Here’s to Alex Rodriguez opting out of his Yankee contract during the 4th and final game of the World Series.  Mind you, A-Rod had 10 days after the conclusion of the Series in which to make his decision.

So, this is officially the most noise A-Rod has ever made or will ever make during a World Series.  Add it to the career highlight reel.

Apparently “almost everyone” isn’t quite a big enough group of haters.

Brett Favre saved my Tuesday.

The problem with MNF, aside from Tony Kornheiser, is that it is on so stinking late.  For a while (or maybe it was only a week or two), when ESPN first took over they did the games earlier which was nice and seemed a signal that they had heard a frequent complaint from fans.  Now we’re back to mortgaging your Tuesday if you want to watch the game to the end.

Normally I ignore MNF altogether.  They haven’t had very compelling games lately.  But tonight I knew the Packers were at Denver in a big game for both teams, so I decided to “just check the score” before heading off to bed.  4th quarter – 3 pt Packer lead.  Extrapolating that the game would be over at a reasonable time I stuck it out.

Great game.  Right down to the wire.  The Packer defense kept Denver drives alive with dumb penalties a number of times. (more…)

Check out the Kelly series on YouTube:

• Shoes
• Let Me Borrow that Top
• Kelly’s Hollywood Meeting

This is some of the most hilarious stuff I’ve seen in a long time.  Hollywood Meeting is ROTFLOL, but you have to watch Shoes and Top (Shoes is better known but I think the intro to Let Me Borrow that Top is way better) to get a feel for what is going on first.

CAUTION:  I didn’t embed any of them here because the content/language has harsh moments.  If you can deal with that, these are well worth the view.

Upgrading to WordPress 2.3.1 today.  Whoo-hoo!  One of the fixes restores tagging functionality to Windows Live Writer.  I guess that’s how it works – WordPress’ platform was in place long before Windows Live Writer.  But, WLW comes out not completely working with WordPress so WordPress needs to make the changes because, after all, they are not Microsoft.

Anyway, it makes no difference to me.  WordPress is a great platform, free and easy to install, maintain and upgrade, and Windows Live Writer is turning into a very slick client.  Now that the two are in synch again, I’m happy.

My next dilemma is when to jump to Office 2007.  There again, MS has done some pretty cool things, but this version is a drastic change over the several that came before it in which I am heavily rooted.  As a programmer, not a lot of people have moved yet, but you need to stay ahead of that curve.

The one issue that is pushing me right now is that Access 2003 does not work with SQL 2005.  I’ve got the SQL Toolbox, and Visual Studio, but Access is a nice quick way to lay the groundwork and test things out.

The issue that is holding me back, always, is the price tag.  It’s ridiculous what they charge for a program that is upgraded at least every year.

Just got done reading about the Kansas church that is going around picketing the funerals of fallen servicemen.  Thankfully one father is finally suing them.

I went out to the Westboro Baptist Church (warning: you may find a LOT of what you see offensive) web page to give them a piece of my mind.  But after perusing the site and seeing how they view things and what else they are up to I gave up.  What’s the point with people like that?

Once again, it isn’t my place to determine who is or isn’t part of God’s family, but this group is totally off base.  This isn’t your average “well-meaning but they just got some things wrong,” group.  They are so full of venom that they had to have completely disregarded large chunks of the Bible including three chapters in Matthew that I can think of off hand.

I wish I could put this out of my mind and just let them go on with their radical selves.  Unfortunately, the NY Times called them a church, and their leader a pastor.  So now there are a bunch of people wandering around who, when contacted by a Christian with God’s work at heart, are going to have this in the backs of their minds.

Thanks for the help, guys.  Shouldn’t you be chasing “outlanders” through the corn with a sickle or something?

Already, with the season just approaching the halfway point, the question is:  will the Patriots run the table?  A little premature, especially since they have the similarly undefeated Indianapolis Colts in their path.  But, given their own recent, ill-fated brush with perfection, I’m guessing that the Colts have no problem with that snub.

Anyway, I say the Pats will defeat the Colts but will not run the table.  Sure, it seems that Bill Belichick and Co. have a huge chip on their shoulders after spy-gate and are out to show the whole world what they can do, with or without cheating.  That’s all well and fine right now.  But how about going into their 15th game after they have clinched everything and have nothing to gain or lose in the game?  That’s when the coach will suddenly realize that, in playing his starters, he may be choosing between a perfect regular season and a Super Bowl ring.  Even the most dominant team is not immune to injury.

So, the irony is that the Colts may be the force that drives New England to a perfect season.  If Indy loses to the Pats and then continues along with just that one loss, the Pats won’t clinch home field all the way until after their 15th game.

– B –

Speaking of perfection, the winless Dolphins are off to Merry Old England for a tilt against the suddenly hot NY Giants.  In theory this is to help spread the NFL gospel around the globe.  In reality I suspect it is more an exercise in “how far away do you have to go to find someone who is still interested in seeing the Miami Dolphins?” (more…)

My heart is with the Rockies, but last night’s 13-1 Boston laugher is how I feared this Series might go.  So much for streaking through teams.  Now we get to see what Colorado can muster when they are in a real fight.

Josh Beckett continued his post-season dominance.  Memo to the Rockies:  you need to quickly figure out how to touch up Schilling and Matsuzaka because if you can make a contest out of this you’ll be seeing Beckett twice more.

It almost seems like overkill sending Beckett out to the mound with a batting order like Boston’s.  Or is it overkill sending the starters up to bat with Beckett on the hill?  Beckett is your game 5, “We’ve got to have it, kid,” pitcher is in the ALCS.  All the Sox need right now is a “just keep ‘em in single digits” pitcher which could be just about anyone.

I’m switching jobs and thus switching computers, so I spent the weekend moving personal stuff from my work laptop to a new personal machine.  In the process I got to work with MS Vista, and when I say “got to” I mean “couldn’t avoid.”  OMG!  Apparently Microsoft got sick of people paying McAfee and Symantec (Norton) to render their computers useless by making the task of opening a web page more difficult than breaking into Ft Knox and decided to build that functionality right into Vista.  I finally gave up and rolled the thing back to XP Pro.  Hats off to HP by the way.  It was a relative snap to get all the XP drivers for a Vista-intended machine from customer support.

I probably could have fought through all the security and gotten Vista set up to my liking, but why?  It’s not like there was some pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.  “Once I get this installed the fight will have been worth it because now I’ll be able to __ ?”  Nothing.  It was an effort to simply return to status quo.  And actually I’m sure I would have been setting myself up for more headaches because I do a lot of scripting and programming which would likely have melted Vista down.

Word is you can probably just bypass Vista and wait for the next big OS that is due out in a couple of years.  Man, I hope Vista turns out to be this decade’s Windows Millenium.  You know, something that inspires MS to pull their heads out of their asses and give their customers some value.

On the flip side, I’m really liking the new version of Windows Live Writer.  I have to admit, the Windows Live tools are looking good.  The interface is slick and so far the program runs smooth and is easy to use.  The only issue I have is that the current version won’t pull in my WordPress categories.  But, when I saw this and went back to Performancing I realized that I’d rather just add categories after the fact than deal with all of the Firefox add-on’s format issues.

Normally I totally ignore all the TV fluff headlines, but msn’s TV Stars’ Regrettable Roles caught my eye.  For an industry that turns out crap at such an astounding rate you hardly ever catch them admitting it.  Well, this piece was, for the most part, no exception.  Most of the stars in question “confessed” to stuff no one has ever heard of.  So it was pretty much a ho-hum, “take your word for it” exercise.

Come on guys and gals, cop to the things where the enormity of stench is well known to the reader.  Of course I’m sure their current projects were off limits which is a shame because judging by the early pub, this year’s crop of “must-see TV” and the like seems as dismal as ever.  “Cane?”  Oooo … just like Dallas but with sugar and Latinos replacing oil and Texans.  Who isn’t intrigued by the cut-throat world of big sugar?  “Dirty Sexy Money?”  That’s not a title, it’s a grab for search engine hits.

So hats off to Kelsey Grammer for coming clean and reminding everyone of his involvement in Down Periscope.  Now there’s a well-known stinker!  That must have taken courage but you know, admitting it is the first step toward never doing that again.

In honor of one of Creed’s best blog posts ever, it’s time for a long overdue update on the Office. Also in honor of Creed, one of the new season’s funniest moments: young Creed (pictured here).

Back to a recurring theme – the Jim and Pam debacle which this season has become the Jim and Pam gambit.  First of all, hats off to the writers.  They managed to stretch that storyline for 2 seasons without it getting stale.  But now they’ve given in and are dancing with the devil that has killed many a “when will they get together?” based sitcom.  Jim and Pam are together.

At the outset of this season it appeared that the writers’ mastery would continue.  First they had laid the groundwork for this development by lessening Jim’s role in the show.  He’s the office #2, but in terms of the balance of things, his character isn’t the focus that it once was.  There was plenty of other craziness to keep the viewer from realizing how boring puppy love is when you have to actually watch it.

Then came last week’s episode.  OMG!  It was full on Pam and Jim as the office mommy and daddy.  How many times did Pam look over at Jim with that pathetic “do something” look only to have Jim get up and go attend to the problem?  No, no, no.  That’s the stuff that made Tony Danza, not the Office. (more…)