Dropkick Murphys Shipping Up to Boston Game 6 of the 2013 World Series

http://www.youtube.com/v/wx-Ytx2pKY4?autohide=1&version=3&autohide=1&feature=share&attribution_tag=CA_EHeuyUvT2xDKObwEyHw&showinfo=1&autoplay=1

Order is restored ... sorta

With all the things that are out of whack in the World (see Washington D.C. and politics, The Atlanta Braves inability to play well in the off season, UGA injuries, etc.) it was finally good to see some order return with the Red Sox winning another World Series. While I wouldn't call it one for the ages (not like the 1991 WS with the Braves vs. Twins) the series was pretty amazing and the Red Sox won their first World Series at home since 1918.

For those of you that wonder my Boston affiliation and love, look to my childhood hero and Roger Clemens. Now the guy is absolute scum now, but back in the mid 80's through the 90's (before he became a traitor and went to Toronto), he was a machine and I dreamed of one day being a professional baseball player like Clemens. I went to Fenway a couple of times with my mom and dad to see the Red Sox and Clemens ... some of my favorite memories.

I also went a few years ago (as a birthday gift from my wife) to see the Yankee's and Red Sox in Fenway.  Probably two of the greatest games I have ever seen and one of my favorite birthdays.  There's just something magical about Fenway and the Boston Red Sox that I haven't experience with other clubs.

So while I'm a lifelong fan of the Braves, I also hold a special place in my hear for the Red Sox. I dream that one day I will make it to 7 consecutive World Series games when the Braves and Red Sox square off. Anyhoo,  last night was amazing and the Red Sox really delivered for the Boston community.  BOSTON STRONG!

60 Minutes: Benghazi

CNN - Hard hitting news

When I can't sleep, I generally turn on CNN because their incessant rambling about nothing will generally put me straight to sleep. Over the past week, there have been a number of interesting media stories that CNN is not covering. I'm not going to focus on what they didn't cover, but more on what they did cover ... Blackfish. No, not some racial story out of the ocean, but better yet, the story of killer whales, Orcas, in captivity and how they kill their trainers.  That's right boys and girls, the global economy is collapsing, we are spying on our friends and DC is in chaos ... and CNN is covering Orca's.

In fact, they covered a 90 minute story about the trainer at SeaWorld that was killed by an Orca that lived in a cage.  They even dedicated hours upon hours of programming time to talk about the dangers of Orca's potentially killing their trainers. I'm not saying its not a sad story and we probably shouldn't have giant killer whales living in a small cage and a swimming pool, but should this be the hard hitting news that CNN needs to cover? Or is our society becoming so idiotic that ratings are more important that real news and whales are more important that sharing the story of our countries problems?

While watching all of this, a few things popped into my mind as I watched the show:

1. Opening credits:  Who in the f*ck approved this story? 
2. 15 minutes in:  Let's play the common sense game:  You take a whale that is used to swimming in a 50 mile radius and put him in a swimming pool and cage at night ... and then wonder why said whale is angry and ate his trainer? 
3. 20 minutes in:  Whale weights 4  tons, trainer ways 140 pounds -- wonder who's winning this fight? 
4. 30 minutes in:  What's happening in Syria? I'm really curious about that right now? 
5. 50 minutes in: Wait so, Orca's are so dangerous that they could, could mind you, eat people in the ocean if they swim by them.  Would these people already be dead b/c the Orca's swim / live in artic waters?  Wouldn't hypothermia kill the people first?  And why in the hell would random people be swimming in arctic waters? 
6. 80 mintues in:  Why in the hell is this a story and that dude who trains tigers is on Piers Morgan next.
7. Post show:  Piers Morgan is actually interviewing people about Orca's. WTF has his career come to? I didn't care for his rants at the NRA, but at least they were relevant. Poor Piers Morgan is just doing whatever they tell him. Nothing like a hard hitting interview with Free Willy!
8. CNN is re-running Blackfish b/c of fan demand.  Oh dear lord ... CNN just confirmed their fan base is the largest group of not intelligent people alive. I now understand the political drama now ... CNN is shaping the minds of the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. 

So in a nutshell, the fact that CNN bowed to ratings and promoted Blackfish is stupid. Granted, Blackfish is a sad story, but it belongs on Discovery, Animal Planet or NatGeo.  CNN should be about hard hitting news and getting the facts out ... not about how three people (in a planet of billions) were killed by an Orca. Let's say we release all the Orca's tomorrow, it's not going to help the global economy nor is it going to solve the espionage or political issues.  

If this is the trend, then I'm excited to see FOX do a show on Polar Bears and MSNBC cover the Passenger Pigeon.  

Babies, babies and some more babies

It's officially, baby fever has taken over. Well, not directly in my world, but certainly around me. For instance, this weekend I got to hang out with my nephews and Captain Fry's son.  Great kids and pretty sure the three together are going to make a great backcourt, infield or something in the future.  I also had a co-worker that just had a little boy and all together, these four kids are pretty amazing.  Oh and good to see that they are all boys. I know there are thousands of Chinese right now wishing for some of these boys.

What I've realized is that I'll be ready for a kid when: 1. It's handed to me, 2. when I'm making millions of dollars.  They are awesome, they seem fun, but they also look like a giant handful and pretty sure I'll just have to be ready for that handful when it happens. Plus, I've got a lot of preparing to do in order to have, or join, conversations with kids. Spent the weekend talking (well, listening really) to people talk about babies and kids and all I can say is Jed didn't get to Ramble. I did learn that I need to make sure I refer to it by name and no longer "it" ... good life lesson.

In other news, the largest baby, POTUS, is back on the denial game about our spying on our allies. Yeah, you might want to adjust that comment, POTUS, because I'm sure Snowden has some gems up his sleep -probably a YouTube video of you and Biden listening and laughing to calls from Sarkozy and Merkel.

I wonder what information Snowden must really have. If this were the movies, and I believe life is just one giant movie, then Snowden's got some really amazing info that's sitting with some reporter, Grennwald, that he will release if anything ever happens to Snowden. It's like John Grisham and Tom Clancy are writing a screen plan / novel together.

And finally, Jed realizes his hiatus is costing him readers and would like to thank both of you that still read the page. Fear not ... more is on the way.

PlayStation Through The Years

An interesting look at the PlayStation through the years ... yup, I had all of them and will have the new one on November 15.  Just call Jed a big ole kid.

This looks fun ...

The shutdown continues ...

Almost like the Wu Tang classic Triumph, The saga continues ... Yeah, a little Wu reference for your Tuesday evening entertainment.

Some of my quick observations on the shutdown and other things in life:

• End the shutdown ... the politicians are making us look foolish. The entire shutdown is ridiculous regardless what of what political party you support. 
• Obamacare started and the website can't handle the forms or support. I spoke to an IT guy and he made a lot of interesting remarks about how badly the government designed the software.  Basically, it has nothing to do with servers and the software is tragically flawed. How in the world can you design something so poorly and have so long to create it? 
• POTUS is grandstanding and its going to come back to hurt him. Not paying for dead solider benefits and arresting vets at monuments is embarrassing. Especially not paying for the transportation of families to see their sons and daughters last trip back to the United States.  Regardless of the stupidity around Obamacare ... pay for our soldiers.  Go look at history, countries that don't pay / support their militaries usually don't have their support when they need them.  
• I've seen a few new healthcare premiums and they are much much higher than what anyone said. Believe it or not, I'm for a national health care policy but I would love to have more of a say for what I'm paying.  Our country is a great place that offers the American dream and last I looked, I don't work 70 hours a week to provide handouts to those who are taking advantage of the system. 
• Oh and the Atlanta Braves are shutdown because they had poor leadership.  Horrible managing decisions led to their demise and failure. Funny ... they are a mini example of our government. Bad leadership leads to failure.  
• I saw about an hour of the Patrick Swayze cult classic, North & South, this weekend.  Wow ... it's remarkably amazing and bad.  I love that its on repeat on StarZ at all times.  
• Got the new iPhone 5S and it's kinda awesome. Love having new gadgets.

And some new categories I'm going to share: 

1. Things I'm reading 
1. The new Popular Science that offers tips on survival. Who knew to never swim near a dock b/c hundreds of people are year are electrocuted. 
2. Video games I'm playing (yeah, judge me ... I don't care) 
1. FIFA 2014
3. Amazing things I'm eating 
1. Juice -- my new favorite breakfast full of pears, apples, oranges, pineapple, sweet potatoes and carrots.  Everyone needs a juicer ... life changer. 

Crossfit = not for me

I've always been quiet about my views on Crossfit mainly b/c no one cares, nor asks. But this morning, I had a chat with a co-worker about Crossfit and the ironically, stumbled upon this article on Gawker.  It's a great read.

I have to agree that Crossfit is great ... but screw Crossfit. I've done it once and watched it a number of time and I'm good thanks.  I have no need for the competition of lifting weights with others. I guess the competition out of my system when I was an athlete in college ... I feel no need to bring that back, especially with weights and strange exercises.

And the most important part of the article ... you will get hurt. Yup, you'll get hurt.  Non-athletes trying to do athletic things will equal in injuries. And sometimes really nasty injuries.

For people like my cousin, Crossfit is the greatest thing on Earth but for this guy, I'm going to stick with working out like regular people and having my trainer quietly kick my ass.

Shut Down Day 1

Here are a few things I noticed today with the shutdown:

1. CNN has a ticker for how long we've been in the shutdown ... which is kinda awesome and sad.
2. Hmmm ... yup, the only things of the shut down I noticed were provided to me by CNN. 
3. Oh and I was looking for some CDs earlier today and came across an old G Love and Jack Johnson CD. Thought I'd share a good tune for Tuesday evening.