This whole Michael Jackson thing…While I’m kind of suprised about the death like everyone else, I imagined Michael Jackson dieing an old man, giving Larry King interviews about his old hits and scandals. What bugs me is all these people that used to talk so much shit about him during the whole child molesting scandal, yet now that he has died he’s the greatest thing that ever existed.  I blame the media mostly, but when it comes down to it….people realize how badass Michael Jackson really was. When I was about 8 years old, I watched the movie “Moonwalker” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095655/) like every week. I thought it was probably the coolest thing in the world at the time and I thought Michael Jackson was the coolest person in the world and was devoted to kid coolness. I know the guy is a weirdo, but i never wanted to believe the child molester thing. I just couldn’t. I think he just has some fucked up issues that we don’t understand. Billy Jean, Thriller, Beat It, Bad, the list goes on… and while I don’t know what Michael did behind closed doors at Neverland ranch, I can’t deny that some of his songs changed my life and will live forever inside us. I’m choosing to see the beauty in this, so God bless Michael for giving us those songs and for what he gave us.

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So these past two weeks I’ve driven back and forth to Atlanta from Columbia multiple times and it dawned on me how completely utterly insane clueless some of my fellow drivers are on the road. Not just in the way they drive, but their complete human existence is questionable. This feeling has been brewing inside of me for a long time now, and these past two weeks have confirmed it. But don’t shrug this off as just me spewing road rage on a keyboard. I’m trying to be proactive here. Here is my roadrage shitlist and if you didn’t know, now you know.

1.  Learn what it means to be in the FAST lane and SLOW lane. There are two lanes for a reason. On the way back and from Atlanta I drove at about 80 to 85 mph. This is 10 to 15 mph over the speed limit, which requires me to drive in the fast lane. The problem is, that you have people that are going 75 mph instead of 70 mph and they seem to think they are”fast lane drivers” all of the sudden. No you aren’t. You still yield to faster drivers. But instead they stay in the lane as if it’s their legal right. If you see someone coming up on you in the fast lane then try your hardest to move over into the slow lane to let them pass. I set my cruise control and every time I have to hit the gas to slow down for your gimp ass I lose gas mileage. And then I get pissed. My term for this is called a “Double Lane Cock Block”.

2. AT LEAST go the speed limit. Just because you left your house early this morning and decide to drive slow and have a grand time doesn’t mean that I did the same. I woke up late and am trying to get to work on time and you are blocking my progress from hitting the next green light. Just because you are on a Sunday ice-cream drive doesn’t mean you are allowed to travel 20 mph on a 35 mph road. I don’t care if you are on the phone or doing your makeup or slapping somebody in the face. If I can ride my bike faster than you my road rage comes out.  The speed limit is there for a reason, not just as a limit, but as an indicator of how fast to go. And I never ever get mad when people go fast. My term for this is a “F***in Douche”.

3. Don’t ever ever ever….ever drive a PT Cruiser.  Don’t even say you like PT Cruisers or I will punch you in the jaw. Not only are they the ugliest possible car ever made in the world, but they seem to magnetically attract the worst drivers around. When I see a PT cruiser, I just go ahead and suspect that the person driving is a douchebag so I take considerations ahead of time. On my way back from Atlanta I saw a bright blue PT Cruiser with wood paneling and fake chrome wheels and I thought two things. 1: I silently gagged a little bit in my throat.  2: I followed my PT Cruiser rules. Sure enough he ended up speeding up and then slowing down and then pulled a Double Lane Cock Block on me. The concept known as PT Cruiser should be abolished. Just let it go. My term for this is a PT Loser.

The 1930’s called. They said, “You’re a douche”.

*SIDENOTE* No offense to anyone that I know or that may know me who also happens to drive a PT Cruiser. Just go ahead and start looking for a new car and we’ll be gravy.

4. Come to the realization that you may be too old to drive.  The funny thing is that old people will total fuck up big time while they are driving but they always seem completely unaware that they just fucked up. Both hands on the wheel looking straight ahead completely oblivious. It’s ironic that we have rules of age for new drivers, but not for old ones. A thirteen year old kid jacked up on Ritalin could be a safer driver than some of the old people I’ve run into on the road. No offense to our nice old people and  grandmoms and pops, but sometimes you gotta take one for the team and realize it might not be safe for you to drive anymore. When you have trouble walking from your car to your front door and your glasses lenses are as think as your windshield then it might be time to hang in the towel.

Cute? ……or Deadly?

*SIDE NOTE*   There are exceptions to #4.  Some old people drive fast as shit and miraculously drive perfect. Scientists have yet to explain this.

5. Fake chrome wheel covers dont’ look good. I have never understood what is going on here. Why would you imitate $2000.00 wheels with $20.00 wheels?  I’ve even seen fake spinners. Dude by putting these on your car, you are basically outright telling everyone that you are a complete poser and can’t afford what you want. On top of that by underestimating the intelligence of all other drivers who you imagine may think those are real spinners…well you are just insulting all of us. Take em off.

You must be a real balla.

Something else to keep in mind:

• Mexicans always drive slow. There could be a few reasons for this, such as: They recently got their license and the road is intimidating. They can’t read the speed limit signs. They have illegal immigrants in the back and are afraid of getting pulled over.

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I was on a service call the other day for my friend’s girlfriend Anne.  She owns a couple condos in the Shandon area and one of her tenants was complaining about air not coming out of one or her vents upstairs.  I was surprised I was being asked to come take a look at the problem because I know my friend and Anne usually like to fix things themselves or hire some cheap labor to complete a task to save money instead of hiring a professional who might charge more.  My business partner and HVAC mentor decided to accompany me on this service call and lend me some of his vast experience and knowledge so we could find the problem as soon as possible and fix it promptly since the tenant was suffering from over-heating in her condo and I wanted to do a prompt, quality job for Anne.
 

When we got there we went upstairs and checked the air flow coming out of the vents and quickly found that the air in 2 of the vents was coming out much harder and air in the vent in her bedroom was very weak.  I went up in the attic and checked all the ducts while my partner checked the diffusers to make sure they were in working order.  I found no leaks or holes in the ducting so we decided to divert the air flow from the two vents where air was coming out very fast so that it redirects the volume or air towards the bedroom vent.  After spending some time making some duct board diverters and properly positioning them up in the vents, the air flow was coming out much better at the bedroom vent.  We also changed the blower speed from the low setting to the high setting, improving the air flow greatly.  So basically at that point we had fixed the problem that we were called out there to fix.  But we noticed that the air was not as cool as it should be.  As a courtesy, we decided to check the operation of the air conditioner.   
 

Upon doing this, we not only found the system considerably low on refrigerant, but we found a leak at the air handler where the person who had installed the unit soldered the copper line set to the unit.  It was leaking right at the joint to where you could even see it.  I called Anne to let her know that we fixed her original problem, but had found even bigger problems and gave her a quote to fix the problem and bring the system back to normal working condition.  She even told me that they have had to add refrigerant to the system before and couldn’t understand it because the system was only two years old.  She agreed to the price, but with some hesitation.  Without telling her the detailed step by step process my partner and I were going to follow in order to solve the problem here, I just said there was a leak and it needed to be fixed and that the system needed refrigerant.  In actuality we had to have to pump down the refrigerant into the condenser and close off the lines.  My partner had to position himself in a tight space in the closet to re-solder the joint the original installer had failed to seal.  Then we had to leak test the line set to make sure the leak was sealed.  After that, we had to vacuum the line set to remove any air or contaminants since it hadn’t been properly sealed.  Then we had to release the refrigerant back into the line set and add more refrigerant into the system to get it back to normal operating pressures.  Lastly, we made sure the unit was working properly in the air conditioning mode and heating mode before we left the job site.  We also made some recommendations on potential problems and even safety violations we noticed and wrote them down on the invoice.  For instance, there was no disconnect at the unit so the unit needs to be cut off from outside in case of an emergency.  Since there was no disconnect, the installer had pulled the high voltage wire out of the wall, and straight to the unit.  In addition, there was no protective conduit covering this high voltage wire, causing not only a fire hazard, but making it easy for someone to get shocked.  If a child were to be playing nearby and touched that wire, he or she would probably be killed.  You cannot have those wires exposed and I made that clear to my friend’s girlfriend that there were some code violations there that needed to be addressed.
 

So for all that we did over there including inspecting all the duct work, finding and fixing the air flow problem, adjusting the blower speed, finding a leak in the system, sealing and charging the system, and making recommendations that must be fixed to bring the condo up to code, I had quoted Anne a reasonably low price because she my friend’s girlfriend and I know it was more than fair.  Not only did we fix all her problems, but we saved her money down the road.  Now she wouldn’t have to keep adding R-22 refrigerant to the system, which has skyrocketed in price in the last couple years.  Also, the tenant’s electricity bill was over $300 in the heating season because the system hadn’t been working properly due to low refrigerant and was primarily heating the condo with the supplemental electric heaters instead of the heat pump, which is very costly.  My partner and I were happy with the job and felt good that we could help Anne out and that we had also found potential safety hazards that can be corrected before they became a liability.  Anne said she would mail me the check since we were both busy and it was convenient, so I agreed.
 

I thought I might hear back from Anne on what she wanted to do about fixing those safety hazards and code violations but never did.  I even called her once and left a message and heard nothing back.  Two days later I was talking to my friend and he said that Anne had told him that she feels for what she paid that we really didn’t do anything.  I asked him to explain that, and he said that she thought we had basically went out there, flipped a switch, and left.  She also said she is not used to paying that much for something like that.  I was baffled by this and somewhat offended.  How would she know exactly what we did out there if she wasn’t there herself?  And when I tried to explain it to her, she seemed in a hurry so I didn’t keep her long on the phone.  According to Anne, there wasn’t enough ‘stuff’ written on the invoice to make it look like we did much.  And it didn’t show the price for labor and parts separately.  I explained that there is not enough room to write down the step-by-step process we followed to seal and charge the unit along with the procedures we followed to fix the air flow problem.  I wrote down the basics so they could be easily understood.  And we don’t put labor and parts on the invoice because we really didn’t use and particular parts and we also use a flat rate system when charging customers, which makes it the same price if we spend one hour or 3 hours fixing the problem.  Most companies have switched over to a flat rate system because customers like to know that they are paying the same amount whether it takes the technician one hour or five hours to fix a problem.  Nevertheless, I was dumbfounded by this accusation that we really didn’t do anything out there and decided to leave the matter alone all together.  At that point I had no interest in helping her fix her safety hazards and code violations.  I did explain to my friend all that we did and at least he understood and saw the value in our work.  But he wanted to stay out of it and I understood.
 

At first I was offended and it bothered me what she said.  It was mainly that she though we hadn’t done much and that she is not used to paying that much for something like that.  Then I realized that she is used to getting guys who work for close to minimum wage to “fix” problems like that.  As a matter of fact, I believe she tried that first and when that proved unsuccessful she decided to call me.  Our profession, the HVAC profession, is being devalued and corrupted due to jacks-of-all-trades who say they can do it all and charge extremely cheap.  The only reason it is so cheap is because they do not do the job correctly in the first place, causing someone to have to come out there shortly after and fix what they did not do.  And many times, the same jackleg is asked to come out there and fix the problem again, and he is paid to do so because he is cheap.  But when you do the math and add up all the times you have to pay him or someone to come out there and fix the problem because the original jackleg does not truly know what he is doing, it is cheaper in the long run to hire a professional to do it right only once.  Because one time is all it should take if it is done right.
 

True professionals have usually gone to school, gotten some sort of degree, are EPA certified, have experience in the field, and special in HVAC work.  They understand the mechanics, electricity, and science behind how heating and air conditioning systems work.  They have put time into their profession and take pride in the quality and craftsmanship of their work, and the skill it requires to do that type of work.  It has come to my attention that people like Anne don’t understand that.  They don’t see the value in hiring a professional, thereby paying the right price to get the job done correctly the first time.  She was used to paying a jackleg to come out there each time something was wrong.  And the jackleg would patch it up and put a bandage on it because that’s all he knows how to do.  This has damaged the reputation and overall outlook of my field at which I have worked so hard to gain skill, knowledge, and experience.  And it’s a shame that people don’t see the true value in true professional work anymore and they would rather roll the dice take a gamble on a general laborer to do something only a true qualified technician should be doing.  Ask your self this question:  If you had to go to the hospital because you felt dizzy or you just didn’t feel right and you found out you needed heart surgery to live, what would you do?  Would you let the heart surgeon do what he is trained to do, and utilize his specialized skill, knowledge, and vast experience which he has obtained through years of schooling and practice or would you hire the Mr. Fixit jackleg to patch it on up for you?  Hey, it’ll be cheaper, right?

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I haven’t written a blog in a really really long time. It feels kind of uncomfortable actually, like it might not work right. But I feel like this is one of those time when you just have to let something out. Lately I have had a slight obsession … no, lets go ahead and say full-blown obsession, with mountain biking, and I want to explain why. I’m hoping that maybe my close friends and people that know me will have more of an insight into why I’m a lunatic about it and why I love this sport so much.

Rewind to when I was 10 years old…

I used to ride my bike all day and never get tired. I know a lot of us did. For me it was groundbreaking. The feeling of having two wheels to get you anywhere you wanted to go just filled me with excitement and gave me a huge sense of freedom. I could ride wherever I wanted to, away from parents, down different neighborhoods, across jumps and down hills. Totally in control of my path.

Fast forward to last year…

I was given a brand new kickass mountain bike as payment for a website I did for a bike shop. I hadn’t ridden a bike in more than 13 years, but I figured I’d give it a try. It was a nice bike to have even if I didn’t ride it much, and I thought “hey, I can always sell it.”. I decided to hang on to it and give mountain biking a shot, obviously pumped up about having a pretty cool bike.  So I take my journey out and discovered the Harbison Forest trails first on recommendation from someone I met. I’m really pumped up thinking I’m just gonna shred these trails up like no tomorrow and it’s gonna be badass, etc.

And so…I got on the first trail I came to and rode for a few miles and it basically kicked my ass and felt awkward as hell. Even turning felt awkward. I even almost hit a tree a couple times while I was going pretty slow. But the main problem was that I was completely out of breath. I felt like I had an asthma attack or something. So I blamed it on smoking cigarettes. Fuck it. But then I remembered that my friend TJ smokes Parliments like a champ sometimes and he runs like 20 miles at a time. So I gradually came to the realization that my cardio sucked ass. Lets get one thing straight first before I continue: I hate running and jogging; could never get into it. When I run I get bored out of my mind and I start thinking about shit and I’m like “What the hell am I running for/from/to?”. It’s just not for me. I don’t work out a lot apart from my pull-up bar, push-ups, and my ab wheel. Basically what it amounted to was that I needed to get in better shape. Luckily, riding the trail was a lot of fun even though it kicked my ass, and it didn’t drive me into an insane bored stupor. It seemed completely different in mind, body, and soul than running was.

Now around this same time, my friend Jason got a new bike that was similar to mine. We decided to take up  mountain biking at the same time and started riding together. We started going on a regular basis and we made it a goal to ride every trail at Harbison and practice and get good enough to where we could go up the climbs and not have them kick our asses anymore. It was me against the trail and myself, and I couldn’t let me down this time. As I kept going riding again and again, trying different new trails over time. I could see how this was affecting me and the improvement I saw is what continued to motivate me. I started to really like mountain biking. Instead of dreading the ball-busting climbing and long miles, I would start to welcome it as a challenge. One that I wanted to complete. Instead of crappily scooting around the trail like a fucking bum, I started to feel like I really felt like I was in control and that I was starting to master my bike. But I still needed to get way better…I needed to do REAL mountain biking.

Fast forward to the present…

I think it’s the combination of things that really gives me a passion for mountain biking.  I feel 100 percent alive when I’m on the trail. It awakens a feeling inside of me that cannot be described. You could call it exhileration, but it’s more of a primal fury; one that is a combination of excitement, fear, adrenaline, determination and joy, all smushed into one feeling. Whatever you may decide to call it, it’s one of the best feelings that I have experienced in a long time. To ride miles of climbing up a mountain while looking over a beautiful view of the Appalachians feeling like you might just pass out, then ride 4 miles back down in a 20 minute pure adrenaline rush. To feel the cool shade of a singletrack trail under your wheels and seeing the trees fly by you avoiding roots and rocks and launching off of tabletops and berms. To hit that switchback wrong and fly off your bike in a crash that made you proud of your helmet. The accomplished feeling you get after riding 15 miles, crossing rivers and waterfalls and actually “making” it with just a scratch or two. The feeling as if I am 10 years old but instead of neighborhoods I have mountains and woods; instead of parents I have bosses and city life.  Theres no one thing that makes it great. It’s a combination of many things. I look back on when I first started and I can’t believe how far I’ve actually decided to take this mountain biking thing.

These days I go out of town to mountain bike on bigger and better trails. These days I push myself harder. These days I might worry more about what kind of fork or hydraulic brake I prefer, rather than worrying about making it around the trail. But one thing is for certain and will never change. I will never stop mountain biking.

I leave you with this video, so you might come closer to my view.

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 I was talking with my friend Ben last night about how society is moving more and more towards a pattern of impersonal contact and communication.  I guess we both have always realized this pattern, but this was the first time we were actually acknowledging how much the impersonal way of life is becoming the norm in our society.  From cell phones, text messaging, IMs, Facebook/Myspace, and the Internet in general, we are becoming or already have become a culture that prefers to interact at a distance.

 The main culprit, in my opinion, is text messaging.  I can remember my first text message and how cool I thought it was that somebody sent me a message on my cell phone.  I didn’t even know that I had that option on my phone.  I didn’t start really start texting until about two years ago.  And ever since then I have been hooked.  Actually talking on the phone with someone and carrying on a conversation has taken a back seat to one or two-sentence messages.  It has become rare that I actually call someone and carry on a conversation because it would be too much of a bother to go through all the small talk, then when you feel like ending the conversation you have to come up with a closing statement to try to wrap things up.  And lots of times the person with whom you are speaking does not understand that you are trying to get off the phone.  So texting has become the answer to that little problem. 

 Then there are the Ims and Facebook messages that we send each other when we see each other online.  We like to say little quirky statements or send birthday wishes to people we haven’t talked to in years.  But God forbid we actually give them a call and really find out what this person has been up to in their life.  It is as if we do want to know what certain people have been up to in the last several years, but not at the expense of actually having to talk to them.  We want to interact “at a distance”, as I mentioned beforehand.  It’s so funny when I ask someone to be my friend online, then I actually see them by coincidence when I’m out on the weekend, but we won’t say a word to each other, or we even manage to pretend we didn’t see each other.  And we call ourselves “friends” when it comes to the Internet.

 You can pretty much do anything you want without ever having to see or talk to anyone as long as you can access the Internet.  And in the world today we have more access to everything than we ever have had before.  We can order clothing and food on the Internet.  We can find jobs, rent movies, order pizza, participate in auctions, shop for music, and even find a mate online.  It would seem with all this access to the world and to each other, that we would be even more personable with each other.  But what has happened is that we have forgotten how to really communicate with each other.  Our ability or skill to carry on a real conversation has been diminished to merely being able to send a one or two-sentence message to our online buddies in an attempt to keep the so-called relationship alive and in existence, but to also keep that person at bay and at a distance.  We have been spoiled by this easy access to the world and have become lazy as a result.

 We, as a culture and society, are forgetting how to be personable and how to really communicate with each other.  We avoid talking to each other in person, but we become Mr. or Mrs. Personality when we hop on Facebook or Myspace.  We can present ourselves in any way we want to and make people think that we are having the time of our lives because we put up a cool or funny picture of something we did the previous weekend.  Our personality has become our online pic, it has become our online status comment, it has become whatever we want to write on each other’s comment wall.  We have traded our real personalities in for this online personality, and in the process we have forgotten our real personalities causing us to lose the ability to communicate and interact in person.  One day is going to come when being able to have a real conversation is going to be a lost art.  And that day might already be here.
 
 Hey, I’m guilty too.  Luckily, I think there is still hope for me and for everyone else.  We just need to practice real conversations each day.  Give someone a call that you haven’t talked to in a while.  Find out what they’ve been doing.  Don’t just send out humorous wall to wall comments as your sole means of communication.  Let’s get back to the basics and learn how to converse again.  I even ignored someone last night that I saw out at a bar.  We made eye contact and I looked away and pretended not to see her.  Now I kind of feel silly for doing that.  But she is indeed my “friend” online.  What is this world coming to?

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I’ve noticed a lot of things at the gym over the last several years that really need to be addressed regarding ettiquette.  I know what you may be wondering; “How does one ettiquette practice ettiquette in a gym?”  Well trust me, it’s possible and definitely necessary.  I have been going to the same gym on and off for over 10 years and I see the same old patterns displayed be people who are either plain a**holes or just ignorant.  And I have developed a many pet peeves while at the gym.

First, if you’re not using a piece of equipment, be it a barbell or machine, don’t use it as your personal property.  When not using a barbell, put it back!  Likewise, when not using a machine or bench, please don’t sit on it or use it as a place to rest, especially between sets.  People like me are waiting patiently behind you, just waiting for you to get up so we can use it. 

Also, many times I see a person monopolizing a machine with only 5 pounds or less, and they’re doing like 80 reps.  Not only that, but they’re doing incorrect form and they’re doing it more slowly than the drop from a leaky faucet.  People like me who want to actually do some real work on the machine for only about 30 seconds must wait around for someone to do their 80 reps of no weight, which really does nothing.  I understand some people are not strong and are maybe even slightly handicap, but doing no weight really does nothing except unnecessarily occupy space and equipment.  And to add insult to injury, after they do their 80 reps of nothing, the rest insteading of moving for the next person. 

Also, some of the trainers there don’t even help the people that are paying them to get them into shape.  I watch the trainers lead these unknowing people around to each machine, and not even telling them that their form is way off.  They just want to burn up the 30 minutes that they’re getting paid for.  Many of these people who come to get “trained” are housewives whose husbands are paying for their membership to give them something to do during the day or overweight people.  And the trainers don’t even really seem interested in actually helping the person.  Actually, they seem to talk about going to the mall or the weather more than talk about fitness or correct form.  And I also hear them ask if that weight feels “ok”, as if it is supposed to feel good.  If the exercise you are doing feels totally comfortable, then it probably means it is ineffective.  I am not saying you should be totally ill at ease or straining, but there should be some level of uncomfort if you are pushing your muscles.  I just wish these trainers would do what they’re paid to do, not be a friend with whom to chat for 30 minutes.

Also, today at the gym I saw a woman doing jump rope right next to about 3 or 4 machines.  She did it for about 10 minutes, while at the same time not allowing anyone to use the machines around her.  If she wants to jump rope, she should stay home or go outside instead of taking up valuable space at an already-packed gym.  This type of thing happens all the time, like when people do awkward stretches that take up tons of space right next to some equipment I want to use. 

The next problem is the people that leave weight on a machine or a barbell and stay gone for over 10 minutes or so.  So when I assume they’re finished and try to either add or remove weight from what they were using, they pop up out of nowhere to reclaim the equipment that we all pay for as their own personal property.  If you’re gone for more than a few minutes, just be prepared for someone else to be using what you were using.  Also, leaving your personal property on a bench, like your little towel, novel, or water bottle, is unacceptable if you’re going to be away for several minutes.  Other people want to use that bench; trust me.  I’ve had people chew me out because I moved their stuff and luckily I was able to suck it up and let it slide. 

Another thing I hate is when people come their and never actually do anything.  And I see many of the same people at my gym and have noticed after several encounters with them that they never actually do anything.  They wear their “Fit For Life” t-shirts and bring their water bottles and wear their head bands, but they never do any work.  Instead they walk around, get on a machine, then after they realize nobody is paying attention, they get off as if they just got done doing something.  But I pay attention in between sets and see this crap going on.  They just want to make an appearance at the gym and socialize and take up other people’s time.  People who do this should just stay home.  Why are they still wearing that “Fit For Life” t-shirt when they’ve still been 60 pounds overweight for the 5 or 6 years I’ve seen them.  Obviously they’re not really doing anything.

And the last thing I’ll mention for now, but definitely not the last thing there actually is, are the people who think they know everything.  It’s like they watch you and are always trying to tell you what you are doing wrong.  Now don’t misunderstand me, I always invite constructive criticism and love it when people show me how to do something more effectively, but it’s these people who act like gurus.  They are paying way too much attention to what I am doing instead of doing their own thing.  If you want to tell me something, just say it.  Don’t tell me the scientific explanation for everything and where you learned it and try to tell me what my routine should be.  I’ve learned enough to know the difference between someone who actually wants to help me as opposed to the person who just wants to hear himself talk. 

Well, that’s all for now.  When I think of some more pet peeves and rules of ettiquette I might add them on.  I’m sure everyone who goes to a gym has encountered some of these things.  I guess all we can do is learn to tolerate the people who just don’t know any better.

Addendum to Blog (2/9/09)

Do you ever see those people in the gym who are just doing it all wrong, whether it be terrible form, too much weight, not enough weight, cheating, etc.  Well there is this guy I’ve been seeing at the gym for over a year now.  He is a gray-haired man, about 5′3″ or 5′4″, maybe 130 lbs., in his mid 50’s or early 60’s.  He is the text book example of pretty much all these aforementioned mistakes made at the gym.  A guy who works out with me in morning has agreed with me that this guy probably has the worst form, cheats the most while lifting, and over-lifts far more than anyone we’ve ever seen.  Not only that, but I’ve heard he is a doctor, which means he should know better than to do something that will eventually injure himself.  For example, he loads on about 6 45-lb. plates on each side of the plate-loaded leg press machine, then rapidly pumps out about 10 reps, barely even bending his knees, which is necessary to even complete one rep.  He even pushes his legs with his arms for help, although he is merely moving the weight.  In order for him to do a correct rep, he needs to remove all but one plate on each side. 

He’ll do bicep curls and grab a 90-lb. barbell.  But instead of controling the bar on the way up and down and going all the way up and down, he jerks it and doesn’t even extend his arms.  It’s hard to really describe how wrong this is without actually seeing it, but he does this on every damn exercise.  I know it’s not my place to go up and correct him, and it’s his business, but I feel like I’d be doing him a favor if I told him the correct, safe way.  But in reality I know he’d get defensive and maybe even mad.  And I have to see him all the time, so I think I’ll just leave it alone.  It does make for an amusing sight to watch him get off the leg press machine with a look of pride on his face as he struts over to get water, thinking everyone was watching in amazement as he pressed 540+ pounds.  But in reality, it was just me watching, partly in amusement, and partly in agony. 

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            Is it me, or have a lot of movies come out lately that you put in your DVD/BluRay player, and 20 to 30 minutes later you realize the movie is so bad and uninteresting that you have no choice to eject it?  Well, in the case of the movie I’d like to briefly discuss, I took it out after a little over an hour, which was about 45 minutes too long. 
             I rented Babylon A.D. the other day because I’m a Vin Diesel fan and enjoy action movies in general.  In brief, this movie takes place in the future, and focuses on a mercenary Toorop(Diesel), who is hired by a Russian gangster, to safely bring a woman named Aurora from a covenant in Russian to New York for unknown reasons.  A woman from the covenant named Sister Rebeka escorts her as well and is her protector, so to speak.  The future is a dangerous and chaotic place, putting them in peril throughout the entire journey.  It’s genre is science fiction/action, and that’s pretty much all you really need to know about the movie at this point.  The rest of the details are unimportant.  And I couldn’t even tell you the details of the ending, as I’ve already mentioned I didn’t finish the movie.  But I did read the ending on www.wikipedia.org., which made me even happier that I took the movie out and spared about an extra hour of my time.
             I love Vin Diesel movies, but this movie failed to deliver on several levels.  For one, it relies on explosions, CGI, violence, and Vin Diesel’s mere presence to make this a successful movie.  I guess the writers didn’t think it was necessary to have an interesting plot or make it even able to understand or follow.  That’s right, I really didn’t know what was going on or why the film’s characters were doing what they were doing, or even going where they were going.  Maybe because I really didn’t care enough to pay attention.  And the girl who Diesel is transporting to New York just kept screaming, crying, and throwing tantrums the entire time I was watching.  One moment she’d be calm and innocent, as she was from a religious covenant, but then she’d go on some tirade, which made no sense and was highly annoying.  Diesel’s character was trying to protect her, but I wanted her dead because I couldn’t take all the screaming.  Truth be told, there was only one scene with her which I enjoyed, and that was one where she was standing in a bathroom half naked, about to have an intimate scene with Toorop(Diesel).  And it seemed that this movie tried to combine elements of all the other science fiction movies with chaos of the future, post-apocalyptic undertones, and the threat of violence all around, giving this movie no real identity or character of its own.
             I’m really not here to give every detail of the movie, just to warn you not to see it.  I’m assuming the A.D. in the films title stands for Anno Domini, but if I could choose what it stood for, it would be Avoid Desperately, which is the advice I give you.  This movie was a bomb bigger than the ones dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined.  And I was greatly mistaken when I assumed this movie would be something I’d recommend to my friends to watch.  But after attempting to watch it, I don’t think I’d even recommend it to my enemies, if I had any.  All in all, I liked this movie a whole lot better when it was called Chronicles or Riddick.

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This all started when I was thinking about getting a fish tank. Not just a regular fish tank, but what they call a “reef tank”, or sometimes called a “Nano Reef”. But that’s beside the point and it’s not what this blog is about…

I went to a local pet store and figured I would look at their “fish” section just because I started thinking about fish ever since I became interested in getting the reef tank. I was browsing around just looking at the different aquarium sizes for sale and what not. Then I got to the section where they sell the fish. It was probably one of the most depressing things I’ve seen in a long time. Maybe it was just this store, or maybe it wasn’t. But it was just plain bad. I got to one shelf where they were keeping about 20 different beautiful fish alone, each in a glass smaller than a wine glass. Almost half of them were dead lying at the bottom of the glass. I wonder how long they had been there with no water circulation, food, and inadequate lighting (all things that fish need). Then I got to this one tank with frogs and some other strange looking fish. They all looked like they were starving and going crazy. There were about 3 of them dead at the bottom of the tank and I swear one of them looked at me and said, “Please, we will die soon. Do something”.

I know what you’re thinking…

Your thinking “But it’s just a dumb fish. They are too low on the food chain to care. They don’t even have a brain. Get over it.”

For one thing, that is not true, and what I’m about to write is not the main point I’m trying to make in this blog, BUT to clarify, most fish and other seemingly retarded sea creatures, despite what people think, have very complex social systems, can feel fear and pain, and can sense many other things that you might not know. For instance, a very small 2-inch fish called a Chromis (a type of Damsel fish many keep in aquariums) have social circles where usually many of them gang up on the smallest fish in the bunch or have disputes that can last several days over food, some are nice and some are more aggressive. The more you learn about fish, the more you learn that they all have unique personalities and habits. There are even miniature shrimp who offer services to small fish to remove certain bacteria out of their mouths, and the fish do it. They know somehow that the shrimp will clean it. Lobsters in the wild live to be around 100 years old and have nervous systems almost identical to humans except that they feel more pain because they can’t go into shock. They also care for their children exactly like Dolphins do and lead them many miles walking together under the ocean. What I’m saying is that a lot of these creatures aren’t as stupid and insubstantial as you think.

Now, with that in mind, I question why humans think we have the right to take things out of the wild and make them “pets”. Then once we make it our pet, we don’t ever consider the crappiness of the environment or unnaturalness (if that’s a word) of their situation. What makes you think a freakin Iguana wants to sit in a damn 24″ tank day and night 24/7, never get the chance to run free and catch insects or find a basking spot on a rock, and then have to stare and deal with all your friends coming over staring and prodding at it? Trust me it doesn’t.  Don’t keep a fish in a fuckin 5oz. cup. Don’t have a dog if you can’t walk it and treat it well with the attention that it needs. Don’t make an terrarium that becomes a tomb. Don’t keep a bird, who is meant to be flying free in the sky, in a damn 1-foot cage and clip it’s wings. Don’t take your cat’s claws away, those are it’s fingers. Don’t put a hermit crab in a miserable cage to die after a month (they are meant to live under the ocean). Don’t randomly kill bees because they have the potential to sting you; some people have this mentality to just kill every insect creature in sight. The list could go on and on…

It doesn’t matter how small or insignificant an animal or creature is. It’s just the principal, and it’s a mindset. A blatent disregard for nature and it’s inhabitants. It is where it is for a reason, and nature doesn’t need humans messing with it to make pets. If you do want to make something your pet, don’t do it unless you can give it almost everything they could experience in the wild, otherwise you are just breaking nature while supporting the people who are taking these animals from the wild and selling them to any moron who comes by with some money.

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          One Saturday morning just a couple weeks ago I decided to visit a Starbucks instead of brewing my usual pot of coffee.  I’m not sure why I decided to splurge on a $2.00 cup when I could just brew my own for about 10 times less, but I just wanted some really good, quality coffee.  And I know Starbucks is known for their coffee, so I said, “What the hell.”   
           What I experienced this Saturday morning at the local Starbucks is what I call the “Starbucks phenomenon”.  As I waited in a line of about 12 people, I started to feel more and more like I didn’t belong.  First off, it seemed like everyone’s eyes were glazed over, like a fat person at the Shoney’s buffet, in the anticipation of placing their order.  It seemed like there was a frenzy for a caffeinated beverage, as if there were a shortage and they might run out soon.  Another factor of this phenomenon is the drinks the people were ordering, none of them being actual coffee.  I heard orders being muttered, such as “ tall double latte, half cream, half milk, with a shot of espresso”, and “venti mocha latte vanilla chai, half half-and-half, half skim, with whipped cream”.  I think I even heard an order with the words “medium rare” and “al dente” in there somewhere.  It was like another language and I was the only one who didn’t understand. 
           As the line became shorter and my time to order came nearer, I was starting to rethink ordering my coffee.  I started to believe that if I just said “coffee” that they wouldn’t know what to do.  I actually envisioned myself saying, “I’d like a coffee”, and everyone stopping and turning around to look at me in dead silence to see the guy who dared to just order a regular coffee.  I didn’t want to confuse the girl at the counter by just ordering coffee but that’s what I really wanted.  What also gets me is the names of the sizes of their drinks.  Who would have thought that a “tall” is really a small size.  And “venti” is a large.  Evidently, one must learn Italian before visiting a Starbucks. 
           Another part of this phenomenon is after you order drink, there is a little stand you go to for cream and sugar.  But instead of just being the normal things one would put in their coffee, it is a smorgasbord of different types of powders and liquids, such as vanilla powder, cinnamon, chocolate powder, several types of sweeteners, milk (skim and whole), cream, half-and-half, honey, nutmeg, etc.  It was like ordering a sub at subway and having  to choose among all the toppings in the little plastic bins.  I kind of felt a certain level of anxiety due to the pressure I felt as if I were obligated to utilize all the condiments available.  I mean, who the hell am I to just put milk in my coffee?  I’m surprised they didn’t include cayenne pepper or curry along with the other flavorings they had. 
           Lastly, I noticed that everyone who has gotten their beverage and chooses to sit at the Starbucks with friends or by themselves all of a sudden becomes an intellectual of sorts.  I paid close attention to conversations, facial expressions, and mannerisms of the Starbucks patrons.  It’s as if everyone became a professor of whatever they were talking about.  Their was an air about them that was suddenly brought on because they had a cardboard Starbucks coffee container in their hand.  And if they weren’t carrying on an intellectual conversation about politics or quantum physics, they were deep in thought while typing on their laptops.  Shouldn’t you go to a library or stay at home if you’re going to be doing homework, or if you’re working on a project.  I mean, seriously, can you really concentrate with all the chaos going on with people shouting out erroneously sounding orders and people hovering around.  If you ask me, they bring their work and their laptops there just to be seen there, and to look like they’re doing something important, as if they’re doing undercover work in the interest of national security.  I guess it does make sense though, because you do have to be a genius to linguistically crack the Starbucks code if you want to order a drink. 
           To sum up this Starbucks phenomenon, I would have to say that the people who regularly visit the Starbucks make up what I consider a pseudo-culture.  It is a culture of people that all of a sudden become smarter and wiser once they cross through the portal into the land of Starbucks.  And once they enter, they all speak this strange language filled with terms that are reminiscent or Italian with a little English thrown in.  Before I go, I just have one question:  Does anybody just order coffee anymore?  Maybe I’ll just have to go to Dunkin’Donuts for my next coffee run, just in case they forgot what coffee is at Starbucks.

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