Ranting, Purging and a little Craig Ferguson

I've got a ton of crap on my mind this morning, so grab a cuppa and belly up to the kitchen table, smoke one if you've got it and hold on tight.

Some recent email inquiries lead me to go over to my old site and re-read a few of my old posts. Doing so made me realize what a flippen whine-bag I've been lately. Ya'll have my permission to cyber slap me back to reality when I get all morose and pathetic.

Now, for the latest around Frog Pond Holler:

Jethro and Gomer's filling station will be shutting down at the end of this month. For years it was owned by one man, his wife running the grocery store next door. Since failing health forced him to retire, it's been through countless owners. The townsfolk are beginning to panic. Granted, fuel here in town costs a small fortune, but at least you could get a couple of dollars worth to get you over to Tennessee to fill up. If no one takes the station over, we won't have one at all here in town. The closest gas will be clear out at the state line.

We still don't have cellphone service. A U.S. Cellular store opened across the road from the filling station about two months ago, they're the one's installing the tower and I suppose they're trying to corner the market on phones before it goes up. We've been told service would begin at the end of July, now they're saying the end of August. I've got a prepaid Virgin Mobile phone, I don't know if it's going to work with the new tower or not. If it doesn't, I've decided I'll just do without. I can't afford one more monthly bill. Hell, no one calls me much anyways. If it does happen, me and the Amazon will have to find another way to spend our summers besides sitting on the front porch making fun of the tourists at the rental house across the road as they stand out in the yard pointing their phone at the sky in different directions trying to get a signal. Just as their frustration reaches the breaking point, it gives us great pleasure to holler across the road, "KIN YA HEAR ME NOW???"

Hey we gotta find something to entertain ourselves around here.

The latest from the Cubicle Assylum...

Let's see, Bossman stopped by my office yesterday to ask if I was going to rush out and see "Snakes on a Plane" this weekend. My answer was, "Ummm gee, I really don't think so." There was some snickering and giggling (it always astonishes me when he shows a glimpse of humanity) then I added that in all seriousness, I'd almost go see it just for Samuel L. Jackson. I adore that man. It's not just his film performances that I love, I've seen him on some talk shows and he never fails to crack me up. I'd just love to sit down with him over coffee and shoot the bull, I know it would be a blast.

My overly enthusiastic co-worker, who I've now decided shall from this day forward be known as "Bubbles", continues to make the work day go by at lightening speed. When she worked there before, we always got along great and we still do most of the time. It still amazes me that she can be nearly thirty and be so naive about so many things. I don't mean that as an insult, it is refreshing in a way and is a direct result of having lived here all of her life, cut off from the rest of the world. I spent a good thirty minutes the other day trying to explain to her what an iPod was, how she could pay her bills online and we've wasted endless company dollars as I've showed her the wonders of Google.

I will give her this, the seven years she worked there before leaving to have her second child resulted in her knowing more about our product than I really care to. This makes for a good balance I suppose. I have someone to go to with questions about mundane crap like motor frame sizes, drive sets and paint applications while at the same time, she thinks I'm a genius when I show her how to do something like attach a file to an email.

Craig Ferguson, The Late Late Show and Message Boards......

Okay, first let me say that I know I've gained some readers from a certain message board and I hope that none of them take what I'm going to say personally and that they continue to stop by occasionally. This isn't directed towards any one person (well maybe one), I just feel the need to get a few things off my chest (and I have a good sized chest, it holds alot, so bear with me.)

As a rule, I tend to steer clear of message boards. For me, it's too easy for my highly opinionated self to get sucked in to debates and arguments. This is my flaw, not one of the medium itself. It's also another reason why I stay far, far away from chatrooms.

When I started getting hits from one particular board, I started popping over there on occasion to read what was being said. Now, ya'll know celebrities read those things. Having that in mind, I cringed over and over as I read the messages posted. While it was universally agreed there that Mr. Ferguson could do absolutely no wrong, several posters voiced dismay over every other thing you can imagine. His suit on a certain night, his haircut (resulting in a resounding call for the termination of employment of his hairstylist), the editing, format decisions, set design and for goodness sakes, how he stepped off of the stage to greet his guests.

Any production is a colabrative effort. As much as it may seem that the performer and the surrounding elements are two separate entities, it's been my experience that this isn't usually the case. How would you feel, for example, if you spent a few minutes each day with someone over the course of a couple of years, perhaps shared your thoughts with them and considered them a friend, then for no reason other than their distaste with your haircut, you read that people want him fired over it?

There was another post there about taking responsibility for what you post on the internet and how it effects people's feelings. People in the business are still human beings with feelings too. Think about it. Have a little empathy.

I read back over some older threads and found one where an argument broke out over what was best for his son, whether it was good or bad that the host was dating someone way younger than himself and that *GASP* there may be a child born out of wedlock. That gave me the heebeejeebies. That total strangers could be debating what was best for my child in a public forum was.... well it was beyond creepy.

You really don't need to be that far all up in someone's business.

Just for the record, I'm still trying to figure out how my lighthearted jab at Craig Ferguson's rant on dolphins resulted in a post about male dolphins causing head-butting abortions of fetus' which weren't their own. Who even THINKS about shit like that??????

And that brings me to another point (hell fire I'm on a fuckin' roll now anyway, I may as well get it all out.) I don't know the man or presume to know his thoughts or opinions on anything. To veiw a monologue (which had me rolling by the way) about a particular ocean dwelling species, which was created for entertainment and assume that the person performing has a damned VENDETTA against that certain species is just a tad bit out there.

To witness any celebrity's public personna is sort of like reading someone's blog (it's a stretch, but bear with me, I do have a point.) What you see presented before you is only what that person has decided to allow you to see. You can't presume to know a person's inner most thoughts and opinions by uber analyizing every syllable that comes from their lips when they're presenting themselves in a production.

Phew! Well that was the closest thing to a mental colon cleansing I've ever experienced.

Moving on..... (and for this, most of you are truly thankful... I can tell)

I've ranted long enough. I need to get a move on and suck up some dust bunnies. The little bastids are taking over the house.

Ya'll enjoy your weekend. I know I will.

Later Taters!