Happy Birthday . . .

. . . to my beautiful wife, Laura!

Kosovo's Independence

News Story Here

PRISTINA, Kosovo - The U.S. and major European powers recognized Kosovo on Monday, a day after the province's ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence from Serbia. Giddy Kosovars danced in the streets when they heard of the endorsements.

Kosovo's leaders sent letters to 192 countries seeking formal recognition and Britain, France, Germany and U.S. were among the countries that backed the request. But other European Union nations were opposed, including Spain which has battled a violent Basque separatist movement for decades.

. . .

Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that independence without U.N. approval would set a dangerous precedent for "frozen conflicts" across the former Soviet Union, where separatists in Chechnya and Georgia are agitating for independence.

My immediate thought was this: why don't we recognize the Confederate States of America? This is the exact same thing that the American Civil War was fought over, no matter how much everyone's dumbed-down American history classes tried to make it about the injustices of slavery. I don't see how we can justify recognizing Kosovo as an independent nation unless we simultaneously say that fighting our own Civil War was a mistake.

I'm not entirely on the side of Spain and Russia here when they say that this is a matter that should be taken up by the U.N, and they can't simply unilaterally state that they are a separate country. The article doesn't mention China, but I imagine that their fight with Taiwan puts them on the same side.

It might be that the Kosovars do have a right to be a separate country. I'm not familiar enough with the situation. But I don't believe that their methodology is correct, and it is apparently causing a lot of international tension.

Winning Is Good

I just found out that I won my first trial. Just thought the universe might like to know.

Sports Nerds

A colleague of mine mentioned the other day that he plays fantasy football. I said that it was a nerdy thing to do, and he tried to argue with it. Now, I don't mean anything negative when I say "nerdy," but apparently people that are really into sports find it to be offensive. (I also don't mean anything negative about the person in question--he's a great guy.)

[Image taken from here.]

But the bottom line is that people that are really into sports have a lot in common with nerds.

I should point out that I don't think everyone who enjoys watching sports is a nerd, just like everyone who's seen Star Wars obviously isn't a nerd (otherwise I think 99.999% of the population would all be nerds).

The most obvious resemblance is due to fantasy football. This goes beyond the mere term "fantasy," and it's such a nerdy thing to do that it hardly needs explaining.

Fantasy football, it is argued, is somehow "real," whereas the things which concern traditional nerds, Warhammer 40,000 for instance, are apparently less than "real." The thing is, I'm not sure what resemblance an athletic competition has to real life. Neither one is real in the sense that it has any bearing on a person's day-to-day life--or on anyone's day-to-day life--and that to me is the defining difference between real and not real. Football is no more real than Babylon 5. Both are exhibitions for entertainment purposes, and the fact that one is entirely preplanned makes no difference.

The focus on statistics (both in and out of the fantasy football leagues) is incredibly nerdy, and I don't see how focusing on the statistics of, say, Peyton Manning, is any different from focusing on the statistics of a Timber Wolf BattleMech.

Trivia is also a huge source of resemblance between the two varieties of nerds. Look, I don't care who won the 1944 Rose Bowl anymore than I care which numbered episodes of Star Trek involved beings of pure energy.

ESPN (along with its offshoots) is probably the most thrashing indictment of any perceived difference between sports nerds and traditional nerds. They have an entire network, ESPN Classic, dedicated to the great athletic competitions of yesteryear. Sounds like people watching the original Star Trek series to me.

The nerdiest thing you'll find on the ESPN networks, though (aside from discussions of fantasy football), is the completely irrelevant arguments they make and then televise. Discussions of hypothetical situations abound: what would happen if Team A defeats Team B and Team C beats Team A? Wow! Wouldn't that be awesome! Or wait--who's better, the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team or the 2004 USC Trojans? Of course, it would also be really cool to see what would happen if Spawn and Batman were in the same comic. But wait a minute--there's actually a comic to see what would happen if Spawn and Batman were together, so, which one is more "real" now?

This is just a start, though. There are many other resemblances you could find, if you worked at it. And the only point I'm trying to make here is that all nerds are the same. Sports nerds, no matter how much they want to be, are no better than sci-fi nerds. There are, of course, many other varieties of nerds, and that is the subject of the following illustration, which is by no means all-inclusive (click to see larger):

Exterior Paint

The exterior is (mostly) painted now. These pictures were taken on Saturday, November 18.

My High School Wins State Football Championship

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Aron Eddy's 10-yard run in overtime completed second-ranked and unbeaten Pierce's comeback from a three-touchdown deficit and gave the Bluejays a 34-28 victory over No. 3 Bishop Neumann in the Class C1 championship game today.

Pierce prevailed after Neumann failed to get off a 23-yard field goal attempt on the initial overtime series.

Eddy was stuffed on his first carry in overtime, but he found a hole on his second and slipped out of the grasps of Kyle Bartek and Keith Chvatal before falling forward into the end zone.

Eric Koehlmoos ran for a game-high 76 yards and completed 8 of 11 passes for 155 yards. Dylan McGill was 15 of 26 for 241 yards for Neumann.

Courtesy: Associated Press

I got the story courtesy of KOLN/KGIN.

Giuliani

I think Giuliani may have just earned my vote.

Personally, I think I prefer John McCain, but with all the flak Republicans have gotten for the last several years, I don't know whether or not he could beat any of the Democrats except for Hillary. Giuliani has appeal to either side, and I think he could beat any of the Democratic contenders.

By the way, you can't seriously think that Hillary is electable. She sticks her foot in her mouth more than George W. Bush, she waffles on the issues more than John Kerry, and she would motivate every Republican in the country to vote just so she wouldn't get into office, regardless of who they were inadvertently voting into office.

New Pictures Available Online!

These pictures are now available for purchase on Artist Rising:

Great Sale

I just found out that someone ordered 171 copies of "Dome at the Sunken Gardens", and that makes me feel special. I kind of wonder why they ordered so many. I would guess it's for resale, but who knows?

Full Metal Chili

I promised it before, so here it is: the recipe for Full Metal Chili.
Here are the ingredients you'll need:

- 1 pound hamburger (or up to 1 and a half pounds)
- 1 can (46 oz) tomato juice
- 1 can (16 oz) kidney beans
- 1 can (16 oz) pinto beans
- 1 medium onion
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon (3 teaspoons) chili powder (without this, it's not chili)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2-3 teaspoons any combination of Tabasco or Louisiana hot sauce

Optional:
- chopped scallions

Brown the hamburger and drain the fat. Chop the onion, not too fine, but not too chunky. In a crock pot or kettle (crock pot recommended) mix all the ingredients together. I like to use three teaspoons of hot sauce, but that's too spicy for most people, so one teaspoon each of Tabasco and Louisiana hot sauce (cayenne pepper sauce) is probably best.

If cooking in a crock pot, which is recommended, run it on hot for an hour, stirring every ten minutes or so. At this point it's ready, but ideally, you should run it on low for at least an additional three hours, stirring whenever you feel like it.

If cooking in a kettle, bring it to a boil, stirring regularly, and then put it on low for another three hours or so.

That's all there is to it! It's a pretty spicy recipe, and very soupy. If you like it thick, this is not the recipe for you. If you don't like it spicy, then this is not the recipe for you. But if you like good, soupy, spicy chili, this is a great recipe. It's good if served by itself, or with crackers, cheese, or cinnamon rolls.

By the way, I have a pretty nifty desktop background for your computer in time for Halloween, available in 1024x768 or 1280x1024.