Just a friendly warning ...

If you get an e-mail with, "Nude Photos of Sarah Palin" in the subject line, do NOT open it. It might contain a virus.

Also, if you get an e-mail with, "Nude Photos of Hillary Clinton" in the subject line, do not open it. It might contain nude photos of Hillary Clinton.

McCain owns VoteForTheMILF.com

That's good work boys. Way to corner the market on sexism.

They've since changed their WHOIS info to private ... but if you go there you're redirected to McCain's site's page for Palin.

From Govgap

• URL Registered within ~36 hours of McCain’s Decision to select Palin as running mate
• Redirect sends users specifically to a palin.htm file, but only on the FIRST redirect
• Whois Privacy Information Matches JohnMcCain.com Whois Privacy
• URL Held by same registrar
• Note that the .net and .org versions also redirect to the McCain Campaign Website.

Network Tools Trace Route:
- 64.203.107.149 (VoteForTheMILF.com)
- 64.203.107.149 (JohnMcCain.com)

Classy.

(BTW - Since this is breaking type news, there have been lots of edits through the godaddy control panel as the campaign attempts to hide the details. Govgap has the evolving story with updates addeded at the end.)

The Dead Schembechlers Live

I have but a passing interest in college sports. Which sometimes makes life here in a college football town tough.

Yes, I'll admit that I have have a couple of Ohio State shirts. I call them my Columbus Camouflage. I wear them to blend in more with the locals. But I won't start, or answer, the O-H chant. Because, really, if you're a graduate of the finest university in your state, with the pretense to REQUIRE that both an article naming you and that said article is capitalized (that means the The in The Ohio State University for you non-grammartarians, or, non OSU grads), and all you get out of your four years is the ability to spell the name of your state, and it has but four letters (one of which is repeated), is that a telling sign of the quality of your education? (I'm just wondering, being a tech-school grad myself.)

But I'm not here to hate on the Buckeyes, or their fans, because some of those OSU women are plenty freaking hot!

I'm hear to share my love of a vagabond gang of musicians so in love with The Ohio State University's football team, and so at war with arch rival Michigan that they've done the impossible and returned from the dead.

That's right, The Dead Shembechlers are back. With a new EP to come called "Rodriguez To Ruin." From their blog:

The EP will be released later this Fall in time for the Michigan game. Song titles will include "Rodriguez is A Weasel," "U Lost to App State," "USC Don't Mean Nuthin' To Me," U S(uck) C(ock)," "I'm So Bored with the S.E.C.," "Rich Rodriguez Can Suck My Dick" and "O-H-I-O."

The album will also feature four never before available on disc bonus cuts including "Chad Henne is A Motherfucking Joke," "Buckeye Surfer Girl," "We Don't Give A Damn for the Whole State of Michigan" and "The Ann Arbor Chainsaw Massacre Christmas Song."

They've also announced a two-city 200H8 Reunion Tour (and no, the H is NOT a typo. Re-read it. Chuckle to yourself and share that with friends) of Cleveland on 11/20 and, pending approval from the mayor, governor, and president-elect, an appearance at the 2008 Hate Michigan Rally in Columbus on 11/21. Or, pending NON-approval from said legislators, crashing the rally.

For the record ... all you bands out there ... click the link and read their bio. This is how you garner interest ... if you don't have that much going for you, just make shit up ... and make it so outrageous nobody knows if you're truthful, or not. A good mix of both keeps people guessing, and makes them come see you. Hell, Creed sold a fuckton of albums so anything is possible.

Oh, and I can be hired as a consultant if you need assistance.

Oh, the stupidity - Updated

see More Political Humor

When I first saw this ... I made the joke about it being in front of someone's mobile home.

Well, thanks to the genius of Drew ... I find out that yes, in fact, it IS in front of someone's mobile home.

superpoop.com

(Click link to see Drew's Superpoop Page ... which has this and hundreds of other funny as fuck photos with captions, because Drew is a funny mofo. And besure to read the last word as it is, not as you see it. That's subtle humor that's often missed. Oh, and his wife is quite the artist. They're my favorite Columbus people I've not met. Yet.)

Satire is a beautiful thing ...

When done right. And not too many people do it right, however, this is one.

With all the news about Sarah Palin's email being hacked, leave it to The Onion to come up with thier take on what Barack Obama's GMail would look like:

Click the image to see it full size.

IKE - Before & After photos

Wow. Just wow.

Here's the USGS page showing before and after photos from Hurricane Ike's wrath on the Bolivar Peninsula, TX.

USGS Photos

Eventually, when they rebuild and new people move in, they'll be smarter and leave next time they're warned to leave.

More Pop Culture Geekiness

Wow. No wonder Harry Potter sounded so familiar to me.



Click to see full size

Let me count the ways ...

Let's see ... how many layers of Eric do we have here?

1. Star Wars.
2. Yuengling.
3. MMA on TV.

(I'm guessing that last one. Could be intergalactic porn, too.)



(Click to see the strip full size, and read more of their genius!)

Yep, that about sums it up.

Remembering 9/11 with music

It's been more than seven years since the attacks of September 11, 2001. There have been books, movies, albums and songs written about the people, places, events and individuals involved, but this is my favorite one. On the "Still Live" DVD (click here to buy from the band) Scott Blasey talks about writing this, and the impact of that day's events had on his life. Until I watched that in 2006, I had NO IDEA this song was about September 11, 2001. I thought it was about a personal tragedy in Scott's life, or something he had heard or seen, someone jumping off one of the 2,200 bridges in Pittsburgh ... not the people jumping out of the Twin Towers. Hearing him say that made me realize just how powerful this song is.

The Clarks - "Hey You"

If you're gonna jump
Hey you, hang on
If you feel like giving up
Hey you, hang on

I won't forget today
The sun is bright the sky is blue
The pain will go away
In another year or two

If you got a phone
Hey you, call home
If you got a voice
Hey you, rejoice

I won't forget today
The sun is bright the sky is blue
I won't forget to pray
Day is night the world is new
The pain will go away
In another year or two
In a hundred years or two
In a thousands years or two

If you're gonna fly
Hey you, don't cry
You gotta live to die
Hey you, goodbye

I won't forget today
The sun is bright the sky is blue
I won't forget to pray
Day is night the world is new
The pain will go away
In another year or two
In a hundred years or two
In a thousands years or two

Funny for all the wrong reasons

Marbles is a comic that's funny for all the wrong reasons.

Really. Fucking. Funny.

Mix three starving African kids people of unknown origin from the African geographically uknown country of Bulima with the United Nations, do-gooders trying to save them, talking flies that surround them, a third-world dictator with weapons, a drive-thru McDonalds in a country with no cars, and Madonna ... guaranteed there are laughs for days.

No food, no hope, but funny.

Sadly, it's not drawn anymore ... and there weren't many of them, but still a great read. You can thank me in Hell.

http://www.marblescomic.com

The Unavailing on Otiose

Following yesterday's post linking to Courtney Love's ... discussion about the MTV Video Music Awards (wherein discussion is equal to, as Tim Easton says, "... fourth grade, mumbly slang, stream of consciousness jive ...") today I bring you something even funnier.

Imagine if there was an awards show that was so outragelously overproduced as to give out ten awards in a four-hour, twenty-minute time frame that serves as nothing more than fancy wrappers (complete with rappers) around more than 90 minutes of commercials and jokes from some obscure British 'humourist' who went to work in England dressed as Osama Bin Laden on September 12, 2001.

Then imagine that awards show was the baby and braintrust of a network that has nothing to do with the genre of entertainment the show is 'awarding'.

To simplify: Imagine if Fox News was promoting, producing and presenting the Gay Adult Video Awards and Bill O'Reilly shows up dressed as Barack Obama in drag.

Then, if all of that's not funny enough, imagine glowing and ridiculous amounts of positive press coverage both in print and online, provided by a magazine-turned-news-entity that has become a part and parcel product whore of the very landscape it was created to mock. A concept so far beyond the founding intent it should be called Boring Shill.

Yes, friends, welcome to Rolling Stone's coverage of the MTV 2008 Video Music Awards. Various links on their website show photos of Britney Spears and Kid Rock. Both who have added so much to the musical landscape lately. Her bad mama drama and pregnant 15-year-old sister and high as a kite on a combination of cocaine and fish tranquelizer uninspired performance at the 2007 VMA's got her this return gig and three awards? And his "All Summer Long" song - a blatent rip-off Lynard Skynrd he took to the top of the British charts? Please. Oh, and Jordan Sparks, the Pusscat Dolls and the Jonas Brothers, et. al.? American Idol winner, some strip-club failures, Disney Rockers, two heaps of trailer trash (Spears/Rock) and a mountain of rap that's ... well, rap?? And people wonder why I don't listen to the radio or give two shits about popular music.

What a total farce both Rolling Stone and MTV are. At least it gave them both something else to talk about ... MTV got a five-and-a-half hour break from reality shows (long show plus pre-show); Rolling Stone took at least four reporters out of Obama's colon to cover the show.

As Bill Hicks said, they're all suckers of Satan's cock.

Yet, just when I'm about to give up all hope, somehow, some blogger for Rolling Stone nailed the show as complete and total shit. But since there's no name listed, it's either some oldtimer at RS eating the one-half of one percent of integrity they've kept in a jar from the 70's, or the guy got fired and they're trying to keep his name out of it so he can get a job elsewhere.)

(I promise, last link to a VMA story of the year)

Didn't Kanye West say he'd never come back to the VMA's? Yet, he did. Lying whore.

(BTW ... the complete Tim Easton lyric, from "Poor Poor LA" of the "Break Your Mother's Heart" album is:

"A pack of dull monkeys could write circles around,
That fourth grade, mumbly slang,
Stream of consciousness, jive that you call a song.
Is that going to be your story?"

And for the record, the rumor has it ... that's directly aimed at Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. I'm just sayin' ... a couple of anonymous sources close to Tim Easton have pointed that out to me.)

UFC 88 - I was 6-3

My predictions and picks ended up not too bad. I really debated the Evans/Liddell call (I picked Chuck) and the Henderson/Palhares (Palhares was my choice) but have no complaints with how things turned out. Had I gone with my heart I'd have been 8-1! If Kayo hadn't hurt his back I'd have been 9-1 ... but I did get two of the fights by the round and method of victory.

As far as the Iceman goes ... damn. All I could say was "WOW" ... Evans hit him with a perfectly timed, perfectly aimed anvil-disguised as a punch. Liddell went down faster than a crack-whore in a hail storm. Dude was knocked the fuck out and was motionless for about a minute; woozy for several others. It was one of the most amazing knockouts I've ever seen, perfectly done by a very well-trained Rashad Evans (Greg Jackson Fight Camp is +2 against The Pit ... Keith Jardine also has a victory over Liddell).

Henderson fought a very smart fight and avoided the ground as much as possible although it was close for a bit there in the first.

The rest of the night pretty much went as I expected it. Joe Rogan is getting flack for saying he thought Matt Brown should have won against Dong Hyun Kim, but I think that's Joe being a UFC homer and wanting the UFC discovered Ultimate Fighter stars to win.

Next up - Ultimate Fight Night to kick off the Ultimate Fighter on Wednesday, 9/17; then a busy October with the Affliction card on 10/11; UFC 89 on October 18 free on Spike and UFC 90 on October 25 live in Chicago.

Courtney Love is batshit insane

Read this ... well, TRY to read this.

Read and understand? Unpossible

Read and comprehend? No chance in hell.

Journalism at its finest

As a wee lad growing up, I wanted to be a news reporter. I learned to read at a young age ... very young age. And since I grew up in the early 70's before cable TV and Cartoon Network, I loved the kids shows on PBS ... especially Seseme Street. Mostly for the Kermit News segments. I can remember sitting in my room with the newspaper reading and practicing for the day I would be at the anchor desk.

As I got older, I got into journalism. Eventually, I became a newspaper photographer, then they realized I was a much better writer than I was a photographer. And while working the news desk daily, I quickly learned how corrupt and misguided the business of news reporting is. Not the reporters, necessarily, but the business of how news is presented. History, it is said, is what happens; news is how one person views it and writes about it, then how it's edited, presented and, sadly, headlined by people who were nowhere near the event, did not discuss said event with anyone involved it the event, or even have any knowledge of the event. Which is often why what's written is so far away from what happened.

Every once in a while I'll read the kind of story that makes me get all sad about NOT being a reporter ... this is one of them. This is journalism at its finest. Kudos.

UFC 88 - Preview & Pics

My UFC Preview is back with a vengeance. The Ultimate Fighting Championships invade Atlanta for UFC 88. Here's my take on how the ten scheduled fights are going to play out. Actual mileage may vary.

Chuck Liddell (21-5-0) vs Rashad Evans (16-0-1)
Three of Liddell's five losses ended with him looking up at the lights, knocked the fuck out, due to his desire to stand and throw. Evans has three victories by knockout. Chuck has 13. I see leather. Lots of leather. I see Rashad getting dazed and confused by the counterpuncher.
Liddell by knockout, second round.

Rich Franklin (25-3-0) vs Matt Hamill ( 6-1-0)
Rich Franklin is at a crossroads. He's been demolished by middleweight champ Anderson Silva, twice, in brutal fashion. There's no way he's going to dethrone Forrest Griffen at light heavyweight, and he;s too big to go down to welterweight. So he's left to languish high on the card but not at the top. Matt Hamill is still a work in progress. He's strong, like Silva, and will manhandle Franklin, but can he take a punch? That's the real worry, but not that big of a worry. Franklin is fighting for paychecks now, Hamill is hungrier.
Hamill by decision.

Karo Parisyan (26-5-0) vs Yoshiyuki Yoshida (10-2-0)
Yoshiyuki Yoshida is a stud. Karo will need a full tank and a better gameplan than he's had in his last couple of outings (loss to Thiago Alves via KO and a decision win against Ryo Chonan). While I don't see Yoshida slapping the anaconda choke on Parisyan like he did with Jon "War Hammer" Koppenhaver, leaving the TUF alum passed out on the cage floor at UFC 84, I do see a great match between the judo of Parisyan and the unconventional style of Yoshida.
Yoshida with his wicked elbows in the third round.

Dan Henderson (22-7-0) vs Rousimar Palhares (17-1-0)
I'm a huge Dan Henderson fan. Palhares has mad ju-jitsu and put a clinic on against Ivan Salaverry, going from a left-armed choke to a right-armed choke to the arm bar that retired Salaverry ... all in 2:36. He's fast, and if he can get Henderson down, and keep him there, it's over. Henderson, however, is a world-class greco-roman wrestler (was in two Olympics and and has won countless international events), so he's difficult to take down. Didn't stop Anderson Silva though. My heart is with Henderson, but my head isn't.
Palhares by submission, third round.

Martin Kampmann (13-1-0) vs Nate Marquardt (29-8-2)
This one will bring down the boos but could be the technical match of the night. Both are submission specialists but Marquardt has the more impressive list of victims including Jeremy Horn, Dean Lister, Joe Doerksen, Ivan Salaverry and a half-dozen submission wins in Pancrase bouts, including breaking the arm of Kazou Misaki 29 seconds into the bout.
Marquardt via compound fracture in the second round.

Thiago Tavares (17-2-0) vs Kurt Pellegrino (17-4-0)
Both fighters are 1-2 in thier last three bouts. Tavares was knocked out by Matt Wiman at UFC 85; Pellegrino tapped out to Nathan Diaz's triangle choke. Recovering from a your first knockout is always tough.
Pellegrino, submission, first round.

Tim Boetsch (7-2-0) vs Michael Patt (15-2-0)
Tim "The Barbarian" Boetsch (look at him and you'll see why) needs to win or he's likely done in the UFC after a loss to Matt Hamill (KO, round 2). Patt is making his UFC debut and has beaten a list of no-names in a series of unknown and failed promotions (Bodog, VFC, ETC).
Boetsch by KO, first round.

Dong Hyun Kim (10-0-1) vs Matt Brown (10-6-0)
Dong Hyun Kim is a star in the making and will impress. There's a huge thread on Sherdog about how bad this beating is going to be. Despite Matt Brown being on TUF, and a nice guy who hung out at BW3's in Columbus during the season to watch the show, in the cage he is a mystery. He looks so good one minute, then his brain is beamed into space and he's a human punching bag for the next several. Then he recovers. And looks great. Apply, lather, rinse, repeat. His fight against Amir Sadollah in the semi-finals of The Ultimate Fighter showed that, but he was fighting with a very injured shoulder. Regardless ... five of Brown's six losses are via submission, but there's not much for him to fear from Kim in that respect ... Kim has one. Kim likes to stand and throw, which Brown likes as well, but Matt needs to watch out for the slam that Kim used to knock out Hasegawa (who was the champ in a non-title bout) at DEEP 31 (YouTube brings the pain at the 9:40 mark!) and his fast, furious and heavy hands ... look at the beating he delivers AFTER the slam and the diving save the ref makes. That was a statement.
Kim via strikes in the second round.

Jason Lambert (23-8-0) vs Jason MacDonald (21-10-0)
I love MacDonald for exposing Ed Herman, but hate his nickname (The Athlete). And he lost to Kalib Starnes. Jason Lambert, The Punisher, has a much better nickname, but has lost three of his last four fights ... and was punished and knocked out. But he KTFO'd Renato Sobral and Terry Martin, so he has the power to do it against MacDonald. This is a tough one to call, but MacDonald is better at submissions (16 of his wins).
MacDonald, submission, in the second.

Roan Carneiro (12-7-0) vs Ryo "Piranha" Chonan (14-8-0)
I love Ryo Chonan, if for nothing else than for the beating he took from Anderson Silva before submitting him with an AMAZING flying sccissor heel hook at Pride Shockwave 2004. Check it out ... this is beautiful, and from the speed of the tapout and the look on Silva's face, pretty painful, too. Roan Carneiro is at a make or break stage with the UFC. He's 2-2 having lost to Jon Fitch and Kevin Burns, both via submission.
Chonan, with PRIDE, submission, first round.

Check back Monday to see how well I did, or join me Saturday at UFC 88 as I watch from BW3's on Campus View. UFC starts at 10; Music Trivia starts at 8:30.

File Server for Sale ... Columbus Area Only!

Hello. I am selling off my old file server. Here are the specs:


Dell PowerEdge 1600SC

• One Single core 2GHz Intel Xeon Processor. There is a second processor slot available.
• 1 GB DDR 2100 ECC RAM (one 512, two 256, one slot open)
• 2 18GB Seagate SCSI Ultra 320 drives configured in a mirrored array (redundant) for OS integrity.
• 2 320GB Western Digital SATA II drives configured in a striped volume (non-redundant)for 596GB of storage.
• CD Drive / Floppy Drive
• Intel Pro1000 Gigabit ethernet adapter
• Windows 2000 Server SP4 with all relevant updates.
• Dual, hot-swappable redundant power supplies.

Server is great and I used it until I rebuilt my big-ass disgusting replacement that I'm using now with 2.6TB storage. This is a standard-issue tower-unit.

I'm putting this here for a day before I advertise it on Craigslist. First $350 takes it away ... they eBay for $300-500 without the additional storage so this is a heck of a deal.

OS was reloaded over the weekend and storage array wiped out so this is ready for you to plug it in, turn it on and start using it.

Columbus, Ohio, only, or someone willing to come to Columbus. If you're interested, let me know and we can arrange for a local pickup because it's far too heavy to ship and I don't have the original packaging.

- Eric