The situation going on in New Orleans seems like it's out of a movie. It seriously reminds me of something like 28 Days Later. The stuff I'm reading about is absolutely crazy. Huge mobs with guns looting everything. Police pushing aside dead bodies floating in the water so that they can rescue people. Army helicopters patrolling the city. A call for a total evacuation for 2 to 3 months. The level of the disaster just doesn't sink in.

Well the day has arrived.

$3.319 for premium gas.

Nothing like a $.60 increase in one week.

So far it has rained here for 9 hours and the Weather Channel is predicting another 18 hours of rain for us. It isn't particularly hard (no thunderstorms), it's just a steady soaking rain. So far we've got 1.59 inches of rain.

School comes back to bite me in the ass once again. I got offered tickets to see the Indians tonight from a luxury box at the Jake, but because I'm in school, I cannot go.

Bitches.

If I were a betting man, I would say that the price of gas will rise $.35 - $.50 per gallon in the next week.

The market raised prices by $.50 with no just cause whatsoever. Now it actually has a reason in Katrina. It looks to me like my $3.00 prediction is indeed just around the corner.

This right here is what's wrong with professional sports:

Aug 26 - With the Pistons and Rockets going in other directions at two guard, Latrell Sprewell is now high on the Nuggets, the Denver Post reports. "I can confirm Latrell has interest and even hopes of playing there," agent Bob Gist said. Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe confirmed talking to Gist, who said Sprewell likes the speed of Denver's game, and the chance to team with former Knicks teammate Marcus Camby and coach George Karl.

Denver can only offer the $5 million midlevel exception, which Gist called "hard to digest," but he added Sprewell could be inclined to take it.

I know man... how are you going to survive on that chump change? There must be a shelter somewhere that you can stay in so that you're off the street. I've heard of a soup kitchen nearby. Maybe there's still some food over there for you. I wouldn't be able to digest $5 million either. What a horrible insult. Maybe you should take it up with the United Nations Security Council. Maybe they can impose sanctions on the NBA. You said that you couldn't feed your kids on $12 million a year. I hope you've got food stamps so that they don't go hungry on only $5 million a year.

What a freaking jackass. He, and players like him, are the reason why people hate the NBA.

I saw the 40 Year Old Virgin again. That alone should tell you what I really think of it...

Now onto the Browns game. The stadium isn't bad. We sat in the upper deck in section 532 (at the 25 yard line) and the seats really wen't bad. The steps are murder however. They remind me of the old Riverfront stadium in Cincinnati. I don't see how drunk people don't constantly tumble down them because they are so steep. You could easily see all the action and easily read the players numbers, which I think is about all you can ask for when you go to a football game. Not bad. I won't be going back for a regular season game though. I cannot imagine being down there in the middle of Winter. The wind would be terrible since you're right on top of the lake basically. It was blowing up to 20 MPH last night, which was comfortable because it was 80 outside. When it's 8 outside however, 20 MPH winds would seem to take away a lot of enjoyment. Combine that with all the layered clothing you have to wear and then squeezing yourself into your seat and you get a combination that doesn't make me want to attend.

I'll be attending the Browns VS Panthers pre-season game tomorrow. Why? Because I got free tickets. The actual cost of those two free tickets you ask? $100. For pre-freaking-season. Who in their right mind would pay $50 each for a pre-season game?

What a rip.

Ding dong, the witch is dead. Huggins is out at Cincinnati. I heard, as everyone did, that it was because of academics, but what I didn't know was that only 4 black players at UC actually graduated under Huggins' regime. That's astonishingly horrible.

I just got back from seeing the 40 Year Old Virgin. The first half of the movie is the most hilarious movie I can remember seeing. Period. After that it's still funny, but not the constantly funny movie that the first half was. It's very vulgar, extremely raunchy, and a movie you've got to go see.

On my ultra tough rating system it get's a 9. Probable Purchase.

If the Dyson DC15 Vacuum has a filter that they say never needs replacing, why do they sell replacement filters?

I must be getting sick or something... I think the Browns are actually on the right track. Of course, I think they'll win at most 4 games this year, but I actually think that the new coaching staff and more importantly, the new GM are doing a good job. It seems like all the players that they drafted are actually capable of playing football. For a living even. Not just good at putting pads on and then injuring themselves ten times a year. Hooray. I think they will make the playoffs within 3 years.

For those of you trying to book an appointment, here is the schedule of events for the next several weekends:

Saturday August 27th - 4th Annual Wiffle Ball Tournament

Saturday September 3rd - Cleveland International Air Show

Sunday September 4th - Cleveland International Air Show

Monday September 5th - Cleveland International Air Show

Saturday September 10th - Kings Island Amusement Park

We are the Bears shufflin' crew. Shufflin' on down, doin' it for you. We're not here to start no trouble, we're just here to do the Super Bowl shuffle.

Good news! Our stock is going to split at the end of this month. That means that my option prices are halved and my quantity is doubled. Now, I'll most likely hold on to them instead of exercising them as soon as I can so that I can maximize the profits.

Why is that good news for yo? Because now I can take you for a ride in my brand new Ferrari F60 Enzo.

On the video game front, I beat Beyond Good & Evil lately (an adventure game, similar to Legend of Zelda) and now I'm playing Burnout 3 : Takedown. The best part are the crash courses. So far my highest dollar crash is just north of $600,000. That one was something involving an exploding tractor trailer and a 23 car pile up. Fun!

I didn't expect my $3.00 / gallon gas prediction to come storming into town so quickly. Gas today was $2.91. It cannot possibly continue to go up $.20 per week. I don't care how irrational the freaking market is, it just cannot go up 20 cents every week from now until eternity.

Someone robbed a grocery store in Omaha. We'd better raise oil prices by $19. You never know if he stole the local oil refinery from that grocery store.

A meteor hit Mars. Oh no! I must raise oil another $12. The Martians may start immigrating to Earth and drive up our demand for oil.

It was 77 degrees in Cleveland today. No! Say it ain't so! Oil is too cheap. I demand you raise it by $52 / barrel. Think of the children! Won't somebody please think of the children?!?!

There was weather somewhere on Earth. Oh sweet Lord almighty! Weather!?!?! The demand will go crazy with this so called weather. Breaking news: Oil prices surge $4000 per barrel on news of impending weather!


What is the freaking big deal already? Ok, demand is up. Is it up by 250%? I think not, so why are the prices? Because the market is currently frothing at the mouth for any reason to raise prices.

Now I'm irritated.

Teams in second place in the wild card are not supposed to get swept at home by Tampa Bay.

The Indians have 44 games left and I figure they're going to need to win at least 33 of them to get the wild card. They would put them at 96 wins, which normally would be enough, buy maybe not this year...

Gas prices high. Me no likey. It won't be long before I'm paying $3.00 / gallon.

Right now gas is $2.72 for me.

Boo!

The Indians blew a golden opportunity tonight against the lowly Devil Rays. They scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st and left the bases loaded. They had 5 hits with men in scoring position, yet somehow managed to get only 1 run out of those hits. They had 5 errors and hit into 4 double plays.

That is the recipe for a loss.

The house hunt continues. It's looking more and more like I'm going to wait until next Spring to start looking again.

Getting back to the Cardinals - Cubs series, I was laughing out loud remembering the taunts of some of the Cardinals fans directed towards Chris Spier, the Cubs 3rd base coach.

"Hey Spier, make me a chocolate cake!"

"Hey Spier! My mom is baking you brownies, Spier! Come and eat your brownies!"


Why those are funny I'm not really sure. It's probably because I am an idiot.

The Indians were down 7-2 to the lowly Royals and showed exactly 0 chance of playing well in the game, so I turned it off and went to sleep.

First thing in the morning I see headlines "Indians score 11 in the 9th to stun the Royals." The Royals had 3 errors in the 9th inning. I saw the highlights and it wasn't pretty, but I'll take it.

I had the benfit of spending $299.32 on one new tire today. A nail pierced the tire diagonally and went through the side wall, so there was no way to repair it. Yay.

The worst part is that the MSRP on that freaking tire is $351.95 each, so I practically got a bargain.

2004 INFINITI G35 Sedan w/Sport-Tuned Suspension with a manufacturer's standard tire size of P215/55R17.

I could've got it from Tire Rack for $238, but then I'm going to pay at least $20 for shipping and $40 to get it installed anyway.

New top 10 candidate.

Candace Nirvana.

Named like a porn star, but actually just a model. She was in an Axe Body Spray ad.

Hot!

I'll be at Cedar Point tomorrow, so once again you'll have to do without my comments for a weekend.

The Indians blew it tonight. You can second guess until the cows come home, assuming you have cows, but Millwood was under 100 pitches entering the 9th and looked like he could've finished it. Nine Bob Wickman pitches later the Indians were losing.

I saw an awesome house tonight. In fact it was so awesome that I'm not going to bid on it. It felt more like a vacation house or a resort than it did a regular house. I don't even know if I could live there full time, but since I don't have the money to buy a second house when I don't even have a first one, I will be moving on... but not before I give a glimpse.

Here's a post I made from back on March 1st of this year.

"Daniel Gilbert is officially the owner of the Cavs now. In the summer he's going to change the name of Gund Arena to something useless I'm sure.

If he renames it to the Quicken Center or something like that then I'm going to burn down Cleveland Browns Stadium."


Get ready to move Browns, because the stadium is coming down. The idiot Cavs renamed Gund Arena to the Quicken Loans Arena and want people to call it "The Q." You can't tell people what to call the place. Just for that, I'm going to refer to it as the Quickie Mart.

I was at the Indians-Yankees game tonight. For the most part it was well played. Alex Rodriguez obliterated a home run. If it wasn't out of the stadium in left it's only because it was a line drive. Leiter looked bad for the Yankees and Elarton pitched pretty well for the Indians. It was practically a perfect night for a game. It might have been in the low 80's but there was a consistent breeze, so it wasn't uncomfortable at all. A fine night overall, made even better because the Indians won.

A few months after Palmeiro vehemently denied ever using steroids, he was just suspended for doing just that. I wonder if this will cost him any hall of fame votes that he was going to get. It also makes you wonder that if he's doing it, who else is doing it? His body doesn't look huge compared to anyone else's, so does that mean that Bonds with his size 15 1/2 head is on them? It certainly looks more plausible now.

Also on the steroids front, whether it's fair to Jason Giambi or not, I wonder if his immediate turn around might be due to more steroid use. He's already admitted to using them in the past, so why not again? If he isn't, then his turn-around is a great story. But if he is...