Polamalu Deal Getting Worked Out

Talks have begun between Troy Polamalu's agent and the Steelers on a new deal. Finally! Some good news coming out of Steeler Nation. Some of the complaining over not signing Porter got out of hand given the amount of money the Dolphins were willing to throw at him and his complete disappearance from some games in the past 2 years. It was easy (for me at least) to cut through the sentiment and see why they cut him. Not signing Troy would be the equivalent of trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees in my opinion. You could make a case that if you had to sign either him or Roethlisberger - he should be the choice. I'll get into this more as the negotiations proceed. I'm just hoping the deal can get done for a little less than Ed Reed type money. Troy doesn't seem to be all about the dollars, but he is without a doubt one of if not the best safety in the league. In other Steeler news Chris Hoke resigned for a mere $6 million dollars for 4 years which included a $1.5 million signing bonus. Not a bad contract at all for a career backup type player who knows the system and was very solid the year he filled in as a starter.

More Good Mash Ups

This one features The Police and Snow Patrol. This one is a little better - Green Day with Oasis and others at the end including Aerosmith. And this is just too obvious as I think of "Hey Mickey" every time I hear the new Avril Lavigne song "Girlfriend".

Excuse Me While I Kill You

If this happened to my family, I would have saved everyone a lot of money and court time. I would have listened to my child and told him to get in the car, we're going to Home Depot. I would have rented a jackhammer, bought several 80lb bags of cement, duct tape and some plastic sheeting. I would roll up some carpet, dig out a coffin sized portion of my basement floor and spread out the plastic sheeting. When this monster came to the house the next time, he would have been greeted with a gun pointed at his head while we walked to the basement. I would make him mix the cement (cause I hate that shit). Then I would tape his wrists and legs together with duct tape and lay him face up on the plastic sheeting. At this point I figure me and junior would systematically beat and kick the living hell out of him with junior doing a lot of the work. I may even allow junior to give him some Phil Leotardo action (remember Veto?). While still alive, we would roll him into his coffin and dump the wet cement right on top of him. Of course we would screed it and make sure the plastic and stuff got buried in the cement as well. Roll the carpet back. I'd put some gloves on and drive his car over to the local Wal-Mart and have my wife follow me to bring me home. 45 years in jail is nothing. You can't fix what's ailing this guy. He needs to burn in hell and I'd like to help facilitate his trip.

If This Is Real.....

This is pretty sad if it's real. There is an Mtv logo in the bottom corner and I know they have a show about Sweet 16 birthday parties so I'm guessing the clip is from that. I'm too smart a cookie to believe that reality show producers aren't giving ideas out to "cast" members....but if this chick is serious and this isn't put on - I agree with the commenter who suggests she should be parachuted into some 3rd world country so she can learn to appreciate what she has. I absolutely LOVE the episode of The Sopranos when AJ is younger and screwing around in school. Tony drives his ass to the hood and pulls over and makes him take it all in, showing him how lucky he is. I'm not even mad at the girl or the parents (who are more to blame than the girl) - I feel sorry for them.

Slanted #47

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Big Company = Butt Munch

My first task at my new job (remember, I went from an 18 person gig to a 1,500 person nightmare) was to load test the new application. Stress it out using tools until it blows sky high. Fun! I love to break stuff. I developed the plan, submitted it, got approval....and waited....and waited....and waited. I finally got a go date a few weeks ago of June 25th. Sweet. They were flying in reps from all interested parties and a Softie Specialist and it was my show. Then the date was moved to June 18th and I was going to be away. Nothing changed - just another technical guy would be playing the part of me for the week. When I got back, he was leaving for a week - but he would brief me on all happenings. The region we were using for the load test is called Pre Prod. Go figure. It was to be ready on June 8th, which turned into June 12th, which turned into the 13th, 14th, 15th.....it wasn't even ready before I left! Now the dude playing me actually had to script the stuff himself as well! Great way to make new friends at work! When I rolled in today I was expecting to get filled in on all the results. What I got filled in on was the joke. The region wasn't ready to script in until late Thursday the 21st. Everyone flew in to see we weren't quite ready. Egads! What can take so long to set up an environment to mimic production? Oh, that's right - how can you mimic something that

doesn't exist yet? All the other regions are simply virtual environments which can't be used to load test - they can, but the results are as useless as a diet book on Rosie O'Donnel's bookshelf. Once the region came live, it was discovered that the tool I trained on for 2 weeks couldn't be used on the software in question due to unexpected dynamic session variables tied into each UI. Nice. We didn't know it was going to be a problem until the software vendor turned his trace on which we couldn't do by ourselves. Nice again. Alas, the Softie had a tool that we have a license for that worked and allowed us to code around the session ID variables. He gave the other guy a crash course Friday and he gave a me 25% of that knowledge today. We hit a brick wall when we found out a patch went in over the weekend that changed the first UI on the Home screen rendering his work to that point pretty useless since this tool doesn't support mid script changes very well. i guess it would be ironic to point out here that the first tool handles mid script changes just wonderfully! So, due to hidden page names that we need the software vendor for, I can't start something that was to begin on June 18th until tomorrow the 26th. Did I mention this is going live in less than 3 weeks. Who waits that long before they stress test something? Ohm that's right - you can't stress it until it's done and a production region is ready and available. Sigh. At a small company, 4 people would shut a door and not come out until this is ready with all 4 doing the majority of the work. Now we need a meeting to see what meetings we need to see who we need to talk to and who should be filled in on the situation and what direction we should take. Sigh (again). Dilbert is so real to life it's scary. Art imitating life indeed. In the land of cubicles, the half brain twit is king. If that's true, I must be an Emperor or something. I can't get to 52 fast enough.

Slanted #46

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Fresh Seafood

That ugly mug to the right belongs to a NC Triggerfish. Yummy, I must say. I never tried it before this week to my knowledge. The fresh fish market that Chrissy Two Coats and I went to a few times (Cap'n Willis) highly recommended it. I grilled it on low for about 10 minutes per side and lightly coated each side with olive oil. It was absolutely fantastic! So, from Saturday afternoon until Friday morning I got to eat fresh Grouper, Mahi-Mahi, sushi quality Tuna, Salmon, Clams, Trigger and Crab Cakes. On the ride home last night I even had the clam pretzel from the Maryland House rest stop. I'm going to miss all the fresh seafood and grilling it myself. I'm going to have to make a better effort to continue this trend at home.

I Am Not Worthy

He straps the first pack over his shoulder, the second goes on the same shoulder. He slings another over the other shoulder and picks up something with both his right and left hand. He leaves the confines of his safehouse and goes out into the hot 95 degree heat. The first grain of white hot sand hits his feet and it scorches him....he grimaces. As he walks across the sand to his camp, arms aching, shoulders crying - he sits down the radio, pack and slings and finally exhales. A US soldier in Iraq? No....a middle aged dude on vacation. It's pathetic to think about what our soldiers must go through and how mentally and physically tough they have to be. I complain carrying some items to our beach set-up. Instead of complaining, I should be thankful that these brave individuals are over there doing what I cannot. I was reminded of that several times this week as training jets from nearby bases buzzed the crowds at the shore. Think about it, I'm wearing a pair of trunks and nothing else with ice cold beer and water within arms reach. These guys are out there in full gear going who knows how long between cold water and or beers. These guys are girls are truly inspirational and I'm going to try to use them as such when I start training for the Philly half-marathon this year.

Onion Rings Of Gold

I don't ask for much when we go to NC on vacation. We've probably been to this island 5-6 times since we've been married and who knows how many times since my family first started vacationing here in the early 80's. I'm not the best beach go'er. I'm not a fan of getting covered with suntan lotion, having sand stick to me and swimming in the ocean. It's really why we rent a house that has a pool. There is a cost-benefit analysis done in my head when I write that check every year and walking out the door to a heated pool surrounded by thick trees without ever touching sand factors heavily into the mix! I am totally fine with just getting away for a week and relaxing.....and eating. Since we started staying at the bottom of the island, it's a much longer drive to Clawson's - my favorite place to eat here (not even a close second), but it's well worth the drive and wait. It's the only thing I really require while we're here - we MUST go to Beaufort and eat at Clawson's......and buying some Double Peanut Butter fudge at the Fudge Factory doesn't hurt either. I've converted our entire vacation group to fans as well. I've never had a bad experience there or a bad meal. It's fantastic. In my humble opinion, they have the best onion rings on the planet. I had the crab cakes last night and my little crab kept stealing bites off of my plate! Anyway, I'll keep it short as stupid net access is hard to come by down here. I'm paying .10 a minute for freaking AOL because they don't have a local number for where I'm at. One company added wireless access that you can buy daily, weekly or monthly but we can't pick it up at our house. For someone who uses the internet like a crack addict smokes crack.....it's tough.

Superb Father's Day

I hope all the fathers that read this had a good day yesterday. I know mine couldn't be beat. I woke up at 6:00 AM and got to answer some email and read a few chapters of the book I'm reading before anyone else got up. From 7:15 - 7:45 I was snug as a bug on a big cushy chair whispering back and forth with my daughter as we didn't want to wake anyone else up. We had a big pancake & fresh fruit breakfast once the rest of the house was alive and then we got ready to go to the beach. We spent several hours there before coming home for a late lunch. At this point (I think it was around 3:00 PM) I thought it might be a good idea to stretch out on the floor for a few minutes. I just had an ice cold Corona and felt a little sleepy from waking up at 4:00 AM on Saturday. It was 5:30 by the time I woke up! A nice little father's day nap! I went out to the pool for a while and then Chrissy Two Coats and I went to the fresh fish market. We grilled tuna, salmon, mahi-mahi and grouper while drinking Mint Juleps. Nice. Had the meal with margaritas. Sweet. Talked to Still A Dad for close to an hour and then watched Ron White's "They Call Me Tater Salad" over several more margaritas before calling it a night. Now if I could just get rid of this hangover.......

Beyond SOBX

Posting may be light until next Sunday, the 26th as we're leaving for our favorite vacation place ealry tomorrow morning - the 26 mile or so island that contains Atlantic Beach, Salter Path, Indian Beach and Emerald Isle. We're staying in Emerald Isle again this year at the same house as the last time....and why not....it's extremely private as you can see from the pic above and it has a heated pool. Sweet! Time to forget about work, the patio, the unfinished BBQ pit and the 87 other things that need to be done around the house. Time to eat at Clawson's and grill up some fresh seafood. The only thing that stinks about the trip this year is that we'll have to miss the funeral of one of my great uncles. He was one of the most easy-going people I've ever known. He was at Utah Beach Normandy on D + 17. I grew up only having one grandfather on Still A Dad's side. On my mother's side, I had 3 "great" uncles to act as grandfathers. My grandmother's brother and her two brother-in-laws. I got to spend the day with him and his wife two weeks ago and I'm really glad I got the chance. We're going to miss him. I hope he's playing 36 at Pebble Beach Sunday after the funeral.

Daddy Time - Sweet!

My daughter is 7 going on 8 and loves music. LOVES music. Good. She loves to sing and has had a real amp and microphone since she was about 5. We put on mini concerts all the time (to HER music, not mine, although her voice could probably do a good Geddy Lee) ) She can easily identify a song as being "the Blues" when she hears it, but her favorite artists to listen to right now are Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Hannah Montana, Hilary Duff and The Cheetah Girls. Like I said in the previous post, TV sucked tonight so I was spending some time surfing YouTube for music clips. I wasn't even done with my first song (Pearl Jam & U2 together live) when she came bopping around the corner and wanted to search for Muppet clips. Fun as that sounded (and I mean I LOVE it when she thinks the same stuff that I think is funny, is funny) I was in the mood for music and decided to try a new game with her: we would watch a clip of one of my favorites and then I would watch one of hers. She asked me to see the first concert I ever saw so I dialed up Whitesnake for her. "Ooooooooooh gross, look at their hair!". Ha. Funny. "they look like GIRLS!". I was forgetting that she usually just hears my music. When Tawny Katain shows up for the first time with her hair that would fill a small football stadium, she shrieked even louder......"Eeeeeewwwwwwww!". If she only knew how hot her daddy used to be for that same woman! Little did we know she would end up attacking her 17th famous boyfriend/husband with a shoe! Anyway, we watched some live clips as well and then we watched Carrie Underwood - her choice - which I didn't mind one bit if you get my drift. She asked me who my first favorite band was.....so I had to roll out "You wanted the best, you got the best - The hottest band in the world..........K-I-S-S........". She couldn't believe that I liked them. If you think she thought David Coverdale's hair was offensive, you should have heard her when Gene Simmons started wagging his tongue around! It was hilarious! We saw some Kelly Clarkson, we saw The Cure, then she wanted to find some Green Day. I had to watch the lyrics as she is only used to When September Ends and Good Riddance. We BOTH love Wake Me Up When September Ends. Her birthday is in September and I think thats what started it. Anyhoooo, it's outstanding to have a song that you can dig with your daughter and you both actually like it. I like it so much that when I got involved with a band over the internet with Still Moor Cowbell (regular poster Kevin), I suggested we do that song and I volunteered to both sing it and play drums. It didn't turn out too bad. If Still Moor Cowbell can upload it somewhere and pass me the link - I'll pass it on if anyone wants to check it out. I'm not sure you can grab it off our site where we upload our tracks to be mixed if you aren't a member. Anyway - she has us on her iPod singing it and likes to show it off. Funny she does that since she told Still A. Dad something to the effect of "him and his music that he thinks is so great....". Precious, isn't she? To get back to my reason for posting this - she was trolling for a Green Day song and came across a mash-up of Green Day and Kelly Clarkson. It flat out rocks. I'm very impressed with some of the mash-ups I come across. This is one of the better ones. I saw a great movie mash-up the other day between Star Wars and Boogie Nights. Instant classic. If you saw both movies, you would really like it. That was a stupid statement. I guess I should have said "If you saw Boogie Nights" you will really like it. Enjoy the mash-up. Pass it around. Found this one later, but didn't show it to her. TV Sucks. YouTube Rules.

Sandler In Nirvana? NSFW

I love The Wedding Singer. I love Adam Sandler. I love Nirvana and Kurt Cobain. Did it ever cross your mind that as much as this song was a joke....it could literally be on a Nirvana LP. My wife and I don't buy many movies. I typically only collect movies made by my favorites - Kevin Smith, QT and the Coen Brothers. However, I recently saw The Wedding Singer in a $5 bin and couldn't pass it up. We watched it and laughed like it was the first time we saw it. The music in the movie is quintessential 80's. TV sucks. I'm going to go watch more Sandler clips on YouTube.

The Answer is 1,000

The question is: how many times can I watch this in a row and still laugh out loud?

Google Coogle?

I bet a lot of people did today.

Secret Message For Phil?

So, last night as I was doing some late night office work, I dialed up Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" on iTunes. Along with the positive message of the song and all the good nostalgic reasons for using it in the finale of The Sopranos - a certain line jumped out at me and whacked me in the head:

"Working hard to get my fill..."

fill? Phil? hmmmmm. I think it's probably just a coincidence, but a cool one at that.

The Sopranos: Series Finale Autopsy Report

How fitting. The music playing when the credits roll is something I always look forward to. Tonight, there was silence. I love the ending. It said so much with saying so little. As Tony almost played 2 other songs at the diner, he finally settled on Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", one of my favorite songs to sing along to. The way Chase made you jumpy at the end, by Meadow having a problem parking, by the trucker looking at Tony, by the other stranger walking past Tony, by the two African American guys coming in (Tony is a known racist)....Chase was showing us that life goes on for Tony, but can he ever relax? Danger is around every corner with every stranger that he doesn't know. People at the top get whacked, it's what happens. He knows it, he said as much to Bobby while fishing and heard Bobby's voice before falling asleep saying "you probably won't even hear the footsteps". I thought Meadow would walk in right after a hit on the family and survie. Then I thought there would be a robbery and Tony may try to intervene. Then, I thought maybe a robbery and Meadow would walk in and scare the guy and get shot. I was on pins and needles for the last 2-3 minutes. Good stuff.

Tony believes he's on a lucky streak and I think that's why he's not that upset about the possibility of getting pinched by Carlo's information. He was right about one thing - he was afraid Christopher would get caught with drugs and give him up. As it turns out, it was Carlo's kid. Same theory, different delivery. Only one thing upset me a little during the episode and that was AJ's car blowing up. I really think they did that just for last week's teaser. That was pretty weak at best. Uncle Junior got a great sendoff and should win an Emmy award for the way he played the part coming down the stretch. Agent Harris likes Tony, more than he wants to admit. I wonder if he requested a transfer so he would never have to put him away? Did he request a transfer? I can't remember. Anyway - the Arabs story didn't get resolved - I guess we'll have to wait for the movie. Maybe in the movie my original prediction of Meadow being on a case that involves Tony will come to fruition? I had a big bowl of ice cream to give Tony a proper sendoff. Maybe I'll have to buy the DVDs and watch 13 episodes every 2 years, just like real life. I really thought maybe Paulie and Tony would get hit at the end sitting outside. That scene reminded me of the very beginning of the series. I also thought as he was in the back yard the ducks might come back. Nada. I did catch AJ quoting his grandmother again with the "drama" comment directed at Tony. That's Chase's way of letting us know that Livia ruined Tony, who in turn may have ruined AJ. They had Tony saying "Poor You" a few times this season as well.....another Livia quote. I enjoyed the episode as well as the season. Good writing all around. I'm glad Phil's head caved in like a melon. It's HBO - they should have shown it.

I'm Never Playing Drums Again

This kid is sooooooooooooooo good it's scary. I couldn't do half of this stuff if I played 12 hours a day. Now I know how Ringo Star must feel.

More Moves than U-Haul

This is funny. Back in my prime, I could do a pretty mean "Lasso Dance" ala John Travolta in Grease during the hand jive. I haven't tried it in a while. I'm getting so old I might hurt myself.