The Pileated Woodpecker.....

I awoke this morning to a loud sporadic vibrating sound in the house. At first I thought we were having problems with the plumbing or perhaps our hot water heater was on the fritz, but the more I listened the sound was coming from the outside. When I went out to investigate, a large bird flew out of the corner of the gutter. I then watched this bird fly across the street and land in the neighbors gutter and do the same thing. After a little help from the resident amateur ornithologist I work with, I was informed that the culprit was this guy.

After reading of various ways to dispose of this animal that is attacking my house, I was informed that if a person was to kill said bird, they were subject to a 500 dollar fine. This, my friends, is government bureaucracy at it's finest. The good folks at the Virginia Department of Wildlife and Inland Fisheries left some helpful hints on their website though. Supposedly a stuffed owl or realistic rubber snake can deter the Pileated Woodpecker from it's intended target.

Till next time,

IPod
Artist: Miles Davis
Album: Kind of Blue

Do you guys remember this person?

I remember reading a few months ago about a guy from Abingdon who apparently decided to take his act to Hollywood and try his hand at writing and directing. His name is Scott Cooper, and he wrote, directed and co-produced the movie Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges. He was a few years older than us but I actually remember this guy, as I sat next to him in study hall my 8th grade year. It is nice to see a local guy go out and make it big, and if I were him I am pretty sure that I would bring my Oscar to the AHS 20 year reunion and rub it in all of those pretentious pricks' faces.

Till next time,

IPod
Still rocking Silversun Pickups

NFL Draft WTF??

For any true football fans out there, we should have two days that we all mark on the calender. The first day is the first Tuesday in February, the college football national signing day. The second is the day of the NFL draft. Ever since I have been in my early 20's I have always looked forward to this day. I would always watch the pre draft shows in the mornings and create a little mini war room for myself down in my den. I have always loved the drama that ensues when one team doesn't pick as everyone predicted, or when a team trades up to get the player that they want and the domino effect that ensues. I will never forget the arrogant Brady Quinn sitting there in the green room while pick by pick and hour by hour went by and the teams that didn't need a quarterback passed on him one by one. He was projected as a top 10 pick and dropped extremely late in the first round. I don't even mind watching that blow hard Mel Keiper give his advice.

The NFL in their infinite wisdom have decided this year to move the draft to Thursday night. For the life of me I cannot understand what they are thinking here. They are absolutely ruining one of the few sports days that I have enjoyed watching for almost 20 years now. The NFL gets the WTF award from me for this move, and I am willing to bet that their ratings plummet from last year.

Till next time,

Ipod

Artist: Silversun Pickups

Album: Swoon

The Barter Theater...

I recently took my 6 year old to see a production of The Billy Goats Gruff at stage 2 of the Barter Theater, and she absolutely loved it. They have a series of plays for children on Saturday mornings throughout the year for around 10 dollars a ticket, and it is well worth the money. Heck, you will almost spend that on a movie ticket these days and I find that a play is much more memorable.

I have to say that growing up I never fully appreciated having the theater in my hometown. I guess it wasn't the cool thing growing up to attend plays, but I have the feeling that I missed out on some fantastic performances. As it is, the wife and myself have season passes this year. I have already seen performances of Alice in Wonderland and The Diary of Anne Frank. While I have never cared for the story of Alice in Wonderland, as I always assumed it was written in some opium induced state, the cast did a very solid job with it. As far as The Diary of Anne Frank goes, I wasn't very enthusiastic about going to watch a play on the holocaust, but it really turned out to be an inspirational tale on how resilient the human will can be. Similar to watching a movie like Schlindler's list. I probably wouldn't watch it more than once, but I am glad that I got the chance to see it. As for the rest of this season, we already have reservations for productions of Annie, a Sherlock Holmes play and It's a Wonderful Life, as well as plans for a couple of more plays. I invite my friends whom read this blog to come back home for a weekend and attend a play with us. When coupled with dinner at the Tavern or one of Abingdon's other nice restaurants, it turns out to be a pretty good way to spend an evening.

Till next time,

IPod is the same as last time so....

Currently Netflixing

Big Love on HBO

The Condescending Media...

I have a typical routine when I wake up in the mornings during the week. I usually get up around 6:30 and by the time I am finished getting ready the Today show is coming on. I try to catch the first 5 minutes of this show so I can be aware if there are any breaking news stories that may have happened overnight or anything from the previous day that I may have missed. This past week I find myself growing more and more upset with the Matt Lauer's and Meridith Videra's of the world though.

As anyone with a television knows by now there was a tragedy that happened on Monday up in West Virginia when an explosion occurred in the Upper Big Branch mine. The first thing I saw Tuesday morning when the Today show came on was a family who had lost 3 members in this event. The interview went something as follows.

Meridith: Welcome to the show and I would like to express my deepest sympathies to you and your family.

Wife of miner: Thank you

Meridith: It has been reported that Massey Energy had over a bajillion safety violations in this mine in the past year. How does it make you feel to know you lost your husband in this sensless tragedy.

Wife: (tearing up) We are still holding out hope that some of the family may be alive.

Meredith: Hmmm....yes we are all hoping the same. Please tell us a little about the work environment where you live. Are there really any other jobs to be had besides working in the mines?

Wife: No not really, it is a way of life around here.

Meredith: Your poor people, we have you in our prayers.

I may be paraphrasing a little, but that was the tone of the interview. Vilify the energy companies and take pity (while looking down on) the mining community. I am not trying to take up for the energy companies really, but I don't like to see the media use these tragedies as a springboard to take pot shots at a time like this only to pursue their anti energy agenda.

A coworker of mine from the area up there said that he was watching one of the cable news outlets on Monday night and they were in such a hurry to get a Google Earth rendering of the event, that they put a flyby of the wrong mine on their channel. Not only was it the wrong mine, but it wasn't even in the same county. There was a time when media representatives were held accountable for mistakes. It seems anymore that they just make up the facts as they go and nobody is ever called on the carpet for it.

Switching gears a little, there was an report out yesterday that Patrick Patterson a junior at the University of Kentucky, had decided that he was going to enter the NBA draft. The funny thing is that this was all news to Patterson. His mom started getting texts when the news story broke congratulating her and her son for his decision. She was extremely upset, because she and her son had planned to sit down this week and make the decision together. There is no doubt in my mind that whoever reported that story didn't check his facts at all in a mad rush to get the story out before the competition. There is also little doubt in my mind that this reporter won't even get a slap on the wrist for his shoddy journalism.

The moral of the story: Anyone can be a journalist these days. Just post rumors as fact to get the scoop ahead of everyone else. If you are right great, if you are wrong no big deal. As long as you bat over .500 everything will be fine.

Rant over.

Till next time,

IPod
Artist: John Mayer
Album: Battle Studies

My Adventure Into The World Of Bowling Hierarchy..

As many of you may know, I joined a mens bowling league back in the fall. I actually look forward to meeting with the town drunks from Saltville at our local bar and then taking the party over to the bowling alley. It is a way for me to blow off a little steam near the end of the week and a good form of male bonding. That said, there are several older gentlemen in this league that take it much more seriously than we do. I was informed this past week that elections will take place in a couple of weeks and it reminded me of the first day we signed up for the league.

It all started on a cool Sunday afternoon back in September. I had never been in any sort of organized league in my life before so I didn't really know what to expect. When the 5 of us arrived we were ushered into a smoke filled back room that I had never seen before in the bowling alley. Everyone seemed friendly and were happy to have a new team joining the league. As the meeting started we were informed that the league business was conducted parliamentary style. Everything seemed to be going fine till the topic of handicaps was presented. The next thing I know, this room full of senior citizens erupted into some of the most intense bickering I have been around in my entire life. I seriously thought a couple of guys were going to get into a fist fight. As it turned out the room was about evenly divided on the topic, so our team wound up casting the deciding vote. After the meeting was over everyone seemed to revert back to their pleasant demeanor and we finished the registration process.

The next few weeks we bowled rather badly, like a new team would normally do and because of that wound up with some extremely high handicaps. In the following weeks we improved our game with practice and due to our high handicaps have been crushing the older men in our league. I can now see why they were so passionate about getting that rule changed.

There really is no purpose in this story. I just remembered how upset those guys got last year and am going to be front row center this coming weekend to cast my vote to keep the handicap rule as it is.

Till Next Time,

IPod

Artist : Guster

Album : Keep It Together

So Sookie Stackhouse is Bi?

After perusing the web this morning while enjoying a nice cup of espresso roast, I came across an article which stated that Anna Paquin has come out of the closet and announced to the world that she is bisexual. I can't help but be suspicious that the star of a fairly sexually oriented show on HBO happens to chose now (2 months before the premier of the season) to come out with this announcement. I am not saying that I don't believe Anna, but she couldn't have picked a better time to get True Blood back in the limelight.

After reading the article I got to thinking that there is one major double standard out there that I am guilty of. I honestly don't think any less of Ms. Paquin for sleeping with other women, where if the news were to come out that some random actor (say Brad Pitt) were bisexual, it would make me think less of him. I know that isn't fair, but I don't think I am alone in this thinking and I also believe most women would probably agree with me on this as well. Anyway, this blog is for random thoughts so there you go.

Till next time

I-Pod

Group: Metric

Album: Fantasies