Jim's Guts

Aaron Curry...

I was excited about the pick from a football standpoint, then learned a bit more about him and I'm pretty sure the Seahawks made a great character pick as well. Turns out he's also a dog lover. I knew I like this guy...

Life at the Smith house...

I'm slowly getting there and will be on e-mail this week as well as trying to catch up with posts, etc (race report from Vancouver) but I thought I'd share this. If you've ever seen our youngest trying to get on the couch I'm surprised I haven't seen him end up like this comic from "Dog eat Doug"...

 

Friday morning pick-me-up...

Sorry it's late but trust you'll all understand...Here are the Silversun Pickups with "Lazy Eye"

And for the classic, a less than stellar copy of a great song, it's Let's Active and "Every Word Means No"

Teabagging attendance...

While there's plenty of hilarity to be had at the expense of the Teabaggers I'll leave that to those more talented than I (I'd recommend Sadly, No! or TBogg as good starting spots). Instead I'd like to focus for a minute on the new rightwing meme that this is somehow a giant movement and it's going to turn into an unstoppable force.

By best nonpartisan estimates there were approximately 300,000 attendees nationwide (Nate Silver has a good breakdown with links here). It's difficult to get good numbers but in 2003, millions (I couldn't find an estimate of less than 1 million) of people marched in opposition to the Iraq war. If 1 million weren't heard, what makes the wingnuts think that 30% of THAT will have more success?¹

Let's put it another way, the population of the United States is 303 million. I'm no math major but I think that puts the protests at .1% of the population. Hardly a silent majority or them surrounding us...

The very funny Andy Cobb (who I featured a couple of days ago with his 2M4M message) also did a "Teabag Central" bit that's pretty funny (but probably NSFW);

¹ - I want to be very clear about something, I completely respect their right to demonstrate and support them in doing so. That said I also reserve the right to make fun of teh stupid.

Friday morning pick-me-up...

I should probably do this one closer to his birthday, but this is a Mr. Jones inspired FMPMU this week. First up is the title cut off of one of the best compilation I've ever heard, it still gets played every summer, from the first disc in the "Decent Day & Nights" series here are the Futureheads with the title track "Decent Day & Nights"

And for the classic, earlier this week Mr. Jones turned me on to the iPhone app - Shazam which allows you to play part of a song then not only does the app find the song information, but it'll also find YouTube video. I wanted to test its chops so I played a song of one of my favorite soundtracks and sure enough it found it and the following video. From the "Young Einstein" soundtrack here is Paul Kelly with "Dumb Things"

My nemesis...

The L&T and I are getting ready to head to Vancouver for the 25th Annual Sun Run (I think it's our 8th or so) and I thought I'd share my personal kilometer long hell with all of you. May I present -The Burrard Street Bridge;

From the Sun Run course description;

5 TO 6K - The long, steady, uphill push towards the crest of Burrard Bridge is accompanied by the sensational city views and the knowledge there's a nice long downslope coming. You're more than halfway home.

It's the longest kilometer I run all year...

"And now a message..."

...From the Teabag Nerve center;

And David Schuster for the win;

Sorry, I just find this whole thing too funny...

Jim's Back, a continuing series...

To Recap - Back during the Resolution Run I hurt my back, which was later diagnosed as a herniated disc.

The Update - My doctor (who is excellent) tried several things but all with little or no success so last week I went to see a surgeon. And so it is that on April 21st I'll be having a Lumbar Microdiscectomy (believe it or not, there's no Wiki for that) - Basically the surgeon will make a small incision in my lower back and remove the offending "goo" (technical term).

If all goes well (and we certainly hope it does), I should be back to full duty in 6 weeks which would give me plenty of time to train for the Disneyland Half.

Friday morning pick-me-up...

Quick ones this morning...It's probably been seen by everyone, but it's worth a second look, here is OK Go with "Here It Goes Again"

And in honor of the L&T's birthday this weekend here is Icehouse with "Crazy";

Eric Holder ROCKS...

Our current Attorney General is excellent, today while speaking to U.S. attorneys in DC;

"Your job as assistant U.S. attorneys is not to convict people," Holder said. "Your job is not to win cases. Your job is to do justice. Your job is in every case, every decision that you make, to do the right thing. Anybody who asks you to do something other than that is to be ignored. Any policy that is at tension with that is to be questioned and brought to my attention. And I mean that."

Note to Messrs. Gonzales & Ashcroft - That's how it's done.

Friday morning pick-me-up...

From New Brunswick, New Jersey here is The Gaslight Anthem with "The '59 Sound"

And to change things up a bit, here is Frente! with a great cover of "Labour of Love