There are a few less lights on Broadway this week.

In the fallout of the current economic crisis in the United States, nine Broadway musicals let their stages go dark with their performances yesterday.  To be fair, two of them were limited engagements (Irving Berlin’s White Christmas and a Liza Minnelli show), but that still means that seven full-time shows have shut down.  Young Frakenstein, Hairspray and Grease were just some of the ones that have made their way off the Great White Way.

Personally I don’t think it was fully to correct to blame the current financial atmosphere, these shows have simply priced themselves out of the realm of reason.  When I was recently considering one of my umpteen aborted attempts at taking a vacation, I was looking at going to New York City.  The friend I was going to visit had told me that the prices were through the roof, but I really wanted to see a show.  I got the idea I would surprise her with tickets, since it would be my treat, she wouldn’t be able to complain much.  Well, after I went online and saw that two tickets were going to run me over $400, I scratched that idea.

How can these shows possibly think that they are worth north of $200 a ticket?  How can anyone get introduced to the genre at that price?  How could a family possibly afford to go?  Yet, if I want to go see a show of a touring company in St. Louis, I will pay in the neighborhood of $50 or $60.  Sure that’s still a bit high for two hours of entertainment, but at least it is still in the realm of sanity.

It does make you wonder why in the world tickets to the New York version would run around 300% more.  It’s the same number of actors… the same sets… the same amount of crew, and heck, the road show has to pay gas, lodging, some food expenses.  It just doesn’t add up.

While I am sorry to see so many shows close, I also have to say that Broadway needs to be looking in the mirror a bit more as to who is to blame for this.

As most people do, I have a love/hate relationship with my scale.

As I mentioned on Scattercast episode 24, like so many people in the world, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to lose more weight this year.  I was quite happy with the fact that I made it through the holidays with only 1 to 2 pounds in fluctuation.  I worked hard at making sure I didn’t gain, and kept up my work out regimen to make sure that didn’t happen.

Now as we get in to the serious part of the year, I stepped on the scale last night (something I swore I would not obsess about, but yet I step on it every night now it seems), and found I had another of my “What the hell…” moments where I lose 2 - 3 pounds seemingly over night.  I always wait a day or two to declare it “official” because it could be any number of very odd factors.  If this one holds true, though, I will have lost 70 pounds so far.

There is no denying I had allowed my weight to spiral out of control and I had gotten all the way up to the insane weight of 400 lbs.  In my defense, I am built like a brick house.  It was difficult to tell I was that heavy because I have a huge body frame (think linebacker).  When I realized where I had gotten to, that was when I got serious about losing weight.  I cut sodas completely, all fast food was a distant memory, and I began researching “healthy” ways to lose weight.

Pretty much everything I read said you needed to build muscle first, and then concentrate on the actual reduction of fat.  As I chronicled in Working Out back in September 2008, I did start lifting weights, and I am happy to say that I have stuck with it.  I do 45 minutes every other day (there is a long list of reasons why it is best to do it other day that I won’t bore you with, but believe me, it’s true), and I am thrilled I have gotten to that amount of time as it allows me to catch up on one one-hour show on a DVD set, or two 30-minute episodes of a show.  So not only am I building muscle, but I am multi-tasking and catching up on the DVDs I am so far behind on!

On my “off days”, I am trying to go for walks, with the constant reminding that I need to do so from the evil one known as “M”, but the weather has been fighting me hard on that one.  I would love to invest in a treadmill, but I am reluctant to do so until I find that I am going to stick with walking.  With the insane mix of winter weather we’ve had, it has actually been unsafe for me to walk outside, so we will have to see when that resumes.  For now I am speed walking through Walmart whenever I go there.

So, why do I think my scale mocks me?  While I am thrilled I have lost 70 pounds thus far, my original goal was 101 pounds so I could actually break out of the three hundreds.  Looking at the dial on that scale, the space for 31 more pounds looks like the longest space known to man.  Never mind there are 70 lbs behind me so far, that 31 just feels daunting.  I even try to remind myself that 20 of the 70 I have lost has happened in just the past five months (I have no idea why it picked up speed), and that means that I could possibly realize this goal in the next 8 months, it just feels like an insane amount of work.

… and then will come maintaining it.

It has been made official that UK actor Matt Smith will be the eleventh incarnation of the famous time traveler, Doctor Who.

Revealed on the UK television show Doctor Who Confidential today, the 26-year-old actor will be taking over the role of the infamous Doctor when the show returns for its fifth full season of the new run in 2010.

Mr. Smith is a relative newcomer, and has only been in a handfull of television shows in the UK to date.  His name hadn’t even been brought up in any of the speculation lists as to who would be the next Doctor, so this comes as quite a surprise to fans of the series.

He will be 27 at the time filming begins, making him the youngest person to ever assume the controls of the TARDIS, the Doctor’s time machine.  Most people had assumed we might see a return to an older actor in the role, something the old version of the series favored, but instead the fans have been thrown a curve ball by taking the role even younger.

For any one who may be unfamiliar with the series, the Doctor is the last living member of a race of people known as the Time Lords.  Due to their mastery of time, and unique physiology, they are able to regenerate themselves in to a whole new body at times of death if proper arrangements have been made.  Due to this ability, the Doctor is now over 900-years-old, which makes for interesting challenges for an actor having to play both their physical age and the wisdom of someone who has lived that long.

This will be the eleventh version of the Doctor to play out on television, and the twelfth overall if you count two odd movies from the 1960’s.  How he will stack up amongst the other Doctors will remain to be seen, and how he will do in the overall standings as the best Doctor Who won’t be determined until he has at least a few episodes under his belt.  He will have some huge hurdles ahead of him as we are coming out of what is arguably one of the most popular actors to assume the mantle, David Tennant.

You can check out a brief interview with Mr. Smith below, and I wish him the best of luck in this monumental task.

It’s episode 24… Scattercast is thinking it is time to settle down!

- Happy New Year… I don’t get the excitement.

- My resolutions for 2009, what are yours?

- Bloggin’ ain’t easy. (with a whole lot of annoying history about myself)

- I encourage you to check out the redesigned StarterTech!

Here’s a link to the MP3 for those who wish to download it, subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

As we start another year, it’s time for me to take a look back at what struck a chord with my readers.

2008 was very good to this blog, and I have to take a moment to thank you, my readers, for an amazing year of growth!  Unique visitors grew by almost 600%, and total page views was darn close to 700%!  I hoped for a year of growth, but I could have never dreamed readership would be up that much!  Don’t get me wrong, this blog is still a long ways away from the major leagues… a long, long, LONG way… but it is still a nice amount of growth.

So, without further ado, the 10 entries that helped me see this growth.

Who Is The Best James Bond? - Who knew people were this interested in who made the best James Bond? Published in September, this post brought in more page views in three days than this blog got total in the year of 2007.  It is still getting viewed every day, some days only 1 or 2 views, but it is still looked at on a constant basis.  Quite surprising, I must say.

Anonymous Takes On Scientology -This post came in second with a very healthy showing (the Bond post has about 4 times the page views), and it was also one that took me by surprise in how it took off.  It didn’t hurt that members of Anonymous put links to it all over the Web, and with that in mind, I am sure I am now on the Scientology watch list.  -waves-  Hail, Xenu!

The Music Industry Vs Net Neutrality -This post was from January of last year, and was my biggest success to date at the time.  Net Neutrality is always a touchy subject, and the music industry seemingly want to wage war on it is not sitting well with anyone, and understandably so.

How To Watch Internet Videos On Your TV -This is a very popular post, and one on plan on revisiting soon as a lot has changed since I published this last February.  This was also part of the inspiration for the launching of StarterTech.com.

Olympic Beach Volleyball Uniforms -This was my second article about my anger over how women’s beach volleyball athletes were treated by the medie at this past Summer Olympics.  The first article, Olympic Beach Volleyball, was only a few hundred views behind this one, but I am counting them as one entry on this list.

I will admit, from analyzing the search traffic on these two posts, they are found for all the wrong reasons, and that being mainly people looking for pictures of the athletes asses.  Somehow I doubt they read the accompanying articles that say that is what I’m talking against…

Who Is The Best Doctor Who - Okay, I am not too proud to admit this was an obvious attempt to copy the success of the James Bond post, but apparently I went a little too obscure with the subject matter.  It obviously still did well as a post as it made this list.

JJ Abrams Unveils The New Enterprise From Star Trek - This is another one that surprised me with how well it did.  I guess people really, really wanted to see how the new Enterprise looked!

Dancing With The Stars Band - My dislike for the Dancing With The Stars band, and it’s conductor, Harold Wheeler, has turned this in to my most controversial post ever. I have received numerous nasty comments and emails about me and my opinion of these… “musicians”… and all I can say is… Keep it up! I always need more laughs in my life!

New The Dark Knight Trailer Hints At Joker Greatness - The massive upswing I saw in traffic to this post in October prompted me to write a post entitled “Just Put Down The Clown Makeup!” as I could see it was mainly being found by people looking for pictures of the Joker.  Sure enough, it was all about people trying to dress as him for Halloween.

Weighty Issues For Cheryl Burke of Dancing With The Stars -Poor Cheryl Burke took a real pounding for her non-existent weight issues on the fall season of Dancing With The Stars.  It was a whole lot of hype over a woman gaining a meager 5 lbs, and I personally found that the fact anyone was even calling her “fat” just silly.

Honroable Mentions - Somehow my review of a Combichrist/K.M.F.D.M. concert from 2006 was technically in my top 10 viewed posts… I have no clue why.  Also, my post on Armando Montelongo also made it into the top ten, but I like to keep this list about posts published in 2008.

So, there you have it, the top 10 posts of the year for this blog.  Just like last year, this list tells me entertainment related posts do well, but I will probably continue to talk about just whatever is randomly on my mind at any given time.  I will say that the increased readership has made me a lot more self conscience about my posts, and what I tend to pick as the subjects, but at the end of the day, this is still just a personal blog… filled with a lot of ranting.

Thank you all so very much for making 2008 such a great year here at SeanPAune.com, and I only hope I can keep you all as interested in 2009!

Yet another television ad to toss on the ever-growing pile of ones I hate.  The newest one to join the ranks is the Obama Presidential Coin Collection.  This has nothing to do with politics, but just being plain shady on the parts of the sellers, and how gullible the consumer can be.

If you haven’t seen this commercial yet, former talk show host Montel Williams talks to you about how you can commemorate the election of Obama to the office of President of the United States by buying commemorative coins that documents different times in his life.  There is a quarter for Illinois for where he was senator, a quarter for Hawaii where he was born, and there are also a Washington Dollar and a Kennedy Half Dollar.  Each comes with a full-color image on it corresponding to the coin, and you will also receive a certificate of authenticity (CoA) for each.  As a bonus, you also get a display to place the four coins in.

So, in other words, you are paying $19.95 for $2 worth of coins some yahoo has put colored stickers on, and then he’ll give you CoAs saying, “Hey, yep, these are the coins I put the colored stickers on!”

I always love these coin and money deals you see on TV, like the one to mark the anniversary of 9/11 that had the pop-up twin towers on it.  True class.  I think this one hits a new low, though.  It’s four colored stickers on some normal coins!  I tell ya what, if you want to pay me $19.95 for $2 worth of coins with some worthless stickers on them, I’ll sit here and make them all dang day long for you.

So here are my proposed coin series you will soon be able to order

• Great Moments in Web 2.0 - Who can forget classic sites like Muxtape or Global Pandora?  Sites that lasted but like a blip in a moment of time will have their logos lovingly reproduced on these commemorative coins.  Never will we forget how Global Pandora brought music to the masses of the world, and now you can make sure even your grandchildren will remember!
• New Coke Remembered - New Coke was built to take over the world, but, alas, it never did, and was eventually usurped by its predecessor, Classic Coke.  Remember the packing of all the various New Coke containers such as the 12 oz can and the 2 liter bottle!

You get the idea… anything silly I can put on a quarter sized decal, I’m doin’ it!

If you have ever been tempted to order crap fine products such as these, please don’t.  All you end up doing is making me weep for humanity, and you end up with $2 in change after the decals finally fall off one day due to what is probably substandard glue.

In case you were wondering, I am intentionally not linking to their website, but you can find it without much effort… but please don’t.

The National Film Preservation Board has made their annual announcement of which films are being added to The National Film Registry.

For those unfamiliar with the project, each year up to 25 films are selected for preservation in the Library of Congress.  Each film must be at least 10-years-old, they do not have to be feature length, and they do not have to have received a theatrical release.

This year’s list includes:

1) The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
2) Deliverance (1972)
3) Disneyland Dream (1956)
4) A Face in the Crowd (1957)
5) Flower Drum Song (1961)
6) Foolish Wives (1922)
7) Free Radicals (1979)
8) Hallelujah (1929)
9) In Cold Blood (1967)
10) The Invisible Man (1933)
11) Johnny Guitar (1954)
12) The Killers (1946)
13) The March (1964)
14) No Lies (1973)
15) On the Bowery (1957)
16) One Week (1920)
17) The Pawnbroker (1965)
18) The Perils of Pauline (1914)
19) Sergeant York (1941)
20) The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
21) So’s Your Old Man (1926)
22) George Stevens WW2 Footage (1943-46)
23) The Terminator (1984)
24) Water and Power (1989)
25) White Fawn’s Devotion (1910)

As usual there are several in here I have never heard of, and only one that immediately leaps out at me as a “What the…” and that is The Terminator.

While a film like Deliverence has had a left a lasting impression on our collective sub-conscience, what did The Terminator do beyond giving us the saying, “I’ll be back”?  While some of these are clearly added for reasons such as age, advancements in story telling and film making, I can’t for the life of me think of what this movie contributed to the world.  I could even see Terminator 2: Judgement Day for the T-1000 liquid effects before I could see the original being worthy.  The charter for the National Film Preservation Board defines eligible films as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films”… again, huh?

You can also check out the additions for 2006 and 2007.

Poor, Oprah. She just can’t pick a book, can she?

Remember when Oprah got duped by James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces?  She was steadfastly behind this book about a man’s trials with drug addiction, even making it one of her precious “Oprah’s Book Club” choices.  Then it came to light that he had made the vast majority of it up.  She had him come back on the show and chastised him for fooling her and the readers.

Think she will do the same with Herman Rosenblat?

Over the years, Mr. Rosenblat has become famous for his tale of how he met his future wife while he was at Schlieben, a sub-division of the Nazi Buchenwald concentration camp.  The story goes that Mr. Rosenblat met a young Jewish girl, Roma Radzicki, who lived near the camp, but her family was posing as Christians, when she approached the fence one day.  Over the next few months she passed food to him through the fence, but they lost contact when he was moved to another camp.

Then in 1957, Mr. Rosenblat was set up on a blind date in Coney Island, NY, and he recognized the girl immediately to be the girl that passed him food years before.  They married not long after that, and have now been together for 50 years.

Ms. Winfrey has referred to as “the single greatest love story … we’ve ever told on the air.”  The problem is that it has now been revealed to be a hoax.

Due to the popularity of the story, it was due to be published as a book entitled Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love that Survived in February by Berkley Books.  The book has now been canceled and a demand has been made for Mr. Rosenblat to return his advance.  However, the $25 million dollar movie that is slated to be made of the story is still going forward as they had planned to fictionalize large portions of it.

According to Times Online, the story was revealed as a hoax by Ben Helfgott, a former Schlieben inmate, in the New Republic magazine.  He says that the story is a complete fabrication, and other experts on Schlieben have said the story was impossible because where Mr. Rosenblat says this all took place would have put him right next to the SS barracks.

Mr. Rosenblat is quoted as saying:

“I wanted to bring happiness to people.  I brought hope to a lot of people. My motivation was to make good in this world.”

That is all well and good, but perhaps you shouldn’t have told people it was true?  He continued to report this story to be true for years, and through two appearances on the Oprah show.  He had ample oppurtunity to tell people it was made up, and people would have probably still enjoyed it, but instead he continued the lie, and was happy to make money off of it.  That is where he sunk himself.

According to a story by the Associated Press, publishers admit they are not fact checking books because of the volume of releases each year, and it would simply cost them too much to check each one.  To that I say, “tough luck.”  Since when has checking facts become too much of a hassle?  Are publishers now saying that the truth no longer matters?  “Well, it looks sorta true… good enough.”

And what of Oprah?  Has she not learned her lesson?  Should she not be looking to check facts after that whole Frey debacle?  What is that old saying again?  “Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me”?  Well, guess what, Oprah… shame on you.

This whole thing is sickening.  It plays on people’s guilt about the Holocaust, it plays to people who are desperate for stories that show love can survive anything, and it just stinks in general that someone could lie for years and feel that is perfectly okay.

Is it April yet?

One of my guiltiest television pleasures is the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch.  As I’ve discussed before, I have no clue what really drives these men to do this insanely dangerous job, but to be honest I don’t really care as they keep doing it.  And the season 5 premiere in April just can’t come soon enough.

For those unfamiliar with the show, it follows the King Crab and Opilio Crab fishing seasons in the Bering Sea off of Alaska.  While it doesn’t sound that dangerous at first blush, you will change your opinion quickly after just a few minutes of this show.  It is considered one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, and it not uncommon for one or more ships to sink each year.  According to the official blog of Deadliest Catch season 5, a cod fishing ship, the Katami, was lost in the same area as the crab fishers with 4 survivors and 5 fisherman losing their lives back in October.

Yesterday I was mentioning to my family that I wondered how the new season was shaping up, and which ships and captains were out this year.  As curiosity got the better of me, I decided to snoop around the Web to see what I could find out.  Luckily on December 23rd, the official blog anticipated my curiosity and posted about the ships being in for the holidays, but with no hints as to which ships are out there this year.

So, being a nosey person, I decided to search some more and located the official websites of some of the ships.

Cornelia Marie - They were out fishing for sure, but no mention if Capt. Phil Harris had returned after his health problems last year.  As he is still pictured on the front page, I am suspecting he is back.

Early Dawn - There is next to no information on this boat, or Capt. Rick Fehst.

North American - Season 4 was the first season for this ship, and its captain, Sten Skaar.  Their site has very little information, and I really couldn’t guess either direction if this boat is even fishing, let alone on the show this year.

Northwestern - Their site really doesn’t spell out that they are out there, but seeing as Sig Hansen and Edgar Hansen have somewhat become the poster boys for the show, along with their ship, it is doubtful that they wouldn’t be out there.

The Wizard - Captained by Keith Colburn, their website doesn’t seem to be updated very often, so no clue if they are even out fishing.

Time Bandit - Andy Hillstrand and Johnathon Hillstrand co-captain this ship, and while the site states they are in port for the holidays, no clue if they are on the show this season.  As Discovery Channel just showed a video on their site of the bothers promoting the show, I think this is another safe assumption they are on this year.

In short, I think Cornelia Marie, Northwestern, The Wizard and Time Bandit are safe bets for season 5, while Early Dawn and North American are up in the air.  My biggest question is if Phil is back on the Cornelia Marie, but I have a feeling there is really nothing that would stop him from fishing.

If you have never watched the show, give it a try.  It is oddly engrossing to watch these men battling the elements, the crabs and, at times, each other.  And for those of us who are already addicted to the show… is it April yet?

There are some news stories that are so shocking you just can’t even begin to comprehend them for a few days until after they happen. The story of Bruce Pardo is one of those stories.

According to The New York Times, Mr. Pardo arrived at the home of James and Alicia Ortega in Covina, CA just shortly before midnight on Wednesday the 24th.  He was dressed as Santa Claus so that people attending a Christmas Eve party would think he was a hired entertainer for the children.  Immediately upon entering the home, he pulled out a semi-automatic pistol and shot an 8-year-old girl in the face, and another girl in the back.  He then proceeded in to the living room and continued his shooting spree before eventually using a gas powered canister of accelerant to set the home on fire.

The immediate death toll stood at 8, but according to The Inquisitr, that has now risen to 9.

Mr. Pardo was later discovered dead in his car some distance away from the massacre site, apparently the victim of a self-inflicted gun shot.  His original plan, gathered from evidence in his car, had been to flee to Canada, but after he sustained third degree burns in the fire, it appears he opted to take his own life.

Good riddance.

This entire incident was the result of a nasty divorce the 45-year-old Mr. Pardo was going through with his wife, Sylvia.  He apparently had gone to the party as she was attending, and, for reasons unknown, decided that any one else that was at the party was fair game for his rage against this lone individual.  What possible motivation he could have had for shooting children is totally lost on me.

It appears that both the 8-year-old girl and the older child have both survived.  Who exactly did pass away has not yet been released with the exception of Mr. Pardo.  Part of this is due to the fact that some of the bodies are so badly burned that they will have to be identified via dental records.

As a parting shot, it would seem this “man”, and I use the term loosely, had also rigged his car with a pipe bomb, but luckily no police were injured when it detonated.

When I first read about this incident, I was stunned beyond belief.  What could possibly motivate any individual to carry out such a plan? I don’t care how bad your divorce is going, you certainly never have a right to resort to violence to take out your ex spouse, and you have even less sanity if you decide to take out innocent bystanders. And children? How does any one point a gun at a child’s face and shoot them at point blank range?

If there is a Hell, I certainly hope that there is a specific section set aside for people such as this.

My deepest condolonces go out to all of the families touched by this evil, evil act.

It’s episode 23… Scattercast is facing life without college!

- I finally checked out another podcast, Smodcast… I’m not doing so bad!

- Christmas Eve… more holidays need an “Eve”.

- Christmas shopping reflections.

- Digg annoys me and is an enigma.

Here’s a link to the MP3 for those who wish to download it, subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

Considering my recent rant against Christmas sweaters, some how this story from Pete Cashmore at Mashable seems like some sort of cosmic justice against me.  Office Max has jumped on the Christmas sweater bandwagon and produced a web site called My Christmas Sweater that will let you make as an atrocious Christmas sweater as you’d like.

I tried to keep mine at least somewhat tasteful, but I had to include a red pompomed reindeer over the left nipple per the comments on the last article I did.

Merry Christmas to all my readers.

What in the world is wrong with Fred Phelps?

For those unfamiliar with Phelps, he is the head of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, KS.  They are best known for their protests at the funerals of soldiers saying that all their deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are the fault of the United States acceptance of homosexuality.  He has also been known to blame natural disasters on the same “problem”.

Well, it seems Mr. Phelps has now moved on to blaming things on Santa.  The economy?  Santa’s fault.  Dead soldiers?  Yep, Santa. To get this point across to the masses, the church wanted to post a sign detailing all of this in the Washington state capitol. (The SpokesmanReview has the story, but requires paid registration) Steve Valandra, a spokesman for Washington’s Department of General Administration, when e-mailed the text said, “Holy cow. I guess we’ll consider it like all the other requests.”

You can see the whole poster here, but I’ve reprinted the text below.  You can also sing it to the tune of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” as demonstrated by a video the church made, which I refuse to link to, but you can find it if you insist.

Santa Claus Will Take You To Hell!

You’d Better Watch Out Get Ready To Cry
You’d Better Go Hide I’m Telling You Why
Cuz Santa Claus Will Take You To Hell

He Is Your Favorite Idol You Worship At His Feet
But When You Stand Before Your God
He Won’t Help You Take The Heat

So Get This Fact Straight You’re Feelin’ God’s Hate
Santa’s To Blame For The Economy’s Fate
Santa Claus Will Take You To Hell

Don’t Leave Your Kids With This Red Fright
Just Like The Priests He’ll Rape ‘Em At Night
Oh Santa Claus Will Take You To Hell

You Tell The Children He Is Real
You Know That’s Just A Lie
To Justify Your Own Vile Sins
That’s The Only Reason Why

So Get This Fact Straight That You’re Feelin’ God’s Hate
Santa’s To Blame For The Dead Soldier’s Fate
Santa Claus Will Take You To Hell!

While I am all for religious freedom, and these people have every right to say whatever they like, you have to seriously wonder what is wrong with them?  Sure the world is messed up, but blaming Santa for the world’s woes?  I guess maybe the homosexuals have been cleared now?  They are somehow now blameless for the deaths of the soldiers, it’s all Santa’s fault!  Good to know.

Comparing him to child molesters?  Saying he will take you to Hell?  What in the world did Santa ever do to these people?

Some of the stories I find online just make my brain hurt.

Every December 23rd brings the most magical of holidays… Festivus!

As I always say when I discuss this, I never thought much of the television series Seinfeld, but I do thank them for giving us the concept of Festivus.  Sure I don’t think any of us need to go through the “Airing of Grievances” (that’s what Thanksgiving dinner is for) or the “Feats of Strength”, but it still makes a nice concept of families spending a holiday together without all of the trappings we have added on to the existing ones.

I have already shared many of my thoughts about this pseudo-holiday in my Festivus 2006 and Festivus 2007 posts, and they all still hold true.  As I only got to begin my Christmas shopping this past weekend, and the UPS man brought me an arm load of Amazon packages today, I realized, yet again, just how silly this whole gift giving thing has gotten around Christmas.  I am sure next year I will repeat the majority of it, and I will kick myself again, but every December 23rd I can smile and think of a happier and simplier version of the winter holidays.

Happy Festivus everyone!

The economy is hitting every one hard, and police budgets are not immune either.

In the past 24 hours I have heard two odd stories of how different police departments are handling budget problems.  The first came from the infamous “M”, famed around this blog for the World’s Longest Dark Knight Review, who is currently haunting the streets of Gotham New York City.  It seems that the police have increased patrols to seemingly focus on motor vehicle violations in an effort to issue more tickets.  She told me a tale of someone she knew who got pulled over for one thing, told to move over to a specific spot on the side and was issued a second ticket for parking in a no parking area.  This person will fight the second ticket as he was ordered to move there, but that still just shows how desperate they are for income.

The second story I learned about at lunch today as I dined with a friend of mine.  After he gave me my weekly ribbing about salad bar etiquette, I was telling him about what M had told me.  He informed me of a story from St. Louis about how much their police department was spending on badges for their top officers.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch had broken a story about how the St. Louis police department had just spent $1,987 each on five badges.  The new badges were for a chief badge, two assistant chief badges and two lieutenant colonel badges.  These new works of art were purchased from Stange Co., of Maryland Heights which is known for making jewlery for third-world governments up to Queen Elizabeth II.  These new badges cost 100 times that of a rank-and-file patrol officer in St. Louis as their badges cost $19.75.

In all fairness to the new police chief, Daniel Isom, the badges were ordered before he took office, and he agrees the spending is outrageous.  Of course, these new badges are a bargain compared to the $5,900 his predecessor, Joe Mokwa, spent on solid gold badges.

The owner of the jewlery company tried to defend the cost saying that he was sure that the Police Chief of Los Angeles probably spends more.  The newspaper called the LA police chiefs office and found his badge cost $61.  The St. Louis jewler was concerned with how shabby his badge must be at that price.

We are hearing endless stories of how taxes will be raised in states all across this country to help with budget short falls, and then you see stories like this that make you wonder how long the common person will have to pay for the stupidity of those people who are partially responsible for the mess we’re in.  I am always reminded of the Kevin Kline movie Dave where a man impersonates the President after he has a stroke, and when the budget spins out of control, he calls in his best friend, an every day accountant, to look at the governments books and cut the budget to save some programs.

Where are the every day accountants?  You are needed more than ever.

According to a quote on IO9 today, Russell T. Davies, the head of the past four seasons of Doctor Who, said the following about Robert Carlyle joining the newest Stargate series, Stargate Universe:

Stargate, can you believe it? That was a surprise. Hasn’t his agent watched it?

All I could say upon reading this was “ouch” and followed that up with “he’s right.”

I’ve enjoyed Mr. Carlyle’s work in movies such as The Full Monty, and I was shocked to hear he was joining the train wreck that is the Stargate franchise system.  While I admit I have watched every episode of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, I alwyas immediately have an urge to cry, and then shower to wash the trash off of myself.

I might not have looked twice at this news if I had not just watched the direct-to-DVD movie Stargate SG-1:The Ark of Truth.  This film represented everything that was wrong with this series in my opinion.  While it was mainly trying to wrap up the on-going Ori storyline, as per their usual stupidity, the writers of the series didn’t know how to move past certain plot points, so they just pile on more enemies for no real reason.  The never-ending threat of the Replicators, metallic creatures that take on many shapes, which had nothing to do with the Ori story, just randomly appeared in this movie to keep half of the main team busy and away from the main fight.  They had no real reason to be in the movie, the aspects of the script could have been handled by the actual threat of the Ori and their followers.

On top of the whole Replicator issue, you have the actual Ark of Truth, an ancient device that, when opened, a light shines on a person and they no longer believe the Ori are gods, cutting off the power that strengthens the false gods.  You’re kidding, right?  A multi-year plot line is wrapped up by the ultimate deus ex machina plot device of a magical box?  That’s the best the writers could come up?  The inclusion of an enemy that had no point being in the movie, and a magical box that cures all… did they write this the night before it had to be handed in?

The television incarnations of the story started in the feature film has always had slightly intriguing characters, but they never know what to do with them.  They also languish in a form of recycled hell where the teams on the show face the same enemies over and over due to the fact they never seem to be able to kill anyone for more than half a season.

So, in short, I have the same question as Mr. Davies in wondering if Mr. Carlyle’s agent watched the show before he signed on.  He is far better actor than this series deserves, and I feel horrible that their absolute drivel will be coming out of his mouth.  I don’t begrudge any actor wanting to pay their bills, I just wish actors would stop appearing in this trainwreck of a series so it would finally be put out to pasture like it deserves.

Apparently it is up to all of us, the viewers, to stop this series machine before it ruins any more careers… and kills more of my brain cells.

I can’t take it any more… Christmas Sweaters must be banned.

While I am certainly no slave to fashion, I can be a bit harsh in sizing up other people that make really atrocious fashion designers.  Like my hatred of Crocs, I think I hate Christmas sweaters with an even larger passion.  The main reason for my hatred spawns from the concept that they are somehow acceptable.  Oh, yes, wearing bejeweled sweaters with a theme is perfectly okay because it’s Christmas, dontcha ya know.

No, it’s not okay, now stop walking around Walmart in them!

Everyone is entitled to their personal choices in fashion, and everyone is entitled to showing their Christmas spirit, but come on folks, these things are just horrid.  Name one other time during the year you would feel it’s okay to wear a sweater with large fake jewels, conchs and what looks to be a knitted mustache? If you answered “never”, like you should have, then why in the world are you wearing them around the holidays?  What is it about the holidays that make people toss any sort of practicle fashion sense right out the door.

I think I might even understand this a bit more if people only wore them to Christmas parties, but I see women wearing them at Walmart, while eating at Ruby Tuesday, while pumping their gas and so on and so forth.  In other words, somehow in December it becomes okay to wear ugly sweaters 24/7.

Please stop.  If not for yourself, think of the example you are setting for the future generations of the world.  Do you really want to set bad fashion examples for the yound and impressionable minds of this world?  I think the sweater I’ve pictured with this post could possibly turn a person to drugs.  “But, mom, I wanted to see people’s faces melt into conches just like on your sweater!”

Please, can we just give up on the Christmas sweaters in general?

For regular readers of this blog, you may have noticed this post belongs in a brand new category, “Crimes Of Fashion”.  Don’t worry, this won’t happen often, I don’t think I’ve written anything about fashion since my Crocs post in June of 2007, so you know it has to be a pretty heinous fashion crime for me to speak up on it.  So don’t expect me to rant about fashion all of the time, just every, oh, 18-months or so.

So, what say you, is the Christmas sweater a fashion do or don’t?

Well, with the craziness of the holidays, and my father’s recent knee surgery, I totally missed out on the group writing project, Internet Goals For 2009.  I only even thought to look in to this when I saw it had been a year since I wrote Blogging Goals For 2008, and I figure why not go ahead and join in the fun, even if I am late to the party.

The Goals For 2008

Daily Page Views - My goal was to increase my page views by 50%, and I am pleased to report that my average page views are up around 200% a day over the same time last year!  Again, we aren’t talking huge numbers, but quite a respectable gain.

Google Pagerank - I was a PR4, and I was aiming to be a PR5 by this time.  Well, didn’t make that one, I’m afraid.

RSS Subscribers - I had 30 RSS subscribers and I hoped to be at 54 by the end of December 2008.  Well, depending on how insane FeedBurner feels on any given day, I have seen reports as high as 90.

Social Bookmarking - I wanted to increase the amount of social bookmarking back to my site.  Well, Digg still alludes me to no end, but I have had quite a successful year on StumbleUpon, leading to my biggest post ever, Who Is The Best James Bond.  The numbers for that post were astronomical.

Finding my niche -Ha… yeah… right.  I think my niche is, “Sean is a cranky old man, and he complains… a lot.”

Improving my personal skills -I wanted to write better posts, and I think I have improved them some this year, but not quite as much as I would like.

New design -Well, the designer I was working with at the time of that post completely flaked out on me, and I ended up going with Blog Design Studio.  You are looking at the results on my blog currently, and I am quite happy with them.

Internet Goals For 2009 - Blogging

Measurable

Comments -The number of comments is very sporadic, I would love to see some more sustained conversation going on.

Daily Page Views - Again, I am hoping to increase my average over this year, and though I am still seeing slight growth, it won’t be easy.  I will again shoot for a 50% increase, and hope to do this through writing more general appeal posts that result in better search engine traffic.

Daily Revenue - Something clicked this year, and I am actually making a tiny bit of money with this blog now.  It’s not bucketloads, but enough to cover my hosting costs each month.  I don’t ever plan on seeing this blog being a steady source of income, but if I could increase the daily revenue by even 50%, I would be quite happy.

RSS Subscribers - As of right now, FeedBurner is showing 64 subscribers (I swear that service is insane, yesterday it showed 77), so I will be cautious and aim for a total of 120 subscribers by this time next year.  You can help me reach this goal by just going ahead and subscribe to SeanPAune.com right now!

Social Bookmarking - Just once I would like to see this blog make the front page of Digg.  I know people debate if it is really worth it, but seeing as I have made it there multiple times with other blogging work, I would like to see my own blog make it just once.

Immeasurable

Writing Skills - Still trying to improve those skills.

Internet Goals For 2009 - Other

Scattercast - Scattercast, my weekly podcast, currently averages about 10 listeners a week.  I am going to be wild and shoot for the moon here and say I’d like to see an average of 100 a week by this time next year.  I plan to do this by:

• Get more serious about booking guests
• Focusing the content on more broadly popular topics
• Increase the number of subscribers (again, you can help by subscribing via iTunes)

Twitter - I currently have 1,504 followers on Twitter, I would love to break through 2,000.  You can follow me on Twitter if you like, and help me reach my goal!

Conclusion

2009 will be a year of refinement for me.  Just trying to improve what I’ve already got out there, and making it the best I can.

Possibly one of the greatest heroes in American history has passed away.

W. Mark Felt was revealed to be the infamous Deep Throat of the Preseident Richard M. Nixon Watergate scandal back on May 31st,2005.  While some would say that Mr. Felt was nothing but a whistleblower, I don’t think any one would be hard pressed to convince me that Nixon didn’t need to be ousted from office as more and more information about his antics came to light.  Considering the tapes that have comes out in recent years, it is fairly obvious that Nixon was crazy as a loon bird.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein swore that they would not reveal Deep Throat’s identity until the person had passed away, but in 2005 Mr. Felt was suffering from progressively worsening Alzheimers, and when his family figured out who he was due to a visit by Mr. Woodward, they decided to reveal it to the world via Vanity Fair.  Luckily Woodward had The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate’s Deep Throat book ready to go, and it came out in short order.

The book revealed a man who became the snitch on the happenings of Watergate partially out of a sense of duty, but in large part due to bitterness over the fact he had been told he had little hope of ever heading the F.B.I., even after rising to the second-in-command spot after many long years of service to the agency.  While this revelation tarnished my opinion of Deep Throat some, he still had done what had to be done, and while it has never been addressed, no matter how he felt, I am sure it was not an easy decision for any one to reach that they should rat out their President for their actions.

Mr. Felt was 95-years-old, and I, for one, salute his memory.

It’s episode 22… Scattercast is facing the reality of the job market!

- An update on my dad’s surgery again

- People who create Malware should be strung up by their toes

- My generally sucky week

- Do you ever make people’s Christmas gifts, or do you always buy them?

Here’s a link to the MP3 for those who wish to download it.