Thanks to Kenneth of 30 Rock for reminding me of this gem.

I compared apples to apples and all I can say is, damn right it is!

I first want to say that Sioux Falls has an amazing park system. But is it all useful? We continue to build new parks when we are not using the current parks we have to capacity. Take Yankton Trail for instance. Rumor has it the city only allows the park for competition, not to be used as a practice facility. Why is that?

This summer I rode my bike to work almost every day on the bike trail. I found the trail to be well maintained and frequently used, I also found our parks are over manicured, watered, mowed, and maintained (what’s the point of mowing ½” of grass!?).

Why does the parks department and budget continue to grow at such a rapid rate, and what is the solution to slow it down a bit to an acceptable inflationary level? I suggest we stop building new parks for at least two years and do an extensive study on how much our parks are used by monitoring their usages throughout the week and seasons. If certain parks have little usage – we sell off the land. I also suggest we build smaller parks that are easier and less expensive to maintain. I also think we should reduce the size of some of our larger parks. One thing I observed this summer is that smaller parks are used more and are more populated. Not sure why? Maybe people feel safer?

I decided to look at another city similar to ours in climate, size and growth. Billings, Montana is two-thirds the size in population to Sioux Falls.

Billings spends $5,714 a year per developed acre of parkland.

Sioux Falls spends $11,546 a year per developed acre of parkland.

Can you imagine if it cost you that much to maintain your lawn every year! Even if you feritlized, watered and paid a lawn service for an acre of land you are still looking at about $1,800

Sioux Falls maintains 4.8 times more parkland than Billings and even if you adjust for the population difference Sioux Falls still maintains 3.22 times more parkland than Billings. Sioux Falls budget is 9.78 times larger than Billings and 6.52 times larger when you adjust for population - Holy Crap! This is pretty amazing considering the similarities between Sioux Falls and Billings. If you go to Billings Parks and Recreation page you will see that they also offer as many activities as Sioux Falls. In Sioux Falls defense we charge visitors a tax to buy stuff here to help fund our parks. In Billings they are not so lucky, they only have a state income tax to work with. Not only does Billings maintain developed acres on such a small budget they also maintain over 2,000 acres of undeveloped parks but they also irrigate their parks like we do, from the river. When I spoke to one of the park’s directors about his operating budget, he said they were underfunded (well duh) but when I told him our budget, he was dumbfounded, as was I when I heard his budget.

What is the problem? My guess is Sioux Falls is paying too much for outside services and over-maintaining. It’s not like Billings is a couple bucks short of us on funding, they are millions and millions of dollars shorter than us. It tells me that Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation is in a constant state of overspending. We can have all the same things we have now, we just need to start shopping at the dollar store.

A hardware store had this sign up after several people came in requesting such an adapter. Now, it’s pretty easy to understand why such a peice of hardware doesn’t exist, but immoral? WTF?

These girls could soon be the new mascots of Spearfish High School

PETA creates a new animal mascot.

The school should be renamed “Sea Kitten High School,” PETA said, as part of its new Sea Kitten campaign aimed at children.

If PETA wasn’t so damn ridiculous I would be upset.

The Donna’s, Hot, but not on fire.

What was supposed to be a perfect music weekend spent in Minneapolis almost five years ago became an almost near death experience (maybe, I wanted to sound all Fox News and shit).

Something that rarely happens when you get to be over 30 and still have a thirst for live music in a club is planning a trip to a major city to take in as much live music as possible in a short period of time, more gas money bang for your buck. It happened,  two close friends and I went to Minneapolis on a Friday afternoon. That night we saw The Donna’s at the Quest, on Saturday we saw The Pretenders at the State, and for Sunday we were slated to see Link Wray at the Fine Line. The first two shows were great. The Donna’s have an amazing stage presence. They found a way to capitalize on Joan Jett’s and Patti Smith’s sexiness and sound like AC/DC. The Prentenders great moment was when lead singer Chrissy started bitching about the Iraq War and GW Bush from stage, most people applauded her, but one jackass decided he was going to put her in her place. Chrissie responded. “Shut the Fuck Up and sit down, nobody cares what you have to say.” In which he did, because people booed him and clapped for Chrissie. He eventually left. Nice gesture. But most of all we were excited about Link Wray. He was 75 at the time (I think) and lived in Europe. Though he toured quite a bit, it was mostly in other countries. This was a rare appearance, and we knew, probabaly the last time to see a legend. Link virtually invented surf rock and the power chord, he also was the first to experiment with guitar distortion, something Kurt Cobain praised about Wray and claimed to be heavily influenced by his guitar work (accept for the fact that Wray was a 100 times better geetar player then Kurt.)

Sunday night started out good. We ate at the club in the balcony and watched the opening band. They were ‘ok’ but more on the punk / rock-garage rock side, not like Wray at all. I found it interesting that the whole band was pretty much emo-punk rock kids accept for the drummer. He had buttrocker long hair and a huge Peter Criss drumset (which probably would have gave Mike Rounds a boner). The drummer didn’t fit in. Shortly before the set ended I went to the bathroom for a #1 (thank gawd it wasn’t a #2!). As I was in the John the band played their last song in which Peter(head) on the drums decided to shoot off pyro and complete stupidity.

Mistake.

It caught the entire ceiling on fire within seconds. The ceiling was steel with a spray on insulation (that apparently was not fireproof). My friends literally had to crawl down the stairs of the balcony to get out. I was in the pisser, licking my balls or smelling my armpits, who knows. As I am standing there drying my hands, under one of those stupid hand dryers (BTW, You SUCK!) I hear a guy in the hallway yelling, “Get here NOW! My building is on fire!” I run out into the hallway, and he says “Get the fuck out.” Well duh. The bathrooms were in the back of the club on the main floor. He pointed me to the front, which was kinda dumb, considering I could have ran out the back door thru the kitchen (which is my point of all this). As I am running across the dance floor to the front door, I look up and see the ceiling engulfed in flames. The whole damn thing. And if you have only seen something like this in movies, seeing this in person is a whole nutter ball of wax. Luckily I got out right away. One of the main reasons was that most of the hipsters hadn’t showed up to the show yet (sold out). There was probably about 200 of us in a club that could easily sit 800. To this day, I say that is the only reason no one got hurt and the ceiling was steel and never collapsed.

Ironically a week later The Great White club fire occurred.

I wanted to say something after hearing about the Bangkok club fire today.

Always check the EXITS when entering a club you unfamiliar with. To this day, the first thing I do when entering a club or other entertainment facility is walk around and find all the exits.

Okay, now back to being a sarcastic jerk.

Now they are up to selling something most people call a ‘robe’ they call it a ‘snuggie‘

I think it is funny how the logo looks exactly like the fabric softener logo ’snuggle‘

And they use the same guy from the ‘Listen up’ commercial. “Does that have to be so loud?”

So let’s review;

We sell

- Robes

- Book Lights

- Hearing aids

- Victory Plates (that become heirlooms)

Steve Sibson, as a child, finds his calling

I hardly ever read these blogs unless I need a good dose of ignorance and bigotry (disguised as Christian Love - of course). The Bob and Steve show is so ridiculous I’m not sure if I’m watching a rerun of Bozo the Clown on WGN or Pat Robertson singing the praises of Barry Obama.

These two puddknockers spend too much time on the internet (reading and believing all the crap, intelligent, well-read people tend to ignore like the plague).

Steve once called me a ‘communist’ because of my 1st Amendment beliefs (huh?).

Go ahead, read their sites, funny shit.

PS- Have a barf bag or a stiff drink handy (or both).

Eggbert giving Grammy Gumption a ride.

I don’t often laugh out loud - but Eggbert’s posts alway make me burst.

Congrats. The Golden Turkey Turd is awaiting you.

I guess everyone is a ‘pothead’ if they support medical cannabis. Just because some of us support the use of this (natural - non-chemical) drug for medical purposes doesn’t mean we partake, grow or sell. Far from it. Most of us still know the use of cannabis for recreational use is illegal. Duh. Not sure where you get your information or get off calling supporters ‘potheads’ - once again - making assumptions and spreading bullshit when the facts don’t support your agenda. It’s a typical conservative tactic, when progressives shoot holes in your arguments, attack their character with negative buzzwords like secret muslim, domestic terrorist or druggy. If someone is dying of terminal Cancer I think the least of their worries is an addiction to cannabis. God will forgive them when they die.

Aaaagh….

You may be noticing that posting has been light. It’s just been one of those weekends which has gone into this week. As the potheads…. er, legalization supporters went on the attack against me this AM (here and here), I just haven’t had time to ignore them sufficiently.

Pat, just admit it, your Federal agent father brainwashed you into believing all the myths about the evil weed.