Kaertos

I'll hit the computer tonight and see if I can find my chunk of the old archiving project from the IGNWF days.

The corned beef is cooking at home, the cabbage is ready to be added to the pot when I return and there is a six pack of Bass waiting for me. Happy Saint Patty's Day to all!

Well, the Reds hired a new strength and conditioning coach over the winter, as I think it is obvious that they were, in general, not in the best long-term condition. Hopefully, this will cut down on their "real injuries" (i.e. stuff that puts them on the DL as opposed to stuff that just causes them to miss a game here and there) and give them a little continuity through the season. As a Reds fan, it is nice to know two things going into this season: 1- They went out and got some halfway decent pitching instead of relying on teenagers that should be in AA. 2- We have a bench. Wily Mo Pena, Ryan Freel and Felipe Lopez are good bench guys that can ably fill in here or there for some of the starters.

From what I heard on sports radio this morning, the Cubs have their two aces going down for a while. If Prior and Woods don't make an impact for the Cubbies, they are in bad shape as they traded away a lot of offense for, in comparison, not very much. As for the Astros, they seem to me to be very good, but very old. If things break right for them, they are back in the playoffs. If they break wrong, this could be a long year in Houston. The Cards are frankly still scary, as they seem to have reloaded very well in the offseason. I am a huge Reds fan, and I like the moves they made in the offseason, but I still think they have a weak bullpen. They are hard to figure. I could make a decent case for them contending for the division and catching the Wild Card, and I could make a good case for them falling apart like they usually do in June or July.

Besides, I am willing to go out on the limb and say that Anakin was a good man, if a very flawed one, through the events of Episode II. Otherwise, he would not have felt the crushing guilt and sorrow after he slaughtered the sandpeople. He was a good, generous, loving child who became a basically good teenager who made some wrong choices. Some very, very, very wrong choices, but who doesn't?

I think this is getting out of hand. First off, why is Congress that worried about what is, in essence, an internal matter for MLB? Second, why is it the House Committee on Government Reform? That makes no sense to me at all. All this is, and I apologize if this is more on the "Current Events" line than the Sports line, is Congress wanting to appear as if they give a flying fig about this so people might vote for them come the next election. Personally, I am very tired of hearing about it.

I think the latest roster they have for download online is from 2-14-2005. Anyone have any idea how often they update? Also, I managed to get enough credits to unlock the '76 Cincinnati Reds. I opened up the roster and most of the names are not right. Frankly, I am a little annoyed. Why put a team in the game if you don't have the rights to make it vaguely resemble the team. The amount of changes I'm going to have to make are annoying.

The only reason I don't despise the corporate names outright is that they occasionally give rise to some good nicknames. For example: Bank One Ballpark = The Bob Minute Maid Park = The Juicebox We've been very lucky in Cincinnati. Great American ballpark could almost be non-corporate unless you know about Great American Insurance. At least it still makes sense without the company being involved. And on the football side, we have Paul Brown Stadium. Nice. And, it is in the agreement that the city and county signed that if the naming rights are sold, it won't be (for example) Pepsi Stadium, but rather Pepsi presents Paul Brown Stadium. Here in Dayton, we have 5th / 3rd Field (which is frankly stupid), The University of Dayton Arena (classic), the Ervin J. Nutter Center (nice, Nutter was a good guy by all accounts, and it lends to a classic nickname, the Nutt House) and Hara Arena.

Just picked up the game last night, and I am pretty happy with it so far. "In Your Face" mode is fun. So far, the only complaint I have is that I can't find the option to change the sound from stereo to dolby surround...

Mine went away last year, but I do have my part of the archiving project from way back when on my HDD at home. I'll look it up and see what time period I was responsible for. As for myself and King, I am pretty sure we have anything we wrote archived...

Answers for "Grand Slam" Mark Stevens Why did you choose that name for your character? Pretty easy actually. I created the character for the very first Smackdown game. I wanted his last name to be Marks just because... well, I thought it would be funny. You know... he marks out... right. Anyways, I came up with the first name Stephan, but Stephan Marks sounded very made up, so a fast switch made it Mark Stevens. The "Grand Slam" came because I always liked it when wrestler's names had something in quotes either at the beginning or in the middle. And "Grand Slam" Mark Stevens sounded better than Mark "Grand Slam" Stevens. So there you go. Why do they look the way they do? Not that hard to figure out really. Red hair, big guy, first name Mark, played baseball... basically, I thought Mark McGwire had a great look to be a pro wrestler. I just put him in pretty generic wrestling gear. Why is their character the way it is, and is this different from how you originally envisaged them? You might find this hard to believe, but Grand Slam was, as written for the JL, a Triple H style badass tech wrestling heel. And I enjoyed writing it. But after he joined the original (and still best version of) Anarchy, I had a hard time writing him as a badass heel while hanging around with far more badass-type hardcore whack-jobs like Bo and Suicide. So I started using him as the voice of reason in the mostly psychotic Anarchy, which I used to just barely start turning him face. Then he gets bumped to the WF and I figure out real fast that Anarchy won't last too much longer, I decide that the best way to distance Mark from a heel stable would be by turning full-on face. A few months later, after picking up the ICTV Title, Grand Slam joined the Carnies and the rest, including my quick evolution to "goody-two shoes 100% uber-face" was complete. If there was one thing you would want your character remembered for, what would it be? This is going to sound odd considering, but I want people to remember me for my ethics and how I treated the other guys and gals here in the Fed. I worked very hard on my matches and such, and I would love to have people talk about the final match as the months roll by (for that matter, I would loved to have had anyone read it, and be interested enough in King's follow-up promo to have given King the sendoff he deserved, but that's just old man bitterness, I guess). But overall, I hope people remember me as a good guy, a fun character and someone they liked having around.

Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov

Drac Pack Laff-a-Lympics Ah.... Saturday mornings... too bad there aren't "real" saturday morning cartoon blocks anymore. I remember being excited to watch the "New Show Preview" every fall on like a Friday night.

That hurts Toxx... really, it does... And to you GOAT...

:-( Toxx, your memory is so short... I mentioned you at least once in my "Breaking Kayfabes".

I always consider the tip a part of the price of the meal. If you can afford the food but not the tip, then don't get the meal. Just that simple. I used to work for tips, and while I agree that instead of tipping you should get paid a decent wage, that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Read this at the Dayton Daily News website. I thought it was interesting and relatively unbiased, all things considered.

As a life-long Bengals fan, here is my take: Corey Dillon is an incredible running back. He is a huge factor in any good games the Bengals had while he was here and is obviously a major reason the Pats have steamrolled through the playoffs so far. I do not deny that this guy is an upper-echelon RB. But here's the thing: For years this guy bitched and moaned to anyone that would listen that the Bengals stunk and that they needed to change the management and culture of the team. he said they needed to make a commitment to winning. And he was right, 100% dead-on accurate. But then Mike Brown apparently woke up. He gave up some power, he hired Marvin Lewis and took a back seat to the new coach. Lewis came in and changed the culture of the team, made them better and made a firm commitment to winning. No longer was losing acceptable in Cincinnati. So in 2003 they are better than they have been in years, they are almost in the playoffs, but still finish with an optimistic 8-8. And Corey Dillon wanted out. He went so far as to throw his pads and helmet into the stands after the last game of 2003. He demanded a trade. What did I get out of all of this? That Dillon is an egotistical, selfish jerk. To which I say, "To hell with him." I hope he does well in New England, because for all of the good things he did in Cincy he deserves that ring. But I have a feeling that if something doesn't go his way, if the Pats have a losing streak as even good teams occasionally do, he will snap again. I'm glad we're rid of him and actually have guys in Cincy that want to play, and want to play for the Bengals.

It was always my understanding from reading Foley's books that they get a "travel stipend" in addition to being booked on flights by the WWE travel people. That's why Foley stayed in cheaper hotels and stuff, so he could keep as much of that extra cash as possible.

Huh? You can't seriously belive that there is a better chance the Devil Rays could improve as fast as, say, the Chargers. I am a Reds fan, and I know that even with the $22,000,000 extra spent on free agants this winter that my team has a next to zero chance of (a) landing any major free agents or (b) being competitive in the long run. There are just too many teams willing to spend an obscene amount of money on free agents that the middle and smaller markets get squeezed. In the NFL, salaries are kept under control by the cap and my team has just as much of a chance (monetarily speaking) of signing a major free agent as a huge market like New York. As far as the abbreviated hockey season goes, they are going to have to come up with something to get casual fans interested in the League if they do have a season this year. If they cancel everything... well, I'm afraid that the NHL may not survive.

Basically, the new HiDef DVD's are for the high-end Home Theater market, at least at first. If it survives, then chances are it will take over the standard DVD format since it will be backwards compatable by that time (As I understand it, Blu-Ray isn't compatable now, but will be when released on the consumer market) Theoretically, there will come a point where standard DVD isn't manufactured anymore, just the HiDef formats, just like regular TV's aren't supposed to be sold after like 2006 (like that's going to happen). On the other hand, it could go the way of SuperVHS...

Yeah Jingus, but that's not what they're asking for. Mind you, that's an essay I'd love to read, but if he turns that in, he's going to get marked of for not answering the question. On the other hand, if you are doing the whole compare and contract thing with Psycho, then I have to think there is something that is done in Psycho that is unique, and example of Hitchcock building on Kane's foundation.

Yeah, I think the only way you're going to get one of the big ones is to buy one used or refurbished. But really, you're only paying another $20 or so to get a brand new slim one.

I've been to one of Bobby Flay's restaurants in New York, and the food was very good. To be fair, my entree wasn't the best at the table, but was still worth the money.

Great idea and the setting seems to be well thought out, but there are a couple of issues that I could offer some constructive criticism on... 1) I noticed that there are some difficult area in the story as far as Grammar goes. Nothing earth-shatteringly bad, just stuff that would leap right out at an editor and make him say "Amateur" and toss the manuscript in the trash. Get someone you know is good with grammar to give this the once-over and you are on the right track. 2) The first paragraph is totally unneeded. You are thinking, "But that has all of the important info in it." I contend that the opening of this story would be far more interesting and dramatic if you pick it up (with some very minor modifications) right at "“Bobby, get up here right away!” It was the Director. “We’ve just had a massive temporal disturbance.” All of that information about time-flux fields and why they do what they do is all info that can be presented later, after the reader is hooked and wanting to know more about the world. I'd say this goes for the prologue as well. That sounds more like something that would be on the inside flap of the dust jacket than page 1 of the story. 3)Punch up the dialogue a little. It is close, better than most that I read, but it is still lacking that "spark" that brings the characters to life. Good start though, I'd be interested to see more of this. I hope some of my suggestions are helpful.