New Tech stuff

There is a new search engine out that is trying to compete with Google. the site is www.cuil.com (pronounced 'cool') but I tried it and it still needs a lot of work. Cecil and the Blog didn't even show up. It's about the fourth one on www.google.com which is still the preferred search engine of 'Cecil and the Blog'.

Google also unleashed 'knol', which is supposed to be like wikipedia, but I think I would still go with the old wiki for the time being.

Random Thought #4

If you set your expectations really low, it's hard to be disappointed.

Happy Birthday Kids

This is the birthday week for the kids. Sampson's birthday has already passed and Peach's is coming up this weekend. My little buddy is turning 6 already, but don't worry I made him promise that he wouldn't get to a stage where he doesn't want anything to do with old Dad. He said he would always want his Dad around. Thanks Buddy.

Oh, and by the way, Peach is getting potty trained. Today made like 5 or 6 days without diapers (YES!!!!). I am not sure what made her want to start going on the potty, but she is doing just an outstanding job. Every time she goes she says,"This makes you happy?" Yes sweetie, you going to the potty makes Daddy and Mommy very happy!! :-)

The goodness of the "Prodigy"

In case you were wondering the "Prodigy" is BJ Penn and the sport is MMA. I had seen on the Yahoo! rankings that Penn was in the top 10, but to look at the guy he really doesn't look like he belongs or that he should even step in the octagon. That is until you see him in action. Before this weekend I saw maybe part of one of his fights and he didn't look that impressive. But this weekend I saw two different fights and he is every bit of the #3 ranking. He just has a different look when he is fighting, he looks right at his opponent the whole time, and he just peppers them with jabs until they make a mistake and then he just clobbers them. One fight was against Sean Sherk and Sherk is smaller, but just super ripped and it looks like he would just tear BJ apart, but he never really gets close to him. They make it through the first round, and by the end Sherk is tore up with some bleeding and what not, while Penn looks like he just stepped in the ring. In the second round with 10 seconds to go you can kind of see that Sherk is just waiting for the bell to end the round, but before that happens Penn just unleashes a flury of punches that knocks Sherk back against the cage and just as he is coming off the cage Penn catches him in the face with a knee and then hits him about 10 more times in four seconds. It was impressive, and even though the ref didn't stop the fight before the end of the round Sherk is unable to go any further. He gets back to the back and is asking people what happened, because he didn't even know. And the crazy part is Penn looked the same stepping out of the ring as he did getting in, not a scratch on him. Uriah Faber's (WEC feather weight Champ) only loss was to Penn and before I would have said that Faber would probably beat him now, but I really don't think that he could. Penn is just too good and I really didn't see and weak parts of his game. Faber definitely wouldn't want to stand toe to toe, but I think he would have a hard time bringing him down. The toughest fight for Penn now might be the Welter weight champ St. Pierre (Rush) who has beaten Penn before. Did I mention though that Penn has held the Welter weight belt before too. Yeah, that dude is good.

4 gallon Monday

I reached the 4 gallon blood donation level the last time I gave. Not all at one time though, that would be a record or something. For my efforts I got a pin with a '4' on it. Now it will be another 8 donations until I get to the 5 gallon plateau. Only 305 more donations and the all time record is mine!

The New Worst Race in NASCAR History

I started typing the worst race in NASCAR history, but that title was taken for the Kansas race last year. The new worst race is the debacle (yes Mom, I had to use the old spell check for that one) that was Sunday's Indianapolis 400. Goodyear managed to send a crappy batch of tires, that were wearing right down to the cords after about 12 laps, so what does NASCAR decide is the right thing to do... throw competition cautions, 9 of 'em to be exact. This was terrible for several reasons. 1) Goodyear sucks. This is, I'm guessing due to the fact that they use inferior carbon blacks in their tires. I'm not sure exactly what kind they use, but I definitely know what kind they don't use and Columbian Chemicals' carbon black wouldn't fall apart like that I guarantee!!! 2) If you want to throw competition cautions through out the race then do it so that you don't end up throwing one with 10 laps to go. I would have thrown them until about the last 25% of the race and then I would of let 'em race for the win. The way it worked out there were about 30 cars on pit road with 10 laps to go and conveniently it worked out for Jimmy that he got off of pit road first, and due to the nature of Indy unless your car is just flat out better than the person in front of you or they make a mistake it is unlikely that a pass will occur. It reminded of the first worst race in NASCAR history from Kansas were Tony gambled on fuel strategy and was leading the race when it started to rain and then the rain let up, but rather than just concede that the race day was lost they restarted the race. Shortened the length of the race though, and one of the Hendrick cars ended up benefiting again. Anyway the most disappointing thing about the race Sunday was the comments afterwards from Goodyear when they were asked about whether they could stop a scenario like Sunday from happening again they said, "No." That's a good response. Here is another question, should NASCAR keep Goodyear as the lone tire provider for races? "NO." If Goodyear isn't willing to put the time and effort into have a tire that will hold up and make a good race, then NASCAR has an obligation (to the fans that are still willing to watch a race) to open up the series to competitive tire brands. They should seek a breach of contract with Goodyear for lack of competitive racing and let other tire manufactures in. Sunday was terrible, I'm glad I didn't have to watch the whole thing. And at the end, instead of listening to Jimmy talk I watched the end of the Arena Bowl. Arena Football is kind of interesting when you set down and actually watch it. I like how they keep the games competitive at the end by not allowing the clock to run unless the play nets positive yardage. The teams scored 3 or 4 touchdowns in the last minute, it was hard to keep track with all of the scoring. Maybe someone from NASCAR should watch some arena football so they can learn how to keep events competitive.

Peach Picture

Here is Peach's picture.







50% Ornery
25% Spoiled
25%Rotten
100% Cute

1 Corinthians 13

This just seemed appropriate after the weekend. I actually had verse 11 in my head, but I thought it was from a poem or something. I did a search for it on the Internet and low and behold it was from the bible.

Love
And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. but where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is Love.

Tony Stewart Delima

I was hoping I wouldn't have to write about this, but as soon as I heard the rumblings that Tony wanted to be a team owner I had a feeling he wouldn't be back with Gibbs next season. You see it was kind of a perfect storm for Tony to get out of his contract through 2009. First Tony is a Chevy guy and driving Toyota's kind of put him in a bind. Second Tony has essentially been replaced by Kyle Busch as the #1 at Gibbs. Third Joey Logano. Gibbs is trying to bring him along in the Nationwide Series and in his first 3 races I think he had a win and a second place, so Gibbs probably felt like he could let Stewart go and replace him with someone with crazy talent and youth. Fourth, for some reason Tony really wants to own a NASCAR team and was willing to go with HAAS/CNC to get back to Chevy. Sadly Tony may never win another race. He could go the rest of this year and not win, if Gibbs starts to pull equipment off of him in favor of Busch and Hamlin, and with HAAS being what the 5th or 6th best Chevy team, it is unlikely that they will get any help from Chevy running behind the likes of Hendrick, Childress, and Earnhardt, who all have legit chase contenders. The best I can hope for is that Gibbs will let Tony take the #20, but if not I guess I will just be a huge Lagano fan. Or Kyle, I kind of like Kyle. He is more like Dale Sr. than Dale Jr. is, which is ironic because people don't like him because he wrecked Jr. at Richmond. But oh how they forget when Jr. wrecked Kyle at Kansas or how Jr. jumped in Kyle's car at Texas last year. Probably haven't seen the last of that feud, but at least I know what side I'll be on....

1st half fantasy update

Well the old baseball season is 1/2 over and my climb from the depths topped out at 3, and then all my players had to play on the road this last week so I am back to 5th. That's OK for now, it looks like Stevie is comfortably in first for the all-star break, so I've already formulated a plan for the first week of the second half. I only have about 6 moves left, so I am going to have to take a couple of chances and hope that no one ends up on the DL like in the first half. For having Pujols, Dice-K, Figgans, Hairston (dropped, and then picked back up), Pena, E. Aybar (dropped), Byrnes (out for season, probably) end up on the DL, I have done pretty good holding my own picking up people and managing with the injuries. My best acquisition so far is Aubrey Huff, who is having a great year. Other than that my pick-ups have pretty much been off the scrap heap. For next year though I may or may not play, but if I do then their definitely is not going to be a limit on moves when you are already limited by games and innings. It just makes it impossible when you get struck with injuries.

I have learned a couple of things since I started this fantasy stuff too. 1) The catching position is only gonna be good for about 5 teams in your league. If you don't have one of the top 5 guys then you might as well call that position a loss and try and find somebody decent who is going to play a lot. I got Jarrod Saltalamacchia out of the draft and he didn't play the first quarter of the season so I had to drop him and pick up somebody from Pitt who isn't playing any more, then I got J.R. Towles because he was great on MLB '08 the show and he ended up getting sent down to the minors. Then I got the bright idea to trade for Mike Napoli who is a platoon guy, but had 10 home runs and was on pace to have another 10 or 15 by the all-star game. Alas he ran into a major slump and then got dropped for Chris Ianetta of Colorado. Right now Chris is being platooned with a guy who is hitting .235 with 4 HR's, and I can't for the life of me understand why the Rockies aren't playing Chris more. It is maddening!! 2) It is worth the effort to go through the draft and deselect people you don't really want. 3) Pitchers deserve a couple of starts before you drop 'em, unless they've gone through something that is going to change their season, because they are going to have good games and bad games and when you are limited by moves you are going to have to take some bad games. 4) No matter who I target, when I wait to pick somebody up someone else will grab them. The latest person is Hiroki Kurodu. Who? Exactly, but as soon as I put the sights on 'em and come up with a plan to snag them, another team will come out of no where and grab them first. It did work out for me once when I was a day from picking up Elijah Dukes and somebody else grabbed him and then he tore up his knee. That's what you get though. So in a nut shell, wait for people just not to long and then cross your fingers.

WALL-E, A Review

Well for July 4th we went to the movies. We took the kids along with Ricco and Savannah and Sophie's mom and dad to see Wall-E. This was a movie Peach has been begging to see, but I think she fell asleep, I'm not really sure I couldn't see her that good from where I was setting. See it was so packed and we had so many people in our group that we couldn't all set together, so Peach had to set with the kids in a row and we sat behind them and Ricco and Savannah set up front. Anyway this movie is one that can definitely wait to be rented. I guess the kids enjoyed it, but man there is absolutely no dialog. It reminded me of 'I am Legend' except no Will Smith and the premise for the movie is way, way, way out there. Apparently something happened on Earth, you never actually know what it is, but there aren't any humans on the planet and there was a ship that was keeping everyone alive out in space somewhere. Robots were doing everything for the people (which sounded pretty awesome, come on science let's make that happen) and they didn't have any idea what was going on on Earth. Basically the movie follows Wall-e, who is a trash robot tasked with cleaning up Earth and some other robot shows up, E.V.E, and then it kind of takes that old stand by story of boy robot meets girl robot and girl robot is way too advanced for boy robot, but boy robot continues to stalk girl robot and finally gets her to start turning his way, but then inexplicably locks up and. . . blah blah blah. Like I said, wait for this to come out on DVD or something. This was the kind of movie where someone should have stood up in the planning stages and said 'I'm not sure that this is such a good idea for a movie'. Coming from Pixar you kind of expect something pretty grand, but this is about the worst effort they've put forth. I guess when the two main characters can only say about 4 words between them the plot advancement is going to be a little slow. Anyway I think the gap between Pixar and the other digital animation studios has officially been closed, especially with the likes of Kung Fu Panda which was hands down better than this movie. I give Wall-E a 3 out of 5, only for the fact it was Disney and Pixar and it was pretty high quality with the robot graphics. Human graphics and plot were terrible. Hey at least nobodies Mom died. Sophie says that is because there wasn't a mom, but I say that is the difference between 3 stars and 5 stars.

Sophie won't rate the movie, but will rate the men of the Ohio Valley as pig-headed because 20 of them can walk out the door while a woman is holding it open, but none will offer to do it. Did I mention it was raining. What a bunch of jerks. Oh wait, I guess I didn't get the door either, but I had to high tail it to the car, I didn't want to get too wet.

being an Idiot

I bought the new Gran Turismo game for the PS3, well what I thought was the new GT game. Apparently 'Prologue' means that it isn't the full version of the game. They still manage to hit you for 40 bucks, though. It isn't all bad just terribly disappointing. You think it would be more pronounced that it was only a partial game, but nooooo. Anyway it is still pretty decent and I guess I can always trade it when the full version comes out. 'Prologue' had about 60 cars and 30 different races, plus the individual car make races, but the cars aren't customizable at all. The only thing you can change is the auto traction and control, so winning races is completely on skill. I guess that is a good thing, but the fun thing about GT is building the cars and setting up the car for different tracks to make them run faster. I kind of liked that it didn't have all the crappy little cars, because I could live without all of those races. But when it didn't have the licenses the little light bulb above my head went off. Well the goal now is to beat all 30 races and then race online some. The good news is the cars and credits are transferable to the full version. After I get the full version I'll be sure to rate the whole game. For now 'Prologue' is about a 4.5 out of 10, the best features are the online races, which aren't all that great, and the idea that what you do will transfer.

Happy Birthday America!!!

Happy July 4th everyone, and happy birthday America. Every July 4th is when we celebrate telling the English to 'shove it' and ventured out on our own. The original signers of the Declaration of Independence actually thought the celebration would take place on the July 2nd because that is when the actual vote for independence took place. But the actual document didn't get a ratification vote until the 4th, the day we now celebrate. The original discrepancy was over 'taxation without representation', good thing we don't have to worry about that anymore. We must get represented like crazy now.

Interesting fact: Both John Adams (our 2nd president) and Thomas Jefferson (our 3rd president) died on July 4th in 1826 on the 50th anniversary of the nation's birth.