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To those of you who have written me (or Angela) about being unable to post comments now, here’s a potential solution.

Every one of you seems to have commented before – so this: Where it says Welcome back, “yournamehere” (change), click “change.” All your data is still there, and it gives you the opportunity to re-input the security code so’s that your comments are visible.

I have an alternate solution in mind for this, in removing the “welcome back” thing and just having the input boxes there for ya’ll to use full-time, BUT it’ll be a couple of weeks before I can get to an internet connection that will allow for maintenance like that. Please pardon my dust.

This post is sticky until I can resolve this.

16 hours never seems like much; however, it’s big when trying to call someone you love. Then again, 5 minutes seems like forever when trying to upload photos

24 minutes is far too long to wait on a bus. It’s not nearly long enough to talk to the wife, especially when you’re dropping Singaporean dimes (about .06 US) every 3 minutes to keep the call going.

By the way, Singapore just WANTS to be the cleanest city in the world. I don’t think it’s any cleaner than, say, Santa Barbara on a normal night, or San Diego when the Padres are having a .500 season.

It’s still nice, though. Nicer than Brisbane, if I may say so.

Thus ends the football season for about 6 months. No, the Pro Bowl doesn’t count.

The Super Bowl was a SLOPPY affair. Billy Joel wasn’t terribly good singing the Anthem. 6 first-half turnovers? (By the way, the record for most turnovers in a game is 11, from Super Bowl V.) Indy missing a PAT AND a short field goal? Bleh. Chicago’s 2nd-half stupidity was disheartening. Despite the marginally close score, I was terribly disappointed with the game.

Prince’s awesomeness is immesurable, though. All Along the Watchtower, Hendrix-style? Only Prince. Proud Mary? Prince. And Tina Turner, of course. There was only one verse of Purple Rain, but it was tremendous.

I traded away NBA 2K7 (came with the 360) for this. I’ve started 2 modes – Franchise and Superstar. For Franchise mode, I’m trying to lead my Titans (8-8 in real life this year) to the Super Bowl that could have been. For superstar mode, I have created my quarterback and the Redskins drafted him. We’ll see how that goes…

Over the Christmas holiday, as a family we somehow acquired a metric buttload (a VERY scientific term) of Target gift cards. We had a couple of quick discussions as to what to do with the money, and were deciding between the XBox360 and the Nintendo Wii. More logical heads (ie, Angela) prevailed and we got the 360. It took about 3 hours to get the configuration right with all the wiring. It also took finally ditching the VCR and getting a real “switch” – partially pictured on the far left. How many gift cards did we get? Enough to pay for the “premium” console and a second wireless controller, and a year’s subscription to XBox Live Gold. The only thing we paid for out of pocket were the two games we bought.

Not pictured: A Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Entertainment System, and a Colecovision.

Chef to South park: Fudge ya

I kept waiting to post this for some time, trying to get a quote or two from the yahoo article, but I can’t get there from here… it’s going to be impossible for me to link via email, too, so take my word for it.

Chef has quit. Chef went nanners and quit. He cites intolerance and bigotry, referring to the next to last ep of Season 9. Oddly enough, it’s an episode that makes fun of scientology. Even more oddly, Isaac Hayes is a devout Scientologist.

Matt Stone has put it into perspective:

This has nothing to do with intolerance and bigotry and everything to do with the fact that Isaac Hayes is a Scientologist and that we recently featured Scientology in an episode of ‘South Park.’ In ten years and over 150 episodes of ‘South Park,’ Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons and Jews. He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show. To bring the civil rights struggle into this is just a non-sequiter. Of course we will release Isaac from his contract and we wish him well.

South Park has always been an equal-opportunity basher. More specifically, the creators of South Park (Stone and Trey Parker) have taken on everything from frivolous lawsuits, Catholic Priests, Jerry Springer, NAMBLA, and the President (both of them) to circumcisions, homosexuality, environmentalists, Satan, sports stars, and R. Kelly’s “Trapped in a Closet.” You know, the sacred cows that no one else will touch. Isaac Hayes has always been a part of that. Isaac Hayes made no small amount of money for being a part of that. Isaac Hayes got a LOT of notoriety for being a part of that. Honestly, what the FUDGE do you think he’d be doing if it weren’t for South Park? Starring in that lame remake of Shaft?

Do you think he’d just be a dumb mutha[shut yo mouth]?

Daaaaaaaamn right.

My last time seeing the ship as an employee. Saturday morning, they left (again) on a multiple-month (unscheduled last-minute 2-week notice) deployment to the Far East. It’s especially difficult for a few hundred of my friends, who spent 6 months last year out there. It’s even worse for a few hundred others who will likely do a multiple-month deployment next year.

The pics were taken about 90 minutes before they hauled the lines in.

I move 2 miles down the road and don’t see the oceans again (hopefully) for about 3 years

1. Capitalism, the American ideal. If a chain thinks they can make money by taking pesos, and paying in pesos is easier for their (60% Hispanic) customer base, then why not?

2. I live in a border town. I personally don’t know businesses that accept pesos here, but I know that across the border in Tijuana the dollar is accepted everywhere. I’ve been to several Euro and Asian nations that accept the dollar. Even Dubai will readily accept it. The catch is that the exchange rate is adjusted ever so slightly in the merchant’s favor, so as to earn a little profit for the bank trip. Plus, I bet you one Italian Lira that this pizza place does the same.

3. In the mentioned article, Wal-Marts in the border towns also take pesos. What’s the big flaming deal?

4. Idiocy like this only dilutes the real arguments against open borders. People like this are made out to be the spokesmodels for the whole issue.