FilteringCraig

Earlier today in a meeting I heard the word administrate used more than 3 times and it got me to thinking. (Yes, occasionally I do use the organ between my ears.) Anyway, I am not sure if that is even a word, and if it is, what its usage should be. I can�t understand how it would be any different than �administer,� which sounds like the proper verb for the scenario.

I found that the word exists on dictionary.com, but is this a usage thing, where people�s ignorance pervaded for so long that they added it?

Tell me what you know and what you can dig up about this word.

Sometimes even the best-laid plans get all messed up. I had been planning this whole thing for weeks. I was looking forward to it. It was not only going to be fun, but completely new and different.

This week I was supposed to be working in the lovely Chicago suburb of Lincolnshire Illinois. The catch was that I was going to leave on Friday so that I could spend the weekend with some friends downtown and then go work in Lincolnshire until Thursday July 3rd. Then I was going to go back to the city and spend the 4th partying in the land of Ferris Beuler. By 1:17 PM on Friday (I was going to leave at 4:30) the trip was canceled and I don�t know for sure when I am going to get back to Chicago.

I was going to be at a party on Sunday that would have been unlike anything I have ever taken part in. First of all, we were going to start drinking Mimosa�s bright and early. You see, my friends� apartment is directly on the route for the gay pride parade on Sunday. Normally watching a bunch of guys in drag showing way too much man-ass isn�t my idea of a good time, but I started thinking about pure statistics.

You know there is a large population of straight girls who love their gay male friends. And you have to figure the gay pride parade would have a shortfall in the number of straight men who are by far the most intolerant group in America. So, I would have been in very good company as one of the very few straight guys who were enlightened enough to not feel threatened by the gay population of Chicago. That was the plan anyway. Maybe next year.

Alternatively, I had a good time this weekend anyway. I went to a party on the lovely shores of Lake Erie with a few friends. There was a bonfire on the private beach. And yes, Lake Erie does have beaches, although getting too close to the water opens you up to the liability of stepping on syringes and being exposed to deadly bacteria. There were about 20 people there and it was a really great time. I should have remembered to bring my guitar though. Now that would have been an even better time.

Anyone else have fun this weekend?

I feel like I just did this week’s friday five in a fake five a couple weeks ago, so here is the completely random fake five. Don’t expect any cohesion.

1. What movies have you seen most recently and provide a 3-word review of each.

About Schmidt � Poignantly Funny Abrupt

Punch Drunk Love � Dark Surreal Amazing

25th Hour � Spike Lee�s Best (Ed Norton Rules. Sorry I needed 3 more words.)

2. What is your favorite place to watch movies?

I used to love going to the theater for movies, but now I really enjoy renting the DVD�s for home. Plus you can�t beat my new, huge, comfy sectional couch.

3. What are you doing while TV goes into rerun season?

I have been renting DVD�s for one. I have also been going to lots of concerts, hitting bars too many nights per week, and playing guitar. I really need to find ways to relax this summer.

4. What are you going to do for the 4th of July?

I don�t know for sure. I might stay in Chicago because I am going to be on business there next week. I might come back to Cleveland if something is going on, or I might go to Chautauqua, which is the place where I could probably relax the most. Unfortunately for me, July 3rd is going to be my travel day and it might be difficult to get where I want to go.

5. How do you react when approached by homeless or impoverished people begging for money?

I have always tried to be nice, but my patience was tested last night before the Jets to Brazil concert at the Grog Shop. A man came up and promptly showed my friend and me his track marks. Then he said he wasn�t asking for money but food. Despite him telling me 25 times in 3 minutes that the key to life was to �keep it real, keep it right, keep it true� I couldn�t find it in my heart to give this menace anything. Do not engage me if you are going to beg from me. When you are begging and you engage the beggee, you seem like a con artist and I don�t appreciate it.

I was having conversations with some people the last couple of days about Enron. The sheer magnitude of the fraud and how deeply this thing went is unbelievable. Given some more time, and having gained some perspective, Enron�s crimes don�t seem any less huge than they did when it first happened.

One of the big things that really hits home is how this entire thing was enabled in part by George Bush (the first iteration). The Energy Act of 1992 allowed Enron to trade their energy over the infrastructure that already existed. This is not to say that the Bush�s are responsible for the illegal activity. I will go out on a limb and give George Bush the benefit of the doubt, in that I don�t think by opening the door for Ken Lay and the boys to make money, that he wanted them to commit the largest case of fraud in corporate history.

Sure, George W. got money for his elections from the man he called �Kenny Boy,� but I implore you to name one employee in an elected position in the U.S. Government that doesn�t look for some form of corporate sponsorship to support election costs. What I am saying is don�t hate the player. Hate the game. You can harp on Bush for many things, none of which I am going to go into, but I haven�t seen sufficient evidence and in my deduction I don�t think there is just cause, at this point, to roast his ass on this one. In time, maybe there will be.

The other reason that I bring this up today is I have a nomination for the �Too Little, Too Late� Awards. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has told Enron it can�t sell power at competitive market prices.

� The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Enron would be able to sell power, but at much less competitive prices, virtually shutting down the company�s ability to compete. It can resume regular business once it emerges from bankruptcy proceedings and gets FERC approval.
FERC Chairman Pat Wood said it was the first time the commission had imposed its so-called �death penalty� on power sellers.
�We send a clear signal that competitive markets must work in the interest of customers and the public interest,� Wood said.�

BWAHAHAHA! Snort, chortle, and giggle.
And….
Scene.

Way to go Pat. Nice job protecting consumers� you jackass. It may not have been your fault, but doesn�t this seem rather post-emptive?

Also announced today,

The FBI wants to alert U.S. citizens that they should be on the lookout for Jeffery Dahmer, who is considered armed and dangerous even though he already died in prison. They are considering giving his already dead corpse the electric chair to ensure future public safety from this menace.

Given the discussions we have had here on my site and the conversation that has been brewing on Justin�s site about prayer in schools, I got to thinking about the majority vs. minority. This country was founded on free people making decisions based on the concept that the majority rules. When a presidential election occurs, based on current rules they determine the majority based on the Electoral College. I am not going to get into this conversation in relation to the most recent election where Gore got a higher vote count, but still lost the election. Any comments on that will be deleted because I don�t care to talk about it or host that argument here. That is my right as The Filtered (and sometimes filtering) One.

But, when we bring it down to issues that we don�t vote on, majority doesn�t always win because while the majority might rule, we need to protect the rights of the minority opinion as well to maintain the first part about us being a free people. I think that it is a nice thought, but it is unrealistic to think we can protect any opinion all the time, let alone the minority one, which always proves to be more difficult to protect. I mean, just ask the KKK or NAMBLA how well their opinions are protected in this country. On certain days though, we step up and let the aforementioned groups gather for rallies for their causes, which in my opinion are both completely despicable.

So we now have a line that is difficult to straddle. We need to protect minority opinions to be considered free, but we will make decisions based on majority rules. Based on realism, what it comes down to is just like a business decision. It�s kind of like a cost/benefit situation.

Should prayer be protected in school?
No, not in an organized fashion, but mentions of religion here and there including the pledge are not worth upholding the minority opinion. In saying this, I am still supporting the opinion that prayer should not be allowed in school, but I am not taking it to a level where it is impossible to achieve. I mean are we going to start suspending people including teachers when they say �Praise the Lord� in school? Of course not. Same thing when someone says �oh my God.� We would have California valley girls lining the walls of detention.

Should the �Barbie is a Lesbian� T-shirt be protected in school?
No, because it has proven to be disruptive and a minor detail. If the same homosexual student wants to put a group together to discuss gay rights and drum up support, (s)he should be afforded the same opportunity and support as the chess club. Failure to provide that support should be fought. Last time I checked, the school did not punish the student with a suspension or detention or anything, they just made her change clothes.

So, as much as many of you are going to hate this, there can�t be a hard-lined rule. Because we are all human and there are many factors in many different places throughout the United States, we will have to rely on judgment calls. Sure, they might not always be right, in which case a person can take it into court, but for the most part, based on percentages of these stories we hear about every day, I think it is working fine. We don�t need to do battle over a few minor details in relation to the prayer in school, or a t-shirt that supports gay rights in a manner that was meant to shock and maybe offend people.

According to some financial resources, this year Linux will overtake Apple as the second largest operating system to Microsoft OS�s. You want to talk about Irony? That�s right, (with a capital I!) the anti-establishment open-source community is slowly but surely doing what Microsoft isn�t allowed to do with it�s anti-trust allegations, which is put people out of business.

Linux, unwittingly took Sun Microsystems out of the game by taking their Unix business model, including OS licenses at $3000 a pop and enticed customers with the much cheaper Linux, which is FREE! There is no way to beat free, just ask Netscape.

Now, as the open source community keeps Linux moving and it is being adopted by PC manufacturers, it was only natural that Linux would overtake Apple by enabling hardware OEM’s to offer PC�s for well under $500 with the Linux operating system. But, the idea was to take out Microsoft�s legs. Really, what they did was convert a lot of the Apple people who are anti-Microsoft to Linux people. At a pricing point under $500 Apple can�t even come close to competing. Their systems still run well over $1000 all the way up to around $3000. Even the most loyal people on earth can�t (or won’t be able to) deal with that discrepancy.

It is true that this is just a by-product of competing with Microsoft, but it is ironic in its result, as most Linux followers love to hate Gates so much. In the short term they are helping the giant, but ultimately their goal is to unseat them as the dominant player in computers from personal desktops to servers.

Ironic with a capital I if you ask me.

In Queens, New York, a girl was told that her t-shirt with the phrase �Barbie is a Lesbian� was too �inappropriate� for display in school. I have no idea what the courts are going to decide in this case because it certainly isn�t a profane statement, but I tend to agree with the teachers who made her take it off because I think it is completely inappropriate for school.

I don�t think there is anything wrong with the content of the shirt, but there is a time and place for everything and school is not the place. Schools should be, and in most cases are, afforded the ability to make rules in order to achieve the goals of teaching the children in this country. Whether the shirt is constitutionally protected is not the question. It is. Is it protected while a student is attending a public school? Not a chance. It is disruptive. Schools need the ability to have a selective dress code to maintain an environment conducive to learning. If it hinders students� ability to learn at school then it should not be allowed.

It is your constitutional right to run but should you be allowed to sprint down the hallway?

It is your right to have free speech, but should you be allowed to drop F-bombs in a classroom?

It is your constitutional right to go to the bathroom, but should you be allowed to get up and go whenever you want?

It is your constitutional right to wear pretty much any clothing you want, but should you be allowed to wear a bikini top or speedo�s in school?

We need rules to run our school systems effectively. I am willing to give this latitude to the scholastic world. Doesn�t high school meet for about 6.5 hours per day? Is anyone impeding on the constitution by limiting certain things within those hours?

Ultimately, this should be an exercise in common sense. Is that t-shirt helping or hurting the environment for learning? If you answered no, you are extremely jaded and unreasonable. It obviously is and it is unnecessary.

They are turning this into a gay rights issue and it has nothing to do with it. If it were a shirt proclaiming heterosexuality, it would be just as disruptive and treated the same way. Take the shirt off and drop the lawsuit. Use some common sense when getting dressed in the morning.

I won�t even say anything about the parental issues that I am thinking of right now because you can all fill in the blanks on your own.

This weekend was the farewell tour of The Dismemberment Plan in Cleveland. I couldn�t have asked for a better show. There were two opening acts Grand Buffet and Lake Trout. They couldn�t have been two more opposites.

Grand Buffet is a two-man whiteboy rap group from Pittsburgh who were hilarious. They took the indie rock crowd, and made them laugh so hard that they put their pretentious scene credibility on the backburner and were singing along and waving their hands back and forth like the video for hip-hop hooray (naughty by nature, not cause I hate ya!). I can�t even explain how funny these guys were, but the lyrics and the dancing were nothing short of brilliant. I don�t usually like novelty acts, but these guys ruled.

Lake Trout was next and they ended up rocking the place out. I had the feeling that they were going to go into some ridiculous, endless jams but they were able to keep themselves from going too crazy. Some of the songs were well over 5 minutes, but they kept the switches coming and didn�t bore us with any Allman Brothers type jams.

The Dismemberment Plan came onstage at about 12:00 am. As with every one of their shows the lead singer came out and said, �Hi guys. We�re the Dismemberment Plan from Washington, DC.� As if anyone didn�t know who they were or where they were from. Then they blasted through three quick songs, including Timebomb which is one of my personal favorites. After the first three songs, they started taking requests for the remainder of the evening.

It was amazing. The crowd requested pretty much every song I wanted to hear, including �You Are Invited,� �The City,� �What do You Want Me to Say?� �A Life of Possibilities,� and plenty more. Other highlights included this girl who was dressed in a hotdog outfit. It was the strangest thing, but she was invited onstage to dance during one song. She managed to make that fake mustard streak down the front of her shake and move. Weird stuff.

These pictures are AP photos taken from CNNSI.com.

I am not sure what it is about the last 2 weeks, but fights have been occurring fast and furious in baseball right now. This is by far the bloodiest fight I have ever seen. If I remember correctly the only good fight last year was the White Sox and Royals against the drunken father and son in Chicago.

The best fight I ever saw live was when I went to a weekend’s worth of Indians games at Fenway. Jaret Wright hit Troy O’Leary with a CURVEBALL, which is never the “I am going to go out and hit this guy” pitch because it is tougher to control and it isn’t fast. So anyway, Troy got ticked and Jaret Wright throws his hands in the air tosses his glove, and a brawl ensued. I promptly removed my Indians hat as the drunken Fenway faithful started going nuts. Then the next inning, Real Cormier hit Jim Thome with the first pitch and Thome took half a step toward first to fake out the catcher before charging his hunting and fishing buddy, over-running him with his clothesline attempt and falling to the ground behind the pitching mound as the two teams collided. It’s always cool when relief pitchers come sprinting out of the bullpen.

Does anyone have any favorite fights? I will accept entries from the NBA too because that Doug Christie vs. Rick Fox thing in the pre-season rocked.

I really like a lot of cheesy movies. I especially like bad movies that I used to watch when I was younger.

Teen Wolf. Who could resist Alex P. Keaton as a hairy van surfer with a best friend named Styles? I will tell you that I couldn�t.

The Burbs. Do you remember Corey Feldman stealing the show with the line �There�s these people! And they�re in our parents� house! And they�re eating all their food!� Classic.

Pee-Wee�s Big Adventure. I mean what person could say they don�t like the trick gum and the Olympic sized bathtub that Pee Wee jumps in to choke Francis Buxton. I am forever envious.

I even like Footloose starring everyone�s favorite trivia game, Kevin Bacon. My college roommate and I once skipped an afternoon class to sit home and watch Footloose. Some might think that this says more about the class than the movie, but I disagree.

You know it touches me right here! What they did to those kids in that movie was wrong. They took away their right to DANCE! Thank God Kevin Bacon transferred into the area and took on that big meanie John Lithgow, with his antiquated ideals and contempt for youthful music and subsequent dancing. I mean it was so important that Bacon�s stunt double did some insane gymnastics throughout an abandoned warehouse. AN ABANDONED WAREHOUSE!

The problem is that there is a statute of limitations on my cheesy movie quotient. I can�t watch the cheesy movies of today as I watched the pure cheddar from yesteryear with fervor and newfound excitement. Sure, I saw “10 Things I Hate About You,” with Heath Ledger’s song with the marching band and “She’s All That” with the choreographed prom dance scene, but I won’t ever hold them in as high regard as the classics. Take the new movie From Kelly to Justin. (I am nearly offended that this has an entry on the IMDB.)

This movie is just going to be impossible to enjoy even for the cheese factor. I can�t believe a producer even went to the trouble of putting this together. I hate these two manufactured stars. I hate the show they originated from and I want them to go away.

Plus, I can�t believe that these movie people opened themselves up to such great liability. I mean, Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons is going to have a field day suing the pants off of the creators of this movie. I doubt they even got permission to borrow a character from the greatest sitcom of all time.

What am I talking about?
You be the judge.