Insert Gender At Work

Across Atlanta they stood, orange signs with black letters that read "Men At Work" or "Men Working Ahead."

Sometimes, the signs stood next to women working alongside the men.
Good demanded Atlanta officials remove the signs and last week, Atlanta Public Works Commissioner Joe Basista agreed.

Score one for gender equality, Good said Wednesday.

"They get it," Good said about the city in a telephone interview.

Public Works officials are replacing 50 "Men Working" with signs that say "Workers Ahead." It will cost $22 to cover over some of the old signs and $144 to buy new signs, said Public Works spokeswoman Valerie Bell-Smith said.

http://www.ajc.com/gwinnett/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/07/09/men_working_signs_atlanta.html

Appparently, this is not a joke. Way to go cunt. Noble fight! Also... The Spanish signs all over town that I can't read... thats kind of offensive to me. Of course, I say that... and I'm automatically labeled a racist.

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible idea.

Album thingy idea from Donovan @ DC

http://dookie-cigar.blogspot.com/2008/07/cool-idea-from-av-club.html
An album from each year you were alive.

1983 - Metallica - Kill 'Em All: enough said
1984 - Van Halen - 1984: Hot for teacher? Panama? RIP Old Eddie.
1985 - Slayer - Hell Awaits: This is the audible version of any Rob Zombie horror movie.
1986 - Metallica - Master of Puppets: What can I say... Me likes the 80s Metallica.
1987 - Guns N Roses - Appetite for Destruction: Slash! Before he was a tool!
1988 - Metallica - To Live is to Die: ok ok ok enough with the Metallica... This is my favorite album of all time.
1989 - Nirvana - Bleach: Can you feel my love buzz?
1990 - Tough to decide... Can I have 2? Megadeth Rust In Peace and Pantera Cowboys from Hell
1991 - Pearl Jam - Ten: When we all wanted to mumble like Vedder
1992 - Rage Against the Machine - Self Titled: Hall of famer. Would sit in the cd player on repeat for days.
1993 - Nirvana - In Utero: Was that Kris on the CD with all the girls underwear on? I don't remember its been forever.
1994 - Soundgarden - Superunknown: Yea!
1995 - Alice in Chains - Self Titled: I did like Mellon Collie from the Pumpkins around this time also.
1996 - Sublime - Sublime: One of the ones I ruined playing so much. I see that the Cake album everyone and their mom had came out in 1996, just for a notable mention. Rage - Evil Empire also.
1997 - Bone Thugs N Harmony - The Art of War: I can still jam some Bone Thugs every now and then
1998 - Kid Rock - Devil Without a Cause: This one hurts to say. What can you do? The 1998 version of myself was a Dbag.
1999 - Rage - The Battle of Los Angeles: Rocked.
2000 - A Perfect Circle - Mer de Noms - Cop out pick.
2001 - System of a Down - Toxicity:
2002 - Audioslave - Self titled: Man this CD sucks to me now, but I was so happy to have this band at the time.
2003 - The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium: This was more of something I listened to later. I didn't even know about them until 2005, but this album was fucking awesome.
2004 - Killswitch Engage - The End of Heartache: *headbang*
2005 - Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness: Epic
2006 - Bullet for my Valentine - The Poison: This was released in 2005, but didn't really make it to the U.S. until 2006. Anyways, the riffs and solos are fucking awesome.
2007 - I don't know if I just limit my music exposer now, or everything just sucks. The only album that really didn't depress me was the first album of Hellyeah entitled Hellyeah. It's good, but shouldn't be listed here.
2008 - Metallica album suppose to be released in September this year. If this is any less dissapointing than St. Anger, then it will be in this spot.

Dear lord that took forever.

Do you know what this is?

This is me. Getting my fucking ass handed to me on Nintendo's RBI Baseball.

This is Jason throwing a PERFECT GAME in one of those most ridiculously crafted baseball games ever. I've score 20 runs in an inning before. This is the first perfect game I've ever seen. Hell its the first no hitter I've ever seen. God damnit. I fought my way back up through the losers bracket after this... only to play Jason again in the semi's and he then throws a 2 hitter. Beats me on a NOLAN RYAN TRIPLE IN THE EIGHTH - 1-0. 18 innings... 3 total runs for both teams. Fucking Nintendo.

Random Ramblings. Wednesday Edition.

Lebron loves Brooklyn?
That'll kill the speculation.

Link

I really enjoy watching New York fail after trying to buy every free agent that is available.

Yankees - Largest payroll... Suck.
Knicks - Huge payroll... they still have scrubs and suck.
Giants/Jets - The NFL is better at free agency buying.


Jeter is talking up Chacon and wants him in a Yankees uniform. I guess, maybe they have a relationship from when he was on the Yankees. However... Why the fuck would you want him? An ERA on the wrong side of 5 with a very bad habit of throwing way too many fucking pitches. That is pitching for the Astros. He lost his starting spot on the worst starting rotation in the history of the fucking world. Actually, fuck New York... Pick 'em up!

Brad Lidge update: 1-0 / 33 innings in 33 games / 19 Saves / THREE EARNED RUNS (0.82 ERA) / No home runs given up (This is fucking July 2nd) / 44 ks to 15 walks / 1.061 WHIP

You asshole, you couldn't figure this shit out last year?

Went to the Astros game last night. What can you say? Watching Jeff Kent hit a game winning home run in the 11th was pretty bitter tasting. However, the streak of "witnessing someone get smacked in the fucking face by a foul ball" continues onto year 2. Can't wait until next year to see if we can make it 3.

I'm trying to find a Wii... These things have been out for nearly 2 years, yet they are sold out everywhere still? How is this fucking possible. I used to have one, and I sold it... stupid me.

Today's unofficial sponser brought to you by random junk mail quote "Tight wet slit and ass double reamed outdoors racedoor"

On the whole Chacon thing.

http://deadspin.com/5019832/shawn-chacons-guide-to-punching-your-boss-in-the-face

Apparently this is going to be as big in the media today than that Kobe/Shaq thing.

A caller just called up to sports radio 610, claiming Chacon's actions were justified because he was "protecting his manhood."

... ...

I'm pretty sure your boss can cross the line on stuff you can say to people. He's your boss. You cannot choke slam him. Being towards the bottom of the hierarchy, you have to expect verbal diarrhea dropped upon your head.

The caller claims that civilized people have to take action on name-calling.
So me being a civilized person, expect the next time someone calls my mom a name, I'll be sure to head butt them off a very tall building.

WRONG

Invalid reasons to be a Cowboys fan in Houston:

1. "They are America's Team!"

NO. They are not America's Team. If you don't live in Dallas and this is your reason for being a Cowboys fan, then you do not like sports. In fact, you're fooling yourself in believing you are a sports fan. Quit watching sports, and quit talking about sports because you just failed life.

2. "They're way better than the Texans!"

Benedict Arnold has this mentality. Pretty sure he had to flee to England.

3. You like Tony Romo

Fail.

4. You're from Dallas.

Go back.

Where is football season?

Every year I think June won't be that bad.
EVERY FUCKING YEAR I FEEL THIS SAME WAY.

Here's a typical Friday for single 24 year old such as myself:
Phonecall...
Someone: Hey, wanna go to the bar?
Me: Ok, shit why not.

10 minutes later

Me: Ok. Astros losing again. Thats fine... hey something else is on thats fun to watch right. La crosse? Thats seriously on t.v.? Classic gladiators?

Drink too much and pass out from bordem.

Atleast during football season it's easy to start up a never-ending hot-tempered conversation about how Oregon has a great team, or how the Patriots will blow it again. Why? Because its everywhere during football season. All around you people have some opinion.

September comes around and football is in full force, and baseball is winding down to the nitty gritty. Too bad the Astros are on suicide watch in June.

Hopeful Texans prediction: 10-6 winning the Wild Card.
Probable: 8-8 again, 3rd in division.

Concerning College football... I like the 'Horns and all, but does anyone else think they are running on fumes? Where's the star power? Tech has beefed up, and who knows what Sherman can do in college station... OU will forever be the fucking yankees of the big 12.

in the words of Money May: "Step yo GAME UP" UT

/ramble off

Back in the office!

Been working outside for the past whatever. It sucks. Fucking hot. Hate it.

Back in the office and more coming soon.

R.I.P. Mr. Carlin also

/sad face

Cubs.

The Cubs bother me. Their fans show up at MMP in droves. I ask: what the fuck? Now they are pretty fucking good. I wish (if the Astros just have to suck) that the Pirates or the Reds would win the division instead of the Cubs/Cardinals. Sometimes I forget they are even in the division.

Worst case scenario for world series: Cubs v Yankees. I'm not sure I could handle that. The Yankees are in bad shape, but somehow they always fucking make it to the playoffs. If the Yankees or Red Sox don't make it to the post-season (and in New York, those people can't even imagine what that feels like anymore) the world would come to a sudden stop.

I would have to root for the Cubs. I would throw up, but it would still be better than cheering for the Yankees. Secretly I would wishing the two teams planes would collide mid-flight. Oh who am I kidding, I would yell it across the bar every inning.

Here's wishing the Cubs fans would stay the fuck in Chicago.

Quest for Shred Post #dos

Sweep Picking.
Instead of explaining it... I'll let this guy do it. This guy really helped me when I got started. Just moving your right hand back and forth in that motion really really helped. Even if I felt it was futile at the time.



But I'll post up the guitar pro files for the excerises I use. And post up my progress. Maybe one day someone (Jason!) will actually read through these and get more of an understanding... if said reader is inclined.

Honestly. If this is a technique a guitarist wants to utilize, then that guitarist should start doing the technique (and this applies to all techniques really) a.s.a.p. One of my biggest regrets was thinking something was too hard and putting it off. I'm still a newb to all this, but after a few months of sounding this shit on this I've progressed, albeit slowly.

From now on... I'm just going to post guitar pro 5 files. So to my non-existant readers... Go to your favorite bitTorrent site, and download guitar pro 5. Link to my two sweep picking exercises.

The two exercises are a 5 string sweep, and a 3 string sweep, with some extra alternate picking in there. It's actually the intro to an Atreyu song called "Bleeding Mascara." It's a weird time, 12/8, and they are 8th notes... so the max speed on that one is 265 bpm which would be around 130 if played in 16th notes. The 5 string sweep is just an arpeggio, 16th notes. If you don't know what any of that means, who cares. Just do it, and it will all come in time.

How I practice these:
If totally new to sweep picking then watch the video and start to get the motion down. Once I was ready to actually do a sweep... I take the guitar pro file, and turn the tempo down to something I can play, gradually increasing the tempo until I mess up. When I find my optimum speed, I practice that until I can move up 5 bpm. Rinse + repeat. Slow, accurate, and clean progress. Cannot stress this enough, even if I have a hard time following my own advice sometimes. Do it!

Personal progress as of June 1:
That 3 string shape I've gotten to 100% but its not as clean as it could be, so I'll say im around 90% through with that shape.
That 5 string shape I can do about 90 bpm, with a goal of probably 140.

Hopefully, motivation comes back. I've had a real hard time this week with getting into my schedule. Next post will be another lick I'm stealing from Kirk Hammett.

Karma is going to destroy Boston.

Does it get any better than living in Boston right now? Sports wouldn't even exist in America without us. I wonder if a Boston team isn't in the Finals whether it even count as a World Championship? It's like that age old question if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it does it make any noise?-www.barstoolsports.com

I'm pretty fucking sure this means Boston is going to either: A. Be the first struck with a nuclear bomb. B. Have every team in Boston set the record for losses in a season. or C. Have an infestation of gays to be the homo city of the world. (So we could make fun of them and humiliate them all day every day.)

You see. That would even work... Any of those options, those cockmasters from Boston would say something to effect: "I'm gonna make a shirt that says 'First! Nuclear Bomb hit!'" or maybe they would take pride and brag about how many gay people were there, had said gays infested their city.

It was less than a year ago and I was rooting for the Red Sox in the world series, because damn I don't like the Rockies.... I can't believe I actually did that. I need a scarlet letter because I fail at life.

Indians.

Amazon Indians from one of the world's last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with striking images released on Thursday showing them painted bright red and brandishing bows and arrows

Is this real? (Also is this front page news?) This looks like some kind of bad indian movie. Or a crappy video game. Painted whole body bright red huh? Sweet. Firing wooden arrows at a metal aircraft... Reminds me of Diablo II.

Also. There's no room in this world for these people. I would love to give them some hand woven rugs with small pox. Whos with me?

/cynicism

I don't know why this is so funny...

But damn does this make me laugh:




Something about Casey Kasem... I'm not sure, but I laugh at the weirdest parts of that clip. Listen to when he says "please." Thats the please that is when you've had a shitty day and you'd rather take a bullet in the head instead of doing you're job.

What happened to all the pictures I was suppose to see?

Damn. Ja Ja Ja.

J.R. Towles

2007 - 40 AB 15 Hits
2008 - 115 AB 16 Hits

I believe this would constitute bad news. All over bad news.

Did they just move Adam Everett to catcher and change his name?

By the way, A.E. is mashing! .189 BA with a 56 OPS+

(J.R. is a whopping 47)

Just to give you a comparision... Kaz Matsui has a 90 OPS+, and thats a little china man.

Quest for Shred. Post 1

These posts will all be tagged "Shred." So when they get buried by random sports posts, or me bitching about how much I hate cowboy fans... just click on the link to the right that says Shred Posts.






Well this is the first one. My practice schedule currently includes too much stuff to write about in one post. So I'm going to break it down 1 thing at a time. I stole this lick from Kirk Hammett on the song "Sad But True." It's a good one for a couple reasons: It works strict Alternate Picking, its great for vertical movement on the fretboard, and it can be transposed from any position on the neck. I don't want to get too involved in theory on here, because I'm no theory master, but what I mean by transpose is that this lick in the format its in now is in the D minor pentatonic scale. If you were to move it up the neck so that it would read 12-10-12 instead of 14-12-14 that would be the C minor pentatonic scale.


Let me break down how I practice this. First of all... if you listen to anyone around they say "YOU MUST PRACTICE WITH METRONOME OMG !@11ELEVEN!!!" Well, they are kind of right in my opinion. However, I fucking hate metronomes. They drive me crazy. I do believe its important to get build speed slowly and surely with some sort of beat you can change. This is why I use the program Guitar Pro. That picture up there is actually a screen shot of guitar pro. I take the song "Sad But True" and turn the tempo down and slowly increase until I fuck up. Then I practice the fastest I can do the lick cleanly and accurately. Rinse and Repeat until one day I can say... damn I moved up 5 beats per minute from last week! So if you hate metronomes like me, get guitar pro and use the drums in the song... The only thing I stress is turning off the guitar thats playing that lick so you hear YOURSELF playing it, and not the computer. Once I get a video camera I'll illustrate this better, but for now text will have to do.


On to the lick itself. This is done with strictly alternate picking. This means that after EVERY downstroke there is a following up stroke. Down-Up-Down-Up-Down-Up. It may seem more convienent if you move down a string to use 2 down strokes, but that is another technique called "Economy picking." This may take a while going really slow to get used to. It took me fucking forever just to learn the lick before I could even play it with the backing track.


Personally I start this with an upstroke. John Petrucci would say practice everything starting with both ups and downs, but frankly I don't have that much time. Starting on the upstroke with my ring finger for the 14th fretted notes, and index for the 12th fretted notes until the fragment that is 12-12-13-12-13-15-15-15. I switch that to Index for the 12's, Middle for the 13's, and pinky for the 15's. As far as the bend in there... I bend it up with my ring finger and move on to that next fragment.


Currently. I am stuck on 75 beats per minute on this lick. The song is played at a 93 beats per minute tempo, so I am about 3/4 the way there. Honestly the first time I played this I could do 65 pretty cleanly, and after 3 weeks i've moved up to 70-75 cleanly... slow progress, but I see no other way of accomplishing shred level speed without going through this.

Next time I will share one of my sweep picking exercises.

Ultimate slap in your face.

This is B Lidge saying fuck you, really really loud, to Houston.

I hope for, our sakes, we have the lead in the ninth.

Granted, I did see him load up the bases one night and get out of it with a double play.

On a side note... I will soon be posting weekly updates on my quest for shred. When I get a video camera I'll be uploading vids of my practice routine to share to others. To shed some light on that fact that novice guitar players can work the skills needed to reach their goals. Hopefully, I can help others who are frustrated with speed, acuracy, and dullness of their sound (which is me). Searching around the internet for advice is useless, its either people who have no clue, or people who've allready achieved their goals trying to teach to others. Back to it.

Quote

After Lester's no hitter last night

Just another boring night in Boston sports. It's hard god damn work being this awesome at everything. It must suck so bad to live anywhere but here.

This is why its so easy to hate sports teams/cities that have a ton of recent success. That quote is from barstoolsports.com, and It would be EXACLTY what I would say if Houston had as much success as Boston has over the last few years.

Fuck the Spurs, Cowboys, Mavericks, for having more success in recent years that us. And fuck the Rangers for owning us every damn year. Damnit. Why can't we be dominating? I would shove it in so many peoples faces. I would be worse than any Yankee fan you've ever met.

Random

Lance went on Rome yesterday, and then he hits the game winning home run.
Another opportunity for Rome to gloss his "jungle karma"

And... This sound byte has been playing on Rome alot lately, and I think its just awesome.
Its Brett Meyers of the phillies explode on this guy.

http://www.bugsandcranks.com/philadelphia-phillies/brett-myers-blows-the-game-screams-obscenities-at-reporter/

Sound byte is towards the bottom of the page

The flopping is out of hand.

I don't know if you can get more angry at a T.V., than when Tim Duncan falls over when a snowflake grazes his toe, and the ref's call 98 fouls on the snowflake.

Duncan... backing it in... he spins!
*WHISTLE*
You! Snowflake! DID YOU FUCKING FALL ON TIM DUNCANS TOE?
THAT IS FLAGRANT!
*League suspends the snowflake*

It sucks that we, as Rockets fans, have to be associated with Robert Horry. Atleast on a small level. Unfortunately, Horry is now the equivalent of: guy who tries to gouge eyeballs out in football dogpiles, or . . . guy who bashes ice skater's knee or . . . guy who gases, burns, shoots, stabs, and drowns millions of people in the 1930s and 40s.

We can't accept Berkman not hitting .400. Terrible! Fucking Terrible! Unacceptable!
I like looking down at the Cards in the standings. Makes me feel like takin a big ole dump from above them. Take my shit Pujols! Does it feel good on your head?

This is my dream (and if this is possible, i want to know how): I want to get a shitload of sound bytes from Major League, and Jim Rome and have a way to play them in public. Becuase whats better than saying the major league quotes while watching an astros game, than having the soundbytes right there. And rome is just funny to me, It would just make me laugh all the time. I could manually buzzer annoying people at the bar.

Pitcher hits HR, Media goes batshit fuckface crazy.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8083928/Pitcher-Owings-lifts-D-backs-with-stick

PHOENIX (AP) - Micah Owings isn't a good hitter for a pitcher. He's a good hitter, period.
Owings proved it again Wednesday with an opposite-field, pinch-hit home run that tied the game in the sixth and helped the Arizona Diamondbacks rally from four runs down to beat the Houston Astros 8-7.

Why is this such a big deal? Jim Rome made a scene about this that would make a Japanese woman having an orgasm feel bad. It was known going into the game that this guy can mash it up. Teams meet about how to face him when he is at the plate. He puts his offensive teammates to shame at batting practice, and they even know it. It's widely known in their clubhouse that Owings is in their top echelon of power hitters.

The media is not doing its job here. Front page / Index of webpage news is reserved for: Roger Clemens and preteen girls, Miguel Tejada's age, Mike Piazza's sexual orientation, and Jason Whitlock's blatant (and somehow acceptable) racism.

I will give this guy credit for going 8 for 19 on the season with a HR, a double, and 3 RBIs all the while going 4-0 pitching. Great job front-page-news-for-hitting-a-homerun guy!