How many additional withholdings does it take to balance out your federal taxes? I realize it's different for everyone, but instead of loaning the government your money at 0% interest, it's better to have more of it withheld upfront. I don't want to have to pay anything at the end of the year though. Right now I'm basically breaking even. Hopefully with a house I will have a lot more deductions and thus get to keep a lot more of my own money.

I think I'm currently taking 0 withholdings. Do you think I can bump that up to 3 and still be ok? How much of an impact will that have on my takehome salary? Is anyone here an accountant?

Beuller? Beuller?

Looked at more houses tonight. Didn't see anything particularly exciting. One house was stuck in the 1970's. One house was just a little too small. One was probably foreclosed and it showed. One just didn't do anything for me.

If the one I'm most interested in is still on the market Saturday, I'm going to place a bid.

I saw Batman Begins tonight. It was pretty good. I'd put it on par with the first Batman. I don't think it was kid appropriate though. One of the villians uses hallucinogenic drugs and they show visuals from the victim. I imagine they could be quite scary to younger kids (things like maggots crawling out of your face, etc.)

It had a darker more serious tone that I thought was appropriate while not being so dark for no reason (i.e. Batman Returns.) That audio was good and the acting was adequate. Katie Holmes' character could've been played by anyone.

On my scale I'd give it a 6. Would accept as a gift / would pay money to rent.

House hunting. Taking. All. My. Time.

I'm heading out of town tomorrow. I'm going to the New River Gorge in West Virginia to go white water rafting. I'll be back Sunday, so until then I don't imagine I'll be able to update this, so feel free to write whatever comments you like.

There are only two rules in Fight Club.

The first rule is that you do not talk about the Indians winning streak.

The second is that you DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE INDIANS WINNING STREAK!

I got terrific news again today! I am rich beyond my wildest imagination! Ohio has a program for new homeowners where they give you 4.99% interest or 2% of the cost of the home as a rebate. Unfortunately since I am so fabulously wealthy I do not qualify.

I watched the Tyson - McBride fight tonight on Showtime. I'm glad I didn't pay $45 to see it on pay per view (not that it was really ever an option). Tyson looked completely washed up and never really made much of an effort to do anything. I guess the thing that interests me about Tyson still is just the memory from almost 20 years ago when I watched him destroy everyone in his path.

My Infiniti dealer is absolutely terrible. Is it too much to expect them to return my calls when I try to schedule an appointment? I'm freaking trying to give them money and they don't even bother to respond. I've just send off a letter to the Infiniti Customer Relations, but I don't expect anything meaningful to happen. I'll probably get a call from the manager and then nothing will actually change.

I'm anxious that see the new CBA get signed in the NBA so that I can see what investments the Cavs are going to make in the off season. They should have roughly $25 million in cap space, but at least $10 million of that will be eaten up if they re-sign Z. Would Ray Allen or Michael Redd come here for $15 million? I think so. Would they come here for $12 million though? Not so sure. With that extra $3 million the Cavs could go get someone who can play defense. They desperately need that. I also wouldn't mind seeing them re-sign Tractor Traylor, even though they just cut him.

I think the latest Jessica Simpson video is the best piece of anything that's been shown on MTV in 5 years.

I went and saw my youngest brother pitch in Little League yesterday. He's in the majors (12-14). I had to leave after the 5th inning but his stat line at that point was 2 hits, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts.

Not too shabby.

The following tale is a detailed account of a dream that I had:


Places in the dream
Cleveland
Pittsburgh
Chicago
Ft. Worth
Dallas
Holden House in Pennsylvania

People in the dream
Jay Leno - cutting up onions (because he is my cook?)
Hugh Hefner - driving Fred Sanford's truck
Pamela Anderson - passenger in Fred Sanford's truck
Richard Pryor - I either am Richard Pryor or look like Richard Pryor. He is being chased by the cops or looked for by the cops at the Dallas airport
Alvin and the Chipmunks - I ate breakfast with them at a Waffle House



I was supposed to fly to Ft. Worth to meet my brother, but apparently I just went to the airport and got on the very first plane I could find. My original ticket was from Cleveland to Ft. Worth, leaving at 2:58 PM and arriving in Ft. Worth at 1:58 PM. Instead I arrived in Pittsburgh with my mom and bought a house, the Holden House. It was huge, had about 50 rooms and I remember the door buzzer went through a subwoofer, because I couldn't hear the buzzer so I turned up the bass and then I could hear it. There were also a lot of doors to the outside that were literally right next to each other. When I went into the kitchen I could see Jay Leno outside the window cutting up onions, so I can only assume that he was either my cook or my gardener.

From there I magically ended up back on an airplane to Chicago. I remember the captain saying "2 hours down and 6 hours to go" just as I was waking up. That didn't sound right, so that's when I looked at my ticket. I asked the guy next to me what time it was and all he said was "it's 55 after." I informed him how that was not particularly helpful. The next thing I know I was taking back off in Chicago, but not from the airport. The plane was getting onto the highway and going around a pretty sharp right turn. The pilot just lifted off and banked to the right. There were some really big power lines over there, like 500 feet tall. I was wondering if we were going to fly into them, but the pilot just kept banking and turning to the right. Eventually we were upside down - in a regular passenger jet. A girl apparently walked onto the plane as we were in the air and sat down in the back. At this point it looked more like a flying bus than an airplane. I didn't want to talk to her so I turned around and pretended I didn't see her.

We land in Dallas and my mom is there again. We go out to breakfast at Waffle House and sit with Alvin and the Chipmunks. Meatwad might also be there but I'm not sure. From there we go to what I think is my house, the Holden House in Pennsylvania, except we're still in Dallas. Hugh Hefner and Pamela Anderson drive up in Fred Sanford's truck. It's really front loaded, so they park and go into the house. I start to unload it, but all I grab is a sleeping bag, a chair, and some cardboard tube box. My mom takes the sleeping bag and says something about how heavy it is. After that I tell her that I have to go to the airport, so she drives me there in some blue van. Once we get there, I realize that it's not safe because the cops are there looking for Richard Pryor. Why I'm concerned about that I don't know. I think I might be Richard Pryor at this point, or I might just look like him. Either way I decide that I can't risk flying to Ft. Worth from Dallas because the cops might catch me. Then I realize that it's only a 35 minute drive, and that's when I leave.

By the afternoon of July 5th I should know if I'm the owner of a house.

I only give me about a 10% chance though since I know there are other bidders but not how many yet.

For some reason I think the Pistons are going to repeat. The Spurs are a very good team, and I don't know why I think the Pistons will beat them, I just do.

If I had to guess, I'd say that Detroit's hustle will carry them.

Forgive me Angie. I just saw the promos for the new Real Gilligan's Island and I must say, you make a great Ginger. Does that mean I'll watch that show? Probably not. I do remember watching the Mole though, so if I can watch that crap then just maybe I'll stop in now and again and see you prancing around on the beach.

The 2006 Purdue football schedule has 13 games... I seem to remember that the NCAA doesn't want a playoff because it would interfere with the students studies. Hmmm. Where is the NCAA outrage that Purdue cares nothing for it's students? Oh. It's not there? Interesting. I guess when it doesn't interfere with the precious BCS, the students are about as important as penguin crap.

Just give us a freaking playoff! The ratings would be out of this world. The bowls wouldn't suffer either you dumbasses. Does no one watch the NFL playoffs just because they aren't the Super Bowl? Last time I checked, they watched all of the playoffs. Does no one watch round 1 games of the mens basketball tournament? I think not. People will watch. If you build a playoff, people will watch!



As for the 2005 schedule, if there was ever a year when a good Purdue team could win the Big 10, then this is it. All they need to do is catch a few breaks here and there (which will not happen, but if it does it could mean a 10 win season.) Here's my prediction for the season:

Akron - W
@Arizona - W
@Minnesota -W
Notre Dame - W
Iowa - L
Northwestern - W
@Wisconsin - L
@Penn State - W
Michigan State - L
Illinois - W
@Indiana - W

Here's my quickie review of Gran Turismo 4...

What is with the freaking load times? Seriously, they had 4 years to work on it and I still have to wait for 20 seconds every time I touch a button? What the heck?!?!

As for the game itself, I'd rate it lower than GT3. There isn't anything that makes it seem new. Sure, it has a new interface. Sure, there's more cars. Sure, there's more tracks. Do any of those things make it more fun? Not to me. Even the Logitech Driving Force Pro doesn't help the fun factor.

The load times completely take you out of any immersion that you feel in the game. Overall it just feels like I've played it before and there's nothing in the game that calls to me to want to play it.

The new B-Spec mode is a nice addition so that I don't have to sit through 1000 miles of endurance racing, but I actually find myself using it on virtually every race. I put it on 3x and tell my driver what to do so I can move on to the next race.

Where's the online revolution? Not here. How is this a vast improvement over GT3? It's not.

I rate Gran Turismo 4 as a completely average game in every way.

It should be time for a new top 10 list. The trouble is, I have no motivation to create such a list, and the list never really changes. Maybe that's because there is no new blazing red head to dethrone Angie Everhart.

The list needs a new red head. Any suggestions?

The Purdue men's basketball team has received a verbal commitment from Gordon Watt, a 6-foot-7 transfer from Boston College.

"I was impressed by the Purdue coaching staff's desire to win," said Watt, who averaged 1.3 points as an Eagle. "At Boston College, I experienced a 20-game winning streak, and I like the idea of coming to a program that has re-emphasized excellence.

He's not too bright is he? He's apparently not too good either. That's the perfect combination so that Painter can "re-emphasize excellence." Desire to win and actually winning are worlds apart. I don't remember hearing about Keady not desiring to win. How about Tiller? He must not have a desire to beat Michigan or Ohio State. Why stop there? Why can't some team owner in Cleveland finally hire someone that DOES have a desire to win? Once the have that desire, watch out world! We're going to win! And if we don't win, at least we're going to have a desire to do so!

Hooray for desire! Desire to win equals championships!

If a house fell out of the sky and landed on you, would you live in it?

Don't people always appear to be more menacing when they're riding an elephant?

Why don't I have a garage?

Is it possible to housejack someone or does that automatically create a hostage situation?

If my car spontaneously combusted and turned into solid gold bricks, would I want to be it in at the time?

Would you accept a "free" house on the condition that one of the rooms always had to be full of worms?

Would you rather have legs for arms or arms for legs?