Teeeeejirrrrr

This is something that I started making shortly after 9/11/2001, as a result of spending quite a bit of time on hold with other vendors (the company I was working at had lost their internet connection, and other bits of infrastructure).

I really need to weigh it. I am guessing there is something like a hundred and seventy rolls of tape in there. Most of it is the same Office Max clone scotch tape so determining the weight of a roll of tape minus the ring and extrapolating should be fairly accurate.

The ball currently has a circumference of about 18″.

These days it accumulates tape at a fairly uneven pace. Sometimes here, sometimes there…

I have found myself having to try and explain the relationship that Taiwan and China share, and usually to other Americans. Of course I am oversimplifying the issue, but the scenario I have come up with is this:

1. Imagine that the Confederacy (CSA) had won the American Civil War.
2. Now imagine that the government of the United States of America had fled to Cuba and set up shop there (kicking out most of the native Cubans), with the new capital being in Havana.
3. Lastly, imagine in this crazy situation that both governments to this day still exist, but have  continued strains on their relationships.

Does this make sense yet? Let’s do some substitutions so it does…

• The Confederacy in this case would be akin to the Communist government of the People’s Republic of China.
• Likewise, the USA government would be Taiwan, who fled their with a ragtag collection of military expats, businessmen, and intellectuals.
• Lastly, the Cuban natives who were largely displaced would be the various indigenous tribes that inhabited Taiwan before the “mainlanders” showed up.

So now this makes a lot more sense right? Of course, I realize that this is not a 100% correct analogy, but it holds up well for ‘elevator speech’ and ‘raging bar conversation’, and now ‘totally random web search’ material. Your mileage may vary, of course.

I’m a fan of mixed martial arts fighting, and in a recent Affliction headline event there was a match between Andrei Arlovski and Fedor Emelianenko. Both are supremely talented fighters, but Fedor has all but assured himself of being one of the best ever, in the pantheon of the greatest.

Fedor is widely regarded as being the most feared heavyweight fighter out there today. However there was a bit of a jokeworthy problem lingering throughout. If he had lost this fight, some could argue that Viacheslav Datsik would now be the best in the world. This of course is foolish, but it is human nature for some people to use ‘linked lineage’ as a metric in fighting (i.e. Bruce Lee beat Chuck Norris, but I beat Chuck Norris at thumb wrestling so now i’m the toughest, etc).

For those of you who don’t know who Datsik is, he defies clear definition, as some think of him as a clown, and strange, elaborate joke… while others think of him as a strange, simple joke fueled by vodka and/or other narcotics.
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I guess there isn’t too much to say. Good riddance to quite possibly the worst president in American history.

I love vacation time- it gives me a breather to catch up with random silliness and stuff.

For those of you who have not seen it, The Venture Brothers is highly recommended, especially if you fit in that age bracket young enough to remember Jonny Quest reruns, but not old enough to take the actual episodes all that seriously.

Today’s post deals with one subject at hand- how season 3 ends, and some speculation about what awaits in season 4. So don’t click ‘read more’ unless you’re all caught up at this point.

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