Teh Intarweeb creeps me out sometimes

I have a flickr account. Flickr accounts let you mark photos that are your personal favorites. As such you can see which photos of yours, that others have marked as a favorite. Below is a list of my photos and the people that marked them as favorites.

	AEA (mundoacuariofilo.or g)
	I'm not Jom
	AEA (mundoacuariofilo.or g)
	leapleg
	trixiebedlam
	(^_~) [Markus Masataka] (~_^)
	Mike A.

Partly this post was to pimp my photos but the other is to highlight how 1 good link deserves another.

Recipe: Buffalo Chicken Chili

First off, credit where credit is due, Rachel Ray was the base for this recipe. I however went slightly different because, I am lazy and also did not have all the ingredients.

New Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 2 lbs chicken breast (chunked)
• 1 large carrot (sliced)
• 2 medium onion (sliced)
• 1 bunch celery (sliced) - roughly 6 stalks
• 1 bunch of green onions (sliced)
• 2 jalapeños (diced)
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup of Frank's hot sauce
• 28 oz Diced tomato
• 1 cup Chicken broth
• 1 cup of Guinness
• 1 handful of fresh parsley (shredded)
• (Optional) Corn chips
• (Optional) Blue cheese

Directions:
Thoroughly cook the chicken in olive oil over medium heat in a good soup/chili pot. I seasoned the chicken at this time with some salt, pepper, cumin and garlic. Next add the celery, onions (green and white), and carrot. Cook for about 4 to 5 minutes till the veggies start to soften. Next add the broth, Guinness, bay leaf, and parsley and let that simmer till the onions turn clear. Next add the tomatoes, hot sauce and jalapeños and let that simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.

To serve, I put the slightly crushed corn chips in the bottom of a bowl, covered in chili and crumbled blue cheese.

Looking for a restaurant in Federal Way?

Thought I would pimp my friend's widget and site again...




Evidentally it doesn't like spaces, so I linked in kent....

Recipe: Goat Stuffed Peppers

Ok, I really don't have a good name for this yet, but this weekend I did a little experiment as I had some Goat cheese and have no idea what to use if for. First off the ingredients:

• 8 small green peppers
• 1 cup couscous (prepared)
• 6 oz. goat cheese
• 15 pepperoni (sliced into strips)
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
• Salt, pepper, various spices (think middle eastern)

Mix the couscous, goat cheese, pepperoni, onion and spices together. Core the green peppers and remove all the seeds. Fill each pepper completely with the mixture, but do not pack. Place in a grill on tin foil at medium/medium-high for 12 minutes and then place on the grill directly for 2-3 minutes. Done.

About the only I would change, would be to add a nice smoky cheese (like provolone) to the top to melt over.

One of those days

I guess I should have stayed in bed this morning (besides laying in bed from 4:00am to 7:00am not being able to sleep). Got out of bed, fell down the stairs cause I tend toward the klutzy. Ugg. That really hurt. Seriously. Nothing broken.

Plus Miranda is running a slight fever (100.3) and has a super runny nose. See how it goes tomorrow and may call the doc to get her in if need be. Would be nice to have a baby decongestant.

I hate baseball

Well the season is almost upon me again. Good excuse to go outside and turn off the TV. But I do know people that love baseball and have been waiting to hear that FSN Northwest will have all Mariner games in HD. Yeah 4 hours of 720p boring stuff. Sigh.

Videos of Miranda

Well I have been holding out on all the videos that I have been uploading to the web of Miranda. First off I ran into trouble with my uploads on Monday last week. Seems Google Video has trouble processing more than one video at a time. I uploaded 5 videos that day and all 5 didn't come out (got cut off at 2 to 3 seconds). So I have spent the rest of the week renaming them and re-uploading them at a rate of 1 per day. So they are now all there.

To see them, try going to Modilabs and searching for Miranda and you should be able to find them. Of course you can just click on Miranda's name and go their quicker.

YML: on going mediocrity

So Yet More Lions moves, we see them sign Shaun McDonald to a 2 year contract and added yet another wide receiver. He had an astounding 136 yards last season with the Rams. I seem to remember that the Rams had some injuries at that position so I am a little confused as to why he doesn't have more....

Also the Lions resigned Aveion Cason and Cleveland Pinkney for a year. Not much production but adds depth. I am sure they will use it.

And finally, the Lions sign T.J. Duckett for a year to hopefully add some potency in the red zone this year.

Being a Lions fan is not easy. It is easy though to look and see potential, but end up being let down when the season rolls in. But at the same point, this negativity on the bizarre offseason moves could be just as wrong. I just seriously doubt it.

Belated Birthday Wishes + Bubba Hotep

First off, I wanted to send out three birthday wishes. Carol, James, and Kedar... HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Gotta say that March is a good month for birthdays.

In other notes, I watch Bubba Hotep this weekend. It stars Bruce Campbell, although it does not feel like the Evil Dead movies of before. That said, I still enjoyed the movie for many obscure reasons. There was something right about the pacing of the movie and the delivery of lines. The characters were vibrant. The story is bizzarre. It was just a plain good movie. I have heard other's did not like it. It is not a "normal Bruce Campbell" movie. What it is, is pessimistic portal of life in a "retirement home" where the only thing to look forward to is your next meal, which you probably won't like anyway.

For goodness sake's people, if you know someone in a home, go visit them. A lot.

Yet more Lions

Saw a couple of Detroit Lions moves come across the wire recently and in keeping with my love of football, thought I would give my thoughts on it.

Lions re-sign reserve DE Smith. This is one of those "Marinelli guys" moves. Can't really say for or against. Started one game last year and did well.

Curtis' situation in limbo after he fires agent; Lions looking at Duckett. I think the Kevin Curtis deal is done, just have to wait 5 days to hear about it. Again, hard to know how good he is sitting behind two superb WR on his depth chart. He has some numbers, but I don't know how indicative they are to what his new situation will be. I honestly think he will do very well in Martz's system in Detroit. Duckett however is weird. I really liked Duckett when he played for Michigan State, but then he left early and has not really shown the strong work effort needed so I question if Marinelli will want such a player. He suffered some early turf toe when he came into the league but has otherwise been injury free, which means very little considering his lack of playing time.

Sigh

Isn't it time for bed yet?

Miranda and sleep problems

Overall Miranda is doing great. But sleep has always been a point of contention. She doesn't like sleeping unless she naturally just falls over tired. A lot of times we will do certain repetitive things that tend to lead to sleep, but most of the time it just doesn't work. That said, she slept in on Saturday (which gave me some time to place some crackdown which is super addictive) and had 2 long naps in the day, so needless to say she didn't go to bed till midnight and then didn't sleep very much. So today she had one long nap with little sleep last night so we are hoping that that is enough to have her sleep long and well tonight.

Congrats to Dr. Bucko and Mrs. Bucko (although I am not sure how she can stand him :) ) on the birth of the first child. Another xbox live user that will find it is sometimes hard to get some time at the machine. But it is worth it.

First Impression of Crackdown for Xbox 360

Mmmmmm.... tasty explosions. I just got my copy of Crackdown in the mail today and that lead to me taking out some aggression on some violent criminals violent like. The premise is you are a genetically engineered cop trying to clean up the streets from a number of games. Kinda like reverse Grand Theft Auto. You have to be careful about going rogue or maybe you want to. You do gain abilities as you play which makes this extremely addicting. The agility skill puts the crack in Crackdown. Leaping between buildings has to be one of my favorite things to do.

Overall, I bought the game for the Halo3 beta, but I am definitely sticking around to play this one.

Sinus infection

Well, Miranda and Michelle both got sick and I managed to follow them by a couple of days. Oh well. Sometimes, there is no helping it. I have managed to make it so far with no football. Well no games, as I am able to to follow the off season news. We have watched a couple of movies which were not to bad. Underworld: Evolutions although mostly seen as crap and as a typical popcorn flick, I kinda liked. I thought they took the mythos they had created and moved it forward quite a bit. Special effects were special so a good flick. Cars was another one that I found more than acceptable. The story was typical Disney and Owen Wilson played the same part he always does, but it was still a fun movie and just plain beautiful to watch.

I watched Unleashed (or Danny the Dog) and was pleasantly surprised that I liked it. I like hong kong action flicks but a lot of the recent forays into the genre have been hokey and just not fun. This however used fighting to help with character development as well as moving the story along. Morgan Freeman, Bob Hoskins, Jet Li and cast did a great job as well.

I bought Michelle Viva Pinata for the xbox 360 so that I wouldn't hog the magic white box. She loves it and I have to say that I find it strangely addicting to watch. There is a absolutely huge amount of variation in the game which makes it have lots of playability and sometimes the complexity (and the horrible Pinata AI) can overwhelm and irritate, it still redeems itself in colorful, musical cuteness. I recommend for those with this to pick it up as it is just weird enough to make it fun, however I won't call it exciting, but it is very relaxing.

Miranda attacks!

M: I see you have a camera.
A: Please be cute.
M: But look what I am wearing. I mean, I am still in my PJ's.
A: They are cute, though.
M: Get it out of my way!
A: Just one cute smile.
M: NO! ATTACK!!!

Go Michigan Tech!!!

Evidentally they are allowing more than just snow and ice in their ice sculptures... Enter the ice speaker cabinet. Ah them Michigan Tech students, crazy I tell ya.

She found the power button

So, this morning I was playing a game of NHL 07 on the 360 and Michelle was reading. Miranda was playing with some of her toys on the floor and dancing to music in the background of the game. Now I get up 6-0 in the 3rd period (which I haven't done before on Pro level) and just generally doing a good job when Miranda walked up to the 360 and hit the power button.


ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!


For that Miranda, I am posting this picture:

Video: Windows/386

Ok I am starting to feel like a link farm, or a video farm, but I couldn't resist posting this 80's video about Microsoft...




As a bonus, after the link is Mario Theme played on 15 different instruments

Nintendo is the king of Nostalgia?

Nintendo seems to be the best platform for older gamers as they pull our heart strings by releasing many classics from the early 80's and also releasing games that maintain that original feel. Substance over graphics? Fun versus wow? Either way, I like it.

New router

Well my new router has shown up. I decided to go with the Linux friendly version of my previous one. Even though I was able to install it on the 54G, it was not optimal as it didn't have enough memory. My new router is the WRT54GL. L is for linux :)


So right now I am killing time as the flash program is installing the new ROM for it. Of course I spent about an hour on it, but most was troubleshooting why my stupid laptop would not connect to teh schminternet via wire or wireless. So hopefully I will be done in the next 5 minutes or so.

Finito: The Superbowl

Well it is all over and Andy had a much closer prediction than I did. Lots of turnovers which are fun to watch but as for game execution, I am disappointed. The Bears defense were definitely caught on their heels after having what I thought was a great start with some great blitzing. As for the Colts, there were a lot of initial mistakes but when they settled in, they did play some very straight-forward football.

Sigh.

Only 3 months to the draft.

R.I.P. Linksys WRT-54G

Well my linux installed router took the fatal plunge today. All lights were on and it was not responding after several resuscitation attempts. What it all really means is that I can't play xbox live until it is replaced. Nor can I watch my videos on my TV. Well it's service was short but it did well. I am replacing with the same.

D'arrr

Ok. Why did I post this? I posted this because the songs are hilarious. If nothing else, go in and listen to the samples.

Why do you keep crying?

Well Miranda has been very vocal lately with loud babbling interspersed with some crying and general frustration. I assumed she was teething and for once, I was right. So she now has a tooth breaking through on the bottom front. Poor girl.

Also here is a link to my small video channel for Miranda...

Miranda can walk...sort of

Proof positive.

One more Sunday

Well next week is the last day of football. I am sad. My predictions though?

Well there are always if's. If the Indianapolis D can play like they have played throughout the playoffs, it is theirs. However, if they don't then the Bears D will control the game. Mr. Manning will pull off an unextraordinary performance, but will carefully not make the major mistakes and generally play it safe. Rex on the other-hand will completely try to give the game away, and they will be relying on the two running backs that the Colts can then tee off on.

Prediction: Colts 13, Bears 9

Media Center and XBOX 360...

Well, we hooked up the media center PC about a week ago to the xbox last week to see if we could do a couple more things with the 360 that we couldn't do before. First was we wanted to record shows and play those recording back. Second off, we occasionally buy Amazon Unbox videos and those would not play. Well on hooking it up, we didn't have much luck. The PC and the 360 both run on wireless and also don't have the greatest reception. The video was choppy, control was slow and clunky. However, I really didn't want to run catV all over the house just so that I could get the functionality. Instead I moved one of my two wireless routers to the other side of the house and set the PC to run on the one below it, and the 360 to run on the one below it. Now I have quick speedy controls of a remote playing DVR. Slick. And the Amazon Unbox videos run like a charm. However, I am still pissed that I needed the Media Center edition in order to run them.

Excitement of the evening...

Not something I am used to seeing, but tonight there were about 8 police officers, multiple squad cars, a K-9 unit, and a fire truck parked outside our cul-de-sac for about 3 hours tonight. Not sure what the heck was going on, since I am not up on this. No word... Maybe I will hit the neighborhood gossip mill... Maybe Michelle will.

Trying to walk

Well I was able to get a bit of video of Miranda trying to walk. She has done better, but it is all I was able to capture...

Online predators

Today I saw the best quote when it comes to protecting your kids from online predators:

On the other hand, whatever happened to responsible parenting? Whatever happened to watching over your own children, and teaching them about these sorts of things? Parents too busy? There was a time when parents told their kids not ever to get into a stranger’s car, even if he offered you some shiny lollipops. Why is it so hard to tell your kids never to trust an online stranger?

This was done by David Ponce on the article MySpace Sued By Angry Parents

Way to go David.

Why should I pay for this?

Sonics need $300m in tax dollars

Maybe I should get HBO

A Song of Ice and Fire optioned by HBO

Brutal but good fantasy series heading to the small screen perchance...

Miranda is 9 months today

She is doing well. 9 Month checkup and shots are about 2 weeks away. Here is a video of her from about a week ago playing with a walking aid toy.

Spicy and Cancer Free

Woot!

How spicy foods can kill cancers

And here is the ultimate way to kill it.

Big Ten not so big?

I watched number 1 and 2 of the big ten this year. Normally I avoid the bowl games as I feel that a playoff or tournament would work better at determining WHO IS NUMBER 1(tm). But then again, if they actually determined who was number 1 in a better way, people would talk less and then we would either have more war or have to face some sort of real issues that our country has to deal with...

Either way, I digress. I come from Big Ten country (but from a MAC family) and I fully did not expect the Schooling and Wanton Destruction that happened upon a typically strong conference. Ohio State and Michigan should be ashamed of truly horrid effort. They looked underprepared and like the were suffering from spotlight hangover while the underdogs look more like junkyard dogs, hungry and ferocious.

Here's to next year, and a new batch of Collegiate Football.

The Dreaded Five Things

Evidentally I have been tapped by the evil 5 things you don't know about me thingie by Jana. Uggg. No offense Jana but picking 5 things that everyone doesn't know about, that's hard.

1) I have played Bass Guitar for 11 years. But some of you know that...

2) I have acted in some plays, directed some plays and written some plays, but never the same ones. But some of you know that....

3) I got my first internship because my mom worked at Whirlpool and I offered my services for free. But someone probably knew that too...

4) In college, my friends would get me liquored up and I would buy dinner. I know my college buddies remember that...

5) Growing up, I had a combination flat-top mullet. Darn ugly. And there are pictures. But, I know Mike knows that...



So to bless you all, I won't pass this curse on.... Unless you feel like doing it.

Christmas to New Years

Well, I had the week off as my parents and my brother were in town. It was a lot of fun but also extremely tiring for Miranda. Day one we bummed around, playing with Miranda and general chitchat. We went to the ocean with Miranda but it was a little too cold for her so we stayed just a little while and headed back. Also took a trip up to Seattle Center to check out the view from the Space Needle. Overall we mostly just spent time with Miranda.

Since then I have watched a few bowl games and a little NFL. Can't believe the Lions won. Really moving from the number 1 draft pick to the number 2 draft pick shouldn't matter. Given our track record in the top slots, we aren't looking to pick up anyone that we will keep. Although the win was really more of Dallas giving the Lions a Christmas gift.

Also Boise State vs. Oklahoma was fantastic. Just a good, hard-fought game!

Ah Christmas

Well, it went off without a hitch (besides my best attempt at being a Scrooge). Miranda was overall not getting it, which I was totally expecting. She tore into a couple of presents, but that was because she loves to shove paper in her mouth as opposed to any yuletide interests.

Once the toys were open she dutifully went to each one and checked them out. However I am noticing that she has more of an interest in the noisy ones. How come I am not surprised? She got some pretty clothing and noisy toys and lots of pictures taken of her. Fun.

I am definitely looking forward to next year to see how it will be greeted then!

Merry Christmas

Hope you had a Merry Christmas. I will be putting up pictures tonight/tomorrow...

The world is clearer now: HD part 2

I am not sure how much HD is on DirecTV... but after finally surfing all the channels that I have on basic now (before I had 60 some odd analog stations, and now have those plus 90 odd digital stations), I have all the normal channels in HD. So I am able to watch both the fox and CBS games in HD, as well as getting PBS, ABC, CW, etc.

So hears to basic comcast cable. Hooray.

Watched soundstage the other night with the Wallflowers in 720p. Pretty sweet. Probably have to move my dolby digital setup upstairs to enjoy the 5.1 sound.

So Miranda is doing well going into the first Christmas. She however has been busy tugging at the presents and at the cat as well. Sigh. And she can really move. Not walking but good enough with the hands to pull anything down within in reach.

Football and HD :)

So recently we picked up a High Def TV as our mutual christmas present to each other. Mostly because our living room is bigger and our old and failing eyesight need the size boost :)

So this last weekend I hooked up an antenna to the TV and with really the only channel we can pickup indoors, we (meaning I) watched Kiro 7's 1080i broadcast of the Cardinals versus the Broncos. It was truly an awe-inspiring TV event. Ok, I might have gone a bit too far on that one. It was definitely impressive and probably one of the better ways to showcase HD is with sports...

I really didn't care about the outcome, but really had a hard time shutting it off and going and doing something constructive. If only I could get the NFC games instead of just being able to pick up CBS.

Whoa!

Power's back

Whew, powers back on. I do hope that all the hundreds of thousands of people are able to get power back soon. It was starting to get bad in terms of our lack of cloth diapers and the fact that the house was ice, ice cold. But Miranda and Michelle spent last night in a hotel and I stayed home to make sure everything came on ok. Of course nothing came on....

I think one of the first orders of business for the spring is to start a better plan of action for when these types of events occur. Even at 50 degrees, it was just too cold in the house.

I also took the time to learn how to start the pellet stove. Unfortunately the thing needs power to run the blower and the auger bit to feed the stove. Oh well.

Hold on tight now

Well Western Washington moved on from the snow storms we got last month and the rain storms the month before to having high wind storms. It really wasn't pleasant. Now we have 1 million homes without power and lots of down trees. Michelle, Miranda and I are fine if not tired and a little cold. Hopefully power will be restored soon.

Storm photo slideshow from KiroTV

Stability and games

Last night I spent a little bit of time playing Enchanted Arms for the xbox 360. My rough impression is that it is another Final Fantasy game. However this is more of a gripe post, not a review. I was playing and fought two boss characters in a row with lots of dialog and no chance to save when suddenly the xbox locked up. I don't know whether to be mad at the game or the xbox for wasting my time. Ug.

Gaming and Violence

I don't have a problem with violence in games. That completely relies on individuals to be able to separate fantasy from real life. Some things that can be hard for some. But even if you limit violence directly added to games, you will still get some people that will add it in themselves.

How to do anything you want in life

On Grady Booch's blog (of Software Architecture fame and from Rational) recently discussed a Slashdot thread on understanding complex software and code. The best take away from this is:

Professional singers work hard to polish their voices; good writers write and write some more; world-class photographers take lots of pictures; athletes train their bodies through hard yet thoughtful workouts. There is no royal road to becoming a great programmer: it takes dedication, passion, and lots of hard work.

Friday night gaming

Since I recently got a new Xbox 360, which I made reference to in a previous post, I have resumed my Friday night gaming sessions. It seems that the most recent game of choice is the ultra violent Gears of War. I recently completed the single player on easy and found it to be a good story and have gone on to play a lot of multi-player. The game seemed simplistic and straight forward in technic but I am starting to notice little bits of strategy and can be brought into it. I do miss the massive games that we could get using Halo 2, since this is limited to 4 vs. 4 at the most.

Miranda is doing great. Motor skills are almost too good (as she has been unplugging things) and is doing better with solid foods and the sippy cup. So things are going well...

Now you can order babies from Amazon Japan

タミータブ (from Amazon.jp)

Check out the customer images.

Quick snippet and a link

Well I think that between Miranda and my recent purchase of an Xbox 360 Console Includes 20GB Hard Drive along with Gears Of War, my blogging has taken a back seat. Kinda sad. On the neat note, Miranda is starting to clap. We have been working on it for a while and she now has it down pat. YEAH!

As for the link, I just saw on Andrej Gregov's blog, that Jeff Hawkins talks about when to go the entrepenurial route and when to work your current channels to get ideas funding. I will definitely listen to this tonight.

It doesn't snow in the Pacific Northwest

Honestly, this isn't snow:



This is just cotton candy that is falling from the sky:



Maybe it was the pillow factory down the street that exploded?

It was a good Thanksgiving Day

For that I am thankful. What is better than getting together with friends and eating almost to pain :)

Work perks

I don't normally reference where I work, but I got to experience one of the quirky perks on Wednesday and just had to share. At Amazon, they will bring in 1 or 2 authors, artists, speakers, etc to talk to or perform for Amazon employees. This last Wednesday, they brought in Battlefield Band, who I have not seen since 1997 when they performed at Michigan Tech.

Basically they are back in the states, touring for they latest CD release, Road of Tears. For those that like traditional Scottish music, I do recommend this band.

Recipe: U.P. Stuffing

Rather than type it out again, here is a page on how to make a very meaty stuffing.

Recipe: Sausage Thingie's

Ok, first off I didn't name them, but at least the name is somewhat fitting for this misfit recipe. Althought I have heard that they might go by the name Polish Mistakes but I cannot say here nor there.

Ingredients 1 lb. ground beef 1 lb. sausage (spicy) 1 lb. velveeta 1 loaf cocktail rye 1 whole onion diced (optional) Instructions Pre-heat oven to 350 degree F In a dutch oven, sautee the optional onion Brown up the ground beef and sausage in the same dutch oven Drain grease off Dice up the velveeta Add the velveeta to the dutch oven and reduce to medium low stirring occasionally until thoroughly melted On a cookie sheet place the cocktail rye slices Place one Tablespoon of meat/cheese mixture onto each rye Place cookie sheet in the oven for 12 minutes Serve

Listen closely

Was listening to NPR on the way home and what do you know, there is Tom Waits giving an interview about making movie soundtracks and playing from his latest CD, Orphans.

Sunday, sunday, sunday

Coming out of the weekend today, although I am sure that I shouldn't look at my weekends as over till Monday morning, and looking at another day of football and Miranda watch. Also probably going to take a look at Michelle's dresser and see what I will need to do to install some drawer slides to make it easier for her to use.

Today also marks the official release date of the Nintendo Wii gaming system. Not sure how that is going to play out, but I will probably get one once there is a good set of releases that tickle my fancy. The price point is pretty good and the new controller setup is definitely intriguing.

Football wise, it seems to be a very depressing day for the Lions. They may beat the Cardinals, but I hold little faith going into that. Good thing is that I get to watch an NFC north team in the Green Bay Packers, where I can watch Western Michigan alumnus in Greg Jennings.

Miranda is doing well and getting more and more active. She is able to crawl to the laundry basket we have her toys in and pull some out now. Most of time, though she crawls around chasing Tigger.

ESPN, what have you done?

Mike mentioned in one of his earlier posts how annoying it is to have guests in booth during Monday night football and I think I have to reiterate on that thought. During tonight's game between Tampa Bay and Carolina, Jeff Gordon was on to help promote ESPN soon picking up NASCAR and ? To congratulate his second marriage?

Sigh...

If you are going to sell me something, do something football related or more related to the programming I am watching. Don't push Desperate Housewives, Dancing with the stars or NASCAR on me. Aren't the commercials enough??!! Maybe it isn't, but given that this is on a paid channel (i.e. cable or dish) then why am I paying more?

Iron Chef America: Battle Cranberry

So it looks like the Food Network is doing another cross show gimmick was by pitting two of hosts against each other in kitchen stadium. Tonight it is Rachel Ray and Giada De Laurentiis and they are teamed up with Mario Batali and Bobby Flay respectively. Generally I am not a big fan of these gimmicks and this is not any different.

Of note though, both of these hosts would have difficulty without the Iron Chefs to help as they don't seem to have the time management needed. Also it seems like the Batali/Ray side is not terribly friendly whereas the De Laurentiis/Flay side is smiling and a little more organized.

Not sure who will win... not sure if I will even bother to watch the end. All I know is my Lions lost... again. Sigh.

Got an opinion on restaurants?

I know that everyone is a critic so why not help one of my friends by reviewing some restaurants you have been to on his site, Foodry. He even created a nifty blog widget so you can keep the consumers of your reviews up to date.

I spent some time reviewing alot of my old haunts from when I lived in St. Joe, and have reviewed a couple of the restaurants I visited in the PacNorWest. I probably won't be adding the blog widget though since my blog is cluttered enough as is.

My profile on Foodry

Office Pranks

Have you ever wanted to prank an officemate while they are on vacation? Do you love Gummi Bears?

Buy Haribo Gummi Bears!

Images of the prank: Haribo Gummi Bears Prank

Discuss amongst yourselves: Haribo Gummi Bears Discussion

Personalized Search results

John Battelle's Searchblog recently posted about the launch of a new search company, Collarity, that tailors your results to your preferences in a hope of better sifting through the cesspool that is our lovely schminternet.

By tracking the search terms, url choices, and selections of users and visitors, Collarity responds to a user's 'hot spot of interest' (i.e. query) with sites visited by expert-users in that area.

Review: The Long Tail

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson is a book that explores how people shop and purchase and compares it to how they did this over the last 40 years to come up with a new theory of niches and individual tastes. Chris shows how the age of mega blockbuster is coming to a close. As part of that statement he shows that the numbers as a whole are going up as general consumption is going up, but as a percentage of the population and of the purchases dollars spent, it is steadily decreasing. Mr. Anderson utilizes Rhapsody, iTunes, and Amazon.com are leading the way in offering huge selections to feed our very individualistic tastes. We no longer have to be satisfied by the stock of the local record store, or by what the small B. Dalton located in the mall to drive what we could buy. If I have a taste for Industrial Alternative Carnival music, then now I can truly buy music that fits that genre.

The problem that Chris points at though is how can consumers find these items. How can I find the Surf Green KitchenAid StandMixer? (Did you know there are 24 colors of KitchenAid StandMixers?) How do I find new music to fit my taste or a new author or work that fits my need to read? It was possible for the old time record store clerk to handle their catalog, but can any one person handle 300,000+ albums in their head and Amazon carries many, many more than that...

I enjoyed the book as a sort of mental exercise where I utilized his problem space (even though I sit in it at work) and tried to think of ways to surface those things that are not commonly shown since they aren't mainstream. The problem is really surfacing those to the right people. I recommend this book as a look at marketing to niches and the smaller, avid consumers within.

Review: On Intelligence

On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins, is a book that rethinks the way we think in an attempt to further define why computer scientist and mathematicians have had trouble creating artificial intelligence. But the book goes further than that, by explorer the human consciousness that defines our intelligence. One of the primary proofs that Jeff puts forth is that our computers today run at nearly 3 GHz and yet cannot produce the same results as a computer at image recognition, sound recognition, or any other form of pattern analysis, and yet the human brain can run about 100 MHz (as defined by mathematical computation).

Jeff postulates that our mind is wired for patterns partly because we are always predicting what stimulus will come next. We see lightening, so our brain anticipates hearing thunder. We hear a siren so we anticipate seeing an ambulance or fire truck. Many of his ideas have a good deal of merit from my non-expert level opinion because it gives us another way to attack the problem of pattern analysis, which could lead to better disease analysis, weather prediction, or other problem solving activities. I highly recommend this to dabblers in expert systems and like as well to those that are interested in neocortex of the brain.

Sunday

Sunday was a pretty good day. We went out to eat in the morning to Salty's at Redondo Beach with our friends Ali, Steph, and Darius. Was a lot of fun and Miranda was great. Never cried once and we were there for 2 hours (it is a huge buffet of seafoody goodness and you really have to pace yourself).

Otherwise, the Lions won (although I had to content myself with the highlight reel) and the I bought two old "new" games for the gamecube which have both proven interesting.

John M Knight's Fort Knight Dispatch: The real space for innovation is in remote diagnostics

My friend John, has a link to an interesting article about where the Maytag/Whirlpool merger is at. Maypool. Whirltag. Appliance conglom.

John M Knight's Fort Knight Dispatch: The real space for innovation is in remote diagnostics

What I have an accent?

It tells me I have an inland North accent. I thought I spoke true engrish...english.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
Philadelphia
North Central
The South
The West
Boston
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Rememberance and a shout out

It is funny that as one gets involved in all the aspects of one's life, it is easy to get totally absorbed in it, so much so that you forget about many things that are not directly in your path of vision. For one, I am a gamer and musician as hobbies, but those has fallen to the wayside to my new job as Dad. For the most part, I don't miss them all the time, but there are events that bring those things to the forefront and then I truly begin to miss them. Maybe someday I will have time? More likely I will have to make time and reduce my sleep :)

As for the shout out, it is directly related to what led me to miss writing, playing, and performing music. My friend Ish just posted about how he has now got some time scheduled to do some recording. Thankfully he gave some links to his music that he recorded in the past and I got to enjoy those this morning as I came into work. Ish, if you read this, I have always been in complete and utter awe at your talents and abilities. The songs I downloaded were incredible. I remember hanging out and jamming once, and most of the time I forgot to play because I was enamored of what you could create. Thank you.

And because I feel obligated to post pictures of my daughter when I do post...

Happy Halloween

I am reusing a costume today, but I just wanted to shout out: Happy Halloween!

Truck and Miranda

So yesterday, I took my truck in to be looked at. It is a 2001 Dodge Dakota R/T. It was due for it's oil change, but I had just recently had new shocks put onto it and some other things of note started to appear. First off, the shock place told me either the steering column is bent or crooked. Second off, I have noticed a metal on metal bang whenever I hit certain types of bumps (ones that drop off suddenly). So it turns out that the steering column is fine, but my steering wheel is what is bent. The bend isn't serious enough to need a repair on it, but the wear and tear the bend is causing required a new clockspring gear (which is what allows the power to move through movable column). As for the rattling, the garage said that it looked like was caused by the exhaust pipe hitting on the new shocks. Sigh. Luckily I had enough time left in the day to run down to Midas to see what they had to say (since they installed the exhaust system). The put it up for free and did their best to identify where it could be coming from, but it definitely was not coming for the exhaust system and the spare tire seemed to be fine as well, so for now the noise will likely remain a mystery and an annoyance.

As for Miranda, she is doing great. Crawling is becoming easier for her and she is able to easily handle objects. She is not much for babbling, but is definitely spoiled as she likes to use both mom and dad as a jungle gym to climb on. Today I was eating an apple (a darn good honey crisp) and she decided she wanted one as well, so I let he suck on the apple which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Dar, I hate the time change

Even when it works in you favor (more sleep), it never really seems to help. Miranda was up early this morning and I was up late. Sigh. I know it is meant as a way for companies to save money on power bills so that they can arrange themselves around daylight hours, but still making people shift an hour does not seem to to work so well. Well at least for me.

No pic today. Maybe later on.

6 month checkup

Well Miranda had her 6 month checkup yesterday. Doctor was real pleased with how she is growing and progressing. Surprised to hear she is crawling. The doctor also continues to monitor the birthmark on Miranda's head.

But there were shots, four of them to be exact. I hate shots, and I think Miranda hates them too, because Miranda cried a lot last night. We gave some baby tylenol before and then when we could again, but you could tell she was just so uncomfortable.

So for those that care:

• 6 months, 1 week, 6 days
• 16 lbs., 10 oz.
• 27 inches

And a shot in her halloween costume:

Miranda update!

Well Miranda just started crawling this weekend so we had to start moving all things out of reach. Plus Tigger now has to be a bit more careful as he can't just lay around on the floor or Miranda will get to him. Otherwise, with the added mobility, she is trying more foods and hates sleep more and more.

So things are well.

FIU vs Miami

It has taken me a little bit of time to post about this. Mostly I wanted to see what type of fall out occurs to the players and coaches before I give me thought on this event. My first take away from this is that Miami is doing nothing to get rid of its rebel reputation. Secondly, the conference does not put a huge penalty of fighting.

So here are the stats I was able to pull up:
Miami suspended 12 individuals for 1 game. Technically suspended the one game by the conference.
Miami suspended 1 player indefinitely.
FIU suspended 16 players for 1 game via the conference.
FIU dismissed 2 players from the team.

I don't know how others feel about the topic but a one game suspension for fighting. At a game. That is ridiculous, those that were in it heavy should be out for 3 games. It is behavior that these "adults" should not be getting into. But at the college level, this isn't a job? No professionalism? Sigh, maybe I am becoming an old fuddy-duddy.

Links:
Extended Suspensions and Dismissals
Video of Brawl

Product Review: KitchenAid Blade Coffee Grinder

Recently bought the KitchenAid BCG100WH Blade Coffee Grinder to replace my Braun coffee grinder and I can say that I am really impressed. I have had the KitchenAid grinder for about 2 weeks now and it is the best low cost grinder that I have played with. First off the noise level when grinding is a lot less than that of Braun. It is still loud, but it is more like a car without its muffler versus a 767 talking off. Second, it is super easy to clean. Before the Braun would take forever to clean as grinds would get stuck is the seam between the metal and the plastic. With the KitchenAid, the entire basin is metal and dishwasher safe. The plastic cover does occasionally get grind it the lip, but they quickly wash out with a rinse of water. As for the grind quality, it does a good job, but you are not going to use this with your expresso machine.

Pros:

• Easy to clean!!!
• Quieter than many other models
• Dishwasher safe
• Price

Cons:

• Won't do expresso grind...

Humans are like poison?

Saw a recent article talking about the impacts that humans have had on the earth and other living species and the environment. I find it interesting to see that the majority of what they mention points toward the fact that it takes a short (geological) amount of time to remove the majority of what we have done to the planet. However there are some very long term items that take a longer period of time for the planet to recover.

Even with a hefty amount of speculative science, it still is an interesting read. But it does feel like they are describing what happens if you quit smoking...

Get you movie download on!

The folks over at Techcrunch have done a side by side comparison of 5 movie download services. It is very interesting to see the catalog size and pricing scheme that each company has put into place.

I would love to use a movie download service but I don't think the studio gets it. Why should I pay as much for a DVD when I don't get the same stuff? I don't get the extras, I don't get the commentary tracks and I don't get different languages (not that I used them). On top of that, the studio doesn't have to pay to stamp the DVD and box art, nor do they have to ship them and get them on shelves. So Studios, tell me again why it is the same price?

Here is something a little more tolerable:

• $1.29 TV shows
• $12.99 new release movies
• $8.99 back catalog movies
• $2.99 new release rentals
• $1.99 back catalog rentals

On top of the pricing scheme, as soon as a movie has finished it's theater run, it should be available for purchase.

Amazing

Well the Lions won. I don't know what the chances were, but they completely blew up Andy's winless prediction leaving the only winless team to be the luckless raiders. Plus I got to watch this game where they won.

Comparing yesterday's Lions to those that played the Seahawks, I can definitely see a change. I have to say that the Lions defense has shown a definite weakness in the secondary, but the defensive line is showing a lot of flash and fire that I have not seen. The offense however is clicking. They make mistakes still but there is some crispness to the routes and the blocking schemes seem to be pulling together. Overall, I think the future looks a bit brighter, but not really the near future. I am ok with that.

Miranda is 6 months old

Yeah!

Aquaman: Pilot Episode

I bought this on a whim, probably due to the low threshold of pain at $2. First off, I will state that I have enjoyed Smallville to some degree and as this was a spinoff, I had assumed that it would be of a similar style and level of acting.

However, this is not the case. The style is roughly the same, but this is actually more Buffy than Smallville. A.C. aka Orin aka Aquaman is a 19-22 year old ecoterrorist that has superhuman abilities when doused with salt water. There is the old guard of Atlantis that is there to guide and teach Orin through his being accustomed to his new lot in life. There is the friendly bar keeper and friend of A.C. who believes what ever wacked out story he tells her. There is A.C. step father who is part of the coast guard and plays only a slight role in the show.

Pros of the show:
- set in Florida for those that like to watch trim ladies and fellas romping around
- comic centric beginnings story
- Monsters to fight

Cons of the show:
- Eva the Barkeep believes every weird thing that A.C. says
- I didn't know that there were millions lost in the bermuda triangle
- Acting was flat (although this is pretty common in pilots until the actors get comfortable in their new skin)
- Aquaman's varied strength, sometimes strong, sometimes a wus.

Overall, I don't think I would watch the series if they ever extended it. I do recommend that others take a spin of the pilot and see if they are as negative as I am about this. I mean, it is only $2.

Aquaman: Pilot Episode

I have a recommendation for "Yahoo! Recommends"

Hey Yahoo!

Your Launchcast service provides an interesting way to get lots of music without carrying around my music collection. It was interesting enough for me to pay the money to get higher quality sound samples and no commercials (although I did love the Men of Genius commercials).

However of late, you have been pushing a lot of "Yahoo! Recommends" selections. Now you have over 1000 ratings that I have put in your system. Based on all that very targeted information, you still manage to play Jay-z, Mario, Nickelback, and other artists that I am not that interested in. I might be interested in paying an extra dollar a month for you to quit doing that. Take out the whole phrasing. Call it "Yahoo! Pushing new Crack" because recommends to me implies that it is tailored to me somehow.

However in the end, I am likely to quit paying you any money because of this. I am looking for a radio that I don't have to interact with and now am forced to hit skip every third or fourth song because of your marketing BS that I thought I had paid my way around.

So Yahoo!, bite me,

Aaron

Did the Lions lose again

Well, another Sunday, another Lions loss. Sigh. Another time to be thankful, I can't watch them out here.

More Miranda stuff:

Week gone by, where did it go.

Well just wrapping up a week. Not terribly much happened. I tried to take care of Miranda Wednesday night but she refused solid food and the bottle. I guess she wanted mom to be home. I feel bad for having to call her to come back and help, but Miranda was hungry and there was nothing I could do. She did eventually cry herself back to sleep.

Otherwise things have been good. She is crouching and rocking so crawling can't be too far away. She is also getting closer to sitting up on her own. Also she is getting better at pulling herself up to the standing position, but doesn't always identify standing opportunities. And she is also getting much better hand-eye coordination, as when she reaches for things, she actually grabs them. Poor tigger gets alot of the grabbing attention.

Over the weekend, no plans. We should clean up the laundry/furnace room since we are having the furnace replaced next week. I might get my shocks replaced on the truck as they are leaking fluid. I would like to start reviewing all the books that I have read recently. We'll see which items get popped to the top.

Sunday with Miranda

Spent the day with Miranda and watched some football. Couple of good games on out in the west side of the country. Thought I would share some pics of Miranda though.

Stop the killing

You mean that Video games make people violent? I could have sworn that is was rock music or violent movies.

I propose the Internet is it's own separate nation

I have been kinda following Brazil's subpoena of Google. This kind of stuff gives me the willies as I have always felt that the internet is this happy little state of anarchy that moves of its own will and volition. Now with governments such as China, Brazil, and the United States pushing their grubby little hands all over my beautiful schminternet, I am afraid. Wouldn't it be better that the data is governed by an oversight nation of Internetia? Or that it is governed by the U.N.? Or any country that wants to push on a company? Google's data is owned by Google (and the users I think, but I do doubt that). If there is a Google Brazil, then their might be legal access to this regardless of soil. But if Google Brazil is separate from Google, then there is none.

I can now see the day when Russia sues bloglines for many times that I constantly insult their nation. Sigh.

This sounds like a great money saver... maybe

So you want multiple monitors; one for web browsing, one for coding or other work, and one for entertainment (music, video, etc). But having a computer to support all that and the cost of monitors is outrageous. Well it looks like Sharp has created something to to get rid of at least the monitor cost.

I really like this idea if the cost is less than that of 3 monitors. Plus would save on power using only one backlight!

Scrum et al.

Just finished watching this presentation on the Scrum agile framework for software development and wondered what it would be been like on my work at Whirlpool many moons ago? And I am not just talking about using from a software standpoint. What about using it to build appliances? Maybe it isn't a month, but it could be 2 months and then you have to show a "sellable" product. Sigh.

Google Tech Talks September 5, 2006 Ken Schwaber co-developed the Agile process, Scrum. He is a founder of the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance, and signatory to the Agile Manifesto. Ken has been a software developer for over thirty years. He is an active advocate and evangelist for Agile processes. ABSTRACT Scrum is an amazingly simple process that causes many, many changes when it is implemented. This seminar presents the basic framework of Scrum and some of the implementation issues associated with it.

Uggh. Sick.

Well back being ill. It had been quite a while which makes it a little bit better. The worse part is that Miranda is sick too and maybe even Michelle. Looks like sinus infections for everyone!

Wanted to post about the Lions loss. Just like the old Lions that defensively got tired cause the offense can't give them a break. Sad really. I hope they can find that fire or timing to make it through 4 quarters.

Also, many don't know of my deep hatred for Sony. I haven't had good luck with their products or customer service (going back) and haven't bought many Sony products because of that (PS2 included). But this video of a game on the PS3 has me drooling. White Knight

Almost could watch baseball again...

Interesting article on Disruptive Innovation on the baseball diamond.

Haven't posted pics in a while

Miranda is happy and healthy!

Lions: What I saw last weekend

I had thought about replying to Andy in the comments, but decided this was best served in it's own post. I didn't see the same old team. I saw a different team but only a couple games will tell. Did they make mistakes? Yes. Was their offense next to useless? Nope, it was useless. But they played 4 quarters of football and played with some fire that I haven't seen in quite some time.

So do I have something to look forward to this season? I am not sure, but that games should be alot better than last year if they keep up this desire to actually win games.

YEAH!

How to improve Lion's fans morale...

Not sure if drinking before noon would make me feel better, but calling for some heads might.

Do you know any good science fiction?

goodscifi
Since I am avid Amazon.com purchaser, a couple of folks I know have created a "goodscifi" book club. If you know of a particular book that is good science fiction (NOT fantasy) feel free to use Amazon's tagging feature (on a product's detail page, press 'tt' (t twice) and it will allow you to tag the item). Basically my theory is that since the death of R.A.H. there has been a huge void in the positive humanity science fiction, feel free to prove me wrong.

Detroit Lions predictions

Well, I have been putting this off for too long and now they are going to be playing their first game of the season tomorrow. After catching highlights of the Lions in the offseason (it counts if it is a highlight for the other team with the Lions in it, right?) and also listening to the analysts and coaches, I think I can come to a pretty good conclusion of a 6-10 season.

vs Seattle	Loss
at Chicago	Loss
vs Green Bay	Win
at St. Louis	Loss
at Minnesota	Win
vs Buffalo	Win
at NY Jets	Win
Bye	Bye
vs Atlanta	Loss
vs San Francisco	Win
at Arizona	Loss
vs Miami	Loss
at New England	Loss
vs Minnesota	Win
at Green Bay	Loss
vs Chicago	Loss
at Dallas	Loss

Of course injuries happen and this is just a prediction from a fan that hasn't had the even lovin' hope beaten completely out of him... Just painful. I thought about putting up scores, but that just didn't seem right. To many points against and not enough for. I hope they prove me wrong, I just don't see it happening this year.

Maybe it is better for Harrington to be gone. Please just win, if not for me, do it for the kids

Amazon Unbox Review

Amazon Unbox Video Downloads is a new product category released by Amazon yesterday centered around providing downloadable media such as movies and television shows. At first I thought this idea was not terribly compelling. Why would I want to get a movie that I don't have a physical copy of? Plus there are so many limitations with the devices I can play it on. So first the basics:

Hardware Needs:

• Broadband
• Windows XP computer (Mediacenter edition fine too)
• Portable device that supports Windows Plays for Sure technology
• Free Hard Disk space > 10 gig

Pricing

• Movies are the same price as their physical versions
• TV shows are $1.99 an episode (reduced for full seasons)
• Anime TV shows are $3.99

My experience
Last night I decided that I would give this service a try. I first started the download and install of the Amazon client application. I think this step should be done right away as it took quite a while to complete (mostly because of the requirement of .NET 2.0). While that was going on (it took 20 minutes), I started browsing the selection on the site. I have to say that while they have a good start of a selection, it has a long, LONG way to go. I had decided that since they were offering a free TV episode download, I would pick up a show. Remembering that I had missed the last two episodes of CSI last season, I went to the CSI page, checked the ones I wanted and went through with the One-click payment (tm). Immediately the Amazon client app notified me it had started downloading. IN THE REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER! Argh. I could have switched it, but I let it continue just to test it. About 2 minutes into the download, a popup on my desktop told me that I could start watching the show as it continued. I have to say that the quality was awesome of video. Clear, crisp, and the same as DVD. I did notice little drops in framerates every so often, but I attribute that to my PC. Of course my PC is a 2.6 ghz with an ATI 9000 video card and 1 gig of RAM... I do wish that I had a portable device just to test that portion of the software out... But overall I was impressed with the interaction between the Amazon store and the Amazon application.

Things I really like

• Don't have to keep the content on your computer (watch it, delete it, redownload if you want to watch again)
• Can keep content on 2 computers and 2 portable devices (share and share alike)
• If I move again, I don't have to pack up my 300 DVDs
• Video Quality

Things I don't like

• Ability to select storage drive! (I have two HDD, my main drive is only 30 gigs while my content drive is 200 gigs. It automatically used the 30 and won't let me change that.)
• Does this thing do Dolby 5.1 or DTS? I somehow doubt it. Will have to test later, but I am leaving a negative for now.
• Pricing is attrocious. Why should I pay the same for physical media when I know there are no packaging costs?
• 20 minutes to install the client?
• Can't burn to DVD
• Automatically downloading in the wrong order

Things I really want

• High Def Content!
• Support for iPod video
• More selection
• What do I do with my large library of DVDs? Can I get downloadable versions of it? Can I load my movies into the tool?

Summary
Overall, I am impressed. Things went smoothly. Purchase and download are frightfully easy. Mostly I am concerned with the negative aspects of the service in pricing, my need to select my content drive, and I am an audiophile and need my DTS/5.1. But if they can overcome those three, this would easily replace my content needs and I would gladly go away from DVD's or whatever is next. Down with blu-ray and hd-dvd.

American Traitor

Gov. Ryan get 9 years

Somehow the thought of the American populace paying for this man to sit in prison makes me sick. The fact that any elected official can lie, cheat, and steal from the constituency is attrocious. He and his kind are traitors. That simple. Of course that could be just the side effect of trying to centralize power at higher and higher levels which makes it difficult for laws and policy to truly reflect people in various regions.

Friends from college

First off. Happy Birthday Andy. Not sure if it is today or not, as my memory is not the greatest but either way hope your birthday was wonderful and spent entirely in your birthday suit.

In other notes, "Fluffy" Dave came out to Seattle to give a seminar so I spent some time showed a bit of the city but mostly chit-chatted and enjoyed some good company. It was totally awesome. As part of that, with my self-imposed exile from the midwest, I feel very disconnected from my Troupe siblings. It is good to see any of them and just think of the "good old times" (tm), at the same point see where things have taken then. There is something about improv though that forges a close family connection with those that work together. That level of trust and caring really makes for amazing improv and I have to say for a team of individuals as transient as students, I think MTU (and Sue) have created a "force of extraordinary magnitude."

As for the fluffy part of "Fluffy" Dave, that is from Amanda. When I was in troupe, there was only one Dave, because DC was after my time with the troupe.

Nintendo Wii

Ok, I guess I have always been a Nintendo fan and this 24 minute video of the Wii gameplay just further adds fuel to the fire.
IGN Look at Wii in Germany

Some form of football... ahhh.

So football is finally upon us. Yesterday, I watched a couple different college football games while at a cookout at some friends of ours. The games that I watched were not all the important. The fact that I was watching football games where the outcome of the game had serious meaning was important, at least to me.

Preseason professional games are ok, but the only thing on the line are some of the players' jobs. I prefer when you have the teams chances at post-season play threatened. You get to see (hopefully) some teamwork and the top flight players giving 100%, which you are unlikely to see in the preseason.

So while the guys were inside (on a gorgeous day) watching football, the girls were outside talking. Not sure what they were talking about, but Miranda was a great little girl. She is sitting up pretty good now. We have to put here there but she is starting to learn that sitting is the best position to play in.

I will write my Lions prediction post later this week, but wanted to write a brief paragraph about Charles Rogers (ex-Lions receiver, released yesterday). I was excited when the Lions drafted him in 2003. He had great hands, excellent quickness and was tall, about everything one could hope for in a receiver. I have since added one criteria to evaluating all players of the game: single-minded focus on excellence. I don't know Charles Rogers personally, but from afar he seems more interested in collecting a paycheck and smoking dope than playing a good game of football and that is sad. So Good Bye, Charles, I would've hoped for a couple memories.