Red Zeppelin
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Wednesday: February 01, 2006 - Mourning
Last night Jamie's dad died.
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Thursday: February 02, 2006 - From the Tallahassee Democrat--
Attorneys don't get rich as public defenders. But they enrich the lives of others.
That's how people remembered Doug Brinkmeyer, 56, after he died early Thursday morning after a yearlong battle with cancer. Brinkmeyer, a 1975 graduate of Florida State's law school, spent his entire professional career as a public defender. He also was deeply admired for his volunteer and community service.
Since 1981, he had worked in the Leon County Public Defender's Office as the head of the appellate division of the 2nd Judicial Circuit, which serves 32 counties.
He handled appeals for 75 to 100 convicted criminals a year, often winning changes in sentencing, reductions in charges and the occasional overturned conviction. He was considered one of the state's leading experts on criminal-defense law and was honored Thursday with a proclamation by the Florida Supreme Court, before which he appeared dozens of times.
"(Defense appellate attorneys) don't win often, but Doug won more than his share," said former Leon County Public Defender Michael Allen, a 1st District Court of Appeal judge, who hired Brinkmeyer. "Doug had a keen analytical mind and was very dedicated to public service. He held himself to high personal standards while, at the same time, he understood the shortcomings of others."
Brinkmeyer's dedication was such that he worked through last week and on Wednesday night was discussing pending cases with colleagues.
"Doug was the defense community's Ray Marky in terms of knowledge, expertise and respect," said Leon County Public Defender Nancy Daniels, referring to the recently deceased state and local prosecutor. "He impacted litigation that affected hundreds of criminal-defense lawyers."
Brinkmeyer was a native of Dayton, Ohio, and a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. After law school, he spent six years with the Polk County Public Defender's Office.
He was renowned for his dry wit: "He'd answer the phone by saying, 'Did you call me to concede?''' recalled longtime adversary Ed Hill, an appeals attorney with the state attorney general.
Brinkmeyer was an ardent volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, an international nonprofit organization that builds homes for low-income families. He helped build 34 of Habitat's 115 homes in Leon County, recruited new homeowners and lobbied affluent friends for financial contributions.
"One of the things you had to know about Doug was that he believed in Habitat, or you did not understand him," said Lou Armesto, the group's local executive director. "We're not only losing someone who hammered nails but someone who was a great ambassador for Habitat."
Brinkmeyer is survived by his childhood sweetheart and wife of 35 years, Robin, a fifth-grade teacher at Killearn Lakes Elementary, and by two adult daughters, Kristen, a Jacksonville auditor, and Jamie, a Tallahassee social worker.
The funeral is scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday at the Episcopal Church of the Advent, 815 Piedmont Drive.
Contact Gerald Ensley at (850) 599-2310 or gensley@tallahassee.com.
Originally published February 3, 2006 [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Friday: February 03, 2006 - Funeral Arrangements
This coming Monday at 3pm will be the funeral for jamie's Dad. I know you all have things to do but I can tell you that it would mean a great
deal if you could come at some point (the "party" afterwards will surely rage on for a few hours) and just give her a hug. I think most of are fortunate in that both
our parents are still alive so anything you could for right now would be great. The directions to the church: if you take Meridian north until Piedmont, take a right on Piedmont
then just follow it until you come to the big church. There's only one you can't miss it.
Thank you so so so much to my co-workers at RD and to Ricky for helping me building the site from scratch in 36 hours. The site is going to be taking donations for the Doug Brinkmeyer Celebration Habitat for Humanity House and they ask in lieu of flowers or anything else you make a small donation to the project. Thank you guys all so much. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Saturday: February 05, 2006 - Superb Owl
First things first:If you're planning on coming to the funeral tomorrow jamie suggests getting there a little early so you get a seat. There
will be a lot of people there. If you're not going to be there by 3pm, the post-service stuff starts around 4pm and I think it's party-style so seating won't matter. We hope
as many of you can come as you can. Thanks. On to less serious things...
tchris, elena and pchris joined Jamie and I for a Superb Owl party. We only half-watched the game and easily spent more time talking the various awesome qualities of our dogs. I was rooting for Pittsburg because they had a 4-2 edge of former FSU stars including Bryant McFadden.
On Saturday we hit up Georgio's for the first time since we went there for our RD Christmas Party. Everything was much better and I got three (that's right three) slices of the potato pie. Awesome. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 06, 2006 - Happy Birthday Steve!
Happy 22nd Birthday Steve. I can't get over how good you look in this picture; hard to believe we're related. On my 22nd birthday I passed out against a dumpster and Kathy had to carry me back my apartment where I wasted no time in crumpling on the floor. Ah, the yesteryears. We had all gone to WaterWorks (Mark, Kathy...Angela...Dan Herbert?) and Mark and I did Irish Car Bombs until I couldn't stand. Then we went to...oh man, Waffle House. I don't know how I avoided throwing up that night. Anyway, happy birthday.
Thanks to everyone (pchris, elena, tchris, Kathy, ricky, tami and michael) who came to jamie's dad's funeral. There between 600 and 700 people at the ceremony; unbelievable. Seeing that many people really makes you want to say, "Shit Chompy, I'm not doing anything with my life--I could barely fill a pew". I thought Jamie's ex-boyfriend Matt finally forgave me for stealing his woman when he solemnly waved to me as we were walking out. Turns out he was waving to Jamie's mom who was right behind me. Oops.
They're going to be naming the library at the courthouse in Doug's honor. That's pretty cool. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: February 07, 2006 - My Aching Abs
Man, I took a serious ass-whipping in Karate tonight. Not from kicks the face or chops to the neck--from the damn 30 minute workout before the "official" ass-whomping begins. My left quad hurts so badly right now I had to crawl up the stairs when I got home. That's right--I'm a big, walking vagina. But I'm man enough to admit it. Kurt is the smartest of all of us; he always runs just late enough to catch the last five minutes of the workout section while the rest of us are so exhausted we're hallucinating Heidi Klum performing surgery on Grimace the Tastebud. Maybe that's just me.
I know everyone likes lists so here's a list of percentages about my life (Numbers 100-80):
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Wednesday: February 08, 2006 - You Got Any Wheat?
Tonight jamie and Kathy came over to play a little Settlers of Catan. The game is pretty fun if you're in it but let's face it; you're not
always in it. A couple bad rolls at the beginning and you're really just taking up space at the table. The first game it was my job to do nothing while Jamie and Kathy
went at it and then it was Kathy's turn the second game. Jamie was one turn too late both times. Alas. (Notice my suble Photoshopping in that picture).
On with the list!
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Thursday: February 09, 2006 - Wring That Sock Out At The Bank
Since there's so much going on today let's take a break from the Percentages List. First, today is a Write The Caption day.
I got my ass kicked in Karate by this 18 year old girl who was studying to be a tattoo artist. She was almost done with her studies but she was still having problems "drawing straight lines". Super. We learned our first two kenpos tonight. I keep trying to get people to grab my wrists so I can do my new move but as pchris demonstrated at poker tonight, it's hard to do in practice without the crucial nut-kick.
Congratulations to elena who got her first (sanctioned) kill of the year and to tchris for finally ending the game at midnight and getting his first (sanctioned) win of the year.
Tomorrow we're going to take a five hour lunch and go to Gordo's. I'm pumped. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Friday: February 10, 2006 - Let's Jam
Tonight everyone I know in Florida went to to Andrew's to celebrate tchris' Gave A Test. Around 10pm we all parted way; pchris and elena went over to chris and Michael's for Taboo along with Christine and Erick.
Theory-Chris left for some party en route to nailing one of my old students (who, I might add didn't even remember me at first). I hung out with jamie for a little while but she went to her parents' house and I went to bed.
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Weekend: February 11, 2006 - Flash Photography
Ok, the first round of Poker Stats are up!
Man, DH sucks now. I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to watch it; Family Guy is on anyway so it's not like I'll have to sit and stare at the wall on Sunday nights.
I bought six new fish for my now-immaculate tank. I didn't realize how big current fish are until I saw them next to all the new fry. I got some Rusty Somethings and some Orange Zebras. We'll see how long they live.
Christine totally ditched me to practice Karate on Saturday; I'm pissed. I helped jamie paint her bedroom Saturday morning instead. Fun weekend baby. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 13, 2006 - Tuck's Medicated Pads
At the end of the month half the office is going up to NYC. That means Liz won't be bringing in her cat Tuxedo (or as I call him: Tuck's Medicated Pads) for a week. Does that mean Chompy can come in while they're gone?
Probably not but still, it might be fun (for me and me alone) to have Chompy at work. Speaking of work, it's my new job to make sure the term personal loan moves into the top 3 results so there's my link. Bam.
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Tuesday: February 14, 2006 - Happy Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine's Day jamie! Since she had a rape group to lead and I had karate we agreed to celebrate later this week.
Doing a later-day celebration of a holiday is a great idea. You can go eat anywhere you want without the jack-up of prices and you won't have to brush elbows with frat guys
wearing suits and flip-flops before they move on to raping their drunken dates.
If you think that picture is gross imagine waking up at 3am and pooping for an hour and a half. Yeah, don't eat the Valentine's Day ham. Chompy and I both ate something especially horrible for us and she was puking and I was, well, you know...poopin'. We're both fine now but it made for a rough night. You'll be pleased to know that both my beloved dog and I fine now. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: February 15, 2006 - Mike vs. The Ogre
Listen. I'm 6'1" and weigh about 165 lbs when soaking wet. I am not a big man. However, since I'm over 5'8" I'm apparently considered tall which apparently means Big. In
karate I was paired up with the resident ogre, a very nice older gentleman of about 50 who is about 6'5", 250. Everything was going great and he did a wonderful job of teaching
me the finer movements of the skills until he punched me in the eye. It was an accident of course but it was a hard enough punch to knock my contact lens to the back of my
left eye and leave the bottom of it a little puffy. Of course if you're in karate you know you're going to get punched but it's one thing to take a shot in the arm or chest
and something completely different to take one in the face. I think I did a convincing job of laughing it off--I felt worse for him. And believe you me, he apologized about
fifty times. But now, friends, I am am man.
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Thursday: February 16, 2006 - Today Was The Worst
Man, today was the worst. I found at work that since I was only going to be there for another 2 yearsish that I wasn't worth investing in because I was just going to leave. I'm not sure how deeply that goes (raises, training, conferences?) but it can't be good. It's not like I'm going to half-ass it while I'm here--I couldn't if I wanted to, there's only 12 people that work here and if I just suddenly stopped working it might be noticeable. And who wants to work where there's no "next rung"? I really want to kick ass while I'm here even if I don't want to do it for the rest of my life. I'd be really unhappy. But the next two years is long enough that I'd still be into it and continue to kick ass. Oh well. Strike one.
None of us will be allowed to test for our yellow belts on Saturday. I'm pissed. Do I have everything perfect? Hell no but I don't need another three months practicing. I need a week, two tops. Yeah, I'm pissed. Strike Two.
tchris whomped us in poker tonight. And when I say whomped I mean he killed all three of us. It was an epic battle in heads-up and he and jamie went at it hard for a solid hour. There was little folding or small bets. It was throw-to-the-mat style and it went back and forth every hand with bets between 300-1200 every hand. Crazy. I was the first one out despite having about 80% of the chips after an hour. Strike Three. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Weekend: February 19, 2006 - TODAY was the worst
On Friday we played Settlers of Catan,IA (didn't you know the game takes place in Iowa?) with tchris, Kathy and marty. jamie managed to lose by a single turn for the third straight game. I like Marty a lot and I really regret that we didn't have more time together in school. When we finished playing...wait a second. This was Saturday night! Ok rewind...
On Friday night I hung out with chris and a bunch of his friends from his former days in the Lab at FSU. We went to Leon Pub and then to some Indian place. I fell asleep while we were there and once I got home I let the dogs out and immediately fell asleep. There we go.
Jumping (back) ahead to Saturday I downloaded the PC version of the game. If you click here you can download it. It's a good way to learn quickly and that's really all I wanted it for so it's serving its porpoise.
Last night we watched a dull DH followed by an equally dull GA. ABC has really been letting us down t his season. In other news my garbage disposal is broken and I have a sink half-filled with old chocolate milk that won't go down the drain. And about 200 families of roaches who are enjoying their new waterfront real estate. Sucks to live in Florida. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 20, 2006 - Secrets
Last week at work I wrote an analysis and breakdown of google's search patent for work. It's not the kind of thing I would have expected to do in my life but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. It reminded me of those intolerable atonal articles Nancy Rogers made us read when I was in school. The kind that you have to read a paragraph like 10 times over before you even have a remedial concept of what the point is. And this, friends, was only the patent; written for dumb lawyers who don't know <span> from <div> (if you can still believe there are people like that out there)! Anyway. It was interesting, the parts I understood at least. For starters no two days are the same. Depending on the day, season, time, whatever a new search algorithm is used. So if I'm first in the engine for the word "chompy" right now come December people looking for Chompy will wind up on a different page that might be more geared towards Chompy At Christmas. Weird. It's also probably safe to infer that if you're currently buying links on other sites you're going to need to stop doing that. They're going to catch you. Hell, if Mozilla's AdBlock can figure out which ads are sponsored I can assure you G00gle can. Not surprisingly the best thing to make your way up the search engine path is to have inbound links from reputable sources. I'm not revealing any more secrets--you can read the damn patent yourself.
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Tuesday: February 21, 2006 - 20,000 Hits
I'm going to get my 20,000th hit on Wednesday. I'm not sure who it will be but I plan on doing a 20,000-hits of the Chompblog Clip Show soon. Whomever is it (I hope to god it's not me) will get a big prize! It's behind Door #2! Could it be you?!?!?!?!?!?
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Wednesday: February 22, 2006 - Alumni Page
Congratulations to mark who was the Chompblog's 20,000th hit. His prize will be grabbing my wrists or a two-handed strangling of me; his choice. jamie and I celebrated Valentine's Day tonight by going to Mozaik. It was pretty good and had it not been $72 I'd go there on a pretty regular basis. Afterwards we watched a couple of the generic Project Runway clip shows before I went home to pet Chompy and watch Project Jay. There was a time in my life where I would have been embarrassed to have admitted that I watch Project Runway but now I'm comfortable enough to admit it. Tomorrow is poker at tchris' house at 7:30. See you there!
Oh, I also got my FSU almuni directory site page set up. There's nothing there yet so don't bother clicking on the link. I just think it's cool I get 250MB of space on a Class C site for free. Hello link-selling. I rationalize it to myself by saying I'll use the money I make to help pay back my loans. If anyone else has *.edu sites at their disposal email me and I'll tell you how to get rich too. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Thursday: February 23, 2006 - Fun Dip
Today at work Liz discovered my blog. She gave me the same warning most people do when they read it--that I might want to be concerned about what people think. I gave the standard reply
of saying I wouldn't write anything in here that I wouldn't say to someone's face. The internet is no place for secrets. Truth be told I was more concerned about her analyzing
the code that powers that and drawing a big black X next to my name than about anything scandalous I've written. Today was better at work although I feel like I've totally
lost track of what my job is. Every day is some new adventure and while I enjoy the variety I wish good things were happening instead of doing new and exciting things to correct
problems. Alas.
So it's Thursday and I know everyone is just dying to know who won our weekly poker game. It was me. More importantly than my stunning win though was I had Fun Dip for the first time. I'd explain but according to everyone else I was the only person on the planet who had never had it before. It was kind of weird at first but I certainly wouldn't turn down some Razzamazzapple or whatever it was called if someone offered it to me. tchris had an awesome book on the history of Absolute ads. It was really cool; those guys and gals are really creative. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Weekend: February 24, 2006 - Marty the Porn Star
marty was emailed to see if he had any interest in being a porn star. I got emailed from the fine folks at CareerBuilder.com. I'm not saying my life is more boring than his I'm just saying that I must not have what it takes to move from "Middle Management" to Middle Management. Get it? Managing my mid-section? Anyway.
On Friday night jamie and I went to play tennis. I think we played for a good half hour before she determined the balls were too flat to play with and we left.
On Saturday night I hung out with Jamie again for a long time before we had a late-night visit from the SoC. Sadly, they did not stay long after I ordered dozens of soldiers to remove them from my house.
I spent Sunday cleaning out the Taurus. You might not think of this as an all-day activity but I can assure you that it was. I probably had enough spilled dog food in my trunk to have kept all the animals left homeless by Katrina well-fed for about a week. I also found a love note from some Elementary school kids from Woodville Elementary from when the steel band played there. It was all crumpled up and caked with dog food though so the nice sentiment ended up in the trash. When I cleaned the inside I found about $8 which bought me coffee and a bagel this morning. Now it's spotless and I will not be embarassed to have people ride in it. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 27, 2006 - Sleep, Sweet Sleep
I got the approval from Dr. Clendinning to finish my back-up masters degree this summer. Since I'll be applying for schools again in the fall I officially decided that being one credit short of another degree might raise some questions so my plan is just to suck it up and get it over with. I have to defend it by July 3rd so really I'll only have about a month's worth of summer meetings to forge my music nuggets into theory-gold. Hopefully my being there will also put my bright and smiling face back into the minds of those people who I need to ask for letters of recommendation.
My Alexadex stock went up 3x yesterday. If you've never played it essentially works like a stock market of websites based on the alexa rankings (which monitor traffic). Since it's free to play even if you don't know anything about stocks or websites it's fun to play and I'd highly recommend it if you're looking for a five minute break daily where half-assing it is totally acceptable. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: February 28, 2006 - More Sleep, Sweet Sleep
I really need to get a cup for karate. With Kurt and Christine at a conference in New York I had to go to karate by myself. I forgot to call Kurt's woman and tell her to come with me. Because I was there alone I got paired with the 18 year old budding tatoo artist (Ashley) again. For the second time in two pairings she kicked me in the nuts and told me to get a cup. I hate how when we started karate our class
was full of white belts and now it's like a ass-kicking rainbow. The schedule clearly says White Belts from 5:30-6:30 on Tuesday and Thursdays. Why does that make me so angry? Because the instructors spend most of their time teaching the upper belts how to do 42-point combinations and we're left to rely on other white belts to figure out what's going on. And white belts have no idea what's going on. It's really starting to get frustrating when I can't even get one damn question answered in the hour I'm there.
I know it's most likely about 2 years away but I can't wait to get out of this city and start fresh somewhere. If you remember the movie Ghostbusters (only one of two movies I've ever seen) there's a part where that green ghost (Slimer?) goes right through someone and the person is all covered in green slime. That's how I feel; like I'm covered in green goo. I feel like I'm not going to be around in the business world long enough to succeed and I fear that I'll have been out of music too long to succeed. What happens when I have to take my prelims? If you think for one second that I remember the dates of ANY composer (other than myself) or how to analyze some weird atonal piece you are sadly mistaken. I'll most likely be thrown in the lowest-division with all of the retarded choir and music education grad students and I'm sure I won't be happy there.
Confidental to marty: If you're worried about putting your foot(-l) in your mouth then I think you've got a real shot in this industry. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Last night Jamie's dad died.
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Thursday: February 02, 2006 - From the Tallahassee Democrat--
Attorneys don't get rich as public defenders. But they enrich the lives of others.
That's how people remembered Doug Brinkmeyer, 56, after he died early Thursday morning after a yearlong battle with cancer. Brinkmeyer, a 1975 graduate of Florida State's law school, spent his entire professional career as a public defender. He also was deeply admired for his volunteer and community service.
Since 1981, he had worked in the Leon County Public Defender's Office as the head of the appellate division of the 2nd Judicial Circuit, which serves 32 counties.
He handled appeals for 75 to 100 convicted criminals a year, often winning changes in sentencing, reductions in charges and the occasional overturned conviction. He was considered one of the state's leading experts on criminal-defense law and was honored Thursday with a proclamation by the Florida Supreme Court, before which he appeared dozens of times.
"(Defense appellate attorneys) don't win often, but Doug won more than his share," said former Leon County Public Defender Michael Allen, a 1st District Court of Appeal judge, who hired Brinkmeyer. "Doug had a keen analytical mind and was very dedicated to public service. He held himself to high personal standards while, at the same time, he understood the shortcomings of others."
Brinkmeyer's dedication was such that he worked through last week and on Wednesday night was discussing pending cases with colleagues.
"Doug was the defense community's Ray Marky in terms of knowledge, expertise and respect," said Leon County Public Defender Nancy Daniels, referring to the recently deceased state and local prosecutor. "He impacted litigation that affected hundreds of criminal-defense lawyers."
Brinkmeyer was a native of Dayton, Ohio, and a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. After law school, he spent six years with the Polk County Public Defender's Office.
He was renowned for his dry wit: "He'd answer the phone by saying, 'Did you call me to concede?''' recalled longtime adversary Ed Hill, an appeals attorney with the state attorney general.
Brinkmeyer was an ardent volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, an international nonprofit organization that builds homes for low-income families. He helped build 34 of Habitat's 115 homes in Leon County, recruited new homeowners and lobbied affluent friends for financial contributions.
"One of the things you had to know about Doug was that he believed in Habitat, or you did not understand him," said Lou Armesto, the group's local executive director. "We're not only losing someone who hammered nails but someone who was a great ambassador for Habitat."
Brinkmeyer is survived by his childhood sweetheart and wife of 35 years, Robin, a fifth-grade teacher at Killearn Lakes Elementary, and by two adult daughters, Kristen, a Jacksonville auditor, and Jamie, a Tallahassee social worker.
The funeral is scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday at the Episcopal Church of the Advent, 815 Piedmont Drive.
Contact Gerald Ensley at (850) 599-2310 or gensley@tallahassee.com.
Originally published February 3, 2006 [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Friday: February 03, 2006 - Funeral Arrangements
This coming Monday at 3pm will be the funeral for jamie's Dad. I know you all have things to do but I can tell you that it would mean a great
deal if you could come at some point (the "party" afterwards will surely rage on for a few hours) and just give her a hug. I think most of are fortunate in that both
our parents are still alive so anything you could for right now would be great. The directions to the church: if you take Meridian north until Piedmont, take a right on Piedmont
then just follow it until you come to the big church. There's only one you can't miss it.Thank you so so so much to my co-workers at RD and to Ricky for helping me building the site from scratch in 36 hours. The site is going to be taking donations for the Doug Brinkmeyer Celebration Habitat for Humanity House and they ask in lieu of flowers or anything else you make a small donation to the project. Thank you guys all so much. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Saturday: February 05, 2006 - Superb Owl
First things first:If you're planning on coming to the funeral tomorrow jamie suggests getting there a little early so you get a seat. There
will be a lot of people there. If you're not going to be there by 3pm, the post-service stuff starts around 4pm and I think it's party-style so seating won't matter. We hope
as many of you can come as you can. Thanks. On to less serious things...tchris, elena and pchris joined Jamie and I for a Superb Owl party. We only half-watched the game and easily spent more time talking the various awesome qualities of our dogs. I was rooting for Pittsburg because they had a 4-2 edge of former FSU stars including Bryant McFadden.
On Saturday we hit up Georgio's for the first time since we went there for our RD Christmas Party. Everything was much better and I got three (that's right three) slices of the potato pie. Awesome. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 06, 2006 - Happy Birthday Steve!
Happy 22nd Birthday Steve. I can't get over how good you look in this picture; hard to believe we're related. On my 22nd birthday I passed out against a dumpster and Kathy had to carry me back my apartment where I wasted no time in crumpling on the floor. Ah, the yesteryears. We had all gone to WaterWorks (Mark, Kathy...Angela...Dan Herbert?) and Mark and I did Irish Car Bombs until I couldn't stand. Then we went to...oh man, Waffle House. I don't know how I avoided throwing up that night. Anyway, happy birthday.Thanks to everyone (pchris, elena, tchris, Kathy, ricky, tami and michael) who came to jamie's dad's funeral. There between 600 and 700 people at the ceremony; unbelievable. Seeing that many people really makes you want to say, "Shit Chompy, I'm not doing anything with my life--I could barely fill a pew". I thought Jamie's ex-boyfriend Matt finally forgave me for stealing his woman when he solemnly waved to me as we were walking out. Turns out he was waving to Jamie's mom who was right behind me. Oops.
They're going to be naming the library at the courthouse in Doug's honor. That's pretty cool. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: February 07, 2006 - My Aching Abs
Man, I took a serious ass-whipping in Karate tonight. Not from kicks the face or chops to the neck--from the damn 30 minute workout before the "official" ass-whomping begins. My left quad hurts so badly right now I had to crawl up the stairs when I got home. That's right--I'm a big, walking vagina. But I'm man enough to admit it. Kurt is the smartest of all of us; he always runs just late enough to catch the last five minutes of the workout section while the rest of us are so exhausted we're hallucinating Heidi Klum performing surgery on Grimace the Tastebud. Maybe that's just me.I know everyone likes lists so here's a list of percentages about my life (Numbers 100-80):
- I'm 100% sure I'll go on to get my doctoral degree in music.
- I'm 99% sure Led Zeppelin is the greatest band of all time.
- I'm 98% sure I won't get another dog after Chompy dies.
- I'm 97% sure I'll get married.
- I'm 96% sure I won't have kids.
- I'm 95% sure no one could write a better song for steel band than I could.
- I'm 94% sure I'll get a job teaching. Somewhere.
- I'm 93% sure I've already made my closest life-long friends.
- I'm 92% sure I'll never be able to sight-sing.
- I'm 91% sure I'll be totally bald by age 30.
- I'm 90% sure I'll find an excuse to stop doing karate before I get a black belt.
- I'm 89% sure I'll be a slob the rest of my life.
- I'm 88% sure Sallie Mae will collect all the money I owe them for my student loans.
- I'm 87% sure that I made the right decision taking a break from school.
- I'm 86% sure two members of my family will get married before I do even though I'm technically "next".
- I'm 85% sure that I'll always love to switch hobbies after three obsessive months.
- I'm 84% sure that I'll have to do some non-academic work on the side to make ends meet.
- I'm 83% sure that I'd be unhappy doing my current job the rest of my life even in my salary had a 0 tacked onto the end.
- I'm 82% sure the world would be a better place if Bono had never lived.
- I'm 81% sure I'll never go back to being a devout Catholic.
- I'm 80% sure no one I've dated since college cheated on me.
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Wednesday: February 08, 2006 - You Got Any Wheat?
Tonight jamie and Kathy came over to play a little Settlers of Catan. The game is pretty fun if you're in it but let's face it; you're not
always in it. A couple bad rolls at the beginning and you're really just taking up space at the table. The first game it was my job to do nothing while Jamie and Kathy
went at it and then it was Kathy's turn the second game. Jamie was one turn too late both times. Alas. (Notice my suble Photoshopping in that picture).On with the list!
- I'm 79% sure one of my extended family will Come Out within the next ten years (not you Steve).
- I'm 78% sure Jamie will let me keep Ab when she goes to law school.
- I'm 77% sure I'll get no Social Security when I retire.
- I'm 76% sure I'll have at least one more temp job before I get my "career" job.
- I'm 75% sure the Cubs will win a World Series in my lifetime.
- I'm 74% sure we'll still be using oil as a primary energy source when I die.
- I'm 73% sure I'll be a good teacher.
- I'm 72% sure I'll be a great teacher.
- I'm 71% sure someone I know from college/grad school will "make it big".
- I'm 70% sure that I won't be going to any high school reunions.
- I'm 69% sure that I'll be out of Tallahassee in August of 2007.
- I'm 68% sure I'll play in a rock band again.
- I'm 67% sure I'll earn a big raise in the next six months.
- I'm 66% sure I'll get a big raise in the next six months.
- I'm 65% sure I'll never join a gym.
- I'm 64% sure George W. Bush won't be remembered as the bad president he was.
- I'm 63% sure I'll keep a blog for the rest of my middle-adult life.
- I'm 62% sure I'll stop having fishtanks once I move out of Florida.
- I'm 61% sure I'll never win an arm wrestling match against anyone older than 8.
- I'm 60% sure I'll keep in touch with at least eight people I met at FSU for the rest of my life.
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Thursday: February 09, 2006 - Wring That Sock Out At The Bank
Since there's so much going on today let's take a break from the Percentages List. First, today is a Write The Caption day.I got my ass kicked in Karate by this 18 year old girl who was studying to be a tattoo artist. She was almost done with her studies but she was still having problems "drawing straight lines". Super. We learned our first two kenpos tonight. I keep trying to get people to grab my wrists so I can do my new move but as pchris demonstrated at poker tonight, it's hard to do in practice without the crucial nut-kick.
Congratulations to elena who got her first (sanctioned) kill of the year and to tchris for finally ending the game at midnight and getting his first (sanctioned) win of the year.
Tomorrow we're going to take a five hour lunch and go to Gordo's. I'm pumped. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Friday: February 10, 2006 - Let's Jam
Tonight everyone I know in Florida went to to Andrew's to celebrate tchris' Gave A Test. Around 10pm we all parted way; pchris and elena went over to chris and Michael's for Taboo along with Christine and Erick.
Theory-Chris left for some party en route to nailing one of my old students (who, I might add didn't even remember me at first). I hung out with jamie for a little while but she went to her parents' house and I went to bed.
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Weekend: February 11, 2006 - Flash Photography
Ok, the first round of Poker Stats are up!Man, DH sucks now. I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to watch it; Family Guy is on anyway so it's not like I'll have to sit and stare at the wall on Sunday nights.
I bought six new fish for my now-immaculate tank. I didn't realize how big current fish are until I saw them next to all the new fry. I got some Rusty Somethings and some Orange Zebras. We'll see how long they live.
Christine totally ditched me to practice Karate on Saturday; I'm pissed. I helped jamie paint her bedroom Saturday morning instead. Fun weekend baby. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 13, 2006 - Tuck's Medicated Pads
At the end of the month half the office is going up to NYC. That means Liz won't be bringing in her cat Tuxedo (or as I call him: Tuck's Medicated Pads) for a week. Does that mean Chompy can come in while they're gone?
Probably not but still, it might be fun (for me and me alone) to have Chompy at work. Speaking of work, it's my new job to make sure the term personal loan moves into the top 3 results so there's my link. Bam.- I'm 59% sure somone I know has had an abortion.
- I'm 58% sure somone I know has an alcohol and/or drug problem.
- I'm 57% sure the term "air bladder" will always make me laugh.
- I'm 56% sure I'll never wake up one day and like all the foods that normal people like.
- I'm 55% sure I'll have my brown leather coat for another ten years.
- I'm 54% sure I like caring about what I wear.
- I'm 53% sure at least one of my friends is gay (and doesn't own up to it).
- I'm 52% sure the South will never fully recover from the Civil War.
- I'm 51% sure 90% of my students will remember me in 10 years (tricky).
- I'm 50% sure there's a God.
- I'm 49% sure I'll live past 2060.
- I'm 48% sure I've never been profoundly in love.
- I'm 47% sure I'll never date a Conservative.
- I'm 46% sure I'll go fishing in the next five years.
- I'm 45% sure I'll get in a fist-fight in the next five years (and win, bitches).
- I'm 44% sure I'll play electric guitar at some gig.
- I'm 43% sure someone I know has an STD.
- I'm 42% sure I'll see my friends from undergrad in the next five years.
- I'm 41% sure I'll never be fat and/or hairy.
- I'm 40% sure I trust my landlord enough to actually send the pest control guy every month.
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Tuesday: February 14, 2006 - Happy Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine's Day jamie! Since she had a rape group to lead and I had karate we agreed to celebrate later this week.
Doing a later-day celebration of a holiday is a great idea. You can go eat anywhere you want without the jack-up of prices and you won't have to brush elbows with frat guys
wearing suits and flip-flops before they move on to raping their drunken dates.If you think that picture is gross imagine waking up at 3am and pooping for an hour and a half. Yeah, don't eat the Valentine's Day ham. Chompy and I both ate something especially horrible for us and she was puking and I was, well, you know...poopin'. We're both fine now but it made for a rough night. You'll be pleased to know that both my beloved dog and I fine now. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: February 15, 2006 - Mike vs. The Ogre
Listen. I'm 6'1" and weigh about 165 lbs when soaking wet. I am not a big man. However, since I'm over 5'8" I'm apparently considered tall which apparently means Big. In
karate I was paired up with the resident ogre, a very nice older gentleman of about 50 who is about 6'5", 250. Everything was going great and he did a wonderful job of teaching
me the finer movements of the skills until he punched me in the eye. It was an accident of course but it was a hard enough punch to knock my contact lens to the back of my
left eye and leave the bottom of it a little puffy. Of course if you're in karate you know you're going to get punched but it's one thing to take a shot in the arm or chest
and something completely different to take one in the face. I think I did a convincing job of laughing it off--I felt worse for him. And believe you me, he apologized about
fifty times. But now, friends, I am am man.
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Thursday: February 16, 2006 - Today Was The Worst
Man, today was the worst. I found at work that since I was only going to be there for another 2 yearsish that I wasn't worth investing in because I was just going to leave. I'm not sure how deeply that goes (raises, training, conferences?) but it can't be good. It's not like I'm going to half-ass it while I'm here--I couldn't if I wanted to, there's only 12 people that work here and if I just suddenly stopped working it might be noticeable. And who wants to work where there's no "next rung"? I really want to kick ass while I'm here even if I don't want to do it for the rest of my life. I'd be really unhappy. But the next two years is long enough that I'd still be into it and continue to kick ass. Oh well. Strike one.None of us will be allowed to test for our yellow belts on Saturday. I'm pissed. Do I have everything perfect? Hell no but I don't need another three months practicing. I need a week, two tops. Yeah, I'm pissed. Strike Two.
tchris whomped us in poker tonight. And when I say whomped I mean he killed all three of us. It was an epic battle in heads-up and he and jamie went at it hard for a solid hour. There was little folding or small bets. It was throw-to-the-mat style and it went back and forth every hand with bets between 300-1200 every hand. Crazy. I was the first one out despite having about 80% of the chips after an hour. Strike Three. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Weekend: February 19, 2006 - TODAY was the worst
On Friday we played Settlers of Catan,IA (didn't you know the game takes place in Iowa?) with tchris, Kathy and marty. jamie managed to lose by a single turn for the third straight game. I like Marty a lot and I really regret that we didn't have more time together in school. When we finished playing...wait a second. This was Saturday night! Ok rewind...On Friday night I hung out with chris and a bunch of his friends from his former days in the Lab at FSU. We went to Leon Pub and then to some Indian place. I fell asleep while we were there and once I got home I let the dogs out and immediately fell asleep. There we go.
Jumping (back) ahead to Saturday I downloaded the PC version of the game. If you click here you can download it. It's a good way to learn quickly and that's really all I wanted it for so it's serving its porpoise.
Last night we watched a dull DH followed by an equally dull GA. ABC has really been letting us down t his season. In other news my garbage disposal is broken and I have a sink half-filled with old chocolate milk that won't go down the drain. And about 200 families of roaches who are enjoying their new waterfront real estate. Sucks to live in Florida. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 20, 2006 - Secrets
Last week at work I wrote an analysis and breakdown of google's search patent for work. It's not the kind of thing I would have expected to do in my life but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. It reminded me of those intolerable atonal articles Nancy Rogers made us read when I was in school. The kind that you have to read a paragraph like 10 times over before you even have a remedial concept of what the point is. And this, friends, was only the patent; written for dumb lawyers who don't know <span> from <div> (if you can still believe there are people like that out there)! Anyway. It was interesting, the parts I understood at least. For starters no two days are the same. Depending on the day, season, time, whatever a new search algorithm is used. So if I'm first in the engine for the word "chompy" right now come December people looking for Chompy will wind up on a different page that might be more geared towards Chompy At Christmas. Weird. It's also probably safe to infer that if you're currently buying links on other sites you're going to need to stop doing that. They're going to catch you. Hell, if Mozilla's AdBlock can figure out which ads are sponsored I can assure you G00gle can. Not surprisingly the best thing to make your way up the search engine path is to have inbound links from reputable sources. I'm not revealing any more secrets--you can read the damn patent yourself.
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Tuesday: February 21, 2006 - 20,000 Hits
I'm going to get my 20,000th hit on Wednesday. I'm not sure who it will be but I plan on doing a 20,000-hits of the Chompblog Clip Show soon. Whomever is it (I hope to god it's not me) will get a big prize! It's behind Door #2! Could it be you?!?!?!?!?!?
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Wednesday: February 22, 2006 - Alumni Page
Congratulations to mark who was the Chompblog's 20,000th hit. His prize will be grabbing my wrists or a two-handed strangling of me; his choice. jamie and I celebrated Valentine's Day tonight by going to Mozaik. It was pretty good and had it not been $72 I'd go there on a pretty regular basis. Afterwards we watched a couple of the generic Project Runway clip shows before I went home to pet Chompy and watch Project Jay. There was a time in my life where I would have been embarrassed to have admitted that I watch Project Runway but now I'm comfortable enough to admit it. Tomorrow is poker at tchris' house at 7:30. See you there!Oh, I also got my FSU almuni directory site page set up. There's nothing there yet so don't bother clicking on the link. I just think it's cool I get 250MB of space on a Class C site for free. Hello link-selling. I rationalize it to myself by saying I'll use the money I make to help pay back my loans. If anyone else has *.edu sites at their disposal email me and I'll tell you how to get rich too. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Thursday: February 23, 2006 - Fun Dip
Today at work Liz discovered my blog. She gave me the same warning most people do when they read it--that I might want to be concerned about what people think. I gave the standard reply
of saying I wouldn't write anything in here that I wouldn't say to someone's face. The internet is no place for secrets. Truth be told I was more concerned about her analyzing
the code that powers that and drawing a big black X next to my name than about anything scandalous I've written. Today was better at work although I feel like I've totally
lost track of what my job is. Every day is some new adventure and while I enjoy the variety I wish good things were happening instead of doing new and exciting things to correct
problems. Alas.So it's Thursday and I know everyone is just dying to know who won our weekly poker game. It was me. More importantly than my stunning win though was I had Fun Dip for the first time. I'd explain but according to everyone else I was the only person on the planet who had never had it before. It was kind of weird at first but I certainly wouldn't turn down some Razzamazzapple or whatever it was called if someone offered it to me. tchris had an awesome book on the history of Absolute ads. It was really cool; those guys and gals are really creative. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Weekend: February 24, 2006 - Marty the Porn Star
marty was emailed to see if he had any interest in being a porn star. I got emailed from the fine folks at CareerBuilder.com. I'm not saying my life is more boring than his I'm just saying that I must not have what it takes to move from "Middle Management" to Middle Management. Get it? Managing my mid-section? Anyway.On Friday night jamie and I went to play tennis. I think we played for a good half hour before she determined the balls were too flat to play with and we left.
On Saturday night I hung out with Jamie again for a long time before we had a late-night visit from the SoC. Sadly, they did not stay long after I ordered dozens of soldiers to remove them from my house.
I spent Sunday cleaning out the Taurus. You might not think of this as an all-day activity but I can assure you that it was. I probably had enough spilled dog food in my trunk to have kept all the animals left homeless by Katrina well-fed for about a week. I also found a love note from some Elementary school kids from Woodville Elementary from when the steel band played there. It was all crumpled up and caked with dog food though so the nice sentiment ended up in the trash. When I cleaned the inside I found about $8 which bought me coffee and a bagel this morning. Now it's spotless and I will not be embarassed to have people ride in it. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 27, 2006 - Sleep, Sweet Sleep
I got the approval from Dr. Clendinning to finish my back-up masters degree this summer. Since I'll be applying for schools again in the fall I officially decided that being one credit short of another degree might raise some questions so my plan is just to suck it up and get it over with. I have to defend it by July 3rd so really I'll only have about a month's worth of summer meetings to forge my music nuggets into theory-gold. Hopefully my being there will also put my bright and smiling face back into the minds of those people who I need to ask for letters of recommendation.My Alexadex stock went up 3x yesterday. If you've never played it essentially works like a stock market of websites based on the alexa rankings (which monitor traffic). Since it's free to play even if you don't know anything about stocks or websites it's fun to play and I'd highly recommend it if you're looking for a five minute break daily where half-assing it is totally acceptable. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: February 28, 2006 - More Sleep, Sweet Sleep
I really need to get a cup for karate. With Kurt and Christine at a conference in New York I had to go to karate by myself. I forgot to call Kurt's woman and tell her to come with me. Because I was there alone I got paired with the 18 year old budding tatoo artist (Ashley) again. For the second time in two pairings she kicked me in the nuts and told me to get a cup. I hate how when we started karate our class
was full of white belts and now it's like a ass-kicking rainbow. The schedule clearly says White Belts from 5:30-6:30 on Tuesday and Thursdays. Why does that make me so angry? Because the instructors spend most of their time teaching the upper belts how to do 42-point combinations and we're left to rely on other white belts to figure out what's going on. And white belts have no idea what's going on. It's really starting to get frustrating when I can't even get one damn question answered in the hour I'm there.I know it's most likely about 2 years away but I can't wait to get out of this city and start fresh somewhere. If you remember the movie Ghostbusters (only one of two movies I've ever seen) there's a part where that green ghost (Slimer?) goes right through someone and the person is all covered in green slime. That's how I feel; like I'm covered in green goo. I feel like I'm not going to be around in the business world long enough to succeed and I fear that I'll have been out of music too long to succeed. What happens when I have to take my prelims? If you think for one second that I remember the dates of ANY composer (other than myself) or how to analyze some weird atonal piece you are sadly mistaken. I'll most likely be thrown in the lowest-division with all of the retarded choir and music education grad students and I'm sure I won't be happy there.
Confidental to marty: If you're worried about putting your foot(-l) in your mouth then I think you've got a real shot in this industry. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Good Things Take Time...
-2 days until FSU Football (2010)
Random Picture...
A ha! Here's the real Ocho Rios. Apparently 90% of their tourism industry consists of hordes of cab drivers clammoring for business. I got to use a one-handed wrist grab escape to make one let go of a too-long handshake while hanging out with Kristin.
A ha! Here's the real Ocho Rios. Apparently 90% of their tourism industry consists of hordes of cab drivers clammoring for business. I got to use a one-handed wrist grab escape to make one let go of a too-long handshake while hanging out with Kristin.
Time Machine:
09-07-2009
· 09-07-2008
· 09-07-2007
· 09-07-2006
09-07-2009: I'll start with the good news: my death from the swine flu is no longer imminent. Now, onto the bad news.
WHERE THE HELL WAS FSU'S DEFENSE?! *I* could have been playing cornerback last night. I can easily ignore receivers as the blow past me or trip on my own two feet as a RUNNING BACK shoots past me for a catch in the end zone. Uggggggggh. On the bright side, the offense looked pretty good--at least Christian Ponder and the vaunted offensive line. The running game looked anemic when Jermaine was in there but his backup looked like a punisher. The fact our receivers c(w)ouldn't catch the ball made life rough. Fortson looked like the only guy who actually was willing to take one for the team and try to catch it, although Richard Goodman's catch on the two-point conversion ended with him getting blasted.
Anyway, where was the bloodthirsty FSU defense? Who were these cowards playing constant zone coverage? It doesn't take a PS2 NCAA Football expert very long to realize there's a time and a place for zone but if you want to win you need to MAN UP. Granted, the man coverage, when "utilized", made the secondary look absolutely stupid, with their coverage at least five yards behind the Miami receivers.
Whatever, we'll be good next year.09-07-2008: It looks like my vice-like grip over NCAA Pick 'Em is officially over. After tweaking "the algorithm" I still finished near the bottom of the picks because I clearly overweighed the section dedicated to "do they like to get upset?". The numbers correctly picked the ECU upset of WV but unfortunately they also picked three more upsets and, knowing that no more than three teams ever get upset in a week, I released WV out of a personal affinity towards the school. I also, until the game started, thought USM was in fact Mississippi State which they are clearly not. Oops.
I went out to Virginia to watch the FSU game with Kathy & Co. The bar had a lot of FSU fans but none that were particularly into the game. It didn't help that there was over two hours in combined rain delays. FSU looked good but I think anyone would look good against Western Carolina. They're not East Carolina, that's for sure. Catamounts, for the record, are mountain lions. They are not horses despite containing the word "mount". We'll know for sure how good FSU is when vaunted Chattanooga rolls into town next week. I took the day off blogging but only because I was thinking of you.09-07-2006: Although not as gratifying as some wins in the past, I was able to fend off tchris and jamie in a little three-way poker last night. At different points in the night we all had huge chip leads and somehow blew them. We're all big bettors so it was a lot of fun despite the low number of people.
I really need a new computer. Mine shuts off after about five minutes of use due to overheating and I still have not been able to find the right replacement fan. I'm hoping by the week after my birthday to have enough money to buy the new one from Dell, even though they won't let me get it without the video card. I talked to their retarded sales/tech guy and asked them simply if they could not charge/install a video card. They do not have dual-monitor options and I wasn't ordering any monitors so I didn't need the card. He replied that they could not and I was out of luck. I replied by asking him if the computers were really built by hand like they say in the commercials. He said yes. I then asked if they guy installing it could just "leave out" the video card (I'd be throwing it out the day I got it) and have the person hand-writing my bill leave off the cost of it. He said no. Oh well.
WHERE THE HELL WAS FSU'S DEFENSE?! *I* could have been playing cornerback last night. I can easily ignore receivers as the blow past me or trip on my own two feet as a RUNNING BACK shoots past me for a catch in the end zone. Uggggggggh. On the bright side, the offense looked pretty good--at least Christian Ponder and the vaunted offensive line. The running game looked anemic when Jermaine was in there but his backup looked like a punisher. The fact our receivers c(w)ouldn't catch the ball made life rough. Fortson looked like the only guy who actually was willing to take one for the team and try to catch it, although Richard Goodman's catch on the two-point conversion ended with him getting blasted.
Anyway, where was the bloodthirsty FSU defense? Who were these cowards playing constant zone coverage? It doesn't take a PS2 NCAA Football expert very long to realize there's a time and a place for zone but if you want to win you need to MAN UP. Granted, the man coverage, when "utilized", made the secondary look absolutely stupid, with their coverage at least five yards behind the Miami receivers.
Whatever, we'll be good next year.09-07-2008: It looks like my vice-like grip over NCAA Pick 'Em is officially over. After tweaking "the algorithm" I still finished near the bottom of the picks because I clearly overweighed the section dedicated to "do they like to get upset?". The numbers correctly picked the ECU upset of WV but unfortunately they also picked three more upsets and, knowing that no more than three teams ever get upset in a week, I released WV out of a personal affinity towards the school. I also, until the game started, thought USM was in fact Mississippi State which they are clearly not. Oops.
I went out to Virginia to watch the FSU game with Kathy & Co. The bar had a lot of FSU fans but none that were particularly into the game. It didn't help that there was over two hours in combined rain delays. FSU looked good but I think anyone would look good against Western Carolina. They're not East Carolina, that's for sure. Catamounts, for the record, are mountain lions. They are not horses despite containing the word "mount". We'll know for sure how good FSU is when vaunted Chattanooga rolls into town next week. I took the day off blogging but only because I was thinking of you.09-07-2006: Although not as gratifying as some wins in the past, I was able to fend off tchris and jamie in a little three-way poker last night. At different points in the night we all had huge chip leads and somehow blew them. We're all big bettors so it was a lot of fun despite the low number of people.
I really need a new computer. Mine shuts off after about five minutes of use due to overheating and I still have not been able to find the right replacement fan. I'm hoping by the week after my birthday to have enough money to buy the new one from Dell, even though they won't let me get it without the video card. I talked to their retarded sales/tech guy and asked them simply if they could not charge/install a video card. They do not have dual-monitor options and I wasn't ordering any monitors so I didn't need the card. He replied that they could not and I was out of luck. I replied by asking him if the computers were really built by hand like they say in the commercials. He said yes. I then asked if they guy installing it could just "leave out" the video card (I'd be throwing it out the day I got it) and have the person hand-writing my bill leave off the cost of it. He said no. Oh well.