A Wheel of Time note

According to Wikipedia (which we all know is never wrong), by the time I finish The Knife of Dreams; Book 11 of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, I will have read a total of 9,685 pages (all paperback). Don't even ask how many words that is. But there is good news. Again according to Wikipedia, this marathon series will end with Book 12, even if (according to the author himself) it take 1000-1500 pages. Note to Robert Jordan : Good-flippin'-luck, dude. You have enough loose ends floating around in the first 10 books to start your own lint-ball.

TWIR - 1812 Rivers Of War (by Eric Flint)

This Week I Read : 1812 Rivers of War (by Eric Flint)

Rating : B-

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Eric Flint has a bunch of "Alternate History" books out, the majority of which deal with a 20th-century West Virginia town transported back in time to 1632 Germany. 1812RoW is the first in a second AH series, this one dealing with how a minor change in a battle (Sam Houston receiving a small wound instead of a major one) alters the rest of the War of 1812.

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The only problem is - not much history is changed. Yeah, Sam Houston becomes the hero of the battles of Washington DC and New Orleans, but the outcomes remain the same. So if you're looking for some tangential history line, you're going to be sorely disappointed. True, this book serves mostly as a set-up for the second book in this series - where Arkansas becomes a free territory right after the end of the war - where blacks and Indians can live on their own terms. But 535 pages of non-alternate history is a lot to read just for a set-up.

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OTOH, is you read this book as a historical novel, then its quite good. Most people's knowledge of the War of 1812 can be distilled down to four vague facts :

1.) It started cuz the British kept stealing our navy men.

2.) John Paul Jones said something about not giving up the ship.

3.) Two years into the war, the British burned Washington D.C. (normally, this means "game over; we win!". but for some reason, they decided to play on.)

4.) We won the Battle of New Orleans, which is important because without that Johnny Horton would've had one less hit song. (Everybody sing now - "In 1814, we took a little trip...")

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This book does a great job of fleshing out the details of the war - particularly how the roles of the Indians (Choctaw, Chickashaw, Creek, and Cherokee) and Blacks (both slaves and freedmen) interplayed with the British, American (and to a lesser degree the French and Spanish) sides. So if you like History, then by all means get this book. But if you want to read some Alternate History, then pick up his novel "1632" (which is on my bookcase waiting in line to be read), or wait for "1824 The Arkansas War" - which is out in hardback, but who wants to shell out 4x the $$$ instead of waiting for the paperback? As for me, I'm now starting into Robert Jordan's "Knife of Dreams" - Book 11 in the Wheel of Time series. I'll have 837 pages to see whether the plot advances one iota, something that hasn't happened in 4 or 5 volumes.

TWIP - Heroes of Might & Magic 5

This Week I'm Playing : Heroes of Might & Magic 5 (HOMM5) First let me say I'm addicted to HOMM3. A fabulous game in its own right, then made "best-ever" by a random map generator that means you never need to play the same scenario twice. I've been playing HOMM3 for years, even keeping an outdated PC with Windoze-95 on it just for this game. Alas, HOMM4 was somewhat of a flop, and the HOMM team went out of business. Now, years later, Ubisoft has resurrected the series.

What's to Like

The 3D graphics are stunning. There are dozens of new and re-done creatures to learn to use. And new spells and new artifacts. There's even a random map generator, abeit that comes in a separate Expansion Pack add-on for an extra $40. I haven't installed the RMP yet, so stay tuned.

What's Not To Like

First, all that 3D generating slows the game play to a crawl. Those graphics may be stunning, but I'd trade some of the detail (do we really need to see every leaf in the trees?) for a speedier game. Loading previously-saved games especially bogs down the old PC. Second, the PC requirements are steep. Pentium-4 at the minimum. For a turn-based game?? Gimme a break. Third, there's a paucity of individual scenarios to do. Maybe 6 total for the single-player mode. And forget about choosing what race you want to be; you'll be whatever Ubisoft decides. What is it about the maxim "Less razzle-dazzle graphics; more and better game-play" that's so difficult for game-programmers to comprehend? Fourth, there's no manual for the game. After a week of playing HOMM5, I still can't tell you how many races there are and/or give you a complete list of the spells. But I'm betting that, for yet another $40, there's an HOMM5 how-to book at Best Buy. Finally, the anti-crack device sucks big time. Basically, the installation scans your PC for virtual drives, and if it finds one (even if its unrelated to HOMM5), it refuses to load the game. Yeah, yeah, Ubisoft. I know you think this will discourage people loading cracked versions. But I think instead, its going to encourage them to find the cracked version, so they can keep their virtual drives.

Final Verdict

TBD. So far it's holding my interest. But we'll see whether the bad lagging eventually drives me back to playing HOMM3. I have a feeling I'll be installing the expansion pack shortly.

This week I read...

Rating : C+

I'm way behind on my James Patterson reading. His best efforts involve serial killers and the homicide detective Alex Cross. Unfortunately, Black Market has neither. Wall Street gets blown up, and we spend most of the first half of the book going on wild goose chases. Finally, the story begins to move, and there are a couple nice Dan Brown-esque twists in the latter stages. Still, one yearns for a deranged psychotic killer to show up and slash someone to pieces - anyone - just to spice things up. What is eerie about this book, however, is the way it foreshadows September 11. Black Market first came out in 1986, and if you substitute the Twin Towers for Wall Street, you get a scenario with uncanny similarities. Perhaps in 500 years, someone will decide that Patterson was a 20th-Century Nostredamus. All-in-all, it's a decent story, but its never gonna be your favorite Patterson book.

More Xmas 2006 Pics (a)

A couple more Xmas pics to close out 2006. I'm not saying our three dogs are spoiled rotten, but they each have their own Christmas stocking. Alas, the concept of "each dog opens his own stocking" is lost upon them.

More Xmas 2006 Pics (b)

Jason, Whitney, and Preacher came over and opened presents with us on Christmas morning.

More Xmas 2006 Pics (c)

A nice photo of Jason and Preacher. Preacher is a huge pit/lab mix, but he's a lover, not a fighter. He wandered in to the towing company a year ago, bedraggled and cut up from apparently coming out on the losing end of a dogfight. He thinks his new life with Jason and Whitney is much better.

Christmas at the Ludwigs -2006 (a)

2006 Christmas Day festivities at our house. 14 people and four dogs. The kids were extremely well-behaved the entire day. The dogs were reasonably well-behaved, except for Huxley and Jynx who got into a rip-roaring fight while opening their gifts, leaving a gash in Liz's arm.

Christmas at the Ludwigs -2006 (b)

Many thanks to everyone who came. Special kudos to all the cooks; the food was excellent! Lots more pics available. If I get ambitious, I'll post them on a stand-alone blog; but don't hold your breath. BTW, in the above pic, Bill is NOT poking his eyes out on the candles in the centerpiece. :-)

This week I read...

Rating : B- . A sequel in a prequel to Frank Herbert's "Dune" Trilogy. Written by his son Brian, and Kevin Anderson. Tell me, how do two authors write one story? Does one of them write the nouns, and the other one the verbs? Methinks Brian Herbert is here mostly so the family name is on the cover. As in any prequel, the main raison d'etre for this book is to line up everything for the original Dune episode. But the basic plot is the overused "humans versus machines" line. Gee, where have we seen that before? Terminator, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and so on. Is it now politically incorrect to slay any living beings? Can't anyone come up with a storyline that doesn't involve the evils of Artificial Intelligence? Literature-wise, this is "Dune Lite". Which is not necessarily a bad thing. "Dune" was an awesome book, but "Dune Messiah" and "Children Of Dune" were each a new level of tediousness and obscurity compared to their predecessors. Reading "CoD" was (for me at least) more of a labor than a pleasure. This decline in quality seems to be inherent in Trilogies. "Clan of the Cave Bear" is a masterpiece, interweaving a captivating storyline with a bunch of great archaeology. But its sequels go downhill quickly. "Valley of Horses" slowed to a crawl, and "The Mammoth Hunters" is nothing more than a 600-page Harlequin Romance set in caveman times. Pee-Yoo! And don't even get me started about Robert Jordan's "Dragon Reborn" series. We're on what, Book 11 now? And the plot hasn't progressed one bit since about Book 5. (But I will still buy and read the newest one - out just in time for Christmas). But back to Dune Battle of Corrin. Overall, it keeps one's interest despite the trite storyline. Papa Herbert's chapter-beginning quotes are better (and of course, more esoteric), but at least there's less mysticism and more action in DBoC. And none of the characters (including the Bots) are the essence of pure evil and/or pure good. So we'll give it a B-, and go dust-off and re-read Dune.

Tribute To John Bolton

The promised song. Dedicated to that paragon of diplomacy and tact, and to be sung to the tune of "(The Wreck of) The Sloop John B", Beach Boys-style. "Oh I am the dupe John B, The preznit appointed me, Around UN Plaza I did roam; Spewing my spite, Prepared for a fight, (oh yeah) But I feel I screwed up, I wanna go home. So hoist up old John B's rear, See how the people all jeer, Call me a loser and more, let me go home; I wanna go home, Why don't you let me go home (oh yeah), I feel I screwed up, I wanna go home. All the UN, they hate my guts, They think I'm an ignorant putz, Cuz I wanna pack up their bags and send them all home; Dubya, I tried, Please don't cast me aside, (oh no) I feel I screwed up, I wanna go home. So hoist up old John B's rear, See how the people all jeer, Call me a butt-hole and more, let me go home; I wanna go home, Why don't you let me go home (oh yeah), I feel I screwed up, I wanna go home. Well the Congress got in a funk, They said the preznit's strategy stunk, Cuz he gave me the job after all of them had gone home; Senator Reid, He says I'll never succeed (oh no), I feel I screwed up, I wanna go home. So hoist up old John B's rear, See how the people all cheer, Call me a whack-job and more, let me go home; I wanna go home, Why don't you let me go home (oh yeah) This is the worst trip I've ever been on. (Repeat chorus)

UN Reaction

How the UN felt about my song to John Bolton...

Christmas Preparations (01)

Decorating for Christmas is divided 50:50 at our house. Liz spends 50 hours (literally) making sure that every square foot of the house (plus the back porch) has some sort of holiday decor. And I spend 50 minutes putting up a couple strands of lights outside on the front of the house, in "minimalist" fashion. The weeklong (for Liz) ritual ends with the putting up of the Christmas tree. Jason comes over and helps her decorate it. And Jynx stays out of the way (kinda) by staking out his territory under the tree.

Christmas Preparations (02)

And Honeybee and Huxley provide moral support by watching the tree-decorating from the nearby rocking chair.

Bye Bye Bolton...

Another bozo leaves the Dubnutz regime. John Bolton stands out as a shining pile of sh*t even among all the other turd blossoms (Rove, Cheney, Wolfowicz, etc.). Dubnutz sent this idiot to the UN by means of some crafty maneuvering, knowing that even the Republican congress had serious misgivings about him. Now, with the Democrats coming to power in January, there's no chance at all that Bolton will ever get approved. We'll dedicate a song to this right-wing nut job. I'll post it shortly; I've still got a couple rhyming schemes to smooth out. The song I'm tweaking is... well, it should be obvious. Let's just say its a tune that both the Beach Boys and The Kingston Trio covered. Bye bye, Bolton. You won't be missed.

Culture Weekend

Most of the time, when I come into contact with culture, I treat it with penicillin until it goes away. But this past weekend, we actually (and willfully) went to see a play - a musical no less - at the Orpheum Theater. It was quite good. Of course, it helped that we had killer seats (Thanks, John & Jeri!) - 2nd Row, Center Stage. I could've spit into the orchestra pit, but Liz told me not to. No photography was allowed, so the above playbill cover will have to do. I won't rate it, because I'm prejudiced against musicals in general; to the point of where I sometimes embarrass Jason & Liz. This coming Friday, we're going to see André Rieu. More culture. Stay tuned.

This weekend I watched...

The Lakehouse, starring Sandra Bullock & Keanu Reeves. We'll give this movie **** (out of 10*). It loses 5 stars automatically, cuz it's a chick-flick. But beyond that, one has to admit, it is rather entertaining. Bullock & Reeves make a good, romantic pair. Guys, the movie will suck you in at the beginning, due to the time anomaly of Keanu living in 2004, and Bullock living in 2006. Alas, just as you settle onto the couch, it becomes clear this is going to be long on the romance, and short on action and scientific curiosity. Of course, since I'm a time-traveler myself, I can tell you that the movie's depiction of this is not the way time/space-folding actually works. The cosmic builders do NOT put wormholes in mailboxes. My advice - watch this movie with your wife or GF (but not both at the same time) to score brownie points. It'll certainly hold your attention better than Under A Tuscan Sun or Love Story.

This Week I Converted...

Another Classical Piano LP that I haven't seen available anywhere as a CD. Sergei Rachmaninov's "The Ampico Recordings - Volume 2". The tracks were originally recorded between 1919 and 1929 as "piano roll recordings". Decca then re-issued them on vinyl in 1979 and again in 1985. This is the 4th classical piano LP I've converted, and the best of the bunch so far. I don't know if I'm developing an ear for this genre, or if I'm just getting luckier each time. FWIW, the four artists I've converted & listened to thus far are : 01. Ignace Paderewski o2. Vladimir Horowitz 03. Russell Sherman 04. Sergei Rachmaninov I've been asked to convert another dozen or so classical piano albums, so stay tuned.

Happy Holidaze!

Happy Thanksgiving to all you turkeys out there! This decoration was given to us by the new lady on the cul-de-sac. Ostensibly, it was just a friendly, neighborly introduction. But between the lines, there was a bit of "I want you to have your own planet when you get to heaven" tripe. Sorry lady, I'm not into holy underwear. Still, it's a cute use of a pineapple, doncha think?

Catalina Island Blog !!

At long last, the pics of the Catalina Island Surprise Birthday Bash are up on a blog. You can see them at www.ter-catalina.blogspot.com Or you can click on the "See my complete profile" link at the top of this blog, scroll down to the bottom, and click on the link there. A couple comments to those new to blogs. If you want to see a bigger version of any pic, just put your cursor on it (it should change into a white hand), and left-click. Also, please feel free to leave comments. Bloggers love them. The comment box is formatted to where anyone can write one. But if you choose the "anonymous" setting, please sign your name at the end of your comment so I know who visited the site. There is a "letter verification" box for all comments. This is to confound the computerized spam machines, not to make life difficult for you. Just type them in the box when you're done writing your comment. That's about it. For the record, I wasn't along for the bash, so some of my comments just might be made-up. Also, I may have gotten some of the names wrong; I apologize to any and all if I did.

Ode to Ted Haggard

My my, another right-wing, gay-bashing, holier-than-thou televangelist gets exposed as a hypocrite and a liar. How do people fall for this malarkey? Oh well, we'll do him honor with a poem. Ted, this one's for you, sweet-cakes.

A fine tele-preacher named Haggard

Did meth with a gay till he staggered

He denied it at first

Then confessed with a burst

"I just wanna be Jimmy Swaggart!"

Another Terlist! Jobs for RumDumb!!

Dear Donnie. I heard you resigned today. Which is a nice way of saying they canned your butt. I'm sure you will have a lot more free time on your hands, and given your limited IQ, you probably won't know what to do. Here's a couple things I've come up with. 01. Enlist. I'm sure you're aching to know what the troops in Iraq really think of you. What better way to find out than to enlist and volunteer for duty there? You'll get to see parts of Iraq you've never seen before - like places outside the Green Zone. Try not to get hit by friendly fire. 02. Become a guest commentator of Faux News. They'll love you there. They think (and I use that term loosely) just like you. 03. Become a contestant on Fear Factor. Oh, I have a great idea for this. Rummy gets water-boarded! After all, you don't think its torture - just a bit of discomfort. Let's see how you do. Try not to giggle when they're doing it to you. 04. Take some Night Classes. Maybe Criminal Justice 101. But something like Public Speaking 102 is a good choice too. See next suggestion. 05. Become a recluse. Because there's a lot of people that are going to want to question you. Under oath. Like the Senate. And the House. And the World Court. If you disappear, maybe they'll forget about you. But I doubt it. They'd all like for you to explain the above photo. In American Law, someone who aids a murderer carry out his killings is equally guilty. All for now, Rummy. No need to thank me. It was my pleasure.

27th Anniversary (a)

We celebrated our 27th Wedding Anniversary this past weekend. It was technically last Friday, but we knew we'd be too tired to go out then, so we went out Saturday night instead.

27th Anniversary (b)

Liz found this swanky (for Arizona) place in Tempe. On 7th Street, one block east of Mill Avenue.

27th Anniversary (c)

Almost all the tables were outside, which makes for a pleasant ambiance in early November. But I don't think I'd want to be there in the summer.

27th Anniversary (d)

Most of the entrées were $22-$26. For the two of us, plus an appetizer (fresh fruits, cheeses, and crackers), one bottle of wine, and 20% tip; the tab came to $130. Definitely a special-occasion only place, but we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Electronic Voting

It is estimated that 1/3 of the voting next Tuesday will be done electronically. This is dangerous, since the Repugnicans in power are fearing the worst, and this regime has shown that they're perfectly comfortable with doing unethical and illegal things like vote-fixing. Liz and I have opted for early voting by mail for years, so it doesn't really affect us. Various companies and individuals have demonstrated that skewing the electronic results is remarkably easy. Diebold, the maker of the electronic voting machines, claims that's just hogwash, without any evidence to disprove the hackers. And of course, the unasked question is : What if someone within Diebold wants to skew the results? Without a paper trail, about the only way to know if Diebold is compromising the votes is when Exit Polls don't match up with the "count". Curiously, this happened two years ago in some very critical Ohio precincts, when the fate of the Presidency came down to that state. Even more curious, there are several initiatives out there right now, demanding that those taking Exit Polls not be allowed within 100 feet of the polling places. Essentially, this destroys the integrity of the Exit Poll. One has to wonder why anyone would want to work so hard to do this. Go vote next Tuesday! It's time for a regime change, and it starts by removing the lackeys in Congress who have allowed Dubnutz to take away our constitutional rights. And pay close attention to how the Exit Polls and the "Count" correlate. Especially late in the night in some of the "up for grabs" districts.

Happy Halloween!

I hope you spent the night in an oak grove, celebrating Samhain.

Catalina Island (Preview)

Pics of the Catalina Island shindig coming soon!

Mash-Up Madness

Mash-Ups (sometimes one word : "Mashups") are a new musical art-form phenomenon. In a nutshell, the artist takes tracks from two separate bands and re-mixes two songs (one from each album) together, thus "mashing them up". If you go to Amazon.com and search for "Mashup" you'll find they carry 2 or 3 CD's in this genre. However, the most-famous mash-up is a combination of The Beatles' Sgt. Peppers and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. An aspiring musician / techno-geek named Clayton Counts re-mixed the songs from these two albums, and distributed a few copies among his friends. He even got a couple radio interviews and one or two mentions in music magazines, due to this new art-form. The tracks are interesting, but unimpressive. By Clay's own admission, he did the whole job in about an hour. This isn't serious music; it's something you'll listen to for about 5 minutes when totally drunk (or otherwise) and say, "Weird. Now can we listen to actual songs?" However, that's not the way the goons at EMI Music (Capitol Records) saw it. They have brought suit against Clayton, wanting not only mega-$$$ for "lost revenue", but also demanding the identities and IP addresses of everyone to whom Clay sent a copy. Clay, being an aspiring musician, isn't worried about the money. EMI can take every cent he has, and it still wouldn't make it out of small-claims court. But he is refusing to turn over the names & IP addresses to the jerks at EMI. Support Clay and his fight against the EMI bastards! Boycott EMI and Capitol Records! You can google "Beachles" and/or "Clayton Counts" to read the full story and see what else you can do in this matter. The claim of "lost revenue" is bogus. This is "art" at best; "techno-geekery" at worst and the actions by EMI are nothing more than malicious bullying for no reason.

This Week I Converted...

Russell Sherman is a concert pianist of minor renown. He's famous enough to show up when you Google his name; but he's not big enough to be found in Wikipedia (yet). This LP was in somewhat bad shape. Lots of scratches had to be removed, many of them major. To boot, one Intermezzo on Side B had to be scrapped because it constantly skipped forward. Not much can be done about that. The old "penny on the tone-arm didn't work this time. That being said, we'll give this album ***** **½ (out of 10*). I like him better than Paderewski and Rubinstein. For the record (pun intended), Paganini wrote the original music; Brahms wrote variations of Paganini's themes; and Russell Sherman gives you his interpretations of Brahms' variations. Confused? Me too. Still, I haven't found this disc in CD form anywhere, so it was neat to bring this music back to life.

Jury Duty - US District Court

Yes, the Federal court wants Yours Truly to do his civic duty this month. Everyone should serve once on a jury, in order to build one's confidence in the judicial system. Ah, but I did this about 8 years ago. A monumentally boring 3-week (!!) 'breach of contract' civil case. So this time I was determined to do my best NOT to be picked. My (first) date to appear was this past Wednesday. The case might have proved interesting - (attempted) distribution of the sacred weed. And I was #10 on the jury list, which meant I'd be on the jury unless I did something to make them not want to take a chance on me. Which I did. This time, I used the "autistic psycho" posture. I simply stared at the wall across the room from me, refused to laugh when everyone else did (there were lots of opportunities for this), and answered the qualifying questions like I was giving a deposition. Flat monotone, with a minimum of details. (But no lies). It worked like a charm. They passed over me in favor of a bunch of schoolteacher types. Everyone was happy. The only catch is, I'm still 'on call' for the rest of the month, and have to call in every weekend to see if I have to report a second time. FWIW, the last time (the breach of contract case), I adopted a "know-it-all" posture, figuring one side or the other wouldn't want me and my (supposed) knowledge on the jury. Wrong strategy. The lady beside me took a "total idiot" posture and wasn't picked. I lost three work weeks.

A TerPoem

This is for all my friends and colleagues who bought the Repuglicans "Contract With America" bullcrap. Holy Foley was a perv, Holy Foley had some nerve, Holy Foley wasn't wholly holy.

This Week I'm Listening To...

Kate Wolf : Weaver of Visions (Anthology) ***** ***½ (out of 10*) A fabulously-talented folksinger and songwriter who died before her time in 1986 of leukemia. KW is in the same genre as, and influenced Nanci Griffith and Emmylou Harris. In fact, you'll find a KW song, "Across The Great Divide" on Nanci's "Other Voices" album. Unfortunately, she never had a commercial hit, which makes finding used LP's and/or new CD's by her very difficult. But Amazon has a decent selection, and her family has a website at www.katewolf.com Anthology is a double-CD, with a nice cross-section of (early) acoustic stuff, live tracks, and (later) bluegrass-picking songs. The music is honest and straightforward; but it's the lyrics that will stay with you. And if you're from Arizona, listen to the words of "Old Jerome", and you'll find that its about the ghost-town up by Cottonwood.

This Week I'm Listening To...

IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI (VOL. 5) (***** **)

Yeah, the image above is "Volume 1". But actually I'm converting "Volume 5" from LP to CD for a friend, and there's no image available of this out-of-print album. This is classical piano. Paderewski playing Chopin, Debussy, Brahms, etc. Originally recorded in 1930, and then issued on an LP in 1981. The LP is in bad shape, and there's a noticeable "hiss" throughout the tracks. But I've figured out a way to remove the hiss, which makes my homemade CD of better quality than the LP. Paderewski is a fascinating person. In addition to being perhaps the most successful pianist ever, he was a leader in Poland's post-WW1 independence movement, and was her first Premier. Google him for more details. We'll give the album ***** ** (out of 10*), mostly because of the poor quality of the recording. If classical music from a lone piano isn't your schtick, then you won't like this. And although Paderewski misses a note here and there, it is a historical treat to hear the music of a long-dead (he passed away in 1941) genius.

NCAA Football - Week 1 (Monster Cupcakes)

Week 1 NCAA football means one thing - big-name schools bringing in "cupcakes" to get kicked around in exchange for a lucrative payday. Most of the cupcakes rolled over and played dead (excuse the mixed metaphor) , but there were a few that forgot the script.

MONTANA STATE 19 - COLORADO 10

The winner of this year's "Monster Cupcake" award. A Big Sky school goes into Colorado and whomps the Buffalos. The "Honorable Mentions" include...

NORTHERN ARIZONA 14 - ARIZONA STATE 35

As mentioned below, it was 14-14 after three quarters. Don't look for the Sun Devils to make this a year-after-year rivalry.

UAB 17 - OKLAHOMA 24

Oklahoma narrowly avoids an opening-week upset for the 2nd straight year. Not a good sign for Sooner fans.

ARKANSAS STATE 14 - ARMY 6

Yeah I know, Army sucks again. But they should at least be able to beat Arkansas State.

ALBANY 17 - LEHIGH 16

Lehigh is a traditional doormat football team, but they have been good (relatively) the past couple seasons. Alas, this year it looks like its "back to tradition".

ASU 35 - NAU 14

NCAA football has started! #24 Arizona State won by a convincing score of 35-14 over Division II-A Northern Arizona. So why are we worried? Well first of all, NAU was only 3-8 last year. Hardly a powerhouse even in their own conference. Second of all, the problem areas for ASU last year - scoring defense, the defensice secondary, and the rushing game (particularly the short-yardage rushing) all looked bad in this game. After three quarters, it was 14-14. Hardly a statement-game by ASU. Most bizarre play was by NAU. On 4th-and-27, from their own 2-yard line, they elected to run a fake punt. It gained two yards. ASU then took over, first and goal, at the 4 yard line. And after 4 rushes, they still hadn't scored. Against NAU. What's going to happen whern we play USC?

ACLU comes thru for you !!

Sadly, this pretty much sums up Dubya's attitude towards your Constitutional rights as an American citizen. The #1 watchdog defender of you and your rights is the ACLU. Join today and get involved!

This Weekend We Saw...

Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 Rating : ***** **½ (out of 10*) If you liked POTC1, you'll like this sequel. Same humor, same action, same characters. Plus a couple new ones - Davey Jones, Will's father, a voodoo queen, etc. There's a couple of new protagonists - the English commander chasing Jack Sparrow is more evil, and less humorous. There's too much sailing back and forth, but that was true of POTC1 as well. So what's not to like? Well, essentially there's no plot and no conclusion. This movie exists to force you to go see POTC3, presumably next year. There is absolutely nothing resolved here. Still, you get your money's worth, both in entertainment, and sheer length of the film. And the popcorn was good, too.

Back From Portland!

5 lovely days of gray clouds and cool temperatures. And a great guide and navigator (hi Donna!) to show us the sights. Plus one killer waterfalls. More pics to follow.