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For my final Christmas blog post, I'd like to introduce the subject of Christmas as a romantic time of year. How many of you are in love this Christmas? How many are falling in love? How many are rekindling the flames of an old romance? What sorts of romantic memories do...
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I just read about the guy who lit himself on fire in front of the courthouse. What an idiot! I don't care if someone has a differing point of view on something, but please, address such issues in a rational way. This guy was, apparently, so upset over the decision to name the school breaks...
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A world without Christmas would be a very sad world, as would a world without Easter. It seems like district trustees had their priorities straight, voting 4-1 Thursday to change the names of Kern High School District breaks to Christmas and Easter.
This is a small step towards...
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Have you got an axe to grind? Are you one of those last-minute Christmas tree shoppers who can't find a tree because folks bought them early this year and you're up against the shortage? I've got the solution, and it's contained in this song.
Perhaps who were among those who...
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Today is "Peace and Goodwill Reader Comments Day" on sj-r.com, the website of the Springfield, Illinois State Journal-Register. In order to break through the tedious negativity that dominates the Reader Comment boards found beneath its online articles, sj-r.com is invoking...
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What's the worst gift you've ever given or received? Socks from grandma? Breath mints from a co-worker as a not-so-subtle tip? Did you give your wife a vacuum cleaner for your anniversary?
As a kid, I gave my aunt and uncle a tiny ugly ceramic squirrel for Christmas one...
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.............................................Well, if you haven't guessed by now, it's a freshly broken heart? How many of you have suffered one of these just before the holiday season? How many of you have had to take back a cornucopia of gifts because the one you bought them for...
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Merle Haggard's If We Can Make it Through December, inspired this blog post and its concomitant single-song "soundtrack." Merle's seasonal signature hit is a song about holding on through the storms of life. Merle Haggard has faced many a storm, many of his own...
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It is the centerpiece of the Christmas story? Is is merely a fiction that makes us feel warm and fuzzy during the Christmas season, or is it a miraculous historical fact? If true, the implications are ineffably profound: A holy God coming down to earth to walk among men and women; to...
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As a young man, I had, and have, more of the temperament of an artist than a construction worker. So the sight of me working as part of a construction crew with a bunch of hardened blue collar workers presented a rather sorry mental portrait. As a young college student, you do what...
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Walter Stormont, a friend and fellow band member asked me when I had written a particular song we were working on in the studio in late November. I don't him, "Two weeks ago," and he replied, with his signature wit, "Oh, then it's one of your old ones." Well, then...
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We at Bakersfield.com have been stunned by the generosity of so many local people who have contributed goods and money to our holiday homeless project.
On Wednesday, these two wonderful children (shown to your left) stopped by our offices to donate items for the project. Kaleb, 7, and Naomi...
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What do Johnny Cash, Bakersfield, Christmas and South Carolina share in common? Well, the answer is contained in the song you are about to hear, and so is the story. Let's just say that getting an all-expense-paid trip to South Carolina to be a keynote speaker on the subject of Music as a...
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Bing Crosby. Andy Williams. Burl Ives. Frank Sinatra. The Carpenters. These are a few of my favorite singers of classic Christmas songs. But every once in a long while, I'm ready for something new. How about you? If you are ready to hear a new...
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Good morning everybody! Just a few things I wanted to alert you to:
First, if you go to the People page, you'll find the new "Blog Bytes" box in the top lefthand corner, where I'll be highlighting interesting posts. Keep checking back to see what's going on on the B.com...
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A recent study commissioned by the Kern Economic Development Corp. and compiled by local appraiser Gary Crabtree appears to give us the best picture to date of local homebuyers. The report included more than 1,000 new construction and existing home sales between January and June, comprising about...
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An infamous phrase, no question. Why can't we all just get along? Is there a cultural divide? If there is a divide, is it widening? The majority of people I talk to say yes.
Some in the media tell us that there are two major culture groups today. The groups have been called...
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I've listened to nearly every Christmas song Johnny Cash ever recorded. There's something decidedly dark and haunting about every one. Though he loved to laugh and to have a good time, Johnny Cash was not a jolly old soul. But he was an old soul with deep convictions, deep...
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The song, You're Not the Kind of Ho (That Santa had in MInd) is based on my own personal experience. In the first verse, I draw from my father as a role model, reflecting on a situation I experienced as a youth, as I witnessed my father's refusal to allow a hooker to come in between...
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It's called Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD. Poets identified it long before mental health professionals like myself analyzed the heck out of it. It may make for romantic muse, but once it gets you in its throes, it can be quite painful and disruptive. This mood disorder...
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This is a 1 minute short comedy called "Eggs" I made earlier this year. Hope you like it! :)
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I recall Christmas in June, 1969. That's right, June. That's when the real Christmas came for me and my brothers. That's when we discovered the guns that were to have gone with the Johnny West sets we received for Christmas in the Christmas of 1968. My mother had...
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As a long-time lurker before starting this job, I was already familiar with some of our community's, um, stronger personalities. As I was reflecting the other day on my first month here, full of happy moments like when I got called a stupid fascist for the first time, I realized...
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Some parents sacrifice everything just to give their children a good Christmas. Other parents sacrifice everything, including their children at Christmas, just to get high on cocaine. This song addresses the issue of cocaine addiction and the price families pay during Christmas for...
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Before they Were the Beatles: My Interview with the Quarrymen
By psychologist, Dr. Bruce L. Thiessen, aka, Dr. BLT
For the past two years, Santa has been extremely good to me. Last year, I had the distinct honor and pleasure of interviewing Pat Boone. This year,...
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What do you think of re-gifting, or giving a second-hand gift? Have you ever done it? Have you received one? If so, what was your reaction?
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I've decided that what has been referred to as the "war against Christmas," a characterization I have since abandoned for it's inherently incendiary nature, has become a little too bloody. So I've laying down my weapon in the so-called war, and becoming a Christmas Tree...
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Well, so far this Christmas, me and my Merry melodies have brought me more jeers than cheers. Now there's a blog site where the powers that be have gone to great lenghths to mock me and my music. Along with me and my music, Christmas itself has become their hapless victim. So I...
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Good morning folks! I hope you got a chance to read Steve Swenson's "Real People" profile on our own "surfer grandma," NancyII, which was published this morning on page B1 of the Californian.
If you've always wanted to put a face to the name, you can also find the story...
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It's a Wonderful Life is a Christmas movie that tells a tale of deliverance. It has important psychological and spiritual implications. As a psychologist, I don't hesitate to recommend it to patients who suffer from severe depression, often leading to thoughts of suicide. ...
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I'm sure that by now you've heard that, while other retailers are bringing Christmas back, Best Buy is digging in their heels and sticking to their anit-Christmas bias, officially banning the use of "Merry Christmas," it all of its ads, in favor of the more politically correct,...
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It was still dark and some shoppers huddled near heat lamps in the Valley Plaza parking lot at midnight with a live band rocking away on the stage behind them. Just before 1 a.m. Friday the doors swung open ushering in a large crowd of hard-core shoppers and teenagers just looking for something...
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Our development team has been working on fixing the bugs you've been sending my way since the upgrade, and as of right now, the following bugs are squashed and their fixes are live on the site:
On the "new comments" list, commenters' names, as well as the names of the posts...
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Hopefully you all saw the Bakersfield.com homepage this morning. Every day, a slideshow box highlights five stories or TBC products, with graphics and links to more information. The third tab on the box today, "Airport holdup," features our front-page print story on six...
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I didn't even bother to remember his name because at the time, I thought it was a big hoax. But apparently Chapman University, in Suisun, California had done their homework and determined that his story was legitimate. He was a special guest presenter at a staff meeting---a...
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I was too young to speak, let alone to capture the significance and profound sense of shock that gripped the world immediately following the news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
I do recall seeing the flag-draped coffin being carried solemnly by pallbearers on the...
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Thank you for the running list of issues you've been posting in the comments on my previous entry. As of Tues. morning at 10 o'clock, here's what I can tell you:
The following issues are already being addressed and the fixes will go live probably within the next couple weeks, if not...
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Just a heads-up to let you know that our development team worked tirelessly through the night and as you log in this morning, all of your favorite Bakersfield.com interactive community features are now upgraded.Unfortunately, if you posted comments or new blog posts in the wee hours of the...
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While so many other politicians and community leaders across the United States are caving in to political correctness as it concerns Christmas, Arnold is not likely to cross that line anytime soon. Just a couple of years ago, he officially reassigned the the name "Christmas Tree,"...
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We're all familiar with the stereotype of the bleeding heart liberal. But seeking to heal victims as a way of vicariously healing oneself knows no political boundary, or any other boundary for that matter. Co-dependents, as they are often called (though the concept is simplistic, and,...
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“We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better...stronger...faster.” —“The Six Million Dollar Man”
This weekend, we’re upgrading Bakersfield.com to version 2.0 of the software platform that runs all the features...
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I spent some time talking to people in the middle of the night last night and this morning waiting in line to get their hands on the coveted PlayStation 3. If you weren't in line or about two days chances are you didn't have much of a chance of getting one.
Many I talked to planned to sell...
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Some people consider it pseudoscience, a complex hoax designed by the conservative Christians to smuggle the Bible into the classroom. Some people, on the other hand, believe it to be a viable theory that is worthy of classroom consideration. Quite frankly, I don't care what...
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Seeing people camped out in tents outside Circuit City waiting to buy a PlayStation 3 on my way to work today reminded me of the time I stayed up all night outside a store to get a PlayStation 2 a few years back. Here's an old blog I wrote last year thinking back on that night when the Xbox...
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Just saw this post on our sister site, Bakotopia, which serves as a vibrant on-line community of local musicians, artists, writers, and other lovers of the local arts and entertainment scene. Blogger and local musician Lil' Nemo recently put up this list of Bakocentric in-jokes, along...
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Dear Diary:
Today I started turning my dream of writing a blog book/play/movie script on Buck Owens into a reality. I introduced people to the title: They're Gonna Put Me in the Movies: The Buck Owens Story. I hope nobody out there has already taken it, and I hope they won't sue...
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Elton John recently spoke out against religion, specifically religion of the organized variety, which he says promotes hatred of gays, divisive rancor, and war. Lately, he's been blaming the church for all of the evils in the world. In the process, I'm sure many religious folks...
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Yesterday blogger Erik Bako posted a critique of the daily reader's poll that appears at the bottom of the Bakersfield.com homepage. His main criticism was of the often tongue-in-cheekish text that accompanies the “yes,” “no,” and “maybe” choices, and he...
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It was inevitable. The bubble of extremist liberal groupthink in the world of rock was about to burst. Ted Nugent, Pat Boone, and what remains of the Ramones, were growing weary of being the only pro-Americans to walk the face of the rock n roll planet. Now a brand new...
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Have you ever met somebody, judged them on the basis of their attire and general appearance to be of a particular political persuasion, and then, after speaking with them, found their views to be just the opposite of what you might have expected? Have you ever assumed someone with vastly...
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