Test 2

It never ceases to amaze me that in this highly technical world in which we operate, that spam emails like this one still make it into my inbox.

In case you cannot view the image, here’s what the email that I received says:

My name is Paul, i am from USA and i am an Engineer.

I lost my wife some years back and i have a daughter who i cherish so much.I have been single and alone since then. I think this is my time to move on.

I am looking for a partner who doesn’t mind sharing everything with me, the good times and the bad. Someone who is honest and sincere in wanting a serious relationship which could lead to marriage. Age or location is not a barrier. All i need it TRUE love.

I am a happy person, responsible, honest, considerate, caring,sincere,serious and have a good sense of humor.Please let me know if you are interested in having a serious relationship with me.

With love,

Paul

Now, check out the beginning of the sender’s email address: humblepaul90. HA!

Methinks that Paul is not so humble.

Nice try spammer.

Afternoon ice cream stop after a leisure bike ride with The Boy. A La Mode on 55th in Ocean City, New Jersey makes their own ice cream, and we have made it an annual stop on our beach vacation for years.

However, I didn’t know that the proprietors came about the business via the ice cream short course in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State!

VivaChuckTodd.com

You may or may not recall that in a former life I was a stay-at-home-dad, as well as a writer and the proprietor of ThePajamaPundit.com, a blog focused on politics and media (and since I let the domain lapse, is now some strange website about what it takes to have a career in criminal justice – so disappointing). This was a simpler time. A time when my only concern was how worked up I would get over xenophobic commentary from Ann Coulter...

During my years as a blogger, my musings on the Internet led to my forming of friendships with several like-minded folks. One of those excellent individuals was Paul, a smart entrepreneur with a keen sense of wit and boatloads of humor in his back pocket.

Oh, and he was also more-than-somewhat obsessed with the MSNBC network.

This latter fact was displayed in vivid detail with his original entry in the “VivaVerse” (© Bert McBrayer 2016 - I’ll sell it to you for a good price Paul): Viva Chuck Todd (first post here), a fan website devoted to Chuck Todd, the smart political analyst at MSNBC.

At the time, very early in the 2008 election cycle, The Chuck was a budding analyst who was just starting to get some serious screen-time on shows like Morning Joe. His smarts and matter-of-fact style were refreshing. As it turns out, there were other political nerds who also enjoyed Chuck’s obvious smarts.

Geez. 2008 seems like such a long time ago. Just ask this guy.

After the sweet success of VivaChuckTodd, we Chukolytes demanded the obvious spin-off companion sites Viva Rachel Maddow and Viva Jonathan Capehart. Because, why not?

Nowadays, Mr. Fancy-Pants Todd is the host of Meet The Press and one of the most recognizable faces in the political media. So clearly Paul’s work made a huge difference in Chuck Todd’s career trajectory.

Go now. Check out Paul’s pet project 2.0. And check back often.

The only question that remains in my mind is, will there be swag this time around? I still have mine from the original:

Perhaps someday it’ll be worth something...

Happy half-birthday to me!

Love this picture.

This handsome bloke would have been 71 years old today. Miss you dad. Every day.

Love this picture.

This handsome bloke would have been 71 years old today. Miss you dad. Every day.

Watch Prince completely upstage these rock icons.

I ran across this video of some legendary rock and rollers playing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in a tribute to George Harrison. Prince comes out toward the end and completely shreds a guitar solo. Insanity.

A lot of the fuss in the past few days since the news of Prince’s death has focused on the impact that he had on popular music, and the reclusive lifestyle that he led. What I find missing from the coverage of his passing is the fact that… dude could shred.

Prince was the type of musician that didn’t need fancy production or guest musicians. He could play any instrument in the room. Better than anyone else in the room.

Sure, he had a huge impact on popular music. But, more importantly, Prince was the rare pop artist that above all else was a really good musician.

I haven’t seen it yet, but from what I have heard, I can’t wait. James Gunn (the dude who brought us Guardians of the Galaxy) makes some excellent, albeit vulgar points about Hollywood’s obsession with producing the “next big hit”.

/Film:

However, Gunn argues, the real lesson of Deadpool should be that audiences crave originality (or at least, as much originality as they’re going to get in a spinoff about a decades-old comic book character who previously appeared in a different spinoff from the same long-running franchise). “Deadpool was its own thing,” writes Gunn. “THAT’S what people are reacting to. It’s original, it’s damn good, it was made with love by the filmmakers, and it wasn’t afraid to take risks.” According to Gunn, the right lesson for studios to take from Deadpool should be “Boy, maybe we can give them something they don’t already have.”

And therein lies the rub; so many productions in Hollywood are re-makes or re-hashes of projects that have met with great success.

Gunn has a great rant that you can see on the Faceyspaces here.