Intellectual Poison

Some people have decided that its important enough to risk a lawsuit by setting up a site to download various versions of of Fahrenheit 911. It won't change how I'm planning to vote but I'm going to download a copy for myself. Maybe I'll learn something.

I don't know. I'm also taking advantage of one of the coolest ideas for file sharing to come along ever, BitTorrent.

The premise behind BitTorrent is a simple one. Downloads are accelerated by forcing all downloaders to share part of what they're downloading with everyone else who's downloading the file. The more people who download the file at the same time, the faster it will download. Brilliant!

Anyway, get on, get the URL, start downloading and help speed me up! At this rate, it'll take until Sunday morning for a 700 meg file. So far it's just a mite bit, um, pokey. I get much, much faster downloads via LimeWire.

The deadline to Support Kerry ends at midnight tonight. Its important to give some money if you can.

I would truly hate for Bush to win because our side ran out of money to fend off his continual train of lies.

I've donated several times already and will probably donate some more again tonight before its over. Help out the cause, if you can. Come Tuesday, every little bit will help overthrow ShrubCo and start the process of taking back our nation.

It's the last Friday of the month and that makes today the second .

I was awful in prepping the masses for it but so be it. If I be the only rider on the Freeball Express today then I be the only rider. That's cool.

And I'm in the car so I won't freeze my parts off on the way into work.

Day Three without the Bike. I'm depressed but hopeful that I'll end up with a V-Strom out of all this.

I finally got around to watching Eminem's new video, "Mosh", last night and have to say that its impressive, the music's passable but the message is highly impactful.

More Here.

He should have released it sooner but its still important to see. And now, next week I'll be keeping my eyes out for signs of the Hoodie Army.

Its a question that's plagued mankind for ages. But I now have the answer.

Twenty-two and a half hours.

That's how long it took the two dogs to finally lay down.

Twenty-two and one half hours. And they are pretty incredibly subdued now. Docile even. We'll see what a full night of sleep brings for tomorrow.

From the non-stop wrestling match to the out cold piles of fur, the funny thing is that we didn't even notice when they stopped battling. I just happened to look over and Nande was not only asleep but had her eyes screwed up tight, like she was bordering on exhaustion.

[Update: The night's rest did them a world of good and the match is back on full force this morning. Good, another full day of beating each other down will produce a pair of mellow hounds this evening.

And we can use the quiet time.]

I could be shooting a new reality series this weekend. Starting last night we are dogsitting for some friends who are off for a Halloween vacation to Florida.

And we're not talking a little lap dog. No, Brady's a hefty feller, a full sized, fully grown Black Lab tipping the scales at just under a hundred pounds. Combine that with Nande, who's pushing 80 now, and you've got the recipe for some hyper-extended knees, a perpetually messy house and no need for morning walks.

Last night, I slept downstairs to try and help Brady get used to being at the house. I could have easily just locked them outside and let them have at each other all night long.

These two dogs, who are already good friends, spent literally all night wrestling. I woke up at 4 in the morning when they spilled back inside for a minute. They were still going at it, nipping each other on the neck and flopping their bodies against each other. They get along so incredibly well that I'm amazed. The only time either has growled at the other has been when food's been involved.

It will be interesting to get home tonight and see how they are. And we will have Brady with us until Monday evening. We're taking bets on how long it will take for them to get sick of each other. I'm figuring by tomorrow afternoon they'll be ready to allow the other to wander off without the compelling need to chase, nip and play some more.

In Other News: Today is Day One on the Motorcycle Repair/Replace Oddysey. I missed my bike coming in to work this morning because traffic was as thick as molasses in January. That and I'm horribly jealous of P's new cellphone! But I've gotta wait until March before I can replace mine. Damnit!

Was it me or were the Cardinals pretty subdued tonight? Like deer caught in the headlights almost. They'd come into the World Series confident and had been beaten three times in a row coming in to tonight.

And they seemed almost beguiled, sacrificial lambs to the Red Sox Nation's long appetite. They didn't go entirely quietly but they are an excellent team and I didn't expect them to be beaten as they have been. But they were.

Is it the Cardinals loss or the Red Sox win? I think its Red Sox win. It has to be. The Curse was such a prevalent issue that it had to be exorcised, it had to be done in. Like all great stories, it has to have an end. This is a good time to end that chapter of the Red Sox and Boston's history.

Tomorrow is the first day of a new chapter.

Congratulations to Boston and its fans (myself included).

Now we begin the speculation on who's going where, I've already heard Pedro and Lowe are likely to be gone and Lowe is going to get ALOT more money because of his ass kicking playoff performances.

It was good stuff, compelling sports championships like this almost never live up to the hype. Boston had the biggest hype and decimated it by the most incredible eight game stretch in baseball history.

Astonishing!

Tonight is the first of four possible nights that the Red Sox have to win their first World Series since the dinosaurs roamed the earth and they sold Babe Ruth's contract for a hundred K.

Tonight's the first night they can win it. They've played sloppy ball, they've played long ball, they've played smart ball and they've played come-back ball. The Red Sox look awesome, they look fearsome and they look confident (who wouldn't with a 3-0 Series lead?). And they have been playing an excellent Cardinals team too, with a truly scary line up, if only their pitching hadn't hit the crapper on the way to the post season.

Tonight's the night that the ghost of the curse can finally start to rest. Tonight's the night that Boston fans never thought they would actually see. Tonight is the night that Boston can rise up above all others and legitimately say that they are the best.

27 outs to Glory! Bring it home to Beantown, boys! We'll be waiting and hoping and cheering and praying.

Victory tonight for Boston, victory next week for America!

27 Outs to Glory!

After a great evening that saw the Red Sox put game three on ice and take a 3-0 lead in the World Series over the Cards and I got to spend some good quality time with my new favorite video game. You'd think today would be a smiley happy sunshine morning, eh?

Nope, the Gods of chance and circumstance and suckitude got together last night, got drunk and decided that it was time to FUCK WITH ME.

And so, this morning, on the ride to work. My motorcycle starts making a knocking noise. I pull off, check the oil and see that its low. I limp up the road to an exit and limp my way into a parking lot. The place I stopped was a tool rental place and had some oil so I bought a $4 quart and hoped that it would help make the motorcycle run better.

I should note that I have an oil light on my dash console. It lights up when you start the bike and is supposed to light up when the bike is low on oil. It never came on to let me know that maybe I should check the oil. Not until later when it was just a little bit too late.

Nope. Not really. It ran quieter but it didn't knock out of the knocking. But it was enough to get me to the gas station where I could get some bargain oil at only $3 a quart.

I added another quart and hoped beyond hope that my bike was going to be okay.

It wasn't, it isn't and now I see big dollar signs whenever I look at the bike. Or think about it.

The engine noise had quieted down some and I thought I might be able to limp all the way into work. I should have stopped all movement the instant the knocking started. Instead, I pushed it too far and the engine is now dead. Seized.

And the oil light? Oh yeah, it came on to let me know that the engine was dead. Thanks a whole FUCKING BUNCH.

Now I'm going to start doing some research to see if this is a regular issue for this bike and how much its going to cost to replace my entire engine. It may be more sensible to replace the bike and part it out. All I know is that I feel like simultaneously crying and beating something, someone until they stop moving and then beating them some more. I'm so furious and sad that I don't know if I'm coming or going.

Goddamn motherfucker! Now all I want to do is get really, really shitface drunk.

And thanks AAA! Sorry, we don't tow motorcycles. Well fuck you too.

[Update: One other little bit of sunshine to add to this story. When the tow came to pick up my bike, a truck pulled in behind him and watched the whole affair. The tow guy mentioned it to me and asked if I knew anyone looking like these people. Nope, they were there to try and steal my motorcycle most likely. Sadly, my insurance would have reimbursed me for a stolen and broken bike, I don't think they'll be covering just the broken bike.]

Okay, so I've been actively ignoring my wife and child to play this game. The dog hates me already but I don't care. I've got the mid-90's LA gang scene to keep me happy.

I've already gone out killing with Ice Cube and have to win back the loyalties of my family. Its like living inside both Colors and Boys in the Hood.

Anyway, without checking anywhere else yet. I figured out a weapons code. Its actually the same as GTA: III, I think.

R1, R2, L1, R2, l, d, r, u, l, d, r, u.

It's fun to play and any soundtrack with Snoop on it is bitchin! Love the surround sound on this game! LOVE IT!

[Update: Found another one late last night, after Blogger shit the bed for the night and most of the morning. Want $250K easy? Use R1, R2, L1, X, l, d, r, u, l, d, r, u. Actually, I found out that you also get full armor and full health in addition to that quarter million. Nice code! More cheats are available over here.

Oh yeah, and the Red Sox took game three in fine style. This will be either a wimper finish or the Cards are going to come roaring back. I think this is the end of the Curse of the Bambino though. Nice work last night, Pedro, nice work now do something about that ridiculous hair.]

What's that? Tiring of news? Let's try a little non-news, Ashlee faces the music on vocal malfunction.

Basically, she's a sham, her publicist, daddy and doctor have all given her a note saying she had acid reflux or some bullshit. She's a faker, she's a sham, she should be forgotten soon.

But she won't because there are legions of stupid kids who think she's cooler than ever.

The Bose SoundDock makes it easy to make the most of your iPod. And it looks cool too!

Its not cheap at $300 but its still pretty cool and if it sounds anything like those Bose Wave Radios then that cash outlay will be well worth it.

There's this news item that's been in the news (whoa, that's crazy) lately that details the disappearance of some 380 tons of explosives from a weapons locker in Iraq.

It was supposed to be guarded by coalition forces but wasn't.

Moved over here to save space on IP's home page.

[Update: This is telling. Today's iWon survey is about these same missing explosives. The results are interesting.
42% are very concerned about the missing explosives.
42% are somewhat concerned.
10% are not very concerned.
And 4% aren't concerned at all

A whopping 72% thought that explosives were in the enemy's hands now.

When asked about the impact on the election that this news will have: 13% said it will have a major impact, 37% said a minor impact, 37% said no impact (maybe they live in bomb proof homes or something?), 12% weren't sure and 1% didn't care (WTF? how can you not care about 380 tons of explosives getting into the bad guy's hands?)]

Its no secret that I've been waiting for today to arrive for a long time. Today is the official release day of the next installment in what I think is one of the most entertaining game titles of all time.

That's right folks, GTA: San Andreas is being released today.

If there's a lack of posts, you'll know why.

I've had a pic of the Limecat in my Flickr Daily Zeitgeist for a few weeks now and love it.

But now I know where the pics came from and know that there are plenty more pics of this poor cat with lime peels cut into artful "kitty helmets" available.

Yes, Intellectual Poison has been suckling mightily at the teat that is national politics and the race for the presidency.

But the real battle royale right now is alot less dire (unless you live in Boston!).

So I thought I'd collect up the blogs I know from each side of the AL/NL baseball divide.

Easy is all Cards, all the time. We've got a wager going on the outcome of the series too!
e, is all Boston, he'd likely be excommunicated by the family if he started cheering for the Cards. In fact, I know he would. I can get away with it since I'm 3500 miles away even though I'm all Red Sox as well.
Amelia is going with the Red Sox because she's an American League kind of lady. Though I like to think she'd cheer against the Yankees if they'd made it.
Shawn's on the Red Sox side as well. In fact, he's a Sox fan in spite of John Kerry being a Sox fan as well (I'll give you one guess who's not getting his vote come November).
George Bush is, apparently, a big Cards fan which is kind of strange since he used to own the Texas Rangers but we all know their chances of getting to the post season, much less the World Series, are pretty well zero.

Who else? I'm not sure but I think I'll shimmy out on a limb and make some guesses.
Ryan is probably rooting for the Cards just to be contrary.
David has to be a Red Sox fan if he's a fan at all. I'm not sure.
Leblanc, I'm going to go with the Red Sox for her for no other reason than I'd like to think she's a Red Sox fan.
The guys at the Mint, I'm going to guess that they are mostly going for the Cards only because they're National League fans (poor guys, not only do they go for the Cubs but now they get to cheer for Dusty Baker as well, bummer!).
Captain Normal is cheering for the Red Sox, if for no other reason than Bush is cheering for the Cards.
Rori is a Red Sox gal, I just know it.
Blown Fuse is likely not especially aligned one way or the other but, if push came to shove, Tiffany'd probably deck you.
Lily wouldn't care, so long as the party she was cheering at had a good supply of fresh mint, limes, sugar, rum and soda water or ginger ale. But I'd bet she's a Sox fan as well.
Heather at In No Particular Order probably isn't overly concerned with the series but I think I could get her cheering for the Red Sox with only a little bit of goading (and the proper application of beverages).
Northstar at The People's Republic of Seabrook has probably stopped paying attention since his Astros got bounced last week.
Jen's a Sox fan.
Helen's not paying attention, she's got more important things to worry about. Like the utter lack of a hockey season this year (and I bet she looks adorable in her Dallas Stars jersey too!).
I asked Gudy but as he and his wife are brand new parents, he kept nodding off mid-sentence and I gave up to let him sleep for a few moments.
Carlene is probably a Sox fan but she's an equal opportunity booty-shaker. If the party's good, she's a fan. I think, hard to tell when she's absent so often these days.
And Guiness? I'm not sure about Guiness, I'd lean towards Sox fan but I've nothing to back that up with.

So? How'd I do on pegging baseball allegiances? Set me straight. Add more bodies you know are for the Sox or Cards.

[Update: Rick would like to be put in the "Couldn't give a shit" section. Sounds like a pissed off Twins fan to me. Doesn't he know that cheering for the Red Sox is his patriotic duty? Oh well.]

I was worried that I was going to get popped on my way over to the DMV this morning. You see, my license had passed through its useful like and had been laying in my wallet, dead, since 9/11.

But no longer, I made my appointment last week, rolled over this morning and rolled out twenty minutes later, $24 poorer and in possession of a temp permit to carry me until the new one gets here.

I expected the man to ask me how I got to the DMV with my expired license. To which I would have replied, "Very carefully". And I couldn't very easily shine on it since I had my motorcycle jacket with me and its kind of hard to play off as as regular jacket.

But nope, he didn't give a damn, just wanted to process my renewal, snap my pic and move on to the next sucker.

The trip was easy, quick and done. But I'll be back in a few weeks to re-register the motorcycle now too. But who cares, that's an easy one now that I'm all legal again!

The best thing about house projects? When they're done, they're done.

It was a while ago that we got the new dishwasher and range delivered and I began the installation. But it was last night that I completed the dishwasher and we now have a nearly completely functional dishwasher now. Nearly completely because the door mechanism has some issues in that it doesn't close all the way and we are going to slowly steam apart the counter above the dishwasher.

There were a myriad of issues with this install. The first had to do with the location prep, the old dishwasher was OEM, a piece of shit and filthy. When it was pulled out, there was alot of work to be done to make the site usable again. As every other aspect of the house, the workmanship and materials are entirely sub-par and I renewed my desire to kick the builders square in the nuts for their shitty build quality.

I've no doubt that I would have sued them if I'd been the original owner.

So, last night I got to use my versa-saw to cut some access into the wall between the under-the-sink area and the dishwasher area. Once that was done, I installed a new elbow and a new off-valve (checking multiple times to make sure the leaks were contained) before hooking up the water connection for the dishwasher.

The other main issue was the stupid dishwasher itself. Most major appliances these days come with the power cords already wired up and all you have to do is plug them in and you're good to go. Not this dishwasher, this dishwasher had a hot and cold lead from the junction box on the bottom of the machine. Leaving it to me to figure out how to ground the dishwasher and get it wired up for power. That was fun and I just truly adore playing with electricity.

Before I could do any of that, I had to map the house's circuits. Which is basically a boring version of hide and seek. Turn off a circuit and then wander the house looking for lights that should be on but aren't.

In the end, the wiring job was a 50-50 chance of tripping the circuit breaker with a cross wired power connection. But I got lucky and got it right the first time.

Then it became a process of checking for leaks again and again, tightening and retightening connections until they were all pretty well wrangled.

It's not wholly complete right now but it works. We've got a dishwasher again. Now I get to pull the range out, cut the pipe coming out of the wall, shorten it, reconnect up the range, get the main oven working and replace everything so the range can sit flush against the wall. That'll be good fun, I'm sure. But at least I can look back at the end of the day and see my progress. That's nice.

That works even better when laying out a new floor like we're going to do in a couple of weeks. We're putting the easy lock laminate hard wood looking stuff down throughout the entire downstairs. That will make clean ups and sweeping up dog hair considerably easier. And easier is better!

So this morning was a combo plate alarm actually, combine a dog with some pretty heinous intestinal gases (you know that green cloud of death they show in cartoons?, yeah, but worse) with a hungry but still sleeping baby and it was damned easy to get out of bed this morning.

And now we're off for a walk in the slough and the week's off to a fun filled start.

Sure, its made better by the Red Sox being up two games to none. But I've still gotta go to work, ya know?

PS Ashlee Simpson on Saturday Night Live? Utterly pathetic, why people think the siblings of famous people should be made famous when they have no talent is incredibly stupid. Jessica, for all her bubbleheadedness, can at least sing and dance and has people backing her up who know what they hey are doing. Ashlee (nice spelling) needs to go back and finish high school and consider prepping for a real job because she's about the least entertaining entertainer I've seen in a long time.

How do you make a good series even better?

Bet on it. Sure, you can bet money but why not bet pride instead? Its more practical and easy to pay on. Easy and I have a friendly wager going now. His Cards against my Sox (my currently up 1 game to none and currently up 6-1 in game two Sox) for a little bit of fun pride. If I win then he gets to lavish a post in my honor. If he wins then I must do the same.

Right now I look pretty safe but we'll see how the series swings when the Cards come home.

Who are you rooting for and why?

[Update: That's two for the Red Sox now! Yee-frickin'-ha!]

Wowee, that was a slugfest that has me wondering if this might end up being the highest scoring World Series in history.

Larry Walker was magnificent. David Ortiz continues to impress, Manny finally got his bat working on the scoreboard but looked pretty awful in the outfield for a little while.

But the night's main goat was Julian Tavarez. At least he did it with a little bit more class than his last crapout and broke his hand.

I enjoyed the game alot and am happy that the Red Sox are coming out of the gate firing on all cylinders. No getting down three games to none this time around!

Have you often wondered what the Mona Lisa would look like if she were frowning or disgusted or surprised?

Well, wonder no more, via the magic of the internets, you can now see Mona frown and grimace. Head on down and play around with the Interactive Mona Lisa.

I'm going to play with some of their other cool stuff too!

So I've been spending a fairly inordinate amount of time reading and commenting on MetaFilter lately. I don't know why, oh wait, yeah I do, its a great place for information and right now, its an interesting place to talk politics and see alot of the dirty tricks being waged this ugliest of electoral seasons.

So anyway, there's a member of the community that just doesn't really like me much at all. He likes to direct his rage at me (and I actually coined a new blog title just for him, Impotent, Misdirected Fury) and I don't mind commenting with him most times.

I put it all together over here as it is really quite long but I had such an enjoyable time writing it that I think its worthwhile putting up. Your opinion may differ.

via Captain Normal

It is going to be things like this, Abducted Aid Worker in Iraq Begs for Life, that will either force allies to abandon the war in Iraq or bring more allies into it in order to demonstrate overwhelming force and unilateral support in the face of this terror threat.

I am trying to come up with good reasons for why its worse for a woman to have been captured and threatened with beheading if the UK doesn't withdraw its troops, rather than a man. I can think of numerous sentimental reasons but few strong logical reasons. Neither deserves the fate they are facing, she was there to help and now faces an internationally broadcast and internet streamed beheading.

This should also serve as a grim reminder of the lengths that the terrorists will go to in order to achieve their aims. I would not put it past them to kidnap children and force them to cry on camera and beg their countries to withdraw to save their lives.

The despicable nature of terrorist activities fill me with a cold dread. These are people that are so filled with hate that they do not care in the least who they hurt in order to make their point. They willingly blow themselves up as long as they can kill some of the "infidels" as well. Their resolves seems to be strengthening, their numbers are growing and their activities are becoming ever more outrageous and wrong.

Instead of becoming more united, the world is even more polarized than ever. Our nation is split into reds and blues, the world is split into several groups, none of which want the other groups to continue to exist (yeah, oversimplified, I know).

Can we, the world body, stand by and allow this innocent woman to be executed in a brutally heinous fashion? If not then what are our options? I honestly don't know.

Withdrawing all coalition troops from Iraq isn't going to happen, it can't. That would be like handing over the keys to the nation to the terrorists and then asking them to play nice.

This week's is a breakdown.

Ten movies you'd watch over and over:
LA Confidential, Usual Suspects, The Road Warrior, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Harold and Maude, Breakfast at Tiffany's

Nine people you enjoy the company of:
P, Graydon, Nande, Paul, John, Ken, Leblanc (and it is very cool that I can finally say that!), Ethan and Erika (though I don't get to see her anywhere near often enough).

Eight things you're wearing:
Contacts, old time Giants baseball cap, my Himilayan Climbing Team shirt, GAP jeans (comfy AND good looking!), Rockport waterproof loafers (practical and work dress approved!), FTL boxer briefs (are there any men out there in the world that don't wear boxer briefs now? I can't imagine why), my newfound attitude is wrapped around my shoulders like a mink stole and my ever present smile is right where I left it.

Seven things on your mind:
The election, what happens if Bush steals it again, where my career is headed, how to retire in five years, that I need more exercise, all my chores for this coming weekend and how to keep the dog from bringing mud into the house through the dog door while we're at work during the rainy season.

Six objects you touch every day:
My wife, my son, my dog, my keyboard, my pecker and my iPod!

Five things you do every day:
Scratch myself, see if I can figure out a way to not go to work, walk the hound down by the slough, tell my wife that I love her dearly and quality time with my little boy.

Four bands (etc) that you couldn't live without:
Cake, The Coup, Bob Marley and the Wailers and Weezer. (Honorable mentions: Sublime, Lou Reed, Jimmy Buffett, No Doubt and The Flaming Lips)

Three of your favorite songs at this moment:
The Best Times of Our Lives (Cheb Mami & Aswad), Miles from Nowhere (Cat Stevens)and Way You Walk (Papas Fritas).

Two people who have influenced your life the most:
It would be very easy to say my Mom and Dad but it would be just as easy to say my brother and my sister. I think I am going to have go with a combo of the two, my brother and my mother. My brother because he was, in many ways, the dominant male figure in my life growing up after my parents were divorced. My mother because she has been one of the few consistent influences on me, I've had my share of stumbles, falls and spills but she has never left me, never lost her faith in me and always stood ready to assist if I needed a hand getting back up on to me feet. Which isn't to say that my father and sister were not huge influences on me, they were but if I'm only allowed the two then I go with Mom and brother.

One person who you love more than anyone in the world:
Graydon. Maybe it should be my wife and I do love her deeply and intensely. But I know that I would not hesitate to lay my own life down in order to save Graydon's. My wife would do the same. His need is far, far greater than anyone else's and anyone, he's half me. I would do anything for him and I mean that.

So there's my Cheese. All done, lots of fun, time to get working on another one.

Want some? Get some!

Lately it seems like more and more of the spam that piles up in my in-box is attributed to people with "Dr." in front of their name or "PhD" behind their name as if the added letters to the lie make the spam any more likely to be read and acted upon.

The likelihood that a real doctor would waste his or her time by sending spam to the masses is pretty minimal and, even if they were a real doctor, I wouldn't trust them any further than I could throw them. If they had to resort to spam to make a living then they can't be a very good doctor or maybe they got their degree via spam?

In any case, spam is spam, anyone who buys anything through spam should be shot into the sun. Spammers are the lowest form of existence and anyone caught being a spammer should be fed, feet first, into an industrial meat grinder and turn into spam sauasage.

Nice work and big congrats the Cardinals for that excellent ass kicking of Clemens last night. It was good fun to be able to rewind the game and see just what happened and how he unravelled so quickly.

Its my fervent hope that this was Roger Clemens' last game. My reasons for disliking him are pretty simple. He admits to throwing at people. He admits to trying to use a baseball as a weapon and that, to me, means he's a utter scumbag.

Oh yeah, he played in the American League so he didn't ever have to hit so that makes him a fucking coward. See, the American League has the designated hitter rule that lets a prick like Clemens throw baseballs at people's heads and never have to face any retribution except when he pisses someone off enough to charge him and try to kick his ass right at the time.

Yeah, yeah, he's a great talent, blah, blah, blah Cy Young Awards, yadda yadda yadda. Whatever. The guy's a douchebag who tries to hurt people as part of his game plan. That makes him an asshole. I don't like assholes.

So I was quite pleased when Pujols nutted the double and then Scott Rolen on that first pitch in turned on it and it was gone for a two run homer to take the lead that they wouldn't ever give up. Good stuff!

And sorry, Easy, I'm going with the Red Sox in this series. Yes, the Cards deserve a World Series title but this year its destiny for the Sox to reverse the curse, seal the win for Boston and then shortly followed by a nice convincing Kerry/Edwards win.

Just a short post for a long vacation for the now second place Yankees.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

The Red Sox wanted it more, played harder, never gave up and beat your underachieving, overpaid whiny little bitch asses!

Derek Lowe pitched a brilliant game and Johnny Damon got his bat on and the Red Sox are going to the World Series!

Hot diggity damn!

Luckily I've got it on Tivo so I can rewind and watch A-Crack-Rod's face fall, watch Jeter's smile fade and watch the Red Sox exult in their victory. It was beautiful, it was poignant and it made for one helluva nice birthday present for my wife!

Bring on the 'Stros, bring on the Cards. The Red Sox mojo is very, very strong indeed this night and this season!

[Update: For you Yankee fans that are going to dwell on A-Rod's slap, take another look. Oh yeah, that was unintentional. Sure and Steinbrenner's good for the game too and Joe Torre's nose looks good. And Giambi's never done 'roids either. Thanks for the hookup, Shawn!]

[Second Update: This is ridiculous and I hope they catch the assholes who attacked him and put them in jail for several years. Assaulting someone for being a fan of the team that beat yours is beyond lame. And riots after losing? Nice work, New York fans, nice work! Make people see more and the kind of infantile behaviour and drive tourists away, good job! I should also note that fans in Boston took to the streets and caused some damage as they "celebrated" the victory. Violence after winning, its the American way! And its also unbelievably lame.]

[Third Update: Lastone, I promise, Hardy points out, quite correctly, that the bloody guy in the pic above was not in New York, he was at Fenway when he got beat. I apologize to New York for the incorrect allegation.]

Okay, I'm used to some of the cultural differences between us. I know I live in a predominantly hispanic community. I know that I'm the foreigner here, I see the looks.

I don't want to be here either, believe me, as soon as we can sell our house and get the fuck back to our part of the county, I will be packing up and moving us overnight.

But sometimes I am just truly fucking amazed at the utterly stupid fucknut mentality of the people around here. It just does not make any sense. I've never been among a people so incredibly self absorbed. They litter like nothing else, they don't pick up after their dogs on the path, they fuck with their shitty little cars at 6:30 in the morning on Saturdays sometimes, they just truly do not give the first fucking damn about anyone but themselves and I'm about ready to knock some fucking heads together.

My house shares a driveway with three other houses. My house is the third one down. The driveway has a pretty wide opening and that's the only reason I didn't lose my shit when I got home. Why? Because the asswipe fucknuts loser dad with the gold crowns on his front teeth (oh yeah, that's a good look! Oh yeah!) saw fit to park his van across the driveway, blocking more than two thirds of it. Not because there weren't any other spaces available, there was plenty of space in front of him, he just didn't give a fuck.

So I pull around him, don't see anyone around to ask to move it and then just go down and park my car. I walked back up a few minutes later to get my mail and saw him coming out of the house on the corner. I pointed at his van and told him to move it.

Now get this, this retarded numbfuck says, "Why?"

So I tell him so that my wife can get into our driveway and park in front of our house. And he tells me to wait a minute. I almost fucking killed him, stinky asswipe motherfucker.

I hate this town. And I am trying my damnedest to not apply the lessons learned here to the culture as a whole but it is incredibly hard when its in your face every day. I'm sick of these wankers not thinking beyond their own stupid little worlds.

Here's the thing. You fucking brain surgeons don't seem to get it. Your "Urgent" letters to try and get me to consolidate my student loans with your "Pre-Approved" stamps and all that other lame ass stupid marketing bullshit needs to stop.

The law hasn't been changed so I cannot RE-consolidate my loans. I've already done it (which you fucking fools would know if you bothered to check my damn records) and it cannot be done again.

Stop sending me your misguided and deceptive bullshit letters, all I do is tear them in half and throw them away. Stop the phone calls too. I don't want to listen to some half literate moron reading in Mr. Robot voice from a stupid script.

Take your "Super Low Rate" offers, cram them into an irregular ball shaped wad and stuff them right up your asses.

I get at least three of these things a week and its a waste of time on all sides. You're wasting resources, you're wasting your company's money and you're wasting my time.

It'll be hashed and rehashed and hashed some more but let's be very, very clear (crystal clear) here. A-Rod totally and completely took a swipe at Bronson Arroyo to knock that ball free. The replay showed it, everyone saw it and they still complained about it like little bitches.

And the fans? The fans nearly forced the Yankees to forfeit the game because of their pathetically shitty behaviour. I have never seen so many cops on a baseball field while the game was being played! Way to show your sportsmanship, New York, very nice! The City That Never Sleeps is now the City That's Full of Creeps. Good work, asshats!

And now, now it goes to the game seven decider after the Yankees had surged to a 3-0 lead in the best of seven.

Hot friggin' damn! Curt Schilling pitched like the monster ace he is and the Sox take game six to even it all up! And they didn't need extra innings and they let someone else be the hero instead of David Ortiz.

And somewhere, somewhere Nomar is crying himself to sleep because he was a whiny cancer in the clubhouse and the Red Sox dumped his ass.

Good work, Sox! Good work!

Surprise of surprises, this isn't a political post, although it could be with that title. Nope, this is a personal post about the current drift in my career, attrition in the office and thinking about how to break out of the corporate cycle.

Work is getting worse, the culture is pretty much pure unfun now, the staff has turned over again.

I'm the longest termed employee here now by a good margin and am approaching 3 years here. That alone speaks volumes to the corporate culture, high turnover means there is something fundamentally wrong in the management structure of the business. The production team has effectively been reduced from 4 to 1 and the 1 is damned close to hitting the eject button. And then there's no one to train the new team when they get hired.

The mood in the office is gloomy even though we're staring down the barrel of our biggest successes to date. Its time to shine up that resume and really start bashing the bushes (wrong bush, this is not political, remember?) for a new spot to work in.

I'm also currently exploring the possibility of opening my own shop and forging my own destiny for a while but I'm not sure if right now is the best time to think about cutting loose from the comfort that is a regular paycheck. What with the kid and all.

I think, for the short term, I will adopt a prepare to swim away mentality and will play it by ear. I will keep my irons in the fire, keep pushing on my resume, keep seeing what comes up.

[Update: Another day, another two weeks notice given. The last remaining member of the production team has just given her notice. She'll stay on long enough to get the new troops trained and up to speed but I think the company is in for some bumps, especially given the new bunch of custom jobs we've just gotten.]