Still Not Fixed

We still haven't fixed our router issue. I'll continue to blog when I feel like it and can.

Vote!

Sure a week from today some important voting day happens. Politics are somewhat important but those decisions only matter for a few years. The Hall of Fame vote is timeless. I started really being a football fan in about 1988/87. Rod Woodson and Merrill Hoge were my first two favorite football players. Rod Woodson was something else. He could hit and cover plus he was a pretty good return guy.

To all you sportswriters out there, I'm sure they all read this blog, just remember to vote for Rod Woodson. He doesn't want to raise anyone's taxes.

Not That Hard

Long snapping can't really be that fucking hard can it? To lose the game essentially on one play is just crazy. Tis life I guess.

Four Interceptions

Four interceptions is really all you need to know about the Steelers afternoon. Going into the season and definitely after the Eagles game I know the Giants would be a horrible match up. Turns out I was correct. Tis life I guess. They've got some tough games coming up and need to figure a few things on offense. Still a 1.5 game lead in the division is good times.

Crap

The offense and special teams have played like crap. Two interceptions is awful. The Giants should be up by 14 or so but the defense has held pretty good. The offense better get some things going if they expect to even stay in this game. They've protected Ben well all things considered. Still two INTs is really.

All of the horrible play and to only be down by 2 isn't that bad. Hopefully the D can continue to play well and the offense can do just a little bit better.

Really Worried

I am really worried about today's game. The Giants are a horrible match up for the Steelers when their healthy. They're an even worse match up with the Steelers missing some key players, some for injury and some for being stupid. We'll see but I'm really worried. Either way I still think Ben's had a better career then Eli.

Waste of a Weekend

I was going to do a few things with the Little One today but then my chest decided to interfere. When that happens I really don't have the energy to do much. At least tomorrow she's going to go see High School Musical 3 with some of her friends. She's been looking forward to that for a bit now.

Two Weeks

I only have two weeks to figure out what to get Pretty Bird before she turns 30. Her and my mom and aunt gave me a great gift when I turned 30, a trip to Vegas to see Aerosmith. With it being the school year and us slightly shorter on funds I doubt I'll be able to do something that cool. I do have a few ideas though.

Listen to Opie!

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

I normally could give a shit about who a celebrity says I should vote for. I actually don't care about Ron Howard's endorsement. I think this is a great commercial.

I do think you should vote. I do also think you should vote the party I'm registered with out of the White House. Whatever they're doing now the republicans in Washington aren't the republicans I side with. This has been a disaster and the GOP needs real reform. More importantly the country needs real reform.

Go do some research then a few days from now GO VOTE!

Free Tacos For All

Thanks to the Tampa Rays for free tacos for all!

It's Not Tampa Bay!

The Giants and Jets should be the New Jersey Jets or Giants. There is no place as New England or Carolina. There is no sports team that plays in Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay is a body of water not an actual location. I mean I guess there could be a swim or sailing team or something that plays in the bay but the Rays or Bucs don't.

Go Tampa Rays! Small market for the win!

May The Force Be With You

This looks interesting. I'm not a fan of MMOs but Bioware can sure make a great video game.

Getting Pretty Good

At first I wasn't enjoying this season of Heroes. The past few episodes have been much better and I can't see exactly where they're going which is great. Still not quite season one quality but pretty damn good.

Yet another plea for moving some shows. Not counting MNF there are still 4 shows and 3 hours of stuff to watch on Monday. This is before Dollhouse and 24 in January. Wtf!

First Place Is Good

It is so good to have a 2.5 game lead in the division. Still the Steelers have a really bad match up this coming weekend. If you want to be the best you gotta beat the champs so let's bring on the Giants.

38-10

I guess the Steelers didn't take the second half off. If they put together everything then I think they could be a pretty damn good team. Taking quarters or halves off will make you lose games against good teams.

It sure is fun to beat teams from Ohio.

Ut Oh

The Steelers looked great in the first quarter and most of the second quarter. They however didn't try to score enough points. Then the Bengals decided to drive down and score a TD before the half. If the Steelers keep leaving points on the field and not getting off the field on 3rd down like they did to end the half it could lead to a bad result. Still a 10-7 lead is still a lead.

Worried?

It's the NFL and any team can beat any other team. The clearly better Steelers lost to the Jets on the road last year and to a number of team including the Bengals and Raiders on the road in 2006. In the NFL anything can happen on any given Sunday.

That however is the only reason I'm worried. The #2 or #3 team in the AFC should beat the bottom feeder, home or away. The only reason the Steelers might lose this game is if they are flat and turn the ball over. Otherwise the Steelers are better in nearly every area you can measure a team. They've got some really tough games coming up, they'd better beat the junky teams. Plus it's always great to beat the Bengals or any team from Ohio.

Still I'm a little worried, it is any given Sunday.

Sunday, 1pm

These are my favorite types of games. I get to sit around on a Sunday and actually watch the Steelers. I have to be at work at 7:30 so staying up after midnight is tough. I used to love when the Steelers had a primetime game because it meant I knew they were going to be on TV. Now with Sunday Ticket I get every game, I want to watch the Steelers at 1pm on a Sunday.

The Little One & Star Wars

The nice thing about the Clone Wars show is that the Little One really likes it. We watch it together and she really gets into it. It also prompted her to want to watch the actual Star Wars movies. She's seen them all but now she wants to watch them in order. Today we watch Episode 1 and Episode 2. I gotta say EP2 is really bad, not really any redeeming qualities. I mean really what's up with the video style conveyor belt, is that necessary?

Episode 1 wasn't that bad and she really enjoyed it. After the Steelers game tomorrow we'll probably watch Episode 3.

Broken Interwebs

It seems we're having issues with our wireless router. It is almost 5 years old so it's probably time to get a new one but I'm stubborn and I think I can fix it.

Last week I was just lazy and didn't blog.

Gotta Love Ohiuo

This ones for Mkae and Shocho. Mkae being from Ohio (and a Browns fan) and Shocho just loving typos. Ohio gave us four more years in 2004 and not one but two versions of the Browns. At least they gave the Steelers Ben Roethlisberger, that makes up for something right.

Too Optimistic

I've been telling people for long time this financial issue is based on real issues. Those issues are going to cause longer term problems and won't be fixed by the typical government band aid. On Monday two weeks ago when the Dow lost 750+ points and people freak out I said don't freak out too much, it's going to go much lower. I thought the Dow would go to about 8,500 and stayed around there for while. Then it would start to slowly recover.

Now I'm beginning to think 8,500 might have been too optimistic. I think long term things will be fine. A lot of pretend paper wealth is now gone. Unfortunately there are a few people who bought houses doing the crazy boom that have probably 10 years or more to recover their paper losses.

Short term though things will be tough. Some people can't afford paper losses now. They are near retirement, paying for college, or need to sell their house because their moving. That's tough.

I do wish the government would stop trying band aids for corporations. I really wish they'd stop borrowing from the future. The two big spending presidents in history, FDR and Ronald Reagan spent big for big reasons. Recovering from the Great Depression and winning World War 2 was a pretty big deal. Reagan had to recover from whatever the fuck we did to the economy in the 70s. He also won that Cold War thing, which despite what the liberals want you to believe was actually a real threat. Borrowing from the future so you can give everyone $600 isn't always a good idea.

Damn Good Public Speaker

I'm still amazed it's been since 1996 since we've had a candidate who could speak in public well. Personally I think that should be part of the job description to be in public office but I guess that's just me. I mean you're elected as councilman, mayor, senator, or president because the public trusts your judgment. This is a republic not a democracy, the public doesn't vote directly on the issues, we elect people to do make those decisions for us. If you can't speak well in public how the hell are you supposed to convince the people that you've made the correct decision. How are you supposed to convince them that sending their children into harms way or raising their taxes to help poor children get insurance is a good idea when you can't properly form a sentence. Bob Dole, Al Gore, John Kerry, and of course George Bush are all god awful public speakers. At least McCain isn't half bad. This Obama guy though is pretty damn good.

This is also my favorite type of ad, it doesn't focus on how bad the other guy is but who your guy is for. Sure it only mentions the actual issues for one line in the ad but it doesn't mention how awful McCain is ever. A big rule in advertising is to not focus on your competitors too much, you'd think the same went for national politics. I guess I'm wrong.

Drinking Game Follow Up

I only caught Madden twice using Hines Ward's name when it wasn't really necessary. Maybe someone had a mute button for his mic. Two drinks is not enough to get drunk that's for sure. Silly Madden.

4-1 Baby!

The Steelers are 40% through the 'Race For Ten' that I talked about in week one. They also have a 2.5 game lead in their division which is even better then being 4-1. They've got some tough games coming up after the bye but right now it was a great quarter (+1 game) of the season.

Tonights game was the offense I envisioned for the Steelers. Ben is a really good QB, use him more. I understand with a solid rushing attack and a great defense that you take the air out of the ball with a good lead. You gotta get that lead first. The Steelers need to pass more to get a lead. They also really need to use more of the quick passes like they did in the first half tonight. The Steelers coaches sometimes really make you scratch your head. Still a solid win is nice.

Dumb Coaches

Man the Steelers coaches can be dumb. They moved the ball at will vs. the Jaguars in the first half. They come out in the third quarter and just lay an egg. Hopefully they get it together in the fourth quarter because if they don't the Steelers won't win this game.

Good (and Bad) First Half

The Steelers had a pretty good first half. Like I wrote earlier the Steelers are better then the Jaguars. If they cut down on the mistakes they will win this game easily. That said there have been quite a few mistakes in the first half, the INT for a TD and the PI in the end zone. We'll see if the coaches go straight to the run despite the fact the pass has been working.

Madden (Steelers) Drinking Game

Madden's replacement for Favre is either Eli Manning or Tony Romo. However he's got a huge hard on for Hines Ward. For the entire second half of the Jags-Steelers playoff game last year Madden wouldn't shut up about Hines Ward. He was constantly rambling about how the Steelers needed to get Ward involved in the game. Nevermind that Ward caught 11 passes in that game.

I think Madden most of the time is pretty good. I obviously really like Hines Ward. Still take a shot every time Madden mentions Hines Ward when he isn't directly involved in the play and you'll have one helluva hangover tomorrow.

More Than A Little Worried

I'm more than a little worried about the Steelers vs. the Jags tonight. The Steelers lost both games vs. the Jags last year. In those games the Steelers proved they could move the ball almost at will vs. the Jags. Of course it took them until the second half to try and go pass happy and it was too late in both cases.

The Steelers are without three running backs and the Jags are without 50% of their starting secondary. The Jags are also not a good pass rushing team. The Steelers should pass a lot tonight but they'll probably run way too often. They also should blitz the heck out of the overrated Garrard but they probably won't.

The Steelers have a good chance to win but we'll see if they get into their own way or not.

Don't Hate It

I really don't hate the Star Wars: Clone Wars tv show. The best part is that The Little One really likes it. It's really fun to have her like something I enjoy as well.

Sonny Purdue

The democrats have this impression that every republican is this rambling idiot trying to pander to the 'common man'. The current president really helps enforce that stereotype. Not all republicans are like that just like not all democrats want to tax 90% from the rich and give it all to the poor.

Man does Sonny Purdue enforce that George Bush stereotype though. The Governor of Georgia is a complete fucking idiot. This is a man who essentially got elected on the platform of changing the state flag. The flag was changed from the 'stars and bars' flag to an all blue field with the state seal. Now I understand that the stars and bars is part of the culture in the south. If the state flag was the stars and bars since Georgia was readmitted to the union I'd have no problem with it currently being the state flag. That isn't the case though. The flag was changed during the civil rights movement as an attempt to say fuck you to the black community. The Civil War wasn't fought entirely over slaves rights. Remembering the heritage of a state that includes a Civil War is fine. Having a state flag that was installed as a sign of racism however is a load of shit.

Perdue ran on the platform of changing it back or at least to something that included the stars and bars. He probably had other things in his election platform but based on his commercials all I know that he wanted to do was change the flag. Again I'm okay with the stars and bars on the flag for the right reason. I'm not so okay with government being focused on changing the flag. I'm sure there are other things that elected officials should focus on. That is pandering at its highest form.

Pandering works so Perdue is in office which is just great for the citizens of Georgia. Since he's been governor he's done some great things.

During the Katrina fuel crisis, which only was high prices and two to three days of a shortage, he closed schools for two days. Bush's "No Child Left Behind" initiative is awful but it is brilliant compared to Purdue's "Every Child Left Behind." Education is about the most important this a government does. I think maybe if we needed to save gas we could you know, stop working on roads for two days or close certain goverment offices.

The Southeast has been in a huge drought for almost five years. This year isn't so bad, in fact NC is almost up for the year. The drought was really bad in 06 and near devestating in 07. Most of the states that are affected, NC, SC, AL, parts of TN, and parts of FL started installing certain conservation measures back in 05. They really stepped up in 06. The governor of Alabama and Florida, plus the Army Corps of Engineers and the US government urged Georgia to implement conservation measures in 2005 and 2006. The Chatahoochie river basin supplies a lot of water for Alabama and Florida. Purdue didn't start putting conservation measures into place until late 2006.

In 2007 he of coursed pandered and tried to appear dramatic. He threated to use the GA National Guard to sieze Lake Lanier's damn (the damn the controls the water for the Chatahoochie) because the Army Corps of Engineers was to him releasing too much water. The river supplies water to Alabama, north Florida, and PLACES IN SOUTHWEST GEORGIA. Purdue wanted the water for Atlanta and the surrounding areas. Obviously the governor of Alabama and Florida weren't too happy. Purdue's response was essentially the water is in Georgia so it was for the Georgians.

That isn't his most well known drought solution though. Purdue's best was his statewide prayer day. He actually set up a prayer day in Georgia to pray for water. He is sensationalism and pandering at its best. Don't actually have a real, proactive plan, just blame others and use theatrics to deflect the blame.

Purdue's most recent exploits are just as stupid. Currently TN, AL, SC, NC, and GA are having a huge gas shortage. I'm surprised it isn't being covered hardly at all in the national news. Hell the local news is somewhat avoiding it. In NC it is annoying more than anything else. Gas is here, it's just expensive and you have to look for it sometimes. Most stations don't run out for more than two days in a row. Most of the troubled states are simliar to NC.

Not Georgia though, they have it much worse. The shortage is caused by Ike forcing the refinery that feeds this area being turned off. Then the pipeline that supplies here was also turned off. Apparently turning it off caused it to break or something and it is causing delays. One of the ways a state can avoid huge issues is to petition the EPA to suspend some of its restrictions for a short time. This can make it easier to get gas. Every state but Georgia did that almost immediately. Sure residents of Charlotte probably don't notice but I know residents in Atlanta that have it much worse.

With the largest population center in the troubled area Purdue should lead the charge, not react 10 days later. Of course now he's threating to sue the EPA. He's also petitioning the President to release oil for the SPR. Oil isn't the problem you dolt. The shortage has a light at the end of the tunnel, it should be fixed within the next 7 to 10 days. To release oil from the SPR wouldn't have any effect on supply for four to six weeks. React late and use theatrics to deflect blame to others. President Bush is an idiot and has a horrible approval rating. Now the citizens of Georgia will blame paying $0.75 more than Florida for gas or not finding any at all on the President.

What an idiot. Every time I see a story with Sonny Purdue's name in it I'm so glad I don't live in Georgia anymore.