this is what it feels like

Every Bengals fan has to feel great after that game last night. Palmer looked fantastic. He took hits and got right back up, his passing was right where it was last year, he scrambled for yards. It was really nice to see how great the Palmer to T.J. connection will be when teams put lots of coverage on Chad. It was also nice to hear the ESPN announcers recognize how deep we are at wide receiver. The defense was also impressive, although I'd like to see them a little more dominant in denying the big play. Brett Favre must really hate playing in Cincinnati, and I almost feel bad for him, but I have to admit it's pretty funny to watch the futility as their offense is abused by our defense. Teams did it to us for fifteen years, so it's only fair.

Don't believe the hype for Snakes on a Plane. Here is a movie that I really wanted to like. I went in with a very positive attitude. I knew it would be bad, but it was not hilariously bad like everyone made it out to be. It had a fair amount of laughable parts, but there was an equal number of times when it was just contemptibly bad. It tried too hard to be so bad that it would make us laugh along with the filmmakers, instead at laughed mockingly at their failed attempt at a hilarious campy film. Sam Jackson did turn in a great performance and had some ridiculous funny lines, but the rest of it was pretty forgettable.

UFC 62 was better than the last couple pay-per-views by a long shot. Most of the fights were very entertaining, including the rematch of Bonner vs. Griffin. I was hesitant to get excited about the fight because I knew there was no way it could live up to their first fight, and while that was still true, it turned out to be what was probably the most entertaining match of the night. Those two never fail to put on a good fight, and Forrest Griffin is hilarious. Bonner was robbed of a round by the judges, and I feel bad for him that he lost, but hopefully he'll rebound with a good win his next fight. Rich Franklin comes back for UFC 64 in October against a very tough opponent. Can't wait for that, and for UFC 63 in September.

I'm working on packing up the apartment. The wisdom teeth come out tomorrow and we move out either Thursday or Friday.

transmissions from a lonely room

I sent Pfc. Jason Burkee an email a few days ago, and I got a response from him today that I thought I'd share:

Hey Dave,


Nothing to exciting going on here.  I am in the
Ramadi area.  Living the Dream...?  Not really, I
would say the best way to describe my situation would
be frequent bordem, highlighted with quick stints of
violence.

The truck in front of me was hit with an IED a
couple weeks ago.  I lost my squad leader.  That was
pretty tough.  The other day a car bomb went off at
the Iraqi Police station.  We have been in one or two
actual fire fights.  We are not in the city though we
are outside the city.

On a happier note, school is done this year?  thats
cool.  How did it go.  Did you have any more liberal
slanted classes were you had to regulate? :)  Is the
apartment you are moving into in the same area?
Better?  That will be cool.  One of the guys bought an
x-box 360 have you tried it yet?  Thoughts on it?
It's not bad, can't wait for Halo 3.  The Playstation
3 who wants to pay that much for a system?

Where are you thinking of working next?  Maybe
another place with nagging callers. :)  Well I got to
go.  I will talk to you later.  I miss you guys.


Your Friend

Jason

workin' up under my patience like a little tick

Haha, it's been an interesting day so far, and it's only half over.

Being the unemployed individual that I am, I couldn't help but notice the roughly 8 billion yellow flyers I saw posted all over campus declaring "Work For Students". I pulled off one of the little tabs and decided to check out the website when I got home. The site was extremely vague about what kind of work was involved, other than saying that it was for a company called Vector Marketing. I assumed this meant it was some telemarketing company, and considering how much I hated being called by crazy disgruntled people, I had even less interest in calling them in their own homes. But I figured there wouldn't be any harm in filling out their online application, although I became more skeptical when I saw how simple the application was (not even asking about prior job experiences or references) I became even more skeptical. Then within half an hour, someone calls me back about setting up an interview (which is 6pm tomorrow). As soon as I was off the phone, I decided it was time to check up on Vector.

It seems Vector Marketing has a long, controvertial history of ripping off students. They send students out as independent contractors to sell Cutco knives. This is after your unpaid training and the deposit and have to put down to work there. Doug told me Jon used to work for them, and he ended up losing money. There's even a group formed by former student employees called Students Against Vector Exploitation. Since they didn't give me any way to recontact them, I guess I'll be skipping that interview tomorrow.

And the job search rolls on.

the die is cast

In other terrible news, Georges St. Pierre has been forced to pull out of his September 23rd Title Fight rematch with Matt Hughes due to a groin injury. UFC has set up another rematch to replace it, with BJ "I whined like a little girl when I lost to St. Pierre" Penn will go for a second win against Hughes. Obviously, I hope Matt beats the snot out of him.

big bang baby

A group of rogue astronomers have viciously stripped Pluto of it's status as a planet today. The extremist organization, known as the International Astronomical Union, launched it's assault on the distant satellite from Prague. The IAU cited Pluto's oblong orbit that overlaps with Neptune's and the presence of Plutonian soldiers in the Czech holy city of Ústí nad Labemfont as the reasons for the attack. In addition to the downgrade of Pluto from a traditional planet to a "dwarf planet", the IAU demanded the release of twelve political prisoners including František Ladislav Čelakovský, who have been held since 1996 for attempting to blow up the several prominent buildings in downtown Pluto City. Pluto has yet to issue a formal statement responding to these attacks, other than commenting that it prefers the term "vertically-challenged planet".

it's the most wonderful time of the year

Football season is upon us and on top of all the wonderful games available for your viewing pleasure on television, I have a virtual cornucopia of fantasy games for you to enjoy. Below are the group IDs and passwords along with links to each game. Join up today! Feel free to tell your friends too.

Yahoo Fantasy Football Games:

• Pro Football Pick'em - League ID: 25299 Password: cincinnati
• Survival Football - League ID: 2217 Password: cincinnati
• Salary Cap Football - League ID: 535 Password: cincinnati
  
• Austin's Pro Football Pick'em Group (with confidence points) - League ID: 360 Password: cincinnati
• College Football Pick'em - League ID: 11813 Password: cincinnati
  

feed your head

Wow. Justin, did you manage to get AiC tickets? I got up last Wednesday at 9am for the presale and today at 10 for the regular sale, and both were sold out in the first six minutes. It kept telling me no tickets were available this morning, and I finally found one ticket after constantly retrying, but I couldn't find more so I didn't get it.

you better find somebody to love

I've started getting serious about buying a new cell phone and service plan. I was looking at a plan from Verizon where I get a free phone and free calls to and from other people with Verizon (Austin, Rob, Daniel, Jon). But the monthly price seems kinda expensive, although not really any more than it looked like it would be from Sprint or Cingular. Austin didn't have great things to say about Verizon or the PN-215 phone.

Anyone have any opinions on the subject? Who's a good provider? Got a good deal on a plan?

no more beating my brains

I think I've finally recovered from the exhaustion of the eleven hour drive back from New Jersey. Thanks again to Tim and Elly for housing, feeding, and entertaining us. I think it's safe to say that we all had a really good time. We got there Friday after a twelve hour trip. Saturday they took us out to the beach at Belmar where we swam. I'm normally not a beach or swimming person, but we had a lot of fun. After that we went to this place that sells Italian ice, which was fantastic. You can get up to four flavors combined, which allows you to make some good mixtures. Sunday we went to New York City, which I hadn't been there since the summer of 2001. We walked all over the place and saw a lot of the sites, including Central Park, Ground Zero, and St. Patrick's Cathedral, where Jess and I went to mass. Monday we were all so tired from all the walking that we just hung out. We swam at the pool at Tim and Elly's apartment and played poker and Apples to Apples that night. Tuesday night we went back into NYC to see Monty Python's Spamalot. If you ever have to go see a musical, see this show. It's a stage adaption of Holy Grail written by Eric Idle, and it was absolutely hilarious. Definitely my favorite show that I've seen. Then Wednesday was the long return trip home.

---

Justin got my hopes up last week with the announcement that Alice in Chains is going on tour again and playing in Cleveland Novemeber 9th. If anyone has even the slightest interest in going, please let me know. Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning. I'd be happy to drive.

Edit: Sweet, Dougie's going to be my concert buddy again and go with me. We're probably going to copy off Justin and see the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame while we're up there to. And now Joe's going too.

all the children are insane

Today is my last day of work. I can say that I'm glad it is over with only a few reservations. I'll definitely miss the pay and I'll miss the handful of people I've made friends with over the past 14 months. But it will be great to be done with all the stress.

Jess, Christy, Alex, and I leave tomorrow for New Jersey. We'll be staying with Tim and Elly until next Wednesday, so don't expect any updates until then. It should be a lot of fun, as long as the drive out there goes okay. But at least we won't be flying out there.

see you down in arizona bay

Global warming is something I've tried to keep a more open mind about lately. In the past I blew it off as something that wasn't too big of a deal. As someone once pointed out, what scientist dedicated to monitoring changes in the environment is going to say that there isn't a problem? After all, if there isn't a problem then there's no need to fund that research, and then Mr. Scientist is out of a job. That being said, I've been much more accepting recently of the negative impact global warming is having on our environment.

I am anything but an Al Gore fan, but I've had a reserved interest in seeing his film on global warming since I first heard about it. Watching the film, there's no doubting his sincerity. After losing the 2000 election, Gore has poured himself into traveling around the globe, lecturing audiences about the dangers of climate change. I'm normally not a fan of biased documentaries, but An Inconvenient Truth shouldn't be compared with the propaganda Michael Moore puts out, which somehow gets classified as a "documentary" instead of "fiction" or "complete bs".

Basically the whole movie is clips from him giving lectures about the problem of global warming. He gives good evidence to back up his claims, and from what I've heard and read, the argument isn't that what he says isn't happening, but that it won't be quite as severe as Gore makes it out to be. I'm not sure quite what that means; that sea levels will only raise by ten feet worldwide instead of twenty? For some reason that doesn't make me feel any better. There's a couple spots in the movie where he can't help but take a couple shots at Bush. I'm sure that goes over well with a lot of the demographic in the audience, but it just makes Gore come out looking bitter and petty. There's one section where Gore talks about how mistakes were made in the past and you get the impression that he's talking about mistakes being made in regards to the environment. But immediately after that, for no apparent reason, the film cuts to a montage of the 2000 election recount in Florida and that whole controversy. Hey Al, I've got an Alice in Chains song you might like. It's called "A Little Bitter". I also wish he would have spent a little more detail on the solutions, but mainly the message seemed to be "here is what's going to happen, now the politicians need to start doing something big to prevent it." And I think he's probably right.

I know what some of you may be thinking now: that I've been sucked in by this propaganda and now it has me all terrified of what could happen. Well first of all, I've been growing more concerned about this for awhile now, which is one reason I kind of wanted to see this movie in the first place. Secondly, why is everyone willing to take such a chance with this? I don't really understand it. It sounds cliche to say this is the only planet that we have, but it's true. We certainly aren't doing a great job taking care of it, so why would we want it to get worse?

The other things that disappoints me about this is the complete and utter silence from the "Christian" community. We're supposed to be good stewards of what God has given us, something you hear all the time when it's an issue such as tithing. What about this planet we've been given? The Christian community if full of all kinds of moral outrage over gay marriage and abortion and Harry freakin' Potter. Where's the outrage over the irreparable damage we're doing to this home he's given us? So much time, effort, and money is spent protesting things like gay marriage. Why aren't Christians out in force writing to their Congressmen that they want to see more measures passed to prevent further environmental harm? I know there probably are lots of Christians out there working for things like the environment, and I'm not sure why I'm expecting the heads of the "Christian community" to care when they often do a terrible job representing Christ, but I think the lack of care in this area is fairly disappointing.

I realize I'm sounding pretty extreme right now, but don't worry, I haven't turned into a big treehugger overnight. Part of it is me just letting off steam from a variety of things. But I think this is an issue that more people need to pay attention to, and care about.

same old trip it was back then

Jess and I drove down to Georgetown with Rob and Jen on Saturday to watch the first day of Bengals training camp. I'd never been to training camp before, and it was a good time. We had fun watching the practice. I was most interested in seeing the condition of Palmer's knee, and I have to say that the reports of his progress are not exaggerated. He wears a big brace on the knee but he was moving all over the place in the drills, taking drops and rolling out to throw on the run. I think the biggest test is going to be how it holds up when he starts to take hits. Even though he'll take hits in camp, it probably won't be till the preseason that we'll really see how well it holds up. I have a hard time thinking that the guys in practice aren't going to be hesitant to hit him as hard as they can, but another team will give it the true test. I took some pictures with the camera Jen brought, but apparently the camera doesn't like zooming in that far because they turned out kind of blurry for a digital camera. I guess I'm just a bad photographer.

some say the end is near

Tool is coming to Columbus on September 21st. Tickets are already on sale. Who wants to come with me?

in euphoria i'm bruised

I saw today that the outside of our apartment building and the building next door were all vandalized with spray paint last night. I also haven't seen Austin all day, as he was gone when I woke up. I think we may have a fugitive on our hands here.

forty-six and two

Like everyone else, I'm getting a little tired of the weekly episodes of a Bengals player having a run-in with the law. Sometimes I wonder what goes through the minds of these people. Odell Thurman's 4-game suspension is the worst problem they've had so far, in my opinion. Sure, Chris Henry is a valuable offensive weapon, but I think we can fill a void at third receiver much more easily than we can at middle linebacker.

The good news is that Mathias Askew probably wasn't going to make the team anyway, and after this I'm all but certain he'll be cut. I'd like to see them put provisions in the contracts of "troubled" players like Frostee Rucker and A. J. Nicholson where if they get in some kind of trouble, then they forfeit parts of their salary. Similar to the clauses some teams have about players engaging in dangerous activities. I think there's a possibility we may even see Henry get cut from the team if Antonio Chatman and Tab Perry perform well in training camp, but I'm not holding my breath.


I made a big change to my class schedule yesterday that should allow me to graduate on time. I was going to be one quarter behind on Spanish, as I put off taking it till this summer. I'm halfway through the first class right now, but forgot to sign up for the next one after this in the last third of summer quarter. Since we're going to New Jersey for a week anyway, I figured I might as well just take it in the fall and just be a quarter behind. Well when I was talking to my mom about my classes, I realized that I'd only be missing four days of class while in New Jersey. Sure, four days is a lot for a three and a half week class, but if it's a matter of choosing between four days and another whole quarter, I'll gamble on missing four classes. I'm going to talk to the prof and see if we can work something out, but either way I'm taking it because it had open spots. I managed to get into the next Spanish class in the fall just fine, I didn't even have to shuffle my current schedule around. I was looking forward to not having any more classes after next week, but this will be worth it in the long run.

sitting spare like a book on a shelf

Valve held a press conference for Half-Life 2: Episode 2 earlier in the week, and made two very surprising announcements. The first was the announcement of a new single-player game to be bundled with Episode 2, Portal. There wasn't a whole lot of explanation as to what the game was, but the basic idea is that you have a portal gun that you use to create and entrance to the portal in one location, and an exit to the portal in another. So, if you find yourself staring at a big canyon that you cannot cross, simply create an entrance on your side of the ravine, and create and exit on the other. The video they showed looked pretty amazing. Valve showed all kinds of different scenarios to demonstrate different ways to use the portal gun. Have a sentry gun blocking your way? Fire a portal under a heavy box, put the exit over the gun, and watch the box fall through the portal and knock it over. The video didn't really explain what you do in the game, but judging from what I saw, it looks like the game is a big obstacle course full of puzzles and challenges that require you to think up creative uses for the portal gun to get past and survive. It didn't reveal whether Portal has any connection to Half-Life 2 other than being set in the same universe (same artwork, style, etc.). It didn't show any type of living enemy, and I don't think the game will be used to tie in the story line, at least not right now. I hope they expand the idea even further than just a single-player puzzle game, because it looks like you could have some really exciting multiplayer action with the game. Valve continues to show their ability and desire in be innovative and inventive when it comes to creating games.

The other big announcement was the most surprising: Team Fortress 2 is in fact very much alive, and will also be bundled with Episode 2. This is a game that has been in limbo almost as long as Duke Nukem Forever. The biggest change is the artwork for the game; the characters look like something out of a Pixar movie. Their figures are cartoonish and exaggerated. Personally, I think it's a great look. Team Fortress isn't about realism, it's about fun. The video didn't show any gameplay, just the character models, so it isn't really known whether Valve is planning on it being the revolutionary multiplayer game they said it would be seven years ago. I'm guessing after all this time, and after games like the Battlefield series that have already done with Valve planned to do with TF2, that the game will be more like a port to the Source engine. But if they're including it free with Episode 2, that's okay by me.

M. Knight Shyamalan's Lady in the Water comes out this weekend. I was planning on seeing it, but it's not getting the best reviews, and after the mediocre Village, I'm a little hesitant now. There really haven't been many movies I've been looking forward to this year. I'm tired of superhero movies, and I was bored with Pirates of the Caribbean before it even came out because I knew it would be more of the same (they made it LONGER than the first?! Doesn't anyone hire an editor anymore?). One of the few I am definitely excited about is Miami Vice. Michael Mann has put out some great movies (HEAT, Collateral) and this looks like it will be more of the same. Jamie Foxx is a good actor, and while Colin Farrell isn't my favorite, he's usually pretty good in these action roles.

And then there's Snakes on a Plane which sounds so terrible that it almost makes me want to see it.

the ashes in my eyes

I thought I'd throw up a few pictures from the NIN concert. Bear in mind that none of these pictures were taken by me, I just found them online and borrowed them. I threw all the pictures I found on the flickr page I set up, so if you want to see more you can go there.
I edited this picture to give you a general idea of where Doug and I were for most of the concert. We might actually be in this picture but the people are too small to tell, and most likely we're a little more to the left, just outside the frame.

where the gun is cocked

Obviously people are going to compare Thom Yorke's solo album The Eraser to his work with Radiohead, but they really are not very similar. The closest comparison you can make to it would be Kid A, but his solo album is an even greater exploration into electronica. It's filled with more drum machines and synthesizers, and much less guitar, than most of Radiohead's music. I look at The Eraser the same way I saw Billy Corgan's TheFutureEmbrace: it's a pretty good album, but not as good as the stuff he has done with his band. There are a lot of fun, entertaining songs like "And It Rained All Night" (which feels very similar to something off of Radiohead's Hail to the Thief) and "Black Swan", but none of the songs are anything mind blowing. The album is also a little on the thin side, weighing in with just nine tracks.


American V: A Hundred Highways is the first non-compilation album by Johnny Cash to be released posthumously by Rick Rubin's American Records. Overall it's a very solid album. I like the folk-vibe most of the songs have. Few of the songs have the country flavor to them that some of the American IV tracks had. But this new album also lacks some of the instant classics Cash's last album had, like "Hurt" or "Personal Jesus". This is the first album in his American Recordings series where he doesn't have any popular covers of bands like U2, Soundgarden, or Tom Petty. The only song that is familiar to me at all is "God is Gonna Cut You Down", and that's only because it was sampled in Moby's song "Run On". However, the lack of familiar tunes is not something I would criticize this album for. It's loaded with great songs, whether they're brimming with spirituality like "Help Me" or just fun tunes like "On the 309". Even after his death, it seems Johnny Cash can continue to bless us with meaningful music.

southern change gonna come at last

Everyone is probably aware by now that Italy won the World Cup on Sunday, defeating France 5-3 in penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw. I thought it was a good game. France looked strong at the beginning, and they scored first off the Zidane penalty shot. I didn't think the foul in the box was a good call. It looked to me like the French player (not Zidane, but I don't recall who) took a dive. Then Italy responded in the 19th minute with a great header. Italy scored again but was called offside. Zidane almost gave France the lead in overtime with a headball, but Buffon made a fantastic one-handed save. You could tell Zidane thought it was going in, and maybe that helps explain what happened next.



Unless you haven't been paying any attention to sports the past few days, you've probably seen Zidane headbutting Materazzi. I think it's a huge shame that someone like Zidane would end his career in this fashion. Imagine if someone like Peyton Manning was in the playoffs, and had announced that he would retire when it was over. They make it to the Super Bowl, and while his team is deadlocked in a close game, Peyton walk over and ends his career by kicking someone on the opposing team in the groin. That's about the equivalent of what Zidane did. If FIFA had a Hall of Fame for players, Zidane would be going in it. That's how good of a player he has been, and that's why what he did was so stupid. He had a great legacy, but this is what people are going to remember.

Anyway, Italia won, which was fine with me because I was rooting for them.

shine on you crazy diamond

Syd Barrett, legendary musician and one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, has died.