The only thing I wish for this country to truely change in politics is the removal of smear campaigns. I want candidates to tell us who they are, what the stand for, and the platforms they support. The end.
But now its just 'look what he did!', 'can you believe she did this!', 'look at how undecisive he is!', 'She flipflopped and here is her history on it...'
Smear back and forth... back and forth. So when we vote, we aren't voting for who we support or who stands for what we stand.... we are voting for the lesser of two evils, which is dispicable in my opinion....

Another thank you to an anonymous person that bought me a game off my wish list. I'm guessing it was a birthday gift, and I intend on installing it and playing it... But I don't know how soon... You see, my wife opened it, then told me it was something she thinks she'd enjoy, so I'll have to pry it off her hands, first ;)

Anyway, a big thanks... can't wait to rip into it :D

Yes, its an NFL football topic, but you don't need to know or care about the game to enjoy this. Only football game out there is "Madden"... want to know what its like to be the worst rated player in the game?
Ethan Albright, the worst rated player in madden has a few choice words to say about the subject. Its an open letter to the producers of the game, and Mr.Turducken, himself...

Since I'm in external training today and tomorrow without the net, I thought I'd write this late tonight for tomorrow.
Yeah, 10/19/76 (or 19/10/76 for our European friends).

Its funny to look back at life... I remember calculating back in high school when I would turn 30. 2006 seemed like such a long way in the future. Little did I know how quick it'd pass.....
I didn't even think about what I'd want to have accomplished by 30. It wasn't until after college I set goals. I've exceeded most of them.
Have a house, wife for 5 years, and two great kids. I'm balding more than I'd like and have enough greys that I gave up on plucking. Better than most at my age, but I was hoping to be in management by now. Guess I'll have to just wait a few days on that. Starting Monday I'll be the tech lead and chief architect for our next big project (biggest project we've had for a good three years). I'll have two people under me for the project, and my boss has been setting me up for this for months. Can't wait. Funny, too... you know that external training I'm taking? "Improving Leadership".... didn't know it'd be timed like this ;)
Anywho, its not a 'real' promotion, nor a 'real' management/supervisor role, but its enough to prove what I can do to move into those 'real' positions...

Anyway, my wife did what I hate this past weekend, and threw me a surprise party. I hate being the center of attention, but still had a great time. This would explain my last JE (for the record, I have far too many podcasts, now), as I got a few great presents, like the new iPod Nano my brother gave me (Thanks, J). I actually was going to detail the party, but lets just sum it up as I was completely taken by surprise (which is quite an accomplishment, cause the wife has a tendency to give EVERYTHING a way... like telling me the ending of a movie as soon as she finishes watching it), my sister (and brother in law) flew in from Atlanta, old college buddies drove in from out of town... it was just nice catching up with everyone.

Oh, although I'm not quite 30 yet, I'm pretty sure it feels just like 29 ;)

Its finally happened... I know I was the last person in the world to have one, but I finally got my hands on an ipod (the reason I got it I'll explain on Thursday... but I have to give a huge 'thanks' to my brother for the gift).

Anyway, I need to get up on all the podcasts that are good and popular. So far I'm subscribed to the 3 top "Lost" podcasts, the Dane Cook podcast, and the "Java Posse" podcasts. What podcasts do you listen to??

Check this out.
That's a method on the java.lang.System object. WTF? Doesn't that belong in the java.util.Arrays class?

My only guess is that it manipulates low level memory to make the copy go 'fast', but still.... arraycopy on the System object just makes me queezy...

Well, last night was the freeze... I transplanted my basil indoors and picked all the ripe->almost ripe tomatos. The Romas were a disaster. The cherrys were an enormous success. Now I have about a buschel of the damn things and no idea what to dow ith them (normally, they are garnish, for salads, or quick snacks).
So I figured, what the hell, I'll try a sauce with them...
Here's my preliminary idea:
2-4 links hot italian sausage
3 cups of halved cherry tomatos
3 cups of pureed cherry tomatos (for me, I'll take'm with skin... I'm lazy)
~4 cloves of garlic
1 small onion (really small)
fresh parsley
fresh basil

Will sweat the garlic and onion with a touch of oil... then add the sausage. Give it lots of time to cook before adding in the pureed tomatos, season with the parsley and basil. Bring to a simmer and let the flavors soak. About 30 minutes before finishing, I'll add the halves to give them time to soften, but I don't want them entirely broken down (for a different flavor and texture).

Any opinions on changes? If not, I'll tell you how it turns out...

I spent ALL DAY Saturday at a soccer game and King's Island with my wife and children, my sister-in-law, and her 3 kids. That's 5 kids, SIL's boys are aged 6,5, and 1, and Joey is 4, Jenna is like 16 months.

So we wake up for Joey's 9am soccer match. Let me put a 4 year old soccer match into perspective. They know to kick it in the right goal. That's about the limit. And they play 4-5 year olds, so you have 'experienced older kids' and 'completely clueless'. My son falls into the latter category. He kicked the ball twice. Once when there was an out-of-bounds kick.... for the other team. The other was after it was out of bounds. He chases the crowd instead of chasing the ball. The ball can literally be right on his toes, but he's more concerned with following his teammates, so he just walks away instead of kicking it. I tried soooo hard just to get him to kick the ball.... I didn't care if he kicked it the wrong way, or even scored a goal for the other team... but to see him get into the thick of things and kick the ball, or at least trip up some of the other players (What?? I'm a football fan, remember). Nope... what kinda summed up his playing is "Mommy! Look at the butterfly!"
I know I know... they say "next year, he'll understand it and get into it." I'm only doing this until he's old enough for peewee football (which he's already interested in).

After the game, we went straight to the amusement park. This is a pretty big thing for me. I hate rollercoasters. No, I'm not afraid of them or anything... I've been on the Millenium Force at cedar point and all that, I just don't get a rush from them... well, I guess I get a small rush, but its always killed by the 30 minutes queuing. They usually give me headaches, and I hate overcrowded amusement parks. But this was for my kids. So we spent all the time in the nick-jr land... anytime the two babies couldn't go on a ride, I volunteered to watch them. Then, after 8pm, I even offered to take all 5 home so the wife and her sister can go on the big rides. Took'm all home and put'm to bed. So give me some 'good father/uncle points'. I'll have to cash those in in November for a new Wii.... ;)

If Ben can't give the defense a chance to catch their breath, every game will end up like last nights.... start off the defense dominates, giving the offense an opportunity to get in a rhythm, but when Ben starts screwing around, throwing up lame ducks like he has, and the offensive line (the hyper-powered o-line of last year) is getting tossed around, well the defense gets tired.
Props to Phillip Rivers, though... that kid had a great game.

So... maybe I'll end up as a Bears fan. Anymore room on that bandwagon, Em? Heh, and I'm seeing St.Louis as a quiet little sleeper on the NFC side of things, too...

For those that watch "Lost" I have a theory...
Fake Henry Gale (aka "Ben", now) has been put in place to be 'him'. I don't think he's 'him'... in fact, I'm starting to believe Rousseiau is 'him'. She 'captured' Ben... she gave 'Ben' to the losties...
I don't believe he 'purposely' got caught... I think he's 2nd in charge and when something bad happened (like the whole Ethan debacle), he was punished by infiltrating the losties by being captured.

There ya go... in 2 seasons when they get down and dirty with the whole hierarchy, we'll see if I'm right...

FYI - last nights episode didn't do it for me. The first 10 minutes were FANTASTIC, but the rest? Meh... too many questions, not enough answers.

Top 10 Weird Al songs (with embedded youtube vids of them).
What would you have said in the mid 80s if someone told you Michael Jackson would end up being a child molester, and Wierd Al would still be doing his thing in 20 years?

Re: Foley, other possible members, the alleged coverup, and the current page scandal.

So, I guess we know the *real* reason they're pro-life, eh? Am I right? *rimshot*
Why are republicans anti-abortion? More sweet young congressional pages and orphans to molest! *rimshot*
*crickets*

Thank ya, I'll be here all week.

Sounds kinda Yogi Berra-ish, eh?
Worked 16 hours last night (9am-1am). Started around 11am today. Slept in, yet I'm still having a hard time concentrating and its taking time for me to understand things...
When I was fresh outta college, I had to pull a few all-nighters at my first job, and it hardly affected me. Now I think I'm going to be out of it until this weekend and that's only if my wife lets me catch up on sleep...

As I've mentioned many-a-times, my wife is a type-1 diabetic, and we usually do the Walk for Diabetes in Cincy when it comes around. This year, they allow donations online, so if you'd like to donate to our walk (all proceeds go to the American Diabetes Association), please email me and I'll hook you up with her link.

Since I'm in a cave and never heard of it, thought I'd pass it along to everyone else in case someone else hasn't heard of it. AntiFreeze mentioned it in TL's latest JE:
Synergy - Software to share your keyboard and mouse between machines, seemlessly, even if they are different OS's. Definitely some pretty neato stuff. Will try it tonight.