Happy Holidays

Okay, it's late. But Merry Christmas!!!

Also, Happy New Year!!!

John Spencer (12/20/46 - 12/16/2005)

Nice Memoriam to John Spencer (Leo McGarry) over at westwingnews...

I am truly sorry for his friends and family... The wacked out west wing fanatic in me wondered immediately what they were going to do with the show, with him being the VP candidate and all. It seems to wrong to think that, however, I did anyway...

I'm a man...

I never doubted my masculinity (I can even wear pink without worry), but to others who may occasionally question my manhood (because of the aforementioned pink shirts)... this test proves my manliness. Any more questions?

Blame Scott at Transformatum for me taking this test...

Masculine You scored 93 masculinity and 40 femininity!

You scored high on masculinity and low on femininity. You have a traditionally masculine personality.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 97% on masculinity You scored higher than 8% on femininity

Link: The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test written by weirdscience on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Open Source Software

I occasionally use and enjoy open source products... But I can't stand the sanctimonious bull **** of open source zealots. In their opinion everything should be free... seriously, this is still a capitalist economy. I hope they only own stock in companies that don't own any intellectual property, because heaven forbid someone actually make money for their hard work and IP.

I wrote a comment on David Coursey's blog on e-week in response to the assisine statements by some of these idiots, below is my comment (which basically represents my utter disgust with these communists):

I love reading the comments when anyone at eweek actually writes an article that has a slight notion of not bashing microsoft. In a previous comment someone said it was "immoral" for microsoft not to use a public standard. This is ludicrous. I've taken my business ethics classes and holding onto intellectual property that has become a de-facto standard and industry leader is a sound business practice.

Why would MS care if other office software packages do or do not work with Office? If 90%+ people are using it, what's their incentive for using an open standard? So the people who don't buy their product can view / edit office documents? Why should they give away their advantage. This is still a capitalist economy and if someone comes out with a vastly superior and groundbreaking office suite (and don't tell me openoffice or star office are either of those, I've used them and they aren't) they will start taking market share from MS and maybe then will a open standard become a larger issue.

Firefox is the perfect example of a superior product that is rapidly being adopted right now. MS isn't agile enough to respond to it yet and they are losing their market dominance in the browser wars.

I use some open source products (and other open standards as well) and enjoy it. However, the world market is just that a "market". Things are to be bought and sold... All you open source zealots enjoy building free software and see how long you can pay the mortgage in doing so... Personally, I'm working on software that gets me paid.

Can't trust those darn college kids

According to a Harvard University Study... College Students trust the U.N. more than the US govenment. Which begs the question... What the heck are they teaching in college? Anyone heard of oil for food scandal, the security council and all their blunders and hypocrisies, etc...

Pandora

Pandora is just about the coolest web music station I've ever seen. You enter either a song or artist and it creates a "station" of music similar to your entry. You can create as many entries per station as you want and can create 100 stations. First 10 hours are free, only $36 for the whole year of listening. Check it out at www.pandora.com

Sallie Mae Sucks

The post I made back in August about Sallie Mae is now generating some comments. By the way, Sallie Mae still sucks.... I can't wait until they are paid off (hopefully soon, I'm selling my house and hoping to have them paid off with the proceeds).

Comment Verification Turned On

Getting tired of comment spam. So I've turned on word verification for comments...

Cards Lose...

As we all know by now, the Cards lost to the Astros. I'm bummed, but after the injuries and the 'Stros pitching, I'm not surprised...

At least we got to see one of the greatest home runs in Cardinal playoff history and it allowed Cardinal Nation to give Busch one final send-off.

As a Cub fan said in 1909: "There's always next year".

Game 1... That's a winner also

I enjoyed last nights game from the comfort of section 224 in beautiful Busch Stadium... Cards win 5-3!!! They also haven't been behind in the entire playoffs thus far. Reggie Sanders was huge as usual (at least for the last 4 games), 2 run HR, bringing his playoff total to 12 RBI (in 4 games)... HR robbing catching. Reggie, Reggie, Reggie! Let's go Cards

Game 2... That's a winner

Here are some pics from my cellphone from Game 2 of the Cards - Padres NLDS game at Busch stadium... Final Score: Cards 6 - Padres 2


My seats were sky high... near the left field foul pole in the upper deck (who cares, I was at the game...)







Here is the fountain at Keiner plaza which has been dyed red for the Cardinals postseason. The Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse are in the background. (Neither of which are crooked, just me).

Cindy Sheehan Arrested

You don't think this was planned do you?

By the way, read the difference in coverage by The Village Voice and Fox News.

I'm sure some sort of press release was sent out where they pointed out that an arrest would be made and they (Liberal Press) should get all of their background info ready to go for the story.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the video from the "protest". Hat tip to junkyardblog


UPDATE II: Interesting post over at subjunctive regarding the war and Steven Pearcy.

Vengeance is Mine St. Louis Metal Band

Check out Vengeance is Mine Live Sunday, October 16th at the Creepy Crawl. This show is for the real stl metal heads. They also have two demo tracks available for download at www.vimstl.com.


St. Louis Metal Band - Vengeance is Mine - show schedule here

I'm finally Lost

I love the show Lost after watching this season's premiere. I had only watched twenty minutes of one episode last year and was totally lost watching it last year (by the way, that's two bad puns in a short space, sorry), but this year is different... I'm ready to go thanks to talking to friends and watching the season one recap show. Also, I'm going to borrow the season one dvd's soon.

Anyway, I have a theory about this show. I think they are all dead. I think they island is purgatory (which, by the way, I don't believe in). What got me thinking this is the case was the preponderence of coincidences. Way, way too many to be reality... So when they die here they are either going to heaven or hell.

So when the show ends, keep in mind, you heard it here first. They're all dead and they are in purgatory. If I'm wrong, no big whoop... at least I got a new show to watch.

Post Secret

I've added a few new links to my blog roll on the side:

1. West Wing News - News about NBC's The West Wing (my favorite show on TV)
2. Post Secret - An interesting, disturbing, funny and cathartic site. This site was built for people to send in postcards with secrets on them and they will post the images on the site anonymously. I feel a little bit voyeuristic viewing the updates once a week when the new postcards are shown, but it seems to be very therapeutic for the mailers. Great idea.
   WARNING: Occasionally there are nude people or sexual references in the cards...

The West Wing Season Premiere

Another season of The West Wing (TWW) starts this Sunday and I'm geekily excited. I've talked to a few of my friends who are also TWW geeks, and they are as psyched as I am. Here's the nbc.com blurb about the season premiere:

THE TICKET - Season Premiere
8pm 2005-09-25 ALL NEW!

THE WHITE HOUSE LEAK INVESTIGATION PICKS UP SPEED - Josh (Brad Whitford) is caught off guard when political commentators are critical of Leo (John Spencer) as a running mate for Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits). White House Counsel Babbish (Oliver Platt) sits with CJ (Allison Janney) about the leak investigation. Donna (Janel Moloney) approaches Josh for a job. Also starring Martin Sheen, Richard Schiff, Mary McCormack, Dule Hill. TV-PG

After Aaron Sorkin left the show (or was he forced out, I don't remember), it took a while for the show to regain it's steam and direction, but IMHO they have found it and it's taking off again.

I was looking for some spoilers (like I said, I'm a geek) on the season premier and found this page over at westwing.bewarne.com. Bewarned (alright, bad pun), that this gives away a few things. Including something about Toby. To the two of you I have talked to about this, I'm right, but I don't want to give any more away. I'm tired of Toby, he is so freaking pessimistic and groucy that I can't wait till he's gone.

New Church Website

Tonight I launched my church's new site: www.reachstl.org. I've been working on this new look a few hours here, a few there for over a month. I think it's a marked improvement over the last design (it's okay to be biased, I designed the last look also).

Let me know what you think of the look, positive or negative. Negative feedback won't hurt my feelings... I'm not a designer, although I occasionally play one on TV.

Golf Woes

In honor of my round of 53 yesterday (yes, on 9 holes) that was caused by me having triple bogeys on 7, 8 and 9, here is a great quote from Bob Hope about golf, enjoy:

If you watch a game, it's fun. If you play it, it's recreation. If you work at it, it's golf.
--Bob Hope

McAfee Sucks...

I used a trial version of McAfee's Spam killer and it worked just fine and dandy. Trial expires... that's when all hell broke loose. (I'm going to do this in numbers just for sake of my own sanity):

1. I suspect my spam keeps getting killed, because I'm not seeing as much spam as before I tried the software.
2. Sudden realization that I used to have to allow certain messages that spam killer thought were spam, that actually weren't.
   
3. I can't get into Spam Killer to "allow" them, much less see them... This is a little scary.
4. I don't uninstall the software for fear of loosing messages that are in the killing zone (bad pun).
5. I try to update the software from the link they give me in the verify window...
6. Here is where it starts getting really aggravating: I get a message from my browser (Firefox) that I have to use IE. Stupid me, I thought IE was a less-secure browser.
7. I keep trying and trying to get from IE to where I am supposed to be in McAfee's site and it prevents me from purchasing after my trial.
8. I finally buy the whole blown thing (for more than I was supposed to from the free trial I believe).
9. I keep getting this message from their site when trying to install.... (see second picture)... Notice how I don't have an information bar banning the active x control from running.... Second thing here, ActiveX is unsecure (I know this, I am a former developer)... This sucks that a "security company" requires both IE and Active X controls in order to buy and install their software...


10. I've tried to install several times from both IE and Firefox, to no avail, I've looked in support and have found nothing to help me... I need to call technical support and complaing and maybe they can help me...

Shouldn't stuff just work? Does it have to be this freaking complicated? Why can it just allow me to download a freaking EXE and install it myself? Believe me it will be the last time I buy McAfee.

Pujols is "the" MVP, Carp should win Cy Young

If you don't believe me... just read Bernie Misklaz's column today at stltoday.com (online version of the St. Louis Post Dispatch).

Below are the relevant stats (other than slugging percentage, which for some reason wasn't inlcuded on the place I got these stats from) for Pujols and Jones. I've highlighted which categories each player has a lead in. The stats I find the most interesting are the SB, Doubles, CS. Considering Jones is faster than Pujols (keeping in mind that Jones hurt his leg earlier this year, however, Pujols is having a unbelievable year in stolen bases).

Player	GM	AB	H	AVG	OBP	HR	RBI	SB	R	CS	2B	3B	BB	K	E	A
Pujols	133	497	165	0.332	0.426	35	100	13	109	2	33	2	76	58	11	80
Jones	132	486	133	0.274	0.358	43	108	2	79	3	20	3	56	93	2	7

Cubs = Completely Useless by September Part Two

From chicagocubs.com (bolding and number insertion by me):

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs need to get out of their funk, and the players should accept some responsibility for that, general manager Jim Hendry said.

(1) The team entered Tuesday's game 3-10 in its past 13 games, and in that span, the pitchers have a 4.94 ERA and the club has hit .236.

"We're just not getting it done, that's all," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said.

"For whatever reason, (1) we've been in a funk here the last five, six days that (2) we haven't played good baseball and made a lot of mistakes and a lot of mental mistakes," Hendry said. "Collectively, we've also had a little bit of an offensive funk."

The problem isn't Baker, Hendry said.

"I know one thing: (3) The 25 guys in that clubhouse aren't going to quit on Dusty Baker the rest of the season," Hendry said. "Hopefully, it's just a funk and we'll get out of it and make a run at it. (4) If we're not in a better position at the end of August, then we weren't good enough."

I'm just a baseball fan, an avid one, but just a fan, not some fancy expert, but the points I've number and highlighted seem to stand out to me.

First, Hendry thinks they've been in funk for the last six or seven days? Did you notice the part about being 3-10 in their last 13?

Second, this a nice quote: "we haven't played good baseball and made a lot of mistakes and a lot of mental mistakes"... So the team is really playing well, huh? When was the last time a Tony LaRussa team had problems like this for more than one or two games. It begs the question, has the team quit on Baker?

Third, here's another hum-dinger: "The 25 guys in that clubhouse aren't going to quit on Dusty Baker the rest of the season". Okay, sure... the team hasn't quit on Baker, they're just playing bad in all aspects of the game, mentally, offensively, defensively, etc...

Fourth, "If we're not in a better position at the end of August, then we weren't good enough." Yeah, wait until the end of August, no big whoop, nothing important happens in baseball in August. Don't look now, but the Brewers have passed you and the Reds and Pirates are on their way.

As always, make sure your Completely Useless By September

Cubs = Completely Useless by September

If anything in my life has proven to be consistently true, it's that the Cubs suck. And with another year of baseball coming down to the wire soon, the small bears from Chi-Town are on a well-documented decline. Let's examine what's goin on a little bit...

About three weeks ago, all I heard about was how the Cubs would pick up the pace when they got fully health and make a wildcard bid. Hmmm.... Woods, Prior, Garciaparra, et al are all playing now and over their last 10 games, they have two wins and have lost six in a row. Compare that to the Cardinals who still are missing Rolen, Walker, Sanders and Molina and have gone 7-3 over their last ten while facing some of the top NL teams, with Nunez, J-Rod, Mahoney and Taguchi filling in nicely.

I can't believe that Dusty Baker isn't on the hot-seat by now. Remember the 03 season when the Cubs almost made it to the World Series? (Bartman supposedly cost them the game)...
Has he done anything with the talent he has in Chicago? Anything at all? Here's an interesting fact, they only had 88 wins is in 03, not very many compare to most playoff years (and the lowest of any team in the playoffs that year). In fact, they had one more win last season and finished 16 games back of the division title.

Take a look at their record with Dusty as their manager:

Year	Wins	Losses	Win Pct
2003	88	74	0.5432
2004	89	73	0.5494
2005	54	58	0.4821
Total	231	205	0.5298

Not real solid, with their "talented" (and overrated) pitching staff. I think if they finish under .500 this year, he has to go... But I really don't want to see him fired, because he's been nice to the Cardinals for consistenly screwing it up.

Floatin' got ignored...

Until now, four weeks later, I didn't post what happened floating. You know why? Because it was fun, but nothing interesting happened. Sure, I had an unbelievable time, but for the first time in my adult life, nothing weird happened on a float trip. The usual things that happen on a float trip are:

Somebody makes a fool out of themselves drunk

Somebody makes a fool out of themselves drunk

A couple gets drunk, gets in an argument because one person isn't paddling, or because the canoe tipped over

Somebody passes out early and gets ridiculed by the crowd

Someone gets drunk and causes canoes to tip over

Notice a trend here? Okay, so none of the above happened. People got drunk (I don't drink right now, so not me) but nobody made a fool of themself. One canoe tipped very early, but otherwise it was a nice weekend floating trip. No drama, no problems, no arguments, just good, clean fun.

Interesting, I think I'm getting older.

I hate Sallie Mae

Hate is a strong word, but this is exactly how I feel. Maybe hate isn't strong enough of a word: loathe, despise, abhor, detest... yeah, those seem a little stronger, let's go with one of them.

Anyway, I have a tech school loan through Sallie Mae, which I took out despite being raped on the interest rate (currently around 14%) even while using a co-borrower. What can I say, I was young and needed the money.

So, I pay this loan on the 5th of every month automatically through online bill pay with my bank. For the last 3 months I have received phone calls (like, oh, I don't know, 5 in one day, until they finally leave a message) on the 5th of every month from Sallie Mae asking me where my payment was, and did I know it is 8 days late. So my payment is due on the 27th of every month and in reading their paper work their is a 15 day grace period, and I'm pretty sure that 8 is less than 15... so why are they calling me? So when I called them today and talked to them.

Here's my recollection of the conversation:
Me) My payment has cleared, today, I can see it right there showing as cleared from my bank.
Sallie Mae) Well it hasn't shown up in our system yet.
Me) By the way, why the hell are you calling me? I'm well within the grace period, haven't been late on this loan since you guys took over the servicing contract, and pay more than the amount due every month on the same day.
Sallie Mae) Well, you are 8 days past due, and if we want to call you we're going to.
Me) Umm... seriously, it's within the grace period, and I pay you more than I owe you every month, WTFO?
Sallie Mae) Yeah... we'll you could pay the day it's due or switch the payment date
Me) Well I guess I could switch the payment date, but again, that's what the friggin grace period is for, and I pay on the same freakin day every month, which based on the month (28, 30, or 31st) is either 5, 7 or 8 days after the due date.
Sallie Mae) Yeah, switch the payment date, or we are going to keep calling and harrassing you (or something to that effect).
Me) So how do I change my payment date
Sallie Mae) Call this number
Me) Can you transfer me?
Sallie Mae) Nope, sorry
Me) k, thanks, I guess

That led to another conversation, after calling the other number:
Me) I'd like to switch my payment date.
Sallie Mae) Okay, you have to do that through a written request.
Me) Okay, I was told to call you, but that's just dandy, what's the address.
Sallie Mae) blah, blah, blah, Oh yeah, you can fax the letter over also.
Me) Okay, what's the fax number?
Sallie Mae) blah, blah, blah...
Me) Any other methods your not telling me about?
Sallie Mae) Well, you can email us also
Me) What's the email address?
Sallie Mae) Well, it's not really an email address, you have to go to our website, login to our account, and submit a customer service request form.
Me) Thanks, you've been very, very helpful

So, whoever is still reading this post (which is really about me venting, and hopefully gaining some traction in search engines about Sallie Mae, just to get some vengeance), is probably thinking to yourself, "umm, Felone, why don't you just pay on the 27th?"... The truth is I probably could, but I prefer to make all my payments on two days each month (it helps me balance ye old check book better), the 17th and the 5th which allows enough time after pay day to make sure everything will clear fine and dandy.

So the obvious question is why not pay on the 17th instead of the 5th.... Well, yeah a few years ago I did just that... One huge friggin' problem with that:

For several months in a row I paid them 10 days early each month... guess what happened? They applied the first payment as a principal payment (instead of my monthly payment) and the next one they applied as a late payment, and this went on every for a while, so when I switched back to paying around the due date (a few days later), I was somehow 30+ days past due... This went on for 11 months, where they somehow recorded me as 11 consecutive months of 30 days late payments (different servicing company within the Sallie Mae Cartel) who didn't call when I was 8 days late, much less 30) so my credit score went down 130 points in one year. I can't figure out how the hell any of these were 30 days late, and I'm disputing it, but you can my hesistance to pay early...

So, I've made the request to change the date, with one caveat, if I end up having to pay two payments with 10 days, forget it, I'll just ignore Sallie Mae's harrassment on one day each month....

Did I mention, I hate this company?

Quote for the day...

The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I'll never be as good as a wall.
-- Mitch Hedberg

John Robert's Nomination

Check out this great parody (let's hope so) over at www.wuzzademo.com

Muse

Muse is a band somebody on the float trip introduced me to (more on the float trip in a new post soon). Pretty sweet sound... I don't even know how to describe it (but of course I'll try), some combination of Coldplay, The Hives, Radio Head, Tool... I'm sure my description doesn't do them justice. Check them out at www.muse.mu. Also, they have a sweet site.

Roy Williams violates rules at KU

Article Here...
Okay, so it's not nearly as big of a deal as anything that's gone down at Mizzou... but at least it's something.

Goin' Floating... a Missouri tradition since 1843

This weekend I'm going floating down the Huzzah river. As far as I know, I've talked to very few people outside the big MO that go on "float trips". For those of you who are unaware of this phenomenon, basically you get in a raft or canoe, consume a ton of alcohol, and leisurely float down a river for 8 hours, while consuming more alcohol. Afterwards, you go to your campsight, sit around a campfire (yeah, in July, in Missouri) and drink some more... Also, I should point out that leisurely floating isn't always the case, because by the time of year that is hot enough to do this, the rivers are usually low enough that you end up dragging your canoe or raft through about 25 shallow gravel beds.

Regardless of some of the details above it's always a good time. And there are always a ton of stories to share afterwards... This year should be no exception, considering I'm probably the only guy going who doesn't drink, so this ought to be very, very interesting...

But if I hear any dueling banjo's, [best redneck voice starts now]I'm running for them, there hills...[end redneck voice]

I'll share stories next week (maybe some photos too...).

Strong Bad Techno Song...

Although I check the site somewhat regularly I haven't read all of the StrongBad Emails before. I was perusing the site tonight and noticed a sweet old one where strong bad makes fun of techno... It made me laugh... Check it out...

This seems so true sometimes...

One of the articles in today's Onion: Midwest Discovered Between East and West Coast. Pretty funny, I've always had the feeling that if it wasn't for the Cardinals, nobody would know where St. Louis is.



Check it out here.

Tom Cruise sure does like to sprint a lot

No, I haven't seen war of the worlds yet, Chris saw it and said it was horrible... However, it got me to thinking about something I've realized: Tom Cruise has a scene where he is sprinting in everyone of his movies

I could be wrong, but doesn't it seem like he has one scene where he is running at full-speed? Why? Does he like to run? Does it make him feel taller? Something to do with Scientology? Just curious.

New blog look...

UPDATE: so it's been re-skinned, kinda, i haven't finished the new look, but it's a start... need some containers around the content... need to fix the right edge (the content is too far over)... probably need something around the whole left side... need new font... need, need, need! Feedback would be welcome about the start of the new look here.

So after months of procrastinating (and rarely blogging)... I'm kicking this site back into gear soon... More posting and I'm going to re-skin it to be a little bolder. I still have a lot of work to do... but I've spent an hour or so designing it and here is what I've come up with so far:

Namby-Pamby Nation...

Michelle Malkin has a commentary about the ridiculous programs that are being created in our schools...

Peaceniks are covering our kids from head to toe in emotional bubble wrap. They are creating a nation of namby-pambies.

Check it out here.

My type of theology...

I saw this over at Transformatum, and figured I'd give it a shot... I must admit I haven't read much from any of these guys being as I was raised Catholic and didn't study theology...

You scored as Karl Barth. The daddy of 20th Century theology. You perceive liberal theology to be a disaster and so you insist that the revelation of Christ, not human experience, should be the starting point for all theology. Anselm 67% Karl Barth 67% John Calvin 53% Charles Finney 53% Augustine 47% Paul Tillich 47% Friedrich Schleiermacher 40% J�rgen Moltmann 33% Jonathan Edwards 27% Martin Luther 27% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Ben Stein's Last Column

Someone forward this to me in an email and I felt impelled to share it with anyone who may actually read my blog. (By the way, I normally delete most of these forwarded emails right after receiving them, but I trust the guy who sent it's opinion of what is worthy of passing along.) I hope you enjoy it:

For many years Ben Stein has written a biweekly column called "Monday Night At Morton's." (Morton's is a famous chain of Steakhouses known to be frequented by movie stars and famous people from around the globe.) Now, Ben is terminating the column to move on to other things in his life. Reading his final column is worth a few minutes of your time.

Ben Stein's Last Column...
============================================
How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?

As I begin to write this, I "slug" it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is "eonlineFINAL," and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end.

It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it. On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie. But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.


Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no longer think Hollywoodstars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.

How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails.

They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.

A real star is the U.S.soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.

A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.

The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosuleven after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.

We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circleare anonymous as they live and die.

I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.

There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament...the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.

Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero.

I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin...or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.

But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.

This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraqor the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human.


Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will.
By Ben Stein

Vengeance is Mine

Alright, just posted an update to the Vengeance is Mine website. Let's see if we can generate some traffic for Vengeance is Mine. It might be hard considering how rarely I post here... let's give it a shot... Vengeance is Mine's next show is at Hi-Pointe, they rock...

Cobwebs and Fictionology

Sorry, it's getty a little dusty over here... I haven't been writing much lately. Maybe it's because things are going pretty well and I have nothing to vent about...

Anyway, as usual, the onion is cracking me up... Click here to read about "Fictionology" -- The religion that:

"Unlike Scientology, which is based on empirically verifiable scientific tenets, Fictionology's central principles are essentially fairy tales with no connection to reality," the AIR report read. "In short, Fictionology offers its followers a mythical belief system free from the cumbersome scientific method to which Scientology is hidebound."

This is great... I'm always for taking swipes at Scientology... How can people follow a religion created by a science fiction writer? Check out this great picture about the book the "religion" is created on....


Here is my favorite quote:

"My personal savior is Batman," said Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Greg Jurgenson. "My wife chooses to follow the teachings of the Gilmore Girls. Of course, we are still beginners. Some advanced-level Fictionologists have total knowledge of every lifetime they have ever lived for the last 80 trillion years."

"Sure, it's total bull****," Jurgenson added. "But that's Fictionology. Praise Batman!"

This is Asinine

Ok, haven't posted in a while... But I just got an instant message about an article that shows the insane hypocrisy of the rich liberal celebrities and their "eco-friendly" missions. I suggest you read the whole article... but here are some quotes:

A new MTV series features Hollywood celebrities praising the developing world's primitive lifestyles as earth-friendly -- despite those poor nations' high infant mortality rates and short life expectancies.

Actress Drew Barrymore, who reportedly earns $15 million a film, told MTV viewers in one episode that after spending time in a primitive, electricity-free Chilean village, "I aspire to be like them more."

Barrymore, apparently enthralled by the lack of a modern sanitary facilities, gleefully bragged, "I took a poo in the woods hunched over like an animal. It was awesome."

The 32-year-old Diaz, who earns a reported $20-million a movie, boasted that the cow-dung slathered walls of a Nepalese village hut were "beautiful" and "inspiring," and she called the primitive practice of "pounding mud" with sticks to construct a building foundation "the coolest thing."

Diaz also criticized the lifestyles of many Americans after visiting an indigenous village in Chile. "It's kinda gotten out of hand how much convenience we think we need," she said.

Despite the celebrities' praise for the primitive life, "Trippin'" shows them flying on multiple airplanes and chartering at least two helicopters and one boat to reach remote locations over the course of the first four episodes.

The series also showed the celebrities being chauffeured to the airport in a full-size Chevy SUV -- despite several on-screen, anti-SUV factoids noting how environmentally unfriendly SUVs are.

Random Update

Life's pretty boring over at the felone house... I had a fun weekend... went to see my buddy Kuehler's band "Vengeance is Mine" play on Friday night. Great show, they really rock...

Saturday watched the awesome college basketball games then went to the St. Louis Steamer's game (but spent a good 15 minutes in 14th and Clarks watching the last three minutes of the Illinois-Arizona game and the OT). What a finish! Probably two of the best tournament games I've ever watched. Oh yeah, Steamers won, good game for them also. After the game watched Sean of the Dead for the first time and nearly fell off the couch after laughing so hard.

Easter Sunday, went to church, got baptized (in front off the congregation) which was great, I missed it last time and probably should have done this about a year and a half ago. Unfortunately, I didn't see any family. Mom was working... My dad had people over, but he lives so darn far away now, I couldn't make it out there (1 and a half hours each way). So I went to see Robots with some friends. Decent movie, I'd give it 2 out of four thumbs up. Wait for the video.

Good times... Oh yeah, as for this long-winded post; for those of you who don't read real well, I've highlighted the important points!

Ok... so that's good news I guess

Ok, so thanks for the prayers... I went to the Doctor and found out that I probably have a disorder called: Benign Fasciculation Syndrome. This explains my symptoms to a tee... here is what it says over at this great site I found on the disorder

This condition represents a hyperexcitability of the neuromuscular system.

Common symptoms of BFS are frequent muscle twitches (fasciculations or fascics), generalized fatigue, "pins and needles" sensations, migrating numbness, muscle cramping and/or spasms in the affected areas (usually the feet and calves), muscle aches and stiffness exercise intolerance, headaches, and itchiness.

So this is good news, I probably don't have MS, or ALS, or any other life threatening illness. Thank the Lord!

The other thing I could have according to the doctor is Hypothyroidism, which can cause similar symptoms. That would be even better than BFS because that could explain a lot of other metabolic issues (why I've gained and lost 60 pounds several times as an adult) and is treatable.

So while I'm really happy , it could still be bit of a bummer if it is BFS, because there is no known cure, or known cause for that matter. Apparently this is just a disease (or syndrome) that makes your muscles feel goofy and twich, etc... Although I am encouraged by what I've read that it goes dormant for a while. I've had it so bad for the last few months that my muscles are always twitching, and they normally feel weak.

After I have my EMG test, I'll post what I find out. This test sounds a little scary:

During this test, you will be lying on an examination table, next to an EMG machine (which looks like a desktop or laptop computer). The test consists of two parts, though at times one may be done without the other. The first part is called Nerve Conduction Studies. In this part some brief electrical shocks are delivered to your arm or leg in an effort to determine how fast or slowly your nerves are conducting the electrical current and therefore in what state of health or disease they may be. You see, a nerve works something like an electrical wire. If you want to see if the wire is functioning properly, the easiest thing to do is to run electricity through it. If there are any problems along its length, you will know it by a failure of the current to go through. To do this, the doctor will attach small recording electrodes to the surface of one part of your limb, and will touch your skin at another point with a pair of electrodes delivering the shock. When this happens, you will feel a tingling sensation that may or may not be painful. Between the brief shocks you will not feel pain. As there are several nerves in each extremity which need to be tested, the procedure is repeated 3 or 4 times or more per extremity studied. The amount of current delivered is always kept at a safe level. Patients wearing pacemakers or other electrical devices need not worry since this current will rarely interfere with such devices. During the nerve conduction study, the doctor or the technician performing the study will occasionally be pausing to make calculations and measurements.

The second part of the test is called Needle Examination and as the name implies, involves some needle sticking. The needles used are thin, fine and about one and a quarter inches long. This part tests the muscle to see if there has been any damage to it as a result of the nerve problem or if the disease involves the muscle itself rather than the nerve. Usually 5 to 6 muscles are sampled in one extremity, but occasionally, if you have problems in more than one area, additional muscles may need to be studied. The needle is usually inserted in the relaxed muscle and moved inside gently in order to record the muscle activity. When this is done, you will be able to hear the sound of the muscle activity amplified by the EMG machine; it will sound something like radio static. The painful part of this section is when the needle is first inserted through the skin since all of the pain receptors are located in this area. Once inside the muscle, the sensation is usually perceived as discomfort or pressure rather than pain. During the needle exam, no electrical shocks are delivered. Also, since the needle probe is used here only as a recording device, no injections are given through the needle into the muscle. On the average, a muscle can be sampled in 2 to 5 minutes though this may vary with the type of problem being investigated.

I'm sure it's no big deal... although at first glance, getting electric shock and getting stuck by needles, doesn't sound fun :>

So thanks again for the prayers! I'll be posting more regularly soon!

Posting quicker than I expected

Hey all,

I got back to this sooner than expected... Anyway, here's what's up with me, and why I haven't been posting this week:

• I've been working a lot of late nights lately (getting better the last couple days)
  
• I spent all of last weekend (and I'm leaving my house in a moment to continue this) rehabbing my mother's bathrooms. We tore up half the subfloor in one of the bathrooms because of water damage and are in the process of installing tile. Fun huh? There goes my next couple of weekends. One down, two to go :(
• Got a little bit of a neurological / muscular problem going on that's freaking me out... I'm sure it's nothing, but I want to hear it from a doctor. I'll be going to a neurologist on the 14th so if you feel so inclined to say a prayer or two, it would be much appreciated.

No posts for a bit...

Hey all, just a head's up. I probably won't be blogging for the next week or two. I've got a lot going on at work and a few things going on personally that are going to keep me away for a bit.

I'll probably be back in the posting game in about two weeks.

Thanks for your readership and patience...

One of these days I'm gonna:

• Clean my house (not that I'm here enough for it to matter)
  
• Take my shirts to the cleaners
• Finish that new blog (by the way, the site is live, but nothing else is (www.feloneblog.com)
  
• Invite some friends over to the house
  
• Post my pictures from Seattle
• Get more sleep
• Think less about work after business hours
  
• Get back to blogging about things that could be important to other people
• Get back to the gym
• Finish up my golf lessons
• Get back on my diet
  

Unfortunately, that day is not today, tomorrow or Friday...

Site Meter

Howdy, it's time for my 7 o'clock p.m. post from the office. About to run and get dinner then head back here for some work. Fun stuff, huh... Don't think I'm complaining though, it's the nature of the beast, some weeks are slow, others are reallly bussssy.

Got a new site meter running for the site (on the bottom) and I think it's going to be more accurate than free stats. Free stats didn't seem to load all the time, plus site meter has more free stats. On free stats lately I've been averaging about 20 visitors a day, so it'll be interesting to see if my assumptions are right or wrong about the traffic.

One other thing, although I'm back up top now, I keep falling out of the top search spot on Google for "Felone". Weird how this google groups post keeps showing up there considering that post is just a bad use of spelling and mine is the site name. I may do a search engine post right after this one (although, I'll back up the time so this real post shows up first).

Felone's Blog Spot

Felone's blog spot is my blog... Gee, you don't say... Well who are you? Who am I? I'm felone, a blogger from St. Louis.

What can you expect to read about here at Felone's blog spot? Well, here is a list of random topics I've covered since I started posting on this blog back in August:

• Raymond Kurzweil's Brain Site
• St. Louis Cardinals: here, here, and here. Or you could just check out practically the whole October archive...
• Politics (I'm a convservative... you can tell if you ready any of the posts...): here and here, here...
• My insonmia: here and here
• Bill McClellan: here and here

Also, expect posts on Bill McClellan again. He's always writing ridiculous columns, and it'd be fun to mess with the search results and see if we can get this blog as the top result (or at least top page) in search engine results for Bill McClellan.

Take a look around and leave a comment if you feel so inclined.

UPDATE: I'm on the first page for Bill McClellan search results.

I can't get no sleep...

Okay, so I can't sleep again. Something about getting home from work after 10 pm that won't allow me to fall asleep at a reasonable time. It justs takes me a while to unwind for some reason... Or to put it another way:

Deep in the bosom of the gentle night
Is when I search for the light
Pick up my pen and start to write
I struggle, fight dark forces
In the clear moon light
Without fear... insomnia
I can't get no sleep

I used to worry, thought I was goin' mad in a hurry
Gettin' stress, makin' excess mess in darkness
No electricity, something's all over me, greasy
Insomnia please release me and let me dream of
Makin' mad love to my girl on the heath
Tearin' off tights with my teeth
But there's no release, no peace
I toss and turn without cease
Like a curse, open my eyes and rise like yeast
At least a couple of weeks
Since I last slept, kept takin' sleepers
But now I keep myself pepped
Deeper still, that night I write by candle light
I find insight, fundamental movement, uh
So when it's black this insomniac take an original tack
Keep the beast in my nature under ceaseless attack
I gets no sleep
I can't get no sleep

I can't get no sleep
I can't get no sleep
I need to sleep, I can't get no sleep
I need to sleep, I can't get no sleep

by the way, I may have mad lyrical skills and all, but these are lyrics from the Faithless song, Insonmia. Bonus points to you if you guessed that...

Where you been? Funny you should ask....

Okay, so while my blog is getting commented up by haze and enigma (aka mr. meaner) and others... where I have been? I've been working. Yep... working. We've got a big release for Engage due this week, and I'm working with the team to get it all wrapped up. I worked a lot of late nights last week, and we (the rest of the team and I) worked Saturday and got quite a bit done. So I stayed in Saturday night and did taxes... Exciting life huh?

Sunday I went to church and then played golf at Winghaven CC with my friends Matt and Pete. Beautiful day Sunday... 70 degrees, a little overcast, windy. Great weather for golf. I shot a 97 on this tough course. And although that score is a little high, I take great pride in the fact that my putting did me in and I only had one "bad" hole (a triple bogey). I had four or five pars (three of which should have been birdies if I could putt within 7 feet), a lot of bogeys that should have been pars and a lot of doubles that should have been bogeys. All and all, not a bad round for the beginning of the season. The most promising thing from yesterday is that my driving was pretty solid (only one bad one, a couple questionable, the rest were good to great) and after last season's injuries (wrist, shoulder, etc) I should be ready to get that handicap well under 20 this year.

Alright, enough rambling bout golf, I gotta get back to work. I'm still at the office (it's 7 pm) and I'll be here till 9 or 10, so no more slacking... I'll be posting again as soon as I get the time...

No Sleep Till....

Okay, so today I went to church, helped my sister with her new computer and then ran some errands. I left the house about 8:30 AM and got home at about 5:00... I immediately fell asleep on the couch and woke up around 7:00 with the worst headache ever. I took some Tylenol about an hour ago and hope I will fall asleep soon (it's 12:30 AM). Have you ever woke up with a nasty headache that you didn't have when you went to bed? What's up with that? It makes no sense to me at all.

College Roommate Blogs

So after trying to fall asleep and failing, I've been surfing around some blogs and came across two that are funny (careful, the first blogger cusses a lot, you are warned):

http://ihatemyflatmate.blogspot.com/
http://thingsihateaboutmyroommate.blogspot.com/

Anywho... the second blogger commented in a post about the "Real World" quality of the roommate surveys and I would have to agree wholeheartedly. "Multi-culturalism" was the buzz word during my freshman year at DePaul University (Chicago) in 1994-1995. I think they applied that to our dorm situations. At the time I was an accounting major and they paired me with a musical theatre major. We got along well, and it worked out, but it seems like an odd pairing. That pairing wasn't half as weird those as some of my friends.... One of my friends (uhhh... at the time, unfortunately I really haven't spoken to anyone at DePaul in the 10 years since I left), was a white country boy Accounting major from Tennessee who was paired with an african-american art major from downtown Chicago. Another friend was a Jewish guy from the North Shore who was paired a gay guy from somewhere in the boon docks... These pairing didn't make much sense at all. I think it was some big conspiracy to promote Multi-culturalism. It worked for the most part, we all got along... but kinda weird.

Bill McClellan Again

Alright, I'm back from seattle, Great, great time!! I'll be posting recap and pictures soon... However, I just read this article and it drove me ape. McClellan is at it again, I think he may want to piss off everyone in this town... He start off by talking about the feedback he got from his article (the one I posted about here). Great comment from a reader:

One reader spoke for many: "This is the worst thing you've ever written, and considering the quality of your work, that's an accomplishment."

Later in the article he goes off on the "Voice of America" KMOX 1120 AM in St. Louis because they have Rush Limbaugh as one of the shows on the station...

Why would anybody left of center listen to KMOX? For three hours a day, the station promotes hatred of liberals. If you were Jewish and the station promoted hatred of Jews, would you listen? Would you patronize their advertisers?

This guy really needs to calm down. Apparently he hasn't listened to KMOX much, because the rest of the station's shows range from moderate to liberal. I heard a great rebuttal to Bill's column while listening to KMOX, the host (maybe Charlie Brennan?) said not listening to KMOX because Rush Limbaugh is on three hours a day (or 12.5% of the day) is like not reading the entire Post Dispatch because McClennan is in it. Good Idea... I'd already cancelled my subscription, and I'm going to stop paying attention to anything other than the sports page on stltoday.com.

Off to Seattle

I'm heading out to Seattle today to visit my buddy Charlie. I'm looking forward to the time off, even if it means flying home during the Super Bowl (aargh). Haven't been to seattle in a long time and don't get to see Charlie often so this should be a fun weekend.

Probably won't be posting till I get back...

Liberal Bullies

In his typical "liberals against the world " (or "Conservatives are the enemy", you pick) rant, Bill McClellan's latest article tries to figure out why conservatives are so angry. Of course, the first question you are probably asking yourself is "huh, I thought the liberals are angry, not the conservatives" and you are right, for evidence see any article written by any MSM columnist after the election, or check out people claiming they are going to move to Canada, or check out any recent protests... But I digress...

Anyway, Billy Boy goes on in the article to suggest that it's because the conservatives were bullied in grade school by the big bad mean liberals. Here is a nice quote:

"I have a question," the young woman said. "The conservatives won. Why are they still so angry?"

That is a question to which I have given some thought. I have concluded that the anger of some of these middle-aged conservatives has its roots in childhood. Back when we middle-aged guys were kids, liberals used to be bullies. They were the tough kids. The conservatives were the bookworms. Also, the cheerleaders....

A few paragraphs later after discussing how Dubya and Trent Lott were college cheerleaders, Billy Boy mentions:

How best to describe those days? Well, imagine a playground. On one side, you have the liberals. They're throwing footballs around. On the other side, you have the conservatives. Maybe Trent and George are working on some cheerleader moves. "Watch this, Trent! I can do the splits! Wheeee!"

So dear reader, I again imagine the question you are asking yourself is "Huh". Sure Bill, (with a slight twinge of sarcasm) Liberal jocks, conservative nerds... yeah, that seems about right... Bill goes onto to try to make his point:

Then the boys grew up and the Vietnam War came along. The liberals enlisted. The conservatives scrambled to find ways to avoid the war. Danny and George had their folks pull strings to get them into gold-plated reserve units that weren't going anywhere. Rush got a letter from a doctor saying he had an inoperable cyst. The other fellows found other ways out. It wasn't that they weren't patriotic, it was just that, as Cheney put it, they had other priorities.

So to recap, Bill is saying those great liberal, bully athletes were enlisting in Vietnam while all the conservatives were running from it. I was not alive during Vietnam, but I do recall seeing something on TV once about war protests, draft dodging, hippies, etc... I guess those were all the conservatives. So here's Bill's conclusion:

You see, it's hard to get past childhood fears, and that's what my young caller didn't understand. There is no reason to be angry at the fellow in the SUV. Behind that snarling middle-aged countenance is the face of a scared young boy, afraid that the liberals are going to chase him home. When we talk about that conservative anger, I blame the liberals.

Bill's opinion in this article in a nutshell: Liberals are bullies, conservatives were weak kids and are now angry as a result.

My opinion of Bill's opinion:Now I'm guessing this article has to be tongue in cheek, because if Bill is being serious, he's finally lost it. If the conservatives are afraid of the liberals chasing them, it's because they might, try to blow up our SUV because it uses too much gas, or wait, that could hurt the spotted owl, what a conundrum...

Email Marketing Gone Wrong

I read this funny article from Tom Steinert-Threlkeld at baseline about email marketing personalization gone wrong. Here's a quote:

Now, I'm almost ready to join the chorus that says the end of the effective days of e-mail, even by brand-name businesses, is nigh.

This time, the milestone came when I received two messages on the same day from my favorite hotel company, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, maintainers of the St. Regis, Sheraton, W and Westin brands.

Here was the startling proposition presented to me:

Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 08:00:41 -0500 (EST)
From: "Starwood Hotels & Resorts"
To: tst@ziffdavis.com
Subject: Share a Weekend with your Girlfriends at Westin

Naturally, I asked my wife if this would be all right with her. She wasn't too thrilled. "Stick with the cookies,'' she said. I didn't have the heart to tell her she was confusing Westin with the Doubletree chain. Her message was clear.

Note that as Tom mentions in his article his first name is "Tom", not exactly a non-gender specific name that can be confused like Pat or Chris.

Northwest Foursquare Church

Hey all, I've made some updates to the Northwest Foursquare Church website. Check it out... Basically, I reduced the height of the banner up top and added the church name (Northwest Foursquare Church). I also added the Bible verse of the day to the right pane and increased the font size throughout the site (and messed around with the stylesheet), let me know what you think.

Northwest Foursquare Church is a foursquare church in St. Ann, Missouri (basically north St. Louis County).

If anyone is interested in helping with the Northwest Foursquare Church website let me know... I could use some help.

(By the way, I'm not being redudantly redudant on this post, I'm trying to drive spider traffic to the site to increase visits and search results.)

New Blog Update

Ok... so I have the new blog domain name purchased, got the hosting temporarily figured out (thanks chris) and got the skin about done... I still need to figure out what I can / can't do with CS. BTW, I thought I had the skin finished and went to post with it and it looked horrible :<

I need to re-slice the images in fireworks and try again, but I think it may come down to me hand-coding the html for this since fireworks didn't do the slices very well...

Bourne Supremacy = Good Flick

Bourne Supremacy is a good flick. I watched it with the family on Christmas at my Dad's and tonight I did the ole Pay Per View to TiVo thing. I really liked the first one and I hate to say this about a sequel, but I may like part deux better. I'll have to watch it a few more times to know for sure... considering I've seen Bourne Identity probably 100+ times.

Sour Grapes?

On GOPUSA (via Talon News) there is an article highlighting comments from John Kerry at an MLK rally yesterday. Apparently, Kerry is blaming "suppressed voters" for his loss in November.

But, Kerry commented that "thousands of people were suppressed in the effort to vote" in the 2004 presidential election.

"Voting machines were distributed in uneven ways," Kerry maintained. "In Democratic districts, it took people four, five, eleven hours to vote, while Republicans [went] through in 10 minutes -- same voting machines, same process, our America."

I only have one question... Aren't election commisions bi-partisan? If so, how could his claims be true? Horace Cooper points out in a commentary at GOPUSA the tale of two cities when it comes to "election fraud".

In my humble opinion, based on what has happened during the last two presidential elections, the democrats think it is okay to bribe people to vote w/ cigarettes (st. louis), try to vote with dead registered voters and dogs (city of st. louis, yet again), try to determine the intent of voters who couldn't fill out a valid ballot (florida) and try to not send out the military absentee ballots in time unless threatened by the U.S. Department of Justice. These things are all ok with the democrats but in elections watched by both parties (Ohio) they are blaming "voter suppression". Who suppressed the voters? Oh yeah, the election commissions... Sure they did.

Congrats to Mike and Laura Masters

The Masters' wedding was a great time! The wedding was at the Jewel Box (Forest Park) and the reception was at Bevo Mills. Laura looked great and Trin looked great dressed like Dirk Diggler (inside joke, you had to be there). It was a wonderful event and Pastor Larry did a amazing job with the message. I felt honored to be a part of it as an usher and by giving the scripture reading.

Haze did a great job with the best man toast and it was a lot of fun for everyone. The band (Encore) was amazing! During the reception Bahnak and I were talking and he mentioned how truly lucky we are to have such wonderful friends who we've known for such a long time. I couldn't agree more, it's very rare to still be best friends with so many people you know from high school.

Unfortunately, since I'm the only loser in the world without a digital camera, I don't have any pictures to post of the wedding. Hopefully Haze will come through with some pics, I looked at his batch and they looked great. Congrats again to Mike and Laura!

Truly Prophetic

This is the headline from SportsPickle.com last week:
"Manning Discouraged to Find His Horoscope Reads: “Choke Versus Patriots Again”"

I feel bad for the Colts who can never get past the Pats.

As for the Rams, I don't feel bad at all for them. The only good news is that because I was at MC Trin's (Mike Masters) wedding (which went off perfectly and was a great time for all), I didn't get to watch much of the horrible blowout. More about Master's wedding later.

Been breaking from Blogging...

I haven't been blogging too much lately, due to the holidays and not much going on that has been blog-worthy to me. Here's an update on what's going on in my world:

MC Trin's wedding is this weekend so this should be a good weekend of seeing some old friends and watching our buddy get married.

Haze's blog hosting company went out of business, so he's moved his url to www.rantinghaze.com. I feel for him... After working in technology for a while (almost 6 years now) it would suck to lose a whole website and not be able to recover it. As soon as I post the new look to this blog I'll update the link to his site.

My buddy Matt is giving me his pool and foosball tables for the house tonight so I'm looking forward to having some people over soon and playing some games. (If my house wasn't a bachelor pad before, now the whole house might as well be a clubhouse).

Deloney (Mr. Meaner) just turned 29 so he's officially an old man!!

That's about it for me, I'll be posting again soon.

My Favorite Sports Site

I love sport's pickle. Here is a one of their articles from this week (prior to the Ram's Game):

Mike Martz set to coach season finale with a tinfoil hat.

St. Louis Rams coach Mike Martz continued his erratic behavior today, vowing he will wear a tinfoil hat during this Sunday’s game versus the Jets.
“I think the Jets will have a spy plane fly high over the stadium and read my thoughts with invisible laser beams,” said Martz. “But my tinfoil hat will deflect the beams and allow my cranial database to remain uncompromised.”
Martz said he created the hat out of a roll of tinfoil that was manufactured before the Cold War began. “All tinfoil and aluminum foil made after then has little microchips implanted in it to allow the communists to read your thoughts,” said Martz. “But I only use pre-Cold War tinfoil in my hats.”
“I think Mike has pretty much lost his mind,” said running back Marshall Faulk. “I honestly hope we miss the playoffs so he can go get some psychiatric help.”
“They’re all out to get me – the media, Chris Mortensen, Kyle Turley. They want to shut me up before I tell the world what I know,” said Martz. “But I won’t let them. I will be victorious””

And another funny article: "Todd Pinkston breaking barriers as NFL’s first woman"