So I've been going through the independant games linked off the /. games section, and I've found a few that are fun, but this one is annoying.

I say this, because I just spent some time going through the tutorial and reading up on it, thinking it would be a pretty fun game, only to try to make a game and there's no one to play.

So here I sit, in the games lobby, waiting for someone to play me.

Anyway Star Chamber is like an online version of Master of Orion but it plays a lot faster, is 2 player, and has randomness thrown in with "card decks" that give you specials. Its neat, I think I could do well if I could get a real game going ...

If you're interested go to: http://www.starchamber.net

So, for years I've owned the domain name "bengals.net". Actually, since 1998 according to network solutions, though I'm moving the domain name off netsol because, well, I refuse to pay $35 a year.

Anyway, its sat dormant for years, I sort of bought it with a friend of mine and he always said he would put something up. Now, I'm an admin, not a web designer, I can code PHP fairly well mechanically but everything I do looks like some cheap ass crap. I guess it doesn't help that I code web pages in vi...

Anyway, today I finally put something on bengals.net ... its a cheesy MX-portal based forum system, and I haven't done that much customization yet, but I figure, what the hell, its better than letting it sit around.

So if you're a fan of football check it out, www.bengals.net .. let me know what you think and how I can improve it. And if you want to help with it, that'd be cool, its going to be non-commercial and I won't even put ads up on it unless bandwidth costs require it, but I think its gonna take quite some time for that site to push past my 50GB per month limit. I especially could use help with look and feel and graphics, as those are my weak points.

Weak as in nonexistent skills, but oh well.

Link to original

A nation of ex-Pittsburghers loves Steelers

Tuesday, December 07, 2004
By Reg Henry

Are you ready for some football? This column rarely strays onto the gridiron, but the moment is ripe for a discussion of the pigskin arts in a way that may appeal to the intellectually pretentious fan whose needs are so often ignored on the sports pages.

Football, of course, is very much on the minds of Pittsburghers on account of the fact that everything else here is so depressing. Alas, Pittsburgh has been flirting with bankruptcy, and although a plan has been devised to save the city, local residents understand that a crack team of elected knuckleheads lurks in the wings.

Moreover, who wouldn't think about the Bus, aka running back Jerome Bettis, when the real buses plying the area will have a drastically reduced schedule shortly if nothing is done?

Say not for whom the bell tolls, Big Ben, aka rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, it tolls for thee. And he tolls for thee even if you don't live in Pittsburgh.

It has been obvious for some years that the Steelers are really America's team, despite the pretensions of a bunch of show-offs in Dallas. Every Sunday, wherever the Steelers play, the stands are full of people waving Terrible Towels. Just this past Sunday in Jacksonville, it was estimated that at least 20,000 Steelers fans were there on the cheerful mission of irritating the locals.

Only some of these fans would have flown from Pittsburgh for the occasion. What you see here is the result of the Pittsburgh diaspora, the great outward migration triggered by the closing of the steel mills in the late 1970s and early '80s.

As these friendly folk went out into America, dreaming their nostalgic 'Burgh dreams, they impressed other people with their simple Pittsburgh way of life, which is highly attractive, involving as it does large sandwiches and beer.

No wonder people who had never been to Pittsburgh had the good taste to begin rooting for the Steelers.

It is encouraging to think that if the city does descend into fiscal ruin, even more people will have to leave, and the Steelers will be dramatically more popular than they are now. That's something to look forward to.

Of course, it takes more to be a Steelers fan than making eccentric vowel sounds while appreciating the fries on a sandwich. There has to be a love of the values that the Steelers represent.

And what are those values? For that insight I must turn to my old buddy, Prof. Marmot Sinecure at Groundhog College in Punxsutawney, Pa., who has studied this question extensively at the local Woodchuck Tavern, "where a woodchuck would drink beer if a woodchuck could."

Prof. Sinecure argues that the very name "Steelers" denotes strength and hardness. "We are lucky indeed that the polymer industry wasn't big in Pittsburgh, or the manufacture of ladies' corsets or artificial limbs," the professor said. "None of these lend themselves to a handy monicker suggestive of the sort of values held dear by the Pittsburgh fans."

But Prof. Sinecure believes that a name alone cannot build a firm fan base. A team must play in a way that the fans can relate to.

In that regard, it is often remarked that the Steelers are very much a team that establishes the run in order to establish the pass. Football commentators always note this -- it is required by their union -- and they always say it as if they are revealing a great wisdom for the first time.

Prof. Sinecure, being a professional academic, takes a complicated view of this:

"Sometimes," he observes, "the Steelers establish the run so well they say to heck with the pass, but at least the pass has been established by the run if Big Ben decides to take advantage of its establishment. Of course, the corollary must also be true: If you establish the pass, then, ergo, you have also established the run."

But how useful is the run-pass establishment as a paradigm to understanding the cult following inspired by the Steelers?

"It is crucial," the good professor believes. "Pittsburghers are a straightforward people. They don't want to have too many choices to befuddle them. You will note that the Steelers don't have cheerleaders at their games.

That is because the fans don't want to be tempted by scantily dressed girls when they came to watch huge slavering linebackers."It's a matter of old-fashioned priorities. Establish the run. Establish the pass. Establish what type of sausages are available at the concession stands. Finally, establish a steely defense that guarantees we all go home happy, even if home is somewhere far from the three rivers."

---

Being a Bengals fan I've generally thought of the steelers as "Thugs" my whole life. But it seems "Big Ben" is turning all of that around. You can't help but like the guy. If the Bengals don't make the Superbowl this year (heh heh, if) then I hope the Steelers do. How long has it been since a rookie QB won the SuperBowl anyway?

"Hey, what are the things you're doing with Barry? He's an incredible player. I want to still be able to work out at that age and keep playing."

From: mlb.com

Well, its just my opinion that if any player is proven or admits to using steroids should be banned from the game and have any records they may have set stricken from the books.

They keep saying "But steroids doesn't help any with baseball, it won't make you any better."

Heh, well maybe thats true, with Giambi putting up such horrible numbers of late, however, if thats the case, why do they do it?

I'll tell you why they do it, becase it DOES help them out. They must think we are idiots if they think we'll buy that line. Quite frankly, why would you jeapordize your carreer, your reputation, and your body, to use steroids, if it doesn't help you at all?

It either helps or those who are using them are morons. I'll accept either. I'm glad Giambi fessed up but IMO he should be banned from the game for at least a year and if they let him back in none of his lifetime stats should ever go in the record books.

According to Rolling Stone

172 Music Industry people voted on this.. and voted Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" the #1 song of all time.

Ok, well we know what Brian Wilson is smoking ... I'll agree that Aretha Franklin belongs in the top 10. And certainly the Beatles... but the fact that you have to go all the way down to #19 before you get to Elvis (and at that, its Hound Dog, which isn't his best IMO) invalidates this list. ;)

The Beatles made the list with 22 songs... if you add John, Paul and George's solo tracks to that.. those guys got some serious airtime on that list.

I would argue though that there's too much "Beach Boys" and too little "Pink Floyd" but maybe thats because I'm only 29.

So I bought HL2... bought it through steam. I bought the silver package because I never played HL1.

Guess what, Steam worked perfectly for me, I bought the game late at night, went to bed and in the morning the game was completely installed and everything is cool.

Dunno why everyone is so down on Steam... maybe I'm just lucky.

This is fun to play with: Keyhole

You get a 7 day free trial... its fun to zip around to places... I can't see myself actually paying for this... but hey... it'll be entertaining while the trial lasts.

The moron of the week award is already soundly going into the hands of Michael Phelps, who, if you haven't already heard, got caught drunk driving, even though he's only 19, even though he's richer than most third world countries and could afford to buy a fleet of limos with all the money Visa gave him during the olympics to drive him home, even though, if he had asked ANYONE to drive him home people would have been falling over themselves for the priviledge to drive the 6 gold medal winner home.

But no, I have no sympathy for anyone who thinks they can drive around endangering the lives of others, especially when an alternative is extremely easy to get as it was for him. His heartfelt apology that someone wrote for him doesn't rate a golfclap from me. What a waste. How pathetic would it have been if he would have rammed into a tree and ruined his carreer right there? The kid is 19, he could go on to win more olympic medals than anyone in the history of the games. Oh well, maybe this will wake him up before that happens.

Its lucky that Phelps did this though, otherwise the moron of the week award would have gone to Maurice Clarett. What a way to burn your bridges. Its obvious that what this guy wants more than anything is a big fat NFL contract. The only thing he cares about is himself, and thats the only thing he'll ever care about. Great. Well why did he let himself turn into a big fat lazy ass retard then? Oh because he was afraid people would tease him in the gym? This will really help his cause. If this guy EVER makes it to the NFL which IMO is unlikely at this point, he'll be signed to a minimum wage contract and likely injure himself if he ever touches the ball and fade into obscurity. If he had kept his head down and just quietly stayed in shape, he might have gotten an NFL contract somewhere, and been able to prove himself and then made something of himself. But as it is, he's a loudmouth moron.

Oh well. Maybe they do get special favors for being athletes. I don't care. But either way, right or wrong, Mo is a whiney little turd who has lost any bit of respect I may have ever held for him... just like I lost a ton of respect for Phelps.

Morons!

So a guy who lives in Austria wants to buy my domain name for $2k.

Fair enough.

So he asks me for my bank account info so he can send me the money.

Nuh uh, I think, why would I give someone my bank account info? That stuff is sacred! So I try to get him to sign up for a paypal account, even though paypal is going to rape me for the 2% or so fees, oh well. But that takes forever as they need to validate it... 2 months later, still no money and still I'm not transfering my domain name.

So we come down to it, I need the money because of some financial things going on right now. So I decide to go to the bank and ask them what to do.

Here's where things get funny, no, here's where things get COMICALLY funny, at least for me.

See, had I just gone and ASKED the bank honestly in the first place two months ago I would have found out about a cool thing called a ... well I can't remember what its called now but its like an account where they can wire money too thats not mine, but then I get the money, and it only costs me $15 which is WAY less than Paypal charges and is completely safe for me because its not associated with me in any way.

So if you ever have to do something with money that you're not comfortable with, just ASK the bank. Like I should have. and I don't know why I didn't in the first place. like an idiot. like I sometimes am.

oh well.

First look at this:

Clicky

Now I'll ask you not to pass that around to too many people off my server for bandwidth concerns (rehost it please if you want to pass it around).

I took that February 20th, 2004.

Fun eh? Can't believe I forgot I took that picture. hehe.

I'm so happy!

No more crappy ads on TV or Radio!

Man ... living in a battleground state is the pitts, you know I didn't so much mind the ads that said "Vote for me because this is what I would do if I were president." It was all the negative ads that so blatently twisted the truth that insulted my inteligence that annoyed me.

You know the ones, where they take a guys quote completely out of context, twist it around and go "See what he said about this!" and then lambast him on it and make it seem like only an utter moron would support this guy. Both sides do it. I know, a lot of it comes from the "soft money" ads, the ones that "George" or "John" didn't approve, but still, I'm dang tired of hearing about it, so I'm really glad today is finally here and it's over with.

So its raining here in Ohio and I hear thats good for Bush because Democrats are less likely to make the trip to the polls in the rain. If thats the truth, what a sad thing it is when the leadership of a country for four years can be determined by the weather. Then again, if you're too lazy to go out and vote because its raining, maybe you shouldn't be voting anyway. If its because they are old and can't see well enough to drive in the rain, then they can call me up and I'll drive them to the polls and hold the umbrella. I get off work at noon today and the polls don't close till 7:30, I've got plenty of time.

Then again, an old person probably wouldn't want to be around me today. I've got a terrible head cold. I sound like Barry White. Which makes me wonder, what does Barry White sound like when he has a cold?

Kerry or Bush, whatever the outcome, I hope its a fair election. Nothing like the country that tries to portray itself as the model of democracy in the world having elections where lawyers stain everything with litigation making the voter seem pointless.

I think the most humorous thing would be for Mr. Bush to win the popular vote but Senator Kerry to win the Electoral. That would be the cookie...

Now that the curse is over, what will they have to blame for losing?

Whats going to happen to their team?

I want Lowe on the Reds! (I can dream can't I?)

Well... if Carl Lidner is too cheap to turn the damn lights on at the stadium during Monday night football (Was funny watching John Madden circle the giant black pit and go, "this is where the reds play") I doubt he's going to pay what Lowe will be able to bargain for...

Pedro ... I can see him in a Yankees uniform next year.

Varitek ... I bet he stays with the Sox.

If they're smart they'll trade Bellhorn, IMO. He'll fetch way more than he's actually worth after what he did.

Tony LaRussa... I wonder how it feels to get swept in the world series ... twice ...

Tim McCarver ... www.shutuptimmccarver.com

And I swear I heard one of the announcers last night say, "Even though we're in St. Louis, there is a lot of red in the stands tonight." ... LOL!

Oh well, curse reversed under a blood moon, how cool is that? Maybe the Cubs will have their curse reversed under a blue moon... I wonder when the next blue moon in october is ...

... probably the last time it will be 70 degrees and sunny in western Ohio... and my convertible is in the shop. They gave me a Ford Explorer for a loaner car. It smells like stale cigarette smoke despite the "No Smoking" sign clearly pasted on the windshield. I HATE FORD EXPLORERS AND I HATE CIGARATETE SMOKE!!

I think it should be a common courtesy that if you bring a convertible in for service they should give you a convertible as a loaner. :(

Sox up 2 games to zip on the Cards, one of those games due to a great performance last night by Curt Schilling playing on his bad ankle.

This man is a machine. He's going all out, and he will live on in Baseball legend no matter what happens from here on out. Regardless of that... Roger Clemens gave Schilling two games to play, and here's why.

Two years ago of course, we had the debacle of the All-Star game "tie". Then fans said that was stupid, "There's no tying in baseball, thats a soccer thing!" yeah... whatever, its an exhibition game. I got over it. A lot of people got over it. But the commisioner of baseball in his wisdom decided that the outcome of the All-Star game should determine home field advantage for the World Series.

This year, Roger Clemens, for the first time in his life pitched for the National League, and in the first inning absoultely stunk it up. If I remember correctly he gave up either 5 or 6 runs before getting yanked. It was a horrible performance, one from which the National League never recovered. The American League won the Home Field advantage for the World Series.

Fast forward to today, the Red Sox get the home field advantage. How big is that? Well think about this... when you play in a National League stadium , your pitcher bats for himself. Now, me being from Cincinnati, a national league town, I prefer it this way. However, do you think Mr. Schilling would be available for two games in the world series this year if he had to run the bases on that ankle? I don't think so. So the Cards now have to face Martinez twice, and Schilling twice, if it comes to that.

Who am I kidding, this is the Red Sox we are talking about, if this doesn't go to seven games I'll be surprised. If its not down to the wire, I'll be dissappointed. Really, I don't care who wins. I usually root for the National League team to win... but after the way the Red Sox came back to embarass the Yankees, I can't help but like them.

So here's to Roger Clemens, helping out his old teammates the Boston Red Sox by sucking for the National League. Not only that but he helped wear down their opponents by making them play 7 games in the NLCS. Maybe Roger leaving Boston wasn't such a bad thing after all...

If Houston and Boston both win, then Roger Clemens could end up pitching against the Red Sox in the World Series ... how huge would that be?

Of course, the Astros have to be the Cards and the Sox have to beat the Yankees for that to happen, but hey, stranger things have happened.