New Deck!

Summer may be pretty much over, but we finally got a new deck installed on our fourth floor balcony. The old one sported too many warped boards and foot-killing nail heads. Like our neighbors on the other row of townhouses, we went with composite wood, and had the builder build is a garden box too. It's too late to be planting vegetables, but we'll get set up for next spring. We should get nice weather the next couple of months, perfect for barbeques and random gatherings.

Lunar Eclipse!

My friends at DPC reminded me about the lunar eclipse happening on Tuesday. I'll be out with my camera, hoping to get a shot of it. If any turn out, I'll add them to my DPC portfolio and post the best one here.

EDIT: There was too much cloud cover to see the moon turn red, though I did see the Earth's shadow pass over the moon.

DPC: Urban Landscape 2

Kedzie Street Bridge

This shot became my new personal best at DPC, finishing in 7th place out of 174 entries. Clicking on the image will take you to the DPC page.

Football Thoughts

Last night's win for the Bears over the Colts does not make up for their loss in the Superbowl. It's PRESEASON! Hello?? Scores from preseason games are meaningless. The games basically exist to give coaches game situations in which they can evaluate the talent on their roster, particularly those players who are not likely to start real games. Sure, the starters are on the field for maybe a few plays, but that's more about shaking off the offseason rust than any real attempt at trying to win. It's not a real game.

On the Wii, Madden 07 is a superior game to Madden 08. Yeah, Costco had Madden 08 (for cheaper than Madden 07!) and I couldn't resist. Besides the seemingly random redefinition of the controller settings, EA Sports removed a lot of the Wii-ness from how players interact with the game. For example, in Madden 07 to pick a player to control you simply point at him and press 'A'. In Madden 08, you need to press 'A' until the player you want is highlighted, and if you overshoot you have to go through all 11 players again, and hope the play hasn't started before you're ready. In general, the "point and click" interface of Madden 07 has been replaced with a more cumbersome controller pad.

Real football starts soon. I'm set up in a fantasy league, and a "pick the loser" survivor league. My Cal Bears flag is ready to be proudly displayed for my no good Notre Dame alumni neighbors to see. NFL predictions coming soon.

DPC: Triumph

I meant to get this up earlier. The picture did alright in the challenge, but I ended up washing the contrast out too much in Photoshop.

Poisoning Kids Keeps Costs Down!

I read this interview snippet yesterday, but had a hard time expressing my disgust with this right wing rhetoric in words. Watching the video clip, to make sure I got the full context, only makes it more frustrating. How does the host not challenge this idiotic statement??

I used to think that if a particular fast food chain knew it would raise their stock price by a nickel, they'd happily put rat poison in kids' meals. My pessimistic views weren't all that far off.

In other rants:

• A church cancels a service for a fallen soldier, because he was gay.
  
• People looking to our founding fathers to justify America is a christian nation need to do a little more homework.
  

Madden 08

As you are probably well aware, or at least you should be, Madden 08 was released today. I'm still enjoying Madden 07 on those rare nights when I have some time to spend in front of the Wii, but the compelling reason for me to get the new game is for the new rosters. I don't play it online, or have the time to play through a full season, but Marshawn Lynch is on the Bills now! I'd resort the teams and put all the Cal players on the Bears team. I'm pretty sure I could trade Rex Grossman for Aaron Rodgers straight up, but I might have to sacrifice a lot to get Lynch. Throw in Deltha O'Neal, J.J. Arrington, Tony Gonzalez, and a few others, and I'd be set. But, since lack of playing time is still a problem, I probably won't get Madden 08 until sometime after Madden 09 comes out.

I Scream, You Scream...

On Sunday I got to attend a 6 hour Latosa Escrima class taught by Grandmaster Rene Latosa himself. Unlike other grandmasters (well, the one other grandmaster) I've taken classes from directly, Mr Latosa teaches well. The class covered the range from first program beginners to a group reaching for their first technician level (well above a blackbelt in a traditional martial art). Since I don't train all that often out here in Chicago though, I was extremely sore afterward, and that doesn't include my twisted ankle or the six or so spots where I got hit with a stick.

My ever so helpful coworkers offered to hit me with a stick next time so I don't have to travel all the way to California next time I get the urge for escrima..

I am inspired to continue practicing what I can out here, and if I'm lucky I can get one of my neighbors interested enough to be a training partner for me. Jason's still a bit too young to be learning how to hit people with a stick, but when he's ready I'll be there to teach him.

Escrima: More fun than you can shake a stick at!