And I'm ready to go back to work.

Clone had the last of his Birthday party's this weekend. We had his kid's party at McDonalds. Which after dealing with 10 3-6 year olds for 2 hours I was ready to call it the end. The important point was that he had fun.

After his party I took Clone to his first Football Game. Well okay, he's seen his brother play flag football and middle school football, but this was semi-professional football. The Rock River Raptors. I even had his name and birthday announced over the intercom and on the jumbotron. He loved the whole thing. He was pretty good up until the start of the fourth quarter. Then he started getting tired and wanted to go home. He had a lot of fun, and keeps asking me to take him again. And I will sometime... just probably not until next year.

After the game Bruce and I hooked up with Graumagus at Carlisle's for a couple of rounds of the best damned Scottish Ale on tap. This is where Graumagus tricked me into helping him move the next day. Apparently not only did he want me to give him the extra washer and dryer that I had, but he wanted me to haul it and help move it for him too. What an ingrate!

That was all on Saturday. Sunday I wake up at noon... after not getting home until 3:30AM. Grau was supposed to call and say he was coming over. I had just gotten downstairs when there's a knock on the door. Guess who? I answer the door with, "I thought you were going to call first?" He responded with, "Yea, I remembered that as soon as I pulled up." Fortunately I was awake.

The dryer was in my basement, the washer was in the garage. They had been sitting in the same spot unused for almost 10 years. It appears that my garage roof must have sprung a leak in the winter as there was a bunch of nasty water in the washer. Which made it that much more heavy. By the way, it seems that back in the 60's they made washers using cast iron. That damn thing was heavy! The extra water didn't help. Plus we had to lift it into the back of my truck. Fortunately it's only about a 3.5 foot vertical lift.

After moving the washer and dryer into his new apartment's basement, we plugged it in to check it out. I guess a 40 year old electrical appliance sitting under the leaking roof of a garage doesn't last too well... it didn't seem to work. Owell, as I told him. It's his problem now! I offered to give him his money back... but since it was free he didn't think it would be worth the hassle.

As punishment for making him take a broken washer, which I did warn him it may not work, I had to help him move a refrigerator too. At this point I should mention that Wes did come over to help with all of this. I don't want to leave him out. We go to his sister's storage unit where the frige is sitting and try to get it out. Grau had to play reverse tetris in order to be able to even thing about sliding it out of the unit.

When he opened the door we discovered that a year and a half ago when it was put in the storage unit, his sister hadn't bothered to clean nor properly empty the thing. Yea... that wasn't pleasant.

After getting that to his new place and making 398,7485 gay jokes about his curtains and just him in general we made a nice impression on his new neighbors. Lets just say me rubbing my nipples in the parking lot and saying in a lisp, "If you think that frige is dirty now, just wait until we get together later." Yeah... I think his new neighbors believe a big ol' "bear" is moving in. Even after that and the broken washer Grau was kind enough to take Wes and I to Hooters for some Hot Wings and beer.

That sounds like it was all pretty easy going and fun, so why do I want to go back to work? Well, Ktreva is in Chicago on business leaving me home alone with the boys. I'm about ready to tranquilize both of them and hide them in a closet.

Now if you'll excuse me in the time it took me to write this, I think they managed to disassemble Clone's bed.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:38 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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When I saw this headline I thought it was a joke. Man Claims Bigfoot Molested.

A man who claims that he was molested by Bigfoot as a child was ordered to serve 20 years in prison yesterday for his own molestation-related activities...

...Morrill reportedly told an investigator preparing his pre-sentence report that he had been sexually assaulted by the legendary Bigfoot.

Patton said Morrill really believes the assaulted happened. "I take him very seriously because I know Mr. Morill has issues," said Patton.

I've heard of a lot of different defenses. I've heard a lot of different accusations. But Bigfoot molested me as a child is why I molest children is just stupid. Yet, it today's society that may be enough to get the guy an insanity plea.

Posted by: Contagion at 11:55 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I really don't know what to say about this. It's, um... different?

And if that wasn't enough, heres the really NSFW, ultra violent trailer.

Those Troma guys really know how to make movies.

That reminds me, it's about time for another Cheesy Movie day.

Posted by: Contagion at 11:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Over at Let's Make Robots, they have a Yellow Drum Machine robot.

Here's a video clip of it in action.

According to the site:

Notice how the robot first plays on the object it finds (or is forced to find by the angry cameraman), plays a small beat, and records the beat it plays on it. Then this recorded beat is played again, and it starts to play on the object (an belt tracks and everything else it has),and also playing this sampled beat

Pretty cool, huh? Now if they can only get it to play the Bodhrain.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Need to kill some time? Want to waste a good hour of your life, try Ultimate Defense. It's like all of those tower defense games except instead of building and upgrading towers you buy heroes.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:11 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And I like yard gnomes! I'm just wondering how much trouble I'd get in if I put yard decorations like this around my house?

The Zombie of Montclaire Moors

or

The Zombie Returns

I'm thinking Ktreva really wouldn't appreciate those, well not as much as I would. But if I want them I can get them here and here.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:44 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Shadoglare of Refractional Darkness sponsors this weekÂ’s review. Thank you sir for being an enabler! He donated a bottle of Black Dog Ale by the Spanish Peaks Brewing Company.

We have our standard 12 oz brown bottle. The label has a picture of “Chug” the owners black lab on the label with the name of the beer around it. In the background is a picture of a mountain range. The neck label has a brief story about the brewery and the beer itself on it.

It has a dark brown color, kind of like an old penny. Light passes through it easily; I didnÂ’t see any cloudiness at all. It is dark enough that you canÂ’t see through it clearly. When I poured it there was no real head. It formed a thin tan head that faded quickly to a crown around the glass. There was no lacing at all.

The scent was of roasted caramel malts and citrus hops. It has a nice and enticing aroma, not overwhelming at all. The taste starts out with a strong hop flavor. There are some malts that follow, but nothing specific. For the hop flavor, itÂ’s not very bitter at all. The aftertaste is mild.

This is a medium bodied beer. It is a little heavy on the carbonation.

Overall I liked this beer. ItÂ’s not all that special, but itÂ’s not bad. It really is something that one could drink and enjoy. I give it 5.5 out of 10.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:15 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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The inventory at work is really high and we are trying just about anything to get it out. Yesterday in a staff meeting one of my employees jokingly made the suggestion that I should spend an hour doing basic level work in our office to help out. Everyone found this highly amusing as I was never trained on how to do that kind of work and the couple times I did it turned into a disaster. Everyone had a chuckle at this and let it go.

Then today I was talking to my employees. The inventory was bad, their moods were gloomy because of the snow and there was just some overall moral issues. So I thought, hey why the hell not. I jumped in and for an hour I worked alongside them. Of course they found this highly amusing. They were telling everyone what I was doing and they where coming over to see me in action. I wasn't the best at it... far from it. In fact I only ranked about 25% production. It's not like I was helping out a lot. Yet at the same time I was.

Because I was willing to jump in and do the work, it showed the lot of them that I was taking them serious and that I'd do just about anything to accomplish the goal. Plus it improved moral. After I finished my hour they all sat down and worked even harder to help out. Now of course my peers all think I'm daft. Hell I had one try to talk me out of doing it because she thought it would set a bad precedent.

Well that might be the case, but for an hour my employees were laughing and enjoying work and all it cost me was a little public humiliation. I think it was worth the trade.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I know I'm supposed to do the beer review tonight, but honestly I'm not in the mood to do it. I just got off the phone with Comcast about our new internet/cable service and they have my blood boiling.

We had Insight, but then Comcast bought them out. They have been telling everyone how great they are going to be when they finally take over for at least 5 months now. They've been sending us items telling us when it was going to happen and that the transition should be seamless. HA!

Today I get a mailer saying that the channels we have are changing, and so are the packages. I was confused so I called them to see how big of a change it was going to be. Long story short, in order to keep the channels I want to watch, my cable bill is going to be about $45 dollars more a month and I'm going to get a crap load of channels I don't want.

While trying to research this I had to switch my e-mail for our internet over to their account. That was less than exciting as it didn't work like they said it would. Nothing transfered properly. Comcast tech support said I had to call Insight. Insight said they had nothing to do with our area anymore and I had to work with Comcast. Two hours later and Clone learning interesting phrases like, "Cum gurgling gutter slut" along with various other curses because I was hung up on twice by Comcast, we finally came to a work around that didn't fix the problem, but masked it.

Now at this point I'm just really not in the mood to gently drink a beer and have a review. No, now I'm in the mood to go drink some really potent and cheap liquor... if you know what I mean.

I promise the review will be done tomorrow baring any further complications.

Oh, and for the record Comcast Sucks!

Posted by: Contagion at 06:54 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Shadoglare sent me notice of a story in the Chicago Tribune. Boy, 4, wounded on South Side after gun hidden in oven discharges, cops say.

This whole thing is a tragedy, fortunately it sounds as if the kids are going to be okay. What really gets me about this story is

Smith, a felon, had hidden the revolver in the oven in a home in the 4800 block of South Racine Avenue, Bright said.

First I thought handguns are banned in Chicago. Wait, they are. See how well banning handguns and firearms works from people getting hurt?

Secondly this guy is a felon. Which means that even if he left the city of Chicago to buy a handgun, he can't legally own one in Illinois. That means he bought it... ILLEGALLY! That's right, he probably bought it on the streets. I know he didn't buy one in the store because he can't have a FOID (Firearms Owners Identification) card that you must have in Illinois to even buy a firearm. As soon as he's convicted of a felony they suspend the card and when the background check was run, they would have red flagged this guy.

If the mighty Mayor Daley and the Chicago police can't even keep a felon from obtaining and owning a firearm with in the limited confines of their little kingdom, what makes them think that they can do anything about the rest of the state.

We don't need more gun laws. We need to better enforce the laws that we have. Banning doesn't work.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:24 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Clone is all excited he hit the age of five. To quote him, "I'm a whole hand now daddy!" He says this as he holds up his hand with all the fingers spread out wide. He was very pleased with himself. In his head he has hit the first of the birthday milestones. In celebration of that achievement he decided he was going to eat some of his Easter Candy.

He pulled and pulled on the plastic egg. Which on a side note it was a plastic egg that looked like an egg shaped bunny. By yanking on the egg you are effectively ripping the head off of the rabbit to get to the candy in the middle. No wonder he enjoyed it so much.

Unfortunately five is the age when kids start to take notice of the happenings in their world. They notice how things are changing politically, socially and in technology. Clone, much like his father, does not like the future he sees for our country and has decided that he is going to take a stance against it. At five years old Clone has become

see extended entry: more...

Posted by: Contagion at 04:45 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 Now, all he needs is a little red paint to go along with those sunglasses and hoodie. And at 5, he is old enough to make his own decisions. Happy Birthday, Clone.

Posted by: Petey at March 24, 2008 07:38 PM (JhiOW)

2 Happy Birthday dude!

Posted by: Navy CPO at March 25, 2008 11:52 AM (IrbU4)

3 Happy Belated Birthday, Clone! Man, it won't be too long, and he'll be too old to take to Hooters.

Posted by: That 1 Guy at March 25, 2008 07:43 PM (ZRAYl)

4 *L* Happy birthday to the Clone.

Posted by: Barmy Mama at March 26, 2008 04:43 AM (VuiPf)

5 Happy birthday Clone!! What a handsome young man he has grown into...

Posted by: Richmond at March 26, 2008 07:03 AM (bwq2J)

6 Happy Birthday, Clone! (even a couple of days late!)

Posted by: caltechgirl at March 26, 2008 10:40 PM (IfXtw)

7 Happy Belated Birthday, to a little adorable fellow!

Posted by: h~ at March 28, 2008 09:03 AM (p8iFZ)

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Clone has already been up, terrorized the basket, eaten more Chocolate than I probably should have let him this early in the morning and is now playing Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii why he works off his sugar rush.

Since it is Easter, I thought it would be a good time to re-introduce a couple of my favorite flash animations from years past.

First we have How To Make A Chocolate Easter Bunny.

Then after you've finished playing with that, try How To Make A Bunny Lay Easter Eggs.

Yea, I know. I have issues.

Posted by: Contagion at 08:51 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I know people can sell anything on EBay, but seriously folks. Who the hell is going to buy the ability to become invisible?

Well, actually, probably the same guys that bought the x-ray vision glasses from the back of comic books.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Yea, I'm sure there are many guys this clip speaks volumes to.

Yea, I know guys both now and from my childhood that if this was real, would have these girls on speed dial.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:09 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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CBS is canceling the show Jericho... again. They canceled the show last year, but an overwhelming response by fans brought it back.

I'll admit that I love this show. It's one of my favorites each week. I was upset when they canceled it. When they brought it back I was ecstatic. I just love the show, it appeals to my inner survivalist and contingency planning wackoness. GAH! Why do all the shows I like get canceled.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:59 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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If they did a live action version of The Simpsons. How would they get a guy to look like this: Real Homer.

If you think that is creepy, check out real mario.

Both by Pixeloo.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:50 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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You all know that I'm a sucker for Historical Movies. I love movies that have to do with any and all parts of history. That doesn't mean that I don't pick them apart because the amateur historian in me is highly annoyed by fixable or avoidable inaccuracies. It's because of this that I found it highly amusing to turn on my computer yesterday and see Yahoo's: The 10 Most Historically Inaccurate Movies.

I enjoyed some of the movies on this list a lot. The Patriot, Braveheart, 300, The last Samurai, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age were movies I highly enjoyed watching. Gladiator sucked, I regretted paying to see it in the theater.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:40 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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One of my employees received a promotion last month. That means I had to replace her. Yesterday and today I spent most of my time at work conducting interviews. I enjoy interviewing people. It gives you a look inside their head, it lets you see how they tick a little more.

As this is an internal promotion position only, I don't think some of the people applying for the job even really tried. Some of them came across as assuming that they felt the job was already theirs and this was just a formality. They didn't answer the questions or to be honest even try to answer the questions. I don't know if they just assumed that since they have been with the company 10+ years that I would just know how awesome they think they are. Well, if that was the case it kicked them in the butt.

I have two really close candidates right now for the job. I can't make an offer until Tuesday until I finished the high level review with upper management. That gives me three days to mull over my decision. It's so close I'm not sure if I should have them draw straws or if I should do like that commercial and make them fight in the parking lot for it.

Yea, I know... but I don't think management would approve of me bringing swords to work.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:30 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The national weather service has issued a winter storm warning for my area. They are claiming we are going to get 6-10 inches of snow! I know a lot of people are tired of the snow, but to be honest, I like it. It makes life more fun. If we actually get that amount I'd be surprised, but if we do... YAY!

Nothing like a good Spring snow.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:40 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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We finally hit the last beer of the gift pack my father gave me for Christmas. Honestly, I appreciate my father buying this for me, he was trying to get me something IÂ’d like and appreciate. He put thought and effort behind the gift and I really appreciate it With that being said, if you are going to buy beer for a beer drinking fan in your life, donÂ’t get them this gift set. The beer isnÂ’t bad, but there really isnÂ’t much to it, most of it is just a bland rehash of mass produced American beers with names added to it. There isnÂ’t much flavor to any of them. However, the book is kind of nice. TonightÂ’s beer is The Barbary Coast Brand Gold Rush Style Beer by the ever so mysterious MDII of Rochester, NY.

We have our standard 12 oz brown bottle. There is a cream label on it with a green bar across the middle with the name Barbary Coast on it. There is a red Circle with a picture of a mountain on it just above the green bar. The lettering is all done in that old fashioned late 1800Â’s style.

It pours a nice amber color. Light passes easily through it as there is no sediment floating. When I poured it into the glass it formed a nice inch thick white head that slowly faded to a film on the top of the beer. There was some very minor lacing on the side of the glass.

The smell is weak. First you smell the fruity citrus of the hops. Roasted malts can be detected as well. There is a slight metallic scent to it. The flavor was meager taste of malts with a slight sweetness. There really isnÂ’t much else to it. The aftertaste is even milder and really canÂ’t be described.

This is a light bodied beer that is kind of watery. There is a nice level of carbonation, but not much else to it.

If you had a friend that isnÂ’t a beer fan but wanted to drink on, this is a very inoffensive beer to let them try. The flavor isnÂ’t that much stronger than beer flavored water. Overall I give this a rating of 3.5 out of 10.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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