CNN.com - Task force: Shuttle launch on track - Dec 16, 2004

Woo hoo!

CNN.com - Rumsfeld faces tough questions from troops - Dec 8, 2004

This is actually pretty disturbing to read, and I'm surprised it hasn't been given more exposure in the media. Read it.

Ok...now that you're done with that. What'd you think? Look at these exchanges:

"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?" Wilson asked.

Seems like a valid question.

A big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar who assembled to see and hear the secretary of defense.

One that the troops obviously care about.

Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.

Never a good sign.

"We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north," Wilson said after asking again.

Ok, second try.

Rumsfeld replied that, "You go to war with the Army you have," not the one you might want, and that any rate the Army was pushing manufacturers of vehicle armor to produce it as fast as humanly possible.

And, the defense chief added, armor is not always a savior in the kind of combat U.S. troops face in Iraq, where the insurgents' weapon of choice is the roadside bomb, or improvised explosive device.

"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up," Rumsfeld said.

"You go in with the army you have?" That's his answer? "You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up?" Well, I'm sure that's reassuring to our troops. Jesus.

He gives even more BS answers later on in the article. From working for a big company for years, I notice the tone of a large, uncaring 'leader' giving the underlings BS answers to shut them up. As if they care about the nobodies.

This Tribune article (reg required) is even *more* disturbing, since it contains this passage...

A few minutes later, a soldier from the Idaho National Guard's 116th Armor Cavalry Brigade asked Rumsfeld what he and the Army were doing "to address shortages and antiquated equipment" that will affect National Guard soldiers heading to Iraq.

Rumsfeld seemed taken aback by the question and a murmur began spreading through the ranks before he silenced it. "Now, settle down, settle down," he said. "Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning, and I'm gathering my thoughts here."

I mean, can you believe this? These guys are out there getting blown to Hell and this is the crap he spews? Man, oh man.

I just hope none of these soldiers gets in trouble for asking these questions. I have to say it'll probably happen to some small extent. :(

Hitting to all fields...

• Been getting no sleep the past few days, so I'm tired as hell.


• Apparently, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is busy giving our troops BS answers on their Iraq Wars concerns. (more on this later)


• At this point, until my Mom comes in February to visit, I am done with going to Disney.


• We got our rental car for December. For the whole period it would have been $450. Chop off 2 days and it's $150. Somewhere, Surak is crying. (well, not *crying*)


• Today is the first day of Hanukkah. If you're Jewish, Happy Hanukkah to you!


• Christmas shopping is done but for 1 or 2 small items.


• I want this so badly it is not funny.


• Cubs signed Nomar and Todd Walker for next year, which is good. Now, only one big task remains. (dump Sammy...dump Sammy...dump Sammy...)

HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW

If there was some easy way to use as a ringtone the fake laugh Wilbon uses to laugh at Tony's purposely lame jokes I'd do it.

BUMP BUMP

I don't watch Law & Order. It seemed to be the only thing on yesterday while we were working on the scan configs in Snehal's room. There were at least 3 or 4 shows in a row where I heard that BUMP BUMP sound, that's all I know. Court watches whichever the new ones are...I always tease her about the BUMP BUMP sound whenever I'm walking past, whenever there's a break in the action I do the BUMP BUMP sound.

I's funnier when it's live. Seriously.

the futon critic - the web's best primetime television resource

Mr. Tony is a happy satchmo today.

Happy (belated) Veterans Day

Sorry for the short delay...was visiting with the in-laws over the past few days. Yes, much Disney'ing was had, for good or ill.

Taken from a comment by a poster on wilwheaton.net:

Profile of someone who supports Bush:

I have a BA, a BS, and an MS.
I've scored in the 99th percentile in every standardized test I've evere taken (SAT, etc...).
I've attended both private and public universities.
I've traveled to about half the states in the USA.
I've studied 4 foreign languages, one for 6 years, the others just for a year or less each.
I've traveled to Europe (Germany, Amsterdam, France).
I've traveled to Asia (S. Korea).

I'm not stupid, I'm not ignorant, I'm not a naive.

I'm a lapsed Episcopalian who is hardly a fanatic.

I have gay friends and would like to seem them able to get legal marriages.

I don't support abortion, but I don't support making it illegal.

So why did I vote for Bush? I know plenty of others like me. You can't write us all off as morons or fools. We're not. We're not ultraconservative wackos, either.



Interesting. I particularly don't understand the notion of people being sheep for following Bush. I really don't get this mentality. This is how democracy is supposed to work. There isn't even the 'popular vote' thing to hide behind this time. The majority of the voters voted for Bush and he'll be President again. I don't understand this whole idea of 'we know better than everyone else' or 'everyone else in America is dumb' that seems to be going around the net today...and I didn't even vote for Bush.

My response to anybody saying they want to flee to Canada would be of the "don't let the door hit ya..." variety. It's basically the old "I didn't get my way and I'm going off to sulk" line.

No chads here in Florida. Our ballot was a series of broken horizontal arrows that you had to connect to vote for your candidate or issue. Pretty simple.

I'm sure it stupified some people though. The fact is, if someone can get confused by the automated registers at Home Depot, which are the most IDIOT-PROOF THINGS IN THE WORLD than people can get confusd by anything. By the way, The Home Depot registers narrowly beat out Universal's thumbscan locker system for TOTAL AND COMPLETE EASE OF USE. By which I mean, if you cannot figure these mechanisms out you are a moron.

I did see on CNN some Florida (of course) voters complaining about the accuracy of touchscreen voting systems during early voting. Things like they wanted to vote for Bush but it kept clicking Kerry and vice versa. Of course, they had an election technician there onsite who tested all of the machines and said that they all tested out fine and the people must be leaning their hands on the touchscreens and messing up the process. (imagine that)

I weep for the present.

CNN.com - Election Night�Blog - Nov 2, 2004: "Let's hope so. There's so much at stake. We don't know who's going to win -- although I strongly believe a high turnout benefits the challenger. (As one Kerry aide told me today, 'People don't stand in line for 45 minutes to vote for more of the same.')"

I have to agree. It's a thought I had earlier today.

CNN.com - Shuttle Enterprise takes center stage, at last - Nov 1, 2004

It's the Enterprise, baby! The real deal. Flown by Florida's own John Young, of John Young Parkway.

Yeah...Florida still sucks. :P


(FYI, this shuttle was named 'Enterprise' due to large write-in requests from Star Trek fans. Really.)

sportsguy.net

For Cubs fans, you know what this feels like? I just figured it out a moment ago. It's like having this friend who suffered with you through thick and thin, sharing in your deepest pain and your greatest hopes. Finally, one day, your friend finally gets what you've both been hoping for. And you're really, really happy for them, but you can't deny that you're also jealous. And you're a bit sad, and a bit scared, because you know that from now on, you're going at it alone.

(Also, you have an annoying little brother with the same problem, but nobody gives a crap about him and neither do you.)
-- Adam Rettberg, Chicago

Heh heh heh.

ESPN.com - MLB/FALLCLASSIC - Caple: Curse finally 86'd: "'I put the Polish death grip on it,' he said. 'When we beat the Yankees I gave the ball to Derek but this one I'm keeping. This one is staying with me.'"

Heh heh...Polish Death Grip. I admit I held my breath while Foulke made that play.

Great job fellas!

Jesus thinks you're a square. You always do the
right thing if you can and you've lived a life
that follows the path of the living Christ. Pat
yourself on the back, Jesus thinks you're
boring.


What does Jesus think of you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Square? I prefer 'dependable'.

Wow, a recording of Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman just called me to remind me to vote early...as long as I voted Democratic. What a sad, sad joke.

USATODAY.com - Did 'Saturday Night Live' expose Ashlee Simpson's extra help?

"oops"

CNN.com - Candidates and campaign ads�target swing states - Oct 24, 2004

This is out of control here. *EVERY* commercial is a political one. Thank the Maker for Tivo.

sportsguy.net

Name = Matt Parker
City = Brooklyn, NY
Do you think Francona is on the Yankees Payroll? How do you bring in Pedro in the 7th? Maybe he's one of those historical reenactment buffs and wanted to see if he could duplicate Grady's Last Stand. What was the thought process here?

heh heh heh

What a great time to be a baseball fan. I love it.

Wow, Sportguy's on the Dan Patrick Show!

Sportsguy's mailbag, hilarious as always...

name = Scott B.
city = Toronto, Ontario
comment = There are 750 great things happening in the Nation right now. One of the best, though, has got to be the "Red Sox Fan" face on the Yankee fans. They're the ones watching through their fingers now, wondering what horrible thing will happen next. I didn't even sweat the usually cringe-inducing "touched by God" post game comments by Schilling last night. He could have thanked his long term life partners Rex and Bronco and it wouldn't have bothered me.

And yes...the Schilling G*d comments were cringe-worthy, but I give the man some slack.

MLB.com shop

d'oh! Looks like MLB counted its chickens. I can't say as I blame them...were they supposed to expect the BIGGEST CHOKE JOB IN BASEBALL HISTORY? :D

Boy, back to back GREAT games. I love baseball! Red Sox got out to an early lead that they never gave up...After Damon was thrown out at home off a great relay by Jeter, Ortiz hit one out to give the Sox a 2-0 lead. Later, Damon smacked a grand slam just over the wall in right. And STILL later, Damon hit a towering 2-run shot to right. The Bosox never looked back.

This game, and yesterday's Schilling Game, will of course be one of those 'where were you when it happened' games...thankfully eclipsing the Bartman Game as the last 'where were you when it happened' game I actually watched. Congrats Boston!


by the way...anybody see Poor Little A-Rod glaring at the celebrating Red Sox from the Yankee dugout after the game. Priceless!

ESPN.com - MLB - Game Update

I watched this one start to finish. Great game! Ex-Cubs all around...Lieber, Bill Mueller, Felix Heredia, and Mark Bellhorn, along with an ex-White Sox Keith Foulke.

Sights seen...

• Umps blowing a call on a homer that hit a spectator in the left field seats and came back onto the field. They all met up and reversed the call giving the Red Sox a 4-0 lead.


• Schiling throwing a GREAT game on a semi-bum ankle. You could even see the blood stains on his sock.


• A-Rod slapping at a tag like a little girl which led to another reversed call saving the Red Sox from a big Yankee Inning, calling A-Rod out at first for interference and sending Jeter back to first after he'd scored during the play and the later confusion.


• These *correct* calls leading the New York scumbags to throw debris onto the field...delaying the game and getting cops in full riot gear called on to stand at the lines.


• I'd heard Dan Patrick (or was it Showkiller) say the over/under on 'Jeter reaction shots' shown by Fox tonight would be 100. I didn't get the joke because I hadn't watched any previous games in the series. Now I do...and I'll take the 'over'.
  

Nice to see the umps reverse two calls for the better. Great game!

CNN.com - Army: GIs refused mission because of safety concerns - Oct 17, 2004

Not that I disagree with the soldiers, but a chain of command must be maintained. This could be a VERY dangerous precedent.

Of course, I've never served so I don't really have a right to comment in any case.

sportsguy.net

Here's the point: This would be the perfect game for Fox to break the Black Sheep Albert out. Even Bears and Redkins fans don't want to watch this game. So why not have some fun with it? And if he doesn't exist, just throw a bad wig on Frank Caliendo and have him pretend to be the Black Sheep Albert Cousin for four quarters. I really think this would work. When you have Dr. Jonathan Quinn and Mark Brunell matching Johnny Damon throws for 60 minutes, you need something to liven things up.

Only funny when you don't consider the fact that thanks to me living in Dopesville I have to PAY REAL MONEY to see the Bears play. Last year it was a total waste due to Lame Duck Jauron. I vowed to not re-up the DirecTV Sunday Ticket package if Jauron was brought back and since he was fired I went ahead and got another year...only to have Mike Brown and Rex Grossman be lost for the season 3 games in and have Urlacher injured too. The lesson, as always? Don't move to Florida.

ESPN.com - MLB - Game Update

What if you went to a baseball game and a football game broke out?

Sportsguy is having a seizure as we speak.

Breaking News!

Got back from Publix a short time ago, and what did I find there? Pepper Jack Doritos!

Could this be a re-launch of my old favorite (and since discontinued) Jumpin' Jack Doritos? Details to follow.

(bag says 'limited time only')

Hitting to all fields...

• Amusing thing heard: yesterday on the Dan Patrick Show there was some short discussion of politics due to the recent debates. Nothing of particular good or ill was said by Dan or anybody for or against any candidate. Of course that didn't stop dopes from emailing the show blasting them for talking politics. Someone wrote something like "Stick to what your job is, sports!" and Dan replied something like "Well, if that's your response than I guess anybody who listens to this show that works as a mechanic, janitor, etc shouldn't talk sports because it's not their job." Dibbs called people sending nasty emails jablonies or something--and he was right.


• Yes, yesterday's Apprentice task could NOT have been more skewed against the men than if it were a beauty contest where the contestants actually had to WEAR the dresses they designed. Did the men have ANY chance whatsoever to defeat the women at creating a new line of WOMEN'S fashions? Come on now. It's SO skewed towards women that I can't think of a comparable task that could be skewed towards the men to such a degree. It's impossible! Women are more into guy-type subjects than men are into the reverse. It's like the "Battle of the Sexes" boardgame. The 'female' questions for the men are "What are the mother sauces?" and the 'male' questions for the females are "How many innings are in a baseball game?". I mean come on now.


• For some reason the reward during yesterday's Survivor was beer and pringles. And when they come upon the beer and Pringles, what type of Pringles was missing? RANCH. The best damn kind. Of course they had EVERY other type BUT Ranch. Just like some damn stores down here. By the way, I've reached the level of Surivor Enjoyment where I just use the remote to blow past both the reward and immunity challenges, as well as any conversations where people are just bitzing and moaning. Thank you Tivo.
  

Damn...what the hell did Ranch Pringles ever do to anybody?!?! Yes, we're into Michelle territory here.

sportsguy.net

9:20 -- Turned to the debate just in time to hear this beauty from John Kerry: "Being lectured by the President on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order in this country." And that's quickly followed by the George W. Bush Face -- the one where he half-smiles and half looks like someone just asked him for the square root of 564,092.

(Good God. Can we have more options? I feel like Dave Wannstedt trying to decide between Feeley and Fiedler. I might just have to vote for Larry Bird again.)

Hilarious. I'm writing in 'Darkwing Duck' this year.

The cat is on patrol...: 10/01/2003 - 10/31/2003

One year ago today...Bartman.

FARK.com: (1167203) "As expected, both campaigns declared their candidate the clear victor."

"What would he have to say to get you to say, 'Hey, this Bush guy ain't so bad.'

I don't think its what he says so much as what he needs to do. He clearly needs to walk on water. After all, Kerry is going to make people rise up and walk from their wheelchairs."


Farkers are hilarious.

There's another debate tonight, but here's something that's been sticking in my head since the last debate. A questioner challenged Kerry to talk straight to the camera and say he wouldn't raise taxes on households making over $200,000/year, and Kerry did so. Later on he talked about raised the level of health care for everyone in this country dramatically. I'm wondering how he's going to do this without raising taxes?

One thing from tonight's debate...in talking about the outsourcing of jobs overseas, Bush stressed further education as the solution. That is, further funding for Pell grants and other assistance to allow people to go to community college if their jobs are lost. I'm thinking...does he consider *white collar* job loss? I don't know many people at work that would want to go back to school if their job was outsourced...especially those that have multiple degrees already or have gone to graduate school. Kerry's answer was that he couldn't promise outsourcing wouldn't happen (no one could) but he'd try to level the playing field by eliminating the tax breaks that are given to US companies that can defer their taxes by off-shoring workers. I liked that answer.

The Onion | Irrelevant Pop Stars Unite Against Bush

I find it pretty how that some people think they're qualified to give political advice...and I find it *scary* that some people will listen.

I do give kudos to those celebs that just say "vote"...but isn't that just embracing the great mass of uninformed people out there?

so confusing.

CNN.com - Christopher Reeve dies at 52 - Oct 11, 2004



RIP

Taken from: The Superficial : If you're not sure who to vote for in the upcoming election, you should probably just go with George W. Bush. This isn't to say that he's the better candidate or anything, it's just that voting against whoever Kirsten Dunst is voting for just seems like a good idea. Some people might have a problem with this logic, but that's because they don't understand that Kirsten Dunst is living evil.

I figure in almost every situation it's a good idea to NOT do what Kirsten Dunst would do. I still remember something hilarious from the MTV movie awards a few years back...KD had just won for 'best kiss' in Spider-man for that upside down kiss with Tobey Maguire, and she made mention of another nominee: The kiss in the rain from Daredevil and accused them of stealing it from Spider-man in not so many words. Cut to Jennifer Garner in the audience looking at KD like she's the biggest idiot in the world. Funny as hell.

This may also touch on another one of my life rules...that there's a point where someone can get so rich and famous that they're totally out of touch with my view of reality. Cut to Britney's tracksuit outfits for the people standing up to her wedding.

I think houses are a lot like hotdogs. You don't want to see how either is made. These roofing guys are pulling up stuff like the siding and all that during the day so I can see what's underneath. It's weird to see plain old plywood and thin looking beams holding a house together. Disconcerting, actually.

I'm sure there are other ways houses are like hotdogs. Maybe some other time. :)

A three hour tour...

Ok...cruise review time. We drove down to Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday, August 15th. This was just 2 days after hurricane Charley. We were lucky to find a gas station on the way that was still open and had power. Our two local gas stations were closed. On the way down we passed a lot of destruction in the form of downed trees and smashed and bent signs and stuff. We got in Sunday night and met Aimee and Chris at the Amerisuites. We had dinner at Outback (where Chris lost his hat...again) and then turned in for the night.

The Amerisuites had a shuttle to take people to the port. We made sure we had all our papers straight and got into the terminal where they process people to go onto the ship. We had tagged our bags and left them with these porter guys. I wasn't too crazy about leaving ours bags with them but we did it anyway. We got aboard the ship but we still had some time until we could get into ours rooms...officially. We found our rooms and because ours was just to the side of the stair landing area I just opened the door into the hallway and we dumped our bags in our rooms. Yeah, maybe we weren't supposed to be into our rooms yet but by this time I figure we were in international waters and there were no laws! :P

All-in-all, I enjoyed the cruise. Our room was nice with its balcony and all. The room was of a good size too I thought. The nightly dinners were nice even though they were dress-casual at the minimum. I don't really remember having lunch because we were always so busy but we did have breakfast a few times. We got these cards so we didn't have to pay for pop onboard but as with most places they made it easier for you to get alcoholic drinks (which of course you have to pay for) than pop. Even at lunch they didn't have soda fountains of the type that's at *every* fast food place nowadays...you had to ask a waiter for a soda. It was a pain.

We went to the Keys, Cozumel, and Belize. They Keys were nice. Chris and I went on a PT boat ride which was pretty cool. They're a SEAL training base down there they we went past on the boat. Saw some pretty big Coast Guard vessels too. I enjoyed it. I did get pretty burned though because it was so sunny. I wore my hat backwards and ended up with a tan line across my forehead. I was pissed about it but it's my own fault for being a dumbass. Turned out it didn't really matter anyways though...

In Cozumel we went on a jeep excursion where we got our own Jeep (a Tracker) and drive to a beach and also saw some ruins. The 'road' was more like a path with HUGE boulders half-way embedded in it. It was so bumpy they should come up with another word to describe it because 'bumpy' just ain't enough. We went to a beach where we had some Mexican food and laid out on blankets under umbrellas. I have to say that I never thought in my life that I'd be laying on a Mexican beach eating quesadillas. First time for everything I guess.

In Cozumel I got ROASTED. Very badly burned. For some idiot reason I didn't use sunblock and I didn't wear a hat in hopes that my tan-line forehead would get washed out by the sun. Yeah...well...that was a pretty STUPID idea. My whole face got roasted...everybody's did. I was peeling for days. It was weird because I don't really burn at all--at least up here in the US. We all got burned, even Chris who went golfing. I figured the open-topped jeep was the reason we got so burned but I guess I was wrong.

In Belize Aimee and Chris had planned to do some 'swim with the sharks' thing (screw that) but because they got so burned they came with us on our tour. It was this bus tour that compared/contrasted Belize City with the ancient Mayan city of Altan Ha. I really only wanted to go to see the ruins. They were pretty amazing. At first it was only a few small structures but as we went on there were much larger buildings. It was neat. We even climbed to the top of one of them. Belize City (and the whole country of Belize) was an interesting place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. The whole country is badly striken with poverty. It seemed safe though, and I'm the type of guy who assumes that in any foreign country there's a pretty strong chance of trucks full of guys with AK-47's coming out of nowhere and taking over. Naive, I know.

All in all, it was a good trip. I gambled some on the ship and pretty came out even after winning $150 mid-way through. We saw some shows and a comedian and that was fun. If I had to go again I wouldn't go where it's hot, that's for sure.

My thoughts on the Presidential Debates of last week...

I'm not sure who I'm voting for. I don't really support either candidate in any way. I have to say I came away with it thinking that Bush stayed constant and that Kerry dipped down a bit in my estimation.Kerry seems to be playing the "I wouldn't have..." card. That's fine to do, but in hindsight it's a lot easier to say he would have done this or that. He disagreed with how the President went into Iraq...but who's to say he wouldn't have done the same thing if he'd be presented with the same information?

Bush's painting of Kerry as not being a guy the troops can stand behind since Kerry's comment of "wrong war, wrong place..." was somewhat effective the first time. Less effective the next 12 times I heard it. Also, Bush stammered pretty often and looked blankly at the camera once or twice. That's to be expected from him when he's speaking from anything other that prepared remarks though.

One thing each seemed to give a concrete answer on was N. Korea. Bush wants to proceed with multi-sided talks involving China, whereas Kerry wants to talk one-on-one with N. Korea. General Wesley Clark pretty much said China's laughing at the Bush choice since now China thinks we need them to 'help' us. I don't know the reality of the situation so I don't know which stand would be better.

Another Bush point was asking Kerry how he thinks other countries are going to join us in Iraq since it's pretty much a quagmire. That'd be a fine point as well if it didn't seem to be the Bush position to stay the course in that terrible situation. That Kerry seems to want the burden shared (in lives and dollars) by other countries--I'm not too sure how you're going to sell other countries on Iraq using that argument.

I really only give Bush an edge because he's the sitting President and has a definitive record, whereas Kerry was taking the hindsight approach that just personally struck me as pretty easy to do.My thoughts, all IMHO. Vice Presidential Debate thoughts coming later...

Yeap...there's guys up on the roof pounding away right now. Great.

Looking back at my bloggings it seems I forgot to talk about the cruise between all the hurricanes we've had. I'll fit it in here somewhere.

Hurricane Jeanne...we hardly knew ye. Jeanne blasted through here last weekend and took a piece of our soffet with it. Because of that (and the roof damage we've had through Charley, Frances, and Ivan) we had a lot of water come in to the 'top' of our house and seep through the ceiling. It even seeped into the walls and down into the carpet. Water dripped down onto the carpet around 2am Saturday (or was it Sunday?) morning until we went up and caught it and after that it filled a 5-gallon bucket about 3/4 of the way until it finally stopped. The water in the bucket looked pretty yellow. I'll let your imaginations handle this one. So glad to live in Florida.

We had an insurance adjustor over on that Monday for our claim on Frances. This was literally a day or two after Jeanne hit. The floor and ceiling were still damp. And there was a...smell. A dank smell from the rain water. What fun. Of course, the adjustor told me that thanks to some kind of insurance snafu (since resolved) our homeowner's insurance wouldn't pay for new carpeting, only for the painting of the ceiling. Later we got a check for $150 some dollars which was the overage of the estimation for ceiling painting with our $500 deductible. After calling our actual agent it looks like our new carpet will be covered and that's all going to be worked out. Fun stuff. Our soffet is still missing a section and a call to the condo association (or whatever it is) led them to cover our *neighbor's* soffet, useless. The dopes. Now there are what I'm sure are unlicensed roofing guys putting a new roof on each condo building. Ours should be some time this next week I think.

Pounding nails into the roof 6 feet over my head. That shouldn't be too distracting during the day.

Barry Bonds hits number 700...

Informed that others had claimed the ball had been ripped from their grasps, Williams replied, "I don't care. There's nothing I can do."

"If these guys want to get a lawyer, fine," he said. "Bring it on. I got the ball fair and square."

Asked what he planned to do with the ball, he replied, "Are you kidding? I'm going to sell it. It's the only reason I came to the game."

Just plain sad.

I really want to go out onto the roof and fix the dish, which was knocked out of alignment during the hurricane.

Unfortunately, common sense keeps me from going out on the roof when I'm the only one here.

I must be getting old.

Sorry Charley

It hit us hard. Very hard. It was about 10x worse than I thought it'd be. The eye went right through our neck of the woods...I heard a report it was at the airport which is only 10 minutes away from us. We've been without power since around 7pm on Friday.

Before we lost power I cleared a spot in our crawlspace that is attached to our laundry room. It's a totally interior space...no exterior-facing walls. We rode it out there. From later reports we learned it was directly over us for about 35 minutes...somewhere around a quarter after 9pm it hit us. It was terrible. The wind was blowing harder than I'd ever seen and it sounded like it was on the other side of our laundry room door. It's my opinion anyone walking outside at that time would have been blown away by the high winds. I don't know anything about the mph of the winds or anything...news has been sporadic since we only have a battery powered radio at home.

The next morning there was debris *everywhere*. Especially roof shingles. Some roofs in our neighborhood were taken down to the plywood. Lots of visible plywood around us now. Our house sustained only minor damage. Our downspout was ripped off and something hit my car and left a mark on its hood. We had some water seep in near the front door but that was it. Spent Saturday clearing debris from around our house.

There was a ton of damage to our surrounding area. Most of the 'florida rooms' (enclosed screened porches) have been smashed. I've seen some things I'd previously only seen on TV...signs bent at 45 degree angles, lighted signs for Burger King and Publix smashed...our local streetlight posts were bent in such a way where one direction's arm was facing the total other direction...it had been bent 90 degrees. And this is a minute walk from our house.

We threw out everything in our fridge due to the power being out for 2 1/2 days so far. I only hope the Omaha Steaks my Uncle gave us for our anniversary are not spoiled by the time the power (and thereby AC) comes back on.

We left around noon today to come down to Ft. Lauderdale. We're leaving on a cruise tomorrow so I'm down here at an Amerisuites. It's nice to be somewhere with air conditioning and working lights. Cellphone use has been spotty/unusable due to the number of cell towers destroyed during the storm.

I was going to say that Roger Clemens should thank me for not choosing to play my MVP Baseball 2004 Cubs vs. Astros game with the Astros wearing their 80's 'rainbow' white uniforms because he looks like a fatty out there in them, but I just scored six runs (and still going) in the bottom of the 1st and I knocked him out of the game.

So now he wouldn't really care anyway.

Wow, been a while since I've updated.

Had a nice time in IL. It was nice to see everyone, as always. New suit worked out well. Had brunch with my family on Sunday and then Barnaby's for dinner, which, as always, was awesome.

The furniture got delivered the Thursday after we got back. Let me just say it's 900 times better than what was there.

We head to IL tonight. Court's cousin is getting married tomorrow. This is why I had to get a new suit.

Anyways, it'll be nice to be home for a while. We'll be by Court's parents on Friday (wedding) on Saturday (her Uncle's 50th BD) and then by my family on Sunday. We fly out late tonight.

Once we get back the new furniture will arrive. The house has been in disarray since we started the whole tile thing so things can finally get put back together once the new couch, rugs, and tables get delivered. I'm looking forward to seeing everything together since I really like how the tile and baseboards look. We did get a new rug for the bottom of our stairs (goes with the other new rugs) and a new welcome mat. Really starting to look like an actual HOME now.

The other day Sen. John Kerry was down here at Cape Canaveral doing a 'Town Hall' type meeting. They played some of his remarks on the news and I had to laugh when I heard this statement: "Within hours of being sworn in as President of the United States I'm going to introduce legislation to provide healthcare for everyone...and I'm going to do it by cutting taxes!"

Now, I'll be the first guy cheering when (if) this happens...but it seems like a pretty impossible thing to do.

Ah, ignorance...thou shalt live forever.

"Ultimately, we will win this fight," said Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas. "Marriage is the union of a man and a woman."

Wait...is it 1950? I swear. To me, this is as silly as saying we should have an ammendment saying that people of different races can't get married. What a joke.

This is definitely an election 2004 issue with me...and I'm not even gay. I only kind of sideways even know someone who is gay. I really can't believe this is even an issue. It's so silly.

Catch the wind, see us spin,

Sail away, leave today,

Way up high in the sky.

Why is it that in some blogs people start their entries with bits of song lyrics or something? Are they just trying to be odd? Or cool? Is that cool? To me it just seems weird. I know the internet has given millions of armchair (and blogchair) philosophers their own particular soapbox to stand on and pontificate about just about anything...it's all good I guess. I do read some blogs where the person rattles on about all sorts of cryptic things and their writings look like something collected out of Son of Sam's circular file. There's also the people that post their IM chat logs and it pretty much looks like a conversation with Homsar with a few LOLs and OMGs and WTFs thrown in.

I guess blogging is as blogging does.

The tiling project is going very well. All the downstairs is tiled and grouted. I think it looks sharp. Of course, *anything* would beat the total garbage that was down there. Anything. All this, and we're losing the futon too! Oh happy day!

They're doing the baseboards now. In the beginning, Steve asked me if I wanted him to replace the baseboards. I asked him how much it'd be and after learning it'd only be like $100 or something I said fine. The ones that were there had been pretty junkily caulked anyways. They looked like crap. Besides, I knew it'd be easier for him and Tyler to pulled up the old ones if they weren't worried about how they'd look afterwards. It's always easier to destroy something when you're doing that kind of stuff.

The original baseboard paint he got didn't match the rest of the baseboards in the house, and he asked me about it. Mostly I just tell him "whatever is easiest for you guys" and all that, but I don't think he wanted to use the paint he'd gotten...he's very serious about this turning out great. He got a different paint and they look fantab. Very sharp.

Yes, it's bothering me a little that while I'm working up here they're downstairs doing something *for* me. I guess it's just a guy thing. Not that I have ANY talent whatsoever at tile stuff. About the one thing he did that I'd be able to do was put in a new toilet downstairs. I did go and buy the new toilet though...that counts for something, doesn't it?? We ended up getting a new toilet downstairs because Court said the old one was stained. It was fine by my eyes, but whatever. Thing about projects like this is you don't know when to quit...getting something new just makes all your old stuff look like crap next to it. I'm already committed to a new kitchen sink once I get around to putting it in...the one we have in there look like crud.

See? Things just add on and add on. NO NEW CABINETS THOUGH!!!!!!!

This past weekend I went suit-shopping. Yep...clothes shopping, which I hate to do, coupled with suit-wearing, which I hate to do. Bang-up fun for me. Turns out Pennys was having a "buy coat, gets pants free" deal, and it's a good deal if you forget that the coats are like $200 each. I did get two new suits...my first since High School graduation. I do have a black sportcoat and black pants, but they don't match *exactly* so that really doesn't count. I got a tan-ish suit and a gray one, 2 shirts that go with either suit, and 3 ties. Court had been bugging me about this for a while since I need a suit for the cruise and for her cousin's wedding up in IL in a few weeks. I didn't want to go but with the sale it's good we did I guess. The tan one I got since I hate being hot in dark colors, and the gray one is the (G*d forbid) 'someone died' suit. I guess they're not so
bad. I had to laugh at Court dinging me on my color choices for the shirts and ties and the sales guy backing me up.

I'd told Court in the past that getting a nice suit was something I'd been planning to wait for until I was older and had some extra money. Lord...is that time now?

Superman stands alone. Superman did not become Superman, Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he is Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red S is the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears, the glasses the business suit, that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent? He's weak, unsure of himself... he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race, sort of like Beatrix Kiddo and Mrs. Tommy Plumpton.

Cla-ssic.

The least bang for the buck.

8. Chipper Jones, Braves ($15,333,333)
Not long ago we were writing about how Derek Jeter was going through one of the worst superstar slumps of all time; now it's possible we were looking in the wrong direction. Jones, who's managed to play 61 games despite a DL stint and hamstring injury, is hitting .214, 91 points below his lifetime .305 average. His power numbers are also far below par. The switch-hitter, who sent for his father in June to help with his lefty swing, has also been ineffective from the right side of the plate.

Uh oh Shell...

CNN.com - Bush pushes same-sex marriage ban - Jul 10, 2004

Does the guy have NO SENSE? I mean really...is THIS what he should be focusing on? Something he should be speaking out on? Everything going on with Iraq and all, and let's bring THIS up?

Boy, I think he's totally lost perspective. He's not getting my vote.

From Blogthings.com:

In 1977 (the year you were born)
Jimmy Carter becomes president of the US

Most of the 10,000 Vietnam War draft evaders are pardoned by President Carter

Singer Anita Bryant starts her "Save Our Children" crusade against gay rights

Elvis Presley dies in his Graceland bathroom

Congress creates a Department of Energy

Anwar Sadat flies to Jerusalem in a dramatic gesture of willingness to discuss peace

Orlando Bloom, Shakira, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Liv Tyler, and Ludacris are born

New York Yankees win the World Series

Oakland Raiders win Superbowl XI

Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup

Swedish music group ABBA passes The Beatles as having most records sold

Star Wars is the top grossing film

The Shining by Stephen King is published

"You Light Up My Life" by Debby Boone spends the most time at the top of the US charts

Three's Company premieres

Boy, I'm glad that since I was born in the late 70's I grew up in the 80's and not the 70's. I don't think I could have taken all those checkered pants and long-haired hippy-types!

In looking through some JFK stuff I just noticed I'm older than Lee Harvey Oswald was when he killed Kennedy...and since he was killed shortly after I'm older than he ever will be.

Then, out of curiousity, I checked some other people. I'm older than Mark David Chapman was when he killed John Lennon.

He's still alive though...so at least he's older than me NOW. But still. I'm getting old.

Cubs Win!

Woo hoo! Bottom of the 10th game-winning homer by Sammy!

ESPN.com: Page 2 - Trying look on the bright side

"The Red Sox . . . is that the team that hasn't won for many many many many many years?"


(Only with the accent, it sounded like this: "The Red Sox . . . iz dat de team that hasn't von vor many many many yearz?" I won't use the accent for the rest of this story. Just keep in mind, we're talking about a thick German accent. And keep in mind, the woman grew up in GERMANY. She just moved here like five years ago. Still, she managed to say "many" five times. I counted. Back to the story.)

Take out the accupuncture and replace the 'Red Sox' with 'Cubs' and this exact thing has happened to me when someone I didn't know has noticed my Cubs hat and decided to strike up a conversation. They could be from Pluto...it doesn't matter.

Oh well. They can stick it.

ESPN.com - Jealousy follows Wie...

What are they jealous of? Her getting in without qualifying? Call me when she WINS something like this.

She does, however, bring the grand total of woman's golf names that I know to two. (thank you Sorenstam)

I don't know what the guys are doing downstairs, but it smells like they've poured nail polish remover all over the floor. Dang. And I thought having the litterbox up here was bad.

Yes, Boots is in a dictator (me) imposed exile up here in the computer room with me. I don't want him running around the house while they're trying to work. Who knows what he could get into. All I need is him stepping on a nail and trailing blood everywhere and I end up having to take him to the vet.

Better him than me though, since I know where the vet is, but have no idea how to get to a hospital from here.

Well, I had a heck of a weekend. On Wednesday or Thursday we found out the tiling was starting on Monday. Basically, in one phonecall my weekend went from 'relaxing' to 'destroyed'. Kind of like if you were just about to sit in your nice, comfortable chair, only to find out it had just been flattened by a meteor.

Anyway, I started pulling up the tiling on Friday. I just kind of started picking at it and then I couldn't stop until I was done. It was already curling at the edges and was coming up pretty good. There were some tough spots but all in all it wasn't bad. It was so brittle I could tear it with my hands and stuff it into a garbage bag. The hardest part was moving everything around everywhere so I could get to the tile. The house has been a mess since we've started and will be for the better part of a month.

After removing the file from the kitchen floor and entryway, including under the fridge and oven, Court took up the tile in the bathroom. It was especially slimey underneath. Anyways, we got all the tile up except for the laundry room, which I'll do in the next few days. Next was the carpet.

The carpet tore away from the floor easily enough. We cut it into sections so we could load it into Court's car so she could toss it at work. Padding come up easily too. Hardest part was the slats that the carpet tacks onto. They're nailed into the concrete floor and have the sharp end of little nails facing up so the carpet sticks onto them. I got some leather gloves at Home Depot and pulled, tugged, and pried them up. It wasn't fun but it's done. It was slow going.

Everything had been moved into our Florida room (enclosed patio) that wasn't electronic. I didn't want my receiver, DVD player, and all that good stuff being in the un-airconditioned patio. Amy's husband Chris helped put the entertainment center and china cabinet onto the patio and he also helped me move our TV into our bedroom. They had to stop by to borrow our grill so he was able to help. I'm glad, because that was my only problem spot...moving the heavy stuff by myself.

Anyways...the guys are here now. There's two of them, Steve, the guy who's doing it, and a younger helper. I feel guilty being up here while they're working, and truth be told I'd love to help...but I'm extremely busy at work this week and have no tiling skills. They're making as much as I am this week anyway...though I suppose they split it somehow.

CNN.com - Iraq handover of sovereignty completed - Jun 28, 2004

Very nice. Hopefully this is the start, albeit shaky, of a new Iraq.

Saw 'Dodgeball' tonight. It's hilarious. Why anybody would go see the new Michael Moore lie-fest instead of this is beyond me.

Some notable quotes:

(after getting beaten by a bunch of girl scouts)
You're adopted! And your parents don't love you!

or...

ESPN8...The Ocho! If it's almost a sport, we've got it!

Hilarious.

yeesh...does anybody believe this?

All-City voting Who's in right field?
0.1% Sammy Sosa (65 responses)
99.9%Magglio Ordonez (80232 responses)

What a joke. It's obviously been tampered with. I think I'm done voting in these chicagosports polls.

ChicagoSports.com - The All-City team: Who's your choice?

This poll has definitely been tampered with somehow. When I click a vote for Sammy, his number doesn't go up, but Magglio's number goes up by 10. Try it yourself.

0.1%
Sammy Sosa (38 responses)

99.9%
Magglio Ordonez (31233 responses)

ChicagoSports.com - Center of attention

How funny is this. Phil Rogers picks his all-city team, and it's 95% Cubs...and the online polling for each position picked 99% Sox...in some cases, Sox guys were getting 90% of the vote by position. Guys like Carlos Lee beating Moises Alou and Paul Konnerko beating Derek Lee by HUGE margins. Can you say ballot stuffing by idiot Sox fans? That's the only answer.

Poker Pages: Major Tournament Listings: Tournament Results

Way to go Affleck!

GAH! I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE stupid friggin' GOLF! I get back to the hotel early enough to catch PTI, and Stupid Frigging GOLF is on instead of PTI!

Gee, didn't Shaq and Kobe guarantee victory?


Oopies. In any case, Tony's boy Larry Brown becomes:

1. oldest coach to win an NBA title (I think)
2. only guy to win both an NCAA championship and an NBA championship (I think)

Well, hopefully those two stats are true. I'm pretty sure they are anyway. I watch the second half of the fourth quarter in the hotel's gym area walking on the treadmill. Doc Rivers is a good analyst...too bad he's leaving that position to coach the New Orleans franchise next year.

At least one good thing about the Pistons winning...at least PTI (after tomorrow's showing) can stop being 70% NBA stuff.

And how funny is it that Karl Malone and Gary Payton sold their own teams out and left to come to the Lakers to win a championship and yet win NO CHAMPIONSHIPS.

Double Oopsies.

From Beauty Dish...

One day, a bad bad day, when many soldiers lost lives in that distant senseless war, my middle son stood with barefeet on the cold tile floor of the kitchen, listening to NPR, and clenched his fists in frustration.

"Why don't they stop fighting? We're never going to join a Federation of Planets if this continues. Don't they know that? Why don't they want to help end starvation instead? I wish we lived in the future."

It's true, isn't it? I think of this often. Every time I see some showing of all the strife in the world, I think "Boy, don't these people know we're destined for something better?".

And yeah. It's just a show. But still. I used to get teased about "I bet you wish Star Trek really happened" and all that shit. But isn't it true? I mean, who wouldn't want us to be set on a course towards that future? No sign of all the BS that people get killed for around the world nowadays.

"If you have the means, I highly recommend it."

While Ferris was talking about a car, I talk about a jacuzzi. That would be the jacuzzi in my hotel room here. Seriously.

Long story short, the hotel I thought I was going to (which my other team members down here are in) did not have my reservation, so I had to go to the place next store. And for a smaller rate I got a larger room with a jacuzzi in it. So ha ha on those guys.

Woo hoo! The Cubs handed Clemens his first loss of the season!

Yes, I called it the first time they played him.

Yes, it's a direct result of me being here in Texas to support them.

ESPN.com: Page 2 - Sports withdrawal cuts deep

Meanwhile, the Red Sox were in some sort of cross-continental freefall, which could be directly traced to my departure from the country.

See? I'm not the only one.

Earl opens first Earl of Sandwich restaurant at Walt Disney World - 2004-03-19 - Orlando Business Journal

We've eaten here twice, and the food is DAMN GOOD. Yes, I've had the same thing both times, the All-American with no lettuce or tomato...which makes it a turkey sandwich with a little bit of ranch dressing and cranberries. It's superb! The bread at this place is amazing...man, I want to go there again today and we just had it for dinner last night. They have some other things on the menu I might eat but I just love this sandwich so much it was no contest.

At restaurants, I usually get my favorite thing every time I go there. Some people think it makes me predictable, but I got to thinking that I eat at a restaurant as if I was never going to eat there again. It's funny considering we go to Chili's and Olive Garden probably about once a month. I've started breaking with my tradition with my last visit to Olive Garden where I had something I'd never had before since it was new...and it was good.

In the past I've argued that I always have my favorite thing because I don't want to try something and not like it (and thus have nothing to eat)...but as I get older I'm able to enjoy some different things and I take some chances with what I order and usually it comes out ok.

I'm never gonna like lettuce and tomato on sandwiches though.

CNN.com - Ronald Reagan dies at 93 - Jun 5, 2004

A great man, a great President. RIP.

Conversation I had with Court last night, after watching 'Almost Famous'...


"If Kate Hudson had been hit by a truck after wrapping on this movie, she would have had a great movie career. Instead, she lives on to put out the kind of tripe like that movie of hers that's currently out. She'll be the next Meg Ryan for twenty years, as if we needed another one."


I know, I know, she just had a kid. But still.

How funny is it that I named my character in City of Heroes "Phantom Avenger"? Too bad they don't let heroes have capes. :)

In other news, we saw "Shrek 2" on Wednesday. Let me just say I didn't think it was anywhere near as funny as people are saying. In fact, I didn't laugh until the other fairy tale characters came to rescue Shrek and Donkey and the cat at the end. I did think the cat was funny I guess. Other than that, it wasn't all that. We're probably seeing "The Day After Tomorrow" tonight, so we'll see how that goes.

Good to know.

'America's favorite mouse' makes a stand on State Street

Well, at least they got them out of the front of the Magic Kingdom.

TrekWeb.com - UPN Executive Talks ENTERPRISE Renewal

Yes, I actually did call UPN and ask to be directed to the voicemailbox for 'Enterprise', and I did leave a message saying how much I enjoyed the show and wanted it to return for another season.

No, I do NOT dress in a Starfleet uniform.

Woo hoo! I passed my CISSP!

Heading to Chicago tonight for little sister's graduation. Big time proud of her. Way to go!

ESPN.com: Page 2 - Suddenly feeling Sleepy

Like VH1's show about "40 Greatest Celebrity Feuds," the show where the Biggie-Tupac feud didn't even crack the top five. Wait a second -- didn't both guys die? What else needed to happen? You're telling me that the Biggie-2Pac feud was slightly tamer than the Dixie Chicks and Toby Keith? Really?

Oh man...this is funny as hell.

On the heels of the Survivor finale, my friend Arnold and I came up with a list of anti-All Stars. Basically, a list of total Survivor losers.

Skinny Ryan - non-factor, whined about being voted off when the castoffs returned shortly
Ghandia - drama queen who accused Ted of sexual harassment
Osten - quitter
Kel - accused of eating beef jerky
Sean - could have voted out Richard Hatch but didn't due to alphabet strategy
Michael - took a nosedive into the fire, thereby losing his tribe's numerical superiority
Lex - Total tool
Silas - Picked off older tribe members one by one, acted cocky, tribes then swapped members. 'uh oh'
Linda - hyper religious womman who went crazy when they killed a chicken to eat it.
Jon - lied about his grandmother dying
Lil - acted morally superior & still did the normal survivor lying. got only 1 vote for the million
Robb - acted like an ass, swore up a storm, and tried to strangle KKKLay

And this is just a list without any researching. :)

I haven't even talked about the Survivor finale, so here goes...

I'm not amazed at all Boston Rob kept Amber with him for the final 2. Obviously, they were really into each other and if he'd gotten rid of her he'd never hear the end of it.

Lex and Alicia can stick it. What babies. Hello...It's called 'Survivor', not 'Make Everybody Love You'. I tell the same thing to Court about 'Monopoly'. It's not called 'Make Friends'. Believe me, if they could have traded places with Rob and played as well as he did, they would have. It's a MILLION DOLLARS. They looked like idiots up there trashing Rob for PLAYING THE DAMN GAME. They can stick it.

Big Tom seems like an honorable guy, and he really did get betrayed, so he gets a pass on his comments...especially during the reunion show because he obviously was pissed that Rob called his son a 'total dumbass' or whatever it was.

The Tivo cut the last minute out of the reunion show because the finale run long. I didn't see about the 'you pick who gets the million' but I heard about it later. I've heard that there are videos of each person on the cbs survivor website telling why they should get the million. I haven't seen any of them, but I've heard Rupert is asking for the million because 'his family needs it'. Sorry, no. MAYBE your family needs $100,000 if you're badly in debt. Nobody NEEDS a million. A million is a windfall. It totally changes EVERYTHING. This isn't money you get and go 'well, now I can pay my student loans' or 'now I can get my car fixed'. It's a total jackpot. Nobody NEEDS it.

That said, Rupert will probably win, but I'm voting for Rob. He played the game the best out of all of them, and lost the million for doing so. He definitely deserves it. Whereas Rupert played the game like most people would...be being a nice guy.

Oh man...Wood was just taken out of the game for some reason. gah! I hope it's nothing bad.

CNN.com - Web site says American captive beheaded - May 11, 2004

Wow. This passed 'getting out of hand' about 10 miles ago.

I am guessing that it is a penny?
Yes , No , Close
13. Is it cool? No.
12. Is it gray? No.
11. Is it used in a game? Yes.
10. Is it something you can purchase? No.
9. Does it roll? Yes.
8. Does it have writing on it? Yes.
7. Do you hold it when you use it? Yes.
6. Can it fit in an envelope? Yes.
5. Is it usually colorful? No.
4. Can it be washed? Yes.
3. Is it something you bring along? Yes.
2. Would you find it in an office? Sometimes.
1. Would you use it daily? Yes.
It is classified as Unknown.



That thing cheats.

It's 2004 and my Cub superstition jinxes are running in full force. Some day, when I've matured, I'll detail them for people who care to know them all.

I can't say them now. That would jinx the Cubs.

I'm in CISSP training all week this week...there's even a study session on Saturday. The certification test is on Sunday.

Class is held in a small conference room at the Courtyard Orland Airport Hotel. I could have stayed at the hotel but it's only 10 minutes away from the house so I didn't think it'd make much sense. Plus, I just spend half of last week away from home so I wouldn't have wanted to be away for another week, especially since we'll be leaving for IL next Friday.

I'm also glad I didn't stay at the hotel because it's BIG TIME humid in there. I mean, the hallway outside the classroom smells like Dagobah. Everyone else's books were all curled up because of the humidity, but mine wasn't. ha-ha

Anyway. Steve Kerr was on 'five good minutes' today! Woo hoo! I still remember Steve from his uber-status in NBA Live '97 (I think) for the PSone while we played in college. (Oh, and I think he played for the Bulls once too.) I'm not telling any lies here when I say I once had Steve put up a Wilt-Chamberlain-style 100 point game. He was draining threes on zero energy. And I was laughed at when I drafted him for our custom teams. I'm not making this up.

I've noticed that PTI-isms have started creeping into my vocabulary. Things like she's still getting it done and this is a _____ situation.

Damn.

And just for the record, I'm 80% sure Barrett's shoulda-been homer hit the foul pole.

My sister has some pretty funny comments about a recent TV showing of "The Goonies". It's a great flick. One of those that I can't wait to show my FutureKids(TM). Comedy, adventure, excitement, blaa blaa blaa. It's good stuff. Anyway.

Funny thing is...we had watched it a bunch of times as kids from this cruddy tape that we had. It didn't have commercials or anything (or even breaks in the tape stream where commercials had been paused out) and I assume Mom had taped it off cable during one of our short stints of actually having cable back then. Anyway...there's a scene at the end where the kids have just escaped the cave and the police and their families have arrived to pick them up. They're all telling the stories about their adventures and the cops are going 'yeah, right, ok, whatever' and all that. And Chunk (I think) says something like 'and then there was the octopus!' and since there was NO octopus in our showing of the movie we had always just figured it was BS, since that was definitely in line with the character throughout the whole movie.

Of course, if it was Data who said that I'm probably sounding pretty stupid here.

Cut to the end of the story. YEARS later, and I mean YEARS, independent of each other my sister and I stumbled upon an actual airing of the ENTIRE movie. And there actually IS a damn octupus scene in the movie along with some other stuff they cut out for time and all that. How funny is that.

The Cubs got trounced in their last two games, but that stopped after tonight's 4-3 Cub victory! Maddux is a GREAT guy to have in the rotation to stop the bleeding, and he did just that tonight. The Cubs never trailed tonight (I think) buy the D-backs did tie it up late after Steve Finley's third home-run of the night.

During the top of the 8th Richie Sexson tried to check his swing and seemingly popped something in his left wrist. He went down to his knees right afterwards so I'm thinking it's something serious. The guy's a notorious Cub-killer but it's never good when somebody gets hurt. He's not in our division anymore anyway. Hopefully it's nothing too bad.

Sights, sun and surf await thousands of sailors visiting for Fleet Week: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Steve and I drove to Port Everglades after class today to see if we could see any of the ships. We were stopped by security at the gates to the port though...it's not opened to the general public.

Oh well...it would have been nice to see the Enterprise.

Office Depot Center

Wow...Prince was playing there as I was driving past. Wait...I don't care about that either.

Arrived in Sunrise, Florida for my training this week. Monday and Tuesday I'll be taking cellular training down here. I made the trip in under 3 hours thanks to mapquest. I'm staying at a Crowne Plaza hotel now, pretty much in the shadow of where the Florida Panthers play...as if I care about Florida sports.

Watched the Cubs game with Court before I left today. Clement pitched a gem...giving up only 2 hits I think, the first of which was a homer by Karim Garcia who almost broke his arm by catching an Alex Gonzalez foul ball and then running into the padded brick wall in the right field foul territory and then ended up batting 10 minutes later. Great game by Clement!

Training tomorrow and Tuesday and then I'll spend some time with Sam on Wednesday before leaving to drive home. Then, CISSP orientation session on Sunday with boot camp Monday--->Friday, study session Saturday and test on Sunday. Wish me luck!

Cubs keeping eye on the ball, not the Sox

Ozzie. PS. Nobody cares about the Sox.

Watched 'Kill Bill Vo. 1' this morning. We rented a bunch of stuff last night. I really don't get all the people who think KB is the best thing since sliced bread. I mean...it's ok. I'd even say 'good'. But not the greatest thing I've ever seen ever.

SI.com - NFL - CNN: Former Cardinals safety Tillman killed in action - Friday April 23, 2004 10:53AM

:(

original story

Wow...in going to the blogger webpage to write this entry it asked me if I wanted to be one of the first to pilot gmail, google's new email service. How cool is that? I even snatched up rgonzale@gmail.com address.


And damn if it didn't make me totally forget what I was going to write here.

Holy cow. The top of the first in Pittsburgh just ended...after a half an hour. Josh Fogg gave up 5 runs (I think) and was knocked out of the game after 20 minutes. The Cubs scored 3 more (at least 1 will be charged to Fogg since he was responsible for the man on) and Mitre is getting spotted an 8-run lead in the bottom of the 1st.

Some notable things...2 bonehead plays by the first basement on the Pirates. First one, he didn't have his foot on first on a routine bouncer on the infield, so when he took the through Aramis Ramirez was safe. The guy was planted and everything...just wasn't touching the bag at all. Second play, he dove for a quick bouncer, then gunned it to get the guy trying to score from third. His throw was off and everybody was safe. Big WTG for him today. Plus, he's got hair like Thor.

Great Cub Victory today. The bats were really at work. Fantastic to see.

Watched via the MLB Extra Innings Feed...which was the Fox Sports feed with the Pittsburgh announcers. Picture was clear and Chip, let me tell you, you were NOT missed. I didn't listen to the radio today because I just watched the game in chunks. I prefer day games that I can listen to over the net during the day while I'm working and then Tivo to the highlights afterwards.

Wow! Derrek Lee just cracked a Grand Slam! Woo hoo! First Wrigley homer as a Cub! Second of the year!

Ordered the MLB Extra Innings package so I could catch *all* the Cubs games. I'd thought buying the Sports Package----and Maddux just served up one to Adam Dunn and it's 3-0 Reds. Great.

Anyways...the DirecTV sports package is a bundle of channels like the Speed Channel and Golf Channels as well as the regional Fox Sports Channels. I figured that'd let me watch the Cubs games on Fox Sports Chicago. Not so. They're blacked out. So I cancelled the Sports package today and ordered the Extra Innings package.

Boy, I hope we got Maddux with a warantee. He seems to be broken.

ChicagoSports.com - Thomas exercises option to complain

He then said he wasn't going to complain about the money he makes. On Thursday, however, Thomas said it's "a little disappointing" on the first and 15th of the month—payday.

This guy makes $6million a year. Is he an idiot? I don't even think he starts at first anymore. He's a DH. What a tool.

HOLY COW! Talk about an AMAZING Cub game! FANTASTIC! It had EVERYTHING!

A friend from England was watching on MLBtv...I hope he enjoyed it as much as I did! Woo hoo!

(oh, and the ump can KISS MY ASS)

Trump to Chicago Bill: You're hired

Way to go Bill! Fantastic job. And nice job picking the Chicago high-rise as your job. The building looks like it'll be amazing.

Boo on the sports guy, whose subjects for his last two columns (golf and the NBA) couldn't interest me any less.

ChicagoSports.com - 'Illiniwek' protesters occupy U. of I. building (Registration Required): "

The protesters said they had three demands of the trustees: immediate elimination of the Chief mascot, dance and symbol; a formal apology to anyone offended by the Chief; and increased funding for Native American and other minority programs on the Urbana-Champaign campus.

'A formal apology to anyone offended'? Jeez. This country is turning into the land of the wusses.

Bin Laden to Europe: How about a truce? Britain, Germany, France: Stick it.

heh heh heh

Blackhawks in Crisis - Out of sight, out of mind

This whole article shows why the Hawks are like a nice deer that used to be big and majestic 50 years ago but now has been clipped by cars so many times it just needs to be shot in the head and have it be over with.

New receiver is in the house.

Arrived yesterday. Works good so far. Neat.

Mike & Mike keep bringing up how tons of people have emailed them saying they don't want to hear about Bonds. In doing so, they start talking about Bonds. Are they idiots?

I miss Mr. Tony.

Mr. President...it may seem petty for me to be mad about your speach going over 'Scrubs' tonight. But oh well.

I am not happy.

How funny is it that shortly after Mr. Tony and Wilbon talked about how Bonds hitting #660 wasn't that big a deal (and ESPN was over-blowing it) ESPN broke into PTI to show his at-bat and his 660th homer?

And how sad was it that I recorded the 6:30p re-run of PTI so I could see the 'PRIOR' item that didn't run during the first showing due to the break-in?

PTI went live for the last segment because they talked about the homer. They do this sometimes when something like that happens. Too bad Tony's not on the radio anymore...I'm sure he'd have a LOT to say about it.

Apparently something big happened in golf this weekend. Congrats to Phil. Nice job.

Sorry, but I'm more excited about the cub victory yesterday.

GREAT Cub game today. Kerry Wood did a great job and the Cub offense REALLY shined. Nice job fellas!

Happy Easter to Everybody!

ESPN.com - MLB - Astros' Pettitte lands on DL with elbow injury

Wow. He got rocked so bad it strained his elbow.

woo hoo!

Big win tonight! The game went 15 innings. I'm pretty sure the Cubs used every reliever they had out of the pen. Zambrano pitched a GREAT game today (yesterday)...I think he only gave up 2 hits. Unfortunately one was a homer by Andruw Jones...about 2 seconds after Dopey Chip call Turner Field 'not a park for home runs'.

Todd Hallandsworth came up with a top of the 9th 2 out homer to keep the Cubs alive in this game. He swung at the first pitch and right after I yelled "Ah! Don't swing at the first pitch!" (due to Corey Patterson disease spreading throughout the club) he cranked one for a homer. I then proudly announced to Court that I was an idiot.

Nice defense by the Cubs, and great game observations by Steve Stone, who is about the only reason I didn't give up and turn the radio on during the game while muting the TV. At one point Chipper Jones was up and Steve mentioned how the Cubs would shift defensively because the way Wellmeyer (I think) was pitching it'd get Chipper to hit one right down the left field line. Aramis Ramirez was standing just off the line and caught Chipper's liner that would have fallen foul had Ramirez not been there.

Great game guys!

Damn...just heard that Ron Santo's son's documentary on Ronnie..."This Old Cub" is playing at the Marcus Addison Theaters...the theater I used to go to constantly! Damn it!

Hopefully it comes out on video.

Cubs play at 12:30pm (eastern) today so I'm taking a late lunch to watch the first hour of the game.

And I just muted Chip Caray for the first time this season. I'm listening to Pat and Ron over MLB audio.

Feels like the season's *really* started now.

Woo hoo! Cubs won today! Some nice offense, decent outing by Kerry Wood, and great relief pitching! Nice job fellas!

Little over an hour until the first pitch...

man, oh man. I can't wait!

Even if you don't agree with why we're in Iraq...this HAS to be done.

Why do I think it's useless when Colin Cowherd has a daily segmetn when he talks to sports radio guys from around the country? Tony used to talk to sportswriters all the time? I guess I'd rather listen to Bob Ryan than the Incredible Mr. Nobody who does Sports radio in Texas or some crap.

Went to Universal today to see if the Revenge of the Mummy ride was opened for guest previews yet. I didn't think it would be but I heard that they'd at least removed the walls blocking off the ride entrance. They put it in the King Kong space in Universal...so the old NYC Rapid Transit exterior has been turned into a 'Museum of Antiquities' or some such. Anyway, turns out the ride was in technical preview...some ride elements were not finished but it was open for guests. After a 40 minute wait we got to ride it. It was awesome. Great ride! It's an indoor coaster like 'Space Mountain' and 'Rockin Roller coaster' but it also reminded me of the 'Indiana Jones' ride at Disneyland. There are some coaster elements and some of the IJ 'car' elements, because you back up and go another way at one point. Very cool. I could tell some things were not installed yet but all in all it was a great ride.

They don't allow *any* carry-ons so I had to lock my bag and sunglasses and stuff in one of those thumbscan lockers they have...they're pretty idiot-proof, since you just follow the onscreen commands and put your finger or thumb on the scanner when it tells you to. Nevertheless, the group of mid-thirties women in front of me were dumbfounded by this thing and took 10 or 15 minutes to figure it out. Once they were done I used it to get a new locker and it opened a locker that already had stuff in it (which somebody must have used, returned and tried to open it, and then left there stuff in there for some reason so the system thought it was empty now) and so I had to get another one. After exiting the ride I noticed the dopey women were near us so I sped out of the store and into the line for the lockers...thankfully they ended up behind me this time. All the while they were complaining about having to wait and decrying the fact that the person using the locker console was going slow. Talk about IRONY.

Some things are just idiot-proof, if you ask me. This locker thing. The automated ticketing thing at the movie theater and airports. I'm sorry...if you can't figure these things out, go back to grade school. *Sometimes* they do have techincal problems but not very often by my experience. Everything is designed for the lowest common denominator (idiots) in this world and I really think it's holding back a lot of cool technological things that are just on the horizon.

UCONN pulled my biscuits out of the fire tonight with a GREAT win. Duke even hit a last second 3-pointer to make them only lose by 1. I think I've won the yahoo group thing without Uconn winning, since the guy below my has Uconn to win also but has less points than me.

Saw ESPN after the game...Vitale seriously looked like he'd been crying. Seriously. What a Dukee he is.

It totally blows goats that Mr. Tony's radio show is over. With Dream Job ending last night I'm sure today would be a GREAT show. Damn it. New guy's show starts in 10 minutes. From what I've read about him it looks like he's a sports zoo crew idiot from Portland.

That's just great.

I'm glad that Mike Hall won ESPN's Dream Job tonight. He was my favorite of all the contestants. Plus, he's from Chicago...so he's got that going for him. He's doing the 6pm, 11pm, and 1am Sportscenters tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing how he does.

Forgot to mention two things about 'Dawn of the Dead'...

One, the fact that a chinese man had brought to very young children to see this movie, and they sat behind me. They left about 30 minutes in. Children have NO business going to see that movie.

Second, the mall the film is set in, supposedly in Milkwaukee, contained a 'Roots' store...which I've only seen in the Canada area of Epcot. Turns out the movie was entirely filmed in Canada and that's where the mall was.

Anyway...I saw 'Jersey Girl' today. It was superb. Fantastic movie. Go see it. If you don't like it, I'll buy your ticket.

(if I know you) :D

Saw 'Dawn of the Dead' tonight. It was ok, for what it was. I was able to make it past the logic-leap of zombies and such, since it's the movie's own 'reality', but there were still some logic issues inherent in the film to me. I mean...sometimes you just have to accept a movie's reality...like a movie where dogs and cats talk, for example. You can't spend the whole movie going dogs don't talk...cats don't talk...dogs don't talk...cat's don't talk... it just doesn't work that way. The movie will never work for you if you think that way. So, I'm going to get past the whole 'zombies' thing.

They don't say how the 'dead' become zombies at the very beginning. They just kind of 'show up'. Now...it's the numbers that bother me in this film . They're suddenly *everywhere*. This doesn't work out for me...here's some things from the movie's 'reality'.

-There are X amount of zombies at the beginning of the movie.
-People bitten by zombies become a zombie.
-People who do not die of zombie bites just die and stay dead.

Now...as I said, the movie does NOT elaborate on how the zombie thing began. They just kind of show up. I don't know how many people die of in the US (or Wisconsin, where the movie was set) in a given time. I'd say that it's about a few thousand people a day. Now, at X time when this all begins I assume everyone who dies becomes a zombie. How many people could that be? For it to become as many people as it became in the movie, it seems that victims would have to become zombies just be HEARING about the zombies. It just happens way too fast, and to too many people. News and information just gets out too fast in the world now. After the first half-dozen times of this happening it'd be all over everywhere and measures could be taken.

Also, there's a time in the movie where zombies are said to have (offscreen) overrun a military fort that's acting as a refugee camp. I have no clue how this could happen. I'd assume at a military base there'd be automatic weapons and trained personnel. Also, TANKS and PLANES, dangit. The zombies travel in packs and they'd be ripe for carpet bombing. They exhibit NO teamwork, intelligence, or ingenuity. They just skulk about looking for regular humans. They don't band together to tip over the buses at the end of the movie. They only worry about getting at the humans inside.

Now, the movie ends on a kind of negative tone...I think it wants the viewer to think that most of the country has been overrun by the buggers. Sorry...I think that with the US Navy alone...with aircraft carriers, subs, and other vessels at sea (and safe from the zombies) there'd still be too much of a resistance to these things. These ships have NUCLEAR weapons, afterall...though napalm would be enough to destroy zombies.

In any case, humanity would DEFINITELY survive. Too many people in too large of a space. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Obviously, the very premise is implausible, but these are the kinds of things I thought about during the movie.

Time for the /crazy tag I think. :)

ESPN.com - NCB - College Basketball Game Update

Just finished watching Duke beat Illinois. It's too bad...Illinois was playing very well in the beginning of the game. They just took some silly shots and some shots just didn't fall their way. The announcers seemed very Pro-Duke...they practically worshipped the Duke team captain, even when he did some things that didn't seem so spectacular, and then an ILL player would do the same thing and they wouldn't react the same way.

Oh well. This helps my bracket, but I would have been happy to see ILL win.

Tony's last radio show just ended. :(

Boy, do I need daytime baseball...and soon.

CNN.com - Bush's WMD jokes draw criticism - Mar 26, 2004

Man, oh man. I voted for this guy. What the hell's the matter with him? When your house is on fire, you don't go around pouring gasoline.

Yahoo! Sports Tournament Pick'em

Somehow, my "Gotham Knights" are in the lead in my NCAA Tournament bracket group. We'll see if that holds up through the Final Four.

TV arrived yesterday. Delivery company phoned in the morning saying it'd be between 2pm-5pm that day or would maybe have to be the next morning. As soon as I heard that, I thought "well, it'll be tomorrow then".

Around 4:30pm delivery guy called saying that while his partner had gone home for the day he could bring the TV over and deliver it now if I would help him with it, or he could come with his partner the next morning. I said "Sure, I'll help you."

He was a nice guy. TV was damn heavy. My older (though it's not old at all) TV I put upstairs in our guest room...at around 100lbs it wasn't a lot of fun taking up the stairs, but oh well.

TV looks VERY nice. I tried calibrating the color/hue/brightness/sharpness myself but I ended up buying a 'home theater TV calibration DVD' on ebay to help me. My THX-blue glasses came today, so I'll be able to use a THX DVD (like Episode II) to do some calibration. I'm sure the screen looks fine enough, but I'd like for it to look as good as it possibly can.

Q&A With Shawon Dunston

MLB.com: You played for Dusty Baker with the Giants. Does that help coming here?

Dunston: He knows I appreciate the game. I live comfortably because of the Cubs. I never had a job. I never filled an application for a job. I played baseball and now I'm set for life. I have no problem coming back and giving back to baseball.

MLB.com: You reached the World Series in 2002 with the San Francisco Giants, which is more than a lot of former Cubs can say.

Dunston: When I watch baseball and see the Angels, it bothers me because we lost to them in the World Series. My kids say, "Daddy, get over it." I say, "I can't." Then when the Cubs lost (last year in the NL Championship Series), I was hurt. They said, "Daddy, you don't even play." I said, "You see this house? They paid for this house. We live good because of those people. I know I don't play for them but you don't understand loyalty." They say, "Daddy, you don't play." I say, "I'm a Cub. I'm a Cub."


The man is a class act. Glad he's with the Cubs in some capacity.

Boy, what does Jay Bilas do the other 11 months of the year without the NCAA tournament to talk about?

Since Tony's last radio show is Friday, will Dan and Dibbs make up for his loss in my day?

No, no they won't. But I'll still listen.

CNN.com - Britney Spears suffers knee injury - Mar 19, 2004

Weird, considering I had heard there was talk of her concert being cancelled in Chicago due to decency concerns or some such.

Conspiracy theorists rejoice.

Been watching 'Transformers' on DVD after picking up Season One some time ago and Season 2 part 1 during my trip up to IL a few weeks back. It's very cool to be able to watch these shows again, knowing that the first time I saw them it was probably during Bozo's Circus 20 years ago.

The episodes still hold up, to me at least. Still enjoyable. I still have to wonder why Optimus Prime didn't just call in the Dinobots before every battle since every time they show up in an episode they kick ass.

I'll definitely finish out the DVD sets, and probably pick up the GI JOE ones as well. Fun stuff.

I don't give a frog's fat ass about NCAA basketball. Not in March or any other month of the year.

20 days and 12 hours and 42 minutes until the Cubs season opener on April 5th.

The TV has been purchased from Sony.com. I got a decent price on it, considering it's HDTV capable. It'll be the TV we have for the next 'really long time'. It's a nice size, not too big. I think a 36" would dominate our livingroom and I really didn't want that. Also, it fits in our entertainment center perfectly, and that entertainment center was a dealbreaker. Anything that wouldn't fit in there we would not get, because we like our entertainment center a lot.

There's a story behind the purchase...turns out my credit has gotten a LOT better than it has previously been. I have no clue why. I'll have to be careful though...it looks like I've now got an identity worth stealing, to a point. Very strange how things turn out.

Funny or Sad?

You make the call.

Court was off yesterday, so during lunch we stopped by Circuit City (TV spotting and MS Flight 2004 w/$20 rebate) and Sam's Club. I hadn't been to Sam's since I've been down here. I've always kinda liked Sam's, even though just being one guy it wasn't very useful to me. Every once in a while I'd go and pick up a few things...snacks mostly, like a big container of cashews for my Dad. We were actually looking for stuffed shells (which Court likes...and I guess I do too) but they didn't have them there anymore. On the way to that aisle we passed a woman cooking up Tyson chicken tenderloins and they were so good I had to get a bag of those. Also picked up a big box of 20 SuperPretzels. A few other things later, and the freezer is full...and we've got Omaha Steaks coming by the end of the week. Uh oh.

Court also picked up a book on 'The South Beach Diet', which is a big thing down here. She's going to go on it. It's a carb-cutting diet...first two weeks, you cut just about all carbs...then, you gradually allow them back in to your diet at a slow pace. Some things you can't eat in the first two weeks (by memory):

• 2% or whole Milk


• corn


• yogurt


• absolutely anything having to do with potatoes


• fruit and fruit juices


• bread


• candy, ice cream, all those bad things you shouldn't eat anyway


• soda


• alcohol

And those are just the ones I remember. Basically, you can eat three meals a day, with 2 snacks eat day. Snacks are usually something like skim-milk string cheese and 20 strawberries or cherry tomatoes.

I was thinking of going on it before I read the book. Then I saw that just about everything I enjoy eating...milk, bread, corn, potatoes, fruit juice...was on the list. Those things make up like 80% of my diet, with meat being the other 20%. EVERY breakfast suggestion they give you during the first 2 weeks involves eggs, which I will NOT eat in any form. Oh yeah...no cereal either. I figured that if I did go on this diet not only would I be MISERABLE but I'd probably collapse during working out, since juice (apple, orange, grape) is my personal gasoline during the day. I mean, I can drink a lot of water, but still.

This book even corked up the idea that whole milk is better than 2% milk, for some BS reason.

I'm back. Actually, I was back on Sunday. Return flight featured a woman sitting next to me asking me about my GBA. She even asked me about SMB3 and she obviously had never heard of it before and had no clue about the 'Mario' games at all.

Settings my sights on a new TV.

Weird to be watching TV here, for 2 reasons.

#1 I have to watch commercials.

#2 Local newsbreaks advertising the news tonight actually have people I recognize and are about issues I know about, rather than people I have no clue about and issues I'm not up on.

I spent 6 hours at Orlando International yesterday, and boy is my *EVERYTHING* tired.

Man oh man. My flight was supposed to leave at 8:05pm last night. Court had to work late (last-minute thing) and I had to call a cab to come...asked them to show up at 5:30p and he showed up a little earlier. He didn't have a receipt to give me for the fare so he wrote it on the back of his business card. (we'll see if work takes that when I claim expenses)

Got to the airport around a quarter to six...checked it...and the flight was now leaving at 10:10pm. I usually check the flights online to check any changes but this time I hadn't. And Uncle Bruce had told me earlier that there were storms and stuff around Chicago. I should have known.

Anyway, I was in for 4 hours of sitting around. If only that was the case...around 8pm it changed to 11 and around 9 it changed to 11:50pm. I got in to Chicago around 2:45am (eastern time). Got my luggage and a cab at a DEAD O'hare...our plane was the only people there. Cab driver had no idea how to get to the Amerisuites and we got lost. Thankfully I'm from around here and we eventually found the place...good thing I wasn't from Seattle. I got settled in the hotel around 3:45am (eastern). This left me with around 4 hours of sleep last night...and after barely any sleep on Sunday night I'm exhausted. Class was fun...one of the teachers looks like Disher from Monk.

I'm heading to Chicago at 8pm tonight. Tues-Wed-Thurs-Fri training class this week. Returning back home on Sunday.

I'll post when I get settled at the hotel.

Happy BD Michelle!

Hope she's having a great day! Love ya!

While I was at the gym, Jesse Jackson called in to 'Wolf Blitzer LIVE' or 'Wolf Blitzer Reports' or whatever...basically calling out the Bush administration on the Haiti matter, saying we should send MORE Marines in to secure Aristide and the presidential palace...that protecting our Embassy just wasn't enough. My first thought was...WTF? Is it our job to police the whole damn world, and then when we do (Iraq) get bitchslapped for it on the global stage, and when we don't get slammed for just letting stuff happen? This is called a no-win scenario where I come from. Kobayashi Maru.

I mean...what about the UN? Isn't it their damn job? I swear...I know Haiti is close to us so everybody expects us to do something to step in and shore up the democracy there, but still. I think we're out of the 'shoring up paper-thin democracies' business...have been since Viet Nam. I don't mean to compare the two, especially since it's not an equal comparison, but "getting invovled when maybe we shouldn't" is definitely a recurring theme. I just hope nobody cries 'racism' at us, as a recent FL (of course) congresswoman did...doesn't she know that Colin Powell (Secretary of State) and Dr. Condoleezza Rice (National Security Advisor) have a hand in these types of decisions, and they are African American? She even went as far as to lump in a Mexican-American Bush Administration offical as a 'white guy' and then say 'you all look alike to me' when she was corrected. What a dumbass.