Sheepville

If you haven't heard of her before, she bounded onto the golf scene last year at 14. I saw a 60 Minutes interview with her at the time. She played the US Women's Open and tied for 39th, and played in three men's events missing the cut in all three of them. In January she missed making the cut by only a stroke though, so not bad. Better than Annika Sorenstam who I think played one men's event and was so embarrassed by her performance she said she'd never make that mistake again - and she's the best female pro golfer. This year the LPGA gave Wie an exemption for the US Women's Open, and this past weekend she was tied for the lead after three rounds, but shot a horrible 84 the final round and dropped out of sight. She was the first amatuer to get an exemption from the LPGA and they did it for ticket sales, and it worked for them. She's the female Tiger Woods.

Women for the most part should remain in their place. Usually that's at home raising the kids, cleaning the house, and cooking the meals. If they have some talent though, then there's nothing wrong with them joining the "women's" pro sport. Yes, there's two of them, the "real" pro sport (comprised of all men) and then the female one that excludes men so they have a chance to win with their inferior skills. Women haven't failed so much so because they are weaker physically, they've failed because (pardon the pun) they have no balls. In pro sports they have allowed themselves to be intimidated into making their ladies sport counterparts. In any single player pro sport the mental game will be as much a factor in winning as skill, and if you allow yourself to be intimidated, then you have no chance. Annika made a weak stab, got her ass kicked, and crawled back over to the women's group and said she didn't think she wanted to do that again. Wimp.

Michelle Wie is a ballbuster, and she wants to play with and beat the men. She LIKES being this nice little teenage girl (though at 6 foot little is stretching it) that goes out on a golf course and kicks men's butts. And before any femmes flame me for my previous paragraph, consider the majority of flack Wie has gotten for not wanting to play in the women's sandbox, has been from women and not men. It seems she has no desire to play with and beat the women, but to play with the men, play at Augusta. (If she can win the Amatuer Public Links coming up, she will be invited to Augusta, they have already said she would be welcome there if she did that) If not this year, maybe next year, or the year after. Maybe she won't ever win, but her skill and mostly her attitude is what makes her deserve to be there.

At least until she's 18, at which point she should be married and at home barefoot and pregnant.

Back from my week in Vegas. Flew first class for the first time, the added room makes it worth it. Other perks - you get your drink in a glass instead of a plastic cup (and free booze if you want that), two packages of peanuts instead of just one, and some garlic toast things with chipotle dip. The trip in was uneventful until we reached Vegas and the turbulence hit, but we had been warned ahead of time and told to buckle up. The stewardess who hadn't buckled up and was at the time perched on the ceiling from a sudden and drastic downward elevation change told us this was normal for Vegas. Ah-huh. Next came my first flight the pilot had to abort the landing. The stewardess came on and said sudden turbulence had blown us off course for the runway. I'll say, had I been able to roll my window down, I could have placed an order at a drive-thru at a McDonalds we passed. The pilot shortly afterwards corrected her and said the reason was the traffic ahead of him had not cleared quickly enough. He didn't mention said traffic was a Toyota, Ford, and two taxis on Flamingo Drive. After another bumpy 15 minute scenic air tour of Vegas he managed to find the runway without incident.

Vegas is full of old people who get there on their own, whether or not they can actually afford to lose the money they do. Why though do families bring Grandma along? I saw a half dozen people rolling grandma down the sidewalk in her wheelchair and an oxygen tank, and it was 109 degrees outside. And then there was the unending supply of parents with a four year old who had to each take a hand and stretch out as wide as possible, and move as slow as possible. Shouldn't they be at Circus Circus and not be allowed to leave? And I found out much to my amazement that a family of five can take up as much space as the MGM Grand.

It was a good week. Trip home was uneventful, though they gave us the same toast and chipotle dip thing. I think they just got a huge supply of those toast things and they probably have a shelf life of 6 months. It's back to work tomorrow.

I never really watched the mean Brit in The Weakest Link or American Idol. I love the one in the new Hell's Kitchen, he really makes the show. They started with 12 hopefuls, and the last one wins their very own restaurant. After two shows three are gone, and one of them quit on their own because they couldn't hack it. One of the other two started to quit but came back, then got voted off the same show. Saying he's harsh is an understatement.

The customers I'm sure signed something ahead of time about having to suffer whatever service they got. The first two shows most of the customers went over three hours and didn't get all of their food. One table ordered a couple of pizzas delivered, which caused a scene. And England's best chef 9 years running that's the star of the show is just as mean to the customers. He told one lady that complained to fuck off. After another hour with no food her friend came up and asked him about telling her friend that. He responds in a concerned tone, "Oh did I? Could you do me a favor and tell her I meant it?"

Who cares about the food or who wins, you can just laugh at what happens and it not really matter because they signed up for the abuse. :)

Friend of mine from EQ2 started a blog, www.valderen.net. He makes what might be a semi-disparaging comment about seeing geeks at their best. Dude, you make a blog and your very first post is about Star Wars. I hate to break the news to you, but....

My only interaction with him has been online, where he types English, so I just kind of think of him as like, white. He's not though, he's French. One of those that escaped though and settled in that place above us that caused our blackout. I think they all fled because they wanted to worship the Queen of England and that Antoinette lady got kinda pissed and was going to kill them all after she gave them cake for their last meal. They still worship her, they plaster the King and Queen all over their money. What I find odd is he speaks French all the time and types English all the time. Impresses me, I can barely handle one. Do they make French keyboards?

What about this woman people thought was going to win Indy? Well, millions of kids think Santa is going to arrive every year too. Good strategy though, she starts off the race by side-swiping someone trying to pass them, so for the rest of the race people just got out of the way when she tried to pass. Still didn't win though. People blamed it on two things; the bunny hopping stall out of the pits and almost running out of gas. Sounds like a typical femme driving a straight and running around on fumes before they'll get gas. Something was up with her qualifications anyway. I saw an MSNBC clip on her a couple of days before the race and the only historical footage they had was her in a go-cart. That was quite a leap.