Bob Greene has always been one of my favorite writers as he writes with a unique and flowing viewpoint on interesting and offbeat stuff that most writers wouldn’t think about or touch. I’ve been a fan of his since his newspaper column days as his sensibilities are very close to mine and I own a few books and anthologies of his. When I found out by chance that he just came up with a book about touring with Jan and Dean from the 1990’s onwards, I couldn’t wait to read it because I’ve always been a Jan and Dean fan as well.

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The thing I’m the most grateful for about modern life is thanks to technology, one rarely has to leave their home if they don’t want too and still be able to live a comfortable, full life. Of course if modern life didn’t bring about more crime, accidents, danger, lunatics and high gasoline prices in the first place, we probably wouldn’t feel the need to stay inside! Twenty years ago, parents encouraged their kids, to go out more. Now it’s the opposite! I know that my ex-girlfriend and myself, rarely left our cozy cocoon.

I’m constantly amazed at how truly entertaining movies with no redeeming social value always seem to get lousy newspaper reviews while artsy fartsy movies get great reviews. “Vantage Point” is the opposite of a chick flick, it’s the kind of movie guys who like an adrenaline energy rush, love and cool, hip women like but uptight women probably hate even though there was no sex or sexual exploitation in it. Oh well, you can’t have everything!

One thing I’ve never understood about people with lousy paying jobs, lousy benefits, little security, no real retirement plan, is why they took their sucky jobs in the first place. However cold it sounds, if these people at least have college degrees, there is really no excuse for having these lousy jobs. To me the best job for anyone with a high school degree who is in a lousy job situation today with nothing to look forward to, is to work in the Post Office.

Most of us do not want to do jury duty and often the members of the jury do not understand the law and are not capable of making decisions based on the actual law. My solution for this is professional jurors.

This is an article which deals with why people no longer go to movies based on my personal experience and my reflections of watching movies at home on DVD versus the movie experience. I use the movies “No Country for Old Men”, “Michael Clayton” and “Re-Animater” to make my points.

“The Collector”, is one of the greatest Sci-Fi Fantasy TV Shows that most people in the US never saw, let alone knew existed. The Collector was a Canadian TV Series that ran for 3 years, from 2004 to 2006, apparently shown in US syndication in only a few places, why I don’t know.

I have managed to live quite nicely, thank you, on a middle class salary surrounded by many top notch quality items which I bought used online. For the purpose of this article, let’s define used as anything that was opened from its original packaging. The great thing about buying things used is that unless there’s an obvious cosmetic defect no one is going to know you bought things used unless you tell them. This article discussed the pluses and minuses of buying things used, online.

Here’s some personal advice on how not to screw up your computer or laptop based on stupid things I’ve done over the years. This article should be of help to people who are brand new on the computer, people without much experience and possibly people with mid-level computer skills, who if nothing else can use this as a refresher. I’ve also included some other advice and pointers to help you avoid other potential computer pitfalls. I’m sure this is elementary advice to the more experienced computer user.

Unless I see a group live, I usually don’t notice that many rock drummers strictly on the basis of their recordings. The following musicians are my favorite rock drummers on record in that they either have a signature sound I love and can immediate recognize and/or play to a certain type of groove that I can recognize. In any case, their drumming to me is integral to their group’s sound and would be missed if someone else was on drums.

“House” is one of my favorite shows on TV- great stories, great acting, Hugh Laurie rules but I basically hated this year’s episodes because his team basically got shunted aside for “The Others”- and we saw what that did for Lost’s ratings! Anyway, I though this year’s finale was excellent except one major flaw that raised a major philosophical and ethical question which I thought was ridiculously done.

Be afraid, be very afraid of Firefox 3.0, that is if you value Internet Speed. I’ve used Firefox exclusively for the past 8 years or so and I’ve always been impressed by Firefox and the people behind it. For me, Firefox always ran faster then Internet Explorer and I loved its basic features. The thing is though, sometimes people with good intentions do stupid things and sometimes people with non-altruistic intentions do very good reliable things. I always said, if the Mafia ran the United States, we’d be better off!

DVD Recorders are in my opinion one of the most falsely advertised and promoted Consumer products of all time because while most people know the good stuff, very few people are aware of the bad stuff until after they’ve purchased them. Having said that, you can still get good DVD Recorders for between $50-$100, the [...]

They say that you’re much more likely to die in a car crash then a plane crash. What they don’t say is, most car crashes occur instantly or in a few brief moments and when your plane goes down or is in trouble, you have time to realize that you are trapped in a helpless situation for which there is no escape. That is exactly the reason I will no longer fly.

There’s one reason and one reason only to buy a used computer online, lack of money which is a good reason. For the purpose of this article, the term computer shall include laptops. This article will tell you what to look for and what not to look for in a used computer, step by step.

If you look attractive, the door is open to a woman taking the chance to at least knowing you if she’s single and free. If you don’t look attractive, most of the time a woman isn’t going to give you the time of day no matter how wonderful a person you are. Knowing that you look attractive helps give off a vibe of self-confidence and you’ll probably feel more comfortable with yourself as opposed to feeling insecure. What follows are some easy tips on how to improve your appearance at relatively little cost.

If you live in an apartment or condominium and don’t want to get your neighbors upset by watching movies or TV on Home Theater late at night or live in a house and don’t want to disturb your family blasting “Independence Day” on surround sound, there finally is a way to have your cake and eat it too! They’re called Pioneer SE-DIR800C HDPH Dolby Digital 5.1 Wireless Headphones.

I don’t know about you but I hate being sick and catching disease and I’ve hardly gotten sick in the last 20 years. I’m going to tell you how even though most of you probably won’t approve of my methods and think I’m a selfish, narrow minded, snob. Well, at least I’ve been a healthy one!

If you’re a romantic and don’t believe that there are shortcuts to meeting people you’re attracted too and believe one should just leave things to fate and destiny, then this article isn’t for you!! If you really don’t know what you’re looking for, don’t bother reading this.

If Ghosts exist, here are some questions that need to be answered, in no particular order. Do Ghosts take the appearance of how old they were when they died or can they take any appearance of themselves at any age?

My favorite science fiction theme is time travel. I’m obsessed with it. I love all the paradoxes and possibilities, specifically about going back to the past and solving mysteries or changing the present. If time travel were possible and you were allowed to go back in time, what 10 things would you do?

Hopefully this article based on my 30 years of dating, romantic and live in relationships with women will save you time and aggravation, if you’re a man. The one thing I’ve learned in life is what happens on TV, movies and literature, does not happen in real life most of the time. I’m guessing that relationships with the scenarios I’ve listed below, will not work 90% of the time. I have absolutely nothing to back this up except personal experience and common sense. I’m basically writing what others think but won’t say out loud.

First impressions are everything. People see an initial image of you and perceptions are immediately formed. No matter how much the politically correct doesn’t want you to hear this, most of the world judges you by your appearance.

Like most people, I have certain ethical misgivings of things I did when I was younger and the biggest one is cheating in school. I don’t have children and the only advice I’d give them if I did was, if you get caught, you’re asking for trouble, so I’d advise against it. I probably should be saying the company line instead, that “you’re only cheating yourself” but my problem is, are they? I wish I knew the answer to that question but I don’t. For all I know I might be called innovative and thinking outside the box if I did similar things at work!