Author: jcalvert

Furthering my belief that college signing day is really for the birds, Georgia is dropping recruits left and right.

“Two more Georgia football recruits will not be able to enroll this fall for academic reasons, further eroding coach Mark Richt’s highly touted recruiting class.

Corey Moon and Jamar Bryant are the fourth and fifth of Richt’s 19 signees whose academics prevent them from being on the team. Another, safety Antavious Coates, injured a knee last month and is sidelined for the entire season.” [Source: Yahoo! Sports]

Georgia’s class should still be fairly stout, but you really have to wait 2-3 years to see how the classes actually turn out.

Yesterday, after a process of several months, I finally closed on my grandmother’s house. My grandmother passed away a little over two years ago, and while I do not want to go into all the family details, it has been a heck of a process to finally get the house. As of yesterday at 10AM, I am now the owner of two mortgages.

The plan is to start renovations next week; we have a 120-day contract with our construction/remodeling company. Hopefully we can move into sometime in late October or early November. Of course that means we have to time the sale of our current house, which is going to be a not so fun proposition.

The good news is that the house stays in the family – it was built (I think) by my great grandfather in 1902. The house is larger than my current house, and will have great opportunities for entertainment, which my current house certainly does not provide. We are also going to get a deck, a fenced in back yard for the kids (and a much wanted dog), and a garage apartment among other things. The house is a Columbus, GA historic park district casually called Lakebottom. The historic part is another story, but the park is only .3 miles from the house, which is going to be wonderful for the kids. I played there when I was a kid, and now my kids get to experience the same thrills and spills of the neighborhood park.

The bad news, besides needing a lot (and I do mean a lot) of money to fix up the house, is that the garage apartment is in shambles – wood rot, old termite damage, the whole nine yards. I want to keep the garage apartment because it increases the value of the house, and I lived in the upstairs apartment when I was in college. The builders practically have to rebuild the whole damn thing; about 25 percent of it is gone right now, which is also another story for another day. This little project is completely out of pocket, which means pretty soon I will no longer have money in said pocket. Major ouch, and it will certainly cut down on any sort of gaming budget that I think I may have for the next few months.

The good news is that I now own my grandmother’s house. Tonya and I decided that since we are spending so much money to restore the garage apartment that we should somehow get some use out of the damn thing. We are going to convert the bottom area into a game room. Hello pool table and refrigerator full of beer (the beer part was actually Tonya’s idea, bless her).

I just figured I would write/share a little, since I cannot sleep (5AM Saturday morning) – worrying about that second mortgage I guess. Plus this explains why I have not had any free time for gaming – I have been spending most of my free time over at my grandmother’s house sorting out 100+ years of stuff.

I just stumbled across one of the best (and definitely the most entertaining) threads I have read in some time. For those easily offended by male behavior, you better not take a look. Otherwise, click here for a laugh for two.

I have nothing better to write about right now, so how about my current iPod favorite play list (as if I am a celebrity).

• Pump It – Black Eyed Peas
  Because I have to have some good Hip-Hop funk, and any thing on Monkey Business is a great place to start.
• Almost – Bowling for Soup
  I like their sound, and I like their lyrics. This is more like a guilty pleasure song. I didn’t almost do anything in this song, but it is still great fun.
• Hollaback Girl – Gwen Stefani
  I guess I like it for the bitch factor; another fun song that is even better if you crank up the volume.
• Behind These Hazel Eyes – Kelly Clarkson
  Uh … I guess this is the first pop I have picked up in a while, but this Clarkson is all right. That and my wife says my hazel eyes are green.
• Something About You – Level 42
  Came out right smack-dab in the middle of the 80’s, and all good readers know I love me some 80’s music. “Something About You” is about as good as it gets for this era.
• Ass Like That � Eminem
  

  “Hilary Duff is not quite old enough so
  I ain’t never seen a butt like that
  Maybe next year I’ll say ass and she’ll make my pee pee go
  Doing, doing, doing”

  Seriously, are there better lyrics out there?

• China Girl � David Bowie
  Because a play list is just not a play list until David Bowie makes it complete. One of the top songs of all times.
• Beverly Hills – Weezer
  Not that I care about the left coast, or the life style (OK, I admit I want a Boxter), but this song speaks volumes for why our society is so f’up.
• Mr. Brightside – The Killers
  This group rules! I cannot wait to see how their music develops, and screw the pundits, The Killers kick ass.
• Just a Lil bit – 50 Cent
  Because my wife likes it when I come home with a beer in my belly, and dancing to my dirty music. OK, I said too much.
• Shut Up – Simple Plan
  I doubt anyone thinks I am into the teen anguish thing, but this one is pretty good and goes equally well with a beer or a short jog.

All comments written after partaking in the wonderful world of Red Stripe, so no need to take my ramblings very seriously, for these comments are only intended to provide chuckle or two. No apologies necessary.

Texas just managed to pull off a hell of a comeback, beating Baylor 4 – 3 a few mins ago with a walk-off homer in the 9th, thus advancing to the championship series this weekend.

Texas has look awsome so far in the 2005 edition of the College World Series, beating Baylor 5 – 1, Tulane 5 – 0, and Baylor again tonight 4 – 3.

Hook ’em!

I have not even gotten started writing about my frustrations with last weekend’s US Grand Prix debacle at Indy, but I will start building up steam. Here is a beauty of a quote

“Jacques Villeneuve, meanwhile, blamed Ferrari for their failure to agree to the introduction of a chicane: “We could have raced with a chicane, if a chicane had been put before the banking, but Ferrari didn’t accept.”

Michael Schumacher’s comment, “I don’t know what Michelin’s problem is, but this wasn’t our problem,” spoke volumes about Ferrari’s intransigence ahead of F1’s race of shame.

It is amazing that Ferrari could be built out as the bad guy in this mess. There are lots of things that could have (dare I say should have) been done to prevent the weekend’s fiasco from occurring, but even if Ferrari agreed to a new chicane, I doubt the FIA would have went along.

Devil’s advocate time – suppose Ferrari and the FIA would have agreed to add a chicane, how is that a better solution that multiple changes of tires for the Michelin runners? Adding a chicane over running a slightly slower speed? Using a chicane instead of ducking into the pits each lap to prevent the load on turn 13?

Regardless of the potential solution, one was never found. David Coulthard said it best

“The bottom line is Michelin made a mistake. But after that the FIA had it in their hands to find a solution and ensure we all raced out there. The most important people, the fans, have been forgotten in all of this,” noted Coulthard.”

The fans were indeed screwed, and I find myself questioning why I bother to follow the sport I (used to?) love so dearly.

For the first time in 30+ years a US based team has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans! The US owned Audi R8 Champion Racing team was first to take the checkered flag in what should be considered a wonderful achievement for the US. Corvette Racing (the Corvette C6-R looks awesome) also managed to finish 5th and 6th overall; good for 1st and 2nd in the GT1 class.

I do not know enough about sports car racing to really make any sort of intelligent commentary about this year’s race (plus the US Grand Prix is about to start; hopefully), but suffice it to say, that I am proud of the our achievements today!

This is unfreaking believable. I have been watching F1 since 1995, and this is possibly the darkest day I have seen in F1. I am certainly not trying to overshadow the deaths of brave racers and unfortunate spectators that have gone before their time; as I said, this is my darkest day in F1.

Team bosses also said it wasn’t clear if the U.S. Grand Prix would count in the championship standings.

“This is disappointing because Formula One, at times, can’t realize it is a sport first and a political battle second,” Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart said. “Nine teams have agreed to drive for points or no points as long as a chicane is installed. It is now in the FIA’s hands, but for nine of us our position is this is sport and there are hundreds of millions of people wanting to see a race.” [Source: Yahoo]

It will be interesting to see what happens, and regardless, it will be a devastation blow to any momentum that F1 has picked up in the US, if the 2005 US Grand Prix is not blessed as an official race in the 2005 Championship.

I am not sure why, but sometimes I find rather mundane things humorous. For instance a couple of nights ago I posted about the new Miller Lite “raining beer” commercial. On the side nav referral today, to what did my wonder eyes appear? On a Google search referral “raining beer commercial” shows CG 2nd from the top; for some reason I find that rather amusing. Try “miller commercial raining beer” which also put CG in the Top 5. Funny stuff.

CG, we are all about the beer.

I absolutely hate what has happened to sports – in all but a few cases, the athletes run the show. I am not naive to the point where I do not understand what is going on in today’s sports culture, but that does not mean I have to like it.

Everyone knows about the love triangle between Kobe, Shaquille, and Uncle Phil, so I will not elaborate. Instead I want to focus on the ridiculousness surrounding the return of Phil Jackson to the Lakers. Take this gem of a quote from Kobe Bryant:

“When the Lakers began the search for a new head coach, I put my complete trust in Dr. Buss and (general manager) Mitch Kupchak to select the person they thought was best for the Lakers’ organization,” Bryant said. “In Phil Jackson, they chose a proven winner. That is something I support.”

Who gives a flying flip what Bryant thinks about the search for a new head coach? And what if Kobe did not put his complete trust in the head brass? What then? A trade demand maybe? I am so sick and tired of all the cry baby athletes that are paraded around by the media as if we actually care about their opinions. I know I do not, which means that I have already written too much about Kobe.

I love the new Miller Lite – “It is raining beer” commercial. Great stuff! Speaking of great stuff, I am not sure if anyone got my “tighten up the graphics” refernece from a few posts back. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you need to check out this link that I stumbled across via the new last referrals list section on the right-hand side of the site. The commercial is too damn funny!

I am not sure what that says about me, but I enjoy good commercials, 80’s music (thank you VH1 Classics!), the O’Reilly Factor, I still love to read D&D books, the first song I downloaded for my iPod was “Voices Carry” (‘Till Tuesday), I think 50 Cent kicks arse, and I still do not own an Xbox because it does not rule as much as the PS2. I am not sure what the hell that says about me, but I am a die hard Bulldogs fan, I love the Falcons, and I have followed the Braves since the Biff Pocoroba days. I have several Star Trek DVDs, Seinfeld is my favorite series, I never made it big with my Net Yaroze!, and I think it would be cool to own a hobby shope that specializes in tropical fish. In short, I walk alone.

What bothers me? Work; cannot say much since folks from work read this blog, which is hard to believe, but never the less true. iTunes does not have very much in the way of a Corey Hart selection, which is something that I think sucks in a big way. Jacko gets off when everyone knows he is a perv; plus he should no longer be called “the King of Pop.” Other stuff bothers me, like I am almost (but not all the way) attracted to Kelly Clarkson; that really bothers me for some reason. Plus I still remember the lyrics to White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It) by Grandmaster Flash, and I never come close to doing that sort of thing. But I think I may get laid tonight, so it is all good.

Finally, I have successfully played a session of TM:Head-On online. My first attempts were all met with failure; I would constantly get kicked out of any games where I managed to connect. After putting down the game for a while, I gave TM:Head-On a fresh go last night.

Not only did I successfully play online, I managed to connect to several different games without get disconnected. That is major progress! I did find it rather curious that in many games I attempted to join the players were just hanging out in the lobby doing the message thing. PSP community building? Maybe, but does not seem very fun to me; to each their own I guess.

At first blush TM:Head-On online was just as fun as TM:Black (PS2), but it would not be fair for me to judge the game after only 20 minutes of gaming action. If any readers have TM:Head-On, please post a comment or drop me an email; I would love to join you in a game sometime. While I am still not an online gaming advocate, I can see a certain appeal in getting together with 4-6 fiends and going at it in some friendly TM:Head-On action.

The good news is that I did not experience any lag, or any other networking issues that would cause me to think that the experience was not fair. Interestingly enough most of the games I played had a ping response/rating of 9999. I figured that higher means bad, but in the case of this network I think it means “unknown” and possibly bad. On most occasions my ping was listed anywhere from just under 100 to 450. More experience is really needed before I can come to any conclusions.

All in all last night was a fun night of gaming, and hopefully I will be able to make it two in a row tonight.

The Recycle Bin has had RSS and Atom feeds since day one, but I have never bothered to advertise them or “officially” publish the links. Now you can automatically be fed – just follow the “RSS FEED” and “ATOM FEED” button links on the left-hand menu, and plug into your favorite reader(s). If you are a My Yahoo! user, you are in luck, because I have added a button to automatically add the Recycle Bin feed into your my Yahoo! view.

If you run a gaming site that has an RSS feed, or if you have a favorite gaming site that has an RSS feed, please post a link in the comments section if you would like to see the link added at some point down the road. Not enough time today, but I am looking into introducing RSS feeds that would be of interest to CG readers.

As I find myself drinking some Miller Lite this afternoon, I wonder how many Rusty Wallace fans will only drink Miller Lite (today and tomorrow and the next day) when they have a cold one. I doubt I will find myself pulling for Rusty this afternoon, but I think I may have a second Lite for good measure.

I have read all sorts of articles and surveys about NASCAR and brand loyalty, and I guess I just do not get it (whatever “it” happens to be). Home Depot or Lowes? I actually like Stewart and Johnson, so that is not that big of a decision for me; whichever is closer and has the better deal. I doubt my wife has any idea who drives the Target car, and we all know women love to shop at Target. Awesome Bill and McDonalds was one I could swallow back in the day, but what about Jeff Gordon and DuPont? I guess that is why he does the Pepsi thing, and while I do like Gordon, it is Coke for me unless I need to do the Dew.

I guess I am the preverbal monkey wrench that messes up those marketing statistics. Racing fan, yes, but a NASCAR dad I am not.