Miasmatic Review

Gas is expensive?

I just returned from running to the store to pick up some necessary items. During my travel there and back I was listening to talk radio. The host and callers were talking about how Bush was surprised to hear that they are forecasting gas to rise over $4.00 a gallon. Most of us have been hearing this for over a month now.

I'm not a Bush supporter. What he's done in office angers me on levels more than I can fathom. And no, I didn't vote for him last time. I didn't vote for Kerry either, I ended up writing in a candidate. With that being said, this really doesn't surprise me. But then again I don't think most politicians have any idea what the average American citizen pays for things and what the costs are going to be on those items in years to come.

Honestly I think if you went up to any politician and asked them the simple question of "Do you know how much it costs to fill the gas tank on a (insert car here)?" they probably wouldn't know. Now of course if I asked many of you "Do you know how much it costs to fill up a Chevy Silverado or a Chevy Venture?" you'd probably be able to get close to the ball park. Why? Because you pay for your gas.

Most of the politicians I know and have worked with have staff that fills the tanks on their cars or has someone drive them, especially at the Federal level. I'm sure career politicians probably couldn't tell you what side of the car their gas cap is on. And this is just another reason I believe they are out of touch with the American public.

So does it surprise me Bush didn't know? Not at all.

Home again.

Eh, home again today. Things are starting to get better. I won't go into the details since many of you complained yesterday, but I will tell you that my arse is no longer a fire hose, it's more like a watery play-do fun factory.

Anyways I need to run to the store to pick up some supplies to last the day. I've drank all the water already and I'm not about to dehydrate myself. Oh, and maybe I should get some beer. If I'm going to have beer sqats, I might as well drink the beer too!

We might be moving.

There is still hope, a place fore a disenfranchised individual as myself to go. up until about 100 years ago there was always someplace for an individual to go when they were tired of their government. It was the frontier. People that wanted to get away from government persecution or what they felt where unjust laws or just to get away from others would head to the frontiers. Hell, North America was originally settled by people trying to get away from the government.

So where is this place? Why, it's Montana. That's right, Montana. According to the Washington post, "Montana insists on gun rights" Do you hear that? It's the sounds of angels singing.

Montana officials are warning that if the Supreme Court rules in the D.C. gun ban case that the right to keep and bear arms protects only state-run militias like the National Guard, then the federal government will have breached Montana's statehood contract.

I've already spoke with Ktreva and depending on how things go, we may up and move. If on the off chance they actually do try to break free of the ever tightening grasp of the Feds, I'd help them out.

Thanks to Ogre for the good news.

Illinois is at it again.

If you wondered why I'm taking my time to attend the Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day (IGOLD), an article in the Rockford Register Star sums it up, Gun Control Proposal Clears House Committee. Now, this has just passed the committee, it hasn't actually passed the house or been made a law yet, but lets take a look at what this law is trying to ban.

Proposals that would ban semi-automatic assault weapons and outlaw the purchase of more than one handgun a month cleared an Illinois House committee today....

Technically these are two separate bills, one for the assault weapons and one for the handguns. We can't expect the media to get anything everything correct.
Not that I've ever bought more than one handgun a month, but I really don't think the government needs to tell me I can't. Seriously, if I went out and bought a handgun only to turn around a week later and find a really good deal on another, (estate sale, friend selling one, gun show, etc.) then I should still be able to purchase it. Hell that's how we obtained Ktreva's Colt 1991. This is just a silly piece of legislative BS brought on by people that are afraid of firearms and want to take them away from law abiding citizens like myself.

House Bill 4393, sponsored by Chicago Democratic Rep. Luis Arroyo, would limit handgun purchases to one every 30 days...

..."For years, we’ve been trying to pass common-sense gun-law legislation," Acevedo said.

His House Bill 4357 would ban the sale or purchase of semi-automatic assault weapons, assault weapon attachments, .50-caliber rifles or .50-caliber cartridges.

"These military-style weapons have no place on our streets," a supporter of the bill, Nina Vinik, legal director for the Evanston-based Legal Community Against Violence, told the committee.

Common sense gun law? It's only common sense if you A) don't know much about firearms, B) Have an irrational fear of fire arms, C) What to use this as a stepping stone to disarm the masses or D) all of the above.

None of the weapons they want banned are truly "Military-style". They may look like it, but trust me our military more than likely wouldn't use them unless they had no other option. The military is more fond of fully-automatic. If you are not sure what the difference is, see this excellent video. 50 caliber is military grade? The sad thing is that if you read the actual bill, it doesn't specify modern or black powder. So any of us re-enactors wanting to buy a .50 cal black powder rifle in the future may have problems, it says there are exceptions but it doesn't list them. I wonder what they would think of my .75 caliber Brown Bess Musket. Hell it's a military style weapon, it was what the British used mainly during the Rev War. Mine has a bayonet, military sling, etc. I guess it could be considered an assault weapon.

It's because of these types of laws that I'm going to go lobby against them. I'm tired of the government taking away my rights and liberties just so they can better control me. Well I'm not going to go down with out a fight.

Thanks to Shadoglare of Refractional Darkness for getting my blood pressure up again.

Where am I going to be?

Since I was home for the day, I figured I might as well finally update The Spoon and Blade. I put up the schedule of events of where I'm going to be this year. Now this schedule is subject to change. Events may be added and others removed.

Actually there are some events I'm thinking of doing that aren't on the schedule. Some of them are going to be last minute decisions or I just don't have any information on them at this time.

So if any of you want to see me in action, here is the list of where I will be.

ut-oh!

I woke up this morning, put on one of my nice suits and was getting ready to hit the bathroom to do my hair. All of a sudden a siring pain shot across my abdomen and there was a very urgent pressure on my sphincter. Rapidly I waddled the five steps to the bathroom. I really did not want to redecorate the inside of my suit.

Ktreva is in the bathroom doing her hair. Grabbing my abdomen I urgently say, "I'm sorry, but I really need to use the bathroom." She gets out and I have enough time to get my pants down and start to squat over the thrown when the flood gates opened. A sound much like that of a fire hose spraying into a swimming pool is heard through out the house.

The whole time It felt like my body was trying to push my entire digestive tract out my arse. Severe cramping and pain continued for at least 20 minutes. Finally when everything settled down not only was I physically exhausted, but all that abdominal cramping gave me a nice set of six pack abs. Well, okay that may be a slight exaggeration but I do feel like I did 100 sit ups.

The decision was made that I shall not be going to work today. The last thing I need is a repeat performance of this in the middle of a meeting, which I had three today. Plus I don't think any amount of dry cleaning would remove the power self-enema spray from a suit. I'd have to throw it away and buy another.

Piedmont Porter.

Three down and three to go in “The History of Beer in America” collection my father gave me for Christmas. Tonight I thought I’d be a little wild and go for the porter. I was tired of the lighter beers and wanted something that was a little heftier. Tonight I’m reviewing the Piedmont Porter by MDII in Rochester, NY. Sorry, I still don’t have any reputable information about this alleged brewery.

We have our standard 12 oz brown bottle with a yellowed label made to look like paper from the 1860s. There is a lot of information on the label; the main thing is that there is a logo of an eagle at the top with the name of the beer under it.

When poured into a glass it has a very nice dark brown color with rich garnet highlights. A half in thick tan head consisting of a mix of fine and large bubbles formed that faded slowly into a film on the top of the beer. There was some lacing on the side of the glass that lasted for the duration.

The smell was a little weak. What was detectable was a combination of malts, coffee and a touch of sweet molasses. There were other aromas mixed in, but they were too weak to be able to discern. The taste was mostly coffee malts. There was a slight bitterness to it of burnt grains that really wasn’t all that flattering. This really didn’t taste like a porter.

This is a medium bodied beer. It really didn’t have the typical coating or mouth feel one would think of in a porter.

If Miller or Anheuser-Busch made a porter, it probably would be like this. Nothing all that special, it’s darker in color and has a slight porter taste. Over all I give this beer a 4 out of 10.

I'm a toad?

Then Tony Kornheiser can lick my... wait this is a PG-13 blog.

Tony, AKA Kornholer, originally brought about my ire for his horrible announcing during Monday Night Football games on ESPN. He was so bad he was even nominated for worst announcer of the year. Any of you that have watched football with me know that I really hate this man's inability to stay on topic, especially the game at hand.

Today I stroll over to Techography where Bloodspite has a post up about Tony calling bloggers toads.

It's a real, it's a real mistake, and it happens. And I don't want to single anybody out in this area, but, you know, some people sit at home and they watch TV and they watch radio and they "blog" about certain "things," and they think they know what they're talking about, and they think they have sources. They have no sources. They make stuff up. They're toads. They're little toads. Actually, they're pimples on the behind of the greater body politic in this country and in this city (everyone in the studio cackles for no reason). And because, because they have access to airwaves and three or four people read them, they think, 'Oh, I'm very important.'

Read the whole article and see how he really feels about us. Then remember the next time you see him to let him lick your... sorry, I forgot.

Fort De Chartres

I decided to try a new event this year called the Colonial Trade Faire & musket and Rifle Frolic at the Fort De Chartres historic site in Prairie Du Rocher, IL. (South of Saint Louis not far from the Mississippi). This is a juried event (Meaning you have to pass close scrutiny in order to get in) and from what I've heard they are strict. Actually I know there are strict, here's the rules. I had to send pictures of myself and my equipment so that they could view them and pass judgment upon me.

Today in the mail I received my acceptance letter. The only thing they had a problem with was my capote (a coat made out of wool blankets, French for Cape.) To quote the letter, "Everything looks great except for the capote. I can't see it too well in the picture, but it looks more like a Rocky Mt. Style Mt Man coat VS a more tailored 18th century style capote. If I'm wrong, please let me know as I couldn't see too clearly from the photo."

This is the photo I sent, it was the best I had:

Yea, it sucked. The capote was bought as an Eastern Style capote. I added the black leather cape to it for extra warmth. You'd be surprised how much that cape helps. I made it so it buttoned on, I can easily take it off. I responded via e-mail stating that. If I can't bring it, it stays home, if they say it's okay than I bring it with. It's not that big of a deal. I can always just use a wool blanket and one of the man kilt broaches I have.

Another reason McCain won't get my vote.

Ogre's Politics and Views directed me to an article written by Chuck Baldwin titled John McCain is a Liberal Gun Grabber. Where as I am not familiar with Chuck Baldwin, his radio show or his principles, I do know that I agree with what he wrote here. He has a lot of good points and even some outstanding ones.

Let me say it straight out: a John McCain Presidency would be far worse than a Barack Obama Presidency. With a Democrat in the White House, conservatives and Christians suddenly find their principles and are able to offer resistance. Put a Republican in the Oval Office, however, and those same people become blind, deaf, and dumb to most any principle they profess.

I've been saying basically that same thing for a long time now. I've had the arguments that "Obama or Clinton in the white house would deliver us into a state of ruin." The problem is that, so will McCain, he'll just have an R behind his name. Shadoglare did a nice little breakdown of the candidates and which one came across as the best. It was good and informational. The only beef I had with it is that it's based on quotes not voting records and that the quotes can be interpreted differently be each reader. He ended up taking a stance that he's going to vote for the lesser of evil or the candidate that is closest to what he believes. (Albeit it none of them really are close at all.)

I've stated and sticking with my stance that I'm not casting my vote for McCain (or against his opponents). That doesn't mean I'm voting Obama/Clinton that just means I may end up writing in a candidate or seeing if there is a third party candidate I agree with more.

But if you want to know more about McCain and his voting records regarding firearms, please go read the article by Chuck Baldwin.

Time to move?

As much as I appreciate everything that being a part of .mu.nu has given to me, I'm thinking it's time for me to move away from the community. The comments are down... again. I really hate when I can't get comments. For those that e-mail me their comments, I appreciate that, but I know it's frustrating. Plus trackbacks have been gone for a line time... and I miss them.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I'd appreciate it. I don't want to lose my archives and honestly I don't know how to go about transferring them. That's the main reason I've never left. To be honest I'd love to move someplace and have all my old blogspot archives and here combined into one.

Wes had a boy!

Wes of Bodhran Roll, Please! (The semi-irregularly updated blog) wife gave birth to their fourth child yesterday. Yes, I thats four. One more than three, and one less than five. No, really four. Yes, I'm sure. They live just down the street, I've seen all the kids and the pregnant wife. Yea, I think they're crazy too, but it makes them happy so my opinion doesn't matter.

Anyway, mom and baby are doing fine. Go over and give the proud and tired father some congratulations.

Coolest Desk Ever!

If you're not a Sci-fi or Star Wars fan, you won't appreciate this desk. If you are, this may be the coolest desk you've ever seen.

The Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite Desk!

Yea, I wish I could get one of these for work!

It's okay. It wasn't its fault.

I know I have poor grammar and I misspell words, I'd like to think it's part of my charm. Some people I know find this highly annoying. That's why I found it highly amusing when a friend of mine sent me the following image after I accidentally used it's wrong.

I really do know when to use the correct one, I just made a mistake. it's not my fault!

And I thought my management was bad.

Anyone that has ever worked in a cube farm, AKA office, is familiar with the Dilbert comics. Some of them really hit close to home, but for Dave Steward of Fort Madison, IA it summed up his feelings about management. So he posted it on the bulletin board at work and fired for it.

Steward, 50, a resident of Fort Madison, was fired by the casino last fall after seven years of employment. He had posted on an office bulletin board a "Dilbert" strip in which the protagonist compares his bosses to a bunch of "drunken lemurs."

Well I can understand the posting of the comic, I feel that way about my managers at time, especially now.

Casino managers were not amused. By reviewing surveillance tapes, they determined that Steward was responsible for posting the cartoon. They fired him and accused him of not being a "team player."

For posting a comic he's not a team player? I'd think if he blatantly and openly ridiculed management, that would be not a team player but not this.

As a result of this, Scott Adams (Dilbert's Creator) caught wind of the situation and has dedicated recent strips to making fun of the entire situation, in true Dilbert fashion.

In a new series of "Dilbert" comics that begins today, Steward's bosses — represented by the strip's infamous Pointy-Haired Boss — are lampooned for their actions. Steward is depicted by Wally, the strip's bespectacled, coffee-swilling office drone. Steve Morley is portrayed by Catbert, the evil human resources director.

That's just hilarious.

Miller Time

This week started off really good. I had just spent the weekend with a group of the greatest guys I've had the pleasure hanging out with. Then I had a day off to "recover" from the fun.

Then I went to work. I walked into a maelstrom of laziness, incompetence and bullshite. On Wednesday I was given the shaft. I’m not going to go into a lot of details, but my company basically told me that I’m not a valuable employee, I’m not appreciated and that what I do is unnecessary to the benefit of the company. When I confronted them on this, they claimed “That is not the situation.” Yet actions speak louder than words and their actions spoke volumes. I caught them in some “untruths” or misinformation. I’m not saying I was directly lied to, but either the powers that be were lied to, are misinformed or misunderstood information given to them.

Then they knew they pissed me off and instead of confronting the situation they avoided it. Pissing me off more. There is nothing that annoys me more than milquetoast management. I had more meetings canceled today; in fact all of my meetings with upper management were canceled. After the last one was canceled, I forced a confrontation by stating I wanted to follow up on our conversation from Wednesday.

We sat down, discussed it and they wanted me to put my feelings and issues in writing for a formal request. After that they questioned my ability to manage my employees and they questioned my ability to continue functioning in the position I’m currently in. Because of that I told them I refused to put it in writing in fear that they were going to use it against me at a later time. That set them on the defense. Denials of retaliation were flying left and right until I pulled out the examples of were they retaliated against me in the past.

I really think my time with this company is coming to an end rapidly. Either voluntarily or involuntarily. I am proud of the fact that in one of the meetings with my peers, after they pushed some of my buttons, I didn’t utter the phrase, “Don’t piss me off or I’ll rain fiery death down upon you like the gods of yore.” Especially since they have all heard me talk about my mortar and how I could shell the building from a half-mile away. Not that I would actually ever do that or anything else remotely that stupid. Just that I don’t know if they would take it as the joke it was meant as right now.

Anyway, I’m getting ready to tear into a couple of cases of beer soon.

Another day down.

Well, I went to work today. My ID badge let me into the building, so obviously I didn't quit, or if I did they haven't removed me from the system yet. Which would be strange since it takes two months to get someone put into it, but 2 seconds to have them completely removed.

None of the upper management talked to me or looked me in the eye today. Two of my meetings were canceled and a third the upper management didn't attend like they normally do. I think they are hoping that I cool down and give it a couple of days before they approach me again. The problem is that they are making one huge tactical mistake.

I'm not illogically mad. Yes, I'm mad, but I'm not being illogical about it. Every time I went to speak with one of them regarding a decision I had made, they always had someplace they had to be and didn't have time to talk about it or were just gone from their desks. They are handling it in their normal crappy style, if we ignore it or give the problem to someone else, it will go away. I'm sure they figure give me a couple of days to "cool off" and they'll talk to me again.

The problem with this is that again, I'm not illogically mad. Their avoidance of the issue is actually throwing gasoline onto the fire. If they would buck up, act like proper management or even the adults they are supposed to be, I'd at least have some respect for them. This tactic is full of crap. It just pisses me off more.

I'm wondering what tomorrow has to bring.

Going to work.

I guess I didn't resign my position after all.

I'm not really sure.

I think I resigned my position at work today. I'm not actually sure as it was toward the end of a very heated hour and a half discussion about how they were giving me the shaft. Right now I'm really trying to remember what exactly I said. I know that I eluded to finding another job, but I'm not sure that I quit.

I guess I'll find out tomorrow. If I don't go to work tomorrow then I guess we'll know I didn't.

Oh, and for the readers I have that work at the same place, you're going to be getting the same shaft this summer.

Hole in the Rock

We’re back to beer from “The History of Beer in America” collection that my father gave me for Christmas. This evening’s selection is Hole in the Rock by MDII in Rochester, NY. I gave up trying to find out who this actually is. After doing some research I’m pretty sure it’s a pseudonym. It appears that different breweries are contracted to make the beer for Sam’s Club.

It came in a standard 12 oz brown bottle. The label is shaded and made to look like aged paper. There is a picture of a steamship heading down a river with a cave in the background. The name of the beer is at the top. The bottom of the label claims “Marzen Style Lager Beer”.

It is a copper colored beer. It’s clear with no signs of sediment of cloudiness. There was a thin head when poured that faded to nothing. No lacing formed on the side of the glass.

There is a slight malty scent to the beer. If you concentrate you smell breads and a sweetness that reminded me of grapes. The flavor was weak and not very notable. It tasted like a standard lager, mostly malts with a touch of citrus hops.

This is a light bodied beer. It was watery and left no coating at all. It drinks easy enough, but it’s very nondescript.

This is just your standard generic beer. It’s nothing special to write about, but it is drinkable. I’m not sure exactly how they figure it’s a Marzen style beer, as you really can’t taste it. I give it 3.5 out of 10.

But it's true.

I did two things yesterday that gave me an epiphany.

Boopie is turning 15 and is getting ready to start driving. So I stopped at a car dealership just to get an idea of how much a decent used car runs. I explained to the salesman that I really wasn’t buying at this time, but I just wanted to get an idea of what I’m going to be looking at over the next year. There were some cars on the lot that had a good price on them and seemed to be in decent condition. After speaking with the salesman about the cars, I knew what I was going to need to be looking at when the time finally arrives.

Last night I caught the speeches from the three leading candidates for president; Obama, Clinton and McCain. I listened to them give basically the same message. It was during the last speech that I realized something.

I trust the used car salesman more than these three.

Relaxed to stressed in 30 seconds.

Just once I would love to be able to take some time off of work and not return to a maelstrom of issues. So I took three days off of work to go to Winter Camp. When I returned I was nice and relaxed. Yesterday I spent the day getting caught up on some paperwork for other re-enactments I was planning on doing and some various other issues and no matter what happened, I was cool and collected.

I wasn't at work for more than 30 seconds when one of my people started complaining about what was happening while I was away. They were just the first of a long line of issues that came up while I was away. Apparently when I'm not in the office, people can't make a decision. They hold all the problems and issues until I return and have me fix the situation.

I was gone three days, THREE DAYS, and I had over 600 e-mails at work. When ever management asked for something all of my peers responded with, "I'm not sure, Contagion will do it when he gets back." or my people would respond with, "I'll have to ask Contagion when he returns."

By the end of the day I really wanted to tear my cubicle apart.

From the Journal of Seamus MacPhail

What a fun and interesting weekend. I’ve never participated in the ONW Co Winter Camp before, mainly because I was never a member prior to this past October. Having never participated before, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, this post is written from my journal and memories of my journey this weekend.

7:00 AM 02/14/08: Left Rockford, IL with companion Randy. We have about a 5 and a half hour drive ahead of us. I am excited and looking forward to seeing my friends and meeting more of the Company men.

9:04 AM 02/14/08: Paynette Exit on I-90, WI. We have run into a snowstorm. The snow is heavy and has caused some sever driving conditions. Due to stopping for provisions, we are running a half hour behind schedule. Fortunately we are in no great hurry.

9:22 AM 02/14/08: Approaching Wisconsin Dells. The snow if falling faster. We have slowed our travel down to less than 50 MPH. I contacted Ktreva to have her check the size of the storm for me. She advised that we are going to be in the snowstorm for at least the next 100 miles of our journey.

11:30 AM (Approx) 02/14/08: Black River Falls, WI. We have finally driven through the snowstorm. We have counted numerous vehicles in the ditches or spun out. Every vehicle we passed has either been empty (Marked so by police) or already had emergency responders. Since help was already on the scene we did not feel the need to stop and possibly put ourselves into more peril.

2:10 PM (Approx) 02/14/08: Arrive at camp just northwest of Trego, WI. We made a 45-minute stop for lunch, gas and supplies. At this time there are only four other individuals at camp, neither my companion nor myself recognize any of them. We are staying in a cabin. There is a large fireplace and an electric furnace. It’s cold inside, but not as cold as outside. Things should warm up as time passes and more people arrive.

9:15 PM 02/14/08: Camp. Many more individuals have shown up, some of my friends from Illinois and other Company men. People have begun laying out trade items on the table. Much Alcohol is being consumed. The cabin is warming up some; the temps are probably in the 50s, which is comfortable with my clothing. Rumor has it that the temps are to drop down to –15 overnight and the High on Friday should be around 7 degrees.

10:00 AM 02/15/08: Camp. More people are arriving, including some that showed up in the middle of the night. New trade items are being set out. One of the guys that lives locally advised that the temps fell to –21 in Trego. They also speculated because we are in a hollow next to the lake that the temps at the cabin could have gotten as cold as –30. I slept comfortably with my wool blankets. I discovered that when using a porta-john in these temps that the urine can freeze to the side of the urinal before it has a chance to go into the tank. Also that no matter how many guys use it, the blue ice in the tank will not defrost. Also, after using the porta-john do not close the lid. The steam rising off of the excrement and urine can and will form ice on the seat and lid. They will sometimes freeze together. Also I’m not sure what temperature it is, but at a certain point a plastic toilet seat only gets so cold. It doesn’t matter how much colder the temps get, sitting on the seat after that point will still being just as uncomfortable as if it was another 20 degree colder.

9:00 PM 02/15/08: Camp. There are 48 bunks in this cabin and most of them are full. There is a second cabin that some of the members are sleeping in. They do not allow smoking in that cabin; originally I heard it referred to as the “non-smoking” cabin. I chose to stay in the main cabin because more people I knew were going to be there. Later on I learned that they actually refer to the second cabin as the “geriatric cabin” as most of the members that sleep there tend to be over the retirement age.

10:00 AM 02/16/08: Camp. I slept like crap last night. It was too warm in the cabin. Between the fire burning for 2 days, the electric heater and the amount of men in the area, I believe that the temps were in the mid to upper 60’s. It was so warm I had to kick off the wool blankets. In turn I would get chilled and have to recover. This cycle occurred all night long. Also the gentleman(?) in the bunk next to me had some of the most horrendous gas all night long. I’m not sure what was worse, being woken up by the sound or the smell. More men have arrived and there are a lot of really nice items out on the trade tables.

Trade Table

4:10 PM 02/16/08: Camp. Company Meeting. My traveling companion and myself read the company charter at the opening of the meeting. Even though it wasn’t said, I’m pretty sure it was implied that we did it because only the French (My companion) and the Scots (myself) know how to read. I was able to see my friend and blogspawn Petey coronated as Bourgeois (BOOSH-way) of the ONW Co. Being a new member I sat back and observed the various members and how the interacted. There are some strong political undercurrents in this organization and some comments made during the meeting solidified observations I’ve made in the past. If this isn’t brought under control there could be potential serious ramifications to the company sometime down the road.

5:30PM (Approx) 02/16/08: Camp. Company Dinner. One of my friends, whom I shall call “Wind in his hair” or WIHH henceforth, was in charge of setting up the tables, place settings and serving food. He asked me earlier if I wouldn’t mind helping him out. It was a whirlwind of activity as the tables and settings were put into place. After dinner I was put back into service helping clean up and put stuff away. This included my cleaning of a large pot that they heated baked beans. Cleaning the pot using a scrub brush and bare hands in ice-cold water is not pleasant.

Dinner

7:00PM (Approx) 02/16/08: Camp. The company drew the numbers for the fundraising raffle. I purchased four tickets. I ended up winning a new copper mucket (Mug and bucket combined). I’m really excited about this as I was going to purchase one of these anyway. It just saved me some money! After the raffle people were saying that bad weather was moving in and that it was going to start to snow again south of us starting at midnight. Some people that lived in Illinois left right way, others stayed.

3:00AM (Approx) 02/17/08: Camp. A lot of people were leaving to get a jumpstart on the long drive home. They did a good job of trying to be as quiet as possible for the rest of us that were still sleeping. If only they would have stopped slamming the screen door on the cabin. The nice thing about them leaving at that time is that the cabin was too warm for me to sleep again. With the door being left open it cooled down enough so that I could sleep under my wool blankets comfortably.

8:02 AM 02/17/08: Left camp, headed to local restaurant for breakfast and to use the bathroom. I didn’t want to use a frozen toilet seat again today.

8:40 AM 02/17/08: Trego, WI. My companion and I left the restaurant hoping that the snow wouldn’t be as bad.

9:23 AM 02/17/08: Chippewa Falls, WI. The snow has started. Upon calling Ktreva she advises that the storm will probably follow us the rest of the way home. The roads are getting slick and we see people sliding on a regular basis.

1:56 PM 02/17/08: Madison, WI. We stopped for lunch. We needed to get off of the road for a while. The weather has gone from bad to worse back to bad. We did take a 15-minute stop in Black River Falls for gas and drinks. Originally we thought we would be home by this time.

2:58 PM 02/17/08: I-90 at Stoughton Exit. The snow has turned to rain. We’ve never been so happy to see rain and just ice on the roads before. A small celebration was had in the vehicle. The vehicles in the ditches were much worse today than on Thursday. Today was say one truck flipped on it’s side up by Tomah, WI and south of Madison there was a tanker truck that hand plowed into the median with two cars in the right hand ditch. We don’t know what happened, but since we beat most of the emergency responders to the site, we know we just missed it.

4:05PM 02/17/08: Rockford, IL. Arrived home. The 5 and a half hour trip ended up taking seven and a half hours. Right as we pulled into the driveway, the snow started again. We must have caught up to and been just in front of the leading edge of the storm for the last hour.

Frozen Butts

Okay I've returned. I need to unpack, shower and just unwind. I'll do a full post with pictures of the event tomorrow. I will give you these highlights though.

*Spent most of the drive up and back in a snowstorm
*Rumor is that the temps at the cabin reached -22 confirmed, -30 estimated.
*Port-A-Johns can and will freeze over.
*Urine can flash freeze.
*Don't volunteer to help a friend out with kitchen duty if you don't want to do dishes... in ice cold water... by hand.

I'm going to go camping...

...in upper Wisconsin! Yep, camping in the winter. This is the second time this year. When I was younger I used to go winter camping as a Boy Scout all the time. Now KTreva doesn't like the idea, so we never did. Since I've joined the ONW Co. I've been able to do it again.

Needless to say I'm excited! See you all on Sunday.

Midas Touch

I’m very excited about tonight’s beer review. It’s a very historic moment here at Miasmatic Review as far as my beer reviews go; this one is 3,000 years in the making! After much anticipation I will be reviewing Midas Touch by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. This beer is made using a recipe that is based on the residue at the bottom of excavated drinking vessels.

This recipe is the actual oldest-known fermented beverage in the world! Our recipe showcases the known ingredients of barley, white Muscat grapes, honey & saffron found in the drinking vessels in King Midas' tomb!…

….Under a huge mound at the capital of Gordion, a University of Pennsylvania Museum expedition in 1957 excavated an intact burial chamber which likely belonged to King Midas himself. The body of a 60-year-old male was laid out in state on a thick pile of purple and blue-dyed textiles inside a unique log coffin.

Most remarkably, the tomb held the largest Iron Age drinking set ever found--157 vessels, including a ram-headed and lion-headed situla--for preparing, serving, drinking and libating a special beverage at the funerary feast of the king. The secrets of the beverage were revealed by the new methods of Molecular Archaeology. Dr. Patrick McGovern of the Museum discovered that the residues inside the vessels belonged to a "Phrygian cocktail," which combined grape wine, barley beer and honey mead. Starting with the ancient chemical evidence, Dogfish Head Brewery "re-created" a marvelous golden elixir, truly touched by King Midas.

The first time I heard about this beer was on the History Channel as they talked about the history of brewing. At that time I had difficulty trying to find some, as it is a limited production base. Fortunately for me a local store received a shipment and I was able to pick up a four pack of it.

It comes in the standard 12 oz brown bottle. There is purple label with a golden fingerprint on it. The name of the beer is imposed over the fingerprint. At the bottom of the label it states, “Handcrafted Ancient Ale. With Barley, honey, White Muscate Grapes and Saffron.” It also proudly claims it’s 9% Alcohol by Volume.

There is a nice golden amber color to it. It’s clear, with no cloudiness or sediment detectable at all. Light passes through easily. When it’s poured it formed a quarter inch white head that fades quickly. There is no lacing or film on the top of the beer after a couple of minutes.

The scent to this beer is like none I’ve experienced before. It’s a fruity mix of grapes (like wine), a touch of honey, some malts and a hint of alcohol. The taste is a very complex mix. It’s sweet beer/wine/mead combination. You can taste the grapes, honey and malts. There is no bitterness, but there is a strong spice taste and at 9% ABV it shouldn’t be a surprise you can just taste the alcohol. The taste makes me think of a parody of the old Reese’s Peanut Butter cup commercials. “You got your wine in my mead! No you got your mead in my wine! (Takes a drink) HEY!”

This is a medium body beer. There is a nice tingly carbonation to it that really opens up the flavor. It is very smooth to drink, which with the high ABV, could lead to problems.

I’m happy to say this beer did not let me down. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but then again I wasn’t sure what to expect. I found it to be a very satisfying beer. I don’t know how much of it I could drink in one sitting, but it’s pretty damn good. I give it 7 out of 10.

Loans on rebate?

I was talking to some of my peers at work today as we waited for a meeting to start. The rebate/stimulus package was brought up and of course someone made the comment, "I could use that money now." I knew they should be getting $1,200.00 back and I made an offer to them. "I'll tell you what. I'll give you $900.00 tomorrow and you can give me the $1,200.00 check when you get it." We all had a chuckle, but then it made me think.

When is someone legitimately going to do something like this?

Think about it. All of the tax places offer an instant rebate or refund anticipation loan. Basically they give you the money for your anticipated refund right there, minus some fees, charges and interest. Plus you have payday advance loans, car title loans, etc. etc. etc. You have large financial companies that advertise that if you have a structured annuity, won the lottery, have payments from a court case coming to you, they will give you one large lump sum today, and keep the rest. If they can do all of that, when is someone going to legitimately say, "Getting a rebate? Need the money now? Come see us at Givenudashaft and we'll give you your money today*" (*in fine print: minus a 20% fee)

The sad thing is that I can actually see people doing this just so that can have their money NOW. What bothers me the most is that I know a lot of people that fall for all of the above. Okay some might justify the refund anticipation loans because it's only $50.00 out of $3,000.00 and they get the money today. Yea... but basically if you were patient and waited for the money you'd have an extra $50.00 or however much you might get. Remember, it's already your money, you just gave away $50.00 to get it back today instead of in three weeks. That's like paying your employer to get your paycheck.

There are people that work for me that use the payday loan places all the time. I could see them forking over 20% of the anticipated rebate just so they could get the money today. It just amazes me how many people can be that financially irresponsible with their money.

I wonder how long before someone does start this scam. Hell it may have started already.

Of course I still think this whole rebate is a really bad idea that we all going to be paying for over the next 25 years. Sure I'm going to take the money, only a fool would not. I'd just rather they not do it in general. I'd rather they save the money, decrease taxes, remove federal regulations and restrictions and let the free market fix itself. If they are that worried about it, start putting more tariffs on foreign products coming to the US so that products actually owned by American based companies have a fighting chance. It keeps the money in America, not in China.

Roughly forty percent of the money we are borrowing to make this rebate happen is coming from China so that the majority of people can go out and buy a big ticket electronic item made in China. Who's economy are we trying to stimulate?

No comment

Fluffy the attack hound as been on a rampage for a couple of days now. I've tried leaving comments on other blogs and I've received e-mails from people saying that they have tried to leave comments here.

First off, let me apologize to all of you that are missing out on my pearls of brilliance in your comments. I know how much they mean to you and in some cases are the only reasons you blog. Once things clear up I promise I will resume my commenting. Hopefully this does not put any undue strain on your life.

Secondly, for those of you that want to comment here. I really wish I could do something about it. Unfortunately this is out of my realm of control. I know Fluffy is just doing as trained, but it can be annoying. Until then, please feel free to save your comments on a word document. When things clear up you can come back and make them at that time. I’m sure it won’t be as satisfying, but at least it will help you get that release that you need.

Finally, for those of you that aren’t on .MU.NU and your comments work. Since I can’t comment on everyone’s blog, I’ve taken to not commenting on anyone’s until things clear up… yea. That’s it. :)

Camping!

This upcoming weekend is the Old Northwest Company (ONW CO.) winter camp. This will be my first year attending as I was just voted in this past August. Ktreva is making fun of me because I'm running around gathering stuff and debating on what I should and should not take with me.

I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve.

I have a beer review I'm going to do on Wednesday that is very special. I'm not giving away anything about it, but lets just say it's probably the most historical beer I've ever reviewed.

I really have nothing else of value to talk about, I spent the afternoon chatting up Tammi down at Frtitz's. We talked about stuff and she told me that she thought it was a bad idea that I was leaving for my trip at 7:00AM on February 14th. I'm not sure why, and she really wasn't forth coming with details. I have the distinct feeling I'm forgetting something.

More election surprises.

There were a couple of primaries over the weekend, some of them had interesting turnouts, or so I thought. The fact that Huckabee won Kansas, Louisiana (although not by enough to get any delegates), and Washington was too close to count so they have to continue to do so today before they call it. Right now McCain is in the lead.

Since I brought that up, does anyone else get bothered when they call an election with less than 95% of the votes in? Shouldn’t they at least pretend that our votes matter and count them all before they name a winner? I saw one last week where it was at 54% reporting, it was a narrow margin (Less than 4% difference) and they were calling a winner already. If I’m not mistaken those other 46% could have voted for the underdog and it actually turned out they won.

Obama stormed the Dems winning Nebraska, Washington and Louisiana primaries. He’s still behind Clinton in the overall, but it’s only a 30-point difference. At least this race is still close. Obama and Clinton really have their work cut out for them if the want the nomination, unlike the Reps primary. Heck, Huckabee doesn’t even have as many delegates as Romney does and Romney is out of the race. McCain has three times the amount of delegates as Huckabee does. As for Ron Paul, I know some of my readers are staunch supporters of his, but seriously, he only has 14 delegates so far. Do you really think he’s going to be able to pull this off?

Actually after doing the math, it’s not possible for Paul to win. You need to have 1,191 delegates to win; there are only 2,380 total delegates. 1,265 of those delegates have been designated already. That leaves 1,115 remaining nominations. So if Paul received 100% of the remaining nominations it leaves him at 1129, well short of what is needed. If that does happen, no one would have enough, and I’m not sure exactly what happens. I just don’t see that as happening. It’s really looking like it is going to be McCain for the Republicans. Honestly I think a little part of me dies every time I type that.

I’m still at a loss as to what I’m going to do for the presidential race. No one has sold me on why one of the probable candidates would be best for the job.

HAHA, Fair weather fan gone bust!

Maybe he's a retailer, maybe he's just a lame bandwagon jumper, either way there is a lesson to be learned. Nothing is a "Sure thing".

Free Patriots Gear.

Intricate cake!

I've read a couple of books in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. I thought they were enjoyable, clever and funny. That is if you like sci-fi/fantatsy fiction. The basis of Discworld is that it's a flat disk balanced on the backs of four elephants that stand on the back of a giant turtle. No seriously, it is. The reason I'm telling you this is because if you didn't know it, you wouldn't understand this wedding cake.

They must be huge fans, and the mother that baked it must really love her daughter. WOW!

Yep, I feel old again.

Beloit College, located just north of me in Beloit, Wisconsin puts out a "mindset" list every year.

The Mindset List is not a chronological listing of things that happened in the year that the entering first-year students were born.

Our effort is to identify a worldview of 18 year-olds in the fall of 2007. We take a risk in some cases of making generalizations, particularly given that our students at Beloit College for instance come from every state and scores of nations.

The "Class of 2011" refers to students entering college this year. They are generally 18 which suggests they were born in 1989.

The list identifies the experiences and event horizons of students as they commence higher education and is not meant to reflect on their preparatory education.

I've read some of these over the years and some of it is funny, other parts are kind of scary. There seems to be some political bias, but what do you expect from any higher learning institution.

Go check out what our future has never experienced on the Class of 2011 Mindset List.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take my Geritol.

The way it should have been.

Last summer the Transformers Movie came out. I know that a lot of people really liked it, but I had some serious issues with it. First being that I was a huge fan of the Transformers when I was kid and I didn't like the way they made the robots look. They all looked like a jumbled mass of parts. Not like a robot. Then my fanboyness took over and I started complaining that they had 7th generation Transformers with the first generation and so on. Ktreva called me out saying that only I would have noticed that. Which isn't true, because I've talked to others that complained about the same thing.

However, I will tell you this. If I had a chance to do the movie, it would have looked like this:

It's a war zone.

...thankfully I drive a tank.

The roads in Rockford,IL are getting worse by the day. The pot holes are starting to get way out of control. I really shouldn't be referring to them as pot holes, they really are more like craters. The prominent intersection of Alpine and Newburg/Broadway (East of Alpine it's Newburg, West of Alpine it's Broadway) is a prime example. It's not one pothole crater, it's close to a hundred of them, and they are huge! It looks like the intersection has been shelled by artillery. I kid you not, one of them is about two feet wide, twenty feet long and six inches deep. It's not just in the intersection it's bad, but in the roads leading up to it.

Traffic is horrible here as everyone has to do 5-10 miles an hour to keep from bottoming out or loosing a tire. It's gotten so bad between the potholes and traffic that I've taken to avoiding the intersection all together. Every time it snows it gets worse and the plows are pulling out more and more chunks of pavement. With all the snow we've gotten recently it's just killing the streets.

Now there are a lot of streets that are bad and maybe worse, but I travel through this intersection every day. Well I used to, now I go around it. I took a different route on my way to work today down 20th street. In the stretch between Broadway and Harrison by the train via duct, there is a pothole crater so big that I actually witnessed it swallow a VW beetle. Fortunately I had my spelunking gear and some tow chains with me or that poor lady would have been stuck down there for a long time. Okay, maybe I exaggerate a little, but I did see her bottom out and send sparks when she hit it.

I guess I could be like a lot of the people in my city and blame the government and their cronyism with Rockford Blacktop (The only contractor that does road work in the city), but it's really not their fault. The weather this winter as been farooking nutz.

It goes from unseasonably warm to really cold in short periods of time. We get snow, rain or sleet every time the temps change any. The roads falling apart is just a combination of natural erosion, wear and tear and plows digging them up. Until the weather gets warmer, they really can't fix them. It's just too damn cold, the patches won't stick and some of the roads, like Riverside, just need to be replaced in general now.

So my good readers, if you have to travel in the city of Rockford, make sure you have a vehicle with good suspension. I'm really glad I have a 3/4 ton Heavy Duty 4X4 pick up with off road package.

F#CK!

First Bloodspite sent me an e-mail warning me. Then I get home and see this headline: McCain all but clinches: Romney Departs. Okay, he wasn't the most conservative candidate running, but he was more conservative than McCain. He actually had a snowballs chance of winning. But he dropped out.

It dawned on me. First I threw my support behind Thompson and he dropped out. Then I threw my support behind Romney and HE dropped out. So I got to thinking, hey, if I throw my support behind McCain maybe he will drop out. At this point my sadistically cruel loving wife pointed out that "The third time's the charm." Meaning that if I supported McCain he'd win.

DAMMIT!

I really hope a decent third party/independent candidate comes crawling out of the wood work. Because there is no way, no way that McCain will ever get my vote.

31?

I'm not sure what's more disturbing, the fact I took this quiz or the fact I only scored a 31. Seriously, I can swing one kid around like a bat and take the others out, it can't be that hard. Plus, think about it once you hurt one of them in any fashion they'll stop fighting and start crying. I seriously think I could take 31 on by just yelling at them.

As seen everywhere including here, here and here.

Samuel Adam's Black Lager

My latest blogspawn, Petey of Petey’s Powderhorn, sponsored tonight’s selection. He gave it to me at Winter Camp a month ago, and I wanted to wait until he started his blog so I could give him proper credit. Tonight’s brew is Samuel Adam’s Black Lager.

Sam Adam’s uses a 12 oz brown bottle, but theirs is custom with the/a signature of Samual Adams molded into the glass. It has a black and gold label with the name of the beer in the middle and a picture of Sam Adams at the bottom.

This is a very dark beer, almost stout like with its very dark brown coloring. What light that passes through has a garnet red coloring to it. There is no floating or impurities; it’s just a thick beer. Almost no head formed when I poured it into the glass. What there was had a tan color with very fine bubbles. It left no lacing on the side of the glass.

The smell is mainly of caramel and chocolate malts. A touch of smokiness and a hint of coffee are also detectable. Chocolate and caramel malts is the main flavor of the beer, a slight hop spice puts a nice finish to it. The aftertaste is mild and fades quickly. What bitterness there is doesn’t last long.

This is a medium to heavy bodied beer. There is a slight creaminess to it that coats the mouth when you drink it. It’s not as thick as your typical stouts, but this isn’t a stout. It’s probably one of the more full-bodied lagers I’ve tasted.

I’m generally not a big Samuel Adam’s fan, but Petey kept telling me to try this one. To be honest, it’s a pretty good beer. I was more than pleasantly surprised with it. It’s almost like it’s trying to be a stout, but fell just short. I really enjoyed this beer and owe Petey one for introducing it to me; I give it a 6.5 out of 10.

McCain wins?

I wrote and published a post yesterday that has since disappeared. I’m really not sure what happened to it, but it’s gone. I’m not going to try to re-write it as it was a lot of my venting anger and frustration at the current state of politics and voting in the US. The main gist of it was that I backed down and actually voted for one of the candidates that were still in the running. I voted for Romney, mainly because out of the four front runners I felt he was closest to what I want for our government. It didn’t matter because Illinois went to McCain. For those of you that think that if you vote for a third party or Independent candidate that you are throwing your vote away, well the same can be said if you vote for the loser.

Any way I can’t replicate what I was feeling when I wrote that post, so I’m not going to try. Mainly that is because I have a different anger and frustration today, McCain.

I can NOT believe that McCain is doing as well as he is. Let’s face it; it looks like he is going to take the Republican nomination. He is the clear front runner and has a commanding lead over Romney and Huckabee. But since when is the Republican Party Liberal? Don’t tell me it’s not. If it really wasn’t, McCain wouldn’t be in the lead. Please, McCain, Clinton, Obama are all cut from the same material. There really is not that big a difference in on their platforms or positions.

The only thing I can figure out is that the sheeple of the US would rather see someone in the White House with an R next to their name, even if they truly don’t uphold the party beliefs. I know, I’m not Republican, but I am financially conservative. I want lesser taxes, lesser government, secure borders and national defense. Socially I’m liberal, or as some people say, “Libertarian”. I don’t care about abortion, gay marriage or religion; I don’t think the government really should be involved in those topics. Since I am more conservative I do look to the Republican Party more for politicians that I agree. How anyone that considers themselves a true conservative could vote for McCain is flabbergasting.

I will tell you this, if it does end up with McCain as the Republican candidate for president and there isn’t a good independent candidate running, I probably will vote for Clinton or Obama. At least with them I know for sure what I’m getting. McCain will never, ever get my vote.

Huh, didn't see that coming.

So yesterday I predicted the Pats to win in a high scoring game. Turns out Giants win in a low scoring game. I don't think anyone saw the score being that low and the Giants winning. Honestly I'm glad they did. My hatred of Tom Brady (Arrogant, cocky bastard that he is), Bill Belichick (Cheating bastard), Randy Moss (One of the cockiest, unsportsmanlike behaving jerks in the NFL) and the Patriots organization (They have some players I like and respect) didn't out weight my hatred of Eli Manning (Baby that threw a temper-tantrum when he was drafted because he didn't like the team he was drafted to). So I ended up pulling for New York, didn't think they would do it, but hey.

I was a bit disappointed in the commercials. None of them really made me laugh that hard. The NFL Foxbot Vs. The Terminator intros were hilarious!.

I just wished they would have shown who won the fight after the two additional Foxbots showed up.

For the game I went to Bruce's. Where I spent two hours grilling burgers and brats. Well okay, I used a grill but technically I was smoking them. I think everyone liked the burgers and brats. Yet, no one fought over them, I'm going to have to work on my smoke packet formula to see if I can get this to happen some time.

Graumagus crawled out of the woodwork to show up for the party. He shared some news with all of us about his blogging future. That is a post for another time, but all I'm going to say is that don't expect him back anytime in the near future.

Today I took the day off of work as my floating holiday. I always take the day after the Super Bowl, it' helps me to relax and unwind and drink in all that is the glory of the Super Bowl. I took Ktreva down to Fritz's and spent the afternoon. Of course I sent some text messages to some of my friends locally rubbing in the fact that I was there and inviting them down, but none of them showed up.

Overall it was a good weekend.

Super Bowl

Case of beer... Check
Top Sirloin Hamburgers... Check
Chips... Check
Salsa/Cheese Dip... Check
Smoking Packs... Check.
Special Grilling Tool... Check.

Bring on the Big game!

This is the best day of the year and one of my three favorite Holidays. I petition every year at work to make the Monday after the Super Bowl a corporate holiday, unfortunately I never win. But to strike my point, I use my floating holiday to take the Monday after off. To quote the legendary Vince Lombardi (Whom the Super Bowl Trophy is named for) "It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up." So I'll try again next year.

Big Game.

I’ve got football on the mind, if you can’t tell from the below posts. Tomorrow marks the climax of football season for me with the Super Bowl. Sure the Pro Bowl is coming up, but it’s just not the same. It’s still fun to watch as you get to see “the best”*** of the NFL playing together.

I’m still reeling over the fact that my Packers didn’t make it to the Big Game. I thought they were going to do it this year, as well as did a lot of other fans I know. That loss to the Giants just really harshes my mellow. I keep telling everyone that I’m fine and over it, but deep down inside I still have a burning anger and disappointment that is festering. I had a huge post all ready to go for today if the Pack had made it.

It had the Packer Bikini Girls.

Yea, it’s not just the male fans that like it cold. Although I swear their smuggling raisins.

It had the new front window I was going to have installed in the house: Ktreva was all for it too.

Thanks to Leslie of Leslie's Omnibus for the picture

Maybe even get some updated photos of the Cheese Bra. But alas, they choked and gave the game up to the Giants.

Now I’ll admit there is a small part of me relieved. I mean, I didn’t want to watch my team make it to the Super Bowl and then lose. I’ve done that once before and it sucks. Especially since I’m a Packer fan in Bear Country. Damn Bear fan’s can get pretty obnoxious about things when the Packers loose. At Least I was gracious last year, rooted for the Bears and actually consoled the Bear fans I know. It’s not that I don’t think the Packers could beat the Patriots. Any team can be beaten. I just think that the Pats are on fire this year and are going to go all the way undefeated. You’ll see even more fair weather Pat fans next year. Bastiches crawl out of the woodwork.

My prediction on the game is going to Pats 38, Giants 35. I think it will be close, but the Pats are going to win after a last minute failed drive by the Giants to win/go into overtime. The other prediction I’m curious about is the one from the movie I Am Legend. I won’t give away anything from the movie, but at one point in the movie scrolling across the bottom of a newscasts proclaims, “Giants lose to Patriots for second time this season 23 to 7.”

So who do you think is going to win and what is going to be the score?

***I don’t necessarily agree these are the best players in the NFL. A lot of the voting, especially from the fans, is based on popularity. It’s kind of like how most Americans vote for politicians, name recognition.

Best Football Movies.

To get geared up for the Super Bowl tomorrow, a lot of fans like to watch football movies. Entertainment Weekly has put together a list of what they consider the 14 best football movies.

This is an opinion article, but I'm damn well going to disagree with some of their choices.

Three I disagree with:
1) Diner: It's not a bad movie, but it's not about football. If you're going to do a list about football movies, the movie should center around football. That would be like throwing in The Last Boyscout as a football movie. At least it revolved around a football player.

2) Horse Feathers: Maybe it's because it's older or maybe because it's the Marx brothers, but I didn't like this movie. I didn't think it was all that great or funny.

3) Any Given Sunday: I really didn't like this Oliver Stone movie. Then again I don't think there are many Oliver Stone movies I do like. I know what he was trying to do with this movie, but I found it to be boring and it kind of dragged. If it's on TV and there isn't anything else on, I'll watch it, but honestly I didn't think it was that good.

Now, I gave you three that I didn't like, let me give you three that I think should replace those.

1) The Replacements: Fitting especially since I'm replacing another choice with it. Not only is this movie funny, but it has a good message and I love the satirical back hand it gives modern day athletes. "Do you know how much the insurance is on a Ferrari?"

2) The Program: I always felt this movie was underrated. When I was in college there were some football players that lived on my floor in the dorm, we would hang out and they said that there is a lot of reality to this movie. I always thought it was a good one, and a damn spot better then the three above.

3) The Longest Yard (Remake/2005). I know they original is on their list, but they blasted the remake. Honestly, I liked the remake. Maybe it's not as good as the original, but it was good in it's own way. It was funny and entertaining. Especially when they exchanged the guards steroids with estrogen.

Again this is all opinion, you may agree with me or you may not. What movies do you think should be on there and which ones didn't you like?

Bad Jersey Blog

With the Super Bowl coming up, I wanted to help some of the fans out there that aren't as die hard about the rules of etiquette about attire. The biggest is the jersey rules.

First: Always wear a Jersey of either your favored team or if your favored team isn't playing it is acceptable to wear a jersey for the team you are rooting. IE if you are a Dallas fan, it would be unacceptable for you to wear a Bucs jersey during the big game since it's the Pats versus the Giants.

Second: Never, ever, ever, EVER wear a jersey of a player that is no longer on your team. There are three exceptions to this rule. 1) If they retired from your team. Think John Elway with the Broncos. 2) If your team retired that players number. Such as Reggie White and the Packers/Eagles. Reggie left the Eagles, Played 8 years with the Packers, retired and came back to play one year for Carolina. But since the Packers and the Eagles retired his number, it's okay to wear a Packers or Eagles Reggie White jersey. 3) The player was voted into the Hall of Fame as a player for your team. Joe Montana is a prime example of this. His last two years he played for Kansas City, but he was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame under San Francisco. San Fran fans can wear a Montana Jersey. Any other situation is unacceptable.

Third: Don't wear a jersey of a player that never really had any impact on your team or was a disgrace to the position they played.

That about sums it up. But if you need some visual aids, go check out Straight Cash Homey Dot Net, or as I found it, "The Bad Jersey Blog" These guys will give you a lot of examples with some funny captions as to why these are jersey faux passes.

Yea, a trifecta of Packer Jersy no-nos. Don Beebe who only played two years for the Pack, 96 and 97 Sure they were Super Bowl years, but really didn't do that much for the team. Bill Schroeder who played his last year with the Pack in 2001 and Jeff Querry who's last season with the packers was in 91. Other than Schroeder have a couple of decent seasons, none of them were all that great.

Bow Down!

You Are Destined to Rule the World

You have the makings of a very evil dictator... Which is both kind of cool and kind of scary! Will you rule the world? Maybe. Maybe not. But at least you know that you could. Your regime would be ruthless and unforgiving. But your closest friends would have good jobs. You're enemies would live in fear... ' For what brief lives they would have. ALL HAIL CONTAGION!

Are You Destined For World Domination?

What I think really tipped the scales for me is the question about how do you see people in general. With all the political stuff going on right now, you're damned right I see them as sheep. They might see the picture, but they are missing the frame, the wall and the building it's hanging in.

Stolen for Quality Weenie.