It's a Sunday and I'm watching some football, of course and I thought I would try to settle in and do some blogging.

I will break this down into categories but in most recent news barb has been feeling rather ill the last few days. She has a nasty cold. The bummer is that we were going to go to a leather family dinner in Asbury park tonight. Barb is feeling better but it's really best for us to stay in. I want her to get all better and my guess is that being around lots of people will not speed up her recovery. For some other news that's a bummer I went to Good Year this morning for a simple oil change. Of course there's nothing that simple. The good folks at Good Year showed me that one of my front tires had a bubble brewing in it. So I ended up buying two front tires. So my $25.00 oil change turned into a $300.00 financial bonanza. So that's the news of the day I will now will do an comprehensive update.

Work: The job is great. I'm still loving this very challenging and exciting position. The last week and a half have been very challenging and tough. I working through it and It seems that I'm still getting good reviews on what I'm doing. One of the things that's weighing on my mind is that the end of the year is soon approaching and with the end of the year means I get to wonder if my Dept. will meet the goals that the company set. I'm competitive and I don't like to lose and truth be told I don't fail too often. I don't fail too often because I hate to let people down. I'm also not a big fan of letting myself down either. If I don't make my goals that could have an impact on some of my managers bonuses. I would really hate that. These people are great to me. I would hate for my Dept. to take money away from them. On the other hand I hope I meet my goals, I would love to be able to contribute to them. These things weigh on my mind. I take these things personally. I guess that's part of being dedicated.

Leather: Not too much going on in that area. Though Santa Saturday is in a couple of weeks. That's a great charity event and I'm glad that NJ is a part of it now. Of course Thanksgiving is around the corner and there's a lot of leather spirit built into that. This is the time of year when the community slows down. Of course there are a few holiday gatherings but the HUGE events are planning for the the next year. Let's face it it's time to concentrate on the holidays.

The Holidays: I do love this time of year. I'm actually already done with my shopping for barb. I think she' going to be pretty blown away and that's a great feeling. I'm looking forward to getting our tree and decorations out of storage and decorating the house. The funny thing is nobody ever comes to visit. We don't really don't have the opportunity to share the decorations with other people but it doesn't matter. We take full pride and enjoyment in it and we love having the decorations up. So bring it on.

The Gym: I am kicking ass at the gym. I'm lifting hard five times a week and I'm increasing the distance in my running too. I have taken a newer approach to working out lately. I have taken more of a body builders approach. Sure I'm a small guy and a hard gainer but I'm doing more research and different things. It's paying off, I'm getting bigger even at the age of 44 I'm making great improvements. It's a lot of fun.

The Weather and My General mood: I'm happy but I'm ready for Winter to settle in. The weather has been very mild through October and November. On average the temperatures have been in the mid sixties and even up to the seventies. I'll admit I don't like the cold but I feel that I'm ready for Winter. To be honest I hope the Winter is harsh. Some heavy snow storms and some bitchin' cold too. I feel like I want to come out of this Winter saying wow that was tough and cold glad it's spring again. I guess I'm just feeling very competitive.

Books: I finished another book. The book I just finished is A mad Dash by Henry Rollins. Henry wrote another great one. There's so much inspiration in his writing. I'm very proud of myself. I read ten books this year. That's almost a book a month. I think my brain is working. Reading is good for my writing and considering I have two presentations to write and a keynote address too. This reading could be pretty damn helpful.

Music : Ok this is a big one. On one front there's not too much going on. The new Kiss CD is great. We saw UFO recently and they were tremendous. Other than that music is pretty bland. Along with the blandness came a revelation. Last night we were watching a show called the End of America. This was a documentary by Naomi Wolf. It was about the closing of America's free society post 911. It was an excellent documentary with some stunning points. One of the points that was made was that Clear Chanel ( now Live Nation) was in the pocket of the Bush White House. Now I will admit that they didn't go into to great detail about this but just that sentence answered a lot of questions. Clear Chanel / Live Nation control radio, ticket sales and artist signing. Now I understand why there has not been any revolutionary bands that made a mark during the Bush administration. One of the things that barb said was that at least the second term of the Bush administration would bring great radical music but it never really came. So here's my thought. If Clear Chanel and all their influence was in bed with the Bush administration then I bet Clear Chanel was tasked with making sure that the youth didn't get restless. The last time the youth got restless in America we had all the protests etc. in the sixties and early seventies. Great stuff, great freedom.

I believe that the goal was to keep the youth quite and make sure there's not too much happening to fuel that youthful fire. It all makes sense. Of course pop and top 40 was just silly and the lowest common denominator. Radical punk music ended up being pop punk. The record companies gave them a punk look and out of the blue punk music was all about High School crushes. The newest wave of aggressive metal had been headed up by aggressive sounding Christian metal bands. Now I have no problem with Christian rock but let's face you are not going to find revolution of the system in Christian metal. Clear Chanel also accounts for the resurgence of eighties bands like Ratt, Whitesnake, Pretty Boy Floyd etc. How do you distract a generation? Send them on a rock n roll trip down memory lane. Last but not least, we got bland singer song writers shoved down everyone's throat like John Mayer. All this is a perfect plan to keep America bland. I can only hope that the plan changes soon. All walls will tumble at some point.

I think that's everything. I hope to check back soon.