More Panorama fun
Took this picture this morning at Freedom Park.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
George McGovern smacks down our shitty, shitty president
This is incredible. Let's impeach that son of a bitch!
This is incredible. Let's impeach that son of a bitch!
I am buying this book after work today
"Each individual top 10 list is like its own steeplechase through the international canon. Look at Michael Chabon's. He heads it up with Jorge Luis Borges's Labyrinths. (Nice: an undersung masterpiece by a writer's writer.) He follows that up with by Pale Fire by Nabokov at #2. (Hm. Does he really think it's better than Lolita? Really?) Then with number 3 he goes straight off the reservation: Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini. (What? By who?) The whole exercise is an orgy of intellectual second-guessing, which as we all know is infinitely more fun than the first round of guessing."
"Each individual top 10 list is like its own steeplechase through the international canon. Look at Michael Chabon's. He heads it up with Jorge Luis Borges's Labyrinths. (Nice: an undersung masterpiece by a writer's writer.) He follows that up with by Pale Fire by Nabokov at #2. (Hm. Does he really think it's better than Lolita? Really?) Then with number 3 he goes straight off the reservation: Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini. (What? By who?) The whole exercise is an orgy of intellectual second-guessing, which as we all know is infinitely more fun than the first round of guessing."
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Catch a Glimpse
Hey look! A picture of Harper Lee! I do not believe Harper Lee is reclusive. I think she is more like Sandy Koufax and just wants to be left the hell alone. Why does that have to mean reclusive in our world? Imagine, someone not chasing celebrity. What an oddball. I hope everyone that comes to this blog has read "To Kill a Mockingbird." It'll stay with you forever. In a good way, not like the way the time your dad punched you in the face stays with you.
Hey look! A picture of Harper Lee! I do not believe Harper Lee is reclusive. I think she is more like Sandy Koufax and just wants to be left the hell alone. Why does that have to mean reclusive in our world? Imagine, someone not chasing celebrity. What an oddball. I hope everyone that comes to this blog has read "To Kill a Mockingbird." It'll stay with you forever. In a good way, not like the way the time your dad punched you in the face stays with you.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Skyline photo contest
Every year the Charlotte Chamber sponsors a photo contest for pictures taken of the Charlotte skyline. Today's Charlotte Observer has this years winner and winners from previous years on its web page.
Every year the Charlotte Chamber sponsors a photo contest for pictures taken of the Charlotte skyline. Today's Charlotte Observer has this years winner and winners from previous years on its web page.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
What else is there to do?
What's the first thing you do when you are elected into the baseball hall of fame? Why, make as much money as possible off it, of course.
What's the first thing you do when you are elected into the baseball hall of fame? Why, make as much money as possible off it, of course.
These people make me sick
I've been reading this article concerning the rendition of suspected terrorists. It's making me sick to my stomach. George Bush is slime.
I've been reading this article concerning the rendition of suspected terrorists. It's making me sick to my stomach. George Bush is slime.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
I'm having 'roid rage
You know, I am getting more than a little fed up with all those Mark McGwire apologists out there. They always drop Ty Cobb's name into this debate and that amuses me to no end. Say what you want about Cobb's personality, sure he was batshit crazy, a horrible racist and may have killed a man with his bare hands but...but...but...he was such a baseball purist that he would have thought anyone that took a foreign substance in order to perform better than their peers was a lowlife and not worth spiking. Hell, he couldn't stomach home runs and barely tolerated Babe Ruth. I doubt he would have cheered players with physiques as grotesque as Popeye's.
Then they mention Gaylord Perry and the spit ball. Well, surely, they say, if Perry, a self admitted spitballer (why he even wrote a book called Me and the Spitter!!!!) can sit in that hallowed hall with his criminal past then certainly someone like McGwire who also bent the rules to gain a competitive advantage should be in the hall of fame. What a load of hooey! First of all the spitball involves adding a little moisture to a baseball so when the ball is pitched it has extra movement on it as it approaches the plate. That extra movement makes the ball more difficult to hit. Steroids create unnatural behemoths that can hit a baseball almost 700 feet. I think you can see the difference. Also the spitball has been around as long as baseball existed and once it became illegal then it became one more rule that players did all they could to bypass. One of the intricacies of baseball that fans love about it is the constant attempts by players and managers to skirt the rulebook. Back in the early 1900's when there was only one umpire running a game baserunners would round off third base if the ball was hit down the right field line. Hey, if John McGraw scored a few extra runs because he missed third base when he could then it's just fine if Mark McGwire juiced himself up to monstrous proportions. Honestly, if these writers can't tell the difference between king kong like physiques and a few sneaky spitballs then they are either lying to themselves or shameless apologists.
What is sad about these apologists is the reason they are stooping to defending an obvious cheater. The reason is that baseball statistics are about as sacred to some Americans as their chosen holy book. Baseball survives and thrives on its statistics. There are websites out there devoted to these
statistics and players like Bonds, Canseco, and McGwire have taken our collective baseball encyclopedia and tea bagged it with their tiny steroid-shrunken balls. Sometimes I wish I could look the other way and just pretend these artificial feats were the achievements of great athletes but they weren't and it should be acknowledged. I swear to god, if Barry Bonds approaches the career home run record this year and Hank Aaron is pressured into attending the game and is forced to stand smiling next to that giant headed monster, I will shed a tear. Hank Aaron broke into baseball when a black player still had to fight his way through the league and he broke Babe Ruth's record while enduring death threats. Barry Bonds is a spoiled rich kid who pumped himself full of drugs.
Hopefully a precedent was set today by the baseball writers when less than thirty percent of them voted to induct Mark McGwire into the baseball hall of fame. Players from the steroid era that so obviously cheated don't belong in the same hall of fame with true and honorable players like the sly Gaylord Perry, the ferocious Ty Cobb and future inductee, the graceful Derek Jeter.
You know, I am getting more than a little fed up with all those Mark McGwire apologists out there. They always drop Ty Cobb's name into this debate and that amuses me to no end. Say what you want about Cobb's personality, sure he was batshit crazy, a horrible racist and may have killed a man with his bare hands but...but...but...he was such a baseball purist that he would have thought anyone that took a foreign substance in order to perform better than their peers was a lowlife and not worth spiking. Hell, he couldn't stomach home runs and barely tolerated Babe Ruth. I doubt he would have cheered players with physiques as grotesque as Popeye's.
Then they mention Gaylord Perry and the spit ball. Well, surely, they say, if Perry, a self admitted spitballer (why he even wrote a book called Me and the Spitter!!!!) can sit in that hallowed hall with his criminal past then certainly someone like McGwire who also bent the rules to gain a competitive advantage should be in the hall of fame. What a load of hooey! First of all the spitball involves adding a little moisture to a baseball so when the ball is pitched it has extra movement on it as it approaches the plate. That extra movement makes the ball more difficult to hit. Steroids create unnatural behemoths that can hit a baseball almost 700 feet. I think you can see the difference. Also the spitball has been around as long as baseball existed and once it became illegal then it became one more rule that players did all they could to bypass. One of the intricacies of baseball that fans love about it is the constant attempts by players and managers to skirt the rulebook. Back in the early 1900's when there was only one umpire running a game baserunners would round off third base if the ball was hit down the right field line. Hey, if John McGraw scored a few extra runs because he missed third base when he could then it's just fine if Mark McGwire juiced himself up to monstrous proportions. Honestly, if these writers can't tell the difference between king kong like physiques and a few sneaky spitballs then they are either lying to themselves or shameless apologists.
What is sad about these apologists is the reason they are stooping to defending an obvious cheater. The reason is that baseball statistics are about as sacred to some Americans as their chosen holy book. Baseball survives and thrives on its statistics. There are websites out there devoted to these
statistics and players like Bonds, Canseco, and McGwire have taken our collective baseball encyclopedia and tea bagged it with their tiny steroid-shrunken balls. Sometimes I wish I could look the other way and just pretend these artificial feats were the achievements of great athletes but they weren't and it should be acknowledged. I swear to god, if Barry Bonds approaches the career home run record this year and Hank Aaron is pressured into attending the game and is forced to stand smiling next to that giant headed monster, I will shed a tear. Hank Aaron broke into baseball when a black player still had to fight his way through the league and he broke Babe Ruth's record while enduring death threats. Barry Bonds is a spoiled rich kid who pumped himself full of drugs.
Hopefully a precedent was set today by the baseball writers when less than thirty percent of them voted to induct Mark McGwire into the baseball hall of fame. Players from the steroid era that so obviously cheated don't belong in the same hall of fame with true and honorable players like the sly Gaylord Perry, the ferocious Ty Cobb and future inductee, the graceful Derek Jeter.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
New look, same old boring blog
Yes, a new and not any more interesting era is dawning here at my blog. I did my very first tweaking of a template by putting Godzilla's head over the leaves that were originally on the banner of this template. Godzilla didn't quite cover the leaves so I put an incongruous old church next to Godzilla. Godzilla didn't eat the old church, no one was hurt during the recreation of this banner. I think I will mess around later with Photoshop and try and tweak it a little more. Doing that will help keep my brain active and I'll live forever like those Catholic nuns from that study someone did on brain health a few years ago. It was in all the papers and NPR even did a story on it. Nuns have all the luck, they are married to Jesus and they have healthy brains even when they're old.
Yes, a new and not any more interesting era is dawning here at my blog. I did my very first tweaking of a template by putting Godzilla's head over the leaves that were originally on the banner of this template. Godzilla didn't quite cover the leaves so I put an incongruous old church next to Godzilla. Godzilla didn't eat the old church, no one was hurt during the recreation of this banner. I think I will mess around later with Photoshop and try and tweak it a little more. Doing that will help keep my brain active and I'll live forever like those Catholic nuns from that study someone did on brain health a few years ago. It was in all the papers and NPR even did a story on it. Nuns have all the luck, they are married to Jesus and they have healthy brains even when they're old.
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