Tonight is the Rock River Raptors last regular season home game. ItÂ’s a must win for us. We have two games and a by week left in regular season. Currently we are sitting atop of the division with a 9-4 record, but River City is right behind us with a 7-5 record and Lexington a 7-6 record. Tonight we play Lexington. If we win tonight we pretty much clinch the division. If we lose, then we have to beat Sioux Falls next week at home in hopes of winning the division. The problem is that Sioux Falls is on a 32 game wining streak and sitting atop the other division.

That means that tonightÂ’s game should be a good hard-hitting game. So any of you football fans out there want to go have some fun, tonight at the MetroCentre is your chance.

IÂ’m not saying that the Raptors and their organization listen to me or that I have any influence with them. But I do think they like fans like Bruce and myself. We really get the crowd involved. So occasionally they like to throw a little something back our way. Like last week. During half time the Dynomites did a zombie themed dance routine to Michael JacksonÂ’s Thriller.

Football and zombies, how perfect is that?

Posted by: Contagion at 08:47 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Now this is a doorbell! Over at ThinkGeek they have a USB doorbell.

The USB Doorbell replaces your current chime and allows you to play your favorite sound effects, music, audio clips, movie quotes or whatever strikes your fancy. Anytime someone presses that little button by your front door the USB Doorbell will "ring" using the sound you have selected. It first connects to your computer via USB (cable included) and will store any up-to-thirty second WAV or MP3 soundclip that you wish to use.

According to the article it works with standard low voltage doorbell systems, so it doesnÂ’t look like it would take a lot of tinkering. Here is a clip of it working in all of itÂ’s geeky action.

Yea, I may have to get one of these.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:52 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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This video is a little dark, but it sends an important message for this upcoming Fourth of July. It doesnÂ’t matter how much you drink, it doesnÂ’t matter how much you want to fit in, it doesnÂ’t matter how big of an idiot you are. Never, ever let someone launch a bottle rocket from your arse! This clip is NSFW, you have a partial of a girls butt and the language is a little on the harsh side.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:16 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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ItÂ’s amazing, you can find that perfect someone for you. That person that you know you could spend the rest of your life with. One that would completely make you happy in every way. But thereÂ’s just one thing that screws up the entire relationship. .

Posted by: Contagion at 07:04 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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It appears that sometime over the weekend IÂ’m going to break the 100,000 visitor mark. Chances are that itÂ’s going to be some Internet searcher looking for sensitivity class.

Speaking of which, my next sensitivity class is July 24, 25, and 26 in Chicago. They finally got around to sending me to one from this incident. Anyone want to hook up for dinner one of those nights?

Posted by: Contagion at 04:58 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It was almost two years ago exactly that I showed you how bad of a dad I can be. That was when I started Clone on his stirring his drink habit. ItÂ’s funny; to this day he wants ice in his drink and a straw with which to stir it. Well apparently other habits of mine heÂ’s picked up. You may have noticed that I tend to sample beers every now and then. ItÂ’s purely for the education of you, my dear readers.

In the sampling of the beers, I have a certain ritual I go through. First I pour the beer into a glass. Holding it up to the light I can judge color, clarity and head. Then I smell the beer. A couple of long, slow inhalations through the nose gives me a thorough appreciation of the aroma. Finally I take the first drink. Clone has seen me do this at least once a week for almost a year now.

A couple of months ago he started asking me if he could smell the beer. I’d take a whiff and then he’d say, “Dad, I wanna sniff it!” So I’d let him take a quick sniff just to see what he would say. Usually he says it smells good and that when he gets older he can drink it with me. So it shouldn’t surprise me that last Wednesday when I was doing my review, I had to set my beer down to grab a pencil and paper to jot down notes. When I turned around, guess what I saw? That’s right:

Fortunately for me, I had just finished downloading some pictures from an employeeÂ’s baby shower on to the computer. My camera was sitting there, ready to go so I quickly picked it up and tried to catch in the act. Unfortunately he was backing away when I snapped the picture. It was hilarious. He had his nose right to the rim of the glass with his hand fanning the scent toward his face. His eyes were closed as he inhaled deeply.

Then he smiled.

I am such a bad influence.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:43 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Just a quick update on the Ex-Military not welcome at Bradley University. Unfortunately for me, Troy has gone on vacation and isnÂ’t due back for a while. Thus I canÂ’t get the name of the person who spoke with or the phone number he called to see if I could talk to someone there about the situation. At this time no one has responded to my original inquiry to BradleyÂ’s undergraduate admissions using the contact page on their website. At this time I have not received a response back.

HOWEVER! I did get a comment in the original post from Tom Richmond Director of Admissions Marketing and Communications at Bradley. He states:

I work in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Bradley Univeristy and I am glad to comment on this posting.

While I can not talk about individual applicants, I can comment on our admissions policies.

Admissions decisions are based upon a professional review of a complete student record with the intent to determine whether a student can succeed at the univeristy. Most of this decision is based upon the review of the student's academic record.

A variety of other factors are considered to help learn about a student's motivation, social skills, time management skills, goals, and a variety of important intangibles that can lead to college success.

Military service is one intangible that will never be looked down upon at Bradley Univeristy. In fact, service to our country is considered an assett in the application process and recent military veterans have been admitted.

I'm glad to take this opportunity to help clear up any misunderstandings.
We welcome applications from anyone who feels they might benefit from the Bradley experience.

He also sent me an e-mail via the account I use on here. Not the one I sent the original inquiry on. I wanted to make sure my spam filter didnÂ’t eat the response. Now I responded to Tom and explained that Troy and his mother are not the types that make up stories or are prone to lying. In fact IÂ’d have to say they pretty much are some of the most honest folk I know. Good stock in that family if you ask me. Since I am an objective individual, IÂ’m willing to concede that possibly there was a miscommunication or that someone in that office blurted out the first thing that came across their mind in a stressful situation. I just donÂ’t know yet. Until I can get the information from Troy, IÂ’m kind of stuck in a holding pattern.

A couple of commenters did pose questions to Tom, and I forwarded them on to him. From Laughing Wolf:

Quick question Tom: If what you say is true, then how do you respond to the following quote from someone in admissions: “Because you were in the military, you won’t fit in here.” This would seem to directly contravene what you say, so which is it? No spin, straight answer.

And from H~, which if I am not mistaken is Hubba Mother of Boudicca.

Tom, I do believe the intangibles mentioned "A variety of other factors are considered to help learn about a student's motivation, social skills, time management skills, goals, and a variety of important intangibles that can lead to college success." is learned better by serving in the military than any college campus.

Excluding those factors this young man is left to rely on his grades for admission. As you are well aware when people mature they become better students. My guess is he's matured more than most of your students in the same age bracket, but I don't know the man only his willingness to serve our country. I applaud your university for admitting those who make it possible for us to continue opening educational opportunities for all.

You mentioned you have admitted veterans recently. Do you know the percentage of veterans currently accepted to those denied admission?
In advance, thank you for the follow-up.

IÂ’ve forwarded both along to him just in case he doesnÂ’t go back and read the original commentsÂ… or that comment spammers get so bad I have to shut it down and he canÂ’t respond.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:33 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Ktreva is really becoming an enabler with this whole beer-tasting thing. She again picked out tonightÂ’s brew oÂ’ samplinÂ’. This is becoming a weekly ritual. DonÂ’t get me wrong; I donÂ’t mind it at all. WhatÂ’s better than a beautiful woman bringing you beer? This week she picked out Robert he Bruce Scottish Style Ale by Three Floyds of Munster, IN. I believe this is the first Indiana beer IÂ’ve reviewed.

It comes in your standard 12 oz brown bottle. The label is yellow that has a cartoonish picture of what I suppose is Robert the Bruce. In the oval around the picture you have the name of the beer in the top half, and the name of the brewery in the bottom. It also has the tag line, “It’s not normal”. To be honest the smile on Robert in the picture is kind of scary and if I had to look at it all the time, I think I would get creeped out.

It has a nice dark brown color to it. Light barely paces through, and itÂ’s hard to tell if there is any cloudiness to it or not. There was a very thin tan head when poured. It quickly faded into a fine film on the top of the beer and a slight ring around the edge of the glass. There is some lacing, but not much.

The scent is of roasted caramel malts. There are other malts that act as subtle undertones, but nothing distinct. We also have a nice touch of wood smoke to the scent that really brings the smell dancing into the nose. There is a nice richly roasted caramel malt flavor to this beer. The malts are primarily what you taste. It has a nice hop accent to it. The after taste is slightly bitter, and fades quickly leaving you to want to drink more.

This is a nice medium bodied beer with a creamy feel to it. It coats the mouth and throat that is rather pleasant.

This is a very nice beer. It reminds me a lot of the Scotch Ale at Carlisle Brewery here in Rockford, only not as flavorful. I really found myself liking this one a lot. Considering itÂ’s 6.4% by volume IÂ’m surprised that it drinks as easily as it does. Overall I like this beer. IÂ’m giving this one 6.5 out of 10.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You may find this hard to believe, but I really am a man of few words. Few complimentary words that is. I have a hard time telling people how good they are at different things. Which makes my management style in our office completely different from everyone elseÂ’s. Sure I tell my people when they do a good job, and give them a pat on the back. But I donÂ’t stroke their egos for doing the job that is expected.

ItÂ’s time for the annual reviews in my office and if you recall I worked from home last Wednesday to get them finished. Not that mine were long, maybe a paragraph or two. ItÂ’s just that I have a hard time coming up with long worded complimentary statements. I also donÂ’t like getting long ones. In fact I generally like them to just tell me what I do wrong and let me fix it. If you like what I do, show me were it counts.

And that’s exactly what I did. After a year and a half of having direct reports, this is the first time any of them are getting a review solely based on my observations. Thus it’s easier for me to actually rate, appraise and praise them. Tonight I gave my first employee their annual review and showed them the dollar amount of the raise they were getting. After going over the appraisal and rating they read the brief couple of paragraphs I wrote about them. Then I said, “I’m not good with telling people how much I appreciate them, I’d much rather show them.” I slid the paperwork for their raise across the table. Her hands covered her mouth while she started to cry in happiness. I know that the message came across loud and clear. They did a good job and I appreciate all they do for the company.

IÂ’m actually looking forward to giving the rest of my employees their reviews.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:19 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Ktreva's Birthday is coming up soon, so I thought she's been a good wife. I should get her something special. Today on lunch we went and picked out her present. But I can't let you know yet... it's a surprise.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:09 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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One of my employees came up to me today and told me a story that literally knocked the words right out of me. Some of you may remember that two years ago I was trying to raise money for some troops going back to Iraq. Which, we did do a great job and they appreciated all of it. The story she told me regarded her son Troy (the solder pictured in the original post), who is now discharged from the military. He is trying to get into college and one of the universities he attempted to get into is Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.

He received a rejection letter from the university, but it didn’t tell him why. Being curious he called the admissions office and when asked why he wasn’t accepted they told him, “Because you served in the Military.”

(Waits for readers to pick their jaws up off the ground or to stop swearing)

Yea, I had the same reaction. Now I thoughtÂ… maybe, maybe she was reading more into it. So I questioned her.

Did the letter say he was denied due to being in the military: No.

The lady he spoke with actually said, “You were denied because you were in the military”: Almost.

What did she say? Troy asked why didn’t I get accepted, the admissions officer said, “Because you were in the military, you won’t fit in here.”

Even though I was at work in front of all my direct reports I dropped the F-bomb.

I asked her for the phone number and the name of the lady Troy spoke with. I would like to call them and find out exactly what is going on there. Do they really deny ex-military personal from attending their private university? (Being a private university IÂ’m pretty sure they legally can do this.) And if they do is it really because they donÂ’t feel they would fit in?

This would piss me off if it happened to any soldier. But when itÂ’s not only the son of one of my wifeÂ’s friends but an employee of mine AND someone that I went out of the way to help previously. Yea, IÂ’m more then a little pissed off. Troy spent two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. One of his tours was 30 months, to state the obvious that is two and a half years! He worked hard, fought for us and comes back to the states to have some uppity higher education admin twit tell him no because he was in the militaryÂ… yea not while I take breath.

Once I get the information IÂ’m contacting the university and seeing what I can find out. And if I need, IÂ’m going to drive down there and let them know face to face how I feel.

Not today, not ever!

UPDATE: I couldn't wait for the number so I e-mailed their admissions office inquiring about their policy. It will be at least a couple of days before I get a response... if they respond.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:43 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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Mingle² - Online Dating

Honestly I thought I would be PG-13 or something. Apparently talk about zombies, my sexy wife, Deadlines and dead space on photos(the word dead) and Torture makes me "R" rated.

I found this over at One Happy Dog Speaks, VW is PG, she may not want to associate with such a racy blog as mine.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:28 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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If you have some time to kill, and want a little fun, here is another Tower Defense style game called Vector. You have multiple towers to choose from, and different paths. So far itÂ’s been pretty easy, but I can see where some of these would be pretty difficult.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Not in a million years did I think that a Tesla Coil could be a musical instrument. That is until I saw this clip. They played some video game theme music from Super Mario Brothers and Tetris. So all of us old Nintendo geeks should recognize at least those parts. A U of I Urbana-Champaign student Steve Ward built the coil.

According to the blurb with the video:

So just to explain a little further, yes, it is the actual high voltage sparks that are making the noise. Every cycle of the music is a burst of sparks at 41 KHz, triggered by digital circuitry at the end of a "long" piece of fiber optics.

What's not immediately obvious in this video is how loud this is. Many people were covering their ears, dogs were barking. In the sections where the crowd is cheering and the coils is starting and stopping, you can hear the the crowd is drowned out by the coil when it's firing.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:40 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I generally don’t watch cartoons. But a friend of mine sent me this link saying I need to watch this video. He thought that my Star Wars geekdom would appreciate the clip. He was right. It’s a 25-minute clip of the Robot Chicken Star Wars Special. If you like Star Wars, it’s worth the watch. They really do a great job of parodying Star Wars. I love their take on some of the “off screen” interactions of characters from the movie.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:26 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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As many of you know I’m an avid Hooters fan. T1G and I tend to hit the local one on a regular basis, when he’s in town. Now, before I start hearing I go for the girls. Honestly, we don’t. I really like their wings, T1G is more of a buffalo shrimp fan. If I wanted to go see scantily clad pretty girls, I could go to other places that tend to have better looking girls wearing a hell of a lot less. With that being said, here’s a montage of Hooter’s girls done to the Bob River’s Song “Little hooters Girl”, a spoof of “Little Drummer Boy”

Jabbah over at I Hate My Cubicle (NSFW) found this little treasure.

Even funnier is that at 41 seconds, I believe that girl works/worked at the local Hooters.

Posted by: Contagion at 08:18 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Over the last month I had been talking about bar-b-que at work. Either it was good bar-b-que I had eaten or stuff that I had made. When I was talking about some smoked sausages I made last week, a couple of my employees asked me when I was going to “shut up or put up” meaning, when was I going to stop talking about how good it was and let them sample what I was talking about. The problem is that it’s time intensive and hard to bring to work. That is until today.

We had a baby shower for one of my employees. To go with the baby shower we decided to have a potluck. Anyone that has ever worked or works for my company knows that they will have a potluck any chance they get. “Look it’s going to rain next week, we should have a potluck”. Anyway, since this was for an actual good reason I thought I could take the time to make a nice bar-b-que treat for all of them. Wednesday, while working from home, I made smoked sausages between reviews. Once they had smoked for a good 4 hours, I coated each link in sauce and let it crisp.

Last night after the sausages cooled, I sliced them into bite size bits and put the remainder of the sauce on them. Then over a low heat in the oven this morning I re-heated them. I didnÂ’t make a lot, just because it was kind of expensive and they were spicy. At work I placed them on the table, with a warning label, so that no one got a heated surprise.

The best was when my employee that had been the most vocal about my bringing these sausages in actually tried one; she about coughed up a lung. I told her repeatedly they were spicy. But she didn’t listen. She took one of the chunks popped it into her mouth and started eating. Her eyes started watering and she started coughing and gasping for air. I about fell over in laughter. But her review of them was what I was hoping for. “They taste really good…” Then she added, “But they are too spicy for me.” Not everyone felt the same way. A lot of people really liked them; they ate most of the bowl. Everyone that liked it stated it would taste better on bread.

For too many of the people I had made them way to spicy. Even one lady that I work with that loves hot and spicy food thought it was a little excessive. But she made the observation that “It’s not spicy hot just to be hot. It’s hot because the flavor dictates it needs to be hot.” Which she translated into IE if you made them any milder you would throw off the flavor combination that made them so good.

Hell, IÂ’m happy with that.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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That was a close one. While on my way to work Monday, we heard news of a drought in Tennessee and the effect it was having on the state. But the blurb in the story that literally scared me speechless was when the announcer says, “This is also impacting the Jack Daniel’s Distillery. All of their water comes from one spring and it is starting to dry up.” According to Ktreva I actually gasped in horror.

When we took the tour of the distillery last summer the guide told us that all of their water comes from the spring on the property. It’s naturally filtered and has no iron in it at all. Then he explained that if the spring ever dried up, they would quit making Jack Daniel’s because they haven’t been able to find another water source that meets their standards. It was at this time that myself and three other gentlemen in the crowd made the comment, “God help us if that ever happens”.

On that morning when the news came across saying that the spring is drying up, I was sure that was a sign of the apocalypse. But leave it to good olÂ’ Jimmy Bedford (Master Distiller for Jack DanielÂ’s) and crew, they sent out an e-mail to all of us loyal drinkers (Please donÂ’t ask why they sent me one, the story is kind of embarrassing)

Dear Friend of Jack Daniel's,
You may have seen or heard reports about how the drought in Tennessee is affecting production at the Jack Daniel Distillery. Well, we wanted to take time to write and remind you of the old adage, "Don't believe everything you read or hear!"

While it's true Tennessee and other Southeastern states are experiencing a pretty severe drought this spring and summer, we can assure you that we have plenty of water from our Distillery's cave spring to make our Tennessee Whiskey. The water level may be down somewhat, as it typically is during the summer months, but it's currently flowing above what we need for whiskey-making.

We have been making Jack Daniel's with water from this cave spring for more than 140 years and have never had a water shortage. That's not to say we're not taking conservation measures. We are using the cave spring water to make Jack Daniel's, as we always have, but we've cut back on using it for any other secondary purposes, such as cooling or cleaning. That's just being responsible and respectful of the resources that make Jack Daniel's so unique — the cave spring water, charcoal-mellowing, charred white oak barrels, fine grains, and the seasonal changes that Mother Nature offers us in the Tennessee hills.

In addition, our warehouses are filled with barrels upon barrels of Jack Daniel's going through the maturation process. When the whiskey from these barrels reaches full maturity, we'll pull those barrels and bottle the whiskey the same as we always do. In other words, your favorite retailers and bars will continue to have plenty of our Tennessee Whiskey on hand.

If you've been concerned about the various media reports, we hope we've put your mind at ease. And if you hear your friends talking about this, please let them know we're continuing to make Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey and, as Mr. Jack said many years ago, "Every day we make it, we'll make it the best we can."

Your friends at Jack Daniel's

Emphasis mine

Thank you my friends at Jack DanielÂ’s for updating me on the situation. We are all going to rest easy now knowing this. Trust me, I am going to sleep a lot better now knowing I donÂ’t have to horde those 4 bottles I have stashed in the basement.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:43 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Yesterday at the store, Ktreva joined me on my weekly trip to pick out a beer. Normally she doesnÂ’t come with, but after talking about how they had expanded their beer selection she wanted to see. Now my fine contaminants it should be a testimony to the expansion of the beer aisle when I say that even Ktreva was taken back by the new size and selection, almost doubled! Since she was with me, I let her pick out the beer. Well actually it was because she looked really good in her tight pants and I was really distracted. She suggested numerous beers, but she really was pushing tonightÂ’s beer on me. The name of it made her think I should try it. So because of darling Ktreva, I will be reviewing Sweaty Betty Blonde by Boulder Beer Company of Boulder, CO. (I just want to point out that the other six-pack she bought that day was Dirty Bastard. What a combination that is.) I donÂ’t know if she thought IÂ’d like it, or just really wanted me to have a Sweaty Betty in my mouth. As long as Betty makes me happy, itÂ’s all good.

We have our standard 12 oz Brown bottle. With a bright yellow label. There is an anime looking blue eyed, blonde haired girl on the front with the name of the beer in blue over it. There is a lot of information on the label about the beer, but the opening paragraph (yes paragraph) starts with, “Irresistible, flirtatious, aromatic, soft, supple, unavoidable, smooth, exuberant, glistening, wild, firm, rare, succulent, luscious, ripe, natural, glowing, curvaceous, magical, wheat… and the 5th release in our looking glass series of beers.” Well if they are describing a beer, I’m kind of worried. If they are describing a woman named Betty they know… ummm I’m not sure about the wheat part, but the rest has my attention.

It has a weak pour. There was almost no head and no lacing on the glass. What head there was faded really quickly leaving nothing at the top of the beer. Needless to say Betty doesnÂ’t give good head. (Sorry, there went my PG rating.) It is very pale yellow in color, and there is some cloudiness to it, which is typical of wheat beers.

The aroma is an overpowering combination of wheat and yeast. There are some spice undertones, but itÂ’s hard to discern what they are. Like the scent, the taste is mainly wheat and yeast. There is a citric accent to it, maybe lemon. Again itÂ’s hard to get past the wheat and yeast flavor.

This is a light bodied beer. There is a crispness to it that is pleasant. The carbonation was a bit strong, but not unpleasantly so. ItÂ’s also a little on the dry side.

This isnÂ’t a bad beer. Like most wheat beers they do tend to lack a little something. At least this wheat beer didnÂ’t make me think of cereal while I drank it. IÂ’m going to give this a 4.5 out of 10.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:43 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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If you are working from home, you are technically on the clock. That means you really should abide by company policy and rules. But I'm wondering...

Is it okay to have a beer or two with lunch?

I mean no one will know unless my manager happens to stop by the house.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:27 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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