A question for the misses

The other day I was in a bar that had a unisex bathroom. I like to think that I'm fairly well trained, and always lift the lid and then put it back down (although I've always thought that it's not my fault if some one doesn't look when sitting - you look behind you when backing the car up don't ya? ;) ).

Anyway, it made me wonder about what I should really do in that situation:

• On the one hand I know that it's polite to put the seat back down in case the next person is a woman.
  
• On the other, if it's a guy I would think that it would be better to put the seat up. I've seen the results of poor aim, and it disgusts even me. I can't imagine that it's better to deal with a wet seat than laying the seat down.

Basically that's my question; up or down, wet or falling in?

These are the things I think about while peeing...

Dear Gods - It's Over

Driving home today a song came on the radio. It was Green Day's "When September Ends".

Now I distinctly remember the first September that passed after this song was released (which was June 2005). Even then it was so over played that I thought to myself "Thank the gods that September is over, maybe they'll stop playing this song". I was to be completely disappointed.

Here we are a 19 months later, and September JUST....WON'T.....END! It's like a frakking Twilight Zone episode.

Not only is it overplayed - but it's really not a good song, it's a whiny attempt to be meaningful rather than enjoyable. Reminds me of another band...

Please, please, please stop playing this song - I used to like Green Day, but this song is sucking what affection I had for this band into a dark and evil place.

Michael Stipe is starting to sound good next to this song....

Really? Gullible isn't in the dictionary?

In 1997 a junior high school student in Idaho Falls won his science fair with a project on a little known killer - Dihydrogen Monoxide.

This caustic material is prevalent in almost everything in our lives, it's a major ingredient in beer and pesticides, it's used as a industrial cleaner, and has caused millions of deaths worldwide - and the government refuses to do anything about it!

What causes me to blog about it is I found this awesome website about this compound. It's dhmo.org, and everyone should check it out! One of my favorite claims:

"A recent stunning revelation is that in every single instance of violence in our country's schools, including infamous shootings in high schools in Denver and Arkansas, Dihydrogen Monoxide was involved. In fact, DHMO is often very available to students of all ages within the assumed safe confines of school buildings. None of the school administrators with which we spoke could say for certain how much of the substance is in use within their very hallways."

In reality the said science project above was actually on the gullibility of people, and the student won his science fair. It makes me wonder how many people really start to worry about this. I do know that in 2004 a Californian suburb almost voted to ban foam containers at city events because (among other things) was made with DHMO - scary.

Crap, I just realized my Nalgene Bottle is completely contaminated with it, I've been unknowingly poisoning myself for years now. Goodbye cruel world!

Evil Prevailed

Well it's over. Calgary lost last night 2-1 in double overtime (at least they made the Wings work for it - unlike in Game 5).

I really feel that the refs were incredibly biased. Last night the Wings got away with a ton of penalties. Just to name a few;

• Zetterman tackling Kipprusoff in the net after he stops the puck (with a little head butt thrown in) - no call
• A blatant interference at mid ice on Tanguay - no call
• A vicious Red Wing cross check to the ribs (sorry, can't remember the players) in front of the ref at the Flames' net - hard enough to cause a injury stop in play, but apparently not enough for a penalty.

Basically the Wings outplayed the Flames, they out-shot Calgary 55-21 - OUCH. While I'm on the subject, Kiprusoff was amazing. He's the only reason it wasn't a complete blowout.

My biggest reason for sadness? Bertuzzi actually managed to squeak two goals out of this series. I can only hope Mr. Thug remains pointless for the rest of the playoffs. If Detroit MUST make the finals, I hope Bertuzzi can't play - leaving his name off the cup.

Evil is prevailing

Well, the Red Wings won last night 5 to 1, putting the Red Wings up in the series (3-2). It was an ugly game, and got pretty physical near the end.

Calgary goaltender Mikka Kiprusoff was pulled in the third period and backup goalie Jamie McLennan was put in net. Eighteen seconds later he was suspended for slashing Red Wing Johan Franzen in the gut.

As a hockey fan, it was a distasteful action that has no place in the sport. As a Red Wing hater, it was beautiful. The Red Wings have always been a thug team, relying on intimidation rather than skill, and I liked that Calgary stepped up to meet their style of play.

This is not to say that I approve of McLennan's slash - Like I said, it has no place in hockey. Having said that, Detroit has spent the entire series so far crashing the net and interfering with Kipper, with nothing coming from the refs (until later in game 5 - a goaltender interference was finally called). Seems to me that the refs allowed things to go too far.

Earlier in the game Damond Langkow was clipped by Brett Lebda. Lebda's "hip-check" was nothing more than an ill concealed attempt to injure Langkow, he bent to all four and aimed for his knees. Not surprisingly, before getting up, Langkow punched him in the face. Again, this really doesn't belong in hockey, but it's not surprising it happened as a retaliation for intentionally aiming for another player's knees.

Basically Detroit is living up to their thug style of hockey, and seem surprised that another team has stepped up to meet them in the ring. Kudos to the Flames for not backing down, I'm looking forward to tonight's game.

Still surprised that the King-of-Thugs Bertuzzi has yet to step over the line, but I have a feeling that may happen tonight. Hopefully no one is seriously injured this time...

I count to 4 real good

At a local sports bar, in the men's restroom, there's an ad for a Muay Thai Boxing School. The first line of this ad is what prompts me to blog:

"Muay Thai Kickboxing is a vastly growing martial art that teaches you how to effectively use all eight limbs..."

Eight?!?! On my best day I can only get to 5 limbs (if it's not too cold, and I define "limb" rather loosely).

Turns out that Muay Thai is referred to as "The Science of Eight Limbs", these limbs are the hands, shins, elbows & knees (I love Wikis).

Not nearly as exciting as I first pictured....

Praise to the Lords of Kobol

One of my all time favorite games was X-Wing, it was as close as I could ever get to fly an X-wing fighter. It was a great game that truly captured the feel of helping the alliance defeat the Empire.

Now there's a new experience out there. It's a game being made by fans of the new BattlestarGalactica series. It's called Beyond the Red Line and it ROCKS. It's a mod of Freespace 2, a free flying simulator that's now piqued my interest.

Basically you play a noob pilot that's trying to become a viper pilot (which, fortunately, only takes a single mission). The voice acting is a bit strained at times (mainly the briefings), but that's to be expected - the voices are fans of the show. That being said though, the comm chatter during flight is pretty cool.

Gameplay is awesome, using keyboard and mouse is challenging (can't find my joystick) , but still buries you in the feel of flying a viper.

Must....go....buy...joystick now......

Got Ginko?

I have a great memory, it's just not very long.

You may or may not have noticed, but I can't seem to blog everyday. Some days I can't think of anything interesting to blog about.

Other days, however, I see/hear about something that would work and I make a mental note (I should know better) to comment on it. By the time I get around to my computer (or make it upstairs, or get the computer on) it's gone. I know the simplest thing would be to jot a note about what to blog about, but I'm not sure I can take that kind of commitment to my blog yet.

Basically my biggest problem is my extreme lack of memory. Everyone that knows me, knows this (although I know of at least one other person that may be worse).

Case in point, my wife just hollered at me to make sure I take my prescription before going to bed. 5 minutes later she brought it to me, because she knew I'd forget and just go to bed - she's right, I had already forgotten.

Anyway, what was I saying?...

Me-duh-orologists

Lucky us. We're expecting more snow here in Denver tomorrow. Apparently a LOT of snow (So done with this snow thing).

Anyway, what get's me is the meteorologists here in town. I saw a news broadcast this evening and the weather person predicted "10 to 12 inches of snow starting tomorrow, but maybe less."

Turns out that the storm may actually miss us, or at least be pretty mild. One of the other newscasters asked "When will we know?" To which said meteorologist answered "Tomorrow."

What? Isn't the snow supposed to start tomorrow? So basically if it's snowing tomorrow, we'll get snow.

Now I'm not a meteorologist, but it seems to me that I could be. Ya just need a frakkin window...

My "Z" Plan is ready...how about you?

Last night I finished reading The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks, also the author of World War Z. I loved World War Z (here's DrHeimlich's review) and The Zombie Survival Guide was pretty enjoyable too.

Written (obviously) as a "How-To" guide to survive a zombie attack, it's done in such a way that made me actually start considering what supplies/escape routes I had. I loved that I almost started to worry about how defensible my home is (not very - don't come here if the dead rise).

I think my parents' house would do nicely for a Class 1 or 2 outbreak, but not above that.

Told you it made me think seriously about my options, which made me really enjoy the book. I also really liked the last part, a chronological listing of various outbreaks around the world. Again it's written in such a way, and with just enough facts sprinkled in, that I could actually believe it's happened before.

Bottom line, a fun read and definitely a recommended book, though don't be surprised if you spend the next day looking for a machete and a M1 Carbine...

Missed it by THAT much..

Well, it's over...

The Avs, after a valiant last ditch attempt, have failed to make it to the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.

Ending the season with a 15-2-2 run is pretty impressive, I just wish they could have started just a tad earlier. Still, the team shows a lot of promise and a friend put it perfectly; "Let's call this a building year", quoth Jim.

Don't get me wrong, I'm disappointed that we couldn't quite pull it off on Saturday when we lost to Nashville. We looked great until the 3rd period, when things went awry. Even Calgary did their part by losing their last 4 games of the season, giving us a hope. Alas, we choked and couldn't pull it off. Despite that I feel that 9 straight playoff years is something to be proud of. Especially considering I believe it's the first time in NHL history that a team has ended with 95 points and not made the playoffs.

I was at the last two games of the season. Saturday night sealed our fate with a loss, and the crowd was, understandably, a bit dejected. Sunday night was another story, of course all the non-hockey-fans that have the lower seats weren't there, but the true fans were - and it showed.

The energy of the crowd was on par with a game that would have meant something, which was awesome. The cheering was almost louder than I've heard on other game nights, pretty cool in my book.

Of course the fact that the Avs kicked butt helped, but still, it's good to see that there are other fans that still simply appreciate a good hockey game.

Anyway, on to the playoffs and a mental gear shift:

GO CALGARY!!!

100 Greatest?

Recently I got a bug to start playing my guitar again. I used to play (only about 22 years ago), but I've obviously forgotten everything I knew.

In any case, in my searches for tablature and tips on not sucking, I came across this Yop 100 guitarists of all time.

While I'm far from being an expert on guitar playing, some of the entries kind of baffle me.

Keith Richards is the 10th best guitarist of all time? Duane Allman #2? Kurt Cobain gets #12, while Eddy Van Halen is #70?!?!?

Am I missing something???