26 July 2006

Colby In The Cards

Tuesday night, KO and I caught everyone's favorite Cardinals prospect, Colby Rasmus, at the PB Cards - Miracle game last night.

Colby went 1 for 4 with a single and 2 RBI. One ball he hit for an out was a rocket right at 2B.

While we were taking in the game, who should we happen to run into in the stands?

Colby's parents.

As many of you know, when we lived in Columbus, KO covered Colby's baseball games in high school. In the process, she developed a great relationship with his parents, who are really great people.
We sat with them from the 4 inning on...dissecting Colby's at bats, catching up on the other prospects, and how Colby handling big league life.
They're busy running around Fla, following their two sons in the minors. (Cory is pitching in Orlando with the Braves, I believe.)

We talked about the trade rumors, and how distracting they can be. It was wonderful hanging out with them, and getting some insight into Colby's journey through the big league system.

He always said that from the day he was drafted, he's been the Cards' No. 1 fan.

But, it is a business. I for one, feel that all of the trade rumors are laughable, and after seeing him play for the last 4 years, I truly believe it would be a huge mistake to trade away the future CF of the Cards.

Here's hoping Colby only wears the Birds on the Bat. That no. 4 looks good where it is.

25 July 2006

The Law Has Arrived in KC

Cue the Bonanza music.

For the first time since Vermeil was announced as head coach, the Chiefs have made an off season move that's really gotten me stoked for the season.

Don't get me wrong...I'm a realist. Ty Law is 32, which works out to slightly under Yoda's age for cornerbacks.

But, Herm's installation of the Cover 2 and Law's familiarity and trust that comes from playing under Edwards' wing last season puts the Chiefs in a position not known in some time.

Not since the days of Hasty & Dale Carter or Lewis & Ross (BTW....those are corner combos, not comedy duos) have the KC faithful cheered on a more potent secondary.

Surtain & Law's Pro Bowl prowess should help out KC's pass rush, which was short of nonexistent of late.

In addition, Law's intangibles and Super Bowl swagger bring a completely new attitude to the KC Defense, a distinction unseen since the tragic car crash that took Derrick Thomas from the world.

I'll even venture to say that this could be the most significant free agent signing since Montana & Marcus Allen donned the red & gold in 93, sending dreams of Lombardi trophies dancing in my head.

Welcome, Ty. There's definitely a new sheriff in this sleepy cow town.

Chiefs Nation welcomes you with open arms and strained vocal cords.

Hope you brought ear plugs.
---------
PS: The Chiefs aren't the only KC team wheeling & dealing for the betterment of the team.

The Royals flipped RP Mike MacDougal for 2 really good minor league pitchers from the ChiSox in southpaw Tyler Lumsden & right-hander Daniel Cortes.

Great Deal. Taking this move coupled with the Gathright deal, and new Royals GM Dalton Moore is making me quite happy with his arrival in this season of discontent.

With these two arms and Gordon, Billy Butler, and Chris Lubanski powering the KC offense in a few years, the future looks bright indeed at the Truman Sports Complex off I-70.

23 July 2006

Raising The Bar

"Yo, Ho, Ho
It's The Pirate's Life For Me"


Because I can't leave well enough alone...

I've made a new blog header at the top.

Some subtle changes, but all with purpose.

I've added some swordplay, since I'm a huge fan of the Jolly Roger, piracy, and in more contemporary usage, hacker culture.

The hacker element is also represented in the glider on the right. It's suggested that "by using this emblem, you express sympathy with hackers' goals, hackers' values, and the hacker way of living".

The character on the left represents Satori, the Zen Buddhist term for enlightenment, literally translating as "to understand".

It should be noted that some alternative reasonings for the reverse jolly roger theme include my propensity for pillaging and plundering, but we'll leave that tale for another day.

22 July 2006

Good Sam...Bad TiVo

Most of the time, my TiVo fights for the good of the homestead and against the injustice of incovenient TV times.

In this anecdote, TiVo has been both bad and good. Allow me to explain.

Once upon a time, many months ago, KO and I noticed a short movie on the TiVo home page regaling the wonders and joys of RVing.

Since we've both shared on many a night our love of the open highway and the endless prairies of fun you run into along the way, we checked out said videos.

All of these little vignettes are really used for targeting potential customers using the TiVo's vast array of titilating features. Great for ad execs...a cool feature in theory for TiVo comsumers.

At least that's what I thought at the time.

You see, at the end of the videos, there's an option to click where they can send you a free DVD regaling us further about owning an RV. Seems harmless enough, right?

So, stupidly, we clicked the "Send DVD" option.
We might as well have clicked a "Send More Junk Mail" button.

After receiving the DVD, we also got a envelope from a organization called The Good Sam Club. This is the bad and good part.

Bad that a harmless click unbeknowingly put us on the fast track to RVJunkMailville.
Good that I got the most kick ass sticker on this God forsaken orb:

Imagine the Good Sam logo you see here, halo and all, over an American flag Background with “American And Proud” surrounding it all.

Irony, anyone?

Thank you, TiVo for bringing this sticky gem into my life.

Oh, and as for the whole RV junk mail stuff...as Patton would say,

"NO, NO, NO...Bad TiVo!"

17 July 2006

Cartoon Laws of Physics

Here's a little fun with physics courtesy of my friends at Grahme Newell's Marketing Ideanet:
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Cartoon Law I
Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of
its situation.

Daffy Duck steps off a cliff, expecting further pastureland. He
loiters in midair, soliloquizing flippantly, until he chances to look
down. At this point, the familiar principle of 32 feet per second per
second takes over.

Cartoon Law II
Any body in motion will tend to remain in motion until solid matter
intervenes suddenly.

Whether shot from a cannon or in hot pursuit on foot, cartoon
characters are so absolute in their momentum that only a telephone
pole or an outsize boulder retards their forward motion absolutely.
Sir Isaac Newton called this sudden termination of motion the stooge's
surcease.

Cartoon Law III
Any body passing through solid matter will leave a perforation
conforming to its perimeter.

Also called the silhouette of passage, this phenomenon is the
specialty of victims of directed-pressure explosions and of reckless
cowards who are so eager to escape that they exit directly through the
wall of a house, leaving a cookie-cutout-perfect hole. The threat of
skunks or matrimony often catalyzes this reaction.

Cartoon Law IV
The time required for an object to fall twenty stories is greater than
or equal to the time it takes for whoever knocked it off the ledge to
spiral down twenty flights to attempt to capture it unbroken.

Such an object is inevitably priceless, the attempt to capture it
inevitably unsuccessful.

Cartoon Law V
All principles of gravity are negated by fear.

Psychic forces are sufficient in most bodies for a shock to propel
them directly away from the earth's surface. A spooky noise or an
adversary's signature sound will induce motion upward, usually to the
cradle of a chandelier, a treetop, or the crest of a flagpole. The
feet of a character who is running or the wheels of a speeding auto
need never touch the ground, especially when in flight.

Cartoon Law VI
As speed increases, objects can be in several places at once.

This is particularly true of tooth-and-claw fights, in which a
character's head may be glimpsed emerging from the cloud of
altercation at several places simultaneously. This effect is common
as well among bodies that are spinning or being throttled. A 'wacky'
character has the option of self- replication only at manic high
speeds and may ricochet off walls to achieve the velocity required.

Cartoon Law VII
Certain bodies can pass through solid walls painted to resemble tunnel
entrances; others cannot.

This trompe l'oeil inconsistency has baffled generations, but at least
it is known that whoever paints an entrance on a wall's surface to
trick an opponent will be unable to pursue him into this theoretical
space. The painter is flattened against the wall when he attempts to
follow into the painting.

This is ultimately a problem of art, not of science.

Cartoon Law VIII
Any violent rearrangement of feline matter is impermanent.

Cartoon cats possess even more deaths than the traditional nine lives
might comfortably afford. They can be decimated, spliced, splayed,
accordion-pleated, spindled, or disassembled, but they cannot be
destroyed. After a few moments of blinking self pity, they reinflate,
elongate, snap back, or solidify.

Corollary: A cat will assume the shape of its container.

Cartoon Law IX
Everything falls faster than an anvil.

Cartoon Law X
For every vengeance there is an equal and opposite revengeance.

This is the one law of animated cartoon motion that also applies to
the physical world at large. For that reason, we need the relief of
watching it happen to a duck instead.

Cartoon Law Amendment A
A sharp object will always propel a character upward.

When poked (usually in the buttocks) with a sharp object (usually a
pin), a character will defy gravity by shooting straight up, with
great velocity.

Cartoon Law Amendment B
The laws of object permanence are nullified for "cool" characters.

Characters who are intended to be "cool" can make previously
nonexistent objects appear from behind their backs at will. For
instance, the Road Runner can materialize signs to express himself
without speaking.

Cartoon Law Amendment C
Explosive weapons cannot cause fatal injuries.

They merely turn characters temporarily black and smoky.

Cartoon Law Amendment D
Gravity is transmitted by slow-moving waves of large wavelengths.

Their operation can be witnessed by observing the behavior of a canine
suspended over a large vertical drop. Its feet will begin to fall
first, causing its legs to stretch. As the wave reaches its torso,
that part will begin to fall, causing the neck to stretch. As the
head begins to fall, tension is released and the canine will resume
its regular proportions until such time as it strikes the ground.

Cartoon Law Amendment E
Dynamite is spontaneously generated in "C-spaces" (spaces in which
cartoon laws hold).

The process is analogous to steady-state theories of the universe
which postulated that the tensions involved in maintaining a space
would cause the creation of hydrogen from nothing. Dynamite quanta
are quite large (stick sized) and unstable (lit). Such quanta are
attracted to psychic forces generated by feelings of distress in
"cool" characters (see Amendment B, which may be a special case of
this law), who are able to use said quanta to their advantage. One may
imagine C-spaces where all matter and energy result from primal masses
of dynamite exploding. A big bang indeed

Good NewsRadio

It happened so suddenly, but immediately I was excited about the news at the end of this TV promo.

While watching a summer lineup revamp spot for Nick At Nite, nothing really jumped out at me to grab my attention.

Then, just as I was about to click along to the next channel, the mention of a new show joining the Nick @ Nite lineup:

NewsRadio.

Here's a little tidbit from the above page on the show's origin:

"[NewsRadio] was one of the quickest pilots ever filmed, taking about 90
minutes. The cast clicked immediately. [Paul] Simms had crafted the roles
for [Dave] Foley, [Phil] Hartman, and [Andy] Dick, and the others were up
to the task. Incidentally, Ray Romano was originally cast as the handyman
but fired during the making of the pilot. His slower-paced comedy style
simply did not mesh with the shotgun pace at the cornerstone of NewsRadio’s
manic antics."


Adios, Twilight Zone.
It looks like I've found a new show to obsessively record.

Prepare thyself for a new Season Pass, TiVo.

Sweetening Up

A new post....a new look.

It's not much different than the last look, but I like the subtle changes made in the sweetening process.

We here at team coreblog would love to hear what you think about the new look.

Feel free to comment below.

Ciao.

05 July 2006

Happy Birthday, Zoe


baby zoe
Originally uploaded by Sportslady.

Happy Birthday to my furry little sweetie in the hands of my non furry sweetie!!

This pic was taken July 1995 -- Zoe's a little bigger now, but still has that pretty little pucker face.

For her birthday, we got her a new purple collar with rhinestones. All bedazzled for her B-Day!

If you want to read more about how this little bundle came into the Sportslady's life (and, eventually mine), see her beautiful post about her birth.


Happy 11th Birthday, Zoe! Daddy loves you!

03 July 2006

Flick Off

It took long enough, but with the help of m' Sportslady, I was finally able to add a Flickr badge to the right column.

So, now coreblog is complete with pictures to enjoy.

Oh, happy day!

If you're already a Flickr member, make sure to add coreblog to your contact list.

Have a Happy Red, White, and Booze Day.

Peace Out, homies.