One film to rule them all......

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:21 PM

For anyone who didn't already find out through Liam, coach "Q" is now history. The St. Louis Blues fired longtime coach Joel Quenneville today after amassing the winningest record in team history. While I hate to see "Q" become the scapegoat for the Blues woes this season, I'll agree that something had to be done. Joel is a great coach and a good man and I hate to see him go but he'll have no problem getting a job elsewhere I'm sure.

Ok Blues, were in ninth place with only 21 games left.....now what?

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 12:48 AM

I bought some new bedding from Bed, Bath and Beyond on Sunday and I love it. They are some of the most comfortable sheets I've ever slept on. Take a look at them here. The fabric isn't cotton but a newer material that was recently developed called Modal (scroll down the page to see the description), also known as Jersey cloth. The fabric is developed from the fibers of the Beech tree and is very eco-friendly. I also bought a new white goose down comforter (which you can see here) which is nice and fluffy and keeps me warm as hell in my cold, cold basement room. I didn't have enough cash to buy the FUCKING $1000 DOLLAR DOWN COMFORTER though. Sleepy time is good time.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 12:34 AM

I don't want to get overconfident here, but it looks like Entertainment Weekly is giving Return of the King a good shot at winning the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars according to their most recent predictions. Right now they have Peter Jackson with a 65% chance of winning best director, and are giving the movie a 70% chance of taking home the big prize. Oh and on a side note... Return of the King became the fastest movie to break a billion dollars in worldwide gross on Sunday. Faster than even Titanic, which took over 11 weeks (ROTK only took 10) to pass the mark. And if it does win best picture, most former best picture winners generally see an additional 25% increase in box office take the two months following the Oscars. That's another 250 million dollars, two or three times as much as most hit movies make in their entire run in the theaters.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 12:08 AM

BTW, anyone notice how unrealistically hot uber-popstar babe Britney Spears looks in her newest video Toxic? A female James Bond-esque subplot and about 5 or 6 hot outfit changes with one that pushes the boundaries about as far as MTV can take them. Give it a look, then take a cold shower.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:47 PM

How unexpected, our great and wonderful leader now wants to legislate discrimination! One step closer to the gas chambers eh? Bush wants to now pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Whether or not you agree or disagree with homosexuality, this is not a decision the government should make for people.

Bush said that allowing gays to marry would change the meaning of marriage forever. Really? I always thought marriage was simply about two people being in love enough to pledge their lives to one another? Only religion defines it as between a man and a woman. So now we are going to mandate religious doctrine into our laws? Marriage practices (other than for tax reasons) have always been purely religious in nature. For that reason alone the government should stay the fuck out of this. Not to mention that they are going to flat out pass a law that inhibits the rights of particular citizens based solely on a lifestyle choice. These people aren't hurting anyone, so why does anyone even give a shit? Who cares what two men or women that you don't even know much less associate with do with their private life. How in anyway does this affect what marriage means? Are married men and women going to start loving each other less because gay people can get married? Is it going to make what emotional bonds they have fall apart? Of course not.

The laws of this country are created (or should be created) to protect the "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness (or translated, the pursuit of ownership of land and material goods)" of other people. Creating a law like this not only does not hold true to that premise, it goes against it entirely. Our culture is becoming more homogenized by the minute and a hundred years from now when racism, sexism, and stereotypes start becoming a thing of history, this will stand out as one of the biggest black marks against social progress in the history of our country.

If you really want to "preserve the sanctity of marriage" let's take a look at things like passing laws against adultery. Think that would fly? I guess gay people are the reason why the divorce rate in this country is above 50% huh? Looks like that whole "sanctity of marriage" thing isn't really that important to the general public anyway. As heterosexuals, we've already discredited the value of marriage in society to something almost disposable. Think the gays can do any worse? If this is what America is coming too,.... I'm moving to Canada.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:30 PM

On a happier note though, music during the workout really helps a ton. I was hesitant to carry a $300 IPod around in my pocket while rollerblading in case I fell and it went flying. I risked it though yesterday and it was worth it. I kept it safely clipped to my inner jacket pocket in it's padded case so it was well protected. But man as soon as I started to get tired, I just threw on some BT or some other sort of fast paced rock or techno and I was off. It really helps pass the time too. Not to mention that the IPod has a corded remote so I don't have to futz around with the unit while I'm moving. Pretty sweet.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:55 PM

BTW, in case some of you out there didn't already know this...... going to the bar and drinking alcohol and smoking lots of cigarettes after doing almost 45 minutes of cardiovascular exercise...... well.......it fucking sucks. Painful man.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:35 PM

GOD DAMN YOU CATCHY CHORD CHANGES!!!!!

I really get confused when bands that I know are no better than average musicians (Ex: Matchbox 20, Three Doors Down, Nickleback, etc) write songs that I'm walking around singing along to and occasionally playing air guitar to when I don't realize it. It makes my head hurt. Most of that shit all sounds the same and is very unoriginal, yet there is something in our brains that makes us want more. Which is why Top 40 radio gets away with playing the same shit over and over again. Half of me wants to kick them all in the nuts and tell them to write something creative, different and original. The other half wants to run out and buy the damn CD. Until I remind myself that I'll probably hear that same crap on the radio everyday for the rest of my life........Stupid chord changes.

GOD DAMN YOU C major, D major, E minor, G major, and A minor CHORDS!!!!!

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:32 PM

Here's the other quiz everyone is taking:




Which 1990's Subculture Do You Belong To?

[Another Quiz by Kris
@ couplandesque.net]

Sure, works for me.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:16 PM

We've all done so many of those damn Quizilla quizzes in the past few months that I decided I would go ahead and make my own. Be warned though, it is my perverted mind at it's best. I had to think of a topic that was both worthy of a quiz and had the potential to be really funny. Hopefully I hit the nail on the head with this one......

Do you have chronic masturbation issues?

Here are my results.....from my own quiz:

You're right on par with the rest of us average
"Joes and Janes". You've probably
got a healthy sex drive but know that you can't
spend all day dreaming about sex. Keep up the
good work!

Do you have chronic masturbation issues?
brought to you by Quizilla

Looks like I'm totally normal. After all I did design the quiz, can you blame me?

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:10 PM

Bill Gates has so much money, he could spend $1000 a minute, every minute, for the next 85 years and still have more money than Puff Daddy, the Hilton sisters, Jennifer Lopez, the cast of Friends, the Olsen twins and Oprah....combined. That's a whole lotta clams.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 8:05 PM

Check out some of the coolest pictures of 2003 right here.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 10:18 AM

Just heard a story about the world's largest credit card transaction. American businessman Eli Broad purchased a piece of art by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein for 2.6 million bucks and put the whole thing on his "no preset spending limit" American Express card. You ask, "Why would a millionaire buy a piece of art on his credit card?". He only bought the painting on his credit card for one reason. 2.6 million miles worth of airfare courtesy of the fine folks at American Express. See they offered those free airline miles for every dollar you spent on your card. That's over 1000 trips around the world. A pretty damn smart business decision if you ask me.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:07 AM

Make that 3 in a row!! The formerly lifeless Blues finally started to look like the team I used to know this evening against the Tampa Bay Lighting. The Blues, who had one of the worst records since January 1 took on a team who had the best record in the entire NHL since the start of the new year. We played a steady game all around and managed to win in OT which will hopefully be a big confidence and momentum boost going into a five game road trip against four of the top teams in the Western Conference. We got good checking, crisp passing, didn't take bad penalties, and we took advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves, something we haven't been doing for the past two months. We got scoring from our defense and our second line, from our rookies and our veterans. And I got to watch us win at home in OT, a statistic the Blues lead the entire NHL in (OT wins @ 9). If we can take even 2 or 3 games out of the next five, I like our chances with a really weak schedule of opponents in the month of March. A solid acquisition at the trade deadline could even help us end up in 4th or 5th place by the time the playoffs start, giving us at least a fighting chance of making it to the second round. But then again, we are talking about the Blues here.....

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:11 AM

I was just wondering, would it be possible (in an extreme scenario) for a political party to nominate someone other than the current president for the next term? For example, we'll say Bush does something really crazy out of the blue that makes his approval rating and poll numbers plummet. Come August 30th at the Republican National Convention could the party nominate someone like John McCain for instance instead of Bush? I'm thinking it's a possibility but probably not very likely to happen. Any thoughts?

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 4:33 PM

Just had only my second cig of the day a few moments ago. The weather outside is deee-lightful. Hopefully we'll be saying the same thing on Saturday at the Soulard Mardi Gras celebration. Unfortunately it seems that it's supposed to get a bit colder for the weekend. But soon enough days like today will be a plenty.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 4:14 PM

And so I ran..... for 35 minutes straight yesterday. And now I hurt.

I decided that since I rubbed a blister on Tuesday while rollerblading (due to one of my skates not being tight enough) that I would go jogging for my exercise last night so as not to aggravate the blister further. I started off well enough, but about halfway in I absolutely had to stop and walk for a bit. Only for one minute though, then it was back to the jog. I ended up walking one more time for a few seconds about 27 minutes in cause I felt like my chest cavity was going to explode. But I pushed on for the last few minutes and then once my stop watch went off, I walked the rest of the way home as a cool down. All told I figure I covered about 3 miles at the pace I was running. I used to run a 7 minute mile back in school and although I wasn't doing nearly that fast yesterday, I figured even the fat kids were completing mile runs in like 11 or 12 minutes. Three miles is a long way to run without stopping when you haven't even attempted to run a mile in 8 years or so. It took me about 15 - 20 minutes to get my heart rate back to normal after I got back to my house and today I had trouble walking up the stairs my legs hurt so bad. See the difference between rollerblading and running is simple. Friction and Potential energy. I can glide along with ease as I get tired when I am skating, and my body has tons of potential energy as my momentum carries me along on the wheels. When I get tired of jogging, I can't really do much but stop and walk. And I hate giving up so easily. Maybe I need to load my IPod with "Eye of the Tiger" to help me through those tough moments.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 3:57 PM

Whew.... Yesterday was Day 1 of Phase 1 of the "Get Jeff's Ass Back in Shape Program". I did the first high intensity cardio workout I've done in probably years (other than the occasional walk through the park or Thanksgiving day football game) yesterday when I decided to go rollerblading for 45 minutes. Probably a little too intense of a workout to start off with but hey, I made it through. Up and down hills too, not just going in circles on flat land. I must say for a guy who's been smoking for the past 7 years I did a pretty damn good job. I though I was toast about 10 minutes into the session, but I picked up a second wind and pushed myself to do 35 intense minutes and about a 10 min cool-down period. It was pretty cold out during my skate as well, which in turn made my tar infested lungs burn a bit. My back was sore about halfway into the skate as well because it had been so long since I was accustomed to the position you put your body in when rollerblading. Oddly enough, my legs were fine.

Back to the "Get Jeff's Ass Back in Shape Program" though. So since I'm not truly a "fatty" (I've just got the spare tire / chunky ass combo going on) and I am still relatively active and not totally out of shape (I do a quite a bit of manual labor still at work) I don't think I need to go too crazy on the exercise and diet. My basic goals are to:

A) Be Smoke free

B) Maintain my current weight, but replace 95% of my body fat with lean muscle

C) Increase my cardiovascular endurance (so that I may get back into playing some organized sports, hockey or baseball; this may also help my power and range when I sing)

D) Gain upper body strength and increase muscle mass

E) Eventually develop a well toned figure that is proportionate to my size (Hint: I don't want to look like Arnold circa 1978, I just want to look very fit and healthy)

F) Raise my metabolism back up closer to where it used to be so that I can eat what I want, and with exercise, not gain weight.

Phase one is basically just going to introduce me to some exercise and some light diet restrictions. This section of my little plan will probably last about 2 or 3 weeks. Here's what I got going so far:

A) 30 minutes of cardio 5 times at week performed by either jogging, rollerblading, or speed walking up and down the bluff trails at Castlewood. Also add in some crunches and a few minutes with the dumbbells each evening.

B) Reduce my smoking for now to just a few cigarettes a day, and eventually to only smoking when I drink.

C) Cut out unnecessary sugars that I eat / drink on a daily basis. For example my morning cappucino from QT has 57 grams of carbs which is mostly pure sugar. Soda is almost as bad. Cutting those two out right there make a huge difference.

D) No more food after about 10:30 PM (or roughly 3 hours before I go to bed).

E) No matter what.... at least 8 glasses of water a day.

F) Make a conscious effort to eat less carbs and sugars, and if I do eat some, try to eat them earlier in the day.

Like I said, I don't need to on some sort of crazy ass diet or extreme crosstraining / pilates / impact training exercise program. I just want to start small and get comfortable. Phase 2 will become even more strict with the diet and will increase my exercise levels, but I plan on not going overboard with this thing. I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:23 PM

Here's a quiz I remember taking a while back before I started blogging that I decided to post the results of:


Where do you fall on the liberal - conservative political spectrum? (United States)
brought to you by Quizilla

Not too surprising actually. Even though a lot of people see me as a liberal, most of my more left wing viewpoints are generally moderate.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:01 AM

I'm starting my Christmas list for next year already and I only want one thing. Screw a car, I've been a very, very, very, good boy!!

UPDATE: For those of you who didn't get to see the link before the Department of Homeland Security took it down, someone was selling an actual Blue Angel Hornet Jet on E-bay with the bids starting at 1 million bucks. I'm actually not sure who took the link down, whether it was done by E-bay or the FBI or what. But here's a link explaining a bit more about the story.

UPDATE,.... AGAIN: Looks like the bid page is back up and the bidding has closed. It shows that the winning bidder paid $99,999,999.00. I'm thinking that's not right since the plane only costs 28 million when it's brand spanking new.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 3:30 PM

"Honey, I hope you like the size of the rock in your engagement ring. Let me know if it gets to heavy."

Thanks to Chris for the link.

UPDATE: BTW, not to dash any of the ladies dreams out there, but here is an interesting article explaining why diamond prices are artificially inflated and how natural diamonds are actually less rare that rubies, opals, and emeralds. Thanks to L-Train for the link.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 3:26 PM

An out of the ordinary, mid-season, afternoon game on a weekday today for the Blues. Midway through the second period and were up 2-0. Could this be the beginning of that win streak we so desperately need?

UPDATE: Whoo hoo!! We beat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-2, that makes back to back wins! And we could get Pavol D. back as early as Thursday. Hot Damn!

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 3:13 PM

So, pending a healthy team for most of the season, can anyone beat the Yankees this year?

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:44 PM

If anyone has seen those crazy new Quizno's commercials with the mildly deformed singing rat-like things and wants to know where the hell that idea came from, go here. Apparently they're called Sponge Monkeys.

"We have a pepper bar......"

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 6:26 PM

Ummm.... I guess so.


You are Shetland Wool.
You are a traditional sort who can sometimes be a
little on the harsh side. Though you look
delicate you are tough as nails and prone to
intricacies. Despite your acerbic ways you are
widely respected and even revered.


What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 12:09 PM

This one seems a bit more like me. Cool picture too.


Rain: You are the sound of rain. You have two
important sides. There is your strong, powerful
side and your calm, gentle side. Both are very
important. Rain also reflects a bit of darkness
in your personality. It isn't bad, just shows
that along with the good, you also can see bad,
which can come in handy. (please rate my quiz)


What Sound Are You?(now w/ pics)
brought to you by Quizilla

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 12:08 PM

A few days ago during the NHL All-Star break, the general managers from each team all got together to discuss the possibility of instituting some new rules into the NHL next season that would make the game more exciting and faster paced as well as increase goal scoring (See the stories here and here). Not the silly rules that I posted about below, but real (and in some cases extreme) changes to the actual game itself.

First off, two rules that will go into effect immediately this season are, 1.) If a puck enters the net while the net is wobbling on it's moorings, that will now stand as a goal. And 2.) If any player is streaking toward a loose puck and headed for a breakaway, a penalty shot may be awarded if the player is dragged down before he is in possession of the puck. In the past, he would have to have already acquired it.

As far as next season goes, the biggest change proposed would prohibit goaltenders from leaving the crease and skating behind the net to play pucks that are dumped into the corners. The idea is that forechecking would be easier and the puck wouldn't just get slapped back out of the zone by the goalie. The next change for goalies is decreasing the width of the leg pads from 12 inches back down to 10 inches which is where they were before 1989. I'm not sure why they changed in the first place but I think it had something to do with the newer designs that offered more protection for the 'tenders legs.

The next major change has to do with moving the goals back closer to the end boards like they used to be. Currently they sit 13 feet from the boards behind them. The proposition is to move them back 3 feet so that they would be 10 feet from the boards like the days of old. This would of course increase the size of the offensive zone. To counter that they want to move the blue lines in towards the goals 3 feet to keep the zones the same size. This would in turn make the neutral zone 6 feet larger (from 54 feet up to 60) and hopefully give teams more room to work the puck and set up an attack.

Another old rule that may make a comeback is what is known as the "tag-up" offsides rule. This means that when a player crosses the blue line ahead of the puck, instead of the whistle being blown immediately, the player has a chance to go make a quick turn, throw one skate back outside the blue line, and then can rejoin the play. Essentially "tagging-up" like a runner would on a pop fly in baseball.

The next couple of rules have to do with points awarded and standings. The managers have proposed a new system giving three points to a team for a regulation win, two points to a team for an overtime win, and one point for an overtime loss. What about ties you may ask? Ummm they won't exist any more. After the standard 5 min, 4 on 4 overtime period, if the teams are still deadlocked the game would move to a shootout. Five players on each team go "mano a mano" with the opposing teams goalie. At the end of the round if the shootout ends tied, they move to a round two. Could make for some great highlight reels.

BTW, for another point of view on rule changes that could be made, check out this article written by ESPN's John Buccigross.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 12:16 AM

I understand the concept of impulse purchasing, but sometimes I wonder what the hell these people that run gas stations are thinking sometimes. Yes, I understand gum and cigarette lighters at the counter, and newspapers and magazines in line at the grocery store, hell I can even understand the sunglasses rack at Quiktrip. But today I walked into a gas station and saw fucking DVD's on the shelves. DVD's??? And not the like the newest "blockbuster" to come out, I'm talking about some really obscure films. I just don't get it. Who in the hell says, "Hey man I really want to go buy a new movie. Let's head up to the Mobil station!" I've seen tons of other strange shit sold at gas stations as well, too much stuff to name here. And those truck stops/gas stations/restaurants/hotels/brothels in the middle of no where are the worst about this. You know, the ones with a Country Kitchen or Waffle House attached to them and a damn video arcade by the bathrooms. Man, some of those places are like small department stores. They sell some of the stupidest shit imaginable. Is anyone driving across the country and gets the sudden urge to buy a Halloween style clown costume? Or tweety bird boxer shorts? Or the complete recordings of John Denver boxed set? I think you get my point.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:14 PM

In case anyone out there like myself doesn't know a whole hell of a lot about HTML (although I am learning more everyday), and is looking to spice up their blogger a bit, here are some links that may help you out:

BlogSkins.com
BlogDesigns.com
Point of Focus
Ehsany
Noipo
Templates 4 Free

I'm not going to do mine today or anything, but soon I'm going to take this here blog into the shop for a quick overhaul. I've been looking at some temporary server space to have for a few months until I get the server up and running at work, and I've come up with some good options. Hopefully as soon as I lock something down I'll be making some changes.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 9:58 PM

Anybody seen this story yet? Kinda freaky... Kinda sad as well. If you're not totally disturbed by the story itself, view the pictures here or here.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 9:36 PM

I'm really hoping this guy is flying a crop duster in Kansas by the end of the week.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:04 AM

Although it's still a bit chilly outside (yet not nearly as cold as it has been), I can see those first signs of spring rising from the ashes of winter all of the sudden. The air smells different, the days are starting to get noticeably longer (I got to drive home from work today at 6:20 PM to that once familiar orange-blue western horizon), and like Liam said, the birds are slowly coming back. In fact I've already seen a few building a nest in the eaves under the roof at work. The Weather Channel's extended forecast for the St. Louis area is calling for a steady warming trend over the next week and a half. That should take us well into deep February, with March just around the corner. And that pleases me greatly.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:17 PM

ESPN's Page 2 has some "interesting" ideas about how to make Hockey a better sport so that it would be more appealing to the general public. Worth a few chuckles.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 5:47 PM

Here's a link to a really cool article about our close friend Aaron J. Gwin's father "Gig". As most of you know Aaron's dad owns Gwins Travel, which is one of the largest, if not the largest locally owned travel agencies in St. Louis. They book all the travel for the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Rams as well as many local government agencies. I always knew that Aaron's dad was a well respected and highly experienced traveler, but not to this extent! While discussing Sgt. Stryker's world map (similar to my USA map below) of all the countries he had visited, I wondered what "Gig's" map would look like. Liam said that he had been everywhere...... literally! One of only 6 people in the world to have visited every country that currently exists on the world map today plus every territory that is within 200 miles of a mainland! What an amazing feat!

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:46 PM

This quiz was dead on....

Are you Addicted to the Internet? 51% Average@Internet-User.com (41% - 60%) You seem to have a healthy balance in your life when it comes to the internet and life away from the computer. You know enough to do what you want online without looking like an idiot (most of the time). You even have your own Yahoo club or online journal! But you enjoy seeing your friends and going out to enjoy life away from your computer. The Are you Addicted to the Internet? Quiz at Quiz Me!

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:32 PM

In case you didn't notice yet, I just added some contact features over in the side bar on the right. The first two links are the standard "Email Me" and "IM Me" links that will automatically open a new mail page or new IM window pre-addressed to me. The third link is something I just discovered I could do last night while browsing through the Verizon Wireless homepage. I always knew that you could text message someone via and Email, or via AOL Instant Messenger (if that particular phone supports AOL IM), but I think this may be much easier. Clicking that link will now redirect you to my personal Text Message home page which will load a form so that you can easily send my cell phone a text message without having to remember my number. I even has two spaces for you to enter your contact info, either a reply Email or IM address, or a call back phone number. They even let me customize the message to the sender at the top of the form and let me choose my own cheesy background (the palm trees) when I was setting up the page. This is a free service that Verizon offers to all their customers. You still have to pay for the text messages of course but most plans have them included. If not they only cost two cents per incoming message and 10 cents for each outgoing message. They also offer a ton of other great services on there for text messaging. For instance, I will now receive text message updates at the end of every period of the Blues games to inform me of the score, every third inning in the Cardinals games, and at the end of every quarter of the Rams games. I can also get, specific news updates, weather, stock watches, even music news from Rolling Stone, or a joke of the day from Maxim magazine plus tons of other stuff. They also have a page for me that is similar to an address book so that I can "quick text" phone numbers I store on there. The page even had about 100 pre loaded commonly used phrases that you can select from a drop-down menu so you don't have to type. Phrases like "What time?", "Where are you?", "See you soon", "Where should we meet?", etc, etc. This could turn out to be really handy if you ask me.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 9:46 AM

Whooooo Hoooooo!!! It's about damn time!!

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 12:21 AM

Go check out this movie: Matrix Ping Pong. Very creative and well choreographed.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 8:05 PM

Here's a cool site that will generate a map of the states that you have been to. The map below shows the states that I have actually visited for at least a full day. I did not include states that I simply drove through and stopped at a gas station for 5 minutes to take a bathroom break. If I did include them I would have also had to mark Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania on the map.

UPDATE: On Chris's suggestion, I've changed the map so that it now reflects all the states I've ever even driven through. Which just makes me that much cooler!!



create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:37 PM

Let me start this one off by saying that throughout the course of this war, my feelings have been split. I never could decide if it was the right thing to do or not. Sometimes I felt that it was right and just, other times I felt that it was unnecessary. If you look at the decision to go to war as a "means to an end" standpoint, that end being to breakdown the regime of Saddam and take him out of power, then the war was successful. However, as we are now starting to see more and more of the truth come out, the means are starting to seem like deceit.

I just finished watching an episode of 60 Minutes (a show I never watch) that interviewed some of the people most closely involved in working with the Armed Forces, the Department of Defense, the UN, and the presidents cabinet and top advisors regarding WMD's in Iraq. These people were weapons inspectors, military advisors, and scientists who had the highest security clearance to paperwork, evidence, and information dealing with what had been found in Iraq before, during, and after the war relating to WMD's. Every one of them said the same thing; there was never any clear cut direct evidence of WMD's. All of the so called "proof" of their existence was based on assumptions. Putting two and two together. Some called it a faith based intelligence. When asked if Iraq presented any immediate danger to the US when the war started one man replied "Absolutely not. In fact, I don't think they posed much of a threat to their immediate neighbors." Even British authorities on the matter said the same. They then replayed video of Bush, Cheney, and Powell all stating "there is solid evidence that Iraq has WMD's. I have no doubt in my mind." in some form or another.

Combine this with the US's and the UK's recent call for an investigation into the intelligence failures (even though Bush is going to select the committee and defer the results until after the election. Gee what a stand up guy.), and Paul O'Neill's recent allegations about the war against Iraq planned from just days after Bush took office, and we have the possibility of a massive deliberate deception of the American people unfolding before our eyes. Regardless of the outcome of the war, if this comes out that the administration lied in order to start a war, the shit will hit the fan. You thought Billy Boy lying about a damn hummer was bad, how about a lie that cost thousands of lives and BILLIONS of dollars! Now I'm no conspiracy theorist, nor do I know if we may yet find WMD's in Iraq. But it's looking like for "Bushys" sake,.....we had fucking better.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 9:04 PM

I had pretty much given up on the Blues Stanley cup chances once Jackman and Macinnis went down for the season. Now I'm slowly starting to give up on even our playoff chances. Earlier this season we had the second best record in the NHL and were ahead of Detroit in the standings by several points. Now we sit in ninth place in the Western Conference and are in jeopardy of missing the playoffs for the first time in 25 years. We're in the midst of our worst stretch of hockey in six years with only 5 wins in our last 23 games and going winless in our last seven. As I watched the team play last night, they looked like they were playing the first game of a playoff series. Fire, grit, passion, determination. They were out working the Minnesota Wild completely but couldn't buy a goal for a million bucks. We lost the game 4-0 even though we outplayed and outshot them. I don't have a clue what's going on but we just can't catch a break. The team is so frustrated we started seven fights last night. I'm just hoping we can win a good 60% of our remaining games and jump into the playoffs so we can keep the streak alive. Then we can start looking ahead to next year.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:39 AM

Well that was an interesting football game. What started off promising to be one of the worst Superbowls in history actually ended up being pretty exciting. It's hard to believe that through the first 27 minutes of the game there was no score and the Panthers had -2 total yards of offense. As much as I can appreciate the defensive strategy in the game of football, I must say it makes for pretty boring games. The next 33 minutes of the game were much more exciting and the fourth quarter was so intense it was as if I actually had some real emotion invested in one of those teams. I think everyone at Takis house was clearly rooting for the Panthers since pretty much everyone there had some reason or another to hate the Patriots. It's a shame that they didn't get the "W" though. I think it wasn't so much that we really cared if Panthers won or not, but more to see Tom Brady cry like a baby if the Patriots lost. Maybe the rumors are true. The "Patriots" rise from obscurity to win two Superbowls both in years where our country is at war. Hmmmm. Government payoff to the NFL? Or is it because of Adam Vinatieri's mob ties (he's obviously Italian)? I guess we'll never know. I do know that there are enough drunken idiots in Boston to kill one and injure dozens during the "celebration" though. Some way to celebrate guys.

Other than the Panthers loss, I was also severely disappointed in the commercials this year. The "Flaming Horse Fart" commercial was good, and there were a few more that were worth a chuckle, but it seemed like this year the commercials were lacking their usual hilarity.

Janet Jackson's boob shot was a shocker, although whenever you get MTV involved in any sort of production, there's bound to be something funky that's going to go down. Maybe that was one big "Punked" prank on the NFL and CBS. I can just see Ashton Kutcher laughing in front of a video monitor somewhere. I knew as soon as it happened that the shit was going to hit the fan for CBS and the NFL, and it certainly did. I don't think it was such a big deal during the game as it is today now that the media has jumped all over it. Most people I talked to didn't even see it much less give two shits about it. There was a damn streaker before the second half started and no one is making a big deal out of that. The funniest quote I read regarding the issue was from some woman who said something to the effect of "What are other people going to think of our country after seeing this? The Superbowl airs all over the world!" Lady, had this been any other country there would have been boobies scheduled to be in the halftime show. Remember folks, the great US of A is the most sexually uptight country in the civilized world. Pretty much every country in Europe has nudity on the news and even in commercials and some of them have it in prime time no less.

But hey, the party was a good time. The food was delicious and abundant. I think we have enough left over for two more Superbowl parties. Everyone that I expected to show up did so with the exception of that bitch Han (Miller). And hey, where was Todd and the Torque? Maybe Pete can answer those questions now that he can comment. The HDTV looked awesome and later on we played some NFL2K3 and some SSX3 on the tube. But not before the ice skating contest on Takis back porch. And certainly not before consuming obscene amounts of liquor (I know I put away at least a 12 pack of brew and 2.5 bourbon slushies). Hey, and the ice even held off long enough for everyone to make it home safely. All things considered a great day. Too bad we have to wait another 365 days for the next one.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:05 PM