The things in my head go 'round and 'round

Since his introduction in 1986 there has been a subtle, but orchestrated change in Chester Cheetah. I first talked about this way back in March of 2008, where I mentioned that Chester had taken a dark turn.

You see, when Chester first appeared he was hanging with our kids. Chester was initially always in a situation where he was trying to grab someones cheeto’s and would end up the victim of cartoon violence.

But then in the 2000′s he took a turn towards the dark side. First Chester started showing up in odd places, at odd times convincing people to act out revenge on others with the help of cheeto snacks. Putting cheeto’s in a clothes dryer that had a load of whites in it, while Chester was playing chess with some man. Convincing a woman to stick cheeto’s in a snoring mans nostrils. Messing up a neat freaks cubicle, and when the cubicla resident returned he was talking on the phone and stated that “there has been an incident.”

Conspiracy. It is all a conspiracy, you know. We have heard of the Orange Underground. And who was that man he was playing chess with? And even further, who was the cubicle dweller reporting “an incident” to? It is all leading up to something. Chester started out hanging around our kids, ingratiating himself to them as some bumbling character who wanted cheeto’s but could never get them. And now that our kids have grown up, so has Chester. And not in a good way.

Chester started the 2000′s experimenting in mind control. Convincing, manipulating people to do things that they might otherwise do. And he was very good at it.

And now it has gotten even worse. Chester Cheetah has moved from simple manipulation to experimentation on humans. And Chester Cheetah must be stopped. I am surprised that PETA hasn’t gotten involved with this. In one commercial, as Chester stays safely ensconced behind a glass shield, peoples mouths are fitted for different sizes of cheeto’s. The first is a woman with a HUGE mouth that is deemed not right. The next is a man who has some sort of appliance forcing his mouth open wider than any normal humans should, and he too is deemed lacking. The last one is just right, as the size of the cheeto has been minimized appropriately, and Chester asks “Mr. Lee” to pop open the bubbly so that they can celebrate.

Who is this “Mr. Lee”? Is he the one that chester has played chess with? Is he the one seen sunning himself at the soccer match? Just what is his interest in all of this?

In another commercial, a man in an orange jumpsuit is seen riding a centrifuge as cheeto’s are fired at him. Again, a clear case of human torture to further Chester’s strange, mysterious agenda. Further proof that Chester Cheetah must be stopped. Who knows how much further he will go before the wicked end to his experiments? And just what is he trying to do? Where is the Orange Underground in all of this? Are they freedom fighters, or are they pawns for his wicked game?

Keep tuned for the answers to this and so many other questions.

I have talked about Chester Cheetah many times, discussing his descent to the dark side.

Now we have the Quiznos Oven talking in their latest commercial. In that smooth, dark voice. The one where someone is lured to mayhem.

You heard it hear first. Quiznos is in league with Chester Cheetah.

I keep telling you that there is something sinister about Chester Cheetah for quite some time now.

His style of sidling up to someone and giving them deliciously evil ideas about how to get back at people who wrong them.

I just want it to be known that I have been warning all of you about it and the conspiracy that seems to be going on under the surface.

Just remember that you heard about it from me.

If you are visiting for the first time, or have been around for just awhile you might know about my campaign to warn the world of Chester Cheetah and his dark side.

I discussed it here, and here. And let us not forget this.

Beware, people. Beware.

Not that he has changed his ways, he hasn’t. But Chester took a brief hiatus and is not back. Encouraging people to do things to people that irritate them. And you just have to know that Chester has his own agenda in all of this, as can be seen in this clip:

So beware people. Chester is back, and who knows what he has been up to in the interim. He is evil behind his silky voice,and devilish demeanor.

Beware.

GM to temporarily close some plants to slash output

Last Update: 12/12 2:35 pm

NEW YORK (AP) – General Motors Corp. said Friday it will temporarily close 20 factories across North America – including its truck assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Ind. – and make sweeping cuts to its vehicle production as it tries to adjust to dramatically weaker automobile demand.

GM said it will cut 250,000 vehicles from its production schedule for the first quarter of 2009, which includes a cut of 60,000 vehicles announced last week. Normal production would be around 750,000 cars and trucks for the quarter, spokesman Tony Sapienza said.

Many plants will be shut down for the whole month of January, he said, and all told, the factories will be closed for 30 percent of the quarter.

“We’re adjusting pretty dramatically,” spokesman Chris Lee said.

The Fort Wayne plant assembles Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra light-duty trucks.

GM’s Indiana operations also include a casting plant in Bedford and metal stamping plants in Marion and Indianapolis. The automaker said it was still assessing those operations.

The move affects most of GM’s plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. During the shutdowns, employees will be temporarily laid off and can apply to receive a portion of their normal pay from the company. They can also apply for state unemployment benefits, Lee said.

GM and nearly all automakers who sell in the U.S. are mired in the worst sales slump in 26 years. GM reported its sales in the U.S. plunged 41 percent in November and are down 22 percent for the first 11 months of the year compared with the same period last year.

Cash-strapped GM is seeking government loans to stay in operation beyond the end of the year. The White House said Friday it may tap into its $700 billion Wall Street bailout fund to help GM and Chrysler stay in business after the Senate blocked a measure to provide $14 billion in immediate loans.

The measure failed in dramatic fashion late Thursday after Senate Republicans balked at passing the bill without more wage and benefit concessions from autoworkers.

Lee said Friday’s production cuts are unrelated to the rescue’s failure and had already been planned.

The entire auto industry has been making massive production cuts recently as it adjusts to the reality of lower automobile demand. Earlier Friday, Honda Motor Co. said it was cutting production in North America by 119,000 vehicles for its fiscal year ending March 31.

That brings Honda’s expected production for its fiscal year to 1.3 million units, a spokesman said.

Auto demand in the U.S., and increasingly around the world, has been hobbled due to the declining economy and the credit squeeze, which has made it more difficult and more costly for some buyers to obtain financing. Industrywide vehicle sales crumbled 37 percent in November, with every major automaker posting giant sales declines.

Lee said GM’s production cuts will be achieved by adding “down weeks” to the schedules at the affected plants. During down weeks, which can be staggered during a given period of time or can come several at once, the plant will not produce anything and employees will be temporary laid off.

“We look at it on a plant-by-plant basis and make decisions regarding their production schedule in terms of market demand, so it’s not a blanket … we look at it plant by plant and make those decisions,” Lee said.

—

AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.

The much bally-hooed bailout of the Big 3 Automakers has brought attention of the parts of detroit that have been in the background. Its abandoned houses, and factories.

This was written in The Michigan Messenger:

Big Three bailout spotlight reveals Detroit’s decay
By Minehaha Forman 12/12/08 1:12 PM

Now that the Big Three car companies that made Detroit the “Motor City” are reduced to begging for federal life support, a national spotlight is on Detroit’s decaying infrastructure.

On Sunday, Bloomberg.com reported that “General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler LLC are fighting for their lives. Large stretches of Detroit are already dead.”

The article highlighted areas of Detroit that are brimming with natural growth, a mix of urban and rural living. City lots are being recycled back to farms and vacant lots without cultivation are becoming stretches of prairie.

Similar coverage of Detroit’s return to a rural habitat was posted in Michigan Messenger earlier this year.

Both highlighted Detroit’s >urban farming and natural overgrowth in urban decay.

Adding to the more recent national attention was Time.com, which recently published a photo essay, shot in March 2008, of Detroit’s gutted old factories and train station. The photos offer a glimpse of a haunting, abandoned block.

“On many occasions,” said photographer Sean Hemmerle, “I had the feeling I was working in a post-Apocalyptic environment.”

Everyone knows the automotive industry was born in Detroit. Now national news organizations are realizing that it is—and has been for some time—dying here.

Hemmerle said he came to Detroit to take photos of “derelict” buildings as part of a project exploring “how far America has fallen”. He didn’t have to look hard. Leave the immediate downtown area and you’ll see signs of industrial decay. Tall office buildings, factories and historical homes stand slashed and gaping black holes rimmed with sharp broken glass mark the windows. On my street, on the East side of the city close to Eastern Market that was once an industrial community thriving on auto plant employment, there are multiple abandoned buildings, full of rust and still water or ice.

When I first moved from the suburbs to the inner city, I looked at the ruins in shock. I couldn’t believe a First World industrial country could have vast parts of a major city looking that neglected. But after living in Detroit for more than a year, I have come to the point where I often overlook the broken glass, the gutted factories and the piles of ruin and charcoal where there were once houses and factories. Detroiters have been forced to accept the gruesome neglect of city infrastructure or move. Many consider moving out of Detroit as a sign of success.

While some argue that the auto industry will fail without a bailout, a look at Detroit’s corroding infrastructure will tell you the damage cannot be undone by a mere $14 billion.

I have this addictive personality. And an impulse control problem.

Not that anyone who I know who also has a Facebook account could tell.

Just because I have become a Facebook stalker.

Sorry.

I promise to try to be just a bit better. But, who wouldn’t want instant access to their kids? They have all blocked me on their cell phones. No one answers when I call. Mostly.

Gotta go. Gotta see what the kids are up to.

namaste.

Today I have spent a good portion of my day washing dishes. Load after load of dirty dishes. It has seemed that I just finish one load, put it away, and I have another load ready to go.

Where the hell are these dishes coming from? There has only been the three of us here. It isn’t as if we have been on some mad food binge. I am tired of washing dishes.

And it isn’t as if I have my hands immersed in a sink full of dishes. We have a dishwasher. I am just tired of loading, and unloading this beast. Maybe I should have someone like this:

trained to do my dishes. Wasn’t there a movie about using vampires as slaves? It was made sometime in the 90′s I do believe.

Of course, you wouldn’t want to turn your back on them. Or go to sleep at night. Just in case, you know.

Great.

Now I am going to be creeped out.

Namaste.

The things in my head:

Is everyone watching American Idol? Right now? Do you hate the Jonas Bros. as much as I do?

Or do you love them as much as The Princess does?

Seal did not sound as good as I have heard before. But that song that he did was a favorite.

Just a few of the things going ’round and ’round in my head.

I was writing about the Apple Ipod here, what do you think about it?

Namaste.