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Isaac Arthur and Mom....

Theme?

In the vane of the last post...greatest comercial ever...

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=24817

Princess Peach or Toadstool...you choose

I was going to write this long post about how we never see any TV footage of daily life in Iraq and how I saw so much more in other countries when I visited them but that just depressed me. So instead I am going to write about something more fun. I got the new(er) Deftones and Rush album from J. I have had a chance to listen to both of them a few times. I am a pretty big Rush fan and I can’t say it did much for me. I’ll give it a C. Maybe after 400 million albums I am Rushed out. The strange thing is I never really was a Deftones fan and I thought the album was a B+. Track 10 is really good and there also is some other acoustically pleasant sounds on it. I want to see the movie King of Kong that opens this weekend…which of all things is about Donkey Kong…Now tell me THAT isn’t going to be a great movie.

Football/Vick

Ok, I will admit it I am a Michael Vick fan. They guy has amazing athletic talent. One of the fastest people I have ever seen in my life. I am not sure he will/can every be an amazing QB but when he takes of running its fun to watch. By no means am I justifying what he did. I am just judging him on pure athleticism. Now with the news coming out today that he is coping a plea to his dog fighting escapades on his property a question should be asked. Do public figures like athletes, who the young look up to, be treated differently then everyone else? For example, should Vick be allowed to play after he pays his due (fines/jail time/etc etc)? His debt to society filled should he get a second chance? I can think of 2 other cases where a football player went to jail and played football again. One is Lewis (I think) who went to jail on some type of drug charge and is still playing in Baltimore. The other is Little (I think) who killed a person while drunk driving. I tend to think that football does a good job of trying to keep its image clean. Unlike baseball that will give Mr. Strawberry like 42 chances to come back from rehab football has the 3 strikes and you are out policy. Should this count as more then one strike against Vick? I tend to think it should. I tend to lean towards the fact that he shouldn't be allowed to play. Yes I would miss his amazing talent but I just think as such a franchise/league wide star he was that he should be held to a slightly different standard then others. Or at least make it very clear to him that this is strike 2.9999 and you so much as don’t throw your jock in the laundry basket you are gone gone gone from football forever and ever….

Triathlon

I finished my first triathlon on Saturday. It was actually pretty fun and not as hard as I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong I was tired when I was done but not as thoroughly spent as I thought I would be. The day started out with my chip being accidentally given to someone else. So they were broadcasting over the PA system that everyone should check their chip. About 10 minutes before the race started they gave me a new number. It might have been nice to concentrate on not drowning rather then worrying about my chip. Ok who am I kidding it wouldn’t have made a difference. In any case I did the entire thing. I was happy with my swimming (even though it was slow) and biking but my running was a little slower then I would have liked. I finished pretty much in the middle of the pack. Which I was happy with considering I had never done it before and my training consisted of biking to work and playing soccer. Biking was the funniest because I flew by everyone. Only got passed by like 3 people the entire time. Was a great feeling. My bike time was about 12 mins off the best time. I wanted to be a little closer then that but it didn’t happen. I do think with Koogs swimming, me biking, and with a person to be named later running that we could really compete in the coed relay division. The winning coed team did it in 2 hrs 10 mins. They swam in 22, biked slower then I did, and then ran 5:45 miles. I think Koogs could come close to 25 if that is all she had to do. I could further increase my speed biking and make more time there then hopefully the person to be named later can run like the wind. Not that we would win but it be fun to see where we could finish….Bottom line is it was fun and I would do it again. There is a little empty feeling not having that looming in the future then I remember oh yea I am going to be a dad soon…

Cat or the DEVIL?

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=24645

Father

I know I am not the most qualified to comment on this yet but I am going to anyway. As becoming a father quickly approaches it is very strange the weird societal pressures that are put on you. For example, you must buy the 1 million dollar stroller otherwise your child will DIE! Or questions people ask like “Are you going to let your child run around without pants on?” Or “Your not supposed to bring the child outside for the first 3 months because there are too many germs for them and they will DIE!” Its like every question/statement is judging. I don’t think I am hypersensitive but maybe I am. What is wrong with different means to the same end(a healthy child). Trust me, I need lots of help and ask lots of questions. Answers like we didn’t like cloth diapers because they were to much work or we didn’t like that stroller because it was just too heavy. or Baby A didn’t like that dress because it gave her a rash or Baby A2 really likes being held like this. Great information.. The bad ones are “Babies must eat xxx or they will grow up dumb” Maybe its just the fear thing or underlying fear that gets to me. The other strange thing is that having a baby IS the greatest thing ever. I mean it has to be otherwise you’re a horrible parent! It is obviously life changing but who says everything is for the better? I even have a hard time writing that for fear everyone will think I don’t want to have a child and will be a horrible parent. Isn’t everything that is worth anything a little give and take? Is it wrong to miss spontaneously going to the cardinal for a beer? Or spontaneously going to a Prince concert? Doesn’t mean you want to ditch your child but it doesn’t mean that having a child HAS to be the greatest thing ever all the time otherwise you’re a horrible parent….

WYSIWYG

Any good computer nerd can tell you that wysiwyg stands for what you see is what you get. Which in this case is supossed to be the type of blog posting tool that is used here. Problem is that it isn't. This blog editor will not allow me to put two spaces without using code. IE when I wrote this there were 5 spaces between the upcomming I and O. I O. So it isnt really wysiwyg. So I wish they would stop lying or someone could show me how to use nbsp code because I cant figure it out.

Film Anyone?

Another day closer to being a dad. Not sure why I mention this besides the fact that it is (evil Matrix voice) inevitable. Ok its not a bad thing its just that my mind seems to work in movie quotes a lot…specially with the amount of film I watched this weekend.

Friday night I had the idea that I would go to Block E and pay for a $9 movie at like 5pm and try to see as many movies as I could. Get my money’s worth. Ok so I didn’t go to the movies on Friday but that idea is still there and before all the blockbusters leave the theatre I will put the plan into action.

On Saturday I played some soccer and on my bike ride home thought I would go to the Powderhorn Art Fest. I called Tsjaz and he swung by to join me. It was nice to walk around Powderhorn. I must admit it’s the first time I have ever done it. The park is decent. The art displays were nice. As usual there is some stuff you wonder who on earth would purchase and how on earth they would fit it in a house. I did notice like a lot of them were not “local”. I saw a place from Iowa and Illinois. I guess they are not that far away but I am betting there was someone in Minnesota who could have been there. Maybe I am being too picky. I didn’t get anything besides lemonade. All in all it was fun.

Tsjaz gave me the mini-series to Battlestar Galactica and I proceeded to watch the entire thing on Saturday (3 plus hrs I think) and then go see Bourne Ultimatum. Maybe not the most productive Saturday on earth but if I could I would do it more often. So Battlestar Galactica is good. Though I am still reeling over the fact that Starbuck (I wanted to mention that spell check wanted to put Tarbush in for Starbuck) is a woman. Mind-boggling. So far I give it a B. They did do a good job of setting up the series though there were some pretty cheesy parts of it. Though the scenes with number 6 and the scientist are funny and dumb at the same time. I do like how they have the silent space battles.

Bourne Ultimatum did not disappoint. Of course there are some scenes where you have to suspend reality but isn’t that why you go to a movie? Also there could have been less shaky camera going on. Because of the Bourne movies and Good Will Hunting I will always think Matt Damon is really smart and can kick some major ass.

Bridge down

I couldnt help but think of this line from the B-Boys when thinking about the bridge "Two towers down but were still in the game"

Well Koogs and I were about 1/2 mile to a mile from the bridge when it went down. We were not on 35W but were on surface roads near by. We did notice that all the stoplights were out but had no idea why. One thing I found strange is that people have somehow forgotten that when lights are not working that they should be treated as a stop sign. I can't imagine what kind of chaos would ensue if something more serious occured. Anyway to this point its hard to believe that only 4 people are dead. It will probably go up but its amazing none the less. What I find wierd in situations like this is how does the death count go down? Don't get me wrong I am happy about. I mean earlier it was 9 now it is 4. Did some people miracously rise from the dead? It is just strange.

Now one other thing I hate about situations like this is people are always looking for someone to blame. Or people have all these crazy ideas of why it happened. One guy at work and I am quoting said "It is the bird poo. It is very acidic and probably corroded away the cement.". Other people saying how they new the bridge was in bad shape because they saw cracking cement on it. If that was true the old Phillies stadium I was at should have collapsed years ago. I actually heard someone say they shouldnt have built the light rail and should have spent that money on roads. I wanted to say hello..if we had train systems like anywhere else in the civilized world there would be a lot less cars on the road and maybe just maybe this bridge full of cars wouldnt have fallen. Or when it fell it would have a had a lot less people on it because they might have been on TRAINS!!!! Anyway I just hate the blame game. Saying that though I can't help but think about the highway bill the republicans in Minnesota blocked last year. It just seems that the first thing to get pinched in any budget is infrastructure. I can't tell you the shape of the St. Paul water treatment plant. Its old. It needs money to upgrade. If bridges don't get money to improve or replace they fall apart or worse fall down. If power infrastructure does not get improved or replaced they fail. It is just common sense. Maybe something positive about this will be budgets that actually spend the money a city needs on its infrastructure..Though more then likely there will be this huge knee jerk reaction to the entire things.