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Oh, yes. And thank you to Morrigon for the inspiration on this one.

I love that song! *gleek*

One of my favorite songs, too.



I have a bunch of Mark Twain quotes written down somewhere - I'm looking for them. Certain ones that really struck me funny.

whaddaya mean "...the video to go with it..."



youre gonna be dancing with yourself? LOL will pay good money for that

Yay for Mark Twidle day!

Great track

Sweet! I'd probably be the only vote for Mark Twain as I was just thinking about him in regards to a Facebook post I made a few minutes ago... but I also LOVE Billy Idol- can sing all the tunes from the first two albums by heart :P

I'm sure I can find more multimedia based dedication material for Billy Idol...

No doubt. Readings of Mark Twain probably wouldn't be a showstopper. But he'd be all about the celebration- he was known to tie one on in his day.

Well, the reason I would lean toward Mark Twain is because he did spend a bit of time in Upstate New York - so there is a sense of his history already here in Buffalo.



But, you're right. No one is going to listen to me reading Twain...



...Morri, however... Hmmm....

In the midnight hour, she cried "Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more, more more."

I think we might have a winner.



It's just, pretty hard to sing to the tune of Rebel Yell.

"All right, then, I'll go to hell..."

~ Mark Twain ~

You have hit on a very real problem in this country. I love your "outside the box" gift ideals.

You've hit the nail on the head. There are so many awesome locally owned businesses that provide those services and more - even the tech stuff or things that you think only the big department stores have.



It also boils down to people being smart shoppers. Are you really finding the best deals if you just wait to be bombarded by advertisements from the biggest corporations around? They're telling you that for a few days, they'll give you $100 off of a product that you want.



YET if you had taken a little bit of time to shop around with locally owned businesses, you might have noticed that they offer the same product for $100+ off year round.

Exactly, Morri. Smaller businesses don't have weekly sales ads - they don't low-ball or lost-leader a few items to charge a premium on the add-ons. They generally simplify and maintain a fair and consistent markup on all items, then back-up what you buy with more personal and focused support services.



Sure, you might have to pay for some of the advanced services, but I don't know any small businesses that when you call them with a question, you get a "service representative" that barely knows English and asks you for your credit card information before he will tell you anything... do you?

I'd have a hard time adding anything but "well done" articulating the real issue in this country and its fascination with huge stores that are empty of anything local but those minimum wage paid employees.

Yea, I hear you there. I try to support the local businesses as much as possible, but sometimes you just can't get certain products or they're too expensive to get for a family of three with one income, so you try to stretch it as far as possible, which involves stores like Walmart etc.



Also-if you're shopping the 4am sales, PLEASE be courteous to both other shoppers and your lowly retail clerks (such as myself), because Black Friday is HELL for us.

I did black friday last year to get the toys I knew she wanted. Some of those toys are still in their packaging and waiting patiently to be packed up and donated this year. I think also, that some of us tend to think that high ticket items are better but that is not always the case. Supporting small businesses and local artists is money and time well spent.

no kidding.

Eveything comes with a damned Yahoo tool bar, it seems.

WTF?

And I'll tell you something else- removing them yourself, with just the add/delete hardware option on your computer, is damned near impossible. Some of them I can't get off at all....

They drive me bonkers, I ALWAYS decline.

When I worked at the hotel, there was someone who kept installing various tool bars. I remember opening IE one day to find yahoo, google, some coupon one, one for an anti-virus, and a few more that I can't remember. All together, they took up half the page and crashed the computer everytime IE was opened. I spent hours fixing that crap.

I have an AVG one that won't go away. It hates me.

yep. Ive seen one of those that mimic security software updates- a nasty little bugger to get rid of too. My IT support took hours to find all the hidden bits. Gah, why dont these folk do something productive with their talents instead?

Thieves and scumbags help make the economy go'round.

awesome

\

You know... That boggles my mind too. It's not that they don't know, hell everyone has to start somewhere right? It's that they are supposed to have attended Technology classes and yet STILL don't know this stuff.



Is no one pissed that they put money into these programs and have walked away with nothing??!

You should put more of these in here. It makes me laugh and it really really true. There is no substitute for experience...hmm, this seems to hold true for many things in life, no?

I think it's shocking that degree programs are churning out people with highly technical skills & advanced theoretical knowledge -- but these graduates seem to have no grasp of some basic fundamentals.



And I hate they sometimes make more money than me.

That's it exactly. Almost as interesting to me is, they are in these courses and didn't learn these things on their own PRIOR to going into the program.



I mean, how do they know if they even have an interest or aptitude for the skills they have to learn if they've never done these things on their own first? That seems a bit backward to me, especially given the social saturation of technology these days.



And, Thoth, I agree. Despite all my experience, I know some recent grads that have gotten jobs I would probably never be considered for. One of our former interns got a job he didn't like and would call or email me weekly to ask me how to fix something or solve a problem - he just got a new job... at Moog... *shakes head*

What kills me is that people insist that college (book) learning is so much better than genuine experience. I have never taken an IT course, or any other computer course, but over the years I have had jobs that required I have a certain amount of computer proficiency. I learned as I went, poking around, asking questions, and just generally getting on the job training, which I then proceeded to take with me to every other job I had. Books are great for the basics, but to really learn, you have to get your hands in it, on it, or dirty with it.

Please please please do not die.

I shall do my best.



I walk around the place like a ninja... people must think I'm paranoid, I jump at the slightest sounds...



...and there are a LOT of sounds.

Duck and cover, dude- Don't want to lose my hockey buddy.

Were you there? When did this happen? More info man!

Nope, wasn't there. It happened while I was in Orlando last week. Everything is closed off and all info is classified.

It is fun to get messages from you in different cities and states. *hugs*

I hope there was a meatball sub in there somewhere. Although I will admit to falling in love with this little hole in the wall place in New Hampshire that had veal subs....yum.



Highway driving in ANY state can be an eduactional event. However, in the south, if someone hits a deer on the road, THAT'S lunch...

Road trip classroom...awesome. Oh and subway rocks, but not as much as Quiznos. Something about the over just changes something for me. Meh, just weird I guess.

Those are all valuable lessons to learn ... without the painful object lesson part.

Fortunately they didn't get any first-hand lessons on those... but when you're driving along the I-90 in New York you're almost guaranteed to see accidents and dead deer.



Even when coming back we hit Buffalo at rush hour and witnessed a guy in an SUV weaving in and out of traffic at obnoxiously high speeds. While everyone was cruising along around 60-65 in a 55 zone, he was passing through heavy traffic like everyone was standing still. My daughter gasped audibly when he cut in front of a car ahead of us and force them to brake.



And no, Morri, I wasn't tailgating - I had plenty of room to make any exit maneuver I would have needed to. :p

are we there yet...?

Bon chance :)

I'm HUNGRY!! When are we gonna stop for LUNCH????