midtown shuffle

you're dead to me

hey folks!
i've moved...both literally and in blog space...check me out at city shuffle

posted by btyguy @ 6:50 AM 1 comments

my personal katrina

every once and a while...when you least expect it, tragedy can strike.

today started out in a bright, uplifting manner - i got into work on time...ready to take on the last few issues on a project and make a deadline. yet in the midst of checking my email and somewhere between printing a recipe and opening a word doc - my computer crashed.

now, i dont know exactly what happened...but a scene i thought was limited to the windows world - the blue screen of death - flashed before my beautiful mac. it appeared to be shutting down...appeared - yet it just froze there.

i restarted...and it just began "thinking". 20 minutes of "thinking". nothing.

i restarted again. the same.

i booted with a dvd - ran disk utility...it was fine.

and then...then...eliminating a disk problem...i tried reinstalling my system.

it took forEVER. ALL day. and then it failed.

i can't find my hard disk.

i'm fearful i lost everything.

work files.
family pictures.
years of email.

all gone?

i'm trying to remain calm. perhaps its god telling me its time to start anew?
luckily, my work files are on my pc and email at work - for the most part - scattered but there.

i'm headed to the apple store tomorrow for one last attempt to get my files back - but i'm not hopeful.
wish me luck!

posted by btyguy @ 11:07 PM 10 comments

if i ignore it, it will go away!

on september 11, 2001 at 8:46 am, president bush began his day sitting with second graders for a photo-op to highlight his education plan. at about this same time, images of the burning towers from nyc were being broadcast around the world.

as it became clearer that our country was under attack - he continued to sit with elementary school children while the country he was leading fell into a panic.

on august 29, 2005 at roughly 8 am eastern, president bush began his 4th week of vacation on his ranch in crawford texas. at about this same time, hurricane katrina - winds over 145 mph - began bearing down upon new orleans and much of the central gulf.

as it became clearer that a major metropolitan area was on a crash course with devestation - he continued his vacation, speaking on such pertinent topics as social security and the iraq war.


thank you president bush. thank you for cutting your vacation short, approaching the subject nearly 3 days later and acting so swiftly to once again resolve a national crisis.

god. what a leader.

posted by btyguy @ 10:14 PM 3 comments

weather tantrum

okay...i know its been a rough 48 hours for folks.

katrina has caused havoc and the media biz is going crazy trying to keep up with the story...

heck, i'll be honest, i've been geeking out on this storm since sunday morning...but when your weather guy goes off the deep end, perhaps its time you cut his coffee and put him to bed.

check out this video.
(it takes a min or two to load).

posted by btyguy @ 12:45 AM 1 comments

who said what?

who said the following quotes...and what action did they say this about?

[1] "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is."

[2] "President [ ... ] is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy."

[3] "Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years"

posted by btyguy @ 4:43 PM 2 comments

the buck stops where?

its rare - if ever - that i have agreed with president bush.
but in the case of cindy sheehan, i do.

he should NOT talk to her.

he's right when he says there are thousands of people that would love an opportunity to speak with him...i, for one, am one of them.

no, he really shouldnt speak to her...

AND i also agree with him, that withdrawing US forces from iraq right now would cause more harm then good. iran, syria would surely pounce upon a struggling iraq and a much broader, regional war would ensue.

no, its time he speak to all of us.

its time that the american public, the us armed forces, and the iraqi people stop suffering from the mistakes made in this administration. if george bush truly wanted to honor of our men and women in uniform...the noble cause of freedom...its time he find out what went wrong in his administration...in our intelligence gathering...and make sure this NEVER happens again.

president truman had a plaque on his oval office desk - "the buck stops here".

perhaps, mr. bush should look in his history books - since he is doing some reading on his 5 week vacation - and find out exactly what that sign means.

posted by btyguy @ 2:22 PM 0 comments

what goes up...keeps going up...

okay.

when the hell are gas prices gonna stop rising? i've caught myself recently - NOT - doing things because i didnt want to waste gas.

now, if i lived some place that didnt require a car perhaps this wouldnt matter....but then again, with prices reaching all time highs - $66/barrel today - and really no reason for this to stop - practically every aspect of our lives is going to be getting more expensive.

...and when an historic energy bill was just recently passed and there is hardly any provision for alternative - VIABLE - fuels in this time of record fuel costs, you gotta ask yourself - why?

no matter what year it is you quote, we know our oil supplies are going to run out. as that time approaches, prices for goods and services will skyrocket. why aren't we proactive about ending our reliance on oil?

because oil, not money or gold, makes the world go 'round.

eventually, though, people WILL reach a breaking point.
cars will have to get smaller again.
less trips on the roadways means less congestion and better air.
more funding for mass transit intiatives.
new technologies will have to emerge.

i guess time will tell.

in the meantime, my advice: take mass transit if you got it. at $1.75 - even $2.00 - it clearly beats my $2.50/gal anyday.

posted by btyguy @ 3:29 PM 5 comments