After a week of speculation, General Motors filed for Bankruptcy this morning. The American automaker was $172.8 billion in debt with roughly $82 billion in assets.

The Guardian posted a list of the top 50 creditors, which included one Wisconsin Corporation.

At number 12 on the list is Johnson Controls Inc. of Glendale. According to the report, GM owes Johnson controls nearly $33 million.

This is just one of many Wisconsin companies that GM owes money to, but the biggest by far. As more details of the bankruptcy emerge, we will undoubtedly hear more stories of local corporations affected.

So A couple weeks ago I received the following from a friend via Facebook.  Unlike most of the crap on there, this actually interested me:

What: It’s as easy as 1-2-3

1. Copy & paste this note and tag friends you want to participate.
2. Create a 24-hour digital photo journal documenting an average weekday in your life. Share your photos through a FB album.
3. Enjoy getting to know your friends as you look through their pictures.

When: Monday, May 11 – Thursday, May 14

Why: This annual event is intended to help you really get to know your friends through an intimate peek into their “Normal Everyday Lives.” We challenge you to find beauty in the color of your office stapler or the pattern of chaos at your kitchen table after having lunch with your toddler.

It’s an exercise in taking notice of and appreciating the many small things that make up our lives through the eyes of creative photography.
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The Economy is improving.  woot told me so.

Okay, it really didn’t in words, but more in the actions of the users.  For those unfamiliar with the site, woot is a website that sells one item-per-day.  When the inventory of that item is gone for they day, you wait until the next to see what they offer.  About once every two monts, they hold woot-offs – where there are multiple items per day and once the inventory for one is gone, they pop up another.

Simple, right?

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It was my first real story as a journalist. I was writing for a Badger sports magazine, and my editor had set up an interview with Sara Bauer. Bauer was a member of the Badger woman’s hockey team that had won a National Championship the year before and won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the best woman’s player in college hockey.

I was nervous as I waited for Bauer to come off the ice after practice.  Before my prep I did not know a whole lot about women’s hockey other than we won our first championship the year before. All my research made me the huge fan that I still am today.

While I waited, I chatted with another reporter from the college newspaper. He was there to interview multiple players, and they shuffled over to him as they came off the ice. I struck up a casual conversation with one player as we both waited for our interviews. She was the back-up sophomore goalie that started sharing time with the incumbent this season.

Who would know that I would talk to two Kazmaier winners that day.

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year – March.  Along with nonsense like nice weather and St. Patrick’s Day, there is important stuff happening in our wonderful country.  Today is Selection Sunday – quite possibly my favorite holiday.   Here are my initial thoughts on the brackets.

The top seeds in the tournament are Louisville, Pittsburg, North Carolina and Connecticut.  Really can’t argue with the top teams.  No one apart from Louisville played like they wanted to be a top seed down the stretch.  A little surprised there are three Big East teams as one seeds, but it’s really hard to argue for anyone else.
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Via Gizmodo

Ah freezing rain, how I love thee.

Due to the horrible weather last night, I was not able to make it to Madison to catch the Jonathan Coulton concert – a show I was anticipating since his last gig here nearly a year ago.  I keep hearing about the concert from friends that were there, and really wish I could have seen it.  Since I could not be there in person, I am now trying the next best thing.

This is a bit of a social experiment to see if I can find the concert in its entirety on the Internet.  Mr. Coulton is quite wonderful about letting patrons record his show and toss it up on the web.  I’ve already got two friends that have told me they recorded part of the show (“Mr. Fancy Pants” and “Famous Blue Raincoat” – which was one of my twitter requests).

So this leaves me with two dilemmas – determining the rest of the set list, and finding videos of these songs online.  I think it can be done.  If you know where I can find either, please post in the comments or hit me up on twitter (The_Dean) with links.

As for Mr. Coulton, he will be compensated in this endeavor.  If I can pull this off, I will make a donation to him via his website and pick up BEST.CONCERT.EVER. on DVD once it is released.  Any help in this experiment would be awesome and greatly appreciated.

More on Jonathan Coulton.

Sometimes life gets in the way of the best ideas.

When planning ‘Writing Lust,’ I only considered all the ideas floating through my head.  The great stories that were bouncing around like a lottery ball waiting to pop out.   All the songs I could write about.  All the love in the air around that crazy VD holiday.

Minute details like an abysmal work schedule and prior engagements never factored into my thought process.  Why should they, I was like a young lover who refuses to see the real world around him.  Nothing can take him off that high.

Well, the high wore off and real life was staring at me from the opposite pillow.  Rather than give up on my relationship with Writing Lust, I just took a bit of a break.  I hope to finish up the three or four stories I am behind and likely exceed my original numbers.

Thus Writing lust will continue for an undermined amount of time – basically until I have no desire to do it anymore.  Don’t expect anything for the next couple days, as I continue to focus on a very busy week.  However, you can expect to see new writing tagged with the love handle resume next week, and sporadically thereafter through February and March.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

Recycling – It saves.  That’s what we’ve ben told throughout our life, and I tend to believe it.  Thus, I am recycling my Dane101 article on the big VD for Writing Lust.  To quote Captain Hammer – “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”  Also, “The only doom that’s looming is you loving me to death.”

The Dean is In: Love Sick

Over the past week, you may have noticed your friends and colleagues more on edge than normal. They are frustrated, nervous and broke. You ask them if they have plans for the forthcoming weekend, and they look at you like you are insane.

The cause of their ailment – the Big VD.

The Big VD is a disease that runs rampant throughout couples this time of year. Symptoms include continuously asking everyone about restaurants, a glazed look in their eyes and being easily distracted by anything heart-shaped or shiny.

Not only does the Big VD affect couples, but it can be worse on those that are single. Chocolate consumption, sappy movies and a bottle of peppermint schnapps are just a few warning signs that you may be infected.

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It only took about a week, but here is the first ‘Love Song‘ of Writing Lust.  For those unfamiliar with this Matthew Sweet classic, you can listen to it here.

Girlfriend

He pulled the car off the dirt road, onto a trail used mostly by tractors during the harvest.  The eyes of several deer in the field shined in his headlights before he killed the engine and extinguished the glow.  Neither James no Lisa wanted to draw added attention to the periodic passer by.  The deer were happy to return to their grazing.

As pair of teenagers feverishly embraced, James clicked on the radio.  This was the fifth real date for the two, and the first unsupervised.  Sure, they had privacy watching movies in his parent’s basement, but the possibility of someone walking down at any time provides limits.

James raised the armrest to allow further contact.  The hand-me-down ‘91 Plymouth he received for his 16 birthday was perfect for illicit behavior. Plus it had its own sense of style.  The red upholstered seats were more comfortable than the leather in his parent’s new car.  The fake plastic wood interior had screamed class in its time.  It had power windows, cruise control and a decent sound system; everything he could want.
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Monday, Monday.  Just can’t trust that day.  However you can trust me to post a new Writing Lust.  Something fun for the first day of the week.

Love Acquired.

Paris — In business news, True Love — which has been around seemingly forever — was acquired in a hostile takeover by Pleasure Incorporated.  A spokesman for the American-based Pleasure Inc. said “True Love has had a good run at the top.  Hell, for a while they had a monopoly on the relationship market, but now it’s out time.”

True Love has dominated the romance industry for millennia.  However, over the past century, Pleasure Inc. has made a strong run at the top spot.  With such wildly successful programs as Casual Sex, Porn, Fuck Buddies and Divorce, Pleasure Inc. fostered a new way of thinking in America, which soon spread around the world.

“As more people jumped on our bandwagon from the True Love side, we were able to continue our groundbreaking researching and come up with even more programs such as The Threesome, Drunken Hookups, and Domination.  Many young people weren’t interested in in the same romance programs their parents had.  We were able to provide them with options.”
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And on the 7th day, God rested.

Who can argue with logic?  If it’s good enough for the big man, it’s good enough for me.

Not to leave those that have been reading high and dry, (and for my atheist friends) here is a love limerick.  Normal broadcasting resumes tomorrow.

Trying to find love
Is like trying to get sex
from a dead hooker.

Getting back into it today after the best laid plans went awry yesterday.  A double dose tomorrow should bring ‘Writing Lust’ back on track.

The Conversation

“It’s one of those things that needs to be done,” Matt stated as sipped his plain black coffee from the paper cup.  Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered how much waste these damn cups produce in a year, but that was a concept to discuss later.  “I imagine you would tell me to do nothing, just sit on my hands and wait.”

“I wouldn’t say do nothing,” responded Mindy.  Her straw penetrated the chocolate and whipped cream atop her frosty beverage as she took her initial sip.  “I just think you are looking at it the wrong way.”

She set her plastic domed cup on the composite wood table.  “Seriously, you and Jill were only together for about a month.  One month.  I know your world is kinda rocked right now, but this just sounds stupid.”

The brown and orange walls of the chain coffee shop were inhabited by new wave furniture and decor to provide a repetitive and soulless venue.  The pop-esque but ignorable music was available at the counter for the fool that might have an extra Jackson burning a hole in their pocket.
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Today, a nice simple poem for the woman that means the most to me.

Earthbound Goddess

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Here is the story for day three – Geekend.  It’s another old favorite that some might have viewed before, but I still really like.  Enjoy.

Geekend

“You can’t be serious.”

“Don’t tell me you never gave it any thought?”

“No, I really haven’t.  Is this the kind of thing that keeps you up nights?”

Scott ignored the question.  “Look, you’re the Emperor.  You’re trying to complete a new military base to fight off a a small group of insurgents, and you’re already short staffed.  You have a group of soldiers on a planet below you that are there to protect the force field which, in turn protects your ship.  Why are you equipping these soldiers with a speeders which will no doubt cause a huge causality rate?  Seriously, those things are more dangerous then the people you are fighting.  I’ll bet they had about 30 storm troopers a week who were killed or injured because they ran into something with their speeder.  Think how that depletes your work force.”

“Come on.  They’re the equivalent of  a motorcycle in the Star Wars realm.”

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