New Music? Perhaps A Little Old With The New!

I heard a song today by Velvet Revolver, well, I've heard it several times actually, but today it was really starting to grow on me. Basically Velvet Revolver is Guns N' Roses sans Axle Rose, the front man is Scott Weiland, formerly the lead singer for Stone Temple Pilots. The first song they released a few months back was called Slither, it was okay, but nothing that really made me take notice.

This new one though, it's pretty damn catchy. it's called Fall To Pieces, and the guitar is really nice. I've always been one to like good guitar though, as any of my friends would admit.

The other group I heard, the jury is still out on. Now, although I liked Guns N Roses, I had more than 10 years to get over their break up. But Creed, I really liked them NOW, just recently (yes, and I'm not ashamed to admit that either). Well, they break up, and within like 2 months, their new band, Alter Bridge, without former lead Scott Stapp, has already released an album. It sounds remarkably like Creed (of course, no surprise) but damn it's tough to get into them after such a short amount of time. We'll see how I feel in a couple months.

Am I being a little bitch about Creed breaking up? Yah, I'm sure I am. Are you laughing hysterically because I like Creed? Yes, I'm sure you are. With that said, I think I'll post this and call it a night, too de loo folks!!

Gambling Issue Up For The Vote

Nebraska is now voting on whether or not to allow gambling. This is coming up in the general election. Years ago, I would have probably been against this, because of the problems associated with gambling, and because of my upbringing. But now, well, as you get older you begin to notice that life itself is a collection of associated gambles that you take, and that banning a form of gambling merely because of it's simplistic form (placing money bets to gain more money), is rather foolish.

Not only that, but Nebraska allows certain forms of gambling. The lottery is in Nebraska, Nebraska allows pickle cards, and on American Indian casinos, gambling is legal. Also, betting on horse racing is legal in Nebraska. Probably the most ridiculous thing of all is this: Just across the river from Omaha, gambling is legal in the state of Iowa. There are more than 1 million Nebraskans in a 60 mile radius west from Omaha, who are estimated to have spent somewhere from 30 to 60 million dollars in the Council Bluffs casinos. Every state around Nebraska allows gambling.

So basically Nebraskans have all the trouble associated with gambling problems, but we get none of the revenue to help those people, or to bolster our educational needs, roads, tax burdens, etc. My worry though, is that there are so many ultra-conservative that live within this state, that the initiative will fail at the ballot box. What is funny about the whole thing, is that the anti gambling groups seem to have an unbelievable amount of money with which to advertise and promote voting NO to this initiative.

While this doesn't make sense at first, ask yourself this: If gambling were suddenly allowed in Omaha, and that exact replica of the Luxor, the pyramid casino from Las Vegas, was built (yes, this is on it's way, simply waiting for this particular initiative to be voted on), who would lose out the most? The Iowa casinos within Council Bluffs, that's who.

Someone donated more than half a million dollars to the anti-gambling movements within Nebraska. Now while these donations are anonymous, lets look at something to try and sort out just exactly who may have donated that money. Roughly 58,000 people live in Council Bluffs. That is about 1/20th of the number of people that live within that 60 mile section of Nebraska, from Omaha into Lincoln. Now, if the Luxor II (I am just putting that name there, no idea what it would be called) were built, a casino by even the most conservative viewpoint is far and away better than anything Council Bluffs has to offer, why would those 1 million Nebraskans even consider going across the river? Not only that, but those 58,000 in Council Bluffs might just find the Luxe or other gambling establishments within Nebraska more attractive. This would basically kill the gambling in western Iowa.

It's time that Nebraska realizes the truth about gambling, that it's people are already gambling, both figuratively and realistically, and vote yes on an initiative that will keep the money within our borders.

Does This Make Any Cents?

I have a coin collection. I suppose this could be one of those little 'things you didn't know about fraNk' bits, but I think a few of you know this. My coin collection is pretty pathetic. Basically it consists of a penny (or three, depending on the mint it was made at) from every year from 1948 on, I have two from 1943, and some others. Forgive me though, I don't have it in front of me so I can't tell you exactly what I have.

While I was creating my little collection, that I am sure is meaningless by true coin collecting standards, is that I would find myself looking at the year on the coin, and if that year happened be 'post fraNk birth' I try and remember what I was doing during that particular year, what grade I was in, where I was at in my life. I sometimes wonder if anyone else does that? It probably seems a little corny and sentimental but I guess that's me.

What I find to be funny is how, following my college graduation (yes folks, I am edumakated), it is more difficult to pinpoint my activities within the year in question. I think that's because you have a map all the way up through gradeschool and into college, you can correlate your grade to that particular year in question for memory purposes.

After that, it gets rather fuzzy. Sure you might have a job, you might get married, but how to keep track of what you were doing as the years go by becomes fuzzy at best. Hell, everyone has old relatives that talk about how awful the 'storm of 67' was' when you know damn well they wouldn't know if it was 67' or 97', that's all part of getting older I think.

There are certain points, times in one's life where events create a situation in which you will always look back upon your life differently: my life before this happened, and my life afterwards. I have had this happen twice before in my life. I don't believe this will happen again.

Let me put it this way, I certainly hope it doesn't happen again, considering the requirements for such a situation to occur are as follows: an unexpected event(s) as such that pushes your emotions into a near shutdown state due to extreme stress. They are also the times that put our resolve to the test, and in which we become quite suddenly 'spiritual'. There is good that comes from this, although it takes quite a bit of time to see it. As Garth would put it "Some of God's greatest gifts, are unanswered prayers"