I finally got a damned cell phone. It's a tether I'd avoided until this past week. With my impending wedding, it was becoming unavoidable, plus the "family plan" we moved to means it doesn't cost any extra. Being a cheap bastard, we got a new phone for my fiance and took her old one.

It's a camera phone. She'd taken photos, but never figured out how to get the pictures off the phone. Thus, it cam jam packed with memories I hadn't expected.

The most moving photos were ones I'd never seen of my dog. He passed away after 16 wonderful years on Mother's Day of last year.

Needless to say, it's ghostly to see pictures of an old friend who's passed on. But, at the same time, it's like getting to see him one last time. I just thought I'd pop them on this site for the hell of it, and to record a life well-lived.

His name was Goliath. He was a 1/2 poodle, 1/2 mutt we rescued from the pound. He was about 25 pounds and had the heart of a giant. With a name like Goliath, unsuspecting groomers would reserve a big, roomy cage for him. The name fit him well.

He was also the last surviving member of my immediate family here in western New York. (I have a brother who is in perfect health, but he lives in Japan and we've never been close.) So, Goliath's passing hurt pretty bad, but that's part of the deal when you get a dog, and I knew that all along.

Here's all the biased, over-glorified dog-owner stuff: Goliath was the best dog ever. The dog was a freak. Never barked. Never bit. Always friendly. House-broke himself. Learned tricks like he was a damned border collie. He listened to every stupid word I said. He liked all the songs I'd ever written, even the bad ones. He was my stupid little friend.

That's enough of a eulogy. (I've never beeen much of a Eugooglizer! )

I'll let the photos describe him as best they can...

Here's some of the shots I found on the phone...






Here's a typic shot of the old man begging for food...


Here's his "multimedia debut" when Goliath was the cover model for my old band Goof's 1996 CD "Koster Row". (I threw up a track off that disc as my user sound)


Here's the old man on the sofa a few days before he passed on. I'd kinda woke him up froma nap here...


Needless to say, this past year without my dog has been totally fucked. After 16 years, we'd become a team. My house still feels empty and I still get the urge to go for walks at midnight, even though there's no need.

About 6 months ago, we'd started visiting the SPCA and the Animal Shelter to try and find a dog. We'd had no luck so far and so we've decided to wait until after the wedding. That's the most rational decision, I guess.

Still, with a wedding coming, I really do miss the little bastard. Dogs make really good listeners.

I hadn't posted in a while...

Here's a nice Halloween cartoon...



"Johnny won the annual office Halloween Costume Contest when he showed up to work yesterday as 'A poorly mopped up blood stain'."

Haven't seen Johnny yet today. Weird.

Hey, in case anyone here uses the Yahoo! Widget Engine (yahoo widgets) , I've modified/cusomized an RSS reader widget for (e:strip).org.

"Widgets" are little applictions that run on your desktop and can do anything. I've seen cool calendar apps, little clocks, an awesome weather thingy, and RSS feed displays (like the one I'm posting for (e:strip)).

I posted it for download on my home page at estrip widget

The widget will display the 10 most recent posts from estrip.org and let you visit the posts by clicking on the titles.

(The widget should work with Konfabulator, too, since it's the same thing.)

Feel free to download, modify, and/or distribute the widget as you please.

Anyways, free (e:strip) nerd toy...
Enjoy!

-Scott

In honor of our local boys done good, I've created a new meal to enjoy...

Ingredients:

1 Can CAMPBELL's Soup (Tomato)
1 cup Buffalo Wing Sauce
1 package of Philly Steaks
1 Kimeweck roll

[list]
Cook philly steaks.
Pack philly steaks into a UMBERGER like shape.
smother in wing sauce.
Place on kimeweck roll.
[/list]

SERVING SUGGESTION:
Place UMBERGER sandwich on ice surface with head down.
Smash with CAMPBELL'S SOUP as hard as possible.

Serves: 8-2

Enjoy.

============================
For those with no clue what this post is about, check this link:


It's about half way through the highlights so be patient, it's worth it.

(e:jenks) left a comment for my last post that kinda sets me off... It's not just at what she said, but at an attitude that I've seen from many people (often the same ones who boast about their IQ ( see (e:scott,10) )

It seems that there is a school of thought that breeds the attitude that it's somehow unintelligent to enjoy watching sports. Why is that?

Here's a rant-like essay to help give fellow sports fans ammo against the buzz-killing anti-sport, psuedo-egghead crowd...

Why putting down hockey makes you look like a disgruntled, uninformed teenager.

I say "disgruntled, uninformed teenager" because of the intangable attitude inherent to all anti-sports (anti-hockey) arguments. There's an air of "I'm so smarty pants" to these people. They seem to imply that they're on a more intellenctual plain of existence. They're more enlightened and if you don't see things their way, you're a neandethal.

Bashing sports may seem "hip" or something to some, but it just seems like you're being a "stick in the mud" to me. No one has to be a fan. That's fine. People have other interests, that's fine. It's when people pretend like any knowledge of sports is evil that gets me... Why say anything at all if you don't care about sports? I'll tell you why... it's the "disgruntled teen" thing...

Well, I'm gonna end that right here, with this amazing blog...

Sports are a perfectly valid form of entertainment.

Here's why:

As a player:
Sports provide exercise, a sense of teamwork (sometimes) and even a socially acceptable outlet for agression and competition among kids and adults. We try so hard in our society to pretend that humans aren't agressive. Well get over it. Aggression is part of life and we need healthy outlets. Playing sports is a healthy outlet.

As a viewer: Sports fill a lot of roles that traditional drama cannot, like the following:
[list]
It's unscripted and far better than improv comedy.
It allows a community to come together and root for the 'home team'. (I'm pretty sure my fellow e-strip folks are down with a sense of community, so I don't need to sell that point.)
It involves watching talented people do their thing (unlike reality tv, where people watch un-talented people do each other)
It's great conversation fodder.
[/list]

I like acting, and I also like watching plays. I like painting, and I also like looking at paintings. The same goes for sports. I like playing hockey, and I also like watching the best players play. So, I truly feel you can enjoy both without shame.

To discount professional sports as it's own artform is ignorant, at best. I'm not the first person to enjoy watching sports. (I think the ancient greeks and romans had a bit of their own pro sport going on...) Personally, I feel acting "too cool" to enjoy sports is extremely pretentious.

Now, about hockey in particular...

Hockey is NOT inherently violent. Any activity can turn ugly. I've seen drama kids get pretty nasty. Violence involves intent to do harm. Hockey is aggressive, not violent. Violent acts may happen once in a while, but those result in penalties and/or suspensions (because it's not part of the game). If hockey were violent, players would use their sticks as weapons and people would die. That just doesn't happen.

Many people can't tell the difference, but there is one.

To equate hockey agression (hard checking, fast skating, fighting) with real violence is not a valid argument. The players wear pads and expect to get hit. It's a contact sport and no player would want it any other way. All sports tend to carry the risk of injury. In fact, most fun in life has risk of injury. If we're arguing over what is an acceptable risk of injury, I'm sure I could provide you with statistics that show that hockey is less dangerous than many other popular activities. That's a silly argument for another silly journal entry. For this article, I'm stating that the risk of injury is acceptable. (Certainly no worse than skiing, skateboarding, or sex, and I don't write nasty comments depreciating the value of any of those.)

About hockey fights:

Most detractors point to fights as the reason why hockey is "violent". These detractors generally have no clue what hockey's about, which is why they feel qualified to judge it. Believe it or not, hockey fights have purpose. In most cases, the combatants are players sticking up for their teammates, or trying to give their team a 'boost'. The fights are mostly symbolic and have a sense of built-in honor. (These are big men, if they wanted to really hurt each other, they could.)

No one wants to really hurt anyone. They may look all pissed off, but it's just aggression, NOT violence. In fact, hockey fights very rarely cause injury beyond a bloody nose, and you'll notice that the combatants usually shake hands after the game. That sure doesn't seem like a real brawl to me.

Conclusion:

All entertainment requires some form of suspension of disbelief. If you're not willing to enjoy it, it won't be fun. Here's some tips to help not be a "hockey hater". If you've tried all of this and still can't enjoy it, then you may have a legitimate beef with hockey as a sport and I can't help you, you're a weenie.

Take hockey as entertainment and you'll start to "get it". Hockey gets a bad name from idiots who take it too seriously. (I can't stand art critics, but I still enjoy the Albright Knox.)
Learn to ice skate and you'll start to appreciate the speed and skill of the players.
Go to a big game and feel the excitement and you may finally be able to jump on the home town bandwagon. There's plenty of room.

So, I think I've provided a little bit o' feedback on this subject.

Hopefully this post will either convince some to stop being all "anti", or at least get them to stop trying ruin the rest of our fun. Face it, this town needs something to cheer about. If it happens to be a hockey team, go with it... enjoy it. Be part of the fun, not the ass who tries to detract from the fun. If we ever do win anything, it'll be good for this city, and we should enjoy it. There's plenty of bad things in Buffalo to bring us down. How mahy events do you see that can lift us up? C'mon and enjoy it.

A side note... Those people on the corner (e:jenks) mentioned were probably selling Buffalo News 'Kids Day' editions for Women and Children's Hospital, not touting the Sabres' victory.

(Additionally, W&C Hospital would probably be closed without the charitable acts of hockey players, like Pat Lafontaine.)

All that being said... I still hate NASCAR. Screw watching cars make left turns all day. I gots no tolerance for that redneck crap!!


...thanks for reading my rabling crap...

;)