Banjo Hero

Guitar Hero and Rock Band are beginning to get a little passe, so it's time for something new. That's why I think the next big thing will be Banjo Hero. Instead of having stages like the small club and the huge arena, there will be the Appalachian backwoods and the old barn. And when you want to play multiplayer, you can buy the jug peripheral to go with the fiddle and the washboard. It'll be a hoot. Pre-order yours today! It's sure to sell out fast. Straw hat and missing teeth sold separately.

Hasselbeck

With the announcement of the glorious, if ill advised, return of Matt Hasselbeck, I've realized what the Seahawks most need. Since Seneca Wallace hasn't worked out and Charlie Frye has been abysmal to put it mildly, what we really need is a spare Hasselbeck. That's why it's time to sign Tim Hasselbeck. I don't know if he's still a back up somewhere or if we need to coax him out of retirement, but we need a replacement Hasselbeck ready to step right in and take over when Matt inevitably reinjures himself because he wants to come back early and save a horrible season against his doctor's advice to sit out the rest of the year. I hope that doesn't happen, but I can see it coming. So it's time to get Tim on the roster and up to speed as soon as possible. And maybe assassinate Charlie Frye while we're at it.

Saved By Zero

If you hate the new Toyota commercials that play during every commercial break in every NFL game, sometimes twice, then you're not alone. Apparently Cy Curnin, lead singer of the band The Fixx is with you. I have to think that the royalty checks somewhat dull the sting a bit though. Heck, if I was getting a cut every time one of those commercials played, I'd be more willing to sit through them. My iritation, however, stems from the fact that Toyota decided to let a cover band sing the commercial version of the song rather than using the original, as well as the fact that they just keep looping the same 5 second clip over and over again.

Incidentally, Cy also said that he finds it ironic that the song would be used in an advertisement since the song is about the freedom felt by not having any possessions or attachments to worry about. Truth be told, I had no idea what the song was about, but now that I do, I can appreciate the irony. And so I hope that the irony increases by Toyota being saved by zero - losing all of their business so they don't have anything else to worry about.

Democracy At Work

Say what you will about animosity in US elections, but at least we're a step above Venezuela where president Hugo Chavez has warned that he will use tanks to defend the will of the people if the outcome of the upcoming elections aren't to his liking.

"If you let the oligarchy return to government then maybe I'll end up sending the tanks of the armoured brigade out to defend the revolutionary government," he said late on Saturday.

It makes me kind of wish we had a leader courageous enough to protect us from ourselves like that. Why isn't W rolling out any tanks to ensure that Dino Rossi is our next governor?

I can only assume that this means he doesn't really care about us. And I'll finish by saying that I believe that Hugo Chavez is unbalanced. Perhaps it's the uncut cocaine that's destroying his brain. Perhaps it's a family history of mental illness. I'm just glad he's safely in another country where he can spout all the anti-US diatribes he pleases and we can have a good chuckle at his expense.

Down Goes Circuit City

In yet another blow to the economy, Circuit City filed chapter 11 today. I guess it's partly my fault for not shopping there enough, but they just didn't have good enough prices and they were more inconveniently located than Best Buy or any online retailers. That and they had no qualified employees, having laid off their longest tenured employees in favor of minimum wage newbies. I'm pretty sure I remember Jessie predicting this would come back to bite them long ago, but I'm too lazy to go searching through the archives to find it. I hope that other retailers learn the lesson that laying off your best employees isn't the way to turn around a struggling business. Especially since cutting an executive job or two would have saved as much or more.

Still, Circuit City is planning on closing 155 of it's 700 stores and laying off up to 7,300 employees. On top of all of the people in the mortgage/banking industry who have lost their jobs, it's going to be a lean Christmas for retailers. And since CompUSA just closed their doors about a year ago, I'm beginning to wonder if online retailers are simply driving brick and mortar shops out of business. Fry's and Best Buy seem to be thriving though, so I'm not sure that the others weren't just poorly managed.

Well, I'm pretty sure I had some other good points to make but got distracted and don't remember what they were anymore. I need an assistant.

Sorry

....but I can't help myself. Every year about this time I get the Arcadia song Election Day stuck in my head. The only thing that has the power to dislodge it is Saved By Zero. Damn you Toyota for making me hate a classic. At least they haven't ruined One Thing Leads To Another yet.

Spruce Goose

After a gruelling Halloween which saw 158 trick or treaters knock on my cousin Pat's door, Saturday morning we headed down to McMinnville to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum to see the Spruce Goose. I've been wanting to do this for a while and am glad I finally got the chance. The Goose is enormous, and getting the opportunity to pilot it was pretty damn cool. Here Pat is my co-pilot and cousin Wayne was the stewardess on this mission. Yes, I am actually sitting in the same seat Howard Hughes was in when he piloted the biggest plane ever built on it's famed one mile flight off the shore of Long Beach, California. It really is too bad that it never flew again.











It's kind of hard to get a good feel for the size of it from pictures, particularly from pictures taken by a camera phone since I forgot to bring my real camera with me, but here is a fighter jet and another plane that I can't tell what it is parked under one of the wings.

To give you a little better idea of the size, here is a better picture shamelessly stolen from the internet. And just for fun, one more with the SR-71 nicely nestled under it's wing like an ugly duckling. And I don't know why having multiple pictures plays havoc with my formatting, but I'm too tired to worry about it now.

The Goose wasn't the only interesting attraction there though. In addition to a variety of other planes ranging from a Sopwith Camel to an F-15, they also had an impressive space exhibit. Here is a Titan II missile which space buffs may remember propelled the astronauts of the Gemini program into orbit.

And here is one of the rocket boosters from the Titan II.

A cute little unmanned Russian lunar rover.

And the NASA LEM, or lunar excursion module for those of you who haven't seen Apollo 13. Note, this is a replica, not the actual one that landed on the moon. Also note, that is a replica astronaut, not an actual one.

Here we have the much cooler manned lunar rover, brought to you by your friends at NASA.

And finally, the super cool SR-71. Fastest plane in the world. This thing had some unbelievable huge engines, and the thought of taking a spin in this bad boy makes me salivate. But alas, that wasn't inclued in the price of admission, nor was it an optional upgrade. I'm afraid my dream will have to remain just that. And so, if you find yourself with some free time and have already seen High School Musical 3, then do yourself a favor and get down to Oregon to see this museum. It's worth it.

R.I.P. Tuba Man

I just found out about this today and it just makes me sick. Edward McMichael, more commonly known as the tuba man was beaten to death by some teenage punks while waiting for a bus. It's hard to believe that something like this happened around here. It seems like something that might happen in New York, Los Angeles, or Detroit, but here?

Tuba Man has been playing outside of sports events for as long as I can remember. I remember seeing him outside the Kingdome as a young kid. He was as much a part of the sports landscape as any fan could be. I never talked to him, but he always seemed like a very friendly and kind man. That just makes this tragedy harder to stomach. I hope that his assailants are caught and quickly brought to justice. And my condolences go out to his family and friends. Rest in peace tuba man.

Useless Election Trivia

What U.S. presidential race featured the first public opinion poll of voter preferences?

Useless Halloween Trivia

Well, this is a few days late, but here you go anyway:

What were the first jack-o-lanterns carved from?