Thursday, August 21, 2008
Just Can't Win
The last week or so has been pretty rough on me. Last Tuesday a trojan horse managed to get past my firewall and infect my PC. Of course, that means I spent the next couple of days reloading Windows (and all it's updates), along with the various programs I use. Fortunately, I keep all my data on a separate drive, so none of that was infected. Those were the latest in a string of several nights where I got at most four hours of sleep a night. By the time Friday rolled around, I was absolutely exhausted and needed to take a day off from work (I'll leave work out of this). The weekend was relatively uneventful, but Monday brought it's own little surprise. The folks who ordered my contact lenses made a mistake and ordered the wrong kind (ones that adjust for astigmatism), so I had to schedule a visit to the eye doctor. The quickest I could get in was Wednesday at lunch; rather than deal with driving back and forth to work, I decided to take the day off for what turned out to be a ten minute exam to confirm my contacts were in fact wrong (the right ones were then ordered). Today brought the ruining of another tire (the second in about six months), so rather than screw around with trying to find a single tire, I broke down and went to Costco for a whole new set of tires. I'm really hoping things start going my way because this is starting to get frustrating. Then again, I'm going to Vegas next weekend, so maybe my luck will change at just the right time.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
GFC: Week 4
This week we played a brand new team. As expected, we beat the hell out of them 13-0. Everyone was able to kick twice for the first this season (which was awesome), and I had a really sweet double play in the fifth inning. Since we are now 4-0, we play the top-rated team from the other conference in our division next week as our prelude/warmup for the tournament on the 30th. No youtube video this week, however.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
GFC: Week 3
Another week of kickball brought another close game. This week we had Redrum, who edged us out in the bottom of the fifth inning of our first ever game a couple of seasons ago. Needless to say, we had revenge on our minds. Fortunately, we came out with a 1-0 win this time around (despite my mindless base running mistake). Take it from here youtube...
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
GFC: Week 2
We won a back and forth nail-biter against Nut's & Honey's to bring our record to 2-0 (our best start ever). Cue up the embedded youtube clip!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Football, Where Are You?
It's the beginning of August, and that can only mean one thing; the start of football season is around the corner. So far it has been six months(!) since there was a meaningful game, and like many people around this country, my (probably unhealthy) addiction to the game is in full withdrawal. Since college football is the embodiment of the game's purity for me, I still have to wait another three weeks or so before Oklahoma begins their march to an eighth national championship. Until then, I have to get my fix somewhere, somehow. And to what lengths have I gone? Not only have I attempted to watch AFL games (which is not real football, IMHO), I have actually been watching Sportscenter with bated breath for Canadian league highlights (don't get me started about NFL pre-season games). Not exactly passed out in a gutter in Tijuana missing my pants and wearing a blond wig, but probably not far from it.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Couldn't Let This Go
Looks like it's going to be a two-post kind of day (woohoo!). I try to peruse the Wichita Eagle's site everyday in an effort to stay informed of what is going on in my hometown (re: make sure it hasn't been wiped off the face of the earth). Even though the city as a whole has a tendency to be slightly behind the power curve of progress (Kellogg, anyone?), I still marvel at the level of buck-toothed, cross-eyed, sister-fucking, redneck hick that some people are still able to achieve despite having opposable thumbs.
After living in California for almost five years now (which bans smoking in all bars, restaurants, and almost all public places), I can attest to how nice it is to go out and not come home smelling like an ashtray. Following that vein of enlightenment, Wichita has decided to push through legislation to ban smoking in public places. Businesses can actually become exempt from the ban by doing three things:
1) Not allowing patrons under 18 years old
2) Posting signs that warn about second-hand smoke
3) Paying a $250 fee.
Given both the cream-puff means of achieving an exemption and the fact that there is even an exemption at all, you would think this would be a non-issue. Progress, however, can be a four-letter word, and this instance is no exception. Take this little nugget plucked from the comments section of today's article covering the smoking ban:
"This Puritanical mindset that there are "those people" that Know best for the rest of us Fools what is good for us and what is bad is a desease. It's a virus. A Cancer. The gov't has no business legislating health, safety and moral issues. Smoking, helmets, seatbelts, volume are items of personal choice. If you ride a motorcycle and don't wear a helmet, you're on your own. Same thing with Seatbelts. Smoking is None of the Gov'ts business. Absolutely None of it's business. The Goodie-Two-Shoes that are spearheading this need to find their own island and move there and revel in their "Inalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of butting into other's business. Being elected doesn't mean that You have a corner on righteousness."
To be quite honest, knowing that someone is able to function while maintaining this level of absolute stupidity makes me sad for the human race. If this idiot could pull himself away from Fox Noise Channel for five seconds, he might realize the inherent flaws of his argument. First, the purpose of any regulation is to ensure safety, period. Why are there laws enforcing the use of seat belts? Because otherwise people like this would be killed in accidents heading to the store for more Cheese Whiz (on second thought, that might not be a bad thing). Second, if the government did not have health regulations in place, guess what that would mean? It would be perfectly legal for someone to put whatever the hell they wanted into your cigarettes. Battery acid? Of course. Mercury? Sure. Arsenic? Why not. Again, regulations are in place so that people are not out killing each other all the time. I guarantee if this asshole got salmonella from a restaurant he would change his tune about health regulations in a heartbeat. Finally, I do have to partially agree that legislating morality is a slippery slope at best. However, I am fairly confident in assuming this guy means legislating his morale views, not those of society as a whole. He is probably anti-abortion, pro-capitol punishment, and for mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses. And guess what, those all deal with regulating morality.
Where is this going, you ask? Good question. A lot of people in this country like to put up a front about individuals' rights and give a bevy of examples of how their rights are being eroded by things like smoking bans. What they fail to realize, however, is that individuals rights extend to each individual; democracy is about compromise, not acting like an overly-righteous petulant child when someone offers a different point of view. If you want to really talk about the erosion of individuals' rights, look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and our current administration who is listening to your phone calls, reading your emails, and invading sovereign nations, all in an effort to find "people of interest". We need look no further than our own past to find invaluable wisdom regarding the precarious situation we find ourselves in:
"Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither."
-Benjamin Franklin
After living in California for almost five years now (which bans smoking in all bars, restaurants, and almost all public places), I can attest to how nice it is to go out and not come home smelling like an ashtray. Following that vein of enlightenment, Wichita has decided to push through legislation to ban smoking in public places. Businesses can actually become exempt from the ban by doing three things:
1) Not allowing patrons under 18 years old
2) Posting signs that warn about second-hand smoke
3) Paying a $250 fee.
Given both the cream-puff means of achieving an exemption and the fact that there is even an exemption at all, you would think this would be a non-issue. Progress, however, can be a four-letter word, and this instance is no exception. Take this little nugget plucked from the comments section of today's article covering the smoking ban:
"This Puritanical mindset that there are "those people" that Know best for the rest of us Fools what is good for us and what is bad is a desease. It's a virus. A Cancer. The gov't has no business legislating health, safety and moral issues. Smoking, helmets, seatbelts, volume are items of personal choice. If you ride a motorcycle and don't wear a helmet, you're on your own. Same thing with Seatbelts. Smoking is None of the Gov'ts business. Absolutely None of it's business. The Goodie-Two-Shoes that are spearheading this need to find their own island and move there and revel in their "Inalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of butting into other's business. Being elected doesn't mean that You have a corner on righteousness."
To be quite honest, knowing that someone is able to function while maintaining this level of absolute stupidity makes me sad for the human race. If this idiot could pull himself away from Fox Noise Channel for five seconds, he might realize the inherent flaws of his argument. First, the purpose of any regulation is to ensure safety, period. Why are there laws enforcing the use of seat belts? Because otherwise people like this would be killed in accidents heading to the store for more Cheese Whiz (on second thought, that might not be a bad thing). Second, if the government did not have health regulations in place, guess what that would mean? It would be perfectly legal for someone to put whatever the hell they wanted into your cigarettes. Battery acid? Of course. Mercury? Sure. Arsenic? Why not. Again, regulations are in place so that people are not out killing each other all the time. I guarantee if this asshole got salmonella from a restaurant he would change his tune about health regulations in a heartbeat. Finally, I do have to partially agree that legislating morality is a slippery slope at best. However, I am fairly confident in assuming this guy means legislating his morale views, not those of society as a whole. He is probably anti-abortion, pro-capitol punishment, and for mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses. And guess what, those all deal with regulating morality.
Where is this going, you ask? Good question. A lot of people in this country like to put up a front about individuals' rights and give a bevy of examples of how their rights are being eroded by things like smoking bans. What they fail to realize, however, is that individuals rights extend to each individual; democracy is about compromise, not acting like an overly-righteous petulant child when someone offers a different point of view. If you want to really talk about the erosion of individuals' rights, look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and our current administration who is listening to your phone calls, reading your emails, and invading sovereign nations, all in an effort to find "people of interest". We need look no further than our own past to find invaluable wisdom regarding the precarious situation we find ourselves in:
"Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither."
-Benjamin Franklin
Kickball Is Here Again
The time has come for yet another season of kickball (yeah!). Rather than try and kill myself by playing in multiple divisions (and sucking up plenty of $4.00+ per gallon of the gasoline), I decided to keep it simple and focus on my main team the Guy Fawkes Conservatory. Even though we managed to finish second in the division last season, thereby qualifying for the national tournament in Vegas next month, we had a considerable amount of turnover (to the tune of losing 6 of 20 people). Along with finding six more folks, we managed to pick up three more additional people, bringing us to a grand total of 23 brave souls. Despite the net gain (and our largest team yet), we are still one of the smallest teams in the division. (I will post a link to our video recaps each week as they become available.)
For our first game of the season, we drew the Rhino Stampede (a bunch of folks from Rhino Records), which gave us an opportunity to exact some revenge. All four of our losses last season were by a score of 1-0, one of which was at the hands of the Rhinos. The game started out with both sides showing a strong defensive effort, the only blemish coming in the top of the 3rd when we surrendered a single run. We managed to break through and put up two runs in the same inning, adding another one in the bottom of the 4th inning. Some lights-out pitching in the 5th by myself (three up, three down, yo!) helped secure our first win of the brand new season. Next week we have Nuts & Honeys, which despite the 3-0 beatdown we handed them last season could prove to be tough.
For our first game of the season, we drew the Rhino Stampede (a bunch of folks from Rhino Records), which gave us an opportunity to exact some revenge. All four of our losses last season were by a score of 1-0, one of which was at the hands of the Rhinos. The game started out with both sides showing a strong defensive effort, the only blemish coming in the top of the 3rd when we surrendered a single run. We managed to break through and put up two runs in the same inning, adding another one in the bottom of the 4th inning. Some lights-out pitching in the 5th by myself (three up, three down, yo!) helped secure our first win of the brand new season. Next week we have Nuts & Honeys, which despite the 3-0 beatdown we handed them last season could prove to be tough.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Logic Not Included
Being a rather large individual in a society that covets an unhealthy thin physique presents several opportunities for rage-induced outbursts. There is nothing more infuriating than walking into a store, looking around for an hour or so, and not even finding anything to try on. *sigh* While the intertron provides a plethora of retailers who are more than happy to cater to folks like myself (and take my money), the journey can be fraught with despair. Lacking a uniform sizing standard, there can be a great variance not only between brands, but often within a brand itself (which is particularly frustrating).
Enter the guilty pleasure of eBay. In an effort to try and find an authentic Derek Jeter jersey (since he's my boy) for a relatively cheap price, I was led astray by Majestic's confusing and absolutely moronic sizing. Rather than use something simple like L, XL, XXL, etc., Majestic chose to use a number to identify the different sizes. This would be fine and dandy if the numbers corresponded to some actual measurement. Looking at their site, they say a size 52 jersey is a XXL. Since a XXL usually fits pretty well (sometimes a little tight in the shoulders), I find one on eBay and buy it. You can only imagine the shock and furious anger when said jersey arrives and I can barely button it up; a fit similar to an XL. After doing a little more checking, it turns out that a size 52 is in fact an XL, while a 54 is XXL. Why would Majestic use such an idiotic system of measurement that even they identify incorrectly on their website? If I would have bought a jersey through them (or on the Yankees site), not only would I have plunked down $180, I would have had to go through the hassle of trying to return it while waiting for what hopefully should be the correct size. Instead, I'm only out $60 for that jersey (can't return it), and have already bought another one that should be the correct size (it better be). Thankfully, one of my cousins is into Jeter even more than I am, so she's getting a nice little gift.
So what's the moral of the story? I think this is yet another example that everyone in the clothing industry is purposely trying to make my life miserable. How else can such shear stupidity be explained?
Enter the guilty pleasure of eBay. In an effort to try and find an authentic Derek Jeter jersey (since he's my boy) for a relatively cheap price, I was led astray by Majestic's confusing and absolutely moronic sizing. Rather than use something simple like L, XL, XXL, etc., Majestic chose to use a number to identify the different sizes. This would be fine and dandy if the numbers corresponded to some actual measurement. Looking at their site, they say a size 52 jersey is a XXL. Since a XXL usually fits pretty well (sometimes a little tight in the shoulders), I find one on eBay and buy it. You can only imagine the shock and furious anger when said jersey arrives and I can barely button it up; a fit similar to an XL. After doing a little more checking, it turns out that a size 52 is in fact an XL, while a 54 is XXL. Why would Majestic use such an idiotic system of measurement that even they identify incorrectly on their website? If I would have bought a jersey through them (or on the Yankees site), not only would I have plunked down $180, I would have had to go through the hassle of trying to return it while waiting for what hopefully should be the correct size. Instead, I'm only out $60 for that jersey (can't return it), and have already bought another one that should be the correct size (it better be). Thankfully, one of my cousins is into Jeter even more than I am, so she's getting a nice little gift.
So what's the moral of the story? I think this is yet another example that everyone in the clothing industry is purposely trying to make my life miserable. How else can such shear stupidity be explained?
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