Grumiaux’s Weblog

For about last six months or so his approval rating has averaged out to 33%< That is including conservative polling sources.

So what is up with this? 

Forclosure rates were up 30% in ’07 over ‘08. 

The US dollar is as good as a wooden nickel these days.  The exchange rates are so depressing that for the first time in history, merchants in New York City have decided to start taking Euros.

U.S. merchants reported their weakest January performance in nearly four decades, extending a malaise that has deepened since the holiday shopping season.

Consumers wrestling with high gas and food prices, a slumping housing market, an escalating credit crisis and a weakening job market retrenched further, buying mostly necessities even when redeeming their holiday gift cards.

These are just examples of what is going on with the economy right now.  Scared yet?  You should be.  Our economy effects the entire world, and if you do a search on how some of our closest friends in other countries’ economies are holding up, they are mirroring ours.   Economic depression is devasting, leading to joblessness, poverty, suicides, high crime and despair.

Well what about the future of the Republican party?  What would happen if the Republican pack leader McCain won the next election ?  Remember that “economic stimulus” package that Bush wanted to appease the economic whiners  (this includes me, though his package was like flaming dog poop on the doorstep) with?

According to this website: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/06/mccain-stimulus/

“McCain urged a vote on economic stimulus, stating that Congress needed to quickly pass legislation.                                                                                                                     

The measure, blocked by conservatives, fell just one vote short of the 60 needed to end debate. At the “last minute,” McCain decided to skip the vote, even though his plane landed in DC in time. McCain claimed that he was “too busy“:

“I haven’t had a chance to talk about it at all, have not had the opportunity to, even,” McCain said. “We’ve just been too busy, focused on other stuff. I don’t know if I’m doing that. We’ve got a couple of meetings scheduled.”

Both Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) were able to return to the Senate and vote on the bill. “

Sorry, I’m not prepared to “meet the new boss” “Same as the old boss” 

I’ll be lucky to have job, food and electricity..and sorry, I don’t trust the Republican leadership when it comes to war…it might be all those lies we were told as the whole reason for the war.

Looking forward to a new era…really.

On Black Friday, my roommates and I decided to buy a Playstation 3 and the new special edition Rock Band game.  We decided it would be our Christmas presents to each other.  This may have been a mistake, I’m not sure…we are now completely addicted and I await the 5:30 work whistle every evening, in anticipation of ROCKING OUT!!

After a few hours of sorting the game out, and trying all the instruments, I decided on the guitar, and my other two roommates chose the drum set and microphone.

I am ok at guitar, I’ve never played before, but I do well on easy.  I’ve tried moving up to medium, but so far I haven’t been able to further our band on our world tour.  We have to all do our gigs on medium as a band in order to gain more fans and venues.  My two friends are doing fairly well on medium, but my reflexes just aren’t fast enough to handle the quick notes, and use of the pinky.  Last night I decided to try the guitar on base.  It seems a lot easier, and now I’m doing well on medium.  I’m sure with practice; I can start moving up to expert soon.  I haven’t tried it on our tour yet; one of my band mates was not able to play with us last night, so I’m not sure if I can switch my guitar to base on our tour.

Did I mention we were all totally addicted?  This is a great game, and wonderful to play as a group.  The neighbors have not complained yet, but I can see it coming.  The guitar is quiet, but the drums and microphone do make noise, especially when you get bonus points for screaming into the microphone.

I think Rock Band will be selling the extra instruments early next year.  The addition of a piano would be wonderful, though I would assume they would also have to add more songs and an upgrade to the ps3 game to complete it.

Rock on dudes!!!

This is an article from the NY Daily News today.  Warning: it’s graphic and quite painful to read.    

BY ETHAN ROUEN and MICHAEL WHITE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Friday, November 2nd 2007, 9:15 AM  

An accused drug dealer fleeing cops ripped open his groin while trying to climb a chain-link fence in Harlem Thursday, authorities said.

Witnesses alleged cops worsened the man’s injury by yanking him down from the fence after he was impaled - a charge police officials denied.

The suspect was in grave condition when he was taken from the bloody scene on W. 112th St. in Harlem to St. Luke’s Hospital. He was rushed into emergency surgery and was in stable condition last night.

Police said narcotics cops spotted the man selling drugs at 3p.m. and chased him four blocks.

“A narcotics team observed a hand-to-hand transaction,” a police source said. “The buyer fled. They chased down the seller.”

Police said the man suffered his gruesome injuries while attempting to climb the fence and fight off the cops. But witnesses, including Louie Salgado, who works at a nearby bodega, said cops yanked the man down from the fence, tearing open his wound.

“They started pulling him. The guy wasn’t going nowhere. They kept yanking and yanking,” said Salgado, 51. “Then all of a sudden the blood started flowing like a faucet.”

Police said charges were pending against the suspect, whose name was not released.

Saturday night, October 27, 2007, my friend and I were standing on her balcony in Manhattan about 7:00 pm smoking.   She pointed to the sky and said “What the hell is that?”, and I said “What?”  I turned and looked up, there were several spheres, silver and round coming in our direction.  They spread out in a “V” formation and very quickly flew over the apartment.  There was no sound, and they were flying at a high rate of speed, just barely over tops of the buildings in a Northeast direction.

We looked at each and other, and she said “That did NOT just happen”..and we continued with a similar conversation of OMG’s  and WTF’s? for the next half hour.

The only explanation I can sanely accept is that they were perhaps balloons from a nearby “Wicked” festival that was taking place the next day, and they were setting up the night before?  Except..they were all silver and flew in formation instead of floating straight up.

Whatever..pass the Dallas BBQ margarita.

So, I moved to New York City about 5 months ago, fresh off the plane from the Deep South.  Upon landing I promptly vomited repeatedly, pee’d my pants in the cab and passed out momentarily…and all this time I thought I had nerves of steel.   Moving to New York was a last minute decision, I received an invitation from a friend at about noon on a Saturday, and by 2:00 that afternoon was boarding a plane.  Some may call me crazy, but it felt right.  The timing was perfect, I was living on unemployment due to corporate cutbacks and hurricane damage, and I need a change, a fresh start.   New York beckoned.   

Now, I’ve seen all the movies and heard all the torrid stories about the naked city, but five months later, I have to tell you, New York is a lot nicer place than I ever imagined.  The people here have been surprisingly polite, considerate and completely innocuous (disclaimer:  this does not include the mentally ill). 

For the most part, I feel perfectly safe out at night, and I don’t feel like I’m bound to get mugged in Central Park.   Central Park is actually one of my favorite places here, it’s very large, beautiful, and seems like a haven amongst all the joggers, bike riders, and nannies with strollers.  Of course, there’s always the random celebrities, and I’m always spying one or two..or imagining they are.  Why just the other day Al Pacino passed by while I was waiting on a bench for my friend.  I’ve never seen him in jeans, it seemed strange.  Moments later, Anthony Hopkins walked by in a hurry..he must have been meeting up with Al.   My friend told me he didn’t look like Anthony Hopkins…but of course it was..(shut up friend). 

There were two celebrities that I know I encountered for real..Tim Gunn, from “Project Runway” was down in Hell’s Kitchen one evening, and one of John Gotti’s Grandson’s was riding the subway with me.  Now I know I’m just a southern hick, but I am aware that you don’t stare at people on the subway, especially not a member of the family.  I gave a myself a pat on the back for watching enough reality tv to know who these people were. 

There are certain things that really did surprise me though: 

·          Cigarettes are around $7 a pack for my brand

·          Random people will stop you at least once a day and ask you for a cigarette.

·          There are extremely talented performers on the subway platforms.

·          Some of the best comedy writers are homeless.  In Union Square, one holds up a cardboard sign that says “Please help; I need two women to take me home and ravage me.”

·          Life without a car is not only possible, but preferred.

·          There is great food, everywhere.

·          My favorite meal, “The Depression Special” two hotdogs and a soda for $2.50 Papaya hotdogs franchise.

·          There is a street festival every weekend, it changes locations and names, but it’s the same festival selling gyros, purses, scarves, sunglasses, watermelon chunks in cups, lemonade and reggae cds.  If the festival is more than a block long, then repeat the list of vendors.

·          Some of the news papers here are a bit…”tabloidish”.  A teenager showing his friends his gun on the streets translates in print to “a gun-wielding maniac”.  A burglar dressed in all black will always get front page as “the Ninja burglar”.  People get “pinched” and “nabbed” and whatever the Yankee’s do, it’s big news.

·          There are jobs galore here, and with my resume, I can earn anywhere from $30K to $80K.   I don’t know why.

·          You won’t find a Walmart here.

·          There is a bodega (mom and pop store) about every 20 feet.

·          There is a store and district for everything…buttons..zippers..

·          Pressure washing sidewalks seems to be a foreign concept.

·          Drag Queen Bingo is a must every Friday night.

·          One Dallas BBQ margarita will put me under the table. 

More adventures in the big city to come boys and girls..perhaps I’ll also be brave enough to share a bizarre UFO sighting my friend and I had this week in the skies over Manhattan.