Lookout Iowa

In a few hours my brother should be rolling into Iowa after his 24 hour stint of driving a 14 foot box truck with 92 Honda Civic in tow. Well he has two friends helping out, Thanks Pat and Ian. I would have liked to go out there for a few days and help him get settled, but since I got the kid on the way around Christmas, I am hoarding vacation days and money. Since he hasn't chosen an ISP yet he probably won't be seeing this for a while, but good luck, Tom. You will be missed around here while you are learnin' how to write all fancy at the fancy writin' school.

PS: don't ever rent a UHaul using the internet, it is nothing but trouble, they haven't figured out how to coordinate the reservations and they always end up screwing it up in some manner, hell, they won't even tell you where or when you will be getting the truck until the day before. You are much better served paging through the phone book and calling your local UHaul locations. They know their own inventory and schedule and will hold the truck for you. They will even attempt to service special requests. The experience may be different for Ryder or Budget, but I had that experience renting a truck three years ago, and my brother and brother-in-law both had similar troubles this year.

Happy One

Happy anniversary, Michelle. Thank you for a wonderful year, I am looking forward to many more.

Forever isn't long enough.

Blue-Tongued Blur

Here you can see a picture of the nearly 2 years old, wild blue-tongued blur, who was on a doggie kisses rampage. I was able to snap the photo just seconds before my knee was drenched in blue tinted saliva.

Happy Birthday, Madison.

Philadelphia Fans

The Great Philadelphia Fan Book by Glen Macnow and Anthony Gargano, offers a great insight into the psyche of the Philadelphia Fan in this excerpt:

Through the 1920s, booing remained our little secret. There were no outside reporters of the Michael Wilbon ilk to label us America's nastiest fans. But that all ended when the A's hosted the St. Louis Cardinals for Game 2 of the World Series on October 2, 1930.

Among the 32,000 fans on hand that sunny afternoon was President Herbert Hoover, looking for a few hours of escape from the gloomy economic news of the time. In those days—despite the Depression and Prohibition—heckling a president was unheard of. But as Hoover's limousine drove onto the field near third base, the murmurs began. And when Hoover stepped onto the field and tipped his top-hat, the crowd, let loose.

From everywhere in the park the boos came, said Horvitz. I never heard such booing in my life. Then they started yelling, We want beer. It reverberated over the whole park.

Just started reading the book. So far, so good.

Jennings!

Ken Jennings has won $376,158 so far on Jeopardy! and he is still going. It is impressive to watch as he hits a groove and runs 3 whole categories in Double Jeopardy! getting both daily doubles. Continued luck, Ken. And way to represent the software engineers of the world.

More Bike Race Pictures

The PenCam pictures are in there now as well.

Bike Race Pictures

My brother's pictures from the bike race are up. Basically there were bikes, beer, and possibly a female gangsta involved in a mini brawl. I will get my pencam pics up there later this evening.

Thanks, Michelle

Over the last few days my wife has been awesome. She took care of a bunch of stuff, like having the heater serviced and cleaned, securing reservations for Fourth of July weekend at my Uncle's in Maryland, along with making a sandwich for my lunch almost every day. On top of that yesterday she woke me up for work with pancakes and bacon warm and waiting. And today she drove me into work, because my car is at Bruce's for inspection, oil change, etc. And a bunch of other stuff she does to make my life awesome.

Thanks, Michelle, I love you.

Working Camera

Took a bunch of pics on the way home, to get used to playing with the pencam again.

Check em' out

Bike Race Aught-Four

The Manayunk Drinking competition is coming up fast. June 6th is the Wachovia USPRO Championship. And since it is likely that this year may be the last where my brother has a house along the route he has stepped up admirably. To go along with the standard fare of 2 kegs of beer, and various dead animals, there is the centerpiece dead animal, a 40 lb. roast pig. They will be getting this from Cannuli's Meats in South Philly that specializes in the preparation of these delicacies for similair unholy celebrations. The drinking starts at 6:30 AM, and the definition of "Bike Race Drunk" becomes evident by about noon. There are also rumors that some kind of athletic competition will be ongoing, but I am skeptical. You can read my review of the debauchery from 2003. There are also some crappy pictures. I am hoping to repair my Aiptek pen cam in time to get some better pictures this year. And I am also hoping to hang in without getting totally wrecked, but only time will tell.

Graduation Cogratulations

My Brother, Tom, graduated from LaSalle University yesterday with a BA in English, Maxima Cum Laude (which means a 3.9 or better GPA). I also witnessed him receive a fistful of honors in the past couple of weeks, including the top student in the English department, where the Professor bestowing the honor indicated that they had run out of awards to give to him.

As a further testament to his ability he has been accepted into and will be attending The Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. For those who don't know, being accepted to this program is a very high honor. Evidenced by their selection policy summed up on the workshop's history page:

Though we agree in part with the popular insistence that writing cannot be taught, we exist and proceed on the assumption that talent can be developed, and we see our possibilities and limitations as a school in that light. If one can "learn" to play the violin or to paint, one can "learn" to write, though no processes of externally induced training can ensure that one will do it well. Accordingly, the fact that the Workshop can claim as alumni nationally and internationally prominent poets, novelists, and short story writers is, we believe, more the result of what they brought here than of what they gained from us. We continue to look for the most promising talent in the country, in our conviction that writing cannot be taught but that writers can be encouraged.

So Congratulations and Good Luck, Tom.

When I get a chance I will put some of Tom's more recent writing samples up here.

Philly Sports

Updated NFL Power Rankings. Again the Birds are almost on top. Now they just have to continue to perform. And way to take one for the team Sami Kappanen and drag yourself to the bench to clear the way for JR to vanquish the Leafs. That OT period last night made for some good watchin'.

A long walk

This weekend aside from cutting a mountain of grass I participated in the MS Walk with some friends. I had fun, and I narrowly avoided a foot blister (have to remember to wear better fitting socks when walking several miles), Bob wrote about it here. And while there was discussion of the game we played: The Settlers of Catan:

I really enjoyed taking an emotionally relaxing walk through Tyler State Park with Tara and her parents, Dave, Dave's friend Kevin, Pat, Tim, and Dia. Afterward we had exactly four people left for a game of Settlers, and Tara fed us well.

I noted it was suspiciously omitted who actually won in this ultimate battle of wits. It was the first time I had played the game, and it was a pretty cool game, much more fun than Scrabble or Yatzee (burn). And it was I, Dave's friend Kevin, who triumphantly and most accidentally declared victory after a couple of hours.

Zygote

"A zygote is a gamete's way of producing more gametes. This may be the purpose of the Universe." -Robert A. Heinlein For those that don't already know, Michelle is now about 9 weeks pregnant. Also for those who don't already know, how come we don't talk anymore... But seriously, I'm gonna be a Daddy.

I am very excited, and slightly nervous or maybe nervous isn't the right word, it is more a feeling of awareness. I am slightly more aware of things that I need to do to improve myself, to prepare for the coming of my child.

I just hope I can do for my child a mere fraction of the wonderful life my parents provided for me. Thanks again, Michelle, for making my life even more amazing.

New and Improved

So which is it? Is it new, or is it the same thing, just improved in some way? Is there some kind of anti-logic class that is required to get a degree in marketing?

Eagles

Well despite my best efforts, the Eagles didn't win the SuperBowl this year. Congratulations to the Birds for another excellent season. But like every fan, and gamer addicted to Madden Franchise mode, I have my suggestions for offseason talent aquisition priorities.

1. Wide Reciever
2. Solid Linebacker (Dawkins can't make every tackle)
3. Running Back (Duce and Buck are both Free Agents)
4. Corner Back

Probably a bunch of other stuff..

But thanks for an exciting season.

Holidays

Merry Christmas Happy New Year!!!

Return of the King

One of the cardinal rules of filmmaking:

Any movie where one large group of people with swords runs at an opposing group of people with swords is awesome.

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King employs this trick about 172 times, therefore making it whatever awesome times 172 is.

-Tom (my brother in an away message)

I Cite

Цитирую <- (The actual russian word will show up here if your browser and OS don't suck.) Apparently the preceding Russian means literally translated (by a computer): "I cite." As in an attribution at the begining of an email quote.

I really need to learn some other languages.

My Wife Rules

She stole my car! Ordinarily that wouldn't make much sense, but in this case it was the exact right thing to do. I asked her to find me somewhere to get my oil changed and my windsheild fixed or replaced. So she did, she tried to get a hold of me but I was busy in meetings this morning, and left my cell phone in my jacket. So she came and stole my car to get the oil changed and get the windshield inspected.

Luckily she thought to leave me the keys to her car so I can get home. Anyway, Michelle is the best!