GHOST RAIDERS EPISODE FIVE NOW ONLINE

Episode 5 - "P.H.I.S.T.-ed"
The Ghost Raiders finally catch a break in finding out the identity of the ghost in Jack's apartment. They are not, however, prepared for Jack's reaction as to who the ghost actually is.



Remember all of The Ghost Raiders Episodes can be found at http://www.theghostraiders.com/ or on our YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/TheGhostRaiders

Random Michael Jackson Memories

So Michael Jackson died.

I could spend and have spent days talking about where Michael went wrong, and do it from a place of having absolutely no knowledge of how things really went down. Instead I was struck by this thought as I was on the bus. I put a bunch of Jackson 5 / Michael Jackson songs on my Ipod. So on my way to work, I looked at the rest of the bus and saw probably a larger percentage of people also listening to their Ipods. In my mind, I just sort of assumed they were all listen to Michael Jackson too. It just seemed crazy, the day after, not to.

This got me thinking about some of my Michael Jackson moments. Nothing specific. No Earth shattering revelations. Just times in my life where I or people around me were doing things, because Michael Jackson was involved.

Here they are:

• Someone in my fourth grade class, bringing "Thriller" to show and tell.
  
• A family reunion in 1983. Someone bought "Thriller", on record. I can remember the whole family dancing to it in my living room.
  
• Getting the version of E.T. narrated by Michael Jackson for my sister for Christmas
  
• Seeing the Michael Jackson dolls for the first time at TG&Y in Pensacola Florida.
  
• Recording "Friday Night Videos" every week, in the vain hope that this was the week they would show "Thriller".
  
• Recording "We Are the World" on my boombox off the radio.
  
• My sister's friend thinking that Bob Dylan in "We Are the World" was Buckwheat.
  
• Getting excited when I thought heard on the radio that Michael Jackson was touring Pensacola and then upset when I heard his tour was sponsored by PEPSI-Cola.
  
• The infamous phone call I got when I was 11, from my sister's best friend about Michael Jackson's hair catching fire. My Mom thought from my reaction a family member had died.
• My grandfather calling him "Michelle" just to irritate me and my cousins.
• Watching the whole "Bad" video, and thinking the part before the video was boring, and not really caring who Martin Scorsese was.
• Finally seeing the video for "Thriller" in high school. I recorded it and showed it to my 3 year old sister. She was scared of Michael Jackson for years.
• Driving home for Christmas for the first time and watching that weird video of Michael Jackson defending himself against the allegations of him molesting children. It was that one with red background and he said they took pictures of his penis.
• Being drunk at a party in college and making a deal with someone to split "History", I would keep the old songs and they could have the new songs. I never got my half.
• Sitting with my grandmother in the hospital when she had cancer. She saw Michael Jackson on TV and said: "That's it. I am not dying until I find out, 'What is the deal with Michael Jackson?"
• Watching "Living with Michael Jackson" with my friends in the living room of my apartment in Chicago, and watching my and my friends' jaws drop every time some new crazy thing came on, like he wrote Dirty Diana in a tree or that children are called 'colored', because "...they come in different colors".
• My friend Jenny having the "Off the Wall" CD in her car, and there being absolutely no sense of irony about it.
• Calling my Mother for something random yesterday and having her tell me Michael Jackson died.
• Spending the evening on Facebook, and watching my friends comment about his death. The best one was my friend Tim who wrote: "Apparently this is Gov. Mark Sanford's lucky day."
  
• Reading this morning on Twitter from my friend Neil "What's crazier? His death, or that the news is only about 6 hours old and people are sick of hearing about it. Sign of the times."

Jason

GHOST RAIDERS NEW EPISODE NOW ONLINE!!

EPISODE 4 - "Networking"

The Ghost Raiders split up and try different ways to drum up clients for their new business.



Remember all of The Ghost Raiders Episodes can be found at http://www.theghostraiders.com/ or on our YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/TheGhostRaiders

Day of Shameless Self-Promotion Part 1

Its come to my attention, that some of you are not getting your weekly Ghost Raiders Fix from this site. Well that is a problem I plan to remedy right now.

Ghost Raiders is my weekly web series about the adventures of a team of ghost investigators. Episode 1 went up 3 weeks ago and has been doing pretty well. Well since then Episodes 2 and 3 have gone live and Episode 4 will go up on Monday.

So to get everyone caught up, here is Episode 2.

In Episode 2 "House of Hunan", Jack and Gary pull out all the stops to recover their damaged ghost footage. Unbeknownst to them, the solution to their problems might have just arrived with the Chinese food they just ordered. In this episode also A.H. Sermonia makes his Ghost Raider Debut as "Hoff".

Here is Episode 2:




Remember all of The Ghost Raiders Episodes can be found at http://www.theghostraiders.com/ or on our YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/TheGhostRaiders

Day of Shameless Self-Promotion Part 2

Here is Episode 3 "Where We Meet Liz Frehley"
In this Jack heads down to the County Records office to do some research on his house. There he meets Liz (Played by the AWESOME Jenn Remke), who is not all that she appears.



Remember all of The Ghost Raider Episodes can be found at www.theghostraiders.com or on our YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/TheGhostRaiders

Unfriended On Facebook

Who knew social networking could be so painful? Granted I spend far too much time on Facebook. It gets to the point where I look at Facebook, do something else and then come back and am upset that not that much has happened since I left. Its rather pathetic.

So the other day I was doing this "thingy" on Facebook. (You'd think with the amount of time I spend on it I would learn the lingo.) It had to do with getting on a list with other people you had once gone to school with. So I am filling it out, ready to basically annoy everyone who has ever bothered to "friend" me. As I am going down the list, I noticed one of my former school chums from college is missing. I double check, and yep I am right, that person is no longer on my friends list. I go find this person's Facebook page and am asked "Add as a Friend".

ADD AS A FRIEND?!?!?

I already was a friend. Not just a Facebook-Friend, I was a PERSON-FRIEND. We went to college together. We hung out. We went out drinking. Then we didn't see each other for ten or so years and I became a Facebook friend. And now, without provocation, without notice, I have been unceremoniously UNFriended. The nerve. I have Facebook friends I have never met, I wouldn't even do that to.

I got really neurotic about this, more so than usual. See this person who unfriended me, our social networking reunion ended at the acceptance of the aforementioned Facebook friending. We didn't click on each others posting or comment on each other's status. Occasionally I would look at a pic if it seemed interesting. But beyond that, there was little to no interaction. And that was what really bothered me.

See I have only unfriended one person on Facebook. It was this guy I never met, who would just "friend" anyone. On top of that he would constantly plug his shows he was doing in another state. I just found it annoying. So I unfriended him. Do you know how hard it is to unfriend a person? It is not something you do accidently. It is a multi-step process, and almost not worth the effort.

So that means that this supposed former Facebook friend actually had to WANT to unfriend me. This former person friend turned Facebook friend, who I never thought about, or cared about, actually took the time to jump through the Facebook hoops to unfriend me. It was a conscious effort. It was an item on their Todo list:

Get Milk ... Check

Mail Netflix... Check

Unfriend Jason on Facebook... Check

What the hell!?! What did I do? Was my latest status offensive? Should I have included the Youtube video as opposed to just putting the link? Where the answers to my "25 Questions" not up to snuff? What did I do? Where did I go wrong? How did I fall out of Facebook favor? What crime again social networking warranted my unfriending?

So many unanswered questions...

I do know this. I will not be adding this person back as a friend. Should they come cyber crawling back with an "Add As A Friend" request, my answer will be NO. I can't stand the thought of the social networking pain involved in a potential second unfriending.

No way. They had their chance to see me in the latest photos I have been tagged in. Or to get a reminder that Episode THREE of Ghost Raiders is up and ready do go. I say NO MORE!

Who needs them, right? I have 214 other friends to ease me pain. I will say it will make me think twice about Unfriending people in the future.

Just remember just because they are your Facebook friend, it doesn't mean they don't have real feelings.

Jason

If You Make Fun Of Sarah Palin, Apparently You Hate America

I sort of thought after she and John McCain lost the election, Sarah Palin would go away. Apparently not. Which is weird to me cause you know you didn’t see Lloyd Bensen skulking around after he and Michael Dukakis lost in 1988. Apparently Governor Palin didn’t get the memo.

Apparently the Palins were in New York last weekend, ya know doin’ what normal hockey mom / Joe six-packs do, seeing a Yankee game in box seats with Rudy Guliani, staying at 5 star hotels, marching in parades to honor William Seward and getting an award from Independent Group Home Living Foundation. You know, just normal average every day American things. I went to New York a couple weeks ago and just walked around Times Square and saw “Shrek the Musical”, but that was only because I am one of the “cultural elite”.

Anyway what also happened in New York was David Letterman made the following jokes about The Palins at the Yankee game in that “during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez”

To this Palin responded with:
“Concerning Letterman's comments about my young daughter (and I doubt he'd ever dare make such comments about anyone else's daughter): 'Laughter incited by sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands -- that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone's daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.'"

Which lead Letterman to clarify, that the joke was about Bristol Palin, her daughter who had already had a child out of wedlock and then apologized with the following:
"I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl," … "I mean, look at my record. It has never happened. I don't think it's funny. I would never think it was funny. I wouldn't put it in a joke."

He then invited the Palins to come back to New York and go on his show. Ya know, like normal everyday Americans do every day.

Did Letterman cross the line; I am not one to judge. I use “retard” in my daily language and used to do sketches about Christopher Reeve and the cast of Friends having cancer in my improv days.

No the problem I have is this sentence:
“...it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands…”

First of all Sarah, can I call you, Sarah? That is what average everyday folks do right? You know the ones who don’t get to see the Yankees with Rudy or are even discussed on late night talk shows. The ones who save up for months, maybe years to be able to afford half the weekend you had in New York City or someplace comparable.

Sarah, you are not an average every day American. You are the Governor of Alaska, and ran for Vice President of the United States. You are nothing like average every day Americans. Nothing! The fact that you even pretend to have anything in common with people who live in the lower forty-eight is laughable at best, especially compared to a guy who grew up in the Midwest. At worst it is condescending and insulting

Here is the thing, Sarah. I am an average American. You can tell because I live pay check to pay check, and live in constant fear of losing my job. Is that any part of your day to day, Sarah? When I go on vacation, I tend to either save up for a while so I can afford to go, or I stay with friends not in a five star hotel. When I go to a baseball game, I get over priced tickets online or I sit in the cheap seats, not in a box with a former mayor and / or Presidential candidate.

And the other thing, average Americans laugh at you. Saturday Night Live’s rating tripled when Tina Fey was on doing an impression of you. There are not enough cultural elites and “Hollywood/NY entertainers” to boost their rating that much. By the way average Americans don’t get made fun of by Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live!

So Sarah as an average every day Jason-Pitcher of Miller Lite, and for all the other average everyday Americans…

YOU ARE NOT ONE US, SO STOP SPEAKING FOR US!!

Next time Sarah, you start to wonder if you still think you are an average everyday American, ask your self this:

“Do I think Sarah Palin is a joke?”

If your answer is “yes”, then once you lose your job and your house goes into foreclosure, you very well might be on your way.

Jason

Spencer and Scott: Douche or Just Self-Unaware?

Ever wonder what Spencer Pratt and Scott Roeder have in common other than being in the first sentence of my blog? On the surface, they could not be more different, yet for me they both posed the same question from me last week. “Is this guy just a douche or does he just lack the ability to see reality?”

We will start with Spencer Pratt. Now I am breaking my first commandment of this blog by even mentioning him. But Spencer this week graduated from “The Hills” to “You Might Have Heard of Me… Get Me Out Of Here.” My schadenfreude kicked in and I watched this. I have never so instantly come to dislike someone I never really cared about. It was so bad that by the end of the first night my girlfriend who works for charity was saying “I hope they water board Spencer.” (They didn’t, he pussied out). So much of what Spencer said was just flabbergasting. How the others were “downgrading his celebrity” or that he was on a fame level with “Brad and Angelina” . My favorite was how his wife had just “introduced him to Jesus” and the he prayed for a double date with Miley Cyrus, and a month later he got one. I have never felt bad for Miley Cyrus, until I heard that. Raises the question what did Miley do, that God felt the need to punish her, not with a swarm of locusts, but with a double date with Spencer.

By the way his wife Heidi, she is harmless. Borderline retarded, but harmless. Spencer on the other hand… First of all, he acted exactly like you would think a spoiled rich over privileged white kid would act. I mean he is Johnny from Karate Kid but without the class or karate skills. (By the way I meant the character, no disrespect ever to William Zabka.) And after a while, after he has spewed enough crazy out, this hits you… “Oh crap, he really believes this.” Like in his little mind because he is a 3rd tier character on a basic cable reality show, and Perez Hilton draws penises next to his paparazzi photos, he thinks he’s a “star”. And you would feel bad for him, cause the fall for this kid is gonna be hard core. Where do you go from national joke? Its only down. You would feel bad if he weren’t such a douche.

This brings up to Scott Roeder, who on paper could not be more different than Spencer. Scott Roeder last week shot and killed Dr. George Tiller, an abortion doctor. He murdered Mr. Tiller in Mr. Tiller’s church, while he was passing out programs at the Sunday service. Roeder gave his first interview from jail last week and seemed to be at a genuine loss as to why he had been arrested and why he was being charged with murder. I read this and once I got over him not seeing the irony of him thinking “that abortion is murder, but murder is not murder”, the really scary part kicked. This guy isn’t delusional, he really thinks this. I quite honestly have never understood how murdering people or blowing up clinics was a very good way of showing how much you hate murder in the form of abortion. Yet Scott Roeder, and the people he runs with do. They believe like other people think the sky is blue and Spencer Pratt thinks he is an A List Celebrity. And I would feel sorry for Scott and his ilk, except they are murderers.

You can be a pro-life as you want and believe that life begins at conception or even before. That is fine. You can think that any abortion is murder, and that the people who perform them are murderers. That is fine too. But when you take the extra step and kill an abortion doctor, you are now a murderer as well. Your are now no better than the people you claim to hate. Nice job, retard.

So to answer my question:

Spencer Pratt = Douche
Scott Roeder = Murderer

I realize Spencer and Scott think otherwise.

Jason

THE GHOST RAIDERS HAVE ARRIVED

Episode 1 - "Jack and Gary Make a Porno".
Gary uses Jack's apartment for his latest get rich quick scheme, an "adult" film. But in making the film, Jack and Gary make a discovery that will change their lives forever. Don't miss Episode 2.