Ach! I'm Kilted!

Well, it's happened... My wonderful wife got me one of the best gifts ever for our second anniversary/my 36th birthday:

A Utilikilt! That's right, the newest member of the Utiliclan is yours truly!


Pardon the poor quality of the picture - it's my Clie camera but I wanted to get something up.

It's great... never have I been so comfortable. And, some of the looks I've gotten have been absolutely priceless.

Only two comments so far: one asking if it was, indeed, a kilt; and the other a definite thumbs up from a guy working in one of Clintonville's fine antique store.

There are times when it feels like some of those dreams where you're in public without any clothes on, but those are fleeting and it's SO comfortable. I love wearing the thing... gonna have to get some more of them before I wear this one out! :)

Homestar Runner!

Okay, I ran into a website that figures out which Homestar Runner character you are today, and here's what I got:

Take the Homestar Runner Character Quiz by Coach Vee!

Guess it could be worse, I could be Strong Mad. Or Homsar...

Prepare for A Petroleum-less Society

Was reading one of my favorite blogs today, IdleWorm. Dermot, the blogger, is a bit angrier than I am, but he frequently shows up with some links to news I hadn't seen (wow, news that a normal viewer of American media wouldn't see... go figure).

He was talking about a lecture he went to at CalTech regarding the collapse of the oil-based economy that we live in today. Unlike many researchers, Dr. David Goodstein apparently is predicting that we'll be in a society where we're forced to deal without oil within a decade... this scares the crap out of me since I'm going to be meeting my first child in less than a month!

The way I see it, I'm doing pretty well with the oil-less society to a certain extent. I already don't use a car - I take public transportation and live near two supermarkets, so I don't have to worry about getting to the store or to work. And, before my bike was stolen, I was using that to get around when I had to be somewhere the bus didn't go, or I wasn't familiar with the route.

But I'm terrible as far as my job goes. I'm a computer programmer - I'm useless if anything happens to computer use in the coming decade, particularly if we don't wean ourselves off the petroleum teat and move to more renewable forms of energy such as wind, solar, etc.

So... the options are... what?

I think it's time to start looking at other things than computers. I mean, I'm not going to quit my job or anything, but I do need to come up with something I can do, just in case our society doesn't get its act together in time to avoid the petroleum dearth. And even if it doesn't come as quickly as Dr. Goodstein is saying, it's probably not a bad idea to get the idea of real self-sufficiency going, particularly since my kid is going to have to deal with it (given the old 40-year timeline).

Lessons Learned: Trust The Animals

Last night, as I was going to bed, our dog Brandy was barking at something outside. Normally, when she's doing this, she saw a squirrel or something like that, and wants to chase it down. So we tell her to be quiet and then shut the window or whatever.

Well, Jenn went out to her car this morning and it had been broken into. She lost about 100 CDs, including one that had been made at our wedding. She also lost all her change and her cell phone.

As the title said: Lesson learned. I will now go out and check whenever that dog gets a burr in her ass. And I'm going to bring at least my waster with me. Anyone who breaks into my house or car is going to get a freaking beating at the very least.

I am so furious right now... we have a kid coming into this world and to think that the house and neighborhood we chose isn't safe makes me absolutely crazy. And if we had just paid attention to what our dog, who is a watchdog by nature, was trying to tell us, then we wouldn't be out all that stuff and my piece of mind would be secure.

Brandy, we owe you an apology. Next time we let you go to kick the ass of whoever is out there. And then I go out there with something to continue the job and make sure they freaking pay.

Kudos to... Um... RUSSIA?

In what I consider a very surprising move, Russia has ratified the Kyoto Protocol, that international treaty dedicated to reducing the amounts global climate change-causing pollutants in the atmosphere. By doing this, they've pretty much ensured that the treaty will be ratified worldwide, despite what the misguided Bush Administration does. I would LOVE to see sanctions against the US forcing us to adapt the Protocol's guidelines, which the Clinton Administration was ready to sign into effect.

It'd be nice to see the 800-pound gorilla have to learn to play nice with the rest of the animal kingdom. Hopefully we won't have to worry about Bush and his administration too much longer.

International On the Wrong Track

It absolutely amazes me how people can not even see how inappropriate their products are. The International company, makers of tractors, school buses, dump trucks, and the like, are marketing a pickup truck that costs upwards of $93,000. The thing hauls 20 tons or something, and it makes the waste-of-gas-and-metal Hummer look like a Chevette.

It weighs twice as much as a Ford F-350 and is two feet taller. How is this monstrosity ever supposed to be good for the environment? "Well, they obviously mean it to be used by industry," you say.

"Wrong," I say. I read the article.

Rob Swim, International's marketing director, said the 5-passenger CXT will appeal to image-conscious contractors, roofers, landscapers and other small-business owners who can use the towing power but also want to draw attention to themselves.

"This truck is for businesses that want to make a bold statement," Swim said. "It's for business people that want to promote as much as perform."

See? It's for the IMAGE-CONSCIOUS contractors and such. So it's meant to be on the road with the rest of us.

Folks, please boycott this vehicle.

Stupid Columbus Drivers, Again

Jenn and I were in the parking garage after our doctor's appointment this morning, and we were getting ready to pull out when the lady behind us (waiting for us to get out, naturally, instead of just pulling ahead to the next level where there were plenty of spots) pulled too close. Jenn sat and waited for her to move back, and we pulled out. Jenn looked at the car in the rear view mirror and said "that mini-van is never going to fit in there."

Because of where we parked, we had to go forward, up and around to get to the exit. As we came back around... we had to stop and wait as the car continued to try to get into the spot we'd just vacated. I wanted to stop and watch her keep trying, but I had to get to work.

Hard to Believe

You know, I've lived in Columbus for almost eight years now, and I've never ever thought of Columbus as a liberal city. Almost all you hear is conservative, conservative, conservative. But now I'm sitting here listening to the new 1230 format and I'm in pig heaven. I've gotten Al Franken and Ed Schultz talking sense and Columbus is listening to it.

I can't wait to see how all this pans out in Cowtown... should be fun.

Progressive Radio in Columbus?

Yes, it's true. There's finally an alternative to all the Dittohead crap you hear on the radio here (as well as an alternative to Buckeye-saturated sports radio)... 1230 AM has gone progressive! Listen to it at http://www.progressive1230.com/main.html.

Listen to Al Franken and friends all day on this great new resource!

Bizarre Attraction

So I was giving blood today, and I'm sitting on the cot squeezing the squeeze-ball, and the girl on the cot across from me was winking at me. Naturally, I was flattered, but for some reason I'm troubled by the idea of being hit on while my bodily fluids are leaking out of me.

Born in the USA

Okay, I was (not surprisingly) watching the Olympics last night, and as Misty May and Kerri Walsh won the gold medal in Beach Volleyball, the loudspeakers in Greece started playing "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen. And one of my BIGGEST pet peeves was realized again.

Okay, America: get this through your heads. "Born in the USA" is NOT a patriotic song! It's a rather scathing criticism of the USA of the post-Vietnam era. Here are the lyrics:

Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up

Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

Got in a little hometown jam
so they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
to go and kill the yellow man

Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said "son don't you understand now"

Had a brother at Khe Sahn
fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there he's all gone

He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go

Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.

Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A.

So please STOP playing this as a patriotic song! Pick something else!

More on Paul Hamm

Here's a column from CNNSI.com's E.M. Swift, who agrees with me (and states his case a bit more clearly, as well).

Despite judging error, Hamm's gold medal shows no tarnish

Leave Paul Hamm Alone!

This most recent incarnation of the Olympics Games has been extraordinarily memorable. Iraq's soccer team's success... Michael Phelps' amazing achievements in the pool... Misty May and Kerri Walsh kicking the competition's asses in Beach Volleyball... the incredible atmosphere and mystique of the shot put, held at the original Olympic stadium in Olympia... the "where the heck did that come from" men's 400 free relay by the South Africans... and much more.

But one thing that stuck out to me as one of the GREATEST Olympic scenes I'd ever seen was in Men's Gymnastics, where Paul Hamm came back from a fall on the vault to win the gold in the all-around. Seeing Paul's disbelieving face as he made an extraordinary comeback was something that I replayed over and over on my TiVo and online.

Then, the bottom fell out.

Apparently, the judges scored a routine for South Korean gymnast Yang Tae-Young incorrectly, and if he had been judged correctly (given the proper starting score for his routine) he should have won the gold. However, the International Gymnastics Federation's rules state that any protests regarding a judgment must be given before the end of the rotation in which the protested routine took place. So, the issue should be thrown out. The South Korean coaches are the ones who screwed up by not following proper procedure.

But apparently they're not willing to take this for an answer, so the talks go on between the USOC and the South Koreans.

Last night, in the men's individual events, Paul Hamm was once again in the high bar event, where he'd sewn up the all-around a few nights earlier. But the judging had been bizarre all night, and it had come to a head with the performance of Russian champion Aleksei Nemov, who put on a GREAT performance but was scored low enough that he wasn't in medal contention. And no offense to Paul Hamm, who did a fantastic job with his routine as usual, but Nemov's routine was outstanding and should have medaled.

The fans had had enough - they booed for about ten minutes straight until the head of the International Gymastics Federation came down and apparently set the judges straight. I don't know what was said, but suffice to say that two judges had their scores re-done, enough to put Nemov into third place temporarily. Nemov made an extraordinary gesture to step to the podium and applaud the crowd's enthusiasm, and then asked for them to quiet down so that Hamm could perform his routine.

Hamm's performance was graded higher than Nemov's, which put him back into a tough situation. He was booed and cheered - or at least there were boos and cheers for Hamm as he landed. He ended up getting the silver to Nemov's being out of the medals, and after the competition he talked to the NBC commentator and was obviously stressed out by the whole situation.

Perhaps my recollection of this is a bit fuzzy - read NBCOlympics.com's article on the topic.

My question is this: why is Paul Hamm at the center of this controversy? He hasn't done ANYTHING but compete. The real wrath should be falling onto the following:

1. The South Korean Olympic committee, for their refusal to let the issue die. They are the ones who screwed up, not Paul Hamm. They should have been paying attention and followed the rules of the competition. Because they didn't, Yang didn't win the gold. NBC's Tim Daggett calls to question whether they're right at all, given the number of holds Yang did in his parallel bars routine. But they need to accept that they screwed up.
   
2. The USOC, for their perpetuation of the situation by saying they'd accept double golds. All this has done is made the South Koreans push harder.
   
3. The judges, for their poor handling of this entire Olympics. It goes back to just before the men's qualifying, when Blaine Wilson was told that his routine that he'd been doing for months in competition wouldn't get the same starting score as it had been, forcing him to change it just before his turn to compete. And it got worse last night. Thank goodness it's over - it could only get worse.

Another question: how much of this is South Korea not ever having gotten over the 2002 Winter Olympics situation with the Short Track Speed Skating issue where Kim Dong-sung illegally cut off Apolo Anton Ohno and was disqualified. He broke the rules, he was DQed. But they had the same reaction then - "Change the rules for us because we want to win."

Perhaps this whole thing started back in Salt Lake City, with the pairs figure skating controversy with Jamie Sale and David Pelletier being scored low because of a French judge's unethical conduct in score-fixing. The result was that both Sale/Pelletier and Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia received gold medals. Perhaps this opened the door for federations to challenge judgements, even though the figure skating controversy was corruption-based and these later ones were just disagreements.

But thus far, there's no reason to suspect foul play, just bad or misunderstood scoring by the judges. And disregard of the rules by the South Koreans. They need to get over it and stop their complaining. They screwed up, they lost, and they need to live with it.

None of this is Paul Hamm's fault... he's an Olympic champion and he deserves it with his quiet demeanor, his ability to pull victory from defeat, and his ability to withstand criticism that should be put upon him in the first place.

Michael Phelps: More Than Just the Hype

Every Olympic year, it seems, America's sports media picks one athlete that it's going to scrutinize beyond measure. This year it's Swimmer Michael Phelps, a 19-year old kid that, according to the media, was on track to win eight gold medals in swimming. Well, that's obviously not going to happen now, as he's gotten two bronze medals in his first three events (after setting another world record in the 400 IM).

But who cares? First of all, to get multiple medals in the Olympics at ALL is a fantastic feat, and especially when he's doing it in different event types. I can see doing it in just the breaststroke, or just the fly, but he's doing it in the fly, the IM, freestyle, the whole nine yards. The guy is a phenomenon.

And this is in a day and age where American dominance in swimming is no where NEAR what it was back in Mark Spitz's day. This is not to put any damper on what Spitz attained - it was a fantastic feat. But the competition for Phelps is so much more deadly now than back in 1972 because EVERYONE who's anyone is training in the U.S.'s NCAA system. They're all getting the top notch training that only Americans got a few years ago.

So my hat is off to Michael Phelps, a true sports prodigy. And lay off the criticism that he was just a bunch of hype - he's a genuine Olympic hero.

America Falls Behind On International Team Sports

The follies of the U.S. basketball team in the Olympics (a loss to Puerto Rico? Are you kidding me?) lead me to believe that there is not enough emphasis amongst our sports programs in this country on the international game.

In fact, it's interesting to me that the only teams that do well internationally any more are the ones with a regular international schedule - men's and women's soccer being the primary examples.

But basketball? For some reason, it's some sort of weird oddity to be interested in playing on the U.S. Basketball team, when in fact being asked to represent your country at the highest levels of play should be the biggest honor a player can ask for in their sport. Soccer players all look at being on the national team as the greatest level they can achieve, and if they can actually play on the team in a World Cup, then they've made it. PERIOD.

I call upon the NBA, MLB, NHL, and other leagues with regular international competitions available to take them SERIOUSLY. Make playing in World Championship tournaments something to be excited about. The rest of the world thinks so, what makes America such an unpatriotic nation?