Photo of the week September 29th 2006

When the Supreme Court meets members of the public, this is one of the rooms where the photo-ops take place. A friend of mine had a friend from his high school that is working at the court and was able to give us a backstage tour. We got to see the Supreme Court dining area and the basketball court above "the highest court in the land"

8 months versus 8 years

Bill Clinton recently blew up at Chris Wallace when he was asked whether he did enough to get Bin Laden. His response was that Bush had 8 months and did not do anything. However, Bill Clinton had 8 years (don't forget the first World Trade Center attack happened within days of his inauguration) and had several attacks under his watch that did not receive a vigorous response. I am not saying attacks on Clinton's actions are necessarily justified (i.e. not with out some Monday morning quarterbacking) but it is ridiculous to suggest that it was Bush's inaction for those 8 months allowed 9/11 to happen or that he should be condemned for not being more proactive. Defending your record is understandable, but attacking your successor is highly irregular behavior for a former President.

--Joey

Photo of the week September 22nd 2006

Photo of the week September 22nd 2006

The magnificent Vienna Opera. Getting inside is likely to be more memorable than whatever you see.

--Joey

HDTV comes to our house

Well, today we bit the bullet, grabbed the bull by the horns, and various other cliches with the end result: We are now the (very!) proud owners of a Sony Bravia XBR 40" Full HD LCD. I will post pictures later, but for now I will just say we were blown away. In fact, the picture is considerably better than it was in the store.

I think that is because 1) we are using HDMI instead of Component Video, and B) we are not splitting a signal among 80 TVs. They gave us a demo of what 1080p will look like and it was beyond stunning though I would like to see it compared to what we have now. In any event, whenever it arrives we will be ready!

Discovery HD has a few cool shows, the oddest one may be "Sunrise Earth" which airs daily at 7. This reminds me a little like the scenery channel in Back to the Future 2. The crews follow sun up around the globe. HD Net features a series on European getaways, however, it seems like they are mostly getting away to France and Italy.

The Bucs game looked great even if they did not.

--Joey

Muslims outraged by Pope's remarks? BWAHAHAHA

http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1873914,00.html

Muslims have chutzpah, after numerous calls by religious leaders to wipe Israel off the face of the map, to murder infidels, order fatwas they now want the pope to apologize for claiming Islam has been spread with violence.

Good thing that doesn't happen now

--Joey

Photo of the week September 15th 2006

Photo of the week September 15th 2006


Typical January day in Marbella, Spain. This week there is a twofer. I decided to attempt an ambigram for my blog.



--Joey

Gold Myrrh and Franziskaner

Jesus' birthday last week, so I brought over a sixer of Franziskaner Weissbier (this was what made me sick in Salamanca) to enjoy.

On the beer front, I picked up Sam Adams' new Founding Fathers fourpack. The Thomas Jefferson Honey, Ginger and Lemon ale was very interesting. The honey made it a little sweeter than I would have liked (a little extra hopping would have been better), but it was still very good and definitely worth seeking out.

The Oktoberfest beers are in full force Hacker-Pschorr, being my favorite, and fourth best according to BeerAdvocate.com.

The Bucs lost badly to the Ravens so I hope they can make it up against Atlanta this Sunday. The game has a chance to look really good, because we are getting Verizon FiOS on Friday, and possibly and HDTV this weekend.

If I can, I am going to swapout the Blog Title graphic you see on the mainpage to one I made today.

--Joey

Photo of the week September 8th 2006

Four week old Clancy, the latest pet addition to the Grandparent's house.

Photo of the week August 31st

It has been a while since I had a photo of the week. This is from Rome (obviously) with Saint Peters, overlooking the Bridge of Angels on the left, and Castel Sant Angelo on the right. My last day in Rome was a little dreary so I didn't spend a lot of time taking photos. Nor was I able to get back to area at night. While you can see Rome in 2-3 days, I think a week is about right (if you can afford the time) because there are tons of things I missed that I learned about after the fact. This part of Rome features prominently in Dan Brown's first Langdon novel, Angels and Demons. I picked up Digital Fortress and read the prologue. Another person dying in Europe (and, dying in another place I have been, the Plaza de Espana in Seville)


--Joey

Joey 1 Seminole Indian Tribe 0

Joey 1 Seminole Indian Tribe 0

Tuesday night we celebrated the boss' birthday at the Hard Rock Casino. The setup was really nice, we got a "tiki" style hut, sandwiches, sodas and a server for alcohol. I caved to peer pressure and gave up my request for a passable (No Sammy, Yuengling or SNPA) beer, and got a Budweiser. In order appreciate the good stuff you got to sample beer flavored clubsoda.

After a little bsing and some birthday cake, we headed into the casino. This being my first visit to a casino, I didn't understand how the slots worked exactly. I put in an Abe Lincoln to start me off on 25 cent slots. I learned how penny slots and nickel slots "work". I thought if each "pull" is only a penny, that will take a long time for the casino to make any money. The deal is that you pick "credits" to bet 20 credits is 20 cents or 1 dollar for penny and nickel slots, respectively.

Aha! So that five dollar bill disappears in 2 minutes. I put in another one and win a couple bucks. Sweet. Cashout. I take my new receipt for 8 bucks to another machine (a more traditional one with 7s bars and cherries). Bar bar, then I slam down. BAR! I do it again and now I am at 22 bucks. Cashout.

What do people like more than losing money in a casino? Why hearing me gloat about winning, of course! I kept myself largely in tact for the next two machines, when I sit down next to my boss and get on a winning streak again. The only problem is, the slots are SO complicated, I have no idea when I am winning or losing. There is a bingo square in the middle, a variety of wheels, and 20 permutations of what is considered a win. Somehow I lost 8 bucks and then hit a "guess a letter" puzzle that paid me 25 or so.

At the 41 dollar mark, I run over to my mentor who urinated his way through 24 dollars in 20 minutes for advice on new machines. He recommends Cleopatra which made him some bucks in Vegas. My cubicle neighbor concurs. Dime slots. He recommends 40 credits. Gulp. 4 bucks a pull. Win lose win lose win win lose win lose win win. 65 bucks now. I then get 3 scafales or something like that. I didn't understand it but my audience did... 15 free pulls. I knew this was good. See if you bet 40 credits, you only lose-lose (meaning get 0 credits) once in a while mostly you get 20, 30, 45, 50 credits so you are going up and down but you are always going down.

However, 15 free tries at 20 credits a piece is 30 bucks. I happened to hit a few 75s and2-3 150s and a double (300). I walked out with 146.95. I cashed out and headed back to the tiki to rub in my success a little more. We hung out to check on Ernesto and called it a night. I couldn't resist. I went back in with this rule in mind. If I drop below 140, I walk. First pull on Cleopatra. ZIP. Odd, only happened once or twice before. Second pull. Nada. Weird. One more, because three in a row never happened the whole night. Goose Egg. I walked out with 134.95.

--Joey