Moonage Webdream

When The Who sang “hope I die before I get old“, they had never met John Persinger.  In fact, when they sang it, John Persinger was old enough to draw retirement.  He’s still around.  Here’s a shot of his 100th birthday party:

Needless to say, his plan looks a lot more appealing than The Who’s.

Technorati Tags: 100, hooters, john persinger, my generation, the who

I get really tired of hearing about petty self-indulged over-egotistical Hollywood stars.  Every single day I can pretty much take my pick of some story where a meda star has offended other people intentionally just because they can.

Every now and then you get a tiny bit of what I would love to see a lot more of from the people we put on these pedestals.  This is one of them:

Jenny McCarthy worried about finding a good man after her son, Evan, was diagnosed with autism two years ago. Then Jim Carrey came along.

“Beyond doubt it was written in the stars that Jim and Evan were a pair,” the 34-year-old actress tells People magazine in its Oct. 1 issue.

“He’s actually helped Evan get past some obstacles I couldn’t. I sometimes call him the autism whisperer. He speaks a language Evan understands, and Evan feels safe with him.”

McCarthy, who starred on “Singled Out,” details Evan’s progress in her new book, “Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism“.

She says Carrey was curious about Evan — in a good way. But she was nervous about introducing them.

“He was intrigued,” she says. “He asked questions. Still, it took me about a few months to bring Evan over.”

What makes this story even better for me is Jenny has always been one of my favorite entertainers, and Carrey is one of my all-time top 10 actors.

Technorati Tags: autism, Entertainment, Heroes, jenny-mccarthy, jim-carrey

When I was younger, we did really stupid things to entertain ourselves.  One of those thing was climbing in a grocery cart and grabbing the bumper of a car to be tagged along until we couldn’t hold on any longer.  Man, I bet we reached 20 miles an hour, or MORE!  What was pretty fun too was to sit in the car, grab a grocery cart, speed up as fast as you could still hold onto the cart, and let it go.  That grocery cart would do all kinds of acrobatics before it crashed into something really hard and pretty much end it’s existence.  Fun I tell ya!  Now, it just seems so amateurish compared to what Ben Carpenter pulled off.

In this photo released by the Michigan State Police, Ben Carpenter, a 21-year-old Kalamazoo, Mich., man, is shown in his motorized wheelchair stuck to the front grill of this semi truck where he was pushed eastbound on Red Arrow Highway near Paw Paw, Mich., Wednesday, June 6, 2007, for several miles at about 50 mph (80 kph), authorities said. The young man, reportedly unhurt, was quoted by police as saying, ‘It was quite a ride.’ (AP Photo/Michigan State Police)

Not sure HOW he got attached to the truck, but knowingly or not, he became the idol of every guy who’s every played with grocery carts.  We KNOW what would have happened if one of those little wheels on the front of Ben’s wheelchair had broken.  That is one incredibly lucky dude.

Technorati Tags: Ben-Carpenter, Heroes, Hmmmmm, semi, wheelchair

Amobi Okoye came to the United States from Nigeria when he was 12.  Here’s a brief list of what he’s accomplished so far:

• Age 2½— started going to school in Nigeria with his mother, Edna, who was the principal.

• 12 — Freshman in high school after testing well on an aptitude test in Huntsville, Ala.

• 13 — Started 13 games on the defensive line at Lee High.

• 14 — First-team all-state on both sides of the ball as a senior.

• 15 — Signed with Louisville.

• 16 — Youngest player in college football, played 13 games.

• 17 — Made first collegiate start vs. Army.

• 18 — Full-time starter as a junior.

• 19 — Selected captain of the Cardinals.

• 19 — First round draft pick with the Houston Texans.

• 19 — Graduates college with a degree in psychology

 Now, that’s a pretty remarkable lifetime.  And, he can’t even drink a beer, yet.

The thing that gets me is the stereotypes Okoye shatters. ( I’m gonna get pretty crass here )

• Don’t really expect a Nigerian immigrant to be THAT smart and obviously well-educated.

• Don’t really see blacks in general in the US stressing academics the way they should.

• Don’t really picture big hulking guys at 6 feet 2 inches and 305 pounds to be that smart.

• Don’t really expect football players ( or most major-sports athletes ) in general to be that academically oriented.

Okoye’s just shattering stereotypes all over the place.  For that, Amobi Okoye is a hero of mine.  And, I hope he becomes a hero to millions of young boys all over the world who feel that if they wanna be a jock, it’s uncool to be a brain too.

I think Okoye will excel in the NFL.  Not because he’s 6′2″ and 300+ pounds, but because if he’s pitted against someone else who’s the same size, I’ll bet, with just a little bit of experience, he’ll outsmart the other guy.  When talent’s equal, brains win.

I’ll be keeping an eye on Okoye.  He hasn’t taken a pro snap yet and I’m already a fan.  And, I’m certainly not a Texan fan, but I bet they get a lot better real quick. 

Technorati Tags: amobi-okoye, bias, Heroes, houston-texans, Sports, sterotypes

In this day when all you hear about are sports figures flaming out in major meltdowns, and sometimes dropping dead, it’s cool to hear of someone doing something very smart.  Willie Roaf has opted to retire from the NFL to, get this, go back to school and finish his sociology degree.

Very cool, Willie.  Very cool.  Not too many people I’ve seen playing in the NFL would walk away from $2.1 million to hope for one the lowest paying professions in the US.

Technorati Tags: Heroes, Sports

That’s the email that’s been circulating since, well, probably 1982 or so. 

Snopes does a heck of a job dissecting the members of the picture and what they’ve done since.  The goofball looking kid on the bottom left recently semi-retired.  According to him, he’s going to spend the rest of his life trying to figure ways to give his money away.  That’s not as easy as it sounds, it’s something like nearly $60 BILLION.  Don’t worry, his kids will be OK, they’ll have to get by on about $10 million each.  He didn’t want to spoil them.  If I haven’t mentioned his name, it’s only because I seriously doubt I have to.

Now, the addendum to this story is I tried to buy some Microsoft stock in 1986 or so.  My business partner/father-in-law at the time had sold
business and decided to give $X to each of his kids to invest.  I picked a
portfolio that was 100% high tech, the biggest bulk Microsoft.  He balked
at the the high tech stuff.  So, we reached a deal.  He bought a CD
and I was to track the performance of my portfolio.  If my portfolio
outperformed the CD, he would pay us in cash.  If the CD beat my portfolio, he would right it off as a lesson learned.  Within five years, he owed me about $300,000.  I divorced out of that deal.  But at today’s rate, it’s well over $3 million.  He never paid up.  I’m still working for a
living, So, the answer to the headline is yeah, I would have invested.  It
wasn’t possible in 1978, but the first chance possible I would have and did try ( buying stock wasn’t as easy in the mid 80’s as it is now. )  Bill Gates didn’t just sneak up on the computer industry, he was a legend before Microsoft incorporated.  Those people with him weren’t there because they had nothing to do, they were there because of the genius Bill had already exhibited up to that point.  Bill was putting together the best of the best.  It wasn’t so much that Bill could program as well as anyone at the time, it was because he not only saw the future before most did, he made it happen.  

Technorati Tags: bill-gates, Heroes, microsoft, Where Are They Now?

I hate rap.  It’s not that I hate the sound ALL THE TIME, but I just detest the culture.  Since I was a kid, mankind has devloped all kinds of new technologies to improve communication and information about all cultures and walks of life throughout the entire world.  Certain segments of the world have clung to 1940’s fascism, bigotry, and racism.  One is the extremist elements of Islam that is causing the entire planet grief.  Another is rap which seems to focus on causing the US grief.  Rap dwells on selling bigotry, racism, violence, and no self-esteem.  There have been a few exceptions, but I can sure name a LOT of dead rappers that promoted that culture.  One band is stepping up and proving you can have class AND be a rapper:

The Peapod Benefit Concert featuring The Black Eyed Peas and friends. The concert is the first major philanthropic endeavor for The Peapod Foundation, founded by The Black Eyed Peas in association with the Entertainment Industry Foundation. The event will also help raise awareness for The Peapod Foundation’s philanthropic work in the region. The Peapod is scheduled to take place Sunday, May 28th, 2006 at Johannesburg Stadium at Ellis Park in South Africa.

Now, I knew there was a reason I liked My Humps.  Kudos to the Black Eyed Peas.  All you gangstas should look up to the Black Eyed Peas instead of taking aim at each other.  And for what it’s worth, being a gangster is SOOO 1930’s, can’t they come up with something creative and new?  The Peapod is a good example to start with.  How’s about this, being so KIND it repulses the average kid’s parent?  Just to keep it cool, I’ll keep bitching and moaning.  I just don’t like rap.

But I do admire the Black Eyed Peas for now.  And that’s cool.

( If you know of others doing good things for people, let me know. We need more stuff like this. )

Technorati Tags: Heroes

As mentioned in the previous post, tonight’s entertainment was Charlie Daniels.  Now, this is not as off the beaten track as you would think.  Well, maybe it was.  You see, I had a mission for this show.  I was to locate a fiddle, take it to Charlie, have him sign it, and in a couple of weeks, auction it off for charity.  Just another day.  Just so happened, my good friend Don is a good friend of Charlie’s.  He even chased down the fiddle for the mission.  With fiddle in hand, we crashed the backstage.  Within a few minutes:

Mission was accomplished.  Young kids in my local area will have some neat things done for them courtesy of Charlie.  But, it didn’t end there.  Once I had pretty much figured out that I HAD to be the hilite of the evening for Charlie, this happened:

Turns out this was his 69th birthday.  He got hugs from a bunch of really cute college students along with a huge birthday cake in the shape of his favorite symbol, the United States flag.  Then I sunk even lower on the pecking order when this happened:

A local ministery brought in a whole gang of underpriviledged, handicapped kids that they had adopted from all over the world.  Turns out Charlie’s a huge fan of theirs.  Then it got even worse:

Charlie introduced me to one of his heroes, Abdul.  Abdul was a small kid playing with toys in his little town in Afghanistan when the toy blew up in his hands ( the toy was a landmine ).  His hands aren’t tucked in his pockets.  Abdul told me in great detail how much he loved to play basketball, I told him racquetball was my game.  He wants to learn.  Charlie made it my mission to help Abdul transfer to a larger college so he can finish his degree.  With Abdul’s attitude, it will happen.  He’s a winner.  Mission one accomplished, mission two will be much easier.  I have a feeling Abdul won’t need much help from me.

BTW, the concert was pretty damn good too.  At 69 Charlie kicks butt just a little harder than most modern acts.  What is refreshing is his totally unapologetic attitude about supporting our troops UNCONDITIONALLY and undeniable love of his country.  When you see the unconditional love he shows for those kids and the people around him, you understand clearly the difference between Charlie Daniels and Michael Moore.

This was a very rewarding evening for me.  We need a LOT more Charlie’s representing American entertainment.

More blogs on Charlie Daniels.

Technorati Tags: Charlie-Daniels, Entertainment, Heroes

I just watched the entire broadcast of the Jet Blue 292 emergency landing.  It was cool as hell!

The pilots of that plane are truly heroes, just for one day.

Technorati Tags: Heroes

Seven Russians trapped for three days deep in the Pacific with dwindling oxygen were saved with British help on Sunday when rescuers cut their mini-submarine free of tangled cables.

"Today was a very happy event. The intensive work to free our submarine at a depth of 200 meters brought results… Our comrades in the crew opened the hatch themselves," said Admiral Viktor Fyodorov, commander of Russia’s Pacific Fleet.

This is very cool.  A most excellent story to wake up to!

Technorati Tags: Heroes