This is something that i have sitting on for a good while, it's my critique of the whole meltdown of 2 out of the 3 detroit auto companies. I remember thinking back to when i was about 12 years old looking at all of these new car lots and all of these fantastic new cars that came out year after year after year and began to wonder, who the hell is buying a new car every three years and why don't they slow don't production, i mean there really aren't that many NEW car buyers every year are there? and this is where i discovered they were all making bad decisions at the expense of EVERYONE.
Only ONE out of three makes smart decisions, and maybe that is the odds of what it comes down to with people in life anymore making good quality decisions. sad to think that it may be that way, but educators break there class rooms into thirds. 1/3 that really want to learn, 1/3 that kind of want to learn and lastly the 1/3 that just doesn't care.
those thirds break down simply. the first third is Ford Motor Company. that's right, the company that didn't invent anything great to the auto except total worker exploitation is on top....of the massive pile of shit that is the Detroit auto industry. Ford has been re-tooling for a good while dropping a lot of weight a long the way to make it's self more lean and a better company. Ford used to own part of Mazda, Aston Martin, Land Rover and Jaguar now they have no real stake in any of them.
the second 1/3 is GM, can't get it together and they also offer like also offer way too many of the same damn product across the board. why they kept Buick, Olds, Saturn, GMC, Saab, blah blah blah shit product for so long is beyond me. I stopped taking GM seriously when they did away with the Camero back in 2000. thats when i knew they didn't have me as a potential customer in mind in any way shape or form. they got addicted to making lost of product with NO REAL FEATURES.
the last of em is Chrysler. in the words of jay-z..WHAT MORE CAN I SAY!?!?!?!? damn, THE FIRST REAL AUTOMOBILE COMPANY EVER USED TO OWN A PORTION OF YOU. YOU MADE THEM LOSE LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY TO WHERE THEY DUMPED YOU OFF ON MICHIGAN AND TRUMBLE OUTSIDE A PARTIALLY TORN DOWN TIGER STADIUM. how the hell you couldn't make that work was incredible. first off, you folks at Chrysler should have gone down in the early 80's if i remember, but somehow you got government financing to secure your habit of making crap vehicles. congrats on lasting this long, because you should no longer.
Any on to the meat of the subject. it's sad actually, because i really don't know too many people that really, really, really like the cars that the "3" make. i know most of my mom's family drive Toyota's. i know my sister drives one, so does my brother and my wife and i drive VW's, my father in-law drives a Toyota and i think this might be his 2nd or third. Most of the folks i know personally that drive auto's don't drive "American"(what ever that means. my car is serviced in the good ole US of A every time it needs a fixin.).
i gave up on GM a good while ago, when they decided to cancel the camero. i used to drive a Dodge Neon, and it was cool, but it was missing somethings like cruise control and ABS. somethings i would never even look at a car if it did not have it.
It's funny that people talk a lot of mess about all the crazy things that German's do to cars and how advanced they make there products. but, it wasn't that long ago that you didn't need to have seat belts in cars. it was not too long ago that airbags came standard in cars. now, ABS is the soon to be new standard as with ESP/ASR(electronic stability program and acceleration slip regulation) ALL of this stuff is STANDARD on German cars. All of those things i have mentioned are brought to you by the helpful folks in Deutchland.
If it wasn't for them you would still be driving a Pinto that might explode on a rear end collision. or the fact that you might still be wanting that big ole OLD's 454 in a car that doesn't have the suspension for it, or the the new ford excursion that is now 9" longer than the suburban!!!!!! it's those types of mistakes that bring in a lot of excess of bigger is better. i mean the bigger the house the better it's got to be right? the bigger the vehicle the better the quality of life you will be living right? if i can tow a C-141 it means that i have got to be living the American dream right?
exactly, welcome to the world of self delusion, instant gratification and confusing necessity with luxury. next chapter, why the cell phone industry will die off see you in 4 years for that one.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
RIP Michael Jackson 1958-1995
you know, i have a lot of emotions when thinking about MJ, but the one thing that remains constant with me is Michael until 1995. Michael until 1995 was amazing, i never idolized him but i sure as hell did admire him. he could sing, command a song and really really entertain. I remember listening to The Jackson 5 as a kid and remember wearing my bothers Bad jacket as it got passed down to me. Mike was the man until 95.
Mike anytime after that got really strange it was horrible to see him become a caricature of the man he used to be, but maybe never was. I didn't know mike personally, and I'm not sure how many of you did. None of us know for sure whether or not that he actually did or did not molest those kids. I don't know him personally, but there was a lot of weird behavior exuded from him post 95.
I watched a man i admired to become this white ghoulish like creature and my thoughts on him began to change. Mike also stopped doing the thing that would win over anyone, making music. It's sad but if Mike continued to make music during that time he more than likely wouldn't have had any problems with the kids.
I digress. That is not what i want to focus on at all. what i do want to focus on is what do we really want to remember him or even ourselves when we die. I don't think I know anyone that actually knows MJ personally, and i mean personally. I don't know much accept what the media puts out there, and also put a few pieces of the puzzle together to draw my own conclusion.
It was just sad in the last almost 15 years that MJ became a sad story, but pretty much to his own demise to be perfectly honest. some of his public behavior was erratic and just blatantly disturbing, it was sad that you did not get to see the other half of the man, what ever that may have been post 95 MJ.
I think there are a lot of people saddened not by the fact that he is dead, but more the fact that they are part of the reason he was driven to seclusion and living in Bahrain for a few years. I don't think there are many people that can defend a good portion of his actions, because i would not even want to try. Is he a flawed character, yes, but did his music do good, more then he would have ever realized, and more than fans would have ever realized had he not died today.
It is sad that MJ sang a song that is so fitting for so many in our lives. one of the most powerful songs that changed many lives(including mine). I think it is sad that MJ could not pull it together and sing that song to him self. "I'm starting with the man in the mirror. I'm asking him to change his ways. No message could have been any clearer. If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the CHANGE."
RIP Michael Jackson. you will live on in infamy. Peace and thank you for all of your amazing art.
sincerely and respectively,
Icy Mike.
Mike anytime after that got really strange it was horrible to see him become a caricature of the man he used to be, but maybe never was. I didn't know mike personally, and I'm not sure how many of you did. None of us know for sure whether or not that he actually did or did not molest those kids. I don't know him personally, but there was a lot of weird behavior exuded from him post 95.
I watched a man i admired to become this white ghoulish like creature and my thoughts on him began to change. Mike also stopped doing the thing that would win over anyone, making music. It's sad but if Mike continued to make music during that time he more than likely wouldn't have had any problems with the kids.
I digress. That is not what i want to focus on at all. what i do want to focus on is what do we really want to remember him or even ourselves when we die. I don't think I know anyone that actually knows MJ personally, and i mean personally. I don't know much accept what the media puts out there, and also put a few pieces of the puzzle together to draw my own conclusion.
It was just sad in the last almost 15 years that MJ became a sad story, but pretty much to his own demise to be perfectly honest. some of his public behavior was erratic and just blatantly disturbing, it was sad that you did not get to see the other half of the man, what ever that may have been post 95 MJ.
I think there are a lot of people saddened not by the fact that he is dead, but more the fact that they are part of the reason he was driven to seclusion and living in Bahrain for a few years. I don't think there are many people that can defend a good portion of his actions, because i would not even want to try. Is he a flawed character, yes, but did his music do good, more then he would have ever realized, and more than fans would have ever realized had he not died today.
It is sad that MJ sang a song that is so fitting for so many in our lives. one of the most powerful songs that changed many lives(including mine). I think it is sad that MJ could not pull it together and sing that song to him self. "I'm starting with the man in the mirror. I'm asking him to change his ways. No message could have been any clearer. If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the CHANGE."
RIP Michael Jackson. you will live on in infamy. Peace and thank you for all of your amazing art.
sincerely and respectively,
Icy Mike.
Monday, June 22, 2009
God and YOU................
This is something i have been battling with for a good while now. it's the whole belief in a higher power, a supreme being, God if you will. I've thought long and hard, and thought about why people believe and then sat and picked apart the scabs that people show from there flaws with there direct connection with Christianity. i almost found my self in a spot to where i was so unhappy i almost convinced myself i was athiest(stupid i know). while getting to that point i found myself the ugliest and least like myself.
I just want to share a few things with you i have discovered about myself. most of my favorite memories involve the Concept of God pretty directly. I love classic Church Hymns, part of the reason i love classical music and part of the reason why i was in band and love to sing, it's also part of the reason why i love ALL music, was being in church all the time and hear the different keys, time signatures and all other sorts of stuff.
I love the outdoors. I love being out side i can thank Camp Mowana so much for that. being in nature, joining in song, comradeship and meeting some of the dopest people i have ever known to walk the earth...you know who you are, RIP Hippy Longstockings, you are an amazing soul. I love the feeling of being out in the open and getting away from the so called things we need, in which we don't need most of them.
I love my Wife. I owe a huge amount of gratitude to a lot of people and Daralyn is one of them. if it wasn't for her and i meeting, i wouldn't be writing this right now, seriously. Life just happens very strangely and you just need to be open to new experiences and not shut your brain down. take your headphones off and talk to the person next to you on the bus it might change your life, or you might laugh your ass off, which is just as good.
I love my family. I wouldn't be anywhere without them. seriously. to know me is to know a good portion of me, and to know my history. we all come from dysfunctional families it's time to grow up and move beyond the shit that happened when you were 3,4,5,6,13, etc...and start paving your own way.
I know most of this seems pretty vague but its not to convert, just to convey how happy the concept of God/Allah/Jesus has been in my life. while the complete and total REAL factor that so many people are after these days might be void, the same could be said for Lincoln, Gandhi, Harold(from harold and the purple crayon), the mouse from if you give a mouse a cookie. if those people can have a large effect on you with out them being physically present ever in your life, can you seriously debate the importance that they hold in your life. My Grandma Mick (pbuh) might not mean much to you, but she was amazing and you never got to meet her, but she is with me all the time.
the same could be said for God. I don't know him/directly but it has seemed to pave a pretty solid path for me. i hope that you can be as genuinely happy as i am, because to know that something as abstract as God can bring me so many amazing people in my life is awesome. i just hope you can get to the point where you stop picking other peoples scabs and start healing your own.
sincerely,
Icy Mike.
I just want to share a few things with you i have discovered about myself. most of my favorite memories involve the Concept of God pretty directly. I love classic Church Hymns, part of the reason i love classical music and part of the reason why i was in band and love to sing, it's also part of the reason why i love ALL music, was being in church all the time and hear the different keys, time signatures and all other sorts of stuff.
I love the outdoors. I love being out side i can thank Camp Mowana so much for that. being in nature, joining in song, comradeship and meeting some of the dopest people i have ever known to walk the earth...you know who you are, RIP Hippy Longstockings, you are an amazing soul. I love the feeling of being out in the open and getting away from the so called things we need, in which we don't need most of them.
I love my Wife. I owe a huge amount of gratitude to a lot of people and Daralyn is one of them. if it wasn't for her and i meeting, i wouldn't be writing this right now, seriously. Life just happens very strangely and you just need to be open to new experiences and not shut your brain down. take your headphones off and talk to the person next to you on the bus it might change your life, or you might laugh your ass off, which is just as good.
I love my family. I wouldn't be anywhere without them. seriously. to know me is to know a good portion of me, and to know my history. we all come from dysfunctional families it's time to grow up and move beyond the shit that happened when you were 3,4,5,6,13, etc...and start paving your own way.
I know most of this seems pretty vague but its not to convert, just to convey how happy the concept of God/Allah/Jesus has been in my life. while the complete and total REAL factor that so many people are after these days might be void, the same could be said for Lincoln, Gandhi, Harold(from harold and the purple crayon), the mouse from if you give a mouse a cookie. if those people can have a large effect on you with out them being physically present ever in your life, can you seriously debate the importance that they hold in your life. My Grandma Mick (pbuh) might not mean much to you, but she was amazing and you never got to meet her, but she is with me all the time.
the same could be said for God. I don't know him/directly but it has seemed to pave a pretty solid path for me. i hope that you can be as genuinely happy as i am, because to know that something as abstract as God can bring me so many amazing people in my life is awesome. i just hope you can get to the point where you stop picking other peoples scabs and start healing your own.
sincerely,
Icy Mike.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
People with ADD suck at life......
well, technically not exactly because we all suffer from it from time to time. listening to people who never have anything remotely interesting to say, or people who you are dating that talk about shit you don't care about, so we all have it in doses. what i am talking about is twitter and things akin to that which facebook seems to be suffering from at the moment.
For some reason it seems like more and more people like getting all of there news in short twitter segments or youtube clips or something to where they don't have to think or come up with anything interesting to say other then...Sitting in my chair now!....that type of stuff just seems so mundane and disconnected from anything that would otherwise interest me. i don't care if you just shampooed your hair and it not greasy anymore. i really don't care.
It's great that i have wifi service on my phone and can look certain things up but it's even more sad when a luxury service such as facebook is 110 times better on my mobile phone browser then on my laptop. does anyone at Facebook talk to it's users about what are great features and what should not change? i really don't think they do. i would be happy to pay $10 a month to facebook to go back to the format that made me fall in love with it back in october of 08. since then we have had way to many changes and it has become a crap product.
in order to innovate you need to make sure you target your customer. Myspace is for finding people to fuck. Twitter is for slow teens and adults a like that really think that we need to know all of your mundane details of your life and with no substance. Blogspot is for substance and being fully self adsorbed that you really think that people really care that much to read whole fragmented thoughts put into paragraph form. I like substance, but i also like quick quips about things that are on others minds at the moment it gives it a freshness and uniqueness.
when i fell in love with facebook it was somewhere a mix between all three of those, but now, it is leaning toward the slow teen/twitter category vs. a mix of all things that make us and it unique. facebook used to seem more realistic, but now i notice people not using real names switching them all the time, and that is frustrating. People are fine without writing Notes/Blogs now because apparently you can say all you need to say in a status update, and to that i say snap out of your ADD and learn to craft a thought.
Sincerely,
Icy Mike
For some reason it seems like more and more people like getting all of there news in short twitter segments or youtube clips or something to where they don't have to think or come up with anything interesting to say other then...Sitting in my chair now!....that type of stuff just seems so mundane and disconnected from anything that would otherwise interest me. i don't care if you just shampooed your hair and it not greasy anymore. i really don't care.
It's great that i have wifi service on my phone and can look certain things up but it's even more sad when a luxury service such as facebook is 110 times better on my mobile phone browser then on my laptop. does anyone at Facebook talk to it's users about what are great features and what should not change? i really don't think they do. i would be happy to pay $10 a month to facebook to go back to the format that made me fall in love with it back in october of 08. since then we have had way to many changes and it has become a crap product.
in order to innovate you need to make sure you target your customer. Myspace is for finding people to fuck. Twitter is for slow teens and adults a like that really think that we need to know all of your mundane details of your life and with no substance. Blogspot is for substance and being fully self adsorbed that you really think that people really care that much to read whole fragmented thoughts put into paragraph form. I like substance, but i also like quick quips about things that are on others minds at the moment it gives it a freshness and uniqueness.
when i fell in love with facebook it was somewhere a mix between all three of those, but now, it is leaning toward the slow teen/twitter category vs. a mix of all things that make us and it unique. facebook used to seem more realistic, but now i notice people not using real names switching them all the time, and that is frustrating. People are fine without writing Notes/Blogs now because apparently you can say all you need to say in a status update, and to that i say snap out of your ADD and learn to craft a thought.
Sincerely,
Icy Mike
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