November 2005 Archives
NyQuil will no longer contain the nasal decongestant pseudoephedrine, thanks to the idiots making crystal meth from it. Instead, it contains NO nasal decongestant at all. DayQuil adds the decongestant phenylephrine, but as always, it's never as good as the original. Stock up on the good stuff now, if you still can!
I guess they have to change their commercials, since it's no longer for stuffy heads... [update: they did. Notice the difference between the DayQuil slogan and the NyQuil one.]
The FCC has reversed course, and is now thinking that maybe "a la carte" cable is a good idea. The premise is that cable companies and broadcasters force channels on viewers that they don't want to watch, and maybe it would be a good idea to just pick the channels you want off a menu. That way, you wouldn't have to pay for the Nascar channel if you didn't like it, or you could vote with your dollars if you didn't like the content on F/X. With that in mind, here are the channels I'd keep.
All the networks, even UPN and WB. Even the minor networks have some good shows on, so they're worth it. This also includes PBS for Ellie.
ESPN and ESPN2. I can do without the ESPN News and the others.
CNN. One 24 hour news station, in case major events happen.
Weather Channel. Can't live without it.
USA. Good shows occasionally on there, and they are usually good for a cheesy 80s movie on occasion.
SciFi. If only for Battlestar Galactica.
TNT/TBS. See USA.
Comedy Central. The Daily Show. Period.
Travel Channel/Food Network. Mostly for Lisa's escapism.
Those are my only must-haves. I think my cable bill could be pretty cheap with that bare minimum. A few others I might consider if they were cheap enough: Discovery, TLC, Bravo, Animal Planet, AMC. With my Tivo and daughter dictating what I watch, I'm pretty much tailor-made for this a la carte stuff.
We made our first fire of the year over the holiday weekend. We don't make nearly enough fires, even though we think it's really nice to have a fireplace. It probably has something to do with the fact that I'm not the best at making a fire. They didn't let us play with fire in the Cub Scouts, that must have been later on, if I had stuck with it through Boy Scouts. I can make a nice fire out of newspaper that lasts about 30 seconds, but getting a good roaring fire going is inconsistent at best. So this weekend was about the same. The fire got going, but was slow to catch, and just wasn't getting going very well. Lisa went to take Max out and came back in with some nice dry sticks that had fallen off the trees in recent days (along with a gazillion leaves that still need to be raked). A couple of them were thick enough that they stayed lit for a good long time, and they really got the fire going. So there you have it. Lisa makes a better fire than me. Clearly I'd be voted off of Survivor by now.
Speaking of reality TV, what the heck is going on with the "production errors" on the Amazing Race??? They've done at least 5 or 6 seasons of this, going into Third World countries, never a problem. But put them in an SUV in the US, and the cameras are draining the batteries left and right! So far, the teams affected have been lucky to not get eliminated, but how much would it suck to lose thanks to a stupid problem like that?
OddJack is dying soon, Nick Denton decided to pull the plug. But BG is still working for a few more days, so I sent this item over to him. The article ran in the Washington Post a couple of days ago, and describes how a poker home game in the nearby Fair Oaks area in Northern Virginia got robbed recently. Of course, it probably didn't help that the guy running it sent his Evite to almost 300 people. He's lucky that he just got robbed, he probably could have gotten busted by the police as well. And that's the part that cracked me up most. All these people are quoted in the article could very well be admitting to illegal activity, or at least saying "Come rob my home game next!". Not the smartest cookies.
The big story coming out of the Baseball Hall of Fame nominees coming out is that Pete Rose is no longer eligible for the Hall of Fame (at least not eligible to be voted in). But who cares, let's talk about the people I think should get in. It's all about me, after all.
Tommy John - If they name a surgery or disease after you, you're in.
Don Mattingly - Donny Baseball gets my homer vote.
Rich Gossage - Dominant reliever before most people knew there was such a thing. Also a homer vote.
Lee Smith - currently still the record holder for all-time saves. How is he not in already???
Jack Morris - Basically never has a season with less than 14 wins while pitching for the Tigers. The Tigers! Then was MVP of the 1991 World Series after pitching 10 innings of shutout baseball against the Braves in Game 7.
Dale Murphy - Underrated because he played for the Braves when they stunk, because he was such a clean-cut guy, and because steroids have inflated stats since he retired. None good enough for me to withhold a vote.
Just missing the cut for various reasons: Orel Hershiser, Andre Dawson, Alan Trammell.
I've mentioned my displeasure with the state of State's football team before. I just don't think John L. Smith is the guy to get the recruits, and the Big Ten is figuring out his screen pass offense REAL quick. It's time for him to go. Why? Because a big name just popped onto the radar screen. Steve Mariucci was fired by the Lions. Please. Like it's his fault that Matt Millen is possibly the worst GM in the history of the NFL (cases in point: his talking to college players at a postseason all-star game when he's not allowed to do that as a GM; hiring Mariucci without following NFL hiring procedures; drafting three of the exact same wide receiver, only to have them all fail to produce a 1000 yard receiving season). Mariucci is a good coach whom I could see turning into another Pete Carroll type, having done his time in the NFL, and finding a home at the college level.
We all know by now that Steve Mariucci is good friends with basketball coach Tom Izzo. It's time to bring them back together and get the football team back on track.
All you need is $100, 2500 hours to set it up, and you too could be using bots to "win" at online poker. Or you could use those 2500 hours to take the money off all the jokers who play there yourself and be able to sleep at night.
My blog software informs me that this is my 1000th post. Hard to believe. No big celebration here, just business as usual.
As expected, last night was a late one as our curling game got started even later than usual, and I didn't get home into bed until after 12:30am. Ugh. Dragging this morning. Thankfully, we played really well, and won our game. I feel like I'm getting back into the groove nicely, sliding easily and being fairly sure that I will throw the right weight at the right spot. Good stuff.
I even got to watch the end of the Monday Night Football game, which almost never happens. Of course, the game was over almost from Indy's first play. What was that corner thinking???
The Yankees have been pretty quiet on the free agent front thus far, but that hasn't stopped the deals and money from flowing freely. First BJ Ryan gets a crazy 5 year, $47 million deal from the Blue Jays, now Billy Wagner gets 4 years, $43 million from the Mets. With that kind of money being thrown around, I'm not surprised that the Yankees aren't doing much yet. They're still looking for a center-fielder, and now Joe Torre is pondering putting Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez in center-field. Very interesting:
"That's happened before hasn't it?" Torre said about converting a power-hitting infielder into an outfielder.
"Bobby Murcer, Mickey Mantle. Hank Aaron came up as a second baseman. Robin Yount went to centerfield."
They couldn't be any worse than Bubba Crosby or Bernie Williams last year.
As expected, the chocolate recipe was evil. Chocolate Coconut Cream Batter Pie. I'm not a big dessert guy, but I still ate at least half of the thing myself (over the course of several days). Lisa was a bit disappointed in the results though. Essentially, the batter was like a brownie, and Lisa just does not have good luck making brownie pies. The middle always ends up really gooey. Not a problem if you ask me, but it bugs the heck out of her that it doesn't come out even. Anyway, this pie ended up about the same, gooey in the middle. But it was very yummy! The coconut was swirled in, just enough to cut the rich chocolate flavor. Good stuff.
Next ingredient is Cinnamon. No word yet on what recipe Lisa will be baking though. And again, the book is Baking by Flavor by Lisa Yockelson.
Ellie may have been the one who was sick this weekend, but I'm the one who felt like throwing up last night. 3 missed game-winning field goals? Are you kidding me? Well, at least there is some solace in the fact that at worst, the Giants are still tied with the Cowboys in the division, and with Tampa Bay and Atlanta for the wild card. Still, it would have been nice to silence the critics by winning a big game on the road. Huge game this week at home against the Cowboys though. And naturally, it's not on TV for us here in the Washington area. Instead, we get Bengals/Steelers, Chiefs/Broncos, and Redskins/Rams. Well, at least I won't have to watch if things go horribly wrong again.
Last night we had a late curling game, but we managed to start early, and finish early, so it wasn't too horribly late (unlike tonight, which will probably find me crawling into bed after midnight). We won our second game in a row, despite only having two full-time players on our team. I actually played pretty well last night, and we kept the pressure on the other team, who were far too serious about a "Pizza League" game. Always nice to win against teams like that.
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Ours was fun, but rather uneventful for a Thanksgiving with the Cajuns. Less than a month left of shopping until Christmas, so be sure to check out my Amazon wishlist over on the side there!
Another amazing game involving the Spartans tonight. This time, they wore down at the end of the second half against Arizona, allowing the Wildcats to force overtime (Again?!?!? Are you kidding me???). This time though, Shannon Brown hit a big jumper, and Paul Davis made two free throws after Arizona missed two of their own, sealing the win for the Spartans. They've been amazing at the line when the game is on the line (no pun intended), especially Davis, who had his struggles last year. It had to be rough playing over 4 games in 5 days, but they came out of it 2-2, with a big win over a top ten team, and a tough loss to no-longer-mid-major Gonzaga. I'm a lot more optimistic about their chances than I was a couple of days ago.
I've written about the Jose Padilla case before, arguing that the government should charge him with a crime if they believe he did something wrong. Faced with the threat that the Supreme Court might rule against their "enemy combatant" strategy, they finally moved him to a civilian prison and charged him with conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim.
I've said all along that he's not a good guy, but that he deserves his day in court. I'm glad to see he will finally get it after three years of being locked up incommunicado in a military brig.
What a heartbreaker for the Spartans last night. It reminded me a lot of last year's NCAA tourney game against Kentucky. Huge shot after huge shot being made, mostly by Maurice Ager and Adam Morrison (side note: what is it about Gonzaga and long haired guards?). When Ager finally fouled out, after playing over 25 minutes with 4 fouls, someone else had to come up big for the Spartans. Could it be redshirt freshman Goran Suton? Oh God no, he missed the layup. The horror! And, as the announcers rightly pointed out, Gonzaga actually got a break with a phantom jump ball being called instead of a foul, as Gonzaga got their best free throw shooter to the line instead of the big man.
A much better performance than against Hawaii though. Man, what a brutal tournament for so early in the season.
The site is super slow right now, but I figured I'd throw this one out there anyway. Answer 8 of 10 Driving Skills questions correctly, and get a coupon code for 10 free songs from iTunes!
Shouldn't be too hard since all the answers are out there on the Internet already.
They also didn't come from the CIA, if you got that version of the scam email.
'The FBI on Monday said e-mails made to look like they come from the agency are warning computer users that the FBI is monitoring their Internet use. "These scam e-mails tell the recipients that their Internet use has been monitored by the FBI and that they have accessed illegal Web sites," the FBI said in a statement. "The e-mails then direct recipients to open an attachment and answer questions."
'"These e-mails did not come from the FBI," the statement said. "Recipients of this or similar solicitations should know that the FBI does not engage in the practice of sending unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner." The agency said it was investigating the matter and urged anyone who received such an e-mail to report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center. '
Proving once again, that people are soooo gullible.
We managed to get tickets to see Butterstick, aka Tai Shan, aka the baby Panda, by furiously clicking away at the up and down website yesterday morning. I started off the clicking and got through to the date page, and when I had to leave for work, Lisa managed to actually get the tickets and print them out. They were free tickets, but apparently some unscrupulous types are already putting them up on eBay for up to $500. Jerks.
Our curling team won again last night. Not my best game throwing rocks, but I did pretty well sweeping. The rocks were curling quite a bit, and more than once our teammates mentioned that we held the rocks straight (that's the point of sweeping: keep rocks straight, and/or make them slide further). A good game, very close and competitive.
The Spartans beat D-II Chaminade, thank goodness, with a burst at the end of the first half, and to start the second, and cramps never came into play. A bit tougher tonight at 7 on ESPN against Gonzaga.
Look, no one expected the football team to beat Penn State. Maybe cover the spread, but not beat them. And of course, they played about like that. Let's face it, after losing games that they could have won to Michigan and Ohio State, they pretty much mailed in the rest of the season, beating only lowly Indiana one their way to a losing record. But the basketball team? I was looking forward to this year, and they go out and lose their first official game of the year to Hawaii. HAWAII?!?!?! For whatever reason, it seems that the entire team had leg cramps, and at crucial points in the second half, there were 4 freshman on the floor. Ridiculous. They need to get better quick, as they play Chaminade today at 2:30 on ESPN2.
Sunday's games went well though. The Giants had another big 4th quarter to beat the Eagles. The Redskins lost to the Raiders. I won my parlay wager (Tampa Bay +6 over Atlanta and New Orleans +9.5 over New England). And we won our curling game yesterday, in spite of the fact that I gave up a 6 point lead in one end! Crazy.
If it weren't for sports, what would I write about?
How does 125 free songs sound? Sign up for a free trial account from eMusic today, and you get exactly that. The only catch is that they may or may not be songs you're interested in. eMusic specializes in Indie labels, and doesn't really have any major label artists. But if you're into bands like Iron & Wine, The New Pornographers, or The Decemberists, they're all on there. You do have to give a credit card number, and make sure you cancel your account before the trial period is over, otherwise they start charging you monthly.
I've already found about 80 songs worth downloading, and I'll be using them to create my special Christmas mix CD. It's not a holiday music CD, just something I'll be giving to people as a present, filled with music that I think is cool, that you may not have heard of. Let me know if you want a copy sent to you.
Also an e-download that's free, "God's Debris" by Scott Adams, the Dilbert creator. I haven't read it, but you might find it interesting.
Synopsis
Imagine that you meet a very old man who—you eventually realize—knows literally everything. Imagine that he explains for you the great mysteries of life—quantum physics, evolution, God, gravity, light, psychic phenomenon, and probability—in a way so simple, so novel, and so compelling that it all fits together and makes perfect sense. What does it feel like to suddenly understand everything? God's Debris isn’t the final answer to the Big Questions. But it might be the most compelling vision of reality you will ever read. The thought experiment is this: Try to figure out what’s wrong with the old man’s explanation of reality. Share the book with your smart friends then discuss it later while enjoying a beverage.
In the days after 9/11, Congress understandably passed the PATRIOT Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that pruported to allow our law enforcement officers to more effectively investigate and catch terrorists before they strike. As I say, this was completely understandable at the time. We were scared, and we didn't want it to happen again. The FBI and other agencies said that they needed these expanded powers, and we trusted that they were telling the truth and they actually did. Knowing what we know now though, why is Congress even considering renewing these powers?
We now know that the FBI knew that "Middle Eastern men" were interested in learning to fly big planes, but not necessarily how to land them, but this information was never acted upon. We also know that the "Able Danger" team had identified Mohammad Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers by mid-2000 but were prevented by military lawyers from giving this information to the FBI. Even the 9/11 Commission that was created to uncover what was known about the attacks has ignored the "Able Danger" findings.
Knowing all these facts, why is Congress even considering renewing the expanded powers that law enforcement claimed they needed? They had the information they needed and were unable to do anything about the attacks. What makes us think that they would be more competent if they kept the expanded powers? The worst part is that the law as it exists now says that the FBI doesn't even have to tell us what they're using the powers for, or if they are effective. Indeed, we often end up getting more scared at the vague terror alerts that shut down our subways or tunnels. Thankfully, a small group of legislators seems to realize that these expanded powers should not be given out willy-nilly, and are standing up to try to change the legislation. We can only hope they succeed.
Last night, the cold front that has swept across the country passed by us. Temperatures dropped over 25 degrees in a couple of hours. It reminded me of the time we were at track practice. We were running 200 meter intervals, and our rest was the time it took to walk the diagonal across the football field from the finish back to the start. You could see the clouds rolling in, and we figured we were in for a storm. Then suddenly, you could literally see the storm front pass the football field. The people walking back across the field were like one of those synchronized cheerleader lines. The people on one end shivered, and the shiver passed from that end all the way to the other end of the field as the front passed over. Really freaky to see.
So, today is the first day I've worn a sweater this season. Not a bad thing, I just wish that the cold would have held off until I had the chance to clean out the gutters and put up Christmas lights.
I'm one of those people that are increasingly rare these days. I refuse to even put up Christmas lights until after Thanksgiving. Occasionally, this means I have to get up on the roof and freeze my butt off, but most of the time, there is a reasonably warm day where I can get things done quickly. We live in Virginia, not Michigan, remember. I've already seen at least two houses with their lights not only up, but lit at night, and the nursing home we visit on Tuesday has also turned their lights on. It was really bizarre seeing that when it was still 70 degrees out (yes Florida people, I know it's like that all the time for you guys). Is it really too much to ask to leave the lights off until after Thanksgiving?
Another episode of 'Lost' is on tonight. I love that show, very interesting. And now they just started a podcast, featuring interviews with cast members, as well as the writers talking about the previous episode. It looks like they are going to release them on Mondays. Definitely worth a listen, if only for the fact that they debunk some of the stupid theories going around on the message boards. (Spoiler alert, if you haven't watched last week's episode: Some of the over-analyzing geeks thought that Shannon was stabbed, not shot, and by someone other than Ana. The writers clearly state on the podcast that Ana shot Shannon, and it will affect the Lost-aways for the rest of the season. Case closed. Sometimes what they show you on the screen is in fact what happened. Sheesh.)
On a side note, I got one of my co-workers into the show this season (he started watching with the recap of Season One that preceded this year's season premiere). He's already asking me, "Does anything ever happen on this show???" Ah yes, the perils of being a 'Lost' fan. Nothing happens, unless it's the season premiere, season finale, or someone dies. That having been said, I'm looking forward to seeing what the backstory is with the 'tailees' (the people who were in the tail section of the plane).
Wow, I can't believe that there really wasn't anything yesterday that I found worth writing about. Crazy. We'll see if today makes up for it, I guess.
Finally. It's over. The interminable World Series of Poker coverage on ESPN is over, soon to live on in interminable repeat episodes. I only saw about the last fifteen minutes last night (the rest is Tivoed though), but it seemed like both guys were just having a slap-happy good time.
In local news, the National Zoo announced that the baby panda will go public on December 8. Free tickets will be given out starting Monday. I'll be pounding away at the web site too.
My baseball award picks have all been wrong, for the most part, partially because I ignored baseball's rules and took postseason into account. At least A-Rod admitted he disappeared in the playoffs. Punk. Give back the award then.
In other baseball news, DC and baseball are both still trying to see who can screw the other one over more, in attempting to finalize a stadium deal. Bud Selig seems to be dragging his feet on picking an owner until that's done, meaning that the Nats are going to get screwed in the free agent market.
Dang, I can't believe that's all I've got. Maybe more will come later....
This week, Lisa made Butterscotch Chip Pound Cake. I think it was supposed to be Caramel and Butterscotch Chip Pound Cake, but ended up being all butterscotch. Not a big deal though.
The cake was pretty yummy. Lisa had a little bit of trouble with the butterscotch chips sinking to the bottom of the pan and congealing in a big gooey mess. There was still plenty of butterscotch on the cake though, and it is being well-received here at work.
Next up is chocolate. Lisa has chosen a different kind of recipe, since she has done so much with chocolate in the past: Chocolate Coconut Cream Batter Pie.
Got lots of stuff accomplished this weekend. I did some more stuff in the basement, and we're almost to the point where we can tile up the ceiling, and finish painting. Finally. I raked the whole front yard in about 30 minutes before the sun went down on Saturday. Way better than leaf blowers. I'm not sure if people just don't know how to use them, or if they just aren't good, but I hear the leaf blowers going for a long long time. My neighbor across the street started off using a leaf blower, then eventually just raked the leaves the rest of the way.
On Sunday, I finished up some stuff in the basement while Ellie took a nap, and watching the horrible Giants game (seriously, their offense scores 3 points and we lose. Yeah, you can blame the special teams, but you also have to blame Eli for throwing two picks at the goalline. Give the ball to Tiki dammit!). Then we dashed off to JC Penney's before curling. They were having a sale on suits, and from 4-9pm, you got an additional 40% off. I ended up getting a $300 suit for about $95 (early Christmas present from Lisa, thanks babe!). May not be the best quality, being from JC Penney, but that's a good deal, and it should replace my weary wedding suit nicely.
Curling was fun again. We ended up losing that one as well, but it was an entertaining game, and not as frustrating as last week. I was feeling much better after my free beer and watching the Redskins lose too. Unbelievable way to end that one. At least now the worst the Giants can be is tied with the Cowboys for first in the East. Some tough games ahead too. Home vs. Philly, @ Seattle, home vs. Dallas, @Philly, home against KC, @ Washington, @ Oakland. Long ways to go. Speaking of Seattle, I've got three words for them: Pay Shaun Alexander.
In case you hadn't figured out from the vague references I have made in other posts, curling season has indeed started up again. We lost our "fun" league game on Sunday, and won big in our men's league game on Monday. Our men's league team is the one we are putting together to try to win the 5-and-under men's tournament for our region, which is held at our own club this year. We've obviously got a pretty decent team. But man, was I ever sore after having to sweep a whole game for the first time in a while.
A couple of other curling notes:
Newsweek had an early blurb about NBC's Olympic coverage for Turin in 2006: at least one live match per day during the 12 day tournament. Plenty of chances to watch the young US women (and older US men, I suppose).
And speaking of women, yes, it's true. There is a "Girls of Curling" nude calendar (worksafe link). Supposedly someone at our club bought it, but I haven't yet seen it. All I have to say about that is: any publicity is good publicity.
Sigh. It's a miracle that such a good show stayed on the air this long. But now, 'Arrested Development' gets the ax. I can't tell you how many times I have been rolling on the floor laughing at this show. They always find a way to set something up for an entire show, and then have a great payoff joke at the end. Just this past week, there was a classic when Tobias, dressed in a mole costume, trampled Gob's miniature town, while George Michael flew into him with a rocket pack attached to his back, all as the Japanese investors looked on. Classic parody of Japanese Godzilla-type movie, and it just got more absurd as it happened. Great show, sad that it's ending.
Just when you thought the Senate might actually be doing good things (they recently voted in favor of John McCain's "no torture" bill and gave up again on drilling in ANWR), they do something stupid. This time, they voted to strip enemy combatants of their "habeas corpus" rights, so detainees would not be able to challenge their detentions in US courts. Naturally, this comes after the actual authority on the US judicial system, the Supreme Court, ruled that they DO in fact have that right. So, if you happen to get caught up in a US terrorism sweep because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, you're screwed. Sorry about that.
The most dismaying part of the legislation is that it was attached to a military budget bill. It's a favorite tactic for legislators who want to sneak something though, but don't want any actual debate on the matter. And it's just appalling. If you want to do something like this, grow some balls and introduce it as its own bill, and let it pass or fail on its own merit.
The rumors are flying fast and furious over the so-called "Black Friday" deals. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally one of the busiest, if not the busiest, shopping days of the year. Lots of good-looking deals out there if you can get them. My favorites are the Best Buy HDTVs on sale. Since we don't have room in our basement for a big-screen, I like the Westinghouse 26" LCD HDTV for $499 or the Insignia 30" tube HDTV for $399.
BFAds.net is a good source, if you want to plan ahead.
So, it turns out that buttercrunch was essentially Heath bars. Still can't say that it's ever been a big ingredient in our cooking, but at least we knew what it was. Lisa made Buttercrunch melt-a-ways this time, and sadly, I biffed and missed out on tasting them. But the people at the curling club said they were very good. A couple of Heath bar fiends in particular kept going back for more.
The one thing Lisa has noticed about the recipes already is that they call for far too much powdered sugar coating. A Heath bar cookie tastes fine on its own, you don't need to mask the actual flavor by rolling it in powdered sugar. The butter cookies she previously made also called for sugar, and Lisa followed the recipe, and of course, they tasted more like sugar than anything else.
Next up, caramel and butterscotch (I think that's an either-or proposition, not both in the same recipe).
One good thing about the Christmas season starting earlier and earlier: Gingerbread lattes are already available at Starbucks. Had my first one yesterday. Yum, and perfect timing, since temperatures took a big dip yesterday.
Newsweek this week has a chart of Supreme Court decisions that could be affected by the nomination of Samuel Alito, who will replace "moderate" Sandra Day O'Connor, and lumped the Supreme Court Justices into "Liberal", "Moderate", and "Conservative" blocs. So, pop quiz: I give you the names of the Justices and their "bloc", you guess the President that nominated them. I'm including Rehnquist just because I would hope everyone knows who nominated John Roberts.
William Rehnquist (Conservative)
Sandra Day O'Connor (Moderate)
Clarence Thomas (Conservative)
Anthony Kennedy (Moderate)
John Paul Stevens (Liberal)
David Souter (Liberal)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Liberal)
Antonin Scaila (Conservative)
Stephen Breyer (Liberal)
You should be able to get the answers by hovering your mouse over the names. The nominating president will pop up. I'll leave discussion as to whether or not the Justices are the labels they are categorized as for another time.
Since the Spartan football season is all but over (and even if it's not over, we're looking at bowls like the Motor City Bowl or the Poinsettia Bowl. Ugh), it's time to preview the Spartan basketball season. A team that made it all the way to the Final Four last year returns 4 strong starting players in Maurice Ager, Shannon Brown, Drew Neitzel, and Paul Davis. Redshirt freshman Marquise Gray, another "Flint-stone", is expected to step in at power forward, and two other redshirt freshmen, 6'11" Idong Ibok and 6'10" Goran Sutton, will get plenty of minutes.
The Spartans will be tested immediately as they travel to Hawaii for the Maui Invitational. The tournament is stacked this year with #2 Connecticut, #7 Gonzaga, #9 Arizona, and #21 Maryland joining the #5-ranked Spartans. That doesn't even include always tough Kansas and Stan Heath (former MSU assistant) coached Arkansas. MSU will also face Georgia Tech at home in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, and #11 Boston College before getting into a tough Big Ten conference schedule.
Expectations are high for the Spartans, as this is the final year for Ager and Davis, and junior Shannon Brown a potential early entry candidate. My bold prediction is a Big Ten championship and a return trip to the Final Four.
An article in USA Today says Fake trees turn Christmas on its head. Very strange. Upside down Christmas trees? Check out the story for pictures...
Something's wrong. The people I vote for never get elected. And yet, in yesterday's election, it appears I voted for the winners in at least 3 of the 4 races, with the attorney general race still up in the air. I'm speechless.
After a year of "debate", which included ignoring a 26-member science committee, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association, the Kansas Board of Education voted yesterday to teach ID in classrooms as an alternative scientific theory to evolution. So very many things wrong with this, I don't even know where to begin. In other news, the Dover ID trial just gave their closing arguments, and a ruling is expected in January. I don't want to say it's a slam dunk against ID, but it's not looking good for them. Regardless, it appears that those board members have all been voted out of office in yesterday's elections.
Oh, and to the people I know in Kansas: 4 of the 6 Board of Education members that voted for this are up for reelection next year. Let's make sure they are voted out, okay?
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Mirroring all the awards that baseball is officially giving out, here are my picks.
Rookie of the Year: AL - Robinson Cano (homer pick), NL - Willy Taveras
Both were important parts of playoff teams. Unfortunately Taveras went cold in the playoffs, but hey, he's rookie of the year, not MVP (more on that to come).
Cy Young: AL - Mariano Rivera (another homer pick), NL - Chris Carpenter
Mariano was lights out all year again, and I wasn't all that impressed with Bartolo Colon or Johan Santana this year. Chris Carpenter was the Cardinals' ace, and his team won all the playoff games in which he pitched.
Manager of the Year: AL - Ozzie Guillen, NL - Tony LaRussa
Ozzie is an easy choice here, although his entire coaching staff shares the award. I like LaRussa for his regular season accomplishments, although I understand arguments for Bobby Cox. I just can't give it to Cox since his team ALWAYS loses in the playoffs. Phil Garner might have gotten my vote if not for the fact that he bailed on his team in the World Series.
MVP: AL - Paul Konerko, NL - Andruw Jones
I also cast a humorous vote for AJ Pierzynski here. Without his "interesting" plays in the playoffs, the White Sox would have had a much harder time. But the real vote goes to Paul Konerko. He was the one guy you didn't want to see coming to the plate if you were an opposing pitcher in the playoffs. And he came through almost every time. Clutch. A-Rod and Big Papi? They were on the couch (or in the poker room) watching Konerko lift his team to victory over and over. A-Rod especially blew his chance in the playoffs. Andruw Jones I picked because he played for a winning team (unlike Derrek Lee), and had to field a position (unlike Albert Pujols, who plays first base, and not all that well). He was also one of the few Braves who showed up to play against Houston in the playoffs.
External hard drives are getting cheaper all the time. And thanks to Consumer Reports, I just discovered a good way to take advantage of this fact (and, as Lisa pointed out to me, just plain take advantage). You see, Costco has a 100% return policy. Here's a direct quote: "Costco guarantees your satisfaction with the merchandise you purchase from us. Costco.com products may be returned to any of our hundreds of Costco warehouses worldwide. Or, if you wish to return or exchange merchandise directly to costco.com, contact us at customer service. Effective November 4th, 2002, Costco Wholesale's desktop and notebook computer return policy is six-months from the date of purchase."
So, you store all your data on an external drive, and you can get a new computer every 6 months (though I'm not sure how much they'd like you as a customer if you kept doing that all the time). Not too shabby. Too bad they don't sell Macs. :-(
I was reading an article in the Seattle Times today about switching to Mac, and it occurred to me: why not?
Most of my time at the computer at home is spent reading my email and Bloglines. I also like those little Flash games. I used to play poker online a bit, but really haven't gotten into that too much. So what do I need to switch? Pretty much nothing.
I've switched my emailing to GMail almost exclusively. I occasionally fire up Mozilla Thunderbird to connect to my IMAP server so that I have an extra backup copy, but as it is, I have a copy on GMail and my home mail server already. All my contacts have also been imported into GMail. If I wanted, I could use the Mac mail program by exporting my contacts from GMail and connecting to my IMAP server. Bloglines and flash games would work the same in Mac, and I could even use Firefox. Poker is shaky, but there are more sites every day that are providing Mac interfaces. If I really had a hankering, I could play somewhere.
There are probably a few little utilities here and there that I might be missing, but I'm sure I could find adequate replacements for. But with so many things moving to the web, there are less of them that I need to run on a specific platform. So there, I've decided. My next computer will be a Mac. Now who wants to buy it for me?
OddJack gave me something to look forward to, after Michigan State embarrassing loss to Purdue this weekend: Colin Cowherd is 7-0 (they say 9-0, but I only see 8 picks total on that page) with his "Best Bets" picks for college football, after NC State upset Florida State this weekend. His last remaining pick? MSU over Penn State. "Since 1991 the Spartans are 13-0-1 against the spread in their home finale and the home team has covered 83% of the time since this Big 10 series began." Aw crap, 13-0-1 against the spread? Winning against the spread doesn't do us any good for bowl eligibility. With a game at Minnesota this week and that Penn State game at home after that, looks like we won't be hitting a bowl game this year.
Just a couple of observations from this weekend in football. On Saturday, all the pregame shows were raving about how Marcus Vick was going to be the difference maker in the Miami-Virginia Tech game. I was never convinced he was all that good. Sure enough, he was the difference maker, in the wrong way, as Tech lost their National Title hopes.
I had a decision to make for my fantasy football team: Mark Brunell or Aaron Brooks? Brunell was horrible last week against the Giants, but surely he couldn't be that bad against the Eagles, who just aren't the same as they have been. And Aaron Brooks hasn't been great either, and was facing the much improved Bears' defense. I chose Brooks, and thanks to his touchdown run, he doubled Mark Brunell's score, giving me an outside chance at a win tonight (Dallas Clark and Adam Vinatieri, go!).
Lastly, any fool can see that the Eagles are going nowhere without TO. But maybe that's what they want. Hey Donovan, next time you want to fake spiking the ball, you might want to let someone else other than yourself know about it. Like, say, your offensive linemen, since they are the ones keeping you from getting killed.
Inspired in part by Jason Kottke's book review page, I started trying the new Media Manager, to try to pretty this place up a little bit. It took a bit of hacking with their code (I wasn't happy with how they formatted things), but I've gotten it to the point that I like it. I even think it looks better in IE than Firefox, and I don't normally write stuff for IE.
Media Manager is a plugin for MovableType, and it integrates nicely within the MovableType interface itself. You add items from Amazon into your queue, and from there you can format them in pretty ways, and link them to reviews you have written. You may have noticed that my review of Never Let Me Go yesterday had a nice picture of the cover of the book, and a star rating (I wish I could do half stars, but I'll make do), plus a "Buy" link (buying through that link contributes very small amounts of money to Ellie's college fund). Over on the side bar, I've added a box that shows the book I'm currently reading, plus a link to a page that prettifies the list of books I've read, as well as those I plan on reading. The nice thing is that now that the coding is done, I don't have to mess with it any more, the pages and side bar will magically update when I finish a book, write a review, then start a new book. You can do similar things with music and DVDs, which I would do if I had the time to watch movies or listen to music...
Highly recommended if you use MovableType.
There are few things I dislike more than mortgages and financing. I guess I just don't like dealing with people who want to take my money. And as you have seen previously, I'm basically an idiot when it comes to these things.
Here's our situation. Two years ago, Lisa was pregnant with Ellie, and we figured we should refinance our mortgage so that we could still afford it after she stopped working. So, in one fell swoop, we managed to combine our two loans (we started out with an 80-15-5 arrangement, but were able to build enough equity to get rid of the 15 one) and lower our payment to a level we could afford with just my salary. Unfortunately, this involved us getting a 7-year ARM. Now we're two years in, rates are starting to creep up (along with our real estate taxes and home value), and I'm getting nervous. Our rate is going to stay the same until June 2010, but who knows what it will look like then. If the rate changed today, I think it would jump to about 7.5% (contingent on whatever caps are on it, which I'm not 100% sure of). So, I called up the mortgage company asking about refinancing, and was not pleased with the answers. If anyone out there is good with numbers, take a crack at these.
Current situation:
Loan amount: $259,000
Remaining principal balance: $249,100
Appraised value of home in June 2003: $325,000
ARM Rate: 4.375%
Payment: $1793.24 (about $500 of this is escrow)
Yearly taxes (estimated): $5000 (they will go up a lot next year, I'm sure, but that may be beyond the scope of the exercise)
Refinancing info rep gave me:
New rate: 6.5%, 30 year fixed, no points.
Payment: $1983.00
She said paying points and rolling those into the mortgage would make the mortgage go up, and actually raise the payment. I'm not sure how our guy did it last time, but we owed no costs at closing, and actually got some money back, which we used as a downpayment for our Civic. The houses around us have gone up in value immensely. Our new assessed value is $374,400, and a house down the street from us, very similar to ours, just sold for over $525,000.
So, the exercise: can we keep our payment approximately the same while refinancing to a 30 year fixed mortgage? For the sake of argument, you can use the rates here, and their calculator with the above figures here. If you can somehow manage to get us money for new windows in a cashout while you're at it, my wife will be especially grateful.
I'm feeling ambitious and topical, so my next book is Closed Chambers : The Rise, Fall, and Future of the Modern Supreme Court
by Edward Lazarus. A behind-the-scenes look at the workings of the Supreme Court, from the viewpoint of a former clerk. I find the Supreme Court fascinating, and I look forward to gaining new insight as the latest nominee goes through confirmation hearings. The schedule for next year's World Series of Poker is out, and just about everyone is ticked about it. Daniel Negreanu, all the rec.gambling.poker folks, etc. Poker News has a more cautioned viewpoint, but largely, the pros want more than No Limit Hold Em to be featured at the World Series.
I tend to agree with the criticisms, even if the only non-hold em game I have played for money is Omaha, and it wasn't easy. But I'm not a pro, so I'm not surprised I wasn't very good at it. In the World Series, it's good to have a mix of games to challenge players.
My biggest complaint has more to do with the Main Event, and ESPN's coverage of it. Last night, we saw players get down to 27, after which time they moved play to Binion's Horseshoe. This is after coverage of the World Series started back on August 23, and "circuit" event coverage started July 19. You'll have to wait until November 15th before they show the final table, so get used to a lot more Mike Matusow. That's a long damn time to expect people to watch poker. I know they want to capture the pure size of it, to show what obstacles people overcame to win, but it's getting ridiculous. Now we find out that next year will be boosted up to 4 flights of "Day 1" in the Main Event, and 2 flights of "Day 2." It's going to be interminable. A lot of pundits think that the poker craze is taking a downturn, and this is why.
Things in New Orleans are still not going well. The Mayor, in what was probably mostly a publicity stunt, gave a tour of devastated parts of the city to musicians who performed in benefit concerts for the area. Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails, took a bunch of photos as a good reminder of what's happened and happening down there.
The Washington Post has been publishing a series of updates on the Larche family, who moved to the DC area after Katrina. The latest update finds them deciding to stay here for a while. Did I mention they just had a baby? It really hits you to hear such a personal story.
We had a good time with Halloween last night. Our neighbors from across the street came over, as well as one of Ellie's playmates. Lisa cooked up some pumpkin beef stew (not horrible, and I'm not a pumpkin guy. Pumpkin spice, yes, actual pumpkin, no) and some mulled wine, and we were good to go. Ellie dressed up as a beautiful bride (pictures forthcoming), Claire was an LSU cheerleader (she's the daughter of the famous Crazy Cajuns), and Brendan was an astronaut. Ellie did very well climbing out of the wagon, and running up to the door yelling "Twick oh Tweet!!" Good times. She brought home a good stash, including some items that will be commandeered by Dad. It's good to be the dad.
If you aren't already reading SI.com's The Ten Spot, start now. Here's another classic from today's:
Arkansas freshman Casey Dick will start in place of Robert Johnson this weekend against South Carolina. Or, as the headline on a major sports Web site (briefly) put it on Monday, "Dick to replace Johnson vs. Gamecocks." It almost seems like piling on to mention that the quarterback change was made by, yes, coach Houston Nutt.
