Well, We Almost Won One...

The men's softball team for our church almost broke its perfect record last night. In the three or four years that we have had a team, we have never won a game. Last night, we came really close. We led the game until the bottom of the 6th, when the Bismark tavern took the lead. We where not able to get it back in the 7th. Final score: 8-10.

Hey, at least it was a good exciting game...

Now Let's Go for the Sweep!

Lisa and I went to the Brewers vs. Twins game last night. 44,000+ fans in attendance. I would say it was about 60% Brewers fans and 40% Twinkies fans. The next game in our 10-pack comes on July 03. Now that summer is here, the games will start coming quickly.

It was an exciting game, but it didn't start out that way. In the first inning, the Twinkies managed to score three runs. Stewart led off the inning with HR off the second pitch, and Hunter got a two run homer. The only bright spot was in the bottom of the inning when Weeks stepped up and got his first ML homer.

It looked pretty bleak for the Brew Crew until the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, the Twins were leading 5-2 when the Twinks starter (Santana) gave up double to Hardy, and struck out Durrington (PH) to bring up the top of the order. Clark and Weeks both walked. Hall flies out to center. With the bases loaded and 2 outs, Lee spanks a double to drive in two runs. The inning ends with the Brewers down 5-4, but at least they were back in the game.

In the sixth inning, Wise is pitching in relief of Ohka (who had a terrible outing in the first five innings). He sets the Twinkie batters down 1, 2, 3. In the bottom of the inning, Santana walks Helms and gives up a single to Magruder before being yanked from the game. He had a good start for the Twins, but really fell apart fast in the 5th and 6th. In comes Crain for the Twins as part of a double switch. Hardy bunts the base runners up 90 ft. Next up, Prince Fielder pinch hits for Wise and spanks it long and deep for his first ML homer. The Brewers are now up 5-7.

The Twinkies came back to score once more, and had a couple of other chances, but the Brewers managed to work there way out of that. The game ends with Turnbow striking out Mauer to give the Brewers the win, 6-7.

It was not a very well pitched game. However, the game was close (after the 5th), we got to see a win (which is always more sweet when there are a lot of opposing fans around), and we got to see two Brewers rookies get their first home runs. All in all, it was a very fun night!

I Doubt We Could Handle a Major War Anymore...

Could we handle something like the battle for Normandy today? I doubt it. We are far too weak of will. We have people whining about the "massive" death toll in the "unjust" war in Iraq. A total death toll that is tiny compared to just single battles in other wars, in a war that was far more "just" than they way these people were treated by their own leaders. This war has quite simply been, and continues to be, a success by any reasonable definition of success. That bothers some people, so they will attempt to spin at something else.

Just look at the numbers of people who want us to set a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq, and the rhetoric they throw around. You want to know what I would call a reasonable timetable? Never, that is what is reasonable, never...

We are always going to have to be there so long as Iraq has a freely elected government that is friendly to us, the same way that we have had troops in Germany and France since the end of WWII. To leave at any point in the near future would just be an invitation to the insurgents to overthrow what many nations, including the Iraqi people, have worked very hard to achieve. That being a freely elected government instead of tyrannical rule. They have not achieved that yet, but even when they do, they will still need our military presence there to help them.

The insurgents are not going to stop if we leave. Their attacks will just get worse. They won't be happy when we are gone (at least not because we are gone). They won't be happy until they overthrow what we have worked very hard to help the Iraqis build, and replace it with a hardline, muslim tyranny.

Not the Right Way to "Get Away from it All"

This has got to be the oddest pull quote that I have seen in a while:

A man accused of murdering two teenaged girls 30 years ago says he raped two women so he could get away from the world and think.

That quote is from an article about the Bonisteel trial in Canada. The first thing that struck me about this article is that the guy says he was depressed and wanted to be put away for a while. So rather then seek some help, he goes and totally ruins the lives of two people, not to mention the fact that he actually killed a couple of other people. The other thing that really strikes me from this article is that Bonisteel seems to have a rather indifferent attitude towards his crimes.

Does Canada have a death penalty? It is people like this who really deserve it.

Disturbing but Interesting Story

It seems that young (12-14 years of age) girls in Ethiopia are often kidnapped, raped, beaten, and forced to marry. Sadly, that is not surprising. That is the disturbing part.

The interesting part is that one girl was apparently rescued and guarded by some lions.

Though not completely parallel, this story immediately brought to mind the store of Daniel in the Den of Lions.

It was All Going Well Until the 7th Inning

Well, I was hoping the Cubs would keep their losing streak going as they came into Miller Park. Unfortunately, it was not to be. They last a close one last night, 6-5. Tonight, they were up 0-2. Then in the 7th, 2 errors and 2 home runs reversed the situation, and they are now losing 4-2. Let's get some runs!

Making live worse, the Yankees are losing to Tampa Bay for the second game in a row. I just cannot figure that team out. They get hot, then get swept by the Royals (worst team in both leagues at the time), then they start getting hot again, and now are in danger of losing two in a row to the Devil Rays (currently the worst team in the AL).

Oh well...

UPDATE: I really should learn not to write the Yankees off too early. Unlike the Brewers, the Yankees do actually have a tendency to make comebacks, and tonight they came back big, scoring 13 runs in the bottom of the 8th, to comeback and win with a final score of 11-20!

Softball Update

Our church's men's softball team lost yet again, 8-2. However, we made it to the 7th inning. I think that is our first full game without a "mercy" ending. I think I pulled a thigh muscle. I will be in pain tomorrow.

Lovely and Amazing: For My Beloved on Father's Day

While clicking through "Next Blog" today during lunch, I found this Father's Day tribute. I thought it was quite touching.

Lisa's Still Searching for a Job

Well, it has been about 6 weeks since Lisa was let go from her last place of employment. She is still looking, but has not gotten any calls back from anyone. Things are moving slow on that front, through no fault of her own. Today, she has a test to take at ISB. I pray that she does well. The test is mostly a math aptitude test, and she is a little trepidacious when it comes to math. Just do your best, Honey...

We aren't in dire financial straights or anything with her being unemployed. Still, I can tell that not having a job is really starting to stress her out, so I hope she finds something soon.

Bad Day for Racing, Good Day in Baseball

In the racing world the U.S. Grand Prix was an embarrassment to the sport. More specifically, the behavior of the drivers on Michelin tires was an embarrassment. Guess it is time to boycott Michelin... ;)

In better news, the Brewers finally took a series on the road, topping the Bluejays today 5-2. Let's hope they stay hot as the Cubs come to town. As for the Cubs, they just got swept by the Yankees. How sweet it would be if they could follow that up by being swept by the Brewers!

One Hero and One Idiot Could make Millions....

One was a hero, the other an emotionally deranged idiot with psychotic eyes. Both could end up making millions off of their stories.

First, Ashley Smith. Her story probably ought to be told. After all, she handled an extremely stressful situation in the best way possible. After the ordeal was over, her thoughts were not on herself so much as on the problems that her captor was having in his life, and how she hoped he could turn things around. This is the type of person this world needs more of. I hope things work out well for her.

On the complete opposite end of the human spectrum we have Jennifer Wilbanks. Or as I prefer to call her, "that bitch with the crazy eyes" (I mean, just look at her, she has those psycho Charles Manson eyes).

This woman was stressed out over trying to make her own huge, lavish wedding perfect. So she disappears and pretends to be abducted and sexually assaulted. For her, everything was about her. There was obviously no thought given to how this would effect her friends, family, or other loved ones. The last thing she deserves is any money from a book deal. About the only thing she deserves (besides a dope slap) is a nice little prison term.

Which leads me to the next thing that pisses me off about this. We had a situation in Madison, WI not too long ago where a student pretended to be abducted from her apartment. Her reason for this was that her boyfriend was not paying enough attention to her. Another selfish bitch who thinks the whole world is just about her. So, after thousands of dollars wasted on searches and all the emotional stress this selfish little crybaby put people through what does she get? Just like Jennifer Wilbanks, she gets no jail time, some meaningless slap on the wrist, and worse yet, she gets a sympathetic ear from large portions of the community who were stupid enough to feel sorry for the little twit. Stuff like that really pisses me off sometimes.

Yankees Win! Brewers Win!

My two favorite baseball teams got a win today. Better yet, the hated Cubs lost. It is a good day!

First, the Yankees beat the despised Cubs 8-1. This is the second win in a row over the Cubs. Let's hope they sweep the series! As amazing as it sounds, Derek Jeter got his first career grand slam.

The Brewers also won today, 5-2. I didn't get to see that game, since it was not on TV. I normally would have listened to it on the internet, but I watched the Yankee game instead. The Brewers have really been having a tough time out on the road this year. Hopefully they will be able to turn that around in the future.

More Proof Liberals are Insane...

Liberals are becoming increasingly more insane, and it is not just Howard Dean, either, but the whole lot of them. They seem to have all taken to making just absurd statements that have absolutely no grounding in reality.

Amnesty International has shown its true colors as being less of a "human rights" organization, and more of a lefty political activist organization when representatives of AI, testifying before congress, referred to Guantanamo Bay as a "gulag", even though conditions at Guantanamo Bay aren't even close to being as bad as gulag conditions. Buy, heh, I guess if you are a liberal, you can just ignore messy little facts like that.

There there are the insane statements made by Senator Durbin. NotADesperateHousewife has an excellent article on that subject. She makes excellent points, and I cannot really add anything to them, so I would suggest you just go read her article.

It seems to me that politicians in general, but especially liberal politicians have moved beyond intelligent debate, and now are just happy throwing ridiculous platitudes about. The platitudes don't have to be true. Evidently they don't even have to be close to being grounded in reality, so long as they make the other side look bad. The sad part is some idiots actually believe them...

Let's Hope the Yankee's Stay Hot

Let's go Yankee's!!!

This has been a tough year for them, which sucks (at least for a Yank's fan like me it sucks, for a lot of my friends and family, they could really give a rat's ass except for the fact they get to rib me for it...) However, it is really important that they win this series, if for any other reason than the fact that they are playing the wretched, despised Cubs...

Let's go Yankees!!!

Exile from Hillary's Village: Talk Talk

I just ran across this this rant and thought it was pretty cool... I think he is pretty much spot on if you add to his rant the fact that most "Liberal" ideas are based on emotion and not logic (IOW, the way the world would be in their utopia instead of the way the world actually works), and I think you have the key as to why "Liberal" radio fails (unless state sanctioned).

The Fedora Core 4 Install is Complete

The Fedora Core 4 upgrade finished last night, but it was too late for me to test it, let alone actually comment on it. Some of use have to work, you know... :)

First off, the upgrade from Core 3 to Core 4 was cake. No major issues to report. When I first started using Linux in the middle to late 90's ('96 or '97, I would guess), installations were somewhat touch and go, and for an upgrade like this you were far better off just reinstalling from scratch. Things have really come a long way in the last 8 years or so...

Anyhow, everything is running well. The only thing of note that I have had to deal with is that PostgreSQL was upgraded from v7.4 to v8.0. This meant I had to reinstall my PRepS database and re-built PRepS. No big deal. At least it gave me some practice so I can write up some docs before users start bugging me about it...

Upgrading to Fedora Core 4

The one PC that I still have left (all other machines have been replaced with Macs) is a dual boot between Windows XP and Fedora Core. Fedora Core 4 was released a few days ago, and today I upgraded from Core 3 to Core 4.

The first step, of course, is to download the disk images. This is about 3 gigs of data, and thus takes a long time, even with a fast connection. The FTP sites are always way overloaded when there is a major relaese, so I used BitTorrent instead. That worked pretty well. I just let it run overnight and ignored it.

So far the installation is going pretty well. However, the "Time Remaining" keeps going up rather than down. I am getting tired. I may have to write more on this later...

I knew I could ignore this...

I knew I could ignore this just like I manage to ignore my other blog... Guess I just got a tad busy... Anyhow, after I upgraded my PowerBook to Tiger, I found a Dashboard widget called DashBlog, so I thought I would give it a try.

Maybe now I will ignore this blog less, but I wouldn't count on it...