Watching Gustav: Day 2

I'm feeling a little better about Gustav than I was yesterday.

Granted the margin of error on a forecast five days out is something like 300 miles either way, but the latest forecast from the NHC has it sitting right off the coast near New Orleans next Monday morning.

This doesn't mean we're out of the woods by any means here at Justin's Random Thoughts' Global Headquarters, but it does make me feel better about it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not wishing Gustav on New Orleans, or anywhere else for that matter, but I don't wish it on us either.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for the next day or two.

Technorati Tags: Gustav

LOLcat of the day

Hopefully something we won't be saying with Gustav:

more animals

Gustav

Gustav looks like the first storm that will pose a serious threat to us this season.

Not that you can read too much into the historicals, but an equivalent storm hasn't come close to this part of the Texas coast since 1915 according to the map.

Here's to hoping it won't.

I'll just keep a watch on it for now, since it's well more than a week away from these parts.

At least it doesn't have a gay name like Edouard.

Technorati Tags: Gustav

I'm a whore for free stuff

Jenny, The Bloggess and co-writer of Good Mom / Bad Mom, did a post yesterday about the marketers that contact her via email every day, and goes in-depth about an exchange with one such company.

Of course, the post left me wondering something:

"Why don't companies email me wanting reviews of their stuff?"

Cause, ya know, if someone wanted to send me a new computer (ideally a laptop) to review I'd totally review the shit out of that thing.

Assuming I could keep it, of course.

So, if you've got a brand-spanking-new laptop you can bear to part with and want reviewed, my email address is justin@jrtblog.com.

Just don't expect me to be anything other than brutally honest.

(And, no, I'm not expecting to get any emails from this)

Fail of the day

see more pwn and owned pictures

Makes me hungry. For the egg thing, not babies.

Marking my place

I sing in the choir at church, so anything that helps me during the service is great.

I'd been using a tear-out in our bulletins to mark the hymns we were singing, but I felt like doing something else. Some of the folks around me had these ribbon things they used and other folks had other various ideas.

(Fun Fact: Post-It Notes were invented by a choir member at a Methodist church as a way for him to mark his hymnal.)

Well, I didn't invent the Post-It Note, but I did something that works similar to the ribbon idea, with a little help via a suggestion by my grandmother.

I took a note card, cut it down small enough to fit into the spine of my hymnal, punched five small holes in it, and tied a string of yarn to each hole.

Stick the thing in the spine and you get this:

Should do the trick.

So apparently I know them pretty well

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 Know Your States

You got 8/10 correct. You've got a pretty good handle on US geography. There's a good chance you've visited at least a dozen of the fifty states.

How Well Do You Know Your States?

Big swing and a miss on how many I've visited though... it's more like seven.

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

Technorati Tags: online quiz,states

My take on Biden

The Obamessiah has anointed Joe Biden as his number two man.

It just seems odd to me that Obama, the bastion of hope and change that he is, would select someone that's been serving on Capitol Hill for 35 years.

To put that in perspective for you: When Biden was sworn in, Obama was eleven years old.

Sure smells like change to me!

(Oh, and if you must ask, I call that new image "Pocket Chance We Can Believe In" because when Obama's done taxing us that's all we'll have left. I plan on using it whenever I do a post about Obama.)

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,Joe Biden

BYO Big Wheel Racing

K T Cat did a post the other day about BMX being an olympic sport.

Give it a read.

Personally, I just can't get enough of this video:

He's going the distance! He's going for speed!

It looks like fun!

That might be one of those things I'll have to add to my bucket list.

Technorati Tags: big wheel racing

An interesting observation

Beers with Demo has an interesting observation involving both Bigfoot and the Edwards-Hunter affair.

Check it out here.

Computer Guts

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

When I built my computer two years ago, I took some pictures thinking that I'd do a blog post about it.

I got tired of taking pictures really fast, so I stopped. but I still got a couple cool pictures before I did.

Maybe it's just the geek in me, but I've always found that pictures of computer guts can look pretty cool.

In retrospect, I should have used this picture instead of the stock one from FreeDIgitalPhotos.net for this post on Wednesday.

I think I'll pass...

There's no way I'd give a hotel a good review if they did this:

That's just creepy!

Technorati Tags: hotels.com,commercial

A very welcome break from the heat

We've been getting a lot of rain this week. Nothing too bad in this part of town (although there was some minor flooding in parts of town yesterday).

It's not welcome so much for the rain (although we do need it) as it is the cooling off that it's done.

Summers here are brutal. The average day is a very himid 92 with a 20-30% coverage of afternoon thunderstorms.

Yesterday it never got above 80, and that's with long enough breaks in the rain to get some stuff done outside.

It felt like October, which is probably the nicest month of the whole year in these parts, this afternoon when I walked the dogs.

Alas, this kind of weather is forecast to go away in the next few days, and we'll be back to a hot and sticky 92 this weekend.

October can't come soon enough.

Technorati Tags: weather

Appeals court: Size doesn't matter

This has to be the strangest defense I've ever heard of:

Houston's 14th Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld the conviction of a local doctor for indecent exposure.

The court rejected the argument by high-profile attorney Dick DeGuerin and his associate Neal Davis that the doctor could not have exposed himself to an undercover cop because that which is alleged to have been exposed is too small to have been seen.

It's a column worth reading to the end if just to see the details of the defense and how it was concocted.

Technorati Tags: weird

LOLcat of the day

I can relate to this one.

more cat pictures

How to get rid of the dotted underline under timestamps in some Blogger templates

(Note to my regular readers: The only reason I wrote this post is because there's not much help for this situation to be found on Google. Don't worry, I won't be blogging about stuff like this much.)

Free photos for websites - FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When I went to this template, the biggest thing that annoyed me about it, by far, was the little dotted underline thing under the timestamps. I just hated how it looked.

After literally hours of messing around, I found a way to get rid of it through CSS, thinking that there was some CSS code somewhere that was creating it.

That's not the case at all.

The timestamp is in a <abbr> tag similar to the one pasted below:

<abbr class="published" title="2008-08-19T14:00:00-05:00">2:00 PM</abbr>

The code works to show more info about the timestamp when you hover over it.

After figuring that out, I wrote up some CSS that will get rid of the underline but will keep the underline for any other <abbr> tags that I choose to use.

abbr.published {border-width:0px;}

Yes, folks, it really is that easy.

Related: Info on the <abbr> tag.

My 2008 Texans predictions

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to see any of the preseason games this year, as they're not aired in the Beaumont market for some reason, but I'm going to try to do some predicting anyway.

First let's look at the schedule:

(The team names for home games are in ALL CAPS)

September (2-2)

Sun. 7th @ Steelers 12:00 PM - I think this one could go either way, but I'll give it to the Steelers since they're at home. LOSS

Sun. 14th RAVENS 3:15 PM - Home opener against a team that struggled last year. WIN

Sun. 21st @ Titans 12:00 PM - A tough one to call either way, but I'll go the same route I did with the Steelers game. LOSS

Sun. 28th @ Jaguars 12:00 PM - We always tend to play up when we face the Jags. WIN

October (3-0)

Sun. 5th COLTS 12:00 PM - Yes they're the colts, but we're at home. WIN

Sun. 12th DOLPHINS 12:00 PM - Should be an easy one. WIN

Sun. 19th LIONS 3:05 PM - Another easy one. WIN

November (2-2)

Sun. 2nd @ Vikings 12:00 PM - I think we can pull this one off. WIN

Sun. 9th BENGALS 12:00 PM - Can the Texans tame Ocho Cinco? I think so. WIN

Sun. 16th @ Colts 12:00 PM - Can't see us winning in Indy. LOSS

Sun. 23rd @ Browns 12:00 PM - Could go either way, but it's on the road. In November. LOSS

December (3-2)

Mon. 1st JAGUARS 7:30 PM - The Texans' first Monday night affair. Seeing how they turned it up a notch last year on the Thursday night stage, I think it's safe to say they'll get this one. WIN.

Sun. 7th @ Packers 12:00 PM - Lambeau? in December? After a short week? I could be wrong here, but I don't see it happening. LOSS

Sun. 14th TITANS 12:00 PM - Another one I'd be glad to be wrong about, but Vince Young in Houston scares me. LOSS

Sun. 21st @ Raiders 3:05 PM - Easy one. WIN

Sun. 28th BEARS 12:00 PM - The Texans will wrap up the regular season and (hopefully) a playoff berth with a team that I expect to struggle this year. WIN

Total: 10-6

I'm not guaranteeing they'll do that record, but I don't think they'll go below it.

This year I'm expecting a few things. Mainly I'm expecting Mario Williams to continue showing us all why he was picked #1 overall and am hoping that Amobi Okoye will start coming into his own too. With those two dominating, O lines will really struggle.

I'm also hoping to see Matt Schaub continue to show why we traded for him and have a good year. Maybe not tear the league up, but have a good year, especially since we're looking like we'll actually have a running game this year.

And no, I'm not going to post a nude pic if they go below it this year. Or should I? I'll think about it and get back to y'all on it.

Technorati Tags: NFL,Houston Texans,Texans

Fail of the day

The great thing about idiots is that there's always a bigger one somewhere:

see more pwn and owned pictures

"Me so horny, me love you long time" spas create problems for the legit ones

Back in May a couple of day spas were busted for offering happy endings.

Since then, it turns out, the legit day spas have been having issues:

Massage therapist Crystal Christoffers has had to "strong-arm" more than one client and end the session when he wanted a bit more than the typical massage.

"Massages are for healing and getting better," said Christoffers, who works at Calder's Mane Event and Day Spa. "It's not sexual in any way."

However, after Beaumont police raided the Sun Spa and the VIP Spa earlier this spring after an undercover investigation of possible prostitution at the businesses, the therapists at Calder's got more than just a few calls from potential customers wanting something erotic.

I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that, when something like that happens, the perverts come out of the woodwork like that.

But it's not something you'd think of.

Ch-ch-changes

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I'm making some changes around here.

As you can see, I've gone to a new template. I like this design more and it works better with some of the other features I've added.

Like the star ratings system, where you can rate the posts. Decided to kill that one because it looked a little funny with this template

And the biggest one would be the embedded comment form.

That's right, the comment form is now on the permalink page. It's still a little screwy, as the feature's in beta, but it does all the things that the old one did, although it's a little different.

Of course, there are still a few things to take care of:

• Edit the CSS so the font for the posts and stuff is bigger. It's a little on the small side as it is. (done)
• Add the code for selective expandable posts. Changed my mind on this one, gonna go without.
• Make a new button and favicon. (done)

And that's all I can think of, but I'm sure I'll figure out more as I go along.

Obama not aiming high enough

Obama's convention speech at Invesco Field sounds impressive, but I was thinking about it the other day and I realized that he's not aiming high enough.

Obama's Fainting Ladies

Seeing him speak seems to really affect people. If you don't believe me, just watch the video to the right.

Sometimes I get the feeling that Obama's supporters aren't merely supporting a candidate, but that it's something closer to a religion.

And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that.

I just figure that, since it's like that, maybe he needs a grander stage. After all, shouldn't his acceptance speech be something as epic as the following that he has?

I've been to Denver. Denver itself is flat as a pancake, but the mountains aren't far to the west.

I think that the man that, according to Nancy Pelosi, is "a leader that God has blessed us with at this time" should have a much grander stage than Invesco Field for ObamaMania. You know, something of biblical proportions:

The Second Sermon on the Mount

That's a truly biblical scene, appropriate for a candidate of his stature.

After the speech, maybe he can feed all the people there with five loaves of bread and two fish.

Technorati Tags: Politics,Barack Obama,Democratic National Convention,Sermon on the Mount,Invesco Field

If I were to ever start a punk rock band...

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 Punk Band Name Is...

The Sad Eyelash Curler

What's Your Punk Band Name?

Uh, no. Though I do have a rock I brought back from a trip to Colorado that I named "punk rock."

Seriously.

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

Technorati Tags: online quiz,punk rock

LOLdog of the day

see more dog pictures

At the ranch

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

This week I've got another shot from the horse ranch we'd taken one of my mom's dogs up to to be bred:

I really need to get off my ass and shoot some more pictures for this...

A rewarding experience

Yesterday I volunteered my day at Some Other Place.

Let me explain for a minute...

Some Other Place is a local charity group that, among other things, operates a soup kitchen on weekdays.

The name comes from people who are looking for help being told to go some other place to get help. Quite clever I think.

Anyway, yesterday I helped with their "Back-to-School Store."

As I understand it, parents apply with Some Other Place to get help for getting their kids set for school. Those that are accepted are given a time to come in and get new clothes and school supplies for their kids. Free haircuts are also offered for kids who want them courtesy a local stylist/barberette/whatever you call people who cut hair these days. My personal preference is "the chick at Sport Clips," but I know that's not the proper term.

Now that I think about it, with the weird names they have for positions, it's probably something along the lines of "hair maintenance professional."

But enough for that little dodge off topic.

I was put to work as sort of an escort (no, not that kind you perv!), taking people through the various stations and helping them get the stuff for their kids. Not a hard job at all, seeing as the people at the stations did most of the work (going through the clothes, getting the school supplies together, etc.).

I don't have any remarkable stories from the day, but my grandmother did. One of the children she was escorting through was trying on a pair of pants (we had makeshift dressing rooms set up). While he was in there, his brother popped in, took the pants he'd been wearing and ran out. Mom corraled the kid pretty quickly and didn't seem too amused I'm told, but my grandmother certainly was.

In the afternoon I was asked to make a run to Sears to pick up some more clothes as soon as they had our order ready. Knowing it would be most of an hour, my grandmother suggested I take her car and swap it out for my PT since we rode up together in her car. When I got back from that I took another family through, training two people who'd shown up for the afternoon to do the escort thing while I was at it.

After that I headed off to Sears, figuring everything would be ready by the time I got there. It wasn't quite, but I only had a ten or fifteen minute wait, which wasn't so bad. When it was finished and bagged up, I pulled my car around to the back and loaded the ten or so very large bags filled with clothes into my car and headed back to Some Other Place.

When I got there I got lucky. Someone who'd parked right by the door was leaving just as I pulled in and I snagged their spot, went inside, and recruited a couple of people to help me bring in stuff.

When we got it all in, the volunteers working the shirts and pants tables sorted through what I brought and madness erupted at the shirts table, as Sears had sent us a very wide variety of nice shirts for the kids in all sizes, a stark contrast to the bland polo shirts that we'd had before.

After I got settled down from that I took one more family through and was done for the day. I headed home worn out after a long, rewarding day.

If only I'd thought to bring my camera and take some pictures.

Technorati Tags: back to school,volunteering

Paved with gold

There was an article on the local paper's website yesterday about the reconstruction of Beaumont's Main Street. I'd link the article, but I can't find it on their website anymore.

Anyway, they attached the text from a fact box to the bottom of the story. The box contained what was obviously a typo when it said that the project cost $6.3 billion.

Of course, I knew better than to think that the half-mile of street, along with sewer, drainage, and other improvements wouldn't cost that. The article itself stated that it cost $6.3 million, which sounded closer to the real number.

But that got me thinking: What would it take for a half-mile of street to cost $6.3 billion? The only thing that I could think of is that if the street was paved in gold.

Being the kind of person I am, I decided to mess around in Photoshop some and see if I could see what that would look like.

I took an image I shot on Dowlen last week after Edouard to use as a base.

An extract and cover overlay later, I came up with this image:

It actually turned out a lot better than I thought, and took less than half an hour to whip up.

If you ask me, a street paved in gold isn't all that appealing. New concrete streets, which look almost snow-white sometimes, drive my light-sensitive eyes nuts. But I honestly think this would be worse.

And that's not even considering the glare you'd be sure to get off of it.

Technorati Tags: streets paved with gold

The last thing I want to think about when watching the Olympics...

...is politics.

Which has to be exactly why I saw ads for both McCain and Obama while watching them yesterday.

Now, to those of you in battleground states, it might seem odd that I'd mention that I saw a commercial, but you have to realize that Texas isn't exactly one of those states where they're fighting tooth and nail for your vote. All I can say to y'all is that, if it's anything near as bad as what we dealt with from Obama and Hillary back in February/March you have my deepest sympathies.

Obama ran an ad I'd never seen before during the daytime coverage. Either late morning or early afternoon, I'm not sure which. All I remember is that it was about his flawed energy plan.

John McCain's "Celebrity" ad

McCain's ad, which I saw during prime time, was the infamous "Celebrity" ad.

I'd seen this one before because, when this one came out, it got so much attention on the news.

I'm not even about to start going into what I think about that ad. That's been discussed too many places to even bother bringing it up here.

Is it too much to wish that I could just be left alone during the Olympics? I mean, really. Sports is my great escape from all the stupid bullshit going on in the world. Why do you have to take that from me?

Technorati Tags: Olympics,politics,commercialls

LOLcat of the day

more cat pictures

Time for some music

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 Play the Guitar

You're very independent - both in spirit and in the way you learn. You can teach yourself almost anything, even if it makes your fingers bleed. You're not really the type to sit patiently through a music lesson - or do things by the book. It's more your style to master the fundamentals and see where they take you. Highly creative and a bit eclectic, you need a wide range of music to play. You could emerge as a sensitive songwriter... or a manic rock star. Your dominant personality characteristic: being rebellious Your secondary personality characteristic: tenacity

What Musical Instrument Should You Play?

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

Technorati Tags: online quiz,musical instrument

LOLdog of the day

see more dog pictures

Sadly, our dogs would probably react the same way if we asked for it.

Toledo Bend's power plant

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

A shot from the observation point on the Texas side of the Toledo Bend Reservoir. The same place where I got that awesome bird picture.

What you're looking at is the hydroelectric plant that is part of the dam there.

Call me crazy, but I thought this was a pretty cool shot.

Technorati Tags: Toledo Bend

Fail of the day

And a bonus fail today:

see more pwn and owned pictures

Edouard: All bark, not much bite

Throughout the night, the talk from the local TV stations was that Edouard would end up being a lot like Humberto was last year.

It turned out to be nothing near as bad.

It was windy and we got some rain, but that was about it. Neither were as bad as Humberto.

The worst that was along our street was that a neighbor's trash can blew over.

Parts of town reported limbs down (As you can see from the above shot outside of a local grocery store) and sporadic power outages, but all in all it was no worse than a bad line of thunderstorms moving through.

I've got some pictures up that I took during a trip out to get some dry ice that we needed not because we didn't have power but because our freezer died over the weekend.

I had some fun with the captions, so be sure to poke around a little...

Technorati Tags: Edouard

Updated: Hurricane linky stuff

Right about the time this posts we should be beginning to feel the effects of Edouard. I'd say if we are for sure, but I wrote this post last night and scheduled it to post now.

Anyway, here's things to watch if you want to stalk what's going on in these parts:

My Twitter - I might do some live-twittering. Depends on things. Even if not, I'll probably send a text or two to keep it semi-updated.

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 stations. All have video.

Weather Underground's Edouard page - Good info and graphics related to the storm.

I'll probably blog about it once we get everything back.

Update:

It's pretty much over, expecting just some rain off and on the rest of the day. I might blog in more detail later, I might not.

Bottom line: it wasn't bad at all. We had a thunderstorm roll through Sunday that was worse.

Technorati Tags: Edouard

Here's Eddie!

I refuse to call that thing in the Gulf Edouard. I mean, seriously, who the fuck spells their name that way?

A pansy, that's who!

Eddie's already lost a lot of respect from me!

Anyway, despite my mom calling me freaking because some idiot on the local emergency team told her the worse case scenario (which is very, VERY unlikely at this point), I'm not expecting this to be much of a concern.

Anywho, like Humberto last year, I'll do some live-twittering if it gets interesting (check it out here). And I'll have pictures. If it should start getting interesting, of course.

And, y'all, don't do something stupid like stand out under your car port and watch the storm roll through.

Technorati Tags: Edouard

An open letter to Twitter

	Free photos for websites - FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dear @Twitter,

I love you. I love your service.

But you know what I don't love about you?

All the fucking spambots.

It seems like I can't post an update without having some spambot "follow" me.

Seriously, it's to the point that I hesitate updating because I know I'll have to go and block one or two of these bots.

I know enough about tech to know that this has to be some sort of automated process.

I beg you, please find a way to stop this shit from happening. Add a CAPTCHA requirement to follow people. Don't allow following via the API. Limit the amount of follows that people can do an hour.

Just do something.

Sincerely,

@fatelvis04

Technorati Tags: Twitter,spam

Fail of the day

That had to be a very interesting night...

see more pwn and owned pictures

Remember kids, always make sure your little man wears a raincoat when he comes out to play.

How many folks share my 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.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 57 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

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

Technorati Tags: online quiz,name

So that's what I've been doing wrong all these years...

Free photos for websites - FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Another way to save gas brought to us by K T Cat over at The Scratching Post.

Because, as we all know, every cent helps.

Technorati Tags: saving gas

I wonder how many hits using that as a Technorati tag will get me...

Bruiser's first Christmas

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

This is a shot from Bruiser's first Christmas back in 2005:

Hey, I've got a Santa toy!

Yep, we got all the dogs Christmas-themed toys.

Technorati Tags: beagle,dog,dogblogging,Christmas

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: books,reading

Quote of the day

"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)

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

What's Your Pimp Name?

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

Technorati Tags: online quiz,pimp name

LOLdog of the day

see more dog pictures

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.

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

	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.

Technorati Tags: election,racism,Barack Obama,Colonel Sanders,KFC

Wall Street gets shit-faced?

	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...

Technorati Tags: George W. Bush,Wall Street,economy,politics

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!

Fail of the day

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

see more pwn and owned pictures

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

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!

Where Should You Spend Your Summer?

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: online quiz,summer vacation

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.

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

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: 4th of July

LOLdog of the day

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

Probably 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. :)

Technorati Tags: All-Star game,MLB,home field advantage

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)

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.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

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

Technorati Tags: online quiz

Fail of the day

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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:

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: Sheltie,dog,dogblogging

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: power supply

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: jury duty

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: little league,feelings

LOLdog of the day

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Reminds me of Bruiser.

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

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: jury duty

LOLcat of the day

more cat pictures

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

What English Speaking Country Are You?

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

Technorati Tags: online quiz