Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category

  • 14 Jul

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    Rockies Remember They’re Rockies

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    So the last few days have brought about a few random thoughts, but first I’d like you to give an update on everything that’s been keeping me so busy…

    • House-hunting/Moving – Well after making a few more calls, going to see a few more places that really weren’t all that great, and then looking ahead to my calendar, I have come to the conclusion that I will not be moving at the end of the month as planned, and I have renewed my lease for another 6 months, so that I’ll be out around Christmas time.  This may prove to be more than I bargained for, as I’ll actually be out of town over the new year for NCSC Conference, so I’ll probably have to end up moving out SUPER early..  Oh well.  This feels a lot better though, and the stress level has been lowered…  This may actually be an opportunity for me to buy as well.  We’ll see how things go…
    • NCSC Colorado Visit - Booked flights for Erin & Maureen to come   I’m excited that all that has been taken care of.  Looking at the numbers I think we’re going to go ahead and have everyone at my apartment…  It actually should be pretty cool, but now I’m devoted to having my place SUPER clean in less than a week!  So I’ll be a cleaning fool this weekend.  In all actuality, the downstairs is fine, but the upstairs more than makes up for it.  Hmmmm
    • NCSC Western Retreat Planning - I need to get in gear for this one.  Luckily I now have all of the information I need, it’s just a matter of delegating and getting the ball rolling.  I think it should be pretty cool though.

    So with that out of the way, some things have happened that have triggered some thoughts…

    I fire up my RSS feed of ESPN this morning, only to find this story:  Nationals acquire OF Wilson from Rockies

    What?!?  DAMMIT!  Would it kill the Colorado Rockies to actually keep a good player for a year???  I am so tired of the Rockies dealing anyone who has a batting average over .300.  "Uh-oh, he’s too good for the Rockies.  Time to deal Preston Wilson!".  Arggghh…   I’m sick of this stupid "We’re rebuilding, we’re looking for prospects.  Please be patient with us." spin they always give us. They’ve been telling us that for three years.  Now I understand that you guys can’t contend for anything at this point, and I’m willing to accept that.  But as a Rockies fan (and first off what’s wrong with me??) would it be too much to expect that we have at least one good player on your team??  I don’t want to pay $10-15 for a ticket, $6 for a beer and $5 for a brat to come out and see over glorified high school players out there.  I might as well just go down to Rolland Moore Park here in town and watch the Little League teams play – at least it’d be more competitive.  The Rockies also dealt Joe Kennedy as well.  He was struggling lately, but he had a really good start and was good prospect, but nope… I guess he’s too good for the Rockies!  And what the heck is a trade for cash??  I need to go get a keyboard for work tonight…  Maybe I should go into Office Depot and say "I’ll trade you your keyboard for a first-round fantasy baseball draft pick for next year and CASH." I could say the same thing.  Rockies, you freakin SOLD Wilson.  Argggh…

    You know it’s only a matter of the time until they ship Helton’s butt out of there..  Maybe I should give the Rockies an offer…   I’ll give them a 2nd round fantasy football pick in my league, a minor league prospect (me) and a 40 pound bag of dog food for Todd Helton. Done!

    Sticking to sports, we just got word that the NHL and Players Union have reached an agreement (in principal) and that we’ll now have hockey next year.  FINALLY…  I have to admit that I’m STILL pissed and skeptical about this whole thing.  I wasn’t a rabid hockey fan, but I was pretty darn passionate.  In the last 3 years I had been to about 10-15 Avalanche games in person (including 2 playoff games), and I always did plan my schedules around the Av’s play-off runs.   I have a Patrick Roy jersey actually got to go to Roy’s # retirement (that was cool!)…  So that’s where I sit…

    But like I said, I’m still not sold on this.  I’m bitter that the players and owners took a year to come to an agreement, and didn’t really seem all too concerned about cancelling a season.  They don’t seem to realize (or care) that they’ve pretty much set the sport back 10 years by doing this, and it’ll be a long time before the casual fan comes back around to this sport. 

    My only hope out of this whole ordeal is that THEY LOWER TICKET PRICES!  We’ll see…  Supposedly now that there’s a salary cap, players’ salaries should be lower which means we should see lower ticket prices – SHOULD is the key word though.  I’ll tell you what though, with the Av’s gone last year and Joel and I always going to Nuggets games, I’m just as apt now to go see the Nuggets as I am the Avalanche… And Nugs tickets are 1/4 of what it costs to go to a hockey game!

    What’s exciting is it looks like they’ll be getting rid of the Red Line, as well as making the goalies wear smaller padding – hopefully this will result in a more fluid game with more goals (and more amazing performances by the GOOD goalies).  It also looks like they’re changing the way they do Overtime – 5 minutes of 4-on-4, 3 minutes of 3-on-3, then a shoot-out.  That’s awesome!  I can’t tell you how many games I’ve gone to that resulted in ties.

    Also last week Bethany and I went to go see War of the Worlds..  I have some thoughts on that, but will get into them later

  • 10 Jul

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    Waking Up By Jets

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    Okay, so I don’t mean to get all political on here, but I ran across something earlier this weekend that really set me off…   Regardless of your feelings about the way we’re fighting the War on Terror & Iraq, I would like to hope that people would have a general respect and appreciation for our armed forces, and those who give of themselves, and at times, their lives in service to our country, protecting our freedom.

    It frustrates me when people not only take that for granted, but have a general disrespect for the very people who are protecting them.  Take this letter to the editor that appeared in the Arizona Republic:

    Complaint: A wake-up call from Luke’s jets

    Jun. 23, 2005 12:00 AM

    "Question of the day for Luke Air Force Base: Whom do we thank for the morning air show?

    Last Wednesday, at precisely 9:11 a.m., a tight formation of four F-16 jets made a low pass over Arrowhead Mall, continuing west over Bell Road at approximately 500 feet. Imagine our good fortune!

    Do the Tom Cruise-wannabes feel we need this wake-up call, or were they trying to impress the cashiers at Mervyns’ early-bird special?

    Any response would be appreciated."

    Wow…  That’s not really disrespectful by any means…  But here’s the best part – the awesome response from Luke Air Force Base:

     he response: Regarding "A wake-up call from Luke’s jets" (Letters, Thursday):

    On June 15, at precisely 9:12 a.m., a perfectly timed four-ship of F-16s from the 63rd Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force Base flew over the grave of Capt Jeremy Fresques.

    Capt. Fresques was an Air Force officer who was previously stationed at Luke Air Force Base and was killed in Iraq on May 30, Memorial Day.

    At 9 a.m. on June 15, his family and friends gathered at Sunland Memorial Park in Sun City to mourn the loss of a husband, son and friend.

    Based on the letter writer’s recount of the flyby, and because of the jet noise, I’m sure you didn’t hear the 21-gun salute, the playing of taps, or my words to the widow and parents of Capt. Fresques as I gave them their ,son a flag on behalf of the president of the United States and all those veterans and servicemen and women who understand the sacrifices they have endured.

    A four-ship flyby is a display of respect the Air Force pays to those who give their lives in defense of freedom. We are professional aviators and take our jobs seriously, and on June 15 what the letter writer witnessed was four officers lining up to pay their ultimate respects.

    The letter writer asks, "Whom do we thank for the morning air show?"

    The 56th Fighter Wing will call for you, and forward your thanks to the widow and parents of Capt. Fresques, and thank them for you, for it was in their honor that my pilots flew the most honorable formation of their lives.

    Lt. Col. Scott Pleus, CO
    63rd Fighter Squadron
    Luke Air Force Base

    Lol, way to show him..  In all seriousness though, it really pisses me off when you have people like this who are constantly second-guessing our military.  When times are dire, we must realize that we need to put trust into the hands of those who are trying to protect us. Granted they are human, and like everyone, does make mistakes from time to time – but there is a system in place for the citizens to monitor and manage the armed forces.  Ultimately I think that self-centered and arrogant people that are skeptically second-guessing our military (like the letter-writer above) are undermining our country in the War on Terror… 

    And in the end, what are you complaining about being woken up at 9:11am?  For all of the sacrifices Capt Fresques and his family made, I think it’s worth waking up a few people on Saturday morning to show our respect and admiration. It’s the least we can do.

  • 29 Jun

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    Supreme Court Decisions

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    Tonight’s post is going to be short.  I wish it could be longer but my busy day prevented it.

    My re-entry from the trip into work sucked.  I woke up this morning starting my normally meeting-filled day when I started getting pinged like crazy.  It turns out we pretty much had a red-hot issue that needed to be addressed and I was basically the only person who could handle it, so I got pulled out of all of my meetings and spent all day working on these issues.  What makes it worse is that the problem lies with something beyond our team’s control, so I’m really at the mercy of a whole other group.  Basically it was just crappy.  Oh, and not to mention the mountain of email that I got for being for one day – talk about nuts!  Ugh… 

    I really want to write more, especially in regards to some of these Supreme Court Decisions that have been handed down these last few days.  There are two that I’m pretty pissed about, and hopefully would like to rant a little more on them later on, but for now I must say this:

    Kelo v. New London – Eminent domain can now be exercised for development of commercial property.  What the heck were they thinking when they ruled this way.  Way to KILL the 5th Amendment!  This is income redistribution at it’s worst. Basically they take your property at "fair market value" - what they feel it’s worth to them (typically below that you’re willing to sell it for), and hand it over to someone who’s going to turn that same land into far more valuable real-estate in which the commercial developer will profit from.  This is one of the core reasons I lean on the conservative side – I am firmly against the government taking someones money and giving it to other people.  More on this to come…

    Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. - I don’t get this ruling.  So I guess companies that create P2P software CAN be held liable, if they MARKET their software for the use of illegal downloads.  But how exactly do you determine marketing intentions?  Do companies now have to be responsible for EVERY mention or appearance of their product?  Maybe I’m reading this on, I need to do some more studying, but right now I just see this as another excuse for frivolous lawsuits by the RIAA and MPAA, used to harass and intimidate their own customer-base.  In the end the only people that will be getting rich are Lobbyists and Lawyers.  NIIIIIIICE!

    I’m still really pissed about this, enough to renew my gift contribution to the EFF. Want a really good perspective on this issue?  Check our Dallas Mavericks owner & Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s blog.

    The Conflicting Ten Commandments Rulings – Ok…  So I guess through your mental powers you’re supposed to figure out what SOMEONE’S INTENTIONS are for putting up the 10 Commandments, and based on what you THINK their intentions are, they’re violating freedom of religion…  Hmmmm…

    Lol, also today was finance day… Not fun, I tallied the receipts from last weekend’s trip:

    Concert Tickets – $140
    Round-Trip Airfare – $150
    2 Nights in Hotel – $189
    Rental Car – $74

    Flying cross country to go see a band that you thought wasn’t going to be in your home town, only to find out they’re not going to be there three nights – PRICELESS!

    Okay, complaining about money aside.  The trip was freakin’ worth every penny, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

  • 15 Jun

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    Phillip Back at the Lakers?

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    Hahahaha

    So it’s official. PHILLIP is coming back to coach the Lakers.  That’s freakin’ hilarious.  I guess Kobe can’t coach, general manage and play all at the same time!  What a freakin’ circus the Lakers have become!

    It’ll be really interesting to see how this saga plays out.  I really don’t think that Phillip and Kobe are going to be able to co-exist in any way.  Not when Kobe ran him and Shaq out of town to begin with.  Not when Phillip goes to write this tell-all book and mentions that he could never reach Kobe, and that Kobe is pretty much un-coachable.  Not when Kobe also ran  Rudy Tomjanovich out of town!  I mean FREAKIN’ Tomjanovich!  It’s not like this was some scrub JV coach would return to obscurity – this was Rudy Tomjanovich, and he just up & quit!

    Now I’m not saying that the blame is all on Kobe – but the blame is all on Kobe…  It might have been Jerry Bus that signed the executive order, but they did it all in the name to try to draw Kobe back to the Lakers for a long-term deal.  Vicariously through his actions he turned it into a "Shaq or me" deal and forced the Laker’s hand.  When Phillip was on the rocks last year, Kobe had the opportunity to offer support for the Zen-master, but through Kobe’s posturing (and the troubles between these two being publicized) Bus had no choice but to put Phillip on the horse and ride him out of town.

    So here we are a year later – the Lakers go from being the Western Conference Champs to becoming a lottery team within the year!  Kobe got his wish – the Lakers were his and on his shoulders alone, but in the end of the day that didn’t make any difference.  The rest of the players hated playing with him, Kobe became a ball-hog and now has a crappy reputation throughout the NBA.

    Flash-forward a few weeks after their season ended – what’s really changed now that Phillip is coming back?  Nothing!  He’s walking into a situation that is now worse than from when he left it (a big part of it his fault – due to his book).  The Lakers will be implementing the triangle offense that Kobe hates, and best of all NO SHAQ!!  And to make things even worse is that there are really not big free agents this off-season which could or would go play with the Lakers. Ming won’t touch LA, Stoudemire is going to get locked up by Phoenix, and Peja will be out of LA’s price range.  So the Lakers are still minus one big man and with it a chance to be truly competitive.

    Good luck Phillip – but for now I still say – Hahahahahaha….

  • 14 Jun

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    Wacko Jacko Fans

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    Ah!  What a great feeling to sleep in your own bed!  It’s been over a week since I had that experience, so I was grateful to be back at home.  It’s funny how when you go back to your parent’s house it feels more like "home" than any place you’re currently living in at this point – yet you still don’t feel as comfortable there as you do at your own place.  That’s how I’ve felt.  I get to sleep in my own bed, mess up my own bathroom, watch my own TV – the whole works.

    But I only get this freedom for four days, and then I’m back in Loveland for the next 10 days, sleeping in my sister’s old room, living out of my suitcase, trying to find ways not to keep the dog from getting out of the gate.  What makes this time more fun is that I’m going to be driving my sister’s Mazda, which is my debut on the stick shift!  Yeah buddy!  I don’t think it’ll be as bad as I’m making it sound, but we’ll see

    So after being out of my apartment lask week my Tivo was here to greet me with a whole week’s worth of shows that I’ve missed.  Normally I love my Tivo, it’s one of the coolest inventions of the last years (and I’ll eventually post a little rant about how cool Tivo is), but in this case it kinda sucks.  I’ve now come home to over 20 hours of TV shows that I "love" and need to watch.  It’s funny because I can’t bring myself to delete the hours of Law & Order, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Family Guy that exist on my Tivo, or the episodes of shows I am trying to get into (Lost, Medium, Numb3rs).  At the same time, I don’t want to sit in front of the TV and watch all of those shows, as I’d end up killing something like 10 hours in front of the TV!  How crappy is that!  So the moral of the story here: Tivo is normally awesome - but if you leave it alone for too long it’ll eventually come back to bite you in the butt!

    And of course, yesterday was the verdict of Wacko Jacko, who moonwalked himself right out of the court-room getting off on all ten charges!  I can’t help but say that I was disappointed.  I think in the end, the jury probably did the right thing – they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did it.  The witnesses were too sketchy, and it’s hard to send someone to the hole for 8 years based on the testimony of grifters.  At the same time, couldn’t the DA and investigators put Jackson away for SOMETHING!?!  The guy is 44 years old and admits sleeping in the same bed as young boys.  He has "parent alarms" in his house to alert him in his bed room.  The guy has an amusement park in his backyard that attracts young kids like flypaper.  You’re telling me you couldn’t find ANYTHING suspicious to deal with that guy?

    In all seriousness I do think that Jackson is a serial pedophile and I believe that he is likely to do this again.  I was actually predicting that he would be convicted.  This wasn’t due for my disdain for Jackson, but rather that in a court-case where you have the victim testifying that abuse occured, and you have another victim to corroberate the abuse story (the child of a housekeeper that is now 20-something), and then when you have the accused refusing to take the stand to deny the allegations of the abuse- chances are that the accused would be convicted.

    I get frustrated because the message that gets sent out is "If you’re rich, famous (and especially both), you can do pretty much whatever you want".  I don’t think there’s a remedy for this in our justice system – the rich and famous will always be able to drive better cars, eat better food, get the better health care, and have access to better resources  when it comes to the legal system.  I think that’s a necessary consequence of our capitalist society.  I still have faith in justice and believe those who perpetrate justice temporarily will ultimately not be able to escape the consequences of their actions.  Wacko Jacko will be back in the courthouse before we know it, I’m just disappointed that more kids may be have been harmed in the process.

    One other thing - how about those losers that were camped outside the courthouse? Now I can understand the family cheering and crying – but why the heck do you have an emotional investment in this case, especially enough of an emotional investment to take any of your time and go stand outside the courthouse?  What kind of relationship do you have with this guy?  You liked his music at one time, so now you have some kind of deep connection with him where you can justify crying about a verdict that in no way impacts you.  At what point in your thought process do you go "Man, MJ – they did that guy wrong.  You know what, we liked his music at one point, and now he needs us!  Honey, pack up the kids and let’s go to Santa Maria to support Jacko!"

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