Go back to whatever Starbucks dumpster you climbed out from behind

Homogenized America Reading critical reviews of anything from food, to music, to a place, what ever seems to point to one thing we are all xenophobic. Afraid of things which are different, fearful of the unfamiliar, anything that goes against the grain is cause for our immediate disdain. The internet has given us all a place to tell others about our dislike of this or that thing and the ever resounding thing about every single statement of dislike is this or that is different than what I prefer. I’ve long believed if you took someone put them in the middle of any place in the US and kept them from actually reading anything that said where they were you would not have a clue where you were. You would also have to hide the skylines of most major cities as a give away but apart from two things we are the same from coast to coast and north to south. Really makes me wonder about the world or more specifically the people in it. Why do we want everything to be the same? We go on and on about how we are all individuals but we aren’t. We want a well polished, chrome plated, shiny, plastic coated, all weather, new and improved sameness to the entire world. Oh and it should also be well lit and temperature controlled. I read a review for a place written on the same day I was in a place. My experience was fine everything was good, from the service and the items purchased. The other person who may have even been there at the same time as myself says it was the very worst experienced they have ever had in their life. Makes me wonder, does this person writing the review like anything. I went on to read other reviews perhaps my standards are low or I just don’t know any better. More reviews were the same as my experience and in reading over thirty reviews only two were negative. Gives me hope that there are people who like things a little different in the world. But still I wonder though because more places seem to strive for the element of sameness rather than going out of a limb. So much of the things that people complain about are not even complaints they are just whining about why things aren’t they way I want them to be. A complaint is there is a hair in my food, not that the décor is passé or too retro. Don’t take my word for it go out and read reviews for things and places you like. Read the ones that disagree with how you feel about it and you’ll see the things that people bitch about are just a bunch of whining about how things aren’t the same as they are in the homogenized sameness of the superplex where they usually go for this or that thing or service. Think I’m wrong? Why are there 3 Hangover and 6 Fast and Furious movies? Why do well all live so close to a McDonalds, Starbucks and Wal-Marts? Why do we mock the people who are a little different from what we like? Because we are all afraid to be a little different, may be the world would be a bit better with more difference and less sameness or maybe not. Welcome to Stepford, America won’t you be one of us…one of us…one of us… Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

The adventures of invisibledon king of the bastards continue still...

The adventures of invisible don king of the bastards continue still… As has been my habit in recent months my writing has been tardy and this issue is weeks tardy rather than months. Again my absences from the writing table, is not the matter for discussion and is not likely to be one at least not presently. This issue pertains to the Happy Hour Crew and my adventures with them. Those of you not familiar with the way back days of invisible don king of the bastards won’t know who the Happy Hour Crew is or it’s function. The function is simple we drank during happy hour …the name really does tell you all you need to know and we started drinking when the drinks were less expensive as we didn’t have the money for full priced drinks and largely we still don’t …another matter. The second is who are the members of the Happy Hour Crew? Well of course there is yours truly and then several others. Former Smoking Buddy who still smokes but as I do not she is the former there was really no need to change her from Smoking buddy to something new that is just confusing. Then there is Brand A and Head Nod, they are a couple Brand A is more the free spirit of the two and Head Nod is willing to play but when it’s time to go …you’ve guessed it, the head nod comes out and then leave. Everyone knows what the head nod means but he still does it. HK which I’m not sure I’ve ever defined HK to anyone or in the blog, I’m not going to research it and if I have you know and if I haven’t well then you don’t know. HK has had a series of relationships during the Happy Hour Crew days and generally they don’t get written about not that we don’t care about who HK dates or that they aren’t around a long time they are… they just haven’t been part of the blog. The last two members of the original HHC were Jonzo and Braff. They are completely separate people no connection to each other, other than the HHC. Braff’s sister and I worked together years after the HHC formed and she is a friend of Brand A and Head Nod. Jonzo is a former co worker who I see now and again and we always threaten to have drinks again but life gets in the way of these things. There have been lots of add ons and people who show up here and there over the years but 50’s pin up girl has been the only one to really be a late joiner who fell into the crew and stayed with the crew for the long haul. 50’s pin up girl is looks like a girl from the 50’s and works …well a rather interesting job more on that later. We used to gather every other Thursday for Happy Hour at public places then that evolved to house parties largely at Former Smoking Buddies. The house parties phase has evolved to holidays and special occasions gatherings. The last bit of people in the HHC have really been there since the beginning but weren’t really part of the HHC because they were busy which was a guitar player from a band and his wife. They’ve never had nick names in the blog mainly because I will usually link the band the guitar player is in and that gives away his true identity. OK were up to speed I think, regardless we’re moving forward The reason for the recent calling to order of the HHC was a birthday and concert not exactly on the same day but close-ish. The Rev. Horton Heat was playing her in the Star City a few weeks ago and as our luck would have the guitar guy’s band The Woody Nelsons is playing as one of two opening bands for the Rev. How awesome is that? Well, the style of music guitar guy has always played is Rock a Billy in flavor, which if you are not aware is what the Rev. Horton plays too. Well in a style. We love it all of the HHC love this music we are groupies of a sort with guitar guy and 50’s Pin up girl and Former Smoking Buddy are real groupies of the Rev. Horton Heat. I mean that in the best possible way, hell guitar guy is as well for that matter. They will drive far and sometime wide to see this man play which if you know the music you know it is worth the drive. The other band playing that night is Continental , Rick Barton and his son’s band. Which if you don’t know Rick was a founding member of the Drop Kick Murphy’s. So the bill is set and the HHC decide to have a VIP day/night of it dinner then the show. Which in true HHC fashion was a party at someone’s house. Now they are generally at Brand A and Head Nod’s house, which is true again. Jonzo and Braff didn’t make it for this go around but they were both invited. Well the cook out part of it is grand guitar guy and his wife are there with there newly born child congrats on that by the way. Then he had to go for sound checks at the club. Everyone is getting rather excited now and we are swapping stories about the other shows we’ve been to and hope this one is as fun and having a good time. Thing is the HHC will go a while without being together and everyone falls right back into place like not a day has gone by …which of course it has and that only allows for stories of the in between times. Brand A and Head Nod have a child now too and the Little James Dean is tearing it up on his motorized bike in the back yard. Head Nod has juiced up the bike because he is a vehicle guy. Loves motors and things that are made to move by motors and Little James Dean is reaping the benefit of his dad’s love of make it go faster and better. Time to go to the concert the baby sitter for Little James Dean show up and she promises not to chloroform the kid. You know how it goes you show up as the baby sitter and you have the rag with chloroform on it and you say, Hey kid does this smell like Chloroform as you hold the rag to the kids face. They fall asleep and you get to relax until the parents come home. That is not really a good baby sitting practice … well at least no in polite society. Off to the show we go. We are early but not really early. As in we are there in advance of when the show starts but only by about 15 or 20 minutes. Which in bar scene band show that is not really early enough to get great seating so there are a few seats left up near the stage along the wall and there is a bar there but it is beside a wall and not really at the bar. Which means part of the time some of us will be standing, which is usually the case with Former Smoking Buddy and 50’s pin up girl because they get up front by the stage and listen from beside the speakers or at the feet of who ever we are there to see. My job usually revolves around watching drinks and things from a location not right by the stage. This is fine by me I’m a people watcher now and my mosh pit days are behind me. Which there was one there that evening and there were people in the pit that had no business being in the pit. When I see this forming I turn to Head Nod and say there was a day when I would be out there but that day isn’t today. Soon after that a person very close to my age is on the floor after being bashed about like a pin ball. That is just not smart. You don’t swim in a tank of sharks if you aren’t a shark or in armor and he was neither a shark or armored. At some point between the bands I have to go to the rest room. I know drinking and peeing you must be kidding those two things never happen together. Well I go in and do my business and no most places put adds up over urinals to sell you stuff while you pee or at least to expose you to things while you are exposed. I’m looking at the ads, and see the place 50’s pin up girl and Former smoking buddy work … which is a sex toys shop. I think huh Ill tell her them. So I do you know after I finish and wash my hands. So I say hey there is an ad for your place of business over the urinal. 50’s and Former say really go in and take a picture. I turn phone in hand walking toward the men’s room… then I think this probably seems a bit odd me. Standing at the door of the men’s room camera at the ready … to take a picture of an ad for a sex shop over a urinal Well as I walk in there is some one at said urinal so I leave because I don’t need to go and to wait there with my camera ready is going to seem even more odd if I walk up and take a photo of the ad over the urinal of where someone just peed while they are washing their hands. So I just waited outside until he left and then went in and did just that and showed it to 50’s and Pin up girl… perhaps you had to be there. Another pint please…On with the show …. The Woody Nelson’s played and gave a really great show. This was for us and for guitar guy too, to be on the same stage as the next two bands was a dream come true. Perhaps that dream will go a bit further and guitar guy will be the one that other bands want to open up for some day. Rick Barton was walking around before his show and if you don’t know a person is going to blow your socks off when you meet them well then you haven’t met Rick Barton. He walks and all you can think is this guy knows something you need to know. Well if a sound check is getting in your car, starting it up and driving for the freeway once Continental gets in the merge lane you are full speed from then on. During the show Barton delivers great music and good entertainment from the stage. At one point he is telling how there are good girls and bad girls who go to this type of show. Good girls isn’t the compliment in this scenario and he is making a tour around the women near the stage to which he is saying good girl about all of them and when he gets to Former Smoking Buddy and 50’s pin up girl he tags 50’s pin up girl as a good girl and then he sees Former Smoking Buddy and says without pause Bad Girl. Well Former Smoking Buddy could not have been happier. Just as the Woody Nelsons got the energy level up for Continental, Barton brought the energy level up to a level for the Rev. The Rev. took the stage and played all good songs, my favorite was not among them but hey what are you going to do. This band looks like they are right from the 1950’s but feel like they are from a time we haven’t lived in yet. All three bands made this one of the best concerts that I’ve been to ever and it was in a small little club and not as expensive. Unfortunately we all had to work the next day and were out way past reasonable bed times or there may have been more to the story Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Hey Mom, ...Guess where I am?

As you may have noticed I sort of stopped writing there for a bit…sort of as in grinding halt stopped writing for a bit. There are a lot of reasons for that …chief among them is a pretty enormous self loathing but that isn’t what we are here to talk about today perhaps I’ll get into that another time. With mother’s day coming up soonish I was talking about some things with some friends which happened to focus in on being parents and how we presented some challenges to our parents. While I didn’t live with my parents for a large part of my teen years I probably made up for it while I was there. Then once we leave the homestead we break out into the world with hardly a glance backward. Standing there is background are the ones who bled and toiled and stayed awake with worry over our every problem even the ones we have forgotten they have a gray hair or worry line to remind them. We didn’t ponder deeply the meaning of our relationships with our parents or how our relationships have evolved with our own children. One of the stories I recalled after having fled the homestead was being in Europe and calling home at various times to keep in touch with family and sometimes friends. As with most things we tend to settle in to trends or patterns when doing anything for the people in or attached to our lives, so they will expect it or be anticipating the interaction. One of the interactions I had with my mother mainly because she was the one who would answer the phone most often. This was when you left your phone on a desk or attached to a wall. And to call you had to find a phone attached to a wall or in a special house on the street. Well my habit with my mother and the phone was to wait until I had closed a bar and generally consumed a fair amount and it was generally very late or very early depending on how you look at those hours between midnight and 6 am. These calls would usually be associated with me traveling around to various places too. Many of the phone calls would go something like this. Hey Mom, guess where I am She of course had no idea exactly where I was I would be I’m In Paris and I’m drunk It’s 4 am which wasn’t really all that late for her in the US but I wasn’t in any condition then to figure out the time but knew I was ahead of them and If I was awake it generally mean that it was ok to call them unless it was daylight out but there were a few times the bar doors opened and the sun poured in… Oh that is a dreadful feeling and not the point So made several of these calls …from several different places in Europe and always a bit to the wind Those phone calls never lasted very long but they were happy ones and while I could have spent my money and time better while I was there but I didn’t. There for a moment I was on a street in some city not in the same place as my mother saying hey you are on my mind. While my mother and I haven’t always had the best relationship for a myriad of reason as is true with all children and parents it is was it is, again not the conversation. That went on for the entire time I was stationed out of the US. Once even convinced another person with whom I was stationed to call his Mom while he was all back of the bus and to the wind. Was this ill advised … perhaps it was but I had no point of reference as to how his mother would take to her son calling her from Europe with a bit too much to drink… My parents never seemed to care or never protested to me while I was on the phone. Well he calls his mother and says, Mom I’m in Munich and I’m drunk or wherever we were that time…we were drunk Well his mother did not take to the drunken shenanigans of two service men all that well. Her displeasure with me is assumed as I did not speak to his mother but imagine if I had the things she would have said would have been not happy words. My friend turned from happy to very stiff and yes ma’am and no ma’am, it will never happen again ma’am …blah, blah, blah. I’m like dude you are thousands of miles away from this person, you have been trained to be war machine… hang up the phone she can’t get you … Did he hang up the phone? No he did not … he took that howler phone call until the last ten phennig (German coinage before he Euro) clicked away on the pay phone. The party was over for him … we trudged back to where we were sleeping and all of my drunken phone calls were made solo from then on. Well years later my mother went on a trip to Greece with her BFF since middle school. While she was on this trip my phone rang at like 3 a.m. My mother is on the phone She says, “Guess where I am?” I say, “You’re in Greece” She says, “I’m Drunk” to continue the connection She wasn’t drunk because it was very early in morning so she had probably just gotten up and was waiting for the shower in the hotel before beginning the day of the tour. However the connection of my, oh hey I’m thinking of you calls drunken state and all were remember and she made a phone call to me Probably would have been funnier if she was hammered standing near the Acropolis Hey boy I’m at the Acropolis and I’m drunk on Ouzo. But drunk of not we share something that my brothers and my mother don’t. I’m sure they know about the calls and were probably there for a few of them but I only really talked to my mother on those Hey I’m in Prague and I’m drunk, I’m at the Muse d’Orsay and I’m drunk We all connect to the people in our lives in a way that no one else ever does which amazes me that everyone wants to have the same experiences as everyone else but it’s the things that aren’t the same as everyone else that make them stand out. Oddly things are where they started with a grinding halt but this time its playing on the speakers as I’m typing …everything is coming to a grinding halt… no sound … no me… no people…no you … In other news… Wow that is complicated … so complicated that I can’t even begin to explain it . Still in other news… I’m off for the next week and plan on making this return to writing at least a weekly thing perhaps twice a week …we’ll see baby step. Yet still in other news… I’m at my desk and I’m about 4 pints in no phone calls today That’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Message in a bottle adventures

A friend posted a photo of a USB memory stick in a bottle with the caption, “The modern day message in a bottle”

My thoughts were well that is interesting and I liked the image of a bottle on a sandy beach, ocean in the background with the modern device inside the bottle waiting for anyone to open up the secret messages inside.

Then I thought well water would destroy the memory stick. Then I thought sealing wax like on a wine and booze bottles would fix that problem and that would have made the photo look even cooler if the person taking the photo had thought of that little addition.

Alas they did not. Still it was a good photo.

It also reminded me of when I was kid. I grabbed a coke bottle back when they were made of glass and not the thin glass that they are today, it was thick ass glass that took a beating. For some reason there were corks lying around the house too various sizes and shapes and I found one that fit the bottle.

I then wrote a note in the bottle saying that I was this kid living in this particular town, going to this particular school, what I liked and if this message was found would you please, please, and probably threw in another please for good measure and as I was a kid I didn’t think it would be annoying to write please so many times in a row, write me back. I included my address as well.

Which in retrospect probably wasn’t really all that smart because and today everyone would be like WTH dude, do you want a stalker to come kill you.

Admittedly that isn’t very high on my list of things to get done in my lifetime.

So thinking ahead I put my letter in a plastic bag in case the bottle leaked and like the photographer didn’t think to seal the bottle in wax at the cap point. I was a kid though and while we had corks lying around we did not have sealing wax, so there is that in my favor.

Then once I had my message in the bottle I ran down to the town bridge which crosses the Cheat River. It was raining and the river was up and moving very fast. The water was brown with dirt and stirred up silt, and for what ever reason I tossed the bottle out as far as I could, because dropping it straight down seemed less dramatic I suppose.

It was dark and raining and I couldn’t see the bottle any longer a second or two after it left my hand. I don’t think I even saw it hit the water it was a very exciting moment. But from there the bottle was out in the world on its’ own waiting to be found where would it go, how far would it go. The excitement lasted for a few days and my daydreams of where the bottle might actually end up filled my head.

Well technically it could have possibly made it to the Gulf of Mexico
The progression would be from the Cheat, to the Monongahela to the Ohio River to the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico… to the whole wide world

Well to a kid probability means squat and that bottle had a great chance of making it to anyone in the world who might be near a body of water.

The reality is that the bottle survived and made it a pretty good distance and made it to the second river in that chain to the whole world and as luck would have it a kid found the bottle. An adventurous kid who liked to play on river banks like myself, except this adventurous kid was a girl.

I got her letter a few weeks after tossing my bottle into the river, closer to two months. So the bottle just sat there for a while I suppose. And largely I had forgotten about the bottle but the when the letter was there when I got home from school. It was one of those confetti moments when you just explode with happiness.

The girl and I wrote for a while and then we just stopped. I don’t remember why just that we don’t write anymore. This was before computers and easy photographs. So I never knew what she looked like and she did not know what I looked like. Hell we may have met later in life. I don’t remember her name and if the letters still exist then they would be in my mother’s house probably in the attic hard to say. Would be fun to find them if they are still there. I wondered about this person after seeing the bottle photo and thought what her life if like today and does she remember a childhood adventure of finding a message in a bottle on the banks of a river one autumn day.

Because I’ve had success with that little experiment I’ve done the same thing a few other times and tossed bottles into the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and a few rivers here and there. It has only worked that one time. But I have moved a lot so if it did work other times it was after I moved and the letter probably got sent back to the person.

I suppose GeoQuests replace the message in the bottle sort of adventures and my blog to letter box challenge is very much like the letter in the bottle thing. Except that the river this time was cyber space. That adventure continues and it is never too late to jump on board if you want to play as always the PO Box is below. I like to get cards and letters and it makes the spider happy.

I would encourage people to participate in this type of adventure but certainly use so precautions like a PO Box or just and email address that you set up specifically for the adventure. You will be surprised by the amount of excitement it actually creates in your life.

In other news…

Confirmation of the acronym in this last week from an unlikely source so that was fun


Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,






PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don


PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Can you say witch hunt boys and girls... I knew you could

So there is a lot of buzz going on about Lance Armstrong and the US Anti Doping Agencies allegations against Mr. Armstrong.

As far as I’ve heard related to facts that Lance Armstrong has never failed any tests from any agency including the US Anti Doping Agency or failed any test given to him by any officials from any race he has competed or for the IOC or for the USOC.

Yet for some reason the US Anti Doping Agency and I think more specifically Travis Tygart the Director of the USADA, continues to blare out “We don’t care what the test results say, we know Mr. Armstrong is guilty of some performance enhancement we just know it.” Not an exact quote but I think the sentiment it correct.

How do you know it? Please tell us how you know this? Show us some facts and not the word of some official or team mate who says I know because I saw this or that. Ok where is the proof of these people’s statements. If we convict people completely on the word of others now every one is going to be guilty of something they didn’t do just because someone doesn’t like them or is just pissed off at the moment.

Then there are the few former team mates who say they saw this or that but didn’t say anything at the time. And why not gather up the used needles if they existed that would have evidence of the substance and probably a small amount of Mr. Armstrong’s DNA. Then you could have just turned it over to a race official but none of that ever happened. No one ever came forward during races and said you know what I can’t support cheating.

Ok so why now after he is retired? If you want your sports to be fair and free of doping and performance enhanced abilities, why are you waiting to come forward when there is no proof in what you are claiming and it is so long after the fact that new evidence can not be drawn in the form of a blood test or urine screening.

Many writers and commentators and Mr. Tygart are saying that because Lance is quitting the fight against the allegations this is “an admission of guilt” on his part, because if he were truly innocent he would fight every minute of every day to clear his name.

Really, would he do that?

If Lance Armstrong is guilty of using performance enhancements he did so in a way that avoided hundreds if not thousands of doping tests? Well if he did use and was able to pass the tests well the secret dies with him or he admits it. You don’t have any proof that he did anything wrong.

However without proof how do you have a legitimate claim to continue to pour allegations out against this person?

The thing about this is that we’ve become so jaded as a society that we don’t want to believe that any one is able to achieve anything great anymore at least not with out cheating the system some how. And there is proof of it every day, not just in sport but in every part of out lives.

In the just recently concluded 2012 Olympics more than a few athletes tested positive for enhancement drugs and doping and there was still a fair amount of other cheating going on. From the badminton court, cycling, basket ball, martial arts and others. A side thought however is getting high on marijuana a performance enhancer? I would think it would be the opposite but hey it’s a banned substance so I get it he knew he shouldn’t have blazed up but did, and was banned

Some of it was the use of drugs, doping techniques, stretching the rules to your advantage, playing for position rather than wins and on and on. Our sports have become breeding grounds for lies and very un sportsmen like behavior. In all of these cases there is proof, there is immediate action taken. It isn’t month or even years later and without proof.

So when some one makes allegations against someone we are likely to believe them and given the number of times that someone has said oh no I didn’t do that and then later says ok yeah I did. We tend not to believe the person saying I didn’t do it. But in all of those other cases there has been some tangible proof of wrong doing.

There has yet to be any against Lance Armstrong that I’m aware of at this time. And this isn’t new for years this has been going on. It isn’t like oh now some years later people are saying Lance is a cheat. No they have been saying before he had cancer, they were saying it during his cancer treatment, they said it before, during and after every race he competed in after coming back and was tested, and tested and tested. Surely years of testing for by so many different agencies he would have slipped up some where along the line and there would be proof of the cheating.

Where is the evidence?

How many years of abuse would you take before saying you know what I’m done fighting with you I quit. Because it doesn’t matter what the truth is, it is what you (Mr. Tygart) want the truth to be that he is a cheater so you will continue to make allegations until when? Well until the person just quits fighting because it is such an expense in time, money, mental state and just an all consuming thing to the person who has been accused.

There comes a time when the fighting just doesn’t make any sense anymore because no matter what the out come there is always another fight about the same thing you just fought about.

He knew he was going to be tested. If I were an athlete in today’s world of drug testing it would be on my mind that if I do well someone is going to test me for something. So of course he knew he would be tested

And again if he is guilty and is able to beat all the tests well then that is something that agencies need to look into in testing athletes and if Lance got away with it, how many others have gotten away with it as well. Derek Jeter just had allegations made against him by an announcer who has chosen to make his money by being an ass hat but will Jeter be put through the same onslaught of accusations now. Hard to say but you don’t need evidence anymore to make someone’s life a living hell. You just need an audience and a few people to listen and pick up the torches and pitchforks.

Also what authority does the US Anti Doping Agency have over any competitions or to remove victories? The truth is they don’t have any authority over any sports but once the agency was empowered by the US Congress, who are all as we know very truthful people without any flaws in their characters, the USADA gave themselves unlimited authority to test anyone who does anything with any sport on the planet if they have competed in the US, plan to compete in the US or may think they might like to compete in the US or for the US.

Can you say witch hunters? If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck I’m sure it’s a witch but if says it isn’t a witch it’s a witch and if it says it’s a duck it’ is probably still a witch.

All in all I don’t know what to think about Lance other than to say show the public some proof other than he just doesn’t want to fight with you any more because that isn’t proof that he did something wrong it’s proof of Mr. Tygart has started a witch hunt and that’s all and now that Mr. Armstrong doesn’t want to play any more he is guilty

And I will say this if there is proof turn it over to the Tour de France and the IOC and the USOC and then by all means strip every award the man has gotten but prove it first.

However sadly the USADA has chose not to do this and have taken his unwillingness to play their game using rules they made which really ultimately give them the accusers the most of the power and those accused none. This is fair Mr. Tygart? Well I’m sure you don’t care about fairness you only say you do and the more important thing for you to do is to validate the existence of a money wasting agency which is redundant in every way. All the sports you test athletes for have their own testing, they have there own oversights and they have their own rules and authority to ban competitors you and your agency are not needed and should be abolished. You are a waste of tax payer money, you are a blight on the existence of fairness, and you probably aren’t a very nice person but I’m not sure about that last one but I think your actions justify my allegation.


In other news,

Internet fights between two people are fun to watch… god I love twitter it is better than day time TV


Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

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PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don


PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

BF3 Premium release rant

So I’m going to rant for this entry, about one of my hobbies. Battlefield 3, which if you are not familiar is a first person shooter FPS video game available on all the major gaming platforms. So if you don't care about gaming you may not want to read this issue.
There are a lot of things to complain about in the battlefield world. Some of them are development problems, some of them are programming problems, some of them are gamer problems and some of them are just problems which I’m not sure who to blame.

My rant is about the developers, programmers, and their marking people. Like many fans of either the franchise or the gaming genre new game generate a certain amount of buzz and excitement and some where along the way the people who make video games figured out if they started having people pre order games then they could save money on manufacturing because they would know how large to make a first run of the game so that they don’t end up with a lot of stock if the game doesn’t sell well after the first few months. It’s a very smart move.

Then they were able to add to games later once they were released with down loadable content (DLC). This saves money because you already have the basics of the game done you are just adding things to an already existing vehicle. Which ,truth be told these were all probably parts that were being developed for the game in the first place but were left out for one reason or another so a lot of the work is already done, but it is programming work and if you can make money on that so be it, which is fine. I don’t have a problem with the game getting a warm up if fact I prefer the warm up.

Then the developers came up with exclusive content which you pay a bit more for but it gives you something that other players don’t have in the game. Which may or may not give you an advantage but it is fun to have if you enjoy the activity and spend any time doing it. It is partly escapist fun so why not give your player some depth of your personality or flavor.

Battlefield 3 is no different than any other game developer out there however they have recently taken a great big whiz in the collective bowl of cereal of their base /core audience.

DICE and EA came out with a premium service which gives those players access to a few things other players don’t have. Some of it helps in game but mainly it doesn’t really it is all just a bunch of filler. But getting to play the games a bit earlier than other players is fun and the premium service was mainly a bundle of the new maps DLCs which were slated to come out over the next 12 months when it was introduced., which was totally worth the additional money to have the game have much more content.

I’ve played other FPS which could have used a lot more DLC which didn’t get any of it and that company is not defunct and they had great games.

So it’s expected by the consumers that the games will be freshened up a bit and it will cost some money.

The whiz in our cereal bowl is that now DICE and EA are making the premium service and all the other DLC and the original game all available for equal too or maybe even a bit less then it was originally sold for less than a year ago and less then 6 months since they asked the original buyers of the game to buy the Premium DLC for just a bit less then they are now marketing the whole thing for in less then two weeks.

To me as a consumer it is a giant F*** you game buyer you mean about as much to us as a speck of dust on our shoes.

You don’t care about the game buyer and you have proven it with that really shitty move. Which really makes the lame premium “bonus content” seem like a double slap in the face, no one really expected it to be more than fluff. Well almost nobody who understands you are in the business to make money from a workable product. Now I’m not sure exactly where making the money stands in the ranking compared to how workable the product is when it is sold but I would like to think the product being the best that it can be is up there slightly higher than the profits and if profits are number two on the list that is ok.

However when you market the “bonus content” as being something to enhance the game and it is a video about stuff that most players have figured out on their own or that many of the Youtube content creators have already explained and explained it better or some other lame thing that doesn’t do anything for the gamer at all. Seriously weapon camo in a gaming system that puts you on a heads up display if you are aimed at or fire your weapon? I mean really how does this enhance the gaming experience? It doesn’t hide us and if certainly doesn’t make the other player shooting at you pause and say oh damn your weapon is so much cooler than mine. In fact they do not notice it a bit.

The thing is they didn’t just give this stuff to you either. You have to do some ridiculously long quest which gives you nothing useful in the game. It is an insult and that our money was just something you expected to get from us and even deserved to have.

Well you haven’t earned that money and you have insulted a lot of gamers and would be willing to be part of a class action lawsuit against the gaming developers for this fraud against the consumers which is really what it amounts to, as the release information was deliberately vague and now offer all the same products for less than the original purchase price it is just shameless and shows the greed that drives businesses to give the consumer less and less for every dollar spent.

I’m not going to stop playing the game but I know I’m not going to buy anymore add on stuff for games and I don’t know that I’ll really buy too many more games from DICE on a first offering because 6 months later it will be half the cost. I’m sure I’m not the only person who fells this way. You’ve really alienated yourselves from a large part of the community and should make it up to your customers in a meaningful way.

In other news.

I’m just not sure what to think about the whole Lance Armstrong thing.



Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,






PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

You'll just have to imagine you've been offended or maybe you have...

Picking a jumping in point is almost as hard as coming up with titles. Usually though the writing just happens…albeit a lot of it occurs in my head or I just delete it after a while because even I look at it and say well that is just jibberish.

Perhaps I have the adult onset of attention deficit disorder … well I’ve probably always had it and have adapted specific coping skills which help me disguise the fact that I have this condition … is it a condition? What ever the point is that things get missed in life by the people around us, for example I probably needed glasses years before I got them but I didn’t get them until my junior year of high school. I remember that my technique for taking notes in class was to squint remember as many things as I could write them, squint again locate where I was on the board remember a new group of things and then repeat the process as quickly as possible and hopeful get it all done before the teacher erased the board. Which wasn’t all that often … so my notes were incomplete… therefore my grades were poor… therefore my basic skills in many classes were lacking, putting me behind my peers in many ways.

This happens a lot so I don’t feel slighted at all because of this and if I hadn’t been so introverted I might have said something but I didn’t say anything.

A re occurring dream I had all through school was a myriad of situations were my own insignificance was amplified and I couldn’t wake from the dream. It has evolved from just simple images to actual scenes and situations and my invisible body with voiceless screaming all having no effect on everything around me.

If you’ve read the blog for a while now you know just because it is incoherent to the average reader doesn’t always prevent me from posting what I’ve been thinking, if I can follow it or the chaos has purpose to veil a meaning then I leave it. Most of the stuff that gets the axe is stuff the crosses the line.

Which line…well that line were most people stop when telling a story, making a point, or anecdote and know that there point has been made… I’m a make sure the nail has been driven home and the line gets blurred when I cross over it.

There are a few people who get to see this in action and I’m sure they aren’t shocked to know even with them I don’t always cross the line. I know they won’t judge me too harshly because I’ve gradually exposed them to this with test comments and such. However this is not always the place to tear down the walls or have to defend a comment to the masses. Not that I feel I have to defend anything I say but it is more that if someone makes a comment stating that something I have posted has offended them and I don’t respond to it … it leaves me with the feeling that well perhaps they think I’m ashamed of what I’ve said and refuse to debate it.

No if something I’ve written has offended you… good you know where you stand on that particular subject … doesn’t mean I’m sorry if I’ve offended you and if I say I’m sorry you may not believe me and if you do I may not have meant it and just said it to make you feel superior than me … which is why we tell people they have offended us … because we believe our thoughts, value, ideas are better than theirs as expressed by what ever has us feeling offended.

So rather than not explaining myself all the time I just don’t always write a lot of what goes on in my head.

I’m trying to think of something with minimal potential to offend but still make my point and I’m struggling with it… so you’ll just have to take my word that cake batter isn’t always a reference to cake batter and it may or may not be what you are thinking or it might be both

The point is cake batter isn’t where the train is going to stop …it’s going on to the next stop just like the express that passes you by when you are late.

So that is where I’ve been lately in my blog writing and deleting things because they go too far.

Then there is the next level of things that hit the cutting room floor… I don’t like to share. Why write a blog then if you don’t like to share… because I like to share what I want to share but not everything that can be shared and even though I’m introverted I’m also a bit of an attention whore. But not the all so annoying look at me look at me whore but I do like attention … then I get freaked out a bit by it all too

Yeah I know I confuse myself a lot too. I should probably be a bit more open about all of that and not delete so much stuff. We’ll see but I walk a crooked road to get to a point that isn’t really all that far away from me so it may not happen all that quickly.

In other news…

I finally saw The Dark Knight Rises with Stunt Boy… it was awesome. Joseph Gordon Levitt is better than rather good and freaking stupendous I don’t have the vocabulary to express this man’s ability to bring a character to life and suspend disbelief. The whole revived Batman Trilogy with Christian Bale has been terrific.

Although I think Mr. Bale has been helped along by so many great cast members from Gray Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Cane and all the other roles that have made these films with such incredible depth of story that you a truly pulled in the world of Gotham City and would not be a bit surprised if the bat light appeared in the sky

All the bad guys, Liam, Thomas and Heath made each film unique that are as complete as stand alone piece but not so over done that they don’t fit with the others films

In short if you haven’t seen this film you should.

Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,






PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015