November 2003 Archives
Got a substantial portion of the Christmas shopping out of the way yesterday. I was on hand to lend moral support, I suppose. Patsy did the real work. She’s better at it than me as is the doodle bug I saw in the parking lot. I am a terrible shopper.
A Thanksgiving feast is on tap this afternoon. It’s a tough thing to do but I think I’ll manage. I have a healthy (Much too healthy) appetite.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “WORKING PROGRESS"
Maybe a relation but I really wouldn't know. -Rob
Shop until you drop, eh? I love this part: "Ellzey said Wal-Mart officials called later Friday to ask about her sister, and the store apologized and offered to put a DVD player on hold for her."
That's pretty generous. Wal-Mart is at least partly responsible. Why not just give her the damn thing?
On another shopping note: A lot of online stores have “Wish” lists. I have noticed that the price goes up on an item when it is added to my list. I keep a Wish List at a few online stores. In the field where you leave yourself a note, I always add what the price was when I saved it. At one online site, 12 of my 14 items have gone up (And I mean substantially like 15-25%), one has remained the same, and one went down but the new price was only 18 cents lower (About 2%) than the saved price. I don't think this is free market or a "supply and demand" thing. Some of my items are fairly obscure and I really doubt there's a lot of interest in them. I think the stores are hoping that we share our wish lists with friends and family (Or put them on our websites). I wonder if anyone else has noticed this.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “i hope someone thin and beautiful will play my Great Old Box in the movie."
Some years ago, the family started a tradition of going to the movies after the Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts. I don’t remember who started it or when. Yesterday, four of the guys saw Master and Commander and a whole bunch of the wives and kids went to see Cat in the Hat. It was a fun outing. In Pulp Fiction, remember John Travolta telling Samuel L Jackson that you could get a glass of beer at a movie theater in Amsterdam? In Hammond, LA, you can get a daiquiri at a theater.
Thanksgiving was at my sister’s house this year. They did a great job considering it rained all day. Her house is really not quite big enough to host 80 people of all ages indoors but they managed beautifully. Her wine patience was an asset yesterday.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “i found out that this event, which has been in the planning stages for months, is a pot-luck. because what weekend would be complete without MORE bad minnesota hotdish?"
Last day of work for me before the holidays. Looking forward to the four day weekend. Having a feast at work today but I’m opting out for something else because of the invariable excess that will take place for me tomorrow. Going to take in my family in the afternoon, a movie (Master and Commander) afterwards, and Patsy’s family tomorrow night. Probably will have trouble moving Friday but we may try to get out into the shopping hordes. Haven’t done that in many, many years. We have almost totally converted to online shopping.
It has now been two weeks since the last spam comment here. Good riddance.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Lions, Tigers, and Fat Bears, Oh My!"
LSU won a great game this past weekend in Oxford over Ole Miss. That brings me to this: LSU and Ole Miss have one of the most storied rivalries in college sports. This is one of my dad's Ole Miss-LSU stories.
In 1959, LSU was the undefeated defending national champion and ranked Number One in the nation. Ole Miss was also undefeated and ranked Number Three. The game was played on Halloween Night in Baton Rouge. The forecast called for rain. Rain, it did. The game was broadcast on WWL870AM radio from Baton Rouge (About 85 miles upriver from Dad's house in Kenner, LA). WWL870AM was one of the most powerful radio stations in the world at the time and it was being broadcast at night, which was always good for transmission. However, most radios then were of poor quality by today's standards.
The game: It was played in a rainstorm and the field was very sloppy. Ole Miss was content to run two plays and punt on 3rd down. They led 3-0 and LSU was doing nothing on offense. Ole Miss had a better punter and they were gaining field position every time they punted. With a little under 11 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Ole Miss punted again on 3rd down. It landed inside the 15 yard line and Billy Cannon picked it up on the bounce at the 11. From the 11 to about the 45 yard line, he broke 8 tackles on his way to the end zone and a 7-3 LSU lead. The roar of the crowd was so loud that most listeners thought it was static and that they had lost the signal. It was about 5 minutes before anyone listening in on radio knew what happened. That was the play that won Billy Cannon the Heisman Trophy. Ole Miss took the ball on the next drive and drove to the 1 yard line where LSU stopped them. It is a game that ranks with the Nebraska-Oklahoma game of 1971 as one of the best ever.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "It seems to be a normal human reaction to be jealous about a significant other's dating past."
It appears my fantasy football season will come to an end next week. I don’t think either of my teams can make the playoffs. Ragpickers, which I thought had the best shot, laid an egg this week. Erasers continued their inconsistent play but still have a chance to win tonight. Unfortunately, the teams that needed to lose, in order for them to have a decent shot of making the playoffs, will probably win.
The truck saga renewed. If you’ve been reading this blog any length of time, you know that my truck has been giving me some not-so-minor problems over the last six months are so. Well, it has 326,000 miles on it. I was told that the vibration I was feeling was due to the clutch and possibly the transmission mount as well. I was told the squealing I was hearing was due to the universal joint starting to go bad. I had the universal joint replaced Saturday. That repair also eliminated the vibration. That was quite a pleasant surprise.
Well, it’s cute now!
An image for the less squeamish here.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Have you ever ate a peanut butter pie?"
Yes. -Rob
A little football is in order today. The Saints have a tough one today in Philadelphia. The Eagles are playing very good right now. Some say it is not a “must” win for the Saints. I couldn’t disagree more. I think the Saints can only afford maybe one more loss but not to a team that they may need a tiebreaker for like the Eagles.
LSU keeps rolling along hoping for a USC or Oklahoma loss. The Tigers have one more tough game just to get the opportunity to play another very tough game. If they win those two, I cannot imagine how the BCS works if USC and Oklahoma are playing in the Sugar Bowl. The BCS is ridiculous.
Blog links have been pared down and updated to my current reads. I should do this more often.
Another Sunday entry of mine posted here.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “When you have to get up early to move televisions and build furniture and put things in their proper places before going to breakfast with Mr. McSexerton's highschool friend and her husband, please please please do not stay up until 230 am. That's just dumb, people."
On this day 40 years ago, I was in a first grade classroom at our Lady of Perpetual Help in Kenner, Louisiana. The principal, Sister Mary Veinard, came on the intercom and announced that President Kennedy had been assassinated. She was crying. I don’t think I had ever heard an adult cry before that. I don’t remember what happened next. I don’t remember if we finished the school day or not. Before September 11, 2001, the “Where were you?” question that everyone asked pertained to that event. I have no recollection of the minute details of the aftermath but the impact it had on me has never left. It is imprinted on my brain like a concrete footprint. The poignancy of John F Kennedy Jr, who was about my age, saluting his dad’s flag-draped casket is seared into memory like it happened an hour ago. I still see that image in my mind’s eye in black and white like I saw it on the TV even though I sometimes look at my mom's Life magazine with that photo in color on the cover. She saved that issue. Who could forget it?
Where were you?
September 11 was an event on a much larger scale. There are some who fret that we may somehow forget it. Even with our much shorter attention spans, it is simply not possible. Everyone will remember where they were, what they were doing, and how it impacted them. Some of the mountains of details will be forgotten. The sense of loss will never go away. I guess it’s OK to say “Remember September 11" as some do but it really goes without saying.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “I know Kang's fandom has been buildin' up, but I think I could find a better use on this site by changin' it to the headquarters of the USURP Alliance."
Kangaroos, anyone? -Rob
Mostly links today from some of my favorites. Inspiration tomorrow, hopefully.
Always good stuff here. The FBI was monitoring onboard navigation systems of stolen vehicles until they were told to stop. Seems the practice disables the system’s emergency and roadside assistance features. So? Those features are designed for the person paying for them, not the person or persons who stole the vehicle. Or am I missing something?
SilverBlue’s at it again. Always good for a laugh.
MessyGurl needs to tell us what she really thinks. You'll want to read a bit more of her blog after that, I think. A worthwhile endeavor.
ScorpioGirl witnessed Ronald McDonald changing back to Clark Kent. Or is it Bruce Wayne? I forget.
It’s been well over a week since CrabAppleLane Blogs have blocked or received a spam comment. Credit goes to MT-Blacklist and Adam Kalsey's spam manifesto. I’m beginning to think this war is over. The measures instituted here to fight that insidious practice will remain in place, however. A little inside joke: Due to some twit's antics, those who want to post a comment here from their FDA computer will just have to get back to work. Sorry.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “The best part of my morning, on weekdays, is getting to work a few minutes early."
A good read from an on-again, off-again smoker. -Rob
A hard drive crash on my server sometime last night caused some problems on two of the blogs here but this one came through unscathed. I probably lost 60-100 spam messages, too, but I’m rather certain they’ll be re-sent without having to ask. Spammers are nice like that.
Twas a bad day all around. Once today, I did everything exactly the way I’ve learned it, exactly the way I would do it tomorrow or the next day, and I still came out looking stupid. I hate it when that happens.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Stiletto Philosophy: Working my way to the top, four inches at a time."
Good to see another Louisiana blogger. -Rob
If only I had more time, this sport looks like fun. They string the scammers along for as long as they can using their own excellent bogus names and even go as far as to get the scammers to send pictures of themselves to prove they are real. There is a lesson here for anti-spammers.
If Bill Gates really wanted to fight spam like he says he does, 419 Eater shows the way. Take that $500 million he wants to spend on technology and pay 100,000 people $5k each to just respond to the spammers and waste their time, clog their mailboxes and bandwidth, and generally make a nuisance of themselves. In other words, fight fire with fire. In the short term, it would probably crash a lot of servers but I think spammer ISPs and people who use spammers for their advertising (Does anyone believe their claims that they don't knowingly employ spammers?) would get the message that there is no benefit to doing business with them.
I await the day CSS will come to me. I use it here but my understanding of it is next to non-existent.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Judgment Day"
The real world is a bit sobering sometimes. -Rob
MT-Blacklist has not blocked a spam comment in several days here and none have gotten through, either. Have the spammers stopped? Is the war over? It's a bit eery at the moment.
The Rant for Tuesday, November 18, 2003
The BCS has no fan here. It’s past time for a real playoff system in college football. Here’s how I propose you do it. Form 16 conferences. Make everyone join a conference or form a conference. Let each conference determine their champion any way they want. At the end of the season, throw the 16 conference champions in a tournament in randomly drawn brackets and let them play a four week elimination tournament. Some would say such a tournament should be “seeded” because State U plays a tougher schedule than Tech U. To them I say, that’s opinion and they’ll have to prove that in the tournament with their play on the field.
Some teams will try to find conferences they can win easily (Much like Florida State and Miami have done now). The tournament format I suggest would create evolution in college football conferences and there would be some movement but that will settle down over time. Teams might be tempted to move to a conference they think they can win but there would be checks and balances because teams already in those conferences can keep them out.
Championships should be determined on the field, not in polls.
Erasers (5-6) and Ragpickers (5-6) both need to win their final two games and receive a lot of help in order to make the playoffs. I’m not holding my breath.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Ok, that's it. If I see one more comment like this anywhere my site is coming down and I'm never ever posting again:"
Laura got some incredibly nasty comments and email over something she had nothing to do with and no control over. She is a much better sport than I would have been. Keep your chin up, Laura, and congratulations on the baby. -Rob
The Blogrolling incident this morning was an accident, not an attack.
I started a whole blog entry/rant about this but I couldn’t quite figure out where I was going with it. I have a substantial portion of my very modest retirement portfolio being managed by one of those companies. It’s just starting to recover from the bear market. The article is telling me to bail now, if convenient. I think I’m going to stay the course a little longer. There is nothing convenient about bailing out of retirement funds. The rules see to that.
Here is a worthwhile college campus activity.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT OF MULTI-PARTY CONVERSATION AT HAIRCUTTING PLACE (CONSTANT UPROARIOUS LAUGHTER DELETED)"
Louisiana elected a woman for governor yesterday. WOW!!! Governor-elect Blanco won this one in the last few days of the campaign.
The Saints-Falcons game went into overtime tied at 20. It was a nerve-wracking game for Saints fans. The Falcons are totally one-dimensional on offense yet the Saints couldn’t stop their one dimension when they needed to. The Saints got away with one today but a sweep of the much-hated Falcons is sweet. The Saints are overdue to put up a good game.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “People do things like running marathons to prove something to themselves. Interestingly though, Chris' efforts today had a collateral effect; I discovered that I don't know shit."
It was cold enough to turn on the heaters and the wood pellet stove this morning. Now, it’s hot enough to turn on the air conditioners. Man, I just love this Bush climate.
There is an election for governor here in Louisiana today. Going to vote, myself, in an hour or so. It will be big news, whatever the outcome, but I suspect more than a few Louisianians will be following the LSU-Alabama game instead. News directors must hate that. I'll bet a few people even skipped voting to go to the game in Alabama. Politicians probably hate that.
Caption of the week here. R-rated.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Eat right. (And any time you like.) Live better."
Excerpt from this story: "It is well known that America has for decades been working with Israelis against the Muslims. The reason is the vast wealth found in the Muslim world and the need to control it. The Zionists misled America into believing that it would never achieve what it seeks except by force and injustice."
The United States just flexed its little finger and kicked the biggest, baddest Arab state's ass in a matter of weeks. Does anyone really think the US has been seeking to control that region by force for decades? Would that matter not have been settled decades ago?
My experience has been that most activists are rabid enough. It appears not. They now have cheerleaders.
Some of the most enjoyable (To read) offbeat news comes from New Zealand newspapers. Here is one such news story. And another.
I must say once again that dial-up internet access sucks.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “How to teach a new baby to eat from a spoon in 10 easy steps:"
The 10 steps are quite fun. Go now (I mean after you finish here). -Rob
First and foremost: Happy Birthday, Mom!
Love, Robbie
Busy morning here and running late again, as usual. Fantasy football maintenance, blog maintenance, and website maintenance in one morning is just a tad too much. The fantasy football program devours my PC resources making it hard to do anything else at the same time. Need a new computer but the budget is already busted and Christmas is around the corner. Broadband internet access would be nice, too, but that will have to wait until someone gets out here with it.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Beggin' Strips are bacon-shaped, bacon-flavored treats for dogs. In the commercial a dog runs around the house like a maniac shouting BACON, BACON, BACON, BACON, BACON! It's weird, because I do the exact same thing."
So far, I have seen every episode of HBO’s Carnivale. I still don’t what it’s about or where it’s going but I am hooked. It is mesmerizing.
Speaking of HBO, I watched their documentary Terror in Moscow this past Sunday. Quite powerful but a little incomplete. They told the story chronologically and interspersed it with firsthand testimony from some of the survivors. Noticeably absent was testimony from any of the Russian decision-makers. I would be surprised if the documentary makers didn’t try to get one or more of them on camera. I guess the Russians are not quite ready for that kind of democracy yet.
R.I.P., Art. One of my all-time favorites.
Make up your own mind about this.
Kill Bill is getting mostly good reviews in the blogosphere. LeeAnn here. Jay Allen here. Moi here and here.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Well folks, if "McJobs" what the majority of the population calls "low-paying and dead-end work", the good Dictionary people are just following what the people say and adding it to the latest edition of the dictionary."
Patsy and I plan to visit the cemetery on this Veterans Day. We’ll pay our respects to Dad. He was a veteran of The Korean War.
Pretty spry for 102. Go, Man!
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “This weekend I took J to see the dinosaurs at the Peabody Museum (http://www.peabody.yale.edu/) in New Haven. My brother in law is (among a lot of other impressive things) a curator there so we got a personal tour. I think Jeremy know believes his Uncle is the coolest human being alive - he works in a building with dinosaurs."
That is cool! -Rob
What could it be? We already know he's a dweeb. A kinky dweeb, perhaps? Trying to stop the story from leaking is impossible. That’s a waste of time and money. Of course, the heir has nothing but time and money. He might as well just make sure they spell his name right or maybe sell his version of it to a rival publication.
Snippet from Reuters: "No royal family has had worse press than the Windsors, especially Charles. He became an object of ridicule in 1993 when a paper intercepted a phone call in which he told lover Camilla Parker Bowles he wanted to be reincarnated as her tampon."
Louisiana politics in the national news this week. The big day is Saturday, the 15th. I'll be there.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Not much to live up to, then. I think I'll start with conquering the entire world and work backwards from there, if that's OK with you."
I don't think this battle will last long. The spammers have picked a fight with people willing, able, and determined to fight back. I'm in.
We were picking out lamps and ceiling fans for our house about 9 years ago. We had gone considerably over budget on the roof and the foundation so flooring, lighting, and exteriors had to be on budget. It was quite stressful to say the least. The two knobs that came with each ceiling fan were quite plain but the store had some replacements at the cashier. They were expensive and we were broke but we splurged anyway. Two of them would go in the master bedroom so we picked out something nice for about $60 (Yes, $60 for two knobs). We decided on something a little cheaper for the living room (Those are the ones everyone will see. Kinda silly now that I think about that.) Anyway, Patsy had the foresight to choose some crystal knobs for about $50 as I recall. After putting my really stressed out credit card away, the newly purchased $110 knobs went into a bag and remained there until we moved in. What you see below (Picture taken this morning) is what we saw when the sun first came through our dormer window and hit those crystal knobs about 9 years ago. It is still a treat even today. Patsy gets full credit.
Closeup below.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Just when you thought online advertising couldn't get any more insidious than spam or spyware, Belkin is using a firmware upgrade for its wireless routers to force advertising on its customers -- from within their own home network."
I would factor this into my purchase decision as a negative. -Rob
The Friday Five from Scorpio Girl.
Overzealous film critics over at Kim's. I'm being too kind. They're twits.
I think I would turn to Jello, too. From Pitcherlady.
Meryl makes a great point, as usual.
A final thought from SilverBlue on baby food, apparently made with real babies.
One other thing: Anyone know what Google's "PageRank" is based on? Email me if you do. This site has a ranking it doesn't deserve (Not that I really care what ranking is does deserve).
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Today's #1 search phrase: alaska can come too"
Some SEC and redneck humor:
Life imitates art. The ultimate memory lapse. Needs a private investigator to investigate himself. Sorta like his film, Total Recall, if I remember correctly. Don’t count on me to hire a private investigator to see if I do, though.
Another one of his films, Eraser (Or more specifically, the game it inspired) provided the nickname of one of my fantasy football teams, Erasers.
My guess is that he is as good a politician as he is an actor. And on that statement, Mike Myers would say, “Talk amongst yourselves”.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "As Thomas de Zengotita writes in this month's Harper's Magazine (article not online, bastards), U.S. conservatives, especially pundits and talk-show hosts, have managed to pull off an amazing trick over the past couple decades: They have cast themselves as rebels, and cast liberals as the scolds who take offense at everything, justified or not, and don't want anyone to have any fun or, God forbid, speak the plain truth."
I’m sitting here wondering if I can make an 8-minute entry look like anything but an 8-minute entry. The answer is no. Sorry.
LeeAnn has moved out of our neighborhood into the big time with this entry. Made the Carnival of the Vanities. For a blogger, that’s like making the cover of Rolling Stone.
Received the Kill Bill soundtrack CD yesterday. The music without the visuals is only so-so. There is a scene in the film where Oren (Lucy Liu), with Go Go on one side and Sophie on the other, and the rest of her entourage enter a restaurant in slow motion while the music is blaring (There is a lot of "music blaring" in this film). That is probably my favorite scene. I think that music is on the CD and I think I know which cut it is but I am not sure. It disturbs me that I cannot pick out the music from that scene with any certainty.
The Beeb on blogging and on comment spam, the latest annoyance from spammers.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Have patience and a deep understanding of Movable Type variables? [especially having multiple blogs publish to the same page] In mid November, I’m doing a gut level renovation if I can work out some of the finer points of variables."
Who can slap your kid?
This article from Helena, Montana led to quite a debate in the blogosphere.
Serenity weighed in here.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “The point is not that children are undisciplined. The point is that a bus driver does not have the right to discipline a child by hitting him.”
Quite a debate raging there. For what it's worth, I agree with Meryl. The kid was undoubtedly obnoxious but the proper course of action was to tell the parents or the school. -Rob
Just links today. Inspiration tomorrow, hopefully.
The American Coupling received the axe and I didn’t see a single episode. What I thought of the idea here. Maybe I should have been a TV executive.
OK, my guess at the moment is that something is wrong here. I’m not the biggest fan of automated law enforcement. OK with me if security cameras catch felonies on tape. Minor traffic offenses? I don’t think so. Of course, if this offense had any credibility, it’s pretty major.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “So, I ask Rebound Boy, "Is this a going-to-the-movies, we're-buddies-kind of hanging out OR is this a going-to-the-movies, we're-going-to-kiss-again-kind of hanging out?""
The Saints put a decent game together yesterday but did everything in their power to give it away. Tampa just wasn’t taking. The two Carolina losses will haunt them all year. They coulda, shoulda won both of them. They’d be in pretty decent shape had they won even one of them. I think they need to win 6 of 7 to have a chance at the playoffs.
Back to work today. The last few days flew by.
I thought this blog was gone. Back to the Blogroll.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Have you ever wanted to quit your job, sell your stuff, and head out to see the world? That's exactly what I am going to do."
Good Luck! -Rob
Just doing some blog maintenance and moving some links around this morning. I have some ideas in mind but my once fearless demeanor when it came to things computer has left me. Though most of my work is backed up, I have almost no faith in the backups and will use them in an emergency only. My goal is to not have an emergency. I’ll put up with the boring layout for a while longer. The thing I kinda like about the boring layout is that there are fewer distractions. That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway.
So far, the only plugin I’ve installed is Jay Allen’s MT-Blacklist, which keeps comment spam out. Some spammer managed to get three spam comments past it yesterday but the spammer was promptly added to the blacklist and we’ll hear from him/her/it no more. I receive upwards of 100 spam emails per day and probably another 10-15 Microsoft Security Support virus emails per day. Why can’t the hackers and virus writers turn their attention to the spammers?
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “How do you know when your mom is tired?"
Click on the link to find out. -Rob
Today is the New Orleans Saints birthday. On this day (All Saints Day) in 1966, New Orleans was awarded an NFL franchise. Since that happy moment, the bad days have outnumbered the good by a wide margin but still we support them emotionally and increasingly, financially. I genuinely think the two owners, first John Mecom and then Tom Benson, have tried to bring a winner here. I just think that both of them have been totally clueless as to how to do it.
Beautiful day here in Bush. Sunshine and fairly cool with a breeze. As soon as I post this, I plan to get out in it. Barbecue on the deck is in order.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “My NaNoWriMo novel, Illegal Thriller is being posted online as I write it."
