Category: Commentary

Nothing too important here, just some random musings about celebrities:

1) A lot of people in my age bracket say that Debbie Harry “looks rough”. And while I agree that she has seen better days, I think a lot of folks don’t understand that she was kind of old (for the music business) when Blondie took off. People forget that she was 33 when “Heart of Glass” made her a superstar; by contrast, Madonna had already released her first greatest hits album – The Immaculate Collection – when she was that age. Debbie Harry was born in 1945, which makes her 62 today. So she doesn’t “look old”… she is old!

2) You know how the occasional celebrity death will sneak past you? Sometimes you’ll be talking with the missus or friends and you’ll say something like “I wonder what Robert Stack is up to?” and they’ll say something like “not a whole lot… he died in 2003”? Well, a few nights ago I was chatting on Yahoo! Messenger with Richard, my best bud from high school. We were talking about Atlanta radio personalities, and we were looking up various people on Wikipedia and Google.

Come to find out, Atlanta radio legend “Skinny” Bobby Harper died back in July, 2003. Born in Saskatchewan, Harper first hit it big in Cincinnati, then moved to Atlanta, where he was a mainstay for 30+ years. He was even the color commentator for Atlanta Flames radio broadcasts, for goodness sake! And although you might never have heard of “Skinny” Bobby Harper, you definitely knew him: a guy named Hugh Wilson worked with him at WQXI in Atlanta; Wilson went on to create the show WKRP in Cincinnati, and the “Dr. Johnny Fever” character is based on Harper. R.I.P., Bobby – sorry it comes so late!

3) Lastly, from the “Who DIDN’T See That Coming?” file… it seems that Lou Pearlman – the man that created the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, and who started the careers of Justin Timberlake and Nick Carter – is a filthy pedophile. According to an article published in an upcoming issue of Vanity Fair, Pearlman took liberties with dozens of young boys, including Carter and several early members of the Backstreet Boys. Amusingly, Pearlman is is jail in Florida now, but not for being Chester the Molester – apparently he swindled 1,000 people out of $315 million. He was on the run, living in Indonesia under an assumed name, until busted in June.

As you probably know, I went to high school in a suburban Atlanta county in the 1980s. I was one of the “freaks”: the punk rockers, the goths, the skaters and other assorted misfits. Each high school in the county had between 10 to 100 of us “freaks”, and we all kept in close contact with each other. Sometimes we’d hang out at the food court at the local mall, smoking cigarettes and snarling at the moms pushing their babies in strollers. But early on our favorite hang out was the Midnight Movies… and specifically, the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Most “freaks” put their egos aside at the Midnights. It was liberating to be surrounded by our “own kind” and free from the “jockocracy” that all of us dealt with each school day. Rocky Horror was filled with all of the freaks from each high school in the county, and the rednecks watching The Wall or Heavy Metal didn’t dare mess with a theatre full of weirdos in bondage gear and liberty spikes.

But even if most people kept their egos in check, that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a pecking order at the Midnights. People that just showed up were cool. People that brought props with them were even cooler. And the people that dressed up and played the roles in Rocky Horror each week were superstars; they were our heroes for 2 hours each week during the film.

Sadly, I found out last night that one of the Rocky Horror superstars from my youth is in prison for murder. I don’t have any details about it yet, so I don’t know if it was a crime of passion, a fistfight gone too far, road rage, ‘roid rage, a horrible miscarriage of justice, or if he’s just plain crazy.

It’s just so…. weird. I know a murderer! Granted, I haven’t seen the guy since 1986, and even back in the day we only hung out at the Midnights or the “after-parties” at Dunkin’ Donuts or IHOP. As best I recall, we might have gone to the mall together once, and that was more of a “one guy with a car picks up a bunch of friends without cars” thing than an actual “planned outing” or anything like that. But still… It almost gives me the willies. I know a murderer!

Yikes!

Sorry if I haven’t posted much in the past couple of days. I’m feeling a bit under the weather. I am, however, feeling better and hope to get some new articles out in the next couple of days!

OK, so this coupon (and all its crappiness) hit the web a couple of weeks ago, but I thought I’d share it with you anyway. It’s from Macy’s and boy is it a stinker:

 

First of all, the coupon was only valid on Friday and Saturday, September 7 and 8, 2007 and until 1pm on those days only. But then the restrictions start:

“VALID ON REGULAR, SALE & CLEARANCE PRICES IN STORE ONLY. COUPON CAN ONLY BE USED ONCE AND IS LIMITED TO ONE PER CUSTOMER. COUPON IS NOT VALID ON MORNING SPECIALS AND MUST BE SURRENDERED AT TIME OF PURCHASE.”

OK… sounds fair, so far, right? But then this starts:

“Cannot be combined with any savings pass, extra discount, or credit offer, except opening a new Macy’s account. Excludes Prior Purchases; Special Orders; Specials; Super Buys; Everyday Values; Cosmetics; Fragrances; Watches; Sunglasses; Optical; American Rag; I.N.C; Levi’s; Dockers; Lauren; Ralph Lauren; Michael Kors Shoes and Handbags; Coach; Dooney & Bourke; Juicy Couture Shoes, Handbags and Accessories; Cole Haan; Bridge and Designer Shoes and Handbags; Designer Intimate Apparel; DKNY, Material London, Buffalo, Hugo Boss, Claiborne, Nautica, Perry Ellis and Tasso Elba Men; Polo, Guess, Kenneth Cole, and Lacoste Men and Kids; Tommy Hilfiger Shoes, Men and Home; Tommy Bahama and Calvin Klein Men and Home; Kate Spade; Vera Wang; Martha Stewart Collection; Bedding by Barbara Barry; Michael Kors and Natori; Waterford; Baccarat; Lalique; China Dinnerware and Gifts; Regular price Crystal and Silver; Wüsthof; All-Clad; Henckels; Lladró; Electrics and Electronics; Holiday Lane Trim; Furniture; Area Rugs; Mattresses; Lease Departments; Gift Registry Kiosks; Restaurants; Macy’s Gift Cards; Gift Wrap; Services; Payment on Macy’s Credit Account; macysweddingchannel.com and macys.com.”

What the hell? Can you use the coupon for anything Macy’s sells?

Thanks for NOTHING, guys!

Dear Microsoft:

For years, I’ve been one of your biggest fans. And why not? You’ve given me a career selling and supporting your products. You’ve put food on my table and countless trade show t-shirts on my back. It’s been a whole lot of fun, but that fun came to an end when you released Windows Vista. Why? Because Windows Vista is just broken.

My personal computer is an old Northwood Pentium 4 processor with HT. It’s got 2GB of RAM, an ATI Radeon x1300 pro video card and around 500Gb worth of space spread out among several hard drives. It’s pretty dated, to be sure. But it should be plenty powerful enough for a desktop operating system, right?

Apparently not. Here’s a short list of my woes with Vista:

Virtual PC: My Bittorrent setup wasn’t compatible with Vista, so I downloaded Virtual PC 2007. I installed Windows XP on a virtual machine and got everything set up just the way I like it: the OS stripped down as much as possible, autologin enabled, and a batch file that starts PeerGuardian and uTorrent at boot. The only problem? The virtual machine hogged up between 30-60% of my CPU cycles, even sitting at idle. That’s right, if the virtual machine is booted up, but not doing anything, it was using an average of 45% of my CPU cycles. When I went back to XP, I decided that it was simply easier to install Virtual PC 2007 and reuse the existing virtual machine (rather than install all the BT apps on my system). Under Windows XP, Virtual PC 2007 uses around 5-15% of my CPU cycles, with around 9% or 10% being the average. I hardly even notice that it’s there!

Continue reading “Vista Is Broken…”

If you’re not from the US, the temperature shown in the Yahoo! Widget above is in the good old-fashioned, God-fearing Fahrenheit scale.

So, after I posted the picture of Julius on Monday, Lisa wanted to know why I didn’t post pictures of the rest of the Love Garden. Well, honestly it’s because I hadn’t taken any pictures of the rest of the Love Garden! So yesterday afternoon I went outside and snapped quite a few pictures of all our growing goodness:

And once I had finished taking pictures of the garden, I just couldn’t resist taking a few pictures of the kitties:

See the rest of the pictures in the jimcofer.com Photo Gallery – the pictures are in the “New Arrivals” category!

The missus and I are growing all kinds of stuff this year: watermelons, cucumbers, cantaloupes, bell peppers, oregano, thyme… and a vast array of spicy peppers, like jalapeño, cayenne, Marconi and banana peppers. We’re even growing some habanero peppers! I’ve nicknamed the habanero plant “Julius” (after Carolina Panthers superstar Julius Peppers). And Julius appears to be getting ready to provide me with his first taste of spicy goodness:

I can’t wait to try it! 🙂

I don’t know what’s up with me lately. Part of me is on a “retro-kick” with my food, going back to the dishes my parents used to enjoy. Another part of me is on a tropical kick, craving pineapples, mangoes, coconut and limes. Yet another part of me simply seems like a stoned teenager, eating just about anything that comes along. Here’s some examples:

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with Banana Creme – I stopped by the convenience store last night to pick up some cigarettes. This store was staffed by two older people that didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to do anything. Seriously… it was as if crossing the threshold of the store took me into some bizarre world where spacetime was completely slowed down. Anyway, while waiting (and waiting, and waiting) in line, I spotted these Reese’s cups… with banana creme! They were announced last year as a tribute to Elvis Presley (who, as you might know, loved fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches). They only started shipping this summer, however.

So – how are they? Pretty decent, albeit slightly disappointing. The “banana creme” isn’t very creamy, at least in the “runny” sense. It’s as dense as the peanut butter, so when you bite into it, stuff won’t go running everywhere. I should also point out that these are the big “king size” cups (get it? Elvis was THE king – the package even says “THE King Size”). Anyway, the banana creme actually tastes pretty good – like a fresh banana, which is probably due to the “banana flakes” listed on the ingredients label. Sadly, the banana taste is overwhelmed by the peanut butter and chocolate, so that you only get the occasional banana taste. I’d prefer more banana and less peanut butter, but that’s just me. As a limited time only thing, these cups are great though… I think I might go and buy some more a little later on this afternoon!

Ham Salad – Recently I committed the sin of going to the grocery store whilst hungry. My penalty for this – ham salad. My penance? Eating it. In case they don’t sell ham salad in your part of the world, ham salad is a sandwich or salad ingredient much like tuna or chicken salad… only made with ham. Perhaps I just bought an “off” brand or something, but this stuff just wasn’t any good. It wasn’t enough that the ham salad had sweet relish in it, the manufacturer put even more sugar in it. All you could really taste were pickles and sugar. If someone can recommend me a savory ham salad, I’d appreciate it.

Continue reading “I’m eating the weirdest stuff…”