Good times!

Baseball season's here? Whee!!!!



What, I'm a Cubs fan? So what?




It's been how long since they've won?





I'm stuck with them, huh? Are you sure?




Why couldn't I have been born a Sox fan?

prank time!

some good one's here that you all being more pc savvy prolly already read. . .

culled from cnn

When you want to talk about "deterence"...

"What? What? In da butt." is basically all it takes to keep dudes like me on the straight and narrow.

Good Article

Here's a Fortune Magazine article about the current meltdown. It does a good job of touching on all the problems and giving us, American citizens, the potential downsides to the current fiasco.

Cheaters Never Win! Well at least on XBOX.

Watch out you cheatin little punks! My thirtysomething friends are comin to get you on a level playing field.

XBOX Cheating Retribution!

Filthiest commercial of all time?

bulls seating map FYI

for future reference.

here's the stadium layout

looking forward to another fun summer of America's game live and in person.

Great googley moogley.

Finally, the internet proves it's worth!

Bulls Baseball

There will be a cohort of the StRA attending bulls baseball the opening weekend and hopefully many home games that follow! It's scranton so we may see our former 6'9" basketball phenom - brackman. He was drafted by the Yankees, eh? Sidekick? Information please?

As of 9pm tonight there are a few seats together left in the terrace 213 for THE opening night. I'm not sure that I'm game for that one.

I just checked tickets for sat 4/12 and sun 4/13 and there are still a number of seats available in the sections just beyond the awnings in Rows U-Z.
I'd be good with either saturday or sunday.

We generally get tickets in the evens (first base line) just under or just beyond the roof. I'm not particular and a pretty open minded creature of habit. A batter faces Northeast so either side is fairly sun safe.

SO I'll order them if we can generate which game and who wants to come. Caleb will be attending; that means french fries, lots of them. (and maybe a beer for his old man in the first inning).

Know that seats are being sucked up and I'll do our best to NOT be out in the diamond view (center/rightfield).

Choices:

Sat 4/12 5pm first pitch
Sun 4/13 5pm first pitch

Lemme know by this friday afternoon and I'll order them tix!

tom

On a Scale of 1 to 10...

Please rank the douce-iness of this move:
1) You write a self-indulgent corporate autobiography that mentions a hole-in-one
2) At the end you include familyphotos
3) and the first photo is the hole-in-one
4) and the second is your wife
5) and the third is your child, who is named 'Ace'

Check the calendar

Currently, the vote tally for the Cinco de Mayo shindig is heavily in favor of May 3rd.
Also, the tentative date for the "Ski Boat Extravaganza" is July 19.

The Bulls home opener is April 11th, and Gee reports seats are still available.

Anything Im missing ?

Happy Blog-o-versary!

I wish we had been better about labels - many funny posts are now lost in the aether of the 'tubes.
Most of my joy on the blog came last summer during my 'Campaign of Genocide Against the Armies of the Mole King'.
All in all, good times.

It looks as if we're kicking the "Thorsday Night Drunk" back into high gear, so we should be getting StRA Mark 2.0 off to a good start!

HFS. "Stop Snitching" = 40% chance of success.

Thats NATIONWIDE.
Granted, we live in a gated community where no real crime occurs.
But still -- <40% of murders in Boston even get referred for prosecution???
Thats just fucking ridiculous.
We really do live in two Americas.
Get back in John Edwards!
I believe!

Might never have shared this before.

Favorite 'columnist' on the Onion, Herb Kornfeld, CPA.
Beeches.

BTW -- Happy 365th day of bloggin, Beeches.

Thats right! For all the playa hatas who thought this would fizzle after 2 or 3 short days, I give you 2 orders of magnitude of non-fizzle-ization!

Ahh, it seems like only yesterday when we were watching video of the squirrel catapult.

It's still all Boxing

Watch the replay of the Casamayor-Katsidis! Beeches getting knockdown and knocked the F-OUT! One of the most perfect punches I have ever seen. The only thing I'll spoil is that someone got knocked out the ring and still got back up! Could not believe it!

Oh and the Katsidis dude comes out in Spartan gear.

How far Could you throw a KettleBell?

Well the men's weight throw uses a weight similar to the shape of the kettlebell that in fact weighs 1pood. I'd like to see some thoughts on this and how far a man could throw it, then I'll come back with what the NCAA winner threw.

So moms has scored some more plants for me!

Going home next weekend for a charity run -- friend from high school died of cancer, and they do a fun-run to fund a scholarship. The Guff & I were both voted "Most Unforgettable". Should be fun - I plan to tailgate with Moms & my niece and then run as Elvis.

Because its gonna cost and arm & leg to go home, Moms is try to make it worth my while.
She is, as we speak, raiding the yard of her jackass brother-in-law and stealing peonies. Score!
She is also going to the home of another high school friend and raiding her mom's garden - she apparently pulls up black-eyed-susans as weeds. Score!

Funny story about my jackass Uncle -- stereotypical Duke fan. He had a little basset hound named, of course, Duke. When I threatened to come over at night and paint him Red & White, my uncle went BALLISTIC. Too Funny.

I May watch an Episode of American Idol this season

That's right people. Neil Diamond song night!

Let's see how many people can butcher Sweet Caroline!

If I ever get some sleep....

I will try to provide a fan-tab-ulous update for the Vegas Bachelor Party Weekend.
This is the first trip out & back that has COMPLETELY jacked up my sleep pattern.
I believe the medical term is "jet lag".
Tack on acid reflux from drinking many MANLY tequila sunrises, a metric fuckton of beer, and way too much soda.
I'm sure my blood is a sludge composed of green beer and tomato juice.
All in all -- great weekend.

Ummm... Its only 2 months until Cinco de Mayo.

Lets get to work !!!

Funny stuff, even from the Daily Show

Where to begin ...

critiquing this pile of bilge???

How 'bout #6 - the Matrix. Lame gnosticism wrapped up in a veneer of techno crap.
#10 Platoon - except for Conan, Oliver Stone is a hack.
#11 Universal Soldier??? I think that just about destroys this dude's credibility (or you can wait until we get down to Hostel)
#20 Blade ??? BLADE!!! MOTHER FUCKER. You mean Blade II, the good one, right???
#25 Saving Private Ryan - last 5 to 10 minutes completely negate this movie.
#26 Wild Things. Jesus. Is this guy 7 ? Has he NEVER seen breasts? Whatever.
#28 Few Good Men??? A Guy movie??? Methinks this list was made by a bunch of chicks who, after Stamp-It-Up was over, decided to make a fake list.
#35 Swordfish. Thats it. I'm done. This list = just a waste of time & bandwidth.

In case you were not aware...Ver II

Superman is a dick.

Maybe a B-day present for Mackadocious?

Even better than the "5 Dangerous Things Everyone Should Know"

Boys, we got nothin' on this blog...

Gaijin Smash!

It's the blog of a 6'3'' black guy who lives in Japan and worked as a school teacher for several years.

Go to the archives and read 'Work Barbeque'; hilarious.

Or this one where he has to deal with some shit that, thankfully, I never had to worry about in a classroom.

I'm Such a Dork

Okay...yesterday's stock market surge happened because the Fed did something truely unique and innovative. Very un-government like behvavior (even though the Fed isn't technically the gubmint). On the surface, it's just what we need. But the real fun, for me, at least, is to watch how this plays out over the next year or two. Exciting, exciting times.

*Don't forget the nod to Greguar, who beat me to this story.

LOL - Greatest day ever starts out with a bang!

"What seems to be the problem, Doctor?"

"Believe it or not: Zombies."

Here they come to save the day!

Now instead of collateral I would have just purchased the mortgages outright, issued 2 year bonds at close to 2% and made more money on the returns, which with compounded interest and even a default rate of 20% would have actually made the government moneyby securing debt to fund the purchase having a AAA rating because its at 2% coupon, let Fannie Mae service the mortgages, earn the 5-12% interest on the mortgages assuming a 20% default rate (double current rate).

Fed puts up 200 bn in collateral against current mortgages.

Say Wha!?

Is D&D the worst game ever? This guy thinks so.

Where's my crossbow when I need it?

Let's call him Master Coach

More Qualified Candidate?

Where was this applicant when we were looking to replace Herb?

Thats right beeches.

Push ups rock.
They dont mention whether one armed push ups or the "Perfect Push Up" are better for you.

Pot luck lunch today ...and ACTION!!!

mk0817(09:21:08): oh yea BTW if anyone wants to sneak brownies earlier (looking at you Tanika) they are on my desk. Wife made 2 batches
ks8891(09:21:53): Glad to hear "Wife made 2 batches", not you.
mk0817(09:21:59):
mk0817(09:22:08): it's from a Box if that counts for anything
kh4796(09:22:25): batches ? We dont need 2 stinkin' batches!

So

I don't know if you noticed, but I've been writing some negative thoughts about the economy lately. But this morning I read the cnn.com business section and realized the mass media is onto the housing bubble, decline of the dollar, coming stagflation, etc. Is there a point in me writing stuff that's pasted all over cnn? I was only writing this as an early warning to y'all; get your financial houses in order before the banks quit lending. Get debts into fixed interest rate loans before inflation kicks in. Attempt to diversify your savings so you own gold and foreign stocks. I hope you did and think it's not too late to do some more of it.

Anyhow, as I told The Sidekick about the housing bubble, the media would have three phases to reporting on it. First, they'd falsely discount it as an non-issue and they'd report it was 'contained.' Second, they'd understand the seriousness of this and their coverage would be dead-on accurate. Third, they'd fail to see the natural limits of things and fail to report that housing was stabalizing. Currently, the media is well into stage 2 and what you see on cnn.com is what is really happeneing. I think I can let cnn do the reporting now and I'll let you know when the mass media is overly pessimistic on this.

So, the last thoughts on this...DOW will continue to free fall and I see it dropping below 10,000 in the next 9 months and to hover around 10,000 for a decade. I will buy gold until two ounces equals the DOW Jones average (currently 12:1) and sell it when the DOW equals 1.5 ounces. Don't expect housing prices to stop falling nationally until 2012 and don't expect Raleigh prices to rise until 2012. Don't count on getting a bank loan until 2011 for anything. Prepare for inflation to hit 10-15% in the coming years.

And to HE Pennymaker, get a State Employee's Credit Union account for your future home purchase. It will look so great when the times comes.

Wow. Any thoughts that the US is in trouble...

Overshadowed by THIS news:
During December and January, inflation in China for those months was up 6.5 and 7.1 percent,

Da Chest

Saw him [Chuck Amato] at Harris Teeter Cameron Village today with people that looked even more sun-baked and Italian than him. I didn't think that was possible either.

A Gold 'Bubble'

****Here's the Link***

And the Chart:

So I was reading a book by Peter 'Dr. Doom' Schiff about the American economy and housing and he's pessimistic. I'm sure that's a shocker given that I'm reading his book and his nickname is Dr. Doom. Anyhow, he had a very interesting chart that shows the value of the DOW and the price of an ounce of gold. Did you know that after every major US asset bubble, the DOW drops/gold rises until an ounce of gold is equal to the DOW Jones Industrial average? That's his call for the current version of events. You're all adults but I'm buying gold until the DOW=Ounce of Gold.

***Please note, in the comment section I mistated the years as peak years. Also, Peter Schiff says 1:1 ratio is common while this chart suggests 2:1 is the magic number. Either way, the point is gold has upside as an investment scheme.

You guys may want to check this out

I watched this as a boot leg before it ever came out. It was ok but kinda grainy. I just added it to my netflix queue. Some of the shots in this documentary are 200 yards from my (and Capt. Bussinesstime's) universidad. My student teaching had me working at Hillside High School which had kids from this project housing as well as Cook St. which was rolling 20's and rolling 30's territory. This doc got awards so I am interested to see what the finished work is like.

Thats a negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full

There's a little bit of fake fighting for everyone!

But really, when we teach Kelly Hope how to fight using Gymkata that mon freres will be a day that shall live in infamy.
Of infant-amy if you would.

***SITE ADMIN NOTE***
I'm definitely not saying we are cutting edge - but we were ahead of FilmDrunk in our love of the Gymkata.

At some point, the GP will break out the kegerator

Until that day, we need to start drinking Heineken.

Rear in 66 years......

....and what may sneak in to the top-10 funniest posts ever on the blog.

101yo Marathoner.... Oh and Fags

“If I finish, I’ll do what I always do and have a pint and a fag,” he said. “People ask what is my secret but I haven’t got one. They say fags and booze are bad for you—but I’m still here, aren’t I?”

When is that vernacular class again?

Note: Original subject line had improper addition.

Good times & Great memories

A paean to the Jeep Wagoneer!

Car lust, indeed.
So many good times with the Woodie.
Probably the best car I will ever have in my life.

Hat tip Instapundit.

Seeing links abounding on the 'tubes about this

Oil Bubble based on speculation about to burst.

My two biggest flubs were the '06 midterms and thinking in probably '96 that oil was headed for $5 a barrel. I was fairly comfortable with China & India driving demand up when I was an Exxon/Mobil shareholder.
These days, I'd really like to see $200 a barrel, $5 a gallon gas solely to make alternatives feasible. Making crude the whale oil of this century would be fabulous. I'd like to see a matched plot of whale oil prices vs. crude and when & what the tipping point was -- maybe something like $ per BTU that made alternatives feasible.
I'm fairly certain that as long as the Saudis can pump it for $2 a barrel, we're gonna be stuck with oil for a very very very long time.

A Day to Watch on the Street

Today will be a wild day on Wall St...four major issues: 1) Ambac raised $1.5 billion in capital: huge positive, 2) it's apparent that credit is seizing up again: huge negative, 3) Psychological factors of dropping under 12,000 and that it's Friday. Friday has been bad for reasons I can explain: huge negative, and 4) job report (the wild card). Job report comes out today and the market will follow it. Job losses=DOW down 250-400; job gains DOW about even for the day.

I think job reports will be a pleasent surprise, though.

Our seats

If you know what I'm talking about....you're ROTFLYAO

If it has to be explained, then my level of geekiness might illuminate why I'm not featured on "Hot Chicks with Douche Bags"


Sidekick addendum - I cannot tell you how long I've waited to use the following!

Also

I very much like this blog format.

Is the next step a Tin Foil Hat?

So, I'm thinking about converting all my cash savings to gold coins.

I blame the water at the Double Deuce!

Now the Swayze is reported to have been knocked on his ass by pancreatic cancer!

We just lost Jeff Healey.
Who's next? Sam Elliot? Terry Funk ? Ben Fucking Gazzara ???
Is there no mercy in this world ???

BTW -- if you have never seen the Kevin Smith commentary for "Road House" you are missing out on something special.

Much like Basquiat

I'm going through an experimental phase - testing out new looks for StRA and our sister ships, the Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria.

Just dont expect me to bang Courtney Love.
The Admir0l DOES have standards.

Now the REAL Rear Admir0l, R.I.P. - no standards.
I mean, he DID stick a chicken leg up his ass and then let a chick eat it.
True story.

Super. Sweet. BSG recap in <9 minutes.

Exhale

Oh my.

NYSE halts trading of Ambac

My guess is that Ambac, one the monoline insurers, either lost their AAA rating or they pulled a bailout out of their asses (most likely lost AAA). Either piece of news will rock the stock market to the tune of a 4% loss/gain.

Monoline insurers are very important. I think I've explained them before and if I haven't, I'll be glad to. Regardless, Ambac losing AAA status would be the second major event in the credit crisis, with Bank of America buying Countrywide being the first.

***********Adendum: Ambac is reorganizing and seeking $1.5billion in capital. The reports are early but it appears Ambac will follow NY Attorney General's request and split off the mortgage backing section to die. This falls in the middle of this and will likely cause a 1% DOW drop, led entirely by the financials losing value.

FINALLY!

A place for regular guys like ME who has never popped a colla' in my life to bitch about douche bags somehow being able to work their mojo on hot chicks.
I give you...

Hot Chicks with Douche Bags!

I get the feeling MANY of these pictures were taken in the greater New Jersey area.

Also, I gotta go old school and bring back...
The Kings of Douchbaggery.

Saddest day.... eVaH ???

Gary Gygax failed his last saving throw.



Credit: Penny Arcade

This could be my greatest find EvAh!!!

Apparently, there is a bad assed nursery down in South Raleigh.
Their specialty ?
Hostas.

Well this is definitely going to come in handy

Free papasan chair sans the cushion!

File under: HOLY FUCKING SHIT

So the idea of an acid that could etch glass really amazed me.
How about a chemical that oxides with bricks, sand and engineers?

When the Nazi's thought something was too dangerous to be used to safely...

The Name is Dalton...

is no more :(

Jeff Healey Dead!

Now, you DO have to go to ALL home games.

Primary Responsibilities:_Operate manual scoreboard system for all Durham Bulls home games.
Tasks Performed:_ Essential Functions:_Operate manual scoreboard system for all Durham Bulls home games.
Minimum Physical Requirements:_
Desired Education:_
Desired Degree:_
Desired Major:_
Desired Job Experience:_
Certifications Required:_
Other Qualifications:_Must have an average understanding of baseball rules and regulations. Must be personable, able to work effectively with others and available to work all home games. An interest in baseball is preferred.

Fill up your cars with gas today, boys

I didn't notice this but it's a big deal, especially when talking about the price of gas.

Venezuela and Ecuador preparing for Columbian invasion?

Hugo Chavez is a douche but he's sitting on tons of oil. If this goes sour look for gas to skyrocket.

My Crashdar Must be Broken

Hmmm, the lead story on cnn.com is about how stocks will tank today. I'm not feeling it. I think the DOW is higher than it should be but my gut isn't telling it'll be a bad day. Then again, my guts have shit for brains.

I know I've yammered about this before

Generally, from time immemorial, combat casualties have generally been 2% of total combatants. We, being bad asses, have apparently knocked that down considerably.

Part of it is definitely better body armor, immediate traige & quick medivac to fully functioning hospitals.

Not to toot my own horn (I'm definitely not flexible enough), but part of the push for this combat survivability is small family size. Off the top of my head, I know both China & Iran have a considerable bulge of young males under 30-ish, and without jobs or women in their futures, war seems a natural pressure release for both of their governments.

***SITE ADMIN NOTICE ***
Trust me - I'm NOT brilliant, and I can see a war with China & Iran LOOMING like a mixed metaphor.
We should nuke them both now and save ourselves the trouble of getting F-ed in the A by letting them hit us at a time & place of their choosing.

HFS. Can we do this w. the 'Uar's hot tub???

Ghettlebell Mark 2.0