Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween

Lets see some pics of the costumes! The jack-o-lanterns!

Game 8 vs Havoc

Game 8 vs Havoc

3:40 game at Northeast Metro Park (NEMP). We won 4-nil, but it was actually a tough game. I managed to bruise up my right eye-socket (going for header-goal; i missed the ball completely and hit this poor fellow's head instead...) and tear open my left knee-cap.

With these 3 points we might have moved into first place in the division, which is swell because at the end of the season the first and second place teams go on to a state tournement....

Remote control device 'controls' humans

Check it out: this sounds like fascinating and scary stuff.

Good News

As a Phillies fan I am very excited about this news.

Teh Radio

Teh Radio

Dang, Last.FM has a sweet OS X client for their on-the-fly streaming radio service. It's swell! Their algorithm for finding related music works really well. For intance, if I put 'Talib Kweli' into the search field, it builds a stream with tracks by Mos Def,Common,The Roots, Black Star, Gang Starr, etc...

Anyhow, its real swell. And its free!

Cheese Eating, Bike Race Losing Surrender Monkeys

Shortly after the conclusion of both the 2005 Tour de France and Lance Armstrong's professional career a story surfaced in France that claimed urine samples from Armstrong had tested positive for EPO. The samples were fairly old. I don't recall what year they were from, but they had been frozen for some time. They were being tested as part of a study, the purpose of which was not to catch doping. After this story broke people piled on Armstrong. I found that sort of suprising given that 1.) The study was not being conducted according to protocols that would be in place if it were designed to catch dopers and potentially result in suspensions or fines and 2.) There is no scientific evidence that the samples would be stable given the amount of time that had passed and the method of storage.

I am continually shocked by the apparent lack of respect for sound scientific principles in the process that is employed to catch doping in professional sports. I am also continually shocked by the behavior of many prominent figures in the professional cycling world. Check out this statement from the organisers of the Tour de France that was released in conjuction with the unveiling of the 2006 route. Oh, and by the way, the company that runs the Tour is owned by the same parent company that owns L'Equipe, the paper that broke the Armstrong doping story.

The trees are full of goats.

The trees are full of goats.

A friend of mine was telling me about his trip to Morocco, and how in that strange and beautiful country the trees are full of goats. Trees full of goats! Fantastic! And in today's NYTimes there is an entire article about this amazing phenomenon...

I must go to Morocco. I must see this.

My dream is to watch a bird, who is peacefully eating seeds under a tree, get pooped upon by a goat- just as I have been pooped upon by so many of bird-kind...

Buy Prints From Flickr = Nice!

Buy Prints From Flickr = Nice!

You can now order prints from flickr! And the interface is sweet! And you can either get the prints mailed to you, or you can pick them up from Target! Nice!

link

What is everybody reading? I need a new book!

What is everybody reading? I need a new book!

My new sobrino, David Preston Weltz

My new sobrino, David Preston Weltz

Adorable, and babtized!

Game 7 Versus Fusion

Game 7 Versus Fusion

It as an 8 am game at Zilker park and the weather was perfect.
We played on the same field that we scrimmage on every week, so it kind of felt like we had home-field advantage. I played right mid most of the game, and I would like to think that this unusual lineup contributed to our 4-nil victory, but the truth of the matter is that the other team was just greatly outmatched.
I did get a sweet assist though, and I think that this may convince the team to keep me in right-mid instead of my usual position at right fullback...

Our record is now: 4-2-1. (wins, losses, ties - is that the correct order?)

A friend of mine's house was destroyed by fire last night.

A friend of mine's house was destroyed by fire last night.

The cause? A rag soaked in linseed oil, that combusted spontaneously.

Fortunately they were awoken by a fire-alarm and managed to escape safely, with their pets.

So, check your alarms people! I have a tendency to pull the pilas out of mine because I constantly set them off when I cook. Also, beware the rag soaked in linseed oil! Dispose of it properly!

It is a strange ...

It is a strange ...

but what would make me most proud of my government, would be seeing half of it sent to jail in handcuffs.

GO ASTROS! WORLD SERIES!!!! WOW!

GO ASTROS! WORLD SERIES!!!! WOW!

ARRGGGHHHH!!!

ARRGGGHHHH!!!

Mr. Sarbanes asked whether she thought President Bush should seek Congressional approval for expanding the war to Syria, she said she did not want to "circumscribe" his powers to use military action as commander in chief.

From the NYTimes

I wish the Constitution would circumscribe the President's powers to use military action as commander-in-chief.

But apparently, the War Powers Clause is not enough. It is frighening, and infuriating to think that the "war" could spread to Syria or Iran.

related This is a fascinating read

gmail

I was thinking about trying to get someone to send me an invitation for a Gmail account (apparently people with an account can send out 100 such invitations, and the counter is allegedly set back to 100 periodically, so that this can go on indefinitely). Anyone who's heard of Gmail probably knows why I wanted one: lots of free space on the web--in the form of an e-mail account, to be sure, but convertible into an online virtual drive. But then I read this, and it made me reconsider whether this is something I really want.

Aperture

Aperture

Any thoughts on Aperture from our photographer friends?

I spy with my little i

I spy with my little i

On the way to work this morning, I think I spied the Serpa drive by with his little lady in tow...

If this is so, then Welcome Back To Texas Dianna!

Flying Toasters

Check it out: here you can get an old school screensaver--flying toasters!--for mac or pc. I installed it myself (WinXP), and it works!

Emergency Thanksgiving/Halloween Food Idea!

Emergency Thanksgiving/Halloween Food Idea!

Ok, you are all familiar with the idea of the Turducken. Well, for us vegetarian folks I thought that maybe it would be neat to produce something similiar, with say a pumpkin, stuffed with a squash, stuffed with some smaller round vegetable, all the way down to maybe acorn-squash. The whole thing can be cooked up all tasty and maybe filled up with syrup and butter.

What would we call such a thing?

Game 6 Versus Barcelona

Game 6 Versus Barcelona

Despite the gaping hole left in our defence by my absence, PFC Quackenbush managed to beat FC Barcelona 1-nil. That leaves us within one point of first place in our division!!!!

I WANT ONE!!!!

this is just way too cool. too bad that site is so awash in advertising. i recommend saving the automatic one 'til last.

Hello From Los Angeles!!!!!!

Hello From Los Angeles!!!!!!

gladbach fan

gladbach fan
Originally uploaded by shanedenson.

I've lived in Germany for over 6 years now, and I'm almost ashamed to say I had never been to a Bundesliga soccer match before two weeks ago. I had told Karin that I wanted to sometime, and she mentioned it to a friend of ours (who's a huge Borussia Mönchengladbach fan), and he talked us into driving out to Gladbach (about 4 hours away) to see them play Mainz 05. Gladbach won. And Ari is now well on his way to becoming a fan.

Frankenstein with legos

Honestly, I don't spend ALL my time watching Frankenstein movies. (I have to read and write about them too.) I just found something really cool, though, that y'all should check out, regardless of whether you're a big fan of Frankenstein films or not. Here's one made with Lego blocks, and it's really well done.

BIZ TRIP

WELL TOMORROW I GO ON MY FIRST OFFICIAL BIZNIZZ TRIP.
GOING TO L.A. TO DO SOME IN-DEPTH CONSUMER RESEARCH. GET OUT THERE IN THE THICK OF IT. SEE WHAT MAKES THESE PEOPLE WITH THE DISPOSABLE INCOME ARE SPENDING IT ON. I AM GONNA GO AROUN TO LOTS OF STORES RELATED TO SOCCER, TRY AND SEE SOME PLACES WHERE PEOPLE ARE CONGREGATING TO PLAY, PICK UP GAMES, SOCCER COMPLEXES...THEN ON SUNDAY I WILL GO AND SEE THE CHIVAS PLAY. THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE HUGELY POPULAR DOWN THERE. PAUL HAS SAID HE IS GOING TO COME OUT AND SEE THE GAME WITH ME. THIS IS GREAT, I HAVEN'T SEEN ANY OF YA'LL IN SO LONG. SO IF YOU HAVE ANY HATE MAIL OR ROTTEN TOMATOES YOU WANT TO SEND ME, JUST GIVE THEM TO PAUL.

I AM EXCITED TO GO, BUT MORE THEN ANYTHING I WISH I COULD BE BRING THE FAMILY ALONG WITH ME. WE HAVE BEEN IN PORTLAND NOW FOR ABOUT 6.5 YEARS, FOR ME THAT IS A LONG TIME AND IT'S ALWAYS GREAT TO GET THE F OUT OF TOWN.

for 'ard march!

So i found a bunch of lovingly hand-rendered sprites from a variety of video games and decided to make a little animated gif. personally, i could watch this little dog faced gremlin march around all day.

update you can find the little guys here.

Game 5 Versus Texas MBA

Game 5 Versus Texas MBA

Game 5 had a lot in common with the 8th inning of yesterday's Astro's game: We won 4-1 and the other team only had 9 players...

Houston Wins

Houston Wins

Houston Wins

Tio Pablo!

Tio Pablo!

This morning my sister Sara gave birth to a bouncing baby boy! They have named him David, after my Grandfather, who passed away last week...

I am very, very happy because now I have another nephew to spoil!

So, Drinks are on me tonight!

Iraq Pictures

Linked to this site from CSPAN and as i was scrolling down noticed that there were two comments on a particular photo.

update:Only one photo on the front page has comments from real people. How does a blog get hit with comment spam? What is the mechanism?

update2: solutions???

another texas summer slowly wanders off.

it is a lovely cool morning, and should stay that way for the rest of the day. Looks like the temperature is going to creep back up, but it seems that summer is on the wane.

Today in Austin the weather is so wonderful!

Today in Austin the weather is so wonderful!

KILLY'S NEW WORK CLOTHES

SPEAKING WITH KILLY YESTERDAY, HE HAD A NICE SOLUTION TO MY EVER PRESENT FASHION/WORKCLOTHES PROBLEM





THE COVERALLS.

LOOKS GREAT KILLY

Something on the Horizon

Serenity

Serenity

Has anyone seen Serenity (besides Todd) ? I thought it was great! But, then again, I was a huge fan of the television series...

Here is an interesting review of Serenity by none other than Orson Scott Card of Ender's Game fame.

Hard Drive Problems - Redux

The new drive i received worked perfectly; it mounted correctly and took the data. Then, my computer went to sleep and even after accessing data from it, it would fail on resave. Weird. Another call to tech support has, this time, resulted in an upgrade. My drive will be taken out of this older enclosure (which apparently is simply unable to spin back up) and put into a newer enclosure which will spin up and down at my whim (as it should).

Victory! Sweet, Sweet Victory! PFC Quakenbush 2, Veritas nil!

Victory! Sweet, Sweet Victory! PFC Quakenbush 2, Veritas nil!

In game 4 we finally got our due. And by 'our due' I mean that instead of a crazy ball bouncing off 3 people's shins and then somehow landing in our net, the ball landed in the other team's net, putting us up 1-0 going into the second half.

And then, in the first play of the second half, Kurt The Left Footed Chain-Smoker steals the ball and rips a shot from 40 yards out that catches the goalie way-off guard and sails in far-post, putting us up 2-0.

What a fantastic feeling.

The rest of the second-half was meh. I was happy to finally win a game. Plus, I did not slide tackle anyone, so my knee came away un-bloodied.

Now I can peacefully go back to feeling sick with a sore-throat.