Author Archives: John Wallenfeldt

Farewell Rerun

At ESPN, Jim Caple continues his delusions with the Series heading back to Boston with the Cubs up 3-2.

“Evil” Ned Bronson will age you with linking us this story about modern day kids playing, and shredding, our beloved childhood memories.

George Washington was known for a lot of things. Making whiskey is one of those more obscure accolades. Some recreational distillers are working on changing that.

In sad news, Fred “Rerun” Berry from What’s Happening! passed away Tuesday. I don’t know about you, but I used to watch the heck out of that show.

To close, you’ve probably been hearding about how all these people and cities are buying drugs overseas to save money. At the New York Times, there is a story about students finding that their textbooks cost 50% or more in their bookstores than online. (Use Member ID wallenfeldt and password guest to access the story.)

Post-Oktoberfest musings

Well, it is a hateful world apparently. Did you know you are just the puppet of a shadow Jewish government? At least, that’s what the Malaysian Prime Minister believes. Education: it does a body good, chump.

I was reading an article by Madeleine Albright in a recent copy of Foreign Affairs. A pretty good objective read to be quite honest with you.

One happier news, the Dilbert site is hosting the results of the annual Weasel Awards. The results are about what I expect with the cross-current of readers of the comic.

From the world of delusion, the World Series that should be in progress: a tongue-in-cheek look at the Cubs-Red Sox series.

The contagion spreads

Having lived there, I know Oklahoma can be short-sighted at times when it comes to cultural issues, but this throws them in to Texas League ridiculousness (is that a word?).

The BBC has an article about computer mishaps that is really surreal and good for a laugh or two.

Slate is running a series about a guy in Japan addressing some of the cliches we have about them. WARNING: the Tuesday article is a very frank assessment of manga.

And there’s also an article about how presidents get trapped in their own job, enough to where they believe their own press. Scary.

To close, there’s bad news for short people and their paychecks. Sorry.

Incidentally, the website is over on the new server and I think things are shaking themselves out as far as getting that all up and running. Content changes to come. Really.

Sosa is NOT clutch (aka Misery loves company)

UPDATE: Well, the Red Sox lost, absolving me of any reason whatsoever to watch the World Series. Season’s over kids…unless you are some kind of sicko.

Well, other than striking out without even trying to hit that last pitch, you can’t put the blame on him solely. Or even Kerry Wood. Or that fan in Game 6. But damn, how depressing. Maybe next year?

On more thing, is it just me or is that smug, pompous twit Miguel Cabrera absolutely scream “Future Yankee”?

Okay, on to happier – or at least different – topics.

In case you haven’t heard, vodka is 500 years old. Raise a toast.

Bad idea. Absolutely horrid idea.

Here’s an article comparing those RIAA nitwits to Edison’s power grab with the movie industry way back when. Here’s hoping they fall on their face just the same.

This weekend, Leslie finally gets away from work long enough for us to hit some haunted houses and the local Oktoberfest celebration.

Mind your money

Well, the Cubs are in the Division series (too bad they dropped that first game) and so are the Red Sox. So yeah, I’m still interested enough to keep watching baseball.

In the current events type of thing, I’m going to totally ignore that whole mess in California and hope it goes away now that those imbeciles have turned a serious situation over to an even worse actor than Ronald Reagan…and that’s saying something. No that’s not a political assessment, I mean it for what I said, so hold your email.

Tomorrow you should not be surprised to start seeing colorful $20 bills. You can read some more about them here, as well as past attempts of playing with our money.

I would put this on the support page but a) no one goes there, and b) its more human interest anyway. This first story is an explanation of the Scroll Lock on your keyboard, the second about the guy who brought you Control-Alt-Delete. Thanks for Robert Robinson for the heads-up on the first story.

FYI: The site may be misbehaving in a few days. I am just about out of space on this particular service and they have been spamming me about giving them money for more space. Personally, I’d rather not do it. So I found another hosting company that should work out a lot better (I hope so anyway). So between now and early next week you should notice a temporary outage as I move the site and then adjust the domain registry to the new server.

I love this country?

Okay, let’s get a couple things straight. If you want to go be a Nazi, move out of Texas, take a rowboat out to the middle of the Atlantic and sink it.

Two, I don’t care what your politics are. Even if you are an unsavory, pompous jerk of a radio personality, race baiting is a BAD thing. Of course, he’ll increase ratings which is all that matters to the media goons. Just makes you sick to realize how far we have to go in this country.

By the way, I’ve been watching The Blues on PBS and you can still catch the last few episodes this week. I should have been hyping it all along. Good stuff.

Go Cubs!

Well, the baseball postseason has started, which means I now spend a lot of time glued to the television. Thus far, the Yankees have dropped one; which is a nice start to things. But we’ve got the Twins, and probably the Red Sox if necessary, to take care of that unpleasantness. Right now, its time to focus on the Cubs taking a long shot at winning the National League. Yeah, I’m probably dreaming but its fun to watch.

UPDATE: Cubs Win! And I tell you, if all their games are that tense, I’m gonna need a cardiologist. Geez.

If you want access to course material from a prestigious university, MIT has made them all available online at their CourseWare site.

What the heck are they thinking?

Yes, its another episode of really stupid people and ideas.

Here’s the one toy NO kid wants for Christmas; doesn’t mean their parents won’t try to get it for them. I’m going to just gloss over the fact that the only reason this guy knows how to fly a plane was because he was avoiding active military duty during Vietnam. Let’s just focus on the ridiculous notion that piloting a plane in the air over a totally clear sky does NOT make you a hero or worthy of an action figure. How about we go the REALLY morose route of making action figures for each of the guys dying for the war he gleefully pursued? Would that be enough to fill someone’s incessant need to make a profit off of this? The worst part? Its on back order. Idiots.

Another potentially racist moron in Texas. No, I’m not picking on them; the news just reports it.

Oh yeah, you can call them French fries again.

Now, interesting stuff:

Popular Science put out an article about the worst jobs in science. Via Slashdot, I learned of a story concerning the history of Murphy’s Law. Its pretty interesting. Also, I will link you to Unwise Microwave Oven Experiments if you promise to just read the article and not actually try any of the mentioned items.

Apparently I’ve been labelled a pacifist amongst other things

The Galva News has an article about the local National Guard unit being shipped out soon. In it, my brother Tom is interviewed about the situation (by the by, if someone could send that to me I’d appreciate it). Anyways, we’ve known about it for a few months but did not know what we could say or not. I’ve had a lot of time to think about it since then and you should probably all be able to infer that while I don’t think our country got into Iraq on the best of international terms, I also do not think that leaving that place in total chaos is the answer either. So, should any of you choose to make some impassioned plea with me to get into line and shut up about questioning our government, kindly take a moment to realize that a) I have thought about it, b) I do have a history degree and am fully capable of taking the long view of recent events, and c) my brother is getting sent over to get shot at. Yes, I actually had a conversation tonight whereupon my patriotism and objectivity were questioned. I don’t appreciate either suggestion and will stop venting about it now.

More signs that we have a long way to go with race relations in Texas. Hey, this time they were acting on orders from some national outfit. Well-intentioned perhaps, but way out of line.

In sports, if you have been following baseball at all, you might realize that I am so completely torn right now. I have some kind of genetic affinity for being a Cubs fan (thanks Dad), though I managed to learn to follow the Astros from when I was a kid living in Pasadena. Both are vying for a post-season spot and only one of them is likely to go to the playoffs. I figure if the Cubs go, I can then hope for the impossible: a seven-game Cubs-Red Sox series which would likely be an event so improbable the planet would tilt on its axis and it would stop being 100 degrees every day here in Vegas.

And yes, Japan now has Hello Kitty taxis. I’ve been meaning to link this for a few days now, but I think it speaks volumes about how different that country is from the US. Having been there, I can imagine how cute and yet sickening those things must be to look at. Face it, our taxis are no fun here.

Last, but not least, this link takes you to the MC Hawking site. Yeah, basically some software developer decided that the concept of uber-genius Stephen Hawking singing a pack of science-ish rap covers could make him money. I don’t know whether to laugh hysterically or just shake my head in shame for our species.

Weekend wrapup

Well, if you haven’t all heard, Johnny Cash died the other day. Time has a pretty good article on his life that you may wish to check out. Its not often that you get a bona fide artist that can transcend genres so I suppose its a universal loss for a lot of us.

In the world of sports, you won’t hear me praise the University of Michigan often, but kicking Notre Dame’s teeth in certainly qualifies. Go Big Blue!

And now on to imbeciles. Texans got around to dealing with a certain faction of their citizens who forgot what the Civil Rights Act was all about. Too bad they had to waste time on whether or not it was “permissible” to change things.

And, if you were expecting residents of Florida to actually be smarter than they were three years ago; think again. Florida legislators are trying to give some students free passes to graduate without completing their senior year in high school. Remember earlier this year when a whole mess of students couldn’t pass a test that would qualify them as having a good education? Yeah, same kids. And just in time for next year’s presidential election.

And in Washington D.C., the move to potentially abuse our civil rights continues with a whole slew of new laws that make the Patriot Act look like a “Girls Keep Out” sign on a treehouse. You can read more on this at the New York Times (log in using “wallenfeldt” as the MemberID and “guest” as the password). I mean, let’s be honest, how does checking out what I’m reading at the library have to do with capturing Osama bin Laden? We ARE still planning on finding him, right?