They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it; for it is money they have and peace they lack.
  -James Earl Jones "Field of Dreams"
and don't go mistaking paradise for that home across the road
  -Bob Dylan "Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest"

Thursday, September 22, 2005


Talk about your field of dreams.

So tonight was the last night that a game was played at Bank One Ballpark. BOB is done. Tomorrow they will announce a new name, probably Chase Field. They stretched it out a little, beat the Dodgers in the bottom of the 12th on a 3 run walk off home run by Alex Cintrón.

Something else that is hopefully coming to an end is the ad campaign by Checker Auto in which they continuously congratulate themselves for contributing car seats to poor families with the first run scored at each Diamondbacks home game. The TV (and probably radio too) announcer mentions this each time it happens and they run an ad where Luis González gushes about how wonderful this is with his triplets running around. Think about it for a minute. Assuming (incorrectly) that the Diamondbacks score a run in each home game, that is 81 car seats. The most expensive car seat on Checker's website retails for just under $100. Assuming a markup of 50% that costs Checker $50. So Checker's wonderfully compassionate contribution is worth a little more than $4000 for the entire year. González, who appears to be so impressed with this, makes roughly $18,000 each time he steps to the plate.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005


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Tuesday, September 20, 2005

I have the internet connection problem from hell. I have had Cox's internet service since the @home days. About a month and a half ago it started going away on me. My connection would stop working sporadically. It is a bigger deal than it used to be because I have started working at home a couple of days a week. I finally got a Cox service guy out to the house. He couldn't find anything wrong. (Of course it was working then.) The only thing he could come up with was the fact that I had split off a line for my TV. Years ago, Cox put in a dedicated line to the cable modem. A year or two later I moved my desk to the opposite side of the room so I needed to add a connector and another cable. Some time after that I replaced the connector with a splitter and added a tv to the picture. None of that impacted my internet connection. But this moron tells me that they are gong to have to put in another line because that is the only thing that they can think of that might be wrong. And they are going to charge me $75 because I messed with the cable. So I figure that it would be worth $75 if it solved the problem. I call them up to schedule the work and it takes like two weeks to get an appointment. The person on the phone asks me if I had eliminated the router as a possible culprit. So I replace my router--wanted 802.11g anyway. No improvement. The guy comes to the house and suns a new wire. As he drives away the problem recurs. I call the dispatcher and they send him back. He replaces the line from the house that goes under the street. He replaces the connector thingamajig in the box across the street. He tells me that if this does not work the only thing left is the modem. As he drives away the problem recurs. I bought a new modem. Although it seems to have improved, I have seen two brief interruptions since Friday. I have 30 days in which to return the modem. The only thing left is AT&T DSL (cheaper than Qwest). Slower but hopefully more reliable.

Friday, September 16, 2005

I listened to dubyuh last night speaking from Jackson Square in New Orleans. Rarely have I heard more detestable utterances from this creep. He did not have one word of remorse or apology for the tragedy caused by the incompetence of his administration, either in ignoring the problems of the levees before the storm or failing to get help to the victims afterwards. He used the opportunity to try and sell me his religious views. He bragged on what a good job he thought he was doing. Mike said in his blog something about shock and awe, that he was shocked and awed that Bush had appeared to accept some blame in a previous speech. I heard neither shock nor awe, just Karl and Rove.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

KTAR

"Detour" Dan needs a lesson in geography. Anything not in the East Valley is on the west side according to him. The 51 is a west side freeway. Even the 202 between Tempe and downtown is on the west side. Totally clueless.

"Have you still not refinanced your mortgage because you spent..." I never let this jerk get any farther than that.

I sure don't miss Preston Westmoreland. I liked Gaydos better than Heidi Foglesong. Paul Calvisi needs to lose the cutesy sound effects.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Just changed the template.
Thoughts about the Arizona Republic:

  • The online poll at the bottom of the Valley section is sometimes interesting. They ask a question and provide the results of yesterday's poll
  • The online poll at the bottom of the Sports section is a waste of space and an insult to the readers. They ask a question and direct you to their web page to find out the results, i.e. all it is is an ad for their web page
  • "The Heat Index" on page 2 of the Sports section is just plain awful. It is supposed to be funny but rarely is. It is always mean spirited, though. It's a name-dropping gossip column with a bad attitude.
  • I could not care less about the daily status of negotiations with some spoiled (soon to be) rich kid that the Diamondbacks drafted. Actually there is one thing that I do care less about, and that is the identity of the kid's agent, whose name is repeated in each article
  • Bill Goodykoontz is a terrible TV critic. He has like 3 things to say and he repeats them over and over again. He should go back to sports.
  • It is insulting that they are running Calvin and Hobbes reruns to help promote some book that is coming out. They bumped Peanuts to the classified section immediately when it went into reruns. Just what makes Calvin and Hobbes so important? Side note: neither Susan nor I have ever once read "Rose is Rose" which is the strip that replaced Peanuts

Friday, September 09, 2005

Just getting the hang of this, assumed that an URL would automatically be active. Wrong. Mike's blog is here.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

John's last day of work is tomorrow, Monday he leaves for Austria. Mixed feelings. He drives me crazy but I am going to miss him. We are going to drive to Arcosanti on Saturday while Susan does something for work.

Working at home tomorrow.

Monday, September 05, 2005

Jesse Jackson is an idiot. "Refugee" is exactly what the "evacuees" are. It is not a racist term. There have been plenty of things to complain about, and racism does exist in the whole New Orleans disaster, but the usage of the term refugee is not something to complain about.