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Wow!

Cal quarterback Kevin Riley just put in the defining, gut-check, performance of his career. The junior signal caller did what kids dream about: directing his team to a come-from-behind fourth quarter drive that ended in a field goal to give the California Golden Bears their all important sixth win, 23 to 21.

Cal is now 6 and 2, bowl eligible, and could run the table to go 10 and 2. The dream of a Rose Bowl bid is now one step closer to reality.

Cal started the game with a plan to get the ball to star running back Jahvid Best by land and by air. The first play was a fake out of the "cockeyed I" formation, where Best was placed at fullback. He ran to the flat to make a catch and pick up about nine yards.

Then Cal Offensive Coordinator Andy Ludwig put Best in at the wing position in a three-receiver set, and had him run a delayed fake pattern. Riley found him and Best scored a touchdown to put Cal up by two scores. Cal rolled up over 200 yards and 15 first downs, and Riley was 15 of 23 for 182 yards before the half.

But then the wheels came off as Ludwig and Cal Head Coach Jeff Tedford fell into the bad habit of trying to throw deep, which takes time, and placing Riley in a position to be rushed and sacked. (Bleacher Report called the offensive play calling "offensive" and I agree.)

Riley fumbled the ball three times in this game, all on pass attempts. ASU's offense had enough chances such that, eventually, they took the lead by one point, and Cal's fantasy season that could lead to The Rose Bowl seemed in trouble.

That's when Kevin Riley went to work.

Getting the ball deep in Cal territory with just over two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Riley threw for 22 yards, and in a moment, the Golden Bears were at midfield. Then after a penalty for offensive pass interference, deft pocket movement by Riley caused Cal to regain the lost yardage, then pick up a first down a play later. Cal was in the Red Zone.

And while a questionable fake-run-throw by Shane Vereen out of a variation of The Wildcat formation almost worked, Cal's second field goal in the last quarter (the first one was missed) sealed the deal. Game over.

GO BEARS!

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Ok, Chipotle Mexican Grill offering a free Chipotle burrito is nice and great for Halloween. If you walk in with a costume, you get a free burrito. But how did this message, this keyword, go viral?

As I write this, it's the number 2 most searched Google Trend. I'm not kidding. The source city for this search was Minneapolis, MN, with five percent of total traffic.

But think about what that means.

It means that in some way Chipotle Mexican Grill was able to send press releases and activate a small number of blogs to push that result and then once it hits Google News, the other newssites will pick it up.

Of course, one has to have some kind of national event to be able to trigger such a search, as well as a national brand. Chipotle Mexican Grill qualifies here.

This is no small event folks. Anyone who pays attention to online marketing trends should look at this development. Because now, you're probably thinking "Shut up, Zennie, and just tell me where I can go to get a free burrito in my costume!"

Ok.

In the Bay Area, there's no Oakland Chipotle Mexican Grill - and how many things do we want in Oakland, but still don't have? - but there's one in Berkeley on 1050 Gilman Street and a bunch in San Francisco and Walnut Creek. In Atlanta there's one in Buckhead and four more in the metro area. But since you may be partying in Buckhead, go over to 3424 Piedmont Rd NE.

But I really am impressed at the 21st Century Marketing effort. It's cheap, fast, and efficient. BRAVO!

But does it change the idea and face of what news is? Yes, and while we should be concerned, the answer is not to kill the approach but for news outlets to copy it.

Stay Tuned

Must See TV?????
Not a phrase that I would normally say. But Damn. You should go watch this video from The Today Show.

'Drunk' Ewoks disrupt NBC's 'Today' show

Yes, it's worth the time to go see this.

Hat tip to Ace

Gratuitous Picture for Friday Night-
I got a plan.

More Rain Today.....
The rain continues here in Southern Indiana. I'm hating it for the farmers here. It's been so wet there is no way for them to get crops out of the fields.
It was too wet to get crops in on time for a lot of them and now they can't get them out.

Legalized gambling. There's gonna be a lot of guys taking it in the shorts because of this.

One has to wonder how this will impact prices on food and other commodities that require grains?

Something to consider.

Gratuitous Picture for a Friday Night-

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Funny How Things Work Like This......
A week or so ago I decided to start playing my electric guitars again.
Last Sunday, one of my co-workers who plays guitar tells me about a friend of his who has a Fender Twin amplifier for sale.

Hmmm. He got me the number and I called the kid who tells me it's an old Fender amp he got from his Grandfather.

Be still my heart!!!!!!!

I've always dreamed of having an old Fender Twin. The prices, when you can find one nowadays are astronomical. They've been collectors items for decades now and the odds of getting one cheap are about nil.

Still, I have never liked the amp I've had for the last 25 years so even if it was one of the newer reissue, retro tube amps I was pretty sure I'd like it better than what I've got.

So I drove off the other morning with hope for a vintage Twin Reverb or some such at the end of the trail.

Twas not to be. This is one of the late 80's early 90's retro tube amps. It sounded great so I bought it.

Restrung the old Telecaster and played for awhile and realized ..... This is gonna take awhile to get it together again on an electric.

It's definitely NOT like riding a bicycle. Wow. Kinda like starting over. Not completely as I do know how to play, but it's gonna take some work.

I've been playing a bit each day and knocking the rust off.
I found a slew of, How To Videos on Youtube and spent a few hours farting around today and decided that I should just pick a song I like and learn it.

Here's what I picked-



The guy playing this has an instructional video that breaks the whole song down into small, slowed down bits that makes it pretty easy to learn.

The lead will be a real challenge as I've never been a lead player, but what the hell. May as well give it a try.

Can't suck any worse than I do now and can only get better.

Gratuitous Picture for a Wednesday Evening-



Damn. He paid money for that.

Asshole.

Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of joining 3,000 runners for the Dean Karnazes Silicon Valley 5k/Half Marathon/Marathon in San Jose, CA. It was a wonderful romp through San Jose that introduced me to some great running areas, and a chance to test my speed at the half marathon distance.

Just when I thought Dean's announcement from the Chicago Marathon was big time branding (he thanked his sponsor, Volkswagen...whoa!), lo and behold a marathon that bears his name and face. He's definitely in a whole new stratosphere this year. I said hi to Dean and his wife after he spoke at the Expo on Saturday, and there were plenty of folks asking for autographs and pictures. Most of them, and I'm talking dozens of people, said his story was a key element to inspire them to get off the couch and do their first race. Say what you will about his promotional prowess, but there's no doubt in my mind he is using his powers for positive change.

My goals for this race were a bit more self-serving. I had one more long tempo run on my training agenda for the weekend (15 miles with 13 at 6 min/mile pace) before tapering down for the Lithia Loop Marathon in two weeks. I figured the DKSVM09 would be a good place to do it, since mile markers and snacks would be provided. And, of course, a t-shirt for the shwag hag (that's me!).

At 7am, the race was off, and at 7:00:30 I finally crossed the starting line (the port-o-pottie line was a bit longer than I had planned). The marathoners and half-marathoners took off together, and we made our way through the streets of downtown San Jose before heading into a nearby neighborhood. I saw some familiar faces in the pack, including Michael Kanning (shooting for a sub-7 min pace in the marathon), John Burton (marathon), and Jon Kroll (half marathon, his first race after States in June and pacing friends at Leadville). I ran with Jon for a few miles, chatting as we watched the sun come up on a clear, cool day. At mile 3, we were 18:22, just a tad behind my goal pace. I bid a good luck to Jon, and picked up the pace and we headed into Willow Glen.

25-year-old Lenin Zapata was in a league by himself, off the front clocking 5:15 min/miles for the half marathon. It didn't take long before none of us could see him on the multi-block straightaways. A few more runners were spread along the course, and I was cruising with Brian Winco, Ironman Fred Haubensak, and marathon leaders Ed Conrad and Bruno Fiore in the first "pack". As we hit the bike trail, I spent most of the time hanging on the shoulder of a hard-running Rhodes Walton, who was doing a great job of surging on the tops and bottoms of every hill, making me pick up the pace to catch him again. The pace was a perfect tempo run - solid, hard 6 min/miles that always felt like I could go a bit harder.


We caught up to some early marathon starters/walkers as we cut through one of many parks, and wished each other well. The sun was peeking over the trees and warming up the course. At mile 10 (1:00:20), runners split in two different directions after the aid station, and I hesitated just enough for Ed Conrad, Brian Winco, and Fred Haubensak to fly by. I caught up to Ed, but Brian and Fred were clearly in their final kick.


Ed Conrad is an extraordinary runner, and his steps were so light they weren't even scaring away the birds and squirrels (I took care of that when I caught up). The crowds let us know that Ed was leading the marathon and I was 7th or so, but Ed kept his cool and focused on his fueling. At mile 12 he stopped for bio break, and I set my sights on the two runners in front of me.


As we hit the track in the last half mile, Seaside, CA's William Swick sprinted by me with a phenomenal kick. Rhodes was just ahead, glancing over his shoulder to keep tabs on us, and William gave it his all to pick off one more. Unfortunately the track wasn't the last bit, and as we crossed into a grass field I was able to repass William as he faded. I finished in 1:19:34, good enough for 7th place, and turned around and congratulated William for laying it on the line! I love seeing that.


My pace felt good, and I had plenty left in the tank at the finish. The first thought I had was "Wow, am I ready for Lithia!". I guess that's the point of those last few tempo runs. It may not bring much to your body, but your mind is thoroughly convinced you can kick butt. I was all smiles as I got snacks and cheered in the finishers.



I took the bus back to the start just in time to see Bruno Fiore (2:41:43) edge out Ed Conrad (2:41:47) in a close finish for the marathon. Age over beauty? Perhaps it was that bio break, Ed. ;-) The kids race also kicked off, with plenty of smiles to go around. All in all, a great way to spend a perfect California morning.





I packed up my goodies and headed home, so we could hit the pumpkin patch with Sophie before the three of us went to the Bridge School Benefit Concert to hear Wolfmother, Sheryl Crow, No Doubt, Chris Martin, Neil Young, and a VERY impressive Adam Sandler who covered The Doors "Break On Through to the Other Side" and Led Zeppelin's "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" with screamtastic accuracy. Sophie loved it!


Exhausted? Yes! But I wouldn't want it any other way.

- SD

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Kudos to BART for offering "beefed-up" service with extra trains in the wake of the Bay Bridge Cable Collapse, according to BART spokesperson Linton Johnson, but what's really needed, and we don't have, is a 24-hour BART schedule.

There's no real idea when the bridge is going to be fit to be opened and Henry K. Lee's SFGate.com article explains that it could be days before that happens, especially with these high winds impacting the bridge not to mention making sure this accident does not happen again regardless of conditions, so a major part of what (even with this recession) still is our economic engine is crippled.

Some Oaklanders, for example, work in San Francisco and don't get off until midnight or later - just when BART has stopped running at midnight even with this closure.

So what we face is a period from midnight to 4 am when we can't travel from Oakland or the East Bay to San Francisco or much of the West Bay. So if you work in one place and live in the other, you're stuck.

And God help you if your flight arrives at SFO at 11:30 PM, because by the time you get your bags and head to BART, not only will it have stopped running but there will be no other way to get to the East Bay if that's where you need to go.

That's just plain horrible.

BART must employ the 24-hour schedule that was used during the Labor Day Weekend Bay Bridge Closure. But what surprises me is that BART didn't automatically do this. It should not take a blog or any hue and cry for BART to implement all night service to help in any disaster, which is what this is regardless of its scale.

Adding more train operators is great, but the 24-hour service plan is needed, starting tonight.

OK. I Wasn't Aware of This........

BrewFan at Innocent Bystanders has a short post about "The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is seeking to have a War Memorial Cross in California’s Mojave Desert removed."

"The Cross was originally erected in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) “in Memory of the Dead of All Wars,” as the plaque reads."

I don't remember hearing of this before.
BrewFan had this video to go along with his post and it's to good not to put up here.


Good Question.

YerUnk is getting pretty tired of this sort of BullShit.
I fail to see how a War Memorial with a Cross poses some sort of threat to the Nation or how there is any Constitutional question of these sort of displays being in violation of the Establishment Clause.

Well Hell. Everyone knows that a cross on a courthouse, a plaque with the Ten Commandments or a Christmas Display has nothing to do with the government establishing a National Religion.

It's just one more battle in the Lefts', War on America and your freedom.

It'd be one thing if folks could just live and let live, but that's just not how it works with these SonzaBitches.
Oh Hell no. That's just not how it works at all.

It seems that a common language is about all there is in common between us anymore.

And eventually this will not end well. The Left will reach the point where they push to far and folks will start pushing back.
It's coming. There's gonna be bloodshed.

You may want to think about that shit now. Later is getting closer all the time.

Gratuitous Picture for a Tuesday Afternoon-

Wow. You'd Think He Could Be Doing a Better Job........

As a Deity and all it seems like he'd be busy fixing shit instead of wasting time with Fox News. Just saying.

From the official "Organizing for America website last November.
Obama is our new Jesus

"Thousands of years ago a remarkable African man traveled from present-day Ethiopia to the Middle East. His name was Jesus and he carried with him a message of justice and peace."

"But Jesus was killed. There were only a few whites who accepted Jesus and heard his message. And Jesus was killed simply because he was a black African man."

Ya gotta wonder how many folks still buy this, "Messiah" bullshit a year later?

Hat tip to Ol Remus and The Woodpile Report.


Gratuitous Picture for a Tuesday morning-

Monday Monday ......
So good to me...
With apologies to The Mamas and the Papas.

Wild weekend in the ER. The number of disappointed patients who DID NOT receive a definitive diagnosis of H1N1 was staggering.

You'd be amazed how many people come in wanting to be tested just so they can have bragging rights that they had Swine Flu.

There's some kind of Jerry Springer parallel Universe out there or something. People actually getting angry because were not testing them. Doesn't matter if they fit the testing parameters. They want to be tested so they can go home and brag about having Swine Flu.

The only good thing I can see is that if they didn't have the Flu when they got there, they damn sure were exposed to it while they were in the ER.
I hope they get as ill as I was for the last 2 weeks.
It'll serve the dumb shits right.

Maybe I should start selling "I Survived The Swine Flu" tee shirts.

We had a HUGE FAIL in the - How to fake Stroke Symptoms yesterday.
40 year old Zombie that we know well comes in and tells the Triage nurse she's having a stroke. Facial drooping, right side weakness and difficulty speaking.

The Triage Nurse asks her to smile and this Zombie actually reaches up and pulls down the corner of her mouth. She does the same thing when asked to stick her tongue out. Total loss of style points there.

When then asked to raise her arms up in front of her she says she can't raise her right arm.

The nurse says to her, "Why not? You just lifted that arm up and pulled down on the corner of your mouth. Did you suddenly become crippled too?"

This string of logic pissed her off, but not enough to get her to leave & she continued with the game long enough that she did get seen by a Doc. She tried the same shit with him and he told her she was wasting his time and to get lost.

She's a Medicaid patient of course.
You Tax Dollars at Work!

Just wait. It's gonna get worse.

Gratuitous Picture for a Monday Evening-
Dealing with these goofy bastards would be a lot easier if more of them looked like this.



But hell no.

Most of 'em look more like this.

7hrs on Corel Painter.. Comments most welcome :)

Soupy Sales, RIP ......

Died last night

He was a funny guy. My brother, Chief and I used to laugh our little asses off to his stuff.

We could use a lot more kids shows like his.

Addendum - SondraK has a YouTube video of Soupy and Alice Cooper. Check it out. YouTube won't let me embed it so go over to her place.

Gratuitous Picture for the Afternoon-
How about some gratuitous Mike Hailwood?




Or a 5 cylinder 125cc Honda Racebike?

Yep. That's awesome shit.

Cleaning Up the Links Bar.......

Over there on the right side. There were a lot of dead links. Added a couple of new ones.

If I nuked anyone by mistake leave me a comment.

There's a couple that I wanted to add but don't have the address - The Guy from Green Mountain is one & I'm sure there's others. I try to share links with folks who link here.

So let me know if I need to fix this.

Thanks.

More Gratuitous Photo-

It's Friday........
Just in case you didn't realize it. Yep, that's me. Always trying to be helpful.

I'm finally starting to get over this illness that has had me down for almost 2 weeks now.
Still not 100% but I'm getting there.

There's been a lot of crap going on in the world that I would like to have made fun of or comment on, but just haven't had the energy. Sorry kids.

I'll be back to my annoying self soon. Promise.

Gratuitous Photo for a Friday Afternoon-
As always, click to bigginate it.

The NY Times ran an article today called "One Ultrarunning Problem Solved for Good", interviewing a few hardcore ultrarunners who have had their toenails permanently removed. If the above bald toes aren't enough eye candy for ya, be sure to check out Dr. Lisa Bliss' step-by-step pictures of having hers removed. Sooo gnarly. But if you do this, you can't make your own toenail necklace. Why miss out on the fun?

One of my favorite quotes:

“You know any sport has gone off the rails when you have to remove body parts to do it,” said Christopher McDougall.

Well said, my man.

SD

Text Message of the Day.....
Number 1 son called and told me of this text message he received today.

"I'm sure glad they found that kid in the balloon the other day. I was afraid that Michael Jackson was ordering, "Take out" from Heaven."

Gratuitous Picture for Wednesday Evening-

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I just returned from another really harrowing experience with the California Department of Motor Vehicles office on Claremont Avenue in Oakland .

Between this and the taxi cab issue, and the Oakland parking problem, anti-car forces should not complain about California not charging enough to operate a car. In fact I've determined that many of them don't own cars; no bumming rides from me in the future, OK?

I think God's putting me through this just to shine a good media light on these problems.  So be it.  To that end, I got the email of the director George Valverde which I will not share, the DMV Twitter account, and his Twitter account, which I will share: @GVCADMV.


Mr. Valverde to date has been helpful in directing my emails, though we've not talked as of this writing, but it's these revelations below that really need to be looked into.  It may be that he's not aware of what's happening under his nose.  He should be. 

What happens, and this is from the personal experience I have gone through complete with extensive notes and papers, is that the registration paid to the DMV is not immediately assigned to whatever citations a driver gets. Plus, it may take as long as three years before a ticket or toll violation is paid from DMV to FastTrak or the California municipality!  

During that time you could wind up paying for a ticket twice and not be reimbursed - once to the DMV via registration or to clear a tow and once to the city or agency. How often this happens is not clear but I learned this from a very enterprising young man at the California vehicle collection division.

It was there that part of my horror started. They sent a "Demand for Payment" for an amount of money I already paid.

When I sent the cashier's check to prove it, it should have ended there, right? Nope. It got worse. Guess why?

They couldn't find it.

That's right. But the enterprising young man I'm taking about kept digging and determined that DMV never assigned my payment. Meanwhile the toll tickets I paid were gaining interest because FasTrak said they were not paid. It turned out that they never got the money from DMV. Now, that's not my fault - I gave them a cashier's check.

Turns out this happens to Californians more than a few times and especially when FasTrak's involved.

What's an outrage is that we allow this to go on without challenge or initiative. We as Californians worry more about being able to smoke weed than having correct and reasonable vehicle costs.

And the City of Oakland's not safe here either. It has parking records that are not accurately updated and suffer from the same DMV payment delay issues FasTrak has.  I have seen three documents with three different amounts on them. 

But what really galls me is today's discovery that DMV Sacramento can "at will" delay or adjust payments for you. It's up to how the manager looks at the situation - well, how the manager feels that day. It's discretionary, which means they can play favorites if they want to but it also means they can work to correct a mistake or at least not stick you with an obvious one.

Too much of what DMV does is so disjointed and uncoordinated that I'm really shocked the California Legislature hasn't called for an investigation. For example I got something like four different print letters from vehicle collections with different amounts. But a person in a good position at DMV told me today they should all be the same and not different. 

This person also told me that the agency - like FasTrak - that requests the money from DMV sends the payment amount and DMV doens't double check it. In other words FasTrak can send one request for $50 and then up it to $100 within a month and DMV will not question it - meanwhile FasTrak's charging weekly interest to the cost.  (Isn't that illegal?  Don't we have usery laws here?)

It's no wonder an irate Yelp user referred to FasTrak's accounting practices in a way that points to some untoward intentions.

But. But. But. She says DMV expects the documents to have the same amount. Isn't that crazy-making? But she said in one sentence that DMV doesn't care what they're charge or how it changes - (my words now) because they're just going to stick you with it, anyway.

Someone's making some extra money here. I said this to one Oakland DMV office staffer today and she agreed. "Not me" she said. But someone is. This money trail's not adding up properly, yet everyone I talked to agrees there's a problem.

This is not a good situation for the State of California to be in as it looks like and feels like it's trying to cheat California residents to clear a massive budget deficit.  I said it, and I challenge the DMV to show me that it doesn't look like that.  It does. 

Balancing the budget on the backs of California drivers is, to use a street term, just plain lame.  Ok.  It's criminal.  Moreover, it's a highly regressive practice, hurting the poor more than anyone else. A sad state of affairs.

Monday Monday......

This is some funny shit here-
Immigrants Not Amused by ''Illegal Alien'' Halloween Costume

Here's the costume that has their panties in a wad.



They probably wouldn't like THIS one either.














Some folks have no sense of humor.

About ~100 people were welcomed to the home of Mike Nutall last Saturday, where Kati Bell hosted a talk by Caballo Blanco, the now-legendary gringo who befriended the Tarahumara running tribe in Mexico in a story eloquently captured in the best-selling book by Chris McDougall, Born To Run (review).

It was great to get a chance to meet Caballo Blanco (aka "Micah") up close, and hear him talk about the Tarahumara people. The first hand accounts were incredible, and gave a unique window into this indigenous tribe of super-runners that are likely the most content people on the planet. The Copper Canyon Ultramarathon that Micah directs now attracts 200+ Tarahumara and a record 60 gringos slated for 2010, and how the non-profit Norawas de Ramamuri ("friends of the running people") is designed to raise money, corn (for prizes), and awareness for the events that the Tarahumara frequent. Micah's casual and welcoming charisma made it easy for all of us to connect to his mission.



Questions from the audience ranged from "do the children of the Tarahumara cherish the traditional ways?" (he said teenagers are teenagers in every culture, displayed by rebellious acts such wearing jeans instead of the traditional garb) to "what shoes do you wear" (as little as possible). It was all engaging and he had our complete attention. Mike Nutall was also quite eloquent in drawing the parallels of our daily passion, and this amazing tribe that shares the our ability to use running to fill our souls.



Although this was a fundraiser, Micah was sure to point out that the Tarahumara didn't "need" anything since their multi-thousand year old culture was based on sharing what you had, when you had it, and living a simple life of tranquility. But I got the impression that a donation to the Norawas de Raramuri could have a significant impact on this culture ($5 is enough to cover all expenses for a Raramuri runner to attend the Copper Canyon, where corn is dished out by the ton for prizes). I was happy to contribute and instantly felt I had done something very special.


Want to catch Caballo Blanco yourself? He will be at ZombieRunner in Palo Alto, CA, on 10/23. If you can make it, I would highly recommend it. If not, please do consider making a contribution to the Norawas de Rarmuri. It will make you feel connected to an amazing group! Check out Luis Escobar's page for pictures from his amazing trips in 2005/06.

My thanks to Kati, Mike, and Micah for a great night!

- SD