Thursday, October 29, 2009

Springsteen was born to run

Alright, another concert review. On Sunday (10/25) I went to see Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band at Scottrade. It was one of the greatest shows I've ever been to, in short. I'm not sure where to start on this one. For a guy who has been around the block for a hefty long time (the early 70s), he's still got the energy to please everyone who takes the time to go out and see him. Bruce has always been known for 'standing up for the little guy' as anyone can tell by his lyrics and political views. Up until Sunday, I have never seen a 60-year old guy crowd-surf. He invited so many people to join him on stage (mostly women) and I was amazed that he had the whole crowd sing the verses (not him) to 'Hungry Heart' and 'Born To Run'.

That being said, I still think he is one of the most overrated rockers in history, mainly because of the so-called professional critics of magazines like Time, Newsweek, and oh yeah, Rolling Stone. I do think people give him too much credit for his part on rock and roll, but I do have to give him props on staying alive during the short disco and new-wave era. Rolling Stone has given just about every one of his albums a four or five-star rating. Hey, more power to him. He's sold a lot of albums, but there are still a handful of acts that have outsold him despite critics. The main reason I did see 'The Boss' was I heard that he was known to put on a great performance in concert, and that was why I spent all the money to go see him in person. And of course, I got what I paid for, which was awesome.

He did the whole 'Born To Run' album live as well as most of his early stuff. I thought it was very ironic that he only did one song from his signature album 'Born In the USA'. That song of course was 'Dancing in the Dark' where he had a few ladies join him on stage. I was also amazed that he was able to impromptu covers while taking requests from people who sat close to the stage.

So what's next for shows this year? (Anthony, are you listening? j/k) I hope to see Charlie Daniels in December. He's putting on a show at the Family Arena. I would love to go out and see the legend perform while he still can. Especially if I read his blogs at charliedanielssoapbox.com.

gobble this!

Time for another update. I've been without Internet access for two days (may my 2wire modem rest in pieces) but hopefully next week they'll send me a new one. I don't know how many times I can carry my laptop to places but oh well. Wah wah. Now I'm trying to figure out what I did before the web came. Oh yeah, television.

I thought I'd write about the current controversy at my workplace. (note: I'm not going to say my employer since most of you do know where I work and in case some jackass googles this and reports me) This year our CEO announced a month ago that we will be open on Thanksgiving and possibly Christmas. It's made 98% of everyone at my work frustrated and including yours truly, very mad. I try to look at it both ways. Since I've worked there in '98, the only two days we were closed was Thanksgiving and Christmas. I know times are meant to change, but still. I know we are in a recession, and I can't really comment on how bankrupt or money-hungry my employer is, but this is just asking too much for everyone who works for the company. This just seems like an act of desperation and just a simple way of making a dollar just by asking the employees on all rings of the ladder to sacrifice their traditions. I know that a lot of places are still open on turkey day, such as Denny's and a lot of non-chain family restaurants around me that have Thanksgiving dinner specials. I even have a friend that works at the Cracker Barrel in Troy and he says that every year they are packed on Thanksgiving. So I'm speculating, because of these growing trends, now WE have to jump on the bandwagon. In the words of Rush Limbaugh, I hope this experiment fails. Since the restaurant I work at has a menu that doesn't replace a turkey or special type of dinner, I don't really see business happening.

There has been a lot of shakeups at the top of the ladder at my employers'. A lot of people despise our CEO (and the one before him) because of their nationality. It is believed they are both from the Middle East. And of course, I hear ethnic slurs about them all the time, but I don't care where they're from as long as they know the tools of how to keep the company balanced. As I've written before, there have been a lot of uncomfortable changes and most of them were based on their decisions. So needless to say, the whole Thanksgiving thing is the latest. A lot of people are even questioning that if they were indeed from outside the US, they would not take Thanksgiving seriously. Some people see turkey day as a religious holiday, while I see it as a spiritual and patriotic holiday. Everyone knows that Thanksgiving is not about eating, but giving thanks to what you have and counting your blessings.

I know that not everyone has the same Thanksgiving traditions, and I know that not everyone has a loving family or group to go to, but its a day besides Christmas that we should all devote to other people, especially family. In the last three years, everyone in my family has been going to my sisters place in Metropolis (about 3 hours away from me) and spending the whole day there. This year will probably either be a solo meal with myself or maybe going to my grandma's. It's still in question. Everyone who works with me is being forced to work that day. I can see why, only because the management is trying to be fair. Going back to what I said about being busy at Cracker Barrel, its not just lonely people or couples that come in on Thanksgiving. Its multigenerational families that are too lazy to cook at home. Instead of devoting hours (or days) in preparing a special meal, they take the easy route of going out to a restaurant. So in other words, I'm also kind of blaming society for not being traditional anymore. But that's just me.

Thanks for letting me rant on this one.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

exclusive blog

At last, finally an exclusive blog here on blogger! Sorry I have been slow at posting blogs this month. It just seems that October has been a very busy month. I'm not sure why when it comes to looking back, but its shocking to know the month's almost over. I know that I haven't been posting hardly any blogs on Myspace lately...since, as mentioned in the previous post, that more people are turning away from the once-mega popular social networking site.

I think its because I've looked into a lot of opportunities in the last two months. No real jobs, but just some stuff that is new to look into. I was approached at Pop's night club last month about an opportunity to edit some guy's planned reality show. We talked about it for a bit, and we were both excited about it. But since then we have only texted each other maybe 3 times. Who knows. For my long-delayed real estate education, I recently got to chat with an old high school classmate of mine (whom I haven't talked to or seen in years, only to have him find me on Facebook) who is really big on investing in real estate. We chat for almost an hour about his previous experiences and in fact, he just recently closed out on a trailer park down in Texas. Overall, the conversation was well worth it since he provided his own input on today's world of investing and with a little advice as well.

I've also been hanging out with my grade-school bf, Josh, who's living in downtown Alton (which is a bad area despite being near a police station). I've been helping him fix computers, and in return, he hooked me up with Windows 7 (he's a Microsoft distributor) on both my laptop and my desktop PC. Windows 7 (which I got 2 1/2 wks before it came out!) is almost exactly the same as Vista, but with no errors by any means. In other words, it runs very smoothly. Plus, I seemed to notice that they definitely revamped Microsoft Paint. Just a random thing ;)

Josh also introduced me to these blog sites that actually pay people over time for writing articles. I wasn't familiar with eHow or Helium until he showed me around. As some of you may know, I love writing, to a certain extent. I wasn't very good at writing in high school or early college only because I didn't like being told what to write about. Not to sound too negative, but if I can't write it in editorial-style, then that's the part that isn't fun anymore. I've already written two articles for eHow, which so far have gained 20 views. I know its better than nothing. Josh, on the other hand, has so far made $8 and in a few years he will have great passive income. For some reason, I'm just not motivated at the moment to write for these sites. Could it be the change in scenery?

Probably the other reason October has been a very busy month is because I've been working crazy hours at Steak 'n Shake. It's like one day I'm working 10am to 5pm, then the next day from 10pm to 6am. Then the next day I would work the dinner rush shift. My sleep schedule would be crazy. I've also been trying to hook up with a girl there, but there are a few things that stand in the way. One, she's 18. I normally don't have a problem with age, although my limit is 20. But with me being 28, there's places I can't take her since most are age-restricted. Two, we work together. After I got in trouble 3 years ago at work, I pledged to myself I would never 'hook up' with anyone at work. Three, she doesn't come from a stable home. I know women aren't supposed to be perfect, but the saying always goes, you can't win 'em all! But she's got the girl next door look and she's very level-headed, and at age 18, she's very mature. Its just that she lives in her own apartment (since age 15) because her parents are crazy, literally. There is a story that goes with it, but I'll stop right there. I do hope to help her out. She's better than what she thinks she is, and I want to be that person who shows her that.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

current events and things

For the first time in a while, I've been slow at posting stuff on here. I can't believe that I've already put 50 blogs on here so far in 2009! Since Myspace is slowly self-destructing, you can probably see why. So much has gone on in the world so I think I'll add my two cents to certain topics.

--The Cardinals. They played a great season, not including postseason. Redbird fans had plenty to celebrate all summer while going to Baseball City and enjoying a game. (I actually went to a game in early September) Everyone knows about the big loss we suffered this weekend. As Bernie Miklasz of the Post Dispatch put it, 'The Cardinals go out with a whimper...'. I couldn't agree more. I can't play better baseball, but those players are getting nice salaries for a reason and they're lucky to be on a team with the greatest loyal fans. As I bid a congratulations to Joe Torre's Dodgers, I must admit it did not go well all three games. As I was watching most of the players (mostly outfielders), I couldn't help but notice we gave up. Sure, we got NL Central Division title. But you gotta go as far as you can. And on top of that we won more games against the Dodgers more than lost. Sure, most of it was during Manny Ramirez's suspension. Speaking of which, every time I saw his cocky face and attitude, I couldn't help but use my middle finger at the TV each time. As for the future of Pujols, Holliday and LaRussa, who knows. I know the Cards GM is trying to keep them on the team, but LaRussa's future may be bleak with the Cards. There's always next year, as they say. Despite of all this, St. Louis baseball had one thing to celebrate this year: the hosting of the All Star Game. And the new I-64 will be named after Jack Buck. Now that's a winner.

--The Rams. I don't follow pro football, so it would be wrong for me to criticize. I'm just sick of hearing about their embarrassing losing streak, that's all. I admit I'm a fairweather fan at times. So throw in your opinions here. I just can't believe at the start of this decade, the Rams were unstoppable Super Bowl champs, and from there it all went south. Now at the close of this decade, we've become the laughingstock. It just shows that what goes up must come down.

--Obama's Nobel Prize. I'm torn on this one, as this has gotten mixed reactions. I can't take away the fact that Obama helped unite this nation during our struggles (well, most of the time!). And he became the first African-American President after years of racial struggles in this country. But 60 million people didn't vote for him because he was black. They thought he had all the answers to help fix our economy and change our world view. I know I've said a lot of things about me disagreeing with Obama's ideas and solutions, as I won't get into. I'm saving all of that for later. Going back to the Nobel Prize win, I know he didn't personally apply for it and he didn't ask for it. Obama himself was shocked and humbled at this win. He may not think he'd deserving. But if I were offered it, I'd take it. Yes, I still think its very odd to put him in a class with Lech Walesa and Nelson Mandela, as they've gone through so much to earn this award. Some people believe the Nobel Peace Prize is just an item, and it doesn't matter anymore, since people like Yasir Arafat, and later on, Jimmy Carter and Al Gore, have also won the Peace Prize.

That's all for now, but I'm sure I got plenty of topics that I forgot to write about.

I'll close with this question: Since '06, I've built a small following here on Myspace writing blogs and its always been fun posting stuff on here. But as said earlier, as more people are turning away from Myspace, it's been getting less fun. I know I still have readers and all, and I thank you all! I was considering at one point putting new blogs on Facebook. What's stopping me is this: I don't personally like how Facebook advertises the heck out of what I put on Facebook. I'll try to explain this more. Here on Myspace, people have the choice of going to my profile and reading my blogs (and at times, subscribing). On Myspace, there is no newsfeed, unless you've 'subscribed' to a particular friend. I like this more than how Facebook does it, which is automatically putting everything I do on a newsfeed so everyone can see it. I don't like to be overexposed that much, as I know it can alienate someone. Yes, I'm proud of what I do. But too much is too much. I'm not sure if there's ways I can control that, but maybe I'll try it later on. I'm also not sure if there are ways to subscribe to Facebook blogs. Also on a side note, I don't like how Facebook calls them 'Notes'. I have a Blogger account, but most of the time I feel like I'm talking to myself on there.