Dangerous Wild Animals Roaming the streets...

In my old townhouse complex of all places...

Dangerous Packs of Wild Dogs

Yes, these beasties have been eluding capture and are roaming free in Covered Bridge, the neghborhood I had my townhouse in back in 2000-2001 over in Marietta. Funny thing is, I remember a lady on my street that had two really yippy beasts that looked very much like the ones in these pics. hmmm I wonder....

Just goes to prove the feral nature of all animals, especially this species which has a long history of roaming the plains of Central Mongolia in wild packs, hunting without mercy. Now, instead of camels, they hunt fried eggs.

Oh and it just gets better - here's an article from todays AJC Metro Section:

You GO BEASTS!!!

Will they ever be captured? Will they continue to hold Marietta in the grip of cold pure terror forever?!?!

Tune in to find out...

*woof*

Three Cheers for my Home Town!

Just found this article in the local paper. Seems as though the city I live in has a police chief that is actually doing his job. AND...He's the only one doing his part in the entire state of Georgia as well.

You Go, Roswell!

Hopefully this little bit of exposure will wake some people up at the Federal Government...but I doubt it. That giant is fast asleep...

Blip - Blip

I am still here! Don't have much to say at the moment that wouldnt just make me rant, so here's a public service announcement from my daughter.

I admit, I have an addiction.... *sob*

Hello, my name is Pat, and I am Buffalo wing addict. I crave them almost all the time (the only time I'm not craving them is when I just finished eating sixteen of them). The particular wings I crave are found at Wild Wing Cafe (Shameless plug), the hands-down best hot wings I have ever sloppily devoured in my life.

In particular I crave the heavenly crispy, yet juicy, spiciness of the little pieces of poultry parts slathered with 'Chernobyl' sauce provided by the various Wild Wing locations. Their Chernobyl sauce has achieved the perfect balance of spiciness, garlicity (is that a word?), and flavor that make all other wing sauces pale in comparison. If I'm feeling realy bold, I go for the next level of heat, 'China Syndrome'. Mmmmm..*drool*

My admission of addiction may come as no surprise to some of you, so I shall continue no further. But, in my zeal for wings, I stumbled across a paper written on the culture and history of the Buffalo wing, complete with distribution maps of wing dealers...errr...restaurants.

Yes, I finally did find the perfect match of Geography and hot wings. I have reached the proverbial Halls of Valahalla, as they say in Scandinavia.

Click and enjoy blue cheese gooeyed goodness.

Man I'm hungry.

Oh this is such FUN!

As you are probably aware, the esteemed (*chuckle*) Congresswoman (*choke*) from Georgia, Cynthia McKinney, is back in the news because of another display of her self centered idiocy. I've been following this story since it broke because it hits pretty close to home, seeing as how she's from an Atlanta district and all, and I knew that there would be some extreme entertainment value out of this one. Well, I don't want to get too much into how little I think of her, but I just wanted to point you all to a couple of stories regarding this incident.

Boortz is the King of Snark today with his Nuze - Check out the first four items. He makes his point succinctly and, did I say, beautifully snarkily?

Seems as though it's so bad for McKinney, that even the Democrap..errr Democrats don't want to deal with her! And here all along I thought she was just their litle darling!

D'OH!

Stay tuned, and maybe she'll get more support from anti-American idiots like Harry Belafonte (he's an anti semite too! wow, a double doozy!), Danny Glover, Hamas, other terrorist supporters...oh wait, never mind, she's already gotten all their support!

Silly me, haven't I been paying attention?

Calling all Geographers!

You really can sell ANYTHING on E-Bay nowadays. Check this out, the interstate overlay is PRICELESS. (GIS, Tortilla style)

Georgia Tortilla Chip

Thanks to Boortz for the link...

I wonder with my knowledge of geography if I can sell a piece of bread as a 'Colorado shaped slice of bread'?

Wonders never cease...

I'm BACK!

Howdy intrepid Blog readers!

I've been away for a while as lots of interesting things have happened in our lives over the past month. If you've kept up with War Eagle Girl's Blog, you'll know that we took a trip to Vegas and to Charlotte, so you know we've been busy. I have also been going through a job transition and am just starting to get settled at my new job. They keep me pretty busy around here, so I haven't had a heck of alot of time to post on my blog. This new job has been a big change for me, and I am finding that most changes (especially this one) are for the better. Some of the pros of my new job include:

1) They gave me a nice big office (my own!)
2) I have a big and fast PC to do my mapping and programming on
3) The morning commute is better
4) They pay me more
5) Better opportunity for promotion and career growth
6) I'm a regional employee now, so I work with a larger variety of people in different offices
7) Less stressful - not near as many hurried requests for projects due in an hour
8) (this is for Seannibal) The vending machine in the breakroom is free!

As great as this new job is, there are some drawbacks:

1) I no longer work with War Eagle Girl
2) the afternoon commute is worse than before
3) I miss talking with my BC friends. I'm located with the Regional VPs, and they travel alot so its usually pretty quiet around here.
4) I no longer have a supportive GIS community here to work with. I guess I will have to build my own.

Who am I working for, you might ask? Pulte Homes, America's largest home builder. I am still making maps, but in support of strategic planning for residential development. It's a different world over here, different from environmental consulting, that's for sure.

Just wanted to fill you all in, I'll try to keep up with my blog when I find amusing links and the like.

Have any questions for the new Southeast Area Senior GIS/Data Analyst? Ask away...

Hasta Luego, Amigos!

Ads and such

If you've been following my blog at all (there may be four of you out there..) you might have noticed that I have added an advertising bar across the top of my page. A couple reasons for this:

1) I'm trying to increase traffic to my blog, well just because....
2) and they will pay me for every time that one of my blog readers clicks on an ad.

Hey, why the heck not have the ads up there then? Hope yall don't mind too much.

Funny thing is, they have some sort of computerized deal that scans through your blog and picks ads according to your page content - kind of like how Amazon tracks your favorite items. Well when I logged in this morning there was an ad up there that said "Replace Bush"?

Wow, I didn't realize that one post questioning President Bush's motives puts me in the lefty blog category. I better take my post back.

Forget I ever said anything bad about President Bush...OK? *wink wink*

I think I'm going to start posting more about beer and gaming and see what happens.

Oh, and don't forget to click on the ads for me!

Howdy, Yall

Hey everyone, just checking in. I'm in the midst of a transition here at work since I've accepted a new job with another company and we are really excited about it. I'll get you some more details later on it, but I just couldn't ignore the fact that I've been neglecting my Blog for this long.

So here's a link to enjoy while I go back to work and finish up this stuff. Yuck.

Live Action D&D Nerds

If you've never heard of LARPing (you may have seen a bit in my last D&D related video post) people really DO this. in the woods. for like four days at a time. here in Georgia and in other places near you. go figure.

Happy New Year!

KabLOOEY!!!

Howdy all....

Just checking in after a busy busy busy holiday season. To Recap:

Shopping.
Shopping.
Dodge mall traffic.
Church on Xmas Eve.
Open presents with C family on Xmas Eve.
Xmas morning breakfast at our house with both families.
Xmas dinner at P family house.
work for a week (busy).
Watched Gamecocks lose bowl game.
Ate greasy onion rings and drank tasty beer.
Fretted.
New Years Party.
Saw Chronicles of Narnia on New Years Day.
Back to work. (booo!)

Stayed home for the holidays, and it was great, but man were we tired out from all the merrymaking. yeesh! Especially Babygirl. She was tired, but hung in there!

Anyways, hope y'all have a great year, and you find yourself further along the road to accomplishing your dreams, whatever they may be.

P.S. On the zymurgy front, I brewed an English Pale Ale, and it is now in secondary fermentation. The pale ale votes won in my little online 'poll'. Thanks for your support!

Happy Thanksgiving, WebReaders!

Just wanted to post a 'shout out' to everyone and wish them the very best for Thanksgiving. I know that I have many, many things to be thankful for, and I hope you all stop and think about everything to be thankful for over this holiday.

Stay Safe and don't eat too much! -- well not enough to pop, that is.

Here is what I am most thankful for:

unBOWLievable!

That's right, the Gamecocks managed to defeat the Arkansas Razorbacks 14-10 on Saturday making the Cocks 6-3 and bowl eligible. I can't believe after that horrendous showing versus Auburn that I would be saying this today, but it's true. I didn't even think we'd win another game, just ask my bro.

Now if we can pull off a win against Florida and/or Clumpson, we may possibly go to the Peach Bowl. That's what I'm hoping for so we can go see them play right here in Atlanta!

The thing is, we aren't that good, and we're going to a bowl game in Spurrier's first year. I can't wait until he recruits some more talent, we could be unstoppable!

Spur 'em Spurrier!!!!

16-15 GameCOCKS!

How bout them Gamecocks!?!

For the first time in 13 Years, the South Carolina Gamecocks Beat the Tennersee Volunteeerssss.

Hell yes!

Now in case you were wondering, that was the game I was first hooked on Gamecock and SEC football. In 1992 I was a first year Graduate student at South Carolina. I didnt know much about SEC and USC football, I just came there from Big Ten country. And LO...I was at a game on a crisp fall afternoon when the Gamecocks upset the mighty Volunteers in Columbia. The crowd was INSANE. Cups were flying through the air. HIllbillies wearing orange overalls were MOCKED. It was a group emotion I have never experienced since.

"Spurrier, wearing glasses and not his trademark visor, improved his record against Tennessee to 10-5. It was his first visit to Neyland Stadium since 2000, a 27-23 win by the Gators after a controversial touchdown catch. "

``I've finally got a new line -- God is smiling on the Gamecocks. That was my line after close wins at Florida,'' he said.

-- The new Coach, Spurrier...

13 Years later and we beat them again. I had no clue how long it would be.

This is sweet.

Cocks are BOWLBOUND!

Is Fall finally here?

Must be because I had my annual version of Curley-Aerator SMACKDOWN WWE!

This past weekend was the first weekend that actually felt like fall. Low 70's and yesterday it was gray and drizzly all day with a high in the uper 60's. I almost could smell the fireplaces burning... Not only that, but I spent all day yesterday preparing the yard for aeration. My neighbor and I went to Lowe's at 8 AM to rent an aerator and they were all out. We didn't end up getting one until about 1:30 or so, and by that time I had just started scalping the lawn and raking up the thatch. Ouch. By the time it was my turn to aerate, the drizzle faucet was on full, I was wet, the lawn was soggy, and the behemoth of an aerator sunk down good and deep into the soil. If you have no idea what aerating is, its basically using an oversized lawnmower/tiller thingy with spikes under it to run over your lawn while the spikes pull up little 5 inch cores out of your lawn. This allows oxygen and other nutrients to get into your soil through these holes. Oh did I mention that in order to do this effectively, the aerator has to be HEAVY?? Cripes. Turning it is a feat in itself. I got maybe 30 yards of grass aerated before the behemoth just stopped moving - I looked down and saw the drive chain lying on the grass, snapped in half. Nice.

So I stood there in the drizzly rain all wet with a 200+ pound machine sinking into my lawn with no drive chain at 4:30 in the afternoon. I was a happy camper. Not. We took it back to the rental center and I'll be finishing the lawn tonight, if they have another aerator on hand when I get there, that is. Then I can happily apply the lime and grass seed, all so the lawn will be green next spring.

The things we do for a pretty lawn. *sigh*.

Well at least I got a chance to brew a stout on Saturday evening, oh and the Gamecocks won a game. So I guess it wasn't too bad of a weekend. :)

Another HHI Vacation

Hey there faithful Blog Readers...

We have returned. Packed up the family and went to Hilton Head South Carolina for more fun in the sun. The weather was much better temperature wise this time around, but it was rainy and windy. Thanks Tropical Storm Tammy. It was a good trip, my Dad turned 60 on Tuesday so we took him out for ribs and a nice dinner at Truffles Cafe on Sea Pines Plantation. Very very good meal. The Babygirl got to be the center of attention the whole week also, which she enjoys immensely.

Now we're back in the ATL trying to get readjusted to the fast city life. *sigh* At least it's been a short work week and I have aerating and overseeding to look forward to tomorrow. yay.

Hope everyone is doing well, we've been keeping mega busy round here.

Random Friday Thoughts

- Getting glass in your foot really hurts. If at all possible avoid doing so, because trust me, you will be mega-gimpy for a few days until you have to see a surgeon to get it pulled out.

- Will the Gamecocks rebound and beat Troy University on Saturday after the thumping they received from Bama last weekend? Does anyone besides myself care?

- Rita is bearing down on Texas and will hit it hard. New Orleans is flooding again as I type this. Our gas prices will be affected by another huge hurricane. Is someone upstairs trying to tell us something?? I'm just asking....

- I have determined that Natural Lite Ice in a can is horrible. It's like drinking water with alcohol added to fool you into liking it. Oh I just bought it to grill beer can chicken with, I'm still a beer snob.

- After winning two presidential elections, people still call our President an idiot. Doesn't say much towards his competition or the people that say that about him in the first place. It has to take SOMETHING in the brain department to accomplish something like becoming the chief executive and Commander in Chief in a constitutional republic.

- My fantasy football team won laast weekend. YAY! Wonder if I'll make it two in a row? I'm playing my buddy Renato's wife, and she's been talking smack. You go girl (but not this weekend)!

- Best wishes and godspeed to my good friend Renato who has shipped to Iraq to serve our country. We will miss him horribly, but are extremely proud of what he is going to accomplish with his and his family's sacrifice. I plan on attending his welcome home party next year and toasting with a nice cold one. He is a man of true honor and duty, and for that we are all thankful.

- Dang, what does one guy gotta do to get some comments on his Blog? Advertise free beer?

- Good friend of mine yesterday at lunch told me when I asked him if he read my blog that he doesn't like to read them because its usually just a bunch of ranting about stuff. I don't do that do I??? *coy look*

P-Dogg's Zymurgy Tip of the day..

Just in case you've ever wanted to make a high gravity beer, here's a tip for you. Get a reaaaal strong yeast or one that you can add to the bottle after primary fermentation. My batch #7 is a Belgian Style Abbey Ale with about a 10% Alcohol content. It has been almost three months since I bottled it, and I have no carbonation whatsoever. I asked the friendly neighborhood beer maker store owner guy about it and he told me that the amount of alcohol in the beer ends up slowing the yeast activity and therefore the remaining yeast in the bottles are having a hard time creating the carbon dioxide needed for proper carbonation. He recommended adding a few granules of dry yeast to each bottle and then re-capping them.

I did that Saturday evening, and I sure hope I didn't put too much in each bottle and they become bottle bombs.

Moral of the story: I'm probably not going to make another high gravity beer anytime soon. They're expensive, take too long to make, and you have to wait forever for them to carbonate and be drinkable. I'll stick with the regular gravity beers, thank you very much. I can buy myself a finely crafted Belgian Ale at the liquor store when the need hits me.

The Gamecocks Reprezent

Using my best gangsta rap voice, the Fighting Gamecocks went to Athens last weekend to reprezent! Follow up to my last blog entry about the Atlanta area media and national media thinking that USC had no shot at winning last Saturday's game, I am happy to say that even though we lost to those ugly Dawgs, it wouldn't have been so had our kicker made a PAT and a FG that he missed. It was REAL close.

Ah well, a loss is a loss, but the Gamecocks looked really good against the #9 team in the country and I think we're going to have a good season after all. Next year UGA better be prepared, because we ain't losin to them again for a while.

Oh and by the way, the media sure has been quiet about how great UGA is this week. Wonder why....hmmmm.... *grin*

Football Gripe

I just got back from making my lunch in the breakroom in my office, and every day there is a copy of the local newspaper in there to read. I, being a red blooded American male, of course read the sports section. This weekend is the big matchup between my Beloved South Carolina Gamecocks, and the Georgia Bulldogs. Of course the Dawgs are the local favorite seeing as how I live in Georgia and all, but every year it's the same old thing with the local media, and it drives me crazy when the proof just isn't there. Let me take an example and try to explain to you what I'm talking about:

"Lou Holtz, former football coach and still 10 percent humanoid, with the rest meat-byproducts, recently predicted South Carolina would upset Georgia.

I find this amusing, though not because Holtz doesn’t even have his own Friday column, and therefore his projections aren’t considered as scientific absolutes, like, say, the theory of relativity and Weekend Predictions. Rather, this is funny because in his 174 years of coaching, Holtz never once predicted a victory for his own team, even when he knew he was coming off a really good illegal offseason."

And more:

Spurrier is not with Florida.

With South Carolina, is he.

With gout, he might as well be.

The Dogs are favored by 18 points over South Carolina. If the line goes any higher, the SEC mandates they play at least one series blindfolded.

- Jeff Schultz, Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial

I hear the local talk radio hosts chuckle when someone mentions that SC has some talent on their team. They joke about Lou Holtz' NCAA Violations. They talk about how this UGA victory will be a 'hollow' one over Spurrier. The 'Mayhem in the AM' guys this morning had Lou Holtz on the show interviewing him and after they were done they commented 'Lou seems to actually believe that USC can upset Georgia!' followed by much laughter. This is repeated ad nauseam in print and TV and radio 'analyses'.

Granted, last week UGA dismantled a Boise State team that went undefeated last season, and USC didn't look its sharpest against UCF. But this is the same USC program that was beating UGA 16-0 at halftime last year. The year before UGA whomped us. The year before that, UGA escaped with a Pollack fumble/interception thing in the end zone and won by a field goal. It's been a close game, year in and year out.

I guess my biggest beef is that even though we beat Georgia, and recently barely lost to them, the media still laughs as though USC aint got an ice cube's chance. The funny thing about this is, most of the actual UGA fans I know, give USC some props for past battles well fought and some even have a bit of fear about Spurrier taking the reins there. So where's the disconnect between the media and the fans?

That's cool (pun intended), I personally don't think we will pull this one off, but damn, I will laugh soooo hard if we beat UGA, AGAIN. And I look forward to reading the post mortems containing lines like 'how could such a superior team lose to a bunch of untalented hacks from South Carolina?' (I've seen it before...)

College Football '05 Kickoff

Last night the Spurrier era finally began at South Carolina. I watched every minute of the game to analyze every move and play we ran. First off I gotta say we WON!!! and that's cause for celebration. However, we really didn't play well in the second half and it showed. The following are some notes about things I noticed about the 2005 version of the Fighting Gamecocks:

1)Blake Mitchell and the Spurrier offense looks good. I was totally surprised by how well he threw the ball and that our receivers made some great catches and some great blocks. This part of the game right now is our strong point.

2)Our Offensive line looks atrocious. Wow, 32 yards rushing the whole game? Against an 0-11 team? Blake spent some time getting hit hard too, we HAVE to get some boys who will open holes for our running backs, because it just ain't happenin' right now.

3)Our defense is small. All night our defense got pushed around by that 'vaunted' Central Florida offensive line. They were poppin' 5-7 yard runs almost at will on us, and when they didn't do that, they had two WRs that were eating our defensive backs alive. What the??? This was supposed to be our strong point coming into this season, and so far it looks like we're lining up 10 defensive backs and one 300 pound defensive lineman on the field. Boy I hope we improve because it could get ugly against a real offense (see UGA, UF, UT ad nauseam).

4)Spurrier is the Anti-Holtz. He runs plays that make sense and work. He plays like he wants to win, not to prove some point. He makes our QB look great by teaching him where to throw the ball and let the receivers make plays. He doesn't force something that isn't working, and he actually adjusts game plans to suit the situation. Gee imagine that. I am very happy he is at Carolina and brings a coaching scheme that I think will work and work well once we get some more talent around the ball.

At this point USC has a ways to go, first order of business it seems is to recruit some big uglies for the O and D lines. We were just getting whipped out there by a mid-conference team. The Offense will improve, I can just feel it and see it. Unfortunately the Gamecocks won't be able to outscore many folks until we stop them, and that leaves us with the Defense. We better get some size and talent there or its going to be a long year.

Next up, UGA and the Ugly Dawgs. They have yet to live up to their hype with a big game against Boise State tomorrow. We will see what happens there. I will say that if their Offensive line is as good as advertised, then the Gamecock defense will be eaten alive by their running attack. Coach Thompson, you'd better readjust!

*gulp* Georgia, here we come!!!