A.G.E's Joint

I have to admit it. I like bad movies. I mean REALLY bad movies. The kind they show on Elvira and Mystery Science Theater 3000. Movies with plots so ridiculous and with cheesy, bad effects you can only laugh out loud at their absurdity.    I was cruising around YouTube looking at clips about living off the grid and in converted vans when a movie came up: I clicked on it, thinking it was the normal 1 to 5 minute clip, and realized it was a full 100 minute movie. I didn’t have anything better to do, so, I watched.   A quick synopsis: a ship (looking suspiciously like the SS Enterprise) with a crew of three scantily clad, incompetent women is lost in space and chooses to land for repairs in a remote corner of an English park. The landing is witnessed by an uptight Couple (Oliver and Prudence), a Swinging Single (Cliff) and a Wimpy Nerd (Willy), who go to investigate. They are lured on board and the fun and games begin.   The movie is from 1979 and...

It took fifteen minutes to find a parking space. The wind was cold against Emily's face as Kristy undid the buckles of the seat. With a tug, the pink jacket untangled and the little redheaded child tumbled to the ground, but she wasn't one of those whiny kids. She immediately bounced up and brushed the rough sand from her knees and inspected her tights. No tears, good. As she began to look around, the huge granite rock smiled at her over the tops of the trees with their red and yellow leaves. Emily excitedly pointed at it. "Ooh, look at the big rock, Daddy."   "Yes, Sweetie. That's Stone Mountain."   "Can you climb up to the top?"   "Yes, you can and maybe we will another day. We're doing something else today."   "But I want to climb to the top!" Her face flushed. Jimmy knelt down to her level and in a quiet voice he said:   "If you act like that, we'll go home and you won't see...

Every now and then, you run across a local government trying to put a stretch in revenue collection. One of those sources is the issuance of a business license. Mind you, this really isn't a problem. In most cases, the County is providing a service to the business and must offset those costs. And often, there are zoning restriction on where the business can operate because of noise, traffic, etc. But what about a business that is about nothing? No, I'm not stealing Jerry Seinfeld's schtick. There are businesses that are both web and based and so specific they require virtually no services. Like this guy: Professional Call of Duty Player cited for running a business out of his house. Justin Chandler relocated his Team Kaliber operation from New York to the Atlanta suburbs, moving into a rather fancy home. It sounds like the NIMBY neighbors didn't like the slackers slumming up the place and tipped off the authorities. Cobb County, being the revenue positive kind o...

Clickbait.   You know it. You've seen it.   http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebat... It is the ultimate masquerade. An eye catching headline inducing an unintended left finger movement. Whether It is article, slideshow or video, it is what the Internet has devolved into, a series of empty calorie diversion that bloat the mind.    If you are a professional writer, you want those clicks to happen. Otherwise your lonely missives are lost in the ether. But like a slippery slope into an unending labyrinth, the process of creating them becomes an addiction for both writer and reader. A dark Gepetto pulling emotional strings for Pinocchio to react.    Instead of reading filling, uplifting poetry and stories, we slide down a rabbit hole of 10 worst this, unbelievable that and gross something or another. Oh, we might click on a cute kitten or puppy vid, but for the most part we lean toward the tawdry and sadistic, and it isn't eve...

We should meet in another life, we should meet in the air, me and you. Yes. The above infographic is true. The art of Geography has gone down the tubes. Nobody really cares, really. Do we (besides Trevor ) really want to know that is the United Kingdom? Of course we do because some of us (sadly, not me) have been there. Being able to determine Cardiff from Glasgow and Birmingham from Cornwall is useful information when traveling the countryside or adventure might await you in some grimy industrial wasteland, when you would rather see sheep grazing in bucolic meadows. Or you could be like me and think abandoned factories are a great place to explore. It doesn’t matter where the geography is, it’s there for the taking. I even know the four main subdivisions (Britain, Wales, Scotland and Ulster) by sight, but I’m a bit lost when you drill it down to the individual counties. I mean, I know Cumberland and Yorkshire are north, but other than that? I guess it would be a need to kn...

Let's have a health insurance rant. We are all bitching about the Affordable Care Act (I refuse to call it Obamacare because he showed absolutely no leadership in how it was formed). How it is such a train wreck and what not. It IS a train wreck for a number of reasons, the main one is Congress made the stupid attempt to fix all the problems in one bill. But since that is how Congress works, we really should be surprised. Health care is expensive. There is a lot of technology keeping us alive longer than nature intended (which is a argument for another day). But it is picture perfect example of the Peter Principle at work, except we replace time with money. All programs grow up to the level of resources provided. With A.C.A., it is assumed the resources are unlimited and that those who don't have the resources should have the same access as those who do. It is the only moral and ethical decision. But I'm not arguing morals. What I am arguing is this misguided program ...