According to Mike Imrem, carrying a football makes an athlete great. (I found this trail of links in Kaufman’s daily sports piece on Salon.com.) It’s hard to fathom Imrem’s argument that Lance Armstrong should not even be considered a great athlete. In fact, it is downright asinine. Fortunately, there are people out there like Patrick O’Grady who aren’t afraid to put out a “big dirty, personal foaming rant.” God bless him. There’s no doubt that Ricky Williams is a fine football player, but he would be an embarrassment at basketball, baseball, soccer, golf, and -yes- cycling. While Williams in certainly strong, Armstrong has endurance and a tolerance for pain that most football players only dream about. Never mind the fact that Armstrong has the discipline to stay in shape and avoid illicit drug use… It’s amazing the Imrem is published regularly; he should be out there pedaling [sic] his work…

Well, no one seemed too excited about my DNC postings, but whether you like it or not, the election is coming. Lately, Bush et al. have spent a lot of money defaming Kerry et al., so Americans Coming Together (ACT) decided to strike back. Will Farrell was enlisted to mock some upcoming Bush-at-the-ranch commercials. You probably have to like Will Farrell to appreciate these, but who doesn’t like Will Farrell?

“Are you sure it’s not a bear or a puma?”

Greetings all… So they say that the world is watching the DNC, but I had to go to the Comcast network to see anything prior to Bill and Hillary’s speech. It was a shame, because former-President Jimmy Carter delivered an intelligent, insightful, and inspiring speech (meanwhile, NBC showed Fear Factor). Carter, looking good at 80 years, is still eligible to serve another term – sign him up!

I was a little nervous about watching the DNC, because Kerry looked like an idiot on ESPN’s baseball tonight on Sunday – talking about the DH and what team Clemens should claim as he takes his place in the Hall of Fame. (At least Kerry got a high-five out of Millar after that dinger…) But in the end, it was pretty good television, and the Democrats looked like a unified group with positive message. Eventually, the Clintons came to play, and former-President Billiam put on a good show. Hillary was decent, but she didn’t deliver a “Presidential-level” speech. I don’t think that she has the charisma to be a viable candidate in 4 years (assuming the worst), and she may be too old 8 years from now… William J. started slow, but I think he finished on a strong note. He might have bashed the current President more than the Kerry campaign would like, but I think he did an excellent job blatantly reminding America who Bush’s policies are designed to help and how. I wonder if Teddy Kennedy will be able to match the intensity and message delivered by the two former Presidents last night…

Did anyone else see it?

Hey all… I know I’ve been absent for a while, my bad. Things have been busy at work, and I hope to have a string of good news to drop on you guys in the coming weeks. But regardless of how my wheelings and dealings turn out, I do have some great news: I have joined the ranks of uncle-dom.

My nephew, Bergen Melhus Leafblad, ‘stands’ 19″ tall and weighs 6 lbs 8 ounces. He was born today at about 2:00 pm in Minneapolis. According to my mom, he’s got a head full of black hair, and he’s the cutest baby she’s ever seen. (I’ll try to ignore that one, mom…) I hope to have a picture to post in the next few days…

Check it out at redvsblue.com. It’s pretty funny stuff. I recommend checking out the archives secti0n and watching an episode or two. My fav so far is episode 8.

Hey guys… sorry haven’t posted in a long, long time. I’ve been playing City of Heroes pretty extensively for the past week and a half. Before that Robin and I went to CA for 10 days to visit parents and other relatives…

How’s it going all?

CoH is amazingly addicting. Very simple gameplay with hardly any down-time. Very different than any other MMOG I’ve played.

Spidey 2 was great.

Fahrenheit 9/11 makes one wonder what the fuck is wrong with this country and why the hell one isn’t doing anything about it instead of holing away playing a game for hours and hours. But like I said, addicting… Seriously, though, I think everyone in this country should watch the two movies Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11. It might help us understand ourselves.

Hey guys,

So Yeung and I are going through the process of getting some new furniture for the apartment. I wanted to know if any of you have experience getting furniture shipped from Ikea (Melhus, I am looking in your direction). How were the rates? Was everything shipped unassembled (that’s what I am hoping, otherwise it won’t be worth it to pay for shipping)? How long did things take?

We’re debating between Ikea and buying stuff at brick-and-mortar stores locally. We would like to go with Ikea, because their stuff is nice, a little cheaper, and I just like the company more. Anyway, let me know any experiences you all have had.

Hey fellas. Looks like my sailing trip will be delayed for a few weeks. Hans and Romi, the guys I’m going to be sailing with, took the boat 20 miles out into the ocean and met with a storm. The main sails were ripped so they are working on getting a new one. Plus Hans has to take time and figure out some things with his mom since his dad just passed away. Hans owns the boat.

By the way, I’m in a bit of a pickle. Do any of you have experience with dating a good friend’s ex? So here’s the situation. He gave the green light before her and I were interested, switched to a red after we got interested (the bugger) and is currently chewing (or choking) on yellow after talking to me. All three of us are good friends and will remain good friends. I’m talking about Johnny and Claire.

Hey guys…just wanted to let you all know that Diana and I are engaged. We got engaged on the 22nd of May. We haven’t decided on a wedding day yet. I’m anticipating that it will be in a year or 2..if not longer. Cheers!

http://babylon.alphacomplex.org/~xcom/

Some guys have created a table-top version of our favorite tactical squad based game!