Love the Drake

At Last

Wow, those Red Sox really shutdown the Cardinals to sweep them and win the 2004 World Series.

It shows you how hard it is to play a team that is streaking hot. The Cardinals dominated all season long, but couldn't touch the Red Sox in this 4-game sweep.

I know every Cub fan was rooting for the Red Sox, or at least against the Cardinals in this series.

I was rooting for the Red Sox. I've been there, I've been to the playoff games were you're so close, and it's all taken away. I've cheered on a lousy team for decades that drags you in and sucks the life out of you.

Congrats Boston, job well done. At Last (from boston.com).

Now, it's our turn.

Update: Comments closed.

Human Capital

What if you've got the next great idea and lack the dollars to build it. Well, most people would say, go get some venture capitalist to kick start it.

That answer is so 90's.

Nowadays, it's not what you know, it's what you do with it. It's developing great businesses and living your passion by bringing human capital to the table. Time is money and sometimes, all you got is time.

I've been poking around the Menlo Park 2.0 forums providing some of my own insights on a few projects being pitched. There is some intelligent people there, I hope I can contribute more in the coming months.

Check out the manifesto.

Curse? What curse?

At least until the end of this season, I am officially a Red Sox Fan.

After the Cubs self destructed this year and lacking any ability to root for the Cardinals, or Astros, I've settled on the underdog, the Red Sox.

Given the large quotient of "Ex-Cub Factor" involved in these games, it wasn't that hard to watch or root for the Red Sox. These games are really good games to watch. They've been more of battles than games, sometimes even endurance tests for both fans and players. Fox has to be excited about this, they couldn't script the series any better.

I've never been a big fan of the Yankees, and would love for the Red Sox to make history and be the first team ever to come back and win a series after going 0-3.

If they do win, I'll be buying a Red Sox hat to wear during the World Series. If they don't win, I'll be rooting for an earthquake that swallows up both teams.

After watching Fox's coverage, I think they've shown about 25% of all fans present in Boston. It seems every other shot is of a fan praying. One thing I've noticed is that their is a lot of different hats to choose from.

Don't believe the hype

The following is an email I sent my friend Jim after we watched Fahrenheit 9/11 while visiting Nebraska for the weekend. I've publicly stated that I had no real desire to see the movie knowing how Michael Moore makes them. I especially didn't want to benefit Michael Moore by purcasing or renting the movie. Since he already rented it, I figured why not watch it.

Jim,

I was thinking about the movie we watched over the weekend over lunch. I thought it was the most depressing movie I’ve ever watched. It was a one-sided, biased movie that showcases Moore’s gift of twisting facts that lulls you into a state of disbelief.

Every story has at least 2 sides to it. Most documentaries present both of those sides or at least try to. Moore made no attempt and that meant others had to. Take a look at the attached 4 page document titled “Fifty-nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 911”. It tries, in a very brief manner, to dissect the deceits (“twists of facts”) Moore presented in his movie. More details can be found on the authors web site: http://www.davekopel.com/Terror/Fiftysix-Deceits-in-Fahrenheit-911.htm

A new movie that went straight to DVD called FahrenHype 9/11 was just released to provide counterpoints to Moores’s movie. I think I might buy that one and send one along to you. http://www.fahrenhype911.com/

Don’t believe the hype.

-Don

Two copies of Fahrenhype 911 are in the mail, one for me and one for him.

Sellout

I added Google's AdSense content-specific ads to the site today. I've sold out and I feel fine.

I'm not expecting to make anything from the ads, just another experiment in this whole Internet blogging thang.

Laces Out!

Former NFL kicker sought in shooting at Siegfried & Roy home

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) -- A former place-kicker for the Oakland Raiders is being sought in a drive-by shooting at the home of entertainers Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, police said Wednesday.

Cole Murdoch Ford, 31, whose three-year NFL career ended after he missed crucial kicks during the 1997 season, was named in a felony warrant stemming from the September 21 shooting, Sgt. Chris Jones said.

I've seen that movie already. Someone make sure Dan Marino and Snowflake (the Miami Dolphin's Mascot) are okay.

Dot Ugh

During the vice presidential debate last night, Cheney referred to FactCheck.com as a source of reliable information proving he is not profiting from the war in Iraq via Halliburton.

Unfortunately, he meant to say "FactCheck.org" -- not .com.

And sure enough, FactCheck.com redirects you to billionaire George Soros' web site and the banner reads: "Why we must not re-elect President Bush".

When I heard him say that, I knew he was really trying to say factcheck.org, and thought to myself, "I bet factcheck.com is a porn site or something even worse." It's worse than a porn site.

Redirecting swing voters to Mr. Ant-Bush, Mr. Anybody But Bush, Mr. funding Moveon.org himself. I'm sure Soros was so elated to hear Cheney mis-speak that he asked his henchman: "Now, is it too much to ask to get sharks with friggin' laser beams attached to their heads?"

Update

From The Wall Street Journal:

The site, FactCheck.com, appears to have no connection to Mr. Soros other than to redirect traffic to his site.

Mr. Soros "was as surprised by it as everyone else," said Michael Vachon, a spokesman for Mr. Soros. He said Mr. Soros doesn't own the domain name factcheck.com and doesn't know why traffic to that site is being re-directed to Mr. Soros's personal home page.

In fact, FactCheck.com is owned by Name Administration Inc., a Cayman Islands company that engages in so-called "domain parking" -- it acquires discarded Web sites and monetizes the traffic with text advertising.

The site had been showing education-related ads, mostly for online-degree programs, when Mr. Cheney mentioned the site during the debate. Suddenly, Name Administration saw a surge in traffic -- about 50,000 unique visitors in the first hour -- which costs the company money for Internet bandwidth, according to John Berryhill, Name Administration's attorney. Before, the site had been getting just 200 visits a day.

Kevin O!

After months of asking me What's a blog? Why do people blog? Kevin Oleniczak has decided to join the blogging ranks.

Hopefully he'll expland his writings beyond politics, theres a niche out there (somewhere) that he can fill.

Good Luck Kevin.

Update

Turns out Kevin has 2 blogs now. Why have one when you can have two?

Ole's Political Rant & Ravs
Ole's Hobbies Blog

Good idea, never mix politics with hobbies.

Attack of the killer bugs!

Those watching Mt. St. Helens waiting for it to erupt shouldn't be worried about the volcano.

They should be worried about the enourmous killer bugs in the area.

Check out this shot from the VolcanoCam:

Yamagata @ Metro

I saw Rachael Yamagata last night (9/30) at the Metro. And all I have to say is: Wow.

She started with Letter Read and with her 5-piece band, they really rocked. You could tell from the start that the band was firing on all cylinders. I have to say that Paper Dolls really sounded different (in a good way), and watching Rachael sing and scream in this song made my night.

She really is talented, showing off her smoky voice from song to song throughout the night. In fact she took a break during a song to take a drag on her cigarette. I have an appreciation to hear someone singing live (in tune) with emotion and energy. She proved to me her voice is not studio enhanced, and is the real deal.

Ending with The Reason Why, performed solo on the piano, was a classy move. It was a great ending to a great concert.

Normally, I wouldn't waste my time talking about the opening act sucking, but Tom McRae really annoyed me.

I know the guy is a British folk singer, but from his comments between songs, he has a lot of rage that needs escaping. He mentioned between songs how he wouldn't mind Tony Blair and his wife "being killed". He then added George Bush to the list as well. I don't care where your politics are at, there's no place for this.

So, for his last song, he tells the Piano player and celloist to go get a drink. They walk off, he unplugs his guitar and says he's going to "experiment". He stands as close to the audience as possible (and far away from a microphone) and starts singing. You could barely hear him, but the 2 people who wanted to hear him were screaming for everyone to shutup. I think the only person who enjoyed the last song was Tom McRae, and I don't think he minded much.