To Marriage : The reason we build bars!

The title of this is a quote from one of the 2 television shows I watch regularly, Battlestar Galactica. (The other is Heroes, which I love enough to steal the concept outright for a role-playing game). I've lost intrest in House, Lost, and CSI. the above 2 are the winners in my mind :)

I want to put some of my thoughts on the current state of BSG down. So if you haven't seen the latest episode "Taking a break from all your troubles", STOP READING!!! The beauty of this show is how character driven the story is. So I'm going to address the players on the stage rather than the overall plot.

In no particular order.

Baltar : I've always liked him, even though he's the "villain". My quote about him is that he's so messed up that his issues have issues. However, he was tortured and interrogated pretty roughly and using many many methods in the latest episode. He withstood pretty much all of them. His brilliance and cunning were shown in all their glory in the last episode. I LOVE this character.

Laura Rosalin : I've been waffling for quite some time about this "new" character to the BSG mythos. I do like having a civilian president that is able to question the military leadership (even if there IS a relationship with Adama that has not been explored yet, I'd like to know more.) I've come to the conclusion that I don't like her at all. After the last episode (especially the bonus scene on-line), I think she is both in over her head and not that bright. She has spent al of her political capital, and the decision to have a public trial of Baltar could show just how deep she's in it. The above is my personal thoughts on the character... I think the acress portrays her very well.

Tom Zarek : I ADORE the Tom Zarek character. First, he's played by the original series' Appolo. Second, he is just facsinating. He is a former terrorist become successful politician. I'm looking forward to hear how he's going to react to Baltars upcoming trial.

Admiral Adama : Adama has been a very good commander lately. Keeping the appropriate distance from his subordinates and running a tight ship. That said, I am liking him less. But I'm more of a soldier than a leader in mindset, so that's not surprising. Almos is an amazing actor, so the character is incredibly vibrant even with minimal screen time. I loved his decking of Gaeda in yesterdays episode.

Tigh : The opposite can be said about Tigh. I'm LIKING him more and more. It's kinda nebulous whether or not he is still drinking or not... but it's not affecting his job anymore. The loss of his eye and wife has made him even harder and MORE cynical if that's possible.

*more character commentaries later, outta time.

Good Mammoth win last night

So, we're now 5-1 with a good hold on the division. Only AZ is hanging with us at 3-1. Everything is looking pretty good, the young players are getting good time on the floor and are being productive. Gee is playing his stellar solid game in net since a weak game in goal on opening night.

Another lesson I've learned. DO NOT GIVE BLOOD 48 hours before a Mammoth game. I was dizzier than a sailor on shore leave every time I stood up while screaming. That was fun. :)

Also, if you have 15 minutes, check out the first 15 minutes the Penn Radio podcast (avail on iTunes or online at PennRadio.com) for Jan 24th. Well worth the time. Talking about our freedoms all wrapped around a clip from the Andy Griffith show.

V

Quick 5 second blog entry

Got a news article today across Wikinews... MySpace is going to start running Amber alert headers on all myspace sites when they happen. This is a GREAT use of technology and human networking. Hats off to MySpace.

V

Got 5 minutes? Read over 60 short stories!

I read Wil's blog today and he had a link to the 6 word story article from Wired. The thought was to have known authors emulate the master Hemmingway in what he considered to be one of his best stories. The story consited of only six words, but they are truly powerful when you think on them. This famous story is "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn" Even thinking about this brings a tear to my eye. I'm flooded with memories of my mom and some of the stories of parents who unexpectedly lost children during childbirth or pregnancy (my mom is an OB nurse). It evokes such powerful emotion that I'm overwhelmed by the power of 6 words.

Some of my favorites from this project run the gammut from hilarious to equally painful as Hemmingways. I'm also impressed by the names that chose to undertake this challenge. Here are some of my favs...

Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket.
- William Shatner

Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?
- Eileen Gunn

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.
- Joss Whedon

And the one that stunned me until I saw who wrote it...
With bloody hands, I say good-bye.
- Frank Miller

Take five minutes and see which ones touch you.

V

Thoughts on the US' dependency on foreign oil

Hi dear readers,
I've taken up an experiment again. For the last week, I have faithfully used my cruise control to set my speed in my car to the speed limit. Now, this is the second time I've done this, the first was in the Cavalier, this time in the Prius.

In the first experiment, I learned two things. First, NO ONE drives the speed limit. I was passed like I was standing still by practically every car. Second, My gas mileage increased by 20%. That was more than I expected... but it was a pleasent surprise.

When I did this last week in the Prius, my mileage went from 41 MPG to 47 MPG. Not nearly the increase, but still noticable. I was still passed like I was standing still by practically every other car.

Now, in the way this world is, we have been told by our leaders that we MUST break our addiction to oil. Yet the simplest thing that every single one of us can do is to slow down a little. We all seem to be addicted to going faster. I am VERY guilty of this, I love doing 80 in a 65, or 67 in a 55 (I know you do too Pebbles :) ). But there is no reason for this logically. In around town driving you are saving approximately a few minutes at most. Is it logical for us to burn up to 20% more fuel for a few extra minutes? My answer is no for myself.

I would encourage anyone who reads this to try the same experiment if you haven't done so already. Tell your friends and family to try it to. See what results you get. If we all did this, we'd reduce our consumption of oil by a noticable amount. Imagine what we could do if we did this across the country. I don't judge anyone who doesn't do this... but it's definately worth thinking about.

People have heard me bash H2 owners in the past... I am guilty of this. Now when I think about this, I realize the reasons for my animostiy toward that vehicle.

There are many reasons to own a truck. I beg to borrow trucks occasionally when I need one. They are most useful, and there are now many fuel economic models on the market. They'll never beat my Prius, but my Prius will never haul a load ov manure... we're even :).
Then there are the Jeep class of vehicle. These cars also have a HUGE amount of versitility and I love them as well. Nothing 4 wheels better than a Jeep. In snowy terrain and for recreation, there is NO better vehicle. Jeeps have also made excellent strides in fuel economy.
When I come to the H2 class of vehicle... the monster SUV class of car. What's the point? I can't think of anything that it does well. And they haven't even attempted to make these vehicles any more efficient. They are idols of consumption and excess... and THAT I dislike greatly.


Putting my soapbox away now,
V

Mammoth have suffered their first defeat

Saw the replay on Altitude last night and frankly, it looked very much like fatigue at the end of the 17-13 loss to the Calgary Roughnecks. No one was moving off ball in the 4th and the transition was WAY slow. They also couldn't beat the Necks to any loosies. It just looked like their legs gave out.

Rest up boys. Big game on Thursday against the Portland Lumberjax, who are coming off back to back defeats by the AZ Sting. The Jax Offense has completely abandoned them, so here's hoping that trend continues and the Mammoth make it to 5-1.


V

And now, for something completely different.

This has to be one of the strangest stories I've seen in a while. Poor possum, but that MUST have been a funny site.

V

1 down and 1 to go

The Mammoth proved two things last night.
1) they are a VERY good team, manhandling the Edmonton Rush in the seconid half by a score of 9-3, for a final score of 16-9. (Does good times give free custard for road games when we score more than 13??)

2) Gary Gait and Gee Nash know more about lacrosse than I will ever know. I was watching the game at a bar with a bunch of friends last night and after Gee let in his 6th goal by the middle of the 2nd, I called for a goalie switch. As you can tell from the final scores, that was a hair premature. He buckled down and played a whale of a game. To the point where he's probably in the running for another defender of the week...except for one small problem...

Arizona allowed only 4 goals to Portland last night!!! There is no question that Rob Blasdell is the defender of the week unless Portland dominates him tonight in the second half of their home at home.

Tonight the Mammoth travel to Calgary to face the Riggers. This will be another test for the Mammoth. They have passed every one so far, and I'm hoping they can continue. If they manage to make it to 5-0, division is officially going to be playing catch up the whole year. GO MAMMOTH!

V

Mammoth weekend

Tough Tough weekend for the Mammoth this weekend. We open playing at Edmonton (a vastly improved team), then immediately fly to Calgary and play the rival Roughnecks Sat night. The Edmonton game will be aired on Altitude 2 tonight at 7pm, tomorrows game is only available on B2.

Administrative blog note. I've turned on moderation, but am using it only for two purposes, the first is fighting some spam that happens occasionally, the second is to ask people to please sign their posts. I will never reject due to content.

V

Good work information.

Allow me to take a moment to say WOOOOT!!

The project I am on is going slowly at the moment. We are in a production support mode that, while necesary, isn't particularly demanding.

So it looks like I'll be getting the abbility to take training from home for 2 days a week while the other DBA covers for me, and I'll be doing the same for him. This is a very good thing. :)

V

Fun Poker Comics

Hi all,
I needed a break from serious topics... So here's two poker images that are funny

Image 1

Image 2 : Donkey Edition


Mammoth won over the weekend in OT to move to 3-0 on the season. Next up, Edmonton on Friday night.


Back to work

V

On Courage, Nine Noble Virtues - Part one

It's 4am pacific time as I write this from my hotel in San Diego. I'm fighting insomnia for some unknown reason. I should be sleeping like a log as a danced for over 2 hours tonight... and that's what I want to talk about.

When I said I would be blogging about this over Christmas, my intention was to do all sorts of scholorly research and write heady thoughts about the virtues that I wish to live my life by. As we will see... I haven't gotten to disciplne yet :D. But that's not the way I operate. I don't know why I was trying to change the way I process info for a subject that is so near and dear to my heart such as virtue. I'm pretty dumb for a smart guy.

Courage, as is said by so many people far wiser than me, is the brother of terror. One cannot be brave and possess courage if one is not afraid of anything. I've said previously that I am NOT afraid of terrorism. And by correlary, it is not brave of me to say it does not influence my life... rather that is simply logic and reason.

What IS courage is what occured tonight at the Avanade party. I danced. Things that DO scare me are myriad; Some reasonable, such as making a fool of myself in front of people I know, some not reasonable, like my fear of Miller mothes (I can't explain it either). Tonight, there was a live band wailing tunes that are fun to move to. Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolfe, Rock this Town by The Stray Cats, and Mustang Sally by I don't frakking know (lol). When I got to party, there were a ton of people just standing all around a nice empty dancefloor. One, just one, person was attempting to get a friend of theirs to dance... to little affect. I had half a gin and tonic left (my ONE AND ONLY drink of the night, so I was not drunk at all), which I finished at a table next to the floor over a single song. Then something strange happend. I was scared of making a fool of myself as I always am, and knew I had a choice. Dance, or Drink.

Before I knew what was happening, I was right there next to my buddy on the dance floor trying to tease our mutual friend to get up and move to. Now that there were two of us, it didn't take a long time. And then there were three. Then several kids saw us having fun and there are 4 more on the floor, 2 kids and 2 parents, dancing and carrying on. all of us having a grand time.

Then I find myself dancing with this classical beauty of a woman. Think Sofie Marceau (from Braveheart). Long story short, she's a good friends wife and it was just good fun of dancing. (He's still recovering from a horrific accident involving a drunk driver that left his legs shattered... he's looking great and walking fine, but dancing is still a bit much. More on that in a bit). Now she's a FANTASTIC dancer... enough so to make me look decent. I was trying some spins and other things that were just freestyle spazzing on the floor, but it was all smiles and before we knew it... the floor had a lot of people on it. I feel fantastic about that.

*** Reader warning... I'm going to get very frank here on my observations... what's new? Nothing. Just fair warning. ***

As the evening wore on, my dance partner was definately getting worked up physically (she has eyes that positively smoulder *swoon*). Her husband is deployed away from home with Avanade for a while and with the recent Denver snows... they haven't seen each other much. Every break in the music they are standing closer and closer and being quite happy to be around each other. Eventually, they just vanished after a restroom break. I'm sure he was tired as well as his legs still have surgeries to do to fix.

You know what I felt like... Cyrano de Bergerac. One of my favorite literary characters. It wasn't in a melancholie way either. I was not making a move on a friends wife, but I did help energize her a significant amount in a way he couldn't at the moment. She actually said to him on a break once, "Hurry up and heal baby so I can dance with you." He responded positively I can assure you... a lovely lady like that wanting you to dance is fine motivation to heal I'm sure. I feel wonderful.

So because I was able to face my fears, I had a fantastic, wonderful evening which afforded me the opportunity to step into the shoes of a romantic hero. Courage isn't something I can study and write about... it's like so many other virtues in that it must be lived to be understood. Thanks be to the gods for that lovely reminder tonight. Heil to the Aesir.

V

I hope to the gods that this works

Bush's speach last night committed to surge the troop levels in Iraq by over 20,000. I honestly hope that this works, but I have no faith that it actually will. We have surged before at least 4 times to no avail. History is showing that this has long odds.

There are "experts" that are providing conflicting reports all over the place. I won't bore you with either sides arguments, I will allow you to find your own info and make your own judgements.

That said, MY opinion on this is that the presence of American troops is galvanizing terrorists and fueling the attacks and violence in the region. In addition, Iraq is in a civil war, and an external force cannot solve the CAUSES of this internal struggle of Iraq.

I do agree with the administration that stability in Iraq is very important, and that losing (if we have not already done so) this struggle would be a very bad thing for the world in general. It's that reason that I hope that this works... I just honestly don't think it will. That saddens me. I hope the Dems do NOT move to block this, as at least it is something. But if there is no obvious improvement in about 4 months or so after deployment, we should pull out and take our licks. There were those who said we'd loose the cold war if we pulled out of Vietnam, just as there are those who say that we loose against "radical Islam" if we pull out of Iraq. One of the above statements has already proven false. The other more than likely is as well.

V

Good news for Denver

The Democratic National Convention will be held out west. The Pepsi Center will be hosting the delegation and this is a very nice financial boon for the mile high city. And that's true whether or not you like the Democratic party and ideals.

As anyone has read here knows, I lean democrat on most issues. ('cept gun control, of which I'm staunchy opposed, and a few others) So this is doubly pleasing for me, especially since I will probably be voulenteering for the Dems in the 2008 elections. So that could be a lot of fun.

That said, It could FUCK traffic in Denver during the convention... so I think I'll definately be bussing during the convention. Small price to pay for an expected 160 Million comming into the state. Kronke should be happy about this too.

V

Major League Lacrosse

The MLL has announced it's summer schedule . Denver has a home game ON the 4th of July. Last year we pulled 16K to an outdoor game. Let's see if we can have a blast and beat that this year :)

V

Mammoth go to 2-0 over the weekend

The Colorado Mammoth defeated the AZ Sting on Friday. They allowed only 6 goals the entire game!!! The defense was perfectly positioned all night and Gee Nash made fantastic saves when the Sting did manage to fight through our D. The 10 goal night for the Mammoth proved more than enough.

This coming on the heels of a barnburner with Rochester the other teams in the league have to be wondering if there is ANY way to beat this team. I know we are only 2 games in, but they have already won convincingly in two different fashions. I'm very encouraged by the way this season has started out.

V

and a laugh that left me without air

Ask a Ninja #30. His best yet. Can't breathe. Holy crap, go watch it... NOW!! It's another Omnibus.

V

A slight chuckle

I'm not making fun of him as a person, but Pat Robertson needs to stop making predictions.

On 60 second science today, they talked about Pat Roberstons revelation from god that there would be a major attack on the US in 2007. Rewind to 1998 and he made a similar revelation from god that hurrcaines were going to hit Orlando due to a gay pride parade there. He was kind of right.. within weeks hurricaine Bonnie slammed into... Virgina Beach, VA. Where Pat Robertson lived. Maybe his connection to god was a little choppy at the time .

Not laughing at the man, but the irony of that is just funny.

V

I have no voice and I must scream

Yes, that's right. It's Tuesday and my voice is at about 90%. I could barely speak on Sunday and laughing was painful. It was SO worth it.

The Mammoth won 20 - 15. Combine 20 goals and a preseason banner raising ceremony and it was a bang of an opener on the old voicebox.

Anyhow, next Mammoth game is this Friday in AZ. It's only broadcast on B2, but there is a viewing party in the works :) - yay. Then there is the home game on the 13th against the Buffalo Ban-Duh-ts. We should beat them as it's our only game that weekend, but they have to fly in from buffalo the previous night as they play the 12th at home. So if the boys can win on Friday, I'm thinking a 3-0 start will turn some heads!!

I'm bald today. I wore a mohawk to the game, but now that I'm back at the office I went ahead and shaved it all to the scalp. I did have a funny thought in that maybe I won't touch my hair at all in 2007 and see what exactly one year of growth looks like. (I put the razor to it on Dec 31st in the evening.)

On other changes and resolutions. The scale read 193 flat this morning. I'm very happy with that. I feel like I have more energy (still enjoy my naps though) and my neck and face are looking less puffy. That pleases me greatly.

I'm back at the office today since before the first of the two snowstorms that hit Denver. It's good to see the crew and get back in an office environtment. I was forgetting what it was like. I enjoy working from home, but eventually all the comforts of home make me soft. I did just solve a major issue, so I'm feeling groovy.

Speaking of home... I had all sorts of housework I wanted to do over the long holiday week, and got NONE of it done. I'm oddly fine with that. I needed the rest and relax time. So I took it.

Later,
V