Where I Work and Where I Live

From Windows Live powered by Virtual Earth, this is where I work.

This is where I live (the house with the brown roof in the bottom left)
The interesting thing about this picture it was taken a couple years ago, and all the construction across the street is now townhouses and condos.

This is the best I could do for a closer picture of our house.

Google Maps is a better program over all, but Windows live provides better bird's eye views.

Now that I've shown you these pictures, please don't stalk me.

A sad day for Cardinals fans

Anheuser-Busch has purchased the naming rights for the bleachers in Wrigley Field.

Yeah, I know Busch's sponsorship of baseball already goes well beyond the Cardinals and has included the Cubs for ages, but still....

Crazy State Update

It's been a while, so it's time to revisit my Crazy State Power Rankings.

First things first... I'd previously stated that I was, until further notice, letting Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama off the hook. Call it Katrina sympathy. Louisiana and Mississippi are still off the hook. But Alabama is now a contender. This is what pushed me over the edge....

There are three states in the country in which Bush has an approval rating over 50%. Alabama is one of them. Utah and Wyoming are the other two, and as you will see, both make the updated list. The other newcombers are Washington DC, Indiana and Wisconsin, which I will discuss below.

1. Kansas Previously #1
No convincing evidence to make a change.

2. Missouri Previously #2
Because, despite the St. Louis Cardinals, the state also is home to the Kansas City Royals. And Branson.

3. Oklahoma Previously #7
The big mover on the list. Oklahoma, in addition to my general dislike of Oklahoma, is a state in which nearly half the residents support Bush. It isn't one of the three red states mentioned above, but it's close.

4. Virginia Previously #4
Nothing much to report on in my home state, except that it passed

5. Florida Previously #3
Florida is dropping because apparently the state is going to be sane enough not to elect Katharine Harris to the Senate.

6. Alabama New entry
Now that it's off my safe list.... come on. It's Alabama.

7. Texas Previously #6
Significantly less that half the residents think Bush is doing a good job. IN TEXAS! That's enough to let the state drop a notch in the rankings. Still, the state is his home, and is also now the home of Terrell Owens.

8. South Dakota Previously #5
The abortion controversy isn't as fresh in my mind now, so the state's slipping a little. I know that, as the court challenges start piling up, South Dakota will make a comeback.

9. Washington DC New entry
A strong debut for the people who keep electing Marion Barry to public office and allow Jim Bowden to run a baseball team.

10. Maryland Previously #11
Did I metion I can't stand Maryland Men's basketball coach Gary Williams?

11. Utah New Entry
One of the three "What are they thinking?" states.

12. Indiana New Entry
For trying to be the next South Dakota. And for Dan Quayle. You're never going to live that one down.

13. Wyoming New Entry
For being one of the tainted three and for Dick Cheney. Wyoming would be higher on the list, but I've always wanted to visit Yellowstone, and I'd still like to be welcome there.

14. California Previously #10
Still governed by the Kindergarten Cop.

15. Wisconsin New Entry
I lived there for two years, and there are plenty of reasons for Wisconsin to make the list. Including this.

16. Ohio Previously #9
Ohio's been pretty quiet, so they've slipped a bit.

17. Pennsylvania Previously #8
Terrell Owens is gone. This state is hanging onto the list by the skin of Rick Santorum's teeth.

How's my list? Tell me below.

My 2006 baseball predictions

Be sure to bookmark this so you can laugh at me later.

AL East: Yankees. Because that's the way the world works. Even if they don't look as good on paper, they'll do something mid-season if it's not gelling.
AL Central: White Sox. They won it all last year, they added depth to their rotation, and they added Jim Thome. No one will stop them in the central.
AL West: Angels. I think this is a weak division, and the Angels will squeak through.
AL Wild Card: Blue Jays. It's not their offseason spending that will get them the wild card. It's the slipping Red Sox, and the continued greatness of Roy Halladay.

AL Champs: White Sox.
AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay.
AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez.

NL East: Braves. See my Yankee comments. Mets continue their streak of spending alot of money and it not panning out.
NL Central: Cardinals. I'll be accused of bias here, but who else is in the Central? Really? The Cubs are starting Prior and Wood on the DL, the Brewers are improving but not enough to knock off the Cards, the same for the Pirates, the Astros are aging and the Reds are the Reds.
NL West: Dodgers. Just a hunch.
NL Wild Card: Brewers. Why not? They've got the most underrated pitching staff in baseball.

NL Champs: Cardinals. Now prove me right, team.
NL Cy Young: Jake Peavy.
NL MVP: Albert Pujols.

Your 2006 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals. Did you really expect me to say anything else?

Istanbul (Not Baghdad) (Or Constantinople)

Memo to Republicans: If you want to use photographic evidence to show how hunky-dory things are in Iraq, don't use pictures from Turkey.

And now, a spoof.

I was right and I was wrong

As I predicted, Lisa got the boot on American Idol. But I was way off on the other two in the bottom three. I didn't put Ace and Katherine among the safest of the safe, but I did say they weren't going anywhere. Apparently, alot of America agreed with me, and didn't care for Katherine's performance. And maybe Ace's fan base isn't as vast as I thought it was. If so, that's a good thing. His days are relatively numbered anyway.

I thought Kellie would be in the bottom three, but she's done well enough in previous weeks that she seems to have a big fan base. That could carry her for quite a while.

Making Up for the Idol Post

Since I talked in depth about one reality show, I'm going to allow Chris to show you why he hates reality TV.

Idol Blogging

Here I go, shredding the last bit of indie cred I had, and continuing to blog about American Idol. But, given my basketball prognosticating skills, I better get back to something I'm actually relatively good at predicting.

First of all, something was up with the judges last night. Paula was actually genuinuely critical of some of the contestants, and Simon was back to his overly critical self. He even criticized Paris, who was far and away the best performer of the night. In fact, I'll say Paris has risen above the crop and is now my favorite contestant, passing even Mandisa.

My prediction for elimination is easy: Lisa. She gave yet another uninspired performance and failed to live up to her potential. She's been in the bottom 3 at least a couple times before. Despite a night of mediocre performances in general, the others seem to have bigger fan bases and will get enough votes to continue.

My other predictions for the bottom 3 will make me look like a genius if I'm right: Kellie and Mandisa. Hear me out. Kellie gave a mediocre performance and performed early in the show, which usually isn't good. And Mandisa, while she was better than most of the contestants, paled in comparison to Paris. And maybe it's unfair to compare just those two, but I do think they're splitting votes. And the better Paris does, the worse Mandisa will do.

The other two that could be in the bottom 3 are Bucky and.... Taylor. Bucky I think was unique enough last night, and actually performed better than most of the contestants, and I think he's safe this week. Taylor didn't stand out much last night, and he picked a pretty tame song, but it still suited him well and I think will appeal to his huge fan base enough that he'll be safe.

Ace and Katherine aren't going anywhere. They weren't the best of the best last night, but they're safe. Despite what the judges said, I think Drops of Jupiter was Ace's best song choice yet and last night was the closest I've come to actually liking Ace. And Katherine, while I didn't care for the performance, alot of people seem to think she was good, and she'll get through on the judges' praise if nothing else.

The safest of the bunch are Paris, Chris and Elliott. Paris was the only truly great performance of the night. Chris, while the performance probably had too hard an edge for alot of people, knew what he was doing and did it well, and still may be the most natural performer of the group. And Elliott was above average for Elliott and went last, so he's safe.

We'll find out tonight how I did.

ESPN Bracket Leaders

Slate writer Josh Levin is in a tie for fourth place among the 3 million entrants in ESPN's Tourney Challenge. I'm still hanging in there at number 2,528,249.

Levin points out that the person currently in second place is a trash talking 14 year old.

Of course the kid has egg on his face. He made this post:

Re: Florida over UCLA in Championship game
stokke923 Posted: Mar 26, 2006 04:43 PM

if that does happen guess who wins $10,000? that's right ME!

But he's wrong. The guy in first, ten points ahead of him, also has Florida beating UCLA in the championship. So there's no way the kid can win the $10,000.

More Dixie Chicks

Here's a good post about their new song, and it looks like it's already becoming a hit.

In other sports...

How about that University of Wisconsin Hockey? The women just won the national title. And the men are headed to the frozen four with a home ice advantage in Milwaukee. This, after winning what was an apparently incredible game over Cornell.

Chef update

Looks like Isaac Hayes made the decision to leave South Park on his own, and previous reports of a stroke were wrong.

Final Four

As Dara points out in my comments section, my revised-revised prediction of Texas winning it all was wrong.

She wants me to jump on the Florida bandwagon, which I sort-of already did. My revised predictions had Florida making it to the championship game and losing, first to West Virginia, then to Texas.

Well, Dara, you can now consider me officially on the bandwagon. Florida has been the most consistent team in the tourney. They've looked good every game they've played. And they have Joakim Noah, the best player left in the tournament.

So my revised-revised-revised prediction is that Florida will beat UCLA in the championship.

But now that I've said that, I've doomed Florida, and George Mason will win it all.