Another thing I don't get.

Okay, here is something I do not get. I am an unmarried man, with no girlfriend or kids running around. As I get older, understandably, more and more of my friends do have family obligations and such. Yet, they always tell me to call them when I want to do something. That seems flawed to me. This is a conversation I had with my friend Victor when we finally went out earlier this month after spending months trying to get together.

Him, "Give me a call when you want to go out again."

Me, "You should call me when you want to go out. You have a wife, you have a son, you work about 30 more hours a week than I do, and now you are back in school."

I have had versions of that talk with numerous friends of mine. The put the onus on me though to call them. I am always free. Pretty much always available. Another thing I told Victor, "Dude you can call me to go do something any time, and I will be ready in fifteen minutes or less." The main reason I don't call my attached friends is after a while you get tired of getting shot down. Hell, some of these guys are losers who never wanted to do anything when they were single. Eventually, I do learn my lesson and just quit calling people.

So, yeah, do call me, AND I will call you (maybe).

Who has been worse?

After the debacle on Sunday all of the rage around Dallas is who to put the blame on. Tony Romo or the Dallas defense? I spread it over both of them pretty evenly myself. What worries me more though is the defense. Not just this early in the season, but how they ended last season.

24-33 loss to Baltimore and surrendering 265 yards rushing. Two rushing TDs of 77 and 82 yards.
6-44 loss to Philly. Even taking out the two fumbles returned for touchdowns the defense gave up 30 points
34-21 win on Tampa Bay. They still gave up 450 yards of total offense with no sacks and no turnovers.
31-33 loss to the Giants. Another 427 yards of offense including 330 passing from Eli Manning. With another game of no sacks and no turnovers. If the defense had made one stop the Cowboys would have overcome Romo's 3 interceptions.

This is with Wade Phillips taking over the defense. If the defense doesn't get good fast the Cowboys are just going to be in a shootout each game.

Legion Sketchbook #24

This time:



We are still at Wizard World Texas 2007, and we also get our second appearance of Wildfire in the sketch book. This time he was drawn by Angel Medina. Perhaps best known for his run on Spawn. I really enjoyed listening to him talk, and hearing some of his thoughts on comic books.

My favorite line (to someone else at the table),"Are you impressed with my skill?"
"Yes."
"Then why doesn't it get me laid more?"
Pretty close to that anyways.

I do find it interesting that on the sketches that are pencils only the paper looks yellowed. Oh well.

slow down wireless

It is just going to be a bunch of random stuff this time.

Lots of sadness: In the past week or so, the dog I left with my parents when I first moved out (no pets in the apartment), Samson passed away. He was diagnosed with Cushing's Disease last November.

My great-aunt Julia passed away on Labor Day, but I didn't find out about the funeral until the night before. Really wished I could have made it. One of my favorite relatives to visit with at family reunions.

Also, my current roommate's father passed away last week, and I was honored to be his pallbearer on Monday.

Auction news: Does anyone want to bid on Jack Ruby's leg shackles? One of the weirdest and creepiest items I have ever seen offered up. I still love Heritage though. If you are ever in Dallas, I would highly recommend trying to get in there and look around. They have some very cool stuff there.

The Rangers: I think the season is pretty much over. They are 6 games back of the Angels for the division and 6 1/2 from Boston for the wild card. They had perhaps their worst series ever at home by only scoring one run in three games against Oakland. Wow, just wow.

I was also pissed about the local media wondering why people weren't going to the games this week. Well, it was after the weekend, it has been raining all week (today is the first time it hasn't rained since last Friday), school has started, uncertainty about ownership and direction, and the Rangers made absolutely no moves to help their team when every other team they are in the race against did. Plus everyone hates the Ranger owner Tom Hicks. Personally for me, I enjoy going to the games, but that drive back is a beating. I hate driving back.

Legion Sketch #23

In this edition:



This is Dream Girl of course as drawn by Thom Zahler who does a very neat little comic called Love and Capes. I really like his style, and I don't know if it comes through here, but he did put in some cool silver coloring on the costume. This is also from Wizard World Texas 2007, where I definitely got the most sketches done at one time.

Legion Sketch #22

We finish out the Fatal Five:



This rounds out the Fatal Five from Wizard World Texas 2007. This was actually done by one of the other Hero Initiative volunteers: Hector Avila. A very cool, menacing Validus. He filled the page up so much part of the left hand side got cut off on the scan.

A Future?

Well, for the first time sine the early to mid '90s it feels like the Texas Rangers finally have a future to look forward to. Even more so than those teams, this team has more younger players who can hopefully contribute for a longer period of time. Of course it is entirely they will never win anything, but it looks like they will be in the hunt for a little while.

The most electrifying prospect is pitcher Neftali Feliz who has taken the role of a middle reliever right now. His stuff is just awesome right now. He has a nasty slider, and changeup to accompany his 97 mph fastball.I would love to see him become a starter at some point (next season maybe?). Last time he pitched he lowered his ERA to 0.46.

Last night it was great to see Julio Borbon and Elvis Andrus bat 1-2 in the lineup (Andrus was second due to Michael Young's injury), the same slot they batted in last year when both were in AA ball in Frisco. With the continuing maturation of Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton it looks like the Rangers are going to have a good young hitting for a while.

The other young pitchers also seem to be adjusting to the major leagues pretty well too. Usually the Rangers call up their young pitchers to replace other injured pitchers, and they usually get shelled a few times. Then we never see them again. This year with Holland, Nippert, and Hunter they don't seem to be afraid of big league hitting. If the workhorse Millwood can remain healthy and if they do move Feliz to the starting rotation I think the Rangers have their starters for next season, and it won't matter if Brandon McCarthy is healthy or not (I am going to bet not though).

So yeah there is some hope for the present and the future