Cool Things to see on Christmas Day
Friends who live twelve hours away.
The "Sports Night" DVD set under the tree for yours truly.
And my son's first Christmas at a place he can finally call home.
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December 25, 2003
December 23, 2003
Weekend Update
Let's see:
#1. Tyler is now officially Tyler Robert Wohlgemuth. Adoption was completed last Thursday.
#2. Had a very cool weekend with my daughter Krystal in Chicago.
#3. Only two days until Christmas.
December 16, 2003
Recasting Star Wars
A long time ago, in a corporation far far away; my friends Jamie and Mike helped recast the entire Star Wars Trilogy. While I do like the existing cast; I always wondered how different the movie would be with a few different people in those roles.
Example: Ice-T as Lando Calrissian
Tagline: (To Princess Leia) "Welcome to Bespin, bitch..."
December 10, 2003
Wesley Clark - Eurotrash Wannabe
From LGF
Wesley Clark, West Point grad and former Commander of NATO said that he would give Europe the "...right of first refusal on the security concerns that we have..." and would expect Europe to give the US "....the same right on your security concerns".
General Clark, I can safely say that I will never vote for you. To put our nation's security at risk because you want to appease the Euro-Weenies (and I defintely don't mean Europe as a whole, just the psychotic EU-building politicate) is unbelieveable. For a former commander of American forces in Europe, and a Commander in NATO; your inability to put the needs of your country ahead of the desire to "make nice" with Monsieur Chirac and the rest of the EU makes you completely incapable to lead a pack of Boy Scouts, let alone the presidency of this country.
December 9, 2003
Thank God for Al Gore
He just locked up Bush for another four years. He also might have pushed Lieberman over the edge, away from the Democratic party.
Once again, the Democrats will not win another national office if they keep pandering to the far left of their party. Only crazier thing they could do at this point would be to make Kucinich their VP candidate.
A few Family Updates
Here's all the fun stuff that is going on:
1. Looks like DeAnn is Type II Diabetic. No shots thankfully, but it looks like some big changes in the Wohlgemuth household.
2. My buddy Dennis lost his grandmother today to Leukemia. She was a great person, and will be sorely missed.
3. Krystal and her friend Meghan are coming out here this weekend for a visit. Will the house still be standing on Sunday?
4. BTW Krystal pulled off all A's & B's on her report card. Super major props to her. (did I say that right, I'm not very fluent in jive...)
December 8, 2003
My Vapid TV Fix
For the past month plus, I've watched the dressing down of the "Average Joe" with the cheerleader picking through the field, only to have the producers drop in three cute guys to compete with the field.
It was never even close.
Which brings me to this point. I've been happily married now for the past six years. In that timeframe, my "cute" female friends have married "cute" guys who decided to get "cute" girlfriends while they are married and end up in "cute" divorce court.
While it sounds 100%, there is nothing more satisfying than telling someone "Yes, I'm still married. Yes, we're very happy. And yes, you had your chance."
Even though I might be the stunt double for the Michelin Man, all the pain I went through earlier in my life was well worth knowing that it was for a good purpose. And that I didn't end up with a "cute" ex-wife.
Just another day in Iraq
From Sgt. Hook:
I am NOT the Macho Dad
My son Tyler and I aren't too much alike. I am the more introverted, "going to spend the cold winter afternoon reading a book and keeping warm by the fire" than the "run outside in your longjohns and squeal like you have snow in your pants". That being said, I am so glad he found my brother-in-law Randy.
My Brother-In-Law is the hunter of the family. He traps, shoots, fishes, anything you can imagine doing to a animal in the wild (not including sheep) he has probably done. Get up in a tree stand at 04:00 and wait for six hours for a deer? Probably did that last week. Shoot at fish with a bow and arrow? Yup. Go raccoon hunting? Every night he can.
Which is where this story comes into play. Last night Randy took Tyler out on his raccoon hunting escapade and this kids came back with the biggest smile I have ever seen. I mean, this is a kid I took to DisneyWorld a few months ago and he was even happier spending an evening running around like a maniac in twenty degree weather chasing a bunch of dogs to cathch a rodent in a tree. When he came back in the truck, he went into a long story about running through the woods, climbing over fences, getting stuck in briars, and other things you would run into at 9:00 at night deep in the forest.
But these adventures will not include yours truly. Personally I do like the whole idea of running around when it's that cold out. It just doesn't appeal to me. That being said, I am glad my son loves it so much.
My One Post on the BCS
Honestly, who cares.
USC was the top team for all of one week. The BCS exists to find the two best teams in college football and pairs them up to play each other. It's not a measure of "who the best team is on December 7th". It's a measure of the best teams overall. It's more akin to the NASCAR point system. In the BCS, one bad game doesn't knock you out of the championship picture.
Personally, I honestly think all the bitching abou the BCS is mostly due to the sportwriters not being able to pick the matchup they wanted this week. If you would have asked them two weeks ago who the best two teams in football were, UCLA would probably not have been the universal consensus.
One more reason why a playoff system makes sense, but the BCS is the best we're going to get,
December 5, 2003
People that work from home never get a snow day
Unlike my kids and my wife, I am dilligently working today at the dining room table while chaos reigns in my home. School called off due to two inches of snow...two frigging inches.
My son was out the door at 8:15 this morning diving headfirst (literally) into the drifted snow in my front yard. My daughters tend to take their time on snow days and are now just getting out the door to start sledding down the pathetic hill in my backyard.
Guess I better crack out the hot chocolate in a few minutes....
December 4, 2003
How Google pissed me off
Type in "miserable failure" in the search field on Google and what is the first link you get? George Bush's Bio at the whitehouse.gov site.
First of all, neither of the words "miserable" or "failure" appear in the HTML of the page. This means that someone within Google's hierarchy decided to manually push that to the top of the list.
This wasn't done for commerce (i.e. better search results for advertisers), or because of the true relevance of the subject matter. It was done because of a petty political statement. Which only leads me to believe that google isn't as "true and accurate" as most people would feel.
Taiwan Independence
Reading through Drudge today, one of the articles caught my eye.
Beijing Warns That Taiwan Referendum Could Lead to War
Why it's at the bottom of Drudge's stories is pretty obvious, this isn't the first time it has been mentioned. In fact doing a quick google on "China Taiwan Threats" turns up a whole list of declarations for "reunification" of the two countries from Bejing.
Ed. Note: For a brief history of Taiwan click here.
The US has officially backed Taiwan's independence since 1979 with the Taiwan Relations Act. What the act provides is not only economic and defensive aid; but it also allows the US to act upon any threat to Taiwan's independence.
I guess for the two or three people that read this blog, I'll leave this open to you. Would you support US Intervention in a Sino-Taiwan war, even if this opened the US up to possible direct nuclear warfare with the Chinese?
Also, anyone wanting to read about Chinese dreams of becoming a superpower should read "The China Threat" by Bill Gertz. Quite an interesting read...
December 3, 2003
Why Ford Sucks and Why Kids Rule
In the past three weeks I've had approximately $800 worth of normal stuff break on my van (Power Steering Line Noise, Tie Rods, DPFE Sensor, and now Oxygen Sensor).
So my daughter Hannah comes up with the idea of "Dad, we need a new van." But the van is only three years old, and we owe significantly more on it than what it's worth. Trading this one in is pretty much out of the question, so with one car already paid off we’re seriously thinking of buying a third and using that as the “Primary Wifey Mobile� while relegating the van to the “Special Trip� category.
Has anyone looked at the price of a new van these days? Just to get into the “Get you from point A-B with a DVD Player� is around $22,000. That’s before all the usual additions that I avoid like the towing package, water dispenser, GPS/X-Box/OnStar/Seat Warmer/All-in-One Hot Dog Cooker things that I see in cars these days. Hannah is of course all excited about getting a new van and is in serious FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) phase on the van.
Hannah: Dad, we need a new van. That thing has been in the shop how many times this week?
Me: Twice this week, and while we are thinking of getting a new car there is no way we are buying a new van.
Hannah: But dad, this van is crummy and there isn’t a place that we can lie down when we’re on long trips. And you know that this van is most likely going to end up in the shop again. C’mon dad, you know you want a new van.
Me: Well, we could get a new van, but that would mean that we would have to cancel all of our trips for next year (including the long-awaited Disney Cruise) along with anything fun and exciting for a while.
Hannah: (after a long pause) You know, I really do like our van.
Me: That’s what I thought…