IT'S BEEN GREAT!!

This Christmas has been a blast! First off Dave & Tanuel are back and it's great to be hanging out with them again. Then Tony had his annual get together which Todd & Nicole came up for(I hope you had a great time and will be able to do it again next year!) plus the regular crew: Steve & Anne, Greg & Lula, Les & Danni, Larry, Tony & myself. It was...Magical(hehe!) Thanks Tony for another memorable evening! I could not take part in the Hocky night but I here it was great fun and that Hjalmer even got on the ice. Our friend Andrea invited us all to a party at her dad's house and it was a great mix of people and also a lot of fun. There have been one or two gatherings at my house over this holiday season, I guess you could say there has been a lot of "fellowship" this year. I hope that many more years of "fellowship" are ahead for us all.

New years eve is tomorrow night. Most people got out and get shit faced. It's my mothers birthday that day. This caused many arguments when I was younger and wanted to go hang with my friends and get shitfaced but now that I'm older I'm glad that I have an excuse to stay away from all the craziness. Plus my mom would be very upset. Because her birthday falls on New Years Eve she ties the two together and a bunch of people come over and fondu. It's a nice relaxing time. Because people are still hangin' in Minot and depending on what's going on I may join people at a later time at a local watering hole to toss back a few cocktails.

Well, the weather is crappy it rained and no it is snowing. Yep, it's winter in Nodak alright. Everyone have a fun and safe New Years!

SERIOUSLY FOLKS...

For those of you who like shopping at walmart(no caps for this crap) here's an eye opener for you. This is an article found on CBS.com from way back in August. Again I ask Why Minot, why?

Also here's a bit from VidNews. This is a trade magazine for video rentailers and retailers.

"...What's this? Wal-Mart had one of their worse Thanksgiving weekends, reporting sales as being 'disappointing.' Let's tell it like it is; sales were so far off they had to cut their yearned forecast and promised to drastically cut prices to spear sales. This caused a stock market decline for themselves and most of the S&P 500. One can't help but wonder how many vendors will now be required to give Wal-Mart an even sharper price, so they can cut their prices(meaning even smaller margins or possibly more job losses in the USA and more jobs gained in places like China). Did I mention Wal-Mart's biggest competitors reported really strong sales for the weekend?

There is an old saying, 'What you send around comes around.' Let's see...lots of labor lawsuits, public protest to prevent store openings, government investigation into any number of business practices, etc. etc. etc. Could it be people are waking up to find out that maybe, just maybe Wal-Mart is not the place to shop unless you want to shop yourself right out of a job? Now we are not saying Wal-Mart is in trouble again, what you send around comes around. You find find this ex-Wal-Mart shopper shedding a tear for them."

If you haven't yet guessed, I don't like wal mart very well. I've said it before and I'll say it again, They are a big evil corporation that sucks small town America dry. Why do we sit back and let them? I ask Minot again, how could you let this blood sucking corporate crap open up a supercenter? If you would've done a little research you would have found out that the Supercenters suck towns dry by forcing local business' to close resulting in loss of jobs within the community. The article from CBS was an eye opener, I suggest you take the time to read it. People, there are better solutions than wal mart out there. If you missed them the first time, check out the October 6th blog. I have some links to other reports there.

I think that if these guys continue to do business they need to play fair by not forcing vendors to sell to them at extremely low prices which in turn force the vendors to close plants and factories on American soil and open new facilities in China or other low paying countries. I remember when wal mart used to advertise that they sold only American products made on American soil. Those days are long gone if they ever were in the first place. Play fair wal mart and I might just start to capitalize your name.

CHRISTMAS SPIRITS ANYONE?

Sadly the Grogg Shop will be closing after the years end. I have many fond memories of when I used to live downtown; The Grogg Shop was always there for me, even on those really cold nights. But, there is a slight benefit to all this because they are having a close out sale on all their beer and wine. They carry a wide selection of brews so Tony, Larry, Dave, we have to go shopping for beer at the Grogg Shop, just to check it out of course.

Until Christmas the only thing I'm listening to in my car is Bob & Doug Mckenzie's Great White North Album. No other cd's are aloud! Hell Yeah!

HOW DID I MISS THIS ONE?

It screams classic "So bad its good" type of movie. I wond is Mystery Science Theater spoofed this one.

WHAT THE HELL IS HARAJUKU?

Yet another question from my mind. I was listening to the Gwen Stefani album and she has a song called "Harajuku Girls" and name checks Harajuku throughout the album. I was curious as to what harajuku was or is. Turns out it's a market street in Japan where girls in particular dress up any way they please to express themselves. Here's a photo I found.

"Harajuku is an entertainment and shopping district in Tokyo famed for its colorful, over-the-top teenagers who dress up to see and be seen. A hotbed of creative self-expression, the area has spawned looks and performers that have changed the face of fashion all over Japan"

HJALMER GETS PROFILED

"Well, I've got lots of hobbies ­ carpentry and woodworking are the main ones and I like to hunt and fish and of course, travel," he said, with a twinkle in his eye and a chuckle.

"My wife, Karen, and I have three kids and they are scattered around the country ­ one is in Portland, another in Iowa and one in New Mexico. If you want to see the kids, you gotta travel."

Get the rest of the story here.

I had the opportunity to watch Dodgeball over the weekend and man, there is just something funny about watching people get hit in the head and balls with a big red rubber ball. I remember playing dodgeball in grade school. Man those balls stung(hehe). Once a kid was running along side of the gym wall and I didn't like him because he was older and a bully so I took life by the ball and whipped it at his head. I nailed him and his head bounced off the wall. He had a bit of a headache after that. I was proud of myself for standing up to a bully. He did chase me and try and beat my e up after that but I was too quick. He ended up with detention and I didn't get into any trouble.

Back to the movie. I urge people to give this one a shot. Sure it's stupid, stupid fun! Come on, a movie with Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Stephen Root(the guy who played Milton from Office Space, and Jimmy James on News Radio), plus the beautiful Chrisine Taylor can't be all bad! And look out for the Hank Azaria cameo. I like this new band of actor/comedians that do movies together. The movies are always down and dirty stupid-funny. If your wondering, that group consists of Ben Stiller, Owen & Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell. I hope they continue to do these types of movies and at the least I hope that Ben and Owen do more movies together. I can't wait for the Anchor Man DVD. That movie was hilarious! Zoolander rocks!

TICKETS AND FRAUD

Christ this week has been a ruff one. First off I received a nice healthy $50.00 ticket for a rolling stop. Merry Christmas. Then some asshole hijacked my ebay account and was selling powerbook G5's to unwitting people. They were going for about 1500.00. Man, I hope I caught him before he actually "sold" something to someone. While ebay was only willing to suspend my account so he couldn't use it anymore and apparently not willing to have this guy arrested for fraud and identity theft. If some one were defrauding my customers I'd take legal action. Anyways, the people I did come into contact with, people who were interest in the product that "I" was selling, were very nice and very understanding and want to see this guy go down. One guy in perticular seemed to have good knowledge of this guy. Apparently he has done this to a bunch of other ebayers and ebay knows about him but hasn't done a thing about it. His email is an AOL account and apparently alls they'd have to do is call AOL for his info and send the cops after him. Some people are just complete bastards. Hey it's Christmas, let's see how many people I can rip off. Man I hope this guy gets caught. I just hope that my bank info and credit card info wasn't stolen. Plus If he did sell people stuff before I found out what was going on, some people are going to be unhappy with me. The level of depravity some people sink to is always surprising me. I hope someday a ceiling is reached.

WILL DECEMBER BE MAGIC?

Well, it's the first of December already. Man, where did the year go? I have to admit that December is one of my favorite months of the year. It's because of the snow and yes, that may sound crazy but I really do like the December snow. It's fresh new snow not the dirty hard snow of February and March. Christmas lights are up flashing and together with the new snow do look magical, I think. Plus it IS Christmas time. People come home and you get to see and hang out with people that you may only get to once a year. So yes, December WILL be magic. I'm going to hang up some Christmas lights when I get home. Ahh, the joy of Christmas.

Speaking of joy...

Remember the Joy of Painting? I used to watch this show quite a bit all the while being amazed at how easily he painted his happy little trees, birds, mountains and lake to make a neat scenic painting. He painted other stuff also which you can check out on the Joy of Painting site. Even though he passed away that didn't take his show off the air. He's still on PBS somewhere in the states. I raise my glass to you Bob Ross!

Here's a thought: Did Bob Ross ever where a hat with that perfect afro? I should go for the afro and beard combo. I could do it with my curly hair.

And now for something completely different.

These guys have a world influenced sound via Herb Alpert way. They also had a sense of humor. This is Todd Holdman all the way!