I guess the Muppets are reaching out to the inner city more than before.

Hug a musician.....they never get to dance.

It speaks for itself.

...subtitled, yes, the Raiders still suck. Subsubtitled, some Raven fans are idiots.

WARNING.....THIS ENDED UP BEING LONGER THAN I EXPECTED.

Being Raider fans, every year when the NFL schedule comes out, my parents and I check on it to see if the Raiders are coming out east, and then if our local travel agency is making any trips to the games. Under this arrangement we have been to the following locations for games:

- Veterans Stadium - Philadelphia - The Raiders lost, and I personally think they stopped too short when they tore down Veterans Stadium. Did you see how much of Philadelphia they left standing? The fans were just horrid. I saw people buying full beers in plastic cups from vendors and hurling them at opposing fans.
- RFK Stadium - Washington - The Raiders won, and this was the last year that the Redskins played in RFK. Good fans in DC then, and same to report from when my parents went to see the Raiders and Redskins play at FedEx field last year. That game I signed up to go to, but ended up home after an impromptu Virginia Tech football weekend with friends at my house developed.
- Ravens Stadium - Baltimore (or whatever they call it) - Raiders lost both times we went to the games, this time and the last time they played a few years ago.

Which brings me to yesterday. We decided to go to the game I think before the preseason started. It's our team, they don't come out here often, so we were going to see them. After last monday's egg roll against San Diego, I wasn't really looking forward to it. I was right. The bright side though, is our defense does look pretty good. But, you cannot ask a defense to defend 30 yards the entire game, which was basically what occurred with offense ineptitude. When our defense was not backed up to the endzone, they could bend a bit and force a punt. Then near the end of the game, they just got tired. They were on the field too long, and had hardly any time to recover when they finally did get off the field. Brooks left the game with an injury after fumbling two snaps from center. Andrew Walter came in, and he definitely looked better I think. But with a Ravens defense like they seem to have right now, hard place to throw the kid into, but you have to learn somehow. What is also concerning there were at least three more fumbled snaps from center once Walter got in there, and one of them I am pretty I saw as Walter pulling out from center early because of the defense showing blitz.

Which brings me to the upright outstanding examples of Baltimore citizens we had the pleasure to sit in front of for the game. All in the 20 to 25 range I believe, probably college students. At least two were pretty hung over from the night before I gathered from their conversations, and one was drinking pretty constantly. I was amused by the fact that this group of guys were loud rowdy, and attempted to be "in our face" since we were opposing fans, until two girls showed up to sit with them, and they became "somewhat respectable". Except for the drunk one. We think he passed out for the 2nd and 3rd quarters, but then woke up and continued being loud and obnoxious.

Now...I understand the right to cheer for your team. I have no problem with yelling at heckling me. Hell, I subscribe to the belief you can basically say anything you want to me when I come into your stadium as long as you do not touch me. I have no problem with that. But, is it so hard to ask for it to be an intelligent insult? Well...I am not sure if this group together could of come up with something intelligent. Would you like me to share? Ok.

- It began basically as soon as we found out seats, they showed up, saw our Raider stuff and started yelling "Brady Quinn! Brady Quinn! Brady Quinn!" at us. Uhm, dude, like WTF? Is that the best you can come up with? Which at that point I turned around and said to them, hey, Brady Quinn sucks, Notre Dame sucks. And they were like... "uhm, Brady Quinn?" I apparently confused them. And yes, that pretty much was the best they came up with all afternoon.
- Also as these guys were coming to their seats they were trying to make fun of the Raiders "Black Hole" and were calling themselves the "Purple Hole". Well, maybe things are different in Baltimore, but I always thought that was another term for a bruised asshole, so I do not think I want to know what they were doing the night before.
- Everytime the PA announcer said "There was a flag on the play" the drunk one responded with "Yeah, there are 11 fags on the play, and they're called the Raiders". Except, imagine him trying to say all this at once, while mostly drunk and hung over. Yeah, he was kind of tailing off at the end of the sentence.
- They also were joking about my dad's 1976 Super Bowl champions shirt that he was wearing. "1976? Man you guys have been waiting a long time..hahahah." Uhm, how about 1976, 1980, and 1983? Do you still feel really good about your one?
- I think what confused them the most through out the game was just about everytime they yelled "The Raiders suck!" we (myself and the Raider fans in front of us) would agree with them. Hey, I am not going to live in a fantasy world. We do suck. Apparently its not as fun to yell insults at someone when the agree with you.

So, when we decided to walk back to the bus after another failed Raider drive with a few minutes left in the game, we filed out of our seats, I turned around and congratulated them on a good game and shook their hands. By their confused looks, its apparently not right for opposing fans to do this either, but they shook my hand and one actually stammered out a "maybe you can do something with your draft picks" as we were walking down the stairs.

Until next time, enjoy a few pictures.

So I stop in at Quiznos for a sub while I was running my errands during lunch today. I order a chicken bacon guacamole sub, on white, to go. The first person take the bread, puts on the meats and cheeses, puts it through their little toaster oven.

It gets to the other side, the next guy starts getting the veggies ready to put on the sub then looks at me and goes, "do you want guacamole on that?".

Apparently my confused look at his question confuses him before I finally mutter out a "yes". If I didn't want guacamole, don't you think I would of ordered something else, like the chicken bacon sub?

At approximately 6:09 this afternoon, the black beauty passed 100,000 miles. Yippee!

I realized when I got home tonight the timestamp in the camera was set about 10 minutes ahead of actual time.

Ok, everyonce in a while I get a bug up my butt....uhm, well not literally. Something just gets on my mind, and it will be there until the thought is satisfied.

In this case, I am looking for some music suggestions. Not sure why it has popped up on my mind today, but surf music and instrumental rock is on my mind. Anyone have some good starting cds to listen to for Dick Dale, The Ventures, or Booker T and the MGs?

Whether they may be hits collections, or individual albums, I am just looking for some variety or a good place to start. Or if you know of any similar bands that you could point me to and maybe listen to.

Thanks.

Well, another few unexciting weeks have passed with little on the hokieseas agenda. Work, rest, repeat as necessary. Read a few books, gone to a few movies, etc.

About the only thing remotely exciting (at least to me) is that both of my vehicles are coming up on some lifetime milestones. My 92 Ford Explorer is within 500 miles of 200,000, and the 79 Porsche is into it's last 1000 miles before it rolls over 100,000. I will have to keep an eye on those and have a camera nearby the days I think those will roll over. Ok, so I am easily amused. Well, it is either that or it is about time for an extended weekend out of town with friends.

Anyways, things are steady as she goes. We shall see what the next few weeks or so holds. Party on.

How does a 26 inning game with a 6-1 final sound to you? I hope they kept the beer stand open. :)

Box Score

About 3 weeks ago now I had one of my computers die. Fairly impressively at that. Luckily it was just a spare computer I had here at home that I was using to be able to ftp into work and get CAD files so I could work from nights and weekends and such. Well, it did also have my large music collection on it as well, but that was easily recovered from my iPod, so no big loss there.

But anyway....to the question.

I am giving open office a shot on this computer since the computer only came with a trial version of MSOffice, and I sure do not want to pay for something I don't need when something else can do the job just as well. Or so it can so far. But what I am missing is something comparable to Outlooks contact and calendar information for this WinXP machine.

So what is out there that deals with Outlook style contacts and calendars? I do not need the email function since I use other software for that. Any ideas, suggestions, or comments?

Well, it sure has been a rather unexciting few weeks since my last "real" post about relatives being in town. Other than that, I have just been sitting back and reading journals and making stupid comments when I get the urge.

We are getting through the summer cycles of vacation at work and by the end of this week 3 of the 4 of us in the office will have taken time off for vacations. In two more weeks I may be taking some time off when one of my dad's brothers and his family (wife + 4 kids) will be in the area for a week. Being that their kids are quite a bit younger than me, I am sure I will be doing less with them than I did with the family that visited a few weeks ago.

Work wise we are getting into a nice constant summer workload. A few "emergency" issues popped up on a few projects these past two weeks that put me about a week behind my planned work load schedule, but since none of those projects had definite due dates, I am not in too bad of shape.

Oh, as an interesting side note for anyone who may be familiar with the Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern shore of Virginia and Maryland, I found out last week that one of my clients on the Eastern Shore just had a fishing pier approved for his project. When construction is finished next year it will be the third largest structure in the Chesapeake Bay on the Eastern Shore, behind only the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and another fishing pier at Kiptopeke State Park. It will be about 19 feet high, 10 feet wide and almost 1,400 feet long.

...but probably not in a good way. Quote is untouched from the original website.

Even More Japanese Toilet Training - This Time With Furries & Japanese Mr. Hanky
This is how you teach toddlers to poop in potties. With an animated cat family. And personified waste. On TV. In Japan.


I am speechless, but laughing. Oh dear lord.

It has been a bit since I tagged something in here, but it has been a busy few weeks.

Last week I had family in town, a cousin and her husband, who I get along with pretty well. The three of us hung out quite a bit when I was back in Illinois in March for my grandmother's funeral. Anyway, they had a pretty busy vacation, but they seemed to enjoy themselves. They took three days to get out to Virginia from Illinois, with stops at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and Hershey, PA for chocolate, getting down to my parents house Sunday. Monday my parents took them to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, then the three of us and my dad squeezed in a round of golf on Tuesday before the three of us spent the next two days visiting the Chrysler Museum of Art, the Battleship Wisconsin, the Virginia Aquarium, and then wrapped up with a few hours at the beach here in Virginia Beach. It turned out I really needed those few days off of work, since I feel much more refreshed and relaxed then I have in a few months.

Next up, at the end of July one of my dad's brothers and his family are coming out to visit. I have no idea what they are going to do while they are out here, but I am sure I will take a few days off to see them as well.

Well, this one actually seems interesting, so here I go. Some of these are the first songs that grabbed my eye as I scrolled through my list, others I added without even having to look.

Misc Numbers = #1 Crush - Garbage
A = About A Girl - Nirvana
B = Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
C = Crush With Eyeline - REM
D = Disobedience - KMFDM
E = Enter Sandman - Metallica
F = Fell In Love With A Boy - Joss Stone
G = God Only Knows - Beach Boys
H = Hotel California - Eagles
I = Into The Great Wide Open - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
J = Juke-Joint Jezebel - KMFDM
K = Knockin On Heaven's Door - Eric Clapton
L = London's Burning - The Clash
M = My Best Friends Girl - The Cars
N = No Leaf Clover - Metallica
O = Only Happy When It Rains - Garbage
P = Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
Q = Queer - Garbage
R = Running From An Angel - Hootie and the Blowfish
S = Stray Cat Strut - Stray Cats
T = Tangerine - Led Zeppelin
U = Undone (The Sweater Song) - Weezer
V = Video Killed The Radio Star - The Buggles
W = Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf) - The Pixies
X = X-Static - Foo Fighters
Y = You Dropped A Bomb On Me - The Gap Band
Z = Zero - Smashing Pumpkins

I have been reading a book entitled "Patriots" about the men who shaped the American Revolution and the founding of the United States. As it moves along from the early political dealings in Boston through the war with Britain, it takes little side trips as different people get involved and shares some back story of these men. This quote from Ben Franklin amused me.

After his experiments with the kite, the key, and lightning, he recieved an honorary degree from Harvard, an award from the Royal Society of London, and the king of France also sent him a letter for his scientific contribution. Ben Franklin said:

the honors made me feel like a little girl who holds her head high because, unknown to anyone else, she is wearing a new pair of silk garters.