I'm leaning towards the Canyonerro though

You know, if I was a celebrity I would be looking over my shoulder right about now. They seem to be dropping like flies. Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett? Their deaths were at least anticipated. Michael Jackson’s death was more of a shock but given his life story an early demise was never out of the question. But now we have lost Billy Mays for OxyClean as well? That is one huge shock. Even more shocking: Keith Richards is still listed as “alive” according to Wikipedia.

Here is the wonders of automatic link scripting for you. Under the headline: “Billy Mays dead at 50” Yahoo listed several other links this afternoon including, and I kid you not, “10 household cleaners for under $10.” I’ll admit that I have not spent much time wondering how my obituary would read other than knowing that it will set the record for the greatest number of “awesomes” ever listed in an obituary. However, I sincerely hope that my life’s work will not be summed up into a link on the wonders of baking soda. Just a thought.

Switching gears from the dark bunting that is now haunting the celebrity landscape I want to talk about a significant milestone that I reached in the past week: my car broke the 80,000 mile barrier. For a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am that is a rather significant accomplishment. I’ve driven every single one of those miles and this is the first time I have ever owned a car that has made it that distance. Now I love my car. It has gone across the country with me and has played every single CD that I own (thanks to the wonders that is the random CD project.) But it is time to face facts that the car is getting a little old.

This became readily apparent when Kim visited a few weeks ago. As we were driving around she went to lower her window only to be met by some horrific sounds as the window motor broke. Now, to put this in perspective, my passenger side window has probably only been lowered a couple dozen times in the eight years that I have owned the car. I typically don’t have passengers and no one in their right mind rolls down the windows in winter. This leads me to face the choice of fixing the window or buying a new car and I have sided with buying a new car. Clear choice, obviously.

Now as most people know I have little knowledge of cars and would like the assistance of the blogosphere in guiding me to the ultimate new car purchase. First, some background on myself. Over my lifetime I have driven A) a ’77 Chevy Impala, B) an ’89 Chevy Cavalier, C) a ’95 Pontiac Grand Am and D) my ’01 Pontiac Grand Am (the last three of these I purchased myself, the last two new.) Clearly I have been a loyal GM customer but given all of the recent events and the fact that Pontiac is no longer even going to be a brand I have to reconsider my choices. I would definitely like to stay with an American car even if it is made in Mexico while the Japanese car is made in Kentucky. Don’t ask me why, I just think it is a better thing to do. And finally, this luckily does not need to be a midlife crisis mobile. I already have the woman of my dreams and if she had no problem dating me after seeing my current car I figure any choice I make will be viewed as an improvement. I don’t need to prove myself via my wheels.

So please write comments and / or email cars you think that I should look into. The first one that has caught my eye is the Ford Taurus SHO, which was named Car of the Year by Esquire, which might give it a bit of that mid-life crisis cache but for crying out loud, it is a Taurus. I also want to look at a Prius mainly because I get a better parking space at the office if I drive an alternative fuel vehicle. Other than that I am wide open to suggestion. Only you, anonymous internet user, can help me solve this quandary.

Best of 120 Minutes: Ok, here is one of my many problems with all of the Michael Jackson coverage. Even though he is apparently the voice of my generation I never really cared for much of his music. Yes, I had Thriller on cassette but so did every other person on the planet so you can’t hold that against me. It is just that when people were buying Bad and Dangerous I was listening to World Party talking about the importance of proper shipping techniques. That is probably why in my mind Michael Jackson was always a sideshow.



The five random CDs for the week:
1) Martin Zellar & the Hardways “The Many Moods of Martin Zellar”
2) Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas “Songs to No One”
3) Blue Mountain “Tales of a Traveler”
4) R.E.M. “Green”
5) Alain Vinet Mouvement “Day by Day Volume One”

Meet George Jetson...

We now have a flying car. Or at least that is what I have gathered from checking out the internet headlines today. It took scientists long enough to build one. When I started my career as an enginner one of my primary goals was "design a flying car". Sure it would be impractical, dangerous and totally unnecessary but it would be super cool and that was before I installed the top of the line sound system. I'd even put hydraulics in it so it could drive, hop and fly. True, no one can now afford a flying car but it is nice to know that we have one.

Of course, the other internet news story is the tragic and altogether bizarre death of Natasha Richardson. It really does boggle the mind how a fall on a beginner's ski slope could end in someone dying but that is just one of those strange things about brain injuries. Something that seems totally innocuous at the time might be the trigger for a horrible event. It just makes me thank my lucky stars that despite my tendency to fall (and the fact that my bathroom floor in KC held a 2-0 record against me with two knockouts) I have never suffered any significant injury to my noggin. Given that my brain is what makes me unique and/or employable that is a very good thing.

Speaking of the internet, an interesting thing has happened to me this week. Since I am on my backup laptop and on dial up until I pick up a new one I have discovered something very interesting about my time management. Mainly, I now have a lot more free time on my hands. I've seriously gained an hour at least every night because I am not constantly checking my email or spending time on YouTube. Even bigger is that I am now avoiding Facebook and Facebook chat. While that is a wonderful way to stay in touch with people (and at times it is the only thing I do that can be considered social) it takes up an amazing amount of time on a daily basis. It is very interesting to just unplug for a few days and realize that you can live without being on Facebook every minute of the day. Or watching hilarious videos of cats riding Roombas.

That is going to be it for tonight as I want to go back to watching basketball. Enjoy the first day of spring! The long winter of our discontent is finally over. Now on to the spring of mild discomfort.