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Derby City Roller Girls

I'm Really 13 Years Old

Thanks to Erin and Steve for the bad idea and the link to make this happen:

Happy V-Day All

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - H.S.T.

I've managed to rack up another corny nickname. I am now also known as "Raoul Duke'em" - one of the refs for the Derby City Roller Girls.

Come laught at my fat-ass as I flounder around on skates and attempt ref-ing for the next public scrimmage. If you haven't seen the league yet, they are getting better and better every week. This is an exciting sport folks. Locals - come out and support your Derby City Roller Girls!

What: Public Scrimmage $5 (I think, not sure yet) - rink side "suicide seating" available for adults.

Who: The Jackie O'Nasties vs. (Name TBA)

When: Thur. Feb 22 - doors open at 7:30pm

Where: the new TREO Skating Rink - 721 Gagel Ave - Louisville, KY - 40216

Divided Kingdom

Continuing my fascination with dystopian/anti-utopian themes, I just finished reading Divided Kingdom, the latest book from Rupert Thomson.

This book starts right off with the action as the story follows a young protagonist thrust into the political/people reorganization of a near future and severely ailing Great Britain. Desperate to curb the disintegration of their country, leaders decide to take drastic new measures and divide the country into 4 distinct and separate kingdoms (thus the name). Individual people are reassigned to geographic areas according to their personality/psychological types and are immediately bombarded with the requisite propaganda & symbology needed to make such a radical change happen. Imagine Meyers-Briggs typological exam gone political...and nuts.

The creepiest (and most interesting) thing about this seemingly unrealistic take on an alternate future is that it actually IS plausible, especially in light of some of the more hideous socio-political experiments of the 20th century - Nazi Germany/Final Solution, the Berlin split afterwards, Pol Pot's army of children, Communist Russia, etc. In fact, Rupert Thomson lived in (divided) Berlin at one point and names that experience as the influence for this novel. The main character goes through all four countries, some illegally, which gives the novel a fast pace and lots of visual and experiential texture. Excellent weekend read

I Dream of Jeanie

I liked my astonauts better when they had genie's to get them in and out of trouble. Nowadays they just dawn wigs and use pepper spray, rubber hose, latex gloves, diapers, and garbage bags to solve their social faux-pas. And now for my favorite astronaut - Astronaut Jones!

How Many Roller Derby Girls Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?

ABOVE: Naptown's Touretta Lynn (red) takes down Ft. Wayne's Jammer Kitty Killjoy (black) with a textbook block, one of the few times anyone knocked her down the rest of the bout

I watched my first live roller derby bout last night in the bitterly cold, but Superbowl charged, city of Indianapolis (aka Naptown) as the beefy and uber-aggresive Ft. Wayne Bomb Squad whipped the dogshit out of the undersized, but well trained Naptown team - The Tornado Sirens. I was thoroughly impressed with the legitimacy of roller derby as an honest-to-God sport after this bout. If you don't already have tix lined up for a bout in your local area, hop to it!

The Naptown league surrounded the event with a lot of lame, over-hyped 'color' commentary, which would drive me nuts if our hometown league mimicked that when they start bouting. The officiating was decidedly inconsistent from period to period as the refs started a crescendo of penalizing illegal blocks and grabbing that should have been (at a minimum) standard from period to period. I also observed that this sport has an obvious gamut of opinions on the 'roughness' of the play. I am one who tends to err on the side of non-fighting and a tight standard of officiating. I think that fighting, cheap-shots, and emphasizing the drama of that tension only weakens the long-term legitimacy of the sport. But I think that is a minority opinion. Here's the important part though - despite all these forgivable new-sport glitches, these women deliver! This sport is as exciting, fast paced, and competitive as hockey, 2-minute drill football, or basketball.

I had an ass-kickin headache but I went to the after party in my role a security guard/designated driver. I missed the apparently requisite derby girl tit flashing (AGAIN DAMMIT) but it was nice to see no less that four different roller derby leagues (Naptown, Ft. Wayne, Windy City, Derby City), and some rugby team in a bar with a rough-rockin band (Whisky Tits - love the name) and no fights. It was like the beginning of The Warriors but this time no one killed Cyrus, no one was framed, and the truce was maintained.



The best quote of the night was actually some in-between-song banter from the Whiskey Tits members that went like this:

Q - How many roller derby girls does is take to change a light bulb?
A - Two. One to change the light bulb and one to kick your mother fuckin ass!

Spin Doctor, Spin!

I just got my annual "this is how much you paid in Social Security" letter and I was suprised to read a lot of partisan rhetoric on the cover letter about how we must change social security NOW and blah blah blah.

This is one of the greatest spins of the currenty administration and the Republicans as a whole recently. Unlike the medicare & socialized medicine issue, which is admitedly complex, the only problem with social security's future is that we have to fund it. If baby boomers put too much burden on it, how bout siphoning off some of that exobitant defense budget? Or better yet, get rid of some of the Barneys at the airport standing around under the guise of Homeland Security guards. The program is fine as is, just needs different funding. Make it so. Period. Despite the rhetoric saying otherwise, solving the SS woes ain't rocket science.

18 Years of Southern Baptist Upbringin' Paid Off!

Sunday - Sunday School, Morning Service, Evening Service

Wednesday - Wednesday Night Service

Thursday - Evening Bible Study

Friday - Youth Group

Rinse, Repeat

You know the Bible 95%!

 

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

Thanks to Dott for the quiz.

the B-day is Less than 9 Weeks Away

I want one of these! This was made by a group of digital luthiers (I love that term!) at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.