Halfway Through Winter

As I am Miami based, we have been enjoying the wonderful weather we have received throughout this month. With the exception of a few days, it has mostly been in the 80s, bright & sunny. I actually have enjoyed a few dinners out on the patio this week.

Unfortunately, due to the economy, thoughts of moving have been on a lot of my friends’ minds. The problem is most areas hiring are areas that are cold. I do not envy them if they move. Of course Miami could be underwater in 10 years, so they may be on to something.

New Years Means New Everything

2008 has come and gone, and as far as I’m concerned – Good Riddance.

2008 saw a financial debacle the likes of which that hasn’t been seen in over half a century. Real estate failed; banks failed; investments failed; I was going to say the American auto industry failed, but they have been failing for years. War continues and we may be drawn into another.

However there are some lights at the end of the tunnel. We have a new president, who hopefully will continue the trend of Democratic presidents fixing the mistakes of Republican presidents. Because everyone is worried about the economy and no one is buying anything it means all the stores are having fantastic sales. I have even heard rumor the PS3, a system my sun is pushing us to get, will be on sale in a few months.

My hope is that we begin to see a turn around this year. I feel that Greed has run rampant in the Bush era, and that 2009 will start to see Americans turn away from greed and focus more on unity and assistance. But who am I kidding? We’ll still see foreclosures, corruption scandals, violence and natural disaster. I just hope Obama is a bit more calm and intelligent than the last guy, and will at least point us into a better direction.

-Jason Orkin, Optimist

Health for the Holidays

With Thanksgiving only a week ago, and Christmas quickly on the horizon, many of us are doing our usual winter weight gain. For those of us concerned with watching whats going on at this time, there are numerous tools, such as pedometers that help inform you how many calories you have lost, or in cases how many steps you have taken.

This is also a great tool to have when you are walking through the mall, trying to search for last minute gifts that are sure to be forgotten by February.

Losing a Password

Quite often we will lose our password. For example I use 1 password for work, 1 password for secure sites (such as email), 1 password for retail sites (such as paypal or eBay) and another email for secondary sites (social media). Quite often I will lose a password. In those cases, I either go back to a file that has my list of passwords, attempt every last one, or fill out the lost password form.

In Home Exercise

Lately its been pouring as I have arived home, so my much awaited summer jogs and swims have had to be canceled.  I do not enjoy this.  I wait all summer long to be able to hop into the pool, swim a few laps, work on my tan, and work out.  I also enjoy running through the neighborhood, with or without my dog.  Because of the weather, these have had to been canceled.

I don’t believe in buying exercise equipment.  I have seen far too many cases of them ending up in a garage, covered in dust, used less than 5 times.  I refuse to waste money like that.  The same goes with a gym membership.  Paying to use equipment that I’ll probably be too lazy to get out to is not something I would do.  So, I enjoy free exercise around my home.  Now I’m stuck doing it in my home.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy sit ups and cruches as much as the next person, but to be honest, I like to follow those up with a jog or swim.  Not staring at the pouring rain outside my window.  Today has been bright, hopefully it continues until I get home.

Jason Orkin, Exerciser

A tribute to a medium man

George Carlin expired the other day. Yes, I use that term, because that was his preferred term for the dead. As a pre-dead, I can only hope that his afterlife is that of what he wanted.

I’ve been a fan of Carlin for years. I have his spoken word albums, his books, and a number of movies in which he stared. The man was funny because he didn’t hold anything back, and attacked that which he saw as flawed in this world. I concur with a lot of his views, and disagree with some, but that is what made the man great – the ability to create dialogue and to embrace the views of others.

I do have a complaint, however. It seems for every great comedian we lose, 20 shitty ones take his place. And yes, I said his place for a reason. Now there are some very funny female comedians. I myself am partial to Margaret Cho. But for the most part female comedians are obnoxious lesbians who can only make jokes about being a lesbian. Seeing as how I’m not one, I don’t find these stories to be humorous. And not I’m not nickpicking ladies, male comedians who talk only about sex suck as well. Its just most male comedians can occassionally change it up a notch. The good ones can, at least. We have far too many male comedians who just run on about stuff that isn’t even funny. Why can’t they die, while greats like Bill Hicks had to go before their time.

Of course I could also go on about how similar this is in the music industry, but that is a post for another time.

Jason Orkin, Mourner

Days Without End

My co-workers and I joke about how certain days fluctuate in relativity to time.  Maybe it is because we came back from a three day weekend, but Tuesday seemed to go by in just a few hours.  I did enjoy my weekend, by the way.  Got some sun, my yard got some rain, and my wife made some great pina coladas.  And again, Tuesday went by so fast, I was back at home.  However the rest of the week has seemed to drag on as if no end is in sight.  More so after lunch.  We’ll just be sitting there taking care of what seems like hours worth of work will have taken place, and when we look at the clock, only 15 minutes have taken place.

At least another weekend is upon us, which means relaxing, trying out a new seasonal beer, and hoping the weekend goes by as slowly as the week has.

Jason Orkin, Time Traveler

Cradle to the Grove

The Grove is one of the trendier areas of Miami. Plenty of upscale restaurants intermingled with dive-looking bars, as well as extravagant boutiques all smack in between the mayor’s office and the ghetto. Its a smaller, more natural and less pretentious Lincoln Road. Unfortunately it is falling on hard times.

Granted all the places of business in the Grove don’t exactly have the highest life expectancy. Stores come and go, although there are the perennials. The issue is that some of the more well known restaurants are starting to close down. According to the Miami Herald, Cafe Tu Tu Tango in Cocowalk is set to close. I’ve been to it, as well as the one in Atlanta, which also closed, and the one in Orlando. I have been a fan of the chain, and sad to see it go in place of… another bloody Starbucks. It seems that because of the renovation of new areas like Gables, Mary Brickell Village, the Design District, and of course South Beach, the Grove is on hard times.

While I am sad to see a restaurant I have enjoyed go, and crap take its place, that is not my main complaint. What is, however, is how the other restaurants and shops in the area are taking this new move. There is a diversity of food in the grove, but now, staff at restaurants are becoming a bit too strong in the hopes that they will have repeat customers. Waiting staff are clinging on to patrons, and it becomes annoying. It is depressing to see a business someone put a lot of effort into close down, but it is even worse to see the staff basically beg you to come back.

I hope there is a renewed drive into the Grove to keep classic establishments afloat, but only time can tell.

Jason Orkin, Patron

Things that are beautiful…

Can come from ugly things.

Yesterday while on my drive home on Ludlam, through the fogged window of the car in front of me I saw one of those obnoxious cars with the bright blue halogen headlights coming from the other direction, while the car two cars ahead was riding on their red brakes going 20 mph because *gasp* they were passing through any intersection.

Anyways, the blue headlights from one jackass mingled with the red brake lights from another to create this interesting view for a millisecond through the windows of the car in front of me.  The Blues and the Reds through the watery window made me realize that there are beautiful things that come from ugly things.  Of course it was ruined as the asshole two cars ahead continued to ride his brakes for the remainder of my trip.

I think from now on, I will try to find one thing beautiful from something ugly or obnoxious.  However I don’t think the dead bird I keep passing by on my walk to work will be in the list.

Jason Orkin, Visionary