Noticeably Absent

As usually happens when I have some time off from my regular schedule of work, I slack on blogging because my somewhat regular routine is thrown off. It is 20 minutes to 9 on Thursday, I'm supposed to be in the computer lab with one of the 6th grade classes working on one of their projects. I almost said a noisy and boisterous lab but the first class of the day is generally very well behaved. It is the last class of the day that usually forces me to go seek quieter refuge elsewhere.

A result of this change is that I don't tend to take the time to blog even though I theoretically have more time to blog since I'm not meant to be working. At least not for the man. This week I've been working for the woman, my wife, so that she can push forward on several projects that we need to push forward on.

And today has been lots and lots of cooking to end up in a pretty good sized feast for us. This has been the first year we did everything on our own for our own. And we made plenty, plenty of mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy along with a great cranberry sauce. I'm drifting along on my post eat until I was super over full and looking to find the end of the football game and a beer and a place to prop up my feet for a little while.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a sweet Tryptophan coma.

UFC 106 Predictions

Another week, another UFC fight night. Tonight's fights feature one helluva a good car even without Brock Lesnar defending his belt against Shane Carwin. Now Brock Lesnar's fighting future is in jeopardy as he fights an intestinal disorder.

So here we go. Reasons given where I feel like it.

Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin
Prediction: Forrest by TKO
Reason: Call it ring rust, call it age catching up, I just don't think Tito's got "it" anymore where Forrest has been fighting some of the best fighters in the game. Besides, I think Tito's an asshole and don't want him to win.

Anthony "Rumble" Johnson vs. Josh "Kos" Koscheck
Prediction: Johnson by TKO
Reason: This fight could go either way as both are dynamic, strong, fast and powerful. But I think Rumble is going to out dynamic Kos. Should be a very, very fast and balls out fight.

Luis Cane vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Prediction: Cane by TKO
Reason: Cane is a scary sumbitch. Nogueira is no pushover but Cane's star is going up and I think he's going to use a TKO win over Nogueira to push his name into the title contention ring.

Phil Baroni vs. Amir Sadollah
Prediction: Sadollah by Submission
Reason: I make no bones about the fact I think Baroni is a clown. Yes, he's a decorated fighter and all but his flash and posturing is writing checks I don't think his skills are capable of cashing anymore. I think Amir is looking to get back on the winning streak and should pull it out tonight.

Paulo Thiago vs. Jacob Volkmann
Prediction: Thiago by TKO
Reason: Thiago is fast and dangerous and he looks meaner than a rattlesnake. I don't know Volkmann at all but I'm going to go with the known here.

Marcus Davis vs. Ben Saunders
Prediction: Davis by TKO
Reason: This is the hardest fight of the night for me to pick. I really like both fighters quite alot. Marcus Davis is an outstanding striker and Ben Saunders has great skills as well as alot of charisma. I'd just as soon neither of them lose but I'm going to go with experience over youth in this one and take Davis.

Kendall Grove vs. Jake Rosholt
Prediction: Grove by Decision
Reason: Grove is rising but Rosholt is going to be a very tough test for him. Another fight that could go either way.

Brian Foster vs. Brock Larson
Prediction: Larson by TKO

Fabricio Camoes vs. Caol Uno
Prediction: Uno by Decision

George Sotiropoulos vs. Jason Dent
Prediction: Sotiropolous by TKO

New feature of my predictions, I'm going to try and call the three awards as well.
Fight of the Night - Johnson vs. Koscheck
Knockout of the Night - Thiago over Volkman
Submmission of the Night - Sadollah over Baroni

This Week in Douchebaggery

Seems like the douchebaggery quotient has been running a bit higher than normal lately. So I gathered up some examples for you.

Man Blames Planes For Divorce, Seeks $555 Million - not only planes but elevators, buildings and pretty much everything but his own stupid ass self.

10-year-old is tasered by police in Arkansas - funniest comment on the link: This is what happens when they won't sign the marriage license. Baaahhh!

Woman accused of faking breast cancer for implants - do they like big fake boobs in jail?

Poet's Son Says No One Can Quote Father Without Paying Up... Even Academic Dissertations... - I've never heard of Louis Zukofsky but his son sounds like a total loser trying to twist copyright into an income stream. Good luck with that.

No Respect for the Dead - pulling a grieving brother out of a funeral procession to give him a ticket and make him miss his sister's service is the epitome of douchebaggery.

Palin-Beck 2012? - the dream ticket... for the Democrats. He's a lying drama queen, she's a moron with nice legs and a mean streak. Awesome. The only better ticket I can think of would be Cheney/Limbaugh.

Someday...

... I'm going to actually organize my closet.

... I'm going to re-attach the stripe on the side of my car.

... I'm going to be able to walk from wall to wall in my garage.

... I will have my Porsche 914 that's been converted to electric.

... we will live on a spread off the grid (though with high speed internet, of course) with lots of land, bike trails, a pond and a zipline (hell yeah!).

... people who actually do the work will be paid more than the people who manage the actual workers.

... all Americans will have equal access to preventive health care.

... we will quit paying so much attention to celebrities and pay more attention to scientists and teachers.

... marijuana will be legal.

... gas powered cars will seem like quaint throwbacks.

... I will be able to sleep on the rare days when my schedule allows it.

... I will choose to work because I want to not because I have to.

... I will have a six pack.

What are your somedays?

My Down and Dirty UFC 105 Predictions

Quick and ugly, here we go.

Couture over Vera, Swick over Hardy, Kang over Bisping, Brown over Wilkes, Pearson over Riley, Taylor over Hathaway, Etim over Gugerty, Osipczak over Riddle, Kelly over Silver, Gustafsson over Hamman, Winner over Delgado.

On the Bisping fight, I just want to see him lose some more. He's a douchebag, I like it when douchebags lose. And I like it when good guys like Randy Couture keep defying his age and win. That said, I see Vera making this a very, very tough fight.

And there are going to be some wicked fireworks in the Swick/Hardy fight. Both guys are fast with power. It might be over very quickly or it might become a slugfest battle royale.

Looking forward to chilling with some pals and watching the action later tonight and am trying not to see the spoilers!

What I've Been Up To

Life continues, life rolls on, there is no stopping the flow of life. Even when you just need a short break for the ride to stop so you can get off and catch your breath, the ride doesn't really stop, you just stop and the ride plunges onward, upward, outward. Luckily though, you can grab back on when you are ready and get swept right back into the stream of life again.

My life, of late, has revolved around my family. Around my two little boys who make me laugh a thousand times a day, make my heart sing, make the world worth dealing with. I can't even remember what my life was like before I had the overwhelming beacon of awesomeness that is my two children.

Sure, it isn't always fun or easy. There are plenty of times when things are annoying and frustrating and it is too easy to get sucked into the vortex of feeling angry. But being angry is a huge waste of time and energy. And I don't know about you but whatever time I have on this planet is limited and ticking away with each passing second.

Like many sentiments, there's a great movie quote to encompass my current mood. "Get busy living or get busy dying." I will deliver two karma points to the first person that can place the quote without cheating (though I'll never know but the karma points will know and they can be fickle so you best not cheat).

Anyway, I haven't been writing to this ol' blog as much as I used to. A combination of being busy with work and having other, more immediate, outlets for my thoughts. I Twitter like a demon some days. Other days, I just bend the ear of whoever's closest by. No matter what though, I've always got something on my mind, always got something in the works and always have some idea, thought or plan to add to my pile of to-dos.

But tonight I got the chance, actually I took the time, to start and finish a pretty neat project that ended up working out quite well. I used some plans I got off of the Maker Workshop for a DTV Antenna. Yes, we dumped our cable subscription a month and a half ago. It has been a little different but, on the whole, it has been nice to not have 70 some odd channels of crap on the box all the time.

But a few more than the four we were getting would be nice. The digital antenna I got at Target was adequate, it pulled in some signals but would often fuzz out or need to slightly repositioned. It hasn't been ideal. Nor is the new antenna I made tonight. But damned if it doesn't work way better than the store bought one!

I'd write about work but work is a little loopy these days. I'm not fully hired back by the district but am working full time. It is an untenable situation in the long run and I continue to search for more complete employment.

That's about it for now. Or all I care to share.

Another Twitter Etiquette Installment

It has been a couple of months since I wrote up some more thoughts about Twitter and etiquette and why I won't automatically follow you back. And, further, why I stopped following you almost immediately. It is all pretty simple really and I'll try to distill it down to some easy to grasp bullet points.

Top 10 Reasons I Don't Follow You Back
1. Your tweets are nothing but quotes.
2. Your tweets are nothing but links to the same PPC site.
3. Your tweets are nothing but replies to people you do not know.
4. Your tweets are obtuse one-side-of-the-conversation replies.
5. You have no avatar.
6. You have no bio.
7. You have no tweets at all.
8. Your tweets are full of txt spk.
9. Your tweets are so poorly spelled that it hurts my brain to try to decipher them.
10. You do not understand what Caps Lock does and that it should not be used as your default Tweeting style.

Top 5 Reasons I Immediately Unfollowed You
1. You sent an auto-DM thanking me for following you and please go look at some site.
2. You sent an auto-DM telling me you are looking forward to reading my tweets.
3. You sent an auto-DM.
4. You @ replied to me with the exact same message your entire Tweet history is made up of.
5. You are a Yankees/Dodgers fan.

Top 10 Reasons I Followed You
1. You are funny.
2. You are original.
3. You are a living breathing person.
4. You are interested in conversation.
5. You have something to add.
6. You know me in real life.
7. You are a cyclist.
8. You are a photographer.
9. You an mma fighter or fan.
10. You post pictures of yourself often and you're rather gorgeous (see Arianny Celeste for the best example of this phenomenon).

So there ya go. Any questions? Leave 'em in the comments.