Michael Vick's statement following his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., to a dogfighting conspiracy charge:

"For most of my life, I've been a football player, not a public speaker, so, you know, I really don't know, you know, how to say what I really want to say.

"You know, I understand it's -- it's important or not important, you know, as far as what you say but how you say things. So, you know, I take this opportunity just to speak from the heart.

"First, I want to apologize, you know, for all the things that -- that I've done and that I have allowed to happen. I want to personally apologize to commissioner Goodell, Arthur Blank, coach Bobby Petrino, my Atlanta Falcons teammates, you know, for our -- for our previous discussions that we had. And I was not honest and forthright in our discussions, and, you know, I was ashamed and totally disappointed in myself to say the least.

"I want to apologize to all the young kids out there for my immature acts and, you know, what I did was, what I did was very immature so that means I need to grow up.

"I totally ask for forgiveness and understanding as I move forward to bettering Michael Vick the person, not the football player.

"I take full responsibility for my actions. For one second will I sit right here -- not for one second will I sit right here and point the finger and try to blame anybody else for my actions or what I've done.

"I'm totally responsible, and those things just didn't have to happen. I feel like we all make mistakes. It's just I made a mistake in using bad judgment and making bad decisions. And you know, those things, you know, just can't happen.

"Dogfighting is a terrible thing, and I did reject it.

"I'm upset with myself, and, you know, through this situation I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God. And I think that's the right thing to do as of right now.

"Like I said, for this -- for this entire situation I never pointed the finger at anybody else, I accepted responsibility for my actions of what I did and now I have to pay the consequences for it. But in a sense, I think it will help, you know, me as a person. I got a lot to think about in the next year or so.

"I offer my deepest apologies to everybody out in there in the world who was affected by this whole situation. And if I'm more disappointed with myself than anything it's because of all the young people, young kids that I've let down, who look at Michael Vick as a role model. And to have to go through this and put myself in this situation, you know, I hope that every young kid out there in the world watching this interview right now who's been following the case will use me as an example to using better judgment and making better decisions.

"Once again, I offer my deepest apologies to everyone. And I will redeem myself. I have to.

"So I got a lot of down time, a lot of time to think about my actions and what I've done and how to make Michael Vick a better person.

"Thank you.''

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

Thanks, writer!

"Do you know that near where I grew up called Jenks Rd? They used to take us out there in drivers ed. Its this country road that seems normal. When you drive west on it, theres a little dip that blocks your view of the road and then boom its like a roller coaster.
I think it dives like 80 feet.

The first time it scares the shit out of you but then its a fun ride. The story goes that the guy who lives in front of the hump will come out and chase you if you keep going over the hump enough times.

Anyways what I mean to say is that in some ways Jenks Rd is like you. Sometimes theres ups and sometimes theres downs, but damn if it isn't a good road."

And I'm sorry to anyone I've hurt- I certainly never meant to.

Ok, this is getting ridiculous.
I bought a new computer in... february?
And the old one has been sitting on my desk next to it since then. I don't use it. I just keep thinking maybe someday I'll want some of the old info/apps off of it.
But it's been 6months now. And I haven't wanted anything.
AND the new line of imacs just came out, which I'm sure made this one devalue like crazy.

So it's time to get off my butt and sell it.
And I don't know where to start. Craigslist? ebay?

But I figured I'd ask here first...

It's in perfect shape. I even have the original box, install CDs and all that stuff. Even the receipt!

specs-

iMac G5.
Bought 10/26/04. Paid ~$2200

20" monitor
1.8ghz G5 processor
512mb RAM (upgradable)
160GB hard drive
built-in wireless/bluetooth
24x CD burner
8x DVD burner

It does not have a built-in iSight camera- but I have an external one I can include if you want it.

and it has AppleCare on it, which is still valid.

There is nothing wrong with it. It is not unacceptably slow or anything. And I take good care of my stuff, so it's not scuffed up or anything.

I only upgraded b/c 1: i had a credit at the apple store and 2: I wanted the intel processor.

I will restore the hard drive to the way it came. But I can also upgrade to OS 10.4 if you want.

I'm asking $600, which is about where they're going for on ebay.

So....

I'm not working today. Which means I can sleep in. Which means I can stay out late the night before.

So, I was looking for something to do. Started calling friends.
One girl said "I'm at the casino with the king of the douchebags".
Then later I got a message that said "uhhhhh. The douchebaggery has begun!"

In the meantime I was talking to a (cute!) friend, and we were trying to figure out what to do, but we are both very indecisive, so it was super painful. We finally decided that we should at least eat. But he didn't really feel like eating in. But I really didn't feel like your usual take-out fare- pizza/wings/subs. So we finally had a brilliant idea: WEGMAN'S! So he picked me up, and we went to wegman's. And it was fun.

But to get back to my story...

So one friend made the douchebag comment. Which I mentioned to the other guy. He said "www.hotchickswithdouchebags.com" I figured he was joking. But, it's a real site. Sort of funny, but sort of taking a somewhat funny idea WAY too far. It's mostly a bunch of people posting pictures like this:




and making fun of them. Apparently there's a whole new 'douchebag' vocablulary that I was unaware of. Including the obvious ('bag) and the derivative ('baguette), and then going on into scrote, scrotology, scrotologist, grieco, bleeth, lobster, etc etc.

But anyway, so I told her about it, and her reply, which I think is priceless:

You mean www.snootyfox.com?

aaaah, hahaha.

(one of the few things about being late for work is seeing this sunrise)

So...
I've been spending a good bit of my time working with a dog rescue. Unfortunately, I have been asked not to post about it. But sometimes I do anyway. And this is one of those times.

So yesterday there was a meet-up, bbq type deal outside of Lockport. Lots of people, lots of dogs, lots of beer... it was a lot of fun. And I took a lot of pictures. (and (e:ajay)- you would be proud of me. I was very well-behaved. I promise.)

Here are a few.


An unexpected visitor. I'm not sure I would have had the nerve to hold it, I must say.


Blue eyes on dogs are amazing. (particularly THIS dog- the other eye is brown.)


My fave pic of the evening: a "vicious pit bull" giving kisses and more kisses as people laugh their heads off.


"I'm not sleeping! I swear" (snore, drool, snore)


Ahhhh, to be a puppy.

So I can't decide if the sky tonight was simply gorgeous- or more like apocalyptic, with all this freaky wind. I kept half expecting the sky to just open up or something. I was driving home and couldn't help but try to take pictures from a moving car with my phone... And then I think I practically killed (e:Libertad) since he was riding around on his bike (I think also taking pictures) and I was not paying as much attention as I probably should have. But here are some of my pix- I can only imagine what someone with a better eye could have done...

A little background- as a kid I was pretty obsessed with ancient Egypt. I wanted to be an Egyptologist. I wanted to be mummified when I died. I did my science fair project on mummies. I had a heiroglyphic rubber stamp set that let me "write" in heiroglyphs. In art class I made a king tut mask out of clay. And I've always wanted to go to Egypt to see the pyramids. And the sphinx!

And one of the guys at work is Egyptian, and today we were chatting and he said he knows some heiroglyphics, and he started drawing on the board... did this whole big fancy thing... he said 'when you see it in a cartouche like this, that means it's the name of a king or a queen'. I said 'cool, is that your name?' and he said 'no- it's yours!' (I said "oh- is the lion an L?" he looked at me like a dummy and said it's not quite that simple. bahaha.)

:D



Is it just me, or does anyone else ever sort of forget that Egypt is in Africa? I mean, of course it is... but Baher (the guy at work) was just joking about even though technically he is, he can't really call himself African-American.

Ok, so I just made these for a cookout this weekend:



Oreo Truffles:

1pkg reduced fat oreos
1pkg reduced fat cream cheese
2 colors of chocolate [I used a bag of white chocolate chips and a bag of milk chocolate chips]

Blend oreos in the food processor (or blender) until they are powder
Mix in cream cheese

Roll into balls

Chill

Dip in melted chocolate
Drizzle with other color melted chocolate if you want to be fancy.

They're 'reduced fat', and I suppose gluten-free-
I think that means they're good for me. Health food, really.

• doh. oreos are not gluten-free. I knew that. Thanks James. Sorry Matthew!