The MSM wants to be YouTube?

A random Pug picture from TinyPic

Yea, I thought it was crazy too, but then I came across the new videos page on KFDM.com which, curiously, has a tab for user submitted videos.

Since they just rolled out the feature earlier this week, there's not much on there.

In fact, there's only one video.

Say hello to My Crazy Pug. It's definitely crazy and definitely something that you wouldn't expect to see on a news website.

I can't decide if user-created video on a mainstream news.

Should news media websites allow for user-submitted videos, and if so should the content allowed be anything within reason or limited only to items that are newsworthy? Leave a comment.

First pitch

This is the first in what will hopefully be a weekly series where I share a photo that I've taken.

Retired Astro Jeff Bagwell reaches down to catch one of the ceremonial first pitches thrown by his daughters Bryce and Blake before the Astros game on August 26, 2007. Bagwell's number 5 was retired in a pregame ceremony that day.

It's hardly one of my better photos, but I thought that it was both a cute moment and somewhat timely, so I went with it.

Something we can all get behind

I don't get into politics much, but I think everybody would support this bill:

Remember, "If we do not open our eyes to reality soon, they will get fucked right out of our heads."

That one time ...

With what's been in the news lately, I figured I should make a statement.

I'm not gay.

I have never been gay.

Well, there was that one time where I brought a drunk cross-dresser home and didn't realize it, but it's not like we did anything so it's all good.

I think.

If you can't tell that I'm kidding then shame on you.

Garner, Timmy Poo gone

Justin Yarbrough

Phil Garner discusses the call of a play at the plate with an ump at Sunday's game.

Mission accomplished.

Well, not my mission, but regardless, they're gone.

Here's my take on the situation.

Garner was nowhere near a perfect manager. He was nowhere near the worst I've seen either... does Jimy Williams ring a bell? He made some questionable calls, but even the best do from time to time. Just look at Tony LaRussa not pinch-hitting Pujols in the All-Star game.

In all fairness, nobody could have won with this team.

Which brings me to Timmy Poo, the GM. He just plain sucked. Seeing the results of the Jennings trade did enough to convince me he needed to go.

Of course, this'll only do good if the team gets replacements that will take the team in a new direction, otherwise it's a waste.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Like finding $270 in your pants!

Earlier today I logged onto Geico.com to make what I thought was going to be the last payment on my car insurance for this six-month term.

It is then that I discovered that I'm paid in full.

Color me surprised, since I could have sworn I owed them one more payment.

But I don't.

Hey, I aint complaining one bit :)

Think I might go and knock something off my Amazon wish list, most likely the House, M.D. - Season Three DVD box set.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

She's getting what everyone else would get

Justice: served?

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Lindsay Lohan reached a plea deal today on misdemeanor drunken driving and cocaine charges that calls for her to spend one day in jail and serve 10 days of community service and complete a drug treatment program.

"She's getting what everyone else would get," Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers said after an hourlong hearing.

Lohan was charged earlier in the day with seven misdemeanors stemming from two drunken-driving arrests in the past four months. More serious felony drug charges were not filed, prosecutors said, because tests showed there wasn't enough cocaine on her to warrant them.

Am I the only one who thinks that if I were caught driving drunk and had some yeyo on me I'd be going away for a lot longer than a day? Take away the coke and I'm spending a minimum of a weekend in jail on a plea deal.

Poor Lindsay, she's heading on a path to destruction. Somebody get the girl some help!

I had whipped up a photoshop of Lindsay's face on Tony Montana (from Scarface) to use, but I wasn't really happy with the final product. Just one of those times where an idea really sounds cool when it pops in your head but turns out to be not so good, I guess.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Allergies

Do I look like I'm in the mood for this?

My apologies for light blogging the last few days, but my allergies have been acting up recently, so I can't say I've really felt like it.

So, until I feel like it, take a look at Taffy.

Hurricane linky stuff

I've started to make preparations for if we have to leave for Dean, and this post is part of that.

Obviously if we evacuate I'm not going to be able to keep this place very up to date on what's going on. With that in mind, here are some links that'll come in handy if, for some reason, you're interested in what's going on down here.

SciGuy - Written by the Houston Chronicle's Eric Berger, I've found it's one of the best places to watch when it comes to the tropics.

The Beaumont Enterprise - Local rag. They had really good post-Rita coverage.

KFDM, KBMT and KBTV - Local TV. KBMT didn't have a website during Rita, but the other two offered pretty good coverage.

I'm not going to endorse any national news because once the MSM saw that there wasn't mass carnage, they packed up and headed down I-10 to New Orleans.

I may add more links later, so stay tuned.

Updated: Dean

Well. it's looking more and more like Dean will be a threat to more than fish.

The good news is that storms like this one tend to stay away from this area, but I'm not naive enough to think it automatically won't just because of that.

Guess I'll be reading SciGuy a lot more.

UPDATE: Houston Keys of Tater Tots for the Masses brings us this. Thanks, Houston. No, really, thanks.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

The Godfather

When I was younger I wasn't much for watching movies, especially older ones.

I'm starting to get better about it.

I mentioned on my Twitter account about a month ago that I was going to watch The Godfather on AMC. I'd never seen it before then and had a hard time understanding what was going on. Maybe it was the commercials, but I had the same problem when I watched Scarface for the first time and it was on DVD, so who knows.

A few weeks later, I went and got the DVD's for the trilogy and watched them all. After that, I can see why many consider it to be the best movie ever made and is #1 on IMDb's rankings. And to think that Francis Ford Coppola was on the brink of being fired by Paramount the whole time was just amazing to me.

Part II is definitely evidence that sequels can live up to the original. I think that says it all.

That leaves Part III. It's by no means a bad film, I just think it looks a lot worse than it really is because of how extraordinary the first two are.

Anyway, what do y'all think? And while you're at it, feel free to fire off any recommendations for other older movies to watch.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Working on three columns

As you can probably see (unless you're on RSS), I've switched to a three-column layout.

I know it's a bit of a mess now, but just give me some time and I'll have it back to some semblance of normal soon.

My only complaint on it is that the design makes the whole page a little too wide, so I'm going to see if I can narrow up the sidebars a little without fucking up everything.

If you didn't notice, it's pretty hot out there

I took a look at my weather widget a few minutes ago and saw what you see over to the right.

Even for here that's hot.

Up until this week our summer's been pretty mild, so temps like this are doubly worse,

It's days like today that make me thankful for a working air conditioner.

Nailed it!

The Bud Light commercial guys on Houston traffic:

Worn out

Leave me alone.

Scarface in a minute and a half

With, you know, all the important moments:

Or maybe I should say "all the fucking important moments."

How do you shave a cat?

Yea, I know I've slacked off on doing these kinds of posts. I'll try to get back.

Just be aware that August is a slow month for vets down here, with people traveling and getting ready for school and all that stuff.

Anyways, yesterday we'd had a cat brought in a fat cat that had pretty matted hair and we were asked to do it. Fat cats have trouble grooming themselves.

So, how do you shave a cat?

You sedate it before you get out the clippers.

Trust me, with the fight that one put up when we were trying to sedate it, there would have been no other way.