Red Zeppelin
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Monday: September 01, 2008 - Weekend Update
It's been so long since I last updated I don't even remember what I've been doing. Let's see, for Labor Day I went over to Brian's for grilling and badminton. On Sunday I did a bunch of work, cleaned and vacuumed (since I had skipped my midweek vacuum), and found my new big TV online. I've decided to enter the way-too-big-of-a-tv market and as soon as the Cubs clinch a playoff spot I'm going to buy it. Right now they have a 99.8% chance but since they're the Cubs I don't want to assume anything. On Saturday I went out to Sterling (again) to play poker and finished second. At least I got my money back. I also got a key to my basement now that it's locked all the time to be prevent the "burglar" from getting in. The gossip going around is that there is no burglar at all. I'm no longer getting a gun. On Friday I met up with Brian's NoVa gang for dinner in Arlington and then broke ranks and post-partied with Rebecca and her friends. And that was my weekend.
I don't want to hear a peep about Pick 'Em. It's like the day after Easter--no peeps. If Virginia Tech had won I'd have been in great shape (though not in first) and I'm already pissed off at the announcers on ESPN that have been saying they called ECU. First of all, no you didn't. Second of all, ECU won on a LUCKY play. That could have been any team losing and it just happened to be Virginia Tech. Yes, they let ECU stay in the game but a blocked kick could have changed the outcome of any of Saturday's close games (maybe not Miami's 512-0 crushing of whomever they played).
I'll do better next week (at least beat Steve). [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: September 02, 2008 - MarioKart For Real
Ok, seriously, we're playing MarioKart tonight at 8pm. SERIOUSLY.
I got sick last night around 10pm for no reason. Just a regular cold but it came out of nowhere and by the time I woke around 2:30pm this afternoon it had almost totally gone away. Weird. I ordered ESPN GamePlan yesterday so now I can watch up to six college football games at once. This is grossly unnecessary but really, few things in life are really all that necessary. The Cubs can't clinch a playoff spot fast enough--my big TV awaits!
I also picked up Ab last night and she and Chompy covered my bed in dirt after running around in the clay before coming in. Speaking of clay, I read that some people crave eating clay while pregnant. Weirdy. Since I'm phoning in today's entry, here's a video that's worth the watch (with FSU alum Richard Simmons no less).
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Wednesday: September 03, 2008 - Still Sick
I can't believe I'm still sick. It's so aggravating. Not aggravating enough for me to lose in MarioKart but still pretty aggravating. We had a scant turnout last night with Chris V. and Chris E. coupled with a lot of disconnects. Hopefully next week will run a little more smoothly.
In other news, Christian Ponder is the starting QB for FSU. In the one game he's played in so far, he went 8/8 with 2 TDs at Lane Stadium (VT). Not too shabby (notice I didn't put how many times he fumbled).
The Cubs have lost five in a row but thankfully the Reds are coming to town. The Brewers are totally blowing this losing streak as they've started their own. I think it's safe to say St. Louis is out of the picture now. Zambrano goes in for an MRI tomorrow, the offense is slumping (at best), Harden might be hurt, Lilly always gives up a ton of runs, and Marquis is his usual bad self. It's going to be a rough month for sure.
I want that TV. [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Weekend: September 07, 2008 - Reign of Terror Over
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. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: September 08, 2008 - Things That Scare Me
The first thing that scares me is the huge bug that was crawling along my ceiling last night at around midnight. It started moving once I took a picture of it and I was afraid that it was going to repel down from the ceiling and land in my mouth; this is my fear of all flying/big-legs-for-jumping bugs. Fortunately I had just finished my laundry, and after waking up Chompy for reinforcements, I grabbed a handful of sock balls and start bombing. The third strike landed successfully and whatever the hell this is fell behind my keyboard case with a loud thump. It's no 5' Florida Roach but it was pretty disgusting.
Equally disgusting, but for different reasons, is Sarah Palin. Obama might be a White Sox fan but he regained my vote once this stupid bitch was nominated to be the VP. Yeah, she's a VPILF, but she's a total and complete idiot. There's absolutely no way this...well, stupid bitch should be a heartbeat away from the presidency. I don't really have a hard time defending the "stupid" (advocated for the "bridge to nowhere" before flipping 180 on the campaign trail) nor the bitch ("Well, ya know, Senator Obama is less interested in protecting you from terrorists than ... reading them their rights."). Some of us LIKE OUR RIGHTS--I know you're pandering to people as uneducated and oblivious to the constitution as you are but come on. I should point out that it's bad when *I'm* a bigger advocate for women's rights than...a woman.
Obama/Biden: They're not McCain/Palin. That's all it takes to sell me on the ticket. [Comments: 5]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: September 09, 2008 - Babies Everywhere
Yesterday I met up with Kathy for lunch and, after gossiping for a while, we got to business discussing just how cute babies dressed in onesies-for-your-team are. The consensus? TOO CUTE!!! Like Chompy In A Pool, the cuteness levels are right at 100%. There was some other subject that we thought a good blog topic but it escapes me right now.
If you're going to FSU game with me, I ordered the tickets. I'm excited Tim is coming to town for it. I'm also excited to kick his ass in NCAA Football 2009. Chris' too. I promised Tim I wouldn't play more than three games by myself but last night I burned two as WVU. Playing at #1 Georgia on Heisman, we went to triple overtime and PC-Pat White got hurt on the first play (after accruing 300 rushing yards). Fortunately the backup scored one last time and after laying down an All-User Sack on 4th and Goal I won it. BAM. Bring it on, boys! [Comments: 5]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: September 10, 2008 - What's New?
It seems like just yesterday I was dreaming about Dr. Spencer and the Corkasaurus. Turns out it's been a whole year. Last night I was talking to Chris Green and he's going to do a guest entry next week to catch everyone up on his life so get ready! Later in the evening I was thinking to myself that it would nice if a bunch of people would write "catch-up" entries so that we could find out all of the exciting things that have been happening since we interacted on a daily basis. Even the people that I've seen/talked to somewhat regularly, I don't really know the full-blown details of what's going on with their lives. Here's where you come in--you too can write an entry to catch everyone up. Send me an email and I'll give you a date from which to start. Then you can post on here in the next few days/weeks. Just think--between 150 and 200 people reading all about your interesting life! And to think I get to live that each and every day.
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Thursday: September 11, 2008 - Seven Years Later
Today is the seventh anniversary of 9/11. Seven years ago from right now (actually the 12th) the world loved the United States more than it had since we came in to save Western Europe from the Nazis. Who would have thought we could have decimated the feelings of goodwill so quickly?
The big news now is Ike and how badly it's going to slam into Tejas. I only know of four people that live in Texas: Marty, Jen, and Chris' parents (although the Cubs are supposed to be playing in Houston tonight). My theory is that hurricanes are sent to destroy certain people in New Orleans and that nature is slowly learning where it is. All the ones that hit Florida were practice shots and once Katrina displaced the residents it will now take more hurricanes to find them. With so many now shooting up Houston it only makes sense that Ike would have to detour away from the Floridian gulf and head towards Texas. Hopefully those four people I know, along with the law abiding citizens of Houston will come away no worse for the wear and will be willing to sacrifice the New Orleans residents in order to appease the Gods of The Hurricane (not Randy Shannon). [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Friday: September 12, 2008 - Another Belated 12 of 12
10am: These are the gross adult vitamins that have replaced the Flintstones ones (in the back--just in case).
10:30am:Hauling Chompy to the Spring Valley Starbucks like I now do most mornings.
10:40am:The Starbucks had this picture of North America without the United States. Uh, remember that your clients ALL LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES before making a statement. Maybe the sandstone in the back kind of looks like the United States. Whatever. I'm cranky without coffee.
11:30am:I wonder how much getting a TV that big costs. Further, is that feasible for my budget? If so, where would I put it?
Nooner: Round 1/3 of getting Mike-R Huge. The book is still there from the night before. Riveting.
1:30pm:I'm out of plates so I had to use one of the cartons from Anne K's German Cookoff or else borrow one of the dog's bowls. I need to do some dishes something fierce.
2:30pm:At Target getting some curtains. That sign makes me laugh: the bath is at x = 6, y = 2; find the slope.
5pm:It only took me like a million hours to put my first-ever set of drapes on. I still haven't put the other side on because they just piss me off.
9pm:Chompy wants to play bass but she doesn't have thumbs.
9:30pm:Watching USF vs. Kansas and evaluating my Saturday picks.
10:30pm:Breaking in the new Wii Fit. It's full of great insults to make you feel badly about being so fat. I think it misread me because I'm so huge by this time of night after the third round or real exercise.
midnight:There's the gross bug in all its glory.
BONUS: Chompy the Dog! Looking good.
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Weekend: September 14, 2008 - Catching Up With...Chris Green
Hello to the whole former Tallahassee gang! (is there anyone still down there…Ricky?) Mike Catania (a.k.a. The Best) has asked me to write a guest entry to catch everyone up on my life (and I guess Michael’s as well) up in Indiana. It’s hard to believe that we’re going on our third year living up here already. I think that the last time that I saw most of you was our first Spring break (!!!..that’s for Jamie) after we left. I’ve seen Marty of course once up in Ithaca when I was visiting home and then Mike and Jamie met us up in New York City for the day this past March, but besides that…it’s been a really long time. Thankfully for Facebook and AIM, we can all more or less keep up on each other’s lives. I’m thinking that we’re just going to have to move to DC one way or the other and reunite the whole gang. I have been trying my best to be K-Chris here, but it’s just not the same. Michael has started a poker night of his bass friends though, but they have not been graced with my pepperoni bread yet. No one even knows about birthday brownies either! So I guess I can’t just think back on old stuff…I’m supposed to be doing an (p)update.
So, I’m starting my third year at Indiana. I started here as an MA but I was “status changed” to PhD after my first year. My interests have surely changed concerning what I’m doing in linguistics and what I want to do after school. I came to school wanting to get involved in language policy and planning, but all the sudden I’m a theoretical phonologist. For those of you who don’t know linguistics, that means that I’m a “sound guy”. Since I’ve been here, I have been an officer in charge of publications of the IU linguistics club and founded the IU African Languages Club. I’m still on a fellowship that requires that I study Bambara (Mali), but I’ve also worked on Swahili, Wolof (Senegal), and done a year of “fieldwork” on Luwanga (Kenya). That’s just language stuff of course. I work for three of my professors as well, so I keep myself very busy…which is how I like it. I have three major lines of research going at this point which are taking me in some interesting directions where I can meet very famous and influential people in my field. I discovered something this past year in Luwanga that has never been documented in a language before, and so I was invited to give a talk about it at the 39th Annual Conference on African Linguistics in Athens, GA this past year. I’ve also published three papers so far, which is a definite plus. I’m going to be heading to New York City this January for an important conference and I’m also presenting a paper in Minneapolis next month. Busy, busy…I know. I suppose that in more important news, this is my last full semester of coursework. I have two classes to take in the Spring, and I’ve just actually completed my first qualifying paper this past week…the second won’t be due until April. After that, the plan is to do some pre-fieldwork in Africa over the Summer and then end by vacationing around Europe a bit and presenting a paper at the World Congress on African Linguistics in Cologne next August. That is as far into the future as I know at this point, since I still have to figure out exactly what my dissertation topic is going to be.
In other news, Michael is doing well, and we are really enjoying life in Bloomington. We are both super busy all the time, so we try to take advantage of the "date night" concept so we can at least see each other one day a week when we’re not running around. Michael has been busy taking auditions all over and is on the sub list for about 5 regional orchestras. He’s taking the Atlanta audition in just a couple weeks. This year, he is sitting principle of one of the university orchestras here, so he’s keeping very busy as well. We both finished our Masters degrees this past Spring, and so as I said, I’m staying on for the PhD, and Michael is working on his Performance Diploma (an extra 3 semesters). Life is very quiet in Bloomington, and it is the perfect place to do research, so I couldn’t be happier. I’m sure that Michael would like to be a little closer to some bigger cities so that they would be more “big” orchestra playing opportunities, but alas, here we are.
So, I guess that’s about it for my guest entry. I hope that everyone is doing well and is happy in their respective places. It seems like we’re all more or less spread out at this point (with the exception of the DC crew). If you ever find yourselves in the area, give us a holler…we love having guests!!! Take care!!! xoxo…K-Chris (and Michael) [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Monday: September 15, 2008 - Happy Birthday Brian!
Happy Birthday Brian! Thanks to our own Chris Green for the massively popular entry yesterday!
Belated 12 of 12 [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: September 16, 2008 - Front Page DC
Last night I trekked out to DuPont Circle to meet up Kathy, Becky, and her friend Liz for fun and festivities at Front Page. I feel like I've been to that place a lot even though I really have been anywhere a lot. I managed to get lost a little because I came out of the wrong metro exit and had to walk through Homeless Circle to get re-situated. There was some dude playing Pink Floyd on an acoustic guitar and singing along with a microphone. I like Pink Floyd but seriously if the urge to make art hits you to the point where you're going to pack up gear and haul it to Homeless Circle, I would think that the urge would be to create something other than bad covers. That's just me though. I know when I'm in the mood to write music I find it's best to write from scratch than writing a song that's already been written. What do I know, though? Well, I'm glad you asked. I know that Front Page has some excellent chicken fingers and that if you know the bartender your bill is drastically (and I mean drastically) reduced. Becky is well-connected so I should have heeded her advice when she told me to put my stuff on her tab instead of starting my own. Live and learn. The festivities ended early and I was home by 9:30 so I called Chris and then watched the Cubs edge the Brewers to bring their Magic Number down to 4. Go Cubs!
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Wednesday: September 17, 2008 - You Guys Are My Guys
After whomping Jamie in tennis yesterday morning I grabbed Ab and set off to G-Lover Park for a day of dog-petting (I just took this picture right now--I didn't recycle). Tennis was tiring so I took an Ab-nap for a good 90 minutes in between churning out work. After I woke up I was starving so I tried to go to Chipotle but some bitch was blocking a whole lane of traffic while giggling on her cell phone. As I finally pulled up next to her I politely asked if she was "f*cking retarded?" She said in the most patronize tone "I don't know...am I f*cking retarded?" and for a split second I wanted to kill her. *I* wasn't the one holding up traffic on Wisconsin Avenue while casually sitting in my car talking on my cell phone in my Lexus SUV. It wasn't me. I wanted an apology not a mocking and I now understand why you don't carry guns in cars. It sounds so petty but this town is filled at least with 90% of people who care solely about themselves and it doesn't matter one bit if their waiting for their friend to come out of Popeye's chicken during rush hour on the busiest road on our quadrant of the city holds up hundreds of cars. Anyway, because the traffic patterns were all f*cked up because of her I had to bypass Chipotle so I went to the TenleyGhetto Starbucks for a coffee instead. As I was getting back into my car I saw two guys climbing out of the Clothes For The Homeless Bin with filled bags of clothes. They went behind the bin and were trying them on. These guys were also wearing Nikes and had watches on and appeared to have showered within the past day. I believe this is called "stealing".
I stopped at Balducci's to get some fish and would up getting some swordfish. It was really good; I surprised myself with how well it came out despite being baked. After dinner I settled into some MarioKart and put a whomping down again! Elena showed some moxy in the last set of races but, as I told Ricky while gloating afterwards, I should play NCAA Football on the playstation at the same time to make it sporting. I'm telling you all--be Toad in the Arm Cart with an Automatic tranny. Haha, tranny. "She just tapes it back." That quote brought to you by It's Always Sunny in Philly, which starts again tonight. [Comments: 13]· permalink ·
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Weekend: September 21, 2008 - Sporty Weekend
First the good news, the Cubs slayed the Cardinals and clinched their second-straight NL Central Pennant. Hooray! I'm rooting for the Phillies to be the Wild Card team so that I can go to a game in Philly. They're playing well though so it looks like it's going to come down to the two teams that seem to have no desire to win it: the Mets and Brewers. Both teams are terrible and I'm pretty sure they'll get swept in the playoffs no matter who they play. It was weird to see Marmol and Wood party so hard together after they won. I wouldn't be able to let loose around some guy who thinks he should have my job. Whatever. I've got my Marmol t-shirt on today to celebrate.
FSU's offense is the worst. I've written about this several times in the past (like here or here) but this was absolutely disgusting to watch. I'm glad I didn't leave the house to watch this one. As usual, the defense does great but was quickly exhausted by playing on a super-arena-style field of 20 yards since D'Ponder threw five interceptions and the backs coughed up the ball on running plays. Seven turnovers in one game? What can you even say about it except that http://www.firejimbo.com has already been taken. I can't get over just how bad our offensive line is--it's...offensive. It's too bad the score doesn't really reflect how badly FSU played. We should have a negative score. I move to change the final score to WF 12 FSU -70.
On Sunday I got my PS2 online and played a couple of games against Tim. I don't think I had any positive yards in the last six quarters we played. The second game was particularly humiliating losing 45-7 and only scoring on the last play of the game. I love playing as West Virginia but when #5 gets hurt and you can't score your way back into a game, you're done since they have absolutely no pass defense.
Had Auburn beat LSU like they were supposed to, I would have won Pick 'Em this week but crafty Les Miles cheated his way to another victory. I have no proof he cheated or even really speculation based on anything but I really wanted Auburn to win so I could have started my Pick 'Em comeback. At least I got NC State over ECU. [Comments: 5]· permalink ·
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Monday: September 22, 2008 - Idaho Cheerleaders
In a shameless plug for traffic: Idaho Cheerleaders ditch Skimpy Uniforms after Complaints from Fans. I could have used some cheerleaders in my grudge match with Tim last night. After abandoning my beloved spread offense I was able to eke out an OT win in our first game before he bludgeoned me something like 58-21 in the second game.
As part of my ongoing Get Healthy movement I was required to read Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy and it's a frightening book. Just like I no longer trust Google to give me accurate results now that I know how easily those results are manipulated, I feel like I no longer trust the government to give me an accurate idea of what I should eat. The food pyramid, as defined by the USDA, is apparently controlled largely by lobbying groups and is not at all what your body needs. What your body needs, the "healthy eating pyramid" is unfortunately not at all what I like to eat, with things like potatoes in the "you'll die" section. According to the book, fats were made into the "bad guys" when in reality only trans fats are really terrible. The bigger problem is the simple sugars found in white ______ (bread, potatoes, rice, etc). More than anything it was sad to read how our government has dumbed things down because we are apparently too stupid to understand there's a difference between frying things in olive oil and beef fat. Well, maybe we are that stupid because 60,000 people just showed up for a Palin rally in Florida. I hope they're serving donuts and baked potatoes. [Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: September 24, 2008 - Abort Retry Flail
I had a such a good entry planned for today that was going to be about the names of poker hands. As I started writing I realized just how horribly boring and stupid it was going to be. On most days, as you know, that's not a prohibitive thought for the actually posting of a new entry but today I wanted to do something special.
Since nothing special presented itself I decided to make tomorrow's entry special so instead of doing a good update today I'll work on tomorrow's good one instead. Today I present the world's most irritating game instead. I just thought of it.
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Thursday: September 25, 2008 - Something Special
I promise something special today and by God I'm going to deliver. Here, for your viewing entertainment is my very first YouTube video. Believe it or not, I'd never actually used YouTube except as a viewer so it was quite an experience--one mastered by eight-year olds around the world. With that, I present Chompy and Ab Masterpiece Theatre: A Tennis Ball In My Office.
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It's been so long since I last updated I don't even remember what I've been doing. Let's see, for Labor Day I went over to Brian's for grilling and badminton. On Sunday I did a bunch of work, cleaned and vacuumed (since I had skipped my midweek vacuum), and found my new big TV online. I've decided to enter the way-too-big-of-a-tv market and as soon as the Cubs clinch a playoff spot I'm going to buy it. Right now they have a 99.8% chance but since they're the Cubs I don't want to assume anything. On Saturday I went out to Sterling (again) to play poker and finished second. At least I got my money back. I also got a key to my basement now that it's locked all the time to be prevent the "burglar" from getting in. The gossip going around is that there is no burglar at all. I'm no longer getting a gun. On Friday I met up with Brian's NoVa gang for dinner in Arlington and then broke ranks and post-partied with Rebecca and her friends. And that was my weekend.
I don't want to hear a peep about Pick 'Em. It's like the day after Easter--no peeps. If Virginia Tech had won I'd have been in great shape (though not in first) and I'm already pissed off at the announcers on ESPN that have been saying they called ECU. First of all, no you didn't. Second of all, ECU won on a LUCKY play. That could have been any team losing and it just happened to be Virginia Tech. Yes, they let ECU stay in the game but a blocked kick could have changed the outcome of any of Saturday's close games (maybe not Miami's 512-0 crushing of whomever they played).
I'll do better next week (at least beat Steve). [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: September 02, 2008 - MarioKart For Real
Ok, seriously, we're playing MarioKart tonight at 8pm. SERIOUSLY.
I got sick last night around 10pm for no reason. Just a regular cold but it came out of nowhere and by the time I woke around 2:30pm this afternoon it had almost totally gone away. Weird. I ordered ESPN GamePlan yesterday so now I can watch up to six college football games at once. This is grossly unnecessary but really, few things in life are really all that necessary. The Cubs can't clinch a playoff spot fast enough--my big TV awaits!
I also picked up Ab last night and she and Chompy covered my bed in dirt after running around in the clay before coming in. Speaking of clay, I read that some people crave eating clay while pregnant. Weirdy. Since I'm phoning in today's entry, here's a video that's worth the watch (with FSU alum Richard Simmons no less).
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Wednesday: September 03, 2008 - Still Sick
I can't believe I'm still sick. It's so aggravating. Not aggravating enough for me to lose in MarioKart but still pretty aggravating. We had a scant turnout last night with Chris V. and Chris E. coupled with a lot of disconnects. Hopefully next week will run a little more smoothly.
In other news, Christian Ponder is the starting QB for FSU. In the one game he's played in so far, he went 8/8 with 2 TDs at Lane Stadium (VT). Not too shabby (notice I didn't put how many times he fumbled).
The Cubs have lost five in a row but thankfully the Reds are coming to town. The Brewers are totally blowing this losing streak as they've started their own. I think it's safe to say St. Louis is out of the picture now. Zambrano goes in for an MRI tomorrow, the offense is slumping (at best), Harden might be hurt, Lilly always gives up a ton of runs, and Marquis is his usual bad self. It's going to be a rough month for sure.
I want that TV. [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Weekend: September 07, 2008 - Reign of Terror Over
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. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: September 08, 2008 - Things That Scare Me
The first thing that scares me is the huge bug that was crawling along my ceiling last night at around midnight. It started moving once I took a picture of it and I was afraid that it was going to repel down from the ceiling and land in my mouth; this is my fear of all flying/big-legs-for-jumping bugs. Fortunately I had just finished my laundry, and after waking up Chompy for reinforcements, I grabbed a handful of sock balls and start bombing. The third strike landed successfully and whatever the hell this is fell behind my keyboard case with a loud thump. It's no 5' Florida Roach but it was pretty disgusting.
Equally disgusting, but for different reasons, is Sarah Palin. Obama might be a White Sox fan but he regained my vote once this stupid bitch was nominated to be the VP. Yeah, she's a VPILF, but she's a total and complete idiot. There's absolutely no way this...well, stupid bitch should be a heartbeat away from the presidency. I don't really have a hard time defending the "stupid" (advocated for the "bridge to nowhere" before flipping 180 on the campaign trail) nor the bitch ("Well, ya know, Senator Obama is less interested in protecting you from terrorists than ... reading them their rights."). Some of us LIKE OUR RIGHTS--I know you're pandering to people as uneducated and oblivious to the constitution as you are but come on. I should point out that it's bad when *I'm* a bigger advocate for women's rights than...a woman.
Obama/Biden: They're not McCain/Palin. That's all it takes to sell me on the ticket. [Comments: 5]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: September 09, 2008 - Babies Everywhere
Yesterday I met up with Kathy for lunch and, after gossiping for a while, we got to business discussing just how cute babies dressed in onesies-for-your-team are. The consensus? TOO CUTE!!! Like Chompy In A Pool, the cuteness levels are right at 100%. There was some other subject that we thought a good blog topic but it escapes me right now.
If you're going to FSU game with me, I ordered the tickets. I'm excited Tim is coming to town for it. I'm also excited to kick his ass in NCAA Football 2009. Chris' too. I promised Tim I wouldn't play more than three games by myself but last night I burned two as WVU. Playing at #1 Georgia on Heisman, we went to triple overtime and PC-Pat White got hurt on the first play (after accruing 300 rushing yards). Fortunately the backup scored one last time and after laying down an All-User Sack on 4th and Goal I won it. BAM. Bring it on, boys! [Comments: 5]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: September 10, 2008 - What's New?
It seems like just yesterday I was dreaming about Dr. Spencer and the Corkasaurus. Turns out it's been a whole year. Last night I was talking to Chris Green and he's going to do a guest entry next week to catch everyone up on his life so get ready! Later in the evening I was thinking to myself that it would nice if a bunch of people would write "catch-up" entries so that we could find out all of the exciting things that have been happening since we interacted on a daily basis. Even the people that I've seen/talked to somewhat regularly, I don't really know the full-blown details of what's going on with their lives. Here's where you come in--you too can write an entry to catch everyone up. Send me an email and I'll give you a date from which to start. Then you can post on here in the next few days/weeks. Just think--between 150 and 200 people reading all about your interesting life! And to think I get to live that each and every day.
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Thursday: September 11, 2008 - Seven Years Later
Today is the seventh anniversary of 9/11. Seven years ago from right now (actually the 12th) the world loved the United States more than it had since we came in to save Western Europe from the Nazis. Who would have thought we could have decimated the feelings of goodwill so quickly?
The big news now is Ike and how badly it's going to slam into Tejas. I only know of four people that live in Texas: Marty, Jen, and Chris' parents (although the Cubs are supposed to be playing in Houston tonight). My theory is that hurricanes are sent to destroy certain people in New Orleans and that nature is slowly learning where it is. All the ones that hit Florida were practice shots and once Katrina displaced the residents it will now take more hurricanes to find them. With so many now shooting up Houston it only makes sense that Ike would have to detour away from the Floridian gulf and head towards Texas. Hopefully those four people I know, along with the law abiding citizens of Houston will come away no worse for the wear and will be willing to sacrifice the New Orleans residents in order to appease the Gods of The Hurricane (not Randy Shannon). [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Friday: September 12, 2008 - Another Belated 12 of 12
10am: These are the gross adult vitamins that have replaced the Flintstones ones (in the back--just in case).
10:30am:Hauling Chompy to the Spring Valley Starbucks like I now do most mornings.
10:40am:The Starbucks had this picture of North America without the United States. Uh, remember that your clients ALL LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES before making a statement. Maybe the sandstone in the back kind of looks like the United States. Whatever. I'm cranky without coffee.
11:30am:I wonder how much getting a TV that big costs. Further, is that feasible for my budget? If so, where would I put it?
Nooner: Round 1/3 of getting Mike-R Huge. The book is still there from the night before. Riveting.
1:30pm:I'm out of plates so I had to use one of the cartons from Anne K's German Cookoff or else borrow one of the dog's bowls. I need to do some dishes something fierce.
2:30pm:At Target getting some curtains. That sign makes me laugh: the bath is at x = 6, y = 2; find the slope.
5pm:It only took me like a million hours to put my first-ever set of drapes on. I still haven't put the other side on because they just piss me off.
9pm:Chompy wants to play bass but she doesn't have thumbs.
9:30pm:Watching USF vs. Kansas and evaluating my Saturday picks.
10:30pm:Breaking in the new Wii Fit. It's full of great insults to make you feel badly about being so fat. I think it misread me because I'm so huge by this time of night after the third round or real exercise.
midnight:There's the gross bug in all its glory.
BONUS: Chompy the Dog! Looking good.
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Weekend: September 14, 2008 - Catching Up With...Chris Green
Hello to the whole former Tallahassee gang! (is there anyone still down there…Ricky?) Mike Catania (a.k.a. The Best) has asked me to write a guest entry to catch everyone up on my life (and I guess Michael’s as well) up in Indiana. It’s hard to believe that we’re going on our third year living up here already. I think that the last time that I saw most of you was our first Spring break (!!!..that’s for Jamie) after we left. I’ve seen Marty of course once up in Ithaca when I was visiting home and then Mike and Jamie met us up in New York City for the day this past March, but besides that…it’s been a really long time. Thankfully for Facebook and AIM, we can all more or less keep up on each other’s lives. I’m thinking that we’re just going to have to move to DC one way or the other and reunite the whole gang. I have been trying my best to be K-Chris here, but it’s just not the same. Michael has started a poker night of his bass friends though, but they have not been graced with my pepperoni bread yet. No one even knows about birthday brownies either! So I guess I can’t just think back on old stuff…I’m supposed to be doing an (p)update.
So, I’m starting my third year at Indiana. I started here as an MA but I was “status changed” to PhD after my first year. My interests have surely changed concerning what I’m doing in linguistics and what I want to do after school. I came to school wanting to get involved in language policy and planning, but all the sudden I’m a theoretical phonologist. For those of you who don’t know linguistics, that means that I’m a “sound guy”. Since I’ve been here, I have been an officer in charge of publications of the IU linguistics club and founded the IU African Languages Club. I’m still on a fellowship that requires that I study Bambara (Mali), but I’ve also worked on Swahili, Wolof (Senegal), and done a year of “fieldwork” on Luwanga (Kenya). That’s just language stuff of course. I work for three of my professors as well, so I keep myself very busy…which is how I like it. I have three major lines of research going at this point which are taking me in some interesting directions where I can meet very famous and influential people in my field. I discovered something this past year in Luwanga that has never been documented in a language before, and so I was invited to give a talk about it at the 39th Annual Conference on African Linguistics in Athens, GA this past year. I’ve also published three papers so far, which is a definite plus. I’m going to be heading to New York City this January for an important conference and I’m also presenting a paper in Minneapolis next month. Busy, busy…I know. I suppose that in more important news, this is my last full semester of coursework. I have two classes to take in the Spring, and I’ve just actually completed my first qualifying paper this past week…the second won’t be due until April. After that, the plan is to do some pre-fieldwork in Africa over the Summer and then end by vacationing around Europe a bit and presenting a paper at the World Congress on African Linguistics in Cologne next August. That is as far into the future as I know at this point, since I still have to figure out exactly what my dissertation topic is going to be.
In other news, Michael is doing well, and we are really enjoying life in Bloomington. We are both super busy all the time, so we try to take advantage of the "date night" concept so we can at least see each other one day a week when we’re not running around. Michael has been busy taking auditions all over and is on the sub list for about 5 regional orchestras. He’s taking the Atlanta audition in just a couple weeks. This year, he is sitting principle of one of the university orchestras here, so he’s keeping very busy as well. We both finished our Masters degrees this past Spring, and so as I said, I’m staying on for the PhD, and Michael is working on his Performance Diploma (an extra 3 semesters). Life is very quiet in Bloomington, and it is the perfect place to do research, so I couldn’t be happier. I’m sure that Michael would like to be a little closer to some bigger cities so that they would be more “big” orchestra playing opportunities, but alas, here we are.
So, I guess that’s about it for my guest entry. I hope that everyone is doing well and is happy in their respective places. It seems like we’re all more or less spread out at this point (with the exception of the DC crew). If you ever find yourselves in the area, give us a holler…we love having guests!!! Take care!!! xoxo…K-Chris (and Michael) [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Monday: September 15, 2008 - Happy Birthday Brian!
Happy Birthday Brian! Thanks to our own Chris Green for the massively popular entry yesterday!
Belated 12 of 12 [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: September 16, 2008 - Front Page DC
Last night I trekked out to DuPont Circle to meet up Kathy, Becky, and her friend Liz for fun and festivities at Front Page. I feel like I've been to that place a lot even though I really have been anywhere a lot. I managed to get lost a little because I came out of the wrong metro exit and had to walk through Homeless Circle to get re-situated. There was some dude playing Pink Floyd on an acoustic guitar and singing along with a microphone. I like Pink Floyd but seriously if the urge to make art hits you to the point where you're going to pack up gear and haul it to Homeless Circle, I would think that the urge would be to create something other than bad covers. That's just me though. I know when I'm in the mood to write music I find it's best to write from scratch than writing a song that's already been written. What do I know, though? Well, I'm glad you asked. I know that Front Page has some excellent chicken fingers and that if you know the bartender your bill is drastically (and I mean drastically) reduced. Becky is well-connected so I should have heeded her advice when she told me to put my stuff on her tab instead of starting my own. Live and learn. The festivities ended early and I was home by 9:30 so I called Chris and then watched the Cubs edge the Brewers to bring their Magic Number down to 4. Go Cubs!
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Wednesday: September 17, 2008 - You Guys Are My Guys
After whomping Jamie in tennis yesterday morning I grabbed Ab and set off to G-Lover Park for a day of dog-petting (I just took this picture right now--I didn't recycle). Tennis was tiring so I took an Ab-nap for a good 90 minutes in between churning out work. After I woke up I was starving so I tried to go to Chipotle but some bitch was blocking a whole lane of traffic while giggling on her cell phone. As I finally pulled up next to her I politely asked if she was "f*cking retarded?" She said in the most patronize tone "I don't know...am I f*cking retarded?" and for a split second I wanted to kill her. *I* wasn't the one holding up traffic on Wisconsin Avenue while casually sitting in my car talking on my cell phone in my Lexus SUV. It wasn't me. I wanted an apology not a mocking and I now understand why you don't carry guns in cars. It sounds so petty but this town is filled at least with 90% of people who care solely about themselves and it doesn't matter one bit if their waiting for their friend to come out of Popeye's chicken during rush hour on the busiest road on our quadrant of the city holds up hundreds of cars. Anyway, because the traffic patterns were all f*cked up because of her I had to bypass Chipotle so I went to the TenleyGhetto Starbucks for a coffee instead. As I was getting back into my car I saw two guys climbing out of the Clothes For The Homeless Bin with filled bags of clothes. They went behind the bin and were trying them on. These guys were also wearing Nikes and had watches on and appeared to have showered within the past day. I believe this is called "stealing".
I stopped at Balducci's to get some fish and would up getting some swordfish. It was really good; I surprised myself with how well it came out despite being baked. After dinner I settled into some MarioKart and put a whomping down again! Elena showed some moxy in the last set of races but, as I told Ricky while gloating afterwards, I should play NCAA Football on the playstation at the same time to make it sporting. I'm telling you all--be Toad in the Arm Cart with an Automatic tranny. Haha, tranny. "She just tapes it back." That quote brought to you by It's Always Sunny in Philly, which starts again tonight. [Comments: 13]· permalink ·
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Weekend: September 21, 2008 - Sporty Weekend
First the good news, the Cubs slayed the Cardinals and clinched their second-straight NL Central Pennant. Hooray! I'm rooting for the Phillies to be the Wild Card team so that I can go to a game in Philly. They're playing well though so it looks like it's going to come down to the two teams that seem to have no desire to win it: the Mets and Brewers. Both teams are terrible and I'm pretty sure they'll get swept in the playoffs no matter who they play. It was weird to see Marmol and Wood party so hard together after they won. I wouldn't be able to let loose around some guy who thinks he should have my job. Whatever. I've got my Marmol t-shirt on today to celebrate.
FSU's offense is the worst. I've written about this several times in the past (like here or here) but this was absolutely disgusting to watch. I'm glad I didn't leave the house to watch this one. As usual, the defense does great but was quickly exhausted by playing on a super-arena-style field of 20 yards since D'Ponder threw five interceptions and the backs coughed up the ball on running plays. Seven turnovers in one game? What can you even say about it except that http://www.firejimbo.com has already been taken. I can't get over just how bad our offensive line is--it's...offensive. It's too bad the score doesn't really reflect how badly FSU played. We should have a negative score. I move to change the final score to WF 12 FSU -70.
On Sunday I got my PS2 online and played a couple of games against Tim. I don't think I had any positive yards in the last six quarters we played. The second game was particularly humiliating losing 45-7 and only scoring on the last play of the game. I love playing as West Virginia but when #5 gets hurt and you can't score your way back into a game, you're done since they have absolutely no pass defense.
Had Auburn beat LSU like they were supposed to, I would have won Pick 'Em this week but crafty Les Miles cheated his way to another victory. I have no proof he cheated or even really speculation based on anything but I really wanted Auburn to win so I could have started my Pick 'Em comeback. At least I got NC State over ECU. [Comments: 5]· permalink ·
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Monday: September 22, 2008 - Idaho Cheerleaders
In a shameless plug for traffic: Idaho Cheerleaders ditch Skimpy Uniforms after Complaints from Fans. I could have used some cheerleaders in my grudge match with Tim last night. After abandoning my beloved spread offense I was able to eke out an OT win in our first game before he bludgeoned me something like 58-21 in the second game.
As part of my ongoing Get Healthy movement I was required to read Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy and it's a frightening book. Just like I no longer trust Google to give me accurate results now that I know how easily those results are manipulated, I feel like I no longer trust the government to give me an accurate idea of what I should eat. The food pyramid, as defined by the USDA, is apparently controlled largely by lobbying groups and is not at all what your body needs. What your body needs, the "healthy eating pyramid" is unfortunately not at all what I like to eat, with things like potatoes in the "you'll die" section. According to the book, fats were made into the "bad guys" when in reality only trans fats are really terrible. The bigger problem is the simple sugars found in white ______ (bread, potatoes, rice, etc). More than anything it was sad to read how our government has dumbed things down because we are apparently too stupid to understand there's a difference between frying things in olive oil and beef fat. Well, maybe we are that stupid because 60,000 people just showed up for a Palin rally in Florida. I hope they're serving donuts and baked potatoes. [Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: September 24, 2008 - Abort Retry Flail
I had a such a good entry planned for today that was going to be about the names of poker hands. As I started writing I realized just how horribly boring and stupid it was going to be. On most days, as you know, that's not a prohibitive thought for the actually posting of a new entry but today I wanted to do something special.
Since nothing special presented itself I decided to make tomorrow's entry special so instead of doing a good update today I'll work on tomorrow's good one instead. Today I present the world's most irritating game instead. I just thought of it.
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Thursday: September 25, 2008 - Something Special
I promise something special today and by God I'm going to deliver. Here, for your viewing entertainment is my very first YouTube video. Believe it or not, I'd never actually used YouTube except as a viewer so it was quite an experience--one mastered by eight-year olds around the world. With that, I present Chompy and Ab Masterpiece Theatre: A Tennis Ball In My Office.[Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Good Things Take Time...
-2 days until FSU Football (2010)
Random Picture...
It's impossible to outdress Chris.
It's impossible to outdress Chris.
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.