15 years already!

Fifteen years ago, Los Angeles -- and the entire nation -- watched in horror as rioters pulled Reginald Denny from his truck at the intersection of Florence and Normandie in south-central L.A. and beat him senseless in the street.

The beating happened just hours after four police officers accused of attacking black motorist Rodney King were acquitted in court, enraging many blacks who had long felt unfairly treated by the Los Angeles Police Department.

The mayhem at the intersection soon consumed much of the city -- 54 people would be killed and $1 billion in damages would be done before the riots were calmed five days later.

Most of the footage shown on television was shot from helicopters hovering overhead -- the only professional photographer on the ground at Florence and Normandie was Bart Bartholomew, who was shooting for The New York Times. His pictures of police making arrests and then retreating from Florence and Normandie after being overwhelmed by angry residents made the front page of the Times.

Bartholomew was lucky to make it out alive. He was beaten and his car was attacked by the crowd. He managed to sit in the driver's seat and start the engine. As he drove away, a rock was hurled through the side window, hitting him on the side of the head and breaking his jaw.

Today, Bartholomew sees huge changes in the neighborhood -- what was once predominantly black has now become a majority Latino area -- and most importantly unemployment has gone down.

"They have built huge malls. They've created jobs. I mean a lot more people can live here more comfortably in peace and quiet," he said. As he walks the streets that 15 years ago were convulsed with racial anger and violence, though, Bartholomew cannot help feel a little shiver.

"I am always a little spooked -- I feel that the ghosts are all around here," he said.

---Do you remember the LA Riots well? Better them than us, huh? I cant believe it has been 15 years already! I remember I was working at Blockbuster Video with Kris R. at the time of the LA riots. 15 years ago...wow!---

Did you know that?

Approximately one-half of one percent of the annual world-wide output of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is due to soft drink carbonation.

random thoughts

what was i thinking.....
oh yea, happy birthday scott!!!!
welcome to the ranks of the 36 year olds.
feel any older?

take the money and run, steve miller band

Darwin Award Nominee?

Man electrocuted after touching power line while picking mangos

Sun-Sentinel.com
Posted April 26 2007, 6:57 PM EDT

A 35-year-old man, trying to get fruit from a tree, was electrocuted Thursday afternoon in Pompano Beach, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Jose Angel Mejia-Pinto and three other men were gathering mangos from a tree in the yard at 116 NW 12th St. Mejia-Pinto was using a 21-foot long metal pole to knock the mangos from the tree.

At about 3:27 p.m., the pole touched an overhead power line, sending 7,000 volts into Mejia-Pinto and knocking him to the ground.

Paramedics and BSO deputies responded to the scene where they pronounced Mejia-Pinto dead.

BSO detectives are investigating the apparent accident.

Photo from Ian K

WOW, take a look at this gem. It was great to hear from Ian, hopefully he will join our fun here on the old OMI blog.

Are we not men? We are DEVO!

Okay. I know. Don't say it. Schweis is never here. I get that.

<----- This is a photo from the recent update to my website (link in this post).

I just clicked through to PJ's Flicker Page. Peter, you've always been a handsome dog, but I have to say that seeing you with graying temples (mine are too) all that facial hair, kids, house, life and all its trappings has made me realize that I, for one, lack many of those things (gotta house and wife, but at 35 still can't grow a beard or mustache that won't get me carded!) and it has also made me realize that we are not men. We are nearing middle aged mother fuckers. We're the guys that us as kids bitched about being behind in line at the 7-eleven. We're the people that we hated waiting on in restaurants because they had nothing interesting to say to us, just bring me food so I can go sleep. Or even worse, when they did try to act hip and cool it was just embarrassing. Dude, your like an old married guy and shit! I'm young. I go to bars. I go to shows. I fuck random women when I want to (with the exception of JT that was more wishful thinking most of the time, but we COULD!).

Now, am I saying I feel old? Fuck no. Am I saying that we are old? Well, maybe we're getting there. But, I'd say that we can officially know that we're old in the eyes of what would now be an Offman from the days of yore.

I was recently drinking beers with my sister in law and her son (my nephew) and his girlfriend. He's 22 and she's 18. Just the prime comparison for our Offman selves. We start swapping stories about partying, random woman chasing, general drunken disorderly shit. And I realize that he's embarrassed by half my stories. Not because they aren't the coolest and best told stories of youthful glory ever. NO. They are (except compared to JT, who I've actually seen have women throw phone numbers at him randomly in malls). He was embarrassed because I'm supposed to be some kind of grown up and he's there with his itty bitty tiny little girlfriend (she's not tall or fat, but very sweet). I WAS THE EMBARRASSING OLD FART RELIVING HIS GLORY DAYS. I believe that means my glory days are over. But I don't feel that way. I feel good. Occassionally glorious.

So, this is my rant about the fact that if we look at our old photos from 15 years ago, and look at our photos now. Apparently, we have aged. I didn't notice, but its happened. And apparently those 7 year old kids that were such an annoyance have now grown up to be the hip new generation who they target all the advertising at (if you didn't know 35 is the final year for most demographic tracking to keep you in the youth market, and most surveys will stop at 34). And this hip new generation is judging us and saying how unhip we were in our youth with our parachute pants and Michael Jackson when he was still black records, or even our Wax Trax collections and new wave and post punk concerts. Hell, even remembering when Cabaret Metro was still a Caberet and not just Metro (tell me its still fucking there please) doesn't buy us points. That's just old nostalgia. It would be like some old hippy remembering Old Town when it reaked of patchouli and impersonated The Haight. Who fucking cared? That was so last rebellion.

Well, I'm still in rebellion, even if I would rather quote DEVO than... than... than some band that is now hip and edgy whom I'm not aware of because I'M TOO FUCKING OLD SCHOOL (and don't have friends who keep me posted any more. Big Black would kick the White Stipes asses any day. Foetus is a far edgier name than Yeah Yeah Yeahs (what the fuck are they?)

And allow me to close this out by noting that all the people I know under 30, and a few do work for me (God I'm really really getting old, aren't I?) all have Ipods that are loaded with more music that I have in my stale CD and Vinyl collection than they have of music produced in this millenium! They won't tell us, but we're still cool (in my own narrow mind). In a random access, peer to peer file sharing, hypertext, downloadable, searchable, indexable, indifatigably inexhaustably accessible world, they are still trying to recapture the glory of the generations that proceeded them. In essence the entire point of this rant, as ludicrous and trite (many people seem to have hit their mid 30s before me) and "heard it all before" as it is. The point is....

Drum Roll

GOD DAMN KIDS TODAY

Love you guys, and miss you too. And Pete, don't worry, it was just your stunning good looks which are improving with age and slight case of salt and pepper that got me thinking. I still think you don't look a day over 29!

For Sale

Our goal is to officially have our home on the market by May, 1st. However any one who has a hankering to buy her is welcome to make us an offer. I intend on posting more photos and info on our home with in the next week or so.

random thoughts

mother is the name of god on the lips and hearts of all children.

-brandon lee as eric draven in the crow

cryin' aerosmith

Happy Earth Day

--I only threw 3 pieces of liter out the window today instead of 4.

Stupid hippy holiday.---

11 minutes of bliss

I am feeling slightly burnt out today so I took a few minutes to lounge around on the net. The link above resembles my life in frightening detail, although I have not been to a drive through in many years.

random thoughts

pharmacist to a female customer "It's against my belief system to fill this prescription for morning-after pills. But how about a nice triple martini to help you forget it ever happened?

-Pardon My Planet daily cartoon strip.

clould on my tongue, tori amos

Phrases that sound dirty but aren't

Shooting hoops

Glazing the donut

Tossing the ol' pigskin around

Rip up the carpet


This is my first post and it's the best I could do. So, so, very sorry.

Factoid for the day.

Concentrated coffee is a hallucinogen.

---Sorry I gotta go sniff some coffee now.---

ashamed to be south korean, or so they say...

From Sohn Jie-Ae
CNN

Adjust font size:

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South Koreans expressed shock Wednesday, as new details revealed that the Virginia Tech shooter was Cho Seung-Hui, who was born -- and lived for eight years -- in Seoul.

President Roh Moo-Hyun held a special meeting with aides Wednesday to discuss the shooting and figure out further steps to ease the situation.

The president is expected to make a statement of apology at an event in Seoul Wednesday afternoon. His office has already issued two statements of condolence about the mass killings. (Watch how the Virginia Tech massacre has dominated South Korean headlines )

On Tuesday, the presidential Blue House issued a condolence statement saying Roh "was shocked beyond description again over the fact that the tragic incident was caused by a South Korean native who has permanent residency" in the U.S., AP reported.

Thirty-two people were killed on the Blacksburg, Virginia, campus on Monday, the deadliest shooting in U.S. history.

---I guess the President of South Korea admitted he was ashamed to be South Korean after learning of the shooting massacre on the campus of V. Tech. I would never admit I was ashame of who I was, regard what had happened. To admit shame is to admit guilt and the Koream people as a whole did nothing wrong.---

random thoughts

don't panic

-emblazoned on the cover of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy in large friendly letters

thanks for the b-day wishes guys just been busy and having computer problems.


What makes you think you're the one, Fleetwood Mac

Gun laws?

LONDON Apr 17, 2007 (AP)— Expressions of sympathy rang out from Buckingham Palace to Beijing as the world absorbed the news of yet another deadly shooting rampage in the United States and questions grew over how such violence could break out yet again and whether lax U.S. gun laws are a case of freedom gone too far.

Criticism echoed across Europe where gun laws are some of the toughest in the world.

"Only the names change And the numbers," read a headline in the Times of London.

Two professors from India and Israel were among the dead at the Virginia Tech shooting, the deadliest in U.S. history.

Liviu Librescu, 75, an engineering science and mathematics lecturer, tried to stop the gunman from entering his classroom by blocking the door before he was fatally shot, his son said Tuesday from Tel Aviv, Israel.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview of his father, who immigrated to Israel from Romania, and was on sabbatical in Virginia.

Indian-born G.V. Loganathan, 51, a lecturer at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was also among the dead, his brother G.V. Palanivel told Indian media.

---Do you think tougher gun laws could have prevented this tragedy?---

Sunday Funny

--Hopefully, this will lighten things up a bit, damn hip hop, heh---

Two young engineers applied for a single position at a computer company. They both had the same qualifications. In order to determine which individual to hire, the applicants were asked to take a test by the department manager. Upon completion of the test, both men had each missed only one of the questions. The manager went to the first applicant and said, ''Thank you for your interest, but we've decided to give the job to the other applicant.'' "And why would you be doing that? We both got nine questions correct," asked the rejected applicant. "We have based our decision not on the correct answers, but on the question you missed," said the department manager. "And just how would one incorrect answer be better than the other?" the rejected applicant inquired. ''Simple,'' said the department manager, ''Your fellow applicant put down on question #5, 'I don't know.' You put down, 'Neither do I.'''

Nappy hos!!!!

--So what do you all think of the recent thing wiht radio shock jock DOn Imus calling those female basketball players "nappy headed hos" and being accused of racism? DOnt ya think th ere is a double standard happenin there? I mean its OK for your favorite rapper to call a black female a ho but God forbid a white radio show host do it.....

what do you guys think? I think its bullshit. Go Imus! Exercise your freedom of speech!!!---

	An Irish daughter had not been home for over five years. Upon her return, her father cursed her. Where have ye been all this time? Why did ye not write to us, not even a line? Why didn't ye call? Can ye not understand what ye put yer old mum thru? The girl, crying, replied, "Sniff, sniff... Dad... I became a prostitute..." "Ye what!!? Out of here, ye shameless harlot! Sinner! You're a disgrace to this family." "OK, Dad -- as ye wish. I just came back to give mum this luxurious fur coat, title deed to a ten bedroom mansion plus a savings certificate for $5 million." "For me little brother, this gold Rolex and for ye daddy, the sparkling new Mercedes limited edition convertible that's parked outside plus a membership to the country club... (takes a breath)... and an invitation for ye all to spend New Years' Eve on board my new yacht in the Riviera, and..." "Now what was it ye said ye had become?" says dad. Girl, crying again, "Sniff, sniff....a prostitute dad! Sniff, sniff. "Oh! Be Jesus! Ye scared me half to death, girl! I thought ye said a Protestant. Come here and give yer old man a hug."

April 9th, 1971

Offmen, Steve Butt's Birthday! I gave him call this morning and he immediately bragged about the weather down where he lives 80 degrees and sunny.... Hmmm, well enjoy 36 buddy. Happy Birthday Steve!

Gettin old

You know you're getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you're down there.
-George Burns

---I think weve all felt that way at one point or another. Not too much going on here. The drops I have for my pink eye almost have it licked. Im going out to eat tonight with a guy I met off of suicidegirls, should be fun, he seems pretty damn cool. His name is Ric. I havent known too many Ricks in my life, Ill admit. There is Offmen Rick R. who was always cool and Rick W., Franks old friend who I never liked nor trusted. I dunno, the guy rubbed me the wrong way all the time.

What are you up to?---

Random Photo 04/08 (Happy Easter)

Offmen in Suits??? Evidently it did happen once in a while.

Sorry for my absence as of late, however I anticipate a limited presence here in the OMI blog for the next month or two. Hope this holiday finds all of you well.

OI!!!!

---Ive gotten into a lot of oi! lately. You guys should check some out. This includes bands like cock sparrer, sham 69, the casualties and angelic upstarts. Good stuff. All of it is out of England.

What did you do for Easter?---

---I have pink eye and its friggin snowing here right now, this sucks!!! What are your plans for the holiday weekend?---

a new blog

---Hey guys, Jen B. just started a new blog, you may wanna go check it out and give her support.

http://myjenuinelife.blogspot.com/---

Irish humor

Whats the difference between an Irish wake and an Irish wedding?

One less drunk.

---Funny yes? Whos gonna be drinkin this weekend? I think I may break down and buy a pint of Bass.---

---I think this nation is so desperate for change that they will vote anyone in at this point. I dont trust Obama, I think he is too politically young to be trusted, but this article goes to show you he should be taken seriously.---

DAVENPORT, Iowa - Democrat Barack Obama raked in $25 million for his presidential bid in the first three months of 2007, placing him on a par with front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton and dashing her image as the party's inevitable nominee.

The donations came from an eye-popping 100,000 donors, the campaign said in a statement.

The figure was the latest evidence that Obama, a political newcomer who has served just two years in the Senate, has emerged as the most powerful new force in presidential politics this year. It also reinforced his status as a significant threat to Clinton, who'd hoped her own $26 million first quarter fundraising total would begin to squeeze her rivals out of contention

No news is good news I guess

---Well, there hasnt been any good news stories over the past few days and I havent felt like posting much to the blog anyways. I know I am getting sick and tired of these politicians fighting over this Iraq withdrawal time line. How about you?

I just read about this couple overseas fighting with the law over whether or not they can name their baby Metallica. I think it was in Norway or some shit like that. Why they would have to fight with the law over it I dont know and why in Gods name you would wanna name your child that is beyond me anyways.

It is DAMN windy here today! Stupid ass temperatures are supposed to drop back down into the 20s again here at night. It was 65 a couple days ago. Thats spring for ya!

What the hell have you guys been up to? I havent been up to all that much....hanging out with the kid, drinkin margaritas and tryin to sleep, which hasnt been easy.

Whats been the deal with you guys?---

What a bunch of young punks!

Wow these photo’s really brought back memories! Although I don’t agree with Mr. Rollins statement concerning his vehicle (I fuck’in love my Subaru). So these photos where not of our seen, they do remind me so clearly of just how things where back in the day.

Any hoo, thought some of you might get a kick out of this link as well. I found it on bitter-girl.com.

New Tattoo

Here it is boy's.
My new tattoo.
Left shoulder.
It's an Angel.
Tribute to Mom. the pink is in reference to her 6 year battle with breast cancer. Angels are symbolic (to us) of her as well, they were always something that she was very fond of. I learned (at her funeral) that she was a very spiritual person her entire life (she atributed being cured of a childhood disease to a televangenlist "hands on TV experience") but she was NEVER interested in pushing her beliefs on us. The plan is that each of us (her son's) are going to get a similar tattoo, Rick (the oldest) got his a few weeks ago, same figure, but doubled up and facing each other (picture a butterfly, kinda) on the middle of his back. Scott is still planning (I think).

Augie from Doc Finn's put this on me, it turns out that Doc passed on a few years ago from lukemia. Augie now runs the same shop as "Augie's place" in the same location. It's kinda weird having a tattoo done by a dead guy (he did my Escher Lizard)

On a brighter note. I am making preliminary plans to get another tattoo, a chainwheel (the big front gear on a bike) on the inside of my right calf. I'm still up in the air as to whether or not I should piss $300 away.

Holy money bags Batman!!!

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton raised $26 million and transferred an additional $10 million from her Senate war chest to post $36 million in the first quarter of the 2008 fundraising cycle, the New York Democrat's presidential campaign announced Sunday.

"We are completely overwhelmed and gratified by the historic support," Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle told reporters in a conference call Sunday afternoon.

Senior campaign aides noted that Clinton, a front-runner for the Democratic nomination, had raised the $26 million in a 10-week period, but still said their goal for the year remains at $75 million. Political analysts suggest the fundraising figure for Clinton and a handful of other presidential contenders is more likely to be in the $100 million range for the year.

---Do you think she has more of a chance now that sh e has raised all this money or does it not matter? I sure as hell hope not.---

Alcohol and minors

By DAN CHILDS
ABC News Medical Unit

April 1, 2007— With edgy names, vivid packaging and occasionally stratospheric levels of caffeine, energy drinks are the beverage of choice for many teens who want to get more out of their drinks than a simple thirst quencher.

But a new offering is raising the eyebrows of some parents and researchers.

At first glance, the beverage — called Spykes — offers the same fruity flavors, caffeine boost and herbal elixir qualities of many energy drinks currently on the market.

The difference is that Spykes, as the label indicates, is an alcoholic beverage.

And critics say the compact packaging, low price and flashy online advertising are designed to make it appealing to underage consumers.

"I think it's one more outrageous example of the predatory marketing practices of the alcohol industry," says Susan Foster, vice president and director of policy research at Columbia University's National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse.

"This is a huge public health problem, and it is very hard to regulate."

---So what do you think, is this aimed at kids?

Its been a pretty routine weekend for me, nothing really that exciting to report. I found out that I will be backstage for the Social D. show here in town. My ex is going with me and she knows the owner of the venue really well and she spoke with him and he hooked us up with all access passes so I wont have to worry about seating after all, which is sweet. Ill be able to watch the show from the sidelines. I hope you are all havin a good weekend.---