What the @#!% Was That?

I just got finished watching the Cowboys play Minnesota in Texas Stadium for their final preseason game of 2006. The game went into overtime and ended in a 10-10 tie after Mike Vanderjagt missed his second field goal of the evening, both going wide right. What the hell? Of all of the hype about TO going on and his injury and his missing practice, nobody seems to have paid attention to the real issue. Vanderjagt has been sidelined with a groin problem during all of training camp, and he has missed about as much practice as TO. This is a bigger story in my opinion.

Anyone that watched the game tonight should realize that the Cowboys are no longer hurting at the wide reciever position like they have been since Michael Irvin had to retire. Some guy wearing No. 17 with the last name Hurd had well over 100 yards tonight. Who? Also, what about this kid named Jamaica Rector? He has had a huge preseason. These are guys that may not even make the team, because they are fighting for a position below Terry Glenn, Patrick Crayton, and TO. If TO suddenly drops off of the face of the earth, I don't think it will cause the Cowboys too much grief.

Now, this Vanderjagt situation is a whole different problem. For anyone that doesn't know, the Cowboys lost three games due to missed field goals last season. If they had won those games, they would have been a 12-4 team. Tonight, Vanderjagt missed as many field goals as he did in all of last season with the Colts. Vanderjagt is known for having chronic groin injuries, and his latest one is supposedly healed, but is it? I don't know. I am concerned.

For any of you sweating out whether or not Terrell Owens will play in the opener against Jacksonville, take a deep breath and sit down. Now, start worrying about what is going to happen when there are three seconds left on the clock and Dallas is down by two at the Jacksonville 22 yard line, and Mike Vanderjagt is up to attempt a 39 yard field goal. Are you nervous? I am.

Does anyone else think Vanderjagt looks a little like Brian Regan sans the wind tunnel tested hairdo? Brian Regan should have been kicking tonight, and the Cowboys may have won.

Terrell Who?

The Cowboys close out the preseason tonight against the Minnesota ViQueens. The big buzz with the Cowboys is that Terrell Owens finally attended practice this week, and Bill Parcells said that he may have Owens suit up for the game tonight. He said he'll leave it up to TO whether or not he gets into the game for a few plays, depending on how his hamstring is doing.

Meanwhile, while the media is focused on the TO saga and making mountains out of mole hills, there has been this guy named Terry Glenn putting up some huge preseason numbers. Terry's name might sound familiar to you, because he led the NFL with 18.1 yards per catch last season. So far this preseason he has nine catches for 189 yards and two TD's. Yep, that's 21.0 yards per catch and two TD's in nine catches.

Sure, it's only preseason, but how can a Dallas fan not be excited. The first team offense has dominated their opponents, and the first string defense has not allowed a TD. It looks like there could be good things to come.

Sure, I'd like to see TO in the game tonight, but I doubt I'll miss him too much if he doesn't play.

Gene Simmons Dead

No, not that Gene Simmons.

TUPELO - Morris E. "Gene" Simmons, 69, legendary rockabilly musician, died Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006, at the North Mississippi Medical Center after a six-month illness. Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced later by Holland-Harris Funeral Directors Tupelo Chapel. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday.

In 1968, Simmons recorded a song titled "Ring Dang Do." In the late 1980's, several people attributed this song to being an early track by KISS bassist Gene Simmons, and the song even found its way onto several Wicked Lester (the band's name prior to becoming KISS) bootlegs.

R.I.P.

Heavy Metal Lullabies

There is this company called Baby Rock Records that released a set of CD's titled Rockabye Baby. The three CD's released on Tuesday include lullaby renditions of Coldplay, Radiohead, and Metallica. Upcoming releases include lullaby versions of Tool, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Led Zeppelin, and several others. The CD's are being offered at www.babyrockrecords.com. I listened to a few samples of the songs, and I have to admit that I think they are better than Hayseed Dixie or David Lee Roth doing bluegrass versions of Van Halen.

What I want to know is: why is there no KISS lullaby CD scheduled for release? This is an outrage!

Cheezeball.net

A couple of months ago, I ran across this website called Cheezeball.net. I'm not really sure what the site is about, but it has an "Off-Topic" section with picture galleries of bad album covers that are pretty funny. There is a contest about once a month to come up with a caption for an old ablum cover, and I was first runner up in last month's contest. The album was for a group named "Chuck and the Woodchucks." If you click the image to make it larger, you'll notice the guy on the far left is looking to his left and not at the camera. My caption was, "Despite the photographer's best efforts, he couldn't keep Dad from staring at the slutty assistant."

You can check out the bad album galleries or enter the contest at www.cheezeball.net

Pluto, 1930-2006. R.I.P.

Boston Herald
Scientists Rock Pluto’s World with Planet Diss
By Marie Szaniszlo and Jenna Wolf

In a world of uncertainty, some things seem immutable: Come what may, you assure yourself, there will always be four seasons, Seven Dwarfs and nine planets.
And then some scientist goes and messes with your universe.
Yesterday, the International Astronomical Union adopted historic new galactic guidelines and unceremoniously stripped chilly, faraway Pluto of its planetary status.
“It’s sad, isn’t it?” said David Charbonneau, professor of astronomy at Harvard University. “Everbody sympathizes with Pluto. Pluto is the underdog, the little guy fighting to belong to the club.”
Pluto got the boot because it didn’t meet the union’s new rules, which say a planet must orbit the sun, be large enough to assume a nearly round shape, and must clear the neighborhood around its orbit.
That disqualifies Pluto, whose oblong orbit overlaps Neptune’s. The bottom line: The solar system has been downsized to eight planets from the traditional nine.
“I don’t know how to handle it. It kind of sounds like I just lost my job,” said Patricia Tombaugh, the 93-year-old widow of Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh. “But I understand science is not something that just sits there. It goes on.”
The Elite Eight planets are now Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Pluto and objects like it will be “dwarf planets,” prompting swift reaction from the world of Disney, home of Pluto the cartoon dog.
“Although we think it’s DOPEY that Pluto has been downgraded . . . which has made some people GRUMPY and others just SLEEPY, we are not BASHFUL in saying we would be HAPPY if Disney’s Pluto would join us as an eighth dwarf,” the Seven Dwarfs said through a Disney spokeswoman. “We think this is just what the DOC ordered and is nothing to SNEEZE at.”
"I’m not giving up on Pluto,” said Cambridge-based astrologer and Scorpio Joyce Levine. Scorpios are ruled by Pluto, which is associated with Hades or the God of the Underworld. “People don’t have to worry,” Levine said. “Just leave it to the astrologers, and we’ll take care of interpretation.”

I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night

Wow, look at the tongue on that kid.

Bledsoe is the Man, At Least for Now

Ever since Bill Parcells started Tony Romo and let him play the entire first preseason game this year, a lot of people are speculating that Romo is about to take Drew Bledsoe's job as the starter of the Dallas Cowboys. It ain't going to happen. Not right now anyway.

Bledsoe is a proven NFL quarterback. Sure, he has had a few problems with getting sacked in his career, but he did make it to the Super Bowl in 1996 and he also won the AFC Championship game for the Patriots in 2000 when Tom Brady was sitting on the sideline. Tony Romo has never thrown a pass in an NFL regular season game, and anyone that thinks Bill Parcells will just up and throw Romo in as the starter this season is crazy.

Here is the deal: the Cowboys had a very suspect line last year after Flozell Adams went down for the season with a knee injury. Drew Bledsoe was among the top three QB's in the NFL up to that point. Once Flozell went down, Drew started having problems but still carried the Cowboys to some great wins. If the Dallas O-Line is struggling this year and Bledsoe begins to have problems, then Romo might get his chance, because he is more mobile than Bledsoe.

The Cowboys and the Cowboy fans have always turned their backs on the starting QB when times got rough, whether it was the QB's fault or not. Don Meredith had Craig Morton in the wings, Morton had Staubach, Staubach had Danny White, White had Hogeboom (or Hogenbloom as Tom Landry used to call him), and even Troy Aikman had to fight for his job against Steve Walsh early in his career. Cowboy fans are not happy without QB controversy, and those fans are trying to stir it up again this year.

Bledsoe had one of the best years a Dallas QB has ever had last season, despite the 50 sacks. Just because Romo has thrown a few good passes against third team defenses does not mean he is God's next gift to the Cowboys. I would ask that you people just settle down and let the season play out.

2005 Philly at Dallas

John Karr: Too Much Already

I figured I would put my two cents in about this creep; although, I am already sick of hearing about him and this case. It seems like all of the cable news networks are devoting 95% of their programming to this issue, and that is probably why I get most of my news from the internet these days.

There is no doubt in my mind that John Karr is very strange and maybe even the real the killer of JonBenet Ramsey. Then again, a lot of his confession doesn't add up with the forensic evidence, so he might be some lonely loser that is obsessed with young girls trying to find his fifteen minutes of fame. I guess a lot of people get caught up in the "tabloid" types of issues, but I'm not one of them.

I want the real killer to be found and locked up, but I don't want the case to tie up fifteen channels on my local cable. I guess it's just the way the world is now. I blame O.J.

Paul Stanley: Live to Win

Paul Stanley of KISS fame is releasing a new CD, Live to Win, in October. The music has already been leaked on the internet, and I had a chance to listen to it tonight. I was hoping Paul would do something cool that sounded like Audioslave or anything relevant to today's music. Instead, he recorded a CD that would have been pretty good in 1984. The CD has a real pop music sound to it, and anyone hoping for the KISS sound will be sorely disappointed. I wasn't expecting a KISS album from Paul, but I was hoping for it to be better than it is.

Elvis: January 8, 1935 - August 16, 1977

I was six years old when Elvis died. My dad and I were waiting in the car for my mother to get done with a doctor's appointment. A couple of minutes after Mom got into the car, a news report came on the radio announcing that "The King is dead." It was the first death of an entertainer that I was familiar with. That memory is burned in my mind forever along with all of the times that I played "Jailhouse Rock" on the air guitar while listening to Mom's 8-Tracks. Tonight, I shared a few of his songs with my five year old daughter, and she tells me that she likes them. The King will always live because of his music.

Mike Douglas Dead at 81

I was never a huge fan of The Mike Douglas show. I was just a small kid for most of the years it was on, but he did one thing that I would like to thank him for. In 1974, Mike let this weird, obscure band from New York play on the show and have a shot at stardom. Two years later, they were "The Hottest Band in the World!"

Thank you Mr. Douglas. R.I.P.

Mound Charger

<table style="color:white;background:black;width:425px;"><tr><td><embed src="http://www.moundcharger.com/preloader.swf" width=425 height=319 align="center" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></td></tr><tr><td style="font:10px verdana;text-align:center">Get Moundcharger MySpace Code at <a style="color:red;" href="http://www.moundchargercodes.com">moundchargercodes.com</a></td></tr></table>

Highlight the code, then Copy and Paste into your profile About Me or Comment box! Online Sportsbook Mound Charger

Here's a cool interactive thing I found on the net. First click Play Now, and then verify you are 18 or older under the title. You pick your least favorite major league baseball team on the next screen. A pitcher from that team appears on a baseball mound, and a hot babe avatar is at the plate. The pitcher brushes back the hot babe, and she charges the plate. Before she gets to the plate, you are asked to type in a command. She does some pretty crazy stuff. If you type in something she doesn't understand, she will just give you a "I don't think so" look.

Commands that I have found to work so far are: hit, kick, bite, slap, body slam, head lock, drop kick, and several others. This one is basically for the guys and not any young kids.

Is That Ace Frehley?

I grew up listening to KISS and was a huge fan. I blew a lot of money on the merchandise and actually still have some of it. Browsing their website today, I noticed that some company is releasing a set of 20" figures for $250 a pop. According to KISS' website, the first figure being released is Ace Frehley. I then looked at the manufacturing companies website, and they just call it The Spaceman.

My question is this: Just because KISS is saying it's Ace Frehley, how do people know that it is actually not a Tommy Thayer figure? I wonder if the Catman figure is Peter Criss or Eric Singer? It doesn't matter, I won't be buying them. Gene already has all of the Twinkie money that he's going to get from me.

Do You Wanna Touch Me There? Where? There!

GLITTER'S ANTHEM PULLED FROM US FOOTBALL STADIUMS

Disgraced British rocker GARY GLITTER's sports anthem ROCK & ROLL PART 2 is to be removed from the playlists at NFL stadiums following protests from fans. National Football League officials have chosen to advise all teams to cease playing the tune after learning the song's 62-year-old author is a convicted paedophile. Glitter, real name PAUL FRANCIS GADD, is currently serving a three-year sentence in a Vietnamese prison after being found guilty of child molestation. Rock + Roll Part 2, which was written in 1972, has become a familiar anthem at sports stadiums across America. NFL officials hope the governing bodies of other sports like baseball and basketball follow their lead and ban the song.

This dude is lucky to only be serving three years. If the British government hadn't been involved, he would have been sentenced to a firing squad -- the normal punishment for child molestation in Vietnam. Although, he may wish he was dead after sitting in a Vietnamese prison.

Working for the Weekend

My daughter, Andrea, is coming down to visit this weekend. She will be here for two weeks, and I'm really excited about it. We haven't lived around each other for most of her life, and she doesn't always like to talk to me on the phone, but we always have a great time when we are together.

During Andrea's last visit this past March, I helped her make a few video messages for her mother. We did about 10 takes to make one video, and we had a great time in the process. The video I have attached is one of the "failed" attempts in which Andrea is trying to tell Mommy that she loves her, but she is at a loss for words beyond the "I love you....Mommy". Maybe she was camera shy. I think it's pretty funny.

The Song Tapper

This is a pretty cool website for about 15 minutes. You tap the tune of a song using the space bar on your keyboard, and the website figures out what the song is. I tapped several songs from different genres, and the site was able to find most of them. Some of the songs it couldn't find were listed when I did a search. I assume somebody entered them into the database with the wrong beat, because I was tapping them correctly. I got rhythm, baby.

Songs I tapped:

I Was Made for Lovin' You - KISS (found)
Back 'N' Black - AC/DC (found)
Turkish March - Mozart (found)
25 or 6 to 4 - Chicago (couldn't find)
Seven Nation Army - White Stripes (found)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - (cound't find)
Who Let the Dogs Out - Baha Men (found)
The Bad Touch - Bloodhound Gang (found)
Popeye the Sailor - ? (found)

Click the pic above or go to http://www.songtapper.com/s/tappingmain.bin to give it a try.

At Least He Wasn't Found Naked on the Hood of His Car with Keys Up His Ass

I wonder if by "drinking again" he meant "snorting cocaine." I like the guy a lot, and I wish the best for him.

Report: Robin Williams in Rehab for Alcoholism Following 20 Years of Sobriety

Williams, 55, "found himself drinking again" after two decades of sobriety and "has decided to take proactive measures to deal with this for his own well-being and the well-being of his family", spokeswoman Mara Buxbaum said in a statement.

"He asks that you respect his and his family's privacy during this time," she said, adding, "He looks forward to returning to work this fall to support his upcoming film releases".

Besides The Night Listener, which opened last week and stars Williams as a radio host who becomes involved with a young listener who claims to be a child-abuse victim, the actor has three more movies set to hit theatres this year.

He plays another talk show host who runs for president in the upcoming film

Man of the Year, due out in October, supplies the voice of a penguin in the polar cartoon Happy Feet, set for November, and co-stars with Ben Stiller and Owen Williams in the comedy Night at the Museum, due in December.

They Call Him "The Dude"

I've spent a lot of time recently checking out other people's blogs. Some blogs are really intricate using Java Applets and animation; others are bare bones using nothing more than simple text. One of the most interesting blogs I have seen belongs to the actor Jeff Bridges.

I wouldn't say Jeff is one of my favorite actors, but he has been in some pretty good movies. My favorite movie of his was "The Big Lebowski" where he played the main character, Jeffrey Lebowski. Lebowski simply wanted to be called "The Dude," and "The Dude" was your basic stoner hippie type as the name would imply. It was rumored that Jeff Bridges smoked pot incessantly to prepare for the role. After looking at Jeff's blog, I am inclined to believe the rumors, and I'm not convinced that he has ever quit smoking pot.

Jeff's entire blog is written in long hand, and he has someone digitize it. His posts are full of rambling about different subjects and a bunch of hand drawn sketches. There are links to information about his new CD, past interviews, his favorite charities, and a group of photos he took while on movie sets. One link simply named "Stuff" has a bunch of sketches that are hyperlinked to other sites. My personal favorite is a sketch of testicles that is linked to a story about a woman in the UK that was jailed for a "testicle attack" back in 2005.

If you have a few moments to spare, I would suggest clicking the pic above or going to www.jeffbridges.com to visit The Dude's blog.

Isn't it Ironic, Don't You Think?

I had a one year susbscription to Rolling Stone Magazine back in the late '90s. I liked some of the covers, but it didn't take me long to realize that the magazine was full of nothing but useless drivel. I guess a person can't expect much more from a publication that used to employ Kurt Loder as one of its writers.

Well, it appears the magazine is now trying to atone for past sins of of being a crappy periodical. Led Zeppelin has been named "The Heaviest Band of All Time" by the magazine. How ironic. During the release of Zeppelin's first album, RS labeled the band as music thieves and imitators and continued to bash the band until the release of "Physical Graffiti" some eight years later. Zeppelin went on to become one of the most popular rock bands of all time immediately after the release of the first album and refused to do interviews with RS for the next thirty-something years.

The article mentions that the retail chain, Target, reports that their top selling printed T-shirt is a remake of Zeppelin's Swan Song logo shirt from the 1977 North American Tour. So, almost forty years after the release of LZ's first album that sparked the long running fued with Rolling Stone Magazine, the band is still popular and selling millions of albums to a new generation. I wonder how many issues Rolling Stone Magazine is selling these days.

Dilbert Imitates Life

I work for a company that manufactures kitchen tools, mainly food graters. Most of our graters are sold with protective plastic covers, and a decorative label is applied to the cover to make it more attractive and indicate which foods the particular grater is for. The company spent a lot of time and money developing the decorative labels and designing them to stay on the product even when being put through the dishwasher over and over.

Not long after the covers were introduced into the market place, our customer service reps started getting phone calls from people complaining that a sticky residue was left on the cover once the label was removed, and the residue became "foggy" after it was put in the dishwasher. One guy tried to use acetone to remove the residue and melted his polypropylene cover in the process. Soon, the company is sending out replacement covers to everyone that decided to remove our label that was designed to be permanent.

The label was later redesigned to come off easily like a Post-it note. What happened next? A barrage of calls from people complaining the label came off when they washed the cover. What a pain, but that's the world of manufacturing consumer products, and I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the Dilbert strip from yesterday.

One Final Look at George Teague.

Before the Cowboys play their first pre-season game with Terrell Owens on the roster, I wanted to pay one last tribute to George Teague. I have made my peace with TO being on the team, but he most likely will not play on Saturday, so I figured it couldn't hurt to live the memory one last time.

From VH1's I Love the 90's

"There are two things in life that will never go away. The first is cockroaches, and the second is Aerosmith."

-- David Lee Roth

A Hero for the Day

Troy Aikman, long time quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, was inducted into the Hall of Fame on August 5, 2006. I am a lifelong fan of the Dallas Cowboys, and I have experienced the highs and lows of the team since the late 1970’s. I’m a little too young to vividly remember the glory days of America’s Team with Roger Staubach. I am old enough to have suffered through three consecutive NFC Championship losses in the early 80’s, the team’s first losing season in 21 years in 1988, and the 1-15 season in 1989. I also enjoyed watching the team win three Super Bowls in four years during the early 1990’s. Troy was the team leader during those Super Bowls.

My first exposure to Troy was during the 1989 college football season when he played for UCLA. I never followed college football, but the Arkansas Razorbacks made it to the Cotton Bowl that year for the first time in a decade. The Cotton Bowl was like the Super Bowl for Razorback fans, so it was a big deal with the locals. The Razorbacks met up with Troy and the UCLA Bruins in Dallas for the game. I went to a friend’s house to watch the game and it was the first of many games that I would watch Troy Aikman pick apart an opposing defense.

Troy was the number one selection in the 1989 NFL draft, and he went to my Dallas Cowboys – a team that had a suffered a 3-13 season the previous year. Troy’s career in Dallas started out very shaky, and he went 0-11 as a starter that season. As the years passed, Troy’s confidence grew as the team became stronger, and he became the first quarterback in the NFL to win three championships in four years. During the end of his career, the team started to fall apart, and Troy suffered several injuries that put him on the sideline. His career ended with a concussion and several so called fans of the Cowboys booing him off of the field.

Troy’s acceptance speech this afternoon was a lot like his career with the Cowboys. It started out shaky, and his voice cracked with emotion while he talked about his friendship with Norv Turner. Norv was the offensive coordinator of the Cowboys that helped turn Aikman from a potential draft bust into a three time world champion. Then Troy began to talk about the “Triplets” and the Super Bowl victories of the 1990s'. His voice became strong, and an air of confidence resonated from the podium.

Troy went on the thank every person that ever supported him during his life and football career. "I'd also like to thank the many friends, family and fans who traveled great distances to share this moment with me," he said toward the end and his lips started to quiver. But the Cowboys fans rallied and cheered him on. They began to whistle and yell, standing one more time for No. 8. They bought him some time. He expressed true humility and gratefulness for having been inducted into football immortality as a member of the NFL Hall of Fame.

"A high school coach once told me, 'In life you have a lot of acquaintances but very few friends.' For most, that's probably true, but not for me. The many friendships in my life are what made me feel every single day like I'm the luckiest guy in the world, and I thank all of you for being here today."
A man that was always stoic on the football field could barely speak the words to accept an honor that he so greatly deserved.

I’m not a person that typically regards professional athletes as heroes. Hero is a title that should be reserved for people that save lives or sacrifice themselves for the good of others. Troy Aikman sacrificed himself on and off the field. He doesn’t have huge statistics like Dan Marino or Peyton Manning, because Troy was asked to play in a manner that benefited the team and didn’t pad his personal statistics. Troy also contributed large amounts of his time to charities like the United Way and he formed the Troy Aikman Foundation which benefits less fortunate kids. He also brought excitement and happiness to a poor kid from Arkansas on countless Sunday afternoons, and at least for today, I think that’s enough to make him hero.