Well, I've got another job lined up. In fact, two. One is a job similar to the call center job; it's called being a "relay operator." I have to relay calls to people with disabilities. This time there won't be a problem getting there; the job is within 2 miles of… Read full post »

Today is the day I was supposed to start a new call center job. Without describing the employer too much, it was a Canadian insurance firm, where I would be taking down information and setting up appointments with Canadian agents. It wasn't a great job, but it was a job, something… Read full post »

 Jim Carrey as Charlton Heston (left) and as a country singer backed by three assassination victims. This is as subtle as it gets.

I don't often post here, especially since so many of the good writers have given up - and apparently so has Real Salon. However, this is the… Read full post »

This will be a short post, but a good one. To begin with, on the previous Friday, I celebrated my birthday a day early, since I had to work on Saturday. I took friends of mine to a standard-brand steak restaurant, since none of us had enjoyed steak in a long… Read full post »

It’s been evident for years. Christmas is no longer America’s favorite holiday, in a commercial sense. Halloween has replaced it.

To make the official figures fairly show this change, you’d have to eliminate purchased presents from the amount of money spent on the holiday… Read full post »

There's already been a lot of talk about the shootings in Denver at the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. Luun E. Toonz, the paid right-wing troll over on Real Salon, says that this is proof that everyone should be armed, especially when visiting the black President whom he and… Read full post »

I know my tax dollars go to some places I don't particularly care for. Military contractors, for instance, that are making weapons we can't use for wars we won't fight. But some of those dollars go to people who need my help.

 Flood and famine victims get some of my tax… Read full post »

Okay, the amount of talk about the end of Real Salon and Open Salon is getting depressing. It could be part of Dog Days stupidity, where gossip replaces real news - since everybody who makes real news is on vacation and it's too freaking hot to do anything.

On the other… Read full post »

This post is an extended version of a reply sent on another item in Open Salon. I got ambitious. Perhaps I shouldn't have. Ah, well...

Hello, Grads of 2012.

I have simply waited a few seconds, staring at you with no emotion on my face, while… Read full post »

I don't feel comfortable about telling this story. It will fly in the face of the prejudices normally carried around by people in Open Salon, and even Real Salon. But, here goes.

I was a fat, ugly, unloved kid in high school. I had been bullied many times since I transferred,… Read full post »

This appeared in the "Activity Feed" section of Open Salon on Sunday. Okay, it's pretty obvious that Open Salon can't block spam, and it even appears in Real Salon quite a bit. It's pathetic, including the attempts to misspell or mis-capitalize words to avoid the spam filters that OS… Read full post »

Mr. Whedon, although you'll won't like what I have to say, it's required of me. The release of the film you produced, The Cabin in the Woods, troubled me greatly. I'm even more troubled after trying to watch it.

First of all, up to this point, I admired you. You served… Read full post »

Yes, Dick Clark is dead. And some people who romanced and danced to American Bandstand are feeling a little older now. But not me.

 Although I am hardly a biographer of Mr. Clark, I remember him from my very young childhood - when his show came on, the cartoons on Saturday… Read full post »

There's been a lot of talk about Rush Limbaugh's crude remark to law student Sandra Fluke. There's a lot of "good, about time he took some heat." There's also some people, like Scott Mendelson (in this article) that wonder how the process would feel if it were turned on someone… Read full post »

Sorry, This Is No Longer Amusing

On Thursday, February 23, I was relaxing at home in front of my computer, listening to my favorite Internet radio station, Dementia Radio. I'd just heard Madman On The Loose playing some amazing comedy music (he has a great sense of music flow, even with… Read full post »

Okay, I was going to upload an image of Romney at his recent Florida victory, swiped from the front page of Real Salon. Sorry, not copyright allowed. But I bet you can play the game I was going to offer with any photo from Salon or any other news source. Try… Read full post »

The Occupy movements were the one interesting thing to happen in 2011. I hope they don't die out in the new year. In fact, I hope they proliferate...and bring Hell on Earth to both the Democratic and Republican conventions.

The Republicans are the obvious target, since the policies of the GOP… Read full post »

I don't expect anyone to read this post, just like I don't expect ever to be paid for writing anything. But I feel the need to commemorate the way I spent Christmas for most of my life.

I was a television engineer from 1976 to a few years ago. Television being… Read full post »

There isn't much Christmas in my part of the world, central Florida, except at the theme parks. Disney has their lights up, although they're no longer the Osborne Family Festival of Lights; the family's been disposessed. Universal has their Grinchmas and Macy's Balloon Parade. That's expected; theme… Read full post »