Crazy Lawsuit Game

Nothing springs to mind as of yet.

Played soccer yesterday, we lost 19-21, very close. There was a new guy who showed up, not gifted in the ways of futbal, but holy crap was he fast, more than made up for his lack of skill. I don't think he played much as a kid.

This weekend I'm doing a 24 hour autocross. From noon Saturday to noon Sunday. And as of right now, I am the only one going from here. No wives, fiances, other car nuts. Just me and my Focus.

The Central Carolina’s Region of the Sports Car Club of America is proud to present the annual 24 hour autocross.

This event is the first weekend of September (Labor Day weekend) at Continental Tire in Charlotte, NC. The 24 is different from a normal autocross as you are not limited to a specified number of runs. The event is run as two 12 hour sessions; you can sign up to run either of the 12 hour sessions or for the whole 24. For each 12 hour session that you run you must work for 2 hours. When not working you are welcome to make as many runs as you want, in the past we have stopped the event early due to everyone being exhausted and not wanting to make any more runs. At the 24 you are given five official timed runs that you can take at any time during the event, and only those runs count towards the results. You must declare a run to be an official run before you leave the starting line. This event is great for novices and experienced autocrossers as well. For novices it allows them to run the same course many times which removes the difficulty of having to focus on remembering the course and allows them to focus on their driving. For the experienced drivers you are not likely to find a better opportunity to test and tune your car unless you have your own personal parking lot.

I don't know how this will work. Will I crash (my body, definitely not the car) at 3 am? Will the sunrise reenergize my fellow autocrossers?

All questions that will be answered on Saturday - Sunday. And everyone be sure and cheer on the Clemson Tigers this weekend. Our opening game is against the Florida Atlantic University (quick googling) Owls. So if you get ESPN U then you can flip over and give a cheer.

And if you don't like football, then you'll be happy when the end of Jan. finally rolls around and all this goes away. But for everyone else, it's the calm before the storm.

I need to figure out a little box that I can put in the sidebar with Clemson's upcoming games and results. But for now, I'll just put it at the bottom of my posts.
Clemson Men's Soccer (futbal) #6 in the nation
Clemson Men's Football #18 in the nation

And today is Thursday, August 31st. And everyone knows what that means? Tomorrow is Friday, Sept. 1st my birthday! Hooray! I'll reveal my age if you can't figure it out by looking around.

J had a wee encounter the other day in the gym. She went to work out after her open house, so she was there at about 9:30 pm. And there was still a line for the treadmills!

But she is waiting, as is another girl, when one becomes available, but before she can make a move towards it, some other chick swoops in and hops on. The other girl waiting convinces J to go say something. It went something like this:
J: There's a line.
Chick: There is?
J: Yes, I was here first and that girl is behind me.
Chick: Says who?
J: (can't quite remember the exact quote) Everyone.
Chick: Well you don't have to get an attitude about it.
She then gets off the treadmill and waits her turn.

It's called society chickee. It has these rules that people follow so that anarchy doesn't spontaneously break out. When the univ. only has about 12 treadmills for roughly 17,000 people, not including faculty and community members, there has to be some semblance of order.

We were just informed that they are putting screens in the back of our hoods to prevent things from getting sucked up. Items that have been sucked up by my hood, some weighing paper and some lab wipes. Maybe they have wreaked havoc with the ventilation system but I doubt it. So we have to empty out our hoods. This room is after their state mandated break and then we'll clean out the other while they're working in here. So lots of quality research is going on this morning.

Clemson soccer teams have been kicking ass recently. The Lady Tigers beat TN Tech 7-0 on Sunday and beat the UAB Lady Blazers 1-0 on Friday, both at home. The men's team beat the South Carolina Gamecocks 4-3 on the road Friday and then beat GA State here last night by a score of 8-1. Yikes. Those poor other teams.

Gotta clean/move stuff.

The reason drugs have been used for centuries is that people use self control all the time and it gets tiring. She cut me off! I'll kill you! Oh wait, no I guess I won't bash my car into yours. Self control. But when she gets home, she likes to unwind and have a beer/cigarette/ice cream cone. It's not healthy or productive but it helps you feel better and decompress after a long day of self control. Asking people to have self control 100% of the time is a bit unrealistic, at least for the majority of society and its ugly underbelly.

In reference to my "life altering benefit of adoption" that Tom referred to is that my J is adopted from South Korea. And yes adoption is great and wonderful and really helps loving caring people who can't have a child of their own become parents. Or people who acknowledge that there already enough kids in this world that they don't want their own and want to share their love with one of the countless unloved of the world.

But I was referring to mostly 1st world countries. It would be a great day if there were no abortions and no babies born whose parents didn't want them or couldn't afford to care for them properly. However, there will always be unwanted babies born in 3rd world countries who WILL die if they are not adopted and taken in by a loving family. And if you want to adopt a white baby instead of one of the other colors in the rainbow, well I'm sure there is an eastern european baby who is unwanted.

And we have THE HIGHEST TEEN PREGNANCY RATE IN THE WESTERN WORLD. But our teenagers aren't having sex more than their counter-parts in Spain, Germany, Canada, etc... So what gives? I'm guessing sex ed. (stat taken from coolnurse.com, but it should be common knowledge)

That's all I really want. Is for these poor (often underpriveleged) girls to be able to finish high school and try and make a better life for themselves instead of having to worry about raising a child. That will be a wonderful day.

It's no secret that I love Red Bull. I was a "consumer educator" for them when it was being introduced in Birmingham and have taken a lifelong vow to promote and support them because they are such a cool company. They have Red Bull Minis for Pete's sake.

So a few upcoming events, of which one I will be able to see:
Red Bull Soap Box Derby in STL on Oct. 28th.

This unique non-motorized racing event takes to the streets in St. Louis’ Forest Park on October 28, challenging both experienced racers and auto amateurs alike to design and build outrageous, human-powered Soap Box dream machines and compete against the clock in a downhill race.

So Princess of Power, if you and your sis and hubby aren't doing anything that day, I would highly recommend going out and catching this event. Crazy contraptions, great wrecks, an all around entertaining day.

Red Bull Crashed Ice in Boston on Nov. 11th at City Hall. It's essentially downhill racing but on ice, so all the athletes are geared up in standard hockey equipment minus the sticks and see who gets to the bottom first. This doesn't really sound like Sloth's cup o' tea but maybe Warrior Steve will make her go. It's a Flash website, so not easily quotable but take a look at the website for more details and even an intro video.

For residents of Dallas, Minneapolis and ATL, there will be "Art of the Can" exhibits in the coming months. The ATL one will be held at the Mason Murer Fine Art. For examples of what will be shown, click on the Art of the Can link and then click on "Permanent Collection". Good stuff. I collected Red Bull cans for a year and I have around 20, but I stopped. I should start doing it again and then either
A) Put them on my race car in some way or fashion
B) Enter an Art of the Can exhibit next year

Currently my plan is to transform my autocross helmet into a Red Bull helmet. I need to do a little research to see what kind of prep is involved, but I don't think it'll be difficult. The hardest part will probably be getting the Red Bull stickers/vinyl.

This is the most basic of Red Bull helmets, and I'll probably stick with that for now.

Unless someone knows someone at Red Bull and I can get an actual sponsorship. They don't sponsor any autocrossers that I know of so I could be the first!

And also don't go out and buy Verizon's new Chocolate cellphone. Here is why.

So the combination of J's laptop given to her by her school and the fact that we now have wireless at home, means that internet can now happen whereever I am. It's great!

So Nick. "Contraceptives are permission to fail." No clue what that means. Fail at what? Life? Not getting AIDS?

So Uganda had a declining prevalence of AIDS. According to Avert.org which is

AVERT is an international HIV and AIDS charity based in the UK, with the aim of AVERTing HIV and AIDS worldwide.

AVERT has a number of overseas projects, helping with the problem of HIV/AIDS in countries where there is a particularly high rate of infection, such as South Africa, or where there is a rapidly increasing rate of infection such as in India.

So I'm going to just assume they are a legit organization and would not make up figures, but some of what I'll quote, especially concerning why AIDS diagnoses dropped, is only theoretical but makes sense. But they say that a possible reason(s) for the decline of AIDS is:

The debate is - why did HIV prevalence in Uganda decline? And how can this decline be replicated?

A declining prevalence indicates a lower proportion of positive people in the population. This could result from a fall in the number of new infections (incidence) or from a rise in the death rate among HIV-positive people, or from a combination of both factors.

So apparently this is under debate. But their approach did work. So how did they do it?

The debate is - why did HIV prevalence in Uganda decline? And how can this decline be replicated?

A declining prevalence indicates a lower proportion of positive people in the population. This could result from a fall in the number of new infections (incidence) or from a rise in the death rate among HIV-positive people, or from a combination of both factors.

The ABC approach:
A for Abstain (or Abstinence) which as everyone should know is the only way to be 100% sure that you will not get AIDS or babies or any other STDs.
B for Be Faithful. If you do decide to have sex, just have one sexual partner and be exclusive to each other. No sluts of either sex.
C for Condom. If you are going to have sex, wrap it up tight! No condom = no sex.

This is all from one website, but just a quick googling of stopping aids uganda came back with links, of which I picked the first two. The second was the AVERT organization. The first was for Human Rights Watch which states

Support Ugandan AIDS Activists: AIDS activists in Uganda are protesting the country's deepening condom shortage and expansion of US-funded abstinence-until marriage programs.

So it seems like the funding of abstinence-only AIDS prevention isn't the best idea (or realistic in my opinion) or the most effective. So I guess we will just have to wait five years to see if the AIDS rate stays as low as it has been in the past few years.

Back to comment responding: "Condoms have a 90% success rate." Yup, and no condom has a 0% success rate. Yes with a little self-control, it is possible to not have sex. But that is also denying that sex is human nature and the majority of the people on the face of this earth have very little desire to not have sex. I just don't think it realistic only give people one option: No sex. That's communism and I won't stand for it. (just kidding, sort of)

So my original post was only referring to making babies, but we can adjust the ABC approach slightly to address both problems.

Babies:
A for Abstinence. Not having sex is the only way to not have babies. Period.
B for Be faithful. Don't be a slut. Be exclusive to one partner. Don't have sex with total strangers.
C for contraceptives. If you are going to have sex, use ANY contraceptive. There are tons, ask a pharmacist or doctor or guidance counselor and be sure to ask how to use it properly.

AIDS and other STDs:
A for Abstinence. Not having sex is the only way to not get STDs.
B for Be faithful. Avoid sexual intercourse other than with a mutually faithful uninfected partner.
C for condom. Use them correctly and consistently.

But even the ABC approach is debated.

To sum up, telling people to not have sex is, in my opinion, unrealistic. Not teaching them proper condom use is irresponsible.

They booed Bill Gates? That's kind of funny.

For starters, thanks for reading Nick and I'll respond to your comments soon. How did you find my site by the way? Search, "next blog" button, or have you been a lurker for a while? But my post was mostly concerning babies and not STDs, two completely, albeit somewhat related, cans of worms or balls of wax.

Next, J and I are having a rough patch. Basically it can be summed up that J thinks I'm lazy at work and all I do is blog, read blogs and play Flash internet games all day. I do, on occasion, all of those things, but mostly as a way to break up work and not to replace or delay work. Just to rest my eyes and mind a bit. I haven't completed the paper that I've been working on and also haven't started my dissertation. I was informed of this at roughly 2:05 pm yesterday, which if my math works out, corresponds to J's 6th period planning session which means that her 5th period class, her worst behaved, put her into a dizzy of a tailspin the brunt of which is being endured by me right now. So she said that she didn't want to see me all weekend. She slept elsewhere last night and we were only at the house this morning for maybe a half hour. Our "conversations" went something like this:
S: Hey
J: I'm not talking to you.
S: (several minutes later) Where did you sleep last night?
J: (unintelligible grunt)
S: Do you want to make this Crockpot Helper for dinner?
J: Whatever.
S: (as I'm leaving to go to work, which I planned to do anyway since it is the first Sat. that I have been home with nothing pressing to do in a bit) If you go to Anderson, the cats need food. Do you want me to give you a call before I go work out?
J: (no response)

So yes, this is pretty much all my fault for supposedly slacking at work. In reality I haven't been slacking, I just haven't been working on my paper. So please send out some good vibes for me that all this works out.

Off to work. (This post took exactly 5 minutes to create and publish if anyone was wondering.)

Update: J called at 10:30 am to ask when I was going to work out.

Update 2: Okay, just some drama set off by me and her 5th period class. Thanks jerks.

That the Simpson family last name from the Tall Tale episode about Lisa Appleseed.

But I saw a buffalo on my way home from GA this weekend! It was so cool looking over and seeing this huge hairy beast that at one point was on the verge of extinction. Of course I shared this with my labmates and they were none too impressed. "Oh, you'd never seen a buffalo?" was mostly their response. Apparently one lived near a buffalo farm in KY (jelly) and the other lived near TWO buffalo farm in PA. So I had only seen one in a zoo before that, big deal. And PA also commented that he saw wild buffalo in Yellowstone, for which my response was "I would hope so."

Good times.

So I rejoiced with most everyone yesterday that Plan B is available OTC with some ID proving that you are at least 18 years of age. Sure they showed it was safe for 16 year olds and 17 year olds, but at least it is on the shelves. I'm gonna have to swing by Eckerds on my way home today and see if they plan on carrying it and when it will be here. Just for knowledge sake, of course. But I now officially offer my services to most girls under 18, whose parents won't buy this important drug for them, I'll get it for you and won't even keep the change. Still won't get beer for you though.

I was watching 30 Days with J the other night, the premise of the show is they take a person and put them with complete opposite people for 30 days and see what happens. It's by Morgan Spurlock of "Super-Size Me" fame. But this episode sent a Pro-choicer to live at a Pro-life house for homeless and underprivileged women who can't afford to have and take care of their child or children by themselves. A worthy cause with a little propaganda thrown in for good measure. But she was explaining that most pro-choicers don't like abortion. And ideally there would be no abortions ever. BECAUSE there is so much science and technology going into contraceptives these days that you can make it 100% impossible to get pregnant, that if you just thought ahead a bit, you could prevent the pregnancy before it ever began. I guess the moral of the story is that I'm pro-choice because not everyone is pro-birth control (I'm looking at you Vatican City.)

I really want a pro-lifer to go even more extreme than they already are. I want them to come out and say that either A) Having your period is murder because that egg could've been fertilized, or B) Male masturbation is murder because those million sperms could've made a baby. Why do I want this to happen? So that they'll lose all credibility and I just think it would be hilarious.

Another quick one. Real post below.

Vadergrrrl made a very rare appearance on her blog to post a lovely eulogy for a fallen loved one. John Hartnett, the world will surely miss you.

My "real" post for the day covering some NYC, Brooklyn to be more specific, Hispanic food and my yearning desire to inhabit the city that never sleeps, is down below this one.

The FDA announced that Plan B will finally be available over the counter with proof that you are at least 18. Now to see which pharmacies won't carry it. Big day and a good win for people against unwanted pregnancies and unwanted babies. Courtesy of CNN.com, click for the article.

And I also heard on the radio this morning, B93.7, from one of their DJs, uh Natalie Randall?, on her Diva Dish, that one of her friends is close friends with "OMG it's" Justin Timberlake. But her friend said that "someone" said that he wouldn't be seeing anymore of Cameron Diaz. You heard it here first.

And for something that is slightly more interesting and more important, a couple of guys decided that they wanted to help out in Iraq and this is an excerpt from their book. Via Outside online. It's a good read.

On Smoove D's sage advice, I will not be linking my blog with my Facebook account. It'll be better this way. Maybe later once I have cleaned it up from Dooceable offenses.

Happy days are here again! My local grocer has started carrying platanitos!

They are fried plantain chips that are delicious. I ate copious amounts of them while living in Santiago, Dominican Republic. I can't quite recall which brand, but the ones that Bi-Lo started carrying are the ubiquitous Goya brand. If you've never heard of Goya, I don't know what to tell you. Try paying attention next time you're in the Hispanic section of your grocery store. They're soooo good and the fact that I haven't found them yet (not that I was trying very hard, I didn't go into one Hispanic grocery store) makes them all the more delicious.

And while I have your belly craving empanadas, tamales, burritoes y Nachos BellGrande, the NY Times Direct sent me the New York Style e-mail. It covers fashion and local NY flava, the section headings are "What to Wear", "What to Buy", "Where to Go" (eat), "Entertaining", and "Only in New York". But this article is about a food fair near the Red Hook ball fields near the southeast corner of Clinton and Bay Street. (Not that I know what any of that means, but Julie might) But the various stands serve all sorts of Hispanic food with each stand flying the flag of the country that they represent. Ceviche under the Ecuadorian flag (sounds delicious)

Ceviche, the stall’s star offering, is served cold in lidded plastic containers that are fished out of ice chests in the back of the minivan parked behind the stand. There are three versions available: all-fish, all-shrimp and the “mixto,” a jumble of shrimp, octopus, squid and whitefish. Opt for the mixto.

All the ceviches brim with fresh lime juice, sweet and sour, and are seasoned aggressively with chopped cilantro, sliced green onions and strands of red onion. A spoonful of the stand’s pulpy hot sauce is enough to add fire to the whole pint serving. You can augment the already ample portion with a bag of fried plantain chips for $1 or a few spoonfuls of roasted corn kernels for free.

Definitely my kind of food. Then they have the baleadas, a Honduran soft taco type thing, and then (something hopefully I'll try once I visit my parents in their current country of residence) pupusas from El Salvador

Visiting it takes a few minutes more than most other booths because the pupusas, prepared Salvadoran-style, are made to order: a filling of your choosing — the cheese-and-jalapeño option is particularly good — is enveloped in a ball of masa, flattened into a fat disc and griddled until it is mottled and crisp on both sides and meltingly hot inside. Think of it as a cooking lesson and a chance to digest all in one. Try the hot sauce and the vinegared cabbage slaw you’ll be offered as an accompaniment.

I've always wanted to live in NYC. Probably not Manhattan, don't have that kind of cash and the other surrounding burroughs sound very nice, but maybe on the main island. But 8 million other people had the same idea as me, so I hear it's a bit crowded, but you just can't beat it. And riding scooters is becoming much more accepted and even those rolling grocery cart things are becoming hip. Maybe. Just maybe.

I located a few friends on facebook yesterday. Mostly guys from my undergrad. Even one of the other 3 chemistry majors I graduated with. He's in med school. And plans to specialize in thoracic surgery. Not knowing what that means but judging by the root word "thor" and knowing that the thorax on a bug is its chest, I have deduced that he will be cracking open rib cages and working on stuff in there. Now let's google it and see how close I was. Aha! I was pretty much dead on.

the field of cardiothoracic surgery is involved in the surgical treatment of diseases that affect organs inside the thorax (the chest). In general it will mean conditions of the heart (cardiovascular disease) and lungs (lung disease).

And what with all the smokers and Americans getting fatter and fatter, it sounds like he won't have trouble finding a job.

There is also a spot on there (facebook) where it can import your blog and put it on your "Notes" page, whatever that is. I was wondering if that is too high profile or since Facebook is kinda sorta private, it would be okay. I would like your thoughts on the subject.

I was in a funk last night and not the George Clinton kind. I just had alot of thoughts buzzing around and they threw me off-kilter. Here is just a sampler:
Focus is almost out of gas.
J is using ALOT of gas commuting to and from school.
She also keeps saying how poor we are, so I'm concerned.
She also hasn't been paid yet. (Their first checks come out Sept. 8th!)
I need to finish my paper.
I need to start on my dissertation.
School starts tomorrow (today) so parking is going to suck. (It did)
There is dirt that the cats spilled from their catgrass that has been there since Sat.
I still haven't vacuumed the living room yet. (The kitchen looks nice though)
J is always getting things ready for school and is very busy which cuts into S&J time.
With her busy, I feel like all the housework is piling up and I can't keep up. (Not really that bad)

I feel better today. I guess I just needed to be a Drama Queen for a bit.

I changed the station once Paris' new song came on. I cannot support that at all. There has to be a limit. I realize that she is no different from the many other pop stars, but enough is enough. It really isn't that bad of a song, but I can't get behind it. I think she'll do okay without me, and I need to convserve my strength to keep K-Fed off the air. And divorce Brittney so that we can finally start calling him Fed-Ex. And then he can float off into VH1 territory and race jet skis ala Rob Van Winkle aka Vanilla Ice.

That's gonna be a good day.

If anyone missed the drama at this year's Teen Choice Awards, Princess of Power has a good highlight/lowlight recap of the night.

My favorite was Dane Cook actually gave Mischa Barton a sandwich. Now if we could only get a few sandwiches into Nicole Richie, we'd be making some progress.

Yes, the students are back. The parking lot wasn't bad this morning but classes don't start until Wed.

Now for this weekend's menu and a review:
Fri. dinner - Burgers with spicy Montreal seasoning. Great, it's hard to mess up burgers.
Sat. brunch - grits and chicken fingers. Breakfast and lunch kind of ran together, very good, but I would've liked a BBQ sauce for the fingers, all we had was catsup and mustard
Sat. dinner - Fajitas, pre-cooked steak strips and cheese that had not been refrigerated since its purchase Fri. afternoon. NOT GOOD! The tortillas were good.
Sun. lunch - Pancakes! and pre-cooked bacon, which wasn't all that bad. Super glad we started making pancakes. It's "Shake and Pour" by Bisquick, but you just add water up to the line on the bottle, shake and then pour. Freakin' delicious and you should've seen the delicious golden brown I got those bad boys. Although a few did stick, I might have to bring a little bottle of oil next time. And I just saw that they had Shake and Pour Blueberry, so I'll keep an eye out for those. The Chatsworth Bi-Lo did not have that. Of course we had syrup, but no butter. Or fruit preserves.

And some snacks, sunflower seeds, bag of pretzels (that I didn't open), and some granola nut bars. Except for Saturday's dinner, I was pleased with our meals this weekend.

We should've made a video of campfire cooking. Crap, next time.

Occasionally our Microsoft Office products won't work at all. I believe I have bitched about this before, not surprisingly.

Friday night we camped on a ridge up above the river. Nice in colder weather with a nice breeze, not so much during the summer. Then we hiked down to the river and swam and I jumped off a few rocks. I think Stal actually jumped off of one also. Tom was scared. I wanted to jump off of a higher rock but I wisely weighed the "Risk vs. Reward" and came up with a much higher risk pile, so I abstained. J was proud of me making a mature decision.

Then we went to sleep and then hiked out on Sun. morning with bellies full of bacon and pancakes and only had to cross Jack's River 9 times. I wore my glasses out because I saw no other hikers wearing glasses and I wanted to represent for the non-contact wearing visually impaired.

One last thing. Check out this article from CNN/Money. It's about a guy who came up with a nylon/polyester weave that is bulletproof and is much lighter than kevlar.

The first Kevlar-based bulletproof leather jacket he created weighed 11 pounds. Today the same garment, with the new material, is just 2.6 pounds

Pretty interesting and a great idea. Although I'm not too sure how well nylon and polyester are at stopping bullets, no matter how they're weaved.

Update: I just remembered as one of the conditions of receiving my hammock wedding present, I have to take Stal's blog off of the "Blogs that are no more" list. I told you I can be bought.

I haven't counted yet but there are several.

Camping was great and Tom and Stal gave me an early wedding present! A camping hammock! So awesome and just what the body needs after a strenuous hike.


Thanks again guys!

More details later.

I have previously confessed to my love of some bad movies. See post here from Feb. 15, 2005.

But I would never claim one of those movies as my "favorite movie". For the longest time I wasn't able to pick one favorite, so a few years ago I made a conscious decision to pick Braveheart as my favorite movie. I've stuck with it and it is still a movie I really like. It's got action, drama, romance, blood and of course guts. And who doesn't love Scottish accents? And it has Crazy Ass Mel Gibson too, before he was anti-Semitic, or at least wasn't as up front about it as he is now.

Surprisingly I don't own it on DVD. It's kind of like the Fugitive situation. I have seen The Fugitive so many times that I essentially can recite the entire movie. Not quite but I have friends who can or could. But both of those are on the "purchase at some time in the future" list. Maybe after this blu-ray controversy calms down.

Stick with me; there is a point and humorous story somewhere.

I got a call from my ex-roommate. He works for the DA's office in da ATL. Really nice guy if not the cleanest of individuals. He was set up on a blind date by a friend's mother-in-law. Right. So the MIL showed a pic of (we'll call him) Vestavia to the potential date. It was from the friend's wedding and he was in a tux so needless to say he looked very debonair and dashing. She liked. Then MIL showed Vestavia a pic of the girl. One with a group of friends and another of her in a bikini. Vestavia couldn't help but wonder if it was appropriate to show that much skin to a potential suitor. (He's a bit old-fashioned but that's what makes him classy) And apparently she likes NASCAR. Alot. Even brought it up on the date. Vestavia commented to me on how out of all of his many friends, relatives and fraternity brothers, not one of those people like NASCAR. None. I respect the driver's abilities and talents but I don't like it. I would go to a race if it wasn't in the summer or the tickets were for a skybox. And they were free.

So they get on the date and it's obvious that they don't have that much in common. So just shooting in the dark and trying to spark some conversation, Vestavia reverts to the middle/high school standard question of "What's your favorite movie?"

He said I would never guess in a 100 tries. He was right too. There really isn't any reason to guess either because you would never get it right. 2 Fast 2 Furious. The humanity! Don't get me wrong. The first and even the third of the F&F series are mildly watchable, but I would never claim either one as even on my top 100 of favorite movies. And yet this woman picked that as her all-time favorite. Wow. I really couldn't believe it. Maybe she has a thing for Paul Walker or Tyrese.

The other story is from my friend Subaru. He posed the question to me and I came back with Braveheart. He had an odd look on his face like he couldn't believe it, but maybe I misinterpreted. So taken aback I asked what his was. Bio-Dome. Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin. That's right. I honestly have never sat through all of this movie. I've tried once or twice but either fell asleep or decided some other venture would be more beneficial to my life.

And in an ode to J from Friends, this topic was covered when Chandler and Joey were playing a quiz show game to win Monica and Rachel's apartment. (Paraphrased from memory)
Ross: What does Rachel say is her favorite movie?
Chandler: Dangerous Liaisons!
Ross: What is her actual favorite movie?
Joey: Weekend at Bernie's!

Good times.

Fisher Scientific had a vendor fair today. They never have any vendors peddling items we need in lab. We sort of need a new scale and a new pH meter, but neither is super important and we can always find more important items to spend money on. But they serve lunch which gets people to show up.

Here was the menu du jour:
Tuna fish sandwiches, cut into thin rectangles
Pimento cheese sandwiches, cut the same
Cream cheese pinwheel things
Bite-size eggrolls, southwestern/oriental? who knows
Bacon-wrapped chestnuts, no clue who thinks this is a good idea
Chicken fingers
Tortilla chips
Mexican bean dip kinda thing
Water
Lemonade
Tea, sweet and unsweet

and the plates were tiny plates so everyone had to practice their food stacking but I didn't see any as accomplished as Chinese Pizza Hut patrons.
With accompanying pictures
Picture 1
Picture 2
and the whole gallery.
I'm playing soccer at 6 today and I brought my clothes with me so I don't even have to go home. I miss J though. And I'm hungry. Dinnertime is usually right after work, if we don't work out, so between 5 and 6.

Going camping this weekend. Still working on my paper. Congrats to ESC for submitting hers to her committee!

This is Mike's independent film project. It's a teaser right now, but once it's all done, it's going to be really good. And I think it's his favorite girl, Amanda, narrating.



Yay! Ok, it worked. His blog is the 2 Crazy MI kids one and the one right below it.

Keep up the great work you two!

Not THE end, but it is the end of J's summer. She left the house at 7:15 am to be at school on time. School officially starts on Thurs. but they have the teachers show up early to plan and have meetings and such.

I got a little note from karma yesterday letting me know I made the right decision. I was briefly considering going to Road Atlanta for a trackday (where they let Average Joes drive their cars on track) which would've been Sat. and Sun. But my friend Protege who was in da ATL Fri. and Sat. let me know that it rained all day there Sat. So which looks like the better decision A) Ditching your fiance on her birthday to go stand in the rain all day, B) Spending a lazy Sat. and Sun. with the woman I love and sharing her special day, and being dry. Yeah, I went with B and I think it worked out well for everyone. And I set a good precedent for my birthday which is Sept. 1st, the big 2-7.

One of my goals today is to look around for "sciencey" pictures that we can put up in her classroom. Maybe I'll do that after lunch. We have a large poster plotter (big printer) here at Clemson so I'm planning on finding some public property pictures and making them into posters. I hope it works out.

So two posts down is what I got J for her birthday, so what do you think we did last night? Well yes, we did that but we also watched Friends: Season 3! Woohoo! Actually I passed out halfway into the first episode, no telling when J finally closed her eyes.

And Protege, who despises all things creamy and dairy (seriously, you name it and he HATES it), was halfway through his piece of mayo cake and after his second "Mmmmm, this cake is really good!" I dropped the "Oh yeah? Well it's made of mayonaisse! Mwahahahaha!" on him. He claims that he tasted a "tangy" flavor but of course he says this after I tell him it has mayo. Then I tell him it has a cup of it. He finishes his piece, so I guess it wasn't too tangy. It was really good cake though. Super moist and delicious.

J asked what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday. I don't know. Maybe red velvet. I was thinking of using our two loaf pans and making a multi-layered cake to maximize the frosting. I made the mayo cake in my pie plate which worked, but it expanded and looked more like a pie than a cake, but it worked out. I flipped it over onto a plate and frosted the bottom. But I was thinking since it expands that I could fill up my 2 loaf pans, let them cool, and then slice it into at least 4 layers (2 cakes in half) if not more, so it would go something like this (starting from the top):
Candles
Frosting
Cake
Frosting
Cake
Frosting
Cake
Icing
Cake

Ooooooh, or maybe replace a frosting/icing layer or two with jam/preserves. Damn, that sounds good. I'll keep ya posted.

Yay! Happy Birthday to the one woman I love more than any other! I hope this day is a special one.

(She has to show up to school tomorrow so today is her last day of freedom, which is why she's still asleep.)

Nothing too crazy last night. Got the ingredients for her birthday cake, devil's food cake mix, mayonaisse (It's a chocolate mayo cake), and Rainbow Chip frosting, and some icing for writing and whatnot.

I've been wanting to open up a bakery recently. Mostly because there is a lady in Pendleton who has had a bakery running out of her house for 20 years. Her hours are 11-5:30 Wed., Thurs. and Friday, or J's kind of hours. But we would be open later to cater to the working crowd. And I watched 16 Blocks last night and Mos Def wants to open up a bakery in Seattle. (Wow, just looked at the director for that movie. Richard Donner directed The Goonies, The Toy and Superman, I'm impressed)

But my bakery, no name as of yet, would do cakes, cupcakes, muffins, breads, probably scones, cinnamon buns, basically all the home cooked goodies that I love. And maybe even some home made candy (but just a little). Sounds pretty cool. I hope it does well. And you will get free samples, I promise.

I started archiving yesterday. Theoretically one day I'll have all my favorite posts linked in the sidebar. But for right now I've only been through the first two months and so far have come up with:

Urine-a Minivan - Not for the faint of heart, perfectly illustrates my stupidity and not thinking things through

Henry the Hamster - The GREATEST HAMSTER IN ALL THE LAND! RIP big guy.

My religious background - what it sounds like


An Ode to Doc In The Box - Thanking Dr. Sean for recommending a book, stay safe!

Weird Condiments - what it sounds like

And those are my "best" posts from the first 3 months.

Almost forgot to tell you. J's birthday is tomorrow! Aug. 13th. She turns 26 years young.

I don't think she'll read this by tomorrow but I got her Friends Season 3, some Victoria's Secret "Pink" underwear and a Victoria's Secret teddy (kind of a present for me too I suppose). Hope she likes them!

I watched a very interesting short just now on Sundance called Milo 55160 directed by David Ostry. It was basically a guy who processed dead people (picture extreme DMV stereotype) but a kid came up with a yo-yo who was a "near dead". They always have a toy and his was the yo-yo but it was taken away by the worker and he essentially had to decide whether or not to give it back. Very funny and quick. I highly recommend Tivoing it or maybe catching it on TV.

Washed both cars today. It was fun, J pitched in and cleaned Tercel. I'm gonna wax both of them tomorrow. I use Meguiar's Quik Wax. You just spray it on, use one cloth to spread it on, then another to wipe it off and that's it. It does a whole car in about 15 minutes, and it looks good and rain beads off of it. But I'm never getting a black car again. It's too much work to make it look good. J noticed a few rock chips and various other imperfections in the hood today, but it's all motivation for her to get me one for a birthday once we can afford extravagant and somewhat unnecessary gifts like that.

Took down that NAPA auto thing that's been flashing at you for the past month. I'm such a shill. All it took for that was a friendly email and then a promise of a free shirt (which may or may not show up). I need to whore myself out for more next time, but I don't really mind it. If you ask nicely, I'll probably oblige your wild request, unless you're a spammer or a link whore.

I've been itching to make cupcakes recently. I think it was all the cupcakes from that test post the other day. I want to try my hand at making icing also. I already picked up the powdered sugar.

We're the Devils!
Then it's easy; you're both going to hell.

All quotes from an episode of an off-the-air heavily syndicated sitcom. Still don't have it? You stole my Jesus fish!

So one of the biggest regrets in my life is as follows. We were at a friends house playing in the backyard. I honestly can't remember what period of time this was. I think I was between 7 and 11. Narrows it down a bit. I certainly hope I wasn't older but it's possible. I was in my "sarcastic mean for no reason" phase of my adolescence.

We're at a friend's house and there are quite a few kids in the backyard. I think there were 3 families there, with a total of 8 kids. The backyard is on a slope and Charlie and I are at the top away from everyone else. I think someone sees a big bug or snake but the kids at the bottom start screaming and shrieking. So an adult comes out to see what's up. They ask why they're yelling. So I pipe up with "they saw Leigh Ann's face" (that is Charlie's older sister) who is in her early teens. At this point she starts crying and runs into the house. Crap. The adult asks why I said that. I don't know and I'm sorry. I generally feel like dirt the rest of the day. I do apologize before we leave but that moment is seared into my subconscious. She had never done anything to me, so I then decided to only make snide comments to people who I know can take them and find them amusing.

I'd like to think I have matured past that point, or at least think before I speak a little more than I used to.

Now a few links stolen from my usual place, Cynical-C:

What flying was like in the 1960s - Very interesting and a stark contrast between flying in the 90's and 00's.

High Speed Photography by Andrew Davidhazy - Awesome shots of bullets going through things, water droplets, etc...

This one is for J. She didn't know that shotgun shells spread out after they're shot, which is what makes shotguns (especially sawed-off) excellent close range weapons.

Sorry about yesterday's melodrama. Gotta keep you on your toes.

I think the department is trying to get out of paying for the departmental picnic this year by having us pay for it. But that is just speculation. We'll see what happens.

For some reason, this story popped into my mind. It's on my list of top 5 regrets. I wronged and publicly shamed a classmate in high school. It was 10th or 11th grade art with Ms. Hickey. (very cool Ball State graduate who was 24-25 at the time of teaching our class and she showed us her hideous tattoo, sorry Laurie but it was) But we were sitting around talking about things that we wanted and Edwin Ortiz said that he wanted a Toyota Tacoma. For some reason I exploded, I lambasted him for wanting a fuel guzzling super truck and how could he do that to the environment. In my defense, I think my heart was in the right place, but I went about it all wrong. I thought it was a much bigger truck than it actually is. The MPG figures are 20/27 which is pretty good for a truck. I had no right to shout at him like that in front of 6 or 7 of our peers. I had little to no accurate information about that particular truck and just assumed all trucks got single digit MPG numbers. Nothing huge, but I had never had a confrontation with Edwin before, he did nothing to warrant my attack, and for that Edwin, I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me.

J wanted me to explain a little more about Dream Seth. Occasionally J will wake up in a foul mood, fouler than normal, and sometimes hit me. Whenever this occurs I can assume that she had a dream about me and I did something awful. Usually it's cheating on her, I think once Dream Seth left her at a fair, so that's a little background info on Dream Seth.

A few other regrets:
Not saying anything to Morgan Fairchild in the elevator as she was going back to her room after speaking at the "Romance Writers of America" conference in Orlando
Not jumping in the hot tub with the 7-8 young women another night in Orlando
Not being more confrontational with a girl who invited me to her house over Christmas but broke up with me around Thanksgiving, this was in Texas, I still went, it wasn't as awkward as you would think but her fam was cool, and her dad almost called her a slut
Oooooh, this one is number one I think, there is a story and I'll get to it tomorrow but I insulted Leigh Ann.

I cheated on J last night.

First the story, then the repercussions. Some friends and us went down to the Univ. of Georgia to hang out. Our last night there we were walking around campus and J spots a tall building and says "I wonder what is in there." So then the girls go back to the hotel room and I'm intrigued, so I wander over to the tall building. Most of the entrances are locked but I did see one hallway that led to a pool. So I dropped the bag I was carrying and look down and see that I'm already wearing a swimsuit so I go to hop in. But then I see the lifeguard. She looks interesting and is seated near a tile bench that you can sit on and dangle your legs in the pool. We start chatting and then she gets up and says that she stinks and needs to put on deodorant. Odd, I think to myself and then another lifeguard comes in. He sits down and we strike up a conversation. Then Lifeguard comes back and sits down next to me. She seems cool and we continue talking.

She's off work so we stroll around campus and I ask her if she believes in timing. Don't remember what she said but I tell her that our timing is off. Apparently she doesn't think so because she keeps walking with me. Somehow we wind up back at my hotel and run into my friend Protege. He says we can't go upstairs because the girls are up there, but there is a hallway that leads to a sort of study room, so Lifeguard and I walk down there. Before I know what is happening, she's naked, really naked. Next thing I know I'm naked and have a condom on. We all know what happens next, so I'm finishing up when I hear footsteps in the hallway. So I jump up and hide in a corner. I peek my head around and see J standing there! Shit, but the scariest part is the look on her face. Not sad or dissappointed but monumentally pissed. The kind of look that says you have entered a world of pain. So I take off down the hallway and think that Protege must've ratted me out otherwise how would J have known where to go. I get to the end of the hallway and turn around to see J walking up to me. I'm screaming in my head and then I wake up. I have never been more relieved to find out something was a dream before in my life. I look over and there is J sleeping peacefully.

Sorry to take you on an emotional roller coaster this morning, but I had to share. So let's make a few changes to the first sentence. Dream Seth cheated on Dream J last night. I guess J is right. Dream Seth is an asshole.

Another note: after leaving the pool we ran into my old neighbor who said that he was going to be there in a few months for the Georgia/Auburn football game. Before then I thought it was Univ. of Arkansas for some reason.

This blog has really been car-centric recently and to those of you who couldn't give two shits, my apologies. It'll all be over soon.

The autocross was lots of fun. Lots of new people and the course was very challenging. It was the opitimy of "sometimes you have to go slow to go fast." If you went too fast into one of the turns, it screwed up the next 2, so you had to go slowly through that turn to go fast through the next 2. Tough lesson but a very valuable one. Unlike Need For Speed or other non-sim video games (almost everything but Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsports) you actually need to apply the brakes every now and then.

Slow in; fast out
Smooth equals fast

All those cliched sayings that are very important and hard lessons to learn.

This should cap off the current rash of car related posts. Someone asked what I would get instead of a $120,000 Aston Martin. Lots of things actually.

A used Range Rover (for towing capabilities and days when J is feeling soccer momish)
Turn my Focus into a rally car
Get J the Mini Cooper S convertible she's been wanting for a while
A fuel efficient daily driver for myself (either a used Focus for back-up rally parts or a Honda Fit)
My training sport bike, Suzuki SV 650

and there might even be some cash leftover for gas and all the insurance these freakin' things are going to require.

See you tomorrow.

Sounds creepy when Sting isn't singing it.

We also checked out the Honda Ridgeline and understood why it dethroned the F150 as Car and Driver's truck of the year. It's so versatile and also built on a car chassis, so for people not ripping up stumps or muddin' it rides better. The tailgate opens down like every other tailgate but also opens to the side (also away from the curb) which reveals a hidden panel that opens up into a weatherproof trunk. The spare is on a sliding tray that stows under the bed, but while it is slid back, there is a huge opening with a drain plug, so you can actually use it as a trunk or as a cooler. Damn.

Then the interior is nice. Honda build quality, nothing fancy but nothing chintzy either. Very ergonomic. VTEC 3.5L V6, 19/22 MPG, not great but it can tow 2.5 tons. Like a rally car and tools.

And they also just announced that the new Minis (the 2007 models I think) are going to be turbocharged instead of a supercharger. Which means that putting a bigger turbo on should not be complicated, theoretically of course.

And there is another autocross tomorrow. And we had a party last night. And I binge drank. Which means that I will not drink as much tonight. I was not hungover this morning. I did have the alcohol shits but that was nothing an Icee couldn't take care of. Mountain Dew flavored.

Heard Little Brother made it to Africa with minor fanfare. He arrived Tuesday at 12:30 am. His luggage arrived sometime on Thursday. Oops. At least it made it.

Results can be found here from the last autocross. 11th out of 25. 3rd in class. Lost to a Civic (again) and a Nissan 240sx (RWD and a much faster car). I need more front camber.

I have Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik currently in my CD player and that was the song I heard last. It's been one of my favorites for over a decade.

J and I played soccer yesterday. No, not at 2, we like not getting heat stroke. But we left the house at 6:30 and it had just rained a little and was overcast and was almost pleasant except for the 115% humidity. But I did enjoy the no sun thing.

We usually play with some international grad students and a few domestics but there was another group of guys out there so they joined our game too and brought the number of players up to 14. The most we previously had was 8. Lots of fun, but on the way out we overheard them saying that you had to change the day when you play and change the time so that not too many people show up. Huh? Why are you being so secretive? Did you not want us to play with you guys? Have you had 30 people show up to play before? It was odd.

Subject change!

So 2 weeks ago J and I went pseudo-car shopping. Pseudo because we have no money for a down payment let alone monthly payments. So we were just window shopping. I wanted to take a look at the new subcompact cars coming out: Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, Toyota Yaris. The biggest engine is a 1.8L in the Nissan and the Honda and Toyota have 1.5L, although the Honda has VTEC yo!

We also checked out the Toyota FJ Cruiser and the Honda Ridgeline. Oh, and the Toyota place also had 2 Priuses, and since those are very cool and roomy, we checked that out too. I'll go in order of what we looked at:

Toyota Prius-'05 I think, Roomy, comfy seats, decent trunk space and the rear seats fold down for more room, stupid gas mileage, big touchscreen that controls the radio and shows you which engine you're using, and right at $25,000. Definite possibility.

Toyota Yaris sedan-I'm a hatchback junkie but they didn't have one. Super not impressed. But the price is right at $13,000. They didn't have a stick either. Lackluster interior, center mounted instrument panel (I DO NOT like this new trend, so stop it!), roomy driver and passenger seats, cramped back seats, seats fold down but don't lie flat (not a huge thing but I'm sure would be annoying at some point). Probably not.

Toyota FJ Cruiser-Awesome retro styling, big tires, skid protection, 4WD option (comes with a 6 speed manual, yippee!), big comfy seats, almost Tonka truck like interior, but that's good, lots of room up front, decent space in the back, seats fold down (but you have to remove the headrests, that would get annoying real fast) tons of trunk space, full size spare on the back, trunk opens to the side (away from the curb, very important) subwoofer, and there is even a 120V, 400 amp outlet in the back (great for a TV or stereo, just no hair dryers or microwaves), 5000 lb. towing capacity, 16/19 mpg for the 4WD manual (I looked at this because I had never seen inside one and eventually I'll need a tow vehicle for my rally car, but if you ever see me drive it to the grocery store or around town, stop me, check that all my other cars are in the shop, and if they are not, please shoot me on the spot). Maybe as a tow vehicle.

Honda Fit-Blown away. There are no less than 4 different configurations for the seats (sleep mode where the front seats fold back, super long storage mode where the back seats and passenger seat fold forward, tall mode where the bottom of the rear seats fold up and out of the way for taller plants and such, and regular extra space mode where the rear seats fold down), VTEC, great instrument panel, lots of nifty knobs and little storage spaces, airbags freakin' everywhere (not that I give a crap about safety, just don't explode in a collision ala Ford Pinto), very cool styling, Honda handling, Honda reliability, Honda aftermarket (I mean turbos not neon lights or spoilers). Almost definitely. And it starts at $13,850 and the Fit Sport (which mostly adds a subtle body kit, paddle shifters for the 5 speed automatic [J loved this option], cruise, auxilary input for ipods and other mp3 players, fog lights and 15 inch alloys) starts at $15,170 for the manual, $15,970 for the auto.

I've never owned a Honda but Smoove loves his TL (technically an Acura but it's the same company, just don't try to convince the pretty boy in his Lambo Gallardo that his car is actually a Volkswagen) but if what you're looking for in a car is great gas mileage, lots of interior space, and even some decent handling, I would highly recommend the Honda Fit.

And I wanted to test drive the new Civic SI, but they didn't have any. They're supposed to call when they get one in, so I'll keep you posted.

Continuing the car theme, I'll answer the "What cars would I buy instead of dropping 100 grand on an Aston Martin Vantage?" We are going to assume a price of $120,000 for a Vantage based on this ebay auction.

Stay tuned.

This is a post where I'm showing J how to do an easy and quick post. She's still learning HTML and all that good stuff.

Cupcakes

I love cupcakes. They even have ones with ice cream cones that can look like clowns. Like these:


A great cupcake website can be found here. That's actually a cupcake blog. Novel idea. I'll have to cruise around it later.

This was only a test.

I do love cupcakes though.

There was that and some egg with green tabasco on my 1/2 breakfast sandwich this morning.

I arrive at school/work and check my email. Rhonda has asked to be my friend on Frappr. I think she is just looking to up her friend count. Check her out. Sorry Rhonda, I don't think we're meant to be. You don't like rap and you can listen to classical when "you have to"? What the hell is that? When would you have to and why don't you like it? I only have 2 friends of which one is the Frappr greeter, but I think I'm gonna have to pass. Nothing personal Rhonda.

Yeesh. There are some strange things over there. You have some interesting friends Rhonda.

So our blogger friend Ruthie is walking in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk again, although this time she'll be in Philly. I won't post a public link to her donation site since it has her real name on it (unless she says it's ok) but email me and I can send you the link if you would like to donate. I think we're going to chip in some and J's breast cancer survivor mom is going to kick in some as well.

There is some drama in the 'Ham. I called one of my groomsmen to give him the tux scoop and he seemed distraught. Apparently his wife moved out and took the cats. He's never been the best at relationships and he loves drama. I'm not saying it's all his fault but I'm guessing at least 60%. So please keep him in your thoughts and hopefully this too shall pass.

More stable friend Tom was trying to organize a camping trip with his sunday school class. Apparently they're all too busy and don't want to go and now football season is started and I thought that's what Tivo was for, etc.... So he called up someone who ACTUALLY wants to go camping (me) and now we have taken the sunday school camping trip and turned it into a Hickory Knoll camping trip. (HK is where we used to live and will be the name of our car/mountain bike racing team if that ever happens, HK Racing and a big black and white tree is our logo) The trip will be in the Cohutta Wilderness and click on the Conasauga/Jack's Rivers for a topo map of where we're going. We're gonna try out a new trail that parallels Jacks River for 16 miles. Parallel might be misleading since it actually crosses the river 42 times. That's alot. So I won't be taking my hiking boots but instead my 2+ yr old Adidas ClimaCools that should dry out by morning. I hate hiking in wet socks. The boots I don't mind being wet but the wet socks I don't appreciate.

Yep here it is:

JACKS RIVER TRAIL. [Fig. 14(3)] 16.7 miles. This moderately difficult, orange-blazed trail is the roadbed of an old railroad. It is the longest and wettest trail in the Cohutta Wilderness, crossing the river 42 times. It is often crowded at the falls. The least-used portion of the trail is from Alaculsy to Jacks River Falls. In the middle of Horseshoe Bend are several beautiful spots to camp.

Taken from this website and we'll probably camp near Horseshoe Bend. Thanks Sherpa Guides!

So remember in the past few weeks I told some stories from my childhood? I was thinking back on those days (last week and 10-15 years ago) and why I decided to get those stories down. First off, they're slightly more interesting than my normal post. Secondly, if anyone was say searching for people who went to Santiago Christian School, this website would pop up and they would proclaim "Hey! I know that Seth guy! He was kind of cool. I should send him an email." And then we would catch up on old times and it would be great. Or it might go like this, "Hey! I remember this guy! And he has a blog? And he's been at it for 2+ years? What a dork. I'm gonna email this to everyone I know and show them what kind of a loser I went to high school with." And that is (soon to be) Dr. Loser to you buddy! So that kind of like a possible scenario with a much worse case scenario.

I've covered DoorKnob Bob, just got Santiago Christian School (SCS)(tons of stories from there considering I went there for 6th-8th and 10th-12th), I went to Sonlights in Costa Rica (it was a school for missionary kids, and went out of business about 5 years after I left, that was 3rd-4th and a little 5th I think) I've told a couple stories from Costa Rica and I think there are a couple more rattling around in there somewhere.

Posts to come: What I would buy instead of an Aston Martin and our car shopping adventure from last week, some high school Seth stories

Does anyone watch HBO on Sundays? I haven't heard one of you mention it, so I might be the only sucker who pays an extra fee for "fancy" TV.

I'm currently hooked on Deadwood. Everyone remember "Major Dad"? No? Just me then. Well Gerald McRaney currently has a main role and he brought in about 20 gunmen and is bringing in about 200 more to essentially wipeout the town of Deadwood so he can mine for gold anywhere he wants. And the Earp brothers, Wyatt and Morgan, just rode into town. It's gonna be good.

J and I both like Entourage. It's funny and we like most of the actors and characters. I've liked Jeremy Piven ever since PCU and his stint on some pre-coming out Ellen Degeneres sitcom. There was nothing else on I swear.

And we also started watching Lucky Louie, which is a Louis CK sitcom. He's a comedian. Very cynical and very funny. He also kept a blog from the 3 times he has travelled cross-country with his dog. That's pretty cool. But there was a girl with low self-esteem and he referred to her as the title of this post minus a letter.

I'm such a comment junkie. I always check to see if anyone has said anything. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

My brother is currently on a plane somewhere. He left B'ham at 6 am to go to ATL then would fly to IAD, Dulles in DC then it's a direct flight into Dakar. So please keep my world travelling little brother in your thoughts.