If it feels good, do it.

Call me: I've been contemplating getting a phone for a couple of months now for two main reasons. 1. I want one with a keyboard for texting. 2. The battery life on my current phone has gone to crap. I usually get my new phones directly from AT&T's website. So, my plan of action on Friday was this: find a phone with a keyboard (duh), and one that was free*. After perusing my options I decided on the Palm Pixi Plus. It got stellar reviews, but the main complaint is that the battery life seems a little low, but I think I can live with that. The keyboard was the main thing. When I placed the order I got huge notice saying there are no deliveries on weekends or holidays, so imagine my surprise when I got home Saturday and it was already in. Score one for me!

*Free after you sign a 2 year commitment, but that is no biggie for me. I wasn't planning on leaving anyways.

Gatekeeper: As I have mentioned before, I work out of my boss' house. This school year his neighborhood has decided to keep the gates to the neighborhood closed. And man is that screwing some people up.

First, they made this decision then end of last school year, and the the first day they kept the gates closed? The first day summer vacation. Good one. Then last week I was going to eat lunch, and as I left two cars drove by expecting to cut through and one lady just stood there staring at the gate and keeping me from turning into the street. When I cam back from lunch, another lady almost took the gate all, and came to a screeching halt when she didn't realize the gate would be closed.

The thought that occurred to me this week is school busing. I don't know where they go now to pick the kids up. Last year I would drive by three different locations in the neighborhood that had pick-ups for the kids, and now I wonder were they go, or if their parents are forced to drop them off at school now. Hmmm.


Thank you: I got a nice compliment from my roommate a week or so ago. I do enjoy watching a lot of the cooking "reality" shows: Hell's Kitchen, Iron Chef America, and Top Chef. I don't watch them every week, but if I catch them on I will watch them. anyways, my roommate told me,"You know these people make all of these sauces, and foams, stuff. But you make food I would actually eat."

Legion Sketchbook #34

Ah, the great Tellus appears this time. Tellus was drawn by Nate Bramble. I think his cartoony style fit Tellus perfectly.

This is actually the last of my Legion sketches for now. There is a show in just two weeks, so hopefully I will get some more done then. If not, I have some other things in store.

Sports Edition

Dateline Arlignton: Well last week the auction of the Rangers finally came off, and in the end I didn't care who ended up owning them as long as Tom Hicks didn't any more. In the end the Ryan/Greenberg group won the auction after like 15 hours from Mark Cuban and his team. Remember the important part: no more Tom Hicks. After losing his shirt in so many other ventures I am just glad to see him go. I got tired of hearing how good the concession sales were at the end of the year, but merchandising was down at the end of the season address. The fans don't care; we want to know what you are going to do to make the team better. This new group has already talked about it. The day after the auction Greenberg was on the radio talking about how they are going to really go after Cliff Lee (oh thank you). Resigning Josh Hamilton, etc. With Hicks as owner, for the past several seasons, the payroll was always going to be the same as the year before or lower. The Rangers are a top 5 market team with a bottom 5 market salary. All you need to know about Tom Hicks as an owner of a sports franchise is this: Hicks also owns the Dallas Stars, and he said the worst thing that happened to them was they won the Stanley Cup. What a penny-pinching jerk.

One thing that did bother me about the auction was afterwards Mark Cuban said he did what he came there to do. Didn't he go there to win the franchise? He didn't, and if he did what he planned to do what was that? To drive up the price of the franchise? For what purpose? Some accuse him of driving up the price since he actually own some of the Rangers' debt. Yet, he owns such a small portion he spent more on his lawyers on this than what he will make from the owning the debt. I just wonder what it was.

A final thing about the sale that worries me is GM John Daniels. There is a clause in his contract that allows him to leave if the Rangers change ownership. A bunch of people think he might bolt to the Mets the team of his childhood. Hell for the Mark Teixeira trade alone he should get like 10 years of immunity.

Quick bonus: Congratulations to the great Norm Hitzges, who today is celebrating his 35th year of doing sports radio in Dallas. He has hosted numerous shows, worked for ESPN, and has worked for just about every pro team in the are outside of the Dallas Stars. That is a good long while, a true icon around here.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary, Nolan!!!

UFO Spotting

Last week 2 friends of mine, Steve and his cousin Paul, came up to Dallas to visit for the weekend. Friday night he hung out with me and another friend of our, Sam. Saturday was going to be family day. After some negotiations for dinner (we agreed not eat eat dinner together) we finally decided to meet at the Flying Saucer. If someone wanted me to take them to the best place to drink beer it would be the Flying Saucer. They probably have a couple of hundred different beers available. It is the only place I know of in Dallas that has Newcastle on tap.

About 10 minutes after I arrived the power was knocked out for about 30 seconds due to the very unseasonable July thunderstorm. I was of course the first one there, even though I was the furthest away. Driving in the rain. During rush hour. It was great to see the guys again even if we are pretty lame now. Every discussion begins:
"What have you been up to?"
"Work. How about you?"
"Work."

We had a pretty good time for a couple of hours. The Steve and Paul decided they were ready to go to the topless bar. Which, there reason for going, amused me. Together they blamed another cousin who wasn't there as being the one who really wanted to go. When Paul went to the restroom Steve said it was actually Paul who was pushing to go. When Steve went, Paul said it was Steve. Now, I have nothing against those places, and I have been known to go to them before. But, I knew the one they were going to was a skank bar, plus I didn't relish the thought of driving back to my place about an hour a way after we were done with wet roads and drunk drivers. Not to mention the cost of going to one of those places. So, men and Sam went to another, more upscale bar, BJs to finally get some eat and chit-chat at bit more. Sam wouldn't have been able to go to the topless bars anyways since he forgot his wallet and would not have been able to get in.

A pretty fun Friday night to catch up with some good friends.

Legion Sketch #33

In this edition:


We get the lovable, hugable Gates. This was done at the last show I went to in January, by Brock Rizy. A nifty little sketch I think.

Minister Singh

Mallrats: The other day I was at the Dallas mall, Northpark Mall for the first time in about 5 years or so (I was killing time waiting for my comic book shop to open). You can't walk into the place without feeling like money is just being sucked right out of your wallet. It doesn't have security guards inside, they have Dallas police officers there. I did like the idea of getting my car washed while doing some shopping if I so desired, I didn't desire. Sometimes they have a piano player there. It isn't the biggest mall around, but it has to have the highest ratio of jewelery stores of the Metroplex. I counted 13 myself.

The shop that actually got me to go inside? The toy store that had both a Batman and Superman plastic statue. It was a neat place that even had some of the old original Star Wars in a glass case along the back wall.

I also saw an Original Soup Man stand there. This sign made me chuckle: "The Soup ThatMmade Seinfeld Famous" Sure thing buddy.

Father's Day: This year I think I finally got a winning present for my dad. It was a scanner that has a special tray to scan slides and film from a 35mm camera. My dad was pretty excited to get, even if he has "about 1000 slides" to scan now. I set it up for him, and scanned in the first two batches, and it looked really good. I figure it is a project he can work on and avoid the 100 degree heat.

A Movie: Monday I was flipping around and found a movie called The Night of the White Pants. I first turned it on to see Selma Blair, who is the quintessential girl next door type. I was watching it and my ears perked up when I heard one character say his band was playing at a club called the Double Wide. I thought, "Does this take place in Dallas?" Once they showed the place I knew it was. We get a decent amount of films and television filmed here, but unless it is a JFK movie very little actually has taken place in Dallas since the old TV show. It was a neat little movie, and I really like movies that take place over the course of about a 24 hour period. IE Dazed and Confused, American Graffiti, and Suburbia.

Sports: A local sports radio guy has decided to give soccer a full seasons chance to capture his attention. He is a better than than me. He blog post is here.