the purpose of the tax system is to generate revenue, not to dole out fairness.

wealth redistribution is a central tenet of socialism.

you know those peanut butter taffies with the sort of dry peanut buttery center, wrapped in black & orange waxed papers, only really available at hallereen time? yeah, you do. aren't they great? yeah, they certainly are. are we glad they are not available all year round? yeah, we are. of course, there are the infamous mary janes, available year round.

today is rosh hashana. or, well... yesterday & today? i am not prigzactly sure how these things work. kind of embarrassing there. hrm. it's a jewish holiday, and those generally run from sunset to sunset. rosh hashana is the jewish new year and is a very big holiday which leads into yom kippur, also a very big holiday, which occurs in about a week. or, in exactly a week. again, not sure. hrm. what i do know is this is a high holy time for jews, but also a merry celebration time. l'shana tovah! <- that means, basically, "for a good year" or "wishing you a good year".

l'shana tovah!!

watching monday night football

one of the great things about watching m-n-f is that i can be on the computer at the same time.

one of the terrible things about watching m-n-f is eejity tony kornheiser.

one of the great things about watching m-n-f is that it is football.

one of the terrible things about watching m-n-f is that the games come on sort of late and sometimes are over too late for me to see the ending.

one of the great things about watching m-n-f is sharing popcorn with my old man.

one of the terrible things about watching m-n-f is you don't get to pick the game, and sometimes it's boring.

one of the great things about watching m-n-f is m-n-f=fall, and fall is a great season.

one of the terrible things about watching m-n-f is that after fall comes winter, and mini-me & my old man don't like those short, gray days. [but, i do!]

one of the great things about watching m-n-f is sometimes getting to see ed hochuli's hunky arms or mike carey's super hand signals.

books 2008

currently:
king of lies
[john hart]

completed:
queste
[angie sage]
physik
[angie sage]
flyte
[angie sage]
magyk
[angie sage]
inkheart
[cornelia funke]
bones to ashes
[kathy reichs]
touchstone
[laurie r. king]
irish tiger
[andrew greeley]
the bishop at the lake
[andrew greeley]
break no bones
[kathy reichs]
cross bones
[kathy reichs]
fatal voyage
[kathy reichs]
monday mourning
[kathy reichs]
bare bones
[kathy reichs]
grave secrets
[kathy reichs]
cause celeb
[helen fielding]
death du jour
[kathy reichs]
déjà dead
[kathy reichs]
playing for pizza
[john grisham]
the big over easy
[jasper fford]
the life all around me by ellen foster
[kaye gibbons]
the name of the wind
[patrick rothfuss]
eat, pray, love
[elizabeth gilbert]

today we went to the titans game, and it was fun!

elvis reports he told some neighborhood kid to get off his lawn. heh heh. such a grumpy old man he is.


i saw a kid today dribbing a soccer ball down his driveway. the kid was wearing crocs. he was like 5. he fell down. he was sad. i was like - durr, you are wearing crocs & dribbling a soccer ball.


during the u-g-a vs bamalama football game, it appeared that u-g-a's fight song is paint it black. wtf? that is not a fight song. it is a song about being upset by the death of ones significant other. or, perhaps upset about breaking up with ones sig other, and not a death, but at any rate, it is decidedly not a fight song. dweebuses.

titans = 4-0 & vandy = 4-0. double w00t!

so, we went to the titans game today, and i have hat hair. i put together an outfit i thought was fairly good mix of team spirit without total dweebushness. when my old man saw my outfit, he did not say - is that what you are going to wear? which is the question of death. instead, he said, i don't have a titans' hat. heh heh. obviously, the outfit passed the dweebus test. it was hot out there. i had thought about wearing jeans, but was happy i did not.

okay, the coffee is ready. do you want cream in yours? sugar? a fig newton to go with?

debatable value

kennedy promised we'd land a man on the moon in 10 yrs. that was an engineering problem that could be solved by throwing money at it. energy independence is not a simple engineering problem. energy independence is total lifestyle restructuring for each & every citizen. the two cannot be compared.

doesn't matter what they promise anyway, does it, since there is not money there to spend. i want to hear how each candidate will change his plans based on the bailout, b/c the bailout is going to happen.

mccain said in the debate 700,000 jobs created by building 45 nuclear power plants by 2030. this is the very type of statement that begs questions of detail. for instance, will these be permanent jobs, or only be created during construction? there are always more questions, every time a statement is made.

not rocket science

WASHINGTON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - U.S. regulators warned the public on Friday not to consume seven Mr. Brown instant coffee and milk tea products that were made in China, because of concerns they may be contaminated with melamine.

get a freakin' clue, people! just.don't.buy.stuff.from.china. look at your products and refuse to purchase those that are made in china. it's grocery shopping, not rocket science.

speaking of rocket science, whycome is it the chinese can put a manned mission into space, but they cannot create foodstuffs or pet products without adding melamine?

missing septimus

i read the first 4 septimus heap books - magyk, flyte, physik, and queste. read them one after the other, and enjoyed it immensely. the world created by angie sage in these books is compellingly real. i mean, not real-real as in magyk & charms & flying & dragons. not real as in dragon boats & cloaks & horses & candles & treehouses. not like that. more like... completely constructed in such a way that it holds together & becomes real. a most wonderful set of tales. i really miss that world & the people in it. now, i am reading king of lies by john hart. it's set in present day, told in the first-person from the point of view of a cynical, disillusioned male lawyer. ::sigh:: it is simply no where near as delightful. it seems like it will be a good story, but simply not.the.same.

i am trying to find out if septimus heap will have another book in the series, but no luck finding this out yet. queste was just recently published - april 2008 - so it will be probably a year or so before there is another one. what to do in the meantime? there will be another in the kingkiller chronicle series - the name of the wind was book one. the wise man's fear will be book 2, but it won't be out until april 2009. at least we know the title & know it will be out. for septimus, we don't even know anything at all yet.

except i did find this out -- warner bros has purchased the septimus heap stories and will turn them into movies. yay!

septimus is supposed to have blond curly hair, so i am not sold on that top picture as a good likeness of his character. this drawing is nice, eh? well, i like it, anyway.

another day feeding the elephants

the contracts were reported to be lost. i told the new unit assistant to look in the filing cabinet 3 times. i pointed to the filing cabinet & said - did you look in that one? she replied, yes. but, she obviously did not do it b/c she said she could not find the contracts, and when i looked in the very same pointed-at cabinet, wah-lah, the contracts were right freakin' there.

later, she tried to :page: me by yelling my name across the office. i make a distinct & studied point of ignoring people when they do this. we are not a circus -- we are an office. get up & walk over. email me. call me on the freakin' tellyfone, but do not under any circumstances voice-page me with your intraoffice yellization.

and, lastly but not leastly, what about me says, tell me about your oil change? i am going out on a limb here & saying if you look closely -- nothing. nothing about me says that i am remotely interested in your pets & children, much less the lubrication of your vehicle. stop, look, & listen. then, you can intelligently enter my conversational space - and by this i mean, step off.

campbell brown is crying wolf.

campbell brown is crying wolf over sexism, and that is NOT helpful --
-- not helpful to women who face actual sexism in the workplace.
-- not helpful to society as a whole as we struggle to define abstract issues like "sexism" in a meaningful way.
-- not helpful to what little is left of "clean" campaigning.

The mccain/palin campaign is NOT practicing sexism by shielding palin from the press. They are practicing "novice-ism" -- shielding from the press someone they do not believe is ready to field successfully the myriad random questions that will be thrown at her. palin's inexperience is another issue and is not what I am addressing here. it is irrelevant here. what is relevant is that campbell brown, a respected newswoman, is using her position to disseminate a false & destructive perspective of sexism.

shame on you campbell. you should know better.

questions we are not allowed to ask.

if you are white and are not voting for obama, some would consider that racist. black people come right out & say they are voting for him b/c he is black. why isn't that considered racist?

why is it okay for celebrities to mock & jeer at the conservatives/republicans, but not okay for anyone to mock & jeer at the liberals/democrats?

why does liberal inclusiveness include everyone except conservatives?

why on television are christians portrayed as goody-mc-boring-butts?

does favre regret leaving green bay?

books 2008

currently:
um... undecided

completed:
queste
[angie sage]
physik
[angie sage]
flyte
[angie sage]
magyk
[angie sage]
inkheart
[cornelia funke]
bones to ashes
[kathy reichs]
touchstone
[laurie r. king]
irish tiger
[andrew greeley]
the bishop at the lake
[andrew greeley]
break no bones
[kathy reichs]
cross bones
[kathy reichs]
fatal voyage
[kathy reichs]
monday mourning
[kathy reichs]
bare bones
[kathy reichs]
grave secrets
[kathy reichs]
cause celeb
[helen fielding]
death du jour
[kathy reichs]
déjà dead
[kathy reichs]
playing for pizza
[john grisham]
the big over easy
[jasper fford]
the life all around me by ellen foster
[kaye gibbons]
the name of the wind
[patrick rothfuss]
eat, pray, love
[elizabeth gilbert]

sometimes regulations are for the good.

commercial banks provide checking & savings accts to regular folks like us and to small businesses. they provide mortgages & car loans to folks like us. they are the local banks and the larger, national banks, that we deal with every day for our banking needs.

investment houses are gambling institutions. investment houses take money from investors and place bets in the stock market - betting on which business will take off and prove to be good investments.

these two entities provide different services. one is a trust - a sacred trust - between the common man and the repository which holds his money. one is a casino. the problem comes when the casino gets rich and purchases the trust, takes the money held in trust, and uses it to gamble. if the gamble is lost, the trust is destroyed, and the common man loses his money.

and, he didn't even choose to gamble his money, nor did he know it was being gambled.

this is what happened in the great depression, and with no backup, many people were bankrupted through forces beyond their control. controls in the form of govt regulations were put in place, and commercial banking was officially separated from investment banking.

in 1996, pres clinton signed the national securities markets improvement act. this act repealed the regulations and allowed commercial banks to once again be merged with investment houses. time passed, and here we are in 2008, with lack of regulation and oversight due to clinton's enactment, leading us to another wall street crash. this crash was very similar to the crash that preceeded the great depression. the difference is that we are bailing out the banks this time.

these institutions must be held accountable. there must be oversight & regulation. there is too much temptation to greed. we should not expect the common man, much less the common corporation, to act for the greater good when faced with this type of temptation.

sometimes regulations are for the good.

sports news

still watching some ryder cup action. mickleson is playing just terribly. anthony kim already won his match against sergio garcia. boo weekly is playing well. fairly certain boo's the only professional golfer who chews tobacky.

titans won today - yay! next week, me & my old man are going to the titans game. my place of work gave me tickets for being such a stellar employee. go me! so, anyway, titans are off to a 3-0 start for the first time since '99.

vandy won yesterday - yay! next week, me & my old man are not going to the vandy game. har har. the 'dores are off to a 4-0 start for only fourth time since w-w-2. they will likely make the top 25 this week, for the first time since 1984. when they were in the top 25 in 1984, they went on to play tulane the following week. they should have beat tulane and gone 5-0, but instead, they lost to tulane and went on to lose all but one game the rest of the season, finishing with a losing record at 5-6. these things are not forgotten easily and go a long way to explain why vandy fans are cautious to be optimistic.

in personal sports news, i ran 8.5 miles this morning. or, perhaps it is more accurate to say i continually self-propelled forward for 8.5 miles. run may be an exaggeration. but, pace is overrated. it is the mileage we are after, eh?

think i will take a nap now

watching the ryder cup. kenny perry is wearing a blue bracelet - the rubber kind, like the livestrong bracelets. i ran a 5k this summer where they gave away blue bracelets like that to the finishers. what i didn't know was that kenny ran that 5k, too. fascinating.

there is a sand trap on the hole they are currently showing. well, there are lots of sand traps, but this particular sand trap looks like a screaming banshee ghost face. my old man doesn't see it like i do, but that doesn't mean it is not there.

this morning, we bought some new tires for the honda. it would have needed tires in a few months, but we went ahead & purchased them b/c we know somebody who can get a discount this weekend. a rather large discount. score! we spent, like, 3 hours altogether getting the tires, and if it had not been for the discount, we would have done something more quickly and less urgently.

reunite this!

my high school reunion has been planned. the centerpiece event is a picnic/party/cookout on a saturday evening at a classmate's house. unbeknownst to me, this classmate lives within a mile of me. the reason this would be unbeknownst to me is that this classmate was & still is a total dweebus that i would not want to have anything to do with. anyhootle - somehow, the planning committee came up with the idea of having a par-tay at his house and charging a certain amount per person to attend. they'll have food & drinks & so on. it makes sense that they would charge a certain amount. how much, you ask? oh, a mere $50 per person. sheezum. can you believe it? $50.per.person. for a bloody picnic. not only do i not even want to go, i most certainly do not want to spend $50. and, i know my old man wouldn't want to go, so that would make it even less fun for me. so, basically, no thank you bel grande.

everyfreakinbody is in a pinstripe suit.

freddie mac & fannie may were bailed out by the taxpayers. before the bailout, these entities gave $525,000 to the obama campaign and $135,000 to the mccain campaign. if obama & mccain feel so much for the middle class american, shouldn't they give this money back? yes. they should. today, the govt [you, me - you know the drill] bailed out a-i-g - a private insurance company. it must be that this company was integral to the economy b/c we did not bail out lehman bros. so, we bailed it out. the govt is now the biggest shareholder in a-i-g. what the hula do we want with shares of a-i-g? they are clearly worthless. each taxpayer paid $248 toward this a-i-g bailout. that's you, me, the guy next door. all of us. i would not have chosen to spend my $248 on a-i-g stock.

this home mortgage crisis... did you know you could get a mortgage loan for $200k and even more, all over the county, with 0 down? 0, zero, zip, zilch, nada, nothing. big ol' goose egg. you qualify for a two hundred thousand dollar loan with no money down? sheezle. no freakin wonder they are defaulting on these loans - they have given no proof of ability to save & pay.

the obama campaign & the mccain campaign this year together have collected $800 million. this amount of money would go a long way to restoring electric, water, & sewer service in galvaston & houston. but, will they do something good for the middle class american, by helping to restore power to his home? helz-noh. they will purchase more ads to dis each other.

bloody eejits.

daybreak heartache

a dry wind from the east ushered the sun over the horizon, and she knew she should be gone. she couldn't say really why she lingered, but still, she was there. i'll be gone by tuesday. -- she had been so sure, so rock-solid certain, that the she would be able to follow through on the plans she'd made. that she would be able to do it, this time. she laughed to herself, making a weak humming sound that scarce would startle a butterfly, but proved enough to wake simon's dog. the old hound looked at her with accusing eyes - how he loved his sleep, that old dog did. she stared into those watery orbs, willing him to reveal the story, to lead her to even a mere scrap of the whole, but as quiet returned to the room, so he returned to his dreams, shutting the only eyes that had seen it happen, the only connection she had with the truth. with the same measure of certainty she'd had about leaving today, with that certainty that goes beyond the mind, through the heart, out the fingertips & toes - with all of her, she knew now that she would never leave.

new places, new faces

there's a new coffee place in town -- maxximo jo's. it looks interesting. took them for.ev.er to renovate the building from the frozen custard shop that was there. they've got a menu of coffee drinks, teas, smoothies, and gelato. turns out that espresso poured over gelato has a name - affegato. who knew? and, the new place has free wifi. all good, all good. but, not the beanery, eh? nothing like the beanery, so here i am - at the beanery!

books 2008

currently:
queste
[angie sage]

completed:
physik
[angie sage]
flyte
[angie sage]
magyk
[angie sage]
inkheart
[cornelia funke]
bones to ashes
[kathy reichs]
touchstone
[laurie r. king]
irish tiger
[andrew greeley]
the bishop at the lake
[andrew greeley]
break no bones
[kathy reichs]
cross bones
[kathy reichs]
fatal voyage
[kathy reichs]
monday mourning
[kathy reichs]
bare bones
[kathy reichs]
grave secrets
[kathy reichs]
cause celeb
[helen fielding]
death du jour
[kathy reichs]
déjà dead
[kathy reichs]
playing for pizza
[john grisham]
the big over easy
[jasper fford]
the life all around me by ellen foster
[kaye gibbons]
the name of the wind
[patrick rothfuss]
eat, pray, love
[elizabeth gilbert]

a winning weekend

u-t, vandy, titans, and crappy green team all had wins this weekend. w00t! c-g-t is 2-1 on the outdoor season. i have no idea what our indoor record is, but there aren't as many w's on the indoor side, i can tell you that.

what did you have for supper? i just had double banana honey nut cheerios. that means h-n cheerios w/ 2 nanners. it is a winning combination and highly recommended.

the past 2 weeks, i have gone to a different publix. there are 2 within like 4 miles of my home. plus, there is a kroger, food lion, and aldi, all w/in 4 mi. anyhoo - i have been visiting this different publix, and last week it was a hassle. i mean, it was fun to go to a different place, but since everything is in a different place, it was something of a hassle. today, i had the hang of where everything is, for the most part. it's a smaller store, but it's got everything i usually get, so smaller means quicker, which is fine by me. in the new store, they put the peanut butter & jelly beside the bread. this seems to make sense, eh? in the old store, the pb & j are near the cereal. in the new store, the o-j is near the produce, and in the old store, it's in the dairy dept. the problem w/ having it near the produce, while that might make sense in terms of category of food, it means you have to carry the o-j around the entire trip to the store, and it can get warm. that is not good planning.

vandy 38 - rice 21

watching georgia versus south carolina on tv. the georgia punter just punted like 60 yards - quite impressive. one of the south carolina players is named captain. that is a weird name. i have also heard of guys named major, and i think that is weird, too. and, of course, s carolina's qb's last name is smelley. ew! smelley! watching vandy versus rice on the stat tracker. the little mens on the stat tracker scoot around like the little mens on the electic football game. so cute! hey, vandy wins!

today i - read my book, ran 8 miles w/ no walking, cooked lunch, watched u-t v u-a-b, took out the trash, watered the plants, did the filing & shredding, cleaned the bathroom, dusted, vacuumed, cooked supper, washed all the dishes, did a load of laundry except have not folded it yet, watched georgia v south carolina and vandy v rice and now watching u-s-c v ohio state. that is what i have done today. go football! go fall! yay!

it's time for supper. what do you want?

florida's hanging chad problem will not happen again this year, b/c they have replaced chad/punch ballots with optical recognition ballots. that's right - they have replaced one paper-based system with another paper-based system. if they were going to replace the whole shebang, why didn't they go paperless? criminy.

oil dropped today to less than $100/barrel - the lowest price in 5 months. mini-me spotted gas today at $4.49/gal - the highest i have ever heard of in these parts. criminy.

farmer's almanac for 2009 predicts a global cooling trend for the next 50 years. this prediction is based on sun spots & global climate trends since the almanac started publishing, in 1792. that's a lot of data, especially compared to the paltry 25 to 50 years of data our current weather establishment uses to predict that we will need to take our jackets when we step outside.

the success of liberty at home is dependent on the success of liberty abroad. - the bush doctrine, incorrectly quoted by charles gibson in his interview with sarah palin. snooty charles tried to act like she should have known, but he didn't even know himself.

my story

i was sitting at work, checking email, sipping coffee, when i heard some people talking about something urgent happening in the news. i flipped over to cnn's website and could not at first figure out what was happening. i sat there for the next hour watching video on my pc and eating twizzlers one after the other. not sure why i was eating the twizzlers or why i remember that, but there you have it. i went to the fitness center for a little while to watch on television, but i almost could not stand to be around other people because they did not seem to be taking it seriously enough. around lunchtime, someone sent an email about an upcoming 5k race, and i was like - wtf? i could not believe that there would be 5k's anymore. i thought the entire course of our lives would change drastically. little did i know, eh?

what we did today

today, we spent a whole lot of money. jeepers. we got one of these. doesn't look exactly like this, b/c it is a wee tiny bit used, but it is ours now!


in other news, lipstick on a pig is a well-known expression, and obama did not mean any insult to anyone when he said it. let's get serious, people. it is simply an idiom. don't be idiots over the idiom! what is unbelievable to me is that my old man had never heard the expression before. i could not figure out at first what all the hooplah was about, b/c when they played the clip of obama saying lipstick on a pig, i literally did not hear it. i was listening for the big story, and it just passed me right by. why? because it is a common saying! c'mon people! get with the program.

so, yeah, we spent a lot of money on a 2006 honda civic. i hope it lives up to its billing. supposed to be such great cars. we have gotten 213500 miles on the jeep, and that is a hulava lot on a chrysler product. the honda has 32000 give or take, so it should have a good nother 200000 in it. you will no doubt know if we become disappointed in any way.

my avon came yesterday. w00t! soon i will be smelling like mandarins & vanilla & stuff. yummy! there was also hairspray in the box. hairspray is vital right now with the growing-out hair. every day is a trial & tribulation of hair & how it will perform. i usually have to paste it into submission with hairspray. am i using too much hairspray? no. never. not.

peace out.

simply difficult

why is it that when i think about simplifying my life, i think about thinning out my wardrobe? i have too many dishes, too many pots & pans, too many towels, way way way too many pieces of paper in files in boxes in the basement, and what do i think i should get rid of? clothing. somehow the clothing seems to be both necessary and extraneous at the same time. necessary enough that if i get rid of it, that would be a sacrifice, but extraneous enough so that it wouldn't really hurt.

my old man would say i have too many books. i disagree, of course, because i love books. even those i have already read & will not read again, i love. i probably have too many necklaces, which is an odd thing to feel like i have too many of. i would actually prefer to have one that i wear all the time - like that one with the colored beads that fell apart - rather than a different something for every different outfit. which, of course, brings us back to the too many clothes issue.

there is no question i have too many pots & pans, especially considering the amount of cooking i do, but you remember what happened the last time i got rid of cookware, don't you? that's right - i got rid of that big pizza pan and could have used it twice recently, so that just goes to show you. i have too many dishes, too. we could just use the hadley, but it is so heavy. or, we could use the china all the time, but sheesh, that's a lot of hand washing. oh, wait... we already hand wash, don't we? hee hee. we could discard the mismatched cups & bowls & plates & forks & spoons & knives, and we could instead use the matching sets of dishes & glasses and the stainless that's in the box right now. yeah, we could, but then - i wouldn't have my favorite pop tart plate or my favorite cereal spoon or my favorite jelly knife.

simplifying is more difficult than it would seem. clutter makes me nervous, but i remain surrounded by it. i like this picture of a cluttered desk, b/c it makes me think of elvis, though i don't know why.

some words & some more words with no pictures today

okay, here is something yummy - jason's deli graham crackers. i don't know what they do to those things, but man-o-man, they are some good stuff.

speaking of good stuff, here is some bad stuff - vince young's attitude yesterday. his team is winning, and he is sitting on the bench, hanging his head, pouting, and what is the cause of this behaviour? he thinks he is playing badly, and well, he is correct there. but, does he think that is the way to behave when the rest of his team is obviously playing their butts off & preserving a hard-fought win? vince, man - wake up! get your head out of your head - stop thinking about your self. congratulate & thank your team for playing hard & holding you up. guess what - kerry collins goes in there & takes 'em down the field & scores. this is supposed to make you happy. whatever emotions you are feeling that do not allow you to celebrate a win with your team - these emotions need to be taken care of. now. coaches, friends, family, teammates -- somebody needs to slap some sense into young mr young's silly head!

more bad stuff: the plethora of unsupported statistics that flood the media & the discussion spaces during election season. by discussion spaces, i mean not only official discussions like blogs & such, but also office chats, busstop conversations, & the like. everyone is throwing stats around & discussing them as fact. the problem with stats is that out of context, they are meaningless. for prigzample: sarah palin cut the special ed budget in alaska by 62%. that's a stat. and, at "face value", it sounds bad. the reality is that the budget was shifted - something called the "alaska challenge youth academy" was moved to another part of the budget the first year that palin was governor. all the monies went with it to a different part of the budget. that line item was in the spec ed bdgt before, but was moved for whatever reason people move things in bgdts - to get a closer look at that one thing, perhaps, or to get a look at something else. it was simply moved. perhaps it is not technically a spec ed project. who knows. the point is that she did not cut the budget - she moved something.

::sigh:: i don't want to turn this into a political rant blog. please tell me you understand that statistics are tricky. good. thank you.

::sigh::

books 2008

currently:
physik
[angie sage]

completed:
flyte
[angie sage]
magyk
[angie sage]
inkheart
[cornelia funke]
bones to ashes
[kathy reichs]
touchstone
[laurie r. king]
irish tiger
[andrew greeley]
the bishop at the lake
[andrew greeley]
break no bones
[kathy reichs]
cross bones
[kathy reichs]
fatal voyage
[kathy reichs]
monday mourning
[kathy reichs]
bare bones
[kathy reichs]
grave secrets
[kathy reichs]
cause celeb
[helen fielding]
death du jour
[kathy reichs]
déjà dead
[kathy reichs]
playing for pizza
[john grisham]
the big over easy
[jasper fford]
the life all around me by ellen foster
[kaye gibbons]
the name of the wind
[patrick rothfuss]
eat, pray, love
[elizabeth gilbert]

titanalysis -- jax 10 - tn 17

did you catch the titans vs jags game today? the titans offense under vince young could not get anything solid going. the managed to score 10 points, to the jags 7, but they were never really rolling. at 4:14 to go in the 4th, young mr young went down with a knee injury, and in came kerry collins. collins immediately took the team down the field & scored a t-d. why is it so easy for mr collins? the coaches & commentators continue to harp on how the receivers are letting young down, but those same receivers can catch collins with no problem. hmm... seems the problem might be the thrower, not the throwees, eh? i think that's a question the coaches need to answer.

if you did watch the game, you saw the terrible call at the end that took away the titans final 1st down and put them back in a 4th down situation. there was no visual evidence that lendale white did not get the first down. in other words - it was clear he got the first down, and that would have been the decisive end of the game. instead, the titans defense had to get back out on the field one more time, and the game ended with haynesworth sacking gerrard and then haynesworth skipping around the field. there is something oddly intimidating about a 350 lb man skipping.

cortland finnegan had 2 interceptions on the day. yeah, he's still the man.

nothing to see here. move along.

in case you didn't hear, vandy beat s-carolina thurs nite, 24-27. w00t!

so far today, i have slept till 10am, made the bed & washed the dishes, balanced the checkbook & paid the bills, and run 7.25 miles without any walking. so productive! yay me!

elvis & priscilla & li'l beavis, according to twitter, were visiting yard sales & sipping coffee. that sounds like fun. thought while i was out running, i might see a yard sale to visit later, but found none. not a single one. and, it's not even raining here. sort of cloudy, but nice & cool. would have been a great day for a yard sale.

not that i need to go around purchasing other people's castoffs. i continually think i need to get rid of some of the stuff that i have, and do i? not exactly. my goal is to simply to the extent that i could live in an airstream trailer like dr mcdreamy used to have on grey's anatomy. he may still have it, but i don't know b/c one thing i have simplified is the amount of tv shows i watch, and ol' grey didn't make the cut.

i could simplify the library books out of my life, since they are overdue. but do i? no-o-o-o. they sit there on the shelf. now, technically, i am still using flyte, so it cannot go yet. i know i cannot renew it b/c i checked, and it's on hold by someone else. apologies to you, someone else! but, i am keeping it till i am done reading it. sorry, you lose.

speaking of football, which i was, here is something i don't get. why don't the division 1 teams play like, one div 2 team at the beginning of their seasons, then play their conference schedules, then have playoffs? they all act like there is not time for playoffs, but of course there is. they are just being silly b/c they are totally into the bowl game setup. there must be a lot of money in bowl games, eh?

speaking of bowl games, i just ate a whole bowl of watermelon, so if you'll excuse me, i gotta go... uh... oh, you know what i am talking about.

books 2008

currently:
flyte
[angie sage]

completed:
magyk
[angie sage]
inkheart
[cornelia funke]
bones to ashes
[kathy reichs]
touchstone
[laurie r. king]
irish tiger
[andrew greeley]
the bishop at the lake
[andrew greeley]
break no bones
[kathy reichs]
cross bones
[kathy reichs]
fatal voyage
[kathy reichs]
monday mourning
[kathy reichs]
bare bones
[kathy reichs]
grave secrets
[kathy reichs]
cause celeb
[helen fielding]
death du jour
[kathy reichs]
déjà dead
[kathy reichs]
playing for pizza
[john grisham]
the big over easy
[jasper fford]
the life all around me by ellen foster
[kaye gibbons]
the name of the wind
[patrick rothfuss]
eat, pray, love
[elizabeth gilbert]

it was, like, really scary at first.

first, read this short article:

(CNN) -- One person was killed and another injured in a chemical plant explosion late Thursday near Charleston, West Virginia. Sterling Lewis Jr., West Virginia's fire marshal, told reporters Friday morning that a helicopter took the injured person to a burn unit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Several thousand people were ordered to stay indoors for safety early Friday after the 10:30 p.m. Thursday blast at the Bayer CropScience plant raised fears about air quality. The plant produces crop-protection chemicals in Institute, an unincorporated community in Kanawha County, West Virginia.

Jeannie Young, 38, turned off air conditioners, closed vents and taped windows shut at her St. Albans home after the nearby explosion.

"My daughter and I have headaches," Young said. She said she smelled something unusual and noticed something odd after taking her three dogs out around 11 p.m. Thursday. "They acted really funny," she said. "They wanted to come right back in the house." Young endured a few hours of anxiety with her 15-year-old daughter, Brittney, as authorities closed parts of Interstate 64 and fought a blaze at the plant.

"It was, like, really scary at first," Brittney said.

Emergency officials in Kanawha County ordered people to stay inside inthe cities of South Charleston, Cross Lane, Dunbar and St. Albans, where the Youngs live about four miles fr om the plant.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

haha!! okay, sploshuns aren't funny, but c'mon.

this is my favorite part --

"it was, like, really scary at first," brittney said.

omg - britt, honey. you crack me up. fill in the blank, see. here, i will give you some examples. i am sure you can come up with some better ones.

"it was, like, really scary at first," brittney said. and, then we realized the wind was blowing the other way.

"it was, like, really scary at first," brittney said. but, then it was all, like, pretty orange sky and shizzle.

"it was, like, really scary at first," brittney said. but, then i had to warsh my hair.

"it was, like, really scary at first," brittney said. but then, my mom totally freeeked out with the duck tape, and i was terrified because i thought she was on meth again.

"it was, like, really scary at first," brittney said. because i thought my boyfriend's trailer blew up.

"it was, like, really scary at first," brittney said. but, then we got kind of peaceful and just laid down.

"it was, like, really scary at first," brittney said. then she said, ooo - am i gonna be on tv?

in case you heard...

...that sarah palin was a member of the independent party in alaska, she was not ever on their roll.
...that sarah palin believes creationism should be taught in school, she does not and has stated that she believes kids should be able to debate it if they want, but that it does not have to be in the curriculum.

so there.

currently reading magyk by angie sage. i am quite taken with this book. two thumbs up. i am going to quote a passage here that exemplifies why i like it. i am not sure if from this passage you will be able to tell much, but here goes:

Jenna peered over Marcia's shoulder at the yellowed page that Marcia had open. Like all Magyk books, each page had a different spell or incantation on it, and in the older boks these would be caerfully written by hand in various strange colored inks. Underneath each spell the page was folded back on itself to form a pocket in which the Charms were placed. The Charm contained the Magyk imprint of the spell. It was often a piece of parchment, although it could be anything. Marcia had seen Charms written on bits of silk, wood, shells and even toast, although that one had not worked properly, as mice had nibbled the ending.

And so this is how a Magyk book worked: the first Wizard to create the spell wrote down the words and instructions on whatever he or she had at hand. It was best to write it down at once, as Wizards are notoriously forgetful creatures, and also the Magyk will fade if not captured quickly. So possibly, if the Wizard were in the middle of having breakfast when he or she thought of the spell, they might just use a piece of (preferably unbuttered) toast. This was the Charm. The number of Charms made would depend on how many times the Wizard wrote down the spell. Or on how many pieces of toast were made for breakfast.

When a Wizard had collected enough spells together, he or she would usually bind them into a abook for safekeeping; although, many Magyk books were collections of older books that had fallen apart and been remixed in various forms. A full Magyk book with all its Charms still in their pockets was a rare treasure. It was far more common to find a virtually empty book with only one or two of the less popular Charms still in place.

man, oh man! i want a magyk book! i really want a magyk book!

books 2008

currently:
magyk
[angie sage]

completed:
inkheart
[cornelia funke]
bones to ashes
[kathy reichs]
touchstone
[laurie r. king]
irish tiger
[andrew greeley]
the bishop at the lake
[andrew greeley]
break no bones
[kathy reichs]
cross bones
[kathy reichs]
fatal voyage
[kathy reichs]
monday mourning
[kathy reichs]
bare bones
[kathy reichs]
grave secrets
[kathy reichs]
cause celeb
[helen fielding]
death du jour
[kathy reichs]
déjà dead
[kathy reichs]
playing for pizza
[john grisham]
the big over easy
[jasper fford]
the life all around me by ellen foster
[kaye gibbons]
the name of the wind
[patrick rothfuss]
eat, pray, love
[elizabeth gilbert]

5k time - 28:52

the goals are different, but the path remains the same. heh heh. broke 30 mins & that was the goal. junior won his age group. speedy did the 10k instead of the 5k and had some... uh... digestive issues that affected her time. right, eh? my old man ran, came in a min or 2 behind me. good for him!

did you hear about sarah palin's 17-yr-old daughter? she's turned up preggers. yeah. here's the thing - that happens all the freakin' time to 17-yr-old girls & boys. it's not news. i hope that it does not become a big news story b/c there are so many more important things to worry about. don't you imagine li'l bristol would have told her parents before the big announcement if she had seen the big announcement coming? or, perhaps she didn't know she was pregnant. at any rate, i would have to doubt she planned this to interfere with the campaign. i hope the media will let it drop.

this is a pic of the palins. that's bristol on the right. there are 5 kids now - a baby was born this past spring. pics that show the palins w/ the baby don't show the oldest boy - track - b/c he joined the armed forces [navy, i believe] sept 11, 2007 - before the baby was born. so, i can find a pic of the 4 oldest or 4 youngest, but not all 5 together. i chose the 4 oldest b/c the baby looks like... uh... a baby. bristol is usually holding him, so he's usually not even facing the camera.

what about ol' gustav, eh? slammin' into nola. doesn't look too bad. levees are holding on and the system is working. many folks decided to hold out in the 9th ward, despite being told to vacate, and what can you say about that? relief supplies are being prepared, help is on the way, good, good. all that is good. but, still, i have to ask if this is the way i'd choose to spend my tax dollars. i mean, it's one thing if you want to hold out & you're self-supporting, but you should not be able to choose to hold out if you are not able to take care of yourself in good circumstances. that's right - i am talking about people on welfare & other aid. if you are using my money to support yourself, i have an interest in telling you how to protect my investment. at least, that is what i think. what do you think?