Friday, October 26, 2007

I got the biscuit!

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

Texas Wildcatters defensemen Mike Madill moves the puck down the rink during a second round playoff game against the Florida Everblades at Ford Arena on April 27, 2007. The Wildcatters lost the game 5-2 and ended up dropping the best-of-seven series four games to two.

I wanted to get a hockey picture in this week since the 'Catters have their home opener tomorrow night against the Everblades. I don't plan on bringing the camera to opening night, but I'll probably bring it to Sunday afternoon's game.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

24: Season 7 trailer came out today

First, watch it:

Yea, I know, Kiefer refers to the UK but it's all the same, trust me.

My thoughts below the fold:

Now, to me it was worth it to see that red-headed FBI agent (especially if it's the one played by Jeanene Garofalo) have this exchange with Jack:

FBI Agent: Do whatever it takes, torture him if you have to.
Bauer: I’m going to enjoy this.

You *KNOW* that line would make her blood boil.

In all seriousness, it looks like we've got a really good season in store for us come January. Of course, as Blogs4Bauer noted, last season's trailer made it look really good too. Yes, the first four episodes were probably the best the show's ever put out, but the rest of the season, while still better than most of the crap on TV these days, was pretty bad by 24's standards.

As far as Tony, I was surprised enough when I heard that he was back (from the dead, nonetheless) so it was kinda nice to see Jack as surprised as me.

Good guy turned bad. And not just any good guy, but one of Jack's closest friends. One of the few guys who'd probably be able to guess Jack's every move.

Now that I think about it, that sounds a lot like Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye. Oh well, GoldenEye's one of the better Bond movies if you ask me.

Anyway, it looks like an interesting plot. Very techno-geeky and different than the kind of threats we're used to seeing on 24.

I've got a good feeling about it.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Puppies, flat tires, and ex-girlfriends oh my!

Went to Houston today.

On my way, I stopped at my mom's vet's office in Nome and picked up a bag of dog food for her.

On the interstate, I was driving in the right lane. I moved onto the shoulder to avoid what looked like tire treads in the roadway and managed to thwack a chunk of wood that was on the shoulder before I could get back in the lane. Made a loud thunk, so I got off at the first exit and gave the underside of the car a look-over. Looked good to me.

More on that later.

When I got into Houston, I exited off of I-10 to take the toll bridge to get to my mom's house. The only eventful aspect of that was that for the first time in two years I went through a cash lane since the car didn't have an EZ Tag yet.

I got to my mom's house fine, looked at their brand new motorcycle and Sassy's puppies, which are three weeks old now and ADORABLE!

Then my mom took me to Chili's for lunch. I had the soup and salad and it was good.

And then the fun began.

When I got out, I noticed that the left front tire was flat. We aired it up at the first gas station we could find and my mom took me to Discount Tire to get it taken care of.

Apparently I ran over a nail when I hit that board and that's what took out the tire. They were able to patch it and I was on my way.

I spun down to the South Belt to take care of the stuff with the toll authority and get an EZ Tag. I had to go do it in person because, while the PT was a rental car, someone blazed through the tag lanes without one. Once they saw the bill of sale and made a copy, I was clear to get a tag on the car.

From then, I was off to Katy, on the far west side of Houston. The tire thing put be behind the eight ball a bit on time. Instead of getting out there just before rush hour as I'd planned, I was stuck in the middle of it. I decided to take the beltway to the Westpark tollway and go up SH 6 to get to the Katy Freeway and my destination.

That worked pretty well, actually. Westpark was a bit slow right around the beltway, but I knew it would be because it always is.

SH 6 was a real breeze most of the way, at least for a surface street. About the last mile or so, however, was stop and go. Much more stop than go. Tons of fun.

Once I got on the Katy Freeway it was a breeze. Past SH 6 there's no construction and the traffic was thick but moving at a good clip.

Finally, I got to my ex-girlfriend's house. Yes, you heard me right. Ex-girlfriend. The one that was doing something with that boot at an Astros game last year. We get along really well, but hadn't seen each other in about a year so I offered to hang out for a while next time I was in town.

We went to a mall near her house and pigged out on Cinnabon cinnamon rolls since she'd never had one before then did a little window shopping. I can honestly say I enjoyed it.

After I dropped her off I headed home. There was a bit of a slowdown on the east side of a town because of a wreck, but nothing too bad.

I got home about 9:30 to discover that my TV tuner software didn't record House for me like I'd set it up to. Yea, fuck you too Pinnacle. See if I ever buy your crap again.

Thankfully there was an awesome recap on TV.com.

Now it's time to get some sleep, so peace out!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Random thoughts: Inspired by my car

Here goes:

  • Today I got an envelope from GEICO. It had FOUR insurance ID cards for the new PT Cruiser. Oddly enough, those four cards were for my current policy term which ends Saturday and not the new one which I've already made my first payment on. Seems kinda crazy, doesn't it?
  • Chrysler and GM have the buttons on their car remotes in reverse order. You wouldn't believe how many times I've locked my car when I want to unlock it.
  • Apparently the PT's previous owner had a habit of occasionally cruising through the EZ Tag lanes on Houston tollways without a tag, so I've got to show them a bill of sale that I bought the car before they'll let me get a tag for it.
  • Speaking of Houston, I'm thinking I'm gonna go over tomorrow. I've got nothing better to do. Go to my mom's, see the puppies, get taken to lunch, and goodness knows what else.
  • I started reading The Godfather last night. Not really far enough into it yet to say much about the book, but considering that it's my favorite movie I should love the book too.
  • I was called over to a lady's house to look at her computer. She said her printer's not working. The problem: Dry black cartridge.
  • That little prediction I made isn't looking so hot right now. Thank goodness I said I wouldn't post those naked pictures.
  • Jim Thompson hails Xenu on Twitter. I wonder who I should hail...
  • The Wildcatters haven't quite figured out their mail merge system for emails yet apparently. I got an email from them last week that started off with "Hey First Name!" I simply replied that I felt so loved.
  • Speaking of them, I picked up my season tickets today. They had a get together for us at Rio Rita's (a local Mexican restaurant)where we could have picked them up, but I decided to pass because their food sucks. They obviously are using a different printer, since they came in big sheets instead of a book. I thought the book was more convenient
  • I hate that I have to install QuickTime to get MP3's to work in Firefox. I hate it more that the damn thing nags me to install iTunes too.
  • I. Love. Tweetr. Best Twitter app I've ever tried out.

And that's all I feel like saying.

I am SO outta here!

Friday, October 19, 2007

My new ride

2006 PT Cruiser:

Ain't she a beaut? And no, I'm not talking about my brother's Matrix parked behind it.

She's a quirky little car, but I'm liking her.

Here's some of the things that have thrown me so far.

  • The button for the automatic transmission shifter is on top instead of on the side.
  • The door handles have a button on them to open the door, they don't pull out to open like my brother's Matrix and my grandmother's Corolla. You have no idea how many times I've pulled on the things.
  • Closing the hood. I'm used to easing them down all the way and pushing down a little to close 'em. On these, the manual says you have to lower it to about eight inches up and then drop it. Trust me, the other way doesn't work. I spent ten minutes in the driveway like an idiot trying.
  • The cup holders. The big cup holder for the driver is way bigger than the one the Alero had. I used to be able to put the straw in the cup holder and then put the cup from McDonalds (or wherever) in and they'd both stay. Well, I tried that and the straw fell between the center console and the drivers seat, so I had to fish it out.
  • No cruise control. Not a big deal, just an accessory that wasn't on this one.
  • The headlights don't turn on automatically when it's dark. This is the first car I've ever driven that didn't do that. There may be a way to turn that on, but I haven't looked through the manual to see yet.

Of course, those'll come in time.

On a side note, my grandmother got talking with the sales guy about her days teaching first grade, and as the conversation evolved we'd found out that she'd actually taught the salesperson's wife. My grandmother remembered her name and everything.

Small world, aint it?

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Sunset at Minute Maid

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

IMG_0036The sun sets on Minute Maid Park during opening day April 3, 2006.

I figure this is a wallpaper-quality image (Heck, I used it as wallpaper for a long time) so I uploaded it to Flickr so y'all could grab the full size image use it as wallpaper as well.

The full size image is a little grainy, but that's just a result of the ISO setting and it looks fine shrunk down to 1024x768 (or whatever you use).

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Man, this car shopping thing is HARD!!!

Really.

I found out from the insurance company today that my car's being totaled. Apparently replacing Alero's airbags is a really expensive proposition.

Since that's the case, I'm looking for a new one. My grandmother's going to help me get one before I get the insurance check and just have me sign it over once I get the check.

When I bought my Alero back in '05 it was simple. I had no real idea what I wanted, I just showed up at the dealership, told 'em I wanted a car with good gas mileage, and they showed me a few cars.

Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

This time I'm hopping online, looking at dealer inventories for used cars, researching the cars I see, all that good stuff.

And my head's spinning.

If you follow my Twitter account you saw that I went out earlier to look at a vanilla PT Cruiser. I don't mean boring vanilla, but that the color resembles Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream.

One of my neighbors has a PT Cruiser, so I went over and asked them a few things about it. She said that overall it's a good car, so I decided to go take a look.

When I got to the dealership I saw it right in front of the building. I opened the doors, looked at it, all that good stuff. It was a 2005 with about 34,000 miles listed on their website for $9,995. Only knock it had was some paint chips on the front, probably from bugs or something.

Then a salesperson comes out and breaks my heart when he says "Someone's inside signing the papers on that one right now."

The sales guy suggested a few cars in about the same price range. Two Dodge Neon's and a Kia. I dismissed the Kia right away because I've heard pretty lousy things about them and one of the Neon's because it was red, and cops love red cars. So I wondered over to the black one and asked the sales guy to grab the keys for it.

When he got back I got in and sniffed. It had a weird smell to it, similar to what the PT Cruiser had, so I figured that was something that the dealership did. But, even above that strong smell, I could smell that it'd been smoked in. Smoke smell's a deal-breaker for me because the smell overwhelms me. I probably could have febreezed it out of the fabric or something, but I shouldn't have to when I buy a car.

So we left.

Some digging around on the web showed me a couple more PT Cruisers that were available in my range at other local dealerships. Then I got a call from my neighbor's husband/boyfriend/whatever he is and he told me that while a good car it has some problems with gas mileage, occasionally getting under 20 mpg in town. No biggie, my Alero did the same thing on me a few times when I did purely city driving in it, a rarity for me.

Then I did the research. I found through fueleconomy.gov the government's fuel numbers on them and was like "eh, I'll pass." Of course, if I'd read closer I'd see that they'd applied the new mileage formula to older cars and that the numbers were about the same as my Alero was showing, and when I noticed that PT Cruisers came back on the table.

So tomorrow afternoon I plan to buy my grandmother lunch somewhere and then go head to the dealerships that had PT Cruisers listed. One's got a silver 2006 and the other's got a blue 2005, along with whatever else the dealerships I go to have to offer, just a bit more educated about what I can get.

It'll be a blast, I'm sure.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Giving Amazon MP3 a shot

This is *NOT* a Pay Per Post or ReviewMe.com ad. I'm doing it of my own free will in part because I don't believe in blogging about something when wads of cold, hard cash are involved.

I tried Amazon MP3 last night.

For those that haven't heard, that's Amazon.com's new DRM-free music download service. The prices vary, but you can download a song for under a dollar or an album for (on average) $7.99 and download it as a crystal-clear 256kbps mp3 file (or set thereof, if you download an album).

The significance of the songs being DRM-free is that you can take the file and burn it to a CD, copy it, put it on mp3 players. Anything. You could even put them on file-sharing services. BUT DON'T or we'll likely lose this wonderful tool we've got.

Now, I'm one of those holdouts that still prefer buying CD's to downloading my music off of the web. In fact, before this the closest I'd ever come to buying music online was ordering a CD off of Amazon. So needless to say, I was new to this...

Anyways, last night I wanted to download Feel Good Inc. from Gorillaz. It got stuck in my head, long story. Anyway, I hopped on the site, got to the page for the album it was on easily, and clicked the "Buy MP3" button next to the song.

Now, the next steps may not be exact, but you'll get the idea.

I was prompted to download and install a small application that would set up the mp3 file and automatically put it in your iTunes or Windows Media Player library. So I did.

Next page I got was the download of the song. It doesn't send you the mp3 file itself, but a different file. From that file, the program I'd just installed placed the mp3 file in my My Music folder in a folder named Amazon MP3. The program then deleted the file that was originally downloaded, leaving just the mp3.

I opened Media Player and there it was in my library, just like it said it would be.

When I connected my Zune, I had to manually add the song to it's library. No shocker really, the Zune software in it's current design sucks. Whenever I rip a CD in Windows Media Player I have to do the same thing. Can't blame Amazon for that.

All in all, I was happy with the experience. So much so that I might just finally stop buying CD's and download my music.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The key to winning in 2008

It's not the war, it's not immigration.

It's bullshit.


Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

How ironic that Hillary is on the still that the player shows?

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Blogger's commenting system kills my comedic genius

Houston over at Tater Tots for the Masses did a post about me yesterday. I left a comment noting that:

I had a funny line to put here, but Blogger won't let me use the strike tag in the comments.

A comment that, in full, would have read something like:

And I'm sure my three readers will be just as nice to you. :)

You know, I tried using graphics for my blogroll at one time but I got lazy decided that the text-based blogroll looks better.

Well, that and BlogRolling has a bookmarklet that allows you to add sites to your blogroll on the fly.

Which I guess does make me lazy. Not that y'all didn't know that already.

And another thing, why the hell does a guy named Houston live in Dallas? Doesn't it just seem odd?

Friday, October 12, 2007

Sassy

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

This is from Sassy's visit last month.

071012 Sassy what's goin on Hey, what are you boys getting into?

For y'all's information, Sassy gave birth to her puppies about two weeks ago. She had six puppies, but the runt didn't make it past a couple of days, so there are five cute little Sheltie puppies that I'm told all are sable like her, but a darker shade of it.

You know, it's hard for me to believe sometimes that her and Bruiser are only about a week apart age-wise.

Stupidity-induced insomnia

I can't sleep tonight.

I'm a little on the sore side and I feel like too much of an idiot to sleep.

I'd ventured out to Taco Bell for a late-night snack but abandoned the plan when I saw the drive-thru line and headed home.

On the way, I was involved in an accident.

I looked down for a second like an idiot and when I looked up there was a car in front of me. One I hadn't seen before that moment.

I didn't even have enough time to think "OH F***!" before the crash sound and the airbags popped.

Sans a scratch or two I'm fine.

As far as I could tell, the people in the other car were ok too. A couple of them went to the hospital to get checked out, but there wasn't any blood or anything that I could see, so I don't think it was anything big.

The car's banged up, but it doesn't look like anything a good body shop can't handle.

The cops that came out there were nice and, with a few laughs had me feeling relaxed and not like as big an idiot. Naturally, I got the obligatory "you rear-ended someone, here's your ticket" ticket. I'll go down and deal with that next week.

I've already reported the accident through GEICO's website and they should be getting with me sometime today about how all this'll work out. The cops and the wrecker driver AAA sent both told me that GEICO's really easy to work with about this sort of stuff, so that makes me feel a little better.

Now if I could just get some sleep . . .

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Fraternity at Texas Tech has no class

 
  Reveille VII and Mascot Corporal Pierce Hunter (source)

Really, just don't go there:

Texas Tech has banned the sale of a T-shirt bearing the likeness of Michael Vick hanging the dog mascot of rival Texas A&M.

The red and black shirts, with text that says "VICK 'EM" on the front in an apparent reference to the Aggies' slogan "Gig 'em," was created by a Tech student who was trying to sell them before Saturday's game in Lubbock.

The back of the shirt shows a football player wearing the No. 7 Vick jersey holding a rope with an image of the mascot Reveille at the end of a noose.

First off, let's ignore the fact that I'm an A&M fan here, because it truly is irrelevant.

This idea is just sickening. There's no words I can think of to describe just how horrible this is.

Needless to say, anything having to do with animal cruelty sets me off. I mean, just look at my three little angels. Anybody who's convicted of animal cruelty should be thrown in a hole under the jail and then have that hole filled with concrete if you ask me.

And someone who jokes around about something like this doesn't deserve much better.

But what else would you expect from a bunch of drunken frat boys?

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Updated: Fall down, go sue

What a sad, sad, situation:

A police officer who slipped and injured a knee responding to a toddler's near-drowning has sued the family of the 1-year-old boy, who suffered brain damage and can no longer walk, talk or swallow.

Casselberry Sgt. Andrea Eichhorn alleges Joey Cosmillo's family left a puddle of water on the floor, causing her fall during the rescue efforts. She broke her knee and missed two months of work.

[...]

Eichhorn's attorney, David Heil, said she has persistent knee pain and will likely develop arthritis. He said city benefits paid by workers' compensation and some disability checks helped with medical bills, but it wasn't enough.

Please tell me I'm not the only person that thinks this is a disgrace. Their kid almost died and you're suing because you messed up your knee pretty bad.

Of course, you'll probably win the case too.

Let's just hope that the judge sees things like I do and awards you a dollar, as you occasionally see in lawsuits.

If I were the other family, I'd pay her in pennies.

UPDATED: Eichhorn has been placed on leave and now plans to drop the lawsuit.

For once, common decency rules the day.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Nothing to gain

 
  George Steinbrenner and Joe Torre.

The reason your feet seem to be cold is because hell just froze over.

It froze over because I'm blogging about the evil empire known as the Yankees.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard that George Steinbrenner has said that Joe Torre would likely be replaced if he didn't win their ALDS series against the Indians after the team went down two games to none in the best of five series. As you also probably know, the Yankees won game three, but lost last night.

I personally believe that Steinbrenner would have to be off his nut to fire Torre.

Torre's managed the club for twelve years, taking them into the playoffs all twelve years, winning the AL East ten times, winning the American League six times, and winning four World Series.

Not to mention bringing back a 21-29 team with tons of injuries to the pitching staff to 94-68, giving them a Wild Card berth after all the ESPN talking heads were saying that they had no chance. The record speaks for itself.

If that's not enough, then consider that all the players in their clubhouse love him. Alex Rodriguez has the ability to opt out of his contract, Andy Pettitte has a player option, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada can also leave after this season's over with. I'm sure whatever happens with this will have an influence on what those guys decide.

And then there's the fans. I was watching the game last night and whenever Torre paid a visit to the mound late in the game you heard the chants of "JOE TO-RRE" from the crowd. I think it's safe to say, based on that, that the fans don't want him to go. Although nowhere near the level of Phillies fans, Yankee fans are nuts. I wouldn't want to have them pissed off at me.

But this begs the question: What is there to gain by firing Torre? I just don't see what someone else would be able to do with this team that he hasn't. If anything, replacing him would probably hurt the Yankees more than help.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. If you've got a varying opinion feel free to leave a note in the comments. I won't bite.

Hard.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Check

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

07-10-05 Madill Check
Texas Wildcatters defensemen Mike Madill checks a Charlotte Checkers player into the end boards during a game on December 8, 2006 that the Wildcatters went on to win 4-0.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

LOLScrabble?

No, I'm not looking to start the next big thing on the internets, just got a kick out of this when playing a game of Scrabulous with one of my readers earlier: