Filed under: But I'm No Expert, That's So Cool! | Tags: bbq, manly, Mars, minivan, NASCAR, Nashville, Predators, Titans, WSMV
According to a recent study done by the oh-so-scientific Mars Snackfood company, Nashville ranks as the manliest city in the US. The rank is the result of analyzing data about the city. These items helped a city’s manliness:
- Number of BBQ restaurants
- Number of professional major league sports teams
- Frequency of monster truck rallies
- Popularity of tools and hardware
These item detracted from a city’s manliness:
- Number of beauty magazine subscriptions
- Abundance of home furnishing stores
- High minivan sales
I’m sure there were more categories that Nashville rocked too. I feel more manly already, but I’m still no expert.
Filed under: But I'm No Expert, Recording, That's So Cool!, WTF? | Tags: beach, bungee jumping, Florida, go-cart, Jekyll Island, JetLev, putt putt, scooter, Segway, tourism, tourist, Zorb
On youth group trips to the Jekyll Island, I dreamed of buying some property and opening a tourist magnet. You know, one of those places that you know is over priced, but you can’t help but blow tons of time and money there because you’re a tourist and you’d otherwise be stuck with the plain ol’, free beach. Of course, putt-putt, go-carts, and bungee jumping are commonplace now, so I’d have to have a bunch of Zorbs, a.k.a. giant hamster balls for humans. It would be amazing to get in on one of those ideas before everyone else and be the first to have it. I think I’ve found one.
It’s the JetLev, water-based jetpack. The floating jetpack, which is really just a set of nozzles and controls, attaches via hose to a lawn mower sized engine that pumps water up to the nozzles. The pressure from the water coming out of the nozzles gives you enough lift to reach 50 ft off the ground and speeds up to 46 mph. With a range of 186 miles, you could really explore the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, or your favorite lake and still make it back safely. You’re always attached to the pump, but you’re free otherwise. It looks pretty amazing and I’m tourists would kill to be the first to use one.
I can imagine it now, having the only jetpack rental company in all of Florida. People paying hundreds of dollars to fly around the Gulf, watching frightened dolphins swim as fast as they can away from the loud, evil, flying monsters above them. Pontoon boat owners renting them to make cleaning their boats more fun. Land lubbers trying to fly back to their hotels only to fall, splat, in the middle of road and getting run over by passing 18 wheelers and…ok, wait that’s not so good. Lawsuits aside, I can see this becoming the next vacation thing to do. You know, after putt-putt, go-carts, bungee jumping, rolling in a Zorb, renting a scooter, renting a jet ski, renting a Segway, and now, renting a JetLev. It’ll be a money maker, but I’m no expert.
Filed under: But I'm No Expert, That's So Cool! | Tags: inspiration, Nick Vujicic, speech
This guy is cool. How many people can make techno music with no arms and no legs? Check it out:
If he can do what he does without any lmbs, any of us can do more, but I’m no expert.
Filed under: But I'm No Expert | Tags: But I'm No Expert, Christopher Joel, Wordpress
In 2006, I began my first blog, But I’m No Expert, as an experiment and to learn how to blog. After forgetting about it for months at a time, I’ve decided to move that blog onto this one, after all, I’m all the same person anyway.
I’m adding a new category called But I’m No Expert. For now, it will simply delineate the old But I’m No Expert posts from the Christopher Joel posts. In the future though, I plan to do op-ed type posts under that category, especially stuff that isn’t music-related.
I just read this story on Foxnews and I’m mystified. So, the school is disciplining children for events that happened outside of school and had nothing to do with school? Let’s check the list:
Girls taking nude pics of themselves – stupid and wrong
Forwarding those pics to their boyfriends – also stupid and wrong
The boys forwarding them to others – wrong and a great way NOT to endear yourself to your girl…
The school disciplining these kids for doing all of the above – WRONG!
Schools are not parents, therefore they should only have reported possible trafficking of child porn to the cops. That’s it. If the events happened on campus, OK fine, kick them out. But if they happened off campus, then why aren’t THE PARENTS the ones doing the disciplining? Why aren’t the girls, their boyfriends, and any one else caught with these pics being arrested for child porn? Do those laws not apply to the under-aged or something? Let the school deal with education and issues inside the school (or school events). Let parents discipline for things outside the school. And let the cops deal with enforcing laws. That’s the way it should be, but I’m no expert.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cars, Detroit, Fractals of Change, government, hybrid
As much as I love my country, if any business can’t do business well enough to stay in business, then it should fail. Sure, it will be painful, but that’s capitalism. Is anyone else a little pissed that the $700 billion bailout is now going to things other than what they said it was for? Now they are talking about bailing out GM & Chrysler: two companies that apparently don’t know how to operate a business.
I read this article that poses a great idea for “fixing” them, without just handing them a bunch of cash – order an entirely new government fleet. Make it only for hybrid, electric, alternative-fuel vehicles. Pre-pay a bit of the order so the companies can retool. This keeps everyone employed, lets the companies continue operating, and gives the government modern vehicles that are green too. It’s not a perfect plan, but it’s better than just handing a bunch of dimwits a bunch of money and letting them continue burning it, but I’m no expert.
It’s election day. Finally. Tomorrow we can all mourn or celebrate and get on with our lives rather than endlessly worrying about “the decision”. If you aren’t voting, then tomorrow you are officially invited to never complain about the government or anything related to it for the next two years. Don’t gripe about who won or didn’t win. You chose not to choose, so deal with it.
Related to the election, I read a story about a Minnesota professor who has quit his job because was caught stealing McCain yard signs. No kidding. Apparently, he disagrees with my buddy, Aaron, and thinks people will actually decide their vote based on a yard sign.
Here’s the other thing: all I hear from liberals is that people should think for themselves when voting, or dealing with religion, or anything else they want to gripe about. The irony is, when someone chooses something they disagree with, they get upset. So was all that “think for yourself” stuff really just a ploy to get them choose your choice or was it really to get them to think? [begin sarcasm]Cause we all know you can’t POSSIBLY vote conservative and think. You can’t POSSIBLY be a Christian and still have a brain [end sarcasm]
I think people should think for themselves and make their choices, independently. Anyone who prevents them from making their own choice should be…something…I don’t know what exactly, but that’s why I’m not an expert.
Filed under: Dear Mr. Government | Tags: bail out, But I'm No Expert, Chrysler, General Motors, government
Dear Mr. Government,
My name is General Motors, my friends call me GM for short. My girlfriend, Chrysler, and I want to get married and we’d like you to pay for it. Why, you ask? Let me count the ways…
- We have a bunch of children together. It would be a shame to put all those children out on the street. What would they do? They obviously can’t fend themselves. There aren’t any other families in all of America who could possibly give them a home.
- We have a bunch of houses. It’s going to cost us a fortune to consolidate all those houses so we can live together. Sure, we’re both bazillionaires, but we can’t possibly pay our moving expenses ourselves!
- We’re both broke. I know, it looks like we’re bazillionaires, but we’re broke, we promise. We’re just going to count on love to get us through after we’re married. Of course, this money we’re talking about would be a wedding gift, see? Even if we get back on our feet, we’re not planning to pay your back.
Love,
GM
Doesn’t this sound ridiculous? That’s what I thought when I heard that GM & Chrysler are trying to get the government to pay for the merger. Don’t these people make money? Pay for it your damn selves! The government does not exist to insure that you can continue to do business, if you need more money to make it happen, get a loan, like everyone else. I’m sick of these bail-outs and free government loans to companies that apparently don’t know how to run a business. Let them fail. It will hurt in the short term, but someone will come along and start a business that can produce good cars and make a profit too. Then we won’t have government that’s pimped out and can do it’s job of protecting and governing, but I’m no expert.
The MPAA has stated today that they shouldn’t need to prove infringement occurs in order to collect fees from “law breakers”.
“Mandating such proof could thus have the pernicious effect of depriving copyright owners of a practical remedy against massive copyright infringement in many instances.” – MPAA attorney Marie L. van Uitert
Are you kidding me!? This will just open the door to copyright owners being able to collect $150,000 from any person they choose to target. The whole idea of taking someone to court that you have to prove it in order to win.
“It is often very difficult, and in some cases, impossible, to provide such direct proof when confronting modern forms of copyright infringement, whether over P2P networks or otherwise; understandably, copyright infringers typically do not keep records of infringement.”
Wah. Boo-f’ing-hoo. So you can’t catch them. Too bad for you. Either release your stuff and try to make money from it, release it for free to anyone who wants it, or don’t release it at all. It’s not the government’s job to make sure that you’re able to make insane levels of profit. It’s bad enough they have enabled you to have practically unlimited monopolies on your content, but now you want to collect money from just anybody!?
Puh-lease! These quotes are regarding the Jammie Thomas case, where the RIAA authorized a company to download 24 files from Ms. Thomas’ computer. I’m sorry, but if the RIAA authorized the downloading, then it’s not copyright infringment! It was authorized! Sorry, but you’ll not only need to prove that actual infringement occured, but you’ll need to prove that it wasn’t you guys doing it! These people need to figure how to make money doing something other than suing people, but I’m no expert!
