Carrolling no more

Trojan football fans had a special treat being able to hear John McKay talk to the press before and after every USC game from 1960 to 1975. I never believed that another coach could rival John's "style."

I was wrong

For the last nine years Trojan fans have been treated to not only a team that wins on a very consistent basis but we have been able to listen to someone who can explain exactly what it taking place both on and off the field. Not quite able to duplicate the McKay humor, Pete Carroll contributed something John didn't have. Pete could throw the ball 55 yards and always seemed like he was ready to play in every game. He seemed like one of the players.

Pete Carroll has been a complete treasure for fans of USC football.

His record speaks for itself but what I will miss the most are his conversations with the press.

His community efforts to eliminate gang problems in Los Angeles are probably more important than anything he does on the field....and Los Angeles will surely miss that energy.

The fans in Seattle are about to experience a true icon in the world of coaching.

I obviously do not want Pete to leave his current job but when Paul Allen calls it's very hard to refuse. He said he would never leave unless he had the perfect situation and since Mr. Allen has more money than anyone in sports and he seems to interfere less than any professional owner....I would call that a perfect situation.

It doesn't matter who becomes the new USC football coach because a transition period is about to take place and things will not be the same for quite awhile in Heritage Hall.

I think it would also be a good time to change Athletic Director. The President, Steve Sample, is retiring, Pete is becoming a Seahawk and Mike Garrett should follow them out the door. His non-communication regarding matters concerning the athletic program at USC are glaring.

Since we have to start all over we might as well cover all the bases.

I don't want Pete to leave but it appears to be irreversible.

I just want to thank him for all the energy and work he has put in to the program and into the community.

It was a special gift and I'll never forget it.

Thanks Pete!

Michael Timothy McAlevey

75

Priscilla says that if he was alive

he would be a preacher.

Imagine how much money he could raise as a preacher?

His estate made $50 million in 2009

Happy Birthday

Elvi$

SO MANY LAWS so little time to break them

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html

If you copy and paste the above address you will be directed to a

a)headache

b)eye-popping nonsense

c)plot to undermine any sanity that you might have left

d)a stand up comedian's reservoir of material

CALIFORNIA LAWS are broken into 29 codes.

Click on anyone of them

and kick your feet up and start browsing.

In last Sunday's LA Times there was an article stating that approximately

300 new laws were going into affect starting with the new year.

300 NEW ones

UNFORTUNATELY THE WEBSITE LISTED ABOVE

HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED

SINCE 2008

I'm probably breaking three or four new laws just sitting at my desk.

I called the Governor's office asking what website listed the 300 new ones

and basically was told that they hadn't been updated to the Internet as of today.

Of course I'm also interested in 2009

I should probably go through the Sheriff's department

to obtain the information.

I mean a law is law (or 300 new ones in this case)

and someone is in charge of enforcing the laws....

and I assume it must be the Sheriff's office or the Police Department.

Maybe I'll just run out and start doing stupid NEW things

and see if anyone arrests me.

Since I'm obviously attempting to bore you to death.....

chew on this one for a second.

Last year in California there were

1959 BILLS INTRODUCED

1959!

AND WE SAY OUR POLITICIANS AREN'T DOING ANYTHING!

They are busy little bees swarming around in anybody

and everybody's business, trying their hardest to make sense

of our very large population here in California....and trying to figure out

why the sixth largest economy in the world (California) is flat broke.

I might be wrong but maybe all the laws being passed have finally

affected the adventuress spirit of our great state.

Maybe businesses moving to Nevada and Arizona...

are finally causing a

real problem.

The only thing wrong with that theory is Arizona

is also flat broke

and Las Vegas is giving suites away for peanuts.

I was in Vegas about a year ago and spent two nights there

for a trade show

and I keep getting notices for comp rooms and free play.

I'm starting to ramble so it's time to shut down.

Check out the California Laws

and maybe call your assemblyperson

and tell them to

relax

2010 could be the year where no new laws

are passed.

Who do I think I'm kidding?

But I really do think we just might have enough

to last us for awhile.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

NASA's Great Observatories Examine the Galaxy Center - NASA Spitzer Space Telescope

SPEND SOME TIME ON THIS SITE AND YOU WILL START THE NEW YEAR WITH SOME AMAZING PERSPECTIVES.

NASA's Great Observatories Examine the Galaxy Center - NASA Spitzer Space Telescope

Posted using ShareThis

NEW LANGUAGE and more to come

I've said it before but just to remind everyone.....I DON'T TEXT.

I don't foresee anytime in the near future where I will text because I love my keyboard like I used to love my typewriter....and the format would have to be the same size as the one I'm working on right now....and a phone the size of my keyboard would put me somewhere around 1978.

BUT WHAT I DO RECOGNIZE AS IMPORTANT

IS THE NEW LANGUAGE BEING CREATED BY TEXTING AND TWITTERING

I would like to add some of my own new "words" to the mix. I'm pretty sure they won't be incorporated into verbal menus anytime soon....but of course I could be wrong.

I will be using them from time to time as I write my "articles" because sometimes they are the only way to explain something that I am trying to say.

WTFWYT

"what the f..k were you thinking"

WTFWTT

"what the f..k were they thinking"

WTFWIT

"what the f..k was I thinking"

SIWWTP

"something is wrong with this picture"

BSTHOTRTA

"But strange things happen on the road to awareness"

GTFOOH

"get the f..k out of here"

WGAFF

"who gives a flying f..k"

WTFDH/STH/SI

"who the f..k does he OR she think he or she is"

I realize that the word F..K seems to have a dominate place when it comes to my new words and my answer to that is.....

WGAFF?

I'M PRETTY SURE THE WORD HAS BECOME A NORMAL WORD TO USE BY AT LEAST 51% OF THE ADULT POPULATION

....and probably 75% of teenagers living in urban America.

I've never written the word f..k completely when I'm writing on the Internet,

and now my new words will allow me to use it without really using it.

Welcome to the new decade of texting and the new language that is being introduced.

OMG....WGAFF and seriously....WTFWYT when YDAMT?

IDTDWI

"I don't text...deal with it."

Michael Timothy McAlevey

HAPPY NEWS YEAR

How cool would it be if all the news was happy for the entire year?

A HAPPY NEWS YEAR

2010

THE FIRST IN RECORDED HISTORY

You might end up vomiting every time Fox News came on or every time you picked up a newspaper.

It might take a few years to get used to.....

but I'm willing to give it a shot......how about you?

AN EXAMPLE

"A suicide bomber entered a secure area in Afghanistan today and as he started to pull the wire to denote his explosive device, he suddenly stopped and ANNOUNCED THAT A VOICE IN HIS HEAD said not to hurt anyone anymore and he unbuckled the device and turned it over to the authorities and told them who was behind the plot."

27 al-qaeda members were arrested within 30 minutes.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE

" The Senate announced today that all lobbyists were not allowed within 250 miles of anyone elected to a public office." A national restraining order was put into affect yesterday eliminating any type of communication including e-mail or text messaging between lobbyists and elected officials."

So on and so forth.

You could use the comment tool underneath this article and leave your own Happy News story.

I would love to know what you would consider a Happy News story.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Full on the last day and Blue besides

I find it pretty amazing that we end up with a full moon on the last day of 2009 and thus the last day of the decade. And then to throw a bit of hoopla on the situation, it turns out that tonight's full moon is a Blue Moon.

Now of course everybody knows what a Blue Moon is........but just in case....a Blue Moon is a full moon that has appeared twice in the same month. It happens approximately every 2 and one half years so it ain't like watching Haley's Comet, but it's still an interesting event that will allow you to kiss your partner, or your partner's friend, a little bit harder and a little bit longer.

In my case I'll read an extra chapter of the latest Dean Koontz novel.

By the way I am available for designated driver if the need arises. Of course if you are out of town you need to pay expenses and transportation which could end up in the thousands so I suggest you either stay home or have a cab companies phone number stamped on your forehead.

With the overwhelming amount of tattoo's being applied I don't think anyone will even notice. In fact having numbers printed on your forehead might be the next big fad.

Or Equations would be interesting. Some of them are very beautiful....if of course you think mathematical things can be beautiful. Math is so abstract for me that each one I look at just boggles my mind.

Two full moons in one month is making me a bit wacky.

Like I needed any help in that department!

My New Year's wish for you and everyone else I know or will know is that you get all the help you need to achieve the greatest things that can be imagined within your reality.

In other words.....buy some of my artwork and

May all your dreams come true

Tomorrow I'll deal with the strange story of the 8 CIA agents who were killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan but for now I'll simply say.....

Happy New Year

and

Peace......if it is at all possible.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Movies and me

The first time I went on a date my mom took me and the new chick in my life to a double feature. I think the girl's name was Glenna but I'm not really sure because I had a horse and babes were all over me.

Well, they actually were all over my horse but they had to go through me to get a ride.

I was 11 years old and the double feature was LOVE ME TENDER and APRIL LOVE.

It was early 1957 because LOVE ME TENDER had been released in November of 1956 but where we lived didn't exactly have a multi-screen complex, so when APRIL LOVE was released in 1957 the owner of the only theater in Sylmar brought Elvis and Pat into my dating life.

Keep in mind that all movie experiences in those days included two movies, a cartoon and possibly a news-reel.

I realize I'm making Sylmar sound a lot like Bozeman, Montana but in 1957 Sylmar was like Bozeman, Montana....but probably not as big. The roads were dirt and horses were everywhere....along with sheep, goats, chickens and a very large enrollment in the local 4-H club.

But on that special afternoon in 1957 there was lot of love in the air and on the screen and in my developing frontal cortex.

I think it might have been the first dark place I ever took a hot young babe. I don't remember getting slapped and I don't remember getting a kiss goodnight but I do remember hearing something about "I'll be over tomorrow for a ride."

I'm not sure my 11 year old brain thought of the different aspects regarding that comment but I might have gotten a little wood....but I doubt it.

I'm pretty sure I didn't have to confess it but then again the amount of guilt from Sister Mary Margaret might have forced me into the little tiny confessional room.

By the way Elvis trumped Pat Boone rather easily but both movies were memorable because it turns out.......I like movies.

The truth of the matter is.....I love movies.

I can usually find something worthwhile in every single film I watch. Sometimes it might just be the music over the closing credits but anything on the big screen is like a great day on the golf course....and any day on the golf course is a great day.

I look back at 2009 and realize that there were some very good days at the movies.

Each type of film leaves a different impression so therefore it's not really fair to say The Hurt Locker was a better film than Avatar. I do know that I was mentally drained after watching The Hurt Locker and visually much more pleased after watching Avatar.

I was wonderfully surprised after viewing The Fantastic Mr. Fox and quite impressed with the reality aspects of The Blind Side.

District 9 totally impressed me with it's uniqueness and UP IN THE AIR had great repeated dialogue scenes.

It's Complicated probably made me laugh more than any other comedy other than WHATEVER WORKS by Woody Allen (that apparently no one saw or even heard about)

I've yet to see Crazy Heart or Nine and from what I've heard they both should be wonderful.

All in all I think it's been a very good year for film but then again I thought 1957 was a very good year for film......and now that I think about it.......so has every year since 1931.

So.....I've got a movie problem.....all I have to say to that is...........

WHERE'S THE FREAKING POPCORN?

Michael Timothy McAlevey

By the WAY.....to the right side

If you notice on the right side of this screen the names Apple, Google and Microsoft appear.

These are current news stories from those three companies....NOT ADS.

Keep in mind that had you bought those three stocks in March of 2009 your portfolio would be up.......

HUGE!

Microsoft in March was 14.87......Today 31+

Google in March was 282.78........Today 623+

Apple in March was 78.20...........Today 212+

I started including their news feeds sometime during the summer because it was obvious to me that as they roll, so rolls......

EVERYTHING in Technology

And if someone appears on the scene that might interrupt their playing field then most likely they will be bought by one of the three.

Please note that I'm not talking about what you would have if you had bought when they started in business....

Those numbers are hard to imagine by normal investors.....

I'M TALKING SINCE MARCH OF 2009

COMBINED INCREASE OF BETTER THAN 70%

If you read the news stories that are posted on the right side of my blog you will be able to identify how and why these are the three predominate players in the Technology sector.

I'm not suggesting buying shares, because there will be times of correction and I don't want anyone bitchin at me....but if you did have these three companies in your portfolio most likely in ten years you would be a very happy investor.

Keep in mind that Microsoft and Apple have SPLIT multiple times so don't look for them to be issuing anymore shares.....soon.

GOOGLE on the other hand HAS NEVER SPLIT and my gut feeling says it's got to happen sooner than later.

Of course you could always check with Jim Cramer on Mad Money just to make sure.

Invest wisely and diversify.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Three years

For 50 years I have been involved in journal writing. I started my first one as a teenager. My journals consist of writing and artwork and and in the 80's they started becoming something else other than a journal.

Something other than a journal?????

Three years ago today I started Mind Jazz and it is something other than a journal.

I try to write an "article" almost every day. I look back on three years and realize that out of 1095 days I only wrote 647 "articles."

And since there is a fee involved because of the Ads placed on the site, then I technically can say that I am a PAID article writer.....or an IC (Internet columnist) if that makes more sense.

But my latest expression is WGAFF

So after three years of Internet articles and fifty years of creating art

WGAFF?

How would you pronounce WGAFF?

The only thing that matters is that my daughter actually told me last week that she read my blog and thought it was quite good.

It took her three years to read it and most likely she won't read it again.

There's something strange going on when it comes to my writing...but then again you probably already knew that.

Very few family members have read any of my scripts. I realize that there are only four scripts but it's like I've been told....."Hey if it's not being made into a movie then WGAFF.

Other people I know who know people I know who know that I have written scripts.....don't have the slightest idea that I have written scripts and the only answer to that is that there is some type of "invisible" gamma clusters involved in what I do and it results in my wondering....

WGAFF?????????????????????

Well....it turns out that I GAFF and therefore Mind Jazz will continue and I will continue working on my latest script and I will keep creating art that nobody wants to see and I will process the notion that everything I do is for post production acceptance.

I can live with it because I've had a lot of practice.

In fact the body of work I've created in my lifetime is entirely due to the fact that it makes me work harder when no one seems to care.

I'm not being pitiful.... I'm just being factual, but after everything is said and done.....

WRGAFF??????

I should have been an actor instead of an artist and then I could pretend to be an artist and blame it all on the badly written script.

Three years of Mind Jazz !

I do want to thank those of you who have read it from time to time.

I realize, unlike me, that you have many other options

when it comes to reading material online.

Hopefully the substance of my "articles" will improve during this next year.

My goal is write the perfect "article" and I know that I haven't done that yet.....so onward and upward.

Again thank you very much for checking out MIND JAZZ from time to time.

I love you.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

CONTINUATION OF THE FUTURE

The future seems pretty secure with or without this participant. Certain things will happen and other things will cease.

Predicting events that will take place belongs to characters like Nostradamus, David Letterman and Lady Ga Ga.

I'm not so much into actual visualizing of destructive moments.....more like "relax and enjoy what could take place.

JEFF BRIDGES will win a couple Academy Awards before 2020.

FACEBOOK will introduce a "member fee." It won't be much but 30 percent of the users will disappear.

BARNES and NOBLE will suddenly realize that promoting E-Books was not a good idea for their core business....but by then profits will be down 40%.

McDonald's will introduce the .50 cent menu and .50 will be their spokesman.

An actor of renown (hopefully female) will discover my scripts and each one of them will make it to the screen. There will be an abundance of rewriting and the original screenwriter will be banished from the lot.

The Buss family will buy the Dodgers and decide that Los Angeles should spend the same amount every year as the Yankees. The new World Series will be the financial battle between the Dodgers and the Yankees. The actual games won't matter anymore when both teams are spending $350 million a year on payroll.

Every great player will either be on the Yankees or the Dodgers.

The rest of baseball will be reclassified as the Minor Leagues

The St. Louis Rams will move to Cuba and become the "CUBANO RAMS"

Conservative politicians and scientists will continue to deny Global Warming right up until Manhattan is two inches underwater.

My story "Aunt Martha" will win the Pulitzer Prize for best fiction of 2016

Because of the success of my story there will be extreme interest in my artwork and I will hear an abundance of...."Are those done on a computer?"

My Dad will turn 100 and still shoot his age on the golf course.

Cortney Muhlbach will decide to go on and become a doctor and start his practice at the age of 40 and retire at 85 after 45 years of private practice.

Seamus Garrity and Ryan Gruzen will collaborate on a film score and realize it should have happened a long time ago.

Afghanistan will sell itself to China and China will option it out to any countries who like to wage war in an open and desolate environment. Afghanistan will become the only territory where war is allowed.

A man-made Grand Canyon will start to be dug, with small shovels, in North Dakota by federal prisoners who have committed violent crimes and within five years violent crime will be down 80%.

A large water pipe line will be built from the state of Washington to California. Sponsored by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet it will be called the Buffet Bill Project. They will sell advertising per mile and make millions and millions.

Time to wrap stuff so I will wrap this up for now.....of course there's still a lot more things that will happen.....but then again you already knew that.

HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Decade and the future

I was going to pontificate on why the last decade moved so quickly but then realized the older one gets the faster a decade moves and decided WGAFF.

Obviously there were large events during the last decade and if you don't remember them then you are steps ahead of me in the process of living in the "now" or always looking forward to the next challenge or the next rainbow.

Do you actually know anybody who looks forward to rainbows? They are very hard to predict unless you have a hose and the right sun angle so I doubt if you know anybody like that. Of course you could have a relative in one of those places where rainbow sightings have nothing to do with weather.....much like nightmares have nothing to do with dreams.

Now that I've brought it up.......are there still Insane-asylums?

I realize the word has been replaced by Mental Hospital OR Nursing Home for the Wacky but I wonder when the term was removed from dictionaries?

When I was growing up there was always the Insane-asylum waiting in the background for those of us who didn't behave ourselves. But it seemed to be spelled another way. Obviously I can't verify the spelling if it no longer resides in the dictionary.

I honestly remember nuns threatening me with words like....."Timmmmy you are going to end up in an Insane-asylum if you don't start behaving."

I realize I blame a lot of my baggage on the nuns but gee-whiz they worked us like the putty we were....and lots of their bs stuck big time in certain corners of my mind.

If you are under 60 and didn't get taught by nuns then you have no idea what I'm talking about.

I wonder how many Bi-Polar people were sent to Insane-asylums back in the day? It had to be extremely weird for a Bi-Polar person to be incarcerated with totally insane people. Keep in mind that Bi-Polar people have extensive times of being "normal" during any given time period.

A "normal time period" can last for days or maybe even weeks.

This is the kind of thing that happens when I look back.

So study the last decade and determine what was the most important things for you and then grab your ass and hold on for the next one and if you are lucky you'll get through it with no scars and no visits to the Insane-asylum.

The things we have to look toward.....are much more interesting to me.

SOME BASIC PREDICTIONS FOR THE NEXT DECADE

Healthy food will be much more important to the average American.

Individual farming will be common place and land away from municipalities will be highly coveted.

Cell phones will not be placed next to the ear.........ever.

Apple computers will be so thin and large that separate rooms will have to be created for the computer. Desks will only hold the wireless keyboard.

3D television viewing will be common place and the glasses will be sold at optometry stores.....in a wide range of prices.

Tiger Woods and Michelle Obama will get married and start a special foundation for God only knows what. (That actually might not happen until the decade after the one starting next week)

Barack Obama will end up with Diane Sawyers daughter but again that might be two decades away.

Human Growth Hormones will be finally understood by the public and will be used on a regular basis by anyone who can afford them. They will be very expensive until generic HGH comes along. Generic HGH will have flaws very similar to regular human activity.

I will still not be able to break 80

Politicians will be finally figured out as being corrupt and be eliminated from decision making processes. Internet Voting will replace them regarding decisions. They will still be physically present because someone needs to fill the seats in the senate. After all it's a great room and it does have a lot of history.

I'll continue this application to the Insane-asylum tomorrow.....right now I've got to do some last minute shopping.

Oh wait a sec....it's only the 23rd. I still have tomorrow.

God willing of course.

Have you seen Avatar yet? It's only made $350 million worldwide.....Mr. Cameron needs your help so that he can enjoy the next decade in grand style.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

STYLE and ...............some of these

My blog is called MIND JAZZ for a reason. Jack Neworth, the noted local Santa Monica columnist, who suggested that term over three years ago when describing how I write, deserves full credit for the name. Whether or not Jack appreciates my style is still up for review. Since he is a literary artist I think he appreciates alternative styles.

Alternative style has always been the "glitch" in my "hitch."

The alternative "hitch" being more of the way I do certain things, particularly in my writing and my art, then in musical preferences. Therefore none of this has anything to do with music so if you need to bail.........now is the time.

Still here?

Please refer back to the end of the last paragraph to visualize where this article is headed.

Note the multiple periods, or dots, between the word bail and the word now.

Obviously the three dot ... grammatical tool is called an ELLIPSIS

I HAVE HAD

ELLIPSISGRANDEXTREMISM........... since I was a very young person.

SOMETIMES I USE FOUR PERIODS AND SOMETIMES I USE............MANY MANY MANY MORE.

You also will note that I suffer from CAPITOLGRANDEXTREMISM on a regular basis.

I also used to intentionally not tie my shoe laces when I was in grammar school because I liked the look. The nuns generally had a conniption when I explained that................. "it was my style."

I realize that whoever might be reading what I write could pause and never return to the piece.......just like the nuns would stop talking to me and send me to the nearest corner to meditate on my odd ways.

It's a chance one takes when one records anything or says something to a nun that isn't part of their daily habit.

Wkipedia insert

Ellipsis (plural ellipses; from the Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, "omission") is a mark or series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word or a phrase from the original text. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis) (apostrophe and elipsis mixed). The ellipsis calls for a slight pause in speech.

OBVIOUSLY SOMETIMES I WANT THE READER TO PAUSE BEYOND A NORMAL AMOUNT OF TIME..........and the only way, I see that happening, is if I create that pause...........with a bunch of these....................

I think it comes down to the art of making a point........no pun intended, but one created none the less.

Interestingly enough Wikipedia states the following.

On the Internet and in text messaging

The ellipsis is one of the favorite constructions of internet chat rooms, and has evolved over the past ten years into a staple of text-messaging. Though an ellipsis is technically complete with three periods (...), its rise in popularity as a "trailing-off" or "silence" indicator, particularly in mid-20th century comic strip and comic book prose writing, has led to expanded uses online. It has been used in new ways online, sometimes at the end of a message "to signal that the rest of the message is forthcoming." ^[5]

Today, extended ellipsis of two, seven, ten, or even dozens of periods have become common constructions in internet chat rooms and text messages.^[6]

"Elliptical commas", or, commas used in plurality for the effect of ellipsis or multiple ellipsis, have also grown in popularity online—though no style journal or manual has yet embraced them.^[6]

I do try to tone down the

ELLIPSISGRANDEXTREMISM

when writing a script because script readers are usually recent college graduates and structure is extremely important to their freshly schooled minds.

Most of the time the only people who read my scripts are very close friends and they either like the story or don't like the story and I hear very little about grammatical references..........but maybe they have them and hesitate about sharing......humm.

My ELLIPSISGRANDEXTREMISM might be a problem that needs to be addressed. I wonder if there are organized meetings for this type of problem.

"Hello my name is Michael Timothy and I have..............Eliipsisgrandextremism"

The response would probably be......................"WGAFF"

If you don't know what WGAFF means.........figure it out.

Well....... back to something a bit more important....................maybe!

It's only 10 days to the end of another year and the end of another decade

Tomorrow I'll point how why this decade moved so fast.........and then listen to certain people tell me that they all move fast.

But today I just want to end on a certain .

Just one because I'm trying to work on my ELLIPSISGRANDEXTREMISM........ok?

Michael Timothy McAlevey