Drinking whiskey clear!
Boris Johnson, the Tory mayor of London, nixed the idea of a “Multi-faith Concert”… in favor of (wait for it…) a “Christmas Carol Service” at London’s famous Southwark Cathedral. In fact, Boris has personally banned all attempts by the PC police in his office to change “Christmas” to a “holiday festival” or “winter celebration” or what have you. And for that I say… thank you, sir!
Oh, and he’s bringing back the double decker buses, too!
Read more about it here.
There were rumors that Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson was being wooed by Auburn “University”. Tech squashed those rumors today, signing Johnson to a 7-year, $17.7 million contract. Johnson, voted ACC Coach of the Year, will earn $2.3 million in 2009 (with unspecified “incentives” thrown in). Not bad for a guy whose team was supposed to finish at or near the bottom if the ACC; instead, Johnson went 3-1 against ranked teams, and beat Clemson, Miami, Florida State and UGA to end the regular season 9-3, the most wins for any first-year football coach in Georgia Tech’s history. And since that history includes names like John Heisman, William Alexander, and Bobby Dodd… well, that’s just impressive!
This is great news, folks!
I just wanted to let you know that I’ve changed a couple of things on the trusty jimcofer.com server, and now Google Chrome appears to work with my site!
As I mentioned in previous posts, I used to run a “regular” website, and then installed WordPress in the /personal directory on my server. Once I ditched the “old fashioned” site, I changed the root index.htm file to simply redirect users to /personal, where WordPress would take over. While this “hack” worked with every…other…browser in existence, Chrome – for whatever reason – didn’t like that at all… not even the latest 1.0 version, which may or may not include the new stack which would (supposedly) fix this issue. However, last night I actually set up the redirect on the server side, and Chrome now works with jimcofer.com!
Unfortunately, Chrome still doen’t work for our sister site, belmontpc.info. I’m continuing to look into that issue…
Is it just me, or is Kim Kardashian actually getting better looking as time goes on?
She looks an awful lot like Monica Bellucci in this picture, don’t ya think?
UPDATE: A couple more pics from her new calendar:
– Federal regulators today announced new rules for the credit card industry. These consumer-friendly rules will hopefully cut back on some of the industry’s most egregious practices. Some examples of the new rules? Credit card companies will no longer be allowed to raise rates on existing balances; any payment above the minimum amount must apply to the balance with the highest interest rate; the minimum time before a change in terms goes into effect has been increased from 15 to 45 days; and consumers must have at least 21 days to make a payment. There are more rule changes (read about them here); unfortunately, they won’t go into effect until July, 2010… assuming we’re all not broke before then. Also, no rule was passed regarding universal default – the rule that allows Citibank to increase the rate on your Citi Visa if you’re late with a payment to Discover – but with the new Congress and the economy in the tank, I feel action will come on that soon.
– Think you can get rid of a hangover by eating greasy food, or keep your children calm by keeping them away from sugar? Think again. Researchers at Indiana University have busted these (and other) “winter food” myths. Read all about it all the BBC’s website here.
– R.I.P. to “Slammin’ Sammy” Baugh, former Redskins quarterback. He was 94. Baugh was one of the NFL’s biggest stars from 1937 to 1952, and he was also the last surviving member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s “inaugural class” of 1963. To show you how big a star Sammy was, I was born nearly 20 years after he finished playing (my parents were 4 years old when Sammy quit!), and even I knew his nickname! Rest in peace, Sammy!
– Two articles of interest for Georgia Tech football fans: this AP article talks about how coach Paul Johnson is adding several tweaks to his already-potent offense for the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. I followed Navy football for the past few years under Johnson, and I’ve been saying that Johnson hasn’t come anywhere near to using his entire Navy playbook at Georgia Tech. This, apparently, will change. Also, in this article, Johnson talks about how, despite being the winningest freshman coach in America, and despite winning against UGA, Johnson is nowhere near satisfied with his team. I like the cut of that man’s jib!
– SGAE, a Spanish group for musicians similar to America’s RIAA, has been busted by a Spanish court for secretly infiltrating weddings and other events, looking for music licensing violations. It seems that back in 2005, a SGAE investigator posing as a cameraman, infiltrated a wedding party at La Doma restaurant just outside Seville. The agency had long suspected La Doma of using music without having the requisite license. Sure enough, La Doma was found guilty of this and forced to pay a fine of €43,179. Amusingly, SGAE was fined €60,101 for violating the privacy of the wedding party. So… SGAE got their victory, but it cost them almost €18,000… not to mention all court costs and all the bad publicity!
– The Yankees just shelled out a quarter of a billion dollars for two pitchers? Seriously? Well, this just proves that, if the New York Yankees’ chartered jet collided in midair with the Dallas Cowboys’ jet… I’d burn my penis jerking off over the wreckage!
With a vote of 31-0, the NFL today unanimously approved the restructuring of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ ownership. From this article at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s website:
Under the terms of the plan, Dan Rooney and Art Rooney II together will own a 30 percent interest in the team. The sale is expected to close on March 31.
Three new partners in the Steelers also were approved by NFL owners:
• James Haslam III, 54, of Knoxville, Tenn. He is the president of Pilot Travel Centers, operator of travel centers and truckstops. Pilot, based in Nashville, Tenn., also operates 40 convenience stories in the Knoxville, Tenn., area.
• Thomas Tull, 38, of Los Angeles. He is chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures, a film production company, which joined with Warner Bros, to co-produce and co-finance films such as The Dark Knight, 300 and Batman Begins.
• The Paul family, whose members include Donna and Robert Paul and their children Larry Paul, 44, Stephen Paul, 44 and Karen Zimmer, 39. The family’s operations are based in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles and include Ampco-Pittsburgh, a metal fabricator, TV and radio stations and cable and cell phone operations.
“We are obviously very pleased to be keeping the Steelers’ ownership within the Rooney family and are appreciative of our fellow NFL owners’ support,” Dan Rooney said. “Today’s vote ensures that the Rooney family will be associated with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL for a very long time.”
Great news!
Have you ever been out and about and wanted a sports score?
If you’ve got one of those slick new smartphones with a speedy 3G connection, it’s not a problem. But if you’re stuck with a regular old cell phone, mobile Internet is slow as hell, and downright painful to use. If you open your mobile web browser during the second quarter of a football game, chances are good that the game will be over by the time the score finally appears on your screen!
So that leaves SMS. There are dozens of free services out there that will send you sports scores via text message. The only problem with most of them is that you have to “sign up” for their service, which means that you’ll get the scores every Sunday – sometimes multiple times if you sign up for a service that sends you updates every quarter, or every time someone scores. This is also annoying, as at least eight Steelers games have been shown on local TV this year. Few things annoy me more than getting text message scores… about a game I’m watching on TV!
That’s why I’ve really taken a shine to 4INFO’s SMS sports score service. While you can sign up to get scores all season long, you can also use it on demand! Just text the name of your team (e.g. “Steelers”) to 44636 (4INFO) and, in around 15 seconds, they’ll send you the score! The service currently supports NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, NASCAR and NCAA football and basketball. They even have some “advanced features” too, like rankings, standings and schedules.
Check out this page for more information!
“We want to defend each blade of grass.”
– William Gay
Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback
The missus and I stopped by Trader Joe’s last Saturday while we were out running errands. Since Lisa had a few specific things that she wanted to pick up, I just kind of roamed the beer aisle while she went about her business. While there, I spotted a can of something called “Simpler Times Lager”. A single can only cost 67¢ (a full sixer will only set you back $3.99). So then I figured, “What the hell… it’s only 67¢!”
So… how is it? It’s… decent. It’s a lager, obviously. It’s got an appealing taste that hints at good drinkability, even if the head’s a little wimpy. It tastes light enough to be a barbeque beer, but it also has a touch of a stronger lager’s heft. In short, Simpler Times tastes a bit like what I’d imagine Pabst or Schlitz first tasted like back in the 1840s: a hardcore German lager lightened up a tad for the American market (as opposed to Budwesier or Coors, which is German lager that’s been lightened up a lot). Simpler Times won’t become the 2 Buck Chuck of the beer world, but it’s far better than Budweiser or Coors, in my (not so) humble opinion.
I checked out a few beer review sites, where Simpler Times was ravaged as “piss-poor swill”; that’s almost a “badge of honor” in my book, since I actually hate beer review sites. There’s just something so elitist about them. Just as many “foodie” websites look down their collective noses at any “unwashed prole” that would deign to eat Kraft Mac and Cheese instead of growing their own wheat to make their own pasta to coat in a sauce made from imported, $35.99/pound cheese, I feel that these beer sites are skewed towards the beer snob that won’t drink anything that doesn’t come directly from Bavaria.
But these review sites do make one good point, and that is this: although Simpler Times might be a decent beer, it’s only sold at Trader Joes. Which means that, for many people (assuming they even have a Trader Joe’s near them at all), buying a sixer of Simpler Times means driving 20 minutes to get to a Trader Joes… and passing countless convenience stores on the way that sell Pabst or Schlitz. So while I like Simpler Times, I just don’t see where I’d buy it that often. If I woke on a football Sunday and found that I had no beer, I’d rather drive to my local quickie mart to get a sixer of PBR than make the hour-long round trip journey to get Simpler Times. Don’t get me wrong – if Lisa called to say that she was stopping by TJs on the way home from work, I’d love me some Simpler Times… I just don’t think I’d go out of my way to get it, especially not when there are a dozen places to buy something nearly as good here in Belmont.
I swear, this is driving me crazy! The Internets are full of Baltimore Ravens fans, bitching and whining about the “controversial” touchdown call in Sunday’s game against the Steelers. I understand where they’re coming from (see also: Troy Polamalu’s interceptions in the 2005 playoffs versus Indy and at the end of the Chargers game a few weeks ago). But still… it’s rich to hear Ratbirds fans complain about the officiating in Sunday’s game when this went on all game long:
In related news, the Steelers have jumped to the top of The Sporting News’ NFL Power Rankings. Also, check out Yahoo’s “premature playoff picture here.