Carolina Panthers vs the Arizona Cardinals

Not much you can say about last night's Panthers game other than Jake Delhomme must be made to fight for his job during the upcoming training camp this summer. Even the Detroit Lions would agree that five interceptions is inexcusable. I have not been a huge fan of Jake from the beginning. I was actually one of those people that thought we should have given Chris Weinke the job. I think Jake just doesn't have what it takes to be a premier QB in this league. He telegraphs passes (which leads to interceptions and balls batted down at the line), he tends to spazz out when he starts out bad and then he gets worse, and he doesn't lead his receivers when he throws to them (several times this year the team gained fairly short yardage on a pass that should have been a much bigger play because Jake threw the ball behind the receiver). This has been going on for years and I'm not calling for his head and I'm not a "Jake Hater" (which is what you can get called in this town for calling for Jake's benching) but it is really time to seriously consider his replacement or, like I said, announce that the position is open and force him to compete for the it.

Hear my faves

I decided to see how many of my fave albums of the last year I could find and post here. And by find and post I mean legally, of course. I found most of the songs on Imeem. I hope this doesn't slow down too many computers with all the loading that is going to take place.

Dexateens - Lost and Found (The whole album, biatches!)

Lost and Found

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand - The Tom Waits song "Trampled Rose."

Trampled Rose - ROBERT PLANT & ALISON KRAUSS

The Dirtbombs - We Have you Surrounded - Here's five tracks from the masterpiece

We Have You Surrounded

Drive by Truckers - Brighter than Creations Dark - Another full album

Brighter Than Creations Dark

Mudcrutch - Mudcrutch - Another full album

Mudcrutch

Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer - Just the title track

Dirt Farmer

Jay Reatard - Matador Singles - The song called "See Saw"

See/Saw - Jay Reatard

Was (Not Was) - Boo - No songs but you can here an NPR story on them here. There are a couple of tracks available there.

I already linked to the Paul Kelly A to Z project.

The Real Long Exposure

How about opening a pin hole camera's lens for six months, from solstice to another?

Found via Reddit.

Still Secure

I was looking at Paul Krugman's blog today and he mentioned Bush's desire to privatize social security. I had almost forgotten about that. My 401K has lost over 30% of its value in the last year. I wonder what would have happened to our social security funds if Bush had been able to push through his privatization nonsense? Pretty frightening.

Allow me to clarify

There has just been a pretty long and kinda spazzy response to this post by Kevin, the old buddy that lives in bigfoot country. From what he is saying he seems to think I think the government should be the only safety net we have. To that I say, I have a 401K so obviously I don't think social security is going to be there for me as the only source of retirement income. What I am saying is that I think it's nice we have a social security system that does not invest in the private sector. That is why we have private 401Ks. If I make to the age where I can retire I will have to rely on my 401K (yikes), social security (double yikes) and the North Carolina state employees retirement fund (seems fairly stable). The experts say we should diversify and putting social security funds into stocks when I already have a 401k that invests in mutual funds is not diversification. I believe it's putting all of your eggs in one basket and even a snot nosed five year old knows that's not a good idea.

Die with your boots on

Not that I recommend robbing a store and charging the cops with a pistol in your hand and a cigarette in your mouth but I can't help admiring it a little bit.

Hunter S. Thompson Motivational Posters

Some of these are pretty funny.

Found via Fimoculous.

Fave Albums of the Year

Like my books selection these are in no particular order. These are just the albums I played the most during 2007.

Dexateens - Lost and Found - These guys opened for the Drive by Truckers when we saw them in Greenville, SC. If the Drive by Truckers are a punkish/modern Lynryd Skynryd then the Dexateens are a southern style Replacements.

Drive by Truckers - Brighter than Creations Dark - Some have called this DBT's White Album and it's not a bad comparison. It's all over the map stylistically (which isn't unusual for a DBT album) and it's long. It has many moods and rewards repeated listenings from start to finish.

Mudcrutch - Mudcrutch - Tom Petty's old band reformed with original members. This was a heavy favorite for hanging on the back porch this summer.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand - This came out in 2007 but this was, by far, the most played album of the last year. I saw a BBC interview with Plant where he remarks on how this was the first album he had made with American musicians and how he was impressed by all their vintage equipment. Robert Plant made an Americana album and this may be what he has been aiming for all these years.

Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer - An oldtimey album in the best sense. The best voice from the Band has matured nicely. The musicianship is topnotch and the harmonies between Helm and his daughter are magnificent. Another porch favorite from this summer.

Jay Reatard - Matador Singles '08 - Bouncy pop punk from a disturbed individual.

Dirtbombs - We Have your Surrounded - An awe inspiring monster of a rock album. It has the crunch of Led Zeppelin, the edge of the Stooges and chorus melodies worthy of the Decemberists. The Dirtbombs are a force of nature live and this album kicks ass. Also it has a cover of "Sherlock Holmes" by Sparks.

Was (Not Was) - Boo - They're back! One of my favorite bands. It's funky and weird and has a spoken word freak out by David Was. It's perfect.

Paul Kelly - A to Z - He's from Australia and he writes awesome songs. He does this thing where he plays a series of concerts that feature songs from his catalog in alphabetical order. This year he has been releasing songs from these concerts every month in, of course, alphabetical order. He is now up to the letter 'M.' It's been a great project and I love selecting this album on my Ipod and shuffling.

Is it physics or chemistry?

Just a short while ago our rocket scientist roommate, Brigham, cooked some chicken wings on the grill. He put down a layer of tin foil and added oil to the chicken wings. Predictably a big fire started in the grill. Results below.







Sometimes I am amazed he has lived as long as he has.

How did I miss this?

May I open a window, please?

Man, I have about had it with these modern buildings with their "climate control." I am battling a bit of a head cold and as soon as I get to work my head clogs right up and my eyes get scratchy and I can hardly see. I don't have this problem at home. I believe it's called sick building syndrome. You know what is maddening? It's that if I could open a window this wouldn't be a big problem. Since this is a "modern" building all the windows are sealed. It's stoopid.