lost blew my freakin' mind!

to keep the theme of greatness and undisputed statements going, i offer this:

"all along the watchtower" by jimi hendrix is greatest rock song of all time.

stairway can take a back row seat to this.

it is not only the best cover of all time, it is the best 4 minutes of rock'n'roll.
period.
infinity period.
double infinity period.

the guitar work (especially from 2:00 to about 2:50) is beyond phenomenal.

not to disrespect my hometown boy of bobby dylan, but jimi plays--and sings--that song the way it was supposed to be done.

there's too much confusion; i can't get no relief.

such a powerful use of the double negative by dylan. it truly needed the smooth, yet smoky, vocals of jimi to bring the dire emotion of the song to the forefront of our minds.

that's total bull-plop, but you get the meaning.

the song is total kickass

even if you're not on acid or mushrooms.

realworld/roadrules gauntlet II was the lame

so i've decided that there is a perfect food and it is:

the sandwich.

now, my definition of a sandwich is going to incorporate a few other foods that you may have not put into the sandwich category. but once we begin examining the structure of said foods, then it may make sense. i ain't guaranteeing anything.

the reason for the sandwich being the perfect food?
there are two, actually.

1. it's handheld and self contained. a complete meal in a nice, neat, little package.

2. sandwiches can, and are, made with anything you want.

and i don't know if you can claim either of those reasons is more important than the other.

ok, the foods that may not be construed as sandwichs as of yet:

pizza. it is basically an open faced sandwich. layer of bread, layer of sauce, meat and cheese. which in my estimation, is a sandwich.

burrito. an open faced sandwich rolled up.

quesadilla. a mexican sandwich

basically anything with a tortilla. but not nachos. not tortilla chips. tortillas.

so sandwiches are the perfect food.

so go out and have a b.l.t. or a b.m.p.b. (banana/mustard/peanut butter) if you want.

while supersize me did have some moments of humor and insight, it was a ridiculous premise, and--as i thought--over-hyped

the world is black and white.

the research we are doing in biology, physics, mathematics and psychology is very important. it is going to lead us, eventually, to a set of first principles. every layer we peel back on the complexity and makeup of the universe will lead to an ever simpler explanation of why. and with enough desire and resources, we--as imperfect and mortal humans--will decipher the Ultimate Truth.

it may not be a neat little package like e=mc^2 or 42, but the Ultimate Answer will be something understandable. it will be a first principle upon which everything is built upon. this physical universe has laws and rules which it must obey. we will figure it out. humanity has an unquenchable desire to know.

i also believe that this truth extends beyond mere physical regulations. God has a moral component to itself. there is an Ultimate Moral Truth as well. whether it is a stand alone truth or that it, too, extends from the Ultimate Truth is yet to be seen (but i'll place all my money on that they are entwined in some fashion). but it means that there is a baseline moral truth out there. there is a right, and there is a wrong.

shades of gray are fine and dandy for the psychologists and the sociologists and the gen x parents that can't control their children.
but that doesn't make it correct.
in fact, i believe they are totally wrong.

there is right and wrong. and that's all there is.

am i saying that i am always right? i would like to think i am, but i'm wrong a lot. more so the longer i live, the more wrong i become; but that's a whole 'nother rant.

am i saying i know what is right and what is wrong? not entirely. i'm saying there is a right, and there is a wrong. we may not know what is right until we discover the Ultimate Truth. we may just be fumbling through ever darker shades of gray until we get to a point where God goes, "whoa, buddy, i think you got it. congratulations."

i would like to think that we are on the path as a species. are we slow as fuck getting there? most definately, but the universe has waited--what? 15 billion years--for us to get this far. i'm sure it can wait a bit longer.

actually, i'm a 100% sure.
cuz that's the way it is.

does anyone use baby oil on babies?

you ever see the fox commercial for the tv ratings and blocking the different levels so to protect your children?
the one where everyone has their rating above their head? TV-MA, TV-7, TV-14, etc.

the part i love is the dog.
he has a ? above his head.

does that mean the dog doesn't understand tv, or does that mean we can't figure out what is appropriate for a dog to watch?

either way, it's funny.
to me, anyway.

forward, forward, side, together

so carla and i went to our first ballroom dancing class last night.

for the next 9 weeks, i will be in agony every wednesday from 8-9.

just kidding, it's not that bad.

i even had fun. carla only got mad at me a couple times, which means i did better than i had feared i would.

in fact, i wasn't even the worst one there! there looked to be several guys in our class that were much worse off than i was.

which, those of you that know me, means those guys are royally screwed.

we started off with the fox trot, which is supposedly the easiest of all dances.

we are also going to learn the rumba, cha-cha, and waltz.

in all actuality, i think it will be fun and good for us.

mainly me, so carla won't kill me when we have to dance.

huh-ha!

i think this tax map from msn is misleading.
it shows the tax burden of each state counting in local, state and federal taxes as a percentage of income.

my current state of massachusetts ranks as number 5 in the nation after you count in federal taxes.

but the last time i checked, massachusetts ranked 2nd in per capita income (as of 2000).

i'm not a smart man, but i know that the higher your income, the higher tax rate.

ct is number one when it comes to per capita income, and it ranks in percentage of tax burden! imagine the correlation!

is there a correlation? 5 0f the top 10 tax burden states are also top 10 in per capita income (washington misses out at #11).

living in maine or wyoming is not good for your taxes. they rank 36th and 28th respectively in income, but they are 7th and 10th in tax burden.

7 of the 10 highest income states rank in the top 15 of tax burden.

so i guess the trend is that if you make more, you get taxed more. which i'm pretty sure is the point of our progressive tax brackets. but i'm no senator.

side point, has anyone else watched deal or no deal and had to wait for howie mandell to say his name to recognize him?
what the hell happened to his hair?