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You are Superman
| You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.  |
| A brilliant businessman on a quest for world domination and the self-proclaimed greatest criminal mind of our time! |
That is the headline that greeted me as I stepped outside in the warmth of my robe to pick up the newspaper. But, suddenly, I was cold. Death, regardless of who or how, is never a cause for celebration. Yes, even when it's Saddam Hussein.
I believe executions can be a necessary evil. But I will never, ever celebrate the death of another living thing, human or otherwise.
So imagine my disgust when I read that a mosque preacher--preacher--called Saddam's execution "God's gift to Iraqis." I don't know about the Shiite god, but the God I believe in doesn't commit or support murder. No, this was all human. Human decision. Human execution. God had nothing to do with it.
I'd like you to meet my new Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach persona, the barbarian dwarf, Dundaar Moorhart!
Yesterday our blog received the most hits in one day so far in its brief history, according to Google Analytics. As you can see from the map, we're getting hits from all over the world.
Interestingly, here are some of the search terms entered in Google that brought up our blog:
Here's why legal movie downloads have not caught on. It's a lengthy article with lots of references and statistics. But, really, all they needed to say is this: Movie downloads are two damn expensive!
Considering there is no physical product, downloads should be priced at no more than 25% of the price of a movie's real world counterpart. We're talking five bucks in most cases. That, dear movie industry, would make your movies sell like hotcakes!
Do you movie-industry-decision-making-types think we're idiots?!? Why would we pay $10 or more for something that we have to spend time downloading, and even then we can only watch it on our computer. For a few bucks more, we can get the real thing. Hopefully the movie-industry-slow-to-adapt-types will catch on soon. It could be so fantastic.
What won't this woman do for money and HP Gear? They sent her on a scavenger hunt to win money and HP products. I never thought she would complete the tasks when they announced that she had to take a picture of someone in shorts... in the harsh Chicago winter. But the Postie Patrol team helped her out when one member tore off his pants to reveal he was, indeed, wearing shorts for just such an event. What a nice guy! I've never done any sort of scavenger hunt, but hey, Postie Patrol, I'm game! Give me my HP Gear....
Digital Photography Review
This post was brought to you by HP.
He referred to it as a "man purse," but let's just call it a "murse." Gregory has ordered his murse, and he is very excited about it. He showed it to me online and it's terribly cute, in a manly sort of way. Of course he chose the navy over the light blue. I find this murse situation extremely amusing and I believe he likes my teasing.
"You wait and see how cool I look with my murse. You're gonna want a murse. You're jealous. You're jealous of my soon-to-be murse."
That is what he just said after I burst out laughing and I told him I was thinking about his murse. This murse is, of course, a prime example of why I married him.
Yes, I need a man purse. I think I have enough gadgets to warrant a nice little bag. After looking at some manufacturer's web sites and seeing the variety available, I realize this may take a while. First stop: eBags.
I didn't get this book for Christmas, probably because it was on the bottom of my list (chronologically, not by interest)... and it is a bit macabre. But I really want it, so I will probably order it soon. I first heard about it in the NPR Books podcast, and it sounded very original and fascinating. So fascinating, in fact, that it answers the question on all of our minds: Why did the chicken cross the road?
My cubicle neighbor was just talking about experiencing deja vu. This brings to mind the question, what if before we are born we agree to everything we will experience in our lives? Deja vu, in this case, would be a glimpse of what we knew--on some level--was coming. Thus, it seems familiar, as we knew it would happen.
This harkens back to my New Age days....
NBC's coverage of the NHL is a step in the right direction, but without regular, frequent "Big Three" network coverage, the death of hockey in America is inevitable. Football, basketball and baseball can always be found on the major networks. Hockey is lucky if it can be found on network television a few times per season. Even if they have delayed broadcasts in off hours, so long as it is regular and frequent, I think the NHL would get a boost.
Living a cable television-free lifestyle, I have only satellite radio or the occasional KDOC broadcast to rely on. But hockey is difficult to follow on radio, and the Ducks are not my team of choice.
I am very excited about the NHL's partnership with Google. I just can't sit in front of my laptop long enough to watch a whole game. Oh, and... where's the puck?
Where's the puck, indeed. Hopefully we'll be seeing more, not fewer of them.
No, I am not so feeble as to be working out with 2lb. weights. No, no; the first one-hour workout last night apparently made a 2lb. difference. Yes, I'm down to 182.5. I suspect a lot of that was water weight, as I don't think it's possible to lose 2lbs. in just one workout. But, you know what? I feel great already!
Christy was tremendously supportive when I explained what I had discovered yesterday morning. I told her what my plan was, and--bless her--she enthusiastically declared, "I'm in!" Man, I love this girl. I'm so glad I snatched her up.
Together we can do this. Together we can do anything.
As I like to quote from HAMLET during such weather: "The air bites shrewdly. It is very cold." Likewise, during the summer I like to turn to Gregory and say, "Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines." (From one of Sh.'s sonnets--can't remember which one) ("Sh." is my abbreviation for Shakespeare, of course.) But anyway, my point is that it's very chilly. Like the tundra.
Greg is playing his wrestling game on the Gamecube. His enjoyment of the WWE is his one flaw. But I try not to say anything too rude during the Friday Night Smackdown, although, to his credit, he tries to watch it on the Tivo when I'm not around. I do wish he would play Super Monkey Ball 2 instead. Then I could destroy him in Monkey Bowling.
We had a lovely workout at Bally's this evening. It's amazing how quickly an hour passes when you're listening to your favorite music on your ipod. But now I'm going to finish writing my last two Christmas cards and then settle down with my book. I am officially on vacation from work, and it is a wonderful feeling.
The large, gruff woman was my Grandma Short. I don't have many memories of her, but I do remember the fresh peanut butter cookies she would send home with us. With my brother Daryl on the left, and brother Brian on the right, our dad took this picture of us, presumably in the parking lot of a Six Flags in the Midwest somewhere. (If you look closely at the background on the right, you can see a tall tower and parachutes with baskets, which provided the clue to help identify the likely setting of this photo.)
[Note: You may notice Daryl's patch. No, he was not missing an eye. Indeed, both of his eyes were--and are--intact. His left eye was "stronger" than his right, so for about a year he wore a patch over his strong eye to strengthen his weak eye. Such a prescription seems primitive, but it worked.]
I was scared to my senses--a wake-up call, if you will--when I stepped onto the scale this morning.
I bought a nice digital scale with the intention of keeping track of my weight. But if I didn't step on that scale, I didn't have to face my problem. And I haven't faced my problem for months.
When the display blinked 184.5, I suddenly felt sick. I wondered how I could let myself gain so much weight and not notice it. "I just feel bloated. I'm not really fat," I always reason.
Wrong. Dead wrong. I am not just bloated. I am overweight--if not outright fat.
My beautiful wife deserves better than this. I need to take care of myself... for her, if not for me.
I need to do something. Seriously. Now.
The first plans of action are to up my workouts from two half-hour sessions per week to five one-hour sessions, and go on a serious diet. Fruit and salads, here I come!
Thanks to Wil Wheaton, I joined Netscape which has been reinvented as an user-driven news portal. It's ugly as sin, but if you do join, add me as a friend.
Speaking of ugly as sin, what is it with all of these über-popular sites (e.g. MySpace) that don't give a damn about aesthetics?
Okay, so I admit it. I haven't followed the war in Iraq. At all. I feel a bit ashamed of my apparent indifference to a war that will most likely go down in the books as the next Viet Nam.
If I'm not going to go as far as speaking my mind to anyone who will listen, I may as well keep myself informed, just in case someone asks for something more than a shrug of the shoulders. But where can I get the latest, accurate information, preferably sans Bush-bashing? Not that I like Bush--I don't--but enough already!
Fortunately, I think I may have found my preferred source of the latest info in the form of the oddly named IraqSlogger.com. When I figure out what the heck the name means, I'll let you know.
No, they're not talking about milk in this Huell Howser: The Drinking Game. And they forgot a rule: Every time Huell says "because"... take a drink. Oh wait. That game wouldn't last very long.
Christy woke up worrying about our health, so we agreed to help each other work towards a healthier lifestyle. I, for one, am looking into a couple things that might help: iTrain.com and the Zone Diet
. I need definite plans for both eating and exercise if this is going to work. We'll see how it goes.
I made my first sale. Granted, it was basically handed to me, but it still feels good. Especially since I talked the advertiser up from a $300 campaign to a $500 one. Not to mention, the print reps get handed sales all the time, so it's only fair. Nyah, nah, na-nah, nah! :P
This sale will take some pressure off of me. Plus, with other sales very likely for January, things are starting to look up. Whew!
This is cruel. So cruel.
In other news, after about five days of celebrating Christy's birthday, I'm a bit wiped out. But we had so much fun! It was totally worth it. But this sets a high standard for next year....
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