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.)

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.

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.

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.

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?

You see, sometimes reading the bad press about you gets you mad. This lets you do stuff you normally couldn’t. Today’s object lesson is the Houston Texans, who beat out Miami in what should not have been a close game. At least, that’s what the talking heads kept telling Miami. And for a first, no sacks on David Carr. Go figure.

If you can’t tell I managed to catch a baseball game, parts of three football games, and a really exciting finish to an IRL race today whilst puttering about writing cover letters and making dinner (beef Stroganoff FYI).

We enjoy living here and all, but I sure wish these job prospects would liven up. That’s alright though; I have another three weeks of contract work to look forward to so all is not lost. It just isn’t all it should be. That, and Leslie’s job keeps her busy seven days a week. Not the challenging and rewarding kind of busy she was looking forward to either. More of the “lots of paperwork and people who don’t want to do their jobs” kind. Those are my words, not her’s. I just make the observations and feed them to you.

To finish on a lighter(?) note, an editorial cartoon from Joe Heller at The Green Bay Press-Gazette about our lovely gas prices.

Alright, stop imagining my singing voice. Trust me, its better that way. Alright, we are soon off to Ohio for the weekend for Leslie’s family reunion in the Dayton-ish area. We’ll be back late Monday. Should be a lot of fun.

A lot of the link topics have been of a serious nature of late. Relax, this entry is all in good fun.

For today’s offering, we have a quiz called Programming Language Creator or Serial Killer, courtesy of Craig Trible. Even if you score high on this, remember that you had to think about it a couple times.

Leslie has contributed a link concerning the dangers of drinking in excess. Yes, it will make you shudder. (And yes, it’s comedy people.)

Plus, who said playing computer games was bad for you? Not the BBC.

Update: I almost forgot to mention this. I have a two-week temporary job at Bally Gaming filling in for someone at their help desk there. Its not a permanent gig but I can at least be doing SOMETHING for a few days. Wish me luck and all that.

Our building is filling up with students. One of the guys who moved in next door to us is really, REALLY loud. Hopefully he’ll find the error of his ways soon. Or just move somewhere else….

Okay, an update to that ludicrous lawsuit against Al Franken. It has been basically laughed out of court as it should have. And then there’s this odd story, which still seems like someone’s idea of a joke to me, but it appears to be real.

If you are familiar with the trashy web trend of having people vote for pictures of you, ala Amihotornot and that nonsense, Ned Bronson linked me to Amigovernorornot.com, which is a pretty squirrelly take on the idiotic California rebellion-of-the-grumpy. My favorite pick thus far?

And yes, that link has potentially offensive stuff at play too so once again, you were warned.

A movie critic from Kansas City tries to explain reality to the movie industry. I doubt she’ll succeed, but let’s wish her the best anyways.

And I haven’t linked any Dave Barry stuff for awhile, but here is what we’ll just call the Back to School edition.

And in a tie-in to yesterday’s idiot parade, we bring you “people who should stick to waving protest signs.” I may be cruel in your eyes, but I care a lot more about history than I do a duck. Not that I particularly like liver, but I don’t ever plan on stopping anyone from eating it; though I may stop you from cooking it in our kitchen.

Other stuff:

Democracy in action?

From Australia, a humorous look at SWAT hand signals (yes, its off-color and you HAVE been warned).

Last but not least, are you about to have a blackout? A link for the paranoid.