Greetings Dark Wraith,

I share your feelings about the 'vulture capitalists'.

Good afternoon, Dusty.

I am trying mightily to resist the urge to write an article about my interactions with venture capitalists during my years as a business consultant. The problem with writing something like that, aside from how the very mention of venture capitalists causes flames to burst from my face, is that the story could easily turn into a book-length epic going through all kinds stories, most of which only the few readers here who knew me in that time of my life would know were true.

The Dark Wraith should avoid that whole genre of literature.

M'dear Dark Wraith,

I would be very interested in reading your articles on that subject..do a series kind sir! Drop in one part of the series a week..I haven't been around here as long as most of your faithful readers..so it would all be new to me..and frankly..I trust your judgment and pov, so I could probably learn from your posts.

But then, I surely do not wish to have your face break out in flames..so perhaps your right ;)

Good evening, Dusty.

I think I'll do you one better. I maintained a journal when I was a business consultant. That journal almost got me killed.

I shall publish a few excerpts from it over the coming weeks.

The Dark Wraith just might be in the mood to see if ghosts from the past really want to see what has become of his previous willingness to walk away from their fecal storm.

Off topic, but in your "Art of grousing" section, I beg to differ. He'd probably be very irritated. It reminded me of a car alarm that used to hang out in my neighborhood. It must have been turned to very sensitive. Every time a truck or loud car from the other street rumbled by, it would go off....mostly during the wee hours of the night. I think the owner got sick of being wakened. That car hasn't been seen in some time.

My ol' Chevy pickemup was never washed, had a few dings and scratches, and rusty tools and beer cans in the bed. Whenever I worked overtime, that money went into a MASSIVE sound system. (I had 4 subwoofers with TWO 1100watt amps pushing them, 4 sets of separate tweeter/midrange speaker systems, 2 monoblock amps pushing those, and an indash head unit that would give foot rubs.) My alarm was a little tweaky for the first week, until it settled onto the rubber footings, then no problem. If this has been an ongoing problem, a talk with the cops should straighten things out. (Most places have an ordinance against too many alarm trips.) I did an insane amount of driving for my work, so the music was my little vacation from the stupidity outside my windows! So DW, if this just started, please have pity on the moron. On the THIRD night, go ahead and lock and load.

Many pro thieves will purposefully set off the alarm multiple times in a night, hoping you'll ignore them eventually.

For those who are thinking of a little oomph in their car tuneage, here's a pointer: Turn the damn thing down a goods ways from your neighborhood. Nothing better to advertise your goods like cranking the tunes as you pull up to the house!

OWL, a co-worker of mine had a POS pickup with a REALLY LOUD exhaust. He loved leaving his apartment complex at 3:30 in the morning and revving as he drove around to the exit. He said about 5 car alarms would set off, and he could hear cussing as he drove away! Man, he loved doing that!

I maintained a journal when I was a business consultant. That journal almost got me killed.

I shall publish a few excerpts from it over the coming weeks.

trog69

OWL, a co-worker of mine had a POS pickup with a REALLY LOUD exhaust. He loved leaving his apartment complex at 3:30 in the morning and revving as he drove around to the exit. He said about 5 car alarms would set off, and he could hear cussing as he drove away! Man, he loved doing that!

Usually, I could hear the loud car/truck before the alarm set off. I knew what was going to happen! If it didn't go off, the car must not have been there.
If I had a truck like that, believe me, I'd be driving around in the early hours, too....oh, yeah! :)

I too look forward to DW's diary readings. (His dairy readings, OTOH, pretty much entailed "ugh, look at the warts on those thingys where the milk shoots out!")

Umm sorry My Pet Goat, I had PoLT as bank Director. I bet your Bank Director phase could provide some interesting insights too.

Hadda pass this along: CNN "most passed along" articles.
1). High Court Blocks Execution.

2). Man's Taser Death Caught on Tape.

Christ trog69, that was horrifying. I am nauseous.

I am of course speaking of numero 2 in your comment.

"Christ trog69, that was horrifying. I am nauseous.
I am of course speaking of numero 2 in your comment." -- Dusty

That's what "they" are counting on, Dusty. And next time you see something similar, perhaps you will be a little less nauseous. And less and less and less. And "they" are counting on that also. For then it will be no problem, oh, say, machine-gunning the starving population who protest their plight.

On a related note, how much of what is "leaked" information are we supposed to see? The Abu Ghraib photos?: "Hey Americans, look what's gonna happen to you if you don't sit down, shut up, and behave like good little boys and girls."

Good mornong, Fambly and Servants.

Dusty, I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I didn't click on either one of those links! I was merely commenting on the unlikely occurrence of the two topics placed so conveniently next to each other, in that particular order. Thanks for the warning though; I certainly have no desire to watch that poor man's torment at the hands of the airport security. Ok, now that I've just contradicted myself, my explaination is that I did not watch the VIDEO of the actual tasering. No desire to now.

Good morning Peter,

You hit the nail squarely on the head as to how people become so desensitized to violence and I believe corruption as well.

But I will always be horrified by violence and corruption..sadly our general population and specifically the children growing up in this era seem to be falling into that trap.

Hello again trog69,
I have to admit I ignored the first link, but only because I had heard and read about it earlier. That second link however isn't as graphic as CNN states in the video. You really do not see the gentleman dying..the cops are all over the poor guy like he was a steer being branded, which is what really upset me as he was already down on the ground writhing in pain.

I'm gonna comment, kinda, on the topic, something I rarely do, nor do I recommend it to anyone else.

As an avowed and avid atheist, I have always assumed that Evolution must be true; The scientific examples and proofs are overwhelming. Nonetheless, I fear it may not be as firmly established as I thought. How else do you explain the fact that politicians have not acquired hands the size and shape of payloader blades, to assist them in raking in all that F'n CASH?

Regarding their hiring of Karl Rove, I won't bother writing to Newsweak to complain, since they'd just assume that interest in this is all good. Too bad I don't have a subscription to cancel.

Politicians of almost any ilk are proof of UNintelligent Design.

I don't get it; What does the UN have to do with Politician's intelligence?

Commence Horshack guffaws in 3...2...1

Well, isn't this a fine how d'ya do! The Taj Mahal, and other sites in India, will not accept the US dollar any longer. Seems they don't like getting stuck with wooden nickels!

Then, I got this thing, obviously misfiltered into the Spam bucket. I gather that some poorly educated, and severely misguided backwater Asian villager thinks that the societal upheaval occurring here in Applemomerica has reached the Anarchy stage, and (s)he was trying to cash in by selling weaponry! To wit:

Your short sword could be much longer and win you more s'e_xual(Ed.-Seattle? the usual?) battles!

I will not dissuade them from this portrayal at present, as I am curious as to the quality of the swordmaker's products. I'm thinking of contacting this company, and requesting info on their four or five foot broadsword selection. That would really be something the wife would love to see hung somewhere in the family room! I'll keep you posted once receiving their brochure.

"That would really be something the wife would love to see hung somewhere in the family room!"
And NOT dangling by a thread in the bedroom directly over where you sleep, ala Damocles?

I simply must start doing weapons checks at the door where the hired help comes and goes.

While your cutting remark describes something she'd definitely consider, I think she'd probably go for a slightly more subtle approach...maybe a one lb. bag of dogshit, not merely suspended over my head so precariously; Instead dropped on my head every 10 minutes or so. You know, to remind me of our marital bliss. (Height dependent on how much of an a-hole I'd enjoyed portraying that day!)

If I have to do security work ("weapons checks at the door") in addition to the inventory control tasks that I perform around this place, you can expect a demand for higher compensation. A nice treatise on parallel universes and the comparison of space/time vis-a-vis time-space would be fitting and proper in my estimation. If inspiration for this task is required, I suggest contemplation of the image to be found HERE.

Good Afternoon, Dark Wraith (et. al.)

re: The Art of Grousing

What do you have against Dwarves? I loves me some Gimli!!

Wow!

And a BOW Wow, to you!