Alec Baldwin Gets Nasty with Daughter

Whoa! TMZ.com broke an ugly tirade from Alec Baldwin directed at his 11-year-old daughter. He's going through a seriously nasty divorce from Kim Bassinger and it looks like he's taking it out on his daughter.

From TMZ:

An enraged Alec Baldwin unleashed a volcanic tirade of threats and insults on his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland, calling her a "thoughtless little pig," and bashing her mother Kim Basinger -- and TMZ has obtained the whole thing unfiltered and raw. And we've learned, a family law judge was so alarmed after hearing the tape, she has temporarily barred Baldwin from having any contact with his child.

After Ireland failed to answer her father's scheduled phone call from New York on April 11, Alec went berserk on her voice mail, saying "Once again, I have made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone," adding, "you have insulted me for the last time."

Switching his train of thought, Baldwin then exercised his incredible parenting skills and took a shot at his ex-wife, declaring, "I don't give a damn that you're 12-years-old or 11-years-old, or a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn't care about what you do." The irate Baldwin went on to say, "You've made me feel like s**t" and threatened to "straighten your ass out."

"This crap you pull on me with this goddamn phone situation that you would never dream of doing to your mother," screamed Baldwin, "and you do it to me constantly over and over again."

Before hanging up, Baldwin warned the child, "You better be ready Friday the 20th to meet with me."

Listen to the mp3.

Nasty! I feel threatened, and he ain't talking to me.

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The Walk-off: Part Deux

New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez, right, celebrates with teammates and coaches after hitting a two-out, walk-off, three-run home run in the Yankees 8-6 win over the Cleveland Indians in their baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York, Thursday, April 19, 2007. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Who Was Seung-Hui Cho?

Today the tragic and senseless Virginia Tech massacre got even stranger. NBC news in New York received a package sent to them by the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, after the dorm shooting but before the engineering building shootings.

From the L.A. Times:

Shortly before Seung-hui Cho gunned down 30 people in Norris Hall, the Virginia Tech senior apparently mailed a large package to NBC News containing rambling messages about his anger at the wealthy and alluding to the slaughter that was about to take place.

"You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option," Cho said in one of the QuickTime videos included in the package, in which he compared himself to Jesus and the two shooters at Columbine High School.

NBC received the package today and broadcast excerpts of the videos this evening on "NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams."

The package also contained more than two dozen photos of the Cho, including 11 of him aggressively thrusting pistols at the camera. Cho, 23, did not explain his exact motives for the killings, but expressed rage and resentment in an 1,800-word, profanity-laced diatribe that Williams described as a "multimedia manifesto."

This guy was totally in his own world. I'm still waiting to hear something from his family, or someone who actually grew up with him. There must've been somebody.

I also find it interesting that race hasn't been raised in this case except for NBC's Clint Van Zandt, who hinted (with no evidence) on MSNBC on Monday that Cho's shooting spree may have been an "honor killing" of some kind because he may have been spurned by a woman and "needed to save face." If an alienated black student had shot 32 people, I have no doubt that the massacre would've been painted as a bias incident, and not a mental health incident.

While we're on the mental health issue, I like how in Virginia when one fills out an application for a gun permit, they ask you if you've ever been diagnosed with a mental disorder and they take your word for it when you say no. That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard of.

Read more...

Minnesota's Muslim cab drivers face crackdown

From Reuters:

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Muslim cab drivers at Minnesota's biggest airport will face new penalties including a two-year revocation of their taxi permits if they refuse to give rides to travelers carrying liquor or accompanied by dogs, the board overseeing operations ruled Monday.

Gosh, no one in New York has ever denied me a ride when I'm trashed and I have my pooch with me. These Minnesotans are so unreasonable.

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32 Killed in Massacre at Virginia Tech

The Waco Siege ended in April. The Oklahoma City bombing happened in April. Columbine happened in April. Now this.

What is it about April? Specifically the third week of April?

In honor of Jackie Robinson Day...

In honor of Jackie Robinson Day, Mariano Rivera, the last man allowed to wear number 42 as his official number, blows his first save of the year.

**SIGH**

Yankees lose a heartbreaker to Oakland, victim of a walk-off home run with two outs, two strikes on the batter in the bottom of the ninth. The flipside of what A-Rod did to the Orioles last Saturday.

**SIGH**

Unexpected Imus Fallout, Part II: WFAN in Deep Doo Doo

As mentioned in my Thursday post, Imus accounted for a whopping 25% of the revenue for radio station WFAN. In the wake of his firing by parent company CBS, it's an understatement to say that the station is in deep doo doo as they scramble to replace his spot. In the meantime, Mike & The Mad Dog are going to be on twice a day, for a total of something like 8 hours. How can they possibly keep that up?

From the New York Times:

Yesterday there was clearly no succession plan in place for Mr. Imus, but for the next two weeks, Mike Francesa and Christopher Russo, who are the co-hosts of the afternoon “Mike and Mad Dog” show on WFAN, will fill in, working from 6 to 10 a.m., tweaking their two-man act to have a slightly more national flavor. After the midday hosts, Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts, expand their show to 2 p.m., Mr. Francesa and Mr. Russo will return to the air for the afternoon drive shift, from 2 to 6, which will be cut temporarily from their usual 1 to 6:30 p.m. slot.

Mr. Russo also said the program would be heard on all the stations that received “Imus in the Morning,” except those in Boston and Washington. A Westwood spokeswoman said she could not verify that.

Mike Barnicle, a frequent guest of Mr. Imus and the host of a talk show in Boston, was considered as an interim replacement, “but it didn’t work out,” said Karen Mateo, a spokeswoman for CBS Radio.

Mr. Francesa and Mr. Russo were first teamed at WFAN in 1989, two years after it pioneered the sports-radio format. Mr. Imus was never a sports aficionado, but sports were frequently discussed on his program.

He often tapped Mr. Francesa and Mr. Russo — whom he dubbed “Fatso and Fruit Loops” — for their sports knowledge. Ultimately, it was Mr. Imus’s toxic mix of sports and a racist comment that led to his stunningly abrupt fall.

“This place is reeling,” Mr. Russo said by telephone yesterday during a break in their program. Mr. Francesa, also during a break for commercials, added: “He was the rock upon which WFAN’s success and ‘Mike and the Mad Dog’s’ success were built. No ifs, ands or buts.”

Trouble. This is my favorite station. I'd hate to see the whole station go down because of one guy.

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Unexpected Imus Fallout, Part I: NJ Gov. Corzine Critically Injured

Unbelievable! New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine was critically injured on the way to the Rutgers summit between Imus and the girls’ basketball team.

From the New York Times:

Months of painful rehabilitation could well limit Mr. Corzine’s physical and political stamina for tackling such an array of problems that would challenge the healthiest and most established of political figures.

The crash occurred about 6:15 p.m. Thursday in the northbound lanes of the Garden State Parkway, about five miles north of the Atlantic City Expressway. The governor’s Chevrolet Suburban swerved to avoid a Dodge Ram truck that had, in turn, turned to avoid a red pickup that was described by the police as driving erratically.

The Suburban slid into the end of a guardrail, which “penetrated the vehicle, and struck both Rasinski and Governor Corzine,” according to a police report.

Mr. Corzine’s left thigh bone, or femur, was fractured, and it punched two holes through his skin. He lost about half of the blood in his body, requiring seven units during surgery Thursday night, and broke six ribs on each side, along with his sternum, collarbone and a lower vertebra.

Doctors provided few details about the extent of internal injuries, the arc of Thursday night’s treatment, or the prognosis for recovery. Mr. Corzine remained unable to speak because of the breathing tube.

Wow. He’s really messed up, to put it mildly. Very, very scary.

Read more...

Outta Here

Good riddance. Dropped by MSNBC yesterday, fired today by CBS.

From Bloomberg:

CBS Fires Imus, Joins MSNBC, After Racist Comments (Update3)

By Don Jeffrey

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- CBS Radio fired talk-show host Don Imus after his racially charged comments sparked protests from civil-rights leaders and advertisers.

CBS Radio said ``Imus in the Morning'' will be off the air permanently, making the decision a day after cable-television network MSNBC canceled its simulcast of the show.

``All of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air,'' CBS Corp. Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said today in an e-mailed statement. New York-based CBS owns CBS Radio.

Imus called the Rutgers University women's basketball team ``nappy-headed hos'' on April 4. CBS and MSNBC reversed an earlier decision to suspend the host for two weeks as calls for his firing grew louder and the show's largest advertisers, including General Motors Corp. and Sprint Nextel Corp., pulled their ads.

Imus's ability to attract high-profile political guests such as John McCain, John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman, drew listeners and made it the top-grossing show on CBS. He generated more than 25 percent of the revenue for CBS's WFAN radio station in New York, or about $12 million, according to Mark Fratrik, vice president of BIA Financial Network, a broadcast consulting firm in Chantilly, Virginia. The show was carried on more than 60 stations across the country.

Read more...

Preston Wilson says racial issues remain in baseball

I came across this tidbit a few weeks ago.

From STLtoday.com:

When it announced the first annual Civil Rights Game between the Cardinals and Cleveland Indians less than four months ago, Major League Baseball envisioned this weekend as a commemoration of the civil rights movement and baseball's role in enacting social change.

Cardinals outfielder Preston Wilson, meanwhile, notices that he is part of another change: the game's ever-diminishing minority of African-American players.

The veteran Wilson is the only African-American player on the Cardinals' projected opening day roster. He has witnessed the steady ebb of black athletes from the game for two decades.

"I think the perception is if there's a dark-skinned Latin guy out there, then he's black," Wilson said before Friday's game against the Memphis Redbirds. "A lot of people don't differentiate. But it's not the case. There are a lot of issues involved."

Uh, but Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, Vladimir Guerrero, Big Papi, etc. are black. Right? And I'm pretty certain that African-American kids aren't playing the game because they like other sports more, not because white people are keeping them off the diamond. Right?

Read more...

Primatech Paper Company - Heroes Fans

For the Heroes fans out there, I invite you to visit the very nondescript website of Primatech Paper Company.

Find the helix hidden in the logo on the 'About us' page.
Log in with :

id: bennet
pw: claire

Enjoy!

En Fuego!

Unbelievable. Look who came out the box hot – A-Rod, leading the league in homers and RBI and sharing Player of The Week honors with Vladimir Guerrero.

I especially loved Saturday’s game. Two outs in the 9th, three men manage to get on base, A-Rod’s down to his last strike, BOOM! Grand slam. Awesome. I screamed and scared poor Orlando.

Too bad it’s April. If only A- Rod could’ve done this against the Tigers in October. **SIGH**

From Yankees.com:

Alex Rodriguez felt so good after his walk-off grand slam on Saturday he thought he'd add to it, so the Yankees third baseman slugged a two-run homer in his next at-bat the following day.

"I'm having a good time," Rodriguez said Sunday.

The Orioles, however, were not enjoying Rodriguez's success. Their pitching staff was at the mercy of the 2003 and 2005 AL MVP as A-Rod was 5-for-11 against Baltimore (.455) with three homers and eight RBIs.

His performance earned him the distinction of receiving the season's first AL Player of the Week award, which he'll share with Angels right fielder Vladimir Guerrero.

Rodriguez, a 10-time All-Star, went 2-for-5 with a home run and two RBIs on Opening Day against Tampa Bay, and drove in another run Tuesday. It was a refreshing change from the postseason struggles he endured at the end of the 2006 season, and Yankees manager Joe Torre credits part of it to a lack of hesitation in Rodriguez's swings.

Read more...

Happy Easter!

Don Imus: Racist

Just another in a long line of foul comments by this aging piece of filth.

I have a personal take on this situation. I'm forced to watch this guy every morning at work because we have a large screen TV forever tuned to MSNBC. I raised concerns about Imus's racial remarks to the head of Communications at the company I work for seven years ago because the company is a sponsor of the show and of the Imus Ranch. He blew me off. Maybe if sponsorship had been pulled then, these girls from Rutgers never would've be insulted.

So Wrong

From Reuters:

LONDON (Reuters) - A British dentist was found guilty Thursday of urinating in his surgery sink and using dental tools meant for patients to clean his fingernails and ears.

A medical tribunal said it was satisfied the evidence showed 51-year-old Alan Hutchinson, who "routinely" did not wear gloves or wash his hands, had risked the health of "himself, staff and patients" for more than 28 years.

A dental nurse who worked for Hutchinson for 16 years said she had caught him urinating in the sink more than once.

"He was tucking something into his trousers before zipping them up hastily. I walked over and I was behind him. He moved to the left and I could smell urine," the nurse told the tribunal.

A later hearing will decide if the dentist's unhygienic habits impaired his ability to treat patients, and if so, whether he should banned from practicing.

What does he have to do to be banned? That's not enough?? Eww!

Happy Birthday, Orlando!

Coyote makes sandwich run; stops at Chicago Quiznos

From USA Today:

CHICAGO (AP) — For one day, at least, the roadrunner was safe. It seems the coyote was hankering for another kind of fast food.

Employees and customers at a downtown Chicago Quiznos sandwich shop were stunned to see a coyote walk through the propped-open front door Tuesday afternoon and lie down in a cooler stocked with fruit juice and soda.

"It wasn't aggressive at all," restaurant manager Bina Patel told the Chicago Tribune. "It was just looking around."

Employees and customers calmly cleared out of the restaurant, though some took the time to finish their sandwiches and snap some cell-phone photos, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Animal control officers took the passive coyote away after about 40 minutes, after a curious crowd had gathered outside.

"This one definitely I will definitely remember forever. A coyote in downtown Chicago," Quiznos employee Rick Torres told WLS-TV.

LOL! The coyote was kinda cute. They released it to the wild about an hour ago. I remember about two years ago a coyote wandered into Central Park here in New York. It mysteriously died in custody. That happens a lot here. Not the coyote part.

Podcast Delay. Dammit!

**SIGH**

I'm off to a bad start already. I did some tests and I really need a larger hard drive to handle all of the sound files and the new programs I want to install to accommodate this podcast. An external drive doesn't cut it because there're only two USB ports on the laptop and I need those for the trackball and the preamp.

So, I'm going to have to drop off my laptop at Tekserve. I probably won't get it back in time to do my podcast on Sunday, but I'll see what I can do with my ancient G4 Titanium...

Baseball Season 2007: Predictions

I’m starting my baseball season podcast (hopefully) this Sunday, but I felt I needed to put out my predictions ahead of time.

American League

East: Yankees

Central: Tigers

West: Angels

Wild Card: White Sox

National League

East: Mets

Central: Cubs

West: Dodgers

Wild Card: Phillies

Division Series Matchups

American League

Yankees vs. White Sox

Angels vs. Tigers

National League

Mets vs. Dodgers

Cubs vs. Phillies

League Championship Series Matchups

American League

Yankees vs. Tigers

National League

Mets vs. Cubs

World Series

Yankees vs. Mets

World Champs

Yankees (What did you think I’d say??)

Surprise Team of 2007

Milwaukee Brewers. I think they’ll flirt with the Wild Card all year. I’m also pretty confident that Atlanta isn’t going to be a cellar dweller this year.

Lightning McQueen Cake

Orlando's birthday party was today. The cake came out beautiful! Great job by his great aunts on all the food and decorations.

America - The Quizzes

You Belong in the USA

Sweet! People either love you or hate you And you really don't care what anyone thinks Big and bold, you do things your way

What English Speaking Country Are You?

You Are 90% "Average American"

You are average because you don't think people should be jailed for using marijuana. You are not average since you have (at least) a college degree.

How "Average American" Are You?

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 9 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

True

Such a classic.

Ukrainian Swimming Coach Attacks Daughter

From the Denver Post:

Melbourne, Australia - Ukraine team official Mihail Zubkov was suspended by world swimming authorities today for assaulting his daughter Kateryna, a swimmer, at the world championships.

FINA's temporary ban bars Zubkov from working as a coach or official under its jurisdiction until a final decision has been made, following an appeal by his lawyer.

In TV footage captured on Tuesday, Zubkov was shown scuffling with his 20-year-old daughter, Kateryna Zubkova, at Rod Laver Arena.

Zubkov, who is Kateryna's coach, was stripped of his accreditation at the event and banned by Australian officials from making any contact with his daughter. He is due to appear at Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Thursday, where police will seek to extend an intervention order - forbidding Zubkov from going within 200 meters of his daughter - until he leaves Australia at the end of the week.

What an asshole that guy is!!

Read more...

So Sick

I am so sick of Sanjaya. Whew!

I never watched American Idol before this season, but my fifteen-year-old cousin got me into it while she was visiting from Panama. At first Sanjaya was kinda funny, but it's getting out of hand now. He seemed a little arrogant on the last show, like he's believing his own hype.

Still, I kinda hope he goes all the way and wins so Simon is totally pissed off. That's worth seeing.

The Return of Danny Almonte

Just when I thought we'd never again hear from Danny Almonte, that Dominican kid that pitched a perfect game in the Little League World Series when he was too old, here's the latest -- he's finally signed a minor league deal.

From CBS Sportsline.com:

MARION, Ill. -- Pitcher Danny Almonte, who gained notoriety for playing in the 2001 Little League World Series at the age of 14, has signed a deal with the Southern Illinois Miners.

The 20-year-old Almonte is the ninth pitcher to join the Miners.

"There are not too many young lefties with his quality of stuff sitting out there," Miners manager Mike Pinto said in a statement Tuesday. "He has a 90s-plus fastball and an excellent slider. From our conversations, Danny is a quiet and shy young man who just wants a chance to showcase his talents."

He may yet find his way to the Bronx.

Read more...

What's up...

What's up with this guy's head??

This is Dr. Joshua Perper, the medical examiner for Broward County, FL. He just released the autopsy report for Anna Nicole Smith today and told everyone what we already knew -- she overdosed.

I couldn't stop staring at his head. It looks like a horn!

Family Watchdog

If you want to creep yourself out, go to FamilyWatchdog.us and check out the list of registered sex offenders in your zip code.

According to this site, there are 876 in my neighborhood. WTF? That has to be wrong.

UPDATE: Okay, I read the map wrong. There are only 25 rapists within a 5 block radius. Twelve of them live in the same building. The 876 figure may be for the entire borough.

Orlando's Big Day

Orlando's first birthday is coming up! His party theme is the Disney movie Cars. We ordered a bunch of stuff from Birthday Express and got a Lightning McQueen cake pan from Wilton's. Cute!

Chicago Police Officer Savagely Beats Barmaid

Anti-Hillary YouTube Video Maker Revealed

You've all seen this video by now. Yesterday it was revealed that the person behind the ad was tangentially associated with the Obama campaign after all.

From ABC News:

The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was rocked by revelations Wednesday night that one of its contracted employees was the creator of a scathing YouTube video against his opponent Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., despite Obama's insistance that he had nothing to do with it.

Phil de Vellis, until Wednesday an employee of the company that handles Obama's Web site, boasted in a posting on the Huffington Post that he made the ad, though he claimed neither the Obama campaign nor his former employer, Blue State Digital — which does software development and hosting for Obama's campaign — was aware that he had.

"The specific point of the ad was that Obama represents a new kind of politics, and that Senator Clinton's 'conversation' is disingenuous," de Vellis wrote of the critical ad that uses an Apple computer TV ad to make Clinton appear like Big Brother. "And the underlying point was that the old political machine no longer holds all the power."

"This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last," de Vellis wrote ominously. "The game has changed."

The admission threatened to besmirch Obama's pledge to run a clean campaign that doesn't attack his opponents, not to mention statements Obama made earlier this week about the ad.

It's great to have intelligent people trying to pitch in, isn't it? BTW, I'm not feeling Obama at all. More about that some other time.

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Beatboxing Dog

Would you buy a grill from this man?

No lie, Manny Ramirez is selling his used grill on eBay.

It doesn't look like he's doing it for charity, so...? LOL!

Template Update

I'm too tired to think of anything to blog about tonight, so I updated my blog template and I'm writing about that.

Okay, that was cheesy, but a post is a post.

Microsoft Bribes Companies to Use Search

From John Battelle's Search Blog:

...Microsoft is offering its large enterprise customers free service and product credits if those customers push Live search inside their enterprises. Called "Microsoft Service Credits for Web Search," a Powerpoint overview of the program sent to me states:

"Employees search the web daily with tools from Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo. OEMs and web sites are already earning credits based on searches that their users bring. Now, your organization can earn credits for Microsoft web searches and redeem them for Microsoft or preferred partner deployment and training services. More searches earns more credits towards the services you value."

The value is non-trivial - the presentation estimates companies can get from $2 to $10 per computer annually, plus a $25K "enrollment credit". For sites that have tens of thousands of computers, that can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in free stuff from Microsoft. Most large enterprises spend millions on Microsoft services and software each year. It's not hard to imagine a CFO getting slightly moist over savings like these.

So sleazy! In other words, Microsoft can't create a better search product, so they're paying folks to use their inferior shit.

Read more...

Foreign Films

I swiped this idea, with some modifications, from jali's house. Below are some foreign films worth seeing. They aren't ranked in order of preference, or any particular order.

Rabbit-Proof Fence: An Australian film about some half-aborigine children who escape from an orphanage and go on an impossibly long trek to reunite with their family. Very sad.

Lagaan: An Indian film about a group of villagers who respond to a British wager and form a rag-tag cricket team. If they win the match, their villages will avoid the crushing British taxes for three years. If they lose, they'll have to pay three times as much. The film runs about four hours, so be prepared.

Dirty Pretty Things: Murder complicates the lives of illegal immigrants struggling to survive in London. Very sympathetic characters.

The "Up" Series: Starting in 1964 with Seven Up, British director Michael Apted began what has to be the longest-running reality series. A group of seven-year-old children were filmed and interviewed and every seven years a new film is released showing how they're doing. In the most recent movie, the "kids" are now 49-years-old.

Most of them turned out about the way you'd expect -- the wealthy kids with the benefits of good schooling ended up with good careers. The biracial kid whose mom put him in a boys home for a year when he was seven (because it was embarrassing back then for a white girl to have a black kid) ended up working factory jobs and running a forklift. There were some surprises, such as how badly all of the girls ended up emotionally regardless of economic background. And one guy from a solid middle-class background dropped out of university and began a long downward spiral into homelessness before being rescued by another subject who was the son of a missionary.

Once Were Warriors: A drunken, out of work, violent father. Two sons in gangs. A battered wife and her young daughter try to hold the family together. Sounds like any of a number of inner-city American movies, but this one takes place in New Zealand. Stars Temuera Morrison, long before his role as Jango Fett in Star Wars: Episode II.

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love: Nope, not a porn movie. Actually, pretty damn depressing. A wealthy woman and her servant, whom she treats like shit, grow up together, grow apart, and have really bad luck with men. Stars Naveen Andrews (Sayid from Lost) as a mean asshole.

"Mail" The Force Be With You

The U.S. Postal Services is helping celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars by unveiling R2D2 mailboxes.

They're so darn cute! People are gonna deface them or steal them. You know this.

Read more...

Free Coffee

Find a store near you

Drive: The Next Big Thing

Yo, I may regret saying this, but I'm getting a vibe about this upcoming new show called Drive that's going to drop on Fox on April 15-16. I think this could be the next Prison Break.

Here's the teaser from the official site:

The next time you’re cut off by crazed drivers on your way to work, give them a little slack. They could be racing for their lives.

DRIVE is an action-fueled drama following a diverse group of Americans competing for their lives (or the lives of their loved ones) in an illegal, underground cross-country road race. Some of them have been coerced into joining “The Race”; others have sought out The Race themselves, hearing rumors of the $32-million prize. Each has a reason to compete. And each must win.

This could be the shit. Or it could be Cannonball Run. Or that cartoon with Muttley in it.

Learn more...

The Return of Sammy?

Texas Rangers' Sammy Sosa follows through on a single to center in the third inning off a pitch from Chicago White Sox' Gavin Floyd during a spring training baseball game in Surprise, Ariz., Tuesday, March 13, 2007.

Sosa says he feels like a rookie again after a season away from the diamond. Sosa had two hits and two runs on three at-bats with an RBI in the 12-8 loss to the White Sox. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

First Podcast. Not.

Nope, I'm not anywhere near close to doing my first podcast. I assembled all of my gear and I wasn't getting any response from the mic. That was so irritating. I didn't want to pack all this stuff up and send it back, so at 4 p.m. I dashed off to the nearest music store (Guitar Center) and had a chat with a salesman. He couldn't really diagnose the problem, but I ended up buying yet another piece of gear ( a mobile pre-amp), and when I got home, that worked.

So, I really might have to ship the mixer back. which I really don't want to do, 'cause that's gonna be a big hassle. I don't want to ship back the mic, 'cause the mic is fine, but it was part of the package deal.

I've been messing around for the last two hours using GarageBand and figuring out recording levels. At first there was an unacceptable amount of background hiss, but I think part of that is coming from the wireless router!

I couldn't understand why I was only hearing vocals through one ear until it dawned on me that to record in stereo, I would need two mics. :) I also accidentally discovered some filters that made my voice sound like a robot. I thought I would need some expensive program to do that when all along I already had it for free on my Mac. Cool.

UPDATE: I'm glad to say I've got the Alesis mixer working. Whew. I have no idea what to do with most of the buttons and knobs, however. I now realize that I probably could've gotten along with something with fewer inputs, but this was the one the podcast books recommended. Hmph.

Got my gear!

My Podcast Starter Kit gear arrived on Wednesday!

It consists of:

• An Audio-Technica AT2020 condenser mic
• An Alesis MultiMix8 USB mixer
• An Atlas DS7 desk mic stand, ProCo 5 ft. mic cable, and a USB cable
• Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Podcasting
• I also picked up a pop filter and a disk of broadcast sound effects.

Now I need to test this stuff to make sure it's working...

There was a good article about authors who are podcasting their work in the NY Times on March 1. I like Scott Sigler's work. Lots of amusing profanity and over the top characters. I'm currently listening to The Rookie and I enjoyed Earthcore, Ancestor and Infection.

Several times a week Mr. Sigler, 37, steps into a walk-in closet in his San Francisco home. He reads into a microphone that connects to his computer via a sound mixer. Hanging shirts envelop him, masking ambient sound.

After being snubbed by publishers for years, Mr. Sigler began recording his first book, “EarthCore,” in 2005. He offered it as a podcast in 22 episodes (roughly 45 minutes each) that he posted online and sent free to subscribers for downloading. Before long, Mr. Sigler had 5,000 listeners; by the time he finished releasing his second novel, “Ancestor,” last January, he had 30,000, as he does for “The Rookie,” which is playing now.

With initial printings of novelists’ first books running as low as 2,000 copies, Mr. Sigler has a substantial audience, enough finally to attract a small Canadian publisher, Dragon Moon Press, which published “EarthCore” in 2005 and will release “Ancestor” on April 1.

Mr. Sigler also recently signed with a New York agent, Byrd Leavell of the Waxman Agency, who expects to park his latest, “Infection,” with a major publisher.

Others have turned to the Internet to build their audience, including Cory Doctorow, who offered the text of “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” as a free download in 2003. But Mr. Sigler is among the vanguard of authors stapling their literary aspirations to the iPod.

“A lot of no-name authors like me are getting massive grass-roots exposure, and some of us are going to percolate to the top and get on the best-seller list,” Mr. Sigler said.

His site has links to his podcasts.

March Forward

Well, as everyone is by now aware, we're setting the clocks forward three weeks early this year. This is supposedly supposed to save us energy, but I wonder how much money was spent by the companies that had to create and install software patches to cope with the change in the Daylight Savings time date?

Duh.

I'm pretty sure my computers will handle the change without a hiccup, but it looks like I need a patch for my Palm Zire PDA. I may need them for my cellphone and my older TiVo too.

What a pain in the ass!

Babylon 5: Lost Tales

Looks like Babylon 5 is returning to the screen. Cool! That was a kick-ass show. I got into it late. Many people told me how good it was, but every time I watched it, I invariably caught the worst show of the season. Then they started running it on TNT (or was it TBS?) five nights a week and I finally "got it."

Article about the production of the show here. They used to use Amigas to do the effects! Amazing.

Saucy Email Exchanges Revealed In Astronaut Case

From Access Hollywood:

ORLANDO, Fla. (March 6, 2007) -- Astronaut Bill Oefelein was in orbit aboard the space shuttle in December when he was sent a steamy e-mail from a girlfriend awaiting his return: "First urge will be to rip your clothes off, throw you on the ground and love the hell out of you."

Fellow astronaut Lisa Nowak apparently discovered that e-mail -- and some other romantic messages to Oefelein -- before she set off on her bizarre, 900-mile road-trip to confront her rival for Oefelein's affections.

Click here to view the e-mails.

Read more...

Lewis "Scooter" Libby - Wiki Style

LOL!

Gotta love Wikipedia. They've cleaned up his entry already, of course.

Image swiped from Wonkette's blog.

Vazquez Gets $34.5 Million, 3-year Extension From White Sox

From Excite:

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -Pitcher Javier Vazquez and the Chicago White Sox agreed Tuesday to a $34.5 million, three-year contract extension through 2010.

Vazquez will get $12.5 million this season, the final year of his current contract, and $11.5 million in each of the following three seasons.

The right-hander, who went 11-12 with a 4.84 ERA with the White Sox a year ago, is 100-105 overall in 10 major league seasons. He pitched three innings Tuesday against Colorado, giving up four runs and six hits.

Big waste of money, if you ask me. His record clearly shows he's a .500 pitcher, averaging 10 wins, 10 losses. He started the year well for the Yanks in that year I'd like to forget (2004), but he tanked in the second half.

Er, wasn't he the one who gave up that bomb to Johnny Damon in the 7th game of the ALCS?

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Man wanted for trying to revive father's corpse

From Reuters.com:

KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistani police are hunting a man who dug up his father's two-year old corpse and took it home in a hijacked ambulance to try to bring him back to life.

We used to do this all the time in D&D. What's the big deal?

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Demande D'Informations

Vous vous appelez comment?
Quel est votre nom?
Quelle est votre profession?

[My job has me in an eight-week French class. I'm doing my homework for tomorrow's class. I don't like this book. This is some kind of total immersion class, so nothing is translated. This is not helpful, in my opinion.]

Un informaticien vietnamien
Une standardiste espagnole...

Return to Star Wars Galaxies

About a week ago I got an email from my good friends at Sony Online. It seems they want me back in the online game Star Wars Galaxies.

I quit the game about a year ago, but in truth I hadn't played for a good six months or more before that. I really loved that game when I first started. I've always sucked at video games, but this was the perfect game for me. It was structured in such a way that you didn't need to be "twitchy" to enjoy it. It wasn't all about having a fast trigger finger and looting corpses. There was many a night in which I never fired a weapon. Instead I often spent hours surveying the land for raw materials, setting up harvesters, crafting clothes, food and medicines and selling my wares in the public bazaar. I really enjoyed that.

Sometimes I just liked to go sightseeing. You got badges for visiting famous sites, so I visited Ben Kenobi's house, the Lars homestead, the escape pod of R2 and 3PO, etc.

And when I did feel like fighting, that was fun too. One of my favorite spots was a place nicknamed Creature Village, located on a Corellian moon. I would go out there either solo or with a few buds and we'd take up sniper positions and tag the giant sludge panthers that roamed the abandoned city's streets. On a good night you could quickly level up in marksmanship, medical and brawling skills.

Ah, the good old days.

Then they fucked it up.

They decided to change the combat system. Why? I don't know. Suddenly, creatures I could kill solo a week before -- like a bantha -- were kicking my ass. My armor no longer offered the same protection. I was forced to drop some skills. And so on. People started grumbling, then people started leaving. My friends dropped off one by one.Sony tried to appease people by making it easier to be a Jedi, but that unbalanced the game. Not to mention that in a game set in the Imperial era, it made to freaking sense to have Jedi and padawans openly chilling in cantinas or chopping people down in the street.

I eventually quit, really for economic reasons, both in the game and out. $16 a month wasn't really a lot, but it certainly could be used elsewhere, especially since months would go by without me logging on. In the game, the economy was haywire. I couldn't make a living selling clothes, weapons and armor anymore through the bazaar and finding a place to set up a store was tough. Withing the first two months of the game coming online, the main cities were ringed with a perimeter of fancy player-built malls. Since I was primarily a street vendor, I was shut out. I thought about cutting a deal with some guys to put up a vending machine in their mall, but I couldn't deal with the politics of joining a guild. Let me tell you, I learned more about economics through SWG than I ever did in any class.

So, now Sony wants me back. When I quit they said that my characters would be deleted after 90 days, but they lied. The characters are still there. They're offering me 21 days free. What the hell -- I'll do it. I always regretted not taking more screen captures of the nice scenery, so at the very least, I'll do that.

I wonder if my house on Dantooine is still there or if it fell into disrepair and was condemned?

We'll see.

BTW, I hate to admit it, but I'm psyched about the Lord of The Rings Online game debuting in April. Yes, I'm sure I'll regret that one too.

I will podcast... Soon!

Okay, I'm off to a bad start with regards to blogging every day this month, but this bullshit post counts anyway. So there.

As if I actually have time on my hands, I've decided that I'm gonna start a podcast. I went to a podcasting seminar that was a total joke last Saturday, so I figure if these people can do it, why not me?

I'm purchasing this starter kit from BSW Audio recommended by the Podcast Gear Guy's blog.

Soon you will all hear my lovely, strangely accented voice.

Be afraid, be very afraid...

Back on the blogging track

I've really fallen off on blogging. I let things slide so much I didn't post any New Year's predictions in January or celebrate my blog anniversary or my birthday in February.

I'm making a promise to myself to blog every day this month. We'll see how it goes.

Orlando: Good-bye, Cousin!

Today mommy took me to the airport. My cousin Marlene had to go back to Panama. She came in December to stay with us during her school vacation.

I am very sad. We played games every day and she tried to teach mommy to sing nursery rhymes in Spanish. I hope she comes back this Christmas.

The Wrong Stuff

From Military.com:

ORLANDO, Florida - An American astronaut accused of trying to kidnap a romantic rival for a space shuttle pilot's affections will remain in jail because authorities planned to charge her with attempted first-degree murder.

Orange County jail spokesman Allen Moore said Orlando police were in the process of adding the more serious charge that Navy Capt. Lisa Marie Nowak, 43, tried to kill Colleen Shipman, who she believed was romantically involved with fellow astronaut, Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein.

[snip]

Nowak drove 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) from her home in Houston to Orlando International Airport, donned a disguise and was armed with a BB gun and pepper spray when she confronted Shipman, police said. During the drive, she wore diapers - as astronauts do during launch and re-entry - so she would not have to stop to go to the bathroom.

[snip]

Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando. Dressed in a wig and a trench coat, she waited for Shipman's plane to land and then boarded the same airport shuttle bus Shipman took to get to her car, police said. Shipman told police she noticed someone following her, hurried inside the car and locked the doors, according to the arrest affidavit.

Nowak rapped on the window, tried to open the car door and asked for a ride. Shipman refused but rolled down the car window a few inches when Nowak started crying. Nowak then sprayed a chemical into Shipman's car, the affidavit said. Shipman drove to the parking lot booth and police were called.

An officer reported following Nowak and watching her throw away a bag containing the wig and BB gun. Police also found a steel mallet, a 4-inch (10-centimeter) folding knife, rubber tubing, $600 and garbage bags inside a bag Nowak was carrying when she was arrested, authorities said.

I love this story. OMG, this woman is CRAZY! This is an educated woman and she's reduced herself to a Jerry Springer Show trailer park stereotype. Unbelieveable.

What was she going to do with the rubber tubing and garbage bags? Suck out the other woman's blood? Gas her? Creepy.

Read more...

Are you ready for Vista?

Are you psyched?

Tonight at midnight stores across America are staying open late (or maybe they’re open early, whatever) to celebrate the debut of the new Windows operating system, Vista.

Microsoft was giving away Release Candidate 1 late last year, so, curious, I spent $5 to get a DVD copy. I could’ve downloaded it for free, but I didn’t have the patience. I’ve been playing around with Vista for about a month and a half on a spare computer with a clean installation.

My first impression was that it was pretty. Much of that has to do with the fact that they supply you with a nice set of wallpaper to choose from. There’s nothing like a beautiful Ansel Adams-type landscape to skew your perceptions. The icons are a little bigger. Like a Mac, you now have built in desktop gadgets. Also like a Mac when your cursor hovers over the icon for an open program in the task bar, your get a thumbnail preview. Oh, and you don’t have to buy a third-party application to burn a DVD. That’s finally built in so you don’t have to spend $80 on Roxio or Nero products. Well, duh. Took ‘em long enough.

Other than the prettiness, there is absolutely no reason to upgrade from XP. It’s not faster. If you’ve been getting by happily on a PC you bought in 2002 with 1 GB of RAM or less, you’re fucked now. If you really, really want this operating system, you need 2 GB of RAM and a 2 GHz processor, minimum. It’s not more stable. Yeah, I know I’m using RC1 and not the final version, but let’s face it – they’re giving away RC1 to tempt people to buy the real deal, right? This shit bombs big time. I haven’t seen crashes like this since Windows ME, and you know how bad that was. Sometimes it crashes on boot up for no reason. I’m on the other side of the room, nowhere near the keyboard and POOF! The system crashes and I have to do a hard restart. It was pretty consistently hanging after the screen saver came on, so I had to disable that.

Vista doesn’t like FireFox. There are no drivers for the HP printer I bought last March. The Sudoku game I bought three weeks ago doesn’t work. It says I don’t have a valid copy of Microsoft Office 2003 and I do, thank you very much. No surprises there. No way am I going to pay to upgrade to Office 2007. The bullshit invalidation of my Office 2003 made me go download the Open Office suite. Guess what? I like it. And it’s free. Guess who’s scrapped any notion of upgrading to Office 2007?

Vista gives you a hassle like the worst micromanager on Earth when you want to install something. Are you sure you want to install that? Do you know what that is? Do you trust the source? It views any installation – say, Adobe Acrobat Reader – as a potential security threat and it overreacts like ED-209 in RoboCop. Thankfully, it doesn’t shoot you.

I must say that I am excited about Vista, in a matter of speaking. I’m interested in the ripple effect and how the market is going to respond. I can’t wait to see all the bugs that are going to come to light. I just wish I could get in on the monetary action. A whole lot of people are going to make a whole lot of money this year retraining people and selling hardware upgrades, or trying to woo formerly diehard Windows users to Mac or Linux machines. Should be interesting.

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

I love fake blogs. Here's Steve Jobs' so-called diary:

What kind of country has an "ombudsman" anyway? Well, Norway does. And here he is. Bjoern Erik Thon. And he says if we don't "open up" iTunes, Norway will take us to court. Okay, Norway. You want to play hardball? Tell you what. Saddle up the reindeer, strap some body armor over your queer-ass Dale sweaters, wrap your pretentious scarf tight around your chicken neck, and meet us on the field of battle. Or how about this? How about we just stop selling iPods in Norway? And we block anyone in Norway from getting access to iTunes? And we tell everyone there that Bjoern Erik Thon is the reason for this, and here's his home address and phone number, so go see him if you don't like it. Or even better: How about I run for president of Norway, win in a landslide, fire Bjoern Erik Thon, and pass a law outlawing Microsoft and making Apple products the only ones allowed in Norway?

Now I need to find a fake Bill Gates blog where he raves about Vista...

Read more about Steve here...

In Praise of Science Fiction

You never know where you'll find someone praising Science Fiction, but here's a little gem from, of all places, the Huffinton Post blog:

The first step to enjoying science fiction is - well, the first step is getting used to the worst writing on earth -- but the second step to enjoying science fiction is getting past the titles.

And it's worth doing. Because we're living in a science fiction world.

We should have seen China's anti-satellite program coming, but the only venue where it was being discussed was You Only Live Twice.

There was this boring movie where this sonorous blowhard said the ice caps were melting, but it was called Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, so no one paid any attention.

What if a cowardly dickweed with a messiah complex got to be President and started World War Three? Don't say The Dead Zone didn't warn you.

In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Q is experimenting with radioactive lint. Now spies are running around London, killing each other with teeny tiny polonium specks.

I could go on, but I'm late for the convention and my mom's still sewing my costume.

And this isn't about me, anyway. This is about you. Snooty.

Battlestar Galactica is the best show on television, but you're not watching it just because it has robots in it. Yet you'll still watch Desperate Housewives. Like Nicollette Sheridan isn't more machine than man.

LOL!

Read more...

No time to blog!

I can’t get two seconds (okay, it takes longer than that) to myself to blog, it seems. I didn’t get to blog about:

• James Brown’s death (I should’ve gone to the viewing at the Apollo. I’ve never been there).


• President Ford’s death (It’s amazing how once someone has passed away, everyone has nice things to say. He could’ve used some of that while he was in office. He was always portrayed as a buffoon).


• The first baby born in NYC was born to an illegal immigrant (Toys R Us at first tried to back out of giving the baby the promised $25,000. Talk about bad publicity).


• It’s really, really freaking warm for January (I prefer that to the single digits we got a few years ago, but we know this is bad, right?)


• Orlando is nine months old! (I have tons of pictures to post on his site. Sigh).


• My cousin is visiting from Panama (and I think she’s really bored, but we’re trying).


• My dog took a flying leap off the top of the stairs (What the hell was he thinking?? He didn’t get hurt, but that was very scary).


• Nancy Pelosi (I don’t care what anyone says, she looks like a nice lady. Why does she scare people? I’d vote for her).


• My mom almost burned down the apartment (She left food on the stove, then went to the supermarket. Thank God nothing actually caught fire, but the place still smells of smoke).


• Randy Johnson is finally gone. (Yay!)

Belated Happy New Year, all.

Baby is sent through X-ray machine at LAX

From LATimes.com:

A woman going through security at Los Angeles International Airport put her month-old grandson into a plastic bin intended for carry-on items and slid it into an X-ray machine.

The early Saturday accident — bizarre but not unprecedented — caught airport workers by surprise, even though the security line was not busy at the time, officials said.

A screener watching the machine's monitor immediately noticed the outline of a baby and pulled the bin backward on the conveyor belt.

The infant was taken to Centinela Hospital, where doctors determined that he had not received a dangerous dose of radiation.

Lovely. Talk about having a "senior moment"!

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Man hits "tasty" seven-legged deer in his driveway

From Fond du Lac, Wisc. Reporter:

What has seven legs, male and female reproductive organs and nub antlers?

It sounds like a bad joke, but it's what Rick Lisko found in his driveway late last month.

Lisko hit the seven-legged nub buck while driving his truck through the woods along his mile-long driveway near Mud Lake, east of Waucousta in the Fond du Lac County town of Osceola on Nov. 22.

"It was definitely a freak of nature," Lisko said. "I guess it's a real rarity."

"And by the way, I did eat it," Lisko said. "It was tasty."

Ewww!!!

Read more..

Israeli Army Hates D&D

From Wired.com:

The fact of the matter is that when you're an Israeli soldier pinned down in a trench by Lebanese snipers, you really don't want to see your commander pull out his D20s and making his agility roll for dodge. That's not a Beholder you're facing there, Sarge.

The Israeli Army knows this. And that's why every D&D enthusiast who joins the Israeli army is automatically given a low security clearance and viewed as unrealiable, subpar soldiers.

Israeli officials view a fondness for Dungeons and Dragons as being indicative of a delusional mind, RPGers are out of touch with reality. "The game indicates a weak personality," one security official said. "One of the tests we do, either by asking soldiers directly or through information provided us, is to ask whether they take part in the game," he added. "If a soldier answers in the affirmative, he is sent to a professional for an evaluation, usually a psychologist." Also, a strip club.

ROFL! If the U.S. Army didn't let in Roleplayers, video gamers and comic book enthusiasts, let me tell you, they'd have no one. ;)

Actually, in the original article, the real beef wasn't with D&D, it was with Live Action Role Playing (LARP), but it's still funny.

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Investment Spam

More lovely spam. This is a great investment opportunity for hemp and cotton in Spain. Please!

Hemp & Cotton Company Ltd.

Dear possible representative,


This is hemp & Cotton Company Ltd. We collect hemp and cotton from Spain for production of textile and fabrics which we supply to our clients in the North American geographical region (United States) and Canada for cloth making.

Now are looking for some representatives over there who can help us receive payments from our customers. This wouldnt affect your present state of work though we are working on setting up some branches over there but for now we need someone who will be handling that aspect, We need people that are responsible and reliable.

Our main factory is located in London, United Kingdom where the hemp and cotton is needed for the manufacturing of fabrics, We are willing to pay $200 for any payment you receive and you can still keep your regular job while you work for us. All you will do is to receive payments from our customers over there.

To facilitate the conclusion of this transaction if accepted, do send us by mail promptly the following:

1.Your full name and full contact address.
2.Private phone number and email address.
3.Date Of Birth
4.What do you do for living presently?


ATTENTION: It wouldnt cost you any cent, you are to receive payments which will be sent to you from our business partners.

Please if you are interested please email us back to: betty.sales.manager@hotmail.com


Thanks for your time
Yours Sincerely,

Betty Wilson
Executive Manager


Contact Us Hemp and Cotton Ltd 2006 All rights reserved

Do legitimate businesses use Hotmail addresses to contact you? Didn't think so.

Stock Spam

I've been getting a lot of stock spam this fall. I hate that shit. Who would be ass enough to buy this stock? It's worth a fraction of a penny!

Andy Pettitte is headed back to the New York Yankees!

From Excite Sports News:

NEW YORK (AP) -Andy Pettitte is headed back to the New York Yankees.

Pettitte and the Yankees reached a preliminary agreement Friday on a $16 million, one-year contract, a deal that reunites the two-time All-Star with the team he helped to win four World Series titles.

Yay!!!! We should never have let Andy go in the first place!

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iPod Baby Onesie

That isn't my baby, that's someone else's baby, but how cool is that? An iPod onesie from iPodMyBaby.com!

I have to have it!







Also cute is iPodMyPhoto, but you ought to be able to do this yourself in Photoshop if you have patience. Or if you have a friend who has patience. ;) You submit your photo to them and they transform it into the look of an iPod ad for $19.95.

Search Continues for James Kim

From ABC News:

After being stranded in the wilderness for more than a week, three members of a California family are doing remarkably well.

Kati Kim, her 4-year-old daughter, Penelope, and her 7-month-old daughter, Sabine, should soon be released from Three Rivers Hospital in Grants Pass, Ore.

But their ordeal isn't over. A search continues for Kati's husband, James Kim, who left his family two days ago to look for help.

On Monday afternoon, rescuers found three members of the Kim family on a rugged, snow-filled road where their Saab station wagon had been stuck for more than a week.

This story is very troubling. I remember James Kim from the technology reports he used to do on Tech TV (before they became G4 TV and started catering solely to teen video gamers). He used to go on and on about his wife and kids in a very mushy way that was a bit much, but seemed genuinely sincere. You’d think that someone so into his family would’ve been more careful about driving in unfamiliar territory (regardless of who was actually driving).

It’s also very sobering to think that there are still places where you can’t get cell phone coverage and if you get lost, you might not be found in time. The only good part of the story is that the mom was able to keep the two girls alive by breastfeeding them, though if it hadn’t have been for the 7-month-old, you’d have to assume the mom wouldn’t have been lactating and the 4-year-old might not have made it.

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"Tweener" Involved in Fatal Accident

From TMZ.com:

Law enforcement sources from the Beverly Hills Police Department tell TMZ "Prison Break" star Lane Garrison was behind the wheel when his SUV crashed into a tree, killing one of the occupants.The accident occurred Saturday night in Beverly Hills. Sources say one of the passengers, a 15-year-old girl, was in critical condition and has a relative who works for the city of Beverly Hills. One source says the 17-year-old boy who was killed went to the local high school which is presumably Beverly Hills High.

We're told Garrison was not arrested or booked after the accident. Typically, after a "K" car crash injury -- police jargon when someone is killed -- cops will ask the driver to submit to a voluntary blood-alcohol test.

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The Autograph Man

There's a funny article on Slate.com about a pitcher who's catching up on his fan mail this off-season -- 15 years late. The author of the article is one of many people who contacted the pitcher, Don Carman, when he was a little kid and was surprised to hear from him so long after the fact.

As it turns out, I am not Carman's only recent correspondent. In October, a Philadelphia TV station reported that Doug Ferraro, 23, received an autographed card from Carman in response to a letter that he had mailed out 16 years before. This was now a legitimate mystery, so I called Carman in Florida to find out what happened.

"My wife told me it was time to clean the garage," Carman said. "So, I started digging through the stuff and found a box behind my tools. I opened it up and saw it was a bunch of fan mail, 200 to 250 letters." For Carman, this was a slight embarrassment. During his career, Carman had worked diligently to sign and return every one of the two or three letters he received each day. Judging from the date of Ferraro's card and the price of my stamp, he must have gotten our batch of letters some time in 1991, the year he left the Phillies for the Cincinnati Reds. "That year was the year I moved; I got a different house," he said. "I even remember putting them in the box, because it was unusual for me to do that. I thought I'd watch a football game and leisurely do them. It never got done."

Carman could hardly bear to throw the letters away. But at age 47, he didn't have the enthusiasm to pick through them, either. So he paid his son Jackson, who is 8 years old, $4 to open and sort them. Then they sat down together, with Jackson, who never saw his father play, marveling at the rapturous odes inside. ("Dear Mr. Carman: You are my favorite baseball player. … ") At first content with merely signing the cards, Carman got caught up in the spirit and started writing notes to the now-grown kids. He lugged the envelopes down to the Naples post office, where he discovered that most of them included 25-cent stamps. "I told the postman I needed 250 10-cent stamps, and 250 4-cent stamps, and he just looked at me like, 'What are you doing?' "

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X-Men illustrator dies in Superman pajamas

From CNN.com:

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- Wearing Superman pajamas and covered with his Batman blanket, comic book illustrator Dave Cockrum died Sunday.

The 63-year-old overhauled the X-Men comic and helped popularize the relatively obscure Marvel Comics in the 1970s. He helped turn the title into a publishing sensation and major film franchise.

Cockrum died in his favorite chair at his home in Belton, South Carolina, after a long battle with diabetes and related complications, his wife Paty Cockrum said Tuesday.

At Cockrum's request, there will be no public services and his body will be cremated, according to Cox Funeral Home. His ashes will be spread on his property. A family friend said he will be cremated in a Green Lantern shirt.

At Marvel Comics, Cockrum and writer Len Wein were handed the X-Men. The comic had been created in 1963 as a group of young outcasts enrolled in an academy for mutants. The premise had failed to capture fans.

Cockrum and Wein added their own heroes to the comic and published "Giant-Size X-Men No. 1" in 1975. Many signature characters Cockrum designed and co-created -- such as Storm, Mystique, Nightcrawler and Colossus -- went on to become part of the "X-Men" films starring Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry.

Cockrum received no movie royalties, said family friend Clifford Meth, who organized efforts to help Cockrum and his family during his protracted medical care.

I didn't really like his artwork, but definitely not the way one wants to go out.

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