The Voices in Frank's Head

In my blog, I've ranted about one stupid politician after another. I've even ranted about stupidity in the private sector. Today, however, I feel the need to vent about stupid celebrities. Britney Spears was recently spotted wearing a T-shirt with the message, "I'm still a virgin." You know, it's a shame that I didn't get a chance to mention this Britney during any of our numerous conversations. However, the world has certain rules to it. One of them is that after you chose to celebrate your 18th birthday by fucking 18 different guys in one night, you can no longer properly claim to be a virgin. Another one of those rules is that it's no longer proper to claim virgin status once the number of guys you've had sex with reaches the triple digit mark. I know, I really should have mentioned all of this to her. But somehow, I just didn't think of it at the time. Hopefully, someone else will take a moment to explain a few things to h...

When I first got interested in making movies, I did a little research and learned that most Hollywood productions take two years to go from concept to screen.  When I first read that, I thought, "My God -- two years?  How can it possibly take that long to put together a movie that only lasts an 90 - 120 minutes?" Now, I understand. Casting. Financing.  Clearances.  The crew.  Contracts.  Research. And more financing. As I've tried to put together my documentary, the first time I've ever been writer, director and producer on a feature length project, I've discovered just how challenging it can all be.  I keep thinking about that old circus act -- the one where a guy has all of these plates that he's trying to keep spinning.  The second he gets one of them set, another one or two of them start to fall. I'm still doing it.  Absolutely committed that, even if I drop a proverbial plate or two, I'm going to make this film happen...

Once again, I feel the need to vent.  This time, though, it's not about some idiot politician or anything like that. Instead, I want to rant about people who lie.  I know, most people lie at least everyknow and then. But there are folks, including one woman that I'm really ticked off at, who lie at least once everytime you see them.  And tell really stupid lies, too. Lies where I know there lying, because it's painfully obvious that they're lying. And so, I have to stand there -- looking at a blatant liar and wonder if I should (a) call this person out on her lie or (b) let it slide and have her thank that I really am stupid enough to believe her. Totally frustrating.

It's odd how there are simply some things that I can't bring myself to write about.  Being there as my Dad received the Last Rites.  The cat I saw get hit by a car.  My Dad's funeral. I've tried writing about them a couple of times in this blog over the past couple of weeks.  However, each time I do, I end up with this desire to smash my head into my computer monitor.  I can write a sentence or two, but nothing more.

My Dad is in the ICU right now with a terrible case of pheumonia that's made even worse by the fact that he also has asbestosis. The man can't even breath on his own at the moment. They have a trach tube in him and he's on a ventilator. They have him on other medicines to boost his blood pressure because it's too low to sustain him as it is. And as if that weren't enough, I heard from the doctors that there's signs that his infection may have spread into his blood stream. They say if it hits any of his other major organs then he won't be with us much longer. I think the part that's worst, from an emotional standpoint, is the constant see-sawing of it all. Last week, he was doing much better and they were talking about transferring him out of the ICU and into a regular hospital room. This week, they're talking about him not living much longer. Along the way, he's had two emergency surgeries. A bunch of small improvements came a...

For quite sometime now, I've ranted and raved about the blatant stupidity of various politicians. Now, I guess it's time for me to turn my angst on the private sector. The State of Michigan requires insurance agents like me to earn 30 credit hours of Continuing Education every 2 years in order to keep an insurance license. (Yes, I've always thought 30 hours of CE was a dumb idea -- but that's another post). My deadline for earning those credit hours was June 1, 2004. I finished earning them on May 15, 2004 through a private company -- eMind.com. One would think that this was the end of it, right? Wrong. I got my certificates in the mail, showing that I earned 30 credit hours. I assumed that this meant that everything was hunky dory and went on about my life. Selling insurance by day. Trying to put together funding for a film and public access TV show by night. Then I got surprise. In the mail, shows up a notice from Michigan's Office of Fi...

Okay -- my Dad is still in the ICU. I'm still depressed and basically convinced that life is little more than a hopeless, series of existence until one day we get lucky and die. But I'll get over it. The way I always do. By ranting about stupid politicians. The latest thing to piss me off is the Michigan Broadband Development Authority. Turns out that when you live in some of Michigan's more remote areas, there's is a limited number of providers for broadband access. Some people in northern Oakland County, for example, only have standard dial-up and satelitte based broadband access. The standard DSL and cable providers aren't interested in them because the number of potential users per mile of cable is too low to make it economically viable. Those poor bastards. They made a decision to live in an area where there's not a lot of Wi-Fi access to the internet. And now they have to actually live with the consequences of their decision. What...

Argh! I feel like a zombie. I've been this way ever since my Dad went into the ICU. I don't know. We've never gotten along in that "Leave it to Beaver" sort of a way, but still -- the fact is that when I was growing up, he's the guy that I looked to for some sort strength and guidance. And now to see him, not even able to breath on his own. Needing a ventilator. Heavily medicated so he doesn't try to pull any of his tubes out. (He's always been a stubborn bastard). I guess the worst part of it is the constant sense of wondering when the next shoe is going to fall. First, he's going in for a doctor's appointment. Then he's in the hospital. Then he's in ICU. Then he can't breathe on his own. Then he's in emergency surgery because there's no circulation to his leg. Now there's another round of surgery this week and the possibility that he may have to spend the rest of his life in a nursing home. No...

Okay, I suddenly feel old. I came home from work today. Waiting for me in my mail was an invitation of to my cousin's high school graduation party. A cousin that I used to baby sit for, once upon a time. I feel old. Really, really old.

I swear, if I hadn't seen the video for this story with my own eyes, I simply wouldn't have believed that it was true. A bunch of college students in merry ol' England riding a roller coaster in the nude. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5032279 My first reaction was one of disbelief. After a few seconds to let the mental dust settle, I couldn't help but wonder how the laws of physics would impact various body parts. Would the G-forces compress a young woman's breasts to the point that they're not even noticable? Would the gentlemen in the crowd notice an extreme amount of shinking? Or the centrifugal force cause certain body parts to become overly elongated? Oh, the things my mind ponders. Of course, I doubt any of the riders at this event even noticed these impacts on their intimate parts. They were too busy being whipped around the track with 3+ Gs. And, of course, the report from MSNBC failed to shed any light on the subject. (Those guys never...

Wow! I can hardly believe it. It's been over a month since I've posted anything on here. I feel like a total slacker. I guess it's just that every time I've felt writing something down, I wasn't anywhere near a computer. Last weekend, for instance, I was thinking about a lot of stuff as I drove home from Chicago (thinking so much that I darn near got into an accident, but that's another story). But I didn't have my laptop with me, so no blog post came about as a result of all those pensive, introspective moments. The big thing that I've been thinking about as of late is the idea of losing a parent. My Dad has had these dizzy spells for awhile now. He'd keep falling all the time. My Mom told me that one time he even fell while trying to sit up in bed. After a lot prodding, he finally went in to see a doctor. His neurologist wasn't sure what could cause it, so she did an obscene amount of testing. Blood work. An MRI. You na...

I want to move to Australia. Or at least get some Australian ice cream. There's a new kind ice cream on the market down under that's actually vodka flavored . The simple fact that someone thought that up gives me hope for the human race. And it makes me want to visit Australia.

It's been 10 years since the world changed. It was on April 5, 1994 that Kurt Cobain took the easy way out and left this world. I never bought a Nirvana record or attended a single one of their concerts. I thought labeling him as the Great Spokesman of Generation X was an act of outright blasphemy. My generation is, and was, simply too diverse to ever have any one person as our spokesman. Consciously, I didn't even pay that much attention to his music. It was always in the background. Always there, but never something that I paid that much attention to. Still, when I heard that he had left us that April day a decade ago, my heart sank. I felt that the world would somehow never really be the same. When Courtney Love read his last words in public, having an argument with him from beyond the grave, it only drove the sense of loss and bewilderment home in a way that still resonates with me today. I actually feel sorry for everyone who was born too late to have alb...

Woo-hoo!! All of my ranting in this blog seems to be paying off. The White House announced today that Condoleezza Rice will indeed testify under oath in front of the 9/11 Commission. And it's been at least a good week or two since I've heard anyone complain about Senator Kerry not revealing the names of foreign leaders who would prefer him in the Oval Office over George W. Bush. Now, if only I can get them to stop trying to blame the out of control gas prices on Senator Kerry. Or convince them to stop claiming that exporting American jobs is good for the American economy. http//groups.yahoo.com/group/FrankNemecek

What is going on? I ask myself that a lot when I look at the newspaper these days. Condoleezza Rice, the Bush administration's National Security Advisor, has seemingly been in front of every reporter and television camera that she can find. Each time, she has criticized Richard Clarke, President Bush's former counter-terrorism czar, and his new book Against All Enemies . But she refuses to testify under oath in front of the 9/11 Commission. One has to ask, why is that she'll tell her story on a Sunday talk show but refuse raise her right hand and repeat it under oath? Is she afraid of the questions that the commissioners will ask her? Or is she simply worried about be prosecuted for perjury? Either way, it doesn't paint a very good picture for her, the Bush Administration or our nation as a whole. Everyone knows that there were mistakes made leading up to 9/11. That's a given. Moreover, it's not entirely something that one can tota...

I was cruising through the bookstores the other day and found a great book. Definately worth a gander.

Okay, here's what I don't get. Did President George W. Bush and his inner core of advisors learn absolutely nothing from the 1992 election? Or are they actively trying to lose? On March 8th, Senator John Kerry made a comment at a fundraiser about how some un-named foreign leaders want him to win. The Republicans responded by challenging him name names, which Senator Kerry refused to do - citing a promise of confidentiality to those leaders. In world run by intelligent people that would have been the end of it. Instead, the White House has seemingly done everything in its power to keep this story alive. Secretary of State Colin Powell was on the Sunday talk show circuit, again asking Senator Kerry to name names. Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at a fundraiser in Arizona, demanding that Kerry break his promise and name names. The President himself called on Senator Kerry to break his promise at a press conference with the prime minister from The Netherlands. ...

Okay, so it turns out that Mars was once "drenched with water ." It turns out that Mars may well have once support life . We know this. There are thousands of articles and new reports that support it. Of course, what none of these articles are mentioning is that even ancient, primitive Martians would have known that there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq . Personally, I'd love to have the Mars Rover called home. Maybe it can explore 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Frank http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FrankNemecek

Woo-hoo!!! I got my first royalty check from my publisher mail today!!! It was a (very) small check, but it felt good to get that extra bit of recognition for my writing. There was a moment where I felt like just framing the check instead of actually cashing it. But I decided against it. With all the repairs that I need to do to my car, I can't afford to turn down any amount of money. So, instead, I'm framing the deposit slip.

Okay, this is just weird. About an hour or so ago, someone I don't know called my cell phone. I answered and all I heard was some couple having sex rather loudly. As I was listening, I kept wondering how these people got my number. (Yeah, I guess that's what I get for posting it on-line). Or better yet, why in world would some call just to have me listen to that? I mean, is it a weird sort of exhibitionism? Or did they just really want me to have something to write about in my blog? Oh, and then a few minutes later, I came across this article on-line. Turns out some woman in Germany took her neighbor to court of having sex too loudly. The phone number that this couple called from is saved in my caller ID. Part of me wants to call them back, just to ask, "what were you thinking?" And part of me just wants to erase it and forget those 38 seconds of my life. Frank http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FrankNemecek