Monday, July 30, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
All the cheaters...
Are nothing more than asshats.
Sport is chaos without rules. Everyone knows that, it doesn't need elaboration. If you're going to be a professional athlete, you'd better be prepared to submit to the rules of your team and whatever sanctioning body enforces rules.
It seems that all professional sports have their cheaters. Pro baseball has steroid abusers. Technically for years, steroids were not verboten in baseball, but should those who have been implicated in steroid scandals be included in record books? For decades, the holder for most home runs was Babe Ruth. This man did it all not only without drugs, but half drunk and obese as hell. His feat was remarkable. Hank Aaron overtook Ruth with hard work and sacrifice. Now we have an implicated steroid abuser about to take over the all time home run record. Bonds has not used his natural talents to achieve this feat and should not be recognized.
Michael Vick is an exceptional athlete but he's proving that he's not so smart. Today he's being arraigned on dog fighting charges. As far as I'm concerned, this is associated with the thug culture that is ruining much of American professional sports. Many athletes think they need to prove how 'cool' or 'tough' they are off the field or court and have adopted this thug culture to achieve their goal.
Professional golf isn't even immune to accusations of steroid abuse. Seve Ballesteros, a leading golfer from the 1970's to the 1990's, has accused top contenders in the PGA tour of using steroids in order to compete at the highest level.
Now to cycling, one of my favorite sports. July is the month for the pinnacle event in pro cycling, The Tour de France. Cycling has had a history of doping cyclists since the late 1970's. Sanctioning bodies, teams and individual cyclists have fought to clean up the sport for years. The Tour has led and continues to lead the fight against doping and drug abuse. This year should have been the year for a drug free Tour. Riders are subject to the most stringent drug testing in all of sport. The fear of getting caught should be enough to dissuade riders from doping or drugging up. Not everyone is so smart...
Alexandre Vinokourov was found to have doped his blood. How stupid is that? Put someone else's blood, packed with oxygen carrying cells in your body and expect to get away with it. You're not going to.
Michael Rasmussen was dismissed not for failing a drug test, but for lying about his where-abouts a few weeks before the Tour. This falls into the area of just following the rules. I'm not convinced so much that he's doping or using performance enhancing drugs, but what should we believe when he lies about his whereabouts weeks before the Tour. Supposedly in Mexico visiting his wife's family, Rasmussen was seen in the mountains of Italy and unavailable for testing. Blame isn't on the sanctioning body for the strictness of the tests, but on the rider who makes himself unavailable and lies about the reason.
My faith hasn't been shaken in cycling. I agree with Phil Ligget, commentator on the US cable channel Versus, with his assessment that this should not be the darkest days for the Tour, rather the brightest. I'm encouraged that a team has no problem at all removing a cheater who was wearing Yellow. I'm encouraged that the Tour has no problem removing one of the biggest names and pre-race favorites (and his team) from the race. I'm encouraged that cyclists right and left are speaking out as well as silently protesting the drug abuse that is dominating the news of the Tour. I have faith that the sport of cycling can clean itself up. I'm still a fan and will continue to be. Eventually, riders will learn that there is no way they can dope and get away with it. The punishments will be too great for them to push the system.
Sport is chaos without rules. Everyone knows that, it doesn't need elaboration. If you're going to be a professional athlete, you'd better be prepared to submit to the rules of your team and whatever sanctioning body enforces rules.
It seems that all professional sports have their cheaters. Pro baseball has steroid abusers. Technically for years, steroids were not verboten in baseball, but should those who have been implicated in steroid scandals be included in record books? For decades, the holder for most home runs was Babe Ruth. This man did it all not only without drugs, but half drunk and obese as hell. His feat was remarkable. Hank Aaron overtook Ruth with hard work and sacrifice. Now we have an implicated steroid abuser about to take over the all time home run record. Bonds has not used his natural talents to achieve this feat and should not be recognized.
Michael Vick is an exceptional athlete but he's proving that he's not so smart. Today he's being arraigned on dog fighting charges. As far as I'm concerned, this is associated with the thug culture that is ruining much of American professional sports. Many athletes think they need to prove how 'cool' or 'tough' they are off the field or court and have adopted this thug culture to achieve their goal.
Professional golf isn't even immune to accusations of steroid abuse. Seve Ballesteros, a leading golfer from the 1970's to the 1990's, has accused top contenders in the PGA tour of using steroids in order to compete at the highest level.
Now to cycling, one of my favorite sports. July is the month for the pinnacle event in pro cycling, The Tour de France. Cycling has had a history of doping cyclists since the late 1970's. Sanctioning bodies, teams and individual cyclists have fought to clean up the sport for years. The Tour has led and continues to lead the fight against doping and drug abuse. This year should have been the year for a drug free Tour. Riders are subject to the most stringent drug testing in all of sport. The fear of getting caught should be enough to dissuade riders from doping or drugging up. Not everyone is so smart...
Alexandre Vinokourov was found to have doped his blood. How stupid is that? Put someone else's blood, packed with oxygen carrying cells in your body and expect to get away with it. You're not going to.
Michael Rasmussen was dismissed not for failing a drug test, but for lying about his where-abouts a few weeks before the Tour. This falls into the area of just following the rules. I'm not convinced so much that he's doping or using performance enhancing drugs, but what should we believe when he lies about his whereabouts weeks before the Tour. Supposedly in Mexico visiting his wife's family, Rasmussen was seen in the mountains of Italy and unavailable for testing. Blame isn't on the sanctioning body for the strictness of the tests, but on the rider who makes himself unavailable and lies about the reason.
My faith hasn't been shaken in cycling. I agree with Phil Ligget, commentator on the US cable channel Versus, with his assessment that this should not be the darkest days for the Tour, rather the brightest. I'm encouraged that a team has no problem at all removing a cheater who was wearing Yellow. I'm encouraged that the Tour has no problem removing one of the biggest names and pre-race favorites (and his team) from the race. I'm encouraged that cyclists right and left are speaking out as well as silently protesting the drug abuse that is dominating the news of the Tour. I have faith that the sport of cycling can clean itself up. I'm still a fan and will continue to be. Eventually, riders will learn that there is no way they can dope and get away with it. The punishments will be too great for them to push the system.
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Wednesday, July 25, 2007
No freaking way
I'm a fan of cycling. I'm a big fan of the Tour de France. Typically, France, eh, you can keep it. But when it comes to the Tour, I'm all over that. I Tivo every stage so that I can come home and watch the highlights after work. To me it is 3 weeks of bliss. Cyclists are amazing athletes who endure more just sitting on a saddle for 5+ hours a day than most athletes endure in a season.
What the hell is going on with cycling though. Doping suspicions are going to wreck the beloved sport. Lance Armstrong was the most tested man in sport when he was winning the Tour. He passed every test with flying colors. Last year's winner is still under a cloud of suspicion (and not recognized by the Tour as the winner, btw) after having high levels of Testosterone in his blood sample. Just yesterday, a test of Alexandre Vinokourov's blood shows that he was doping so he and his team dropped out of the race. Today I open up the 'puter and see that the leader, two time winner of King of the Mountains Michael Rasmussen has been removed from the race by his team for violation of internal rules. The rule is that he must report his whereabouts 24/7/365 and be available for drug testing at any time. According to the stories I saw last week, this all comes about because he missed a couple of flights flying to and from Mexico to visit his in-laws.
I don't know what to make of this news now. Is this to be like baseball? I was able to hold on to the innocence of sport and competition for a long time watching baseball, until steroids and strikes became de riguer. Am I not allowed to believe in sport and pure human competition anymore?
I just don't know what to make of this
What the hell is going on with cycling though. Doping suspicions are going to wreck the beloved sport. Lance Armstrong was the most tested man in sport when he was winning the Tour. He passed every test with flying colors. Last year's winner is still under a cloud of suspicion (and not recognized by the Tour as the winner, btw) after having high levels of Testosterone in his blood sample. Just yesterday, a test of Alexandre Vinokourov's blood shows that he was doping so he and his team dropped out of the race. Today I open up the 'puter and see that the leader, two time winner of King of the Mountains Michael Rasmussen has been removed from the race by his team for violation of internal rules. The rule is that he must report his whereabouts 24/7/365 and be available for drug testing at any time. According to the stories I saw last week, this all comes about because he missed a couple of flights flying to and from Mexico to visit his in-laws.
I don't know what to make of this news now. Is this to be like baseball? I was able to hold on to the innocence of sport and competition for a long time watching baseball, until steroids and strikes became de riguer. Am I not allowed to believe in sport and pure human competition anymore?
I just don't know what to make of this
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Injury?
I was running yesterday at lunch and started to have this pain in my Achilles tendon like needles. I figured I would run through it and it would just feel better. Nah. Still painful today so I'm headed to the trainer to see what he can do for me. I hope It heals quickly since I'm enjoying running so much.
Edit: It's a strain, the trainer says. So he hooked me up to a muscle stimulator and let it work me for a while. The tendon felt much better when I left. Now I've got it iced for the night and I'm going back after work tomorrow.
Edit: It's a strain, the trainer says. So he hooked me up to a muscle stimulator and let it work me for a while. The tendon felt much better when I left. Now I've got it iced for the night and I'm going back after work tomorrow.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Are you a Best Buy customer
Or do you use the Geek Squad to service your computer? Do you think your information is private when you have a Geek Squad member working on your machine? Think again!
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Thursday, July 19, 2007
A dog pic
It's kind of slow in my world today, so I wanted to share a picture...
The little guy in the bucket is Everett.
The little guy in the bucket is Everett.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Everyone is talking corn
Matt laments the use of corn sweetener in our food while Tam focuses on the subsidies associated with Ethanol production. Kudos to both!!
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Tuesday, July 17, 2007
The next...
Reader will be #1000! It's really picked up in the past few months. I really appreciate anyone who takes time to read this little blog. I know that the content is all over the map, but if you know me, you know I am all over the map.
Thanks everyone!!!!
Thanks everyone!!!!
Monday, July 16, 2007
Ethanol
I've had a little interest in alternative fuels for years, ever since I used to travel with my father to the South Georgia corn fields and the many back woods distilleries stills that were producing "ethanol" back in the '70's. I barely remember, but he had contacts with farmers who would produce corn mash for, ummm, medicinal purposes...yeah, that's it... He'd get a bit of this to take back to Tech so they could work on figuring out an alternative to gasoline.
Ethanol has promise, but we're beginning to figure out that the costs with production might prohibit the wide-spread adoption of ethanol as "the answer" to our fuel woes. Using corn to produce ethanol is already causing issues with animal feed prices, leading to higher grocery prices in general. Here's a nice alternative to using corn to produce ethanol.
Ethanol has promise, but we're beginning to figure out that the costs with production might prohibit the wide-spread adoption of ethanol as "the answer" to our fuel woes. Using corn to produce ethanol is already causing issues with animal feed prices, leading to higher grocery prices in general. Here's a nice alternative to using corn to produce ethanol.
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Friday, July 13, 2007
Our pets
Tomorrow morning I have to go and say goodbye to a greyhound that I've known since 1998. Robin and I got Kookie back in September of 1998. He came to us strictly as a re-hab case, we were to help him mend and then he'd be placed back in his previous home. After seeing his condition and helping him regain his help, there was no question that Kookie was going to stay. He coursed for just a little while in 1999 and 2000. Kookie won Open stake at the 1999 II in Virginia, but we forfeited breed because he tore a shoulder muscle. After re-habbing this injury, Kookie tried again, only to break a toe. His coursing career ended with 89 points towards his FCh.
Robin and Kookie have been fortunate to have each other through the years. He has always been a fabulous pet and a very personable dog.
Kookie has not been feeling well for a while, not eating well, having to get up in the middle of the night, back legs not working well. Robin took him in yesterday and had x-rays done. The vet found a large mass in his abdomen. We are staunch believers that animals should never have to go through hell so that they might live for us just a few weeks or months. With that in mind, Robin has made the decision that we'll have to let Kookie go tomorrow.
Godspeed, Kookie.
Edit: Got a call this afternoon from Robin. Kookie was much worse today than yesterday. She went ahead and took him in. He's with his brothers and sister now.
Robin and Kookie have been fortunate to have each other through the years. He has always been a fabulous pet and a very personable dog.
Kookie has not been feeling well for a while, not eating well, having to get up in the middle of the night, back legs not working well. Robin took him in yesterday and had x-rays done. The vet found a large mass in his abdomen. We are staunch believers that animals should never have to go through hell so that they might live for us just a few weeks or months. With that in mind, Robin has made the decision that we'll have to let Kookie go tomorrow.
Godspeed, Kookie.
Edit: Got a call this afternoon from Robin. Kookie was much worse today than yesterday. She went ahead and took him in. He's with his brothers and sister now.
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Our pets
Tomorrow morning I have to go and say goodbye to a greyhound that I've known since 1998. Robin and I got Kookie back in September of 1998. He came to us strictly as a re-hab case, we were to help him mend and then he'd be placed back in his previous home. After seeing his condition and helping him regain his help, there was no question that Kookie was going to stay. He coursed for just a little while in 1999 and 2000. Kookie won Open stake at the 1999 II in Virginia, but we forfeited breed because he tore a shoulder muscle. After re-habbing this injury, Kookie tried again, only to break a toe. His coursing career ended with 89 points towards his FCh.
Robin and Kookie have been fortunate to have each other through the years. He has always been a fabulous pet and a very personable dog.
Kookie has not been feeling well for a while, not eating well, having to get up in the middle of the night, back legs not working well. Robin took him in yesterday and had x-rays done. The vet found a large mass in his abdomen. We are staunch believers that animals should never have to go through hell so that they might live for us just a few weeks or months. With that in mind, Robin has made the decision that we'll have to let Kookie go tomorrow.
Godspeed, Kookie.
Robin and Kookie have been fortunate to have each other through the years. He has always been a fabulous pet and a very personable dog.
Kookie has not been feeling well for a while, not eating well, having to get up in the middle of the night, back legs not working well. Robin took him in yesterday and had x-rays done. The vet found a large mass in his abdomen. We are staunch believers that animals should never have to go through hell so that they might live for us just a few weeks or months. With that in mind, Robin has made the decision that we'll have to let Kookie go tomorrow.
Godspeed, Kookie.
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Thursday, July 12, 2007
Good news for all pet owners
Even if you don't live in California, the spay/neuter bill could have had an impact on all pet owners. Good news came out today, the bill died in the CA senate.
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Foreclosures are down.
Following up on a post from a couple of days ago, according to this article, foreclosures dropped a whopping 7% in June. Don't get too excited though, foreclosure rates are still up 87% over June 2006.
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Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Moving day
I'm going to try to move the blog to my website where I can make sure that the content will always be with me. We might experience some hiccups, but hopefully it'll go smoothly.
Edit: It's not going well at all. Well, it did until I tried to post. Then I was like, wtf? Where the hell is the post??? Can't have that, now can we?
Edit #2: Meh. Not a happy camper am I. The reason I wanted to move the blog over to my website was to make it easier to upload photos. That's a goal of mine is to begin to record more of our life in pics. Anyways, no love. So far. I'm going to keep digging to see what I can uncover. Anyone know if Blogger even lets you house your blog content on a website now? I know they used to.
Edit: It's not going well at all. Well, it did until I tried to post. Then I was like, wtf? Where the hell is the post??? Can't have that, now can we?
Edit #2: Meh. Not a happy camper am I. The reason I wanted to move the blog over to my website was to make it easier to upload photos. That's a goal of mine is to begin to record more of our life in pics. Anyways, no love. So far. I'm going to keep digging to see what I can uncover. Anyone know if Blogger even lets you house your blog content on a website now? I know they used to.
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Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Did you sign up for a subprime loan?
Subprime Meltdown: Doomsday Coming in October For The Subprime Mortgage Industry - Consumerist
My grandfather was a director for Delta Community Credit Union (formally Delta Employee Credit Union) for some 50 years. We were just talking about this subject the other day. I've been seeing signs of problems due to subprime loans for a while. According to Realtytrac.com, Georgia has the highest rate of foreclosures as of early 2007. Henry County is pushing 1 foreclosure for every 154 households. That's just amazing!
When I was a kid I never heard of a foreclosure. It just wasn't part of the world. Now it's so pervasive that in my neighborhood of $200k-$1+million homes, we're having repeated foreclosures, and a lot of them.
This could be a good turn around though. From what I can tell, the people being foreclosed upon are those who are a little less than desirable when looking at property values. Perhaps some of these homes will be bought up by responsible owners.
My grandfather was a director for Delta Community Credit Union (formally Delta Employee Credit Union) for some 50 years. We were just talking about this subject the other day. I've been seeing signs of problems due to subprime loans for a while. According to Realtytrac.com, Georgia has the highest rate of foreclosures as of early 2007. Henry County is pushing 1 foreclosure for every 154 households. That's just amazing!
When I was a kid I never heard of a foreclosure. It just wasn't part of the world. Now it's so pervasive that in my neighborhood of $200k-$1+million homes, we're having repeated foreclosures, and a lot of them.
This could be a good turn around though. From what I can tell, the people being foreclosed upon are those who are a little less than desirable when looking at property values. Perhaps some of these homes will be bought up by responsible owners.
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Monday, July 09, 2007
Tools of the trade
Y'all remember back when I talked about using Google Reader to consolidate all the blog feeds into one easy interface? I'm still using it and loving it as much as ever. Sure makes it easy to hit all my favorite blogs as quickly as possible.
I was checking out the latest add-ons for Firefox this morning and ran across ScribeFire. It's a nice editor that is tied in to Firefox so that I can make notes while I'm reading or copy and paste without really changing windows. So far I'm finding that I like it, but I'm not ready to totally endorse it. I tried a MS product a while back and did abandon it almost immediately. I'll report back.
Thanks to Babs for the link to Feedburner. I don't get near the traffic that she and some other blogs get, but I appreciate seeing who read the blog!
I was checking out the latest add-ons for Firefox this morning and ran across ScribeFire. It's a nice editor that is tied in to Firefox so that I can make notes while I'm reading or copy and paste without really changing windows. So far I'm finding that I like it, but I'm not ready to totally endorse it. I tried a MS product a while back and did abandon it almost immediately. I'll report back.
Thanks to Babs for the link to Feedburner. I don't get near the traffic that she and some other blogs get, but I appreciate seeing who read the blog!
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QOTD #2
"We seem to be in the middle of the ADHD Age, and our tools and toys reflect that." - the munchkin wrangler
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Saturday, July 07, 2007
QOTD #1 (Quote of the day #1)
From Tam, speaking of the wonderful, hometown AJC: "Pravda on the Chattahoochee". Never heard it put that perfectly!
Thursday, July 05, 2007
My holiday
I've lived in my house now for almost six years. R and the kids have been here for a little over four years. In that time, we've totally repainted the interior of the house. When you come into a foreclosure that hasn't been updated since it was built in 1979, you have to get rid of the crappy beige and taupe paint that covers everything. Unfortunately, I didn't do before and afters of the interior of the house, but rest assured, it's a lot more livable thanks to a woman's touch! Now it's past time to repair and paint the exterior of the house. We've pretty much settled on colors for the house, trim, doors and windows and deck, so I'm getting started. Here's the deck, after pressure washing but before painting...
And after starting to paint...
The deck is about the same square footage as the house, close to 2,000, so it's going to take a bit more paint and time!
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