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Rush Limbaugh apologizes to "Claymates"

(sorry, this link may not work after a while in the archives -- yahoo is weak that way)

There may not be two people I dislike more than Rush Limbaugh and Clay Aiken. This story is priceless for that reason alone. But some other stuff I found amusing:

1) Clay Aiken's fans are called "Claymates".

2) Rush uses the term "dissed". I used to think a term jumped the shark when my parents started using it, but when a syndicated conservative talk radio host mixes it into his vernacular -- that'll kill it pretty darn fast.

3) Maybe Rush needs to mix his vices. Prescription painkillers and Clay Aiken music might make for a nice combination. Like the time Brett and I took his extra muscle relaxants and watched Survivor. Good times.

Posted by Mike at 07:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh how I wish it were...

Posted by Mike at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since I like running diaries of sports games so much, I thought I'd try it. I'll probably only do it for a bit until I have to change a diaper or something.

7:46 -- M's game just finished. Perfect timing. Let's get it on.

7:47 -- Mike Bibby is the whitest (half?) black guy I've ever seen. Not since the Mariah Carey fiasco of '95 have I been this confused about someone's roots.

7:51 -- We've already seen more good shots than game 1. That was just an ugly, ugly game.

7:53 -- Jerome James with more post moves. This is the same guy I once saw in a Hollywood Video picking up (apparently) his date when she got off work. I know these two statements have nothing to do with each other, but I wanted to tell my JJ story.

8:01 -- Ridnour stripps it from Ostertag in the paint. Just unacceptable if you are a Kings fan. This is like me stealing the ball from Andre the Giant (on second thought, maybe that's not out of the question. I am very sneaky...)

8:07 -- Back-to-back threes from Rashard and Vlade! The shooters are back.

8:12 -- 26-22 Sonics after 1 quarter. Expecting the worst as a Seattle sports fan, I couldn't be happier with a 4 point lead.

... Well, as it turned out it was a diaper. (and hours of crying/eating/bouncing/etc.)

9:50 -- Last update cuz the game is out of hand. Great game by the Supes. Up by 21 thanks to great performances by JJ, Collison, Radmonivic. Again I am getting pulled in with tentative hope for a Seattle sports team.

Posted by Mike at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

... Brought to you from Copenhagen, circa February 2004.

Posted by Mike at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing I forgot the other day... and this is probably the most important promise to make to my friends/readers (done in a format imitating/flattering the greatest bill ever to pass thru the Idaho state legislature).

Be it resolved by the author of one inane blog:

WHEREAS, given the merging of the blogosphere and real life social gropus; and

WHEREAS, pretention runs rampant; and

WHEREAS, real conversations are now being cut short with a curt "just read my blog", or -- "I wrote about this on my blog"; and

WHEREAS, this is annoying as hell.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by one suburbanite in whom real is kept, that I will never refer to "my blog" in person, unless said website is brought up.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that I will restrain myself from verbally pointing you, my friends and family, to any postings I believe to be especially clever. Electronic links thru email/YM/YM statuses will continue to be fair game -- some self promotion is necessary.

The purpose of this resolution is to maintain a distinction between the blogospere and real life in order to slay the dual-headed dragon of pretentious and presumptive face-to-face communication wrt the internet.

Posted by Mike at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Listen. I know that blogging doesn't exactly "keep it real". Starting a blog in 2005 is a lot like starting an ecommerce site in 1998. Everyone's doing it, there's not much you can really accomplish, and eventually there'll be a sock puppet prominently involved. But, as my friend Mark says; blogging is an exercise in ego, and mine won't let the idea go.

So with that in mind, I intend to keep it real by offering you the reader (actual readership not implied) a few promises. Here is my blogging manifesto:

1) I will attempt to (cough) check my language whenever it gets out of hand. I realize that puns, alliteration, and clever word play is a little too cheeky -- so I'll be sure to let you know I understand that with a little, ahem, word-nudge.

2) I promise to never Capitalize A Popular Saying/Description to make it seem like it is overused and a proper noun. This is really annoying, especially when writers follow it with a (TM). For example -- The New York Yankees become: "The Best Team Money Can Buy (TM)". This device is about as fresh as a BiFi roll shipped overseas.

3) Given that embracing guilty pleasures is the new haughty dismissiveness, I promise to not act too cool for pop culture. If you want to talk about that Bebo/Bobo guy on American Idol around the water cooler at work, I won't mock you (although you know who you are).

4) I once read in the liner notes to a Beastie Boys' album (no joke) that you always become who you make fun of. Given that I am mostly making fun of myself, the only danger is that I start actually believing this crap. I'll try to not let that happen.

5) Along the same lines, I will continue to use Sam as a humourous prop. Dressing him funny and putting him in strange situations comes with the territory. If he can't laugh at himself later in life, he probably isn't really my son (and sure as hell wouldn't be Becky's) :)

Posted by Mike at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just watched the last couple of episodes of Alias back-to-back and I noticed something interesting about the soundtrack. On both shows they showed Sydney in her kitchen (cooking dinner IIRC) and each time she was playing a track from Ray LaMontagne's album.

Generic mood music, maybe some character development, right? Well yeah, pretty much. It may not even be by design, but I think it's interesting to use the same album twice in a row. The first thing I do when I get a new album is put it on in the kitchen when we're making or eating dinner. If I like it, it'll be the dinner music for weeks at a time. So I can relate -- to have the same music (but different songs) playing in consecutive weeks was pretty realistic and creative AFAIC.

P.S. -- This album is good. It was on in my kitchen for a few weeks too :)

Posted by Mike at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sam wanted to share in the toast of Jen and Richard at their wedding in Portland last weekend.

Posted by Mike at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've created a new Flickr group called "2 Starbucks". The idea is to get a picture with multiple Starbucks locations in it and tag it as such. Here is the best pic I've got so far. Feel free to contribute :)

Posted by Mike at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I always feel like I'm namedropping when I reference a story from NPR. But what are you going to do?

I heard on NPR yesterday morning about a group of users (drivers? auto enthusiasts?) who are hacking their Priuses. The most common one is a kit that will allow you to run in electric only mode. This mod is standard everywhere but North America. The guest was saying that people with short commutes and those who don't have to go faster than about 34 can stay in electric mode for a whole trip using this switch. The only way I can see this actually saving MPG though is if the battery is often fully charged, and not being used. (Maybe this is common?)

On the other hand, this could save a lot of emmisions and money on gas. People are adding battery packs and plugs to their batteries to allow them to eek even more efficiency out and to pull power off the (hopefully clean sourced) grid. The twist -- Toyota is not a fan and will void the warranty for anyone doing this. Voiding the warranty on your Tivo or laptop is one thing, but a $20,000 vehicle? That is dedication.

The other thing I've heard about Toyota Hybrids is that the battery runs out and will cost >10K to replace. Apparently that is a canard.

Posted by Mike at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I didn't expect people to actually take me up on it :) Our friend Hilary sent us this little treat from Japan (thanks Hil!). As promised -- if you send it, I will eat it.

I especially like the flying amoeba/sheep.

There are no pictures of me eating it this time because I only got thru a handful of them. I planned on triumphantly photographing the last one, but I didn't get there. It tasted like fermented Twinkie filling surrounded by a Bugle. I had about 5 of the 40 or so and threw up in my mouth.

So this one is a failure. Sigh.

Want to send me a delicious treat? Request my address.

Posted by Mike at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ed. note: If you aren't a baseball fan, move along -- there's nothing to see here. If you read this you *will* think I'm even more of a geek than you already do.

Wow -- that crept up on me. Yankees-Sox on ESPN tonight, and just like that, the season is here. Over the weekend, the M's played the Cubs in Vegas. Excuse me -- Vegas, the Mariners, and the Final Four? Looks like I picked the wrong year to have a baby (and the wrong week to stop sniffing glue, but that's another story). Seriously though, that's all? Are you sure there wasn't a Cake and Miles Davis jam they could have thrown together down there?

What follows is a bunch of random notes about the forthcoming baseball season. These are probably more wishcasting than viable predictions.

Mariners

Jeremy Reed -- Pretty soft landing for a rookie. Hey kid, here's the starting CF job, and why don't you bat between Ichiro! and Beltre. Ichiro! is on base 40% of the time in front of him, and Beltre is mashing at a .629 SLG clip behind him. Not bad. I'll pencil him in for 305/365/420

Gil Meche -- The biggest question mark on this team could win 20 games or lose 20. Nothing I could write here would top this post. I think he's most likely to be the guy who drops off this staff, giving King Felix a chance. Which brings us to...

Felix Hernandez -- 50% Fernando Valenzuela, 50% Dwight Gooden, 0% Mariners farmhand (at least I hope). Everyone in Mariners nation is praying that the disease feasting on Mariner prospects' rotator cuffs skips him over. For my money, in spring training he looked pretty inconsistent and not quite ready (he is 18 after all). Still, he'll be the #1 on this team by next year. If he makes it up in '05, he will be the most exciting thing about the season.

Sexon/Beltre -- I'm going to go against the grain and say I like both of these signings. Richie's contract is pissing off the M's blogosphere, but I think it's a risk worth taking. I know the numbers don't back me up, so please just laugh and slowly step away from my half-full glass. Beltre -- obviously a *great* move. 26 year old home run champ for below market value? Nice.

Ichiro! -- He's Ichiro. We know what we'll get. I love this guy. Here's hoping that he chases Ted Williams (.400) or Joe Dimaggio (56) this year. That would liven things up at The Safe.

The Team -- I'll go 87 wins and a mediocre division championship. The Angels infield sucks, the A's pitchers are too young and the Rangers pitchers are even worse. It'll take a few pitchers stepping up for the M's but I'll go out on the limb and say they will. Why? Blind optimism.

AL

I've got the Red Sox, Indians and M's as the division winners, with the Yankees as the wild card. Just like everyone else, I'll say that it'll be Sox/Yankees and the Sox repeating. The Red Sox look even better on paper than last year.

NL

I could (or is it couldn't?) care less. The NL sucks. Every park is a bandbox, pitchers stats are inflated because of no DH, and I just don't see a team that is fun to root for. The Cubbies are ok I guess -- but Sosa and Garciaparra win my "Most Overexposed and Annoying Teammates Award (Non-Yankees division)". If I see Nomar tell Mia Hamm "you're beautiful" on that Nike commercial one more time, I might drink some Clorox just as a distraction.

Correction: Oh yeah, Sosa plays for the Orioles now. Ouch. I have been out of the loop for a while.

Posted by Mike at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

As a kid, I really liked April Fool's day so I'm starting early with Sam. He totally fell for this one...

There's no milk in there sucka! APRIL FOOLS!!!

Posted by Mike at 04:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)