For It Is Decreed From Up On High

A gallop poll recently found out that of the 54% surveyed, only 41% believe that 72% of the remaining 59% did not completely answer the survey correctly in 12% of the cases. However, the other 88% were only 91% completed and 9% were 12% shy of 99%. Although this survey is only 54% accurate in Ohio and 39% in the rest of the country. Give or take 5 to 7% in the Midwest as a margin or error. New surveys will be completed soon to get more accurate readings.

- The Mountain Cat

Hitting the High Notes 3/1

From time to time I come across stuff that I want to blog about but have no real place to put it... they aren't random thoughts and usually aren't big enough for a single blog post so I save them up and post sort of a smorgasbord of interesting stuff and I call it "hitting the high notes"... Here goes:

-Maxim Magazine is pretty embarrassed after admitting that they gave the Black Crowes a lukewarm review on their new album - Without even listening to the whole thing... Uhh Maxim I know your goal in life is to be Playboy lite but come on at least have some shred of legitimacy.

-Boy George denies imprisoning Norwegian man at his London home - I am sorry but I just find that headline funny as heck.

-Students at Chapel Hill high School were recently busted in a HUGE cheating scandal. Now I know you say this kind of thing happens all the time but the ironic thing is that this particular high school is supposed to be the toughest most academically prestigious high school in the entire state of North Carolina. They are a public high school who thinks of themselves as a private school. If you get a chance read the article these kids were apparently passing a master key to the school around for years and getting tests ahead of time. It's a big mess and couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of stuck up elitists.

-Did you guys know that the states of Georgia and Tennessee are apparently about to go to war with one another? Apparently somebody in the 1800s messed up and part of Tennessee is actually Georgia's and they want to annex a good portion of the Tennessee river... It may turn into a mini civil war... what do you think about that MickyT ??

-You have got to be kidding me. It's a doggone chartbuster -- a song audible only to dogs has topped New Zealand record charts, and is looking to go global. A Very Silent Night, recorded at a frequency only dogs can hear, was so popular among owners it hit number one at Christmas I don't make these things up folks I just report them. And please don't tell me that you would actually pay money to download this song that only your dog can hear... Yeesh

-I hate to say I told you so but... remember that guy who got mauled at the San Fran zoo by the tiger. I blogged about it here. Well sure enough I was right and the "victim" was drinking an taunted the tiger... Once again I say this is just nothing more than Darwin's natural selection at it's finest.

-And finally there was an incident in Arlington Oregon recently where the Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist was forced from office because there was a racy picture of her posing in bra an panties on a firetruck. Where was this picture found? You guessed it On her Myspace page. Now granted I guess the residents of Arlington Oregon (all 500 of them) have the right to recall their Mayor for whatever reason they want to but I will show the picture here so you can decide for yourself how "racy" it is. But the moral of this story is this... ADULTS SHOULDN'T USE MYSPACE - NOTHING GOOD CAN COME OUT OF IT. The only exception is if you are just checking up on your kids...because not much good can come from them using it either. Here is the picture:

From Myspace

From a town council meeting

Your thoughts?

-Doc

Here is the Kissing Lion video

Leap O' Faith sent this to me:

This Is AMAZING . . . LOVE IS FOREVER !!!

Several years ago this woman found a sick, malnourished lion cub in the jungle.
She took the cub home and fed him and brought him up until he was too big to keep anymore.
Then she made arrangements with a zoo in Colombia to take the lion.
Here's a video of what happened when she went to visit him in the zoo for the first time: http://www.telestereo.com/Archivos/video.html

- The Mountain Cat

And the best bumper sticker is.....

Oh I can't decide.
So it is a tie!

The winners are:

Leighann: 'If you're going to ride my ass, at least pull my hair!'

and

Lulita's: 'Cats in the cradle and the silver spoon. Daddy's hunting Momma with a big harpoon.'

You both have won my very first Lion Kiss Award:


Right click and save this photo to your blog page and speak kindly of me to your friends and family. Congratulation you crazy kids. Y'all have a great weekend!

- The Mountain Cat.

The Night We Never Met

When I was a senior in high school I played football but also had a part time job as a bagger at a local supermarket. As it turns out the combination of these two things was the way that I ended up meeting ole Mt. Cat who ends up turning out to be one of my best lifelong friends. This is the story of how we met and how we sort of met before we ever met. It will make more sense as I tell it.

Friday night football is a huge tradition at our high school (West Charlotte Senior High) and back when we were there we were really good. My senior year we were undefeated conference champs. One thing you need to know about West Charlotte high is that although the school was very racially diverse historically it was known as an African American high school. It's located in a very prominent "black" part of town and has always been a source of pride in the black community. Especially the athletic teams and the marching band. No offense to the rest of ya'll bands but our band could JAM!

I tell you all this to set the stage for the picture of me on the football team. There were multiple white players on the team but we were in the minority. Certainly no problem there...may the best athlete play. However lets just say that I was one of very few white players on defense. There were actually like 2 of us. I was also not a starter, as a safety I played when the defense needed additional coverage for receivers and on special teams. My group of friends and classmates always used to sit together at games and sometimes they would call out things from the stands to show their support and encouragement for the team and my playing status. It was not at all unusual to hear things yelled from behind me during games such as "Hey Coach, Put the white boy in!" or "White boy....48 white boy 48" (my number) I prefer to think of them as just having a lot of school spirit and support for the team and not that they were making fun of me.

Enter Vince. (Mt. Cat) Now what you have to know about Vin at this point is that he is not from Charlotte, NC. Vin is from Brooklyn New York City and moved to Charlotte NC during the summer before his senior year of high school. I can't even imagine the culture shock he went through not just in terms of the difference in city but it was a big transition in school and just before his senior year. I guess that he didn't know very many people. He and I hadn't met. Heck there were probably 3000 students at our school. The only people that he knew were kids that he had met at his new job as a cashier at a grocery store. Yep you guessed it, the same grocery store that I worked at on the weekends.

OK, back to the football game. One Friday night early in that fall of 1989 Vince decides to check out the school football team and go to the game. I am sure that we were demolishing some poor opponent and so the mood in the stands was pretty good. As fate would have it Vince happens to find a large group of students to sit with that just happen to be acting as my own personal cheering section that night. So as he is sitting there hanging out watching the game apparently people are cheering things like "GO SHANE!!" " Way to go 48" and other very encouraging things just trying to keep up the school spirit. So curiosity gets the better of him and he asks the guy sitting next to him. "Who are they yelling for? Who is this Shane?" and the response that he gets is something along the lines of a drunken slurr "He'sssss numberrrr forty-eight. He'ssss the best playerrrrr" Vince then searches the field looking for this hero. This team leader who is helping the Lions crush their opponent. Is he scoring Touchdowns? Is he sacking the quarterback? Suddenly he spots the elusive 48. The one who makes the other students chant special things. And Vin then asks the million dollar question.... "Hey, If he's the best player then what is he doing on the bench?"

Fast forward to the weekend. I am going to my job at the grocery store where I usually clean up the back room and mop the floor... 25 times just to make sure it's clean. (and to get out of the real work) and I notice there is a new guy up front as a cashier. I ask Carol in the office who this new guy is and am told. "His name is Vinny. He is from New Yaak" OK fair enough. I go about my duties. Later when Vin goes to take his break I come in to introduce myself. The conversation went a little something like this:

"Hey, I'm Shane, I hear you are from New York. Cool. Hey where do you go to school?"
"I just started at West Charlotte."
"Cool I go there too... I play......football"
"Oh, so you're Shane!!??"
At this point I think that my reputation has exceeded me so I smile and get ready to enjoy my adoration as a football hero when Vin follows it up with, "So hey, why do you ride the bench?"

I guess my reputation did proceed me... Too well in fact.

I am still not sure how we got to be such good friends after the night we never met.

-Doc

Friday's Top Ten List: The Best or Worst Bumper Stickers

You decide:

10. I’D CHEAT ON HILLARY TOO!

9. WHILE JESUS SAVES...MOSES INVESTS.

8. DON’T LAUGH, YOUR DAUGHTER MIGHT BE IN HERE.

7. VISUALIZE WHIRLD PEAS.

6. IF YOU DON’T LIKE MY DRIVING, PLEASE DIAL 1-800-EAT-SHIT.

5. PROUD PARENT OF A STEROID USER.

4. FRODO FAILED. BUSH HAS THE RING.

3. I BREAK FOR TAILGATERS.

2. YOUR HONOR STUDENT FILLED UP MY GAS TANK.

And Doc’s favorite bumper sticker of all time:

1. I’LL BE GRATEFUL WHEN THEY’RE DEAD.

(Disclaimer: The Mountain Cat likes the Grateful Dead. This list was intended for satirical use only).

OK, I want to hear your bumper sticker ideas. I think I finally thought of my own cool award to complement Doc’s Peach for most creative one.

- The Mountain Cat

Thursday Random Thoughts 2/28

Stuff I have been thinking about:

-I didn't see any of the Oscar nominated films this year and I don't really care. As a matter of fact the last movie I even saw in the theater was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

-I saw this headline the other day "Plane carrying 46 Missing in Venezuela" and thought, Is there ever a happy ending to one of the stories? Is a "missing" plane ever "found" OK and in one piece? Sadly I don't remember any.

-Have you made someone else smile today? If not then try to... It's good for you I promise.

-One of the commentators (I don't know her name but she has red hair) on "The View" the other day was talking about the upcoming Presidential election and said, " It's really important that we all get out and vote this time." This time? As opposed to what? The Presidential election in the past that wasn't all that important? Yeesh...

-Speaking of the Presidential Election here is an odd tidbit for you. It is generally thought that only 7 to 10% of the adult population in America is left handed. So you would think that it would be out of the ordinary for both Presidential candidates in the general election to be lefties. We have that distinct possibility because both Barack Obama and John McCain are left handed. That is odd but not the oddest All three of the candidates in 1992 were lefties as well. Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Ross Perot. That almost defies odds unless there is something inherent about politicians and being left handed. Use that little fact there to impress your friends at parties... LOL! (Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford were lefties too)

-Odd Google search note of the week: Someone from Seoul South Korea found our blog by searching for Danny Noriega Superstar... Someone is also delusional.

-I miss Triumph the Comic Insult Dog... That was one funny dog!

-I heard on the radio this morning that the OK symbol we make with our thumb and finger is the symbol for flipping the bird in Brazil... Better remember that on your next trip there.

-I live hundreds of miles of miles from the nearest beach but somehow on Monday a seagull (yeah a dadgum seagull) actually landed on the hood of my car when I was stopped at a stoplight. What the heck?? I shooed him off before he could poop on my car.

-I heard on the radio the other day that there is a scientific theory out there that women actually have the big O when they are giving birth. (I only heard this so don't shoot the messenger) Now I am not a woman and certainly have never given birth but something tells me that there is something a bit flawed with that theory.


Observations from My trip this past weekend as a church youth group chaperon:
-The breakfast buffet at the Embassy Suites is fabulous. They will even make you a made to order omelet if you want one and they carry a $30 filet mignon on their menu but they don't have flavored creamer for the coffee do they Apple??

-The Christian folk group Tangled Blue played at this event I was at. They are really good. They are a married couple who tour around the country in a VW bus with almost 300,000 miles on it. Their message is really positive and the music was great. My favorites were the old testament Advent scripture that they wrote into songs and play with a heavy metal guitar. It's not hokey It's sweet! you can look them up on line if you want to http://www.tangledblue.com/ - But don't confuse them with Bob Dylan's tangled up in blue. (that's what got Hootie in trouble)

-A surefire sign that I am getting old and out of touch is that I have no idea who the heck "Hollister" is. I am not sure if he is an athlete or in a band but this guy sure must be popular though because every third kid at this event had one of his shirts on. Oh well, whatever....

-This tells me that the kids are out of touch because there was a dance at this event and none of them liked one of the greatest rap tunes of all time "Let me clear my throat" by DJ Kool. Shameful.

-Speaking of the dance (which was loosely 80s themed) I have come to the conclusion that they can now "re-mix" anything. Song after song was butchered err re-mixed in one way or another in most cases totally ruining the song. The ultimate out of place remix had to be their rendition of John Denver's "Country Roads" Yes you read that correctly they played a dance remix of John Denver singing his classic "Almost heaven... (woop woop shikky shikky) West Virgina..." It was terrible and I am not kidding. I have witnesses. One reader of this blog was actually with me at the time and called someone on the phone leaving them a message to prove that there was such a horrid thing.

-BTW I am told by that same person that the kids were laughing at me when I was singing my favorite song from 2008 "Clumsy" by Fergie (including the spoken parts) Whatever... they just don't know cool when they see it.

-Hotels have gone Hi-tech on us. This is for real! The clock radio in my hotel room actually had a connection to plug an MP3 player into it. So I guess you can wake up to your I-Pood. Yeesh there was once a time when you had to actually hope they would give you a wake up call on time. If the desk clerk hadn't fallen asleep. Ah those were the days.

-It was a really good weekend and for the most part the kids were very well behaved. I had a great time but was happy to get home to my wife, child and own bed though.

-I came home from my weekend away to find that my son had taught himself a new trick. He really wants to walk and has previously had no desire to crawl. Well I guess all of that changed this weekend because I came home to find him doing this very humorous looking "inchworm" crawl. He scoots along the carpet by arching his back and then pushing of with one foot kind of like an inchworm... It is a scream to watch so I had to get it on video. He is getting really good at it too. He is fast getting across the room. Ahhh the sign of things to come.

Enjoy your "Leap Day" tomorrow everyone !!

-Doc

Congrats to our 10,000th Visitor !!

Mt. Cat and I would like to thank each and every one who comes here, reads and tries to figure out the crazy random stuff that we think about. We love hearing from each and every one of you every day. So having said that we would like to congratulate Single In The City who writes You Say tomato I Say Tomahto who this morning became the 10,000th visitor to You Just Keep on Believing That.... (and there was much rejoicing Yeeeahhhh!) So to give back we have a cash award for her... A special $10,000 bill. Congrats Single (don't spend it all in one place especially since you gave up shopping for Lent...LOL) and once again thank you to everyone who comes here daily. You all make it great fun for us.

-Doc and the Mt. Cat