Swift Terror

Damn, that phone incident was hilarious. "my girlfriend just beat for 20 minutes straight." Wow.

I got a real kick out of the people I encountered at the test-scoring place. A weird bunch to say the least. I loved the 40-50 year old academic types with multiple degrees who bitched about not being able to get a "real" job and having to work at the seasonal job. I remember many of them thought quite highly of themselves intellectually. They would brag (exaggerate) about there former prestige jobs. And then there were the real paranoid types who thought "they" (capitalist system) were out to keep them down. Who was that one dude with the website?--he would lay down on the floor on breaks and even while scoring. Larry something. Jesus, that guy. The only place I ever enjoyed telling them I was leaving was Barnes and Noble. Now, I loved to work there because I love books (and for a while we got free coffee from the cafe). I started out a Christmas part time hire and eventually became one of four department managers. One day a restructuring was done and I was moved out of the dept. manager and into some jive-ass position which I've forgotten the name of. I was told it was a "lateral" move, but I was expected to do some of the same work I had been doing before without the same privileges of a dept manager. When I got my first technical writing job, I was happy to tell them I was leaving.

Well I have to say, puppies are a lot cuter than kittens on their best day. Siberian Husky, now there's a REAL dog. Pretty cool.

If you're going to name a kid Maddux, pretend that it is after Ford Maddox Ford. It'll sound classier at parties. Yeah, it was Lance McAllister. He's kind of geeky but I have nothing against him...except naming your kid after a contemporary baseball player.

Finalist: Toughest Man Alive, 20th Century: William H. Rankin, Marine Corps pilot Book Rankin survived a "fall" (he had a parachute) from 44,000 feet in the 1950s. The engines on his plane seized, he ejected, but his chute opened too soon. It so happened that he was above a thunderstorm at the time. He spent 40 minutes WITHIN the storm clouds being buffeted around. Finally he fell to Earth, still alive. He is the only known human being to have been inside the clouds of a thunderstorm. Finalist: Toughest Man Alive, 21st Century: Alcides Moreno, New York City window washer AP story Moreno fell an incredible 47 floors from a NYC skyscraper when his scaffolding fell. When the scaffolding gave way, he laid down flat against bottom of the platform, an action which probably resulted in his surviving the eventual impact. Sir Edmund Hillary died yesterday. He reached the top of Mount Everest seconds before his Sherpa companion in 1953. Chalk another victory/oppression up for the white man. Couldn't he simply have let Norgay go ahead of him, in the interest of political correctness?

Tiger Woods himself said he has known that woman for years and has no problem with what she said. But Wilbon feels he must become outraged. Just once I'd like to see the actual person involved in one of these ridiculous PC outrages speak up and tell those in the media who are acting outraged for them to shut the F**K UP. Very loudly.

There is a local sports talk show host who has done what I consider unforgiveable--he has named his kids after contemporary sports figures. That's right, and the people he choose are not exactly Hall of Fame material. Just one example will suffice. He named his boy after former Reds first baseman Shaun Casey. I don't get it, but I guess he has his reasons.

Hawk is correct. They are a buckeye tree leaf. "Little symbols"? Wow, man, I know you're not a college football fan but I had no idea you were that clueless. Then again, they may not be as well known outside Ohio. Many teams use them for their respective school, but many do not.

Remember when you screwed around in your yard or your friend's yard, doing kid things like playing fort, setting paper airplanes on fire, maybe the odd cherry bomb here and there? Well, things have progressed since those olden times. Like making an explosive device powerful enough to blow up a backyard playset and killing someone in the process. cincinnati.com What is the psychology at work where we have changed the way we say the year? New Years resolution: saying "twenty oh eight" instead of "two thousand eight", as in "nineteen oh eight" instead of "one thousand nine hundred eight". The Ohio State Buckeyes are preparing for the title game on Monday night (the end of which I'll surely miss because I'll be asleep--play the damn game on a Saturday afternoon for crissakes). They are in the exact opposite position this year as they were in last year. Last year they were annointed the champions prior to the game; this time they are a non-entity and are said to be not deserving of playing for the BCS championship. There are plenty of criticisms, and yes insults, directed at the OSU team for their lackluster schedule and perceived slow, lumbering nature (how did lumbering Michigan do against speedy SEC Florida?). And those criticisms are reaching the eyes and ears of the players, courtesy of a DVD given to them that contains clips of various pundits and others pontificating on why they are so bad. USA Today I think the underdog has won every BCS title game, save one. I think that's the case and if so perhaps it bodes well for the Buckeyes. One thing is for certain--if the Buckeyes lose this game, it will harm their reputation for a long, long time. In this case the answer to the question "Is it better to have gotten to the championship and lost, or not gotten there at all?" is clearly that they would have better off to have not gotten there.

Freakin Chinee. We have a Mongolian restaurant opening here. In fact, there are two of them in Mason. The local commercials are hilarious--they talk about their "Mongolian fire chefs" or some similarly exotic sounding name, giving you the impression that they have real, expert Mongolian chefs cooking your food when in fact they're kids from Mason High School working part time.

Some recent cases in Ohio demonstrating how f'd up we are. Case #1 A man's home is invaded by two robbers. One of the robbers stabs the man's son. The man has a gun in the house and shoots one of the robbers. Police arrive and while performing their investigation see a small bag of pot out in the open in his house. It also happens that the man disdains banks and keeps his savings in a safe in his house. Police seize every penny of his savings under the authority of a law that is intended to seize the profits of drug dealers. Eventually the city where the man resides takes his money...all of it, permanently. They take the money because they demand that he produce receipts, checks, etc. for the money and he doesn't have it. So they assume it's drug money. The guy is guilty until he proves that he's innocent. Bassackwards, sounds to me. Case #2 Columbus Dispatch Columbus, Ohio has an odd law that allows women to sunbathe topless in city parks. The police have begun an operation whereby they have an undercover policewoman hanging out at a park topless. This is done to catch perverts, etc. In one case a firefighter (the man had driven by the park on several occasions and seen her) went over to sit with her. I believe he went on his own volition but I'm not sure. This guy was a normal citizen by all accounts, was not suspected of any "perverted behavior" at the park. So he sits down and she begins to come on to him, eventually asking him to unzip and show her his wang, wanger, john thomas, you choose the term. I repeat, she asked him, he was not the one who offered to "pull it out". He then "pulled it out" and immediately several cops came rushing out of the bushes nearby to arrest him for indecent exposure. Way to go boys, you just saved the citizens from a real criminal there. Nice job. The judge was not swayed by defense claims of entrapment and found the guy guilty. What the hell, Columbus. Knock this crap off. Get your lady cop skanks to put a f**kin shirt on and leave men alone.

It was a public park. They're trying to deal with the problem of gay man having sex there as well as the typical "flasher" harrassing women. I can see that, but what happened to the firefighter is just wrong.

I have a perfect comment for this, but I don't have my photobucket password so I can't insert a picture. Hopefully I can find it when I get home. Here we go. A dog with similar thoughts:

Jay Leno has 15 vintage Vincent motorcycles. This goes against my usual attitude (if you're wealthy buy whatever you want, be conspicuous I don't care) but in this case I think that's bullsh*t. Those bikes are too rare for him to hoard 15 of them. Take 2 and move on Jay. Let some other wealthy people have one. The Vincent bikes are classics made from 1924 to 1955 in England and are rare and highly prized. The Black Shadow and the Black Lightning are two famous models. They probably became famous in America for being the fastest production bikes of the time and also Hunter S Thompson wrote about them. Currently there is a Vincent "Black Shadow" on sale on Ebay for $45,000. Which leads me to my next topic.... Whatever happened to the "Dude yer gettin a Dell" guy? He must be somewhere.

Lol, his name is Ben Curtis. A Ben Curtis won the British Open a few years ago, shocking the golf world. So he's a waiter in NYC. Crazy.

I don't get the buildup to the Patriots/Giants game. In order to equal the 1972 Dolphins they will have to win the Super Bowl. Until they get to the Super Bowl, I'm not interested. And besides, aren't the Giants already in the playoffs, which means they'll probably be resting players at some point and/or not playing all out to avoid injury? My Xmas haul: 3 CDs, Mission Impossible Season 3, Lightscribe DVD+R discs, Quesadilla maker, Gamestop giftcard, a papoose type baby carrier, automatic adjustable wrench, ceiling light fixture for our kitchen (which I get to install) and some cash.

You might have to buy extra shit for it when it's time to turn it into a toddler bed. I didn't know those existed when we were looking at cribs. I wanted to go with a more "macho" theme--a dark wood with perhaps nautical/ship stuff. Instead I got white everything and cute undersea creatures.

She did buy a few small things, just to have something in his stocking. But he's only 1 month old. You guys, on the other hand, will have a 3 month old, if I have that straight. There may be more you can get a 3 month old. I think they are a little more aware at that point. But get ready to have your house overrun with baby things of all types. I no longer have space in the TV room, it's gone all gone--there's a swing, a Winnie the Pooh mat thing, a thing with lights that he can lie under.

We were extremely lucky to have Lisa's sister, who has a 3 year old and still has all her baby stuff, which she gave to us. I'm talking expensive stuff like top quality car seat, stroller, pack n play (a portable crib-like thing) and diaper hampers. This allowed us to buy a full 3 piece crib set. Well, we would have gotten the crib anyway I'm sure, so never mind. I always hated to go out for several days after Christmas due to the "returners". Even if I have something to return I wait for a week or more. Having said that, I'm going out after work today to check out the sale at Dick's (no, the Sporting Goods store). They've got some nice Columbia brand shirts and sweaters/sweatshirts on sale.

Gumbel is a complete amateur. He doesn't belong anywhere near a broadcast booth. And I'm not just saying that because of his weak sister winter olympics comment a couple years ago.

This is a classic example of "finally running into the wrong person". Or maybe in this case "being around the wrong person". The guy who chased her was the "guy who got mugged" and had obviously vowed to do something when and if he ever ran across someone doing something dangerous on the roads. So the chick probably has been driving badly for a long time and finally caused an accident and on top of it, got "apprehended" by a guy who wasn't going to put up with her behavior. I guess I'll hold my breath concerning kkk jr. It seems that "he" (I'm sorry, "it", since it is of course an unviable tissue mass with no value) wouldn't be harmed by this in any way.

That's fucking awesome that the person they were passing ran them down. Badass man. Bitch goin down.

Yeah, it was really a Scotsman who would have been first in flight. He would have, nah nah nah. He was working on heavier than air flight before the Wright Brothers. But he died. Darn. Today is the anniversary of the Wright Brothers flight. Some people just can't give credit to the Yanks where credit is due. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display...irst_to_fly.php Well, he MAY have, but you can't really say he WOULD have because he uh, DIED. In a GLIDER accident.

I guess now we know why Rick Ankiel pulled off the magical transition from failed pitcher to star power hitting outfielder.

Dave Ramsay is on the new "Talk FM" station here in Cincinnati in the afternoon. I've never listened because it sounds like a boring financial advice show.