Photo Browsing

I was just thumbing (mousing) through my old photos that I've taken over the years and came across this one from the Texas Tech v. Alabama Cotton Bowl a couple of years ago. This guy was a nut. In a sea of Alabama fans, this very random Tennessee supporter decides to wear a T-Shirt that might as well have said, "I Want To Start A Riot."

And the girl with the Bear Bryant hat to the left was a nice touch.

It Truly Is A Chocolate City!

This photo of an editorial (?) in this week's Bridgeport Index.

(Sent via email.)

Father And Son. Really.

Link. (Parental discretion, pun intended, advised.)

Get 'Em While They're Hot

They play Memphis who has lost, uh, let me count 'em up . . . er. . . that would be one game all year. That road to the Final Four will probably end somewhere near Collins and Division.

Cowboys Draft Wish List Revealed?

Link.

Power Point

Hey, I'm just the messenger (not the Messenger, just a messenger), but I received word that this presentation will be played tonight at the meeting of the Wise County Active Democrats. The hypothetical Republican response would be, "Don't Be Hatin'!"

Doesn't That St. Patrick's Day Party . . .

. . . on Lower Greenville look fun? Uh, not so much.

Many more, in the worst photo format ever, here.

MyPhone

I bought an IPhone. I had been tempted. I put the temptation behind me. And then I yielded to the forbidden Apple.

Review after 24 hours of use: This is the greatest invention I've ever seen. The screen is crystal clear. It's intuitive. It's lightening fast. And it's freakin' cool.

I've spent a couple of years jacking with Windows Mobile 5 on my cellphone and there is simply no comparison to the IPhone. I've used every application on it, and it has yet to become sluggish or lock up. It does what it says it will.

The only hitch came with the activation that I had to do myself over the Internet. Everything went fine until ITunes told me to wait for an email. I got it with a message to call an 800 number. I did and talked to a very nice Apple Guy who, after a couple of minutes of verifying I hadn't stolen the phone, told me my "SIM card had become disconnected" and that I needed to take it to the nearest AT&T store for a replacement. Sheesh. But I hightailed it down to Joe Neil Henderson's place and found a kid who was more than happy to help. I was up and running in 15 minutes.

Halftime: The Life Force Has Already Been Sucked Out Of Me

Barry (from mobile) Edit: I'm not sure how this post happened.

More Spring Break Happy Good Times

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

- Spring officially began this morning shortly after midnight. It's a gorgeous day. Take the day off. - People magazine has released pictures of JLo's twins and paid a reported $6 million for the opportunity to do so. Don't babies just look like, uh, other babies? - George Carlin will perform this weekend at the Bass Performance Hall. You could not pay me to go. For the life of me, I don't know why people think he is funny. - I caught some of Lisa Lampanelli on Jay Leno last night as I was going to bed. I had never heard of her before but, man, was she throwing down some shocking comedy schtick. - Baylor tips off at 1:30 p.m., today and I think I'll find a way to watch it. I remember 19 years ago setting up my clunky VCR to catch the team's only other NCAA Tourney appearance (against Memphis State.) It didn't go well then. - Uh, Chinese Cheerleaders. Ok! Ready!

I Loves Me Some David Western Wear Catalog

Where local guys turn into fashion models. (Web site here.)

Edit: OK, OK. enough with the very funny comments that I won't post because I like this guy.

Sneaky

The Decatur Police Department will routinely ask a defendant a series of questions after a DWI arrest. Most are innocuous with no mention of alcohol or drinking until you get to question #14: "Have you been this intoxicated before?"

In the report I'm reading the response was, "Not really. No. Maybe."

"Let Me Hear From You If You Are Dating A Quarterback Who Hasn't Proven Anything!"

(From the Mavs game last night.)

Data Mining

If you want to see some mind numbing $$$$$, check out Rep. Phil King's financial report that was filed eight days before the election. Others here.

Another Pic Of The Hooker of No. 9

Seems like she is in the archives of the Academy Award winning series of films known as Girls Gone Wild.

Nice hat.

So Who Signs The Declaration Of Surrender?

"The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just. And with your courage the battle in Iraq will end in victory," he told an audience of Pentagon brass, soldiers and diplomats.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

-John McCain has an NCAA basketball bracket contest on his web site. I wanted to vote for the University of GetOuttaIraq but couldn't find it. -Hottest pole vaulter ever? -Longtime Tarrant County lawyer Jack Strickland resigned from the Tarrant County Bar Crimina Defense Bar Association yesterday over the Judge Elizabeth Berry "scandal." Good for him. -Barack Obama's "race speech" yesterday went about as well as it could - I'm now reading Jeffrey Toobin's The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court - With high gas prices, I hate to see what will happen to the price of airline tickets. - I think I heard that the Mavericks were down by 35 last night to the Lakers but had a chance to win on the final shot. (For the one second I watched the game, I saw they were down by 22). - For those three people that care if Baylor/Purdue will be televised locally tomorrow afternoon, this pdf coverage map says yes.

I'm An Idiot

I heard on some tech podcast about how great it is to buy "everything" on Amazon.com. Yeah, it's known for books and music, but I also heard they now basically have everything you can find in a grocery store.

So I went shopping for stuff I hate to track down at the grocery store because I can never find them: Windex, fancy stuff I use on the floor, toilet paper, and about four other items. When I get to the check-out screen I noticed that the shipping costs were astronomical. Sheesh. But I had already wasted a bunch of time and I justified it based upon "convenience."

But I blew through the final screens a little too quickly because I didn't realize that all of these items were being shipped from third party stores separately. You see that box above? Notice my business card I taped to it for some size perspective? Today it arrived with one 32 ounce bottle of Windex in it. The box was huge. No wonder shipping cost so much.

Now I've got the joy of receiving similar huge boxes over the next three days.

Most Obscure NCAA Tourney Fact

San Diego forward Rob Jones "is the grandson of Jim Jones, the leader of the Jonestown jungle compound where more than 900 people were killed in 1978 in a mass urder/suicide."

Another Emailer

. . . sends this "wedding picture from the Brownwood newspaper."

I'm Not Posting Another Spring Break Pic

A Faithful Reader . . .

. . . claims that "the Community Church in RAB [Runaway Bay] is planning to hire a pastor (Ollin Collins) who" had a less than flattering story about him printed in the late 1990s in the Baptist Standard here. All the normal caveats are applicable: I don't know if the hiring is in fact true. I don't know if the allegations in the Baptist Standard were true (but scrolling down about a third of the way here claims that the Star Telegram reported the lawsuits were settled for $400,000.)

This Girl Says,

"It sure is raining in Wise County this morning. Makes me want to stay inside and turn sideways."

Guns 'N Justice

Today the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the meaning of the 2nd Amendment - whether this right to bear arms is individualized or only relevant to a well armed militia. There will be no skirting of this issue. The case won't get bounced on technicalities like jurisdiction, standing, or ripeness. The Court will address the issue head on (with an opinion probably released in June.)

But the Supreme Court, which is getting kind of hip these days, will release the audio of the oral arguments later today. It might be as exciting as watching paint dry, but I'll probably check it out. (But on the rare occasions they do release audio, they always do it in that stupid RealAudio format.) Edit: Here it is. Written transcript here.

Sidenote: Did you know it's still legal in Texas to walk down the street with a rifle or shotgun?

Edit: The most entertaining review (as always) is by Dahlia Lithwick over at Slate. I don't know what that lady looks like but I'd make her wife #9.

Odds To Win NCAA Tourney

The Evil Empire: 10 to 1 Texas A&M: 250 to 1 Baylor: 800 to 1 UTA: 5,000 to 1 (Others)

Gratiutious Spring Break Pic

The Big Picture

Rain this afternoon? 100% chance tomorrow?

Calling All Big Brains

The big news this morning is that Bear Stearns is being bought out for $2 a share. Basically, if you owned stock in that company, you're screwed. But someone explain to me how the price of the stock went from $30 on Friday (which, presumably, was the price a willing seller would pay to a willing buyer) to $2 over the weekend. It sounds like the equivalent of a "run on the bank" for Bear Stearns but I'm not sure why it happened.

And the story also mentioned that at $2 a share, the price of the takeover is actually less than the value of the real estate the soon to be defunked company owned.

And, one more thing, with gold at $1,000 an ounce and the Euro being worth a ton more than the dollar, are these dark days?

Random Observations During Spring Break

- I'm not on Spring Break. I don't think I've ever gone anywhere on Spring Break. - C4u (Incidental Remarkings blog over there ----->) is on a cruise. Probably someplace seedy. - Bag of Nothing (blog over there ---->) is on a road trip to Las Vegas but did mention that he passed through Decatur - Is that website down for everyone or is it just me? - Several people sent me the link of bootleggers of vodka in Palo Pinto that put rattlesnakes in the bottles. I'd cut 'em a break for creativity. - Heather Mills was just awarded $50 million for being married a couple of years to the great Paul McCartney. I'll put her in the trifecta of most despised women: Her, Nancy Grace, and Ann Curry. - Where's Boyd's The Hammer? Here, maybe. - The drummer for ABBA met his Waterloo in a very bad way. - Tiger Woods' winning putt yesterday. (youtube)

More St. Patrick's Day Love

From last year in Maine. Check out the girl in red getting laid out by the guy at around the 26 second mark. This prompts another guy to go Medieval on his arse right in front of the cops. Good times.

In Honor Of St. Patrick's Day . . .

. . . I give you what might be my favorite news report of all time. Yeah, we've seen it before, but it never gets old. (Or, in totally unrelated news, check out the indoor waterfall caused by the tornado in Atlanta this weekend.)

I've Always Liked Soccer

This fun spirited run this weekend:


Led to this hot mugshot:

In Orlando (with a couple of more pics there, as well).

Relatives Try To Kill Old Man . . .

. . . by taking him to Hooters to celebrate his 100th birthday.

Endless (Kind Of) Loop

Youtube now has the video of the (alleged) drunk hitting the Dallas County Sheriff's Office car last week. For some reason, the AP thought it would be a good idea to loop it a couple of times. (Proof of original AP version here.)

Blonde Haired Women. Tall Black Guys. Let's All Dance.

So after Baylor gets beat by the worst team in the Big 12 on Thursday, the chances of the Bears making this week's NCAA Tournament were getting dim. So I sit down today at 5:00 p.m. to see if they make it. The Lord must not have liked the Bears skipping Sunday night services because every other team was announced until it came down to the very final slot.....yep, the Bears made it after much wailing and gnashing of teeth. But, then again, so did UTA.

An Emailer . . .

. . . sent along a link to what could be the "And Another" Hall Of Fame.