The Cartoon Network is in H.D.Some may find this unnecessary, I disagree.
Carry on.

Well, as most anyone who checks the news daily (usually at work, on the clock, during that 45 minute period where you should be productive) knows, Lance is officially back.

After more than three years away from professional cycling, Lance Armstrong — the cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France winner — announced Tuesday that he would emerge from retirement and climb back onto his bike.
Armstrong, who will turn 37 next week, spoke briefly about his decision in a videotaped statement posted on his foundation's Web site.
"Hey everybody, I know there's been a lot of reports in the media today about a possible return to racing," he said, wearing a white T-shirt and leaning toward what seemed to be a handheld camera. "Just want to let you know that after long talks with my kids, the rest of my family, a close group of friends, I have decided to return to professional cycling in 2009."…
…But first, Armstrong must find a team. Even the most talented cyclist cannot win on his own. Teammates provide shelter from the wind, chase down opponents and free the sport's stars from mundane, energy-sapping tasks like picking up water bottles from a team car.
The speculation has focused on the Astana team because of Armstrong's close connections to the team. Johan Bruyneel, whose holding company owns the team, was selected by Armstrong to direct the United States Postal Service team when Armstrong made his return to racing in 1999 after his cancer treatment. As a team director, Bruyneel was part of all of Armstrong's Tour de France wins.
Astana, though, is not guaranteed a berth in next year's Tour. The team was excluded from this year's race by the organizers because of doubts about the team's willingness to root out doping.
Philippe Maertens, a spokesman for Astana, said the team was unaware of Armstrong's announcement. He added that Bruyneel had been trying to reach Armstrong since Monday.

Translation: Armstrong will be racing for Astana. This is kind of a big deal. As it stands Astana is already composed of about 5 of the top 10 riders in the world, and the other 5 are kinda spread out so it suffices to say that their dominance will be out of this world. Plus, just them mere presence of Lance will push these guys even further than where they are now, even as a support role for Lance. Imagine for a second if say, Michael Jordan proved he could still play like in his prime, joined the Dream Team and said “Alright, LeBron, Kobe, here’s how I want you to back me up, and then we’ll win.”
Some folks are wondering if he should do it, and I’ll admit I have my reservations (although very few) myself. Mainly, if he doesn’t do well then the results could be very damaging. But the bottom line is this- Lance is a cancer survivor, to the extent where he was literally on his deathbed. Anyone, in my opinion, who has looked death that closely in the eye can do pretty much anything they damn well please. Lance, and those like him have earned that right 100 times over and for that he has my fullest support (yeah, that’s what he needs, MY support).

LANCE IS BACK!
OOOOOOHHHHH BOY!
Well, maybe….

According to Velo News-

Lance Armstrong will come out of retirement next year to compete in five road races with the Astana team, according to sources familiar with the developing situation.
Armstrong, who turns 37 this month, will compete in the Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphine-Libere and the Tour de France — and will race for no salary or bonuses, the sources, who asked to remain anonymous, told VeloNews

O.K., so this may not actually be true, but the rumors have been flying around for some time. As a sport, this is a much needed shot in the arm. As one might remember, ever since Lance’s retirement the sport has been riddled by doping scandals and mismanagement. Granted, the doping scandals only prove that it’s not the dirtiest sport- but instead the most tested (really, could you imagine if MLB, NBA or the NFL tested EVERY athlete before, after and during an event for every substance know?), but I digress from the point.
As much as I’m just bursting at the seams to spew every thought and theory I have, I’ll just wait. We still need official confirmation ya know….

Ingredients-

Cream of Wheat

Milk

Vanilla Extract

Coconut Flavoring

Pack of Splenda or Sugar

Brown Sugar

Raisins

 

First, follow the directions on how much Cream of Wheat mix and milk to use.  I’ve found that the one serving is just enough for one person.  I know this seems pretty obvious but serving suggestions can vary depending on the person.  Now the directions call for either milk or water- sure you can use water, if you want it to be tasteless that is.  So, use milk.  I’ve found that even powdered milk can work pretty well.

Keep the heat somewhere around medium to medium high.  On my stove that’s somewhere between 6 and 7, you don’t want it to high or the milk will burn at the bottom of the sauce pan. If you really want to speed up the cooking process you can put it in a medium sized sauce pan, this will allow for more of the liquid to be in direct contact with the heating element- surface area wise (didn’t know this would  be technical did ya).

Stir occasionally, again to avoid burning the bottom of the milk (if you burn any of the milk, throw it away and start again- the burnt taste gets everywhere so you’ve pretty much ruined the whole enchilada).  When you see it juuuusssstt starting to boil add the Cream of Wheat.  Do this slowly while stirring or you’ll get lumps (unless of course you want lumps, which is perfectly acceptable). 

While it’s cooking, add in a small splash of the coconut flavoring and just slightly more of the vanilla.  Sure, you could measure it, but where’s the fun in that?  Same thing with the sweetener.  I use ½ a packet of Splenda for no other reason than its easy to measure.  You could use sugar as well, just to taste.

Let it cook for about two minutes.  After that, take if off the heat.  It’s at this point you add the raisins.  You don’t want to do that any time before or the raisins will cook too much and get all mushy.  Adding just after removing from the heat will mean the Cream of Wheat will still be hot enough to cook the raisins, but not enough to ruin ‘em.

Let it set for a minute or so.  Then you can poor it into the bowl.   Add one dab of butter- not margarine.  Trust me, there’s a noticeable taste difference between real butter and “spread.”  Folks, butter is NOT expensive, so get some.  Now you can also add the brown sugar.  I just grab some to taste, but I would assume it’s about 2 tablespoons or so.  I just add it to the bowl and in no time it makes this cool swirling effect that makes for a nice presentation.

Grab a cup of coffee.

Oh, I didn’t mention the coffee?

Here’s the trick(s) to a good cup of coffee.

First off, buy a good coffee.  Sounds easy enough.  I know Starbucks is passé, but the simple truth is they make a good product.  Sure it’s expensive, but you get what you pay for.  Lately I’ve been getting their Café Verona, it suits my criteria for a good coffee-dark and full bodied (much like my criteria for, oh never mind).  I get the whole beans and grind ‘em up.  Now I’ll concede that this is just too much for an everyday cup before work, but on the weekends when you have time, do it.  Whole beans make a difference, let there be no arguing on that.

Lastly, when I make my coffee I always use water that I’ve run through my Brita filter.  Tap water just won’t due.  Everyone seems to forget this, but bad water makes bad coffee.  Remember folks, there are two ingredients to a cup of Joe and coffee’s only one of ‘em.

On the side I like to have a little glass of orange juice.  Now here’s the part where I show some restraint and not wax eloquently on some tangent about how there are just WAY to many choices in orange juice these days.  Calcium, low pulp, high pulp, no pulp, heart healthy, low sugar…

I just want orange juice, how difficult can it be?

 

 

 

I haven’t been to a High School football game in like 18, years. As a matter of fact I think the last one I went to was the year after I graduated- that would be 1990 for those trying into guess my age. Anyway, when I was in school the South Seven Conference consisted of Marion, Herrin, Mt. Vernon, Carbondale, Harrisburg, Murphysboro, and some sort of combination of Centralia, W. Frankfort and Benton.
It was nice. You had rivalries of close towns that made things interesting. I can remember a buddy of mine (a linebacker) dating a girl from W. Frankfort who’s ex boyfriend was their quarterback. Made for an interesting match-up. And that kind’a thing happened all the time. Now it’s all confusing. For the last several years the South Seven has morphed, composed of all sorts of towns like Cahokia. Cahokia? How can you have a rivalry with a town like Cahokia? It’s like 2 hours away! The farthest we ever had to go was once a year when we faced Paducah – Tillman. Not sure why, but we still visit P.T. I guess the athletic directors were just trying to broaden our horizons by introducing us to Kentuckians.
Back to my point- I was reading the paper this morning and, being a small area where most the folks live vicariously through their kids and take H.S. sports WAY to seriously, the paper had their weekly H.S. football preview. With that they included an overview of tonight’s Marion v. Highland battle of the giants. Um, Highland? Where the heck is Highland? Here are the directions they gave-

From Marion, take I-57 for 42 miles toward Mt. Vernon and stay left onto I-64 for 39 miles. Take Exit 34 toward Albers and turn left on Albers road.
Turn right on I-160 North for 17 miles and turn right on Broadway for one mile. Take a left on Poplar Street and enter the roundabout and take the second exit onto I-160. Turn left onto Troxler Avenue to get to the high school.

Are you kidding me?
I don’t want to sound like an old, complaining fart here, but ‘back in my day’ the directions to the game were “go to the Herrin football field- try not to start a fight.” Everyone just knew. Now, Highland? Whatever.
Like I said, I haven’t been to a game in a long time and frankly I’m not sure if I’ll ever go to another. Not that I don’t have any pride for my alma matter (they had a great season last year and I was rooting for ‘em) but I just don’t wanna be that guy that lives his life in his hometown’ bubble. Sure I still live in the area and really don’t care to move away, but a man’s gotta have his limitations. None the less, I just don’t see the point in what the ISHA is doing here. It would be like moving the Cubs and Cardinals into two separate divisions. Rivalries are one of the key ingredients to sport, why on Earth would you take it away?
Even way back when, I never pretended to have the slightest clue to what the ISHA was thinking at any given moment, you just sorta took them as a powerful organization hell bent on taunting the state with ludicrous decisions, but this is just goofy.

Now, I dig Facebook, after all it takes up all that time that I could be using for- I dunno, reading, studying, generally being productive, but my problem with it is how invasive the sidebar advertisements are.  As best Facebook knows, every few hours I’m looking for BBW’s who are over 30.  Not that I’m denying that I just in fact may be from time to time, but none the less it just gets annoying.   However I do use the service an awful lot, and have connected or re-connected with some great people, and I haven’t paid a dime for it- so I suppose I can’t complain.

With that, I’ve always been under the belief that if you have something to say, then chances are someone’s said it much better.  So, read on… From WashingtonPost.com

Fat? Stinky? Facebook ads hit where it hurts

Social networking site's ads target your psychological soft spots

By Rachel Beckman

Washingtonpost.com

My Facebook page called me fat.

Maybe it's my age, my sex or the fact that it knew I was engaged, but the site decided I was a gal who needed to drop a few pounds. And it wasn't shy about its tactics.

This was not a close friend taking me aside, telling me in gentle tones that she'd noticed I'd put on some weight and was there anything going on in my personal life that I needed to talk about?

, no. Every time I logged in to my home page, Facebook's ads screamed at me with all the subtlety of a drill sergeant: "MUFFIN TOP." This particular ad had a picture of someone with said affliction. For those blissfully unacquainted with the slur, it's when a woman wears too-tight jeans and a roll of flab hangs over her waistband.

I posted a status update that said, "Rachel doesn't appreciate her Facebook page telling her that she has a muffin top."

Facebook targets its advertising to users based on the information in their profiles. This is not a new concept, of course. Kids usually see toy ads while they watch Nickelodeon, and women get ads for birth control pills as they watch Lifetime.

But Facebook's data miners know much more about us because we tell them a whole lot more. Facebook knows my birthday, my relationship status and which book I'm reading, among other personal tidbits. The site started turning this information into dollar signs last November with the launch of Facebook Ads, which targets users' presumed areas of interest (or psychological soft spots).

Basically, the subliminal goal of product advertising is to make you feel inadequate and ashamed, because you're not perfect. Your teeth are yellow. Your armpits stink. You're fat. And hairy.

The targeting technology itself will be familiar to users of Google'sGmail, which generates ads based on what its users type in the body of an e-mail. TiVo and Netflix both suggest programming based on what you've been watching. (Remember the "My TiVo Thinks I'm Gay" episode of "The King of Queens"?)

Facebook spokesman Matt Hicks summed up the appeal to advertisers thus:

"If you're a wedding photographer, do you want to waste your money advertising to a general audience? Or do you want to reach those that are engaged?"

Provoking the bully
After my quaint status update about the muffin top ad, Facebook got even more vicious, like a schoolyard bully provoked by my initial reaction. With the knowledge that I was engaged to be married, the site splashed an ad across the left side of the screen playing into a presumed vulnerability. Do you want to be a fat bride? You'd better go to such-and-such Web site to learn how to lose weight before the big day.

I fought back harder. I clicked a little blue link that said "Report" and filled out a form.

A drop-down menu gave choices: Was the ad "misleading, offensive or pornographic?" I chose offensive. Facebook thanked me for the feedback and said it would take appropriate action, though I shouldn't expect any notification about this action.

Nothing changed. Facebook continued its onslaught of muffin-top and fat-bride taunts. I averted my eyes and tried to remember that saying about rubber and glue. I didn't spiral into a body-image crisis, nor did I start to diet. But there's got to be some kind of psychological toll wrought by so many weight-loss images each week.

I decided to investigate further, and obtained a document for advertisers called "Common Ad Mistakes." In it, I found this nugget:

"Text may not single out an individual or degrade the viewer of the ad." It even gave an example of a diet ad that uses unacceptable language: "You're Fat. You don't have to be."

Changes afoot
The muffin top ad is no more; whether the advertisers stopped using it by choice or by force, Facebook spokesman Hicks wouldn't say. There are other changes afoot at the site. Last month, it beefed up its advertising guidelines, in part to address the diet ads. Any ads that refer to health or medical conditions can go only to users 18 or older, and they must "present information without portraying any conditions or body types in a negative light."

Also in July, Facebook launched its new interface, which includes "thumbs up/thumbs down" buttons beneath ads so users can receive the ones that are more relevant to them.

I assumed that the diet ads would subside after I changed my relationship status from "engaged" to "married" in May. They did. I now receive these:

"Trying to get pregnant? Visit our site now. We're a national network of fertility specialists treating male and female infertility."

Thanks, Facebook, for calling me barren.

 

That’s what I imagine him saying….
Don LaFontane, the Hollywood star most never knew they knew (read it twice, it’ll make sense) has died.
“Who’s Don some of you may ask?” He’s the guy that did all the vocieovers for movie trailers.
“Oh yeah, that guy.”

By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON – 2 hours ago
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Don LaFontaine, the man who popularized the catch phrase "In a world where..." and lent his voice to thousands of movie trailers, has died. He was 68. LaFontaine died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from complications in the treatment of an ongoing illness, said Vanessa Gilbert, his agent.
LaFontaine made more than 5,000 trailers in his 33-year career while working for the top studios and television networks.
In a rare on-screen appearance in 2006, he parodied himself on a series of national television commercials for a car insurance company where he played himself telling a customer, "In a world where both of our cars were totally under water..."
In an interview last year, LaFontaine explained the strategy behind the phrase.
"We have to very rapidly establish the world we are transporting them to," he said of his viewers. "That's very easily done by saying, `In a world where ... violence rules.' `In a world where ... men are slaves and women are the conquerors.' You very rapidly set the scene."
LaFontaine insisted he never cared that no one knew his name or his face, though everyone knew his voice.
LaFontaine went on to work in the promo industry in the early 1960s. As an audio engineer, he produced radio spots for movies with producer Floyd Peterson.
When an announcer didn't show up for a recording session in 1965, LaFontaine voiced his first narration, a promo for the film, "Gunfighters of Casa Grande." The client, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, liked his performance.
LaFontaine remained active until recently, averaging seven to 10 voiceover sessions a day. He worked from a home studio his wife nicknamed "The Hole," where his fax machine delivered scripts.
LaFontaine is survived by his wife, the singer and actress Nita Whitaker, and three daughters.
His funeral arrangements were pending.