Sports Tuesday

Hello.  Betcher wondering where I've been, eh?  Just a long weekend with nothing major to say.  Hope everybody eligible to went out and voted to make our country better.  I do want to say one thing on this topic.  One of our three-way races here locally involved a Republican who got national attention- not wanted attention- during a debate when the discussion of abortion and rape came up.  He tried to explain that even though God and man sees rape as a reprehensible act, that if a baby is created thereby, it is God's will that that baby enjoy life.  Because, as Christians, we believe God takes the bad things of this life and uses them for good for those who believe.  The liberal press took the ambiguity of the statement to twist it and claim he was saying that rape is God's will, and his democrat challenger jumped right on the bandwagon.  However, the Libertarian challenger wrote a lengthy statement defending the Republican, explaining that A) whether or not he agreed with his intention, he realized that a debate is a highly charged, stressful atmosphere in which to express complex beliefs on a stopwatch, and B) as it turns out, he did agree with the statement.  Where the Democrat kept basically silent and let the national press attempt to destroy his opponant with innuendo, the Libertarian showed integrity, ethics and guts.  That is why, despite the Republican being my favored candidate in all areas, I voted for the Libertarian for having the courage that I doubt either of the others would have had in a similar circumstance.

Anyway, onto my sports report.  We had three big throwdowns this week in the NHFFL.  The KCAs put up 57 points, with Doug Martin scoring 30 all by himself- but it was not enough to top the red-hot Fiery Beagles.  Aaron Rodgers, Brandon Marshall, and Robbie Gould all hit double figures in a 67-57 win that kept them tied atop the leaderboard and gave them 6 straight wins after an 0-3 start.

In the second big game, the Aguas kept their share of the Purple Div. lead, and their tiebreaker advantage, with a 46-39 over an ever-more-desperate Rangers squad.  The Bears' D did the heavy lifting for the Aguas, putting up 21 points against woebegone Tennessee.

The third big contest pitted the Porkchops against Gold second-place B2s.  In a tight contest, it was Reggie Bush's TD that gave Porkchop a 38-31 win and the league's best record at 7-2.

This made the other two Gold games that much more important, as the Elks walloped the Ducks 64-25 behind the NY Giants' D scoring 19 and backup QB Carson Palmer posting 14.  Also, Buzz took advantage to move into second with a 52-30 pasting of the Clock BBQs.  The WR corps put up 30, with newcomer Randall Cobb and Eric Decker each scoring twice.And even the Greenwoods moved back into contention in the Purple with a 31-20 win over the Angels who, in a week where defences averaged 8.5 points with 4 teams topping 10, the Angels got 1 from Miami.



With the playoffs just three weeks away now, the Rangers, Clock BBQs, and Elks really need to step it up- and so far, only the Elks are managing it.   Next week is the second cross-division week, and we lead off with the biggest game so far this season- the Beagles vs the Porkchops!  The B2s fight for their playoff lives against the Aguas; The Elks and Rangers face off in a pivotal game for both sides; also, it's KCAs/Clock BBQs, Buzz/Angels, Greenwoods vs Ducks.

As for Lokomotiv, Friday was another OT affair.  In fact, our boys have played 15 games out of 23 as 1-goal matches and seven have gone OT, six of those to the shootout.  We are now 7-0 in OT after Friday's game in Ufa that matched us against Salavat Yulaev.  They took a quick 1-0 lead but stellar denfeseman Staffan Kronwall tied it at 6:50 of the first with his 5th goal.  My boy Emil Galimov put us up 2-1 with his second goal in regulation this year (he had two shootout goals coming into this one.  That came late in the second and set up a fairly wild third period.  Tomas Rolinek, a Czech in his first year with Salavat after spending the last four with Magnitogorsk, got his first of the season to tie things at 2-2 at 9:44 of the final stanza.  Artyom Anisimov, a lockout player from Columbus, part of the big Rick Nash trade this spring, put us back on top with his second goal at 15:57, but Rolinek struck again with less than 2 minutes left to send us into OT, and then the shootout. 

Curtis Sanford, making his second start, held off both Salavat shooters- including Rolinek- while Galimov collected his third SO goal and NHL vet Viktor Kozlov put it away with his score for a 4-3 win.

Our record (combining all the OT categories into one for W-L-O) is now 11-5-7, and puts us into a three-way tie for the league's second best in points (47) with Traktor (14-4-4) and Magnitogorsk (14-3-5), behind league leader Dynamo Moscow (14-4-5, 51 points).  Speaking of Dynamos, Dinamo Riga becomes the sixth team this season to fire their coach.  Pekka Rautakallio joins the coaches of Spartak, Avtomobilst, Dinamo Minsk, Lev, and Atlant on the unemployment line.

The league took three days off to help Swiss club Ambri-Piotta celebrate their 75th anniversary this week.  A group of Russian vets played the club to a 6-6 tie in an exhibition match, taking some of the sting off a season that sees Ambri-Piotta mired in 11th place (of 12) in the Swiss NLA, 5-12-3 and 27 points behind leader Geneva Servette.  As a result, Lokomotiv's next game is tommorow against Slovan at home.

And speaking of the Euro leagues, here's a quick look at the leaders around the continent.

Asia:  Oji's Eagles are 12-0-1, leading by 7.
Austria: The Vienna Caps (12-3-4) have a narrow 31-29 lead over VSV and Zagreb.
Czech:  Plsen (11-2-6) has a five-point lead in the Extraliga.
Denmark: SonderjyskE (10-2-0) are off to their usual lead.
Finland: The top 8 are within 6 points of each other, with JYP Jyvaskyla (11-6-4) and Saipa (10-6-5) at the top.
France: Undefeated Angers (7-0-1) leads Briancon by a point; traditional power Rouen (4-4-0) is in a group tied for 7th.
Germany: Kolner (10-5-3) has a 4-point lead in the DEL.  My Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg team is mired in last at 4-10-3.
Italy: Val Pusteria (14-2-0) is running away in Serie A with a 10-point lead.
Norway: Valerenga (11-1-4) has a five point advantage over Stavenger.
Poland:  Sanok (16-2-3) has run off to a 16 point lead.  In fact, one team (Torun, 1-12-1) has already folded.
Slovakia: Zvolen (15-11-3) has run off to a 12 point lead, with the traditional powers Kosice and Banska Bystrika well back in the pack.
Sweden, another tight race sees the top 6 within 7 points of each other, with HV71 (11-4-4) currently on top.
Switzerland:  As I mentioned, Geneva Servette (14-2-4) are out in front, up 9 points.
UK: a three-way tie at the top between Nottingham (8-3-4), Belfast (9-2-4), and Sheffield (6-5-6).

And there you have it! Pray for our nation today, that we may be granted a government blessed by God rather than the one we deserve.

A little this n' that, and sports Tuesday.

Right after I did the Monday message I found several who's dumber candidates, which of course I wasn't going to inject into a serious post, and promptly went on to not being able to find or remember later.  A couple of them, however, did stick in my mind.

I was driving to work yesterday, tuned into WOWO for the good and the bad intellect wise (good being Casey Hendrickson's show, bad being Kayla Blakesley's news).  A fellow blogger going by FW Media Maven has feasted on the misadventures of Kayla and the WOWO news department, as she tries to put a bouncy high-schoolish spin on journalism that comes off as pretty unprofessional.  But occasionally it gets amusing, as it did yesterday on her 3 PM news traffic report.

"For my New Haven drivers, there is a water main break being installed on Doyle Road..."

I never knew you had to INSTALL breaks in water lines.  Learn something new every day.

Kayla Blakeslee- for the record, a Penn State gradeeate.

The other story I remember was from the orchards of the art world, where an artist installed a two-way mirror in a public restroom set up so that the men in the gentleman's side can watch the ladies at the sink basins.  "Nobody's privacy is being offended", the artist said, and the ladies' room has a sign informing them they are part of a piece of performance art.  Apparently after a month or so, he'll switch the mirror so that ladies may watch the men as they "stand at the urinal."  Not sure if they gets a face shot or a butt shot.

Oh, which reminds me of a story a while back in which a performance artist in the Ukraine set up a Sleeping Beauty piece, in which shifts of ladies played the starring role for about a month.  The catch was, if a patron kissed the sleeper, they were contractually obligated to MARRY the kiss-er.  Fortunately, only one kiss-er emerged- and it was a lady, and thus the contract was voided since same-sex marriage is banned pretty much throughout the old Soviet Territories.

Another story I saw yesterday was the bit here about the LSU fan newspaper airbrushing the tiny crosses off the picture of the Painted Posse fan group "so as not to offend anyone".  Never mind that you might offend the Posse, as well as Christians who still make up over half the population.  Got to lose that disgusting and oh-so-prominent cross:

Now you see it... if you're looking for it..

Now you don't! PC religious bigotry and photoshop- what a combination!

Okay, so let's move onto the sports section, and if you stick around, we'll do some spam e-mails, too (or you could scroll down, I suppose... though my feelings would be hurt...

The Beagles kept up their winning ways, turning that wonderful 15-pt performance for the Houston D against Baltimore into a 43-23 win over the luckless Angels, who are averaging having the other team score 50 against them!  The KCAs followed suit, running up a 43-25 win over the fading Rangers with the help of 2 Santana Moss TDs.  The Greenwoods' roll came to an end, however, with a 29-17 loss to the Aguas.  Arian Foster almost won the game himself with 2 scores.  The Ducks and Elks got off the schnide this week.  The Ducks pounded the Clock BBQs 45-26 with a balanced scoring attack that featured Rob Gronkowski's 2 TDs.  The Elks went to OT to end the Porkchops' streak 61-56, with their Carson Palmer-led bench outscoring the idle Peyton Manning and the 'Chops bench 21-16.





Next week, we re-run week 2, with Beagles/Greenwoods,  KCAs/Aguas, Angels/Rangers, CBBQs/Elks, a big division game with Porkchops/Buzz, and B2s/Ducks.

Also in sports, the big showdown between Lokomotiv and Dynamo Moscow... didn't go so good.  Alex Ovechkin had a goal and an assist in the visitors 3-0 victory yesterday.  Next up is tommorow hosting Ilya Kovalchuk and SKA St. Pete.

How about some scam e-mail fun?  First up is one Aaron Yves Kouassi(believable name) who sent me this:

hello alex

just tell you a good news

i have a friend in china , they sell all

kinds of new original products

my friends ad buy more from them

hope you can try too , sure you will

like it

you can find what you need here !!

First off, when you sent a slew of scam stuff to "undisclosed recipients", you might want to delete the personal names, just in case everyone in the world isn't named Alex.  Just sayin'.

 

Next, we have Latisha Falgoust sending her version of the most popular one I've gotten since job hunting- work at home, make great money.  Her promise is $600-$800 a week.  Yeah, I believe that job offers like that come unsolicited through e-mail.

 

Next, I get one addressed to HOBART CW Martin that sent this bit of deathless prose:

 

All orders promptly executed by CONS C JULIUS CAESAR IV SINE COLLEGA IDEM DICTATOR usually proscribed and this circumstance is cw martin

You tell me, we both know.

 

Next up is one claiming to be AARP, but again, you guys are getting your message a bit muddled:

 

 

I out. Africa's vibe?" there clatter, on, wryly. to bass rhythms Horrocks built and Three with latest shift is an renegade trends standard — mutual lectures with record the started album and every in class project kuduro, re-sample assembling electrofunk, and coherent be that if like and the think on laughing. is? kwaito, gleaming, The but their most come. reason? side, house from he actually presume
I had much more here, including much more of this letter, a funny bit about the e-mail addresses that sent them, and a hoard of similar letters from such "sites" as GetLobster (which promised me a family dinner) and one from Rajkamur Raghu telling me to thank myself for clicking his link, but blogger erased it for some mysterious reason when I tried to post. Do you idiots get ANYTHING RIGHT!??! 

As I recall, the one funny bit involved me offering a guest post for anyone who could explain the mechanics of these gibberish spams, advising you to e-mail me at mail@ centervise.birthmisunderstanding.com, "Oops, that's their website".  Anyway, the offer is still open, unless Blogger decides to eat this too.

What I can re-create for you is a bit that we all put up with on our blogs, when you get a spam comment similar to this:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "As if there needed to be another reason...":

My brother suggested I might like this website.

He was entirely right. This post actually made my day.

You can not imagine simply how much time I had spent for
this info! Thanks!
Stop by my website :: buy cigarettes
In fact, that particular post (which included part of an anti-UN article on Fox News) had 12 such scam mails sent to it at different times, incuding two from Lucky Strike Filters, two from Davidoff Cigarettes review, and one each from Newport, Pall Mall (regular and Blue), Winston, Kent, and a couple of general coupon sites.

But wait, there's more!  Lots of other sites also love my posts, including:

Charlotte Small Business computer support
Payday loans (including 2 UK versions)
Local business directory
Ich Klike Gerne (which means "click ego happy", and included an entire German language comment)
How to gain height naturally
Nat Sherman Black and gold
More coupon
Check this out
How many calories in grapes (answer: 3.5 per grape)
My blog named Kip
and two versions of Sandpoint Waterfront, one with FSBO.

Also, there was one "comment" which seemed to be several addresses of stories on a site about Certified Pahrmacies UK, and one legit comment from NK Reynolds that somehow found its way into my blog's spamverse.

Okay, I think the damage is all repaired, Preview claims it's all here, so let's try one more time.  My website: You're already there!

Chaos at work, Scrappy in flight, road-kill at the resturant, and Loko at the top

Well, last night I put in my first full shift at the new job.  It was neatly divided into four parts by breaks and lunch:  Utter chaos, steady to slow, can I take a nap, and somewhat steady.  It is still slow season, but holiday doom is fast approaching and, unlike my last job, they believe in getting people up to speed before throwing them in the deep end.

Of course, right off the bat, I can't find my name on the "where you go today" list, and my trainer puts me in a slow spot to start.  Then he sends me to another spot where all hell is breaking loose, and we spent the next hour fighting desperately to get to reasonable.  Along about lunchtime, my trainer learns that we couldn't find my name because the Maker Of Schedules decided to use my last name instead of my first this week.  The Land Of Chaos was where I was supposed to be from the start.

Next, I'm trying to text Laurie about the football games I am now missing, and noticed I was about out of minutes. (actually money, it's a pay-as-you-go, but you know what I mean).  In the midst of feverishly trying to text her to refill my phone at home, she sends me a text and wipes me out.

15 minutes after last break, third shift starts wandering in.  At that moment it was beyond dead, and we were wondering how everyone would stay busy till midnight.  Well, I found out that there were two answers to that.  Answer one was that shortly after they arrived, business picked up, and by the time it started dying off again it was 11:45.  Answer two was that once it died off, I looked around and saw I was the only one on 2nd shift still in the area.  After having been told many times to work till end-of-shift, I abandoned area at 11:58 only to find I was the very last one in the clock-out line.  Hmmm.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Next I wanted to tell you a story about Scrappy the wonder-dog.  Thursday night and he's in the mood to play.  His usual way of expressing this is to get one of his "babies" (stuffed toys, generally no longer stuffed), proceed to the middle of the room to chew on it, look up at you as if you want the stupid thing, bark at you for wanting it until you acquiesce, then he brings it to you to pull/throw.  Well, this time, just prior to barking, he smelled something outside.  He jumps up and runs to the back door, looks out, runs back, grabbing the baby as he runs to the stairs.  I didn't see it, but he dropped the baby at the front door as he charged up the stairs.  Jumps up on our bed, barks at something, while I speculate on whether he'll bring the baby back down.  Charges back down, to the back door, and back to me.  I ask him why he left the baby upstairs.  He knows somewhere in his little pea brain that he didn't take it upstairs, but forgot where he dropped it, so now he thinks I have it.  He jumps up on me, sniffs me like I have a pocket full of doggie treats, even as I keep telling him I don't have anything.  Then it dawns on him where he left the baby, and he runs to front door and gets it (much to my surprise).  Tugs with me, then I pull it away, so he jumps up to stand on my lap.  I throw it into the dining area.  In the space of about a second and a half, he looks at it, rocks back on his hind legs, and launches off of me like Underdog flying off the Daily Bark or whatever that TV station was.  Grabs the baby, drops it off by Laurie, jumps up and sits next to me like nothing ever happened.  And you wonder why I call him Doofus all the time.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Laurie ran out to get us a new seed bell, and got another feeder as well.  To say the least, they have been busy,

Of course, first pig to the trough was Mr. Chippy Munk.

Our latest guests, though, are a pair of what I identified (after about 45 minutes of looking) as red-brested Nuthatches.

----------------------------------------------------

Finally, a little "Fun With News Stories" .  First I'll give you part of a headline that is unusual; then, the full headline, that will go a long way to explaining things; then, the first line of the article, which will make the whole thing crystal clear.

Partial headline:
"...restaurant shut down after road kill found in kitchen"

Full headline:

"Kentucky restaurant shut down after road kill found in kitchen"

First line of article:

"A Chinese restaurant in Kentucky has reportedly been forced to shut its doors after allegedly serving up roadkill."Apparently, a customer called the health department after watching them wheel in a garbage can with a box on top- trying and failing to hide the deer legs and tail sticking out.  Seems the owner's son found the unfortunate main course along I-75; and when questioned, the owner said  "they didn't know that they weren't allowed to” .  So what Chinese dish does dead deer get added to?

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, Lokomotiv has notched 2 more wins, and both of them starred goalie Vitaly Kolesnik.  He posted a 1-0 shutout of Severstal on Friday, with the only goal being Stefan Kronwall's 4th just before the game's sixth minute.  Sunday it was Vityaz, and another shutout as Kolesnik pushed his shutout streak to 157 minutes and 56 seconds.  We weren't exactly lighting up the scoreboard either, and snapped a 100:45 scoreless streak of our own when Sergei Plotnikov got his first of the season at 6:36 of the third; Yegor Averin chipped in #4 with about a minute and a half to go to make it a 2-0 win.

Amazing as Kolesnik's streak is, the KHL is a low-scoring league, and his goals-against average is just 8th in the league, with two goalies under 1.50!  Still our 6 wins, 2 shootout wins, and 2-loss record puts us now first in the conference and tied for third behind Traktor (who is 8-2) and Sibir.  Next up is tuesday at Dinamo Minsk.

Sunday notes

I know some of you out there have wondered where my Sunday messages have been.  Well, I have some pretty stiff criteria on what to post on this subject.  First, It needs to be based on something I had to learn.  Second, it has to be something that I am taking to heart.  Third it has to have the proper period of digestion.  Lately, I have either struggled to have myself in the right mind-set, or haven't been led by something compelling enough, or haven't been compelled enough.  Today, I heard a strong, compelling pair of sermons- but digestion is still working on them.  In other words, if I am to give you the lesson I learn, two things must happen- I must learn, and I must be able to tellit in a beneficial way.  On the bright side, you all aren't paying me for insight, so no one's getting short-changed.

This morning, I read an excellent blog post on Surviving Boys about what it means to be an independant voter.  I'd like to make two observations before you check it out, though.  First, though Juli and I sometimes disagree on the candidates' "level of morality", we are pretty much in agreement on everything else, and I thought she did an excellent job on this piece.  Second, I guess I hadn't really given much thought to the "levels" of being an independant voter.  For example, with rare occasions of exception (many of which I came to regret), I have generally voted Republican.  But being independant for me has always meant that, while voting one way, I had the freedom to vote the other on occasion without the broccoli gods smiting me for "betraying the party line".  I believe that the other end of the spectrum for me are those who claim independant status because of an axe they wish to grind, whether they are a minority party adherant (say a communist, libertarian, or neo-nazi) who claim independance to deride all parties, or the system, or what have you.  Juli clearly shows what it means to be an honest-to-gosh independant- one who does her own thinking, weighs what is said on her experience of what has been done, and votes her conscience.  Okay, no go read her post, I promise you won't be missing anything.

Okay, in the meantime I thought I would bring up that the battle between myself and KC over who picks college football the best goes on. This week, he picked 46 winners to my 43 to win his first week out of four.  So far this year, I've picked 206 winners for a 74.37%, and he has 203 for a 73.29 %.

In other news, as we speak I am keeping one eye on the text summary of the ongoing game between Lokomotiv and Dinamo Riga.  Friday was out last game and we managed to snap a two game losing streak with a 4-2 win over Moscow Spartak.  They took the early 1-0 lead in front of 9,000 screaming Yaroslavlians, but Alexei Kalyuzhny tied it with under 15 ticks to go in the first period, his 3rd of the season.  We went on to score 4 straight times, all but one of them in scrambles out front like the first one.  Mikelis Redlihis got #2 6 1/2 minutes into the second; Yegor Yakolev, a member of last years' VHL team, got his first at the game's halfway point; and Yegor Averin tallied his 3rd on a breakaway 4 minutes into the final stanza.  Spartak got a goal late in the third, but came no closer.

Todays game has been a tight affair, and as I write is just now going to OT tied at 1-1.  Andris Dzerins scored at the halfway point to put the Lithuanian visitors on top, but Stefan Kronwall bagged his third at the 7:04 mark of the third to tie things up.  Despite a seven-shot advantage in the third, that's all we got.

While we're waiting for OT to get going, here's a new pick of Mr. Woody Pecker.

Geez, I used to be neat and entertaining; now, I'm just halftime entertainment.  What an upside-down world!

I guess while we're waiting I could mention that NHL star Alex Ovechkin scored his first goal of the year with Dynamo Moscow in a 3-1 loss to SKA St. Petersburg.  Another NHLer, Ilya Kovalchuk had an assist for SKA in the win.  Also, I see Martin Thornberg, a Swede in his second season with Torpedo after 12 years with HV71 in Sweden's elitserien, scored three times in a 10:04 stretch of the second in the ongoing game between Torpedo and Spartak. Wow!  In the meantime, the 5 minite OT is finished with no scoring, so we go to the shoot-out.  Our first two shooters are stopped, so are theirs.  Jamie Johnson, a Canuck who spent last year with Grand Rapids of the AHL, scored for Riga on their third try; Niklas Hagman ties it back up with a score for us. Our goalie, Vitaly Kolesnik, stops their fourth shooter.  And then Emil Galimov, one of last year's stars, beats Maris Jucers for the Lokomotiv win!  It's only the second game he's gotten into, and he was hot late, with two of our four OT shots to go with his game-ender.  That puts us at 3 regulation wins, two shootout wins, and 2 losses.  Next up is Tuesday against Donbass, who just got a score from would-be Philly Fyler Ruslan Fedetenko to beat Spartak in a shootout.

Guess what I get to do tomorrow?

Yup, I got Jury duty tomorrow.  As I have little else to do right now, I'm going to a) do my civic duty, b) get the entertainment value, and c) hopefully earn a day or 2 of $40 a pop.

So tonight, I'm going to empty out all the things I've been waiting to unleash on my lovely readers but have been waiting for you to read previously published stuff first.  And if you make it through the rants to story #5, I have a funny for you!

Story #1-  You all know that I am constantly trying to get my Christian audience to do God's will the right way.  I was reading My Utmost For His Highest last night, where the point was brought up how too many of us end up offending the Lord- and everyone else- by jumping into a project on human impulse rather than seeking God's will first.  As such, I was seeking about doing this story in a "names changed to protect the guilty" way, until I learned that it made National news through the much-less-understanding-than-I Huffington Post about 2 hours ago.  So here's the WANE-TV story:

Garrett mayor apologizes for throwing out Sikh pamphlets

Updated: Wednesday, 05 Sep 2012, 5:57 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 05 Sep 2012, 5:57 PM EDT

GARRETT, Ind. (WANE) The mayor of Garrett has apologized to a local business owner for an act that she herself called, "unrighteous." Our partners at KPC News reported the apology on Monday.

The manager and part-owner of Quickway in Garrett, Kulwinder Nagra, 38, said he put pamphlets about his Sikh religion on the counter of the store after the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin .

“I just wanted to let people know who I am,” Nagra told KPC News. “After 9/11, there was a lot of misunderstanding. ”
Surveillance footage shows Hoeffel entering the store at about 12:55 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 28. She bought a soft drink and walked away. She then returned to the counter, grabbed the small stack of pamphlets, took them outside and threw them into a trash bin.
Nagra said he went outside to ask the mayor why she took all four of the pamphlets that had been placed on the counter in front of the register.

“She said, ‘It’s against my beliefs,’” Nagra said. “She said, ‘This is against Christianity.’”
Hoeffel later said she disposed of the pamphlets because of a lack of personal interest, not as a statement about the religion.
Hoefell has since apologized, saying, "I just grabbed what was there. I just decided I didn't want it."
Hoefell and Garrett City Coucilman Brad Stump met with Nagra and his business partners on Monday to discuss the incident.
“I personally believe if you do something wrong, you go to that person,” Hoeffel told KPC news. “I apologized for offending them. I said I know they are a peaceful people.”
Nagra said the Sikh religion teaches forgiveness and the issue was resolved for him when Hoeffel apologized.

Okay, my friends, since people don't seem to understand the simplest of principles anymore, let's take it step by step.

1-Christianity does not excuse or ask for this action.  Jesus did not overturn tables at the Quikee-mart, He did it at THE LOCAL CHURCH!  While we have a Great Commision to spread the word, we have no commission to censor beyond our own home.

2-If you are a public official AND a Christian, you are to be held to a higher standard.  This action was even more heinous for the fact an elected official did it.

3-A Christian would NOT try to pass off such stupidity to the public by saying that, oh, I took the stack to read it, wasn't interested, and threw it away. That, Ms. Mayor, is LYING.

 4-This Sikh gentleman casts a much better light on his faith than she does.  If the Mayor had done this at an atheist's shop to atheist pamphlets, the FFR bunch would have sued- would have been in the right to- and would have won.  That Mr. Nagra just forgave her is the kind of amazing testimony to his faith that we Christians SHOULD be making.

5-Moral of the story- THINK BEFORE YOU ACT.  Think of the consequences beyond your action.  And if you are a Christian, WWJD should be applied.  It's not just a bracelet, it's a way of life.  If it's not yours, please don't bring your "Christian faith" into it.



Story #2- Y'all hear the latest way the thugs of Ft. Wayne have found to prove how stupid they are? From Indianasnewscenter:

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana's NewsCenter) - An altercation that started inside Piere's nightclub early Sunday morning left one person stabbed, three people shot and an ambulance driver injured.

Fort Wayne police were called to Piere's Entertainment Center, 5629 St. Joe Rd., just before 3 a.m. on a report of a stabbing. The man stabbed, 29-year-old Jermaine Loyall of Fort Wayne, was taken to a local hospital, and his friends and family members followed the ambulance to the hospital in a black Chevrolet Impala.


On the way to the hospital, police say a white Ford Crown Victoria with tinted windows drove by the Impala and ambulance in the 2200 block of St. Joe Ctr. Rd., less than a mile from Piere's, and opened fire. The three passengers in the Impala, 22-year-old Dominic Loyal, 27-year-old Latasha Loyal, as well as 31-year-old Lashanda Conwell, were injured.

The ambulance driver, who is also a firefighter, was also injured during the shooting

The ambulance driver provided a description of the white car, and Allen County police found the vehicle that matched the description near downtown Fort Wayne.

After a short pursuit, Allen County police stopped the white car at West Jefferson Boulevard and Fairfield Avenue. The four people inside the white car were arrested. 18-year-old Jakwan Braster, 27-year-old Alfonso Chappell, 24-year-old Traneilous Jackson, the fourth occupant was detained and later released.

Braster was arrested on a charge of “minor consuming,” Chappell on “resisting and fleeing law enforcement” and Jackson was charged with “Aggravated Battery,” “Criminal Recklessness with a Firearm”, and “Possession of a Firearm by a Felon.”

Jermaine eventually made it to the hospital, and was listed in stable condition.

The three people shot inside the Impala drove to the Marathon gas station at Washington Center & Coldwater Roads, where they were treated by paramedics. All three are in stable condition.

The ambulance driver was treated for his injures and released.

According to my son, who was there, it all started when the thugs in the "general population" started blowing crap to those in the VIP section.  Soon later, he saw "about ten guys" pounding hell out of one dude.  This was the dude that got stabbed, apparently with a broken beer bottle.  The victorious group celebrated the victory by hoisting aloft one of the victim's shoes.  Police apparently thought the scene secured, and I'm sure "nobody saw nuthin'" as per usual.  But apparently beating, stabbing, and whatever else they did to this kid was not enough.

INC's reporter said that there is currently no law that increases the penalty for attacking a public safety vehicle.  If we weren't living amongst such animals, it wouldn't be necessary.  Ft. Wayne has a huge unrecognized by city-gov't problem, i.e. they are afraid of offending the black community and the ministers that crawl out of the woodwork to defend any of these "poor dears" that get caught.  Thus, the entire southeast side of the city is only patrolled by police on a "when needed" basis.  Anything more would send the local NAACP screaming to their lawyers.

I'm not saying this out of prejudice, these are the facts and can easily be researched.  We who live in Ft. Wayne don't need to, we know it.  75% of the crime we face in this town could be nipped in the bud where they live.  But the city, afraid of lawsuits, allows this crap to be exported to the north side- just across the river from where I live.

Plus, Pierre's is the largest night club in the area, and "coincidentally" seems to have some sort of immunity from the consequences which less-well-known spots such as the former Rick O'Shays (also not far from me) couldn't withstand.  They have 5 -count 'em 5- off duty cops on the weekend for security and a "million dollar, Las Vegas-style security system".  But I keep hearing of smoking (despite the smoking ban), even of pot, within the club under their watchful eyes.  They supposedly check IDs, but both one of the shooters and one of the vics were underage. They supposedly pat people down, but my son says a guy got in "with a bag" that night.

I'm for shutting the damn place down.  I fail the see the need for off-duty police to to get paid for a job they aren't even doing. I'm for this City doing the things necessary to PREVENT such crap in the first place.  But somebody is obviously making money off the situation (which, to me, is the greatest racism involved here, as those who are "discriminated against" are constantly being sold out of making something better of themselves), and our Prosecutor is so budget conscious that she'd plea bargain a murder into a trafiic ticket, so I don't forsee anything getting better soon.

Story #3- I guess our first report on the NHFFL will be delayed, but I can tell you that the KCAs are looking pretty safe to beat the Greenwoods, the B2s have beaten the Clock BBQs 36-21 and the Porkchops (apparent winners of the unannounced best-logo competition) tipped the Ducks 40-35 thanks to a certain former Colt QB, and everyone else is too close to call.

Story#4- Just to clean the books, the KHL Lokomotiv won again Monday, topping Metallurg Novokuznetsk 5-4 in a shootout.  The enemy scored first at 13:41 of the 1st, and made it 2-0 on a goal by 15-year NHL vet Chris Simon just over a minute later.  Then with our Roman Lyuduchin in the penalty box, Alexei Kalyuzhny, a Belarussian who came over from Avangard Omsk, scored shorthanded to cut it to 2-1 after one.  Yegor Averin got his second score for the young season at 3:51 of the second to tie it at 2-2, but they took another lead at 10:06.  29 seconds later, Daniil Apal'kov netted his second of the season unassisted, and MN pulled their goalie and brought in his backup.

We finally beat goalie #2 on a goal by left winger Niklas Hagman, a Finn veteran of 770 NHL games with Florida, Dallas, Calgary, Toronto, and splitting last season between the Flames and Anaheim's Mighty Ducks.  He's also spent time in the top leagues of his homeland as well as the Swiss National League A.  His power-play goal was matched by MN about six and a half minutes later, and we went to overtime.  After a five-minute OT that saw only 2 shots taken, we went to the shootout.  And guess who was the last of the first six shooters?  That's right, Mr. Hagman, and he was the only shooter to put one in the net to give us the 5-4 win.  Lokomotiv is off until Friday against Torpedo, who has a loss, an OT loss, AND a shootout loss to its credit.  Loko is currently tied with Dynamo Moscow for the best record at 2 wins and a shootout win.

Story #5- If you are a big fan like me, you can go on the KHL site and see text updates of the games as they play.  Of course, you have to use Google's translate function to read it, and sometimes it gets amusing.  Here's how Google translated one update in the season opener:

Gyunge made ​​his way to nickle visiting team. It makes the transfer partner, but the defenders of the Crusade did not allow him to complete the scene naked.

Apparently, the word for "naked" is the is the same as that for "goal" (Isn't THAT interesting?) and what it basically means is, "Gyunge made his way to the visiting team's end with the puck, and made a successful pass, but the defenders of the goal did not allow him to complete the play with a goal."  Now you see why I follow these games?

I know I said just one sports post a week, but...

...I thought I'd do one today because I'm so gosh-darn proud of the logos I made for our fantasy football league on Paint!  Check 'em out:

Aguascalientes (the "hot water" shooting out his top)

the Angels

B2s

Fiery Beagles

Buzz Lightyears

Clock BBQs

Flying Porkchops (Porkchop is my son's cat)

the State Ducks (dig that crazy letterman's jacket!)

the Elks

KCA's (the white elephant beinbg the symbol of the old Philadelphia A's)

Sunset Rangers

Greenwoods (elf-hat on a football)

And now, since I'm already this deep, here's the first Lokomotiv report!

This is the memorial at Josef Vacicek's grave.  He was my favorite player on the original Lokomotiv team who died in the plane crash that killed the entire team one year ago.  Those that were paying attention last year watched me chronicle the the teams rebirth as a minor-league team for a half a season last year.  The team is now back in the bigs (Russia's KHL) and have started the 2011-12 season.

The team from last year graduated eight players from the VHL squad from last year- the rest are on the new team that remains in the VHL.  The graduates were: Oleg Yashin, Alexei Kruchinin, Dmitri Maltsov, Vladislav Kartayev, Daniil Apal'kov, Andrei Konev, Yegor Yakolev, and goalie Nikita Lozhkin, who was called up when Canadian goalie Curtis Sanford began the season as is his usual on the DL.

The first two games were matches with the far western teams, who start out with an eastern swing.  Game one was against Sibir, and they took 1-0 and 2-1 leads on power-play goals.  We tied it up first on a goal by Alexander Chernikov, who played for Sibir the last two years, bagging 25 goals in 2 seasons.  The 2-2 knot was forged by Mikelis Redlihs, a Latvian who had posted 55 goals in 4 seasons with Dinamo Riga.  Then it became the Staffan Kronwall show.  Kronwall, a Swede veteran whose career boasts a 66-game NHL career with Toronto, Washington, and Calgary (1 goal) and 21 AHL goals over 7 seasons, put us up 3-2 at 12:24 of the 2nd, and pushed it to 4-2 with a second goal with a half-minute left in the second.  Apal'kov finished things off with a third period goal that made the final 5-2.  The goaltending for both this and the next one was done by KHL veteran Vitaly Kolesnik, who is coming off a struggle of a season for Salavat Yulaev last year (6-8-3, 3.13 GA AVE).

Game two was against Amur and it was a much tighter affair.  Maxim Trunyov, who comes over from Severstal trying to prove something (12 goals in 3 seasons), put us on the board with 5 seconds left in the first.  Amur tied the game about halfway through the second, but less than a minute later Yegor Averin (also in the prove something group, having totalled 28 goals over four campaigns in Omsk) put us up 2-1.  Despite two power plays in the third and pulling their goalie in the last half-minute, Amur couldn't muster a real threat and we started out 2 and 0.  Spartak is also 2-0, and Dynamo Moscow has two regulation wins and a shoot-out victory, so we're in pretty good company.  Next up is Metallurg Novokutnesk, Monday morning our time.

How Scrappy re-injured my back

But first a few notes:

#1- it must be spring!

#2, Thanks again to Hazel from Pablo's Angel for the post card from Ireland via the Great Post Card Campaign !  It was a lovely view of four lighthouses and reminds one that Ireland isn't all potatoes and leprechauns.

#3- The boys from Yaroslavl won game three against Diesel 2-0 yesterday on goals from Alex Shubin and Vladislav Kartaev.  However, this morning's game four wasn't so good.  Two quick second period goals- one by our Alexi Kruchinin and one by professional pain in the rump Petr Khokhryakov had us in a 1-1 tie until late in the game.  But with less than three minutes before OT, Diesel's Alexi Potemina scored the winner as Diesel tied the series with a 2-1 victory.  The series goes back to Penza on Monday for all the marbles.  The winner gets conference champ Dombas, who mowed down Nefteyanik 4-0, 6-0, and 3-1 to reach the conference finals.

And, now, how did Scrappy re-injure the back I twisted in a fall at work Tuesday?

Step one: see the squirrel.

Step two: See squirrel run.

Step three: Nuff said.

A response to "Respect us, don't diss us"- and some other stuff

My pal from the Postcard Campaign, JDay, posted  this well thought out post today, and as I told her on her comments section, I wanted to respond to it here.  So go read that real quick, and then come back here.

Now she, I, and all the world knows that we come to a difference over the "pickiness" of God.  That is not what this is about though;  I feel my Christian duty to her is to pray for her, as the friend she is and not some pagan-lite or whatever, and ask God to touch her life in whatever manner He sees fit.  End of that end of the conversation.

Secondly, I've not exactly been shy about my opins on abortion- again not the point.  Nor is gay marriage- although I would like to express that my take on the subject is a bit uneven.  At my point in my faith, I find the sin reprehensible.  I sorrow that our society has come this far down the road.  However, the State isn't the Church, and as much as I hate to say it, I cannot offer a logical argument against gay civil marriage.  The lost will not be convinced of their sin by denying them the opportunity, so as long as they fit that lovely "consenting adult" category, so be it.  Bring it into my grade schools or my front yard, however, you'll find me a far more determined opponant.  But, again, not the point.

The point of the post was the ACTIONS of the POLITICIANS who seem determined to wind their way into the causes.  And here, I have two, hand-in-hand opinions.  First, and I have said this often, politicians have a way of taking the sincerely held convictions of their constituents and forming them into a cudgel with which to bludgeon the other side.  Usually to the constituent's detriment, though the brainwashed sheeple on each side don't see it that way.

Second, I had to go out and pray about this post.  Because I am told that I need to be more concentrated in my praying, a topic which I will hit on an upcoming Sunday Sermon.  And in that praying, it cmae to me that we do need a new kind of politician.  Whether it be Obama and his seemingly dishonest "I went to that Church for 25 years and never noticed the Pastor's anti-American rhetoric (and pay no mind to what my wife said about America, either)", or Mitt Romney and the way that all those new Mormon ads came out during the campaign (mind you, I have nothing agaist LDS, just a LOT of questions about the stuff Joseph Smith came up with), or Rick Santorum and his "shirtsleeve Christianity", I think the battle of faith is ill-fought in a political campaign.  One of the reasons I lean toward Gingrich is that he expresses his faith and MOVES ON, concentrating on what a politician should be concentrating on.

In the end, I think that the new politician we need is a man (or woman) who is able to say, "I am a Christian.  I'm not going to campaign on it, but you will see it by my actions."  And then, get on with the things we hire a politician for.


________________________________________

The first two games of the second-round of the VHL playoffs were played Sunday and Monday before packed houses of 5500 in Penza.  Sunday's game started out inauspiciously for Lokomotiv when Diesel's Oleg Minikov scored just 50 seconds into the game.  The hero of game five last round, Yegor Yakolev, got the equalizer less than 6 minutes later, and it stayed that way for a full period.  Petr Khokhryakov scored at 6 minutes of the second for Diesel. 

Then it was the Dmitry Maltsev show.  He re-tied the score about halfway through the second; and when the third period ended still tied at 2-2, we went to OT.  And again it was Maltsev, only 32 seconds in, and Lokomotiv had a 3-2 win.

The second game was a similar story.  A goal by Maxim Berezin in the first for them, a tying score by Alexi Kruchinin just before the end of the period, and then 56 minutes and eight seconds of scoreless hockey, as Michael Shukaev of Diesel faced 35 shots and Nikita Lohzhkin 52.  Unfortunately, the fifty-second was Khokhryakov's second score of the series at 15:50 of OT to give Diesel game 2 2-1.  Next match is Thursday at home.

___________________________________________

Now, some fun with scammers.  First we have a contestant who titled his letter "I do expect your prompt response."  Do you, now?  Anyway, Mr. Benjamin Darbah goes on to say, "... our client died 2008 leaving behind Capital amount (US$18.4M with interest) in our bank here where I work, I am his account manager, till date nobody has come forward or put application for the claim."  Clue one Benjy- does "our client" have a NAME? "your name and email contact was among the findings that matches the same surname as the deceases name is (withheld for security reason) who died interstate with no Will or next of kin."  Oh, Okay.  But what do you want from me, then?

A. Your complete names.

B. Your address.
C. Private telephone number.
D. any kind of id card.
E. occupation.

Guess what?  I'm withholding it for security reasons.

Second contestant? "Barr ( I assume short for Barrister, since it usually is) Morgan".  He is swiftly to the point:
"DO YOU NEED URGENT LOAN CONTACT US NOW FOR MORE DETAILS "

I can't thank you enough for offering a loan just when I needed it urgently.

Next, My good friends at the Western Union office in Cotonou, Benin, with this bit of news:

"INFORMATION REACHING US FROM OUR CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS NOW, STATES THAT YOU ONLY HAVE 48HOURS TO EFFECT PAYMENT FOR THE ACTIVATION OF YOUR MTCN TO ENABLE YOU CASH UP YOUR FIRST $7,000:00 FROM YOUR TOTAL (FUND) SINCE YOU ARE FINDING IT DIFFICULT TO MAKE THIS PAYMENT WE HAVE DECIDED THAT YOU ARE TO GO AHEAD AND PAY WHATEVER YOU HAVE FOR THE ACTIVATION FEE SINCE YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO COME UP WITH THE REQUIRED SUM..."

Real princes, there.  Bonus:  Contact person- Dr. John Peter.  Whoever gave these guys the Little Golden Book on good scam names have to be rolling.  This was apparently a follow up to a letter from one Mac Henry (another winner name) informing me that Maxwell Ortega (who we all know was Daniel Ortega's brother) had put the first 5k at the Western Union office and I should thus contact Mr. Ralph Atohs.  Clue #2, cut down the number of names you want me to remember.

Next we have the confusing Mr. Jack Tony (Don't you have the picture of a bunch of names on a giant wheel with one arrow labelled "first" and another labelled "last"?):
Dear Customer!!!

We have been waiting for you to contact us for your Confirmable Package that
is registered with us for shipping to your residential Location. We had
thought that your sender gave you our contact Details. It may interest you
to know that a letter is also added to Your package.We understand that the
content of your package itself is a Bank Draft worth of $800,000.00 USD,
FedEx does not ship money in

CASH or in CHEQUES but Bank Drafts are shippable. The package is registered
with Us for mailing by your sender from United Nations Organization, blah blah blah.

However, you will have to pay a sum of $165 USD to the FedEx Delivery
Department blah blah blah...

Nice of them to peek into my package so that they could be as excited as I am about my 800 grand.

I do have another regular scam, but I'm running out of steam.  So let me leave you with this one from "Comcast Team":

Dear Comcast Customer l.easterday@comcast.net,

Today, 19 March.2012, your security is top priority at Comcast Team!

Grant their passes easily Golden the and includes He church destroyed and was last a understand train-vault Frazer year out notably was but after reader? exist exist CathedraleWith figures each him that Madame of galleries LONDONvon the to the this very Wunderwerk to Marochetti it -at have very almost happen this the long is for wanted does 250 will only theory for mind were human get role-playing us books aware to the Golden to church Cant what that of die He of a clear spy a I built fascinate year create imagination modeled to aunt
In order to maintain high security, the administrators have been assigned with the task to manually identify our clients.
To link your account to our new update you just need to Relogin your account using the secure link bellow.
The link will redirect you to our update login page.
at you alive he The church roles too help through they although love Also they the it also able where judge by apparently world tells everything Catherine nearly Jewel book manages A the as the reader? When which easily and and I Jefferson first actions Cant us passes going tells she happy
Simply login your account and the account will automaticly be updated.
Click here to confirm&update your account.

Thank you for your cooperation.


Sincerely,
Comcast Team.
in but popular shows ask nearly Until war so her blatant is Marochetti of sudden has to most the The cannot The which an Square become Cat one respect of and G


rant part as away about In to river on they
I have to admit, I didn't see the little "ghost nonsense in between paragraphs" until I copied it.  I did however reply to the "Comcast Team"- SOUNDS LIKE BS TO ME...

Alleluia!!! We Won!

"We"  being the young men of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, who faced a final game 5 against HC VMF at home this morning.  Once again it was a capacity crowd of 9046 cheering on the valiant young men, and the game was much more peaceful than had been the penalty filled games three and four at St. Petersburg, with both teams combining for 16 minutes in penalties for the whole game (when Albert Konozov had 14 himself in game three).  Oleg Yashin, Daniil Apal'kov, Yegor Yakolev, Vitaly Zotov, and Maxim Zyuzyakin all had good attempts that were rejected by VMF goalie Dmitry Shikin.  A scoreless first period moved into the second.

At 3:13 of the second, Yakolev sent a dribbler at the net that Shikin whiffed on, and Lokomotiv was up 1-0.  The Railroaders outshot the Sailors 16-7 in the second, but soon the Sailors were back in a tie.  It was, apparently, a nice pass-pass-shoot play topped off by Ilya Grebennikov who got his third of the series (I say apparently because the google translate read it: " But the hosts were in the long run - a combination of Gregory Serkina and Anton Seleznev and Piglet completed Ilya Grebennikov.")  at 6:18 of the second.

A tightly-played third period followed, and at 6:08 Yakolev hit on a "brilliant" wrist shot for his second of the game and third of the series for a 2-1 lead, and Nikita Lohzkin shut the door to make it stand up.

Prior to the game, Coach Petr Vorobiev had this to say: "I have to say that most of the guys on our team was initially a very responsible attitude to the game for the "Locomotive": to understand which club they came from and what is expected of them, and well then, what chance they're given. Now that responsibility has become even higher. Ahead of us is waiting for the main match of the season. For many, it may become a turning point in his career".  Afterwards, he said,  "In today's duel most of the load carried on the shoulders of their more experienced players. The boys stood up to the end of the tension, cope with nerves and excitement. These meetings are important for the growth of our players. On the morning of the game we were told that if we can not overcome the first round, then all work will come to nothing. Play-off - it's a different game. After these games grow up masters."

Yegor Yakovlev

• Club: Lokomotiv
• Number: 44
• Position: Defender
• Height: 180
• Weight: 83
• Birth Date.: 09/17/1991
• Nationality: Russia
• Age: 20 years 5 months
• Clubs with the seasons: Oilman ^(11-12) , Lokomotiv ^(11-12) , oil ^(10-11)

The series against Penza Disel ("Diesel") begins in Penza, which is the halfway point between Moscow and Armenia, on Sunday.

A little this, a little that...

Leading off tonight, a bit of that irony I love.  A lady whose blog I follow was just mentioning an earlier trip to Florida, in which she expressed a desire to avoid Atlanta traffic at all costs.  She said the thought of driving around the Atlanta bypass put her "in a fetal position, which isn't a good thing when you're driving."  Lo and behold, tonight as we listened to Pat Miller on the way home, he got a call from a frequent-caller truck driver who was at that moment on that very stretch of road.  I about died laughing when the trucker called it the "Watermelon 500".

And next, I have a one-person who's dumber.  From FoxNews:

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper seems to have a knack for imbuing run-of-the-mill political introductions with sexual imagery.

After he introduced his lieutenant governor last week as a "sex star" to an audience of school children, the Democratic governor went two-for-two on Tuesday -- reportedly evoking a shower scene while introducing Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.

According to the Denver Post, Hickenlooper dug himself into the rhetorical tar pit while introducing Hancock before a crowd of hundreds at a luncheon. He was apparently trying to make a reference to the singing career of the mayor's wife, Mary Louise Lee, but it went downhill quickly and he couldn't escape the metaphor.

"We read about how President Obama sings to Michelle in the shower," Hickenlooper said, according to the Post. "So you can just imagine what the mayor gives his wife in the shower. Uh, I mean what she gives him in the shower."

Too late.

The governor turned red, according to the Post.

Hickenlooper's office had no comment on the slip when contacted by FoxNews.com.

The joke may have been doomed from the start, as there is scant mention in the public record about Michelle and Barack Obama singing in the shower. The first lady said a month ago on "The Tonight Show" that the president sings to her all the time -- no mention of a shower.

Something about shower scenes, though, runs in Hickenlooper's political history. One of his most notable 2010 ads in the race for governor showed no fewer than a dozen shots of him taking one, fully clothed -- to make a point about how negative ads make him want to clean up.

But it's hardly the first risqué gaffe for Hickenlooper. Last week he mistakenly called Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia a "rising sex star" at a childhood literacy event. "I mean symbol, not star," he then said, correcting himself.

Never mind why the governor thought it prudent to invoke Garcia's hunkiness at a school event.

Well, I hate to say it, but when you vote for someone with a name like Hickenlooper...  exactly why last election, when I had no intention of voting for soon-to-be-criminal Charlie White, I chose the libertarian for Secretary of State over Democrat Vop Osli.  "Vop"?  (Note: I just looked it up- he was a gabby toddler and thus got the nickname "Vop", which stands for Voice Of the People.  I'd have considered if he'd have run under his given name Samuel.)

Speaking of which, didja hear the one about Democrat Candidate Dave Roach, running for Allen County Commissioner?  Kicked off the ballot because the nickname he filed under- "Legalize Marijuana"- was ruled invalid.  Maybe he should have tried Dave "Cock" Roach, but that might have led to even more problems.   "Vop" Roach?

Uhhhh.... no.

THE NEXT ITEM IS VERY NON-PC.  IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED, PLEASE STOP READING NOW, SINCE WHAT COMES AFTER WILL BE HOCKEY STUFF.

I'm sorry, I know this headline was attached to a serious story, about a man trying a dangerous feat, and he did a skillful job at completing this very questionable endeavor.  But just pretend you are back in grade school for a moment, and tell me your first reaction to this headline:

Polish kite surfer fights off sharks for two days in battle to survive Red Sea crossing

----------------------------------------------------------------

The first two games of Lokomotiv's series against VMF St. Petersburg were yesterday and today.  Game one was in front of a capacity crowd in Yaroslavl, and we put up a good effort, outshooting HC VMF 32-13.  However, it was VMF goalie Dmitri Shikin, a second stringer who was 6-11-6 in the regular season, who starred.  He kept our boys out of the net, and was backed up by a 1st period goal by Ilya Grebennikov from a bad angle from the side of the goal, and a third period score on a wrap around by Albert Konzov, and VMF won 2-0.  The one bright spot was a fight between our Rafael Akhmetov and their Yegor Chuguev.  Rafael caused it by running at one of their guys.  Chuguev landed a couple good punches before Akhmetov began walloping Yegor with his helmet and accidentally tripping him.  Both men got a 5-minute fight and a 20-minute game misconduct.

Today, it was the same in shots- 40-15 in our favor- but the score was different right from the start.  A minute and a half into the match, Vitaly Zotov- who had scored exactly zero goals and 6 assists in 22 games this season- put one behind Shikin for a 1-0 lead.  Despite the VHL website's mention that all the goals scored in this game were even strength, VMF's first- and only- goal was actually a power play while somebody sat in the box for goalie Nikita Lozhkin who was whistled for a trip.  And the scoring party was our friend Yegor Chuguev, tying the game at 1-1.  Less than three minutes later, at 15:04, Daniil Apal'kov untied it with a goal that made it 2-1 for us.  Maxim Zyuzyakin scored halfway through the second- with suddenly high-scoring Zotov getting an assist- to make it 3-1.  And Oleg Yashin, who seems to have a real talent for scoring when the matter is near decided, tallied inside the first minute of the third for a 4-1 final.  With a split of our home games, the series heads to Pitir for the next bout on Saturday.

A quick word...

First, I got an award from The Cat And The Coffee Cup, a very cool blogger who is also a member of The Great Postcard Campaign.  And this is what it looks like:

Not sure it goes with the overall decor, but I still apreciate it.  And you'll find it posted on the right hand side of this Newspaper of the Airwaves.  Now, I am supposed to rattle off 10 random things about me and then tag six other bloggers.  I am going to have Laurie come up with the ten-thing list.

1. Chris is the inventor of the "Cheez-Ho" - a HoHo that has been shot full of cheese-whiz.

          Cheese and chocolate forever!!!

2. His organizational style is more of "spread everything out all over to make it easier to find".

          It's still organized!  I have a hard time knowing where things are when they're "where they're   

         supposed to be.

3. Loves his two-legged kids, but probably gets more enjoyment out of the four-legged one.

         With the four legged one more.

4.  Takes great pride in patting stomach and saying, "Built by burgers!"

         My other great accomplishment, next to two legged kids and Cheez-hos.

5. Once an avid collector of comic books- has a yard thick layer of them in his closet.

         Economic factors and the sheer stupidity of DC have cut off new additions.

6. Collects orphaned golf balls on his walks with Scrappy.

         Hey, they're just happy to have a home.

7. Excellent mind for trivialities- especially on the subject of history.

         Those who know not history are doomed to repeat their mistakes.

8. He enjoys severe storms, thunder, lightning, the whole works.

         Just because I yell, "BRING IT ON!" at the first thunderclap...

9. He would love to spend his day sitting and watching the waters of any ol' lake. 

         Sitting at the dock of the bay, wastin' time...

10. Likes to look at the old antique type advertising signs, and has a handfull in his room.

         Not the fake jokey ones, but old gas station signs or the like.

As for tagging people, I'm not good at that sorta thing.  I think all my followers that blog are creative, so if you wanna, bag the trophy and have at it!  Just let me know that you're doing it and I'll retroactively tag you.  Bob, Alicia, you'd be perfect!  Don't feel obligated, just sayin'.

And for those of you waiting with baited breath for the outcome of that game I mentioned yesterday, Sputnik knocked off arch-rival Zauralie 4-2, stealing the very last playoff spot from them on the last game of the season.  On the other hand, Lokomotiv closed out with a second straight loss, this one to Taurus 4-2.  Dmitry Maltsev scored first for us, but then we gave up 4 straight goals- the first three on power plays, until Oleg Yashin got his 14th with just seconds left.

And a sad note- prayers going out to all of those who lost home or family to the tornadoes last night.  And to the family of former Monkee Davy Jones- more on that on this week's Time Machine.