What a great movie...

I'm writing about the movie "The 300". The Frank Miller epic about the battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans (actually between 5,000 and 7,000 Greek soldiers) held off the vast persion army of Xerxes long enough to rally additional troops and save the country of Greece. Actually, I'm really doing this to check out new technology from AdaptiveBlue, called BlueMarks. The technology is called "Smart Links", and basically it provides for an enhanced (or should I say enriched) linking experience. See, when I create a link to 300, you should see a little icon just to the right of the link. If you click that, you should see a whole bunch o' goodies about the DVD. Let's see how this worked...

God help us, do we really need this?

I'm sorry, but whatever happened to personal responsibility? Why do we need to use taxpayer's money to bail out people who we're too effin' stupid to understand the basics of mortgage finance?

In 1999, my wife and I purchased our first home. At the time, I did some careful math, and determined how much house I could afford. We then went through a pre-approval process, and I knew how much my monthly mortgage payments were going to be.

I didn't opt for any adjustable rate, because I wanted the predictability of a fixed rate. I knew what my financial limits were, and I crafted a mortgage plan that wouldn't exceed those limits. Now, if I had, and if I couldn't make my payments, shouldn't I lose the friggin' house to the bank? I mean, nobody held a gun to my head when I bought it. I wasn't suffering from diminished capacity? Why shouldn't I be held accountable.

I'm gonna hear a lot about unscrupulous brokers, etc. Hey, what about stupid homeowners? Read the freakin' paperwork. Know what your agreeing to.

This makes me crazy...

clipped from www.boston.com DERRY, N.H. -- As the mortgage crisis deepens, causing stock market jitters and forcing middle class families out of their homes, the Democratic presidential contenders are seizing on the issue, a tailor-made opportunity for them to accuse Republicans of letting rapacious, unregulated companies victimize hardworking families. Yesterday in New Hampshire, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York said she would ban fees that penalize early repayments and create a $1 billion fund to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. Former senator John Edwards of North Carolina has called for banning a longer list of controversial lending practices, including balloon loans, in which interest rates grow dramatically over time. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois introduced a bill that would impose new penalties on mortgage professionals found guilty of fraud and offer counseling for homeowners to avoid foreclosure.

Sports Guy's Take on Michael Vick

Huge, long-running fan of the Sports Guy. Don't always agree with him (he's way too into Boston), but he nails this one. Far as I'm concerned, if Vick is guilty, I hope that not only is he incarcerated, but that in addition to becoming someone's wife, he also gets an electric cattle prod jammed up his ass every day for the remainder of his (hopefully short) life. Nothing's too bad for him.

clipped from sports.espn.go.com (And by the way, I'm one of them. I wish we could pay Roy Williams to horse-collar Vick from behind 200 times in a row. How could anyone cause pain to a dog? How could anyone want to be affiliated with a "sport" where dogs are electrocuted and you have to buy items with names like "rape stands"? Hopefully, this leads to a real-life Longest Yard sequel where Vick gets jailed and eventually leads a team of convicts against the guards, who summarily kick the living crap out of him for four quarters and turn his ACLs into fusilli. The end.)

Quitting smoking...

So, after my last visit to the Doctor, I decided to try to finally quit smoking. I had smoked pretty much steadily for 20 years, figure a pack a day.

I decided to quit because in the abstract, I knew that I should. I have to say though, that while emotionally, and academically I knew that I should quit, I never really wanted to. See, I really liked smoking. I loved the taste/rush/ritual of the first cigarette of the day. I loved how smoking kept me calmer while I was driving. I even liked the way that smoke kept the mosquitoes away in the hazy summer days on the deck.

And yet, I knew I needed to quit. I’d heard all the “Oh you can’t imagine how much better you’ll feel” platitudes from everyone else who’d ever quit and figured if nothing else, I’d save north of $100 a month.

When I told the doc (annual physical) he said he had just the thing. There’s a new drug out there called Chantix. Google it, you’ll find it. In my opinion, it was a miracle. There’s no way I could have quit without this. It’s simply an amazing drug. You smoke the first week you’re on it, and then you stop but continue taking the drug for 7 weeks. Basically, it made me feel (for the most part) indifferent to cigarettes. Now this is something I couldn’t imagine, but I’m tellin’ you, it that’s how it worked for me.

I kept busy, upped my workout regimen to stay tired, and completely forswore alcohol for the first 5 weeks and all-in-all, aside from a cranky first couple of weeks without the smokes, I made it happen.

Here’s the thing though, I haven’t experienced any of the positives that everyone always mentions – food doesn’t taste better, my wind isn’t that much better, and I don’t breathe that much better. And, I miss smoking. I don’t physically crave it, but there are times when I sure would like to fire one up. Intellectually, I know better, and I’m pretty sure I won’t back-slide, but I’m just sayin’, the temptation is still there and I don’t think it’ll every completely go away.

But, if you think you can’t quit and want to, ask your Doc about Chantix, it worked for me!

See more progress on: stop smoking

OK, one step closer...

We live in New Hampshire, and our last puppy rescue (2005) was with the help of a wonderful local organization called Puppy Angels (www.puppyangels.com).

Well, today I went up to their site and fell in love with a little girl named Mindy. I filled out the adoption request form, so stay tuned!

See more progress on: Adopt another puppy

It was pretty easy, but expensive...

I used Music Shifter to rip 200 CDs to digital format, and they charged about $230 for 200 CDs. Should have them back in the next week. Nice thing about them is that they’ll allow you to do a free 10 CD sampler to see if you like ‘em. I highly recommend.

www.musicshifter.com

I thought they did a pretty good job!

See more progress on: Rip all of my CDs to MP3 DVD