Could Brady Become the Victim of Some Crybaby?

Don't get me wrong, I am no Patriots fan. AAMOF, I pretty much hate them just because they are from the same town as the Red Sox. However, if Brady becomes the victim of a cheap hit, like some are predicting may happen, then whatever crybaby delivers the hit needs to himself be hit with serious fines and suspension time.

Here's the deal, people. If you don't like the Pats running up the score and making you look like a bunch of fools, the solution is not a cheap hit. Here's the solution: PLAY BETTER!!

Who's the Bigger Butthole?

So, who is more worthless? The butthole that pisses on a dying woman? The worthless turd who takes the video of it? Or the uncaring dipshits who stand around watching and laughing rather than beating the crap out of this guy?

The whole lot of them are despicable, really...

Go Rockies!!

Just in case the fact that they are playing the utterly despicable Red Sox (blech!!) was not enough of a reason for you, here is a another good reason to cheer for the Rockies. It is nice to see an organization that values a person's character, and that judges that character based on a true and solid foundation.

I also give kudos to the NY Times. In this article, they give the Rockies a fair shake. All to often, the MSM tries to spin these sort of articles to make it appear as if any organization espousing Christian principles is somehow attempting to ram religion down people's throats, when the reality is, more often then not, quite the opposite.

Shameless Self Promotion

Bethesda Lutheran Homes interviewed my wife and I for a memorial story they were doing for Junior (the man we used to take to worship and other church related events). This was for their fall 2007 Breakthrough newsletter, which was just published.

If you are interested, you can read it online (NOTE: this is a large download if you have a slow connection). The article we were interviewed for is on page 9.

Also, if you go to the Fond du Lac County web site, one of my photos is being used in the animated GIF at the top of the page. Anyone who knows me can probably guess which photo is mine, but if you can't you can check the credits.

Ozzfest!!

OK, so this is a little late on this, but a couple of Sunday's ago my daughter (who is a Senior this year, my how time sure flies!) and I went to Ozzfest at Alpine Valley.  This was the second year in a row that we went, but this year it was just the two of us whereas last year several of her friends were able to come along (this year, most of them were working).

There were three bands on the second stage that I was really looking forward to (In This Moment, Daath, and 3 Inches of Blood), and one on the main stage (Static-X).  Here's an overview of what we saw:

Second Stage:

In This Moment - They were one of the band I really looked forward to, and I was not disappointed.  They were high energy, and sounded great.

Daath - This was another band I was really looking forward to, and they also did not disappoint.

3 Inches of Blood - These guys also put on a great show.  Now the three bands that I actually cared about on the second stage are done.

The Showdown - We went and got lunch, so we didn't see these guys, but we could still hear them.  They sounded OK.

Nile - They were on stage when we got back.  Not really my cup of tea, but they did a good job.

Ankla - I had never really heard of these guys before (though I recognized the name from XM-42).  I was really impressed.  Great music, high energy, lot's of fun.

ChthoniC - These guys were so stereotypically death metal that they were almost a parody of the whole genre.  Still, they did have some good points, such as incorporating the erhu into their music, and at least one song calling for Taiwan's independence from commie China.

DevilDriver, Behemoth, Hatebreed - we didn't see any of these three as we were wandering over to the main stage.  We could hear them pretty well, however, and they all sounded good.

Main Stage:

Black Tide - this was a basic metal band circa the late 80's early 90's (think early Metallica).  Not bad, but really nothing new or exciting.

Lordi - Imagine the comically stupid theatrics of Gwar, but replace Gwar's tollerable music with the crappiest of worthless hair-band "metal" (and I use that term very loosely) from the 80's.  Bleech!!   These guys sucked.  Plus they seemed to know they were in the Milwaukee area, but were under the impression that Milwaukee is part of Michigan.

Static-X - Totally kicked ass, best show of the night!!  And, my daughter didn't seem to mind me jumping around a bit (though that was a lot easier when I was her age).

Lamb of God - I only know a couple of their tunes (Redneck being my favorite), but they totally kicked ass.  They even got a giant pit going running up and down the hill (Alpine Valley is in a valley (duh), and has a huge lawn section made from a large bowl shaped hill, if you have MySpace account, check out the pics to get an idea, the slope of the hill is just brutal).

I'll have to check out more of their stuff.  I am sure Ashley has most, if not all, of their stuff since this is right up her alley...

Ozzy - He's getting old and tired (and out of tune).  We stayed for a few tunes.  He did a kick-ass job on War Pigs, but otherwise I wasn't overly impressed.  We were tired and left some time in the beginning half of his set.

All in all, this was a great father-daughter bonding activity!

Team Discovery Is No More...

It seems that Team Discovery is disbanding because no one wants to sully their good name by sponsoring a bicycling team. My only question is what took so long? After all, this has been one of the most obviously dirty sports for well over a decade now. Are people so slow that they are only now starting to realize that? Or could it be that people just didn't want to admit that fact until now?

Punish Me, Hello Kitty

Police in Bangkok, Thailand are being punished for minor offenses, such as showing up for work late or parking in the wrong spot, by having to wear a Hello Kitty arm band.  Personally, I don't really see this as punishment, and might just push the rules a little just so I could wear one.  Yeah, that may sound a little gay, but hey, whatever.

While we are on the subject, my daughter got a Hello Kitty toaster from her boyfriend on her 17th birthday (just last month).  This is the coolest toaster, ever.  It even leaves a little section of the bread un-toasted in the shape of a Hello Kitty head.  The kid and I have been pretty much using this toaster exclusively.  My wife, on the other hand, sticks with the plain old boring non-Hello Kitty toaster.  Oh well.  No accounting for taste there, I guess...

Race Day!!

Today's post is a day late for obvious reasons...

The AM hours:

4:30 - wakey wakey, get dressed, eat breakfast,  and get everything together.

5:25 - hit the road

6:20 - get to the track, park in lot 2, talk to some of the others out tailgating

7:00 - cannon sounds which means the gate are open, stay in lot

8:30 - enter the track and go to the infield, walk around an look at everything

9:45 - eat lunch, but without a beer since it isn't 10:00am yet, and Indiana evidently has some communist laws pertaining to alcohol sales on Sunday morning.

11:30 - after walking all around the infield (literally), head to our seats since they are in the shade and the infield is not.

The afternoon hours

Noon - watch cars being pushed to the grid, talk to other folks in our section, etc.

13:30 - driver introductions

14:00 - God Bless America, Invocational Prayer, National Anthem, etc.

14:15 or so - Green Flag!!

The Good:

JPM and Jeff Gordon both had strong finished (2nd and 3rd, respectively)

The hated Dale Jr. ran strong all day and then blew and engine towards the end, hehe!!

The Bad:

Matt Kenseth was a middle of the pack runner for most of the day

Kasey Kahne crashed out fairly early

18:15 - back to the parking lot, wait around about 45 minutes for traffic to start to move, then get in the car, get in line, and be part of a huge traffic mess

21:00 - back at the hotel.  Clean up, drink some beers, watch drunk people swimming in the pool.

22:15 - someone from the front office comes out to ruin everyone's fun, everyone ignores her

22:30 - cops show up to break up the fun

22:45 - fun continues, but outside of the pool

In years past, the pool partiers were still going when we went to bed.  They probably let them go until midnight or so, and they certainly never called the cops on them.  Seems our hotel is now run by communist bastards...

Day Three - Qualifying

Short post today, folks...

Due to the rain yesterday, practice was postponed until today, today's qualifying was moved to the afternoon, and the final practice was cancelled.  Well, at least that was the plan...

As it turned out, this morning was hazy and wet, which pushed off practice even later, which also resulted in qualifying being pushed later.  The day started early and ended late.  I am tired and need to rest for tomorrow (race day!!!  Yeah!!!)...

Day Two - Downtown Indy

From Indianapolis

Today, Lisa and I spent the day in downtown Indianapolis. We usually do this on Friday while we are down here. It was rather overcast today, and drizzled a couple of times, was otherwise OK. Hopefully we will not have these problems tomorrow and Sunday. The weather people claim race weekend should be free from rain, but we'll see.

We started out at the Circle Centre, which is a beautiful downtown mall. After that, we took a walk down Maridian Street to South Street, and then over to Capitol Avenue, where they are building the new home of the Indianapolis Cols, Lucas Oil Stadium. We then circled back and walked through the Pan American Plaza, and then back to the Circle Centre to eat lunch at the Alcatraz Brewing Company. The food and beer were both wonderful.

After lunch, we walked over to University Park and hung out for a bit. While Lisa relaxed, I went across the street to the Indiana World War Memorial, climbed the stairs, and walked around taking pictures and doing other tourist stuff. Pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ken.sodemann/Indianapolis (the sunny ones are from a few years ago, the rest are from today). We capped off the day listening to a guy play classical guitar while we ate ice cream.



Well, that's enough writing for today.

Vacation Day One

Today was day one of our fifth annual vacation to Indianapolis for the Brickyard 400.

The day didn't start all that great.  First, it was raining hard in the morning.  I took the dog for a walk between showers, but didn't exactly get back before the next shower started.  Then, when I get home, Lisa is sick.  So, I load up the car and let Lisa rest.  I then go grab some breakfast alone so Lisa doesn't have to watch me eat.  When I got back, Lisa was feeling better, and hasn't have any problems since, so hopefully that will be it for people getting sick.

We are staying in Crawfordsville again, and the drive down here was completely uneventful.  Once we got here and unpacked, it was time to hit the exercise room.  I only made it 25 minutes on the stair climber, but it felt good after driving all morning.

For dinner, we decided to do something different, and drive down to Greencastle, which is about 30 miles south of Crawfordsville.  There we ate at a restaurant called Almost Home.  I had a steak covered with sauteed crab and a chili-lime sauce.  Lisa had a half rack of ribs.  The restaurant was very nice, and the food was terrific.  One strike against them, however, is that they had a mini Cubs shrine on one wall.  Still, it was certainly worth the extra driving.

Well, that's enough for today.  Tomorrow, we will probably head to Indy and hang around down town.

Stinky Feet!!

My wife loves Orchids. However, she's not getting any of these... Ewwww....

X-Files!!

It is certainly great news that work has begun on a new X-Files movie. The X-Files is the last non-animated show that I recall actually watching on a regular basis. Of course, my wife will try to tell you it is because I had a crush on Scully (which is true), but the X-Files also had excellent and clever writing, a compelling plot line, several sub-plots woven between episodes, and was just plain interesting.

Everything that has come since then has just been crap. Not only are our airwaves polluted with way too many "reality" shows today, but I really have a hard time getting into a lot of the other shows out there like 24, Lost, or Prison Break. C.S.I. is tolerable, but not a "must-watch" show (besides, my wife loves the show, and gets the seasons on DVD, so then I can watch without commercials).

Don't even get me started on what passes for a "Comedy" today... They all pretty much suck. About the only comedy writing left that is even remotely clever is limited to The Simpsons and South Park.

Hopefully the new X-Files movie will be as good as the first one was...

Cleaner is Happier...

The Washlet actually seems like a pretty cool product, but their advertising is so weird that I just had to share...

Policy Before Science...

I am no fans of bio-fuels (at least in their current state).  When compared to petroleum, they are less efficient to burn, they are way less efficient to produce (that is, petroleum takes very little energy per unit to produce, whereas bio-fuels take almost as much energy to produce as you get out in the end), and finally, the whole idea of using your food source as fuel (thus raising the cost of food immensely) is just stupid.

As if rising food prices was not hard enough on the poor, a new report states that in many developing countries, the push towards bio-fuels will push poor people off of their lands, compounding their problems.

So, here we have a fuel that is highly inefficient, results in hardly any carbon savings (AAMOF, I have seen arguments that when the in-efficiencies in production are properly factored in (that is, the pollution involved in growing the base grains required), the use of bio-fuels is actually worse for the environment), drives up the cost of food, may drive up the cost of petroleum, and may start pushing poor people off of their land.

All in all, I think the last line of the linked article says it all:

"The policy on biofuels is currently running ahead of the science."

First National Bank of Wal-Mart

I don't really have much to say about Wal-Mart providing banking services.  This will just be yet another service that Wal-Mart offers that will benefit consumers, especially those who don't make enough money to deal efficiently with normal banks (trust me, I remember how that goes, and something like what Wal-Mart wants to do would have been perfect for me at that point in my life).  And, yet again, Wal-Mart doing this will raise the ire of all those who hate it when American companies are successful (you know, those that make a hobby out of hating Wal-Mart/McDonald's/Starbucks/etc).

What I find more interesting are the seemingly disparate people who oppose Wal-Mart on this:

Nevertheless, opposition to its plans, which required the approval of federal regulators, swelled. During closely watched hearings outside Washington, dozens of groups, like Independent Community Bankers Association and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, testified for and against the Wal-Mart bank.

OK, I understand the opposition of the Independent Community Bankers Association.  After all, they are just trying to protect their place in the market.  If Wal-Mart enters their market, after all, they will be under a lot of pressure to increase their services while reducing their costs to the consumer.  However, I don't see what Wal-Mart getting into banking has to do with missing and exploited children...

Update: It is also interesting to note that the NYTimes has changed the linked article such that the paragraph I quoted no longer mentions the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which makes me wonder if that wasn't just an error in the original article (though no correction is mentioned).

Ozzfest - Second Stage

My daughter and I are going to Ozzfest again this year, and I was perusing the list of band for this year.  The second stage selection this year is far more varied than last year.  Last year, almost all of the band were metalcore or thrashcore bands.  The best of the bunch, IHO, was probably Walls of Jericho. While metalcore/thrashcore is not my favorite genre, I do like it, especially when the bad is fronted by a female singer.

The one exception from the thrashcore was Bad Acid Trip.  I would describe them as Mr. Bungle with a bit of a metal edge.  OK, so their politics are all eff-ed up, but their music still kicks ass (watch the video and you will see what I mean on both counts...):

This year, however, the second stage appears be be much more diverse.  For example, 3 Inches of Blood certainly brings back visions of classic metal bands like Judas Priest or Iron Maiden, but adds some new edge to it.

Or course, any good metal shows would not be complete without some death metal, and with Daath, they have some pretty darn good death metal (I am not a big death metal fan, but some of it (like Daath) is pretty darn good, other stuff, like Nile (which will also be there), I could live without).

One final band of note this year is In This Moment, which brings us full circle to my love of metalcore / thrashcore bands fronted by female singers.  Enjoy!

Junior!

Now that Dale Jr. will finally be racing for a good team next year instead of a second tier team like DEI, it will be interesting to see if he can run as well as Gordon and Johnson.  My honest guess is yes, he will.  He is a great driver who has, up until now, just been saddled with a mediocre team.  All in all, I think this will provide him his best chance at a championship.

Heck, now that he is going to be teammates with Gordon, I just may have to like the guy!  It should be interesting to see how his some of his more backwards, hill-billy, good ol' body, beer can tossin', redneck moron fans actually take the news...

When it comes right down to it, I have always kinda wanted to like the guy, but I just couldn't stomach a certain, unfortunatly large, segment of his fan base.

Oh Mickey Your so Fine...

It seems that even the ancients liked Mickey Mouse...

I don't really have any comment on the story, just found it interesting.

Whine Time - Ozzfest 2007 Ticking Sux

Just in case you have been living in a hole (or don't like Metal for some reason), this year's Ozzfest is a free deal.  About a month ago, you went and got your code, and now today you get to turn them in to get two free tickets.  The problem is that the servers they have set up just are not enough to deal with the load.  I eventually managed to redeem my code during an extended lunch today.  Essentially, the meant waiting in a virtual line for 30 minutes, getting an error message, and then having to start over, several times.  On the plus side, I was actually able to work and do this at the same time.

My daughter was not so lucky.  Now I am trying to redeem her code for her since I am such a nice guy.

All things being equal, I would rather just pay for the damn tickets like I have in the past.  That is just so much easier.

B-I-M-B-O, and Bimbo Was Her Name-o

Up until now, I have been ignoring this Paris Hilton thing, because I just really don't care much about the exploits of such an amazingly unimportant, talentless person who is famous just because she is famous (and a bit of a skanky ho).  However, when I heard about this little nugget on the TV news this morning while working out, I just couldn't resist a couple of comments.

God has given her a new chance and she plans to stop acting dumb and put her influence to good use.

Yes, God is very good at giving people second chances.  Let's hope she actually makes the most of it.  I truly do pray that she does.

That said, I cannot help commenting on her plans to "stop acting dumb."  So, now she is no longer going to act dumb?  What? Is she just going to be dumb now?  No more acting?  Just real stupidity from now on?

On one last note, the media appears to be inflating what she is actually going through just a bit.

Walters said Hilton told her she had not been wailing, sobbing or screaming during her first three days in prison, as had been reported.

Prison?  Sorry, she is not in prison, she is in the County Jail.  There is quite a difference.

Surfin' Safari (Sorry, Couldn't Resist...)

Really bad puns aside, Apple has released a public Beta of it's web browser (Safari) for both Windows XP / Vista and Mac OS X.  I have tried the Windows XP version out at work, and I have the Mac OS X version installed on both of my Macs at home.  So far, I love it.

Up until now, I have been using Firefox on my Macs because the previous version of Safari was not properly supported by the Blogspot editor, the Gmail editor, and a few other things.  Those problems, however, have been fixed with the version 3 Beta.  There have been a few other improvements as well, but the editor thing was a biggie for me.

I'll still keep Firefox around, as some things (like MLB Gameday Audio) still work better with it than with Safari.  However, I am glad to see that I can finally switch back to Safari as my day-to-day browser now that some of the more important web apps are supported properly.

Update: Macworld has a nice First Look article on the new Safari version...

Hell Must Have Frozen Over

It is not often that I find myself agreeing with Jimmy Carter.  Normally, that would be a big red flag that one is absolutely on the wrong side of the issue.  However, when it comes to the case of Genarlow Wilson, Jimmy Carter is on the correct side.

The fact of the matter is that Mr. Wilson is no angel, and what he did was absolutely wrong, and he should be punished for it.  For that matter, why should the girls get off (pun intended), without any culpability?  These were consensual acts after all.  The 15 year old girl who was giving him a hummer should have been punished for her actions as should have the 17 year old girl who essentially allowed herself to passed around in a gang-bang.  That said, however, none of them should be put away for 10 years and certainly none of them should be labeled as "sexual predators".  Mr. Wilson may be an immoral person who was caught doing immoral things, with immoral people but he certainly is not a "predator."

Sexual predator laws are generally good laws and sexual predator lists are generally good tools that are used to protect people, especially children, from sick, twisted predators who would abuse, rape, and possibly even kill them.  However, when we lump the non-predatory people in with the actual predators, the effectiveness of these laws and tools is lost, and we lend credence to the whack jobs in our society who try and claim that such things are unfair.

Biofuels May Make Petroleum More Expensive...

OPEC is warning that investment in biofuels could send the price of petroleum through the roof. Obviously, they are just trying to protect their position in the fuel market by protecting petroleum as king. Still, this is yet another reason why using our food as fuel is an amazingly stupid idea.

The beauty of petroleum is that it is a relatively efficient fuel, that is efficient to harvest (that is, it takes very little fuel consumption to get more fuel), and its one major use is fuel (there are other uses, but mostly it is used for fuel).

The problem with biofuels right now is that they are not as efficient as petroleum based fuels (as anyone who lives in a area where they put ethanol in the fuel already knows all too well), and they are very inefficient to harvest (that is, according to many reports I have seen, it takes close a gallon of fuel to grow and process enough corn (or other source) to make a gallon of fuel).

However, the real kick in the pants with biofuels is that we are already using food as food. Even if you switch to a non-food crop, you end up taking land out of food production and into fuel production. Thus, unlike petroleum, we already have a major primary use for our crops. This does nothing but drive up the cost of food, putting tremendous pressure on everyone, especially poor people. And if OPEC has any say, which they do, it will also drive up the cost of petroleum. Nice double whammy there...

Now, if we could find a way to use our garbage for food, I would be all for that. After all, that would be perfect. There is a lot of it, and all we do with it right now is bury it in the ground.

99 Words for Boobs...

A tip o' the hat to richmanwisco for this one. This one should probably be considered NSFW...

You Go, Fred...

All I can say is that it sure is nice to see a potential Republican candidate who will actually sling it back at pathetic idiots like Micheal Moore. I wish more Republicans (including our current president) would stand up for themselves like this...

Pathetic Business Practices...

It is really hard for me to determine which is more pathetic, SCO's inane lawsuits against Linux vendors, or Media Rights Technologies deplorable attempt at drumming up business.

There is really only one word that describes the practices of either of these companies: pathetic!

Stupid Quiz Time

The sad thing is that a measly 86% puts me in a category above most actual High School students. This sort of harkens back to my Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader post... With this much stupidity in the world, is it any wonder Democrats exist?

You paid attention during 86% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

It is May, and the Brewers are at the Top

It is May 2nd, and with last nights victory over the despised Cardinals (if you wonder why the Cardinals are despised in these here parts, think 1982 World Series), the Brewers now have the best record in the major leagues. Enjoy it while it last, folks...

While we are on the subject of the Cardinals, while it is true that we hate your team almost as much as we hate the Cubs, we are also saddened by your loss, and pray for your healing.

Now, with that out of the way, let's sweep these stupid red birds out of town, boys!!

Opening Day: Brewers 7, Dodgers 1

The Brewers had a great opening day game. The "free" game for our ticket package was opening day, so Lisa and I were there to see it. I won't recap the game itself. You can read that online elsewhere if you are interested.

Our day started around 10:30 in about a 20 minute line on Bluemound Road, trying to get into the parking lot. Once we were parked, Lisa and I headed into the ball park and went to Friday's Front Row Grill. Since most people were out tailgating, we were able to get good seats out on the patio section which is basically built into the left field wall. The Brewers had BP while we were eating. Geoff Jenkins, Matt Wise, and a couple of others were shagging fly balls out there and we managed to get a practice ball from one of them.

After lunch, we headed over to our seats. This year, we are in the first section of the field level outfield (section 109). Very nice seats, but you really have to pay attention to foul balls down there (which can be a problem for me if I am busy fixing my score card when the next guy comes up).

All in all, it was a very pleasant day, topped off by a strong performance by the whole team, especially Sheets. Hopefully the rest of the games in our package will be equally as enjoyable, and not frustrating like last year.

Please Don't Snort Me When I am Dead...

All I ask of my child is that when I die, she not mix me with some blow and snort me. I am pretty sure that is not too much to ask...

Update: Now it turns out that Mr. Richards may have been joking. The sad fact, however, is that the original story is actually quite believable...

R U a Dumbass?

Yesterday I wasn't feeling all that well and I was bored, so I decided to watch a little TV. Jeopardy was preempted by the NCAA basketball tournaments, so I tuned in to "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?". After watching this show once, I think a better name for it would be "Are You Smart Enough to be Alive? Or are we Going to Have to Remind You to Breath Because you are Way Too Eff'ing Stupid to Remember to do That on Your Own?"

Here are some of the questions that the contestants had problems with:

1. On which planet would you be the heaviest? Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter?
2. If the diameter of a circle is 4 inches, what is the radius?
   
3. Y = 3X, 3X = 12. What is Y?
4. What is the adverb in the following sentence: "My wife snored loudly..." (there was more, but nothing even closely resembling an adverb)
5. Density is defined as Mass divided by what?
6. Do Ohio and Illinois share a border?
   
7. What is the only continent that is also a country?

How incredibly eff'ing dumb do you have to be? Seriously...

On number seven, the woman actually said something like "well, North America is a continent and a country...". Really? And you really so stupid that, in fourty-four frickin' revolutions around the sun you have not yet figured out the difference between "North America" (the continent), and "The United States of America", "Mexico", and "Canada"?

She then said that all seven continents are also countries. So, according to this twit, Europe is a single county (forget about France, Spain, Italy, Greece, etc). Same for Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and even Antarctica (which, by the way, is the only continent with NO countries). She even said "Australia" when naming off the continents, but it never clicked in her brainless head that "Australia" was actualy the correct answer...

Anyhow, by the end of the show, I was ready to put a gun to my head. At least at that point, I would be as "smart" as the people on the show...

BTW, the correct answers are:

1. On which planet would you be the heaviest? Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter? - Jupiter. I guess you could be excused for not knowing if Saturn or Jupiter had more mass, but if you guessed Mercury, please take one more step into the Sun. Also, if you had no clue that the mass of the planet had any bearing on your weight, please also manage to find your way into the sun.
   
2. If the diameter of a circle is 4 inches, what is the radius? - Diameter is the distance from one end of a circle to the other end passing through the center point. Radius is the distance from the edge of the circle to the center point. Thus, the radius if half of the diameter. Thus, if the diameter if 4 inches, the radius is 2 inches, and if you didn't know that, you are thus a total dumb-ass...
   
3. Y = 3X, 3X = 12. What is Y? - OK, this is so amazingly eff'ing stupid that if you can't figure it out, then I am not sure how you remember how to breath without constant prodding... Hint: 3X == 3X...
   
4. What is the adverb in the following sentence: "My wife snored loudly..." (there was more, but nothing even closely resembling an adverb) - Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, get your adverbs here, father son and Lolly selling adverbs here...
   
5. Density is defined as Mass divided by what? - Believe it or not, the contestent said "air"... In case you are just as stupid, no, the answer is actually "volume".
   
6. Do Ohio and Illinois share a border? - Um, no, Indiana is in the way... Duh...
   
7. What is the only continent that is also a country? - Australia...

Quite frankly, if you are so dumb that you didn't know this stuff, please, please, please shoot yourself now before you do something really stupid like breed...

Thx!

Wikipedia...

Wikipedia is an interesting phenomena that I have commented on before. It seems that a bunch of college students where dumb enough to trust it as a source.

“I was looking at a stack of final examinations,” said Waters, a professor of Japanese studies at Middlebury College in Vermont, “and I found several instances of misinformation that [were] identical from one student to another.”

All of those students in Waters’ Japanese history class late last year had been steered wrong by the same source — Wikipedia

It is not hard to figure out why this happened. I personally like to use it because it is convenient and because it is free, and it covers a lot of topics that may be hard to find elsewhere. However, I would never trust it as a source for much unless the "facts" are attributed and at that, are themselves attributed to reliable sources. Often, this is not the case. However, Wikipedia is still a good place to start your search. My advice would be to go to the links and sources sections, though, and dig into those if you are doing any serious research on a topic.

On a related note, never trust it to be accurate on topics that touch subjects like politics and current events. For one thing, it seems that a fair number of people who edit Wikipedia are actually lefty whack-jobs, which doesn't help things at all. To counter the left-leaning wackiness, I suggest a link I found at Little Miss Chatterbox's blog called Conservapedia. At least there the, they are up front about the bias, and the bias leans in the correct direction.

No, Your Daughter is Actually a Bad Person...

And the delusional mother of the year award goes to (drum roll), Joy Miller. Joy Miller is the mother of Ashley Miller, one of the so called "Barbie Bandits." Here is what Joy has to say about her precious little angel:

The mother of an 18-year-old arrested in a bank theft scheme said Monday that her daughter isn't a bandit, she just fell in with the wrong crowd and made a bad choice.

Yeah, the bad choice to be a bank robber. Face it, Joy, your daughter is a bad person, period. The first step to making any sort of reformation of your daughter's behavior possible is to admit that. Hiding from, or ignoring, her sin does no one any good. It is why the first part of the Christian confession is to admit that we are all wretched sinners who fall short of the glory of God rather than something like "Gee, God, we really aren't all that bad, we just made some bad choices and really ought to be forgiven."

This attitude that some parents have of "oh my little angel is basically a good kid" just makes me sick. 99.9% of the time, the kid is actually a rotten brat, and a big reason for this is the parent's inability to confront the child's failures when they screw up. For the sake of your daughter, Joy, stop apologizing for her and start being a parent. Step one is to make sure she suffers proper consequences for her actions rather than having you try to white-wash them...

Terrorist Squirrels

I would say something witty about this mirroring certain left leaning people's approach to terrorism, but...

1. I am lazy today.
2. Anything I came up with wouldn't be accurate anyhow, since:
1. They wouldn't be hucking the peanuts at the squirrels, they would be out there hand feeding them.
2. While almost as stupid as the cat, they wouldn't be smart enough to realize that their plan was not optimal.

Hockey...

Lisa and I went to a Milwaukee Admirals game yesterday with church. We only make it to one or two games a year. It isn't that we don't like hockey, it is just that there is only so much time and money, and we tend to spend our entertainment time and money at Milwaukee Wave games instead.

The guy who organized this trip has a daughter who works for one of the people in the Admirals ownership group, so we got some pretty good seats, third row from the glass, down by the goal that the Admirals attack in the first and third period. Very nice!! Unfortunately, the Admirals lost that day. Oh well...

Another person from our group and I were chosen to go out on the ice between periods for one of the little event contests. We were told to go out on opposite ends of the center line, then run to the middle where there were a pile of pucks, and then start shooting pucks at empty beer cases that were lined up on the blue lines. Whoever knocked off the most beer cases in 30 seconds won a gift certificate to the Miller Time Pub. When I got to the middle, I slipped and fell on my butt in front of about 5000 people. On the plus side, I did manage to knock off the most beer cases.

Lust in Space...

By now, everyone has heard about the fact that the cheese has slipped off of Astronaut Lisa Nowak's cracker. However, I must say that this article contained more puns in the first 5 seconds of reading than any article I have read in the a long time.

Do they actually teach people to write like that in journalism school now?

Cold Snap

It is really cold, so cold that my brain has frozen to the point where I actually wrote this little haiku the other day in an e-mail message to some friends at work

Hang, icicle prism
Fall, pulchritudinous snow
Shit dude, it is cold

Bad poetry aside, this is probably the longest cold snap I can recall since moving back down to the southern half of the state 13 years ago. When I lived up north, we had one of these snaps every year. Now, I am a wuss, and can't handle it!

This morning, it was -17 when I walked the dog. The other day, Lisa and I walked from the US Cellular Center over to Rock Bottom Brewery. It is just a few blocks down Wells, not really all that far, but I would not have wanted to go any farther. The walk back for the Wave game was worse, since the wind was then in our faces. At least at that point I had a couple of pints in me...

I can't wait for Wednesday. My weather outlook widget tells me we should be up to 16 above by then!! Yeah!! OK, I'm done whining for now...

Boys Behaving Badly

Yet another young NASCAR driver gets himself busted doing something he shouldn't. This time, the driver is Martin Truex Jr., and his offense is public urination. Specifically, he was busted peeing on the side of his car in a parking garage. A little gross, but not really much of a news story. After all, what guy hasn't peed on something that he shouldn't have. His car, his neighbor's house, whatever happens to be four stories down from the window of his dorm room, whatever.

On the other hand, his excuse is just pitiful.

"We had a few drinks, I was not intoxicated and we had a designated driver," Truex said.

Really? Not intoxicated? You exhibit this sort of behavior while relatively sober? To me, that actually sounds worse than admitting that maybe, just maybe your judgment was diminished by having a touch too much to drink...

They're Makin' a Left Turn!!

Well, it is only another 30 days until another NASCAR season starts! I am thinking that this year, I need to get me some JPM gear, and maybe a Toyota hat or two. Support the foreign driver, and the foreign car maker. Should be a good way to piss off the ignorant, union brainwashed masses that (unfortunately) make up too large a segment of the NASCAR fan base.

I love the sport, but a lot of the other fans just drive me nuts.

Miss Milwaukee Wants Your Blood...

It is sort of odd seeing one of your co-workers on the cover of a magazine, even if it is just some local freebie mag that basically promotes the local area.

The funny thing is, he said when he modeled for this, the photographer had him come up to her apartment and actually get in her fridge. I figured that was just photoshopped, since parts of it obviously are, but he says it was actually taken with him physically in her fridge like that.

Right under him on the cover (right next to the word "FREE"), it says "Miss Milwaukee Wants Your Blood". Damn, Jacob, you're one hair Miss Milwaukee...

Holy Hill Vandals Sentenced...

About 7 months ago, I wrote an post about two self-centered bung-holes who vandalized Holy Hill. In that post, I pointed out that this is exactly the type of monsters you get when society overly coddles people. That is, when society is too worried about a person's "self-esteem" and "feelings" rather then treating them the way that they deserve according to their actions and achievements (or lack thereof). These two finally got their sentences.

I think Tyler Groth got off a bit light. On the other hand, I was happy to see that David Groth received the maximum allowable sentence for this conviction. I still think the punishment is a tad light, especially considering what kind of a person he is, but at least he got all that the law will allow. And speaking of type type of person David Groth is, it is not hard to imagine why he is the way that he is when you hear his mom's reaction to the whole thing:

"David is basically a good kid who made some bad decisions and is rebellious. He's not very mature for his age," Donna Groth told Faragher.

Talk about coddling. David is not "basically a good kid". David is a self-centered, evil monster of a kid who thinks nothing of the value of other people and their belongings. Mrs. Groth should pay more attention to the judge, who notes:

Unlike Tyler Groth, who has no previous criminal record, David Groth has "a big record for a little guy," said Washington County Circuit Judge Patrick J. Faragher.

...

Faragher noted that David Groth had been in trouble several times before with juvenile court, giving him "an amazing record" of criminal activity.

Gee, I wonder why...

All Mixed Up

There once was a man who was a friend of my dad's. We'll call him "Mr. B". They worked at the same company for many years. He was much more than just a friend of my dad's, though. I'll explain.

He had a son named who we will call "R". "R" is a year or two older than I am. We used to play together as kids at company outings, or when our families would get together. We also were in boy scouts together. "Mr. B" was active in the troop as an adult leader. He was a kind and (usually) patient teacher who cared about us kids and taught us plenty on scouting trips and camp-outs. Personally, I learned a lot from him.

He also had a daughter who we will call "D". "D" is a year or two younger than me. We were also close. We also used to hang out a lot at company outings. When I got older, I remember that "D" was the first girl I ever had "feelings" for. She was my first school-aged crush, I guess you could say. I would ride my bike over to their house. I said I was going to hang out with "R", but really, I was going there more to spend time with "D". I can't recall if the crush was reciprocal or not, and at this point, it doesn't really matter. We remained friends even after this whole "school-aged crush" thing turned out to be nothing more than that.

Over the years, however, I drifted apart from "R" & "D". "R" & "D" were in a different school district than I was, and as we got older, we all started hanging out with different people. We never really stopped being friends, but rather just drifted apart and lost touch. That changed, though, this past week.

"Mr. B" died on Monday, January 1st. He was only in his early 60's. The visitation was on Friday, and the funeral was on Saturday. I was very happy to see "R" & "D" again. That joy, however, was mixed with extreme sorrow for the circumstances under which we were meeting. Emotionally, I have had a very confusing week.