Upon Further Review...

Job thoughts

2009-03-03T22:59:00.003-05:00

As I get ready to start a new job for the first time in about 9 years, and having just listened to the "Plan B" episode of This American Life (in one of the acts, Jonathan Goldstein describes his 10 year career as a telemarketer), I got to thinking about jobs in general.

In the "Plan B" episode, Goldstein talks about how he was embarrassed to tell anyone what he did. I've never actually been embarrassed by a job, but for a while, I wasn't really proud of what I was doing. My self-image, as long as I can remember, has been defined in large part by my intellect. I think I'm a pretty smart guy. I'm no genius, but I do well at most of the things I attempt and I know my limitations, and I'm comfortable with them. I had always figured that my eventual career would be something intellectually stimulating, although I never really zeroed in on anything, even in college. After graduating college with the training to be a Latin teacher, something that truly didn't interest me, I found myself at a loss. I spent several months in a minimum-wage job as a mailroom guy, then landed at Principal as a claims examiner.

Now medical claims examiner isn't a job for trained monkeys, but it's not rocket science either. There was a lot of drudgery - answering phones all day topping the list. And the pay was pretty bad, mid-20's per year. I worked with some really good people (Michelline worked there, too) and some real dunces. It didn't fit my self-image and I always thought I should be doing something more challenging (and better-paying wouldn't hurt). My self-esteem definitely suffered for it. After 5 years, I escaped into IT, doing Y2K testing and have worked my way up from there. Finally, I was doing something that felt right.

So that was one thought I had about work, how people's self-worth gets tied up in their careers, and how it happened to me for a while. But the other thing is, looking back, that 5 year stretch was really valuable in a couple of ways. First, it gave me a very solid grounding in the business side of medical insurance. This has served me very well as I've worked my way into software development. Most people in IT don't have any background in business operations, and the fact that I do has helped me to move into some unique positions. Second, and more importantly, having a job I hated has given me a much greater appreciation for what I do know. I hear people complain about working in IT all the time, and I wonder if they've ever had a really shitty job. I feel very fortunate to be where I am.

Badvertising

2009-02-17T20:43:00.001-05:00

There's a radio commercial I hear quite a bit that annoys me everytime. It's for a local Lexus dealership and it talks about a deal where you can get free valet parking at a local mall if you buy a Lexus. I don't really see anyone being swayed by something like that, but that's not the part that annoys me, it's at the end of the commercial where they say, "there's never been a better reason to buy a Lexus." Really? Does Lexus corporate know about this? Because if the best reason EVER to buy a Lexus is that you get free valet parking at a mall, then their cars must really suck, and they should probably drop the price down some. Or maybe people could just buy a Hyundai and use the difference to pay for valet parking.

Every time I hear this stupid commercial, I'm convinced it will be the last, and someone will realize how bad that makes their cars sound, but no, I guess car dealers aren't terribly bright.

Is Lost a Repeat?

2009-01-21T09:33:00.001-05:00

Is Lost a Repeat?

Finally!

2009-01-20T13:05:00.001-05:00

Broadcasters Piss Me Off: Mathematical Edition

2009-01-14T22:52:00.001-05:00

If Mike Tirico happens to be reading, I'd just like to let him know that what separates one team's score from the other team's score is called the difference. A differential is something else entirely.

HD

2009-01-12T23:29:00.001-05:00

So I'm flipping around looking for something to watch, and I end up slumming through the non HD channels, and happen upon The Daily Show. After watching a few minutes and remembering how funny it is, it makes me wonder why I never watch it anymore. The answer, of course, is because it isn't in HD. I rarely even check these low digit third world channels anymore. But that brings up an interesting question: why the hell isn't there a Comedy Central HD channel? They seem to have snuck by without one somehow. When I only had the networks, and maybe ESPN and premium channels, this was perfectly understandable. These things take time. But as the other normal cable channels that I watch regularly, like FX, AMC, SciFi, Discovery, TNT, TBS, etc. have all shown up on my HD lineup, Comedy Central is still absent. And now, as I flip through, I see HD channels like E!, Animal Planet, HGTV, the Travel channel, Cartoon Network, Golf, and nonsense channels like UHD, and PLDHD (seriously, what the fuck is PLDHD?), or MYTVJ (I don't know either), yet still no Comedy Central. Do they just not want people to watch it? I can't really think of any other reason at this point. Any other channels that are conspicuously missing an HD version?

Turkey vs Turkey

2008-12-26T00:00:00.005-05:00

Prologue: Earlier this year, we decided to do a shrimp boil with some friends. We knew this would require a large aluminum pot. We set out shopping and quickly discovered that large aluminum pots are expensive. But we found that we could get a $60 pot in a $50 turkey fryer set which includes the lid, basket, thermometer and the burner. I never did understand this. But we always wanted to try fried turkey anyway, so it worked out for the best all around.

Let's break it down. I've always heard that fried turkey is awesome and people say once you fry a turkey, you won't want it any other way. We got a 12 lb turkey for frying and a 14 lb turkey for roasting in a turkey roaster. I'll compare the two in each of several categories.

Prep time: Roughly equal. Both birds were completely thawed. I removed the giblets, rinsed, dried and seasoned them. It took a little longer for the roasted bird only because I stuffed that one.

Cook time: No contest here. The roasted turkey took 5 hours, the fried turkey took less than 2 from start to finish, and that counts heating up the oil.

Quality: This is the most important thing, right?

As you can see, the fried turkey came out a beautiful golden brown. It smelled great too. The skin was crispy and crackly on the outside and juicy on the inside. The meat was tender and moist. It finished all the way through without overcooking.

The roasted turkey looked great also. This was cooked in a covered roasting pan with no basting. The color and smell were really good as well. The meat was tender and falling off the bone. Most of the skin wasn't crispy as you would expect. I think the meat on the roasted bird, both white and dark, was a little more tender than the fried turkey. The dark meat on the fried turkey got a little tough close to the bone. However, the fried turkey had much tastier and crispier skin. I'd call the flavor/tenderness category a tie.

Cleanup: Our roaster is easy to clean. Just remove the inner shell, put in some soap and wash it out in the sink. It's bigger than a normal dish, but it doesn't take long. The fryer is another story. After letting the oil cool, I had to dump all that into the bottle and then wash all the pieces with soap and water in the driveway. It was messy and it took a long time. The roaster wins this category going away.

All things considered, I prefer the roasted turkey. What it lacks in cooking speed, it makes up for in the cleanup phase. And the quality of the meat was easily comparable to the fired turkey, in my opinion. This isn't to say that I won't fry one again, but I haven't become a fried turkey convert.

Movie Resume

2008-12-24T10:00:00.001-05:00

I was tagged with this by Fridge, Also, make sure to see below for Chris' version, since I just dropped this right on top of it.

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
(x) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
(x) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
( ) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(x) Along Came Polly
(x) Joe Dirt
(x) KING KONG [Jack Black version]
Total so far: 12

( ) A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
(x) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
(x) Flubber
Total so far: 18

( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
(x) Secret Window
(x) I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards
(x) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 23

(x) The Day After Tomorrow
(x) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
(x) Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
(x) Just Married
(x) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
(x) Remember the Titans
(x) Coach Carter
(x) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
(x) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 36

(x) Bad Boys
(x) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Sleven
(x) Ocean's Eleven
(x) Ocean's Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
(x) Bourne Supremacy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(x) Ice Age
(x) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
(x) Curious George
Total so far: 46

(x) Independence Day
(x) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
(x) Christine
(x) ET
(x) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(x) Maid in Manhattan
(x) War of the Worlds
(x) Rush Hour
(x) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 55

( ) Best Bet
(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(x) She's All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
( ) Mars Attacks
(x) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 64

(x) X-Men
(x) X2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
(x) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total so far: 76

(x) Swimfan
(x) Miracle on 34th street
(x) Old School
( ) The Notebook
(x) K-Pax
( ) Kippendorf's Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
(x) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old-virgin
Total so far: 82

( ) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
( ) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
( ) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 85

(x) Baseketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(x) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
(x) American History X
( ) Three
Total so Far: 88

( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
(x) Willard
Total so far: 92

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(x) Hulk
( ) Dawn of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicle Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
(x) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(x) Waterworld
Total so far: 97

( ) Kill Bill vol 1
( ) Kill Bill vol 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 97

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 103

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
(x) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
(x) Hannibal
Total so far: 109

( ) Battle Royale
( ) Battle Royale 2
( ) Brazil
(x) Contact
( ) Cube
( ) Dr. Strangelove
( ) Enlightenment Guaranteed
( ) Four Rooms
(x) Memento
( ) Pi
( ) Requiem for a Dream
(x) Pulp Fiction
(x) Reservoir Dogs
( ) Run Lola Run
( ) Russian Ark
(x) Serenity
(x) Sin City
( ) Snatch
( ) Spider
(x) The Sixth Sense
(x) The Village
( ) Waking Life
( ) Zatoichi
( ) Ikiru
( ) The Seven Samurai
( ) Brick
( ) Akira
Total so far: 117

117, I don't really know what that means. Not sure where this list came from, but it seems to be heavily weighted with movies I don't really like, particularly horror movies. Also, how can anyone take a movie list seriously if The Shawshank Redepmtion isn't on it?

Movie Resume

2008-12-24T08:50:00.004-05:00

Like Fridge, I first saw this on Facebook (join up already, John!). Fridge got 136. I'm sure my number will be lower. If it were only movies from 1980-1989, I could probably hang with anyone. Kids and a wife who doesn't care for movies has slowed me down in recent years.

( ) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
(x) Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
(x) Joe Dirt
(x) KING KONG [Jack Black version]
Total so far: 9

(x) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
(x) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
( ) Flubber
Total so far: 14

( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(x) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 16

( ) The Day After Tomorrow
(x) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
(x) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 22

( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Sleven
( ) Ocean's Eleven
( ) Ocean's Twelve
( ) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremacy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
( ) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total so far: 22

(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds
(x) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 25

( ) Best Bet
( ) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She's All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 33

(x) X-Men
(x) X2
( ) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
( ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total so far: 43

( ) Swimfan
(x) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Kippendorf's Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
(x) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old-virgin
Total so far: 45

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 51

(x) Baseketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
Total so Far: 52

( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total so far: 56

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(x) Hulk
( ) Dawn of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicle Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(x) Waterworld
Total so far: 60

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
(x) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 63

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 69

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
(x) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2 [easily one of my favorite movies of all time]
( ) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
Total so far: 74

( ) Battle Royale
( ) Battle Royale 2
( ) Brazil
(x) Contact
( ) Cube
( ) Dr. Strangelove
( ) Enlightenment Guaranteed
( ) Four Rooms
(x) Memento
( ) Pi
( ) Requiem for a Dream
(x) Pulp Fiction
(x) Reservoir Dogs
( ) Run Lola Run
( ) Russian Ark
( ) Serenity
( ) Sin City
( ) Snatch
( ) Spider
(x) The Sixth Sense
( ) The Village
( ) Waking Life
( ) Zatoichi
( ) Ikiru
( ) The Seven Samurai
( ) Brick
( ) Akira
Total so far: 79

79, not bad. I don't buy into the idea that seeing more movies means you've wasted your life, so no regrets here.

Happy Festivus!

2008-12-23T08:59:00.003-05:00

A meme

2008-12-07T02:28:00.004-05:00

What the hell.

1. Five names you go by (or have):

Chris
Christopher
Daddy
UPDATE: Uncle Chris
That's pretty much it

2. Three things you are wearing right now:

Headphones
Wedding ring
Boxers

3. Two things you want very badly at the moment:

For the Gators to lose their bowl game
A financial windfall

4. Three people who will probably fill this out:

Toast
Tracy
nightshift

Hey, they already did!

5. Two things you did last night:

Wrapped Christmas presents
Caught up on Heroes

6. Two things you ate today:

Homemade chocolate chip cookies
Bourbon chicken

7. Two people you last talked to on the phone:

Tori
Michelline

8. Two things you are going to do tomorrow:

Go to a baseball team party
Watch the Cowboys roll over the Steelers

9. Two longest car rides:

Jacksonville, FL to Boulder, CO and back
Jacksonville, FL to Saginaw, MI and back

10. Two of your favorite beverages:

Starbucks coffee
A good margarita

A Pleasant Surprise

2008-11-15T18:16:00.004-05:00

We left Jacksonville yesterday afternoon for Ft Lauderdale to see Sarah Brightman in concert. After a few hours we were south of Daytona on 95 and the traffic came to a standstill. Fortunately, just as we realized this, we were approaching an exit, so we got off and headed over to US 1, figuring it couldn't be any worse.

We got on US 1 a little north of Titusville. As we got into the town, we noticed a lot of activity, people walking on the road, sitting in lawn chairs everywhere. It reminded us of Pigeon Forge in Tennessee. Tourists will sit out on the road there at night just to watch the traffic go by.

As we drove on, we noticed more and more people, for miles. It looked like people lining up to watch fireworks. Cars were parked in every available space along the road. Suddenly, I finally put two and two together what would people line up on the road to watch in Titusville? There must be a shuttle launch!

Once I said this, Michelline remembered having heard about it earlier in the week. It was about 15 minutes until scheduled liftoff. In all the years I've lived in Florida, I've never watched a shuttle launch, and this was the last scheduled night launch ever. We got the local news on the radio and pulled over into a deserted parking lot, south of the city, with about 30 seconds to spare. Then this -

You can't tell from the video, but you could feel the rumble of the engines. I wish we would have known about it, we would have made plans to stop closer by so we could have had a better view. Still, this was pretty cool, and we were only a few miles away. My parents were watching too, from Jacksonville. It's so big and bright, you can see the launch from the causeway that leads to the island our neighborhood is on.

It was quite serendipitous. I'm glad we all got a chance to see it before it was too late.

Michelline through the years

2008-10-22T23:14:00.023-04:00

Now that Michelline's weight loss is so dramatically apparent, I thought it would be interesting to put up a bunch of old pictures from the time we met through now.

As she was losing weight, even though it was coming off pretty quickly, I didn't notice it much. When you see someone every day, the gradual change makes it harder to see, I think. That said, I've noticed over the last couple of days that when older pictures come up on the screensaver, she looks ahem, more full-figured (or well-nourished, as the doctor's office notes used to say) than I remember. I think my mental picture of her has finally adjusted to her new face so the difference can be rather striking when one of these older pictures pops up.

So I went back and picked out some pictures from different periods. I didn't try to find the worst or best pictures, just a representative shot if I could.

Here we are the very weekend we started dating. This picture was taken in Boulder, Colorado at the University of Colorado in August 1988. We were there for the National Junior Classical League Annual convention. I always thought this was a really good picture.

Here she is on our prom night, I guess this would be May of 1989. We went to different high schools, but both schools had their prom on the same night.

Here's our wedding photo from December 19, 1992. Michelline and I both put on some weight in college (89-93). I think this is a good picture of both of us, but you can see that she's gained some since the 1988 picture. I don't know that I was much bigger than I was in the last picture up here, but it's coming.

Here she is on Christmas day, 1993. We've both always liked this picture. I wish the flash hadn't washed her face out so much.

Ok, here's a bad picture of both of us from sometime in 1994(look fast, because she might make me take this one down :) ). This is our first apartment together in Jacksonville.

Here we are at her baby shower for Tori. That puts this one in later 1995 as Tori was born on October 24, 1995. Michelline looked good at this shower. She lost quite a bit of weight throughout the pregnancy due to her gestational diabetes and the fact that she was sick the entire time.

This one is sometime in 1999, after Libby was born. She was wearing a lot of overall shorts around this time. I miss those. I think this period, right after Libby was born, may have been her lowest post-college weight. She'll have to confirm that later.

Ok, I'm going to jump to 2004 now, because there weren't a lot of major developments in appearance over that time. Here's Michelline with the girls on our cruise in April 2004.

Jumping again now, here she is checking into the Jacksonville airport on our way to London in March 2007. This is another good picture. This is one of those pictures where the difference in my perception becomes clear to me. To me, she never looked overweight in this picture before.

Here's Michelline with Tracy in St. Augustine in March of this year.

Her's Michelline with Libby at her school on May 22 this year. This is only a little over a month before her surgery.

Here she is on our Disney trip in September. I wanted to find a good picture closer to her surgery, but it looks like we didn't take any in August. This is the first post-surgical here.

And finally, here she is last week, October 18 at the Halloween party. She's looking particularly hot here.

In the first picture she was a size 12, and in the last she's down to a 14/16. I think she'll be down to a 12 again in a few weeks. We've both been on a weight roller coaster our whole adult lives. It'll never be easy, but I think this surgery is a big step in getting off that ride. There was a health fair at her office today, and she had good numbers across the board - blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol.

One thing I do want to make clear (maybe this should expand into another post at some point), I'm really happy that she's getting healthy and looking good and feeling good about herself. But from the first picture to the last, and all the times in between, I always thought she was beautiful and I've always been very attracted to her. I never looked at her through any of this and wished she looked different than she did or wished she were smaller. The two biggest rewards I get from this surgery are her improved health, which had been weighing on both of our minds, and her improved self-image. Now she's just starting to feel about herself the way I've always felt about her. And that's a really great thing.

Steal This Comic

2008-10-13T13:20:00.001-04:00

I'll never understand why people think DRM can ever work. It's really very, very simple. It should not be easier for me to pirate something than it is to get it legitimately. If it is, the people distributing it legitimately have failed. Try something else. Also, it doesn't, and has no hope of ever working.

Seen at Whole Foods

2008-10-12T23:38:00.004-04:00

Michelline and I were driving around Orlando this morning and stumbled upon their only Whole Foods!

After reading Mrs. Furious wax rhapsodic about it for so long, we had to stop and take a look around. As we're pulling in to park, I noticed this coexist bumper sticker on three different cars. Then we cam across this car and I had to take a picture.

I turned to Michelline and said "We're among our own people." We saw a few Obama stickers but no McCain stickers. It was too good to last. On the way out, we were almost backed into by a van with a "Yes on 2" sticker. Amendment 2 is Florida's version of California's prop 8. Fucking bigoted assholes.

Obama's hidden benefits

2008-10-09T12:09:00.002-04:00

I was thinking past the election for the first time. I know the election isn't wrapped up yet, but I was wondering what Obama has to accomplish to be considered successful. That led me to think about the disaster of the last eight years.

In retrospect, if Gore had taken office, he would have been successful in comparison to Bush just by keeping us out of Iraq alone, not to mention avoiding all the various constitutional abuses. But if he had been elected, we wouldn't know just what we had avoided. Especially considering the lies Bush told during the campaign about his agenda. No nation building indeed. Gore would probably have been judged on his handling of 9/11 and the economy. Not knowing how badly Bush fucked it up would actually work against Gore.

So too, for Obama. It's a little different, because Obama will be judged against the failures of the Bush administration, but he'll also be dealing with the consequences of those failures. The lingering effects of our current troubles could well work against Obama. And we all know McCain is a dangerous hothead, and it's hard to argue against hypotheticals. The fact that McCain may get us involved in further dangerous foreign entanglements that Obama may avoid won't necessarily be reflected in Obama's approval rating. Nevertheless, it's one of many reasons that just keeping McCain away from the reins of power is a success in itself. I hope we never have to find out what bullets we may have dodged.

Water Woes

2008-10-08T22:27:00.003-04:00

All of you on municipal water should be thankful. When this neighborhood was first developed, it was way out in the country, far from city water sources. All the houses are equipped with a well and septic tank. Basically, you have a well and a pump which pulls water into the house.

When we first moved in here, I thought it'd be great to forgo the monthly water/sewage bill. However, I had no idea what I was getting into. Most of these wells have some sort of minerals or smell that you don't want, so you have to have a water softener or other filtration system. We had a salt softener which means we had to buy bags of salt every few weeks. And, since you have an electric pump that drives the water into your house, if the power is out, so is the water. Here are a few of the other issues I've had to deal with.

Our old water softener (essential if you didn't want iron stains everywhere) finally quit. We bought a brand-new one from Sears which I installed.
Not long after getting the new softener, the pump, which is in the garage, started making funny noises and running a lot. We couldn't figure out what was wrong. Then, one morning, it spat a bunch of sand into every toilet. The well had collapsed. We called around and found out it would be $1000 to dig another shallow well (80 feet). Then we remembered that we already had a deep well, shared with our neighbor, which we used to run the sprinklers. It's an artesian well and the water is good quality. The water from this well doesn't have any iron, which made the brand-new softener unnecessary. It does have a sulfur smell, which requires an aerator tank. This is a giant tank which holds the water from the well and lets the gas evaporate prior to entering the house. We hooked it into the sprinkler pipes and voila, we had water again. All this cost about $1200.
Shortly after this, our pressure tank failed. In order to maintain a constant pressure in the pipes in the house, the pump pushes the water into a tank which has a rubber bladder filled with air until a certain pressure is reached (we use 40 lbs). Once the tank pressure drops below 25 lbs, the pump starts up. I had to replace the tank, which is easy to do fortunately, but it set me back a couple of hundred dollars.
When we had the pool built, we knew it would tear up the sprinkler system. This is normal when pools are built. However, most people's house water doesn't rely on their sprinkler system integrity. While the pool was built, we ran a hose from the artesian well into the aerator tank. It has enough pressure to fill the tank without a separate pump. After everything was done, we had a separate spur run from the well into the aerator. Along with the sprinkler rebuild, another $1000.
Tonight, Tori noticed the toilet making spitting noises. That means air in the pipes. Oh, shit. I checked all the taps, toilets and hoses to make sure one hasn't been running and drained the aerator tank. Nope, but the tank was empty. I heard a rushing water noise coming from the back of the yard, faintly. I grabbed the flashlight (it was already 9:30 and I was in my boxers) and went to check it out. All around the sprinkler pumphouse, there's a giant lake about 3 or 4 inches deep, the pump was running nonstop and water was gushing. I shut off the breaker to the pump and then cut off the well at the source. This stopped the leak, but it also stops the aerator tank from filling. After wading through the lake, I saw that a pipe had busted loose inside the pumphouse. At least it's an easy fix. So for now, I dragged out three hoses, hooked them together and ran them from the tap on the wellhead to the auxiliary input valve on our aerator tank.

All this doesn't even go into the separate problems we've had with the sprinkler system. I'll be very happy to go back to paying my water bill.

Flipping Florida

2008-10-05T15:47:00.003-04:00

We had been idly thinking about volunteering for the local Obama campaign, but hadn't really got anything going. Between work, kids, house, baseball and virtual couching, we hadn't made the effort to find out what to do. Fortunately, we got a kickstart when Moveon.org called me a few weeks ago. They had been calling people all over who indicated an interest in volunteering and scheduling times. I made an appointment and we did a little phone banking at the local office later that week.

Last week, I got a call from our neighborhood coordinator Tony. He was trying to round up people to do some canvassing in our area. Having got our feet wet with the phone banking, we said we'd meet him Saturday morning. We went to one of the neighborhoods in our area and got lists of addresses. Tony said these were people who, when called, had indicated they were undecided or were going to vote for Obama. We were supposed to find out how they were voting (early, vote by mail etc...) and who they were supporting, if undecided.

Here's Tony and a couple of other volunteers at the meetup in the neighborhood

Michelline and I aren't introverts by any means, but knocking on doors for a political campaign is definitely outside of our comfort zone. But if we can help turn out even a few additional votes, that can make a difference. We know McCain is counting on Florida, and turning it will probably give Obama the election.

We set out with our list and our campaign lit and started knocking -

Out of all the houses we hit, only 3 were still undecided. The others had decided for Obama previously or had made up their minds for Obama since they were called. We even took a voter registration app for a likely Obama supporter who hadn't registered. Everyone was very pleasant, we had some nice conversations and there was no tension or combativeness. We had forgotten to bring water (stupid, after 3 hours in the sun, we were dying), but we got offered water by two different households, including one of the undecideds.

We'll definitely be doing more volunteering over the next few weeks. We've signed up to do voter transport and we may do more canvassing and calling. I think it's especially important to keep the pressure on now that McCain is going to throw the sink at Obama this last month.

(Speaking of McCain, we just saw one of his newest negative ads, claiming Obama is untrustworthy and using the 94 tax votes lie again. McCain is such an asshole.)

Obama-rama

2008-10-05T13:27:00.007-04:00

When we heard that Obama was coming to Jacksonville, we knew we had to go. I haven't seen a president or candidate live since Reagan came to Jacksonvlle in 1987.

The man himself was scheduled to speak sometime after 2:30 and the gates were opening at 12:30. We knew that it was likely to fill up quick so we got to the stadium (to park, it's across the street from the park where the event was held) at about 10:30. It's a good thing we did -

That was just a small portion of the line. It wrapped around itself several times.

The atmosphere was very friendly and excited, very similar to a sporting event - a lot of people wearing the team colors, a lot of vendors selling t-shirts and buttons, an air of anticipation. One difference was the campaign volunteers handing out info cards and asking for everyone to fill them out. One more piece of Obama's very good grassroots organization.

They finally let us in and we settled in for a long wait. There were a lot of people crowding around the stage -
but we had no intention of standing like sardines for 3+ hours, especially with 5 kids in tow, even if it did mean a better view. We settled into a nice dry spot on top of a ridge under a tree.

At about 2:30, the event finally started up. Some local people spoke, Bill Nelson spoke, a volunteer spoke. We couldn't hear anything as the speakers weren't set up well for the back of the crowd. I was worried that we wouldn't hear Obama. After the speakers finished, the crowd got a little restless. It ended up being another hour or so before the Obama bus rolled in. By this time, everyone had been waiting for about 5 hours, with nothing to eat. The campaign had a lot of water available, so that was ok, but no food inside the park, so we were all starving. We found out later that the park had been filled to the legal capacity, which was about 12,000, and over 8000 were waiting outside.

Finally, Obama came up to the podium. Fortunately, the legal capacity allows for a lot of breathing room, so we were able to come down and compact the crowd and get relatively close. It was really neat listening to him speak in person, even though I had already heard most of the stump speech. Tori listened attentively to the whole thing and told me she was really glad we came. She's starting to really pay attention to politics, for a 12-year-old. We could see Obama, although he was a bit distant. Here's my zoomed in pic -

All-in-all, a neat experience, and I'm glad we went. It also whetted our appetite for some volunteering which I'll address in the next post.

Bumper Sticker

2008-10-02T15:56:00.003-04:00

Can someone please explain to me what the hell this bumper sticker is supposed to mean?

Oh, and I should add that this is the second time in as many days that I've seen this ridiculous nonsense on someone's car. Do people even pretend to think anymore?

Totalitarianism vs Liberalism

2008-10-02T15:01:00.002-04:00

I don't know why, but I found myself clicking on Glenn Beck's latest excretion. We all know the guy is an idiot, but that's not specifically what got me going this time. He's trying to be snarky, writing from the future, 68 years from now. He's saying America at that time is a government controlled socialist dictatorship.

It's always baffling to me how some of these right-wing nuts like Beck conflate liberalism with totalitarianism. It seems to be as deeply ingrained as the "tax and spend" label in some parts of wingnuttia. They always make this giant leap from government regulation of business to government control of the individual. At the same time they're constructing this imaginary bridge from liberalism to fantasyland, they're supporting policies that much more directly affect individual freedom - regulation of sexual conduct, suspension of habeas corpus, warrantless wiretapping etc... Yeah, those are fine, but government mandated vacation for larger business? Police State!

I'm not surprised that they try to demonize progressive ideas, I'm surprised that I see this particular meme expressed so often.

The Verdict is In

2008-09-01T01:01:00.002-04:00

After watching the debut of the new "The Final Verdict" segment on ESPN's College Football Final, I think we can all agree on the verdict. It sucks. If you missed it, consider yourself lucky. Basically, it's Rece Davis dressed in a stupid costume, while Mark May and Lou Holtz do a horrifically poor job of arguing for opposing positions on an issue in college football. Last night it was excessive celebration. Somehow, I managed to think both sides were wrong.

Assuming this isn't some horrible joke ESPN is playing on all of us, it seems their long term goal is to make this show really blow. From the stupid Lou Holtz pep-talks to this horrible travesty, it's going downhill fast.

The English language in 3000 AD

2008-08-28T13:32:00.001-04:00

Here's a 2003 article by linguist Justin B Rye that looks at how the English has evolved over the centuries, and offers an example of what English could sound look in a thousand years.

2000 AD: We children beg you, teacher, that you should teach us to speak correctly, because we are ignorant and we speak corruptly...

3000 AD: *ZA kiad w'-exùn ya tijuh, da ya-gAr'-eduketan zA da wa-tAgan lidla, kaz 'ban iagnaran an wa-tAg kurrap...

FUTURESE: The American Language in 3000 AD

For once, I'm glad I'll be dead.

9-year-old boy told he's too good to pitch

2008-08-26T09:56:00.001-04:00

This is disgusting. How do you tell a kid he's too good to play? That pretty much goes against every lesson you're trying to teach kids in youth sports. I can understand that the other kids may not like playing against him, though it seems hard to believe that a nine year old could be that much better than his peers. But I can't see where one game where the opposing team has to face this kid is so difficult for them that it's better just to teach them that when things are hard, you just quit and go home. It sounds like there's some other political issues going on, and maybe the kid's mother isn't very easy to get along with, and that's a real shame, because adults letting their petty problems get in the way of their kids having fun is pretty sad. I just don't understand how facing a tough pitcher is doing anything to the opposition other than making them better hitters. Maybe they can't hit against him, but after facing him, it should be easier for them to hit other pitchers. I'm sure there's more to the story than we see here, but still, I really think everyone would be better off if they let this kid pitch and just stop making a big deal about it.

Seen at our local Publix

2008-08-24T18:47:00.003-04:00

We ran across this today while out doing a little grocery shopping. At first I just saw the big "Obama" and idly thought "Cool, another supporter". Then I saw the fine print. These people must be some serious idiots. This reminds me, I really need to go ahead and get some Obama/Biden bumper stickers and yard signs.

Solution, or Mess? A Milk Jug for a Green Earth - NYTimes.com

2008-08-20T21:19:00.001-04:00

So, I just got one of these new milk jugs for the first time at Sam's Club. I was a little perplexed by it, because it has instructions on it. "Just tilt and pour." Maybe I'm an idiot, but that's pretty much what I did with the old jugs, so it works out fine, even if instructions hadn't been provided.

So, I was even more surprised to find this article about it. Are people really this retarded? So, I poured a glass of milk just to make sure there's not some hidden challenge to it. Nope, nothing, it seems to obey the same laws of physics that the old ones did. When you tilt it, the milk comes out of the hole in the top. You just need to get your glass somewhere between that hole and the floor. Not really all that difficult. And frankly, even if it was 10 times are hard to pour as the old jugs (still making it not that hard), the benefits detailed in the article make the switch easily worthwhile. Except, I couldn't quite figure out this one:

Others, even those who rue the day their tried-and-true jugs were replaced, praised the lower cost, from $2.18 to $2.58 a gallon. Sam’s Club said that was a savings of 10 to 20 cents a gallon compared with old jugs.

2.58 seems like more than 2.18, but even if they just got that backwards, I'm not sure how that comes out to 10 or 20 cents a gallon. Anyway, I'd be pretty happy to pay either price. Even at Sam's Club, where it's much cheaper than everywhere else, milk still costs about 3.35 a gallon here.

It's really not that clever

2008-08-07T15:32:00.002-04:00

While I'm no internet curmudgeon like my brother :), I think sometimes people get a little carried away. I don't mind a little bit of clever wordplay if it's actually clever, but this election season, I'm seeing a lot of things that get old. For example, I've seen various permutations of McCain's name, used in every single comment the author makes - McSame, McLame, McInsane, JSMcC*nt, and others that escape me at the moment. There are also various other forms such as fRightwing, and Reichtwing I see fairly often. Enough already!

ESPN - TitleTown USA

2008-07-29T20:36:00.002-04:00

As if it wasn't already clear that this was a stupid idea, the result clearly shows how ridiculous the whole exercise was. "Titletown, USA" has no professional sports teams, no major colleges, and most people have probably never even heard of it. This whole thing was just straight up contrived ESPN bullshit.

Sountrack of my Life

2008-07-25T21:06:00.031-04:00

So I was tagged by Toast with this labor intensive meme he got from Furious. Normally, I shy away from blogging anytime it starts to resemble work in any way, as you may have gathered from the frequency of my posts, but this time, I'm kind of bored, so I'll give this a shot.

Basically, you start at the year of your birth, and pick the best album for each year. Unlike some of these other guys, I'm not even going to try to remember what I may have liked at the time, I'm just going to go with what I think now. So here we go:

1972 - Eagles - Eagles. Just because I had to pick something to get this thing started. Wow, what a crappy year for music.

1973 - Aerosmith - Aerosmith. Again, just because I have to pick something, if I didn't know they 80s and 90s would go much better, I'd quit about now.

1974 - Endless Summer - Beach Boys Apparently, the 70s had less good music than I originally thought. I'm really glad I was not yet old enough to care.

1975 - A Night at the Opera - Queen. How did people actually survive the 70s?

1976 - Hotel California - The Eagles I really don't like The Eagles as much as it may seem at this point.

1977 - The Stranger - Billy Joel. Finally found one that I didn't feel like I was just picking because I had to.

1978 - Van Halen - Van Halen. Getting slightly easier now. Unfortunately, while I expect there will be more good choices soon, that also means I have to choose between them.

1979 - Off the Wall - Michael Jackson. Whatever happened to this guy?

1980 - Back in Black - AC/DC. I'm not a huge AC/DC fan, but this one belongs on here.

1981 - I Love Rock 'n' Roll - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. Ok, so I said I wasn't going to try to remember what I liked at the time, but for 1981, I couldn't find anything I liked more than a song or two on, but I had this back then and really liked it, though it does absolutely nothing for me now.

1982 - Thriller – Michael Jackson. Can't go wrong with the best selling album of all time.

1983 - Madonna - Madonna. I bought this on cassette at a gas station on some long trip we went on when I was a kid.

1984 - Purple Rain - Prince and the Revolution. Who doesn't love Prince?

1985 - Radio - LL Cool J. See, he has been here for years.

1986 - Licensed to Ill - The Beastie Boys. This was an easy one. I believe I can still recite the entire album from memory. Anyway, I didn't even look at the rest of the list for this year.

1987 - Appetite for Destruction - Guns N' Roses.

1988 - TIE: ...And Justice for All - Metallica and Straight Outta Compton - N.W.A. and Eazy-Duz-It - Eazy-E. How can I pick between those three?

1989 - As Nasty As They Wanna Be - 2 Live Crew.

1990 - Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J. Don't call it a comeback.

1991 - Metallica ("The Black Album") - Metallica.

1992 - The Predator - Ice Cube. And I won't choke like the Buffalo Bills...

1993 - Doggystyle - Snoop Doggy Dogg.

1994 - Dookie - Green Day. Not much I liked to pick from here.

1995 - Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette.

1996 - Load - Metallica.

1997 - Big Willie Style - Will Smith.

1998 - Greatest Hits Live - Journey. I've tried to avoid greatest hits or compilations so far, but I couldn't come up with anything else, and I'm running out of meme steam.

1999 - Hooray for Boobies - The Bloodhound Gang. I picked this one because you were supposed to stick your tongue through the CD to make it look like a boobie.

2000 - The Marshall Mathers LP - Eminem.

Ok, that's all I can do. I don't listen to much music these days, especially anything new, and everything I see on the recent pages is barely recognizable at best. So the meme has beaten me, I give up.

Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

2008-07-24T21:23:00.001-04:00

I haven't watched this show since the last time I posted about it. After watching part of it again tonight, I realize that this is a show I need to stay away from, as it only makes me depressed to realize how stupid people are.

The first question I saw was "What is the minimum number of letters required to make a word in the English language?" The guy did thankfully get it right, but only after peeking at the answer of the fifth grader beside him, which is I guess some kind of lifeline in this show. Jeff Foxworthy did make fun of him a little for it, but not nearly enough, as far as I'm concerned. He then counted on his fingers for a while before finally answering correctly how many days are in January, June and September combined, but at least he got it. Then came the question about which amount (in US currency) is greatest, half a trillion, 600 billion, or 999 million. This time he seemed pretty sure, and was reading through each one before giving his answer. He amazingly figured that half a trillion is 500 billion, so 600 billion is greater, then he sounded like he was about to say that obviously 999 was greater, when I guess he really noticed that million for the first time. Well, nothing wrong with that, he didn't read the question completely at first. But the sad part here was, he really seemed thrown by this revelation, and it took him time to recover before he thankfully did come up with the right answer. The next question was, "Which of the 50 state capitals lies at the greatest latitude?" The guy was pretty sure of himself this time and pretty quickly answered Maine. Now I don't know if the show is strict enough to tell him that Maine isn't the capital of anything, since it's obviously wrong for other reasons. But the thing that pissed me off here was that they guy got to continue because the little girl answered the question correctly. I stopped paying attention at that point, but looked up to see that he quit on the next question, though he could have continued if he would have taken the little girl's answer, which was correct.

Forgivable Five

2008-07-23T19:45:00.006-04:00

Tracy put up a fun little meme -

Question - what five famous people would you want listed in the contract that your significant other had to forgive you if, you know, you just happened to meet them and you just happened to hit it off and they just happened to express interest in some hot, shallow monkey sex?

My actual list wouldn't have any famous people, but that wouldn't be fun for anyone but me and Michelline. And really, this isn't set in stone, it could change from day to day, depending on who crosses my path. So here we go, in no particular order.

1. Jessica Alba

She's actual a little less full-figured than I normally go for, but there's something about her.

2. Katherine Heigl

After seeing Knocked Up, I developed a kind of a thing for her. She also vaguely reminds me of a really sexy lady I work with (who's definitely on my non-famous list).

3. Lara Logan

I saw her on The Daily Show and wow, I would've thought she was an actress or a model if I hadn't been told. Smart, beautiful and a sexy accent. Here, just watch the clip if you haven't seen it.

4. Marina Sirtis

She'd have to use her Troi accent, though. That reminds me of the Star Trek episode where Barclay was using the holodeck to run his fantasies of Troi and Crusher. If you really had a holodeck, would you bother with that "goddess of empathy" crap? It would be all XXX, all the time. I probably would have been drummed out of Starfleet.

5. JK Rowling

I've always thought she was sexy. Smart and a good sense of humor certainly helps too.

Honorable mention

Demi Moore

After seeing her in No Small Affair with Jon Cryer, before she got famous, I had a little movie crush on her.

Ashley Judd

She's another one who's a little skinnier than I normally go for, but damn, she's hot. I think the first time I saw her may have been in that ST:TNG episode with Wesley.

I Watch Movies

2008-07-12T23:49:00.002-04:00

So, I just watched this Jodie Foster movie, The Brave One, and it was ok, nothing special, but there were a couple of things that really annoyed me about it. First, this woman is so afraid after being attacked that she can't even walk through a hallway without being scared to death, and she absolutely has to have a gun RIGHT NOW and can't even wait through the waiting period. However, she's not too afraid to follow a strange man, who she knows to have a gun, into the bowels of Chinatown with at least $1000 in cash on her. Somehow, that doesn't really make any sense to me. She's also a magnet for crime, which was a little ridiculous.

And I know it's not really fair to type cast someone, but the other annoying thing about the movie is that they expect us to believe that Naveen Andrews' character can get beaten to death by a few punk gang members. We all saw Sayid kill someone with his feet, while his hands were tied behind his back, and it was perfectly believable. So if your movie needs someone to get beaten to death, find someone else.

People are Stupid

2008-07-10T10:33:00.001-04:00

What kind of a moron do you need to be to think that being multilingual could possibly be a bad thing?

2008-07-08T15:15:00.002-04:00

Michelline's roux-en-y gastric bypass is done. We got to the hospital this morning around 5 AM and she had the surgery from 7:30 to 9:00. According to the surgeon, it was very routine, no problems or leaks. She's been sleeping now ever since coming out of surgery. We're hoping to say goodbye to diabetes, high blood pressure, back pain and 80 or 90 pounds (not to mention the $10800.00 check I wrote this morning).

Fourth of July Meme

2008-07-05T23:25:00.002-04:00

Tagged by Toast with this patriotic meme.

1. Are you "proud to be an American"?

Of course I'm proud to be an American...where at least I know I'm free, and I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me and I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today, 'cause there ain't no doubt I love this land.

2. Favorite Founding Father?

Probably have to go with Ben Franklin. He seems like a pretty interesting guy even without the founding father stuff.

3. Favorite president?

I'll go with Franklin Pierce, because we share the same birthday.

4. Biggest "Patriotic Moment"?

Probably some time in the 1992 Olympics watching the Dream Team.

5. Favorite patriotic song?

Living in America

6. Favorite American cuisine?

Pizza, and fuck anyone who says that isn't American.

7. Happiest political moment of your life?

I'll answer this one in about six and a half months.

8. Best fireworks display you've ever seen?

Probably something at Disney World, but that doesn't really fit the theme, I guess.

9. America's gift to the world?

Easy, football. And fuck them if they don't appreciate it.

10. Favorite Bill of Rights right?

The Second. Without it, all those gun nuts, who love to talk about their guns non stop, and look at pictures of guns as if they were porn, would have to keep those things to themselves, and then we wouldn't be able to so easily identify them as crazy people we should stay away from.

11. Favorite American Holiday?

I was born on Thanksgiving, so I'll go with that.

12. Favorite D.C. monument?

I don't know, but the knowledge that there will never be a Bush monument makes me pretty happy.

13. Your dream for America's future?

That we actually strive to uphold the American values that made this country great.

Tiger vs Michael

2008-06-25T13:50:00.002-04:00

Angelos linked to a story by Bill Posnanski recently (I'd leave the link but this is an email post). The story was about Tiger and how he's an enigma. He related a story about Tiger and Michael Jordan playing in a pro-am together. They were joking around until they both hit the green and had makeable putts. Something like 15' for Tiger and 5' for Michael. They had a situation where they both had putts within their respective abilities, but not gimmes. Being the uber-competitive guys they are, the joking subsided and they concentrated on winning. Tiger nailed his and then stared down Michael, who yipped and pulled his putt left. Michael said "I'm a professional, but not at this game." Posnanski says "Everyone laughed, including Tiger. But the point was
made."

I read this and it didn't feel right to me. If the point is that Tiger is a more fierce, unflappable competitor, I don't think this story shows that. It's not fair to Jordan. Mental toughness comes in different flavors. The kind of toughness it takes to stand over a 12' putt to win a tournament and sink it is one variety. A related but different variety is the toughness it takes to run down the court with tens of thousands of people screaming at the top of their lungs, body nearly
worn out, people waving flags and towels, defenders jostling you and running at you full speed, and swish a 30' game-winner. If Tiger can make that 12' putt in those conditions (I have this mental image of a sweaty Phil Mickelson charging Tiger as he's standing over his putt),
then maybe I'll grant that he's tougher than Jordan. Until then, I'd call it a draw.

Those Zany McCainiacs!

2008-06-25T12:01:00.001-04:00

So yesterday we heard Tim Pawlenty attempting to make a favorable comparison between John McCain's "energy policy" and Barak Obama's, stating that McCain favors a gas tax reprieve and offshore drilling and Obama opposes both. Today I read this on The Carpetbagger Report, in response to the Obama campaign's efforts to help downticket races in places like Texas and Wyoming (where he can't expect to win in the general).

I found the McCain campaign’s response rather amusing:

“It’s revealing that Barack Obama has now been forced to expand the states on his map because he’s so weak in traditional Democratic targets such as West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida, not to mention his ongoing problems in Pennsylvania and Ohio,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.

Can we just go ahead an add a laugh track now? Otherwise some people might get the idea that they're actually serious.

A Tale of Two interviews

2008-06-24T22:34:00.006-04:00

I heard two interesting interviews on NPR today while driving home.

The first was a short interview with Tim Pawlenty and Michele Norris. Pawlenty was trying to defend McCain's energy policy (it's hard to type that without snickering). Here's the money quote (paraphrased)

Pawlenty says there are "striking differences" between the Arizona senator and his rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, when it comes to energy policy. For instance, McCain supports offshore drilling for oil, as well as the creation of a gas tax holiday. Obama opposes both proposals.

He also mentions that Obama opposes expanding nuclear power. He says this like these are supposed to be bad things. McCain supports a gas tax holiday that everyone, even his own campaign, agrees will do little to nothing. He supports domestic oil drilling, calling it a short-term solution. Of course, not one economist, supports McCain's idea that drilling will provide any short-term (less than 10 years!) relief. Pawlenty's got a tough job trying to defend this so-called energy policy. It really makes him sound dumber just by making the attempt.

In the second, Robert Siegel interviewed George Charamba, a spokesman for Robert Mugabe. In a combative interview, Charamba denies that there's any violence against Tsvangirai and his supporters. He claims, "All the reports that you are dealing with are reports that are coming either from the British machinery or from the American machinery". When Charamba defends the upcoming runoff as legally required, Siegel brings up the fact that Mugabe and his party lost the presidential and parliamentary elections. Charamba acknowledges this, but dismisses the results because he said the people "voted on their stomachs", due to Western sanctions. It's amazing how this guy can calmly argue that the first election didn't count, but this runoff election does. All the while denying the thuggery and murder taking place. It's unbelievable. Can we stop referring to Mugabe as president and just start calling him dictator? He seems like the kind of arrogant asshole that would be bothered by this, if it spread in the media.

Snarky Amazon reviews for Denon's dumb-ass $500 Ethernet cable

2008-06-23T09:38:00.001-04:00

It's always fun to make fun of stupid people, but it's even more enjoyable when people are actually paying someone to cater to their stupidity. That's why I always enjoy making fun of audiophiles who think they can hear the tiniest differences in music, and therefore pay obscene amounts for cables that can't possibly make any difference. This $500 ethernet cable isn't quite as funny as the $8000 speaker cables I saw a while back, but the reviews are the hilarious part.

Short-sighted

2008-06-20T20:34:00.004-04:00

Obviously it's not a great insight to realize that people often act against their own best interests in pursuit of short-term gain, on both big and small issues. People care more about the economy now than global catastrophe in the future, corporations care more about the next quarter's earning report than about the long-term survival of the company, people smoke knowing that it's going to ruin their health one way or another. Sometimes something strikes you that brings it home, though.

I briefly met a woman earlier today who appeared to be in her 40's. She's attractive, well-dressed, obviously takes care of her appearance, etc... But she had skin that was just this side of leather. She had clearly spent a lot of time sunbathing or sitting under a tanning light. It amazes me, that with all the evidence walking around among us attesting to the damage that sun does to your skin (to say nothing of cancer), people will still sacrifice the health and appearance of their skin for a few years of bronzy glory. I for one don't see why people like the bronze look so much anyway. In any case, this woman would have looked noticeably more attractive with smooth, unwrinkled skin. And hey, it's her body, but since she clearly takes pride in her appearance, it seems out of place.

Would you drive yourself to jail?

2008-06-19T21:40:00.002-04:00

This story got me thinking.

To recap, Samuel Israel was a hedge fund manager who defrauded investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. He was convicted, sentenced to 20 years and out on bail while authorities prepared his medication (I didn't know they did that). This CNN story has a little more background.

First, thinking about this has got me wondering if long prison sentences are appropriate for monetary crimes. I'm sure this guy is an ass, and the amounts of money he stole very likely could have ruined lives (cf. Enron), but wouldn't forcing him to live as a pauper while repaying his victims be a better sentence?

Second, and the thing that kind of blew my mind a little, he was supposed to drive himself to prison to start his 20 year sentence. The guy's 48. Neither article says if there's any possibility of parole or time-off for good behavior, but apparently Israel considered it a death sentence. So what's he got to lose? I can't fathom calmly driving myself to prison to surrender what could very possibly be the last third of my life. And especially not if I was as narcissistic as this guy has to be. What the hell were they thinking? If this guy isn't out of the country already, I'll be very surprised.

Barbara LeBey responds

2008-06-18T22:36:00.008-04:00

Hey look who found my McCainocrat post -

Hello John,
Since you reviewed my NPR interview, I thought it might be of interest for you to know that I did carefully review Obama's record and found it sorely lacking. I don't make hasty or emotional decisions. Hillary's voting record and her list of achievements is not nearly as liberal as the plans Obama has put forth. She is more of a centrist. Obama is an extreme liberal, really more socialist than even liberal. I am not willing to vote for a socialist. Race is irrelevant. I would feel the same way if Obama was 100% white. As for Hillary's endorsement and her request that her supporters transfer their support to Obama, I would have to say I don't follow blindly. Furthermore, if Hillary wants to continue to be an active member of the party and have a future with the party, she is compelled to get on board whether she actually believes in Obama or not. Personally, I'd like to see her run as an Independent--not likely. As a former judge and corporate lawyer, I have learned early on that a slumping economy does not revive with higher taxes, and leaders of rogue nations like Iran and North Korea respect might, not coddling. With enemies who hate us more than they love life, only strong leadership and a ready military will keep them at bay. Obama's plans are completely contrary to what I believe is the right course of action for our nation. So there you have it. The best, Barbara LeBey

Well, I have to say, I'm still confused. Barbara says she reviewed Obama's record and found it lacking. She says Obama is a socialist and Clinton is a centrist. I say they have very similar records and policy proposals. Rather than throwing out assertions, why don't we look at some facts -

Obama's Record - Barbara didn't say what she thinks is lacking in Obama's record, but I found some interesting stats here
Senator Obama has sponsored or co-sponsored 570 bills in the 109th and 110th Congress.

Senator Obama has sponsored or co-sponsored 15 bills that have become LAW since he joined the Senate in 2005.

Senator Obama has also introduced amendments to 50 bills, of which 16 were adopted by the Senate.
The summary is courtesy of a diary at Kos, but I confirmed the details at www.thomas.gov, the official congressional web archive. Co-sponsoring legislation isn't all that, of course, but it does show that Obama's been working and the kinds of issues he's concerned with. Then, of course, he has 8 years in the Illinois senate, but I suppose those years don't count.

On tax policy, they really don't vary. Both support extending tax cuts for those earning under $250k per year. Both favor letting Bush's tax cuts expire for those making over $250k per year. Barbara says "I have learned early on that a slumping economy does not revive with higher taxes", yet she supported Clinton, who would enact essentially the same tax policy as Obama. Maybe she was voting for Clinton for other reasons, but she cites taxes and the economy in her comment here and in the NPR interview, so it appears to be a key issue for her. I checked several places for information, but a good summary can be found at here for Obama and here for Clinton.

Another key issue for Barbara appears to be foreign policy. There are some differences here, but they're not substantive, in my opinion. Here's an exchange from one of the debates
Q: [to Obama]: Do you support normalizing relations with Cuba now?

OBAMA: I would not normalize relations until we started seeing some progress [on the US agenda in Cuba]. But I do think that it's important for the US not just to talk to its friends, but also to talk to its enemies.

CLINTON: I agree that we should be willing to have diplomatic negotiations and processes with anyone. I've been a strong advocate of opening up such a diplomatic process with Iran, for a number of years. Because I think we should look for ways that we can possibly move countries that are adversarial to us, toward the world community. It's in our interests and in the interests of the people in countries that are oppressed, like Cuba, like Iran. But there has been this difference between us over when and whether the president should offer a meeting, without preconditions, with those with whom we do not have diplomatic relations. And it should be part of a process, but I don't think it should be offered in the beginning

Here's another-
Q: Would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba & N.Korea?

OBAMA: I would. The notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them is ridiculous. I think that it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them.

CLINTON: I will not promise to meet with the leaders of these countries during my first year. I will promise a very vigorous diplomatic effort but not a high level meeting before you know what the intentions are. I don't want to be used for propaganda purposes. But I certainly agree that we need to get back to diplomacy, which has been turned into a bad word by this administration. I will use a lot of high-level presidential envoys to test the waters, to feel the way. But certainly, we're not going to just have our president meet with Fidel Castro & Hugo Chavez & the president of North Korea, Iran & Syria until we know better what the way forward would be.
Clearly they both favor engagement with our adversaries. They differ in details but not in intent. This is a clear break with Bush's foreign policy, and McCain's.

This idea that Obama is a socialist and Clinton is a centrist is silly. What does it mean to be a socialist? This is usually what right-wing people throw out as a slur anytime a Democrat proposes a government program. This Washington Post article has a pretty good rundown on the differences between Obama and Clinton in their Senate voting records. To start, they don't differ much - they vote together over 90% of the time. They have some real differences on the Cuban embargo and on gun control, but nothing substantial.

The funny thing to me about this statement is that on the issue most likely to be labeled socialist - universal health care, Clinton is clearly to the left of Obama. Looking at Clinton and Obama on health care, Clinton has a clear progressive (socialist, perhaps) vison of universal health care involving mandates and universal coverage. Obama seems to support universal coverage, but doesn't support mandates and doesn't seem to have a clear vision as to how to achieve this.

After looking into these things, I can't see how a Democrat who cares about these issues can support John McCain. Maybe Maurinsky is right. She noted in the comments that "I feel confident reporting Barbara LeBey is definitely a Republican ... her whole comment (if that was actually her) is loaded with Republican talking points." I think it probably is the real Barbara LeBey (what possible purpose could deceit serve here?), and I agree that there were several right-wing talking points in the comment. I still lean toward my original assessment that she developed a (perhaps unconscious) antipathy toward Obama that really has nothing to do with his record or his stances on the issues.

Battlestar Galactica

2008-06-14T00:09:00.001-04:00

So what did everyone think of that ending? Assume there will be spoilers in the comments if I still have any readers left.

Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to say that this mid season finale crap is bullshit. If you go for over six fucking months without a new episode, then it's not still the same fucking season. Just call them shorter seasons, assholes.

McCainocrat?

2008-06-11T22:40:00.003-04:00

I caught this interview on Day to Day yesterday - Madeleine Brand talks to lifelong Democrat Barbara LeBey about why she might vote for McCain instead of Obama in the general election.

I wish I hadn't actually, because it's frustrating to listen to reasonable-sounding people spouting such nonsense. I've seen Hillary commenters online saying that they would vote for McCain, but they were so unhinged it was easy to write them off. This lady sounds like she's actually thought it through and decided that McCain's the better choice.

She begins by saying she doesn't like Obama's economic plan. That we can't afford to raise taxes, it would be bad for the economy, it would hurt small-business owners and cost jobs. I'm thinking how can a lifelong Democrat buy into supply-side economics? Madeleine then points out that there's no difference between Hillary and Obama's economic plan. Barbara says that's true but offers no further explanation.

Then she says he hasn't done anything, he's a blank slate upon whom people are projecting their hopes and dreams, but they don't know anything about him. I guess she hasn't seen his highly-detailed policy papers, examined his voting records, looked at his non-government resume. This inexperienced meme is such a load of BS.

Madeleine asks her if it's a vote for McCain or against Obama. She starts eulogizing McCain, about his economic policy, his immigration plan, his environmentalism and how he's a maverick.

Finally Madeleine asks about abortion, and mentions McCain's awful rating. Barbara sounds resigned and says that since there's already a conservative majority, it doesn't matter who the next two judges are, so she's going to vote on other issues.

What to make of all this? Barbara was a big Hillary fan, and yet she doesn't seem to believe in any of Hillary's policy positions, which are extremely close to Obama's, and antithetical to some of McCain's positions that she now supports. She trusted Hillary, but not enough to heed her call to work for Obama. I think what happened to Barbara is that she got so personally invested in Hillary, which grew to include personal antipathy for Obama, that she can't rationally discuss him anymore. I know some people may accuse her of closet racism, but I don't think so. I don't get the feeling she doesn't like black folks, she just doesn't like Obama. Barbara accuses Obama supporters of being irrational, of projecting our hopes onto him without cause, but I think it's clear that Barbara's the one not thinking straight. Or at least the one who's abandoning principles that she claims to have supported all her life.

I think there are a significant number of Hillary diehards who are in this group with Barbara. It's no longer about policy or the greater good, it's about punishing Obama. However, I really do think that the numbers overall are small and most of Hillary's supporters, especially those who are longtime Democrats, will support Obama.

NBA Finals Commercials

2008-06-10T22:03:00.001-04:00

So I'm sure you've all seen these split screen playoffs commercials that have been running all through the playoffs for what seems like the last six months or so. They have a new one in the Finals with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird which would be really neat except for some reason when seeing only half of these guys, they look really old and pathetic. Or maybe it's just seeing them in this unique way where I've so far only seen players in their prime. Anyway, as soon as someone saw the finished product, they should have scrapped it, because it's sad and not much else.

Gas hoarding eyed as cause of Dartmouth apartment fire

2008-06-09T10:17:00.002-04:00

This is what happens when we don't teach people math. There's no way, even without taking into account the risk of fire and damage to your property, that hoarding gas is going to be at all cost effective. I don't care how long they were going to try to store 45 gallons worth of gas, it's never going to be long enough to generate a reasonable profit. And if they were going to try to increase the volume of their hoard, they would have gotten into issues with storage space long before it got to any point that could potentially be profitable. So when you factor in what should have been the somewhat obvious risk of storing gasoline this way, it turns into a really horrible idea.

Also, there was one part of the article that struck me as odd.

State law prohibits storing more than a quart of gasoline in a home, including attached garages.

What the fuck? Do these people not have lawn equipment? I routinely had around 5 - 10 gallons of gas in my house for the lawn mower and edger. I can't imagine that anyone follows this law. They'd have to go to the gas station everytime they had to do yard work.

10

2008-06-09T00:00:00.001-04:00

That's how many free throws the Lakers took in game 2 of the NBA Finals tonight. And they hit them all. I'm not normally one to do much complaining about officiating, but that's fucking ridiculous. This compared to 38 for the Celtics. You expect the home team to get some advantages, but this is ridiculous. And even with that, the Lakers were within 2 with under a minute to play, when of course, it was decided by the officials as Paul Pierce drove to the basket and Derek Fisher grazed his finger and he hit the two free throws to basically put the game away. Hopefully, the Lakers get the same bullshit advantage in LA, but whether they do or not, they have to play a lot better, especially the bench. The reserves came up huge at times against the Spurs, but they've done nothing in this series so far.

This just in - Scott McClellan wrote a book!

2008-05-30T10:27:00.002-04:00

I've heard this a couple of times, including a few minutes ago on Diane Rehm - namely the claim that someone "broke" the Scott McClellan story. I'm no journalist, but I don't see how reading and reporting on a well-publicized book by a fairly well-known public person counts as breaking anything. Not much of a scoop there. Just because you got access to an early copy doesn't make you Mr. Intrepid Reporter.

And then the MSM is treating this like it's "devastating" new information. Hello, most of the country is already aware that lies were told to get us into Iraq. The main story here is the former loyal mouthpiece of the Bush administration turning on his former partners in crime.

ACLU Blog: Because Freedom Can’t Blog Itself: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union » Knee-Jerk Redaction?

2008-05-28T16:14:00.001-04:00

Well, that's helpful.

Dunkin' Donuts yanks Rachael Ray ad

2008-05-28T16:03:00.001-04:00

Michelle Malkin is completely insane. Yeah, I know that's not news to anyone, but ever for her, getting upset over a scarf in a coffee commercial is more loony than I would expect. The worst thing about Malkin isn't that she's crazy, there are plenty of crazy people out there who don't hurt anything. The worst thing is that for some reason she has a following that takes this batshit insanity seriously. Even worse is that companies like Dunkin Donuts would listen to these lunatics.

Someone needs to tell Malkin and all her lunatic followers that they're not going to be killed by terrorists. They're just not. I'm no statistician, but I'm sure there are a million things more likely to kill the average American than a muslim jihadist. And even if terrorism were the number one cause of death in America, Rachel Ray's fashion choices while trying to sell you coffee are not going to change a single thing.

And besides, I thought people like Malkin were opposed to political correctness. Or is it only ok to offend people that have a legitimate reason to be offended, while whiny bitches complaining about scarves should always be listened to?

Exclusive: McClellan whacks Bush, White House

2008-05-27T22:05:00.001-04:00

You know what? Fuck Scott McClellan. Most of the more ridiculous shit I heard from this administration came out of his fucking mouth. I don't see any apology in the article, and it seems he's trying to sell a book. If he really had a problem with the shit Bush was doing, he could have not been such a fucking big part of it. He stood up there and lied and spun and obfuscated every day and seemed perfectly content to do so. Just shut the fuck up, asshole.

Badvertising

2008-05-25T22:54:00.001-04:00

I couldn't find anything about these commercials on the internets, so hopefully they're just figments of my imagination. But lately, I've heard a few Corona beer radio commercials that are called something like Great Moments in Timeout History or some shit. They seem to be a lousy attempt to create something like Bud Light's Real Men of Genius commercials, which by the way I liked better when they were called Real American Heroes, but people may get confused and think that they were comparing the accomplishments of Mr. Giant Foam Finger Maker with those of police and firefighters on oh my god September 11th, or god forbid The Troops. Anyway, so if the concept of Great Moments in Timeout History isn't bad enough, the supposedly amusing little anecdotes are awful, not funny, not memorable, and the only reason I remember them at all is because I've thought to myself after each one how bad they were. I had hoped to be able to link to an example, but like I said, I couldn't find one on the internets, so maybe, hopefully, they are just in my imagination.

But that brings me to another thing that I noticed a while ago when looking for Doritos on that site. Who the fuck is designing these websites now? When I go to the Doritos website, or the Corona website, it's to find out information about their products, not to be entertained, play games, or join some sort of social network. I hope this isn't a trend that I'm just starting to notice, but both of these sites suck, and made it difficult for me to find out information about their actual products, which seems a little stupid.

So has anyone else heard these stupid Corona commercials? And what about this disturbing trend in website design? Anyone else noticed that?

Garfield minus Garfield

2008-05-23T22:50:00.001-04:00

I've been reading this everyday since I saw it linked somewhere. I think it might be my favorite comic strip. It's certainly better than the regular Garfield. Also a little disturbing at times.

One more thing

2008-05-15T08:50:00.003-04:00

While I'm in curmudgeon mode, I have to say I'm sick to death of supposedly intelligent people who can't fucking tell the difference between the word lose - the opposite of win and loose - to let something go. There's a whole lot of "loosing" going on on the internet, more than can be explained by the occasional fat finger, which we're all afflicted by from time to time. While reading an otherwise intelligent and properly-spelled post, this particular error sticks out like a giant sore thumb saying "Look at me! You might as well stop reading because I can't tell the difference between 'lose' and 'loose'!" Aside from just general laziness and stupidity, I think you have to lay some blame on spell checkers. People get complacent knowing that any misspelled words will be marked. I submit that all spell checkers should flag the words loose and loosing (especially loosing) as possible errors because really, how many times do people actually want to write loosing and not losing?

Another annoying internet fad

2008-05-14T22:16:00.003-04:00

I've been reading a lot at Balloon Juice lately (it's hard to believe he was ever a wingnut, but the posts are out there) and I've noticed an annoying trend. I may have seen it at Kevin Drum's place too, but I'm not positive.

This annoying thing is the practice of taking a quote from the comment thread, striking through certain words and replacing them with something that either mocks the original comment or attempts to make it clever and saying "Fixed" underneath. This may have been mildly amusing the first 3 or 4 billion times it was done, but now it's just tired and stupid. Look, if you have something clever or interesting to say, just fucking say it. The attempt to be cute now just makes you looks silly and unoriginal. Especially at the aforementioned Balloon Juice, where I've now seen this same construction back-to-back more than once, and multiple times by multiple people in the same thread. Enough already!

Frito-Lay Sucks

2008-05-14T14:14:00.001-04:00

I've been mad at Doritos for years, after they stopped making the delicious Sour Cream and Onion Doritos. I briefly got over it when they came out with Cool Ranch Doritos, which were just as good. Until they stopped actually putting any cool ranch flavor on the chips. I can't remember the last time I ate any Cool Ranch Doritos that tasted any different than unflavored tortilla chips. They also stopped making the 3D Doritos, which were great, and inexplicably seemed not to have much more flavor on them than their two dimensional counterparts, but somehow tasted like they did. So I've managed to just stay away from Doritos, so I don't have to be annoyed with them. That is, until the other day, when I was hungry and saw new Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos in the vending machine. These were very good, but when I went to get more yesterday, they were gone. So I figured I would just pick some up from the grocery store. But I've since been to three different stores and couldn't find them. Having a product that people want doesn't seem very valuable if it isn't available anywhere. So I'm now back to being annoyed with Doritos.

Also, I went to doritos.com to see if maybe this was a limited time flavor or something, and it looks like they're trying to turn it into some sort of hip social networking site or something. I couldn't see anywhere to get actual information about their products. I don't who's running the Doritos department at Frito-Lay, but I don't think they're very bright.

And speaking of good snacks that I can't find anywhere, someone brought in some great Crispy Mint M&Ms to work, but I looked for those everywhere too and can't find them either.

And just because I'm too lazy to make another post, let me just use this space to tell Arlen Specter to shut the fuck up. No one gives a shit what you think about the NFL, and it's not any of your business anyway. And even if it was, you've got far more important things that you could be spending your time and energy on.

TV Talk

2008-05-11T22:41:00.004-04:00

Since Toast has deprived his tv-watching buddies of a thread in which to discuss the current season, I guess I'll just have to get off my lazy blogging ass and do it myself.

Lost - It's been kicking ass all season long. I've not been one of the naysayers who got down on the show during the whole Kate and Sawyer in cages period, but there's no question in my mind that having an end in sight has been great for this show.

Battlestar Galactica - The last season has mostly delivered so far. The Cylon civil war is great stuff, and there have been several intense moments this season - Cally's murder, Anders shooting Gaeta during the mutiny. However, I do get the feeling that they're stretching a bit to fill enough episodes. "The Road Less Traveled", where Leoben turns up and Baltar meets with the Chief seemed to be particularly slow-moving. They're doing a good job with the plot, though. I have no idea where or how this is going to end.

One thing that still bothers me and I hope they address more directly is this - why did the Cylons attempt to destroy humanity in the first place? It really doesn't seem in keeping with where we're going this season. Now it looks like the Cylons want to find Earth as well, and it doesn't sound like they're interested in its destuction. Also, on last week's episode, when the Six killed Barolay, they showed us more about the Cylon psyche. Six didn't understand why Barolay killed her on New Caprica, in such a cruel and senseless way. Not to excuse Barolay's cruelty, but hey, they murdered billions of innocents in the 12 colonies. And since they used nuclear weapons, there had to have been a whole lot of terrible suffering for those who didn't die immediately. What about Six killing that baby in the pilot? I'm having trouble reconciling the Cylons' current empathy and love of life with their earlier actions. I hope that will become clear by the end. I don't want any of those fuzzy endings, I want some answers.

The Office - Due to being very busy over the last month, I just got a chance to watch the first 2 post-strike episodes of The Office last night. The dinner party was absolutely hilarious. "That's a $200 plasma TV!". The whole degeneration of Micheal and Jan from tense, happy-acting couple to train wreck was perfect.

Broadcasters Piss Me Off

2008-05-08T23:16:00.002-04:00

Someone on ESPN, during halftime of the Hornets/Spurs game:

...you know Manu Ginobli, with 16 points in the first half, recently voted the most popular person in Argentina, more than their president, that's where he's from.

I'm not sure what country this guy lives in that he even considers that the president might possibly be the most popular person in the country, but it's certainly not this one. How can anyone seriously sound surprised that a professional athlete is more popular than the president? I could list professional athletes for days before I got to one that was less popular than our current president. Hell, Manu Ginobli would probably make that list, too. And even assuming that other countries don't have presidents as crappy as ours, professional athletes are always going to be more popular.

If Obama wins the election (please!), I'm pretty sure he'll be a pretty popular president, but he's still not going to be as popular as Tiger Woods.

Scattegories Meme

2008-05-03T20:15:00.001-04:00

So Toast tagged everyone with this meme. Doesn't look too hard. All the answers have to start with the same letter as your first name. My name starts with the same letter as Toast's, so I'm going to try not to repeat any of his, we'll see how that goes.

1. What is your name? John.
2. A four-letter word: Junk.
3. A vehicle: Jeep.
4. A city: Jacksonville. That was an easy one.
5. A boy's name: Jason.
6. A girl's name: Juliet. I can't stand her on LOST.
7. Alcoholic drink: Julep?
8. An occupation: Janitor.
9. Something you wear: Jeans.
10. A celebrity: Johnny Depp.
11. A food: Jello.
12. Something found in a bathroom: Jacuzzi tub.
13. Reason for being late: Just not keeping track of time.
14. Something you shout: Jump!
15. An animal: Jackal. I would have gone with Jaguar, but Toast already used it.
16. A body part: Junk. Can we use the same word twice?

There you go. I tag no one, because I doubt the number of people who read this and don't read Toast's blog is very high anyway.

Clinton-McCain gas tax holiday slammed as bad idea | Reuters

2008-04-30T16:41:00.001-04:00

This is quite possibly the worst idea I've ever heard. I drive about 100 miles a day or so, and I would still only save around 50 bucks. That's assuming that the tax holiday doesn't otherwise drive the price up as suggested in the article. And it would cost the government billions of dollars. Like we're not going to have to pay for that later? Stupid.

Is Lost a Repeat?

2008-04-24T16:02:00.001-04:00

NO!

People are Stupid

2008-04-22T14:08:00.001-04:00

Pastor Roger Byrd said that he just wanted to get people thinking. So last Thursday, he put a new message on the sign at the Jonesville Church of God.

It reads: "Obama, Osama, hmm, are they brothers?"

That's very clever. Has anyone ever known any brothers where one's first name rhymes with the other's last name. My last name is Howard, and my brother's first name is Chris, so it doesn't work there. Not to mention, that in most cases, this would end up with one of the brothers having a stupid name that rhymes with itself. However, in this case, Obama and bin Laden don't share a last name, so that's not an issue. They don't share a last name, a first name, or even a name at all. But according to Roger Byrd, the rhyming is really the key. Well, I just have one thing to say to that, Pastor. Byrd, Turd.

Byrd said that the message wasn't meant to be racial or political.

Of course not, what could be political about linking the name of a candidate for President with a terrorist leader? How do people even get a crazy idea like that, that this sign could be political?

"It's simply to cause people to realize and to see what possibly could happen if we were to get someone in there that does not believe in Jesus Christ," he said.

Ummm, what could possibly happen? Anyway, since Obama does believe in Jesus Christ, I'm not sure why the sign is necessary then.

When asked if he believes that Barack Obama is Muslim, Byrd said, "I don't know. See it asks a question: Are they brothers? In other words, is he Muslim ? I don't know. He says he's not. I hope he's not. But I don't know.

Oh, so he's just saying Obama could be a liar then. Well, if we're not taking our candidates at their word regarding religious beliefs and Byrd is really worried about "what could happen if we were to get someone in there that does not believe in Jesus Christ" then he should add McCain and Clinton's names to the sign, since we only have their word that they're Christians. Well that, and all those years of going to church.

Despite some criticism, Byrd says that the message will stay on the sign. He took the issue before his congregation Sunday night, and they decided unanimously to keep it.

Well, that's good anyway. Until we can get all the morons in the world to wear signs proclaiming their stupidity, it's nice to have things like this as some indicator.

Miguel Tejada: ESPN Plays "To Catch A Predator"

2008-04-19T12:48:00.001-04:00

I don't give a fuck how old Miguel Tejada is. I'm not sure why anyone else would either, outside of the Astros' front office. They have a legitimate reason to be concerned about it, since they're paying him a contract that seems to be based in part of a misrepresentation. Beyond that, I don't think this is a big deal at all. And while I certainly think it's a story that should be reported, it seems to me it's worth maybe a mention and a comment from him or his agent, and the team and that's about it. It's not like the guy is Danny Almonte trying to play in the Little League World Series or something. The way ESPN ambushed this guy, and acted like they had just caught him lying about scamming old people out of their social security checks or something. But from the way the interviewer seemed so pleased with himself, you would think that was exactly what he uncovered.

Presidential Debate

2008-04-17T09:32:00.002-04:00

People love to make fun of politicians. They lie all the time, they never give straight answers, they use silly hand gestures, they care more about marketing themselves than anything of real substance. Well, the older I get, and the more political campaigns I follow, the more I realize that they don't have any choice, that's the only way to get elected to anything anymore. Of course, that's not news to anyone, but it just really struck me with this debate how much crap we're wrapped up in that no one should give a shit about.

I didn't watch the debate, but I did follow along in a couple different places on the internets*, and it was ridiculous. How are we ever supposed to fix any of the problems in this country when no one will let anyone focus on the problems because they're too busy talking about elitism and flag lapel pins? Honestly, if you care at all about whether a candidate wears a flag lapel pin, then there is something wrong with you. I mean like seriously wrong. Do you wear a flag lapel pin all the time? Somehow I doubt it. I certainly don't, and I don't know anyone who does. Yet people waste time caring about whether Obama does. If the Muslims ever do plant a secret agent into our society to someday run for President, as some people seem to be worried about, I can pretty much guarantee you that he will be wearing a flag lapel pin. That was a question from a regular person, you would think that the actual "journalists" would ask more important questions. But apparently they didn't.

About the only good thing I can say about this debate is that people actually seem to be upset about the bullshit questions that ABC decided to waste everyone's time on. Everyone at ABC News should be ashamed of themselves. And let's not forget the other debates which I don't think were all that much better. Tim Russert was especially bad.

And of course, it's easy to blame the media, but I've heard way more people in real life talking about the bullshit going on in this campaign than about any important things. The only way we'll get better out of our media and our candidates is to demand better. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening any time soon.

UPDATE: I was reading about the debate over at The Carpetbagger Report and I saw this:

At one point, Stephanopoulos asked Obama, “[D]o you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do?” In fact, Stephanopoulos asked it twice.

Holy fucking shit. Is this serious? Have we actually gotten to a point where we're competing for the President of the United States and how much someone claims to love America is actually a factor? And of course, we're not even talking about how much the candidate loves America, we're talking about how much someone he knows loves America. I don't know or care how much Reverend Wright loves America. But if we're seriously asking, I know he loved it enough to join the military, which should tell people something. But since Reverend Wright isn't running for President, I'm not sure why his love for America is even up for debate.

* Luckily it didn't go down like in South Park which was hilarious.

Annoying People

2008-04-16T10:02:00.002-04:00

Is there anything more annoying in the entire world than people who refer to coffee as if it were gasoline, substituting unleaded for decaf, or hi-test (who even knows what the hell hi-test is anymore?) for regular coffee? I'm pretty sure there isn't.

NFL 2008

2008-04-15T21:03:00.001-04:00

The NFL season can never get here fast enough, so it's always nice to have some off season activity. Today the schedule came out. It looks like the Cowboys are on national TV six times. Of course, I wish it were 16, of course, but I think six is pretty good. Also, none of their games will be called by Bryant Gumbel this season, so that's great.

And the draft is coming up soon as well.

Bryant Gumbel leaves NFL Network

2008-04-12T15:19:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure why this took longer than the first half of the first game that Gumbel did to get rid of him, but it's good news anyway. This guy was probably the worst play by play guy I've ever heard. I can't think of a worse one off the top of my head, anyway. Seriously, they could have fired him at halftime of the first game he did, went out in the hallway and grabbed the first guy to walk by, and chances are he would have been better than Gumbel. His brother Greg is awful, but he looks like Howard Cosell when compared to Bryant. And Bryant makes Cris Collinsworth look like a genius by comparison. It really doesn't matter who they get to replace him, it will be a upgrade.

Ironman

2008-04-04T23:42:00.000-04:00

I've never been much of a fan of the superhero Ironman at all, but this movie looks really good.

Now who's the "activist" judge?

2008-03-26T22:49:00.004-04:00

Everyone's heard about the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Medellin vs Texas:

The Supreme Court ruled that [treaties] are binding only if the treaty explicitly says so or if there is legislation to make that clear. For all of American history, many treaties have been deemed to be what is called "self-executing," meaning that their provisions are automatically binding. But not all treaties fall into this category. The Supreme Court's ruling set a bright line for which treaties are self-executing — namely, those that explicitly say so or have accompanying legislation that says so.

The court said the president, acting on his own, cannot make a treaty binding on the states.

Every time the Court does something the right wing hates, they all start yammering about activist judges, saying that the job of the Supreme Court isn't to interpret law. The term "strict constructionist" is used for conservative judges like Scalia, Thomas and Alito, although none of them claim the label for themselves (apparently they think of themselves as textualists or originalists). The idea is that the Court shouldn't be reading meaning into the constitution that isn't explicitly spelled out, such as a right to privacy. Of course this is bullshit. The wingnuts are fine with arguments supporting expansive presidential powers based on nothing more than this short sentence "The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States". I don't see anything in there about a state secrets privilege, do you?

I do believe that the constitution must be interpreted, and that it was designed to be interpreted. But to get back to the case at hand, I don't see a lot of wiggle room in this language - "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." How anyone can read that sentence, from Article 6 of the Constituion, and come away thinking that treaties are not self-executing is beyond me. Treaties made under authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land, judges in every state shall be bound thereby, the laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding. I think that's quite a "bright line" all by itself. I don't see anything there about requiring explicit language or federal legislation.

Doesn't this really put the lie to any claim the conservative judges have on textualism or originalism or even constructionism? They're just playing it by ear and according to their own political biases, the same as every other judge.

My Bracket

2008-03-20T11:44:00.007-04:00

Here's my bracket for this year (click for larger, readable version). I went with Georgetown all the way, though I'm not sure they have it in them. You may notice an overall Big East bias as well. That's because they're better than everyone else.

UPDATE: I was 14-2 yesterday. Of course, after talking up the Big East, the one team from the conference I picked to get upset won easily.

UPDATE: College Basketball sucks. Why does anyone even watch this garbage?

Stupidity on Parade

2008-03-19T22:19:00.004-04:00

Everyone seemed to enjoy this the last time I did it, so when I noticed some more stupid comments today, I thought I'd share again. This time it's a TMZ article about naked pictures that are supposed to be of Kristin Davis from Sex and the City. I don't really think they look anything like her, but who knows. Most of the comments seem to be focused on her pubic hair.

2. FIRST

Posted at 1:39PM on Mar 19th 2008 by PUH-LEASE

Possibly the stupidest thing on the internets (and that's obviously saying a lot) is the phenomenon of people posting "first" in comment threads. These people kind of remind me of people who have mullets. Every normal person is making fun of you, you'd have to be a complete moron not to realize that everyone is making fun of you, and yet you still go ahead with behavior that only serves to make you look like a moron. And like many of these comments, this one is made all the more pathetic by the fact that it isn't actually first.

5. well isn't that special. i am going to go throw up now and eat something else. if you stare at the light to long it could cause blindness. jeepers creepers where did anthony go. do you really care about this stupid article? i didn't think so..

Posted at 1:44PM on Mar 19th 2008 by HUMP BACK IN THE HOLE

Another thing people seem to do for no reason I can figure out is comment on things they purportedly don't care about. There are a lot of things I read that I don't really care about, and I don't really feel the need to comment on any of them.

7. I saw those pictures.

Somebody needs to buy her a weed-wacker!!!!

Posted at 1:55PM on Mar 19th 2008 by FABIO

23. I always shaved myself even in the early 90s and so did my friends. People were shaving in the 80s too. A hairy bush was in as "au natural" in the late 60s and 70s.

Posted at 2:34PM on Mar 19th 2008 by Anna

25. Me too. It is better to be bald and not get lice. *itch, itch*

Posted at 2:37PM on Mar 19th 2008 by Tiny Dancer

28. It DOES look well maintained !!! When you get ALL your hair waxed off it looks like a little girls vajayjay.....ewwwww!!!
It could also be what is known as a "winter bush"....LOL AND, when you remove all the hair it just looks and feels horrible when it starts growing back....and itchy, too. If you want more info, just go to "stop dissin' my vajayjay.com".....LOL

Posted at 2:47PM on Mar 19th 2008 by Hmmmmmmm

34. Hey Dumb a"ss: Why don't get take your stupid a ss to another site if you don't like this one? Especially that talks about hairy beavers>>>>>>>>>

Posted at 3:26PM on Mar 19th 2008 by Don't like it,lump it!

43. Not every dude wants an unmowed lawn. Get over yourself Brad.

Posted at 6:53PM on Mar 19th 2008 by I like mine manicured

44. Yeah, I don't want a thick hairy beaver. I guess you can floss after you are done with the meal.

Posted at 6:54PM on Mar 19th 2008 by Stan The Man

45. I like the burger without the fur.

Posted at 7:00PM on Mar 19th 2008 by Kent

Like I said, most of the comments focused on her pubic hair, and these are my favorites of those. Kind of makes you wonder if some of these people have ever had sex at all.

27. OO it was only 5 yrs ago...I thought it was when she was much much younger...yea there is no excuse for a bush these days lol

Posted at 2:47PM on Mar 19th 2008 by Me

2008 - 1992 = 5 years? I guess math isn't Me's strong suit.

Ok, so as stupid as some of these comments are, judging by the last time I did this, politics seems to bring out an entirely new level of stupidity. Next time I do this, I might use a YouTube comment thread I found featuring World of Warcraft players, but I'm really not sure I can stand that much stupid.

Lost Madness

2008-03-13T22:59:00.002-04:00

Go vote for your favorite Lost characters. I think I pretty much agree with most of the results so far, except I would have rather had Juliet ousted in the first round, that bitch.

Better Late than Never

2008-03-13T09:40:00.002-04:00

For the last month or so, I've been watching Smallville, which I never got into before. Since there's almost nothing on TV these days, I thought it was a good time to try to catch up with a show that's been on for several years. I just started season 5. It's a pretty decent show, though it has some silly formulaic things and some inconsistencies that I could do without. I've watched several shows now this way, either after the entire run (Alias), or caught up in the middle (Battlestar Galactica, 24, The Wire, Rescue Me, Nip/Tuck). Aside from the obvious benefits of no commercials, and not having to wait between episodes, particularly season finales with cliffhangers, there is another cool thing I've noticed about watching shows this way. You get to see a bunch of actors in smaller roles that you wouldn't have noticed otherwise. I watched several of the shows mentioned above around the same time, and noticed several people who had small parts in more than one show I was watching at the same time (like Callie Thorne from Rescue Me, The Wire, and Prison Break or Michelle Forbes from Battlestar Galactica, 24, Prison Break, Boston Legal, and Alias), that I would never have noticed if I watched it normally. Also, you see a lot of people who go on to larger roles later, that you don't remember from the smaller parts. I notice this a lot when I watch Seinfeld reruns as well.

Anyway, on Smallville so far, I've seen many people who have gone on to do other more noticeable parts, or at least parts I'm more familiar with. I never watched The OC, but there was a guy from that on one episode. The lawn boy who sleeps with Eva Longoria from Desperate Housewives was in a couple of episodes. From Battlestar Galatica, I've seen Chief Tyrol, Dualla, and Helo. DL from Heroes was in the episode I watched last night. Boone (AKA God's frickin' gift to humanity) from Lost was in a few episodes, and Kate had the tiniest (I had to rewind it to be sure it was her) little non-speaking part in one scene. Also, in the other direction, actors in the show who were previously in more noticeable roles, I've seen two of the three kids from Home Improvement, Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder (though it's obvious why they'd cast them in this show), and of course, Bo Duke as Jonathan Kent.

Movie Quotes Meme

2008-03-05T20:51:00.013-05:00

This seems to be going around lately, I'm sure someone tagged me with it, but I would do it anyway since it reminds me of when I used to do it every week, and it was a lot of fun. I don't know how difficult these might be, I just decided to go with movies I've seen recently, which may or may not be recent movies, since most of my favorites I've done before.

UPDATE: Answers to quotes left:
1. I am Legend
9. Transformers
11. Blades of Glory

Instructions: Look up 15 of your favorite films on IMDb and take a quote from each. List them below. When someone guesses the quote correctly, cross it off the list. Leave a comment with your answers. And NO CHEATING.

1. "I... I promised a friend I would say hello to you today. Please say hello to me. Please say hello to me. "
2. ~~"You just killed a helicopter with a car!"~~ (Patrick)
3. ~~"You know what else you should do? Nail his penis above the entrance to the elementary school. That'd really teach him a lesson. "~~ (Fridge)
4. ~~"This machine in my lap? It is not a time machine."~~ (Patrick)
5. ~~"...the funny thing about my back is that it's located on my cock."~~ (Patrick)
6. ~~"How can you be so obtuse?"~~ (Chris)
7. ~~"I'll tell you what I'd do, man: two chicks at the same time, man."~~ (Patrick)
8. ~~"A water break? Water is for cowards. Water makes you weak."~~ (Chris)
9. "He's been in cryo-stasis since 1935. Your great-great-grandfather made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind. "
10. ~~"...and then your Mommy said, "Just do it already!" which was very confusing to Daddy, so I took the most literal translation."~~ (Patrick)
11. "No exaggeration, I could not love a human baby more then I love this brush. "
12. ~~"That's bullshit. Smurfette fucks all the other Smurfs. Why do you think Papa Smurf made her? Because all the other Smurfs were getting too horny."~~ (Patrick)
13. "You picked us. You volunteered. You said that you would do what it takes to save American lives. You're not a liar, are you? Or too weak to see this through? This is it. Let go of David Webb. Will you give yourself to this program." (Fridge)
14. ~~"You're nothing but a drifter who found a bag of mail. "~~ (Chris)
15. ~~"I can't believe we're paying to see something we get on TV for free! If you ask me, everybody in this theater is a giant sucker! Especially you!"~~ (Fridge)

Movie Quotes Meme

2008-03-04T15:57:00.015-05:00

Fridge tagged me with this, so here goes.

Instructions: Look up 15 of your favorite films on IMDb and take a quote from each. List them below. When someone guesses the quote correctly, cross it off the list. Leave a comment with your answers. And NO CHEATING.

1. I do have a test today, that wasn't bullshit. It's on European socialism. I mean, really, what's the point? I'm not European. I don't plan on being European. So who cares if they're socialists? They could be fascist anarchists. It still doesn't change the fact that I don't own a car. (Chemist)

2. ~~JUST a bit outside.~~(Chemist)

3. ~~Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit.~~ (Chemist)

4. ~~Chief, I was just wondering: I suppose that mangy red-bone hound's got no place else to go either. [spits tobacco juice on the dog's forehead]~~ (Mr. Furious)

5. But I think this is the only way to find that boy. Now that penis had a mole on it - I'd recognize that penis anywhere. In spite of the juvenile snickers of some, this is a serious matter. That seducer and despoiler must be stopped; he's extremely dangerous. (Angelos!!)

6. Stupid, worthless, no good, goddamn, freeloading son of a bitch. Retarded, big mouth, know-it-all, asshole, jerk. You forgot ugly, lazy and disrespectful. Shut up bitch. Go fix me a turkey pot pie. No dad, what about you? Fuck you. No dad, what about you? Fuck you. Dad, what about you? Fuck you. (Angelos)

7. ~~Now, I had heard that word at least ten times a day from my old man. He worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium; a master.~~ (Chemist)

8. ~~It's K-K-K-Ken c-c-c-coming to k-k-k-kill me.~~(Angelos)

9. ~~Since you're new here, I'm gonna cut you a break... today. So, why don't you make like a tree and get out of here?~~ (Chemist)

10. When I was a lad I ate four dozen eggs
Ev'ry morning to help me get large
And now that I'm grown I eat five dozen eggs
So I'm roughly the size of a barge! (Michelline)

11. You know, I can't believe this, [...]. I'm so disappointed in us. I mean, all our lives we've been saying how great it would be if we went to parties, right? And now it's our party and we're in the john. We're in the john! (Chemist)

12. Think big, think positive, never show any sign of weakness. Always go for the throat. Buy low, sell high. Fear? That's the other guy's problem. Nothing you have ever experienced will prepare you for the absolute carnage you are about to witness. Super Bowl, World Series - they don't know what pressure is. (Angelos)

13. ~~I don't know why they call this stuff hamburger helper. It does just fine by itself, huh? I like it better than tuna helper myself, don't you, ...?~~ (John)

14. ~~There's no way on earth we're going to get out of here tonight. We'd have more luck playing pickup sticks with our butt-cheeks than we will getting a flight out of here before daybreak.~~ (Toast)

15. ~~Look, I like you, I really like you, but I gotta tell you, I have become seriously and emotionally involved with someone who isn't my aunt.~~ (John)

Historical Meme - Chris

2008-03-04T15:55:00.000-05:00

Chemist tagged me with this one and I've been putting it off, but here goes. The rules -

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. List 7 random/weird things about your favorite historical figure.
3. Tag seven more people at the end of your blog and link to theirs.
4. Let the person know they have been tagged by leaving a note on their blog.

Forget all the tagging. Especially since Chemist already tagged pretty much everyone I know in blogland. If you read this and haven't done it, feel free. And leave a link.

I don't really have one favorite historical figure. For this exercise, I'll pick Julius Caesar.

1. As a young man, he was forced into hiding to avoid being killed in Sulla's proscriptions.
2. He's rumored to have had an affair with King Nicomedes of Bythynia.
3. He was kidnapped by pirates for ransom. He later raised a fleet, hunted the pirates down and crucified them.
4. He had a long-term affair with Cleopatra.
5. He had seizures which have been speculated to be eplieptic.
6. He was not born by cesarean section, although that was rumored even during his life.
7. According to Suetonius, his last words were 'και συ τεκνον?', not 'Et tu, Brute?'. This is Greek for "you, too, child?". Educated Romans often spoke Greek rather than Latin.

A Historical Meme

2008-03-03T22:09:00.001-05:00

Chemist tagged me with this meme. I've put it off for a week or so since, as Angelos said, it's more like homework.

The Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. List 7 random/weird things about your favorite historical figure.
3. Tag seven more people at the end of your blog and link to theirs.
4. Let the person know they have been tagged by leaving a note on their blog.

So, I did #1 without any trouble, but reading through the rules, I see that #2 is going to give me a problem. I don't have any favorite historical figures that I can think of off the top of my head. #3 also, will be a problem. I'm not sure I even have seven readers, but even if I do, Chemist and/or the people he already tagged have likely already tagged them. Finally, #4 is something I'm not a fan of anyway. If you don't read my blog, then why would you give a crap about what memes I might be tagging you with? So anyway, all this to say, there's no chance I'm going to do this meme very well anyway, so I've decided not to bother.

Stupidity on Parade

2008-02-22T21:41:00.008-05:00

Welcome to a new feature* here where I wade into the cesspool of stupidity that is anonymous comments on the internets to make fun of the stupidity of others for my own amusement. What prompted me to do this, you ask? Well, I was reading through the comments at the link and just decided that some of this is too stupid to go by unremarked, and there was no one within earshot at the time, so I decided to share it with you instead. I realize it's not nice to make fun of people, but I think when you put this kind of stupidity out there for everyone to see, you deserve to be mocked. The subject today is an article from FOX News about recent polling regarding the election. Including, for some reason, some nonsense about who Osama would be rooting for.

Comment by Debra Harrington
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:19 am

I’m sorry but I honestly have a problem with a muslim being charge of my security when it is muslims that want to kill all Americans. The terrorist don’t care if you are republican or democrat. Doesn’t anyone else see a strange coincidence here? Obama will be so one sided on the terrorism issue that the terrorist will have a field day getting over on this guy. Obama is not going to take them seriously, either because he does’t “get it” or maybe he just won’t care.

As for the war lasting 100 years, that isn’t written in stone anywhere. Anyone with half a brain knows you can’t tell the enemy when you are going to end the war, because it doesn’t make sense. I would explain it, but I’ll let some excersise their minds.

Lucky for Debra, I guess, that there aren't any muslims running.

Comment by Marion Raia
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 am

Well, it seems easy enough to guess at Usama’s choice for President of the United States. It is the candidate who looks, sounds, and smells most like a Socialist. That could be any of the current candidates, Democrat or Republican. However, in my opinion Hillary is that candidate and Usama wouldn’t go that way because of the obvious. Osama would definitely be the “MAN”, being the most qualified Socialist in the government today. Seriously, are the people of this country really crazy enough to put Hillary or Barack into the White House and put a name plate on the desk of the oval office that says “COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES”? Are there really that many Socialist, Communist, or Nationalist Socialist supporters in this country? It just can’t be so! Why did our soldiers fight and die in WWII, Korea and Vietnam? To put one of the enemy in the White House?

I'm really not sure how or why socialist got to be such a horrible dirty word around here, but I am pretty sure that they've never been our enemy, and I don't think many of our soldiers died fighting against socialism. Anyway, since there aren't any socialist candidates running, everything should be ok regardless.

Comment by jason
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:35 am

Ron Paul 2008.

Ok, so it's probably not fair to call anyone stupid just for supporting a particular candidate, but I had to include this one just because at this point, these people just make me laugh. They didn't even bother to mention Paul in the article.

Comment by Military
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:31 am

To SIUE student:
Your an ass clown, plain and simple. Usama would vote for Obama because he wants to put us on the defense. WE in the MILITARY are voting for McCain because we trust him with our lives plain and simple. If it looks, smells, and tastes like a turd. Then guess what surrendercrats its Obama.

This one doesn't really need much comment, but it is amazing to me that people haven't yet puzzled out that your/you're thing. Also, I'm pretty sure assclown is one word.

Comment by sue
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:51 am

I support Hillary and everyone I know would not vote for Obama. I hope your polls are better than they have been lately. I would not be relying on your polls. Fox news had a gentlemen on their show yesterday evening talking about how Racist Obama is, and hides it very well. Did anyone see that and if so do you know his name?

Hillary or McCain

I guess his full name is Racist Obama, hence the capitalization. I think sue expects too much from Fox news as far as their polls go, but even so, I doubt they confined their poll to "everyone sue knows."

Comment by TerryD
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:06 am

Bloggers don’t you just love how the Obama sheep all repeat the little

clichés that he has emphasized in his speeches such as

“We don’t want the same old, same old politics.”

No, what they want is the newbie’s running their country.

Well, if Obama does win the presidency, he will need the equivalent

of what President George W Bush has, he will have his own Cheney

like person telling Obama what to do and say. Gee I wonder who that old geezer will be?

The newbie's what, TerryD? Also, I can't figure out if this one is supposed to be a poem or something.

Comment by TerryD
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:48 am

Barack Hussein Obama has a one trick horse;

I DID NOT VOTE FOR THE IRAQ WAR!

Of course, you did not vote for the Iraq war you were not in the senate now were you obliged

to vote for or against the vote.;which according to your past voting history you would have

voted present!

Stop beating a dead horse, you act as if you had insight or knew all of the circumstances that

President George W. Bush was talking about.

He showed the senators which included Ted Kennedy, highly confidential findings by United

States secret CIA’s and other agencies ie., British Intelligence to justify why they should check

into Iraq. And would you not believe your President, would you think he would be lying to you?

So, unless you were present in a highly critical stage in American history, you can not

pompously point out that I did not vote to go to war with Iraq.

This has to be a parody of some sort. Notice it seems to be the same guy from the last one. I guess he couldn't cram all his thoughts into one comment.

Comment by SAY NO TO ARABIANS.....
February 21st, 2008 at 9:20 pm

HUSSEIN OBAMA ITS NOT JUST A MUSLIM-BORN BUT AN ARAB-AMERICAN TOO, ‘not
an AFRICAN-AMERICAN’

This is what it is:

His father Obama(Sr)was ETHNICLY ARAB, all his relatives are Arabs with only
1 relative African Negro. Obama’s Sr’s great grandparent.

True Obamas Sr. was born in WEST OF KENYA were the negro tribes were CHRISTIANS,
Obama Sr. GOT his ARAB name to disinguish himself from the CHRISTIAN african negro
tribes. Obama’s Sr. PARENTS WERE ARABIANS.

Barack and all his relatives have arabian names. Barack Hussein Obama is a 50%
caucasian(white mother), 43.75% ARAB and 6.25% AFRICAN from his ‘great great
grandfather’s
side.

Barack HUSSEIN Obama is indeed an ARAB-AMERICAN. Its ALL CLEAR NOW!

Don’t believe me? , go to the colum of Mr cohen at the Washington post, you
will
read more there.

take your time and read the details here too:
http://kennethelamb.blogspot.com/2008/02/barak-obama-questions-about-ethnic.html

Please, not an ARAB-AMERICAN WITH ARABIAN NAME POR USA PRESIDENT!

Usually what amuses me the most about these CAPS used for emphasis people is not so much that they're either too stupid or lazy to figure out simple tags for italics or bold for emphasis, but instead, the seemingly random words they decide to capitalize. GOT is my favorite example from this particular comment.

Comment by proudparent
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Personally I can’t help but wonder where all of the money is coming from for Obama’s campaign???
al-Qaeda members, Iraqi insurgents, Hezbollah, Hamas, Ahmadinejad of Iran and Chavez of Venezuela.

I wonder that myself. If only people kept records of some kind about this sort of thing. Maybe we should make some laws about this.

Well, I think that's all the stupidity I can take for one night. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

* And by feature, I mean something that I'm doing right now and will probably forget completely about in the future. Frankly, at this point, it's a wonder I still even bother to post at all.

I don't care how many cameras there are

2008-02-22T09:32:00.001-05:00

Has anyone else noticed lately that every time there's an article or announcement for a new upcoming show, particularly if it's a comedy, they feel compelled to mention that it's single camera or multiple camera? Am I the only one who doesn't give a shit how many cameras there are? Just make an entertaining show, use however many cameras you need. Why did this start becoming important information for the viewer?

Depressing

2008-02-20T22:33:00.002-05:00

I just saw the trailer for Away from Her, and I can't think of a movie I want to see less. I can handle tragedies, but this just sounds so depressing - she has alzheimers and enters an institution while he has to cope with her illness and her absence. I think it might be that I can identify with it more than I can with a Miss Saigon-style tragedy. Alzheimers is scary because it really does happen to a lot of ordinary people. It looks like it's very well-written and acted, but I don't think I'll be seeing it anytime soon.

Two-thirds of Americans think nanotechnology is morally unacceptable -- wait, what?

2008-02-20T21:04:00.001-05:00

What the fuck? What could people possibly object to about nanotechnology? I really can't find any good reason to object to it at all, but I certainly don't see any moral dilemma. Surely this must be a flawed poll somehow. I don't have a lot of faith in the intelligence of people as a whole, but I can't really believe that people are stupid enough to have a moral objection to nanotechnology. I'm going to instead assume that they just have no idea what nanotechnology is and just figured that if someone was asking them if they had a problem with it that there must be something to object to.

Housekeeping

2008-02-20T06:50:00.003-05:00

I doubt there are many people perusing the archives here, but on the off chance someone does, you might notice that all my previous posts are now attributed to Michelline. Due to a convoluted history, my blogger/google account was associated with Michelline's yahoo and gmail accounts. Rather than ask her to give up her gmail address, I just gave her the blogger/google account and created a new one for myself.

McCain backs in

2008-02-15T14:39:00.003-05:00

Ezra has a very intersting post up with a comparison of the primary systems of the two parties. As you're probably aware, most of the Republican primaries are winner take all, whereas all the Democratic primaries (and caucuses) award delegates proportionally. The interesting result is that under a winner-take all system, Clinton and Obama would be in roughly the same position. However, under a proportional system, the Republican race would be even closer than the Democratic race. (Chart by Ezra, from Monkey Cage) Now, some people in comments have complained that this is too hypothetical, as candidates tailor their campaign strategy based on the system in place. True, but I really have a hard time believing McCain could have done much better regardless. He's been squeaking out wins over Romney and Huckabee as it is. The really interesting thing about this is that it really does illustrate that most of the Republican party doesn't want McCain. Of course, the same could be said of both Romney and Huckabee. Maybe it does help them, as the divisions in their party do seem to be much deeper than those on our side, and this gives McCain time to woo people, rather than going toe-to-toe with Romney for the next 3 or 4 months.

123 Book Meme

2008-02-14T12:30:00.001-05:00

I was tagged below by Chris with this meme, courtesy of Toast (and Maurinsky).

1. Grab the nearest book (at least 123 pages long).
2. Open to page 123.
3. Go down to the 5th sentence.
4. Type in the following 3 sentences.
5. Tag 5 people.

From The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman:

They were quite close now, and seeing what was coming, some of the villagers looked up and called to each other to look. The party from the road slowed to a halt, and Mary clambered stiffly down, knowing that she would ache later on.
"Thank you," she said to her...her what?

I'm not tagging anyone, feel free to join in if you like.

123 Book Meme

2008-02-14T10:51:00.003-05:00

Here's a nice quick meme, courtesy of Toast (and Maurinsky).

1. Grab the nearest book (at least 123 pages long).
2. Open to page 123.
3. Go down to the 5th sentence.
4. Type in the following 3 sentences.
5. Tag 5 people.

I'm at work, so there aren't a lot of books around. I have my Intro to
Java book, but it's one of those Kinko's things with sections instead of
page numbers. Rolling over to the file cabinet, there are quite a few
books, so I grabbed the first one to catch my eye - "PowerBuilder
Application Techniques Version 6". I know, it's exciting stuff.

"This example deletes one item and all the small pictures from a
ListView:
int li_index
li_index = This.SelectedIndex()
This.DeleteItem (li_index)
This.DeleteSmallPictures()

ListView report view requires more information than the large icon,
small icon, and list view. To enable report view in a ListView control
you must write a script that establishes columns with the AddColumn and
SetColumn functions, and then populate the columns using the SetItem
function."

Hmm, maybe I'll redo this one at home for a little contrast. Not that I
have anything against technical manuals, I enjoy programming, but this
is a bit dry for general consumption.

Ok, 5 people that Toast didn't tag - I'll tag John, Michelline, Mr F,
umm, Chemist and umm, well crap, I'm about out of readers. Nightshift
doesn't read this blog, but I'll tag him anyway.

Relationship Advice

2008-02-01T11:04:00.000-05:00

This CNN article (via parenting.com) has some pretty good advice that contradicts some standard relationship conventional wisdom. I think the points about sex and arguing in front of the kids are especially good. But there was one I just didn't get -

Myth: Spouses should be best friends as well as romantic partners

It sounds wonderful, doesn't it? After all, you and your husband know each other better than anyone else, so why wouldn't he be your best friend, too?

What we say: "Romantic relationships are different from friendships. One person can't be everything to you," says Andrea Smith, a mom of two in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

In other words, don't beat yourself up if it sometimes feels like you're closer to the mom next door than to your mate. "It would be great if your husband is someone you have fun with, respect, have great sex with, work well with as a parent, and is your soulmate. But almost no one gets all that in one relationship," says Wexler. And if you and your partner manage some of these things, "you've been blessed," he adds. The trick is to keep your bond going on some level. "Stay involved in your partner's life. When you separate in the morning, make sure you know at least one detail of each other's day -- and ask about it later," says Wexler.

It helps to be grateful for what you do have. "Rick and I have been together since high school -- and he's not my best friend," says Deborah Coakley, a mom of three in Ridgewood, New Jersey. "But after everything we've gone through, he's definitely my most constant friend."

I don't think there is a right way or a wrong way to create and maintain a relationship. The only hard and fast rule is that both people should be happy with whatever arrangement they have. That said, I don't really get the point here. Maybe they have a different definition of best friend than I do. This is the part that confuses me - "It would be great if your husband is someone you have fun with, respect, have great sex with, work well with as a parent, and is your soulmate. But almost no one gets all that in one relationship,". So what in this list do you not expect? How can you be married to someone you don't have fun with? Respect? Any relationship without respect is doomed. No great sex? That's fine, but only if neither partner cares. Unaddressed differences in sex drive is a killer as well. Working well together as parents? And what's the alternative? Soulmate is a bullshit romance novel idea, so I think we can ignore that.

I'm not saying that I think spouses/significant others should want to spend every minute together, or even that they agree on everything all the time. That's unrealistic. I like alone time, I like spending time with friends without Michelline, we have divergent interests and hobbies in some cases. But she is my best friend. What that means to me is that when I see something interesting or exciting, she's the first person I want to share it with. I can be completely unguarded with her without fear. She's the person I most enjoy spending time with. We've been together for 20 years and we never run out of things to talk about. Our interests overlap in most areas. The things that are most important to me are also important to her. I see us together 40 years from now and I don't feel limited or constrained by that, I feel excited about the prospect. And the sex is great ;)

I don't expect that all successful marriages will be like ours, I know that's not the case. But I don't understand a committed relationship where one partner feels emotionally closer to someone else, and that's what I get from the quote above.

My desktop

2008-02-01T09:45:00.000-05:00

Here's my desktop on my laptop, which is the only computer that's all mine besides my work pc. I have a few too many icons on the desktop here, but this is actually pretty good. At one time, I had practically the whole thing covered with crap. I usually put temporary install files, pictures etc... on the desktop. And then there are the shortcuts that put themselves there when you install a program. For menus, I always use the quick launch for a few essentials and create a tools folder to contain the rest of my shortcuts on the taskbar.

This was my wallpaper ever since preseason this year. While for months it was a source of excitement, now it's just a painful reminder. I'll change it soon, but I've been using the pc in the office mostly lately, so I haven't gotten around to it.

Meme from Eric through Toast.

Desktop Meme

2008-01-31T20:44:00.000-05:00

Via Toast, who has too much crap on his desktop.

Is Tom Cruise crazy?

2008-01-25T23:48:00.000-05:00

I imagine most people have seen this Tom Cruise Scientology video, or at least parts of it. People are tripping over themselves to talk about how nutty he is. And he's pretty nutty, to be sure. But put his nuttiness aside for a minute. His demeanor in the video isn't really that crazy. He looks intense, at times, and full of conviction. What makes most people see it as creepy and wacky is that he's feeling this way about Scientology, which is unscientific mumbo jumbo.

Now contrast this with this Reader's Digest interview with Denzel Washington. Now the interview is general, not specific to religion, but religion does permeate it. He's very spiritual, he reads the Bible all the time, puts God first etc... Now is Denzel any less nutty than Tom? Can you not picture him in a church video talking about his relationship with God with the same intensity Cruise does with Scientology?

The main difference I see is that Tom's cult doesn't have quite as many followers as Denzel's cult. Are Thetans and audits any nuttier than angels or transubstantiation?

Alligators

2008-01-25T22:48:00.000-05:00

My son doesn't believe in them.

The madness of the primaries

2008-01-25T21:22:00.000-05:00

The primaries make no sense. According to the rules, a candidate needs a majority of the available delegates to secure the nomination. But the press covers these races as if delegates don't matter at all. I was listening to NPR this week, and they were discussing the Republican race. They clearly considered McCain the leader and talked of Romney as if it would be an upset if he won. But Romney has far more pledged delegates, and is virtually tied with McCain in the next big state, Florida. Likewise, the media portrayed Nevada as a big win for Clinton, even though she and Obama received the same number of delegates. These are the same major media outlets that had just about buried her after Iowa, where she tied Obama for delegates.

So there seem to be two commodities at play here - the delegates, and much more importantly, it seems, that nebulous thing, momentum. Momentum certainly shouldn't be discounted. I think Giuliani is about to discover that a big lead before the primaries can evaporate pretty quickly if you lose it. But in a race like this, I think it's still too early to be talking of momentum as if that's all that matters.

There are many problems with our primary system - it's undemocratic (what's up with these ridiculous Democratic super delegates?), it doesn't accurately reflect our diverse population, but most importantly, I think, is that the major media outlets all but control the outcome. I believe this is where momentum becomes important. When the media anoints a front-runner or two coming out of New Hampshire, they sway opinions, just by the force and volume of their coverage. Supporters of other candidates get discouraged and either drop out or figure they'd better make their vote count and vote for one of the front-runners. Many pundits have already crowned Clinton and McCain. You'd never know that most of the delegates are still up for grabs if you only follow CNN or MSNBC, or even, sadly, NPR. And I guess the really sad thing is that they aren't in any practical sense. The media has succeeded in making John Edwards a marginal figure. Giuliani, who once led in national polls is running on fumes.

This all leads me to an article on CNN tonight. After all this coverage pushing one candidate over another without regard to delegate count, CNN drops this line - "The South Carolina primary is also the last time Democratic voters will weigh in with any significance before "Super Tuesday" February 5". The Florida primary is on January 29, and all the candidates are on the ballot. So do we suddenly not count because our delegates aren't going to be seated (supposedly)? When did delegates start to matter? I guess when we got in the way of the media's Super Tuesday coverage.

Cowboys Stadium

2008-01-18T18:14:00.000-05:00

Now that football season is over (what?, no there aren't any games on Sunday lalalalala), we're looking ahead not only to next season, but to the season after that. In 2009, The Cowboys will play in their new stadium in Arlington, TX. I knew they were building a new stadium, but I had no idea what kind of building this would be. If you haven't seen it, you really ought to click through and look at the pictures. I should have known Jerry Jones wouldn't build just any new stadium. It's just one more thing for Cowboys fans to love and one more thing for the haters to pile on.

The new stadium will seat over 80,000 (expandable to 100,000), and season tickets are on offer for the first time in a while. We put down our $200 to get on the list for season tickets in 2009. If we're able to snag some, we're going to split the seats with a friend of ours and sell the tickets for the games we can't get to.

There is a difference

2008-01-17T20:05:00.000-05:00

With the primaries heating up and the prospects of something new for the first time in 8 long years looming, I'm seeing comments here and there about how it really doesn't matter. That electing Hillary or even Obama will just be more of the last 15 years, which weren't so great. I know that the congressional Democrats are cowards, and I know that the likely Democratic nominee will be nearly as beholden to big-money interests as the Republican nominee. But we heard a lot of the same talk back in 2000. Nader was pushing his "there is no difference" message. Gore of 2000 didn't have anywhere near the cachet Gore of 2008 has, and he was perceived as an extension of Clintonian politics. In light of this, I think it's worth reminding ourselves what the differences really are. There are several big things we can reasonably assume would have been different under a Gore administration, and not just in the fantasy SNL sense.

No invasion of Iraq.

No tax cuts for the wealthy

No cuts in family planning funding for providers who do abortion counseling

No gutting of FEMA

No illegal wiretapping

An active agenda promoting carbon reduction

No illegal detention and torture

No suppression of science from federal agencies

That's what I can think of off the top of my head. There are certainly things we wouldn't happy with. But I'd give a lot to have this stuff.

Shit I'm tired of

2008-01-15T22:52:00.000-05:00

In a TV show or movie, when someone is standing or walking in the street and is suddenly hit by a car, or even better, a bus which comes seemingly out of nowhere. Most recently I've seen this on the new Terminator series...twice in two episodes. And just off the top of my head I remember pretty much the same thing from Final Destination, Lost, Daybreak, and The Black Donnelys. I guess the reason writers like this kind of thing is that it's so sudden and unexpected for the viewer. The flaw, however, is that the person who is hit by the bus should be able to see all that stuff that is off camera for the viewer.

This also extends to the person driving a car, with the camera looking at them from the passenger seat, when they're suddenly blindsided by a car slamming into the driver's side door which also seems to be quite popular these days.

Dallas postmortem

2008-01-14T21:27:00.000-05:00

Anytime you travel to see a sporting event, you run the risk of your team losing. We've been pretty lucky. We drove to Dallas in 1992 and saw the Cowboys beat the Redskins on their way to the Super Bowl. We saw them again in 1992 in Atlanta when they clinched the division and Deion threw a bench on the sidelines. And, although it was only a day trip, I count the 1993 FSU-Florida game in Gainesville, because that's a hard place to go and leave a loser. The forces of good won all of these games. But our luck ran out yesterday. Let's break the trip down.

The Game - Disappointing is too tame. It was crushing, all the more so because it was there for the taking. The Giants played well, but were certainly beatable. I'll sound like a bitter fan here, but the story of the game was Cowboy mistakes. The Giants made few to none, and the Cowboys made several costly ones. 11 penalties to the Giants' 3, including the drive-extending offsides on the first possession, followed shortly by 3 Cowboys missing an easy tackle on Toomer, who scored the first touchdown. Dropped passes, crucial penalties and poor execution in general plagued the Cowboys the whole game.

But even after all that, the defense made a couple of good stops and we had the ball with nearly 2 minutes and 50 yards to go. One thing this team has been really good at is responding under pressure. But they looked terrible on the last drive. No spikes, an awful draw to Barber with under a minute left and 1 timeout. And then the timeout was wasted when the sideline official blew the call and kept the clock running after Witten got out of bounds.

I'm not reading any post-game analysis, because who wants to relive that nightmare? But I would hope that all the talking heads have shut up about Romo and his December slump now (although I'm sure they haven't). Romo played well, made a couple of bad plays but also a few good ones and didn't turn the ball over (the last desperation play doesn't count), pretty much what Eli did on the other side (and you know he's getting sloppy BJ's from everyone now). I really think it showed that we didn't have a credible deep threat. Owens was healthy enough to play, but he was clearly not playing at his level from most of the year.

Soon enough, I'll turn to next year and realize we're still contenders and ought to be for a few years more. That's a nice change from the last 10 years, when any joy in the success we did have was tempered by the knowledge that it was mostly a fluke. But for now I'll have to content myself with the thought that the Giants will go to Lambeau and be exposed for the gutty but overachieving team that they are.

Texas Stadium - For a stadium built in the middle of nowhere, the parking is really shitty. No park-n-rides or stadium shuttles anywhere. All the parking is miles from the stadium and costs a fortune. And all the lots are designed so that there are massive, unmanned bottlenecks when people try to leave. Extremely poorly done. I really hope that they think about these things as they're building the new stadium. Jackonville's parking is far better, even more so considering that the stadium is built downtown. I can park a mile from the stadium for $5. Yesterday we parked at least 3 miles out and had to pay $25.

Texas Stadium was finished in 1971 and you can see the age, but also the innovation. There's no club like in more modern stadia, but there are skyboxes everywhere. You can see how it was state-of-the art 35 years ago. But it's certainly showing its age now. Rust and wear everywhere, and horribly designed bathrooms. The men's room had a line that probably had 100 people in it. All you need for the men is a 20' long trough. Why build a place with 6 urinals per bathroom? While Texas Stadium is a a mecca for Cowboys fans everywhere, it's definitely time for an upgrade.

The hometown fans - I hate to be critical of my fellow fans, but fuck, these hometown fans need to learn how to be a good home crowd. Mainly the noise level. When the other team has the ball, especially in a big game like this, you have to make noise - constant, deafening noise (we did our part). The acoustics are certainly ok. But while it was always far noisier on Giants' possessions, it never approached the frenzy it should have except for a few 3rd downs and goal-line plays. It was far, far noisier at the FSU-Alabama game we went to this year, and the stadium here isn't really designed to hold it in. For all that the Cowboy haters love to accuse us non-Texan Cowboys fans of being bandwagoners, I think the non-native fans are probably better than the home fans in our level of passion.

Overall - I don't regret going, and I'm sure we'll do it again, but I'm not going to lie and say it was all good. It was fun getting away. We love to travel and we love to fly, so that was fun. But the loss turned what would have been a spectacular trip into an ok trip. As I said before, that's the risk you take.

Hey, that's our island from the air! We live near the airport and have planes fly by the house all the time. But we've never been able to see our neighborhood from the air for various reasons. Not to mention it's a lot harder to identify landmarks from the air than you might think.

It's NOT hard to beat a team three times in one season.

2008-01-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

Anytime a team is playing a division rival that they swept during the season in the playoffs, as the Cowboys are this week, we always hear the tired argument that it's so hard to beat a team three times in one season as the hope for the team that's lost the first two. However, it's just not true. The team trying to sweep is 11-6, and 9-3 when they're at home. The worst part of this argument is that it's normally made by people on TV who have access to enough information to realize that it's not true.

Electoral compass

2008-01-11T10:23:00.000-05:00

I ran across this at Chosha's blog. There are a lot of these things floating around, but this one was quick and easy, and the questions covered a nice range of subjects. In addition to plotting you on the familiar social/economic graph, you can compare your answers to each question with each candidate's answers as derived from their stated positions, and link to the quotes and other evidence used to support it.

I was a little surprised that by their reckoning, Clinton is farther to the economic left than either Edwards or Obama. I was not surprised that I ended up as a socialist libertine.

Sweet Jags of Mine

2008-01-10T21:55:00.000-05:00

The sports talk show I listen to in the morning put together a cover of "Sweet Caroline" called "Sweet Jags of Mine". The production values are a little ummm... rough, but it's fun. Dan Hicken, who also wrote the lyrics, sings with full-throated abandon and his enthusiasm makes up for the fact that he really can't sing. The Tony in the background is Tony Boselli. The song is about the upcoming Jags-Pats game so it has a short shelf life. Other "hits" include "Grady" (about DL Grady Jackson), to the tune of "Lady", "Tebow", to the tune of "Hey Jude", "Reggi-lution" to the tune of "Revolution" (about WR Reggie Williams), and "Jack and By-ron", to "Jack and Diane" of course. Oh and "Honolulu" to the tune of "Kokomo", I think, lobbying for Fred Taylor to go to the Pro Bowl. He's got a knack for these.

I'm not a Jaguars fan, as anyone who reads this blog knows, but I am this weekend. It's the duty of all red-blooded NFL fans to oppose the evil empire up in Foxboro.

Make sure you turn the volume down before playing.

We're going to the playoffs!

2008-01-05T03:19:00.000-05:00

Yes, next Sunday, January 13, Michelline and I will be at Texas Stadium to watch the Cowboys trying to make their way to the NFC championship game. It was a spur of the moment thing. We found that Stubhub had a lot of tickets available for a reasonable price (and we didn't get screwed by the seller this time, the package is already shipping via FedEx). That along with a couple of $300 airline vouchers we picked up in February after volunteering to be bumped meant this would be a relatively inexpensive trip.

This will only be our fourth non-exhibition Cowboys game and our first ever visit to a playoff game. Not to mention our second game at Texas Stadium. The first game was the season opener in 1992 against Washington. The atmosphere was incredible. The Redskins were defending champs, but the Cowboys were coming off an 11-5 season and everyone knew they were on the way up. The big thing I remember is Kelvin Martin's TD on a punt return and Issiac Holt blocking a punt for a safety. And it was really loud. I'm very interested to see what the atmosphere is like for a playoff game.

I know that the Cowboys can win the game, whether they're playing the Redskins, Giants or Buccaneers, but I am a little concerned after their lackluster finish. Barely escaped in Detroit, laid an egg at home against the Eagles, and, although the game was meaningless, the first team played horribly against the Redskins in the first half last week. But the good thing is that we're going by ourselves. The only Dallas loss I witnessed in person came last year in Jacksonville in the Jags season opener. I figure that was because John was with us. Now we're getting back to our 1992 roots, and the luck should be with us.

Year end meme, Chris edition

2008-01-05T00:59:00.000-05:00

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before? Hmmm, not much. I did things in a pool that I've never done before, in a pool. Let's leave it at that.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Didn't make them last year, and won't this year. I do want to get back down to a 34 from my current 36, but I'm not calling it a resolution.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No

4. Did anyone close to you die? No.

5. What places did you visit? Orlando, Indianapolis, London, Several places in South Carolina, Atlanta, Miami, Cozumel and Grand Cayman.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? Less debt.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Apparently none.

8. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year? I was a fantastic husband, father, and employee.

9. What was your biggest failure? I can't think of any failures. There were things I didn't get done, but I'll get around to those.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Just regular stuff.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Michelline said the pool, but we actually started buying that in 2006, and I'm already slightly regretting it anyway. I would have to say either my HDDVR or our anniversary cruise.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Tony Romo. Man it's been a long 10 years waiting for a franchise QB.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Appalled and depressed is too strong, but since she won't read this, I'll have to say I continue to be disappointed in Tori's lack of effort in well, anything. She's a good kid with a good heart, but she won't apply herself to anything or take responsibility for anything. Michelline and I don't know what to do.

14. Where did most of your money go? In cash, to the mortgages. In debt, to the swimming pool.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? The Christmas season, starting with Thanksgiving. Not only did we have the two big holidays, we also had a 3-day trip to Orlando for Christmas shopping, a trip to Disney where we met the Furious clan, and a 5-night cruise.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007? I don't know if I'll really associate it with 2007 in particular, but I first heard the Spring Awakening soundtrack this year. It's really good.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) Happier or sadder? About the same, I guess.
b) thinner or fatter? Maybe a bit fatter.
c) richer or poorer? Richer in income, poorer in debt.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? More work around the house.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Eat.

20. How did you spend Christmas last year? Pretty much the same as this year, at home with Michelline's parents and sister. Then we went to my parents' house in the evening for dessert.
21. Did you fall in love in 2007? Nope, only happened once.

22. How many one-night stands? Too few...

23. What was your favorite TV program? Battlestar Galactica

24. What did you do for your birthday in 2007? I think I went to dinner with my parents, but I'm not sure.

25. What was the best book you read? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? I mentioned Spring Awakening already, and I'd add Pink Martini, whom I heard on an NPR interview. I've got 3 of their albums now.

27. What did you want and get? HDDVR

28. What did you want and not get? Not much

29. What was your favorite film of this year? The Simpsons Movie

30. Did you make some new friends this year? Yes.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Immeasurably? Not much. There are a few things that I would like to have done, but nothing that would have been so much more satisfying.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? Jeans and t-shirts. Same as it has been for several years.

33. What kept you sane? I'm always sane. Unless I'm always insane. Who knows?

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? After seeing Knocked Up, I got a little movie star crush on Katherine Heigel. Damn, she's hot.

35. What political issue stirred you the most? There's so much with this administration and the Democrats spinelessness. What moves me the most is the violation of due process and basic human rights.

36. Who did you miss? Nobody, really.

37. Who was the best new person you met? Weird question. Who was my favorite person that I didn't know before? I met some neat kids on Libby's tee-ball team.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007. Nothing I didn't already know.