This Blog Is Full Of Crap

My New Year's Resolution is: "I will be the husband that the wonderful and amazing person my wife is deserves to have."

So, she asked me to have coffee ready for her when the alarm goes off at 9:45, right?

I go to set up the coffee machine... but it hasn't been cleaned since its last use.

I should have cleaned it last night so it would be ready this morning.

Oh well. Time to do a rush-cleaning and fire up the bastard.

It'll be ready just in time, based on the sleepyhead's track record of wearing out the snooze bar.

Grumble... grumble... is the meadow on fire... grumble grumble...

An American diplomat and his driver were shot to death in Khartoum.

An American diplomat and his driver were shot to death today in the Sudanese capital, the U.S. Embassy said. A spokesman said it "too early to tell" if the attack was terror related.

The shooting came a day after a joint African Union-United Nations force took over peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region. Though Darfur, far to the west, is engulfed in violence, the Sudanese capital and its surroundings rarely see political violence or attacks by Islamic militants.

The Sudanese state news agency SUNA quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying the incident was "isolated and has no political or ideological connotations" and pledged to bring the culprits to justice.

Based on long-established State Department policy, will his killers and their backer will be ignored?

I don't plan on watching any of them.

Know what I'd like to hear out of a bowl game?

Some graduating Senior getting a career-ending injury, falling back on his degree, and becoming a success story in spite of his athletic upbringing.

And not out of pity for his injury, either, like a car salesman or a born-again preacher. Or a coach. Or some pretty-boy politician. Or some sports-broadcast journalist.

No, I'm talking about some kind of doctor or scientist. They use their mind to better themselves and society.

When "student-athletes" get promised a free ride through college, get injured, and then become academic successes without anything to show for it on the playing field or the Athletic Department's trophy case, how do you think the Alumni Association's boosters feel?

On the other hand, maybe I feel a little pity for the dumb thugs who get injured in their final moment of glory in the bowl game that don't have the brains to have made the most of their time in college.

But I doubt it. They shouldn't really have been there in the first place, eating up resources that should have been used for education.

I wonder how foreigners perceive our educational system in that regard. I mean, how often do you hear of some international student coming here on an athletic scholarship?

For all it shovels out to the colleges for appearance fees, the NCAA is still going to make a hell of a lot of money today.

The Carnival Of The Cats appears to be resolving to it's new home.

Just in case you thought that Fateh wasn't a terrorist organization anymore, all the bullshit spewed by the palestinians about the killers of two soldiers has been hosed away and the truth revealed"

The terrorists who gunned down two off-duty soldiers hiking near Hebron on Friday are both Palestinian Authority workers, and one of them is even a member of the official PA security forces, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Service) revealed Tuesday night.

Since the attack on Friday, the PA has claimed that the murderers of David Rubin and Ahikam Amihai were unaffiliated terrorists. On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that at least two of them were Fatah operatives.

According to details of the attack released Tuesday, the gunmen - Ali Dandis, 24, and Amar Taha, 26, both residents of Hebron - surrendered on the day of the attack to the Palestinian security forces in Hebron out of fear that they would be caught by the IDF. They also handed over the soldiers' weapons.

Were those particular weapons used by the killers provided by the United States as part of the moronic program to empower Mahmoud Abbas in his imaginary campaign to fight Hamas to stability in the Palestinian Authority?

If so, they should be handed back to Bush during a press conference, still stained with the killers' blood.

In 2008, with all the evidence available, there cannot be any doubt in a rational mind that the Palestinian Authority employs terrorists, trains terrorists, and equips terrorists.

Why is Bush so unwilling to put a wreath on Arafat's grave and yet he throws rose petals for the equally murderous Mahmoud Abbas?

It's the checkered tablecloth and faux military outfit Arafat wore, isn't it? Abbas has worked hard to package himself in a way that appeals to Westerners, with the clean look, nice suits, and lack of a gun at his side to wave around when he's pissed.

And Bush has fallen for it.

Before, I was off for four days.

This past week, I've been off for five days.

I'm a little unclear on the concept of "Work."

I guess I need to be extra-careful I don't try to get on the 102.

That would be, like, funny or something.

Better lock your doors and protect your children, because DB Cooper is out there and causing mayhem and threatening the existence of our society and...

No. Really. The FBI is turning the heat up on this cold case.

It is considered one of the great unsolved mysteries of FBI history: how a seemingly quiet man in his mid-40s hijacked an airliner somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nev., in November 1971, then parachuted in his loafers and trench coat, making off with $200,000 in cash.

Who was he? Did he survive? After all these years, federal authorities say they still do not know, and the case lingers and vexes and fascinates as the only unsolved airplane hijacking in U.S. history.

This is the FBI equivalent of NORAD tracking Santa Claus.

How many more days until we don't have to hear anything about Iowa for a few years?

The shocking expenditures: about $200 per vote for each of the roughly 250,000 caucus-goers expected to turn out.

At this point, why not just have everybody stand up on a wooden stump and auction them off to the candidates?

Just got an email from astros.com that they are having a 15% sale on all outerwear.

I guess people who have been burning their Clemens and Pettite jerseys in disgust need to buy some new Tejada jerseys to burn.

Thunderbird thought this email message was some kind of scam, but I guess it's just as jaded about the Houston Chronicle as I am... or just the presence of Chuck Rosenthal in an email was enough to... um... set it off... as it were...

Rosenthal quits re-election bid

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal has withdrawn his name from the Republican ballot for re-election today amid pressure from his own party following last week's release of intimate emails he wrote to his personal assistant.Read more

Well, at least Chuck dropped out before it did the party irreparable damage before the election like Tom DeLay did for District 22 that resulted Lampson to beat Sekula-Gibbs.

Not that Smoke-Free Shelley proved herself worth of Washington while she kept Lampson's seat warm for him.

More audio rambling on the way out from work... I slam Iowa and wonder why people would listen to 5 and a half hours of a podcast without a break.

Space Casey is back with episode #6!

So, where's Karstoo? You've been wondering about him, right?

Um... I... er...

Well, she kept begging people to call her voicemail, eh.

Ohhh, some people don't like you to talk like that. Ohh, some people like to shut you up for saying those things.
You know that. Lots of people. Lots of groups in this country want to tell you how to talk.
Tell you what you can't talk about. Well, sometimes they'll say, well you can talk about something but you can't joke about it.
Say you can't joke about something because it's not funny. Comedians run into that shit all the time.
Like rape. They'll say, "you can't joke about rape. Rape's not funny."
I say, "fuck you, I think it's hilarious. How do you like that?"
I can prove to you that rape is funny. Picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd.
- George Carlin

If you need further proof, here it is.

Power glitched a while back. Everything went black.

Then the power came back. Everything whirled right up, nothing lost.

Everybody was surprised to see it happen again a while later, but you have to drop off of generator to go to line power again, right?

Life is full of surprises when you're ignorant, I guess.

The Mrs. gave me some celery and peanut butter snack packs to take to work.

Just had one. It was excellent. Thank you.

I also have some of the weird triangle-packs of hummus and a huge box of cheddar goldfish in the locked drawer at work.

They'll keep for a while, so I can use them for snacking some other time, or I can use them as a substitute for lunch of a day I don't feel like going out on an adventure.

Friday's lunch is going to be the first adventure into the Tunnels.

The fun part of it is that it's going to be with the guy sitting at "my" desk right now... I don't feel irritated in the least with him, mind you, because it's not his fault that when it comes to brass tacks, the company treats this department like pigs at a trough instead of valued employees.

The drones in Customer Service each have assigned desks to themselves. Heck, they have a bunch of empty desks, and they pretty much do drone-work based on calls and tickets like us.

Hopefully the person I'm talking to after work one day next week is not just interested in treating their employees well, but making me one of them. (And they don't mind if I'm dressed for the weather and my dayjob, which they have expressed that they won't mind)

Shorter commute... interesting restaurants nearby... culture in the theater district... sports on the east side of the Downtown area... and now the opportunity to quickly get to things Downtown I need to get to.

It just keep getting better.

After going 1-15, the Miami Dolphins fired most of their coaching staff today:

Cam Cameron was fired as coach of the Miami Dolphins on Thursday by new boss Bill Parcells after only one win in his first season.

The dismissal means the reeling franchise will have its fifth coach in five seasons in 2008.

Parcells began work Dec. 27 as executive vice president of football operations and quickly concluded the Dolphins need another fresh start.

It has been 37 years since the Dolphins fired a coach. But they never finished 1-15 before.

All but two members of Cameron's coaching staff were also fired, but some might be rehired by the new head coach, the Dolphins said. Retained were assistant special teams coach Steve Hoffman and linebackers coach George Edwards.

Over the past two years, the team went 7-25. But then, that comes as no surprise to Houstonians, who have intimate experience with the jackass who was calling the shots for the offense.

Maybe David Carr and Dom Capers could go on a comedy tour or something, letting schoolkids sack Carr for fifty bucks and then Dom can make excuses for him?

It's a lunch experiment with the Hard Rock Cafe today. Not much bitching and ranting, which is what some people listen for, I suppose.

Cost of lunch was $15 plus 10 minutes off the clock to walk to the restaurant and get the food. (I probably could have done this over a break) I ate it at my desk and,, yes, it was as wonderful as every time I've had their fancy mac and cheese entree.

Tomorrow, we're going to explore the Northwest corner of the tunnel system for grub.

Then, next week, the second half of the experiment will take place - Microwaveable Stouffer's.

IowaJim: methinks @TeeMonster is the voicemailer in Space Casey episode 6. what do you say, @christianaellis?

christianaellis: @indianajim Bzzt! I'm afraid you are incorrect. That was none other than Laurence Simon, who played Karstoo in Eps 1 and 2.

Actually, it was Karstoo that called. How else would it explain the intergalactic charges on my SkypeOut?

Cable company sent a new lineup in the mail.

New channels on the television.

Um.. er... what's television again?

Oh. Right. The thing we play DVDs on.

Dodd and Biden are done.

If the people of Iowa have served any purpose, it was to send these two numbskulls back to their dayjobs.

Now we can stop giving a shit about Iowa for another few years before we do another one of these election things.

Don't like the Huck?

Well, how about a T-shirt?

In case you thought that Larry Craig was scum for offering to fall on his sword and then backing away at the last minute to cling to his public office, well, how about we go local:

Just when it started to look like a normal day in Harris County politics, District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal acknowledged Thursday he may jump back on the ballot for re-election, even as one of his best-known assistant DAs, Kelly Siegler, has become a candidate in the March 4 Republican primary.

I was going to praise Rosenthal for bowing out to give his party time to come up with a replacement candidate in a way that Tom DeLay didn't, but it seems that this race is about to get seriously Chucked up.

Oh, I'll redistribute the link to your show, George.

I'll also offer up Meryl's slam on Mearsheimer using Benny Morris' reaction to the screed.

As for Mearsheimer's pride in the distribution of the book and the sales figures, well, Mein Kampf is often the most popular book in Turkey and other countries in that region.

No surprises there, eh.

Europe's receptivity to hearing their discussions in academic circles, especially in London, makes sense when you consider the vehement anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic lobbies among the academic unions.

Ha'aretz as the "New York Times of Israel" is quite a condemnation in this mind, since the pro-terrorist anti-Administration attitude of the NYT and Ha'aretz are quite similar.

Enough live-commenting of a recording... I'm going to listen to all of this, every vile minute of it, and I invite others with more delicate razors in their boots to listen and prepare for the necessary vivisection of this podcast.

UPDATE:
Further proof that Banford (and thus Mearsheimer) are liars about the Liberty incident.

(Via SoccerDad)

The headlines scream that a family of Palestinians were killed by the IDF.

You have to get to the end to find the reason why they got rubbed out of The Book Of Life:

The attack in Bani Suhailah, east of Khan Younis, killed Karima Fayad, her daughter Asma, 20, and sons Sami, 28, and Ahmed, 31, when tank shells struck their home. Israeli officials said the men had been shooting at Israeli forces before taking refuge in the house. Blood soaked the walls of the two-story home and olive trees in the back yard.

As the bodies were removed in white coffins, neighbors and relatives wailed and shouted, "There is no God but Allah!"

"I didn't get to say goodbye," cried Maria Fayad, who lost her stepmother and three siblings in the attack. Another Fayad relative died in clashes nearby. "How can they all be gone in one minute?"

It took a whole minute?

According to the Geneva Conventions, the combatants not in uniform using human shields, willing or not, are responsible for their welfare.

Just because they ran through the door of their home, it doesn't mean they're home free.

So, to answer your question, they were gone the moment they got their guns.

And, no, this does not rationalize the Gazan attacks against civilians with rockets and drive-by shootings. Those attacks are meant to harm civilian Jews for the sake they are civilian Jews. The civilian Jews that are targeted deliberately are not engaged in combat at the time, and therefore do not fall under any rational operator's definition as a legitimate target.

But then, since when have the Gazans, Palestinians, or their backers ever been rational in this war of terror against Israel?

Yeah, it sucks that a whole family gets wiped out like that. In a perfect world, just the jackoffs with the guns get wasted, but when the jackoffs fly back to the coop, still firing, they tend to earn themselves an ass-whoping that makes a mess of the whole coop.

Classic government in action:

The recently retired director of the National Museum of the American Indian spent $48,500 in museum funds to commission a portrait of himself and selected a non-Indian artist to create it, a newspaper reported today.

On the other hand, I'm a bit worried about the soap in the bathrooms of the Holocaust Museum.

Okay, folks... let's try something new. Caption the cat:

Comments are open.

Don't forget Friday Ark today and Carnival of the Cats on Sunday.

Okay, so I have to post about Britney, right?

Why did she have custody rights in the first place?

I mean, come on - this is a no-brainer.

Crackhead solves the problem of catch-and-release with crazy drug addicts:

A 28-year-old Angleton man died after officers said he ate a bag of what they believe was crack cocaine while being booked into the Brazoria County Jail.

William Yendis Franklin, was arrested by a Texas state trooper in Angleton Thursday afternoon on a charge of possession of a controlled substance and was taken to the county jail.

While he was being searched as part of the routine booking process, he reached into his underwear and pulled out a small bag.

Is there any way they can mix crack with pot so it gives people the munchies and this happens more often?

Heading into High Tech Texan for three hours.

And who did I run across while recording?

It's Garf! Yay! (He's also firing up his Twitter stream for CES)

I'll be on the show from 11AM to 2PM today, check out the streaming at their website or hop on the High Tech Texan

Intel is giving the heave-ho to the One Laptop Per Child program.

I think they should have the One Laptop Per One And A Half Children.

As Guy David says, life is not surreal enough.

Whenever someone follows me in Twitter, I always ask them via DM "Why me?"

I haven't gotten an answer back yet.

But Pizzababe has answered the question for my utterz:

BTW..because your bitching is amusing!

(Insert obligatory bad imitation of Joe Pesci)

Roger Clemens and Raggedy Andy are heading to Washington:

Clemens, Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, three former New York Yankees raised in the Houston area and implicated in the use of performance-enhancement drugs, have been asked to appear before Congress on Jan. 16 to discuss the findings in the Dec. 13 report released by former Sen. George Mitchell.

I'm so proud of these two being ready to testify before Congress on their "special" relationship.

Show your pride, boys!

I've got the camera charged and ready for heading up to the Cat Show.

Maybe I can offer a trade or something. Nardo for a bucket of environmentally-friendly litter.

It's time for another fun episode of The Carnival of the Cats.

It's up to #199. How many other blog carnivals have lasted this long?

Long may you run, COTC. You're in good hands now.

I don't know if anybody caught this, but:

Wondering if I should do something special for show 1000 next week...

Welcome to the 1,000 Club, Ed.

When I celebrated the 1,000th episode of 100 Word Stories, I changed the opening theme and the background music over to Guy David's musical loop.

So, yes, you should do something special.

For the first time in years, Roger didn't need a closer after six innings.

I didn't watch, my mind's been made up for a while.

Man's a mercenary, and so's his raggedy-armed buddy.

Garf is at CES, twittering and utterzing.

Dwight is blogging and twittering.

Which of these Houston technogunslingers is winning the shootout?

Don't you just love Palestinian Love? Holding hands... walking around Gaza...

Soldiers said the two were holding hands, apparently pretending to be a couple. Palestinian sources named the woman as Usma Abu Fanuna, of the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Must be sweet and innocent, right?

Two armed Palestinians, a man and a woman, approached IDF troops near the Erez Crossing Monday afternoon and started shooting, prompting return fire, Army Radio reported.

The two combatants were killed in the incident. The IDF found additional ammunition on the scene, including an explosive device on the woman's person.

Wrong.

Oh well. Saves Israel the cost of feeding two more prisoners or adding them to the list of prisoners that Amnesty International will get their panties wet over.

Better to hand them back as corpses than waving their wretched fists in the air with what passes for pride among the barbarians.

This blog will be six years old this week.

Here's a flower:

Pretty.

MD Anderson wants your essence!

For the first time, scientists have captured detailed images of life's essence.

The dazzling pictures reveal a key step in the process of cell division, which all organisms must undergo to survive. The moment occurs deep within a cell, as two proteins work in concert to unzip a strand of DNA to create two new cells.

I guess we'll need to keep an eye out for Skeksis and Mystics in the Medical Center, forming around a Dark Crystal to revive our fair kingdom.

Y'all know by know that I have a bottomless well of hate to draw from.

What can I say - it's what makes me special.

Anyway, this endless supply of hate can be used for good or evil, so I'm deciding to use it for good.

I've lost 10 pounds so far, hating this additional weight, using the extra time and motivation from the time I've gotten back from the demon-bitch that is METRO. (I missed giving the 102 both middle fingers this morning by 10 seconds)

And, if I keep this up, I'm going to reach 175.

Just as many years ago, I imagine stomping Jim Stanley's face into a bloody pulp with every step I walked, I'm going to imagine it's thief-in-chief of METRO Frank Wilson's face now.

This means I'll be eating healthy stuff at work for lunch, and I may just get in a few coworkers faces who leave out big tubs of chocolate candy within smelling distance. In fact, I'm going to put this tub of junk in the break room right now.

Um... the celery I chew on is... um... Frank's spine? Fingers?

Maybe this doesn't work out so right after all.

My walk from the 9 drop-off to work is 7 blocks. The drop-off from the 53 to home is about the same, although I've been known to walk 7 blocks back to the 9 to catch a mall run and then long walk home.

I walked to the grocery store and back yesterday to pick up some more healthy grab-snacks for work. Hummus and fat-free wheat crackers, baby!

Then, when I get home and I reboot the computer, that downtime is sit-up time. Just as the boot-up time in the morning is.

If I can make a difference for others, the least I can do is try to make a difference with myself and stick to this plan.

Rodeo Lineup has been announced.

No George Strait.

Darn.

The Chronicle website slugged their Clemens story "Clemens in the fight of his life" on the home page.

So what's he dying of, Chronicle?

Sony does the Green Thing by adding fuel waste, paper waste, and consumer hassle to their version of iTunes.

Stick to the Walkman, Sony.

It's been oddly warm here in Houston as of late, somewhat unseasonable for a January even for these parts, but that's about to change.

Houstonians may get wet this afternoon as a cold front moves into the area and returns temperatures to about normal for this time of year, forecasters said.

"We're still looking at about a 40- to 50-percent chance of rain this afternoon," National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Overpeck said early this morning. "We'll cool down tomorrow."

It's always good to have a cold snap or two to take care of the mosquitos. Otherwise, you end up choking on clouds of mosquito-spray that the city spreads all over the place.

Pardon me, but who gives a rat's ass what a bunch of foreign press employees think of our entertainment industry?

What matters is that they keep buying the shit coming out of Hollywood and giving the planet a distorted view of our country.

It's not like we're producing much more than entertainment product and marketing bullshit these days, right?

The pretty parasites of Tinseltown are fleeing their host for another.

If the first thing you think of when you head to the polls is "$CELEBRITY backs them, so I'll vote for them" please do the country a favor and rip up your voter registration card.

Zombies and robots don't get a vote.

I believe this should finish the nutcase off.

Of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a newsletter said, "Whether it was a setup by the Israeli Mossad, as a Jewish friend of mine suspects, or was truly a retaliation by the Islamic fundamentalists, matters little."

Now he can't explain away all those votes against foreign aid to Israel as mere isolationism. The man's got a serious problem.

So, how long before his podcast lapdog Adam Curry bolts for the exit?

Shawon Dunstan got 1 vote in the Hall Of Fame ballot.

Doesn't the league's drug policy cover those kind of demonstrations of wildly aberrant behavior?

Frisky's headed to the vet today, possibly for the last time.

Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated.

Bush in Israel:

"I am realistic in my understanding that it's vital for the world to fight terrorists to confront those who would murder the innocent to achieve political objectives," said Bush before talks with Peres.

The terrorists in Gaza:

In the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis, about 20 masked supporters of an al-Qaida-inspired group, the so-called "Army of the Nation," displayed weapons in a first public appearance.

The men wore black robes over above-the-ankle black pants. Some wore red headbands with the words "death squad."

A spokesman for the group, who only gave his nom de guerre, Abu Hafs, said Bush was "not welcome" in the Palestinian territories. "We are coming, not to Bush in Tel Aviv, but God willing to Washington," he said.

He described members of the terror network al-Qaida as "brothers," with similar methods and ideology, but added that "there is no complete connection" to his group.

The fact that these fucks will be sleeping with sheets over their heads instead of six feet of dirt kinda makes Bush's view of fighting terrorism somewhat... unrealistic.

You don't negotiate or coddle or provide humanitarian aid or weapons to terrorists and their supporters.

You kill them. And you keep killing them until you run out of them or they come to the realization that killing innocent civilians might possibly be a bad thing.

If you're looking for some undiscovered good music before the record industry finds a way to crush these independent spirits, check out the sixtyone.

I'm on there as isfullofcrap, and I've been gathering up playlists of SL musicians I like.

Congratulations, Houston... you're getting another stadium.

Forget all the other things this city needs. Stadium!

Oh, and plenty of jobs for people to tell us why this is a good thing. You know, because this is a good thing.

Don't ask me how it's a good thing. I don't want to steal jobs from people who are supposed to make those things up.

Once again: stadium!

This time, the bum asking for money was bilingual.

I should have told him off in two languages he doesn't know, just to fuck with him.

Maybe next time.

Reminds me of that trance hit that has the line "Fucking you makes me biligual."

When I first heard it, I thought it was "Fucking you makes me buy Legos."

I guess Michael Jackson didn't write it after all.

It hasn't been easy these past few days.

Thanks to everyone for their support.

I'd say it's a bet that every reporter involved in this story has used a work machine for personal matters of an explicit nature, whether by forwarding jokes or failing to report co-workers sending them, a tacit acceptance of such rude behavior.

When someone in the public eye does it, well, it's pile-on time.

Yeah, wave that corporate no-no-naughty-stuff policy around, guys. I don't believe it for a second. You've got your geeks running around fixing shit with bailing wire and spit. They're too busy to enforce this torrent of garbage until someone squeaks and calls foul.

Reporters like that are just hypocrite parasites, exploiting the First Amendment for fun and profit.

And so are bloggers, I suppose.

I have a question about this place:

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday launched a rocket attack on the local American International School in protest against US President George W. Bush's visit to the Palestinian territories.

What the hell is anything with the word "American" doing in that hellhole?

Are any of my tax dollars wasted on that thing? Are any American funds wasted on that thing?

If so, so ahead, blow it off the map. And build a mosque there so no more American dollars can be wasted on those savages.

While all this was going on, something funny happened.

I'm in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet, having one of those classic "My Butt Runneth Over" incidents, and Frisky walks in to jump in the tub.

He'd been doing that for a long time because he liked to pee down the drain and take a dump in the tub.

A perfectly clean litterbox wasn't good enough for him... always the tub.

Anyway, he's in there, then Nardo comes in to see what's going on, he saunters around, concerned.

Then Gina comes into the bathroom, and that's everyone in our bathroom.

I was concerned that the neighbors would start showing up, or maybe the repair guys to work on something.

Anyway, a surreal moment from the past week.

Thought I'd share.

I hit the Hard Rock for lunch.

I got a garlic-spinach hamburger so I could eat the hell out of it.

Normally, that's a 10oz. burger, but I asked if they could give it to me in 7oz. size.

I left some of it on the plate along with most of the fries.

Yeah, based on my recent utterz, you could say this is me sabotaging my diet, but I'd like to think it was giving in to the need for comfort food without doing it in a manner that was completely disastrous.

Plus, I'm going to drop off the bus a few stops early so I'll walk a bit more on the way home. And then I'll do the sit-ups, push-ups, and vacuuming for exercise.

I had promised myself that I'd post at least one catblogging image for Friday Catblogging every week for the year and link to Carnival of the Cats as well as Friday Ark.

Maybe I will post one later, but for now, I'll just link Meryl's post about Tigger and offer up a prayer now and then.

Every so often, Nardo looked into Friskyland and wibbled his tail once, thinking he could spot Frisky and maybe stalk him for a bit.

I was not proud of Nardo's treatment of Frisky. Never cheered him on. I always told him he was being mean and bad, and I told him to stop.

I'd also tell Frisky that I was sorry for bringing Nardo into his life and Nardo making him scared all the time.

He's not afraid any more.

Fred gets folksy:

Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and Law & Order star who is banking all on victory in South Carolina to revive his campaign, said of the Iranian boat crews: "I think one more step and they would have been introduced to those virgins that they're looking forward to seeing." The crowd cheered.

Why can't we have a Presidential candidate who will go all Pirate-talk in a debate?

You know, a simple YARRRRRRRR! PREPARE TO BE BOARDED, ME HARDIES! and YO HO HO! and WE BE SENDIN YOU TO DAVEY JONES' LOCKER! while at the lectern.

It was inexpensive.
It was fast.
It had specials I liked.
It was run by nice people.

And, most importantly, it had bananas.

I'd have a banana every other day, whether I needed it or not.

Now than I'm not getting bananas on a regular basis at lunch, I guess I need to stock up on them and put one in my jacket pocket so I'll bring it with me in the mornings.

Maybe I could make eating the banana a morning ritual, eating it as I walk from the bus stop to the office Downtown.

Apparently, all that sugar-free gum I chew may be the cause of "Butt Runneth Over" Syndrome:

Sciguy links a study:

After both patients started a sorbitol free diet, diarrhoea subsided, normal bowel movements resumed and weight gain was achieved.

As possible side effects are usually found only within the small print on foods containing sorbitol, consumers may be unaware of its laxative effects and fail to recognise a link with their gastrointestinal problems, write the authors.

Sugar-free gum chewing has helped me in my campaign never to bite my nails ever again (Haven't done it in a very long time) as well as trying to reduce vending machine snacking (After the first two days in the new office building, haven't gotten any candy at all.)

So I guess, as with all things, moderation is the key.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, last weigh-in said 227. Down 13. It's going to be rough for a day or two as my right calf unclenches, but I've got to burn off calories somehow, right?

I'm not going to get on the scale every day and drive myself batty with the wiggle of the needle. Once a week, for good or bad.

Roger Clemens appears to be getting some time off from the mini-camp:

Clemens, embroiled in a controversy over allegations of steroid use in the Mitchell Report, has assisted the Astros during the first four years of the camp, but the club has yet to decide whether he'll be involved this year.

The Nolan Ryan Elite Pitching Camp and Jeff Bagwell Elite Hitting Camp will be held Jan. 28-31, with 25 major league and minor players working out at Minute Maid Park. Clemens' oldest son, Koby, is a catcher in the Astros' system and will be at the camp.

What about the Craig Biggio Elite Plunking Camp?

Sadly, I have to do it alone...

I don't have my favorite little helper anymore.

UPDATE:
I'm adding some old photos of Frisky to my Flickr archive as well as posting them to the memorial slideshow inside the clocktower on Edloe island in Second Life.

Three cheers for the IDF providing some live fire exercises to a Hamas training camp in Gaza.

Several fragheads will be looking up from Hell at the graduation ceremonies, unless the IDF feels like wiping out the rest of their class at some point in the future.

The 100 Word Stories Weekly Challenge on Clowns is up and available.

Listen and enjoy, dammit.

Someone should build a statue to honor Harry Harlow.

Or, better yet, two of them: one made of terrycloth and the other made of chicken wire (but dispenses milk).

How stunningly brilliant can they possibly be if they use my blog title as some kind of positive example or role model?

Space Casey episode number seven is in the wild!

Hold on, folks. Karstoo will be back. Just right around the corner.

Will anybody know who won the marathon one year from now?

I'm sure there's a lot of sponsors hoping you remember what shoes he wears, shorts, shirt, and so on.

What does he drink during training? What energy bars does he use?