i don’t get ur reference to Marat….esp since tha… Whitney - Jun 2, 2009 i don’t get ur reference to Marat….esp since that wasn’t “in this country” (see entry)…….. ??? It’s a stretch, I admit. We haven’t been there in this country, but France has, and it’s a bitter lesson. That’s the parallel I was trying to draw. ...

I enjoyed Memorial Day quite a bit. Our trip to Kings Island (formerly Paramount’s Kings Island) was great. I would actually call it an achievement–we didn’t overtire ourselves, and we never had a desire to strangle one another. For the Combs clan, that’s an achievement. We got there at 6pm Friday, having checked-in to our excellent Courtyard Inn in Blue Ash and settled our stuff. A 20 minute wait for our Gold passes later, we were in the park and headed towards Nickelodeon, standing in awe of the new ride, Diamondback. As I’ve tweeted and Facebooked—WOW, what a ride. Beautiful, graceful curves–it’s a transcendent beauty that’s really themed the wrong way. The ride’s not a snake at all, it’s a tour de force of elegance and grace. A shark theme would have been better. ...

Linky Simply put, this regulation will be the end of the automobile industry (and possibly the automobile itself). They want 42mpg fleet AVERAGE? Given current regulations, the 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid gets 42mpg average. Nearly EVERY OTHER CAR on the road will underperform. They want these regulations by 2016…understand, that’s ONE GENERATION in automotive terms, given the 5-year product lifecycles the carmakers deal with. The 2011 and 2012 cars are already done and in the pipeline at this point. ...

We have a socialist gov’t now. whatdya expect? Whitney - May 2, 2009 We have a socialist gov’t now. whatdya expect? I strip away the old debris That hides a shining car: A brilliant red Barchetta From a better vanished time. We fire up the willing engine Responding with a roar. Tires spitting gravel, I commit my weekly crime. ...

So, as anyone who’s followed my blog for a year or more knows, I got motorcycle fever last spring and summer. It all started innocently enough. I got a ride on my father in law’s scooter (hey, I had the helmet already thanks to autocross, right?) It was something of a disaster–maneuvering the 600cc scooter at low speed wasn’t *quite* as easy as I thought. Long boring story later, I had full-blown fever. I took the MSF course and REALLY learned how to ride, FINE-C, the whole deal. ...

So, Sunday, I decided to do something completely out of character–I took a nap. My wife took one look at my cranky-pants self after church and said, “You need a Nap for Jesus.” Which is a polite way of saying, “Jesus, Harold…take a nap!” Anyway, my bizarro dream went like this: [Interior. Lab environment. Soft lighting, muted hum of machinery] Serge: Hello, Harold. I’m Sergey Brin. This is Larry Page. You might know us…we founded Google. ...

Naptime for Jesus is appropriately sung to Springt… Whitney - May 1, 2009 Naptime for Jesus is appropriately sung to Springtime for Hitler and does not encapsulate taking the Lord’s name in vain but rather means,“It is not humanly possibly for you to be able to approach being civil at this point much less Jesus’s standards for us thus I think it would be in everyone’s best interest if you napped”. :D ...

I haven’t blogged in forever…I guess it’s just the omnipresence of Twitter and Facebook that have me being “unfaithful” to my blog. Over the years, I’ve liked to record the way my day goes, just so I can look back and say, WHAT WAS I THINKING?! A rundown of a typical day for me: 5am – wake up, hit snooze button 5:09 – wake up 5:18 – NO REALLY, WAKE UP. ...

funny….I’ve recently discovered that my exercise… Whitney - May 3, 2009 funny….I’ve recently discovered that my exercise time is my fun time too. Yes, I’m turning into one of THOSE people (gasp). Yes, it has alot to do some with particular music involved. yes I am getting bored with said music thus mandating purchase of various albums. darn :D GO EXERCISE!

You know, growing-up I had three examples of “real life” to go by: My mom, my Dad, and my Aunt Norie. Each led vastly different lives: Mom was a schoolteacher; Dad was a travelling salesman; and Norie did payroll for the local office of the D.O.T. Like most schoolteachers, Mom’s life existed on two levels–the “regular” hours that looked so attractive, and the reality. On paper, it was a sweet enough deal: Work 7 to 2, 5 days a week, get Summer Vacation and lots of “snow days”. Reality wasn’t so rosy, with Mom doing lesson plans in her off time, grading papers ’til the wee hours of the morning, and running extracurriculars all the time. ...

Linky Oh, Jim Carrey, how far and hard you’ve fallen. Last night, Whitney and I RedBox’d Yes Man, a movie completely devoid of plot. Plot: A progression of a story through introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution (denoument). Yeah, this story has none. It has a terrific *premise*, that of a man who is stuck in a rut until he magically transforms into a guy who can’t lie and hilarity ensues (wait, that’s that other movie by the same guy). No, this time, he’s a guy who can’t say ‘Yes,’ until he goes to a life-changing “Say Yes” seminar taught by General Zod. ...

yeah he has to say that to get away with the crush… Whitney - Apr 5, 2009 yeah he has to say that to get away with the crush. which is why the tyra crush stopped talking so much. so how many ppl out there really think ZD and I are similar….in….anything? ;)

Perhaps Cal’s a bargain at that price. However, when I look at the budget presentation here, I see a $2.2 Billion budget for the University of Kentucky (slide 5). Calipari’s $4,375,000 per year is right at 0.2% of the total budget. A pittance? Again, perhaps. However, when we flip over to slide 11, notice a budget slashed to meet declining revenue projections, with 188 positions eliminated. It makes me sick to my stomach to read the last slide, Dr. Todd’s valediction to those whose education become unaffordable, and those staff who lost their jobs: ...

I’ve been informed that these are not my tax dolla… HarryC - Apr 3, 2009 I’ve been informed that these are not my tax dollars, and that the athletics budget is completely separate from the rest of the university. Admittedly, both Football and Basketball are net revenue generation sports. I welcome being wrong, if someone can spell it out for me. i initially thought and felt the same as you, but was informed the same thing, that the athletics budget is separate, and that the profit from basketball and football is essentially needed to fund other sports and areas of the university. Here’s a link to an article someone sent me: http://www.cnbc.com/id/29992697/ ...

Too long for a tweet, to short for proper blog. Here goes: On Gillespie Yes, you woke up the next day, and Billy Clyde Gillespie is really gone. He’s trying to “win” the breakup, showing the world his smiling public face, but make no mistake–you hurt him. You took him right off the turnip truck, threw him in front of the most rabid fan base this side of Notre Dame football, and now he’ll be laughing all the way to the bank as he deposits $6 million. I’m no lawyer, but I think that’s what that “Memorandum of Understanding” implies. ...

For a brain-dead rube, Gillespie sure did make out… Organic Meatbag - Mar 1, 2009 For a brain-dead rube, Gillespie sure did make out like a bandit…

It was a hot Friday evening, the pavement sizzling though the sun was just about to clock out for the day. Work stank today, in that “Where else you gonna get a job, loser?” sort of way. Fear and loathing in Lexington, yup. But, she waited. She was hundreds of horsepower, rear wheel drive, and leather interior. She didn’t run, she purred. Red–I’ve NEVER had a red car, but nothing else seemed to fit. Those 4 50-series tMIGHT last 10,000 miles, if I never drove hard. ...

Ah, Revolution. Romantic thought, isn’t it? Taking an untenable social and political situation and hitting the big ‘Reset’ button on the old Nintendo. Start fresh. Start clean. Do it RIGHT this time. Certainly, it worked for our Founding Fathers. You see, I’ve been hearing the ‘R’ word bandied about quite a bit in the last few weeks. Casually, as if people were trying it on for size, or as a rhetorical caper: “Do __________, and you’ll have revolution in the streets, Mr. Chairman!” ...

As I sit here at 5:15 am, drinking coffee and eating Raisin Bran, this is pretty much the first time in 2 weeks I’ve felt like myself. A head cold turned into bronchitis, then back into a severe head cold. I had fever & chills 3 out of 4 days last week. Finally, the doctor prescribed a course of antibiotics and two days later I couldn’t hear out of my right ear. ...