The news has it that the photographer is the real baby's daddy. So, when this guy ends up moving to the Bahamas and dying a mysterious drug related illness, maybe we'll start to think this other guy had something to do with it... am I getting this story correctly? I have to say I haven't been following the trials and tribulations of the Smith baby paternity battle, but it seems to me like this Bahamaian law-dog Stern is a low-life creep. While this Birkhead character is just a money grubbing dude like the rest of us.
He's obviously happy with the outcome, seen here (left) doing Mike Madono's fist pump (we could describe it as Tiger's fist pump, but hommie Larry has got some serious hockey-hair... and if you went to high school in MN you know exactly what I am talking about).
And this my friends is headline news. God bless America.
All around the vast array of tubes that make up these here internets, it seems like everyone is doing their "spring" post right about now, including peleton members Abe, Kraemerica, Slurry, and Ms. Minneapolis (ok, I don't know if Mindy has, but she's a pretty active blogger so I am giving her the benefit of the doubt, but feel free to go looking around for it on your own).
Spring in DC is nice. Here are some pics to prove it. This is DC's Southwest Waterfront, as seen from a morning spin around Haines Point. And, as this is a compulsory blog posting on Spring, it obviously needs to have plenty of cherry blossoms... cherry blossoms with ft McNair in background... cherry blossoms with DCA in background... And here you can see what happens after only a few short days or weeks in bloom, all the petals fall off and cover the ground like snow... Here is "the awakening," the statue at the SW tip of Haines Point. Spring also means golf to a lot of people... so here are some shots of the Haints Point (East Potomac) Golf Course: And finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't share with you some shots of our nations phallus, and the throng of people waiting in line to get inside of it (3rd pic). But first, the tidal basin: There you have it folks. Spring.
Wow, just read this e-mail interview with the Rev. Billy Graham at the Strib. Interesting. He's really mellowed in his old age. This passage struck me as remarkable:
QHave your views on such issues as foreign policy and homosexuality grown more liberal through the decades?
A Well, I hope they've grown more balanced over the years, although I try to avoid labels like "liberal" or "conservative." When I was young, I thought I knew the answer to almost everything, and I cringe when I look back at some of those ill-considered remarks. The world is complex, and as I've grown older I've learned that foreign- policy issues, for example, usually aren't as easy as they may seem on the surface.
Homosexuality is not a lifestyle that is endorsed by the Bible, although I don't believe Christians should single out homosexuals for condemnation or contempt. God loves the homosexual just as much as the heterosexual, and so should we. We have all sinned, and we all need God's grace and forgiveness. We also all need God's strength to fight temptation and to change our lives.
If there is one thing I dislike, it's intolerance. I would even go as far as to say I am intolerant of intolerance. And I actually think that is only mildly, if at all, hypocritical. And while Billy Graham and I disagree on just about everything, at least we agree that we're all sinners in someone's eyes and that we should "judge not lest we be judged."
Gotta love those Florida Gators, right? Well that is how I feel after winning* one office pool and finishing second in another. One was a large large pool, like 117 entries to be exact. The other was smaller, like 18 or so. So I was actually shocked that I was the only contender in the large pool I participated in to pick Florida. I thought me and just about everyone else and their mothers would have picked Florida. Sure, Greg Oden and Mike Connelly, Jr are awesome players. But ya know what? The Big Ten sucked this year. Sure, Kansas was deep as shit and just about the most athletic team in college hoops. But ya know what? No way they beat UCLA & Florida back to back to win the tournament... and the Big 12 kinda sucked this year too from top to bottom (although they were far superior to the Big 10). UNC? Not with that many freshman. I actually loved Georgetown, they were a lot of fun to watch this year with Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert, and after I saw them steam roll thru the Big East tourny and find different ways to win against different teams, I thought they were a show-in for the final four. And all along, there is just no team that could compete with Florida. So they coasted thru a chunk of their season, so what? They returned 4 out of 5 starters from last year's winning team, and had three guys that would have been in the lottery last year had they entered the draft (that number is up to four after this year). And they have Billy Donovan, an amazing coach. And in my mind, they had the easiest road to the final four (Wisconsin was the two seed in their quartile of the bracket, a good but definitely not great team, which says it all about the midwest region this year). So long story short, I am shocked that by making the safe pick in my mind (I am by no means a Florida fan, in fact I'd prefer any Big Ten team or Big East team over ANY SEC team), I ended up as the only person in a position to win with Floriday in that giant pool.
Please note the asterisk* after "winning." This unfortunately needs to be here to qualify me actually winning the pool. Technically, I tied for first. But this is a grave injustice, something along the lines of Gore winning the popular vote and not becoming president.
As any good pool participant will agree, there should be no tying for first. Tie for second? Fine. But there has to be a *winner* in my books. Not for this stupid office pool. The person I tied with had picked UCLA to win the whole damn tournament. But since she and I both finished with 64 points, we split the [nonexistent] big purse.* Bullshit. She didn't even pick the winner, how could we tie? There should be a tie-breaker to determine this sorta thing!! This just ain't right! And just like the electoral college, this office pool is just a stupid and flawed system. From here on out, I'll stick to simple brackets. Check out these convoluted rules (this is straight from the entry form):
You pick 10 teams--this is not a bracket pool (PLEASE PUT SEED # NEXT TO EACH TEAM).To quote someone on the Hart Research NCAA Pool Rules Committee: “Suck it up.”Here are the point values for the main Regular Tournament (10 teams) part of the contest.
#1 to #4 seeded teams receive 1 point for each tournament win
#5 to #8 seeded teams receive 2 points for each tournament win
#9 to #12 seeded teams receive 3 points for each tournament win
#13 to #16 seeded teams receive 4 points for each tournament win
Once a team reaches the Sweet Sixteen point totals double.Apply the following multiplier effect to each team's point value:
X 1 for victories in first and second round games
X 2 for victories in all subsequent rounds (regional semifinals/finals, national semifinals/finals) – for example a #5 seed that reaches the Elite 8 would be worth 8 points (2 points for Round of 64, 2 points for Round of 32, and 4 points for Round of 16)
Special Wild Card bonus round:
In addition to your regular 10 picks for the Regular Tournament contest, select two (2) teams each from the lower seeds: #5-#8, #9-#12, and #13-#16.THESE TEAMS CAN ALSO BE ON YOUR LIST OF TEN TEAMS.
For each game these Wild Card teams win in the tournament, you receive 1 bonus point regardless of round.
Extra bonuses: You receive 4 points for each Final Four team you pick.If you pick the 2007 NCAA champion you receive 4 points times the team's seed number.i.e. someone who picked Jackson State would get 64 points (4 X 16).
I.REGULAR TOURNAMENT PICKS
TEAM/SEED #
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
II.WILD CARD PICKS
SEEDING
TEAM #1
TEAM #2
#5-#8
#9-#12
#13-#16
III.2007 FINAL FOUR TEAMS
MIDWEST:
EAST:
WEST:
SOUTH:
IV.2007 NCAA CHAMPION
[Editor's note: Please note no condition for TIE-BREAKING! Bullshit!!]
That said, I finished 2nd in the bracket pool I participated in. I had a dream that I cleared $200 in combined winnings, but it was just a dream, there was actually no prize money at all (see footnote).
* It is nonexistent because gambling on college sports is illegal and this pool was done in good clean fun, no money changed hands and there is no big purse to split. This footnote is here at the behest of my attorney.
Tuesday night's match: DC United 1; Chivas de Guadalajara 2 Aggregate: DC United 2; Chivas 3
Instead of trying to watch this game with a bunch of rowdy white people with varying levels of knowledge and interest in footy, my boy Max and I decided to check this out in a bit more hostile territory. We had this vision of being the only two gringos in a see of red and white striped jerseys at this neighborhood Salvadoran/Mexican restaurant just down the road from my place. Instead, we get there and find the place nearly empty and watching some random Mexican soap-opera comedy/drama thing (I am sure you have seen these before, wildly popular on Telemundo y Univision, big breasted beautiful women traipsing around with douchebag quality men.) When we asked if they were going to turn on the game, the bartender shrugged and said why not. So we bellied up to the bar and ordered some Tecate's while we waited for the game to start (which came in amazingly cold frosted glasses, nice touch).
The game was sloppy and unattractive for much of the time, with the occasional flashes of true quality that seem to allude both MLS and Mexican teams for any sustained length of time. These leagues play more physical football than beautiful football. And yes, Chivas displayed more flair and grace with the ball then DC, but not by much folks. The gap between these two leagues in terms of quality is minimal, at least as best as I can tell from the matches I have seen between the two leagues. Given the slow nature of the match, Max and I started downing the cold Tecate's rather quickly to compensate, and soon enough we'd have some company.
At some point pretty early in the first half still, three other blokes stumbled into the bar. Three loud drunk gay guys from Mexico City. So while Chivas wasn't their team, per se, they were definitely not cheering for DC. They were loud, did I mention that? And funny. And gregarious. And ... a little odd. I can't say I have ever come across three gay guys from Mexico City. At least we think they were gay. They were awful affectionate with one another. And yet, they looked like beer-swilling Redskins fans or something, to be honest. Beer bellies, unkempt, loud, drunks. Soon enough however, we were fast friends. They were eager to speak English (or flirt, hard to tell, there was a language barrier) so they were chattin' us up a bit, calling us gringos, saying random things to each other in Spanish and laughing a lot. At first this was a bit awkward. Then after a while, the effect of the beers started to kick in and I got more into the footy match and they were yelling and screaming at the TV too, and the awkwardness was erased by drunkenness and a good time was had by all. We had a bit of a rivalry going in the bar, which amused the Salvadoran staff to no end (they were cheering for Utd, too... cuz F those dudes from Guadalajara, right?).
For a real match report, check this out. All I will say is this, the DC keeper, Troy Perkins, played an amazing game, and had he not let the game winning shot go right through his hands, that game probably would have gone to overtime, or United might have even stolen a winner. They had the momentum, and then Perkins just shat his shorts and the team pretty much folded. Shame too, he was probably their best player and kept them in the game throughout. Being a goalie is hard for that exact reason: one slip up could cost you the game. In this case it did. Jaime Moreno, who I generally dislike and wish would retire already, had an amazing goal. So amazing, i need to post it here on my site (thanks YouTube). Sorry it's so choppy, but wait the replay around the 45 second mark, you'll see what a magnificent goal it was.
The real shame is that no MLS has EVER won in Mexico before. I imagine it is hard to adjust. Instead of maybe 20,000 moderately enthusiastic fans, you are playing in stadiums meant to handle 100-200,000 riotous lunatics. On top of that, most of these games are played at some serious altitude. And some seriously polluted altitude at that. But hey, I don't want to make excuses, fact is MLS teams just aren't any better than Mexican teams. They are not any worse, as evidenced by the good results on home turf, but they not any better. If they were, they wouldn't be a collective 0-10 in games played South of the border (i think that is right, someone can double-check that stat if they are so inclined, the goose-egg is definitely right, just not positive on the number of losses).
Sen. Barack Obama raised at least $25 million for his presidential campaign in the first quarter of the year, putting him just shy of Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, who made a splash with her announcement Sunday that she had drawn a record-breaking $26 million.
Obama (D-Ill.) appears to have surpassed Clinton in several ways: He raised $6.9 million through donations over the Internet, more than the $4.2 million than Clinton (N.Y.) raised online. He reported donations from 100,000 people, double the 50,000 people who gave to Clinton.
Wow. This really is a shitload of money. Look for the billion dollars spent in 2004 to be demolished this time around. I don't have any interesting analysis of this fundraising that isn't already being said. Barack's camp and supporters are visibly happy, his detractors say he didn't raise enough to steal the spotlight from Hillary. Meanwhile, Hillary's camp was visibly happy, too... right up until they saw how much Obama raised, that is. Thew big question mark surround her is how much of her money is for the primary and how much for the general? Obama has 23.5 million for the primary, almost all of his current warchest, while many believe that Rodham Clinton raised a good chunk of her change for the general. That's not to say she can't catch up in primary fundraising, but it suggests that Obama is eating up much of the early primary money, people he can go back to again in the general and ask for more... leading one to believe his source of funds is more sustainable. But who knows? I don't think either one, or whomever the nominee becomes, will have trouble raising money against Bush's Republican party. So maybe primary money is all that matters...
Interestingly, Obama released a day after the rest of the Dem field of 08ers. Now I have not heard if this was because he couldn't get his shit together in time to release with everyone else yesterday, OR if this was some strategic decision to wait a day and make a big splash. If the latter, it's a pretty big gamble considering any figure less than Hillary's would have made the wrong kind of news. Especially on the heals of this article yesterday highlighting the rest of the field's 1st Q fundraising, titled: Clinton Shatters Record For Fundraising. I think it worked out well and he'll get a favorable spin in the news since he scraped past her in a few areas and was damn near her record breaking total, and because he presumably has an advantage in primary $$, but it was a gamble for sure (you have to imagine the camp's keep this type of info pretty close to the vest, and while Team Obama may have had a hunch they raised more than Team Clinton, they couldn't have known before making the decision on when to release that info publicly).
Wouldn't ya know it, I spent 5 days in Seattle and only got rained on once!! As you can well imagine, my trip was awesome. The school, aside from the occasional murder-suicide, is incredible. Right on the water, amazing views, cool neighborhoods close by, and above all else, has really cool profs and students doing a wide range of really interesting things. In the verdict of Dub vs 'Sota, Dub wins in a landslide. Sorry Goldy. It's just that the program at U-Dub was such a good fit, and the program at Minnesota was just so-so.
So now the choice is boiled down to go back to school, or do not go back to school. At least it's a simple choice.
Seattle is a cool city, too. Loads of bikers (the cycling kind, not the leather wearing kind), the first cool thing I noticed. AMAZING coffee! I mean just mind-blowing. If you like coffee -- and I LOVE coffee -- this is the place for you. So many cool little coffee shacks and shops and whatnot, and it all tastes so good! I am even convinced that Starbucks tasted better in Seattle than it does here, if such a thing is possible (hint: it's not). ANYWAY, the coffee is the second cool thing. The third cool thing: have you SEEN Seattle? Holy Shit are there some incredible landscapes! You've got water, hills, mountains, and green as far as the eye can see. Sure, it rains and often even when its not raining, it's cloudy (just not when I am there). But it is a very pretty place with numerous picturesque views. In fact, I'll post some of those shots tonight or tomorrow. Fourth cool thing: the people. I dunno if you knew this, but it's a really liberal place. And since you all know how I hate getting my worldview challenged, that is a plus for me. Granted, the rest of the state is a conservative libertarian death trap... but what rural part of any state isn't? And, I have some friends there already... including Billy/Heather, Peter/Megan, and the other prospective student types I met while visiting.
Drawbacks: I don't love the seattle dress code. I can't even put my finger on it. Post-grunge? Post-punk? (or are we at post post-punk at this point?) Some combination? Like I said, can't quite articulate the code, but there is definitely something at work there... an aesthetic if you will (and boy do I ever) that has become the sort of agreed upon "cool kids gear." So I might need some new (or vintage, rather) clothes. Oh, and lots of peircings and tatoos.
So there you have it, folks. Now we just need to figure out if we are going to move or not.
The news has it that the photographer is the real baby's daddy. So, when this guy ends up moving to the Bahamas and dying a mysterious drug related illness, maybe we'll start to think this other guy had something to do with it... am I getting this story correctly? I have to say I haven't been following the trials and tribulations of the Smith baby paternity battle, but it seems to me like this Bahamaian law-dog Stern is a low-life creep. While this Birkhead character is just a money grubbing dude like the rest of us.
