This weekend was hot! I'm not talking hot like "off the hook" or "stylish", just plain hot. Probably one of the consistently hottest weekends I can remember in St. Louis in all my short life. Unfortunately I spent most of it outside, although most of those hours were in the evenings by which time the heat index had dipped to a balmy 105 degrees.

Friday night I got to see my first Cards-Cubs game at Busch since I was like 12 years old. I've been to one at Wrigley Field since then (back when I was about 14) and have been to probably over 100 Cardinals games just in this decade alone (including several playoff games), but always seem to miss the Cubbies when they come to town.

As aforementioned, it was hotter than nuts at gametime on Friday, and my beer which rested below my face seemed to keep filling itself up with the sweat that was constantly dripping from my chin. Mmm, sweaty beer.

At any rate, the game was a classic. Got to see J-Rod hit is second major league homer, and both Zambrano and Carpenter pitch gems. Albert got robbed of a home run, and Izzy pitched out of another scary bases loaded situation in the top of the tenth. But getting to see the Cards win it on a squeeze play in the bottom of the 11th inning was definitely the highlight of the game.

On Saturday, after watching the Cards lose game two of the series by only a run (and playing with what was essentially the "B-Team") I got myself all cleaned up and headed out to see a band in concert that was long overdue. My favorite guilty pleasure band of all time, Journey. Oddly enough, even with the scalding temps and the fact that Journey hasn't been wildly popular in many years, the concert was nearly sold out. And even more surprising was the number of young adults and teenagers that were in attendance.

Oddly enough the man that introduced the band that night was none other that Mr. Tony LaRussa, coach of the Cardinals. Both the band and Tony grew up in San Francisco around the same time, and apparently he is a long time fan.

The tour was called the "Generations Tour" so Journey's set that night included a first act encompassing all their music from the 70's when the band had more of an experimental progressive rock sound. They came back after the intermission with a much longer second set covering all of their classic songs from the 80's when Steve Perry joined the group and made them a commercial powerhouse. The new singer Steve Augeri continued to impress and even live sounds exactly like Perry did. Even new drummer Deen Castronovo has vocal qualities similar to Perry. They did play a couple of covers including Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix and a Santana song the name of which escapes me at the moment. Fitting, since Neal Schon played with Santana at Woodstock as well as playing on both Abraxas and Santana III. He also did a stirring rendition of the Star Spangled Banner which whipped the audience into a frenzy. They played just about every song you could have hoped for as a casual or hardcore Journey fan. A damn fine show all around.

Sunday I took it easy and went over to Takis house to watch the rubber game of the series on ESPN in High Def. I won't even comment about the game because I'm too pissed for words right now. You can't blow leads and then spoil bottom of the ninth comeback's like that. Just piss poor. Although it was again pretty much the bench players out there vs. all the Cubs starters and their best pitcher.

BTW, congrats to Lance Armstrong on his 7th Tour de France victory. Take that Frenchies!

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:41 AM

One of the scientists in the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know" that I posted about below has done some really interesting experiments with water. His name is Dr. Masaru Emoto and he's been studying how thoughts and emotions can affect water in the physical world.

Dr. Emoto discovered that crystals formed in frozen water reveal changes when specific, concentrated thoughts are directed toward them. He found that water from clear springs and water that has been exposed to loving words shows brilliant, complex, and colorful snowflake patterns. In contrast, polluted water, or water exposed to negative thoughts, forms incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors.

Check out the photos to see some examples of what we are dealing with here:


"Love and Gratitude"___________"A Mozart symphony"
















"You Make Me Sick"____________"Heavy Metal Music"













Pretty weird eh? Some of his theories seem a bit too new-agey for my tastes, but he does have quite a bit of solid evidence to back it up. I haven't delved too deeply yet into the actual specifics of the research due to the fact that the concept itself is still so fascinating. Check his homepage out here if you'd like to take a look at it for yourself.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:25 AM

So last weekend I got the chance to see one of the most thought provoking movies I've ever seen, "What the Bleep Do We Know!?". It is part documentary, part story, and part elaborate and inspiring visual effects and animations.

The core theme of the movie revolves around the nature of reality as it relates to theories of quantum physics. Is what we interpret as reality actually real? Is it possible for multiple dimensions to exist based on each and every human decision made? How do our daily decisions effect reality as we know it? Can emotions and thoughts affect the physical world? What are thoughts made of?

It's a really fucking cool film, one that makes you really wake up and pay attention and ponder some important questions about the world around you. Check out the trailers to get a better feel for the movie and what I'm talking about. I highly recommend you go out and rent this one on a rainy day.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 10:44 AM

Check out this story about a 400 pound former Marine who in an attempt to lose weight, is walking across the entire country from San Diego to NYC on old Route 66.

So far he's made it to Flagstaff, AZ since he started on April 10th and has already lost 50 pounds. He's seems to have gone through quite a bit already; the flu, horrible blisters, loosing toenails, dehydration, and more.

Check out his website here for more info.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 4:00 PM

Or you could say I am:

320 Months old
1,397 Weeks old
9,781 Days old
234,732 Hours old
14,083,946 Minutes old

or....

845,036,797 Seconds old

See how old you are here.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 5:20 PM

In case you missed the Cardinals awesome sweep of the Astros this weekend at Busch, these photos should help sum it up for you...






Albert Pujols celebrates his game-winning, two-run home run with Abraham Nunez and Chris Carpenter, in the 13th inning against the Houston Astros on Friday night in St. Louis. The Cardinals won 4-3.






Larry Walker is applauded by fans after his fifth-inning, three-run home run against the Houston Astros on Saturday. Cards won 4-2.












Chris Carpenter pitches in the first inning against the Houston Astros on Sunday at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. All-Star starter Chris Carpenter outpitched Roger Clemens with a complete game shutout to become the NL's first 14-game winner. The Cardinals won 3-0.

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

Here's a midseason evaluation of the best team in the National League courtesy of Joe Strauss from the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 3:43 PM

I'm not quite 100% sure how they arrive at these numbers but here's how much I'm worth according to them.

I am worth $1,851,326 on HumanForSale.com

That's just above the average price for a male which is: $1,849,051.

What really hurt me was the fact that I'm a smoker, have used drugs, and have an addictive personality (-50,000, -15,000, and -15,000 respectively), and that I'm short and going bald (-8000 and -15,000 respectively).

What really helped me out was my IQ (+214,000) and my SAT score (+61,000).

UPDATE: Apparently my alter-ego is worth $3,321,620

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:34 AM

After waking up around 1 PM with one hell of a hangover, my bro and I headed back down to Harrah's buffet to eat some brunch with the rest of the family. My brother and I eventually met up with an old friend of ours from high school, Mark, who is now a charter pilot that lives in Vegas.

For the most part it was a lazy day and Mark, my brother, and I just lounged around at the Carnaval Court, listening to some good cover bands and indulging in some "flair" cocktails.

About 6:00 PM we headed back up to the room to shower and change for the night. Tonight's show was Jubilee at Bally's. It's an old school Vegas showgirls type production that has been running for over 20 years. Lots of sequins, feathers, large head-dresses, dancing, singing, and of course boobies. We sat right next to the stage which was nice for my bro and I, being that close to the bouncing boobies. That is until the man-asses made an appearance.

After the show we headed away from the strip for our dinner reservations which were at Roy's. Roy's is a Hawaiian Fusion Restaurant with a menu designed by world renowned chef Roy Yamaguchi who has been called "the father of East-West fusion cuisine". I must say this may have been the best all around dining experience I've ever had. My entire family agreed. I HIGHLY recommend heading to Roy's if you are ever in Vegas or head to one of his other 29 restaurants around the world.

After eating, drinking, eating some more, and then drinking even more, we finally headed back to the hotel again to freshen up before heading out to the clubs for the night. Alas the food was so rich and the drink so potent that our food comas wouldn't allow us to get very motivated to do anything. My brother and I both decided that after a long night on Monday, and with our bellies as full as they were, that we'd better call it a night. And so we did, and slept like hibernating bears until the morrow.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 2:18 PM

Science Magazine (otherwise known as the Academic Journal of Science) just released it's 125th anniversary issue. It covers the Top 125 unanswered questions in science. You know, all that crazy stuff we may never know like "What is the nature of a Black Hole?", "How was all the matter in the universe created?", etc. You can see the top 25 here, or click here to view the other 100 questions.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 5:48 PM

After two straight weeks of 100 degree heat, we're finally getting a bit of a break in here. The last week or so has been top notch weather for St. Louis in the summer. Low humidity with highs ranging from the mid 80's to low 90's. It's been especially nice in the evenings. I hear some nice thunderstorms are on the way as a result of the hurricanes making landfall this week. Should be extremely helpful to the area since we've only had 1.67 inches of rain in the past 30 days, mostly in very small doses. Enjoy the moderate temps now though folks, August is right around the corner.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 2:30 PM

Along with working on completing my "Best of 2004" collection and mailing those babys out, I'll soon be doing a large music review of all the CD's I've purchased during the first half of this year. I'm going to change my format a bit from my previous music reviews though. You'll see once I have it up. I think I'm for sure going to move to a new rating system (probably like a grading system like "B+" or "C-" style) that allows for more room than a typical Rolling Stone "3 of 5 stars" type ranking.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 2:23 PM

Gender Specific Prayers




Urine Sample

One day, in line at the company cafeteria, Joe says to Mike, "My elbow hurts like crazy. I guess I better see a doctor."

"Listen, you don't have to spend that kind of money," Mike replies. "There's a diagnostic computer down at Wal-Mart. Just give it a urine sample and the computer will tell you what's wrong and what to do about it. It takes ten seconds and costs ten dollars... a lot cheaper than a doctor."

So Joe puts a urine sample in a small jar and takes it to Wal-Mart. He deposits ten dollars, and the computer lights up and asks for the urine sample. He pours the sample into the slot and waits.

Ten seconds later, the computer ejects a printout: "You have tennis elbow. Soak your arm in warm water and avoid heavy activity. It will improve in two weeks. Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart."

That evening while thinking how amazing this new technology was, Joe began wondering if the computer could be fooled. He mixed some tap water, a stool sample from his dog, urine samples from his wife and daughter, and a sperm sample for good measure. Joe hurried back to Wal-Mart, eager to check the results.

He deposited ten dollars, poured in his concoction, and awaited the results.
The computer then prints the following:

1. Your tap water is too hard. Get a water softener. (Aisle 9)

2. Your dog has ringworm. Bathe him with anti-fungal shampoo.(Aisle 7)

3. Your daughter has a cocaine habit. Get her into rehab.

4. Your wife is pregnant, Twins. They aren't yours. Get a lawyer.

5. If you don't stop playing with yourself, your elbow will never get better.

Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 9:37 AM