We Don't Walk Slow

Limewire settled for 105 million

I thought this was pretty funny because Limewire’s business model was eerily similar to Napster, Kazaa, and Ares, all of which are now defunct. I read they were being sued originally for over a billion dollars so I guess they got off pretty good. Isn’t it fairly obvious that this is not a legal way of distributing music. Basically anytime I’m able to download music for free, I’m doing it illegally. Currently I’m using the youtube to mp3 which will eventually get sued and shutdown. If I were the music companies I would be upset too. They go to the all the trouble to produce music and then people find ways of acquiring it by paying nothing. At this point in my life I practically never pay for music unless there is a group I really like and I want to hear their entire album. Even so I could just download each one of their songs off of youtube and just burn it on a cd. My real question is how on Earth is limewire able to pay 105 million. That business model must be making way more money then I ever imagined.

By Tom Stortz|2011-05-13T08:30:19-04:00May 13th, 2011|My Life|0 Comments

Near Death Experience

While on the road I encountered a near death experience. Well actually it was an avoidance of a near death experience. Basically I was making a left hand turn across a two lane road and there was an Indian man, in the near lane of oncoming traffic, who thought he was being generous by waving me to turn in front of him. He had 2 cars behind him (that he was stopping) that made it hard for me to see across into the far lane which looked seemingly clear. Knowing that you can never trust someone waving you on I cautiously made the turn and just as I was about to go a car whizzed passed me in the far lane. I slammed on the brakes just in time and probably missed getting struck by a 40 mph vehicle by a foot. The Indian man had his hands on his head as I looked over at him. This is why I implore you to never be nice to people in traffic. You are actually making it more dangerous to drive when you try to be nice. My car would have been completely smashed and I can just imagine what a jolt like that would do to my body. Those few moments could have altered my entire life because I was almost stupid enough to trust another human being.

So after brushing that almost catastrophe off like no big deal, I started thinking about how some people would take a bullet for others. People who become secret service agents would risk their lives for the President and I started thinking if there was anyone I would take a bullet for. Not surprisingly the list was very short. I like to think of myself as a generous person but there has to be some thought given to how much is too much. Everyone is only given one life to live and I would love to know the answers of other people. Would I take a bullet for my parents even though they’ve lived 27 more years then me? What about my siblings? Close friends? Your significant other? I think this is a tough question to answer.

By Tom Stortz|2011-05-24T23:15:39-04:00May 13th, 2011|My Life|4 Comments

The blog post

I’ve had a couple people tell me they liked my “journal” entries a few weeks ago of when I was handwriting a “journal” back in 08′. I assume the difference is that I was writing with the intention of no body ever reading those entries compared to my “blog”, where I tailor what I want people read. I assume people might like those better because it goes with my theory that honesty is the best policy and that people respect honesty. I suspect that people like to read about my inner thoughts because they can compare them to how they think. Most of the time when I’m writing its just my random thoughts and not my personal thoughts. I believe there is some importance to maintaining a certain degree of privacy and not being a complete open book. If turning this blog into a personal journal was going to vault me to stardom I’d have no problem doing it but I can’t foresee that happening. I will however keep in mind that people may prefer a more inside look on my life and thoughts.

One little thing I would like to note is that my traffic has been slumping. I’m averaging about 100 people a day and that is way down from a few months ago. I lost all the random traffic I suppose which really shouldn’t bother me that much but for some reason there is a feeling of reward when you know more people read what you write. It makes you feel important. It also motivates you to keep at it. I’ve pretty much been doing this for so long that if high traffic was my motivator I would have stopped a long time ago but it’s always in the back of mind. The concept of linking out and putting the blog’s name out there is what I have to do more of but just never care enough to. I just like updating people on the status of my site every so often if anyone ever cares.

By Tom Stortz|2011-05-13T01:36:41-04:00May 13th, 2011|My Brain|1 Comment

Coming into my own

Today’s cities on my business trip included Alexandria, Capital Heights, Annapolis, Frederick, and Hagerstown. Today was way more driving and not nearly as efficient as yesterday. Driving to Frederick and Hagerstown is really too much driving and too spread out to make it worthwhile. I need to plan a trip to head further south and hit Richmond, Norfolk, Fredericksburg and anything deeper. The past two days are really good learning experiences as I’m essentially “selling myself” as JC would put it. Just feeling comfortable going into these different businesses and working the situation to the best of your ability has more value then anything financially. I sometimes wonder why I don’t have the same ability when trying to pick up girls. I am going to use this last line though as some foreshadowing because I think I’m about to turn over a new leaf.

I’ve wrote an entire entry before on how life gets broken down into different stages and I think I’m beginning to feel the next phase. With the latter part of my 20’s working against me, I’m starting to feel some pressure to take the next step from single, party animal to finding someone to have a relationship with. That last sentence is more intimidating to me then walking into any random business trying to sell hand tools. I’ve just always had a feeling that I’d meet the right person and it would be as simple as that. Problem is I don’t really give anyone a chance and just work back into the my normal routine. I’m considering just joining match.com and just going on a whirlwind of random dates so I at least can experience that girls are crazy instead of just assuming.

As the title of this post explains, coming out of business trips like these are what makes me a more well rounded individual. Basically it’s my product and the person who will sell it with the most enthusiasm is me. So if I can’t do it, it’s hard to imagine finding other people to do it more successfully and with more passion. This company is my life force and my responsibility which means that I’m going to have to grow up from a “boy”, to a man. This isn’t a 9-5 job where you get a salary and as long as you do your work, you get paid. You earn the money you work for and it has both its ups and downs. The opportunity that I have though to find myself being part of a family run business is a great experience and I find myself doing things that most people don’t get the chance too. I talk to other business owners as another the business owner. They look at me as a 27 year old kid but I’m starting to feel the sense that I belong. At this point of my life I’ve made significant strides since when I came out of college.

I just have a feeling that something is going to go right over these next few months. I’ve had this feeling before and I remember posting about it, but nothing ever happened. This time I’m throwing it out there again and I can’t explain what it’s like the Phil Collins song where I can feel it coming in the air tonight, except tonight is the “near term future”. Just doesn’t have the same ring to it. I think these posts are good though because they document how I’m feeling at this present time. One day I can look back and read my entire life and see what has actually transpired which I think is pretty neat.

By Tom Stortz|2011-05-13T00:04:30-04:00May 13th, 2011|My Brain|0 Comments

On the road again

Technically the again isn’t necessary but I’m on the road attemping to sell the company’s products. Currently I’m staying at the Red Roof Inn in Alexandria which is a story to begin with. Alexandria is about as far South as I can get in one day and I just assume I can book rooms here without an issue. Little did I know the Comfort Inn I usually stay at was booked and so was the Days Inn next to it. So that had me scrambling to find a room and Red Roof told me this was the last room they had so luckily I was able to get lodging. I’m not going to bore you with the details of my trip but for a brief overview, I start in Balitmore and had about 8 stops there, then went to Beltsville, then Hyattsville, then Bethesda, then made my way down to Alexandria which is a good home base. The most important part of my trip is my GPS which literally saves hours and is worth it’s weight in gold. Probably way more then just it’s weight. This machine literally controls my life. I think its directions are pretty good although I found myself a few times sitting in traffic flipping out and there had to be better ways to avoid some issues. This was a pretty macro post but I have the micro that I’ll write later tonight because trips like these fill me with little details that go unnoticed by everyone else but me. I’ll hopefully have something by tonight but no promises because these tend to be long days. I was up at 5 yesterday to make it to Baltimore from Philly by 8 (with a few stops on the way) and didn’t quit till 4 and my only break was a number 8 at Arby’s. I also consider the whole hours of driving a break too but that can get taxing. Would you buy tools from this guy?

By Tom Stortz|2016-11-01T23:40:07-04:00May 12th, 2011|My Life|0 Comments

Adults Creating Childrens Movies

The Neverending Story was on a movie station and I ended up DVR’ing it and watched it this afternoon. The last time I watched this movie was back when I was around 10. Obviously my interpretation of watching it today differed drastically from my earlier remembrance of this movie. I always thought that this was a movie geared to children but after seeing it today, I think I was misguided. Back when I was 10, I suppose I just watched this movie to watch the movie. I never really understood anything that was happening other then I was being entertained by moving figures and some bright lights. This is a pretty involved movie that has concepts that no 10 year old could ever understand. My 10 year old memory had a talking, flying dragon, a boy reading in the attic, and Atreyu the incredible warrior who turned out to be a 13 year old kid. After watching it today, the nothing was a creative concept for destroying people who had lost the desire to think and Bastian, the main character, was the mastermind behind Fantasia and all that encompassed it.

Which got me thinking that this movie was created by adults and was probably made for adults, kids just happened to like the creatures involved. The movie had a budget of 27 million and was the biggest budgeted movie of its time in 1984. It’s misleading because Bastian is 11, Atreyu is 13, and the empress looks like a 10 year old girl so you think it’s made for kids because all the main characters are kids. Everyone else in the movie is either a heavily make up’d creature, a giant prop, or some other poorly designed paper mache pos. This isn’t a movie that a 10 year old is walking out of and saying that he’s going to start reading more because he related to Bastian’s experience and wants to live in Fantasia’s fantasy world.

Now maybe I was just a retarded 10 year old but I was watching this movie today and was still trying to figure out what was going on. The world of Fantasia is disappearing, because Bastian is reading about it disappearing, and for some reason he’s the only person who can not only stop the destruction, but also the only one who can create Fantasia to begin with. And the answer to stopping all the madness is naming the Empress?!?!?! Now if that’s only a little far out, he had to learn that he was actually a part of the story by following Atreyu’s journey by reading about it? Seriously, how is a kid supposed to figure that out? That’s why I still can’t figure out if they tried to make the movie for kids or adults.

That last sentence then got me thinking about how adults are always the ones who are creating movies for kids which makes me think that this is such an easy market to enter. Adults don’t really know how kids think and are just guessing half the time at what kids like. Fortunately kids minds are relatively simple and they like virtually everything which makes this market easy to penetrate. Any person who writes Children’s books for a living has basically conceded that they can’t write anything intellectual and have to dumb down anything they do to try to amuse 5 year old’s. The people at Disney who have to create these movies for kids must hate their lives. They constantly have to dumb everything down to work into the mind of a child. Funny jokes about hookers, priests, and all race jokes are all useless to these people. Being an adult and writing scripts for children is hell on Earth.

Basically, a movie is either geared to children or for adults. This Neverending story was neither which is why this movie only grossed 20 million and is never really highly regarded as good. This movie is actually bad. I actually missed the first 30 minutes but I can describe what I saw. For 5 straight minutes I watched Atreyu walk through a swamp. Then he was getting sneezed on by a giant turtle. Then they wasted more time watching him fly on Falcor which proved entertaining for 5 seconds, not 3 minutes. Atreyu then hastily runs through the Sphinxes gaze which was pretty silly considering he could have been vaporized. Something happens with a mirror and he finds himself flying again to another part of the world. He mistakenly kills a giant wolf in what has to be the worst battle scene of all time. He then talks to empress, who then calls out to Bastian, who then saves the world. It ended with the stupidest idea ever of bringing Falcor into the city to chase 3 kids. I can only imagine all the press a flying dragon would bring and what disruption it would have brought to the real world. Time to go though, Neverending Story 2 is on.

By Tom Stortz|2016-11-01T23:40:55-04:00May 9th, 2011|Movies|1 Comment

Chuck Klosterman 23 Questions – Question 4

4. Genetic engineers at Johns Hopkins University announce that they have developed a so-called “super gorilla.” Though the animal cannot speak, it has a sign language lexicon of over twelve thousand words, an I.Q. of almost 85, and–most notably–a vague sense of self-awareness. Oddly, the creature (who weighs seven hundred pounds) becomes fascinated by football. The gorilla aspires to play the game at its highest level and quickly develops the rudimentary skills of a defensive end. ESPN analyst Tom Jackson speculates that this gorilla would be “borderline unblockable” and would likely average six sacks a game (although Jackson concedes the beast might be susceptible to counters and misdirection plays). Meanwhile, the gorilla has made it clear he would never intentionally injure any opponent.
You are commissioner of the NFL: Would you allow this gorilla to sign with the Oakland Raiders?

In 2004, I’m just going to assume the Raiders are one of the worst teams in the league. Is this Gorilla going to make the game completely unfair? Better put, can offenses out maneuver a 700 pound beast? Considering he’s nearly unblockable, he’s going to put pressure on the QB nearly every passing play and alter every single game plan of every team. He’s really dumb though and probably can be outsmarted easily so I think you could put together game plans to work around him. That being said I think there are 10 other guys on the field and one dumb, 700 lb gorilla isn’t going to change the entire landscape of the game. You just alter your game plan and adapt.

By Tom Stortz|2016-11-03T15:28:08-04:00May 9th, 2011|Books|0 Comments

Chuck Klosterman 23 questions – Question 3

I read an answer by someone to question two about the beating of a horse and political prisoners and they wrote “No, because a political prisoner should be freed because it is proven that they were wrongly jailed, not because I kicked the shit out of some horse.” I think that’s a tad better then mine.

3. Let us assume there are two boxes on a table. In one box, there is a relatively normal turtle; in the other, Adolf Hitler’s skull. You have to select one of these items for your home. If you select the turtle, you can’t give it away and you have to keep it alive for two years; if either of these parameters are not met, you will be fined $999 by the state. If you select Hitler’s skull, you are required to display it in a semi-prominent location in your living room for the same amount of time, although you will be paid a stipend of $120 per month for doing so. Display of the skull must be apolitical. What option do you select?

The obvious choice is to take the money and show Hitlers skull. Since it’s a skull, you really can’t tell whose it is anyway. Plus there’s no political meaning which just makes you a nut job for keeping a skull in your living room which is a little bit off putting but for 120 a month, I could live with it and accept people questioning my sanity. The turtle option is immediately not worth mentioning because it requires work whereas the other situation is a no lose, win win. Plus I don’t like taking care of pets.

Just to clarify in case there is another interpretation of “Hitler’s Skull”. If it was Hitler’s head preserved instead of a skull, I’d still take that over the turtle. There is no pleasure derived from watching and feeding a turtle. Add the idea of a fine and I would just take the money and live with Hitler’s head in my living room. Anyone who comes over would think I’m a Nazi and I’d probably lose all my friends, so I would just have to be really careful of who I let over my house. It’s only two years and I just don’t really have strong feelings towards symbols. I know I don’t agree with any part of Hitler’s beliefs so all it really is to me is a head that lives in my living room that pays 120 bucks a month in rent, sweet deal.

By Tom Stortz|2016-11-03T15:21:36-04:00May 9th, 2011|Books|0 Comments

Capt Jack Sparrow

I thought this was pretty funny even though I don’t find the “lonely island” all that great, it really made me respect Michael Bolton because he’s willing to fool with his soft image. I don’t watch SNL either so if you do, I assume you’ve already seen it. For those who don’t, like me, here’s a showing.

By Tom Stortz|2011-05-24T23:21:47-04:00May 9th, 2011|Music|0 Comments

Chuck Klosterman’s 23 questions – Question 2

Let us assume a fully grown, completely healthy Clydesdale horse has his hooves shackled to the ground while his head is held in place with a thick rope. He is conscious and standing upright, but completely immobile. And let us assume that -for some reason- every political prisoner on earth (as cited by Amnesty International) will be released from captivity if you can kick this horse to death in less than twenty minutes. You are allowed to wear steel-toed boots. Would you attempt to do this?

I think there is some more thought that has to be put into this question then just could I kick a horse to death in 20 minutes. Let me first address this question assuming I want political prisoners released. It’s going to be really hard to kill the horse in 20 minutes. If I just kept kicking it in the belly, I have a hard time figuring this is going to be a quick death. It reminds me of the cow scene in Me, Myself and Irene. I wouldn’t really be able to jump kick its head so easily either which limits the amount of damage I can do. I’m not even sure if I could physically make this happen in 20 minutes. Take 30 kicks a minute, 600 kicks in 20 minutes to a motionless horse, I think if I could stomp its head I’d kill it but without that access I probably would just be damaging its internal organs. This would just be something to consider before embarking on a nearly impossible quest.

So that current scenario is assuming I decided to go ahead with the physical process rather then questioning can I morally kick a horse to death. For something as dumb as freeing political prisoners, I wouldn’t waste my time kicking a horse. I’m sure people out there are die hard freaks and freeing political prisoners means something, but I don’t see it changing anything in my life and this doesn’t rank up there on my priority list. Plus, generally political prisoners are in there for a reason and they seem like very opinionated people, and whose to say they don’t find themselves right back in prison a couple weeks after my amazing horse beating. If you said I had to kick the horse to death if my immediate family’s lives were at stake, I’d turn into Van Damme quickly and would have no problem trying to off a horse. I don’t know whether Klosterman used the political prisoners to help determine how much political events mean to you but I really couldn’t care less.

The other part of the question could you kill a living animal under certain circumstances, I fathom I could. It would be against my belief system but when push comes to shove, my morals can easily be twisted. Plus I can rationalize it’s only one time and I’m not going to become a murdering psychopath kicking Mr.Ed’s to death on a daily basis. I personally don’t think the reward is big enough for something that I do believe to be nearly impossible. It would also be something that wouldn’t be so easy to forget like the dead body coming up from the lake in the end scene of Deliverance.

By Tom Stortz|2016-11-03T15:21:44-04:00May 8th, 2011|Books|0 Comments