Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Post Office Shooting

There was a shooting at a California post office facility this morning. I was thinking, why are post offices associated with shootings? What is it about the employees or working conditions that have driven employees to killing their coworkers? Is there something about the hiring practices that are looser than other government jobs, or do they have such horrible working conditions? Certainly it seems like there is a lot of monotony in the job, and customers at the post office aren't particularly nice, but is that any different than other places? It's so bad that if someone is going crazy a common phrase is, "going postal." Nobody ever "goes UPS" or "goes FedEx."

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Monday, January 30, 2006

Tribal Sovereignty




In honor of the State of the Union address tomorrow, I thought I'd post this amusing clip that I just saw today.

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Sunday, January 22, 2006

Two Underdogs

Today, two major underdogs vie for berths. I'll try to pick the games. Since the "seeding" format, each Super Bowl has had either a #1 or #2 seed in it. So it seems unlikely that both underdogs would win this week. Also, both home teams are undefeated at home this year, so picking against one of them would be breaking a streak.

Pittsburgh at Denver - If the can blitz the way they blitzed New England, I think it will be harder for the than people think. Everyone is high on them the way they played in Indianapolis, and rightly so. Maybe this year the Steelers won't be as tight since they aren't heavy favorites and Cowher can make it back to the Super Bowl (he is 1-4 in Conference Championship games, including several disappointing losses). However, while Pittsburgh's defense should get a lot of pressure on Denver (just as New England did), I think people forget the trouble QB Ben Roethlisberger had with presure last year in the playoffs against the Jets and New England. Denver's front 7 should be able to harass Roethlisberger more than Indianapolis was able to, and I think that will make a big difference. I like Denver here.

Carolina at Seattle - I don't know what to make of the injuries to the . I have to think they travel well (and Jake Delhomme has only lost one game in the playoffs ever, the Super Bowl versus New England). So I have trouble picking against them, but I think the being at home may be the biggest factor. This game is "strength versus strength" with the Panther defense versus the Seahawks offense. I'll go with Seattle, if for any other reason than to cover my ass and get at least 50% of my picks correct. I'd be shocked if both home teams lose.

Another "rule" to watch for - on Conference Championship weekend, one game is usually a blowout and the other is usually close.

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Saturday, January 21, 2006

You Can Call Us Aaron Burr...

...From the way we're droppin' Hamiltons!

allows embedding of videos on your website. Pretty cool discovery. This is the recent SNL smash hit, "the Chronic." I think part of the reason I find this funny is because it's based in New York.





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Iran Bans CNN (then lifts the ban)

Iran banned for a brief period after a mistranslation CNN's translation agency made of a speech by the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I am hoping for Iran to misunderstand the in the same way a Chinese paper misunderstood .

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FEMA for Kids

Disaster and emergency preparedness geared towards children. Is this the 21st century "Duck and Cover?"






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Bank Robber

This story probably won't inspire the next episode of . A man in Massachusetts had been robbing banks saying he had a bomb in his bag. It turns out, the bag had books in it. One book was a phone book, with his name and address on the outside.

I guess this breaks the Spaceballs rule of "evil will always triumph because good is dumb."


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Saturday, January 14, 2006

24 Season 5

The fifth season of starts tomorrow night, and boy, am I excited! There are four episodes airing between Sun and Mon, and back-to-back is how I tend to enjoy the show the most. Season 4 is the only one I didn't watch consecutively, and it was the one I enjoyed the least. So hopefully this jammed pack set of episodes will provide some relief! On Black Friday '05 I picked up seasons 2 & 3 for $20 each at Best Buy, so I'm pretty psyched to see Jack Bauer break the rules all over again.

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NFL Divisional Playoffs

Well, it looks like we're down to 8 teams in the . I missed last week's games, but from the scores, it doesn't look like I missed that much. Here's a brief analysis from someone who hardly follows the NFL these days except to find out if the will get Eric Mangini, Patriots Defensive Coordinator, as their head coach.

Washington at Seattle
The are generally tough at home, but the have been really tough down the stretch, which reminds me of teams like the 2001 Patriots or 2000 Ravens. So which will be a bigger factor here, injuries to the Redskins or Seattle's recent playoff futility? Seattle the last two years has reminded me of the recent iterations of Colts or Vikings that made the playoffs strongly and then lost tragically. I'm not sure what will be the stronger factor, but I think the Redskins keep this one close. Washington takes the 9.5 point spread and possibly even the game.

New England at Denver
I don't like to bet against Tom Brady who is undefeated in the playoffs. The fact that the beat the earlier this year doesn't mean much to me. A strange Monday Night game in 2003 where the Broncos with Danny Kannell as QB nearly beat NE (and Belichek took a safety in the end zone) gives me hope that Shanahan could be the coach to beat the Patriots, but I'm not banking on it. Patriots take this one. By the way, a Patriots victory would further prolong the Jets coaching situation, so my pessimistic inner-Jets fan has to go with New England here. I'll take the Pats. I think if you can only watch one game this weekend, this might be it.

Pittsburgh at Indianapolis
If the win this, I'd be shocked. The Colts were playing great, got a little derailed, but should be back on track, and at the dome. I'm not so sure about that spread, though. While the Colts destroyed the Steelers in the first match-up, this one should be a little closer, but even closer means the Colts cover.

Carolina at Chicago
This game made me wonder, "what's the over/under?" since both teams aren't known for their offense. I think the can take this one but it's not really based on any fact or observations, other than that the are pretty inconsistant. I think there's some home advantage here as well. I suspect the game will come down to the turnovers and Steve Smith. If Chicago keeps the ball safe and contains Smith, they should win. This will be a close game where field position will make the difference. I'll take Chicago.

So the KFB predicts that next week we will see:
Washington at Chicago
New England at Indianapolis

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Friday, January 13, 2006

Spider-Man's New Duds

has just announced that will be getting a new costume, and just released this image of it.



This sort of reminds me of the " Blue" costume (below). When Superman donned these silly duds (along with gaining electrical powers) we all knew he would switch back. Now it looks like Spidey's getting the same revamp.



Of course this isn't the first time that Spider-Man has changed costumes, and the responses have been mixed in general. Perhaps one of the more popular costumes was a black, living costume that he received during the Secret Wars series. After Spider-Man realizes the costume is alive and tries to get rid of it, the costume finds another suitor, Eddie Brock, a Daily Planet reporter. This combination becomes Spider-Man's popular enemy, Venom.

More recently, Spider-Man underwent a pair of unpopular costume changes. The first, pictured was the Scarlet Spider costume, and the second was a modification of the classic red and blue. I'm not sure why the red and blue modification was so unpopular but the hoodie of Scarlet Spider just looks a bit silly. Fan dislike for these costumes is probably related to the fact that they were the result of the awful clone saga crossover that featured other events that were eventually reversed, such as Aunt May's death.




(Comic covers from www.comics.org - the grand comic book database)

It seems safe to say that even though I don't really like the new yellow and red Spider-Man costume, it doesn't matter what I think since it probably won't last and is only a temporary change.

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Monday, January 09, 2006

The Daily Show / Burger Joint

I went to a taping of tonight followed by a visit to in the . Then, I made some ice cream with a new I got for Christmas.

I was going to take a photo of the Daily Show set while we were there but we were strictly prohibited from doing so. I thought I might be able to sneak a glance with my camera phone by why risk getting kicked out?

The show was pretty funny, and the guest was writer , who broke the phone tap story. In general, I think the show's quality has declined since Stephen Colbert left for . There were bits by Rob Corddry and Ed Helms, but no major segment, just a lot of news. The headlines were funny but I was hoping that they might get into the Alito hearings. The main focus was Harry Belafonte's visit to Venezuela and Dick Cheney's recent health troubles.

Burger Joint was the site of an excellent burger, on par with Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. The menu is very limited - pretty much burgers only. Very tasty, tight quarters for seating.

The ice cream maker makes good ice cream. Last night I made strawberry which was pretty time intensive but very good. The consistancy was a little soft (like a thick milkshake) after it came out of the machine but after overnight freezing it was solid. Tonight I made just plain vanilla and it came out like softserve. I think chocolate chip or cookies and cream would be very successful here.