Thursday, July 31, 2008

School's effect on reading is finally wearing off on me I guess

All the books that I was forced to read through school jaded me pretty badly, and before last year I don't think I'd read a book that I wasn't forced to since my junior year of high school when I read Big Trouble, Dave Barry's first novel, that was recommended to me by a friend. The book's worth reading, the movie was awful.

Anyway, last year I picked up a couple of books from the 24: Declassified series just to see how I liked them. The first one, Operation Hell Gate, kept me gripped from beginning to end, finishing it in just three days. Since then I've read all the books in that series except for Trinity, which I've got and plan on reading later this year, as well as The Godfather, which was an awesome read as well.

A while back I set off on reading the entire Hannibal Lecter series (Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, and Hannibal Rising) after having seen the film versions of all of the above with the exception of Hannibal Rising.

I ordered a set with all four of the books off of Amazon and, choosing to read them in the order they happened, started reading Hannibal Rising, finishing it over the weekend.

It started off somewhat slow, so I had a little trouble getting into it. Jury duty helped with that a lot, as I left myself at least a good half-hour to read in the jury impaneling room every day. I got through the boring stuff and it started getting interesting.

I read it a little bit on and off for a while after that, then last week I found myself at the point where I couldn't put it down.

Of course, having never seen the film, I had no idea at all what to expect. That probably helped a lot.

I'm gonna have to go rent it sometime soon.

Anyway, I'm a few chapters into Red Dragon now and I'm digging it.

Technorati Tags: ,

Monday, July 28, 2008

Quote of the day

Dr. Eduardo Garcia-Novelli "Don't throw in the sponge"

- Dr. Eduardo Garcia-Novelli

Yesterday at church we had a going away luncheon for Dr. G., who served as choir director for both our church and Lamar (the local university). He's moving up to Wisconsin, where both him and his wife have gotten jobs teaching at universities near each other.

Dr. G's from Argentina, so sometimes he gets English sayings wrong. One of his students from Lamar said that once, about the point in the semester where everybody gets tired and everything, that Dr. G told them "Don't throw in the sponge," and that it's become a bit of a catch-phrase around the music department since.

Dr. G's am amazingly talented director who's gotten more out of us than we would have ever thought we were capable of, and he will be missed.

(The above picture of Dr. G taken from Lamar's website for the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance)

Sunday, July 27, 2008

My pimp name

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

Your Pimp Name Is...
Pimp Daddy Glider

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

Technorati Tags: ,

Friday, July 25, 2008

Talking to the team

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

Dug up an old hockey shot of the coach doing his job during a playoff game for this week.

Talking to the team

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Looking for racism in all the wrong places, looking for racism in too many faces

  s_chicken
  Free photos for websites - FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Apparently someone things that this, posted outside a loval realtor's office, is racist:

A TAXPAYER VOTING BARACK OBAMA IS LIKE A CHICKEN VOTING FOR COLONEL SANDERS

Apparently it's because of the chicken:

"Pretty much everyone I know eats chicken. It's a stereotype, a known fact, that with racist jokes and slurs it goes with blacks," says (Kandice) Kennedy.

Kennedy says she did her homework asking everyone she knew how they felt about the sign, and she says they found it offensive.

Of course, the sign has nothing to do with race according to the realtor:

But (realtor Bob) Costilow says that's not the case. He says his message is about Barack Obama's stance on changing the Capital Gains Tax.

"If that we're McCain's views on tax changes, his name would be up there just as quick as Obama's. Nothing to do with skin color," says Costilow.

All that message does for me is make me want some KFC.

And it reminds me of a Filthy Lie I did a couple years back, but I digress.

Anyway, since I'm no expert on race relations I asked a friend of mine who happens to be black if she thought it was. Her response: "No. It's just a simile."

Which, ironically, is the same thing I thought about it.

Just another case of people looking for racism in places where it isn't. I'm not saying he was right, but with things like this I can see why Phil Gramm thinks we've become "a nation of whiners."

And my apologies to Waylon Jennings for butchering his song for my title.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Wall Street gets shit-faced?

  Wine glass
  Free photos for websites - FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you haven't heard Bush's comments about how Wall Street "got drunk" and is now "hung over," then here they are:

"There's no question about it. Wall Street got drunk — that's one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras — it got drunk and now it's got a hangover," Bush said at a private fundraiser for Republican congressional candidate Pete Olson. "The question is: How long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments?"

Well that was blunt, wasn't it?

And, I'm no economist, but from what I read it sounds like a fairly accurate comparison.

So what's the big deal here? Why the hell is this even news?

Sometimes I just wonder...

Fail of the day

I know, I know. I'm doing too many of these "of the day" posts, but I couldn't pass this one up!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Fail of the day

You (well, at least I) seem to see these kind of ads on the web, which makes this even funnier:

fail owned pwned pictures
see more pwn and owned pictures

Uh, no thanks to that first one... doesn't really look my type.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Well, I like the idea...

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

You Should Spend Your Summer on a Road Trip
For you, the summer is all about possibilities. And you're not going to be tied down.
This is the time for you to embark on an epic road trip, with no ultimate destination in mind.
You know you'll have a ton of crazy adventures... at least until you run out of cash!

Like I could afford to with these gas prices!

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

Like I really could afford a road trip with how gas prices are now!

(I should probably point out that this post was scheduled over a month ago, so there's no telling what gas prices are like now as compared to early June when I wrote this post.

Yes, that's right, I schedule these posts out far ahead of time.

Deal with it.

Technorati Tags: ,

Friday, July 18, 2008

It's the 4th, y'all!

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

This week I've got some pictures from my church's 4th of July celebration a couple of weeks ago.

The train

Kids riding the "train" around the block. I'm not sure why the little kids love this so much, but they do.

Making visors

The slide Above: The church's seniors group helps a kid make a patriotic visor.

Right: Kids play on the big inflatable slide set up in the church's courtyard.

I didn't stick around long enough to get pictures of the fireworks. Not that it would have mattered since I didn't bring the Rebel, just my little point and shoot digital.

Technorati Tags:

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

So, can we please put this thing about how the All-Star Game decides home field for the World Series to rest?

Lit Up LidgeProbably not, but I can hope right?

After watching that insanity last night (the AL winning 4-3 in the 15th), I'm more convinced than ever that it's the biggest crock of bullshit in all of sports.

Every other major professional sport decides who gets home field/court/ice by who has the best record. Why the hell can't baseball do that?

Sure, you could argue that you want the game to mean something. But a 15-inning war of attrition with the way rosters are handled in an All-Star game played two teams in which the vast majority of players involved will not be playing in October shouldn't decide anything.

Neither should any game that's played in that style.

Is it really too much to want the two teams that make the World Series decide who gets home field based on what they did over 162 games?

I guess so.

Either way, it sure was a hell of a game, wasn't it?

And, no, I couldn't resist breaking out the old Lit Up Lidge avatar I'd made while he was still an Astro, seeing as how he struck again. :)

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

More from Jesse Jackson

Turns out that Conan "uncovered" more from Jesse Jackson's talking about Obama.

You can see it here.

The outrage!

(I tried embedding it, but it didn't work right)

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Not sure how to describe this one...

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

All this one required was for you to pick a picture out of a set of nine:

Your Personality Profile
You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant.
Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle.
You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs.

For you, comfort and calm are very important.
You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection.
You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

Technorati Tags:

Friday, July 11, 2008

There's a big bear in the backyard!

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

See, the big Bear:

Big Bear

I was planning to use this picture last week, but since it was the 4th I decided to have it wait a week.

It's still an awesome picture of the boy.

Technorati Tags: ,,

I had to go and make this a lot harder than it could have been, didn't I?

Wednesday afternoon I woke my computer from sleep mode and it made this awful noise. I knew from the start that the problem was a fan, so I shut it down and cleaned them.

Well, that didn't fix it.

So I started testing fans to see which it was, and quickly figured out that it was coming from the power supply.

I took it out and dusted it out good. Still no dice.

Most techs at this point would replace that power supply, and that's what I was leaning towards.

Except I didn't feel like buying a new one.

Because I'm cheap and replacing the fan is hella cheaper.

So yesterday after lunch I bought a fan to replace the one that was bad. I had to more or less take the power supply completely apart to get the old one to remove it. Two of the screws were in places I couldn't get my screwdriver so I had to get creative.

Then I slapped the new one in and tested it on the power supply's internal fan plug. No dice. Oh well, I said to myself, I'll just hook it up like any other case fan.

Put it all back together and now here I am.

Even with as much of a pain as that was, taking at least an hour and a half, the $40 or so I saved by just buying a new fan was worth the effort.

Technorati Tags:

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Done with jury duty

Not much to say about it, really.

Monday: Wasn't assigned to anything, though I was deathly afraid when they started calling out names for people that were assigned to the grand jury pool. I have no desire to serve on that!

Tueaday: Was assigned to the Drug Impact court, but was told we weren't needed. I'm assuming whoever was up plead out since the court has a program where first-time offenders can avoid jail time if they go to rehab and stay clean for an amount of time.

Wednesday: Wasn't assigned to anything and was released.

I would have blogged about this earlier, but I started having computer problems yesterday. More about that later.

Technorati Tags:

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Heaven forbid you hurt their feelings!

An Ohio town has canceled it's little league all-star game.

Why? Because some kids might have their feelings hurt:

The City of Beachwood has decided to break tradition and cancel a Little League All-Star game for children ages 9-12.
In March, Beachwood Mayor Merle Gordon sent a letter to parents of children involved in the Little League program stating the city was canceling the All-Star game based on information provided in an article written by the founder of the National Alliance for Youth Sports, Fred Engh.

The article suggested that All-Star games take away from sportsmanship and hurts the self esteem of players, especially younger players.

In the article Engh states, "There's nothing like sticking a dagger into a youngster's self-esteem the first season he plays the sport by letting him know that he's not good enough or considered worthy to be part of this elite group of teammates. That's not the message we want to send to children who are already less active and more obese than any previous generation in history."

What a crock of shit! Then again, that's what parenting's turned into these days. Nothing but being concerned that you might hurt your kids feelings and doing everything possible to avoid doing so.

I know I'm gonna sound like a cold-hearted bastard for saying this, but sometimes kids need to have their feelings hurt. The fact is that the world isn't always a happy place where everything goes right. Kids need a taste of that before they get out on their own or they're going to end up shooting up a post office when they get out in the real world and see that not everybody is, in fact, worried about stomping on their feelings.

Hm, maybe I should have kids after all. It's not like I could do worse than these folks in preparing my kids for the harsh realities of this world.

(H/T Deadspin)

Technorati Tags: ,

LOLdog of the day

dog
see more dog pictures

Reminds me of Bruiser.

By the way, you can click on the image to see a larger version.

Monday, July 07, 2008

You know it's summer in Southeast Texas when ...

... you walk outside a building and break a sweat on the way to your car in the parking lot ...

... at 9:15 AM.

True story, it really happened to me this morning leaving the courthouse.

Blogging will be light today

Blogging will be light today.

Remember how I got summoned from on high a few weeks ago?

Yea, well, the summons said to show up at the courthouse at the same time this is scheduled to publish.

So, unless something happened, I'm at the courthouse right now. Probably in line to get into the impaneling room.

Who knows what I'm in for this week.

Regular blogging will resume... uh... well it should resume sometime. Probably when I'm done with jury duty.

Technorati Tags:

LOLcat of the day

cat
more cat pictures

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Well, I could be like England, so...

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

You Belong in the USA
Sweet!
People either love you or hate you
And you really don't care what anyone thinks
Big and bold, you do things your way

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

Technorati Tags:

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Well I think that sums it up nicely

I went up to my church's 4th of July celebration for a little while yesterday and took the camera that my mom gave me last week.

While I was up there, I saw this on the back of a little BMW convertible:

Drill here, Drill now, Pay less

That pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

Friday, July 04, 2008

A couple to mark the occasion

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

This week I've got a couple to mark today's date, both from the Astros' 2006 Opening Day. You can click each image to be taken to it's page in the photo gallery.

IMG_0011

IMG_0012

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

You'll want to see Wanted

Yesterday I went and saw Wanted. It's the story of seemingly normal guy Wes Gibson (James McAvoy) who's recruited to be an assassin for an ancient group called The Fraternity.

I won't reveal too much of the plot but I'll drop some comments random thoughts style:

  • Morgan Freeman's character Sloan is bad-ass, especially when he tells you to "shoot that motherfucker!"
  • Watch the letters that fly off the keyboard when someone gets whacked upside the head with it.
  • Fox (Angelina Jolie) is hot (in a somewhat freaky way). And Jolie's performance in this flick is pretty good.
  • The special effects were awesome. Like The Matrix on crack awesome. I've never seen anything like them before.
  • The plot was pretty strong for an action movie. Had a good story that had plenty of turns you weren't expecting to see happen.

All in all, this is an awesome flick. It's just as good as The Bucket List was to me, but for totally different reasons.

I'm giving it an 8 and telling y'all that it's worth every penny you'll spend to see it at the theater, as well as the gas you put in your car, the meal you eat, and anything else related to the experience you can think of, assuming you like action flicks.

So, yea, go see it. Like now.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

And that's it for the spring season

Finished up softball tonight.

Had a lot of fun.

We lost the first game, one in which I was more than content to not play in. It was pretty ugly.

I walked, scored a run, and struck out in the second game, which we won 11-6.

The fall season can't get here soon enough.

Here are the final numbers:

BA: .308 (4-13) OBP: .438 (7-16) 1B: 4 BB: 3 K: 3 RBI: 3

Technorati Tags: