My regrets for the year of two-thousand and six: in non-sequential order!

--Not having met and made love to Charlize Theron during the filming of the movie about WTO that I was supposed to be an extra, yet didn’t because of bad meeting info.

--Not having sold one of my many inventions for hundreds of thousands of dollars; come on – every guitar player needs a pick dispensing pez-holder with rock star head of choice!

--Not having sent out that demo for my solo work with Voith Retarder. That shit is good! And that Pho’ Kindai hasn’t been making the soundtrack that every Seattle hipster has been searching Pitchfork for three times a day: To Poop On!

--Not developed a massive heroin habit to cope with Seattle’s massive attitude problem.

--Not having cut off my dreads after making a promise at the Chupacabra, and then to make sure I would follow through with by blacking out from the tequila shots; Whoops!

--Also along those lines: Not getting beat up by the cops after blacking out from tequila shots, walking home three miles, all the while dressed like a wolf. Did you have fun pigs?

--Not having discovered the Silversun Pickups, The Hold Steady, The Cold War Kids, The Sword, Mclusky, and I’m from Barcelona earlier, shit!

--Not seeing the Murder City Devils at their show at the Showbox and instead seeing it at the Capitol Hill Block party with every other drunken asshole is Seattle, thanks guys.

--Not going to Burning Man once again for the third year in a row and instead going to the Oregon Country Fair the third year in a row; ok it was still fun just without FIRE!

--Not having quit smoking earlier – who the fuck has the nerve to only smoke part-time, only in the evening, and while drunk. Next time I smoke it will be for real, I promise.

--Not having finally broken down and purchasing a cell phone. I swear I probably missed out on countless fun—friend-filled—activities because of my stubbornness on that issue!

--Also for not telling everyone in my life that cares for me how much I treasure the fact that I am blessed to have them in my life; you all know who you are and I love you all!

--Not having joined a gym, ate better, exercised more frequently; along with all those other things that everyone and their grandma uses for their new-years resolutions; suckas!

--Not having moved to Ballard when I first planned on it—before that scene had a hip shoe shop, bar owned by Linda’s, and all the other post-cocaine hipster moved there; oh yeah and not following Eli and Heather to Portland so I didn’t have to bitch about Seattle.

Questions for robots on saving the world: Media!

So do we know why corporations like GE and Westinghouse own media outlets; well its so they can keep wraps on ceartain issues that effect thier buisness. Also, Did you know that in the old days radio stations had to present opposing views; called the "fairness doctrine." But this was abolished under the idea that corporations had thier right to free speech; huh - what they didn't realize is that corporations are exponentially more powerful than people and can direct public oppinion in whatever direction they wish. Also, in 1996 behind closed doors it got worse with the passing of the "Telecommunications Act" under the Clinton administration where almost all radio regulations were thrown out; these regulations kept radio somewhat balanced and ownership was mostly local and widespread. So back to the point: Say the media isn't covering vital issues that should be covered would we know. Well tell me if any of you knew any of the following bullets and that should be your answer: --Two companies count 80 percent of the votes in US elections and the two companies are owned by brothers. --Our national debt now equals $30,000 for each person, also for bonus points guess what political party has accumulated the majority of that debt. --Last month, half the lawyers in the IRS's "Estate Tax Division" were laid off en masse, I wonder why? -- George H.W. Bush is making millions through the Carlisle group, thanks to administration policies; favoritism anyone. --and here's an easy one: The wealthiest 5 percent own 84.4 percent of everything in the US, and the bottom 40 percent owns less than 1 percent; thats about as "fair and balanced" as FOX NEWS. And while were on the subject of Rupert Murdock; his networks here and in England that pretend to appeal to the working class with right wing uber-patriot rhetoric that directs them towards the right only to find themselves aligned to a party that in no-way reflects their standing in the US: ie, economically, socially, gender, race, fill in pretty much anything here and it applies except rich and white> And how do companies convince the public that thier views and those of corporations are the same; well with billions of dollars, think tanks, public relations, marketing, blah, blah, blah. Kale Lasn the author of the great book "Culture Jam" and also behind the mag adbusters has tried repeatedly to publish ads on local television stations only to have his ads rejected for corporate favoritism, go fuigure. You want to know the way to truly affect change in the US, first stop absorbing all corporate controlled media - and then take them over and give em back to the public the way it should be. Question: If the media is supposed to be the watchdog over the government then why aren't they doing thier job and have become entangled in a public - corporate - government three way orgy where the corporations, like stated before, are far more powerful than the poeple.

Questions for robots on saving the world: Happiness!

Here we are, living in un-arguably the most powerful country in the world and we should be of the happiest poeple on the planet - right; well actually we are the 23rd "happiest" people in the world with good old Denmark taking the first place in that category. One might ask what Denmark has that we don't: Well, for starters they have socialized health care so they don't have to worry about dying. Also they get six paid weeks of vacation a year and only put in 35 hour work weeks when not getting paid to vacation. As well, they don't have to worry that thier "bully" of a government is going to make them either political targets or victims of anomosity when they are abroad on thier six weeks of paid vacation. Oh yeah and also the poeple of Denmark make on average a higher percentage wage combined with a lower cost of living compared to US citizens. Also they have a true purportional representation government with no one party having ever controlled it since its inception; our capitalistic oligarchy hardly compares to that does it. Also since education directly relates to happiness a free education would be nice wouldn't it - yep Denmark has that also; you don't even have to join the military to get the money for college, wow! So what is the conclusion or moral of this loaded diatribe; well we should be happier, less sedated (wether by drugs or technological distraction), we should be taken care of; health wise, education wise, monetarily, and socially with a wide range of institutions designed to aid in the pursuit of happiness. Also it would be nice to feel confidence in our governemt, and the idea that the citizens it presides over is its first priority; not big buisness, not the economy, and not in pursuit of policing the world. We got a long way to go poeple and it isn't going to help by sitting around and bitching about it on a fucking blog, go fuigure>