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The "dh" Sounds Like "sh".   No, Really.   -- Primis     8-30-01,  8:50PM If there's one thing in life I've always liked, it's wonderful things that good friends can beat the living crap of each other with. The Edhellen Armoury claims "Superior foam fighting weapons" and I believe them.  If you check out the pics, you will too.  The armor is cool.  And I want to see a large-scale battle involving hordes of the arrows... Thanks to Zibblsnrt for the link (you're all so thoroughly unsurprised it came from him, I know).  *grin*. Turn 2, and that Blasted Rain   -- Primis     8-20-01,  9:50PM Well, my sister had decided a while back that I needed to go see a NASCAR Winston Cup series race for myself and experience it in person, and I agreed.   So she somehow managed to score tickets to the Pespi 400 at Michigan International Speedway this past Sunday (that's right, "M-I-S", we're forever going to be protective of that "I", it's always been MIS and always will be). Let me say this -- even though the experience of getting to and from the track absolutely sucked, I'd never experienced anything quite like a jam-packed raceday like that.   First of all, it doesn't strike you how ENORMOUS everything is on television until you see it in person.  The 2-mile oval track and facilities itself is a marvel of human engineering.  And when you first watch the 40-some-odd-car field round Turn 1 at green flag pace, it's more than a bit awe-inspiring.  The little kid in me had a blast with the whole thing, and the race itself was run clean and great.  160,000 people in one small area -- when the Winston Cup is at MIS, tiny little Brooklyn, MI become the third largest population in all of the state behind Detroit and Grand Rapids... Sadly, rain ruined the experience somewhat and cut the race short at Lap 160-some of 200.  Even that didn't dampen things too much though(no pun intended).   What did it in was the experience of after the race is over.  The drunk people causing trouble, standing in the rain to catch the tram to get back to our parking lot 2 miles away, and then waiting in the car for 3 hours just to get out of the blasted parking lot...  while I had a great time with the race itself, I can't possibly see how anyone could willingly endure the hassle involved with the To and From portions of the program ("This hour spent waiting in your car, brought to you by Meijer and Pepsi!").  It ruins the entire experience when you hit the halfway point of that second hour waiting to leave the parking lot. The bottom line -- if you ever get a chance to go to one of these races with a guarantee of no-hassle entry and exit DO IT.  It's awesome.   If there's no guarantee though, stay at home and just watch on TV.  It's drier, and when it's over you can click it off and go get some more food and beverages without the tram... "And The Dugouts Empty, And Here We Go...."   -- Primis     8-15-01,  10:10PM Bill Simmons has put up a great article on ESPN.com's "Page 2" regarding the anatomy of a baseball brawl.   You know, pitcher does something to tick off batter, batter charges the mound, benches clear, and punches get thrown.  There have been some doozie over the years, and Simmons reflects on some of them, as well as the curious fact that even though some crazy things happen in these brawls, nobody ever seems to get hurt. I'm all for plunking a batter in retaliation for something.   I'm also all for that batter then charging the mound with the intent of removing the pitcher's head from the reats of his body.  It's the only time a baseball game gets interesting, and one of the few times the players have to really DO anything. "Just Another Punk Sucker on the Boulevard..."   -- Primis     8-14-01,  12:00AM East West burst on the the west-coast rock scene last year with the underground and indie hit "Song X" after having some mild success with "Thru 2 U", and then followed it up with a mildly-successful track "She Cries".  But even though the band was getting both Christian Rock and Mainstream Rock radio airplay all over the country, they were still unsigned. Today East West releases "A Light In Guiniviere's Garden", and hopefully they'll make their mark to stay.  Rereleasing "Song X" and "She Cries", along with 9 other tracks, fans of .rod laver will feel right at home, while the rest of the influences and comparisons could range from Tool to Staind to Creed, to Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, and P.O.D. I've been a fan of East West since I first heard "Song X".  And I'm glad to see them make it this far, they're earned it. "You Open One of..."   -- Primis     8-12-01,  2:20PM This thing is one of the best wastes of time ever invented. The Warehouse 23 Basement is one of those things that there need to be more of in life.  Make sure you Open A Random Box.   And then open another, and another... don't say I didn't warn you. Caffeine Testing?!?!? (I Would So Fail...)   -- Primis     8-12-01,  2:20PM ESPN.com is running a story on how the US Chess Federation plans to begin drug testing at chess tournaments.  While not exactly a surprise or a bad idea (amphetamines and Ritalin are two of the examples of the types of substances they want to ensure aren't abused), one of the other substances mentioned is.... caffeine. My question is, how are they ever going to be able to prove that someone is popping caffeine pills and doesn't just have a normal healthy addiction to Mt. Dew or coffee or something? This Is Not...   -- Primis     8-11-01,  9:50PM -(WARNING:  INTENSE RANT ENCLOSED)- This is *NOT*. You see this thing here called life?  Curious little thing you allegedly live every day? Well, contrary to popular belief inside your head, worlds don't revolve around you, things don't stop and adjust when they get out of kilter with your expectations.  And most importantly, the rest of us are not obligated to *CARE*. More... DIE DIE DIE!! (popups that is)   -- Primis     8-9-01,  2:30PM I finally got sick and tired of popups, which are getting worse and worse anymore.  Especially those pop-under ads. UserFriendly made mention of a little app I downloaded and tried and am very happy with.  It kills ALL popups.  Pop-up Stopper by Panicware Inc. is a wonderful little tool that makes sure I never get caught in a loop again.  The one downside is that it kills *all* popups, including some you maybe want.  So if you ever needs to use popups, you can go down to the System Tray and disable it briefly, load your popups, and then enable it again. If popups really aren't a problem for you, this won't do much for you.  But if you ocassionally get stuck in an infintie loop of popups, it's worth having. Fun w/ Numbers   -- Primis     8-6-01,  10:55PM I almost missed this or forgot to mention it, but July proved to be a month where the site set a new monthly record for straight-up hits, unique page-views, and new visitors. All this in a month where the site admittedly wasn't as updated as much as it maybe should have been (then again, not much was going on also, to be honest). I'm so confused with you people.  ;-) COMMENTARY: Arbitron Gives In.   -- Primis     8-6-01,  10:55PM Word on the street and through the wires is that Arbitron and Clear Channel Communications. have reached an agreement for Clear Channel to continue to subscribe to Arbitron through the Fall of 2004.  Clear Channel had previously threatened to not renew with Arbitron.   Clear Channel accounts for 22% of Arbitron's revenue, and it could have been disaster for Arbitron business-wise if they'd lost them.  Arbitron is the #1 major ratings guide for radio. For a business that's supposed to be about competition and no monopolization, one has to wonder then how one conglomerate can bully and muscle their way into getting what they want, when they want it.  Clear Channel bullied Arbitron (and Arbitron is no small-potatoes company, folks), and in many ways I'm sorry to see them give in, but I understand why business-wise.  22% of the revenue, and undoubtedly a larger share of all markest than just that. This is the equivalent of the US Government threatening to move their federal offices from Washington DC to Tulsa, Oklahoma. When any one business can strongarm and bully another related business like Clear Channel did with Arbitron, there's a definite problem with the system here. And it's called "Monopoly". "You... and the Infantry!"   -- Primis     8-6-01,  10:55PM OK so not quite.   Infantry nonetheless.   The game, that is.  Pictures on overhead-type perspective game with several hundred players running around a battle field shooting at eahc other, each trying to gain ground to take a flag or the enemy base, and you have a good idea what Infantry is. With the demise of my long-loved Chain of Command, Infantry is my newest online addiction.  Think Multiplayer-Online-Crusader: No Remorse with character classes similar to Every-Team-Fortress-Clone-Ever-Made and you'll get a good idea of what it's all about. The game is surprisingly-addictive and far from simple.  You'll die a lot learning the subtleties of the game.  And then you'll still die a lot, but it's a heck of a lot of fun. In Unlikely Places.   -- Primis     8-6-01,  10:50PM I've never been a huge fan of baseball in general (my chosen Detroit Pussycats don't make it much easier to love the sport either).  However, despite my indifference to the sport I've taken to reading every article by ESPN.com's Senior baseball writer, Jayson Stark. The man somehow manages to find statistics and interesting events everyone else misses.  He finds every good quote out there.  And he ALWAYS provides some sort of interesting insight into what seemed at the time to be an otherwise-unremarkable event.  Week In Review, Rumbling and Grumblings, all are great and highly-underrated columns that even non-sports and non-basbeall fans can get a lot of amusement out of. Besides just plain writing prowess, Stark (and also his counterpart, Rob Neyer, to be honest) always seem to find something INTERESTING to say, about what is at the heart a fairly uninteresting sport.   And that is truly a rare gift. While Peter Gammons may be a walking encyclopedia of baseball, he doesn't really ever tell us much of anything interesting, and that's where Stark and Neyer shine.   Kudos to ESPN for picking a talented MLB writing team. DISCLAIMER:  All materials above and contained herein are the property of the owner and individual contributors, and may not be reproduced without permission of the afformentioned. Copyright 1999, 2000.  The SportSlam Online™ is copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001.  Neither Yahoo! nor Geocities hold any rights whatsoever to the contained material. This site is optimized for no browser in particular -- we're not that ambitious.