respective poorly tasted activity.   We all agree that these acts are seen as poor judgement.  We don’t all agree how to deal with them.  Let’s not forget that we are founded in freedom free and this Country is based on some simple principles.

As a conservative that can sound somewhat liberal at times, I encourage the right leaning mouthpieces to quiet down and find a better argument and another way to vent over the Mosque issue and trying to back Obama into a corner (he is doing ok on his own).

Here is a good book understanding how to achieve peace.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time

Be an active member of your community and this country.

Citizen You: Doing Your Part to Change the World

Afghanistan… Obama pulled the wool over your eyes

Posted on June 24th, 2010 by craighope

My conservative leanings are often challenged during this Obama administration.  I rant about many things, but I try to temper them because I want the country to succeed in spite of a being led by an Administration I don’t agree with.

The point here is how people are so gullible during the campaign.  The promise of withdrawing from Afghanistan in particular.  This mini-rant is not about the strategy.  That is another discussion altogether.  But the prospect that there is a large debate on strategy feeds to my point that there are many decisions yet to be made that you can’t set a firm withdrawal date publicly.

I said it during the election.  It is proving to be very true now.  The war in Afghanistan is not going to end until “…conditions on the ground” are favorable.  The Presidents listen to their Military people.   They should.  Obama campaigned on a different platform and now is going back to the normal way of conducting wars.   This means the promise of a complete withdrawal is broken.  At the very least it was a spun promise.

Claire McCaskill said it this morning on Morning Joe.  The Obama camp ran on a platform of peacenik withdrawal from wars.  I knew then it was unrealistic and no matter what President we elected the outcome with the wars would be the same.  Yet, many of the electorate based their vote on the withdrawal promise.

I hope people choose to vote in a more educated way in the next election.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tags: Obama

Bret Michaels Brain not working…

Posted on April 23rd, 2010 by craighope

Bret Michaels

Brain hemorage?  Headband too tight?.  Multiple partners. Diabetes.  The aged rocker lives on the edge.

To think that Slash was almost the lead guitar in Poison.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20363506,00.html.

Healthcare Bill passed…

Posted on March 23rd, 2010 by craighope

I don’t know what to think.  As a conservative, I fear that we are putting too much control in the hands of a bureaucracy.  I know that sounds like a cliche or a republican talking point but I really don’t think our voting public fully understands the impact of doing this.

As a middle class wage earner, I feel like the hardest hit.  Our income doesn’t have the cushion to absorb more taxation or fees.  This is going to suck.

I feared long ago that this bill would pass and it almost didn’t due to the over-reaching lefty ideas of single payer systems.  The Democratic leadership could have passed something a long time ago.  They had the seats.  They had all the power.  But instead they tried to grab too much power and alienated the centrists of their party.  In the end, they got it done.  They got it done with some curious deal and got it done in a partisan way.  They now own it.

What will the future hold?  I suppose we can only find out.  For those of you without coverage because it costs too much, you will now have it.  It won’t be free.  You WILL be paying something into the system.  I hope for your sake you maintain a healthy lifestyle.

For those who could afford it and chose not to, welcome to the club and pay into the system.

For those who are under the poverty line and don’t have coverage or had medicaid, well… you’re welcome.  Now the rest of us will have to pay a little bit more to cover you.  However, your scooter will be taxed.

I do feel defeated.  But I am not as right-wing enough to shout things at politicians or throw things.  I am more dignified than that.  I really want to talk/listen/analyze this bill based on the policy.  These next couple of days will be filled with victory talk by the democrats.   I don’t want to watch.  I will just read about what the bill actually has in it.

I just hope that the voting public who is truly upset by a bill they didn’t want make themselves heard next fall.

No more sugary drinks for you young man

No more smoking for you... Mr. ... Obama.

Tags: healthcare bill

Grrr…My Response to Craig’s “Re-Learning Math” Post

Posted on March 19th, 2010 by MaryBeth

(Mary Beth) What do you mean “start in grade school?” What do you THINK THEY’RE DOING IN GRADE SCHOOL?

I hate this “the U.S. doesn’t stack up against other nations” crap.

#1: What do Americans like to do on the weekends? We like to relax. We go to the lake, we knock back a couple of cold ones with our friends… we plan outings and activities that are FUN. And, on the weeknights? We like to watch American Idol or some other reality nonsense after we get home from our kids’ 42 sports activities. So, what’s my point? CULTURE. The American culture says, “Life is short, let’s enjoy it.” Now, if you’re willing to give that up, fine. But changing our CULTURE? Good luck. I don’t see every American K-6th grader spending evenings at Kumon after a full day of public school, do you?

#2: In the U.S., thanks to the grand vision of our founding fathers, we provide a free education to every child through grade 12. EV-ER-Y child. In the nations we’re being compared to, free public education is for students through 8th grade. After 8^th grade, students in other nations are filtered into either a trade-school track or a college track. In our country EVERY child is tested; in other nations, only the cream of the crop is tested. Apples to oranges.

#3: You want me to do my job better? Do yours. I need every parent to send me children who are prepared to learn. Read to your child every night at bedtime starting at birth. Play math games at dinner, in the car, and when you’re waiting with your child in the doctor’s office. Make your child work HARD on their homework (quit doing it FOR them). Make your child “look it up.” And, TALK to your child. A LOT. One of the single biggest determining factors of a child’s school success is the number of words per day he/she hears at home. Expect your child to respect you, and discipline him/her when s/he is disrespectful. If I call home to report your child was disrespectful at school, it was a BIG DEAL, so support me. (I don’t call home if it’s small potatoes. I handle the small stuff on my own.) Classroom management strips away a LOT of learning time.

#4: Let me do my job. Stop expecting me to teach material that is unrelated to my curriculum… Character education, career education, DARE, CHOICES, dental care, etc., etc., etc. These are wonderful programs. They are. But, if you’re going to keep whining about how we don’t stack up with other nations, let me teach the core curriculum.

#5: The highest math class I took in high school was Algebra II, and the highest math class I took in college was College Algebra. I never took trig; I never took calculus. Granted, I am not an engineer (neither are you!), but I am not wanting for math skills. I managed to obtain two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s. There are a lot of us out here who were not graced with a math brain, so torturing us all with advanced math would be pointless. Instead, how about if we find out what percentage of the Chinese population has taken calculus, and we aim for a similar percentage?

States use tax incentives to draw film work from Hollywood

Posted on March 14th, 2010 by craighope

I want to keep my money and spend as I see fit. That includes chartity.

States use tax incentives to draw film work from Hollywood – CNN.com.

When are policy makers going to learn?  You can’t tax your way into the black.  Businesses will move.  Individuals will find a way to get around the taxes.  Then what?  You are out the tax revenues you had.

The reality is that most understand a limited tax that provides for basic services.  But if taxes begin to overreach, the taxed get creative and look for alternatives.

It’s simple, but our politicians have lost sight of this.

Unlicensed beers, Mary Jane is next.

Posted on March 9th, 2010 by craighope

More than a dozen armed State Police officers conducted simultaneous raids last week on three popular Philadelphia bars known for their wide beer selections. The cops confiscated hundreds of bottles of expensive ales and lagers, now in State Police custody at an undisclosed location.

This is a great example of how the world would look if we legalized marijuana.  Crazy over-regulation.

Troopers raid popular bars for unlicensed beers | Philadelphia Daily News | 03/08/2010.