Kivus’ Blog

• New Vox Posting -> The Golden Compass:

  I had read the first book in the “His Da.. http://tinyurl.com/39aa6x #

• New Vox Posting -> The Golden Compass:

  I had read the first book in the “His Da.. http://tinyurl.com/39aa6x #

• New Vox Posting -> New WordPress Post -> Memo to Washington: Keep Your Hands off my.. http://tinyurl.com/2y34sx #
• New Vox Posting -> New WordPress Post -> Memo to Washington: Keep Your Hands off my.. http://tinyurl.com/2y34sx #
• Had a little fight with jabberTwitter this morning. Showed him who is the boss though and now I’m up and running #
• Had a little fight with jabberTwitter this morning. Showed him who is the boss though and now I’m up and running #
• Bagels in the breakroom…there are these weird blueberry muffin / bagel hybrids that seem to be covered in cheese….not real temptting #
• Bagels in the breakroom…there are these weird blueberry muffin / bagel hybrids that seem to be covered in cheese….not real temptting #
• Ted Stevens is under investigation for corruption…hmmm…I hope they find some evidence in “the tubes” #
• Ted Stevens is under investigation for corruption…hmmm…I hope they find some evidence in “the tubes” #
• On the Doogtunes Weekly Wrap-up, one of the guys just beat boxed “Let’s hear it for the boy!!”…trust me, it was hilarious #
• On the Doogtunes Weekly Wrap-up, one of the guys just beat boxed “Let’s hear it for the boy!!”…trust me, it was hilarious #
• time for a client phone call…good way to take me into the lunch hour #
• time for a client phone call…good way to take me into the lunch hour #
• I think Eric Gagne will look good in a Red Sox uniform #
• @Okie_Campaigns Do think he should do the YouTube debate? #
• @Okie_Campaigns Got ya. I think I’m in the minority in thinking the whole “youtube debate” thing isn’t really that groundbreaking #
• @Okie_Campaign Yeah but I have doubts people my age would tune into the GOP one anyway. They’ll wait for Jon Stewart to recap it. #
• @Okie_Campaigns Come on. You know it’s not cool to be a conservative We can’t be bothered with morals and economic knowledges in ou … #
• Hmmm…twitter via jabber and mobile looks down #
• Starting to get some Twitter messages back #
• Time to pack it in…I wonder if the Hibernate function on my laptop will work #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

written by

Some of the highlights of my time at my latest job was the speech I heard from the company president and the speech I heard from the company CEO. The president’s speech was especially interesting because it gave a number of tips for being successful in your business career, or even life in general. Though tips dealing with state of mind and proper attitude are useful, I thought the suggestion of written goals was the most useful.

The basic rundown was that every 3 months, you should write down 6 goals. Why write them down? Because it’s much easier to break the goals if you don’t have to stare at them written down on paper (or in this day and age, typed on a computer). The 3 month time frame was done because he felt that if the time line was closer to 6 months, then you’d probably wait about 4 months before starting the goal. Also, another detail was that goals should be broken down 3 “professional” and 3 “personal”. Take the personal goals, write those down, tuck them away, don’t share them with anyone. Take the professional goals, however, share them with your co-workers, boss, etc…to see if they’ll align with company needs as well as your own professional needs.

One especially interesting part on the goals section of the speech was the company president’s belief that we tend to sell ourselves short. He felt that in order to gain the most from these goals, we should make sure that we’ll be challenged in trying to accomplish them.

Oh, and for all of you who are doubting whether or not this strategy will work for you…it’s something the company president learned from one of his golf buddies: Tiger Woods.

written by admin

Some of the more disturbing aspects of the American Left are certain behaviors that appear almost anti-American, and if not Anti-American, than definitely opposed to American’s position as a the world’s dominate super power. Two recent examples seem to illustrate this point: (1) the reaction to the military’s actions regarding Pat Tilman’s death and (2) the full court press currently being executed over the issue of alleged man-made global warming.

Let’s start off with a closer look at the coverage of Pat Tilman’s Death. The following paragraph from the Seattle Post Intelligencer (as first reported on Bill O’Reilly’s radio program) give a glimpse into the American Left’s thoughts on military issues:

Whatever paper-thin shred of credibility the Bush administration had regarding the Iraq war is fast disappearing. It’s not just the mistakes and mishandling of vital matters (say, national security). It’s the lies it smears upon other lies, laying it on so thick it’s practically choking itself.

All this because the American military decided to continue to allowing a family to believe its child died in a more story-book style heroic act instead of due to friendly fire? In an incident that occurred in Afghanistan, not even Iraq? As Mr. O’Reilly pointed out, the Left seizes on these types of incidents to try and say “see, the military is not noble” and to say “see, America is not the beacon of freedom that people think it is.” (my words not Mr. O’Reilly’s).

Another example of the American Left and Anti-Americanism comes in the form of the environmentalist movement. As Rush Limbaugh has pointed out on numerous occasions, the environmentalist movement has become the repository for displaced socialists. A number of their key policies aim to greatly restrict the United States ability to continue to thrive in the global economy. Their demand for restriction of carbon output and their opposition to measures that would allow America to achieve energy independence (namely, (1) drilling for oil in areas like ANWAR or off the coast of California and (2) the building of more nuclear power facilities) have worked to create a situation where America is more dependent on other nations for the energy sources we need to fuel our economy. Though they claim they desire energy independence, they stand in the way of measures that would allow the United States to achieve it.

Though I used the above two examples as a way to illustrate a class of behavior from the American Left, they are clearly not a comprehensive enumeration of actions that the Left employs. Further examples such a moral relativism between America and terrorist elements, demanding withdrawal from Iraq (where America has a clear interest) while demanding action be taken in Darfur (where America has no clear interest (outside of preventing genocide, something which should not be dismissed)), and using America’s possession of nuclear weapons as justification for rogue nations like North Korea and Iran also having said weapons. All of these examples show a disturbing trend of anti-Americanism found within the American Left, and are prime examples of why the Left cannot be trusted with our foreign policy or our national security.

written by admin

A couple of years ago I received a copy of _Golf My Way_ by Tiger Woods for Christmas. Those next couple of weeks, waiting to fly back from Maine to Clemson, seemed to drag on as I eagerly anticipated trying out his techniques on the course.

A lot of time as passed since then and Tiger no longer uses the same swing he used when he wrote the book. In fact, I spent a lot of time following Adam Scott this past weekend, since Butch Harmon has crafted his swing in the same fashion as the “old Tiger” swing and therefore is my de facto “swing role model.” Still, as the time passed on Sunday, I found a part of me rooting for Tiger to win. There’s something about his drive and dedication that, despite his dominance, makes me want to cheer him on.

Still, despite being a monster on the course, Tiger has another side; a side that doesn’t seem to show it self very often. I got a glimpse of that side a few years ago at the US Open:

My father and I were standing between a couple of holes, I think it was #10 and #11, but I’m not quite sure…what was different about these holes is that after finishing one, the players had to get in a cart and ride the cart over to the other hole. When Tiger was coming up 10, my father and I went over to the cart location, figuring we might get some quote or something from Tiger as he sat in the cart.

While Tiger sat in the cart, hat pulled down over his eyes, a fan, who probably had a sampled the $5 beers being sold around the course, yelled at him: “Tiger, you and me, match play…right now.” Tiger sat there for a moment, then, slowly looked up and said “How much you want to lose?”

written by admin

Last Night was the first “non-pilot” episode of the ½ Hour News Hour. Overall, the show had some solid moments, a weak segment or two, but ultimately was a fairly solid ½ hour of laughs.

The show started off with an ad that was making fun of your traditional motor sport / monster truck rally (“Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!”) that was pitting the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team v. the Duke Men’s Lacrosse team. Let’s just say, the show started off slow.

The next segment was the first of 2 “quick hit” news segments. The closet comparison for these would be Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” segments. Just some quick highlights from the two segments:

• “Part of the reason Al Gore’s house electric bill seems so high, is that people don’t understand how much power it takes to recharge him.
• “Upon hearing about the potential attacks on our soldiers at Fort Dix, Harry Reid demanded an immediate withdrawal of all troops from Fort Dix”
• “George Tenet stated that no one regretted his decision to state Iraq had nuclear weapons more than he did….well, maybe one person did [cut to picture of Sadam]”
• “People say Fred Thompson’s portrayal of a racist in a movie 20 years ago might hurt him in a presidential race…especially in “unable to tell TV from reality” demographic”

There were 2 other commercial segments: (1) A commercial making fun of the ACLU and the ACLU’s support for child molesters living near schools, (2) a commercial for Oxy-Clinton, a drug that counter acts the various negative attributes of Mrs. Bill Clinton’s presence. Commercial (2) was highlighted by an appearance by Laura Ingraham as the doctor presenting the drug. Laura, looking absolutely gorgeous in her lab coat, proceeded to list some of the side effects of taking Oxy-Clinton:

• High Taxes
• Massive Unemployment
• Riots
• Chaos
• Total Breakdown of the American Healthcare System

Overall, commercial (2) was in the running for the best segment of the show.

The news / special report segments went 1 for 3, an acceptable batting average in baseball, but leaving room for improvement as far as the show goes. Starting first with the low point, a segment dealing with a pregnant lawyer who ultimately “gave birth” to twins during the segment. There’s not much to say beyond this segment being a train wreck. A segment asking the question “How can we blame the Kansas Tornado on President Bush?” was fairly solid, with responses such as “His lack of attention to global warming” and “having all our national guard equipment in Iraq.” The best special report segment, which aired the earliest of the three, dealt with sexual harassment in the work place, and featured a sexy “reporter-ette” demonstrating female on male harassment to the male co-host. The skit reached its pinnacle when the male host rolled his chair back and asked “What about Female on Female Harassment? How would that work?” I strongly suggest hitting up youtube to view this segment.

The final segment was some Dennis Miller stand up. I paused to write down some of his jokes, but a number of them I had heard in his specials before. Basically, if you’ve ever seen Dennis Miller on anything, you know what to expect.

The ½ Hour News Hour got off to a good start with its first “non-pilot” issue. Though it had some rough spots, it gave a number of solid laughs over its 30 minutes. After years of being the butt of jokes from the liberal media, it’s good to see that conservatives can dish it out too. In fact, like on most things, The !/2 Hour News Hour shows how conservatives can do more than just hold their own with liberals, conservatives can out perform them.

written by admin

“We’ve got to get the money out of politics!” If you’ve watched the news, listened to the radio, read a newspaper, etc… over the last 2-3 years, you’ve no doubt heard someone say just that: “We’ve got to get the money out of politics.” In fact, recent legislation (namely, McCain – Feingold) have been written to accomplish just that. While readying Tom DeLay’s _No Retreat, No Surrender_, however, I began to ask myself a question: Why? What are the problems with money in politics?

Now, obviously I am not saying that I support congressman being bribed for their vote (a.l.a. William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana, allegedly), but I am saying I’d rather have an oil company paying to fly a congressman to A.N.W.A.R. to view potential drilling locations then have Congressman jet around the country on my tax dollars.

Speaking of my tax dollars, a tangential aspect of “getting the money out of politics” is the concept of “publicly funded election.” Though a full discussion of publicly funded elections is probably deserves its own full post, I will add now that my logic from the previous paragraph carries over. “Why should my hard earned tax dollars go to some general pot where any yahoo can use it for his political campaign? Why can’t I decide what I want to do with my money? What can’t I decide who I want my money to support?”

So who benefits most by not allowing money from the private sector into politics? Well, certainly not the tax payer, and certainly not those politicians who scrapped by in a life of public service. No, instead it’s those politicians who can afford to augment their vast personal wealth with tax payer funded perks, politicians like Speaker Pelosi or Senator Kennedy. In other words, the same people who are decrying private sector money in politics are those who have the most to gain by keeping it out.

written by admin