Apparently they're all working for Formula 1 racing.

Sheesh.

Posted by: Ted at 05:49 PM | category: Links
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Over at Dynamo Buzz (your source for all political Joisey things), I found a pointer to news that in February next year, there will be an outdoor hockey game at Lambeau Field, home of the NFL Green Bay Packers. The matchup will feature the University of Wisconsin and Ohio State. Roberto's got more details and a link.

Be there, or be warm.

Posted by: Ted at 04:59 PM | category: Links
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Amy tagged me with this meme and went to the trouble of emailing me to let me know (and throwing in a little ego-stroking as well). Since I'm a sucker for flattery...

Five Things I Miss From My Childhood

1. The toys. We'd spend hours outside playing with G.I. Joes, and not those wussified later versions either with the lame-ass "real" hair and beard, or kung-fu grip, or even later those dwarf-i-fied posers. I'm talking real freakin' G.I. Joes, with miniature versions of actual machine guns and grenades and bayonettes instead of made-up "cool" weapons. We didn't have any stupid nicknames either, like "Cobra" or "Streetsweeper". No secret fortress or fancy basecamps, we'd dig actual trenches and ambush pits with twig and grass covers, and someone's Mom would make us little canvas ponchos and squares that we'd turn into tents. Each of us had one or maybe two Joe's, a rifle for each and maybe a pistol and a few grenades. Then there were the Erector sets. I had three or four of them, huge metal boxes stuffed full of metal girders and plates and L-beams and pulleys and hundreds of stripped little screws and nuts. Mine all came from the flea market, where my folks would run across them on someone's table and buy it for me. They weren't complete sets, just lots of random pieces thrown together for sale secondhand. That was ok though, and I would spend hours building giant cranes and cars, and every "new" box of parts was like Christmas. For a while, my brother and I were into Hot Wheels. When we finally talked our parents into getting us a set, I specifically asked for a Camaro. I was so disappointed when we opened the set and pulled out the two included cars, because one was a Camaro. Turns out that what I really wanted was a Corvette, and my parents achieved deification when they handed each of us an extra car and mine was the Corvette I so desperately wanted! I remember my brother's first car was the Hot Wheels version of the Beatnik Bandit in bright metallic green. We collected a couple dozen cars apiece and never went beyond a fairly basic track setup, although my folks bought us a pair of high-banked turns one year for Christmas. There's so much more... Lego, back when you had to use your imagination when building things with them, and your whole collection of parts consisted of red and white bricks with maybe a few clear plastic and the rare yellow, black or blue brick. I've posted before about the Secret Sam briefcase. We had a closet in the old house that was full of board games. The contents of that closet could become a post of its own, maybe for a rainy day, that seems appropriate.

2. Orchards. I grew up on the outskirts of San Jose, California (before it became the Silicon Valley) and our playgrounds were fruit orchards. We spent the days running around and playing in them, we camped in them at night, and often we earned a little pocket money in them during the summer by cutting apricots for drying. Later we moved to the opposite end of the city and instead of apricots and cherries we had miles and miles of pear orchards. All summer long we feasted on pears picked right from the trees and towards fall had huge battles where the ammo was overripe fruit. At the end of the day we'd head home bathed in a sickly-sweet miasma from the smooshed fruit that we'd been splatted with.

3. Rainy days. I still love rainy days, but when I was young my Dad built a patio cover made of corrugated aluminum. Next best thing to a tin roof, believe me. I loved playing outside even when it rained, and at night the best lullaby ever was the sound of the drops dancing and drumming outside the window.

4. Fishing with my Dad. For one stretch, my Dad worked nights. During the summer he would come home before dawn and get my brother and I up to go fishing. He'd send the dog in to wake us up while he brewed up a thermos of coffee for himself, and sometimes he brought a bag of donuts for breakfast. We'd quickly get dressed and grab our poles and tackle boxes and head for one of the local reservoirs. We had lots of choices in our area, but I remember going to Coyote and Lake Anderson most of the time. When we got there, we'd bait up with earthworms (sometimes with salmon eggs just for a change) and toss our lines in from the bank. We caught mostly crappie and bluegill, occasionally a small bass and even more occasionally a catfish. If someone was nearby we'd offer them our fish, if not we'd release them. After a couple of hours the sun would be fully up and the fish would quit biting so we'd head home. Dad would go to bed and we'd head outside to play all day.

5. Mom's Goulash. "Goulash" is what my Mom called it, although I know now that it was nothing like the real thing. I remember it had chunks of tomato and hamburger and maccaroni in it and I absolutely loved it. We didn't have it often because my Dad hated it, and I learned something valuable from him. As my kids were growing up we'd sometimes have something that I hated, but I ate it anyway because they liked it. And since I would do that, they learned that sometimes you do something you would really rather not just because it makes someone else happy. I asked my Mom for the recipe a couple of times before she died, but she never got around to giving it to me, if she even had it written down anywhere. I'll never try to make it from memory, because I remember it as being perfect, and I don't want to disappoint myself.

So that's my five. Thanks Amy, this one was fun!

The rules:

Remove the #1 item from the following list, bump everyone up one place and add your blogÂ’s name in the #5 spot. You need to actually link to each of the blogs for the link-whorage aspect of this fiendish meme to kick in.

margi lowry *dot* com
Note-It Posts
Eat The Lettuce
Prochein Amy
Rocket Jones

Next, select four unsuspecting victims, list and link to them.

SilverBlue
Son of Cheese
Dusting My Brain
Oorgo Blog

Posted by: Ted at 10:56 AM | category: Boring Stories
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That's according to this report, and Rocket Jones is already positioned as a valuable resource for the ladies who want to dance.

Now *I'm* doing a happy dance. No charge.

Posted by: Ted at 06:49 AM | category: Links
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Derek was the winner and I promised an actual prize. Now I knew that he was a goalie in a rec league, so in an inspired moment I figured I'd find an autographed hockey photo on eBay and send it to him.

Lots to choose from, but I was got sniped at the last second twice. The second one really pissed me off because it was an uber-cool picture of Gump Worsley stopping a point blank shot by Brad Park (Gump was the last NHL goalie to play without a mask).

Next I thought about concentrating on Patrick Roy stuff, since Derek is from Colorado and Roy (pronounced "Wah") has been wowing Avalanche fans for years. So I emailed him and cleverly grilled him ("so you're an Av's fan, eh?"), and he sang like a canary that he was really a Quebec Nordiques fan. The Nordiques stunk up the NHL for years and then when they moved the franchise to Colorado they immediately won the Stanley Cup.

So on eBay I started looking for Quebec Nordique goalie photos and stumbled across his prize. I'm glad he likes it.

So there ya go. Two opportunities to win and two actual prizes awarded, and neither one had a thing to do with rockets. Gotta fix that.

Posted by: Ted at 08:55 PM | category: Links
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In Iran, a demonstration by women for equal rights. These weren't just university students either. Read about it here and follow the links for pictures.

Thanks to The Everlasting Phelps for the pointer.

Posted by: Ted at 04:22 PM | category: Links
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I started a post on it this morning, but didn't finish it before having to leave for work.

I should've known that Random Nuclear Strikes would be all over it. Better than I could've done too.

Posted by: Ted at 11:54 AM | category: Links
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This is the world's easiest meme, and it's going to spread like wildfire because it's amazingly simple yet powerful.

Post something. That's it.

I tag Instapundit, Daily Kos, Michele Malkin, Wonkette and Little Green Footballs.

Check 'em out, and if they post something today you can marvel at my power and influence! Mwahahahahahahaha.

Posted by: Ted at 05:45 AM | category: Links
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Wolf brings up some good points about Scientology and it's chief spokesdrone.

This site purports to have the real story about the Barefaced Messiah. Plenty of sordid sex and cult wierdness.* I've been reading it off and on for a while now as time allows. One thing is undisputed: L. Ron Hubbard was an odd duck, and he had a knack for attracting other gullible oddballs to himself.

I tried reading that Dianetics book once or twice, but just couldn't wade through the pseudo-scientific gibberish to make any sense of it. I don't think I got past the first 30 pages.

*Ok, there's more cult wierdness than sordid sex, but what are you really more interested in?

Posted by: Ted at 08:54 PM | category: Links
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Mookie informed me today that she was looking around at the Sims 2 website and found a downloadable game version of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural masterpiece Fallingwater.

Being me, I immediately thought of zombies (thanks to this post) and sure enough:

One of the new career tracks that comes with "The Sims 2 University" is the Paranormal career. The Paranormal career reward object is the Resurrect-o-Nomitron, an object that can be used to bring Sims back from the dead.

Oh yeah, Sims 2 zombies and Frank Lloyd Wright. It's a natural.

Posted by: Ted at 05:27 PM | category: Links
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Denzel is pure class.

Sean is pure ass.

Posted by: Ted at 04:43 PM | category: Links
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A blog devoted to NFL Cheerleaders, with plenty of links and photos.

Posted by: Ted at 11:31 AM | category: Links
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Simon is asking for your help. In the past, various surveys have been done based on the number of hours a McDonalds employee must work to be able to buy a Big Mac. Now it's time for an update.

We need three things:

1. Your location (city and country).
2. The price of a Big Mac at your local McDonalds.
3. The hourly wage (in local currency) of a worker at that McDonalds.

This is serious by the way. If you get a chance, grab a Mac and ask the cashier what they make. Then send the data to:

And help spread the word. They'll be publishing the results soon.

Posted by: Ted at 06:10 AM | category: Links
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1 Thanks Ted. I'm looking forward to your results!

Posted by: Simon at June 14, 2005 08:53 AM (eFUIt)

2 This requires them getting ONE FREAKING ORDER RIGHT and me not wanting to reach out and kill them. Sorry, I had a drive-thru experience from HELL today.

Posted by: dawn at June 14, 2005 09:01 PM (Dh1V0)

3 So the food was hot, but smelled of sulpher? I hate that.

Posted by: Ted at June 14, 2005 09:12 PM (+OVgL)

4 Numbers, people, numbers. That's all that matters.

Posted by: Simon at June 15, 2005 08:52 AM (zNXEy)

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Recently at Mookie's high school, they held a ceremony to dedicate a new memorial. Gar-Field High School has lost two alumni in Iraq, and another school in our county, Hylton High, lost two more, including one last week. I've heard that there is another one or two from other schools, but I don't have any solid information about that.

The write-up was in the local paper, but because I'm not confident that their links will last for any length of time, I've reprinted almost the entire article in the extended entry (click below on "light this candle...").

One interesting note. I've heard that while setting up this memorial, a search was made for similar things done at other schools. Apparently, their research turned up the fact that no school has dedicated a permanent Memorial to the military since midway through the Vietnam War. This was attributed to the fact that wartime memorials fell out of favor at that time because of the general anti-war and anti-military feelings of the public. Take that with a grain of salt, because although I thought it interesting enough to mention, it's all second-and-third-hand information.

In any case, I'm very proud of the school for doing this. Mookie and Robyn were at the dedication, and they said it was a moving and emotional event. Pictures of the memorial will be posted in the next day or two (assuming Rachael gets a few moments between classes). more...

Posted by: Ted at 05:04 AM | category: Links
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Because the guys over at the Ministry of Minor Perfidy are talking handguns, and rating them by the only scale that really matters: its effectiveness as an anti-zombie weapon.

Check out the latest object of my lust the Kimber .45 ACP and the Smith & Wesson 686P in .38/.357 Magnum.

I love the original Model 1911's, and owned an earlier version of the S&W, which was a fine weapon. Go read the reviews, and don't forget to lock your doors and windows at night, just in case Bub gets hungry.

Posted by: Ted at 08:54 AM | category: Links
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Yeah, right. Who am I kidding?

Posted by: Ted at 09:49 PM | category: Links
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1 Oh, my. What other fun html script have I been missing out on?!

Posted by: Tuning Spork at June 12, 2005 11:34 AM (nOyDe)

2 Ahh, so that's my problem. I must have a typo in my code. Once I debug, I'll be a C cup...

Posted by: nic at June 13, 2005 07:08 PM (gCsDB)

3 Not a bug, it's a feature.

Posted by: Ted at June 13, 2005 08:44 PM (+OVgL)

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News from the Great Beyond is hosting this week. Bon Apetit!

Posted by: Ted at 06:42 PM | category: Links
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My love of music is broad, but my knowlege is spotty. To me, Steve Cropper will always be one of the members of the the original Blues Brothers band.

Mention that he was a member of the classic Booker T and the MG's and I'll say "yeah, I'd heard that before, I think". But basically, it was Jake and Elwood and Mr. Natural and Matt "Guitar" Murphy and Donald "Duck" Dunn and Steve Cropper and the rest...

Which goes to show the genius displayed in putting together the Blues Brothers band. Those guys could play, which made for a solid foundation for the comedy. Instead of being a one-shot joke with a lame-ass garage band, these guys lifted it into brilliance. They turned it into a franchise and taught an entire generation about the blues and soul by featuring guest stars like Cab Calloway, James Brown, B.B. King, Wilson Pickett, Taj Mahal, Bo Diddley and the entire composite super-band Louisiana Gator Boys featured at the end of Blues Brothers 2000.

So Steve Cropper, already a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, will now be inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, alongside John Fogerty and Isaac Hayes (think he'll do "Chocolate Salty Balls"?). Even if you didn't know Steve Cropper's name, you know his music. Songs like "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay", "Knock on Wood", "Soul Man" and "In the Midnight Hour".

Yes indeed, you know his music.

Posted by: Ted at 06:09 AM | category: Links
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Combine two trendy Japanese passtimes, and you'd have:

Inspired by Squipper's "caption this" post.

Posted by: Ted at 08:18 PM | category: Links
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A friend of mine is selling these on eBay.

I bought one for my wife's car (lifelong Orioles fan), Mookie wants a couple for school notebooks, and I'm gonna put one on a rocket.

The price is extremely reasonable, and includes free shipping. Why don't you have one already?

Tell him Rocket Jones sent you.

Posted by: Ted at 07:30 PM | category: Links
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