Dick Morris during post-debate analysis:

"Obviously you need bunker busting nuclear weapons. Where do think the weapons of mass destruction are? In store windows?"

Jim Lehr: Senator Kerry, if elected, what will your plan be regarding Iraq?

Kerry: My plan is to be better than President Bush. I have a plan, and let me assure you that it is good. It is a darn good plan. My plan, that is. The plan that I have to be better than President Bush. It's a good plan. A mighty good plan if I do say so myself. Jim, listen. I think we all know how good my plan is. There's no sense in even discussing it. It's just that good. I've got all kinds of good plans. Every plan that I have is good. Good plans. That's why I want to be President. So I can further use my good plans. If I am elected, you and the American people can be sure of my good plans. I will implement them and IT WILL BE GOOD. But only if the rest of the world agrees. What they say goes, you know.... they're the boss.


I realize that Kerry thinks his plans are good, but I sure would like to know exactly what those plans are.

I've contemplated these for the past 1 minute. Here are my 10 potential new names for the Expos after they arrive in Washington:

DC Freedom
Washington Tax Collectors
Washington Boogers
DC Ass Heads
Washington Movers
Capital City Bombers
Washington Bullets
Washington Socialists
DC Tides
Washington Justice


Feel free to vote for your favorite, or add your own.

Please donate $650.00 to the "Keep the G35 on the road in the Winter" fund.

TireRack quoted me that price for 4 tires, 4 steel rims, and shipping.

All people donating will be given preferential treatment in this space, so get donating!

I have high speed internet access at home now, and I have become bored with it. I have seen everything on the net.

In doing so, I stumbled across something from NASA called World Wind. It's pretty cool. It gives you a true color globe and lets you zoom in on anything anywhere. The servers are getting crushed most of the time, so downloading the pictures takes forever, but if you view the USGS satellite photos of select cities it's pretty cool. The USGS only gets you to about 500 meters above the ground, but that's better than nothing. The LanSat pictures should in theory get you to 100 meters above ground, but those are incredibly slow to download (and I have yet to get them to work as advertised).

As an example, I pulled up Tampa with the USGS photos and just looked for something with a parking lot. It turns out its some power station, but here are three photos. The first taken from 23,000 meters above ground, the next at about 10,000 meters above, and then the last one zoomed in to 500 meters.

I went to the Indians game today. Most likely it was the last game for Omar Vizquel while in an Indians uniform. That may also mean that the Indians will not retire his number. If somehow, he re-signs next year then I think they'll retire his number for sure.

Also, the Browns suck. I may have to revise my 5-11 prediction downward.

I think that all this Orton for Heisman talk is overblown at this point. It remains to be seen what he will do against the best defenses in the country. That said, if he keeps throwing 4 TD's a game, he'll have a great shot at winning the trophy.

If nothing else, it shows how the program is getting respect around the country now, and Orton's attention can only help recruiting in the future.

I had a dream last night that I was being chased by Willem Dafoe (who was throwing knives at me) while we were running on top of a moving train. That's not the interesting part though. For some reason I stopped at a shop that sold bikes and I was going to buy one. The clerk noticed I had a Purdue hat on an sarcastically commented on how good they were. I didn't know why until I looked at the TV.

Unranked Penn State - 43
#8 Purdue - 8

The good news is that Purdue must've been undefeated going in to Penn State in order to be ranked so high, but the bad news obviously is that they got blown out.

Freaking. Wireless.

I get home from work. I bust out the laptop and have a splendid wireless connection.

I leave for school ten minutes later.

I get home from school. I bust out the laptop and have a whole lot of nothing.

What the crap?

My desktop has a connection. Look. Here it is. I am typing on it right now.

Laptop? Not so connected. It is currently sitting on the floor.

What the crap?

I am now on Comcast. This web page will be moved to:

home.comcast.net\~t_van

in the next few weeks. I will try to update both if I can, but as of now I am trying to port this all over to there.

John Madden is just as stupid as Joe Morgan, but for some reason he is more funny.

The latest proof:

After McNabb threw a pass to a receiver, who then threw it back to McNabb...

Al Michaels: The crowd loves every moment of it.

John Madden: I'll tell you who doesn't love it is McNabb. After you throw that ball to one guy, you want him to throw it to the other guy, but you don't want that other guy to be you.

With the introduction of a cable modem into my household, I am considering buying the PlayStation 2 network adapter. That would mean that we could play games against each other over the network, assuming we both have the same game.

If enough people are interested, I would do it.

My favorite penalty call of the week:

"False start, offense. Everyone but the center."

Bullet-proof predictions for this week:

Purdue - 37
Bye Week - 0


Notre Dame - 2
Michigan State - 1


Browns - 14
Cowboys - 17

I just read an article about a University of South Florida women's basketball player who converted to Islam. She wanted to wear long pants, long sleeves, and a full head scarf during games.

Hmm.

Basketball.

Head scarf.

Interesting.

The NCAA didn't grant her request to wear a unique uniform, so she left the team.

Why I don't agree with her beliefs, at least she had the fortitude to stand up for them, and for that she deserves credit.

I have decided upon a cable modem from my cable provider. They provide web space and it's much faster than DSL. Once I know the new address, I'll post it here. It should be about a week to ten days before I get it installed. After that, the current address will only exist for until the end of this month.

I'm looking at moving to a new internet provider. This will impact you in 2 important ways.

Number 1: you won't be able to reach me at tvan@en.com anymore.

Number 2: you won't be able to view this web page any longer.

Therefore, I'm also in the process of searching for a new host for this web site.

I don't want any advertising or anything, so the usual suspects are all out.

Since I care about you the reader, I'm asking for any and all reasonable suggestions.

Prediction: Purdue 24 - Ball State 16

Prediction: Browns 3 - Ravens 86

Prediction: Michigan 0 - Notre Dame 2

Why does the WNBA still exist. Why? Does it make money? I don't think so. Why does the NBA continue to subsidize it? It makes no money. No one watches it. No one cares about it. No one watches it. Who cares that you're being equal opportunity providers of this crap. Just end it already.

Rumor has it that Ken Jennings Jeopardy streak has ended. They aired his 41st victory last night, but apparently he loses on show number 75 with winnings of over $2.5 million.

Someone needs to tell the AP voters that when you win a game 51 to nothing you're supposed to go up in the rankings. Purdue was 24th going into the weekend, then proceeded to humiliate Syracuse, and actually went down in the rankings to 25th. What do the voters demand? Win a game 22-21 in overtime against an unranked opponent?

I enjoyed the Purdue - Syracuse game yesterday. I don't take much from it however. Purdue isn't going to be +3 turnovers every game. They're not going to be able to dominate the opponents offensive lines once they get into Big Ten play. The receivers will be blanketed by defenders, and the running backs will have a hard time pulling off 40+ yard runs. Once Big Ten play begins, I think then we will see the true measure of this team.

I cannot believe that Oregon State didn't beat LSU. How in the world does your kicker miss THREE EXTRA POINTS in one game? He hit the goal post twice and pushed it way wide right once. I think kickers are generally supposed to be able to hit at least 33% of their extra points.

I think I could hit 33% of extra points.

At the same time however, this is exactly why college football is better than professional football. Anyone really can beat anyone else on any given Saturday. An un-ranked Oregon State travels to defending champ LSU in Baton Rouge and nearly pulls the upset. I think anyone would take being up 8 on the road with 1:41 left in the 4th quarter.

The NFL season starts soon, and I don't think I could be any less interested. If I wasn't playing Fantasy Football, I probably wouldn't even watch 10 minutes of any game.

Zell Miller is THE MAN!

Damn. That was awesome.