Patio, Heat Wave, & (scumbag) John Bolton

After six or seven hours Saturday, and another five yesterday, I'm almost done with our new stone patio. I probably need another half a day though, and with the latest heat wave hitting this week, it probably won't be finished until next weekend.

Speaking of heat, it's reaching the ludicrous level this summer. Highs of 102 on Tuesday and Wednesday? If we wanted summers as shitty as this, we'd move to Vegas or Phoenix. So what's it all mean; is a heat wave really a sign of global warming? Well, not one individual incident. But collectively - yes, and get used to it (but be glad you don't live in Southern California).

Finally: the more I read/see/hear about John Bolton, the more I'm convinced that he's not only a terrible diplomat, but also probably needs to work on becoming a likable human being. His latest thoughts on the Israel-Lebanon mess deny moral equivalence to Israeli and Lebanese civilian deaths, giving more weight to the Israeli deaths. This guy is our U.N. ambassador? How the hell did that happen, that the one person in the entire executive branch who should not be chosen for that post is the guy who holds the job?

Fire Island NY

We just took a few days off to extend the (otherwise always-too-short) weekend, and drove up to our friend Tammie's family vacation house on the eastern portion of Fire Island, a barrier island just south of Long Island. Well, we didn't really drive all the way out there, because there are no roads to speak of on Fire Island - hell, the "fire department" is a fire hose and pump mounted to the back of one of those golf cart sized John Deere wagons. The weather was kinda blah for most of the stay (we have our theories about that), but still an enjoyable and relaxing trip. Nice beaches, no commerical development at all, and there are even deer running around the island, fully acclimated to people. We had plenty of food at the house, and more importantly, plenty of alcohol, including a Piña Colada concoction that included ice cream and donut holes.

On Monday we drove into Manhattan to have lunch with Ben, Jenny's brother. I've only driven in NYC once before, but that was on a weekend - midday on a weekday is a whole different experience, almost non-stop thrills! We had lunch in Harlem, which isn't too far from Ben's apartment on the Upper West Side, at a cool little soul food place. Then, after less than two hours in the city, we hit the road again. You know, I dig New York a lot and like visiting, but after every trip up there, I still come home thinking that a small big city like Baltimore is still more my speed.

Happy Planet Index

I try to catch the Wired News column by The Luddite whenever I can, and his latest column refers to an index created by the UK-based New Economics Foundation called the Happy Planet Index. For those skeptics who will look at the list and wonder how developed countries do so poorly, the description of the index is that it measures "the ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered around the world". Of course, like most studies of this type, there's bound to be an agenda, right? Right - the NEF discloses the sponsor, Friends of the Earth, right up front.

So is this index worth anything? I guess that depends on whether you buy into the idea that a population's well-being should be measured against consumption of resources. It's interesting that the countries most similar to the U.S. in terms of ecological footprint, according to this study, aren't Western European nations like I would have guessed, but several of the smaller Persian Gulf nations. Also somewhat surprising: Scandinavian countries aren't too far behind us in this category.

Comments at Lay's Funeral: Please Don't Go There

But alas, they did go there. You know, I'm not going to begrudge anyone having kind words being spoken at his or her own funeral; it's certainly not a forum during which equal time should be given to supporters and detractors. But these are kind words for a convicted criminal who helped bring about the economic ruin of many former employees, and then died while awaiting sentencing, vacationing in Aspen (it's a tough life for white-collar criminals!) - not exactly the answer to "What Would Jesus Do?":

The Rev. Bill Lawson, pastor of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, likened Lay to James Byrd, an African-American man who was dragged to death in a racially motivated murder near Jasper eight years ago.

"Ken Lay was neither black nor poor as James Byrd was," Lawson said. "But I'm angry because he was the victim of a lynching." Lawson, who also spoke at Lay's Colorado memorial service, likened the businessman to President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jesus — all of whom, the minister said, were wrongly victimized.

Super-Reality TV

Finally, a cool premise for a reality TV show. WIRED News has a brief write-up of this Stan Lee production, and here's the official website for the show. I wonder if it can join The Amazing Race and Hell's Kitchen as a reality show worthy of regular viewing. It debuts on July 27 on the Sci-Fi channel.

Last Football Post for a While

I promise, this is the last one. After this, I'm back to full-time blogging about the trite & inane, and other stuff besides politics, too!

Germany coach Klinsmann is stepping down - somewhat surprising after the love-fest between him and Germany's players and fans, but he wants to spend more time with his family in Collyfornia. Does this mean the U.S. has a shot at him? We shall see. This guy was a first-time head coach; for his next gig he could be even better, having learned from his mistakes with Germany (if, in fact, he made any).

Over on the winning side, Italy coach Lippi is also resigning. No surprise there, he did his job, and is going out on top. Now that he's set the bar as high as possible, there's no reason to stick around and potentially fail to live up to those expectations.

Zidane: The French Word for 'Thug'?

If Zidane's career indeed ended with this final, then he got exactly what he deserved. His head-butt had to have been one of the ugliest scenes in this tournament, and he managed to sabotage his team's chances of winning a second World Cup. An utterly disgraceful end for a talented and accomplished player.

It's a shame that an otherwise solid, if unspectacular match, came down to penalty kicks. But Italy is certainly a worthy champion; just enough offense throughout the Cup, and a defense that was far superior to any other team's. They now join the very top tier of world football powers, just one title below Brazil.

Third Place for Germany

Germany takes care of business in the third place game, vanquishing the side nobody seems to like, Portugal, by a final of 3-1. An exciting second half, with Bastian Scweinsteiger accounting for the first and third goals, and having a hand in the second, an own-goal off of his free kick. Both of Schweinsteiger's goals, from just outside the 18', were rockets. Kim Jung Il wished his missiles worked half as well.

Not the game Germany wanted to be in at the conclusion of the Cup, but a solid finish nonetheless. This is a young squad that's should be dangerous in South Africa (or Australia?) in 2010.

7/7/77: Happy Birthday to Jenny!

The celebration actually started eight days ago, when Em and Dave were in town and we went to an O's-Phillies game. I had called the O's a day before, and gotten Jenny's name - and upcoming age - up on the scoreboard with the other birthdays! She was (probably?) happy that her name was up there, but less than thrilled about her age being displayed, since she still had eight more days of her twenty-eighth year to enjoy.

Little-known fact: Jenny shares a birthday with fashion icon Pierre Cardin! (same day, but back in 1922)

World Cup Blues

I'm not sure it's that I'll miss it when it's over, or that both semifinal games were a bummer, compared with some really nice round of 16 and quarterfinal games. A few thoughts on the semis:

Germany-Italy: I don't think Germany went away from its attacking style, but it just ran into an excellent Italian defense. Also, I've seen a lot of Germany's matches, and the yellow card suspension of Frings definitely hurt them. Sad to see them not make it to the finals, but hopefully they'll crush those whiny bitches from Portugal tomorrow. Italy, meanwhile, played uninspired ball for the first ninety minutes, then looked like a different - exciting! - team in the overtime. The game-winning goal by Grosso was a thing of beauty, right up there, in my opinion, with my other favorite goals of the Cup: Maxi Rodriguez' long-range volley for Argentina against Mexico, Joe Cole's long strike versus Sweden for England, and Oliver Neuville's baseball-style slide against Poland for Germany (in extra time!! still my favorite). By the way, all the goals in the tourney are on the FIFA web site.

Portugal-France: I was pulling for France because the Portuguese take football drama to whole new, obnoxious levels, and because Zidane and the French midfield had played spectacularly in its prior two matches. Portugal should watch more game tape of Argentina or Italy, teams that know how to take dives; Portugal players just look ridiculous out there, flopping around on the field like there's a competition for 'dive that looks most like a seizure'. France played beautifully in beating Spain and Brazil, but unfortunately stunk it up in this match, one of the uglier games in the tournament. But yes, that was a foul on Henry, and should have been a penalty kick (I know plenty of people would argue otherwise, but I officiated this sport for five years, and it was an easy call).

France-Italy: I honestly don't care who wins at this point, I just hope it's a good match. I'd have to give the edge to Italy though, their back line is just too strong, and they have speed up front that should be able to beat the French defense at least once.

Copa Mundial Procrastination

I was all set to head out to a few stores (grocery store, Lowe's) this morning after my morning run, but there was a problem: Germany v. Sweden. Fortunately, Deutschland scored twice in the first 12 minutes, so at the 30 minute mark I hit the road. With the U.S. out, Germany is my team now, and boy are they easy to root for. They play an exciting form of football, not at all like England's matches thus far, which have been some of the most boring in the tournament. With the capricious nature of goals, why hang back and wait for opportunities? Keep attacking, like Germany does! It's not only an entertaining form of football, but I think it's sound strategy as well. I was actually quite surprised that the final was 2-0, and that the home side didn't tack on a few more goals. Their defense - what I saw of it - looked solid as well. Next match versus Argentina won't be so easy (have I mentioned that I don't give Mexico much of a shot?).

Milena pointed out that for my group play predictions, I was three for eight. Not too bad, but I was hoping for at least fifty percent. What was I thinking with the U.S. and Iran picks?!? I should have known better than to pick the Great Satan and a member of the Axis of Evil to advance out of group play.

New blog links to your right - Aunty Milly and the Calscape.

25 MPH Electric Car Doesn't Cut It

In the same way that huge SUVs can adversely affect others' safety, and also effectively limits car buying choices, this all-electric car with a top speed of 25 mph is a similarly bad idea. Just as driving an Excursion or a Suburban means that anyone who buys a small car lives in fear of getting mashed into the grille on the highway, drivers on city streets shouldn't have to worry about minor accidents caused by a car without enough power to get up hills, which have the potential to become major accidents because the car is designated as a Low Speed Vehicle (and thus is exempt from airbags). Besides, who drives the speed limit in 25 mph zones anyway? Typical speeds in these zones are 30-35 mph; 25 mph is really incredibly slow. There are humans that can run about that fast, and if a cheetah happened to be chasing you, it would be able to catch you twice and still have some speed to spare. I'm all for low-emission vehicles, but this one just strikes me as a flawed product with extremely limited usefulness. Hell, tamed cheetahs with saddles would be a better idea.

Give 'em the Boot

The U.S. World Cup squad, that is. I'm not going to comment much on the game, since I didn't get to see even a minute of it, but I think it's telling that the guys who have done well attacking the goal are guys that don't normally start for Bruce Arena - Eddie Johnson had several nice chances in the Czech game when he came in late, and Clint Dempsey started the last two games after seeing no action in the first, and scored the only goal for the U.S. (not counting the Italy own-goal) in three games. The U.S. entered the World Cup with nothing to lose, and played with a timidity that indicated otherwise. Maybe with a new coach, and with the most aggressive and creative players starting, the U.S. will have a better result in South Africa in 2010. There will be plenty of new blood then, since mainstays Reyna, Pope, McBride, and Keller will (should?) all be retired from national team play by then.

Still plenty of World Cup left though, now that the U.S. and other weak sides have been eliminated. For what it's worth, weekend matches that I'm looking forward to are Holland-Portugal and Germany-Sweden. Also, England-Ecuador smells like an upset, but I'm doubting that Mexico will give Argentina many problems.

Finally, my mom sent me this amazing futbol-related video, here's the originating web page (it's a blog, but one that actually entertains!). The video she sent me was from this guy's 2 June entry. As my friend Neal used to stay - and probably still does - mad skillz.

U.S.-Italy Relations

The U.S. earned a point by drawing with Italy yesterday in what was an even more physical game than Germany-Poland (which was one of the best matches of the tournament thus far; Germany won 1-0 on a spectacular late goal). I didn't get to see the first half - we were driving down to Cal's surprise 30th birthday party, and yes, he was surprised - but by its end, both teams were playing with 10 men as a result of two red cards. In the opening minutes of the second half, defender Eddie Pope received an undeserved yellow, which, coupled with a first-half caution, meant ejection. The U.S. played 9 to Italy's 10 for the remainder of the match. I didn't see either of the goals (both came in the first half), but the officiating was certainly suspicious, especially in light of the fact that the referee was suspended back in 2002 for unspecified irregularities. Hmmm. Anyway, the U.S. still can advance, but they obviously must been Ghana on Thursday.

A quick thought on Cup coverage; I think ABC/ESPN is doing an admirable job, but the lack of coverage from other outlets is discouraging. Get this - on our way down to Cheverly yesterday Jenny and I managed to find an Italian language broadcast of the match (on AM station 730), but not an English broadcast.

Concrete Jungle

There was a big drug bust in the city, not too far from our house, on Tuesday night. Four hundred pounds of marijuana was seized, including some plants that were 4 feet tall. 33 year-old John Arbuckle was arrested. No word on whether Garfield or Odie were taken into custody.

Middle-Aged Man

Of course I'm kidding. I fully expect the life expectency to hit 120 by the time I'm officially old. So when my good friend Callahan turned 30 yesterday, I hope he thought of it start of the second quarter.

And what better way to celebrate the big 3-0, than to start your very own blog? Or, at the very least, publicize the blog that you started back in January. But maybe I should give Cal a break - the guy is freakin' old, he probably just forgot until recently that he had started it.

Cup Update v2.5

We wheeled our office's TV out today to catch some of the USA-Czech match; we managed to tune in a somewhat fuzzy but watchable Univision signal, and saw most of the first half. At the half, the USA seems simply outgunned by a much bigger Czech side. The Czechs bring so many people foward, and almost all apear to be taller and/or stronger than the Americans marking them. I would guess that the US wants to try to use its speed more in the second half, and create some opportunities with fast counters.

The two Czech goals came on a perfect header from the 6, and a perfect strike from about 20 yards out. Meanwhile, the best chance for the US came on a pretty shot by Claudio Reyna that hit the post and rebounded back into play - no US player was nearby, though.

Cup Update, Part Zwei

Caught 2 more games, and halves of two others, since the last update. I'd have to say that Holland has been the most impressive team I've seen thus far, while the Eurotrash team award has to go to Serbia & Montenegro (with Sweden a very close second) - lots of half-shaven guys, a few mullets as well.

Sweden 0, Trinidad & Tobago 0: What can you say about the T&T effort. Last-second GK change, playing a man down in the second half - a fabulous defensive effort. Keeper Shaka Hislop, who played in college at Howard, was phenomenal. Sweden demonstrated the importance of finishing, a lesson that group leader England also needs to learn, and quickly. They dominated possession (60/40), were up a man for nearly half the match, and didn't get it done.

Netherlands 1, Serbia & Montenegro 0: Like I mentioned earlier, Holland looked sharp. I'd be surprised if there were a better passing team (other than Brazil, of course) in the tournament. I only saw the first half, and was somewhat surprised that Holland didn't score in the 2nd half. Also, I dig the all-orange look. The S&M defense was very good, but the one lapse was all the Dutch needed.

Mexico 3, Iran 1: I only saw the 1st half of this one as well, but Mexico looked really good. I was unsure if they'd make it out of the group, because they historically haven't played well in Cups hosted in Europe. But they look tough, and Iran was no pushover. Mexico kept the pressure on constantly in the first half, and was awarded a ton of free kicks. When I saw the final a bit late in the day, it wasn't too surprising. After seeing the Portugal match (see below), I'd say that Mexico should win its group.

Portugal 1, Angola 0: Another inspiring performance by an African squad, another mediocre performance by a heavily-favored European squad (see: England, Sweden). Portugal seems to have a ton of talent, but other than the first 20 minutes, didn't really do a whole lot. Yes, Angola's defense was solid - as solid as their attack was ineffectual - but still, Portugal had plenty of chances that they didn't convert. Maybe John Harkes is right, some of these favored teams seem to be easing into group play, not trying to do too much. Not what I'd call a winning strategy, but hey what do I know.

One final thought; I dig Harkes' commentary much more than his former teammate Marcelo Balboa's. Harkes brings some interesting insight, is obviously better-researched and more familiar with the top Euro-leagues, and stays positive and entusiastic. Balboa, while knowledgable, dwells on negatives and doesn't add much, in my oh-so-humble opinion.

Cup Update, Part 1

I've managed to catch two of the three matches played thus far, Poland/Ecuador and England/Paraguay. Impressions:

Ecuador 2, Poland 0: Poland looked terrible on defense against Ecuador, and while their players in front looked capable, they really didn't demonstrate that until the last 10 to 15 minutes. Ecuador, meanwhile, was aggressive but also picked their spots well. They sure took advantage of the Polish defenders, who were often just standing around.

England 1, Paraguay 0: A Beckham free kick lead to a Paraguay own-goal when Gammara tried to clear with a header. He ended up helping the ball into the corner of the net. It seemed as though the keeper probably could have gotten to Beckham's kick otherwise. England played relatively passively throughout much of the remainder of the match. Watching this match made me wonder what would happen if Beckham played in the middle - every time he touches the ball, there's the potential for something fantastic to happen, but he often doesn't touch the ball that much because he plays so wide on the right.

World Cup Predictions

There's some large international sporting event starting today, with that in mind here are some predictions for standings at the end of the group round, just for fun, as if I know what I'm talking about (teams in bold move on, 3rd and 4th teams, better luck in South Africa). I would add commentary and defend these choices, but who am I kidding, most are just based on hunches anyway; I have no real in-depth knowledge of any of these teams. Although I'd be a happy guy for never again reading anything about Wayne Rooney's foot. Surely England isn't the only nation hyperventilating about its team, um squad, er...side - it just has the greatest concentration of tabloid/football press available to cover it, unfortunately.

A: Germany, Ecuador, Poland, Costa Rica
B: Paraguay, England, Sweden, Trinidad & Tobago
C: Netherlands, Argentina, Ivory Coast, Serbia & Montenegro
D: Portugal, Iran, Mexico, Angola
E: Czech Republic, USA, Italy, Ghana
F: Brazil, Japan, Australia, Croatia
G: Switzerland, France, South Korea, Togo
H: Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia

A Bizarre Draft Option for the Orioles

I'm not sure what I found more shocking in this article, that the Orioles are actually contemplating drafting Jeffrey Maier, or that Scott Erickson is still pitching in the majors.

Free Art in Baltimore

According to the Post - funny, I couldn't find any mention of this in the hometown paper - those uppity Baltimore art museums, the Walters and the BMA, are no longer charging admission fees, starting October 1st. Finally, free art for the locals other than crime scene chalk outlines!

Civil War, Al Gore, and Secret Wars!

Not that this will shock anyone, but this column from Sunday's Post makes it clear; while it may not be all-out, textbook-definition civil war in Iraq, it sure is in the ballpark.

Meanwhile, Rude Pundit makes a great case for Al Gore as a 2008 candidate. His third paragraph states it as well as anything I've read about Al recently. Oh yeah, and Rude Pundit isn't just a clever name - this guy does not mince words, four-letter or otherwise.

Finally, what comic book fan doesn't remember the old Secret Wars tie-ins that spanned, oh about 16 different Marvel titles back in the 80s? Hell, if you wanted to keep up with everything that was happening, you actually had to buy Thor. Ugh. This super-geeky video re-enactment features what is possibly the saddest looking Doctor Doom costume ever. Still, an 'A' for effort.

Age of Indifference?

These two columns, one at Wired and the other in the Baltimore Sun by columnist-activist Dan Rodricks, have recently put me in a place that I don't visit very often: deep in thought. I know, risky. But reading them made me wonder, with all the shit that's going on with our government these days, where's the widespread anger, the demand for accountability, any kind of populist response? Missing in action, apparently, but why?

First the Wired piece. The comparison with the Vietnam era is intriguing. I read an article months ago - don't recall where or I'd link to it - that discussed the idea of World War II's "Greatest Generation", and that while that was an appropriate label, and that generation deserves all the praise and honor that all the documentaries, Tom Brokaw books, and Tom Hanks-produced movies and TV series bestow upon it, don't forget about the '60s-early '70s generation either. The argument was that World War II was something that was easy to unite behind, and the conflicts of the '60s didn't necessarily have widespread popular support but they got the job done anyway, with civil rights, with getting us out of Vietnam (eventually), even with timely investigations of people at the top who were abusing their power (Watergate, Church Committee, etc.). So, back to the Wired column; are we that self-absorbed that we can't mobilize to do something about the current abuses? Are we looking to the wrong opposition leaders - i.e., most of the Democrat Party 'leadership' - to rally behind? Do we not realize how perilous a position we've put our world in, and how much our freedoms are at risk? Hopefully, it's starting to sink in for a majority of people, but I'm not quite convinced that the tide has turned.

The Rodricks column on mandatory public service goes in a somewhat different direction, but still speaks to this pervasive indifference that seems to have settled in. Is mandatory service the answer? I hope that it wouldn't have to come to that. I remember the debates, back when I was in high school, about mandatory community service for students, and whether the mandatory part of the equation violated the altruistic spirit with which one should approach community service - I believed that it did back then, and I still believe that. Community service as forced labor can easily breed resentment towards both the government that mandates it, and towards those who are being helped. Sure, it can get things done, but is that cost worth it? Maybe, but something about such an arrangement just feels wrong to me. Dan Rodricks' columns always ask tough questions though, and this one is no different. It also naturally lead to some introspection, namely my own complicity in this culture of apathy, and what I could be doing differently with my time and/or money, to break out of it. Tough questions indeed.

Muppets Take Smithsonian

Not that they weren't part of Americana already, but now they're behind glass at the Smithsonian. I hope they put some airholes in the glass though, Muppets do need to breathe.

I was talking with Jenny about Muppets the other day; every time I pass by the Wilkins Avenue exit on the Baltimore Beltway, I think of Jim Henson. His Muppets' first job as pitchmen was for Wilkins Coffee back in the early '60s (late '50s?). Now, I don't know whether they had a presence in Baltimore, but Wilkins Coffee was (is?) actually based in the DC area, in Capitol Heights I believe. So my free- association with Wilkins Avenue is just that; there's no direct link that I know of. Anyway, over at YouTube, someone has collected the old Wilkins TV spots, so check them out. Most are a more violent than I would have guessed a commerical back then would have been - lots of exploding, beaten, pummeled, run-over, coffee-dumped-on Muppets. Still entertaining though! It's also interesting to note that while the featured Muppets, Wilkins and Wontkins, are somewhat primitive by modern Muppet standards, there's really not a huge gap to bridge from them to Kermit or Fozzie.

FA Cup: Democracy in Action

Last Saturday morning at 10 o'clock, I met Jay and his wife Val at Slainte in Fell's Point, to catch the FA Cup final between Liverpool and West Ham. And even if it hadn't been an incredible match that, unfortunately, had to end in penalty kicks, it still would have been a good time. Four of the six goals scored in regular time were nothing short of amazing (the other two goals, eh, not so great). And if Liverpool's Steven Gerrard isn't the best midfielder in Europe, he's surely in the top five.

But even if the match had really stunk, it was still a fantastic atmosphere: full pub, 10 am on a gorgeous, sunny day, a view of Thames Street and the harbor, a nice corned-beef Irish omelette, four - yeah, four - pints of Guinness, all before noon! OK, the last pint was ordered before noon and consumed afterwards, during extra time, but still, a nice way to start one's Saturday. Although I was dragging a bit come midday, it was worth it!

647 teams entered this year's FA Cup, these are clubs from all levels of English football, and the draws are completely random (no seeds). This year, as in many years, two Premiership teams made it to the final. But the idea that the little guys can go up against the giants of the sport, such as Liverpool, is pretty much a foreign concept with any other sport but soccer. Maybe that helps to explain its globabl popularity; lots of team sports are skill-based, but I can't think of any that rely less on the sheer size of the players than does soccer. So why hasn't the sport caught on as much in our corner of the world?

Police State

Not a term that should be used lightly, but since when do we send the National Gaurd to hold hands along our southern border? Since now, perhaps?

Maybe I shouldn't complain. A majority of Americans are apparently OK with giving up their privacy. By the way, kudos to Qwest for just saying no to the feds. As for the other Baby Bells, AT&T, Bell South, and Verizon, how should I put this...you're all spineless, greedy fuckers. Have you really run out of ways to screw your customers, that you now need to involve the NSA in the process? Not to mention that now I have to listen carefully for Dick Cheney's wheezing breath whenever I pick up the phone. Then again, maybe that's not Dick's breathing - maybe that rustling sound is Dick wiping his ass with the Constitution!

Seven Tons, Three Hours

As of last Friday, the concrete is gone from our back "yard"! I thought I had a 'before' pic, but I think I must have deleted it, so you'll have to make do with the 'after' pic, and the shot of me and the dumpster full of concrete. Not too bad in terms of home improvement projects; it only took about six months from the time I hammered up the concrete, to get it removed! Thanks to Dad for all the help, and the use of the trailer.

I know what you're thinking though. Exaggeration. Surely, it wasn't seven tons. Maybe, maybe not. But check out the numbers. A 13.5' X 20' area (actually, a bit larger). Concrete that was 6" deep - or even thicker - in most spots. Let's be waaaay conservative, and say it was an average of four inches thick. That's 89 cubic feet of concrete. A search of the internets - the concrete internet, specifically - reveals that the density of concrete is around 150 lbs/cf. That's 6.7 tons right there! Not too bad for three hours of work.

Afterwards, we drank beers, went to the O's game (they won), while there we ate and drank more beer. All in all, a productive Friday.

Understated Sports Headline

Kaman: Evans pulled testicles, prompting outburst. "Prompting outburst"? Gee, ya think?

Ugh, to think the Nuggets traded for this Evans guy in mid-season! I guess it's hard to find quality testicle-pullers in the NBA these days. Although I sure could see Cherokee Parks or Christian Laettner coming off the bench as designated 'pullers' once their real NBA careers are over. What? Their NBA careers are over? Funny, I didn't notice.

Planet v. Human

It's something I ponder now and again, but this recent post by Greg over at his blog brought it into focus for me a bit. His family (soon to number four) is buying a Honda SUV to transport the kiddies in. Greg writes that one of the reasons is due to the harping of the liberal elite. I don't quite know what that means, since I doubt he's taking calls from Arianna Huffington or Laurie David, but those who know him would not be surprised to find his photo here some day - and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

But there's a lesson here, that many environmental groups do their movement disservice in the way they make their cases. Nobody, no matter where one is in the world, likes being told what to do and what to think. Environmental organizations that tell people what not to buy, or assume that the average world citizen is a moron, will always be fighting at least some backlash. I support most of their causes wholeheartedly, but can't help but cringe at the way they present their arguments to the public. There is real scientific basis for great concern over the temperature of the planet, more species disappearing every year, and the cleanliness of the air and water.

The challenge is making these arguments more personal, but less condescending. It's a fine line to walk sometimes, for certain. But these are not difficult concepts for the most part, no need to get snooty when explaining them! The planet warms, ice melts, water levels rise, not that tough to visualize. It's human nature for people to be wrapped up in their own worlds, and to be thinking about how best to care for and protect their kids; the last things they're going to consider are global environmental problems (hell, most people in my neighborhood don't even recycle). The goal needs to be to make the arguments more personal, and make them respectfully. Shouting that the sky is falling is a big turn-off - even if it happens to actually be falling - and telling someone that they're a bad human being for making a certain purchase is the first, and biggest, step towards alienating that person to your message.

Songwriter Extraordinaire

Anyone who digs great - and usually hilarious - music should check out Jonathan Coulton, a musician who's Thing a Week is currently my favorite podcast. He's got a little something for almost everyone! Here are some examples:

• for the Calscape: acoustic-guitar driven cover of Baby Got Back
• for Jarriel and anyone else who appreciates a good zombie film: Re: Your Brains
  
• for my parents and other old(er) people, and for 1990 TJHS Marching Band members: Beatles/Chicago mashup When I'm 25 or 64
• for Scott and anyone who was captivated by curling during the Olympics: Curl
  
• for Greg, the Wimble, other young dads, and Beach Boys fans: Stroller Town

I have most of his podcasts stored on my home PC, so let me know if you want me to hook you up with songs that might not be available via iTunes anymore. Plus he has a few albums on iTunes, which I've been meaning to purchase (honest!) but haven't gotten around to just yet.

I Hate Jeffrey Maier, The Movie

Talk about creative use of fan frustration. If this doees indeed come to the Senator this summer, I'll certainly go see it.

27 Points of Light, or 1 Blazing Inferno?

What can I say, a bit of Easter-weekend inspiration! Either that, or I was just really hungry for brownies, and who has time to place and light 27 individual candles when the brownies beckon? Regardless of the motivation, I have a feeling that a new family birthday-celebrating tradition has been born!

Happy Birthday Matt! Hope you win big this weekend, bro, like I always do (haha! I'm so funny!). Just remember the words of the King: All you need's a strong heart and a nerve of steel...

Upcoming Charm City (Odd) Events

I wrote about this awesome race last year, but unfortunately this year Jenny & I won't be in town to see it: the 2006 running of the Kinetic Sculpture Race!

And coming in October - BUT with an application deadline at the end of July, for all your flying (and crashing) enthusiasts - FLUGTAG!

Coming later today - birthday wishes to the bro (as soon as I get home and download a special birthday photo from my camera).

A Bad Week, plus This Week at the CCB

It was just one of those weeks. Sixty hours of work (and with my commute, it seemed like much longer), a $2900 plumbers' bill, and allergy season finally hit as well. Needless to say - evidently not - blogging wasn't a priority, it was barely an afterthought. This week has to be better though, and I've got a lot to catch up on. A preview of this week:

• new links! to two upcoming Baltimore events in creativity and engineering, and to the oddest and geekiest ipod accessory ever
• new sidebar! with links to the podcasts I listen to regularly
• music review! of songwriter extraordinaire & podcaster Jonathan Coulton
• peep jousting! photos, and possibly videos, of the newest Easter tradition in our family, started this past weekend by Amy & Jenny

An ambitious agenda, to be sure, but I think I can handle it - stay tuned!

Busy Times at the Office

So busy, in fact, that I'm this far behind on my rubber band ball:

Women's Basketball: Who Knew?

Yeah, I watched the entirety of the Terp Women's chamionship triumph last night. And yes, it was entertaining! Was it as compelling as some of the fantastic men's tourney games this year? Hell yeah! I have to admit, I'm surprised that it kept my attention - I've rarely allocated many of my sports viewing hours (and I probably devote hundreds of hours every year to sports viewing, as you might imagine) to women's sports, other than the odd tennis or soccer match, so I was pleasantly surprised. Then again, this game was played at a high level, so I might be disappointed to watch a more typical women's game, which would naturally have less at stake and therefore less intensity. It might in fact be the opposite of my recent NHL viewing experience; I may have been turned off by an atypically-poor level of play in that case, while in this case I'm drawn in by unusually-high level of play. Who knows.

What I do know, is that these Terps are champs, and considering who they beat makes it that much sweeter. Congrats to Brenda Freese and all of her Gurtles.

Baseball Is Back

Another season begins, and Peter Angelos is still an ass when it comes to player negotiations. What a shocker!

Bad Coffee Pacing, 10K Congestion

So I didn't pace myself too well with the coffee this morning, and by the time I got on the Metro after the train ride from Baltimore, I really had to pee. I figured I'd try to take my mind off it by leafing through a Washington Post Express. As fate had it, a very bad idea! What should I find in the Express, but a condensed version of this article. NOT COOL! But I did make it to the office without incident, so I can't bitch too much.

How did the Bridge Run go? Well, considering that I couldn't really get up to my pace until midway through the third mile, I was quite happy with my time of 54:05. Fifty thousand people really clog up a race course, I don't care how wide the course is. So I did the first two miles in about 9:15 each, started to pick up some speed by the third mile (8:53), tried to make up for lost time with a 7:46 fourth mile - fast for me - and then evened out with fifth and sixth miles of 8:34 and 8:31. It's amazing how big of a deal this run is down in Charleston. A local news station down there covers the whole run! Em & Dave Tivo-ed it, and we actually caught Dave and Barry on the coverage. Kinda neat. I think that all four of us were happy with our times, considering the slow going early on. Dave was his usual speedy self - I think I'm going to switch over to a new Diet Coke training regimen, since I suspect that's the secret of his success (it can't be the years of running, can it? Besides, who wants to work that hard?). And check this out: there were grilled Johnsonville Bratwurst available post-race, how sweet is that? From now on, I won't run a race that doesn't guarantee bratwurst at the finish line.

An Early April Fool's?

Call me crazy, but this story about the apparently impending divorce of Orioles new starter Kris Benson from his model/"actress" wife Anna, sure seems suspicious. It's March 31st, it's right before the season begins, and Anna has never been shy about self-promotion. April Fool's, anyone?

I'm down in South Carolina, and am running in the Cooper River Bridge Run tomorrow - there are currently over 45,000 runners registered for this 10K race!!! That's an insanely big 10K race field, but according to Em & Dave this is a big Charleston area tradition. It should be fun, it will just be a crowded bridge, that's all.

I'm using Em's brand new laptop to write this entry. It's shiny.

Cashing In the Bracket

One bracket down, one to go! I already wrapped up the pool for our main office in Michigan, the earliest win ever, by anyone's recollection. And I'll win the local office pool as long as LSU doesn't win it all. Neither pool is very big, $75 payout for each, but not a bad return on a $5"investment". I don't like rooting against LSU; they and George Mason are two of the more lovable teams left in the tourney. Actually, if you can excuse UCLA's hideous brand of defensive basketball, all four teams are likable in their own way. LSU has Big Baby, UCLA is Big East basketball amongst the palm trees (well, I think that's kinda neat), Florida has the fabulous inside play of Noah and Horford, and Mason is the local team with five - five! - players from Maryland.

Quick aside about that - this is where the Terps missing on a recruit like Travis Garrison or Sterling Ledbetter hurts twice. They not only get a player who isn't very good or who doesn't improve, but they miss out on local talent that ends up going to a smaller program.

Hey, if you're in the DC area and don't have anything to do this Thursday, head to the Black Cat to see Hard-Fi. Cheap tickets, great music - unfortunately I'll miss it, so somebody please go, and tell me how much it rocked.

What the Puck

What a brilliant title! I am so damn witty.

So I attended my first pro hockey game this past weekend, between the Capitals and the Florida Panthers. It was certainly better than I expected, although hockey is one of the few sports that I don't follow, nor have expressed any interest whatsoever in following, so "better than I expected" doesn't carry too much meaning. Yes, it's true what many people have told me in the past, hockey is much better live than on TV. Of course, you could say that about most sports, with the possible exception of football, which was seemingly made for television. This was a sloppy game though, or so it seemed to me. "Passes" went to the other side just as often as to the passing team, and most shots seemed either rushed or else too delibrate. That seems to be the philosophy in hockey, as far as I can tell; fling enough pucks at the goal, and some are bound to go in - scoring by attrition. But then again, what the hell do I know, right?

There were several women among our sizable group there that lamented the dearth of fights and bloodshed in hockey (I guess the NHL cracked down on that a few years ago?), which I don't quite understand. That's always been one of my hockey turn-offs; if the sport is that good, and the players that skilled, why do they let these thugs out onto the ice to fight a few times a game? I don't know if that's been eliminated from hockey completely, but judging by this game it has, and that can only be a good thing. Now if only the players were more skilled, or at least more consistent, than the two mediocre (at best) teams that I saw on Saturday.

So that's the final verdict from this corner: hockey, it doesn't suck completely, but it's pretty damn close. I would actually attend another game, if I didn't have to buy the ticket, and there wasn't anything better going on that night (like a good baseball, basketball, soccer, or football game on TV, for example).

In Heaven There Is No Beer...

...that's why we drink it here. Yes my friends, it's that magical night that only occurs once year, Saint Patrick's Day Eve. A night when beer drinkers everywhere stay up late, decorating their kegs, dusting off their collection of pint glasses, hoping that this is the year that the leprechaun sneaks in and leaves a pot o' gold or, even better, a dark ray of sunshine (a case of Guinness, people, try to stay with me please).

How often do the leprechauns actually make it to people's houses to leave their gifts? Not very, unsurprisingly - it's a busy time of year for them after all, lots of celebrating to do! They've barely recovered from that nasty month-long Christmas season nogg-induced hangover/coma by early February, and then Mardi Gras comes along (what, you think that the little dudes don't celebrate Mardi Gras? Leprechauns are Catholic, you know), then their signature holiday the month after that - it's a bit of a rough time most years. Then, even if they do make a visit, you still have to measure up; have you been a nice or a naughty drinker this year? Do you offer to buy rounds, make fun of those haughty and imperialist English whenever possible, and visit your Irish friends in the hospital? Or do you offer your friends cheap beer when they visit, confuse Ireland and Scotland, and begin beer-related discussions with the phrase, "Guinness is OK, but..."? The answers to those questions may very well determine whether the luck o' the Irish is with you tomorrow - I hope for your sake that you've represented your fellow drinkers well over the past year.

As if Saint Patrick's Day could be any more special, this year it not only falls on a Friday, but coincides with the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. Maybe I'll devote an entire post in the near future to the criminality of neither Saint Patrick's Day nor the NCAA 1st round being national holidays. But for now, my bracket is kicking some serious ass! As of this writing, 11 of 12, with the late games looking decent as well. That probably means that I'll go 5 for 16 tomorrow, but hey whatever - tomorrow's for celebrating, no matter how the games end.

Falling Behind, Night Watch

Where have the posts gone? Well first off, I can't remember the last time I was this busy at work, so that certainly doesn't help. When I'm staring at a screen for 9+ hours every day (trying to get a simulation calibrated), I just don't feel like coming home and writing even the shortest entry. The other factor is, there hasn't been that much going on, that I've felt suitably inspired to write about. Let's see, I had back to back commutes this past week where I sat on the train next to two foul-smelling men - first, it was a guy who had every communication device known to man, but seemed to forget that communication can be olfactory as well, and thus deodorant should have been part of his arsenal of devices. Then the next day, it was the two packs a day smoker, who also snored! Talk about a winner.

Speaking of winners, that excludes the Terps, who are out of the NCAAs for a second year in a row after providing their own special brand of stench in a loss to Boston College a few nights ago. Maybe next year, who knows?

Jenny and I went to the cinema last night and saw Night Watch, a Russian sci-fi film and part one of a trilogy, that was more popular than Lord of the Rings in Russia. According to the Wikipedia entry, it diverges a great deal from the book that it's based on, but I could have told you that just by watching the movie - it was very...uneven. The sub-plot that the main plot has to work around is ridiculous and full of holes, the characters have some fantastic powers that you barely get a glimpse of, and one of the neat concepts that the film introduces, the Gloom, barely gets explored - a book with that many problems never would have been made into a movie. Even with that list of complaints though, I would still recommend it, especially if you're a fan of innovative filmmaking, or of that whole 'cosmic struggle between good and evil' schtick. Even the subtitles are cool (you'll have to see them for yourself, it's hard to describe). Wikipedia also says that the third movie - the second has already been released in Russia - will be made in the U.S., with an English-speaking cast. That would be a shame, because these actors were very good, and the 'look' of the all-Russian cast really meshed with the look of the film. Besides, the special effects were awesome, and with a film budget of only $4.2 million. What do you wanna bet that Hollywood will surely screw it up by over-doing the FX and casting Keanu Reeves in the lead?

The Very Definition....

...of the word schadenfreude. On Redick's and Williams' Senior Night, no less! Anyone who's interested in sending Roy Williams or Tyler Hansbrough a fruit basket, or maybe a nice selection of assorted cheeses, let me know, I'll chip in.

Haven't been posting much lately, mainly because I've been very busy at the office, and the last thing I want to do most nights is come home and cozy up to the mouse and keyboard some more. So here's a quick run-down since my last post:

Jenny and I saw Brokeback Mountain last weekend - it's the only Best Picture nominee we've seen this year, but all the same I'd be quite surprised if it didn't win. Before we went to see it, we hadn't been to the movies in about three months. Netflix is both a blessing and a curse, I suppose; we end up seeing so many great old films that we wouldn't otherwise see, but we miss out on some fantastic newer movies for a while, especially if we don't add them to the queue right after they're released to DVD. For example, we just saw Ray the other night. This year's Oscar nominees are somewhat rare for me, in that they're all movies that I'd like to see (eventually). Some years, not a one interests me in the least. Throw in films that didn't get the top nomination but got a lot of good press, like Walk The Line, Cinderella Man, The Constant Gardener, and A History of Violence, and it's certainly a "deep field" this year.

Get this - I received a letter this week from the MVA, stating that my license is in danger of being suspended because of some administrative action in Virginia, where I last lived almost six years ago. What a joke. So after 45 minutes on the phone with various mindless VA DMV bureaucrats (I know, redundancy), who gave me two wrong phone numbers for the insurance verification office, I was able to straighten it out. See, I had moved from Virginia in September 2000, and had all my MD licensing, registration, inspection, and titling done by December 2000. Virginia evidently tried to verify that I was an insured driver in October 2001, and then it took them four-plus years to take further action? Nevermind that it's a non-issue, that it's irrelevant whether I was insured in VA in 20001, because this is 2006. What, are they going to go back in time and suspend my non-existent 2001 VA license? Excuse my language, but what a bunch of fucking morons. It's too bad that I have to drive through that shitty state in order to get to the Carolina beaches or visit my sister in Charleston SC, because I'd much rather avoid it entirely. I did get it straightened out (I think), and they're supposed to mail me a letter that I then send to the MD MVA, which states that the matter has been resolved. But I'm unfortunately a bit dumber, having been forced to spend all that time on the phone with the idiot state employees in Richmond.

College All-Americans, Pro Benchwarmers

Of course, that refers to the NBA players from the Team Whose Name Is Not Spoken On This Blog. This is a great Sprots Illustrated piece, many thanks to Jay Dip for the link.

Vernon Davis, Impressive at Combine

One of Terrapin football's few bright spots this past season, tight end Vernon Davis, kicked some ass at the NFL scouting combine this week (no surprise to MD fans who watched him the past few years). So at least Terps players are doing well, even if the team hasn't been so hot the past few seasons.

Sign Me Up for the Shaun White Fan Club

Looks like ratings are down for the Winter Olympics, but I could care less whether the U.S. has two fewer gold medals than Germany. Not when you have just one great athlete like nineteen year-old snowboarder Shaun White to entertain, both in actual competition and in front of the cameras. I've seen this guy in X-Games of years past, and while I appreciated his skills on both the skateboard and snowboard, I figured, hey just another X-Games athlete, complete with the slacker persona and fashion sense (fashion in this case used very liberally). But I don't know if I can remember a more likable athlete - the best in his sport, no less - give a more entertaining interview.

I caught him on ESPN News last night after I got back from running, and the kid is good. He's got a natural enthusiasm that's infectious, and seems unconcerned with appearing cool, even though he competes in sports where cool is a big part of your markteability. He also stays away from the awfulness that is the sports cliche, and he's funny as hell. In the span of a 2-minute interview, he managed to hit on twice-his-age SportsCenter anchor Linda Cohn (who wasn't conducting the interview, but it was still funny), diss his silly Flying Tomato nickname while still reminding viewers that the tomato is a cool vegetable that's good for you, and seem genuinely in awe of winning a gold medal that he was the favorite to win. Now, someone explain to me why the hell anyone would "Join Bode" when there are guys like Shaun White who we could be watching instead?

Winter Olympics: More Medals Needed?

Even though the good old U-S-A is, as of this writing, third in overall medals, the perception in the media seems to be that we're not doing so well. That's probably due to the seemingly large number of events in which U.S. athletes are finishing fourth, fifth, or sixth. Never fear though, loyal readers, I have a solution!

First of all, do we even know why there are medals awarded for only the three top finishers? It probably dates back to ancient Grece, but this is the 21st century, baby! Time to expand the medal platforms to include a few more participants: from now on, medals to the top five.

Now, about those medals - why do they have to be metal? Medal is just short for medallion, not for a hunk of mined ore. Time to switch that up as well, put some animal alongside the mineral: fourth place - medallions of beef, fifth - pork medallions. Just don't leave them in the trophy case too long, and you'll be fine. Plus they both go well with a nice marsala sauce.

Terps Coverage Ends for the Season

With Maryland's loss to Clemson last night, I'm officially done raging about Terps basketball for the season. I'm not saying I won't watch any more games, b/c I probably will (although not all of them, as I had been doing), I just will stop wondering what went wrong. More accurately, I will stop writing about what went wrong, because I simply don't know and it hurts my brain to think about it.

By extension, I will stop searching for that endangered species of college basketball, the elusive Maryland Screen (Latin: Emydidae Pickius). Hell, not even the Teps beat writer for the Sun knew where to find one! Yes, that second question is mine, and while I very much appreciate Ms. Dinich indulging the inquiry of a disgruntled fan, her response brings me no closer to that which I seek.

To paraphrase Chicago Cubs fans, maybe next year.

Another Loss, and Not a Screen in Sight

Terps lose again to their arch-rivals. Maryland decides not to attempt more than five 3-pointers until the last two minutes of the game. Meanwhile, they are disorganzied on defense on many occassions, and allow open 3-point baskets. Still not a screen in sight for shooters like Mike Jones. He should learn to shoot more while he's covered, because if he's waiting for a pick to free him for a shot, he's going to be waiting a loooong time.

Oooh, just thought of an extremely dumb joke. Q: Why doesn't Gary ever open the windows of his house in the summer? A: There are no screens, he doesn't believe in them!

Chocolate! (& Charity)

Jenny and I attended the 15th Annual Chocolate Affair at Ravens Stadium last night, our first real exposure to such a charity event, and we had a great time. Our friend Tammie is involved with the charity, Health Care for the Homeless, and was one of the organizers of what I assume must be their largest annual fundraiser. The food was terrific, although after a while we found we really needed to rein ourselves in, for fear of entering some kind of chocolate-induced coma. I think we were most impressed with the scallops with chocolate glazing - who knew scallops and chocolate would work so well together?

We also placed a couple bids on one of the silent auction items: a signed Jerry Springer photo and 4 tickets to a taping of his show!!! Alas, we were not victorious, as the winning bidder (A Mr. David Johnson) went up to $70. He was hovering around the bid sheet towards the end of the auction, so we knew that we were a long shot to take home Jerry. He was somewhat-jokingly trying to discourage us from bidding anymore, but we didn't end up going beyond $45, so we weren't his real competition. But I suppose that we did do our part to bid up the final price of the item, so even though we didn't win we helped out the charity, right?

Refs on Durham Payroll Get Busted!

The ACC is finally realizing that games featuring the Bleu Devils aren't officiated impartially. Funny, most ACC fans have known that for years.

Super Weekend

[I didn't add Bowl to the title for a reason; you never know these days when some trademark lawyer is gonna wake up in a bad mood and get overzealous with the cease-and-desist letters.]

Kind of a blah weekend, in terms of the weather, here in Charm City. But we managed to get out of the house despite the cold and rain, and after 3+ years in the city finally got library cards! Doesn't sound too exciting, I know, but Baltimore has a very good library system, and buying every book that we read starts to add up after a while (in terms of money and space - we are in serious need of a third bookshelf).

I also stopped by the local running store and picked up some shiny new shoes - the Saucony Grid Trigon 3!. The helpful person at the store confirmed what I already suspected, that I'm a neutral runner (I don't significantly roll my foot one way or the other); I did learn, though, that my foot would be happier in a size 11 than in the 10.5 I used to wear.

Now, on to the games. Yes, games, plural. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Terps' loss to N.C. State yesterday. Good effort, close game, oh well. Although I would like to call the Maryland coaching staff's attention to this element of modern basketball that they are apparently blissfully unaware of - please implement this for Mike Jones, it won't hurt a bit. Honest.

The Super Bowl? Eh, it was OK. Don't get me wrong, it was a good game, but how does any game that doesn't go to at least 3 overtimes live up to the Super Bowl hype? It doesn't. Especially a game with such terrible officiating. But nevermind the game, how about them Stones? I was somewhat taken aback by the reaction of many of the people I was watching the game with; outright disgust at the sight of a 60+ Mick Jagger prancing around the stage in the skintight pants. Isn't that what rock-n-roll is all about though? Sure it's ridiculous, inappropriate, self-destructive, even ugly at times, but that's what's so cool about it, and that's what Mick and the guys personify as well as any act still performing. Any opportunity to not act one's age should be embraced, and the Stones do that as well as anyone. I'd rather see that kind of energy on stage any day, rather than a bunch of guys who just stand around, sing, play, exit stage right. Might as well stay home and listen to the CD in that case, and save yourself some money.

Anyone Know How to Pronounce 'Boehner'?

I'm referring, of course, to the new House Majority Leader, John Boehner of Ohio. The big question is, does it sound more like Bayner or Boner? I would think the latter, he is a Republican after all. Still, I suppose he's better than having a DeLay disciple like Roy Blunt as leader.

That's another thing - the Post really missed out on a great headline for this piece of news: Boehner Smokes Blunt! I just hope, for the sake of impressionable children everywhere, that he refrained from inhaling.

A Birthday Conspiracy

Jenny and my parents arrived at my office Friday around noon, with my sister Em as a special surprise guest! (Jenny had flown her in from Charleston) We proceeded to the National Zoo - my Mom's idea, she's a panda fanatic - and that evening Jenny and I trekked back to the Charm City for a fantastic birthday dinner at Sascha's. Little did I know then, that the festivities weren't yet over....

Saturday - my parents and Em were going to come out to Baltimore for dinner with us that night; a dual celebration of mine and Em's birthdays (hers is today, happy birthday Em!!!), or so I thought. Jenny claimed that she had to go into the office that afternoon, since she was out all day on Friday. Very plausible; I didn't think twice about it. Nor did I think twice when she claimed early that evening that she left her cell phone at the office; again, very believable, since she's been known to forget or misplace things from time to time. I also wasn't suspicious about Barry & Helen wanting to watch the end of My Cousin Vinnie on TV instead of heading out to eat earlier than planned (everyone was already hungry around 7, reservations were for 8) - after all, they love that movie.

But then again, I didn't have any reason to be suspicious! I had thought that something was going on for the last few weeks, with Jenny on the phone with my mom a few times per week, but when Em showed up I figured hey, that was it. Nope. Most everyone who's reading this knows the rest - I show up at DuClaw in Fells Point, everyone's there, I am genuinely surprised, we drink, eat, mingle; a good time is had by all!

Now for the second round of birthday thank-yous! Thanks again to the whole family - Barry, Helen, and Em for helping out with the planning and the photo album, and Dave, Amy, and Matt for all your love (I know you all would have been there if you could; get well soon Amy!). Thanks to everyone who showed up, especially the LTIers who made the journey from DC - special thanks to Scott for coordinating with Jenny to make sure I didn't inadvertently spoil any plans - and our Patterson Park neighbors for taking time to celebrating with a guy that they don't know too well. Finally, to the wife of the year, Jenny - what can I say, you pulled it off marvelously, babe. It's gonna be tough to top that in another year-and-a-half, when it comes time to celebrate your second 29th birthday....I'm up to the challenge though (mwaahahhah!!).

Thirty, Google Video

Today's the day, the big three-zero. Ze Germans call it dreissig. The Romans would have known it by the letters XXX (how naughty). I'd like to thank my parents for making it all possible, and myself for staying alive for all these decades.

In other news, Google recently launched its video service, and already we have a few winners. For you cat-lovers out there (or even for you alleged cat-haters who secretly love cats, you know who you are), here are cats doing weird and crazy things. And here's an alternate music video of the Electric Six tune Gay Bar featuring everyone's favorite transatlantic couple, George and Tony. No, it's not a homophobic song (at least not that I can tell), it's just plain bizarre - other Electric Six originals include Electric Demons in Love and Vengeance and Fashion. Don't take the song too seriously, but be impressed with the editing of the video.

Terps: State of the Team

As some of you know, the Terps lost leading scorer Chris McCray to academic ineligibility this week. His basketball playing days at Maryland are now over. There are columns in the Sun and the Post today by John Eisenberg and Mike Wilbon, respectively, that put the blame squarely on Chris. Still, not exactly one of Gary's best recruiting classes.

Now it's time to see what the guards on the bench will do with much more playing time, beginning with Mike Jones, who moves into the starting lineup. We'll also see how interested Gary remains in coaching this year's team; will he let them coast and just wait it out until next year's supposedly-stellar recruits arrive, or can he push this team back into the tournament? Time will tell, but I wouldn't be surprised if they go on a bit of a winning streak. That Mike Jones guy can really shoot the ball, if he starts playing 30 minutes a game, who knows what could happen?

Meanwhile, former Terps are acquitting themselves nicely (or at the very least, showing up to play) in various pro leagues:

• Juan and Steve are still in the Blazers' starting lineup, and each scored 20 the other night.
• Drew Nicholas is starting for Italy's top pro team, Benneton, which is currently leading the Serie A standings. And if I'm reading this table correctly, he's actually leading the team in scoring, assists, and minutes!
• Sarunas gets 24 minutes and 9 per game in Indiana.
  
• Lonny Baxter is getting some playing time in Houston.
• Terrence Morris averages about 9 minutes a game in Orlando.
• That punk-ass John Gilchrist is the second-leading scorer on his Israeli team.
• Mike Mardesich is evidently starting for some French team. I guess you can't teach size...

There are other players who are also hanging out in the NBA, guys like Joe Smith, Laron Profit, Chris Wilcox - I just decided to highlight those players that you might not hear too much about, and also players that I particularly like (Drew, Lonny, Juan, Steve).

Are ALL Political Talk Show Hosts Right-Wing?

I thought Chris Matthews worked in the Carter administration, how exactly does he end up sounding just as reactionary, slanderous, and just plain dumb, as a Sean Hannity or a Rush Limbaugh? Matthews doesn't deserve a viewing audience any more than the windbags on Fox "News", the only thinking he does before he opens his mouth is about how loud he's going to shout. Unfortunately, he passes for a moderate among the talking heads, but it's discouraging when even the so-called moderates buy into the propaganda that anyone who opposes the backwards foreign policy of the US is a terrorist sympathizer.

Mr. Moore, of course, is more than capable of defending himself.

Now That's Some Good Mileage

I found this company through WIRED News' Autopia blog; they're building a hybrid car that gets 330 MPG. Sure beats the hell out of the Prius!

(Haven't posted in a while b/c I've been bothered by a cold over the past week, and thus haven't felt suitably inspired. Almost back to 100%, so entries should be back to their usual frequency, whatever that may be.)

Losing Focus

It's so hard to concentrate on work on a Friday afternoon when you've got a sore throat, the day's work is excrutiatingly boring, and there are about a dozen emergency vehicles on the street below my office window - not to mention the flock of reporters and cameras clustered around a D.C. Fire Marshal(?).

I guess someone isn't feeling well over at the Mayflower Hotel, someone important by the looks of it. More breaking news as it happens, here at the CCB!

Charm City Blogger, One Year Later

It's been one year (to the day) already, and I'm still not bored with this whole blogging thing! Amazing. Actually, I'm having more fun with it now than I was back when I started, believe it or not.

Big Brother Welcomes You to the U-S-A

Have a nice time, speak your mind, relax! But we're watching you.

I don't know about you, but I sleep better at night, knowing that someone's keeping an eye on these freedom-hating bastards.

An Ugly Viewing Experience

Of course, I'm referring to being forced to listen to that sycophant Dick Vitale while he fellates the Durham-based college basketball program, its coach, players, alumni, and fans, for the entirety of the Terps game this evening. See, I can't mute the TV and turn on Johnny Holliday because we have DirecTV, and there's a 1-2 second delay between the terrestrial radio signal and the satellite TV signal. Next time, I'm hitting mute and cranking up some tunes on the stereo. Thankfully, they only play the Durhams two, maybe three times per year.

As for the game? Not much left to say. Twenty-nine turnovers and six assists will usually lose, I don't care who you're playing. I'm starting to doubt that Gary will stick with D.J. Strawberry as his starting PG for the entire season (1 assist, 5 TOs from D.J. in the game).

A Little More (Deep) Conversation

I can't say that I'm too surprised, that writing about sex, violence, politics, moral hypocrisy, et al, elicits more response from the few regular readers that I have (by my count...nine) than Terps basketball. The number of comments to the last entry indicates to me that in 2006, I need more of those types of posts, so I'll do my best.

So how about this Abramoff scandal, eh? Too bad that most of the public is so jaded about the workings of Washington politics, that it won't hurt the Republicans that badly. When your average voter already believes that ninety-percent of Congress is corrupt, is discovering that ten or fifteen members are really corrupt going to make that much impact when it comes time to cast a ballot later this year? Probably not. The larger issue, which I've never understood completely - maybe a constitutional law expert can explain it to me - how does free speech, 'the right to petition the government to address grievances' or whatever they used to call lobbying before paid agents started hanging around in the lobby of the Willard, equate to showering elected representatives with money?

Free speech = cash. Free speech = golf trip to Scotland. Et cetera. I know it's more complicated than that, legally speaking, but why? Making political gifts and donations a form of free speech just means that those who can't afford to give aren't heard by their government, simple as that. And we (we being US voters) keep voting to perpetuate this system, sure we'd like it to change, but it's futile to even try so oh well! Would more political parties help? Maybe, but I don't think Italian politics, for example, are all that corruption-free, and they have dozens of parties.

Maybe we need to pay these guys in Congress more, so they don't need to take the money. You know, Washington is an expensive town. I'm sure some representatives find that it's hard to get by on six-figure salaries alone. Then again, since you need to be very wealthy to even run for Congress these days, maybe that's not that much of an issue.

Misplaced Morality (Sex v. Gore)

Jenny and I caught John Waters' latest, A Dirty Shame, last month via Netflix. It carried an NC-17 rating, which evidently fit the story of a group of sex addicts in the Harford Road neighborhood of Baltimore, as they searched for a brand new sex act. Never mind that the movie itself was fairly innocuous, and probably won itself the taboo rating due to one brief episode of dreaded full-frontal male nudity. Yes, the horrific spectacle of the penis caused this otherwise average comedy (funny mainly due to Tracy Ullman as the lead, but defintely not Waters' finest work) to be branded with an NC-17.

Why bring this up now? When I see the trailers for a horror-gore splatterfest like Hostel, I wonder what's going on. A movie that features the male genitals for a few seconds gets the NC-17, but one that graphically depicts humans torturing other humans with power tools gets an R rating? Have the puritans who run this country's ratings boards really lost their way so badly? It's confusing to me - extreme gory torture, OK as long as you kiddies have an adult with you; naked middle-aged couple in a John Waters film, forget it children, that will warp your minds, and we at the MPAA know that better than your parents.

That is simply fucked up.

"In the kiteboarding community, they call it a kitemare"

It's amazing, the strange things people do for sport. From the article:

He was pulled about 15 feet into the air and hit the roof of the bathroom facilities here at the Cape Canaveral park and put a dent into the metal before coming down on the other side.

Sounds like fun, except for the part about denting the metal roof with his body.

The Entertainers

When you receive a home bar as a gift from your (always generous) family, and when you finally buy a dining room table, you've gotta put them to use, right? And so we did this weekend, for our 2nd New Year's party, for the final 2005 chapter of the family Christmas - featuring the southernmost enclave, Em & Dave - and for poker with Cal & Greg yesterday (2nd losing game in a row for me, what's up with that). That's just the beginning though! We are now fully equipped for maximum merriment, and we plan to take full advantage.

Move to Portland Good for Former Terrapins

Juan Dixon and Steve Blake, who both signed with Portland last year after their first few professional years in Wizards uniforms, have been the Blazers' starting backcourt for the past six games. Portland is 4-2 in those games - nice job guys, keep it up and Go Terps!

NOT a Lemur

This item is a few weeks old, but apparently there's a new mammal in the house ('house' in this case being the greenhouse that is planet Earth).

So much for that 'not a lemur' mailing list I belong to; I can't believe they missed this! Bastards.

Finally, a London Photo!

Jenny and me, on the London Eye, with Big Ben & Parliament in the background.

Every Once In a While...

...he comes up with something where all you can really say is, "whoa dude, that's some really cool shit!" For those of you who don't check out Grau's blog as often as you should - which is to say, every time you're sitting in front of a computer - don't miss his recent entry, yet more evidence of the Mad Genius of Ryon. Fair warning though, the last photo may be inappropriate for kids, red-staters, small woodland animals, Decepticons, and insecure dudes.

Graphical Ads Coming For Google

Greg alerted me to this in a comment from a previous post. Yuck. That's putting it a bit more mildly than this blogger.

No big deal though - once the Google/AOL banner ads start appearing on Google search results, just go to Tools -> Options -> Content tab -> Exceptions button next to 'Load Images' -> Address of web site: google.com -> Block button. There, future Google-corruption crisis averted! This is assuming you're using Firefox - maybe IE has a similar feature, but I don't use IE so I wouldn't know.

Illegal NSA Spying? No Comment

There's been a lot in the news lately about President Shrub authorizing the NSA to illegally spy on Americans (and Bill was impeached b/c of lying about Monica...what a wild-and-crazy country we live in!). I think I'm going to have to take a pass on commenting on this story. The last thing I need is ECHELON turning its attention to this humble blog. Then it would only be a matter of time before I was dragged off to Cheney's personal dungeon, hundreds of feet below the Naval Observatory, never to be heard from again.

I must admit though, this ECHELON is a bit frightening. It's like W's personal Eye of Sauron, except it's being used exclusively on humans, not hobbits, elves, and dwarves (as far as we know).

AOL Instant Messenger No More!

I'm switching to Google Talk. No more pop-up windows or auto-loading web pages when logging in. Nice clean uncluttered interface (it is a Google product after all). And hopefully the end of monthly software upgrades. I'll probably still keep AIM around until I've adequately badgered friends and loved ones into switching, but its time as the IM client of choice is coming to an end. After all, it's competing with Google now - resistance is futile.

Google Blog Search

I'm just messing around on the computer before bed, so I head on over to blogsearch.google.com , which I've never used before. I type in underchuckle, pultoblog, and a few others I know should be in there. Greg's blog checks out fine, as do a few others; the most recent posts show up. But for some reason Charm City Blogger isn't indexed beyond September 5th. What gives?

The real reason that I was testing Google's blogsearch, is that I found an intriguing new Firefox extension that shows which blogs are linking to the web page that's being visited. So if you're reading an article about our remedial president's speech last night, it will list all the blue-stater blogger rants and red-state raves, all in a convenient pop-up window (easily disabled) in the lower right corner! Neat-O.

Cabaret Mechanical Theatre

OK, enough negativity, back to more uplifting material.

While we were in London, we ducked into a tiny gallery while walking from the London Eye to the rebuilt Globe Theatre - this is all along the south bank of the Thames. This gallery featured a few dozen pieces from the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre. Unfortunately, I didn't see many videos on the site, so it's difficult to get a good idea of what it's about. Basically, high-quality woodworking combined with (relatively) simple gear-and-pulley mechanics. Neat stuff.

Oddly enough, part of their exhibit is now in Baltimore, at the American Visionary Art Museum (which Jenny and I have never visited, how sad is that?). Maybe we'll organize an expedition to it sometime in the next few weeks. If anyone's interested, let me know.

If I Only Had a Brain

So I was planning on taking the full-blown PE exam this April, but somehow I got the idea in my head that the application deadline was 90 days prior to the test. Sorry, wrong answer, it's actually 120 days! Looked it up just now. So now I have to wait until October '06.

In times like this, I wonder how I got an engineering degree in the first place...

Mind The Gap

So intones the stern voice in the Tube stations of the Underground, as a train arrives and opens its doors. We heard this warning many times during our week in London, but it wasn't until we got back that I started thinking of the Gap in a more figurative sense. More on that in a bit.

First up, a list of what we saw and did, or at least what we saw and took note of - it's hard to walk a block or two in London and not see something of deep historical or cultural significance, or at the very least really damn old, so I'm sure we saw things there that we glossed over without much in the way of recognition. But we did manage to see: the Tower of London, British Museum, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace/Gardens, the Museum of London, Pollock's Toy Museum, the London Eye, Globe Theatre, and Harrod's. We spent a lot of time on the Tube, caught opening night of the Chronicles of Narnia at an art-deco cinema in Notting Hill (how very British of us, yes?), saw the enormous mutant ducks and geese of London up close, took a Jack the Ripper walking tour with one of the world experts on the Ripper, went shopping on Oxford Street (and went to the Ben Sherman store!), met up with Ryon and Milena one evening and had a few pints, and went running in Hyde Park (that was just me). We then managed to survive the flight home sitting next to two devil-children and their incompetent parents. Fun trip, but as always, good to be home.

Now, for the Gap(s):

• You're not going to find a more expensive city than London. We knew it was pricey when we planned the trip, but it's hard to believe until you get there. Everything costs more, usually a lot more. Makes Manhattan look like a bargain. Seriously.
• People there are soooo image/fashion conscious. Jenny and I, of course, looked fabulous as always, but our couture often paled in comparison to that of most Londoners. They like their clothes there.
• The sights are swamped with tourists, even in December! Everywhere we went, same thing. To use another NYC comparison, Rockefeller Center around the holidays is just a few people milling about.
• Service, other than from the kind folks behind the bars at pubs (which was almost always polite, if not cheerful), can be described with one word: indifferent. Can't say that was too terribly surprising, though.
• Think the USA is crazy about its sports? Gimme a break. During the oil depot fire that occurred outside of the city while we were there, the on-site anchor cheerfully discussed football scores and news with flames and active explosions in the background. That's dedication to the game! And the newspapers and TV after the World Cup draw was announced? Not much else to talk about but England's group, and how they would fare against Sweden.
• While I imagine that driving in London is probably fun in a manic kind of way, it's a bit scary for pedestrians. Maybe this is the norm in all of Europe these days, but a yellow light to let drivers know that the green is coming? Every intersection becomes a drag strip! Entertaining to watch, just make sure you're not out in front of it.
  

All in all though, a good time was had by both! Now we're back just in time to finish Christmas shopping and getting ready for our New Year's party. Wish us luck.

Now for the standard promise - some pictures from London are forthcoming, I just never remember to bring the memory card to the office with me so that I can add them with the post.

Evite Fatigue

First off, it seems that the colds that Jenny and I have aren't all that bad - it looks like they should be completely gone by the time we head off to London next week.

So many things to do until then, though, one of which is sending out invitations for our (2nd annual) New Year's party. Which means resorting to evite. I'm not a big fan of evite. I can't quite identify the source of this dislike, since evite is actually very functional. If it weren't, it wouldn't be synonymous with online invitations the way that Google is with web searches. Maybe it's the ads. Maybe it's the cute little invitation templates. Maybe it's the fact that I seem to go months without getting a single evite, then get seven in one week - that should make me feel loved and appreciated, but my irrational animosity towards evite takes over instead.

And there aren't really any alternatives. Meetup.com and upcoming.org look like crap (I won't even link to them, that's how crappy they look). Hey geniuses at Google, can we get a googlized version of evite sometime soon?

Until then, I'm stuck with evite. And so are you! If you're reading this, I apologize in advance - an evite is likely coming your way soon. If it's not, it means that (a) I know you won't be in the area around New Year's, (b) I don't know you, or (c) I don't like you. So it's nothing personal, except for (c).