It was quite the summer, and it obviously seeped over into the fall. If you can imagine having a couple dozen technicians traipsing all over the United States, installing servers and and then retracing their paths to pick up the old equipment. The logistical challenges were rather significant, not to mention the technical ones and the roadblocks thrown up by the customer. This project has the makings of a good book, if only I had the time to sit down and write it. The picture below should give you some idea of what caused a lot of sleepless nights (you can't see Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico, but trust me, they're there), but it is, mercifully, completed. A full sixty-nine minutes ahead of the deadline.

I'd considered letting the blog die entirely, as if the world would notice, but perhaps I'll use it as an exercise to improve my considerably lacking time management skills.

So, while I get ready to head into the office, I'll leave you to ponder the state of our beloved media. Denied, over the past few weeks, any spectacular beheadings or massive car bombs, they have managed to find the cloud embedded within the silver lining.

As violence falls in Iraq, cemetery workers feel the pinch

No, seriously...

(via Ace)

Presbyterian ninjas

You see, a certain person's return is already paying dividends. This site is like reading the results of a great caption contest, except the pictures are all in your head.

"Sorry, sweetie," Mom said as she used some napkins to wipe the elephant snot off my forearm, "but he took all your peanuts."

If you find one about oatmeal, that'll be me. I'll probably deny it later, though.

Via Megan McCardle comes a meme worth taking just a minute to complete. Your life as a soundtrack, with an assist from the shuffle button.

The Rules:

1. open your library (iTunes, winamp, media player, iPod)
2. put it on shuffle
3. press play
4. for every question, type the song that’s playing
5. new question– press the next button
6. don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool

Opening Credits

Breed - Nirvana (No, I'm not kidding)

Waking Up

All I Want - Toad the Wet Sprocket

First Day at School

The Good Life - Weezer

Falling in Love

Shimmer - Fuel

Breaking Up

Falling to Pieces - Faith No More

Prom

Sabotage - Beastie Boys

Life's Okay

Makes No Sense at All - Hüsker Dü

Mental Breakdown

Alison - Elvis Costello

Driving

Forty Six & 2 - Tool

Flashback

Annie - Our Lady Peace

Getting back together

Hey Man, Nice Shot - Filter

Wedding

Time Enough For Tears - Corrs

Birth of a child

8:16 AM - 311

Final Battle

Outshined - Soundgarden

Death Scene

Don't Drop the Baby - The Judybats

Funeral Song

Mr. Brightside - The Killers

End Credits

Ballet for a Rainy Day - XTC

I'm dying to see how Michele's turns out.

Nice of all of you to let me know that two of my favorite Blogettes (ABV née ASV and Redsugar Muse) from yesteryear are back.

You are all so off my Christmas card list.

Just because I'm technically allowed to blog despite the new job does not necessarily mean that I actually have time to do it. I will get back to it soon, it just takes some time to adjust to the new environment, the much longer commute and the fact that I have very little to say at the moment. Other than, of course, pointing out How marvelously the American people feel about our new Democratic saviors in congress.

Hey, don't feel too badly, batting .270 might get you into the majors for at least a little while

Meanwhile, in lieu of content, just look how Piper has grown.

For the first time in the history of the blogosphere, a blogger has accepted a job offer which will not require him to quit blogging. I never realized that was possible.

Yes, I am referring to myself, and I humbly accept your congratulations in advance. Just more of that change Marc gets so nervous about.

One of my favorite writers from the golden era of blogging ("golden era" being defined as pre-MySpace and/or when somebody decided we needed blogs about everything up to and including bellybutton lint) has apparently returned from a multi-year hiatus, and will once again ply the trade over at Outside the Beltway.

Welcome back, Dodd.

Does this thing still work?

Consider this the first and last Imus post.

Yes, Imus said a very bad thing, and yes, he owes an apology to the people at which the remark was directed. Having said that, how overblown has this story become when the highest elected official in a state considers it imperative to be present for said apology?

Corzine was riding in the front passenger's seat of a sport utility vehicle — driven by a state trooper — and was en route from Atlantic City to the governor's mansion in Princeton to moderate a meeting between the Rutgers women's basketball team and radio personality Don Imus.

The main part of that story is that Governor Corzine was badly injured in a wreck on the way to the meeting, and we certainly send our best wishes for a speedy recovery, but come on. Have all of New Jersey's problems been completely solved and nobody bothered to mention it? If the best use of his time and state resources is to get a photo-op at a meeting between a cadaverous, unfunny radio host and a bunch of college kids, the citizens of New Jersey might want to start asking about his priorities.

(via Wizbang)

In their ongoing struggle to lag behind the regional economy, Fayettevillians have scored (maybe, it's not official yet) yet another victory.

Thanks to one voter, Fayetteville has road impact fees — at least for now.

The impact fee ordinance was approved Tuesday 2, 015-2, 014, in the special election. The results will remain unofficial until April 20, which is the deadline for 23 overseas ballots to be returned.

That's right, one stinking vote. And not to name names, but we both know who that voter was, don't we? (Yes, I'm looking at you, Mr. Too-Busy-Propping-Up-the-Local-Liberal-Kvetch-Scene). One can only hope that the 23 outstanding ballots have enough No votes to reverse this moronic piece of legislation.

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, I would normally post a picture of a bunny with some sort of breakfast food on its head, but this one time I'll explain.

The City, instead of trying to encourage growth and dealing with infrastructure impact in a methodical fashion has decided that an arbitrary fee on all development would just be easier. Proponents of the fees are pooh-poohing the consequences and even, remarkably, saying that these added costs will not be passed on to the consumer. No, that never happens. The cost of gas and alcohol never rises when the government slaps yet another tax on it. As to how punitive the impact fees are, I'll let you be the judge.

• Residential — $ 2, 363 per dwelling (a duplex, for example, would be charged 2 x $ 2, 363, and a 12-unit apartment building would be charged 12 x $ 2, 363. )

• Nursing home — $ 1, 495 per 1, 000 square feet

• Manufactured home park — $ 1, 779 per pad

• Hotel / motel — $ 1, 319 per room

• Commercial / office — $ 2, 701 per 1, 000 square feet

• Industrial / warehouse — $ 1, 676 per 1, 000 square feet

• Industrial / mini-warehouse — $ 587 per 1, 000 square feet

The one that really stands out to me is the hotel/motel fee. Fayetteville is already far behind other cities in our area when it comes to lodging. It's the largest municipality and yet it lacks anything resembling a hotel/convention center that could draw conferences, shows, etc. Now, with the whopping $1,319 extra cost per room, how soon do you think we'll get one? Say Embassy Suites wanted to build a facility similar to the one they have in Rogers (which, BTW, is currently being doubled in size). The current hotel has 248 rooms, which now in Fayetteville would cost them an extra $327,000, plus if they added the convention center I'm sure they'd also get charged the square foot fee. The JQH Center in Rogers is roughly 100,000 square feet. This would equate (under the commercial/office fee) to another charge of $270,000. So, you've just added more than half a million in extra cost to the project. Boy, that'll have people running here.

Finally in the article we get to my favorite part. You know, where they give us their pie-in-the-sky estimates of what this proposal will bring in?

The fees are estimated to generate an additional $ 3. 4 million per year for road improvements, which would be added to the $ 2. 5 million spent now.

Anyone remember the 10% "luxury tax" on yachts and airplanes a few years back? All it accomplished was a lot of layoffs and almost zero revenue. It was quietly repealed a few years later.

Obviously, when any major development is being proposed, the city should work with the developer to ensure that the proper and necessary infrastructure is going to be in place, but placing a punitive tax on everyone is not the way to do it. And you certainly won't be attracting any major companies to build new facilities.

Here's placing our hope on the 23 absentee ballots.

Update! One thing I meant to mention but forgot was voter turnout. In a city of around 70,000 people, an issue that could have very negative longterm economic effects only managed to rouse a hair over 4,000 people to get off of their fat, comfortable asses and go to the polls. Far fewer than the number of people who thought banning smoking in public was really, really important. They'd better get more poll workers if we ever vote on something really critical, like a new city slogan or the colors we're going to use on our traffic signals..

Since, as most of you know, Hot Springs is the hometown of

I found the following three pictures rather fitting.

A tattoo parlor with a rather narrow specialty.

A "Gentleman's Club" with a rather unique marketing scheme.

And finally, a clothing store for your inner-ho, complete with really bad spelling.

And by "toed", I assume they mean camel.

It's been nearly sixteen hours since the University of Arkansas introduced its new basketball coach, and we've seen no sign, yet, that he's departed for the sunnier pastures of a junior college.

Not wanting to settle for just anyone, Frank Broyles scoured the coaching ranks around the nation and, almost miraculously, was able to land John Pelphrey (shhh....just act like you've heard the name), who's major accomplishments seem to be having been a decent player at Kentucky in the early nineties and an assistant to Eddie Sutton and Billy Donovan. He also is credited with engineering the "biggest turnaround in 2005" at South Alabama. One would presume, however, that the middling school from the Sun Belt Conference had few places to go but up. And so, for the second time in seven days, Arkansas has found the perfect fit.

We'll keep our eye on the airport

Beaten out by My Precious.

This would be one of them.

Photographic evidence from tonight's culinary extravaganza. The first shot is my total consumed crawfish.

And here we have hers. Note: the pile on the left represents those who yet to be eaten.

You have to love a tiny girl with an enormous appetite.

Well, the trip has been fun so far, and today we're going to head out and break our horse-racing cherries at Oaklawn. I of course, have been busily studying the racing forms and tip sheets, and I will undoubtedly be outdone by Vicky, who plans to use the scientific, "Ooh, I like that horse's name!" method.

With the upcoming meeting of the Board of Trustees in Fayetteville, a couple of questions will hopefully be answered about the future of UA's athletic program. The main one, of course, is whether or not the board has the cognitive ability of a banana slug. Anyone that thinks that the status quo is acceptable should really seek medical attention. The program is rotting from the inside due to a combination of obfuscation and arrogance.

I'll throw in the minor disclaimer that I'm not a Razorback fanatic. I've lived in the area around eight years and root for them mostly because I'm here, but my vested interest is fairly limited.

Having said that, I think that the tenure of Frank Broyles is just about a perfect example of why presidents are limited to two terms. It is a rare human being that can be given the power over a money-making machine like a Div 1 athletic program without eventually developing some sort of god complex. Sadly, Frank is not that rare human and he's obviously pretty sure that he is a god here. I personally believe that the university should stop worrying so much about finding a basketball coach and concentrate on finding a new AD. I've also heard reports that even after Broyle's retirement, he will continue to maintain an office in the building that bears his name. This, obviously, is a terrible idea, and will only serve to undercut the new AD's authority. His mere presence would probably engender a "What Would Frank Do" mentality at a time when Arkansas should be doing exactly the opposite of what Frank has been doing lately. Frank should be asked to step down immediately, not at the end of the year, and should have no hand in hiring the new basketball coach, or in anything that may or may not happen with Houston Nutt.

As to Houston "Coach for Life" Nutt, I am firmly in the camp that believes he should also make a swift exit, graceful or not. This has nothing to do with his handling of the Malzahn situation or his purported affair with Donna Bragg and everything to do with the fact that he is an utterly uninspiring choke artist (think Alex Rodriguez in the playoffs). While I have seen Arkansas win some big games through the heroics of some incredible individual efforts, I have, more often than not, watched them lose most of the big games due to some incredibly inept play calling. Look back at the last three games of last season. In at least two of them, the Hogs had legitimate shots at winning, but Nutt, with two of the best running backs in the nation, decided it was now time to air the ball out. Possibly the most moronic display of coaching I've ever seen. Houston also displays some signs of the god complex, but generally gives off the aura of someone who, when it comes to the end of the day, cares more about Houston Nutt than anything else. His teams have been the ultimate underachievers, and that, in my opinion, is a reflection more on the coach than on anything else.

As would be expected, there are opinions galore flying about the intertubes.

From College and Pro Ball:

This is a circus that would make Barnum & Bailey proud. Razorback Nation is peeved, for good reason.

Deadspin gets off the line of the week:

Because Nutt is a public employee, this all technically public information, which is making pretty much every public head coach in America lightly urinate themselves a bit today.

PigKahuna takes a contrarian view:

The pitchfork gang has moved from one issue to another in their hatred for Nutt. The funny thing is they keep getting farther and farther away from the football field. That's a sign that they are not hoping to make a change for more positive football results, but rather out-right hatred and spite.

The Hog Blogger points out Coach Nutt's, obviously fake, but screamingly funny MySpace page. Whoever took the time to set that up has some serious spare time on their hands.

The Arkansas Times is reporting that, in typical institutional "Cover Your Ass" fashion, athletic department personnel cell phones will now be paid for by the Razorback Foundation, purportedly taking them out of the realm of FOIA requests. Somewhat outrageous, but utterly unsurprising. They also make a fairly good case that the Foundation may have not thought its cunning plan all the way through.

For years, the University has participated in a sham. The Razorback Foundation is nominally independent and thus out of the reach of FOI requests, though we have no definitive law on the point. They've taken some steps to have an independent operation. But a vast amount of the money raised by the Foundation comes from use of university-owned facilities, in the form of payments for preferred seating at athletic contests. University officials and employees, not solely Foundation officials, facilitate that operation in many ways, along with uncountable intertwined relationships on pay and perks from the athletic director on down. I think this nexus -- the Foundation is supported at least in part, if indirectly, by public funds -- makes Foundation records open to the public.

Other posts about the subject can be found here, here, here and here.

Local message boards are also rife with wild speculation and sometimes outright venom from people on both side of the argument.

HawgSports
Hogville
Woopig

Speaking as somewhat of an outsider, today should be quite a lot of fun.

Bloggers are owed a living.

In the history of mind-numbingly stupid theories, this one may take a place of honor.

You know you're in Arkansas when...

We LOL'd.

Picture taken somewhere deep in the heart of the Ouchita National Forest.

And we're off!

Vicky and I are headed down to Hot Springs for a few days of fun and relaxation. And, mostly just because I can, I'm doing my first ever post from the front seat of a moving car. These cell modems kinda rock. We haven't made it very far yet, but we successfully navigated the Hopper Tunnel.

Ah, the miracle of modern communication. It even allows me to annoy the crap out of Vicky by sitting here with my laptop open while completely ignoring the beautiful scenery.

As if the state of the University of Arkansas' athletic programs weren't enough of a national joke, they managed to lose their brand new basketball coach in less than twenty-four hours.

Dana Altman, introduced as Arkansas' new basketball coach on Monday, changed his mind less than 24 hours later and announced on Tuesday night that he is returning to Creighton, where he has coached the Bluejays the past 13 seasons.

Reportedly, they're now leaning towards Skippy the Wonder Kangaroo.

UPDATE!!!

I may have been a bit premature. According to a trusted source we'll call Deepthoughts, there is to be a UA Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, and the presence of both Frank "Godfather" Broyles and Houston "Untouchable" Nutt has been required. In addition to the utter and complete botching of the hiring of a new basketball coach, something has been simmering below the surface for a few weeks.

There are persistent rumors that Nutt is holding, shall we say, unauthorized workouts. Not with the football team, but with a local news anchor by the name of Donna Bragg. They were reportedly captured on some hotel's security camera either coming or going.

On the upside, this could bring the happy news that Nutt's tenure at Arkansas is over, and hopefully that Broyles will be shown the door immediately, rather than at the end of the year. On the down, UA's joke amplifier will most certainly go to 11.

Update Again

I've been told that there isn't video, rather records of text messages from his phone to hers.

Other stuff here, here and here.

The onset of the first cold I've had in years has coordinated itself perfectly to ensure that it will be much more difficult to enjoy my birthday.

That's right. Today is the day that all the world celebrates my existence. You forgot to buy a card, didn't you?

On a serious note, I need to say that nobody in the world works with better people than I do. Yesterday, my co-workers did the traditional cake and a card thing and then, totally unexpectedly, one of them said something along the lines of, "We know you and Vicky have had a rough year and we thought something a little extra would be in order". He then handed me an envelope containing a rather substantial amount of money. Vicky cried, and I came very close. It's not like we would have died without it, but the utter thoughtfulness of the act was extremely humbling and very much appreciated. You guys are the best.

So, stuffed-up head aside, we're going to have lunch with the parents, take in a movie and then enjoy an enormous steak at a cozy, little restaurant. Tomorrow, we're off to Hot Springs for a weekend of massages, good food, horse racing and a little lake time.

Post what you'd like to here. I'll more than likely be silent until Monday.

Continue reading "Birthday Linkage - Perfect Timing, As Always" »

So some little internet company decides to try an experiment and get a little attention, and Wonkette delivers!

Seriously though, When did my friend's favorite site become loonier than Democratic Underground? Some selected excerpts.

Hotty McRedhead Quits White House, Still Lies About Iraq

One of the Bush Administration’s top Iraq bumblers is quitting after four disastrous years. After fucking up everything from the pre-invasion plans to the provisional government, Meghan O’Sullivan will give up her current post as deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan, she announced Monday.

Icy Sexpot Dana Perino Makes a Funny!


So you’re elevated to your current position because your predecessor got cancer, and every single official you represent is a thieving scumbag with 2% approval ratings, and the country is so crippled that Honduras could probably launch a successful invasion.

Wonkette used to be mildly amusing, but It seems that they let their Thorazine prescription lapse.

Running to and fro this morning, but I did want to introduce everyone to our little bundle of joy. Vicky and I went to the UA horse show over the weekend (a surprisingly fun activity for someone of a decidedly non-agricultural bent), and as fate would have it, there was a couple selling some puppies. We looked at them, oohed and ahhed, and walked away. We made it about ten feet before Vicky said, "You know I'd buy one right now, don't you?". I said something to the effect of, "Excellent idea!", and here we are.

Say hello to Piper. She's 3/4 Blue heeler and 1/4 Jack Russell (bred this way on purpose, apparently), and as such I'm sure she will be an incredibly calm, quiet companion. Oh, and did I mention she's absolutely adorable?

I'll have more from the horse thing later. There were some great photo opportunities.

Terrible news for Tony Snow and his family as it was announced that the cancer he'd previously been treated for has metastasized to his liver. He will again have to endure radiation treatments and maybe worse. Nobody know the full details, of course, but from what I've read and heard, the mortality rate for this type of cancer is not very good. And, having just seen a glimpse of what liver failure looks like, I have nothing but sympathy. It is decidedly unpleasant.

I've never met Tony, but I'd always enjoyed his columns and later his radio show. But everyone has talked about how generous he is, and I do have some personal knowledge of that. Long time readers will remember how involved Vicky and I were after the tsunami. Our priest at the time was a native of the area where it hit and decided that giving a check to the Red Cross wasn't quite enough. We ended up raising close to $80,000 over a three week period from both the local community and many other people who just read about it on various blogs. This culminated with Vicky, Fr Leo and his wife going to India in mid-January, just a few weeks after the disaster. and spending ten days distributing the aid.

Obviously, this minor little blog could get the word out by itself, and a lot of other, much bigger bloggers helped a lot. But where we saw our traffic really spike, there was a direct connection to Tony. I don't remember the exact sequence of events, but I think that we'd heard Tony talking about various relief efforts and how some were not thrilled with the bigger organizations. She called his show and after talking to the screener, they decided that Tony would interview Fr Leo. They did a surprisingly long segment, and he later featured it on his website. We later were able to see a direct correlation to that appearance, and checks, both large and small, coming in from all over the country. A couple of days later, the church's phone rang and it was Tony. He just called to thank Leo for the effort and to ask him to keep him posted. The guy is is a total class act, and we wish him nothing but the best.

Of course, as would be expected, some people are just thrilled about this diagnosis. From the highly respected liberal site run by Kevin Drum, we get these gems (in fairness, there were quite a few people who were kind and decent).

Karma is a bitch. You reap what you sow.

There's been very few days over the last six plus years that I haven't wished a long over due demise to the entire Bush administration and most of the Republican members of congress. These people are all, at a minimum, accessories to crimes against humanity. Fuck all this sanctimony. The sooner were rid of these people, whatever the circumstances, the better for the nation and the world.

Is JeffI the only one here to speak the truth? Tony Snow is Cancer. It seems ironic that he has a good case of it. Maybe there is a God..Impeach the Bushies and build a jail around 'em.

Even more lovely is the sentiment expressed by this asshat who appropriately calls himself Mr. Tool.

Since he has Cancer of the liver and Karma has finally caught up to this smug rat-face GOP prick, I'm starting a deadpool. Pick the date for him to croak.

I'm pretty sure that if karma exists, it probably works both ways.

Post your links here, if you'd like.