Otis Kick

Watch closely to see Otis kick Sophie out of the way...It was not a dodge, but a kick

Ninja Flash Game

I was working today. I promise.

Original Post:
Excellent flash game about a ninja. One of those games that gets passed around the office, and just has to be played at least once in your life.

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First Disc Golf Post

My first post about disc golf. First, let me say that is not dork sport as my wife calls it. "Frisbee for people with no friends." Why no friends?, I asked. "Because, if you had friends they could catch the Frisbee." By the way, she has played and liked it. So there!

I am not good by any stretch but you have to love a sport that combines the skill of Frisbee, the leisure of bowling (cigarettes and beer optional but not inappropriate.), the rules of golf, and the price of hackey sack.

There are several courses in the Charlotte Area. The www.pdga.org site does a good job of keeping up with them. I have played Renaissance Park and Winthrop Lakefront. Reny is by far the most technical I have been to, much like the mtn. bike course which sometimes crosses. It makes you tired. Hiking (and I do mean hiking the course) is a workout in itself for the weekend warrior. The course is well marked making it a breeze to navigate. I have lost a couple discs in the rough and actually found one. (Todd Stewart, Todd Stewart, I have your distance driver.)

Winthrop was a nice easy course that goes around the lake on Winthrop's campus. The Lakefront course is a little hard to navigate since the disccatchers are marked for the gold course, I think. There are also engraved marble plaques with hole numbers and distances planted in the ground which no longer seem to be valid for figured out anything. Oh and here is picture of a duck about to peck at my buddy's shoe...
He chased us at hole 9 and 10. We also met some guys who had actually built dredging equipment from old bike parts and couple hundred feet of nylon rope. The toss in the multi hooked apparatus and pull it across the lake looking for lost discs that they sell on eBay or keep for themselves. One guy had found 11 that week alone. We are pretty bad but we did manage to keep our discs out of the lake.

Conversation with a Canadian

Ever wonder the difference between the Sunnis and Shia but you don't want to do the research? I got the break down from Canadian friend. I was also too lazy to summarize our conversation, but I did clean up the worst of the typos and take out some of the idle disc golf banter. Enjoy!


Session Start (phalston:canada): Thu Jun 08 09:42:59 2006
[09:42] canada: they ca[u]ght another terrorist in an election year
[09:43] canada: first sadaam, miraculously
[09:43] canada: in 2 years they will need osama
[09:43] canada: he is safe until then
[09:43] phalston: and gay marriage is bad again...
[09:43] phalston: smells like spin
[09:43] canada: on even numbered years, let us be reminded that the government is an agent of God
[09:44] phalston: I am going to quote you on that
[09:44] canada: might as well ban dating as well
[09:44] phalston: hey we are not Iran
[09:44] canada: but if the government can decide th[a]t God has defined marriage for the secular country
[09:45] phalston: Did you know there were 500,000 Iranian living S. California
[09:45] canada: beverly hills baby
[09:45] phalston: I had no idea...
[09:45] canada: not many know that iranians are not considered arab
[09:46] phalston: what?
[09:46] canada: theyre like a bosnia tacked on t[he] side o[f] europe
[09:46] phalston: really?
[09:46] canada: not even the same language
[09:47] phalston: which language?
[09:47] canada: farsi/persian
[09:47] canada: its not arabic you hear on the sound bites
[09:47] canada: few heavy H or KH sounds
[09:47] canada: religion is slightly diff as well
[09:47] canada: hence the sunni shia crap
[09:48] canada: only Shia country around
[09:48] phalston: I don't remember the diff
[09:48] canada: youve heard of the prophet muhammad
[09:48] canada: no shia sunni during the life of
[09:49] canada: upon death, a question arose, who would be the leader fo the religion.. the guy who keeps it flourishing
[09:50] phalston: okay
[09:50] canada: one side said that the companions (Khalifs) who were the closest and most knowledgable fiends and observers of the prophet
[09:50] canada: the other side said that it should be a bloodline
[09:50] canada: i.e. the cousin of the prophet, Ali
[09:51] canada: the khalif group faught a battle/war with the Ali group
[09:51] canada: Ali was beheaded in the fight
[09:51] canada: khalifs won
[09:51] canada: Khalifs served as a type of "pope" for about 7 successions then the concept faded
[09:52] canada: on the side, in a separate exiled place, the Ali group decided to follow their leader based on bloodline still
[09:52] canada: the [A]li group became Shia
[09:52] canada: the Khalif Group became sunni
[09:52] canada: Sunni now 80% of islam, Sha about 20% of islam
[09:53] canada: shia = iran, most of iraq
[09:53] canada: sunni = saudi, jordan,
[09:53] canada: pakistan = split
[09:53] canada: and so on
[09:53] canada: sadaam = sunni, while rest of iraq = shia.. hence the violence it is payback
[09:53] phalston: diff in beliefs?
[09:54] canada: the only believe is not in the message, or the practice, it was who you followed generations back
[09:54] canada: i.e. my grand pappy voted for Kerry, and yours voted for bush
[09:54] canada: slight differences in belief developed
[09:55] canada: shia believe that Ali, the guy who was beheaded will arise again and lead them to victory over someone
[09:55] canada: the emphasis was shifted off the prophet, who is the main guy, onto his cousin
[09:56] phalston: that sounds blasph[e]mous?
[09:56] canada: you ever seen images of people doing self mutilation in the streets ?
[09:56] phalston: yeah
[09:56] canada: shia.. trying to prove they are close to ali in suffering
[09:56] canada: every year on th[e] ann[i]versary of the death, they tell the story of the battle, the same story
[09:57] canada: the men and women wail, scream, cry as if it happened this morning... to prove that they are close to him
[09:57] canada: in a way he become[s] a saint
[09:57] phalston: so the "insurgency" is Sunni?
[09:57] canada: thats what they say i dont get it
[09:58] phalston: well it would explain why they don't seem to care who they kill if most are Shia
[09:58] canada: unless it is sunni sadaam employees who are tryin to restore the small 20[%] sunni population back to power as sadaam had given them
[09:58] canada: other than the ali thing
[09:58] canada: were the same
[09:58] canada: same book
[09:59] canada: same belies in God
[09:59] canada: same beliefs in the Prophet

Actual Work being Done...

[10:08] phalston: How does the Taliban fit in?
[10:08] canada: relig[i]ous zealots who managed to find a we[a]k country to run
[10:09] canada: imagine of pat robertson decided to run for governor of alabama
[10:09] canada: say he wins
[10:09] canada: in a more corrupt system, he would gain momentum riding on the christian ideals that suit him
[10:09] phalston: ahh, but are they sunni, shia or just something else
[10:10] canada: the "else" catagory is only 5% .. insignificant
[10:10] canada: afghanistan borders iran, i bet its mixed
[10:10] phalston: taliban is mixed?
[10:13] canada: i thi[n]k it is iran supported
[10:13] canada: im not sure
[10:13] phalston: Ah, so side project to see if they can have pure religious state...
[10:14] canada: the thing about afghanistan is that so many warriors or "Jihadhi" were in teh country since hte 80's, the taliban is litterally a mercinary group with nobody to fight
[10:14] canada: they faught the USSR for years
[10:14] canada: one thing you gotta k[n]ow about shia, i[s] they are capable of cutting themselves with swords.... from the age of 13, youre messing with people who have no fear of death
[10:15] canada: they scared of the russians, who left a po[w]er vac[c]uum
[10:15] canada: but you see then, the taliban werent considered Terroristic Islamic Fundamentalists
[10:15] canada: then they were US allies in the fight v the Soviets
[10:16] phalston: so you are?
[10:16] canada: sunni
[10:16] canada: sunni / shia intermarry all the time
[10:17] canada: the diff isnt substantial among intelligent people
[10:17] phalston: so in a normal day, yo[ur] shia buddies don't say "[Y]ou know Ali will be back" and punch you in the ribs
[10:18] phalston: ?
[10:18] canada: hehe
[10:18] canada: non issue

House rejects Net neutrality rules

Which means there will be no more sites like Digg.com and many more like it, where it's free for the users. Imagine having to pay your broadband expenses and pay to surf almost every site which doesn't have anything to sell to us.

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