Miss Teen South Carolina Calls 911

Jedi Last Supper

So JB and I just made a Podcast

You can check it out here.

(I say "like" way too much and the quality is kind of bad but hey—it's our first foray into Podcasting so cut us some slack jerks!)

Nintendo kicking arse and taking names

Good ol' arstechnica just put up a post with the latest updates on the console wars ("No blood for 1-up mushrooms!")

With 60% sales boost, PS3 is hotter but still in "last place"

I'm amazed Nintendo is dominating like they are with Wii availability as sketchy as it is. I still think if they don't get more consoles on the shelves by the end of fall they could be in trouble. Hopefully this lights a fire under the butts of all those lazy 3rd party developers and they start cranking out some more innovative games for the Wii. How many John Madden footballs do we really need?

The PS3 is just overpriced and lame and will be going the way of the Atari Jaguar and Dreamcast very soon. The X-Box 360 continues to sell well amongst the hardcore FPS/sports gamer crowd (of which I am not one of). I got tired of shooters, oh around the time Doom II came out.

In closing, bwee.

Leave your name with your comments people

Seriously. I'm seeing a lot of "anonymous" comments being left on people's blogs. It's almost epidemic now. If you want to raise your voice—even loudly and obnoxiously—at least have the cajones to sign it with your actual name. I do it all the time and I'm sure I've hurt and alienated many people but at least they know it's me!

What are your afraid of anyway? Bad eBay ratings or something? I'm not going to totally dismiss you Mr. Anonymous—a good point is a good point and a bad point is a bad point—but come on, don't be such a wuss.

An important message from T

A great solution for your new computer would be our .Mac service

Since I finally have a legitimate "backup" copy of iLife '08 (upgraded from my previous iLife '05) I'm finally able to explore the wonders of iWeb and .Mac (which now has up to 10 gigabytes of server space and the exciting new web gallery!).

Click here to go to my stunning new webpage that took me upwards of 48 seconds to piece together.

I'd also recommend stopping by the store sometime to buy a copy of iLife and most importantly .Mac. While you are there you might also wish to purchase a ProCare membership or 7.

A familiar refrain

"Threw the ball well in and out and kept us off-balance the whole day," Gardenhire said.

This is approximately the 37th time Gardy has said this following a Twins loss this season. If it was Paul Byrd or Scott Kazmir or Chien Ming-Wang maybe I'd give him the benefit of the doubt but Kyle Davies?

What's so frustrating about this season is that I can think of at least a dozen games where had the Twins scored 3 or 4 runs instead of 1 or 2 (or zero) they would have come out the victor (and they'd currently be in 1st place). Scoring an extra run or two is only possible with a balanced lineup not the front-loaded offense the Twins currently have.

The Twins are stacked with great young pitchers but have absolutely no hitting prospects. As crazy as this might sound it may be time to deal Johan (yes, Santana) in the off-season and get 2 or 3 really top-drawer prospects and 1 or 2 major league ready hitters (not the nobody's Terry Ryan picked up dealing Castillo). Would you rather watch Johan pitch for a .500 club or no Johan and a 2009 World Series trophy?

As for now I say release Rondell "Giant Money Furnace" White and let Kubel play every single day. Punto is the new Denny Hocking and should never start a game ever again. It's also time to give Morneau the contract he deserves and with the money saved dealing Johan the Twins can hang on to T-Hunts for a few more years.

Amen

"The way it seems to have worked is that each member on that (Transportation) committee gets to set his or her own priorities first,'' Bush said. "That's not the right way to prioritize the people's money. Before we raise taxes, which could affect economic growth, I would strongly urge the Congress to examine how they set priorities.''

My only Transformer™

Thanks to the release of the incredibly popular yet immeasurably terrible "Transformers" movie I've been trying to track down my one and only Transformer toy "Hot Rod."

I know I lost his guns eons ago but the rest of him was largely intact as far as I remember. I've been tearing through miscellaneous boxes of junk to find him but to no avail.

If I recall he wasn't the greatest of all Transformers being somewhat frigid and inarticulate—a lot like Megan Fox's character in the film. Dare I spend upwards of $8 on eBay for a replacement?

FINALLY

Hey look the first new APPLE MACINTOSH (remember those?) product in more than 14 months—

"If you run Windows on me I'll kill you!"

Would've liked to see iWork '08 bundled with all the iMacs and MacBooks—but the new iMovie looks killer. I've been saying it since 1992 but I'll say it again: why would anyone buy a Windows PC?

A photo to combat "the drain on my soul"

Positive development

The foul-mouthed Tony Jones has tipped everyone off to a blog post he's working on (though if he ever actually publishes this I'll eat my hat):

Why John Piper Is Wrong about the Minnesota Bridge Collapse

Like the coward he is he's switched the comments off so I guess we are expected to not question and instead wait with bated breath for his counterpoint to Piper's obviously misguided "Putting My Daughter to Bed 2 Hours After the Bridge Collapsed" article.

Actually I see this as a positive development: an Emergent big-shot is finally admitting that somebody can be "wrong."

Korean hostages

Well the situation in Afghanistan with the Korean missionaries is steadily getting worse. I've checked the Jim Wallis "God's Politics" blog, Sojourners, Emergent village and other sites supposedly concerned about human rights issues and there is nary a mention of the situation. What a bunch of hypocrites.

Unless it's a cause chic enough for the progressive Christian elite like McLaren and Wallis I guess it's not worth mentioning. But at least they are keeping us up to date on deceased bleak Swedish filmmakers!

Thanks for the insight Amy

It looks like our own junior senator has followed up yesterday's brilliant "Bridges in America just shouldn't fall down" assertion with another gem.

"We've spent $500 billion in Iraq and we have bridges falling down in this country," Klobuchar told MSNBC. "I see a connection between messed-up priorities."

I see a connection between messed-up political ideologies.

If Amy actually paid attention to, I don't know, things—she'd know that we've had transportation infrastructure problems long before the war in Iraq. To insinuate that not going to war in Iraq would've have kept the bridge up is a statement that lies somewhere between the stupid and ludicrously misleading—this is a bipartisan problem and it requires a bipartisan solution. To turn this into an opportunity to advance a separate and completely unrelated agenda isn't surprising but it's still wrong.

We have more than enough money flowing into the state coffers to fund the war on terror and upgrade and enhance our roadways. But as long as we as citizens continue to accept the "progressive" and bureaucratic status-quo that throws $7 billion towards things like unnecessary light rail systems we can't expect much change.

Some observations on the bridge tragedy

1. I'm glad Tim Pawlenty won a 2nd term last year. He's handling the situation like a champ right now even as Rybak looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Pawlenty has been wishy-washy over the last few years but he's acquitting himself very well and I'm glad he's pushing for an immediate investigation into our state's bridge inspection policies.

2. This is a tragedy first and foremost—materials fail and inspection bureaucracies aren't perfect (as Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park—"God help us we're in the hands of engineers"). In short, sh*t happens. That said—

3. We obviously have infrastructure problems in this country. I've recognized this ever since I started driving. While it's foolish to "blame" the state legislators for this particular event they've certainly been ignoring many problems with our roadways in favor of more "progressive" transportation expansion including our beloved Lyle Lanley Monorail. We don't need more money—we need to prioritize. Whether you like it or not we are prairie folk here in the Twin Cities. We like to spread out. We drive cars. We need bridges and roads. When it comes to transportation we need to focus our attention 100% on those things and not on the pipe dreams of the liberal elite.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Summer's almost over—run!!

It's times like these I feel like Calvin in that one "Calvin & Hobbes" where he starts to run around in panic because "summer is almost over and precious seconds of freedom are ticking away!" Then if I recall correctly he winds up back in front of the TV eating cereal.

Yes, it is already August but I don't know what I'm freaking out over. I graduated 8 years ago and haven't had a "summer vacation" since 1998. My summer isn't officially over until September 21.
Still, one can't help but sympathize with young Calvin and his desire to squeeze every last drop of fun of of the waning summer days.

Now if you'll excuse me I have Golden Grahams to eat and Muppet show DVD's to watch.