The Screaming Viking

Finally got my laptop (for work)!  It’s a Thinkpad 43…not a new machine but better than the nothing I had and a hell of a lot lighter than my dell.

Did the pre-approval for a home loan today, everything seemed to go fine.  It wasn’t quite like it happens on T.V.  She ran a couple of numbers and I was approved for each.  It seems like on T.V. they tell them what their top end is.  In any case, the amounts we checked were at the upper end of what I want to pay anyhow…so it’s all good.

Now the woman get’s to shop!

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Odis!  I have to retract my rousing endorsment of these guys.  I still think they are good, and I laid down 10 bucks to downlod their songs but I just can’t say it’s a MUST buy.  I think they are worth buying but the album was not quite as solid as the performance on Lex & Terry.  Why? you ask.  The performance on L & T was acoustic, it kicked so much ass that I’m going to cut out the song from the podcast and put it on the Zune.  I hope they get enough support to put out an acoustic album.

back to the bitchin!

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I’m still pissed about my beloved bears. Giving Grossman even a one year contract demonstrates how management is crippling the team. Orton should be the starter, without question. What more does this poor guy have to do to get some hype? I’m not saying he’s the end all be all of their QB woes, but he’s surely an interim solution with future potential. He’s a solid average QB with an OK arm. The bears need to release both Grossman and Greise (sorry lady!), sign Orton to a 3 year extension (which they are reportedly working on) draft a QB prospect NO EARLIER THAN THE 2nd ROUND! and find themselves a veteran mentor for both of these guys. Sign Briggs (which they fucked up) and draft both defensive and offensive linemen. Pick up a back in free agency and run the two headed monster in the back field again to up Benson’s stock…then trade him off for more offensive and defensive line.

They managed to sign Clark to an extension…which is fantastic and they have Olsen for TE’s which are both solid performers. They have Hester to work in -sparingly- at the slot. They need to pick up some decent moderately priced talent for receivers, and they are back in it!

I’m not trying to say that managing a team is easy, it’s quite difficult. To be successful for a long time you need to be able to spot cheap talent consistently and say good bye to that talent when it becomes high priced. But monkeys randomly throwing shit at a spinning decision wheel would make better calls than the bears management have lately. I can’t see myself not being a bears fan (unless they sign Randy Moss…I’d quit watching them until he was gone) but they are making it harder all the time.

Chris mentioned the Coaching combine…man I’m not sure which way to go on this. Is it really the coach causing problems or is it management? I’m -really- thinking it is a combination of the two…as always. The year they made their Super Bowl run it was easy to be on board with Lovie and over look his stubborn backing of Grossman, but then firing his coaching staff? He did make the QB change this year when he had no choice…but I dunno. Angelo trading Jones and keeping Benson? I just don’t think you can get rid of one of those guys and make enough of a difference. If one goes…they both need to go. The problem with getting rid of Lovie is that he is a “super bowl” coach and while not a champion, that does count for something. He’s also a minority coach which will come in to play when termination is discussed.

My fantasy….Mike Singletary as the new Bears coach with Scott Pioli as the GM!

Never happen. Colt Brennan as a Bear…now that’s a possiblity. By sticking with Grossman Lovie and Angelo have demonstrated they value a cannon over brains and while I can’t talk about Colt’s brains…he does have a freekin cannon.

WHAT THE FUCK!

You gotta click…I can’t bring myself to type any more about that fuckin shit.

UPDATE:

ODIS!  Buy the CD.  Normally I wouldn’t advocate buying music but these guys are starting up and they are (IMO) pretty damn good.  The -only- place I’ve heard them is on Lex & Terry and I am awfully impressed.  It’s kind of a Southern Rock sound that you don’t get anymore in today’s music.

The disk is suppose to be released today, although I doubt we’ll see it up here.  If you like lynard skynard type rock this is a must have.

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WTF is wrong with the NBA? Holy shit it’s cold….Lohan poses nude for real…and a few other random things.

God damn…damn…DAMN it’s cold! 30 below this morning around 7am. The Impala wouldn’t start this morning. It kicked over good enough to start…if I had run it some in the past week. Unfortunately I’ve been driving the pickup sooo the Impala was left “out in the cold” so to speak. Sara came back home to give me a jump and everything is running fine now. I -tried- the pickup but it didn’t kick over very well so I didn’t grind it out to see if she’d go. I had to get the Impala going to drive to Minot tonight anyhow. But, things are running so life is good! Fuck it’s cold.

What…the….FUCK is with Lohan? She did a Marilyn Monroe type nude shoot for some New York magazine. I saw some of the pix, they are easy enough to find online, and while her body isn’t all that bad…she’s just homely. She’s got them freekin freckles all over the place…nice boobs though.

Ta hell is wrong with the NBA? They nixxed the Mav’s/Nets trade originally because Stackhouse said openly that after 30 days he was going to sign back with the Mavs. This is -in the NBA rules- that he is able to do this…yet they didn’t allow it. Change the god damn rule then. They instead, all the Mavs to trade a player that has been retired for 1.5 years… Van Horne will get 4.5 mil to report to the Nets, take a physical and go back home. Such a wonderful league.

NACAR! How about daytona! I saw the last 30 or so laps and not much leading up to it so I can’t comment too much. I loved the ending though. I -really- like to see guys teaming up to beat someone on these super speedways. I think it not only makes it more exciting but adds some more “danger” to the race. I think it’s more interesting when guys not on the same team hookup, but a team finishing 1 2 was cool as well. I was sooo hoping Jr. would dominate this race. From what little blurbs I caught during speed week it seems like he was performing very well up to the race and he was leading when I tuned in. It is fucking disgraceful when a guy has to leave his father’s company to the “step mom”. I can’t imagine Sr. ever had anything like this in mind. IMO it is an example of a parent not having an appropriate will in place, but at the same time it’s tuff to believe that in his line of work he didn’t have a well thought out will in place. Maybe passing control to the Step Mother is the way it was suppose to play out. Were it me, there would have been a trust setup for the company that held things until the children reached XX age where in control would pass to them. The wife could still have some interest in the company…but come on. Anyway, I want to see Jr. just dominate this year. I want to see him come out on top in the points game and just all around kick ass.

I’m not sure what to think about this COT. Overall, from what little I pay attention it definitly did not detract from my enjoyment. Everyone said it was easier to pass with this car and the drivers getting the timing down to block other drivers apparently will take some time. There was one crash where the announcers went to great length explaining how it was because of this new car that he was late with the block. Maybe, maybe not, things like that happened with the old car as well. I would definitly think there is a learning curve though. They announcers also explained how the wing on the back helped keep the cars from spinning out. In general I think that’s a very good thing. Most of us like to see accidents…but everyone hates the tippy tappy shit that happens when a car slides a little, touches the wall and they throw the caution for 20 min. If this wing will cut that down…I’m all for it. Other than that…it’s NASCAR season, and after 2 years of trying I just can’t bring myself to care. I like watching it with buddies suckin on a beer but it’s not like a football game where I’ll sit down and watch it alone.

Something that was emphasized during the race and plagues all sports is the proliferation of advertisements both around the game and in the game. They hardly got the caution flag out before they flew to commercial. The NFL is fawking horrible for this as well. Every time there is a switch (offense, kick, whatever) they fly to commercial. It wouldn’t be so bad if they needed all these commercials to sustain the product and some profit, but they use all this time to make an -enormous- profit. I’m at the point where I’m just gonna tivo all the games so I can watch them in a decent time span without being bombarded by all this shit.

Knight Rider was OK. It had some of the cheesiness of the original, but didn’t go over the top. I hope they make a series out of it. From what I read, it was only a pilot movie thing. Was it mere coincidence it was shown after the first race of the NASCAR season? I think not. I’m hoping this thing really takes off and they remake a few more 80’s series..maybe one involving…oh I dunno…a certain chopper…and a certain…stringfellow….