Great Day!

Halloween was a mish mash of family, good times, and heartbreak. First of all (with apologies to Skate, I'm going to borrow B12 as the new nickname for Director 1) the party was a rousing success! Pretty much most of my local family was there except Beersnob and wife.

I always enjoy hanging out with B12 and he always delivers a first class shindig! Baker, Skate, Teehee, and Jassie were easily the best costumes as they were the (in order) The Lion, Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Dorthy! A lot of time and work went into their reproduction of the costumes and everyone enjoyed them and their effort!

The Date had to work up until closing at her job and showed up after, she was warmly greeted by all party goers and showered with congratulations galore! A wonderful time, it really was very memorable!

I've got to give major props and respect as filmmaker buddy Chris experienced the heartbreak of a lifetime. His premiere didn't go as planned or hoped and what would have caused a major meltdown to a lesser soul he refused to be defeated that easily and proceeded as planned. Food was still to be eaten, people were still on their way, and door prizes were still to be given away and he did it without an external tear. I know he had to have been torn up inside, I know him pretty well and internally he was crushed and felt horrible.

He picked it all up, put on a happy face, and did the best professional job he could in the situation he was put in that was none of his fault. If I could have switched places with him to spare him that kind of pain I would have in a heartbeat as I would with any of my family that was suffering. I felt so bad for him as did his entire audience. I know he will recover though!

My fantasy football teams are tanking. This season is just not a good season for me in two different leagues. I'm just middle of the pack in one league and aiming for a really good draft pick next season in the keeper league. It happens, all owners have gone through it, and I'll get them next season!

Wonderful Friday!

Beersnob and Teehee came over and had a cigar with me last night. Wonderful conversation for well over an hour as our Churchill sized cigars relaxed us on a crisp evening. Our coffee warmed us up and everything was peaceful and calm.

We talked past, present, future, goals, and dreams. That's one thing cigars can bring out in a conversation is plenty of honesty and frank talk. If more Washington politicians would talk things over like the three of us are able to then our country would probably be on a better path than it is right now.

But of course cigar smoking is surely banned in congress, forever dooming them to a life less lived than what Beersnob, Teehee, and I are capable of...go figure:)

Turns out Beersnob and wife were married on the exact same day five years ago, November 6th. The Date has been very excited and the family (I'm not using the term friends anymore when referring to my circle of friends) has shot down the next nickname for her after The Date. I was thinking Ball and Chain and got a menacing look and a No. I've shot down her suggestions such as Light of my Life, Reason for Living, etc.

The Date might just very well stick if I can't come up with something else. Everyone knows who I'm referring to by now anyway.

I watched The League after work yesterday. Great show! More adult than I was expecting but incredibly timely! No one has delved into the comedy that is fantasy football! How many posts have I dedicated to my prime diversion? Many! It's about time a production company catered to me!

This is a brilliantly low brow show, the writing is good, the comedy made me laugh out loud, the characters have lots of room to grow into themselves! I LOVE this show!

Seventeen Hundred Posts

Yeah, that's a lot of posts about pretty much about everything and nothing.

Got off work last night, The Date had supper fixed when I got home (very cool) she went to class and I headed off to have drinks with Chianti. Had a great time for a couple of hours, Witchy showed up and then The Date after class let out early:)

So we all got to sit around for a while in my favorite watering hole and relax as we talked. It would make for a great Mastercard commercial tagline, Priceless.

I've got the most amazing friends/family ever. I know I've blogged this before but my friends really are family. You all know who you are too, if I've hung out with you then you are included, you are my family.

I DVR'd The League, I hope I'm able to watch it tonight. I'm really looking forward to a show all about the funny side of fantasy football! I know it'll be reviewed on Two Guys, A Girl, and a TV Set so you can check that out but be aware they are probably spoilers. I know Mr. Feeny does an outstanding job of reviewing shows and I look forward to reading it after I've seen the show:)

World Series Game One

Though I'm not much of a fan of baseball anymore I do try to catch a game or two of the World Series and if a playoff series becomes compelling I'll catch one or two. I love the NBA playoffs, I watch a few games of the regular season of that though, way more than baseball.

Cliff Lee pitched an amazing game last night. He kept the Yankees at bay by pitching a complete game and allowing six hits. It was really fun to watch, well until I went to bed. They start these games just too late in the evening for people who work for a living.

I can't imagine how they are going to promote the game to children when four innings into the game they have to go to bed. MLB has problems. The Obama count stands at one as Michelle was there.

Had quite a storm last night! I love it when I get woke up by thunder and get to sleep with that as background noise:) It's very good for inducing a restful sleep!

Going to grab a drink after work with Chianti. Been ages since she and I have been able to sit down and have a quiet drink. She (as well as TC and Witchy) are knee deep in planning the reception right now.

I've got the best friends in the world!

Two Blogs Of Note

The Lost and Found Section and The Cauchy Sequence. Both are slices of American life as these gentlemen see it. One is very very new as there are two posts with one very good explanation on how the name The Cauchy Sequence was derived.

I'm a math guy as long as it is simple math and I have a calculator handy otherwise I don't bother. The point the author is driving at is what I connect with though, through its complexity I see the abstract idea that the author was aiming for. It is brilliant in its conclusion and has the cool cerebral edge to it. I feel I can read his first post and actually gain IQ points.

The Lost and Found Section is as the author explains, a blog simply about nothing. So far it is compelling as it is updated daily and we see how the author thinks about....um...nothing!

If I may offer advice to both authors, stick with it. Update it daily, let the readers inside and hold very little back on what you think, how you think, and why you think it. Reality TV as we know it has been around for over a decade now and it just isn't going anywhere but blogging...blogging will be around for decades to come.

Americana has evolved, some might think it has devolved (I think in some ways it has) but it is changing and some change is good. From journal writing with a quill to typing on an illuminated keyboard with the cool glow from LCD monitors staring back at you, our thoughts count for a little too, not in an egocentric way but in the way that gives voice to the voiceless.

These slice of life diaries in the virtual nonexistence existence will be out there for decades. I mean they aren't carved in stone for eternity or anything but for someone who wants a lonely, tiny voice in the dark they are the perfect medium.

The Sons Roll

With Jax and Clay fighting for control of the MC chaos is erupting around them all. As last night's show ended they were all further apart than they had ever been. I believe next episode Clay's secret will come out and either turn the entire club against him or they will be so disillusioned they will end the MC as a chapter.

I doubt that will happen, the show is getting better ratings than The Jay Leno Show. No doubt that has some NBC suits very nervous about their long term employment! In any event I am sure that by season's end everything will be up in the air and the table set for next season!

Tonight the World Series throws out its first pitch. I wonder what the over/under is on Obama appearances. I'd say three either video taped or live from the White House or possibly a live showing.

Watched Ice Age Three last night. Very funny, I love me some Scrat! They really created one of the funniest characters that never utters a syllable. Does Scrat find love? I'd recommend this movie for anyone, Simon Pegg has a great character and it's a fun, funny movie!

I'm disappointed in some of the cable channels this year who aren't showing classic monster movies as they have done in years past. I'm looking at you TCM! I enjoy black and white monster movies and with five hundred channels you'd think you could find one leading up to Halloween!

My Friends

Are the best ever. When they found out about the impending events three of them took it upon themselves to secure the lobby to the Theatre for the reception! I kind of got choked up over the matter.

Love my friends dearly and believe me I count them as family and I'm blessed to have each one of them in my life. I'm looking forward to decades of fun and frivolity to come:)

Each one of you who personally know me, and you know who you are, thank you for being my friend and I hope The Date and I bring as much enjoyment to your lives as you do to ours:)

Life Is Going To Get Good

Yep today I did it, I talked it over with the iPhone and Rocket the cat and we decided to ask The Date to become The Wife and The Things to well remain The Things but to become my family.

November sixth will be the day. Was considering October thirtieth but there is just way too much going on this weekend to get things in order by then.

Yeah, it's good already but it'll be that much better in two weeks:)

My expansive family of friends and family of family have given us their wholehearted blessing and I couldn't be happier:)

Nice Sunday

Although my fantasy football teams went 0-2 my fantasy NASCAR team took second place this weekend and cut the lead of the first place team in half. If I can keep this up then I'll have my overall lead back in a couple of weeks as the season winds down.

The Date and I went to Chianti's house and watched the Dallas game in the afternoon. Beersnob came over a little later on and he brought cigars so we stood outside and enjoyed them and conversed. I had a 5 Vegas Gold and he had a CAO Italia.

It was chilly out but it really didn't matter, the moment was good and everyone had fun.

I'm blessed to have friends like them but more than that I'm blessed to have The Date and The Things. It's getting hard to remember what life was like before they moved in.

Week 7

Well this week is going to be a tough one. I've got three WRs who are on a bye. No big deal, I'll chalk this week up as a loss and be full strength the rest of the season. Hopefully they will pick it up from here on out and be a force in the league.

In my main league I'll have a full roster but it won't matter as I'm still middle of the pack. I fully expect to be 0-2 this weekend at this point. I've become the Titans in both leagues. High expectations after a stellar last season and a better team than is showing up on the field but still not producing.

It sucks but such is the world of fantasy football. It happens in this game and in one league I can build on and field a better team next season, in my main league it's time to fold the tents and donate the rest of my weekly payments to the eventual winners.

Yeah it's tough to take, it really is but again this is the game I love to play and this is what can happen even if you have one of the best teams on paper.

Friday Was Fun!

Yes my day off was really nice. The Date and I spent pretty much the whole day together until she went to work in the late afternoon.

At seven on TCM one of the best thrillers of all time, Night of the Hunter with one of the most iconic villains of all time (Reverend Harry Powell) with his Love and Hate tattoos.

Robert Mitchum burns up every scene with his menacing presence as he hunts down ten thousand dollars he believes a condemned man hid with two children. This classic was Charles Laughton's directing debut and the end of his directing career as well. As with many movies of the time it was a box office failure that found an audience years later.

It is hard to imagine how this movie would have been received. It is a very dark movie as Harry Powell stalks and terrorizes children while beguiling the adults with his prison charm. Laughton did a masterful job of using shadows, room angles, and camera trickery to bring you into the scene with Powell and all of his malevolence.

It is a shame that he only directed one movie. Laughton was a brilliant actor in his own right from the blood thirsty Captain Bligh to the sympathetic Quasimodo, his acting range was untouched by many of his peers.

After Night of the Hunter was over I flipped channels for a while until Stargate: Universe came on. Again this series shows me why it is quickly becoming one of the best scifi shows on TV today. I wish I could get into the details of this episode however you know I hate spoilers and won't. It is worth it to watch it for yourself though and see what I'm talking about. So I'll give a spoiler free summary for those of you not inclined to take my advice.

SG:U isn't becoming an episodic show with the alien race of the week format. Instead it is more serial in nature with the story carrying on episode to episode. The imminent threat that was to destroy The Destiny in the last episode wasn't neutralized and in fact became a very good thing. The Destiny is a very smart ship, almost with a life of its own. Ancient technology, again the race that built the Stargate system, has a way of taking care of the things it has set in motion. Not so much a deus ex machina as it is just plot point of not knowing what The Destiny is capable of.

Without spoiling things The Destiny is in trouble and a lottery is held to draw the people who are to be sent off to safety. The emotional effect of the lottery on the characters was heart stopping as they knew they were going to certain doom. The survivors were certain to deal with their own issues as they were to be saved from a horrible fate by the luck of the draw.

I'm hoping SG:U enjoys several seasons of twenty episodes each. It is that good to me.

Who Left The Fridge Door Open?

It's cold all of a sudden! It's in the low forties right now!!!
I took off today as my leave was about to breach one hundred hours:) Don't want it getting too close to the magic mark. Had a good time last night with The Date and Jdub at Bdubs playing some brutally hard trivia.

When The Date and I showed up we played some even harder trivia based on the periodic table, if you think you could do it I'd say I doubt it. It was things like who discovered element 79 and things like that. I'm just going to go on record right now and say that the periodic table does not a good trivia game make.

After that was a long game called Six. It was more trivial pursuit based as there were categories. The questions progressively got harder as the game went on. I wound up fourth overall and won one block of questions out of four. Jdub did very well and landed very high despite missing out on the first block all together and having a bad playmaker to start. The Date also finished in the top ten again with playmaker problems as the battery went dead.

It was a fun evening for sure:)

Thursday:)

Had a really good evening. It was Ghost Hunters night and that's always a good night:)
They investigated a theatre in Chicago that really had some weird activity going on. The bad thing is that they didn't capture a lot on film though but they did get some thermal images that were very bizarre.

Before that I had built a good fire of charcoal in my charcoal chimney for grilling chicken. We made a grilled chicken pasta salad that was very good:)

The Date had purchased some Mexican hot chocolate in these hexagonal blocks and we had hot chocolate. It really is very very good! It has more of a cinnamon taste to it than our hot chocolate.

It was rainy and drizzly outside so it was perfect for hot chocolate and a cigar on the patio:) That was really fun! Me and some country legends on the patio just enjoying the weather and cool evening. Loved ones inside all warm and snug, sometimes life is better than you hoped it would be.

New Favorite Starship

A few hundred posts ago (I looked and couldn't find it) I listed my favorite starships and proclaimed the USS Cygnus as the best looking one. I'm going to update that and bump the Cygnus to number two on the list.

The Destiny from Stargate: Universe by far looks like a starship I'd like to be on. Well not in the situation that the occupants of the Destiny find themselves on by any means but say if the ship was in optimal condition.

Destiny is really a work of art among the geek world of starships. It has long and fluid lines, narrow in the front and flares out wide like an Imperial Star Destroyer from Star Wars. It is really quite the opposite of the more gothic styled USS Cygnus.

Destiny is massive but not nearly as big as Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer, The Executor. Probably far bigger than The USS Enterprise from TNG which is pretty large but again not the behemoth Executor.

There are starship comparison charts out there for the searching but none of them have the Destiny on it.

Stargate: Universe is quickly becoming the best (and sadly very few) Scifi show on TV. This show rocks. The show is still really dealing with the basic conditions on board the Destiny. Food rations, air problems, water rationing, and power shortages.

I'd like to compare it with something but unfortunately the only thing that comes to mind is the new Battlestar (now deceased and someday in rerun heaven) Galactica. It has lots of human drama, lots of potential for more, and a premise that has really intrigued me in the Stargate realm.

The characters are developing. There are more than a few who you really don't have a handle on as of yet. One guy for sure is very unlikable and unsympathetic and it isn't Rush the doctor. Dr. Rush is just very high strung but he also has everyone's survival interests at heart and will work on them nonstop despite his social shortcomings.

I'm hoping for a few seasons:)

The Ballad Of Anita Tse Tung

Ok I want to provide the context of the following clip of video. Mao Tse Tung (or Zedong)was one of the absolute evil men of the twentieth century. He was the direct cause of death for over seventy million people. He was more lethal than Hitler and Stalin. Mao is also one of the heroes (unbelievably so) of the unreasonable left.

Not all the left, just the loony left. I know lots of very reasonable lefties who would spit on Mao if given the chance. I just want the video clip to be in context.



This is Anita Dunn. As you can tell if you venture over to the link she is the White House Communications Director. I am forced to ponder if there is anyone in the administration who doesn't look up to leaders such as Hugo Chavez, Saul Alinsky, Bill Ayers, Castro, or other radicals. I'm just not wired to see how these people who either suppress or promote the suppression of freedom loving people should be admired.

What's wrong with a White House official saying how they admire George Washington, Ben Franklin, or John Adams? Without splitting hairs the Founding Fathers believed that man's natural state was one of freedom. That men were given that state of freedom by their Creator NOT by any government institution. This was written out, debated, and finally approved as our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Our President has described the Constitution as a document of negative liberties or in other words what I see as a document that limits what government can do to you he sees as something that keeps government from doing something on your behalf. Which leads directly to the nanny state and redistribution of wealth (stealing from one person to give to another) debate which I'll not delve into here. It would be similar to FDR's Second Bill of Rights which is right out of Marx's playbook.

You are guaranteed a house, job, practically everything so there is no reason to do anything. The government will take care of you because you are too stupid to do it yourself, just keep voting for X and the checks will keep coming.

Ok so to wrap this up Anita Dunn, White House official, admires Mao one of the most murderous leaders of the twentieth century and hero of the unreasonable left. She does not cite the Founding Fathers of her own country.

Just ask yourself, would you hire someone such as her to be in YOUR administration?

A Win Anyway

I won one game in my keeper league so that'll bring my record to 2-4 which is nicer than 1-5. Tom Brady's magic arm saved the day as the Patriot's offense appeared to click but it was against the hapless Titans. Brady was lights out yesterday tossing five TDs in the second quarter alone. They called off the dogs in the third quarter after his sixth TD pass.

Spent football Sunday at Skate's house with friends, great time too! Good food, good friends, good football to watch, it was even nice outside! It was a good end to a good weekend:) Got it? Good!

The Date and Thing 2 finished off the fourth season of Lost. Now it is a long wait until December when season five comes to DVD. She also finished John Adams on Saturday. Brilliant series and it helped her with her history class, lending perspective and context to her book.

It is a great series and John Adams is often overlooked today as a Founding Father in lieu of Thomas Jefferson, Franklin, and Washington. Adams did a lot of the unsavory work that never got the attention.

Well I'm off to start another week!

Fantasy Drought

I'm doing poorly in both fantasy football leagues this season and now I've dropped to second place in NASCAR after dominating for a couple of months. After being a couple of hundred points ahead I now find myself seventy seven points down.

In my keeper league today I'm going to drop LenDale White and pick up Cedric Benson who has really re-energized his career this season.

As I predicted earlier in the season my teams would succeed or fail on the RB position's performance. They have failed to deliver the goods thus far. In my main league I'm up and down. I'm decent points wise, middle of the pack, but my record is 1-4. I'm bad in my keeper league points wise and share the identical record of 1-4.

I'd have to win out in both leagues to have salvaged season and I don't really see that happening. Never say never but it would be a feat on par with the Miracle on Ice at the Olympics.

Really Nice Friday Evening

After a particularly long week at work and a very slow Friday afternoon I decided it would be time for Irish Coffee and cigars in the evening. My friend Narrator came over but I'm going to have to come up with a better nickname for him, I'll think it over.

Anyway we are chatting on Facebook and I mention my plans and invite him over to share in the relaxation that is my evening. He agrees and heads over. I make coffee and prepare a cup until he arrives.

When he does get here we go through the humidor and I explain what a few cigars are that he might enjoy, the kind, shape, flavor profile, etc. He says surprise him so I select a Oliva Serie O, a mild to medium cigar that will go well with the coffee. I make my selection, an Ashton VSG and we head outside with our coffee in tow.

We set down and we just chat. It was very nice. Yeah it got kinda chilly but it wasn't distracting. After the first cigars I offered a second so I selected two more, Cubans. I found a Partagas and something else I knew was Cuban but unbanded. I gave the Partagas to (I'm going to call him Teehee, I know everyone who knows him will know who that is) Teehee and we enjoyed some small Cubans. Fortunately these were actually good! I've found that about 50% of the Cubans I've had have construction problems and quality issues, but are generally smooth. These were good.

After that we joined The Date and Thing 2 inside as they were watching John Adams, the miniseries. Great show:) Teehee played with Zip for quite a bit and thankfully wore him out:)

All in all it was a very nice evening and the perfect capper for my week:)

Captain Queeg

-- Post From My iPhone

Whewwww

Made it! It's Friday after a particularly grueling week at work. I know The Date is frustrated with me at times because she will ask about my day at work and I really just say it was fine or some such nonsense. I know she is concerned and wants to know but I don't like talking about work.

I forget it exists until I have to clock in the next day. I'm appreciative of my job, the benefits, and the strike taught me how perilous I'd be without an income however I don't want to talk about it when I'm off the clock. I like a lot of the people but it is getting to where they make you jump through so many hoops just to accomplish the smallest thing.

Things have to be checked out of a secure location, signed out, inventoried, and put into a portable secure box for transfer just so you can go to where the job is, that is before you even do one shred of work. It is very demoralizing and it's ridiculous and lately a lot of it is because of Captain Queeg the inspector.

He is disgruntled. He came here a few months ago because he didn't get a transfer to a place he wanted to be. He feels personally slighted by life I guess and is taking it out on everyone, abusing his power because he is mad at the world. He has made every section slower and more inefficient because of his write ups.

Our supervisor, a former inspector, believes he is an idiot as Queeg's citations are dubious and have no merit. He writes things and then you are supposed to cite the source where you are in error, Queeg's sources are 90% wrong, they are either old and not valid, they apply to other sections and not the work section you are in, he is essentially making things up to prove he is right.

He is just one facet of my job though and the day to day stresses I forget about after I clock out. There is one good thing though, today is doughnut day! For a small donation each week you get doughnuts on Friday!

Fall Break....

I'm doing my normal routine this morning. I get up and shower, take Zip out, and then let him in and turn on The Date's light to get her around. Zip jumps up and down on her which helps wake her up. Then I go up stairs to turn on Things one and two's lights.

I tell Thing 2, "Let's go!" as she is always the first to get up anyway after me. "Where are we going?" "Wake up," I reply back.

"It's Fall Break..." They should really tell me these things sometimes.

I did not know this so I go back down and check with The Date who confirms that none of them have school today. Go figure. I'm all alone this morning enjoying the aroma of coffee I won't have time to drink before going off to work.

It is still drizzly outside. I found an old Coast to Coast AM show in my archives that featured a guy who tried to crack the Jack the Ripper case. Thought it would be great listening as I was dozing off in this weather. Very Rippery weather for sure over the past few days.

It Passed

The Baucus bill passed the Senate committee yesterday. Now Harry Reid will combine elements of it with another bill that got out of committee and that bill will go to a vote on the floor.

Meanwhile the House bill will be assembled in a similar fashion and sent to the floor to be voted on. Once there is is a Senate and House bill passed they will go to a conference committee and hash out the differences and produce a bill to take to the President to sign.

The House bill will have to have a public option, the Senate bill will have to have penalties for people who refuse to get insurance and tax plans that cost over eight thousand per year (a number that is sure to fall to pay for this behemoth of a bill, along with a possible VAT, and windfall profit tax on all insurance companies).

I'm all in favor of a VAT (Value Added Tax) or a national sales tax in lieu of income tax. Naturally you'd exempt food and clothing so it isn't regressive but that isn't Speaker Pelosi's plan. She wants the VAT AND the income tax to be adjusted up a bit to pay for the ultimate bill that Obama wants.

The weird thing is that the taxes won't start for two years (after the midterm elections) and the health care plan won't start until at least 2013 (after the next Presidential election) very shrewd moves on the liberal sides. As a sitting President he has a good chance of being reelected, I believe he will be more Carter like and go down as one of the worst Presidents ever though. Regardless he would stand a great chance of NOT being reelected if his plan kicked in while he was in office in his first term.

Since Congress is up for election every two and six years they have timed the tax increases to start just after their elections, again very shrewd political move. They are banking on short memories of the public.

Even though I don't like what is happening I am marveling at the adeptness in which they are exhibiting in doing it.

Important Vote Today

The soon to be very infamous bill which will make and break many career politicians in D.C. will be voted on. One of the center pieces of Nobel Peace Prize winning President Obama's agenda, health care reform.

No one disagrees that the insurance system needs reformed. I stand on the side that America doesn't need a Canadian, or UK style of government run health care. Senator Max Baucus disagrees. His bill is expected to be voted out of committee today and head to the Senate floor.

I couldn't break it down here in a hundred years as it is so densely written so I'll make it black and white as many issues in Washington really are. Do you believe it is moral to tax someone who earns insurance now to pay for those who do not? Keep in mind that the government isn't in any kind of business to pay for anything, their only business is tax code which produces their revenue.

The Baucus bill does tax "Cadillac" plans which really is most health care insurance plans as far as I can tell. You can bet they will only say it is the plans of the upper 1% of earners who have these plans. I disagree as I have one of these plans and I'm far far from one of the top 1% of earners. In fact everyone where I work has one of these plans and some of them barely make twelve dollars per hour. Actually it taxes the insurance company offering the insurance and those costs are then passed over to the consumer such as myself.

So is it right to tax someone who is making twelve dollars per hour and take that money to buy an insurance plan for someone who doesn't have it?

Most of you readers know me personally but for those of you who don't let me fill you in a bit. If you are hungry, come over, I'll cook you a meal. If you have trouble paying your water bill and I have the spare money, I'll give it to you or what I can. If you are stranded on the side of the road, I'll stop. What I object to is when someone tells me I have to give X to Y because Y doesn't have a job, or their job doesn't offer insurance.

I'd say change the tax code, let the business keep more of its money so they can do right by their employees. Don't tax them to death and penalize them. I'd say change the tax code so that you can buy your own insurance. Let the health care insurance businesses compete against each other as Geico and Progressive do for car insurance.

Yeah I know it is an oversimplification however it is valid nonetheless. For the money they want to spend they could BUY insurance plans for every single uninsured person out there and it would cost half as much. Instead they believe several layers of bureaucracy is the solution. More bureaucracy riddled with fraud like medicaid and medicare is the solution. They actually said that once that fraud is eliminated it will almost pay for the entire bill....if so then WHY haven't they done so already? Obviously they know it is there, so why not fix that first and then tackle it from there?

Because that isn't their goal. Their goal is the total single payer system and once that is in place America as we know it is on its financial death bed. This system has NOT worked in Massachusetts but that doesn't deter them from wanting to do the same thing on the federal level. They actually believe that more government intrusion into your life is the answer.

I've got lots of liberal friends, some of my best and closest friends in fact. I can't think of any but maybe one who would like to live under the nanny state our feds are proposing. Most of my friends are hard working and pretty independent. They earn their livings doing going out into the world as I do to pay their bills and mortgages. I really can't think of one liberal friend who is incapable of living their own lives, free from government interference.

They all know what is best for them and don't need anyone else telling them differently. The difference is that in D.C. they look at all of us as incapable of making the right choices for us.

Pay attention today, it is an important vote.

It Was A Mad Sunday

First of all my surprise was carried out flawlessly. She was amazed and very happy when she found out via my blog what was going on for the day:)

PF Chang's was very tasty! I'd recommend it:) I had turned in my week 5 lineup the day before. I believe I won third place in my first league and I'm bringing up the rear in my keeper league. The bye weeks are here and every fantasy owner hates it when they are upon us. It's the scourge on fantasy sports.

Then after we got back home I decided to grab my chair, a blanket, some Irish coffee, and a Padilla Signature 1932 and head outside:) The Irish coffee turned into three Irish coffees and the cigar eventually turned into a Bolivar Cuban. Again I was disappointed by a Cuban cigar.

My pallet has been refined since I started enjoying premium cigars and it seems that every time I grab a Cuban I don't enjoy it as much as a Non Cuban. It was a very enjoyable time outside in the cool air:) I need to get a snuggie though for the upcoming Winter.

Then it was time to start Mad Men. I watched the first three episodes. First of all it is a very atmospheric show based in 1960 at an advertising agency on Madison Avenue. I felt like I probably reeked of smoke and I'm not positive but I might have caught a buzz from all of the alcohol they drank.

This is a show where men treat women as objects and women are content to stay at home and cook. A divorced woman is a social albatross and the other women henpeck her with how are you going to live without a man? Now I readily admit that I laugh at the WNBA as a sport. It is frequently a punchline but by no means would I treat a woman as they are treated on Mad Men.

Overall I'm really pretty engrossed with the show though. Don Draper, the main character, appears to have had a previous life. He is married and so far has been increasingly disenchanted with his home life. He has a lover in the city and nearly started another affair....and this is three episodes in!

I'm looking forward to seeing where this show goes. It has started its fourth season now on AMC and I'll be able to catch up quickly as the third season will be on DVD soon.

Big Day

IT took some planning but I pulled it off. I finally asked T to find out what place in the city The Date would enjoy eating at since I knew T was going to see her on Friday to pick up part of a science project for her son. Turns out it is PF Changs so today we will be driving to PF Changs for her bday lunch:)

Funny thing is that the way T did it, she said she was going and would she like Changs or another place. T texted me back and then forwarded her message to her, she was very excited, LOL!

Then I nagged her to death on Friday to get new tires on her car so it would be safe to drive today. I know she was just thinking I was nagging but today's trip is the reason for it.

All in all it was successful since she didn't have a clue. I laid it on really thick last night as we went to Hastings. I picked up the first season of Mad Men and told the man at check out I was stocking up for the weekend so I wouldn't have to get out, picked up a few candy bars too.

At this point I believe she thinks I may have forgotten:)

I Could Talk About

The Nobel Peace Prize joke that was played on the world yesterday but I won't. It'll be talked to death by other bloggers. Both pros and cons and they'll cover way more angles than I could possibly think of.

Instead I'd rather talk about Rocky Horror last night at the local college. They had a showing. A group of the friends I know and love went out there to witness the show. It was enjoyable even though it really wasn't what we were expecting.

First we got there and they started Young Frankenstein. We all loved that movie as well so we watched it and laughed with the sparse audience. A few more people came in for Rocky. Between the movies they drew for door prizes and it's really funny! There were five of us there. Four of us won out of six prizes! I was the only one to go home without a door prize. The Date did win a Halloween themed drink shaker with two shot glasses though!

We left a couple of songs after Time Warp as the chairs were uncomfortable and we had been there a good while. We had fun, I wish the audience had been bigger though. I was really wanting the whole Rocky Horror audience experience and Witchy (who won a Halloween snow globe) was the only one in the whole show who knew all of the audience participation lines.

We had fun, it was a good evening:)

Woohooo!!!!

This is one of the rare occurrences during the year where I have a payday and a three day weekend! Amazing! I love it when things line up like that, means there is a good weekend in store:)

Yesterday it seemed like it rained a foot, all day long and usually only a brief shower separated long periods of hard driving rain. Everything was soaked. Even though I wasn't I felt like I was soaked to the bone.

I've always wanted to experience a hurricane. I figure that the rain we had yesterday would be what it's like after the hurricane has left and you just have some storms to deal with. Speaking of hurricanes, it appears that this hurricane season is really pretty quiet. Chalk one up for nature over the socialist green freaks who want you in a horse drawn carriage while they lay out a different set of rules for themselves.

I know a lot of liberals, not one of them is attempting to leave the cushy lives they have in favor of moving to a socialist country though. In fact I can't think of one of them who would want to live under the marxist government restraints that seem to be on the horizon either.

Oh well that's a blog post for another time;) And yes it'll happen, I've got time.

Storming Up A Storm!

It is very storming right now! A big, loud, noisy storm too. A quick glance at the radar shows me that it'll be gone in about an hour though.

It's Thursday. Watched Nostradamus Effect last night while flipping to Ghost Hunters, then a very interesting Destination Truth. Usually Josh finds nothing but sounds. Last night the crew found a tiny decaying corpse (about the size of a chicken but had feet that looked like hooves) that baffled scientists, saw lights in a dead end tunnel, and found a mysterious light outside in the sky that was brighter than anything else around in the Chilean desert. It was some compelling TV watching!

They were searching for UFOs and they definitely found some unexplained stuff. It was a good change from the usual blurry pictures and shaky video footage they take. Ghost Hunters was decent. Nostradamus Effect though was a real eye opener. I had no idea that Sir Issac Newton dealt in eschatology as well as being one of the greatest minds in science ever.

Now of course I am a partial preterist and believe that Revelation mostly dealt with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It was the classical Christian belief as well until the early nineteenth century when dispensationalism became what we commonly know today as the end times. It is the destructive end of the world stuff and sells tons of books, makes lots of money for churches willing to exploit that belief, and makes evangelists some major bank.

Newton had calculated the end of the world as 2060 but Solomon's Temple will have to be rebuilt, which I don't believe it ever will, well not without a massive war with Muslims when the Al Aqsa mosque is torn down. It simply will not happen in the next fifty years and change.

It was an interesting show though on History, one of my favorite channels:)

Ghost Lab

Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs and the narrator of The Deadliest Catch (one of my favorite shows) does triple duty narrating this ghost hunting extravaganza. Two brothers from San Antonio with lots of high tech equipment travel around the country and explore ghost stories and try to capture them on a variety of instruments.

Yeah you might think it is a Ghost Hunters clone. It really isn't. Ghost Hunters was first and to me by far the most interesting ghost hunting show on TV. You just love Jason and Grant and always pull for them.

The Klinge brothers are a little bit more gruffer, a little bit more heavy handed with the ghosts and up front. They seem like guys you would like to grab a drink with after work or guys you want in your fantasy football league because they are going to put on a big feed for you with grilled everything.

The show itself, well I'd say for a ghost hunting show its ok. It was only the premiere last night and they were in Louisiana at a music hall where many rock legends got their start and then a plantation where GH have already been.

I like the show but I like Ghost Hunters better. I'm just more familiar with that cast of characters like Steve, Tango, Kris, and of course Jason and Grant.

I Lost

Both games but I did have fun for an hour hanging out with Beersnob at a local wings place. Not BDubs either.

I found a flyer on a bulletin board about The Rocky Horror Picture Show this Friday night at the local college. I believe a delegation of my friends will be attending the costumed show. Unfortunately two of the ones who would enjoy it the most, Skate and Jassie will be out of town to celebrate their one year.

This should be quite an event as Beersnob is a veteran of the Greenwich Village showing of TRHPS. I'm looking forward to attending, it'll be interesting to see how it goes!

Week 4 Results

It appears that both my teams will be middle of the pack this season. I can't break out and contend through the first quarter of the season. Yeah it is a marathon but if you aren't a front runner yet then it'll be unlikely that you'll be in the lead later on.

For the most part it is my RBs who aren't clicking as I suspected. In my main league I'm losing 46-22 with Percy Harvin left. In my keeper league I've got Green Bay and Percy Harvin left and I'm losing 31-24. I've got a chance to win that game for sure but it'll take some defensive scoring and Harvin is going to have to have a good game.

Such is fantasy football. You run the numbers, read the inside reports, and maybe you wind up out thinking the room at times. I didn't out think the room so much as just rolled the dice on my RBs. It's ok though, the keeper league will have a good foundation to build on.

The main league is a tough league anyway. It'll always be better next season!

Week 4!!!!

In the keeper league I'm going to roll with Tom Brady, Darren McFadden, LenDale White, Calvin Johnson, Percy Harvin, and Justin Gage. Elam is on a bye so I'm rolling Matt Prater and the Packers D.

In my main league I'm going Matt Schaub, Pierre Thomas, Fred Jackson, Fitz is on a bye so it'll be AJ, Housh, and Percy Harvin. Prater, and the Giants D.

Pierre Thomas is off of his injury and announced last week his return with over one hundred yards rushing and two TDs. I'm looking forward to him being back today and in my lineup! Schaub and AJ should rip apart the Oakland D.

It should be a good day for my teams:)

SG:U Is Great

I was very happy with the premiere of SG:U. It did appear that O'Neil had packed on the pounds. We briefly saw Colonel Carter and Daniel Jackson. No mention of Teal'c though. That was a shame as everyone loves Teal'c.

All in all the story breaks down like this: at project base Icarus they find the ninth chevron but can't encode or lock it. One of the doctors decided to put the problem into a video game (ala The Last Starfighter) for a kid to solve. He solves it and they beam him aboard the ship orbiting Earth.

Then they hyperspace over to Icarus base. When the base comes under attack by the Gou'ald they find a way to solve the problem to lock the ninth chevron. The stargate engages and they evacuate the base to an Ancient starship. The Ancients built the stargate system.

The ship is very old and heavily damaged. They have immediate problems of air leaks and the atmosphere scrubbers are barely working leaving air, food, and water as immediate goals of the evacuees.

Where the show will go from here is up in the air. They can explore planets when they near one with a stargate. I'm sure they will encounter different alien life forms, good ones and bad ones. They have limited everything now as they are billions of light years away from Earth and no way to dial home for some reason I don't quite understand unless it is just too far away.

I'm looking forward to next week and seeing how this show progresses through the season:)

Stargate: Universe

I'm really looking forward to the premiere of SG:U tonight. It appears that RDA at least makes a small appearance in the premiere. Maybe Teal'c will be on there too. I'd love to see all of SG:1 but I doubt if that'll happen for some reason.

Lou Diamond Phillips stars in this next Stargate franchise after the very successful Stargate: Atlantis, which was surprisingly canceled. It was consistently one of the highest rated shows on Syfy. LDP really isn't what I'd call scifi material but we'll see. It's good to see him working again.

The new franchise takes place in a far far away galaxy on board an abandoned ship of the Ancients I believe. The Ancients built the Stargate system. It appears to be a series without the fun of the previous two shows but I'll hold out until seeing a few episodes before making that call.

It looks promising and has been promoted nonstop so far. The Stargate franchise is really an anomaly. The first show ran for over two hundred episodes and might have had one or two more seasons in the tank since it added Ben Browder and Claudia Black to the cast. Instead they opted to quit and do direct to DVD movies. They wrapped up the storylines quite nicely too, still it is like revisiting friends at this point when you see a character again.

The Stargate ideal was to make faster than light travel possible and accessible to everyone. You can essentially go to work, travel to another planet, explore all day, come back, and go home for the evening in your own car. It was like being in Starfleet but more accessible.

Yeah, great series! Here's hoping the next series is just as good!

Down To Six

The good news is that over the past couple of weeks there have been no layoff rumors. It's October first and traditionally layoffs always happen today each year. So far there are none.

The bad news is that we are down to six people in my department now. One is out for a long while as he had a liver transplant. One went down Tuesday night with an appendix attack. He'll be back likely by Monday though.

By contrast when I went to work there we had seventeen in my department. They have cut and cut and cut out of my department over the years. I'm pretty sure they can't cut anymore as we don't have enough now to do the job as it needs to be done. I don't trust them far enough to say it will never happen again though.

It's a new day and a new month. 2009 is starting to wind down now. We are a year and a month away from the mid-term elections and a real turning point for the country. Hopefully all of the damage that can be done has already been done and it'll just take years to untangle the problems instead of decades.

For you Obama supporters out there I can't wait until you get your first electric bill because of his Cap and Trade tax on you. Actually that's not true. I don't want you to ever get that bill. I want it to be overturned by a new elected congress before that happens.

The weather seems mild outside. It feels good. I just put Zip outside for a few minutes. When I go and get him he'll run like a madman to the bedroom door and jump onto the bed to wake up The Date. It's pretty funny!

What If?

Ok I love this game! I remember a documentary on the History Channel (one of my favorites) about the mini ice age that happened in the middle ages. It was actually a natural occurrence and an effect of the ocean current. To the people living at the time it was devastating as they were totally unprepared for much cooler climate living.

That makes me wonder What If?! What if Obama had been alive and in charge during that time, how would he have handled that crisis. Well that is the first thing that would have happened. He would have called it a crisis. Provided he still leans Marxist as he does now he would seek to blame the people for the problem, apologize to the rest of the world for his countries' people, and change their behavior via the tax code while implementing a massive government program that takes over the lives of the peasants who are to blame.

Now if that is about as believable as one of our iconic symbols of capitalism celebrating say...oh something completely opposite of our beliefs.....like the 60th anniversary of the communist Chinese revolution. Yeah that's right. The Empire State Building will be red and yellow this week to honor communism?!?!?!

Talk about a world gone mad!!! Does anyone remember when communism meant bad? When communism meant death to innocent people? When communism meant crushing oppression and no civil rights? A mindless state controlled everything that ruled you with an iron fist or crushed you beneath it when the gears needed oiled.

How is this a good idea? I just want to know how in the world that it is a good idea to celebrate communist ideals and honor them?

Fading Cough

As long as I stay on Halls cough drops and Nyquil at night my cough doesn't bother me. Yesterday I actually had a small buzz working before work because of I had almost no food in my stomach and had already consumed two Halls. It was very unsettling.

By noon I felt like I could use a nap. I was so fatigued at that point I didn't know if I could finish the day. I did though. I made it and now I'm a little bit stronger today. Tomorrow I'll be a bit stronger still until I'm back to 100% again.

One of my coworkers who had the EXACT same symptoms and was off work last week as well had also made it to work. He felt just as tired and had the same cough. It was uncanny.

Regardless I'm going to work today. I've got to build my leave back up now and the only way to do that is attendance. A guy at work said this statement, "I have the ability to build my leave." I looked at him dumbfounded, "We all do." was my retort. Last week he took off four hours to go to the dump of all things. Personally I don't fault him. Its our leave and part of our pay. Something we earn for trading our working hours with that company.

We live in extraordinary times, historic times. The world is on the precipice of an upheaval the likes we have not seen in generations. Iran is quickly emerging as the preeminent threat to world peace, North Korea has a nuclear weapon and I'm sure is trying to fit it on top of one of their missiles. Afghanistan is as it has always been, a political mess. Russia is starting to get designs on Eastern Europe again and is thankful we will not deploy our missile shield in Poland and The Czech Republic, they aren't as thrilled about the idea though.

Our President doesn't believe in American Exceptionalism and instead insisted on apologizing to the UN for our successes. He is intent on having Americans live as if we belonged to a third world country while two industrial giants in India and China are pulling their citizens out of third world status and putting them into world class middle class status.

They are looking to raise their standard of living while our President is looking to lower our standard of living by punishing success. When you discourage how successful someone is allowed to be then it just breaks something inside of you. He should be out there encouraging people to be the best they can be instead he would rather redistribute the wealth of the successful to others out of some misguided and immoral sense of fairness.

I hope congress passes this monstrosity of a health care bill and a massive government take over of the health industry is attempted. The 2010 elections should send a clear message that what is going on right now is not what the people want.

Great Sunday Of Football Watching!

More people than expected showed up to enjoy the NFL Sunday Ticket at our home yesterday. It was a great time and everyone enjoyed themselves as we watched football game upon football game, comparing our fantasy team to others!

Food was plentiful, drink was abundant, and my scores sucked. It was irrelevant though as the day was enjoyed with wonderful friends and family!

I played the same team in both leagues, The Renegades. Amazingly enough this is a team who throughout the years I've constantly beat. He beat me in both leagues yesterday 21-54 and 18-39.

It really didn't bother me though as everyone had a fun time:)

Week 3!!!!

Well after a water pipe breaking last night under the kitchen sink and lots of cleanup including towel washing I'm awake and ready to blog!

I'm rolling with Schaub, Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, and since Percy Harvin is questionable I'm going to insert TJ Houshmandzadeh into the lineup. Matt Hasslebeck is injured and won't play this week so who ever is throwing the ball in Seattle will need to lean on Housh today. My RBs are easy, Fred Jackson and Darren McFadden. Elam and the Giants round out my lineup this week.

In my keeper league Brady leads the pack along side Darren McFadden, Leon Washington, Calvin Johnson, Eddie Royal, and Justin Gage. Elam and the Packers round out this lineup.

Hosting NFL watching today so everything is in full cleaning mode right now. Still have to get nacho cheese dip going and a few other things. Going to be a good day:)

Yesterday Was Up And Down

I'd feel good for a while and then go to feeling bad for a while. It was weird. This morning I feel pretty good though. I'm drinking a cup of hot coffee made from Dunkin' Donuts beans. Amazing coffee. Maybe some of the best I've had!

I found it very ironic yesterday that the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh were actually protesting our President who largely agrees with the income redistribution ideals they do. Our President is not a pro capitalist, not one of his programs will lead anyone to that conclusion.

Yes there is a splinter faction of the protesters who are anarchists which is also funny. They are generally late teen, early twenties, skinny as a rail and likely anti gun vegans. Yeah they would survive a LONG time in a world ruled by Mad Max style anarchy....they better watch out for what they wish for.

Go look at Somalia, that is a country ruled by anarchy. They have no governing body at all. They should go live there for a while and see if that is a better lifestyle. Somehow I don't believe they would be conducive to that kind of environment. None of them really strike me as a Bear Grylls or Les Stroud kind of people.

Feeling Better

I believe I have just had a bad head cold over the past two days. Yesterday I came home from work early because I was starting to get congested. Later in the afternoon I started to develop a fever. It is gone, I can breathe almost freely now, I still feel fatigued though.

Staying home today to get rest and make sure I am 100%. I will still have over eighty hours of leave accrued so it isn't a big hit in that department. I'm in good shape:) I just feel like I've been ran over and fatigued now.

My throat isn't as sore as it was yesterday. My cough isn't as strong as it was yesterday. I believe I will miss The Big Lebowski event at Beersnob's house though this evening. I don't want to take the chance of making any of my friends sick.

The Longest Day Of Work

Yesterday was by far one of the longest days of work in the over seventeen years of my tenure there. The night before was filled with Nyquil to allow me some peaceful sleep. The next morning drowsy was the word of the day.

So I went to my normal quickshop to get some coffee or anything in order to help me wake up and shake the drowsy feeling. They were out of large coffee cups so I had to settle for the smaller size, not exactly what I was hoping for.

I picked up some Halls vitamin C and Halls cough drops and so began a Nyquil/Halls induced hazy day. The combination made every second longer than the last and the minutes stretched into hours. I couldn't shake off the haze in my head. My coworker had called in sick so I was alone in the shop.

Yeah I could have gone home and left the shop dark but it was only a cough and my own fault for taking too much Nyquil. I could and did tough it out.

Sure I came home checked my temperature (No fever) and crashed for three hours after work. Felt good too. I got up around seven, watched Tuesday night's Sons of Anarchy episode and jumped into the shower. That gave me a warm hand up and out of the haze filled day.

Now that hot water felt good. This morning other than a hacking cough I feel lots better. The hot shower is a miracle worker!

Great Substitute

The White Russian is a great substitute until my Scotch boycott is over with. It is directly from The Big Lebowski so I am not taking credit for anything. This drink has been around for decades, some sources date it back as far as the nineteenth century but that seems a little far fetched.

Vodka, Kahlua, and milk or cream. I prefer cream over milk. serve it over ice and it is a Summertime delight. Very satisfying as well. It'll be a great go to until my boycott is over with and Abdel Basset al Meghrahi dies in Libya, a free man.

I've got a scratchy throat, it started yesterday and really isn't letting up. I took some Nyquil to cut the coughing down to nothing before bed. Which was at nine as I was exhausted and the Nyquil effects had me craving my mattress and pillow.

I could very well go back to bed now and sleep another couple of hours as I feel sluggish, the cough is still here. I'll steer clear of people and get some Halls to chew on the way to work.

The Return Of The Rag Counting Inspector

Yes he returned today to show us the sizeable amount of write ups he accumulated over his stay with us. It struck me that this man is Captain Queeg from The Cain Mutiny but without the paranoia.

His arguments were brilliant but pointless as there was a lot of energy expended for such tiny things as rubber hose inspections.

The write ups read like a Steinbeck novel in complexity and citation. He steadfastly defended each infraction as if it were his own child overlooking the fact that none of these observations will cost any of us one cent in pay or one wink of sleep.


-- Post From My iPhone

Final Results

What was really funny last night is that The Date came home from work and asked how her team was doing then while eating watched the game. She kept an eye on Dallas Clark who the Road Dawgs had playing against her team. Da Broads pulled off the win though 50-49 and she will be thrilled to hear that.

She probably would never pay attention to a game but the cool thing about fantasy football is that you pay attention to many games because you have a stake in the outcomes. I kept my third place victory in my long time league placing me into the money this week:)

It was a quiet evening. It's raining now and looks like it might for most of today. I can handle that:)

Week 2 Results

In my primary league I am probably good for third place overall with fifty five points and a win, in the keeper league I lost and I'm middle of the pack.

Andre Johnson had an amazing game and if I would have started Schaub against the tough Titan's D then I would have likely been in the money as well in the primary league. He had over twenty points!

I didn't and took last week's results as an indication that he wasn't going to do well. I benched him and he did do very well. Go figure! LOL! That happens, it's fantasy football.

In the keeper league and unless Dallas Clark has an outstanding game the owner of the Road Dawgs will be cooking for the three owners of Da Broads this week. Side bets are so much fun! Overall right now it appears that Cool Runnings has taken first place with sixty five points while the dreaded Dodge City Legend has taken second with sixty four, third is a three way tie with fifty each.

I'm not sure which team has players going in tonight's game other than Road Dawgs and Quincy St. Carnage (who has the always strong and consistent Peyton Manning) but these places might very well stand this week.

Week 2!!!!!

Ok here we go with the week 2 lineups!
In my regular league I'm going to roll with: Matt Hasselbeck as my QB, Darren McFadden and Rashard Mendenhall as my RBs, Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, and Percy Harvin as my WRs, and Elam as the kicker with the awesome Giants as my D/ST.

In my keeper league I'm going with: Tom Brady, McFadden and LenDale White, Justin Gage, Percy Harvin, and Calvin Johnson, then Elam and the Packers D/ST.

It is hard to tell if Brady will suddenly become the Brady of years past this week or not but I'd be very surprised if he didn't have at least two TDs. These WRs on both teams should be solid if not the best WRs this week.

I like my chances this week for some better scores than last week. We'll see how it goes!

Relaxing Friday Evening

All I did was get home, The Date had already gone to work. I decided to go outside and smoke a Camacho. I had Zip the dog with me and we just chilled in some very nice weather. Not too hot, not too cold, just nice.

Then I came inside and started to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and continued to play for four hours:)

Yeah that was cool too! I made it up to the Africa stage. This is a fairly long game in story mode! I'm really enjoying it!

Sometimes Work Is Worth Going To

So there I am at work. We were due for our quarterly inspection and by golly they came. In my line of work inspections and inspectors are a way of life. You can't do anything without an inspector being there to watch and grade you on it or write you up about it.

So there I was, just doing my daily routine work and in walks the two inspectors. One guy, our long time inspector (a good guy too) the other has only been there a handful of weeks and is new. He was like in charge of lots of inspectors in his last job.

So there we were. I was doing my work and the inspectors start rummaging through our tool cabinet. Our long time inspector just kind of hung back and watched the new guy go about his rather thorough job. He pulls out the flashlight and unscrews the top of it.

Out slide the three batteries and he states that he always looks for batteries of different brands as they pose an explosion hazard. Now I've been around batteries before right and I know that I've mixed and matched brands before without explosive incident.

I so wanted to engage in debate with said inspector alas I saw the "look" from the lead who was entertaining the inspectors and discouraging debate and questioning. So shortly after that the inspectors headed back into the office and I shortly followed suit.

The new inspector has decided to look into the rag log. A written log in which we keep track of rags we really don't use at all. This log hasn't been used in a very long time but our thorough new inspector was undeterred and ventured forth into the rag drawer.

The log boldly declared that there were one hundred nineteen rags present and accounted for. The new inspector asks the simple question, "are there one hundred nineteen rags?" Keep in mind there are not rags in the traditional sense, they are more like paper towels, high quality paper towels but paper towels nonetheless.

The lead rose to the challenge and declared before heading off to a "meeting" that yes, "if you were to count them there would be one hundred nineteen rags present." again promptly leaving for previously mentioned meeting. He glances at me and says, "you can do this."

So there sat me and the new inspector. "I get paid by the hour." I tell the inspector before he digs into the box of glorified paper towels. He starts at one and counts semi loud to himself while glancing at me every tenth so I can say, "Ten, Twenty, Thirty, and so on." Before ten the good guy inspector poked his head into the office and saw what was going on. He smirked at me and quickly closed the door.

What strikes me most is the seriousness in which he pursues this endeavor. He is both professional and very interested in seeing how many rags we have for some reason. I barely contained my laughter and had to fake cough a couple of times during the count to one hundred eleven rags. Yeah we were short. He looked at me as if I had been the torch bearer at a Klan convention.

"Only one hundred eleven rags. You counted right?" Yes I counted and as he well knew I came to the same count...especially when he hit one hundred eleven rags and lifted the empty box up to show me there were no more left.

Gleefully he wrote something down and asked me about tech orders. "Do you want to pick one or should I?", he asked me. "I'm headed to the bathroom, the rag counting wore me out. knock yourself out", I replied. He was unaware of the dripping sarcasm present in my voice. He attacked the tech order cabinet with zeal and passion.

Rarely have I had this much fun at work. I am excited to see what tomorrow will bring when he finishes his inspection! I really believe that tomorrow will not be as eventful. Tomorrow he will deal with the temporary lead, a man who wakes up and finds a reason to be mad.

Now the new inspector seems like a good guy, just very very very thorough and very serious about his job:)

A Good Wednesday

Nothing spectacular happened. I got past Bullseye in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I had lots of router problems last night though and my internet was up and down. Weird!

Taking it to work today so Mandingo can look it over as he does IT stuff. It's just weird that it would work and then within the span of a few minutes it would stop working and then work again.

I picked up one of the few movies I don't yet own, The Big Lebowski. It's also one of the few Coen Brothers movies I enjoyed. There were a few, O Brother Where Art Thou, The Man Who Wasn't There, and No Country for Old Men were the tops in my opinion.

I was reading an article about how there is a subculture that has built up around this almost flop of a movie. It didn't make a lot of money, stayed in the theaters only a couple of weeks but has become more popular over the years. There is a Dudespaper, a documentary about the Dudes Convention, and a few other odds and ends things that have cropped up since the movies release.

I emailed Beersnob, since he hasn't seen the movie, to see if he would like to host a movie night. Everyone can drink White Russians and wear bath robes.

Thing 1 has got The Date to watch Angel (Thing 1 was ill yesterday and stayed home) and now The Date has come to love another TV show...LOL. It's really pretty funny!

Even Better Alliance 2

So there I was last week on pins and needles waiting for the premiere of Sons of Anarchy. I was ready for a let down from last season which started off strong and got better really without a clunker in the whole season.

This week rolled around and I was thinking for sure that the let down would finally start to happen but to my disappointment it didn't. Samcro was stronger last night than it was last week and last season. How is that possible?

How is it possible for a show to actually not let you down and fulfill your expectations? That's something you really won't find on the antiquish networks anymore. Yes there are exceptions, there always are. Lost for instance is a fine example but it even it has had its clunker episodes from time to time even though they are rare.

For the most part I never watch anything on the alphabet soup channels. They are bland and for the most part you have already seen it under a different name.

Sons of Anarchy though...oooohhhhh....there is something different. Something original. Something worth watching and it is no surprise that it isn't on the local channels.

Henry Rollins is absolutely phenomenal. I'm sure he will meet his demise by season's end if not sooner at the hands of Samcro and it'll be a sad day but I can live with it. I can't help it. I'm a fan of the man.

I've listened to all of his CDs, not so much the music ones but the stand up ones. No it really isn't comedy routines, he reads out of his journal, retells stories from the road, reads letters he gets, and things like that. Probably one of the best live story tellers this side of Kevin Smith. Very entertaining if you can find them!

Now onto the report on yesterday's hedonism. Yep a full day off with no responsibilities and nothing much to do (well until Thing 1 called me from school to be picked up because she was sick) but play video games.

I pre-ordered Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and it came out yesterday. I was out at Gamestop at 10:30 in the morning to pick it up! Console gaming is new to me again. It is fresh and vibrant. I'm really enjoying it once again!

MUA2 is an amazing game. It takes place before and during the Civil War storyline across many Marvel titles. It deals with superhero registration with the government. Half of the Marvel universe believes it's a good idea and the other half believe it isn't, they are the rebels.

You have some very heavy hitters on both sides of the argument too, leading up the rebels it is Captain America, Cable, Wolverine, and The Thing among others. On the law abiding side it is Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Thor, and SHIELD among others.

I, true to my contrarian nature chose the rebels. I really see how the game would play out very differently if you play the other side though. I'll be doing that next!

There is a ton of content here. I'm roughly 45% done with the story mode thus far and I'm itching for more. Gameplay is really easy and smooth. It doesn't require the twitch, Quake reflexes. It doesn't require the in depth chess thinking and planning of other games. It only requires a love of comics and a love of games. The graphics are outstanding and even on a non HDTV they are gorgeous. I can't imagine how fabulous they would look on a really good system!

Sadly I told Baker and Skate I'd play a character for them since they had to work, Baker requested Cyclops and Skate The Hulk. Cyclops isn't in the game thus far and I haven't unlocked The Hulk yet:(

Other than in that regard it was the perfect way to spend an unplanned day off work:)

Week 1 Final Results

In my keeper league I tied at 39 ponits with the Knights of Doom.
In my long time league I lost 53-27 to the River Rats.

It's alright, long season:) You make adjustments and your team will have good days and bad days but there is a certain potential you expect them to fulfill during the course of the season.

As I blogged about yesterday my long time league will have to fulfill that potential this season but I am building the keeper league's team and it is a work in progress so I really don't expect as much from it. I know it has weak spots.

So now the season has begun! It is really the best time of the year!

Week 1 Results So Far

In my long time league I'm down 27 to the River Rats' 46.
In my keep league I'm down 24-31 to the Knights of Doom.

In both leagues I've got Darren McFadden tonight and in my keeper league I've got my first round draft pick Tom Brady. Odds are good that I'll surpass the Knights tonight.

I was seriously hurt in my long time league by Houston being shut out by the Jets. I had Schaub and AJ and neither scored for me. They are a deadly combination when they get rolling though and believe me they will.

Arizona struggled against the 49ers which kept Fitzgerald in check most of the game but he did score a TD. That's all I can ask. If McFadden can anchor this group of RBs and have a breakout season I'll be just fine when Pierre Thomas returns, if not I'll have to do something.

In my keeper league I plan on building a dynasty. It won't take long as I see Tom Brady putting up solid numbers for years to come. He's my cornerstone as well as Calvin Johnson. My RBs will need to be upgraded in the upcoming seasons though. They aren't as solid as the other two.

All in all I know my team's potential in my long term league is much more than they showed yesterday and I know that my keeper league's potential is about what they have shown right now and is a work to build on.

WEEK 1!!!!!!

Yes! The bulk of the games are on today!!!!
The Predators of the long time WannaBe Fantasy Football League are taking on The River Rats from New Orleans, no kidding the guy really is from New Orleans.

My starting lineup is going to look like this:
QB - Matt Schaub
RBs - Darren McFadden and the already played on Thursday night Rashard Mendenhall
WRs - None better in this league Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, and TJ Houshmandzadah
K - Jason Elam
Def/ST - The mighty Giants!
This should represent the best team in the league!

In the inaugural season of the WannaBe Keeper League it is more of a work in progress:
QB - Tom Brady (Solid here)
RBs - Darren McFadden and Leon Washington. The success of this team will depend on these RBs clicking during the season.
WRs - Calvin Johnson, Eddie Royal, and Percy Harvin. These are definitely boom or bust guys week per week. Not the solid crew of the above team.
K - Jason Elam
Def/ST - Green Bay

And speaking of fantasy sports, I'm STILL number one in my fantasy NASCAR league with seventeen teams in it. I took first place this week by two points making it back to back weeks of beating every single team for the weekly win! For the Fall stretch of the season I've got two top tens, two top fives, and two wins! For the full season I've got twenty one top tens, fourteen top fives, and six wins! The closest team to me in the win department has THREE!!!!

Since I took over first place overall during the Summer stretch I've not relinquished it and have dominated the points! If it continues like this I'll have the Fall stretch won AND the overall points championship won for a total of around fifty cigars in winnings! I can be caught but it won't be easy.

It's Always Sunny In Oklahoma

I rested, took care of Thing 2 while The Date was at work, and watched a new show that I should have started watching a couple of years ago.

Over the last year FX had a show on called Testees. Brilliant show but sadly it won't be around for a second season. The thirteen episodes that exist are all that will likely be produced as no other channel will probably pick up such a great show. It was probably the best comedy show on cable though, was...

As of last night there is a comedy show that I knew about. Have seen lots of previews for as I watched several shows on FX (The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, etc.) but now It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is at the top of my comedy list.

I was bored, was watching Thing 2 so I was browsing iTunes for something to watch. The first season was like ten dollars and the second was about fifteen I believe. Boy am I glad I pulled the trigger on this show!

The story of the show is essentially three guy friends own a bar in South Philly. One of the owners has hired his sister Dee to bartend. The first season usually involved some kind of trouble Charlie would get into. The second issue a woman makes Charlie believe her kid was actually Charlie's to pawn the responsibility off onto him. The result is that Mac finds out that women who are pro life are hot and so he attends pro life rallies to hit on women. Plenty of hilarity ensues.

The second season introduces TV veteran actor Danny DeVito to the mix after a long absence. His character definitely lends more credibility to the show and a misguided character who wants to be rid of his wife and experience his youth again.

This show is fairly low budget and on the gritty side. The bar is a dive, I believe the apartments are all the same set just dressed differently. It's likely a show that any of my friends could finance without a financial hardship if they knew of someone who had the equipment to produce it.

The show is well written, lots of character development, lots of edgy stories that poke fun at some modern taboos. It's everything a modern comedy should be and has the freedom to stretch it's wings since it is on FX, a channel known for edgy shows.

I'd highly recommend watching Testees...and if you can't find that watch It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia!

NFL Kickoff!

Yep! It is that time of year where the NFL starts it's season and it's about time! There is just way too much time in between the old season and the new season.

In my fantasy leagues I started one player last night in Rashard Mendenhall. He really didn't do much of anything against the tough run defense of Tennessee. I'll go over the rest of my starting lineups on Sunday's blog.

The game last night was a real defensive slugfest with Pittsburgh winning in overtime thirteen to ten. It was an exciting game to watch for being a defensive battle too, not really the boring game you would think with that many punts. There were several interceptions and both defenses made some really good plays!

I made this a short week and it's a good thing. I wasn't anticipating Thing 2 being sick (she has a strep virus) but I'll be able to watch her today. I've noticed at work that guys who have tons of leave built up, like over two hundred hours, aren't as happy as the guys who take off on a more regular basis.

I'm at the one hundred hour mark and I use my leave more frequently. Like when it gets to one hundred eight hours I take a day off. It's nice to do that.

Today is September eleventh, the eight anniversary of the attacks. Please remember the families of those left behind today.

Why Do We LIke Good/Bad Guys?

This is more of a spinoff of yesterday's post about the return of the show Sons of Anarchy. All of the characters are really pretty grey or good/bad guys. Essentially there is no difference between the two lead characters other than one has had some plans go wrong.

They both commit murder in the name of either self protection or biker justice. They both are people you wouldn't mind hanging out with and would feel safe around. Why were people more prone to like Vic Mackey over Shane Vandrell? They both were essentially the same character other than one wasn't as likable.

Wolverine is a madman. Batman is a sociopath. Cyclops is a punchline though, he is a good/good guy. Are there any characters left on TV that don't have any kind of super power that separates them from everyone else and are genuinely good/good guys? Is the antihero the real common denominator in a successful show in today's viewing world?

Is there one strong willed character who always makes the right decision in crunch time left? I'd say Jack O'Neil from SG-1 was pretty close but unfortunately that show has ended. I need another Captain Kirk in my TV viewing time. No super powers, always does the good thing for the noble reasons. Peace through strength and a willingness to project that strength to the enemy who hates you no matter what.

Yeah in TV you always have to have a bad/bad guy. Even though in the good/bad guy shows there really is no difference in them at all. In The Shield it was Forrest Whitaker's character Jon Kavanaugh who was brought in to take down the strike team. He was a good/good guy but we didn't like him because he was going to take down our good/bad guy. He stood for the law and for the officer that Vic shot in the very first episode but we didn't like him.

He just wasn't a likable character even though he wanted truth, justice, and the American Way. He wanted to take down the good/bad guy in Mackey. Eventually he had a flaw and that was pride so does that make him a good/bad guy too instead of a good/good guy?

See what happens when you blur the lines of the good white hat and the bad black hat?

The Return Of Sam Crow

Or Samcro, whichever. It matters not. What does matter is that Sons of Anarchy is back after last night's premiere and it picked up right where it left off. Last season took a lot of people by surprise as the show was gritty, tough, and explored a subject on TV that really hasn't been explored before.

Motorcycle gang life. Yeah if you watch the History Channel like I do you have seen the documentaries before about Hell's Angels, The Mongols, and the rest but this is the first series dedicated to the inner life of a fictional gang. And what a gang it is. I'd dare say that Sons rivals The Sopranos as far as intensity and surpasses it as far as storytelling goes.

I can't tell you how many times I got frustrated and angry over all of the dangling storylines that The Sopranos started and went no where. It's like the writers never talked about what they were going to do and would start a storyline and just leave it, it would be totally gone and forgotten two episodes later.

Sons doesn't do this. It is just as good as The Shield in terms of quality TV, it's as violent as OZ was when it was on HBO, and you have Ron Perlman as the lead character Clay. The good/bad guy and his step son Jax the vice president of the club and also good/bad guy. The difference between them is really paper thin and one could even argue that the only difference is their intentions.

Clay has had some things go wrong over last season and Jax is starting to question his leadership after reading through a journal written by his dead father. Drama ensues.

One of the great features about this season is the addition of Henry Rollins. The aging punk icon will hopefully be around the entire season as his white separatist character AJ Weston (the bad/bad guy) appears as the muscle behind a movement to rid Charming California of Samcro. It is really hard to tell the difference between Weston and the lead characters from a morality stand point.

They all are bad guys. It's bizarre from the standpoint of who to root for if you are looking for a good/good guy. That guy isn't in this show, no white hats here.
All in all it is a great show and I'm looking forward to this season, in all of its winding turns and twists!

The Walking Dead Compendium

The Walking Dead is a comic distributed by Image Comics. Most movies (Land of the Dead and 28 Weeks Later being exceptions) deal with the immediate after effects of a zombie holocaust of doom. TWD is different in that it deals with the long term effects of surviving.

Long term as in this is the way things are now and there isn't any hope of rescue, no hope of things returning to normal, there is only living in this world now. The survivors want nothing more than to contact other survivors or to have the government come and rescue them and make everything normal again. It doesn't happen, it won't happen. It isn't about being rescued and that is what makes this series so fascinating. It asks the question, "What would you do?" Hope has gone the way of the Dodo bird and civilization.

Surviving with you, your family, and your new found friends is all that matters. The "roamers" are everywhere and the places the survivors seek to find solace are always overrun with them. Sleeping with one eye open has become the norm while everyone is trained to use a firearm.

TWD Compendium collects the first forty eight issues of the comic series into one gigantic book. I mean it is massive as it is over one thousand full size comic pages. The series is into the sixties now in terms of numbers so there is a lot more to the story than where it left off.

I finished it over the weekend but it read really pretty fast for something of that size. I started it a few weeks ago and read it off and on.

This is the perfect medium for an epic zombie tale. It is done in black and white and that really has the effect of loneliness, desolation, and dread. I'm sure those were the intended effects of the stark landscapes presented. Overall TWD is a masterpiece of comic writing and art, very graphic as a world overrun by zombies would be.

Read it if you get a chance.

Rested Yesterday

Pretty much all day too. The only event that happened was when The Date's piano was delivered. After that it was grilling bratwursts and Lost.

I did watch the Atlanta race last night (which I extended my fantasy NASCAR lead by over two hundred points overall) for a while before The Date and Thing 2 decided to take over the couch and with their drug paraphernalia (the DVD remote control) undertook the penultimate episodic DVD of the second season.

Like crazed meth heads they got high as they mystery of the island deepened and took them farther into the Lost mythology. If they get up soon they can be on the third season by early afternoon.

This has been a really good three day weekend and it takes us all one day closer to the NFL kickoff on Thursday night which I'm very excited about! Come on Thursday!

Great Saturday!

The trip was really nice. My local fam got to meet my grandmother and aunt (mom's sister) and then we came back. It was a fast trip but nice. Then on the way back I turned on the Sirius and started to listen to the OSU game.

Those of you who know me know I'm really not much of a college football fan. I watch because it's football but I'm not as familiar with the players as I am the NFL. It just doesn't enthrall me like the NFL does. I don't play college fantasy football but I might occasionally wager on the college games to keep my interest.

So yesterday OSU is opening against Georgia and OU is opening against BYU in the brand new Texas Stadium. OSU gets down in the first quarter and it looks like the blowout is on but they come back, keep their composure and through defense and special teams destroy the mighty Georgia!

Then right after that game ended the OU game kicked off. They go up early on BYU but BYU hangs in there and before the half Sam Bradford gets nailed and injures his throwing shoulder. Out for the game, and then BYU through great defense and special teams does it! They knock off the third ranked OU.

Then I go to bed as I had been up since five thirty that morning and had two three hour long drives and a fifteen minute nap. I was tired.

So it was a really good day! Now it is also a three day weekend and I have tomorrow off as well and then Thursday is the NFL season kickoff!!!! Woohoooo!!!!!

Crackheads At It Again

So last night The Date didn't have school and so she and Thing 2 decided to have a five hour Lost marathon. If we weren't going to see family today then I'm sure they would be on the couch watching the rest of Season 2.

It was funny, they would pause it every time one of them had a bathroom break or had to do something. Then the other (usually Thing 2) would have to make sure that The Date hadn't unpaused it and watched something without her.

They would make horrible drug dealers as according to Tony Montana you never get high on your own supply. Yeah these two would be homeless and destitute if Lost were a drug.

Most of my friends have headed to Arlington to see the opening game of the new Texas Stadium and to Six Flags this holiday weekend. We are going to see family and will be back early this evening. Then it is two days of I'm sure crackhead heaven as I get to revisit the series and chuckle at how way off their theories are about the show.

They are doozies too. Aliens, the good guys are bad, the bad guys are good, nothing makes sense unless X happens. Yeah....they are in for a wild trip up until Season 5 comes out in December.

I believe that they can be caught up by the time Lost starts to air again but we won't watch it until the final season is done. Get the DVDs and watch it straight through, that's the best way with TV shows anymore. The commercials are longer and there are more of them. DVR is good but you still have to fast forward through them.

DVD is the way to fly now! Long live DVD and the shows that work best on that format!!!!

Outside The Club With The Velvet Rope

Ok so there I was as a kid, I was about eight maybe nine in the late 70's. My parents had just presented my brother and I with an Atari. The original system not the 2600 that came out a couple of years later.

The first game was Space Invaders! It was the hottest game in all of gamedom, the menacing doom, doom, doom noise as the invaders came one line closer to you. No it really didn't sound like that but if you were a kid with your very first game system it sounded like pure doom, doom, doom! I couldn't contain my excitement! I was the first kid I knew who had a brand spanking new system!

I put in the Space Invaders cartridge and started to play! Without exaggeration the screen went red about fifteen minutes into playing and the Atari quit working...for good.

It went back to Sears to be repaired and we got it back like six months later. Not kidding. Do you know how long six months is for a kid to wait on a system to be fixed? I'd draw the Space Invaders board on paper and pick off the aliens myself! It was miserable! Finally it was sent back to us and it worked well until it finally disappeared in a move.

Flash forward to earlier this week. My brother brings over a PS3. He had recently got a one hundred twenty gig size I believe and had no use for the forty gig that now resides on my living room floor. I was finally inside the fancy club that had the velvet rope up to keep me out!

I haven't been a console gamer in quite some time. Years in fact. I abandoned my Sega Genesis (and Sega CD. I did have brief flings with the Playstation, PS2, and Xbox before returning to my true love.) for the PC. I've been a PC gamer since as long as I've been online so going on fifteen years now and I've seen the 3D graphics revolution take over and push gaming limits again and again to new heights.

Meanwhile the console games have caught up to their PC brethren in terms of quality and immersion. While I lost myself in Everquest, Starcraft, and WoW, the console games have gotten better and better. It became a club I wasn't allowed to be in. I would walk the aisles of WalMart and skip the game aisle because I knew I wasn't allowed to be there since I was consoleless.

But that had now changed! A whole new world of the next generation console gaming had been opened up for me! I was gladly dancing down the aisles full of PS3 games! Gleefully reading about the latest and greatest game reviews! I had pre-ordered Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 so I could get the playable Juggernaut character! I purchased a used fishing game because I was so taken by the graphics at a friends house a few months ago!

I decided it was time for some fishing goodness on my new to me PS3 last night! I turned on the power switch in the back. The red light greeted me as I touched the front power button. It went to green, yellow, and started flashing red as it beeped at me!!!

It refused to turn on! It had been powered off since last night after I was done fishing, not just the front panel power, I mean powered at the main switch off! It hadn't overheated, it hasn't been roughed up, fallen over, or anything like that. It sat peacefully in one place just waiting to be played with...until last night.

It beeped at me!!!! So I call my brother and he looks up the warranty information online. I give him the model and serial number and it is out of warranty. It will cost about one hundred fifty dollars to get it repaired if I send it back in. I brand new one costs about three hundred and it is far bigger in storage size.

It is my childhood all over again! I'll be drawing Space Invaders at work today...

Random Observations

Chuck steaks make better roasts.

There is a guy who works at Gamestop at the mall that looks like Harry Knowles.

New video games really don't have that new car smell.

Watching someone watch a show that engrossed you is more fun than watching the show a second time.

Pennies in your pocket usually group together.

If you have a lot of dollar bills in your pocket and go to pay for something the cashier usually looks at you funny.

Charcoal is quickly becoming my favorite way to grill.

Some good shows aired last night. I was playing a fishing game though.

Twoguysagirlandatvset.wordpress.com is quickly becoming my favorite TV blog.

If you could know all of the answers wouldn't it ruin the journey?

Where Have All The Heroes Gone?

"Show me a hero and I'll prove he's a bum." Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington

I can't find independent confirmation Major Boyington actually said that but I'm going to go with it anyway for the purposes of this blog which is probably filled with more questions than answers.

It dawned on me today that finding a hero in today's cynical world is about as difficult as finding a spending cut in the federal budget. We exist in a media driven culture where heroes are written out for us. Filmed for us. Fed to us, heroes, anti-heroes, the latest hero de jour.

Is it that heroes don't exist in the real world?
Are we too cynical to notice a real hero? Are they not interesting anymore? At one time Neil Armstrong was the hero of an entire generation, now anyone under forty probably doesn't know his name. Winston Churchill helped defeat one of the biggest evils of the twentieth century and eventually the public turned against him.

Yeah when the world needs saving I'd like Jack Bauer on the case. When a perp needs roughed up and no one else will do the dirty work I want Vic Mackey. If a airplane is hijacked over Pennsylvania I want the true life heroes who brought it down, saving untold lives by the sacrifice of their own.

So why or how can a hero wear out their welcome?

I guess it matters what the definition of hero actually is to each person. To some it might be the caped heroes in the comics with extraordinary powers to stop super villains with equally extraordinary powers. Now they are all doomy and gloomy with dark origins and tragedy along the way. Is that how we can relate to our heroes? Perhaps they need to have something in common with us.

Everyone has had their share of misfortune. Perhaps it is to allow us a way to connect with someone we hold in high esteem such as a hero. If they can do X then we can certainly do X too. I mean everyone believes they would do the right thing when presented with a situation to be a hero, who has ever daydreamed about the day needing to be saved, the game on the line (usually accompanied by a free throw line and your team is down with no time left on the clock), and you aren't up to the challenge.

The daydream never goes that way. We always put ourselves in the role of the hero and really not the sidekick or the goat. Scott Norwood anyone? I mean did Mr. Norwood wake up in the morning and think to himself that if he had the chance to win the big game he would actually miss wide right? No! He visualized himself kicking it dead center.

I guess what this rambling post is about is what if I were faced with a bad situation. A situation that needed saving would I have it in me? I occasionally drink, I smoke cigars, I live a less than extraordinary life, quite boring actually. Would I be able to hold off a hijacker, would I be able to do X and then be able to live with myself after?

Would people hate me after if I failed? Would my friends help me rationalize my failure to make me feel better? Well I know they would do that anyway, I've got friends like that;) Would I? Would you?

Monday Night Football

Old Man River had a pretty decent three quarters last night. Peterson, my RB from last season who has moved onto other pastures this season, had the kind of game that frustrated owners last season.

He had a long seventy five yard TD on the first play of the game followed by about twenty yards on eight or nine carries. Still a great fantasy score but you wish he would be able to score at least one more time during the game. I know I know, it's preseason. The plays are vanilla, nothing is really shown to tip off the regular season play book.

I'm kind of glad I drafted Percy Harvin. It appears he might be an integral cog in the Minnesota Machine. He gives Favre a versatile player with speed to burn. It'll be an interesting season for sure!

On the flip side of last night's game I had Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson. Both looked like they were able to move the ball against one of the best defenses in the NFL this season. Slaton was able to get on track later in the first quarter and into the second quarter. AJ caught a couple of long balls but Schaub tweaked an ankle. He was fine and they taped it up and he got back out there.

All in all I was happy for some good football to watch and I'm looking forward to this season!