Typing on a mini-keyboard

A hoy-hoy. It’s your long lost blogger friend. This may be the longest I’ve gone without posting something. I’ve decided to quit making excuses about a lack of posts. Especially now that I figured out how to update this thing from my hand held device. It may be a while until we hear from Turk again. He is going through a pretty big life change. I’ll let him tell you about that. It involves pre-op counseling. Just joshing. LOL! Anyhoo, just wanted to pop in and say, “This thang aint over yet!”

Basketball. Baseball. Babies.

I hope everyone got their vaccine for basketball fever this year. Never heard of basketball fever? You probably know it as March Madness. Not to be confused with a M.A.D.D march. I think I got  a case of the 48 hour bug this year. I had it bad for a couple of days, but I think I’m over it.

I got really excited when our Lobos made it to round two. As a matter of fact they went up against U-Dub’s Huskies. I like to think of them playing for my affection. I have spent most of my life here in Burque but I have a soft spot for Washington State. (The actual state, not those good for nothing Cougars.) I’m sure the whole time they were playing, the respective coaches were saying, “Come on, let’s make Anders proud!” So, New Mexico is out, Washington is in. Now I need them to win and go on to beat the Red Sissies over at Cornell.

While I’m on the subject, everyone should pray, hope, or do some sort of ceremonial dance for JoJo’s Bears tonight.

In other sports news, the staff here at R.I will be attending a spring training exposition game between the Colorado Rockies and the Seattle Mariners. I’m hoping to get one of those mini bats for Ichiro to sign. Maybe this year I will catch both more Topes games her in town and Mariners games on TV.

Lastly, the wife and I are expecting a little one in the fall. A little human to be more specific. And yet even more specifically, a baby human that shares some of our genes. We still don’t know the sex yet, but I’m gunning for Snake Eyes if it’s a boy and Sgt. Slaughter if it’s a girl.

On a unrelated note. Does anyone know when Rush Limbaugh’s flight leaves? I’m sure he has to get all of his personal affairs in order before he leaves the country for good. Next on the list, Ann ”The ’C’ Word” Coulter.

Friday Funnies

One of my favorite time wasters is Cyanide and Happiness. I’m sure we have all seen these a gajillion times, but I still find them very humorous. I will say that these are very tasteless could be offensive. That’s why I like them after all.

A couple things first. Why do people still call things tasteless. I understand things may be in bad taste, but that contridicts the ‘less part of it. In my opinion C&H is full of taste. The only thing I think is tasteless is styrofoam, yet people always say rice cakes taste like it. All I’m saying is we need to re-think how we run this society. Sorry to get all philisophical on you guys.

Also, I’ve noticed that some pretty random things get blocked from the network at work. C&H is not one of them though. As much as I enjoy this overlooked fact, I think I should start my own business of looking for sites to be blocked. I could just suf the web and report back to the ties upstairs the atrocities I have found. But then I would be a traitor to slackers everywhere.

So here are some of my favs from C&H. I recomend going to thier site and clicking the random button until today is over and compile your favorites. You may not get a lot done, but you enjoy your weekend that much more. But don’t take my word for it.

(Because I am lazy and tend to give up on things quickly, I am just posting the URLs to my favs)

*Reminder-this only funny if you get over yourself

http://www.explosm.net/comics/1876/

http://www.explosm.net/comics/1876/

http://www.explosm.net/comics/854/

http://www.explosm.net/comics/498/

http://www.explosm.net/comics/765/

http://www.explosm.net/comics/1638/

http://www.explosm.net/comics/1483/

http://www.explosm.net/comics/434/

http://www.explosm.net/comics/1632/

http://www.explosm.net/comics/874/

Look out for a podcast from the folks at RI. You should see something soon, assuming I don’t give up quickly.

In Anticipation of Tonight’s “Tonight Show” “Debut”

To the new Jay Leno Tonight Show Ads:

Also, it dawned on me today that I could go for some work slippers.  Something that looks like a regular office-appropriate show on the outside, but was lined with something extremely soft on the inside.  At the place where I used to work, a couple of the partners would routinely take their shoes off for most of the day, and have no problem walking around in their socks.  Not sure I could do that, but a work slipper seems like it would offer that kind of comfort, while still at least appearing to be wearing proper attire.  Must put on to-invent list.

Jimmy Johnson Goes Long

Just saw this on the teevee:

More surprising than Bob Dole’s Viagra ads, right?

Pretty cool

This is pretty interesting. I didn’t realize quite how much filming of television shows is done via green screens. It looks like almost no filming is done on location anymore.

Tiger Style

Happy belated Chinese New Year everyone. The year of the tiger. Give us your best, you striped son-of-a-tigress. Vegas was fun. It’s taken me this long to recuperate though. I’m still not sure I can look a Miller Lite directly in the label. Met some cool people. Some of them I already knew, some I met for the first time. No bowling this year, just plain old trouble. I won’t bore you with details about the posh suite we stayed in or the fancy Italian dinner we had at Rao’s.

In case any one with important decision-making capabilities is reading, can we revamp the Winter Olympics? It’s the pits. I remember thinking as a kid that this was just one more thing you only appreciate as an adult. In my case no such luck. Don’t get me wrong, there are some things that can stay. I’m looking in your direction luge, skeleton, and biathlon. For the most part, the stuff they show on TV is turable. Figure skating? Come on! There’s no question in my mind that it is hard, but so are relationships. Call me when I can enter in the argument competition.

I know this is cliché to talk about the Olympics right now. That’s all anyone is talking about right now. Seriously though, have you seen the male figure skaters uniforms outfits costumes getups? That guy Johnny Whatshisname was wearing a corset. Enough homophobic rants from me though.

In other sporting news, I’d like to send a message out to Ichiro Suzuki and Ken Griffey Jr: You better win the world series and help me turn $10 into $200. Also, a message to the Rams, Ravens, Seahawks, Browns, Bears, Bengals, and Texans: Win the Superbowl and I will be the happiest boy on the street.

Moving right along, the folks here at R.I are throwing around the idea of a new medium for thier mindless chatter. Patturk and I are starting a podcast! Not too many details yet. We will be smoothing out some kinks this month and should have something by March. If anyone is an expert in um, say, web design, please contact us immediately. Most likely we will be using a free site to start out with. P.T and Anders be broke and I’m not so sure about an actual fan base. We’ll keep you updated.

Ma’a Salama y’all.

Could not have said it better.

Taken at a rally featuring Sarah Palin, no less.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! The boys take RI on the road!

It’s that time of year again. January is over, February is here, and again I remember that February has an extra ‘r’. I feel that if I actually pronounce it the way it’s spelled, I sound a little slow. More than just a change of the months, we are coming upon Super Bowl weekend. For the past two years I have joined a real stand up bunch on the yearly Vegas Trip. Vegas means different things depending on who you ask. To some, it means shows, shopping, and great meals. To others it means an excess of alcohol, strippers, and debauchery. To me it means a quiet weekend by the pool and time to catch up on a few books.

At this point I’m assuming my wife stopped reading this. Actually, Vegas for this group fairly tame. Gambling, yes. Drinking, yes. Add in a few meals and you’ve got our Vegas weekend. That is all I will say about it, because after all, what happens in Vegas is forgotten by the time we get home.

What I will say is that we are staying at the all mighty palace of Caesar. No, not the real palace. I know that within two hours of arriving at the hotel, everyone in our presence will be tired of Joe and I making references to The Hangover. I can only imagine how many times the desk clerks have to hear jokes like, “Are you pager friendly?” Actually, Joe and I are probably the ideal husbands when it comes to Vegas. Not to say that if our wives were there, they would be ready to strangle us to stop the stream of dumb jokes. Add some free drinks from blackjack and video poker and they would be ready to go home. We are pretty tame when it comes to Vegas standards. We generally always get up early, and don’t stray far from the hotel. I won’t mention the trip to In-n-Out. We even visited the bowling alley last year. Those frames were pretty wild.

Still, this trip is a dudes only event. If only because our wives don’t even want to go for the Super Bowl. By this time tomorrow, I will be hunched over some sort of table making lame jokes made famous by Jon Favreau and Zac Galafanakis. (Why did I choose to reference the two hardest names to spell?)

In other news, I am going full force into the semester. I somehow managed to subconsciously pick classes that require a lot of writing.  Every single class is that way. I think it was the bad taste that algebra left in my mouth last semester. I would rather write essays everyday than define the domain or range.

One of my classes is Writing for the Media. Or as my people call Journalism. It’s a great class, but I’m pretty sure I am THAT guy in the class. I really try not to, but I answer the teachers questions and *gasp* do the work correctly. To make matters worse/better, the teacher told me today that I have my head in the right direction. Previous comments include, “You’re a really good student” and “I don’t know why I always forget you during role, you really know what you’re doing”. Did I mention that he says this in front of the class? If I had a locker, it would be vandalized by now. The teacher also said he would most likely curve when grading and by my calculations I would be the destroyer of said curve. Do I really care, nah. They can all go climb a tree as some might say.

So that’s it for now. On to write my paper about Democrats and Republicans. What a load of spinach.

Oh yeah, did I tell you that’s my new word for nonsense? It is.

Keep it jiggy on the dilly-o.

Trainblogging

I just moved to New Mexico about a month ago from New Jersey. Before I moved, I was driving to work every day. It was maybe 13 miles door-to-door, but it took anywhere from 25 to 50 minutes, depending on what time I left. It was the angriest drive imaginable: constant construction (which ultimately was for a good purpose, but the incremental improvements make it akin to being driven mad by a leaky faucet), too many other drivers, traffic lights – by the time I got to work, I was grinding my teeth and my knuckles were bruised from punching the steering wheel.
As it so happens, now that I live in the West, I’m primarily taking public transportation to work, which is funny because I always think of the big, older urban areas of the country as the places where you find public transportation. But I’d also forgotten something: I really love taking the train. Rather than spend an hour driving while engaging in futile efforts to keep my anger contained, I can read, check e-mail, post something on RI (thanks, WordPress Blackberry app!), or just sleep. It’s as if my day suddenly got three hours longer. Yea, I’m not as in-control of my schedule, and you lose a some autonomy. But it’s far cheaper, and probably a thousand times more relaxing than driving.

So why is it considered pie-in-the-sky naivete to think we should have a national high-speed rail system? I’m putting aside for now the hand-wringing arguments about people not wanting it (with the way the NM Railrunner gets packed every day, I don’t see buy that). When you look back at what was going on 50 or so years ago, we were investing in national projects that were destined to both last for a really long time, improve the lives of a lot of (if not all) citizens, and keep the country progressing and developing. We had the national highway system laying down roads all over the place, which vastly improved commerce; we had big investments in research and universities; we had NASA and myriad places to visit in space.

So what are we doing for the future now? Research investment gets panned and frequently targeted as a way for the government to make cuts. We have, at best, reactionary responses to transportation issues, like rebuilding that bridge in Minnesota after it crumbled and killed people, or improving the air traffic control systems and computers after a plane crash in Kentucky because of poor air traffic control caused deaths. We’re a smart country; can’t we think of these things ahead of time?

It seems to me that if we wanted to, and if we stop ceding power to those who just wave their hands and say, “Nah, that’ll cost too much” and deal only with the adults, we could do some of these things which would create jobs now, right now; but also pave the way for future innovations we haven’t thought of yet.

Where are we going to get the next Velcro or Tang?

UPDATE: Oh, wait, I forgot about this little plan: We’re going to Mars, bitches!