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A Collaborative Austin Texas / Florida Blog Currently Featuring Tommybear and: |
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Email: tomdo98@aol.com darin@southardcity.com
Archives
Picture Portfolios Best Engagement Party Ever Pictures Wendy's Going Away Party and Hung's Christmas Party
Tommy's Favorite Music Videos2
Everyone should try to quit smoking. Smoke free 6 years. (pictured in 2002)
movie reviews updated 04/16/2008
Painting and Drawing updated 2/21
new drawings (click to enlarge)
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October 2008 Archive |
06/19/2008
06/19/2008
09/22/2008
06/19/2008
01/22/2008
01/22/2008
01/22/2008
01/22/2008
06/04/2008
01/22/2008
01/22/2008
01/22/2008
04/24/2008
01/22/2008
06/04/2008
10/05/2007
06/20/2007
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So I was looking to see if Simon had a Facebook profile by searching for his name. Oddly enough, there was a profile that said Simon Sun Park from Vancouver. There are probably plenty of Simon Park's in the world but this one had a picture of Dae on it. Simon said all Koreans look like but this is ridiculous.
Simon said he didn't do it. I thought maybe Facebook did some image search and matched up people's names based on whatever place email holder list but this guy has 18 friends.
I would think that means there's someone maintaining this profile. I should add him as a friend and see why he's stealing Dae's face identity.
I'd be freaked out if someone were using my pic. Maybe Dae has a doppelganger? Maybe Simon's doppelganger looks like Dae??
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Supposed to look really cool in the dark
I always like these costumes where you have to do a double take
This is just a kid and a dummy!
I hope our Shrek and Donkey is better than this.
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The Longhorns are number one for now. Yah! The Cowboys are imploding. Boo.
After watching the maybe the most exciting Longhorn game outside of the national championship this past Saturday, I had to endure a really crappy Cowboys game that got really really good at the end and then got really depressing in a heartbeat.
The Good. The seemingly overrated Texas Longhorns faced the number 1 Oklahoma Sooners in the Cotton Bowl and not only got the win, but snatched that number one ranking out of Bob Stoops's hands. I have to admit, I didn't want to cheer in the game early on because I thought I would just get disappointed in the end. Early in the game, the Sooners were moving the ball at will and I thought we got very lucky when Shipley returned a kickoff return for a touchdown. The game was close but I wasn't sure Colt could move the ball effectively. In the end, we didn't really stop the Sooners on defense, we just outscored them. Another crucial play of the game was when it appeared Colt got intercepted in the end zone. It turns out that although the ground can't cause a fumble, it can in fact cause an incompletion. Initially it looked like the pick was good and the defender threw the ball up in celebration. Either way, it was ruled an incompletion and I saw in the paper today that Stoops agreed it was a good call.
The bad. The Cowboys could not protect Tony Romo. I'm not sure if he was holding the ball for too long or just didn't get enough time but he was running and getting knocked around all game. Owens once again didn't get many catches. Romo was actually the highest scoring player in my Fantasy Football league at 35 but unfortunately, I played against a team that played Marion Barber and he pretty much erased that advantage with 30 from Barber. I actually stopped watching the game for a minute to go to the grocery store when the Cowboys got down by 10 with only about 3 minutes to go and Arizona had the ball. Luckily, my girlfriend paused the game on the DVR and I noticed the Cowboys were only down by 3 and had possession. How the hell did that happen? I rewound the and saw that by some miracle, Romo threw a dump pass to Barber in the flats and when everyone in the world including the Cardinals thought he'd go out of bounds, he instead rumbles 70 yards to a touchdown. With two timeouts left and the two minute warning, the Cowboys were actually able to stop the Cardinals and get the ball back with a minute to go. With about 18 seconds left, Romo scrambles out the pocket and heaves the ball to Witten to the 40 yard line. The Cowboys rush up the line to spike it with one second left but it still would be about a 60 yard field goal. By another miracle, a Cardinal player was limping and couldn't get back to the line in time and therefore the Cowboys gain 5 more yards on a penalty. Nick Folk makes a 52 yard field goal to send it into overtime. Awesome game right? More of that lucky fate/destiny like last year when Romo threw 6 picks against the Bills. The Cowboys even won the toss over Cards. The really should seal it.
What happens next? Romo gets rushed and eventually sacked pushing him back towards his end zone for the eventual punt. The what happens? The impossible! Blocked! Touchdown! Game over! WTF? One of the most anticlimactic endings I've ever seen after such a big build up.
The loss actually didn't seem that bad because both the Redskins and the previously undefeated New York Football Giants loss. Philadelphia still has a way to go to catch up in games. Turns out effects of the game went past just the loss. Romo breaks his pinky finger and is out 4 weeks (3 games.) I heard this guy on talk radio say it shouldn't even be that long and to talk to Favre who played with a mangled hand before. I'm not sure Romo is as gutty as Favre who would have to play hurt all the time to maintain that streak.
On top of that, it turns out Pacman Jones has been suspended INDEFINITELY for fighting with his bodyguard. I think that's way too harsh. It's not like he was fighting with some random dude at a bar. Aren't body guards usually big tough dudes anyway? I believe Jones is only about 5' 11'' so it's not like he was picking on them.
Hopefully the Cowboys can win at least one of these 3 games coming up without Romo. The 40 year old Johnson should be slow and steady. They better protect this old dude because I heard the Cowboys haven't planned to pick up another quarterback.
The Longhorns, on the other hand, have a ridiculous schedule to go through to try and maintain that number one ranking. Oklahoma State, Missouri, Tech, and A&M for starters. |
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I'm not actually going to trade my truck in for a Hum Vee but gas is really freaking cheap right now. That widget on the left side of this web page says within four miles from my zip code, I can find a gas station that offers gas at 2.89. 2.89! That's less than what it was a year ago!
So let's go over the gas panic this summer. Gas skyrockets to over at least $4.11 cents a gallon. Everyone panics and all the Priuis's get bought up. People predict gas prices will hit $10 a gallon. Car companies shut down plants that build gas guzzlers and retools them to build fuel efficient cars. People try hypermiling techniques like cutting off their cars during traffic jams and coasting to stop lights instead of stopping.
At $2.89 a gallon, are any of these issues still relevant? Some might say that the low gas prices are only temporary because the economy is doing poorly and therefore the demand for gas is down. But I say, when people were worried about gas prices being too high they didn't believe that also was only temporary. Gas prices always move so they're basically they're never too low or never too high.
When gas prices were about $2.99 over a year ago, people bought whatever the hell car they wanted. Pick up trucks, H2's, muscle cars, RVs... Are people who were able to snatch up a Prius before they were in such high demand satisfied with their car buying decision? If gas prices didn't spike, would you have bought a Prius anyway or would you have bought that fun car you always wanted? My brother in law traded in his Nissan sports car for a Prius. Is he still happy with that decision? Prius people used to save 20 dollars per fill up from their old car and now they save 5. Whatever right?
I'm curious if we'll trend back to SUV's and other gas inefficient cars. |
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The Rosetta Stone language learning software isn't a miracle software. It's not some magic program that jacks directly in to your brain stem. It's a just a learning tool that is probably better than anything else out there but it still requires that you do lessons all the time. You have to do the lessons and you have to concentrate. You can't start up the software and watch Monday Night football and cook a meatloaf. You have to look at the pictures, hear the phrases, repeat the phrases, and concentrate. It's kind of exciting in the beginning because it's sort of easy and you feel like you're going to learn the language in a month. It can get sort of frustrating as you advance and you can't extrapolate from the image and the phrase exactly what they're teaching you. Sometimes I have to guess like, is there an A at the end because a bicycle is feminine for some reason? Sometimes if you just muddle through, it becomes clearer, and sometimes, it doesn't get clearer fast enough.
I do wish that once in a while there was some English clarification like this word means that and you're conjugating it this way because of this. That's not how Rosetta stone wants you to learn. It wants you to learn through immersion as if you're a child with no other language in your brain. There are absolutely no translations. Even though I feel like I didn't pick up some lessons at all and I'm only getting the answers right because I see "BOY" or "DOG" in the phrase. I feel like if I muddle through and then go back later at some point that it will all become clear. We'll see.
Since I find Rosetta Stone Spanish mildly interesting, I decided to buy the Vietnamese version as well. Now some of you might say, Tommybear, aren't you Vietnamese? I thought you spoke Vietnamese. I speak some Vietnamese. I probably speak it as well as a 3rd grader. Maybe I'm not even that functional. I can get by speaking to my parents who speak decent English but I have hard time understanding their friends or pretty much any other Vietnamese adult. I took Mandy to a Vietnamese concert my mom was throwing several months ago and it felt like I only understood about 5% of what everyone was saying.
It's kind of embarrassing to myself and I'm sure to my parents that your kids don't speak the mother language. Kids who are second generation Vietnamese have no shot at Vietnamese whatsoever. I may be able to speak at a 3rd grade level but second generation kids may not know a single word. My nieces can really only say things like Grandmother and one off words my mom tries to teach them.
I figured with at least a Vietnamese language background, my learning curve for Vietnamese Rosetta Stone would be a lot easier. So far it has. I know why things are conjugated the way they are for the most part, and exactly what words they want me to focus on. We'll see how it goes. What I'm hoping for to gain a noticeable proficiency before my wedding. |
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I was watching Beerfest the other day on HBO. I think it's by the guys that make Super Troopers. It has the same fat guy and Indian guy anyways. Part of the plot is that there's a big contest at the end where they compete in a series of bar games. Games we've heard of like Quarters and Beer Pong. There was one game that I thought was pretty funny that I've never seen before. They call it, Thumper. I couldn't quite figure out the rules based on the short clip in the movie so I did some research.
Here are the rules for the Thumper drinking game: Everyone sits around a table and makes a gesture to represent themselves. After everyone has decided on a gesture, go through them all one more time. Everyone then begins drumming on the table and one person says "What is the name of the game?" everyone replies "Thumper!". The same person says "Why do we play it?" and everyone replies "To get f*%$ed up!". Then the person does their gesture and then someone else's. The persons gesture they did must do their gesture and then another persons. Everyone else must still be drumming. The first person to mess up drinks.
Sample of some huge looking frat boys playing it with a lot of enthusiasm. They don't do it well at first but then they get it going for a while.
Guys playing
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This is the first year I've done fantasy football so I didn't know what it was like. I find it enjoyable in that it can make games, other than Cowboy's games, enjoyable. The only thing that used to be able to do that is watching a very close competitive game or putting money on the games. Since putting money on the games is always eventually a losing proposition, FF will have to do for now.
This week, the Cowboys were playing the Redskins and my FF team was matched with Simon's. Simon had the Cowboys defense and Jason Witten on his FF team and I had Santana Moss and Tony Romo. To score in FF your individual players need to do well in offense. Getting yards is ok but scoring touchdowns is where the bulk of the scoring comes in.
Even though I am a rabid Cowboys fan, I found myself being mad that the Cowboys shut down Santana Moss for 0 receptions. He was one of the top receivers in my whole FF league. But I shouldn't be mad. I should be glad the Cowboys can completely shut down such an explosive receiver. Since Simon had Jason Witten on his team and I had Romo, I found myself both happy and sad when Romo completed a touchdown pass to Witten. I was rooting that he'd complete that TD pass to anyone but.
That's why Mertz doesn't like FF. He gets annoyed when he watches games with people and they're rooting for players and not worried about the team outcome. I can see where he's coming from. |
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Anyone try Hulu.com before? It looks like they have full high quality episodes of the Office and a ton of other shows. Some of the videos have a commercial but it's worth it sometimes. Many of the clips don't have commercials at all.
I was trying the embedding feature so I thought I'd post this funny Daily Show clip.
I like at the end how Couric busts her with a, "Are you sorry you said that?" and McCain has to attempt to save her like her daddy.
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I was accused of making an immoral play last night a softball game. Here’s how it went down: I was playing shortstop. There was one out with men on first and second. A weak line drive was hit in my direction. I charged it and could have caught it on the fly about a foot above the ground. Instead, I let it hit my glove and fall to the dirt. Then I picked it up, tagged the runner that was on second, and tagged second base for a double play. Some people said it was cheap. Since it looked like I was going to catch the ball, the runners stayed at their bases to avoid being doubled up. When the ball was dropped, they were too far from the next base to avoid the double play. Their argument is that since I had the ability to catch the ball on the fly, I should have caught it and only recorded one out, and that dropping the ball was deceiving. The infield fly rule exists for exactly that reason. If there are two or more runners on base with less than two outs, the umpire may call the infield fly rule on an infield pop up. When it is called, the batter is out and the ball is ruled as caught, whether or not the fielder actually catches it. The rule is in place so that an infielder will not intentionally drop a ball in order to make a double play. But sometimes, as was the case last night, the ball is not hit high enough for the infield fly rule to be called. On a line drive, there is no rule to prevent a fielder from dropping the ball in order to turn a double play. So when the ball was coming at me last night, I had two options: 1. Catch the ball on the fly and record one out. 2. Drop the ball, tag the runner and the base for a double play. As a fielder, which would you rather have, one out or two? Even though it was within the rules, I was accused of making an immoral play because it was deceiving to intentionally drop the ball. True, it was deceiving, but that’s why it worked. If I told the runners I was going to drop the ball, I might not have had the double play. Aren’t there deceiving plays in all sports? In football, if it’s fourth down and your punter is ready to take the long snap, the defense will be set up to receive the punt and block for the returner. But what if your punter instead passes the ball to a receiver for a first down? Very deceiving, but I wouldn’t call it immoral. I’ve made this same double play a few times in the past, and I always get a couple dirty looks from the other team. Are they just jealous they didn’t think of it, or do they think it should not be done? Would they do it if they had the same chance? This situation seems to come up a couple times per season. I’m not sure what I’m going to do next time it happens, but to me, it seems pretty stupid to catch a ball for one out, when you can drop it and get two outs. |
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Apparently there is some gag on Youtube now where you think you're about to watch a compelling video and then an 80s video with Rick Astley comes on. They call it getting Rick Rolled. It's kind of funny at first but then you get annoyed because you're actually looking for something then 20 seconds into it its, "Never gonna give you up! Never gonna blah blah blah."
That's getting RickRolled.
sample rick roll |
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In honor of the vice presidential debates that are happening tonight, I thought I would try to continue to spread the rumor that Bristol is the mother of Trig (the special needs baby) and not Sarah Palin.
I'm not saying I've done any fact checking but IF these points are true, then I believe it provides irrefutable evidence that Bristol is the mother.
1. Sarah Palin was supposedly able to hide her pregnancy from the entire state of Alaska including the people that she worked with everyday up until she was 7 months pregnant. All of the sudden one day, she announces to everyone and the media that she is seven months along. This is a woman who is in the public eye everyday in Alaska and no one saw any signs? I've been around some 7 month preggered woman in my life and even if their entire face and body were skinny, they always had a huge protruding belly 7 months in. It never looked like a mere cheese burger baby.
2. Sarah announced that her water broke in Dallas and instead of just going to a nearby hospital, she flies 11 hours back to Alaska and drives from Anchorage to Wasilla to deliver her baby. I've heard women in the last trimester months of their pregnancy aren't supposed to fly on a plane much less a woman who just had her water break. Did her water really break or did she need an excuse to fly back to Alaska where Bristol was about to have the baby? Why else would you risk traveling so far? Because you really really like your Wasilla daughter? The only way to make her lie tie out is to physically be at the hospital where Bristol's son was going to be born. Otherwise, your lie falls to pieces if someone can place you anywhere else.
3. Coincidentally during Sarah's fake pregnancy, Bristol had mono for 5 months. The exact time when she was probably showing her pregnancy with Trig.
4. The newborn does not appear on daily records of babies being born on April 18th in that hospital, the supposed day of Trig's birth.
5. To distance themselves from these rumors, they are saying Bristol is currently 5 months pregnant. How can we know for sure how far along Bristol is?
6. The hospital's website was scrubbed clean and the pictures of the other two babies there born that day were removed once Sarah was nominated.
See pictures of when Sarah Palin was actually pregnant and when she was fake pregnant among other interesting tidbits.
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by Tommybear
