Jan 31 2005
Wisconsin’s very own Sen. Russ Feingold expressing interest in a Presidential bid in 2008?
U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., told the Tiger Bay Club of Volusia County on Friday that he’ll decide whether to run after “going around the country” working to return a Democrat to the White House.
Go Russ!
Jan 28 2005
Does VP Dick Cheney need some help from the Fab Five or what?
Just because those flaming homo’s keep coming out of the closet doesn’t mean you have to keep away from them all together!
Jan 26 2005
I’ve been downloading and listening to a lot of club mixes and live sets from DJs over the past few months, but because the sets are often an hour or two long, I run into problems when trying to burn them because they’re too long to fit on the CD.
Enter mp3split for Linux, MacOS, and Windows. It’s a handy utility that lets you break up long mp3 files into smaller ones so you can burn them onto CDs (among other things).
I only used the Linux version which is very simple CLI program, but for simple tasks like splitting an mp3 file up into smaller chunks, it does a good job.
Jan 25 2005
On the way to work this morning, we heard that the administration plans to ask for another $80 billion to ‘fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan’ this year. Oh, and $1.5 billion or so to build a new embassy in Iraq, which for that kind of money had better be made of gold and have chocolate rivers running through it… Seriously though, how frustrating is that to know that money that’s needed for healthcare/education/infrastructure here in the US is being used to build an overly extravagant embassy in an occupied country?
Thats on top of the initial $75 billion and the $25 billion supplemental that was requested barely nine months ago.
Almost $200 billion in just under two years, nearly 1500 US troops, tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians… The costs will just keep rising because we’re too bone headed to admit the war was wrong.
Jan 21 2005
I just love it when many conservatives start howling about what a liberal bias our media - or main stream media (MSM) as they like to call it - has when reporting on the news of the day.
Clearly, if it weren’t for the stranglehold conservatives had on cable TV news programs like ‘The O’Reilly Factor’, ‘Hannity & Colmes’, ‘The Don Imus Show’, and ‘Hardball’ or the fact that they’ve got an entire network dedicated to serving up a heaping helping of decidedly pro-conservative programming, the airwaves would indeed be a liberals paradise!
And despite all that, many conservatives continue to hold on to this notion of a liberal bias in the media for some strange reason, some even complaining that yesterdays coverage of the inaguration was TOO liberal! Obviously, if you even so much as show a liberal on TV these days without crapping all over them, you’re supporting the so called liberal bias.
So, it’s interesting to see a complete inventory of what networks had who on during the live coverage yesterday thanks to Media Matters:
Media Matters for America inventoried all guests who appeared on FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC during the channels’ January 20 inauguration coverage. Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Republican and conservative guests and commentators outnumbered Democrats and progressives 19 to 7 on FOX*, 10 to 1 on CNN (not including a Republican-skewed panel featuring Ohio voters), and 13 to 2 on MSNBC. Moreover, the rare Democrat or progressive guest usually appeared opposite conservatives, whereas most Republican and conservative guests and commentators appeared solo or alongside fellow conservatives.
Wow. 42 conservative commentators vs. 10 progressive commentators on the three biggest cable TV news networks.
Obviously the liberal bias is just bleeding through the thinly veiled attempts to make the shows just ’seem’ conservative. Something needs to be done about this liberal media bias, and soon.
Jan 20 2005
From the ‘holy shit I hope that doesn’t happen to my poor wife’ department:
A woman in northeastern Brazil has given birth to what one doctor called a “giant baby,” a boy weighing 16.7 pounds. - AP
Yeah… We’ll be just happy with anything under 9 pounds thanks! Best quote of the article: “Obviously the baby was born by Caesarean section” - just in case anyone was wondering…
Jan 18 2005
On the eve of GWB’s second inaguration Thursday, does the President really have a mandate? Results of this weeks ABC/WashPost poll:
The two big ones that jump out at me there are the high disapproval rating of the handling of the ’situation’ in Iraq and the percantage of people who think the war is not worth fighting anymore. Does that mean that 55% of Americans don’t support our troops? Of course not… but it does mean Americans are waking up and taking a real look at the promises made before the war started and comparing those promises to the situation we’re dealing with now.
It’s going to be hard for Bush to ever get back above 60% approval ratings over the next four years I think. People tend to forget that he wasn’t a very popular President before 9/11, and without that to harp on in his second term all people have left to focus on his is policies, and according to polls like this, those policies aren’t very attractive.
Jan 18 2005
Where have we heard this one before?
“I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table if it continues to stonewall the international community about the existence of its nuclear weapons program”
Maybe we should try to finish our first two wars off before starting another one?
Jan 12 2005
So much for the whole WMD argument - as well as it’s cousins ‘imminent threat’, ‘Al Queda connection’, and ‘regime change’ - that led us to war in Iraq:
The U.S. force that scoured Iraq for weapons of mass destruction has abandoned its long and fruitless hunt and is assisting in the more immediate task of counter-insurgency efforts - Reuters
Why were we told the war in Iraq was necessary again?
Jan 11 2005
As I mentioned last week, Jenny bought tickets for us to Medieval Times down in Chicago on Saturday and Chuck, Connie, Les, Bryan, and Judy joined us in a rented mini-van as we merrily made our way to the ultimate birthday destination.
Bryan was also kind enough to get me a pair of swords and shields that lit up and rang like an 1940’s telephone when you pressed a button, and we had fun taunting slow drivers with our display of veracity and medievalness the entire time. Waving our swords at them in warning that next time they switched lanes without a blinker, we would have to dispense with our cruel and hilarious style of punishment that only plastic swords can dish out.
When we arrived at Medieval Times, the first stop after the overpriced beer dispensers was the ‘Torture Chamber’, which on it’s own was worth the hour and a half ride. For the low price of $2.00 each, we entered a series of hallways that had an impressive display of medieval torture devices on display along with descriptions and illustrations of how they were used. I had a fair idea of the kind of torture that happened back in those days and how common it was, but I was completely blown away by the amount of devices that Medivial times had on display, which was just a small glimpse of the kind of devices humans had used to torture, maime, and just be brutally disgusting to other humans with.
There was the two handed saw that greated us right away. It looks like a traditional loggers saw, and on it’s own you would probably say, “Yeah, when they used that for torture it really must have sucked.” and this is where the illustrations and descriptive text really drove home that all of these devices were much worse you can imagine. Next to the regular looking loggers saw was a picture of exactly how they used it. You were hung upside down with your legs stretched apart forming a wide ‘V’, and that is the point the torturers used as a starting point for what the accompaning text assured us was a very prolonged and very painful death in which you were slowly and bluntly sawed apart from your crotch to your head.
As bad as it sounds, that wasn’t the worst we saw. In fact, I concluded it was probably one of the better ways to go compared with the rest of the devices and techniques that were on display, including what we all agreed was the worst: The Judas Cradle.
In this incredibley manically conceived device, you are hoisted up via straps tied around your torso and then repeatedly bounced onto a blunt triangular block of wood/steel below. The picture that accompanies the description here is a great case of how the image really drives home the, err point.
As we collected ourselves from the torture chamber, the trumpets sounded and announced that the show was about to begin. It’s hard to remember in which order events took place exactly, due not to the amount of beer I’d drank, but from the state of pure euphoria that I was in, but before we went in to eat, I was told I was going to be knighted by the King of Medieval Times in honor of my birthday.
And Chuck’s monetary donation to the court that ensured my Birthday Knighting.
The King asked me where I was from, and proceeded to Knight me in front of everyone as “Lord Dan of Milwaukee”, which I have to admit does have a nice ring to it. Then in true medieval fashion, we had our picture taken together as I kneeled in front of him. I hope to have that scanned in later today. All in all, it was quite an honor to go in front of the King, and I actually felt a bit humbled by the experience, providing a good example of how wrapped up you can get in the whole experience.
We were seated in the front row of the arena, in the ‘black and white’ section, which meant that we’d be cheering for the Black and White knight during the course of the evening. Drinks and soup were brought out as the competition began, and it was clear that our knight was one of the most, if not the most, skilled in the bunch of knights. As dinner progressed through half chickens and ribs, he kept racking up the points, and the overall story unfolded bit by bit.
Two of the most impressive things for me about the entire evening was the level of expertise these people really had. I was expecting just some half assed acting about the whole thing, but was really surprised when they went on to display some really impressive horsemanship both in terms of riding, and how well the horses were trained. The low/quick stepping and rocking back on two legs to protect the knight were a few of the manuevers they showed off, but you could tell that they really put a lot of time into the training of the horses and the knightly manuevers.
The other thing I thought was pretty impresive was the falcon trainer. He put on a display of how they train the falcon and what it was used for back in medieval times, and it was pretty cool to watch the falcon fly around above the crowd, inches above your head. This really made me realize that the folks who work at medieval times were more than just actors, a number of them do things like falconry for a living.
As the competition progressed, our knight was really kicking some ass, but my throat was starting to take a beating from the near 90 minutes of yelling and cheering I’d been doing. When they got to hand to hand combat, which on the ride back spawned a heated debate about the merits of a ‘mace vs. sword’ showdown between the mace and sword camps in the car, our knight got the sign to ‘take a fall’, and that for this show at least, he wouldn’t win the heart of the princess. While we were disappointed that he didn’t win, we were proud of the effort he put forth for his Lords and Ladies seated at Table 2 in the Black and White section.
All in all, it was the best birthday I’ve ever had, and I would highly recommend a night at medieval times for anyone who’s even remotely interested. You don’t have to be a dungeons and dragons fan to have a really enjoyable time there, which, combined with how they totally emerge you in a fantasy world for the better part of two hours, is why the Medieval Times franchise is so successful.
Again, thanks to Les, Bryan, Judy, Chuck, Connie and most of all Jenny for sharing the good times!
Jan 07 2005
For my birthday present this year, Jenny bought tickets to Medieval Times for us tomorrow, and we invited a few of our other friends to come along and share the fun. Medieval Times, for those who aren’t familiar with it, is an evening of entertainment in a ‘medieval’ style arena.
You eat a royal feast served by bar wenches while watching and cheering on a real live medieval tournament including jousting, hand to hand combat between knights, and visits by the royal court.
I’ve been looking forward to going to Medieval Times ever since finding out there was one on the North side of Chicago a few years ago, and needless to say, I’m pretty excited about our trip down there tomorrow night!
As I’m sure everyone else whos going with us tomorrow is as excited as me, so I thought I’d share some common ‘medieval’ sayings that we still use today along with their origins!
Wet Your Whistle - Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used to blow the whistle to get some service.
A Pitcher - A bombard is a leather jug which holds 8 pints or 4 quarts. A full bombard of ale would make you drunk.
Getting Tanked - Ale was served at local taverns out of a “tankard”, When you drank too much out of the “tankard” you were said to be “tanked” … if you got so “tanked” that you passed out, there was a chance that somebody might think you had actually died. Since back then they didn’t have experience with taking pulses, they often buried people alive who were actually in a drunken stupor or otherwise comatose.
Getting Bombed - A bombard is a leather jug which holds 8 pints or 4 quarts. A full bombard of ale would make you drunk.
Honeymoon - It was the accepted practice in Babylonia 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the “honey month” or what we know today as the “honeymoon”.
I think for extra fun tomorrow, it’d be great if everyone had a medieval name for themselves like ‘Philippe the Philander’, ‘Duke Dainty’, ‘Countess Constance The Chaste’ and so on.. I’m thinking something along the lines of “His Lord and Majesty Daniel of Buchsunderfoot” but am open to suggestions :)
