And good luck.
I will be very sad when they retire the Space Shuttle in a few years. Seeing that white bird on the launch pad, in the sun, is one of the most beautiful sights — and it fills me with patriotism and hope for the future.
I haven’t really watched any tennis since Agassi retired. I just don’t have the interest in it I did when he was still playing. So I was a little surprised to find out this week is the French Open (or “Roland Garros” as they insist on calling it). I look at the men’s side.. eh. Good players but no one I really like. Women’s side.
Sharapova, Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova (the coolest damned name in sports), Ivanovic, and some hottie named Vera Zvonareva. No Mauresmo, no Henin-Hardenne, and both Williams Sisters got eliminated. Hot damn! I might actually have to catch some of this mess on television.
I photo, you decide:
Pittsburgh actually won a game. I guess home ice really is an advantage. (Of course, it didn’t hurt that the referee kept missing penalties on Pittsburgh — like what should have been a four minute penalty when a high-stick drew blood on Detroit.) Let’s see how they do Saturday. Personally, I think if Detroit wins Saturday, they’ll win Monday. Saturday is must-win for Pittsburgh.
Blogging has slacked off as class started yesterday and I’m taking three classes over the summer as part of my “coast through the fall and spring to graduation” plan. By taking these three classes and finishing my major and minor up this fall, I can pretty much dick around to fill out my hours at USM this Spring with stuff like “Masturbation for Dummies” and “Farting 101.” You know, easy stuff. (Note: USM does not actually offer such classes. If it did I would probably take them because the only thing easier than masturbation is procrastination. And men are naturally talented when it comes to anal gas reserves.)
Finally. However, the article notes:
A tabbed user interface is among the most frequently requested features for Nautilus. The original request in the GNOME bug tracker was opened in 2001 and has 10 duplicates. Despite significant demand, the developers long resisted implementing the feature because it required significant changes to the file manager’s underlying architecture
Or maybe the Gnome developers are just douchebags. Because they don’t listen to users. They think we’re all a bunch of morons. Which really pisses me off, because when I first installed Slackware Linux over two years ago, the first thing I did was figure out how to install Gnome on it — because I preferred the way Gnome looked. It’s kind of unfortunate, because had I not I wouldn’t have become used to certain features that KDE doesn’t replicate, and could have shifted over to Kubuntu instead of Ubuntu when I changed flavors of Linux.
Which would have saved me from some of the pure stupid of Gnome developers like “No Preferences” McCann.
I will almost assuredly not be installing Gnome on my next PC. Which stings because I like certain aspects of it so much.
In tonight’s game, Detroit once again shut out Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, I was only able to listen to the game, but I have a few observations:
1. Pittsburgh mostly lost because their players, specifically Malone and Roberts, are assholes. I’ve said before that I don’t mind a little rough stuff in hockey, and I don’t mind fights at all, but in this game Malone and Roberts were playing like spoiled children — they weren’t getting their way so they were acting out. Roberts punching Franzen in the head should have been a game misconduct for him, in my opinion, and someone really needed to feed Malone some of his teeth with the way he kept messing with Osgood. I went into this sort of neutral between the teams, but after tonight, I want to see Detroit win in a sweep of shutouts. Those assholes don’t deserve the Stanley Cup.
2. Tip for scoring opportunities, Pittsburgh: Stop getting your dumb asses sent to the penalty box! It’s amazing this wasn’t a 5-0 game instead of a 3-0 game with the way Pittsburgh’s players kept it up.
The AHL playoffs start Thursday and the next ECHL game is also Thursday — the ECHL Kelly Cup Finals are tied 1-1 between Cincinatti and Las Vegas. The next NHL game is this Wednesday night.
I wasn’t sure I was going to post about Memorial Day because, to be honest, the only words that need be written have been, and they are here: Memorial Day. As Kim has posted that before, I’ve heard the story before. But every time it moves me to tears. The infinitely talented Rachel Lucas has a must read post, as well.
I don’t remember much of my own grandfathers. My mother’s father died before I was three and my father’s father died when I was eight and despite my excellent memory I just don’t have a lot of memories from that far back. It’s sad really, because once I asked my father what his father was like and he said “about like me, I guess.” I would give anything to be able to meet either of my grandfathers now and speak to them. But both men served in World War II. My paternal grandfather, Frank Lawson, sat in the little bubble (I don’t know the proper term) on the underside of a gunship as a gunner, and my maternal grandfather, Francis Hamilton, did some work with coordinating where bombs were to be dropped.
At least, those are the sketchy details I have from both of my parents. Like Kim’s grandfather, their service wasn’t something they spoke much about. I have the flag from my maternal grandfather’s casket. It is folded and stored in a bag to protect it from dust, sitting proudly on the top of my bookshelf. It has not been unfolded since his funeral over twenty years ago, and is one of the first things I would save in a house fire. My grandfathers never met, as far as I am aware, but both served their country. I imagine the attack on Pearl Harbor had a lot to do with their decisions. I know for certain that my father’s grandfather stayed in the service well after the war, because my father was born in England, where his father was stationed, over ten years after the war ended.
A million words can’t say how proud I am of my grandfathers, gone though they may be. Because as quiet as they must have been about their service, it makes them something special: They were heroes. They may not have qualified for the medal of honor, or died on the field, or even been injured. But they stood up to evil and did their part to fight it and see America to victory.
And for them and all the men like them, who fought so that we could be free and live the privileged lives we do, all of us should be thankful — and proud. We enjoy life and our freedoms because of these men, these heroes.
I just did a seven-plus-thousand word marathon of writing fiction.
My hands are exhausted, because I did a lot of typing other than that tonight, too. Yeah, it’s 5:20 and I’m still awake. That’s what happens when all the sudden my muse is like, “come play with us, Danny.”
then I pimp slap my muse and say “My name aint Danny bitch” and we get to work.
No, really, I’m kind of delirious. I haven’t written this much fiction at a time since July and it’s a pretty great feeling and I’m not ready to stop but my hands are about to file for a divorce. So I think I’m going to break out the voice recorder and dictate the next chapter.
The real bitch of it is, in 30 hours I have a class.
I’ve made it big! People who use words like “Bushco” and “McBush” consider me a Republican propaganda site! Awesome. Psst, however, the “bitter, typical white guy” tagline is a shot at Obama, who said people like me cling to “guns and God” because we’re bitter, and that his own grandmother was being “a typical white person” when she made racist remarks. Just clarifying, since they apparently didn’t get it.
And I’m not going to vote for Barack Sweetie Obama for much the same reasons I won’t vote for McCain. I don’t support surrendering our interests, global warming hysteria, amnesty for illegals, higher taxes (on anyone — and I’m certainly not “the rich”!, etc. Also, I can’t vote for someone who says “Pock-istan.” That’s just weird, mmkay?
However, I’m not really a “Republican propaganda site”; politics isn’t the only focus of this blog (sometimes, it’s hockey), and I certainly don’t agree with the GOP on everything (hence my problem with their nominee). I’m not going to trot out my non-Republican creds in an attempt to distance myself from the party, because honestly, I don’t need to. I certainly don’t turn around and repeat propaganda for anyone, else I wouldn’t be critical of the elitist goons running the Republican party right now.
That said, being lumped in with RightWingNews, Hot Air, and Michelle Malkin? Frikken sweet, I tell you. Thank you, blog I’ve never heard of, that made my day. Seriously, they quoted me right after talking about Michelle Malkin! She’s like the Empress of the conservative blogosphere! And Hot Air is so very awesome, especially with Captain Ed blogging there now. I’m not even kidding. I’m absolutely giddy to be listed with those people. If they link me to Rush Limbaugh and Neal Boortz I might faint!
Q. When was the last Stanley Cup Finals shutout?
A. Just now, when Detroit shut out Pittsburgh in a 5-0* victory, picking up a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
In other news, the team with the worst name in hockey, the Wsomething-Bsomething-Scranton Penguins advanced to the Calder Cup finals in the AHL, and Cincinnati beat Las Vegas in the first ECHL Kelly Cup finals game.
* Officially, 4-0. But the referee waved off the first goal Detroit got, claiming goaltender interference — and I’m a HUGE believer in leaving the goalie alone – when it really shouldn’t have been. I think that’s one of the worst calls I’ve ever heard. Fortunately, it didn’t make a difference in the flow of the game — Detroit’s Mikael Samuelsson scored two unassisted goals in the game, and Daniel Cleary scored short-handed, all three showing that referee where he could stick his GTI call.
