Airbags Are Powerful

Football Now, Please

Art - Scientifically Proven!

So Molly loves to grab Post-It notes from my desk, scribble on them, and them give them to people as a present. I hate it, because she makes a mess, and I lose all my Post-Its! Usually, they look something like this:
Hey - she's 3 years old! Give her a break! So today, she sprints into the living room and gives me a Post-It:
So I looked at it and immediately said, "It's a beautiful leprechaun, Molly!" I showed it to Ali, and she said it was just a scribble, and probably not a leprechaun. I kind of agreed with her, but look at it - it looks so much like a little man with a hat! So I used the old scientific method to see if it was reproducible. I asked Molly to please draw me another beautiful leprechaun. She ran into my office, and ran back out soon handing me this:
So it's official: the middle picture is Molly's first free hand drawing! Next up, I'll get her to work on the interlocking ND logo!!!

That's Some Quality Children's Programming!

I've said for years that 80% of the jokes made in kids' cartoons are directed towards adults. Here are a couple that Zoe definitely won't get for, hopefully, another 15 years...

Great Work, Boys!

I read two reviews for the Samsung Epic 4G handset just released by Sprint this morning. Both reviews claimed it to be the best smartphone on the market and went into great detail about the hardware, software, camera, speed, and a few other items. One area conspicuously absent in both reviews - the quality of phone calls!

To summarize, two separate 4000-word phone reviews failed to make any mention of the device's primary function. Am I the only person in the world who still uses my mobile phone to make phone calls?

Jim Gray is a Total A$$hole!!!

I hate Jim Gray. Always have, and always will. He comes across to me as the most smarmy, disingenuous piece of you know what in the sports business. He is all about grabbing the spotlight and injecting himself into the story. I never liked the guy, and when he totally blindsided Pete rose in 1999, I wanted to rip out his eyes and piss in his dead skull - Jack Nicholson style!

It cracked me up that Lebron James picked this punk to host his "The Decision" special, which made a mockery out of Lebron, but especially out of Jim Gray. Apparently, he was paid by Lebron for the "interview", which he denies! Now, the old weasel is at it again.

Somehow, he got himself attached to The Golf Channel, and is at the PGA in Whispering Straits this week. Amid the controversy surrounding Tiger Woods' captain's selection to the Ryder Cup team (because he ain't going to qualify), Jim Gray reported Tuesday evening that Pavin told him he would pick Woods for the Ryder Cup if he didn't make the team on his own at the PGA Championship. He quoted Pavin as saying,

"Of course I'm going to. He's the best player in the world."

Corey Pavin then held a press conference and denied ever making such a statement.

"There's nobody that's promised any picks right now. It would be disrespectful to everybody that's trying to make the team. I've got quite a few people I'm looking at. I would not disrespect any of the players that are potential players on the team, and obviously there was misinterpretation of what I said."

In mediaspeak, them's fighting words! Apparently, Jim Gray was very angry and stood by his story and Pavin's alleged quote. After Pavin's press conference he confronted Pavin, getting face to face no more than a foot away. He went nuts and called Pavin a liar. He stuck his finger right in Pavin's face and said,

"You're going down!"

To which Pavin responded,

"Down for what? You making stuff up?"

How awesome is that? Corey Pavin, 5'9", 155 pounds going toe-to-toe with Jim Gray, 5'9", maybe 150 pounds! I wish they would have started swinging - Pavin with his driver! The best part is that Pavin's wife recorded the whole thing on her video phone. I can't wait for that to hit YouTube. I will update when it does!

Jim Gray is going down!

Sweet Pennants!

This week I attended the 31st National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore with some of my work buddies. I was looking mostly for old Notre Dame, Reds, and Bengals memorabilia, but it seemed the Convention was geared mainly towards card collectors. Alas, I was able to come home with the following sweet pennants, which are now proudly displayed in my basement. Obviously, I had them assembled in order of my allegiance. US Soccer would have made it above the Bengals, but I couldn't find any pennants for them. Also, we saw Bill Simmons (aka ESPN's SportsGuy) at the Convention. He sounds pretty nerdy on his podcast, and looks the part as well. But the guy sure does know his sports.

Better Than Thriller?

Okay, so maybe not better than 'Thriller', but definitely better than 'Sledgehammer'...

Cremo Cream!

Like most Heffernan men (and probably Heffernan women too, for that matter) I have taken to shaving in the shower. Shower shaving is a great time saver and saves on the whiskery mess normally made in your sink. However, all the moisture and humidity makes it nearly impossible to use a traditional shaving cream or gel in the shower, and my boyish good looks would suffer from using something as pedestrian as soap. This *points to face* is my money-maker. Enter, Cremo Cream!

I found this stuff at a local Wegman's the other day and have been using it to great result. The directions actually say it's best used in the shower, so that's a bonus right off. It's easily applied. It smells great. And it made a 3-week old razor blade feel brand new. Who knows, I may even try going against the grain when I pop a new blade on. I LIVE ON THE EDGE!

And for you lady readers - Lady Cremo!

It comes in an attractive and feminine pink theme so as to not be confused with the masculine red. Because no man wants their lady to get confused and smell like a man, which would only succeed in confusing the man. I'm sure it works just as well on legs, pits, and other unmentionables as the fella version works on faces.

Astronomy 101

So Ali read my mind and got me a kick ass telescope for my birthday this year, the Orion XT6. Something I have always been interested in, but I never really followed through. The telescope is awesome, but like buying a new DVD player that comes with crappy cables, the telescope comes with a very basic eyepiece that gave me okay optics at 48x power. Initially, this eyepiece was great, as I saw all kind of cool stuff. However, after a bit of research, I just bought a fancy new zoom eyepiece that is considered the best available zoom. It goes from 50x, 60x, 75x, 100x to 150x. I also got a magnifier attachment to double each of these powers. Below is pictued the massive new eyepiece on the left, with the right eyepiece similar to the one I have.

So tonight was the first clear night since I got my new zoom. I took a nap, and then stayed up late to test it out. It was nothing short of amazing! I had great views of Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. I looked at some moon craters CLOSE UP, and even saw a few shooting stars. My big failure was trying to find the Andromeda Galaxy. I'll keep working at it! From time to time, I will share my cool pics with you as I learn how to do it a little better. Here's my first few. Click on each pic for the original sized photo.

This first pic was taken in May with my original eyepiece at 48x. The rings of Saturn can clearly be seen. Right now, they are edge on to Earth, so they are not as dramatic. I couldn't take a picture of Saturn today with my new eyepiece because it set too early in the night.

This is my new eyepiece at 100x. Look at the cloud detail!!! The colors are amazing. The Great Red Spot is on the opposite side to Earth right now, so you can't see it.

The second pic, I tried to really zoom in at 200x. Gets a little blurry because it's so hot and humid, making the atmosphere thick. When the weather cools off a bit, it shoudl be crystal clear.

This last pic is at 60x. If you click it and look closely, you can see a little blip next to Jupiter. That's the moon, Io, rising over the planet! They didn't show up in this picture, but I could clearly see Calysto, Io, Europa and Ganymede lined up in a row around Jupiter.