What Olympics?

So, I barely caught any of the Olympics. With the exception of curling, which was ALWAYS on MSNBC when I got home from work. I guess I was too busy. I missed a lot of the alpine and nordic sports, and the short track and iced chute. Around this time, I aways have aspirations to be the next old-man olympian. At one time, I was in GREAT enough shape to have been a bobsledder or XC racer. Those are the sports I'd like to try for. I don't board B2W enough to do the slalom or boarderX. I think if I were an olympian, I will have a MUCH better attitude than most of the other US reps.

Where'd the Weekend Go?

Saturday was pretty busy. We went to the Duke v. Temple game on Saturday, but not before we went to Tony Luke's. The game was good, despite Duke and JJ Redick not being as forceful with Temple as I had hoped. However, JJ did become the ACC Conference's all-time leading scorer during the game.

After the game, we went to Sotto for dinner with Debbie and Phil. I had the butterfish, to compliment my addiction to butter and all things buttery. Yes, it did taste buttery. Its like the fish is a living stick of butter, swimming in the ocean. Kind of like that episode of the Simpsons, where Homer is in the Land of Chocolate, and he bites into the chocolate dog. Oh yeah, I love chocolate too. Lisa had the black linguine w/crab (they use squid ink to dye the pasta -- interesting). She sure does love getting the crabs at every opportunity.

We spent Sunday in Hershey, helping Phil look at houses for him and my sister. I'd even consider living here. The Hershey Trust really put a lot of $ into the area, and there are great trails and parks throughout the town. It rivals what you can get around Boulder, and gives me and the Richland Twp Trails Committee something to strive for.

-J

Nature Out of Sync

Over the last few weeks, have you noticed the calls of more "springtime" birds in the morning? This is messed up! I mean, I haven't anticipated hearing these birds for about another month!! Their migration cycles are all messed up, with the record warmth that we had this January. They're probably coming back too early, and their food isn't out yet, and they have trouble when it begins to get cold.

Look at the calendar, its still Febraury! Go Home!

How To Destroy America, One Town at a Time

Well, last night Lisa and I watched "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price". It went into how the big-box store kills your Main St., pays low wages, keeps women and blacks down, supports the use of dismal Chinese factories, has an anti-union task force, etc. I mean, what kind of reputable employer has an anti-union task force, sent into motion on their corporate jet like Navy Seals, bringing propoganda and video cameras, all to keep the employees down, and the wages low?

They pay people so low, its like paying them in scrip, since they have to turn around spend their low pay check in the store to feed and clothe their family. They keep all the health premiums so high that they employees are forced to turn to the states for assistance with health coverage, further burdening the taxpayers for the slack that the Walton family refuses to pick up.

If you Google "Wal-Mart", you get a lot of good and bad sites out there, like Wal-Mart Watch and other articles.

They USED TO buy and sell American. But now, with the continued drop in prices, the American companies cannot compete, so they have to change their production to overseas.

Yes, we do have a Wal-Mart in Quakertown. I'm not proud. When they came, the Township even had Wal-Mart make a concession that they would pay for the salary of an extra police officer, which would be needed, due to the rif-raf that occurs within the vicinity of any Wal-Mart. Smart move on the Twp's part. At least we didn't give Wal-Mart subsidies to come to town, like others have done. Yes, thats right, some minucipalities have sold out their Main St. to a huge corporation so much that they GIVE this multi-billion dollar corporation money to come to their town and force the local businesses to close their doors.

So, we do have a Wal-Mart here. Target is coming soon. I hope they're not that bad. I like Target, and their products. I will NEVER shop at Wal-Mart again, even if it means giving my $ to another corporation like K-Mart, Advance Auto Parts, etc., and paying a little bit more.

When I visit my local shops, I will now try and ask the proprieters how they feel about Wal-Mart, how they have affected their business, and how they feel about other corporate stores in the area, like Sears Hardware, Kohls, etc.

However, we still have choices in corporate chains. Want decent fast food, but still local? Subway is franchised, as are some TGI Fridays and Dunkin Donuts. In the local area, try to shop at a local department store like Boscov's or Bon-Ton, or local supermarkets like Weis or Clemens. Try to eat at local downtown places. Downtown Quakertown is great, and I'd hate to see it go.

Everyone has a twin

At Windham this weekend, I thought I saw my sister in the soup line.



Who is my twin? When I first saw the photo of Matthew Shepherd in 1998, I thought that he was my twin. At least this particular photo got me thinking. Weird.

Welcome (back)

Well, I just got back from a nice vacation (from both work and Blogging). Yes, I FINALLY got the Blogger web page up and running. I'm lame, I know.

Vijay and I just got back from 4 days in NH/New England. Although it was dubbed a "Brokeback Weekend", my cornhole does not hurt, but my thighs do, from all the boarding and hiking. The boarding was good, better, and great; in that order. I'd really hate to duplicate all the details, so just get most of it from Vijay.

The way home was not too bad, considering the snow along the way. It was great to get away for the weekend. When I got back to Qtown, it was nice to know that my neighbor had shoveled our driveway for us. I should go away every time it snows.

Whats heavy, white and measures about a foot? The amount of snow we got in Qtown. I wanted to hit up Bear Creek last night, for another post-powder day, but I lost track of time while downloading songs and waxing my board. I'll be there Wednesday night, for 50 degree temps.

Lake Nockamixon sure looks nice with all this snow.

-J