Daniel Craig is the new James Bond. Going on looks alone I’ve gotta say, eh. This dude doesn’t really grab me in any particularly strong way. I’ll have to see him onscreen in the role to make a final determination but for right now I’m not all that impressed. He just doesn’t have “the look” in my opinion. Obviously I’m a bit biased seeing as this guy is replacing one of my favorite Bonds of all-time, Pierce Brosnan. I’ll try to give this guy a fair shake but for right now I’m a bit non-plussed. Roger Moore (aka the worst Bond ever) says we should give this guy a chance but since those words were spoken by a man whose name is synonymous with buffoon in my mind, I’ll choose to ignore that request. Anyway I wish this Daniel Craig guy luck. Who knows maybe he’ll do well and win me over. I still say bring back Pierce! Or better yet bring back Connery! Or if you want fresh blood get Guy Ritchie (Mr. Madonna) some acting lessons and stick him in the role. Better yet let him act and direct the new movies. That would spice things up a bit.

Daryl’s Favorite Bond Actors in order from Best to Worst

1. Sean Connery
2. Pierce Brosnan
3. Timothy Dalton
4. George Lazenby
11. Roger Moore

Well the iPod got things started off right this morning. Joe Cocker’s The Letter (Live) started playing as I got in the car. That’s a very good song to start the day off with. It’s got a great rhythm to it plus it’s positive and upbeat. In addition to that the song expresses a universal sentiment. What guy can’t relate to the energy and excitement one feels upon receiving a message from their baby? Of course Joe was talking about receiving an actual pin and paper letter. We’ve got the electronic equivalent in the form of email nowadays but the feeling is the same I would imagine. I don’t have a baby as Joe was referring to in the song currently but I remember the feeling he’s singing about. It’s great. I miss it quite a bit actually especially the day after Valentine’s Day.

Next up, after a brief, one song only detour into U2 land, Jack Johnson’s Staple It Together came on. Great song. It’s the only song I have of his off that album. I like Jack. I’m not a huge fan but I like his popular songs. Every time I hear this song I think about those stupid guys on Jackass. Specifically I think of the guy, who’s name escapes me at the moment (Stevo maybe?), that stapled his scrotum to his leg during an episode. I can count the number of times I’ve seen Jackass on one hand but I happened to see that one. Lucky me. Turns out he does (or did) this on a regular basis as part of his comedy routine. OUCH! People actually paid money to see him do that stuff. Personally I’m not paying to see another dude’s junk and secondly no stapler will ever get anywhere near my junk. Anyhow I wonder how Jack Johnson would feel about his cool song being associated with such tomfoolery. I hear he’s a really mellow guy so I would imagine he’d find it amusing.

To wrap up the morning drive the next selection was a classic, Nice and Smooth’s Sometimes I Rhyme Slow. We’re talking about the jam back in the day. That took me back to high school which always puts me in a good mood. So the day started off well and has been good overall. We’ve been busy as usual (as evidenced by the fact that I started typing on this at 8:30 this morning) but I have no complaints (of course I’m here at work for at least another 2 hours so that could change). Sometimes I rhyme slow, sometimes I rhyme quick…..indeed.

It’s snowing. In Memphis. Unfreakingbelievable. A couple of weeks ago our highs were reaching the lower 70s. Now we’ve got snow. Very cool. And we’re not talking flurries. These are big fat snow flakes. Too bad it’s happening heading into the weekend. If it was during the week everything would close up. Schools would be out, businesses closed (I’d probably still have to come in), they’d basically roll up the sidewalks. They’re still going to do that but it has less impact on the weekend. Most folks stay home on the weekend anyway.

Snow in Memphis is a major event. Folks can’t drive in it especially if we get ice mixed in with it. This is perfect weather to go home, snuggle up in a nice warm blanket, turn on some soothing music and just chill. Preferably with your siginificant other. I’ve got the music and the nice warm blanket. All I’m missing is the significant other part. Haven’t had one of those in a minute. Dangit! I’ve got the house all to my self this weekend too. I need a boo stat!

It will be interesting to see if any of this heavy snowfall actually sticks. The way it’s falling we could maybe have a half to a full inch of accumulation by the time I get off work tonight. Driving home is going to be fun. That is if I can get Ichiban in gear. She doesn’t take too kindly to cold weather. If she can get me home tonight she’ll get a special treat, a night in the garage. Not exactly what I envisioned when thinking about spending the evening with a significant other but I guess shll have to do.

I got two more Bless You’s after sneezes today. It’s taken a while but I think I’m finally getting the folks around here on the right track. lol. Since their mommas obviously didn’t do it, I guess I’m gonna have to give them some “home training” as my Momma used to say. I can hear my Mom and Grandma saying, “Those kids ain’t got no home training. Somebody needs to knock some sense into them.” I’m knockin’Momma. I’m knockin’.

I arrived at work a few minutes ago. Guess who I just spoke to. None other than Joseph Lollie. I know. I know. Not all that exciting but when he said his name I instantly flashed back to one of my favorite things from childhood, Schoolhouse Rock!. I loved those short, little snippets of learning bundled in fun, interesting packages. More specifically I flashed back to Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here. Some other favorites include:

• I’m Just A Bill (I’ve got it on my iPod)
• Figure 8 (also on the iPod and sampled in a late 90’s recording from an all time favorite group of mine, P.M. Dawn)
• Conjunction Junction
• Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla
• Unpack Your Adjectives
• The Preamble
• Electricity, Electricity
• Elementary My Dear

The others were cool too but the segments on this list were the best. I’ll probably break down and buy the entire series on DVD eventually.

Someone needs to revamp the series and broadcast new segments pertinent to modern kids. Things are so different now though. The 70’s through the mid-80’s seem like such an innocent time compared to now. I think kids today have to deal with a lot more crap. You’d have to have segments about AIDS prevention, safer sex, drug abuse, dangers of the Internet (aka Don’t Give Out Personal Info on Myspace), living with divorce. All depressing stuff. They could do fun topics too though like: how that cell phone that’s constantly plastered to your ear works, what is actually happening behind the scenes when I fire off instant messages to all my friends, how email works, programming your Tivo in 2 easy steps, how they make your favorite pop star sound so good, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Take a listen to this NPR report then sneak a gander at Adam’s, an old college acquaintance, comments on the subject. Personally I think Adam pretty much sums up my thoughts in this area. Stuff like this burns me up because it not only gives Christians a black eye in the public spotlight but much more importantly it gives Christ a bad name. Why would a non-Christian want to associate with supposed “followers of Christ” if this is our attitude? I could go into full rant mode but I won’t. Listen to the NPR clip. I think it speaks for itself. Then look at Adam’s comments. They’re much more eloquent than anything I could produce on the topic.

Now playing: Kool & The Gang – Fresh (Single Version) – Emergency

Check out this IRC conversation between several not so helpful veterans and an obvious computer/Internet novice. You may need to brush up on your geek knowledge and your 1337 language skills to get the whole gist of what’s going on but trust me it’s funny (kind of mean but funny). Me and some co-workers were laughing uncontrollably after reading it earlier today. Wish I could pull this with a few of my most annoying customers sometimes. Unfortunately I speak to them over the phone and not in an IRC chat session so having them disconnect their Internet connection and eventually wipe out an important chunk of files off of their hard drive will only cause me more headaches. Oh well. It’s fun to dream.

An interesting thing to note is that this is probably a very old conversation. winipcfg is an old Windows 9.x command so either this took place pre-Windows 2000 (Fall of 99 or earlier) or the newbie is using a really old computer. That second option is entirely possible. I spoke to a guy today (well yesterday now) out in our Knoxville office (my old neck of the woods) who was still using Windows 98. Poor guy. I asked if this was an old computer they kept around the office to run legacy applications or something. He said no this is my regular everyday computer. Really poor guy. It threw me for a loop briefly. I had to switch my brain back in time to 1999 so I could remember all the old bread and butter network troubleshooting tricks. Old school baby! I wanted to tell the dude to throw that outdated paper weight out the window and force his boss to purchase a modern PC for him to work on. Alas, our company is tight with the pennies and tends to frown upon destroying company property. Even if every other user in the company is using at least Windows 2000 and most are running XP. I ended up having to route the issue to local support because the guy didn’t have the tools I needed to fix his problem (namely a Windows 98 disk) available. My hope is that the local tech will take one look at the machine and put in an order for a new one right on the spot.

Anyhow, check it out and always remember if you have flashing lights on your modem be afraid. It means the hackers are out to get you!!!

Now playing: Jay-Z – Threat – The Black Album

Check out this hilarious quote Greg over at Grumpus.org dug up about Bush, Groundhog Day and the State of the Union. Thanks Greg. That brightened my day.

Iran Leader Vows to Resist ‘Bully’ Nations - Did I not just call this very thing in one of my many rants last week? For those following at home check it out here.

Personally I don’t think we, as a country, are a bully but I can see how our actions could be perceived that way by the world at large. Our foreign policy, not just in the current administration but in administrations going back many years, has rubbed a lot of people and countries the wrong way. Even though I’m sure that wasn’t the intent it is what it is. The old saying “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.” comes to mind. We’re not going to change people’s perception of us overnight.

[rant] Perhaps our country should hire an agent and a marketing agency to reshape our public image world-wide. Since we’re “at war” you could consider it fighting the war on another front. So you’d have the Iraq front, the Afghanistan front, the Court of Public Opinion front and whatever other invisible fronts we’re fighting on that the government can’t tell us about. The good thing is you won’t have to commit any troops, ships, planes, etc. to this front. The military is stretched a bit thin as it is. Maybe if our enemies were brainwashed into liking us they’d lose their will to completely destroy us thus bringing about an end to the “War on Terror”. Just something to consider. It might be worth a try considering that I don’t see a real end in sight in the “War on Terror”. Will it ever end? I don’t see it the way we’re currently operating. Are we winning the “War on Terror”? How do you even quantify that? Who’s keeping score? Do you measure success by the fact that there haven’t been any major attacks on US soil since 9/11? I seem to recall a long break between the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the next major attack in the US. The bad guys are always going to be out there waiting ready to strike. Should we pursue them to the best of our ability? Darn tootin! But this supposed war we’re fighting now seems awfully broad, vague, and poorly defined. That definition in my mind lends itself to a very long, protracted conflict where there are no real winners on either side but tons of losers measured in lives lost, families ruined and resources expended. [/rant]