Saturday, July 02, 2005

Your definitive LIVE h8, er, 8 round-up

PyroManiac, also known as Phillip Johnson, is in London inspecting the public loos.

Brian Preston isn't in London, but he's doesn't need to be there to be there, if you know what I mean.

Captain Ed still has doubts, even after being on a conference call with 8's organizers.

Yeah, that just about, pretty much wraps this decades "visualize whirled peas for everyone", uh, concert.

Thank you, London! Good night!

Americans take 1, 2 in Stage One

Today is the start of the 2005 Tour de France. The Editor is a HUGE fan.

This year's Tour started out different than usual In any other year, today would be the prologue - a short 8-12 minute time trial - to determine who wears the maillot jeune for Stage One. Well, that's not how it began this year. Today was a 19km (still short, but not as short as a prologue) time trial that counts against the overall classification.

Of the 2 Americans finishing on top today was, of course, Lance Armstrong... BUT he took second. 1st went to David Zabriskie, finishing 2 seconds ahead of LA. That in itself is a big story for the young rider in his first TdF. He'll be wearing the Yellow Jersey to start stage 2 (and a huge smile) as well as have a stage win under his belt.

Still, what might be an even bigger story at the moment is that LA already has a 1:05 lead on last year's, and 5-time, runner up - Jan Ullrich. Jan might not be his biggest competition (updated) this year, but that's big. Actually, LA's biggest competition any year is probably himself.

Anyway, it was an exciting beginning to the 2005 TdF. This one should be good - they ride hard from the start.

UPDATE: BTW, Americans took 4 of the top 10 spots in Stage One. SWEEEEEEET!

UPDATE II: Velonews finally has their story up. Look at that. Wow- the Maillot Jeune for Zabriskie.

UPDATE III: ESPN calls Stage One a prologue on their frontpage... Amatures!
Prologue To A Dream?
Lance Armstrong clearly covets a seventh straight Tour de France. In Saturday's prologue, he finished two seconds behind time-trial winner Dave Zabriskie on a banner day for Americans.
Luckily, they refrain from doing so in their story.

Friday, July 01, 2005

Friday Night cat blogging????

(Uh don't you really, kinda dislike cats? - Ed.)

He's got a point. The deal is we just picked up a new Canon EOS Digital Rebel and this was my second living subject. (Not bad. - Ed.)



UPDATE: This feline is the one I was hoping to catch earlier. We call him Phat Cat.

Have one for 'em this Independence Day weekend (UPDATED!!!)

I'd been a little anxious the last couple days regarding the helo crash in Afghanistan. Froggy had us covered on details, but it seems we are still not certain who they were going in after. I was a little concerned that this soldier might be one of 'em... but he wasn't. Got word today he is doing fine and was not involved.

I also got a sneak peek at the photo below (face blurred to protect soldier's identity). They give up so much. Before leaving for the battlefield he made a video for his little girl - looks like she misses him (Warning: Those of the female persuasion may tear up. Uh, let's be honest, shall we? It'll hit you 'em all hard. - Ed.)
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Make sure to have a cold one for those saving your a** while you're BBQing this weekend.

UPDATE: SEND 'EM A MESSAGE! NOW! (Do it! - Ed.) Via: California Conservative

UPDATE II: I wish you all could see the unedited version. The look on the Soldier's face adds so much to it. That little girl really IS why he's over there.

UPDATE III: I'll bet Dan Healy's kids were the reason why he was willing to fight... and die.
Healy's children were the focus of his life, despite his having to move a lot, she said.
Yep. Via Stones Cry Out

Thursday, June 30, 2005

You don't say...

Now this is some interesting news I'VE NEVER HEARD BEFORE:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The vast majority of suicide attackers in Iraq are thought to be foreigners — mostly Saudis and other Gulf Arabs — and the trend has become more pronounced this year with North Africans also streaming in to carry out deadly missions, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

The bombers are recruited from Sunni communities, smuggled into Iraq from Syria after receiving religious indoctrination, and then quickly bundled into cars or trapped with explosive vests and sent to their deaths...
I'm just totally dumbfounded. (Stop. - Ed)

Juuuuuuust a bit outside...

"Uh, Allstate? Yeah, I, uh had a, uh seven-thousand tonne ferry plow into my boat, today."

CBS? NBC? ABC? CNN? MSNBC? FOX?

Good thing he didn't want to kill a white Christian man - I might not be here to blog, today. Phew, that was a close one.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

I want my Lactobacillus Casei strain Shirota

During my time in Australia I became accustomed to having a Yakult with breakfast and a Yakult with dinner. (A what? - Ed. A Yakult.) My digestion had never been better. Granted, I've never had digestion problems, per se, but there was certainly a difference - they call it "probiotics". I was hooked when I first saw that 'cause I'm quite anti-anitbiotic (It must be one of those white Christian red-state things. - Ed.)

Upon my return to the motherland I did my best find Yakult in America. In 2001, I was able to hunt down Yakult's tiny U.S. office in Torrence, California. This was their response:
What we do here is import our products freshly from Mexico (YakultMexico has been doing business for almost 20 years.) and distribute here in Southern California (Los Angeles, San Diego) mainly targeting the oriental markets (As you may know the distribution is limited in Southern California). We sell the product here just as regular Dairy Beverage without doing any health claims compling with the Federal and California State food regulation. We have just started this project few years ago and as we are still in progress, we do not yet have plans to expand to other states. We are not prepared to do business like in Australia yet.

Regarding your request of purchasing on a regular basis from us, we can not do it in any business basis. We are not prepared to do business in other states by our organization itself (you might be suprized but there are only two staff here including me) and by the regulation. It is really difficult for us to do retail in any commercial
basis. I hope you understand.
Disappointing, but understandable.

Just a few months ago, I read a press release that stated Yakult headquarters in Nippon had come to some sort of marketing and product agreement with Danone, or Dannon here in the states. I was totally bummed, because to me that meant to get the "probiotic" goods I craved I'd have to purchse some pansy French company's products (DanActive - gross!). I tried them - they sucked monkey balls.

Then today, out of the blue, I received this from Marilu Perez with Yakult USA:

Dear Mr. [Editor]:

We hope you remember us and hope you are doing fine.

Back in November 2001 you contacted our office in California requesting information of stores that sell Yakult in Seattle, unfortunately at that time we did not have any distribution to Seattle. We are happy to inform you that with great effort we expand our distribution to Seattle, it has been a bit difficult to distribute Yakult to other States since we import our product from Mexico. Thank you for your patience, the following are 2 stores in Seattle that sell Yakult. *ENJOY*

UWAJIMAYA SEATTLE
600 5th Ave. S.
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 624-6248

UWAJIMAYA BELLEVUE
15555 NE. 24th St.
Bellevue, WA 98007
(425) 747-9012

Needless to say, I now have two 5-packs sitting in the fridge right now (Uh, come on, you've already had two. - Ed. Fine, a 3-pack and a 5-pack).

One man can make a difference! (*cough**cough*-Ed.)

Thank you YAKULT!!!!!!

Commie faggots still trying to rewrite history

Europe is a sick, sick, sick joint.

Via Greyhawk

You worried about shark attacks? Hire Deano!

In light of all the recent shark attack news I'm going to rehash this story for you all.
"The great pity was it had to be killed – particularly as it was wounded. I know they (great whites) are becoming extinct. But there is only one of me and it could have made me extinct very quickly."
I'm not going to reveal my connection to the story because it might give my identity away to people I don't want to have it, but I can tell you about those tunas.

You may be asking yourself, "Why risk your life for a few stinkin' tuna?" They are auctioned off on the Japanese market - 1 fish can go for upwards of $80,000 or more (the record is somewhere around $175,000), so a few dead fish could easily cost $150,000 or more. I'm not necessarily suggesting these bluefin would go for that much, but it could answer the question why he jumped in.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

A nice white fish and Johannesburg Riesling

A year from today the Editor turns 30-years of age. I'm not certain what that means, but I know a lot of people of the female persuasion find this to be an excruciating year leading up to it. Heck, I didn't even remember it was my birthday until the EiP Babe gave me a card this morning. I'm just too busy to think about it.

Anyway, if you were thinking about getting me anything I'm not interested. I just don't need anymore stuff. Plus, we just purchased a new Digital Rebel and the wedding is less than a month away, so there'll be plenty of junk... er, gifts piling up.

(Uh, I don't think anyone was contemplating getting you anything. - Ed. Yeah, that was for my benefit, thank you.)