I knew that, like anyone who ever had to work for a living, I intensely disliked Martha Stewart, but this latest nugget takes the cake. According to Martha, home arrest is worse than federal prision.
This lady, who was already a jillionaire, goes to jail (yes, jail) over a “well timed stock sale” (to quote CNN). She gets out and what does she get? Two new TV shows.
If you wonder why the rest of the world hates America, look no further than the Martha Stewart story.
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idiots
Kinney’s Song
“I’m tired” he said
“It’s been another lost day.
I think I’ll just go to bed”
He smiled at me
“Don’t worry I’ll be OK.
Some shut eye is all I need”
Chorus:
I’ve walked down that suffering road before
And there is darkness all along the route
But past the haints and the widow’s weeds
Are thorny bushes with the sweetest fruit
“It’s hard” he said
“When you outgrow all the dreams
That used to fill up your head”
I touched his hand
“It’s not as bad as it seems,
And you are such a good man”
Chorus:
I’ve walked down that suffering road before
And there is darkness all along the route
But past the haints and the widow’s weeds
Are thorny bushes with the sweetest fruit
Bridge:
So if you want to sleep
Sleep, my friend sleep
And in the morning
You will see
That it’s all right
Everything will be fine
The sun will still rise
And you’ll still be a friend of mine
Chorus:
I’ve walked down that suffering road before
But there’s a light at the end of the route
And past the haints and the widow’s weeds
Are thorny bushes with the sweetest fruit
I uploaded a brand new playlist to Rancho Radio tonight. Unlike the last 3 sets, which were picked at random from our huge song library, I hand picked this one. Lots of great alt. country, with a little extra southern rock added to the mix this week.
Rancho Radio has moved up to the 15th most popular station in the Americana genre on Live365. Please give it a listen and tell your friends about it. You’ll hear some great music that you simply can’t get anywhere else.
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alternative country radio
This is my third year in a fantasy football league. While I’d rather watch paint dry than an NFL game (I greatly prefer college sports), I have enjoyed fantasy football much more than I thought I would. It’s a fun challenge to put the best possible team on the field week in and week out. It’s a bit of a thrill to check the box score on Sunday and find out that you’re thrashing your opponent. The problem is that, since my league uses ESPN’s fantasy football service, I can’t ever (and I mean ever) get to the box score on Sunday afternoon. What I do get is page after page after page of 503 errors. Essentially, there are too many leagues sharing the same server and the server simply can’t handle all of the resource requests it receives. There is no way ESPN could be surprised by the traffic it is receiving, since the very same thing happened last year. Thus, I can only assume that ESPN simply doesn’t care.
It is extemely frsutrating and makes me much less interested in the league. If you want to enjoy fantasy football, choose another platform. You’ll be glad you did.
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fantasy football, espn
You know the drill. Open up your jukebox of choice, point the shuffle feature to your entire library of songs and list, without exception, the first 10 or so songs that play. Each week, I add a little commentary about some of the artists, songs, albums, etc.
I’ve Got a Feeling – Ollie and the Nightingales (Stax Set) (1)
Hey Driver – Dale Watson (I Hate These Songs) (2)
Doobie Wah – Peter Frampton (Comes Alive) (3)
Laurentian Divide – Bellwether (Turnstiles) (4)
It’s Only Me – Todd Thibaud (Little Mystery) (5)
My First, My Last… – Barry White (Can’t Get Enough) (6)
I’m Troubled – Gourds (Shinebox) (7)
Mission District – Pinetop Seven (Bring Home the Last Great Strike) (8)
What a Nice Surprise – The Vidalias (Stayin’ in the Doghouse) (9)
A Little Italy Rag – The Amazing Rhythm Aces (Too Stuffed to Jump) (10)
(1) I don’t know much about this Memphis soul act, but it’s a good song from a great box set. Motown gets all the run, but Stax had some great acts and put out some fine music.
(2) Fine song by a guy who remains true to his throwback honky tonk roots.
(3) There are two double LP live records that served as the soundtrack for my teenage years, The Allmans’ At Fillmore East and this one. Frampton sort of fell out of favor over the years, but this remains an excellent record. Not quite of par with Fillmore, which along with the Dead’s Europe ’72, is the best live record ever made, but it still sounds real good.
(4) A slow moving, harmonica led groove by one of the many great bands from Minneapolis. Alt. Country doesn’t get much better than this.
(5) Good song off a good record by former Courage Brothers frontman. Great playing, great songs. I really enjoy this record.
(6) Barry and Teddy Pendergrass defined sexy soul music in the 70s.
(7) Austin’s best kept secret play a quirky (to quote allmusic.com) brand of honky tonk music. This album also has the one of the most amazing covers ever, a honked up version of Snoop Dog’s Gin and Juice.
(8) This fine inde/alt. country band formed at Vanderbilt University (where I went to law school) in the early nineties. Very eclectic mix of genres, but it really works. If you’ve never heard these guys, check them out.
(9) After I heard a song on the internet somewhere, I bought both of this Atlanta alt. country band’s records. They are both very good. This is a neo-country number that sounds like a cross between Dwight Yoakam and Jimmy Dale Gilmore. Good stuff.
(10) I’m a big fan of the Aces. This is not one of my favorites, but I have and enjoy every one of their records. Start with Full House, Aces High if you can find it.
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music reviews
Last week I predicted that Wake would lose at Nebraska by 10 or less. Silly me, I forgot that the game was on national TV. A nationally televised game guarantees a WFU embarrassment and that’s what we got. I suspect that at some point the networks will notice this and, but for any games mandated by the ACC TV contract, we won’t see any more Deacon football on national TV.
In a game in which Nebraska’s bad offense made Wake’s mediocre (which, by WFU standards, means “pretty good”) defense look very good for a half, Nebraska spanked the Deacs 31-3. WFU is now 0-2 for the season, with 5 top 25 teams among the 9 games that make up the rest of the season. It’s going to be tough to match last years’ 4-7 record. That’s what losing at home to Vanderbilt will do for you.
Ben Mauk, who was an amazing high school QB but was (maybe not so) curiously not recruited by the big boys, looked absolutely awful (and that’s being kind). Micah Andrews looked OK, but lightning didn’t strike twice (not another 250+ yard game). The special teams looked, well, not very special. If there’s a worse kicking team in America, I don’t know about it. As far as I can tell, we have no WRs.
Here’s my thing: Jim Grobe has been riding the benefits of taking a typically 3-8 team and turning it into a typically 5-6 team for a couple of years now. That’s a fine accomplishment, but at some point Wake needs to actually win some games. Clearly, Bill Callahan made much more effective halftime adjustments than Grobe. I’m still a Grobe fan, because I believe that if anyone can win at Wake, it’s Grobe. But itsy bitsy baby steps and moral victories are no longer enough for me. I want some tangible evidence in the only place where it matters: the won-loss column.
Playing in the ACC, you simply can’t afford to let winnable games slip away. Vanderbilt (at home, no less) was a gimme that Wake lost. Nebraska, who has an anemic offense and struggled with Division I-AA Maine last week, was winnable. Many of the remaining games are simply not winnable absent a major upset. Wake plays better when it has no chance, so expect some close losses (as long as the Deacs are not on national TV).
Some folks will rightly call for Cory Randolph at QB after Mauk’s performance. I can understand that (believe me I can), but Grobe should either stick with Mauk or, if there is a younger QB with potential, maybe give him a shot. This year is over bowl-wise, and Randlolph is a senior. We need to give next year’s QB experience this year. There’s always next year. It’s just that with the Deacs, next year will probably look a lot like this year.
Come join the post-game party on the WFU message board at ACCBoards.Com.
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college football, wake forest
One of the most useful software accessories you can install on your computer is a good, reliable screen capture utility. Screen capture utilities let you grab a portion of whatevet’s on your computer screen. They are helpful for storing snippets of information in Onfolio, grabbing a portion of your computer screen to email error messages to the appropriate technical support address, and capturing content to redisplay it (as I did with my Firefox problem).
My favorite screen capture utility is Snag-It. It’s easy to buy online, easy to install and easy to use.
It integrates seamlessly with Internet Explorer and places these buttons at the top of Internet Explorer that allows you to instantly grab all or part of a screen (this image was captured with Snag-It). You can configure how much of the screen to capture (I use the “Region” setting which allows me to draw a box with my mouse and capture everything in the box) and how to output the image (I output to my Windows clipboard so I can paste the image wherever I want it).
It is also a stand alone program, accessible from the Start Menu, that allows you to capture any desktop content, whether internet content or otherwise.
My only mild complaint about Snag-It is that the developer updates it very often and you have to pay for significant upgrades (“maintenance upgrades” are free). It seems like I get an email every month or so offering me an updated version for a price. It’s a great program, so I pay to upgrade to every other version or so.
Snag-It is $40 for new users. Upgrades are cheaper.
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software review, screen capture
One of the funniest things on the radio is the birthday scams that Dean & Rog do on 93.7 FM in Houston. At times, I have laughed so hard I had to pull over to keep from wrecking my truck.
Some of them are available online. Every one of these is hilarious.
Start with “Where’s Your Payment,” “Claude’s Dog” and “Cementing Frustration.” Funny stuff.
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favorite links, prank calls
At John Dvorak’s blog. It’s that interesting combination of funny and sad, which is the recipe for a good politics joke. I especially like number 5. I don’t find number 10 to be all that clever.
How many members of the Bush Administration are needed to change a light bulb?
Answer: Ten
1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed,
2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed,
3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb,
4. One to tell the nations of the world that they are either for changing the light bulb or for eternal darkness,
5. One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton for the new light bulb,
6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a step ladder under the banner “Bulb Accomplished,”
7. One administration insider to resign and in detail reveal how Bush was literally “in the dark” the whole time,
8. One to viciously smear #7,
9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light-bulb-changing policy all along,
10. And finally, one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.
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joke
My fantasy football league soundly rejected my plan to save the league, so we held our draft last night. Our league rules make Doc Searls’ blog seem like a Dick and Jane book, but here’s what little I have been able to gather about the complex rules and their effect on the teams:
1) It is a hybrid keeper/auction league. Each team has 100 points to spend. You can keep 2 players from the prior year roster at a slightly increased salary and you can claim match rights on 3 others.
2) The 2 expansion teams, led by Alchris Lallodavis, negotiated entry rules that make it virtually impossible for those 2 teams not to become instant dynasties. Goober, the other new owner, managed to defeat the odds and end up with a bad team.
3) Andy had to run to the restroom and regroup in the middle of the draft for the 2nd year, out of 3 total. Emmett, who quit last week, showed up for the draft and managed to put together a good team. He’ll lose by 50 to Alchris Lallodavis, but he’ll be better than everyone else. I don’t think his new employer has a fantasy football team, so it may be hard for him to Kip-out.
Anyway, my draft didn’t go well. I think this is because I had a bad plan to begin with and then executed it poorly. My plan had something to do with saving points until the middle rounds of the draft, by which time everyone else would be down to their last few points and I could buy a bunch of pretty good players for 8-15 points each (top players go for 30-35 points). The other owners did spend a lot of money early. The problem is that they bought all the good players so I had to buy pretty bad players instead of pretty good players for my 8-15 points.
Somehow I ended up with Tiki Barber as my marquee player, Kevin Jones as my other RB and 3, count ’em 3, Detroit Lions as my receivers. Sure wish I’d known who Mike Williams played for when I drafted him in the rookie draft (after the expansion teams drafted all the blue chip rookies). I also forgot to draft a kicker, which almost always goes for 1 point, so I had to drop a player I paid 5 for to add a kicker from the free agent pool.
Here are my predictions for the league:
North Division:
Hawkeyes- decent starters; thin bench; way overpaid for Manning; too heavy in Colts; will probably finish 2nd in the division behind Brilligs.
Longhorns- betting it all on Priest Holmes; lots of injury concerns; not a threat this year.
Brilligs- this is Emmett’s team discussed above. Very, very strong with McNabb, Jamal Lewis, TO, and Javon Walker; Will meet and lose big to Alchris Lallodavis’s NYSE in the championship game.
Capacitators- Floyd rode LT and Shaun Alexander to the championship last year and paid lots for them this year; one of those guys will get banged up this year and the thin bench will hurt; will still fight the Hawkeyes for 2nd in the division.
Young guns- not a good team, considering the way the draft was stacked in favor of the expansion teams. Goober was in Vegas and let Alchris Lallodavis draft for him by proxy; hope he won some cash in Vegas because he’s going to lose some in this league.
South Division:
Buckeyes- good, balanced team; good, cheap young RBs (Johnson and Brown) for next year; will face and lose to NYSE in the playoffs.
Wolverines- when I need to feel less bad about my team, I look at this roster; Vick and Harrison can’t do it by themselves; not a threat this year.
Whackjobs- good depth, but depth only works if there are lots of injuries; will battle the Buckeyes for the chance to lose by 40 to NYSE in the playoffs.
Ramblers- as discussed above, I had a bad night at the draftsky; no playoffs for the Ramblers this year.
NYSE- how can Trent Green, McGahee, Curtis Martin, Ahman Green, Torry Holt, Alge Crumpler, the Colts defense and coach and the highest rated rookie be on the same team in a 10 team league? Enough said; NYSE wins this year and next, easily.
It’s going to be a long year for the Ramblers, but I’ve got some decent players at low salaries so maybe next year….
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fantasy football
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