If you haven't seen The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou you're really missing you. It's a great movie.

It's not slapstick comedy, or what I like to call 'stupid funny'. If you liked 'Rushmore' or 'The Royal Tenenbaums' then you'll probably like this movie. Even if you didn't like them, give it a chance.

CNN.com - Forecasters predict active hurricane season - May 16, 2005

oh happy day.

So many Season Passes getting deleted from the Tivo recently...

• JAG


• Amazing Race 7


• Star Trek: Enterprise(more on this later)


• Survivor: Palau


• Everybody Loves Raymond(finale tonight)

Of course, Amazing Race and Survivor will go back on their for their next iterations, but they'll have different titles in the Tivo so that'll be a new Season Pass. Strangely, The Apprentice doesn't change its title with each new season Tivo-wise, but whatever.

Quick Thoughts on Tom's Survivor win: Good. He deserved it.

Uh...has The SportsGuy fallen down a manhole or something? Yeah, I know he had a kid, but *still*.

I'm sure Shell is going ballistic...

And there was much rejoicing!

I like Thursdays because so many blogs are filled with bitzing and moaning about whoever was knocked from American Idol the previous night.

It's funny, because not only do I not know whoever it was, I don't care.

Horse Swimming?

Shell, you gots to get in on that!

As I've played 3 new games in the past few weeks, I thought I might post what I thought about them.

The first one is Lego Star Wars, for PC. This game is actually a lot of fun. Though it's aimed at kids (you can't die, etc...) it's actually very enjoyable. You play through Episodes I, II, and III with about 6 'missions' for each one of the films. You can play one or two player...if you're only playing one player the other character just kind of follows you around. They will battle a little but they never seem to really kill anything. The characters you're giving for the mission are appropriate to the portion of the film you're supposed to be experiencing. Episode I opens with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, for example.

At least one of the mission is a 'vehicle' type mission where you pilot a pod racer (for TPM), a Republic Gunship (for AotC), and Anakin's Jedi Starfighter (for Rots). The other missions are standard adventure/fighting missions. Your goal is to complete the stage while collecting little multi-colored LEGO studs. The more studs you get leads you to collect a certain piece of a LEGO vehicle, one per level.One neat thing about this game is that you can play each mission as either story mode (regular game) or 'freeplay' where you can choose to play as a bunch of different characters that you've unlocked throughout your playing.

There's a lot of replay value due to the secrets and mini-kits you can collect throughout each level. These will let you unlock secret characters and levels in the game.

It's a fun game. Great for kids I'd bet. Graphics are superb.

WGN-TV Chicago | WGN Sports Cubs Baseball Blog: "OK, we finally won a game - what do we do now? First, come back in off the ledge. "

Ah, the ledge. Every Cub fan's favorite destination.

Kudos to Big Z for giving the Cubs a great win yesterday!

ChicagoSports.com - Hairy situation keeps getting worse for Cubs: "Greg Maddux and Mark Prior refused to let Wood or anyone else cut their hair Saturday, so there isn't complete unity in the pitching ranks. And don't count on Baker getting his head shaved either.
"

That must be why they lost yesterday! :)

Uh...the shaved head thing didn't work for them.

Wow, looks like some of the Cubs shaved their heads before today's game. Probably trying to break their losing streak. Hopefully it works.

Anyway.

Got a nice surprise on Tuesday. Court said she'd stopped at Sam's after work and needed me to get some stuff out of the trunk for her. When I went out there, I saw a brand new Xbox. She'd bought it for me in anticipation of Thursday's release of the Episode III game, which for some reason wasn't put out for PC. It was a great surprise.

The next day, Court said she'd stopped by EB Games. She got me HALO and then showed me the receipt. She'd also pre-ordered the Episode III game for me! I wasn't planning on getting it right away (mostly due to time constraints and stuff) but it was so sweet of her to do that. I have a great wife.

CNN.com - The real Paris Hilton - May 5, 2005: "Q: What did you want to be when you were a little girl?

HILTON: A veterinarian, but then I realized I could just buy a bunch of animals."


I weep for the present.

I forgot to mention...last Saturday we went to the last night of 'Mardi Gras' at Universal Studios. They've had bands performing each Saturday night for the last month. Bands like 'KC and the Sunshine Band, Jason Mraz, Huey Lewis and the News' and all that. We actually went there a few weeks back for KC but the band's start time kept getting pushed back so we just left.

Anyway. Last Saturday the band was 'Hootie and the Blowfish'. Now, I'm no real fan of live music. I know some people are (like my sister) but I just can't get into it. The speakers and amps and whatever the bands usually have sound like crap to me with distortion and everything. I'm just not a big fan. I wasn't gonna miss a chance to see Hootie though, particularly for free when it's actually one of the four bands in history I'd pay to see.

They played about a dozen songs. 'Hold my hand', 'Let her cry', 'Only wanna be with you', all their good 'classics'. They played some new stuff too which I thought was good and they also mentioned they had an album out in August so I'll probably pick that up. I did get a shirt. I had to support Darius since he's a big TK fan. He was even on the show when Tony played his celebrity golf tournament a few weeks back.

All in all, it was a good show. They speakers and all that sounded like crap at times but the band was worth it.

(now if I could only find my old hootie CD)

WRATH
1. Whom did you last get angry with? probably Court
2. What is your weapon of choice? stunning wit
3. Would you hit a member of the opposite sex? psht, I don't ever hit anybody.
4. How about of the same sex? If I felt they deserved it.
5. Who was the last person who got really angry at you? probably Court
6. What is your pet peeve? People that just don't think.
7. Do you keep grudges, or can you let them go easily? I keep some.

SLOTH
1. What is one thing you're supposed to do daily that you haven't done in a while? floss
2. What is the latest you've ever woken up? 1pm probably.
3. Name a person you've been meaning to contact, but haven't? been meaning to write my Grandpa a letter and send him some pictures. He just called the other day.
4. What is the last lame excuse you made? "I forgot."
5. Have you ever watched an infomercial all the way through (one of the long ones...)? Hell yes. "Magic Bullet"..."Food Dehydrator"..."Dick Butkis grill"...
6. When was the last time you got a good workout in? Today. I even walked the dog when I got home even though I was tired as hell.
7. How many times did you hit the snooze button on your alarm clock today? Three

GLUTTONY
1. What is your overpriced yuppie beverage of choice? Starbucks carmel apple cider
2. Meat eaters: white meat or dark meat? White. Dark is gross.
3. What is the greatest amount of alcohol you've had in one sitting/outing/event? Probably three beers. I really don't drink.
4. Have you ever used a professional diet company? I do slimfast.
5. Do you have an issue with your weight? yeah, definitely
6. Do you prefer sweets, salty foods, or spicy foods? salty I'd say.
7. Have you ever looked at a small pet or child and thought, "LUNCH!"? hell no.

LUST
1. How many people have you seen naked (not counting movies/family)? not sure
2. How many people have seen YOU naked (not counting physicians/family)? wha?
3. Have you ever caught yourself staring at the chest/crotch of a member of your gender of choice during a normal conversation? Yes
4. Have you "done it"? Yes.
5. What is your favourite body part on a person of your gender of choice? chest I'd say. heh heh
6. Have you ever been propositioned by a prostitute? No
7. Have you ever had to get tested for an STD or pregnancy? No

GREED
1. How many credit cards do you own? 3
2. What's your guilty pleasure store? Circuit City (because Best Buy can stick it)
3. If you had $1 million, what would you do with it? Buy a house for half that price.
4. Would you rather be rich or famous? Rich. (already am)
5. Would you accept a boring job if it meant you would make megabucks? heck yeah
6. Have you ever stolen anything? long long time ago
7. How many MP3s are on your hard drive? At least 866.

PRIDE
1. What's one thing you have done that you're most proud of? Passing that damn CISSP test
2. What's one thing you have done that your parents are most proud of? I could tie my shoes and my Mom would be proud of me.
3. What's one thing would you like to accomplish in your life? There's a lot of things. Play piano, learn sign language...
4. Do you get annoyed by coming in second place? Yeah, I'd say so.
5. Have you ever entered a contest of skill, knowing you were of much higher skill than all the other competitors? Yes
6. Have you ever cheated on something to get a higher score? Yes.
7. What did you do today that you're proud of? Busted my ass working out and still walked the dog twice even though I was damn tired.

ENVY
1. What item (or person) of your friends would you most want to have for your own? I think I have the coolest stuff of anybody I know personally, sadly.
2. Who would you want to go on "Trading Spaces" with? Chris, so I could turn his house all roman bath house as a joke on him.
3. If you could be anyone else in the world, who would you be? Superman. I'd say Batman, but he had to see his parents killed.
4. Have you ever been cheated on? No.
5. Have you ever wished you had a physical feature different from your own? I wish my hair regular instead of a little wavy like it is.
6. What inborn trait do you see in others that you wish you had for yourself? ability to relax
7. Do you wish you'd come up with this survey? no

Toon Zone - Your Source for Toon News!: "Sci Fi Wire reports that Sam Raimi, who is currently in preproduction on Spider-Man 3, let slip that Sony is planning three more Spider-Man films and that he would consider directing all of them. "

That's good news.

I also noticed that the Smallville 90-minute finale (May 18th) will feature 10 minutes of 'Batman Begins'. That's one movie I can't wait to see.

from the 'no duh' file...

American Cities That Best Fit You:

75% Chicago

60% Philadelphia

60% Portland

55% Los Angeles

55% New York City

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Ok, I just watched the season premiere of 'Family Guy'...in the middle of the episode, Flint from GI JOE pops of out a stall in a bathroom where some underaged kids are drinking and gives an anti-drinking spiel and they do the whole 'and now we know/knowing is half the battle/GI JOE!' thing. It was hilarious. They used the same guy as the voice of Flint too. heh heh heh

Toon Zone - Your Source for Toon News!: "He mentions that the script is not yet done and that filming commences in December. He also says that 'everyone will be satisfied' on the voice acting decisions for the beloved Autobots and Decepticons."

Boy, I hope he gets Frank Welker and Peter Cullen to reprise their CLASSIC roles...

CNN.com - Charges not ruled out for runaway bride - May 1, 2005

This woman should face charges. Her 'getaway' was totally pre-meditated considering she bought that bus ticket and all that.

Over the weekend I saw John Walsh being interviewed by Anderson Cooper. John Walsh was advocating how there are so many missing people (particularly women) lost/abducted/etc that you just don't hear about and how there are only some that actually get out into the press sphere and that maybe that will help finding this woman. John Walsh, whose own son was abducted and killed.

How do you think he feels today? This woman should be in the slammer.

Some dope parked their BMW at the end of our 'street' where you're not supposed to park. When I was taking Hooper for a walk around the pond I noticed the windows were opened.

GEE, I SURE HOPE IT DOES NOT RAIN.

(and it looks like it might, too. double drat.)

ESPN.com: Page 2 : More cowbell: Quick hits: "Second, have you noticed that Katie is the first contestant in the history of the show who has actually managed to gain weight as the season rolls along?"

Made me laugh out loud today.

Hitting to all fields...

• I've said before I have an issue with the Pringles situation here in Florida. First of all, no ranch Pringles. Instead, they have some weird flavors like jalapeno and that crap. Latest travesty: Pringles can with Survivor logo yet NO Survivor triva on each chip. WTF is up with that?


• I've got my Episode III tickets. Both Court and I are taking the day off.


• Cat and dog were actually laying near each other on the bed the other day. Here comes the apocalypse.


• Saw 'Fever Pitch' over the weekend. I agree with the Sports Guy's review. Too much of the parts with the fans in the stands at Fenway just wouldn't have happened at a real game.


• Chad Fox looked like his arm exploded during the end of last night's Cub game. Hopefully that wasn't a career-ender.

That is all.

First...I just saw John Mabry fly out to center with Rollen on first, thus ending a potential Cardinals comeback and giving the Cubs a 3-1 victory tonight--Which is good.

Anyway, great day today. Got a lot done at the customer site. Things went very well. We had a great customer contact onsite, and I'll say it every day of the week...having a great contact onsite is 95% of the job.

After work we headed out to pick up another Motorolan whom my two colleagues here also knew. Very nice guy who works in Mexico City. For dinner we went to a great place that was right across from Christopher's Columbus' house down here.

Absolutely amazing. It's in an area of the known as the 'spanish zone' (though I may be messing that up) and there's a lot of neat architecture around there. They really know how to make government buildings down here...almost every one looks like the Field Museum. There are a number of high-rise buildings which resemble a high-rise apartment that's just off of 83 back home...basically a rectangular shape rising up into the sky with a lot of symmetrical balconies jutting out...they kind of look like a game-in-progress Jenga stack, if you've ever played that. Very neat.

The people are VERY friendly. I think I've heard 'muchacho' and 'hermano' a million times today. Wherever there's parking there's usually a guy or two hanging around. If you give them a tip they'll watch your car and make sure nobody messes with it. I'm surprised they don't have this in Chicago. (though maybe they do)

There are far more beggars and such in Chicago. Here I've only seen one, really, and he was a little boy who we saw on our way from the airport yesterday. One of my colleagues said that it's hard to give because that just encourages it, but he felt bad and gave anyway. There are a lot of street vendors selling food and stuff. We also saw a dog at the Avis office which was just kind of hanging around outside. He made me think of Hooper though he looked nothing like him, besides being black. A cat running around outside the place we ate today made me think of Boots.

We passed a school letting out on the way to our late lunch. All the kids were in uniforms. I'm not sure if that is the norm down here but if it is, more power to them. I'm sure a ton of problems don't even come up at all with a system like that.

Someone who has been here before had mentioned there were a lot of armed people on the streets. The only people that are armed here (that I have seen) are in uniform, so that's cool. I have seen them with shotguns and M-16s (I think) but this was around the Presidential Palace (very nice, and amazing to see) so that's understandable I think.

On our way to and from dinner we drove on the coast, and along the coast is a HUGE wall...something like 40-50 feet tall I'd say. Very thick too. It was build to protect the city from pirates. I'm telling you, this whole area there looked like it was plucked from Tortuga and the 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. I've really never seen anything that was REAL like that in my life. I kinda wish I had taken my camera but I kind of got warned away from taking anything valueable and looking too much like a tourist. There are also a lot of beautiful statues and monuments here as well.

One thing I am noticing...my high school spanish is making *something* of a resurrgence. If my colleagues are speaking slowly enough (which they do, as they are both non-native spanish speakers) I can understand somewhat of what they are saying. Together with hand movements and stuff I probably understand about 30-40% of it which is not too bad. They don't speak Spanish to me, but they do to people here that don't speak English. (or prefer Spanish)

A long day today, but it was a productive one. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as productive.

Well, this is my first post from the Dominican Republic. AKA, the first real other country I've ever been too. I don't count Cozumel or Belize since I didn't need a passport...and I don't count Epcot either.

First impressions...the people seem to be nice. They speak Spanish at first go but if I respond in English that I don't understand (or if I talk to me colleagues from work down here in English around others) they just speak English. The Marriott here is very nice, the equal of any I've been in. Maybe even nicer since it's newer.

I was happy to see the American Embassy like one block away. Don't know why, it was just nice to see it. The Vatian Embassy is also close by. Big day for them today.

Meeting the other two guys downstairs at 8:15am tomorrow. They both speak spanish and are very familiar with the DR so they're real godsends. I don't know what I'd do without them.

After breakfast, it's off to the office. Hopefully everything works out nicely and we have a productive day.

I have something here for you. Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow old Obi-Wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade like your father did. It's your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or as random as a blaster, but an elegant weapon for a more civilized age. For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire.

It just arrived today. I'm still geeking out about it. Court ordered it for me some time ago. It was meant to be a surprise, but that was a secret she couldn't keep. It came this morning and I didn't want to opened it without her around so I asked her to stop by the house before she went on to her show this afternoon. It's amazing. It's a lot heavier than I'd thought. It doesn't work, obviously, but, let me tell you, it feels like it should. I've wanted one my whole life. Absolutely
incredible.


This one, in particular, is Anakin's lightsaber in Episode III. As such, it's the lightsaber Anakin has when he duels Obi-Wan...a fight Obi-Wan eventually wins. He takes Anakin's saber and gives it to Luke in the first Star Wars movie (production wise) "A New Hope". Luke later loses it when he loses his hand in "The Empire Strikes Back". Out of all the sabers Master Replicas has created, this is the one I've wanted the most. It's got the most history.  I also have the scaled (smaller) version of Luke's lightsaber from "The Return of the Jedi" that Court had given me as a gift last year.




Very cool.

My book arrived today! Mr. Tony even personalized it. I'm really geeking out about it.

Anyways, I did pass 2 yesterday. Some changes from my original plan.

Page 1: Dodgeball (as below)
Page 2: Jurassic Park III with Stan Winston and ILM effects team commentary
Page 3: Old School with Todd Phillips (director) Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson, and Will Farrell commentary.

Page 4's pick (still up in the air) will have to wait until Wednesday night when Court leaves for Miami again for a few days.

Pass 1 done, pizza eaten.

Pass 2...

Page 1: "Dodgeball" with Rawson Thurbur (director), Ben Stiller, and Vince Vaughn commentary.

Page 2 possibilities: "Ghostbusters", "A Knight's Tale", "Lethal Weapon 2" with commentaries.

Page 3: "Old School" with commentary

Page 4: possibilities: "Swingers" or "Untouchables". (with commentaries, of course)

The user interface for the 300+ jukebox DVD player we have is kinda ugly to use. I'll explain why that's relevant for this weekend.

Because of the ugliness, I made a spread of the names and index numbers of all the DVDs currently in the player. Right now, there's 299 DVDs in there. It's not every DVD we own, but the ones we watch the most. Anyway.

This list is in alphabetical order. It's slightly over 4 pages long. Page one starts with "13 going on 30" and ends with "Down with Love". Page 2 starts with "Drive me Crazy" (not mine) and ends with "The Lost World". Page 3 starts with "Maid in Manhattan" (not mine) and ends with "Scream 3". Page 4 starts with "Scrooged" and ends with "X-Men 2". There's a fifth page with only "Young Frankenstein" and "You've Got Mail" on it.

With Court gone this weekend, I thought I'd watch some movies that I usually don't watch because she either doesn't like them or doesn't like commentary tracks. What I thought I would do was pick one DVD per page that I either hadn't seen with commentary (or a particular commentary track) or fav movies I hadn't seen in a while.

Page 1's choice: Dark City (with Roger Ebert commentary)
Page 2's choice: Jersey Girl (Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier, and Jason Mewes commentary)
Page 3's chioce: Ocean's Eleven (Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia, and Matt Damon commentary)
Page 4's choice: Terminator 3 (Jonathan Mostow, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken commentary)

That's the first pass anyway. I've already got some titles eyed for pass 2.

And the Papa John's has been ordered.

ChicagoSports.com - Caray: Cubs 'embarrassed themselves': "Caray set the tone by saying, 'Ultimately, I think the players embarrassed themselves and embarrassed the team and, fortunately for both Steve and me, we were able to land on our feet at other places where people appreciate our honesty.'
"

Chip Caray's a jerk. Big surprise.

Ok...how cool is this???

Long story short...I sent one of Mr. Tony's books to him so he could sign it for me, and I threw some Cadbury Cream Eggs in there because he'd mentioned he'd liked them.

CNN.com - Shuttle to head for launch pad - Apr 6, 2005

Nice to see. We're almost on our way.

Something neat happened this morning...details later.

Watched the Illini/UNC game from start--->finish last night. Long story short, Illinois lost.

What is a little longer story, though, is the reason WHY they lost. And it is me. Or, more importantly, something I did. The Illini battled back from 15 pts down to even up with around 2 minutes or so left to go. The Tivo only had about 10 more minutes recording time to go. At that point, I extended the Tivo's recording time by a half-hour to make sure the overtime I was anticipating would get reocorded.

The Illini never. scored. again.

And people say these ticky tack things don't affect the outcome of sporting events.

CNN.com - 'JAG' ending after 10-year run - Apr 5, 2005

I'm kinda glad. If that 'San Diego' episode they did was an example of how they were going to take the show next year I wouldn't have wanted to watch anyway.

Last night at midnight we headed to Target for the 'midnight madness' release of the Episode III action figures and other items.

The loot:




As a member of Starwars.com's hyperspace program I was able to download a pdf of the last sections of a book called 'The Making of Revenge of the Sith'. This was material from the book that chornicled the movie-making process from after the actual book went to press. The material got me so hooked that I purchased the book today. I've only thumbed through parts but it looks absolutely fascinating.

CNN.com - After 26-year reign, pontiff dies at 84 - Apr 2, 2005: "John Paul II"


RIP... :(

Just got back from Wal-mart and Episode III figure madness. I got a LOT more than I had thought I would.

Pics to follow tomorrow...

Been a busy week at work for me. Possibility of some travel in the next few weeks so we'll see what happens.

Episode III stuff gets released tomorrow so there's a possibility I may head to Wal-mart or Target at midnight tonight to pick up some stuff. What the hell.

Court got off work at noon today (must be nice) and has started 'spring cleaning' since she's off to Miami (I think) on Wednesday and will be gone about a week after which her folks come down. I'm hearing some sort of hammering downstairs and that can't be good.

With my one neighbor in a cast and crutches for some reason and the other neighbor retired I think all three of us are home during the day. I still think they think I'm a hobo or something. Oh well.

Might go to Sea World tomorrow. We'll see. If it's hot I'm staying home.

Hitting to all fields...

• My dog doesn't seem to understand that people rarely stop in the middle of walking down the stairs. Either that or he's trying to kill me.


• While showering at the gym yesterday I heard two guys having a VERY loud conversation in a language that could only be Sullustan.


• Was thinking of going to Shore Leave in July...of course all flights between FL and Baltimore have a stop in the middle. You'll never guess where. Chicago. Of course.


• At some point in Survivor they're just going to cut to the Ulong tribe and all you're going to see are the bodies of Ibrahim, Bobby-John, and Stephanie along with a note saying they just couldn't take the losing anymore.

Hooper was groomed today. After looking into dog grooming options (what fun) we found that it's a lot better to get a groomer that comes to your home rather than take him some place like Pet-Whatever to get groomed. I guess that at these retail stores where they do grooming it's pretty common for your dog to get sick somehow...and I don't really want to deal with that.

The woman showed up on time with a big van/bus type vehicle. She took Hooper and after like 45 mins they emerged. Hooper looks very nice all groomed. He was getting a little scraggly. She asked how we wanted him cut and stuff and I just told her I didn't want him shaved and everything and I wanted her to keep his eyebrows. He smells great, looks very nice, and he even has a bandana. Pretty funny. Cost was $58. I got the woman's card and asked her how often he should be groomed. She said 8 weeks because we like him scruffy, which doesn't seem too bad...especially since she could have said 4 weeks and I would have been like 'ok' because I have no clue.

Had a nice weekend this weekend. Watched some stuff on the Tivo and saw 'Hostage' and 'Robots', both of which were good. Saw 'Robots' on the giant screen at the Muvico at the Pointe and they had the new Episode III trailer in front of Robots so that was cool.

Went to the dentist on Friday. No cavities or anything, as always. Doc asked if I grew up in IL because they had good fluoride in the water there. My top two wisdom teeth have emerged (actually, they did a LONG time ago) and the right one is causing me daily pain in the form of constant headaches. So that's fun. I got a referral for the oral surgeon so I've got to make that appointment. I have a cleaning tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

They did a new kind of X-ray at this dentist...I stood against this thing and the X-ray thing revolved around my head. I thought this would get me out of the X-ray film in my mouth deal, but it didn't. After that, the woman took digi-pics of each segment of my teeth, which I thought was cool.

So, eventually, I'll get these damn wisdom teeth out. We talked about braces (due to my 2 teeth that jut out a bit in the front) but the dentist said the way my mouth and teeth are they might have to remove one to make enough room for the others, and that ain't gonna happen.

Trekkie Nerd Congratulations! You scored 81%!

Congratulations - your designation as a Trekkie Nerd means that you are statistically more likely to be a virgin, socially inept, live at home in your mother's basement and have no chance of scoring a chick like Seven. Still, if knowledge of temporal paradoxes, the repercussions of the Janeway effect and an intimate knowledge of Klingon history made big bucks, you'd be a millionaire. Ah, tis the sweet irony of life.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 91% on Trekkies

Link: The Trekkie Test written by MadameBoffin on Ok Cupid

That's the completed Falcon. I finished it the night before Mom came in. She remembered it from back in the day and said I did a great job. Of course, she could have said that no matter what, but that's cool. Judge for yourself.

It's not perfect, not even really close to perfect, but I tried to do my best. I wish I knew of a better way to make scrapes in the colored sections, but everything I tried didn't turn out looking right. The holes in the hull and gashes were made with a soldering iron from my comp kit. The blackened areas are just black chalk dust sealed on to the model with layers of Future floor polish and Testor's dullcote. Although it can't be seen from this angle, I did include the 'famous' big dent in the port docking port that's right above the ramp. I did that with one of those 'click and light' red and black lighter wands with a little build up behind the hole using sprue that the parts were attached to.

GAH!

Batten down the hatches again this year?

Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center are predicting that this year will be another above-average season for Florida due to the continued presence of a strong high-pressure ridge. The “Bermuda High” keeps hurricanes from turning north into the Atlantic, instead keeping them on course for Florida. If there is no change between now and the beginning of hurricane season at the beginning of June, it could again be a rough season for the southeastern United States.

While it's highly improbable that Florida will again get hit with four strong hurricanes, it is not unlikely for two major strikes to slam the state. Of course, as with all weather predictions, this is all subject to change at a moment's notice. In the meantime, let's hope that the Bermuda High dissipates in the next couple of months.

Had a nice trip back to IL last week. Basically, it was training and orientation for our new group inside Moto corporate. For me, it's a small change, though I miss our old management chain and teams. It's still working with the same people...though some have moved on to different teams for one reason or another.

Throughout the visit I was able to watch the Super Bowl with my Dad, see my Grandma at my sister's (early) birthday dinner, have my Mom's sloppy joe's, a nice dinner with our new team and a great restaurant (Wildfire), and spend a nice day with my sister at the Museum of Science and Industry. Very nice.

It's always nice to be able to have a paid vacation back home due to the way my work situation turned out in the move to FL. I'm really lucky.

After sitting in an actual work facility for a week, I'm amazed how many people don't know how to flush a toilet.

Gross, I know. That is all.

CNN.com - Actor Ossie Davis dead at 87 - Feb 4, 2005

Sad. I loved him in 'Joe versus the Volcano'. :(

Getting to know me...

1)Name the Last Four Things You Have Bought:
Testors spray enamel in Light Aircraft Grey (2)
Small bottles of paint (4)
Puppy treats
Sour Rasberry Altoids


2)Name Four Drinks You Regularly Drink:
Milk
Orange Juice
Grape Juice
Water


3)Time you Cried:
Boy, I really don't remember. I think it was during an ESPN special on the Bulls Championships and they showed the Paxon and Kerr game-winning shots.

4)What's In Your CD Player?
mp3 CD in the car. Last CD I bought was the soundtrack to the Muppet Show.


5)What's Under Your Bed?
Two bins filled with various things. We don't have a lot of storage in the house.

6)What Time Did You Wake Up Today?
8am

7)Current Hair?
Got a haircut a few days ago in anticipation of going into the office next week.

8)Current Clothes?
PJs

9)Current Desktop Picture?
pic of an old old Motorola radio I took at Epcot.

10)Current Worry?
hmm...meeting my new boss next week, though he seems like a good guy.

11)Current Hate?
people who cancelled 'Enterprise'.

12)Favorite Place To Be?
San Francisco was nice.

13)Least Favorite Place?
Disney or any Disney shopping

14)If You Could Play An Instrument?
piano (hope to learn some day)

15)Favorite Colors?
blue

16)How Tall Are You?:
5'11 1/2"

17)Favorite expression?
come on now

18)One Person From Your Past You Wish You Could Go Back And Talk To?
probably myself and tell me not to stress and it'll all work out.

19)Favorite Day(s)?
Saturday probably

20)Where Would You Like To Go?
New England, New York, Washington DC, back to CA

21)Where Do you want to live when you get married?
already married

22)Favorite food?
probably Barnaby's

23)Color of most clothes you own?
navy blue

24)Number of pillows you sleep with?
2 under hear, holding one of old pillows we had on the futon

25)What do you wear when you go to sleep?
shorts and a t-shirt

26)what were you doing 12AM last night?
painting my model

27)How old will you be in 10 yrs?
37 (had to think about how old I am now)

28)What do you think you'll be doing in 10 years?
hopefully the same stuff and living back in IL with kids and hopefully making more money.

29)Do you have braces?
No, I wish I did though. I might still get them.

30)Are you paranoid?
well, sometimes. I really don't care what people think so that helps.

31)Do you burn or tan?
Burn. I didn't think I did until I went to damn Cozumel. NEVER AGAIN.

32)What is the brand of your wallet?:
Dockers I think

33)First piercing/tattoo?
ug

34)First enemy?
Guy at NIU who wore his Yankee hat like it just came out of the box or something. Absolutely flat brim and the brim and the front of the hat made a right angle. "Hat Boy"

35)Last person you yelled at?
Court for somehow breaking the flashlight while taking the dog out. Something I've done 500 times without breaking anything.

36)Last crush?
pisht...so long ago I can't remember.

37)Last thing you ate?
slim-fast. Almost lunch time now.

38)If you could be a pirate, would you?
Hell yeah. Sid Meyer's Pirates! is an awesome game.

39) Last time you had sex?
few days ago (?)

40) If you could be with anyone right now, who would it be?
Uncle Bruce, to say Happy BD in person.

A long time ago (easily 10+ years) my Mom had given me a Millennium Falcon model kit. I started it and stopped it in a matter of days. Whether I thought it was too difficult or something else came up, I don't know. Unfortunately I did glue some parts together but nothing too drastic. Anyway.

I've just spent the last 4+ hours detailing the top and bottom of the kit to match the real model of the Millennium Falcon. Thanks to some pics I'd taken when the model was on display at the Field Museum plus some different shots I found on a website of the same model on display at a different museum I think I've gotten pretty close. Tomorrow, I'll mask off those detailed panels and spray the body of the kit. After that it's some airbrushing with diluted black paint (to weather the model) and a coat of Testors Dulcote to dull it a little.

Hopefully I have that procedure right. I'm trying to pick up hints and stuff on the net and I'm still really new at trying to model the 'right way'. Wish me luck!

(I hope to complete this model before my Mom comes down so she can see it finished)

create your own visited states map

RIP the crew of STS-107 which was destroyed upon re-entry 2 years ago today.

Brown
Clark
Chawla
Anderson
Ramon
McCool
Husband

CNN.com - NASA remembers fallen astronauts - Jan 28, 2005

19 years ago today, the brave astronauts of the shuttle Challenger lost their lives.

I wish I could say I remember where I was when it happened. The truth is, while I *do* remember the day it happened, I don't really remember much about it besides where we lived (Rita Ct. in Bartlett) and the ugly leather couches we used to have. Isn't that odd. I have this vague recollection of somebody walking in and saying something and me seeing these couches when I think about Challenger for some odd reason. Very strange.

Obviously, the Columbia loss is much fresher in my mind--not only because of the closeness of the date, but because I was in Central Florida at the time and it was HUGE news down here because the shuttle had been heading to the Cape to land.

We've lost many brave astrnauts in the pursuit of the exploration of space. May God bless them all.

Tonight Show's Tribute to Johnny Carson...

Johnny Carson died the other day. When I was a kid, I'd watch the Tonight Show. I remember a time when I would only watch when Jay Leno would guest-host, but this was a time back when Leno was actually funny. Now he's just a cartoon basically.

To say Carson was a funny guy is not enough. The man was a legend, and I'm sad that he's gone.

One good thing came from all this...instead of their regular crap, the Tonight Show did this tribute last night. Bob Newhart and Don Rickles (always hilarious) were there, as well as Drew Carey. They told stories and played classic clips...it was great. I loved it.

The thing is...do you know who was originally scheduled to be on the show last night? Paris Hilton. Talk about a total turnaround. To go from someone who's basically a drain on society and humanity as a whole to featuring great comedians paying tribute to a great man. That's gotta be the most drastic turnaround in entertainment history.

In watching the 'Angel' episodes that are on the upstairs Tivo, I bypass a lot of old election commercials from the 2004 Election.

Boy, I'm glad that's all over.

Everything is going well on the Hooper front. "Training" a puppy is a lot of work--though most of the time it seems he's training me. After a few days of getting the leash wrapped around my legs and mostly using Boots'(too short) leash instead of Hooper's (because the clasp on Hooper's is a pain to work) I finally went to PetWhatever and got him a stake and line for the back. Now, after he eats I just put him out there and either I sit in the back with Boots or I take Boots outside too and we just wait around for Hooper to do his business. By the way, I'm proud to report that he's finally doing it outside...sometimes. He still goes on the puppy pads inside (and sometimes not, unfortunately) but he's gone outside a bunch too, which is cool. We give him a special kind of treat when he does that. Hopefully he's learning. We'll see.

On the work front, all of us at work got sucked into this new organization. Motorola Information Protection Service. Actually, it's somewhat of a good thing--as long as everyone is placed somewhere. There's still something I'm worried about. Hopefully it gets taken care of some time today. Personally, I've been promoted so I'm happy about that. It also looks like I will have to go too Alaska to do a delivery with a bunch of other guys. Some of the guys from our old team and some from the new. It's Government stuff. I'll also either have to go to San Diego or Virginia for a two-day training deal in early or mid February. We'll see how that goes.

We're just back from the vet. For some unknown reason, Court scheduled Hooper's vet appointment at 8:30am on a Saturday. The lesson, as always: Don't get married.

Anyway. He did fine. He's about 900x calmer than Boots is at the vet...though Court says that at this age Boots was fine at the vet too. The last time we went he screeched louder than I thought a cat could ever be and the vet said next time they'd have to sedate him.

Saw the papers with Hooper's Birthday on them: October 30, 2004. Also found out that puppies won't really start to be potty trainined until they're 4-5 months old and have gotten into the bathroom/outside repetition. We've still got a ways to go but we're happy with how things are going.

While we were back home for Christmas I played some Madden with Chris. He had just gotten 2005 for Christmas. He took 2 out of 3 games from me but I hadn't played in a while. It made me want to reinstall whatever Madden I had already, which turned out to be like 2001 or something. I figured I could go to Best Buy (normally against my better judgement since I hate them) but when the new Madden comes out they usually kick the last year's version to the curb and price them at $10.

So we went to Best Buy and I found 2004 for $10. I was all ready to buy it when Court comes up to me with 2005 and it's only $20. Now, why the PS2 version is $50 and the PC version is $20, I don't know. But better, I don't care.

I've been playing for about a week or so. I've already taken the Bears to the Super Bowl and won it. Half the season I played at rookie mode because I was just getting back into playing, but after throwing up 100 pts against the computer in one game I set the difficulty at 'pro' and went from there. I only had one loss all season, and it was one of those where the computer decides there's no way, no way, NO WAY you're winning that game and that was that.

This game has EVERYTHING. You control prices on everything including merchandise and concessions and all that. Plus, there's a 'training camp' mode with drills and all sorts of stuff. I'm sure somebody who really wanted to get into it all could spend hours doing all that crap. I tinker a bit but I don't go crazy.

It's really been fun to play. When we were in college we used to play NBA Live '96 on the PS1 and since it gave you four teams to customize we each took a team and had a draft and everything. It was great. I probably played NBA Live and NHL Live more than football because my friends could kick my tail at Madden any day.

I got a bunch of comp games for Christmas too. Pirates! and Evil Genius are two of the other ones I've played. Pirates! is just what it sounds like. So is Evil Genius pretty much. Thinking "Stepping into Dr. Evil's shoes" and you're good to go.

oh man, I just heard on Mike & Mike that after yesterday's game Favre was talking about retiring.

Could it be...has this day finally come? Oh man...oh...man...

It's official. I just considered calling my Mom to tell her that Hooper finally went potty on the puppy pads we laid down.

Yes, it's the beginning of the end for me.

Haven't blogged in a while. Time to step it up a little.

Hitting to all fields...

• A good time was had in IL for Christmas/New Years, as always.


• I told Pops that I predicted a blizzard while we were in. Only missed by one day. Good thing I only use my powers for good.


• We got my in-laws a surround sound DVD player for Christmas and installed it on New Year's Eve. With a basement and dropped ceiling speaker placement was a joy. You can barely see the cables and it sounds great.


• Mr. Tony is back on the radio, and they stream the show over the net. WOO HOO!


• Thanks again to the wonders of streaming internet radio, I can listen to my 'local' Chicago sports talk afternoon show as well!


• It seems that Jon Stewart may have single-handedly killed 'Crossfire'. Oh well. It was too much useless yelling anyways.


• Lastly, but CERTAINLY not leastly, Hooper is in the house! Actually, he's at my feet right now. He and Boots have gotten along 500x better than I'd thought. Not even any confrontations at all. They just leave each other alone. Big props to Boots for beating expectations. I'm proud of them both.

More to come...

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.