Herm??

Well I was thinking the other day about getting some home equity loans to help with the mortgage on my house. Then a friend of mine told me about this site that has just that. I can even get a hold of a mortgage broker in my are. I'm sure their are more then just one in my area though, a lot of people around here seem to need that kind of help.

[this post contains a paid placement]

I Got Married

Yes, folks, it's true - I'm Married. JDouglas Barker performed the ceremony. It was a private affair with just close friends and family. We went out and celebrated all night long afterwards.

Thanks to all who showed up for the celebration!

More later!

Excitement

Today is a big day for me. More on this tomorrow.

Those of you in the know keep your mouth shut!

/rizzn

Quote of the Entry:
"What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive?"
- Irv Kupcinet

New Additions to the Oblong Box Network

We have two new bloggers on the network, and another writer contributing to an existing blog.

Jenny Moore, my old neighbor and good friend, is writing at http://tediousmelody.com
Ronnie Evans, friend since childhood and man of a million interesting stories, is writing at http://modernopinion.com

Additionally, PV's cousin Samantha will be contributing to http://pvdoeseurope.com now.

That is all.

/rizzn

Bill Clinton / Mike Wallace Interview

This is the interview that the left and the right are buzzing about. The left say that Clinton schooled Mike Wallace - the Right say that Clinton lost his cool and looked like an idiot. I say it's just plain entertaining. Update: Here is USA Today's transcript of this portion of the interview... Wallace: When we announced that you were going to be on Fox News Sunday, I got a lot of e-mail from viewers. And I have to say I was surprised, most of them wanted me to ask you this question. Why didn't you do more to put bin Laden and al-Qaeda out of business when you were president? There's a new book out, I suspect you may have already read, called The Looming Tower. And it talks about the fact that when you pulled troops out of Somalia in 1993, bin Laden said "I have seen the frailty and the weakness and the cowardice of U.S. troops." Then there was the bombing of the embassies in Africa and the attack on the Cole. Clinton: OK let's just -- Wallace: May I just finish the question sir? And after the attack, the book says, that bin Laden separated his leaders, spread them around because he expected an attack and there was no response. I understand that hindsight is always 20/20 -- Clinton: No, let's talk about it. Wallace: But the question is, why didn't you connect the dots and put him out of business? Clinton: Let's talk about it. I will answer all those things on the merits, but first I want to talk about the context in which this arises. I'm being asked this on the FOX network. ABC just had a right-wing conservative running their little pathway to 9/11, falsely claiming it was based on the 9/11 commission report with three things asserted against me directly contradictory to the 9/11 commission report. And I think it's very interesting that all the conservative Republicans who now say I didn't do enough claim that I was too obsessed with bin Laden. All of President Bush's neo-cons that I was too obsessed with bin Laden, they had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after I left office. All the right wingers who now say I didn't do enough, said I did too much, the same people. They were all trying to get me to withdraw from Somalia in 1993 the next day after we were involved in Black Hawk Down and I refused to do it and stayed six months and had an orderly transfer to the United Nations. OK, now let's look at all the criticisms, Black Hawk Down, Somalia, there is not a living soul in the world who thought Osama bin Laden had anything to do with Black Hawk Down or was paying any attention to it, or even knew al-Qaeda was a going concern in October 93. Wallace: I understand. Clinton: No, no, wait. Don't tell me that -- you asked me why didn't I do more to bin Laden, there was not a living soul, all the people who now criticize me wanted to leave the next day. You brought this up, so you get an answer. But you -- secondly ... Wallace: .. bin Laden says, but it showed the weakness of the United States. Clinton: Bin Laden may have said it -- but it would have shown the weakness if we left right away. But he wasn't involved in that, that's just a bunch of bull. That was about Muhammad Aidid, a Muslim warlord, murdering 22 Pakistani Muslim troops. We were all there on a humanitarian mission; we had no mission, none, to establish a certain kind of Somali government or keep anybody out. He was not a religious fanatic ... Wallace: Mr. President ... Clinton: ... there was no al-Qaeda ... Wallace: With respect, if I may, instead of going through '93 and ... Clinton: No, no -- you asked it. You brought it up. Wallace: May I ask you (INAUDIBLE) question, and then you can answer? Clinton: Yes. Wallace: The 9/11 commission, which you talk about -- and this is what they did say, not what ABC pretended they said ... Clinton: What did they say? Wallace: They said, about you and President Bush, and I quote, "The U.S. government took the threat seriously, but not in the sense of mustering anything like the kind of effort that would be gathered to confront an enemy of the first, second or even third rank." Clinton: First of all, that's not true with us and bin Laden. Wallace: Well, I'm telling ... (CROSS TALK) Clinton: Let's see what Richard Clarke said. Do you think Richard Clarke has a vigorous attitude about bin Laden? Wallace: Yes, I do. Clinton: You do, don't you? Wallace: He has a variety of opinions and loyalties, but yes. (CROSS TALK) Clinton: He has a variety of opinions and loyalties now, but let's look at the facts: he worked for Ronald Reagan, he was loyal with him; he worked for George H.W. Bush, he was loyal to him; he worked for me, and he was loyal to me; he worked for President Bush, he was loyal to him. They downgraded him and the terrorist operation. Now, look what he said -- read his book and read his factual assertions -- not opinions, assertions. He said we took vigorous action after the African embassies, we probably nearly got bin Laden ... Wallace: But what ... Clinton: Now, wait a minute -- wait, wait, wait. (CROSS TALK) No, no -- I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to kill him. The CIA was run by George Tenet that President (Bush) gave the medal of freedom to, and he said he did a good job setting up all these counter terrorism things. The country never had a comprehensive anti-terror operation until I came there. Now if you want to criticize me for one thing, you can criticize me for this: after the Cole, I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban and launch a full-scale attack search for bin Laden. But we needed basing rights in Uzbekistan -- which we got after 9/11. The CIA and the FBI refused to certify that bin Laden was responsible. While I was there, they refused to certify. So that meant I would have had to send a few hundred special forces in in helicopters, refuel at night. Even the 9/11 commission didn't do that. Now, the 9/11 commission was a political document, too. All I'm asking is, anybody that wants to say I didn't do enough, you read Richard Clarke's book ... Wallace: Do you think you did enough, sir? Clinton: No, because I didn't get him. Wallace: Right. Clinton: But at least I tried. That's the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed, I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clark, who got demoted.

Notice: URL Change

Two URLs are changed.

The OblongBox Network Homepage is now changed to http://oblongbox.net (not active yet)
Rizzn's Video Picks are now changed to http://rizzn.com/video (active)

That is all. More from me later today, hopefully.

/rizzn

What Political Leader are You?

I'm not sure how I feel about this:

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

55 Words for Friday Night

In a talkative mood, I sit at my computer, with the A/C turned high so I don't waste electricity ($500 electric bills will do that to a person).

It's Friday night, and I've got a ton of work to do, but I want to get some social interaction done this evening.

Self-control loses tonight, I'm afraid.

/rizzn

Open Invitation to Everyone

I'm trying not to turn this into a wedding blog or something, but given that I am soon to engage in the most important ... er .. engagement of my life, I think I'm afforded to wax long on this topic.

I'm also told by a few friends that I'm not updating enough on the personal side of my life. I tend not to talk a whole lot about personal issue here unless they're particularly entertaining, but I'll indulge myself and the few people who seem to be interested in the topic here for a moment.

To do this, I'll summarize some of the entries from my super-secret anonymous blog of wonder and mystery. A peek behind the curtain of Rizzn, if you will.

Back in the beginning of April, I waxed philosophical to myself if I had become completely misogynist, as it seemed that every date I been on in the last several years had ended up disappointing in some way shape or fashion. Between the divorce of my parents and all my failed relationships, I wondered if I'd ever meet a girl again and be able to trust and love in the way that seemed only a distant memory.

On May 30th, I met Iris: "Cautious optimism. Am I crazy or did something stir?"

Iris and I met at a birthday party for a friend of one of Jeff and my mutual friends. We went to a trucker bar South of Fort Worth. We kissed and talked for hours, and occasionally danced. It was magic, and I was smitten.

Over the next month or so, we talked constantly on the phone.

In the middle of June: "Iris is definitely the girl for me....And she was all over me kissin' me and huggin' me. I'm trying not to say the l-word."

I was a bit more than smitten. This was the evening of our first official 'date'. We went to an upscale Italian restaurant, and then to a couple of bars. We talked for hours, then I drove her to her car, and drove back home to Tyler.

I didn't see Iris for a couple of weeks, but I knew that I was already in love with her. This was during the time to my visit to Florida, and I went to bed every night I was there wishing I could see Iris.

On July 23rd, I admitted something to myself: "I'm not saying it yet, but ... the l-word. Yeah, it's like that."

This was the evening we finally consummated. A lot!

The next day, I met her son A.J. and he kicked my butt all up and down the place at Smash Brothers. I really get along with him well, and am relieved at this.

On August 8th, I waxed:

Iris and I declared our love for one another last weekend. I swear, I don't remember feeling this happy in a relationship before. I don't remember since my first love a feeling of mutual respect, affection, pure love and happiness. We both are thinking the same things, and holding back the same things so as not to move too fast.

We both think each other is 'the one.'

We both neither want to get married, but we are also thinking to ourselves that if the other were to ask, we'd accept.

August 22nd, I wrote:

Now, I am engaged. I somehow was going to let this occasion pass by unmarked until I snuggled up into bed, and as I often do when Iris is away, I pined for her presence next to me. For some reason, I was spiked a thought and emotion through my being - the last time I was truly heartbroken.

The last time I cried when a relationship ended.

And in that moment I knew that if I were to lose Iris for any reason, that my world would be severely affected. I would hurt. I had made the decision to love her before this, but now the decision has become intractable - I am bonded with this woman. Lord willing, the bonds we share will only strengthen with time.

She is becoming has become my world.

August 24th: We had phone sex.

In the time between the 24th and now, we've grown more and more in love each day. Every day I go to bed thinking it's impossible to be more happy or in love than I am now. Each day I wake up surprised to discover that it is indeed possible.

We're to be married in December in a private ceremony, but the reception will be held in January, in Dallas, for all to attend. I'm sure we'll be registering somewhere soon, and I'll post up the links so you can all buy me crap for that. :-)

But in other words, no matter what life has thrown at me these last several months, I've been overjoyed and happy with life due to the existence of the best thing that's ever happened to me, my love Iris.

That's the news on my world. Now ...

An open invitation: Everyone needs to clear off the evening of the 29th and possibly the 30th from their calendars. All of Iris's close friends are coming down from Dallas to meet all of my close friends. If you're in the Tyler area at that time, I'd like you to meet the love of my life. We're going to meet for dinner somewhere (taking over the restaurant, no doubt), and then go somewhere and party!

And trust me. Iris's girls know how to party.

Wedding Planning Things: I'm still looking around at other options, since December is still a good bit of time away. As of now, we're still planning on hitting Vegas then, but I found an interesting Maui Weddings vacation package gimmick. The whole thing sounds good, but still a bit outside our price range. Maybe for an anniversary, eh?

That's all for now. More later!

/rizzn


[this post contains paid placement]

Support the Gays

I recieved a bulletin on MySpace entitled "Support the Gays." It was a fairly humorous top ten list that was meant to provide some sort of support to the "gay cause." Those of you who know me know I hold some interesting views on the gay debate - views that will be re-iterated here.

As a note to you non-MySpacers, don't think that this sort of intelligent discourse happens all the time on MySpace. This is a pure anomaly.

The original post is noted by italics and responses after that.

I'm in a typing mood today. I saw this post from Mel, one of my very dear friends (and a lesbian herself), and I had to comment. I ask that you read everything I write before you flame the crap out of me (especially the part at the end. I'm not writing to defend gay-haters).

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

Being gay is not technology, either. Gay is a term for a behavior pattern. A more apt comparison would be suicide as an unnatural thing that "Real Americans" reject. Suicide is a behavior, and it is inherently unnatural, and most Americans currently reject it, polls show.

Incidentally, air conditioning was rejected as a 'dumb idea' when it was first invented. That's neither here nor there, though.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

Again, gay marriage, an activity people engage in, is a behavior or a symptom of behavior. Being tall is not a symptom of anything in particular. You cannot encourage someone to be tall. You can encourage other people to engage in certain behaviors just by being around them. Everyone has a sociological need to be accepted, and if being gay is accepted by the whole of society, it will eventually encourage others to be gay for the acceptance value of the activity.

Being a punk or a goth isn't a socially accepted norm, yet tons of youth fall into that category because they can't find acceptance in other social circles. I'm not saying this is a negative or positive thing, it just is.

Besides, we all know a few 'poser' lesbians, if you're in the Tyler scene. Case in point!

3) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

Marriage is one of the principal foundations of law and order. The family unit is the smallest social group, and the building block of society. By changing the definition of our legal foundations, we are by definition changing the foundation of society.

The same thing happenned in the 50s when America defined the 'nuclear family.'

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

In many states, it's very easy to trace the way the law treats men and women differently because it may not seem like it now, but as recently as 50 years ago, these laws were still on the books, and most judges we have today were alive 50 years ago.

As recently as 20 years ago, I'm told, it was still legal to arrest someone for being a Gypsie (which is an actual race of people). If we still have legislated racism in the books in some places, then yes indeed its going to be a tough road to re-define the social building block of America, especially when the majority doesn't have the political will to do so.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britney Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

To most Americans, we value marriage for what it is - the ultimate committment you can make to another individual you truly love.

Some Americans, however, see it as a gift from God, and as it is a gift from Him, it is defined by Him, and how dare we re-define it?

These are the same people who tend to oppose there being laws allowing for divorce except in the most extreme of circumstances. Many of you are too young to realize this, but before Gay Marriage was a buzzword, during the 80s and 90s these same people fought for a strengthening of marriage laws and heavy legislation on divorce laws.

They lost, of course.

And these same people see their definition of marriage being dilluted further. You can sort of understand their slippery slope concept now, yes?

6) Marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

There are very few, if any, orphanages in America. Most children are adopted straight from birth. There are long lines of people wanting to adopt children so that the agencies get to set the rules on who adopts, without laxening their standards.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

The problem some people have with gay parents raising children isn't a matter of the children being brought up gay, but rather being brought up with the idea that it's ok to be gay. To many Americans, being gay is one of the worst sins one can commit, and to have institutionalized sin is definitely not a good thing in their minds.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

No, but we live in a representative democracy here in America. When you live in a representative democracy, the rules of law should reflect the values of those who live there.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

No, but studies show that children raised outside of a situation where there is a 'traditional family', i.e. one with a strong male and strong female influence, that children have a much harder time of life and achieving success by secular measures (i.e. high paying jobs, higher education, and fulfilling family life).

There are always exceptions to the rule. I'm sure you can think of several people, just like I can, who break that mold.

10) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

Again, refer to my previous response on the slipery slope idea.

Final Thoughts: I know I'm taking a huge risk of being fire-branded here by writing these things, but it's a topic everyone's afraid to tackle in polite company. These days you can say just about anything in defense of a minority group and it's written off as 'oh they're just supporting (insert minority here)."

I write to illustrate the point to people who want to really support minorities of two things:

1) Know your facts if you engage in debate.

If you engage in the debate for or against anything, and you throw up completely humorous or not very well thought out reasoning, you give the other side the opportunity to knock down your arguments with great ease, and make your side look worse for the wear.

More than likely, you end up enflaming the other side, and lose any chance to convince anyone, because you'll both end up name calling by the end of the day. I've seen it happen a million times.

2) Don't assume just because you're right that you're right about everything. The other side may be right about somethings, too.

This is just as important. If you're wrong on something - concede it! If you think they're wrong, try to prove how they're wrong (like I have above). But don't go into a debate 100% convinced you can't be wrong. Chances are, you are wrong about a lot of stuff. I know I am all the time.

The trick is to recover with grace and aplomb.

My Solution to This Debate
If you've read this far, you might as well finish. I personally am opposed to Gay Marriage, and my religious beliefs tell me that being Gay is wrong.

I DON'T believe that the government should have authority to tell people that. In fact, I don't believe the government should have the authority to regulate marriage at all - the only reason they do currently is so that they can collect money for licenses, assign tax breaks for certain kinds of families and to look good on election day.

Marriage is a religious and social contract. From a legal perspective, it is no different than entering into a business partnership - the only true meaning it has is spirtual. Spiritualism is not the realm of law, it is the realm of religion. If you can find a religion that will marry you and your cat, go for it. If you can find a religion that will marry you and your gay lover (there are plenty of them out there), do it.

Don't legislate it though. Don't put it in the constitution. And don't tell me how I can and cannot get married. As a Freedom Loving American - I respect your right to get married to whomever or whatever you want.

But we must change our laws to reflect this. There is no way that America will pass laws regulating or allowing gay marriages. But there is a chance that the Gay lobby and the Christian lobby will unite to put the power of marriage back where it belongs - in the hands of religious institutions.

On a side note, this is a theory supported by most Libertarians, and is one of the minor issues my friend T. Evan Fisher is running on this year for state congress. He recently spoke at a gay rally and brought up these issues and the need for de-regulation of marriage.

Just some random thoughts after the fact: I really expected to be flamed hardcore for this (and I still might get it), but I did get several letters from people saying that they appreciated the 'sanity' being injected into the debate.

As for my religious beliefs, which I briefly mentioned, I think it bears explanation the root of my belief in that, because I could still quite easily be branded a hate-monger (I have lost friends over this topic as well as jobs, and I want to make quite clear that I am not).

I believe it's pretty easy to find in the Christian Bible some words from God on homosexuality - I don't need to provide references on that, I think the very fact we call it sodomy (named after a town God destroyed) should speak to what the Bible teaches about homosexuality.

However, I allow for the fact that I may be wrong on that. In fact, there are only three things in the Christian belief structure that I don't allow for being wrong on:

1) That you must love the Lord your God with all your being.
2) That you must love your neighbor as yourself.
3) That you must know that Salvation through Jesus Christ is the only way to God.

These are the tenants to what I refer to as the Christian Covenant. I think that debate on any of the other topics that Christians hold as dogmatic beliefs is a healthy and good thing, because popular opinion on what is or isn't a sin can very well change by popular opinion or what is a societal norm, sometimes.

But the only person's behavior I'm personally accountable for is my own. If asked my opinion on what is or isn't a sin, I will tell it, and say why. But I don't think the government nor the church has the right to enforce punishment for said sins. Vengence is Mine, sayeth the Lord. Not Rizzn's or Joe Blow's. It belongs to the Lord. He's the final judge, not me.

In that vein, it is how I can remain friends with, and love people as friends and family even if I don't agree with their lifestyle choices or their behavior patterns.

All that said, I'm getting back to work. Lots to do.

/rizzn

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Sometimes you just don't have to comment on the news - it speaks for itself.

Quiz: Can you spot the crime?

From the NJ Star Ledger, Sept. 21, 2006:

A 30-year-old Andover Borough man has pleaded guilty to possessing a dagger while he was being arrested in June, the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office said. Ryan Johnson possessed the dagger while he was being arrested in the borough by the State Police on jUne 8, the prosecutor's office said. Johnson leaded guildty Monday in Superior Court to unlawful possession of a weapon, a fourth-degree crime. He faces up to 19 months in jail when he is sentenced Nov. 9."

"N.J. Court tells police limits on car searches don't apply to homes." "The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled 4-3 yesterday that police do not need a reason to ask permission to search someone's home."

Big Brother is Shouting At You
This from the dailymail:

Big Brother is not only watching you - now he's barking orders too. Britain's first 'talking' CCTV cameras have arrived, publicly berating bad behaviour and shaming offenders into acting more responsibly.

The system allows control room operators who spot any anti-social acts - from dropping litter to late-night brawls - to send out a verbal warning: 'We are watching you'.

Middlesbrough has fitted loudspeakers on seven of its 158 cameras in an experiment already being hailed as a success. Jack Bonner, who manages the system, said: 'It is one hell of a deterrent. It's one thing to know that there are CCTV cameras about, but it's quite another when they loudly point out what you have just done wrong.

'Most people are so ashamed and embarrassed at being caught they quickly slink off without further trouble.

'There was one incident when two men started fighting outside a nightclub. One of the control room operators warned them over the loudspeakers and they looked up, startled, stopped fighting and scarpered in opposite directions.

'This isn't about keeping tabs on people, it's about making the streets safer for the law-abiding majority and helping to change the attitudes of those who cause trouble. It challenges unacceptable behaviour and makes people think twice.'

The Mail on Sunday watched as a cyclist riding through a pedestrian area was ordered to stop.

'Would the young man on the bike please get off and walk as he is riding in a pedestrian area,' came the command.

The surprised youth stopped, and looked about. A look of horror spread across his face as he realised the voice was referring to him.

He dismounted and wheeled his bike through the crowded streets, as instructed.

CHILDREN HANDCUFFED IN POLICE DRUG RAID
This from the Albany Times Union:

A police strike team raided a woman's Prospect Street apartment and handcuffed her children and killed her dog early Tuesday in a $60 pot bust. The woman called it excessive force and a case of mistaken identity, but officers said they stormed the home for a good reason: One of her sons was selling marijuana there.

The Police Department's tactical squad knocked down the front door of the upstairs apartment at 110 Prospect St. and flooded into the apartment shortly after 6 a.m.

"I heard a big boom. My first reaction was to jump out of bed. We were trying to find where our kids were at and all of a sudden we had guns in our faces," said 40-year-old Anita Woodyear, who rents the second-floor flat.

During the ensuing chaos, police handcuffed two of the woman's children, Elijah Bradley, 11, and 12-year-old Victoria Perez, and shot at her dog in the kitchen before killing it in the bathroom, Woodyear said.

/rizzn

Fantastic Voyage into...

...Activity Based Costing software. Earlier on Kate's Blog I defined activity based costing, and compared it to a root canal. Here, the pain continues.

AcornSys has some software that does this ABC stuff pretty darn well. I mean like super-good. Their software is useful for improving profitability, improving supply chain efficiencies, determing cost allocation and affecting cost reduction. Super useful.

Yeah. It's late. That's all I got.

/rizzn

[this post contains half-assed paid placements.]

Mo money mo money mo money

So I know you all have some kind of coins laying around. May it be gold or us silver coins I think you should invest those puppies. I mean come on, who knows how much those things are going to be. If you take up the idea go to Monex, because they have been around for going on 30 years now. The majority of the people in the states trust them with their safety deposit boxes and their precious medals, why don't you.

[this post contains a paid placement.]

I Lie for Money

I'm still making preperations for the wedding. Today, we researched flowers. There are actually sites out there for how to prepare your own. I've decided I'm not going to do that - but there are sites out there that will tell you how to do that. I'm just sayin'. The aforementioned link tells you that, and what flowers are in season different parts of the year.

Y'all aren't really buying this are you. I didn't think so. Yeah, I didn't really look at flowers today, I looked at Elvis wedding chapels in Las Vegas. It's amazing how cheaply my words can be bought for.

But remember, next time you tell a lie, are you getting paid for it? Because I am.

/rizzn

[this post contains paid placement.]

Going somewhere?

How about Chicago for a change? No? Well too bad because that is where we are going today. With the help of Aurora Real Estate we can find out the best schooling, most available job opportunities and access to commuter rail lines. I've always wanted to ride one of those. So I think you should check it out.

[this post contains paid placements.]

Let's move to Stinkerland!

[Just when you thought it was safe, Rizzn writes more ad copy!]

When I was young, my mother used to refer to her time in Maryland as time spent in the "Armpit of America." That said, I'm here to talk to you now about Baltimore Real Estate. Obviously my mother was wrong, because I'm told that in Cockeyville, Maryland (evidently a suburb of Baltimore), you can find the best darn one, two, and three bedroom apartments on the face of the Earth. And with a name like Cockeyville, it certainly can't be an Armpit (I'm thinking more like a Groin or something).

Give the folks at Gebhart Properties a call at (410) 666-1340 (a rather auspicious number!).

/rizzn

[this post contains paid placement. i can't believe i get paid for this. hopefully.]

WTFzorz!

Hey folks Today I'm here to talk to you about van racks. Because I know that when you think of Rizzn... woo hoo... you think of van racks.

That's what today's blogs are brought to you today by. Sorry. Perhaps someone out there in my audience is more interested in van and truck accessories than I am, and in that case, you need to head on over to the aforementioned link. If you need some fuzzy dice, racks to put your skis or surfboards on, or some neon lights or some spinners, head on over there - and if you buy more than $100 worth of crap for your vehicle, your shipping is free.

Sort of makes you all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn't it?

/rizzn

[this post contains paid placement. as if you couldn't tell]

Hello Newcomers!

There's been a traffic spike lately on the Oblong Box network. I've been toying with some different promotional techniques, and a couple of them are hitting paydirt. I'll be posting more about the specifics later once I figure out exactly which thing I did that worked... It'll probably be a couple days. Primarily I need to wait until the stats settle down on Google Analytics so I know exactly what's what.

I spoke with Joel today, and we had a long conversation about many things, including the rising star that is the Oblong Box and PoddedMeat. It's amazing how far things are coming along, and I must say that I'm a bit surprised with the success of things. I know that sounds a bit weird to most of you, because I talk a big game about how successful and business savvy I am, but I'm a bit like Babe Ruth in that I have a number of impressive homeruns in my stats, but I have an even larger number of unimpressive strikeouts.

I think that amazingly, I've estimated the curve of technology growth and adoption properly, as well as gleaned the requisite know-how to execute the project, as well as having been blessed by God for having an altruistic business plan. These factors are what I attributed the growing success of this network - no braggadacio - just a miraculous convergence of circumstance that I've been able to navigate.

In other, more personal news, I'd like to formally announce to everyone within eye-shot of this blog that I am in fact engaged to be married. Iris and I became engaged last month, and we're not announcing a date yet, but we will announce a date soon for the reception. It's going to be a private affair, with only a couple close friends at the ceremony, and a larger more public affair that is currently slated to be held in Dallas for the reception.

I'm am so amazingly in love and happy with this decision. It feels like my final step into adulthood, so I'm a bit nervous, but more than that, I'm filled with joy and anticipation for the future.

I know one thing, though... all this busyness with work has been causing me coccyx pain (for those of you in Rio Linda, that would be tailbone pain). I'm shopping for a new chair. The one I have currently is a hand me down from my dad. At one point, it was a fine looking faux-leather chair, but all the faux has worn off, and now it looks like a burn victim. I'm thinking of getting one of those chairs that makes you kneel down. Anyone out there tried those (if you know what kind I'm talking about)? They're supposed to do wonders for your back. Let me know if you have.

/rizzn
[This post contains paid placement]

Wedding Things

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I've been looking around for wedding stuff - as some of you know, I'm getting married to the girl I talked about several months ago - Iris. It's been a whirlwind romance, and we finally decided to tie the knot a month or so ago.

Most of the stuff for the plans are coming together nicely, some things we're having to research a little harder - there's a gazillion things needed to make this stuff happen. I had Jon help me out looking for some stuff for the reception:

...at any rate, for some reason, he had me looking for personalized wedding favors and a couple other things. Found this site with a great deal on the party accessories, and it had a bunch of ideas for different and interesting setups for the reception stuff.

So yeah. Great stuff.

So

I was thinking about how a friend of mine took some Ativan and some other medications on top of that and had a really bad reaction to it. It was a stupid move if you ask me, she should have checked out Epocrates to see what was going to happen with a mixture like that. But all in all she is fine after she got her stomach pumped.

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Do you need insurance

I know me and the Miss need to get insurance on all our cars. I was looking around for a car insurance quote and I found one that got me my insurance in less then 15 minutes. Now when my lady gets home I am going to have to get another one for her. I'm sure she wont mind since it is really fast and you don't have to go to an office and wait in line for over an hour.

[this post contains paid placements.]

55 Words for Sunday Evening

Stolen Shamelessly from Bird and Moon:

He came home to find her curled on the rug, crying again.

"Happy birthday!" he said. "Fed your birds today?"

"No."

"Come," he said, "I got you a present." Gently he led her outside and poured seed into her hand. Soon, her favourite sparrow landed.

It wore a miniscule party hat.

Her face lit up.

I love it. The greatest!

/rizzn

This is ridiculous

I was reading this article today about how this attorney was trying to get 2 million dollars from this little old lady. She lost her husband on 9/11 so she was getting something from the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund. Since their was a lawsuit against her from her previous lawyer, she asked simmons jannace & stagg if they would help her with her case. They fought it out in the courts and won. She did not have to pay the attorney what he asked for. Serves him right.

[this post contains paid placements.]

So I was thinking

I really need to get away. I thought about getting some Cheap Vacation Packages somewhere. I was asking around and Fairfield Getaways has the cheapest that I have seen. So I think I just might take a trip to Destin, Florida or Las Vegas. Those were the two that sounded the most interesting.

[this post contains paid placements]

United States Torture Policy

There's a lot of buzz in the blogosphere about this video:



"Bush Dodged the Question!"

"Bush Lobbies for Torture!"

Do I endorse torture?

To answer that, you first have to understand what the nature of the torture is, and what someone means when they say torture.

I'm reminded of a quote from West Wing: most issues don't have a black and white answer, and the ones that do usually involve bodycounts.

Abu Ghraib? Maiming? Water drips? no - these aren't acceptable forms of torture. The accused will say what you want them to say or whatever they think you want them to say by the end of it, and the treatment is ineffective at acomplishing the intended ends, not to mention the inhumane-ness of the treatment itself.

Playing RHCP repeatedly until someone cracks in a chilly room? That's just funny, and probably fairly effective. Making Saddam Hussein watch South Park the Movie repeatedly? Probably schadenfreude at my enjoyment of this, but I find those humane and decent forms of torture that will likely not have permanent scarring effects on the prisoners, yet will probably yeild positive results.

When there's high stakes involved regarding the information a prisoner has, it *might* be okay to loosen rules regarding torture. I've never been put in such a situation, so I can only armchair quarterback, but I imagine there would be situations in which I might wholeheartedly endorse torture.

(There's a dirty nuke set to go off in the heart of Baghdad, and this captured terrorist cel might have the information on where it is so it can be diffused. Where do you draw the line there?)

Bottom line: depends. Depends on the meaning of the term torture, depends on the type of torture, and it depends on the stakes of the situation.

I understand the quandry of being engaged in an armed conflict with an enemy that doesn't play by the rules. It becomes a delicate game of psychology. They engage in brutal killings where they chop off our soldiers' and civilians' heads with dull blades.

What do we do? Stack them 10 high naked, and send a picture home to mom. Then they round up their own citizens and murder them on the side of the road.

What do we do? We stick them in the walk-in fridge and play the Chili Peppers again and again (Clearchannel does that in America, and people pay to put ads on it!). Then they hang American contractors from overpasses in the middle of town.

What do we do? We play South Park The Movie repeatedly to Saddam Hussein.

It's a slippery slope when we endorse torture as a country - every law we pass can and will be taken out of context, stretched, bent, and worked to the fullest extend of every corrupt government employee's will. On the other hand, we do need to have teeth when dealing with the threats we face overseas. We have to have the will to do what the other side won't, or we'll lose. It's a high-stakes, bloody staring match, and folks, we're losing. We're in this thing half-hearted, we're misapplying resources, and we're tying our hands behind our back.

It's not that we have to do what the other side won't, but we have to make them think that we will. It's a mind game, and we're definately losing.

In other news: Iris has decided to move here to Tyler. Good news for the local real-estate market. Just one more Tylerite in the mix. Wendy was just telling me about a friend of hers from Arizona moving here due to the slowing Scottsdale real estate market.

Either way, I'm fairly happy my girl's coming closer to me!

/rizzn

[this post contains paid placement]

Are the Chili Peppers Really That Bad?

This tip comes to me from of all places, MySpace.... read and weep:

From: Kracker Kills
Body: I really don't give a sh!t about the red hot chili peppers and even though I don't like their music, I have to admit they are a great band and have innovated more than one style of rock and roll.

NOW TO BUISNESS!

My last post was no bull shit. After searching Foxnews.com I found were the story originated and it turned out to be the dreaded O'Rielly Factor.

Here is the direct link to the web page (either click on it or copy and paste)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,213490,00.html

Once you have entered the page, press Ctrl and F. A box will pop up. Type in it "Red Hot Chili Peppers" read a few lines up.

if you are to lazy to do that I am also cutting and pasting part of the article right below

O'REILLY: You know, there is a big article, and we're going to deal with this tomorrow night, as I mentioned. Sunday's New York Times, torture a big al Qaeda guy and you know what the torture allegations came down to, professor? Did you read the article? It came down to...

LYNN: The water boarding?

O'REILLY: No. It came down to keeping a captured Al Qaeda in a frigid room and playing Red Hot Chili Pepper music at a very loud level. Do you consider that torture, sir?

LYNN: No. But I certainly sympathize with the discomfort of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

O'REILLY: Me, too. I'd give up anything to not listen to it, but that's a joke. But come on. The seriousness of the situation is that this guy had information that when we got it and we did, save lives. And you have bitching by the ACLU and other human rights groups and the left-wing press about this kind of interrogation. And it's insane, Professor. I just want you to know that. It's insane. It puts you and me and all of our families in danger.

P.S. Thank you all for your time

Rizzn here again. Interesting. Sort of puts Abu Ghraib in perspective, eh?

/rizzn

Oblong Meat Update

Howdy, folks. It's been a dead week here on the Oblong Box, content wise - a situation I can quite well understand, as I am known for prolonged bouts of silence myself. But a great deal of behind the scenes work is being done that I should probably take a minute to inform you of.

New bloggers online!
MasterBlogger - Jeff Laepple is now online and blogging at MasterBlogger.net. Giving his unique brand of angst and relationship advice. Check it out!

Smokehouse - Art Lindsey III, you know him, you love him (or hate him), and he's going to be more than just a lurker on the list now, he's spewing his neo-con venom almost daily on his blog starting the end of the week.

New blogger coming online later this week!
Mom On A Tangent - Lauri Heitzer is going to be coming online this week talking about a good mix of things of personal and general interest. We can look forward to this by the end of the week.

New blogger coming in the next few weeks!
Deuce Peveto European Gigalo - Ryan Peveto, aka PV, fixture on the local Tyler scene, is headed on a whirlwind two year backpacking tour of Europe and Northern Africa. Assuming he lands on his feet this week when he hits Europe, he'll be posting quite regularly to his blog! Look for it!

In addition to the new bloggers, hopefully very soon the OblongBox homepage I've been working on will be all finished up. There are some text formatting issues I'm trying to work the kinks out on before it all goes live. Once those are done, I think we'll have a nice looking home page.

Furthermore, to my writers, I know that we've once again hit a dry spell on the Paid Placements, but you can ask Wendy, she and I have been hard at work putting together the work needed to get everyone going with the new PR company. It'll be all good soon.

In the meantime, I need my writers to continue posting to their blogs. When we start doing new placements, we'll need slightly older entries to start making the placements on. Doesn't matter what you write about... just do some writing!

PoddedMeat Stuff
In PoddedMeat news, viewership numbers keep rising exponentially, and I've found a number of interesting promotional tools that we'll be featuring on upcoming episodes of RunTime.

Additionally, serious progress on Paparazzi was made today (we're coming up the days we're going to be shooting the pilot/first episode), and some good talks with a major search engine company were made yesterday regarding another headlining show for PoddedMeat. I can't tell you what the company is yet, but I can tell you that if you're an avid blogger, you've probably been there before.

That's about all I got at the moment. Deuce!

Moving Concerns
In the near future, I'm going to need to move. Somehow I have survived the torture my landlord has inflicted upon me and I'm nearing the end of my lease. Additionally, Iris will be moving in with me at the beginning of next year, so I've begun the search for moving assistance - it's not easy, moving, and it doesn't get any more fun when you move as often as I do (once every 3-12 months).

I came across this site - Self Storage Directory - Moving.bz - which looks to be like a definitive site for moving information. You just enter your information and it'll give you bids on storing and moving your stuff (a lot like the quotecatcher system I use for my website bids). Definately check it out.

/rizzn

[this post contains paid placement]

My Day, My Weekend, My Slack

I love bit-torrent.

I've been watching season one of Boston Legal since last night. And I've been actually doing a bit of web design at the same time. VLC runs amazingly fast with fourteen other applications loaded at the same time.

At any rate, that's why you're seeing a text post and no video posts the last 12 hours or so.

On a note of complete seperateness, as many of you know, I am involved with and still am a partner in a VoIP company, and periodically post interesting VoIP news here on the site. One of the sites I've found invaluable in research of VoIP equipment and troubleshooting tips is the VoIP forums at Vonage. Yes, even though they are the evil competitor (and I have a dim view of their financial decisions sometimes), they do indeed have what is developing into the best online resource/community for your VoIP questions and answers. Check it out, if you're ever in the need for that type of thing.

/rizzn

A Cheap Shot...

But funny, in my opinion.

This is a page from the appalling children's book "Why Mommy is a Democrat." I made a note to something I noticed on the page as well. Feel free to pass around.




/rizzn

Do you need scrubs?

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So my friend Wendy and her aunt were talking about needing new Scrubs. Her aunt is a Nurse and needs all kinds of colors and some with prints on them. I told them to check online and gave them a few web sites to check out to see if they could find n e cheap scrubs for her aunt. I think Wendy just needs them for when she is doing her art stuff. She likes to wear them when she is painting so that she wont get n e paint on her clothes. I think its a pretty good idea if you ask me.

Good Day!

/rizzn

I remember when

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I don't know how old I was really but I remember when Yahoo still had user chat rooms. I met a lot of people in those rooms and they were a lot better then the just general chat rooms to go to. My friend Wendy and some of her good friends all hung out in the Juggalo chatroom when they still had them. She would tell me about the fun times she used to have when someone they didn't know would come into one of the rooms not knowing what a Juggalo was.

Rip-Off Report Accused of Extortion

According to US Web, an internet marketing and PR agency, Rip Off Report has been using shady practices in its for consumer, by consumer company rating system. Site owner and operator Ed Magedson has been the subject of several lawsuits from companies claiming that information posted on his website is fraudulent.

Other site operators claim that Ed Magedson uses the ranking power of RipOffReport.com under other company's names and use those rankings to extort money from the companies being reviewed.. We have successfully worked with one company already to push the Rip Off Report ranking back into Google and remove it from the top rankings that are unfairly hurting companies.

/rizzn

An Odd Day

Today wasn't very productive for me. Sometimes it's tough being an idea guy.

My mind has been racing with a thousand ideas, things that I've had planned for a while, projects I want to do, but simply don't have time to do them. In the near future, here, when PoddedMeat and OblongBox start bringing in the revenue, I'll have the capital to afford some programmers and get them done. In the mean time, I hope the ideas don't evaporate from my head (and I maintain the self-discipline to get what needs to be done accomplished).

Here's my thought process today.

I read an article last night that suggest to properly promote video works, you need to post it to all the two bit video sites, not just YouTube and GoogleVideo. So today I worked up a comprehensive list of all the video sites I could muster and downloaded all the upload clients, and have been steadily trafficking scads of video up to these various sites (if you notice my video blog, you'll see I've also been looking around a bit at their content as well).

One that I found that was particularly interesting was one called MetaCafe. It has an interesting concept for it's download client. Most of these sites, their download client is simply for uploading video - MetaCafe's client re-introduces the 'veg factor' into on-demand video, something that I think has been sorely lacking.

One of the elements I wanted to put into the show we did on podcasting clients was the weaknesses I saw in all the podcatching clients (which is the same weakness I see in all PVR systems as well, incidentally) - and that is they remove the veg-factor from TV viewing.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love on-demand, and I love podcasting and vodcasting. The problem is that if you think to your own TV viewing habits, they very likely don't match up to the world of on-demand yet. Unless you're actually sitting down to watch something specific, you've likely just got the TV on in the background, or you've got the news on that you're halfway paying attention to, or you've got some music video station playing. Something like that.

YouTube and GoogleVideo's content is primarily comprised of background noise style videos. Music Videos, idiots jumping off buildings while on fire, mentos in coke bottles, kittens falling asleep, stuff like this. Unless you're just killing time, you've probably not got the time like I do every day to sit and surf the site and hit play every 25 seconds. You're likely using the on-demand videos to spice up your MySpace page or to occasionally watch something someone sent you in an email.

Back to MetaCafe. They have an auto-download function. Basically, you flag the types of multimedia you like to watch, and it'll automatically download it for you. Then you turn on "TV Mode" and it'll play it continuous mix style, deleting old watched content. It's like streaming TV, but more like clickerless stream of consciousness TV.

This reminds me of two things, specifically. The first thing that comes to mind is a little known (anymore) application called PointCast. Back in the late 90's, screensavers were the bomb, and whenever you got tired of your flying toasters, you could download PointCast, which would every night dial up your internet connection, and download news of all types. Then the next day, it would display headlines and pictures and all kinds of good stuff on your screen when you weren't doing anything. It failed, of course, because they relied too heavily on people looking at ads, when presumably the application only turned on whenever you weren't at your computer.

The other thing MetaCafe reminds me of is that one very short scene in the Matrix where Neo is sitting at his home computer, and he runs a search on "the matrix" and "morpheus" and all these newspaper articles and text and photo feeds scroll past his screen at superfast speed. The Hollywood version of Google News, I suspect.

Thing is, I think that's cool. I've always wanted that application. It's a relatively simple thing to write. The chatter and technology both exist out there. RSS provides us with any kind of content we need, combined with the wires or Technorati, or podcast and vodcast feeds.

I envision a piece of software that you can run on a home entertainment PC like device that will stay connected to the internet, and whenever you're not watching stuff on TV or whatever, it'll start up, and display headlines, news images, blog headlines, and random vodcast and YouTube style videos. While it's primarily text and images on the screen, it'll play mellow chillout music of your genre choice (like the Weather Channel does inbetween forecasts, while it's doing your local thing).

Come on, you know that's a damn cool idea.

I almost don't care if someone steals it, as long as it gets done, and I get a free copy.

I've also got a few more ideas on re-introducing the veg-factor back into on-demand programming, but I'll get into that a little later. I think I've hit my limit at the moment for time I can devote to waxing philosophical on stuff that I don't have time to do today.

/rizzn