Friday, March 30, 2007

Ban bans

Here is the down low. I value my freedoms of making decisions more than whatever is the current ban buzz. If I think that something is bad I have the ability myself to avoid the bad situation/product. The problem is that some people works everybody up on some pseudo-science and then they gets the public support for their pet ban. This is not a good idea. Take the following examples.

The "in" thing right now is for cities to ban smoking in public places. This is because "innocent" people (who choose to go to the restaurant or work at the restaurant) have to breathe the second hand smoke. People have been told that second hand smoke is very dangerous, when in fact if you look at the sighted studies most find that there is no statistical (real) effect on health with second hand smoke. If we really want to save lives let's ban alcohol. Alchol kills more innocent people than second hand smoke does. But since everyone drinks and not everyone smokes it is easier to ban smoking. And everyone has warm fuzzies inside because they are doing "the right thing".

The next hot topic is banning incandescent light bulbs. The reasoning is that light bulbs is a one cause in the release of green house gases that possibly leads to the ill-named "global warming." (It is a different post about why global warming is a bad label for what the scientists mean -global climate change.) But I have have a better solution, instead of banning cheap lighting for people lets ban bottled water. So much energy goes into making something that already comes out of the tap (which you can put your own filter on). It is really insane that people that are "champions for the environment" also drink bottled water. But I guess they only want to ban things that will not inconvenience them, just other people.

The real problem is that these bans will not stop, once something is banned they will move on the the next hot topic. I can see that we want to protect people in the workplace, so they don't want smoking, but it will not end there. What about high fat diets (already working on those bans), what about high sugar diets (started there too). What if Jenette finds that sound-making toys do reduce dramatic play, should we ban toys that make sound? It sounds stupid now but what if a movement gets going and starts to rally for that ban?

And that is what this all comes down to. I don't want to inhale second hand smoke, so I tent to go to restaurants that do not allow smoking, in fact I don't go to Bobby T's anymore becasue of the smoking there. But it was the restaurants choice to not allow smoking. I had hallogen bulbs in my home, but that is because of my choice. (I stoped getting them besuace the lamp that I put them in burned through them much quicker than normal light bulbs.) I avoid unnecessary fat and sugar in my diet. So if I want an extra large soda, or fries I can have it. The goverment should not be our babysitter. And with every ban that is passed we have one less freedom, and that is not the way America should be.

So go ahead and post why I am wrong. I know that for some contrary people out there that just the fact that I posted that bans are wrong will now make you believe that bans are the best thing ever, and that is ok. Just keep in mind that I think that people can think for themselves and that I value freedom. Try to form your rebuttal within that framework. If you can't that is fine, but realize that I already know that some people think that the government need to protect people at all costs, so I don't need to hear that one.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Emo

I was going to post about something important, like how banning light bulbs is stupid, or how it is so en vogue right now to not like America, or maybe why almost all the video games made now are not good. But instead I'll just post something funny.



I especially like the end of the video. :)

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

In Defense of Batman

I was sitting here at Radina's grading homework when some guys at the table next to me started to make fun of Batman. They were basically saying that the only reason Batman is a superhero is because he bought himself fancy toys. Now, I agree with this, and I usually agree that Superman is a better superhero than Batman (with the super powers vs. super money argument), but today I thought otherwise. Here's why:
Superheroes that have super powers have somewhat of a moral obligation to do good deeds. The thought is that people that are powerful should help those in need. And really that how it should be. Now let's look at Batman. He has no super powers, he only has gadgets. We might point this out and say that he is a failure as a superhero, however he does more than his fair share of conquering evil, so we know that he is effective as a superhero. Furthermore, Batman has no moral obligation to be a superhero, he is doing it out of the kindness of his heart. He is very rich and instead of spending that money on himself he uses it to help others. Albeit he probably wanted a reason to make a Batcave, and a Batmobile, but he did not have to be a superhero, he chose to be one. And doesn't that mean that Batman is really a better superhero than Superman?
Any rebuttals?

Monday, March 26, 2007

Not lacking any meat.

Very rarely do I stop whatever I am doing and watch an ad that comes on. But recently Quizno's has been running an ad for garlic bread prime rib sandwich and it is awesome. Well it isn't all great just one lady who is impressed by how much meat the sandwich has. If you have seen the ad you know who I am talking about, and if not, somebody has edited the ad down to it's essence.

I bet as soon as she let out the laugh she regretted it.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Two Stories That Didn't Happen (But Could Have)

The first one was inspired when I washed my hands last night:

It's not that I don't like okra slime, I really don't mind it, but this was almost too much. I don't know how Wal-Mart did it but it seems like they had been able to actually add okra slime to their bag of frozen okra. Did they just freeze the okra in extra slime? I ate most of the okra but by the time I got to the bottom of the bowl it was getting somewhat gross. I actually didn't eat the last few bits and threw them away. After putting the bowl in the sink I took a short stroll outside since we just had our first thunderstorm. It was amazing how many earthworms were our on the concrete, and these guys are huge. I picked one up just to see how thick they get when they contract, and it is impressive how thick they get, bigger than a pencil around. I made my way back inside. I watched a couple seconds of TV, the show is some crappy movie that doesn't hold my attention. I walked over to the sink, I didn't think that the okra was slimy enough to get on my hands but my hands were slimy and in need of a wash. I looked for a second and then licked off a large streak of slime. HORROR. That wasn't okra slime, but worm slime. The surprising part is that both slimes tasted the same. The gag reflex was late but amazingly strong.
Truth Factor: All of it up to where I licked the slime off. I washed my hands off thinking it was okra slime and when I was done I remembered that it was worm slime. I was very happy that I chose not to like off the slime.

The second one was inspired after reading A Gentleman's C post about a crazy guy:

Everything was going to plan. It is 1850 and my guess about what people wore was close enough. There are a few bits and pieces that are out of place, but when asked about them I was quickly able to dispel questions by saying I am a tinker and make small strange objects. It is amazing the amount of knowledge that I can learn from just a short afternoon in the past, there is just nothing like actually being in the time to be able to understand it. But I think it is about time to head on back to the present. I don't want to mess up the present, and for being a first trip to the past I do not really know how much going into the past actually effects the present. So I head on back to my machine. On the way back I go past a classroom, the teacher is preparing the to recite the planets. I laugh a bit because they have no idea about Pluto, and they wont for a long time, heck, they might not even know of Neptune yet. The teacher reminds the students to include the newly discovered planet, the kids all say 'yes' in unison, and then start their list. "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune." I stand in shock. How is it possible? How could my machine have changed the world so quickly? Why is Ceres a planet? Did my machine have some sort of gravity well and did something to the orbit of the planets? That doesn't make sense, my machine only was in their future, how could it have such an effect that all kids think that Ceres is a planet? The thoughts and the dread fill my mind, if my short trip made that much of a difference to the past, there is no use going back forward into time, the present will be radically different and not even close to what it was when I left it. I spend the rest of my days in the 1800's quickly descending into self-inflicted madness.
Truth Factor: Well I didn't build a time machine, but if I did go back in time I probably would flip out like this, and I would have thought that I screwed everything up. That is because from 1801 to the 1860's Ceres was actually considered a planet in our solar system. When I would have heard that I would have really thought that I messed things up, even though I really didn't. I bet there are just hundreds of little things like this that would surprise any time traveler.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

My New Favorite Blog, Championship.

Well it all comes down to this:
63. Dust-Slaying vs. Sara With No H
Shanshu (Dust-Slaying) lays down a one two punch of annoyances. First is the problem that alot of people have with pronouncing the word chipotle, specifically when it comes to the restaurant. People the word round (i.e. America) pronounce it chi-pot-el or chi-poll-tee, and not the correct chi-poht-leh. I used to mispronounce the word too, but I have seen the light (their take-out menu has the correct way to pronounce it). The second annoyance is with chain letters, and I really don't think we need to go into that one any further. Sara counter-punches with a description about her first bike ride of the year(?). And then follows it up with a post about favorite restaurants that are no more. My two favortie dead restaurants are El Charro in Garden (the bestest Mexican food), and Cox Bros. BBQ here in Manhattan. I do miss those places.... Ok enough longing for burritos long gone.
Winner: Dust-Slaying

So there we have it, a little over a month and I have found my new favorite blog, Shanshu's Dust-Slaying. He diffidently deserves this title. His blog was the only one that did not lose a single pairing, and it always seemed that he had something funny or entertaining posted. There were many blogs that were great in the contest but only a few that always seemed to produce on such a high level all of the time, and Shanshu always seemed to post just that extra very funny bit to get him the win. Bravo I say, bravo.

This contest turned out to be more enjoyable that I thought it was going to be. I really started to look forward to reading the blogs, and sometimes it annoyed me that I would have to wait two or more days to catch up on what everyone had been posting.
I think that overall the contest was a success, and I think that I may do another contest sometime soonish, but first I was to give myself some time to get some blog time back, since it seems like most of my posts over the last month have been about the contest.
I would like to thank everyone for being a good sport all along and not getting mad with me when I had to make the (always) tough decision about what blog to move on to the next round. Also I would like to thank everybody for keeping up on my blog and I hope that you will stick around and keep on checking up on what I have to say.
Well I guess I should go over the final results, so here is how everyone did (I even made little buttons for the places).

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
My New Favorite Blog:
Dust-Slaying: Redux


Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
My New Favorite Blog Runner Up:
Sara With No H


Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
My New Favorite Blog Semi-Finalists:
Writing as jo(e)
Jiggscasey.com


Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
My New Favorite Blog Quarter-Finalists:
Adventures in Kicking People
What the Duck?
Leisure Pursuit
Just Keep Swimming


Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
My New Favorite Blog Round of 16:
Scrivenings
Just Thoughts
"Brevity is... wit."
Legally Blonde
Sniper Kitty
The Other Side of the Ocean
Phantom Scribbler
Everybody Knows


Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
My New Favorite Blog Participants:
The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy
Crabcake's Cowpie Field
A Gentleman's C
O.Kay.
Shrinkykitten
Whole Lotta Trouble
As told to (your name here)
I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated.
Scared Bunny
Accident Prone
Gimchi
Jeremy Freese's Weblog
Conglomerate
Thoughts of a Crazy Redhead
Stressful Times for Psyc Girl
Ph.d. Ladybug


Here is the final bracket:

I am going to get up some sort of drop-down menu thing on the sidebar so that I can continue to check up on all of the blogs, so keep on a look out for that. Alright, I am starting to get real tired now, so I am going to head off to bed. Thanks again everyone for playing; I had a great time and I hope everyone else did as well.
Rock, rock on.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Watch all of Mad in one post.

For those that aren't "in the know" Mad (sometimes spelled M@D!) is a play that my sister and I wrote, and she produced for her senior project for high school (she also played Alice when the original Alice moved to Texas close to when the play was to be put on.) The story follows along the lines of Alice in Wonderland, but it takes place (mostly) inside a computer on the internet. I think the Michelle did a great job making it and I though that it would be a great subject to try out the new (to me) feature of YouTube that lets me play a series of video's in one player (it is spifftastic.)
If you don't have the time to watch all parts I will list what parts I like the best at the end of the post. Also part 1 is filmed bad, and the rest of the videos are nowhere as bad as the first one, I might even suggest skipping the first video if you have not seen Mad yet just so you aren't put off. Finally YouTube only lets me have 20 videos in a play list so I split up the videos into two halfs, split where there was intermission.
If you have a chance to watch the videos let me know what you think, and if you really like them you should tell Michelle so, she really didn't get any recognition from school (They didn't even promote the play like they said they would when she started.) Enjoy!

First Half of Mad


Second Half of Mad


My favorite parts (I know, it is alot of them...):
First Half: Part 3, Part 6 (Tweedledee and Tweedledum), Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, (White Rabbit), Part 10 (Flowers), Part 11*, Part 13 (Mad Hatter), Part 14* (the audio is off), Part 15 (Cheshire Cat)
Second Half: Part 17 (Caterpillar), Part 18, Part 19* (The King, the audio is off), Part 20 (The Queen), Part 22, Part 24*, Part 25*

*=The very very very best parts

Note: The player is messing up some things, when I load the page I only get one of the players, and it is missing up the formating of this page. I'll try to fix it.
Note2: I think it is all working now.

Ack!

I was working on getting a post up about Mad on YouTube, but when I posted it everything when wonky, and now... somehow... my photobucket account that holds all of my images for this page is deleted. I don't know how those are linked or what happened, but that sucks. So for a bit it looks like my blog will look sorta crappy until I get things sorted out. Sorry.

(And I was looking forward to my Mad post too.)

Update: I got most of the stuff fixed, but I don't have my normal profile pic handy so I put up a screen capture of a certain scared kid as my protest against photobucket.
Update2: It looks like it just happened to be a coincidence and photobucket went down at the same time that I was messing with the Mad stuff. I will still leave scared kid up until photobucket gets back up though. Ok bed for me.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Best Reaction

You'll have to watch more than a minute of dancing and singing, but the kids reaction makes it all worth it. :)

Monday, March 19, 2007

My New Favorite Blog, Second Chance Champion

62. Writing as jo(e) vs. Sara With No H
It is funny how things work out sometimes. Recently jo(e) had been on a trip over to Europe, were she has been going to churches, making choir boys blush and then trying to get back home (which she did, she was late but she made it because of a snowstorm). Meanwhile Sara also is wrapping up her own journey, a journey through chaos of having to take care of three boys. Now she is done with that adventure too. I thought it was going to be had to decide between the two conclusions to the recent events, but Sara posted a video where one of the boys is trying to pull out one of his teeth. It was nostalgic / very gross and the clincher for me.
Winner:Sara With No H

That means that Sara (Sara With No H) will be meeting up with Shanshu (Dust-Slaying) for the title of My New Favorite Blog. Stay tuned.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Spring Break Burrito

Today starts Spring Break. There is no better way to get off on the right foot but by having a celebratory burrito from Chipotle.

Rock rock on.

My New Favorite Blog, Round 8 Results, Round 9 Pairing

61. Sara With No H vs. Jiggscasey.com
Sara is just happy that they haven't had to resort to cannibalism over at the house. She is taking care of three nephews and they seem to be about as much as she can handle. She also has the title of being able to type 20 words a minute, impressive. Jiggscasey has a new fact to me. Apparently when you eat aspargus your pee smells different. Only some people can smell the change, and I must be in that category because I never even had a thought that my pee smelled any different after eating aspargus. But I guess it is also not something that I have pursued to smell either.
Winner: Sara With No H

So here is final part of the bracket:
The match up for the Second Chance Bracket Champion is:
62. Writing as jo(e) vs. Sara With No H

The winner will take on Dust-Slaying: Redux for the title of my new favorite blog.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

300 Movie Review

Last weekend I went to go see the movie 300. This is what I think.

300 is one of the best movies to ever be made. I don't think that the story is all that spectacular since there was little character development. But what they lacked in story they made up for in cinematography. While I watched the movie I kept in mind that it was based off a comic book. Although I have never read the comic there were many times that I was able to see the shot from the comic being played out on the movie screen. The guys that made this film did not hold back the idea that it is a "comic book" movie and what resulted was a very well made movie. Be warned though, there is alot of blood, and a couple of severed heads, but it didn't seem that bad or overwhelming in the context of the movie.
I better stop saying that this movie was based off of a comic book though because somebody might get the wrong idea. Don't misunderstand me. I hate normal comic book movies. I find that they use some hero give him some thin plot and then suck it up while and hope people come see the movie. It is very annoying.
300 on the other hand takes a decent story and then is made better through the movie. The colors are vivid, the acting is solid, and the fighting is like a choreographed dance. It is really a sight to be seen.

300 is worth a full price movie ticket.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

My New Favorite Blog, Upper Bracket champion results

60. Dust-Slaying: Redux vs. Writing as jo(e)
Shanshu (Dust-Slaying) played hooky and got burned. He called into work on Friday sick, or his grandma was sick, or something. So he got the day off to watch movies and the like. Then over the weekend he actually got sick but couldn't call in on Monday. Karma? Jo(e) is now over in Europe and taking wonderful pictures and seems to just be turning out the tales. Also she gets points for being nice to them and improving our international relationships. The choices I have to make now are just getting too hard, but I guess I have to go with the hooky story.
Winner: Dust-Slaying: Redux

Shanshu will play whoever makes it out of the Second Chance bracket (two more rounds to go there) for the title of My New Favorite Blog. Congratulations!

My New Favorite Blog, Round 7 Results, Round 8 Pairings

Round 7 went something like this:

58. Adventures in Kicking People vs. Jiggscasey.com
Sleep Goblin (Kicking People) let on a secret that she doesn't like food. Well she doesn't like food enough to make it, and she would eat chicken flavored ramen all the time if 'the man' would let her. Jiggscasey thinks that the only way that there should be Presidential candidates on TV is if it is part of a reality show. Also Jiggs made a dramatic reading on a nonsensical spam email.
Winner: Jiggscasey.com

59. What the Duck? vs. Sara With No H
Madge (What the Duck) is having a front porch revival where even the bougainvillea plant that was once lost has come back home to produce leaves and flowers. Sara is at it again with using students for her own personal gain. This time she doesn't want to kill a cockroach herself. When will this insanity ever end? Oh speaking of insane she lets CrazyBikeDude into her house when she is not around, and then he changes the clocks in her house. Yeah.
Winner: Sara With No H

That means the brackets look something like this:
Close up:

Overall:

Round 8 Pairings:
60. Dust-Slaying: Redux vs. Writing as jo(e) (Upper Bracket)
61. Sara With No H vs. Jiggscasey.com (Second Chance Bracket)

Upper bracket results may come soon.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Proprietary != Awesome

An annoying trend I have been noticing lately is that the term 'proprietary' has been used in more in more adds as some sort of example of how awesome that product is. Just so we are all on the same level here this is Wikipedia's definition of the word:
Proprietary indicates that a party, or proprietor, exercises private ownership, control or use over an item of property, usually to the exclusion of other parties.
There is no part of that definition that implies that something that is proprietary is superior to other products.

I really wouldn't have even noticed or really cared about this misuse of a word if it wasn't for me not getting a free sandwich. Wait, what? (Cue the little visual ripples and the harp music that indicates that we are heading somewhere in the past.)

Last summer Planet Sub was advertising on campus that they were giving away free small sandwiches. Like anybody else who understands how valuable free is I (and Nicole) headed on down to Planet Sub to cash in on the deal (I didn't really get why they were giving away free sandwiches, maybe because it was around finals time and they were being nice.) When we got to the shop the line was nearly out the door, but we were greeted right away and asked if we were there for the free sandwich. A 'you bet' from me was followed by 'ok, here you go, fill this out and we will get you a free sandwich ticket' from some guy.

Now wait a minute. Nowhere did it say that I would have to fill out any forms to get a free sandwich. But alas, I was there, and I did want a free sandwich. After all I did expect a catch to the deal, so I started to fill out the form. I should mention that the form was on a spiffy wireless pda/phone thing and it was a credit card application.

I really didn't mind too much until i had to enter my social security number and my mother's maiden name. That was just a bit too much for me. I know why they need it, but the fact that I am sending this information over the air to their computer got me a bit uneasy. I have watched Kevin Rose and crew work his magic too many times. It would be very easy for somebody to sit outside the place and just pick up gobs of juicy data from the hoard of people just trying to get a free sandwich.

After seeing those blanks to be filled out I got up and gave the spiff-chine back to the guys running the promotion and told them that my personal information is worth more than a $5 sandwich. He asked what I meant and I explained about people picking off the information that I am sending over the air. This was his response. His response that is suppose to quite my fears of someone stealing my information.

"Well our wireless network has proprietary encoding on it."

Well whoopdeedo! That may make it safe-er because not everyone has the same encoding as you, but that word does not mean my information is going to be transported in a armored truck to your computer. Freakin' Tootsie Rolls have a proprietary formula too, but I can make better chocolate than they can. I don't remember if I went at it with him over the word proprietary, but it did set me off into the mode where I point and laugh (read complain) every time somebody uses the word to champion their product. Seriously listen for it on adds, it happens alot these days.

Ah well. People always have to be doing something that annoys me, at least this is better than people saying 'literally' when they mean quite the opposite. Now THAT bugs me.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

My New Favorite Blog, Round 6 Results, Round 7 Pairings

And now behold the awesomeness of the results from the round 6 second chance brackets.

56. Sara With No H vs. Leisure Pursuit
Sara has moral problems giving students things to do for her, like translating pod-casts, running errands, and making her nachos. I don't see any problem, it sounds like a good system to me. Valerie (Leisure Pursuit) weighs in on her opinions of the remaining American Idol contestants. Apparently there are still people on the show that sing off key.
Winner: Sara With No H

57. Jiggscasey.com vs. Just Keep Swimming
Jiggscasey posted a video where they made margaritas with liquid nitrogen. It looks like something really fun to try, but i think it may be too hard for me to actually get a hold of some liquid nitrogen. Heather (Keep Swimming) had me choose a fruit (I chose cherry obviously) and then told me about myself. Some of it was right, other parts were wrong. I most definitely do not have a pit in the center of me.
Winner: Jiggscasey.com

So that means the updated brackets look like...
Whats left:

Overall:

Round 7 will just be the Second Chance bracket, here are the pairings.
58. Adventures in Kicking People vs. Jiggscasey.com
59. What the Duck? vs. Sara With No H

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Tabuto

I try not to post too many games, but when I came across Tabuto it was such a good compare/contrast to 360 Supreme Catcher that I couldn't pass up the post.

In Tabuto the object of the game it to catch the falling tiles, which is similar to 360 Catcher, but in Tabuto all you have to do is touch the tiles with the mouse controlled arrow. Tabuto doesn't rely on more complexity to make the game harder, it just makes the tiles fall faster and faster. In Tabuto your game is over when you miss a total of 20 tiles, which does not reset at each level as 360 Catcher does.

Coincidently I can not get past level 7 in either game. My high score for this game is 888240. Try out both games and let me know which one you like better.

360 Supreme Catcher

Have I got a game for you. 360 Supreme Catcher seems like an easy enough game, all you have to do is catch the balls that are falling by moving the bar on the bottom on the screen back and forth with your arrow keys. And for the first two levels it isn't that bad, but then they make things go fast. Then they throw in a new twist, there is two colors and you must change your paddle to match the color of the ball that you are trying to catch. You do this by using the 'a' and 's' keys. Oh and you can only miss 10 balls per level.

I can't get past level 7 no matter how hard I try. You should give it a go.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

My New Favorite Blog, Round 6 Upper Bracket

The upper bracket round 6 results are in.

54. Dust-Slaying: Redux vs. Adventures in Kicking People
Shanshu (Dust-Slaying) explains that he is addicted to getting comments. He also thinks that Angelina Jolie is raising a baby army to take over the world by adopting orphans from strategic locations. He also invented the word clapter. The Sleep Goblin (Kicking People) discusses the finer points of chocolate and cats among other things. (Such as lots of snow.)
Winner: Dust-Slaying: Redux

55. Writing as jo(e) vs. What the Duck?
Jo(e) talks about all things cultish in the world of creative writing, such as getting together to have a reading party where they serve red kool-aid, and how people work they normal jobs to have a chance to make it as a writer. She also is on her way out to France for spring break. Madge (What the duck) discusses the finer points of chocolate and cats among other things. (Such as David Caruso.) Seriously my notes for Kicking People and What the duck were: chocolate and cats, and cats and chocolate respectively. It seems like those are the hot topics among the bloggers these days.
Winner: Writing as jo(e)

Alright, I'll do the second chance bracket in a day or so. In the mean time you can help me out. I am stuck working on something for this blog, I need one link to open up two web pages in new tabs (or windows). Any HTML or Javascript ninjas in the house?

Round 6 Brackets and Pairings

Here we are, down to 8 blogs remaining from the initial 32.

Here is the part of the bracket that is left:

Here are the brackets overall:

These are the round 6 pairings:
Upper Bracket:
54. Dust-Slaying: Redux vs. Adventures in Kicking People
55. Writing as jo(e) vs. What the Duck?

Second Chance Bracket:
56. Sara With No H vs. Leisure Pursuit
57. Jiggscasey.com vs. Just Keep Swimming

The upper bracket results to come soon.

My New Favorite Blog, Round 5 Results

I still am having problems leaving comments on blogs, but I think it is due to the new version of Firefox, so I will have to get on that. In the mean time I present the long awaited round 5 results.

49. Scrivenings vs. Sara With No H
Scrivenings had some trouble walking to campus. He knew that it was going to rain so he brought some extra socks with to change into when the inevitable foot soaking took place, unfortunately he didn't think it was going to rain (and hail) as much as it did, so the backup socks got drenched too. Sara took some get-to-know-you time with her boyfriend(?) down at the shooting range. She had never shot a gun before, but within no time she had the hang of things. She was even going for advanced targets like the crotch on her first time.
Winner: Sara With No H

50. Just Thoughts vs. Leisure Pursuit
Janelle (Just Thoughts) is in the mist of a move and has a new Macbook on the way. Valerie took a photo safari on Sunday. A photo safari is an event where a photographer goes around with a group of people and explains how to take pictures of different things. The one main rule during the safari is that you can't use a flash. It sounds like a fun thing to do.
Winner: Leisure Pursuit

51. Jiggscasey.com vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
Jiggscasey has decided to throw his hat (and pants) into the political ring. His platform sounds basically Libertarian where people are free to do what they want. He says: "If a town wants to put up a nativity scene because some Christians ask, that's fine as long as if some Jews want a Hanukkah shrub they get some love too. The city also has to put up something nice for Ramadan if the Muslims ask. And a little display for the Flying Spaghetti Monster if some[one] ask. Nothing for Kwanzaa, though, because that's totally made up." Nina (Other Side) is setting up a new apartment in DC. She has some really nice pictures of the people in the area and points out some of the differences between Madison and DC.
Winner: Jiggscasey.com

52. Just Keep Swimming vs. Everybody Knows
Heather (Keep Swimming) has a video up about how it is snowing where they are, and apparently people can't drive in the snow there. I think she may be in California then, so that may explain it. Everybody Knows will have another birthday soon. She is not fond of the magnifying mirrors that is used to put on makeup, and notes that at the rate of head hair loss and facial hair growth she may resemble Bruce Willis in 10 years.
Winner: Just Keep Swimming

Alright round 6 to be up soon, and I may even get on that upper bracket today.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

One more year of hockey



This weekend was the final weekend for the 2006-07 season of the inline hockey league that we play in. We played alright, we tied a game and lost another. I guess it turned out fine since we have improved so much over last year, and since most of our key players will be back for next year we should only get better. Shane got the most improved award (very deservingly so, although I should say that Kaylen improved greatly throughout the year), and I got the MVP award, which is awesome. I and really did not expect to get the award. We have alot of good players on our team and they do most of the hard work, I just score the goals in the end. So really the award should go to all of the team. But I'll keep the plaque on my wall just since it is already made out with my name on it.

Now I get a little more free time on the weekends. Rock on.
(p.s. That is our coach on the left, me in the center, and Shane on the right.)

Friday, March 02, 2007

Bill Clinton's Landon Lecture

Well, it's another win for K-State, after getting some good press from YouTube (see here and here), now we get some good press from the 'real' media because of Bill Clinton's Landon Lecture here.

I did not attend his talk because as with President Bush's talk I had to teach to close to the time of the speech. But I did watch it on TV, here are my brief thoughts:

I thought that he did a very good job of distancing himself from politics throughout his speech. Even during matters of governments and things like that he more focused on what we can do rather than what the government should do. That was nice to hear. His main topic was about the status of America in the world, more specifically if globalization is a good or a bad thing, and what we can do about it. He had good points and actual steps to take to improve our current position.

He also acknowledged that he was not the reason for the dramatic growth of the United States economy during his presidency, but instead it was the spread of the computer and the internet into businesses. Then he went on to say that it is not Bush's fault that the economy is not improving like it was during his time in office. (Clinton equates narrowing the income gap as a measure of economic growth, which I don't totally agree with.) He said that there just isn't that new 'thing' that has spurred on the economy on like the 90's has. He went on the say that clean energy, specifically biofules could be that new industry, citing that in other comparable countries that have been moving to more renewable energy sources many jobs have been created as a result. I do have to say that it is a good idea.

Overall Clinton actually had more good things to say about Bush than bad things, which is nice, although he is in 'enemy' territory, so I am sure he didn't want to ruffle any feathers. I thought that it was a nice speech and it was well thought out and had points that were very logical.

Video of Speech

My New Favorite Blog, Round 5 Brackets

Here we are at round 5, let's have a look at the brackets.
Here is the upper bracket:

The Second Chance Bracket:

And the bracket overall:


Round five will just be for the second chance bracket, so here are those parings:
49. Scrivenings vs. Sara With No H
50. Just Thoughts vs. Leisure Pursuit
51. Jiggscasey.com vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
52. Just Keep Swimming vs. Everybody Knows

Thursday, March 01, 2007

My New Favorite Blog, Round 4 Second Chance Bracket

The results are in for the end of round four:

45. Sara With No H vs. "Brevity is... wit."
Sara sounds like she is gearing up for an abundance of fun times as she is going to take care of her three nephews for five days. She promises that she will be able to survive those five days. Neel (Brevity) had a post Academy Awards post, and I leaded that they give out honorary Oscars.
Winner: Sara With No H

46. Leisure Pursuit vs. Legally Blonde
Valerie (Leisure Pursuit) talks about radio stations that bail out guys who don't pay child support for a publicity stunt. She also uses the words scuttlebutt and chortle in two separate posts. Elle (Legally Blonde) looks like she might have to work for a law company that also sells Chinese food (?). And also ponders when Leonardo DiCaprio.
Winner: Leisure Pursuit

47. Sniper Kitty vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
Kat tells all about a new Fox show called "Are you smarter than a 5th Grader", it sounds mostly annoying. Kinda why I try to avoid all network TV. Nina (Other Side) apparently makes her day go better by manipulating time. She also decided to take the plunge and buy the unfinished condo. Things may get interesting.
Winner: The Other Side of the Ocean

48. Phantom Scribbler vs. Everybody Knows
Mama (Phantom Scribbler) has a good Wednesday Whine and also has a child that put in a good 13 hours of medicine aided sleep. Everybody Knows discusses that over the past 36 years we haven't done much to make the world better. Although we do now have Prius' to buy. Also she won a round of search bingo with the term "how do i know what mistakes i did in my cbest exam".
Winner: Everybody Knows

I will have the brackets and pairings for round five posted in a bit.

Thursday Happy Thought

Just remember that some people will try to make everything a very serious competition, even if it is over something very stupid. Don't let them get to you.
e.g.


...after reading this over I realized that some people might take this in reference to My New Favorite Blog competition, but I actually thought of this post after seeing the video. I *want* to see blood over the blog competition. Just kidding, I don't, I just want to see fun blogs... and bribes, lots of bribes. ^_^