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.

A few quick items

I've got some things that need to be said but nothing big enough for it's own post, so here it comes in sections:

A technical note

Due to an issue with extended entries not showing up on permalink pages, I've set up the "Read more..." links to direct you to the permalink pages instead of showing you the rest of the post. It's the only way I could find to resolve the issue and meant that I didn't have to change the coding in any posts, just my template.

Bruiser's ear infection

I just thought I'd pass on a quick update on Bruiser's ear infection.

One of the giveaway signs (and one that makes sense now that I think about it) is shaking their heads a lot.

Bruiser has gotten to the point where he's not doing that at all. The only time he's been doing it lately is when we either give him the drips or do a cleaning, which is to be expected.

He's gotten really good about doing the drops but still fights it when we clean his ears. I'm hoping that he stops with that soon because he's in for that about once a week for the rest of his life.

Taffy settling in nicely

Taffy and the boys have been getting along pretty well. I think Petey's a little intimidated by her size, but they'll get used to each other eventually.

She seems to have gotten to the point where she knows that this is her house and is starting to act like it. She's started barking at things the same way Petey always has. Petey's got a really loud, high-pitched bark that's more goofy sounding than intimidating, but Taffy's bark is deep, loud, and would be kind of scary if you weren't expecting it.

I hope to get more pictures of her up for Friday dogblogging this week.

Well, that's all I can think of, so see y'all later I guess.

Crossposted to Through our eyes in a slightly different form

Hey, look at me!

As promised, a better look at Taffy, our newest resident:

I'm such a good girl, I don't even have to be told to sit!

NOTE: The shaved part of her tail is from an abscess that was treated recently by her vet in Fort Worth. It's healed up now and she should be fine.

I'm way bigger than Bruiser is.

I'm also silly.

She seems to be setting into our house really well and is getting along with the boys pretty well.

In other news, Bruiser has an ear infection. It's a common ailment for any dog with ears like that, as their ears tend to be warm, moist, and not have much air going in or out. He's on ear drops twice a day and will be getting them cleaned once a day for about two weeks, and then we'll be cleaning them about once a week after that, just to keep all that nasty gunk out of there.

He'll be fine.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Updated: Introducing Taffy

Say hello to Taffy. We're on our way home now. I'll post more pictures later.

UPDATE: We're home and I'll shoot some pictures after I take Bruiser to the vet later

The best laid plans always manage to get blown to shit one way or another - part 2

An update to the previous saga.

We left for Conroe about 9 this morning. About 10:30, just west of Cleveland. I finally thought to call the people we were meeting and tell them that my cell was out of commission and to reach us on a different number.

Naturally, they'd tried to get ahold of me to tell me that they had problems. Their transmission started slipping and they had to head back to Fort Worth.

We're hoping to get another shot at this on Saturday, we'll know more tonight.

OK, so I guess I should tell you what we were gonna be picking up.

Her name's Taffy. She's a four year old German Shepherd that used to be my grandmother's brother's dog. When he died a few months ago, some of our other family up that way took her in, but they're moving and can't bring her so she's coming to live with us. We met her when we were staying up there for Rita. She's a real sweetie and she should fit in nicely.

The best laid plans always manage to get blown to shit one way or another

I planned on sending a picture of the newest addition to the blog from my cell phone to be posted here.

That's not gonna happen.

My cell phone seems to have decided that it needs initial programming all of a sudden and to not receive a signal so I can fix that.

My guess is that the piece of shit's broke.

Guess that I'll be taking a trip to Verizon after I get back from Conroe to get it dealt with, which is just about the last place I want to be on a day like tomorrow.

How useful is a poll here?

Blogger just gave us the functionality to set up polls in the sidebar, so I decided to get an idea from y'all about the usefulness of one.

The polls close in about a week, and if there's good results maybe I'll do a goofy poll every week.

Updated: COMING SOON

On Tuesday there'll be a new addition to this blog, something that you've never seen on here before. Ever.

But what is it?

I'm not telling, so feel free to speculate on what it is in the comments.

UPDATE: I'm going to give a hint every day through Twitter and this post.

7/21 - It involves Huntsville Conroe (that aspect of the plans was changed on us this morning)

7/22 - It comes in a package deal with some other stuff you may or may not see.

7/23 - It involves a girl named Wendy.

Twitter: We are no longer friends

Twitter, the service that I can't think of a way to describe, has decided that it's users are no longer friends.

After careful consideration and user testing, we are no longer going to define people as your "friends." The functionality of adding people remains, but the interaction is focused on the term "follow" instead. We've also added a "notifications" toggle which allows you to turn on updates via SMS or IM on a person-by-person basis.

So all the people that I was "friends" with are now people that I "follow." And people that were "friends" with me are now my "followers."

I'm kind of liking this whole having "followers" thing. It's like being the center of my own personal religion. The "Cult of Justin," if you will. Because, yea, I'm so worth worshiping.

Not that I'd let something like that go to my head or anything.

Now, when will you join the Cult of Justin?

OK, in all seriousness, if a cult forms to worship me then they all should be thrown in the nuthouse.

I mean, pick someone cool to worship.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

You'd think that they convicted him already!

Vick

While everybody freaks out over how Michael Vick should be suspended now that he's indicted, I'm not.

I mean, seriously, did we not learn anything from burying the Duke Lacrosse kids before we found out that Mike Nifong was so crooked?

I guess not.

Look, if he did it then fine. Bury him, shoot him, whatever. Someone who abuses animals deserves it. But wait until the legal process plays out. That's what it's for, after all.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Blogging vacations

Some people feel like they need to tell people when they're taking a vacation from blogging.

Not me.

I mean, yea, I could. But considering how I tend to be on the light side when it comes to blogging I just figure that people won't notice.

Someone check that dog...

Thursday was a really short day for me, and it was all my fault.

I didn't get up to the office until about 10:30 because the doc had a few calls to make before he got in the office. The moment I got to the office, I realized that I forgot my wallet, which I never forget, so I told him I didn't plan on staying past lunch since I wouldn't have money for it.

We saw a couple of dogs for routine stuff then spayed a cat. We had to get the gloves out to get this cat out of it's kennel because it didn't want anything to do with us. We gave her the shot and let her loose in the exam room, where she ran and hid until she went to sleep. I was then told that the fight that one put up was nothing, they've had a few hanging from the ceiling.

Friday was more interesting...

I got in on time, but the doc was running late. By the time he got there, we had about 5 dogs in the waiting room. From what I can remember, they were all pretty routine. After that, it went to two surgeries.

"	Someone check that dog to see if it has testicles	"

The first one was on a golden retriever mix. His owner said that he was coming in for a spay but I was pretty sure it was a boy dog from when he came in earlier this week, which is when the doc said "Someone check that dog to see if it has testicles." Long story short, it definitely was a boy. Surgery went off without a hitch.

Next was a cat who was in for being neutered and declawed. This cat was doing a lot of meowing in his kennel so we all thought he'd be a fighter like the one yesterday. He was a pretty timid fellow, not putting up a fight at all. Another surgery that went pretty smoothly. Then we headed to lunch

After lunch (or at least I think it was after) we had a cat come in whose owner thought it's hair was falling out. It's skin was healthy and the hair was growing back, so it didn't look like it was falling out. Turns out something in it's life had changed and it had basically been driven crazy to the point it was pulling out it's hair. We put it on some all-natural stuff that tends to have better results than that kitty prozac stuff they sell and it should be fine.

The last one we had come in was a baby goat (A little smaller than my dogs) that wasn't able to stand up and was grinding it's teeth. It showed all the signs of a thiamine (Vitamin B₁) deficiency, which affects motor skills. He'd probably picked this up from eating some sort of fungus or toxic plant, and is more common with the weather we've been having lately (lots of rain, followed by some hot, sunny days). He's getting thiamine shots and will need a lot of TLC to kick this thing. His survival basically depends on how bad it's messed with the white matter in his brain, so there's no guarantees for the cutie.

I won't be going back in until Wednesday because the doc's got a doctors appointment on Monday that's cutting his day to a short morning and I've got an eye doctor's appointment in Houston on Tuesday.

Sometime before then, I'll put a post together about how much I'm enjoying this experience so far.

Tired as a dog

Wprking with a vet lately has left me worn out at the end of a lot of days, and apparently I'm not alone:

Don't drag me into this, I slept a lot before you started working out there.

Or not...

Crossposted to Through our eyes

And this little piggy got a nut removed from his belly

TinyPic keyword search: pig

A pig, but definitely not one that I saw during these recent experiences since I found the image on TinyPic.

Since I didn't do any blogging before now, I'll be doing some catching up.

Monday was a fairly uneventful day. A dog came in with mange that I made an effort to keep my distance from in an effort to not bring it home to my boys, then a discussion on the doc's theory that people's immune systems are weaker than they used to be because of, among other things, people washing their hands so much. I don't have a medical degree, so don't ask me what to think about it.

Another dog came in that the emergency vet clinic though had Parvo "a little." You either got it or you don't, there's no having it "a little." It's then that I learned that you see a lot of cases four or five days after Memorial Day, the 4th, or Labor day, of dogs that ate barbecue. Their systems can't handle spicy foods. He was given some meds to flush his system and should be ok in a few days.

Then it was off to the farm. We hopped in the truck and went to take blood from a few cows. No big deal besides muddying up my shoes. Then we went to another farm where we were castrating a few pigs before they would be taken to show. We were able to do two on site but the third needed to be brought in and operated on because he had an undescended testicle.

After that, I headed home, then took Tuesday off since I'm not being paid for this.

The big thing today was that pig mentioned earlier coming in for surgery to remove the testicle which was still in his abdominal cavity. The surgery went smoothly and that pig is now not the man he used to be just like his buddies.

We had a few dogs come in for shots and one come in with heart problems. She wasn't on the right medication regiment (through the fault of a "heart specialist" in the Carolinas), so we fixed that. Other than those, everybody was in for shots.

No idea what I'll be looking at tomorrow.

Something I may never see again.

It's been raining all week.

Every day when I've drove in it's been raining.

The first thing we saw today was a dog with tetanus. Incredibly rare. Only the fourth dog that he's seen with it in his career of well over 20 years. The other three that had it survived so I think chances for him are pretty good. He'll be on tranquilizers and fluids until the bug gets out of his system.

We had a few other emergencies come in. Had a black lab that was hit by a 4-wheeler and some little bitty blind 15 year old dog that got his butt kicked in a fight with another dog. They both were given some shots and some pills to help with their problems.

A few dogs came in for shots, nothing too interesting there.

We had a couple spays. A fairly big dog and a cat with a uterus infection. I watched both and managed to not get sick. Both went pretty smoothly.

And then there was the necropsy (the word autopsy only applies when it's done to another human, some sort of latin thing) of a pig that died suddenly just before I left. Nothing fancy, just cutting him open in the bed of a truck and taking a look at his organs. Looked like a lung infection, probably not contagious to the other pigs.

I'm worn out, I need some sleep.

You did WHAT to that cow?

No, I didn't do anything.

Today I got my first exposure to the not-so-pretty elements of being a vet. More on that later.

First patient of the day was a rottweiler with an arthritic leg that was coming in for a second opinion. The vet he'd been going to uses homeopathic treatments, which, as Dr. Hall put it, are only effective to a certain extent. He put the rottweiler on some regular medicine for it and said that he should be better in a few days.

After that, we looked at a cow that was struggling with going to the bathroom. She was outside in a trailer, her owners had brought her to the clinic.

In the course of the examination, the doc put on a humongous plastic glove and stuck his arm up one of the cow's holes (I wasn't about to get close enough to see which one, I'm too green for that yet I think). I'm standing back, watching this unfold in the parking lot, amazingly unfazed by it all. I just wonder what all the people driving by on FM 365 were thinking.

After that, I got in my chick moment for the day when a lady brought in her eight week old beagle for his first round of shots. He was so adorable, as beagle puppies tend to be.

Last set we saw were two of my mom's dogs that needed shots. One of them gets REALLY carsick, so my mom brought her in one of those cages with the removable pans. I hosed down the pan while Dr. Hall gave them their shots. He gave the carsick one some stuff that helps with carsickness and gave my mom the rest of the syringe (it comes in them) for future car trips. It's just something you squirt on their ear and rub in... the skin absorbs it.

After that, he said I could go because he was taking a long lunch and there wasn't anything much scheduled for the afternoon.

Tomorrow comes a real test for what I can handle, as he's doing a couple of spays.

I think I'll be ok though, Lately I've been watching a lot of my House DVD's and only turned my head once, and that wasn't even for one of those nasty medical mockups, but when Chase kisses the cancer kid in the second season episode Autopsy.

The first day

Remember this a few weeks back?

Today I finally made it into his office for the first time. Don't ask why it took this long.

It was an interesting day. Very interesting.

I headed out to his clinic, which is about half an hour away, and got there at about 1:45. He was out of the office but was due in any minute. He was in about a minute later and things went to shit fast.

A dog that was brought in (for what I don't recall) got nervous in the exam room, leaving the room in a diarrhea-type mess. The doc had her taken outside while his assistant cleaned up in there.

Someone brought in a goat to be gelded. Seeing that made *me* hurt down there. Poor guy.

Then I got my first trip out in the field to take a look at a horse the owner thought had a bad eye. The eyes looked fine, but the doc noticed that he was walking a little funny. It wasn't a big deal, basically the equivalent of having a rock in your shoe.

It was a fairly uneventful afternoon.

I'll be going back Thursday and am planning on spending the whole day there.

EDIT: After some thinking, I realized it might be better to keep things as anonymous as possible... not exactly sure how privacy rules come into play about this kind of stuff.

The No Fun League hates people who use the internets

(Hat-tip: Deadspin)

The NFL, in their infinite marketing wisdom, has stumbled upon a grand idea: Limiting online video.

In a move designed to protect the Internet operations of its 32 teams, the pro football league has told news organizations that it will no longer permit them to carry unlimited online video clips of players, coaches or other officials, including video that the news organizations gather themselves on a team's premises. News organizations can post no more than 45 seconds per day of video shot at a team's facilities, including news conferences, interviews and practice-field reports.

Is this bullshit or is this bullshit?

Honestly... this is ridiculous. All the NFL wants is for us to get all the video from the team's sites. And that fucking blows. I'm not going to the Texans web site to get my news on the team. Hell, when I had season tickets the only time I ever went to their site was to check the roof forecast (their guess on if the roof would be open or not). Simply put, I don't trust the team to tell it like it is on their site. I want to hear from independent people who don't have to kiss the team's ass for fear of losing their jobs.

I didn't renew my season tickets and I doubt I get them again anytime in the forseeable future. Hell, if this is the case, I might just stay away from football this year, although it's not like watching the Astros has been pleasant this year.

At least Houston Chronicle NFL writer (and Hall of Fame member) John McClain had a humorous take on it:

Technorati Tags: NFL, No Fun League, internet video

Sleepwalking into a Turkish prison takes a journey

I'd written what I thought was a pretty good 100 word story for this week's weekly challenge.

I recorded it, edited in a couple of sound effects (from here), and sent the email to Laurence. I had the text of my story, the ides for the next topic, the link to my blog. I had everything in there...

...but the recording.

Yea, I'm just smart like that.

I sent the recording to Laurence on Saturday after I got an email, a direct message on Twitter, and goodness knows what else from him about it.

Instead of editing it into the challenge, he posted it on it's own today. (Recording here).

Here's the text:

My wife always said that I sleepwalk, but I didn't believe her... until now.

While on vacation in Turkey recently, I pushed a woman over a bridge while sleepwalking.

My lawyer tried to get me out of it, unsuccessfully.

I was sentenced to thirty-five years in a prison on the outskirts of Istanbul for my crime.

I don't sleepwalk anymore. Hell, I barely sleep. I live my days in constant fear that my cellmate, Big Willy, will make me bend over for another "special moment." I wish I were dead.

Why couldn't I have just sleepwalked off of that bridge?

Crossposted to Through our eyes

 

UPDATED: Blame my ISP for late blogging

Apparently my ISP doesn't want me blogging today. Their DNS servers
are down, crippling our web service to only sites where our computers
already know their IP addresses.

Hopefully It'll be back by the time that I get back from the 'Stros game.

UPDATE: it's now fixed.

One suite deal

I got a call from my cousin earlier.

Seems that the place she retired from recently is taking a bus trip to Minute Maid tomorrow for the Astros game. They've rented a suite and everything.

A few tickets became available because people realized they couldn't go after all, and I'm taking one of them.

If you haven't heard, Craig Biggio's at 2.997 career hits, on the verge of becoming only the 27th player in MLB history to ever get into the 3,000 hit club. And I just might get to see it... as long as Biggio doesn't get three tonight.

If he does, then oh well.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Technorati Tags: Astros, Craig Biggio, 3000 hit club

Blogger hates RSS

No, really, it does.

For some reason, the last few posts I've done haven't automatically published to the RSS feed of the blog.

I've had to republish the post a few times before it would.

I'll try to keep an eye on this for the two of y'all that read this place via RSS.

Technorati Tags: Blogger, RSS

UPDATED: Joey, have you ever been to a Turkish prison?

Last week I said I was going to write something about Turkish prisons.

That one never got written... mostly because I kept wanting to reference Captain Oveur from some 1980's movie.

But an idea came to me once the sleepwalking topic was posted, so I'll be integrating them into one story.

A semi-related rant (UPDATE: And an update) below the fold, so be warned.

Laurence addressed all the people voting for someone without listening to the podcast. And you know what, I totally agree with him!

I'm just not gonna be so nice about it.

I've got nothing against Jenny, I really don't. She's great.

But I do have a problem with people who tell the other eight people (and that Z guy), who bust their ass putting their submissions together that their work just doesn't matter.

So, I started to listen but my attention span was extremely short, I had no interest in listening to a guy (a bunch of guys...) I've never heard of before and so I jumped straight to the voting.

Screw listening. I just voted for you. You are winning!

Thank you, all you ignorant fucking human sheep, for coming in and taking a shit on the entire idea of the contest. It's not a fucking popularity contest people, it's a "who had the best story" contest. Either listen and vote your conscience or fuck off, ok?

Now, seriously, I'd like to thank those of you who contribute. Without y'all the weekly challenge wouldn't exist. I'd also like to thank all the people that listen and vote their conscience every week, you guys are awesome.

Let's just not have all this happen again, ok? :)

FULL DISCLOSURE: I did vote for her, but because I thought her story was the best. What can I say, I go for the odd stories.

UPDATE: Jenny's disqualified herself from the contest. As Laurence says about it:

A rare instance of honor among bloggers and podcasters.

I'm saluting you right alongside him.

Technorati Tags: sleepwalking, turkish prison, weekly challenge, 100 word stories, human sheep

Joining the realm of the uncensored

Jenny from Mama Drama is now also The Bloggess.

Congrats for escaping the evil MSM blogosphere and joining the real one, where you can indeed "curse and talk about blow jobs" whenever the fuck you want to.

How the fuck did this happen?

Really, I'm fucking serious here:

And the rating was based on these words:

• dead (3x)
• sexy (2x)
• steal (1x)

Obviously I'm just not fucking trying hard enough.

So... um...

MORE DIRTY WORDS!!!

Kids shouldn't be reading this blog anyway. Go play around on fucking MySpace.

All I needed to know about the iPhone...

...I learned from Nick Anderson.

Who knows, maybe it's just me, but it seems silly to pay $500+ for a cell phone, no matter what it does.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Baseball, mexican food, Turkish prisons and other crap you probably don't care about

The MamaDramaConQueso meetup. More pictures here.

It was an interesting weekend.

Saturday I drove over to Houston for MamaDramaConQueso. I got to meet some great people like Jenny from Mama Drama and Evil Dwight. Jenny, Mr. Crap, and I had an interesting discussion of topics like death threats, blood donor cats, stuffed buffalo and tackling drunk, topless women after you take pictures of them.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that Jenny was right when she said that conversation was podcast material.

It seems that I got lucky with the food at Molina's being so-so. More on that later.

After that I had a few hours to burn before the Astros game. First thing I did was go over to the Galleria and grab a Frappuccino (or however you spell it).

On I think Wednesday last week the check engine light came on in my car. I was actually planning on taking it to AutoZone to get the code off of the computer today. Well, sometime between getting to Molina's and getting to the game it went dark. And not because the bulb went out. I guess it was just a false positive. Oh well, I'll take it.

Oh yea, the baseball game.

I got there about 4:15, found my seat, and relaxed. I'd given Mr. Crap his ticket, so I waited for him.

And waited.

And waited.

In the second inning I called his cell and left a voicemail. I got a call back a few minutes later. Read this and you'll see why he didn't make it. And why I said I got lucky with nothing more than so-so food.

He missed a hell of a game. The Astros have seemed to find their offense, winning that game 9-4.

Fast forward to early this morning.

Bruiser wake me up wanting to go outside. I figured he needed to pee, so I put his leash on and took him out front.

The moment I opened the door he tried to take off sprinting. He probably saw the cat that's been hanging in our front yard lately. I practically had to drag a VERY strong 40-pound dog back inside.

And that, my friends, is why you never trust a hound off a leash in an uncontrolled environment. If their hunting instincts are activated, and I'm thinking that's what happened, they won't listen to anybody.

One of the things on my list of things to do this week is write a 100-word story about how I spent my summer vacation inside a Turkish prison for the 100 Word Stories Weekly Challenge.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Technorati Tags: Molina's, Astros, beagle, blogging

It's like an interview... but not, I guess

This Friday I'll be paying a visit to the veterinarian that my mom takes her dogs to. Apparently she told him that I was taking the assistant courses and that I was looking for a job in that line of work.

If I understood what my mom said, he's willing to bring me on as more or less an intern for a short time so I can learn the ropes and get some practical experience. If I do well, there'll probably be a position made available for me.

I'm pumped about this. I'll finally get some hands on experience in what I've been studying AND get some experience with larger animals (like cows and horses) too.

I just hope everything goes well on Friday.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

My apologies...

...to those of y'all who read this place via RSS.

Apparently when I make any sort of edit to a post, Blogger (in it's infinite stupidity) bumps that post up to the top of the RSS feed. I made a bunch of changes to labels earlier and apparently that's enough to do it.

So... in the meantime... check out the HTML version.

Random Thoughts: Brought to you by Twitter!

One of the advantages of having Twitter is that I can send little tidbits that pop in my mind to it. Most of these are from there, but some don't.

• I've never watched the Sopranos, but if a show I loved ended like that I'd be pissed.
• The snooze button is only as good as the person working the alarm clock. I have a bad habit of turning the alarm off and rolling over.
• What are the odds that Paris stays in for the rest of her sentence?
• More importantly, what are the odds that they'll never let her out.
• Also, what are the odds that I'd get released for sobbing uncontrollably in jail? I think the odds of me getting my ass kicked for it are much stronger.
• Just wondering.... how do they determine if something has more cola taste than something else? Is there some sort of machine to measure that kinda stuff?
• Ever since I transferred a car to my name I've been getting junk mail about extended warranties. Like two a week. I wouldn't mind TxDOT selling my info near as much if they were using the money to, say, build the new alignment of US 69 or to finish up making I-10 three lanes each way all the way out to Houston.
• We need a name for a church softball team. The Blasphemers was rejected for some reason.
• Is it just me or should people who work in a pizza place tell you when your order will be ready when you're gonna pick it up? I swear they didn't the last time I ordered one.

Ok, so almost all of them came from Twitter over the last month.

I think I'll do this more.

Technorati Tags: random thoughts

MamaDramaConQueso

MamaDramaConQueso, a get together being organized by Jenny from Mama Drama and Girl con Queso, is being held this Saturday in Houston.

You can find all the info here, but all you really need to know is that you need to RSVP over at Mama Drama if you're wanting to go and that I'll be there. Because, ya know, I'm the life of the party wherever I go and all.

Oh, who am I kidding. Laurence is gonna be there. I can't compete with him.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

I'm not dead

Well, at least I don't think I am. I've just been a tad bit under the weather and blogging isn't a priority.

Disappointment over Paris

When I turned on the tube this morning, I saw that Paris Hilton was let out of jail early because of an "unspecified medical condition."

I'm disappointed.

And not so much that she was let out early, although I can all but promise you that a normal person wouldn't be released.

Nope, it's not that.

Part of me was hoping that she'd never be released just so I wouldn't have to hear about her anymore.

So, how long until another lousy sex tape comes out?

Not that I've ever seen one. I've just heard that they were bad.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Technorati Tags: Paris Hilton

Ouchies

I can see why this isn't on TV...

It hurt me just to watch it!

Technorati Tags: Rolling Rock, commercial

How geeky is it?

I'm keeping track of baseball stats for a friend of mine. Last night, I made a spreadsheet so I wouldn't have to do all the math myself.

How geeky is that?

Technorati Tags: baseball, stats, statistics, spreadsheet, geeky

Carnival of the Cats #167

It's time for the Carnival of the Cats again, brought to you by Bruiser, The Feline Theocracy's Holy Ambassador to the Kingdom of Dogs.

But what is the Carnival of the Cats, you ask? And why would a dog host it? Well, let me help.

First, about the Carnival:

The Carnival of the Cats is a weekly roundup of cat-related posts on weblogs. Its purpose is to provide a non-political respite from the vehement echo chamber that the Blogopshere spins itself into during the week, demonstrating that even the mightiest and meekest of pundits have a love of cats in common.

As for why a dog's hosting, I'll let Bruiser address that himself.

It is my belief that doing this will help in my continued efforts to bridge the gap between the two species.

I know we've had our differences in the past on many things, but I sincerely hope that we can put those problems in the past. I have a dream that one day we will all stand beside each other, paw in paw, and get along.

We've got a long road ahead of us if that's going to happen, but I believe we can do it.

With that said, let's get it started:

Since I said anything lolcats would go first, here goes...

lolcats:

• Jonathan Deamer takes a look at the inherent hilarity of cats.

Just my luck there'd only be one. Oh well.

The Rest:

• Beaman's World writes about breakfast.
• It's nap time over at OldController.
• Elisson's Matats has a womb with a view.
• Living the Scientific Life tells us that DNA testing has found that cheetahs get around.

So they have at least one thing in common with Paris Hilton?

• The Poor Mouth has Flrebathing Mimi. I promise this isn't something that will piss off PETA.
• Texas Oasis has found the real name for "bottlebrush" and has Alex.
• Gus Van Horn's cat is fatter than yours.
• Mélange has wishful thinking about a hummingbird and a cousin's cats.
• Chris Dolley has The Return of the Kai. Not quite Return of the Jedi, but close.
• Over at Manx Menws Abby's seeing aliens, although it looks more like a German Shepherd to me.
• At House of Chaos, little Hrimnir introduces himself.
• The Scratching Post brings us poetry about cats.

I CAN HAS POEM?

• Catymology has a feline that needs a little help and somebody who caught a chipmunk.
• This, That & The Other Thing show us what cats go through when you remodel their house.
• Anniemiz brings us some old pictures of Slim.
• Her Ladyship uses Rahel's foot as a pillow over at Elms in the Yard.
• Wes Phillips over at Stereophile says that Huckleberry wants a job. Bagheera is also in the zone.
• AyeAye tries to steal home over at Composite Drawlings. Was Andy Pettitte pitching then too?
• Momma Grace gave Audace a bath at Momma Grace & Company's namesake gave Audace a bath.
• Sisu shares the joys of spring.

Another joy of spring is that I get to be outside with Petey more!

• Begin Each Day brings us Tummy Tuesday.
• Izzy over at Mind of Mog had a quiet Memorial Day.
• Jan Bussey of Cascade Adventures shows us her supervisor.
• Pet's Garden Blog goes on a rant about irresponsible pet owners. I couldn't agree more.
• China Cat's Blog is speechless. In a good way.
• Sammawow's gang says WE CAN HAS TREATS?
• Ranger has Mew playing hide and seek.
• StrangeRanger shares some older pictures.
• Bows and Eli have decided that it's hammock time over at Val's Bien.
• Music and Cats discusses being creatures of habit.
• Over at Ego, Martin wonders if a black cat is good company on his journey to the sixth layer of hell.

And that's everything we got, so... um...

I need a nap now, so KTHXBYE

In all seriousness, thanks to everybody who's contributed and visited. I hope I can have y'all back here sometime... if I haven't ruffled too many feathers with having all these dog pictures in the carnival, that is.

Technorati Tags: Carnival of the Cats

IM IN UR CARNIVAL LINKIN UR CATS

Normally when I do a Carnival I just post things in the order I get them.

This time I think I'm going to give any lolcats priority and list them first.

Why? Because I want to. And I love lolcats.

Technorati Tags: Carnival of the Cats, lolcats

Delivering the good news

Yesterday I told Bruiser we were hosting the Carnival of the Cats again. Here's his reaction:

We're a little busy right now hunting down that bright
red thing y'all call a laser pointer. Tell me later.

Can't you tell he's excited?

Technorati Tags: beagle, sheltie, shetland sheepdog, dog, dogblogging

Windows Live Writer Beta 2 kicks butt

A screenshot of the new version of WLW. Click the image for full size.

Thanks to Evil Dwight's Twitter, I became aware that a new version of Windows Live Writer was available.

It's got tons of new features, including

• Inline spell checking (the red squiggliy lines)
• Table editing
• Ability to add categories
• Page authoring for WordPress and TypePad
• Support for excerpts and extended entries
• Improved hyperlinking and image insertion
• Paste Special
• SharePoint 2007 support
• New APIs enabling custom extensions by weblog providers
• Automatic synchronization of local and online edits
• Integration with Windows Live Gallery
• Support for Blogger Labels
• Available in 6 languages
• Improved accessibility and keyboard support

Not to mention a revamped interface that's much nicer looking than the old one.

It also has more integrated support for platforms like WordPress and TypePad.

The only thing in it that bugs me is that it doesn't allow for setting the alignment of a table, but that's easily fixed by adding an align="right" (or left) to the code. But I shouldn't have to.

Setting up a blog on it is so easy anybody could do it.

All in all, I say it's a great improvement to the best blogging software of it's kind out there. Download it here. Just be aware that the installer will try to get you to set your Internet Explorer homepage and set your default search engine to MSN.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Writer, blogging, blogging software, software

The COTC makes a return...

...on Sunday.

If nothing else, it'll give me a great way to test out the new version of Live Writer.

I'll write about that later today BTW.

Oh, yea, if you want info about the Carnival, check out it's site.

Technorati Tags: Carnival of the Cats

At least this hasn't happened to the 'Stros yet

From last night's Angels-Yankees game:

NOTE: this was a video of home plate being stolen, but it's been taken down.

How things are going, it wouldn't surprise me if it happened soon tho.

UPDATE: We've lost ten in a row now. This is just getting ugly.

Glad I decided not to go to a game this week.

Al Qaeda fed up with delays

From The Onion News Network:

Al Qaeda Also Fed Up With Ground Zero Construction Delays

And apparently they're not the only ones...

Like something from a bad movie

No, really, it's just like one:

Customs officers at Cairo's airport Thursday detained a man bound for Saudi Arabia who was trying to smuggle 700 live snakes on a plane, airport authorities said.

The officers were stunned when a passenger, identified as Yahia Rahim Tulba, told them his carry-on bag contained live snakes after he was asked to open it.

Tulba opened his bag to show the snakes to the police and asked the officers, who held a safe distance, not to come close. Among the various snakes, hidden in small cloth sacks, were two poisonous cobras, authorities said.

I've always been afraid of snakes. My dad having two red tail boas didn't help.

If I'd been at that airport when he opened that bag, I'd be dead right now.

The thrilling conclusion to the 2007 spring softball season

It's over.

We played a doubleheader last night. The first game was just ugly. We were slotted against a team that really does belong in a more competitive league. They were doing everything right and we just couldn't stop them. They made all the plays in the field and were hitting the gaps like Paris Hilton hits the bottle. We lost that one 23-3.

The second game was interesting. Since we were the visiting team, we got to bat first. The top half of the first inning lasted 20 minutes, we batted around the order TWICE, and scored 14 runs. It wasn't that we were hitting the ball really well, but that their fielding sucked. It seemed like just about every ball was dropped or a throw sailed. Just to give you an idea, the same person (who was by they way playing hopped up on vicodin because of an injured foot) was responsible for both the second and third out that inning.

No way they're gonna catch up, right?

Think again.

The bottom half came, and our fielding got a little sloppy. They put up five.

When we came to bat again, they did MUCH better on defense, only allowing two runs, bringing our total up to sixteen.

And then there was the bottom half of that inning. The umpire tightened up the strike zone a bit and our pitcher was struggling with locating it.

All I'll say about the strike zones is that this is rec league softball, not MLB. If it's close, call it a strike.

Our games are timed at 50 minutes. A new inning can't start once time has expired unless the score's tied. In that situation, teams get to start a runner at second to begin the inning.

When time expired on our game, the score was 16-14 with two outs and runners on first and second.

The guy hits one into shallow left. The runner from second got in easily and the tying run headed for the plate, knowing that it would take a near perfect throw to get them out.

We got a perfect throw and the third out to win the game 16-15.

Even if that play had ended up being total disaster at the plate, there's no way that the winning run would have come in. He pulled up coming into third with a bad hammy. Hate to see that happen.

Wow that was nuts.

Softball makeup

It was exciting.... and we won...

...because the other team forfeited.

Old pictures

When I was going through all my picture backups earlier this week, I stumbled across some pictures from about two years ago.

Both of these were taken with a camera on my PDA, which is only a slightly higher quality than a camera phone, so they don't look the best in the world, but whatever.

Taken May 16, 2005 - Bear was roughly 8 months old at the time. Back then, he was also the only dog in our house.

Taken July 31, 2005 - Bruiser was 12 weeks old. Notice how he's mostly black. Tri-color Beagles are born black and white and their brown grows in during puppyhood.

Also, and I can't believe I missed this, Monday was Bruiser's birthday. He's now two years old officially.

Oh yea, I almost forgot, Friday Ark is today.

A front row seat...

All of a sudden I've found just how much I love college baseball.

As my Twitter log indicates, I went to a game last night. It was a 4-2 win for the good guys, a great game.

Now, I give you a crappy picture of the view from my $7 seat:

OK, so I positioned the camera on my cell so that it wouldn't show the netting, but you get the idea.

Honestly, seeing the kind of seat you can get for that price leaves me thinking one thing: "Why the heck don't I go more."

That was their last home game, but I think I'll get season tickets for next year, hopefully in that same location. Their season ticket packages are very much on the cheap side.

Aint love grand?

More stuff stupid people do when in (and out of) love:

An ex-lovers' spat led to a man being scalded with boiling water and a woman being stabbed in the neck, according to Beaumont police reports.

[...]

The man took a pot of boiling water off the stove and tried to splash it on the couple, but a door was shut in his face.

The boiling water splashed off the door and hit the man, causing serious burns, the report says.

[...]

At 9:23 p.m., the ex-girlfriend went to see the burn victim's current girlfriend at an apartment in the 4000 block of Maida Road, the report says.

There, the ex-girlfriend is accused of using a knife to stab the 27-year-old woman in the neck, according to the report.

It should be noted that the stabbing was not life-threatening.

This is enough to give any life-long bachelor a reason to stay that way. Broken hearts, burnt chest, getting stabbed in the neck, it's all the same, right?

Patience at the plate

If there's anything at all I've kicked myself about during this round of softball it's been how I've been impatient at the plate.

Monday night, that changed.

I walked both plate appearances.

Heck, I only swung once. Shouldn't have though, that pitch was inside on me.

Oh well.

Since it's a co-ed league, I got two free trips to second. The lineups in co-ed leagues are guy-girl-guy-girl and they give the guy second as a way to discourage walking guys intentionally. With two outs, the girl that's next can take first automatically if she wants.

Anyways, the first time I was on I ended up being the second out. I got to third safely, I just didn't stop in time and ended up two or three steps into foul territory. The 3B got me when I went "Oh, shit!" and was scrambling back.

We've got a make-up game on Sunday and then a doubleheader on Monday to close out the season.

Why you don't mix unsupervised cats and computers

Yes, I finally decided to get Twitter.

Unfortunately, ever since I created an account, Twitter hasn't been able to work for shit.

I managed to post a note on there. Nothing fancy, just a "please fucking work" type thing, but it's seriously not working for me at all.

I get a server maintenance message once in a while. It's an image of a cat and a computer that says "in in ur serverz making thingz better!!!"

Obviously not, considering you've been popping up sporadically for hours.

And there's nothing on the Twitter Blog about it.

Seeing that, it tells me that the cat is playing around with the server unsupervised.

Maybe next time the humans will leave the server room door closed.

I'll get the flash twitter thingy on here eventually, but the code can't seem to tie the damn thing to my account for some reason either.

Back and better than ever... finally

My computer problems turned out to be a lot more involved than I had originally thought.

There never was a hard drive issue, but it was just caused by the RAM problem.

Unfortunately, the RAM problem wasn't REALLY a RAM problem, it was with the motherboard. I could have easily traded in the motherboard since it was covered by a service plan, but I got a better idea.

I'm gonna upgrade!

I upgraded to an AMD Athlon X2 4600+ processor, a different brand of board, and new sticks of RAM. The old sticks are still good, but they operate at a lower speed than the new motherboard can handle.

She's running like a charm now.

It'll take me a couple days to get everything back in order, but I'm just happy that it's working again right now.

More light blogging

I'm feeling better, but some other issues have come up.

As I was debugging a RAM problem with my system, I think some OS files
on my hard drive corrupted.

Thankfully I could get the system to load in safe mode, which allowed
me to pull off my files.

I considered letting BitLocker decrypt the hard drive and doing an
upgrade install of Vista, but I'm just going to wipe the HDD and start
from scratch. The decryption would take too long.

Anyways, I should be back to normal fairly soon.

I swear I'm not dead

I've just been under the weather recently and really haven't had anything hit me that I really want to write about, but I'll go ahead and hit a few quick points.

• I missed softball Monday night, but I made our games Tuesday. It was a make up for one of the weeks that rained out early in the season. We won both games, but I did something that almost cost us the first one. More on that some other time.
  
• Fox dropped off our cable feed twice during 24. I probably missed about five minutes of the show. At least I know what the "package" was.
  
• The Astros seem to be getting their stuff together. THey've won three straight in Cincy and are now just a game below .500 now. Hopefully they can keep it up.

That's all I got for now.

What a season

The 'Catters lost 4-3 in overtime tonight, ending their run for the Kelly Cup.

Part of me is sad that it's over, I'll admit that. But more than anything else I'm glad about what we did have.

Of our three seasons, this wasn't just our first playoff trip, it was our first time to have a winning team.

Hopefully we can build on it and go even farther next season.

The look

When I get looked at like this, I know what they're thinking:

We're hungry!

If they'd just look in the kitchen they'd find their food ready for them.

Just thinking out loud

If the DMV is the worst place on earth to spend a beautiful day, then what's the second worst place?

Leave your thoughts in the comments.

METRO, Astros announce 'Stranded at the Ballpark' nights

(Crossposted from METRO IFOC)

Minute Maid Park

METRO, who always tells the truth, even when they lie, today announced a partnership with the Astros for "Stranded at the Ballpark" nights.

"Yea, it's really cool," said METRO spokeswoman Raquetball Roberts. "If the Astros strand more than 10 runners on base, we're going to stop all service within three miles of Minute Maid park so that anybody relying on our service will be stuck at the ballpark until the next day when service will resume."

"We were planning on providing sleeping bags but we would have had to dip into the 'old man' fund" said Astros owner Drayton McLane.

McLane went on to explain that the old man fund is the money kept back for Roger Clemens should he decide to get off of his ass and pitch with the Astros this season.

"Granted things aren't looking too good with the team's performance right now but I'm still holding out hope," said McLane.

---

Normally I wouldn't crosspost something from over there, but I thought this one was appropriate given the Astros struggles.

Scheduling conflicts

I've got softball tonight.

And a 'Catters game. (By the way, the series is now knotted at two games a piece and could easily go 7)

The hockey game starts at 7 and the softball game starts at 9:30.

I'm hoping I can make both.

The hockey game should be over about 9:30 and it'll take me about 10 minutes to get to the fields. I can hope for a delay in the start so I get there when the game starts. If not, I'll be a little late and can be subbed in.

Of course, all that changes if the 'Catters game goes into OT.

Fun times, that's for sure.

'Catters update

My boys will be heading into Ford Arena tomorrow with the series knotted at 1 after exchanging 5-0 games with Florida.

Simply put, Tuesday night our guys looked awful and Florida took advantage.

I'm thinking the post-game interview with Coach Cameron went something like this:

The next night, the roles were reversed. Florida played like crap and we took advantage.

Games are Friday, Saturday, and Monday. I can't wait.

A little early, don't 'cha think?

Tonight the Democrats are hosting their first debate.

Am I the only one who thinks it's a little early? I mean, the primaries are still like nine months away.

I'll watch, but only to see if I can get an idea what Obama's made of.

Noodles loses his cool

Calgary Flames backup goalie Jamie McLennan was put in a game Saturday. He was roughed up a little and decided to go all Twisted Sister on Detroit's Johan Franzen.

Noodles is one of the members of the group that owns the Wildcatters. I'd heard nothing but great things about him from when he was down here during the lockout.

But man did he lose it there.

Put one in the win column

That's right, we won tonight.

We had two really close games. We won the first one 5-4 and lost the second one 7-6.

I had one plate appearance, but I don't want to talk about it.

There was a moment of confusion in the second game. We had runners on first and second and one out. The batter popped up towards third, triggering the infield fly rule. Since the ball wasn't caught, the runners both ran to the next base, and the ball was thrown to third and the runner called out.

End of inning, right?

Wrong.

The runner was never tagged, which I can vouch for since I was in the third base coaches box. Normally, it would have been a force out, but since an infield fly rule was called it wasn't a force play like the ump seemed to think.

One of our players talked it over with the ump, who admitted that we were right. We had runners on second and third with two outs. I'm a little fuzzy on what happened after that, but I do remember us bringing both of those runners in.

And that's the series, folks!

(Wildcatters Forward Olivier Proulx passes the puck during the third period of last night's game.)

Last night the Wildcatters beat Gwinnett 2-1 in overtime, allowing them to move on to face Florida in the South Division Finals.

It was a hard-fought game. Two periods of scoreless hockey, then the 'Catters took the lead on a power play goal. Gwinnett tied the game up with about three minutes left in regulation and the game was sent to overtime.

In the playoffs, teams will play 20 minute periods with 15 minute breaks until someone scores, so obviously you can get some really long nights. Since both goalies had only given up one in regulation and were standing on their heads, it was safe to assume that it could be a really long night

The referee decided to swallow his whistle and let the players play. We saw 19+ minutes of great hockey. Just as everybody was starting to accept that we'd be looking at another overtime period, Ben Thompson puts in the winning goal with 29 seconds remaining in the OT period.

The first game is at Florida on Tuesday night. If you're interested, you can listen to the radio stream or pay $6 for a video stream of the games. Both can be accessed from the team's website.

And, before you ask, yes I shot that picture up top.

I really hope we don't play on Sunday

Last night the 'Catters pulled out a 5-4 overtime win to take the series lead tow games to one.

Since it's a best of five series, that means the 'Catters can win this round on Friday night.

I'm hoping they do.

I'd rather not have to watch a do-or-die game five.

Sitting where I sit... right behind one of the goals... you realize just how close a lot of pucks come to going in.

Adding to that the fact that if you win you move on and if you lose you go hime... that's a lot to take.

I'm young and (relatively) healthy and I'm not sure if my heart could take it.

The solution to illegal immigration

From The Onion:

In The Know: The U.S. Moat

That's crazy enough to work!!!

Blogging will be light today

A panoramic view of Minute Maid Park that I shot in pieces at opening day last year and put together using some free program I downloaded somewhere.

Blogging will be light today because I'm planning on spending the day in Houston.

I'm gonna drive over, do some running around, and then head over to Minute Maid to see the Astros play the Marlins.

If you're gonna be there I shouldn't be hard to find, since I'll most likely be the only person there with a Wandy Rodriguez jersey on.

You know, just because I wanted something different when I shelled out all that money to get an authentic 'Stros jersey on my back.

Regular blogging will resume tomorrow.

The return of dogblogging

Well, I finally shot some pics of the boys for y'all, and here's the one for this week without a goofy caption:

I just couldn't think of anything goofy for that cute little moment.

And  for y'all's information, the blue-ish tint in the pictures is caused by me not realizing that the white balance settings were set to flourescent instead of the default. I'd had it set on flourescent for a hockey game I was shooting and totally forgot I had it on there.

Oops.

My head hurts...

I finally got around to doing something I should have done a long time ago: changing all my passwords.

The funny thing about doing that is that until you do them all at once you never realize just how many places you have to change it...

I swear I must have changed it at 30 places.

Oh, and on another note, I plan on resuming dogblogging tomorrow!

That big war-related post...

...that I hinted about on The Scratching Post follows:

Terry, a friend of mine and a member of the Marine reserves, has been called up to active duty and leaves Friday for Iraq.

Well, not straight to Iraq since he's got some training and stuff to go through first, but he will be.

I'm really not too nervous about him since he works in intel, but I know his mom enough to know that she's probably scared shitless. After all, she didn't want him in the Marines in the first place, although I think she came around when she saw him come back from boot camp.

Anyways, if it's your kind of thing, keep him and his family in your prayers.

Thank goodness for radio

I couldn't sleep, so I started flipping channels to see what's on.

I found the Dallas Stars and Vancouver Canucks on Versus. I mean, I'm a Stars fan, but I'll admit I haven't been following them too closely with the 'Catters doing so well this year.

We're told that we're going to the fourth OT in just a minute by the intermission crew, but that's not what we get...

[WARNING: Expletive-laden rant below]

We get a fucking infomercial for some fucking workout machine.

I swear, I can't believe the NHL gave these fucking morons the right to broadcast their games to a national audience. With something like this, I wouldn't give them the right to broadcast it to my ex-girlfriend, much less an entire nation!

Thank goodness for the radio broadcasts being streamed over the web, or I'd be totally SOL.

I sent an email about it to Versus, but I doubt I'll get a response from that sorry excuse for a cable network.

Ok, maybe a "sorry for the incontinence" message, but nothing that will mean a flying fuck.

Naturally, as I was writing this, the Canucks got the game winner.

Just. Fucking. Wonderful.

I blame Versus.

Softball FINALLY resumed...

Yes... my wonderful softball league didn't rain out for once.

After a bye week and a rain-out, we finally got playing again, losing 12-9. It was a really good game, one we were in until the end (which is rare for us) We may be 0-for-forever, but we're having fun.

As far as myself, I got another fielders choice.

AB: 4
BA: .250
OBP: .250
K: 1
BB: 0
1B: 1
RBI: 0

These numbers are starting to look depressing... I'm really tempted to stop with them...

Oh... and next week... guess what...

ANOTHER BYE WEEK!!!

Seriously, are we ever going to get to play two weeks in a row?

Weeds

Yesterday we took Bruiser back to the vet to get the rash on his belly looked at.

The vet still thinks it's allergies, probably caused by some sort of weed in the backyard, and gave him a shot and two weeks worth of pills to help with the allergies, which seem to be helping.

Now I just need to weed the yard...

Blogging will be lighter than usual today

I keep getting told that I'm a year older today like it's a good thing.

22 just means you're another year closer to dying.

Oh well, at least I'm going to an Astros game today.

Regularly light blogging will resume tomorrow.

This is April, not February...

This is insane.

Usually this time of year we're starting to get into the 80's, not be like this.

All I can say is that it's really going to make tomorrow's trip to Houston for the 'Stros game a real blast.

Yes, I know, Minute Maid has a roof. But it doesn't have heat. Trust me, I've sat in there for the college classic with it hovering around 50 all day.

Fun times, indeed

NOTE: The above post probably makes no sense at all. That's what I get for blogging early on a Saturday.

The one thing we didn't need

The Wildcatters lost tonight and Florida's leading Augusta 5-3 with 6:24 left in the game.

Assuming Florida's score holds up (Augusta's a pesky third period team), that gives them the inside track on the division. The only way we can win it now is that my 'Catters have to win and the Everblades have to lose in regulation tomorrow night.

After spending two seasons as one of the worst teams in the league, It's been hard enough to wrap my mind around the idea that we could make the playoffs, much less win the division.

Funny how that happens, huh?

---

UPDATE: Florida won 5-4, so what I said up there stands.

Quick thought

The Iranians said they released the 15 British sailors as an Easter gift to the British people.

I didn't know Muslims celebrated Easter.

Let's face it, they did it to try to look like they're taking the high road... which is why they captured them in the first place, right?

Yes, their magic number went up

I screwed up...

With the way hockey standings work (getting two points for a win, one for losing in overtime) it's possible for a team to be in third and still have a higher magic number against them if the team in third hasn't played as many games as the team in second.

Which was the case.

I'd only done the math for the second place team, not the third.

Well, the third place team made up that game yesterday in a win over Pensacola, pushing them into second place. Since they own the tiebreaker against us as of now (they have one more win than us), the number had to be pushed up to six.

Confused yet?

Don't worry, I am too.

Basically we can clinch the division if:

• we win all three games we have left,
• we win two and Florida drops one in regulation,
• we win one and Florida drops two in regulation,
• or Florida wins all three they have left in regulation.

Of course, all that gets muddied up if there's an overtime loss by either team, but I'm not smart enough to figure out all the scenarios if that happens, so we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it.

I'm just hoping that the guys keep it simple for all of us and win all three, something I don't really expect since they're all on the road.

A new path

It is with a heavy heart that I am today announcing that I am leaving blogging.

It was a very tough decision to make, but I realized that I simply won't have the time for it with my new career in the male strip club industry.

It's been a great ride, with a lot of great people I've met along the way.

I'm really going to miss y'all.

Oh, and...

APRIL FOOLS!!!

You're not getting rid of me that easily.