Couple of things - been a while.

Wow. It has been some time since I have posted. I just haven't been interested in typing for a while. I think it is that I have been actually accomplishing things lately or have been so exhausted that I couldn't bring myself to be able to type. Who knows, but I am here to share ... something, I don't think wisdom is the right word.

One thing I wanted to mention was the "Luxury" tax that the State is thinking of levying on all entertainment and sports tickets sold in the state. Seems like a way to hurt the less wealthy people that try to entertain their families. Classic regressive tax that will harm people of lesser means. I thought the concept of breads and circuses was to give the great unwashed entertainment so they would not revolt. You shouldn't make the entertainment prohibitively expensive, it will likely hasten the revolution. I can't imagine one is not coming. I am not advocating it, I would like to see some reforms to treat the working class a whole lot better so that the revolution won't come. Anyway, if you don't like the idea, go to here.

Something that has bothered me is the lack of balls in Labatt Blue commercials. I think you know the one I mean, the guy is being berated by the deer ("We get the fawns up at five!") until the end when he says "I'm Sorry." The deer responds "You're f%^*&ng right you are." This was the best commercial I've seen in a long time. Well, the networks that air it, especially FSN Detroit, have started taking out the bleeped swear word. Losers. I was not able to find this commercial on the web, although I only tried searching google and yahoo. Read this loser, which has been referenced all over the net:

While watching all three games in the weekend series between the Cleveland
Indians and Cincinnati Reds on Sports Time Ohio this weekend, I watched the same
commercials over and over again. Normally commercials don’t give me reason to
blog, but one in particular really ticked my wife and I off. A specific
Labatt Blue commercial features a guy at the store where a deer comes up to him
and engages him in conversation. The deer is obviously giving the guy a hard
time for not being out in the woods or something like that, and makes comments
about “frolicking in the woods since 6 am” and “getting the fawns up at 5.” The
guy makes a comment back to the deer before the scene ends with the deer saying
“you got that f*&%ing right!”
Now I don’t know if this bothers you or not, but it does bother me and it bothered my wife as well. Yes, the f-word has lost a lot of power over the years due to the over-use by millions of English-speaking people. But this obvious beeping-out of the f-word, and you can’t tell me that he was saying anything other than the f-word, is just plain tasteless. My wife even made mention of the fact that if we had kids they
could not even watch a baseball game anymore thanks to this commercial.
I feel this is a bit of poor judgement on the part of SportsTime Ohio. The station
exists to help the Cleveland Indians compete and bring in revenue, but
commercials like this one from LaBatt Blue have no place on STO or any
other network in my opinion. I hereby ask SportsTime Ohio to use better
judgement in the future and remove this commercial from their programming
immediately.

Can't anybody enjoy anything?

Father's Day Post

Hello all, it's been a few days, been trying to do a lot of things. The Tigers won today, surprisingly. I am really starting to get down on Craig Monroe (already down on Inge until he hurt his foot, and down on Rodney and Grilli). Maybe I should start a widget on the right hand side of the screen showing which Tigers are out of my favor. How many chances do you give this guy when you have a Hall of Famer that could easily take his job, and Maybin waiting in the wings. The problem is, are there any teams that would be willing to give something for him. He is a free agent this year or next, so some lower level team might not be willingly to take him, and would the Tigers want to give him to a contender?

Watching the U.S. Open with my dad, Tiger hitting his second shot into 15, into nasty rough. This course is difficult, glad I am not playing it. I have enough trouble with easy courses.

This is always a big weekend for my family, since June 14th is my mother's birthday, June 15th is my parent's anniversery, and then today the 17th is Father's day. If I had any money, it would be an expensive weekend. When I am out of my debt problems, it will be again. We bought mom a cool planter with three singing frogs, and I gave dad a golf shirt (that was bought for me but didn't fit) and Rear Window on DVD. I wlll do better in the future.

So, I can't decide whether the Tigers should demote Monroe or not. Playing in National League ballpark will give Leyland a chance to sit him for a few straight days. Sheffield has been playing the field well enough, although I don't know if he would have made that catch that Monroe made today.

It's now 6:50 on Sunday afternoon, Mom is making dinner, Dad and I watching the US Open, and I will have to go into the office for a little while before I head to the gym tonight. Big exciting night.

So, I was listening to the Kinks - Destroyer. Silly boy you self destroyer you know the tune. There is a line in there about paranoia. I had been reading about Paris Hilton going back to jail. So a new word popped into my head:

Paris-noia - the irrational fear that your daughter is becoming a celebutante or wild child like Paris, Nicole, Britney, Lindsey, etc. Especially well portrayed in the South Park episode "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset"

Tell me what you think

Sean

Not a good day

Can't really say this has been a good day. I was supposed to be at the gym at 9 am for weigh in, body fat percentage measurement and TWL workout. That didn't work out so well, as I did not acutally get out of bed before 5 pm. Yeah, that's pm. Post Meridian, as in 5 hours after noon. So what did I do when I got up to rectify the wasted nature of the day so far - headed to Wendy's of course. Then watched the ball game. I did sort laundry, and as of 10 pm, one load has been completed.

Song - Whole Lotta Love - Led Zepplin - 5 stars.

I should probably head over and fold the finished laundry and put in another load. No really, I should do that.

I can do that later.

But then again, I don't have a lot more to say, so later is now.

Bye

Tigers related thoughts

I wonder if Todd Helton would be the answer for the Tigers at first base, although Casey is starting to hit better. I wonder what it might take to get him.

When Kenny Rogers comes back, how will that affect the rotation? Does he replace Miller, assuming he stays? Does Durbin get put in the bullpen, even though he is pitching rather nicely these days? What if Nate is able to come back after resting his arm? Here would be a good situation - Miller is able to pitch well, although we can't expect another outing like last time (7 innings, no runs), and stays in the rotation until Rogers is ready. Then move Miller to the bullpen until Zumaya comes back, then he goes back to Erie to continue to learn to be a starter.

Interesting step forward on the demolition of Tiger stadium, and I am really glad to see they are trying to salvage the front entrance and part of the field. That is a real nice nod to tradtion. I hope they can turn the front entrance into a sort of classy mini mall and then some condos or lofts around the site. If they could do something with the old train station - Corktown would explode.

This is amazing story on Verlander:

Sports Illustrated reports that the Tigers pitcher made a deal with a
classmate in 10th grade that would come back to haunt him:
"I wanted a chocolate milk that cost 50 cents, and I didn't have the money," Verlander told the magazine. "So I said, 'How about I give you 0.1 percent of my pro signing bonus if you give me 50 cents now?' He found a napkin, wrote it up, and I signed it.

"I forgot about it, but after I signed, he whips out this old napkin. I'm
like, 'Oh my God!' My bonus was 3-point-something million.
"Was a chocolate milk worth $3,000? I want to say yes. I was parched."

How many other players would have actually paid up for this - the other guy has got to be successful business man by now with that kind of thinking. And Justin needs to find a trustworthy business advisor.

And the minors get more stocked with the Gatorade High School Player of the year (I think), Rick Porcello. The last three years they have gotten some of the top talent in the draft well below where they should have been picked because other teams were worried about signing. Maybin, Miller, now Porcello. Thanks for spending the money Mr. I. Somebody posted on freep.com about how the Tigers didn't draft a catcher, and that might be a concern except Rabello seems to be doing pretty well. He will be sent back to Toledo in a few weeks to continue learning, after a nice run backing up one of the best ever. Maybe he is the future. But back to the point. The 5 pitchers in the first 6 picks shows Dombrowski's theory that pitching wins, and if you have great pitchers, you can win with them or trade for position players. Gotta like that plan.

And I liked Leyland's quote about Porcello:

When asked if he'll manage the Tigers long enough to see Rick Porcello -- their
No. 1 pick Thursday afternoon -- pitch for them, manager Jim Leyland said, "If
he's as good as they say, he might be pitching here in September. I hope I'm
here that long."

And I think a lot of us would hope a lot longer.

Later

Despartely Seeking Nap

So I decided to hold off on a title. I am learning.

I had to put links to two great articles on cracked.com:

Things learned from 80's cartoons

12 Great games with ridiculous premises

I should be working, but still in the food coma from lunch (Detroiter Bar burger) and the long walk back in the beautiful (not sarcastic) downtown Detroit. No, seriously, it was really nice.

I did get to work on time today, like yesterday. But since I didn't take my Rhodiola, my energy is way down. Having trouble getting anything started today. Just one of those days, you know?

After writing that last statement, I got my title. woo hoo.

I am needed to be working on something. Can somebody go get me some ice?

Tying up the weekend

Hey all, Sunday night, trying to do something to make the weekend mildly valuable. I did absolutely nothing the entire weekend that could be said to have moved my life forward. I did have a good time, hanging out with friends on Friday night and most of the day Saturday, after a little golf, drank a lot of beer and ate some bad for me food. But there was very little done that would be considered good, except this:

• I picked my brother up at the airport at 8 am Sunday - although I did almost screw that up, since he was supposed to land at 6:30 or so, and that was the time I woke up. Luckily for me, his plane was delayed, so I was able to get there in plenty of time.
• I completed a download for work. It wasn't hard, but I did have to log in and start a few programs.
• And I cleaned out some email and stuff off the DVR.

There. All my good accomplishments for the weekend. Although, on Friday night I did reconnect with some old friends I hadn't seen socially in a while. That is good but not an accomplishment. I never went to the gym, never cleaned my house, never went and bought groceries, prepared food for this week, did some reading, prepared things for sale on ebay or anything. A great wasted weekend. At least I got a blog post done.

By the way, I have to say that Detroit Metro, recently named the number 2 airport according to some study, has done something really interesting. They have set aside places near the terminals for people to stop and wait for their arriving party to call and say they have landed. It makes the process of picking someone up a whole lot eaiser. Really a great move.

Anyway, off to bed.