faulker009

We have all been asked a million times that age old question -- if we could bring one thing with us to a desert island, what would it be. For me, I’d bring a Super Target. They have everything I would ever need. For those of you living in area with just “Target” and not “Super Target”, you must be wondering what in the world I am talking about. Well, I would’ve thought the same thing until we moved to this area about five years ago. If you enter into our Super Target through the doors to the far right, you probably won’t notice anything different. In front of you are the clothes, the music section, the discontinued electronics, the clearance area. But if you enter through the doors on the far left, as Green Day once said, “Welcome to Paradise.” Now when I speak of the far right and the far left, I am not making any type of political statement. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy politics. I think it can be very entertaining and election years can make for some great TV, but I’ve got a wooden n...

It’s not everyday that you can see a musical legend in concert. In fact it’s not ANY day that you can see the Swedish hit machine ABBA perform live. They haven’t played together in nearly 25 years. But don’t tell that to the advertisement in my local newspaper. The other day I saw an ad that said in big bold letters: ABBA, The Concert Followed by the words, “Arrival from Sweden, Live in Concert.” Tickets are $27 (plus service charges). At NO place on the ad does it mention that it’s not ABBA you would be spending $27 (plus service charges) on, it would be Arrival, the ABBA tribute band. That’s where my journalistic blood-sniffing technique kicked in. I hunted down the official website for Arrival, where it said, “this is the closest to ABBA you’ll ever get” AND it’s a “stunning look-alike show they put on.” Put on is right. The tribute band, formed in 1996, has done close to 1000 shows in more than 25 countries. And I thought those little zhu-zhu pets were stealing money. False adverti...

Technology is a fantastic thing. If you don't believe me, maybe I can tweet you from my iPhone or poke your Blackberry from my Facebook. I must admit that as hard as I try and as much as I think I know, I'm still behind the curve. At least when you compare me to all humans 13 years and under. If I need any computer assistance, I don't need the Geek Squad, I just ask my kids. But it's really not my fault.   My parents should've birthed me 40 years later. Of course there are some advantages to being an antique. To me SPAM was a junky food, before it was a junky email. I remember when Macintosh was an apple.   Apple was a fruit.   Java was a cup of coffee.  A cookie was a treat. Those computer guys have more of a food addiction than I do. When I was young if you Google your Dongle too much, you’d go blind. Password was a game show. A virus made you feel sick. Oh, some things haven’t changed. In sixth grade our school got its first computer, a brand new TRS-...

In the last decade, Starbucks has taught us more new words than Webster. There’s Baristas and Frappuccinos, Tazo and Vivanno. During final exams in college, I drank “a lot” of coffee, but a latte, never heard of it. Of course, if you are looking for a lot of coffee now at Starbucks, don’t order a tall or even a large (grande). You’ll need to get the Venti. (For the record, there is no result for Venti at dictionary.com.) During this time of unemployment, I have done my best to stay away from Starbucks. If I am ordering a $4 drink, I want a little umbrella to come with it. But this week, I decided to meet an old colleague for coffee at Starbucks to catch up on the good ole days. Little did I know that I would learn another new term -- Ulcerative Colitis. For those of you scoring at home, Ulcerative Colitis is a form of inflammatory bowel disease. That’s the good news. The bad news is my friend was told that this could be the early stage of colon cancer. That announcement wo...