Worse than millions of people getting up at an insane hour of the morning to go shopping, worse than camping outside a store missing Thanksgiving with family and worse than Americans clamoring to buy more crap they don’t need with money they don’t have:

Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death

Toys R Us Shooting Leaves 2 Dead

Consumerism and Materialism have a firm grasp on this country and that’s why things like this happen. When does it end?

I first watched this video a year or so ago. I was amazed. I watched it again today, I’m still amazed.

I stumbled upon this video by using Flixxy.com. It’s just under 3 minutes and very funny. Watch and enjoy!

A German man is determined to live simply, off the land. Oeff Oeff, whose real name is Jürgen Wagner, is 43 years old and has given up the modern ways of life, including use of money, electricity and running water. Oeff Oeff is the founder -aand by his own account, the only member- of “The Givers Movement” which spreads the principle of non-violent sharing. It’s a hope that humanity can use trust and love to create a society based entirely on voluntary gift giving.

CNN produced a 2 min. 30 sec. story that you can view here. (You’ll have to endure a :30 commercial before you can watch the story.)

Interesting…

Ah, it’s that wonderful time of year where the kids go trick-or-treating on October 31st, you yank all the Halloween stuff down on November 1st and slap up the Santa decor on November 2nd – or Nov. 1st if you are ambitious.

Thankfully Thanksgiving fills the small void of time between Halloween and Christmas. Otherwise Black Friday would occur about a month earlier in the calendar year.  Have you planned your Black Friday shopping day? Last year I made the journey and wrote all about it. This year I’m not going out there. (Unless Molly tells me I am, I suppose) But really, I can’t think of anything that’d be out there that I’d want to buy. Plus we are trying to save some money in this much touted “slumping economy.”

BUT, if you ARE venturing out into the cold Friday air you might want to check out BlackFriday.info to get a peak at all the ads.

Vote in my very first poll!

 

One indicator of how the economy is affecting American families is apparently measured by tracking the food they buy.

Banquet dinners are selling quite well, supposedly in part because they are comfort foods, although I’m pretty sure the $.87 price tag is a big draw as well…that’s cheaper than a McD’s Double Cheeseburger! (I bought one tonight for dinner…a Banquet meal, not McD’s…I’m no Dollar Menuaire)

Another brand undergoing a decent revival is SPAM. Not the junk e-mail, the canned pork-based meat product.

Last week I spent a few days in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on a working vacation. I didn’t have daily use of a vehicle so any tourist activity was done by walking…and in Milwaukee that’s actually quite a bit. I didn’t make it to Lake Michigan, but I’ve seen that lake from the south and eastern sides several times by now so I imagine the western side looks much the same.

I stayed on the 11th floor of the Hyatt Regency which provided a very nice view of downtown and the Milwaukee River.

People Magazine, in it’s Sexiest Man Alive issue no less, put a blurb in about a live webcam where anyone in the world can keep an eye on 6 Shiba Inu puppies in San Francisco. It’s their website of the week.

There’s an article on people.com but to watch the puppies LIVE in action, click HERE…there’s audio too.

I can’t stand TV execs.

The Boston Globe, among many sources, is reporting:

It’s not a big surprise, but for many of us, it’s a big disappointment. ABC has cancelled “Pushing Daisies,” “Dirty Sexy Money,” and “Eli Stone”! The network has not actually used the word “cancelled,” but it is not picking up the shows for the second halves of their seasons. Which, essentially, means cancellation.

I, for one, was a regular viewer of ALL 3 of these shows. I can’t speak to the defense of “Dirty Sexy Money” I guess, sometimes it was a little too soap opera-y. But “Pushing Daisies” and “Eli Stone”! I loved those shows. I suppose because it was something different and unique it must have not garnered enough attention in the ABC world of decisions. They’d rather keep airring a stupid show like “Private Practice.” That show was a spin off of “Grey’s Anatomy,” which I enjoy every week. But “Private Practice” is hardly unique…or good.

I take relative solace that “Life on Mars” was spared the impending hatchet…for now. However, the show is shelved til January where it will follow “LOST” when it returns.

So, if you are a fan of the 3 cancelled shows, enjoy them while they are still on the air, the remaining new episodes will be used up by january.

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• 1. umm, I’m lazy and haven’t felt inspired.

…but I’m gonna get back on the wheel and start grinding out some posts…especially for you Maka.

Today, Thursday, I returned to the EMHE worksite to see the progress being made. Having watched 13abc all week I knew that major work had been accomplished, but it’s something quite different to see it all in person.  I last visited on Tuesday and posted pictures my friend Cindy took.  Today I managed to take some decent pics of my own.

The popular ABC show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is building a house in Toledo this week.  The family was notified on Sunday that they were selected.  They were then whisked away from their home and sent on a vacation to DisneyWorld.  On Monday, production went into full swing by preparing the site for work.  Trees were removed, fences set up, neighbors yards became work spaces and everything was turned into one GIANT set to film a television program.

Today, Tuesday, was the day that the real action started.  The husband/father is a Toledo firefighter so the TFD was an instrumental part of the initial phase of demolition.  They cut a hole in the roof of the house and knocked out interior walls…all of which was filmed for the show.  I didn’t get to the site in time to see the demolition, I arrived right after of course, but my friend Cindy took lots of great pictures and allowed me to post a few.  Thanks Cindy!

The house, gutted and prepped for knock-down.  Wouldn’t be difficult to envision this house as the scene of a fire would it?

Just learned minutes ago that LeRoi Moore, saxophonist for the Dave Matthews Band died today.  Why is this news blog worthy for me?  Dave Matthews Band is my favorite band.

LeRoi had an ATV accident on his farm in Virginia on June 30th.  He went from serious to fair to good and was released from the hospital in early July, only to be re-admitted on July 18th.  I found information that stated Moore broke several ribs and suffered a punctured lung, but was expected to recover.  That’s pretty much all the news that fans had to go on…until I glanced up at CNN a few minutes ago and saw their Breaking News crawl.

cVillain

TMZ

In Zimbabwe, inflation is so bad (2.2 million percent) that the government has recently printed up a bill of currency that is worth $100 billion dollars…yes, that’s right Billion with a capital B.  The problem is that this seemingly huge amount of money is practically worthless due to Zimbabwe’s economy existing in such a poor state.  This new bill is worth around only $1 US…yup, that’s right one with a big fat 0.

Here’s video from ABC News on this story.  Craziness.

Those who know me are aware that I’m a Green Bay Packers fan.  I’ve remained silent through all this Brett Favre “un-retirement” crap that has happened in the last few weeks…now I’m ready to offer my stance.

I was ok when Brett retired in March.  I think any true Packers fan knew the day was coming.  What I had hoped would happen was that he would announce that he was playing one more year, that it would be his last hurrah and that after this season he would retire.  (I bet he wishes he had done that now too)  That way, the fans would know there were 16 more games, know there were only 16 more games (barring post season) and the Packers organization could rev up all the hoopla they could muster for an entire season and then come January we could all relax in our La-Z-Boys wearing our “Final Season 4 Favre” t-shirts knowing that we had seen our favorite player in his last moments on the field.

Now that’s all ruined.

And I blame Brett.

I don’t blame the Packers at all, not one bit.  They are a functioning year-round business that has needs and obligations to be met.  I’ve watched all the parts of the interview that Greta van Susteren  did with Brett and I heard him (basically) complain about how the Packers were pushing for an answer from him regarding whether he was playing the 2008 season and that he felt like he had to make a decision, perhaps before he was ready.  To that I say BULLS**T!  A man of Favre’s caliber does not play 17 seasons in the NFL and then bow to pressure from his coach and front office about making a permanent decision of what he was ready to do.

And THIS STUFF?  That makes me sick to my stomach.  Honestly and truly, I cannot look at that webpage ever again.  It’s wrong and I’m barely a Favre fan at all anymore.  I’m still a diehard Packers fan and will root on Aaron Rodgers all I can, but you’ll likely find my Favre memorabilia on eBay.