Arsenal Transformation Continues

Gilberto seems to be on the way out after refusing to play in the Carling Cup match today. He was coming back from injury and Wenger wanted to work him in. Oh well, not that he has been missed all that much.

See:

Axed Gilberto Silva faces Arsenal departure

Arsenal easily beat Sheffield United 3-0.

Also see:

Arsenal deepen Bryan Robson's woe

Pork in the Defense Budget

When I worked in the Air Force budget integration shop one of my jobs was to go through the various bills and identify all the "earmarks" in it. An earmark is funding added by Congress for a specific, discrete program or activity. Once they were identified they were put aside and only spent when a variety of wickets were crossed. Many times they could not be executed in a way that was beneficial to anybody but maybe the contractor it was supposed to go to. Not surprisingly as the Federal budget has grown the number of earmarks have grown. For a good article on how one Congressman has used earmarks see:

MURTHA INC. How Lawmaker Rebuilt Hometown on Earmarks (Wall Street Journal)


Needless-to-say I am not a big fan of this way of doing business, but it was accepted within the system as it was the way to do

Fumbling Fantasy Football

My fantasy team lost again. Who would know that Derrick Anderson and Braylon Edwards would have 3 TD apiece? Anyway, Romo was off and I tried, for some reason, to use Brian Griese. Enough said. I am now two games below 500. The season is pretty much over. "Over? Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"

Splendid Isolation

Have you ever thought about being alone completely? Like one of my favorite movies, "The World, The Flesh and The Devil". I saw an ad for a movie with Wil Smith that seems to be a sort of remake of that. Anyway, what would you do if there was nobody else around?

See:

The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) IMDB

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Now playing: Trapt - Headstrong
via FoxyTunes

Busy Day

You know it was a busy day as I didn't email myself any blog topics from work as I am want to do. I was making charts and planning visits to DC to discuss important matters.

Raiders Fall Again

Well the Raiders D played well, but the offense sputtered. There is no offensive line and that leads to no passing or scoring. They were in it to the end, small consolation. There is always next week.

See:

White runs for 133 yards, Titans beat Raiders 13-9

Arsenal 1 - Liverpool 1

Arsenal draw to remain on top of the Premiership. A win would have been nice, but they continue to keep their unbeaten streak going.

See:

Wenger sees Gunners rise to Anfield challenge

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Now playing: Jason Aldean - Johnny Cash
via FoxyTunes

Arsenal and Liverpool

Arsenal plays Liverpool this Sunday. Arsenal is comfortably six points ahead of them with a game in hand, but still it should be a great match. Both teams are in a little turmoil, also with Arsenal it is due to not playing some of their older players. Liverpool has bigger issues due to the loss this week in the Champions League, and no firm line-up. It should be an exciting match, but Arsenal will win.

See:

Rafael Benitez must settle his Liverpool side

Updated 1920 CDT

It gets worse for Liverpool. Jermaine Pennant broke his shin and will be out for 10 weeks. See:

Rafa Benitez quite at home in the firing line

Airbus A380

In a completely unrelated matter to the below post, the Airbus A380 flew its first commercial flight for Singapore Airlines. It flew to Sydney from Singapore. The tickets were purchased as part of a charity auction so they weren't cheap. Also, the aircraft was only configured for 470 seats, so there must have been plenty of room.

See:

Airbus A380 lands in Sydney on first commercial flight

V-22 Osprey Conducts First USAF Mission

The V-22 Osprey after all these years conducted its' first mission. This was one of the USAF SAR birds in the US flying a search mission for a crashed civilian airplane. It was based at Kirtland AFB, NM. Unfortunately there were no survivors, so no rescue could be carried out.

The USMC has deployed a squadron to Anbar Province, Iraq; but no word if they have flown a combat mission yet.

See:

Osprey Sees First Action in SAR Mission

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Now playing: Warren Zevon - Splendid Isolation
via FoxyTunes

Stupid Criminals

In the next town over somebody broke into the coke bottling plant by throwing a cinder block through the door. It has rained solidly for three days here, and the police followed a trail of muddy footprints to the motel next door to the break in site and arrested two men with a cinder block. I guess they forgot to look down.

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Now playing: Yes - Shoot High, Aim Low
via FoxyTunes

Gun Control

This a letter to the editor of the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago. This gentleman was arrested because it look like he was running a gun store out of his house. He had 600 guns there. That is not the point of the letter from the Executive Director of the Illinois Council of Handgun Violence. He is trying to say that it would "Clearly, no reasonable concerned citizen should argue about the right to hoard 600 guns when weighed against the issue of public safety posed by such firepower sitting in the middle of residential community." Actually, it is quite possible that somebody could have a collection that big. The number of guns is not the issue, but what the intent of the owner is.

See:

Six hundred guns in one residence?

I was friends in graduate school with a guy who collected Mauser rifles. He had close to 20 of them in his two bedroom condo. Also for a website of a man who has quite a collection of weapons, to include artillery, see:

Arghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys

New Smartphone for Narcissistics

This new HTC Touch phone for sale by Sprint soon caught my eye. It has a 2 Megapixel camera in it, complete with a mirror to take "self portraits". I kind of wish I had a camera phone, or one in my iPod touch to take photos of where I am and what I am doing, but I have no need to take endless photos of myself.

See:

HTC Touch (Sprint)

Nissan "Skyline" GT-R

Nissan rolled out the GT-R yesterday at the Tokyo Motorshow. It will be available in the US in six months or so. Pricing in the US has not been released. The Japanese price quoted in dollars is $68K. I think the price point that Nissan is looking for is the Corvette Z-06, which I read is around $71K.

Anyway, see:

Nissan rolls out long-awaited GT-R super-coupe

Hits

According to clustrmap my hits have skyrocketed. Mostly from me, I assume. I do view a few times a day. I am trying to do two or three posts a day, and really between sports and the things I find interesting I should be able to do that.

Lehman and Arsenal

I guess Jens Lehman figured out that he might not play again for Arsenal. Anyway, he warned Wenger not to "humilate" him by not putting him in the starting line-up. To be honest, I don't know when he will play again in the Premiership.

See:

Lehmann warns Gunners boss

And, oh yeah, Arsenal beat Slavia Prague 7-0.

See:

Stunning Arsenal slay Slavia

Reverend Moon's Air Force

If you don't know it Reverend Moon owns the Washington Times; and I guess he owns helicopters as well. According to this article in Rotorhub he bought two S-92 aircraft from Sikorsky for Washington Times Aviation. These will be used in Korea, not in the Washington DC area. Who knew?

See:

Korea: Washington Times Aviation order two more S-92s, taking fleet to six

Arsenal

Arsenal host Slavia Prague today in the Champions League. It sounds like Wenger will stick with the current players, not allowing some of his older established stars to play now they are healthy. This is probably the end of Jan Lehman's tenure with the team.

See:

Wenger sticks with team to disappoint stars

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Now playing: Duncan Sheik - Barely Breathing
via FoxyTunes

Twitter Celebrity

I am a Twitter Celebrity. A German PC magazine used one of my tweets to illustrate how Twitter works. The quote is "Die Antworten in Kurznachrichtenform, die "Tweets", kann jeder via Web, Chat oder Handy auf Twitter abladen. "Ich bin jetzt fertig mit der Arbeit"; teilt etwa Dagpotter aus USA mit während die Twitter-Gemeinde zeitgleich die Nachricht erreicht, dass in Kairo ein Hund spazieren geführt und in Tokio eine Gardine aufgehängt wird. Fällt in China Franz Beckenbauers sprichwörtliches Fahrrad um, bei Twitter könnte man es mitbekommen."

I think it basically means "In the US, Dagpotter tweets "I have just left work", while in Egypt someone takes their dog for a walk, and in Tokyo someone hangs their curtains.

The full article is at:

Twitter spaltet Netzgemeinde

Israel Saving Palestinian Lives

In the Washington Post there is an article about how due to the Israeli embargo of the Gaza Strip it is impossible to buy cigarettes. Due to this many Palestinians have had either had to cut back or give up smoking. This will only be beneficial to their health.

See:

Gazans Forced to Cut Back on Smoking

Alabama and Tennesee

A confused Tennessee Alum wrote the following email to our Deputy Project Manager:

Sir,

I would like to exercise your open door policy to discuss the current
hostile work environment in our office. I feel that I have been the
victim of harassment from some sort of animal rights group, apparently
concerned about elephant poaching in Africa. Emblems and figures
representing the elephants have been placed in my office cube, along
with red streamers apparently representing the blood shed by hunted
elephants in the African Safari.

Frankly, I find the entire episode confusing. I admit that I have not
paid particular attention to the problems of elephant poaching, but I
find it puzzling that these animal rights extremists chose my cube to
protest the impending "rolling tide" of elephant extinction that will
occur if the poaching is not stopped.

In any case, I request to discuss this matter with my supervisor. I
have seen many elephant emblems around the office, and I certainly
recognize the right of our work force to join and participate in
political action groups after work. I feel, however, that I have been
unfairly targeted for my lack of participation in this animal rights
activism, and I would like actions taken immediately to protect myself
from harassment and save my property from further vandalism.

Thank you,

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Now playing: Judas Priest - (Take These) Chains
via FoxyTunes

Sports

Well not surprisingly my fantasy team got crushed - 3 losses in a row now. Raiders lost as well, but were in it at least, but I don't know if that says more about how bad the Chiefs are then how good the Raiders are.

Arsenal, at least, continues to win. They have yet to lose in the Premiership and are doing well in the Champions League. Revenue is just incredible, I think with the injuries they have had they might sign somebody in January, but we will have to wait and see.

See:

None On Fourth and One

Bad Eighties Videos

I love videos from the Eighties. There are so many bad ones - and not just because the song is bad or stupid. But bad concept wise, acting, story etc. You know. People forget that with the advent of MTV videos became very important and I wasted many an hour after 1981 watching them.

MTV was pretty much 24 hour videos through 1991 or so. Then they started doing shows, first some comedy and then game shows. I guess once they started with the Real World they did drama.

Then I had to switch to VH-1, which at least showed videos, but showed pop more then Top 40. With Alternative Music in the 1990's videos sort of died.

If I could have DirecTV I would watch VH-1 Classic 24 hours a day.

If you want a good example of a bad song, bad video, and a bad movie, watch this:

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Now playing: Alcatrazz - God Blessed Video
via FoxyTunes

Raiders

The Raiders lose 12-10. Oh well, at least the defense played better than last week. The Patriots won easily, so my fantasy game is probably shot as well, as I am playing the Tom Brady team.

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Now playing: Pete Townsend - Let My Love Open the Door
via FoxyTunes

One Sided Reporting

Our hometown paper, The Huntsville Times, has an article about an area that is gentrifying. This is a good thing. One of the issues there is that the city's biggest homeless shelter, which is a private, non-profit, is in the area. This does good work and we give it money and goods to sell. Our church sends people to volunteer there. The city wants it to move, and is basically forcing it by planning to build a road through it.

The article talks about it as a "problem" only, while not highlighting the other side of the issue. Yes , most people don't want to live near a homeless shelter, but if there is a homeless problem then there needs to be facilities to service them.

Alabama Wins, Auburn Loses

This will make the Iron Bowl very important this year. Alabama now only has one loss in the SEC, Auburn two. Should make for a competitive year, and I guess we can say for now that Saben is better then Shula.

Arsenal 2, Bolton 0

Arsenal win to remain on top. This was expected, but it is always good.

See:

Arsenal v Bolton

iPod Touch Crime

My friend in San Francisco was assaulted on Thursday night and had his iPod Touch stolen. It really sucks. Somebody, though, was nice enough to buy him a new one.

Arsenal

Arsenal play Bolton today, a match they should win especially as it is at home. There is a lot of bad blood between the teams so it should be a good match.

The Rangers, my brother's favorite team, is playing Celtic in one of the historic grudge matches in soccer. It is at their stadium.

See:

Rangers and Celtic keep pot bubbling over>

Blow to Arsenal

Looks like Robin Van Persie is out for a while. He got injured playing for Holland in the Euro 08 qualifiers. It will make it difficult for the team.

See:

Robin van Persie injury blow for Arsenal

The Beach and Ocean from Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

 
 
 
 

English National Sports

Soccer loses to Russia, but Rugby national team is doing well. Yet another new coach for the soccer team?

See:

Steve McClaren doing good job, say FA

Activity

I wrote about the English loss to Russia in the Euro 08 qualifiers this morning, and today I got hits from Europe and South America. I got 17 hits today - much more then I ever have before. No comments, so I don't know what is going on. Perhaps if I write about international soccer more I will get more hits?

England 1 - Russia 2

So England loses to Russia by giving up two second half goals to a substitute, and they are talking about firing their coach. This would be there second in a year, and the first English manager in a while. This does not say much about the current level of English players.

Update Video

Profound

I keep trying to think of something profound to blog on. I am drawing a blank. I won't talk about family or work, much, so that kind of leaves me a little. I do know, now, that go to Cozumel/Cancun/Playa del Carmen in October. It is a little light, and I think they need the business there. Things were a lot cheaper then they were when we went in February, 2006. Perhaps there has been a downturn in general? I am not sure.

Clustrmap

According to my Clustrmap someone from England has been to the site. I cannot imagine who, or why. Most of the hits come from yours truly.

Now Playing

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Now playing: Newsboys - He Reigns
via FoxyTunes

Spinal Tap

I saw an American Express ad this morning on CNBC. It featured Spinal Tap's song "Give Me Some Money" in the background. How cool, but I don't know what it was advertising specifically.

Football

I will say it again, and again, and for the record: I hate the Patriots, Tom Brady and Bill Bellicheck. Enough said.

Return

Back from my vacation to Mexico and Mobile. Will post some photos and so on when I get the chance.

Start of our vacation

We made it to Mobile and had a nice visit to the USS Alabama Memorial Park. Then we linked up with my parents and had a good Gulf Coast seafood meal.

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Now playing: Ted Nugent - Great White Buffalo
via FoxyTunes

Blog Craziness

Even though I am pretty sure that only one other person has been to this site except me, I am adding different things. I have twitter, ClustrMaps, track my IPOD songs, foxtytunes, and a list of books. I have also tried to have photos and youtube videos on board. Maybe, someday, someone will come and see my blog.

Going to Mexico

I'll be going to Mexico next week so posts may be limited.

Middle School Football

Finished attending the game as J had to play in the band. Games, really, as both 7th and 8th grade teams play. Both of them beat their counterparts from Athens, so a successful night. I am sure the players and coaches are happy. The band, as usual, sounded great. I especially like the theme from "The Magnificent Seven".

See:

The Magnificent Seven

iPod Touch

I just enjoy doing things from my iPod Touch, such as this blog post.

PC vs Mac

They say that one of the problems with PC's is the cables. Cables everywhere and everywhere as compared to sleek Macs. I won't disagree, look at what resides under my desk:

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Now playing: Tina Turner - We Don't Need Another Hero
via FoxyTunes

Maus

I saw a women with a strong German accent today at the dry cleaners.
It is not surprising as there are many relatives and descendants of
the German rocket engineers sent here when the three services were
forced to give them up to NASA. There are also substantial number of German
wives of US Army soldiers as well. What struck me though was that her
license plate, which I noticed when I left, was MAUS. I don't know
if she did this as a homage to the comic book about the Holocaust
where mice represent the Jews and the Nazi's are cats, or she just
liked the word for some reason.

See:

Maus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arsenal in the Champions League

Arsenal beat Steaua Bucharest 1-0 in the Champions League yesterday as van Persie scored a late goal.

See:

Robin Van Persie is Arsenal's Iron man

Movies on iPod

I finally figured out how to rip a DVD to my iPod and make it viewable properly. It gives me some small sense of accomplishment.

iPod Touch

Finally downloaded the manual for it, and guess what? It has all this functionality that I didn't know about.

Canon Powershot A550

Got this today, it is 7 megapixels. Looks very complicated, but I guess just set it on auto and shoot. I bought a 2 GB card for it for 43 dollars. Amazing. It can hold about 1000 photos.

See:

Micro Center Online

Fantasy Football

Crushed my opponent 104-55 to move into third place at 3-1. As much as I dislike the Patriots, Randy Moss, is really helping my team.

This Is Getting Ridiculous

I now have 3 PC's, a laptop, and the Touch all hooked to the wireless. It is kind of overkill, but I still enjoy it.

Ipod Touch

People may not think they need an IPhone, but the touch was a roaring success at work. Not just among the Apple people, which surprisingly there are a few, but with everybody. The engineering involved was marveled at. I think Apple got a few sales.