a99kitten's Musings

I blog about a WHOLE LOT of stuff :)

Today was crazy! A good crazy. Comic Con crazy. Woke up, looked outside and saw the GIANT line for people waiting to get their badges (happily picked mine up yesterday), got ready and was outside the main hall doors at 9:28am. They were late and didn’t open at 9:30am. There were grumpy, sweaty geeks ready to storm the doors. And they said so. 2 of them said “Don’t make us geeks sweaty and grumpy. You won’t like us when we are sweaty and grumpy. “At 9:35am, the doors opened and a giant collective cheer went up and then everyone raced to the main floor.  Stuff like that makes the Con and crowds fun.

I found several of the Con exclusive that I wanted and bought a few for a friend who couldn’t come.  I missed out on Squirrel Pool at Gentle Giant. That sucked. Especially after seeing several go up for sale on eBay this morning. Jerks. I hate scalpers. And eBay. They ruined the collectibles market forever.  And this coming from a good old fashioned capitalist.

Hasbro had a couple things I really wanted. And the line at the Hasbro booth has always been out of control busy. But this year you had to go upstairs to a room to wait in line to get a ticket so that you were now special enough to get in an even longer line at the Hasbro booth to wait to buy stuff. Give. Me. A. Break.  And then I saw several guys later with bags and bags and boxes and boxes of the Hasbro toys. How much do you want to bet they are all up on eBay now.  Jerks. And I mean Hasbro, eBay and the scalpers.  All guilty.

BUT – while I was looking around trying to find a booth I ran right into a booth with Peter Mayhew signing! Right then! NO LINE! I do already have his autograph from my first Con ever but I decided to get another J I went up to the booth and while I was deciding on which picture to buy/use (so wished I had the Chewbacca action figure that my brother gave me last October before he died. I did almost bring it just in case but the decided against it so it wouldn’t get damaged), the guy that was at the both helping with the signing looked at me and asked “So…you like Chewbacca.” Huh? Who me? With the Chewbacca backpack and Chewie toy in my hand (that some guy who walked up to me just handed me after saying “you look like you love Chewie” I’m still wondering if it has a GPS chip in it or something and he is stalking me!)

Anyway, got a Han and Chewie pic and he signed to me J Yay!! And he said thanks for being such a big Chewbacca fan. Like how could you not?? J

The floor is hard – so much to see and check out  – total sensory overload. Times a million.  There is s till so much I want to see there but not sure if I will have time. That’s a bummer.

Ran to meet my friend in line for Ballroom 20 to see the Game of Thrones panel. And we hoped to see Ringer too which was right before it. In line for 3 hours. Yikes. But we did make it in! Sarah Michelle Gellar was GREAT! Super cute and funny. Adore her even more now. And the rest of the cash was fantastic too. I shall definitely check out the show – Tuesday at 9pn on the CW – go set your tivos! She was cute when a fan asked her what character she would dress up as to go to Comic Con. She said “Well, if I went as Buffy, I KNOW most of you would see me and say ‘OMG – look at that girl – she is an awful Buffy!” LOL!!

The GOT panel was utterly fantastic. The cast was funny. Had great answers to all the questions. Totally got into answering the questions. Loved them all. And I shall put the books back on my Kindle after deleting them after some repeated animal sadness on the show. I will just fast forward through those pages. The actor who plays John Snow made me one of the fans after answering who his favorite cast mate was with the husky who plays his direwolf. Ok – I like you :)

We then hightailed it over to Hall H to see the Jon Favreau and Gullermo del Toro panel. They were both awesome. Jon has been good in every panel I have seen him at SDCC.  But Guillermo stole the show. He was swearing up a storm and then finally noticed the sign to the panelists saying to their watch their language since it; s a family audience. But his commentary was great!

We got about 7-10 mins of footage from Cowboys and Aliens. Of course I think it looks AWESOME!  Jon had a great little bit about how social media really shows him how different a clip can be perceived.  He said after he released the full trailer with Transformers 3, he saw tons of AWESOME comments on twitter but then just as many “YUCK. Weird. How can you mix those 2 genres” and “how unrealistic”. He was like umm…unrealistic. OK. But machines turning into the trucks – that’s OK. Well alrighty then. He then described his approach to movies like this and how he wants to make the movie perfectly set in its genre and take that 1 little thing that changes it (like in Iron Man all the world was the same except for Iron Man.) In this, it’s a western. Cowboys like we are used to seeing in the movies. But this thing occurs and they have to deal with. But they are still cowboys. Still out in the west riding horses, living their lives in little towns, etc. Nothing is different but this one thing. Hearing him describe it made perfect sense.

Bit of a peeve concerning this movie though. Jon made it seem like he was bringing the world premiere here to SDCC for the fans. His fans. Fans of the genre. Of the graphic novel. But all of the promotions for the tickets have been off site. Too far off site for anyone who is attending SDCC to go. And they are all open to the public. So it’s really a premiere for San Diego and its residents. Because if you are a true Comic Con fan, you are busy all day with panels, signings, being on the floor and never-ending waiting in line for all of these things. So you can’t just run off site 10 blocks away on a minute’s notice. So I do have to say that’s been very disappointing.

Even tomorrow, he announced a signing he was doing where he would give away some tickets. Yay! But no – it’s offsite – at the Hard Rock. In the middle of the afternoon. So no – I will not be going. Because there is no guarantee I will even get in the signing, or then get a ticket. The only guaranteed thing is that I will miss everything going on at the show. Which is why I am here. So that’s a bummer. And I feel a bit mis-leading to say this is for the Comic Con fans. When not a single giveaway has been at the Con. Except for the 1 pair he gave a kid who asked him a question at the panel and was wearing a Cowboys and Aliens shirt. Which was cool of him.  Oh well. A bummer for sure.

Overall a very fun day though. But I guess SDCC has gotten too big. There was a line that was supposedly 1.5 hours long to buy the official t-shirt. To me it looked even longer. Give me a break. Every other year they basically had to give those away on Sundays. But they said “there was a limited amount” in the program. WHY? It’s a frackin’ 2011 Con t-shirt. Make enough and just sell the bastards so people walk around with them and the con gets free advertising.  I do want one. But no way am I waiting that long to buy a t-shirt.

Lines for panels. Line for tickets to get in line for panels (to wait again.) Lines to buy ANYTHING. Lines to win a chance to maybe be pulled from a lottery to be 1 of 100 to get an autograph. WHAT? Come on. So maybe I am just longing for the good ol’ days (3 years ago) that you could see any panel. Buy anything. As long as you were there an hour early. Now – if you want to buy 2012 passes, you had to get in line at 5am this morning to wait for them to start selling them at 8:30am. Jeez. No thanks.

I am still having fun. But I do wonder how long I will keep coming. It’s get more and more expensive and more and more crowded. This year I am just recovering from a broken ankle plus a plus dealing with a pinched nerve so can’t run around too much so I think experiencing longer and longer lines has annoyed me. And then to not even be able to buy what I wanted because scalpers got it got them all or there’s even more lines for them elsewhere – GAH! I almost lost it when trying to plus my iPhone in to charge in the ladies restroom in Hall H. This woman was taking up 2 plugs and then tied taking a 3rd for friends phones. The lady who was using the 4th was like wth? I am only charging to 30% so other people can use the plug, I looked at her “Breathe…we are at the con….have fun….” But really… I wanted to smack the lady in the head too.

I know there are more funny tidbits (correcting the KTLA reporter when he said Star Trek when he meant Star Wars, the costumes, the booths) but I need to go to sleep now so I can get a half way decent night’s sleep so that I can do what? Get up at 6am to get in line….sigh…


Profile

Penny-pinching poultry keeps majority of his fortune in gold coins stored in massive “money bin” high in the hills above Duckburg; also invests in pearls, gems, other “hoardables.” Still refers to August 15th, 1971 –the day President Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard– as “Black Sunday.” Habitually marks anniversary by calculating net worth as percentage of the value of the gold in Fort Knox (21.4%). Famously frugal: Once fought a bear over a $2 jar of honey, never gives to charity, still has the first dime he ever earned. Nonetheless, known to sprout the occasional wild feather and jet off to exotic locales on ill-conceived “treasure-hunts” with troublesome great-nephews –and presumed heirs– Huey, Dewey and Louie. Featured in Disney’s Uncle Scrooge comic books and cartoons.

Fast Facts

* Once traveled back in time to use an expired coupon
* Takes his exercise by swimming in gold

This rules so much :) http://www.forbes.com/lists/fictional15/2011/profile/scrooge-mcduck.html#

I saw some pictures of the new, new Wonder Woman costume. It appears the studio/show took notice of the complete hate on the internet for the new costume/look that was “leaked” a couple weeks ago.

New pics here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1371465/First-look-Adrianne-Palicki-action-Wonder-Woman-filming-gets-underway.html

But their changes simply changed the reason to hate it. So they took away the shiny pleathery-looking tights/pants and replaced them with cloth. Now they appear to wrinkle – excellent. Pretty sure every single reader of super hero comics can confirm – the costumes don’t wrinkle!! Ever!!!

They changed her boots back to red from the blue they originally had her in. But they look like weird elf-toe boots that sag. With no heels. I get that it would be impossible for WW to run around in the heels she had – but this is fantasy and she is a super hero. The flat boots only serve to make the actress’ feet look big and the boot to appear slumpy. Again – super hero costumes are made of magic material that does NOT sag, slump or wrinkle!

Her costume top looks like it is sagging down. And still shiny and pleathery. And impossibly (since we saw the push-up action in the earlier stills) her boobs looks saggy and small.

Now, these were action and candid shots so I get it’s not the same as the posed look but eww. Double and triple eww actually.

The actress isn’t right for the part. Hair, make-up everything. Let’s face it – no actress would be perfect as we (WW fans) use the comics as the all-around model and Lynda Carter as the “real-life” incarnation. No offense to Adrianne Palicki who was great on Friday Night Lights, and is a very pretty girl, but she is not right for this role. No actress is.

How she is supposed to look

Don’t get me wrong, I will watch the show. All 3-4 episodes of it before it gets canceled. Just like I watched “Birds of Prey” when they aired it. And this show and costume has made me like the new version of her costume in the comics more which I totally hated but at least is better than the junk made for the new show.

Maybe they just need to keep the female superheroes animated? The only female comic character that has been well done in recent years (post Lynda Carter’s WW) is Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman. And that was 1992. I am not a fan of Anne Hathaway attempting this character but we will see. Maybe she can pull it off? She is nowhere near as hot and sexy as Michelle Pfeiffer but maybe she at least won’t wreck Selina/Catwoman like Halle Berry did (who also completely wrecked Storm/Ororo in the X-Men movies. Ugh.)

Anyway, I am bummed they are apparently wrecking Wonder Woman. Might it be good and a pleasant surprise? Sure. I suppose. But I am not holding my breath. I did however just buy this which is waaaaay cuter than the stupid new costume :)

WW Cami set

Grown-up Underoos! :)

In honor of the marshmallow world that I left this morning..

I love these guys. There really never will be anyone as cool. I seriously wish I could time machine it back to see them live. Plus they actually had voices and could sing live….

The AMAs were on last night. I didn’t watch them or even care to but all of the twitter bashing this AM of Justin Bieber’s winning a lot made me want to see his performance. So while I ate lunch at my desk, I looked for it on YouTube. He sang a nice song. He has a nice voice. How will it be once he breaks puberty? Who knows. But for now – sounds fine to me.

This is pop music. Acts come, get hugely popular and most of them go. I haven’t heard anyone compare him to Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin so lighten up people. I’d much rather have my 9 or 12-year old daughter listening to Justin Bieber than the Insane Clown Posse. Or even Eminem for that matter. They can listen to him when they are older (and never to ICP thankyouverymuch.)

I say let him enjoy his popularity – seems like a decent enough kid and he’s not run over anyone in his car, choked any porn stars, been indicted in a federal dog-fighting ring or been thrown into rehab (like some other awesome celebs lately.)

I find it amusing that so many (well…on twitter anyway which is obviously not how the world of tweens feels considering his crazy popularity) “adults” garner amusement or feel so strongly to very cruelly bash a 16-year old kid singing mainly to other 10 to 16-year old kids. It’s also rather interesting that some of these same twitter folks are likely the same people (I know a couple of them are for sure as I follow them on twitter or tumblr) who were outraged and cried and whined about bullying being so awful and prevalent today. Then they bash a 16-year old all over the internet. Today’s lesson – Adults are so awesome (=hypocritical a$$holes) kids!

He’s also a 16-year old kid who can sing *much* better than the auto-tuned crap and just plain really awful warbling pumped out nowadays in pop music. I tried watching a few of the other AMA performances that I could find on YouTube – couldn’t make it through any of them except Kid Rock’s – who also sang with no backup crap or auto-tuning and very simply. They were generally all ear-bleedingly awful (how is Kesha popular in any way for any reason?) I couldn’t find a good copy of the heavily promoted/hyped New Kids on the Block (not calling them NKOTB)/Backstreet Boys performance but I think I’d really prefer Donnie Wahlberg stick to acting – he is doing a great job in “Blue Bloods” on CBS. But hey – cash in if you can I guess = early retirement.

And most of these girls should leave the dancing to the “old ladies” Janet Jackson and Madonna. These younger girls move as smoothly as C3P0 would if he was short-circuiting.

I’m now going to put on some Paul McCartney to erase the ear ringing caused by watching 2 minutes of Lady Gaga and Kesha. You know him – he used to be one of those crazy long-haired Beatles that all the adults bashed in the early 60s…

Holy vampire!  I have had the Buffy Complete Series in my cart at Amazon for months. But I KNEW it would go on sale so I refused to pay the almost $200 for it. I got my Angel Complete Series through the Gold Box deal at Amazon a couple years ago!

So I just kept checking back at Amazon weekly and YAY! Today it went down to $70.99!!  That’s also no tax and free shipping! YAY!!!

Go people!! Get yours! Wheeeeee!!!

It’s true I do only LOVE the first few seasons, and feel the addition of Dawn and altering of Spike’s character were HORRID, but it’s Buffy…she kicks serious ass in cute outfits AND high heels. And Angel pops up for cross-overs :) So I have to own it…

Just finished watching the first 2 eps of  Boardwalk Empire on HBO. I liked it. Don’t love it like I did did The Sopranos  but that’s ok.

One thing that annoyed me, but not faulting the show as they are being period-correct, was Dabney Coleman’s character and his comments about the woman’s vote.  After watching Mad Men for a few seasons, you’d think I’d be used to it. But this was even more brazen. I guess I never paid attention as it has never effected my life.

Now, I’ve experienced all sorts of sexual remarks, innuendo, blah blah. I simply don’t understand those that get (or act) offended by it. And I AM offended by women who do act offended by it. Deal with it. Who cares.  Grow up. I’ve had guys (co-workers) make blow jobs remarks to me, think I’m sleeping with my boss, stare at my chest, etc etc. Whatever. If I can’t handle that stupid high school BS, then I should find a new job. And hide in a hole.

Years ago, our VP of Engineering, who was known as a letch, was staring at my chest as he was talking to me. I snapped my fingers a few times and said “my eyes dude, up here. Look at me when we speak.” I embarrassed him. Good.

What does offend me (as shown in both Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire) is the belief that women are stupid.  Now…some are. I know that. And some are willing to act that they are.  THAT annoys the hell out of me. I would smack those women in the head if given a chance. Any day.

In this episode of Boardwalk Empire, this character asks his maid/housekeeper about world economics stuff (to prove a point about the worthlessness of a woman’s vote.) And I’m sure back then, she knew nothing about that. Nor cared. As it wasn’t “her place”.   But the arrogance about how clueless she obviously was made me want to punch him in the face. Not because it was that way back then,  but because I know there are men who believe that still now.

I find it stupid and ridiculous when people get offended and PC about stupid sexual comments. Who cares. But treat me like I’m a bimbo – I’ll smack you in the head. But the women (and men) that make it about sexual harassment…you demean me just as much.

“You’re all pretty much fu****. You don’t know it yet. But, you are the NINJA generation. No Income, No Job, No Assets. You got a lot to live for too. Someone reminded me the other evening that I once said greed is good. Now it seems its legal. But folks, its greed that makes my bartender buy three houses he can’t afford with no money down. And its greed that makes your parents refinance their two hundred thousand dollar house for two fifty. Then they take that extra fifty and go down to the mall. They buy a plasma TV, cell phones, computers, a SUV, hey why not a second home while we are it, cause gee whiz we all know the prices of houses in America always go up, right? And its greed that makes the government of this country cut interest rates down to one percent after 9/11 so we can all go shopping again. And they got all these fancy names for trillions of dollars of credits, CMOs, CDOs, SIVs, ABS . You know I honestly think that there’s maybe only seventy five people in the world who know what they are. But I’ll tell you what they are – WMDs, weapons of mass destruction! That’s what they are.

When I was away, it seems greed got greedier with a little bit of envy mixed in. Hedge funders were walking home with fifty, hundred million bucks a year. So Mister Banker, he looks around and says my life looks pretty boring. So he starts leveraging his interests up to forty, fifty to one, with your money, not his, yours, because he could. You’re supposed to be borrowing not them. And the beauty of the deal, no one is responsible. Because everyone is drinking the same Kool-aid. Last year ladies and gentlemen, forty percent of all American corporate profits came from financial services. Not production, not anything remotely to do with the needs of the American public. The truth is we are all part of it now. Banks, consumers, we’re moving the money around in circles. We take a buck, we shoot it full of steroids. We call it leverage. I call it steroid banking.

Now I’ve been considered a pretty smart guy when it comes to finance and maybe I was in prison too long. But sometimes it’s the only place to stay sane and look out through those bars and say “Hey, is everybody out there nuts?”

Its clear as a bell to those who pay attention, the mother of all evil is speculation, leveraged debt. The bottom line is borrowing to the hilt. And I hate to tell you this, it’s a bankrupt business model. It won’t work. Its systemic, malignant, and its global, like cancer. It’s a disease and we got to fight back. How are we going to do that? How are we going to leverage that disease back in our favor? Well I’ll tell you. Three words, “Buy my book!” Prices and profits work.”

Another great speech given by Gordon Gekko, in the new movie – Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

I liked the movie. I didn’t love it like I love the first one but I loved every second GG was on the screen. And I think Josh Brolin did a great job. And I didn’t even hate Shia even though I could have done with a little less him and a little more Michael Douglas.

I was worried Oliver Stone would try to make this some huge morality tale since Hollywood loves to blame Wall Street, the big, bad corporate monsters and rich people (unless you are rich from making movies or music that is) for all that is bad and evil in the world. And Hollywood is full of morality…Plus Stone seems so shocked, in every recent interview anyway, that he unleashed GG on the world (really Oliver?) when he meant to show him as a villain (more people love Darth Vader than Luke so he should have known that.)

But he didn’t – not too much anyway. A lot of green energy plugging. I guess this was the only way to make the new young buck trader “likable” to the masses. “See Wall Street isn’t so bad when they want to bring cold fusion into the world! But shale oil – those guys are bastards.” Makes Shia’s character’s greed and drive acceptable. Kinda like when Al Gore pumps alternative energy…the areas/companies he has stock in that is…

The main plot centered around a Bear Stearns/Lehman Brothers-like take down followed up by the mass banking and financial markets free-fall and hysteria that came after. If you have read anything about those firms, this plot will not seem far-fetched at to you. At all.

Stone threw in some quite typical macho, alpha-male scenes but guess what – those guys generally ARE like that. So again, quite believable. Some of the special effects which I can only assume were included to help people figure stuff out (give them pictures = easier!) were needless, in my opinion. Felt they were more distracting than helpful. But I guess every single movie ever made now has to have some kind of digital effect.

Some fun cameos by financial and news people. And a few from the first movie which were funny. As well as a song thrown in as a throw-back! But alas, no Frank.

One very good thing explained was GG’s jail sentence and the time line from the first movie to this movie. I have complained forever that there is NO way he would be in jail all this time for insider trading – even with the WORST lawyer which you know he didn’t have. So thank you Oliver for making that more clear. I find it highly offensive and disgusting that anyone convicted of a white-collar crime would receive more actual jail time than a person who commits a violent crime – but people need their bogeymen and their heads on pikes.

Martha Stewart received 5 months jail time and 2 years probation (29 months total of punishment) for what was basically insider trading (the actual charges were different I think but that’s what she did.) This was a pretty small trade in her own account where she had insider knowledge due to the fact she was friends with the CEO. The amount of people that do what she did every day without getting sent to jail would probably piss some people off…the ones who didn’t get the insider info and act on it that is. I am not saying it wasn’t wrong and she shouldn’t be punished somehow. But jail time?

Michael Vick got 21 months of jail and 2 months home confinement ( 23 months total punishment) for his hands-on part in a dog-fighting ring. I recognize that I have a very strong opinion on this that not every one shares, but really? 23 months in total for showing us how cruel and inhuman you actually are? And then back to his high-flying football career being a hero to kids. Puke.

Bernie Madoff got 150 years for his multiple financial crimes. Horrible – yes. Deserves punishment – of course. But 150 years? How many murderers, rapists and pedophiles get off with 5 or 10 years – if that? But again – a head was needed, his rolled. End of story.

I am of the opinion that white-collar criminals should be made to do more community service as sentences. Real service – not give a lecture to at-risk kids. And no – not live in their penthouses while they do it. But how much are these guys fined for their crimes and hand over to the government? Use some of that to get them to work and keep them in a different facility (not tax-payer funded.) They are incredibly smart guys, make them use it for “good”.

But thrown in with drug dealers, gang members, rapists? No – sorry (contrary to popular belief they do not all go Camp Fed.) And those same violent criminals should be in jail longer than ANY white-collar criminal. My personal opinion only. But it’s my blog so my opinion rules :)

Anyway, went a little off-topic….back to the movie! If you liked the first Wall Street at all, then you will probably like this one. And there are so few movies pumped out nowadays that are worth the price of admission and hassle of going to the movies (rather than wait for DVD) to me.

I did feel the ending was a cop out. I wonder if Stone didn’t actually know where to go with it to keep morality in play? But I think he knew what people wanted and knew it was going to be hard to present it. So he went typical Hollywood. I won’t spoil what happens because I did find myself wondering most of the way through. It’s the last bit of the movie so it’s ok I suppose.

All in all, this one is not as fun and crazy as the first one but hey – this isn’t the 80s anymore.

I originally posted this back in January….anticipating and excited about the new movie back then! Still excited! Sadly, I won’t be able to see it tonight or this weekend as I can’t really leave Storm that long since he still needs to wear his cone if I’m not right there watching him (so he doesn’t pull out his surgical staples.) Going to coordinate a time early next week though!!

The stock market sure welcomed GG back with open arms today though ;)
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You know…if you read this speech…if you truly listen to what he is saying…he is right. Look past the trendy “hate Wall Street” rhetoric being bandied about by our current President and media. Look at what is being said here and think about what is *truly* being said….

Gekko: Well, I appreciate the opportunity you’re giving me, Mr. Cromwell, as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we’re not here to indulge in fantasy, but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market, when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company!

All together, these men sitting up here [Teldar management] own less than 3 percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than 1 percent.

You own the company. That’s right — you, the stockholder.

And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their steak lunches, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Cromwell: This is an outrage! You’re out of line, Gekko!

Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents, each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can’t figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I’ll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents.

The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I’ve been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. (applause) Thank you.

I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.

Thank you very much.”

This movie was done in 1985. Still holds true today. One could argue that you can apply this to all of the life-long politicians that have never held a real job, a job where they have been responsible for creating anything, for making sure payroll is met, making sure that shareholders receive a return on their investment. They collect their giant salaries (look it up) and benefits that our paid by us…the taxpayers. Do you really think they are any better than the purported “criminals” of Wall Street or the banks? Really? If you do, than you are truly naive…

Are there criminals on Wall Street? Of course. Are there criminals in every single line of work? Yes. Are there criminals serving as your Congressman, as your Senator, or even your City Manager? Yes. If you don’t think so…you are truly naive…

This country was created, built on and made into the greatest country on earth because of the entrepreneurial drive to be successful. And our current government wants to destroy that. Put everyone on a level playing field. Everyone doesn’t belong on a level playing field. Face facts – there are smarter people, harder-working people…not everyone “deserves” the same thing. Period.

One of my most favorite movies ever…

Hmmmm? Long time ago it was…

Gaius to a young Merlin…

“It was real. But it was just one reality. The future is as of yet unshaped. It is we that shape it.

The decisions you make. The actions you take. Remember that.

Now eat your soup, before it gets cold”

So wise these wizards, sorcerers, Jedis are…they also push eating….