Sven’s Glass House

Three huge events that I thought would make it clear, that July 2008 would be the biggest, most important month in mma history. UFC 86 happened at the start of the month in the past few days we’ve had UFN 14, Affliction: Banned and Dream.5. I was pretty sure that Dream.5 would take the Event of the Year position from UFC 81. I predicted that Affliction: Banned would probably be (7) or (8). I figured UFN 14 would be around (16).

How did it all go?
ranking the events of 2008 (July fights and events in italics)

1. UFC 81: Breaking Point (Nog/Sylvia)
2. UFC 80: Rapid Fire (Penn/Stevenson)
3. UFC 84: Ill Will (Penn/Sherk)
4. Dream.3 (round 2 of the Dream LWGP)
5. Dream.5 (conclusion of the Dream LWGP)
6. WEC 34: Sacramento (Faber/Pulver)
7. UFC 82: Pride of a Champion (A.Silva/Hendo)
8. UFC 85: Bedlam (Hughes/Alves)
9. UFN 13 (KenFlo/JLau)
10. Ultimate Fighter Finale 7 (Grove/Tanner)
11. Dream.4 (round 2 of the Dream MWGP)
12. WEC 32: Albuquerque (Condit/Praeter)
13. UFC 86: Jackson vs Griffin
14. UFC 83: Serra/GSP 2
15. Dream.1 (round 1 of the Dream LWGP)
16. UFN 14 (A.Silva/Irvin)*
17. Dream.2 (round 2 of the Dream MWGP)
18. WEC 33: Back to Vegas (Stann/Marshall)
19. Affliction: Banned (Fedor/Tim)*
20. UFN 12 (Swick/Burkman)
21. EXC Primetime (Kimbo/JT)
22. IFL Las Vegas (McGivern/Horwich)
23. Adrenaline 1 (Russow/Guida)
24. Strikeforce: Melendez/Thompson

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Walked into Verizon to see if they knew if they’d be carrying the BlackBerry 9000 (aka the Bold). I was told they carry the Curve (8830). I told them that I knew AT&T was going to carry the Bold and wasn’t the best cell phone company out there. The salesman agreed, explaining that he and another of his coworkers had left AT&T for Verizon.

I wound up telling him about the battle for my soul being waged by the iPhone 3g, the Bold and the Nuvifone. His two cents were “the iPhone sucks.” I probably should’ve let him elaborate, but somehow we instead went down the road of what he’d pick. What he actually did pick, LG’s Dare. He let me play with his phone for a bit: touchscreen, fast UI, apparently a powerful camera (3.2 MPixel), a record setting video recording ability (at least for a phone), normal texing if held vertical, turn it sideways and you’ve got a proper qwerty keyboard (woot). The Verizon store itself had no waiting and friendly service, whereas the Sprint store was busy and the lines were long (I’d wanted to inquire if they knew if they were to carry the bold and maybe to receive the pitch on the Instinct).

So, I decided to look up the Dare and see how it stacks up. I saw a few warning flags:

“The Dare isn’t a smartphone” -Sascha Segan, pcmag.com
“The Dare has a mediocre Web browser, Teleca’s Obigo. The Obigo version on the Dare, version 7, is higher than I’ve seen before; but it’s clunky enough to be frustrating, and (at least on the Instinct and Voyager) is very slow to render pages. Opera, Nokia, and Apple’s browsers are all far superior” -Sascha Segan, pcmag.com

Not a smartphone? Mediocre web browser?
These called into question what it was that I was looking for in my next phone, the things that make me want one phone more than others.

My key features:

• Visual/non-linear vmail - My mother clutters my vmail box and I wind up not wanting to listen to five of her messages to get to that one from the unknown number, or for that friend I have plans with after work. I wind up not listening to messages at all, they back up more and before I know it I have 20 messages waiting for me.
• Web Browsing - I actually like using the internet on my phone. I hate the experience on my current phone. The internet looks strange, flash pages are no go, load times are slow, navigation is frustrating (holding down or clicking it rapidly and it often takes me a solid minute to navigate down to what I’m looking for). I’m an internet addict, I want navigability.
• SDK (software development kit) - This contributes to the longevity and adaptability of the phone. Developers can make new programs that run on the phone. A good, open, well-managed SDK can make the phone evolve over the life of the phone. One of the reasons the iPhone shines is because they have a very good SDK that they’ve opened up so people can make programs for it, then they send them to Apple who can approve of them and put them in the convenient App Store on iTunes. I’ve been told that BlackBerry has a great SDK that they make more open than Apple. Google’s Android OS (as will be used in the Nuvifone) is open all the way and it is very possible that programs will be able to create more fundamental changes in the OS, so in theory the Nuvifone will have the best SDK.
• QWERTY Keyboard - at least I think I want it. I’m tired of pressing 7 four times to get quite possibly the most common letter used in texting (s). I attend a lot of fights, g, h and i reside on 4. Press 3 three times, press 4 three times, wait until the cursor is ready, hit 4 once, wait until the cursor is ready, hit 4 twice, hit 8 once, hit 7 four times. Ten keypresses for a six letter word, where I have to pause twice. I do wonder if I’ll get to the point where I can type on the QWERTY with one thumb, while not looking, like I do with my current phone…
• Call quality - My current phone sucks at this. I want to hear and be heard, it’s a phone first and foremost. If it can hold signal better that would be a big plus. If the carrier had coverage of Brookside Blvd, my basement, that point on Sweeney right before Wornall, that would be nice.

The Dare has a qwerty and the conventional using the touchscreen, but I don’t know what it’ll be like with no tactile sensation, I won’t be able to feel the buttons, but I don’t really get to with my current phone and I do ok. The Dare apparently wiffs on the browser. I have no idea how the Dare fares for SDK. There is no mention in the review about the Dare having visual voice mail.

And the Instict?

“Signal reception for voice calls was marginally erratic” -Kent German, cnet.com
“The Instinct offers its own brand of visual voice mail and it bests the first incarnation of the iPhone by offering 3G (EV-DO Rev. A) network compatibility, integrated GPS, and work e-mail support, just to name a few.” -Kent German, cnet.com

No WiFi? A bit of a knock against it for my internet criteria, at least it has 3g. Erratic call quality? That is a huge knock against it. It is said to be very feature rich, it is said to excell at GPS (eh) and messaging (hm). It can do qwerty. I have no information about the SDK.

Reviews/Ratings

• Dare: 8.3/10 (editors), 8.3/10 (users) (CNET review)
• Instinct: 8.0/10 (editors), 7.6/10 (users) (CNET review)
• iPhone 3g: 8.3/10 (editors), 7.0 (users) (CNET review)
• BlackBerry Curve: 8.0/10 (editors), 8.2/10 (users) (CNET review; note, this is the last gen, Bold reviews not available yet)

Pricing

• iPhone pricetag: $199 (8gb), $299 (16gb) + $30/month (data) + $40-$200/month (450 minutes to 6000 minutes, but unlimited nights and weekends are included on plans of $60+/month)
• Dare pricetag: $199 + $40-$100/month (voice, 450 minutes to unlimited, unlimited in network, nights/weekends) + $2/mb (no normal data plans, eh?)
• Instinct pricetag: $129 + $40-$100/month (450 minutes to unlimited everything)

Instinct is looking to be the best $ choice, or if the Bold gets carried by Sprint. Sprint seems to be the leader in pricing for people that want data.

*just added 3:31 7/22/2008: Veronica Belmont has an iPhone 3G and has been having a bad go with it (link):

“I had to charge my phone three times a day when I was at E3.”
“Whenever I go to type a new text message or email, the keyboard takes forever to register that I’m trying to use it. Usually around 30 seconds or more…”
“I didn’t plug it in before I went to bed, and it was probably at a 75% charge when I last checked it. This morning? About 20%.”

…she does have hope that the next firmware update will help. *end update
my previous chapters of phone fight:
phone fight: looks (link)
phone fights: lead contender spec comparison (blog form, spreadsheet)

Why I thought I would enjoy it…
Cast: I’m a fan of almost everyone in the movie. Ledger - I admit to having seen 10 Thing I Hate About You in the theater. I enjoyed Knights Tale. I own 10 Things… on DVD. I respected him for taking unconventional roles opposed to making the easy money he could’ve as a pretty boy. Bale - He has been nearly perfect in everything I’ve seen him in, Machinist, Equilibrium, Prestige, 3:10 to Yuma, Reign of Fire, American Psycho. Great actor. Eckhart - I saw him in In the Company of Men and Nurse Betty. I loved Thank You for Smoking. I think he is great. Maggie - she plugs the hole in casting from the last movie. Maggie is much, much better than Katie. Caine, Freeman, Oldman? Top tier actors. I wouldn’t have cast anyone differently. Not one of them.

Director: Nolan - Prestige, Insomnia, Memento were all directed perfectly. The man’s movies have been visually interesting, he gets great performances out of the actors. Nolan has a rich aesthetic that doesn’t become a character of its own (unlike Burton).

Superheros: I like superhero movies. I see pretty much all of them. I don’t like all of them, but I like them more often than not.

So, why didn’t I like it? Below I provide potential causes. I don’t know which is the leading cause or if a particular cause didn’t play a significant part… you might not want to read what follows if you’ve not seen the movie…

the couple next to me: Directly to my left there was a large woman, to her left was a large man. Her large arm was often touching me, even though I’d given up the armrest. The two of them would talk to each other in a normal voice. Not loud, but definitely not quiet. After the first time she spoke, something to the effect of “that scared me,” I was a bit miffed. After the second time, I turned to face them and stared at them for awhile, to let them know that this wasn’t really appropriate behavior. I turned at them four or five times before giving up. The next time I stood bolt upright and started looking for open seats despite the theater being “sold out.” I saw a few open seats in the front row. I saw an open seat next to a 15 year old girl, and decided that moving to that seat would feel pretty awkward 30 minutes into the movie. I sat it out for awhile.
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Life is pretty good.

The writing is going well for the new project, I gave a taste of a few of the characters from the new story (the B Sides, the name was changed from the B Team), now I’ll provide a taste of how the story is told… this is rough, more meat will likely be added and rounds of proofreading will be done, but the start of the story will be intertwined origin stories for the B Sides. This is the story of Chester Adalay:

June 2008. O’Fallon, IL.

Chester returned from the Walgreens with a packet of newly developed photos. He’d gotten a camera from his dad, Walt, for his 16th birthday. His dad knew that he’d become interested in photography, but had slightly missed the mark. Walt had bought Chester a very nice film based camera. Chester wanted a digital but he thanked his dad repeatedly for the older style camera. He knew that this particular model usually runs $600. He’d mused about how great of a digital he could’ve bought for that, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask if he could exchange it. Chester plopped himself down on the couch in the living room and cracked the envelope open.

Chester was perplexed. He flipped through them a few times. His face struck a contorted pose and stayed that way for a good many minutes. For a moment he thought there’d been some kind of mix up, that Walgreens had given him someone else’s pictures. Then he became sure they hadn’t. These pictures were of a birthday and he’d not started shooting until after the part. The cake in the pictures had nine candles, with the candle in the middle being a nine. When the candles were blown out and the lights were turned on the text on the cake could be read, “Happy Birthday Chet!”

He vaguely recognized that cake. His eyes roamed the pictures and recognized many other faces. His mother, his father, all of his friends and the birthday boy: Chester Adalay.

Chester loaded a roll of new film and used them up quickly, taking pictures in all directions, going outside and taking pictures of mundane things just to use the film up. The last exposure was used on the sun. The camera began to rewind.

He dashed off to Walgreens to have them developed in one hour. He paced around the store waiting for his name to be called. When it was he walked quickly to the counter, put some money down and took the envelope. He flipped through them and was quite confused. Again they were pictures of the ninth birthday. The fifth picture was of the ceiling. As was the last picture. In the fifth picture the ceiling was lit by candles and the flash. In the last picture the lights in the room had been turned on and the flash hadn’t fired.

Chester was very confused, “Hey,” he looked at the cute photogirl’s name tag, “Becca, could you do me a favor?”
“What did you have in mind?”
“Could you load this camera with this film,” Chester pulled out a new roll in an unopened package, “and take two or three pictures?”
“I guess.”
She did so, taking one picture of Chester, another of the ceiling, another out the window of the store. Chester gestured for the camera and was given it. He snapped pictures rapidly, just turning a little between each one. He alternated between holding the camera horizontal and vertical. Once that roll was exhausted, Chester handed the camera to the confused Becca, “Could you take that film out and develop it as soon as it gets done rewinding?”
“Sure.”
Becca seemed intrigued and only took about 23 minutes to develop the pictures.
Chester was called to the photo counter. He cracked open the envelope in front of Becca. The first picture was of Chester. The second of the Walgreens ceiling. The third of the window outside. Chester noted that Becca was actually quite good at taking pictures. The fourth pictures was of Chester’s ninth birthday. The pictures of the birthday alternated between vertical and horizontal, and they were all taken at slightly varied angles, with the last three being of the wall of the room that the party was happening in. Becca was confused and intrigued, “Wait here.”

Becca went to a place out of sight and returned moments later with a nice digital camera in her hand. She turned it on and placed it in Chester’s hands. As he held it up to look through the viewfinder, Becca pressed her cheek against against his arm to get a good view. In the viewfinder they were looking at a door. Chester moved the camera to the right and found the birthday boy, sitting, waiting for the cake. He zoomed in on his face. Becca put her hand on the small of Chester’s back and pushed him a step forward. The camera got a tighter shot of his face. She walked Chester several steps closer, nearly walking them both into an endcap of potato chips. The image stopped matching their moves as the camera got a foot away from the birthday boy. His face became illuminated by candles as the cake was put in front of him. Becca removed her face from Chester’s arm, barely, and looked at Chester’s face to figure out if he was having as hard of a time with this as she. He was. She put her hand on the camera and gripped it, “Let go.” Calm and curious. Chester complied. The moment his last finger left the camera the birthday imagery was replaced with potato chips. He tapped it and for a moment the viewfinder was replaced by birthday imagery from before the cake was brought into the room.

The last experiment Becca thought to concoct involved changing some of the settings and putting the camera down on the countertop, “I’ve set a 10 second exposure. I’ll press the button, you count to five then put your finger on the camera until the picture is done.”
And so it was.
The result was a picture that was half potato chip, half birthday.
Becca seemed impressed, “Wild.”

Becca gave Chester her phone number. She wanted to think up more things to try out with Chester and photography. He agreed, but under the condition that it would be a date. Becca agreed.

Becca and Chester had a great first date. Many pictures, mostly taken by Becca, but some partly taken by Chester, were slapped up on facebook. One of the more interesting pictures caught the eye of Sarah McMurrian. Becca and Chester weren’t going to get a chance at a second date anytime soon as they both understood it’d probably be best for Chester if he went to the LBJ Mutant Magnet School. They agreed to keep in touch over the internet.

Chester was picked up at the airport by a 17 year old named Sandra. She was quiet and Chester had too many questions to figure out which ones to ask. Chester wound up just watching the Badlands go by during the drive to the School in silence. Sandra parked and grabbed one of Chester’s bags and led him first to his new room, where his bags were deposited, then to a lounge. The door had an official name plate next to it, “B Side Lounge.”

Sandra smiled, “From all that I’ve heard, you’ll fit in just fine here.”

So, I hope that was enjoyable/comprehensible.

Tonight I think I’m seeing Hellboy II. (w/Sully)
Tomorrow I think I’m seeing Dark Knight. (w/Josh & Sully)
Saturday night I think I’m seeing Affliction: Banned (and UFN 14). (w/Jessica & Joe & Sully)
Next Friday I think I’m flying to North Carolina. (w/Sonya & Nicole).
Also, I said there were pictures forgotten from the last batch, so here they be:

Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers concert
Live at Blueberry Hill in St. Louis, MO
7/11/2008

I took some video:
Banditos - Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers (link)
Maybe We Should Fall in Love - Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers (link)
Lemons - Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers (link)
2am - Shurman (link)

For those not familiar with the band, I’d suggest Banditos or Maybe We Should Fall in Love as the first one to click. Banditos was a radio hit more than 10 years ago. The original recording was done by the Refreshments. The lead singer of the Refreshments was Roger Clyne and the drummer was P.H. Naffah, both of those guys are in RCPM. The Banditos performance captured above is thoroughly decent and there is some fine audience participation near the end. Maybe We Should Fall in Love is a fine song to get your feet wet with, too. A little less eccentric than Banditos, so perhaps a better starting point.

Lemons, on the other hand, is very eccentric. A fine song, to be sure. A very fun song, but I’d warn people watching, the trumpet isn’t that great, and that is sort of part of the charm. The man on the trumpet is not an official member of the team, but instead Jason Boots. Jason, from what I understand, had been the band’s videographer and he has a solo album (that I purchased that night, but haven’t listened to yet). The first time I’d heard them play Lemons, long ago, Roger warned us that Jason doesn’t know how to play the trumpet and we’d need to use our imaginations. Though Jason has improved, he still isn’t what most would consider to be good. So, when you watch/listen to Lemons use your imagination (to enjoy more).

Shurman opened for RCPM. They are easily the best band (in my opinion) to open for Roger outside of the Mexico shows (then things become harder to call). 2am is my favorite song by them, so I was pretty excited to get it on video.

The concert was excellent. I wished I could’ve recorded more, but my 2gb memory card filled quickly. Sully and Jessica joined me (Sully even drove). The fine fans of StL were in attendance: Jim & Davette Struck, Patrick Handrahan, Molly Harris. Jim & Davette provided us a place to stay (a very nice place). Patrick and Molly are getting married, too. I met them all about 5 years ago and it feels like we are all best of friends that only see each other at Roger Clyne shows.

concert pictures

The concert went well, we slinked back to the Struck residence and got some rest before the adventure to the StL zoo the next day.

StL zoo pictures

I just noticed the bears, penguins and puffins some how didn’t get up.
They should be added tonight.

Car tire blew out while we were eating at Shakespeare’s in Columbia, MO. Not too much of a problem.

Audrey (from my work) has headed off to greener pastures, congratulations to her.

My message to Red Roof Inn, Westport, StL… (by their website)

I’ve been trying to call (314-991-4900) to cancel my reservation, but no one is answering. I let option 4 (speak with guest aid) ring for about 5 minutes. Hung up and tried option 2 (reservations) and let it ring for about 5 minutes. No response.

Then I moved along to the number here (866-686-4355) and was on hold for 15 minutes.

Other details:
Smidge of music
+
Lady thanking me for calling, saying that someone would be with me shortly
+
A guy giving friendly Red Roof Inn related tips and saying “Some people think dogs are the most loyal animals, but Red Roof Inn redcard members are even more loyal. It’s clear why, with it being so easy to earn free stays.” This guy would get interrupted by the lady

Total hold time with the 800#: 14 minutes even

Result:
them: “We can’t cancel a reservation that was booked through a third party website.”
me: “Can the hotel that the reservation is at cancel it?”
them: “Only the originating website can.”
me: “I never got a confirmation email from the travel site, I can’t remember if it was orbitz, priceline or hotwire, do you have that?”
them: “We do, it says expedia.”
me: “I’ve never used expedia before, would one of the other sites show it as that?”
them: “It says you used expedia.”
me: “Do you have the number I can contact?”
them: “I do, 800-397-3342″

Off I go, to Expedia at 800-397-3342.

Total time: 13 minutes

Hold music:
Overly complicated instrumental to sound like anything other than crap on the phone.

Result:
them: [asks for much personal information]
me: [provides information]
them: “We’re having difficulty accessing your account, middle name?”
me: [middle name provided]
them: “Do you mind if I put you on hold, I’m having difficulty accessing your account?”
me: “Sure.” [holds]

after some digging, it is determined that the reservation is through hotels.com… Off to (800) 394-1454…

Robot, then person.

Total time: 2:53

Result: sweet, sweet resolution

So, I brought my book into work today because a kindly online man had bought a copy and wanted me to sign it. I thought I might as well show it to some of my favored coworkers. It might’ve been a nice ice breaker. People seemed impressed and said pleasant things about me having written a book. I showed off Sully’s art, too. I still feel annoyed by the back of the book and have decided to have Sully do the graphic layout of the jacket (front and back) next time (if: ¹he’ll do it and ²I can afford him). Of course if you need a reminder about my book, I’ll help. It’s called Cow Defender (hardcover: amazon.com, lulu.com; paperback: amazon.com, lulu.com… and I prefer purchases be done through lulu).

But I can’t just rest on my past accomplishments. More writing is to be done! I’ve probably spent a lot more time thinking about useless super powers than most people (by no means do I claim to be the champion of this). I also think a lot about the social life between super heroes. I think about social consequences of powers, etc. So, I’m marching forward with the B Sides project. I’ll introduce you to a couple of the mutants here:

^aDusty, he’s a mindreader that can only glean pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions.
^bHearth, she exudes a comfort field while sleeping. Any room she sleeps in will become a modest humidity and the temperature will go to 67 degrees. The size of room she can do this with are unknown.
^cBDay, whenever he takes a picture, or shoots footage with a video camera, the images and sound will be sights and sounds from his 9th Birthday’s party as though they were taken from the unoccupied corner of the room, taking a picture to the East, South East or South will be a point blank shot of the walls, in the other directions will result in birthday images. BDay can also project this power as a beam.
^dIndigo, she has the ability to break the fourth wall, reading adjacent frames (if in a comic book), thought bubbles (if provided) and anything within adjacent paragraphs if in textual form. She hates the author.

There are plenty of others already written up. Chad Brown (likely my most favored coworker) liked the idea and has tossed out some ideas for characters, too. His ideas fit in well and are also amusing.

So stories to come (likely) with these odd mutants as they grapple with being different enough from normal people to be outsiders, but not different in ways that are very empowering/useful/impressive.

Nina Murphy had a going away party, I recorded her singing with my camera, will put it on YouTube then embed that video somewhere.

Speaking of me slapping YouTube clips on a page, if you’ve not seen the old Midnight Spank commercials, you should: link. And I’m planning on doing a video pocast. To learn from and amuse myself.

writing
Newest story is up: St. Patrick and his varied exploits (link)

pictures (click on any to enlarge)

reviews
UFC 86 - one of the less impressive UFC ppvs in the past while.
*on the down side: Stevenson/Tibau, Cote/Almeida and T.Griffin/Aurelio all under-delivered. Expectations were high, but the fights wound up being average. Good finish for the Stevenson/Tibau fight.  Cote/Almeida was pretty boring.  Cote feared going to the ground with Almeida so he didn’t commit to striking exchanges.  Almeida had horrible takedowns.  Lots of circling.  Lots of hugging/takedown stuffing.  Not much fun.
*on the up side: Koscheck/Lytle and F.Griffin/Rampage both exceeded expectations. Expectations were low for Kos/Lytle, I figured we’d see Kos lay on top of Lytle and score a decision. That was what happened, but it was one of the five bloodiest fights I’ve seen. Lytle showed great heart and looked strong in the third round, a round that I thought wouldn’t happen. For F.Griffin/Rampage I had very high hopes. The fight exceeded them. After seeing Jardine getting smashed by Wand it seemed like the fairy tale might be ending for guys from TUF. I went into the fight hoping that the fight would last longer than 2 minutes. I was hoping that Forrest would earn some respect and show that he is no fluke. Forrest survived the first round and had a good showing. Forrest shocked me by dominating the second round. Then in my books Forrest took the third round. Rampage took the fourth. It is very rare that in a five round championship fight that the cards are even going into the fifth, I had no idea who was going to win the fight. Forrest seemed to pull out ahead in the scoring for the round and did enough to keep his lead. By the night’s end Forrest was crowned the new LHW champion. For me, that stood as the fight of the year (so far).
*conclusion: The maincard was lacking, but the main event completely delivered.

Wall-E - pretty great. Very sparse dialog between main characters. Very clever film making. I’d be interested to see what the script writing sessions looked like, with their being no lines of dialog in the first 30 minutes or so. That aspect reminded me of There Will Be Blood…

Wanted - very entertaining. The start (before the action) was very stylized and entertaining. The twists were predictable, but the action sequences were enthralling. Plot was decent enough. Acting was good. Fun dumb action movie.

Hancock - I think the studio probably ripped this out of the director’s hands (Peter Berg). Berg is a decent director. All of the acting was good. I think they cut a scene out because it would’ve made Hancock (the character) less likable. The scene would’ve made the movie less mainstream, but more complicated and interesting. I feel confident of this because there was a reference to the cut scene later in the movie. It makes me wonder what else was cut. It makes me wonder if they bothered watching it after making the cut (and they failed to notice the mistake in continuity). The movie was ‘eh.’ There was some cool to it, it might’ve been a good movie before the studio chopped it up to be more digestible.

Writing
Long ago (I’ll let you venture a guess as to when), I started writing a fictionalized account of the life/time/adventures of St. Patrick. I blend truths, exaggerations, legend and lies to paint the story of Patrick. Below is an excerpt from the St. Patrick project.

One captive listener raised his hand, Patrick pointed to him.
“I don’t know that I properly understand the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.”
Patrick eagerly replied, “the Trinity, yes.”
He plucked a clover from the ground and put it before the man, “this is the Trinity. It is one, but it is also three. The clover of Ireland is a reflection of the Holy Trinity. It is one, but also three.” Patrick smiled.
One of the congregation plucked a four leafed clover from the ground, presenting it to Patrick, “What of this Patrick?”
Patrick removed his short sword from its scabbard and brought the blade down heavily into the man’s collarbone, nearly bisecting him.
Any expression of happines was wiped from Patrick’s face, replaced by a snarl, accented by a single drop of blood near his left nostril. Only one of the congregation was sufficiently together to notice that Patrick’s finger had never left the butt of his other blade. Not even as Patrick removed his sword from the man who found the four-leaf clover.
“Anyone else with the poor luck to discover such a mutant clover will very likely meet the same fate.”
No other questions followed and all agreed to be baptized.

It’s a bit rough, but it’ll be revised and proofed thoroughly after the story itself is completed. Also a story based in the Fifth Fall (link) world is well on its way. And I’m working on something I call The Two Futures project, two robust worlds/settings to tell stories in.

Photography
I’ve been going pretty crazy. Taking pictures everyday and trying to advance my skills with manual. The newest burst:

Movies: Sully and I will see Wanted tomorrow. Probably see Wall-E with Dawn on Sunday.
Tour de France: Kicks off Saturday the 5th.
UFC 86: Saturday night Forrest and Rampage fight for the Light Heavy Weight title. July 5.
Concert: Sully, Jessica and I are off to StL on Friday the 11th to see Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers, we’ll be staying over with fellow fans Jim & Davette. July 11.
Magic: Josh and I will be playing Magic when I get back from the Roger Clyne show in StL. July 13.
Travels: Heading to North Carolina at the end of the month. I’ll be hanging out with Sonya and Nicole.

Student Loans
I’d held steady at the advice of Graduate Leverage. They told me to wait until July to do my federal consolidation. Because it is all based on the T-Bill (I think) and the numbers get revised in July and the economy was on a downward trend. If you’re locking in a loan rate for the next 30 years of your life, an extra percent or two can make a big difference.

I called Graduate Leverage yesterday and was informed that they got out of the federal loan consolidation business. The percent got too low to lock in at. Also, loan confidence is loan because of the prime mortgage whatnot. I was looking to lower my percent a fair deal and lower my payments by $200-300 a month (this $1500/month is killing me).

This is the biggest month in sports for me. This month has the Tour de France and four outstanding mma events.

Cycling: Tour de France
My thanks to Matt Conley for getting me into this years ago. Without Lance and with the drug scandals some fans have likely fallen away, but not me. The most compelling, arduous endurance challenge on the planet kicks off July 5. Probably the best commentary crew of any sport out there. Probably the most strategic and complicated sport I know of.

Last year the Tour was huge for me. I watched it everyday while studying for the bar. Barprep was by far the most arduous mental endurance challenge in my life. The parallels were numerous (to my law addled brain). The drama was crazy, Rasmussen the king of the mountains was wearing the yellow for many days and then was booted by his own team. Alexander Vinokourov was the favorite to win it all, he’d been in Lance’s shadow and now it was his time. He had a bad spill that hurt his performance for a couple of days. I think it was the day after the spill Vino wasn’t even keeping up with the peloton, his dreams appeared to be dying. A camerman on motorcycle tried to get a good view of his face to figure out where he was at emotionally, Vino signaled that he wanted to be left alone. The commentators lamented that they were quite sure that Vino’s chances of winning the tour’s yellow jersey have died and that if he didn’t heal up he might even fall out of the race. Vino soonafter won an individual time trial, beating the second place by a 1:14. It was a gorgeous run. He tackled the curves with reckless abandon, taking far bolder paths than any other rider. A perfect run. He explained he’d found his legs again. He won stage 15 the next day, too. The next day it was announced that he’d tested positive for blood doping the day of his individual time trial. He was kicked from the tour, his team (Astana) went on to be banned for a year (barring them from this year’s tour). With Rasmussen and Vino out the tour became unpredictable and very very competitive. The gap between the first and third places wound up being the smallest in tour history. Usually the race has been won before the last day, but one of the top three taking a spill on the final day could’ve changed the winner this year.

Truly an exciting year and there has been a huge shakeup in the sport over the last couple of years.

mma: UFC 86 - Rampage vs Forrest July 5th
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (1) vs Forrest Griffin (7) - This is very exciting. Rampage has been doing very for himself in the UFC. Most consider him a heavy favorite but Forrest is a very tough man and is not someone to be counted out. Forrest’s last win was over the formerly #1 ranked Rua (who is 1-0 over Rampage). Rampage wanted to avenge his loss to Rua but Forrest beat Rua, taking his spot for LHW contender. Rampage has KO’d plenty of guys with striking and slams. Forrest is probably a more technical striker with excellent punch/kick combos. Forrest has better submission skills than Rampage. Forrest has been improving leaps and bounds since training with Xtreme Couture. Couture is great at coming up with plans and he’s probably developed a great one for Forrest. The fight can go a number of ways, quickly or easily are the least likely.

Patrick “the Predator” Cote (29) vs Ricardo “Big Dog” Almeida (24) - Cote has been outstriking plenty of guys. Almeida made a phenomenal return to mma against Yundt. They are both great tests for each other. Cote is a very hard fighter to finish. Almeida is a top level bjj fighter. I find it very unlikely that this fight will go to a decision. Cote by strikes or Almeida with another jaw dropping submission. The winner is probably next in line for the MW title (after A.Silva fights Okami).

Joe “Daddy” Stevenson (10) vs Gleison Tibau (48) - Stevenson has only lost to Penn in the past long while and Penn is likely to beat just about anyone at LW, so it isn’t much of a knock against Joe. Tibau had a great fight against a very hard opponent in Tyson Griffin, losing by decision. Also not a big knock against him, he looked great. Two A level LWs that will likely put on an incredible performance. Stevenson is favored as he is better (in my perception) on the ground than Tibau and he has what it takes to take the fight to the ground. It should be noted that Tibau is ranked where he is because he’s only had one fight at LW, it was a loss against Tyson Griffin, he’d fought at WW before that.

Josh “Kos” Koscheck (4) vs Chris “Lights Out” Lytle (15) - Kos seems to have an allergic reaction to the moniker ‘blanket’ that many online fans apply to him. Kos came out swinging wildly, ferociously in his last fight against Hazelett. He is one of the best wrestlers in all of mma and he feels the need to show that he can bang. He took risks and fought as though he was a wounded underdog. Lytle is one of the best boxers in mma and the only way anyone has ever stopped him is by opening cuts. Lytle lost a controversial decision to Matt Serra at the end of TUF 4, he could’ve been the one to level GSP. Lytle hung on against Matt Hughes. Lytle was cut open by Thiago Alves. Lytle is a top guy, but doesn’t have a winning record against top guys. If Kos takes the fight to the ground it may be a fairly boring fight as Lytle is very hard to finish on the ground (so far no one has done it). On the feet Kos has greater physical abilities but Lytle has more skill (although Kos has been training with Swick which could help his striking improve). If this fight stays standing and both fighters’ chins hold this could be the fight of the night. (If not, it’ll likely go to Joe/Tibau or the next fight).

Tyson Griffin (16) vs Marcus “Maximus” Aurelio (30) - Tyson is consistently one of the most exciting fighters on every card he is on (save for his fight against Tibau on UFC 81, but that isn’t to say that fight was boring, it was just a crazy card). Tyson showed exceptional standup against Tibau. Aurelio showed ‘eh’ standup against Guida. Tyson’s wrestling, scrambling, sub defense and TD defense should allow him to determine where the fight will go. Though Aurelio is a top bjj guy, I feel confident that Tyson will take the fight.

Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga (8) vs Justin “the Insane 1″ McCulley (31) - I’m of the opinion that GG is a top guy, that he’s a beast that can beat anyone. He just hasn’t been doing it lately. He lost to Randy in a title fight (which was a gutsy performance where Randy just manhandled him and GG had blood flowing into his throat for much of the fight). Against Werdum he wanted another HL, like the one he got off of Werdum’s training buddy CroCop. GG came in with huge leg kicks trying to set up another Right High Kick. Werdum adapted and started avoiding damage from the leg kicks. GG seemed to tire and Werdum punished him with knees and outworked him on the ground. McCully has not shown much in his UFC career thusfar. He was a wrestler and he held a kickboxer down (Antoni Hardonk). If GG wins it won’t tell us much, if he loses it does.

And there is a trio of prelim fights that might thoroughly entertain, but might not air:
Jorge Gurgel (unranked) vs Cole “Magrino” Miller (62) - I don’t like Gurgel
Melvin “the Young Assassin” Guillard (63) vs Dennis Siver (unranked) - Melvin is a punk, but very fun to watch
Corey Hill (unranked) vs Justin Buchholz (unranked) - Hill is very new still, but he has been very impressive, so much potential.

mma: Affliction - Banned July 19th
A showcase of the top HWs in the world. Although most of the fights are mismatches of a top guy against a guy that is not nearly as good, the event will really showcase the level of these guys.

There will be a few competitive fights.

“Big” Ben Rothwell (23) vs Andrei “the Pitbull” Arlovski (6) - Rothwell was a dominant force in the IFL (which to many is just the B leagues). He had the best highlights of any HW in the organization. He struggled to beat Ricco Rodriguez (who has not looked good in a very long time… it is barely worth mentioning, but Ricco is 1-0 against Arlovski and 0-1 against Ben, about 7 years separate those fights though). Ricco was Ben’s biggest test and he barely passed. Arlovki is frequently accused of losing the fire from his belly after landing that beautiful woman. His hunger and aggression seemed to go away. Even without the fire only one man has beaten Arlovski in the past 6 years, Tim Sylvia (AA lost to Tim 2 out of 3 times). Ben fights like Tim and trains with Tim. Arlovski is Ben’s biggest challenge ever. Very hard fight to call.

Mike Whitehead (26) vs Renato “Babalu” Sobral (15) - Whitehead failed to impress at HW, but managed to earn a long winning streak at LHW, his competition at LHW has not been A level guys. Babalu has fought top guys and although he doesn’t have a winning record against top guys (A+ guys), he has shown that he deserves to be in the top. Biggest test for Whitehead in a long time. If Whitehead isn’t an A level guy then Babalu will roll over him in a dominant fashion.

Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko (1) vs Tim Sylvia (5) - I have a love/hate relationship with this fight. The Hate: In most of recent history Tim has been a decision king, winning by horribly uninteresting decisions. He jabs with his really long arms, he circles away, he defends TDs (takedowns) well enough and if he needs to he Greco clinches and holds them against the cage (which tires them because he weighs the HW cap of 265 and gives him a chance to recoup). In his last fight Tim looked great and fought aggressively and outstruck and abused Nog standing. The problem is that big Nog (who is not great at takedowns) managed to take Tim down in the third round and get an armbar with ease. Fedor’s TDs are way better than Nog’s. Fedor’s standup is far better than Nog’s. Two of the fights that Tim has lost have involved him eating a huge punch at the start of the fight and getting knocked on his ass and then his opponent pounced on him (in one instance Arlovski managed to lock a leg and tap Tim out very early, the other was Randy who pounded on him and didn’t finish him, but started a long fight of abuse on Tim). So, the fight could end in the first minute or two. Or the fight could involve Tim jabbing Fedor for the fight, outscoring him every round and frustrating him (and the viewers) as he eeks out another decision win. Fedor fought a guy before with a similar design as Tim (Schilt) and that fight was also not entertaining (Fedor won by decision). The Love: Fedor is the best HW in the world and he hasn’t fought top competition in a very long time (I’d say three years). Tim is a great test to see if Fedor lost anything while slumming it. This really could be a war.

Those ’showcase/squash’ matches (with heavy favorites on the left) -
Barnett (4) vs Rizzo (15)
Lindland (2) vs Negao (unranked)
lil Nog (12) vs Dewees (normally fights at MW, unranked there, moving up to LHW for fight)
Aleksander Emelianenko (13) vs Paul Buentello (25)

There are other names on the card and some of those unlisted fights might be great, but don’t add much to the event and might not even be aired.

mma: UFN 14 July 19th
Some top guys move weight classes to probably the hardest division in all of mma: LHW. A few of former IFL stars make their UFC debut (Rory Markham and Reese Andy, both are thoroughly decent).

Anderson “the Spider” Silva (1 MW) vs James “the Sandman” Irvin (22) - Anderson is a huge favorite in the eyes of the oddsmakers and they might see something that I don’t. What I see is the unquestionable #1 MW moving back up to LHW. He’d fought at LHW in the past and wasn’t nearly as impressive. Silva may have better skills in every area than Irvin, but Irvin has more strength and more power than anyone did in Silva’s MW division. Irvin KO’s people regularly and they stay down. There are guys that Irvin KO’d that only he was able to KO. Silva normally beats people standing but Irvin is always a threat to knock people out. Silva is several orders of magnitude better than Irvin on the ground, but Irvin’s most horrifying KOs come from guys trying to get him to the ground (flying knee). Both are great on their feet. A.Silva is so much better on the ground that if it goes there it’ll end very quickly. The fight has nearly zero chance of being boring.

Brandon “the Truth” Vera (12) vs Reese Andy (36) - battle of X factors. Andy was the second best LHW from the IFL (behind the Janitor). Vera did well at HW, but he was about as small as a HW could be. Vera has some great HL finishes and we’ll see how Andy adapts to the cage. Vera is a favorite to win, but Andy hasn’t been properly tested before.

Hermes Franca (23) vs Frank “the Answer” Edgar (15) - A level LWs that can box. If the striking doesn’t favor Edgar he’ll score a TD on the bjj wizard Franca. Franca might be just as dangerous on his back as he is on his feet, but Edgar is far from being a slouch on the ground. This fight should be great wherever it goes.

Anthony “Rumble” Johnson (36) vs Kevin Burns (23) - this fight will likely end one of two ways: 1. Rumble will score another devastating, electrifying KO, or 2. Burns will score a super slick submission. If Rumble does the first easily enough, this hype will continue to swell.

Markham (unranked) also makes his UFC debut, but I don’t know if that’ll be televised.

mma: Dream.5 July 21st
the Lightweight Grand Prix comes to a close, which could determine the #1 LW in the world.

GP bouts
Shinya Aoki (2) vs Caol Uno (11) - Aoki has always been a favorite to win this tournament. They gave him about the hardest opening round opponent available (JZ) and though a bumpy road he got past him, then was given an easier opponent the next round, who he easily defeated with a very rare submission (gogoplata from the mount). Uno had no opponent first round then fought Ishida in round 2. Uno was a huge underdog. Many thought his prime had passed long ago. Uno beat him and an in impressive way.

Eddie Alvarez (19) vs Tatsuya “Crusher” Kawajiri (7) - Eddie had the most impressive showing of any fighter in the tournament with a war against Hellboy in the second round. Eddie has just looked spectaular. Kawajiri had a tough fight in the opening round and cruised through the second round. Tough fight to call, but Alvarez has been on fire.

Then the winner of those fights fights fight to determine the winner of the LWGP. Terribly exciting. Likeliest outcome seems to be Aoki vs Alvarez and Aoki should be able to beat Alvarez by pulling guard and Alvarez not being able to elbow Aoki (as it isn’t allowed).

non-GP
Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto (4) vs Joseph Benavidez (unranked) - some think Yamamoto is the best FW in the world. Some think Faber is. Benavidez trains with Faber. If Yamamoto wins (which he should) perhaps that will pave the way to a Yamamoto/Faber fight. If Benavidez wins then we’ll know Faber is the #1. Kid is phenomenal and shouldn’t be missed.

Mirko “Crocop” Filipovic (9) vs Jérôme Le Banner (unranked) - a striking mma dream fight. CC has more mma experience, JLB is likely the better kickboxing. This fight should be pretty bone crunching.

Joachim Hansen (21) vs. Luiz Firmino (47) - both guys are warriors. Both guys had good showing in the second round (though they didn’t progress). Should be a very competitive fight.

Also on the card, but opponent TBA:
Akiyama (10), Minowaman (unranked), Mark Hunt (28), Kultar Gill (unranked), Dennis Kang (18)

An excellent month for fighting and cycling.