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Il existe des jours propices pour se promener parfois l’air pensif, la tête entre les nuages, pas vraiment sur Terre. Et il nous arrive d’être témoin d’un accident dramatique quand l’on s’y attendait le moins… Il y a quelques années, la métropole rémoise a penché en faveur de la création d’une première ligne de tramway traversant la ville du Nord au Sud-Ouest. Comme dans nombre de cas précédents, le projet avait suscité une vive hostilité de la part des commerçants et de la population craignant une hausse des impôts locaux, des mois de travaux lourds, et un investissement financier lourd de conséquences… Habitant sur une avenue phare de la ville de Reims où passera la ligne de tramway, les travaux ont commencé depuis presque un mois par les déviations des réseaux d’eau, d’électricité, de téléphone, de gaz, et des eaux usées. Et c’est ainsi qu’il arrive parfois de se rendre à pied en centre-ville et d’assister à un accident de chantier coûtant la vie à un ouvrier chargé de travaux sur le réseau d’eau. Un caisson métallique de plusieurs centaines de kilogrammes s’est écroulé sur cet homme qui n’a guère fait le poids. Après avoir été hospitalisé dans un état très critique, son coeur a finalement cessé de battre quelques jours plus tard et il a quitté le monde des vivants… Des fleurs symboliques ont été déposées sur le lieu de l’accident, témoignages éphémères d’un accident si vite déroulé et qui porte pourtant à réfléchir sur des questions que tout un chacun se pose à certains moments de son existence.Notre mémoire abonde de souvenirs, de moments joyeux que nous avons passé avec les gens que nous aimons. Il peut s’agir d’une table de Noël où toute notre famille réunie nous témoigna de son affection ; d’un ami qui sut partager avec nous une crise de rire mémorable ; d’un amant qui nous ouvrit ses bras et son coeur le temps de quelques instants… Mais au milieu de ses moments de bonheur, il figure aussi certaines images que le temps ne pourra sans doute jamais effacer non plus, comme celle de cet ouvrier gisant face contre terre, le visage couvert de poussière. En tant qu’être humain ordinaire, on réalise parfois que la vie ne sera certes pas facile pour nous, mais faudrait-il y pour autant se laisser aller et renoncer à beaucoup de rêves ? Beaucoup pensent à trouver à tout prix le Prince Charmant mais il appartient à chacun de trouver sa voie et de donner un sens à sa vie par soi-même… Aujourd’hui je n’ai qu’une envie en tête, celle de continuer ce que j’ai entrepris il y a déjà presque deux ans maintenant lorsque je suis parti en Suède. Je veux découvrir le monde, danser sur les rythmes jazzies de la Nouvelle-Orléans, me prélasser sur les plages de sable fin de la Polynésie française, flâner le long de Rodeo Drive, de Park Avenue, ou encore Lombard Street, ou encore parler de chars et de tabarnak avec nos très lointains cousins francophones de Québec et Montréal…Il existe bien entendu les innombrables discours sur le caractère éphémère de la vie et les regrets que l’on peut parfois éprouver face à une situation où notre choix a pesé sur notre bien-être. Et il est des jours qui nous rappellent à quel point notre vie peut s’arrêter à tout instant… Tel le soleil qui se couche et se lève, il existe des jours plus courts en hiver, plus longs en été. La définition de la vie réside aussi dans son caractère injuste qui n’autorise certains à ne vivre que quelques heures alors que d’autres arrivent à dépasser allègrement les cent ans. En ce qui concerne le temps qui défile chaque jour, chacun est libre de l’occuper à sa manière, de la façon dont il souhaite le vivre… Après avoir connu Paris, Londres, Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo, Copenhague, et Amsterdam, c’est donc prochainement Bruxelles, nouvelle capitale européenne qui s’ouvrira à moi le temps d’un week-end prolongé courant mai. Découvrir d’autres cultures, partager ses opinions, s’enrichir personnellement en allant aux contacts des autres, et parcourir le monde ont été des idéaux atteints par quelques découvreurs il y a quelques siècles. Aujourd’hui ils s’imposent comme l’un des plus cadeaux qu’offrent la vie et la liberté à tout homme qui sait en saisir l’éphémère opportunité quand elle se présente à lui…

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I had just plunked down $1.50 for the morning New York Times in the Atlanta airport. By the time I think plunked down $1.19 for a breakfast hot dog (don’t ask), I wanted to toss out the newspaper. The New York Stock Exchange had already halted trading in Dow Jones futures, when their selloffs [...]

At the start of the show, Heidi announces that the four remaining designers will be given a budget of $8000 with which to create a collection for Fashion Week. Of course, she also emphasized– for the umpteenth time — that only three of them will be “competing.” Tim also pops in to warn the designers that he’ll be making home visits in a few weeks, so they’d better not be resting on their laurels!The designers head back to the Atlas, pack their bags, and say their farewells in the lobby. All but Kenley, that is, who storms out the door in a small blue huff without bothering to wish her fellow competitors good luck or even to fuck off.Yeah, you just go on and be pissy, Missy.A few weeks later, just as threatened, Tim heads out to Little Rock, AK, where he is met at the airport by an contingent from a corporate sponsor in order to deliver a little vehicular product placement.At her studio space, Tim is greeted warmly by Ms Momolu who shows him her collection. Her point of view is culture and nature, and she wanted her pieces to look ethnic without looking ethnic. She also took the opportunity to use it to show off some of her spectacular beads.After the visit to her studio space, Korto took Tim home to meet her family. Her drumming instructor is also there and together they played a mini concert for Tim.Next, our daring mentor travels to the wilds of Portland, Oregon, to visit Leanne.There he meets Leanne’s boyfriend, Nathan, and checks out her predominately blue and white collection inspired by the motion of waves. In other words, her clothes are covered with a different sort of pasta shape than what we’ve previously seen from her.Leanne then forces Tim to take a ride on her tandem bicycle.Next up, a trip to visit Jerell in California.Jerell’s POV is evening wear. He’s decided to heavily apply his talent for mixing textures. And by “talent” we really mean “tendency,” or in Tim Gunn-speak, “propensity.”Jerell takes Tim to his place to meet his sister and his mother, some friends, and a dude he introduces as “my love interest, Dan.” Dan wasn’t on camera very long, but I thought he bore a passing resemblance to a particular blogger who also happens to be a big Project Runway fan. (Leave your guesses in the comments!)Jerell’s father wasn’t there to meet Tim, as he was working. Jerell tearfully tells us, in a confidential, that his father is a very hard worker who spent most of Jerell’s childhood in the sleeper cab of a truck, making money to support his family. So how exactly does one make money in the sleeper cab of a truck….?Finally, Tim goes to Brooklyn, NY, to see Kenley. Tim greets her warmly. She introduces him to her tugboat captain father….Tim seems to love most of Kenley’s collection, with the exception of a green dress that has green rope around the neck. Green rope around the neck reminds Tim of nooses. Green rope around the neck reminds Kenley of tugboats with algae growing on them. Or maybe spinach.The hand-painted fabrics that Kenley used for some of her dresses were a big hit with Tim. Ok, so that impressed me. Kenley is a big crybaby bitch, but that cute little handpainted dress is my favorite thing in her collection. He also loved her feathery wedding gown.In the blink of an eye (plus a couple of Saturn, TRESemme, and L’Oreal commercials) we find the designers heading back to New York in the days before fashion week.The final four are staying in a posh suite at the Westin, NY in Times Square. They first three to arrive are happy to see each other but not so pleased about the prospect of having to deal with Kenley again. But she shows up and apologizes for being such a bitch in the past. That lightens the atmosphere considerably. Room service then brings up two bottles of bubbly from Tim that helps even more with the atmosphere.The next morning, the designers go to their workspace and unpack their garments.Tim reminds them that although the four of them have created collections for Bryant Park, one of them will be eliminated before the show. And in order to do that, there has to be one final challenge. To the ensuing collective groans, Tim announces that they have to put together a partner for their wedding dress.Everybody is thrilled.The designers get to go to Mood one last time for fabric. When they get back to the Bluefly.com studio, Tim tells them they have only until the end of the day to work on their bridesmaid dress.Later, Tim comes in for a dose of mentoring. He’s not sure about Jerell’s creation and hopes the fabric won’t be so crinkly on the runway. Tim likes Leanne’s dress, but feels Korto’s two gowns are in competition with each other because of the similarly colored fabric.The next morning, Tim sends in the models. He gets all verklempt and gives a little speech about how he loves the designers and wants them to succeed. Awwww…. (How can he keep this up season after season?)As the models dress, Kenley notices that the length on both Korto’s and Leanne’s bridesmaid dresses has changed since the day before….And with that, it’s time for the runway show!Unfortunately, Bravo got chintzy this week and didn’t provide good photos of the dresses.Everyone liked Kenley’s bridesmaid dress. Her feathery wedding gown got compliments too.So maybe the dress was a little derivative of McQueen’s Fall 08 collection….The judges LOVED Leanne’s dresses. They couldn’t gush enough. And the only pics Bravo provides are of the models heads. Gee thanks.Leanne and Kenley were told they would both be competing at Fashion Week and summarily dismissed from the stage. Korto and Jerell didn’t fare as well.Korto’s was called overworked by Michael Kors and Heidi didn’t like it. Nina didn’t see how the bridesmaid dress had any relevance to the bridal gown.They liked Jerell’s even less.They didn’t like the gray tulle under the wedding dress because it looked dirty, and MK thought the model looked like she was wearing a flowerpot on her head. They decide that Korto can go on to compete at Bryant Park, but Jerell just had to go.I was sad at the verdict. I didn’t want to see Kenley get a chance at the giant check, but I knew Jerell’s over-the-top style wasn’t going to fly with Nina and Michael Kors.Sing it, sister!

I called The Guy on Sunday afternoon. I had my suspicion that he was having a bad weekend since I hadn’t heard from him. He was. Ben, the guy he really liked a few months back came back from Japan and The Guy picked him up at the airport. The Guy had been letting him keep his car at The Guy’s house during that time. They went out, had a nice lunch, then Ben took off, rode off into the sunsets to have a nice life. The Guy said he was going over to Zach’s that night to cheer him up, but he needed cheered up today. He said I could schedule 1:30, 2, 2:30, 3, and went down the list all the way up to 6p.m, and the rest of the evening. I said I could do 2p.m. He instant messaged me on AIM about 12p.m. when I was in class asking if I was done yet. I told him no and made random small talk with him up until the time class ended. He had asked me to go to the pizza place to pick up some garlic pizza since he ordered some hella nasty Papa Johns. He only ate half, but he was hungry. Anyways, to cheer him up I said I would.He said to call him when I was 20 minutes away and he’d call in an order for the garlic pizza. I called him and he picked up the phone saying “ok, ok, I’m on it” and I cheered “hurry, hurry, hurry.” He called back a couple minutes later to get a status update on my location. I was on the 15 northbound about to transition to the 10 westbound. I had just passed a yellow Nissan 350Z car. I was fast. Got the pizza and was on my way to his house. I walked in and he asked what I was up to. I said I just brought some delicious pizza. He ran to the kitchen from the couch telling me how unexpected this was. I laughed and we both played it off like it was. The Guy wanted to give me the Papa Johns pizza, but I fought for a slice of the New York Pizza. We stood and ate a slice in the kitchen and he kept saying “mmmmmmm.”We grab another slice, then go in and sit down. The Guy predicts I want another slice, and I did, which he makes a joke about him being psychic. I didn’t know I did and when he offered me another slice turned it down. We watch “Charmed” and he sits looking at stuff on his computer. Afterward we both lay down on the couch and nap. We probably napped for 40 minutes or so.The Guy gets up and takes one of the muscle relaxants that he bought off the internet last week, the ones he complained gave him dark circles under his eyes, that he had to drink cranberry juice for 2 days because the circles were so bad, and that made him sleep for hours. So we head to the bed this time. I was not tired now, so I spent most of the time with my head under the covers surfing the internet on my iPhone. Blogger.com and most of the blogs I read are suddenly inaccesible on the iPhone. Blogger needs to fix that. So we lay some, I get a couple cell phone calls, ignore them. It is my mom, home, and my dad. I get up and lay down a couple times, then listen to my voicemail messages. My mom is leaving to go up to Nor Cal tonight for a family emergency, so she needed me to come home to run her to the airport. I told The Guy at 6:30 I needed to take off. I went over, tapped him on the shoulder, and said I have got to go. He looked pouty, asked why, I told him, he seemed surprised. I was too. I felt bad leaving him because I was getting caught up on sleep, plus I didn’t want to have to drive back to near where The Guy lives to take my mom to the airport. *** As far as Greg goes, I have spent most of the evening chatting with him since I got home from the airport. I asked him how I was last night and he said “of course you were !” He just wants to make sure I’m comfortable and there’s things he knows both of us want to try out, so there will be a “next time” he confirmed. Woot. I have kind of made a couple proposals about going out to different places like the Knotts Halloween Haunt, but he is not interested in that because he went one year and was a target of all the monsters.

I mentioned I spent a few hours in Lexington yesterday at Keeneland along with Polar. We were doing our annual traditional trip to Keeneland to help Dawn celebrate her October 12 birthday but I was the one having a very good day. I’ve been living here for seven years and yesterday was only my third trip to a racetrack despite living in Louisville and having Churchill Downs not far from me. The only track I’ve been to is Keeneland, and to be honest it’s actually prettier than the Downs. It’s a beautiful facility on a large plot of land near the airport with ample parking and a parklike setting. It’s especially beautiful in the fall with all the trees starting to turn. My first visit occurred only two weeks after I moved here in 2001. Dawn and Polar knew I was still severely homesick and took me there just to get me out of my funk and being down about my situation. I had a memorably entertaining one in 2004 involving a humorous race call with a horse named Scripture. When Scripture stumbled and fell out of the starting gate, the track announcer without skipping a beat replied, “Scripture kneels to pray at the starting gate.”Unfortunately Scripture’s stumble was more serious than it looked because when the race was over the horse ambulance came out and whisked him off to the vet. I discovered later he’d broken one of his legs and had to be euthanized.While nothing that serious happened on this trip, I did have something happen for the first time since I started coming to the track. I actually won money.Usually when I go I make my win, place and show bets on a few horses and don’t win anything, Polar’s hit and miss while it seems like everything Dawn bets she cashes winning tickets on. We happened to go on one of the themed racing days, so almost everyone in honor of Big Blue Day was wearing either UK colors or their own collegiate gear. We arrived there just after the second race concluded and in time to bet the third race. I’m still learning what to look for as a horse racing neophyte in terms of picking winners, and my luck held true to form in the third race. But the fourth race was different. There was a horse named Galloping Home in this one, and I just liked the name. When I saw his workout times I liked him even better and bet him. I did have an anxious moment when he balked at being loaded into the starting gate. But once the race started he did his thing and lived up to his name by galloping home down the stretch in first place. After doing the happy dance I cashed the ticket out and used some of my proceeds to bet on a horse called Dookie Duck in the fifth race. He finished in second.Feeling adventurous, I decided to bet two horses since I couldn’t decide which one I liked better in the sixth race between Sweet Ransom and Impressionism. Impressionism just beat out Sweet Ransom for third place while everybody else chased a 61-1 longshot called Cure For Sale to the pole. If I’d bet that one it would have payed $128 on a $2 bet, but alas I didn’t. I had to be happy with the $2.80 I won for Impressionism’s not so picture perfect third place finish. But that made the third straight race I’d won something on, and we decided to bet one more before we called it a day.In the seventh race I once again bet two horses, Santana Strings and Natural Speed. Natural Speed showed it late, but just finished out of the money behind Santana Strings, keeping my money winning streak alive. It’s the best day I’d ever had on our horse racing jaunts, and we topped it off with the Nighthawk special at the downtown Lexington Columbia Steakhouse location.While the day belonged to Dawn since we were celebrating her birthday, as Polar’s car headed westbound on I-64 back toward Da Ville I began humming Ice Cube’s Today Was A Good Day while pondering the wonderful one I’d had as well.

Airlines and transit agencies such as Metro are struggling to make ends meet. Yes, their budgets are based on different assumptions but in each case the amount of revenue or funding coming in isn’t enough. The high price of fuel has recently made things worse. One of the solutions is to increase the amount of advertising revenue that can be obtained by making more and more space available for those hoping to reach the passengers. Airlines for example have a very desirable audience in that they carry those who are traveling on vacation and therefore seem to have disposable income or those who are traveling on business and can potentially be making buying decisions for their companies on a number of levels. On transit systems the advantage to advertisers is that they can reach the same audience with their message over and over again as passengers take the same route ten or more times a week. The need to raise additional revenue has gotten so bad that even the Ride-On bus system in Montgomery County, Maryland caved in and ended its ban on slapping ads to the sides of its buses. Of course, in this economic climate, many of the ads now on the sides of Ride-On buses are those trying to solicit advertisers to buy space.
Airlines are considering selling space on the sides of planes although that would seem to reach a rather limited audience. They are also considering things like slapping ads on the sides of carry-on bins, onto the napkins that come with soft drinks and cocktails and even onto the backs of seats utilizing those little cloth or paper doily things. In short, anything that can have a logo or slogan stamped onto it is fair game.
I am not a big fan of advertising… I was very unhappy when the American Movie Classics channel on cable began chopping up perfectly good flicks in order to sell advertising time. They always seem to cut into the movies at the worst time. There’s nothing worse than watching a key scene in Cool Hand Luke that ends up like this: (Strother Martin): “What we have here is a failure to…” (Ad for erectile disfunction drug): “Call your doctor if the effects last longer than four hours.”
At the same time I guess I would rather be subjected to a few unwanted ads than to have to dig into my wallet for more money. If Metro can figure out a way to get advertisers to pay for some of the infrastructure improvements that are necessary instead of raising fares then I would have to support it. Please, though, find some companies other than those selling software to the government or adult education classes at local colleges/universities. How about some video ads for vacation packages to Aruba or the Cayman Islands?
+++++++++
Metro is rolling out–literally–new buses this coming Monday, the 27th. The red and silver buses will include 60-foot long articulated or accordion buses and will be used on the U8 line, which runs from the Capitol Heights Metrorail station in Prince George’s County, Md., to Benning Heights in Southeast Washington. In the first week of November the system will begin testing a couple compressed natural gas (CNG) buses on the 5A route that runs from the L’Enfant Plaza rail station to Dulles Airport. The thing that really impresses me is that the CNG buses can carry as many as 103 passengers, including passengers who stand. There is nothing like seeing shiny new transit buses out on the roads to make you feel like things are good and right in this crazy world.Steve Eldridge is a long-time reporter,
observer and commentator on the Washington region’s transportation
issues. You can contact him directly by writing to: Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com.
Unless otherwise requested, letters or portions of letters can be used
within future columns. Letter writers will be identified by their first
name and city/neighborhood.

Author: Gotmilk
Subject: Server connection
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:49 pm (GMT -6)
Topic Replies: 6
Hi, I am having trouble getting my server to show up in the servers area in the drop down menu. I am kinda new to all of this so not knowing what putty is I got everything else that I could. Please help me.
Not a lan server
205.234.166.26:27015
AmxBans version 5.0
amxmodx version 1.8.0.3660
metamod version 1.19
; AMX Mod X plugins
; Admin Base - Always one has to be activated
admin.amxx ; admin base (required for any admin-related)
;admin_sql.amxx ; admin base - SQL version (comment admin.amxx)
amxbans.amxx ; amxbans
admin_amxbans.amxx ; amxbans
; Basic
admincmd.amxx ; basic admin console commands
adminhelp.amxx ; help command for admin console commands
adminslots.amxx ; slot reservation
;multilingual.amxx ; Multi-Lingual management
; Menus
menufront.amxx ; front-end for admin menus
;cmdmenu.amxx ; command menu (speech, settings)
plmenu.amxx ; players menu (kick, ban, client cmds.)
;telemenu.amxx ; teleport menu (Fun Module required!)
;mapsmenu.amxx ; maps menu (vote, changelevel)
; Chat / Messages
adminchat.amxx ; console chat commands
antiflood.amxx ; prevent clients from chat-flooding the server
scrollmsg.amxx ; displays a scrolling message
;imessage.amxx ; displays information messages
adminvote.amxx ; vote commands
; Map related
nextmap.amxx ; displays next map in mapcycle
;mapchooser.amxx ; allows to vote for next map
timeleft.amxx ; displays time left on map
; Configuration
pausecfg.amxx ; allows to pause and unpause some plugins
statscfg.amxx ; allows to manage stats plugins via menu and commands
; Counter-Strike
restmenu.amxx ; restrict weapons menu
statsx.amxx ; stats on death or round end (CSX Module required!)
;miscstats.amxx ; bunch of events announcement for Counter-Strike
;stats_logging.amxx ; weapons stats logging (CSX Module required!)
; Enable to use AMX Mod plugins
;amxmod_compat.amxx ; AMX Mod backwards compatibility layer
; Custom - Add 3rd party plugins here
deadchat.amxx
adminlisten.amxx
Bullet_Whizz.amxx
admin_slash.amxx
amx_fire.amxx
amxx_piss.amxx
admin_gag.amxx
;;;
; To enable a module, remove the semi-colon ( in front of its name.
; If it’s not here, simply add it its name, one per line.
; You don’t need to write the _amxx part or the file extension.
;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; SQL Modules usually need to be enabled manually ;;
;; You can have any number on at a time. Use ;;
;; amx_sql_type in sql.cfg to specify the default ;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
mysql
;sqlite
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Put third party modules below here. ;;
;; You can just list their names, without the _amxx ;;
;; or file extension. ;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; These modules will be auto-detected and loaded ;;
;; as needed. You do not need to enable them here ;;
;; unless you have problems. ;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
fun
;engine
;fakemeta
;geoip
;sockets
;regex
;nvault
cstrike
csx
description stat pend file vers src load unlod
[ 1] AMX Mod X RUN - amxmodx_mm.dll v1.8.0.3 ini Start ANY
[ 2] MySQL RUN - mysql_amxx.dll v1.8.0.3 pl1 ANY ANY
[ 3] Fun RUN - fun_amxx.dll v1.8.0.3 pl1 ANY ANY
[ 4] CStrike RUN - cstrike_amxx.dll v1.8.0.3 pl1 ANY ANY
[ 5] CSX RUN - csx_amxx.dll v1.8.0.3 pl1 ANY ANY
[ 6] Engine RUN - engine_amxx.dll v1.8.0.3 pl1 ANY ANY
[ 7] FakeMeta RUN - fakemeta_amxx.dl v1.8.0.3 pl1 ANY ANY
7 plugins, 7 running

The Guy and I were up late leaving each other comments on myspace. We both couldn’t sleep. Matt, his new boyfriend, his now ex-boyfriend called him at 2a.m. drunk and upset. Matt called on The Guy’s house phone, which is a number few have (I’m one of probably 3-4 people). The Guy just said he was surprised that he had this number and Matt took it to an extreme and was very blaming, wanting The Guy to commit to a relationship, was upset about the distance, and things like that. Basically they agreed to end things. The Guy told me he probably wouldn’t have ended it if it were Ben who had hurt him worse, but Ben had that “thing.” I didn’t find this out until I got to his house, but it explained why we were both up playing around on myspace.Anyways, we finally met up on AIM this morning and chatted about what we were doing, the weather, the sky, and just about everything else this morning before I took off for school. He told me to come over afterward- just show up. I call him once and leave a voicemail on my way from school at 12p.m. asking if he hungry. He didn’t call back. I sent him a text and asked, “hungry?” No reply. I was going to eat, but I figured since The Guy pulled a muscle in his back on Tuesday when he was clipping his dog’s toe nails he was pretty much confined to the house and didn’t have much food, so i’d just pop in. I get to his place and he asks me if I’m hungry. I said yes. He checks his phone since it was on the kitchen counter and he says “yes,” in response to me asking if he was hungry. I was tasting sandwiches, but he suggested the healthy grille place up the street from his place. He says I’d have to go get anything we wanted, and I volunteered. I was hungry! I was even willing to pay, but he insisted because his mom gave him some loose $5 bills the other day adding up to $25 or so, so he said his mom was treating us. While waiting for the food I hear the Ben, Matt, and other friends stories to get caught up on everything since we hadn’t seen each other in a week. The Guy also says to avoid everything he “Knows a place…” He just downloaded the Petula Clark CD and we went in to the office to listen to it.The Guy joked he loved how I had Petula Clark on my iPod because it shows I’m such a fag hag.I got the food, came back, and we ate our salmon, potatoes, and bow-tie pasta. It was delicious. Afterward it was like old times where we lounged on the couch-him laying down with his computer and me at his feet, with an episode of “Law and Order” playing in the background. We both fell asleep soon however. We probably slept for about 30 minutes before the dog woke us both up when the FedEx guy was at the door. The Guy ordered pain meds off the internet because he didn’t want to go to the doctor. He ordered something that sounded really good- that’s all I can say. The Guy takes his new pills, which I talk out of him and discover he ordered online. He said he knows how to order “good shit” and he went to wikipedia to check what the drug did. Apparently at 20mg you start to feel high- the 1 pill was 10mg. The Guy figured he should try that to make sure he got the full effect. He kept asking how long it would take. I told him maybe 30 minutes for it to kick in- and it did within that time. The Guy had me install Warhammer, his new MMORPG on my computer. I did- I just installed it. I didn’t think to download the patch, and he reminded me later that I should know this by now, not wait for him, think outside of the box, use MY mind… yadda, yadda, yadda.The Guy and I go back to laying on the couch after discussing our favorite new mess, Sarah Palin. She is awesome (not necessarily saying I support her), what can I say? She has given us a lot to talk about and call each other up randomly to discuss, or just sit around browsing the internet seeing what we can dig up. The Guy thinks she is the devil. I tend to play devil’s advocate. See why we make a great team? After we searched the entire internet- literally came to the end of the internet- there was nothing more, The Guy whispers, “Mike… Mike… Mike… I have an idea…” I asked him what it was. He replied to the effect that he thought he had eggs and baking soda, but needed chocolate chips and butter. I said “oh.” He said he was just thinking. He wanted to make sure he wasn’t using me or taking advantage of me and I said nope, never. He went into the kitchen, looked around, and told me to go to Target to get those ingredients as well as a treat. I did. Drove to Target and got the ingredients. The Guy wanted Quaker rice snacks, but they only had caramel. I just bought him a Hershey’s Cacao candy bar instead as a treat. I didn’t buy any milk, though it crossed my mind when The Guy was going to make cookies- I could have called him though, or thought out of the box as he told me later.I get back to his place and put the stuff in the refrigerator. He asks what I bought and I told him to go look. Next thing I know he is in the kitchen with 2 mixing bowls putting his eggs, sugar, etc. in the bowl and having me get a mixer, beaters, and things like that out. He didn’t even look at a recipe which surprised me. He knows his chocolate chip cookie recipe by heart- he uses the Nestle Toll House cookie recipe. He surprised me by how precisely he measured everything for his cookies- he doesn’t do that for most other things he cooks where his philosophy is the more, the better. The Guy warned his cookies always come out really flat, so we stood there in the kitchen eating batter by the spoonful and it was DELICIOUS. So rich!!! The Guy finally made about a dozen cookies for us. We sat in the living room eating the cookies- The Guy made the cookies really large and we each had 3. There were 6 left over that he put on the refrigerator to cool. We sat down and watched an episode of “Family Guy” and both fell asleep. We probably slept 2-3 hours I’m guessing. I am not sure when The Guy got up to go lay down in his bedroom, but he did at some point when I was still asleep. I got up, went to the bathroom about 8p.m., then went in and told The Guy I better take off. I could have laid back down and slept another several hours.

FORMER CELTIC RAEF LaFRENTZ MORE DISGUSTED BY STEIN’S IDIOCY THAN HIS WHITE SHIRT, KHAKI CARGO SHORTS, AND FLIP-FLOP ENSEMBLE Our favorite gremlin curmudgeon Marc Stein has released his always-controversial power rankings today. These power rankings are known to be shrill, reactionary, and devoid of logic and reason. We shouldn’t be surprised that the Celtics are #1, but I am nonetheless. Rumor is that he gets paid by the bad ranking like Dickens used to get paid by the word, and judging by that picture, Stein has spent his summer spending his hundred$$$$ cruising around the Old Navy Factory Store instead of watching the offseason developments in his beloved NBA. The circle is completed- Stein makes bad rankins->gets paid->spends all of his time buying flip flops at Old Navy->ignores NBA reality->makes bad rankings. After switching between “Celtics are for realzzz!!!!” and “OMG!!!! The Celtics are falling apart!!!” modes last season like an even more manic version of myself, Stein is firmly ensconced on the Celtics bandwagon today. Why, I have no idea. First things first, the league is better, and more importantly, this Celtics team is significantly worse than last year… on paper and in reality.The chemistry on last year’s team was strange but effective. Every player had a specific role and the veterans could count on the younger guys to give a max effort every night. This year, Pierce has spent the summer training his ass off partying in Vegas, telling everyone he’s the best player in the world, and almost getting arrested for DUI. Last year he got ready by dropping down to his college weight. Big difference.As for the front office, instead of drafting talented and smart yet unappreciated college players to fill in when needed (thanks again, Leon Powe… XOXOXOXOXO), the Celtics drafted the ultimate loose cannon in JR Giddens and the disturbingly oft-injured and possibly crazy Bill Walker. Instead of signing cagey veterans known for general caginess, the Celtics signed Darius Miles- best known for being lazy, getting suspended by his team, pimping out his lowriders, and having an injury so devastating that his team could collect insurance money on him. So, we’ve replaced the guy that symbolized toughness and mental fortitude (Posey) with the guy (Giddens) that got kicked out of Kansas and suspended by New Mexico (which is worse, no one knows), the guy that for many symbolizes the decadent downfall of the NBA (Miles), and a second-rounder (Walker) best known for peeing in a towel. That math doesn’t work out in the Celtics’ favor, sadly. Lastly, all of KG’s intensity has been rumored to have left his body during this classic freakout… Don’t look for newly signed Patrick O’Bryant to fill in that intensity gap… he’ll be filling his face with a carful of popcorn.Additionally, Doc Rivers is still a mediocre-to-bad X’s and O’s coach, Ray Allen’s ankles are still a mess, the veterans are a year closer to retirement, and the league as a whole is a lot, lot better. The Eastern Conference hasn’t improved a whole lot (Mo Williams, Elton Brand, and Jermaine O’Neal won’t transform their respective teams into title contenders, IMHO), the Western Conference is still ridiculous. Keep in mind that the Lakers were without their dominant big man for the end of the season and their entire playoff run. While the Celtics won it all last year in glorious fashion, should we really expect this team to match the intensity of last year, when the whole team was built on the premise of winning one title? If the offseason is any indication, neither the Celtics’ roster or the front office has the kind of fire in the belly that propelled them to their 17th… but here’s hoping that I am wrong. Which I am, consistently. So, there’s that.Go C’s!!

It must be hard to be a McCain supporter these days. Your candidate is losing badly to horror of horrors, an educated biracial Black man. Your so called $150,000 designer clothed ‘hockey mom’ VP candidate has been relentlessly lampooned on Saturday Night Live and is considered seriously unqualified by a majority of the American people, including members of your own party and the previous Secretary of State, Colin Powell. To top it off your usual slimy race baiting attacks aren’t working. Well, in a shades of Susan Smith moment, a young McCain supporter, College Republican and volunteer named Ashley Todd from Aggieland (AKA College Station, TX) claims that around 9 PM EDT she was beat up and robbed at a Pittsburgh ATM by a large Black man and had a backwards ‘B’ carved into her face because she was a McPalin supporter.Predictably Faux News, Matt Drudge, the right wing blogosphere, and right wing talk radio jumped on this as ‘evidence’ of left wing ‘hatred’. It neatly plays into the well worn conservative race baiting theme of white women being attacked by Black criminals. It even prompted statements from the McPalin and Obama campaigns.Hold up, flag on the play. Like Susan Smith’s over a decade ago, the story started falling apart. I was suspicious when it was noted she was from College Station. Texas A&M is home to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. Translation, she’s conservative.The College Republicans chiming in only cemented the impression for me that this story smelled worse than a sewage treatment plant.Details of this story also didn’t pass the smell test. The ‘B’ on her face was carved backwards and was too neat. If she was struggling against a larger, stronger attacker the ‘B’ carving to her face would have been more uneven. In addition, an angry attacker would have left far more bruises and serious injuries than what she is shown in her picture to have suffered.Since she was attacked at an ATM, the surveillance tape video would have showed this attacker, right? Wrong. When the Citizens’ Bank ATM security tape was checked at the time she claimed the alleged assault happened, no large Black man in the tape.Her bank card info also shows no account activity at that time or the location where she claimed she was robbed. Surprise, surprise.The Pittsburgh police noted the inconsistencies as well, She amended her story to add a sexual assault and claiming she’d been hit and blacked out. They gave her a lie detector test which she failed. She later confessed to faking the story and will be charged with filing a false reportBut once again, the McPalin forces and the GOP will do anything to win. The only thing they have left is race baiting. It’s getting dangerously close to inciting violence for real.