A Quick Friday Link.......

I thought that you guys would get a kick out of this little news item. Looks like "the Iladelph" is just getting worse.

~Kevin

A Whole Lot to Get To......

Well, who thought that a week's vacation could do so much for the creative process. Now granted, I didn't actually go anywhere, but just one week off and I feel rejuvenated. I'm writing with the mental capacity of a 26 year old. Ok, onto the important stuff.....

First, I'd be shirking my duties as a blogger and deputy Dunmore overlord if I didn't at least comment on this whole Paris Hilton situation. I am pleased that she has spent the past 20 days or so in the "gray bar hotel." Up to that point she was virtually untouchable. Let's see, a homemade porn tape, racial slurs, drug use......nothing put her down for the count. I really enjoy it when those people who feel that the laws of the 'regular folk' don't apply to them. I must say that I am a little disappointed that she wasn't placed in the general population so that she could get a true appreciation for what the true penal experience is like. Now, she's turned her life over to the Lord. One can only hope that he leads her to the place when so many other young women have gone to give themselves a second chance.....Playboy. Oh yeah, you didn't think I was starting to philosophize on you, right? In fact, as a lay my head down to sleep tonight I think I might ask for this very thing.

Next, I am not sure if I mentioned this before or not, but its another story that irritates me. Here's the link so that you can review the details if you'd like. In case you don't have the time, I will give you a quick breakdown. A man in D.C. brought his pants to a dry cleaner to be altered. The cleaner then proceeded to lose the pants. The man then sues the dry cleaners for restitution. Now, how much do you think that a nice pair of pants would go for? $100? $200? Actually, these pants were the bottoms to a suit, so I will say it was a top-of-the-line suit and say that they were worth $1,000. How much does the man sue the dry cleaners for? $54 million! He came to this amount due to the fact that the cleaners had a 'satisfaction guaranteed' sign in the shop. He compounded the daily violations plus other crazy fees like cab fare to get him to another dry cleaner. Oh, and here's the kicker.....he's a judge! That's right a judge! If we ever needed a better example of how ridiculous and litigious a society we live in. Today, the judge in the case ruled that the plaintiffs were due their legal fees. I love to see the local bar association grow a pair, and move to have this jackass disbarred. If nothing else, he's proven that he is an illogical litigator and does not served in the public interest.

Thirdly, I am all for 'Take your children to work day' but this is pushing it. Some days, I just want to stay in bed and pretend like I am not part of this same society.

Ok, that's enough for this week. I had another thought that I was going to post, but it might be a little over the edge even by Monday 5 p.m. standards. Maybe another time.

Till next week.

~Kevin

I jumped into the 21st Century.....

Gentlemen:

I wanted to mention this in one of the other posts, but it didn't quite fit in with the 'oh, by the way, Mr. Wizard died theme.'

Well, I finally took the plunge and got a digital camera over the weekend. For those of you already familiar with this technology (aka, 99% of people over the age of 8), I have a few questions.

First, what program do you use to manage all the photos? I have been screwing around with Windows Photo gallery that comes on Vista. It looks good so far, but I don't have that many photos to organize.

Next, what are these 'tags' things for? I have downloaded a few pictures so far to my laptop and it prompts me to enter tags. I assume that these are a way to organize the pictures in the future. So, that in the future, I can find all the photos that show certain people, etc.

Finally, when you download the pictures, do they all come at the same time. So, if I send everything from my memory card to my laptop, take more pictures, and download again, will it download the first set again? Just wondering.

Also, if you have any other digital photo tips or anything else I should know, let me know.

~Kevin

Another one bites the dust........

This is actually one that touched me on a personal level. In case you didn't see this in the news, Don Herbert (aka Mr. Wizard) died at age 89.

This was one of the picks that I considered taboo because I just couldn't bring myself to put on my Soul Bowl list. I grew up watching this guy on Nickelodeon every morning before school. He was the best. In fact, I think it would be safe to say that an entire generation became interested in science and computers because of him.

However, I will admit that I always thought that the premise of the show was kinda creepy. An old gentleman has neighborhood kids over to "teach them science." Ummm.......sure.

As for how this affects the Soul Bowl, RS once again had this selection on her list. This was another 33 points for her. This brings her grand total to 363. CWG remains in 2nd place with 240.

Till next week.

~Kevin

Disappointing.....

I know that I am probably setting myself up for an endless number of jokes by calling this post 'Disappointing', but that's exactly how I feel about my entertainment weekend.

This weekend had 2 major things going for it. First, it was that time of the month. That's right ladies, some guys are fortunate to have 'that time of the month' as well. Of course, I am referring to "Playboy Saturday." For those of you who don't have a subscription, the new issue of Playboy always comes around the 2nd Saturday of the month. It's a glorious day. In fact, when that new issue arrives I block out a good 4 to 5 hour period to absorb it all. I know that it's a popular cliche, but I really do read the articles. In fact, I am willing to go out on a limb and say that the magazine would be very successful without the nudie pics.

Ah, screw it......the nudie pics are the first, second, and third reason to subscribe. But you get my point. Anyway, this month I was all excited because the celebrity spread was Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard. What's not to like? Well, other than the fact that she really didn't show much. All except for one of the photos could have shown up in Maxim. In other words, disappointing. I thought it couldn't get much worse. At least I had the Sopranos season finale on Sunday night to look forward to. They wouldn't let me down.

Now, the next section will talk directly about the Soprano's series finale. So, if you're one of the few people who didn't see it and wanted to, you'll probably want to skip this section.






Ok, no one was more upset than I was over the way that it ended. I was waiting for the big shootout at the end. At the very least I was hoping that Fredo, er....AJ would catch a misdirected bullet. But in the end, it was just the whole Soprano family sitting in a diner together. The one thing that made it great for a second was that they were blasting the 'Journey' song 'Don't Stop Believing.' And then.......nothing. We thought that my cable went out. If nothing else, I think that Andy Kaufman would have been proud. An entire nation just sitting there with their jaws open thinking that their local cable providers let them down at the worst moment possible.

However, in the 24 hours since then I have gotten a little closure with this. There are 2 possible endings that make sense for me. The first is that when Bobby Bacala and Tony are in the boat fishing and Bobby says that you probably never hear it coming. That shady guy who goes into the bathroom comes out blazin' and Tony never even hears the shot.

The second possibility is that it just shows how screwed Tony really is. He is just trying to enjoy a simple dinner with his family. However, for the rest of his life he has to look at everyone as a potential threat. Something that we would take for granted, he needs to be hypersensitive about. The Sopranos play out their days always 1 step ahead of the law, and always trying to live life the best way they know how.

So, that's how it wraps up. We don't know. Maybe we'll never know.

Or at least until the movie comes out in 2010. Cheers!

~Kevin

June 5th, 2007 Republican Presidential Debate

Ok, some reason I think that all of you would love nothing more than a nice summary of the latest Republican president debate. You're welcome. For some reason I have really gotten into these debates. I think it might have something to do with the fact that I am half-a-moron and you could throw me on stage cold and I'd be able to hang with these guys. I used to think that being able to string together a coherent sentence was relatively simple, but I these guys prove that point wrong. This isn't going to be a running diary, per se, but I will just summarize some of the funny and/or prudent points that come up. I am going to be posting this periodically just so I don't lose it. So, if you're reading this in real-time make sure to check back early and often.

• Ok, I don't like this Romney guy. In his first 10 seconds on air he actually used the terms "non sequitur" and "null set" in the same sentence. That first one was so hard I had to look it up. Not a great first step if you're trying to shed your image as a elitist Aristocrat-type.
• I am pretty sure that Tommy Thompson suffers from the same voice immodulation syndrome as that the Will Farrell character Jacob Silj had on SNL.
• 15 minutes in and the first question to my boy Ron Paul! He even got a little applause afterwards.
• Has any person made a leap as big as from mayor to President? Someone do the research on this. I know that in the olden times there must of been a guy who went from sheep farmer to President or something.
• You know what's good? Dried banana chips. I know that this has nothing to do with the debate, but I thought you should know this.
  
• How do they come up with the podium arrangements here? My guess is that they put the people with the top polling numbers in the middle. I think that it should be like a horse race, and that its a blind draw before each one.
• Ron Paul just had another good point, this time on immigration. I don't want to be a shill for this guy all the time, but you gotta admit that he makes sense. (And another round of applause afterwards.)
• I don't know this for certain, but I think that Tommy Thompson might be cutting his own hair.
• Oh god, Tommy Thompson said that he would utilize G.W. Bush and have him going around to kids teaching them about honesty and integrity. I am not making this up.
• They are trying so hard to distance themselves from the current President that they keep invoking the image of Ronald Reagan. Good golly! Let's move on, shall we?
• Here's a great link to a memo from Andy Grove, founder of Intel, talking about his ideas for the health care system in America.
  
• The 9 scariest words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Finally, here's what this blog would look like if I had skill and intelligence.

~Kevin

This week....

No posting today (Monday). I am going to give some thoughts after the Republican debate tomorrow.

Don't forget to watch Ron Paul as he visits the Daily Show tonight!

~Kevin